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HISTOEY  OF  ENGLAND 

PEOM 

THE  FALL  OF  WOLSEY 

TO 

THE  DEFEAT  OF  THE  SPANISH  ARMADA. 


Bi' 


JAMES  ANTHONY  FROUDE,  M.A. 

KEGIUS  PROFESSOR  OF  MODERN  HISTORY  IN  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  OXFORD. 


VOLUME  IX. 
ELIZABETH. 


LONDON : 


LONGMANS,    GREEN,    AND 


30. 


1893. 


3/5 


RICHARD  CLAY  &  SONS,  In  MIXED, 
LONDON  &  BUNGAY. 


CONTENTS  OF  VOLUME  IX. 


CHAPTER  LII. 
ENGLISH  PARTIES. 

Catholic  Eeaction  in  England        .  .             .  .             .  .  i 

Review  of  the  Condition  of  the  Realm  by  Sir  Wm.  Cecil  4 

Policy  Recommended  by  Cecil  to  the  Queen                 .  .  6 

Discontent  of  the  English  Aristocracy          .  .             .  .  10 

Philip  adopts  unwillingly  the  cause  of  the  Queen  of 

Scots              .  .             .  .             .  .             .  .  12 

Description  of  Parties  in  England  by  Don  Guerau  .  .  1 6 

Conflicting  Schemes  in  favour  of  Mary  Stuart  .  .  19 
Proposed  Marriage  between  Mary  Stuart  and  the  Duke 

of  Norfolk    .  .             .....             . .  21 

Conversation  between  Norfolk  and  Murray .  .             .  .  23 

Part  of  the  Council  in  favour  of  the  Marriage            .  .  25 

Double-dealing  of  Norfolk              .  .             .  .             .  .  28 

Trade  opened  with  Hamburgh        .  .              .  .             .  .  29 

English  Rovers  under  the  flag  of  the  Prince  of  Conde  32 

The  Queen  of  Scots  placed  in  charge  of  Lord  Shrewsbury  33 

Danger  of  War  with  France           .  .             .  .             .  .  35 

England  protected  by  Spain           .  .             .  .             .  •  3 6 

Irritation  of  Elizabeth  against  Cecil              .  .             •  •  3& 
Death  of  the  Prince  of  Conde       .  .             .  .              -39 

Arundel  and  Norfolk  conspire  against  Cecil  .  .  42' 

Intended  Rebellion  .  .  .  .  .  .  43 


vi  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

France  and  Spain             .  .             .  .             .  .             .  .  45 

The  Norfolk  Marriage      .  .              .  .              .  .              .  .  47 

Plan  to  destroy  Cecil        .  .             .  .             .  .  49 

Cecil  separates  Norfolk  from  the  Catholic  Lords          .  .  51 

Proposals  for  Mary  Stuart's  Kestoration        .  .             .  .  53 

Pretended  Illness  of  Mary  Stuart  .  .             .  .             .  .  54 

The  Council  communicate  with  her  about  her  Marriage 

with  Norfolk                .  .             .  .             .  .  56 

Her  Answer      .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  ..57 

Elizabeth  determines  to  restore  her                .  .             .  .  62 

Capture  of  Paris  the  Page              .  .             .  .             .  .  65 

The  Lords  of  Scotland  refuse  to  receive  the  Queen     .  .  66 

The  Catholic  Nobility  in  England  prepare  to  rebel     .  .  71 

They  are  rejoined  by  Norfolk         .  .             .  .             .  .  73 

Vote  of  the  Council  in  favour  of  Mary  Stuart's  Suc- 
cession          . .             .  .             .  .             .  .  77 

Elizabeth  removes  to  Richmond     .  .              .  .              .  .  78 

Norfolk  fears  to  ask  her  to  consent  to  his  Marriage  with 

the  Queen  of  Scots      .  .             .  .             .  ,             .  .  79 

Letter  of  Don  Guerau  to  Alva       .  .             .  .             .  .  81 

Elizabeth  forbids  the  Marriage       .  .             .  .             .  .  83 

Norfolk  leaves  the  Court                 .  .             .  .             .  .  85 

Mary  Stuart  urges  him  to  take  Arms             .  .             .  .  87 

He  retires  to  Framlingham              .  .              .  .              .  .  89 

Seizure  of  the  Queen  of  Scots'  Papers          .  .             .  .  90 

The  Duke  of  Norfolk  being  summoned  to  the  Queen's 

Presence,  after  some  hesitation  obeys        .  .             .  .  91 

He  is  arrested  and  committed  to  the  Tower                 .  .  93 


CHAPTER  LIU. 
THE  RISING  OF  THE  NORTH. 

Fresh  uncertainties  about  the  Queen  of  Scots  .  .       98 

Resolution  to  hold  her  a  Prisoner  .  .  101 


CONTENTS.  vii 

PAGE 

Investigation  into  the  Conspiracy  .  .             .  .             .  .  104 

Norfolk  promises  to  think  no  more  of  the  Queen  of 

Scots              .  .             .  .             .  .             .  .          r'''9  I06 

Temper  of  the  Northern  Counties                 .  .              .  .  107 

Christofer  Norton  at  Bolton  Castle                .  .             .  .  108 

The  intended  Rebellion  disconcerted             .  .             .  .  112 

Council  at  Topcliff  .  .  .  .  .  .  ..113 

Chapin  Vitelli  comes  to  England   .  .             .  .             .  .  115 

Enforcement  of  the  Act  of  Uniformity        .  .             .  .  u8 

Proposal  to  seize  York    .  .  .  .  .  .  ..121 

The  Earls  of  Westmoreland  and  Northumberland       .  .  122 

Outbreak  of  the  Insurrection         .  .              .  .             .  .  124 

The  Gathering  at  Eaby  .  .             .  .             .  .             .  .  125 

Mass  in  Durham  Cathedral            .  .             .  .             .  .  126 

Lord  Sussex  at  York       .  .             .  .             .  .             .  .  128 

The  Earls  march  for  Tutbury  to  release  the  Queen  of 

Scots              .  .              .  .              .  .              .  .  131 

Preparations  of  Alva       .  .             .  .             .  .             .  .  136 

She  is  carried  to  Coventry              .  .             .  .  138 

The  Southern  Counties  remain  quiet,  and  the  Earls 

retire              .  .              .  .              .  .              .  .             .  .  141 

Universal  Disloyalty  in  Yorkshire.  .             .  .             .  .  142 

Elizabeth  raises  an  Army  .  .  .  .  .,144 

The  Earl  of  Westmoreland  takes  Barncastle                .  .  146 

The  Queen's  Forces  arrive  at  Doncaster        .  .  149 

The  Earls  fly  to  Scotland                .  .             .  .             .  .  153 

Conversation  between  Elizabeth  and  La  Mothe  Fcnelon  155 

The  Spaniards  seek  a  Reconciliation  with  her              .  .  158 

Causes  of  the  Failure  of  the  Rebellion         .  .              .  .  159 

Address  of  the  Gentlemen  of  Lincolnshire  to  Philip  II.  160 

Murray  and  Maitland  of  Lethington             .  .  163 

Arrest  of  Maitland           .  .             .  .              .  .             .  .  165 

Capture  of  the  Earl  of  Northumberland       .  .             .  .  169 

The  Earl  of  Westmoreland  at  Jedburgh       .  .              .  .  169 

Elizabeth  demands  the  Extradition  of  the  Rebels  .  .  171 


viii  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Lord  Hunsdoii's  opinion  of  her  Conduct      .  .  .  .  173 

Punishment  of  the  Insurgents       .  .              .  .  178 

The  Sufferers  chiefly  the  least  guilty             .  .  .  .  179 

Extreme  Severity  towards  the  Poorer  Classes  .  .  1 8 1 

Principles  of  English  Justice         .  .             .  .  184 

Sir  Eobert  Constable  employed  to  entrap  the  Earl  of 

"Westmoreland               .  .              .  .              .  .  .  .  187 

Murray's  position  in  Scotland        .  .             .  .  .  .  190 

The  Hamiltons  conspire  to  kill  him               .  .  194 

Bothwellhaugh  and  his  Brothers    .  .              .  .  .  .  196 

Murder  of  Murray  at  Linlithgow  .  .             .  .  .  .  199 

Character  of  Murray        .  .              .  .              .  .  .  .  202 

Feeling  in  Scotland         .  .             .  .             .  .  .  .  204 

Leonard  Dacres  at  Naworth  .  .  .  .  ..210 

Battle  on  the  Gelt  River,  and  flight  of  Dacres  .  .  214 

Letter  from  Elizabeth  to  Lord  Hunsdon  216 


CHAPTER  LIY. 
EXCOMMUNICATION  OF  ELIZABETH. 

Situation  of  the  European  Powers  .  .  .  .  219 

Good  Fortune  of  Elizabeth  .  .  .  .  220 

The  New  and  the  Old  Creed  in  England  .  .  .  .  221 

Manifesto  of  Elizabeth  to  the  English  Nation  .  .  223 

Sense  in  which  the  Queen  was  Head  of  the  Church  .  .  225 

The  Pope  determines  to  excommunicate  Elizabeth  .  .  228 
Letter  of  the  Pope  to  the  Earls  of  Westmoreland  and 

Northumberland  .  .  .  .  .  .  230 

Plans  for  the  Escape  of  the  Queen  of  Scots  .  .  233 
Reply  of  Elizabeth  to  the  demands  of  France  for  the 

Queen  of  Scots'  Release  .  .  .  .  .  .  236 

State  of  Parties  in  France  .  .  .  .  .  .  238 

Elizabeth's  intentions  towards  the  Queen  of  Scots  .  .  240 


CONTENTS. 

Change  in  the  Scotch  Character  produced  by  the  Reform- 
ation 

Funeral  of  the  Regent  Murray 

Randolph  at  Edinburgh 

Unwillingness  of  Elizabeth  to  support  the  Scotch  Pro- 
testants 

The  Catholic  Refugees 

Maitland  of  Lidington 

Maitland  and  Knox 

Letter  of  Maitland  to  Elizabeth     .  . 

The  Catholic  nobles  replaced  in  the  English  Council  .  . 

Catholic  Convention  at  Linlithgow 

The  Earl  of  Sussex  invades  Scotland 

The  Harrying  of  the  Border 

Correspondence  of  Mary  Stuart  with  the  Catholic 
Powers 

Divisions  among  the  Catholics  in  England     . 

Danger  of  "War  with  Erance 

Letter  of  Elizabeth  to  the  Earl  of  Sussex 

Morton  insists  on  her  declaring  openly  for  King  James 

Negotiations  for  the  Restoration  of  the  Queen  of  Scots 

The  Bishop  of  Ross 

Second  Invasion  of  Scotland 

Destruction  of  Hamilton  Castle 

Publication  in  London  of  the  Bull  of  Excommunica- 
tion 

Meeting  of  the  Council 

Speech  of  Sir  N.  Bacon  .  . 

Speech  of  Lord  Arundel  * 

Plans  for  a  Rebellion  in  England 

Symptoms  of  Disaffection  among  the  Catholic  Nobles 

Temper  of  Elizabeth 

Prospects  of  Peace  in  France 

The  Earl  of  Lennox  declared  Regent  of  Scotland 

The  Privateers  in  the  Channel 


be 

PAGE 

243 
244 
246 


252 
253 
255 
256 

259 
26l 
263 
265 

270 
271 

273 

275 
276 

277 
278 
282 
282 

285 
286 
287 
289 
293 
295 
296 

300 
302 
3°3 


x  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Eeluctance  of  Philip  to  quarrel  with  England  .  .  305 
Opinions  of  Bacon  and  Cecil  on  the  proposed  Restora- 

tion  of  the  Queen  of  Scots         .  .             .  .             .  .  307 

Arrest  and  Execution  of  Felton     .  .             .  .  309 

Seizure  of  Dr  Story  at  Antwerp    .  .             .  .             .  .  310 

Efforts  of  the  English  Catholics  to  rouse  the  Duke  of 

Alva  .  .         .  .             .  .             .  .             . .             . .  313 

Alva  refuses  to  move       ..  ..  ..  ••3I5 

Intrigues  of  Maitland      .  .             .  .             .  .             .  .  318 

Correspondence  between  Maitland  and  Sussex             .  .  320 

Elizabeth  seriously  resolves  to  reinstate  Mary  Stuart  .  .  322 

Letter  from  Lady  Lennox  to  Cecil                .  .             .  .  324 

Conditions  of  the  Restoration        .  .              .  .              .  .  326 

Maitland  at  Blair  Athol                  .  .          ...             .  .  328 

Cecil  is  sent  down  to  Chats  worth  .  .             .  .             . .  332 

The  Norfolk  Marriage  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  333 


CHAPTER  LV. 
THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY. 

English  Commerce  in  1570             .  .  .  .  .  .  336 

Protestantism  and  Privateering      .  .  .  .  .  .  337 

The  Puritans     .  .              .  .              .  .  .  .  .  .  338 

Catholic  Reaction             .  .             .  .  .  .  .  .  340 

The  Church  at  Northampton          .  .  .  .  .  .  343 

Articles  of  Faith              .  .              .  .  .  .  .  .  344 

Thomas  Cartwright  at  Cambridge  .  .  .  .  .  .  345 

Whitgift  and  High  Anglicanism     .  .  .  .  .  .  346 

Cecil  and  Mary  Stuart     .  .             .  .  .  .  .  .  350 

Peace  in  France                .  .              .  .  .  .  .  .  353 

Sir  Francis  Walsingham .  .              .  .  .  .  354 

Parties  in  the  French  Court           .  .  .  .  .  .  355 


CONTENTS.  xi 

PAGE 

Suggestion  of  a  Marriage  between  Elizabeth  and  the 

Duke  of  Anjou            .  .             .  .             .  .             .  .  356 

Review  of  the  Situation  by  Cecil  .  .             .  .             .  .  358 

Cecil  favours  the  Anjou  Marriage  .  .             .  .             .  .  361 

Elizabeth  opens  the  question  with  the  French  Ambas- 
sador             .  .             .  .             . .             .  .             .  .  362 

Debate  in  the  Council     .  .             .  .             .  .             .  .  364 

Report  of  La  Mothe  Fenelon  on  Elizabeth's  Private 

Character      .  .             .  .             .  .             .  .             .  .  3,66 

Conversation  between  Lord  Buckhurst  and  Catherine 

de  Medici      .  .             .  .             .  .             .  .             .  .  369 

Anxiety  of  "Walsingham  for  the  Marriage  with  Anjou  372 
Commission  in  London  for  the  Restoration  of  the  Quenn 

of  Scots         .  .             .  .             ,  .             .  .             •  •  375 

Objections  raised  by  Morton          .  .  .  .  --376 

The  Commission  is  suspended        .  .             .  .             .  .  378 

Mary  Stuart  determines  to  throw  herself  upon  Spain  380 

Alva  seeks  a  Reconciliation  with  Elizabeth  .  .             .  .  381 

Indignation  of  the  Pope                  .  .             .  .             .  .  383 

The  Pope  and  the  Spanish  Ambassador  at  Rome         .  .  385 

The  Bishop  of  Ross  writes  to  the  Duchess  of  Feria   .  .  386 

The  Pope  urges  Philip  to  declare  against  Elizabeth     .  .  389 

Ridolfi               .  .             .  .             .  .             .  .             .  .  390 

The  Duke  of  Norfolk  and  the  Catholic  Conspiracy     .  .  392 
The   Catholic  Peers  determine  to  petition  Spain  for 

Assistance     .  .             .  .             .  .             .  .             .  .  394 

Letter  of  the  Spanish  Ambassador  to  Philip               .  .  395 

Petition  of  the  Queen  of  Scots      .  .             .  .             .  .  396 

Petition  of  the  Duke  of  Norfolk  .  .              .  .             .  .  402 

Departure  of  Ridolfi         .  .              .  .              .  .             .  .  411 

Capture  of  Dumbarton  Castle        .  .  .  .  ..412 

Execution  of  the  Archbishop  of  St  Andrews              .  .  419 


xii  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  LVI. 
THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY 

PAGE 

Unwillingness  of  Elizabeth  to  encounter  a  Parliament  421 

The  Succession  to  the  Crown         .  .  .  .  ..422 

Prospects  of  Mary  Stuart  .  .  .  .  .  .  423 

Necessity  that  Parliament  must  meet  .  .  .  .  424 

Catholic  Conspiracy  to  seize  Elizabeth's  Person  .  .  425 
Defeated   through    the  Cowardice    of   the    Duke    of 

Norfolk         .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  427 

Beginning  of  the  Session  .  .  .  .  .  .  428 

Temper  of  the  Lower  House          .  .  .  .  .  .  429 

Collision  between  the  Queen  and  the  Commons  .  .  430 

Puritan  Legislation          .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  432 

The  Thirty-nine  Articles  .  .  .  .  .  .  433 

Marriage  of  the  Clergy   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  435 

JBill  for  Attendance  at  the  Communion         .  .  .  .  436 

Bill  for  the  Protection  of  the  Queen  .  .  .  .  438 

Act  of  Attainder  against  the  Northern  Insurgents  .  .  441 

A  Subsidy         .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  442 

The  Parliament  ends        .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  443 

Ridolfi  at  Brussels  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  444 

Letter  of  Alva  to  Philip .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  446 

Elizabeth  to  be  killed  or  captured  .  .  .  .  449 

Ridolfi  sends  home  a  favourable  Report        .  .  ..451 

His  Messenger,  Charles  Baily,  is  taken  at  Dover  .  .  452 

Lord  Cobham  and  the  Bishop  of  Ross          .  .  .  .  453 

Cecil  and  his  Instruments  .  .  .  .  .  .  454 

Charles  Baily  in  the  Marshalsea    .  .  .  .  .  .  457 

Intercepted  Correspondence  .  .  .  .  .  .  458 

Baily  is  racked  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  460 

Confession  of  Baily         .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  462 

Examination  of  the  Bishop  of  Ross  .  .  4.65 

Execution  of  Dr  Story    .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  467 


CONTENTS.  xiii 

PAGE 

Relations  between  England  and  France        .  .  .  .  469 

The  Anjou  Marriage        .  .             .  .             .  .  .  .  470 

Religious  Difficulties        .  .             .  .             .  .  .  .  471 

Insincerity  of  Elizabeth  .  .             .  .             .  .  .  .  473 

Leicester  once  more          .  .             .  .             .  .  .  .  474 

The  Negotiation  drops     .  .             .  .             .  .  .  .  476 

Advice  of  Cecil                .  .             .  .             .  .  .  .  477 

Count  Louis  at  Paris       .  .             .  .             .  .  .  .  480 

Proposed  League  between  France  and  England  against 

Spain            .  .             .  .             .  .             .  .  .  .  481 

Mutual  Distrust  at  the  two  Courts.  .              .  .  .  .  482 

The  Privateers  .  .             .  .             .  .             .  .  .  .  485 

Slave  Market  at  Dover    .  .             .  .             .  .  .  .  485 

Mission  of  Sir  Henry  Cobham  to  Madrid    .  .  .  .  487 

The  Duke  of  Feria          .  .             .  .             .  .  .  .  489 

Cold  Reception  of  Cobham             .  .             .  .  .  .  493 

Ridolfi  arrives  at  the  Spanish  Court              .  .  .  .  497 

Political  Assassination     .  .             .  .             .  .  .  .  49& 

Meeting  of  the  Spanish  Council     .  .             .  .  .  .  499 

The  Nuncio       .  .              .  .              .  .              .  .  .  .  500 

Resolution  to  procure  the  Murder  of  Elizabeth  .  .  502 

Chapin  Vitelli  offers  to  kill  her       .  .              .  .  •  •  5°3 

Orders  sent  to  Alva  to  prepare  to  invade  England       .  .  505 

Slowness  of  the  Spanish  Movements            .  .  .  .  506 

Sir  John  Hawkins  pretends  to  be  a  Traitor  .  .  .  .  508 

He  offers  to  desert  to  Spain  with  part  of  the  English 

Fleet              .  .             .  .             .  .             .  .  •  .  510 

He  deceives  the  Queen  of  Scots     .  .             .  .  •  •  5 1 2 

He  deceives  Philip  and  learns  the  intended  Invasion  .  .  517 

Letter  of  Hawkins  to  Cecil            .  .             .  .  •  •  5l% 

Political  Treachery           .  .                .             .  .  •  -  52° 

State  of  Scotland             .  .              .  .              •  •  •  •  524 

Catherine  de  Medici  refuses  Assistance  to  Mary  Stuart's 

Friends          ..             ..             ••             ••  ••525 

Maitland  works  upon  Elizabeth  .  .  .  .  •  •  526 


luv  CONTENTS. 

Sir  William  Dniry  is  sent  to  Edinburgh      .  .  .  .  528 

Irritation  of  the  Lords  against  England        .  .  .  .  530 

They  divide  into  tliree  Parties — Erench,  Spanish,  and 

English          .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  531 

The  Gathering  at  Stirling  .  .  .  .  .  .  532 

Attempted  Surprise  of  Stirling      .  .  .  .  •  •  533 

Death  of  Lennox,  and  Regency  of  the  Earl  of  Mar  .  .  537 


"CHAPTER  LIL 

ENGLISH    PARTIES. 

TWICE  already,  during  the  progress  of  the  I569 
Reformation,  the  advance  of  the  new  Januai7- 
opinions  had  been  checked  by  reaction.  The  Act  of 
Supremacy  and  the  dissolution  of  the  monasteries  had 
been  followed  by  the  fall  of  Cromwell,  the  Six  Articles, 
and  the  burning  of  Barnes  and  Lambert.  The  anarchy, 
social  and  spiritual,  which  had  broken  loose  under  Ed- 
ward VI.,  was  brought  to  an  end  by  the  hard  and  heavy 
hand  of  Mary  and  Pole.  From  the  moment  that  Eliza- 
beth declared  against  the  Pope  it  was  inevitable  that, 
sooner  or  later,  the  Catholics  would  make  a  third  effort 
to  recover  their  ascendancy.  In  number  they  still  ex- 
ceeded the  Reformers,  although  in  energy  and  enthu- 
siasm the  Reformers  had  a  corresponding  advantage. 
The  strength  of  the  two  parties,  to  outward  appearance, 
was  nearly  equal,  and  neither  one  nor  the  other  had  be- 
come as  yet  accustomed  to  the  practical  working  of  the 
formulas  of  the  Establishment,  where  each  might  hold 
their  own  opinions  under  the  show  of  uniformity.  The 

VOL.    IX.  1 


2  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [01-52. 

statesman  of  the  nineteenth  century,  with  the  conditions 
before  him  which  presented  themselves  to  the  council 
of  Elizabeth,  would  have  left  religion  to  the  individual 
conscience — would  have  insisted  only  on  general  sub- 
mission to  the  laws,  and  within  that  limit  would  have 
permitted  Catholic  and  Protestant  the  free  use  of  their 
own  chapels  and  services.  But  this  solution  of  the 
problem  has  been  made  possible  only  by  a  gradual  change 
of  sentiment.  Before  a  government  can  act  on  princi- 
ples of  toleration,  the  people  to  be  governed  must  have 
become  themselves  at  least  outwardly  tolerant.  The  at- 
tempt was  made  in  France  without  this  necessary  pre- 
paration, and  the  result  was  universal  disorder,  inter- 
minable outbursts  of  civil  war,  and,  when  circumstances 
were  specially  unfavourable,  those  monstrous  massacres, 
which  have  made  the  names  of  Catherine  de  Medici  and 
her  sons  so  infamous  in  history.  The  En glish  Act  of  Uni- 
formity, though  intolerant  in  appearance  and  language, 
was  adapted  to  protect  the  principles  which  it  seemed  to 
deny.  Congregations  of  Ultramontanes  and  Genevans, 
if  allowed  each  the  free  right  of  meeting,  with  their 
priests  and  ministers  fulminating  from  rival  pulpits, 
would  have  become  organized  bands  of  uncontrollable 
fanatics  ;  the  war  of  words  would  have  become  a  war  of 
blows,  and  every  town  in  England  would  have  been  a 
scene  of  perpetual  bloodshed. 

A  middle  course  was  therefore  chosen — a  course 
which  at  the  time  pleased  no  one  but  the  Queen  and  the 
half  dozen  or  dozen  intelligent  persons  who  surrounded 
her ;  but  it  was  the  same  which  her  father  had  marked 


1 569. ]  ENGLISH  PARTIES.  3 

out  before  her,  and  its  eventual  success  may  be  allowed 
to  prove  that  it  was  wise. 

It  was  neither  possible  however  nor  desirable  to  hold 
the  balance  entirely  even.  The  new  ideas  were  growing , 
the  old  were  waning.  There  was  no  anxiety  to  check 
the  first  or  save  the  second.  Each  was  to  be  allowed 
and  enabled  to  follow  its  natural  tendency  in  peace ; 
and  thus  the  formulas,  as  has  been  well  said,  though 
patient  of  a  Catholic  interpretation,  were  not  ambitious 
of  it ;  the  Puritans  could  more  easily  use  the  English 
liturgy  than  the  Catholics  could  dispense  with  the  mass. 
The  Puritans  complained,  but  for  the  most  part  sub- 
mitted. The  Catholics,  who  conformed  widely  at  first, 
tempted  by  the  easy  administration  of  the  laws,  fell 
away — especially  in  the  northern  counties — reconciled 
themselves  to  Rome,  and  watched  and  prayed  either  for 
a  new  sovereign,  or  for  the  interference  of  the  Great 
Powers  of  Europe. 

At  the  time  at  which  the  history  has  now  arrived,  a 
crisis  was  visibly  approaching.  The  wisest  of  the 
Spanish  statesmen  had  foreseen  for  years,  that  unless 
Elizabeth  could  be  converted,  a  crusade  against  her 
would  at  last  have  to  be  undertaken.  The  defeat  of 
Orange,  the  growing  exhaustion  of  Cond£ — everywhere 
except  on  the  sea, — the  presence  of  the  Queen  of  Scots 
in  England,  and  Elizabeth's  evident  timidity  in  dealing 
withTlier ;  the  seizure  of  the  Spanish  treasure,  and  the 
discontent  provoked  by  the  suspension  of  trade,  had 
created  at  last  in  the  opinions  of  many  of  them  the  op 
portunity  for  which  they  had  waited  so  long. 


4  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [011.52. 

The  philosophy  of  history  which  resolves  events  intc 
the  action  of  organic  and  necessary  laws,  conceals  from 
us  the  perplexities  of  the  living  instruments  by  which 
those  events  were  brought  about.  We  see  what  actually 
happened  ;  we  imagine  that  we  discern  the  causes  which 
determined  the  effects;  and,  in  assuming  a  necessary 
connection  between  them,  we  smile  at  the  needless  fears, 
we  ridicule  the  needless  precautions,  of  kings  and  minis- 
ters ;  we  despise  them  as  short-sighted;  we  censure 
them  as  arbitrary  and  tyrannical ;  failing  to  perceive, 
or  else  failing  to  acknowledge,  that  if  the  results  were 
inevitable,  the  characters  which  assisted  to  produce  those 
results  were  inevitable  also.  By  a  subtle  process  of  in- 
tellectunl  injustice,,  we  convert  the  after-experience  of 
facts  into  principles  of  reasoning  which  would  have 
enabled  us  to  foresee  those  facts ;  and  we  infer,  with 
unconscious  complacency,  the  superiority  of  modern  in- 
telligence. 

'  Knowledge  of  the  result/  a  wise  man  once  observed, 
'  has  spoilt  the  composition  of  history.'  A  just  moral 
appreciation  of  conduct  is  made  impossible  by  it.  The 
remedj',  so  far  as  there  is  a  remedy,  is  to  look  wherever 
we  can  through  the  eyes  of  contemporaries  from  whom 
the  future  was  concealed. 

Of  the  prospects  and  position  of  England  in  the  open- 
ing months  of  the  year  1569,  a  remarkable  sketch  has 
been  left  by  Sir  William  Cecil— drawn  either  for  his  own 
use,  according  to  his  habit  of  looking  everything  in  the 
face,  or  that  he  might  place  distinctly  before  Elizabeth 
the  dangers  to  which  he  believed  that  she  was  exposed. 


1569-]  ENGLISH  PARTIES.  5 

Except  for  the  support  of  the  Great  Powers,  the 
Papacy,  he  said,  would  have  either  fallen  or  would  have 
been  reformed.  France  and  Spain,  in  their  mutual 
jealousies,  had  both  supported  the  Pope,  in  order  to 
secure  his  friendship  or  to  be  safe  from  his  enmity; 
and  one  or  both  of  them  would,  sooner  or  later,  assist 
him  to  recover  England.  The  Queen  had  escaped  so  far, 
'  rather  by  accident  than  by  policy  or  strength/  The 
death  of  Henry  II.,  the  civil  war,  the  difficulties  of 
Spain  in  Flanders  and  in  the  Mediterranean,  had  obliged 
both  Catherine  de  Medici  and  Philip  to  temporize  and 
affect  a  desire  for  her  friendship.  But  Conde  appeared 
at  his  last  gasp,  and,  without  help,  would  speedily  fall ; 
Alva  was  absolute  in  Flanders,  and  the  favour  shown  to 
Mary  Stuart  had  given  renewed  strength  and  spirits  to 
the  party  opposed  ito  the  Regent  in  Scotland.  At  the 
first  convenient  moment  either  France  or  Spain,  or  both, 
would  throw  an  army  across  the  Channel.  An  excuse, 
if  excuse  was  wanted,  could  be  found  in  the  asylum 
offered  by  England  to  the  Protestant  refugees,  and  in 
the  forced  detention  of  the  Queen  of  Scots.  Henry 
VIII.  and  Edward  VI.  had  quarrelled  with  the  Church 
of  Rome.  But  in  their  time  there  was  no  pretender  to 
the  Crown.  The^Queen  of  Scots  stood  now  before  the 
world  if  not  as  legitimate  Sovereign  of  England,  yet  as 
indisputably  the  next  in  blood.  She  had  been  deposed 
from  her  own  throne  for  reasons  which,  however  well 
understood  in  the  beginning,  yet  had  been  rendered 
doubtful  by  the  impotent  results  of  the  investigation,  and 
she  could  represent  herself  as  held  a  prisoner  for  no 


6  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  |CH.  52. 

cause  which  her  rival  dared  to  avow.  Her  '  determined 
Papistry'  endeared  her  to  the  Catholics,  and  recom- 
mended her  as  an  instrument  to  the  foreign  enemies  of 
the  Queen ;  while  anxiety  for  an  ascertained  succession, 
the  prospect  of  a  union  of  the  two  Crowns,  and  natural 
pity  for  her  misfortunes,  made  friends  for  her  among  all 
parties  in  England.  '  The  fame  of  her  murdering  her 
husband  would  by  time  vanish  away,  or  by  defence 
would  be  so  handled  as  it  should  be  no  great  block  in 
her  way  to  achieve  her  purposes/  On  the  other  side, 
Elizabeth  was  without  child,  without  husband,  without 
ally,  and  almost  without  friends.  Her  subjects  had,  by 
long  peace,  been  rendered  unapt  for  war,  and  the  disaf- 
fected among  them  '  had  grown  bold  by  her  soft  and  re- 
miss government/  '  The  service  of  God/  'and' the  sincere 
profession  of  Christianity,  were  much  decayed  ; '  '  and  in 
place  of  it,  partly  Papistry,  partly  Paganism  and  irre- 
ligion  ha^.  crept  in ; '  '  baptists,  deriders  of  religion, 
epicureans,  and  atheists  were  everywhere  ; '  and  'such  de- 
cay of  obedience  in  civil  policy,  as  compared  with  the  fear- 
fulness  and  reverence  in  time  past,  would  astonish  any 
wise  and  considerate  person/  '  The  Realm  was  so  feeble, 
that  it  was  fearful  to  think  what  would  follow  if  the 
enemies  were  at  hand  to  assail/  '  The  case  seemed  so 
desperate  as  almost  to  take  away  all  courage  to  seek  a 
remedy/1 

It  is  both  instructive  and  singular  to  find  Cecil,  the 
firmest    and    bravest    advocate    of    the    Reformation, 


1  Memorial  on  the  State  of  the  Healm,  March   10,  1569:    Buryhky 
Papers,  vol.  i. 


I569-J  ENGLISH  PARTIES,  f 

lamenting  the  decay  of  reverence  and  the  spiritual  dis- 
order which  we  now  see  to  have  been  its  inevitable 
fruits.  There  were  some  features  of  danger  in  this 
estimate  which  were  overrated  ;  some  sources  of  strength 
which  were  not  appreciated.  France  and  Spain  were  far 
from  the  triumph  which  Cecil  believed  them  to  have  all 
but  obtained.  Triumph  was  not  possible  for  them  on 
the  road  which  they  had  chosen.  It  might  please  Pius 
V.  to  give  the  blessing  of  the  Church  to  Mary  Stuart, 
and  to  make  light  of  her  crimes.  As  the  Bishop  of  Ross 
justly  argued,  the  orthodoxy  of  David  had  covered  mis- 
deeds of  equal  turpitude;  and  David  for  twenty  centuries 
had  been  held  up  before  the  religious  world  as  the  man 
after  Grod's  heart.  Yet  men  who  were  most  opposed  to 
the  spirit  of  the  times,  were  changed  by  it  in  spite  of 
themselves;  and  not  orthodoxy  any  more,  but  purity 
of  hand  and  heart,  was  thenceforth  to  be  the  test  of 
character.  The  English  Catholics  (the  great  bulk  of 
them),  forced  as  they  were  by  circumstances  to  the 
side  of  Mary  Stuart,  ^et  never  forgot  Kirk  o'  Field,  as 
Cecil  thought  they  would  forget  it.  When  the  moment 
came  to  strike,  their  arms  were  paralyzed  ;  and  even 
Philip  II.  had  many  scruples  to  swallow  before  he 
could  appear  in  public  as  her  champion  against  his 
sister-in-law. 

Possibly  too  Cecil  mistook  the  character  of  the 
anarchy  which  he  deplored.  He  undervalued,  espe- 
cially, those  fierce  children  of  the  sea  to  whom,  in  the 
end,  Elizabeth  was  to  owe  her  safety  ;  and  he  miscon- 
strued into  lawlessness  the  free  English  energy  which, 


8  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [en.  52. 

in  the  exultation  of  new-found  liberty,  was  bursting  the 
bounds  of  control. 

Yet  with  these  allowances  there  was  enough 
February. 

in  the  prospect  which  he  saw  before  him  to 

justify  the  gravest  alarm ;  and  Cecil,  who,  unlike  his 
mistress,  was  in  favour  of  open  measures,  desired  to 
meet  the  Catholic  Powers  by  a  combination  like  their 
own,  and  oppose  to  the  Papal  league  the  firm  front  of  a 
Protestant  confederacy.  With  the  knife  at  all  their 
throats  it  was  no  time  to  stand  upon  '  dainty  '  questions 
of  the  rights  of  subjects  and  sovereign ;  of  the  efficacy 
of  the  sacraments,  or  the  operation  of  '  prevenient 
grace/  The  remedy,  so  far  as  Cecil  could  see  a  remedy, 
was  in  an  alliance  between  England,  Sweden,  Denmark, 
the  German  Princes,  the  Scotch  Protestants,  and  the 
Calvinists  in  France  and  Flanders.  He  wished  Eliza- 
beth to  declare  distinctly  for  Conde  and  the  Prince  of 
Orange,  and  to  avow  before  Europe  that  England  would 
not  look  calmly  on  a  general  persecution  for  religion. 
It  would  be  found  both  easier  and  cheaper  to  support 
the  Reformers  abroad  while  they  were  still  in  arms,  than 
to  wait  to  encounter  the  enemy  single-handed  after  they 
had  been  destroyed.  With  equal  frankness  he  desired 
her  to  maintain  the  Earl  of  Murray  in  Scotland ;  to 
give  the  Queen  of  Scots  to  understand  that  if  she  did  not 
fulfil  her  engagements  at  once  and  ratify  the  treaty  of 
Leith,  she  should  be  sent  back  over  the  Border  to  be 
dealt  with  as  the  Regent's  Government  should  think 
proper  ;  and  to  silence  with  a  high  hand  the  do- 


ENGLISH  PARTIES. 


mestic  clamour  for  the  settlement  of  the  succession.1 
The  adoption  of  this  policy,  or  of  anything  approach- 
ing to  it,  would  necessarily  terminate  the  compromise 
on  which  Elizabeth's  Government  had  hitherto  been 
carried  on,  and  force  into  collision  the  opposite  parties 
in  the  council.  Except  in  1 562-3,  when  the  attempt  was 
made  to  recover  Calais,  the  Queen  had  avoided  em- 
barrassing combinations  with  the  Protestants  on  the 
Continent ;  and  the  conservative  peers  and  country 
gentlemen  were  able  to  persuade  themselves  that  they 
had  no  connection  with  them.  The  constitution  of  the 
Church  of  England,  its  apostolical  government,  and  its 
formularies,  which  recognized  a  quasi  real  presence  in 
the  Eucharist,  permitted  them  to  believe  that  they  were 
still  members  of  the  ancient  corporation  of  Christendom ; 
while  the  Calvinists  were  the  enemies  of  order,  civil  and 
divine,  disobedient  to  rulers,  deriders  of  authority, 
scorners  of  the  Blessed  Sacrament.  The  English  peers 
desired  to  see  their  sovereign  taking  her  place  beside 
her  brother  urinces,  maintaining;  and  maintained  by  the 
old  alliances,  disowning  and  refusing  all  interest  in  the 
revolutionary  rabble  who  had  risen  out  of  the  dirt  into 
rebellion.  At  home  too  the  progress  of  the  Reformation 
was  in  many  ways  unpalatable  to  them.  The  Howards, 
the  Talbots,  the  Fitzalans,  the  Stanleys,  the  Percys,  the 
Nevilles,  the  princely  houses,  who  in  their  several 


1  Memorial  of  the  State  of  the 
Realm,  with  remedies  against  the 
conspiration  of  the  Pope  and  the 


two   monarchies  :  Burghley  Papers, 
vol.  i.  pp.  579,  588. 


10  REIGN  Of  ELIZABETH.  £CH.  52. 

counties  had  represented  for  centuries  the  majesty  of 
the  sovereign — whose  word  was  law,  and  from  whom 
in  a  continuous  chain  the  civil  order  of  the  State 
descended,  looked  coldly  on  the  new  men  who  were 
rising  by  trade,  who  owned  the  lands  which  had  been 
taken  from  the  Church,  who  acknowledged  no  fealty  to 
them  or  theirs.  The  sea  rovers  too,  with  their  aiders 
and  abettors,  had  no  place  in  the  stately  system  of  Feudal 
England.  The  disintegration,  which  had  alarmed  even 
Cecil,  shocked  and  outraged  the  old-fashioned  nobility. 
Their  place  was  gone  from  them.  A  new  world  was 
rising  round  them,  and  a  new  order  of  things  in  which 
all  objects  held  most  sacred  were  being  trampled  in  the 
niire. 

The  reception  of  Chatillon  and  the  seizure  of  the 
Spanish  treasure  appeared  to  indicate  that  Elizabeth 
was  yielding  to  the  faction  with  whom,  as  they  con- 
ceived, these  mischiefs  had  originated. 

On  the  termination  of  the  inquiry  at  Hampton 
Court  their  discontent  took  active  shape.  There  was 
no  longer  a  probability  that  Elizabeth  would  be  brought 
to  recognize  the  Queen  of  Scots'  succession  ;  yet,  in  de- 
spair of  finding  a  substitute  for  her,  they  satisfied  them- 
selves that  her  right  must  be  maintained,  and  the 
question  now  was  of  the  means  by  which  it  could  be 
effected.  Some  of  them — Lord  Montague,  Lord  South- 
ampton, and  others — had  been  in  correspondence  with 
the  Spanish  ambassador  about  it  before  the  meeting  at 
York ;  and  it  was  by  them  that  her  marriage  with  the 
Duke  of  Norfolk  had  been  first  originated.  But  it  has 


1569-]  ENGLISH  PAR-PIES,  a 

been  seen  that  the  Dacres  succession  had  created  a  party 
among  the  Catholics  opposed  to  Norfolk.  The  Northern 
nobles.  Lord  Dacres  himself,  the  Earl  of  Northumber- 
land, the  Earl  of  Cumberland,  and  Lord  Derby's  sons  if 
not  their  father,  the  most  decidedly  ultramontane  among 
the  peers,  objected  to  the  Duke's  elevation  both  on 
grounds  of  interest  and  from  a  distrust  of  his  fitness  to 
conduct  a  religious  revolution.  The  late  Duchess  had 
been  a  Catholic,  and  most  of  his  household  were 
Catholics,  but  he  was  himself  nominally  a  member  of 
the  Church  of  England.  In  their  eyes  therefore  the 
proper  husband  for  the  Queen  of  Scots  was  Don  John 
of  Austria  ;  and  as  Elizabeth's  consent  to  such  an  alli- 
ance was  not  to  be  looked  for,  this  section  of  the  peers 
contemplated  open  rebellion,  the  Queen's  deposition,  the 
restoration  of  the  Catholic  religion,  and  the  immediate 
elevation  of  Mary  Stuart  to  the  throne.  Don  Guerau 
had  communicated  their  views  to  Philip,  and  with  the 
exception  of  the  marriage  with  Don  John,  of  which  he 
said  nothing,  he  gave  a  reluctant  and  general  sanction 
to  their  enterprise. 

Mary  Stuart,  believing  Philip  to  be  a  fool  as  well 
as  a  fanatic,  had  injured  her  shaking  credit  with  him 
by  professing  to  have  discovered  a  plot  for  his  murder. 
She  had  written  to  Don  Guerau  from  Bolton  announc- 
ing that  the  heretics  considered  the  King  of  Spain  the 
greatest  obstacle  to  the  success  of  the  Reformation,  and 
that  certain  persons  about  his  Court  had  been  bribed  to 
poison  him.  Don  Guerau  sent  down  a  servant  to  her 
to  learn  further  particulars,  but  she  could  tell  no  more 


12 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


[CH.  52. 


except  vaguely  that  Cecil  was  the  instigator.1  Don 
Guerau  sent  her  letters  to  Philip,  indicating  his  own 
belief  that  the  story  had  no  better  foundation  than  the 
talk  in  the  servants'  hall  at  Bolton ;  and  Philip  was 
rather  irritated  at  the  indefiniteness  of  the  information 
than  alarmed  at  the  danger.  After  brief  reflection  he 
satisfied  himself  that  it  was  mere  smoke2  and  idle 
gossip,  caught  at  by  Mary  Stuart  in  the  hope  of  in- 
gratiating herself  with  him.3  He  admitted  however 
the  expediency  of  making  use  of  her.  The  arrest  of 
the  ships  and  money  and  the  imprisonment  of  the  am- 
bassador were  outrages  too  flagrant  to  be  passed  over. 
If  an  opportunity  really  offered  itself  for  overthrowing 
Elizabeth's  Government,  he  said  that  in  the  interest  of 
religion  he  was  willing  to  sanction  her  deposition,  and 
he  sent  discretionary  powers  to  the  Duke  of  Alva  to  do 
whatever  might  seem  expedient.  The  Queen  of  Scots 
he  accepted  as  an  unwelcome  necessity.  He  bade  Don 
Guerau  tell  her,  that  if  she  were  true  to  her  religion  he 
would  take  up  her  cause,  but  his  mind  misgave  him 
while  he  consented.  '  It  would  be  a  bad  business/  he 
admitted,  '  to  do  anything  inconsistent  with  the  true 
Catholic  faith.' 4 

But    the    Northern    Lords  and   their  confederates 
formed  but  the  extreme  division  of  the  great  party  of 


•  Mary  Stuart  to  Don  Guerau, 
December  4,  1568  :  MSS.  Simancas. 

2  '  Cosa  do  humo.' 

3  Philip  II.  to  Don  Guerau,  Feb- 
ruary ult. :  MSS.  Simancas. 

4  '  De  cualquier  manera  que  sea, 


es  mal  caso  mezclar  cosa  ninguna 
que  contradiga  a  nuestra  verdadera 
y  Catolica  religion.' — Philip  II.  to 
Don  Guerau,  February  18:  MSS. 
Simancas. 


1569.]  ENGLISH  PARTIES.  !3 

reaction.  The  majority  of  the  peers  desired  indeed  to 
change  the  public  policy  of  England,  to  remodel  the 
Church  so  as  to  eject  the  Genevans,  and  to  open  the 
way  for  reunion  with  Rome,  but  they  did  not  wish  for 
a  violent  revolution.  They  were  in  favour  of  the  Queen 
of  Scots'  succession,  yet  they  wanted  rather  a  change  of 
administration  than  a  change  of  sovereign,  and  were 
willing  to  leave  Elizabeth  in  possession  for  her  life. 
They  would  not  have  disturbed  her  at  all ;  they  would 
have  left  the  succession  to  nature  had  she  consented  to 
the  Austrian  marriage  ;  it  was  only  when  this  hope 
failed  them,  and  the  dangers  which  threatened  England 
within  and  without  became  too  manifest  to  be  over- 
looked, that  their  dissatisfaction  altered  its  character 
and  took  the  form  of  disloyalty.  Arundel  and  Norfolk 
saw  as  clearly  as  Cecil  the  critical  situation  of  the  coun- 
try, and  they  wished  to  save  it  by  returning  to  the  old 
alliance  with  the  house  of  Burgundy,  by  entailing  the 
throne  on  Mary  Stuart  in  despair  of  any  other  possible 
settlement,  and,  as  a  necessary  consequence,  by  throw- 
ing a  veil  over  her  delinquencies.  To  these  schemes 
Cecil  was  the  great  obstacle,  and  they  resolved  to  lose 
no  more  time  in  removing  so  dangerous  a  counsellor 
from  Elizabeth's  cabinet.  To  them  also  the  Spanish 
ambassador  was  the  natural  ally.  His  house  was 
guarded,  and  their  access  to  his  person  was  no  ktager 
possible ;  but  the  arrests  had  thrown  the  trading  inter- 
ests of  half  Europe  into  confusion  ;  and  merchants, 
money-dealers,  and  those  who  seemed  unconnected  with 
politics,  were  admitted  to  see  him  at  pleasure.  Among 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


[CH.  52. 


them,  as  yet  unsuspected,  was  Eobert  Ridolfi,  a  Floren- 
tine banker,  who,  unknown  to  every  one,  was  the  agent 
of  the  Pope  in  London.  He  had  pushed  himself  into 
private  communication  with  the  leaders  of  all  parties 
from  Cecil  to  Leonard  Dacres,  and  he  now  made  him- 
self the  instrument  through  whom  all  who  wished  it 
corresponded  with  Don  Guerau. 

The  foreign  relations  of  England  were  becoming 
every  hour  more  threatening.  As  soon  as  the  news  of 
the  seizure  reached  Spain  English  ships  were  arrested 
in  the  Peninsula  as  they  had  been  in  Flanders.  Not- 
withstanding the  hesitation  of  La  Mothe  Fenelon 
Catherine  de  Medici  followed  the  example,  in  retaliation 
for  the  countenance  to  Chatillon  and  to  Conde's  pri- 
vateers. The  vessels  trading  at  Havre  and  Bordeaux 
were  forbidden  to  leave  the  harbours,  and  trade  with 
France  was  closed  except  at  the  few  ports  which  were 
held  by  the  Huguenots.  On  the  side  of  England  there 
was  no  flinching.  Spain  and  France  together  could 
not  send  a  fleet  into  the  Channel  able  to  encounter 
Portault,  Champernowne,  and  Hawkins  ;  and  in  the 
value  of  property  already  seized  Elizabeth  had  enorm- 
ously the  advantage.  The  balance  in  her  favour  was 
increased  daily  by  the  prizes  which  were  brought  into 
her  ports ; 1  and  Alva,  as  his  anger  cooled,  began  to 


1  In  addition  to  this  advantage, 
the  outstanding  debts  of  the  English 
merchants  were  large,  and,  of  course, 
while  the  breach  continued  would 
not  be  paid.  '  It  is  thought  they 
will  repent,'  Cecil  wrote,  '  for  Eng- 


land oweth  in  Antwerp  ioo,ooo/. 
more  than  it  hath,  and  I  think  great 
riches  is  now  in  our  ports.' — Cecil  to 
Sir  H.  Sidney,  January  6,  1569: 
MSS.  Ireland. 


1569-]  ENGLISH  PARTIES.  15 

doubt  the  prudence  of  an  immediate  rupture.  Eliza- 
beth affected  the  tone  of  an  injured  person  who  had 
had  a  quarrel  thrust  upon  her.  After  a  few  weeks  of 
chafing,  the  Duke  sent  over  M.  d'Assonleville,  a  mem- 
ber of  the  council  of  the  Netherlands,  to  try  the  effect 
of  remonstrance. 

It  is  not  pleasant  to  contemplate  the  number  of  lies 
told  about  this  'treasure.'  In  the  face  of  the  corre- 
spondence of  Cecil  with  the  Devonshire  gentlemen,  it 
can  scarcely  be  pretended  that  Elizabeth  at  no  time 
intended  to  appropriate  the  money.  She  may  have 
changed  her  mind,  compromised  matters  with  Cecil  by 
consenting  to  detain,  while  she  intended  eventually  to 
restore  it,  and  so  have  saved  her  conscience.  So  it  was 
however  that  both  Cecil  and  the  Queen  insisted  that 
the  chests  had  been  landed  at  the  request  of  the  Span- 
iards themselves,  and  that  the  thought  of  laying  v-'olent 
hands  on  them  had  never  been  entertained  for  a  moment. 
They  pretended  that  the  passage  of  the  Channel  was 
extremely  dangerous  from  the  pirates ;  the  Queen  had 
accidentally  discovered  that  the  money  was  the  property 
of  the  Italian  merchants,  and  she  had  doubted  whether 
it  would  be  well  to  expose  so  large  a  sum  to  further 
risk,  and  whether  she  might  not  borrow  it  herself. 
This  was  all  that  she  had  thought  of,  and  was  most 
innocent ;  but  whilst  she  was  hesitating  the  Duke  of 
Alva,  without  provocation,  right,  or  justice,  had  seized 
upon  the  ships  of  her  subjects. 

If  this  was  her  position  Alva  had  only  to  accept  it, 
prove  the  right  of  the  King  of  Spain  in  the  treasure, 


1 6  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  52. 

and  take  the  risk  of  the  transport  upon  himself.  He 
wanted  money  badly,  and  if  he  succeeded  in  recovering 
it  he  could  exhibit  Elizabeth  before  the  world  as  having 
attempted  an  act  of  piracy,  and  as  having  failed,  for 
want  of  courage,  to  maintain  what  she  had  done. 

D'Assonleville  came  over  hoping  so  to  settle  it ;  but 
he  found  that  behind  Elizabeth's  words  there  lay  a  pur- 
pose, either  in  herself  or  in  her  advisers,  which  was  not 
to  be  so  easily  dealt  with.  He  could  not  obtain  an 
audience  of  the  Queen  ;  he  was  not  allowed  to  see  Don 
Guerau ;  and  he  was  detained  in  London  from,  day  to 
day,  by  excuses  and  evasive  messages,  till  one  part  of 
the  council  or  the  other  had  prevailed,  and  till  the 
Que^n  could  determine  whether  to  relinquish  her  prize 
or  hold  it.  Some  attention  will  be  required  to  under- 
stand the  intrigues  on  which  the  reader  is  about  to  enter. 
He  will  first  consider  carefully  the  two  following  letters 
of  the  Spanish  ambassador. 

DON    GUERAU    DE    ESPES   TO    THE    DUKE    OF    ALVA. 

Feb.  20,  London. 

1  Cecil  is  still  dominant,  and  would  declare  open  war 
against  us,  but  for  the  remonstrances  of  others  of  the 
council.  The  Duke  of  Norfolk  and  Lord  Arundel, 
with  the  assistance  of  our  common  friend  Ridolfi,  have 
contrived  a  means  of  communicating  with  me  in  cipher. 
They  give  me  to  understand  that  I  may  make  myself 
easy  about  the  money  and  the  ships,  which  they  assure 
me  shall  be  immediately  restored.  If  they  have  con- 
sented hitherto  to  their  detention,  and  to  Cecil's  other 


: 


1569-]  ENGLISH  PARTIES.  17 

insolences,  it  is  because  they  have  so  far  been  too  weak 
to  oppose  him  successfully :  but  meanwhile  they  have 
collected  their  friends ;  they  have  taken  measures  to 
undeceive  the  people  as  to  the  real  character  of  the 
seizure,  and  they  mean  to  make  an  end  of  the  present 
infamous  Government,  to  place  the  administration  in 
the  hands  of  Catholics,  and  compel  the  Queen  to  go 
along  with  them.1  Your  Excellency  they  trust  will  ap- 
prove,  and  they  hope  this  realm  will  not  lose  the  friend- 
ship of  the  King  our  master.  They  say  that  they  will 
re-establish  the  Catholic  religion — there  never  was  a 
more  favourable  opportunity — and  Cecil,  who  imagines 
that  he  has  them  all  under  his  feet,  will  find  himself  left 
without  a  friend. 

'  Cecil  himself  meanwhile  is  commencing  a  furious 
persecution.  The  prisons  are  overflowing,  and  in  Bride- 
well there  are  a  hundred  and  fifty  Spaniards,  who  are 
forced  to  listen  to  heretic  sermons,  and  are  tempted  by 
offers  of  rewards  to  become  heretics  themselves.  They 
have  removed  the  sentries  under  my  windows;  but 
rather  because  of  the  frost  than  for  any  better  reason. 
My  garden  gates  are  nailed  up,  and  the  knight  who  is 
on  guard  over  me  is  established  with  his  family  in  my 
porter's  lodge.  Cecil,  Bedford,  and  the  Lord  Admiral2 
advocate  war ;  the  Admiral,  because  of  the  opportunities 
which  it  will  open  to  him  for  plunder.  The  rest  of  the 


1  The  words  are  so  important 
that  they  must  be  given  in  the 
original :  '  Entretanto  se  han  pro- 
veydo  de  amigos  y  han  dado  a 
entender  lo  que  pasa  al  pueblo,  y 

VOL.  IX. 


piensan    quitar  este  gdbierno  que 
ahora  hay,  tan  maldito,  y  leyantar 
otro  Oatolico,  y  hacer  consentir  en  el 
a  la  Reyna.' 
2  Clinton. 


18  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  52. 

council  are  for  peace.1  The  lords  who  are  my  friends 
tell  me  not  to  be  distressed  at  my  detention.  Nothing 
is  meant  beyond  preventing  me  from  communicating 
with  the  Catholics/ 

So  far  to  Alva.  A  week  later  Don  Guerau  wrote  to 
Philip  :- 

'D'Assonleville  has  had  no  audience,  and  while 
Cecil  remains  in  power  nothing  will  be  done.  He  and 
his  friends  desire  only  to  feed  the  fire  in  France  and  the 
Low  Countries,  believing  that,  if  they  can  keep  that 
flame  unextinguished,  they  will  be  left  alone  in  their 
heresies.  They  refuse  to  part  with  the  money,  unless 
your  Majesty  will  send  hither  a  special  messenger  to 
renew  the  old  league,  unless  you  will  make  compensa- 
tion for  outstanding  injuries,  and  will  apologize  for  the 
dismissal  of  Doctor  Man.  It  will  not  be  to  your  Ma- 
jesty's honour  to  consent  to  these  terms  so  long  as  the 
present  Ministers  are  in  power.  There  are  many  ways 
by  which  they  can  be  shaken  from  their  places.  The 
Duke  of  Norfolk  and  Lord  Arundel  tell  me  that  they 
will  be  the  instruments  of  an  alteration.  The  Catholics 
are  arming  under  cover  of  an  order  from  tho  Queen  for 


. 


1  The  ordinary  council,  at  this 
time,  consisted  of  Sir  Nicholas  Bacon, 
Keeper  of  the  Great  Seal ;  the  Mar- 
quis of  Winchester,  Lord  Treasurer; 
Sir  Walter  Mildmay,  Chancellor  of 
the  Exchequer ;  the  Earl  of  Arundel, 
Lord  High  Constable;  Duke  of  Nor- 
folk, Earl  Marshal ;  Lord  Clinton, 
Lord  High  Admiral ;  Sir  William 
Cecil,  Principal  Secretary  of  State  ; 


Lord  Howard  of  Effingham,  Lord 
Chamherlain;  Earl  of  Pembroke, 
Lord  Steward ;  Sir  James  Crofts, 
Controller  of  the  Household ;  Earl 
of  Leicester,  Master  of  the  Horse  ; 
Sir  Francis  Kriowles,  Treasurer  of 
the  Household ;  Earl  of  Bedford,  Go- 
vernor  of  Berwick  ;  Earl  of  Sussex, 
President  of  the  North. 


1569.]  ENGLISH  PARTIES.  tg 

the  equipment  of  the  musters  ;  and  they,  with  their 
friends  among  the  peers,  represent  the  vast  majority  of 
the  nation.  The  interruption  of  the  trade  will  suffice  of 
itself  to  cause  a  revolution.  Care  only  is  necessary  that 
no  untoward  accident  occurs  meanwhile  in  Flanders  ; 
and  against  this  the  wisdom  and  valour  of  the  Duke 
will  provide. 

'  I  have  learnt  from  the  Duke  of  Norfolk  what  they 
mean  to  say  to  d'Assonleville.  He  tells  me  that  I  must 
not  be  displeased  that  he  has  consented  to  it ;  because 
he  thus  secures  his  uninterrupted  access  to  the  Queen, 
and  learns  the  secrets  of  the  other  party.  They  are  ex- 
tremely jealous  and  suspicious.  My  guard  have  been 
partially  removed ;  but  my  house  is  watched  by  spies, 
and  there  are  sentinels  at  night  at  the  doors.  It  is 
essential  that  their  trade  with  France  be  kept  closed. 
Without  oil  and  alum  they  cannot  continue  their  cloth 
manufacture,  and  when  work  is  slack,  and  commerce 
suspended,  then  they  will  fly  to  arms.'  * 

These  letters  explain  themselves  without  further 
comment.  There  were  two  projects  on  foot,  to  each  of 
which  the  Spanish  ambassador  was  a  party  ;  one  was 
among  the  Northern  lords,  opposed  to  Norfolk,  for  a 
Catholic  insurrection,  the  overthrow  of  Elizabeth,  and 
a  marriage,  if  Philip's  sanction  could  be  obtained  for  it, 
between  the  Queen  of  Scots  and  Don  John  :  a  second 
party,  headed  by  Norfolk  himself,  desired  a  change  of 

1  Don  Guerau  to  the  Duke  of  Alva,  February  20.     Don  Guerau  to 
Philip  II.,  February  27  :  MSS.  Simancas. 


20 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


[en.  52. 


government,  and  the  arrest,  and  probably  the  death,  of 
Cecil.  The  Earl  of  Leicester,  who  bore  Cecil  no  good- 
will, and  who  feared  the  consequences  to  himself  of  a 
return  to  power  of  the  old  nobility,  if  he  had  not  gained 
their  goodwill  beforehand,  was  prepared  to  act  with 
them  if  they  appeared  likely  to  succeed.1  It  was  a  con- 
spiracy like  that  which  had  overthrown  Cromwell — so 


1  A  scene  is  described  as  having 
taken  place  at  the  palace,  which  is 
ohviously  exaggerated  or  distorted  ; 
but  being  related  in  almost  the  same 
language  both  by  Don  Guerau  and 
by  La  Mothe  Fenelon,  is  probably 
not  wholly  without  foundation.  Don 
Guerau  says  that  on  Sunday  morn- 
ing, in  the  middle  of  February, 
Norfolk,  Leicester,  Northampton, 
Mildmay,  and  Cecil,  were  with  the 
Queen.  She  was  talking  at  one  end 
of  the  room  with  Leicester  and  Cecil, 
and  was  persuading  the  former  to 
agree  to  something  which  Cecil  had 
proposed.  Leicester,  who  was  vio- 
lently angry,  told  her  that  her  throne 
would  never  be  safe,  till  Cecil's  head 
was  off  his  shoulders.  The  Queen 
swore  she  would  send  Leicester  to 
the  Tower,  and  spoke  so  loud  that 
every  one  present  heard  her.  Nor- 
folk observed  aside  to  the  rest  that 
My  Lord  of  Leicester  was  in  high 
favour  so  long  as  he  echoed  Mr 
Secretary,  but  now,  when  he  had  an 
opinion  of  his  own,  he  was  to  go  to 
the  Tower.  '  By  God,'  he  said,  '  it 
shall  not  be  ;  some  remedy  shall  be 
for  this.'  '  Pray  God  it  may  be  so,' 
Northampton  answered.  'I  have 


ever  wished  it.'  Mildmay  also  said 
that  some  change  was  necessary ; 
and  the  Duke,  going  up  to  the  Queen, 
told  her  that  he  hoped  when  her 
anger  Avas  cooled,  and  she  could  re- 
flect quietly  on  the  condition  of  the 
Realm,  she  would  feel  the  need  of 
making  better  provision  for  her  own 
and  her  subjects'  safety.  He  and  his 
friends,  as  her  faithful  servants  and 
councillors,  would  consider  what 
ought  to  be  done.  The  Queen  left 
them  in  confusion — showing  signs  of 
great  distress.  La  Mothe  Fenelor 
tells  the  same  story,  but  says  it  hap 
pened  on  Ash  Wednesday,  in  the 
evening  before  supper.  '  The  lords,-' 
he  adds,  'intended  to  call  Cecil  to 
account  for  his  whole  administration 
from  the  beginning  of  the  reign. 
Cecil  had  endeavoured  to  frighten 
Leicester  by  saying  that  he  was  as 
responsible  as  himself.  Leicester 
answered  that  Cecil  alone  was  to 
blame,  and  he  should  provide  for  his 
own  safety.' — Don  Guerau  to  Philip 
II.,  February  22  :  MSS.  Simancas. 
La  Mothe  Fenelon  au  Roy,  March 
8.  Memoire  a  part  au  Sieur  de 
Sabran  :  Depeches,  vol.  i. 


1 5  69.  ]  ENGLISH  PA  R  TTES.  2 1 

nearly  identical,  that  Cecil  himself  could  scarcely  have 
been  unconscious  of  the  resemblance.  He  had  inherited 
Cromwell's  policy,  in  all  points  except  its  violence.  His 
hands  were  as  yet  pure  from  blood,  and  he  had  not 
sought  those  invidious  personal  honours  which  had  set 
the  blood  of  the  old  peers  on  fire.  In  all  else  he  had 
trodden  in  the  same  steps,  and  had  brought  upon  him- 
self the  same  hatred. 

But  besides  these  two  schemes,  there  was  a  third,  in 
which  the  chameleon  Norfolk  was  wearing  far  different 
colours.  Like  a  prudent  gambler,  he  did  not  risk  his 
fortune  on  the  success  of  a  single  speculation. 

It  is  necessary  to  go  a  little  back. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  the  conference  at  York 
was  broken  up,  on  the  report  reaching  the  Queen  that  a 
marriage  was  talked  of  between  Norfolk  and  the  Queen 
of  Scots.  The  Duke  returned  to  London,  staggered  by 
the  sight  of  the  letters  to  Bothwell,  and  disinclined  for 
the  adventure.  He  complained  to  Elizabeth — perhaps 
in  good  faith — of  the  stories  which  were  abroad  about 
him  ;  '  he  reported  matters  of  the  Queen  of  Scots  to 
think  her  not  meet  to  be  had  by  him  in  marriage/  and 
protested  that  he  had  no  intentions  of  the  kind. 

Elizabeth,  not  altogether  satisfied,  and  knowing  the 
inducements  which  had  been  and  would  again  be  held 
out  to  him,  said,  'that  although  he  did  now  mislike 
of  it,  yet  he  might  percase  be  induced  to  like  of  it,  for 
the  benefit  of  the  Bealm,  or  percase  for  her  own  safety/ 

Norfolk  answered  boldly,  '  that  no  reason  could 
move  him  to  like  her  that  had  been  a  competitor  for 


22  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  52. 

the  crown.  If  her  Majesty  herself  would  move  him  to 
it,  he  would  rather  be  committed  to  the  Tower,  for  he 
never  meant  to  marry  with  such  a  person  where  he 
could  not  be  sure  of  his  pillow.' l 

The  Queen  *  did  well  allow  his  vehement  disliking 
of  that  marriage.'  The  Duke  asserted  afterwards  that 
at  the  time  he  meant  what  he  said  ; 2  and  nothing  could 
be  gathered  from  the  part  which  he  took  at  the  second 
conference  which  would  imply  that  he  had  permitted  his 
mind  to  return  to  the  subject.  Yet  it  seems  either  that 
his  chief  objection  was  the  infamy  which  would  attach 
to  the  Queen  of  Scots  by  the  exposure  which  he  then 
believed  inevitable ;  or  that  he  had  allowed  himself  to 
be  talked  over  by  Maitland. 

Of  all  those  who  had  been  parties  to  the  proceedings 
at  Hampton  Court,  the  Earl  of  Murray  had  most  reason 
to  complain.  He  had  been  induced  against  his  will  to 
accuse  his  mistress,  yet  she  had  not  been  condemned. 
He  believed — and  his  fears  were  confirmed  by  a  thou- 
sand private  assurances — that  she  would  ultimately  be 
restored,  and  he  and  his  friends,  after  the  part  which 
they  had  taken,  would  then  be  irretrievably  ruined. 
He  was  told  that  by  producing  the  letters  he  had 
mortally  offended  the  Duke  of  Norfolk,  and  that,  if 
he  left  London  the  Duke  standing  discontented,  'he 
would  have  his  throat  cut  before  he  reached  Berwick.' 
'  Being,'  as  he  said,  '  at  the  uttermost  point  of  his  wit 


1  Summary  of  matters  wherewith 
the  Duke  of  Norfolk  has  been 
charged  :  Burghley  Papers,  vol.  i. 


2  Trial  of  the  Duke  of  Norfolk 
State  Trials,  vol.  i. 


I569.] 


ENGLISH  PARTIES. 


to  imagine  where  matters  would  tend/  he  consented  to 
a  private  interview  with  Norfolk,  and  met  him  in  the 
park  at  Hampton  Court. 

The  Duke  reminded  him  of  their  conversation  at 
York,  and  first  reproached  him  for  want  of  considera- 
tion for  his  sister.  He  replied,  '  that  so  far  from  not 
loving  his  sister,  she  was  the  creature  upon  earth  he 
loved  the  best.  He  never  wished  her  harm  ;  her  own 
pressing  was  the  occasion  of  that  which  was  uttered  to 
her  infamy/ 

The  Duke  then  spoke  of  Mary  Stuart's  general  posi- 
tion, of  the  succession  to  the  crown,  and  the  necessity 
of  settling  it,  of  the  impossibility  of  finding  any  other 
person  in  whose  favour  it  would  be  determined  ;  he 
alluded  to  the  union  of  the  realms;  to  the  quiet  of 
Scotland — to  all  those  subjects  which  had  been  dwelt 
upon  again  and  again,  and  were  familiar  to  both  of 
them  :  the  road  to  their  attainment  lay  through  the 
Queen  of  Scots'  marriage  with  some  English  nobleman 
who  would  be  agreeable  to  all  parties ;  and  the  Duke 
implied,  that  if  he  -himself  were  again  to  think  of  it,  the 
Queen  of  England  would  make  no  objection.  He  did 
not  directly  mention  himself,  but  he  left  Murray  to 
understand  what  he  meant.  He  did  not  say  that 
Elizabeth  would  consent ;  yet  his  words,  and  *  the  cir- 
cumstances of  the  case,  gave  Murray  matter  enough  to 
think  that  she  had  been  foreseen  in  the  Duke's  design/ l 
So  far  as  the  world  knew,  the  Duke  was  a  Protestant. 


1  Murray  to  Elizabeth,  October 
1569  :  MSS.  Scotland.  Compare 


Trial  of  the  Duke  of  Norfolk,  State 
Trials,  vol.  j. 


24  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  52. 

To  Murray  it  could  easily  be  represented  that  a  mar- 
riage between  him  and  the  Queen  of  Scots,  if  sanctioned 
by  Elizabeth,  would,  under  the  present  circumstances, 
be  the  best  guarantee  for  the  stability  of  the  Reformed 
faith.  He  had  heard  something  of  the  scheme  for  her 
marriage  with  Don  John,  and  since  compromise  seemed 
now  inevitable,  this  perhaps  was  the  best  form  in  which 
it  could  take  effect.  He  told  the  Duke  that,  '  as  soon 
as  his  sister  would  repent  of  her  doings,  separate  her- 
self from  Both  well,  and  be  joined  with  such  a  personage 
as  was  affectioned  to  the  true  religion,  whom  Scotland 
might  trust,  he  would  love  her  as  well  as  ever  he  did  in 
his  life  ;  if  that  person  should  be  the  Duke  of  Norfolk, 
there  was  none  he  would  like  better,  provided  the 
Queen  consented/ 

So  they  parted.  The  Duke  warned  him  to  tell  no 
one  but  Maitland  what  had  passed  ;  and  he  promised  to 
communicate  with  him  again  when  circumstances  per- 
mitted. Meanwhile  he  sent  orders  to  the  Nortons  to 
'  stay  the  enterprise  '  at  Northallerton,  and  to  leave  the 
Earl  unmolested  on  his  way  back  to  Scotland.1 

After  this  interview,  Norfolk,  on  the  plea  of  sick- 
ness, was  for  some  weeks  absent  from  the  Court,  corre- 
sponding, through  Ridolfi,  with  Don  Guerau,  and  feeling 
his  way  among  the  other  parties  into  which  the  council 
and  the  Peers  were  divided.  The  opinion  which  had 
been  expressed  so  boldly  by  Sir  Francis  Knowles,  that 
the  Queen  was  incapable  of  carrying  through  any  bold 


Confession  of  the  Bishop  of  Ross,  November  6,  1571  :  MURDIN 


1569.]  ENGLISH  PARTIES.  ^ 

or  consistent  course  was  shared  by  every  one.  All  ex- 
pected that  Cecil's  defiance  of  Spain  would  end  in  ruin, 
if  the  Queen  of  Scots  was  to  continue  in  England,  as  a 
perpetual  instigator  to  conspiracies  ;  and  as  there  were 
two  parties  among  the  Catholics,  so  among  the  more 
moderate  Protestants  there  were  men  whose  loyalty 
to  Elizabeth  was  undoubted,  while  they  were  assured 
that  things  could  not  safely  continue  as  they  were.  If 
Mary  Stuart  were  not  to  be  disgraced,  it  was  really 
necessary  to  marry  her  to  some  Englishman  of  rank 
whose  patriotism  could  be  relied  upon ;  and  they  too, 
for  the  same  reasons  which  had  been  laid  before 
Murray,  agreed  on  Norfolk  as  the  fittest  person.  Lei- 
cester, finding  perhaps  that  the  Catholics  looked  coldly 
on  him,  with  the  Earl  of  Pembroke  and  Sir  Nicholas 
Throgmortoii,  were  the  leaders  of  this  new  faction 
They  took  the  Bishop  of  Ross  into  their  confidence,  and 
the  Bishop,  after  consulting  Norfolk,  agreed  to  assist. 
To  Don  Guerau  Norfolk  had  represented  himself  as  only 
anxious  for  the  restoration  of  Catholicism.  The  con- 
ditions of  the  new  alliance  were  an  easier  version  of  the 
terms  first  proposed  at  York,  as  the  basis  of  the  intended 
compromise  ;  and  it  is  probable  that  Norfolk  had  been 
made  aware  of  them  before  he  spoke  to  Murray.  All 
outstanding  quarrels  in  Scotland  were  to  be  considered 
at  an  end ;  the  abdication  at  Lochleven  was  to  be  can- 
celled ;  the  murder  forgotten,  and  religious  rights  re- 
spected on  all  sides.  The  Queen  of  Scots  was  to  abandon 
her  foreign  intrigues  and  alliances,  ratify  the  treaty  of 
Leith,  and  become  a  member  of  the  Church  of  England, 


26  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  52. 

where  she  was  to  continue  to  reside.  The  guarantee  for 
her  good  behaviour  would  be  her  marriage  with  Norfolk, 
and  her  own  ambition  and  the  vanity  of  Scotland  was 
then  to  be  gratified  by  the  entailment  upon  her  of  the 
English  crown.  This  arrangement,  it  was  supposed, 
would  satisfy  the  moderate  of  all  parties  in  both  countries, 
and  would  take  from  France  and  Spain  their  best  pre- 
text for  invading  England,  and  their  best  chance  of 
success  if  they  made  the  attempt.  Elizabeth  was  not  to 
be  consulted  till  the  Queen  of  Scots'  consent  had  been 
obtained,  and  till  every  security  had  been  provided  for 
herself  which  she  could  possibly  desire— perhaps  till  she 
could  be  tempted  with  a  hope  of  receiving  at  last,  as  part 
of  the  same  arrangement,  the  hand  of  her  adored 
Leicester.  He,  at  all  events,  was  the  most  active  in  the 
negotiation.  The  Bishop  of  Ross  suggested  that  Leicester 
should  himself  marry  the  Queen  of  Scots,  but  the  Earl 
'  for  many  reasons  considered  himself  unmeet  for  that 
honour.'  He  said,  '  he  did  not  suppose  the  Duke  would 
think  of  it,  except  it  was  for  the  benefit  of  the  Queen 
and  the  realm ; '  but  (  he  considered  there  was  no  better 
remedy  for  so  dangerous  a  woman,  and  it  would  be  well 
to  make  a  virtue  of  necessity,  if  the  Queen's  Majesty 
would  allow  it.'  Pembroke  used  the  same  language. 
The  Queen,  he  thought,  would  find  herself  unable  to 
keep  the  Queen  of  Scots  prisoner ;  '  and,  seeing  the 
estate  of  things  so  greatly  changed  in  France  and  Spain, 
and  the  Earl  of  Murray  standing  in  so  tickle  terms  in 
Scotland/  he  was  '  of  opinion,'  and  Sir  Nicholas  agreed 
with  him,  '  that  for  these  causes  and  others,  with  pro- 


1569-]  ENGLISH  PARTIES.  a; 

vision  made,  her  Highness  and  the  realm  would  take 
commodity '  by  her  marriage  with  the  Duke,  if  the  Duke 
himself  would  agree  to  it. 

The  Bishop  of  Ross  undertook  that  his  mistress  would 
do  anything  which  the  Queen  of  England  and  the  no- 
bility desired.  The  Duke,  '  with  all  manner  of  earnest- 
ness/ as  if  he  had  waited  for  this  assurance,  professed 
himself  willing.  '  Although/  he  said,  '  he  would  prefer 
to  remain  unmarried,  yet,  if  the  Queen  of  Scots  would 
accept  him,  he  would  be  content  to  sacrifice  himself ;  for 
'  the  welfare  of  his  country/ 1 

Richard  Cavendish,  a  son  of  Lady  Shrewsbury  by  a 
previous  marriage,  went  down  to  the  Queen  of  Scots 
on  behalf  of  Leicester,  with  presents  and  compliments.2 
The  Queen  of  Scots  confirmed  the  Bishop's  engage- 
ments for  her ;  and  it  was  agreed  that,  when  the  ar- 
rangements were  sufficiently  advanced,  Maitland  should 
come  up  from  Scotland,  and,  in  the  Regent's  name, 
make  a  formal  proposal  for  the  marriage. 

All  this  the  Duke  of  Norfolk  concealed  carefully 
from  Don  Guerau.  To  the  ambassador  he  represented 
himself  as  seeking  for  nothing  but  a  return  to  com- 
munion with  Rome.  He  was  playing  with  all  sides  for 
all  events ;  in  case  Elizabeth  fell,  or  was  compelled  to 

2  Among  the  presents — '  as  she 
seemed  to  be  afraid  of  poison'— 
Leicester  sent  her  '  three  special 
preservatives ; '  'a  stone  in  a  gold 
box,'  '  a  silver  box  with  Mithridate,' 


1  Examination  of  the  Earl  of 
Pembroke,  September  29,  1569 ; 
Examination  of  Sir  Nicholas  Throg- 
morton,  October  10,  1569  :  Burghley 
Papers,  vol.  i.  Confession  of  the 
Duke  of  Norfolk,  November  10, 1571: 
MSS.,  MARY  QUEEN  OF  SCOTS, 
Rolls 


'  and  a  horn  of  some  beast.' — Nor- 
folk's Confession :  Ibid. 


28 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


[CH.  52. 


sacrifice  her  ministers,  lie  wished  to  be  able  to  plead  his 
services  with  Philip,  and  obtain  the  hand  of  the  Queen 
of  Scots  in  that  way,  in  spite  of  the  desire  of  the 
Northern  nobles  to  see  her  married  to  Don  John.1  He 
was  deceiving  Don  Gruerau,  and  he  was  deceiving  also 
Leicester  and  Pembroke  ;  while  the  Queen  of  Scots  and 
the  Bishop  of  Ross  were  in  return  deceiving  him. 
While  the  Duke  was  persuading  himself  that  in  one 
way  or  the  other  he  was  making  sure  of  her,  and  while 
to  him  she  pretended  that  she  had  no  other  desire,  the 
Bishop  of  Ross  was  telling  Don  Guerau,  that  at  the 
bottom  of  her  heart  she  intended,  if  she  could,  to  take 
a  Spanish  husband;2  and  the  Queen  of  Scots  herself 
found  means  to  inform  Don  Guerau,  that  although  her 
position  obliged  her  to  temporize  and  seem  to  acquiesce 
in  the  proposals  which  were  made  to  her,  yet  in  religion 
and  in  everything  else  she  was  in  reality  at  Philip's 
disposition ;  Philip's  pleasure  should  be  hers ;  and,  were 
she  at  liberty,  she  would  not  marry  the  Duke  of  Nor- 
folk, but  would  place  herself  and  her  son  under  Philip's 
protection.3 


1  '  Podria  ser  que  el  Duque  de 
Norfolk  tuviese  intencion  despues  de 
haber  hecho  servicio  a  su  Magd.  de 
ver  si  scria  contento  de  favorescerle 
en  el  casamiento  con  la  Eeyna  de 
Escocia.'  —  Don  Guerau  to  Alva, 
March  15  :  MSS.  Simwicas.  In 
the  decipher  the  last  words  are,  '  con 
la  Rcyna  de  Inglaterra ; '  but  the 
Queen  of  Scots  was  the  person  evi- 
dently meant.  There  was  never  any 
hint  of  a  marriage  between  Norfolk 


and  Elizabeth.     It  was  perhaps   a 
mistake  of  the  secretary. 

3  '  Diome  parte  de  lo  que  V*  E* 
tratd  con  estos  caballeros  cerca  del 
casamiento  de  su  ama,  diciendo  que 
en  Espana  habia  cosa  que  le  con- 
viniese  mucho.  Preguntome  si  tenia 
yo  alguna  commission  acerca  desto.' 
—Don  Guerau  to  Alva :  MSS.  Si- 


3  '  La  dicha  Reyna  dice  que  si 
ella   estuviese   en   libertad  o   se  le 


I569.] 


ENGLISH  PARTIES, 


Meanwhile,  although  near  the  surface  the  wind  was 
moving  in  these  uncertain  eddies,  the  upper  current  of 
events  and  actions  was  rolling  stormily  onwards.  The 
injury  to  English  trade  was  less  absolute  than  Don 
Guerau  expected.  An  eventual  rupture  with  Spain  had 
been  foreseen  and  prepared  for.  Sir  Henry  Killigrew 
during  the  past  year  had  been  negotiating  fresh  open- 
ings in  the  ports  of  the  Baltic,  and  Hamburgh  was 
willing  to  take  the  place  of  Antwerp  as  the  mart  from 
which  English  goods  could  be  carried  into  Germany. 
The  merchant  adventurers  had  pushed  their  way  to 
Moscow  and  even  to  Persia.  The  western  mariners, 
who  preferred  a  Turk  to  a  Catholic,  and  on  the  whole  re- 
garded him  as  a  better  Christian,  were  trading  '  up  the 
Straits '  with  Constantinople  and  Alexandria.  Rochelle 
could  supply  the  best  wines  and  fruits  of  France ;  Ko- 
ch elle  privateers  intercepted  the  vessels  which  sailed 
from  the  Catholic  harbours,  and  their  cargoes  lay  ready 
piled  for  export  in  the  Huguenot  storehouses.  The 
passing  loss  would  be  converted  to  gain  by  English 
energy  and  spirit,  and  on  these  Cecil,  for  his  part,  was 
willing  to  rely.  D'Assonleville  received  the  answer  at 
last  which  Don  Guerau  expected.  He  was  told  that 
the  Queen  declined  to  negotiate  with  Alva.  The  King 
of  Spain  must  send  a  commission  directly  from  himself, 


diera  tal  socorro  que  confiara  reducir 
con  el  su  Reyno  a  su  obediencia,  que 
a  su  persona  y  a  la  de  su  hijo  en- 
tregara  en  poder  de  V.  Magd.,  pero 
que  ahora  sera  forcjada  seguir  y 
tomar  el  tiempo  como  viene  y  toda 


via  no  se  apartara  jamas  de  la 
voluntad  de  V.  Magd.  assi  en  lo  de 
la  religion  como  en  cualquiera  otra 
cosa.'— Don  Guerau  to  Philip,  1569 : 
MSS.  Simancas. 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


[CH.  52, 


if  the  relations  between  him  and  England  were  to  be 
re-established.  To  give  emphasis  to  his  dismissal,  the 
ships  which  escorted  him  back  to  Dunkirk,  under  his 
very  eyes,  with  ingenious  insolence,  cut  out  from  Calais 
roads  two  rich  Spanish  merchantmen,  and  swept  them 
back  into  the  Thames.  In  the  Channel  and  out  of 
it,  in  harbour  and  in  the  open  sea — wherever  a  vessel 
could  be  found  with  a  Catholic  owner,  it  was  plundered 
by  the  English  rovers.  Some  lay  in  wait  for  such  ships 
and  galleys  as  contained  Flemish  prisoners,  whom  they 
would  set  at  liberty.1  Others  plunged  into  the  Spanish 
ports  themselves,  to  rescue  the  English  vessels,  crews, 
and  cargoes  which  were  detained  there,  and  helping 
themselves  to  any  valuables  which  they  might  encounter 
in  the  process  on  sea  or  shore.2  The  prisoners  whom 
they  took  on  these  expeditions  they  brought  home  as 
hostages  for  their  countiymen,  caged  them  in  the  har- 
bour gaols,  and  tortured  them  with  daily  homilies  from 
Protestant  ministers.3 

To  the  yet  deeper  distress  of  Philip,  the  house  of 
one  of  the  largest  Spanish  merchants  in  London  was 


1  '  Otro  siete  navios  Ingleses 
pelearon  con  dos  navios  Espanoles 
de  pasage  cargados  de  fardeles  de 
Flandes,  y  el  uno  navio  escapd  des- 
tos  con  muerto  cl  majestro  de  ella,  y 
capitan  y  otros  quatro  companeros, 
y  el  otro  navio  qued6  peleando  con 
ellos  de  que  no  se  sabe  lo  que  se  ha 
hecho,  el  cual  navio  traya  32  for- 
$ados  de  Flandes.' — Memorial  pre- 
sented by  Don  Guerau  to  the  Eng- 
lish council :  Spanish  MSS.  Rolls 


House. 

2  '  Una  nave  Tnglesa  ha  venido  de 
Vigo  que  enviaron  de  aqui  armada 
para  sacar  los  Inglescs  y  ropa  que 
alii  tenian,  y  se  did  buena  mafia  ;   y 
sacd   doce    mercadores  y   ciento   y 
viente  pafios  y  cuarenta  mill  escndos 
enplata.' — Don  Guerau  a!  Duque  de 
Alva,  Marti  20 :  MSS.  SimancaK. 

3  Don  Guerau  al  Rey,  February 
27:  MSS.  Ibid. 


1569.3 


ENGLISH  PARTIES. 


searched  by  Elizabeth's  police;  the  furniture  of  his 
chapel,  the  crucifixes,  the  imag'es  of  the  saints  were 
carried  away,  borne  in  mock  procession  through  the 
streets,  and  burnt  in  Cheapside,  amidst  the  jests  of  the 
populace,  who  cried,  as  they  saw  them  blazing,  '  These 
are  the  Gods  of  Spain  ! — to  the  flames  with  them,  and 
to  the  flames  with  their  worshippers  ! ' 1 

At  all  this  work  Cecil  looked  on  compla- 

March. 
cently,2  and  with  France  he  followed,  though 

less  openly,  the  same  audacious  policy.  The  fleet 
which  La  Mothe  had  discovered  to  be  in  preparation 
sailed  under  Sir  William  Winter  for  Eochelle,  and 
carried  supplies  to  Conde.  Guns  and  powder  were 
landed  there,  and  as  much  money  as  Elizabeth  could 
spare.  La  Mothe  waited  on  her  to  remonstrate ;  and 
of  course  she  protested  her  innocence.  She  spoke 
with  the  strongest  seeming  disapproval  of  Cond£,  and 
professed  to  be  delighted  at  the  successes  of  the  Crown. 
But  La  Mothe  had  the  most  exact  information. 
She  had  consented  reluctantly ;  but  she  had  consented 
nevertheless.  The  open  sailing  orders  to  Winter  had 


1  Don  Guerau  to  Alva,  April  30. 
The   letter   mentions    many    other 
outrages,  but  against  this  last  espe- 
cially, Philip  scored  in  the  margin 
his  agitated  marks  of  distress. 

2  Half  deprecatingly — as  perhaps 
being  not  quite  certain  of  his  cor- 
respondent— he  wrote  in  the  midst 
of  it  to  Sir  Henry  Sidney  :— '  The 
arrest  between  us  and  Flanders  con- 
tinueth   still   in   one   state,    saving 


that  daily,  ships  of  King  Philip's, 
with  merchandise,  come  in  so  plenti- 
fully as  in  policy  it  may  tempt  some- 
what otherwise  to  be  done  than  was 
meant  at  the  beginning.  I,  myself, 
like  peace  best,  for  though  in  wars 
I  hazard  not  myself,  yet  my  labour 
and  pain  be  as  great  as  whoso  taketh 
most.'— Cecil  to  Sidney,  February 
28  :  MSS.  Ireland. 


32  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CM.  52. 

contained  no  mention  of  the  Prince,  nor  any  indication 
that  he  was  to  receive  assistance ;  but  further  instruc- 
tions had  been  added  in  a  private  note,  which  Cecil  had 
drawn  and  the  Queen  had  signed.1  Without  exposing 
her  evasion,  the  ambassador  insisted  on  what  was  too 
patent  to  deny.  A  whole  fleet  of  English  rovers  were 
sailing  under  Conde's  flag,  and  selling  their  prizes,  as 
they  took  them,  in  Plymouth  and  Dover.  If  she  was 
herself  innocent  in  these  matters,  she  was  responsible, 
as  a  sovereign,  for  the  acts  of  her  own  officers  and  sub- 
jects; and,  on  the  8th  of  March,  under  orders  from 
Paris,  he  offered  her  peace  or  war.  If  she  chose  war, 
it  should  be  war  open  and  avowed ;  if  peace,  the  pri- 
vateers must  be  called  in,  and  the  English  harbours 
closed  against  the  Huguenots.  He  allowed  her  fifteen 
days  to  consider  her  answer.2 

Threats  of  this  kind  Cecil  believed  that  she  could 
safely  defy.  War  with  France  would  not  be  unpopular 
in  England,  where  the  Calais  wound  was  still  rankling. 
Scotland  and  the  prisoner  at  Bolton  were  more  inve- 
terate difficulties.  On  this  subject  too,  at  the  close  of 
the  conference,  La  Mothe  had  ventured  a  remonstrance ; 
but  here  Elizabeth  was  on  firmer  ground,  and  could 
speak  with  conscious  integrity.  '  She  had  no  cause/ 
she  said  proudly,  '  to  change  her  pale  colour  for  any 
charge  which  could  be  brought  against  her  for  her 
treatment  of  her  sister.  Rather,,  if  she  was  pressed,  she 
would  show  matter  for  her  justification  which  would 

1  La   Mothe   Fenelon   au  Koy,  January  10,  and  January  24 :    De- 
,  vol.  i.  2  Ibid.,  March  8. 


1569-!  ENGLISH  PARTIES.  33 

crimson  the  cheek  of  the  Queen  of  Scots/  l  The  Duke 
of  Ohatelherault  had  come  to  London  to  watch  the  pro- 
cess. At  the  end  of  it  she  dismissed  him  with  an  inti- 
mation that  she  intended  to  support  Murray,  and  she 
lent  Murray  himself  three  thousand  pounds  at  his  de- 
parture for  Scotland,  to  assist  him  in  rallying  his 
friends.  She  gave  him  to  understand  however  (and  it 
was  this  which  betrayed  him  into  his  correspondence 
with  Norfolk),  that  she  could  not  undertake  the  per- 
petual custody  of  the  Queen  of  Scots.  For  the  example's 
sake,  she  could  not  recognize  the  right  of  subjects  to 
rebel ;  and,  whatever  her  faults  had  been,  some  arrange- 
ment would  certainly  have  to  be  made  for  his  sister's 
return.  The  casket  letters  must  not  be  published.  He 
must  consult  with  his  party,  and  send  her  up  the  con- 
ditions under  which  the  restoration  could  be  ventured.2 
Meanwhile,  the  inflammatory  letters  which  Mary 
Stuart  had  written  to  the  Hamiltons,  and  a  general 
knowledge  of  her  English  intrigues,  impressed  on 
Elizabeth  the  necessity  of  removing  her  to  some  straiter 
custody.  Lady  Scrope,  as  Norfolk's  sister,  was  a 
dangerous  hostess.  Knowles  was  anxious  to  be  relieved 
of  his  charge,  and  Mary  Stuart  was  transferred  to  Tut- 
bury,  where  she  was  to  be  for  the  future  under  the  care 
of  the  Earl  of  Shrewsbury.  The  temper  of  the  English 
nobles  obliged  the  Queen  to  be  more  than  usually  cir- 
cumspect in  the  choice  of  the  person  who  was  to  under- 


1  La   Mothe  Fenelon    au   Roy, 
February  10  :   Depeches,  vol.  i. 

2  Instructions  of  such  things  as 
VOL.  TX. 


are  to  be  done  in  Scotland,  January 
1569 :   Cotton.  MSS.  CALIG.  B.  8. 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


[CH. 


i. 


take  the  ungracious  office.  The  Earl  of  Shrewsbury 
was  selected  because  he  was  half  a  Catholic,  because  he 
belonged  to  the  party  who  had  been  most  in  favour  of 
the  Queen  of  Scots'  succession,  and  because  therefore 
her  friends  could  feel  that  in  his  hands  she  was  in  no 
danger  of  foul  play.  Elizabeth  perhaps  intended  to 
secure  his  loyalty  by  placing  confidence  in  him.  He 
was  charged  to  prevent  the  Queen  of  Scots'  escape,  but 
'  to  treat  her  with  the  honour  and  reverence  due  to  a 
princess  of  the  blood  royal/  He  was  not  however  to 
carry  his  regard  too  far.  '  Besides  the  vehement  pre- 
sumption against  her  for  the  horrible  murdering  of  her 
husband/  he  was  made  acquainted  '  with  other  particu- 
larities/ to  enable  him  to  reply  to  her  complaints.  He 
was  desired  to  tell  her  that,  if  she  was  over-loud  in  her 
outcries,  '  it  might  be  an  occasion  that  her  whole  cause 
and  doings  should  be  published  to  the  world,  and  thereof 
would  follow  many  things  to  her  prejudice,  which  she 
and  her  friends  would  regret.'' l  Elizabeth  at  the  same 
time  wrote  a  few  lines  to  her,  to  reconcile  her  to  her 
condition,  and  to  assure  her  that,  notwithstanding  her 
removal  from  Bolton,  '  if  no  impediment  was  ministered 
by  herself,  she  would  take  care  of  her  cause  ; '  '  her  dis- 
position was  still,  as  far  as  honour  might  bear,  to  do  all 
that  was  possible  for  her  restoration/  2 

At  Tutbury  Castle  for  the  last  winter  months  the 
Queen  of  Scots  remained.      The  Bishop  of  Ross  and 


-  Commission  to  the  Earl  of 
Shrewsbury  :  MSS.  QUEEN  OF 
SOOTS,  Rolls  House. 


2  Elizabeth  to  the  Queen  of  Scots, 
February  3:  MSS.  QUEEN  OF 
SOOTS,  Rolls  House. 


1 569- 1  ENGLISH  PAR  TIES.  35 

Lord  Boyd  were  settled  a  few  miles  distant  at  Burton,  to 
carry  on  her  correspondence  and  to  keep  up  her  dilTer- 
ent  intrigues,  while  Herries  returned  to  Scotland,  where 
Murray  was  trying  to  compose  the  distracted  elements 
into  which  he  had  been  flung.  Mary  Stuart  did  not 
make  his  work  more  easy  for  him  :  besides  her  first 
fierce  letter,  she  had  written  on  the  3oth  of  January  to 
the  Archbishop  of  St  Andrews,  telling  him  to  watch 
Murray  closely,  to  fear  nothing  and  listen  to  no  per- 
suasion, and  if  Murray  struck,  to  strike  in  return.1  The 
spirit  however  on  both  sides  proved  conciliatory-  Cha- 
telherault  had  been  frightened  by  Elizabeth's  words  to 
him,  and  Herries  was  in  Norfolk's  secret,  and  was  will- 
ing to  acquiesce  in  the  arrangements  which  the  Duke 
had  talked  over  with  the  Regent.  On  the  I3th  of  March 
a  partial  convention  met  at  Glasgow,  where  the  outlines 
of  a  general  settlement  were  proposed  and  agreed  to. 
The  Hamiltons  undertook  to  submit  to  the  Regency,  if 
their  forfeitures  were  cancelled,  if  they  were  allowed  a 
place  in  the  council,  and  if  the"  other  side  would  con- 
sider of  measures  for  the  return  of  the  Queen.  The 
meeting  passed  off  quietly,  and  it  was  arranged  that  the 
Lords  should  reassemble  in  six  weeks  at  Edinburgh. 
Argyle  and  Huntly  would  then  be  present,  and  the  con- 
ditions could  be  finally  determined  on  which  Scotland 
was  for  the  future  to  be  governed. 

So  far  things  promised  well,  but  a  war  with  France 
would  throw  all  again  into  confusion.     It  was  now  to 

1  Mary  Stuart  to  the  Archbishop  of  St  Andrews,  January  30 :  LA- 

BANOFF,  Vol.  ii. 


RETGN  OF  ELIZABETH 


[CH.  52. 


be  seen  whether  France  and  Spain,  in  resentment  at 
their  common  injuries,  could  agree  at  last  to  attack 
England  together ;  whether,  if  they  could  not  move  in 
concert,  either  one  or  the  other  would  look  on  ;  or 
whether  the  jealousies  which  had  held  them  so  long 
apart  could  resist  these  new  provocations,  and  continue 
as  before  to  protect  Elizabeth  from  attack.  The  persist- 
ence of  the  political  traditions  of  the  great  war,  long 
after  the  conditions  out  of  which  they  had  risen  had 
past  away,  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  features  in  the 
history  of  the  sixteenth  century.  Having  given  in  its 
ultimatum  through  La  Mothe,  the  French  Government 
dared  not  move  actively  till  it  had  consulted  and  received 
the  sanction  of  Philip.  The  Cardinal  of  Guise  went  to 
Madrid  to  learn  his  pleasure,  and  Philip  at  once  recom- 
mended France  to  settle  its  difficulties  at  home  before 
quarrelling  with  its  neighbours.1  Philip,  expecting 
daily  a  change  of  government  in  England  which  would 
bring  back  into  power  the  friends  of  Spain,  had  no  de- 
sire to  sacrifice  his  own  game.  The  conquest  of  Scot- 
land and  the  invasion  of  England  by  the  French  friends 
of  Mary  Stuart  were  more  terrible  to  him  than  heresy 
there,  or  than  the  destruction  of  his  commerce  by  the 
privateers  ;  a  too  triumphant  France  might  stretch  its 


1  '  Parece  que  en  ninguna  raanera 
le  conviene  romper  con  los  de  fuera, 
sino  de  attender  al  assiento  de  sus 
cosas  propias,  y  acabar  de  castigar  y 
deshacer  sus  rebeldes,  llevando  ade- 
lante  la  victoria  que  Dios  contra  ellos 
ie  ha  dado ;  pues  esta  claro  que  mien- 
tras  estos  duraren  no  le  cumple  por 


ninguna  via  tomar  otras  empresas 
fuera  de  su  casa,  ni  mover  los  liu- 
mores  y  zelos  que  de  la  liga  que  se 
apunta  podrian  nacer.' — Respuesta 
de  su  Magestadal  Cardenal  de  Guisa 
sobre  las  cosas  de  Inglaterra,  ultimo 
de  Abril  1569  :  MSS.  Simancas. 


1 569.  ]  ENGLISH  PAR  TIES.  37 

hand  to  his  own  distracted  Netherlands,  x>r  by  holding 
both  sides  of  the  narrow  seas  cut  him  off  from  access  to 
them. 

Catherine  de  Medici  might  not  have  sat  down 
patiently  under  the  prohibition,  though  if  she  had  flown 
in  the  face  of  it,  Philip  probably  would  have  followed  it 
up  by  war  ;  but  in  England  itself  there  was  no  internal 
party  on  which  she  could  calculate  to  assist  an  invasion. 
The  Catholics  and  the  friends  of  Spain  were  those  who 
represented  the-  traditions  of  the  Plantagenets ;  and 
Norfolk,  while  insisting  to  Elizabeth  on  the  necessity  of 
coming  to  terms  with  Philip,  again  professed  his  will- 
ingness to  consent  to  the  war  with  France.1 

Amidst  these  uncertainties  Cecil  had  to  feel  his  dan- 
gerous way.  Whether  aware  or  ignorant  of  the  con- 
spiracy against  him,  he  must  have  known  that  he  was 
playing  for  his  own  life  as  well  as  for  all  for  which  he 
valued  life.  Elizabeth  still  allowed  herself  to  be  guided 
by  him,  and  he  in  turn  was  guided  chiefly  by  his  horror 
of  the  tyranny  of  Alva.  'The  Queen/  wrote  Don 
Guerau  on  the  28th  of  February,  'although  an  able 
woman,  is  in  matters  of  importance  confused  and  vacil- 
lating; she  has  a  natural  inclination  for  heresy,  and 
Cecil  being  its  greatest  champion,  she  dare  not  vary  as 
yet  in  any  point  from  his  advice ; ' 2  '  Cecil's  single 


1  '  El  Duque  de  Norfolk  ha  co- 
menzado  de  hablar  a  la  Reyna  des- 
pues  dc  la  presa  de  estas  Ureas,  di- 
ciendole  que  se  cargaba  la  guerra  de 
un  Principe  tan  grande  como  el  Key 
Catolico,  y  juntamente  instaba  el 


rompimiento  contra  el  Rey  de  Fran- 
cia.'— Don  Gnerau  to  Alva,  April 
id  :  MSS.  Simancas. 

2  '  Y  como  es  naturairaente  afi- 
cionada  a  esta  heregia,  y  Sicel  es  tan 
gran  ministro  della,  no  osa  aun 


38  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [ci-i.  52. 

principle  is  detestation  of  the  Catholic  faith,  and  as  he 
has  never  been  on  the  Continent,  he  thinks  that  Eng- 
land is  all  the  world/  1 

If  England  was  to  go  to  war,  Cecil  still  preferred 
Spain  as  an  enemy  to  France.  He  was  determined  that 
there  should  be  no  reconciliation,  except  on  terms  which 
would  make  the  Catholics  despair  ever  more  of  Philip's 
assistance.  He  had  brought  his  mistress  to  the  edge  of 
absolute  rupture,  but  there  she  paused  ;  '  the  word  war 
was  dreadful  to  her/  2  It  meant  expenses,  it  meant  loans 
from  the  Jews,  it  meant  taxation  and  its  consequent  un- 
popularity. She  could  not  bear  to  hear  of  it,  and  here 
therefore,  on  her  weak  side,  Cecil's  enemies  had  the  ad- 
vantage. If  she  desired  peace  it  was  obvious  to  tell  her 
that  she  must  take  measures  to  preserve  peace;  and 
many  a  storm  had  Cecil  to  encounter,  as  she  wavered 
between  her  opposite  advisers.  In  extremities  Eliza- 
beth did  not  stay  to  pick  her  words.  '  She  cursed  those 
who  had  tempted  her  to  take  the  Spanish  treasure :  she 
wished  the  Devil  had  flown  away  with  them.' 3  But 
the  happy  inconsistencies  of  her  character  kept  her  con- 
duct firm  while  her  speech  varied.  She  could  not  bring 


apartarse  un  solo  punto  del  parecer 
de  Sicel.' — Don  Guerau  to  Cayas? 
February  28 :  MSS.  Simanca,s. 

1  This  is  a  mistake — Cecil  accom- 
panied   Lord    Paget  to    the    Low 
Countries   in   1554  to  bring  back 
Cardinal  Pole. 

2  '  No    quiere    oyr    hablar    de 
guerra '  -was  the  report  of  a 

spy  to  Don  Guerau.  According  to 
La  Mothe  her  constant  words  in  the 


council  were : — '  Je  ne  veulx  point  la 
guerre,  je  ne  veulx  point  la  guerre.' 
— De'peches,  April  20. 

3  '  La  Eeyna  maldice  &  todos  los 
que  le  hablaron  en  el  arresto  del 
dinero,  diciendo  que  queria  que 
antes  los  hubiera  llevado  el  Diablo, 
porque  vee  bien  que  estas  cosas  la 
podrian  hacer  caer  en  una  guerra.' — 
Dcscifrada  del  Italiano,  March  15 
MSS.  Simancas. 


ENGLISH  PARTIES, 


39 


April. 


herself  to  unclasp  her  hold  on  the  money.  She  felt  that 
come  what  would,  she  could  not  afford  to  yield  to  fear, 
and  she  was  proud  of  the  wild  achievements  of  her 
sailors.  When  Don  Guerau  complained  of  the  plunder 
in  the  Channel,  Cecil  gave  the  proud  answer, 
that  the  Queen  of  England  was  sovereign  of 
the  narrow  seas,  and  he  would  make  her  rule  acknow- 
ledged there.  Don  Guerau  said,  that  '  the  sea  was  too 
fickle  an  element  for  a  lady's  sceptre ; '  but  Elizabeth, 
however  she  might  complain,  was  substantially  of  Cecil's 
opinion,  and  refused  to  interfere  with  him.1 

At  this  crisis  arrived  the  untimely  news  of  the  battle 
of  Jarnac.2  The  winter  had  been  passed  in  a  series  of 
desultory  skirmishes,  which  on  the  whole  had  been 
favourable  to  the  Huguenots.  Conde  had  readvanced 
to  the  Loire.  The  Due  de  Deux  Fonts  was  preparing 
to  come  to  his  assistance  out  of  Germany  ;  and  it  seemed 
as  if  the  war,  especially  with  Elizabeth's  help,  might 
still  be  indefinitely  prolonged,  when  Conde  was  unex- 
pectedly forced  into  an  action  at  Jarnac,  between  An- 
gouleme  and  Cognac ;  and  there,  besides  losing  a  battle, 
lost  his  life.  In  itself  the  defeat  was  of  no  consequence. 
The  Admiral  easily  rallied  the  Huguenot  army.  He  kept 
the  field,  and  was  not  obliged  to  retire  from  any  im- 
portant position.  Conde  was  in  himself  worth  but  little ; 
his  place  of  command  was  better  filled  by  the  young 


1  '  Respondiome  Sicel  que  queria 
hacer  a  la  Reyna  de  Tnglaterra 
Senora  deste  Mare  con  supremo 
dominio.  Yo  le  dixe  que  era  muy 


inconstante  este  elemento  por  quercr 
lo  predominar  la  serenissima  Reyna.' 
—Don  Guerau  to  Philip,  April  23. 
2  March  13. 


40  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  52. 

Prince  of  Navarre,  who  succeeded  to  it ;  but,  as  a  Prince 
of  the  blood  royal,  he  was  of  an  importance  far  beyond 
his  personal  merit ;  and  at  the  first  news,  his  cause  was 
supposed  to  have  perished  with  him.  The  effect  upon 
Elizabeth  was  to  decide  her  to  keep  the  peace  with 
France  at  all  events  and  hazards.  She  did  not  know 
that  Philip  had  stood  her  friend  so  conveniently.  The 
French  refugees  in  London  petitioned  her  in  the  name 
of  God  not  to  desert  their  brethren  but  she  sent  in  haste 
for  La  Mothe  Fenelon,  and  told  him  that  the  privateers 
should  have  no  more  access  to  her  harbours ;  her  own 
subjects  should  no  longer  serve  among  them,  and  the 
French  prizes  which  they  had  taken  should  be  restored. 
She  wished,  she  said,  that  there  was  less  violence  in 
France ;  she  wished  the  Government  would  not  perse- 
cute the  Huguenots ;  she  wished  the  Huguenots  would 
be  less  scrupulous  about  attending  mass ;  but  for  herself, 
she  would  meddle  no  more  between  them. 

La  Mothe  was  courteous,  and  received  her  advances 
graciously.  To  France,  at  least,  he  was  assured  that 
she  would  give  no  more  cause  of  complaint.1  Towards 
Mary  Stuart  also,  professedly  out  of  deference  to  the 
wishes  of  the  Queen-mother,  she  showed  some  increase 
of  cordiality.  From  the  gloom  of  Tutbury  she  allowed 
her  to  be  removed  to  Wingfield,  a  pleasant  country- 
house  belonging  to  Lord  Shrewsbury.  She  wrote  letters 
to  her  unnecessarily  warm,  to  which  the  Queen  of  Scots 
replied  in  a  corresponding  tone.  The  two  Queens  were 


1  La  Mothe  Fenelon  au  Roy,  April  12,  April  20  •    Dvpechcs,  vol.  i. 


1569.]  ENGLISH  PARTIES.  41 

thenceforth  to  live  together  as  loving  and  affectionate 
sisters.1  It  was  unfortunate  for  them  both  that  Eliza- 
beth never  could  understand  the  mischief  of  exagger- 
ated language,  and  that  she  was  but  teaching  her  pri- 
soner to  despise  as  well  as  distrust  her.  The  Queen  of 
Scots  enclosed  Elizabeth's  letters  to  La  Mothe  Fenelon, 
with  a  few  words  of  most  expressive  contempt.  '  The 
Queen  of  England  has  changed  her  note/  she  said,  'be- 
cause of  Jarnac,  although  she  would  persuade  me  that 
Jarnac  is  nothing.  I  believe  this  as  much  as  I  believe 
her  fine  words.'  2 

The  Huguenots,  it  was  clear,  were  to  be  left  to  their 
fate.  Towards  Philip  however  the  attitude  was  firm  as 
ever,  and  Don  Guerau  began  to  be  anxious  for  the  pro- 
mised deposition  of  Cecil.  The  lords  had  talked  large- 
ly to  him,  but  nothing  had  been  done.  The  reputation 
of  the  English  was  rather  as  men  of  action  than  as 
men  of  words,  and  the  ambassador  accounted  for  their 
slowness  by  supposing  that  the  national  character  had 
degenerated.3  The  first  step,  when  at  length  they  re- 
solved to  move,  was  not  calculated  to  restore  his  confid- 
ence. To  create  difficulties  in  the  city,  without  which 
it  seemed  they  durst  not  stir,  Arundel  and  Norfolk 
drew  up  a  proclamation,  which  they  sent  to  Don  Guerau, 
and  desired  that  it  might  be  published  by  Alva  in  the 
Netherlands.  The  purport  of  it  was,  that  the  arrest  of 


1  Mary    Stuart     to     Elizabeth, 
April  8  ;  Mary  Stuart  to  Cecil,  same 
date  :  LABANOFF,  vol.  ii. 

2  Mary    Stuart    to    La    Motte 
Feuclon,  April :  Ibid. 


3  '  Pienso  que  aquellos  Senores  se 
hubieran  declarado  mas  y  mas  presto, 
sino  que  esta  nacion  no  tiene  al 
corazon  que  antes  solia '  — Don 
Guerau  to  Alva,  March  15. 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


[CH.  52. 


the  ships  and  merchants  at  Antwerp  had  not  been  made 
as  an  act  of  hostility  against  the  English  nation,  but 
was  aimed  merely  at  a  party  in  the  .council,  who,  con- 
trary to  the  advice  and  wishes  of  the  ancient  nobility, 
had  broken  the  old  league  between  Spain  and  England.1 
A  threat  of  war  might  conveniently  be  added.  They 
recommended  that  the  King  of  Spain,  if  their  mistress 
wrote  to  him,  should  return  no  answer ;  and,  last  and 
most  important,  they  suggested  that  the  Duke  of  Alva 
should  find  means  to  intercept  the  great  fleet  which 
was  going  to  Hamburgh.  Half  the  wealth  of  the 
merchants  of  London  would  be  on  board,  and  if  this 
could  be  taken,  and  the  Hamburgh  project  annihilated 
at  the  same  time,  the  citizens,  already  discontented, 
would  take  arms.  They  said  that  they  would  then 
place  themselves  at  the  head  of  the  insurrection, 
and  the  Queen  would  then  be  compelled  to  part  with 
the  detested  Secretary.2  From  Don-  Gruerau  the  two 
noblemen  went  to  La  Mothe  :  notwithstanding  Eliza- 
beth's change  of  tone,  they  expressed  a  hope  that 


1  A  proclamation  very  much  to 
this  effect  was  actually  published  by 
Alva.  Don  Guerau  says  distinctly 
that  it  was  devised  by  the  two 
English  noblemen  with  a  view  to 
create  an  insurrection  : — '  El  Duque 
de  Norfolk  y  el  Conde  de  Arundel 
me  dieron  ana  forma  de  proclamacion, 
que  deseaban  que  el  Duque  de  Alva 
mandase  publicar ;  pensando  con  ella 
y  con  la  estrecheza  del  trato  que  el 
pueblo  se  levantara  y  ellos  podrian 
mudar  a!  Gobierno.' — Don  Guerau 


to  Alva,  April :  MSS.  Simancas. 

2  Don  Guerau  never  ceased  to  in- 
sist on  the  importance  of  catching 
the  Hamburgh  fleet.  'Con  soloim- 
pedir  que  esta  flota  no  vaya  6  sea 
presa  los  Ingleses  son  rendidos,'  he 
says  on  one  occasion  ;  and  again :  '  Si 
las  naves  que  Va  Ea  ha  dado  licencia 
que  se  armen  estuvieron  al  punto  de 
tal  manera  que  pudiesen  coger  esta 
tan  rica  presa,  seria  conquistar  esta 
Isla.' — Don  Guerau  to  Alva,  March 
20  or  April  10 :  MSS.  Simancas. 


1569-]  ENGLISH  PARTIES.  43 

France  would  still  act  with  Alva — France,  with  whom 
but  lately  Norfolk  had  invited  Elizabeth  to  go  to  war. 
They  desired  him  to  advise  his  Government  to  send  in 
a  bill  of  injuries  as  large  as  they  could  possibly  make 
it ;  and  they  suggested  that  some  Italian  troops,  whom 
the  Pope  had  sent  to  France  to  assist  in  putting  down 
the  Huguenots,  should  be  quartered  in  Normandy,  as  if 
for  action  in  England. 

All  this  was  not  very  chivalrous.  'They  are  the 
most  cautious  people  in  the  world/  Don  Guerau  wrote 
to  Alva,  '  They  will  do  nothing  unless  we  help  them 
and  show  the  way.'  Yet  their  scheme  might  be  worth 
executing,  he  thought,  in  default  of  braver  measures. 
'  If  your  Excellency's  ships,'  he  said,  '  can  but  catch 
this  rich  prize,  it  will  be  the  conquest  of  the  Island.' 

Hard  language  about  men  whose  work  for  good  or 
ill  has  been  long  past  should  have  no  place  in  history. 
It  is  enough  to  relate  what  they  did  with  such  allow- 
ance as  the  circumstances  and  passions  of  the  time  can 
suggest.  Yet,  if  treason  has  a  meaning — treason  to 
the  State,  which  is  worse  than  treason  to  the  person  of 
the  sovereign — these  noblemen,  who  deliberately  for 
their  own  purposes  plotted  the  ruin  of  English  com- 
merce, deserved  whatever  penalty  law  or  justice  could 
demand  against  them.  Norfolk's  guilt  especially  was 
rendered  deeper  by  the  treachery  with  which,  at  the 
same  time,  he  was  playing  with  the  honour  of  Murray 
and  the  loyalty  of  Pembroke.  As  the  plot  thickened 
the  Catholics  throughout  England  made  ready  for  the 
conflict.  They  sent  Don  Guerau  word,  that  with  ike 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


[CH.  52. 


first  display  of  a  Spanish,  flag  on  English  soil,  they 
would  rise  as  a  man  in  Philip's  name,  and  the  heretics 
and  the  pirates  should  meet  their  deserts.1 

Had  Catherine  de  Medici  cared  more  for  the  Ca- 
tholic faith  than  she  cared  for  France,  English  Pro- 
testantism would  have  had  a  fiery  trial  before  it.  But 
as  Philip  could  not  permit  the  French  to  invade  Eng- 
land, so  Catherine  was  as  little  able  to  look  complacently 
upon  a  revolution  in  favour  of  Spain ;  and  the  more 
long-sighted  of  the  Catholics  themselves  began  to  fear 
that  religion  would  be  lost  sight  of  in  the  quarrels  of 
the  two  great  Powers,  and  that  England,  as  was  said 
before,  '  would  become  another  Milan/  A  secret  agent 
of  Pope  Pius  in  London  told  La  Mothe  Fenelon,  that 
if  there  was  any  difference  of  opinion — if  there  was 
the  faintest  cloud  of  suspicion  between  the  Courts  of 
Paris  and  Madrid — it  would  be  better  for  Christendom 
that  England  should  be  let  alone ;  the  evil  of  interfer- 
ing would  outweigh  the  good.  Don  Guerau  had  de- 
sired that,  to  increase  the  mercantile  pressure  in  Lon- 
don, the  English  should  be  excluded  from  the  ports  of 
France :  '  I  know  not  what  to  think  about  this/  La 
Mothe  Fenelon  wrote  to  his  sovereign :  *  it  may  be 
that  the  Duke  of  Alva  means  only  to  extort  from  Eng- 
land reparation  for  his  own  wrongs,  and  when  he  has 


1  '  Much os  Catolicos  me  escriben 
cartas  secretamente  que  en  viendo 
banderas  de  V.  Magd  en  este  reyno 
se  levantaran  todos  para  servirle ;  y 
«ierto  como  se  me  dan  entender  por 
V.  Mag'1  en  la  reduccion  del  y  cas- 


tigo  de  algunos  insolentes  hereges  y 
desvergonzados  ladrones,  yo  no  tengo 
por  cosa  dificil  en  sugetar  este  reyno 
d  a  lo  menos  haoer  mudar  el  gobierno 
y  religion.' — Don  Guerau  to  Philip, 
April  2 :  MSS.  Sitnancaa. 


I569.] 


ENGLISH  PARTIES. 


45 


implicated  your  Majesty  in  the  quarrel  will  make  up 
his  own  differences  with  the  Queen  and  leave  the  storm 
to  fall  on  you.  If  I  may  venture  to  advise,  your  Ma- 
jesty will  remain  on  good  terms  with  the  Pope  and  the 
Catholic  King,  but  you  will  remain  also  at  peace  with 
this  realm.  You  may  tell  the  council  here,  that  inas- 
much as  their  conduct  has  been  so  outrageous  both 
towards  the  Catholics  and  the  Queen  of  Scots ;  inas- 
much as  they  have  allowed  so  many  heretics  to  collect 
here  from  all  parts  of  Europe,  and  have  made  England 
the  focus  of  so  many  heretic  conspiracies,  at  the  request 
of  his  Holiness,  Italian  troops  will  be  stationed  in  Nor- 
mandy. You  may  say  that  the  King  of  Spain  has  re- 
quested you  to  co-operate  with  him,  and  in  duty  to  your 
own  subjects  you  must  protect  them  from  the  English 
pirates ;  but  at  the  same  time  you  will  give  the  Duke 
of  Alva  to  understand  that  France  cannot  permit  Eng- 
land to  be  conquered  by  Spain ;  he  may  do  whatever 
he  may  think  necessary  for  the  recovery  of  the  stolen 
money — but  you  cannot  allow  him  to  make  a  descent 
upon  the  English  coast/  l 


1  'N'obmettant  pour  leur  gran- 
deur et  reputation,  de  faire  demander 
au  due  d' Alva  qu'est-ce  qu'il  pretend 
faire  contre  ceste  Reyne  et  son  pays, 
et  la  fa^on  com  me  ils  entendent  que 
Pentreprinse  soit  limitee ;  en  quoy 
pourront  remonstrer  que  les  feuz 
Keys  n'ont  jamais  voulu  permettre 
qu'on  fist  conqueste  dans  ce  Roy- 
aulme ;  cognoissans  que  cela  ina- 
portoit  a  la  seurete  de  leur,  et  que 


comine  le  feu  Empereur  fut  bien  en 
accord  avec  le  feu  Roy  Franc,oys 
premier  qu'il  peult  bien  faire  la 
guerre  au  Roy  Henri  huictiesme 
d'Angleterre  pour  le  recouvrement 
de  Boulogne  sans  toucher  neantmoins 
ny  descendre  aulcunement  en  son 
Royaulme,  que  de  mesme  ilz  trou- 
ventbon  quele  due  d'Alva  face  tout 
ce  qu'il  pourra  pour  le  recouvrement 
de  ses  deniers  et  des  prinses,  sans 


RETGti  OF  ELIZABETH. 


[CH.  52. 


Philip  was  pouring  cold  water  on  the  ambition  of 
France,  and  France  was  dreading  equally  the  too  great 
success  of  Alva.  The  two  Governments  were  still  far 
from  the  '  accord '  which  Cecil  feared ;  and  if  the  Ham- 
burgh trade  could  be  carried  on  safely,  and  the  Catholics 
at  home  be  controlled,  Elizabeth  had  but  to  manage 
France  skilfully  and  she  could  still  afford  to  despise  the 
intrigues  of  the  Spanish  ambassador.  Her  security  and 
her  strength  were  better  understood  abroad  than  at 
home.  While  Cecil  described  himself  as  almost  des- 
perate, Sir  Henry  Killigrew  wrote  from  Hamburgh  in 
May,  in  a  tone  of  enthusiastic  exultation.  '  I  think/  he 
said,  '  the  Queen's  Majesty  is  more  feared  and  honoured 
this  day,  of  all  countries,  what  religion  soever  they  be 
of,  than  any  of  her  predecessors  before  her  were :  I  be- 
seech God  her  Highness  do  hold  fast,  and  I  doubt  not 
but  to  see  in  her  days  the  ancient  honour  and  fame  of 
England  and  Englishmen — how  blemished  for  a  time — 
restored  again  to  the  glory  of  God.'1 

But  could  the  Catholics  be  controlled — heated  as  they 
had  been  to  boiling  point  by  the  hopes  held  out  to 
them  ?  It  depended  first  on  the  Queen  of  Scots,  and 
secondly  on  the  maintenance  or  the  overthrow  of  Cecil. 
Could  Mary  Stuart  have  parted  with  her  visions  of  ven- 
geance and  revolution,  and  have  accepted  honestly  the 
arrangements  in  her  favour  which  had  been  concerted 
between  Leicester,  Pembroke,  Norfolk,  Herries,  and 


qu'il  face  aussi  descente  ny  entre- 
prinse  dans  ledict  royaulme.' — De- 
ptches,  April  20,  vol.  i.  pp.  335,  336. 


1  Sir  H.  Killigrew  to  Cecil, 
Hamburgh,  May  25,  1569:  MSS. 
Hatfield. 


1569-]  ENGLISH  PARTIES.  4? 

Murray  ;  could  Norfolk  at  the  same  time  nave  separated 
himself  from  his  more  dangerous  associates,  and  become 
as  loyal  as  he  pretended  to  be  to  his  mistress;  it  is 
likely — it  may  be  called  certain — that  Elizabeth,  in  her 
desire  for  peace,  would  in  time  have  given  her  own  con- 
sent to  the  marriage.  The  French,  for  their  honour's 
sake,  were  compelled  to  press  for  Mary  Stuart's  restor- 
ation— restoration  in  some  shape  and  restricted  by  any 
conditions,  if  only  they  could  escape  the  accusation  of 
having  abandoned  her  to  her  prison.  Her  re- establish- 
ment as  Norfolk's  wife  and  as  a  member  of  the  Church 
of  England,  would  have  given  peace  to  Scotland,  would 
have  restored  at  once  a  good  understanding  between 
Paris  and  London,  and  have  quieted  the  uneasiness  of  the 
mass  of  Elizabeth's  subjects.  All  however  depended  on 
the  good  faith  of  the  principal  parties,  and  of  this  the 
signs  were  ominous.  The  first  act  of  reconciliation  had 
been  played  out  at  Glasgow.  Mary  Stuart,  when  she 
heard  that  her  friends  were  giving  way  to  the  Regent, 
burst  into  tears.  '  Her  lips  and  face  were  swollen  with 
weeping.  She  would  eat  nothing  at  supper,  but  wept 
as  she  sat.'1  Her  true  mind  was  fastened  upon  revenge 
and  triumph.  She  had  hoped  that  her  party  in  Scot- 
land would  have  led  the  way  to  the  universal  rising 
which  was  to  raise  her  from  her  prison  to  a  throne.  She 
deplored  their  cowardice.  '  With  her  authority  and 
theirs,  and  three  quarters  of  the  people  at  her  devotion/ 
she  trusted  rather  to  have  heard  that  they  had  hurled 


1  Shrewsbury  to  Cecil,  April  8,  April  27  ;  MSS.  QUEEN  OF  SCOTS. 


d8  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  52. 

Murray  out  of  the  country.1  She  wrote  herself  to  up- 
braid them,  and,  perplexed  as  they  were  among  many 
councils,  they  submitted  to  be  guided  by  her.  When 
the  second  conference  came  off  at  Edinburgh,  which  was 
to  have  healed  all  wounds  and  opened  the  way  for 
Maitland's  mission  to  Elizabeth,  Chatelherault  '  was 
moved  to  such  repentance  that  he  exclaimed,  in  tears, 
he  knew  no  authority  but  the  Queen's.'  Huntly  and 
Argyle  would  agree  to  nothing  ;  and  the  assembly  broke 
up  in  confusion.2  The  Duke  of  Alva  meanwhile  had 
issued  Norfolk's  proclamation.  A  copy  was  sent  to 
England,  and  inasmuch  as  Alva  charged  the  Queen  with 
having  acted  against  the  advice  of  the  nobility,  Cecil, 
offering  a  full  front  to  the  danger,  drew  an  answer  of 
indignant  denial,  to  which  he  announced  that  he  would 
require  the  council  to  attach  their  signatures.  A  meet- 
ing was  called  for  the  purpose,  at  which  the  leaders  of 
the  conspiracy  refused  to  be  present.  Norfolk  was  many 
times  summoned,  and  Aruiidel  also,  but  they  would 
not  attend ;  and  the  Queen  at  last  consented,  or  desired, 
that  the  difficulty  should  be  waived  and  the  proclama- 
tion be  left  without  reply.3 


: 


1  Mary  Stuart  to  La  Mothe  Fene- 
lon,  April  —  and  April  18  :  LABAN- 
OFF,  vol.  ii. 

2  La  Mothe,  May  6  :  Depeches, 
vol.  i. 

3  '  Sicel  comedo  responder  con 
otro  Placarte  al  qual  habia  ordenado 
con     palabras    muy   arrogantes;    y 
porque  el  Duque  de  Alva  dice  que 
estosprogresos  de  la  Reyna  son  contra 
la  voluntad  de  la  mayor  parte  de  los 


Nobles,  Cecil  lo  queria  hacer  fir  mar 
no  solo  a  los  del  consejo  pero  aim  a 
los  mas  principales  del  Reyno.  El 
Duque  de  Norfolk  y  el  Conde  de 
Arundel  nunca  quisieron  ir  al  con- 
sejo, y  les  enviaron  muchas  embaja- 
das  los  del  parte  de  Sicel ;  pero  al 
fin  la  Reyna  ha  sido  contenta  que 
no  se  responda  al  Placarte  del 
Duque.'— Don  Guerau  to  Philip, 
April  23. 


I569.] 


ENGLISH  PARTIES. 


49 


Taking  courage  from  Elizabeth's  hesitation,  Norfolk 
sent  word  to  Don  Gruerau  that  in  a  few  days  all  would 
be  over.  Cecil  would  be  deposed,  and  the  stolen  pro- 
perty restored.1 

After  a  rapid  arrangement  with  the  Bishop  of  Ross, 
and  after  exchanging  letters  with  the  Queen  of  Scots, 
they  made  up  their  minds  to  do  as  Norfolk's  grandfather 
had  done  to  Thomas  Cromwell.  Three  times  they  came 
down  to  the  council,  intending  to  rise  from  it  with  Cecil 
a  prisoner ;  but  three  times,  as  Don  Guerau  wrote  con- 
temptuously to  Philip,  '  their  courage  failed  ;  they  went 
to  work  like  Englishmen,  who  could  not  act  like  men  of 
other  countries ;  they  excused  themselves  by  saying 
that  so  many  of  the  council  had  dipped  their  hands  in 
Spanish  plunder  that  they  could  not  count  upon  support ; 
but,  in  fact,  they  were  poor-spirited.  Like  Englishmen, 
they  would  have  things  well  done,  but  they  would  leave 
the  doing  of  them  to  his  Majesty,  without  risk  or  trouble 
to  themselves ;  and  then  they  would  give  his  Majesty 
their  thanks'* 

They  were  in  debt  too,  all  of  them— Norfolk,  Arun- 


1  i  Dicen  el  Duque  y  el  Conde  que 
dentro  de   breves   dias  ellos  haran 
que  la  Reyna  haga  lo  que  debe,  y 
mudaran  al  gobierno.' — Ibid. 

2  Don  Guerau,  in  a  history  of  the 
whole  proceedings  which  he  sent  to 
Philip  on  the    I5th  of  June,  says 
expressly,  'que   lo    escribian   &    la 
Reyna  de  Escocia.'     He  fixes  the 
time  at  which  they  wrote  as  the  last 
week  in  April,  and  it  must  have  been 
therefore  to  this  communication  that 

VOL.    IX. 


Mary  Stuart  alluded  in  a  letter  of 
the  28th  of  April  to  Argyle,  urging 
him  to  consent  to  nothing  at  Edin- 
burgh, and  more  distinctly  in  a  letter 
of  the  5th  of  May  to  Chatelherault. 
in  which  she  says,  '  Fear  not  upon 
my  word.  Bide  constant  and  ye 
shall  have  that  ye  desire  of  one  part 
or  the  other.  Shortly  ye  shall  hear 
more.' — LABANOFF,  vol.  ii. 

3  Don  Guerau  to  Philip,  June 


50  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  52. 

del,  and  Lord  Lumley,  another  of  the  same  set.  They 
pretended  that  they  were  without  money  for  so  great 
an  enterprise.  They  desired  Alva,  to  supply  them  before 
they  began,  and  they  offered  to  give  him  bonds  for  re- 
payment. Don  Guerau  said  that  they  must  earn  their 
wages  before  they  received  them ;  his  master  could  not 
throw  away  his  money  without  an  equivalent.  As  they 
would  not  move  without  it,  and  seemed  to  catch  at  the 
excuse,  he  so  far  yielded  at  last  that  he  procured  50001?. 
for  them ;  but  time  was  wasted  in  the  interval,  and  be- 
fore it  arrived,  Cecil,  with  extreme  address,  had  dis- 
covered and  disconcerted  the  plot.  He  was  perhaps 
ignorant  that  Norfolk  had  meditated  anything  beyond  an 
alteration  in  the  public  policy  of  the  country.  He  sup- 
posed that  the  Duke  was  not  wholly  insincere  in  pro- 
fessing to  be  a  Protestant.  He  frankly  went  to  him, 
and  declared  that  he  himself  had  no  end  in  view  in  the 
course  which  he  had  pursued,  except  what  he  believed 
to  be  the  interest  of  his  country ;  if  the  Duke  and 
Arundel  disapproved  of  the  attitude  which  had  been  as- 
sumed towards  Spain,  he  said  that  they  might  go,  both 
of  them,  to  Madrid,  and  take  powers  with  them  to  ar- 
range the  dispute  as  they  might  think  best  with  Philip. 
For  himself  he  wished  for  nothing  but  some  general 
settlement,  by  which  Catholic  and  Protestant  could  be 
assured  their  natural  liberty,  and  in  which  Scotland, 
France,  and  Flanders  could  be  all  included. 

These  proposals  alone  might  not  have  been 

effectual.     The  mission  to  Spain  in  no  way  met 

the  Duke  of  Norfolk's  wishes ;  indeed,  after  the  recent 


1569.] 


ENGLISH  PARTIES. 


fate  of  Count  Montigny,1  it  might  not  seem  altogether 
safe.2  But  Cecil  had  another  argument,  which  the 
Duke,  a  poor,  mean  creature,  crippled  with  debt  and 
hungry  for  money,  was  in  no  condition  to  resist.  The 
great  cause  of  the  Dacres  estates  was  coming  on  before 
the  Court  of  Chancery.  If  Norfolk  could  carry  his 
point,  he  would  not  only  secure  the  heiresses  for  his  sons, 
but  the  administration  of  the  whole  vast  property  during 
their  minority.  Cecil  promised  the  influence  of  the 
Government  on  his  side,  and  thus  succeeded  for  a  time 
in  separating  him  from  the  rest  of  his  party.  The  in- 
tended revolution  had  brought  up  from  the  country 
Leonard  Dacres  himself,  Lord  Montague,  the  Earl  of 
Cumberland,  and  other  Catholic  knights  and  gentlemen. 
The  Bishop  of  Ross  hurried  up  from  Wingfield,  all  eager 
to  be  present  at  the  arrest  of  Cecil.3  Montague  and 
Cumberland  were  Dacres'  brothers-in-law,  and  devoted 
to  his  interests.  They  arrived  only  to  find  a  litigation 
in  process,  by  which  one  of  the  few  remaining  noble 
families  of  the  old  blood  was  to  be  sacrificed  to  the  Duke 


1  Sent  on  an  embassy  from  the 
Low  Countries  to  Philip  and  pri- 
vately put  to  death  at  Simancas. 

2  '  Y  despues  tambien  salio  vana 
la  determinacion  de  enviar  a  Espana, 
lo  qual  estos  Senores  me  lo  hacian 
saber  con  confusion  sin  declararme 
la  del  todo,  y  pus6  el  mismo  incon- 
venientes  despues,  diciendoles  que  si 
iban  por  ventura  los  detendrian  en 
Espana,   y  assi  esto  tanpoco   hubd 
efecto.' — Don     Guerau    to    Philip, 
June  15. 


*  '  Estos  caballerosdaban  parte  del 
dicho  negocio  a  la  Serenissima  Reyna 
de  Escocia  y  para  aquellos  dias  qu«> 
ellos  habian  senalado  hicieron  venir 
aqui  al  Obispo  de  Ross,  para  que  se 
hallase  en  la  detention  de  Cecil  que 
ellos  pensaban  hacer.  Tambien  sa- 
bian  dello  Milord  Montague  y  el 
Conde  de  Cumberland  y  otros  Catoli- 
cos  que  para  aquel  effecto  vinieron 
aqui.' — Don  Guerau  to  Philip,  June 


5  2  REIGN  OF  E  LIZ  ABE  TH.  [c  H  .  5  2 . 

of  Norfolk's  covetousness,  and  the  Duke  himself  accept- 
ing the  support  of  the  minister  whose  destruction  they 
had  been  invited  to  witness. 

Violent  differences  among  themselves,  a  more  com- 
plete separation  of  the  Catholics  from  Norfolk,  and  the 
suspension  at  the  same  time  of  immediate  action,  were 
the  necessary  consequences.  The  Duke  fell  back  upon 
Leicester  and  Pembroke,  and  the  marriage  with  the 
Queen  of  Scots  in  the  Protestant  interest.  He  even 
ventured  to  mention  the  subject  to  Cecil,  who  listened 
with  silence,  but  with  no  positive  disapproval. 

Meanwhile  Elizabeth,  ignorant  as  yet  that  the  pro- 
ject was  revived,  was  only  anxious  to  rid  the  kingdom 
and  herself  of  her  dangerous  prisoner.  She  did  not 
mean  to  sacrifice  her  own  peace  for  the  convenience  of 
Scotland.  Except  for  the  promises  with  which  she  had 
entangled  herself  towards  Murray,  she  would  have  ex- 
torted conditions  which  would  have  been  sufficient  for 
her  own  security,  and  have  sent  her  back  with  a  high 
hand.  As  time  went  on,  and  as  the  inconvenience  of 
her  presence  became  felt  more  sensibly,  these  conditions 
became  increasingly  lighter.  Having  resolved  not  to 
disgrace  her,  the  Queen  was  being  driven  to  act  towards 
her  as  if  her  innocence  had  been  proved.  Many  papers 
remain  in  Cecil's  hand  indicating  both  his  own  and 
Elizabeth's  uncertainty,  and  the  desire  of  both  of  them  to 
be  quit  of  her  almost  on  any  terms.  Three  alternatives 
were  offered  to  the  Bishop  of  Ross  at  the  end  of  April. 
Either  the  Queen  of  Scots  might,  recognize  the  existing 
Government  in  Scotland,  with  a  security  that  if  the 


1569.] 


ENGLISH  PARTIES. 


Prince  died  she  should  resume  the  crown  ;  or  she  might 
reign  jointly  with  the  Prince,  the  administration  remain- 
ing in  the  hands  of  Murray  and  the  present  council ;  or, 
lastly,  if  she  would  consent  to  neither  of  these  conditions, 
she  might  be  again  sole  Queen,  if  she  would  give  suffi- 
cient securities  for  her  future  behaviour.  She  must  con- 
sent to  the  maintenance  of  the  religion  established  in 
Scotland,  '  declaring  the  Crown  of  Scotland  as  free  from 
the  foreign  jurisdiction,  of  Rome  as  the  Crown  of  Eng- 
land/ If  she  could  not  herself  join  the  Scotch  com- 
munion, she  might  be  a  member  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land, as  she  had  already  professed  her  willingness  to  be.1 
Some  trustworthy  person — if  possible  the  Earl  of  Mur- 
ray, 'as  there  was  none  so  meet  in  all  Scotland* — 
would  have  to  continue  in  the  Regency.  The  forfeitures 
on  all  sides  should  be  declared  void,  and  the  Queen  of 
Scots  must  ratify,  if  not  the  whole  treaty  of  Leith,  yet 
so  much  of  it  as  touched  the  rights  of  Elizabeth  herself. 
The  Scotch  Parliament  must  undertake  that  the  con- 
ditions should  be  observed,  and  if  they  were  violated  by 
Mary  Stuart  herself,  she  was  to  be  understood  to  have 
ipso  facto  forfeited  her  crown.2 


1  Mary  Stuart  had  been  careful 
to  keep  up  the  hopes  of  her  possible 
conversion  among  those  about  her, 
although  to  Catholics  "English  and 
foreign  she  always  insisted  on  her 
orthodoxy.  It  is  frightful  to  think 
what  she  must  have  suffered.  *  My 
Lord  of  Shrewsbury,'  writes  Sir 
Thomas  Gargrave  on  the  3rd  of 
April,  '  hath  provided  that  the  said 


Queen  hath  heard  Aveekly  all  this 
Lent  three  sermons— every  Sunday, 
Wednesday,  and  Friday  one— where- 
in she  hath  been  very  well  persuaded 
to  the  reading  of  Scriptures,  and 
she  is,  as  I  am  advertised,  very  at- 
tentive at  the  sermons,  and  doth  not 
lose  one.'— Cotton.  MSS.  CALIO.  B. 
ix.  fol.  383- 

2  Consideration  of  the  matters  of 


54  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  52. 

These  offers  were  submitted  to  the  Queen  of  Scots  at 
v:nious  intervals  and  accompanied  by  language  which 
Elizabeth  would  have  done  better  to  have  left  unspoken. 
*  She  is  careful  of  your  Majesty's  welfare/  the  Bishop 
of  Hoss  told  his  mistress,  '  and  nothing  content  of  your 
subjects  who  are  declined  from  your  obedience :  she 
says  your  rebels  in  Scotland  are  not  worthy  to  live  :  I 
perceive  your  good  sister  and  all  the  nobility  here  be 
more  careful  of  your  honour,  weal,  and  advancement 
than  I  ever  perceived  them  before.'1 

The  difficulty  was  the  treaty  of  Leith.  The  ratifi- 
cation was  the  price  which  the  Queen  of  Scots  had  all 
along  determined  to  pay  for  the  recognition  of  her  place 
in  the  succession.  The  Bishop  told  Elizabeth  that  she 
would  submit  the  question  to  the  King  of  Spain ;  if 
Philip  decided  against  her  she  would  yield.  That  a 
proposal  so  preposterous  should  have  been  brought  for- 
ward at  all  showed  the  measure  of  her  confidence.  She 
believed  Elizabeth  was  a  fool,  on  whom  she  might  play 
as  upon  an  instrument. 

As  Elizabeth  was  obstinate,  she  thought  that  a  sud- 
den illness  might  produce  an  effect  upon  her  ;  and  writ- 
ing to  La  Mothe  Fe*nelon  to  present  a  sharp  demand  for 
her  release,  she  professed  to  be  seized  with  symptoms  of 
the  same  disorder  which  had  so  nearly  killed  her  at 
Jedburgh.2  They  were  harmless,  being  the  result 


the  Queen  of  Scots,  May  i,  1569 ; 
In  Cecil's  hand  :  Cotton.  MSS. 
CALIG.  C.  i. 

1  The  Bishop  of  Ross  to  Mary 
Stuart,   May   2:    MSS.   QUEEN  OF 


SCOTS. 

2  Mary  Stuart  to  the  Bishop  of 
Ross  and  La  Mothe,  May  10:  LA- 
BANOFF,  vol.  ii. 


1569-]  ENGLISH  PARTIES.  5$ 

merely  of  pills,  but  she  had  calculated  justly  on  the 
alarm  of  the  Queen  of  England,  who  dreaded  nothing 
so  much  as  any  serious  illness  of  her  prisoner  which  the 
world  would  attribute  to  poison.1  Cecil  and  Bacon  did 
their  utmost  to  modify  their  mistress's  anxiety,  but  the 
stream  was  too  strong  for  them.  In  one  way  or  the  other 
she  was  determined  to  wash  her  hands  of  the  nuisance 
which  was  clinging  to  them.  She  told  the  Bishop  of 
Ross  that  '  she  could  not  of  her  honour  nor  friendly  and 
loving  duty  suffer  the  Queen  her  good  sister  to  perish 
without  help  : '  the  resignation  at  Lochleven  had  been 
extorted  by  force,  and  should  be  treated  as  if  it  had  no 
existence.  If  she  would  not  ratify  the  treaty  of  Leith, 
it  should  not  be  insisted  on  ;  if  Murray's  Eegency  was 
unpalatable  to  her,  it  might  be  terminated  :  she  must 
promise  only  a  general  amnesty,  and  undertake  to  be 
guided  for  the  future  by  a  council  of  State  which  could 
be  selected  by  a  commission  out  of  the  nobility.  If  she 
preferred  to  remain  a  Catholic,  she  need  only  tolerate 
the  Reformed  religion,  and  agree  generally  to  such 
stipulations  as  should  be  considered  necessary  by  the 
Queen  of  England  and  the  Peers  '  for  the  security  of 
her  Highness's  person  and  the  weal  of  both  realms.' 2 

It  appeared  as  if  Leicester  and  Pembroke 

June, 
had  been  right  in  their  fears,  and  as  if  their 

mistress,  in  her  eagerness  to  be  quit  of  the  Queen  of 


1  'La  dolencia  de  la  Reyna  de 
Escocia  fue  fingida  para  mover  al 
anirao  de  esta  Reyna,  y  habia  hecho 
buen  efecto  con  ella  segun  el  obispo 
me  dice.'  —  Don  Guerau  to  Alva, 


June  i. 

2  Articles  delivered  to  the  Bishop 
of  Ross  at  the  Queen  Majesty  of 
England's  commandment,  May  — , 
1569  :  MSS.  QUEEN  OF  SCOTS. 


56  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  52. 

Scots,  would  set  her  at  liberty  at  last  without  any  con- 
ditions at  all.  With  such  an  impression  of  her  charac- 
ter they  might  well  think  that  to  marry  Mary  Stuart  to 
some  loyal  English  nobleman  was  the  wisest  course 
which  could  be  pursued.  Finding  the  Queen  in  such 
a  humour,  the  council  held  a  secret  meeting  without 
her  knowledge.  Cecil  probably  was  present,  for  the 
report  of  the  proceedings  is  endorsed  in  his  hand.  They 
sent  for  the  Bishop  of  Ross,  and  desired  him  to  submit 
to  the  Queen  of  Scots  the  following  questions : — 

i.  Whether  she  would  wholly  refer  herself  and  her 
cause  to  the  Queen  of  England  ? 

1.  Whether  she  would  satisfy  and  assure  the  Queen's 
Majesty  in  all  things  concerning  her  title  to  the  crown  ? 

3.  Whether  she  would  cause  the  same  religion  pro- 
fessed in  England  to  be  established  in  Scotland  by  Par- 
liament ? 

4.  Whether  the  league  between  Scotland  and  France 
should  be  dissolved,  and  an  assured  perpetual  league  be 
made  between  England  and  Scotland  ? 

5.  Whether  touching  her  marriage  with  the  Duke 
of  Norfolk,   which  had   been   moved   by  the  Earl  of 
Murray  and  Lidington,  she  would  wholly  refer  herself 
to  the  Queen's  Majesty,  and  therein  do  as  she  would 
have  her,  and  as  her  Majesty  did  like  thereof — willing 
that  all  things  should  be  done  for  her  Majesty's  surety 
which  might  be  best  devised  by  the  whole  council  P1 

These  inquiries  were  conceived  in  a  spirit  of  un- 

1  Heads  and  articles  of  certain  I  nobility  of  England,  June,   1569 
conferences   had   with  some  of  the  I  MSS.  QUEEN  OF  SCOTS. 


1 569.  ]  F.  KGLISH  PAR  TIES.  5  7 

doubted  loyalty  to  Elizabeth.  The  mind  by  which  they 
were  composed — it  was  probably  Cecil's  own — was  truer 
to  her  than  her  present  humour  allowed  her  to  be  to 
herself. 

The  Queen  of  Scots  was  contemplating  a  future  con- 
siderably different  from  what  was  thus  marked  out  for 
her,  and  Elizabeth's  evident  weakness  encouraged  her 
most  sanguine  anticipations.  But  she  knew  Elizabeth 
to  be  changeable.  The  approaches  which  were  here 
made  to  her  came  from  those  who  had  been  most 
keenly  opposed  to  her  restoration  in  any  form.  Could 
she  gain  their  confidence  or  neutralize  their  opposition, 
she  could  feel  assured  that  her  imprisonment  would  soon 
be  at  an  end.  Norfolk's  own  honour  would  require  that 
she  should  be  replaced  on  her  throne  before  the  mar- 
riage could  take  place ;  and  any  promises  either  to  him 
or  to  others  might  be  interpreted  as  having  been  made 
in  confinement,  and  therefore  as  of  no  obligation.  She 
might  either  accept  Norfolk  then — and  she  knew  that 
he  would  be  as  clay  in  her  hands — or  she  might  throw 
herself  upon  Philip  and  take  Don  John,  or,  if  Philip 
refused,  she  might  tempt  Catherine  de  Medici  to  give 
her  another  of  her  sons.  The  Queen  of  Scots  never 
threw  a  chance  away  or  refused  an  offered  hand. 

To  the  two  first  questions  she  replied  with  unre- 
served acquiescence. 

For  the  third  she  referred  to  her  original  instruc- 
tions to  her  commissioners,  which  also  were  entirely 
satisfactory. 

About  the  league  she  consented  also.     She  professed 


$8  kEtGtf  OF  ELIZABETH.  [011.52. 

herself  willing  to  unite  with  England  and  to  separate 
from  France. 

To  the  fifth,  which  concerned  her  marriage,  she  re- 
turned the  following  remarkable  answer  : — 

'  My  fortune/  she  said,  '  has  been  so  evil  in  the  pro- 
gress of  my  life,  and  specially  in  my  marriages,  as 
hardly  I  can  be  brought  to  have  any  mind  to  like  of  an 
husband — but  rather  by  a  simple  and  solitary  life  to 
give  testimony  by  my  continent  behaviour  to  all  those 
who  might  put  doubt  therein.  The  troubles  passed 
have  so  weakened  the  state  of  my  body,  as  I  cannot 
think  any  certainty  of  my  continuance ;  and  thus  nei- 
ther shall  I  receive  thereby  after  so  many  storms  any 
felicity,  nor  should  I  leave  him  that  I  should  marry  in 
so  good  estate  as  he  now  is.  Nevertheless,  being  re- 
solved of  certain  doubts  which  occur  to  me  from  the 
trust  I  have  in  the  Queen  my  good  sister,  and  her  no- 
bility's friendship  towards  me,  as  also  from  the  goodwill 
I  perceive  my  Lord  of  Norfolk  bears  towards  me,  hear- 
ing him  so  well  reported  abroad,  I  will  wholly  follow 
their  counsel,  not  doubting  but  as  I  trust  them  herein, 
being  in  the  greatest  matter  that  can  appertain  to  my- 
self, they  will  have  consideration  of  my  causes  as  of 
her  that  wholly  committeth  herself  into  their  hands. 
Though  not  to  boast  myself,  yet  because  they  might 
somewhat  the  better  think  of  my  true  meaning  to  the 
Queen  my  good'  sister,  as  also  of  my  good  affection  to 
those  of  the  nobility  and  the  realm  to  which  I  count  not 
myself  a  stranger,  I  assure  you  that  if  either  men  or 
money  to  have  reduced  my  rebels  to  their  due  obedience 


1569.]  ENGLISH  PARTIES.  59 

could  have  ticed  me,  I  would  have  been  provided  of  a 
husband  ere  now.  But  I,  seeking  which  way  to  plea.se 
my  good  sister  and  them  here,  did  never  give  ear  to  any 
such  offer.  Now  this  I  make  account  to  myself,  that  if 
I  should  marry  with  my  Lord  of  Norfolk  I  am  sure  to 
lose  all  my  friends  beyond  the  seas,  as  France  and  Spain 
and  all  other  Catholic  princes.  This  is  the  greatest  loss 
that  I  could  lose.  In  recompense  whereof  if  I  do  by 
following  of  her  counsel  take  this  hurt,  what  friendship 
therefore  shall  I  win  in  the  stead  to  be  sure  to  me  ?  If 
I  should  give  my  consent  to  my  Lord  of  Norfolk  in  this 
behalf,  I  would  know  how  my  good  sister's  will  and 
consent  may  be  had  to  the  same.  Pray,  my  Lords,  to 
bear  with  me  though  I  cast  some  doubt  therein,  con- 
sidering how  unwilling  I  have  found  her  to  have  me  be- 
stowed in  marriage  before,  as  I  am  sure  themselves  know. 
'  I  would  in  this  cause  have  as  much  consideration 
of  him  that  should  be  my  husband  as  I  would  have  of 
myself.  I  would  be  loath  to  bring  him,  who  now  I 
know  has  as  much  felicity  and  contentation  as  any 
nobleman  of  his  calling  can  desire,  to  a  worse  estate; 
and  therefore  I  would  be  glad  to  know  not  only  if  my 
good  sister  would  like  thereof,  but  also  how  friendly 
those  of  the  nobility  would  deal  with  him,  that  he 
might  not  be  with  his  sovereign  Princess  and  country- 
men as  my  late  husband  the  Lord  Darnley  was,  which 
I  to  my  grief  did  then  find,  and  I  would  be  sorry  to 
enter  into  the  alliance  whereof  I  was  well  warned/ * 


Answer  of  the  Queen  of  Scots  ;  MSS.  Rolls  House. 


60  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  52. 

The  part  was  well  played,  the  tone  assumed  through- 
out the  answer  was  exactly  pitched  to  please  the  coun- 
cil. It  was  graceful,  dignified,  self-respecting,  and  on 
the  points  of  substantial  concession  left  nothing  to  be 
desired.  The  next  step  would  naturally  have  been  to 
consult  Elizabeth  ;  but  there  was  a  latent  feeling  among 
the  lords  that  the  proposal  would  not  be  welcome  if  it 
came  from  themselves.  They  preferred  to  have  it 
opened  by  Murray,  and  they  waited  impatiently  for  the 
coming  of  Maitland,  whom  Elizabeth  herself  appeared 
to  expect. 

But  Murray,  as  well  as  they,  had  his  own  grounds 
for  hesitation.  In  explaining  his  conduct  afterwards 
to  Cecil,  he  said,  that  '  if  the  Queen,  as  she  had  led  him 
to  expect,  had  pronounced  a  decisive  judgment  at 
Hampton  Court,  he  would  have  listened  to  no  overtures 
from  the  Duke  of  Norfolk  at  all.  But  seeing  her  High- 
ness so  earnestly  travelling  for  his  sister's  restoration, 
he  could  not  think  it  profitable  to  lose  the  benevolence 
of  such  as  seemed  bent  that  way.'  'The  Queen  had 
been  so  strange  and  uncertain,  that  she  had  given  him 
matter  enough  to  think  the  marriage  might  be  the 
thing  which  she  most  desired/  l  But,  like  the  lords, 
he  shrunk  from  speaking  of  it  till  he  knew  how  it  was 
likely  to  be  taken.  And  he  had  another  difficulty. 
Norfolk  desired  that  the  restoration  should  precede  the 
marriage,  as  if  to  clear  the  Queen  of  Scots'  reputation. 
Murray's  caution  made  him  prefer  that  she  should  be 

1  Murray  to  Cecil,  October  29 ;  Murray  to  Elizabeth,  October  29 : 
MSS.  Scotland. 


1569-]  ENGLISH  PAR  TIES.  6 1 

safely  married  first.  According  to  Norfolk,  the  first 
step  should  be  a  request  from  Murray  and  his  friends 
for  his  sister's  release.  Murray,  to  whom  neither  the 
marriage  nor  the  restoration  was  welcome  in  itself, 
knew  his  sister  too  well  to  take  her  back  till  her  hands 
were  tied.  His  part  was  in  every  way  a  most  difficult 
one ;  but,  on  the  whole,  he  preferred  to  act  as  if  these 
secret  intrigues  had  no  existence,  and,  at  all  events,  as 
long  as  he  was  Regent  of  Scotland  he  resolved  to  do 
his  own  duty  there.  On  the  failure  of  the  conference 
at  Edinburgh,  Huntly  proclaimed  Mary  Stuart  in  the 
north  of  Scotland,  Lord  Fleming  held  Dumbarton  in 
her  name,  and  Argyle  refused  to  acknowledge  the 
King's  government.  The  Regent,  to  secure  Edin- 
burgh, sent  Chatelherault  and  Herries  to  the  Castle, 
and  prepared  to  take  the  field.  The  rumour  that  the 
Queen  was  coming  back  had  been  circulated  everywhere 
with  the  worst  effects.  As  a  prelude  to  active  measures 
he  issued  a  proclamation  containing  a  true  account  of 
the  results  of  the  investigation  at  Hampton  Court.  He 
said  that  he  had  been  called  before  the  Queen  of  Eng- 
land to  answer  to  a  charge  of  high  treason.  After  dili- 
gent trial  it  was  found  and  declared  that  he  and  the 
noblemen  who  had  acted  with  him  had  done  nothing 
'  which  did  not  become  honest  and  faithful  subjects  of 
their  bounden  duty  for  the  appeasing  of  God's  wrath 
and  for  the  common  weal  of  their  native  country/ 
'  The  charges  against  them  had  been  dismissed,  and  his 
own  government  willed  to  continue/  '  He  had  been 
compelled  to  manifest  and  declare  the  truth  that  the 


62  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  52. 

King's  mother  had  been  participant  in  the  murder  of 
her  husband/  He  had  been  challenged  to  prove  his 
words  before  the  Queen  of  England  and  her  whole 
estate,  and  the  accusation  '  was  sufficiently  verified,  and 
by  the  Queen 's  handwrit  notoriously  proven.' 1 

Whatever  might  be  Elizabeth's  displeasure,  Murray 
could  not  afford  that  the  truth  should  be  concealed.  In 
the  use  of  the  words  the  '  King's  mother,'  he  intimated 
that  to  him  Mary  Stuart  was  as  yet  no  more  than  a 
private  person,  and  with  this  distinct  declaration  he  set 
out  on  his  expedition  against  the  Gordons.  It  was 
exactly  at  the  time  when  Elizabeth's  irritation  and  im- 
petuosity, aggravated  by  the  pretended  illness  of  the 
Queen  of  Scots,  had  reached  their  highest  point.  She 
had  already  sent  to  him  a  sketch  of  the  terms  on  which 
she  considered  that  a  restoration  could  be  effected.  The 
proclamation  came  back  to  her  as  a  sort  of  defiance. 
As  the  Regent  was  on  his  way  to  Aberdeen  he  was 
overtaken  by  a  messenger  whom  she  had  despatched  to 
tell  him  that  she  would  wait  no  longer  :  she  insisted 
upon  an  immediate  answer,  whether  he  would  or  would 
not  receive  back  his  Sovereign  on  those  conditions. 

A  demand  at  once  so  serious  and  so  peremptory  took 
Murray  by  surprise.  The  restoration  might  be  necessary ; 
but  in  any  way  it  appeared  undesirable  to  proceed  with 
it  precipitately.  He  suspected  that  it  was  connected 
with  the  Norfolk  marriage ;  but  whether  Elizabeth  de- 
sired it  or  feared  it,  he  could  not  tell.  He  thanked  her 


1  Copy  of  a  proclamation   set  out  by  the  Earl  Murray  in  Scotland, 
May  13  :   llfSS.  Scotland,  Rolls  House. 


1569-]  ENGLISH  PAR  TIES.  63 

'  for  having  communicated  so  weighty  a  matter  privately 
to  him,  rather  than  by  open  dealing  to  have  endangered 
both  the  State  and  him.' 1  He  wrote  to  Cecil  that  he 
could  not  answer  on  the  spot.  He  would  make  as  much 
haste  as  the  gravity  of  the  matter  would  permit. 
*  What  was  good  for  the  Queen  of  England  was  good 
for  Scotland  ;  and  however  dangerous  it  might  seem, 
he  thought  himself  debt-bound  to  accept  it.' 2  But  he 
must  consult  his  friends,  and  the  Queen  should  learn 
their  decision  on  his  return  from  the  North. 

The  journey,  so  far  as  concerned  its  im- 
mediate object,  was  eminently  successful. 
Huntly  offered  no  resistance.  Argyle  promised  to  do 
as  Huntly  did.  The  mere  display  of  force  brought 
present  quiet ;  but  Elizabeth,  in  her  existing  humour, 
was  only  the  more  exasperated.  When  there  was  a 
question  of  receiving  back  a  deposed  Sovereign,  a  meet- 
ing of  the  nobles  was  no  unreasonable  preliminary ;  but 
her  impatience  could  ill  endure  even  the  few  days'  delay 
which  it  required.  She  wrote  again  to  Murray,  saying 
she  was  surprised  that  he  should  have  hesitated  for  a 
moment  in  gratifying  her  desire.  She  '  had  thought  it 
convenient  therefore  to  admonish  him/  '  She  wished 
him  to  think  that  the  protracting  of  time  to  consider 
such  weighty  causes  might  prove  so  disadvantageous, 
that  he  would  himself  be  sorry  to  have  pretermitted 
the  opportunity  which  she  had  offered  him.' 3 


1  Murray  to  Elizabeth,  June  5  :  JlfSS.  Scotland. 

2  Murray  to  Cecil.— Ibid. 
8  Elizabeth  to  Murray,  July  17:  MSS.  Scotland. 


64  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  52. 

In  other  words,  notwithstanding  the  promises  by 
which  she  had  tempted  Murray  to  produce  the  Queen 
of  Scots'  letters,  she  was  positively  determined  to  send 
her  back  again,  whether  her  subjects  desired  it,  or  con- 
sented to  it,  or  refused  to  hear  of  it.  Entirely  at  a  loss 
to  understand  her  conduct,  but  resolute  not  to  yield  till 
he  saw  his  way,  Murray  wrote  for  information  to  Nor- 
folk. The  letter  is  lost,  but  Norfolk's  answer  survives, 
and  is  a  singular  tribute  to  the  good  faith  with  which 
Murray  was  acting  and  had  acted  throughout.  The 
Duke  told  him  that  he  regarded  him  'not  only  as  a 
faithful  friend,  but  as  a  natural  brother ; '  that  he  was 
as  careful  '  of  Murray's  welfare  as  of  his  own  honour.' 
He  wrote,  he  said,  in  the  Queen  of  Scots'  name  as  well 
as  his  own.  Lord  Boyd,  the  bearer  of  the  letter,  had 
seen  the  Queen  of  Scots,  and  was  empowered  by  her 
*  to  resolve  him  in  all  doubts.'  As  to  the  marriage, 
'  he  had  proceeded  so  far  in  it  that  he  could  not  with 
conscience  revoke  what  he  had  done ; '  '  but  it  was  im- 
possible for  him  to  go  forward  till  Murray  had  removed 
the  stumblingblocks  which  were  an  impeachment  to 
their  apparent  proceedings.'  '  That  must  be  done  first, 
and  all  the  rest  would  then  follow,  to  Murray's  ease  and 
comfort.'  '  The  union  of  the  Island  in  one  kingdom  in 
times  coming,  and  the  maintenance  of  God's  true  reli- 
gion ' — these  were  the  objects  to  be  secured,  and  there 
were  many  enemies,  who  would  imperil,  if  they  could, 
so  great  a  purpose.  He  recommended  Murray  there- 
fore to  recall  the  Queen  immediately,  and  make* haste 


1569.]  ENGLISH  PARTIES.  65 

to  have  her  formally  divorced  from  the  Earl  of  Both- 
well.1 

How  Murray  might  have  been  influenced  by  Nor- 
folk's arguments  had  they  been  left  to  work  upon  him 
alone,  it  is  hard  to  say  ;  but  two  fresh  incidents  oc- 
curred to  confirm  his  uncertainty.  One  was  the  capture 
of  French  Paris,  who  was  kidnapped  in  Denmark, 
brought  first  to  Leith,  and  then  to  Aberdeen.  There 
he  had  been  exaihined  by  Buchanan  during  the  northern 
expedition.  His  depositions  had  revived  the  recollection 
of  the  more  atrocious  features  of  the  murder  of  Darnley. 
He  mentioned  circumstances  which  would  have  aggra- 
vated, had  aggravation  been  possible,  the  hatefulness  of 
Mary  Stuart's  treachery,  and  made  the  thought  of  her 
return  more  vividly  intolerable.  The  other  was  a  com- 
mission, which  Mary  Stuart  herself  had  issued,  for  the 
furtherance  of  her  suit  of  divorce.  She  had  described 
herself  in  the  preamble  as  Queen  of  Scotland,  with  all 
her  styles  and  titles  ;  and  while  to  the  English  council 
she  was  undertaking  to  maintain  the  Reformed  religion, 
while  Norfolk  was  innocently  writing  to  Murray  of  the 
advantages  to  be  expected  from  her  restoration  '  to  the 
service  of  God/  she  had  the  imprudence  to  style  the 
Catholic  Archbishop  of  St  Andrews  the  supreme  ruler 
of  the  Church  of  Scotland. 

Mary  Stuart  lacked  the  skill  to  subdue  herself  in  her 
moments  of  elation,  and  wear  her  modest  veil  till  it 
was  time  to  throw  it  off.  Maitland  was  seriously 


1  Norfolk  to  Murray,  July  31  :  Burghkij  Papers,  vol  i. 

VOL.    IX.  5 


66  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  '[CH.  52 

compromised  by  Paris  ;  lie  was  seen  to  have  had  his 
hand  deeper  than  Murray  knew  in  the  tragedy  of  Kirk 
o'  Field.  Confidence  in  him  and  in  his  scheming  had 
become  impossible ;  and  with  the  darkness  all  around 
him,  and  with  such  dangerous  lights  at  times  breaking 
from  it,  the  Regent  was  proof  against  Norfolk's  bland- 
ishments and  Elizabeth's  commands.  He  could  but  fall 
at  the  worst,  and  it  was  better  to  fall  nobly  at  his  post 
and  in  his  duty  to  Scotland,  than  start  aside  into  crooked 
ways  and  stultify  all  that  he  had  done. 

He  called  about  him  the  small  gallant  knot  of  men 
who  had  stood  by  the  Reformation  through  good  and 
evil.  The  Earls  of  Mar,  Glencairn,  and  Morton,  the 
Master  of  Montrose,  Lords  Semple,  Ruthven,  and  Oli- 
phant,  met  him  at  Perth,  at  the  end  of  July.  He  would 
not  allow  Mary  Stuart  to  plead  that  he  had  packed  his 
convention.  He  invited  Huntly,  Athol,  and  Mait- 
land,  and  they  thought  it  prudent  to  attend.  Ten  earls, 
fifteen  lords,  five  bishops,  and  commissioners  of  the 
Commons  from  every  town  in  Scotland,  came  at  his 
summons  to  consider  Elizabeth's  demands.  They  de- 
cided with  a  preponderance  of  voices  before  which  the 
secret  dissentients  were  forced  to  be  silent,  that,  although,, 
if  it  could  be  done  with  security  to  themselves  and 
to  him,  they  were  ready  to  receive  the  late  Queen 
among  them  as  a  private  person,  they  considered  her 
return  to  the  throne,  either  alone  or  in  conjunction 
with  her  son,  as  '  so  prejudicial  to  the  State,  and  so  dan- 
gerous for  the  unquieting  of  the  whole  Isle,  that  they 
would  in  no  wise  consent  to  it.'  '  The  petition  for  the 


r 

1569.]  ENGLISH  PARTIES.  67 

divorcement  was  utterly  rejected/  The  reading  of 
Mary  Stuart's  commission  was  received  with  an  up- 
roar which  Maitland  in  vain  endeavoured  to  allay ;  and 
'  it  was  declared  treason  to  reason  for  the  future  for  the 
Queen's  authority.' 1 

Elizabeth  received  the  resolution  of  the  convention 
with  an  anger  which  she  did  not  care  to  conceal.  Then, 
as  always,  when  she  was  alarmed  for  her  own  comfort, 
she  saw  in  Mary  Stuart  an  injured  Sovereign,  and  in 
Murray  a  disobedient  traitor.  Then,  as  always,  she 
was  unable  to  remember  that  the  Scots  were  no  subjects 
of  hers.  She  dismissed  the  bearer  of  the  message 
upon  the  spot,  bidding  him  go  back  and  say  to  the 
Regent,  that  he  must  consider  better  of  his  proceed- 
ings, and  as  he  meant  to  have  the  continuance  of  her 
favour,  he  must  satisfy  her  speedily  in  some  more  sub- 
stantial manner.  '  Otherwise/  she  wrote  to  Murray 
herself,  'you  shall  occasion  us,  without  any  further 
delay,  to  proceed  of  ourselves  to  make  such  a  deter- 
mination with  the  Queen  of  Scots  as  we  shall  find 
honourable  and  meet  for  ourselves  ;  and  in  so  doing,  con- 
sidering we  perceive  by  your  manner  of  dealing  you 
only  respect  yourself  and  no  other  party,  we  doubt  how 
you  will  like  it :  and  then,  though  you  shall  afterwards 
yield  to  more  conformity,  it  may  prove  too  late  and  not 
recoverable  by  repentance.'2 

A  few  days  after  a  report  came  that  Murray 
was  preparing  to  recover  Dumbarton,  and  to 

1  Hunsdon  to  Cecil,  August  5  :  I        a  Elizabeth  to  Murray,   August 
MSS.  Scotland.  12 :  MS8.  Scotland. 


68  PEIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  52. 

take  fresh  steps  to  coerce  the  recusant  Borderers.  Eliza- 
beth followed  up  her  first  message  by  a  second,  '  that 
she  would  not  allow  such  doings/  and  unless  she  re- 
ceived some  immediate  satisfactory  answer  to  her  last 
letter,  '  she  would  be  occasioned  to  proceed  in  such  sort 
without  him  as  percase  he  should  find  too  much  against 
him,  and  the  fault  thereof  to  proceed  only  from  himself 
and  none  other.'1  She  sent  orders  to  Lord  Scrope,  if 
Murray  attempted  anything  against  the  Border  gentle- 
men, to  receive  and  protect  them.  In  her  letter  she 
called  Mary  Stuart  Queen,  and  the  Lords  her  sub- 
jects.2 

A  few  weeks  later  Elizabeth  found  occasion  to 
change  her  tone.  Murray  had  then  become  again  the 
saviour  of  his  country,  and  Mary  Stuart  and  the 
Borderers  the  enemies  of  her  and  mankind.  It  was 
her  misfortune  that  while  she  could  hesitate  inde- 
finitely when  action  was  immediately  necessary,  the 
'  perturbations  of  her  mind/  as  Knowles  called  them, 
at  other  times  swayed  her  into  extremes,  and  she 
allowed  sudden  alarms  and  sudden  provocations  to 
tempt  her  to  the  most  ill-judged  precipitancy.  Her 
violent  moods  were  happily  of  brief  duration.  Her 
present  excitement  arose  partly  from  a  belief  that  the 
Huguenots  had  been  crushed  at  Jarnac,  partly  from 
the  irritation  into  which  she  was  thrown  by  hearing 
gradually  of  the  scheme  for  the  Norfolk  marriage.  The 
defiant  attitude  however  which  Coligny  was  still  able 


1  Elizabeth  to  Murray,  August         2  Elizabeth   to   Scrope,   August 


20 :  MSS.  Scotland. 


29 :   MSS.  Border. 


1569-] 


ENGLISH  PARTIES. 


to  maintain  reassured  her  about  her  danger  from  France. 
The  western  gentlemen,  when  they  were  forbidden  to 
cruise  any  longer  under  the  Huguenot  flag,  petitioned 
in  a  body  for  leave  to  serve  in  France  under  the 
Admiral,  and  Lord  Huntingdon  asked  permission  to 
sell  his  estate  and  join  the  Huguenot  army  with  10,000 
men.1  The  national  enmity  against  France  was  at  all 
times  blown  easily  into  flame,  and  whatever  might  be 
the  feelings  of  the  Queen  and  the  nobles,  the  English 
Commons  in  this  period  of  growing  Puritanism  identified 
themselves  heart  and  soul  with  their  struggling  brothers. 
'  The  war  party/  La  Mothe  was  forced  to  confess,  '  had 
more  life  and  energy  in  them  than  their  opponents.'2 
Although  there  might  be  differences  about  religion  in 
England,  all  parties  united  in  their  desire  to  recover 
Calais.  The  Catholics  believed  that  if  England  and 
France  were  at  war,  Philip  would  be  compelled  to  strike 
in  upon.  Elizabeth's  side.  The  Spanish  quarrel  would 
be  made  up,  and  the  Catholic  King  would  recover  the 
natural  influence  of  an  active  ally.  3O,ooo/.  were 
sent  over  to  the  Admiral,  and  La  Mothe  believed  that 
it  had  been  supplied  by  the  Treasury.  Elizabeth,  when 
he  complained,  replied,  that  if  it  was  so,  her  coffers 
must  be  like  the  widow's  cruise,  for  no  money  was 
missing  from  them.  He  discovered  that  it  had  been 
raised  by  subscription  in  the  western  counties  among 


1  '  El  Conde  de  Huntingdon  fue  a 
pedir  licencia  a  la  Reyna  para  ven- 
der su  estado  y  hacer  diez  mill  hom- 
bres  y  juntarse  con  el  Almirante.'— - 
Don  Guerau  to  Philip:  JLTSS.  Si- 


2  '  Us  onttrop  plus  de  vivacite  et 
d'entreprinse  que  les  aultres.' — La 
Mothe  an  Roy,  June  21 :  Dep&ches, 
vol.  i. 


76  kEIGN  OF  ELIZA££TH.  [ctt. 

the  owners  of  the  privateers,1  who  had  grown  rich  upon 
their  pillage. 

It  is  easy  to  see  how  great  must  have  heen  the  con- 
fusion when  a  Protestant  crusade  was  being  encouraged 
by  Catholics  and  semi- Catholics.  These  movements 
were  but  eddies  in  the  main  stream  of  tendency ;  but 
the  spirit  of  her  people  restored  the  Queen  to  her  self- 
possession,  while  on  the  other  great  subject  of  her  un- 
easiness she  was  now  to  learn  that  she  could  have  done 
nothing  more  fatal  to  herself  than  act  upon  her  threats 
to  Murray. 

In  their  first  disgust  at  their  apparent  abandonment 
oy  Norfolk,  the  more  earnest  Catholics  had  attached 
themselves  to  Leonard  Dacres  and  his  friends.  The 
Duke's  marriage  with  the  Queen  of  Scots  as  concerted 
at  present  by  the  Protestant  section  of  the  council 
promised  nothing  to  the  cause  of  religion.  It  was 
rather  likely  to  be  accompanied  with  a  firmer  establish- 
ment of  the  Reformation  in  both  countries.  To  this 
most  important  condition  they  could  not  be  ignorant 
that  the  Queen  of  Scots  had  consented.  They  did  not 
yet  know  how  lightly  such  engagements  could  sit  upon 
her,  and  they  distrusted  the  feebleness  and  selfishness 
of  Norfolk's  character.  To  them  therefore  there  ap- 
peared but  one  road  open — to  avail  themselves  of  the 
Spanish  quarrel  before  it  should  be  made  up,  with  the 
quasi  sanction  which  they  had  received  from  Philip,  and 
to  rise  in  open  rebellion.  The  Earls  of  Cumberland, 


1  La  Mothe  au  Roy,  July  27 :  Depeches,  vol.  i. 


1569.] 


ENGLISH  PARTIES 


Westmoreland,  Northumberland,  and  Leicester,  Leonard 
Dacres  himself,  Montague,  Lumley,  and  many  others, 
intimated  to  Don  Guerau  that  they  were  prepared  to 
take  arms.  Lord  Derby  they  expected  would  join 
them.  Lord  Shrewsbury  would  be  with  them  in  heart, 
and  Lord  Talbot,  his  eldest  son,  was  in  their  confidence. 
They  proposed  to  raise  the  whole  North  by  a  sudden 
simultaneous  movement,  set  the  Queen  of  Scots  at 
liberty,  proclaim  her  Queen  of  England,  and  re-estab- 
lish the  Catholic  religion.  They  would  decide  after 
their  victory  what  to  do  with  Elizabeth  and  her  minis- 
ters. The  more  troublesome  of  the  bishops  they  would 
send  over  to  Flanders  for  Alva,  to  be  disposed  of,  perhaps, 
in  the  Great  Square  at  Brussels.1  The  Queen  of  Scots 
might  marry  whom  she  herself  pleased  or  whomsoever 
the  King  of  Spain  might  suggest. 

To  Mary  Stuart  herself  such  an  alternative  was 
simply  delightful.  She  had  never  pretended  to  Don 
Guerau  that  she  looked  on  her  marriage  with  Norfolk 
with  anything  but  distaste.  Her  ambition  aspired  to  a 
Spanish  prince  at  the  lowest,  and  believing  that  the 
ambassador  shared  her  own  desire,  she  sent  the  Bishop 
of  Boss  to  him  to  explain  away  her  acquiescence  in  the 
propositions  of  the  council  as  forced  upon  her  by  a 
hard  necessity.2 


1  '  Dicen  que  dos  6  tres  obispos 
que  les  hacen  embarazo  les  prenderan 
y  enviaran  &  Flandes  al  Duque  de 
Alva.'— Don  Guerau  to  Philip,  July 
5  :  MSS.  Simancas. 

2  '  En  cuyo  nombre  me  dixo  el 


obispo  que  ella  es  muy  importunada 
del  casamiento  del  Duque  de  Nor- 
folk, y  casi  necessitada  &.  liacerlo  por 
valerse  de  su  ayuda  y  cobrar  su 
Reyno.'— Don  Guerau  to  Alva,  Au- 
guat  —  :  MSS.  Simancas. 


72  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  52. 

The  experience  of  English  revolutions  in  past  centu- 
ries might  seem  to  justify  the  confidence  of  the  North- 
ern earls.  A  coalition  less  powerful  and  without  the 
addition  of  religious  enthusiasm  had  placed  Henry  of 
Lancaster  on  the  throne  of  Richard  II.  Edward  IV., 
when  he  landed  at  Ravenspurg,  and  Elizabeth's  grand- 
father before  Bosworth  field,  had  fainter  grounds  to 
anticipate  success  than  the  party  who  was  now  prepar- 
ing to  snatch  England  out  of  the  hands  of  revolution 
and  restore  the  ancient  order  in  Church  and  State. 
Don  Guerau  however  imagined  that  for  some  unknown 
reason  the  English  had  grown  fainter-hearted  than 
their  forefathers,  and  he  believed  that  policy  might 
effect  more  than  force.  He  was  conscious  of  the  danger 
of  disunion.  He  felt  the  extreme  desirableness  of 
bringing  Norfolk  and  his  father-in-law  Arundel  again 
into  coalition  with  the  more  determined  Catholics,  and 
he  probably  knew  that  for  many  reasons — from  jealousy 
of  his  brother  as  well  as  aversion  to  the  lady  herself, 
Philip  would  never  consent  to  give  Don  John  to  Mary 
Stuart.  The  uncertainty  whether  Elizabeth  would 
allow  Norfolk  to  have  her  brought  the  fickle  Duke 
back  to  Don  Guerau.  He  explained  to  the  ambassador 
the  project  of  the  council,  but  he  gave  him  to  under- 
stand also  that  if  the  marriage  could  be  brought  about 
he  would  use  whatever  power  he  obtained  by  it,  not  in 
the  interests  of  the  Reformation,  as  he  had  pretended 
to  Murray,  but  in  the  interests  of  the  Catholic  Church. 
He  desired  Don  Guerau  to  consult  Philip  and  try  to 
obtain  his  approval.  Evidently,  also,  with  Don  Guerau's 


1569.] 


ENGLISH  PARTIES, 


73 


help  lie  wished  to  recover  the  support  of  the  Catholics, 
that  if  he  failed  to  obtain  his  end  in  one  way  he  might 
fall  back  upon  the  other.  He  carried  Arundel  with' him, 
and  Arundel  and  Norfolk,  besides  their  feudal  command 
of  the  entire  Eastern  Counties,  were  the  natural  chiefs 
to  whom  the  great  English  families  south  of  the  Trent 
all  looked  for  leadership.  Don  Guerau,  knowing  Nor- 
folk's temper,  believed  seriously  that  he  was  the  most 
desirable  husband  for  Mary  Stuart  which  Spanish  or 
Catholic  interests  could  desire.  He  recommended 
Philip  to  sanction  the  marriage.1  He  laboured  to  re- 
concile the  Northern  lords  to  the  prospect  of  it.2  He 
commended  their  zeal,  advised  them  to  hold  themselves 
in  readiness  to  rise  if  an  insurrection  should  prove 
necessary,  and  encouraged  them  with  all  but  direct 
promises  of  assistance  from  Alva.  If  the  Queen  could 
be  so  far  blinded  as  to  allow  the  marriage  to  take  place, 
they  would  obtain  all  that  they  desired  without  being 
obliged  to  fight  for  it.  If  she  proved  too  wary  to  be 
caught,  they  could  fall  back  upon  force  at  the  last  mo- 


1  'Pienso  que  es  mejor  que  se  haga 
con  voluntad  de  V.  Md  que  no  se 
podra  sacar  dcllo  a  mi  parescer  sino 
gran  fruto.'  —Don  Guerau  to  Philip, 
August  27  :  MSS,  Simancas. 

2  They  consented  with  great  re- 
luctance.    The  Queen  of  Scots  sent 
John  Leveson  to  consult  the  Earl  of 
Northumberland.      '  I    opened    my 
opinion  unto   him,'    the  Earl   said 
afterwards ;  '  how  much  it  was  mis- 
liked,  not  only  with  me   but  with 
sundry  others,  that,  she  should  bestow 


herself  in  marriage  with  the  Duke, 
for  that  he  was  counted  to  be  a 
Protestant ;  and  if  she  ever  looked 
to  recover  her  estate  it  must  be  by 
advancing  and  maintaining  the  Ca- 
tholic faith,  for  there  ought  to  be  no 
halting  in  those  matters;  and  if  the 
Duke  was  a  sound  Catholic,  I  would 
be  as  glad  of  that  match  as  any 
other.' — Confession  of  the  Earl  of 
Northumberland,  June,  1572:  MSS, 
Border. 


74  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  52. 

ment,  and  with  the  added  strength  from  the  adhesion 
of  the  Duke,  they  could  make  their  success  a  cer- 
tainty. 

It  was  fortunate  for  Elizabeth  that  to  this  conspiracy 
the  failure  of  the  Hamburgh  expedition  had  not  to  be 
added.  Half  a  year's  produce  of  the  English  looms  had 
been  consigned  to  that  one  adventure,  and  had  Alva  in- 
tercepted the  fleet,  or  had  the  market  proved  unfavour- 
able, the  effect  might  have  been  as  serious  as  Don  Gruerau 
anticipated.  Happily  however  success  had  waited 
upon  the  attempt  both  by  land  and  sea.  Not  a  sail  was 
missing  of  the  flight  of  white- winged  traders  which 
swept  through  the  North  Sea.  Not  a  bale  of  goods  was 
left  unsold,  so  many  eager  buyers  had  been  set  upon  the 
watch  by  Killigrew.  The  ruin  of  trade  at  least  the 
great  citizens  of  London  saw  no  reason  to  anticipate. 
They  might  pillage  Spain  with  impunity,  and  sell  their 
wares  at  a  profit  trebled  and  quadrupled  by  the  ruin  in 
which  Alva  had  involved  the  industry  of  the  unhappy 
Netherlands. 

The  political  danger  Cecil  thoroughly  comprehended 
in  its  general  bearings ;  and  though  unaware  of  Norfolk's 
treachery,  he  understood  his  character  too  well  not  to 
suspect  him.  The  musters  were  called  out  in  the  South- 
western and  Midland  Counties,  and  the  officers  were 
chosen  from  among  those  who  were  best  affected  to  the 
Queen.  As  to  the  marriage,  the  genuine  Protestants 
were  instinctively  opposed  to  it.  The  Earl  of  Hunting- 
don held  meetings  at  his  house  to  concert  measures  to 
prevent  an  alliance  which  they  felt  would  be  ruinous  to 


ENGLISH  PARTIES. 


75 


them.  Lord  Hunsdon  opposed  it  urgently  by  letters.1 
Bedford  and  Bacon  were  of  the  same  opinion  ;  while 
Clinton  and  Sir  Francis  Knowles  cautioned  Norfolk 
himself  against  Spanish  friendship.  Doctor  Samson, 
whom  Don  Guerau  called  '  the  most  pernicious  heretic 
in  England/  addressed  the  Duke  '  as  if  he  was  an 
apostle  of  God/  and  commanded  him  to  think  no  more 
of  the  Queen  of  Scots. 

Sussex,  on  the  other  hand,  was  going  with  Pem- 
broke and  Leicester.  They  could  not  yet  venture  to 
speak  to  Elizabeth  openly  about  it,  but  they  approached 
the  subject  on  many  sides  indirectly.  They  harped  in- 
cessantly upon  the  danger  of  keeping  the  Queen  oi 
Scots  in  England.  They  told  her  she  must  either  put 
her  out  of  the  way,  which  they  knew  she  would  not  do, 2 
or  send  her  back  to  Scotland.  Leicester  and  Norfolk 
played  into  each  other's  hands ;  one  telling  the  Queen 
she  was  nursing  a  serpent  at  her  bosom — the  other  re- 
plying that  since  the  serpent  was  indisputably  heir  to 
the  crown,  she  could  be  rendered  harmless  only  by  being 
married  to  an  Englishman.3  Indisputably  heir  to  the 
crown — that  was  the-  fact  from  which  Elizabeth  could 
not  extricate  herself.  It  would  have  been  easy  for  her 


1  '  I  think  you  are  not  ignorant  of 
my  opinion  of  that  marriage.    I  love 
and  honour  the  Duke  so  well  as  I 
would  be  right  sorry  it  should  take 
place,  for  any  matter  or  reason  I  can 
yet  conclude.' — Hunsdon  to   Cecil, 
August  30.:  MSS.  Border. 

2  La  Mothe   Fenelon  au  Roy, 
July  27:  Depeches,  vol.Ji. 


3  'El  Duque  le  respondio  que  £el 
le  parecia  el  derecho  de  la  Reyna  de 
Escocia  ser  sin  question  y  que  tam- 
hien  le  pareceria  conveniente  que  la 
Eeyna  de  Escocia  se  casase  en  Ingla- 
terra  para  que  en  esta  parte  se  re- 
mitiria  al  parecer  de  su  Magd.' — 
Don  Guerau  to  Philip,  August  2 ; 
MSS.  Simancaa. 


76 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


[CH.  52. 


to  have  said  at  Hampton  Court  in  the  past  winter,  This 
woman  is  a  murderess  ;  I  have  proof  against  her  in  her 
own  hand  ;  I  will  fall  back  on  my  father's  will,  I  will 
appeal  to  Parliament  to  help  me  ;  she  is  unfit  to  reign 
and  shall  be  no  successor  of  mine.  But  she  had  not 
said  this ;  she  had  evaded  the  plain  issue,  and  now  had 
no  fair  excuse  with  which  to  protect  herself,  when  Mary 
Stuart  was  again  openly  spoken  of  as  standing  next  for 
the  throne.1  Yery  angrily  she  complained  that  the 
lords  were  setting  up  Absalom  against  David.  She  said 
she  would  .marry — marry  Leicester  perhaps  to  be  rid  of 
her  vexation,2  or  marry  the  Archduke  if  he  was  still 


1  '  Esta  Eeyna  entiende  como  to- 
dos  los  del  Reyno  vuelven  los  ojos  & 
la  de  Escocia,  y  que  ya  no  lo  disi- 
mulan,  antes  la  van  mirando  6  casi 
reputando  como  sucesora  della.' — 
Don  Guerau  to  Philip,  July  25. 

a  Norfolk  and  Arundel  were 
cheating  Leicester  with  the  hope 
that  if  the  Scotch  affair  could  be 
settled  for  the  Duke,  he  and  the 
Queen  might  marry.  Don  Guerau 
wrote  on  the  6th  of  September: 
'  Tambien  parece  que  el  Conde  de 
Leicester,  con  espera^a  que  el 
Duque  de  Norfolk  y  sus  amigos  le 
han  dado  de  sustentar  en  el  grado 
que  esta,  y  aun  consentir  que  se 
case  con  esta  Reyna,  hace  la  parte 
del  dicho  Duque.'  Compare  La 
Mothe  to  the  King  of  France,  July 
27.  The  old  stories  were  still  cur- 
rent about  Leicester's  intimacy  with 
Elizabeth.  La  Mothe  says  that 
Norfolk,  at  Arundel's  suggestion, 


remonstrated  with  Leicester  about 
it.  If  the  Queen  wished  to  marry 
him,  Norfolk  said,  she  should  avow  it 
openly,  and  he  and  his  friends  would 
countenance  it — otherwise,  he  said, 
that  the  Queen's  honour  would  suffer, 
'  et  le  taxa  de  ce  qu'ayant  1'entree 
comme  il  a  dans  la  chambre  de  la 
Reyne,  lorsqu'elle  est  au  lict  il  s'es- 
toit  ingere  de  luy  bailler  la  chemise 
au  lieu  de  sa  dame  d'honneur,  et  de 
s'hazarder  de  luy  mesme  de  la  baisser 
sans  y  estre  convye.' 

Leicester  answered,  '  qu'a  la 
verite  la  Reyne  luy  avoit  monstre 
quelque  bonne  affection,  que  1'avoit 
mis  en  esperance  de  la  pouvoir 
espouser,  y  d'oser  ainsy  user  de  quel- 
que honneste  privaulte  envers  elle.' 
He  said  he  would  endeavour  to  bring 
matters  to  a  crisis.  If  the  Queen 
made  up  her  mind  not  to  marry  him 
he  would  discontinue  so  close  an  in- 
timacy with  her.  '  Et  quoy  que  ce 


1569.] 


ENGLISH  PARTIES. 


77 


attainable.  Still  the  stream  ran  so  violently  that  on  the 
27th  of  August  a  vote  was  carried  in  full  council  for  the 
settlement  of  the  succession  by  the  marriage  of  the 
Queen  of  Scots  to  some  English  nobleman ;  and  many 
peers,  according  to  Don  Guerau  'the  greatest  in  the 
land/ ]  set  their  hands  to  a  bond  to  stand  by  Norfolk  in 
carrying  the  resolution  into  effect.  Leonard  Dacres  and 
Lord  Northumberland  had  concerted  a  plan  to  carry  off 
the  Queen  of  Scots  from  Wingfield.  Dacres  had  seen 
her  and  arranged  the  details  with  her.  Norfolk  how- 
ever was  so  confident  of  success  through  the  council 
that  he  thought  violent  measures  unnecessary.  The 
Queen  of  Scots  sent  to  ask  him  what  he  would  do  if 
Elizabeth  refused  to  let  him  marry  her.  He  said  she 
dared  not  refuse,  for  all  the  Peers,  except  a  very  few, 
were  determined  to  have  it  so.2  :-\.  ,v 

He  and  his  friends  had  delayed  their  formal  appli- 
cation for  Elizabeth's  consent  till  the  arrival  of  Mait- 
land ;  but  of  Maitland's  coming  there  was  no  longer  a 
prospect.  Maitland,  after  the  breaking  up  of  the  Perth 
convention,  called  a  meeting  of  Mary  Stuart's  supporters 
at  Blair  Athol ;  on  his  return  to  Edinburgh  he  was  ar- 
rested by  Murray  on  the  charge  of  being  an  accomplice 
in  Darnley's  murder,  and  was  shut  up  in  the  Castle  with 
Herries  and  Chatelherault. 


fist  qu'il  avoit  la  mesme  obligation  a 
1'honneur  de  la  Reyne  et  a  celle  de 
sa  couronne  que  ung  bon  vassal  et 
conseiller  doibte  avoir,  et  que  en 
toutes  sortes  il  contoit  plus  soigne- 
usement  conserver  que  sa  propre  vie.' 


1  '  Los    mas   principales    desta 
Isla.'     Don  Guerau  to  Philip,  Au- 
gust 27:  MSS.  Simancas. 

2  Confession   of  the   Bishop  of 

MUBDIN. 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH 


[CH.  52. 


The  vote  of  council  made  further  procrastination 
impossible.  Elizabeth  was  going  on  progress.  Before 
the  Court  broke  up  a  meeting  was  held  in  the  Earl  of 
Pembroke's  rooms  at  Greenwich  Palace,  and  Norfolk 
proposed  that  the  whole  party  who  were  present  should 
wait  upon  her  in  a  body  and  make  known  their  wishes.1 
In  talking  to  Don  Guerau  the  Duke  was  '  as  a  lion ; '  at 
the  prospect  of  facing  his  mistress  he  became  '  a  hare/3 
and  wished  to  be  backed  up  by  the  presence  of  his 
friends.  But  the  lords  shared  his  alarms,  and  neither 
of  them  cared  to  encounter  the  wrath  which  would  as- 
suredly burst  upon  their  heads.  Leicester  said,  '  he 
thought  it  not  well  to  have  it  broken  to  her  Majesty  by 
a  number,  because  he  knew  her  Majesty's  nature  did  like 
better  to  be  dealt  withal  by  one  or  two ; '  he  said  that 
he  would  speak  to  her  himself  if  Cecil  would  support 
him ;  but  Cecil  had  been  absent  when  the  vote  was  car- 
ried ;  he  was  not  at  the  meeting,  and  no  one  knew  what 
part  he  would  take.  They  separated  without  a  resolu- 
tion. Norfolk  was  in  the  Queen's  presence  afterwards, 
and  tried,  to  say  something ;  but  his  heart  or  his  stomach 
failed  him  ;  '  he  fell  into  an  ague,  and  was  fain  to  get 
him  to  bed  without  his  dinner.'3  A  few  days  after, 
Elizabeth  moved  to  Richmond,  on  her  way  to  Hamp- 
shire. The  Duke  when  he  recovered  from  his  ague  fol- 
lowed her,  and  on  his  way  up  found  Leicester  near  Kew 


1  4  Fearing  that  the  fewer  they 
were  the  greater  should  be  the  bur- 
den.'— Confession  of  the  Duke  of 
Norfolk,  November  10,  1571  : 
MSS.  QUEEN  OF  SCOTS. 


2  'Masliebraqueleon.' — Address 
of  the  English  Catholics  to  Philip  II. 
MSS.  Simancas. 

3  Confession    of    the   Duke    of 
Norfolk. 


1569 -]  ENGLISH  PARTIES.  79 

fishing  in  the  river.  Leicester  told  him  that  the  ice  was 
broken,  and  he  had  spoken  with  the  Queen :  '  some  bab- 
bling women  had  made  her  Highness  believe  that  they 
had  intended  to  go  through  the  enterprise  without  mak- 
ing her  Majesty  privy  to  it ; '  he  had  satisfied  her  that 
those  tales  were  false  and  untrue  :  but  what  more  was 
to  be  looked  for  he  was  unable  to  say. 

Prudence  as  well  as  policy  would  have  recommended 
the  Duke  at  once  to  follow  up  the  opening.  He  met 
Cecil  at  the  palace.  Cecil  advised  him  to  go  at  once  to 
the  Queen  and  tell  her  everything.  '  That  was  the  best 
way  to  satisfy  her  Majesty  and  put  doubts  out  of  her 
mind/  l  When  he  could  not  bring  himself  to  the  point, 
Elizabeth  herself  made  an  opportunity  for  him.  After 
a  day  had  passed  and  he  had  said  nothing,  '  the  next 
morning,  as  she  was  walking  in  the  garden,  she  called 
him  to  her  and  began  merrily  inquiring  what  news  was 
abroad.'  The  Duke  said  he  had  heard  of  none. 

'  None  ! '  she  asked  again  ;  '  you  come  from  London, 
and  can  tell  no  news  of  a  marriage  ?  ' 

He  was  about  to  throw  himself  upon  his  knees  and 
begin,  when  Lady  Clinton  came  up  with  a  basket  of 
flowers.  The  Northern  earls  and  Don  Guerau,  and  the 
black  conspiracy  behind  the  scenes,  came  back  upon  him 
in  the  moment  of  enforced  reflection — lie  shrunk  away 
and  was  silent. 

The  time  was  peculiarly  favourable.  Elizabeth  was 
still  in  the  heat  of  her  exasperation  at  the  proceedings 


Confession  of  the  Duke  of  Norfolk. 


8o  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  52. 

of  the  Scots  at  Perth,  and  then,  if  ever,  she  might  have 
been  tempted  to  consent.  Leicester  felt  it,  and  came  to 
the  rescue  of  his  friend's  timidity.  '  One  morning '  after- 
wards, the  Duke  came  unawares  into  the  privy  cham- 
ber ;  a  child  was  playing  on  a  lute ;  the  Queen  was  sit- 
ting on  the  door-step,  with  Leicester  at  her  feet  pleading 
the  Duke's  cause.  The  Queen,  as  he  told  Norfolk  after- 
wards, was  on  the  point  of  yielding.  Leicester  rose  and 
went  away.  She  called  the  Duke  into  the  room,  and 
again  waited  for  him  to  speak.  But  again  he  could 
not  do  it ;  after  a  few  meaningless  remarks  he  hast- 
ened out  of  her  presence,  and  began  to  think,  after 
all,  that  he  would  let  Dacres  carry  off  the  Queen  of 
Scots. 

She  was  acute  enough  to  understand  his  difficulty. 
There  was  some  cause  for  his  hesitation  beyond  what  she 
or  perhaps  Leicester,  knew,  and  at  dinner  afterwards 
'  her  Majesty  gave  him  a  nip,  bidding  him  take  heed  to 
his  pillow.' l 

Yet  it  seemed  at  this  moment  that  whatever  she  sus- 
pected, or  whatever  obvious  objection  she  saw  to  the 
marriage,  the  pressure  would  be  too  heavy  for  her.  In 
extreme  perplexity  she  went  down  attended  by  the 
council  to  Basing  House,  to  stay  with  the  Marquis  of 
Winchester,  and  Pembroke,  who  was  watching  the  fluc- 
tuations of  her  humour  from  day  to  day,  sent 
September.  J  J 

word  on  the  3rd  of  September  to  Don  Guerau 
that  she  would  be  obliged  to  consent,  because  there  was 


Confession  of  the  Duke  of  Norfolk. 


ENGLISH  PARTIES.  gi 

not  a  person  of  those  about  her  who  dared  to  give  her 
different  advice.1 

The  situation,  with  the  humours,  passions,  and  pur- 
poses belonging  to  it  and  interwoven  with  it,  is  reflected 
in  two  letters  from  the  Spanish  ambassador  to  the  Duke 
of  Alva.  The  guard  had  been  removed  from  Don 
Guerau's  house,  and  the  conspirators  had  now  free  access 
to  him. 

DON    GUERAU    TO    THE    DUKE    OF    ALVA. 

'  August  30. 

'  The  Bishop  of  Ross  came  to  me  this  morning  with 
a  letter  of  credit  from  the  Queen  his  mistress.  He  told 
me  in  her  name  that  in  the  presence  of  so  general  a  de- 
sire for  her  marriage  with  the  Duke  of  Norfolk,  she  was 
unable  to  refuse.  The  Queen  of  England  had  so  far  been 
unwilling  ;  but  in  deference  to  the  wishes  of  the  council 
she  had  agreed  that  the  Queen  of  Scots  must  be  married  to 
some  Englishman  or  other,  and  when  this  was  once  done 
she  would  be  restored  to  her  crown  if  she  had  not  pre- 
viously been  invited  back  by  her  subjects.  Almost  all 
the  English  nobles,  the  Bishop  says,  are  of  the  same 
opinion.  The  Queen  has  offered  to  call  a  general  meet- 
ing of  the  Peers,  and  take  their  advice  upon  the  person 
to  be  chosen.  There  is  an  impression  however  that  she 
is  seeking  delay.  She  is  supposed  to  have  hinted  to  the 
Duke  that  he  must  not  himself  think  of  it.  He  has 
been  for  some  days  at  the  Court  expecting  her  to  begin 

le  aconseje  lo  contrario.' — Don  Gue- 
rau  to  Alva,  September  4 :  MSS.  Si- 


1  '  En  esta  hora  cntiendo  del 
Conde  de  Pembroke  que  cree  que  la 
Reyna  consentira  en  el  casamiento 
del  Duque  por  no  haber  persona  que 

VOL.    IX. 


mancas. 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


[CH.  52. 


the  subject  with  him,  but  so  far  she  has  said  nothing. 
The  Queen  of  Scots  herself  is  in  some  fear  that  the 
Queen  of  England  may  be  provoked  by  the  favour  shown 
her  by  so  many  of  her  subjects  to  procure  some  mischief 
to  her  person.1  The  Duke  therefore,  and  the  confeder- 
ate nobles,  have  determined  to  carry  her  off  from  the 
place  where  she  is  confined,  and  the  Earl  of  Northum- 
berland is  to  take  charge  of  her  in  his  own  country. 
The  whole  of  the  North  being  at  that  Earl's  devotion, 
she  will  be  in  perfect  security,  and  the  Duke  and  his 
friends  meanwhile  will  quiet  matters  in  Scotland,  if  the 
Regent  will  not  consent  to  an  agreement.  All  the  ar- 
rangements are  completed,,  but  the  Queen  of  Scots  in- 
tends to  be  guided  in  everything  by  the  King  our  master 
and  by  your  Excellency,  and  she  tells  me  that  she  will 
not  conclude  this  marriage  till  it  has  received  the  ap- 
probation of  his  Majesty.  This  Queen  set  out"  yesterday 
for  Basingstoke.  If  she  had  not  either  consented  to  the 
marriage  or  agreed  to  submit  the  question  to  the  nobility 
before  her  departure,  the  Duke  intended  to  leave  the 
Court,  retire  into  the  country,  and  take  measures  to  set 
at  liberty  the  Queen  of  Scots,  and  accomplish  the  rest 
of  his  purpose/  2 


1  '  Procure  alguu  dano  a  su  per- 
sona.' 

2  Don  Guerau  to  Alva,  August 
30. — The  ambassador  enclosed  a  letter 
from  the  Queen  of  Scots  to  himself, 
in  which  she  prayed  him    '  de  ma 
part  de  faire  entendre  au  Roy  vostre 
Maitre  mon  bon  frere  en  quel  etat 
eont  mes  affaires,  et  nommement  de 


1'asseurer  de  ma  Constance  en  la 
religion  Catholique,  et  que  non  seule- 
ment — moyennant  la  grace  de  Dieu 
— je  demeureray  moy  mesme  con- 
stante,  mais  quej'esperede  tirer  telz 
a  mon  opinion,  j'entens  a  la  dicte 
religion  Catholique,  que  pourryent 
de  beaucoup  servir  en  ses  quartiers 
pour  I'avancement  d'icelle.' 


1569.]  ENGLISH  PARTIES.  83 

The  Duke  had  not  gone  as  he  had  threatened,  but 
he  hung  about  the  Queen  like  a  ghost,  still  silent,  and 
irritating  her  as  much  as  she  frightened  him.  His 
spies  were  round  her  in  her  closet  and  her  privy  cham- 
ber— not  a  word  dropped  from  her  which  he  did  no/ 
hear.  Alarming  movements,  almost  amounting  to  in- 
surrections, were  reported  from  the  Duke's  districts  in 
Norfolk  and  Suffolk:  and  at  times  in  her  impatience 
she  told  Cecil  she  would  send  for  the  Spanish  ambas- 
sador, make  up  her  quarrels  with  Philip,  and  end  her 
troubles  so. 

Had  she  done  this,  Philip  was  ready  at  any  moment 
to  accept  her  friendship,  order  the  Catholics  into  quiet, 
and  leave  the  Queen  of  Scots  to  her  fate. 

On  the  6th  of  September  Don  Gruerau  wrote  again: — 

'  The  Bishop  of  Ross  has  been  a  second  time  with  me 
bringing  a  letter  from  his  mistress,  in  which  she  ex- 
presses her  desire  to  be  of  use  to  his  Majesty  and  to  the 
Catholic  religion.  One  day  it 'seems  as  if  the  Queen  of 
England  would  allow  the  marriage ;  the  next  she  will 
not  hear  of  it.  Leicester  is  said  to  take  the  Duke's 
part,  the  Duke  giving  him  hopes  that  after  the  expected 
changes  he  will  be  allowed  to  keep  his  present  position, 
and  even  to  marry  the  Queen.  Last  Saturday  the  Queen 
of  England  was  in  such  alarm  that  she  told  Leicester 
emphatically  that  the  marriage  between  the  Duke  and 
the  Queen  of  Scots  should  not  be.  She  said  that  if  she 
consented  she  would  be  in  the  Tower  before  four  months 
were  over.  Norfolk  has  been  forbidden  to  leave  the 
Court,  and  she  means  to  speak  to  him.  But  however  it 


84 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


[CH.  52 


goes,  as  I  have  already  told  your  Excellency,  all  is  ar- 
ranged in  the  Queen  of  Scots'  favour,  and  if  she  is  once 
at  liberty  your  Excellency  can  make  your  game  as  you 
please  with  one  Queen  or  the  other/1 

'With  one  Queen  or  the  other/  That  only  was 
wanting  to  complete  the  universal  treachery.  .Norfolk 
was  pretending  an  anxiety  for  the  Reformation ;  and 
when  he  had  gained  the  Queen  of  Scots  he  was  going 
over  to  the  Catholics.  The  Queen  of  Scots  was  making 
use  of  Norfolk  ;  and  when  she  had  obtained  her  liberty 
by  his  means,  she  intended,  if  Philip  would  encourage 
her,  to  leave  him  in  the  mire.  The  astute  Spaniard, 
when  he  had  placed  Mary  Stuart  in  a  position  to  be 
dangerous  to  Elizabeth,  was  to  play  whichever  card  pro- 
mised best  to  his  advantage.  France  already  had  its 
eye  on  her,  as  a  fit  match,  could  she  escape,  for  the 
Duke  of  Anjou.  The  Duke  of  Alva  would  have  looked 
on  complacently  if  it  compelled  Elizabeth  to  fall  back 
upon  his  master.2 

From  the  expression  that  if  Norfolk  married  the 
Queen  of  Scots  she  would  herself  within  four  months 
be  in  the  Tower,  it  was  clear  that  Elizabeth  guessed 
shrewdly  at  the  Duke's  real  intentions.  While  in  the 
extreme  of  perplexity,  four  days  after  Pembroke's  mes- 
sage to  Don  Guerau,  she  heard,  by  some  means  or  other, 
the  substance  of  Norfolk's  conversation  with  Murray  at 


1  MSS.  Simancas. 

2  *Es  bien  verdad   que 


he  des- 

cubierto  que  este  embajador  tiene  in- 
tencion  que  si  la  de  Escocia  fuese 


una  vez  libre,  procurase  de  casarla 
con  el  Duque  de  Anjou.'  —  Don 
Guerau  to  Alva,  September  4. 


1569]  ENGLISH  PARTIES.  85 

Hampton  Court.  The  Duke,  at  the  close  of  the  invest- 
igation, had  disclaimed  to  her,  in  the  most  indignant 
language,  all  intentions  of  forming  a  connection  so  dis- 
honourable.1 When  she  discovered  that  at  that  very 
moment  he  had  been  intriguing  for  the  Queen  of  Scots' 
hand  with  the  Regent,  her  worst  suspicions  were  con- 
firmed. The  Duke  had  gone  for  a  day  or  two  to  London 
to  arrange  matters,  as  was  afterwards  known,  for  the 
rescue  of  the  Queen  of  Scots  from  Wingfield.  She  sent 
an  order  to  him  to  come  back  to  her  immediately.  He 
obeyed,  and  she  spoke  to  him  with  a  sharpness  which 
convinced  him  at  once  he  had  nothing  to  hope  from 
her.  The  conditions  had  thus  arisen  under  which  it  had 
been  agreed  that  the  Confederates  were  to  take  arms. 
The  Duke  left  the  Court  without  taking  leave.  He 
wrote  a  brief  note  to  Cecil,  in  which  he  said  he  was 
sorry  he  had  given  offence  ;  he  trusted  the  Queen  would 
learn  in  time  to  distinguish  her  true  friends,2  and  then 
galloped  back  to  Don  Gruerati  and  the  Bishop  of  Ross. 
By  them  the  signal  for  the  insurrection  was  to  be  sent 
down  to  the  North,  while  the  Duke  himself  was  to  call 
into  the  field  the  gentlemen  of  Norfolk  and  Suffolk. 
In  the  presence  of  immediate  danger,  the  whole  force 

1  '  Why,'  he  said,  '  should  I  seek  j  justly  charge  me  with  seeking  your 
to  marry  her  being  so  wicked  a 
woman,  such  a  notorious  adulteress 
and  murderess?  I  love  to  sleep  upon 
a  safe  pillow;  and  if  I  should  go 
about  to  marry  with  her,  knowing 
as  I  do  that  she  pretendeth  a  title  to 
the  present  possession  of  your  Ma- 
jesty's crown,  your  Majesty  might 


own  crown  from  your  head.' — Sum- 
mary of  matters  wherewith  the  Duke 
of  Norfolk  has  been  charged :  Muu- 
DIN,  p.  1 80. 

2  Norfolk  to  Cecil,  September  15, 
from   Andover  :     Hnrgh'ley   Papers, 


86 


REIGN1  OF  ELIZABETH. 


[CH.  52. 


of  Elizabeth's  character  at  once  returned  to  her.  She 
broke  off  her  progress,  and  went  back  on  the  spot  to 
Windsor.  Knowing  well  that  if  a  rebellion  was  to  break 
out  the  first  move  would  be  to  carry  off  the  Queen  of 
Scots,  doubting  too,  and  as  it  seemed  with  reason, 
whether  at  such  a  moment  she  could  trust  the  loyalty 
of  Shrewsbury,1  she  despatched  the  Earl  of  Huntingdon, 
the  one  nobleman  who,  as  a  competitor  for  the  succes- 
sion, Mary  Stuart  especially  dreaded,  with  a  commission 
to  take  charge  of  her.  The  Earl  made  such  haste  that 
within  six  days  of  Norfolk's  departure,  heedless  alike  of 
her  threats  and  her  lamentations,  he  had  his  prisoner 
safe  again  at  Tutbury,  with  half  her  train  left  behind  at 
Wingfield,  and  a  garrison  in  the  castle  of  500  men.2 

Thus  she  was  secure  from  any  sudden  enterprise  ; 
while  with  rapid  change  of  note,  Sir  Henry  Carey  carried 
proposals  down  to  Scotland,  not  any  more  for  her  re- 
storation, but  for  replacing  her  in  Murray's  hands,  with 
security  merely  for  her  life.3  The  Earls  of  Arundel  and 
Pembroke,  Lord  Lumley,  and  Sir  N.  Throgmorton  were 
served  with  separate  orders  to  present  themselves  at 
Windsor.  They  did  not  venture  to  disobey,  and  on 
their  arrival  they  were  placed  under  arrest  in  their 
rooms.  It  was  ascertained  that  Norfolk  was  still  in 


1  Shrewsbury  had  led  Mary 
Stuart  to  believe  that  when  the 
movement  began  he  would  join  her 
friends.  On  the  2oth  of  September 
she  wrote  to  La  Mothe : — 'Je  ne 
trouve  nulle  Constance  en  M.  de 
Cherosbury  a  ceste  heure  en  mon 
besoing  pour  toutes  les  belles  parolles 


qu'il  m'a  donnee  an  passe.' — De- 
p£ches,  vol.  ii.  p.  254. 

3  The  Earl  of  Huntingdon  to 
Elizabeth,  September  21  :  MSS. 
QUEEN  OF  SCOTS. 

3  Instructions  to  Sir  II.  Carey, 
September  21  :  Burghley  Papers. 


1569-]  ENGLISH  PARTIES.  87 

London,  and  a  pursuivant  was  sent  to  command  him  on 
his  allegiance  to  return  again  to  the  Court.  Norfolk's 
'  ague '  had  returned  upon  him.  He  announced  from 
Howard  House  that  he  was  confined  to  his  bed,  but  that 
he  would  obey  when  his  health  would  permit  him.  He 
had  come  up  from  Andover  to  Don  Guerau  full  of  sound 
and  fury.  A  servant  of  Lord  Northumberland  was  wait- 
ing to  carry  down  the  signal  for  the  rising.  Norfolk 
talked  about  despatching  him  ;  talked  about  the  rescue 
of  the  Queen  of  Scots ;  talked  while  Huntingdon  was  in 
the  saddle,  and  then  found  that  he  had  let  the  oppor- 
tunity escape.  The  northern  messenger  was  fretting  to 
be  gone.  The  Duke  said  that  he  must  wait  to  hear  first 
from  his  friends.  He  must  know  what  Montague  would 
do ;  what  Lord  Morley  would  do  ;  what  many  others 
would  do  who  had  promised  to  rise  at  his  side.  With 
their  leader  in  such  a  humour,  they  would  sit  still  if 
they  were  wise.  Never  was  successful  conspirator  made 
of  such  stuif  as  Norfolk.  Mary  Stuart,  in  spite  of  Hunt- 
ingdon, found  means  to  drive  a  spur  into  his  side.  She 
sent  to  bid  him  be  a  man,  and  to  have  no  fears  for  her, 
for  God  would  care  for  her.1  Had  Mary  Stuart  been  at 
large  and  in  the  field,  there  would  have  been  a  bloodier 
page  in  the  history  of  the  English  Reformation.  Had 
Norfolk  stood  out  himself  as  Mary  Stuart  bade  him,  had 
he  proclaimed  himself  the  champion  of  her  and  of  the 
Catholic  faith,  the  Earl  of  Surrey's  son,  the  premier 


1  «  La  Reyna  de  Escocia  envia  a 
decir  al  Duque  que  haga  como  vale- 
roso,  y  que  de  su  vida  no  lleve 


cuenta,  que  Dioslaguardara.' — Don 
Guerau  to  Philip,  September  30. 


88  REIGN  OF  ELIZAJ5ETH.  [CH.  52. 

nobleman  of  England,  might  have  roused  out  of  its  sleep 
the  spirit  of  feudal  chivalry,  and  Elizabeth  would  have 
encountered  a  rebellion  to  which  the  Pilgrimage  of  Grace 
would  have  been  child's  play.  But  it  was  not  in  him, 
and  it  could  not  come  -eut  of  him.  He  had  indeed 
committed  himself  to  treason,  for  he  had  attempted,  in 
concert  with  Don  Guerau,  to  send  a  messenger  to  the 
Duke  of  Alva  for  assistance.1  But  here  too  the  Queen 
had  been  too  quick  for  him — the  ports  were  closed.  He 
could  but  shiver  into  an  ague  and  crawl  to  bed  till  the 
police  came  to  look  for  him. 

In  this  condition,  and  unable  to  resolve  whether  to 
submit  or  to  try  his  fortune  by  arms,  he  chose  the  half 
course  which  is  always  the  more  dangerous.  After  a 
hurried  interview  with  Don  Guerau,  who  grew  cold  as 
he  saw  his  feebleness,  the  Duke  sent  off  to  Northumber- 
land to  tell  the  Earl  that,  having  missed  the  chance  of 
rescuing  the  Queen  of  Scots,  he  would  put  her  life  in 
peril  if  he  were  now  to  rise.  The  insurrection  there- 
fore must  at  all  hazards  be  postponed.  Having  assumed 
the  responsibility  of  preventing  his  friends  from  mov- 
ing, he  ought  then  to  have  taken  the  consequences  upon 
himself,  and  to  have  returned  to  the  Court.  But  he 
preferred  to  take  refuge  among  his  own  dependents.  He 
believed  that  the  Queen  would  not  venture  to  send  for 
him  among  a  people  who  would  have  given  their  lives 
had  he  required  them  in  his  defence.  He  stole  out  of 


1  '  For  la  parte  de  la  dicha  Reyna 
de  Escocia  y  Duque  queria  enviar 
persona  al  Duquc  de  Alva,  y  con 


estar  los  puertos  cerrados  no  ha  sido 
aim  possible.'— Don  Guerau  to  Philip, 
Sept.  30. 


I569-]  ENGLISH  PARTIES.  89 

London  and  went  down  to  Kenmghall,  and  thence  he 
wrote  a  letter  to  her  as  mean  as  it  was  false.  'He 
grieved  to  hear  that  her  Majesty  was  displeased  with 
him/  he  said :  '  He  took  God  to  witness  that  he  had 
never  entertained  a  thought  against  her  Highness,  her 
crown  or  dynasty  ; '  but  '  finding  cold  looks  at  the 
Court,  and  hearing  that  he  was  to  be  sent  to  the  Tower, 
he  feared  that  he  would  not  be  able  to  show  his  inno- 
cence to  her  Majesty,  and  therefore  had  preferred  to 
withdraw.'  '  Thus  much  I  protest  to  your  Majesty/ 
he  dared  to  say ;  '  I  never  dealt  in  the  Queen  of  Scots' 
cause  further  than  I  declared,  nor  ever  intended  to  deal 
otherwise  than  I  might  obtain  your  Highness' s  favour 
so  to  do.'1 

The  confidence  in  the  Duke's  substantial  loyalty  was 
still  almost  universal.2  Elizabeth  knew  too  much  to 
feel  any  such  assurance.  She  was  determined  to  get  to 
the  bottom  of  the  mystery.  She  sent  an  express  to 
Tutbury  to  say  that  the  Duke  having  withdrawn  to 
Keninghall,  and  there  being  some  uncertainty  of  his 
meaning,  Lord  Huntingdon  must  look  well  to  his  charge, 
and  see  that  she  did  not  slip  through  his  hands.  He 
might  tell  the  Queen  of  Scots  that  no  harm  was  in- 
tended towards  her ;  she  would  yet  receive  '  more  good 


Norfolk  to  Elizabeth,  Septem-  I  it  meant  not  faithfully  to  her  Ma- 


ber  24,  from  Keninghall :  Burghtey 
Papers,  vol.  i. 

2  On  the  1 8th  of  September 
Hunsdon  wrote  to  Cecil '  that  he  was 
right  glad  her  Majesty  did  so  mis- 
like  the  marriage.  Whoever  began 


jesty  nor  friendly  to  the  Duke.  It 
had  been  long  brewing  and  there  had 
been  strange  dealing,  but  he  did  not 
doubt  the  Duke  would  show  himself 


nil 


obedient  subject. — Ibid. 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


[CH.  52. 


than  it  was  thought  she  had  deserved ; '  but  he  must 
examine  her  coffers  and  her  servants'  boxes,  and  send 
all  the  papers  that  he  could  find  to  the  Court.1  Mary 
Stuart  had  taken  the  precaution  to  burn  her  letters  be- 
fore she  left  Wingfield,  Lord  Shrewsbury,  for  his  own 
sake  perhaps,  having  given  her  the  opportunity.  The 
Earl's  followers  were  rude  chamber- grooms,  and  had  not 
cared  before  entering  the  Queen  of  Scots'  apartments 
to  take  the  pistols  out  of  their  belts.  She  was  furious 
at  the  insult.  She  protested  as  usual  that  she  had  done 
nothing  to  deserve  suspicion.2  She  stormed  at  Hunt- 
ingdon, and  said  she  would  make  him  feel  what  her 
credit  was  in  England.3  It  was  like  handling  a  wild  cat 
in  a  cage,  and  the  Earl  could  but  pray  God  to  '  assist 
her  Majesty  and  her  council  with  the  spirit  of  wisdom 
and  fortitude  of  mind,  which  two  things  were  neces- 
sarily required,  considering  the  person  they  had  to  deal 
with.54 

The  search  of  course  had  been  vain,  and  so  far  there 
was  nothing  against  Norfolk  but  presumption  from  his 
own  conduct.  A  Queen's  messenger  followed  him  to 
Keninghall  with  a  command  that  '  without  manner  of 
excuse '  he  should  return  immediately.  Had  he  obeyed, 
he  would  have  probably  fared  no  worse  than  his  com- 
panions in  the  council,  and  he  might  have  succeeded 


1  The   Queen    to    Huntingdon, 
September    25 :   MSS.   QUEEN   of 
SCOTS. 

2  'She  took  grievously  our  search, 
pleadeth  greatly  her  innocency  to 
the  Queen's  Majesty,  of  whose  deal- 


ing to  her  she  speaketh  bitterly.' — 
Huntingdon  to  Cecil,  September  27; 
Burghley  Papers,  vol.  i. 

3  Huntingdon  to  Cecil,  October 
10 :  Ibid. 

*  Ibid. 


I569-1  ENGLISH  PARTIES.  gl 

after  all.  '  There  is  a  great  change/  Don  Guerau  wrote. 
'  The  complaints  are  loud  against  Cecil,  who  has  ma- 
noeuvred with  astonishing  skill.  I  know  not  what  will 
happen.  I  can  only  say  that  with  the  party  which  the 
Duke  commands  in  the  country  he  can  only  fail  through 
cowardice.'1  The  Duke  thought  so  too,  and  at  Kening- 
hall,  where  his  ante-rooms  were  thronged  with  knights 
and  gentlemen,  all  hanging  upon  his  word,  his  courage 
came  back  to  him.  He  refused  at  first  to  see  the  mes- 
senger. He  said  he  was  too  ill  to  leave  his  house.  If 
the  Queen  would  send  a  member  of  the  council  to  him, 
he  would  answer  her  questions  where  he  was. 

But  again  after  a  day  or  two  his  heart 

J  October, 

tailed  him.     A  message   came  to   him  from 

Leicester,  that  he  had  nothing  to  fear  from  submission. 
If  he  persisted  in  disobedience  he  would  be  proclaimed 
a  traitor.  He  would  then  have  to  commit  his  fate  to 
the  chances  of  civil  war,  and  he  persuaded  himself  that 
he  would  compromise  the  Queen  of  Scots.2  His  illness 
had  no  existence  except  in  his  alarms.  The  messenger 
had  lingered  waiting  for  his  final  resolution ;  he  with- 
drew his  answer  and  made  up  his  mind  to  return.  His 
friends  and  servants,  clearer-sighted  than  himself,  en- 
treated him  not  to  leave  them.  They  held  him  by  the 
knees,  they  clung  to  his  stirrup-leathers  as  he  mounted 
his  horse,  crying  that  he  was  going  to  the  scaffold. 


1  '  No  se  lo  que  sucedera.  En- 
tiendo  quo  segnn  los  amigos  que  el 
Duque  tiene  en  el  Reyno  no  pucdo 
perderse  sino  por  pusillanimidad.' — 
J)on  Guerau  to  Philip,  September  30. 


2  '  0  Como  dice  por  escusar  el 
evidente  peligro  de  la  de  Escocia  que 
esta  en  poder  de  sus  enemigos. ' — Don 
Guerau  to  Philip,  October  8. 


92  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  52. 

But  his  spirits  were  gone.  With  a  handful  of  attend- 
ants1 he  rode  back  to  London,  and  from  thence  he  was 
proceeding  to  Windsor,  when  he  was  met  a  few  miles 
distant  by  an  intimation  that  he  was  a  prisoner  and 
must  remain  in  charge  of  Sir  Henry  Neville,  at  Mr 
Wentworth's  house  at  Burnham. 

Elizabeth,  who  had  heard  of  the  attitude  which  he 
had  assumed  in  Norfolk,  talked  of  placing  him  on  his 
trial  for  treason.  But  such  a  challenge  to  the  Peers 
was  as  yet  too  perilous  an  experiment,  and  Cecil's  prud- 
ence interposed.  He  wrote  rather  than  spoke  to  Eliza- 
beth, because  he  had  things  to  say  which  he  intended 
for  herself  alone,  and  his  letter  remains  to  show  the 
calm  wisdom  with  which  he  controlled  her  passion. 
'No  true  councillor  of  her  Majesty/  he  said,  'could  be 
without  grief  to  see  the  affairs  of  the  Queen  of  Scots 
become  so  troublesome  to  her ; '  nevertheless  he  thought 
she  was  more  alarmed  than  the  occasion  required/  '  The 
case  was  not  so  terrible  as  her  Majesty  would  have  it.' 
'  The  Queen  of  Scots  would  always  be  a  dangerous  per- 
son to  her,  but  there  were  degrees  by  which  the  danger 
might  be  made  more  or  less.  If  she  would  herself 
marry,  it  would  diminish ;  if  she  remained  single,  it 
would  increase.  If  the  Queen  of  Scots  was  kept  a 
prisoner,  it  would  diminish ;  if  she  was  at  liberty,  it 
would  be  greater.'  '  If  the  Queen  of  Scots  was  mani- 
fested to  be  unable  by  law  to  have  any  other  husband 
than  Bothwell  while  Bothwell  lived,'  it  would  dimin- 


1  '  Dcxantlo  los  pensamientos  de  rompimiento  por  ahora  se  vino  con 
pocos  cubullos.' — Don  Gucvau  to  Philip,  October  8. 


ENGLISH  PARTIES. 


ish ;  if  she  was  declared  free,  it  would  be  greater.  If 
she  was  declared  an  offender  in  the  murdering  of  her 
husband,  she  would  be  less  able  to  be  a  person  perilous  ; 
if  her  offence  was  passed  over  in  silence,  the  scar  of  the 
wound  would  wear  out.'  So  much  for  the  Queen  of 
Scots.  For  the  Duke  of  Norfolk,  and  for  her  Majesty's 
intentions  towards  him,  she  must  remember  that  there 
were  as  yet  no  proofs  against  him,  '  and  if  he  was  tried 
and  not  convicted,  it  would  not  only  save  but  increase 
his  credit.'  The  Duke's  offence,  so  far  as  could  be  seen 
at  present,  did  not l  come  within  the  compass  of  treason,' 
'  and  better  it  were  in  the  beginning  to  foresee  the 
matter  than  to  attempt  it  with  discredit,  not  without 
opinion  of  evil  will  or  malice.'  He  sent  Elizabeth  a 
copy  of  the  statute  of  Edward  III.  He  recommended 
that  in  the  inquiry  into  Norfolk's  behaviour  the  word 
treason  should  not  be  mentioned.  '  Better,'  he  said, 
half  in  irony — 'better  marry  the  Duke  to  somebody. 
Provide  him  with  a  wife  and  his  hopes  of  the  Scotch 
Queen  will  pass  away.' 1 

Elizabeth  was  but  half  convinced.  On  the  8th  of 
October  an  order  was  made  out  to  Sir  Francis  Knowles 
to  take  charge  of  the  person  of  the  Duke  of  Norfolk 
and  conduct  him  to  the  Tower.2  He  was  not  prepared 
for  so  decisive  measures.  He  had  communicated  since 
his  arrest  with  Don  Guerau,  under  the  impression  that 
he  was  too  large  a  person  to  be  rudely  handled,  and 


1  Cecil  to  Elizabeth,  October  6, 
1569 :  Endorsed,  '  My  advice  to  her 
Majesty  in  the  Duke  of  Norfolk's 


case :  Cotton.  MSS.  CALIG.  C.  i. 

2  Commission  to  Sir  F.  Knowles, 
October  8  :  MSS.  Domestic. 


04  RElGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  54. 

still  talking  of  changing  the  government  and  over- 
throwing Cecil.  He  believed  himself  to  be  popular  in 
London.  He  had  persuaded  himself  that  the  Queen 
could  not  risk  the  danger  of  sending  him  under  a  guard 
through  the  streets. 

Don  Guerau  thought  that  he  was  mistaken.  Though 
he  regarded  the  heretics  as  children  of  hell,  he  respected 
their  courage,  nor  did  he  expect,  since  the  success  at 
Hamburgh,  that  the  city  would  be  disturbed.  The 
Government,  to  incur  no  unnecessary  risk,  sent  the 
prisoner  by  water  from  Windsor.  The  banks  between 
Westminster  and  London  bridge  were  lined  with 
crowds,  who,  according  to  La  Mothe,  were  vociferous 
in  their  expressions  of  displeasure,  but  there  was  no 
attempt  at  rescue ;  and  when  the  Tower  gates  closed 
behind  the  head  of  the  English  nobility,  no  party  in 
the  country  felt  less  pity  for  him  than  those  whose 
fine-laid  schemes  he  had  played  with  arid  ruined  by  his 
cowardice. 

On  the  8th  of  October  Don  Guerau  wrote  to 
Philip  :- 

*  The  Earls  of  Northumberland,  Westmoreland, 
Cumberland,  and  Derby — the  whole  Catholic  body — 
are  furious  at  the  timidity  which  the  Duke  has  shown. 
The  Earl  of  Northumberland's  servant  who  was  here  a 
while  ago  about  this  business,  has  returned  to  me,  and 
I  have  letters  also  in  cipher  from  the  Bishop  of  Ross. 
The  sum  of  their  message  to  me  is  this,  that  they  will 
take  forcible  possession  of  the  Queen  of  Scots.  They 
will  then  make  themselves  masters  of  the  northern 


1569.1  ENGLISH  PARTIES  g$ 

counties,  re-establish  the  Catholic  religion,  and  restore 
to  your  Majesty  whatever  prizes  taken  from  your  Ma- 
jesty's subjects  now  in  the  harbours  on  these  coasts. 
They  hope  that  when  the  Queen  of  Scots  is  free  they 
may  be  supplied  with  a  few  harquebuss-men  from  the 
Low  Countries.  I  have  referred  their  request  to  the 
Duke  of  Alva.' x 


1  MSti.  tiimancas. 


g6 


CHAPTER  LITL 

THE    RISING    OF    THE    NORTH. 

THE  Duke  of  Norfolk  was  in  the  Tower;  Pem- 
broke, Anmdel,  Throgmorton,  and  Lumley  were 
under  arrest  at  Windsor ;  Leicester  alone  of  the  party 
about  the  Court  who  had  been  implicated  in  the  mar- 
riage intrigue,  had  run  for  harbour,  when  he  saw  the 
storm  coming,  and  had  escaped  imprisonment.  But 
the  revelation  of  so  dangerous  a  temper  so  close  at  her 
own  door,  however  veiled  it  might  be  under  professions 
of  fidelity,  and  the  sudden  breach  with  half  her  first 
advisers,  who  for  ten  years  had  stood  loyally  at  her 
side,  had  shocked  Elizabeth  inexpressibly.  The  com- 
posing language  of  Cecil  failed  to  quiet  her.  So  furious 
was  she  with  Norfolk,  that  in  the  intervals  of  hysterics, 
she  said  that,  'law  or  no  law/  'she  would  have  his 
head/ 1  She  was  distracted  with  the  sense  of  dim  but 
fearful  perils  overshadowing  her,  which  she  felt  to  be 
near  but  could  not  grasp  ;  and  for  ever  the  figure  of  the 

1  '  Allez,  diet  elle ;  ce  que  Ics  loix    rite  le  pourra.' — La  Mothe  au  Roy, 


ne  pourront  sur  sa  teste,  mon  autho- 


October  28  :  Dfyeches,  vol.  ii. 


1569.]  THE  RISING  OF  THE  NORTH.  97 

prisoner  at  Tutbury  floated  ominously  in  the  air,  haunt- 
ing her  dreams  and  perplexing  her  waking  thoughts. 
The  ingenuity  with  which  she  had  tempted  Murray  to 
produce  the  casket  had  failed  of  its  purpose.  The  peers, 
as  well  as  the  council,  had  seen  the  damning  proofs  of 
Mary  Stuart's  guilt ;  not  one  among  them  had  pre- 
tended to  believe  her  innocent ;  yet  so  terrible  to  the 
mind  of  England  was  the  memory  of  York  and  Lan- 
caster, that,  to  escape  a  second  war  of  succession,  they 
were  ready  to  condone  the  crimes  of  the  second  person 
in  the  realm ;  and  one  of  them,  the  highest  subject  in 
the  land,  was  willing  to  take  the  murderess  to  his  bed. 
It  was  too  late  now  for  Elizabeth  to  throw  herself  upon 
the  world's  conscience,  publish  the  letters,  and  declare 
her  rival  infamous.  The  peers,  who  for  very  shame  in 
the  past  winter  would  have  been  compelled  to  consent, 
would  now  refuse  to  set  their  hands  to  her. condemna- 
tion, and  a  proclamation  unsupported  by  names  which 
would  be  open  to  no  suspicion,  would  no  longer  carry 
conviction  to  the  people. 

In  August,  chafed  by  the  demands  of  the  Court  of 
France,  irritated  at  the  ferment  at  the  Court,  and  at  the 
consciousness  that  half  her  present  vexations  were  her 
own  work,  through  her  refusal  to  marry  the  Archduke  ; 
half  regretting,  now  when  it  was  too  late,  that  she  had 
thrown  away  an  opportunity  which  would  have  pacified 
legitimate  discontent,1  she  was  on  the  point  of  making 


1  '  If  the  Queen's  Majesty  had  in 
time  married  with  the  Archduke 
Charles,  wherein  you  write  she  now 


uttereth  her  disposition,  it  had  been 
the  better  way  for  her  surety.  But 
that  mattex  hath  been  so  handled  as 


VOL.  IX. 


9%  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH  [CH.  53. 

a  victim  of  the  Earl  of  Murray,  breaking  her  soleinr 
promise,  and  forcing  back  upon  him  the  sovereign 
whom  only  she  had  induced  him  to  accuse. 

She  was  now  frightened  into  a  recollection  of  her 
obligations.  She  discovered  that  the  matter  which  had 
been  proposed  by  her  '  was  very  weighty,'  that  Mur- 
ray's answer  '  had  been  with  great  deliberation  con- 
ceived, and  carried  with  it  much  reason.'1  But  the 
difficulty  of  the  Queen  of  Scots'  presence  was  none  the 
less  embarrassing.  She  could  trust  no  one  since  the 
rupture  in  the  council  but  Cecil  and  two  or  three  more. 
Lord  Shrewsbury  was  suspected  for  those  Catholic  tend- 
encies on  account  of  which  he  had  been  selected  as  the 
Queen  of  Scots'  guardian ;  but  the  substitution  of 
Huntingdon,  though  necessary  for  her  immediate 
safety,  had  been  received  with  strong  expressions  of 
displeasure  by  the  ambassadors  of  the  Catholic  Powers. 
She  had  offended  a  powerful  English  nobleman,  and  it 
was  to  no  purpose  that  she  pretended  that  her  motive 
in  making  the  change  had  been  Lord  Shrewsbury's  ill 
health.  The  Earl  demanded  as  a  point  of  honour,  that 
the  prisoner  should  be  restored  to  his  custody ; 2  and, 
although  the  danger  of  escape  was  notoriously  increased, 
the  Queen  could  not  afford  to  alienate  a  tottering 


on  the  one  side  it  is  desperate  that 
her  Majesty  will  bona  fide  intend  to 
marry,  and  on  the  other  side  it  is 
doubtful  whether  upon  the  hard 
dealings  past  she  may  be  induced  to 
any  further  talk  thereby.  God  work 
in  her  heart  to  do  that  may  be  most 
for  her  honour  and  surety.' — Sussex 


to  Cecil,  October  1 1  :  Cotton.  MSS. 
BM. 

1  Elizabeth  to  Murray,  October 
23 :  MSS.  Scotland. 

•  Correspondence  between  Shrews- 
bury, Huntingdon,  and  Cecil,  Octo 
ber,  1569  :  MSS.  QUEEN  OF  SCOTS,- 


1569.]  THE  RISING  OF  THE  NORTH,  99 

loyalty,  and  with  the  advice  of  Huntingdon  himself, 
she  consented.1 

Again  therefore  there  was  an  anxious  considera- 
tion of  the  steps  to  be  taken ;  and  again,  the  private 
papers  of  Cecil  reveal  the  most  secret  thoughts  of  the 
Court.  One  short  road  there  was.  The  past  reigns 
afforded  many  precedents  for  the  treatment  of  pre- 
tenders to  the  crown.  The  Queen  '  might  do  that  which 
in  other  times  kings  and  princes  had  done  by  justice- 
take  the  Queen  of  Scots'  life  from  her ;  ' 2  or,  if  this 
was  too  severe  a  measure,  she  might  keep  Jier  in  strait 
prison  till  her  health  failed  and  she  died,  as  poor 
Catherine  Grey  had  died.  But  '  her  Majesty,'  who  had 
shown  no  pity  to  the  innocent  wife  of  Lord  Hertford, 
affected  to  '  dread  the  slander  to  herself  and  the  realm ; ' 
she  found  '  her  disposition  was  to  show  clemency,  and 
she  would  not  by  imprisonment  or  otherwise  use  that 
avenge.' 

There  remained  therefore  three  possibilities  :  either 
to  keep  her  in  England  as  the  unwilling  guest  of  Lord 
Shrewsbury,  prevented  from  escaping,  but  with  no 
further  restrictions  upon  her  enjoyments  and  her  ex- 
ercise ;  or  to  let  her  go  to  France ;  or,  finally,  to  send 
her  back  to  Scotland  as  a  prisoner. 

The  second  could  not  be  thought  of.  '  It  was  in 
France  that  she  did  first  pretend  and  publish  her  title 


1  '  Han  quitado  al  Conde  2e 
Huntingdon  dc  la  guarda  de  la  de 
Escocia  quo  sera  ya  gran  comodidad. 
La  guarda  del  Conde  de  Shrewsbury 
Ho  siendo  tan  estreclia  hay  grande 


comodidad  de  darle  libertad.' — Don 
Guerau  to  Philip,  November  20 : 
MSS.  Simancas. 

2  Notes  in  Cecil's  hand,  October, 
1569  :   Cotton.  MSS.  B.M. 


ioo  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [en.  53. 

to  the  crown  of  England :  she  continued  in  the  same 
mind,  and  no  place  could  serve  her  better  to  prosecute 
still  the  same  intentions/ 

In  England,  unless  she  was  restricted  from  all  com- 
munication, she  would  be  the  focus  of  perpetual  con- 
spiracy. '  The  number  of  Papists/  in  Cecil's  judgment, 
'was  constantly  increasing/  A  large  party  in  the 
State,  '  Papists,  Protestants,  and  Neutrals/  were  ( in- 
clined from  worldly  respects/  in  consequence  of  the 
Queen's  refusal  to  marry,  to  favour  the  Scottish  title. 
The  conspiracy  in  the  council  had  arisen  from  a  craving 
*  for  the  certainty  of  some  succession/  and  for  a  union 
of  the  island  under  one  sovereign.  Every  person  in  the 
country,  who  was  discontented  '  either  from  matters  of 
religion,  Court  neglect,  or  poverty,  or  other  causes/ 
would  take  the  side  of  the  Queen  of  Scots  for  the  mere 
hope  of  some  change.  Her  presence  in  the  realm 
would  be  a  perpetual  temptation.  Her  person,  except 
as  a  close  prisoner,  could  not  be  effectively  secured. 
She  might  escape,  she  might  be  carried  off,  or  her 
keepers  might  be  corrupted.  The  foreign  Courts  would 
never  cease  to  worry  the  Queen  with  requests  for  her 
release.  She  might  contract  herself  to  some  prince 
who  would  demand  her  as  his  wife,  and  a  refusal  to 
part  with  her  might  be  construed  into  an  occasion  of 
war.  '  Being  in  captivity/  she  would  be  increasingly 
commiserated;  '  her  sufferings  more  lamented  than  her 
fault  condemned/  'The  casualty  of  her  death  by  course 
of  nature  would  be  interpreted  to  the  worst/  The 
Queen's  own  health  '  might  be  worn  away  with  per- 


1569.]  THE  RISING  OF  THE  NORTH.  101 

petual  anxiety/  and  should  she  die  suddenly,  with  the 
succession  unprovided  for,  the  consequences  could  not 
fail  to  be  most  dreadful.1 

The  arguments,  so  far,  pointed  to  the  replacing 
Mary  Stuart  in  the  condition  from  which  she  had 
escaped  in  her  flight  from  Lochleven,  with  this  differ- 
ence only,  that  Murray  and  Murray's  party  would  be 
required  to  give  hostages  for  the  security  of  her  life, 
and  for  her  safe  keeping  during  Elizabeth's  pleasure. 

Yet  this  measure  too  was  not  without  its  objections. 
If  Murray  died  or  was  murdered,  it  was  uncertain 
whether  his  party  would  be  strong  enough  to  hold  her. 
She  might  escape  as  she  escaped  before.  The  Catholic 
Powers  would  have  as  many  motives  as  ever  for  inter- 
ference, and  she  herself '  would  be  the  bolder  to  practise 
being  then  in  prison,  because  she  would  think  her  life  in 
no  danger  through  the  hostages  in  England.'  There 
would  be  the  same  peril  of  her  contracting  a  marriage 
abroad  ;  while,  should  her  own  friends  in  Scotland  gain 
the  upper  hand,  she  would  be  restored  to  the  govern- 
ment ;  the  Protestant  religion  would  be  suppressed,  and 
tli3  two  countries  relapse  into  their  old  hostility.  The 
great  point  was  to  hold  her  fast,  and  this  could  be  done 
more  easily  in  England  than  in  Scotland.  The  govern- 
ment of  the  young  King  could  then  be  firmly  established, 
and  should  France  or  Spain  '  attempt  anything  for  her,' 
while  she  was  in  the  Queen  of  England's  hands,  '  her 
Majesty  might  justly,  if  she  was  thereto  provoked, 


1  Notes  in  Cecil's  hand,  October,  1569  :  Cotton.  MSS.  BM. 


102 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


[CH.  53. 


make  an  end  of  the  matter  by  using  extremity  on  her 
part/  l 

The  reasoning  on  both  sides  was  so  evenly  balanced 
that  either  Cecil's  mind  wavered,  or  else  his  own  judg- 
ment pointed  one  way  and  Elizabeth's  wishes  the  other.2 
At  last  however  a  further  suggestion  presented  itself. 
The  root  of  Elizabeth's  difficulties  had  been,  first,  her 
unnecessary  interference  to  prevent  the  Scots  from  try- 
ing their  Queen  for  the  murder,  and,  secondly,  her 
want  of  courage  in  publishing  the  results  of  the  investi- 
gation at  Hampton  Court.  She  could  no  longer  do  this 
herself,  but  the  public  disgrace  would  be  equally  insured, 


1  Notes  in  Cecil's  hand,  October, 
1569  :  Cotton.  MSS.  CALIG.  B.M. 

In  a  letter  said  to  have  been 
written  by  Leicester  in  1585,  there  is 
a  statement  that  in  the  autumn  of 
1 569,  in  consequence  of  the  discovery 
of  Mary  Stuart's  intrigues, '  the  Great 
Seal  of  England  was  sent  'down  and 
thought  just  and  meet  upon  the 
sudden  for  her  execution.'  The  letter 
is  printed  by  Mr  Tytler,  History  of 
Scotland,  vol.  vii.  p.  463,  and  the 
fact  is  by  him  assumed  to  be  true. 
The  records  of  this  year  are  so  com- 
plete, the  changing  feelings,  the  per- 
plexities, the  hesitations  of  the  Go- 
vernment are  so  copiously  revealed 
in  the  loose  notes  of  Cecil,  that  it  is 
hard  to  understand  ho\v  a  resolution 
of  so  much  magnitude  could  have 
been  arrived  at  without  some  definite 
trace  of  it  being  discoverable.  The 
contingency  of  the  Queen  of  Scots' 
execution  was  obviously  contem- 


plated as  not  impossible ;  but  in  the 
absence  of  other  evidence  it  is  more 
likely  either  that  Leicester,  writing 
sixteen  years  after,  made  a  mistake 
in  the  date,  or  that  an  error  has  crept 
in  through  transcribers.  The  ori- 
ginal of  the  letter,  I  believe,  is  no 
longer  extant. 

2  In  following  Cecil's  papers 
there  is  always  great  difficulty  in 
distinguishing  his  own  opinions  from 
the  Queen's.  Letters  in  his  hand 
were  often  written  by  him  merely  as 
Elizabeth's  secretary  and  against  his 
own  judgment.  They  were  fre- 
quently accompanied  by  private  com- 
munications from  himself,  in  which 
he  deplored  resolutions  which  he 
was  unable  to  prevent.  In  the  pre- 
sent instance  there  are  many  papers 
all  in  the  same  hand,  all  written 
within  a  few  days  of  each  other, 
pointing  to  different  conclusions, 


1569.] 


THE  RISING  OF  THE  NORTH. 


103 


if  the  Scots  were  now  allowed  to  do  what  before  they 
desired  to  do,  if  Mary  Stuart  was  replaced  in  their 
hands,  and  was  brought  publicly  to  the  bar  in  her  own 
country.1  It  has  been  already  mentioned  that  Sir  H. 
Carey  had  been  sent  down  to  consult  the  Regent.  This 
plan  it  is  at  least  likely  that  he  was  secretly  instructed 
to  propose. 

Meanwhile  Cecil  set  himself  to  discover  whether 
Norfolk's  conduct  had  further  bearings  than  as  yet  he 
knew  of.  His  position  was  critical  in  the  extreme. 
Half  the  council — the  Reactionaries,  Conservatives, 
Moderates,  Semi- Catholics,  or  by  whatever  name  they 
may  be  called — were  in  disgrace.  Leicester,  then  as 
ever  useless  for  any  honourable  purpose,  was  a  dead 
weight  upon  his  hands,  and  he  was  left  alone  with  those 
who  along  with  himself  were  dreaded  as  the  advocates 
of  revolution — the  Lord  Keeper,  the  Earl  of  Bedford, 
Sir  Walter  Mildmay,  Sir  Francis  Knowles,  and  Sir 
Ralph  Sadler.  These  half-dozen  men,  among  whom 
Bedford  alone  possessed  pretensions  to  high  birth,  had 
to  undertake  the  examination  of  the  noblemen  who  had 
so  lately  sat  at  the  same  table  with  them.  The  first 
interviews  were  said  to  have  been  sufficiently  stormy.2 
Pembroke  avowed  his  desire  for  the  Norfolk  marriage, 


1  This  Avas  certainly  thought  of, 
although  it  does  not  appear  among 
Cecil's  notes.  Sir  Henry  Neville 
writing  to  him  on  the  4th  of  October 
says  :  '  The  trial  of  the  murder  must 
needs  be  a  safety  unto  the  Queen, 
and  such  a  defacing  unto  the  other 


as  I  think  Avill  pluck  away  that  love 
that  all  your  other  devices  will  not.' 
—Domestic  MSS.  Rolls  House. 

2  '  Pasaron  entre  ellos  muchas 
palabras  de  passion.' — Don  Guerau 
to  Philip,  October  8:  MSS.  Siman- 

MM, 


104 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


[CH.  53. 


and  did  not  shrink  in  any  way  from  the  responsibility 
of  having  advised  it.  So  far  as  the  lords  had  acted 
together,  they  had  done  nothing  which  could  be  termed 
disloyal.  Cross- questioning  failed  to  draw  anything 
from  them  which  incriminated  the  Queen  of  Scots,1  and 
Pembroke  both  with  success  and  dignity  defended  the 
integrity  of  his  own  intentions.2  But  he  said  that  he 
was  contented  to  submit  to  the  Queen's  pleasure,  and  it 
was  not  Cecil's  policy  to  press  upon  him.  None  better 
understood  than  he  how  to  build  a  bridge  for  men  to 
retreat  over  out  of  a  false  position.  The  Bishop  of  Ross 
declared  that  '  he  had  never  dealt  with  any  other  except 
such  as  had  credit  with  the  Queen.3  Cecil,  who  had 
not  yet  learned  the  Bishop's  power  of  lying,  let  the 
answer  pass.  To  extract  truth  from  Leslie  required 
sharper  handling  than  words. 

Conciliation,  except  with  the  two  chief  offenders, 
was  the  order  of  the  day.  Traces,  though  indistinct, 
had  been  found  of  the  hand  of  Bidolfi.  He  was  con- 
fined, rather  as  a  guest  than  as  a  prisoner,  in  the  house 
of  Walsingham,  and  was  desired  to  place  in  writing  as 


1  'La  mayorfuer9a  de  laprobar^a 
tiraba  a  culpar  la  de  Escocia,  a.  la 
qual   descargaron   todos   como    era 
justo.' — Don  Guerau  to  Philip,  Octo- 
ber 8 :  MSS.  Simancas. 

2  '  In  those   conferences  that  I 
have  been  at  of  the  Queen  of  Scots' 
marriage  it  is  not  unknown  to  you, 
my  Lord  of  Leicester  and  Mr  Secre- 
tary, to  whose  knowledge   in   this 
behalf  I  appeal,  with  what  earnest- 
ness I  have  always  protested  with  my 


life,  lands,  body,  and  goods,  the  main- 
tenance of  God's  true  religion  now 
established  by  her  Majesty,  and  the 
conservation  of  her  Majesty's  person, 
quiet,  estate,  and  dignity  against  all 
the  attempts — yea,  or  motioners,  of 
the  contrary.'— Pembroke  to  the 
Council,  October,  1569. 

3  Examination  of  the  Bishop  oi 
Ross,  October  10 :  Burghley  Paper*. 
vol.  i. 


1569-]  THE  RISING  OF  THE  NORTH.  105 

much  as  lie  knew  of  a  Catholic  conspiracy.  But  the 
questions  put  to  him.  were  insignificant  and  easily 
evaded.  His  house  was  searched  without  his  know- 
ledge, but  he  had  concealed  or  destroyed  all  his  im- 
portant papers  ;  and  so  little  suspicion  had  the  Queen 
of  the  nature  of  the  person  that  she  had  in  her  hand, 
that  when  he  was  released  from  arrest,  she  consulted 
him  about  the  Spanish  quarrel,  and  '  desired  his  secret 
opinion '  as  to  the  best  means  of  accommodating  her 
differences  with  Philip.1 

Against  Norfolk  the  Queen  was  still  violently  angry. 
Although  she  had  no  proof  that  he  had  meditated 
treason,  she  felt  instinctively  that  she  could  not  trust 
him.  He  wrote  repeatedly  to  her,  insisting  upon  his 
loyalty,  and  '  taking  God  to  witness  he  never  thought 
to  do  anything  that  might  be  disagreeable  to  her  good 
pleasure : '  but  fine  phrases  of  this  kind  had  lost  their 
power ;  Cecil's  plan  of  rendering  him  harmless  by  pro- 
viding him  with  another  Duchess  was  seriously  con- 
templated ;  and  it  was  intimated  to  him,  that  at  all 
events  he  would  not  leave  the  Tower  till  he  had  given 
a  promise  in  writing  to  think  no  more  of  the  Queen  of 
Scots. 

The  Duke's  friends  in  the  council  had  abandoned 
their  project  sincerely.  The  Duke  himself  had  no  in- 
tention whatever  of  abandoning  it.  The  great  Catholic 
party  was  still  entire.  The  mine  which  they  had  dug 
was  still  loaded,  and  the  hope  of  foreign  assistance  as 

1  Leicester  and  Cecil  to  Walsingham,  October  7,  October  19,  October 
,23 :  Domestic  3ISS. 


io6 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


[CH.  53. 


strong  as  ever.  The  Duke  still  expected  that  he  would 
reap  the  fruit  of  all  this,  and  least  of  all  would  he  part 
with  his  hope  of  Mary  Stuart.  But  he  desired  to  re- 
cover his  liberty.  Lies  cost  Norfolk  nothing.  He  was 
ready  to  say  whatever  would  answer  his  purpose.  He 
feared  only  that  if  he  gave  the  Queen  the  promise 
which  she  demanded  from  him,  Mary  Stuart  herself 
might  take  him  at  his  word,  or  the  Bishop  of  Ross  per- 
haps, in  irritation  at  his  apostasy,  might  tell  secrets 
which  would  be  dangerous  to  him  if  revealed.  He  drew 
up  therefore,  in  the  most  complete  form,  the  required 
renunciation ;  he  gave  emphasis  to  his  professions  by 
the  most  elaborate  asseverations  of  good  faith ;  and 
while  he  sent  the  original  of  this  document  to  Elizabeth, 
he  forwarded  a  copy  of  it  to  the  Bishop  of  Ross,  desir- 
ing him  to  tell  his  mistress,  that  he  had  yielded  only  in 
order  to  escape  from  the  Tower,  and  that  he  had  no 
intention  of  observing  an  engagement  which  had  been 
extorted  from  him  by  violence.1 

Could  Norfolk  have  known  the  supreme  willingness 
with  which  Mary  Stuart  had  been  ready  to  throw  him 


1  *  One  great  fault  I  committed. 
When  I  should  send  in  my  submis- 
sion to  her  Majesty,  thinking  that  it 
would  not  long  be  kept  close  but  go 
abroad,  fearing  that  if  it  should  come 
to  the  Bishop's  ears-  he  would  in  a 
rage  accuse  me  of  my  writings, — to 
prevent  the  same  I  sent  the  copy  of 
it  to  him,  to  see,  before  I  sent  it  to 
her  Majesty,  saying  that  necessity 
4rove  me  to  signify  this  or  else  I 


was  like  to  lie  here  while  I  lived  ; 
and  therefore  I  desired  him  that  he 
would  not  mislike  thereof,  and  that 
he  would  also  write  to  the  Queen  of 
Scots  in  that  behalf  that  I  did  it  of 
necessity  and  not  willingly.  I,  trust- 
ing in  worldly  policy,  have  sped 
like  a  mired  horse — the  further  he 
plungeth  the  further  he  is  mired.' — 
Confession  of  the  Duke  of  Norfolk  : 
MSS.  MARY  QUEEN  OF  SCOTS. 


1569.]  THE  RISING  OF  THE  NORTH.  107 

over,  should  it  suit  lief  convenience  to  do  so,  "he  would 
have  been  less  ready  to  lie  for  her.  His  late  imbecility 
had  not  raised  him  in  her  good  opinion  ;  but  as  he  might 
still  be  useful,  she  flattered  him  into  the  continuance  of 
his  folly;  and  both  he  and  she,  while  they  besieged 
Elizabeth  with  protestations  of  their  honesty,  fed  in 
secret  upon  visions  of  coming  triumph  when  Alva's 
legions  would  land  at  Harwich  or  in  Scotland,  and  every 
Catholic  in  the  island  would  spring  into  the  field  to 
join  them. 

But  if  either  these  hopes  were  to  be  realized  or  their 
professions  successfully  maintained,  it  was  necessary  to 
prevent  the  Northern  Counties  from  exploding  into  pre- 
mature rebellion ;  and  this  might  prove  less  easy  than 
Norfolk  wished.  For  years  past — from  the  day  of  her 
return  from  France  to  Holy  rood — Mary  Stuart  had 
been  in  correspondence  with  the  gentlemen  of  York- 
shire and  Northumberland.  The  death  of  Darnley  had 
cooled  their  passion  for  her,  but  when  she  came  to  Eng- 
land she  soon  '  enchanted '  them  again  '  by  her  flexible 
wit  and  sugared  eloquence.' l  Before  Sir  Francis  Kiiowles 
cut  short  her  levees  at  Carlisle,  they  had  listened  in 
hundreds  to  her  own  tale  of  her  wrongs,  and  besides 
their  religion  and  political  predilections  for  her,  they 
had  been  set  on  fire  with  a  chivalrous  enthusiasm  for  the 
lovely  lady  who  was  in  the  hands  of  the  magicians. 

When  she  was  removed  from  Carlisle  to  Bolton,  the 
gates  o'f  Scrope's  castle  were  usually  thrown  open  to  the 


Notes  iu  Cecil's  hand,  October  6 :  Cotton.  MSS.  CALIG.  C. 


108  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [011.53. 

neighbourhood,  and  the  eager  knights- errant  had  free, 
access  to  her  presence.  When  at  times  she  was  thought 
likely  to  attempt  an  escape  and  the  guards  were  set 
upon  the  alert,  loyalty,  like  love,  still  found  means  to 
penetrate  the  charmed  circle.  Every  high-spirited 
young  gentleman,  whose  generosity  was  stronger  than 
his  intelligence,  had  contrived  in  some  way  to  catch  a 
glance  from  her  eyes  and  to  hear  some  soft  words  from 
her  lips,  and  from  that  moment  became  her  slave,  body 
and  soul. 

Conspicuous  among  these  youths  were  the  Nortons, 
of  whom  the  reader  has  heard  as  the  intending  assassins 
of  the  Earl  of  Murray. 

The  father,  Richard  Norton,  was  past  middle  life  at 
ihe  time  of  the  Pilgrimage  of  Grace.  It  may  be  as- 
sumed with  confidence  that  he  was  one  of  the  thirty 
thousand  enthusiasts  who  followed  Robert  Aske  from 
Pomfret  to  Doncaster  behind  the  banner  of  the  Five 
Wounds  of  Christ.  Now  in  his  old  age,  he  was  still 
true  to  the  cause.  He  had  been  left  like  a  great  many 
others  unmolested  in  the  profession  and  practice  of  his 
faith ;  and  he  had  bred  up  eleven  stout  sons  and  eight 
daughters,  all  like  himself  devoted  children  of  Holy 
Church.  One  of  these,  Christofer,  had  been  among  the 
first  to  enroll  himself  a  knight  of  Mary  Stuart.  His 
religion  had  taught  him  to  combine  subtlety  with  cour- 
age ;  and  through  carelessness,  or  treachery,  or  his  own 
address,  he  had  been  admitted  into  Lord  Scrope's  guard 
at  Bolton  Castle.  There  he  was  at  hand  to  assist  his 
lady's  escape,  should  escape  prove  possible  ;  there  he 


1569.]  THE  RISING  OF  THE  NORTH. 


109 


was  able  to  receive  messages  or  carry  them ;  there  to 
throw  the  castellan  off  his  guard,  he  pretended  to  flirt 
with  her  attendants,  and  twice  at  least  by  his  own  con- 
fession, closely  as  the  prisoner  was  watched,  he  contrived 
to  hold  private  communications  with  her. 

The  scenes  which  he  describes  throw  sudden  and 
vivid  light  upon  the  details  of  Mary  Stuart's  confine- 
ment. The  rooms  occupied  by  her  opened  out  of  the 
great  hall.  An  antechamber  and  an  apartment  beyond 
it  were  given  up  to  her  servants.  Her  own  bed-room, 
the  third  of  the  series,  was  at  the  farther  extremity. 
A  plan  had  been  formed  to  carry  her  off.  Lady  Living- 
ston affected  to  be  in  love  with  young  Norton,  and  had 
pretended  to  promise  him  a  secret  interview  in  the 
twilight  outside  the  moat.  The  Queen  was  to  personate 
the  lady,  and  she  and  the  cavalier  were  to  fly  together, 
It  was  necessary  that  Norton  should  see  Mary  Stuart 
to  direct  her  what  she  was  to  do.  He  was  on  duty  in 
the  hall.  By  a  preconcerted  arrangement,  a  page  in 
the  anteroom  took  liberties  with  one  of  the  maids. 
There  was  much  screaming,  tittering,  and  confusion. 
Norton  rushed  in  to  keep  the  peace,  and,  sheltered  by 
the  hubbub,  contrived  to  pass  through  and  to  say  what 
he  desired.  The  scheme,  like  a  hundred  others,  came 
to  nothing ;  but  as  one  web  was  ravelled  out,  a  second 
was  instantly  spun.  Another  time  Mary  Stuart  had 
something  to  say  to  Norton  ;  and  this  scene — so  distinct 
is  the  picture — may  be  told  in  his  own  words : — 

'  One  day  when  the  Queen  of  Scots,  in  winter,1  had 

1  1568-9. 


tio  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  53. 

been  sitting  at  the  window-side  knitting  of  a  work,  and 
after  the  board  was  covered,  she  rose  and  went  to  the 
fire- side,  and,  making  haste  to  have  the  work  finished, 
would  not  lay  it  away,  but  worked  of  it  the  time  she 
was  warming  of  herself.  She  looked  for  one  of  her 
servants,  which  indeed  were  all  gone  to  fetch  up  her 
meat,  and,  seeing  none  of  her  own  folk  there,  called  me 
to  hold  her  work,  who  was  looking  at  my  Lord  Scrope 
and  Sir  Francis  Knowles  playing  of  chess.  I  went, 
thinking  I  had  deserved  no  blame,  and  that  it  should 
not  have  become  me  to  have  refused  to  do  it,  my  Lady 
Scrope  standing  there,  and  many  gentlemen  in  the 
chamber,  that  saw  she  spake  not  to  me.  I  think  Sir 
Francis  saw  not  nor  heard  when  she  called  of  me.  But 
when  he  had  played  his  mate,  he,  seeing  me  standing 
by  the  Queen  holding  of  her  work,  called  my  captain 
to  him  and  asked  him  if  I  watched.  He  answered,, 
sometimes.  Then  he  gave  him  commandment  that  I 
should  watch  no  more,  and  said  the  Queen  would  make 
me  a  fool.'1 

How  full  of  life  is  the  description  !  The  castle  hall, 
the  winter  day,  the  servants  bringing  up  the  dinner, 
the  game  at  chess,  and  Maimouna,  with  her  soft  eyes 
and  skeins  of  worsted,  binding  the  hands  and  heart  of 
her  captive  knight.  Two  years  later  the  poor  youth 
was  under  the  knife  of  the  executioner  at  Tyburn. 

And  such  as  Norton  was,  were  a  thousand  more  who 
hung  about  Bolton,  Wingfield,  Tutbury,  wherever  Mary 

1  Confession  of  Christofer  Norton,  April,  1570:  MSS.  Domestic,  Rolls 
House. 


THE  RISING  OF  THE  NORTH. 


Stuart  was  confined,  lying  in  wait  for  a  glimpse  of  ner 
as  she  passed  hunting,  surrounded  by  her  guards,  or 
watching  at  night  among  the  rocks  and  bushes  for  the 
late  light  of  the  taper  which  flickered  in  her  chamber 
windows.1 

And  now  all  these  youths,  through  the  summer  of 
1 569,  had  been  fed  with  the  hope  that  their  day  was 
coming,  when  either  the  noblemen  of  England  united 
in  council  would  force  the  Queen  to  set  her  captive  free, 
or  they  themselves,  her  glorious  band  of  deliverers, 
were  to  burst  the  walls  of  this  prison  and  bear  her  away 
in  triumph.  The  adhesion  of  the  Duke  of  Norfolk  to 
their  party,  coupled  with  some  uncertainty  among  them- 
selves, had  modified  their  original  programme.  The 
Duke  having  a  large  party  among  the  Protestants,2 
they  intended  to  say  nothing  about  religion  till  they 
had  used  their  help  and  could  afford  to  show  their 
colours.  The  pretext  for  the  rising  was  to  be  the  liber- 
ation of  Mary  Stuart,  the  establishment  of  the  succes- 
sion in  her  favour,  and  the  removal  of  evil  councillors 
about  the  Queen.3  The  signal  for  rebellion  was  to  be 
the  withdrawal  of  the  Duke  of  Norfolk  from  the  Court. 
The  Earls  of  Westmoreland  and  Northumberland  and 
Leonard  Dacres  were  then  to  take  the  field,  while  Nor- 
folk, Arundel,  Montague,  Lumley,  and  the  rest  of  the 


1  One  of  Mary   Stuart's   pecu- 
liarities— a  remarkable  one  in  those 
times— was  that  she  seldom  went  to 
bod  till  one  or  two  in  the  morning. 

2  '  Car  infinis  Protestants  sont 


pour  le  Due.'— La  Mothe  to  the 
King,  October  8. 

3    Confession    of    the    Earl    of 
Northumberland :  Border  MSS. 


112  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  53. 

Confederates  were  to  raise  the  East  and  the  South.1 
Confident  in  their  own  strength,  confident  in  the  seem- 
ing union  of  three  quarters  of  the  nobility,  confident  in 
the  provisions  which  the  Spanish  ambassador  had  made 
in  Alva's  name  and  which  Alva  intended  to  observe  so 
far  as  he  might  find  expedient,  they  believed  that  they 
had  but  to  show  themselves  in  arms,  for  all  opposition 
to  go  down  before  them. 

The  whole  scheme  had  been  thrown  into  confusion 
oy  the  irresolution  of  Norfolk.  Leonard  J)acres,  West- 
moreland, old  Norton,  and  a  number  of  gentlemen, 
were  collected  at  Lord  Northumberland's  house  at  Top- 
eliff,  waiting  for  news  from  London.  The  Duke,  in  the 
short  fit  of  courage  which  returned  to  him  at  Kening- 
hall,  had  sent  to  Northumberland  to  say  '  that  he  would 
stand  and  abide  the  venture  and  not  go  up  to  the 
Queen/  2  They  were  expecting  every  moment  to  hear 
that  the  Eastern  Counties  had  risen,  when  one  mid- 
night, at  the  end  of  September,  they  were  roused  out 
of  their  sleep  to  be  told  that  a  messenger  had  come.  It 
was  a  servant  of  Norfolk's.  He  would  not  come  to  the 
house,  but  was  waiting  '  a  flight  shot  from  the  park 
wall.'  Westmoreland  went  out  to  him  and  came  back 
presently  to  say  '  that  the  Duke,  for  the  brotherly  love 
they  bore  him,  begged  them  not  to  stir  or  he  would  be 
in  danger  of  losing  his  head.' 

The  preparations  for  the  rising  were  so  complete  that 
there  was  scarcely  a  hope  that  their  intentions  could 

1  Confession  of  Thomas  Bishop,  I  2  Confession  of  the  Earl  of 
May  10,  1570:  MSS.  Hatfield.  I  Northumberland :  MSS.  Border. 


1569.]  THE  RISING  OF  THE  NORTH.  113 

be  concealed.  Dacres  and  Northumberland,  '  seeing 
small  hopes  of  success,  were  desirous  to  put  off  the 
matter/  but  many  of  the  gentlemen  being  'hot  and 
earnest/  cursed  the  Duke  and  their  unlucky  connection 
with  him,  and,  careless  whether  he  lived  or  died,  '  re- 
solved to  stir  notwithstanding.'  The  lords  were  obliged 
to  seem  to  yield.  As  Norfolk  had  turned  coward,  they 
were  no  longer  tied  by  other  considerations :  they  could 
now  change  their  cry;  and  when  Westmoreland  in- 
quired what  '  the  quarrel  was  to  be  ? '  there  was  9 
general  shout,  '  for  religion.' 

Lord  Westmoreland  made  an  objection  curiously 
characteristic  of  the  times. 

6  Those/  he  said,  '  that  seem  to  take  that  quarrel  in 
other  countries  are  counted  as  rebels,  and  I  will  never 
blot  my  name,  which  has  been  preserved  thus  long 
without  staining.' l  '  A  scruple  '  rose,  '  whether  by 
God's  law  they  might  wage  battle  against  an  anointed 
Prince,  until  he  or  she  was  lawfully  excommunicated 
by  the  Head  of  the  Church.' 

Three  priests  were  present,  to  whom  the  question 
was  referred.  One,  a  Doctor  Morton,  by  whom  North- 
umberland had  been  reconciled  two  years  before,  said 
that,  as  the  Queen  had  refused  to  receive  the  Pope's 
Nuntio,  she  was  excommunicated  then  and  there  by 
her  own  act.  The  other  two  thought  direct  rebellion 
unlawful  '  until  the  sentence  had  been  orderly  published 
within  the  realm.' 2 


1  Confession  of  the  Earl  of  Northumberland  :  MSS.  Border. 
2  Ibid. 

VOL.    IX.  8 


1 14  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [01.53. 

The  earls  might  have  been  pardoned  for  not  an- 
ticipating the  weakness  of  Norfolk ;  they  were  inex- 
cusable in  not  having  discovered  beforehand  the  con- 
dition of  Catholic  opinion  on  a  point  so  vital.  The 
party  broke  up  with  this  new  element  of  disunion 
among  them.  They  agreed  that  at  least  for  the  pre- 
sent they  must  remain  quiet ;  and  Northumberland  sent 
Sir  Oswald  Wilkinson  to  the  Spanish  ambassador  to 
ascertain  more  certainly  what  they  were  to  look  for 
from  Flanders.1  So  October  passed  away,  bringing 
with  it,  unfortunately,  a  fresh  defeat  of  the  Huguenots 
at  Moncoutour  to  excite  the  Catholics,  while  at  the 
same  time  an  unexpected  commission  of  an  alarming 
kind  came  over  from  Brussels.  The  Spanish  ambassa- 
dor had  been  released  from  restraint,  and  Elizabeth  had 
given  him  to  understand  that  if  some  person  was  sent 
to  her  with  powers  direct  from  the  King  of  Spain,  she 
would  treat  for  the  restoration  of  the  money.  Such  a 
person  was  now  announced  to  be  coming,  bearing,  as 
she  desired,  a  commission  from  Philip  ;  but  the  minister 
selected  for  the  mission  was  the  ablest  officer  in  the 
Duke  of  Alva's  army,  Chapin  Yitelli,  Marquis  of 
Cetona.  Why  a  soldier  had  been  chosen  for  a  diplo- 
matic embassy  was  a  mystery  which  misled  alike  the 
Court  and  the  Catholics.  In  reality  the  Duke  of  Alva, 
finding  a  large  responsibility  thrown  upon  him  by 
Philip,  and  ignorant  how  far  he  could  depend  upon  the 
representations  of  Don  Guerau  and  his  friends,  desired 


1  Confession  of  Oswald  Wilkinson  :  MUKDIN. 


1569.] 


THE  RISING  OF  THE  NORTH. 


to  have  some  professional  opinion  on  the  relative 
strength  of  the  Queen  and  the  Catholics.  Chapin  was 
sent  over  to  negotiate— should  negotiation  prove  possi- 
ble— with  all  sincerity.  If  any  disturbance  broke  out, 
he  was  to  avail  himself  of  it  to  obtain  better  terms  for 
his  master ;  but  he  was  not  intended  to  take  part 
actively  under  any  circumstances,  and  was  merely  to 
use  his  eyes  in  case  ulterior  measures  should  be  event- 
ually necessary.1  The  heated  imagination  of  the  Catho- 
lics however  saw  in  him  the  herald  of  the  coming 
army  of  liberation.  The  news  spread  over  the  kingdom, 
and  the  fire  which  was  beginning  to  smoulder  shot 
again  into  a  blaze.  The  impression  was  confirmed  by 
the  great  anxiety  of  the  Court.  Sixty  gentlemen  who 
attended  Chapin  from  Flanders  were  detained  at  Dover, 
and  he  was  allowed  to  take  on  with  him  no  more  than 
five  attendants  ; 2  while,  owing  to  the  suspension  of  the 


1  That  the  hopes  held  out  by 
Don  Guerau  to  the  Catholics  were 
not  as  yet  to  be  fulfilled  is  perfectly 
clear  from  a  letter  written  by  Philip 
during  the  autumn.  Speaking  of  the 
proposed  insurrection  and  the  over- 
tures of  the  Catholics  to  Don  Guerau, 
Philip  says : — 

'  No  se  puede  ni  debe  tratar  dello 
hasta  ver  al  fin  que  tiene  la  negocia- 
tion  que  se  trae  sobre  restitucion  de 
Lo  arestado,  que  si  sucede  como  se 
pretende,  por  mi  parte  no  se  dejarfr 
de  levantar  adelante  la  antigua  amis- 
tad  que  mis  pasados  y  yo  habemos 
tenido  con  esa  corona:  pero  no  se 
haciendo  asi,  ya  entonces  seria 
mcnester  tomar  otro  camino,  y  para 


tal  caso  es  muy  conveniente  que  vos 
me  vais  siempre  avisando  como  lo 
haceis.' 

Philip  was  just  then  troubled 
with  an  insurrection  of  the  Moors, 
and  having  Flanders  on  his  hands 
also,  was  most  unwilling  to  add  to 
his  embarrassments.  The  English  Ca- 
tholics might  rebel  if  they  pleased.  If 
they  could  overthrow  Elizabeth  with- 
out assistance  from  himself,  he  would 
be  very  well  satisfied,  and  if  vague 
promises  held  out  in  his  name  encour- 
aged them  to  rebel,  the  insurrection 
would  at  least  incline  Elizabeth  to 
come  to  terms  with  Spain 

2  La  Mothe  to  the  King,  Octo- 
ber 8. 


ri6 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


[CH.  53. 


more  moderate  element  in  the  council,  a  step  was  taken 
which,  though  often  threatened,  had  been  hitherto  de- 
layed by  the  influence  of  Pembroke  and  Arundel.  The 
Act  of  Uniformity  was  at  last  to  be  enforced,  and  every 
magistrate  in  the  kingdom  was  to  be  required  to  sub- 
scribe to  an  obligation  to  maintain  the  law,  and  him- 
self to  set  an  example  of  obedience  by  attendance  at 
church.1 

The  ecclesiastical  arrangements  everywhere  were  in 
extreme  confusion  ;  and  the  principles  of  Anglicanism 
had  been  worked  with  extreme  looseness.2 


1  Form  to  be  subscribed  by  all 
magistrates.  Addressed  to  the  Lord 
Keeper. 

'  Our  humble  duties  remembered 
to  your  Lordship.  This  is  to  signify 
that  we  whose  names  are  by  ourselves 
underwritten  do  acknowledge  that 
it  is  our  bounden  duty  to  observe 
the  contents  of  the  Act  of  Parlia- 
ment entitled  An  Act  for  the  Uni- 
formity of  Common  Prayer  and  Serv- 
ice in  the  Church  and  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  Sacraments.  And 
for  observation  of  the  same  law  we 
do  hereby  formally  promise  that 
every  one  of  us  and  our  families  will 
and  shall  repair  and  resort  at  all 
times  convenient  to  our  parish  church, 
or  upon  reasonable  impediment,  to 
other  chapels  or  places  for  the  same 
common  prayer,  and  there  shall 
devoutly  and  duly  hear  and  take 
part  of  the  same  common  prayer  and 
all  other  divine  service,  and  shall 
also  receive  the  Holy  Sacrament 
from  time  to  time  according  to  the 


terms  of  the  said  Act  of  Parlia- 
ment. Neither  shall  any  of  us  that 
have  subscribed  do  or  say  or  assert, 
or  suffer  anything  to  be  done  or  said 
by  our  procurement  or  allowance,  in 
contempt,  lack,  or  reproof  of  any 
part  of  religion  established  by  the 
foresaid  Act.'  — MSS.  Domestic,  No- 
vember, 1569. 

2  In  connection  with  the  bond  of 
the  magistrates,  reports  were  sent  in 
of  the  condition  of  different  dioceses. 
The  following  account  of  the  diocese 
of  Chichester  may  perhaps  be  an 
illustration  of  the  state  of  the  rest 
of  the  county.  Sussex  being  £ 
southern  country  was  one  of  those 
where  the  Reformation  was  sup- 
posed  to  have  made  most  progress 

Disorders  in  the  Diocese  of  Chichester, 

December,  1569. 

'  In  many  churches  they  have  no 
sermons,  not  one  in  seven  years,  and 
some  not  one  in  twelve  years,  as 
the  parishes  have  declared  to  the 


1569-] 


TH£  RISING  OF  THE  NORTH. 


117 


The  bishops,  who  were  sure  of  Elizabeth's  counten- 
ance in  persecuting  Puritans,  could  not  trust  to  be  sup- 
ported if  they  meddled  with  the  other  side ;  and  it  was 
not  till  her  present  alarm  that  the  Queen  was  roused  to 


preachers  that  lately  came  thither  to 
preach.  Few  churches  have  their 
quarter  sermons  according  to  the 
Queen  Majesty's  injunctions. 

'  In  Boxgrave  is  a  very  fair 
church,  and  therein  is  neither  parson, 
vicar,  nor  curate,  but  a  sorry  reader. 

'In  the  Deanery  of  Medhurst 
there  are  some  beneficed  men  which 
did  preach  in  Queen  Mary's  days, 
and  now  do  not  nor  will  not,  and 
yet  keep  their  livings. 

'  Others  be  fostered  in  gentlemen's 
houses,  and  some  betwixt  Sussex  and 
Hampshire,  and  are  hinderers  of  true 
religion  and  do  not  minister.  Others 
come  not  at  their  parish  church  nor 
receive  the  Holy  Communion  at 
Easter  ;  but  at  that  time  get  them 
out  of  the  country  until  that  feast  be 
passed  and  return  not  again  until 
then. 

*  They  have  many  books  that  were 
made  beyond  the  seas  and  they  have 
them  there  with  the  first ;  for  ex- 
hibitioners goeth  out  of  that  shire 
and  diocese  unto  them  beyond  the 
seas.  As  to  Mr  Stapleton,  who,  be- 
ing excommunicated  by  the  Bishop, 
did  fly  and  avoid  the  realm,  these 
men  have  his  goods  and  send  him 
money  for  them. 

'  In  the  church  of  Arundel  cer- 
tain altars  do  stand  yet  still  to  the 
offence  of  the  godly  which  murmur 
and  speak  much  against  the  same. 


'  They  have  yet  in  the  diocese  in 
many  places  thereof  images  hidden 
and  other  Popish  ornaments  ready 
to  set  up  the  mass  again  within  24 
hours'  warning,  as  in  the  town  of 
Battle  and  in  the  parish  of  Linde- 
field,  where  they  be  yet  very  blind 
and  superstitious. 

'  In  the  town  of  Battle,  where  ft 
preacher  doth  come  and  speak  any- 
thing against  the  Pope's  doctrine, 
they  will  not  abide,  but  get  them 
out  of  the  church. 

'  In  many  places  they  keep  yet 
their  chalices,  looking  to  have  mass 
again,  whereas  they  were  commanded 
to  turn  them  into  communion  cups 
after  our  fashion,  keeping  yet  weight 
for  weight.  Some  parishes  feign 
that  their  chalices  were  stolen  away, 
and  therefore  they  ministered  in 
glasses  and  profane  goblets. 

'  In  many  places  the  people  can- 
not yet  say  their  commandments, 
and  in  some  not  the  articles  of  their 
belief. 

'  In  the  cathedral  church  of  Chi- 
chester  there  be  very  few  preachers 
resident — of  thirty-one  prebendaries 
scarcely  four  or  five. 

'  Few  of  the  aldermen  of  Chi- 
chester  be  of  a  good  religion,  but 
are  vehemently  suspected  to  favour 
the  Pope's  doctrine  ;  and  yet  they 
be  justices  of  the  peace.'  —  MSS. 
Domestic,  Rolls  Souse. 


n&  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [cH.  53. 

a  conviction  that  she  could  no  longer  halt  safely  be- 
tween two  opinions. 

In  the  neighbourhood  of  London  the  Commission 
was  not  ill  received.  A  few  magistrates  here  and  there 
hesitated  at  the  bond  from  '  scrupulosity  of  conscience/ 
but  all  were  ready  to  give  securities  for  their  allegiance, 
and  to  renew  their  oaths  to  the  Queen  '  as  their  lawful 
sovereign.' 

The  experiment  was  far  more  critical  in  the  Northern 
Counties,  where  the  mere  rumour  of  the  intention  was 
so  much  fresh  fuel  on  the  fire.  There,  in  their  unani- 
mity of  opposition,  the  people  were  unconscious  of  the 
strength  of  Protestantism  elsewhere,  and  they  despised 
as  well  as  hated  it. 

Doctor  Morton,  after  the  breaking  up  of  the  assem- 
bly at  Topcliff,  travelled  rapidly  about  the  country  to 
ascertain  the  general  feeling  on  the  difficulty  which  had 
arisen.  He  had  been,  or  professed  to  have  been,  in 
other  parts  of  the  island  as  well,  and  to  have  learnt  the 
universal  sentiments  of  the  English  nation.  On  his  re- 
turn old  Norton  and  many  others  again  repaired  to  the 
Earl  of  Northumberland.  They  had  gone  so  far,  they 
said,  that  they  could  not  go  back,  and  they  must  either 
rise  or  'fly  the  realm.7  '  It  would  be  a  great  discredit 
to  leave  off  so  godly  an  enterprise ;  all  England  was 
looking  to  see  what  they  would  do,  and  would  assist  when 
the  first  blow  was  struck/1  Father  Morton  followed  to 
the  same  purpose.  As  to  the  excommunication,  he  said 
they  ought  rather  to  prevent  it  than  wait  for  it :  unless 

1  Northumberland's  confession  ;  Border  MSS. 


1569-1 


THE  RISING  OF  THE  NORTH. 


119 


the  government  was  changed  the  Pope  would  proceed 
with  the  censures,  and  then  not  only  their  souls  would 
be  in  danger,  but  the  independence  of  England  might 
be  lost  also.1  He  implored  them  to  delay  no  longer, 
but  to  take  arms  at  once  for  their  country,  their  Saviour, 
and  their  Church.  The  Duke  of  Norfolk  had  failed 
them,  but  they  were  happy  in  the  loss  of  his  support. 
With  Norfolk  for  an  ally  they  could  have  risen  only  for 
the  settlement  of  the  succession ;  they  could  now  touch 
the  hearts  of  every  Christian  Englishman  by  declaring 
themselves  the  defenders  of  the  ancient  faith.2 


1  '  .Doctor  Morton  said  that  the 
Christian  princes,  through  the  Pope's 
persuasion,  would  seek  to  subvert  us 
if  we  did  not  seek  to  reform  it  with- 
in ourselves  ;  affirming  that  he  had 
travelled  through  the  most  part  of 
England,  and  did  find  the  most  part 
of  the  common  people  much  inclined 
thereto  if  so  be  that  any  one  would 
begin  to  take  the  enterprise  in  hand.' 
— Francis  Norton  to  Leicester  and 
Cecil.  Flanders  MSS.  Rolls  House. 

"With  the  laudable  desire  of  sim- 
plifying the  study  of  the  MSS.  in 
the  Record  Office,  the  keepers  have 
divided  them  into  groups  according 
to  the  country  to  which  they  are 
supposed  to  refer.  In  illustration  of 
the  utility  of  this  arrangement,  the 
student  of  the  history  of  the  Northern 
itebellion  must  look  first  in  the  col- 
lection called  the  Border  Papers, 
because  the  action  lay  chiefly  in 
Yorkshire  and  Northumberland. 
"When  the  movement  surges  across 


the  TAveed  the  traces  in  the  Bor- 
der Papers  are  lost,  and  he  must 
turn  to  the  series  for  Scotland.  To 
fill  out  his  picture  he  must  refer  to 
a  separate  collection,  supposed  to  be 
devoted  to  the  Queen  of  Scots.  For 
the  opinions  so  supremely  important 
of  the  English  ministers  he  must 
look  to  their  correspondence  under 
the  head  of  Ireland,  Germany, 
France,  or  Italy.  The  confessions 
of  the  important  prisoners  are  in  the 
Domestic  Papers,  because  they  were 
tried  in  London,  and  the  account  of 
the  same  scenes  given  for  instance 
by  Francis  Norton  is  to  be  found 
in  the  Flanders  Papers,  because  he 
escaped  to  the  Duke  of  Alva.  The 
general  result  has  been  hitherto 
hopeless  confusion ;  the  classification 
however  is  now  to  some  extent  recti- 
fied in  the  calendars  of  the  Master 
of  the  Rolls. 

2  '  Our  first   purpose    was    the 
establishment  of  the  succession.  Since 


120 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


53. 


The  priest's  eloquence  was  not  entirely  successful. 
The  temper  of  the  south  of  England  was  known  only 
*  upon  conjectures/  Northumberland  wrote  to  various 
friends,  but  '  was  answered  with  such  coldness  as  mis- 
liked  him.'1  In  the  autumn  fairs  in  Yorkshire,  men 
formed  and  gathered  in  knots  and  groups,  and  the  air 
was  full  of  uneasy  'expectations  of  change/  Still 
nothing  was  done.  Lord  Derby,  among  others,  was 
ominously  silent,  which,  as  Northumberland  said, 
'  greatly  discouraged  him.'  The  Queen  of  Scots  and 
Don  Guerau  equally  recommended  quiet. 

Meanwhile  Lord  Sussex,  who  was  established  at 
York  as  President  of  the  council,  was  anxiously  watch- 
ipg  the  condition  of  the  Northern  districts.  As  a  friend 
of  Norfolk,  Sussex  had  been  counted  upon  by  the  Con- 
federates as  likely  to  be  favourable  to  them.  In  their 
altered  position  they  were  less  able  to  tell  what  to  ex- 
pect from  him.  At  the  beginning  of  October  he  in- 
vited the  Earls  of  Northumberland  and  Westmoreland 
to  York,  to  give  him  the  benefit  of  their  advice.  Wish- 
ing to  feel  his  temper  they  immediately  complied  ; 2  and 
they  found  at  once  that  he  had  not  the  slightest  dispo- 
sition towards  disloyalty.  The  Norfolk  marriage  was 
talked  over.  They  both  assured  him  '  that  they  would 
never  stand  to  any  matters  that  should  be  to  her  Ma- 


the  apprehension  of  the  Duke  of 
Norfolk  the  setting  up  of  religion, 
meaning  Papistry,  is  our  purpose.' 
— Declaration  of  George  Tongue, 
November  8  :  Bonier  MSS. 


1  Northumberland's  confession : 
Border  MSS. 

2  Sussex  to  Sir  George  Bowes, 
October  9  :  Memorials  of  the  Rebel 
lion  0/1569. 


1569.]  THE  RISING  OF  THE  NORTH.  121 

jesty's  displeasure  or  against  her  surety;'1  and  Sussex 
believed  them  and  allowed  them  to  return  to  their 
houses.  Reports  reached  him  afterwards  that  they  had 
taken  arms,  and  that  the  country  was  up ;  but  he  ascer- 
tained that  their  stables  were  more  than  usually  empty, 
that  there  were  no  signs  of  preparation  in  their  estab- 
lishments, and  that  at  least  for  the  present  no  danger 
was  to  be  apprehended.  He  had  a  narrow  escape  of 
falling  a  victim  to  his  confidence.  Assured  of  the  popu- 
lar feeling  on  their  side,  the  Earls  believed  that  if  they 
could  seize  York  and  make  themselves  masters  of  the 
local  government,  Lord  Derby  and  the  other  waverers 
would  no  longer  hesitate  to  join  them.  It  was  proposed 
that  Northumberland  with  a  few  hundred  horse  should 
make  a  sudden  dart  upon  the  city  some  Sunday  morn- 
ing, lie  concealed  in  the  woods  till  the  bell  '  left  knoll- 
ing  for  sermon,'  and  then  ride  in,  stop  the  doors  of  the 
cathedral,  and  take  President  and  council  prisoners. 
'  Treason '  however  had  a  terrible  sound  to  an  English 
nobleman.  They  reflected  '  that  the  thing  might  cause 
bloodshed/  and  so  'passed  it  over;'2  waiting  till  cir- 
cumstances came  to  their  assistance  and  decided  their 
course  for  them. 

Their  names  were  often  mentioned  in  the  examina- 
tions which  followed  on  Norfolk's  arrest ;  and  it  came 
out  that  they  had  been  in  correspondence  with  Don 
Guerau.  The  Queen  required  their  presence  in  London, 
and  though  Sussex  doubted  the  prudence  of  sending  for 

1  Sussex  to  the  Queen,  October  I        2  Northumberland's  confession : 
30 :  Border  MSS.  •  Ibid. 


ii2  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  53. 

them  till  the  winter  was  further  advanced,  Elizabeth 
was  peremptory,  and  insisted  that  they  should  come  to 
her  without  delay. 

The  two  noblemen  whose  names  were  to  acquire  a 
brief  distinction  were  by  position  and  family  the  he- 
reditary leaders  of  the  North — it  may  be  said  the  here- 
ditary chiefs  of  English  revolution.  Northumberland 
was  the  descendant  of  the  great  Earl  who  had  given  the 
throne  to  the  House  of  Lancaster.  His  father,  Sir 
Thomas  Percy,  had  been  attainted  and  executed  after  the 
Pilgrimage  of  Grace,  but  the  confiscated  estates  were 
restored  to  the  old  house  by  Queen  Mary,  and  the  young 
Earl  had  come  back  to  his  inheritance  amidst  the  passion- 
ate enthusiasm  of  a  people  to  whom  the  Percies  had  been 
more  than  their  sovereign. 

The  Earl  of  Westmoreland  was  the  head  of  the  great 
House  of  Neville,  from  a  younger  branch  of  which 
had  sprung  Warwick,  the  King-maker.  He  was  the 
great- grandson  of  Stafford,  Duke  of  Buckingham.  He 
had  married  a  sister  of  the  Duke  of  Norfolk.  No 
shield  in  England  showed  prouder  quartering^,  and  no 
family  had  played  a  grander  part  in  the  feudal  era  of 
England. 

Had  the  personal  character  of  either  of  these  great 
lords  been  equal  to  their  lineage,  they  too  might  have 
changed  a  dynasty,  and  it  was  with  no  unreasonable  mis- 
givings that  Sussex  prepared  to  obey  his  mistress's  com- 
mands. There  was  not  a  single  nobleman  in  the  North  on 
whom  he  felt  that  he  could  rely.  The  Earl  of  Cumber- 
land was  *  a  crazed  man/  and  his  tenants  were  under  the 


1569-]  THE  RISING  OF  THE  NORTH.  12 j 

leadership  of  Leonard  Dacres,  who  had  married  his 
sister.  The  Earl  of  Derby,  though  said  to  be  '  soft/ 
was  a  Catholic  at  heart,  and  '  the  five  lords  '  were  gener- 
ally spoken  of  as  likely,  if  not  certain,  to  support  each 
other. 

The  Queen's  orders  found  the  Earls  at 
Raby.  Westmoreland  at  once  refused  to  obey. 
'  Evil  rumours/  he  said,  '  had  been  spread  abroad  about 
him  and  carried  to  the  Court.  He  did  not  care  to  trust 
himself  away  from  his  friends  ;  ' 1  and  as  an  intimation 
that  he  did  not  intend  to  be  taken  without  resistance, 
he  reviewed  his  retainers  under  arms.2  Northumber- 
land varied  his  answer  by  saying  that  he  was  busy  and 
for  the  present  could  not  comply,  but  he  returned  to 
Topcliff  '  determined  not  to  rise/  and  meaning,  or 
believing  that  he  meant,  to  go  up  to  London  in  the 
winter.3 

Sir  George  Bowes  however  sent  word  to  Sussex  that 
mischief  was  gathering ;  and  Sussex,  terrified  at  his 
own  weakness,  wrote  to  Elizabeth  to  say  that,  although 
he  would  '  do  his  part '  if  she  required  him  to  take  the 
Earls  prisoners,  he  recommended  her  to  overlook  their 
disobedience,  and  '  call  them  home  to  her  favour/4  He 
was  disinclined  to  Cecil  and  Cecil's  policy.  He  pre- 
ferred the  old  order  of  things  to  the  new.  Like  the 
rest  of  the  old  peers,  he  was  in  favour  of  the  Queen  of 


1  Sussex  to  the  Queen,  Novem- 


ber 8. 


8  November  6. 

3  Confession  of  Thomas  Bishop  :  I  MSS.  Border, 


MSS.  Hatjield. 

4  Sussex  to  the  Queen,  Novem- 
ber 8  ;  Sussex  to  Cecil,  same  date  : 


124 


ItEIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


LCH.  53. 


Scots'  succession  ;  and  without  a  disloyal  thought,  he 
sympathized,  to  some  extent  at  least,  with  the  Earls' 
dissatisfaction. 

To  compose  matters  if  possible  before  receiving 
further  positive  directions,  he  sent  his  secretary  to 
TopclifF  to  persuade  Northumberland  to  go  to  the 
Queen  at  once.  Northumberland  answered  that  he  had 
'  not  been  well  used/  made  many  objections,  but  '  in  the 
end '  seemed  to  yield,  and  promised  to  prepare  for  his 
journey.  It  appeared  however  that  Catholic  hopes  and 
Catholic  fanaticism  had  been  stirred  too  deeply.  There 
was  a  natural  fear  that  the  Queen  had  discovered  the 
whole  plot,  and  the  Countess  Anne1  was  made  of  harder 
stuff  than  her  husband.  The  secretary  was  detained 
at  Topcliff  for  some  hours  while  his  horses  were  rest- 
ing ;  at  midnight2  a  message  came  to  bid  him  haste 
away  or  it  would  be  the  worse  for  him ;  while  a  servant, 
who  had  come  probably  no  farther  than  from  the 
Countess's  apartment,  woke  Northumberland  from  his 
first  sleep  with  the  news  that,  'within  an  hour  Sir 
Oswald  "Wolstrop  would  be  upon  him.  to  carry  him 
muffled  to  Elizabeth.'  The  Earl  sprang  from  his  bed, 
ordered  his  horses  to  be  saddled,  the  bridge  over  the 
Swale  to  be  broken,  and  the  church  bells  to  be  rung 
backwards.  The  jangled  sound  broke  on  the  ears  of 
Sussex's  emissary  as  he  rode  out  of  the  town.  His 
guide,  when  he  asked  what  it  meant,  '  sighed,  and  an- 
swered, he  was  afraid  it  was  to  raise  the  country/3 


1  Daughter  of  Somerset  Earl  of 
Worcester  and  niece  of  Lord  Mon- 
tague. 


2  November  9. 

3  Sussex  to  the  Queen,  Novem- 
ber 10 :  MSS.  Border. 


1569]  THE  RISING  OF  THE  NORTH.  12$ 

The  cry  was  out  that  'the  Pope  had  summoned 
England  once  :  he  was  about  to  summon  it  again,  and 
then  it  would  be  lawful  to  rise  against  the  Queen,  for 
the  Pope  was  head  of  the  Church/ l  By  the  morning 
bodies  of  armed  men  were  seen  streaming  from  all 
points  upon  the  road  to  Raby.  Northumberland  him- 
self, old  Norton  and  his  sons,  Captain  Reed,  who  had 
commanded  the  Bolton  guard,  with  twenty  of  his  har- 
quebuss-men,  Markinfield,  Swinburn,  and  a  hundred 
other  gentlemen,  made  their  way  to  the  Earl  of  West- 
moreland. The  country  was  covered  with  flying  pea- 
sants, driving  their  cattle  before  them  for  fear  of  plun- 
der, and  with  scattered  bands  of  insurgents  who  were 
seeking  for  arms.  Irresolute  still,  Northumberland  had 
meant  to  go  first  to  Alnwick  whatever  else  might  follow. 
Before  he  left  Topcliff  he  addressed  a  few  weak  words 
to  Elizabeth,  '  protesting  that  he  never  intended  any 
disloyal  act  towards  her  ; '  '  begging  her  of  her  mercy  to 
take  compassion  of  his  miserable  state  and  condition/  to 
listen  to  no  false  reports  of  him,  and  '  to  send  him  some 
comfort,  that  he  might  repair  to  her  presence.'2  But 
he  was  drawn  with  the  rest  to  Raby,  where  he  and  they 
were  to  decide  whether  they  would  fight  or  fly,  or  sub- 
mit. There,  two  days  after,  at  a  general  council,  the 
question  was  once  more  discussed.  They  were  all  un- 
certain ;  the  Nortons  were  divided  among  themselves, 
Northumberland  and  Swinburn  were  inclining  to  make 
for  Flanders,  and  there  was  no  resolution  anywhere. 

1  Evans  to  the  Council,  Novem-  |  November  13  (sic)  :  Border  HSS. 
her  8  :  Ibid.  The  date  is  obviously  wrong.     The 

2  Northumberland  to  the  Queen,    Earl  left  Topcliff  on  the  loth. 


126  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  53. 

They  had  all  but  broken  up,  and  '  departed,  every  man 
to  provide  for  himself/  when  Lady  Westmoreland,  Lord 
Surrey's  daughter,  threw  herself  among  them,  l  weeping 
bitterly/  and  crying  '  that  they  and  their  country  were 
shamed  for  ever,  and  that  they  would  seek  holes  to 
creep  into/  The  lady's  courage  put  spirit  into  the 
men.  There  was  still  one  more  chance :  while  they 
were  debating,  a  pursuivant  came  from  Sussex  requiring 
the  Earls,  for  the  last  time,  to  return  to  their  allegiance. 
If  they  were  falsely  accused  to  the  Queen,  Sussex  said 
that  their  friends  would  stand  by  them.  If  they  had 
slipped,  their  friends  would  intercede  for  them.'1  But 
it  was  now  too  late.  Northumberland  proposed  to  go  on 
to  Alnwick,  raise  his  people  there,  and  join  the  others 
on  the  Tyne  ;  but  the  Nortons  and  the  other  gentlemen 
would  not  allow  him  to  leave  them.  The  pursuivant  was 
detained  till  he  could  carry  back  a  fuller  answer  than 
could  be  expressed  in  words  ;  and  at  four  o'clock  the  fol- 
lowing afternoon,  Sunday,  the  i/j-th  of  November,  as  the 
twilight  was  darkening,  Northumberland,  Westmore- 
land, Sir  Christofer,  and  Sir  Cuthbert  Neville,  and  old 
Richard  Norton  entered  the  city  of  Durham.  With  sixty 
followers  armed  to  the  teeth  behind  them,  they  strode 
into  the  cathedral ;  Norton  with  a  massive  gold  cruci- 
fix hanging  from  his  neck,  and  carrying  the  old  banner 
of  the  Pilgrimage,  the  cross  and  streamers  and  the  five 
wounds.  They  '  overthrew  the  communion  board ; '  they 
tore  the  English  Bible  and  Prayer-book  to  pieces,  the 


1  Sussex  to  the  Earls,  November  13  :   Memorials  of  the  Rebellion. 


THE  RISING  OF  THE  NORTH. 


127 


ancient  altar- stone  was  taken  from  a  rubbish  heap  where 
it  had  been  thrown,  and  solemnly  replaced,  and  the  holy 
water  vessel  was  restored  at  the  west  door  ;  and  then, 
amidst  tears,  embraces,  prayers,  and  thanksgivings,  the 
organ  pealed  out,  the  candles  and  torches  were  lighted, 
and  mass  was  heard  once  more  in  the  long- desecrated 
edifice. 

'  Tell  your  master  what  you  have  seen/  Northum- 
berland said  to  the  messenger,  when  it  was  over.  '  Bid 
him  use  no  further  persuasions ;  our  lives  are  in  danger, 
and  if  we  are  to  lose  them,  we  will  lose  them  in  the  field/ 1 

The  first  step  once  ventured  there  was  no  more  hesi- 
tation. On  Monday  morning  they  moved  south,  to 
Darlington,  gathering  force  like  a  snow-ball,  and  with 
herald's  voice  and  written  proclamation,  at  cross  road 
and  village  green,  in  town  hall  and  pulpit,  they  made 
known  their  intentions  to  the  world,  and  appealed  to 
the  religious  conscience  of  the  people.  l  They  intended 
no  hurt  to  the  Queen's  Majesty  nor  her  good  subjects/ 
they  said ;  '  but  inasmuch  as  the  order  of  things  in  the 
Church  and  matters  of  religion  were  set  forth  and  used 
contrary  to  the  ancient  and  Catholic  faith,  their  purpose 
was  to  reduce  all  the  said  causes  of  religion  to  the  ancient 
custom  and  usage,  and  therein  they  desired  all  good 
people  to  take  their  part/2  Sussex  could  do  nothing  to 


1  Sussex  to  Elizabeth,  Novem- 
ber 15  :  JfSS.  Border. 

2  Proclamation    of    the    Earls, 
November  15  :  Memorials  of  the  Re- 
bellion.     The  form  was  afterwards 
slightly    varied,    running    thus : — 


'  We,  the  Earls  of  Northumberland 
and  Westmoreland,  the  Queen's 
true  and  faithful  subjects,  to  all  the 
same  of  the  old  Roman  Catholic 
faith.  Know  ye  that  we  with  many 
others  well  disposed,  as  well  of  the 


128  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  53. 

arrest  the  movement.  He  sent  out  a  Commission  to 
assemble  the  '  force  of  the  shire ; '  but  if  it  came  to- 
gether he  feared  that  it  would  be  more  likely  to  go  over 
to  the  rebels  than  fight  for  the  Queen ;  could  he  trust 
the  levies  otherwise,  he  had  no  money  to  pay  them  with  ; 
and  Yorkshiremen,  as  Sir  George  Bowes  had  to  warn 
him,  would  never  serve  without  wages/1  Slow,  per- 
plexed, irresolute,  the  same  at  York  as  he  had  been  six 
years  before  in  his  unlucky  command  in  Ireland,  Sussex 
could  see  nothing  but  the  uselessness  of  resistance,  and 
recommended  Elizabeth  to  come  to  terms,  if  possible, 
with  the  insurgent  leaders.  '  If  the  rebels  prepare  to 
fight/  he  wrote,  '  they  will  make  religion  their  ground ; 
and  what  force  they  may  have  in  that  cause,  and  how 
faintly  the  most  part  of  the  country  that  go  with  me 
will  fight  against  that  cause,  and  what  treason  may  be 
wrought  against  mine  own  force  for  that  cause,  I  know 
not.  But  truly,  and  upon  my  duty  to  your  Majesty,  I 
have  great  cause  to  doubt  much  of  every  of  them,  and 


nobility  as  others,  have  promised  our 
faith  to  the  furtherance  of  this  sure 
good  meaning.  Forasmuch  as  divers 
disordered  and  ill-disposed  persons 
about  the  Queen's  Majesty  have  by 
their  crafty  and  subtle  dealing,  to 
advance  themselves,  overthrown  in 
the  realm  the  true  and  Catholic  re- 
ligion, and  by  the  same  abuseth  the 
Queen,  dishonoureth  the  realm,  and 
now  lastly  seeketh  to  procure  the 
destruction  of  the  nobility  :  We 
therefore  have  gathered  ourselves 
together  to  resist  force  by  force,  and 


rather  by  the  help  of  God  and  of  you 
good  people,  to  reduce  these  things 
amiss,  with  the  restoring  of  all  an- 
cient customs  and  liberties  to  God 
and  this  noble  realm.  And  lastly, 
if  we  shall  not  do  it  ourselves,  we 
might  be  reformed  by  strangers,  to 
the  great  hazard  of  the  state  of  this 
our  country,  whereunto  we  are  all 
bound.  God  save  the  Queen.' — 
Proclamation  of  the  Earls,  Novem- 
ber 19:  MSS.  Border. 

1    Bowes  to  Sussex,    November 
17- 


1569.]  THE  RISING  OF  THE  NORTH.  129 

so  I  do  indeed.  Your  Majesty  must  consider  whethei 
it  shall  be  greater  surety  for  you  to  pardon  these  Earls 
their  part  taken  and  their  offences  past,  to  call  them  to 
attend  at  your  Court,  where  you  may  be  sure  from  any 
practice,  and  this  winter  to  purge  this  country  and  the 
other  parts  of  the  realm  of  the  ill-affected ;  and  so  to 
avoid  the  danger  of  foreign  aid  and  make  all  sure  at 
home ;  or  else  to  hazard  battle  against  desperate  men, 
with  soldiers  that  fight  against  their  conscience. 

'  If  it  come  to  the  fight,  either  God  shall  give  you  the 
victory,  or  if  any  man  will  stand  with  me,  you  shall 
find  my  carcase  on  the  ground,  whatever  the  rest  of  my 
company  do ;  for  besides  my  duty  to  your  Majesty,  I 
will,  for  my  conscience'  sake,  spend  all  my  lives,  if  I  had 
a  thousand,  against  all  the  world  that  shall  draw  sword 
against  our  religion  ;  but  I  find  all  the  wisest  Protest- 
ants affected  that  you  should  offer  mercy  before  you  try 
the  sword/1 

The  Earls  understood  thoroughly  that  for  the  time 
the  game  was  in  their  hands.  They  advanced  straight 
and  steadily  southwards,  their  numbers  varying  or 
variously  reported  as  from  eight  to  fifteen  thousand, 
among  whom  were  two  thousand  horse  well  armed  and 
appointed.  The  only  regular  troops  in  the  Presidency 
were  on  the  Border  in  garrison  at  Berwick  or  Carlisle, 
or  in  the  Middle  Marches  with  Sir  John  Foster.  Both 
Sussex  and  Cecil  wrote  pressing!}^  that  some  of  these 
soldiers  should  be  sent  to  York ;  but  they  could  not  be 


1  Sussex  to  the  Queen,  November  15  :  MSS.  Border. 
VOL.  ix.  9 


'30 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


.  53. 


spared  from  their  posts.  The  Earl  of  Murray  had  pro- 
posed in  August  to  set  in  order  the  Scotch  Border.  It 
will  be  remembered  that  Elizabeth,  just  then  in  pique  at 
Murray  for  refusing  to  receive  back  his  sister,  had  or- 
dered the  Wardens,  if  the  Hegent  molested  any  gentle- 
men inclined  to  Mary  Stuart,  to  receive  and  protect  them. 
The  Kers  and  the  Scotts  were  thus  left  undisturbed,  and 
'  the  Earls  had  so  practised  with  them  that  the  Wardens 
had  more  need  of  men  themselves  than  were  able  to 
spare  any  to  send  elsewhere  ; ' l  Northumberland  had 
been  in  communication  through  the  autumn  '  with  all 
the  dangerous  lords  and  gentlemen '  between  Forth  and 
Tweed ;  the  powder- train  of  the  general  conspiracy  had 
been  laid  throughout  the  island  wherever  Mary  Stuart 
had  a  friend. 

Sir  George  Bowes  flung  himself  into  Barncastle,  with 
a  few  score  servants  and  followers.  Lord  Darcy  held 
Pomfret,  and  trusted  faintly  that  if  the  Queen  would 
send  him  money  he  might  be  able  to  stop  the  passage 
over  the  Don.  But  there  was  no  force  anywhere  which 
could  meet  the  rebels  in  the  field.  On  the  I9th  they 
were  at  Ripon,  on  the  2oth  at  Knaresborough  and  Bor- 
rowbridge,  on  the  23rd  they  had  passed  York.  Their 
main  body  was  at  Wetherby  and  Tadcaster,  their  ad- 
vanced horse  were  far  down  across  the  Ouse.2  The 
barns  were  full,  the  farm-yards  well  stocked  ;  the  cattle 
which  had  fattened  in  the  summer  were  not  yet  fallen 
off  in  flesh,  and  food  was  abundant.  They  moved  on  at 


1  Forster  to   Bowes,  November 
25  :  Memorials  of  the  Rebellion. 


2  Sussex  to  the  Queen,  November 
24 :  Border  MSS. 


THE  RISING  OF  THE  NORTH. 


leisure,  intending  to  make  first  for  Tutbury  and  release 
the  Queen  of  Scots,  and  then  either  advance  to  Lon- 
don or  wait  for  a  corresponding  movement  in  the  South. 
To  make  the  ground  sure  and  to  open  a  port  through 
which  the  expected  succours  could  reach  them  from  Alva, 
by  a  side  movement  they  secured  Hartlepool.  They  sent 
letters  to  every  person  of  rank  whom  they  expected  to 
find  on  their  side.  Misinterpreting  the  inaction  of 
Sussex,  they  supposed  that  he  was  waiting  only  for  the 
plea  of  constraint  to  join  their  part}^  They  had  avoided 
York  on  their  advance,  to  prevent  a  collision,  and  they 
wrote  to  beg  him  to  make  common  cause  with  them.1 
To  Lord  Derby  they  wrote  saying  that,  '  because  he  was 
wise  they  needed  not  persuade  with  him '  of  the  neces- 
sity of  their  rising ;  they  knew  l  his  zeal  for  God's  true 
religion ' — they  knew  '  his  care  for  conserving  the  ancient 
nobility ; '  they  trusted  that  he  would  lose  no  time  in 
joining  his  forces  to  theirs  :2  while  to  commit  before  the 
world  the  other  noblemen  whom  they  believed  to  be  with 
them  in  heart,  they  set  out  a  manifesto,  relating  as  much 
as  suited  their  purpose  of  the  proceedings  of  the  council 
during  the  past  year.  'The  succession  to  the  crown 
was  dangerousty  and  uncertainly  depending  through  the 
many  pretended  titles/  *  For  the  avoiding  of  bloodshed 
and  other  subversions  of  the  commonwealth/  the  Duke 
of  Norfolk,  the  Earls  of  Arundel  and  Pembroke,  witlj 
divers  others  of  the  old  nobility,  had  determined  to  make 


1   Sussex  to  the  Queen,  Novem- 
ber 26  :  MSS.  Border. 

~  The  Earls  of  Northumberland 


and  "Westmoreland  to  the  Earl  of 
Derby,  November  27  :  Burghley 
Papers,  vol.  i. 


I32 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


53. 


known  and  understood  of  all  persons  to  whom  the  right 
did  indeed  appertain.  *  This  their  good  and  honourable 
purpose  had  been  prevented  by  certain  common  enemies 
to  the  realm,  near  about  the  Queen's  person/  They 
were  themselves  in  danger  from  '  sinister  devices '  which 
could  only  be  avoided  by  the  sword.  They  had  there- 
fore taken  arms  and  committed  themselves  and  their 
cause  to  Almighty  God.1 

The  next  step  was  to  secure  Mary  Stuart.  Their 
advanced  camp  was  little  more  than  fifty  miles  from 
Tutbury.  Lord  Northumberland  proposed  to  go  for- 
ward suddenly  and  rapidly  with  a  small  party.  Lord 
Wharton  and  two  of  the  Lowthers  agreed  to  join  him 
either  on  the  road  or  at  Burton  or  Tutbury,  and  so  they 
hoped  to  carry  the  castle  by  surprise.2 


1  Manifesto  of  the  Earls :  Burgh- 
lei/  Papers,  vol.  i.  Northumberland 
had  great  hopes  from  this  manifesto, 
as  well  as  from  theprevious  proclama- 
tion. '  Our  assembly,'  he  said,  '  was 
for  reformation  of  religion  and  pre- 
servation of  the  second  person,  the 
Queen  of  Scots,  the  right  heir,  if  want 
shouldbe  of  the  issue  of  her  Majesty's 
body.  Which  two  causes  I  made 
full  account  were  greatly  pursued  by 
the  most  part  of  the  noblemen  within 
the  realm,  and  especially  for  God's 
true  religion.  Yea,  I  was  in  hope 
both  the  Earl  of  Leicester  and  my 
Lord  of  Burghley  had  been  blessed 
with  some  godly  inspiration  by  this 
time  of  day  to  have  discerned  cheese 
from  chalk,  the  matter  being  so  evi- 
dently discovered  by  the  learned 


Divines  of  our  time.' — Confession  of 
the  Earl  of  Northumberland :  Border 
MSS. 

2  '  For  that  you  write  that  the 
enterprise  of  the  chief  purpose  is 
resolutely  upon  the  Earl  of  North- 
umberland to  be  attempted  and  that 
the  enterprisers  are  desirous  of  my 
company, — this  I  offer,  that  appoint 
me  a  day  and  I  Avill  meet  with  four 
good  horses  at  Burton  or  Tutbury, 
there  to  perform  with  the  foremost 
man  or  else  to  die.  And  to  the  fur- 
therance thereof  the  Lord  Whar- 
ton and  my  brother  will  join.  For 
coming  to  you  upon  an  hour's  warn- 
ing with  their  whole  power  it  is  not 
possible,  but  they  will  not  fail  to  win 
with  you  in  passing.  Let  nothing 
persuade  you  but  that  the  Lord 


'569-1 


THE  RISING  OF  THE  NORTH. 


'33 


Happily  before  the  enterprise  could  be  executed  the 
Queen  of  Scots  was  beyond  their  reach.  When  the 
news  that  the  Earls  had  risen  came  first  to  London, 
Elizabeth  failed  to  comprehend  the  meaning  of  the 
danger.  She  could  not  believe  that  an  insurrection  on 
such  a  scale  could  have  started  suddenly  out  of  the 
ground.  She  distrusted  Sussex's  judgment  and  half 
distrusted  his  loyalty.  She  insisted  that  he  could  have 
put  down  the  disturbance  at  the  first  moment  had  he 
cared  to  do  so,  and  she  resented  and  seemed  chiefly 
concerned  about  the  expense  to  which  she  would  be  ex- 
posed. '  The  Earls/  she  said,  '  were  old  in  blood  but 
poor  in  force ; '  and,  evidently  unconscious  that  a  lost 
battle  might  be  the  loss  of  the  realm,  she  declared 
that  she  would  send  down  no  pardons,  and  Sussex 
must  restore  order  with  the  means  already  at  his  dis- 
posal.1 

She  wished  to  deceive  herself,  and  she  had  those  at 
her  ear  who  were  too  ready  to  assist  her.  Leonard 


Wharton  and  Richard  Lowther  are 
and  will  be  always  with  you.' — Low- 
ther to  the  Earl  of  Westmoreland  : 
MSS.  Border. 

1  Elizabeth  did  not  realize  that 
the  Yorkshire  levies  could  not  be 
depended  on.  '  Good  Mr  Secretary,' 
Sussex  wrote  in  answer  to  Cecil, 
'give  advice  that  the  sparing  of  a 
little  money  in  the  beginning  be 
not  repented  hereafter,  and  therefore 
send  some  good  force  that  ye  may 
surely  trust  to  in  these  parts.  To 
be  short  with  you,  he  is  a  rare  bird 


that  by  one  means  or  other  hath  not 
some  of  his  with  the  two  Earls  or 
in  his  heart  wisheth  not  well  to  the 
cause  they  pretend.  Seeing  what 
groweth  in  all  the  realm  by  this 
matter,  I  wish  heartily  the  Queen's 
Majesty  should  quench  the  fire  at 
the  beginning,  either  by  pardon  or 
force  ;  and  if  by  force,  then  not  to 
trust  these  parts,  lest  by  one  foil 
taken  much  may  be  hazarded.' — 
Sussex  to  Cecil,  November  20 : 
MSS.  Border. 


1 34  RcJGN  OF  ELIZABE  TH.  [cH.  53. 

Dacres,  when  he  separated  from  the  Earls,  after  their 
disappointment  about  Norfolk,  had  returned  to  London. 
Either  the  Queen  had  sent  for  him  as  she  sent  for 
others,  and  he  had  thought  it  prudent  to  comply,  or, 
not  expecting  a  rising,  he  had  gone  up  on  business  of 
his  own.  To  anticipate  the  arrest  which  he  had  reason 
to  look  for,  he  sought  and  obtained  an  audience.  Wit! 
the  address  of  which  he  was  an  accomplished  master, 
he  satisfied  Elizabeth  of  his  fidelity,  which  he  assured 
her  that  he  was  only  anxious  to  display  in  the  field. 
The  name  of  Dacres  in  the  North  was  worth  an 
army. 

The  Queen  listened  graciously.  Norfolk  being  now 
under  a  cloud,  she  promised  Dacres  favour  in  his  suit 
for  the  estates,  and  he  went  down  to  Na worth  with  a 
formal  commission  to  raise  whatever  force  he  could  col- 
lect, and  with  instructions  to  join  Lord  Scrope  at  Oar- 
lisle.  Dacres,  who  was  a  far  abler  man  than  either  of 
the  Earls,  believed  them  to  have  made  a  foolish  mis- 
take. He  sent  them  word  that  if  Scrope  took  the  field, 
he  would  go  with  him  '  till  he  came  in  sight  of  their 
powers/  and  '  then  set  upon  him  and  overthrow  him  ;  ' 
and  this  undoubtedly  he  meant  to  do,  if  the  rebellion 
wore  a  complexion  of  success.  But  he  had  his  own 
interests  to  look  to  also.  He  was  not  the  man  to  com- 
mit himself  to  a  falling  cause ;  and  he  might  well  think 
he  could  do  better  service  to  religion  and  Mary  Stuart 
if  he  could  secure  his  peerage  and  his  inheritance  by 
remaining  loyal.  At  all  events,  he  had  misled  the 
Queen  as  to  the  force  which  she  had  to  depend  on.  He 


1569.]  THE  RISING  OF  THE  NORTH.  135 

had  secured  his  friends  time,  and  so  far  had  given  them 
their  best  chance  of  success.1 

Elizabeth's  other  measures  were  not  more  effective. 
To  save  the  cost  of  sending  troops  from  London,  Lord 
Rutland,  a  boy  of  thirteen,  was  directed  to  call  out 
the  musters  in  Nottinghamshire,  and  put  himself  at 
their  head.  Sir  Ralph  Sadler  and  Thomas  Cecil  were 
ordered  down  to  take  charge  of  him,  and  to  see 
especially  that  the  young  Earl  while  on  duty  went 
diligently  to  church.2  Spies  offered  their  services, 
which  were  eagerly  accepted.  A  Captain  Stully  volun- 
teered to  go  among  the  insurgents,  learn  their  secrets, 
divide  and  betray  them.3  A  more  dangerous  person, 
who  will  be  heard  of  again,  Sir  Robert  Constable,  un- 
dertook for  a  high  bribe  the  same  work.4  "With  such 
precautions  as  these  the  Queen  imagined  that  the  re- 
bellion could  be  safely  encountered.  The  one  substan- 
tial precaution  which  she  thought  necessary  was  to  join 
Lord  Hunsdon  in  command  with  Sussex. 

Meanwhile  Don  Gfuerau  believed  that  the  long- 
wished-for  time  was  come.  The  Earl  of  Southampton 
and  Lord  Montague  sent  to  consult  him  whether  they 
should  call  out  the  Catholics  in  their  own  counties,  or 
cross  the  Channel  and  endeavour  to  bring  back  Alva 

4  Constable  was  "Westmoreland's 
cousin ;  a  man  whose  sympathy  with 
the  rebellion  would  be  accepted 
without  suspicion,  and  therefore  the 
fitter  for  the  purpose.  He  was  grand- 
son of  Constable  of  Flamb.orough} 
the  friend  of  Aske,  who  was  exe- 
cuted after  the  rilgriniage  of  Grace. 


1  Notes   of  the  proceedings   of 
Leonard  Dacres,    March   4,    1570: 
MSS.  Border.     Witherington's  con- 
fession, January  19  :  Ibid. 

2  Cecil  to  Sadler,  November  20 : 
Sadler  Papers,  vol.  ii. 

3  Bedford  to  Sadler,  November 
21  :  Sadler  Papers,  vol.  ii. 


136 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


53. 


with  them.1  The  ambassador  declined  to  advise,  and 
they  did  nothing ;  but  other  gentlemen  hurried  over 
with  the  news  of  the  rising.  Though  Philip  had  been 
cold,  he  had  left  the  Duke  free  to  act  if  there  was  an 
opportunity;  and  so  confident  was  Don  Guerau  that 
he  would  not  allow  the  occasion  to  pass,  that  he  sent 
word  to  the  Earls  that  if  they  could  but  keep  a  single 
seaport  open,  they  would  have  assistance  in  a  fortnight. 
'  Never/  he  told  Philip,  '  was  there  a  fairer  chance  of 
punishing  the  men  who  had  so  long  insulted  Spain,  or 
of  restoring  the  Catholic  religion/  2 

All  turned  at  that  moment  on  the  success  of  the 
adventure  at  Tutbury.  Had  the  Queen  of  Scots  reached 
the  camp  of  the  rebels,  Southampton,  Montague,  Morley, 
Worcester,  in  all  likelihood  the  Earl  of  Derby,  would 
have  immediately  risen.  Alva  had  a  fleet  already  col- 
lected in  Zealand  with  guns  and  powder  on  board ;  and 
he  was  understood  to  be  waiting  only  to  hear  that  she 
was  at  liberty,  to  launch  them  upon  England.  If  re- 
ports which  reached  Cecil  spoke  true,  it  was  even 
arranged  that  the  members  of  the  infamous  Blood 
Council  would  accompany  the  expedition  to  assist  the 
Catholics  in  their  expected  revenge  ; 3  and  La  Mothe 


1  'Milord  Montagu  yelCondede 
Southampton  me  envi&ron  a  decir  si 
les  aconsejaba  que  tomasen  las  arm  as 
6  pasasen  a  Va  Excellencia,  y  les 
dixe  que  no  podia  darles  consejo 
hasta  tener  la  orden  conveniente  para 
cllo.' — Don  Guerau  to  the  Duke  of 
Alva,  December  i  :  MSS.  Simancas. 

~  Don  Guerau  to  Philip,  Novem- 


ber 20 :  MSS.  Simancas. 

3  '  Le  Due  d'Alva  a  eu  en  tend  e- 
ment  avecqucs  quelqu'ungs  Sei- 
gneurs d'Angleterre,  et  il  les  a  promis 
assistance  a  1'encontre  da  la  Reyne 
et  la  religion,  pour  quelle  fin  ledict 
Due  avoit  faict  apprester  en  Holland 
et  Zeeland  certain  nombre  de  navires. 
les  quelles  sont  deia  oquippez  et 


1569.]  THE  RISING  OF  THE  NORTH.  137 

Fenelon  congratulated  himself  that  England  was  about 
to  taste  the  same  calamities  which  France  had  been 
suffering  for  years  through  English  intrigues.1 

Fortunately  for  Elizabeth,  Lord  Hunsdon  reached 
the  North  in  time  to  remove  her  delusions.  He  was  at 
Doiicaster  on  the  2oth  of  November,  where  he  found 
that  the  rebels  were  in  force  between  him  and  Sussex. 
Accompanied  by  Sadler  he  made  his  way  to  Hull,  and 
thence  he  passed  round  at  the  rear  of  them  to  York, 
while  he  sent  back  word  that  not  a  day  was  to  be  lost  in 
pushing  up  troops  from  London,  and  that  the  Queen  of 
Scots  must  be  removed  from  Tutbury,  or  she  would 
without  doubt  be  carried  off.2 

Shrewsbury  had  received  a  similar  warning  and 
made  such  preparations  for  his  defence  as  circumstances 
allowed.  Huntingdon,  who  was  at  no  great  distance, 
rejoined  him  at  his  own  request.  If  the  castle  was 
attacked  in  force,  they  felt  both  of  them  that  it  could 
not  be  held,  but  it  would  stand  a  siege  for  a  day  or  two, 
and  they  took  precautions  not  to  be  surprised.  A 
mounted  guard  patrolled  the  woods  at  night,  and  the 


grande  preparation  de  beaucoup  de 
grande  artillerie  y  sont  amenez. 
L'ung  de  ses  filz  estoit  appointe  pour 
y  venir  avecques  ung  nombre  de  gens 
jusques  a  quelque  havre  au  pais  de 
Norfolk,  entre  lesquelles  estoient 
quelques  Espagnolz  conseilleurs  ap- 
pointez,  a  sQavoir  la  conseille  de 
Sang,  comme  ils  sont  au  Pais  Bas 
Inquisiteurs  qui  auroient  faict  detes- 
tabies  et  horribles  punitions  et  de- 
chirations  du  peuplc.' to  Cecil, 


December  8.   From  Brussels  :  MSS. 
Hatfield. 

1  La  Mothe  au  Roy,  November 
25  :  Depeches,  vol.  ii. 

2  The  Earls  intend  to  go  through 
withal.     Their  meaning  is  to  take 
the   Scottish  Queen,  and  therefore, 
for  God's  sake,  let  her  not  remain 
where  she  is,  for  their  greatest  force 
are  horsemen.' — Hunsdon  to  Cecil, 
November  20  :  MSS,  Border. 


138  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  53. 

Queen  of  Scots  herself  was  carefully  kept  in  sight. 
She  had  affected  illness  and  had  desired  to  be  alone ; 
but  Shrewsbury  by  this  time  understood  her  and  felt 
more  suspicion  than  alarm. 

So  matters  stood  with  them  when  Westmoreland 
was  arranging  his  plans  for  her  rescue.  Another  day 
or  night  would  have  seen  the  attempt  made,  for  the 
Earls  knew  how  much  depended  on  it ;  but,  on  the  23 rd 
of  November,  a  courier  dashed  in  from  London  with  an 
order  for  the  Queen  of  Scots'  instant  removal  to  Coven- 
try. It  was  a  delicate  matter  to  take  her  anywhere. 
*  The  more  she  was  seen  and  acquainted  with,  the  greater 
the  danger/  The  commission  too  had  been  sent  to 
Huntingdon  alone,  and  Shrewsbury's  pride  was  again 
wounded  at  the  seeming  distrust.  He  refused  to  leave 
his  charge,  irritating  Huntingdon  by  implying  a  doubt 
that  the  Queen  of  Scots'  life  would  not  be  safe  with 
Vim.  In  this  humour  they  got  to  horse  together,  took 
their  prisoner  between  them,  with  a  mounted  escort  of 
four  hundred  men,  and  so  made  their  best  speed  to  War- 
wickshire. They  rode  into  Coventry  '  at  night,  to  avoid 
the  fond  gaze  and  confluence  of  the  people.'  They  had 
been  ordered  to  prevent  Mary  Stuart  from  being  seen 
or  spoken  to,  but  their  precautions  were  useless.  No 
preparations  had  been  made  to  receive  them,  and  they 
were  obliged  to  take  her  to  an  inn  too  small  to  admit 
more  than  her  personal  attendants,  and  too  public  to 
enable  them  to  seclude  her  from  sight.  At  Coventry, 
as  everywhere  else,  she  found  a  mysterious  body  of 
friends  devoted  heart  and  soul  to  her,  and  '  going  up 


1569.] 


THE  RISING  OF  THE  NORTH. 


December, 


and   down    the   town   with    full   powers   to   practise. 
'  Shrewsbury  continued  cold,  distant,  and  resentful ; ' 
and  Huntingdon,  who  found  the  contents  of  his  most 
secret  despatches  were  in  some  way  carried  to  her  ears, 
could  not  but  feel  a  wish  that  she  was  safe  in  Notting- 
ham Castle  rather  than  in  an  open  town,  especially  as 
he  knew  that  dangerous  influences  were  at  work  upon 
Elizabeth  and  doubted  how  far  she  would  resist  them.2 

He  had  good  reason  for  uneasiness.  Nor- 
folk, more  than  ever  uneasy  at  his  imprison- 
ment, when  the  revolution  seemed  likely  to  be  accom- 
plished and  the  fruits  of  it  snatched  from  himself,  plied 
Elizabeth  with  passionate  entreaties  for  forgiveness. 
He  professed  a  horror  at  '  the  enterprise  of  the  rebel 
Earls/  For  himself,  he  swore  that  he  '  had  never  dealt 
with  them,  either  for  religion,  title,  or  succession/  and 
that  he  had  never  entertained  an  undutiful  thought 
towards  herself.3  At  the  same  time  he  was  endeavour- 
ing with  vows  and  promises  to  re-establish  himself  in 
the  affections  of  Mary  Stuart,  and  she  in  turn  was  be- 
witching him  with  assurances  of  eternal  fidelity,  declar- 
ing herself 4  to  be  waiting  only  for  his  directions,  care- 


1  Huntingdon  to  Cecil. 

2  '  I  am  sorry  to  understand  such 
objections  as  you  write  be  many  times 
made  against  good  counsels   given 
by   true-affected   councillors.      God 
amend  that  fault  wheresoever  it  be, 
or  else  our  country  and   sovereign 
shall  taste,  I  fear,  of  sharper  storms 
from  the   North,  or   perhaps    from 
some  other  coast,  than  doth  yet  blow. 


God  give  all  councillors  such  hearts 
as  in  their  counsels  they  may  un- 
feignedly  in  simplicity  and  truth 
seek  his  glory,  our  country's  weal, 
and  Sovereign's  surety.  December 
9  : '  MSS.  Hat/bid. 

3  Norfolk  to  Elizabeth,  Decem- 
ber 5  :  Burghky  Papers^  vol.  i. 

4  '  When  you  say  to  me  you  will 
be  to  me  as  I  vrill,  then  you  shall 


140 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


[CH.  53- 


less  of  dangers  and  ready,  if  he  could  extricate  himself, 
to  slip  through  the  hands  of  her  own  keepers. 

While  the  two  principals  were  thus  engaged,  the 
Bishop  of  Ross  was  besieging  Leicester,  and  through 
Leicester  the  ears  of  Elizabeth.  The  Bishop  of  Ross, 
with  every  fibre  of  the  conspiracy  in  his  hands,  could 
carry  to  the  council  the  smoothest  aspect  of  innocence. 
He  could  affect  to  grieve  over  the  disturbances  which 
he  had  himself  assisted  to  kindle,  and  wind  up  with  a 
lamentation  over  the  dangers  of  his  mistress,  and  en- 
treat that  she  might  be  allowed  to  fly  from  the  storms 
which  were  threatening  to  ovsrwhelm  her.  His  mis- 
tress, he  said,  had  preferred  the  friendship  of  the  Queen 
of  England  to  that  of  the  '  most  puissant  of  princes/ 
She  had  chosen  her  out  and  clung  to  her  as  the  sole 
support  of  her  misfortunes ;  her  Majesty  should  return 
love  for  love  and  let  her  go.1 

Elizabeth's  suspicions  of  the  Queen  of  Scots  had 
happily  been  stirred  too  deeply,  and  neither  the  advice 


remain  mine  own  good  Lord,  as  you 
subscribed  once  with  God's  grace, 
and  I  will  remain  yours  faithfully. 
Neither  weal  nor  woe  shall  remove 
me  from  you  if  you  cast  me  not 
away.'  —  Mary  Stuart  to  Norfolk, 
December  —  :  LABANOFP,  vol.  iii. 

1  'Let  her  Majesty  remember,' 
he  wrote  to  Leicester,  '  what  great 
commendations  and  immortal  fame 
many  kings  and  princes  have  pur- 
chased for  themselves  for  benefit, 
aid,  and  support  bestowed  on  other 
princes  being  in  like  distress.  Abra- 
ham delivered  his  brother  Lot.  Cy- 


rus set  free  the  Jews  from  their 
captivity.  Evil  Merodach  delivered 
Joachim,  King  of  Judah,  forth  of 
prison.  The  Romans  restored  Masi- 
nissa,  King  of  Numidia,  and  did  not 
noble  Cordela  (sic)  set  up  again  in 
the  royal  throne  of  Britain  her 
father,  driven  from  thence  by  his 
two  other  unkind  and  unnatural 
daughters  ?  Would  not  her  Majesty 
in  like  manner  have  pity  on  one  who 
was  at  once  her  sister,  daughter, 
friend?'— The  Bishop  of  Ross  to 
Leicester,  November  28  :  MS8. 
QUEEN  OF  SCOTS. 


1569.]  THE  RISING  OF  THE  NORTH.  141 

of  fools  or  traitors,  nor  Norfolk's  mendacity,  nor  the 
eloquence  of  the  Bishop  of  Ross,  could  charm  her  now 
into  a  false  security. 

Meantime  the  Earls  had  missed  their  chance  and 
had  lost  the  game  in  missing  it.  Mary  Stuart  once  be- 
yond their  reach,  there  was  no  longer  any  fear  from 
Alva.  The  Southern  noblemen  let  the  time  for  action 
go  by,  and  the  rebel  Earls,  after  waiting  three  days 
about  Tadcaster,  turned  back  upon  their  steps.  They 
had  expected  that  all  England  would  rise  to  meet  them. 
The  universal  tranquillity  was  not  disturbed.  The  Earl 
of  Derby,  instead  of  rising,  forwarded  to  Elizabeth  the 
letters  with  which  they  had  tempted  his  loyalty.  Mon- 
tague and  Southampton  waited  for  Alva,  and  Alva 
would  not  move  till  Mary  Stuart  was  free.  They  had 
no  money ;  the  road  to  London  was  open,  but  they  were 
unwilling  to  irritate  the  people  by  feeding  their  men 
upon  plunder ;  and  even  could  they  reach  London,  they 
doubted  their  power  to  carry  it  by  a  coup  de  main,  and 
to  besiege  it  would  be  beyond  their  power.  Like  the 
Pilgrims  of  Grace,  they  halted  in  their  first  success, 
and  in  halting  lost  all.1 

Their  plan  was  now  to  hold  the  north  of  Yorkshire, 
Durham,  and  Northumberland,  and  wait  to  be  attacked. 
They  thought  of  assaulting  York,  but  they  doubted 
whether  they  could  take  it  without  guns.  There  would 
be  danger  to  their  friends  in  the  town,  and  though 
Westmoreland,  who  saw  more  clearly  than  the  others 


La  Mothe,  December  27 :  Ddptches,  vol.  ii. 


143 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH, 


[CH.  53- 


the  necessity  of  doing  something  important,  was   in 
favour  of  the  attempt,  he  was  alone  in  his  opinion.1 

Lord  Sussex  had  deserved  more  credit  than  he  was 
likely  to  receive.  His  brother,  Sir  Egremont  Radcliffe, 
had  joined  the  insurgent  army,  giving  a  show  of  colour 
to  the  Queen's  suspicions.  But  when  Hunsdon  and 
Sadler  arrived  they  found  that  he  had  done  as  much  as 
he  could  in  prudence  have  ventured.  He  had  collected 
within  the  walls  almost  three  thousand  men.  He  had 
not  led  them  against  the  rebels  because  '  they  wished 
better  to  the  enemy's  cause  than  to  the  Queen's/  But 
as  Elizabeth  believed  that  he  had  been  wilfully  inactive, 
Sadler  ventured  to  tell  her  '  that  there  were  not  ten 
gentlemen  in  Yorkshire  that  did  allow  her  proceedings 
in  the  cause  of  religion.'  'When  one  member  of  a 
family  was  with  Sussex,  another  was  with  the  Earls.' 2 

*  The  cause  was  great  and  dangerous,'  and  Sussex  had 
done  loyally  and  wisely  in  refusing  to  risk  a  battle.     If 
only  their  own  lives  were  at  stake,  both  he  himself  and 
Hunsdon  and  Sussex  would  try  their  fortunes,   even 

*  with  the  untrusty  soldiers  they  had  ; '  but '  should  they 
receive  one  overthrow  the  sequel  would  be  so  dangerous 
as  it  was  better  for  the  Queen  to  spend  a  great  deal  of 
treasure  than  they  should  give  that  adventure.' 3 

Sussex  therefore  had  acted  well  and  wisely  in  sit- 
ting still  behind  the  walls  of  York.  Had  the  Queen  of 


1  Bishop's  Confession :  MSS. 
Hatfield.  Confession  of  Christofer 
Norton,  April  1570:  MSS.  Domes- 
tic, Rolls  House. 


2  Sadler  to  Cecil,  December  6 : 
Sadler  Papers,  vol.  ii. 

3  Sadler  to  Cecil,  December  3 : 
Border  MSS. 


1569-]  THE  RISING  OF  THE  NORTH.  r43 

Scots  been  released  his  caution  would  have  availed  him 
little ;  the  war  would  have  rolled  south  and  have  left 
him  behind  :  but  it  was  necessary  to  risk  something,  and 
events  worked  for  him.  Money  came  in  at  last,  though 
in  small  quantities  and  grudgingly  given.  The  soldiers 
in  the  city  were  paid  up  and  grew  better  tempered. 
'  The  discreet  began  to  mislike  the  insurrection/  '  the 
wealthy  to  be  afraid  of  spoil.'  At  the  first  stir  <  there 
were  few  or  none  of  the  citizens  that  were  not  more  ad- 
dicted to  the  rebels  than  to  the  Queen,'  and  there  was 
not  a  cannon  or  a  cartridge  in  the  town.  Sussex  kept 
them  all  quiet,  brought  guns  and  powder  up  from  Hull, 
threw  up  bulwarks,  did  everything  better  than  could 
have  been  expected  from  his  first  fears  and  his  common- 
place character.  Hunsdon  was  able  to  say '  that  if  Sus- 
sex's diligence  and  carefulness  had  not  been  great,  her 
Majesty  had  neither  had  York  nor  Yorkshire  any  longer 
at  her  devotion  :  he  wished  to  God  her  Majesty  knew 
all  his  doings :  she  would  know  how  good  a  subject  she 
had.' l 

By  this  time  the  Court  was  thoroughly  alarmed,  and 
a  Southern  force  was  on  the  move.  Lord  Pembroke 
replied  to  the  Earls'  manifesto  with  disclaiming  all  sym- 
pathy with  them  or  their  object.  He  had  ever  been  a 
true  subject,  he  said,  and  he  did  not  mean  in  his  old  age 
to  spot  his  former  life  with  disloyalty.  He  declared  him- 
self ready  and  willing  to  serve  anywhere  and  against 
any  enemy.2  With  graceful  confidence  the  Queen  ac- 

'•  Hunsdon  to  Cecil,  November  I        2  Pembroke  to  the  Queen,  De- 
26  ;  MSS.  Horde?.  I  cember  5  :  Burghky  Papers,  vol.  i. 


144 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


[en-  53- 


cepted  Pembroke's  services,  and  named  him  at  once 
general  of  an  army  of  reserve  which  was  to  assemble  at 
Windsor.1  Southampton  and  Montague,  partly  perhaps 
in  fear,  partly  with  worse  intentions,  made  an  effort  to 
escape  abroad.  They  had  sailed,  but  were  driven  back 
by  a  storm.  The  Queen  heard  of  it :  to  disarm  treason 
by  not  affecting  to  see  it,  she  gave  Montague  the  com- 
mand of  the  south  coast,  and  joined  Lord  Bedford  in 
commission  with  him,  as  a  security  against  his  betrajdng 
his  trust.2  By  these  and  similar  measures  the  insur- 
rectionary spirit  was  subdued  everywhere  but  in  the 
North.  So  far  as  England  was  concerned  generally,  the 
rebellion  had  flashed  in  the  pan.  The  Catholic  leaders 
were  taken  by  surprise,  separated  by  long  distances,  and 
unable  to  concert  any  common  plan  of  action.  They 
distrusted  one  another,  they  doubted  whether  they  would 
be  supported  from  abroad,  and  at  last  it  appeared  were 
unwilling  to  move  without  direct  instructions  from 
Philip  ; 3  while  Philip  on  his  side — in  such  letters  as 


1  '  The  Queen  will  have  an  army 
here  of  15,000  men  by  the  loth  of 
December,  whereof  the  Lord  Pem- 
broke shall  be   general.' — Cecil   to 
Sadler :   Sadler  Papers,  vol.  ii.     It 
was  to  be  composed  of  levies  from 
Essex,    Kent,    Sussex,    Hants,    Ox- 
fordshire,  Bedfordshire,  Wilts,  and 
Somerset. — MSS.  Domestic,  Novem- 
ber, 1569. 

2  '  Estuvo  ya  Milord  Montague 
con  su  yerno  el  Conde  de  Southamp- 
ton embarcado  para  ir  6.  Flandes,  y 
por  tiempos  contraries  so  hubo  de 
volver  a  desembarcar,  y  legandose 


un  mandamiento  de  esta  Serenissima 
Reyna,  no  rehusd  de  volver  a  la 
Corte  y  purgarse  desta  fama,  y  salido 
con  ellos  le  dieron  el  gobierno  del 
Condado  de  Sussex.' — Don  Guerau 
a  Su  Magestad,  December  18:  MSS. 
Simancas. 

3  '  De  los  que  estan  confederados 
ningunos  han  hecho  ami  movimiento 
porque  estan  espargiclos,  pero  entre 
si  estan  consultando  de  la  forma  de 
levantarse.' — Don  Guerau  to  Alva, 
December  I.  And  again,  three 
weeks  later  : — *  Estan  sin  osarse  fiar 
los  unos  de  los  otros.  Parece  quo 


1569.]  THE  RISING  OF  THE  NORTH.  145 

X 

came  in  from  him — would  only  say  that  they  must  do 
nothing  unless  they  were  certain  of  success.1 

A  proclamation  was  now  sent  down  and  issued  at 
York,,  promising  a  free  pardon  to  all  the  rebels  except 
the  two  Earls  and  ten  others,  on  condition  of  their  im- 
mediately laying  down  their  arms.  Lord  Clinton  went 
into  Lincolnshire,  Lord  Warwick  and  Lord  Hereford 
into  the  Midland  Counties,  to  collect  a  force  to  relieve 
Sussex ;  and  by  the  end  of  November  two  bodies  of 
4000  men  each  were  converging  rapidly  upon  Don- 
caster. 

Warwick  was  crippled  with  gout  and  only  half  re- 
covered from  the  wound  which  he  had  received  at  Havre, 
but  '  thinking  himself  the  unhappiest  man  living  if  he 
should  not  be  in  place  to  venture  his  life  against  the 
rebels ; ' 2  while  ships  left  Sheerness,  some  to  cruise  in 
the  Channel,  some  to  lie  off  Hartlepool,  in  case  the 
Spaniards 'should  attempt  to  cross. 

On  the  26th  of  November  the  Earls  of  Northumber- 
land and  Westmoreland  were  proclaimed  traitors  at 
Windsor.  Northumberland  was  a  Knight  of  the  Gar- 
ter. On  Sunday  the  27th,  a  fortnight  after  the  mass  in 
Durham  Cathedral,  the  Heralds  and  the  Knight  Marshal 
went  in  procession  to  St  George's  Chapel.  Rouge  Cross 
read  the  sentence  of  degradation  from  a  ladder  against 


aguardan  a  entender  si  V.  Magd  ser§. 
servido  de  daries  favor.'— Don  Gue- 
rau  to  Philip,  December  20. 

1  '  Mas  ban  de  rairar  mucho  como 
lo   emprender,   pu.es  si  errasese  el 


hecisteis  muy  bien  en  remitirlos 
al  Duque  de  Alva.' — Philip  to  Don 
Guerau,  November  18. 

2  Warwick  to  Cecil,  December 
3:  MSS.  Domestic. 


hecho  eran  todos   perdidos,   y  vos  \ 

VOL.  ix.  10 


146  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [cu.  53. 

the  wall.  Chester  '  hurled  down  with  violence  the  Earl's 
banner  of  arms  to  the  ground,  his  sword,  his  crest,  and 
then  his  helmet  and  mantle  ; '  while  Garter,  waiting 
below,  '  spurned  them  with  like  violence  from  the  place 
where  they  had  fallen,  out  of  the  west  door  of  the 
Chapel,  and  thence  clean  out  of  the  uttermost  gates  of 
the  Castle/ ' 

Three  days  later  the  rebel  army  was  broken  up. 
The  men  scattered  about  Yorkshire  in  parties  of  two 
and  three  hundred,  ' spoiling '  for  want  of  other  means 
to  feed  themselves.  Sussex  kept  close  within  the  walls 
of  York,  and  let  them  pursue  their  retreat  unmolested. 
The  Earls  divided  :  Northumberland  went  straight  back 
to  Durham,  sending  his  own  people  before  him  to  for- 
tify Alnwick.  Westmoreland  paused  at  Barncastle, 
where  a  brief  success  revived  his  failing  spirits.  Sir 
George  Bowes  was  in  the  castle  with  800  men.  The 
Berwick  garrison  had  made  an  effort  to  relieve  him,  but 
had  been  unable  to  leave  the  Borders.  He  was  scantily 
provided  with  arms,  and  had  so  little  powder  that  he 
durst  not  waste  it.  Westmoreland  had  brought  fal- 
conets and  other  small  fieldpieces  with  him,  and  as 
Bowes  was  short  of  provisions  besides  his  other  de- 
ficiencies, Sussex  sent  him  word  that  he  had  better  let 
his  '  horse '  cut  their  way  out  at  night  and  make  their 
way  to  York,  and  himself  hold  the  keep  till  relief  could 
reach  him.  The  horse  escaped  as  Sussex  directed,  but 
Bowes  himself  was  less  fortunate.  The  garrison  muti- 


1  MSS.  Domestic,  November,  1569. 


THE  RISING  OF  THE  NORTH. 


147 


med.  The  men  leapt  over  the  walls  bv  twenty  and 
thirty  at  a  time.  Two  hundred  of  '  the  best  disposed ' 
who  were  on  guard  went  out  openly  through  the  gates 
and  joined  the  insurgents,  and  as  those  who  remained 
showed  signs  of  intending  to  follow  them,  Bowes  was 
obliged  to  surrender,  stipulating  only  to  be  allowed  to 
go  where  he  would. 

Westmoreland  refortified  the  castle,  left  a  party 
there  to  hold  it,  and  went  to  Raby.1  Yain  of  his  soli- 
tary capture,  he  expected  that  the  tide  would  now  turn 
he  anticipated,  from  the  behaviour  of  Bowes's  followers, 
that  the  Queen's  troops,  which  were  coming  up  so  slowly, 
had  no  intention  of  fighting,  and  that  if  they  were 
forced  into  the  field  they  would  pass  over  to  his  side.2 
But  a  few  days  undeceived  him.  The  evil  signs  re- 
mained unchanged.  Dacres  was  at  Carlisle  with  Scrope, 
and  sent  word  that  if  the  object  of  the  insurrection 
was  to  marry  Norfolk  to  the  Queen  of  Scots,  he  would 
have  nothing  to  do  with  it.3  The  gentlemen  grew  cold 
and  dropped  off  one  by  one.  Even  Westmoreland's 
own  men  refused  '  to  serve  without  wages ; J  and  Sir 
Robert  Constable,  the  spy,  who  had  joined  him,  contrived 
'  to  spread  such  terror  among  them  as  he  trusted  there 


1  Rnby  Castle  was  described  at 
this  time  'as  a  marvellous  huge  house 
of  building  with  three  wards  builded 
all  of  stone  and  covered  with  lead.' 
The  country  round  was  bleak  and 
untimbered ;  '  nor  the  castle  itself 
of  any  strength,  but  like  a  monstrous 
old  abbey  which  would  soon  decay 


if  it  was  not  repaired.' — Sadler  to 
Cecil,  December  2. :  Memorials  of 
the  Rebellion. 

2  Constable  to  Sadler,  December 
1 6 ;  Sadler  Papers,  vol.  ii. 

3  Confession  of  Bishop :   MSS 
Hatfald. 


I48 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


[CH.  53. 


would  be  no  need  of  stroke  or  shot.'  Constable  had 
been  directed  'to  sow  sedition  among  the  rebels,  dis- 
courage, divide,  and  disperse  them/  and  to  'spare  no 
money '  in  the  process.  For  such  purposes  Elizabeth 
was  generous,  and  he  did  his  work  effectually.1  The 
garrison  which  had  been  left  at  Hartlepool  strained 
their  eyes  for  the  sails  of  Alva's  fleet,  but  they  saw  in- 
stead only  the  ships  of  the  Queen,  which,  as  the  weather 
served,  drew  in  upon  the  shore  and  sent  long  shots 
among  them.  The  harbour,  even  had  Alva  been  will- 
ing, would  not  have  answered  the  purpose,  for  it  was 
dry  at  low  water,  and  vessels  of  large  burden  could  not 
enter  it  in  ordinary  high  tides.2 

It  was  useless  to  wait  longer.  Barncastle  was  again 
deserted,  Hartlepool  was  evacuated,  and  so  much  of  the 
insurgent  force  as  held  together  was  reassembled  in 
Durham  in  the  middle  of  December.  There,  as  the 
solitary  result  of  their  movement,  they  could  still  hear 
mass  in  the  Cathedral,  but  the  Almighty  Power  whom 
they  had  hoped  to  propitiate  had  not  interfered  in  their 
favour.  About  4000  were  said  to  be  now  remaining  in 
arms,  but  among  these  '  mistrust '  was  spreading,  and  a 
fear  that  the  Earls  would  steal  away  and  leave  them  to 
their  fate.3 

Meanwhile  Clinton  and  Warwick  were  advancing 
on  their  several  routes.  They  had  been  long  on  their 
way,  for  the  'roads  were  foul  and  miry.'  'The  men 


1  Constable  to  Sadler,  December 
14:  Sadler  Papers,  vol.  ii. 

2  Sussex  to  the  Council,  Decem- 


ber 1 1  :  MSS.  Border. 

3  Cotton.  MSS.  CALIG.  B.  ix.  f. 
488. 


I569.] 


THE  RISING  OF  THE  NORTH. 


149 


were  wearied  with  marching  in  armour/  and  could  move 
only  five  or  six  miles  a  day.  On  the  loth  of  December 
Clinton  was  at  Doncaster.  He  too  was  short  of  money, 
and  was  disappointed  in  his  expectations  of  finding 
supplies  waiting  for  him  there.1  But  the  soldiers  were 
loyal  and  were  contented  with  promises.  He  pushed 
on,  leaving  accounts  to  be  settled  afterwards,  and  on  the 
1 3th  met  Warwick  at  Wetherby. 

Together  they  had  now  11,000  men,  all  well  ap- 
pointed, in  high  spirits,  'and  eager  to  encounter  the 
rebels  if  they  would  abide/ 

This  however  it  seemed  now  unlikely  that  the 
rebels  would  venture  to  do.  The  object  was  rather  to 
prevent  their  flight ;  and  Scrope,  reassured  by  the  ap- 
parent loyalty  of  Leonard  Dacres,  moved  out  from  Car- 
lisle to  intercept  them  on  their  way  to  the  Borders. 
To  have  allowed  such  a  proceeding  without  obstruction, 
in  the  heart  of  his  own  country,  would  have  ruined 
Dacres' s  popularity.  He  did  not  interfere  himself,  but 


1  Elizabeth  was  in  such  a  humour 
about  expenses  that  every  penny  for 
the  regular  service  had  been  doled 
out  reluctantly.  Every  despatch  for 
the  different  commanders  contained 
a  statement  of  their  necessities. 
Cecil  had  to  write  in  return  that 
they  must  spend  as  little  as  possible. 
'There  was  much  ado  to  procure 
money.  Her  Majesty  was  much 
grieved  at  her  charges.'  Cecil's  po- 
sition made  him  write  with  reserve. 
Sir  H.  Radcliffe,  another  brother  of 
Sussex,  who  was  with  the  Queen 
at  Windsor,  expressed  himself  in 


plainer  language. 

'  If  your  Lordship,'  he  wrote  to 
the  President,  '  lack  there  the  sup- 
plies promised,  you  must  bear  them 
and  do  what  you  may  otherwise ;  and 
if  some  here  with  us  bear  glances  or 
overthrusts  we  must  not  understand 
them.  Neither  shall  your  Lordship 
receive  this  supply,  though  but 
small,  which  might  have  either 
ended,  or  at  least  mitigated,  the 
matter  by  this  time.' — Sir  II.  Ead- 
cliffe  to  Sussex,  December  10  :  Cot- 
ton. MSS.  CALIG.  B.  ix. 


ISO 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


[CH.  53 


he  gave  a  hint  to  two  of  his  brothers,  and  Scrope  had 
no  sooner  marched  out  of  Carlisle  than  he  was  recalled 
by  the  discovery  of  a  plot  to  seize  the  castle  and  murder 
the  Bishop,  in  whose  care  it  had  been  left.  He  could 
not  venture  to  leave  his  charge  with  mischief  at  his  own 
door ;  though  unable  to  quarrel  with  Dacres  he  durst 
not  trust  him,  and  was  forced  to  remain  upon  the  watch. 
Thus,  if  the  worst  came  to  the  worst,  the  passage 
into  Scotland  was  still  open,  and  with  the  possibility  of 
escape,  the  irresolution  of  the  Earls  increased.  On  the 
1 7th  the  Queen's  army  was  at  Bipon.  Lord  Westmore- 
land still  held  the  fords  and  bridges  of  the  Tees,  and 
there  if  anywhere  a  stand  was  to  be  made.  North- 
umberland had  returned  to  his  friends,  and  divided, 
disheartened,  and  with  dwindled  numbers,  the  rebels 
held  a  council  at  Durham  to  decide  whether  they  should 
fight  or  fly.  Westmoreland  had  some  courage,  and 
sufficient  sense  to  know,  that  insurrection,  if  it  meant 
anything,  meant  battle.  In  the  Earl  of  Northumber- 
land the  blood  of  Hotspur  had  cooled  to  the  passive 
temperature,  which  could  suffer,  but  could  not  act. 
Except  for  his  wife,  who  never  left  his  side,  he  would 
more  than  once  have  thrown  himself  upon  Elizabeth's 
clemency ; l  and  now,  with  some  remains  of  loyalty 
about  him,  he  shrunk  from  crossing  swords  with  the 
soldiers.  He  had  imagined  that  he  had  but  to  appear 


1  '  His  wife  being  the  stouter  of 
the  two,  doth  harden  and  encourage 
him  to  persevere,  and  rideth  up 
«md  down  with  the  army,  so  as  the 


grey  mare  is  the  hetter  horse.'— 
Hunsdon  to  Cecil,  November  26 ; 
MSS.  Border. 


1569.]  THE  RISING  OF  THE  NORTH.  151 

in  the  field  for  all  England  to  welcome  him.  He  had 
looked  rather  for  a  triumphant  procession  to  London 
than  to  a  rebellion  which  was  to  cost  blood.  '  He  had 
not  taken  arms  to  fight  against  his  mistress,'  he  said, 
but  only  in  defence  of  his  life,  and  to  remonstrate 
against  the  misgovernment  of  his  country. 

In  Percy's  weakness  the  hope  of  rebellion  was  for 
the  present  ended.  Five  weeks  before,  the  Earls  had 
entered  Durham  with  their  priests  and  banners,  to  re- 
instate the  kingdom  of  the  saints.  They  had  to  leave 
it  now  in  scandalous  discomfiture,  for  the  tide  of  heresy 
to  flow  once  more  behind  them.  They  could  not  count 
their  cause  lost ;  the  majority  of  the  English  nation,  if 
measured  by  numbers,  was  still  enormously  in  their 
favour.  But  for  the  moment,  the  powers  of  evil  were 
in  the  ascendant,  and  there  was  nothing  left  for  them 
to  do  but  to  save  their  lives.  The  smaller  gentlemen 
made  for  their  homes,  trusting  to  their  insignificance  to 
conceal  the  part  which  they  had  taken.  The  Earls  and 
the  more  conspicuous  leaders  went  off  for  Liddisdale,  and 
the  first  act  of  the  great  Catholic  conspiracy  was  over. 

The  Queen's  troops  followed  swift  on  their  retreat- 
ing footsteps.  There  were  now  but  a  few  score  of  them 
holding  together  ;  the  two  noblemen,  their  ladies,  the 
Nortons,  Markinfield,  Swinburn,  and  their  servants. 
The  weather  had  changed;  a  blasting  north  wind 
swept  over  the  moors,  with  snow  and  sleet  lashing  in 
their  faces.1  Beyond  Hexham  they  were  turned  by 

1  The  hard  weather  lasted  into  I  cidents  of  the  rebellion  there  is  a 
January,  and  among  the  minor  in-  I  touching  account  of  the  consequent 


152 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH, 


[CH.  53- 


Sir  John  Foster,  and  doubled  back  with  an  intention  of 
hiding  among  the  wolds.  But  Clinton's  cavalry  were 
on  the  Tyne,  led  by  Sir  Edward  Horsey,  the  sworn 
brother  of  the  Channel  pirates,  who,  railing  at  the 
cowardice  which,  having  begun  a  rebellion,  would  not 
stand  to  fight  it  out,  was  eager  to  serve  what  he 
called  God  with  the  free  use  of  rope  and  gallows.1  At 
Horsey' s  side  was  Thomas  Cecil,  for  whose  loose  ways 
his  father  once  thought  the  Bastile  the  only  cure  ;  and 
who  now  *  having/  as  he  said,  '  adventured  his  carcase ' 
in  the  Queen's  service,  was  looking  to  fill  his  pockets 
from  the  profits  of  the  expected  confiscations.2  The 


sufferings  of  two  little  daughters  of 
the  Earl  of  Northumberland,  whom 
he  had  left  behind  him  at  Topcliff. 
Their  uncle,  Sir  Henry  Percy,  who 
remained  loyal,  passing  by  three 
weeks  after  Christmas,  reported  to 
Sussex, '  that  he  had  found  the  young 
ladies  in  hard  case,  for  neither  had 
they  any  provisions  nor  one  penny 
to  relieve  themselves  with.'  '  They 
would  gladly  be  removed,'  he  said  ; 
'  their  want  of  fire  is  so  great,  and 
their  years  may  not  well  suffer  that 
lack.' — Sir  H.  Percy  to  Sussex, 
January  9  :  Memorials  of  the  lie- 
bellion. 

There  was  '  sharp  execution ' 
done  at  Topcliff  before  Percy's  visit, 
and  the  poor  children,  as  they  looked 
shivering  out  of  their  window,  must 
have  seen  some  scores  of  their  father's 
servants  hanging  on  the  trees  about 
the  house. 

1  '  Even  as  they  have  frowardly 
and  villanously  begun  a  lewd  en- 


terprise, so  have  they  beastly  and 
cowardly  performed  the  same.  The 
bruit  of  her  Majesty's  army  drawing 
near  did  so  appal  their  hearts  as 
made  them  rather  yield  their  heads 
unto  a  halter  than  by  fight  persist 
in  their  vile  and  detestable  quarrel. 
I  beseech  Almighty  God  that  her 
Majesty  may  take  such  order  as  the 
punishment  of  these  rebels  may  be 
example  to  all  others  in  this  age.  I 
would  not  have  thought  to  have 
found  any  corner  in  England  where 
God  and  the  Queen  is  so  little  ac- 
knowledged,— the  which  now  by 
your  Honour's  good  order  may  be 
redressed.'  — Edward  Horsey  to  Cecil, 
December  22  :  MSS.  Domestic. 

2  Before  the  rebellion  was  over, 
and  without  waiting  to  know  what 
the  Queen  would  do,  he  applied  for 
the  administration  of  the  estate  of 
the  Nortons. — Thomas  Cecil  to  Sir 
"William  Cecil,  December  23  :  3fSS. 
Domestic. 


1569.]  THE  RISING  OF  THE  NORTH.  153 

Yorkshiremen  themselves  had  turned  upon  the  Earls  in 
their  failure,  and  were  now  crying  round  Clinton, 
'  Hang  them  that  will  not  live  and  die  with  you/  J 
There  was  no  possibility  of  return,  and  again  turning 
their  horses  northward,  on  the  night  of  the  2oth  the 
fugitives  found  shelter  and  a  few  hours'  rest  at  Na- 
worth.  There  however  there  was  no  remaining  for 
them ;  Dacres  was  in  no  humour  to  compromise  him- 
self for  men  whose  views  he  disliked  and  whose  rash- 
ness and  weakness  had  ruined  the  Catholic  cause.  The 
forlorn  party,  dwindled  now  to  three  ladies  and  twenty 
men,  were  again  off  before  daybreak  in  the  snow,  and 
wind,  and  darkness. 

Across  the  Border  they  were  safe  from  their  English 
pursuers  ;  but  their  case  was  scarcely  mended.  They 
had  poor  hospitality  to  expect  from  Murray,  and  they 
had  to  seek  a  refuge  among  the  outlaws  and  moss- 
troopers who  had  been  the  companions  of  the  crimes  of 
Bothwell.  Black  Ormiston,  one  of  the  murderers  of 
Darnley,  John  of  the  Side,  a  noted  Border  thief,  and 
others,  opened  their  hiding-places  to  them.  But  among 
these  vagabonds  there  was  little  honour.  The  Regent 
was  at  Jedburgh.  One  of  the  Ellic.il?,  \vlio  was  in 
danger  of  hanging,  and  wished  to  earn  his  pardon,  laid 
a  plot  to  take  them.  They  were  hunted  out  again,  and 
it  was  then  found  that  'the  Liddisdale  men  had  stolen 
the  ladies'  horses.'  The  Countess  of  Northumberland 
had  to  be  left  behind  at  John  of  the  Side's  house,  u 


Sussex  to  Cecil,  December  22  :  MSS.  Border. 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


53. 


place  described  '  as  not  to  be  compared  to  an  English 
dog-kennel.'  Lord  Westmoreland,  'to  be  the  more  un- 
known/ exchanged  his  gay  dress  for  the  outlaw's 
greasy  breeks  and  jerkin,  and  he  and  his  companions 
spent  their  Christmas  in  the  caves  and  peat-holes  in  the 
woods  of  Harlaw  and  the  Debateable  Land,  till  their 
more  powerful  Scottish  friends  could  take  measures  for 
their  relief.1 

While  Clinton  and  Warwick  were  thus  hunting  the 
insurgents  out  of  the  country,  Chapin  Vitelli,  in  Lon- 
don, seeing  the  Catholics  cut  so  poor  a  figure,  was  little 
disposed  to  encourage  his  master  in  going  to  war  for 
them.  Elizabeth  was  so  suspicious  of  him,  that  at  one 
time  she  sent  him  an  order  to  leave  the  country ; 2  but 
he  struggled  on,  doing  his  best  to  propitiate  her,  hold- 
ing out  hopes  that  if  she  would  make  up  matters  with 
Spain,  Spain  would  assist  her  in  recovering  Calais ;  and, 
if  he  produced  little  effect  upon  the  Queen,  he  succeeded 
in  seriously  alarming  the  French  ambassador.  La 
Mothe  Fenelon,  to  sound  perhaps  the  real  intentions  itf 
the  Spaniards,  said  to  Don  Guerau,  that  if  he  could  do 
anything  to  assist  the  Earls,  he  would  himself  heartily 
co-operate  with  him.  Don  Guerau  coldly  excused  him- 
self; 3  and  La  Mothe,  more  afraid  than  ever  that  a  re- 


1  Sussex  to  Cecil,  December  22 
(midnight)  :  Border  MSS. 

2  Don  Guerau  to  Alva,   Decem- 
ber i. 

3  'El  Embajador  del  Key  Chris- 
tianissimo  me  vin6  &.  visitar  y  decir 
que  si  yo  podia  favorescer  5.  cstos  en 


esta  justa  causa  que  por  parte  de  su 
Rev  me  seria  buen  compafiero,  sin 
celos  y  sospecba  alguna;  yo  me 
escuse  con  decir  que  no  tenia  man- 
damiento  de  su  Magestad  sobre  ello.' 
— Don  Guerau  to  Alva?  December  I, 


1569.]  THE  RISING  OF  THE  NORTH.  155 

conciliation  between  England  and  Spain  would  arise 
out  of  the  Earls'  defeat,  began  in  turn  to  pay  court  to 
Elizabeth,  and  endeavoured  to  outbid  Yitelli  in  oifers 
of  friendship.  The  English  Catholics  had  made  an 
effort  to  overthrow  the  Reformation ;  and,  as  a  result  of 
it,  the  ministers  of  the  Catholic  Powers  were  contending 
for  the  smiles  of  the  heretic  Sovereign.  She  knew  the 
value  of  their  advances.  She  judged  rightly  that  her 
differences  with  Spain  were  deeper  rooted  than  any 
which  could  exist  with  a  country  which  was  half  of  it 
Huguenot.  She  remained  cold  to  Chapin.  She  ac- 
cepted graciously  the  advances  of  La  Mothe  ;  and  she 
spoke  to  him  long  and  confidentially  on  the  condition 
of  Christendom.  With  tears  in  her  eyes,  she  protested 
that  she  had  not  deserved  the  rebellion.  For  her  rela- 
tions with  the  Continent,  she  desired  only  that  neither 
her  own  subjects  should  assist  in  creating  trouble 
elsewhere,  nor  French  or  Spanish  Catholics  encour- 
age insurrection  in  England.  She  spoke  with  horror 
of  bloodshed.  Except  for  her  honour's  sake,  she 
said,  she  would  have  already  pardoned  the  Earls,  and 
she  hoped  they  would  of  themselves  abandon  their 
enterprise. 

La  Mothe  observed  that  while  there  were  differences 
of  religion,  Europe  could  never  be  quiet. 

Elizabeth  admitted  in  answer  that  between  the  Pope's 
pretended  power  to  absolve  subjects  from  their  allegiance 
and  the  Protestant  theory  of  the  right  of  subjects  to  de- 
pose their  sovereigns,  Governments  had  a  bad  time  before 
them.  It  was  time  to  do  something,  and  she  would 


IS6 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH 


[CH.  53- 


gladly  come  to  some  understanding  with  other  sove- 
reigns on  these  matters.  As  to  the  reunion  of  Christen- 
dom, there  was  nothing  for  which  she  was  more  anxious. 
There  would  be  no  difficulty  with  her.  She  had  told 
Cardinal  Chatillon  that  whatever  he  and  his  party  might 
think  of  the  abomination  of  going  to  mass,  she  would 
herself  sooner  have  heard  a  thousand  than  have  caused 
the  least  of  the  million  villanies  which  had  been  com- 
mitted on  account  of  it.1 

Remarkable  words,  throwing  the  truest  light  now 
attainable  upon  the  spiritual  convictions  of  Elizabeth. 
They  might  be  called  wise  from  the  modern  point  of 
view,  to  which  varieties  of  religious  forms  seem  like 
words  in  different  languages  expressing  the  same  idea. 
For  men  to  kill  each  other  about  a  piece  of  bread  ap- 
pears, when  so  stated,  the  supreme  culmination  of 
human  folly.  Yet  Knox  and  Coligny  were,  after  all, 
more  right  than  the  Queen  of  England.  The  idol  was 
nothing,  and  the  thing  offered  to  the  idol  was  nothing  ; 
but  the  mass  in  the  sixteenth  century  meant  the  stake, 
the  rack,  the  gibbet,  the  Inquisition  dungeons,  the 
Devil  enthroned  upon  the  judgment-seat  of  the  world, 
with  steel,  cord,  and  fire  to  execute  his  sentences. 

Chapin  meanwhile  continued  to  sue  for  an  agree- 


1  'Et  quant  a  cb.ercb.er  1'union 
de  1'Eglise,  Dieu  sc,avoit  qu'ello  avoit 
souvcnt  envoye  devers  FEmpereur 
pour  Fen  soliciter,  et  qu'elle  ne  s'y 
nuulroit  jamais  opiniastre  ;  mesmes 
avoit  diet  a  M.  le  Cardinal  Chatillon 
quc  quoique  on  tint  en  leur  religion 


pour  une  grande  abomination  d'aller 
a  la  Messe,  qu'elle  aymeroit  mieulx 
en  avoir  ouy  mille  que  d' avoir  cste 
cause  de  la  moindre  mechancete 
d'ung  million  qui  s'cstoient  commises 
par  ces  troubles." — La  Mothe  auRoy, 
December  10  :  Depcches,  vol.  ii. 


1569.]  THE  RISING  OF  THE  NORTH.  157 

ment  with  Spain,  and  made  no  progress.  He  offered 
terms,  the  details  of  which  are  not  preserved,  hut  terms 
so  favourable  to  England  as  to  he  humiliating  to  the 
Catholic  King.  The  more  pliant  Philip  appeared  the 
more  Elizabeth  distrusted  him.  To  make  him  see  that 
she  had  no  fears  she  discussed  each  condition  with 
laboured  prolixity :  at  length  she  said  she  would  write 
to  Philip,  and  desired  the  minister  to  be  the  bearer  of 
her  letter.  Chapin  asked  permission  to  send  to  Alva 
for  advice  ;  the  rebellion  was  made  an  excuse  for  refus- 
ing his  request ;  and,  desperate  at  length  of  effecting 
anything  whatever  by  negotiation,  he  found  means  to 
let  Alva  know  that  the  English  Government  was  in- 
veterately  hostile,  and  that  without  a  revolution  the 
two  countries  could  never  be  brought  together  again.1 

It  was  a  conclusion  which  both  Philip  and  Alva 
were  most  reluctant  to  accept.  In  Philip's  correspond- 
ence there  is  visible  an  extreme  fear  lest  any  represent- 
ative of  Spain  should  be  found  implicated  in  treason 
and  conspiracy,  an  extreme  dislike  of  encouraging  or 
meddling  with  seditious  persons,  however  unimpeach- 
able their  orthodoxy.  The  sympathies  of  Alva  were  on 
the  side  always  of  order,  law,  and  government.  He 
disapproved  of  heresy,  but  it  was  a  question  with  him 
whether  rebellion  was  nqt  a  greater  crime.  Such  a 
loose,  heedless,  and  ill- concerted  movement  as  that  of 
the  two  Earls  seemed  utterly  contemptible  to  him.  He 
owed  his  success  as  a  general  to  prudence  as  well  as 


1   La  Mothe  au  Roy,  December  27 :  Depeches,  vol.  ii. 


158  REIGN  Of  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  53. 

courage.  He  was  never  known  to  trust  to  chance  in 
any  single  point  which  care  could  anticipate ;  and  till 
he  saw  some  effective  action  among  the  English  Catholics, 
besides  rhetoric  and  fine  promises,  he  was  ill-inclined  to 
risk  the  presence  of  his  troops  among  them.1  Chapin's 
message  reached  the  ears  of  La  Mothe,  and  probably 
therefore  the  ears  of  the  Queen.  He  was  again  required 
to  leave  the  country,  and,  as  the  order  was  persisted  in, 
he  was  this  time  obliged  to  obey.  Elizabeth  merely  told 
him  that  when  the  King  of  Spain  would  write  to  her 
under  his  own  hand  she  would  be  willing  to  renew  the 
negotiation.  Meantime  things  remained  as  they  were. 
Alva  and  Philip  kept  their  hold  on  the  little  English 
property  which  they  had  arrested.  Elizabeth  kept  the 
treasure,  the  ever-increasing  piles  of  Spanish  and 
Flemish  goods,  the  ever-multiplying  fleets  of  Spanish 
and  Flemish  merchantmen,  with  which  her  warehouses 
and  her  ports  were  choking. 

The  insurrection  having  exploded  ineffectually,  it 
remained  to  punish  those  who  had  taken  part  in  it. 
But  before  relating  the  measures  which  the  Government 
believed  to  be  necessary,  it  remains  to  mention  one 

An  expression  of  Philip's  in  one  |  y  de  la  misma  manera  procedereis 
en  lo  que  mas  occurriese  tocante  a 
semej  antes  materias,  por  ser  de  qua- 


of  his  letters  to  Don  Gucrau  shows 
that  he  thought  particular  care  was 
necessary  in  dealing  with  English 
people :  he  was  vain  of  his  know- 
ledge of  the  national  character,  and 
guided  himself  by  consideration  of  its 
peculiarities : — '  Por  tanto  fue  bien 
no  abriros  vos  con  ellos  (los  Catoli- 
cos)  ni  alargaros  a  prometerles  lo  que 
os  pediau,  bin  remitiiios  al  Duque ; 


lidad  que  requieren  tratarse  con 
mucho  miramiento  y  consideracion, 
y  mayormente  con  los  desta  nacion 
que  de  su  natural  son  sospechosos  en 
todo  tiempo  y  mucho  mas  en  la  oca- 
sion  presente.' — Philip  to  Don  Gue- 
rau,  December  26  :  MSS.  Simancas. 


1569.] 


THE  RISING  OF  THE  NORTH. 


more  cause  which  had  contributed  to  the  failure  of  the 
enterprise.  So  many  plans  had  intercrossed  that  no 
two  parties  understood  each  other.  The  Spaniards,  the 
French,  the  Duke  of  Norfolk,  the  Queen  of  Scots,  the 
council,  had  all  been  playing  with  separate  schemes,  and 
the  best  of  the  Catholics,  who  cared  simply  for  the 
restoration  of  the  faith,  had  shrunk  from  risking  their 
cause  upon  a  movement  with  the  purpose  of  which  they 
were  so  obscurely  acquainted.  Lincolnshire,  which  had 
been  the  scene  of  the  first  Catholic  insurrection  against 
Henry  VIII.,  was  found  by  Lord  Clinton  entirely 
apathetic.  Yet  Lincolnshire  had  not  been  converted  to 
the  Reformation,  and  the  behaviour  of  the  people  there 
is  explained  by  a  singular  address  from  '  the  knights 
and  gentlemen '  of  that  county  to  Philip  II.  It  is  de- 
scribed as  having  been  largely  signed  among  them,  and 
represents  without  doubt  the  feeling  of  a  very  large 
portion  of  the  Catholic  party  in  England. 

'  They  looked  to  Philip/  these  persons  said,  '  as  the 
Prince  who  had  the  chief  right  to  their  crown,  being  at 
once  the  most  Catholic  in  himself  and  the  most  able  to 
defend  and  maintain  the  Catholic  religion.  He  had 
borne  the  title  of  King  of  England.  His  name  was  on 
the  English  statute-book,  and  to  him  they  now  looked 
as  their  liege  lord  and  sovereign.1  They  entreated  his 


1  '  Comme  le.  Prince  du  monde 
qui  tient  droict  et  peult  avoir  droict 
et  litre  a  la  couronne  d'Angleterre, 
comme  le  plus  Catholique  et  le  plus 
puissant  Prince  qui  les  peult  de- 
fendre  et  secourer  en  la  foy  Catho- 


lique ;  et  en  ces  deux  endroicts  ils 
se  submettent  leurs  vies  et  biens  a 
Vre  Majte'  en  toutz  respectz  et  condi- 
tions, comme  partient  a  Seigneurs 
et  Noblesse  qui  tient  Vre  Maj^  pour 
Icur  Prince  et  Souveraign.' 


i6o  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [en.  33. 

Majesty  not  to  suspect  or  look  strangely  upon  this  ex- 
pression of  their  feeling  towards  him.  His  Majesty 
might  already  understand  their  reason  for  it ;  but  in  the 
service  of  God  and  the  Commonwealth,  they  would 
briefly  explain  themselves. 

1  Your  Majesty/  they  said,  '  knows  well  the  many 
rights  and  titles  which  are  pretended  to  the  crown  of 
this  country,  and  in  what  peril  we  all  live  by  reason 
of  them.  The  succession  is  claimed  by  the  Earls  of 
Huntingdon  and  Hertford  and  other  notorious  and 
ambitious  heretics,  with  how  little  ground,  either  of 
justice  or  strength,  appearing  manifestly  from  the 
quarrels  among  themselves.  Your  Majesty  knows  also 
the  right  which  is  pretended  by  the  Queen  of  Scots, 
and  the  manj^  persons  among  us  who  support  her  claim. 
We  acknowledge  both  her  rights  and  her  deserts  as  a 
most  virtuous  and  Catholic  Princess,  and  we  are  ready 
to  accept  her  as  our  Sovereign,  if  your  Majesty  will 
place  her  on  the  throne,  with  due  securities  for  the 
Catholic  religion  and  for  the  maintenance  of  the  ancient 
alliance  between  the  Houses  of  Burgundy  and  England. 
But  we  are  oi'  opinion  that  if  the  Queen  of  Scots  be  set 
up  by  ourselves  only  in  this  island,  her  Majesty  may 
marry  some  heretic  either  by  compulsion  or  else  for 
love/  and  by  this  means,  our  country  being  infected  as 
it  is,  she  may  become  her  husband's  thrall,  and  we  and 
England  be  thus  ruined  for  ever.  That  there  is  but 
too  much  likelihood  of  this,  your  Majesty  may  perceive 


1  '  Par  amour.' 


I5&9-7  TEE  RISING  OF  THE  NORTH.  161 

from  the  purpose  of  marriage  between  her  and  the  Duke 
of  Norfolk,  while  it  may  be  also  that  she  will  prefer  her 
old  friends  in  France  and  Scotland  to  the  prejudice  and 
entire  destruction  of  the  connection  with  the  House  oi 
Burgundy,  which  thing  we  are  determined  at  all  costs 
not  to  endure. 

1  The  Prince  her  son  is  in  the  hands  of  heretics, 
and  is  educated  in  the  heretic  belief.  We  fear  that  he 
cannot  be  extricated  from  among  them,  save  on  con- 
ditions which  will  be  dangerous  to  the  Catholic  religion 
and  dangerous  to  the  English  Commonwealth.  We 
admit  the  right  of  the  Queen  of  Scots  because  she  is  a 
Catholic,  and  as  long  as  she  survives,  these  inconveni- 
ences may  seem  the  less  to  be  feared ;  but  should  the 
Queen  of  Scots  die  at  no  distant  time,  the  case  is  altered. 
The  Prince  her  son  will  never  be  accepted  by  the 
Catholics  unless  your  Majesty  take  him  under  your 
protection,  and  unless  he  becomes  himself  a  Catholic. 

'  There  are  other  matters  also,'  continued  the  un- 
known person1  by  whom  the  address  was  sent,  'on 
which  it  is  unnecessary  now  to  weary  your  Majesty. 
You  will  see  how  ardently  these  gentlemen  devote 
themselves  to  your  Highness,  in  God's  service,  as 
their  only  Prince  and  Protector.  We  desire,  and  all 
Catholics  for  their  own  safety  ought  to  desire,  to  see 
the  administration  of  their  country  in  your  Majesty's 
hands.  The  county  which  these  gentlemen  inhabit— 


1  The  address  was  accompanied 
by  a  list  of  names  which  has  not 
been  preserved,  and  by  a  letter  un- 


signed also,  but  professing  to  be  one 
of  the  gentlemen  by  whom  it  was 
presented. 


VOL.  ix.  11 


&EIGN  OF  E  LIZ  ABE  TIL 


.   53. 


their  names  are  in  the  list  which  we  attach l — is  called 
Lincolnshire.  The  position  of  it  by  land  and  sea  is 
convenient,  as  your  Majesty  will  perceive,  for  any  en- 
terprise which  you  may  think  proper  to  direct  against 
the  present  Queen.  Should  your  Majesty  be  unwilling 
to  undertake  anything  in  the  present  Queen's  lifetime, 
yet  in  the  event  of  her  death,  or  of  any  other  favourable 
contingency,  we  can  point  out  to  your  Majesty  by  what 
means  success  may  be  assured,  even  before  you  put 
your  hand  to  the  work.  We  pray  God  it  may  please 
your  Majesty  to  use  the  services  of  all  and  each  of  us 
according  to  your  good  will  and  power,  to  obtain  an 
end  so  excellent  in  itself,  so  important  to  the  service 
of  God  and  the  common  weal  of  Christendom.' 2 

]?rom  this  document  it  is  evident  that  distrust  of 
Mary,  distrust  of  Norfolk,  and  the  position  of  the  little 
James,  were  paralyzing  the  energies  of  the  Catholics. 
Unless  Spain  was  openly  at  their  head  they  would  not 
move,  and  the  collapse  of  the  insurrection  requires  no 
further  explanation.  It  did  not  imply  that  the  Catholics 
generally  were  loyal  to  Elizabeth,  but  only  that  at  the 
crisis  of  their  trial  they  were  smitten  with  confusion. 
Their  faith  was  no  longer  a  fire  at  white  heat  in  which 
the  units  would  fuse  together  into  a  compact  and  har- 
monious whole,  but  a  cold  opinion  which  left  every 


1  List  not  preserved. 

2  Address  in  the  names  of  the 
Knights  and  Gentlemen  of  Lincoln- 
shire to  Philip  II.  :  MSS.  Simancas. 
There  is  no  date  upon  the  MS.     It 
belongs  evidently  to  the  year  1569, 


and  was  sent  prohably  just  before 
the  insurrection,  since  in  the  letter 
there  is  a  paragraph  on  the  services 
to  be  expected  from  the  Earls  of 
"Westmoreland  and  Northumberland. 


1569-]  THE  RISING  OF  ThE  NORTH.  16$ 

man  to  act  for  himself,  subject  to  all  deflections  for  his 
special  ends,  fancies,  and  temptations. 

To  return  to  the  Border. 

The  Earls  having  escaped  into  Scotland,  the  Regent 
had  now  to  meet  the  question,  what  was  to  be  done 
with  them  ?  The  rebellion  was  part  of  the  general  dis- 
turbance which  was  agitating  both  the  realms.  It  had 
been  plotted  by  the  Bishop  of  Ross  ;  and  the  Queen  of 
Scots  was  the  centre  of  it.  In  Murray's  words,  '  it  had 
branches  unknown,  extending  to  the  farthest  marches 
of  both  the  realms.'1  Had  Elizabeth  fallen,  Murray 
would  have  gone  to  the  scaffold ;  and  little  reason  as  he 
had- for  feeling  himself  under  obligations  to  her,  his  own 
interest  was  as  deeply  concerned  as  hers  in  extinguish- 
ing the  last  sparks  of  the  conflagration. 

Elizabeth  would  now  undoubtedly  require  him  to 
arrest  the  Earls,  and  circumstanced  as  he  was  he  would 
find  it  110  easy  matter  either  to  comply  or  to  refuse. 

The  quarrel  with  Maitland  had  seriously  shaken  his 
hold  on  Scotland.  The  breach  between  these  two  men, 
who  had  once  worked  together  so  cordially,  had  now 
widened  into  an  impassable  chasm.  They  had  no  longer 
any  single  aim  which  they  pursued  in  common. 

Murray  had  but  one  principle  which  guided  him  in 
all  that  he  undertook.  Pie  was  heart  and  soul  a  Pro- 
testant. His  feelings  as  a  brother  and  a  certain  inbred 
generosity  of  temperament  had  more  than  once  pre- 
vented him  from  consenting  to  measures  which  it  might 


Murray  to  Cecil,  December  22 :  MSS.  Scotland. 


164  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  53. 

have  been  wiser  and  better  to  have  allowed  to  take  their 
course.  He  was  ambitious  for  his  country,  and  he  had 
felt  perhaps  more  interest  than  he  ought  to  have 
done  in  his  sister's  views  upon  the  English  succession ; 
but  from  the  time  when  he  could  no  longer  blind  him- 
self to  her  character,  he  had  laid  aside  every  inferior 
consideration,  and  had  set  himself  steadily  to  maintain 
the  cause  for  which  he  really  cared. 

To  Maitland,  on  the  other  hand,  the  Reformation  had 
been  interesting  so  far  and  so  far  only  as  it  promised 
political  greatness  to  Scotland.  His  keen  understand- 
ing had  shown  him  that  the  union  of  the  two  king- 
doms was  inevitably  approaching  ;  and  full  of  Scotch 
pride  and  Scotch  traditions,  his  one  hope  was  to  end  the 
long  rivalry  in  the  way  most  glorious  to  his  own  people, 
and  to  place  a  prince  of  Scotch  blood  on  the  throne  of 
the  Plantagenets.  The  person  was  of  little  moment  to 
him.  He  had  brought  the  English  to  Leith  in  the 
belief  that  Elizabeth  would  marry  the  Earl  of  Arran. 
When  Elizabeth  refused  and  the  French  King  died, 
and  Mary  Stuart  came  bajck,  his  energies  were  then  de- 
voted to  securing  Mary  Stuart's  succession.  When  the 
Queen  of  Scots  had  seemingly  wrecked  her  prospects 
by  marrying  Both  well,  he  had  assisted  at  the  corona- 
tion of  James,  believing  then  that  for  her  own  sake 
Elizabeth  would  give  him  the  place  for  which  his  mother 
had  so  long  intrigued,  and  so  pacify  her  own  people 
and  gratify  Scotland  through  its  pride. 

But  again  Elizabeth  disappointed  him.  Her  theories 
of  government,  her  sympathy  with  Mary  Stuart's  snf  • 


1569.]  THE  RISING  OF  THE  NORTH.  165 

ferings,  her  dread  of  the  misinterpretation  of  the  world 
if  she  did  not  protect  her,  kept  the  question  of  ques- 
tions still  unsettled.  Maitland  now  saw  or  thought  he 
saw  that  the  Queen  of  Scots  must  be  eventually  restored, 
and  the  discontent  of  the  English  Catholics,  of  the 
noblemen,  and  of  the  whole  nation  under  an  insecure 
and  undetermined  succession,  opened  a  new  opportunity 
to  him  through  the  Norfolk  marriage.  He  had  flung 
himself  into  the  scheme  with  all  his  strength,  careless 
where  it  would  lead  him,  so  only  he  could  succeed  in 
his  great  object.  His  knowledge,  his  powerful  charac- 
ter, his  intellectual  cultivation,  unusual  in  any  age  and 
unexampled  in  his  own — above  all  the  response  in  every 
Scotch  breast  to  the  aim  which  he  was  pursuing — gave 
him  an  influence  which  shook  from  Murray's  side  half 
of  the  best  of  his  friends.  Even  the  foolish  ministers 
of  the  Kirk  he  had  talked  over — poor  wretches  who  if 
he  had  succeeded  would  have  been  handed  over  to 
Alva's  Blood  Council.  Knox  only,  who  in  mere  worldly 
sagacity  was  Maitland' s  match,  had  been  deaf  to  his 
persuasions.1  He  had  divided  the  nobles.  He  had 
gained  Hume  and  Athol,  and,  worse  than  all,  the 
chivalrous  Kirkaldy  of  Grange.  He  had  fed  everywhere 
a  restless  expectation  of  the  Queen's  return;  and  at 
length  the  Regent,  being  determined  to  check  his  in- 
trigues, had  arrested  him,  on  the  evidence  of  Paris  and 
Crawford,  as  an  accomplice  with  Bothwell.  He  de- 
manded his  trial,  and  the  22nd  of  November  was  fixed 

1   Maitland  to  Mary  Stuart,  August,  1569,  intercepted  ciphers  :  MSS, 
QUEEN  OF  SCOTS,  Rolls  House. 


166  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  53, 

to  give  him  an  opportunity  '  for  the  declaration  of  his 
innocency.'  He  wrote  to  every  friend  that  he  pos- 
sessed, Catholic  and  Protestant,  to  request  their  pre- 
sence, and  when  the  day  came  Edinburgh  was  thronged 
with  the  armed  retainers  of  half-a-hundred  knights 
and  noblemen  who  had  come  together  to  throw  a  shield 
over  their  favourite. 

The  Bishop  of  Ross  and  the  historians  who  have 
followed  him  have  charged  Murray  with  personal  ambi- 
tion in  assuming  the  government  of  Scotland.  Never 
perhaps  was  there  a  position  which  any  reasonable  man 
would  have  less  coveted.  English  statesmen  in  their 
calculation  of  the  future  of  the  country  placed  his 
murder  among  the  most  likely  of  contingencies.  He 
had  narrowly  escaped  at  North aller ton  on  his  return 
from  the  Conference.  In  the  past  July  '  l^on  Herald ' 
had  '  conspired  his  death '  and  had  been  burnt  for  it.1 
At  best  he  was  set  to  rule  the  most  lawless  country  in 
Europe  except  Ireland,  half  of  it  avowedly  disaffected, 
without  a  revenue,  without  troops,  without  a  man  at  his 
back  except  his  own  and  his  friends'  servants.  He  was 
held  responsible  by  Elizabeth  for  the  peace  of  the 
Borders,  yet  she  would  not  acknowledge  him  as  Jlegent. 
At  every  turn  of  her  fancy  he  was  expected  to  be  the 
instrument  of  her  policy,  and  to  receive  his  sister  back 
either  as  his  Queen  or  as  his  prisoner,  as  convenience  or 
the  humour  of  the  moment  happened  to  dictate.  In 
such  a  position  there  was  little  to  envy ;  and  that 


CALDERWOOP. 


1569.3  THE  RISING  OF  THE  NORTH.  1*7 

supreme  and  commanding  integrity,  which  alone  made 
a  tenure  of  power  under  such  conditions  possible,  alone 
also  could  have  tempted  him  to  assume  it. 

Aware  of  the  intended  assembly  of  Maitland's 
party,  he  had  quietly,  with  the  Earl  of  Morton's  assist- 
ance, collected  a  force  large  enough  for  his  own  protec- 
tion if  they  tried  to  kill  him.  This  done  he  showed  '  no 
misliking  of  the  Convocation.'  He  received  every  one 
who  presented  himself  with  his  usual  courtesy,  but  be- 
fore opening  the  court  he  requested  them  all  to  meet 
him  in  the  Council  Room.  There  he  reminded  them 
briefly  that  when  he  was  in  France  they  had  elected 
him  to  the  Regency  without  his  knowledge  and  against 
his  will.  He  had  sworn  to  administer  justice  faithfully 
during  his  government,  and  they  on  their  part  had  pro- 
mised to  assist  him  in  the  execution  of  his  office.  They 
had  now  assembled  in  arms  to  prevent  justice  from 
being  done,  and  he  desired  them  to  consider  whether 
this  was  to  observe  their  engagements.  He  had  not 
interfered  with  their  meeting ;  he  had  wished  to  show 
them  that  they  could  not  frighten  him ;  he  had  now 
merely  to  say  that  their  further  presence  was  unneces- 
sary, as  the  trial  would  be  postponed  till  it  could  be 
fairly  conducted.1 

The  lords  listened  with  such  patience  as  they 
could  command.  They  dispersed  quietly,  but  Murray 
knew  what  their  attitude  boded.  If  the  rebellion  of 
ihe  Earls  gained  head  in  England,  they  would  immedi- 


Murray  to  Cecil,  November  22  :  MSS.  Scotland. 


1 68  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  53. 

ately  revolt.  He  sent  word  therefore  to  Elizabeth,  that 
he  would  assist  her  to  the  utmost  of  his  power,  and  at 
once  went  down  to  the  Border  with  all  the  men  that  he 
could  collect.  Thus  it  was  that  he  came  to  he  at  Jed- 
burgh  when  the  Earls  arrived  in  Scotland.  The  Eng- 
lish army  had  halted  on  their  own  frontier,  but  a  de- 
mand was  sent  from  Berwick  to  the  Regent  requiring 
him  to  arrest  and  give  them  up.  By  the  treaties  be- 
tween the  two  countries,  traitors  were  excluded  from 
protection,  but  this  particular  article  had  never  been 
observed.  The  Scots  were  tenacious  of  their  right  of 
asylum,  and  especially  sensitive  when  England  at- 
tempted to  violate  it.  The  Border  outlaws,  who  would 
plunder  a  church  with  the  same  indifference  with  which 
they  would  sack  a  farm-house,  drive  their  neighbour's 
cattle,  or  cut  his  throat,  regarded  the  protection  of  a 
fugitive  on  either  side  of  the  line  as  the  one  duty  of 
which  neglect  was  disgraceful.  To  fly  in  the  face  of 
such  a  feeling  would  have  been  extremely  dangerous  at 
any  time,  and  at  the  existing  crisis  their  ordinary 
jealousies  were  aggravated  by  the  resentment  of  party. 
The  Scotts,  the  Kers,  the  Maxwells,  the  Humes,  the 
Hepburns,  were  all  Catholics,  all  devoted  to  the  Queen 
of  Scots,  all  sympathizers  with  the  English  Earls. 
Murray  asked  whether  he  might  look  for  any  assistance 
from  Elizabeth  to  enable  him  to  maintain  a  regular 
force.  He  had  no  resources  of  his  own  for  such  a  pur- 
pose. (  His  own  life  was  directly  sought/  and  as  things 
stood,  it  was  Elizabeth's  interest  to  uphold  him.1  He 


Murray  to  Cecil,  December  22  (midnight) :  MSS.  Scotland. 


1569.]  THE  RISING  OF  THE  WORTH.  169 

might  liave  foreseen  the  answer  to  such  an  application. 
Nevertheless,  for  the  sake  of  the  good  cause,  with  a 
half- consciousness  that  he  was  sealing  his  fate  in  doing 
so,  he  determined  to  brave  the  popular  feeling,  and  if 
he  could  not  give  up  the  Earls,  at  least  to  make  them 
prisoners.  Lady  Northumberland  had  been  left  behind 
in  the  first  haste  of  the  flight.  Her  husband  wished  to 
rejoin  her,  and  Hector  Armstrong,  Hector  of  Harlaw, 
whose  name  was  ever  after  infamous  in  Border  story, 
undertook  to  guide  him.  The  Regent  had  notice  where 
to  look  for  him,  and  a  party  of  horse  were  on  the  watch. 
He  was  taken  somewhere  in  Liddisdale,  not  without  a 
struggle.  Some  English  borderers  tried  to  rescue  him, 
and  Captain  Borthwick,  who  commanded  the  Regent's 
troops,  was  killed,  but  the  men  did  their  duty,  and  the 
Earl  was  brought  safely  into  Jedburgh. 

Westmoreland  and  the  Nortons,  it  might  be  thought, 
could  have  been  taken  more  easily,  for  they  were  close 
under  Murray's  hand.  Two  miles  up  the  valley  through 
which  the  stream  runs  from  which  Jedburgh  takes  its 
name,  on  the  crest  of  a  bank  which  falls  off  precipitously 
to  the  water,  stand  the  remains  of  Fernihurst,  then  the 
stronghold  of  the  Kers.  It  was  on  a  scale  more  re- 
sembling the  feudal  castles  of  the  English  nobles  than 
the  narrow  towers  in  which  the  lords  of  Scotland  com- 
monly made  their  homes  ;  and  although  the  bugle -note 
blown  upon  the  battlements  could  be  heard  in  the  mar- 
ket-place of  the  town,  the  laird  of  Fernihurst  offered  an 
asylum  to  the  fugitives,  and  there  the  whole  party,  ex- 
cept Northumberland,  was  soon  collected.  The  Regent 
sent  to  demand  them.  Fernihurst  answered  that  if  he 


170 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


.  53. 


wanted  them  lie  must  come  to  fetch  them,  and  Murray, 
who  had  a  strong  force  with  him,  made  an  effort  to 
punish  his  insolence.  But  before  Murray  came  in  sight 
of  the  castle,  his  men  deserted  so  fast,  that  out  of  eight 
hundred  whom  he  took  with  him  out  of  Jedburgh  he 
had  but  two  hundred  remaining.  It  was  a  symptom  too 
alarming  to  be  neglected.  Placing  Northumberland  on 
horseback  in  the  middle  of  a  party  of  troopers,  he  made 
straight  for  Edinburgh,  and  thence  transporting  him 
over  the  Forth,  he  sent  him  to  occupy  the  rooms  which 
Mary  Stuart  had  left  vacant  in  the  island  tower  of  Loch- 
leven .  Nothing  could  have  occurred  more  unfortunate  for 
the  Regent's  influence ;  nothing  that  he  could  have  done 
could  have  given  him  a  stronger  and  more  immediate 
claim  on  Elizabeth's  support.  Not  the  Border  only  but  all 
Scotland  was  shaken.  The  national  pride  was  touched, 
1  and  there  was  a  universal  cry  that,  cost  what  it  would, 
the  Earl  should  not  be  given  up.  The  liberty  was  broken 
which  should  be  free  to  all  banished  men.'1  Even 
Morton,  who  was  Murray's  main  stay,  declared  that  his 
1570.  country  was  disgraced.  'Between  Berwick 
January.  an(j  Edinburgh  the  Regent  could  not  find  one 
man  to  stand  by  him,'2  'and  where  he  had  ten  mortal 
enemies  before,  he  had  now  a  hundred.'  Along  Tweed 
and  Teviot  the  indignation  rose  to  madness.  The  hos- 
pitality of  the  Border  had  been  consecrated  by  the  prac- 
tice of  two  hundred  years,3  and  the  fugitives  at  Ferni- 


1  Hunsdon   to  Cecil,   December 
:  MSS.  Border. 

2  Hunsdon  to  Cecil,  January  T  I : 


Ibid. 

8  '  Half  Scotland  is  like  to  rise 
against  the  Regent,'  "wrote  Sadler  on 


157°-] 


THE  RISING  OF  THE  NORTH. 


171 


hurst,  who  had  come  there  '  hunted  and  dismayed,'  found 
themselves  suddenly  in  better  case  than  when  they  were 
at  Durham,  for  they  had  a  whole  kingdom  at  their  hack, 
'bent  to  succour  them.'1  Under  these  circumstances,  if 
Elizabeth  intended  to  persist  in  her  demand  for  their 
extradition,  it  might  have  been  expected  that  she  would 
have  ordered  her  army  to  advance  into  Scotland,  to  help 
the  Regent  to  execute  her  wishes.  Had  she  been  as  con- 
scious as  her  ministers  of  the  actual  humour  of  England, 
she  might  perhaps  have  done  so.  Northumberland  since 
his  capture  had  spoken  freely  of  the  magnitude  of  the 
Catholic  Confederacy.  He  had  threatened  the  Regent 
with  the  vengeance  of  the  whole  English  peerage  if  he 
gave  him  up ;  and  Lord  Hunsdon,  too  conscious  of  the 
breadth  of  the  disaffection,  warned  his  mistress  that  the 
troubles  were  not  at  an  end,  but  only  beginning.  *  She 
should  make  no  account  of  money.'  '  If  she  looked  not 
to  the  bottom  of  the  matter,  the  sore  would  fester  and 
break  out  worse  than  ever.'  '  It  would  fall  out  to  be 
the  greatest  conspiracy  that  had  been  in  the  realm  for  a 
hundred  years.'2  The  Southern  Catholics  at  that  very 
moment,  angry  with  themselves  for  their  weakness,  were 


the  Qtii  of  January :  MS 8.  Border. 
'The  most  part  of  the  nobility,'  wrote 
Hunsdon,  '  do  think  it  a  great  re- 
proach and  ignominy  to  the  whole 
country  to  deliver  any  banished  men 
to  the  slaughter,  accounting  it  a 
liberty  and  freedom  to  all  nations  to 
succour  banished  men.' — Hunsdon 
to  Elizabeth,  January  13:  Memorials 
of  the  Rebellion.  And  again  :  '  The 


Earl  of  Morton  is  bent  for  the  main- 
tenance of  the  rebels.  He  does  ac- 
count it  a  great  shame  and  reproach 
to  all  the  country  in  doing  the  con- 
trary.'— Hunsdon  to  Cecil,  January 
ii. 

1  Hunsdon  to  Cecil,  January  1 1 
MSS.  Border. 

2  Hunsdon  to  Cecil,  December 
29  :  MSS.  Border. 


172 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


.  53. 


concerting  fresh  measures  to  renew  the  struggle.  South- 
ampton and  Montague  sent  to  the  Spanish  ambassador 
to  beg  him  not  to  accept  the  Earl's  discomfiture  as  an 
index,  of  their  real  strength.  They  desired  only  that  the 
Pope  would  relieve  them  of  the  uncertainty  which  had 
divided  the  North.1  If  the  Pope  would  excommunicate 
Elizabeth  and  absolve  them  from  their  allegiance,  they 
would  not  fail  a  second  time.  They  would  make  ar- 
rangements beforehand  that  every  man  might  know 
what  was  expected  of  him.  They  would  then  rise  every- 
where in  a  single  day,  and  never  rest  till  the  Catholic 
religion  was  re-established.2 

Elizabeth,  not  suspecting,  or  not  choosing  to  suspect, 
the  extent  of  treachery  that  was  going  on,  believed  that 
she  could  disarm  conspiracy  by  seeming  confidence;3 
yet  with  singular  inconsistency,  as  will  be  presently 
seen,  she  was  punishing  the  least  guilty  of  the  Northern 
rebels  with  a  barbarity  which  could  only  be  excused  by 
her  panic.  She  was  bent  upon  getting  the  Earls  into 
her  hands,  because  she  intended  to  try  them  and  con- 
fiscate their  estates,  and  she  doubted  whether,  in  their 
absence,  she  could  carry  their  attainder  throiigh  the 
House  of  Lords.  At  the  same  time  she  was  quarrelling 


1  'Tan  bien  me  ha  dicho  el  obispo 
de  Ross  que  los  Catolicos  de  aqui 
desean  que  su  Santidad  con  alguna 
Btilla  publicada  en  parte  que  aqui 
sc  entendiese,  los  diese  libres  de 
juramento  que  a  esta  Reyna  ban 
heel  10,  por  no  ser  ella  Catolica  y 
intitularse  Cabeza  desta  Iglesia.' — 


Don  Guerau  to  Philip,  January  18  : 
MSS.  Simancas. 

2  Ibid. 

3  '  Let  her  Majesty  look  well  to 
herself  and  not  think  all  gold  that 
glitters.' — Hunsdon   to   Cecil,    De- 
cember 29. 


IS70-]  THE  RISING  OF  THE  NORTH.  173 

with  the  expenses,  and  quarrelling  with  the  most  loyal 
of  her  council,  whom  she  accused  of  having  involved  her 
in  them.  She  listened,  if  she  listened  at  all,  to  those 
*  back  councillors '  whom  Cecil  so  much  dreaded,  and  of 
whom  he  so  unceasingly  complained.  Still  insisting 
that  Murray  should  deliver  Northumberland  to  her,  she 
insisted  at  the  same  time  that,  as  the  rebellion  was  over, 
her  army  should  be  immediately  dismissed ;  and  so  hasty, 
so  peremptory,  she  was  on  this  last  point,  that  Sussex 
was  compelled  to  disband  half  the  troops  with  no  better 
pay  '  than  fair  words  and  promises/  while  Scotland  was 
exasperated  into  fury,  and  three  counties  were  being 
driven  wild  with  wholesale  executions,  which  were  only 
so  far  discriminating  that  the  poorest  of  the  people  were 
chosen  to  be  sufferers. 

The  opinion  of  the  want  of  wisdom  which  Elizabeth 
was  displaying  in  these  matters  is  not  the  presumptuous 
censure  of  the  half-informed  modern  historian.  The 
disapprobation  must  have  gone  deep,  when  Cecil  could 
have  so  written  about  her  conduct  as  to  call  out  the  fol- 
lowing answer  from  her  own  cousin  and  her  most  faith- 
ful servant  Hunsdon : — 

LORD    HUNSDON    TO    SIR   WILLIAM    CECIL.1 

'Berwick,  January  13. 

'  I  have  received  your  letter  of  the  6th  with  a  letter 
from  her  Majesty  touching  the  Earl  of  Northumber- 
land and  the  rebels,  whereof  you  are  not  ignorant.  I 


Border  MS S. 


*74  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [«§.'££ 

was  glad  of  the  coming  of  the  letters,  because  I  looked 
long  for  them,  and  secondly,  because  I  hoped  for  better 
news  than  I  have  therein  found,  and  especially  in  yours, 
which  hath  so  appalled  me  as  I  am  almost  senseless, 
considering  the  time,  the  necessity  her  Majesty  hath 
of  assured  friends,  the  needfulness  of  good  and  sound 
counsel,  and  the  small  care  it  seems  she  hath  of  either. 
Either  she  is  bewitched,  or  else  this  practice  of  her 
destruction  which  was  meant  should  have  taken  place 
perforce  and  by  arms,  being  burst  out  before  the  time, 
being  partly  discovered  and  a  little  overthrown,  is  meant 
to  be  performed  by  practice  and  policy.  For  what  nearer 
way  can  there  be  to  achieve  to  this  purpose  than  to 
discredit  her  faithfullest  councillors,  and  to  absent  her 
most  assured  friends  from  her,  whereby  they  may  work 
all  things  at  their  will  ?  I  will  condemn  none,  but  God 
send  her  Majesty  to  have  trusty  friends  about  her  and  to 
follow  good  counsel ;  for  although  the  upper  skin  of 
this  wound  be  partly  healed,  the  wound  festers,  and  if  it 
burst  out  again  I  fear  me  it  will  be  past  cure.  It  grieves 
me  to  see  that  her  Majesty  cannot  be  induced  to  think 
well  of  those  that  serve  her  best/ 

Considering  that  as  yet  not  a  single  blow  had  been 
struck  in  the  rebellion,  and  that  the  active  violence  had 
been  confined  to  the  bloodless  capture  of  Barn  castle,  the 
work  of  vengeance  which  the  council  of  York  were 
unwillingly  compelled  to  execute  had  been  beyond  ex- 
ample cruel.  Though  the  leaders  had  escaped,  many 
gentlemen  had  been  taken  in  the  closeness  of  the  pursuit, 


*57o.j  THE  RISING  OF  THE  NORTH.  ift 

and  the  prisons  at  Durham  and  York  were  crowded  with 
unfortunates  who  had  straggled  back  to  their  homes, 
and  had  been  denounced  and  arrested.  It  was  the  theory 
of  the  Constitution,  sanctioned  so  far  by  immemorial 
custom,  that  the  lands  as  well  as  the  lives  of  traitors 
should  be  forfeited  to  the  Crown.  Under  the  feudal 
system  estates  were  held  under  the  Sovereign  in  con- 
sideration of  active  duties  to  be  performed  by  the 
holder.  Although  military  tenures  were  lapsing  into 
more  immediate  and  absolute  ownership,  yet  security 
of  property  under  the  law  involved  as  a  matter  of  course 
obedience  to  the  law,  and,  irrespective  of  higher  con- 
siderations, all  governments  must  be  held  entitled  to 
indemnify  themselves  for  the  expense  of  repressing 
rebellion  at  the  cost  of  those  who  have  occasioned  it. 
That  the  Crown  in  the  present  instance  was  entitled  to 
avail  itself  of  its  right  was  implied  in  the  nature  of  the 
case.  Rebellions  are  never  without  pretexts  which  can 
be  pleaded  in  their  justification.  The  long  peace  which 
the  country  had  enjoyed,  the  cessation  of  State  prosecu- 
tions in  so  striking  a  contrast  with  their  frequency  in 
the  previous  reigns,  the  general  prosperity  of  England 
contrasted  with  the  confusion  and  anarchy  of  the  con- 
tinental kingdoms,  gave  the  Queen  a  fair  claim  upon 
her  subjects7  loyalty.  The  Catholics  had  not  been  per- 
mitted the  open  exercise  of  their  religion  ;  but  there 
had  been  no  inquisitions,  no  meddling  in  private  with 
the  rights  of  conscience,  no  revenge  for  the  Marian 
persecutions.  Her  sister's  *  bishops  had  been  deprived 
and  imprisoned  for  refusing  to  take  the  oath  of  allegi* 


1 76  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  53. 

ance,  but  the  Government,  wherever  it  had  not  been 
openly  defied,  had  closed  its  eyes  to  the  evasion  of  the 
law.  The  country  was  still  full  of  Catholics,  and 
the  Protestant  authorities  had  been  prohibited  from  in- 
dulging their  natural  desire  to  punish  them.  In  fact 
if  not  in  theory  there  had  been  substantial  toleration ; 
and  whatever  may  be  thought  now  of  the  prohibition  of 
the  mass,  the  success  in  modern  times  of  a  more  generous 
system  is  no  proof  that  it  would  have  answered  amidst 
the  passions  of  the  Reformation. 

It  may  be  said  that  so  far  Elizabeth  had  governed  the 
country  extremely  well  and  with  extreme  forbearance. 
In  declining  to  marry  she  had  indeed  severely  tried 
her  subjects'  patience,  and  the  difficulty  of  choosing 
a  successor  from  among  the  many  competitors  should 
have  furnished  an  additional  inducement  to  overcome 
her  natural  reluctance.  If  ever  circumstances  could  be 
conceived  which  demanded  a  sacrifice  of  such  a  kind, 
the  prospects  of  England  in  the  event  of  Elizabeth's 
death  left  her  in  this  respect  without  excuse.  Yet  to- 
wards the  Queen  of  Scots,  '  the  daughter  of  debate/  who 
was  the  occasion  of  her  .worst  perplexities,  she  had 
acted  with  a  weakness  which  her  loyal  subjects  had  a 
right  to  condemn,  but  which,  justly  looked  at,  had  left 
little  ground  for  complaint  to  the  friends  of  her  rival. 
She  had  saved  her  life,  and  she  had  saved  her  honour, 
when  she  might  have  spared  herself  all  further  trouble 
on  her  account  by  publishing  the  proofs  of  her  infamy. 
These  proofs  Northumberland  and  Westmoreland  had 
seen,  had  admitted,  and  in  the  rebellion  itself  had  never 


1570.]  THE  RISING  OF  THE  NORTH.  177 

ventured  to  challenge,  yet  they  had  committed  the  last 
and  worst  form  of  treason — they  had  invited  a  foreign 
army  into  the  kingdom,  imperilling  the  national  inde- 
pendence as  well  as  the  throne  of  the  Sovereign.  There 
was  nothing  therefore  except  its  bloodlessness  in  the 
circumstances  of  the  rebellion  which  called  for  any 
particular  leniency,  and  those  who  look  back  upon  such 
a  condition  of  things  from  times  when  the  danger  from 
similar  combinations  has  long  passed  away,  are  apt  to 
be  misled  by  their  natural  compassion  for  sufferers,  and 
from  the  instinctive  sympathy  with  those  who  risk  and 
lose  their  lives  in  a  public  cause. 

It  is  equally  certain  however  that  there  may  be  seen 
in  the  conduct  of  the  Government  at  all  times,  and 
after  all  necessary  allowance,  the  working  of  question- 
able passions;  and  the  retribution  inflicted  upon  the 
Northern  insurgents  shows  undoubtedly  that  anger 
and  avarice  had  for  a  time  overclouded  Elizabeth's 
character. 

The  complaints  of  the  Queen  about  expense  while 
the  rebels  were  in  the  field  had  been  incessant.  Every 
letter  which  Cecil  wrote  contained  some  intimation  or 
other  of  the  extreme  difficulty  of  getting  money  from 
her.  After  the  flight  and  dispersion  from  Durham, 
orders  were  immediately  sent  down  that  '  some  of  the 
rascals  should  be  hanged  by  martial  law,'1  but  care 
was  to  be  taken  that  none  of  the  '  richer  sort '  should 
suffer  in  that  way.  Death  by  martial  law  would  not 


1  Cecil  to  Sadler,  December  20  :  Sadler  Papers,  vol.  ii. 
VOL.  ix.  12 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


53- 


touch  property,  and  the  object  was  to  make  sure  of  the 
forfeitures. 

Lord  Sussex  still  received  '  hard  constructions '  at  the 
Court ;  '  he  was  supposed  to  have  connived  at  the  Earls' 
escape,  and  to  have  neglected  precautions  which  would 
have  prevented  them  from  reaching  Scotland/1  The 
Queen  therefore  determined  to  make  him  the  instru- 
ment of  her  severity,  and  he  was  directed  to  make  a 
list  of  all  the  principal  persons  known  to  have  been 
with  the  rebels,  or  to  have  assisted  them  with  armour, 
food,  or  money.  These  persons  he  was  immediately  to 
arrest.  If  he  was  anywhere  at  a  loss,  he  might  take 
men  on  suspicion.  He  was  to  commit  them  '  to  strait 
prison/  '  and  as  need  should  be '  ( pinch  them  with 
some  lack  of  food  and  pain  of  imprisonment  till  they 
declared  the  names  of  as  many  as  they  could  remem- 
ber.' This  done,  on  a  given  night,  and  at  the  same 
hour,  there  could  be  a  general  seizure ;  especial  care 
being  taken  to  apprehend  '  all  priests,  constables,  bailiffs, 
and  others  that  had  held  any  office.' 2  The  fish  thus 
netted  were  then  to  be  sorted  into  two  classes :  '  of  those 
who  had  no  freeholds,  copyholds,  nor  any  substance  of 
lands,'  a  sufficient  number  were  to  be  selected,  and  to  be 
immediately  hanged  by  martial  law  in  the  parish  green 
or  market-place  where  the  rebels  had  held  their  assem- 
blies :  the  servants  of  any  principal  insurgent  were  to 
suffer  also,  the  scene  of  their  execution  being  the  neigh- 


1  Cecil  to  Sadler,  December  25. 

2  Cecil     added     in    a    separate 
clause :  '  Some  notable  example  to 


be  made  of  the  priests  that  have  of- 
fended in  this  rebellion.' 


I570-]  THE  RISING  OF  THE  NORTH.  179 

bourhood  of  their  masters'  houses ;  and  '  the  bodies 
were  not  to  be  removed,  but  to  remain  till  they  fell  to 
pieces  where  they  hung.' 

The  rest  were  to  be  formally  tried,  that  her  Majesty 
might  be  duly  assured  of  her  escheats.  If  '  corruption 
or  lucre'  prevented  a  fair  verdict — that  is  to  say,  if 
judgment  was  not  given  for  the  Crown — the  prisoners 
were  not  to  be  released,  but  the  trial  adjourned  to  the 
Star  Chamber. 

'For  the  avoiding  of  desperation'  a  proclamation 
was  sent  out  that  any  one  who  was  not  already  taken 
and  would  surrender  of  his  own  accord  might  be  re- 
ceived to  mercy.  But  it  was  added  that  if  those  who 
had  been  culpable  should  fly  from  the  country  they 
should  never  receive  pardon  at  all.1 

The  first  part  of  these  instructions  was  immediately 
acted  upon.  An  indefinite  number  of  unfortunate  peo- 
ple were  seized,  and  out  of  them  six  or  seven  hundred 
artisans,  labourers,  or  poor  tenant  farmers  were  picked 
out  for  summary  execution.  Lord  Sussex  was  scrupul- 
ous not  '  to  include  any  person  that  had  inheritance  or 
wealth,  for  that  he  knew  the  law/  Those  were  chosen 
whose  worst  crime  was  that  they  had  followed  the  gen- 
tlemen who,  by  the  constitution  of  the  country,  were 
their  natural  leaders,  and  these,  besides  '  the  prisoners 
taken  in  the  field/  were  to  be  distributed  about  York- 
shire and  hanged.  '  He  meant  to  use  such  discretion/ 
he  said,  '  as  that  no  sort  should  escape  for  example,  and 


Notes  for  the  suppression  of  the  rebellion,  December  31,  1569. 


iSo  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  53. 

that  the  example  should  be,  as  was   necessary,  very 
great,' 1 

If  the  seventy  persons  hanged  in  hot  blood  after  the 
fight  at  Carlisle  be  not  included,  the  number  of  persons 
executed  after  the  Pilgrimage  of  Grace  did  not  exceed 
two  hundred,  and  among  those  '  the  common  sort'  were 
not  represented.  The  tendency  of  a  Government  to 
be  harsh  is  in  the  ratio  of  its  weakness  ;  and  Elizabeth, 
to  whom  nothing  naturally  was  more  distasteful  than 
cruelty,  when  Sussex's  arrangements  were  made  known 
to  her,  was  only  impatient  that  they  should  be  com- 
pleted. There  had  been  some  delay,  perhaps  in  deter- 
mining the  spots  where  the  executions  were  to  be.  She 
wrote  on  the  nth  of  January  that  '  she  somewhat  mar- 
velled that  she  had  as  yet  heard  nothing  from  Sussex 
of  any  execution  done  by  martial  law  as  was  appointed.' 
She  required  him,  '  if  the  same  was  not  already  done, 
to  proceed  thereto  with  all  the  expedition  he  might, 
and  to  certify  her  of  his  doings  therein.' 2  Sussex  had 
no  need  of  the  spur,  and  had  been  only  too  anxious  to 
clear  himself  of  suspicions  of  disloyalty.  Before  the 
letter  reached  him  the  victims  had  been  made  over  to 
the  Provost  Marshal.  Sir  George  Bowes,  who  had  un- 
dertaken to  superintend  the  process,  was  stringing  them 
leisurely  upon  the  trees  in  the  towns  and  village  greens. 
Eighty  were  hanged  at  Durham,  those  chiefly  who  had 
taken  a  part  in  the  Catholic  jubilee  at  the  Cathedral. 
Forty  suffered  at  Darlington,  and  twenty  of  Bowes's 

1  Sussex  to  Cecil,  December  28 :  I        2  Elizabeth  to  Sussex,  January 
MSS.  Border.  II  :  MSS.  Border, 


1570.]  THE  RISING  OF  THE  NORTH.  181 

own  deserters  on  the  walls  at  Barncastle.  It  is  suine 
relief  to  find  that  the  wives  and  children  of  those  who 
were  executed  '  were  favourably  dealt  with ; '  orders 
were  given  that  '  not  only  they  should  have  110  cause  to 
complain,  but  should  be  satisfied  ' — whatever  that  might 
mean.1  But  the  hanging  business  itself  went  on  rapidly 
and  mercilessly ;  '  the  lingering  bred  offence ; '  and  on 
the  23rd  of  January,  Bowes  reported  that  he  had  put 
to  death  'about  six  hundred '  besides  those  who  had 
been  disposed  of  by  Sussex. 

Among  contemporary  engravings  representing  the 
condition  of  Europe  at  this  period,  may  be  seen  pictures, 
intended  to  excite  the  pity  and  the  passions  of  the  Pro- 
testants, representing  the  scenes  in  the  French  and  Flem- 
ish towns  when  they  were  taken  by  the  Catholic  troops. 
There  is  death  in  all  its  horrors ;  men  torn  in  pieces 
by  wild  horses,  children  tossed  to  and  fro  upon  the 
soldiers7  pikes,  families  perishing  amidst  their  own 
blazing  houses.  But  chiefly  noticeable  are  long  rows  of 
what  once  were  living  men,  artisans  and  tradesmen,  in 
their  simple  working  dresses,  dangling  in  seemingly 
infinite  numbers  as  far  as  the  eye  can  follow  them  down 
the  narrowing  streets.  A  hundred  Huguenots  were  mur- 
dered in  France  for  every  Catholic  in  England.  But 
in  those  Northern  villages  there  were  spectacles  of  the 
same  description.  The  difference  was  in  the  degree  of 
the  cruelty,  not  in  its  kind.  Sir  George  Bowes  reported 
'that  the  people  were  in  marvellous  fear/  and  that  the 


1  Bowes  to  Sussex,  January  8  :  Memorials  of  the  Rebellion. 


ife 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


.  53 


authors  of  the  rebellion  were  cursed  on  every  side.1 
But  it  was  a  fear  which  was  accompanied  with  no  sense 
of  deserved  suffering.  Their  condition,  as  described 
by  a  correspondent  of  Cecil's,  was  rather  one  of  '  mad 
desperation/  and  a  passionate  prayer  for  some  turn  of 
fortune  which  would  give  them  their  chance  of  revenge. 
They  saw  the  gentlemen  who  were  the  occasions  of  the 
mischief  spared — they  knew  not  why.  They  saw  them- 
selves hunted  down  and  destroyed  as  if  they  were  wild 
beasts,  and  the  effect  of  '  the  example '  was  only  to  in- 
crease the  likelihood  of  another  insurrection.2 

Still  Elizabeth  was  not  satisfied.  She  seemed  pos- 
sessed by  a  temper  unlike  any  which  she  ever  displayed 
before  or  after.  When  the  martial  law  was  over,  she 
ordered  the  council  of  York  '  to  attaint  all  offenders 
that  might  be  gotten  by  process  or  otherwise  ; '  till  at 
length  the  Crown  prosecutor,  Sir  Thomas  Gargrave, 
was  obliged  to  tell  her  that  if  she  were  obeyed  '  many 
places  would  be  left  naked  of  inhabitants  ; '  '  the  poor 
husbandman,  if  he  was  not  a  great  Papist,  could  be- 
come a  good  subject/  and  she  would  do  well  to  grant 


1  Sir  George   Bowes  to   Ralph 
Bowes,  January  23 :   Memorials  of 
the  Rebellion. 

2  '  Though    many  have  suffered 
and  many  are  shorn  to  the  bare  pilch, 
yet    because  few   or  none  of   the 
gentlemen  have  tasted  of  judgment 
who  only  were  the  incentors  to  all, 
the  danger  is  rather  doubled  than  in 
any  respect  foredone.' to 


Cecil,  February  6  :  MSS.  Border. 
In  Northumberland,  where  "War- 
wick commanded,  there  was  com- 
parative mercy.  In  Yorkshire  and 
Durham  the  Catholics  nattered 
themselves  '  that  the  execution  of  so 
many  poor  men  had  hardened  and 
exasperated  the  rest.' — La  Mothe, 
January  21  :  Depeches,  vol.  ii. 


1570.]  THE  RISING  OF  THE  NORTH.  183 

a  general  pardon,  from  which  only  a  certain  number 
should  be  excepted.1 

The  turn  of  those  came  next  who  had  property  to  be 
escheated,  and  who  were  therefore  to  be  dealt  with  less 
precipitately..  With  these  an  unexpected  difiiculty  arose 
from  the  Palatinate  rights  of  the  Bishop  of  Durham. 
There  was  a  fear  that  the  forfeitures  within  '  the  bishop- 
rick'  would  fall  to  the  See ;  and  Sussex,  wishing  to  so 
manage  matters  that  the  Queen  *  should  take  a  good 
and  a  long  breath  upon  these  northern  gentlemen's 
lands/  suggested  that  she  should  either  'compound 
with  the  Bishop  for  his  royalties/  or  else  translate  him 
to  some  other  diocese,  when,  in  the  vacancy  of  the  See, 
1  all  would  grow  to  her  Majesty/  2 

Elizabeth  would  not  have  allowed  a  bishop  to  stand 
between  her  and  'her  commodity/  and  had  the  law 
stood  as  was  at  first  supposed,  she  would  have  found 
her  way  through  it  somehow.  But  Sussex,  it  seems, 
was  mistaken.  Pilkington  ventured  a  faint  plea  for 
himself.  The  Queen  ordered  him  back  to  his  duties, 
from  which  he  had  fled  at  the  outbreak  of  the  rebel- 
lion, and  the  law  authorities  ruled  that  in  cases  of  high 
treason,  by  the  25th  of  Edward  III.,  '  all  forfeitures  of 
escheats,  in  all  places  and  under  all  circumstances,  be- 
longed to  the  Crown.' 3 

This  objection  being  disposed  of,  a  Special  Commis- 


1  Sir  T.  Gargrave  to  Cecil,  Feb- 
ruary 6  :  MSS.  Border. 


2  Sussex  to  Cecil,  December  25  :    1570, 


MSS.  Border. 


3  Border    MSS.,   February    19, 


1 84  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  53. 

sion  sat  at  York,  and  the  trials  began.  The  most  im- 
portant of  the  prisoners  were  carried  to  London  that 
their  examinations  might  be  taken  by  the  council  before 
their  execution.  Of  the  rest,  a  number  of  gentlemen 
were  tried,  of  whom  eleven  were  found  guilty.  Four 
of  the.se  were  immediately  put  to  death ;  seven  were 
recommended  to  mercy  for  reasons  which  might  not  have 
been  anticipated,  but  which,  when  mentioned,  become 
intelligible. 

The  first,  Henry  Johnson,  had  married  a  daughter 
of  old  Norton.  He  was  described  as  '  a  simple  person 
abused  by  his  wife ; '  but  he  was  not  to  be  spared  for  '  his 
simplicity/  His  estates  were  settled  on  his  wife,  '  so  that 
by  his  life  the  Queen  would  have  his  lands,  and  by  his 
death  his  wife  would  have  them/ 

Two  others,  Leonard  Metcalf  and  Richard  Claxton, 
were  in  the  same  predicament.  They  were  both  men  of 
hitherto  blameless  conduct,  but  the  argument  in  their 
favour  was  that  the  Government  would  lose  by  their 
execution. 

John  Markinfield,  a  boy  under  twenty,  was  attainted 
'only  to  bring  his  title  to  his  brother's  lands  to  the 
Queen/  1  '  It  was  not  meant  that  he  should  die,  for 
that  he  had  no  land/ 

Ralph  Coniers  was  a  Protestant  who  had  been  led 
into  the  rebellion  only  by  loyalty  to  the  Earl  of  West- 


1  The  elder  Markinfield,  who  had 
been  one  of  the  principal  movers  of 
the  rebellion,  was  with  Westmore- 
land at  Fernihurst.  If  he  was  not 


given  up  he  could  be  attainted  by 
Parliament;  but  his  brother  had 
some  right  in  the  estates  which  his 
attainder  would  not  touch. 


THE  RISING  OF  THE  NORTH. 


185 


moreland.     He  had  only  a  life  interest  in  his  estates. 

Richard  Lambert,  alone  out  of  the  seven,  the  Queen 
was  advised  to  spare  on  the  fair  ground  of  good  cha- 
racter. 

The  most  singular  argument  for  clemency  was  that 
which  was  urged  in  behalf  of  the  last — Astolph  Cleisby : 
he  had  no  property,  and  there  was  thus  no  special  in- 
centive for  his  execution ;  Lord  Hunsdon's  son,  Henry 
Carey,  once  thought  of  for  the  Queen  of  Scots,  was  a 
suitor  for  one  of  the  three  daughters  and  co-heiresses  of 
Lord  Coniers.  It  was  conceived  that  Cleisby,  'being 
in  great  credit  with  all  the  sisters,'  '  might  assist  if  his 
life  was  spared  in  bringing  about  the  match.3 1 

After  some  hesitation  Elizabeth  admitted  the  recom- 
mendations, and  all  the  seven  were  spared.2  Two  sons 
of  old  Norton  and  two  of  his  brothers,  after  long  and 
close  cross-questioning  in  the  Tower,  were  tried  and 
convicted  at  Westminster.  Two  of  these  JSTortons  were 
afterwards  pardoned.  Two,  one  of  whom  was  Christofer, 
the  poor  youth  who  had  been  bewitched  by  the  fair  eyes 
of  the  Queen  of  Scots  at  Bolton,  w^is  put  to  death  at 
Tyburn  with  the  usual  cruelties. 

But  so  far,  after  all,  the  Queen  had  gained  but  little. 
The  principles  on  which  the  gentlemen  had  been  dealt 
with  had  not  tended  to  satisfy  the  commons  as  to  the 
equity  of  an  administration  which  had  hanged  the  poor 


1  Proceedings   of  the   Commis- 
sion at  York  :  Memorials  of  the  Re- 
bellion. 

2  It  is  interesting  to  observe  that 


Henry  Carey  did  not,  after  all, 
obtain  the  object  of  his  wishes. — 
DUGDALE,  vol.  ii.  p.  291  :  Article 
CONIERS. 


186  REIGN  Of  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  53. 

without  mercy,  and  spared  the  rich  who  misled  them, 
when  anything  was  to  be  gained  by  their  lives ;  while 
the  owners  of  the  great  estates  which  were  to  repay  the 
expenses  of  the  army  were  safe  within  the  Scottish 
borders. 

If  they  escaped  abroad  the  Queen  could  not  touch 
their  lands  without  an  Act  of  Parliament,  and  in  the 
way  of  this  there  would  be  difficulties  which  she  was 
earnest  to  avoid.  She  again  wrote  therefore  to  demand 
them  of  Murray  ;  but  Murray,  had  he  been  willing  to 
comply,  was  evidently  without  the  power,  and  she  had 
to  think  of  other  means.  If  force  was  costly,  treachery 
might  be  cheap.  Sir  Robert  Constable  has  been  seen 
once  in  the  discharge  of  his  dishonourable  office.  Still 
maintaining  the  character  of  a  concealed  friend,  he  fol- 
lowed his  cousin  to  Fernihurst,  where  he  was  warmly 
received  by  the  Laird  and  all  the  party.  Both  West- 
moreland and  old  Norton  complained  of  the  cowardice 
of  the  Southern  Catholics ;  and  Constable,  whose  busi- 
ness was  to  tempt  them  if  possible  to  come  back  to  Eng- 
land and  sue  for  their  pardons,  humoured  their  discon- 
tent, and  began  cautiously  to  suggest,  that,  instead  of 
trusting  to  rebellion,  they  should  try  some  other  plan. 
Westmoreland  was  proud  of  his  birth,  proud  of  his 
honourable  house,  and  he  shrank  with  English  sensi- 
tiveness from  a  taint  upon  his  scutcheon.  It  was  easy 
to  persuade  him  that  he  would  be  of  more  use  to  the 
cause  which  he  had  at  heart,  by  working  legitimately 
by  the  side  of  his  friends  at  home,  than  by  staying 
abroad  and  waiting  for  revolution,  or  by  intriguing  to 


1570.]  THE  RISING  OF  THE  frORTH.  18? 

bring  foreign  armies  upon  the  soil  of  his  country. 
Westmoreland  was  soft  and  weak.  'The  tears  over- 
hailed  his  cheeks  abundantly/  Norton  appeared  equally 
penitent.  They  both  thought  it  might  be  better  for 
them  '  to  take  their  chance  by  voluntary  surrender  than 
to  risk  being  taken/  The  moment  for  the  temptation  was 
well  chosen.  Westmoreland  had  reason  to  doubt  the 
continued  hospitality  of  Fernihurst.  He  had  been 
amusing  himself  with  the  Laird's  '  new  wanton  lady/  a 
daughter  of  Sir  William  Kirkaldy,  and  had  disturbed 
the  peace  of  the  household.  Constable  advised  them  to 
go  to  England  and  '  hide  at  some  friend's  house/  from 
which  they  '  could  make  their  submission,  craving  no- 
thing but  life.'  He  offered  them  'his  own  guides/ 
'  Border  outlaws,  who  would  not  betray  any  man  that 
trusted  in  them  for  all  the  gold  in  Scotland  or  in  France/ 
He  even  said  in  his  generosity,  '  that  he  would  receive 
them  in  his  own  home,  where  they  might  be  sure  of  such 
safety  as  he  could  provide ;  for  if  they  were  taken  he 
would  hang  at  their  side/ 

They  required  a  few  hours  to  consider.  To  support 
his  character,  Sir  Robert  spent  the  night  at  a  house  in 
Jedburgh,  which  was  the  haunt  of  the  most  desperate 
men  upon  the  Borders.  The  place  was  thronged  with 
them.  They  were  playing  at  cards  when  he  came  in, 
'  some  for  drink,  some  for  hardheads/ 1  He  sat  down  at 
the  game.  They  were  talking  of  the  Regent.  '  They 
wished  they  had  Hector  of  Harlaw's  head  to  be  eaten 


1  A  small  coin. 


1 88  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  53. 

among  them  at  supper ; '  and  as  to  Murray,  '  some  said 
he  could  not,  for  the  honour  of  his  country,  deliver  the 
Earls,  if  he  had  them  both,  unless  the  Queen  was  re- 
stored ; '  others  that,  ( if  he  would  agree  to  that  change, 
the  Borderers  would  start  up  and  reive  both  Queen  and 
Lords  from  him,  for  the  like  shame  was  never  done  in 
Scotland.'1  The  next  morning  he  saw  Westmoreland 
again.  Neither  he  nor  Norton  had  made  up  their 
minds.  The  Earl  said  he  could  not  leave  Fernihurst 
without  making  the  Laird  some  present  for  his  hospi- 
tality. He  desired  Constable  to  go  to  the  Countess,  who 
was  still  in  England,  and  ask  her  to  give  him  some 
choice  jewel,  with  which  he  could  return  to  Jedburgh. 
After  that  he  gave  him  hopes  that  he  would  follow  his 
advice,  and  Sir  Robert  went  back  over  the  moors,  '  the 
extremest  day  of  wind  and  snow  that  ever  he  did  ride 
in/  to  make  the  necessary  arrangements  with  his  em- 
ployers. 

*  Although/  he  wrote  to  Sir  Ralph.  Sadler,  describ- 
ing what  he  had  done — '  Although  it  was  a  traitorous 
kind  of  service  that  he  was  wading  in  to  trap  them  that 
trusted  in  him,  as  Judas  did  Christ,  yet,  to  prevent  the 
ills  which  might  come  of  their  liberty,  neither  kindred 
nor  affection  should  withhold  him  to  allure  them  to  come 
to  submission.  He  hoped  the  Queen  would  pardon  their 
lives.  Should  it  turn  to  the  effusion  of  their  blood,  his 
conscience  would  be  troubled  all  the  days  of  his  life.' 
At  all  events,  he  trusted  that  they  would  not  be  seized 


1  Constable  to  Sadler,  January  12  :  Sadler  Papers,  vol.  ii. 


1570.]  THE  RISING  OF  THE  NORTH.  189 

while  under  his  own  roof.  There  would  be  opportunities 
to  take  them  upon  the  road ;  he  could  '  turn  the  ball 
into  the  warden's  lap.'  But  his  secret  must  be  kept ; 
*  sooner  than  his  doings  should  be  known,  he  would 
rather  be  torn  every  joint  from  other/  If  the  Earl  and 
Norton  changed  their  minds,  the  Laird  of  Fernihurst 
was  poor  and  covetous.  He  was  jealous  of  Westmore- 
land, and  he  had  those  about  him  *  that  might  persuade 
him  to  do  anything  for  profit/  '  A  thousand  pounds 
wisely  bestowed  would  effect  more  than  ten  thousand 
men.'1 

Lord  Hunsdon,  it  seems,  had  no  inclination  for 
dealings  of  this  kind.  He  never  ceased  to  urge  that 
the  Queen  should  'more  regard  her  honour  than  her 
purse/  Sooner  or  later  she  would  be  obliged  to  send 
troops  into  Scotland,  or  '  receive  the  shame  to  have  her 
rebels  kept  whatever  she  could  do/2  Sadler  however 
sent  Constable's  letter  on  to  the  Court ;  Cecil  showed  it 
to  the  Queen ;  and  after  receiving  her  instructions,  he 
replied  that  Constable  was  to  be  encouraged  to  proceed. 
'  Her  Majesty/  he  said,  '  will  have  him  secretly  dealt 
withal  to  prosecute  his  enterprise,  to  train  the  rebels  to 
his  house,  or  otherwise  to  some  place  in  England  where 
they  may  be  so  apprehended  as  he  may  escape  the  im- 
putation of  any  crime.  The  rather  for  the  covering  of 
the  enterprise,  he  (Constable)  may  also  be  apprehended, 
and  be  outwardly  charged  with  offences  against  her 
Majesty,  and  in  so  doing  her  Majesty  commands  me  to 

1  Constable  to  Sadler,  January  I  2  Hunsdon  to  Cecil,  January  22 : 
12  :  Sadler  Papers,  vol.  ii.  |  MSS.  Bordw. 


190  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  53. 

assure  you  he  shall  be  largely  rewarded.'  'If  this 
enterprise  cannot  take  effect,  then  her  Majesty  would 
he  should  make  offer  of  money  to  some  in  Scotland  for 
apprehending  of  them,  and  whatever  you  shall  warrant 
him  to  offer,  not  being  above  zooo/.,  it  shall  be  per- 
formed ;  her  Majesty  is  very  desirous  to  have  these 
noysome  vermin  taken.'1 

'  The  less  the  sum  be/  wrote  Sadler,  in  sending  the 
order  on  to  Constable,  '  the  better  service  shall  you  do, 
and  the  greater  will  be  your  own  reward.  Her  Majesty 
doth  take  your  services  in  good  and  thankful  part ;  her 
Highness's  pleasure  is  that  you  proceed  in  that  you 
have  begun.' 2 

But  Elizabeth  was  not  permitted  to  soil  her  fame 
with  successful  treachery.  Before  Constable  could  re- 
turn to  his  villain  work,  a  darker  treason  had  struck 
a  nobler  victim  ;  and  in  the  outburst  of  anarchy  which 
followed  in  Scotland,  she  learnt  the  lesson  which  Huns- 
don  had  laboured  in  vain  to  teach  her. 

The  Earl  of  Murray  was  as  conscious  as  Cecil  that 
the  interests  of  Scotland  and  England  could  not  be 
separated.  It  was  as  essential  to  the  stability  of  the 
throne  of  Elizabeth  that  his  own  Regency  should  be 
maintained,  as  it  was  to  himself  that  the  Catholic  noble- 
men should  fail  in  their  intended  revolution.  With  a 
fair  understanding  he  was  ready  to  brave  unpopularity, 
and  to  assist  her  by  repressing  the  sympathizers  with 
the  Earls,  if  she  in  turn  would  support  him  against  the 

1  Cecil  to  Sadler,  January  18 :  I        2  Sadler  to  Constable,  January 
Sadler  Papery  vol.  ii.  '  23  •  Sadler  Papers,  vol.  ii. 


1570.]  THE  RISING  OF  THE  NORTH.  191 

party  of  the  Queen  of  Scots.  It  was  impossible  for  him 
to  continue  to  work  upon  the  terms  which  Elizabeth 
had  hitherto  imposed — to  do  what  she  required  as  if  he 
was  her  subject,  yet  to  do  it  without  recognition,  with- 
out help,  at  the  expense  of  himself  and  his  friends.  At 
such  a  crisis  as  the  present  to  fly  in  the  face  of  the  tra- 
ditions of  his  country,  was  to  expose  himself  to  almost 
certain  destruction  by  exasperating  the  national  jea- 
lousv  of  the  most  sensitive  people  in  the  world. 

Such  relations  between  them  could  not  last,  and  it 
was  high  time  that  Elizabeth  should  know  it.  To  her 
last  demand  for  the  extradition  of  the  refugees  the 
Regent  replied  by  sending  his  secretary,  Elphinstone, 
to  Cecil  '  with  a  private  communication.7  Many  a  bitter 
wrong  had  Murray  to  complain  of,  had  he  chosen  to 
remember  his  personal  grievances;  but  personal  ill- 
treatment  was  never  a  matter  on  which  he  preferred  to 
dwell.  After  touching  on  the  rebellion,  he  ran  briefly 
over  the  events  of  the  three  past  years  ;  the  murder  of 
Darnley,  the  marriage  of  Mary  Stuart  with  Bothwell, 
the  sequestration  of  her  person  at  Lochleven,  her 
escape,  and  the  battle  at  Langside.  The  flight  into 
England  had  followed,  and  afterwards  the  practices  of 
the  Queen  to  sow  sedition,  to  maintain  Papists,  to  pre- 
tend title  to  the  crown,  to  marry  with  the  Duke  of 
Norfolk,  and  to  be  restored  to  her  own  government  • 
while  Murray  himself  had  been  forced  to  despair  of  the 
favour  of  the  Queen's  Majesty,  'by  means  that  the  said 
Scottish  Queen  had  such  favourers  in  England,  as  well 
of  Papists  as  others  that  favoured  her  marriage.' 


192  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [en.  53. 

Under  all  disadvantages  he  had  held  his  ground  in 
the  Regency  for  two  years ;  but  he  had  come  to  the  end 
of  his  resources.  The  Queen's  partisans  were  labouring 
incessantly  to  undermine  and  overthrow  him.  '  Those 
who  had  been  concerned  in  the  murder '  were  afraid  of 
being  punished  by  him ;  '  the  Hamiltons  and  the  Earls 
of  Huntly  and  Argyle  being  of  alliance  in  blood,  would 
ever  be  adverse  to  the  King  ; '  and  he  was  left  almost 
alone  to  sustain  the  malice  and  danger  of  all  those 
parties.  The  noblemen  who  had  stood  by  him  at  the 
beginning  ( were  wearied  with  continual  charge  of  as- 
semblies/ '  They  served  at  their  own  cost  at  Langside, 
afterwards  in  a  journey  into  Galloway,  next  in  the  Par- 
liament in  August,  1568  ;  after  that  in  the  journey  into 
England,  then  in  the  journey  to  Glasgow  to  meet  the 
Duke  and  Lord  Herries,  then  in  the  months  of  March 
and  April  on  the  Borders.  Again,  there  had  been  the 
long  and  costly  journey  into  the  North  against  the 
Earl  of  Huntly  and  his  partakers ; '  '  then  the  conven- 
tion at  Perth,  and  then  service  again  upon  the  Borders/ 
All  this  he  and  his  friends  had  done  without  assistance, 
from  their  private  means.  For  the  future,  if  Elizabeth 
meant  '  to  take  profit  by  Scotland/  she  must  be  prepared 
to  take  a  share  in  the  expenses.  2ooo/.  a  year,  with  a 
supply  of  powder  and  arms,  would  be  sufficient;  but 
that  sum  at  least  he  was  entitled  and  obliged  to  ask, 
and  to  demand  further,  that  she  would  openly  recog- 
nize the  King's  government,  and  declare  to  the  world 
that  she  intended  to  maintain  it.  These  two  requests 
conceded,  he  would  undertake  to  govern  Scotland  in  the 


THE  RISING  OF  THE  NORTH. 


'93 


manner  most  conducive  to  Elizabeth's  interest ;  other- 
wise, '  he  must  forbear  to  venture  his  life  as  he  had 
done/  If  he  was  less  careful  to  please  England  he 
could  make  his  position  easier  at  home ;  although  it  was 
true  that  dangers  would  then  ensue  to  both  the  realms, 
by  the  increase  of  the  Popish  factions.  He  desired 
Elizabeth  to  be  reminded  that  '  she  had  the  head  of  all 
the  troubles  at  her  commandment.  The  rebellion  was 
not  ended,  it  had  more  dangerous  branches,  and  if  it 
was  not  now  remedied  the  fault  would  lie  with  her  Ma- 
jesty/1 

There  was  not  a  word  in  all  this  which  was  not  most 
reasonable  and  true,  but  Elphinstone  came  to  the  Court 
at  an  inconvenient  time.  Impatient,  unjust,  and  head- 
strong, Elizabeth  said,  that  for  the  money  and  the  other 
matters  of  which  Murray  had  written,  she  would  think 
over  the  subject,  and  send  some  one  to  communicate 
with  him  about  it.  Meantime,  she  must  have  'her 
rebels/  Sadler,  Sussex,  Hunsdon,  had  told  her  with 
one  voice  that  it  could  not  be — it  would  cost  Murray 
his  life  to  try  it ;  but  she  did  not  care  or  did  not  choose 
to  believe  them.  The  rebels,  she  said,  l  besides  high 
treason  against  herself  and  her  crown/  '  had  purposed 
the  alteration  of  the  common  religion  established,  in 
both  the  realms ; '  they  must  be  given  up  to  her  at 
once.2 

The  ink  was  scarcely  dry  upon  her  letter  before  she 


1  Murray  to  Cecil,  January  14 : 
MSS.  Scotland.  Notes  of  the  mat- 
ter of  Mr  Elphinstone' s  instructions : 


Ibid. 

2  Elizabeth  to  Murray,  January 
28. 


VOL.    IX. 


i94 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


53. 


learned  that  the  fears  of  those  who  understood  Scotland 
better  than  herself  had  been  too  fatally  justified. 

Although  to  the  Catholics,  to  the  friends  of  Mary 
Stuart,  to  the  friends  generally  of  anarchy  and  the 
right  of  every  man  to  do  as  he  pleased — a  large  class  at 
this  time  in  Scotland, — the  administration  of  Murray 
was  in  every  way  detestable,  yet  the  disinterested  in- 
tegrity of  his  character,  the  activity  and  equity  of  his 
government,  had  commanded  respect  even  from  those 
who  most  disliked  him.  They  might  oppose  his  policy 
and  hate  his  principles,  but  personal  ill-will,  as  he  had 
never  deserved  it  from  any  one,  had  never  hitherto  been 
felt  towards  him,  except  by  his  sister.  The  arrest  of 
Northumberland,  and  the  supposed  intention  of  sur- 
rendering him  to  Elizabeth,  had  called  out  a  spirit 
against  him  which  had  not  before  existed,  and  an  op- 
portunity was  created  for  his  destruction  which  had 
been  long  and  anxiously  watched  for. 

The  plot  for  the  murder  was  originally  formed  in 
Mary  Stuart's  household,  if  she  herself  was  not  the 
prime  mover  in  it.1  The  person  selected  for  the  deed 
was  James  Hamilton  of  Bothwellhaugh,  nephew  of  the 
Archbishop  of  St  Andrews  and  of  the  Duke  of  Chatel- 
herault.  The  conduct  of  the  Hamiltons  for  the  ten  past 
years  had  been  uniformly  base.  They  had  favoured 
the  Reformation  while  there  was  a  hope  of  marrying 
the  heir  of  their  house  to  Elizabeth.  "When  this  hope 


1  '  Dice  el  dicho  Embajador  de 
Escocia  que  era  ya  cosa  concertada 
entre  particulars  cviados  de  1 


la 


Reyna.' — Don  Francis  de  Alava  to 
Philip :  TEULET,  vol.  v. 


1570.]  THE  RISING  OF  THE  NORTH.  195 

failed,  they  tried  to  secure  Mary  Stuart  for  him ;  and 
when  she  declined  the  honour,  thought  of  carrying  her 
oif  by  force.  The  Archbishop  had  been  a  party  to  the 
murder  of  Darnley.  He  had  divorced  Bothwell  and 
helped  the  Queen  to  marry  him,  in  the  hope  that  she 
would  ruin  herself.  When  she  was  at  Lochleveii  the 
house  of  Hamilton  would  have  voted  for  her  death  if 
their  title  to  the  crown  had  been  recognized.  Had  they 
won  at  Langside  she  was  to  have  repaid  their  service 
by  marrying  the  Abbot  of  Arbroath. 

A  steady  indifference  to  every  interest  but  their 
own,  a  disregard  of  every  obligation  of  justice  or 
honour,  if  they  could  secure  the  crown  of  Scotland  to 
their  lineage,  had  given  a  consistency  to  the  conduct  of 
the  Hamiltons  beyond  what  was  to  be  found  in  any 
other  Scottish  family.  No  scruples  of  religion  had 
disturbed  them,  no  loyalty  to  their  Sovereign,  no  care 
or  thought  for  the  public  interests  of  their  country. 
Through  good  and  evil,  through  truth  and  lies,  through 
intrigues  and  bloodshed,  they  worked  their  way  towards 
the  one  object  of  a  base  ambition. 

Murray  was  the  great  obstacle.  With  Murray  put 
out  of  the  way  the  little  James  would  not  be  long  a 
difficulty.  For  the  present  and  for  their  immediate 
convenience  they  were  making  use  of  Mary  Stuart's 
name,  as  she  for  her  own  purposes  was  making  use  of 
theirs.  The  alliance  would  last  as  long  as  was  con- 
venient, and  at  this  point  they  were  in  ited  in  a  com- 
mon desire  for  the  Regent's  death. 

Bothwellhaugh  had  been  taken  at  Langside.     His 


196  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  53. 

life  was  forfeited,  and  lie  had  been  pardoned  by  Murray, 
against  the  advice  of  those  who  knew  his  nature  and 
the  effect  which  generosity  would  produce  upon  him. 
His  lands  had  been  escheated  and  taken  possession  of, 
his  family  were  removed  from  his  house,  and  pictur- 
esque visions  of  a  desolate  wife  driven  out  into  the 
woods  to  wander  shelterless,  have  served  in  the  eyes  of 
Mary  Stuart's  admirers  to  justify  the  vengeance  of  a 
half- maddened  husband.  But  the  story  rests  on  legend. 
Such  indeed  had  been  the  actual  fate  of  Lady  Murray 
when  Mary  Stuart  was  in  the  flush  of  her  successes 
after  her  marriage  with  Darnley  ;  but  the  Castle  of 
Hamilton  was  large  enough  to  receive  the  household  of 
so  near  a  kinsman  of  its  chiefs,  and  Bothwellhaugh  was 
the  willing  instrument  of  a  crime  which  had  been  con- 
certed between  Mary  Stuart's  followers  and  the  sons  of 
the  Duke  of  Chatelherault.  Assassination  was  an  ac- 
complishment in  his  family.  John  Hamilton,  a  no- 
torious desperado,  who  was  his  brother  or  near  relative, 
had  been  employed  in  France  to  murder  Coligny,  and, 
singularly  enough,  at  that  very  moment  Philip  II.,  who 
valued  such  services,  had  his  eye  upon  him  as  a  person 
who  might  be  sent  to  look  after — so  Philip  pleasantly 
put  it — the  Prince  of  Orange.1  The  cavalier  would 


1  '  Caras  me  ha  dieho  de  parte  de  I  encommendado,  que  siendo  muy  dif- 
V.  Magd  que  mire  si  seria  a  proposito  ficultosas  las  ha  hecho  muy  redondes ; 
cste  Cabellero  Escoces  para  enviarle  :  y  creo  que  con  solo  ponerle  yo  en 


a  huscar  al  Principe  de  Orange.  El 
dicho  Cabellero  es  tenido  por  ani- 
moso  mucho,  y  lia  lo  mostrado  en 
dos  cosas  particulares  que  se  le  han 


que  fuese  a  buscarle,  sin  que  enten- 
diese  que  es  voluntad  de  V.  Magd, 
lo  hara  y  se  arrojaria  a  cual  quien 
peligro.  Pero  parece  que  un  hombre 


THE  RISING  OF  THE  NORTH. 


197 


have  taken  with  the  utmost  kindliness  to  the  occupa- 
tion, but  his  reputation  for  such  atrocities  was  so 
notorious  that  Philip  was  advised  to  choose  some  one 
against  whom  the  Prince  would  be  less  likely  to  be 
upon  his  guard.1 


tan  notado  y  conocido  por  los  casos 
que  le  han  sucedido,  y  que  tambien 
es  notorio  en  Francia  y  en  otras 
partes  que  le  convidaban  a  matar  al 
Almirante,  podria  con  mas  difficultad 
que  otro  ir  al  efecto  arriba  dicho  sin 
ser  descubierto.' — Parecer  de  Don 
Francis  de  Alava,  February  24, 
1570:  MSS.  Simancas. 

1  Singularly  also,  after  his  present 
work  was  accomplished,  the  choice 
for  this  purpose  fell  actually  on  the 
murderer  of  Murray.  It  was  no 
fault  of  Bothwellhaugh  that  he  was 
not  either  the  executioner  or  con- 
triver of  both  of  the  vilest  assassina- 
tions which  disgraced  the  sixteenth 
century  in  Europe. 

On  the  23rd  of  September,  1573, 
Bothwellhaugh  wrote  thus  from 
Brussels  to  Alava: — 

'  My  affairs,  thank  God,  are  in 
good  case.  I  found  the  Duke  of 
Alva  at  Amsterdam,  where  I  spoke 
with  Albornoz  (the  Duke's  secretary) 
on  the  thing  you  wot  of.  The  King 
of  Spain  will,  I  hope,  soon  know  my 
desire  to  serve  him.  I  am  working 
on  all  sides  to  put  matters  in  train, 
and  I  have  found  a  gentleman  of  my 
nation  who  has  been  a  captain  in 
Haarlem  well  fitted  for  such  an  en- 
terprise. He  is  very  brave,  and  I 
have  so  worked  upon  him  with  pro- 


mises and  persuasions  that  he  has 
gone  after  the  Prince  of  Orange  to 
finish  the  job.  Trust  me,  if  the 
thing  is  practicable,  he  will  do  it.' — 
TEULET,  vol.  v.  The  gentleman, 
notwithstanding  his  fitness,  failed. 
But  Hamilton  was  not  disheartened 
and  made  another  trial. 

On  the  1 6th  of  May,  1575,  Agui- 
lon,  secretary  of  the  Spanish  Embassy 
at  Paris,  wrote  to  Cayas  :  — 

'  James  Hamilton  tells  me  of  a 
practice  which  he  and  another  Scot 
have  in  hand  against  the  Prince  of 
Orange.  He  meant  to  speak  about 
it  with  Don  Sancho  d'Avila,  but  I 
told  him  he  had  better  address  him- 
self to  the  governor  at  once,  that 
there  might  not  be  too  many  persons 
in  the  secret.  I  gave  him  a  letter 
of  introduction  and  all  possible  en- 
couragement, pointing  out  the  serv- 
ice which  he  would  do  to  God,  his 
Majesty,  and  the  Estate  of  Christen- 
dom.'— Ibid. 

Finally  it  seems  that  these  Ham- 
iltons,  John  as  well  as  James,  were 
no  better  than  hired  bravos,  and  were 
not  particular  whom  they  murdered 
if  they  could  gain  anything  by  it. 
John  Hamilton  for  several  years 
managed  the  secret  correspondence 
between  Mary  Stuart  and  Alva.  In 
the  spring  of  1573,  when  he  saw 


19* 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


.  Edinburgh,  not  offering  convenient  opportunities,  an 
intimation  was  brought  to  Murray,  that  if  he  would  go 
to  Dumbarton  Lord  Fleming  was  ready  to  surrender 
the  Castle.  He  went  as  far  as  Glasgow,  but  only  to 
find  that  he  had  been  misled,  and  he  returned  after  a 
few  days  to  Stirling.  Bothwellhaugh  had  been  on  the 
watch  for  him  at  more  than  ono  spot  upon  the  road, 
but  he  had  been  unable  to  make  certain  of  his  aim,  and 
he  did  not  mean  to  risk  a  failure.  Circumstances  re- 
quiring the  Regent's  presence  again  in  Edinburgh,  he 
left  Stirling  on  the  afternoon  of  the  22nd  of  January, 
and  that  night  slept  at  Linlithgow.  The  town  then 
consisted  of  one  long  narrow  street.  Four  doors  be- 
yond the  Hegent's  lodgings  was  a  house  belonging  to 
the  Archbishop  of  St  Andrew's  which  was  occupied  by 
one  of  his  dependants.  From  the  first  landing-place  a 
window  opened  upon  the  street,  the  staircase  leading 
directly  down  from  it  to  the  back  garden,  at  the  end  of 
which  was  a  lane.  A  wooden  balcony  ran  along  out- 
side the  house  on  a  level  with  the  window.  It  was 
railed  in  front,  and  when  clothes  were  hung  upon  the 
bars,  they  formed  a  convenient  screen  behind  which  a 
man  could  easily  conceal  himself.  Here  on  the  morn- 
ing of  the  23rd  crouched  Hamilton  of  Bothwellhaugh. 
The  Abbot  of  Arbroath  had  lent  him  his  own  carbine  ; 
the  best  horse  in  the  stables  of  Hamilton  Castle  was  at 


that  Mary  Stuart  was  going  to  fail, 
he  began  to  think  of  doing  something 
to  recQver  favour  with  the  other  side, 
and  he  sent  word  from  Brussels  to 
the  Earl  of  Morton,  '  that  he  was  at 


the  Eegent's  command  to  do  what 
service  he  would,  either  there  with 
the  Duke  of  Alva,  or  with  the  Queen 
of  Scots.' — Killigrew  to  Burghley, 
March  4,  1573  :  JfSS.  Scotland. 


1570.]  THE  RISING  OF  THE  NORTH.  ty*, 

the  garden  gate  in  the  lane,  a  second  was  waiting  a 
mile  distant,  and  any  one  who  rode  down  the  street  in 
the  direction  of  Edinburgh  would  have  to  pass  within 
three  yards  of  the  assassin's  hiding-place.  The  secret 
had  not  been  kept  with  entire  fidelity.  Some  one,  it 
was  not  known  who,  came  to  Murray's  bedside  before 
he  rose,  told  him  that  Bothwellhaugh  was  lying  in 
wait  for  him,  and  named  the  house  where  he  would  be 
found.1  But  Murray  was  the  perpetual  object  of  con- 
spiracies. He  received  similar  warnings  probably  on 
half  the  days  on  which  he  went  abroad.  He  had  made 
up  his  mind  to  danger  as  part  of  his  position,  and  he 
had  ceased  to  heed  it.  He  had  no  leisure  to  think 
about  himself,  and  whether  he  lived  or  died  was 
not  of  vital  moment  to  him.  He  paid  just  sufficient 
attention  to  the  warning  to  propose  to  leave  the  town 
by  the  opposite  gate ;  but  when  he  came  out  and 
mounted  his  horse,  he  found  his  guard  drawn  up  and 
the  street  not  easily  passable  in  that  direction,  and  he 
thought  too  little  about  the  matter  to  disturb  them.  It 
was  said  that  he  would  have  started  at  a  gallop.  But 
the  people  were  all  out  to  look  at  him.  To  have  ridden 
fast  through  the  crowd  would  have  been  dangerous, 
and  so  at  a  foot's  pace  he  passed  in  front  of  Bothwell- 
haugh. To  miss  him  so  was  impossible. 

The  shot  was  fired — he  put  his  hand  to  his  side  and 
said  that  he  was  wounded ;  but  he  was  able  to  alight, 
and  leaning  on  Lord  Sempell  he  returned  to  the  house 

1  Huusdon  to  Cecil,  January  26 :  MSS.  Harder.     Compare  CALDEK- 
WOOD  and  BUCHANAN. 


200 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


.  53. 


which  he  had  just  left.  He  had  been  hit  ( above  the 
navel  at  the  buttoning  of  the  doublet/  '  The  ball  had 
passed  through  him  and  killed  a  horse  on  the  other 
side.'  In  the  confusion  the  murderer  escaped.  The 
clothes  upon  the  rail  concealed  the  smoke,  and  minutes 
passed  before  the  window  was  discovered  from  which 
the  shot  had  been  fired.  Parties  of  men  were  on  guard 
in  the  lane  to  defend  him  if  he  was  in  danger ;  but 
their  help  was  not  required,  and  in  a  few  hours  he  him- 
self had  brought  the  news  of  his  success  to  Hamilton 
Castle,  where  he  was  received  with  an  ecstasy  of  ex- 
ultation.1 Thence  a  day  or  two  after  he  made  his  way 
to  France,  to  be  employed  as  the  reader  has  seen,  to 
receive  the  thanks  of  Mary  Stuart,  and  to  live  upon  the 
wages  of  this  and  other  villanies.2 

The  Regent  did  not  at  first  believe  that  he  was 
seriously  hurt,  but  on  examination  of  the  wound,  it  was 
seen  that  he  had  but  a  few  hours  to  live.  His  friends 
in  their  bitter  grief  reminded  him  of  the  advice  which 
he  had  neglected  after  Langside.  He  said  calmly  that 
1  he  could  never  repent  of  his  clemency/  With  the 
same  modest  quietness  with  which  he  had  lived  he 


1  Information  anent  the  Eegent's 
murdei-,     February,     1570:    MSS. 
Scotland. 

2  Mary  Stuart  denied  that  she 
had  directed  the  murder,  hut  she  was 
heartily  delighted  at  it,  and  she  gave 
Bothwellhaugh  a  pension.     On  the 
28th  of  August,  1571,  she  wrote  to 
the  Archbishop  of  Glasgow : — 

'  Ce  que  Bothwellhaugh  a  faist  a 


este  sans  mon  commandment,  de  quoy 
je  luy  s^ay  aussy  bon  gre  et  meilleur 
que  si  j'eusse  este  du  Conseil. 
J 'attend  les  memoires  que  me  doi- 
vent  estre  envoyez  de  la  reccpte  de 
mon  douaire  pour  faire  mon  estat, 
oft  je  n'oublyeray  la  pension  dudict 
Bothwellhaugh.' — LABANOFF,  vol. 
iii.  p.  341. 


I570-]  THE  RISING  OF  THE  NORTH.  201 

made  his  few  arrangements.  He  commended  the  King 
to  Sempell  and  Mar,  and  '  without  speaking  a  reproach- 
ful word  of  any  man/  died  a  little  before  midnight. 

Many  a  political  atrocity  has  disgraced  the  history 
of  the  British  nation.  It  is  a  question  whether  among 
them  all  there  can  be  found  any  which  was  more  use- 
less to  its  projectors  or  more  mischievous  in  its  immedi- 
ate consequences.  It  did  not  bring  back  Mary  Stuart. 
It  did  not  open  a  road  to  the  throne  to  the  Hamiltons,  or 
turn  back  the  tide  of  the  Reformation.  It  flung  only  a 
deeper  tint  of  ignominy  on  his  sister  and  her  friends, 
and  it  gave  over  Scotland  to  three  years  of  misery. 

With  a  perversity  scarcely  less  than  the  folly  which 
destroyed  his  life,  his  memory  has  been  sacrificed  to 
sentimentalism  ;  and  those  who  can  see  only  in  the 
Protestant  religion  an  uprising  of  Antichrist,  and  in 
the  Queen  of  Scots  the  beautiful  victim  of  sectarian 
iniquity,  have  exhausted  upon  Murray  the  resources  of 
eloquent  vituperation,  and  have  described  him  as  a  per- 
fidious brother  building  up  his  own  fortunes  on  the 
wrongs  of  his  injured  Sovereign.  In  the  eyes  of  theo- 
logians, or  in  the  eyes  of  historians  who  take  their  in- 
spiration from  theological  systems,  the  saint  changes 
into  the  devil  and  the  devil  into  the  saint,  as  the  point 
of  view  is  shifted  from  one  creed  to  another.  But  facts 
prevail  at  last,  however  passionate  the  predilection ; 
and  when  the  verdict  of  plain  human  sense  can  get 
itself  pronounced,  the  '  good  Regent '  will  take  his 
place  among  the  best  and  greatest  men  who  have  ever 
lived. 


OF  ELIZABETH.  [en.  53 

Measured  by  years  his  career  was  wonderfully  brief. 
He  was  twenty-five  when  the  English,  were  at  Leith : 
he  was  thirty-five  when  he  was  killed.  But  in  times  of 
revolution  men  mature  quickly.  His  lot  had  been  cast 
in  the  midst  of  convulsions  where,  at  any  moment,  had 
he  cared  for  personal  advantages,  a  safe  and  prosperous 
course  lay  open  to  him  ;  but  so  far  as  his  conduct  can 
be  traced,  his  interests  were  divided  only  between  duty 
to  his  country,  duty,  as  he  understood  it,  to  God,  and 
affection  for  his  unfortunate  sister.  France  tried  in 
vain  to  bribe  him,  for  he  knew  that  the  true  good  of 
Scotland  -lay  in  alliance  and  eventual  union  with  its 
ancient  enemy  ;  and  he  preferred  to  be  used,  trifled 
with,  or  trampled  on  by  Elizabeth  to  being  the  trusted 
and  valued  friend  of  Catherine  de  Medici.  In  all 
Europe  there  was  not  a  man  more  profoundly  true  to  the 
principles  of  the  Reformation,  or  more  consistently — in 
the  best  sense  of  the  word — a  servant  of  God.  His 
house  was  compared  to  '  a  holy  temple/  where  no  foul 
word  was  ever  spoken.  A  chapter  of  the  Bible  was 
read  every  day  after  dinner  and  supper  in  his  family. 
One  or  more  ministers  of  the  Kirk  were  usually  among 
his  guests,  and  the  conversation  chiefly  turned  on  some 
serious  subject.  Yet  no  one  was  more  free  from  sour 
austerity.  He  quarrelled  once  with  Knox,  '  so  that  they 
spoke  not  together  for  eighteen  months/  because  his 
nature  shrunk  from  extremity  of  intolerance,  because  he 
insisted  that  while  his  sister  remained  a  Catholic  she 
should  not  be  interdicted  from  the  mass.  The  hard 
convictions  of  the  old  Reformer  were  justified  by  the 


1570-J  THE  RISING  OF  THE  NORTH.  20.} 

result.  The  mass  in  those  days  meant  intrigue,  con- 
spiracy, rebellion,  murder,  if  nothing  else  would  serve  ; 
and  better  it  would  have  been  for  Mary  Stuart,  better 
for  Scotland,  better  for  the  broad  welfare  of  Europe,  if 
it  had  been  held  at  arms'  length  while  the  battle  lasted, 
by  every  country  from  which  it  had  once  been  expelled. 
But  the  errors  of  Murray — if  it  may  be  so  said  of  any 
errors — deserved  rather  to  be  admired  than  condemned. 
In  the  later  differences  which  arose  between  him  and 
the  Queen,  he  kept  at  her  side  so  long  as  he  could  hold 
her  back  from  wrong.  He  resisted  her  by  force,  when 
in  marrying  Darnley  she  seemed  plunging  into  an 
element  in  which  she  or  the  Reformation  would  be 
wrecked ;  and  when  he  failed  and  in  failing  was  dis- 
owned with  insults  by  Elizabeth,  he  alone  of  all  his 
party  never  swerved  through  personal  resentment  from 
the  even  tenor  of  Ms  course. 

Afterwards,  when  his  sister  turned  aside  from  the 
pursuit  of  thrones  to  lust  and  crime,  Murray  took  no 
part  in  the  wild  revenge  which  followed.  He  withdrew 
from  a  scene  where  no  honourable  man  could  remain 
with  life,  and  returned  only  to  save  her  from  judicial 
retribution.  Only  at  last  when  she  forced  upon  him 
the  alternative  of  treating  her  as  a  public  enemy  or  of 
abandoning  Scotland  to  anarchy  and  ruin,  he  took  his 
final  post  at  the  head  of  all  that  was  good  and  noble 
among  his  countrymen,  and  there  met  the  fate  which 
from  that  moment  was  marked  out  for  him. 

As  a  ruler  he  was  severe  but  inflexibly  just.  The 
corruption  which  had  begun  at  the  throne  had  saturated 


204  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  53. 

the  courts  of  law.  In  the  short  leisure  which  he  could 
snatch  from  his  own  labours  he  sat  on  trials  with  the 
judges ;  and  '  his  presence  struck  such  reverence  into 
them  that  the  poor  were  not  oppressed  by  false  accusa- 
tions, nor  tired  out  by  long  attendance,  nor  their  causes 
put  off  to  gratify  the  rich/  He  had  his  father's  vir- 
tues without  his  father's  infirmities ;  and  so  with  such 
poor  resources  as  he  could  command  at  home,  with  hol- 
low support  from  England,  and  concentrating  upon  his 
own  person  the  malignity  of  political  hatred  and 
spurious  sentiment,  he  held  on  upon  his  road  till  the 
end  came  and  he  was  taken  away. 

Scotland  was  struck  to  the  heart  by  his  death.  The 
pathetic  intensity  of  popular  feeling  found  expression  in 
a  ballad  which  was  published  at  Edinburgh  immedi- 
ately after  Murray's  death.  It  was  written  probably  by 
Robert  Lord  Sempell,  on  whose  arm  he  leant  after  he 
was  wounded.1 


The  Exhortatioun  to  all  pleasand  thingis  quhaivin  man  can  half  delytc  to 
withdraw  thair  plesur  from  mankynde,  and  to  deploir  the  cruell  Mur- 
ther  of  umquhile  my  Lord  Eegentis  Grace. 

Ye  Mountaines  murne,  ye  valayis  wepe, 

Ye  clouds  and  Firmament, 
Ye  fluids  dry  up,  ye  seyis  so  depe, 

Deploir  our  lait  Regent. 
Ye  greinis  grow  gray,  ye  gowanis  dune, 

Ye  hard  rocks  ryve  for  sorrow : 
Ye  mariguildis  forbid  the  sune 

To  oppin  yow  euerie  morrow. 

Thow  Lauand  lurk,  thow  Time  be  tint, 

Thow  Margelene  swaif, 
Chow  Camomylde,  ye  balme  and  mint, 

Your  fragrant  odouris  laif. 


1570.]  THE  RISING  OF  THE  NORTH.  205 

The  strife  of  faction  was  hushed  in  the  great  grief 
which  fell  on  all  in  whom  generous  feeling  was  not 


Ye  Baselik  and  Jonet  flouris, 

Ye  Gerofleis  so  sweet : 
And  Violatis  hap  you  with  schouris 

Of  hailstaines,  snaw,  and  sleit. 

Thow  grene  Roismary  hyde  thy  held, 

Schaw  not  thy  fair  blew  blumis : 
In  signe  of  dule  lat  na  grene  blaid 

On  Lowraine  grow  or  brwmis. 
Ye  fruitfull  treis  produce  na  frute : 

And  ye  fair  Hois  treis  widder : 
In  earth  ye  sweit  flouris  take  na  rute, 

But  wallow  altogidder. 

Cum  Nettilis,  thornie  breiris  and  rew, 

With  all  fouli  filthie  weid, 
Now  plant  yow  quhair  their  sweit  flouris  grew 

And  place  yow  in  their  steid. 
Ye  pleasant  byrdis  lat  be  your  sang, 

Your  mirth  in  murning  turne, 
And  tak  the  Turtill  yow  amang 

To  leirne  yow  how  to  murne. 

Thow  luifsum  Lark  and  gay  Goldspink, 

Thow  mirthfull  Nychtingaill, 
Lat  be  your  heuinly  notes  and  think 

His  deith  for  to  bewaill. 
Ye  pleasand  Paun  and  Papingaw, 

Cast  off  your  blyithlyke  cullour, 
And  tak  the  feddrum  of  the  Craw 

In  signe  of  wo  and  dolour. 

Now  burne  thyself,  0  Phoenix  fair, 

Not  to  reuive  againe, 
That  we  may  him  to  thee  compair, 

Quhais  lyke  dois  not  remaine. 
Thow  Pelican,  prepare  thy  beik 

And  grinde  it  scharpe  and  lang, 
To  peirs  our  breistis  that  we  may  seik 

How  to  reuenge  this  wrang. 


205  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  53. 

utterly  extinguished.  Those  who  had  been  loudest  in 
their  outcries  against  him  were  shamed  by  his  loss  into 
forgetfulness  of  their  petty  grievances,  and  desired  only 
to  revenge  a  crime  which  had  a  second  time  brought 
dishonour  upon  their  country.  A  party  of  Hamiltons 
appeared  in  Edinburgh  the  day  after  the  murder,  ex- 


All  birdis  and  beistis,  all  hillis  and  holtis, 

All  greinis  and  plesand  treis, 
All  Lambis  and  Kiddis,  all  Caluis  and  Colts, 

Absent  yow  from  men's  eyis. 
Ye  gleds  and  howlets,  rauins  and  rulds, 

Ye  Crawis  and  Corbels  blak, 
Thair  gutts  mot  be  among  your  cluikis 

That  did  this  bludy  fact. 

Ye  instruments  of  euerie  sort, 

That  gaif  to  mankynde  plesure, 
Now  turne  your  melodie  and  sport 

In  murning  and  displesure. 
Ye  Sone  and  Mone,  and  Planetis  sevin, 

Ye  glystring  starris  brieht, 
All  ye  celestiale  hoste  of  heuin 

Absconce  yow  from  mens  sicht. 
Ye  Yeiris  and  monethis,  dayis  and  houris, 

Your  naturall  course  withdraw, 
In  Somer  time  be  winter  schouris, 

Sleit,  hailstaines,  frost  and  snaw. 
For  why,  sum  men  dois  trauell  now 

To  turne  all  upsyde  downe, 
And  als  to  seik  the  /naner  how 

To  reif  the  King  his  crowue. 

"We  had  ane  Prince  of  gude  renoun, 

Thai  Justice  did  desyre, 
Aganis  quhome  the  Hammiltoun 

Did  traterously  conspyre. 
Q,uha  schot  him  of  the  Bischoppis  staii 

In  Lythgow  thair  Londoun, 
To  bru'ik  this  byworde  euer  mair 

Fy,  Trutour  Hanmiiltoun 


i57o.]  THE  RISING  OF  THE  NORTH.  207 

pecting  to  be  received  with  enthusiasm  and  to  have  the 
Castle  gates  thrown  open  to  them ;  they  found  Grange 
and  Maitland,  and  Lord  Hume,  in  council  with  Morton, 
and  themselves  the  object  of  universal  indignation  and 
rage.  Bothwellhaugh  had  been  nothing  but  the  tool  of 
his  race.  In  such  a  case,  it  was  said,  neither  '  order  of 
law  '  nor  form  was  necessary  ;  '  war  should  be  declared 
against  the  whole  house  of  Hamilton,  and  they  should 
be  extirpated  root  and  branch.'1  'The  murder  was 
so  odious/  wrote  Lord  Hunsdon,  '  and  the  death  so 
lamented  with  every  honest  man,  as,  where  there  were 
great  factions  grown,  and  many  private  quarrels  among 
them,  they  were  all  presently  reconciled,  and  had  avowed 
the  revenge. '  '  Grange  would  spend  life  and  goods  in 
the  quarrel.'  Elizabeth  '  might  frame  the  Lords  as  she 
would,  and  have  of  them  what  she  listed,  so  they  might 
know  her  full  resolution  what  they  might  trust  to,'  so 
she  would  rid  them  finally  of  the  fear  with  which  they 
were  all  possessed,  that,  sooner  or  later,  for  her  own  con- 
venience, she  would  reinstate  the  deposed  Queen.2  Even 
Maitland  himself,  far  gone  as  he  was  in  intrigue  and 
conspiracy,  reopened  his  disused  correspondence  with 
Cecil.  He  too,  like  the  rest,  had  been  so  persuaded  that 
Mary  Stuart  would  come  back  upon  them,  that  she  would 
triumph  at  last  through  Elizabeth's  weakness,  that  he 
had  cast  his  fortunes  upon  her  side.  Even  now,  at  this 


1  Notes  of    proceedings  on  the 
death    of    the    Regent,    February, 
1570:  MSS.  Scotland. 

2  Hunsdon  to  Elizabeth,  January 
20 :    JlfSS.  Border.     '  Assure  your- 


self,' he  added,  '  if  you  do  not  take 
heed  of  that  Scottish  Queen  she 
will  put  you  in  peril,  and  that  ereit 
be  long,  for  there  are  many  practices 
abroad.' 


208 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


[CH.  53. 


supreme  hour,  lie  was  ready  to  return  to  his  old  policy, 
and  carry  half  Scotland  with  him,  if  Elizabeth  would 
understand  her  own  mind  and  adhere  to  any  definite 
resolution.1 

On  Elizabeth  herself  the  blow  told  with  terrible 
power.  Whether  or  no  she  felt  remorse  for  her  own 
behaviour  to  Murray,  his  murder  brought  home  those 
realities  of  assassination  which  had  long  floated  before 
her  as  a  dream.  Never  again,  she  well  knew  it,  would 
she  find  another  Scot  so  true  to  England ;  never  another 
whose  disinterestedness  she  could  try  to  the  uttermost, 
who  would  work  for  her  without  help  or  reward  or  ac- 
knowledgment, and  whose  constancy  she  could  never 
exhaust.  '  His  death/  she  passionately  exclaimed,  '  was 
the  beginning  of  her  own  ruin/2  '  She  had  lost  her 
truest  friend/  '  There  was  none  like  him  in  the  world ' 
— '  none/  she  admitted  it  now — '  so  useful  to  herself.'3 

The  French  ambassador  feared  that  in  her  first  alarm 
she  would  make  short  work  with  the  Queen  of  Scots. 
That  Mary  Stuart  and  the  Bishop  of  Ross  had  been 
privy  to  the  Northern  rebellion,  had  become  every  day 
more  clear  to  her.  That  the  Regent's  murder  came  from 
the  same  hand,  she  had  too  keenly  conjectured;  and 


1  Maitland  to  Cecil,  January  26 : 
JBurghley  Papers,  vol.  i. 

2  '  Ha   le    sentido  esta   Reyna 
nnicho,  y  hizd  ayer  grandes  exclam- 
aciones,  diciendo  que  esto  seria  el 
principle  de  su  ruina.' — Don  Guerau 
to  Philip,  January  30. 

3  '  II  n'est  pas  a  croire  combien 
ladicte  Dame  a  vifvement  senty  la 


mort  dudict  de  Moray ;  pour  la- 
quelle  s'estant  enfermee  dans  sa 
chambre  elle  a  escrye  avecques  lar- 
mes  qu'elle  avoit  perdu  le  meilleur 
et  le  plus  utille  amy  qu'elle  eut  au 
monde  pour  1'ayder  a  se  maintenir 
et  conserver  en  repos.' — La  Mothe 
Fenelon  au  Roy,  February  17.  De- 
peches,  vol.  ii. 


I570-]  THE  RISING  OF  THE  NORTH.  209 

although  she  declared  that  if  the  Queen  of  Scots  tried 
to  murder  her  as  well  as  her  brother,  her  life  should 
be  in  no  danger,1  yet  Elizabeth's  fine  speeches  were  not 
always  to  be  depended  upon,  and  the  rebellion,  quick- 
ened by  Murray's  death,  was  showing  signs  of  fresh 
vitality.  The  Earl  of  Westmoreland,  who,  unless  Con- 
stable was  deceived,  had  been  looking  for  means  of  ob- 
taining his  pardon,  made  a  destructive  foray  into  North- 
umberland with  Sir  Walter  Scott  of  Buccleugh,  and 
ventured  down  even  within  sight  of  Newcastle ;  and 
worse  than  this  followed,  which  might  have  almost  roused 
Elizabeth  at  last  out  of  her  incurable  infirmity  of 
purpose.  She  could  decide  when  she  would  have  done 
better  to  hesitate,  when  it  was  a  question  of  the  execu- 
tion of  a  few  hundred  poor  men.  Where  her  crown 
might  be  forfeited  by  uncertainty,  she  was  paralyzed  by 
incapacity  of  resolution.  It  might  have  been  thought 
that  towards  Scotland,  with  such  a  chance  re- opened  to 
her,  she  would  have  acted  energetically  at  last.  When 
she  recovered  from  her  alarm  sufficiently  to  move,  it 
was  to  take  a  step  which  showed  the  Scots  that  they 
had  no  more  to  hope  from  her  than  before. 

Thomas  Randolph,  who  had  so  long  and  faithfully 
served  her  at  Edinburgh,  was  recalled  from  his  retire- 
ment and  sent  back  to  his  old  place.  His  instructions 
were  to  renew  old  friendships,  and  to  use  the  present 
humour  of  the  people  to  knit  together  again  the  English 

1  'QuequandladieteKeyned'Es-  I  pourtantneconsentiroitjamaisqu'on 
coce  auroit  bien  niachin£  de  la  faire  |  touchatny  a  sa  vieny  asapersonne.' 
tuer  d'ung  coup  de  haquebutte,  elle  I  — Ibid. 

VOL.  ix.  14 


^16  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  53. 

party :  but  the  Lords  were  to  be  used  collectively  as 
the  Regent  had  been  used  before ;  they  were  to  give  all 
and  receive  nothing.  Randolph  was  told  to  urge  them 
in  the  old  tone,  f  to  maintain  religion/  '  to  keep  the 
Prince  safe  in  Scotland,  and  admit  no  French  troops 
among  them ; '  if  however  they  pressed  to  know  in  re- 
turn what.  Elizabeth  would  do  for  them,  he  was  forbid- 
den to  commit  her  to  anything.  He  was  to  give  such  a 
general  answer  '  as  neither  they  should  be  discouraged 
with  doubt  of  her  favour,  nor  boldened  to  unreasonable 
and  overhard  demands/1  Had  no  principles  been  at 
work  among  the  Scots  which  in  some  degree  had  neu- 
tralized Elizabeth's  behaviour  to  them,  she  would  have 
worn  out  their  patience,  and  she  would  not  have  had 
a  friend  left  to  herself  or  England  north  of  Tweed. 
The  actual  effect  was  more  than  sufficiently  disastrous, 
and  meanwhile  she  had  to  encounter  the  last  phase  of 
her  own  Northern  Insurrection. 

The  name  of  Leonard  Dacres  had  appeared 
February. 

more  than  once  in  the  examinations  of  the 

prisoners.  The  fugitives,  in  resentment  at  his  apathy, 
had  spoken  freely  of  his  previous  connection  with  them, 
and  their  words  had  been  carried  to  Berwick  to  Huns- 
don.  Old  Norton  said  that  if  the  Queen  knew  the  part 
which  he  had  played,  she  would  hang  him  sooner  than 
any  one ;  a  letter  had  been  found  upon  a  servant  of  the 
Bishop  of  Ross,  in  which  he  was  compromised ;  and 
Elizabeth,  indignant  at  having  been  deceived  by  his 


Elizabeth  to  Sir  R.  Sadler,  January  29  :  MSS.  Scotland. 


1570-]  THE  RISING  OF  THE  NORTH.  2n 

smooth  speeches,  ordered  Sussex  to  take  him  and  send 
him  back  to  London.  It  was  easier  to  command  than 
to  execute.  Lord  Dacres,  as  in  the  North  he  was  uni 
versally  called,  by  lighting  a  couple  of  beacon  fires  could 
collect  four  thousand  men  about  him  in  a  few  hours, 
hardy  yeomen  and  their  servants  seasoned  in  the  furnace 
of  the  Border  wars,  whose  fealty  was  to  the  Lord  oi 
JNTaworth,  and  who  were  loyal  to  the  Queen  only  when 
the  Dacres  was  loyal  himself.  Naworth  Castle  con- 
tained some  hundreds  of  armed  retainers.  The  Border 
was  but  ten  miles  distant,  and  two  hours'  gallop  would 
bring  down  a  flight  of  moss-troopers  from  Liddisdale. 
He  had  cannon  and  powder ;  he  was  rich,  and  had  been 
long  prepared ;  and  situated  as  he -was,  he  could  fight  if 
it  served  his  purpose,  or  fly  to  Scotland  if  flight  was 
convenient.  To  arrest  him  required  a  small  army,  and, 
infuriated  as  the  people  were  by  the  executions,  it  was 
a  difficult  and  half-desperate  enterprise. 

Sussex  on  receiving  the  Queen's  order  replied,  that 
as  she  had  been  pleased  to  order  her  troops  to  be  dis- 
banded, he  had  no  force  at  his  disposition  and  could  not 
at  once  obey  her.  Elizabeth,  who  did  not  choose  to  be 
contradicted,  and  was  brave  when  bravery  was  out  ol 
place,  wrote  again  that  she  would  take  no  excuses.  The 
will,  she  implied,  was  more  wanting  than  the  power, 
and  she  bade  Sussex  set  about  the  business  without  an- 
other word. 

'  All  actions/  he  said  to  Cecil  in  answer,  '  were  so 
hardly  interpreted,  that  every  man  was  afraid  to  do  or 
advise  further  than  was  plainly  directed.'  He  did  not 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


LCH.  53. 


mean  to  disobey  the  Queen,  he  was  only  unwilling  to 
attempt  what  without  help  he  could  not  possibly  accom- 
plish. Hunsdon,  who  was  called  on  to  co-operate,  said 
plainly  that  before  fresh  work  was  required  of  the  few 
men  that  were  left  to  him,  the  Queen  had  better  send 
some  money  to  pay  up  the  arrears  of  their  wages ;  and 
both  Hunsdon  and  Sadler,  who  was  still  with  him  at 
Berwick,  believed  that  there  were  scoundrels  about  Eli- 
zabeth who  were  purposely  misleading  her  with  advice 
which  they  hoped  might  be  fatal  to  her.1  Her  orders 
being  peremptory,  they  consulted  Lord  Scrope  at  Car- 
lisle. Lord  Scrope,  with  a  faint  hope  that  Dacres  might 
save  them  trouble  by  submission,  invited  him  to  come 


1 to    Cecil,    February   6, 

from  Berwick.  The  writer,  whoever 
he  might  be,  was  living  with  Huns- 
don and  Sadler,  and  was  on  terms 
of  intimacy  with  Cecil.  Another 
passage  in  his  letter  gives  a  vivid 
picture  of  the  feelings  with  which 
the  crisis  was  regarded  by  those  who 
wished  Elizabeth  well.  '  I  know 
they  shoot  chiefly  at  the  life  of  the 
Queen's  Majesty,  at  her  crown,  the 
subversion  of  the  Estate,  and  the 
destruction  of  us  all  that  truly  obey 
and  obediently  embrace  Christ's 
sincere  religion  and  her  Highness's 
most  godly  laws.  I  fear  her  High- 
ness goeth  daily  in  great  danger. 
Oh  Lord,  preserve  her  from  privy 
conspiracy,  poison,  shot,  and  all 
Papistical  treacheries.  I  know  you 
are  maligndd,  envied,  and  disdained 
at  of  the  Papists'  and  rebels'  faction 
more  than  any  of  the  privy  council, 


and  surely  they  have  sought  all 
means  to  supplant  you,  and  still  will 
so  practise;  for  of  all  men  they  take 
you  for  their  deadliest  enemy  and 
greatest  hinderer.  Oh  good  Mr 
Secretary,  have  an  eye  to  yourself. 
Bewai'e  whom  you  trust.  You  know 
the  world.  All  are  not  faithful  friends 
that  shew  fairest  faces.  Help  to 
overthrow  the  wicked  conspiracy. 
If  the  heads  may  still  remain,  shortly 
shall  the  whole  realm  repent.  Mys- 
terium  impietatis.  The  Papists 
practice  day  and  night. 
Judas  non  dormit,  Sinon  incendia 

miscet. 

Remember  the  counsel  of  Sextus 
Tarquinius.  So  long  as  they  remain 
as  they  do,  look  for  no  quietness. 
And  if  they  get  liberty,  look  not 
long  to  live.  Well  warned  well 
armed.' 


THE  RISING  OF  THE  NORTH. 


213 


to  Carlisle  Castle.  He  answered  from  Naworth  that  he 
was  ill  and  could  not  leave  his  bed,  and  Scrope  at  once 
agreed  with  the  rest,  that  his  arrest  could  not  be  ven- 
tured safely  without  troops  from  the  South.  For  him- 
self, he  said  that  if  he  raised  the  whole  county  of  Cum- 
berland, the  people  would  not  serve  against  the  Dacres, 
and  if  it  came  to  blows  they  would  take  the  Dacres' 
eide.1 

Spies  reported  that  JSTaworth  was  full  of  men  and  was 
provisioned  for  many  weeks.  There  were  cannon  on  the 
corner  turrets.  The  castle  was  protected  on  one  side 
by  a  moat,  on  the  other  by  a  deep  ravine  that  sunk  pre- 
cipitously from  the  foot  of  the  walls.  The  country  was 
utterly  bare,  and  there  was  no  shelter  anywhere  to  cover 
an  approach.  The  armoury  at  Carlisle  was  practically 
empty  ;  there  were  a  few  old  honey-combed  guns  there, 
but  without  carriages  and  unfit  for  service.  There  were 
no  troops  left  between  Berwick  and  Carlisle  beyond  the 
ordinary  Border  guard,  and  Westmoreland  and  Buc- 
cleuch  were  for  ever  in  the  field,  driving  '  great  booties 
of  cattle  and  sheep/  and  threatening  to  burn  Newcastle. 
Bishop  Pilkington  came  panting  into  Berwick  with  the 
news  that  Durham  was  again  fermenting.  The  rebels 
had  sworn  '  to  hang  the  prebendaries/  '  whereof  they 
were  so  affeared  that  they  were  ready  to  fly  out  of  the 
country.' 2  The  communication  along  the  Marches  was 
unsafe.  Buccleuch,  Herries,  Maxwell,  Lochinvar,  and 


1  Scrope  to  Cecil,  January  31 ; 
Scrope  to  Hvmsdon,  February  3 : 
MSS.  Border. 


2  Hunsdon   to  Cecil,    February 
7 :  MSS.  Border, 


214  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH  [CH.  53. 

many  other  Scots,  sent  word  to  Dacres  to  hold  his  ground 
and  they  and  their  men  would  come  to  Naworth  at  an 
hour's  notice ; l  and  so  far  from  being  able  to  take  him, 
the  English  commanders  were  in  daily  fear  of  finding 
themselves  overwhelmed  at  their  posts.  It  was  more 
dangerous  to  sit  still  than  to  move.  On  the  I9th  of 
February  a  warning  reached  Lord  Hunsdon,  at  Berwick, 
'  that  within  two  days  at  most,  Buccleuch  and  West- 
moreland would  join  Dacres  with  5000  men,  and  they 
would  then  be  past  dealing  with.'  He  determined  to 
try  the  chance  of  a  sudden  stroke,  and,  if  he  failed,  to 
cut  his  way  to  Carlisle  and  join  Scrope.  With  a  great 
effort  he  collected  1500  men — the  Berwick  harquebuss- 
men  among  them,  on  whose  fidelity  he  could  rely,  and 
two  hours  after  dark  the  little  force  set  out  from  Hex- 
ham.  The  beacons  were  blazing  on  hill  and  church 
tower,  and  every  hill- side  '  was  full  of  men,  horse  and 
foot,  crying  and  shouting  as  if  they  had  been  mad.' 
As  they  approached  Naworth,  scouts  brought  Hunsdon 
word  that  Dacres  was  waiting  for  him  with  twice  his 
own  strength ;  '  if  he  took  any  overthrow,'  he  knew 
that  the  whole  North  would  again  be  immediately  in 
arms,  and  his  own  troops  would  be  destroyed  to  a  man. 
As  surprise  was  impossible,  he  thought  it  better  to 
avoid  a  battle.  The  road  passed  near  the  castle,  but  the 
country  was  open;  and  striking  off  to  the  left,  he  passed 
it  shortly  after  daybreak  at  two  miles'  distance.  The 
Gelt  river  was  in  front  of  him,  running  along  a  deep 
gorge  between  precipitous  sandstone  cliffs.  To  attempt 

1  Scrope  to  Hunsdow,  February  18;  Ibid. 


1570-3  THE  RISING  OF  THE  NORTH.  215 

to  cross,  except  at  the  bridge,  would  be  extremely 
dangerous,  and  he  was  obliged  to  follow  the  brink  of 
the  ravine  to  recover  the  road  again.  Dacres  had  fol- 
lowed him  at  a  distance,  foreseeing  his  difficulty.  There 
was  a  ridge  of  broken  ground  to  be  passed,  from  which 
the  cliff  fell  sheer  to  the  river,  and  where  defeat 
would  be  destruction.  At  that  spot,  as  his  men  were 
struggling  along  draggled  and  weary  with  their  night's 
march,  the  Borderers  came  down  on  them ;  and  even 
Hunsdon  himself  could  not  withhold  his  admiration  at 
the  brilliancy  of  their  onset.  '  They  gave  the  proudest 
charge/  he  said,  '  that  ever  I  saw/  .Retreat  being  im- 
possible, the  Berwick  men  stood  to  their  arms;  they 
were  trained  marksmen,  as  the  time  then  was,  and,  at 
close  quarters,  their  harquebusses  gave  them  a  terrible 
advantage.  The  Borderers  staggered  under  the  fire,  and, 
before  they  could  recover  themselves,  Hunsdon  fell  on 
them  with  a  squadron  of  horse,  cut  up  some  hundreds 
of  them,  and  drove  them  back  in  confusion.  Having 
eo  largely  the  advantage  in  numbers,  they  might  still 
have  thrown  themselves  across  the  bridge  and  held  the 
passage  of  the  river ;  but  Dacres  of  the  crooked  back, 
so  bold  in  conspiracies,  was  faint-hearted  in  the  field. 
When  Hunsdon  charged,  '  he  fled  like  a  tall  gentleman, 
and  never  looked  behind  him  till  he  was  in  Liddisdale/ 
A  trooper  seized  him  by  the  arm  and  had  almost  secured 
him,  but  a  party  of  Scots  came  to  his  rescue  and  snatched 
him  from  capture  and  the  scaffold.1  Their  leader  gone, 
the  Borderers  scattered  to  their  homes.  Two  hundred 


1  Hunsdon  to  the  Queen,  February  20 :  MSS.  Border 


216  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  53. 

men  who  had  been  left  in  Naworth  fled  like  the  rest, 
and,  by  the  afternoon,  the  castle  and  its  guns  were  sur- 
rendered. The  victory  was  complete,  but  it  was  one  of 
the  many  accidents  to  which  Elizabeth  was  overmuch 
indebted.  Had  the  battle  been  lost,  as  too  easily  it 
might  have  been  lost,  Lord  Hunsdon  thought  that 
England  would  have  been  lost  with  it;  and,  like  a  man 
shuddering  at  the  thought  of  a  danger  from  which  he 
has  narrowly  escaped,  he  tried  again  to  force  Elizabeth 
to  look  her  situation  in  the  face,  to  think  less  of  money 
and  more  of  the  enormous  interests  which  she  was  im- 
perilling by  her  parsimony  and  vacillations.1 

Elizabeth  herself,  when  the  peril  was  over,  admitted 
that  it  had  been  greater  than  she  had  supposed.  She 
promised,  or  Cecil  promised  for  her,  that  as  long  as  the 
Earls  were  in  arms  in  Scotland  a  larger  force  should  be 
maintained  upon  the  Borders  ;  while  she  herself  with 
her  own  hand  thanked  her  cousin  for  his  services,  and 
repaid  him,  not  entirely  to  his  own  satisfaction,  for  he 
never  received  anything  more  substantial,  with  a  letter 
which,  if  a  Sovereign's  praise  could  have  filled  a  lean 
purse,  would  have  made  Hunsdon  the  richest  of  the 
Peers. 

1 1  doubt  not,  my  Harry/  she  wrote,  '  whether  that 
the  victory  was  given  me  more  joyed  me,  or  that  you 
were  by  God  appointed  the  instrument  of  my  glory. 
And  I  assure  you  that  for  my  country's  sake  the  first 
might  suffice,  but  for  my  heart's  contentation  the  second 


1  Hunsdon  to  Cecil,  March  3 :  MSS.  Harder. 


1570.]  THE  RISING  OF  THE  NORTH.  217 

more  pleased  me.  It  likes  me  not  a  little  that  with  a 
good  testimony  of  your  faith  there  is  seen  a  stout  cour- 
age of  your  mind  that  more  trusted  to  the  goodness  of 
your  quarrel  than  to  the  weakness  of  your  numbers. 
But  I  can  say  no  more.  '  Beatus  est  ille  servus  quern 
cum  Dominus  venerit  inveniet  faciendo  (sic)  sua  man- 
data/  And  that  you  may  not  think  you  have  done 
nothing  for  your  profit,  though  you  have  done  much 
for  your  honour,  I  intend  to  make  this  journey  some- 
what to  increase  your  livelihood,  that  you  may  not  say 
to  yourself,  '  Perditum  quod  factum  est  ingrato/ 
*  Your  loving  kinswoman, 

1  ELIZABETH/  x 

It  is  pleasant  to  be  able  to  say  that  the  cruelties  which 
had  followed  on  the  main  rebellion  were  not  repeated. 
So  many  poor  fellows  had  been  killed  in  the  fight  that, 
at  Hunsdon's  suggestion,  a  general  pardon  followed  to 
all  who  would  submit,  and  in  the  trials  of  the  prisoners 
who  were  not  included  in  the  amnesty,  mercy  also  for 
the  future  prevailed. 


MSS.  Border,  Rolls  House. 


218 


CHAPTER  LIV. 

EXCOMMUNICATION    OF    ELIZABETH. 

THE  impunity  with  which.  Elizabeth's  Government 
was  able  to  insult  and  provoke  the  Catholic  Powers 
of  Europe  is  the  most  anomalous  phenomenon  in  modern 
history.  The  population  of  England  was  less  than  half 
the  population  either  of  France  or  Spain.  The  nation  was 
divided  against  itself,  and  three-quarters  of  the  peers 
and  half  the  gentlemen  were  disaffected.  Yet  the  in- 
tricacies of  the  political  situation  protected  the  Queen 
not  only  against  active  resentment  from  abroad,  but 
from  the  conspiracies  of  her  own  subjects.  Every- 
where indeed  there  was  paradox ;  everywhere  contra- 
diction and  inconsistency.  In  the  struggle  for  existence 
men  snatch  at  the  first  weapon  that  comes  to  hand, 
and  cannot  look  too  nicely  at  the  armoury  where  it 
has  been  forged.  Catholics  and  Protestants  where  they 
were  a  suffering  minority  clamoured  alike  for  liberty 
of  conscience ;  alike  where  they  were  in  power  they 
proscribed  every  creed  but  their  own.  The  obligations 
of  loyalty  varied  with  the  creed  of  the  Sovereign. 


1 5  70.]         EXCOMMUNICA  TION  OF  ELIZABE  777.  2 1 9 

The  English  Bishops  who  composed  the  Homily  on 
Wilful  Rebellion,  fed  the  armies  of  the  Huguenots 
and  the  Prince  of  Orange  with  contributions  collected 
in  the  English  churches.  The  Catholics  who  on  the 
Continent  preached  the  Divine  right  of  Kings,  believed 
in  England  that  they  might  lawfully  be  deposed  by 
their  subjects.  Princes  were  not  more  consistent  than 
their  peoples.  Elizabeth  was  half  a  Catholic  in  theory, 
in  practice  she  was  the  most  vigorous  of  Protestants. 
The  Court  of  France  was  one  month  the  ally  of  the 
Papacy,  and  the  irreconcilable  enemy  of  heresy ;  in 
the  next  it  was  seeking  alliance  with  England,  stretch- 
ing out  its  hands  to  the  princes  of  the  religion,  and 
thinking  only  how  best  to  take  advantage  of  the  dis- 
tractions of  the  Low  Countries,  and  annex  Brabant  and 
Flanders  to  the  French'  Crown.  But  phenomena  like 
these  occasion  no  surprise.  They  explain  themselves  on 
the  common  principles  of  human  nature,  or  in  the  divi- 
sions of  opinions  and  parties.  The  anomalies  in  the 
position  of  the  English  Queen  were  so  singular  as  to  be 
without  precedent  or  parallel. 

From  Philip,  the  most  orthodox  of  princes,  and  the 
Spanish  nation,  the  most  passionately  Catholic  in  the 
world,  some  kind  of  principle,  some  uniformity  of  action, 
might  have  been  looked  for  with  certainty ;  yet  Philip 
was  compelled  to  be  the  chief  supporter  of  a  heretic 
Power,  by  which  he  was  himself  insulted  and  despised. 
If  he  attempted  to  interfere  to  change  the  government 
in  England,  France  stepped  to  Elizabeth's  side  and 
threatened  him  with  war.  If  he  stood  aside  to  let 


220  REJGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  54. 

the  Catholics  rebel,  the  Catholic  element  in  France  was 
ready  with  its  offers  of  help  to  secure  the  profits  of  the 
anticipated  revolution;  and  thus  Philip,  through  fear 
for  his  Netherlands,  was  forced  back  upon  his  sister-in- 
law's  side,  was  obliged  to  stand  between  her  and  the 
Pope,  and  to  perplex  the  whole  Catholic  world  by  an 
irresolution  not  less  marked  and  far  more  mischievous 
than  the  vacillation  of  Elizabeth  herself.  Again  and 
again  he  had  tried  to  extricate  himself  from  his  dilem- 
ma, but  the  strange  eddy  was  always  too  strong  for 
him.  Had  there  been  no  France  the  English  Catholics 
would  have  found  an  instant  ally  in  Spain,  and  Mary 
Stuart  would  have  found  a  champion.  Had  Mary  Stuart 
been  unconnected  with  France  the  difficulty  would  have 
been  greater  but  still  not  insurmountable.  And  again, 
had  there  been  no  Spain,  the  French  would  never  have 
submitted  to  be  driven  out  of  Scotland,  or  would  have 
found  an  easy  means  to  revenge  themselves  in  the  in- 
testine divisions  of  England.  But  as  with  the  calms  in 
the  Northern  latitudes,  which  are  caused  by  the  con- 
flict and  counterpoise  of  opposed  atmospheric  currents, 
the  mutual  jealousies  of  the  two  Powers  left  Elizabeth 
more  free  to  settle  her  own  difficulties  than  if  the 
'  ditch '  which  divided  England  from  the  Continent  had 
been  the  Atlantic  itself.  She  had  the  advantage  of  the 
neighbourhood  without  its  evil,  for  her  disaffected  sub- 
jects, instead  of  trusting  to  their  own  energies,  built 
their  hopes  on  assistance  from  abroad  which  never 
came.  She  had  robbed  Philip  of  his  money,  imprisoned 
his  ambassador,  destroyed  his  commerce,  assisted  his 


1 5  70 .  ]         EXCOMMUNICA  TION  OF  ELIZABE  TH.  22 1 

subjects  in  rebellion,  and  invaded  his  Indian  colonies, 
yet  to  keep  her  on  the  throne  continued  the  same  neces- 
sity to  him  as  when  ten  years  before  he  had  rejected 
the  entreaties  of  de  Feria  and  de  Quadra  to  make  him- 
self master  of  England  by  force. 

The  immunity  indeed  could  not  last  for  ever.  If 
the  Reformers  were  finally  crushed  on  the  Continent, 
the  turn  of  England  would  come  in  the  end ;  and  had 
Elizabeth  understood  the  situation  as  completely  as 
Cecil  understood  it,  she  might  have  struck  boldly  into 
the  quarrel,  and  perhaps  turned  the  scale  conclusively 
over  all  Western  Europe.  But  for  such  a  policy  she 
wanted  courage,  and  probably  she  wanted  inclination. 
She  dipped  into  the  whirlpool  and  drew  out  of  it,  she 
hung  on  the  edge  and  promised  and  broke  her  pro- 
mises, and  sent  help  to  France  and  Flanders  and  denied 
having  sent  it,  and  did  all  those  things  which  in  com- 
mon times  would  have  most  exposed  her  to  danger  with 
least  profit  to  herself.  Yet  here  too,  strangely,  her  star 
was  on  her  side.  This  very  conduct  answered  best  for 
her  own  purposes,  since  it  enabled  Philip  to  hope  to  the 
last  that  she  would  go  back  to  the  principles  of  the  old 
alliance  and  the  old  faith,  and  so  furnished  him  with  an 
excuse  to  himself  for  his  own  inaction.  Thus  time  was 
gained,  and  time  was  everything  for  the  consolidation 
of  English  freedom.  Catholicism  in  England  was  still 
to  appearance  large  and  imposing,  but  its  strength  was 
the  strength  of  age,  which,  when  it  is  bowed  or  broken, 
cannot  lift  itself  again.  Protestantism  was  exuberant 
:n  the  freshness  of  youth ;  if  a  branch  was  lopped  away 


222  REIGN  OP  ELIZAS ETtf.  [CH.  54. 

another  more  vigorous  shot  from  the  stem ;  the  sap  was 
in  its  veins;  it  would  bend  to  the  storm  and  gather 
strength  from  the  blasts  which  tossed  its  branches. 
The  Catholic  rested  upon  order  and  tradition,  stately  in 
his  habits  of  thought,  mechanical  and  regular  in  his 
outward  actions.  His  party  depended  on  its  leaders, 
and  the  leaders  looked  for  guidance  to  the  Pope  and  the 
European  princes.  The  Protestant  was  self-dependent, 
confident,  careless  of  life,  believing  in  the  future  not 
the  past,  irrepressible  by  authority,  eager  to  grapple 
with  his  adversary  wherever  he  could  find  him,  and 
rushing  into  piracy  metaphorical  or  literal  when  regular 
warfare  was  denied  him.  Life  and  energy  were  on  the 
side  of  the  Queen,  and  every  year  that  she  could  gain 
was  a  fresh  security  for  her,  while  the  convenient  season 
for  which  Philip  waited,  though  it  arrived  at  last,  ar- 
rived too  late,  when  the  hand  which  should  execute  his 
behests  was  shaking  in  decrepitude. 

These  reflections  however,  if  sound  at  all,  are  but 
wisdom  after  the  event.  We  must  return  to  England 
in  the  opening  of  the  year  1570,  when  the  vitality  of 
Protestantism  was  still  unproved,  and  the  future  was 
vacancy  peopled  only  with  its  million  possibilities. 

The  rebellion,  ill  concerted  and  ill  managed,  had 
exploded  without  effect,  but  it  had  left  the  Catholics  no 
weaker  than  before,  embittered  more  deeply  against 
Elizabeth's  government,  and  only  resolved  to  renew 
the  experiment  with  a  clearer  understanding  among 
themselves.  The  conspiracy,  as  the  Regent  Murray 
said,  had  its  branches  over  the  whole  island  ;  and  were 


i  5  fo.  ]        EXCOMMUN1CA  T1ON  OF  ELIZA  BE  TH. 


223 


the  Queen  to  be  taken  off  by  an  assassin  as  Murray  had 
been,  there  was  no  force  anywhere  which  could  save  the 
country  from  immediate  and  universal  anarchy. 

Conscious  of  her  danger,  and  conscious,  as  she  re- 
covered her  equanimity,  that  she  must  find  some  better 
guarantee  for  her  safety  than  the  hanging  of  landless 
labourers  and  poor  artisans,  Elizabeth  drew  up  an  ad- 
dress to  her  subjects,  in  which  she  explained  the  prin- 
ciples of  her  past  government,  and  appealed  to  their 
consciences  to  say  whether  on  the  whole  she  had  de- 
served their  disaffection.  The  thoughts  were  her  own, 
the  language  in  part  or  wholly  was  Cecil's.1  A  printed 
copy  was  sent  to  every  parish  in  England,  to  be  hung 
up  in  some  public  place  where  every  one  could  see  it, 
and  read  aloud  in  service-time  from  the  pulpit. 

She  spoke  briefly  of  the  insurrection.  She  thanked 
her  people  for  their  general  loyalty  ;  but  '  for  their 
better  understanding/  she  desired  to  add  some  few 
words  of  reply  to  the  calumnies  which  were  spread 
abroad  against  her  administration.  '  She  had  desired/ 
she  said,  'to  have  the  obedience  of  her  subjects  by  love 
and  not  by  compulsion,  by  their  own  yielding  and  not 
by  her  exacting:  she  had  never  sought  the  life,  the 
blood,  the  goods,  the  houses,  estates,  or  lands  of  any 
person  in  her  dominions :  '  she  had  been  careful  for  the 
maintenance  of  order  and  law,  yet  with  so  little  severity 
that  '  the  Judges  had  in  no  age  before  given  fewer 


1  The  MS.  is  corrected  through- 
out in  Cecil's  hand.  The  hody  of  it 
had  heen  probably  written  at  his 


dictation  by  a  secretary. — Domestic 
MS8.y  1569,  1579.     Eolk  House. 


224  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  54. 

bloody  judgments  i '  there  had  been  no  civil  wars  in 
England  like  those  which  were  desolating  the  neigh- 
bouring kingdoms;  no  needless  foreign  wars,  no  im- 
poverishing of  the  subject  by  '  taxes,  assizes,  gabels, 
or  other  exactions  :  '  she  had  incurred  expenses  in  the 
defence  of  the  country  against  intended  invasions  ;  yet 
she  had  been  more  careful  of  her  subjects'  treasure  than 
even  Parliament  itself  had  required  her  to  be;  the 
ordinary  revenues  of  the  Crown  had  sufficed  for  the 
ordinary  government,  and  she  invited  the  people  gener- 
ally to  contrast  '  the  security,  tranquillity,  and  wealth 
which  they  enjoyed,  with  the  continual  and  universal 
outrages,  bloodshed,  murders,  burnings,  spoilings,  de- 
population of  towns  and  villages,  and  infinite  manner 
of  exactions,  in  France  and  the  Low  Countries/ 

So  much  as  to  the  general  management  of  the  coun- 
try. There  remained  to  be  considered  religion,  on  which 
her  rule  '  specially  from  abroad  had  been  most  frequently 
and  maliciously  impugned.'  It  was  true,  Elizabeth 
admitted,  that  'the  external  ecclesiastical  policy  of 
England  diifered  in  some  respects  from  that  which  was 
established  in  other  countries,  and  occasions  had  been 
sought  to  trouble  weak  consciences  on  this  ground. 
Simply  however  she  declared  that  she  had  neither 
claimed  nor  exerted  any  other  authority  in  the  Church 
than  had  attached  from  immemorial  time  to  the  English 
Crown,  although  that  authority  had  been  recognized 
with  greater  or  less  distinctness  at  different  times.  The 
Crown  challenged  no  superiority  to  define,  decide,  or 
determine  any  article  or  point  of  the  Christian  faith  or 


1570.]         EXCOMMUNICATION  OF  ELIZABETH.  225 

religion ;  or  to  change  any  rite  or  ceremony  before  re- 
ceived and  observed  in  the  Catholic  Church.  The  royal 
supremacy  in  matters  spiritual  meant  no  more  than  this, 
that  she  being  by  lawful  succession  Queen  of  England, 
all  persons  born  in  the  realm  were  subjects  to  her  and 
to  no  other  earthly  ruler.  She  was  bound  in  duty  to 
provide  that  her  people  should  live  in  the  faith,  obedi- 
ence, and  observance  of  the  Christian  religion ;  that 
consequently  there  should  be  a  Church  orderly  governed 
and  established;  and  that  the  ecclesiastical  ministers 
should  be  supported  by  the  civil  power,  that  her  sub- 
jects might  live  in  the  fear  of  God  to  the  salvation  of 
their  souls.  In  this  Christian  princes  differed  from. 
Pagan  princes,  who,  when  they  did  best,  took  but  a 
worldly  care  of  their  subjects'  bodies  and  .earthly  lives. 

'And  yet/  she  said,  'to  answer  further  to  some 
malicious  untruths,  she  never  had  any  meaning  or  intent 
that  any  of  her  subjects  should  be  troubled  or  molested 
by  examinations  or  inquisitions  in  any  matter  of  their 
faith,  as  long  as  they  should  not  gainsay  the  authority 
of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  or  deny  the  articles  of  faith 
contained  in  any  of  the  Creeds  received  and  used  in  the 
Church :  they  might  retain  their  own  opinions  in  any 
rites  or  ceremonies  appertaining  to  religion,  as  long  as 
they  should  in  their  outward  conversations  show  them- 
selves quiet  and  conformable,  and  not  manifestly  re- 
pugnant to  the  laws  for  resorting  to  their  ordinary 
churches.' 

'  So  far  and  no  farther  the  Crown  of  England  claimed 
authority  over  the  Church ;  and  if  any  Potentate  in 

VOL.    IX.  15 


226  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  54. 

Christendom,  challenging  universal  and  sole  superiority, 
should  condemn  the  English  princes  for  refusing  to 
recognize  that  superiority,  Elizabeth  said  she  would  be 
ready,  in  any  free  and  general  assembly,  where  such 
potentate  should  not  be  only  judge  in  his  own  cause,  to 
make  such  an  answer  in  her  defence  as  should  in  reason 
satisfy  the  universality  of  good  and  faithful  Christians; 
or,  if  she  failed  to  satisfy  them,  as  the  humble  servant 
and  handmaid  of  Christ,  she  would  be  willing  to  con- 
form herself  and  her  policy  to  that  which  truth  should 
guide  her  into  for  the  advancement  of  the  Christian  faith 
and  concord  of  Christendom :  she  would  admit  as  truth 
however  only  that  which  Almighty  God  should  please 
to  reveal  by  ordinary  means  in  peaceable  manner,  and 
not  that  which  should  be  obtruded  upon  her  by  threat- 
enings  of  bloodshed  and  motions  of  war  and  rebellion,  or 
by  curses,  fulminations,  or  other  worldly  tyrannous  vio- 
lences or  cruel  practices. 

'  With  this  general  statement  her  subjects  ought  to 
be  contented.  She  had  done  nothing  which  could  justly 
offend  them,  and  she  intended  to  do  nothing.  Inasmuch 
however  as  some  kinds  of  her  people  had  been  en- 
couraged in  disobedience  by  an  opinion  evil  conceived 
of  her  lenity,  she  must  and  would,  for  the  future,  make 
use  of  the  sword  of  justice  against  the  obstinately  dis- 
affected. There  should  be  no  inquisition,  no  examina- 
tion, no  violence  done  to  conscience  in  matters  of  faith  ; 
and  those  who  would  outwardly  conform  should  enjoy 
the  fruits  of  her  former  accustomed  mildness;  but 
sedition  and  rebellion  should  be  speedily  and  promptly 
repressed/ 


1570.]         EXCOMMUNICATION  OF  ELIZABETH.  227 

The  allusion  '  to  curses  and  fulminations '  might 
seem  prophetic.  That  Elizabeth  had  not  been  formally 
excommunicated  had  been  one  of  the  difficulties  which 
had  embarrassed  the  Northern  insurgents.  An  English 
gentleman  instinctively  recoiled  from  the  name  of  trai- 
tor ;  and  so  long  as  they  were  unabsolved  from  their  oath 
of  allegiance,  the  most  earnest  Catholics  could  not  feel 
with  certainty  that  they  were  released  from  their  obliga- 
tion of  obedience.  The  Popes  would  long  before  have 
relieved  their  consciences  could  they  have  followed  their 
own  discretion  ;  but  the  Catholic  princes,  and  especially 
Philip,  were  not  so  blinded  by  fanaticism  as  to  sanction 
so  audacious  a  precedent.  Charles  Y.  had  refused  to 
recognize  the  excommunication  of  Henry  VIII. ;  he  had 
received  English  ambassadors,  and  gone  back  into  an 
alliance  with  the  English,  as  if  Paul  III.  had  been  but 
a  mortal  like  himself.  Philip  had  been  less  openly 
disrespectful  to  Paul's  successors  ;  but  he  had  escaped 
only  by  preventing  them  from  forcing  him  into  the 
same  situation,  and  by  interposing  to  forbid  their 
often- meditated  violence.  Many  reasons  made  him  un- 
willing to  quarrel  with  Elizabeth.  Many  reasons  made 
him  reluctant,  even  if  an  opportunity  should  present 
itself,  to  permit  her  to  be  deposed  by  revolution ;  and 
as  a  Sovereign,  he  declined  to  recognize  even  by  silent 
acquiescence  the  insolent  pretensions  of  the  Roman 
Pontiff. 

Confronted  however  by  the  avowed  embarrassment 
of  the  English  Catholics,  privately  instigated  by  the 
Cardinal  of  Lorraine,  and  perhaps  believing  that  by  the 
open  exercise  of  his  authority  he  might  put  an  end  to 


228  REIGN  OP  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  54. 

the  vacillation  of  the  Great  Powers,  and  unite  France 
and  Spain  upon  what,  by  the  voice  of  their  Church, 
would  be  consecrated  into  a  Crusade,  Pius  Y.  determined 
to  wait  no  longer  for  Philip's  approbation.  The  Earls 
of  Westmoreland  and  Northumberland  had  themselves 
written  to  desire  him  to  speak  out  in  their  favour.  On 
the  25th  of  February  therefore,  suddenly,  that  there 
might  be  no  remonstrance,  he  drew  up  a  Bull,  by  which 
he  declared  Elizabeth  to  be  cut  off,  as  the  minister  of 
iniquity,  from  the  communion  of  the  faithful.  He  re- 
leased her  subjects  from  their  allegiance,  and  he  forbade 
them,  under  pain  of  incurring  the  same  sentence  as  her- 
self, to  recognize  her  any  longer  as  their  sovereign.1 

Deeply  though  Elizabeth  had  injured  the  King  of 
Spain,  the  Pope  was  conscious  that  it  would  be  vain  for 
him  to  hope  that  the  Bull  could  be  published  in 
Flanders.  Philip,  he  was  well  aware,  would  entreat  or 
command  him  to  restore  the  leA7in  bolt  to  his  spiritual 
armoury.  He  therefore  sent  it  to  the  Cardinal  of  Lor- 
raine, to  be  issued  at  a  favourable  moment ;  and,  ig- 
norant as  yet  of  the  completeness  of  the  collapse  of  the 
insurrection  in  England,  or  believing  that  the  work 
could  be  recommenced  from  the  Scottish  Border,  he 
wrote  at  the  same  time  a  letter  of  encouragement  and 
gratitude  to  the  two  Earls.  It  was  couched  in  the  usual 
language  of  the  Apostolic  missives.  The  Pope  expressed 
and  assured  them  of  the  peculiar  love  with  which  he 
regarded  his  English  flock.  '  He  was  grieved,'  he  said, 

1  Bull  of  excommunication  against  i  Domestic,  Rolls  House.     Printed  bij 
Elizabeth,  February  25, 1570:  JlfSS.    CAMDEN,  BURNET,  etc. 


1 5 70.  ]          EXCOMMUNICA  TION  OF  EL TZABE  TH,  229 

'  that  during  his  Pontificate,  the  venom  of  heresy  should 
have  been  spread  so  widely  over  the  Christian  Common- 
wealth. He  had  prayed  to  Peter  however  not  to  desert 
his  forlorn  bark  on  the  stormy  sea  on  which  it  was 
tossed  ;  and  Peter,  he  did  not  doubt,  would  come  to  the 
help  of  his  faithful  servants.  Many  a  time  that  precious 
boat  had  seemed  to  be  on  the  verge  of  destruction  ;  yet, 
by  the  power  of  the  Lord,  the  raging  waves  had  been 
stayed,  and  the  ship  had  come  out  from  persecution, 
strengthened  by  the  violence  which  had  threatened  it 
with  ruin.  It  might  be  that  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who 
made  old  things  new  and  new  things  old,  had  resolved 
to  build  again  the  Church  of  that  realm  by  the  hands 
of  the  two  noblemen  whom  he  was  addressing — men 
illustrious  alike  in  their  blood  and  in  their  zeal  for  the 
faith,  who  had  endeavoured  to  save  themselves  and  their 
country  from  the  foul  tyranny  of  female  sensuality.1 
They  -had  desired  to  submit  themselves  again  to  the 
Holy  Apostolic  'See.  He  applauded  in  the  Lord  their 
pious  purpose  as  it  deserved.  He  gave  them  his  bless- 
ing. He  received  them  under  the  shelter  of  his  au- 
thority. He  exhorted  them  to  be  constant  and  to  per- 
severe. He  was  assured  that  the  Almighty  Lord,  whose 
works  were  all  perfect  and  who  had  moved  them  to  the 
defence  of  the  Catholic  faith,  would  give  them  the  aid 
of  His  powerful  arm.  Should  they  lose  their  lives  in 
His  service,  it  was  better  for  them  to  pass  at  once  into 
Paradise  through  a  glorious  death,  than  to  be  the  mean 


De  la  subjeccion  de  la  torpe  y  feminil  incontinencia.' 


330  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  54 

slaves  of  a  licentious  woman,  arid  lose  their  immortal 
souls.  The  Bishops  who  had  been  flung  into  dungeons 
rather  than  forsake  the  truth,  had  followed  in  the  foot- 
steps of  the  blessed  Thomas  of  Canterbury.  Let  the  Earls 
also  imitate  that  admirable  saint.  They  were  his  beloved 
Children  in  Christ,  and  he  prayed  them,  for  no  perils 
by  which  they  might  be  threatened,  to  desert  the  cause 
which  they  had  taken  in  hand.  The  God  in  whom  they 
trusted,  the  Gfod  who  cast  Pharaoh  and  his  chariots  into 
the  sea,  was  able  to  destroy  the  might  of  their  adver- 
saries. The  Pope  himself  would  not  only  move  the 
princes  of  Christendom  in  their  behalf,  but  would  send 
them  at  once  all  the  money  which  he  could  provide,  and 
in  this  and  all  other  ways  would  assist  them  in  their 
holy  purpose  to  the  utmost  of  his  power.' l 

The  letter  never  reached  its  destination,  but  fell  into 
the  hands  of  the  Spaniards.  The  Bull  was  carried  to 
Paris,  and  lay  waiting  for  the  moment  when  it  was 
hoped  that  a  war  would  break  out  between  France  and 
England,  and  that  Catherine  de  Medici  and  the  King 
would  give  their  sanction — without  which  even  the 
Cardinal  of  Lorraine  was  afraid  to  act — to  the  publica- 
tion of  it  before  the  world.2 


1  La  carta  que  su  Santidad  es- 
cribio  a  los  Condes  de  Northumber- 
land 6  Westmoreland,  February  20, 
1570:  MSS.  Simancas. 

2  Philip,  who  was  generally  cre- 
dited with  having  advised  Elizabeth's 
excommunication,   was  more   than 
innocent  of  it.     He  was  surprised, 
displeased,  and  suspicious,  believing 


that  it  was  connected  in  some  way 
with  a  design  on  the  part  of  the 
French  Government  to  make  an  at- 
tempt upon  England.  Don  Guerau 
sent  him  a  copy  of  the  Bull. 

'  The  instrument  which  you  have 
forwarded  to  me,'  Philip  wrote  in 
reply,—'  the  instrument  declaring 
the  Queen  of  England  depr^-od  of 


EXCOMMUNICATION  OF  ELIZABETH. 


231 


The  opportunity  might  easily  be  near  :  the  attitude 
of  the  French  Court  towards  England  had  varied 
during  the  past  year  between  almost  a  declaration 
of  hostilities  and  almost  friendship.  So  long  as  Mary 
Stuart  and  the  English  Catholics  were  coquetting  with 
Spain,  the  French  ambassador  had  held  aloof  from  the 
conspiracy ;  when  it  became  clear  that  Spain  did  not 
mean  to  interfere,  the  place  of  protector  of  the  op- 
pressed was  again  open  with  its  contingent  advantages. 
France  could  make  use  of  the  resentment  which  would 
be  provoked  naturally  by  the  apathy  of  Alva  and 
Philip,  and  the  death  of  Murray  had  created  a  fresh 
chance  for  the  recovery  of  French  influence  in  Scot- 
land. The  Huguenots  were  not  expected  to  rally  from 
the  effects  of  Moncoutour.  The  Guise  influence  was  in 
the  ascendant,  and  Catherine  leant  as  usual  to  the 


her  realm,  was  the  first  which  I 
had  heard  about  the  business.  His 
Holiness  took  the  step  without  com- 
municating with  me,  and  I  assure 
you  I  arn  not  a  little  surprised  at  it. 
Knowing  as  I  do  so  intimately  the 
condition  of  that  realm,  I  could  have 
given  him  better  advice  than  others 
whose  counsels  he  seems  to  have 
followed.  He  is  zealous,  and  per- 
haps thinks  that  only  this  was  want- 
ing to  bring  abont  what  he  desires. 
I  shall  be  very  happy  to  find  that  he 
is  right,  but  my  fear  is  that  not  only 
the  effect  will  not  be  favourable,  but 
that  so  sudden  and  ill-advised  a 
measure  will  only  embitter  men's 
humours  there  and  drive  the  Queen 
to  extremities.' — Philip  to  DonGue- 


rau,  June  20 :    MSS.  Simancas. 

To  his  ambassadorin  Paris,  Philip 
expressed  himself  yet  more  vehe- 
mently. 'The  Pope,'  he  said,  'should 
have  consulted  me  before  taking  this 
step.  I  cannot  but  feel  uneasy  that 
it  was  concealed  from  me.  It  means 
mischief,  and  we  must  get  to  the 
bottom  of  it.  "We  must  find  out 
especially  what  the  French  are  after 
— their  usual  tricks  no  doubt  If 
there  be  anything  of  this  kind,  we 
may  credit  it  to  the  Cardinal  of 
Lorraine,  whose  actions  show  that 
you  have  done  him  no  injustice  in 
the  opinion  which  you  have  formed 
of  his  character.' — Philip  to  Don 
Francis  de  Alava,  June  26:  TEU- 
LET,  vol.  v, 


232  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  54. 

policy  of  the  predominant  party.  Accordingly,  during 
the  first  weeks  of  the  year,  the  despatches  of  Sir  Henry 
JSTorris  from  Paris  were  filled  with  warnings  of  ap- 
proaching danger.  Elizabeth  was  to  be  punished  for 
the  encouragement  which  she  and  her  subjects  had 
given  to  Coligny.  '  The  open  talk  at  Paris  was  of  war 
with  England,  for  the  release  of  the  Queen  of  Scots 
and  the  toleration  of  Papistry.'  The  Queen-mother 
told  Norris  '  that  she  thought  God  had  sent  the  be- 
ginning of  a  rebellion  to  warn  his  mistress  how  she 
assisted  rebels  against  their  princes  ;  if  the  first  lesson 
sufficed  not,  she  must  look  for  sharper  scourges/  An 
army  was  to  be  thrown  across  the  Straits,  which  the 
Duke  of  Anjou  was  to  lead,  and  the  Duke  was  to  be  re- 
warded with  the  hand  of  the  Queen  of  Scots.  The 
success  of  Bothwellhaugh  had  been  so  encouraging, 
that  the  Cardinal  of  Lorraine  engaged  a  party  of 
assassins  to  attempt  a  similar  service  on  Elizabeth.  He 
offered  Alva  a  share  of  the  enterprise,  and  requested 
him  to  make  a  diversion  in  Scotland,  while  Anjou 
moved  on  London  and  Tutbury. 

That  Alva  would  accept  a  second  part  in 
March.  .  x 

such   a   business   was    exceedingly   unlikely. 

The  marriage  of  the  Queen  of  Scots  and  the  Duke  of 
Anjou  was  one  of  the  most  alarming  spectres  in  Philip's 
imagination.  Don  Guerau  however  suggested  that, 
under  shelter  of  the  expected  French  enterprise,  the 
Duke  might  attempt  the  surprise  of  Tutbury  on  his 
own  account ;  it  was  of  great  importance  that  the 
Queen  of  Scots  should  be  at  liberty,  and  equally  so  that 


,7o.]         EXCOMMUNICATION  OF  ELIZABETH. 


233 


she  should  not  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  French.1  Pie 
had  ascertained  that  she  was  left  to  herself  between 
two  o'clock  at  night  and  nine  the  following  morn- 
ing; and  if  Alva  would  send  a  ship  well  manned  to 
some  secluded  spot  on  the  east  coast,  with  a  sufficient 
number  of  horses,  means  could  be  found,  with  the  help 
of  Leicester,  whose  service  it  seems  had  been  secured 
by  Chapin,2  to  carry  her  off  to  the  sea.3  With  a  view 
to  an  underplot  of  this  kind,  and  to  throw  Catherine  off 
her  guard,  Alva  did  not  answer  with  entire  coldness  to 
the  Cardinal  of  Lorraine's  proposals.  Sir  Henry  JSTorris 
intimated  his  fears  that  there  was  danger  from  Flanders 
as  well  as  from  France,  unless  in  some  way  the  Queen 
of  Scots  could  be  got  rid  of.  '  I  pray  you  assure  your- 
self/ he  wrote  to  Cecil  on  the  Qth  of  March,  '  that 
except  tHey  fail  of  their  purpose,  they  intend  the  ruin 
of  her  Majesty ;  as  you  tender  her  Majesty's  preserv- 


1  '  Parece  cosa  muy  conveniente 
procurar  la  libertad  de  la  Reyna  de 
Escocia,  porque  con  tenerla  presa 
tiene  creydo  la  Reyna  de  Inglaterra 
que  niugun  Principe  Catolico  le  bara 
guerra  por  no  poner  en  peligro  la 
dicha  Princesa;  y  asy  tambien  es 
mejor  que  su  libertad  no  sea  por  via 
de  los  Franceses  ni  venga  a  poder 
dellos,  por  lo  que  ban  mostrado  de- 
sear  de  casarla  con  el  Duque  de 
Anjou;  antes  seria  muy  al  proposito 
que  viniese  en  poder  de  su  Magd, 
porque  se  casase  a  su  voluntad,  pues 
para  el  bien  de  la  religion  y  seguri- 
dad  de  los  Payses  Baxos  y  de  V. 
Md  y  la  navegacion  importaria 
tnucbo.'  —  Don  Guerau  to  Alva, 


Marcb  7  :  MSS.  Simancas. 

2  Don  Guerau,  speaking  of  some 
one  who  was  to  be  sent  first  to  sur- 
vey tbe  ground  where  the  relays  of 
horses  were  to  be  placed,  says  : — 
'  Puede  traer  nna  carta  del  Marquis 
para  el  Conde  de  Leicester  para  pro- 
curar la  dicha  facultad.'    Leicester 
had   perhaps '  deceived   Chapin,   in 
order  to  learn  his  secrets  and  betray 
them ;  or,   as  usual,  he  may  have 
been  making  his  game  for  all  contin- 
gencies.    No  one  can   tell.     Only 
wherever  we  come  upon  his  name  in 
these  underground    passages  it  is 
always   connected   with   infamy   or 
treachery  of  some  kind. 

3  Don  Guerau  to  Alva,  March  7, 


234 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


[CH.  54. 


ation,  let  the  Queen  of  Scots  be  removed  out  of  the 
country.' l 

Don  Guerau  had  been  scrupulously  secret  about  the 
intended  escape  ;  but  a  hint  of  the  plot  reached  Cecil 
from  Paris.  On  inquiry  at  Tutbury,  suspicious  '  prac- 
tices '  were  discovered  among  the  servants,  and  the 
guard  at  the  castle  was  instantly  doubled.  The  locks 
were  taken  from  the  Queen's  door,  that  her  rooms 
might  be  examined  at  any  hour  of  the  day  or  night,  if 
'  sudden  >danger  should  chance  ; '  and  a  sign  ificant  in- 
timation was  given  to  her,  that  if  she  tried  to  fly  it 
might  be  dangerous.2  Elizabeth  herself  too  prepared 
for  the  worst.  Though  knowing  nothing  of  the  excom- 
munication, she  had  reason  enough  to  believe  that  the 
warnings  of  Sir  Henry  Norris  might  be  well  founded. 
There  was  a  general  impression  that  on  the  events  of 
the  year  that  was  opening  the  fate  of  the  Eeformation 
depended — and  with  the  Reformation,  of  her  own 
throne.  La  Mothe  Feneloii  continued  to  demand  the 
release  or  the  restoration  of  Mary  Stuart,  and  it  seemed 
only  too  likely  that  a  declaration  of  war  would  follow 
unless  the  Government  gave  way.  The  treasury  was 
poorly  provided.  Elizabeth  shrunk  from  encountering 
a  Parliament  with  no  husband  at  her  side,  and  with 
the  succession  still  unsettled ;  and  without  a  Parliament 
she  could  neither  raise  a  subsidy  nor  confiscate  the 


1  Xorris  to  Cecil,  January  2, 
January  27,  March  I,  March  9, 
March  15  ;  Norris  to  Elizabeth, 
February  <J,  March  9 :  MSS.  France, 


Rolls  House. 

2  John  Bateman  to  Cecil,  March 
ic  "9  :  MSS.  QUEEN  OF  SCOTS. 


I570-]         EXCOMMUNICATION  OF  ELIZABETH.  23$ 

estates  of  the  Northern  Earls,  who  could  now  be  only- 
reached  through  an  Act  of  Attainder.  Sir  Thomas 
Gresham  however  was  able  to  raise  a  loan  in  the  City. 
The  Spanish  treasure  was  untouched,  and  could  be  used 
in  extremity.  Every  serviceable  ship  was  sent  to  sea ; 
the  musters  were  called  into  training  on  the  whole 
south  and  west  of  England ;  the  arms  and  horses 
looked  to  ;  and  officers  were  chosen  who  were  known  as 
haters  of  Popes  and  Papistries.  Before  March,  La 
Mothe  reported  that  a  hundred  and  twenty  thousand 
men  could  take  the  field  in  different  parts  of  England 
at  a  few  days'  notice,  and  could  be  relied  upon  to  de- 
fend the  country  from  a  French  invasion.1  The  defeat 
of  Leonard  Dacres  came  opportunely  to  strengthen  the 
impression  of  the  Queen's  resources ;  and  thus  sup- 
ported, she  felt  herself  able  to  reply  with  dignity  to  the 
French  demands.  She  was  called  upon  to  restore  Mary 
Stuart :  she  answered  with  an  unexaggerated  sketch  of 
Mary  Stuart's  history.  She  went  over  the  old  ground 
of  the  usurped  title,  the  unratified  treaty,  the  marriage 
with  Darnley,  and  the  unceasing  intrigues  in  England. 
She  came  next  to  the  murder,  of  which  the  Queen  of 
Scots  was  accused  by  her  subjects  of  having  directly 
procured ;  and  finally  to  her  flight  into  England ; 
where,  as  her  murdered  husband  was  Elizabeth's  near- 
est kinsman,  an  examination  into  the  circumstances  of 
his  death  was  absolutely  unavoidable.  The  Queen  of 
Scots  had  consented  after  some  objections,  and  Eliza- 


Depeches  de  la  Mothe  Fenelon,  February,  1570. 


236  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  54. 

beth  had  promised  that  if  the  charge  against  her 
proved  to  be  unfounded,  her  accusers  should  be  punish- 
ed, and  she  herself  should  be  restored  to  her  estate. 
The  evidence  however  proved  so  unexpectedly  weighty, 
that  the  Queen  of  Scots  herself  put  an  end  to  the  in- 
quiry, and  refused  to  allow  it  to  be  prosecuted  further. 
Elizabeth  had  forborne  to  use  the  advantage  which  was 
thus  placed  in  her  hands.  She  had  stood  between  the 
Queen  of  Scots  and  the  infamy  with  which  she  would 
have  been  overwhelmed  had  the  proofs  of  her  guilt 
been  published,  and,  in  return,  the  Queen  of  Scots  had 
stirred  up  an  open  rebellion,  professedly  in  the  interests 
of  religion,  but  aimed  in  reality  against  Elizabeth's 
throne  and  life.  This  person  she  was  now  called  upon 
to  set  at  liberty,  or  restore  to  her  crown ;  and  to  do  so 
would  be  an  act  of  dangerous  folly,  which  no  indifferent 
person  should  in  conscience  require.  '  She  would  not,* 
Elizabeth  said  distinctly — 'she  would  not  be  herself 
the  author  to  hazard  her  own  person,  her  state  and 
honour,  the  quietness  of  her  realm  and  people,  without 
further  consideration  how  in  doing  it  she  could  main- 
tain her  crown  and  public  peace  among  her  subjects. 
She  dared  to  appeal  to  the  judgment  of  any  prince  or 
potentate  in  the  world  that  would  profess  indifference 
in  judgment :  the  Queen  of  Scots  herself,  and  her  most 
aftectioned  friends,  could  not  think  her  to  deal  therein 
unreasonably.'  * 

Could  the  French  Government  have  answered  that 


1  Instructions  to  Sir  H.  Norris  :   Conway  MSS.}  15  70.     Rolls  House. 


1570.]         EXCOMMUNICATION  OF  ELIZABETH.  237 

the  Queen  of  Scots  was  a  slandered  woman;  that 
Elizabeth's  pretended  care  for  her  honour  was  but  a 
contrivance  to  give  countenance  to  accusations  which 
would  not  endure  investigation,  they  would  have  re- 
plied, that  her  injustice  was  aggravated  by  her  hypo- 
crisy ;  they  would  have  dared  her  to  produce  the 
so-called  evidence  before  the  eyes  of  Europe,  that  she 
might  herself  receive  the  infamy  from  which  she  affected 
to  be  shielding  Mary  Stuart.  Was  the  truth  as  the 
defenders  of  the  Queen  of  Scots  maintain,  such  a  chal- 
lenge would  have  been  more  fatal  to  Elizabeth  than  the 
landing  on  her  shores  of  all  the  legions  of  Alva  and 
Anjou ;  but  this  could  not  be  ;  Catherine  de  Medici  had 
perhaps  learnt  by  this  time  that  Alva's  legions  would 
not  be  at  her  service,  that  the  Catholics  were  for  the 
present  crushed,  and  that,  as  against  France,  they  would 
stand  true  to  their  own  Sovereign.  She  therefore  con- 
fessed, when  Sir  H.  Norris  read  the  letter  to  her,  that 
she  had  nothing  to  reply  to  it.  She  still  hoped,  she 
said,  that  the  Queen  of  Scots  might  be  allowed  to  leave 
England,  or  might  be  eventually  re-established  in  her 
own  country  ;  but  both  she  and  Charles  admitted  that 
they  could  make  no  further  unconditional  requests  in 
her  favour.1  If  the  Queen  of  England  could  discover 
any  terms  consistent  with  her  own  safety  on  which  the 
restoration  could  be  effected,  they  said  that  they  would 
themselves  become  securities  that  those  terms  should  be 
observed ;  but  Charles  declared  positively  that  he  did 

'•  Norris  to  Cecil,  March   15  ;  Norris  to  Elizabeth,  March  17:  MSS. 
France,  liolls  House. 


238  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  54. 

not   mean  to  interfere,    and   Catherine   afterwards   in 
private  spoke  even  with  greater  friendliness. 

'The  unaccustomed  smooth  speech/  the  change  of 
note  so  sudden  and  so  entire,  led  Norris  '  to  suspect 
false  dealing/  The  English  Government  were  not  lulled 
into  security,  but  continued  their  preparations  for  de- 
fence, while  the  Protestant  congregations  raised  sub- 
scriptions to  support  the  Huguenots.  Large  sums  of 
money  continued  to  be  sent  to  the  Admiral,  the  pri- 
vateer fleets  were  let  out  again,  and  the  English  ports 
were  reopened  to  the  Eochelle  cruisers.  Coligny,  who 
had  been  wounded  at  Moncoutour,  was  once  more  in  the 
field  at  the  head  of  an  army,  and  whether  the  Court 
was  sincere  or  not  in  its  present  moderation,  Elizabeth 
was  able  to  feel  that  from  France,  while  its  present 
mood  lasted,  she  had  nothing  to  fear,  although  that 
mood  would  probably  continue  until  it  had  been  seen 
whether,  through  the  death  of  Murray,  the  French 
party  would  recover  their  ascendency  in  Scotland. 
There  it  was  that  she  found  her  chief  ground  for  un- 
easiness, and  the  necessity,  or  what  appeared  to  her  a 
necessity,  for  an  evasive  and  shuffling  policy.  The 
natural,  and  at  first  sight  the  most  prudent,  course  for 
her  would  have  been  to  declare  for  the  young  King,  to 
acknowledge,  once  for  all,  that  the  Queen  of  Scots  had 
losy,  her  crown  by  her  own  fault,  and  to  refuse  to  allow 
the  question  of  restoration  to  be  any  more  reopened. 
But  in  doing  this  she  must  have  been  prepared — either, 
as  she  had  proposed  in  the  autumn,  to  replace  the 
Queen  of  Scots  as  a  prisoner  into  the  hands  of  the 


1  $  ?o.  ]        EXCOMMUNICA  TION  OF  ELIZA  BE  TH. 


Protestant  party  (and  in  their  present  state  of  dis- 
organization Mary  Stuart  would  either  be  murdered  by 
them  immediately  or  at  no  distant  time  would  be  set  at 
liberty)  ;  or  else  to  keep  her  permanently  in  England, 
to  be  a  perpetual  occasion  of  internal  trouble.  She 
might  have  made  up  her  mind  to  this  last  alternative, 
could  she  be  assured  that  the  House  of  Lorraine  would 
not  regain  their  influence  at  Paris ;  but  it  was  unsafe 
to  calculate  on  French  policy  for  two  months  together. 
It  was  always  possible  that  the  fanatically  Catholic 
element  in  France  might  obtain  the  complete  control  of 
the  Government.  France  and  Spain  might  then  be 
brought  together  by  the  Pope,  and  the  Queen  of  Scots 
would  be  a  pretext  for  a  joint  declaration  of  war.  The 
Scotch  nobles  who  were  on  the  Queen's  side  would  be- 
come permanently  hostile  to  England,  and  throw  them- 
selves wholly  on  the  French  alliance.  To  keep  Halt- 
land,  Argyle,  and  the  Gordons  therefore  in  dependence 
upon  herself;  to  prevent  them  from  joining  with  the 
Hamiltons,  who  were  and  always  would  be  the  deter- 
mined enemies  of  England ; l  to  discover  at  last  some 


1  The  Hamiltons,  though  nomin- 
ally on  Mary  Stuart's  side,  were  as 
usual  working  rather  for  themselves 
than  for  her,  and  were  looking 
steadily  on  the  possible  reversion  of 
the  Scotch  crown.  Mary  Stuart  had 
named  Chatelherault  Regent  in  her 
absence  ;  but  Chatelherault  and  his 
family  were  contemplating  the  con- 
tingency of  a  fresh  inquiry  into  the 
Burnley  murder,  which  might  term- 
inate both  in  the  Queen  and  the 


young  Prince  being  set  aside,  and  ir 
their  own  establishment  upon  the 
throne  supported  by  France. 

'  In  case,'  Chatelherault  said  in  a 
commission  which  he  sent  to  France 
and  Spain,  '  in  case  all  were  not  dis- 
solved which  proceeded  of  the  Earl 
of  Murray  and  his  complices,  and 
thereby  the  Queen's  Grace  was  not 
found  worthy  (as  God  forbid)  to 
brook  the  Government,  the  Prince 
will  not  succeed  as  it  is  supposed, 


240 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


[CH.  54. 


possible  compromise  by  winch  slie  could  reconcile  im- 
possibilities, by  which  she  could  replace  Mary  Stuart 
yet  leave  her  powerless  for  mischief,  with  merely  the 
outward  insignia  of  Sovereignty — this  was  the  solution 
of  the  problem  which  commended  itself  to  Elizabeth, 
as  that  which,  on  the  whole,  promised  best  for  English 
interests  and  for  her  own  safety.  It  was  because  she 
had  been  baffled  on  this  very  point  when  she  hoped  that 
she  was  about  to  succeed,  that  she  was  so  much  irritated 
in  the  past  summer  with  the  Earl  of  Murray  and  the 
Convention  of  Perth.  She  had  allowed  herself,  appa- 
rently without  Cecil's  knowledge,  to  correspond  in 
secret  with  the  Earl  of  Argyle  and  with  Maitland ;  to 
encourage  them  both  in  upholding  Mary  Stuart's  cause, 
as  she  had  done  before  when  Mary  Stuart  was  at  Loch- 
leven,  and  to  persuade  them  to  trust  in  her  rather  than 
in  France.  Her  secret  purposes  must  remain  always 
extremely  obscure.  It  is  possible  that  she  was  deliber- 
ately dishonest ;  but,  beyond  doubt,  she  led  the  Earl  of 
Argyle  to  believe  that  in  thwarting  Murray,,  and  in 
keeping  up  a  party  in  opposition  to  him,  he  was  but 
fulfilling  the  Queen  of  England's  wishes.1 


since  the  right  of  the  crown  comes 
only  by  her  Majesty  to  him,  and 
therefore  will  appertain  to  the  said 
Duke  and  his  successors.' — Commis- 
sion from  the  Duke  of  Chatelherault 
to  the  Kings  of  France  and  Spain, 
June,  1570:  MSS.  Scotland,  Rolls 
House. 

1  Argyle  himself  told  Randolph 
'  that  in  all  things  he  had  done  in 


defence  of  the  Queen  his  mistress, 
since  the  time  of  her  imprisonment 
in  Lochleven,  he  did  it  by  such  ad- 
vice as  the  Queen  of  England  had 
given  him,  which  had  caused  him 
since  that  time  to  have  lost  the 
friendship  of  others  that  were  very 
dear  to  him,  even  the  Lord  Regent's 
self,  whose  death  he  minded  to  see 
revenged  so  far  as  justice  and  law 


1 5  70.  ]         EXCOMMUNICA  TION  OF  E  LIZ  ABE  TH.  24 1 

A  dread  of  war,  a  hatred  of  expense,  a  sympathy 
for  a  sister  Sovereign,  a  dislike  of  rebellion  however 
necessary  or  defensible,  an  intellectual  pleasure  in  a 
subtle  and  intricate  policy, — all  these  elements  worked 
perhaps  together  in  Elizabeth's  mind,  and  made  her 
persist  in  a  line  of  action  which  she  could  pursue  only 
in  the  teeth  of  her  own  promises.  The  effect  so  far  had 
been  a  dangerous  conspiracy  at  home,  a  partial  insur- 
rection, and  the  murder  at  last  of  the  best  friend  that 
she  possessed  out  of  her  own  kingdom.  The  position 
was  at  present  complicated  by  the  presence  of  the 
refugees  on  the  Border,  for  whom  in  the  friends  of 
Mary  Stuart  she  had  provided  only  too  efficient  pro- 
tectors, while  there  was  another  peril  which  she  might 
have  foreseen  but  which  she  apparently  overlooked. 
The  union  of  parties  which  she  was  trying  to  bring 
about  in  the  interests  of  England,  might  be  effected 
with  equal  likelihood  in  the  interests  of  France.  If 
after  the  experience  of  the  rebellion  she  still  persisted 
in  endeavouring  to  thrust  the  Queen  of  Scots  back  upon 
them,  the  Protestant  noblemen  might  anticipate  her,  as 
Maitland  endeavoured  to  persuade  them  to  do  at  York, 
by  themselves  inviting  the  Queen  of  Scots'  return. 
Scotland  would  at  least  escape  the  civil  war  which  was 
otherwise  impending.  The  demand  of  a  united  people, 
supported  as  they  would  be  by  the  French  Court,  Eliza- 


required.'  '  I  see,'  continued  Ran- 
dolph, '  that  both  he  and  the  Lord 
Boyd  take  great  heed  of  the  Queen's 
Majesty's  words,  and  by  such  talk 


allure  many  to  their  purposes  who 
were  not  long  since  of  another  mind. ' 
— Randolph  to  Cecil,  February  27, 
1570:  MSS  Scotland. 


VOL.    IX.  16 


242  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  54. 

beth  would  be  unable  to  refuse.  And  she  would  then  lose 
the  chance  of  exacting  conditions  for  her  own  security. 

In  the  anarchy  which  followed  the  murder  of  Mur- 
ray, the  English  fugitives  were  undisturbed  upon  the 
Border.  Leonard  Dacres  joined  them  after  his  defeat, 
and  the  Earl  of  Westmoreland,  with  all  the  help  which 
the  Buccleuchs,  the  Homes,  the  Kers,  and  the  Maxwells 
could  give  him,  was  threatening  to  return  into  Eng- 
land and  rekindle  the  insurrection.  Scotland  was  with- 
out a  Government  which  could  either  restrain  them  or 
be  held  responsible  to  Elizabeth  ;  and  unless  Elizabeth 
was  roused  at  last  to  a  more  definite  policy,  it  was  not 
unlikely  that  Chatelherault  might  be  accepted  as  Regent 
by  all  parties,  and  the  young  Prince  be  sent  across  to  Paris. 

To  prevent  this  at  least,  to  keep  the  Protestant 
leaders  together,  yet  still  without  power  to  take  the 
one  step  which  would  have  recovered  their  confidence, 

Randolph  at  the  beginning  of  Februarv  came 
February. 

down  to  Edinburgh.  He  was  sent,  as  he  bit- 
terly said  to  Cecil,  to  feed  an  angry  and  anxious  party 
*  with  bare  words.'  On  the  instant  of  his  arrival  he  was 
beset  with  questions  as  '  to  what  was  to  be  done  with  the 
Queen  of  Scots.'  He  found  those  from  whom  he  most 
expected  support,  possessed  with  a  conviction  '  that  she 
would  some  time  be  sent  home  against  their  will ; '  and 
he  was  forced  to  see  that  '  until  they  could  be  assured 
that  it  should  pass  her  power  to  do  them  evil,  there 
could  be  no  good  assurance  of  their  hearts  towards 
England/  l 


Bandolph  to  Cecil,  February  7,  February  22 :  M8S.  Scotland. 


1570.]         EXCOMMUNICATION  OF  ELIZABETH.  243 

Had  Scotland  remained  as  he  had  known  it  ten  years 
before — a  country  without  a  people,  a  country  of  noble- 
men and  gentlemen  where  the  commons  had  no  exist- 
ence except  as  servants  or  retainers  or  dependants,  the 
Knot  which  killed  Murray  would  have  killed  the  Re- 
formation. The  first  champions  of  the  cause,  the  Lords 
of  the  Congregation,  were  divided,  distracted,  bankrupt 
in  fortune  and  principle,  and  with  little  heart  to  con- 
tinue the  struggle ;  but  it  was  not  for  nothing  that 
John  Knox  had  for  ten  years  preached  in  Edinburgh, 
and  his  words  been  echoed  from  a  thousand  pulpits. 
The  murders,  the  adulteries,  the  Bothwell  scandals,  and 
other  monstrous  games  which  had  been  played  before 
heaven  there  since  the  return  of  the  Queen  from  France, 
had  been  like  whirlwinds  fanning  the  fire  of  the  new 
teaching.  Princes  and  Lords  only  might  have  noble 
blood,  but  every  Scot  had.  a  soul  to  be  saved,  a  con- 
science to  be  outraged  by  these  enormous  doings,  and  an 
arm  to  strike  with  in  revenge  for  them.  Elsewhere  the 
plebeian  element  of  nations  had  risen  to  power  through 
the  arts  and  industries  which  make  men  rich — the 
commons  of  Scotland  were  sons  of  their  religion  :  while 
the  nobles  were  splitting  into  factions,  chasing  their 
small  ambitions,  taking  securities  for  their  fortunes,  or 
entangling  themselves  in  political  intrigues,  the  trades- 
men, the  mechanics,  the  poor  tillers  of  the  soil,  had 
sprung  suddenly  into  consciousness  with  spiritual  con- 
victions for  which  they  were  prepared  to  live  and  die. 
The  fear  of  God  in  them  left  no  room  for  the  fear  of  any 
other  thing,  and  in  the  very  fierce  intolerance  which 
Knox  had  poured  into  their  veins  they  had  become  a 


244  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH,  54. 

force  in  the  State.  The  poor  clay  which  a  generation 
earlier  the  haughty  baron  would  have  trodden  into 
slime,  had  been  heated  red-hot  in  the  furnace  of  a  new 
faith  ;  and  Randolph,  though  at  first  he  could  ill  realize 
the  change,  found  himself  in  an  altered  world.  With 
Murray  was  gone  all  that  was  conciliatory,  all  that  was 
gentle,  all  that  was  chivalrous  in  Scottish  Protestantism. 
It  was  shaped  by  Knox  into  a  creed  for  the  people — a 
creed  in  which  the  ten  commandments  were  more  im- 
portant than  the  sciences,  and  the  Bible  than  all  the 
literature  of  the  world ;  narrow,  fierce,  defiant,  but 
hard  as  steel,  and  with  strength  enough  to  prevent 
Elizabeth's  diplomacies  from  ruining  both  herself  and 
Scotland. 

The  first  public  act  of  Randolph  was  to  take  part 
in  a  mournful  solemnity.  The  body  of  the  Regent 
Murray  was  brought  from  Linlithgow  to  Leith,  and 
thence  on  the  I4th  of  February  to  its  resting-place  in 
St  Giles'  church.  The  country  for  the  moment  forgot 
its  feuds  to  pay  honour  to  the  noblest  of  Scotland's  sons. 
Lords  and  gentlemen,  knights  and  citizens,  all  who 
were  able,  came  together  to  take  part  in  the  sad  pro- 
cession. The  standard  was  borne  by  Grange.  Five 
earls  and  three  barons *  carried  the  coffin,  and  behind 
was  a  train  of  mourners  'in  such  sorrow'  as  Randolph 
'never  saw.'  Three  thousand  people  were  in  the 
church,  and  the  funeral  sermon  was  preached  by  Knox. 
His  text  was  '  Blessed  are  the  dead  which  die  in  the 


1  Morton,  Mar,  Glencairn,  Cassilis,  Ruthven,  Lindsay,  Ochiltree,  and 
Crlamis. 


I570-]         EXCOMMUNICATION  OF  ELIZABETH.  245 

Lord/     His  words  have  not  been  preserved,  but  iu  all 
that  iron  crowd  there  was  not  a  man  but  was  in  tears.1 


1  Something  of  what  Knox  said 
may  be  conjectured  from  a  prayer 
with  which  he  closed  a  second  ser- 
mon in  the  same  place  on  the  follow- 
ing day.  '  Oh  Lord,  what  we  shall 
add  to  the  former  petition  we  know 
not :  yea  alas,  oh  Lord,  our  own 
consciences  hear  us  record  that  we 
are  unworthy  that  Thou  sliould'st 
either  increase  or  yet  continue  thy 
graces  with  us  by  reason  of  our 
horrible  ingratitude.  In  our  ex- 
treme miseries  we  called,  and  Thou, 
in  the  multitude  of  thy  mercies, 
heard  us ;  and  first  Thou  delivered'st 
us  from  the  idolatry  of  merciless 
strangers  ;  and  last  from  the  yoke  of 
that  wretched  woman,  the  mother  of 
all  mischief ;  and  in  her  place  Thou 
didst  erect  her  son ;  and  to  supply 
his  infancy  Thou  didst  appoint  a 
Eegent  endued  with  such  graces  as 
the  Devil  himself  cannot  accuse  or 
justly  convict  him ;  this  only  ex- 
cepted,  that  foolish  pity  did  so  far 
prevail  in  him  concerning  execution 
and  punishment  which  Thou  com- 
manded'st  to  have  been  executed 
upon  her  and  upon  her  complices,  the 
murderers  of  her  husband.  Oh  Lord, 
in  what  misery  and  confusion  found 
he  this  realm !  and  to  what  rest  and 
quietness  now  by  his  labours  suddenly 
he  brought  the  same,  all  estates,  but 
specially  the  poor  Commons,  can  wit- 
ness. Thy  image,  Lord,  did  so  clearly 
shine  in  that  personage  that  the  Devil 
and  the  wicked  to  whom  he  is  prince 
could  not  abide  it ;  and  so  to  pun- 


ish our  sins  and  ingratitude,  who  did 
not  rightly  esteem  so  precious  a  gift, 
Thou  hast  permitted  him  to  fall,  to 
our  great  grief,  in  the  hands  of  cruel 
and  traitorous  murderers.  He  is  at 
rest,  oh  Lord,  and  we  are  left  in  ex- 
treme misery.  Be  merciful  to  us, 
and  suifer  not  Satan  utterly  to  pre- 
vail against  thy  little  flock  within 
this  realm.  Neither  yet,  oh  Lord, 
let  bloodthirsty  men  come  to  the  end 
of  their  wicked  en  terprises.  Preserve, 
oh  Lord,  our  young  King:  although 
he  be  an  infant  give  unto  him  the 
spirit  of  sanctification,  with  increase 
of  the  same  as  he  groweth  in  years. 
Let  his  reign,  oh  Lord,  be  such  as 
Thou  may'st  be  glorified  and  Thy 
little  flock  comforted  by  it,  seeing 
that  we  are  now  left  as  a  flock  with- 
out a  pastor  in  civil  policy  and  as  a 
ship  without  a  rudder  in  the  midst 
of  the  storm.  Let  Thy  providence 
watch,  Lord,  and  defend  us  in  these 
dangerous  days,  that  the  wicked  of 
the  world  may  see  that  as  well  with- 
out the  help  of  man  as  with  it  Thou 
art  able  to  rule,  maintain,  and  defend 
the  little  flock  that  dependeth  upon, 
Thee.  And  because,  oh  Lord,  the 
shedding  of  innocent  blood  has  ever 
been  and  yet  is  odious  in  Thy  pre- 
sence, yea,  that  it  defileth  the  whole 
land  when  it  is  shed  and  not  punished, 
we  crave  of  Thee,  for  Christ  thy 
Son's  sake,  that  Thou  wilt  so  try  and 
punish  the  two  treasonable  and  cruel 
murders  lately  committed,  that  the 
inventors,  devisers,  authors,  and 


246 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


ten.  5.4- 


His  words,  whatever  they  were,  augured  ill  for  com- 
promise. To  him  and  to  the  Scotch  commons  Mary 
Stuart  was  simply  a  wicked  woman,  whose  rights,  could 
they  have  heen  accurately  ascertained,  were  a  short 
shrift  and  six  feet  of  rope.  The  nobles  had  tough  con- 
sciences and  had  estates  to  lose,  and  as  Elizabeth  had 
prevented  them  from  hanging  the  Queen,  her  restora* 
tion  did  not  seem  impossible  to  them.  The  commons 
however  would  as  soon  be  subject  to  Satan.  Few  or 
none  of  the  lords  cared  in  their  hearts  to  see  Mary 
Stuart  again  among  them  ;  and  as  there  was  a  sincere 
desire  to  save  the  country  from  bloodshed,  they  were 
willing,  in  the  first  emotion  which  followed  Murray's 
death,  to  come  to  any  settlement  which  Elizabeth  would 
allow  to  endure.  Smaller  jealousies  and  smaller  aims 
were  laid  aside.  Maitland,  after  the  funeral,  came  down 
from  the  Castle,  and  was  acquitted  by  acclamation  of  all 
charges  against  him,  and  a  private  meeting  was  held  &t 
Dalkeith,  at  which  Argyle  was  present,  to  determine 
whether  another  Regent  should  be  chosen  in  Murray's 


maintainers  of  treasonable  cruelty 
may  be  eitber  thoroughly  convicted 
or  confounded.  Oil  Lord,  if  Thy 
mercy  prevent  not  we  cannot  escape 
just  condemnation,  for  that  Scotland 
hath  spared  and  England  hath  main- 
tained the  life  of  that  most  wicked 
woman.  Oppose  Thy  power,  oh 
Lord,  to  the  pride  of  that  cruel  mur- 
deress of  her  own  husband ;  confound 
her  faction  and  their  subtle  enter- 
prises of  what  estate  and  condition 
soever  they  be ;  and  let  them  and 


the  world  know  that  Thou  art  a  God 
that  can  deprehend  the  wise  in  their 
own  wisdom,  and  the  proud  in  the 
imagination  of  their  wicked  hearts 
to  their  everlasting  confusion.  Lord, 
retain  us  that  call  upon  Thee  in  Thy 
true  fear.  Let  us  grow  in  the  same. 
Give  Thou  strength  to  us  to  fight 
our  battle,  yea,  Lord,  to  fight  it 
lawfully,  and  to  end  our  lives  in  the 
sanctification  of  Thy  holy  name.'— 
Works  of  John  Knox,  vol.  vi.  pp. 
569,  570- 


i  5  70.  ]         EXCOMMUNICA  TION  OF  E  LIZ  ABE  TH. 


247 


place.  Bandolph  was  sent  for  and  required  to  say  what 
Elizabeth  wished.  He  was  unable  to  answer.  Was 
the  Queen  to  return  ?  He  could  not  tell.  Would 
Elizabeth  recognize  James  ?  He  was  forbidden  to  make 
a  positive  statement.  The  lords  were  in  no  humour  to 
be  trifled  with.  Maitland  repeated  his  conviction  that 

the  Queen  would  be  restored.    Argryle  had  re- 
March, 
ceived   letters   from  the   Queen  of   England 

which  pointed  to  the  same  conclusion.  The  meeting 
broke  up  without  a  resolution,  but  Morton,  who  had 
succeeded  Murray  as  the  political  leader  of  the  Pro- 
testants, wrote  to  Elizabeth  to  say  that  unless  she  could 
resolve  one  way  or  the  other  all  Scotland  would  cry 
1  France,'  and  the  influence  of  England  would  be  ir- 
revocably lost.1 

Compelled  in  this  way  to  commit  herself  more 
deeply  than  she  had  intended,  Elizabeth  relaxed  some- 
thing of  her  excessive  caution.  She  herself,  or  Cecil 
for  her,2  directed  Eandolph  to  tell  Morton  and  his 
friends  '  that  she  remained  resolute  in  all  things  which 
concerned  the  maintainance  of  the  true  Christian  Re- 
ligion among  them,  the  preservation  of  their  King ' — 
she  had  never  used  the  word  before — '  and  consequently 
of  their  own  particular  states  and  degrees.' •  'She  de- 
sired them  not  to  be  perplexed  with  reports  of  devices 
for  the  Queen's  restoration  ; '  '  she  would  consent  to  no» 
thing  till  she  might  first  understand  their  intentions  for 


1  Depechesdela  MotheFenelon, 
March  13. 

2  Elizabeth  to   Randolph,  Feb 


ruary  27:  MSS.  Scotland.  Th» 
draft  of  the  letter  is  in  Cecil's  harof 
throughout. 


248 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


[CH.  54. 


themselves.'  It  had  been  intimated  to  her  that  if  a  new 
Regency  was  to  be  appointed  in  the  King's  name,  the 
only  possible  rival  to  Chatelherault  would  be  his  old 
antagonist  the  Earl  of  Lennox.  He  was  a  Catholic,  but 
as  the  Queen's  grandfather  and  the  prosecutor  of  Both- 
well,  his  goodwill  could  be  depended  upon ;  and  she  said 
that  if  it  was  absolutely  necessary  to  choose  some  one, 
she  would  not  refuse  her  sanction.1 

At  the  same  time,  as  an  indication  of  further  inten- 
tions which  she  did  not  care  to  explain,  she  said  that  the 
state  of  the  Border  was  intolerable  and  at  all  hazards 
must  be  immediately  looked  to.  She  would  not  allow 
her  own  rebellious  subjects  to  use  the  shelter  of  Scottish 
territory  to  make  war  upon  England ;  and  unless  the 
Scotch  council  '  saw  the  matter  redressed/  '  she  would 
reform  it  herself  in  such  sharp  manner  as  the  offenders 
should  repent  themselves,  and  be  unable  to  commit  the 
like  again.' 

Elizabeth  had  created  the  party  by  whom  Westmore- 
land and  Dacres  were  now  supported.  Sir  Robert  Con- 
stable's treacheries  had  come  to  nothing,  and  she  had  a 
plausible  excuse  to  undo  some  part  at  least  of  her  own 
work.  If  she  sent  troops  across  the  Border  to  break  up 
the  nest  of  marauders  at  Femihurst,  she  would  virtu- 
ally break  the  power  which  the  Protestant  noblemen 
had  most  occasion  to  fear.  She  dared  not  interfere 


1  Lennox  was  in  London,  beg- 
ging hard  to  be  allowed  to  return  to 
Scotland  in  any  capacity.  He  ex- 
pected, and  Lady  Lennox  expected, 
that  the  Prince  would  be  murdered, 


and  they  were  both  anxious  that,  if 
possible,  he  should  be  brought  to 
England. — Lady  Lennox  to  Cecil, 
February,  1570  :  Cotton.  MSS. 
CALIG.  C.  i, 


1570.]         EXCOMMUNICATION  OF  ELIZABETH.  249 

avowedly  in  their  favour  for  fear  of  a  rupture  with 
France.  She  intended  to  confine  her  actions  behind  the 
plea  of  her  own  defence.  She  was  entitled  to  deal  with 
the  existing  nominal  Gfovernment  in  Scotland  for  pur- 
poses of  ordinary  justice.  She  instructed  Randolph 
therefore  to  require  the  council  to  maintain  the  peace 
of  the  Border  and  the  existing  treaties  with  England, 
and  to  offer  them  the  assistance  of  her  own  forces  if  their 
own  means  were  insufficient.  She  told  him  to  point  out 
to  Morton  that,  l  whereas  he  had  asked  for  help  from 
England  against  the  faction  in  arms  against  the  King, 
she  was  content  to  give  him  what  he  wanted.  The  form 
would  be  different  but  the  result  would  be  the  same ; 
the  persons  of  whom  she  complained  being  notorious 
enemies  of  the  young  King,  and  of  the  nobility  adher- 
ing to  him,  Morton  would  perhaps  inquire  whether  she 
intended  to  take  full  part  with  them  and  declare  herself 
a  party  to  the  maintenance  of  the  King  in  his  present 
state.  In  that  case  Randolph  might  tell  him  that  if  he 
would  consider,  the  effect  of  his  desire  must  needs  fol- 
low. It  might  not  be  expressed  in  words  that  the  army 
came  to  maintain  the  King,  yet  it  would  suppress  those 
who  were  the  King's  adversaries.  There  were  consider- 
ations which  made  it  undesirable  for  the  Queen  of  Eng- 
land to  take  upon  herself,  in  words,  the  office  of  a  judge, 
and  pronounce  by  a  formal  act  on  the  lawfulness  of  the 
Queen  of  Scots'  dethronement.  It  was  enough  for  her 
that  Scotland  had  appointed  by  Parliament  a  de  facto 
Government  for  itself.  England  would  not  intermeddle 
so  far  as  to  say  that  Scotland  was  right  or  wrong  in 


2$d  &Z1GN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [en.  $4. 

what  it  had  done,  but  so  far  Randolph  might  promise, 
that  if  the  noblemen  who  had  hitherto  been  favourable 
to  the  English  alliance  would  assist  in  executing  the 
law  against  the  rebels  and  their  maintainers,  the  Queen 
of  England  would  identify  her  cause  with  theirs  against 
any  who  on  that  ground  should  seek  to  oppose  them.'1 

As  usual  when  action  became  imperative,  when  it 
was  absolutely  necessary  to  do  something  or  to  lose  the 
game,  Cecil  carried  his  point.  The  substance  of  these 
directions  had  been  drawn  up  in  a  private  conference 
on  the  1 6th  of  March,  by  him  and  Bacon,  and  although 
the  Queen  was  as  far  as  ever  from  the  only  course 
which  could  give  peace  to  Scotland  or  security  to  her- 
self, enough  would  be  done  to  enable  the  King's  friends 
to  hold  their  ground.  The  soldiers  who  had  been  so 
hastily  dismissed  after  the  suppression  of  the  rebellion 
were  again  collected,  of  course  at  an  increased  expense. 
Four  thousand  men  were  to  assemble  at  Berwick  by  the 
second  week  in  April,  and  Sussex  was  ordered  up  from 
York  to  take  the  command.  He  was  directed  to  put 
himself  in  communication  with  Morton  and  Mar,  and 
having  obtained  their  consent  in  the  King's  name,  he 
was  to  cross  the  Border,  seize  Westmoreland,  Leonard 
Dacres,  and  the  Nortons,  or  force  them  to  leave  Scot- 
land, and  was  to  inflict  condign  punishment  on  the 
Border  chiefs  who  had  assisted  them  in  their  inroads 
into  Northumberland.2 

It  was  not  however  without  efforts  almost  desperate 

1  Instructions  to  Randolph,  March  18,  abridged :  MSS.  Scotland 
-  Instructions  to  Sussex,  March,  1570-  MSS.  Border. 


I570.J        EXCOMMUtfICA  TION  OF  ELIZABETH.  251 

that  Elizabeth's  consent  had  been  obtained  to  these 
measures,  nor  till  the  troops  were  actually  over  the 
Border  could  Cecil  feel  assured  that  the  order  would  not 
be  revoked.  The  English  Court  below  the  surface  was 
seething  with  intrigue,  and  the  base  influence  of  the 
Queen's  favourites  was  at  work  perpetually  to  undo  or 
neutralize  the  counsels  of  her  statesmen. 

On  the  breaking  up  of  the  conference  at  Dalkeith, 
Mary  Stuart's  friends  had  been  as  busy  as  the  King's. 
The  temper  of  Scotland  was  in  many  ways  unfavourable 
to  the  English  alliance.  The  demand  for  the  extra- 
dition of  the  refugees  had  touched  the  pride  of  the 
country  ;  and  in  the  general  ill-humour,  to  invite  or 
sanction  an  English  invasion  would  be  construed  into 
national  treason.  So  long  as  Elizabeth  withheld  the 
recognition  of  James,  she  deprived  Morton  of  the  soli- 
tary pretence  with  which  he  could  accept  the  assistance 
of  the  detested  Saxons,  and  she  took  from  him  and  his 
party  the  only  ground  on  which  they  could  confidently 
rely  upon  her  promises.  They  knew,  and  all  Scotland 
knew,  that  Elizabeth  was  not  Cecil.  They  knew  that 
she  had  a  perpetual  secret  leaning  to  a  weak  and  yield- 
ing policy,  and  they  had  seen,  in  her  treatment  of  Mur- 
ray, with  what  indifference  she  could  fling  over  her  most 
faithful  adherents,  if  it  became  convenient  to  disown  and 
desert  them.  Randolph  was  obliged  to  report  that 
'the  remedy  offered  by  his  mistress  was  so  little  ac- 
counted as  though  she  was  not  worthy  to  be  esteemed  a 
friend ; '  and  meanwhile  Argyle  and  Maitland,  pretend- 
ing still,  and  not  without  reason,  that  they  and  not  the 


252  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  54, 

Protestants  were  those  whom  she  really  favoured,  were 
flying  about  the  country  with  Westmoreland  and  Dacres 
in  their  company,  holding  meetings  in  Mary  Stuart's 
interest.  Although  Charles  IX.  had  told  Norris  that  he 
did  not  mean  to  interfere,  he  told  the  Scots  that  he  would 
abstain  only  while  Elizabeth  abstained.  M.  de  Yirac 
came  to  Dumbarton  with  money  and  promises,  '  scatter- 
ing doubt,  division,  and  uncertainty.'  The  refugees 
professed  to  represent  the  English  aristocracy  and  the 
political  sentiment  of  England,  and  a  paper  of  conditions 
was  circulated  calling  itself  the  opinion  of  the  Peers,  on 
the  measures  to  be  taken  for  a  general  settlement  of  the 
whole  island.  A  complete  amnesty  was  to  be  pro- 
claimed for  the  late  rebellion ;  the  Queen  of  Scots  was 
to  be  restored  and  accepted  as  Elizabeth's  successor; 
while  the  religious  differences  were  to  be  composed  by 
universal  toleration,  to  which  the  Pope  and  the  Catholic 
Powers  might  be  expected  to  consent.1 

Such  terms  could  not  have  been  enforced,  even  in 
Scotland,  till  many  a  homestead  had  been  made  desolate. 
Damley's  ghost  still  wandered  unrevenged.  The  mur- 
der at  Linlithgow  was  fresh,  and  these  were  not  wounds 
to  be  skinned  over  with  pleasant  remedies.  A  black 
banner  was  hung  out  in  Edinburgh,  on  which  again,  as 
at  Carberry,  there  was  wrought  the  figure  of  the  King 
under  the  tree,  the  infant  James  with  clasped  hands 
lifted  up  to  heaven,  and  beside  them  '  the  Eegent  in  his 
bed  as  he  died  with  his  wound  open.'2  But  the  poli~ 

1   Questions  to  be  proposed  if  the  Pope's  Holiness   and  the  foreign 
princes  will  thereto  agree,  April  3  :   MSS.  Border. 

2  Randolph  to  Cecil,  March  I  :  MSS.  Scotland. 


1 5  70.  ]         EXCOMMUNICA  TIO  V  OF  E LIZ  ABE  TH.  253 

ticiaiis  could  not  understand  the  times.  Among  men 
who  had  lands  to  forfeit  or  to  gain,  who  had  Court 
favour  to  aspire  to,  or  schemes  to  gratify  for  national 
greatness  or  glory,  the  cry  of  the  hour  was  for  a  '  com- 
position ; '  and  foremost  among  the  advocates  of  the 
Queen's  restoration  was  Maitland  of  Lethington.  There 
had  been  a  moment  after  Murray's  death  when  a  word 
from  Elizabeth  would  have  recalled  Maitland  to  her 
side  and  Cecil's ;  but  that  word  had  not  been  spoken. 
He  was  deep  in  the  English  conspiracy  ;  deep  with 
Norfolk,  Lumley,  Arundel,  Southampton,  with  all  the 
leaders  of  the  Catholic  reaction.  He  had  set  his  heart 
on  the  recall  of  Mary  Stuart.  He  believed  that  he  could 
unite  Scotland  in  her  favour,  and  backed  as  she  already 
was  in  England,  that  he  could  extort  at  last  the  fulfil 
ment  of  his  old  proud  passionate  hope — the  establish- 
ment of  a  Scottish  sovereign  on  the  throne  of  the  Ed- 
wards. Had  Elizabeth  acknowledged  James  as  her 
successor,  he  and  all  Scotland  with  him  would  have 
been  entirely  satisfied ;  but  Elizabeth  had  refused  to 
hear  of  it,  and  as  she  would  not  accept  the  son,  she 
should  be  compelled  to  endure  the  mother.  If  Pope, 
Priest,  and  Mass  Book  came  back  in  the  process,  Pope, 
Priest,  and  Mass  Book  would  not  be  a  price  too  dear. 
How  had  Maitland  become  so  changed — Maitland,  who 
had  once  worked  side  by  side  with  Kiiox,  and  had  been 
Murray's  nearest  adviser — Maitland,  the  pupil  and 
admirer  of  Cecil,  the  chief  political  instrument  of  the 
first  revolution  which  had  brought  the  English  to  Leith  ? 
It  was  a  question  which  his  old  English  friends  could 
Lot  too  often  ask  him,  and  which  he  himself  never 


254  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  54. 

adequately  answered.  He  had  married  one  of  the 
'  Queen's  Maries/  Lord  Fleming's  daughter,  to  whom 
he  was  passionately  attached,  and  through  whom  he 
had  been  brought  in  connection  with  the  great  Ca- 
tholic families.  But  a  wife's  influence,  however  tender, 
would  not  have  weakened  the  brain  of  such  a  man  as 
Maitland ;  and  the  explanation  must  be  looked  for  in 
the  constitution  of  his  character.  Through  all  his 
changes  he  was  always  pursuing  one  object — the  union 
of  the  Crowns  under  a  Scottish  sovereign  :  whether  that 
sovereign  was  Arran,  Mary,  James,  or  again  Mary, 
mattered  little.  After  the  Both  well  marriage  he  had 
believed  Mary  to  be  ruined.  He  had  expected  that  Eli- 
zabeth, for  her  own  safety's  sake,  would  have  acknow- 
ledged the  little  Prince.  When  he  found  himself 
mistaken,  when  he  found  the  English  Queen  weak,  hesi- 
tating, uncertain,  and  the  English  nobility  ready,  on 
the  other  hand,  to  overlook  Mary's  misdemeanours  and 
accept  her,  notwithstanding,  as  heir-presumptive,  he 
believed  evidently  that  Elizabeth's  star  was  setting, 
that  in  her  vacillation  she  was  going  the  road  to  per- 
dition. The  exceptional  confidence  with  which  Eliza- 
beth treated  him  led  him  to  suppose  that  he  saw  deeper 
into  her  tortuous  ways  than  other  men.  He  assured 
himself  that,  sooner  or  later,  she  would  yield  to  pressure 
and  let  Mary  Stuart  go.  In  yielding  he  knew  that  she 
would  be  destroyed ;  and  he  set  his  hand  therefore  to 
assist  his  mistress  towards  the  passionately- coveted  ob- 
ject of  his  and  her  ambition. 

And  perhaps  another  influence  was  not  without  its 


1 5  70.  ]          EXCOMMUNICA  T1ON  OF  ELIZABE  TH.  255 

•  effect  upon  him.  He  was  too  thorough  a  man  of  the 
world  to  view  with  anything  but  dislike  the  assumptions 
of  the  rising  Kirk.  '  To  the  philosopher/  says  Gibbon, 
*  all  religions  are  equally  false  ; '  'to  the  statesman  all 
are  equally  useful/  But  the  statesman  makes  it  a  con- 
dition of  his  patronage  that  the  clergy  shall  confine 
themselves  to  their  own  province  as  moral  and  spiritual 
teachers.  If  they  become  aggressive ;  if  they  meddle 
with  government,  pretending  to  be  interpreters  of  the 
will  of  God ;  above  all,  if  they  have  power  to  make 
themselves  practically  troublesome,  the  complaisance  of 
the  statesman  is  rapidly  converted  into  enmity. 

Nothing  but  accident  could  at  any  time  have 
brought  together  men  so  essentially  different  as  Knox 
and  Maitland.  They  represented  the  very  opposite 
poles  of  Scottish  character.  '  The  will  of  God,'  was  to 
Knox  the  supreme  and  solitary  guide.  To  Maitland  it 
seemed,  from  words  which  he  let  fall  in  his  confidential 
hours,  that  God  was  '  ane  Bogill  of  the  nursery/  Each 
crossed  the  other's  path  at  a  thousand  turns.  When 
he  could  knead  the  other  ministers  like  clay,  Maitland 
had  ever  found  Knox  inflexible.  He  could  not  deceive 
him,  for  Knox  with  mere  earthly  eyes  could  see  as  far 
or  farther  than  Maitland,  and  Maitland  who,  if  heaven 
was  empty,  acknowledged  the  divinity  of  intellect,  came 
soon  to  detest  what  he  could  not  afford  to  despise. 
These,  or  something  like  them,  were  the  keys  to  the 
conduct  of  this  remarkable  man.  His  health  was  gone, 
his  body  was  half  paralyzed,  but  his  wit  remained  as 
keen  as  ever ;  and  from  this  time  till  his  death  he  be- 


256  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  54. 

came  the  chief  adviser  of  the  Scottish  Queen  in  her 
English  prison,  and  the  mainstay  of  her  party  through- 
out the  island.1  Randolph,  hardly  able  as  yet  to  realize 
the  change  which  had  passed  over  him,  addressed  him  on 
the  old  terms,  appealed  to  his  friendship,  and  reminded 
him  of  the  especial  reliance  which  Elizabeth  placed  in 
him.  Maitland  was  aware  that  she  trusted  him,  and 
intended  to  make  use  of  her  weakness.  While  Morton 
was  addressing  her  through  Randolph  and  Cecil,  Mait- 
land approached  her  through  Leicester.  '  He  wished/ 
he  said,  '  to  explain  to  her  distinctly  the  condition  of 
Scottish  parties.  There  were  two  parties  there — the 
King's  and  the  Queen's :  the  first  was  composed  of  a 
certain  number  of  the  Nobility  and  the  Commons,  whom, 
as  he  understood,  the  Queen  of  England  was  advised  to 
support;  the  other  consisted  of  the  heads  of  all  the 
greatest  families  in  the  country,  confident  in  the  good- 
ness of  their  cause,  and  assured  that  all  kings  allowed 
their  quarrel  and  would  aid  them  accordingly.  A  second 
division  had  been  created  by  the  death  of  the  Regent, 
grounded  upon  the  regimen  of  the  realm.  The  nobles 
who  .had  deposed  the  Queen  claimed  to  govern  in  virtue 
of  the  commission  which  was  extorted  from  her  at 
Lochleven ;  but  even  among  those  who  had  been  hither- 
to for  the  King  there  were  many  who  thought  it  neither 


1  Randolph's  account  of  him  at 
this  period  is  interesting.  '  I  doubt 
nothing  of  him  now,'  he  wrote,  '  so 
much  as  the  length  of  his  life.  He 
hath  only  his  heart  whole  and  his 
stomach  good ;  with  an  honest  mind 
much  more  given  to  policy  than  to 
Mr  Knox's  preaching.  His  legs  are 


clean  gone.  His  body  so  weak  that 
it  sustaineth  not  itself.  His  inward 
parts  so  feeble  that  to  endure  to 
neese  he  cannot  for  annoying  the 
whole  body.  To  this  the  blessed  joy 
of  a  young  wife  hath  brought  him. 
— Randolph  to  Cecil,  March  i. 


1570.]          EXCOMMUNICATION  OF  ELIZABETH.  257 

fit  nor  tolerable  that  three  or  four  of  the  meanest  sort 
among  the  Earls  should  presume  to  challenge  to  them- 
selves the  rule  of  the  whole  realm ;  or  that  the  first  in 
rank,  the  next  of  blood,  the  greatest  for  degree  and 
ancientry,  should  be  passed  over,  the  meaner  to  com- 
mand, the  greater  as  private  men  to  obey.  This  was 
against  all  reason  and  all  precedent ;  and  the  Queen's 
party  was  thus  increased  with  part  of  the  King's.  Pub- 
lic feeling  was  decisively  declaring  itself  on  her  side, 
and  yet  her  friends  now  understood  that  English  troops 
were  coming  into  Scotland  to  suppress  them.  They 
would  of  course,  in  that  case,  apply  for  help  to  France. 
De  Yirac  was  waiting  at  that  moment  for  their  resolu- 
tion, and  there  could  be  no  doubt  what  that  resolution 
would  be.  The  slightest  of  the  evils  which  would  follow 
would  be  a  heavy  expense  to  England ;  and  he  wished 
to  lay  before  her  Majesty  a  few  simple  facts.  She  de- 
sired to  retain  Scotland  at  her  devotion ;  it  was  an  hon- 
ourable object  and  not  to  be  disallowed.  But  the  road 
to  that  devotion  did  not  lie  through  the  support  of  a 
faction.  The  Scots  were  not  so  faint-hearted,  but  they 
had  courage  to  provide  for  their  safety.  Force  would 
accomplish  nothing,  while,  by  way  of  treaty,  Elizabeth 
might  bring  all  parties  to  accord,  pacify  the  country, 
and  deserve  and  win  the  gratitude  of  the  whole  country. 
They  would  then  think  no  more  of  France,  and  the  fire 
of  the  civil  war  which  was  on  the  point  of  bursting 
out  would  be  extinguished/  l 

Leicester  before  this  letter  arrived  had  been  at  work 


1  Maitland  to  Leicester,  March  29,  abridged  :  MSS.  Scotland. 

VOL.   IX.  17 


258 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


[cu.  54- 


on  another  part  of  the  same  policy,  endeavouring  to 
persuade  the  Queen  to  liberate  Norfolk  and  restore  to 
the  privy  council  the  party  opposed  to  Cecil,  who  had 
fallen  into  disgrace  in  the  autumn.  Anticipating,  like 
Maitland,  Elizabeth's  fall,  he  was  preparing  for  the  evil 
day  by  scheming  with  La  Mothe  Feneloii  to  do  some 
service  to  her  expected  successor.  In  all  his  projects 
Cecil  was  his  perpetual  obstacle,  and  to  injure  Cecil  in 
the  estimation  of  his  Sovereign  was  his  constant  but 
unsuccessful  effort.  To  raise  a  feeling  against  him 
among  the  people,  a  story  was  circulated  by  himself  or 
by  one  of  his  agents  that  Cecil  and  Bacon  had  proposed 
to  murder  Norfolk  in  the  Tower,  and  would  have  done 
it  but  for  his  own  interference.1  He  complained  to  the 
French  ambassador  that  Cecil  was  watching  for  an  op- 
portunity to  drive  him  from  the  council  as  he  had  driven 
Arundel  and  Lumley,2  and  that  he  held  the  Queen  en 
chanted  with  jealous  fears  of  the  Queen  of  Scots.  Un- 
able to  shake  Cecil's  credit,  Leicester  had  been  more 
successful  in  inducing  the  Queen  to  recall  Lord  Arun- 
del. Times  were  changed  since  Fitzalan  had  been 
Leicester's  rival  for  Elizabeth's  hand,  since  he  had 
called  Anne  Robsart's  shadow  out  of  the  tomb  to  wave 
Leicester  back  from  his  presumption.  Fitzalan's  hopes 
had  long  been  buried,  and  his  passion  and  his  ambition 
had  been  turned  upon  political  and  spiritual  intrigue. 


1  Chester  to  Cecil,  March  3. 
Examination  of  Robert  Spenee, 
March  7:  MSS.  Domestic,  Rolls 
House. 

'*  '  Sails  cc  quo  Cecil  le  guettoit 


pour  le  desarQonner,  ainsi  qu'il  avoit 
desai^'oime  les  autres  principaulx  du 
Conseil.'— Depeches  de  La  Mothe 
Fi'nolon,  March  27. 


1 5  70.  ]         EXCOMMUNICA  TION  OF  ELIZABE  TH 


259 


His  name  appeared  conspicuously  in  the  depositions  of 
the  prisoners  examined  after  the  Northern  rebellion/ 
but  he  had  been  too  prudent  to  commit  himself  to  open 
treason.  He  was  able  to  represent  his  share  of  the  con* 
spiracy  as  part  of  an  honest  policy  conceived  in  Eliza- 
beth's interests,  and  Elizabeth  dared  not  openly  break 
with  the  still  powerful  party  among  the  nobles  to  which 
Arundel  belonged,  who  professed  to  desire  nothing  more 
than  the  restoration  of  the  Queen  of  Scots,  her  recog* 
nition  as  heir-presumptive,  the  removal  of  Cecil  from 
office,  and  a  return  to  a  better  understanding  with  the 
Catholic  Powers.  With  Arundel  was  recalled  also  his 
son-in-law  Lord  Lumley,  and  they  both  of  them  lost 
not  an  hour  in  renewing  their  treasonable  communica- 
tions with  Don  Guerau  and  La  Mothe  Fenelon.  They 
spoke  in  the  same  language  which  they  had  used  before 
the  rebellion.  They  meant  to  overthrow  Cecil  and 
Bacon,  release  the  Duke  of  Norfolk,  marry  him  to  the 
Queen  of  Scots,  and  restore  the  Catholic  religion.2  The 
Duke  of  Norfolk  was  to  be  liberated  as  soon  as  possible 
and  sent  down  to  the  Eastern  counties  among  his  own 
people  ;  and  meanwhile  Cecil  should  not  be  allowed  to 


1  Confession  of  Christofer  Norton 
and  Captain  Styrley,  April,  1570  : 
Domestic  MSS. 

2  If  they  could  not   move   the 
Queen    by   fair    means,   they    said 
'  qu'ils  en  essayeront  quelque  autre 
plus  violent ;  car  desirant,  comment 
quo  soit,  pourvoir  aulx  desordres  de 
cc  Koyaulme,  et  au  faict  de  la  Royne 
d'Escosse,  et  aulx  affaires  du  Due  de 


Norfolk,  et  encores  plus  expresse- 
ment  s'ilz  peuvent  quant  ils  en  auront 
le  nioyen  au  restablissement  de  la  re- 
ligion Catholique,  pour  lesquelles 
quatre  choses  ils  veulent  tout  hazar- 
der.' — March  27,  Depeches  de  La 
Mothe  Fenelon. 

Don  Guerau  wrote  to  Philip  on 
the  same  day  exactly  to  the  same 
purpose. 


260 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


[CH.  54- 


trouble  Scotland.  The  fugitive  Earls  should  remain 
there  till  France  or  Spain  or  both  would  send  them 
assistance ;  they  would  then  come  back  over  the  Bor- 
ders, and  England  would  rise  to  receive  them.1 

These  were  the  men  whom  Leicester  had  brought 
back  to  Elizabeth's  side,  and  their  first  effort  was  to 
impress  upon  her  the  necessity  of  taking  the  advice  of 
Maitland,  and  of  abandoning  the  hope  of  extricating 
herself  by  force  from  the  combinations  which  were 
threatening  her.  France  and  Spain,  they  told  her,  did 
not  mean  to  endure  any  longer  the  insolence  of  the 
pirates  and  the  English  sympathizers  with  the  Protest- 
ant insurgents.  She  must  set  her  house  in  order,  make 
up  her  differences  with  the  Queen  of  Scots,  and  pardon 
the  Northern  Earls,  or  she  was  lost.2 

Elizabeth  listened  with  outward  acquiescence.  If  she 
acted  with  Cecil,  she  talked,  except  at  great  and  trying 
moments,  in  the  language  of  his  opponents.  She  apo- 
logized to  Arundel  for  her  severity  towards  him.  She 
spoke  of  releasing  Norfolk.  She  said  she  would  think 
again  before  Sussex  should  cross  the  Borders.  *  The 
Queen/  wrote  La  Mothe,  '  agrees  at  heart  with  the 
nobles,  she  is  well  disposed  towards  the  Catholics,  and 
many  times  has  refused  to  listen  to  the  sinister  advice 
of  their  enemies ;  if  she  could  she  would  live  at  peace 
with  all  parties  in  her  realm/  3 


1  Depecb.es  de  La  Mothe  Fene- 
lon,  March  27. 

2  Ibid. 

3  '  Ceste  princesse  n'a  le  coeur  ny 
llntention,  esloignee  de  celle  de  sa 


noblesse,  ny  n'est  mal  affeetionnee  a 
sea  subjectz  Cath cliques,  pour  les- 
quelz  elle  resiste  assez  souvent  aulx 
conseilz  que  leurs  adversaires  luy 
donnent  contre  eulx,  affin  que  avec 


EXCOMMUNICATION  OF  ELIZABETH.  261 

.  But  the  Catholics  would  not  leave  her  alone  or  give 
time  to  her  yielding  humour  to  settle  into  purpose. 
They  forced  La  Mothe,  against  his  better  judgment,  to 
threaten  her  with  war.  The  Cardinal  of  Lorraine's 
assassination  plot  was  whispered  abroad  to  frighten  her. 
She  was  herself  to  die  as  well  as  Cecil.  The  Queen  of 
Scots  was  supposed  to  be  at  work  on  the  same  project. 
The  Queen  of  Scots  had  found  one  bravo  to  kill  Murray. 
It  was  reported  that  she  was  looking  for  another  to  kill 
Elizabeth ;  '  she  was  as  willing  to  have  the  end  of  the  one 
as  she  was  of  the  other/ l  Elizabeth  might  have  despised 
mere  rumours,  but  the  outward  acts  of  the  Queen's 
party  in  Scotland  were  provoking  and  defiant.  While 
she  was  pausing  over  the  orders  to  Sussex,  a  great  con- 
vention was  held  at  Linlithgow :  Chatelherault  presided ; 
Argyle,  Huntly,  Sutherland,  Athol,  the  heads  of  the 
great  families  of  whom  Maitland  wrote,  were  all  as- 
sembled ;  and  with  singular  imprudence  Lord  Fleming 
introduced  among  them  the  English  refugees.  North- 
umberland was  in  confinement  at  Lochleveri,  but  of  the 
rest  not  one  was  absent.  Dacres  and  Westmoreland  '  sat 
in  council '  as  representing  the  wishes  of  England ;  de 
Yirac  was  present  for  France ;  and  Sir  John  Gordon 
was  sent  to  Elizabeth,  in  the  name  of  them  all,  to  re- 
quest her  to  give  them  back  their  Queen,  and  to  protest 
against  the  violation  of  Scotch  territory  by  an  English 
army. 


les  tings  et  les  aultres  elle  puisse 
passer  son  regne  en  paix.' — Depe- 
ches,  April  18. 


Kandolph  to  Cecil,  April  14 


MSS.  Scotland. 


262 


J?£IGN  OF  ELIZABETH, 


LCH.  54. 


Elizabeth  was  touched  to  the  quick.  She  could  have 
borne  tjie  remonstrances  of  the  Scots.  It  might  be 
necessary  to  restore  Mary  Stuart — it  seemed  that  she 
was  slowly  making  up  her  mind  to  it,1 — but  the  Lords 
at  Linlithgow  were  not  to  suppose  that  they  might 
maintain  her  revolted  subjects  in  arms,  assist  them 
in  open  invasion,  and  parade  their  insolence  before  the 
world. 

The  four  thousand  men  were  by  this  time  collected 
at  Berwick.  Sussex  had  gone  up  to  assume  the  com- 
mand, and  had  written  to  Morton  to  learn  what  part 
he  intended  to  take.  It  would  have  been  death  to 
Morton,  in  the  existing  excitement,  had  he  seemed  to 
sanction  an  English  inroad,  unless  it  was  'undertaken 
avowedly  to  maintain  the  King.  The  irritation  was  so 
violent  at  Edinburgh  that  Randolph  had  been  obliged 
to  leave  the  town  and  join  Sussex,  and  Morton  could 
only  say  that  till  Elizabeth  was  pleased  to  declare  her 
purposes  with  less  obscurity  he  could  do  nothing.2  She 
had  been  on  the  point  of  revoking  Sussex's  commis- 
sion, but  in  her  anger  at  the  convention  it  had  been 
allowed  to  stand,  and  Sussex,  sending  to  Morton  to  say 
that  in  what  he  was  about  to  do  he  intended  merely  to 
chastise  such  of  the  Borderers  as  had  made  incursions 
into  England,  prepared  to  execute  the  Queen's  original 
commands.  '  Before  the  light  of  the  coming  moon  was 


1  La  Mothe  writes,  'qu'elle  est 
bien  disposes  envers  sa  personne  et 
sa  vie,  comme  je  crois  qu'elle  ny  a 
heu  jamais  mauvaise  intention,  et 
que  mesrae  elle  goutte  aulcunement 


sa  restitution  et  ne  la  rejecte  tant 
qu'elle  souloit.'  —  Depeches,  April 
18. 

2  Sussex  to  Elizabeth,  April  10: 
MSS.  Border. 


EXCOMMUNICATION  OF  ELIZABETH. 


203 


passed '  he  proposed  to  leave  a  memory  in  Scotland, 
whereby  they  and  their  children  should  be  afraid  to 
offer  war  to  England.1 

A  messenger  from  the  Lords  came  to  say  that  'if  he 
entered  in  hostile  manner  they  would  not  allow  it ;  his 
mistress  might  not  take  upon  herself  to  order  the  realm 
of  Scotland/  They  had  written  again  to  Elizabeth, 
and  they  required  him  to  hold  his  hand  till  an  answer 
could  be  returned.2  Sussex,  anxious  to  recover  his  credit 
for  energy,  declined  to  wait  till  his  mistress  had  changed 
her  mind.  He  replied  that  '  he  neither  dared  nor  would 
forbear  to  use  her  Majesty's  forces  against  her  rebels 
wheresoever  they  might  be,  or  against  those  who  had 
broken  the  peace,  burned  and  killed  her  Majesty's 
subjects,  and  taken  and  destroyed  their  goods.  His 
proceedings  should  be  rather  an  execution  of  justice 
worthy  to  be  allowed  of  all  Scottishmen  than  a  troubling 
of  the  amity ;  and  if  any  of  their  Lordships  took  arms 
in  defence  of  their  persons  and  brought  themselves 
within  the  complice  of  their  wickedness,  he  would  never- 
theless pass  forward  in  the  performance  of  the  Queen 
his  Sovereign's  just  intentions.' 3 

Despatching  a  courier  with  copies  of  this  correspond- 
ence to  London,  he  arranged  the  details  of  the  invasion. 
The  soldiers  were  Southerners.  The  Border  levies,  ex- 
posed as  they  would  be  to  after  vengeance,  could  not  be 
relied  upon  to  do  the  intended  work  with  sufficient 


1  Sussex    to    Cecil,   April    10 : 
MSS.  Border. 

2  Petition  of  the  Lords  at  Lin- 


lithgow,  April  1 6  :  MSS.  Scotland. 
3  Sussex  to  the  Lords  in  Scot- 
land, April  17  :  MSS.  Scotland. 


264  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  54. 

effect.  Seven  hundred  men  were  sent  to  Carlisle,  to 
Scrope,  and  a  thousand  to  Sir  John  Foster  on  the 
Middle  Marches  ;  the  remainder  were  kept  at  Berwick 
with  Sussex  himself  and  Hunsdon.  The  line  was  to  be 
crossed  the  same  day  and  hour  at  three  different  points. 
Sussex  was  to  march  direct  to  Kelso  and  follow  the  line 
of  the  Teviot  upwards.  Foster  was  to  enter  half  way  be- 
tween Carlisle  and  Berwick,  and  Scrope  was  left  to  his 
discretion,  to  go  where  he  could  inflict  greatest  injury. 
On  the  evening  of  Monday,  the  lyth  of 'April,  the  two 
noblemen  left  Berwick.  They  halted  at  Wark  till  day- 
break the  following  morning,  when  they  burned  Kelso, 
and  then  passed  up  Teviotdale  in  two  bodies  on  either 
side  of  the  river,  '  leaving  neither  castle,  tower,  nor 
town  undestroyed  till  they  came  to  Jedburgh.'  Every 
stone  building,  large  or  small,  was  blown  up  with  powder 
and  left  a  pile  of  ruin,  while  Leonard  Dacres  and  Lord 
Hume  hovered  about  at  a  safe  distance,  but  did  not  dare 
to  approach.  At  Jedburgh  they  were  joined  by  Foster, 
whose  track  from  the  Cheviots  had  been  marked  by  the 
same  broad  belt  of  desolation.  The  next  day  the  whole 
body  moved  up  the  glen  to  Fernihurst.  They  found  it 
deserted,  the  laird  and  his  gay  lady,  the  refugees,  and 
the  thousand  Border  thieves  who  had  nestled  in  its  out- 
houses, being  all  flown  or  hiding  among  the  cliffs  which 
overhang  the  banks  of  the  Jedd.  With  powder  and 
pickaxe  they  '*  rent  and  tore '  the  solid  masonry,  till  not 
a  man  could  find  shelter  from  the  rain  among  the  ruins ; 
and  thence,  still  sparing  nothing  but  the  earth  cabins 
of  the  poor,  they  advanced  to  Ha  wick.  At  Hawick  the 


1 5  70.  ]        EXCOMMUNICA  TION  OF  E  LIZ  ABE  TH.  265 

inhabitants,  '  like  unjust  men '  (so  Hunsdon  called 
them),  had  stripped  the  thatch  from  their  houses,  and 
had  set  it  on  fire  in  the  street,  so  that  the  soldiers 
could  not  enter  the  town  and  were  obliged  to  sleep 
'  uneasily ' — they  had  no  tents  with  them — in  the  open 
air.  On  Thursday  morning  they  finished  the  work 
which  the  people  had  begun,  by  burning  everything 
that  was  left ;  after  which,  while  Foster  was  making 
an  end  of  '  the  towns  and  villages '  adjoining,  Sussex 
and  Hunsdon,  with  two  or  three  companies  of  horse, 
rode  out  to  Branxholme  to  do  vengeance  on  Sir  Walter 
Scott  of  Buccleuch.  The  Scotts  were  so  powerful  that 
Branxholme  had  been  a  kind  of  sanctuary.  They  found 
it  '  a  very  strong  house  well  set  with  pleasant  gardens 
and  orchards  about  it  well  kept/  a  little  island  of 
beauty  in  the  surrounding  black  desolation.  Buccleuch 
had  anticipated  the  invaders  by  himself  applying  the 
torch,  and  '  the  woodwork  was  burnt  to  their  hand  as 
cruelly  as  they  could  have  burnt  it  themselves ; '  but 
the  place  would  still  serve  the  purpose  of  a  fortress; 
Sussex  therefore  laid  powder  barrels  in  the  cellar,  and 
of  the  present  '  house '  there  are  but  a  few  fragments 
which  survived  that  desolating  visit. 

From.  Hawick  the  soldiers  spread  in  parties  about 
the  country,  converging  back  upon  Jedburgh  and 
Kelso,  and  thence  at  the  end  of  the  week  they  returned 
to  Berwick,  not  a  Scot  having  ventured  a  stroke  to  save 
his  property. 

Scrope  meanwhile  had  been  no  less  active.  Buc- 
cleuch and  Fernihurst  were  the  chief  offenders  on  the 


266  kEIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [en.  54. 

east  Marches.  Scrope' s  duty  was  to  inflict  chastisement 
on  Herries  and  Maxwell.  On  the  Tuesday  night  he 
crossed  the  Esk  and  began  his  work  at  daybreak  on 
Wednesday,  at  Ecclesfechan.  After  destroying  this  he 
burnt  the  country  to  the  south  and  east  of  Dumfries 
and  round  by  Cummar trees  to  Annan.  Eight  or  ten 
villages,  called  towns  in  the  old  reports,  were  set  on 
fire,  and  the  corn,  cattle,  and  all  they  contained  con- 
sumed or  carried  off.  As  his  numbers  were  smaller,  the 
Scots  looked  on  less  patiently  ;  a  party  whom  Scrope 
had  detached  under  one  of  the  Musgraves  to  destroy  a 
place  called  Blackshaw,  was  set  upon  by  Maxwell  and 
was  in  some  danger ;  but  Scrope  coming  up  himself 
while  the  fight  was  going  on,  the  Scots  drew  off  into 
the  woods,  and  Musgrave  finished  his  work  at  leisure. 

There  remained  Hume  Castle,  which  had  been 
specially  fortified  and  was  held  by  a  garrison.  This 
stronghold  at  least  the  Scots  expected  would  be  safe, 
and  they  had  carried  such  property  as  they  could  move 
within  its  walls.  The  beginning  of  the  following  week, 
Sussex  brought  heavy  guns  from  Berwick,  and  took  it 
after  four  hours'  bombardment.  Fastcastle,  the  Wolfs 
Crag  of  the  <  Bride  of  Lammermoor/  followed  the  next 
day,  and  both  there  and  at  Hume  parties  of  English 
were  posted,  to  hold  them  from  the  Scots.  In  the  whole 
foray  'ninety  strong  castles,  houses,  and  dwelling- 
places,  with  three  hundred  towns  and  villages,  had  been 
utterly  destroyed.'  Peels,  towers,  forts,  every  thieves' 
nest  within  twenty  miles  of  the  Border,  were  laid  in 
ruins,  and  Sussex,  whatever  else  might  be  the  effect, 


1570.]         EXCOMMUNICATION  OF  ELIZABETH. 


26? 


had  provided  for  some  time  to  come  for  the  quiet  of  the 
English  Marches.1 

How  the  pride  of  Scotland  would  bear  such  a  touch 
of  the  English  lash  was  another  question  :  there  were 
few  differences  among  themselves  which  the  Scots  would 
not  forget  till  a  blow  from  England  had  been  paid  back 
with  interest ;  and  Morton,  and  Morton's  friends,  were 
not  likely  to  incur  the  reproach  of  being  traitors  to 
their  country  for  the  thankless  service  of  Elizabeth. 
Had  they  been  willing,  they  were  powerless,  for  they 
had  ruined  their  fortunes  in  maintaining  Murray's 
Regency,  and  Morton,  Ruthven,  and  Lindsay  together 
could  scarcely  keep  on  foot  two  hundred  men.2  On 
hearing  of  the  foray  they  sent  to  Berwick  to  say,  that 
they  neither  would  nor  could  continue  their  present 
attitude.  Elizabeth  must  speak  out  plainly,  or  they 
would  make  terms  with  the  Hamiltons.  'Ye  think/ 
wrote  Grange  to  Randolph,  '  ye  think  by  the  division 
that  is  among  us,  ye  will  be  judge  and  party  ;  ye  have 
wrecked  Teviotdale,  your  mistress's  honour  is  repaired, 
and  I  pray  you  seek  to  do  us  no  more  harm,  for  in  the 
end  you  will  lose  more  than  you  can  gain.  The  Queen 
your  mistress  shall  spend  mickle  silver,  and  tyne  our 
hearts  in  the  end ;  for  whatever  you  do  to  any  Scotch- 
man the  haill  nation  will  think  their  own  interest/  3 


1  Notes  of  the  raids  made  into 
Scotland  by   the   Earl   of    Sussex, 
April,  1570  :  Conway  MSS.     Huns- 
don  to  Cecil,  April  23  :  MSS.  Bor- 
der.    Scrope  to   Sussex,  April  21  : 
MSS.  Scotland. 

2  Lennox    to    Cecil,  April   27 : 


MSS.  Scotland. 

3  Grange  to  Randolph,  April  20. 
Grange  had  been  a  fellow-student 
with  Randolph  at  a  French  univer- 
sity, and  still  wrote  to  him,  half  in 
irony,  as  '  Brother  Thomas  ' 


268 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


[CH.  54. 


*  The  Queen/  wrote  Sussex,  '  must  discover  herself 
plainly  to  maintain  the  King's  authority/  or  England 
will  not  have  a  friend  left  in  Scotland.1 

The  resentment  must  have  been  foreseen  and  may 
easily  have  been  desired  by  Cecil,  as  likely  to  compel 
Elizabeth  to  a  decided  course  at  last.  The  question  of 
Mary  Stuart's  restoration  was  still  daily  debated  in  the 
council :  '  Cecil  and  Bacon  said  no,  the  nobility  said 
yea ;  while  the  Queen  was  supposed  to  stand  indifferent, 
and  to  wish  to  do  what  was  most  for  her  strength,  if 
she  wist  what  that  might  be.'2  Yet  it  seemed  as  if  her 
resolution  had  failed  after  one  bold  step.  She  continued 
privately  to  write  to  Maitland,  and  Maitland  was  able 
to  give  out  that  Mary  TStuart  was  certainly  coming 
back ; 3  and  with  this  prospect  the  King's  party  felt 
obliged,  in  common  prudence,  to  make  their  peace  with- 
out longer  delay.  It  might  have  been  thought  that 
Elizabeth  would  have  had  no  objection.  A  composition, 
a  reconciliation  of  parties,  and  a  voluntary  reacceptance 
of  the  deposed  Queen,  had  been  all  along  what  she 
seemed  to  have  desired.  But  she  had  conditions,  neces- 
sary as  she  supposed  for  her  own  security,  which  she 
meant  to  make  the  price  of  Mary  Stuart's  release,  and 
she  could  extort  them  only  so  long  as  a  King's  party 
continued  in  Scotland,  whom  she  could  threaten  to  sup- 


1  Sussex    to    Cecil,    April    23 : 
MSS.  Scotland. 

2  Sir  Francis  Engleficld  to  Mrs 
Essex,  April  21  :  MSS.  Spain.  Rolls 
House. 

3  '  Lidington  gives  out  plainly 


that  the  Queen  of  England  is  deter- 
mined to  send  home  their  Queen  and 
maintain  her  faction,  and  this  en- 
courages them  and  appals  their  con- 
trary.'—Hunsdon  to  Cecil:  MSS 
Border,  April  23. 


1 5  70.  ]        EXCOMMUNICA  TION  OF  ELIZA  BE  TH. 


269 


port  if  tlrey  were  refused.  If  a  united  Scottish  Parlia- 
ment demanded  her  liberation,  Elizabeth  knew  that  she 
could  not  dare  any  longer  to  detain  her,  and  the  Leith 
treaty  would  be  left  unsigned,  and  Mary  Stuart,  with 
half  her  subjects  at  her  back,  would  again  call  herself 
Queen  of  England.  The  Protestant  Lords  perfectly 
understood  her  embarrassment  and  had  no  intention  of 
sacrificing  themselves  for  her  convenience.1 


1  Sussex  performed  the  ungra- 
cious office  of  forcing  Elizabeth  to 
look  the  situation  in  the  face. 

'  The  King's  Lords,'  he  wrote  to 
her,  '  for  lack  of  maintenance  see 
only  destruction  to  themselves  ;  the 
rather  for  that  it  is  delivered  to  them 
that  your  Majesty  intends  to  restore 
their  mistress.  If  it  he  your  Ma- 
jesty's intention  to  bring  all  Scot- 
land to  the  mother's  side,  then  is  the 
course  good  they  now  begin  to  run 
in  that  country,  and  your  Highness 
shall  see  the  case  at  an  end  quickly, 
which,  under  correction,  had  been 
better  to  have  been  done  under  your 
direction  than  at  their  own  choice. 
Tf,  on  the  other  hand,  your  Majesty 
intend  to  let  this  course  and  to  con- 
tinue a  party  for  the  child,  then 
must  you  of  necessity  openly  take 
upon  you  the  maintenance  of  his 
authority  as  King  ;  send  presently 
money  to  such  as  take  his  part  to 
levy  for  a  time  men  of  war  of  their 
own,  and  aid  them  besides  with  your 
forces  here  to  bring  the  rest  to  yield 
to  that  authority :  to  get  in  their 
hands  all  the  strengths  in  any  part 
of  the  realm  that  stand  in  fit  place  to 


receive  any  foreign  power.' — Sussex 
to  Elizabeth,  April  23  :  MSS.  Scot- 


Two  days  later  he  wrote  to  the 
same  effect  to  Cecil. 

'  If  her  Majesty  lack  a  sufficient 
party,  the  fault  is  in  herself.  Morton 
and  his  faction  say  that  if  she  will 
enter  into  public  maintenance  of  the 
King,  and  send  money  to  entertain 
3000  soldiers  of  their  own  for  three 
months,  and  command  the  force  here 
to  aid  them  for  that  time,  they  will 
bring  all  Scotland  in  effect  to  obey 
their  authority  and  yield  in  sense 
to  England  without  the  Queen's 
charges.  The  time  passes  away, 
and  her  "Majesty  must  resolve  what 
she  will  do.  If  she  will  restore  the 
Scottish  Queen,  it  was  no  good 
policy  for  me  to  show  countenance 
on  the  other  side.  If  she  will  main- 
tain the  other  side  and  command  me 
to  join  with  them,  I  will  make  all 
men  within  thirty  miles  of  the  Bor- 
der obey  that  authority  or  I  will  not 
leave  a  stone  house  for  any  of  them 
to  sleep  in.  And  if  she  command  me 
to  pass  further,  I  will  deliver  the 
Castle  of  Edinburgh  or  any  others 


270  PEIGN  OF  E  LIZ  ABE  TH.  [CH.  54. 

The  Lady  at  Tutbury  meanwhile  was  making 
Europe  ring  with  her  cries.  It  was  not  for  herself  that 
she  now  pleaded,  but  for  her  country,  which  the  ancient 
enemy  was  invading  and  laying  waste.  She  besieged 
Charles  IX.  and  Catherine  de  Medici  with  entreaties  to 
rouse  themselves  out  of  their  sleep,  and  hurry  to  the 
rescue  of  their  old  allies.  To  the  Spanish  ambassador 
she  wrote,  that  if  Philip  and  Alva  sat  still  her  cause 
would  be  ruined  for  ever,  and  with  it  the  Holy  Catholic 
faith.1  Driving  the  spur  into  the  languid  side  of  her 
English  allies,  she  told  Norfolk,  that  *  she  would  be 
soon  forced  to  consent  to  deliver  her  son  and  embrace 
the  Protestant  religion  to  get  her  liberty ; ' 2  while  to 
the  Pope,  ignorant  as  yet  what  he  had  done  for  her,  she 
poured  out  an  impassioned  flood  of  pious  rhetoric.  She 
described  herself  as  longing  for  the  time  when  she 
could  uproot  heresy  and  restore  the  blessed  faith  of 
Christ.  She  besought  him  to  lay  his  injunctions  on  the 
Catholic  princes  to  stand  her  friends  in  the  hour  of 
trial,  or  else,  since  they  seemed  so  remiss,  she  asked  his 
gracious  absolution  if  she  made  use  of  perfidy,  if,  like 
Naaman,  she  bowed  her  head  in  the  House  of  Eimmon, 


in  Scotland  to  the  hands  of  any  whom 
Morton  with  her  Majesty's  consent 
shall  appoint.  But  these  matters 
have  too  long  slept.  It  is  time  to 
wake ;  and  therefore,  good  Mr 
Secretary,  sound  the  Queen's  Ma- 
jesty's mind  fully  ;  and  if  she  resolve 
to  restore  the  Scottish  Queen,  advise 
her  to  do  it  in  convenient  sort,  and 
suffer  me  not  to  put  my  finger  in  the 
tire  without  cause,  uad  lur  to  ho 


drawn  into  it  by  such  degrees  as  are 
neither  honourable  nor  sure.' — Sus- 
sex to  Cecil,  April  25  :  MSS.  Hat- 


1  La  Reyna  de  Escocia  a  Don 
Guerau  de  Espes,  April,  1570:  MSS. 
Simancas. 

2  Mary  Stuart  to  the   Duke  of 
Norfolk,  March   19  and  April  18: 
LABANOKF,  vol.  iii. 


1 5  70.]         EXCOMMUNICA  TION  OF  ELIZABE  TH. 


274 


plied  Elizabeth  1  with  loving  letters  and  smooth  speeches 
and  cunning  presents,  and  so  tempted  her,  through 
false  confidence,  to  unlock  her  cage.2 

Unfortunately  for  Mary  Stuart's  prospects  she  had 
too  many  friends.  France  and  Spain  both  wished  her 
well,  but  could  not  trust  each  other,  and  neither  could 
trust  the  Pope.  In  Scotland,  '  some  were  desperately 
affected  Protestants  ; ' 3  some,  like  Maitland,  desired  to 
marry  her  to  Norfolk  ;  some  to  a  native  Scot,  a  Gordon 
or  a  Hamilton.  The  Cardinal  of  Lorraine  destined 
her  for  the  Duke  of  Anjou ;  the  King  of  Spain  arid 
Alva  saw  in  such  a  marriage  the  death-blow  to  the 
Spanish  Empire.4  In  England  some  wished  her  out  of 
the  country,  her  presence  there  being  so  dangerous  to  the 
Queen ;  others  wished  to  keep  her  there  as  heir-presump- 
tive and  Norfolk's  wife :  Protestants  wished  it  because 
Norfolk  was  outwardly  a  Protestant ;  Catholics,  because 
they  believed  Norfolk  to  be  a  Catholic  at  heart,  and  to 
be  waiting  only  for  the  completion  of  the  marriage  to 
declare  himself.  Others,  again — the  Catholics  proper, 
who  had  been  persecuted,  who  had  kept  up  the  prac- 
tice of  their  faith  in  foul  weather  and  fair ;  the  con- 
spirators of  the  Northern  counties,  or  those  who  shared 
the  feelings  expressed  in  the  Lincolnshire  address  to 


1  She  did  not  call  her  Queen. 

2  '  Quod  ego  Elizabethan!  literis 
amanter  scriptis,  donis  affabre  factis 
aliisque  symbolis  humanitatis  datis 
in   araorem   benevolentiamquc    mei 
illiciam.'  —  Message      from      Mary 
Stuart  to  the  Pope  sent  though  the 


Bishop  of  Ross,  April  20:  LABAN- 
OFF,  vol.  iii. 

3  George    Chamberlain    to    the 
Duchess  of  Feria,  April  5  :    MSS. 
Spain,  Rolls  House. 

4  Don  Guerau  to  Philip,  April 
25  :  MSS.  Simancaa. 


272  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [011.54 

Philip — had  no  confidence  in  Norfolk,,  and  little  in  the 
Queen  of  Scots.  They  were  willing  to  support  her  claim 
to  the  succession,  for  they  had  no  alternative ;  but  they 
would  have  her  a  dependant  upon  Spain,  married,  if 
possible,  to  Don  John  of  Austria,  or  so  married,  at  any 
rate,  that  her  husband  should  be  a  Catholic  indeed  who 
had  never  stained  his  faith  by  a  seeming  apostasy.1  Yet 
they  too  had  their  misgivings  and  their  uncertainties. 
The  friends  of  England  at  Edinburgh  were  '  appalled  ' 
by  the  vacillation  of  Elizabeth.  The  English  admirers 
of  Spain  were  '  dismayed  by  the  careless  regard '  with 
which  Philip  looked  on  upon  their  sufferings,  and  were 
beginning  to  think  that  they  had  no  refuge  but  in  God. 
'  The  Spaniards/  said  Sir  Francis  Englefield,  '  dwelt 
and  busied  themselves  so  long  in  deliberation  that  the 
opportunity  was  gone  before  they  could  resolve  to  act/ 
Philip  threw  the  responsibility  upon  Alva  ;  and  Alva 
'  would  do  no  iota  more  than  came  expressly  commanded 
by  his  Sovereign/ 2 

Elizabeth  herself  was  still  the  truest  friend  that  the 
Queen  of  Scots  possessed.  If  the  threat  of  turning 
Protestant  had  been  fulfilled  in  sincerity ;  if  the  lying 
demonstrations  of  affection  in  which  Mary  Stuart  asked 
the  Pope's  permission  to  indulge  had  been  made  in 
earnest ;  or  if,  with  or  without  affection,  the  conspiring 
and  intriguing  had  been  conclusively  abandoned,  Eliza- 
beth would  indisputably  have  sent  her  back  to  Scotland, 


1  Chamberlain  to  the  Duchess  of 
Feria,  April  5  ;  Sir  T.  Englefield  to 


the   Duchess    of    Feria,    May    17:     Feria,  May  17:  MSS.  Spain. 


MSS.  Spain. 

2  Englefield  to  the  Duchess  of 


1570]         EXCOMMUNICA  TICN  OF  EL1ZABE  TH.  273 

replaced  and  maintained  her  on  the  throne,  and  would 
have  yielded  at  last,  however  monstrous  it  might  have 
seemed,  on  the  long-coveted  point  of  the  English  succes- 
sion. Without  seeing  the  application  for  absolution, 
Elizabeth  understood  her  prisoner  too  well  by  this  time  to 
indulge  in  so  vain  an  expectation  ;  yet,  although  she 
could  not  trust  her  at  liberty,  she  still  hoped  'that 
means  could  be  found '  by  which,  though  on  the  throne, 
her  hands  could  be  tied,  her  teeth  drawn,  and  her  claws 
pared. 

The  affair  on  the  Border  led  to  angry 
words  with  the  Court  of  Paris.  La  Mothe, 
at  the  instigation  of  Arundel,  obtained  a  letter  from  the 
King  threatening  that  if  the  invasion  was  repeated,  a 
French  army  would  be  landed  at  Dumbarton  or  at 
Aberdeen.  Elizabeth  answered  boldly,  that  '  to  submit 
without  resistance  to  the  inroads  of  the  Borderers  would 
be  to  abandon  the  English  realm  to  be  conquered  by  re- 
bellion, and  to  yield  her  crown  to  any  that  would  with 
force  invade  it.'  If  '  with  the  French  King's  help ' 
however  '  reasonable  conditions  could  be  made  by  which 
England  could  be  secured  from  the  Queen  of  Scots' 
machinations  and  Scotland  be  quietly  governed,  she 
professed  herself  still  ready  to  do  her  part  to  bring 
about  a  composition.' l 

It  was  less  easy  to  manage  her  impatient  friends  at 
Edinburgh.  Cecil  was  still  for  open  measures:  war 
with  the  Hamiltons  and  the  Gordons ;  war,  if  necessary, 


1  Instructions  to  Sir  H.  Norris,  May  2  :  MSS.  France 
VOL.   IX.  18 


274  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  54. 

with  France,  for  anything  which  would  end  a  situation 
which  he  regarded  as  infinitely  dangerous.  The  name 
of  war  however  was  intolerable  to  Elizabeth.  She 
wrote  to  Sussex  detailing  her  many  embarrassments, 
and  telling  him  that  in  some  way  he  must  keep  the 
King's  party  together  '  till  she  had  time  to  make  choice 
whether  she  would  restore  the  Queen  of  Scots  or  not/ 
He  might  lay  the  blame  on  Morton ;  he  might  say 
'her  backwardness  had  been  rather  his  fault  than 
hers ; '  '  his  manner  of  dealing  had  been  slow  and 
uncertain,  and  she  had  not  known  what  to  look  for 
from  him : '  while,  on  the  other  hand,  he  might  tell 
Maitland  not  to  be  foolish  and  ungrateful ;  encourage 
the  Protestants  with  hope;  soothe  the  others  with 
"'  quiet  means  and  messages/  and  lead  them  both  to  de- 
pend upon  England. 

So  much  for  tlie  Scots.  '  But  Sussex  himself/  she 
said,  '  would  expect  to  know  what  she  meant  to  do ; 
ancl  she  was  obliged  to  own  frankly  that  she  could 
not  tell.  It  would  touch  her  in  surety  to  have  the 
King's  party  suddenly  decay.  It  would  touch  her  in 
honour  if  she  should  by  her  promises  procure  them  to 
stand  witt  her,  and  in  the  end  not  see  them  main- 
tained or  provided  for ;  and  there  was  a  danger  wise 
that  if  she  sent  them  money,  they  might  take  it  and 
not  serve  her  purpose  after  all.  The  whole  cause  was 
thus  full  of  doubt.  Morton  desired  to  know  whether 
she  would  support  him  against  those  who  maintained 
the  Queen's  authority.  She  could  but  say  that  she 
would  still  commission  Sussex  to  proceed  against  all 


!t$ 7o.]        EXCOMMUNICATION  OF  ELIZABETH.  275 

who  assisted  the  English  rebels.  If  they  happened  to 
be  the  same  persons  who  were  the  friends  of  the  Queen, 
Sussex's  business  lay  with  acts,  and  not  with  titles ; 
and  the  King's  party  might  take  as  much  profit  of  his 
deeds  for  their  aid  as  they  should  do  if  he  used  more 
open  words.' 1 

So  far  perhaps  Elizabeth's  course  was  not  indefen- 
sible. It  was  involved,  but  it  was  at  least  economical ; 
and  as  long  as  she  was  moving  in  the  right  direction,  the 
quarter  towards  which  she  was  turning  her  eyes  mattered 
little.  But  Elizabeth  was  a  strange  woman  ;  or  rather 
she  was  a  woman  and  a  man;  she  was  herself  and 
Cecil ;  and  while  her  acts  were  the  joint  result  of  her 
own  inclinations  and  Cecil's  counsel,  she  gave  way 
among  her  women  and  her  favourites  to  her  personal 
humours.  She  spoke  of  the  Lords  at  Linlithgow  as  the 
loyal  subjects  of  their  sovereign  ;  she  denounced  Morton 
and  his  friends  as  traitors ;  and  when  Sussex  tried  to 
execute  the  hard  part  imposed  upon  him,  her  words 
were  flung  back  into  his  teeth.  She  wrote  to  Maitland 
'more  gentle  and  loving  letters  than  ever  she  did.' 
She  persuaded  him  that  '  he  knew  the  bottom  of  her 
secrets  ;  '  and  while  by  her  imprudent  words  and 
doings  '  she  struck  a  chill  into  the  heart  of  every  Scot 
and  Englishman  who  wished  her  well/  Maitland,  the 
object  of  her  attentions,  felt  nothing  but  contempt  for 
her  weakness.  He  said  '  she  was  inconstant,  irresolute, 
and  fearful ;  and  before  the  game  was  played  out,  he 


1  Elizabeth  to  Sussex,  April  30 :  MSS.  Scotland. 


276  REIGN-  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  54. 

would  make  her  sit  upon  her  tail  and  whine'  like  a 
whipped  hound.1 

Maitland  had  to  find  to  his  sorrow  that  he  had  seen 
less  deeply  than  he  supposed ;  but  if  Elizabeth  was  mis- 
leading her  enemies,  she  was  misleading  her  friends 
also.  She  had  spread  such  a  mist  about  herself  and  her 
intentions,  that  those  who  knew  her  best  could  not  tell 
what  to  look  for  at  her  hands.  In  Scotland  the  ferment 
was  fast  increasing.  A  French  fleet  was  daily  expected 
at  Dumbarton,  bringing,  arms  and  money,  if  not  men. 
Morton  refused  to  accept  the  palliatives  which  were 
offered  him  by  Sussex.  He  insisted  on  communicating 
immediately  with  Elizabeth,  and  sent  the  Commendator 
of  Dumfermline  to  London  to  demand  a  straightforward 
explanation.  He  declined  for  himself  and  his  friends 
to  accept  the  blame  which  she  affected  to  throw  upon 
him.  She  was  herself,  he  said,  the  original  cause  of  the 
whole  trouble  by  breaking  the  promises  which  she  had 
made  to  the  Earl  of  Murray  at  Westminster,  and  by 
refusing  afterwards  to  publish  to  the  world  the  evidence 
of  the  Queen  of  Scots'  guilt.  She  must  now  come 
forward  publicly  on  the  King's  side  and  supply  them 
with  money  and  men,  or  they  '  would  not  run  her 
course  '  any  longer.2  Dumfermline,  as  he  passed  through 
Berwick,  told  Sussex  the  nature  of  his  message.  Sussex 
could  but  add  to  it  '  that  the  Queen  must  decide  quickly 


1  Sussex  to  Cecil,  May  12,  May 
1 7  ;  Sussex  to  Elizabeth,  May  1 7  : 
MSS.  Scotland. 


tor  of  Dumfermline.  Sent  by  the 
Earls  of  Morton,  Mar,  and  Glencairn 
to  the  Queen  of  England,  May  I  : 


Instructions  to  the  Commenda- 1  MSS.  Scotland. 


1 5  70. ]         EXCOMMUNICA  TION  OF  ELIZABE  TH.  277 

or  she  would  lose  both  parties.  He  could  but  pray  God 
to  put  in  her  heart  to  choose  the  more  honourable 
course.' l 

Meanwhile  the  council  in  London  had  been  discuss- 
ing conditions  with  the  Bishop  of  Ross,  on  which  the 
Queen  of  Scots'  restoration  could  be  effected.  The 
Bishop  was  still  deep  in  conspiracies,  at  work  incess- 
antly with  Don  Gueraa  and  the  Catholic  leaders;  but 
while  there  were  hopes  of  obtaining  his  mistress's  re- 
lease from  Elizabeth,  he  had  never  ceased  to  urge  her 
yielding  humour,  and  spared  neither  oaths  nor  protest- 
ations to  persuade  her  that  she  might  make  the  venture 
with  safety.  Elizabeth  however  did  not  mean  to  trust 
to  promises.  She  insisted,  as  before,  on  the  ratification 
of  the  treaty  of  Leith  ;  she  insisted  that  neither  French 
aor  Spanish  troops  should  be  invited  over  to  Scotland ; 
she  required  substantial  securities  that  the  Queen  of 
Scots  should  not  escape  from  her  engagements  on  the 
plea  that  they  were  extorted  from,  her  under  restraint. 
The  Prince  should  be  brought  up  in  England.  Argyle 
and  Fleming  should  accompany  him  and  reside  at  the 
English  Court  as  hostages.  An  English  garrison  should 
hold  Dumbarton  Castle,  and  Dunbar,  perhaps,  as  well 
as  Hume  and  Fastcastle  ;  and  the  Queen  of  Scots  must 
undertake  for  the  surrender  of  the  Earls  of  Westmore- 
land and  Northumberland.2 

These  terms,  with  the  guarantee  of  France  for  their 


1  Sussex  to  Elizabeth,  May  i:  I  1570:     MSS.    MARY    QUEEN    OP 
MSS  Scotland.  j  SCOTS,  Rolls  Home. 

2  Notes  in  Cecil's  hand,  May,  ' 


278  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  54. 

observance,  would  suffice  for  England ;  but  Elizabeth, 
in  decency  as  well  as  prudence,  had  to  insist  also  on 
other  stipulations  for  the  internal  government  of  Scot- 
land. The  Bishop  of  Hoss  seemed  to  be  inclined  to 
yield  to  anything  which  might  be  demanded  ;  and  the 
negotiations  had  begun  to  make  progress,  when  they 
were  interrupted  by  the  appearance  of  two  pamphlets, 
which  had  been  printed  on  the  Continent,  and  had  been 
brought  over  and  circulated  in  London.  They  were  both 
written  by  the  Bishop.  The  first  was  the  celebrated 
treatise  already  alluded  to  '  in  defence  of  Queen  Mary's 
honour/  The  other  was  a  genealogical  statement  of  her 
claims  upon  the  English  Crown.  The  latter  contained 
nothing  on  which  a  complaint  could  be  founded.  The 
subject  was  an  extremely  dangerous  one,  but  the  Queen 
of  Scots'  pedigree  was  a  public  fact  which  could  not  be 
disputed.  The  former  was  a  plea  of  l  not  guilty  '  to  the 
charge  that  she  had  murdered  Darnley.  The  Bishop  had 
no  more  doubt  of  her  complicity,  as  he  afterwards  ad- 
mitted, than  the  rest  of  the  world.  Even  in  his  defence 
he  argued  that,  supposing  the  charges  to  be  true,  she 
was  no  worse  than  David,  and  David  had  not  been  de- 
posed. But  the  mutilated  shape  in  which  Elizabeth  had 
let  the  investigation  close,  enabled  him  to  say  that  her 
conduct  had  been  inquired  into,  and  that  she  had  not 
been  found  guilty,  and  he  had  added  that  the  English 
nobility  generally  regarded  her  as  innocent. 

The  two  publications  and  their  composition  formed 
part  of  a  scheme  which  had  been  secretly  arranged  with 
the  Catholics,  but  unhappily  the  Bishop  was  premature. 


1570.]         EXCOMMUNICA  TION  OF  ELIZABETH. 


279 


It  had  been  agreed  that  every  demand  which  Elizabeth 
might  make  should  be  conceded,  that  the  treaty  might 
not  be  interrupted.  The  detention  of  the  Queen  of 
Scots  would  perhaps  be  continued  for  some  time  after 
its  completion,  but  the  Duke  of  Norfolk  would  probably 
be  liberated.  He  too  was  to  promise  anything ;  to, 
promise  to  think  no  more  of  the  Queen  of  Scots  ;  to 
promise  not  to  disturb  the  Established  religion. 
Promises  lightly  made  could  be  lightly  broken,1  an<^ 
the  Duke,  once  out  and  among  his  own  people,  couldi  4ft 
what  he  pleased.  The  pamphlets  were  then  to  have 
appeared,  and  with  them,  or  immediately  after,  the  Bull 
of  Deposition.  A  Nuncio  had  come  from  Home  to  Paris 
with  a  hat  and  sword  for  Charles,  and  the  Pope  had 
hoped  and  desired  that  it  should  be  formally  published 
in  the  Nuncio's  presence  there.  But  France,  like  Spain, 
had  refused  the  necessary  permission.  A  copy  had  been 
smuggled  over  to  England  in  cipher  by  Ridolfi ;  and 
Ridoln,  and  La  Mothe,  and  the  Bishop  pf  Ross  were 
watching  for  the  moment  at  which  to  launch  it.2  The 


1  'Los  deste  consejo  blandian  mas 
con  el  Duque  de  Norfolk,. y  me  han 
avisado  quo  manana  han  de  venir 
Cecil  y  otro  del  Consejo  a  bablarles 
en  la  Torre,  y  ver  que  seguridad 
podra  dar  a  la  Reyna  de  su  fidelidad 
de  no  casarse  con  la  Reyna  de  Es- 
cocia,  y  de  no  ayudar  a  rimover  esta 
religion  que  aca  tienen.  El  esta  ad- 
vertido  de  ofrecerks  mucho.  .  .  Seria 
possible  que  saiga  presto ;  en  lo  cual 
puede  considerar  Ya  Excelencia  que 
salido  puede  con  gran  facilidad  librar 


la  de  Escocia  y  alterar  todo  el  reyno. 
Si  es  bien  que  haga  mas  con  el  am- 
paro  del  Rey  nro  Senor  que  de  Fran- 
ceses, y  estando  Va  Exa  resuelto  en 
esto  general,  escribire  en  lo  particular 


hacer  convenientes  a  esta  fin.' — Des- 
cifrada.  Don  Guerau  de  Espes  al 
Duque  de  Alva,  Mayo,  1570 :  MSS. 
Simancas. 

~  Don  Guerau  to  Alva,  May  ip* 
MSS.  Simancas. 


280  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  54. 

Bull  once  out,  Spain  or  France  was  expected  to  strike 
in.  The  Catholics,  with  their  misgivings  about  Mary 
Stuart  dispelled  by  the  pamphlets,  were  to  rise  simul- 
taneously in  all  parts  of  England.  Norfolk  would  march 
on  Tutbury,  and  Elizabeth  would  fall  in  a  few  weeks  at 
most. 

This  was  the  programme,  and  this  was  the  meaning 
of  the  Bishop's  complacency  in  the  treaty.  The  '  De- 
fence '  was  unfortunately  inconsistent  with  the  humility 
of  his  attitude.  It  was  the  first  indication  to  the  Eng- 
lish Government  that  the  plea  of  innocence  would 
seriously  be  set  forward  in  the  Queen  of  Scots'  behalf. 
He  was  sent  for  to  Bacon's  house  and  required  to  ex- 
plain what  he  meant  by  saying  that  the  nobility  disbe- 
lieved her  guilt.  He  said  that  she  had  offered  to  defend 
herself  in  the  Queen  of  England's  presence  :  the  Queen 
of  England  had  refused  to  hear  her,  and  she  was  there- 
fore held  acquitted  of  the  charge. 

Bacon  carried  '  the  books '  to  the  Queen,  and  the 
yielding  humour  which  would  have  allowed  the  scheme 
to  ripen  was  instantly  hardened.  Arundel,  to  coun- 
teract .the  effect,  brought  forward  La  Mothe,  and  the 
Queen  was  told  that  France  could  not  and  would  not 
allow  Mary  Stuart  to  be  kept  in  England.  Elizabeth 
fired  up  in  her  proudest  style. 

'  She  was  astonished,'  she  said,  '  that  the  King  of 
France  should  think  so  lightly  of  the  Queen  of  Scots' 
enormities.  Her  friends  had  given  shelter  to  the  Eng- 
lish rebels,  and  with  her  aid  and  connivance  they  had 
In  vied  war  against  her  with  fire  and  sword.  No  Sove- 


1 5  70.]         EXCOMMUNICA  TION  OF  ELTZABE  TH.  281 

reign  in  Europe  would  sit  down  under  such  a  provo- 
cation, and  she  would  count  herself  unworthy  of  realm, 
crown,  and  name  of  Queen  if  she  endured  it.' 

La  Mothe  replied  that  the  King  of  France  could  not 
desert  his  sister-in-law  ;  Elizabeth  might  name  her  own 
conditions,  and  his  master  would  undertake  that  they 
should  be  observed ;  but  if  she  continued  to  palter,  he 
would  be  forced,  however  unwillingly,  to  interfere,  and 
would  hold  himself  acquitted  before  God  and  the  world 
for  any  consequences  which  might  follow. 

'  It  was  easy  to  speak  of  conditions/  the  Queen  an- 
swered, 'but  she  must  have  better  security  than  words 
for  their  fulfilment.  The  Bishop  of  Ross  had  said  that 
the  abdication  of  Lochleven  went  for  nothing.  Francis 
I.  had  disowned  the  engagements  with  which  he  had 
bound  himself  in  Spain ;  and  even  Maitland  had  been 
heard  to  say  that  promises  given  under  restraint  were 
nothing.1  The  Earl  of  Westmoreland,  notwithstanding 
the  harrying  of  the  Borders,  was  still  the  guest  of  the 
Hamiltons.' 

Bacon  caught  the  opportunity,  while  the  indignation 
at  the  Bishop's  book  was  fresh,  to  urge  her  to  strike 
another  blow  in  Scotland,  and  show  France  that  she  was 
not  to  be  frightened  by  La  Mothe's  threats.  Lennox 
had  gone  down  to  Berwick,  and  couriers  followed  him 
with  orders  to  Sussex  again  to  set  his  troops  in  motion. 


The  words  which  Maitland  was  j  eidem.'  —  Depeches  de  La  Mothe 
Fenelon,   May   8,   1570.     Compare 


said  to  have  used  were—  '  Qua?  in 
vinculis  aguntur  rata   non   habebo 


MSS.  MARY  QUEEN  OF  SCOTS,  May, 


et  frangetlti   fidera,  fides  frangatur     1570,  Rolls  House. 


282  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  54. 

Sussex;  himself  had  caught  a  cold  by  sleeping  in  the 
air  at  Hawick;;  the  cold  had  been  followed  by  fever, 
and  he  could  not  leave  his  bed.  But  Sir  William  Drury, 
the  marshal  of  the  army,  would  be  as  useful  in  the  field 
as  himself.  The  Borders  had  suffered  sufficiently  ;  the 
Hamiltons  were  the  centre  of  the  anti- English  Con- 
federacy, and  no  heavier  blow  could  be  dealt  to  Mary 
Stuart,  no  material  support  short  of  the  recognition  of 
the  King  could  be  given  more  effectively  to  Morton, 
than  a  direct  attack  on  Chatelherault  himself. 

On  the  I  oth  of  May  the  army  was  again  in  Scottish 
territory  on  its  mission  of  destruction,  with  the  Earl  of 
Lennox  in  Drury 's  company  as  the  representative  of 
James,  and  Morton,  taking  courage  at  last,  gave  them 
a  formal  and  friendly  reception  at  Edinburgh.  The 
news  of  their  coming  flew  swiftly  to  Chatelherault,  and 
the  Duke  and  his  sons,  unable  to  defend  themselves  at 
home,  made  a  dash  on  Glasgow  Castle,  surprised  the 
gates,  and  forced  their  way  into  the  inner  court ;  but 
they  were  repulsed  with  loss  and  retired  with  West- 
moreland into  the  Highlands,  while  Drury,  Morton,  and 
Lennox  advanced  leisurely  upon  Hamilton.  They  car- 
ried guns  with  them,  and  after  a  few  shots  the  garrison 
left  by  the  Duke  capitulated.  The  plunder  was  given 
to  the  soldiers.  The  castle  itself,  the  town, '  half  a  score 
of  villages/  and  all  the  houses  of  the  Hamilton  family 
in  the  neighbourhood,  were  burnt  and  blown  up.  Dum- 
barton ought  to  have  followed,  for  Dumbarton  was  an 
open  port  through  which  the  French  at  any  time  could 
have  access  into  Scotland.  But  Drury  was  tied  by  his 


1 5  70.  ]         EXCOMMUNICA  TION  OF  ELIZA  BE  TH.  ?$3 

orders  and  could  not  meddle  with.  it.  While  his  troops 
halted  at  Glasgow,  he  went  down  with,  a  party  of  horse 
to  survey  the  fortress  for  future  contingencies.  He  was 
shot  at  from  the  ditahes,  but  no  harm  was  done,  and 
after  taking  the  necessary  notes  he  rejoined  his  men. 
From  Glasgow  he  went  to  Linlithgow,  where  a  '  palace ' 
belonging  to  Chatelherault  shared  the  fate  of  Hamilton, 
The  house  from  which  the  Regent  had  been  shot  was 
destroyed,  with  every  building  or  homestead  belonging 
to  any  of  the  Hamiltons'  name  or  lineage ;  and  with  this 
emphatic  act  of  justice  the  English  at  the  end  of  the 
month  returned  to  Edinburgh. 

Meanwhile  a  remarkable  event  had  taken  place  in 
London.  Desperate  at  this  second  invasion  and  the 
failure  of  La  Mothe's  threats,  the  Bishop  of  Ross  had 
played  the  card  which  he  had  reserved  in  his  hand.  On 
the  morning  of  the  I5th  of  May  the  Bull  declaring 
Elizabeth  deposed  and  her  subjects  absolved  from  their 
allegiance  was  found  nailed  against  the  Bishop  of  Lon- 
don's door,  and  whatever  the  Catholic  Powers  might  do 
or  not  do,  the  Catholic  Church  had  formally  declared 
war.  The  experiment  had  been  tried  before  against 
Henry  VIII.  and  had  effected  nothing.  The  super- 
stitious terrors  once  attaching  to  the  Vatican  thunders 
had  long  disappeared.  But  Elizabeth  was  not  Henry, 
and  the  England  and  the  Europe  of  1570  were  not  the 
England  and  the  Europe  of  1539.  In  some  respects  the 
advantage  was  with  the  Queen.  The  Catholic  Church 
had  no  longer  the  prestige  of  ancient  sovereignty,  for 
the  first  time  disturbed  and  broken.  It  no  longer 


284  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  54. 

counted  among-  its  friends  men  of  noble  intelligence  like 
Sir  Thomas  More.  It  was  disgraced  by  the  cruelties 
which  had  attended  its  restoration  under  Mary,  and  its 
strength  lay  now  among  the  meaner  elements  of  secret 
conspiracy  and  disaffection.  On  the  other  hand,  as  the 
doctrinal  tendencies  of  the  Reformation  had  developed 
themselves,  the  division  line  of  the  two  creeds  had 
become  more  strongly  marked.  The  instinctive  dislike 
of  English  gentlemen  for  revolutionary  changes,  the 
uncertainty  of  the  succession,  the  sense  of  insecurity 
from  the  political  isolation  of  the  country,  had  created  a 
vague  but  general  discontent  among  the  masses  of  the 
population.  The  old-fashioned  piety  was  superseded  by 
a  less  respectable  but  more  dangerous  fanaticism;  a 
fanaticism  which  no  longer  showed  itself  in  open  and 
organized  political  opposition,  but  was  not  afraid  of 
treason,  rebellion,  or  murder,  which  fraternized  with 
foreign  invaders,  and  was  ready  to  sacrifice  the  interests 
of  England  to  the  interests  of  the  Church. 

On  the  Continent  too  the  Council  of  Trent  had 
closed  the  prospect  of  ecclesiastical  reconciliation.  The 
Catholics,  wherever  they  could  have  their  way,  showed 
a  desperate  and  uncompromising  determination  to 
destroy  the  Reformers  with  fire  and  sword ;  and 
although  France  and  Spain  were  still  political  anta- 
gonists and  neutralized  each  other's  influence  by  their 
mutual  jealousies,  it  must  have  seemed  but  too  likely, 
to  the  anxious  minds  of  English  statesmen,  that  the  Pope 
would  find  means  at  last  to  put  an  end  to  differences 
which  so  far  had  been  their  only  protection. 


I570-]         EXCOMMUNICATION  OF  ELIZABETH.  285 

When  the  excommunication  appeared,  Elizabeth  was 
assured  that  it  had  been  issued  with  the  sanction  of  one 
or  both  of  the  Great  Powers.  That  the  Pope  would 
have  taken  so  considerable  a  step  without  consulting 
them  appeared  extremely  improbable  ;  and  taken  in 
connection  with  La  Mothe's  language,  it  seemed  to  tell 
her  that  her  time  at  last  was  come.  The  Channel  fleet 
was  instantly  reinforced :  Lord  Clinton  took  the  com- 
mand in  person,  with  orders  to  sink  at  once  and  without 
question  any  French  transports  that  he  might  find  carry- 
ing troops  to  Scotland.  The  country  could  on  the  whole 
be  relied  on  if  attacked  only  by  France ;  but  the  ques- 
tions of  internal  policy,  and  of  the  Queen  of  Scots  espe- 
cially, became  more  deeply  complicated.  The  uncer- 
tainties revived.  The  advocates  of  the  Queen  of  Scots' 
restoration  were  able  to  insist  upon  their  arguments 
with  increased  plausibility,  and  a  great  meeting  of  the 
privy  council  was  called  at  their  instance  to  consider 
the  situation. 

From  the  moment  that  Lennox  had  been  sent  tc 
Berwick,  Arundel  had  never  ceased  to  remonstrate. 
Sharp  words  had  been  exchanged  between  him  and 
Cecil  in  the  Queen's  presence.  Arundel  had  been 
speaking  as  usual  in  favour  of  the  Bishop  of  Ross  and 
the  treaty,  when  Cecil  burst  out,  that  the  Queen  had  no 
friends  but  the  Protestants,  and  if  she  yielded  she  would 
lose  them  all. 

Elizabeth  hated  the  naked  truth.  She  said  that 
Cecil's  passion  made  him  blind:  she  felt  herself  en- 
tangled in  a  net  which  threatened  to  strangle  her.  She 


4S6  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  54. 

declared  that  she  would  do  what  the  French  King  desired, 
and  shake  herself  clear,  let  Cecil  and  '  his  brothers  in 
Christ '  say  what  they  pleased.1 

Bacon,  who  was  as  anxious  as  Cecil  to  prevent  the 
Scotch  question  from  being  rediscussed  till  Drury  had 
finished  his  work,  attempted  to  leave  London  to  prevent 
the  council  from  meeting ;  but  Arundel  caught  him  be- 
fore he  could  escape,  and  told  him  that  the  Queen  re- 
quired his  presence  and  advice.  Bacon,  whose  temper  was 
hasty,  answered  shortly,  that  it  was  of  no  use  to  advise 
'the  'Queen ;  she  changed  her  mind  so  often  that  counsel 
was  but  wasted  on  her.  She  would  not  listen  to  him, 
and  as  it  seemed  that  she  was  bent  upon  her  destruction, 
she  must  go  her  own  way. 

If  Bacon  was  absent  the  discussion  might  be  post- 
poned, and  Mary  Stuart's  friends  in  Scotland  would  be 
destroyed  in  the  mean  time.  Arundel  persisted  that  the 
Lord  Keeper  must  return  with  him.  The  realm  was  in 
danger,  he  said,  and  no  good  subject  at  such  a  time 
could  desert  his  sovereign. 

Bacon  sullenly  complied.  The  privy  council  assem- 
bled, and  the  public  policy  of  England  was  discussed  in 
Elizabeth's  presence.  Bedford  was  ill ;  Clinton  was 
with  the  fleet ;  of  the  rest  every  one,  with  the  exception 


1  '  Quoiqu'il  y  ait  Maistre  Secre- 
taire, diet  ellc,  je  veulx  sortir  hors 
de  ceste  affaire,  et  entendre  a  ce  que 
le  Roy  me  mande,  et  ne  m'en  ar- 
rester plus  a  vous  aultres  freres  en 
Christ.'  The  authority  for  the  scene 
was  Leicester,  who  was  present,  and 
reported  it  to  La  Mothe.  Leicester, 


who  had  more  faces  than  Proteus,  is 
in  general  not  much  to  be  depended 
on.  La  Mothe  however  believed 
that  he  was  speaking  the  truth,  and 
the  phrase  <  Brothers  in  Christ '  is 
highly  characteristic  of  Elizabeth.— 
Instructions  au  Sieur  de  Vassal : 
Depeches,  vol.  iii.  p  181. 


I57Q-]         EXCOMMUNICATION  OF  ELIZABETH.  28; 

of  Cecil  and  the  Lord  Keeper,  recommended  the  recall 
of  Drury,  the  immediate  resumption  of  the  negotiations, 
and  the  release  of  the  Queen  of  Scots  at  the  earliest 
possible  moment :  some,  like  Arundel,  were  deliberately 
treacherous,  some  were  frightened,  some  sincerely  be- 
lieved that  the  course  which  they  advised  would  be  the 
best  both  for  their  mistress  and  for  England.  All  agreed 
however  in  one  conclusion,  and  Leicester,  as  if  taking 
upon  himself  to  speak  for  the  Queen,  said  that  violent 
measures  were  found  too  dangerous  to  be  ventured 
further ;  her  Majesty  intended  to  take  the  opinion  of 
the  more  moderate  of  her  councillors,  to  come  to  an 
understanding  with  France,  and  replace  the  Queen  of 
Scots  on  her  throne. 

It  was  no  time  for  euphuisms  or  delicate 
phrases.     The  Lord  Keeper  had  been  forced 
to  attend.      The  Queen  desired  his  opinion,  and  she 
should  have  it.     '  Her  Majesty/  he  said,  '  was  deceived 
and  trifled  with.      The  men  whose  advice  she  was  pre- 
paring to  follow  were  the  secret  servants  of  the  Queen 
of  Scots.     The  French  ambassador  threatened  war ;  but 
he  spoke  for  the  Cardinal  of  Lorraine,  and  not  for  'the 
King.     The  King  his  master  had  work  enough  on  hand 
at  home,  and  would  not  meddle  with  England. 

*  After  what  you  have  done  and  are  doing  in  Scot- 
land/ he  continued,  '  you  cannot  now  turn  back  :  cour- 
age alone  is  safety,  courage  and  persistence.  Go  on 
as  you  have  begun,  and  there  will  be  soon  no  Queen's 
party,  no  French  party,  110  Catholic  party  to  trouble  that 
country  more.  English  influence  will  be  supreme  there, 


;;8S  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [en.  54. 

and  religion,  the  Protestant  religion,  will  be  established 
beyond  reach  of  harm  from  end  to  end  of  Britain.  No 
advice  but  this  will  be  given  to  our  Sovereign  by  any 
loyal  Englishman.  This  course  alone  befits  the  great- 
ness of  her  crown ;  and  in  this  quarrel  I  will  live  or 
die.  It  is  not  for  the  Majesty  of  England  to  be  fright- 
ened by  the  threats  of  an  ambassador.  How  think 
you  her  father,  King  Henry,  would  have  dealt  with 
such  miserable  counsels  ?  You,  my  Lord,'  he  went  on, 
turning  to  Leicester,  '  you  pretend  to  be  loyal  to  your 
mistress,  and  you  are  in  league  with  the  worst  of  her 
enemies.  If  France  lands  a  force  in  England  to  try  to 
take  the  Queen  of  Scots  from  us,  with  her  Majesty's 
permission,  I  would  strike  her  head  from  her  shoulders 
with  my  own  hands/ 

'  In  what  I  said,'  replied  Leicester,  '  I  spoke  accord- 
ing to  my  honour  and  conscience.  I  will  maintain  my 
opinion,  if  necessary,  with  my  life,  against  all  who  im- 
pugn it.  It  is  my  duty  as  a  councillor  to  declare  what 
I  truly  think.  Her  Majesty  may  do  as  she  will,  I  hold 
to  my  own  convictions,  and  I  speak  for  others  besides 
myself.' 

Elizabeth  looked  angrily  from  one  speaker  to  the 
other.  Neither  the  favourite  nor  the  Lord  Keeper  had 
pleased  her.  But  the  Lord  Keeper  had  offended  her 
most :  '  his  counsels,'  she  said,  '  were  like  himself,  rash 
and  dangerous  ; '  she  would  not  have  her  cousin's  life 
touched  for  a  second  realm ;  she  would  rather  lose  her 
own.  She  forbade  him  at  his  peril  ever  more  to  speak 
such  words  to  her. 


1570]         EXCOMMUNICATION  OF  ELIZABETH.  289 

In  the  pause  which  followed,  Arundel  struck  in  with 
affected  moderation. 

1  They  were  met/  he  said,  '  to  consider  certain  dan- 
gers which  threatened  the  realm,  and  neither  from 
anger  nor  passion,  nor  from  any  love  or  hatred  which 
they  might  feel  for  the  Queen  of  Scots,  should  they  mis- 
lead their  mistress  at  such  a  crisis ;  least  of  all  should 
they  quarrel  among  themselves,  for  the  situation  de- 
manded all  the  prudence  and  discretion  which  they  pos- 
sessed. He  thought  for  himself  that  to  support  by  force 
the  party  in  Scotland,  who,  for  whatever  cause,  were  in 
arms  against  their  Sovereign,  was  neither  wise,  just, 
nor  advantageous.  The  expense  would  be  enormous, 
the  difficulties  far  more  considerable  than  those  who  re- 
commended that  course  appeared  to  imagine.  It  would 
offend  a  powerful  party  in  England  whom  it  was  unsafe 
to  irritate,  and  would  lead  in  the  end  to  a  war  with  the 
Continental  Powers,  which  England  was  in  no  condition 
to  sustain.  The  French  ambassador  could  not  have  spoken 
so  peremptorily  without  commission,  and  to  withdraw 
from  any  enterprise  to  preserve  the  peace  of  the  world  was 
neither  dishonourable  nor  dangerous.  Henry  VIII. 
might  possibly  have  persevered,  but  under  Henry  VIII. 
England  was  loyal  and  united,  and  even  Henry  himself 
did  not  venture  upon  a  war  with  France  without  the 
Emperor  for  an  ally.  Now  the  whole  situation  was  altered. 
The  Catholic  King  was  estranged.  The  English  people 
were  discontented  and  divided.  Let  her  Majesty  secure 
peace  at  home,  let  her  deserve  the  friendship  and 
confidence  of  other  princes,  and  she  would  do  what 

VOL.   IX.  19 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


LCH.  54. 


was  right  and  just  in  the  sight  of  God  and  man.'1 
But  for  the  revelations  in  the  despatches  of  Don 
Guerau,  but  for  the  evidence  that  he  had  been  for  years 
conspiring  for  a  religious  revolution  and  Elizabeth's 
overthrow,  Lord  Arundel  might  have  been  credited 
with  a  mistaken  but  still  honest  anxiety  to  extricate  his 
mistress  from  her  embarrassments.  Elizabeth  herself 
construed  his  words  favourably.  When  the  next  morn- 
ing Leicester  pressed  her  to  give  an  audience  to  the 
Bishop  of  Ross,  she  answered  sharply  that  the  Queen  of 
Scots  seemed  very  near  his  heart,  but  she  sent  an  order 
to  Scotland  for  the  recall  of  the  army,  which  encountered 
Drury  on  his  return  to  Edinburgh.  Morton  would 
gladly  have  detained  him,  at  least  till  Grange  could  be 
compelled  or  persuaded  to  surrender  the  castle ;  but  the 
Queen's  commands  were  peremptory ;  he  made  the 
necessary  excuses  and  fell  back  at  once  to  Berwick. 

It  might  have  been  thought,  as  Cecil  hoped  and 
Bacon  said,  that  Elizabeth,  after  inflicting  punishment 
so  tremendous  on  Mary  Stuart's  friends,  would  not  have 
deceived  herself  with  the  expectation  that  she  could 
recover  their  confidence  or  induce  them  any  more  to 
look  upon  her  -as  a  friend.  Had  her  fluctuations  been 
assumed  to  cover  a  purpose  which  in  her  heart  she  had 
definitely  formed;  had  she  been  hypocritical  and  de- 
ceitful, and  not  weak  and  uncertain,  such  no  doubt 
would  have  been  the  eflFect.  She  would  have  seen  that 


1  This  singular  discussion  is  de- 
scribed by  La  Mothe. — Depdches, 
vol.  iii.  p.  181.  It  was  perhaps  pro- 


tracted through  several  sessions,  and 
did  not  all  take  place  on  the  same 
day 


1570.]         EXCOMMUNICATION  OF  ELIZABETH.  :gi 

she  had  gone  too  far  to  retreat,  she  would  have  avowed 
her  real  purpose  and  gone  through  with  it.  But  Eliza- 
beth was  very  different  from  all  this.  The  principles 
which  divided  her  council  divided  herself  from  herself. 
She  had  no  sooner  committed  herself  to  one  course  of 
action  than  the  merits  of  another  became  doubly  obvious 
to  her,  while  it  gratified  her  sense  of  power  to  strike 
and  to  smile,  to  be  alternately  the  lightning  and  the 
sunshine. 

She  perhaps  flattered  herself  that  the  Scots,  after 
suffering  from  the  invasion,  would  come  to  her  feet  like 
children  beaten  into  submission  ;  a  letter  from  Maitland 
to  Sussex  indicated  that  they  were  as  yet  far  from  any 
such  condition. 

'  You  tell  me/  Maitland  wrote,  '  that  her 

June. 
Majesty's    forces  are  revoked.      I    am    glad 

thereof  more  than  I  was  at  their  coming,  and  it  is  not 
amiss  for  their  ease  to  have  a  breathing  time  and  some 
rest  between  one  exploit  and  another.  This  is  the  third 
journey  they  have  made  in  Scotland  since  your  Lordship 
came  to  the  Borders,  and  have  been  so  occupied  in  every 
one  of  them,  that  it  might  well  be  said,  if  the  amity 
and  good  intelligence  between  the  realms  would  permit 
that  phrase  of  language,  to  term  the  Englishmen  as 
our  forefathers  were  wont  to  do — they  have  reasonably 
well  acquit  themselves  of  the  duty  of  old  enemies,  and 
have  burnt  and  spoiled  as  much  ground  within  Scotland 
as  any  army  of  England  did  in  one  year,  these  hundred 
years  by-past,  which  may  suffice  for  a  two  months' 
work,  although  you  do  no  more.  The  rude  people  in 


292  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [011.54. 

Scotland  will  sometimes  speak  rashly  after  their  fashion, 
but  I  am  content  to  follow  the  phrase  of  your  language 
as  better  acquainted  with  the  same,  and  say  that  you 
have  not  been  idle  in  the  pursuit  of  her  Majesty's 
rebels/1 

The  order  of  the  day  however  was  once  more  to  be 
conciliation.  The  Bishop  of  Ross,  after  a  short  delay, 
was  admitted  to  an  audience.  He  swore  that  he  had 
known  nothing  of  the  rebellion,  and  although  Elizabeth 
possessed  the  clearest  evidence  to  the  contrary,  she  af- 
fected to  believe  him.  He  was  sent  down  to  Chats- 
worth,  to  which  his  mistress  had  been  removed,  to  talk 
over  the  intended  arrangements,  and  the  Queen,  for  the 
further  guidance  of  Lord  Sussex,  told  him  that  '  al- 
though in  all  worldly  things  there  were  some  uncertain- 
ties/ she  had  made  up  her  mind  to  the  course  which 
promised  least  disadvantage.  The  Queen  of  Scots  would 
have  been  long  since  restored  '  but  for  such  impediments 
as  from  time  to  time  had  been  ministered  by  herself/ 
There  was  now  a  better  prospect  of  a  good  conclusion. 
Both  parties  in  Scotland  must  lay  down  their  arms. 
She  would  take  care  of  the  interests  of  the  Lords  who 
had  supported  the  King,  and  Sussex  must  learn  from 
them  what  conditions  they  would  consider  satisfactory. 
In  fact  they  had  better  send  commissioners  with  full 
powers  to  London.  Discretion  should  be  used  in  open- 
ing the  matter  to  them  ;  '  discomfort '  might  otherwise 
m? ike  them  desperate. 


1  Maitland  to  Sussex,  June  2 :  MSS.  Scotland. 


I570-J 


EXCOMMUNICATION  OF  ELIZABETH. 


293 


As  to  the  troops  at  Berwick,  the  Exchequer  would 
no  longer  bear  the  expense  of  their  maintenance.  To 
disband  them  publicly  might  be  too  patent  a  confession 
of  weakness,  and  Sussex  was  ordered  therefore  to  get 
rid  of  them  'in  some  secret  and  indirect  sort/1 

The  conspirators  in  London  meanwhile  were  in  high 
spirits  at  their  victory  over  Cecil  arid  Bacon,  and  in 
full  assurance  of  success.  The  Queen  of  Scots  wrote 
letters  of  passionate  gratitude  to  Elizabeth,  promising 
faithfully  to  be  all  that  she  could  wish.2  The  Bishop  of 
Ross,  before  going  to  her,  talked  over  the  situation  with 
Don  Guerau.  Don  Guerau  recommended  that  to  mis- 
lead Elizabeth  she  should  still  seem  to  comply  with  every 
demand  which  might  be  made  upon  her,  while  the 
Catholics  should  hold  themselves  ready  for  a  universal 
insurrection  the  instant  that  she  was  free.  La  Mothe 
had  served  the  Bishop's  turn  upon  the  council ;  it  seems 
that  he  had  more  trust  in  Spain  for  assistance  in  the 
field.  The  fear  was  that  France  might  get  the  start 
and  secure  Mary  Stuart  for  Anjou.3  The  Papal  JSTuncio 
at  Paris  was  strongly  in  favour  of  the  match,  and  the 


1  Elizabeth  to  Sussex,  May  31  : 

Scotland. 

2  Letters  of  Mary  Stuart,  June 
and  July,  1570  :  LABANOFF,  vol.  iii. 

3  '  It  is  here  doubted  that  the 
Queen  of  Scots  being  released  shall 
marry  M.    de  Anjou,  and  thereby 
possess  him  of  the  present  estate  of 
Scotland  and  of  the  remainder  of  the 
Crown  of  England.     It  is  said  that 
the  late  messenger  from  the  Pope 


which  brought  the  sword  and  cap  for 
Monsieur,  doth  most  earnestly  solicit 
this  cause.  The  Cardinal  of  Lorraine 
said  at  the  council  board,  that  the 
peace  once  made  here,  it  should  be 
for  the  reputation  of  this  Crown  to 
declare  an  open  war  against  Eng- 
land.'— Norris  to  Cecil,  June  15  ; 
Norris  to  Elizabeth,  June  20 :  MSS. 
France. 


394 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


[CH.  54. 


Pope  was  ready  to  grant  the  necessary  dispensation.1 
It  was  thought  that  a  possibility  so  much  dreaded  would 
rouse  Alva  from  his  inaction.  Philip's  new  Queen2  was 
on  her  way  through  the  Netherlands  to  Madrid.  Her 
voyage  and  the  insecurity  of  the  seas  had  required  the 
assembly  of  a  powerful  escort,  and  the  fleet  which  was 
floating  on  the  Scheldt  could  be  directed  to  a  second 
purpose  if  an  opportunity  presented  itself  for  a  sudden 
landing  at  the  mouth  of  the  Thames.  If  by  any  means 
the  release  of  the  Queen  of  Scots  could  be  effected, 
fifteen  or  twenty  thousand  men  could  be  thrown  across, 
before  Elizabeth  could  have  notice  of  her  danger.  The 
Catholics  would  immediately  rise,  Mary  Stuart  would 
be  proclaimed,  France  paralyzed,  the  Queen  taken  pri- 
soner, and  Cecil  and  his  party  destroyed.  The  country 
would  be  conquered  without*  a  struggle,  the  pirate  fleets 
annihilated,  and,  among  other  happy  issues,  the  revo- 
lution that  overthrew  Elizabeth  would  end  the  rebellion 
in  the  Low  Countries.3  By  disbanding  her  army  she 
was  preparing  her  neck  for  the  stroke. 


1  The  relationship  between  Mary 
Stuart  and  the   Due   d'Anjou  was 
precisely  the  same  as  that  between 
HenryYllI.andhis  brother's  widow. 

2  Anne  of  Austria,  daughter  of 
Maximilian. 

3  'En  el  raismo  tiempo  con  quinze 
d  viente  mill  infantes  y  la  caballeria 
que  pareciese  couvenieute  entrar  por 
esta  Isla,  haciendo    levantar  todos 
los  Catolicos,  los  quales,si  seaseguran 
de  la  persona  de  la  Reyna,  tendrian  la 
mavor  parte  de  la  empresa  acabada, 


y  aun  asegurarse  luego  de  Cecil  y 
Leicester  y  Bedford  seria  muy  con- 
veniente,  y  no  menos  el  tomar  la 
armada  en  Rochester.  Todo  lo  qual 
es  harto  facil,  y  no  falta  sino  persona 
principal  para  executar,  y  en  todo 
pretender  el  nombre  de  la  Reyna  de 
Escocia  por  hallar  menos  contradic- 
tion en  el  reyno,  y  no  dar  sospecha  a 
los  vezinos.  Yo  tengo  por  cierto  que 
siuo  es  por  esta  via  jamas  el  reyno  de 
Inglaterra  siendo  Protestante  dexara 
de  inquietar  las  cosas  de  Flandes. 


I570-] 


EXCOMMUNICATION  OF  ELIZABETH. 


295 


Thus  it  was  agreed  between  the  Bishop  and  Don 
Guerau  that  no  concessions  however  extravagant 
should  be  refused.  When  the  Queen  of  Scots'  foot 
was  on  her  own  soil  they  would  crumble  to  pieces  of 
themselves. 

After  parting  from  the  ambassador)  the  Bishop 
ventured  to  the  lodgings  of  the  young  Lord  Southamp- 
ton, one  of  the  intended  leaders  of  the  insurrection,  for 
with  him  too  there  was  much  to  arrange  and  explain. 
It  happened  that  Southampton's  house  was  one  of  those 
on  which  Cecil  was  keeping  a  watch.  This  nobleman 
had  been  notoriously  favourable  to  the  enterprise  of  the 
Northern  Earls,  and  in  fact  he  had  been  on  the  edge  of 
declaring  for  them.  After  his  defeat  in  the  council, 
Cecil  had  redoubled  his  private  vigilance,  and  the 
Bishop  of  Ross  was  seen  stealing  at  midnight  from  the 
door.  He  had  started  by  daybreak  for  Chatsworth ; 
the  information  came  too  late  for  his  detention  ;  but  the 
Queen's  suspicions  were  violently  reawakened,  if  indeed 
they  had  ever  really  slept.  The  preparations  in  the 
Scheldt  had  alarmed  her  also  ;  and  almost  at  the  same 
moment  came  the  unwelcome  news  that  Lord  Morley, 
Lord  Derby's  son-in-law,  whose  loyalty  had  been 
hitherto  unquestioned,  had  withdrawn  without  leave 
from  England,  and  had  gone  to  Brussels  to  the  Duke 
of  Alva,  A  letter  which  he  wrote  to  the  Queen  when 
he  was  beyond  her  reach  did  not  tend  to  reassure  her. 


A  todo  ello  viene  muy  a  proposito  la 
pasada  de  la  Magd  de  la  Reyna  Nra 
Scnora.' — Descifrada  de  G.  D'Espes 


&.  su  Magd.     Londres,  12  de  Junio, 
1570:  MSS.  Simancas. 


296  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  54. 

Lord  Morley  accused  Cecil  and  Bacon  of  ruining  the 
country,  persecuting  the  nobility,  and  introducing  into 
England  the  wildest  and  worst  of  the  revolutionary 
passions  of  the  Continent.  He  said  that  the  ancient 
order,  the  honourable  traditions  of  the  realm,  were  set 
at  nought  by  them.  They  had  maintained  '  that  the 
opinions  of  the  Peers  were  of  no  importance/  '  that  her 
Highness  and  the  Commons  might  make  laws  without 
the  Nobles/  '  How  a  prince  could  stand  without  a 
body  of  nobility,  he  recommended  her  Highness  to  con- 
sider ; '  and  he  trusted  that  a  time  would  come  when 
'  she  would  discover  their  practices  and  weigh  them  and 
others  as  they  had  deserved/  l 

It  was  not  the  way  to  work  upon  Elizabeth.  South- 
ampton was  at  once  arrested,  and  also  Sir  Thomas 
Cornwallis,  Queen  Mary's  old  minister.  Elizabeth  sent 
for  La  Mothe,  and  began  moodily  to  talk  to  him  of  the 
Bull,  and  of  the  name  by  which  the  Pope  had  de- 
scribed her  as  '  the  servant  of  iniquity.'  The  world 
looked  so  wild,  she  said,  that  she  thought  the  last  day 
must  be  near.  With  one  of  her  odd  unearthly  laughs 
she  told  him  of  Morley 's  flight,  and  how  when  he 
landed  at  Dunkirk  he  had  described  himself  as  one  of 
the  greatest  Lords  in  England.  She  ran  over  the 
pretty  doings  of  the  Queen  of  Scots.  She  said  she  had 
promised  the  French  King  to  send  her  back,  and  if  she 
was  let  alone  she  meant  to  do  it,  but  if  France  sent  one 
man  to  Scotland  she  would  hold  herself  acquitted  of 


Lord  Morley  to  Elizabeth  from  Bruges,  June  8 :  JlfSS.  Domestic. 


1 5  70.  ].        EXCOMMUNICA  TION  OF  ELTZABE  TH.  297 

her  engagement ;  she  would  send  her  army  back  to 
Edinburgh  ;  Mary  Stuart  should  remain  prisoner  for 
her  life,  and  if  war  came  it  must  come.1 

Fresh  orders  went  down  to  Sussex.  He  had  scarcely 
digested  the  letter  of  the  3ist  of  May  when  another 
followed  it  to  say  that  new  practices  had  been  dis- 
covered, and  that  the  Queen  intended  to  move  with 
greater  caution.  The  King's  Lords,  who  had  been  but 
just  informed  that  they  were  to  prepare  to  receive  back 
Mary  Stuart,  '  were  now  to  be  told  that  in  no  wise 
they  should  shrink  or  yield ;  and  whatever  the  Queen 
of  Scots  or  her  friends  might  say  to  the  contrary,  they 
might  assure  themselves  of  the  support  of  England/  2 

Rarely  have  any  set  of  public  men  been  in  a  more 
deplorable  situation  than  these  unlucky  Lords.  Chatel- 
herault  had  proclaimed  the  Queen.  Elizabeth  had 
withdrawn  the  indirect  sanction  which  she  had  given 
to  the  election  of  Lennox  in  Murray's  place,  and  they 
had  neither  Regent  nor  recognized  authority  among 
them.  She  had  fed  them  with  doses  of  alternate 
warmth  and  coldness,  and  her  invasions  and  burnings 
had  done  them  more  harm  than  good,  for  she  had 
tempted  them  to  join  in  the  demolition  of  Hamilton 
Castle,  and  then  by  her  desertion  had  exposed  them  to 
be  destroyed  by  their  adversaries.  The  Abbot  of  Dum- 
fermline  had  found  her  impatient  for  the  treaty,  and 
had  come  back  with  an  intimation  that  they  must  pre- 
pare for  the  return  of  the  Queen.  Lennox,  Angus, 

1  Depcches,  June   16,  June   19,  June  21,  vol.  iii. 

2  The  Queen  to  Sussex,  June  6  :  MSS.  Scotland. 


298  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  54. 

Glencairn,  Mar,  Morton,  the  Master  of  Graham,  Lind- 
say, Kuthven,  Borthwick,  Ochiltree,  all  the  Lords  re- 
maining on  the  side  of  the  little  King,  had  assembled 
at  Stirling  to  receive  the  answer  to  their  petition,  and 
when  it  came  in  such  a  form  '  their  long  silence  mani- 
fested the  heaviness  of  their  hearts.' 

When  Sussex  received  the  Queen's  second  letter  he 
sent  Randolph  on  to  them,  and  Randolph  was  able  in 
some  degree  to  reassure  them ;  but  they  told  him 
distinctly  that  if  they  were  to  hold  together  they  must 
and  would  appoint  a  Regent.  They  sent  again  to 
Elizabeth  to  say  that  '  it  was  impossible  for  them  to 
continue  as  they  were ; '  and  Sussex,  who  trusted  that 
his  mistress  had  recovered  her  senses,  added  of  himself 
that  the  idea  of  sending  back  the  Queen  had  better  be 
abandoned  once  and  for  ever.  '  If  her  Majesty  would 
be  pleased  to  command  him,  he  would  himself  take  the 
castles  of  Edinburgh  and  Dumbarton  in  twenty  days, 
and  either  bring  all  Scotland  to  the  King's  obedience  in 
like  time  after,  or  leave  the  Queen's  friends  not  a  castle 
standing/  l 

Elizabeth  however  was  like  a  jaded  horse,  stung  by 
the  lash  into  momentary  action,  but  lapsing  speedily 
into  lagging  and  weary  motion.  She  brooded  over  the 
Pope's  excommunication.  She  harassed  herself  with 
the  belief  that  she  was  to  be  the  object  of  a  European 
crusade.  The  Duke  of  Norfolk  plied  her  from  the 
Tower  with  letters  which  were  piteously  submissive. 


Sussex  to  Cecil,  June  19  :  MSS.  Scotland, 


1 5  70. ]         EXCOMMUN1CA  TION  OF  ELIZAS E  TH.  299 

His  physician  wrote  that  his  health  was  breaking  under 
his  confinement,  and  that  if  he  remained  in  the  Tower 
lie  would  die.1  The  Bishop  of  Ross  reported  from 
Chats  worth  that  his  mistress  was  so  anxious  to  please 
the  Queen  that  Cecil  might  dictate  his  conditions. 
Title,  religion,  alliances — she  would  make  no  difficult- 
ies about  any  of  them.  '  After  so  many  storms  her 
wish  was  to  live  in  quietness ; '  and  for  his  own  part, 
the  Bishop  would  count  himself  most  happy  if  he  could 
unite  their  Majesties  in  heart,  mind,  and  bonds  indis- 
soluble.2 

Elizabeth  was  on  her  guard  against  the  Bishop, 
and  the  smooth  words  would  have  produced  no  effect 
had  the  Catholics  retained  their  ascendency 

July. 

in  France.  But  just  at  this  time  an  op- 
portune victory  of  the  Huguenots  in  Poitou  recovered 
to  them  the  strength  and  prestige  which  they  had 
lost  at  Moncoutour,  changed  the  policy  of  the  French 
Court,  and  brought  about  another  short-lived  recon* 
ciliation  between  the  Queen-mother  and  the  leaders  of 
the  Protestant  League.  Disinclined  to  encounter  further 
the  chances  of  a  war  which  no  battles  seemed  to  end, 
the  Court  determined  to  give  way.  The  Duke  of 
Guise,  who  had  aspired  to  the  hand  of  the  Princess 
Margaret,  was  driven  in  disgrace  from  the  Court.  The 
war  spirit  was  suddenly  extinguished,  and  with  it  the 


1  Norfolk  to  the  Queen,  June  18  ; 
Report   of  the  Duke   of  Norfolk's 
health,  June  —  ;  Norfolk  to  Cecil, 
July  4  :  MSS.  .Domestic. 

2  The  Bishop  of  Ross  to  Cecil, 


June  26  :  Cotton.  MSS.  CALIG.  C. 
ii.  15.  Cf.  MSS.  MABY  QUEEN  OP 
SCOTS,  June  26,  June  29,  Rolls 
House. 


300  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  54. 

disposition  to  quarrel  with.  England  in  the  interests  of 
the  Catholic  religion.  In  vain  the  despairing  Nuncio 
preached  upon  the  impiety  of  making  peace  with  here- 
tics. In  vain  Don  Francis  de  Alava  promised  help 
from  Spain,  and  the  clergy  of  Paris  offered  to  pay  the 
expenses  of  the  army  for  eight  months  if  the  King 
would  persevere.  He  said  he  would  have  no  more  war 
with  his  subjects,  and  Protestants  and  Catholics  should 
cut  each  others'  throats  no  longer.1 

The  change  relieved  Elizabeth  from  the  fears "  of  a 
crusade,  and  while  it  increased  the  chances  of  a  quarrel 
between  France  and  Spain,  it  enabled  her  to  hope  that 
between  France  and  herself  there  might  now  be  a  cor- 
dial alliance.  She  would  thus  be  secure  against  inva- 
sion, and  her  own  subjects  would  lose  the  temptation  to 
mutiny.  The  danger  from  the  release  of  the  Queen  of 
Scots  would  be  diminished  or  reduced  to  nothing,  if  the 
direction  of  French  policy  was  in  the  hands  of  the  ene- 
mies of  the  Guises ;  and  while  Charles  and  Catherine 
still  continued  to  intercede  for  her,  the  guarantees 
which  they  were  ready  to  give  that  she  should  not 
abuse  her  freedom  could  now  be  depended  upon. 

Thus  again  the  wind  swung  round.  Cornwallis  and 
Southampton  were  set  at  liberty.  A  tripartite  treaty 
was  proposed  between  France,  England,  and  Scotland, 
a  condition  of  which  was  to  be  the  Queen  of  Scots' 
restoration  ;  and  Elizabeth  said  that  she  would  be  satis- 
fied with  sufficient  securities  for  her  own  title,  the  sur- 


Norris  to  Elizabeth,  July  23 ;  MSS.  France. 


1570.]         EXCOMMUNICATION  OF  ELIZABETH.  301 

render  of  the  fugitive  Earls,  and  an  undertaking  on  the 
part  of  Mary  Stuart  that  she  would  not  interfere  with 
the  religion  established  in  Scotland.  She  should  not  be 
pressed  to  conform  herself  to  a  religion  which  she  did 
not  believe.1 

A  third  time  the  unhappy  Sussex  was  disturbed 
with  a  change  of  orders.  If  the  Lords  at  Stirling  chose 
to  elect  a  Regent,  Elizabeth  said  that  she  would  not 
interfere  with  them.  She  could  not  act  in  the  matter 
herself,  but  if  they  were  determined  and  desired  her 
opinion,  the  Earl  of  Lennox  she  still  thought  was  the 
fittest  person  for  the  place.  But  Regent  or  no  Regent, 
the  Queen  of  Scots  professed  a  willingness  to  be  guided 
entirely  by  her  advice,  and  she  could  not  in  honour  re- 
fuse to  hear  what  her  friends  or  herself  would  propose. 
The  Queen  of  Scots  was  about  to  send  Lord  Livingston 
to  treat  with  them,  and  Elizabeth  trusted  that  they 
would  not  refuse  to  receive  him  or  weaken  their  cause 
by  needless  alarm  or  panic.2 

So  many  alterations,  trying  as  they  were  to  those 
immediately  about  the  Court,  were  maddening  to  the 
unfortunate  officers  at  remote  stations  on  the  Borders 
or  abroad,  on  whom  was  thrown  the  responsibility  of 
action.  It  might  well  seem  that  Maitland  after  all  best 
understood  the  Queen  of  England's  character.  At  this 
last  revolution  a  shout  of  triumph  rose  through  Mary 
Stuart's  party,  and  a  cry  as  despairing  from  the  Lords. 
Buccleuch  and  Fernihurst,  unable  to  restrain  their  de- 


1  Depeches,  July  5. 
2  Elizabeth  to  Sussex,  June  30,  July  2  ;  MSS.  Scotland. 


J02  JkEtGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  54. 

light,  dashed  into  Northumberland,  and  carried  off  '  a 
great  booty  of  cattle/  which  they  divided  in  triumph 
among  the  ruins  of  Jedburgh ;  and  Sussex,  in  reporting 
the  affair,  told  his  mistress  with  some  irony,  that  it  was 
rather  late,  after  all  that  she  had  made  him  do,  to  be  talk- 
ing of  the  restoration.1  Chatelherault  sent  to  France 
and  Spain  to  say  that  now  'with  small  support  he 
would  requite  the  Queen  of  England  for  her  deceitful 
doings  ; ' 2  while  Randolph  from  the  other  side  had  to 
write  '  that  the  poor  King  would  stand  up  naked  for  all 
that  would  be  left  to  him.  The  Lords  would  seek  their 
own  at  the  Scotch  Queen's  hands.  They  had  no  con- 
fidence in  the  Queen  of  England,  that  had  so  often 
changed  her  course,  and,  though  sore  against  their 
wills,  they  would  now  live  with  murderers  and  traitors 
to  obey  her  whom  neither  by  law,  duty,  nor  conscience 
they  held  themselves  bound  to  obey/  3 

They  did  indeed  at  last  make  Lennox  Regent,  but 
this  in  itself,  unless  followed  up  by  other  measures,  would 
do  little  to  hold  the  party  together.  Each  of  the  Lords 
prepared  to  make  his  own  terms  for  himself,  and  what- 
ever happened,  Elizabeth  in  Randolph's  opinion  would 
not  have  l  a  friend  left  in  Scotland  to  serve  her  turn.5  4 

The  ministers  of  the  Kirk  and  their  congregations 
alone  showed  heart  or  courage.  The  General  Assembly, 
forsaken  as  they  were,  met  at  Edinburgh,  and  passed 


Sussex  to  Elizabeth,  July  8  : 


MSS.  Border. 

2  Commission  from  the  Duke  of 
Chatelherault,  July  — ,  1570  :  MSS.  /  Ibid. 
Scotland. 


s  Eandolph  to  Hunsdon  and  Sus- 
sex,  July  5  :  MSS.  Ibid. 

Randolph  to  Sussex,  July  8; 


is  Jo.]         EXCOMMUNICATION  OF  ELIZABETH.  303 

a  resolution,  that  whatever  England  might  say,  Mary 
Stuart  should  be  no  Queen  of  theirs.  Every  pulpit  in 
Scotland  should  ring  with  her  enormities.  If  the  Lords 
and  gentlemen  interfered  they  should  be  excommunicate 
and  held  as  rotten  members  unworthy  of  the  society  of 
Christ's  body.1 

For  the  dissatisfaction  in  Scotland  however  Eliza- 
beth cared  but  little  while  she  felt  secure  of  France ; 
and  even  Philip,  it  now  seemed,  unless  the  chance 
offered  itself  to  revolutionize  England,  might  defy  the 
Pope  and  his  excommunication,  and  try  to  bribe  over 
his  sister-in-law  to  himself  from  her  treaty  with  Charles 
and  Catherine. 

Towardr  Spain  the  aggressions  of  the  privateers 
had  rather  increased  than  diminished.  Elizabeth  was 
well  aware  that  for  the  safety  of  the  realm  against  in- 
vasion she  must  chiefly  depend  upon  the  force  which 
she  could  keep  in  the  Channel,  and  that  it  was  safer  as 
well  as  cheaper  to  encourage  the  voluntary  action  of 
her  subjects  than  to  rely  entirely  upon  her  own  fleet. 
In  dealing  with  French  ships  there  had  been  more  or 
less  forbearance  ;  when  the  tone  of  the  French  Govern- 
ment was  friendly  an  intimation  was  sent  to  the  ports 
to  let  them  pass,  but  on  the  whole  little  difference  had 
been  made.  The  sea- going  population  regarded  Papists 
generally  as  their  natural  enemies  and  their  legitimate 
prey.  Forty  or  fifty  sail — corsairs  or  privateers,  ac- 
cording to  the  point  of  view  from  which  they  were  re- 


1  Determination  of  the  General  Assembly,  July  7  :  MSS.  Scotland. 


304 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


[CH.  54. 


garded — held  the  coast  from  Dover  to  Penzance. 


The 


crews  were  English,  French,  or  Flemish,  united  by  a 
common  creed  and  a  common  pursuit.  They  shifted 
their  flags  as  suited  their  convenience,  now  sailing 
under  a  commission  from  the  Prince  of  Orange,  now 
from  the  Queen  of  Navarre.  They  had  friends  and 
stores  in  every  English  harbour,  and  since  the  publica- 
tion of  the  Bull  their  trade  had  gone  on  more  furiously 
than  ever.  Every  day  prizes  were  brought  in  to  Ply- 
mouth, Dover,  or  Southampton,  the  cargoes  were  sold 
the  ships  armed  and  refitted. 

The  prisoners  taken  had  met  with  the  same  mercy 
which  Protestants  in  the  Netherlands  experienced  from 
Alva,  or  the  landless  wretches  in  Yorkshire  and  Dur- 
ham after  the  rebellion.  At  the  end  of  July  three 
richly  laden  traders  on  their  way  from  Flanders  to 
Spain  were  captured  outside  the  Goodwins.  They  had 
made  a  fight  for  it,  and  the  crews  one  and  all  were 
flung  into  the  sea.1 

With   peace   in   France   the   whole   of  these   wild 


1  '  De  presente  se  satisfacen  con- 
tener  en  este  estrecho  mas  de  cuarenta 
velas  de  armada  como  lie  avisado,  en 
nombre  del  de  Oranges,  y  de  la 
Duquesa  de  Vendosme,  y  de  Chas- 
tillon,  que  estan  por  todos  estos  puer- 
tos  y  entran  y  salen  a  su  voluntad ;  y 
van  en  cada  nao  muchos  Ingleses,  de 
manera  que  estos  son  amigos  de 
los  piratas  publicos  enemigos  nues- 
tros  y  los  favorecen,  acogen  y  regalan, 
robando  nos  cada  dia  quantas  naos 
pasan  por  este  estrecho ;  y  lo  peor  es 


que  luego  las  arman  y  engrossan  con 
ellas  la  armada.  Continuan  en  tomar 
presas,  y  de  pocos  dias  aca  ban  to- 
rnado tres  ureas  muy  ricas  que  iban 
a  Espafia  de  Flandes,  y  por  haberse 
puesto  a  defensa,  se  dice  que  ban 
muerto  toda  la  gente  y  traen  ven- 
diendo  las  mercaderias  por  estos 
puertos.'  —  Antonio  de  Guaras  a 
Cayas,  Junio  30  y  Julio  23 :  M.SS. 
Simancas.  Compare  La  Motbe,  De- 
peches,  July  25. 


I570-]         EXCOMMUNICATION  OF  ELIZABETH.  305 

marauders  would  be  diverted  upon  Spain.  Don  Guerau 
wrote  that  Hawkins  was  fitting  out  a  squadron  to  cruise 
for  the  gold  fleet ;  and  that  the  Government  took  no 
pains  to  prevent  their  depredations.  It  is  certain  that 
Philip  had  not  as  yet  deserved  at  Elizabeth's  hands  so 
inveterate  an  animosity.  For  political  reasons  he  had 
prevented  France  from  declaring  war  against  her.  He 
had  shown  extraordinary  forbearance  in  enduring  in- 
juries to  which  a  great  Power  like  Spain  could  scarcely 
submit  without  dishonour.  He  had  empowered  Alva  to 
act  in  concert  with  the  English  Catholics  if  he  saw  a 
fair  opportunity ;  but  the  seizure  of  his  treasure  would 
have  justified  more  immediate  and  decisive  measures , 
•and  the  discretion  which  he  had  left  to  Alva  could 
have  been  no  more  than  an  excuse  to  his  own  subjects 
for  his  inaction,  for  he  knew  Alva  to  be  as  reluctant  to 
move  as  himself.  The  Spanish  nation  was  furious.  The 
feelings  of  the  proud  and  bigoted  Castilians  found  ex- 
pression in  the  intrigues  of  the  ambassadors  in  Eng- 
land and  in  the  successive  entreaties  of  de  Feria,  the 
Bishop  of  Aquila,  and  now  again  Don  Guerau  for  a 
descent  from  Flanders  upon  the  English  coast.  But 
Philip  lagged  behind  his  people,  and  Alva  knew  or 
feared  that  if  he  struck  at  England  France  would  send 
an  army  over  his  frontier,  and  the  Netherlands  would 
again  be  on  fire. 

The  danger  of  this  last  contingency  was  increased 
by  the  prospect  of  a  reconciliation  between  the  Court 
of  Paris  and  the  Huguenots.  If  the  Protestant  lead- 
ers came  back  to  power,  the  anti-Spanish  policy  of 

VOL.    IX.  20 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


[CH.   54. 


Francis  and  Henry  would  revive ;  and  in  the  event  of 
a  rupture  with  France,  the  Netherlands  could  not  pos- 
sibly be  held  unless  Elizabeth  was  at  least  neutral. 

Could  a  revolution  be  accomplished  in  England  as 
easily  as  Don  Guerau  imagined,  then  indeed  his  diffi- 
culties would  have  disappeared;  but  Philip  was  less 
sanguine  than  his  ambassador.  With  the  first  hint  that 
peace  in  France  was  possible,  he  sent  word  to  Elizabeth 
through  Don  Francis  de  Alava,  that  if  the  alliance  be- 
tween the  Crowns  of  England  and  Spain  was  broken,  it 
should  be  through  no  fault  of  his.1  When  the  Bull  of 
Excommunication  was  published  he  had  directed  Alva 
generally  to  do  what  he  could  for  the  Queen  of  Scots.2 
Elizabeth  might  die  or  be  murdered,  and  it  was  neces- 
sary to  be  prepared  for  contingencies.  But,  as  has  been 
already  seen,  he  expressed  the  most  serious  displeasure 
at  the  step  which  the  Pope  had  taken.  He  still  hoped, 
he  said,  that  his  differences  with  Elizabeth  might  be 
composed  in  any  way  rather  than  by  force ;  and  the 
Duke  of  Alva,  in  explaining  the  cause  of  the  prepara- 
tions in  the  Scheldt,  regretted  that  explanation  should 
have  been  necessary  between  countries  which  were 
naturally  friends,  and  added  that  '  since  the  Pope  had 
been  stalled  he  had  done  nothing  that  had  so  much  dis- 


1  '  Que  por  mi  parte  no  se  rompera 
la  antigua  amistad  y  alianc,a  que 
entre  nosotros  hay,  sino  que  se  la 
conservaremos  con  toda  buena  cor- 
respondencia  y  que  ella  debe  hacer 
lo  mismo.' — Philip  to  Alava,  May 
17:  TEULET,  vol.  v. 


2  '  Escribo  de  nuevo  al  Duque  de 
Alva  que  tenga  mucha  cuenta  con  la 
reyna  de  Escocia  y  la  anirae  y  la 
favorezca  con  palabras  y  otras  en 
quanto  fuese  possible.' — Philip  to 
Don  Guerau,  June  30 :  MSS.  Si- 


I570-]         EXCOMMUNICATION  OF  ELIZABETH. 


3°7 


pleased  the  King  his  master  as  the  late  declaration.1 
It  must  not  be  supposed  that  either  the  King  or 
Alva  cared  at  all  for  Elizabeth  herself.  Yet  the  Duke's 
private  correspondence  with  Philip  shows  that  both  of 
them  were  sincerely  desirous  to  avoid  a  collision  with 
her.2  They  distrusted  the  accounts  which  they  re- 
ceived from  the  sanguine  Catholics  in  England.  'I 
am  afraid  of  Don  Guerau,'  the  Duke  wrote  frankly  to 
Alava.  '  I  cannot  satisfy  myself  that  he  understands 
those  English.  I  am  doing  what  I  can  for  the  Queen 
of  Scots.  My  master  expressly  desires  me  to  assist  her ; 
but  his  wish  is  that  the  two  Queens  should  be  recon- 
ciled, and  that  both  should  feel  themselves  under  an 
obligation  to  himself.  I  am  trying  all  the  fords  in  the 
stream,  but  I  can  find  none  that  I  like/  3 

With  Spain  in  this  humour  and  the  Huguenots  re- 
stored to  favour  in  France,  the  political  objections  to 
the  release  of  the  Queen  of  Scots  might  be  supposed  to 
have  been  removed,  or  at  least  materially  diminished. 
Yet  Bacon  and  Cecil  remained  unshaken  in  their  dis- 
like. The  winds  shifted  too  rapidly,  and  the  sky  was 
still  too  threatening  for  the  present  calm  to  be  relied 
upon.  Elizabeth  herself,  with  the  instinct  of  prophecy, 
foretold  that  the  peace  in  France  would  not  last ;  that 
it  would  end  in  a  year  or  two  in  some  desperate  attempt 
to  exterminate  the  Protestants,  and  that  war  with  Eng- 


1  The  message  was  sent  through 
Sir  Henry  Norris,  Elizabeth's  Min- 
ister    at     Paris.  —  Norris    to    the 
Queen,  July  9  :  MSS.  France. 

2  Correspondance  de  Philippe  II. 


March  and  August,  1570,  torn.  ii. 

3  The  Duke  of  Alva  to  Don 
Francis  de  Alava,  July  29 :  TEULET, 
vol.  v. 


3°8 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


[CH.  54. 


land  would  follow.1  Bacon,  in  a  confidential  letter  to 
Cecil,  said  that  '  the  proposed  compromise  would  not 
make  Spain  and  France  the  more  assured,  but  the 
Queen's  Highness  the  less  to  be  feared.'  '  Better  far  it 
would  have  been/  he  thought,  'to  have  gone  through 
with  the  matter/  '  Scotland  would  by  that  time  have 
been  at  her  devotion,  and  Scotland  and  England  united 
might  encounter  the  world  in  arms/  '  The  effect  of 
her  present  measures  would  only  be  to  increase  the 
danger,  increase  the  expense,  drive  the  Queen  to  be 
burdensome  to  her  subjects,  which  again  would  breed 
new  perils ;  but  his  advice  had  not  been  allowed,  and 
they  must  now  wait  for  what  would  follow.'2  Cecil 
himself,  if  Don  Guerau's  secretary  is  to  be  trusted,  had 
sent  money  to  the  Continent  in  preparation  for  exile. 
He  intended  to  hold  on  to  the  last ;  but  he  believed 
that  the  end  might  come  at  any  time ;  and  after  an  in- 
terview with  the  Queen,  he  desired  Lady  Cecil  to  pack 
her  jewels  and  be  ready  to  fly  at  a  moment's  notice.3 


1  '  Encore  elle  pease  que  quant 
Dieu  vous  aura  donne  la  paix,  Ton 
ne  cessera,  avant  deux  ans,  de  vous 
pousser  a  la  guerre  pour  oster  cette 
religion,  et  mesmes  a  vous   animer 
contre   ce   royaulrae  comme  centre 
ung  coing  de  la  terre  qui  sert  de 
retrette      aulx     Protestans.'  —  La 
Mothe  au  Roy,  Juillet  14 :  Depeches, 
vol.  iii. 

2  Bacon  to    Cecil,   August   13, 
abridged :  Domestic  MSS. 

'  '  Esta  es  cosa  cierta  que  el  se- 
gretario  Cecil  dix6  5.  su  muger  con 
grandes  ansias,  ha  dos  semanas,  vin- 


iendo  de  la  Reyna  a  su  aposento  : 
'  Muger,  si  Dios  no  nos  ayuda,  somos 
presos  y  perdidos.  For  tanto  recoged 
vuestras  joyas  y  todo  el  dinero  que 
podeis,  paraque  me  sigais  quando  tal 
tiempo  viniere,  como  parece  que  la 
mala  fortuna  nos  amenaza.'  Y 
aunque  parece  que  no  seria  esto  assi, 
es  cierto  que  esto  paso,  porque  espe- 
raran  el  y  otros  consejeros  hasta  lo 
ultimo.  Al  extreme  piensan  desani- 
pararlo  todo  y  pasarse  a  Italia, 
Vienne,  6  otras  partes.' — Antonio 
de  Guaras  a  Cayas,  August  I. 


1570.]         EXCOMMUNICATION  OF  ELIZABETH.  309 

The  Duke  of  Norfolk  was  released  from  the  Tower  the 
first  week  in  August,  and  was  allowed  to  reside  at 
Howard  House,  under  the  partial  supervision  of  Sir 
Henry  Neville.  If  Arundel  and  Arundel's  friends  re- 
tained their  hold  upon  the  Queen,  the  next  step  was 
likely  to  be  Cecil's  arrest  or  banishment. 

He  was  not  gone  yet  however  ;  and  while  he  re- 
mained the  administrative  power  was  still  in  his  hands, 
and  he  was  not  afraid  to  use  it.  The  person  who  had 
nailed  the  Bull  against  the  Bishop  of  London's  door 
had  escaped  for  some  weeks  undiscovered.  He  had 
been  taken  at  last  however,  and  was  found  to  be  a  young 
gentleman  of  good  family  named  Felton.  Catholicism 
when  it  assumed  the  shape  of  treason  could  yet  be  dealt 
with.  Felton  confessed  under  the  rack,  but  claimed  his 
act  wholly  for  his  own.  He  was  brought  to  trial,  and 
said  at  the  bar  that  25  peers,  600  gentlemen,  and  30,000 
commons  were  ready  to  die  in  the  Pope's  quarrel.  Ce- 
cil perhaps  wished  to  provoke  them  to  the  experiment. 
Their  champion  was  put  to  death  on  the  scene  of  his 
exploit,  with  the  protracted  tortures  which  the  execu- 
tioner, if  directed,  could  inflict.1 

A   more    audacious   proceeding   followed. 
Since  there  now  appeared  to  be  no  doubt  of 
Elizabeth's    intention   to   proceed   with   the  Queen  of 
Scots'  treaty,  the  Earl  of  Westmoreland,  the  Countess 
of  Northumberland,  the  Nortons,  and  Leonard  Dacres 
had  withdrawn  from  Scotland.       So  long  as  they  re- 

1  '  Le  hicieron  quartos  vivo  con  grandissima  crueldad.' — De  Guaras 
&  Cayas,  Affosto  9 :  MSS.  Simancas. 


3io  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  54. 

mained  either  nothing  could  be  done,  or  their  extra- 
dition would  be  made  a  condition  of  the  agreement. 
They  had  therefore  crossed  over  to  the  Netherlands,  in- 
tending to  return  when  the  Queen  of  Scots  was  released 
and  the  stir  in  England  had  recommenced.  Great 
numbers  of  English  refugees  were  already  collected 
under  Alva's  protection.  Priests,  lawyers,  knights, 
peers,  noble  ladies,  representatives  of  all  sorts  and  ranks 
united  in  an  enmity  to  their  Sovereign,  and  in  a  pas- 
sionate hope  of  speedily  assisting  in  her  overthrow. 
They  were  living  on  pensions  from  Philip,  entertained 
much  as  Chatillon,  Montgomery,  the  Vidame  of  Chartres, 
and  other  Huguenots  had  been  entertained  in  England ; 
and  there  they  had  continued  some  of  them  from  the 
time  of  Elizabeth's  accession,  scheming,  conspiring,  in- 
triguing, gliding  backwards  and  forwards  over  the 
Channel  in  disguise,  and  circulating  seditious  pamphlets 
in  the  English  counties. 

Among  these  persons  was  Doctor  Story,  a  man  who 
had  been  notorious  for  his  cruelties  during  the  Marian 
persecutions,  and  for  the  insolence  with  which  he  had 
defended  them  in  Elizabeth's  first  Parliament.  He  had 
been  imprisoned  for  refusing  the  Oath  of  Allegiance, 
but  he  had  escaped  abroad  and  had  since  been  especially 
active  in  plotting  treason.  On  this  person  Cecil  had 
long  had  his  eye.  Spies  pretending  to  be  Catholics  had 
been  watching  him  and  probing  his  secrets.  Besides 
the  ordinary  plots  for  invading  England,  it  seems  that 
he  had  a  scheme  on  foot  in  connection  with  one  of  the 
TIamiltons  for  a  feat  which  would  have  eclipsed  the 


i  5  70.]         EXCOMMUNICA  T2ON  OF  ELlZABE  Tti. 


murder  at  Linlithgow.  It  was  nothing  less  than  mak- 
ing away  with  the  little  King  of  Scots,  in  the  belief  that 
with  his  life  would  be  removed  the  principal  obstacle  to 
his  mother's  marriage  with  some  Catholic  prince.1 

Whether  Cecil  knew  anything  of  this  does  not  ap- 
pear. He  bribed  however  a  refugee  named  Parker  who 
was  in  Story's  confidence.  Story  himself  was  employed 
by  Alva  to  search  vessels  arriving  from  England  sus- 
pected of  containing  heretical  books.  Parker  enticed 
him  by  false  information  on  board  a  trader  lying  in  the 
river  below  Antwerp,  where  he  was  immediately  flung 
into  the  hold,  the  hatches  were  closed  down  upon  him, 
and  in  a  few  hours  he  was  in  Yarmouth.2 


1  This  preposterous  piece  of 
wickedness  would  have  been  incred- 
ible had  it  not  been  confessed  by 
Story  himself.  The  account  of  it 
was  transmitted  by  the  Spanish 
ambassador  to  Philip.  The  Prestal 
spoken  of  as  another  of  the  con- 
spirators will  be  heard  of  hereafter. 
Don  Guerau's  words  are  these  : — 

'  Dixo  Story  que  Hamilton  le  re- 
firio  que  le  habia  escripto  Prestal 
que  aqucl  negocio  que  el  Story  y  el 
Hamilton  le  habian  dicho,  que  podia 
hacer  con  Ingles  que  entonces  estaba 
en  Irlarida,  no  se  podia  acabar  sin 
gran  copia  de  dinero.  Y  este  secreto 
era  sobre'  matar  al  Key  de  Escocia  ; 
porque  este  Prestal  habia  dicho  a 
Hamilton  que  con  dificultad  pudieran 
ser  los  Escoceses  reducidos  a  la  obe- 
diencia  de  la  Reyna,  mientras  ella 
estuviese  sin  marido,  y  que  ningun 
hombre  principal  la  querria  por  mu- 


ger  mientras  viviese  aquel  muchacho, 
pero  si  le  mataba  que  el  esperaba  que 
el  her  man  o  del  Emperador  se  casa- 
ria  con  ella.' — Sacada  de  las  Cou- 
fessiones  del  Doctor  Story :  MSS. 
Simancas. 

2  Parker  was  treated  in  the  same 
way,  and  sent  to  London  as  a  pri 
soner,  lest  information  should  get 
abroad  of  his  treachery,  and  lie  and 
others  should  be  disabled  from  do- 
ing similar  services.  The  Govern- 
ment was  already  contemplating  the 
seizure  of  another  of  the  gang.  Sir 
H.  Cobham,  writing  from  Antwerp 
on  the  4th  of  September,  says : — 'I 
am  informed  to  a  surety  that  Pres- 
tal is  with  the  Countess  of  North- 
umberland. If  the  manner  of  the 
conveyance  of  Story  had  been  kept 
secret  in  England,  or  yet  hereafter 
shall  be  well  carried,  I  think  there 
is  which  will  hazard  to  do  the  like 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


[CH.  54. 


Finding  himself  in  the  hands  of  the  enemy,  he  wrote 
on  being  landed,  half  in  irony,  to  Cecil,  that  '  as  he 
was  old  and  decrepit,  one  iron  on  his  sound  leg  would 
be  sufficient  to  hold  him/  and  begging  that  he  might 
be  tolerably  lodged,  '  that  he  perished  not  before  his 
time/  l 

The  '  lodging  '  prepared  for  him  was  his  own  Lol- 
lards' Tower,  which  had  been  empty  since  he  and  his 
had  lost  the  power  to  persecute.  He  bore  his  fate  with 
considerable  stoicism, 2  but  his  firmness  failed  him  in  the 
terrible  ordeal  which  followed.  He  was  examined  in  his 
cell  under  the  rack  as  Felton  had  been.  The  Catholics 
prayed  that  God  would  support  him  under  it ; 3  but  he 
was  seventy  years  old  and  feeble  for  his  age,  and  his 
dark  secrets  were  wrung  from  him  by  his  agony.  He 
was  then  tried  for  high  treason.  He  said  that  he  was  a 
naturalized  subject  of  Philip,  but  the  plea  was  not  al- 
lowed. He  was  sentenced  as  a  traitor,  committed  to  a 
dungeon  in  the  Tower,  and  left  there  waiting  for  cxe- 


enterprise  by  Prestal.  In  the  mean 
time  Story  can  inform  you  what 
practices  Prestal  hath  in  hand  for 
Scotland.  The  rebels  here  provoke 
and  stir  what  they  may.  The  chief 
captain  of  those  which  are  busy  in 
practices  is  Prestal.  Story  was 
next.' — Cobham  to  Cecil,  September 
4 :  MSS.  Flanders. 

1  Story  to  Cecil,  from  Yarmouth, 
August  15:  MSS.  Domestic. 

2  <  Story  seemeth  to  take  little 
thought  for  any  matter,  and  is  as 
perverse  in  mind  concerning  religion 


as  heretofore  he  hath  been.  He 
plainly  saith  that  what  he  did  in 
Queen  Mary's  time,  he  did  it  law- 
fully because  he  was  but  a  minister 
of  the  law;  and  if  it  .was  the  law 
again  he  might  do  the  like.' — Watts 
to  Cecil,  September  4 :  MSS.  Do- 
mestic. 

3  '  Danle  en  esta  dia  tormento  y 
creo  lo  pasara  mal.  Dios  le  ayude 
que  todos  los  Catolicos  ruegan  por 
el.'— Don  Guerau  to  Philip,  Decem- 
ber 13. 


iS7o.]        EXCOMMUNICATION  OF  ELIZABETH.  313 

cution.  If  Alva  and  Philip  endured  this,  the  Catholics 
in  England  might  well  despair  of  help  from  them  and 
Elizabeth  might  lay  aside  her  fears.  Here  was  a  man 
living  under  the  King  of  Spain's  protection,  in  the  em- 
ploy of  the  Government,  and  seized  and  carried  off  as  it 
were  under  Alva's  eyes.  Yet  Alva  contented  himself 
with  a  mild  remonstrance  to  the  English  Minister. 
'  The  proceeding  appeared  strange  to  him/  he  said ; 
'  the  Queen  of  England  should  remember  that  it  would 
discontent  her  to  have  the  like  done  in  her  countries  ; 
it  was  the  King's  pleasure  however  to  bear  with  her  in 
a  matter  which  he  would  not  have  suffered  at  another 
prince's  hand.' 1  The  English  Catholics  little  expected 
such  an  answer.  The  haughty  Alva  had  not  been  cele- 
brated for  endurance  of  injuries.  The  Queen  of  Spain 
had  not  sailed ;  ninety  large  ships  were  lying  armed 
and  manned  in  the  Scheldt ;  and  unless  Spain  intended 
to  forfeit  her  rank  in  Europe,  she  must  move  at  last. 
Lord  Seton  sped  across  from  Scotland  to  offer  Aberdeen 
for  a  landing-place.  Lord  Derby  sent  word  that  he 
could  raise  ten  thousand  men  in  Lancashire.  Arundel, 
Worcester,  Montague,  Southampton,  Lumley,  all  told 
Don  Guerau  that  they  were  ready.  Norfolk  was  flinch- 
ing ;  but  Norfolk's  absence  mattered  not.  They  waited 
only  but  for  a  sign  from  Alva,  and  they  pledged  their 
lives  that  there  should  be  no  second  failure.  Twice  the 
Bishop  of  Ross  came  with  this  message  to  the  ambas- 
sador. The  ambassador  could  but  send  their  words 


1  Cobham  to  Cecil,  August  31  :   MSS.  Flanders. 


REICN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


i.  $4. 


through  the  Duke  to  his  master,  adding  however  to  the 
letter  a  few  words  of  his  own  to  rouse  Alva  before  it 
should  be  too  late.1  '  Now/  he  said,  '  is  the  moment  for 
your  Excellency's  presence  in  England.  Never  could 
you  come  more  opportunely.  You  will  see  what  I  have 
written  to  his  Majesty  ;  what  Lord  Derby  and  the  rest 
say  is  all  true/ 

The  Catholic  Lords  sent  a  messenger  of 
their  own  to  Philip.  They  had  trusted  to 
him,  they  said,  and  hoped,  till  they  were  almost  in 
despair.  The  Queen's  Ministers  were  now  distracted, 
quarrelling  among  themselves  and  uncertain  what  to 
do.  No  such  opportunity  had  occurred  before  ;  and  if 
it  was  allowed  to  pass,  such  another  might  never  return. 
It  mattered  not  whether  a  force  was  landed  in  Scotland 
or  landed  in  England,  the  effect  would  be  the  same. 
They  offered  harbours,  supplies — all  that  an  army  could 
want ;  and  if  Philip  desired  it,  the  Prince  of  Scotland 
should  be  placed  in  his  hands  as  their  security.2 

The  excitement  among  the  Catholics  could  not 
wholly  be  concealed.  Huntingdon  had  his  eye  on 
Lord  Derby,  and  warned  Cecil  that  mischief  was  in  the 
wind  ; 3  and  whatever  might  be  Elizabeth's  pleasure, 
Cecil  determined  that  with  the  first  symptoms  of  further 


1  Descifrada  de  Don  Guerau  a 
su  Magd. — Don  Guerau  al  Duque  de 
Alva,  dos  de  Setierabre  :    MSS.  Si- 
mancas. 

2  'Avisos    que    ha    dado    Geo 
Kempe  en  Madrid,  Setiembre  19.' — 
MISS.  Simancas. 


3  Huntingdon  to  Cecil,  August 
24 :  Burghley  Papers,  vol.  i.  So 
dangerous  was  the  Court  that  Hunt- 
ingdon, after  giving  his  information, 
added,  '  Take  heed  to  which  of  your 
companions  you  utter  this,  though 
you  be  now  but  five  together.' 


1 5  70.  ]         EXCOMMUNlCA  T2ON  OF  ELIZA  BE  TH. 


31* 


rebellion  Mary  Stuart  should  die ;  she  at  least  should 
not  be  carried  off  to  be  a  head  and  rallying  point  to  the 
Queen's  enemies.1 

But  the  cloud,  as  so  many  others  had  done,  broke  and 
passed  off.  Alva  would  run  no  risk  without  positive 
orders  from  Philip ;  and  Philip  was  too  full  of  the  dangers 
which  he  expected  from  the  peace  in  France  to  be  will- 
ing to  take  further  quarrels  on  himself.  Two  Spanish 
officers  went  over  to  Aberdeen  and  stayed  a  week  or 
two  with  Huntly,  at  Strathbogie,  to  look  about  them. 
The  King  of  Spain  offered  Elizabeth  his  friendly  assist- 
ance in  Scotland ;  but  his  interference  was  graciously 
declined,  and  Philip  said  no  more.  Clinton  lay  in  the 
Channel  with  the  fleet,2  either  to  defend  the  country 
from  invasion,  or  to  pay  the  honours  of  the  passage  to 

the  Queen  of  Spain  as  the  event  might  turn. 

October. 
At  the  beginning  ol  October  the  huge  armada 

weighed  anchor  in  the  Scheldt,  and  swept  with  a  lea,d- 
ing  breeze  down  Channel  without  approaching  the 
English  shores.  The  Queen's  ships,  with  the  flying 
squadrons  of  privateers,  hung  about  the  skirts  of  the 
Spaniards  till  they  were  in  the  open  waters  of  the  At- 
lantic ;  but  courtesies  and  compliments  were  inter- 


1  'Al  primero  movimiento  que 
haya  en  este  reyno  cortaran  la  cabeza 
de  la  lleyna  de  Escocia — assi  esta  en 
el   consejo   desta  Eeyna  resuelto  y 
acordado.' — Don  Guerau  to  Philip, 
September  25  :  MSS.  Simancas. 

2  Much  reduced  from  its  intend- 
ed strength,  owing  to  the  Queen's 
economies.    *  La  lleyna  toma  grande 


enojo  en  ver  que  la  trayan  a  firmar 
cedula  de  treinta  mill  libras  gastadas 
con  el  aparato  desta  armada,  y^ssi 
cessa  del  todo  el  armar  mas  de  las 
diez  naves  de  que  he  dado  aviso  a 
V.  Magd  que  estan  en  orden.' — Don 
Guerau  to  Philip,  September  2 : 
MSS.  Simancas. 


316  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  54. 

changed  instead  of  cannon  shot.  The  English  Admiral 
went  on  board  the  Royal  vessel  and  presented  the 
Princess  with  a  diamond  which  had  been  given  by  Philip 
to  Queen  Mary ;  and  the  Erench  ambassador  was  driven 
sorrowfully  to  conclude  that  there  was  no  ill-will  between 
the  Catholic  Xing  and  his  heretic  sister-in-law,  and  that 
Spain  and  England  would  soon  compose  their  differ- 
ences.1 The  English  Ministers  themselves  yielded  to 
the  pleasant  hope  that  perhaps  it  might  be  so.  Hi- 
dolfi,  the  Pope's  agent,  the  most  passionate  firebrand 
in  Europe,  volunteered  his  services  for  the  exchange  of 
the  arrested  ships  and  property ;  and  so  plausible  was 
he  that  even  the  acute  Walsingham  recommended  Hi- 
dolfi  to  Cecil  as  a  person  in  whom  he  might  confidently 
rely.2 

Meantime  Scotland  was  seething  and  fermenting  in 
the  expectation  of  the  Queen  of  Scots'  return.  Both 
parties  denounced  Elizabeth — the  Protestants  for  her 
breach  of  promise,  the  rest  for  the  insulting  and  impe- 
rious attitude  which  she  had  assumed  towards  their 
country ;  yet  all  were  persuaded  that  the  Queen  was 
really  coming  back ;  and  the  only  question  was  whether 
Elizabeth  was  to  dictate  the  conditions,  or  whether  the 
restoration  was  to  be  forced  upon  her  with  a  high 
hand. 

^  Commissioners  from  both  King  and  Queen  had  been 
required  to  come  to  London  where  they  could  be  heard 
upon  their  several  claims ;  but  neither  party  had  been 

1  La  Mothe,  October  10. 
8  Walsingham  to  Cecil,  October  22  :  MSS.  Domestic. 


15  70. 1         EXCOMMUNICA  TION  OF  E  LIZ  ABE  TH.  317 

anxious  for  haste.  The  new  Regent  and  his  friends 
were  hoping  that  something  might  occur  to  change 
Elizabeth's  purpose  once  more,  Chatelherault  and  Mait- 
land  waited  for  the  result  of  their  application  to 
Alva. 

Maitland's  heart  was  set  steadily  on  one  point— to 
bring  Elizabeth  on  her  knees  before  his  own  mistress.  If 
it  could  be  accomplished  by  force,  so  much  the  better, 
but  the  treaty  would  be  a  road  as  sure,  though  less 
rapid,  to  the  same  end.  He  expected  that  the  condi- 
tions would  be  strained  in  the  hope  that  they  might  be 
rejected.  If  this  was  Elizabeth's  purpose  he  meant  to 
disappoint  her  by  agreeing  to  everything  however  hu- 
miliating, being  satisfied  that  when  the  Queen  of  Scots 
was  once  at  liberty  whatever  engagements  she  might 
make  would  snap  like  rotten  cords, 

He  was  staying  through  the  summer  and  ^ 
autumn  at  Blair  Athol,1  recruiting  his  shaken 
health  among  the  glens  and  mountains.  Cultivated  far 
beyond  the  wild  men  on  whom  he  played  as  upon  in- 
struments, Maitland  would  at  any  age  of  the  world 
have  been  in  the  first  rank  of  statesmen.  He  had  little 
in  him  of  high  moral  purpose  in  the  technical  sense  of 
the  words,  but  he  was  a  passionate  Scot,  proud  of  his 
own  intellect,  and  prouder  of  his  country,  to  which  he 
devoted  himself  with  a  tenacity  of  purpose  that  no 
temptation  of  private  interest  could  affect.  He  remains 
with  all  his  faults  a  person  singularly  interesting,  and 


1  Maitland  was  the  Earl's  brother-in-law. 


3 1 8  REIGN  OF  ELIZABE  TH.  [CH .  54. 

whatever  will  throw  light  upon  his  character  deserves 
to  be  carefully  studied. 

After  the  sharp  burst  of  scorn  with  which  he  had 
spoken  of  the  destruction  of  Hamilton  he  resumed  his 
self-command,  and  pretending  to  be  satisfied  that  his 
mistress  must  abandon  the  hope  of  recovering  her 
liberty  by  revolution,  he  sketched  to  Sussex  an  outline 
of  the  conditions  which  he  said  that  he  was  prepared 
to  urge  upon  her  acceptance.  The  sore  subject  of  the 
title  might  be  dropped  conclusively.  The  Queen  of 
Scots  should  promise  never  again  to  molest  the  Queen 
of  England,  and  she  *'  should  strengthen  her  obligations 
with  her  great  seal  and  oath/  The  Emperor  and  the 
Kings  of  France  and  Spain  would  be  sufficient  securi- 
ties. These  Sovereigns  would  '  bind  themselves  to  be- 
come her  enemies  if  she  broke  her  engagements,'  and 
an  Act  of  Parliament  might  then  be  passed  in  England 
cutting  her  ofi°  from  the  succession.  The  Queen  of  Eng- 
land '  should  dispose  of  her  in  marriage  ; '  '  the  chief 
persons  in  Scotland  that  took  her  side  should  be  host- 
ages for  her,  and  the  Queen  of  Scots  should  either 
reside  freely  herself  in  England  or  the  Prince  should 
come  there  in  her  place.'1 

These  offers  naturally  appeared  to  Sussex  '  as  ample 
as  upon  the  sudden  he  could  conceive  needed  to  be  de- 
manded.' His  one  objection  was  that  '  the  performance 
of  them  depended  only  upon  conscience,  and  rested  in 
the  will  and  liberty  of  the  persons  that  should  perform.' 

1  Maitland  to  Sussex,  June  29 ;  Sussex  to  Maitland,  July  5  :  MSS. 
Scotland. 


EXCOMMUNICATION  OF  ELIZABETH. 


319 


He  had  no  confidence  in  Maitland.  He  doubted  whether 
he  was  dealing  honestly  with  him,  and  he  intimated 
that  '  by-practices '  would  be  found  dangerous,  and  that 
'her  Majesty  had  subjects  who  would  provide  for  her 
surety  whatever  became  of  themselves/  But  the  pro- 
posals, if  made  in  sincerity,  deserved  consideration,  and 
while  sending  them  on  to  the  council  Sussex  used  the 
opportunity  which  Maitland' s  letter  gave  him  to  ask  for 
an  explanation  of  the  problem  which  was  perplexing 
everybody — why  he  who  had  so  long  acted  with  the 
Protestants  had  gone  over  to  the  other  side.  He  had 
been  one  of  those  who  had  advocated  harder  measures 
for  the  Queen  of  Scots  than  the  Queen  of  England 
would  allow.  '  The  persons  were  the  same,  the  cause 
the  same,  the  matter  the  same/  '  How  had  severity 
which  was  just  one  day  become  unjust  the  next?' 
'  There  was  neither  wisdom  in  it  nor  philosophy/ 1 

A  note  from  Maitland  to  his  brother  explains  the 
object  of  his  first  letter  to  Sussex.  He  was  wishing 
merely  to  recover  for  himself  the  confidence  of  the 
English  council ; 2  but  a  correspondence  followed  cha- 
racteristic both  of  Sussex  and  himself. 

'You  ask  me  why  I  have  changed  my  mind/  he 


1  Sussex  to  Maitland,  July  5  : 
MSS.  Scotland. 

2  '  I  send  you  herewith  the  copy 
of  my  letter  to  the  Earl  of  Sussex 
which  you  desirer  wherein  you  will 
think  I  have  gone  very  far ;  yet  I 
did  it  not  without  consideration.     I 
open  nothing  but  that  I  know  is  al- 


ready in  hand  and  muckle  mair.  I 
would  they  had  that  opinion  of  me 
that  I  dealt  squarely  and  roundly 
with  them  ;  and  my  opinion  will  not 
make  the  matter  up  or  down.' — 
Maitland  to  the  Laird  of  Coldingham, 
July  17:  MSS.  Ibid. 


320  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  54. 

replied.  '  Have  you  never  changed  yours  ?  Those  are 
not  the  wisest  men  who  remain  always  of  one  opinion. 
The  skilful  sailing  master  applies  his  course  as  the 
wind  and  weather  drive  him.  You  speak  of  philosophy; 
I  have  none  of  it.  Yet  if  I  turned  my  mind  that  way 
I  would  not  study  it  after  the  intractable  discipline  of 
the  Stoics,  but  would  rather  become  a  student  in  the 
school  where  it  is  taught  that  wise  men's  minds  must 
be  led  by  probable  reasons.  That  same  firm,  certain, 
unchangeable,  and  undoubting  persuasion  which  is  re- 
quisite in  matters  of  faith  must  not  be  required  in  mat- 
ters of  policy;  and  good  and  evil  are  not  such  in 
themselves  but  in  their  relation  to  other  things.  You 
say  persons,  cause,  and  matter  are  the  same.  It  is  not 
so,  for  time  has  altered  many  things.  The  affections  of 
men  are  changed  in  both  realms  and  the  persons  are 
altered.  The  person  of  the  late  Regent  was  a  circum- 
stance of  no  small  moment.  And  severity  was  a  matter 
which  might  well  vary  with  the  change  only  of  time. 
To  sequestrate  the  Queen  for  a  season  might  be  re- 
^  aired ;  to  keep  her  all  her  days  in  prison  would  be 
rigour  intolerable.  Were  it  true  that  I  had  advised 
more  hard  dealing,  yet  the  substance  of  things  is  not 
changed  by  our  opinion.  They  are  not  good  or  ill, 
rigorous  or  equitable,  because  we  think  them  so.  I 
might  have  been  wrong  then  and  I  might  be  right  now 
— but  it  is  not  so.  I  may  have  been  with  those  that 
persuaded  worse  to  be  done  to  the  Queen  of  Scots  by 
your  Sovereign,  but  I  was  never  a  persuader  of  such 
matters  myself.  I  never  went  about  from  the  begin- 


1570.]         EXCOMMUNICATION  OF  ELIZABETH.  321 

ning  to  advise  her  destruction,  nor  meant  at  any  time 
ill  to  her  person.  A  month  after  the  late  Hegent  ac- 
cepted office  I  dealt  earnestly  with  him  to  accord  with 
the  Queen.  From  first  to  last  I  have  laboured  always 
that  the  matter  should  be  taken  up  by  accord/ l 

The  high  ground  of  moral  abstraction  was  pleasant 
to  Sussex.  He  burnished  up  the  rusty  weapons  of  his 
school  days,  pelting  his  adversary  with  logical  formulas, 
and  fastening  upon  his  heretical  views  of  good  and  evil. 
He  ran  over  the  various  steps  which  had  been  taken  by 
the  party  of  which  Maitland  had  been  a  member. 

'  To  depose  a  Sovereign/  he  said,  ( was  a  serious 
matter,  not  to  be  taken  up  lightly  and  laid  aside  because 
times  were  changed.  Alteration  on  such  a  point  was 
not  wisdom  but  frivolous  mutabili  cation,  unless  indeed 
the  cause  alleged  for  the  deposition  had  been  discovered 
to  be  false.  He  desired  to  be  satisfied  whether  Mait- 
land thought  it  ivas  false. 

'What  your  party  did  in  England/  he  continued, 
'  tended  not  to  a  short  restraint  of  your  Queen,  but  was 
directly  either  to  deliver  her  captive  into  your  own 
custodies  or  to  bind  the  Queen  to  detain  her  so  as  she 
should  never  trouble  Scotland  more.  If  her  captivity 
or  a  worse  matter  was  meant,  God  and  your  own  con- 
science do  know,  only  this  I  am  sure,  that  if  her  Ma- 
jesty would  have  digested  that  which  was  openly  de- 
livered unto  her  by  the  general  consent  of  your  whole 
company,  in  such  sort  as  ye  all  desired,  advised,  and 


1  Maitland  to  Sussex,  July  16,  condensed  :   MSS.  Scotland. 
vol.  '.x.  21 


322  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  54. 

earnestly — I  will  not  say  passionately,  persuaded  her 
at  that  time  to  do  for  her  own  surety,  the  benefit  of 
Scotland,  and  the  continuing  of  amity  between  both  the 
realms,  there  had  been  worse  done  to  your  Queen  than 
either  her  Majesty  or  any  subject  of  England  whom  you 
take  to  be  least  free  from  passions  could  be  induced  to 
think  meet  to  be  done/  l 

Maitland  did  not  care  to  prolong  the  argument.  He 
said  he  was  ready  to  answer  for  his  conduct  to  his  own 
mistress  when  she  pleased  to  call  him  to  account  for  it, 
and  he  was  working  loyally  to  deserve  the  pardon  which 
she  had  long  before  bestowed  upon  him.  Sussex  sent 
the  correspondence  to  the  Court,  and  Elizabeth  com- 
plimented him  for  having  come  off  with  honour  from 
an  encounter  with  one  whom  she  called  '  the  flower  of 
the  wits  of  Scotland/  'She  was  more  pleased  with 
him/  she  said,  'than  if  he  had  won  an  action  in  the 
field  ; '  '  she  always  thought  him  wise,  but  had  never 
seen  a  more  absolute  proof  of  it ;  he  had  overmatched 
and  confounded  Lidington,  not  only  with  the  truth, 
but  with  the  sharp  good  order  in  which  he  had  ex- 
pounded it.'2 

Still  unless  Mary  Stuart  got  herself  killed,  Elizabeth 
had  determined  to  send  her  back,  and  was  not  again  in- 
clined to  change  her  mind.  She  said  only  she  would  have 
conditions  which  should  enable  her  to  'command  their 
observance ; '  she  did  not  mean  to  depend  on  promises  ; 
besides  hostages  she  would  have  some  castle  or  castles 

1  Sussex  to  Maitland,  July  29  :  I        2  Elizabeth   to    Sussex,   August 
MSS.  Scotland.  1 1  :  MSS.  Scotland. 


1 5  70.]         EXCOMMVNICA  TION  OF  E LIZ  ABE  TH.  323 

in  her  own  hands  or  in  the  hands  of  Scots  on  whom  she 
could  rely.1 

Sussex  advised  her  strongly  to  secure  her  ground 
beforehand,  and  even  as  '  a  means  towards  the  peace/ 
allow  him  to  take  Edinburgh  and  Dumbarton.  She 
contented  herself  however  with  sending  a  sharp  mes- 
sage to  Chatelherault  and  Argyle,  that  if  they  meddled 
with  Lennox  and  Morton  she  did  not  mean  to  be  '  so 
deluded '  as  to  pass  it  over.  Herries  having  given  fresh 
trouble,  she  permitted  Sussex  to  make  one  more  foray 
into  Galloway,  where  he  blew  up  Dumfries  Castle  and 
left  '  not  a  stone  house  standing  capable  of  giving 
shelter  to  armed  men.' 2  Having  shown  in  this  way 
that  she  was  not  afraid  and  would  endure  no  trifling, 
she  proceeded  seriously  with  the  consideration  of  the 
treaty.  Sussex  lamented  still  that  he  had  been  for- 
bidden '  to  go  through  with  things ; '  '  the  heavier  the 
hand  of  the  English  Government  the  easier,  simpler, 
and  more  durable/  he  thought,  '  the  composition  would 
be/  But  the  Queen  considered  that  for  the  present 
enough  had  been  done.  The  difficulty  now  was  rather 
in  restraining  the  King's  party,  who  in  desperation,  and 
perhaps  privately  instigated  by  Cecil,  might  try  to  make 
a  composition  impossible.  Lennox,  under  pretence  of 
public  order,  hanged  a  party  of  thirty  to  forty  Gordons 
whom  he  caught  somewhere  :  '  shrewd  justice '  as  even 
Sussex  was  obliged  to  term  it.  Elizabeth  required  a 
bond  from  Chatelherault  and  his  friends  that  they  would 

1  Elizabeth  to  Sussex,  August  1 1  :  MSS.  Scotland 
*  Ibid. 


324 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


[CH.  54. 


September. 


keep  the  peace  and  would  not  bring  in  French  or 
Spaniards.  The  Earl  of  Argjde,  Huntly,  and 
others  assembled  to  sign  it  at  a  house  of  Lord 
Athol's,  and  ran  a  narrow  chance  of  being  surprised  and 
murdered.  The  bond  however  was  completed  and  sent 
up.  The  Regent  was  lectured  into  behaving  himself. 
Lady  Lennox  made  an  effort  to  induce  Elizabeth  to 
pause.  The  Queen  of  Scots  had  tried  to  persuade  her 
that  she  had  been  accused  unjustly  of  the  murder, 
and  had  promised  'to  love  her  as  an  aunt  and  re- 
spect her  as  her  mother-in-law/  if  in  future  they  could 
be  friends.  Lady  Lennox  replied  with  a  protest  to 
Cecil  against  the  restoration  as  tending  to  obscure  the 
memory  of  the  crimes  of  which  she  was  indisputably 
guilty.1 


1    LADY   LENNOX   TO   CECIL. 

'  September  8. 

'  Good  Master  Secretary, — You 
shall  understand  that  I  have  heard 
of  some  Commissioners  that  shall  go 
to  the  Queen  of  Scotland  to  treat 
with  her  of  matters  tending  to  her 
liberty  to  go  thither,  of  which  she 
herself  doth  already  make  assured 
account.  The  knowledge  thereof  is 
to  me  of  no  small  discomfort,  con- 
sidering that  notwithstanding  the 
grievous  murder  which  by  her  means 
only  upon  my  son  her  husband  was 
executed,  divers  persons  in  this  realm 
doth  yet  doubt,  and  a  great  many 
doth  credit,  that  since  her  coming 
hither  she  is  found  clear,  and  not  to 
be  culpable  of  that  fact ;  because,  as 
they  say,  since  all  the  conventions 


and  conferences  had  between  the 
nobility  touching  that  matter,  it  has 
not  been  published  and  made  known 
that  the  said  Queen  was  found  in 
any  way  guilty  tberein.  Much  more 
when  they  already  deceived  shall  see 
her  released  to  go  home  at  her  plea- 
sure (though  upon  some  devised  con- 
ditions to  serve  the  present),  their 
former  conceits  shall  be  verified  ;  and 
therein  they  being  satisfied  it  may 
appear  that  she  hath  sustained  in« 
sufferable  wrongs  to  be  for  no  offence 
so  long  restrained  within  this  realm. 
The  rest  thereof  I  refer  to  your  wis- 
dom. I  am  enforced  to  crave  your 
friendship  herein,  and  to  impart  this 
my  meaning  to  her  Majesty,  whose 
Highness  I  trust  will  hold  me.  ex- 
cused, considering  whereupon  I 


1 5  70.]         EXCOMMUNICA  TION  OF  ELIZABE  TH. 


325 


Elizabeth  herself  too  had  for  ever  fresh  and  fresh 
causes  of  suspicion  dragged  before  her.  A  gold  brooch 
fell  into  her  hands  in  which  the  lion  of  Scotland  was 
represented  crushing  a  leopard's  skull.  The  rose  and 
thistle  were  twined  below  them  with  the  words — 

'  Ainsy  abattra  le  lyon  Escou<joys  le  liepart  Anglois.' 

'  If  that  be  our  hap/  said  Randolph,  by  whom  the 
emblem  was  sent  to  London,  '  if  that  be  our  hap  to  have 
our  lion  of  England  clawn  by  the  powle,  we  have  over- 
long  nourished  so  cruel  a  beast  that  will  devour  the 
whole  estate/ 1 

Nevertheless  the  Queen  persevered.  She  had  given 
her  word  to  the  King  of  France,  she  said,  and  she 
meant  to  keep  it ;  adding,  with  a  proud  consciousness 
of  the  truth  of  the  words,  that  no  Sovereign  in  Christen- 
dom would  have  shown  the  forbearance  which  she  had 
shown  throughout  the  whole  business.2  She  repeated 
her  desire  that  Lennox  and  Morton  should  send  com- 
missioners to  London.  She  assured  them  that  they  need 
be  under  no  alarm.  She  would  provide  as  carefully  for 
them  as  for  herself,  but  the  cause  must  come  to  an  end,; 
'  she  could  no  longer  with  honour  or  reason  continue  to 
hold  the  Queen  of  Scots  in  restraint/  3 

Of  all  conditions  the  best  would  be  the  Queen  of 
Scots'  marriage  to  some  safe  person,  Sir  Henry  Carey 


ground  my  desire  for  the  stay  of  her 
who  otherwise  I  doubt  shall  stir  up 
such  ill  as  hereafter  all  too  late  may 
be  repented.'—  MSS.  MARY  QUEEN 
OF  SCOTS,  Rolls  House. 

1  Randolph  to  Cecil,  October  2. 


Compare  La  Mothe,  DepecJies.  Octo- 
ber 25. 

2  La  Mothe  :  Ibid. 

3  Elizabeth  to  Sussex,  September 
28  :  MSS.  Scotland. 


326  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  54. 

or  some  one  like  him.  Could  this  be  arranged  other 
securities  might  be  dispensed  with ;  if  not,  it  was 
necessary  to  tie  her  hands.  The  French  Government 
promised  to  be  contented  with  anything  provided  she 
was  still  recognized  as  Queen.  Elizabeth  fell  back  upon 
the  terms  which  had  been  sketched  by  Maitland.  Eng- 
land, Scotland,  the  people,  and  their  Sovereigns  should 
be  united  in  '  a  perfect  amity  ; '  without  prejudice  to  her 
future  claims  the  Queen  of  Scots  should  abandon 
definitely  her  present  pretences  to  the  crown  of  Eng- 
land ;  and  she  should  swear,  in  the  presence  of  the 
assembled  English  and  Scotch  nobility,  never  more  to 
trouble  the  peace  of  that  realm.  She  should  make  no 
league  with  foreign  Powers  to  England's  prejudice, 
introduce  no  foreign  troops,  and  form  no  marriage  with- 
out Elizabeth's  consent,  especially  none  with  the  Duke 
of  Anjou.  The  religion  established  in  Scotland  should 
not  be  changed ;  Dumbarton  Castle  should  be  held  by 
an  English  garrison ;  the  Prince  should  be  brought  to 
England  to  be  educated.  To  obviate  any  future  aob- 
jection  that  she  was  consenting  under  compulsion,  the 
Queen  of  Scots  should,  '  by  an  instrument  to  be  devised 
in  due  form  of  law,  declare  herself  at  liberty,'  and 
f  confirm  the  articles  collectively  and  separately  under 
the  Great  Seal  of  Scotland.'  Should  she  violate  her 
engagements  in  any  part,  '  she  should  be  in  mere  justice 
adjudged,  deputed,  and  taken  as  a  person,  by  her  own 
consent,  deprived  of  any  title,  challenge,  or  claim  to 
the  eventual  English  succession/  and  'the  Queen  of 
England  should  have  liberty  in  the  same  cause  to  pro- 


i 5  70.]        EXCOMMUNICA  TION  OF  ELIZABE  TH. 


mote  the  young  King  by  all  means  possible  to  the 
honour  of  Scotland/ 

These  conditions  were  to  be  sent  down  to  Chats- 
worth,  before  further  steps  were  taken,  for  the  Queen 
of  Scots'  approval.  If  she  made  difficulties,  she  was 
to  be  reminded  of  her  incessant  conspiracies  against 
Elizabeth,  'such  as  no  Sovereign  had  ever  remitted 
when  the  pretending  party  was  in  the  power  of  the 
possessor  of  the  crown  ; '  and  if .  this  failed,  she  was  to 
be  told  '  that  the  Queen's  Majesty  had  hitherto  forborne 
to  publish  such  matters  as.  she  might  have  done  to  have 
touched  the  Queen  of  Scots  for  the  murder  of  her  hus- 
band,' with  a  hint  that  if  driven  to  extremities,  Eliza- 
beth might  yet  have  recourse  to  those  means  for  her 
own  protection.2 

There  was  no  fear  however  that  Mary  Stuart  would 
require  to  be  pressed  in  this  way.  If  France  con- 
tinued cold  and  Spain  apathetic,  her  friends  had  agreed 
that  she  was  to  raise  no  more  difficulties  than  would 
suffice  to  allay  suspicion.  The  one  paramount  object 
was  to  get  her  out  of  England,  and  this  once  done, 
means  could  be  found  to  break  the  chains  of  the  strict- 
est treaty  which  art  could  draw.  The  Pope,  with  his 
power  to  bind  and  to  loose,  would  absolve  her  of  her 
oaths  ;  and  '  a  way  would  be  found '  to  escape  from  the 
more  substantial  engagements.  Maitland  had  instructed 


1  Articles  of  accord.  Endorsed 
by  Cecil,  '  Inter  Reginam  AnglisB  et 
Scotiae,  September,  1570':  MSS. 
MARY  QUEEN  OF  SCOTS.  Projet 


d' accord  :  TEULET,  vol.  ii. 

2  Notes  in  Cecil's  hand : 
MARY  QUEEN  OF  SCOTS. 


MSS. 


328  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  54. 

her  from  time  to  time  in  the  course  which  she  was  to 
pursue.  Two  of  his  letters  were  intercepted  by  Lennox, 
and  at  last,  though  written  in  cipher,  were  read  \)y 
Cecil's  industry — at  last,  though  with  difficulty,  and  not 
till  later  in  the  winter,  not  in  time  to  cut  off  the  nego- 
tiations in  the  bud,  but  in  time  to  prevent  the  deadly 
flower  from  growing  to  maturity. 

As  representing  the  spirit  in  which  the  Queen  of 
Scots  and  her  friends  were  about  to  enter  into  the  con- 
ference, and  the  sincerity  of  those  professions  with  which 
Mary  Stuart  had  requested,  the  Pope's  permission  to 
illude  Elizabeth,  the  substance  of  these  letters  may  be 
given  in  this  place. 

On  the  9th  of  August,  while  still  at  Blair  Athol, 
and  after  his  correspondence  with  Sussex,  Maitland 
wrote  to  the  Queen  of  Scots  to  tell  her  to  allow  no- 
thing to  interfere  with  the  completion  of  the  treaty. 
Help  eventually  might  be  looked  for  from  abroad. 
Elizabeth  was  false — on  his  life  he  could  swear  that 
she  meant  no  good — but  Mary  Stuart  must  continue  to 
treat  with  her  as  though  '  she  had  confidence  in  her 
friendship,'  '  and  must  give  her  words  for  words.' 1 

To  the  Bishop  of  Ross  a  few  days  later  he 

October. 

wrote  more  in  detail.  '  We  are  to  yield  in 
everything,'  he  said,  'and  receive  humbly  at  English 
hands  what  they  please  to  give  us.  It  breaks  my 
heart  to  see  us  at  this  point  that  Englishmen  may  give 
us  law  as  they  will.  I  understand  by  your  letter  that 

1  Maitland  to  the  Queen  of  Scots,  August  9  :  MS8.  MARY  QUEEN  OP 
SCOTS,  Rolls  House. . 


1 5  70.]         EXCOMMUNICA  TION  OF  E LIZ  ABE  TH.  329 

the  Duke  of  Norfolk  is  at  liberty,  which  is  the  best  news 
I  have  heard  this  twelve  months ;  and  unless  it  had 
been  the  Queen  of  Scots'  restitution,  or  that  the  Queen 
of  England  had  gone  ad  Patres,  ye  could  not  have  sent 
me  any  word  whereat  I  would  have  been  more  glad. 
I  hope  to  Gfod  since  that  has  come  to  pass,  the  rest 
shall  follow  shortly.  When  ye  write  the  Queen  of 
England  gives  you  good  words,  ye  do  well  to  make 
semblant  to  believe  her,  and  to  hope  for  goodness  at 
her  hands,  but  on  my  peril  in  your  heart  trust  never 
word  she  speaks,  for  ye  shall  find  all  plain  craft  with- 
out true  meaning.  Always  continue  in  the  treaty 
until  the  untruth  appears  of  itself.  You  desire  my 
opinion  what  is  to  be  answered  to  the  demand  of  the 
Prince,  some  of  the  nobility  for  hostages,  and  the 
castle  of  Dumbarton.  I  will  write  you  frankly  what 
I  think.  The  Queen  of  Scots  is  in  the  Queen  of 
England's  hands,  and  I  think  she  intends  never  with 
her  goodwill  to  part  from  her,  and  therefore  to  satisfy 
other  princes  proposes  the  harder  conditions  which 
she  thinks  shall  be  refused.  It  is  for  the  Queen  of 
Scots  hard  to  deliver  her  son  in  England,  and  it  is 
hard  for  Scotland  to  have  our  principal  strengths  in 
the  hands  of  England.  Yet  rather  than  the  Queen 
of  Scots  should  remain  still  a  prisoner,  the  conditions 
cannot  be  so  hard  that  at  length  I  would  stick  upon 
to  recover  her  liberty  ;  for  if  that  point  were  once 
compassed,  other  things  may  be  helped  again  with 
time.  It  is  well  done  for  the  Queen  of  Scots  to  make 
difficulty  that  the  Prince  be  delivered  in  England, 


330  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  54. 

because  it  will  let  the  people  of  Scotland  see  that 
she  is  careful  of  him.  Yet  for  the  matter  itself  I 
see  no  sik  danger  in  it,  neither  for  preservation  of  his 
person  nor  yet  for  peril  may  thereafter  follow  to  the 
Queen  of  Scots  herself  by  setting  up  of  him  against 
her,  that  I  would  advise  her  to  refuse  it  in  the  end. 
Those  that  are  enemies  to  her  title  in  England  would 
rather  destroy  her  person  than  his,  because  he  is  but 
a  bairn,  and  the  succession  of  his  body  is  far  off;  but 
her  person  is  the  mould  to  cast  more  bairns  in ;  so  long 
as  she  is  safe  they  will  never  press  to  destroy  him ;  be- 
sides that,  I  think,  having  interest  to  the  title  after 
her,  his  nomination  among  them  shall  further  it  with 
the  people. 

'  Besides,  if  she  were  once  at  liberty,  I  fear  not  that 
means  shall  be  found  to  make  both  England  and  Scot- 
land loth  to  enterprise  far  against  her.  I  speak  all  to 
this  end,  that  in  any  wise  her  liberty  be  procured  what- 
soever the  conditions  be;  press  it  to  the  best,  but  if 
we  fail  we  must  accept  the  worst.  As  I  write  of  the 
Prince  I  mean  of  Dumbarton.  It  is  not  the  being  of 
Dumbarton  in  English  hands  that  will  more  thrall 
Scotland  to  England,  than  Berwick  may  do  without 
Dumbarton ;  nor  yet  may  Dumbarton  keep  Frenchmen 
or  strangers  out  of  Scotland  if  the  Queen  of  Scots  desire 
them  ;  for  she  being  at  home,  Leith,  any  part  of  Fife, 
Dundee,  Aberdeen,  and  briefly  all  the  coast  of  Scotland, 
will  serve  that  turn  as  well  as  Dumbarton  can  do. 
Yield  as  little  as  ye  may,  but  yield  to  all  rather  than 
she  remain  a  prisoner,  because  I  think  her  life  always 


1570-1         EXCOMMUNICA  TSOAT  OF  ELIZABETH.  331 

in  danger  in  media  nationis  pravce.  You  write  of  a  secret 
purpose  touching  the  Queen  of  Scots'  escape.  I  pray 
you  beware  with  that  point,  for  albeit  I  would  be  con- 
tent to  be  banished  Scotland  all  the  days  of  my  life  to 
have  the  Queen  of  Scots  obtaining  liberty  without  the 
Queen  of  England's  consent,  for  the  great  uncourtesy 
that  she  hath  used  unto  her,  rather,  than  have  it  with 
her  consent  and  I  the  best  earldom  in  Scotland  between 
hands,  because  I  would  she  might  be  even  with  the 
Queen  of  England,  yet  I  dare  not  advise  her  Majesty 
to  press  at  it  without  she  be  well  assured  there  be  no 
kind  of  danger  in  executing  of  her  enterprise.  I  fear 
deadly  the  craft  of  her  enemies  that  will  not  stick  to 
set  out  some  of  themselves  to  make  her  Majesty  offers 
to  convey  her  away,  and  let  her  see  probability  to  give 
her  courage  to  take  it  in  hand,  and  then,  they  being 
privy  to  it,  to  trap  her  in  a  snare,  and  so  to  execute 
against  her  person  their  wicked  intentions,  which  now 
for  fear  of  the  world  and  shame  of  other  princes  they 
dare  not  do.  Save  her  life  whatever  ye  do,  and  sure  I 
am  God  with  time  shall  bring  all  other  things  to  pass 
to  our  contentment.  But  that  point  lost  can  never  be 
recovered,  and  then  all  is  gone.' 1 

When  this  letter  was  read  by  Elizabeth  and  Cecil  it 
was  made  evident  to  them  at  once,  that  not  a  single 
scheme  of  revenge  or  ambition  was  intended  to  be  seri 
ously  abandoned,  and  that  for  all  the  oaths  that  might 
be  sworn,  the  French  and  Spanish  armies  were  to  be 


1  Maitland  to  the  Bishop  of  Ross,  August  17  :  MSS.  QUEEN  or  SCOTS. 


332  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  54. 

introduced    into    Scotland    at    the   first    opportunity. 

As  yet  however,  and  conscious  of  her  own  sincerity, 
Elizabeth  was  able  to  half-persuade  herself  that  Mary 
Stuart  was  weary  of  conspiracy,  and  was  willing  to  re- 
main quiet  till  she  herself  was  .'dead.  The  Queen  of 
Scots'  protestations  were  incessant.  She  for  ever  said 
that  she  had  some  mysterious  secret  which  she  was 
longing  to  communicate,  but  would  only  reveal  in 
person.  Elizabeth  did  not  believe  her,  yet  did  not 
utterly  disbelieve  her ;  and — a  sufficient  proof  that  she 
was  serious  about  the  treaty — she  appointed  no  less  a 
person  than  Cecil  to  go  to  Chatsworth  to  negotiate 
with  her.  To  the  smooth  letter  she  replied  in  a  tone 
which  even  Maitland  could  not  accuse  of  insincerity  : — 

'  You  have  caused  a  rebellion  in  my  realm/  she  said, 
'  and  you  have  aimed  at  my  own  life.  You  will  say  you 
did  not  mean  these  things.  Madarn,  I  would  I  could 
think  so  poorly  of  your  understanding  and  could  lay 
your  fault  on  your  want  of  knowledge.  You  say  that 
you  desire  to  heal  the  wounds  which  you  have  caused. 
"Well,  I  send  two  of  my  council  to  you  who  know  all 
my  mind.  I  am  not  influenced  by  the  menaces  of 
France.  Those  who  would  work  upon  me  through  my 
fears  know  but  little  of  my  character.  You  tell  me  you 
have  some  mystery  which  you  wish  to  make  known  to 
me.  If  it  be  so,  you  must  write  it.  You  are  aware 
that  I  do  not  think  it  well  that  you  and  I  should  meet. 
I  trust  you  will  give  me  cause  to  forget  your  faults. 
God  knows  how  welcome  that  would  be  to  me.' 1 


1  Elizabeth  to  the  Queen  of  Scots,  September  1 7.    Abridged :  TEULET, 
Tol.  ii.  p.  406. 


1 5  70.  ]         EXCOMMUNICA  T2ON  OF  E  LIZ  ABE  TH.  333 

With  the  utmost  art  Elizabeth  could  have  scarcely 
counterfeited  language  which,  if  she  meant  well  and 
honourably,  would  have  expressed  better  what  ought  to 
have  been  her  feeling.  She  would  not  see  the  Queen 
of  Scots  herself.  It  was  not  without  misgiving  that 
she  trusted  even  Cecil  within  the  reach  of  her  fascina- 
tions. No  one  perhaps  except  Knox  had  escaped  from 
an  encounter  with  this  extraordinary  woman  altogether 
uninfluenced.  Not  a  spell  of  subtlest  glamoury  would 
be  left  untried  on  Cecil ;  and  it  was  impossible  to  forget 
that  he  was  going  into  the  presence  of  a  person  whom 
disease  or  accident  might  make  at  any  moment  his  titu- 
lar, perhaps  his  reigning  Sovereign.  Both  the  Queen 
and  Lady  Lennox  warned  him  at  his  parting  not  to 
be  '  won  over/  and  his  confident  promises  scarcely  reas- 
sured them.1 

The  Bishop  of  Ross  and  Sir  Walter  Mildmay  accom- 
panied him. 

'  The  Bishop  of  Ross/  wrote  Don  Guerau,  '  sends 
me  word  by  one  of  his  servants  that  he  will  return  in 
a  week  and  tell  me  what  his  mistress  will  do.  I  know 
for  certain  that  the  Duke  of  Anjou  is  a  suitor  for  her 
hand,  and  that  she  is  not  disinclined  to  accept  him. 
But  her  English  friends  do  not  like  it,  and  your  Ma- 
jesty may  believe  that  I  do  not.  The  Catholics,  your 
Highness  is  aware,  are  also  against  her  marriage  with 
the  Duke  of  Norfolk,  not  being  assured  that  he  is  a 
Christian.  The  Earl  of  Arundel  and  Lord  Lumley 
undertake  however  that  the  Duke  will  submit  to  the 


1  Lady  Lennox  to  Cecil,  October  5  •    MSS.  QUEEN  OF  SCOTS.     La 
Mothe,  Depeches,  October  16. 


334  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  54. 

Holy  See,  and  for  the  sake  of  a  crown  perhaps  he  will 
do  anything  good  or  bad.  He  has  been  cool  about  the 
marriage  lately,  but  it  seems  that  he  will  take  it  up 
again,  especially  as  he  expects  to  be  shortly  restored 
fully  to  liberty.  Your  Majesty  will  instruct  me  how  to 
act.  The  release  of  the  Queen  of  Scots  and  her  mar- 
riage in  a  good  quarter  will  bring  with  it  the  restor- 
ation of  religion  and  the  consequent  settlement  of  the 
Low  Countries.  I  hold  myself,  as  your  Majesty  com- 
mands, at  the  disposition  of  the  Duke  of  Alva.  The 
Bishop  of  Ross  tells  me  that  if  his  mistress  may  depend 
on  assistance  from  us,  she  will  remain  where  she  is ;  if 
not,  she  will  agree  to  the  treaty.' l 


Don  Guerau  to  Philip,  October  15  and  October  25  :  HfSS.  Simanws. 


335 


CHAPTER  LV. 

THE    RIDOLFI    CONSPIRACY. 

WHILE  the  political  and  religious  passions  of  the 
English  nobility  were  increasing  in  heat  and  in- 
tensity, the  economical  condition  of  the  commons  was 
slowly  improving.  The  social  convulsions  which  ac- 
companied the  earlier  stages  of  the  Reformation  had 
settled  down.  The  State  papers  are  no  longer  crowded 
with  complaints  of  the  oppression  of  the  poor.  The 
people  could  again  be  trusted  with  arms  without  fear 
that  they  would  use  them  against  the  landowners.  The 
interruption  of  trade  with  the  Low  Countries  permitted 
the  yeoman  once  more  to  drive  his  plough  over  the 
pastures  from  which  he  had  been  expelled  by  the  sheep- 
owners,  and  the  prices  of  wages  and  food  had  satisfac- 
torily adjusted  themselves.  The  Flemings,  who  had 
crowded  across  the  Channel  in  tens  of  thousands,  brought 
with  them  their  arts  and  industries,  and  while  the  fine 
ladies  and  gentlemen  still  looked  to  the  East  for  the 
silks  and  satins  in  which  they  fluttered  round  Elizabeth, 
the  artisans,  the  labourers,  and  the  farmers  were  clothed 


336  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  55. 

from  the  looms  which  had  been  brought  from  Ghent 
and  Bruges  to  their  own  doors.  But  the  recovered 
prosperity  was  partial ;  the  experiment  of  the  mart  at 
Hamburgh  had  been  tolerably  successful ;  but  the  Eng- 
lish merchants  and  sailors  were  tempted  from  legitimate 
trade  by  the  more  profitable  occupation  of  privateering, 
and  in  the  T4th  year  of  Elizabeth,  the  burden  of  all  the 
vessels  in  the  kingdom  which  were  engaged  in  ordinary 
commerce  scarcely  exceeded  50,000  tons.1  The  largest 
merchantman  which  sailed  from  the  port  of  London  was 
no  bigger  than  a  modern  collier  brig.2  In  the  harbours 
of  Devonshire  and  Cornwall  there  were  but  a  hundred 
and  fifty  vessels  of  all  kinds  pursuing  any  lawful  calling, 
and  the  most  considerable  of  them  would  have  appeared 
small  by  the  side  of  a  common  Channel  coasting  schooner. 
At  a  time  when  an  unarmed  ship  could  escape  from 
pirates  in  the  open  water  only  by  being  too  worthless  to 
be  seized,  the  English  sailors  eschewed  a  calling  which 
was  as  dangerous  as  it  was  inglorious. 

It  was  fortunate  for  Elizabeth  that  another  occupa- 
tion was  open  to  them,  that  the  sea-going  portion  of  her 
subjects  were  those  in  whom  the  ideas  of  the  Reform- 
ation had  taken  the  deepest  root,  and  that  the  merchant 
therefore  could  change  his  character  for  that  of  the  buc- 
caneer with  the  approval  of  his  conscience  as  well  as  to 
the  advantage  of  his  purse. 

The  Catholic  spirit  was  naturally  strongest  where 


1  The  exact  figures  are  50,926,  List  of  vessels  trading  from  all  parts 
of  England,  1572  ;  Domestic  MSS.  Rolls  House. 
-  240  tons  ;  Ibid. 


THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY.  33? 

the  people  were  least  exposed  to  contact  with  strangers. 
In  the  Midland  and  Northern  counties,  where  the  feudal 
traditions  lingered,  the  habits  were  unaltered  and  the 
superstitions  undispelled.  The  customs  by  which  old 
English  country  life  had  been  made  beautiful — the  fes- 
tivals of  the  recurring  seasons,  the  .church  bells,  the 
monuments  of  the  dead,  the  roofless  aisles  of  the  perish- 
ing abbeys — all  were  silent  preachers  of  the  old  faith 
and  passionate  protests  against  the  new ;  while  for  good 
and  evil,  peer  and  peasant,  knight  and  yeoman,  were 
linked  together  in  the  ancient  social  organization  which 
thus  survived  unbroken.  In  sharp  contrast,  the  mer- 
chant of  the  seaport  was  driven  by  his  occupation  to 
comprehend  and  utilize  the  knowledge  which  was  break- 
ing upon  mankind.  To  him.  to  live  by  custom  was 
bankruptcy  and  ruin.  Unless  he  could  grow  with  the 
times,  unless  he  could  distinguish  fact  from  imagination, 
and  laws  of  nature  from  theories  of  faith,  he  was  left 
behind  in  the  race  by  keener  and  less  devout  competitors. 
It  was  no  longer  enough  for  him  to  christen  his  ship  by 
the  name  of  a  saint,  and  pray  to  Paul  or  Peter  to  bring 
it  safe  to  harbour.  Peter  had  enough  to  do  to  save  hia 
own  bark  in  the  tempest  which  was  raging,  and  had  no 
leisure  to  listen  to  the  seaman's  orisons.  The  stars  were 
now  the  mariner's  patrons,  and  the  tables  of  longitude 
and  latitude  were  his  Liturgy.  The  sun  and  moon 
pointed  the  road  to  him  to  the  Pearl  Islands  and  gleam- 
ing gold  mines  of  the  New  Continent,  and  he  looked 
out  on  nature  and  the  world,  on  God  and  man,  and  all 
things  in  earth  and  heaven,  with  altered  and  open  eyes. 
VOL.  ix.  22 


338  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  55. 

"When  driven  from  legitimate  trade,  the  English  mer- 
chants, instead  of  flying  at  the  Government  as  the 
Spanish  ambassador  had  hoped,  flew  upon  the  spoils  of 
those  who  forced  them  to  abandon  it.  They  swarmed 
out  over  the  world,  treating  it  like  Pistol,  as  the  oyster 
which  their  sword  would  open.  Their  rights  were  in 
their  cannon,  their  title  to  their  booty  in  their  strength 
to  win  it.  Careless  of  life  and  careless  of  justice  as 
Alva's  warriors  themselves,  they  were  their  fit  antagon- 
ists in  the  great  battle  between  the  dying  and  the  rising 
creeds. 

But  there  was  another  form,  quieter,  purer,  nobler 
far,  in  England  in  which  the  new  ideas  were  developing 
themselves,  and  that  was  Puritanism.  The  Church  of 
England  was  a  latitudinarian  experiment,  a  contrivance 
to  enable  men  of  opposing  creeds  to  live  together  with- 
out shedding  each  other's  blood.  It  was  not  intended, 
and  it  was  not  possible,  that  Catholics  or  Protestants 
should  find  in  its  formulas  all  that  they  required.  The 
services  were  deliberately  made  elastic  ;  comprehending 
in  the  form  of  positive  statement  only  what  all  Christians 
agreed  in  believing,  while  opportunities  were  left  open 
by  the  rubric  to  vary  the  ceremonial  according  to  the 
taste  of  the  congregations.  The  management  lay  with 
the  local  authorities  in  town  or  parish  :  where  the  people 
were  Catholics  the  Catholic  aspect  could  be  in  ado 
prominent;  where  Popery  was  a  bugbear,  the  people 
were  not  disturbed  by  the  obtrusion  of  doctrines  which 
they  had  outgrown.  In  itself  it  pleased  no  party  or 
section.  To  the  heated  controversialist  its  chief  merit 


T*'h.  R1DOLFI  CONSPIRACY.  339 

Was  its  chief  defect.  Besides  the  Queen  there  were 
perhaps  half  a  dozen  prominent  people  in  England  who 
had  intelligence  enough  to  estimate  the  real  value  of 
forms  and  doctrines ;  the  passions  which  the  Church 
was  intended  to  check  necessarily  heaved  under  its  sur- 
face ;  but  the  scandals  and  controversies  which  were  in- 
cessantly bursting  out  should  be  regarded  rather  as  an 
evidence  of  what  the  country  would  have  been  without 
the  Establishment  than  as  indicating  that  the  Establish- 
ment itself  was  unsuited  to  the  end  for  which  it  was 
constituted. 

Conscience,  Elizabeth  never  wearied  of  proclaiming, 
was  unmolested ;  every  English  subject  might  think 
what  he  pleased.  No  Inquisition  examined  into  the 
secrets  of  opinion  ;  and  before  the  rebellion  no  questions 
were  asked  as  to  what  worship  or  what  teaching  might 
be  heard  within  the  walls  of  private  houses.  The  Pro- 
testant fanatics,  who  had  from  time  to  time  attempted 
prosecutions,  were  always  checked  and  discouraged ;  and 
unless  the  laws  were  ostentatiously  violated,  the  Go- 
vernment was  wilfully  blind.  Toleration  was  the  uni- 
versal practice  in  the  widest  sense  which  the  nature  of 
the  experiment  permitted ;  and  if  it  was  now  found  ne- 
cessary to  draw  the  cords  more  tightly,  the  fault  was 
not  with  Elizabeth  or  her  ministers,  but  with  the  singu- 
lar and  uncontrollable  frenzy  of  theology,  which  regards 
the  exclusive  supremacy  of  a  peculiar  doctrine  as  of  more 
importance  than  the  Decalogue. 

It  has  been  seen  that  the  Catholics  at  the  beginning 
of  the  reign  applied  to  Rome  for  permission  to  attend 


340  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  55. 

the  English  service.  Their  request  was  considered  and 
refused,  and  their  duties  to  the  Church  and  to  the 
Crown  being  thus  forced  into  collision,  the  more  devout 
among  them  became  rapidly  infected  with  disloyalty. 
The  outward  submission  of  the  clergy  at  Elizabeth's 
accession  is  not  to  be  construed  into  a  real  or  even  pre- 
tended approval  of  the  changes  which  were  then  rein- 
troduced.  They  had  hoped  for  a  time  that  the  Liturgy 
would  have  received  the  sanction  of  the  Pope,  and  had 
England  consented  to  submit  to  the  Holy  See,  that  sanc- 
tion might  have  been  the  price  of  the  compromise.  But 
many  of  them,  when  the  hope  passed  away,  reconciled 
themselves  to  the  Catholic  communion  and  sued  for  ab- 
solution for  their  unwilling  apostasy.  Noblemen  who 
at  first  had  attended  the  parish  churches,  no  longer  ap- 
peared there.  The  publication  of  the  Bull  precipitated 
the  reaction,  and  thenceforward  no  one  could  pretend 
to  be  a  sincere  Catholic  without  at  the  same  time  de- 
claring himself  a  traitor.  '  The  people  of  Lancashire 
refused  utterly  to  come  any  more  to  divine  service  in 
the  English  tongue/  Lord  Derby  forbade  the  further 
use  of  the  Liturgy  in  his  private  chapel.1  Grindal, 
who  had  been  appointed  Archbishop  of  York,  found  on 
arriving  at  his  diocese  that  '  the  gentlemen '  were  '  not 
affected  to  godly  religion/  They  observed  '  the  old  fasts 
and  holidays.'  *  They  prayed  still  on  their  strings  oi 
beads.'  In  London  he  had  been  chiefly  troubled  with 
the  overstraight  Genevans.  In  the  North  he  was  in 


1  The  Bishop  of  Carlisle  to  Sussex,  October  1 6,  1570:  MSS.  Border. 


THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY. 


34i 


another,  world.1  Disguised  priests  flitted  about  like 
bats  in  the  twilight,  or  resided  in  private  houses  in 
'  serving  men's  apparel/  Corpse  candles  were,  lighted 
again  beside  the  coffins  of  the  dead,  while  '  clerks  and 
curates '  sang  requiems  at  their  side.  In  other  parts  of 
England  ecclesiastical  officials,  '  nusselled  in  the  Canon 
Law/  recommenced  the  iniquities  of  the  spiritual  courts, 
*  maintaining  the  Pope's  authority/  '  propounding  ques- 
cions  at  the  visitation  and  sessions/  '  rebuking  the  Pro- 
testant preachers/  '  encouraging  or  winking  at  persons 
accused  of  Papistry,  never  giving  them  a  sharp  word/ 
They  '  provoked  the  people  to  blaspheme  God,  and 
ministered  occasion  to  sedition  ; '  and  again  with  the 
doctrines  they  brought  back  the  pleasant  practices  of 
the  good  old  times — commuting  penances  for  money, 
compounding  for  moral  enormities,  and  grinding  the 
widow  and  the  orphan  by  their  fees  and  extortions.2 


1  Grindal  to  Cecil,  August  29. 

2  '  Appeals  in  causes  of  reform- 
ation of  life  are  daily  committed  in 
the  Arches,  and  prosecuted  there  con- 
trary to  the  express  law  of  the  de- 
cretals, and  thereby  notorious  faults 
left   unreformed   and   the  offenders 
covered    or    justified,    contrary    to 
God's  Holy  Word.    As  for  example : 

'  Mrs  Neames  of  Woodnes- 
borough,  a  woman  not  only  of  evil 
life  herself,  but  also  a  broodmother 
of  others,  and  James  Augustine  of 
Staplehurst,  who  had  deflowered  two 
maids  and  got  them  with  child. 
These  twain  being  heinous  offenders, 
and  of  the  diocese  of  Canterbury, 


were  justified  and  restored  to  their 
Romish  honesty  again  by  the  Arches. 

'  Louis of  Sommerby,  having 

deflowered  two  maids  and  got  them 
with  child,  appealed  to  the  Arches, 
and  is  not  reformed  but  restored  to 
his  Romish  priestly  iniquity  again. 

'  Baker  of  Bury,  in  Suffolk,  who 
was  taken  with  another  man's  wife, 
by  appeal  first  to  the  Arches  and  then 
to  the  Delegates,  is  by  them  justified 
and  not  reformed. 

'  Appeals  in  cases  of  controversy 
between  party  and  party,  contrary  to 
both  law  and  equity,  do  pass,  Avhere- 
by  the  judges,  advocates,  and  proc- 
tors do  much  enrich  themselves  and 


342 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


[CH.  55. 


The  reaction  was  especially  marked  in  Norfolk  and 
Suffolk.  An  incipient  rebellion  had  been  smothered 
there ;  but  the  Duke  was  passionately  loved  by  the 
people,  who  were  described  as  being  '  wildly  minded/ 
Protestantism  had  been,  as  usual,  injudicious,  when 
judgment  was  particularly  required.  The  services  in 
Norwich  Cathedral  '  had  been  denuded  of  all  which 
could  savour  of  Babylon.'  '  Certain  of  the  prebend- 
aries '  had  changed  the  administration  of  the  Sacrament, 
pauperized  the  ceremonial,  broken  down  the  organ,  and, 
so  far  as  lay  in  them,  had  turned  the  quire  into  -a  Gene- 
van conventicle.1  Where  the  tendencies  to  Rome  were 
strongest,  there  th'e  extreme  Reformers  considered 
themselves  bound  to  exhibit  in  the  most  marked  con- 
trast the  unloveliness  of  the  purer  creed.  It  was  >they 
who  furnished  the  noble  element  in  the  Church  of 
England.  It  was  they  who  had  been  its  martyrs  ;  they 
who,  in  their  scorn  of  the  world,  in  their  passionate 
desire  to  consecrate  themselves  in  life  and  death  to  the 
Almighty,  were  able  to  rival  in  self-devotion  the  Ca- 


burden  and  weary  the  poor  people. 
'The  enormities  and  abuses  of 
spiritual  judges  in  extorting  money 
with  the  corrupt  dealing  of  Chancel- 
lors and  Commissaries  It  is  to  be 
noted  further  of  Archdeacons  who 
savour  of  Rome  and  favour  not  good 
religion,  they  abusing  their  authority 
do  more  harm  than  any  preacher 
doth  profit  in  divine  sermons,  partly 
by  severe  handling  the  preachers, 
and  sometimes  by  cruel  thrcatenings, 
withdrawing  the  people  from  God's 


"Word  and  keeping  them  in  doubt  in 
matters  of  faith.  In  the  late  visita- 
tion at  Norwich  very  few  preachers 
escaped  without  an  open  rebuke  at 
the  lawyers'  hands.  Neither  was 
any  Papist  reformed  or  touched  with 
any  sharp  word.' — Abuses  in  the 
Canon  Law,  1569,  1570 :  MS 8. 
Domestic.  Endorsed  in  Cecil's  hand. 
1  The  Queen  to  the  Bishop  of 
Norwich,  September  25 :  MSS. 
Domestic.  Cecil's  hand. 


1570.]  THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY.  343 

tholic  saints.     But  they  had  not  the  wisdom  of  the  ser- 
pent, and  certainly  not  the  harmlessness  of  the  dove. 

Had  they  been  let  alone — had  they  been  unharassed 
by  perpetual  threats  of  revolution  and  a  return  of  the 
persecutions — they  too  were  not  disinclined  to  reason 
and  good  sense.  A  remarkable  specimen  survives,  in 
an  account  of  the  Church  of  Northampton,  of  what 
English  Protestantism  could  become  under  favouring 
conditions.  Under  the  combined  management  of  the 
Bishop  of  Peterborough  and  the  Mayor  and  Corpora- 
tion of  the  city,  the  laity  and  clergy  of  Northampton' 
shire  worked  harmoniously  together.  On  Sundays  and 
holydays,  the  usual  services  were  read  from  the  Prayer- 
book.  In  the  morning  there  was  a  sermon ;  in  the 
afternoon,  when  prayers  were  over,  the  '  youth '  were 
instructed  in  Calvin's  Catechism.  On  Tuesdays  and 
Thursdays,  a  '  lecture  of  Scripture  *  was  read,  with  ex- 
tracts from  the  Liturgy,  and  afterwards  there  was  a  gen- 
eral meeting  of  the  congregation,  with  the  Mayor  in  the 
chair,  for  '  correction  of  discord,  blasphemy,  whoredom, 
drunkenness,  or  offences  against  religion.'  On  Satur- 
days, the  ministers  of  the  different  neighbourhoods  as- 
sembled to  compare  opinions  and  discuss  difficult  texts ; 
and  once  a  quarter  all  the  clergy  of  the  county  met  for 
mutual  survey  of  their  own  general  behaviour.  Offences 
given  or  taken  were  mentioned,  explanations  heard,  and 
reproof  administered  when  necessary.  Communion  was 
held  four  times  a  year.  The  clergyman  of  each  parish 
visited  from  house  to  house  during  the  preceding  fort- 
night, to  prepare  his  flock.  *  The  table  was  in  the  body 


344 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


[CH.  55. 


of  the  church,  at  the  far  end  of  the  middle  aisle ; '  and 
while  the  people  were  communicating  '  a  minister  in 
the  pulpit  read  to  them  comfortable  scriptures  of  the 
Passion/ 

From  these  arrangements  it  is  clear  that  the  Ge- 
nevan element  preponderated,  but  there  follows  a  re- 
markable proof  that  even  Calvinism,  when  left  to  itself, 
did  not  necessarily  imply  ecclesiastical  despotism.  The 
congregation  of  Northampton,  i  as  a  confession  of  faith/ 
'accepted  Holy  Scripture  as  the  Word  of  God,  to  be 
read  alike  by  all,  learned  and  unlearned ; '  but  '  they 
did  condemn  as  a  tyrannous  yoke  whatever  men  had 
set  up  of  their  own  invention  to  make  articles  of  faith 
or  bind  men's  consciences  to  their  laws  and  statutes  ; 
they  contented  themselves  with  the  simplicity  of  the 
pure  Word  of  God  and  doctrine  thereof,  a  summary 
abridgment  of  which  they  acknowledged  to  be  contained 
in  that  Confession  of  Faith  used  by  all  Christians,  com- 
monly called  the  Creed  of  the  Apostles.' 1 

The  fury  of  the  times  unhappily  forbad  the  main- 
tenance of  this  wise  and  prudent  spirit.  As  the  powers 
of  evil  gathered  to  destroy  the  Church  of  England,  a 
fiercer  temper  was  required  to  combat  with  them,  and 
Protestantism  became  impatient,  like  David,  of  the 
uniform  in  which  it  was  sent  to  the  battle.  It  would 
have  fared  ill  with  England  had  there  been  no  hotter 
blood  there  than  filtered  in  the  sluggish  veins  of  the 
officials  of  the  Establishment.  There  needed  an  enthu- 


1   Order  of  the  services  in  the  Church  of  Northampton,  June  5,  1571  : 
MSS.  Domestic,  Rolls  House. 


I570-]  THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY.  345 

siasm  fiercer  far  to  encounter  the  revival  of  Catholic 
fanaticism  ;  and  if  the  young  Puritans,  in  the  heat  and 
glow  of  their  convictions,  snapped  their  traces  and 
flung  off  their  harness,  it  was  they,  after  all,  who  saved 
the  Church  which  attempted  to  disown  them,  and  with 
the  Church  saved  also  the  stolid  mediocritv  to  which 
the  fates  then  and  ever  committed  and  commit  the 
government  of  it. 

In  the  months  which  followed  the  suppression  of 
the  Northern  rebellion,,  the  peace  of  Cambridge  was 
troubled  by  the  apparition  of  a  man  of  genius.  Thomas 
Cartwright,  now  about  thirty-five  years  old,  had  entered 
at  St  John's  in  1550.  He  left  the  University  during 
the  Marian  persecution,  and  kept  terms  as  a  law  student 
in  London.  He  returned  on  the  accession  of  Elizabeth, 
became  a  Fellow,  and  continued  in  residence,  till  the 
Vestment  Controversy  of  1564  sickened  him  for  a  time 
with  English  theology,  and  he  went  over  to  Geneva. 
In  Calvin's  atmosphere  he  recovered  his  spirits,  came 
back  to  Cambridge,  and  by  some  accident  was  appointed 
Margaret  Professor  of  Divinity.  Cartwright  was  no 
doubt  at  this  time  a  questionable  occupant  of  an  Eng- 
lish ecclesiastical  office.  He  was  at  the  age  when  men 
of  noble  and  fiery  natures  are  impatient  of  unrealities. 
He  had  been  ordained  deacon,  but  he  had  come  to  un- 
derstand that  the  so-called  '  Holy  Orders,'  in  their 
transcendental  sense,  were  things  of  the  past.  He  de 
stroyed  his  license.  The  sole  credentials  of  a  teacher 
which  he  consented  to  recognize  were  the  intellect  and 
spirit  which  had  been  received  direct  from  God  ;  and 


346  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  55. 

Cecil,  as  Chancellor  of  the  University,  was  beset  with 
complaints  of  the  wild  views  which  the  Margaret  Pro- 
fessor was  spreading  among  the  students.  Pluralities 
and  non-residence,  those  comfortable  stays  and  supports 
of  the  University  dignitaries,  he  denounced  as  impious, 
and  the  Spiritual  Courts  'as  damnable,  devilish,  and 
detestable/  'Poor  men/  he  said,  'did  toil  and  travel, 
and  princes  and  doctors  licked  up  all.  He  maintained 
that  those  who  held  offices  should  do  the  duties  of  those 
offices  ;  that  high  places  in  the  Gommonwealth  belonged 
to  merit,  and  that  those  who  without  merit  were  in- 
truded into  authority  were  thieves  and  robbers.'  In  short, 
he  professed  the  old  creed  with  which  all  noble-minded 
men  from  the  beginning  have  entered  into  life — the  old 
creed,  of  which  they  find  in  the  end  that  the  smallest  ho- 
moaopathic  element  is  the  most  that  mankind  will  absorb. 
Whitgift,  then  master  of  Trinity,  afterwards  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury,  and  Elizabeth's  '  little  black  par- 
son/ soon  sent  up  to  the  Court  special  charges  against 
Cartwright.  He  had  said  that  archbishop  and  arch- 
deacon should  be  abolished  in  name  and  office,  and  that 
bishops  and  deacons  should  be  recalled  to  the  Apos- 
tolic pattern.  Bishops  should  be  elected  only  by  the 
Church,  and  ministers  were  only  ministers  when  called 
to  a  spiritual  charge.  To  kneel  at  the  Communion  he 
had  called  a  feeble  superstition.  Unless  opinions  like 
these  could  be  put  down,  it  appeared  to  the  Heads  of 
Houses  at  Cambridge  that  all  authority  in  Church  and 
State  would  be  overthrown.1 


1  TV.  Chaterton  to  Cecil,  June  2  ;    Whitgift  to  Cecil,  November  7, 
1570:  MSS.  Domestic. 


1 5 70-]  THE  KWOLFI  CONSPIRACY.  347 

Occupied  at  the  time  with  serious  matters,  Cecil  was 
unable  for  a  time  to  comprehend  the  nature  of  Cart- 
wright's  offence.  He  wrote  to  the  Board  that  he  could 
see  nothing  in  his  conduct  which  could  he  called  im- 
proper. The  professor  appeared  simply  to  have  been 
giving  his  pupils  the  result  of  his  own  studies  of  the 
New  Testament.  '  Until  further  orders  could  be  taken/ 
it  would  be  well  if  he  did  not  touch  on  the  disputed 
topics ;  but  beyond  this  recommendation  Cecil  declined 
to  go.1 

Had  Cecil's  temperance  been  imitated  at  the  Uni- 
versity, moderation  might  have  produced  moderation 
A  man  of  genuine  ability  is  never  inaccessible  to 
reason,  and  had  Cartwright  been  treated  discreetly  he 
would  have  become  himself  discreet.  But  the  opinion 
of  a  statesman  weighed  nothing  with  the  men  who 
governed  Cambridge.  The  Professor  was  suspended, 
and  his  influence  became  ten  times  greater  than  before. 
Though  the  lecture-room  was  closed  to  him,  the  pulpits 
were  free.  He  had  but  to  open  his  lips  there  and  his 
word  was  absolute.  He  denounced  the  unfortunate 
vestments.  The  next  'day,  all  the  students  but  three 
in  Trinity  appeared  in  chapel  without  their  surplices. 
It  was  too  much.  Cartwright  was  deprived  of  his  Fel- 
lowship and  expelled  from  the  University. 

Of  all  types  of  human  beings  who  were  generated  by 
the  English  Reformation,  men  like  "Whitgift  are  the 
least  interesting.  There  is  something  in  the  constitu- 
tion of  the  Establishment  which  forces  them  into  the 


Cecil  to  the  Vice-Chancellor  and  Heads  of  Houses,  August  3  :  MSS 


348  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  55. 

administration  of  it ;  yet,  but  for  the  statesmen  to  whom 
they  refused  to  listen,  and  the  Puritans  whom  they  en- 
deavoured to  destroy,  the  old  religion  would  have  come 
back  on  the  country  like  a  returning  tide.  The  Puritans 
would  have  furnished  new  martyrs ;  the  statesmen, 
through  good  and  evil,  would  have  watched  over 
liberty  :  but  the  High  Church  clergy  would  have  slunk 
back  into  conformity,  or  dwindled  to  their  proper  insig- 
nificance. The  country  knew  its  interests,  and  their 
high-handed  intolerance  had  to  wait  till  more  quiet 
times ;  but  they  came  back  to  power  when  the  chances 
of  a  Catholic  revolution  were  buried  in  the  wreck  of  the 
Armada  ;  and  they  remained  supreme  till  they  had  once 
more  wearied  the  world  with  them,  and  brought  a  king 
and  an  archbishop  to  the  scaffold. 

These  petty  troubles,  however,  fertile  as  they  were  of 
mischief  in  the  future,  were  of  small  importance  by  the 
side  of  the  immediate  pressing  perils.  Nestled  in  the 
heart  of  England  lay  the  bosom  serpent,  as  "Walsingham 
called  the  Queen  of  Scots,  with  the  longing  eyes  of  the 
English  nobles  fastened  upon  her  as  their  coming  de- 
liverer. There  she  lay  deserving,  if  crime  coulddeserve, 
the  highest  gallows  on  which  ever  murderer  swung,  yet 
guarded  by  the  mystic  sanctity  of  her  birth-claim  to  the 
crown. 

Cecil  has  not  left  on  record  the  impression  which 
Mary  Stuart  made  upon  him  when  he  saw  for  the  first 
time  the  object  of  so  many  years'  anxiety.  It  was  not 
then  as  when,  seventeen  years  later,  those  two  once 
more  encountered  each  other,  when  compromise  was 


THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY. 


349 


dreamt  of  no  longer,  and  long-lingering  justice  was 
claiming  its  own  at  last.  What  to  do  with  her  at 
present,  and  till  the  times  were  ripe  for  the  sharp 
remedy  of  the  axe,  might  well  try  the  strongest  intelli- 
gence. England,  north  and  south,  was  trembling  on  the 
edge  of  a  second  rebellion.  The  Duke  of  Norfolk  had 
been  released  from  the  Tower,  on  renewing  his  promise 
'  to  deal  no  more  in  the  matter  of  the  Queen  of  Scots/ 
A  second  time  he  sent  a  copy  of  his  bond  to  the  very 
person  with  whom  he  was  pledging  himself  not  to  com- 
municate, meaning  bad  faith  from  the  first,  as  the  Bishop 
of  Ross,  who  was  in  his  confidence,  admitted.1  The  turn 
which  afiairs  might  take  in  France  was  still  far  from 
certain.  If  the  Admiral  was  received  at  Court,  the 
peace  might  lead  to  war  with  Spain,  or  the  project 
might  yet  be  revived  for  the  marriage  of  Anjouand  the 
Queen  of  Scots ; 2  while  engagements,  guarantees, 
promises — all  the  pledges,  whether  made  by  the  Queen 
of  Scots,  by  the  Court  of  Paris,  or  by  any  or  every  per 
son  who  became  security  for  the  observance  of  the 
treaty — could  be  brushed  away  like  a  cobweb  by  the 
all-powerful  representative  of  St  Peter.  Cecil  well 


1  Confession   of  the   Bishop   of 
Ross,  1571  :  MURDIN. 

2  On  the    3 1st  of  August    Sir 
Henry   Norris   wrote   that    it    was 
feared  the  King,  after  lulling  the 
Admiral  into  a  false  security,  would 
destroy  him  and  his  friends.    Anjou, 
4  whose  haughty  mind  could  not  be 
restrained  within  a  younger  brother's 


portion,'  was  looking  to  England 
and  Mary  Stuart  to  provide  him  with 
a  kingdom  and  a  Avife  ;  and  Korris 
warned  the  Queen  that  she  must 
stand  upon  her  guard  if  she  wished 
France  to  make  fair  weather  with 
her.— Norris  to  Elizabeth  :  MSS 
France, 


350  RFJdN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  55. 

knew  that  he  was  walking  on  a  thin  crust  with  the  lava 
boiling  under  his  fyet.  Whether  the  crust  was  harden- 
ing, or  whether  the  fire  was  eating  its  way  through, 
time  alone  could  tell  him.  The  Queen  of  Scots  had  sent 
the  copy  of  the  articles  proposed  to  her  to  Brussels  and 
to  Paris.  She  had  looked  for  an  instant  interference, 
and  both  she  and  her  friends  were  '  dismayed  and 
angered '  at  Alva's  seeming  coldness.  Arundel,  Norfolk, 
Maitland,  and  even  La  Mothe,  now  advised  her  to  accept 
the  best  terms  which  she  could  obtain,  if  only  she  could 
recover  her  freedom.  They  believed  that  they  would 
be  able  to  compel  Elizabeth  to  go  through  with  the 
treaty  on  her  part,  if  no  difficulty  was  raised  by  the 
Queen  of  Scots  herself. 

In  this  spirit  therefore  she  received  Cecil  at  Chats  - 
worth,  following  Maitland's  advice,  and  fighting  over 
the  details  of  the  proposals  which  were  made  to  her. 
She  showed  considerable  adroitness  in  qualifying  or 
altering  uncomfortable  phrases.  In  a  clause  for  the 
punishment  of  Darnley's  murderers  she  introduced  the 
words  '  according  to  the  laws  of  the  realm/  intending, 
as  a  marginal  note  in  Cecil's  hand  indicates,  to  shelter 
Bothwell  still  behind  his  previous  acquittal.  She  was 
willing  to  bind  herself  to  do  nothing  for  the  future  in 
prejudice  of  the  Queen  of  England  or  her  issue  ;  but 
she  inserted,  as  a  marginal  note  again  mentions,  '  with 
no  good  and  honourable  meaning/  the  word  '  lawful ' — 
making  the  phrase  '  lawful  issue/  as  if  Elizabeth  might 
produce  issue  which  would  not  be  lawful. 

Yet,  on  both  sides,  there  appeared  a  willingness  to 


1570.]  THE  RIDOLF1  CONSPIRACY.  3$i 

come  to  terms.  Cecil  was  ready  to  soften  violent  ex- 
pressions. The  Queen  of  Scots  did  not  insist  on  her 
exceptions,  which  were  introduced  perhaps  because  they 
were  in  keeping  with  her  character,  and  because  too 
much  readiness  to  make  concessions  might  increase 
Cecil's  suspicions.  In  manner  he  treated  her  with  the 
respect  due  to  a  princess  who  might  soon  be  his  own 
sovereign ;  while  on  her  part,  as  Elizabeth  foresaw,  she 
exerted  her  utmost  power  of  fascination  to  win  and 
charm  him.  It  was  an  encounter  of  wit  in  which  each 
was  trying  to  gain  an  advantage  over  the  other. 

'  The  Queen  of  Scots/  wrote  the  Bishop  of 

October. 
Ross  in  a  letter  which   fell  afterwards  into 

Cecil's  hands,  '  hath  dealt  with  Mr  Secretary  in  such 
sort  that  he  hath  promised  to  be  her  friend.  He  likes 
well  of  her  nature.  He  promises  to  travail  that  she  and 
the  Queen  of  England  shall  speak  together,  and  hath 
given  his  counsel  how  she  should  behave  herself  in  that 
case  to  win  the  Queen  of  England's  favour.  He  has 
spoken  to  me  of  the  Queen  of  Scots'  marriage  by  way  of 
conference,  seeming  to  persuade  that  she  will  marry 
with  the  Earl  of  Angus  ;  but  I  have  declared  plainly 
that  she  will  never  marry  a  Scottishman.  He  hath  told 
me  secretly  he  could  like  well  of  the  Duke  of  Norfolk's 
marrying  her,  but  now  is  no  time  to  speak  of  it.  He 
saith  that  the  Queen  of  England  fears  that  the  Queen 
of  Scots  and  Norfolk  would  wax  arrogant  in  that  case  ; 
but  yet  he  thinks  that  this  surety  that  she  makes  to  the 
Queen  of  England  shall  put  away  that  fear  and  so  the 
matter  may  be  followed.  I  think  he  may  be  made  to 


352  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  55. 

labour  for  that  marriage  if  Norfolk  do  cause  employ 
him ;  and  in  the  mean  time  I  will  deal  as  of  myself  to 
knit  the  knot  of  sure  friendship  between  Norfolk  and 
him,  for  he  shows  himself  very  plain  to  me  in  many 
things/  1 

By  arts  which  the  circumstances  justified,  Cecil  evi- 
dently had  wound  himself  into  the  partial  confidence 
both  of  the  Queen  of  Scots  and  of  her  minister.  They 
had  tempted  his  loyalty  and  fell  into  their  own  snare, 
and  he  had  discovered  thus  much  at  least,  that  the 
marriage  which  Norfolk  had  professedly  ceased  to  think 
of  was  still  in  steady  contemplation.  At  the  end  of  a 
fortnight  he  returned  to  London,  and  the  two  parties 
in  Scotland  were  requested  to  send  up  their  respective 
commissioners  without  further  delay.  The  representa- 
tives of  the  Queen  were  immediately  ready.  Lord  Liv- 
ingston and  the  Bishop  of  Galloway  were  selected  to  act 
with  the  Bishop  of  Ross.  The  Regent  and  his  friends, 
who  had  persuaded  themselves  that  the  danger  was 
passing  over,  were  in  despair.  They  again  reminded 
Elizabeth  of  her  promises  at  Westminster.  '  They  said 
that  they  were  so  amazed  and  astonished  that  they  knew 
not  what  counsel  to  take/  '  Surety  there  could  be  none/ 
they  said,  *  either  for  themselves  or  England,  if  the 
Queen  of  Scots  was  restored.'  Douglas  of  Lochleven 
swore  he  would  not  keep  the  Earl  of  Northumberland 
a  prisoner  any  longer  to  please  Elizabeth.  Randolph 
applied  for  his  recall,  '  finding  his  credit  clean  decayed/ 

1  MS.  endorsed  in  Cecil's  hand,  I  of  Norfolk,'    October    n  :    MSS. 
The  Bishop  of  Ross  to  the  Duke  I  MARY  QUEEN  OF  SCOTS. 


C570-]  THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY.  353 

and  his  old  friends  '  alienated  and  clean  gone  from  her 
Majesty's  service.'  They  talked  again  of  revolting  to 
France.  They  said  '  they  would  reconcile  themselves 
secretly  with  their  own  Queen.' l  Instead  of  commis- 
sioners to  treat,  they  sent  up  the  Commendator  of  Dum- 
fermline  to  conjure  Elizabeth,  in  the  name  of  honour, 
justice,  and  prudence,  to  reconsider  what  she  was  doing. 

The  agitation  produced  no  apparent  change  in  Eliza- 
beth's resolution.  She  said  that  she  did  not  mean  to 
do  anything  unjust ;  she  was  willing  to  listen  to  the 
Regent's  objections ;  but  '  unless  he  could  fortify  his 
cause  with  such  evident  reasons  as  her  Majesty  might 
with  conscience  satisfy  herself  and  with  honour  answer 
to  the  world,'  the  treaty  for  the  restitution  must  go 
forward. 

In  the  mean  time  however  a  negotiation  was  in 
secret  progress  which,  if  successful,  might  obtain  a 
more  favourable  hearing  for  Lennox's  remonstrances. 
The  peace  was  concluded  in  France,  between  the  Court 
and  the  Huguenots,  on  the  loth  of  August.  As  is  usu- 
ally the  case  after  civil  convulsions,  a  desire  naturally 
arose  to  heal  the  internal  wounds  of  the  country  by  '  re- 
moving the  war  elsewhere/  Whether  England  or  Spain 
was  to  be  the  object  of  hostility,  depended  on  whether 
the  Catholics  lost  or  retained  their  hold  over  Charles 
and  Catherine.  On  the  one  side  they  might  attempt  the 
release  of  Mary  Stuart  and  her  marriage  with  the  Duke 


1  Lennox  to  Elizabeth,  October 
1 6 ;    Randolph  to  Sussex,  October 


13  ;  Sussex  to  Cecil,  November  18  : 
MSS.  Scotland. 


16;   Randolph  to  Cecil   November 

VOL.  ix.  23 


354  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  ICH.  55 

of  Anjou  ;  on  the  other  the  recollections  of  St  Queiitin 
still  rankled  ;  in  alliance  with  Elizabeth  and  the  Prince 
of  Orange,  France  might  appear  as  the  champion  of 
liberty  and  expel  the  Spaniards  from  the  Low  Countries. 
To  ascertain  which  of  these  tendencies  was  likely  to 
prevail,  a  young  statesman  of  supreme  ability 
was  despatched  on  a  special  mission  to  the 
French  Court.  The  early  history  of  Francis  Walsing- 
ham  is  almost  a  blank  :  he  was  born  at  Chiselhurst  in 
Kent,  in  what  year  is  uncertain,  nor  is  anything  known 
of  the  occupation  or  station  in  life  of  his  parents.  He 
was  at  Cambridge  during  the  Marian  persecution,  and 
to  escape  conformity  took  refuge  in  Germany,  but  for 
the  ten  years  after  he  returned  to  England  nothing  was 
publicly  heard  of  him.  A  note  from  him  on  the  murder 
of  Darnley  however,  in  November  1568,  shows  that  by 
that  time  he  had  been  admitted  into  Cecil's  confidence. 
He  had  been  selected  for  the  delicate  duty  of  watching 
the  Italian  Ridolfi  during  the  Northern  rebellion,  and 
when  he  was  appointed  minister  at  Paris,  La  Mothe 
was  able  to  warn  the  Court  there  that  no  ordinary  man 
was  coming  among  them. 

The  direct  instructions  which  Walsingham  carried 
over,  were  to  express  Elizabeth's  satisfaction  at  the 
peace,  and  her  hope  that  the  toleration  now  promised 
to  the  Huguenots  would  be  faithfully  observed  :  should 
the  war  break  out  again,  a  general  Protestant  league 
would  be  the  necessary  consequence ;  the  Queen  of 
England  would  be  compelled  to  take  part  in  it,  and  all 
the  force  which  she  could  command  would  be  exerted 


THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY. 


355 


in  the  cause.1  Beyond  this  simple  message  the  new 
ambassador  was  left  to  his  own  discretion,  to  feel  his 
way  at  the  Court  and  report  on  what  he  found. 

Mary  Stuart  and  her  cause  created  scarcely  less 
embarrassment  in  Paris  than  in  London.  Lord  Seton's 
mission  to  the  Duke  of  Alva  had  excited  the  most  violent 
displeasure.  A  revolution  in  England  in  Spanish  in- 
terests was  a  catastrophe  of  which  the  very  thought 
was  unendurable,  while  a  permanent  league  between 
England  and  Scotland,  and  the  education  of  the  Prince 
at  the  Court  of  Elizabeth,  were  almost  equally  distasteful. 
The  Royal  Family  was  divided.  Anjou  was  restive  and 
ambitious.  He  had  distinguished  himself  in  the  war, 
he  was  discontented  with  his  position  as  a  subject,  and 
he  had  liked  well  the  adventurous  prospect  held  out  to 
him  in  England.  At  the  instigation  of  the  Cardinal  of 
Lorraine,  he  thought  of  proposing  directly  for  Mary 
Stuart's  hand,  and  it  was  supposed  that  although  she 
was  binding  herself  by  the  most  solemn  engagements 
not  to  think  of  him,  her  promises  would  be  no  obstacle 
to  her  acceptance  of  his  overtures.2  Jealous  of  his 
brother's  schemes,  and  afraid  that  with  his  popularity 
among  the  Catholics,  Anjou  as  Mary  Stuart's  husband 
would  be  dangerous  to  himself,  Charles  said  significantly 


1  Instructions   to    Walsingham, 
Auffustn  :  DIGGES'S 


bassador.       Compare     La     Mothe, 
August  14. 

2  '  Tras  esto  se  cierto  que  el 
Duque  de  Anjou  ha  de  enviar  un 
criado  suyo  a  hablar  con  la  dicha 
Reyna  de  Escocia,  y  saber  si  su 


voluntad  seria  de  casarse  con  el. 
Podra  ser  que  la  Reyna  no  viniese 
mal  en  ello,  pero  a  la  mayor  parte 
de  los  Ingleses  por  ahora  no  les 
aplace,  ni  a  mi  tan  poco.' — Don 
Guerau  to  Philip,  October  15 :  MSS. 
Simancas. 


356 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


[CH.  55. 


t  o  Sir  Henry  Norris  that  if  he  were  tlie  Queen  of  Eng- 
land, and  had  the  Queen  of  Scots  in  his  hands,  he  knew 
what  he  would  do  with  her.1  A  far  different  project 
for  the  Duke  of  Anjou,  if  the  Duke  could  be  brought 
to  consent  to  it,  was  shaping  itself  in  the  minds  of 
the  Huguenot  statesmen. 

Elizabeth  again  and  again,  in  conversations  with  La 
Mothe  Fenelon,  had  reverted  to  her  own  marriage.  She 
regretted  to  him  that  she  had  let  so  much  time  go  by. 
She  was  afraid  to  face  the  Parliament  which  her  necessi- 
ties would  soon  oblige  her  to  call,  with  her  promises  still 
unfulfilled,  the  succession  still  uncertain,  and  the  means 
of  settling  it  farther  off  than  ever.  Sir  Henry  Cobham 
had  been  sent  to  Maximilian  to  tempt  the  Archduke  to 
renew  his  suit,  but  he  had  received  a  cold  answer ; 
the  game  at  trifling  at  Vienna  had  been  played  out 
and  lost.2  Already  however  another  proposal  had 
been  submitted  to  the  Queen's  consideration.  The 
Yisdame  of  Chartres  and  the  Cardinal  of  Chatillon 
suggested  that  she  should  cut  the  knot  of  her  diffi- 
culties, secure  France,  and  snatch  at  least  one  dangerous 
lover  from  her  rival  by  taking  Anjou  for  herself.  The 
Duke,  it  was  true,  was  but  twenty,  while  she  was  thirty- 
seven,  but  she  might  still  hope  for  children,  and  the 
political  advantages  to  the  Protestant  cause  in  Europe 
might  compensate  for  greater  incongruities.  How  Eliza- 


1  '  Si  je  la  tenois  prisonniere,  oil 
que  je  fusse  en  lieu  de  la  Royne 
d' Angleterre,  je  s£ais  bien  ce  que  je 
t'erais.' — Norris  to  Cecil,  October  29: 


MSS.  France. 

2  La  Mothe,  October  30  :  Depe- 
ches,  vol.  iii. 


I57Q.J  THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY  357 

beth  received  the  idea  when  first  laid  before  her  is  not 
known.  Five  years  previously  she  might  have  married 
Charles,  but  she  had  then  revolted  from  the  absurdity ; 
she  was  now  offered  his  younger  brother  ;  and  it  is  only 
clear  that  her  answer  was  not  wholly  unfavourable.  A 
few  weeks  later  Chatillon  wrote  to  Anjou.  Anjou  spoke 
to  his  mother,  and  Catherine,  taken  it  seemed  by  surprise, 
inquired  at  length  of  La  Mothe  the  meaning  of  a  move- 
ment so  unexpected.  Elizabeth,  she  said,  had  played 
with  so  many  proposals,  had  encouraged  suitor  after 
suitor,  and  had  abandoned  them  one  after  the  other 
with  so  little  scruple,  that  the  very  mention  of  her 
marriage  now  provoked  a  smile.  The  Royal  Families 
of  Europe  did  not  like  to  be  made  ridiculous,  and  the 
Queen-mother  did  not  conceal  her  belief  that  the 
present  overture  was  but  another  trick  to  escape  from 
a  pressing  embarrassment.  But  she  had  no  objection  to 
the  English  alliance.  She  had  heard  of  Catherine 
Grey ;  she  imagined  that  Lord  Hertford  was  dead  and 
that  she  was  a  widow.  This  lady  she  thought  the 
Duke  might  very  well  marry,  and  Parliament  would 
then  perhaps  entail  the  crown  upon  Lady  Catherine 
and  her  son.  She  knew  vaguely  that  Cecil  was  in- 
terested in  the  Grey  family.  She  desired  La  Mothe  to 
tell  him  that  if  he  could  bring  about  this  alliance,  he 
might  secure  the  gratitude  of  France  and  his  own 
continued  supremacy  in  the  direction  of  the  policy  of 
England.1 


1  Catherine  de  Medici  to  La  Mothe.  October  20  :  Depeckes,  vol.  vii. 


358  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  55 

La  Mothe  was  obliged  to  tell  her  tliat  Catherine 
Grey  was  beyond  the  reach  of  diplomatic  schemings ; 
and  meanwhile  Elizabeth  herself  continued  to  allude  to 
the  subject  of  her  own  marriage.  Her  husband,  she 
said,  if  ever  she  took  a  husband,  should  belong  to  one 
of  the  reigning  families  of  Europe  ;  and  at  last  she 
directly  mentioned  the  Duke  to  La  Mothe  as  a  person 
on  whom  her  mind  had  been  resting.  La  Mothe  was 
still  unable  to  believe  her  serious ;  he  suspected,  like  the 
Queen-mother,  that  she  was  trying  merely  to  separate 
France  from  the  Queen  of  Scots  or  create  jealousies 
between  France  and  Spain.  Two  papers  upon  the 
subject  however,  written  by  Cecil  in  December  and 
January,  before  the  French  Court  had  seriously  en- 
tertained the  proposal,  survive  to  prove  that  he  and 
probably  his  mistress  had  taken  up  the  thought  in 
earnest. 

That  the  Queen,  unless  she  married  some  one,  would 
lose  her  throne,  was  assumed  by  Cecil  as,  humanly 
speaking,  certain.  If  she  let  the  age  pass  unimproved 
within  which  she  could  hope  for  children,  '  she  would 
be  in  danger  of  such  as  by  devilish  means  might  be 
tempted  to  desire  her  end.'  '  If  God  in  His  goodness 
preserved  her  from  murder,  yet  she  would  be  in  danger 
to  lose  daily  the  loyal  duty  and  the  love  which  was 
borne  her  by  her  subjects/  '  She  could  not  live  for 
ever/  '  Those  who  had  possessions  and  families  must 
necessarily  foresee  for  the  preservation  of  themselves 
and  their  children  after  their  death.'  They  would  de- 
termine in  their  own  minds  who  must  succeed  her,  and 


I57Q.J  THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY.  359 

to  this  person,  '  at  first  secretly,  and  then  in  process  of 
time  more  boldly,  they  would  direct  their  devotions, 
and  so  have  less  regard  of  the  continuance  and  pre- 
servation of  her  Majesty.'  Conduct  of  this  kind  was 
to  be  looked  for  from  loyal  subjects,  and  besides  these 
were  the  crowd  of  persons  who  already  for  one  reason 
or  another  '  grudged  and  misliked  the  continuance  of 
her  Majesty's  life,  and  were  therefore  ready  always  to 
assist  in  any  innovation  by  practice,  rebellion,  or  in- 
vasion/ 

The  Queen  would  thus  become  gradually  conscious 
that  she  was  disliked  and  neglected.  She  would  have 
no  one  on  whom  she  could  rely,  and  '  finding  no  remedy 
to  recover  the  affections  of  her  people  for  lack  of  mar- 
riage and  children,  she  would  have  a  perpetual  torment 
in  life.' 

'  On  the  other  hand,  if  she  married,  though  she  might 
have  no  children,  there  would  long  be  the  possibility  of 
children.  The  people  could  still  cling  to  the  hope  that 
the  crown  would  remain  in  the  line  of  King  Henry 
VIII. /  'and  the  curious  and  dangerous  question  of  the 
succession  would  in  the  minds  of  quiet  subjects  be  as  it 
were  buried — a  happy  funeral  for  all  England.'  Dis- 
loyal noblemen  would  cease  to  speculate  on  the  Queen 
of  Scots5  marriage;  discontented  rebels  and  Papists 
would  forbear  to  practise  with  foreign  princes;  and 
'  should  God  give  to  the  realm  the  blessing  of  issue  of 
the  Queen's  Majesty,  the  joy  would  be  so  great  to  good 
subjects  and  the  grief  so  great  to  the  evil,  that  hei 
Majesty  would  see  as  it  were  a  new  life  in  the  hearts 


360  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  55. 

and  bodies  of  her  loyal  people,  and  the  evil  and  froward 
would  put  on  the  likeness  of  the  good.  Her  Majesty 
would  have  no  reason  to  fear  the  marriage  of  the  Queen 
of  Scots,  as  now  she  had  great  cause  to  do,  nor  any 
practice  of  troubles  in  the  realm,  nor  any  need  of 
maintaining  an  armed  watch  upon  adjoining  kingdoms/ 
Marriage  then  being  thus  infinitely  de- 
'  sirable,  whom  should  the  Queen  choose? 
Should  she  marry  a  foreign  prince  ?  Should  she  in 
fact  marry  the  Duke  of  Anjou  ?  The  objections  were 
to  be  noted  first. 

'  The  Duke  was  scarcely  more  than  a  boy,  his  cha- 
racter was  unknown,  and  was  perhaps  unformed.  HP 
had  appeared  so  far  to  be  more  a  Catholic  than  a 
Protestant.  Being  a  Frenchman  he  would  be  unwel- 
come to  the  English  people,  and  the  alliance  would  com- 
plete the  estrangement  with  the  House  of  Burgundy. 
If  there  were  children,  and  if  the  King  of  France  were 
to  die,  the  two  crowns  would  fall  to  one  person ;  if 
there  were  none,  the  Duke  with  his  brother's  help 
might  encroach  upon  the  crown — by  colour  perhaps 
of  gift  from  the  Pope — or  finally,  if  there  were  no 
children  and  the  Queen  of  Scots  remained  unmarried, 
her  Majesty's  life  might  be  prematurely  shortened. 
Some  insinuation  might  light  into  the  heart  of  the  Duke 
to  attain  the  marriage  of  the  Scottish  Queen,  whereby 
to  continue  in  possession  of  the  crown  of  England,  and 
so  conjoin  the  three  kingdoms  in  his  own  person.' 

This  was  the  unfavourable  aspect  of  the  marriage, 
but  the  medal  had  a  brilliant  reverse. 


1570.]  THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY.  361 

The  connection  was  princely  and  noble,  and  would 
draw  together  the  'two  great  realms  of  France  and 
England/ 

'  The  Queen  would  be  delivered  from  the  continual 
fear  of  the  practices  of  the  Queen  of  Scots,  upon  whom 
almost  wholly  depended  the  prosperity  and  adversity 
of  her  Majesty's  whole  life  and  reign/  '  The  King  of 
Spain  would  no  more  torture  and  imprison  English 
subjects/  '  The  Pope's  malice,  with  his  Bulls  and  ex- 
communications, and  the  spite  of  all  his  dependants  as 
well  in  England  as  abroad,  would  be  suspended  and 
vanish  in  smoke.  Ireland  would  be  no  longer  in  daily 
peril  of  revolt/  The  Duke  would  bring  a  handsome 
revenue  with  him  from  his  duchies,  and  should  he,  as 
perhaps  he  might,  '  accommodate  himself  to  the  religion 
of  England/  the  Reformed  faith  would  be  established 
in  France  and  throughout  Christendom,  '  to  the  honour 
of  the  Queen  and  the  augmentation  of  the  glory  of 
God/  In  one  form  or  another  Calais  would  be  re- 
covered, and  the  expenses  of  the  Government  would  be 
reduced  on  every  side.  In  a  word,  the  result  to  be 
expected  from  the  marriage  was  a  general  return  of 
security — security  at  home  against  revolutions,  security 
against  combinations  among  the  foreign  Powers.  The 
Queen,  of  course,  could  not  be  pressed  to  accept  the 
Duke  'till  she  had  assured  herself  of  the  qualities  of 
his  person/  but  Cecil  so  confidently  anticipated  her 
acquiescence  that  he  recommended  rather  the  sup- 
pression than  the  display  of  her  feelings :  '  So  as  the 
French  King  might  be  made  more  earnest  in  his  suit, 


362 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


55. 


and  the  conditions  of  the  compact  be  thus  made  more 
beneficial  to  her  Majesty  and  the  realm.'1 

A  marriage  with  a  princess  so  publicly  and  recently 
excommunicated  would  for  some  time  at  least  decide 
the  character  of  the  relations  between  France  and 
Rome.  An  open  quarrel  and  a  consequent  increase  of 
favour  for  the  Huguenots  appeared  certain  to  follow ;  a 
war  for  the  liberation  of  the  Netherlands  would  come 
next ;  and  when  the  French  Government  had  once 
broken  with  the  Catholics,  there  would  be  little  danger 
of  the  darker  possibilities  which  had  suggested  them- 
selves. 

Elizabeth  at  first  diffidently,  and  afterwards  with 
seeming  frankness,  talked  about  the  marriage  to  La 
Mothe,  and  gradually  Catherine  de  Medici  shook  off  her 
suspicions  and  began  to  hope  that  Elizabeth  was  in 
earnest.  Leicester  took  credit  for  self-sacrifice  in  with- 
drawing his  own  pretensions  ;  and  when  the  subject  was 
to  be  seriously  discussed,  he  himself  introduced  the 
ambassador  to  the  Queen's  private  room  at  Hampton 
Court. 

Elizabeth,  whom  La  Mothe  found  better  dressed  than 
usual  for  the  occasion,2  at  once  broke  the  ice.  She  said 
that  circumstances  obliged  her  to  overcome  her  re- 
luctance to  marry,  and  that  she  intended  to  select  a 
husband  from  one  of  the  reigning  houses.  La  Mothe, 


1  Commodities  that  may  follow 
from  the  marriage  with  the  Duke  of 
Anjou,  December,  1570.  Notes  on 
the  Queen's  marriage,  January  14, 
1571  :  MSS.  in  Cecil's  hand, 


abridged.     France,  Rolls  Hotise. 

2  '  Ou  je  la  trouvay  mieulx  pareo 
quo  de  coustume.' — La  Mothe  to  the 
Queen- m other,  December  2Q. 


1 5 7o-]  THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY.  363 

who  knew  what  was  expected  of  him,  replied  that  if 
this  was  her  resolution,  he  commended  to  her  the  pre- 
tensions of  one  of  the  most  accomplished  princes  in  the 
world.  Could  he  be  the  means  of  bringing  about  a 
union  between  her  Majesty  and  the  Duke  of  Anjou,  he 
would  esteem  himself  the  happiest  of  men. 

The  Duke,  the  Queen  answered,  was  indeed  worthy 
of  far  higher  honours  than  she  could  offer  him.  She 
feared  however  that  his  affections  must  have  been 
.ilready  centered  in  some  fairer  quarter.  She  was  her- 
self an  old  woman,  and  but  for  the  hope  of  children 
would  be  ashamed  to  think  of  marriage ;  and  if  the 
Duke  accepted  her  she  supposed  it  would  be  rather  for 
her  realm  than  her  person.  French  princes  had  a  bad 
name  for  conjugal  fidelity.  She  spoke  of  Madame 
d'Estampes  and  the  Duchesse  de  Valentinois,  and  she 
said  she  would  not  like  to  find  herself  the  wife  of  a 
man  who  might  respect  her  as  a  Queen  but  would  not 
love  her  as  a  woman. 

La  Mothe  swore  that  she  would  find  the  Duke  all 
that  was  most  devoted  and  all  that  was  most  deserving 
of  devotion.1  He  reminded  her  that  when  she  was 
once  married  she  would  find  all  her  troubles  disappear, 
and  he  partly-^-but  partly  only — succeeded  in  removing 
her  uneasiness.  She  said  she  would  rather  die  than 
feel  herself  unloved. 

She  was  perhaps,  however,  following  Cecil's  advice, 
and  concealing  her  own  eagerness.  The  two  Courts 

1  '  II  avoit  cette  peculi£re  qu'il  I  se  rendre  de  mesmes  parfaitement 
s^avoit  extremeraent  bien  aymer,  et  I  aymable.' — La  Mothe,  January  23. 


364  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  55. 

were  coquetting  with  each  other,  each  at  heart  most 
anxious,  and  each  afraid  of  losing  the  prize  by  grasping 
at  it  too  precipitately. 

'  The  Queen  of  England/  reported  La  Mothe,  '  is 
one  of  those  who  will  fly  when  they  are  sought  after. 
It  is  a  peculiarity  of  the  English  nation,  who  the  more 
you  desire  anything  of  them  the  more  coy  they  become, 
though  what  you  ask  is  to  their  own  advantage/  * 

I57I  Till  the  middle  of  January  the  negotiation 

January.  was  ]^ep^  a  profounc[  secret,  Leicester  and 
Cecil  alone  sharing  the  Queen's  confidence.  The  prelim- 
inary stages  however  being  got  over,  and  the  goodwill 
ascertained  on  both  sides,  an  indirect  proposal  was 
made  by  Charles  which  it  became  necessary  to  submit 
to  the  council. 

No  stronger  proof  could  have  been  given  of  the 
desirableness  of  the  marriage  than  the  dismay  with 
which  the  mention  of  it  was  received.  On  Arundel 
and  Ar undelj  s  friends,  on  the  party  of  the  Duke  of 
Norfolk  and  the  Queen  of  Scots,  on  the  adherents  of 
the  House  of  Burgundy,  and  the  intriguers  for  a  Ca- 
tholic revolution,  it  fell  like  a  thunderstroke.  La  Mothe 
argued  and  reasoned,  but  to  no  purpose.  If  such  a 
marriage  as  this  could  be  brought  about  in  the  teeth  of 
the  excommunication,  the  cause  of  the  Catholic  Church, 
the  Church  of  the  Council  of  Trent,  the  Church  of 
fanaticism,  the  Church  of  Alva  and  Philip  and  the 
Cardinal  of  Lorraine,  would  be  lost  for  ever.  Scene 


1  La  Mothe,  January  23. 


THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY. 


365 


after  scene  followed  of  violence  and  passion.  The  ex- 
treme Protestants  suspected  Anjou  for  his  antecedents. 
The  English  traditionary  prejudices  were  set  on  fire.1 
At  length  Elizabeth  summoned  all  her  ministers  into 
her  presence,  and  said  with  tears  in  her  eyes,  that  they 
and  only  they  were  to  blame  for  the  breaking  off  her 
marriage  with  the  Archduke  Charles.  It  was  they 
who  had  caused  her  to  offend  the  King  of  Spain.  It 
was  they  who  had  made  the  troubles  in  Scotland,  and 
but  for  her  own  prudence  they  would  have  involved 
her  equally  in  a  quarrel  with  France.  Now  at  this 
supreme  crisis  of  her  life,  she  implored  them  not  to  fail 
her.  A  marriage  with  the  Duke  of  Anjou  would  open 
a  road  out  of  all  her  perplexities,  and  those  who  set 
themselves  against  it,  she  said,  were  bad  subjects  and 
enemies  of  the  realm.2 

With  the  discussions  at  the  council  the  world  was 
of  course  taken  into  the  secret,  and  the  agitation  in 
France  was  as  violent  as  in  England.  The  Cardinal  of 
Lorraine  revived  the  scandals  about  Elizabeth's  intimacy 


1  La  Mothe,  February  6. 

2  'Entendantles  diverses  opinions 
que  ceulx  de  son  conseil  avoient  la 
dessus,  elle  les  avoit  assemblee  pour 
leur  dire,  lalarme  a  1'oeil,  que  si  nul 
mal  venoit  a  elle,  a  sa  couronne  et 
a  ses  subjectz  pour  n' avoir  espouse 
1'Archiduc  Charles,  il  debvoit  estre 
impute  a  eulx  et  non  a  elle  ;   qui 
aussi  estoient  cause  que  le  Roy  d'Es- 
paigne  avoit  este  offence,  et  que  le 
Royaulme  d'Escoce  estoit  en  armes 
contre  le  sien,  et  qu'il  n' avoit  tenu 


aussi  a  eulx  que  le  Roy  n'eust  este 
beaucoup  provoque  davantaige  par 
leurs  deportements  en  faveur  de  ceulx 
de  la  Rocbelle,  si  elle  ne  les  eust 
empeschez  ;  dont  les  prioit  tres  toutz 
de  luy  ayder  maintenant  a  rabiller 
toutz  les  maulx  par  ung  seul  moyen, 
qui  estoit  de  bien  conduire  ce  party 
de  Monsieur,  et  qu'elle  tiendroit  pour 
mauvais  subject  et  ennemy  de  ce 
royaulme  et  tres  deloyal  a  son  service 
qui  aulcimement  le  luy  traverseroit. 
— La  Mothe,  February  6,  1571. 


366 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


with  Leicester,  and  frightened  Anjou  into  believing 
that  he  was  about  to  bestow  himself  upon  a  woman  of 
infamous  character.  Anjou  went  open-mouthed  to  his 
mother,  and  Catherine  at  first  could  do  nothing  with 
him ;  ( she  would  have  given  all  the  blood  in  her  body/ 
she  said,  '  to  draw  the  matter  out  of  his  head/  but  he 
was  obstinate  and  talked  about  dishonour ;  and  Cathe- 
rine, in  despair  at  the  thought  of  losing  her  prize, 
asked  La  Mothe  whether  Elizabeth  would  not  take  the 
Duke  of  Alencon  instead.  Alen£on  was  but  sixteen 
and  was  amenable  to  control.1 

But  this  cloud  passed  off.  La  Mothe  was  able  to 
assure  the  Queen-mother  that  the  stories  were  baseless 
scandals.  The  Court  was  so  pure,  and  the  Queen  her- 
self was  so  much  respected  by  all  classes  of  her  subjects, 
that  it  was  impossible  to  believe  that  she  had  miscon- 
ducted herself.2  The  Pope  indeed  had  lent  his  infalli- 
bility to  the  imputation,  and  the  Catholics,  to  their  no 
great  credit,  made  Elizabeth's  frailty  an  article  of  their 
creed;  but  the  intelligence  of  men  of  the  world,  who 
were  on  the  spot  and  could  make  inquiries,  was  not  so 
piously  credulous,  and  Anjou  in  a  few  weeks  became  as 
eager  for  the  marriage  as  Catherine  herself.  A  cam- 


1  The     Queen-mother    to    La 
Mothe,  February  2  :  Dkpeches,  vol. 
vii.    This  singular  letter  was  written 
by  Catherine  herself,  the  subject  of 
it  being  of  too  much  consequence  to 
be  trusted  to  the  most  confidential 
secretary. 

2  '  De  tant  qu'en.sa  court  Ton  ne 
voyt  qu'ung  bon  ordre,  et  elle  y  estre 


bien  fort  honoree  et  ententive  en  sos 
affaires,  et  que  les  plus  grands  de  son 
royaulme  et  toutz  ses  subjectz  la 
craignent  et  reverent,  et  elle  ordonne 
d'eulx  et  sur  eulx  avec  pleyne  au- 
thorite,  j'ay  estime  que  cela  ne  pou- 
voit  proceder  de  personne  mal  famee, 
et  ou  il  n'y  eust  de  la  vertu.' — La 
Mothe,  March  6. 


THE  RIDOLFt  CONSPIRACY. 


36? 


February. 


paign  in  Belgium  would  give  full  scope  to  his  military 
ambition  ;  it  would  employ  the  swarm  of  soldiers  whom 
the  peace  had  let  loose,  and  the  success  would  be  as 
certain  as  it  would  be  easy.  The  Prince  of  Orange  and 
the  Germans  would  invade  Holland.  Elizabeth's  fleet 
would  seal  the  Channel  against  reinforcements  from 
Spain,  and  the  Eoyal  Family  of  France  would  be  re- 
venged for  the  death  of  their  sister,  whom  they  be- 
lieved, though  without  a  shadow  of  foundation,  that 
Philip  had  murdered.1 

Such  was  the  programme  which  had  grown 
up  in  Paris  in  connection  with  the  English 
marriage,  and  Catherine  was  only  anxious  to  see  the 
work  commenced  by  driving  Alva  into  the  sea.  The 
Nuncio  suggested  to  Anjou  'that  if  England  was  the 
mark  he  shot  at  it  might  be  achieved  easily  by  the 
sword,  to  his  great  honour  and  with  less  inconvenience 
than  making  so  unfit  a  match/  2  But  Anjou's  thoughts 
had  gone  off  into  another  channel  and  could  not  for  the 
moment  be  brought  back.  One  misgiving  only  con- 
tinued to  haunt  the  Queen-mother,  that  Elizabeth  was 
trifling  after  all,  that  she  would  bring  the  Duke  to  the 
steps  of  the  altar  and  then  make  him  the  laughing- 
stock of  Europe.  Guido  Cavalcanti,  for  many  years  the 
unofficial  minister  of  goodwill  between  the  two  Courts, 


1  There  is  not  the  slightest  douht 
of  the  existence  of  this  conviction 
both  in  Charles  and  his  brother. 
That  it  could  gain  credence  at  all  is 
a  proof  how  intense  the  national 
animosity  against  Spain  continued 


to  be.— See  the  Despatches  of  Sir 
Henry  Norris,  1570,  1571,  passim  : 
MSS.  France,  Rolls  House. 

2  "Walsingham  to  Cecil,  February 
8  :    Complete  Ambassador. 


368 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


LCH.  55. 


was  again  called  into  requisition.  The  Queen-mother 
sent  for  him  to  her  bedroom  and  cross-questioned 
him,  first  about  the  truth  of  the  Leicester  scandals,  and 
then  as  to  what  he  thought  of  Elizabeth's  present 
sincerity. 

On  the  first  point  Cavalcanti  answered  that  truth 
was  the  daughter  of  time.  Elizabeth  had  been  fourteen 
years  on  the  throne ;  the  hundred  eyes  of  Argus  had 
been  fixed  upon  her,  and  nothing  had  been  observed  to 
justify  '  the  false,  slanderous,  and  envious  bruits  which 
had  been  spread  to  her  dishonour ;  there  was  not  in  the 
whole  world  a  more  noble,  virtuous,  or  better- natured 
princess/  About  the  marriage  he  said  that  he  had 
every  reason,  public  and  private,  to  believe  that  she  was 
in  earnest,  and  unless  difficulties  were  made  by  France 
the  Duke  might  be  in  England  before  midsummer ;  buf- 
he  suggested  that  Lord  Buckhurst,  her  cousin,  was  in 
Paris,  and  could  give  her  the  fullest  information. 

Buckhurst,  who  had  finished  the  business  which 
brought  him  over,1  was  on  the  point  of  returning  to 
England.  The  Queen-mother  invited  him  before  his 
departure  to  look  over  with  her  the  gardens  which  she 
was  laying  out  at  the  Tuileries,  and  there  drawing  him 
apart  under  the  trees,  she  said  that  he  could  not  be  ig- 
norant of  the  contemplated  match ;  both  she  and  the 
King,  she  told  him,  '  were  fearfully  carried  with  mistrust 


1  Sir  Thomas  Sackville,  first  Lord 
Buckhurst,  was  grandson  of  John 
Sackville  and  Margaret  Boleyn,  sis- 
ter of  the  Earl  of  Wiltshire,  the 


father  of  Anne.  Buckhurst  had  been 
sent  to  Paris  to  congratulate  Charles 
IX.  on  his  marriage. 


I57I-J  THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY.  369 

that  all  was  but  abuse  and  dalliance/  and  Bucldiurst 
would  oblige  her  deeply  if  he  would  tell  her  the  truth. 

Buckhtirst  answered  that  as  she  had  spoken  freely 
to  him  he  would  meet  her  with  equal  openness.  The 
Queen  his  mistress  desired,  above  all  things  in  the 
world,  that  France  and  England  should  be  drawn  to- 
gether. As  to  the  marriage,  she  had  anticipated  that 
some  such  question  might  be  asked  him,  and  she  had 
directed  him  to  say,  '  that  for  the  benefit  of  her  realm 
and  contentation  of  her  people  she  had  finally  and  fully 
resolved  to  marry,  and  to  match  with  the  progeny  of  a 
prince  out  of  her  own  realm/ 

'  Could  she  be  sure  of  this/  the  Queen-mother  an- 
swered, '  and  if  it  was  meant  indeed  and  not  only  in 
words,  France  and  England  might  be  the  two  most 
fortunate  kingdoms  in  the  world ; '  the  honour  of  the 
French  Crown  would  be  hurt  if  Elizabeth  was  insin- 
cere, but  she  would  believe  it  was  not  so ;  and  she  went 
on  to  ask  whether  she  might  entertain  hopes  for  her 
son. 

'  His  commission/  Buckhurst  replied,   did 

March, 
not  allow  him  to  answer  this  question,   but 

'  the  Duke  being  so  worthy  a  prince/  and  the  benefits 
to  be  expected  from  such  an  alliance,  to  both  the  realms, 
being  so  evident,  he  thought,  as  a  private  individual, 
that  if  an  ambassador  was  sent  over  to  propose  in  proper 
form,  he  might  be  sure  of  a  favourable  reception.  There 
was  no  occasion  however  for  the  Duke  '  to  hazard  his 
honour ; '  he  would  himself  report  the  Queen-mother's 
words  on  his  return,  and  he  would  inform  her  on  all  points, 
VOL.  ix.  24 


3  70  REIGN  OF  E  LIZ  ABE  TH.  [OH  .  5  5 . 

before  she  committed  herself  further,1  Anjou  was  young, 
supposed  to  be  brave,  and  not  without  ability.  Wal- 
singham  was  decidedly  in  favour  of  the  marriage.  Cecil, 
though  fully  conscious  of  the  objections,  thought  them 
far  out-balanced  by  the  advantages  ;  and  so  many  dan- 
gers threatened  Elizabeth,  that  something  might  well  be 
risked  to  extricate  her.  He  drew  a  sketch  of  the  con- 
ditions under  which  he  considered  that  Anjou  might  be 
received.  On  the  point  on  which  the  negotiations  with 
the  Archduke  had  broken  down  he  was  particularly 
yielding.  'The  Archduke  had  been  required  to  conform 
to  the  Anglican  communion.  Anjou  would  do  enough  if 
he  would  accompany  the  Queen  to  the  Royal  Chapel,  and 
would  promise,  neither  directly  nor  indirectly,  'to  attempt 
the  alteration  of  the  laws  established'  in  the  constitution 
of  the  Church.  The  Liturgy  might  be  modified  to  make 
it  palatable  to  him.  The  prayers  could  be  said  in  Latin, 
and  the  lessons  read  in  Latin/  '  Should  there  be  any 
manner  of  prayer  or  other  thing  in  the  book  of  the  Di- 
vine Service  of  England  that  was  not  contained  in  Holy 
Scripture,  nor  used  in  the  service  of  the  Church  of  France, 
or  if  in  the  administration  of  the  sacraments  there  were 
things  different  from  the  usage  of  the  Church  of  France, 
neither  the  Duke  nor  his  servants  need  use  the  same 
otherwise  than  as  their  conscience  should  persuade/  Still 
further,  it  might  be  hoped  that  in  time  the  Duke  would 
conform  wholly  to  the  religion  of  his  adopted  country, 
but  until  he  was  persuaded  to  accept  it  with  good  will, 


1  Lord  Buckhurst  to  Elizabeth,  March  16  :  MSS.  France. 


THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY. 


371 


Cecil  thought  that  he  might  share  the  privilege  of  the 
ambassadors  of  the  Catholic  Powers,  and  have  a  service 
of  his  own  in  a  room  in  the  Palace.' l 

These  proposals  were  submitted  privately  to  the 
French  council,  and  contained  everything  which  they 
could  reasonably  demand.  The  French,  in  return,  were 
ready  to  promise  that  the  Established  religion  should 
not  be  tampered  with.  The  marriage  ceremony  it  was 
thought  might  be  performed  in  the  English  form ;  some 
prominent  members  of  the  French  Government,  eccle- 
siastics as  well  as  laymen,  could  be  present  as  witnesses, 
and  a  special  contract  to  be  provided  for  the  occasion 
would  prevent  a  question  from  being  afterwards  raised 
as  to  the  validity  of  the  rite.2 

The  interests  of  Protestantism  would  have  been  more 
than  answered  by  these  mutual  concessions,  and  Wal- 
singham  was  most  anxious  that  they  should  be  con- 
firmed and  accepted  by  the  principal  parties.  The 
Queen-mother,  he  wrote,  intended  to  provide  for  her 
son  in  Scotland  if  not  in  England ;  and,  '  of  all  impend- 
ing perils  that  would  be  the  greatest/3  Leicester,  ready 
to  restore  Catholicism,  ready  to  devote  himself  to  Philip, 
co  Catherine,  to  Norfolk,  to  the  Queen  of  Scots,  to  the 
Puritans,  to  any  and  every  one  in  turn,  as  seemed  to 
suit  his  interests,  professed  to  be  particularly  anxious 


1  '  Reasonable  demands  to  be  re- 
quired of  Monsieur  for  the  preserv- 
ation of  the  religion  of  England  in 
credit,  and  the  Protestants  thereof 
in  comfort,  March,  1571.'  In  Cecil's 
hand :  MSS.  France. 


2  '  Q,ui  res  ornnes  ibidem  gestas  in 
acta  secundum  formam  juris  redigere 
valeant.' — Marriage    Articles    pro- 
posed by  France  :  MSS.  Ibid. 

3  Walsingham      to      Leicester, 
March  9 ;   Complete  Ambassador. 


372  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH".  [CH.  55. 

that  this  time  the  negotiation  should  be  successful. 
Cecil  made  up  his  mind  to  the  Duke's  conversion,  and 
saw  him  in  imagination  becoming  '  a  professor  of  the 
Gospel ; '  '  a  noble  conqueror  of  all  Popery  in  Christen- 
dom ; '  while  "Walsingham,  too  eager  to  doubt  that 
the  marriage  would  be  brought  about,  was  busy  knitting 
the  political  combinations  which  were  to  follow,  and 
forming  plans  for  the  conquest  of  the  Low  Countries.1 

The  marriage  project  meanwhile,  in  its  incipient  stages, 
had  not  affected  the  diplomatic  interference  of  France 
in  'behalf  of  the  Queen  of  Scots.  Charles  continued 
to  declare,  that  unless  his  sister-in-law  was  released 
he  would  have  to  take  up  her  cause  in  earnest.  M.  de 
Yirac  remained  at  Dumbarton  with  the  Hamiltons.  La 
Mothe  still  pressed  upon  Elizabeth,  and  Elizabeth  de- 
clared that  she  still  intended  to  keep  her  promise.  Not- 
withstanding the  protest  of  the  Regent,  the  English 
council  resolved  itself  into  a  commission  for  a  final 
settlement.  The  Bishop  of  Galloway  and  Lord  Living- 
ston came  up  from  Chatsworth.2  They  were 
well  received  by  Elizabeth,  and  a  suspension 
of  hostilities  was  proclaimed  in  Scotland  till  the  ist  of 
April,  by  which  time  it  was  expected  that  all  would  be 
arranged.  The  proceedings  waited  only  for  the  appear- 
ance of  the  representatives  of  the  Regent ;  and  the  delay 
gave  opportunities  for  informal  discussions  and  endless 
intrigues.  Maitland's  letters  were  deciphered  and  read 
by  Cecil.  La  Mothe  objected  to  the  education  of  the 

1  Cecil  to  Wai singham,  March  ,  Complete  Ambassador. 
25  ;  Walsingham  to  Cecil,  April  5  :  I        2  January  14. 


1571-1  THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY.  373 

Prince  in  England.  The  threatened  occupation  of 
Scotch  castles  by  English  garrisons  was  equally  intoler- 
able to  him  ;  and  Livingston  intimated  that  it  was  pre- 
posterous to  expect  Scotch  noblemen  to  reside  at 
Elizabeth's  Court  as  hostages.  Mary  Stuart  herself  said, 
that  without  some  equivalent  she  would  not  relinquish 
the  French  alliance  and  forfeit  her  dowry  ;  while  again, 
new  features  of  tho  Queen  of  Scots'  misdemeanours  in 
England  were  coming  perpetually  to  light.  The  Bishop 
of  Ross  was  pointedly  told  that  his  mistress  should  think 
less  of  marrying  Don  John  of  Austria.  The  Bishop,  in 
turn,  informed  La  Mothe  that  if  the  King  of 

February. 
France  would  allow  the  Queen  of  Scots  four 

thousand  crowns  a  month,  her  friends  would  reduce 
Scotland  in  half-a-year,  and  Charles  answered  that  he 
would  consent,  if  the  treaty  came  to  nothing.1 

But  the  interference  of  France  was  contingent  on  the 
failure  of  the  negotiation  for  Anjou.  Elizabeth  knew 
it,  and  her  intentions  towards  her  prisoner  varied  with 
her  disposition  towards  matrimony.  Her  marriage, 
when  once  completed,  would  remove  the  political  objec- 
tions to  the  restoration  ;  while,  if  she  backed  out  of  it, 
the  resentment  of  France  at  her  trifling  would  enhance 
the  danger  a  hundredfold. 

At  length  Lennox  consented  to  put  in  his  appear- 
ance ;  the  Earl  of  Morton  arrived  for  the  young  King, 
and  the  way  toward  a  conclusion  seemed  to  be  opened. 
Bui  Morton  had  not  come  to  London  with  anv  such 


The  King  of  France  to  La  Mothe,  February  19  :  Depeches,  vol.  vii. 


374  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  55. 

intentions.  The  Commission  held  its  first  sitting 
on  the  24th  of  February.  The  Earl,  instead  of  con- 
senting to  consider  the  details  of  the  treaty,  presented 
a  passionate  remonstrance,  expressing  only  with  in- 
creased vehemence  the  objections  which  had  been  before 
conveyed  through  the  Abbot  of  Dumfermline.  It  was 
the  old  story,  but  it  could  not  be  too  often  repeated. 
When  Morton  ceased,  Bacon  rose  to  support  him.  '  If 
the  Queen  of  Scots  was  restored/  said  the  Lord  Keeper, 
'  in  three  months  she  would  kindle  a  fire  which  would 
wrap  the  island  in  flames,  and  which  the  power  of  man 
would  fail  to  extinguish.  If  Elizabeth  would  recognize 
the  Prince  and  support  the  Regent,  all  Scotland  would 
instantly  be  at  her  devotion,  and  with  Scotland  hers 
she  might  defy  the  malice  of  the  world.  His  mis- 
tress,' he  said,  '  believed  herself  bound  by  promises  to 
the  Queen  of  Scots  ;  but  neither  the  Queen  of  Scots 
nor  her  friends  were  prepared  to  fulfil  the  conditions 
under  which  alone  the  restoration  could  be  contem- 
plated. Without  material  securities  it  was  not  to  be 
thought  of,  and  securities  adequate  to  the  risk  did  not 
exist.  To  send  Mary  Stuart  back  to  Scotland  would 
alienate  every  friend  which  England  possessed  there ; 
and  as  to  the  grave  question  so  often  raised  of  the 
rights  of  subjects  and  sovereigns,  the  Queen  of  England 
had  no  concern  with  the  titles  of  the  princes  with 
whom  she  treated.  If  treaties  could  not  be  made  till 
the  right  of  every  prince  to  his  crown  was  first  ascer- 
tained, the  world  would  fall  in  pieces.  It  was  enough 


TPIE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY. 


37$ 


that  a  king  was  a  king,  and  the  fewer  questions  asked 
the  better.'  * 

Elizabeth  answered  gloomily  that  if  there 

March, 
was  danger  in  restoring  the  Queen  of  Scots, 

there  was  greater  danger  in  detaining  her.  The  Com- 
mission was  not  sitting  to  decide  what  was  already  de- 
termined, but  to  consider  the  conditions  on  which  the 
venture  might  be  made.  The  Bishop  of  Ross,  in  Mary 
Stuart's  name,  entreated  that  there  might  be  no  further 
delay  :  she  was  ready,  he  said,  to  make  every  con- 
cession that  might  be  thought  necessary.  The  host- 
ages should  be  forthcoming  and  the  Prince  should  be 
given  upc 

La  Mothe  supported  the  Bishop,  the  general  question 
was  assumed  to  be  settled,  and  the  business  went  for- 
ward. The  next  step  was  the  presentation  of  a  petition 
by  the  Bishop  of  Ross,  requiring  that  the  abdication 
made  at  Lochleven  should  be  declared  invalid.  Morton 
said  fiercely  that  the  grounds  on  which  the  Queen  had 
been  deposed  had  been  already  examined  into,  and  were 
sufficiently  well  known.  The  Bishop  replied,  that 
subjects,  whatever  their  complaints,  had  no  rights  over 
their  princes.  The  tribunal  to  which  a  Queen  Regnant 
was  amenable,  he  argued,  was  a  council  of  sovereigns, 
who  alone  could  take  cognizance  of  such  a  cause ; 2  and 


1  La  Mothe,  March  4,  1571. 
Short  answers  to  four  principal 
points,  February  24.  In  Bacon's 
hand:  M88  MARY  QUEEN  OF 
SCOTS. 


2  La  Mothe,  March  12.  The  Bi- 
shop supported  his  position  in  a 
written  memorial  with  his  old  and 
favourite  illustration. 

Except  in  special  cases,  such  as 


376 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


[CH.  55. 


he  appealed  with  effect  to  Bishop  Jewel,  who  had  limited 
Christians  '  to  prayers  and  tears  '  when  their  princes 
tyrannized  over  them. 

The  fine  talk  did  not  affect  Morton.  He,  with  his 
life  and  fortune  at  stake,  fell  back  upon  the  facts.  The 
government  of  Scotland,  he  said,  was  established  in  the 
person  of  the  young  King.  The  change  of  the  son  for 
the  mother  had  been  made  for  adequate  reasons  ;  and  if 
the  Queen  of  England  forsook  him,  they  could  them- 
selves find  means  to  support  him  and  to  force  submission 
on  the  disobedient. 

Remembering  the  complaints  and  entreaties  for 
assistance  with  which  she  had  so  long  been  besieged, 
Elizabeth  fired  up  at  these  last  words,  which,  if  they 


Jehu's,  which  were  not  to  be  taken 
as  examples,  he  said  that  Scripture 
always  enjoined  obedience  to  the 
Sovereign,  even  though  '  he  might 
be  a  terrible  tyrant.'  '  David  him- 
self, whom  God  always  called  a  man 
after  God's  own  heart,  committed 
both  murder  and  adultery,  and  yet 
his  subjects,  the  Jews,  rose  not 
against  him.  But  God  not  only  con- 
tinued his  estate  but  also  his  son 
Solomon,  gotten  upon  Bathsheba, 
enjoyed  his  chair  and  sceptre  after 
him.'  '  When  God,'  he  continued, 
'  was  minded  to  trouble  the  Kings 
of  J  urlah  for  their  sins,  he  punished 
them,  not  by  the  Jews,  but  by  the 
Babylonians  and  Assyrians.  He 
punished  Saul,  not  by  David,  but  by 
the  Philistines.'  '  So  it  was  in  the 
time  of  shadows.'  •  In  the  time  of 


grace  and  truth '  the  rule  was  made 
more  clear.  '  Nero  was  an  impure 
beast,'  yet  God  nevertheless  declared 
that  he  was  to  be  obeyed,  not  only 
for  fear  of  vengeance,  but  also  for 
conscience'  sake.  No  one  had  con- 
demned more  distinctly  '  all  wicked 
detestable  rebels  that  went  about 
under  colour  of  rebellion  to  banish 
their  natural  Sovereign,'  than  Bishop 
Jewel.  Bishop  Jewel  had  proved 
that  whatever  the  crime  of  the  So- 
vereign, the  arms  of  the  Christian 
'  were  but  prayers  and  tears  ; '  and 
Peter  Martyr  had  said  that  '  if  it 
were  lawful  for  the  people  to  put 
down  their  princes  that  reigned  un- 
justly, no  prince  should  at  any  time 
be  in  safety.' — Memorial  presented 
by  the  Bishop  of  Ross,  March  4: 
MSS.  Scotland. 


THE  RIDOLF1  CONSPIRACY. 


377 


meant  anything,  meant  a  revolt  to  France.  'That 
language,'  she  said  when  it  was  reported  to  her,  '  the 
Earl  of  Morton  never  brought  with  him  from  Scotland ; 
it  was  put  in  his  mouth  by  some  of  my  own  council, 
and  they  ought  to  be  hanged  outside  the  doors,  with  the 
words  hung  about  their  necks/  l 

Yet  with  Elizabeth  also  there  were  facts  which  were 
highly  pressing.  She  had  brought  the  Anjou  compli- 
cation upon  herself,  and  she  must  either  marry  him 
or  else  affront  him  and  turn  him  over  with  more  cer- 
tainty than  ever  to  the  Queen  of  Scots.  The  dispensation 
was  promised  by  the  Pope,  and  the  Duke  was  supposed 
to  have  no  objection  to  the  change.2 

In  such  a  situation  the  wisdom  of  one  moment 
became  the  folly  of  the  next.  Anger  and  vexation 
would  not  answer  arguments  or  remove  dangers,  and 
with  Leicester  for  ever  whispering  at  her  ear,  she  swung 
to  and  fro,  now  determining  to  restore  the  Queen  of 
Scots,  now  to  marry  Anjou,  now  to  go  with  Bacon  and 
Cecil,  now  with  Arundel  and  Norfolk. 

Morton  at  last  brought  matters  to  a  crisis  by  de- 


1  '  Elle  a  diet  qu'elle  scjavoit  que 
ledict  Morton  ne  1'avoit  aportee  telle 
de  son  pays,  ains  1'avoit  aprinse  icy 
d'aulcuns  de  ceulx  mesmes  du  con- 
seil,  lesquelz  elie  vouloit  bieu  dire 
qu'ilz  estoient  dignes  d'estre  penduz 
a  la  porte  du  chasteau  avoc  un  rollet 
de  leur  ad  vis  au  coul.' — La  Mothe, 
March  12. 

2  So  La  Mothe  says  that  Wal- 
singham  wrote  from   Paris.      '  Le 
Sieur  "VValsingham  a  escript  qu'il  a 


descouvert  ung  propos  qui  se  mene 
bien  chauldement  pour  maryer  Mon- 
sieur le  frere  de  vostre  Majeste  avec 
la  Royne  d'Escoce  et  que  le  Pape 
luy  promect  la  dispence  et  beaucoup 
d'avantaiges  au  monde  en  favour 
dudict  marriage,  et  que  les  choses  en 
sont  si  avant  que  mon  diet  Seigneur 
promect  d'y  entendre  aussitost  que 
par  ce  trette  ladicte  Dame  sera  res- 
tituee  en  son  estat.' — Ibid. 


37S  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [en.  $$. 

claring  that  whatever  might  be  the  Queen's  pleasure, 
he  had  not  brought  powers  with  him  to  agree  to  the 
restoration.  If  she  meant  to  persist,  he  must  return  to 
Scotland  and  consult  the  Estates.  The  English  Parlia- 
ment was  about  to  meet.  Elizabeth  accepted  Morton's 
excuses,  and  further  discussion  was  prorogued  indefin- 
itely. She  directed  Lord  Shrewsbury  to  pacify  the 
Queen  of  Scots  by  assuring  her  that  the  settlement  of 
her  affairs  was  only  postponed.  The  answer  was  not- 
likely  to  be  satisfactory,  and  she  therefore  told  the  Earl 
that  he  must  '  take  good  heed  to  his  charge  ; '  '  being 
discontented,  she  would  leave  no  means  unsought  to 
attempt  her  escape/  l  For  the  time,  at  any  rate,  the 
Anjou  negotiation  would  ensure  the  acquiescence  of  the 
Court  of  France,  and  if  Elizabeth  could  but  resolve  to 
marry  the  Duke,  she  might  count  upon  their  permanent 
indifference.  It  was  enough  that  she  was  safe  for  the 
moment,  and  if  time  brought  new  complications,  it 
might  bring  the  remedy  along  with  them. 

That  Mary  Stuart  would  not  sit  down  patiently  under 
her  disappointment,  no  particular  wisdom  was  required 
to  foresee ;  but  Elizabeth  scarcely  even  yet  compre- 
hended the  energy  of  the  person  with  whom  she  had  to 
deal.  The  Queen  of  Scots  had  long  anticipated  that 
the  treaty  would  end  in  nothing.  She  knew  that  Cecil 
was  not  a  fool,  and  she  must  have  soon  been  undeceived 
in  her  hope  that  she  had  gained  him  over.  She  believed 
Elizabeth  to  be  as  false  as  she  knew  herself  to  be,  and 


1  Elizabeth  to  the  Earl  of  Shrewsbury,  March  24  :  MSS.  Hatfield. 


1571- ]  THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY.  379 

before  the  Conference  opened  she  had  written  to  the 
Archbishop  of  Glasgow  to  bid  him  stir  the  King  of 
France  in  her  favour.1  A  few  weeks  before,  Anjou  had 
all  but  proposed  for  her  hand.  The  French  Court  still 
professed  the  most  ardent  desire  to  help  her,  and  La 
Mothe  appeared  to  be  working  heartily  with  the  Bishop 
of  Ross.  Suddenly,  with  overwhelming  surprise,  she 
learnt  that  her  false  lover  was  going  over  to  the  Eng- 
lish Queen ;  that  a  marriage  between  them  was 
seriously  contemplated,  and  that  the  fault  would  not  be 
tyith  Charles  or  Catherine  if  Anjou  did  not  soon  become 
the  husband  of  Elizabeth.  She  perhaps  might  be  kept 
in  hand  as  a  reserve  card,  if  the  other  game  was  a 
failure ;  but  her  proud  blood  boiled  at  the  indignity. 
That  so  detestable  an  alternative  could  be  even  con- 
templated by  the  French  Court,  at  once  convinced  her 
that  it  was  idle  to  hope  that  the  Queen-mother  would 
really  move  for  her.  She  had  been  hitherto  embar- 
rassed by  the  jealousies  of  the  Great  Powers.  They 
woidd  not  act  for  her  together,  and  if  she  threw  herself 
upon  one,  she  would  offend  the  other.  This  difficulty 
was  now  at  an  end.  Her  hope,  if  hope  she  had,  was  in 
Spain  and  in  the  Pope.  To  them  the  ill-omened  union 
between  Huguenot  France  and  Protestant  England 
would  be  as  unwelcome  as  to  herself;  and,  in  his  own 
defence,  Philip  would  take  up  her  cause  at  last. 

Stung  to  fury  by  this  unlooked-for  blow,  she  watched 
with  impatience  the  lingering  of  the  treaty,  which  now 

1  Mary  Stuart  to  the  Archbishop  of  Glasgow,  January  i  :  LABANOFF, 
vol.  iii. 


380  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  55. 

she  could  scarcely  wish  to  succeed.  She  at  least  had  no 
expectation  that  Anjou  would  come  back  to  her  if  she 
were  free.  Her  friends  in  Scotland  had  looked  to  France 
to  unloose  the  meshes  of  the  obligations  into  which  they 
were  about  to  enter,  and  France,  false,  traitorous  France, 
would  only  draw  the  cords  tighter,  and  leave  her  a  slave 
in  Elizabeth's  hands. 

Alva  caught  the  alarm  like  herself.  He  too  had 
satisfied  himself  that  peace  in  France  meant  war  in 
the  Netherlands.  He  had  advised  Mary  Stuart  in  the 
autumn  to  consent  to  the  treaty,  but  when  he  heard  of 
the  intended  match,  he  felt  that  it  would  but  throw  her 
again  into  the  hands  of  her  rebel  subjects,  and  that  the 
chances  of  a  Catholic  revolution  would  be  farther  off 
than  ever.  She  was  recommended  to  attempt  an  escape, 
and  if  she  could  succeed,  to  make  her  way  into  Spain, 
where  she  could  either  marry  Don  John,  or  wait  for 
Norfolk  to  declare  himself  a  Catholic.1 

Yet  she  was  disturbed  with  seeing  that  Alva  also 
seemed  anxious  to  compound  his  quarrels  with  Eliza- 
beth. The  existing  Government  of  England  was  a 
reality  to  which  the  Duke  attached  more  importance  than 
the  Catholic  refugees  desired.  The  ease  with  wnich  the 
Northern  rebellion  had  been  put  down,  weighed  more  with 
him  than  tabulated  statistics  on  the  numerical  strength 
of  the  disaffected.  The  unflinching  determination 
with  which  the  Queen  maintained  the  privateers  seemed 
to  prove  that  she  was  confident  of  her  resources.  He 


Mary  Stuart  to  the  Bishop  of  Ross,  February  8  :  LABANOFF,  vol.  iii. 


157*] 


THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY. 


3*1 


was  alarmed  with  rumours  that  a  descent  would  be  soon 
attempted,  under  the  direction  of  Count  Louis,  on  the 
islands  at  the  mouth  of  the  Scheldt ; 1  and  although 
insult  was  accumulated  on  insult,  and  injury  on  injury, 
he  felt  himself  compelled  to  smother  his  resentment,  and 
endeavour,  by  smooth  words  and  humiliating  conces- 
sions, to  prevent  this  fresh  addition  to  his  embarrass- 
ments. His  best  chance  of  escaping  a  war  with  France 
was  to  reconcile  himself  with  England.  He  understood 
Elizabeth's  character  well  enough  to  know  that  she 
would  never  marry  the  Duke  of  Anjou  if  she  could  help 
it ;  but  he  believed  also  that  she  might  be  driven  to  it 
if  pressed  to  extremities  ;  and,  that  the  alliance  between 
England  and  France  thus  cemented,  would  be  followed 
by  the  serious  movement  against  Spain,  for  which  the 
Huguenot  chiefs  were  longing,  and  which  Walsingham 
so  enthusiastically  anticipated. 

Notwithstanding  Chapin's  failure  therefore  the  Duke 
of  Alva  continued  his  pacific  advances.  A  third  time 
he  sent  over  a  commissioner  ;  not  a  soldier  like  the 
Marquis  of  Cetona,  but  a  member  of  the  Flemish  Coun- 
cil, Count  Schwegenhem.  The  open  object  was  the 


1  'Aqui  tratan  de  molestar  los 
Payses  Baxos,  creyendo  por  esta  via 
escusar  la  molestia  en  sus  Mas  y 
aguardan  aqui  al  Conde  Ludovico  de 
Nassau.  Aperciben  con  tanta  arti- 
lleria  las  naves  destos  Piratas  Fla- 
mencas  y  Inglesas  que  es  mavavilla, 
y  la  Eeyna  les  ha  ofrecido  cien 
pieces,  y  las  cuarenta  cargan  ya  en 
barcos  para  llegar  a  la  Isla  da  Huict, 


donde  M.  de  la  Mark  se  llama  Al 
mirante  del  Principe  de  Orange.' — 
Don  Guerau  to  Philip,  October  28, 
1570  :  MSS.  Simancas. 

This  passage  is  underlined  by 
Philip  himself,  and  on  the  margin  is 
one  of  his  characteristic  exclamations 
of  distress,  Ojo !  He  might  fairly 
think  that  he  had  not  deserved  this 
treatment  at  Elizabeth's  hands. 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


55. 


restitution  of  prizes  and  the  re-opening  of  trade;  the 
private  object  was  to  separate  Elizabeth  from  the 
French;  and  Alva,  to  tempt  her,  made  certain  secret 
offers,  the  nature  of  which  Elizabeth  did  not  care  to 
reveal,  but  it  was  something,  she  said,  which  would  not 
a  little  have  amazed  La  Mothe.1  Count  Schwegeiihem 
however  went  the  way  of  his  predecessors.  The  details 
of  his  public  proposals  were  quarrelled  over.  The  car- 
goes of  the  detained  ships  had  been  sold  on  both  sides. 
The  Duke  had  taken  advantage  of  a  rise  of  prices  in 
the  Flanders  markets,  caused  by  the  suspension  of  trade, 
to  dispose  of  some  English  wool  at  a  large  profit. 
Elizabeth  demanded  the  full  sum  which  had  been  re- 
alized. The  Duke  allowed  only  the  value  set  upon  the 
wool  at  the  time  of  its  shipment.  The  petty  disagree- 
ment was  made  an  excuse  to  suspend  the  negotiations ; 
Count  Schwegeiihem  was  bowed  out  of  the  country ; 
and  the  Queen  repeated  what  she  had  said  to  Chapin, 
that  she  would  treat  directly  with  the  Duke's  master. 
It  seemed  as  if  she  believed  that  Philip's  forbearance 
was  inexhaustible.  She  knew,  or  Cecil  knew,  that  it 
was  to  him  that  the  highest  Catholics  looked  for  assist- 
ance, and  she  wished  to  force  them  to  recognize  the 
idleness  of  their  expectations.  It  was  a  game  which 
might  be  tried  too  far ;  yet,  for  the  present  it  seemed 
to  answer.  Philip  still  did  not  rouse  himself.  Alava 
talked  to  Walsingham  at  Paris  of  the  desirableness  of  a 


1  •  She  told  me,'  La  Mothe  wrote, 
'  que  je  serois  tous  esbahy  si  je 
t^avois  quellcs  choscs  Icdicl  Due 


despuys  ling  mois  avoit  voulu  trailer 
avec  elle  au  prejudice  de  ses  voysins.' 
— La  Mothe,  January  23. 


'57I-J 


THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY. 


383 


revival  of  the  old  alliance.1  Don  Guerau  was  obliged 
to  apologize  for  Count  Schwegenhem's  failure,  as  if  the 
cause  of  it  had  rested  with  the  Commissioner;  and 
Leicester,  as  a  new  year's  gift,  presented  Elizabeth  with 
a  group  of  figures  wrought  in  gold,  in  which  she  was 
herself  represented  on  a  throne  with  the  Queen  of  Scots 
in  jchains  at  her  feet;  France  and  Spain  were  being 
overwhelmed  in  the  waves  of  the  ocean,  and  Neptune, 
with  the  globe  in  his  hand,  was  paying  homage  to  the 
English  Sovereign.2 

Extravagant,  or  at  least  premature — yet,  amidst  the 
suspicions  and  jealousies  of  the  Continental  Powers,  the 
actual  position  of  England  was  scarcely  exaggerated ; 
and  the  absurd  spectacle  was  presented  to  the  world  of 
an  excommunicated  princess  balancing  herself  so  critic- 
ally that  it  was  supposed  a  push  would  overthrow  her,3 
yet  treating  Spain  with  disdain,  holding  as  a  prisoner 
the  Queen  Dowager  of  France,  making  her  country  aD 
asylum  from  which  the  refugees  of  the  whole  of  Europe 
levied  war  upon  their  respective  sovereigns,  and  all  this 
time  with  these  very  sovereigns  suing  for  her  favour, 
and  able  to  dictate  the  terms  on  which  she  would  re- 
ceive them  again  as  her  friends. 

But  there  was  one  Potentate  who  was  not  disposed 
to  sit  down  meekly  in  so  disgraceful  a  situation.  It 
was  not  to  see  them  thrust  aside  like  dishonoured  bills, 


1  "VValsingham  to   Cecil,  March 
5  :   Complete  Ambassador. 

2  Don  Guerau  to  Cayas,  January 
9 :  MSS.  Simancas. 


3  '  Tiene  su  sceptro  tan  sobre 
palillos  que  cualquiera  pequena 
fucrca  le  derribaria.' — Ibid. 


384  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [cir.  55. 

that  Pope  Pius  had  directed  the  censures  of  the  Church 
against  Elizabeth ;  and  after  all  allowances  for  the 
secularity  of  temporal  governments,  he  could  ill  brook 
and  he  could  hardly  comprehend  this  contemptuous  dis- 
regard with  which  the  sentence  of  the  Holy  See  had 
been  received.  Spain  was  as  much  interested  as  Rome 
in  the  reconversion  of  England.  He  had  lectured  Philip 
on  his  duties,  but  his  admonitions  had  been  as  vain  as 
his  entreaties.  The  Catholic  King  listened,  acquiesced, 
and  did  nothing ;  and  the  Pope  perceived  at  last,  that 
unless  he  could  himself  throw  further  weight  into  the 
scale,  the  Island  of  Saints  might  remain  heretic  till  the 
day  of  judgment. 

Don  Juan  de  Cuniga,  the  Spanish  resident  at  the 
Holy  See,  waited  upon  Pius  at  the  end  of  January,  with 
a  message  from  his  master,  conveyed  in  the  usual  tone. 
The  King,  he  said,  was  grieved  to  the  soul  at  the  be- 
haviour of  the  Queen  of  England ;  he  was  most  anxious 
to  effect  a  change  there;  and  his  Holiness  might  feel 
entire  confidence  that  no  opportunity  would  be  passed 
over. 

The  King  of  Spain  had  sung  the  same  song  for 
twelve  years,  and  no  better  opportunity  would  be  likely 
to  occur  than  one  at  least  which  had  been  allowed  to 
escape.  The  Pope  replied  to  Don  Juan,  that  the  Eng- 
lish Catholics  had  heavy  grounds  of  complaint  against 
the  Christian  Powers.  Not  only  they  had  received  no 
assistance  from  them,  but  his  own  Bull  had  been  sup- 
pressed in  France,  and  never  been  published  in  Spain 
or  Flanders ;  the  Queen  was  encouraged  by  the  respect 


1 5 7I-]  THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY.  385 

which  was  paid  her  to  persist  in  her  disobedience  ;  she 
had  already  been  the  principal  mover  of  all  the  con- 
tinental disturbances,  and  she  would  go  on  as  she  had 
begun  as  long  as  she  remained  on  the  throne. 

Don  Juan  attempted  excuses,  but  the  Pope  cut  him 
short.  It  was  positively  necessary  to  do  something,  he 
said,  and  if  the  King  of  Spain  would  lend  assistance  in 
deposing  Elizabeth,  and  could  place  some  English  Ca- 
tholic nobleman  on  the  throne  in  her  place,1  he  believed 
that  he  could  secure  the  consent  and  co-operation  of  the 
French. 

The  French,  Don  Juan  replied,  had  been  unable,  or, 
to  speak  more  truly,  had  not  been  willing,  to  root  out 
heresy  from  among  themselves.  It  was  not  likely  that 
they  would  undertake  the  reduction  of  England.  They 
would  make  fair  promises,  entangle  his  master  in  a  war 
with  the  Queen,  and  then  declare  in  her  favour.2 

If  this  was  so,  the  Pope  said,  the  King  of  Spain 
might  at  least  recall  his  ambassador,  and  prevent  inter- 
course between  his  subjects  and  the  English. 

Don  Juan  could  merely  indicate  that  this  would  be 
to  break  prematurely  with  Elizabeth,  and  would  do 
more  harm  than  good.3 

Nothing  can  show  more  clearly  than  this  conversa- 
tion the  intense  unwillingness  of  Philip  to  have  an 
English  quarrel  forced  upon  him.  Don  Juan  closed 


1  '  Un  Rey  Catolico  natural  del 
raismo  Reyno.'     Not  the  Queen  of 
Scots  therefore. 

2  '  Prometerian     grandes    cosas 


V.  Magd  contra  la  Reyna  y  despues 
se  juntarian  con  ella.' 

3  Don   Juan  de    Cuniga  &    st 
Magd,  January  27  :  MSS.  Simancas. 


para  hacer  declarar  £  su  Santidad  y  a 

vol.  ix.  25 


3*6  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [en.  55. 

the  despatch  in  which  he  described  what  had  passed 
with  saying,  that  if  the  Pope  showed  any  intention  of 
interfering  actively  he  would  find  means  to  prevent  him. 
But  Philip  was  no  longer  to  be  left  with  his  head 
run  ostrich-like  into  the  sand  ;  a  parallel  effort  to  move 
him  was  made  simultaneously,  through  the  Duchess  of 
Feria,  by  the  Bishop  of  Ross,  who  sent  over  'to  Spain, 
evidently  for  Philip's  perusal,  a  long  and  curious  ac- 
count of  his  mistress'  positions  and  prospects.  '  The 
life  of  the  Queen  of  Scots,'  the  Bishop  said,  'had  been 
in  great  danger ;  Bacon,  Bedford,  and  Cecil  had  urged 
the  Queen  to  put  her  to  death  ;  and,  of  all  the  ministers 
whom  Elizabeth  admitted  to  her  confidence,  Leicester 
only  had  opposed  her  execution.  A  revolution  in  her 
favour  might  have  been  effected  with  ease,  if  the  King 
of  Spain  would  have  raised  a  finger  ;  but  the  King  of 
Spain  had  given  no  sign,  all  application  to  him  for  help 
had  been  so  far  received  with  coldness,  and  the  Queen 
of  Scots  was  now  driven  to  entertain  the  question  of  a 
treaty.  But  the  conditions  offered  to  her  were  so  in- 
tolerable, that  she  would  not  accept  them  till  she  was 
assured  for  the  last  time  that  she  had  nothing  to  hope 
for.  She  would  rather  die  than  be  the  cause  of  the  con- 
tinued oppression  of  the  Catholics ;  her  party  was  fall- 
ing to  pieces,  and  unless  the  King  helped  her,  she  might 
consent  to  things  which  would  cause  her  endless  re- 
morse and  do  fatal  inj  ury  to  the  Christian  faith.  If  the 
persecutions  continued,  the  spirit  of  the  Catholics  would 
be  broken,  and  a  revolution  would  then  be  impossible. 
Lord  Seton  had  been  three  months  at  Brussels  trying 


I57I-]  THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY.  387 

to  prevail  on  Alva,  but  lie  might  as  well  have  pleaded 
with  the  dead.  The  Spaniard,  it  seemed,  depended  for 
his  information  about  the  state  of  England  on  the  re- 
ports of  a  few  miserable  wretches  without  faith  and 
honesty.1  Harbours,  towns,  supplies,  the  nobles  of 
Scotland  and  England  to  assist  the  enterprise — all  had 
been  offered,  and  all  in  vain ;  and  unless  the  Queen  of 
Scots  was  shortly  relieved,  she  would  either  have  to 
give  up  the  Prince  and  marry  some  one  that  the  Queen 
of  England  would  choose  for  her,  or  without  doubt  she 
would  be  secretly  made  away  with. 

'  The  Catholic  King  perhaps  thought  the  Queen  of 
Scots  a  person  of  no  importance,  but  he  should  remem- 
ber that  to  her  God  had  given  by  right  the  sovereignty 
of  the  Island  of  Britain.  Her  hand  so  dowered  was  not 
to  be  despised.  A  marriage  had  been  spoken  of  for  her 
with  the  Duke  of  Anjou  or  the  Duke  of  Norfolk,  but 
she  was  still  free  and  at  the  King  of  Spain's  disposition 
if  only  he  would  take  her  under  his  protection. 

'  The  submission  of  the  Duke  of  Alva  to  the  Queen 
of  England's  insolence  was  worse  than  humiliating. 
He  had  yielded  to  all  her  demands,  and  she  would  do 
nothing  in  return  which  he  desired.  The  Catholics 
could  only  suppose  that  he  was  influenced  by  some 
paltry  pique  or  jealousy.  The  Duke  of  Feria  had  been, 
spoken  of  as  likely  to  supersede  him  in  the  Low  Countries. 


1  '  Ellos  entretanto  se  contcntan 
mas,  como  se  vee,  de'tomar  infor- 
macion  y  noticia  destas  cosas  de  al- 
gunos  baxos  homVrecillos,  de  quicn 


con  razon  se  puede  tener  sospecha 
assi  de  su  religion  como  de  su  sin 
ceridad  y  bondad.' 


388  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH,  [CH.  55. 

The  Duchess  was  an  English  woman.  The  refugees 
were  thought  to  belong  to  the  Feria  faction,  and  there- 
fore Alva  hated  them.  Every  heretic  spy  found  more 
favour  in  his  eyes  than  they  did. 

'  Finally  and  especially,  the  consciences  of  all  Chris- 
tians were  shocked  at  the  indifference  which  the  King 
of  Spain  had  displayed  to  the  sentence  of  excommuni- 
cation. It  was  treated  as  if  it  had  no  existence.  The 
Catholics  everywhere  were  lost  in  astonishment,  and 
could  but  remember  with  fear  the  words  of  the  Gospel, 
'  woe  to  that  man  by  whom  the  offence  corneth.' 

'  The  Christian  faith  was  decaying.  A  princess 
gifted  with  the  most  exquisite  graces  of  mind  and  per- 
son was  sinking  under  the  accumulated  weight  of  ill- 
usage  and  undeserved  infamy ;  the  Catholic  King 
himself,  the  pillar  of  the  faith,  was  allowing  his  honour 
and  reputation  to  be  discredited  in  the  world  by  the 
wrongs  to  which  he  was  submitting  at  the  hands  of  a 
bad  woman. 

1  Would  it  then  be  of  service/  the  Bishop  asked, '  if 
he  was  himself  to  repair  to  Spain  and  lay  the  truth 
before  his  Majesty  ?  To  reform  England  and  to  extin- 
guish the  faction  of  the  King  in  Scotland  were  one  and 
the  same  thing ;  and  both  were  so  necessary,  that  as 
long  as  they  remained  undone  heresy  would  scarcely  be 
extinguished  in  the  Low  Countries.  The  English 
Catholics  had  placed  their  whole  confidence  in  the 
King ;  the  Holy  See  implored  him  to  act ;  God  himself 
had  marked  him  out  for  the  work  by  the  power  which 
he  had  trusted  in  his  hands.  If  he  would  not  declare 


IS7I-]  THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY.  389 

himself  openly,  he  might  allow  his  subjects  to  volun- 
teer for  service  in  Ireland  and  Scotland,  nor  could  any 
just  reason  be  given  for  his  refusal  to  allow  the  Bull  to 
be  published  in  his  dominions,  or  for  the  scandal  of  the 
continual  residence  of  his  ambassador  at  the  English 
Court.  The  heretics  boasted  that  the  King  of  Spain 
feared  the  enmity  of  their  sovereign  and  dared  not 
quarrel  with  her.' 1 

There  was  nothing  in  this  letter  which  Philip  must 
not  have  said  often  to  himself;  but  the  times  were 
growing  urgent.  His  resolution  began  to  fail  under 
the  importunities  of  the  Catholic  world,  and  the  Pope 
soon  after  had  an  opportunity  of  assailing  him  in  more 
regular  form. 

Mary  Stuart  was  evidently  one  difficulty.  Even  the 
Pope  would  have  preferred  some  nobleman  of  un- 
blemished character  as  the  champion  of  Christ's  Church, 
could  any  one  have  been  found  whom  the  English 
Catholics  could  agree  to  recognize.  This  however 
could  not  be.  It  was  necessary  to  make  the  best  of 
the  Queen  of  Scots,  and  to  rouse  Philip  out  of  his 
slumbers  in  her  favour.  From  his  agent  Bidolfi, 
Pius  was  incessantly  hearing  of  the  number  and  zeal  of 
his  English  friends,  of  Elizabeth's  cruelty  and  their 
abundant  ability  to  help  themselves.  Ridolfi  declared 
that  all  the  Peers  except  four  or  five  were  openly  or 
secretly  disaffected.  The  Pope  said  that  he  had  never 
heard  of  a  country  where  the  will  of  the  united  nobility 

1  MS.   Simancas,   endorsed,  '  El  |  long,  and  I  have  been  obliged  to  con- 
Obispo  de  Ross.'     The  letter  is  very  [  dense  it. 


396  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  5$. 

was  not  irresistible,  and  he  told  Kidolfi  that  if  he  could 
bring  over  some  bond  or  engagement  on  the  part  of 
the  Lords,  in  which  they  would  pledge  themselves  to  a 
general  insurrection,  he  would  be  able  to  lay  the  case 
before  Philip  in  a  form  which  could  be  no  longer  disre- 
garded. 

The  moment  was  peculiarly  favourable.  Eidolfi 
must  have  been  a  man  of  no  ordinary  ability,  for  he 
had  entirely  deceived  the  English  Government  as  to 
his  real  character.  His  'name  had  appeared  in  con- 
nection with  the  Northern  Earls,  but  his  professed 
occupation  as  a  banker  enabled  him  to  explain  every 
suspicious  circumstance.  He  admitted  without  hesita- 
tion that  the  Earls  had  borrowed  money  of  him,  but 
there  was  no  evidence  that  he  was  aware  of  the  purpose 
for  which  they  wanted  it,  and  he  had  come  so  well  out 
of  the  inquiry  that  after  Count  Schwegenhem's  de- 
parture, Walsingham  recommended  him  to  Cecil  as  a 
person  who  might  be  trusted  to  talk  over  with  Philip 
the  conditions  of  a  possible  arrangement. 

An  opportunity  was  thus  created  to  Bidolfi's  hand 
to  repair  unsuspected  to  the  very  countries  where  he 
wished  to  go,  and  to  the  persons  with  whom  he  wished 
to  communicate.  His  ostensible  business  would  lay 
with  Alva  and  the  King  of  Spain,  and  the  disputed 
question  of  the  ownership  of  the  money  originally 
seized  would  necessarily  take  him  to  Italy. 

So  far  nothing  could  be  more  fortunate.  But  if  a 
larger  movement  was  now  to  be  attempted  in  England, 
the  character .  and  object  of  it  had  to  be  clearly  de- 


iy;i.]  THE  RIDOLF1  CONSPIRACY.  391 

termined.  Divided  counsels  had  spoilt  the  first  rising-, 
and  before  Philip  would  think  of  moving  he  would  in- 
sist on  seeing  his  way  before  him.  Was  Elizabeth  to 
be  deposed  at  once  ?  or  was  she  to  be  allowed  to  reign 
for  the  term  of  her  life,  with  a  Catholic  council  at  the 
head  of  the  Government  and  the  Queen  of  Scots  for 
successor  ?  Who  was  to  be  the  Queen  of  Scots'  husband  ? 
was  it  to  be  Don  John,  as  the  Catholics  desired  ?  was  it 
to  be  the  Duke  of  Norfolk,  the  favourite  of  the  great 
English  country  party  ?  Norfolk  had  most  friends,  but 
he  had  not  been  reconciled  to  the  Church,  and  the  Pope 
and  Philip  could  not  move  to  give  the  throne  to  a  Pro- 
testant. Was  there  sufficient  security  for  his  conversion 
in  the  event  of  a  revolution  being  accomplished  ? 

The  latter  question  was  submitted  by  Ridolfi  to  the 
parties  principally  concerned  just  at  the  time  when  the 
restitution  treaty  was  hanging  fire  in  London. 

The  Duke  of  Norfolk,  irresolute  as  ever,  had  drifted 
on  between  falsehood  and  loyalty,  trusting  partly  that 
his  friends  would  bring  Elizabeth  to  consent  to  his  mar- 
riage with  the  Queen  of  Scots,  on  the  terms  originally 
conceived  between  himself  and  Leicester  and  Pembroke, 
partly  looking  to  the  contingent  insurrection  if  other 
means  should  fail.  By  hesitating  at  the  critical  moment 
he  left  his  friends  in  the  North  to  failure  and  exile  ; 
when  the  Stanleys  would  have  raised  the  standard  again, 
he  was  still  uncertain  and  would  not  sanction  their  ris- 
ing ;  but  the  Queen  of  Scots  was  now  determined  to 
force  him  to  a  resolution,  and  she  sent  him  word, 
through  the  Bishop  of  Ross,  that  he  must  make  up  his 


392 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH, 


[CH.  55- 


mind.  It  was  idle  to  wait  any  longer  for  Elizabeth's 
approval.  An  application  was  about  to  be  made  to  the 
King  of  Spain  in  the  Queen  of  Scots'  behalf.  If  the 
Duke  of  Norfolk  would  commit  himself  finally  to  the 
measures  which  were  in  contemplation,  she  was  ready 
to  fulfil  her  own  engagements  with  him.  If  he  shrunk 
from  the  danger  or  felt  unequal  to  the  enterprise,  she 
said  that  she  must  hold  herself  free  to  make  other  ar- 
rangements. 

The  English  Peers  still  looked  to  Norfolk  with  a 
feudal  attachment  as  the  first  of  their  order.  Many  of 
them  represented  to  Don  Guerau  that  they  were  still 
anxious  that  the  Queen  of  Scots  should  marry  him  if 
the  King  of  Spain  would  sanction  it.1  Two  alternatives 
therefore,  and  two  only,  now  lay  before  the  Duke  : 
either  to  retire  from  the  field,  and  leave  the  Queen  of 
Scots  to  look  for  some  other  alliance,  or  to  declare  him- 
self privately  a  Catholic  and  offer  himself  through 
Ridolfi  to  the  Pope  and  Philip  as  the  instrument  of  an 
armed  revolution.2 

True  to  his  character,  Norfolk  struggled  hard  to 
avoid  committing  himself.  The  prospect  of  the  throne 
was  too  tempting  to  be  abandoned,  but  he  shivered  at 


1  '  Ilallandose  ahora  aqui  la 
Corte,  y  en  ella  los  mas  principales 
Catolicos,  ban  aprestado  otra  vez  la 
platica  del  casamiento  del  dicho 
Duque  de  Norfolk  con  la  Eeyna  de 
Escocia  y  restitucion  de  la  religion 
Catolica.  Piden  socorro  de  V.  Magd, 
pero  yo  no  he  querido  salir  de  la 


orden  del  Duque  de  Alva  ni  darles 
confianga  ni  desconfianQa,  hasta  que 
el  dicho  Duque  me  tiene  mandado.* 
— Don  Guerau  to  Philip,  February 
6 :  MSS.  Simancas. 

2  Confession  of  the   Bishop   of 
Ross  :  MUKDIN. 


THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY. 


393 


the  thought  of  palpable  and  positive  treason.  He  al- 
lowed Ridolfi  to  visit  him  at  his  own  house.  He  talked 
over  a  plan  of  invasion  which  would  give  Alva,  as  he 
conceived,  a  certainty  of  success.  He  even  empowered 
Ridolfi  to  assure  Alva  that  he  would  come  forward  im- 
mediately on  the  landing  of  a  Spanish  army,  but  he 
shrunk  from  setting  his  name  to  any  document  of  which 
Ridolfi  was  to  be  the  bearer.  The  papers  might  fall  into 
wrong  hands,  and  the  scaffold  had  terrors  for  him. 

But  Norfolk's  signature  was  the  one  security  which 
Ridolfi  knew  to  be  indispensable.  He  insisted,  and  the 
Duke  yielded.1  He  was  assured  that  by  consenting  he 
would  heal  the  divisions  by  which  the  Catholics  were 
prevented  from  acting  together.  The  threatened  mar- 
riage between  Elizabeth  and  A njou  screwed  his  courage 
to  the  sticking  point.  Being  still  under  surveillance  at 
his  own  house,  he  was  unable  to  consult  freely  with  his 
friends,  but  he  gathered  heart  from  a  list  of  Peers  who 
Ridolfi  told  him  would  sign  if  he  would  sign.  No  less 
than  forty  noblemen  professed  to  be  waiting  only  for  an 
opportunity  to  declare  in  arms  against  Elizabeth,  and 
of  the  rest  a  third  were  neutral.2 


1  Norfolk  swore  afterwards  that 
he  had  signed  nothing.  The  Bishop 
of  Ross,  though  he  admitted  that 
Ridolfi  had  received  every  encourage- 
ment short  of  absolute  signature ; 
that  a  letter  written  in  the  Duke's 
name  had  been  read  over  to  him, 
and  had  been  approved  by  him ;  and 
that  in  essentials  he  was  thoroughly 
implicated,  yet  in  that  one  point 


supported  his  denial.  "But  a  letter 
from  the  Duke  to  Philip  survives  at 
Simancas  to  make  his  formal  guilt 
as  indisputable  as  his  substantial 
complicity. 

2  The  forty  were,  the  Duke  of 
Norfolk,  the  Marquis  of  "Win- 
chester, the  Earls  of  Arundel,  Ox- 
ford, Northumberland,  Westmore- 
land, Shrewsbury,  Derby.  Worcester,. 


394 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


[CH.  55. 


It  need  not  be  supposed  that  all  the  party  had  been 
consulted  severally,  or  could  have  been  admitted  safely 
to  a  dangerous  secret.  They  were  men  however  no- 
toriously opposed  to  the  Reformation  policy  of  Eliza- 
beth's Government,  and  among  them  were  Clinton,  the 
admiral  of  the  fleet,  and  Shrewsbury,  under  whose 
charge  the  central  person  of  the  conspiracy  was  residing. 
So  supported,  or  so  believing  himself  to  be  supported, 
the  Duke  of  Norfolk  took  the  fatal  plunge,  and  gave 
power  to  Ridolfi,  in  his  own  and  his  brother  nobles' 
names,  to  bring  a  Spanish  army  into  England.  Parlia- 
ment was  to  open  on  the  ist  of  April.  The  arrangements 
of  the  conspirators  were  completed  by  the  middle  of 
March.  Hidolfi,  after  a  circuit  to  Brussels,  Rome,  and 
Madrid,  expected  to  be  again  in  London  before  the  close 
of  the  summer,  while  the  Peers  would  still  be  assembled 
and  in  a  position  to  act.1 


Cumberland,  Southampton,  Viscount 
Montague,  Lords  Howard,  Aber- 
gavenny,  Audley,  Moiiey,  Cobham, 
Clinton,  Grey  de  Wilton,  Dudley, 
Ogle,  Latimer,  Scrope,  Monteagle, 
Sandys,  Vaux,  Windsor,  St  John, 
Burgh,  Mordaunt,  Paget,  Wbarton, 
Rich,  Stafford,  Dacrcs,  Darcy,  Hast- 
ings, Berkeley,  Cromwell,  Lumley. 

Fifteen  at  most,  according  to  Ri- 
dolfi, could  be  depended  upon  as 
true  to  Elizabeth,  and  of  these,  Sus- 
sex, Rutland,  Huntingdon,  and  Here- 
ford alone  belonged  to  the  old  Eng- 
lish aristocracy.  The  rest,  Russell, 
Seymour,  Sackville,  Carey,  were  the 
new  men  who  had  grown  out  of  the 


revolution,  and  so  far  as  the  Peers 
were  concerned,  rather  aggravated 
the  danger  from  the  bitterness  with 
which  they  were  hated  and  despised 
'  List  of  the  English  Nobility,  Avith 
a  note  of  the  part  which  each  noble- 
man was  prepared  to  take ' :  MSS. 
Simancas, 

1  Norfolk  himself,  with  many  of 
the  rest,  gave  letters  of  credit  in 
their  own  hands  to  Ridolfi.  The 
originals  were  left  as  a  precaution 
in  the  hands  of  Don  Guerau,  and 
transcripts  in  Don  Guerau's  cipher 
were  forwarded  to  Rome  and  to 
Spain. 


1 57 1-]  THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY.  $95 

Don  Guerau,  in  a  letter  sent  direct  to  Spain,  pre- 
pared Philip  for  Bidolfi/s  coming  : — 


DON    GUEllAU    TO    PHILIP/ 

'•March  1 6. 

'The  Queen  of  Scots,  the  Duke  of  Norfolk,  and  the 
other  Catholic  leaders,,  have  arrived,  after  long  delibera- 
tion, at  a  most  important  conclusion.  The  Queen  of 
Scots  will  send  a  Commissioner  to  your  Majesty,  with 
instructions  the  copy  of  which  I  enclose.  He  will 
explain  fully  to  his  Holiness  and  to  your  Majesty  the 
miserable  state  to  which  this  country  is  reduced,  the 
probability  that  the  Catholics  have  yet  greater  cruelties 
to  undergo,  and  the  solitary  prospect  of  escape  which 
is  open  to  them  through  the  assistance  of  those  who 
support  the  claim  of  the  Queen  of  Scots  to  the  succes- 
sion of  these  realms.  The  other  competitors,  the  Earls 
of  Hertford  and  Huntingdon,  are  heretics.  Your  Ma- 
jesty will  be  given  to  understand  the  unhappy  state  of 
that  Princess,  and  the  sufferings  to  which  the  good 2 
are  exposed  who  favour  the  cause.  The  Queen  of 
England  does  but  dally  in  affecting  to  treat  for  her 
restoration.  More  than  once  she  has  proposed  to  put 
her  to  death,  and  she  forbears  only  the  more  effectually 
to  ruin  her  Catholic  subjects.  She  entertains  them 
with  the  hope  of  an  agreement,  while  the  heretics 
persecute  them  at  their  pleasure.  The  friends  of  the 
Queen  of  Scots  therefore  have  decided  that  she  must 


1  MS.  Simancas. 
2  The  usual  phrase  in  these  despatches  to  express  the  Catholics- 


396  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  55. 

tlirow  herself  upon  the  protection  of  the  Christian 
princes,  and  especially  of  the  Pope's  Holiness  and  of 
your  Majesty.  They  are  willing  to  venture  their  lives 
and  fortunes  for  religion  and  for  that  Queen's  title 
The  Duke  of  Norfolk,  the  first  nobleman  in  England, 
consents  to  place  himself  at  their  head.  The  Duke  has 
ever  in  -secret  favoured  the  Catholics,  His  chief  friends 
are  Catholics,  and  he  has  constantly  supported  the 
Queen  of  Scots  in  deed  and  word.  He  possesses  there- 
fore the  full  confidence  of  the  Catholic  party. 

1  This  Duke  at  the  same  time  is  the  leader  of  a  section 
of  the  heretics  who  might  perhaps  abandon  him  were 
he  to  be  openly  reconciled  to  the  Church.  It  is  in  con- 
sequence considered  expedient  that  he  should  temporize, 
the  better  to  use  their  assistance  and  bring  them  under 
the  yoke  of  the  Church  when  occasion  shall  serve.  He 
has  influence  among  the  Protestants  in  two  ways  :  first, 
a  great  many  of  them  favour  the  Queen  of  Scots'  title. 
They  believe  that  she  has  the  right,  and  they  resent 
the  late  imprisonment  of  the  Duke  on  her  account. 
The  Queen  of  England  intends  in  the  approaching  Par- 
liament to  advance  the  claims  of  the  Earl  of  Hertford, 
and  they  will  take  arms  with  the  Duke  to  prevent  such 
a  wrong  from  being  done. 

'  Secondly,  they  are  alarmed  and  angry  at  the  mar- 
riage which  is  now  talked  of  between  the  Queen  of 
England  and  the  Duke  of  Anjou.  The  Queen  is  sup- 
posed to  have  set  her  heart  upon  it,  and  it  is  thought 
that  the  Protestants  would  even  prefer  the  restoration 
of  the  faith  to  the  consummation  of  a  union  which  they 


THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY. 


397 


detest.  The  Commissioner  will  take  especial  pains  to  ex- 
plain the  nature  of  Norfolk's  position  to  the  Pope,  so 
that  his  Holiness  may  be  satisfied  about  him ;  and  it  will 
be  well  if  the  Duke  can  be  induced  to  seek  absolution 
at  his  Holiness's  hands,  and  to  submit  his  conduct  in 
all  particulars  to  his  Holiness' s  judgment.  The  Queen 
of  Scots  desires  him  to  do  this,  in  order  that,  should 
your  Majesty  prefer  to  arrange  the  marriage  for  her 
with  Don  John,  which  his  Holiness  so  much  desires, 
his  Holiness  may  the  better  be  able  to  urge  the  Duke 
to  give  way,  by  representing  to  him  that  particular 
interests  must  not  be  allowed  to  obstruct  the  universal 
good  of  Christendom.1 

*  The  Commissioner  will  request  his  Holiness  to  send 
some  one  to  your  Majesty  to  give  you  the  particulars 
of  the  men  and  money  which  his  Holiness  will  con- 
tribute to  the  enterprise,  and  to  satisfy  your  Majesty, 
should  you  feel  uncertainty,  about  the  Duke's  religion, 
the  Duke  being  the  only  person  through  whose  assist- 
ance the  work  can  be  done.  Against  the  Duke's  wishes 
it  would  be  extremely  difficult  for  any  foreign  Prince 
to  carry  off  the  Queen  of  Scots  by  force,  or  if  she  were 
out  of  the  country  to  bring  her  back  and  place  her  upon 
the  throne. 


1  So  I  understand  a  rather  com- 
plicated passage  : — '  Lo  qual  parece 
£  la  Reyna  de  Escocia  assi,  a  fin  que 
si  V.  Magd  quisiese  diferir  esto,  para 
tratar  el  casamiento  del  Sr  Don  Juan 
de  Austria — el  qual  su  Santidad  de- 
sea  mucho  —  haya  de  apretarlo  y 


pasar  adelante,  ofreciendose  tales 
occasiones  para  el  bien  universal  de 
la  Xdad,  el  qual  no  se  debe  impedir 
por  ningun  designo  particular.' 

If  1  translate  rightly,  Mary  Stuart 
hoped  to  balk  the  wretched  Norfolk 
of  the  reward  of  his  treason  after  all. 


398  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  55. 

'Your  Majesty  will  understand  that  no  word  of  all 
this  is  known  in  France,  nor  has  the  Queen  of  Scots 
let  fall  a  hint  of  it  to  any  of  her  own  relations.  She 
places  her  confidence  in  your  Majesty  alone,  and  with 
your  Majesty,  if  God  gives  her  grace  to  obtain  her 
just  rights,  she  will  maintain  the  ancient  league  and 
confederation  which  has  so  long  existed  between  her 
and  your  progenitors. 

'  She  will  consent  also  to  a  proposal  made  to  her  by 
the  late  Queen  of  Spain  before  her  death,  for  a  mar- 
riage between  her  son  the  Prince  of  Scotland  and  one 
of  your  Majesty's  daughters.  Your  Majesty's  pleasure 
in  this  matter  will  be  hers.  She  will  place  the  Prince 
in  your  Majesty's  hands,  to  be  educated  at  your  Court 
in  virtue  and  the  Christian  faith. 

1  Your  Majesty  will  also  hear  in  detail  the  nature  of 
the  assistance  which  will  be  required,  the  native  force 
with  which  your  Majesty's  army  will  be  supported, 
and  the  means  by  which  the  Queen  of  Scots  can  be 
released,  and  the  Queen  of  England  arrested  and 
confined :  you  will  be  able  to  assure  yourself  that 
this  is  no  ill-considered  enterprise  in  which  you  are 
invited  to  take  part  and  that  your  soldiers  will  be  in  no 
danger.' 

Accompanying  this  letter,  as  Don  Guerau  stated, 
were  transcripts  of  the  commissions  given  both  by  the 
Queen  of  Scots  and  the  Duke  of  Norfolk  to  Bidolfi 
The  Queen  of  Scots  had  not  at  first  intended  to  com- 
municate to  Don  Guerau  the  Ml  details  of  the  plot. 


I57i  ]  THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY.  399 

She  feared  that  lie  would  send  a  sketch  of  them  pre- 
maturely to  Alva,  and  that  Alva  would  form  an  un- 
favourable opinion  with  an  imperfect  case  before  him. 
But  the  Bishop  of  Boss  feared  to  awake  Don  Guerau's 
suspicions  by  mutilated  confidence.  If  Don  Guerau 
felt  his  footsteps  insecure  anywhere  in  such  a  sea  of 
quicksands,  he  would  report  in  a  hostile  spirit,  and  the 
scheme  would  be  ruined. 

Mary  Stuart's  letter  was  therefore  laid  before  him 
exactly  as  she  wrote  it,  and  the  ambassador's  own  ac- 
count to  Philip  was  in  parts  a  mere  duplicate  of  the 
Queen  of  Scots'  words.  In  form  it  was  addressed  to 
Eidolfi,  and  the  matter  which  it  contained  was  to  be 
laid  before  the  Pope  and  Philip. 

With  extreme  skill,  and  touching  with  comparative 
lightness  on  her  personal  sufferings,  she  turned  the  sub- 
stance of  her  representations  entirely  upon  the  cause  of 
the  Catholic  Church.  "When  she  spoke  of  her  title  and 
claims,  she  seemed  to  value  them  chiefly  as  means  to- 
wards the  restoration  of  the  faith  ;  and  her  own  injuries 
appeared  most  to  grieve  her  through  the  sympathy 
which  they  excited  among  the  Catholic  noblemen — a 
sympathy  which,  immediately  that  it  was  manifested, 
brought  down  upon  her  friends  the  most  cruel  and  ma- 
lignant persecutions.  '  Some  were  in  prison/  she  said, 
'some  murdered,  some  in  exile,  and  she  was  so  grieved 
that  she  prayed  often  it  might  be  the  will  of  God  to 
take  her  out  of  the  world.  If  she  was  once  dead  and 
beyond  the  reach  of  the  hard  woman  who  had  her  in 
her  hands,  the  Catholics,  she  thought,  would  then  be 


400 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


[CH.  55. 


more  patient, 'and  would  be  content  to  wait  till  God 
took  pity  on  them.' 

1  She  was  mocked  at,  trifled  with,  and  insulted  with 
hopes  of  release  which  were  never  intended  to  be  real- 
ized. She  was  in  daily  expectation  of  assassination 
either  by  poison  or  open  violence.  A  person  had  once 
even  come  to  the  place  where  she  was,  with  a  com- 
mission to  kill  her,  and  she  was  kept  alive  only  that 
Scotland  might  be  plunged  into  the  miseries  of  uncer- 
tainty and  civil  war,  and  that  Elizabeth  might  make 
her  hateful  to  her  subjects  by  representing  to  them  that 
she  was  the  cause  of  their  sufferings/ 

She  then  went  on  to  speak  of  Norfolk  and  the  Eng- 
lish nobility,  of  their  friendliness  to  herself,  their  zeal 
for  the  Catholic  Church,  and  their  determination  to 
risk  life  and  fortune  to  overturn  the  present  Govern- 
ment. She  touched  approvingly  on  Norfolk's  treachery 
to  the  Protestants  in  pretending  still  to  belong  to  them, 
on  the  Anjou  marriage,  and  the  fury  of  the  English 
people  at  the  prospect  of  having  a  French  prince  among 
them;  and  afterwards,  successively,  she  went  over  all 
the  points  on  which  Don  Guerau  had  written  to  his 
master — the  necessity  of  making  use  of  the  Duke,  her 
own  devotion  to  Spain,  and  the  certainty  of  the  success 
of  an  invasion.1 


1  Instructions  of  the  Queen  of 
Scots  to  Ridolfi  :  MSS.  Simancas. 

A  message  was  attached  which 
Ridolfi  was  to  give  separately  to  the 
Pope,  contrived  to  meet  any  rumours 
which  might  have  reached  him  as  to 


her  past  misdoings. 

'  You  will  explain  to  his  Holi- 
ness,' she  said,  '  the  ill-treatment 
which  I  met  with  from  my  subject, 
the  Earl  of  Bothwell.  The  Earl 
carried  me,  the  Lord  Huntly,  and 


THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY. 


401 


So  far  Mary  Stuart.  It  is  necessary  to  remember 
that  she  was  no  subject  of  Elizabeth's  ;  that  in  the  eyes 
of  Elizabeth  she  was  still  Queen  of  Scotland,  unlaw- 
fully deprived  of  her  crown  by  her  subjects  for  crimes 
of  which,  after  a  formal  examination,  she  had  not  been 
declared  to  be  guilty.  So  far  as  Scotland  was  concerned 
therefore  Elizabeth  had  no  right  whatever  to  complain 
of  her  using  any  means  and  inviting  any  assistance  to 
compel  the  recognition  of  her  authority  there.  In  Eng- 
land, her  position  was  so  utterly  anomalous  that  it  was 
hard  to  say  whether  she  could  or  could  not  be  regarded 
justly  as  subject  to  the  laws  ;  and  could  the  causes  which 
brought  her  there  have  been  forgotten,  she  would  have 
been  entitled  morally  to  use  any  means  whatever  to  re- 
cover her  freedom. 

She  indeed  seeing  her  crimes  condoned  by  Peers 
and  Prelates,  by  the  Vicar  of  Christ  upon  his  spiritual 
throne,  might  easily  have  persuaded  herself  that  she 


my  secretary,  to  the  Castle  of  Dun- 
bar  and  afterwards  to  the  Castle  of 
Edinburgh.  I  was  there  detained 
against  my  will  until  he  had  pro- 
cured a  pretended  divorce  between 
himself  and  his  wife,  the  Lord 
Huntly's  sister,  and  he  then  forced 
me  to  marry  him.  I  therefore  en- 
treat his  Holiness  to  take  order  for 
my  relief  from  this  indignity,  either 
by  a  process  at  Rome  or  by  a  com- 
mission sent  into  Scotland.' 

If  the  Queen  of  Scots  wished  to 
marry  again  it  was  no  doubt  neces- 
sary for  her  to  free  herself  from  a 
troublesome  engagement.  Yet  the 

VOL.   IX. 


versatile  lady  had  but  two  months 
before  been  in  correspondence  with 
Bothwell  himself.  Buchanan,  who 
had  gone  to  Copenhagen  to  endea- 
vour to  prevail  on  the  King  to  give 
up  Bothwell  to  the  Regent,  ascer- 
tained that  the  Queen  of  Scots  had 
both  written  to  the  Earl  herself  and 
had  written  to  the  King  to  entreat 
him  not  to  listen  to  Buchanan's  per- 
suasions. Buchanan  told  Cecil  that 
if  he  took  the  trouble,  he  might  in- 
tercept some  of  her  letters. — Bucha- 
nan to  Cecil,  January  19.  From 
Copenhagen  :  MSS.  Scotland,  Holla 
House. 

26 


402  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  55. 

was  the  chosen  of  Heaven,  a  woman  after  God's  heart, 
like  the  David  to  whom  her  defenders  compared  her. 
It  was  true  that  Elizabeth  had  protected  her  honour 
and  had  saved  her  life — saved  her  when  all  parties  in 
Scotland  would  have  shaken  hands  over  her  grave — 
saved  her  when  the  wisest  of  the  English  council  be- 
lieved that  her  life  had  a  second  time  been  forfeited. 
It  was  true,  as  Elizabeth  said,  that  no  sovereign  in 
Europe  would  have  shown  the  forbearance  which  she 
had  shown  to  a  pretender  to  her  crown.  Yet  benefits, 
when  undeserved,  are  but  added  injuries ;  and  rage, 
hatred,  jealousy,  the  thousand  passions  which  failure 
upon  failure  had  aggravated  to  madness,  explain  en- 
tirely the  desperate  course  upon  which  the  imprisoned 
Queen  was  now  venturing. 

.Far  different  was  the  position  of  the  Duke  of  Nor- 
folk. Norfolk  knew  Mary  Stuart's  story,  and  never 
pretended  to  believe  her  the  suffering  innocent  which 
her  friends  now  represented  her  to  be.  Norfolk  was 
Elizabeth's  subject,  but  lately  pardoned  by  her  for  of- 
fences for  which  her  father  would  have  made  short 
work  with  him.  Bound  to  her  by  the  most  solemn 
promises,  which  on  the  moment  when  he  made  them 
he  had  determined  to  break,  and  without  even  the  poor 
pretext  of  religion  to  invest  his  treason  with  spurious 
sanctity — Norfolk's  instructions  come  next.  Whether 
written  by  himself  matters  little.  He  denied  them,  but 
the  evidence  of  their  substantial  authenticity  is  too 
strong  to  be  shaken  by  his  own  tainted  word.  They 
were  read  over  in  his  presence  and  approved  by  him, 


15JI-]  THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY.  403 

and  the  bearer  carried  credentials  from  him  to  the  King 
of  Spain. 

He  too,  like  the  Queen  of  Scots,  addressed  himself 
in  form  to  Bidolfi.1  '  Such/  he  said,  '  is  the  confidence 
which  is  placed  in  you  by  the  Queen  of  Scots,  by  my- 
self, and  by  others  our  friends  in  this  realm,  that  with 
common  consent  we  entrust  a  matter  to  your  diligence 
and  honesty,  which  touches  the  safety  of  our  own  lives, 
the  welfare  of  this  nation,  and  generally  of  the  whole 
of  Christendom.  We  commission  you  to  go  with  all 
expedition,  first  to  Rome  and  then  to  the  Catholic  King, 
that  you  may  lay  before  his  Holiness  and  his  Majesty 
the  wretched  state  of  this  island,  our  own  particular 
wrongs,  as  I  have  more  largely  by  word  of  mouth  made 
them  known  to  you,  and  an  assured  mode  by  which  our 
country  and  ourselves  can  obtain  relief. 

'The  Queen  of  Scots  has  informed  you  what  you 
will  say  on  her  part.  I  on  mine,  and  in  the  names  of 
the  larger  number  of  the  Peers  of  this  realm — the  list 
of  whom  you  carry  with  you — declare  our  own  opinions 
in  the  following  words ;  and  we  pray  God  to  conduct 
you  safely  through  your  journey,  and  to  bring  you  back 
with  happy  success. 

'  You  will  tell  his  Holiness  and  the  King  that,  to  all 
appearance,  bad  things  will  grow  to  worse  among  us, 
unless  God  of  his  mercy  shall  move  them  to  look  upon 
our  afflictions  and  assist  us — as  they  may  now  do  with 
ease  and  safety — to  advance  the  title  of  the  Queen  of 

1  Instructions  of  the  Duke  of  Norfolk  to  Robert  Ridolfi :  MSS.  Si- 
mancas. 


4o4 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


[CH.  55. 


Scots,  to  restore  the  Catholic  religion,  and  to  suppress 
the  pretensions  of  the  Earls  of  Hertford  and  Hunting- 
don, who  on  various  grounds  aspire  to  the  succession, 
and,  being  Huguenots,  find  favour  with  the  heretics. 

'  You  will  make  known  the  good  and  prompt  dis- 
position of  the  Catholics,  who  are  the  strongest  party 
in  numbers  and  rank,  and  you  will  explain  the  oppor- 
tunity which  is  now  offered  for  the  re-establishment  of 
the  truth,  through  the  just  title  of  the  Queen  of  Scots, 
many  of  the  Protestants  regarding  religion  as  of  less 
importance  than  the  succession,  and  being  therefore 
ready  to  support  the  Queen  of  Scots  against  the  rival 
claimants. 

*  And  since  his  Holiness  and  the  Catholic  King  may 
have  hitherto  been  dissatisfied  with  me,  as  having  in 
some  sort  affected  to  be  a  Huguenot,  you  will  say  that 
I  have  never  been  disloyal  to  the  Holy  See,  but  have 
desired  only  to  hold  myself  in  readiness  (when  an 
occasion  like  the  present  should  oflPer  itself)  to  do  some 
service  to  my  country  and  the  .common  weal  of  Chris- 
tendom ; 1  as  the  event  will  show  if  they  give  us  now 
the  aid  for  which  we  ask.  My  hope  is  to  unite  this 
whole  island  under  one  sovereign,  and  restore  the 
ancient  laws  and  the  ancient  religion.  Yet,  because 


1  'Y  quando  su  Santidad  y  el 
Key  hasta  agora  hubiesen  tenido  al- 
guna  sospecha  de  mi  por  no  haberme 
declarado,  antes  en  cierta  manera 
mostrado  set  Ugonote,  les  signifi- 
carcis  que  no  ha  sido  por  mala 
voluntad  que  yo  aya  tenido  a  aquella 


Santa  Sede,  sino  para  poder,  quandc 
el  tiempo  y  ocasion  se  presentase 
como  agora  se  ofresce,  hacer  §  toda 
esta  Isla  y  generalmente  a  toda  la 
Christiandad  el  relevado  servicio  que 
el  mismo  effecto  mostrara.' 


1 57 1.]  THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY.  405 

on  account  of  the  Queen  of  Scots'  title,  many  Hugue- 
nots work  with  me  and  under  me,  they  must  not  be 
surprised  if  I  do  not  as  yet  make  known  my  purpose  to 
every  one.  You  will  kiss  the  feet  of  his  Holiness  in 
my  name  and  that  of  the  nobles,  and  you  will  say  that, 
if  God  gives  me  grace  to  conduct  this  enterprise  to  a 
happy  end,  I  will  then  be  content  to  do  anything  which 
his  Holiness,  the  King  of  Spain,  and  the  Queen  of 
Scots  shall  ordain. 

'  I  and  my  friends  will  adventure  our  lives  in  the 
cause,  and  I  beseech  his  Holiness  to  use  his  influence 
with  the  Catholic  King  in  our  behalf.  You  will  con- 
vince his  Majesty  of  the  sincere  hearts  with  which  we 
turn  to  him,  and  although  I  may  at  times,  either  for 
the  sake  of  the  Queen  of  Scots  or  for  other  causes,  have 
seemed  to  incline  too  much  towards  France,  you  will 
say  that  I  have  never  been  French  at  heart,  but  that 
my  inclinations  have  been  always  towards  his  Majesty, 
as  I  hope  I  shall  have  occasion  tc  prove.  I  turn  to 
him  as  my  most  sure  refuge.  I  beseech  him  to  help 
me  in  the  interests  of  the  Christian  world.  The  per- 
nicious purpose  of  those  about  the  Queen  is  to  de- 
termine the  succession  to  some  one  of  their  own  sort, 
and  to  establish  the  Huguenot  religion,  not  here  only, 
but  in  all  Europe.  If  this  be  done,  the  King's  Low 
Countries  will  be  in  danger,  especially  if  the  marriage 
take  effect  between  the  Queen  and  the  Duke  of  Anjou, 
— but  that  marriage  shall  never  be,  if  the  King  will  aid 
is  in  preventing  it. 

'  You  will  tell  his  Majesty  that,  in  return  for  the 


4o6  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  55. 

confidence  which,  we  place  in  him,  we  trust  he  will  ap- 
prove of  my  own  marriage  with  the  Queen  of  Scots. 
Half  the  realm  desires  it  as  well  as  I.  We  bind  our- 
selves to  renew  the  league  between  England  and  Spain, 
and  to  restore,  as  we  should  have  long  ago  done  but 
for  the  late  troubles,  all  the  property  of  the  King 
which  is  detained  in  this  country.  His  Majesty  will 
find  us  ready  to  do  our  own  parts.  The  nobles  and  the 
people  promise  to  take  arms  with  myself  at  their  head, 
and  to  adventure  themselves  in  battle  ;  yet,  being  im- 
perfectly provided,  we  cannot  do  all  of  ourselves.  We 
ask  his  Majesty  for  money,  arms,  ammunition,  troops, 
and  especially  for  some  experienced  soldier  to  lead 
us ; l  we  on  our  part  providing  a  place  upon  the  coast 
where  his  army  can  land,  entrench  itself,  and  keep  its 
stores. 

'  We  can  ourselves  on  the  spot  provide  20,000  foot 
and  3000  horse ;  besides  those  many  others  who  have 
pledged  themselves  afterwards  to  take  the  field  upon 
our  side. 

'  In  my  own  opinion,  the  most  convenient  port  will 
be  Harwich,  where  I  can  myself  be  present  with  the 
forces  of  the  country.  If  Portsmouth  be  thought 
better,  I  will  be  there  in  strength  enough,  for  a  time 
at  least,  to  hold  in  check  the  Queen  of  England's  army. 
From  his  Majesty  and  his  Holiness  we  ask  for  6000 
harquebuss-men,  with  4000  additional  harquebusses  to 


1  '  Sc  digne  assistcr  nos  lo  mas 
pronto  que  pudiese,  assi  con  dincros 
como  con  el  numcro  de  gente,  arm  as 


y  rauniciones,  y  principalmente  con 
un  personage  de  experiencia  para 
guiar  un  exercito.' 


1 57 1.]  THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY.  407 

arm  our  own  people,  aooo  corslets,  and  25  pieces  of 
artillery.  3000  horses  will  be  wanted  also,  to  keep 
command  of  the  country  in  case  the  Queen  of  England 
make  more  resistance  than  it  is  thought  she  will  be 
able  to  do.  Money  will  be  wanted  also ;  and  if  the 
enterprise  succeed,  as  with  the  help  of  God  and  of  his 
Majesty  it  must,  I  and  the  Queen  of  Scots  undertake 
to  reimburse  his  Majesty  for  all  the  expenses  which 
he  may  incur.  Were  it  possible  to  increase  the 
succour  to  10,000,  2000  men  being  landed  in  Scot- 
land, and  2000  in  Ireland,  the  Queen  would  have  to 
divide  her  forces,  and  success  would  be  the  more  certain. 

f  If  the  war  with  the  Turks,  or  other  impediment, 
make  it  necessary  for  his  Majesty  to  put  us  off,  I  and 
others,  if  it  seems  expedient,  might  retire  to  Spain  or 
Flanders,  and  wait  for  a  more  convenient  time.  The 
Queen  of  Scots  however  must  be  first  set  at  liberty.  If 
we  go  away  and  leave  her  in  the  Queen  of  England's 
hands,  she  will  be  destroyed. 

'  If  the  Queen  of  England  be  left  with  her  present 
advisers,  the  Low  Countries  will  never  be  secure.  After 
the  success  of  our  proposed  scheme,  his  Majesty  need 
fear  no  further  troubles  there,  and  you  will  tell  the 
King  therefore,  that  it  should  be  executed  before  the 
end  of  the  coming  summer,  and  before  the  French  or 
the  Queen  of  England  have  discovered  our  secret.  As 
yet,  you  will  say,  the  French  know  nothing  of  it,  nor 
is  there  any  surer  way  to  prevent  the  Anjou  marriage. 
Be  as  quick  as  you  can  that  we  lose  not  the  summer 
You  carry  letters  of  credit  from  me  and  from  all  my 


4o8 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


[CH.  55. 


friends,  for  his  Holiness,  the  King,  and  the  Duke  of 
Alva  ; l  but  as  both  you  and  the  Bishop  of  Ross  are  of 
opinion  that  these  letters  may  be  dangerous  both  to 
yourselves  and  to  us,  you  may  leave  them  in  the  hands 
of  the  Spanish  ambassador  ;  you  will  ask  him,  from  me, 
to  transcribe  them  in  his  own  cipher,  and  send  copies 
to  each  of  the  princes,  and  assure  them  that  he  is  in 
possession  of  the  originals ; 2  giving  at  the  same  time 
the  reasons  why  you  have  them  not  with  you.  If  I 
can  see  the  ambassador  and  confirm  to  him  what  I  have 
said  to  you,  I  will  do  so.  If  not,  I  must  let  him  know 
by  letter.  I  will  write  with  so  much  the  more  warmth 
to  his  Majesty,  whose  hand  you  will  kiss  with  all  due 
reverence  in  my  name.3  You  must  insist  on  my  desire 


1  '-  Llevais   cartas    de  creencia 
mi  as  y  de  todos  los  amigos.' 

2  '  Me   contento  que  las  dexeis 
aqui  en  manos  del  Embajador  de 
Espana,  con  rogarle  de  mi  parte  que 
se  contente  de  daros  copia  dellas  en 
su  cifra  mas  secreta  y  que  escriba  &. 
cada  uno   de  los  dichos  Principes 
como  tiene  los  originates  cerca  de  si.' 

3  The  commission  is  so  long  that 
I  have  been  obliged  to  abridge  it  in 
places,  but  I  have  omitted  nothing 
of  consequence,  and  I  have  as  far  as 
possible  preserved  the  tone.     The 
letter  of  credit,  which  was  forwarded 
in  Don  Guerau's  cipher,  was  as  fol- 
lows :  — 

4  Christian!  orbis  Serenissime 
idemque  Catholice  Rex  ;  hujus  in- 
sula3  Britannicse  statum  tot  miseriis 
et  aerumnis  undique  religionis  ergo 
dissidii  quoque  fidei  causa  deploran- 


dum  considerans,  hunc  nuntium  Ro- 
bcrtum  Ridolfi,  virum  probum,  de  ali- 
orum  procerum  hujus  regni  consilio 
in  pra3sentiam  V.  Majtlg  mitto,  adeo 
instructum  ut  de  rebus  ad  publicum 
spectantibus  commodum,  Serenita- 
tem  tuam  certiorem  redderre  poterit, 
cui  fidem  haberi  et  eundem  bene 
expeditum  ea  celeri  diligentia  quam 
ipsius  negotii  statum  (sic)  requirit 
ad  nos  remitti  humillime  supplico, 
et  ut  omnia  ad  optatum  perducantur 
finem,  non  solum  omnem  meam 
operamet  csetera  qua3  mearum  virium 
sunt,  sed  et  vitam  denique  meam  in 
Dei  gloriam  exponere  summa  fide 
polliceor.  Cetera  vero  qua?  V* 
Maj*1  nuntius  abunde  et  perspicace 
(sic)  coram  disseret  ad  Vffi  Majti§ 
summam  prudentiam,  sicut  et  mea 
omnia  defmicnda  supplex  refero, 
quam  semper  incolumem  servet  et 


THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY. 


409 


to  serve  him,  and  entreat  him  to  think  well  of  me. 

'  To  the  Duke  of  Alva  you  will  give  my  commenda- 
tions :  you  will  admit  him  as  far  as  you  think  proper 
into  our  plans — and  as  you  find  him  disposed,  you  will 
ask  for  his  favourable  letters  to  his  Holiness  and  the 
King.  You  will  require  him  as  a  Prince  of  honour  not 
to  betray  us  ;  and  you  will  leave  our  cipher  with  him,  that 
we  may  keep  him  informed  of  what  is  going  on  among  us. 

'  And,  because  the  King  of  Portugal  is  also  much 
offended  with  the  Queen  of  England,  I  think  that,  being 
a  most  Catholic  Prince,  he  cannot  but  favour  us.  As 
this  Prince  has  no  ambassador  residing  here  through 
whom  I  can  communicate  with  him,  you  will  ask  his 
Holiness  and  the  Catholic  King  to  introduce  you  io  him  : 
and  when  you  shall  have  left  them,  and  shall  have  let  us 
know  what  we  are  to  look  for  from  them,  you  may  return 
through  Portugal,  and  tell  the  King,  that  if  he  will  join 
our  enterprise,  I  will  undertake  to  see  him  satisfied  for 
the  injuries  which  he  has  sustained.  He  can  help  us 
much  by  throwing  men  into  Ireland  or  Scotland.  It 
will  not  be  suspected,  and  his  transports  could  be  on  the 
coast  before  a  word  had  been  heard  about  them.  The 
Queen  will  have  to  divide  her  force.  She  will  be  dis- 
turbed and  terrified,  and  the  rest  of  the  work  can  be 
executed  with  greater  ease/1 


tueatur    Deus   Optimus    Maximus. 
Londini,  vigesimo  Martii  1571. 
'  Celeritudinis  tuso  addictissimus 
servus, 

'THOMAS    DUX 

-MSS.  SimetKcas. 


1  Commission  of  the  Duke  of 
Norfolk  to  Ridolfi  :  MSS.  Simancas. 
An  Italian  version  of  the  same  do- 
cument has  been  printed  by  Laban- 
off  from  the  Vatican  Archives. 


410  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  55. 

That  ambiguous  crime  of  treason,  which  graduates, 
according  to  its  object  and  circumstances,  through  all 
moral  degrees,  from  the  most  sublime  virtue  to  the 
deepest  wickedness,  has  rarely  appeared  less  favourably 
than  in  this  unlucky  paper.  If  the  Duke  of  Norfolk  is 
to  be  credited  with  a  sincere  conversion  to  the  Roman 
faith,  that  faith  itself  assumed  in  his  person  its  most 
revolting  and  perfidious  aspect.  The  penitent  was  not 
to  reveal  his  creed  because  he  was  still  trusted  by  those 
whose  cause  he  was  betraying ;  and  because,  by  retaining 
their  confidence,  he  could  serve  the  Catholic  interests  more 
effectually.  If,  as  he  afterwards  protested,  he  remained 
at  heart  a  Protestant,  he  was  deceiving  alike  his  new 
friends  and  his  old.  He  was  without  the  solitary  ex- 
cuse which  he  might  have  pleaded  in  palliation  of  his 
treachery.  He  was  bringing  an  army  of  strangers  upon 
England,  he  was  preparing  to  inflict  upon  his  country- 
men the  inevitable  horrors  of  invasion  and  civil  war,  to 
gratify  his  own  pride  and  paltry  ambition.  Doubtless, 
to  his  conscience,  if  conscience  pricked  him,  he  could 
say  that  there  was  much  in  the  administration  of  which 
he  disapproved  :  the  excesses  of  the  Reformation,  the 
social  changes,  and  the  growth  of  a  new  order  of  men 
whom  he  may  have  hated  as  his  father  hated  Cromwell, 
might  have  reasonably  off ended  his  prejudices.  Doubt- 
less, even  while  he  called  himself  a  Lutheran,  he  had  no 
sympathy  with  the  Protestantism  of  France,  and  Scotland, 
and  the  Low  Countries,  which  Cecil's  policy  encouraged 
and  protected ;  yet,  it  was  not  to  remedy  such  ills  as 
these  that  Alva's  legions  should  have  been  called  in  to 


15 7 1.]  THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY.  411 

water  English  soil  with.  English  blood.  Not  on  such 
grounds  as  these  should  he  have  sought  the  overthrow 
of  a  Government,  which,  however  grave  its  short- 
comings, was  the  mildest  which  England  had  known 
for  many  a  century.  He  might  sigh  for  the  patriarchal 
days  of  feudalism,  when  the  earls  and  dukes  were  local 
sovereigns,  and  no  upstart  commoner  could  stride  before 
them  on  the  road  to  power ;  but  there  was  little  likeli- 
hood that  the  ancient  order  and  reverence  which  he  and 
his  friends  so  much  regretted,  could  be  re-established 
by  lying  and  treachery,  or  that  a  purer  creed  could  be 
brought  back  into  the  Church,  by  placing  Elizabeth's 
sceptre  in  the  hands  of  Both  well's  paramour.  There  had 
been  a  time  when  Norfolk  would  not  have  required  to 
be  reminded  of  such  common  truths.  He  was  not 
naturally  mean  or  false.  But  the  spell  of  the  enchant- 
ment was  upon  him,  and  the  woman,  for  whose  sake 
he  was  fouling  his  hands  with  baseness,  was  intending 
secretly,  when  she  had  used  his  services,  to  dupe  him  at 
last  out  of  his  reward. 

Thus  Eidolfi  went — ostensibly  on  Elizabeth's  business 
— to  return  if  possible  in  the  summer  with  the  Spanish 
army,  and  Norfolk  lay  waiting  in  Howard  House  for  the 
springing  of  the  mine,  while  Mary  Stuart  corresponded 
with  Elizabeth  about  the  treaty  as  if  her  thoughts  were 
absorbed  in  that  and  that  only.  She  appealed  from 
Elizabeth  ill  informed  by  her  detractors  to  Elizabeth 
who  would  one  day  hear  her  defence ;  she  affected  still 
to  trust  to  the  English  Queen  to  prevent  her  title  being 
meddled  with  by  Parliament,  and  she  swore  that  she 


412 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


[CH.  55. 


was  not  entertaining  a  thought  in  Elizabeth's  prejudice.1 
In  signal  contrast  with  all  this  treachery  and  con- 
spiracy, a  remarkable  exploit  in  Scotland  threw  sudden 
credit  on  the  Regent's  government,  gave  heart  to  the 
Protestants,  and  encouraged  Elizabeth  in  her  resolution 
to  postpone,  for  a  time  at  least,  the  further  consideration 
of  the  Queen  of  Scots'  restitution. 

The  Castle  of  Dumbarton  has  been  many  times  men- 
tioned in  this  history.  The  rock  on  which  it  stands 
forms  the  point  of  a  peninsula  at  the  confluence  of  the 
Leven  and  Clyde.  It  rises  sheer  from  the  water  to  a 
height  of  two  hundred  feet.  The  circumference  at  the 
base  is  less  than  half  a  mile,  and  the  sides,  if  not  en- 
tirely perpendicular,  are  so  near  it  that  there  is  but  one 
spot  where  it  can  be  ascended  without  ladders  or  ropes. 
The  rock  is  united  to  the  mainland  only  by  a  low  strip 
of  marsh  and  meadow,  which  at  that  time  was  flooded 
by  high  tides.  In  a  cleft  near  the  summit  there  is  a 
spring  of  water  ;  and  thus  before  the  invention  of  shells 
the  place  was  virtually  impregnable  except  by  famine. 
It  had  been  held  by  Lord  Fleming,  in  the  name  of  Mary 
Stuart,  from  the  beginning  of  the  troubles  in  Scotland. 
It  wa.s  to  Dumbarton  that  she  was  retreating  when  in- 
tercepted at  Langside.  Dumbarton  was  the  open  gate 
through  which  French  or  Spaniards  could  have  entrance 
into  Scotland.  It  was  a  sanctuary  of  disaffection ;  a 


1  '  Yen  comme  desubs  que  je  ne 
desire  rien  mouvoir  de  ma  part  pour 
ne  vous  desplayre  sans  aultre  respect 
jc  vous  jure.' — Mary  Stuart  to  Eli- 


zabeth, March  27 ;  and  compare 
Same  to  the  Same,  March  31  :  LA- 
BANOFF,  vol.  Hi. 


1 5 7i.]  THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY.  413 

shelter  for  English  Catholic  rebels ;  a  residence  for  a 
French  minister,  who  was  kept  there  to  nourish  hopes 
which  might  or  might  not  be  realized,  and,  commanding 
free  access  to  the  sea,  was  a  focus  and  hotbed  of  intrigues 
with  the  Continental  Powers.  The  two  Regents  had 
watched  anxiously  for  a  chance  of  getting  possession  of 
it.  The  journey  in  which  Murray  lost  his  life  had  been 
undertaken  in  the  vain  hope  that  it  would  be  surrendered. 
Sir  William  Drury  surveyed  it  after  he  had  destroyed 
Hamilton  Castle,  and  a  ball  from  a  ditch  had  nearly 
ended  his  course  there.  The  occupation  of  Dumbarton 
by  an  English  garrison  was  among  the  conditions  de- 
manded by  Elizabeth  in  the  treaty.  But  for  the  present 
Queen  Mary's  banner  waved  above  the  battlements  on 
"Wallace's  Tower ;  Fleming  was  still  in  command  ;  the 
Archbishop  of  St  Andrew's,  who  had  been  proclaimed 
traitor  after  Murray's  murder,  found  shelter  behind  its 
crags.  De  Yirac  was  there,  superintending  the  supplies 
of  arms  and  money  which  were  continually  coming  in 
from  France,  and  beside  others  there  was  a  young  Eng- 
lishman also,  named  Hall,  a  friend  of  Sir  Thomas  Stan- 
ley, who  had  been  concerned  in  the  last  Lancashire 
conspiracy. 

It  has  been  said  that  while  the  treaty  was  under 
consideration  in  London,  the  two  parties  in  Scotland 
had  suspended  hostilities. .  The  conference  having 
broken  up,  the  armistice  was  not  to  be  renewed  and  was 
to  terminate  on  the  ist  of  April.  In  the  last  week  of 
March,  a  man  who  had  been  a  servant  in  the  castle,  and 
bore  some  grudge  against  Lord  Fleming  for  ill-treat- 


414  PEIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  55. 

ment  of  his  wife,  came  to  Lennox  at  Glasgow,  and  told 
him  that  the  garrison  was  keeping  negligent  watch,  and 
that  the  place  might  be  surprised.  Crawford  of  Jordan- 
hill,  Darnley's  last  friend,  who  had  shared  his  confidence 
on  Mary  Stuart's  fatal  visit  to  him,  was  now  an  officer 
of  Lennox's  guard.  Throughout  the  civil  war,  when 
any  exploit  of  note  and  mark  was  to  be  accomplished, 
Crawford  was  always  among  the  foremost.  He  was  a 
man  of  great  personal  courage,  devoted  to  the  young 
King,  and  one  of  those  who  were  most  anxious  to  avenge 
his  father's  murder.  He  had  a  follower  of  his  own  who 
had  once  lived  at  Dumbarton,  and  knew  his  way  about 
the  cliffs,  and  with  this  man's  help  Crawford,  when  the 
Regent  consulted  him,  determined  to  undertake  the 
enterprise.  If  done  at  all  it  was  to  be  done  at  the  first 
permissible  moment,  before  the  recommencement  of  the 
war  placed  Fleming  again  upon  the  alert.  On  the  3 1  st 
of  March,  an  hour  before  sunset,  Crawford,  with  one  of 
the  Ramsay s  and  a  hundred  and  fifty  men,  went  quietly 
out  of  Glasgow,  carrying  with  them  ladders,  cords,  and 
'crows  of  iron  to  drive  into  the  rock.'  A  party  of 
horse  had  been  sent  on  to  watch  the  road  and  prevent 
intelligence  from  being  carried  to  the  castle.  At  mid- 
night they  were  at  Dumbuck,  a  mile  and  a  half  up  the 
river.  The  moon  set  shortly  after,  and  with  their  guns 
strapped  to  their  backs,  the  ladders  slung  between  them, 
and  attached  in  line  by  the  cords  that  none  might  stray, 
they  stole  down  over  the  marshes  in  single  file.  It  was 
a  clear  starlight  night,  but  they  were  delayed  more  than 
once  by  the  broad  deep  ditches  with  which  the  fields  were 


157I-]  THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY.  415 

intersected,  and  daylight  was  dangerously  near  when 
they  reached  the  foot  of  the  rock.  As  dawn  ap- 
proached however  the  moist  air  from  the  Clyde 
condensed  upon  the  crags  and  wrapped  the  castle  in 
vapour.  The  watch  was  weakest  where  the  rock  was 
highest,  and  there,  exactly  under  Wallace's  Tower  at 
the  north-east  corne"r  where  the  road  from  the  town  first 
touches  the  cliff,  they  made  preparations  to  ascend.1 
For  the  first  forty  feet  there  was  a  sheer  precipice.  The 
cliff  then  split,  making  a  kind  of  funnel,  at  the  top  of 
which  stood  a  stunted  ash  tree,  and  above  that  a  steep 
grassy  slope  of  a  hundred  and  twenty  feet  rising  to  the 
foot  of  the  wall.  Crawford  and  the  guide  went  up  first. 
The  ladder  brought  them  within  ten  or  twenty  feet  of 
the  tree,2  and  'from  thence  they  scrambled  up  the  rock 
in  the  darkness  with  extreme  difficulty,  dragging  a  rope 
behind  them  which  they  succeeded  in  lashing  to  the 
stem.  With  this  assistance  the  rest  rapidly  followed. 
The  mist  which  concealed  them  from  the  guard  hap- 


The  spot  can  be  identified  with  I  down,  and  blocked  the  way  for  those 


certainty  by  the  ash  tree — not  that 
the  tree  now  growing  there  can  be 
supposed  to  have  stood  three  hun- 
dred years,  or  thirty,  but  the  crack 
in  the  rock  where  it  is  rooted  is  the 
only  spot  in  the  whole  circuit,  of  the 
place  where  a  tree  could  take  hold. 

2  Among  other  romantic  stories 
which  gathered  round  Crawford's 
exploit,  it  was  said  that  the  first  man 
who  ascended  was  seized  with  a  fit 
when  half  way  up  the  ladder.  He 
could  neither  go  forward  nor  come 


below.  After  a  moment's  thought, 
Crawford  lashed  him  hand  and  foot 
to  the  staves  so  that  he  could  not 
fall,  turned  the  ladder  over  and  so 
enabled  the  rest  to  pass  over  him. 
Crawford  himself,  in  the  account 
which  he  wrote  for  John  Knox,  says 
nothing  of  this  ;  and  I  fear  it  can 
scarcely  be  reconciled  with  his  own 
modest  but  clear  declaration  that  he 
was  himself  the  first  to  go  up. — See 
BANNATYNE'S  Journal,  p.  123. 


416  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  55. 

pily  deadened  the  sound.  They  collected  on  the  foot  of 
the  slope,  and  thence  an  easy  and  silent  climb  over 
thick  grass  brought  them  to  the  bottom  of  the  wall.  To 
draw  the  ladders  after  them  and  raise  them  in  their 
places  was  the  work  of  a  few  more  minutes,  and  a 
moment  after,  as  dawn  was  breaking,  the  astonished 
sentinels  saw  three  figures  looming  large  through  the 
fog  on  the  battlements  above  their  heads.  Ramsay  was 
the  first  to  enter  :  with  a  shout  of  '  God  and  the  King ! ' 
*  A  Darnley,  a  Darnley  ! '  he  leapt  down  upon  the  half- 
awakened  soldiers  and  struck  them  to  the  ground.  The 
wall  was  carelessly  built  where  no  danger  was  antici- 
pated. A  breach  was  easily  made  through  it,  and  be- 
fore the  garrison  were  out  of  their  beds,  the  whole 
party  had  entered  and  Wallace's  Tower  and  its  guns 
were  in  their  hands.  The  place  was  now  at  their 
mercy.  The  inhabited  houses  were  in  a  hollow  im- 
mediately at  their  feet ;  a  few  soldiers,  half  naked  and 
blinded  by  the  mist,  attempted  a  short  resistance. 
Three  were  killed,  and  some  others  wounded ;  but 
when  they  found  that  their  cannon  were  taken  and 
turned  upon  them,  they  threw  down  their  arms  to  their 
unknown  enemy  who  seemed  to  have  dropped  upon 
them  from  the  clouds.  Fleming  made  his  way  to  the 
water-gate  by  the  staircase  which  was  the  usual  ap- 
proach. The  tide  was  in,  he  sprang  into  a  boat  and 
went  off  into  Argyleshire.  Archbishop  Hamilton  was 
less  fortunate.  Disturbed  out  of  his  sleep,  he  had  put 
on  a  steel  cap,  and  was  struggling  into  a  coat  of  mail, 
when  Crawford's  men  were  upon  him.  He  was  taken, 


I57I-]  THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY.  417 

and  Lady  Fleming  was  taken,  and  de  Virac  :  young 
Hall,  with  two  friends,  declared  themselves  English, 
drew  their  swords,  and  demanded  leave  to  depart. 
They  were  told  that  if  they  had  committed  no  crime 
against  their  sovereign  they  had  nothing  to  fear :  but 
for  the  present  they  must  be  considered  prisoners  like 
the  rest. 

The  news  of  success  was  carried  rapidly  to  Glasgow, 
and  the  Regent  was  on  the  spot  by  ten  o'clock.  Of  the 
spoils,  the  money,  powder,  arms,  guns,  provisions,  wine 
— the  stores  of  all  kinds,  so  carefully  collected  to  main- 
tain the  garrison — were  shared  among  the  captors. 
Lennox  retained  only  the  Archbishop  and  his  com- 
panions in  captivity.1 

It  was  supposed  at  first  that  so  remarkable  a  feat 
could  not  have  been  performed  without  the  help  of 
treachery.  But  Crawford  was  able  to  say  proudly 
'  that  he  had  had  no  manner  of  intelligence  within  the 
house  nor  without  the  house.'  The  capture  was  a 
fair  achievement  of  daring  and  adroitness,  aided  only 
by  the  carelessness  which  had  invited  the  attempt 
The  English  prisoners  were  sent  to  Berwick;  de 
Yirac  was  allowed  to  go  his  way ;  Lady  Fleming  was 
Created  with  the  utmost  courtesy  which  the  circum- 
stances allowed;  and  the  garrison  was  pardoned  and 
dismissed. 

Archbishop  Hamilton  alone  was  preserved,  to  pay 


1  Compare   Buchanan's  History 
of  Scotland.     Crawford's  letter   to 


a  letter  of  Sir  W.  Drury  to  Cecil, 
April  9  :  MSS.  Border. 


Knox  in  Bannatyne's  Memorials,  and 

VOL.  ix.  27 


41  £  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  55. 

tlie  score  which,  had  been  so  long  accumulating  agamst 
him. 

It  may  be  much  to  say  that  in  all  Scotland  theie 
was  not  one  man  who  had  better  earned  a  halter  than 
the  Archbishop  of  St  Andrt  >ws.  There  was  the  Cal- 
vinist  minister  of  Spott,  wLj  was  never  silent  about 
the  crimes  of  Queen  Mary,  when,  with  at  least  equal 
atrocity,  he  was  murdering  his  own  wife.  There  was 
Kennedy,  Earl  of  Cassilis,  who  roasted  the  Abbot  of 
Crossraguel  before  a  slow  fire  in  a  dungeon,  to  make 
him  sign  away  his  lands ;  and  Hamilton  was  rather 
unfortunate  in  the  number  of  his  iniquities  which  were 
brought  to  light,  than  in  any  especial  distinction  above 
the  other  miscreants  of  his  time.  Of  a  Churchman 
he  had  nothing  in  him  beyond  the  appetite  for  perse- 
cution. It  was  he  who  had  burnt  Walter  Milne,  the 
last  of  the  Scottish  martyrs.  He  was  made  Beton's 
successor  only  because  he  was  the  brother  of  the  Duke 
of  Chatelherault,  and  because  the  revenue  of  the  arch- 
bishopric was  a  splendid  provision  for  his  vices.  He 
had  been  the  prime  adviser  in  the  late  intrigues  of  his 
family.  He  had  been  in  the  secret  of  the  murder  of 
Darnley;  it  removed  an  obstacle  between  the  Hamil- 
tons  and  the  crown.  He  had  promoted  and  pronounced 
the  infamous  divorce  of  Bothwell,  knowing  or  hoping 
that  in  marrying  him  the  Queen  would  destroy  herself; 
and  while  affecting  to  be  her  warmest  friend,  he  had 
offered  in  the  name  of  his  family  to  support  Morton 
and  Lindsay  in  putting  her  to  death,  if  the  Regency 
was  given  back  to  his  brother,  and  the  succession  after 


1571.]  THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY.  419 

the  Prince  secured  to  his  brother's  heirs.  His  last  and 
foulest  crime  had  been  the  murder  of  Murray,  which 
was  perpetrated  by  his  kinsman,  and  traced  in  its 
contrivance  to  himself,  his  nephews,  and  Mary  Stuart's 
household. 

There  was  but  one  gaoler  in  Scotland  whose  bolts 
neither  bribe  nor  intrigue  could  undo ;  and  to  that  dark 
keeping  Lennox  hastened  to  consign  him.  He  begged 
hard  for  a  brief  respite,  if  only  that  he  might  have  some 
form  of  trial ;  but  the  Regent  knew  that  if  he  waited 
till  a  post  could  reach  London  and  return  from  it,  his 
hands  would  be  tied  by  the  Queen  of  England.  The 
notoriety  of  his  guilt  was  held  to  be  sufficient  proof 
against  him,  and  an  Act  of  a  so-called  Parliament  an  ade- 
quate sentence.  He  was  sent  the  way  of  his  predecessor 
by  the  wild  justice  of  revenge.  Beton  had  been  stabbed 
in  his  own  room,  dangled  out  of  a  window  of  his  castle, 
and  salted  in  the  dungeon  of  the  Sea  Tower.  Hamilton 
was  hanged  at  Stirling  five  days  after  his  capture;  some 
not  unlettered  hand  writing  upon  the  gibbet — 

Cresce  diu,  felix  arbor,  semperque  vireto  : 
Oh  utinam  semper  talia  poma  feras.1 

.Elizabeth  forgave  easily  an  execution  which  her 
weakness  would  have  allowed  her  to  prevent.  She 
congratulated  Lennox  on  his  success,  and  she  recom- 
mended him  to  keep  Dumbarton  as  surely  as  it  had  been 
bravely  won.2 


Long  may'st  thou  grow  and  thrive,  thou  bounteous  tree, 
To  bear  for  aye  such  fruits  as  this  we  see. 

2  Elizabeth  to  Lennox,  April  22 :  MSS.  Scotland. 


420 


CHAPTER  LVI. 

THE    RIDOLFI    CONSPIRACY. 

FHOM  the  great  day  when  Wblsey  ceased  to  be  a 
minister,  when  Cardinal  Campeggio  left  England 
carrying  with  him  the  curses  of  the  people  and  the  stolen 
love-letters  from  Henry  VIII.  to  Anne  Boleyn,  the  Par- 
liament met  year  after  year  for  a  quarter  of  a  century, 
almost  without  intermission.  In  the  early  steps  of  the 
revolution,  whether  it  was  in  the  reconstruction  of  the 
law,  the  establishment  of  the  succession,  the  attainder 
of  a  minister,  or  the  decapitation  of  a  queen,  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  people  were  seen,  for  good  or  evil, 
taking  their  share  in  the  actions  of  the  Crown. 

Whether  it  was,  according  to  the  modern  theory,  that 
the  Parliaments  of  Henry  VIII.  were  but  the  mechani- 
cal instruments  of  a  despot's  caprice,  or  that  the  great 
body  of  the  nation  sincerely  approved  of  the  King's 
policy,  such  was  the  evident  fact ;  and  the  result  of  it 


1 57 1-]  -THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY.  421 

was  that  broad  mass  of  legislation  on  which  the  eccle- 
siastical constitution  of  England  reposes — a  legislation 
the  vitality  of  which  after  so  many  centuries  of  change 
is  a  witness  to  the  wisdom  of  the  statesmen  by  whom 
those  laws  were  constructed. 

The  practice  of  annual  or  frequent  parliaments,  com- 
menced by  King  Henry,  was  followed  reluctantly  and 
with  less  success  by  the  Protector  Somerset,  the  Duke 
of  Northumberland,  and  Queen  Mary.  Disagreements 
naturally  rose  between  the  Crown  and  the  Peers  and 
Commons,  when  the  government  remained  in  the  hands 
of  one  or  other  of  the  extreme  parties  in  the  country. 
"With  the  accession  of  Elizabeth  and  a  return  to  a 
more  moderate  policy,  the  good  understanding  might 
have  been  expected  to  come  back.  It  might  have  been 
thought  that  the  Queen  would  have  followed  the  example 
of  her  father  in  this  respect  if  in  no  other  so  confessedly 
excellent,  and  that  no  season  would  have  been  allowed 
to  pass  without  the  opinion  of  the  country  being  allowed 
to  express  itself  through  its  legitimate  channel. 

The  anticipation  however,  if  entertained  by  the 
people,  had  not  been  fulfilled.  Elizabeth  had  now 
reigned  thirteen  years,  and  in  all  that  time  there  had 
been  but  three  short  sessions.  She  was  personally  popu- 
lar— popular  for  her  own  qualities,  and  popular  because 
her  life  was  the  only  breakwater  between  the  country 
and  civil  war ;  yet  the  Parliament  of  1566  had  been 
dissolved  in  disgrace,  and  she  looked  forward  to  another 
as  the  most  unwelcome  of  necessities. 


422  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.      -  [011.56 

The  reason  was  not  far  to  seek  for.  The  succession 
to  the  crown  was  still  undetermined.  The  religious 
differences,  which  would  have  died  away  with  an  ascer- 
tained future,  had  been  aggravated  by  the  uncertainty. 
The  marriage  of  the  Queen,  so  naturally  and  justly  de- 
sired, was  still  in  the  clouds,  the  value  of  it  as  a  means 
of  providing  an  heir  to  the  crown  was  sinking  to  zero 
writh  her  advancing  years,  and  the  experience  of  the  last 
session  might  well  make  her  unwilling  to  encounter 
another  while  still  unprovided  with  a  husband.  If  the 
dread  of  a  disputed  succession  secured  to  the  Queen  of 
Scots,  notwithstanding  her  crimes,  the  tacit  or  avowed 
support  of  the  great  conservative  party,  her  claims  on 
the  consideration  of  Parliament,  had  she  come  upon  it 
with  clean  hands,  would  have  been  altogether  irresistible. 
Her  friends  would  have  said  to  Elizabeth,  '  We  can  bear 
our  uncertainties  no  longer.  Here  by  the  laws  of  blood 
is  your  undoubted  heir,  bred  from  a  marriage  con- 
trived by  your  grandfather  to  unite  this  island  under 
one  head,  and  bringing  Scotland  in  her  hand  as  her 
dowry.  Would  you  have  married  as  we  desired,  and  as 
you  promised,  you  might  have  had  children  of  your  own, 
and  one  and  all  of  us  would  have  been  true  to  you  and 
yours.  But  you  have  played  with  the  princes  of  Chris- 
tendom till  you  have  offended  them  all  and  have  left  us 
without  an  ally  in  the  world.  You  are  thirty-eight 
years  old,  and  you  have  no  husband,  no  child,  nor 
likelihood  of  child.  Our  lives,  our  properties,  our 
national  independence  are  at  stake,  and  we  will  bear  it 
no  longer.  It  is  true  that  the  Queen  of  Scots  when  in 


IS 7 1.]  THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY.  423 

France  made  unwise  pretensions  to  your  crown  ;  we 
will  secure  you  against  a  repetition  of  that  danger.  She 
shall  promise  to  respect  your  rights  while  you  live.  She 
is  a  Catholic,  and  so  are  more  than  half  your  subjects, 
but  we  desire  no  revolution,  no  bloody  Mary  to  rule  over 
us ;  there  shall  be  toleration  on  all  sides,  and  equal 
liberty  to  Protestant  and  Catholic  to  worship  in  their 
own  way.' 

This  would  have  been  the  unanimous  language  of 
the  English  Nobles ;  a  majority  of  the  Commons  would 
have  gone  along  with  them,  and  with  what  pretext 
could  Elizabeth  have  resisted  ?  She  could  not  have 
resisted  at  all.  She  would  have  had  no  power  and 
probably  no  will  to  resist ;  and  beyond  reasonable 
doubt  Parliament  would  not  have  again  separated  till 
the  long- vexed  question  had  been  determined  in  Mary 
Stuart's  favour. 

The  prospects  of  a  lady  who  had  presided  over  the 
horrors  at  Kirk  o'  Field  were  far  less  promising. 
The  political  reasons  in  favour  of  her  succession  were 
as  strong  as  ever  ;  but  it  was  no  longer  possible  for 
an  English  nobleman  to  rise  in  Parliament  and  speak 
openly  for  her  title.  Her  cause  was  now  maintained  in 
secret  by  conspiracy  and  rebellion,  rebellion  under  false 
pretences,  and  lying  pamphlets,  and  parallels  of  David. 
The  Catholic  religion,  shrinking  from  the  light  among 
these  subterranean  elements,  was  losing  what  of  English 
frankness  there  lay  in  it,  and  was  walking  in  the  dark 
with  its  hand  upon  the  poniard.  But  this  more  gloomy 
turn  which  affairs  were  taking  was  due  itself  to  the 


424  RETGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  56 

disappointment  of  more  legitimate  hopes.  The  Catholic 
party  could  find  no  other  representative.  Mary  Stuart, 
as  they  again  and  again  said,  was  their  only  hope,  and 
they  were  themselves  degraded  to  the  level  of  the  cause 
which  they  were  supporting.  Passion  and  fanaticism 
were  called  in  to  defend  what  reason  could  not  justify ; 
the  religious  reaction  was  precipitated  into  the  most  ex- 
travagant forms  ;  and  Puritanism  on  the  other  side  was 
destroying  much  that  was  left  of  moderate  counsels. 
Had  Elizabeth  published  Mary  Stuart's  letters  after  the 
inquiry  at  Westminster — had  she  done  this,  and  coupled 
with  it  the  recognition  of  James  as  King  of  Scotland 
and  her  successor — half  her  own  troubles  would  have 
been  avoided,  and  half  the  national  perils.  But  she 
had  allowed  the  opportunity  to  pass,  and  she  could  not 
recall  it.  The  two  Houses  were  now  divided,  and 
were  the  representatives  of  two  religions  and  two 
policies.  The  Norfolk  marriage  was  likely  to  be  re- 
vived among  the  Peers  and  pressed  upon  her  consent ; 
the  Commons  would  probably  boil  over  in  some  fierce 
stream  of  anti-Popery,  would  insist  on  declaring  the 
Queen  of  Scots  incapable  of  the  succession  and  recog- 
nizing one  of  Lord  Hertford's  children;  while  both 
alike  would  combine  in  not  undeserved  reproaches 
against  herself. 

It  was  no  wonder  that  Elizabeth  dreaded  the  meet- 
ing of  another  Parliament,  but  an  empty  treasury  made 
longer  delay  impossible.  The  suspension  of  commerce 
had  ruined  the  customs.  Ireland  absorbed  annually 
almost  a  fourth  of  the  ordinary  revenue  ;  and  Scotland, 


I571-]  THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY.  425 

and  the  navy,  and  the  expenses  of  the  Border,  and  the 
secret-service  money — taking  the  form  chiefly  of  subsi- 
dies to  the  Prince  of  Orange  and  the  Huguenots — 
were  making  demands  upon  the  exchequer  which  no 
economy  could  meet.  The  lands  of  the  Northern  Earls 
could  not  be  touched  till  they  were  attainted,  and  in 
some  form  or  other  the  Bull  of  Pope  Pius  required  an 
answer  from  the  nation. 

The  Houses  were  to  meet  on  the  2nd  of 
April.  The  forty  noblemen  who  were  parties 
to  the  Ridolfi  plot  would  be  in  London  with  their  re- 
tinues ;  and  the  Queen  of  Scots,  who  had  reason  to 
believe  that  measures  might  be  introduced  unfavourable 
to  herself,  and  who  recollected  how  Morton.  Lindsay, 
and  Ruthven  had  broken  up  the  Parliament  at  Edin- 
burgh which  was  to  have  attainted  Murray,  conceived 
that  the  same  game  might  be  repeated  by  her  present 
friends  with  equal  success.  The  Duke  of  Alva's  willing- 
ness to  assist  her  would  be  proportioned  to  the  energy 
of  the  English  Catholics  themselves.  The  Duke  of 
Norfolk,  though  released  from  the  Tower,  was  not  to  be 
allowed  to  take  his  seat  among  the  Peers.  The  great 
party  of  which  he  was  the  leader  was  deeply  affronted, 
and  their  resentment  might  be  utilized  to  practical 
effect.  The  servants  and  followers  of  the  Lords  would 
be  sufficient,  if  combined,  to  overcome  the  utmost  re- 
sistance which  could  be  offered  by  the  Court ;  and  the 
Queen  of  Scots  once  more  endeavoured  to  spur  her 
languid  lover  into  energy.  She  recommended  him  and 
Arundel  to  surprise  the  Queen,  seize  her  and  Cecil, 


REIGN   OF  ELIZABETH. 


[CH.  56. 


and  before  the  opening  scatter  such  of  the  Commons 
as  had  arrived,  so  to  end  the  Anjou  marriage  and  all 
other  troubles  at  a  single  blow.1  The  scheme  was 
perhaps  not  impracticable.  The  Court  suspected  nothing. 
The  Bishop  of  Ross  talked  it  over  with  the  Catholic 
leaders.  Arundel,  Lumley,  Worcester,  Southampton, 
Montague,  and  several  others,  were  ready.  Lord 
Derby's  sons  had  come  up  with  some  hundreds  of 
Lancashire  gentlemen,  and  were  eager  for  any  desperate 
enterprise.  Young  Talbot  had  arranged  a  plan  for  the 
simultaneous  escape  of  the  Queen  of  Scots  ;  relays  of 
horses  were  provided,  and  a  ship  was  in  readiness  at 
Liverpool  to  carry  her  to  the  Isle  of  Man  till  the 
struggle  in  England  should  be  over.2  Nothing  how- 
ever could  be  done  without  Norfolk,  and  Norfolk  was 
one  of  those  unlucky  conspirators  who  wait  always  for 
a  better  opportunity.  The  Bishop  of  Ross  laid  the 
design  before  him,  and  showed  him  the  promises  of  his 


of  the   Bishop   of 
1571  :      MURUIN. 


1  Confession 
Ross,    October, 
Barker's  Confession  :  Ibid. 

2  Several     projects    had    been 
formed  to  get  her  out  of  Sheffield, 
some  details  of  which  were  discovered 
by  the  Earl  of  Morton  on  his  way 
back  to  Scotland.    '  She  would  feign 
herself  ill  for  two  or  three  days  and 
then  be  taken  down-stairs  to  see  the 
dancing.'     She  was  to  dance  herself, 
affect  to  faint,  and  be  carried  to  her 
room.     One  of  her  women,  dressed 
like  her,  would  take  her   place  on 
the  bed,  while  she,  in  the  disguise  of 
a  page,  would  escape  from  a  postern. 


If  this  failed,  she  Avas  to  go  hunting, 
one  of  her  ladies  representing  her, 
and  she  again  as  a  page.  A  Scot 
was  to  come  in  post  with  a  pretended 
commission  from  Elizabeth  to  speak 
with  her.  He  would  address  him- 
self to  the  lady,  who  when  he  retired 
would  direct  the  page  to  wait  upon 
him :  or 

'  She  should  cut  her  hair,  blot  her 
face  and  body  with  filth  as  though 
she  was  a  turnbroach  of  the  kitchen, 
and  so  convey  herself  forth  on  foot  lo 
some  place  where  horses  should  be 
provided  for  her.' — Morton  to  Cecil, 
April  7 :  MtiS.  QUEE^  OF  SCOTS 


THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY. 


427 


friends.  But  the  little  decision  which  he  possessed  was 
unnerved  by  the  badness  of  his  cause.  He  knew  too 
well  the  nature  of  the  woman  for  whom  he  was  turning 
traitor,  and  when  he  was  warming  to  the  striking- 
point  the  thought  of  it  froze  the  blood  in  his  veins.1 
'  Too  dastardly  and  soft/  as  the  disappointed  Catholics 
called  him,  '  unfit  alike  for  good  or  ill ; '  he  said  he  did 
not  like  '  Italian  devices  ; '  '  he  would  attempt  nothing 
till  he  got  answer  from  the  princes  beyond  the  seas.' 2 

Thus  the  occasion  passed,  and  Parliament  opened  in 
peace,  the  Protestant  party  being  strengthened  in  the 
Upper  House  by  the  presence  of  the  Queen's  cousin, 
lately  created  Lord  Buckhurst,  and,  far  more  important, 
of  Cecil,  whose  long  services  had  been  rewarded,  on 
the  25th  of  February,  by  the  Barony  of  Burghley. 
Including  these  two,  there  were  now  sixty-one  Peers 
upon  the  list,  besides  Westmoreland  and  Morley,  who 
were  in  Flanders,  and  the  Earl  of  Northumberland, 
who  was  at  Lochleven.  Of  the  sixty-one,  Lord  Cum- 
berland and  Lord  Bath  were  under  age.  Norfolk  was 
not  allowed  to  sit,  and  to  compensate  for  his  absence 
Hertford  was  excluded  also.  Lord  Derby  was  ill  and 
could  not  come  up,  and  Shrewsbury  could  not  leave  his 
charge.  Eight  others  were  absent  for  various  reasons, 
and  seven  of  the  twenty-two  bishops.  The  Upper 


1  '  I  confess  that  I,  waiting  on 
my  Lord  and  master,  did  hear  his 
Grace  say  that  upon  examination  of 
the  matter  of  the  murder,  it  did  ap- 
pear that  the  Queen  of  Scots  Avas 
guilty  and  privy  to  the  murder  of 


the  Lord  Darnley,  her  late  husband.' 
— Barker's  Confession ;  MURDIN,  p. 

134- 

2  Confession  of  the  Bishop  of 
Ross,  October,  1571  :  Minium 
Barker's  Confession :  Ibid. 


428  RETGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  56. 

House  was  therefore  composed  of  sixty-two  members  in 
all.  The  bishops  were  to  a  man  under  CeciFs  direction, 
and  their  united  vote,  including  the  proxies,  could  al- 
ways Be  depended  upon.  Seven  of  the  absent  Peers 
gave  their  proxies  to  Leicester,  and  Leicester  would  not 
go  over  to  the  Catholics  till  he  saw  that  they  were  cer- 
tain to  succeed.  So  far  therefore  the  prospects  of  the 
Government  were  favourable.  Lord  Arundel,  with  the 
Ridolfi  revolution  in  front  of  him,  was  unlikely  to  try 
the  experiment,  under  such  circumstances,  of  a  par- 
liamentary conflict 

The  prqceedings  commenced,  as  usual,  with  a  speech 
from  the  Lord  Keeper.  It  was  long,  but  contained 
little  beyond  an  encomium  on  the  Queen's  government, 
and  an  intimation  that,  through  '  the  raging  Romanist 
rebels/  the  Queen  had  incurred  extraordinary  expenses 
in  defence  of  the  kingjdom,  and  required  money.  She 
had  reduced  her  personal  outlay,  cutting  off  all  needless 
luxuries  and  extravagancies,  to  avoid  being  a  burden  to 
her  people ;  but  the  peace  of  the  realm  had  been  dis- 
turbed both  at  home  and  in  Ireland.  The  malice  of  the 
time  obliged  her  to  keep  a  fleet  upon  the  seas  for  the 
protection  of  commerce.  The  state  of  parties  iri  Scot- 
land required  the  presence  of  a  large  force  upon  the 
Border,  and  with  the  utmost  economy  she  was  unable 
to  meet  the  demands  upon  her.  This,  with  two  short 
paragraphs  on  a  revision  of  the  laws,  was  all,  in  sub- 
stance, which  Bacon  said.  The  succession,  the  excom- 
munication, the  Queen's  marriage — the  subjects  which 
really  occupied  all  men's  minds — were  passed  over  in 


I571-]  THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY.  429 

silence.  A  reform  in  the  discipline  of  the  Church  was 
admitted  to  be  necessary,  but  a  wish  was  pointedly  ex- 
pressed that  it  should  be  left  to  the  bishops. 

Had  the  Parliament  confined  themselves  to  the  pro- 
gramme thus  marked  out  for  them,  the  session  would 
have  passed  over  quietly.  So  long  as  no  attempt  was 
made  to  cut  the  Queen  of  Scots  off  from  the  succession, 
the  Peers  would  have  been  content  to  wait  to  assert  her 
claims  after  the  arrival  of  Alva ;  and  the  Commons  were 
intended  to  restrict  themselves  to  voting  the  supplies. 

The  Commons  however  were  in  no  humour  to  be 
thus  easily  managed.  The  ultra- Protest  ants  proved  to 
be  in  an  enormous  majority.  The  rebellion  of  the 
North,  and  the  general  necessity  of  things,  had  de- 
veloped largely  and  freely  the  Puritan  spirit  of  the 
towns ;  and  the  Catholic  reaction  in  the  country  dis- 
tricts, the  loose  administration  of  the  laws,  and  the 
notoriously  Romanizing  tendencies  of  the  Peers  and 
country  families,  acted  as  a  challenge  to  the  fiercer  of 
the  Reformers  to  try  their  strength  with  them.  For 
ten  years  past  there  had  been  an  earnest  desire  in  the 
Reforming  leaders  to  inflict  the  Thirty-nine  Articles 
both  on  clergy  and  laity  as  a  test  of  doctrine,  to  reform 
the  Prayer-book,  and  impose  on  England  generally  the 
Genevan  discipline.  As  a  step  in  this  direction,  on  the 
first  day  on  which  the  Houses  met  for  business,  a  Bill  was 
introduced  to  compel  all  persons,  of  whatever  degree, 
not  only  to  attend  service  on  Sundays  at  church,  but  to 
be  present  twice  a-year  at  the  Communion. 

The  tongues  of  men,  finding  themselves  unloosed  at 


136  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  56. 

last,  ran  over  at  once  with  a  violence  unprecedented  in 
House  of  Commons  history.  Complaints  burst  out  of 
the  laxity  with  which  the  laws  against  Papists  had  been 
enforced.  The  Catholic  services  were  prohibited,  yet  all 
over  England  masses  were  said  in  private  houses  with 
scarcely  an  attempt  at  disguise.  The  ecclesiastical  law- 
yers were  running  in  the  old  grooves,  with  pluralities 
and  dispensations  and  licenses,  those  gray  iniquities  of 
which  Henry  had  for  a  few  years  washed  the  Church 
Courts  clean.  Mr  Strickland,  '  a  grave  and  antient 
man/  declared  that  '  known  Papists  were  admitted  to 
have  ecclesiastical  government  and  great  livings,  while 
-godly  Protestants  had  nothing/  and  'boys  were  dis- 
pensed with  to  have  spiritual  promotion/  God,  he 
said,  had  given  England  the  light  of  the  Word,  but 
England  had  been  slack  in  making  use  of  its  advantages, 
and  had  not  thought  convenient  to  profess  and  publish 
the  truth  openly.  He  moved  for  a  reproduction  of 
Cranmer's  book  on  the  Reformation  of  the  Laws,  that 
the  country  might  take  its  place  at  last  among  the  Re- 
formed nations,  with  a  clear  confession  of  its  faith. 

Free  speech  in  Parliament  had  been  one  of  the 
privileges  which  Henry  VIII.  had  not  attempted  to 
interfere  with.  Elizabeth  could  never  bring  herself  to 
regard  it  as  anything  but  an  intolerable  impertinence. 
Sir  Thomas  Smith,  who  had  succeeded  Cecil  as  her 
secretary,  proposed  that  the  Communion  Bill  should  be 
referred  to  the  bishops ;  the  Queen  sent  a  message  to 
the  House  not  to  waste  their  time  over  matters  which 
did  not  concern  them,  and  'to  avoid  long  speeches.' 


i^i.]  THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY.  4ji 

Fleetwood  however  (afterwards  the  Recorder  of  Lon- 
don) said  that  the  House  '  knew  that  there  was  a  God 
to  be  served  as  well  as  the  bishops  ; '  l  when  Bills  were 
referred  to  the*  Bench,  they  commonly  came  to  nothing ; ' 
1  the  bishops  would  perhaps  be  slow/  and  they  could  do 
better  without  them. 

The  Queen's  monition  was  unheeded,  and  the  dis- 
cussion went  on  more  fiercely  than  ever.  Mr  Snagg 
insisted  on  the  insufficiency  of  the  Act  of  Uniformity. 
In  some  churches  the  Common  Prayer  was  not  used  af«. 
all.  There  was  only  a  sermon,  and  such  prayers,  ex- 
tempore, as  the  minister  might  choose  to  offer.  Mr 
Norton  broke  into  invectives  on  the  abuse  '  of  benefit 
of  clergy/  '  the  straining  of  the  law  by  ecclesiastical 
judges  in  favour  of  offenders  in  Holy  Orders/  *  the 
wrapping  clerks  in  a  cloak  of  naughtiness,  and  giving 
them  liberty  to  sin/  The  dispensations  in  the  Court  of 
Arches  were  attacked  specially  and  bitterly.  Bishops, 
it  was  presumed,  '  could  do  nothing  contrary  to  the 
Word  of  God/  yet,  like  Popes,  they  kept  open  offices 
for  the  sale  of  licenses  to  disobey  the  law. 

So  the  storm  broke  on  all  sides,  and  for  three  weeks 
it  raged  incessantly.  Some  language  was  heard  not 
wholly  immoderate.  Aglionby,  the  Member  for  War- 
wick, raised  his  solitary  voice  for  liberty  of  conscience 
'  He  did  not  approve/  he  said,  '  of  the  private  oratories 
in  the  Great  Houses ;  he  would  give  the  rich  no  pi  ivi- 
leges  which  the  poor  could  not  share,  and  both  alike 
should  be  obliged  to  appear  in  their  parish  church.  But 
receiving  the  Communion  was  something  more  than  an 


43?  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [01.56. 

ordinary  outward  observance,  and  lie  thought  that  the 
law  ought  not  to  meddle  with  it.  Men  were  excom- 
municated because  they  were  wicked,  but  to  force  men 
to  communicate  because  they  were  suspected  of  being 
wicked  was  an  anomaly  beyond  reason  or  precedent/ 
But  Aglionby  was  briefly  told  that  the  peace  of  the 
realm  was  of  more  importance  than  conscience.  The 
Israelites  were  not  allowed  to  refuse  to  eat  the  Passover, 
and  the  makers  of  laws  were  not  called  upon  to  respect 
the  obstinacy  of  fools  and  knaves.  It  was  enough  if 
what  Parliament  prescribed  was  right  in  itself,  and  if  the 
people  were  unfit  to  obey,  they  must  make  themselves  fit. 

Two  of  the  officers  of  the  Household  attempted  to 
bring  back  the  debate  to  the  subjects  mentioned  in  the 
Speech.  The  Parliament,  Sir  James  Crofts  said,  had 
met  on  business  of  immediate  and  serious  moment ;  the 
Queen,  being  Head  of  the  Church,  might  be  trusted  to 
do  what  was  right,  and  the  hasty  proceedings  of  the 
House  of  Commons,  '  before  and  contrary  to  the  law, 
might  rather  hinder  than  help/  But  Crofts  was  sus- 
pected to  be  a  concealed  Catholic  ;  a  Mr  Pistor,  a  Puri- 
tan, brief  and  stern,  and  'much  approved  by  the 
House/  complained  rather  of  the  waste  of  time  over 
mere  secular  business,  when  the  cause  of  God  was  in 
danger ;  subsidies,  crowns,  realms,  what  were  these,  he 
said,  but  dust  and  ashes.  It  was  written,  '  Seek  first 
the  kingdom  of  God/ 

Whatever  may  have  been  Elizabeth's  private  feel- 
ings when  she  found  herself  thus  defied,  she  showed 
outwardly  remarkable  self-command.  She  knew  and 


15 7 1-]  THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY.  433 

valued  the  men  who  were  thus  provoking  her,  and  she 
forced  herself  to  bear  with  them.  Strickland  fell  under 
her  displeasure.  He  introduced  a  measure  without 
permission  for  the  alteration  of  the  Prayer-book,  and 
he  was  sent  for,  reprimanded,  and  forbidden  to  return 
to  the  House.  But  a  universal  cry  of  Privilege  warned 
her  to  be  cautious,  and  she  withdrew  her  prohibition. 
The  Commons  persisted,  passing  measure  after  measure, 
— the  Bill  for  attendance  at  Communion,  of  which  no 
draft  remains  to  indicate  the  provisions  of  it;  a  Bill 
which  has  also  perished,  restricting  or  abolishing  the 
dispensing  power  of  the  Court  of  Arches ;  and  a  Bill 
which  unfortunately  did  not  share  the  fate  of  its  com- 
panions, and  made  its  way  to  the  statute-book  to  trouble 
the  peace  of  broader  times.  Convocation,  nine  years 
before,  had  reimposed  upon  the  clergy,  so  far  as  they 
had  power  to  legislate,  the  too  celebrated  Thirty-nine 
Articles  of  Religion.  The  Parliament  had  then  refused 
their  sanction  to  a  measure  which  went  far  beyond  the 
most  extravagant  pretensions  of  the  Church  of  Rome 
in  laying  a  yoke  upon  the  conscience.  But  their 
moderation  forsook  them  now.  The  heavy  chains  de- 
scended. The  faith  of  England,  which,  but  for  this 
fatal  step,  might  have  expanded  with  the  growth  of  the 
nation,  was  hardened  into  unchanging  formulas,  and 
intellect  was  condemned  to  make  its  further  progress 
unsanctified  by  religion,  the  enemy  of  the  Church  in- 
stead of  being  its  handmaid.1 


'•   13  Elizabeth,  cap.  xii. 
VOL.  ix.  28 


434  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  56 

A  Bill  became  law  also  to  check  the  profligate  ad- 
ministration of  Church,  property  by  ecclesiastical  cor- 
porations ; 1  and  a  companion  measure  was  introduced, 
originally  perhaps  as  part  of  the  same  statute,  so 
singular  in  some  of  its  provisions  as  to  deserve  par- 
ticular notice.  Puritanism  had  not  yet  blinded  the 
eyes  of  Protestants  to  the  merits  of  the  faith  of  their 
fathers ;  the  House  of  Commons  could  still  acknow- 
ledge an  excellence  in  the  clergy  of  earlier  times,  to 
which  they  saw  but  faint  approaches  in  the  degenerate 
ministry  which  had  taken  the  place  of  the  Catholic 
priests. 

'The  Queen's  noble  progenitors/  so  ran  an  Act 
which  never  reached  maturity,  *  had  in  times  past  en- 
dowed the  clergy  of  the  realm  with  most  ample  and 
large  possessions,  that  godly  religion  might  be  the 
better  advanced  among  the  people,  that  the  poor  might 
be  relieved,  the  children  of  the  nobility  and  gentlemen 
of  the  realm  be  virtuously  educated  in  the  fear  and 
knowledge  of  the  Almighty.  Whether  the  revenues  of 
these  estates  were  now  employed  and  bestowed  accord- 
ing to  the  intent  and  meaning  of  their  donors,  was  a 
thing  to  be  pondered  and  considered.  The  clergy  being 
now  married  and  having  wives,  did  overmuch  alienate 
their  minds  from  the  honest  and  careful  duty  to  which 
they  were  bound  to  attend.  The  poor  were  left  in  their 
poverty.  The  ancient  hospitality  was  no  longer  main- 
tained. The  ministers  of  the  Church  accepted  and  re- 


13  Elizabeth,  cap.  x. 


1571  •]  THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY.  435 

served  the  most  part  and  portion  of  the  yearly  reve- 
nues of  their  dignities  unto  themselves,  to  the  slander 
of  the  whole  estate  of  the  clergy/  The  remedy  was 
not  to  return  to  the  old  law  of  celibacy,  and  it  was  ad- 
mitted that  ecclesiastics,  if  they  brought  children  into 
the  world,  ought  to  provide  for  them  ;  yet,  so  great  a 
change  could  not  be  passed  over  without  the  expression 
of  an  opinion,  that  it  was  no  matter  for  entire  satisfac- 
tion. The  framers  of  the  bill  desired  to  intimate,  that 
archbishops  and  bishops,  deans  and  provosts  of  col- 
leges, ought  to  maintain  their  households  on  the  old 
and  generous  scale  ;  and  for  the  necessary  evils,  their 
wives,  those  ladies  should  consider  that  they  were  the 
companions  of  learned  men,  who  had  charge  and  care 
of  the  whole  realm  as  concerning  the  doctrine  of  faith 
and  good  examples  of  life  :  it  was  their  duty  therefore, 
as  sad  and  discreet  matrons,  to  bestow  their  time  in 
devout  and  godly  exercises,  prayers,  almsdeeds,  minis- 
tering to  the  poor,  with  such  like  works  of  charitj^. 
They  ought  not,  as  was  now  far  otherwise  reported  to 
be,  much  to  the  blemishing  of  their  good  name,  to  in- 
trude and  press  themselves  into  the  worldly  affairs  of 
any  such  State  and  Government.1 

One   after    another   these  measures  went 

May. 

up  to  the  House  of  Lords.     The  Queen  inter- 
fered  once   more.      On   the    ist   of  May  she   sent   a 
message  to  the  Commons,   that  Church  questions  be- 
longed to  herself,  and  that  they  had  no  business  with 


Act  for  the  Bishops  and  Clergy,  1571 :  MSS.  Domestic,  Rolls  House. 


436  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  56. 

them.  But  they  took  no  notice ;  she  required  money, 
and  she  let  them  go  their  own  way  till  the  subsidy  was 
voted. 

To  the  Peers,  the  Communion  Bill  was  most  un- 
welcome. They  knew  it  to  be  aimed  at  themselves, 
and  deputations  of  Catholic  noblemen  waited  on  the 
Queen  to  remonstrate.  Troubled  as  she  was  with  her 
Anjou  marriage,  and  intending  if  necessary  to  escape 
out  of  it  through  her  Protestant  orthodoxy,  Elizabeth 
did  not  care  to  commit  herself  too  positively  on  the 
Catholic  side.  A  Committee  of  the  two  Houses  sat 
to  consider  if  it  could  be  remodelled ;  but  the  one  su- 
premely unpalatable  condition  could  not  be  shaken 
off ;  the  undivided  phalanx  of  the  twenty- two  Prelates 
never  failing,  who  turned  the  scale  in  every  division. 

One  Catholic  nobleman  said  tauntingly,  that  if  the 
Right  Reverend  Lords  could  agree  among  themselves 
as  to  what  they  required  the  laity  to  receive  in  the 
Sacrament,  they  might  get  over  their  objections  ;  at 
present  every  parish  had  its  own  theory  on  the  matter  ; 
and  being  charged  as  they  were  with  the  custody  of 
their  own  souls,  the  Peers  as  well  as  others  had  a  right 
to  their  own  opinions.1 

Burghley  however  lent  his  great  weight  to  put 
down  the  opposition.  'The  quiet  of  the  realm/  he 
said,  '  required  that  the  measure  should  be  passed. 
Liberty  of  conscience  was  generally  good,  but  after  the 
step  which  the  Pope  had  chosen  to  take,  religion  had 


1  La  Mothe  Fenelon,  May  18:  Depeches,  vol.  iv. 


1 57 1-]  THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY.  437 

been  made  a  question  of  allegiance.  The  State  was  in 
danger,  and  the  Queen's  throne  had  been  made  in- 
secure/ * 

The  Bill  passed,  and  waited  only  for  the  Queen's  con- 
sent. In  and  out  among  these  debates,  other  business 
went  forward  of  no  little  moment ;  but  of  more  import- 
ance than  any  one  of  the  special  measures  brought  for- 
ward were  these  signs  of  the  humour  of  the  Commons. 
The  heart  of  Protestant  England  was  alive  ;  a  deep 
earnest  fear  of  God  was  spreading  in  the  middle  classes, 
on  the  Jewish  rather  than  on  the  Christian  model ;  a 
recognition  of  a  Divine  Sovereignty,  which  it  was  their 
business,  in  spite  of  knight  or  noble,  to  see  recognized 
and  obeyed  upon  earth.  "With  a  better  cause,  and  a  lady 
worthy  of  their  devotion,  the  Catholics  might  still  have 
won ;  but  Kirk  o'  Field  and  the  Both  well  marriage  were 
worth  a  legion  of  angels  to  English  Protestantism. 

Of  thirty-nine  other  Acts  which  passed  before  the 
session  ended,  the  following  were  specially  noticeable. 
It  was  tacitly  understood  that  Mary  Stuart's  name  was 
not  to  be  mentioned,  but  a  Bill  was  introduced,  which 
in  its  original  form  would  have  cut  her  off  from  the 
succession  as  effectually  as  if  she  had  been  directly 
designated.  The  excommunication  had  made  it  neces- 
sary to  shield  the  Queen  with  more  stringent  laws,  and 
to  re-enact  in  a  modified  form  the  repealed  statutes  of 
Henry  VIII.  It  was  proposed  that  '  to  affirm,  by  word 
or  writing,  that  the  Queen  was  not  Queen,  or  that  any 


1   La  Mothe  Fenelon,  May  13  :  Depeches,  vol.  iv. 


438  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  56. 

other  person  ought  to  be  Queen,  or  that  the  Queen  was 
a  heretic,  schismatic,  tyrant,  infidel,  or  usurper  of  the 
crown/  though  not  followed  by  any  overt  act,  should  be 
high  treason.  Any  person,  who  during  the  Queen's  life 
should  lay  claim,  to  the  crown,  or  that  had  already  laid 
claim  to  the  crown,  or  should  not,  on  demand,  acknow- 
ledge the  Queen  to  be  lawful  Sovereign  of  England, 
should  be  declared  incapable  of  succeeding  to  the  crown 
after  the  Queen's  decease.  It  should  be  high  treason 
to  maintain  the  right  of  any  such  person  ;  or  to  deny 
the  power  of  Parliament  to  order  the  succession ;  and 
'to  avoid  contention  of  titles/  no  person  except  the 
Queen's  children,  or  not  otherwise  specially  named  and 
chosen  by  Parliament,  was  to  be  regarded  or  spoken  of 
as  heir  to  the  throne,  under  penalties  of  forfeiture  and 


outlawry.1 


Some  measure  of  this  kind  the  Catholics  in  Parlia- 
ment could  not  refuse  to  pass  without  open  confession 
of  disloyalty ;  all  that  they  could  reasonably  attempt 
was  to  blunt  the  personal  application  of  it.  The  Bill 
was  thrown  like  a  shuttlecock  from  House  to  House,  and 
from  committee  to  committee.  The  Queen  of  Scots  was 
in  the  mind  of  all  and  in  the  mouths  of  none.  The 
Protestants  were  struggling  to  extinguish  her  and  her 
pretensions,  the  Catholics  to  shield  her  without  prema- 
turely declaring  their  intended  treason. 

The  argument  on  one  side  was  that  it  was  unjust  to 
make  the  Act  retrospective ;  on  the  other,  '  that  where 


13  Elizabeth,  cap.  i. 


157L]  THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY.  43$ 

ambition  to  a  crown  had  once  entered,  such  was  its 
nature  that  it  could  never  be  satisfied/  Sir  Francis 
Knowles  informed  the  Commons,  that  the  words,  '  had 
already  laid  claim/  were  carefully  considered  by  the 
council  before  the  Bill  was  introduced,  '  and  were  more 
than  requisite,  yea,  more  than  convenient/  'To  stay 
or  prevent  devices  past  he  thought  it  but  honest  policy/ 
Another  bold  speaker  said  that  '  to  pretend  the  Queen 
was  not  Queen  might  fairly  be  called  treason,  but  to 
make  it  treason  to  call  her  heretic,  infidel,  or  schisma- 
tic, was  unreasonable.  Catholics  necessarily  considered 
her  a  heretic,  unless  they  confessed  themselves  to  be 
heretics,  or  unless  her  Majesty,  as  some  people  thought, 
was  at  heart  a  Catholic  herself ;  there  were  those  who 
said  the  Established  doctrines  were  her  councillors'  and 
not  her  own ;  and  if  the  words  to  which  he  objected 
were  allowed  to  stand,  he  would  introduce  another,  and 
vote  it  treason  to  call  her  infidel,  Papist,  or  heretic/ 

Elizabeth's  wishes  in  the  matter  appear  nowhere, 
except  as  they  may  be  supposed  to  have  been  repre- 
sented by  Knowles  ;  and  Knowles  himself  had  more 
than  once  lamented  that  Elizabeth  did  not  always  think 
with  her  council.  She  liked  to  be  able  to  tell  foreign 
ambassadors  that  she  disapproved  of  Cecil,  that  she 
valued  and  loved  the  Catholics,  that  she  had  not  inter- 
fered and  would  not  interfere  with  the  prospective 
claims  of  Mary  Stuart  on  the  crown.  In  the  end  each 
side  yielded  something.  The  Act  passed,  but  the  con- 
templated offences  were  made  to  date  from  thirty  days 
after  the  close  of  the  Parliament,  and  if  Eidolfi  made 


440  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  56. 

good  speed,  it  would  be  a  dead  letter,,  or  would  recoil 
upon  Elizabeth.  Past  pretensions  and  past  acts  were 
to  be  forgotten,  and  a  power  was  reserved  only  to  de- 
mand of  any  known  pretender  whether  he  or  she  would 
for  the  future  admit  the  Queen  to  be  lawful  Sove- 
reign. Then,  but  only  then,  if  the  answer  was  disloyal, 
the  right,  whatever  it  might  be,  was  to  be  held  forfeited. 

Other  clauses  provided  that  prosecutions  should  be 
instituted  in  all  cases  within  six  months  of  the  alleged 
offences,  and  that  witnesses  should  be  brought  face  to 
face  with  the  accused. 

Two  further  measures  were  modified  in  the  same 
spirit.  The  introduction  or  publication  of  Papal  Bulls 
in  England  was  made  high  treason,  high  treason  for 
any  person  calling  himself  a  priest  to  receive  English 
subjects  into  the  Church  of  Rome,  and  high  treason 
in  the  subject  to  be  received ;  but  this  Act  was  made 
prospective  only ;  and  three  months'  grace  was  allowed 
to  persons  who  had  been  converted,  to  make  confession 
to  their  diocesan  and  be  pardoned.1 

Besides  the  exiles  who  had  been  in  rebellion,  many 
gentlemen  had  followed  or  anticipated  the  example  of 
Lord  Morley,  and  had  withdrawn  to  the  Continent. 
The  law  of  England  forbade  subjects  to  reside  abroad 
without  leave  from  the  Crown,  and  they  had  evaded  it 
by  conveying  their  lands  in  trust  to  relatives,  through 
whom  their  rents  were  sent  across  to  them.  Convey- 


13  Elizabeth,  cap.  ii. 


I57I-]  THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY.  441 

ances  of  this  kind  were  declared  to  be  void,  and  the 
Crown  was  empowered  to  take  possession  of  the  estates 
of  all  persons  who  after  sufficient  notice  refused  to  re- 
turn. But  a  distinction  was  introduced  between  those 
who  were  hatching  treason  and  those  who  were  in- 
fluenced by  '  blind  zeal ;  '  and  the  Peers  carried  a 
special  clause  in  favour  of  their  own  order.  A  Peer 
might  recover  his  property  at  any  time  that  he  pleased 
by  making  his  submission.1 

An  Act  of  Attainder  was  carried  against  Westmore- 
land, Northumberland,  and  their  companions.  Their 
estates  became  the  Crown's,  to  be  sold  or  disposed  of  as 
the  Queen  might  please;  and  the  dispute  with  the 
Bishop  of  Durham,  which  the  lawyers  had  left  after  all 
undetermined,  was  disposed  of  by  an  intimation  that, 
except  for  the  exertions  of  the  Crown,  the  Bishop  would 
have  been  swept  out  of  existence,  and  had  therefore  no 
claim  upon  the  forfeitures.2 

It  had  been  discovered  after  the  suppression  of  the 
insurrection  that  multitudes  of  seditious  priests  were 
continually  going  up  and  down  the  country  in  disguise 
or  hiding  in  country  houses  as  '  serving  men.'  The 
council  proposed  that  all  such  persons,  wherever  found, 
should  be  treated  as  vagrants  or  Egyptians,  that  such 
priests  should  be  pilloried,  set  in  the  stocks,  or  whipt  at 
the  cart's  tail ;  and  that  the  gentlemen  who  entertained 
them  should  be  deprived  of  their  property.3  This  prac- 


13  Elizabeth,  cap.  iii. 
13  Elizabeth,  cap.  xvi. 


3  Draft  of  an  Act  against  Dis- 


guises of  Priests,  April  27,  1571 
MSS.  Domestic. 


444  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  56. 

tically  useful  measure  was  not  pressed,  and  lay  over  foi 
another  session.  The  subsidy  was  the  only  matter  of 
importance  remaining,  and  it  was  rapidly,  easily,  and 
freely  disposed  of.  A  grant  of  ioo,ooo£  was  voted 
without  a  word  of  opposition,  and  on  the  29th  of  May 
the  session  was  at  an  end. 

As  with  all  Elizabeth's  Parliaments,  it  was  brought 
to  a  close  ungraciously.  The  Queen  said  that  on  the 
whole  she  was  tolerably  satisfied.  '  Some  members  of 
the  Lower  House  had  shown  themselves  arrogant  and 
presumptuous,  especially  in  venturing  to  question  her 
own  prerogatives.'  '  They  had  forgotten  their  duties  in 
wasting  time  by  superfluous  speech,  and  they  had  med- 
dled with  matters  not  pertaining  to  them  nor  within 
the  capacity  of  their  understanding/  '  The  audacious 
folly  of  this  sort  deserved  and  received  her  severest 
censure/  The  majority  however  even  of  the  Commons, 
she  admitted,  had  conducted  themselves  creditably; 
and  as  to  the  Lords,  half  of  whose  names  were  in 
Bidolfi's  letter-bag,  'her  Highness  said  that  she  took 
their  diligence,  discretion,  and  orderly  proceedings  to 
be  such  as  redounded  much  to  their  honour  and  com- 
mendation, and  much  to  her  own  comfort  and  consol- 
ation.5 l 

Her  actions  went  with  her  words.  She  consented  to 
all  the  measures  which  had  passed  both  Houses  except 
one ;  but  the  Communion  Bill,  against  which  the  Lords 
had  struggled  so  hard,  and  which  was  identified  by 


1  Journals  of  the  Lords  and  Commons,  reign  of  Elizabeth  :  D'EwES. 


1 57I-]  THE  R1DOLFI  CONSPIRACY.  444 

Burghley  himself  with,  the  safety  of  the  Crown,  she 
permitted  to  drop. 

Possibly  Elizabeth  was  wise.  Many  a  wavering 
Catholic  may  have  been  won  back  to  his  allegiance  who, 
had  she  passed  the  Bill,  would  have  gone  over  to  dis 
loyalty ;  and  although  had  she  known  all  the  truth  she 
would  have  spared  the  Lords  the  compliments  which 
she  lavished  upon  them,  yet  there  was  true  statesman- 
ship in  her  efforts  to  keep  the  peace  among  her  subjects, 
and  in  her  refusing  to  punish  the  Catholics  for  the  act 
of  the  Pope  until  they  had  made  it  their  own  by  actual 
treason.  It  was  not,  after  all,  by  measures  passed  in 
Parliament  that  Elizabeth's  crown  was  to  be  saved,  and 
Cecil  was  working  more  effectually  by  other  methods. 

It  is  time  to  return  to  Bidolfi  and  his  mis- 
April, 
sion  to  the  Pope  and  the  King  of  Spain. 

Elizabeth,  it  has  been  seen,  had  replied  to  the  com- 
missioners sent  by  Alva  to  treat  for  a  settlement,  that 
she  would  negotiate  directly  with  his  master.  Sir  Henry 
Cobham,  Lord  Cobham's  brother,  was  despatched  to 
Madrid  with  powers  to  come  to  terms  with  Philip ; 
while  Ridolfi  went  ostensibly  to  Brussels,  on  Walsing- 
ham's  recommendation,  to  make  arrangements  for  the 
reopening  of  trade. 

The  Duke  of  Alva  had  been  long  looking,  as  he  said, 
for  some  '  ford '  by  which  to  enter  effectively  into  the 
English  difficulty.  He  had  failed  to  find  one,  and  not- 
withstanding the  stolen  money,  the  wrongs,  insults, 
violence,  indignities  to  which  Spain  had  been  exposed 
since  the  quarrel,  he  was  coming  round  to  quiet  me- 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


[CH.  56. 


thods.  The  threat  of  the  Anjou  marriage,  if  it  did  not 
alarm  him  as  much  as  it  alarmed  the  Queen  of  Scots, 
was  a  formidable  possibility,  and  to  prevent  the  chance 
of  it  was  worth  the  sacrifice  of  his  pride. 

He  was  in  this  humour  when  Bidolfi  arrived  at 
Brussels  to  lay  before  him  the  message  of  the  Queen  of 
Scots  and  Norfolk.  His  plan  for  the  invasion  was  as 
simple  as  on  paper  it  seemed  most  promising.  Eight 
thousand  Spanish  troops  could  be  collected  at  Middle- 
burg.  They  could  be  silently  embarked  in  the  trans- 
ports with  which  the  necessities  of  Alva's  army  kept 
the  harbour  crowded,  and  with  a  fair  wind  they  would 
be  across  the  Channel  in  a  night.  Six  thousand  would 
land  at  Harwich,  two  thousand  would  make  North  to 
Aberdeen.  The  Eastern  counties  were  ready  to  rise ; 
Norfolk  and  the  Spanish  ambassador  would  fly  from 
London  raising  the  country  as  they  went ;  the  Catholic 
noblemen  in  Scotland  and  the  North  would  rise  at  the 
same  moment ;  and  two  armies,  each  swelling  like  an 
avalanche,  would  advance  by  forced  marches  upon  Lon- 
don. Lord  Derby,  according  to  Ridolfi,  had  under- 
taken to  bring  into  the  field  the  whole  force  of  Lan- 
cashire and  Cheshire.  Shrewsbury  was  in  the  secret, 
and  had  pledged  himself  to  protect  the  Queen  of  Scots 
till  the  army  from  Scotland  came  to  her  rescue.1  As- 


1  '  El  otro  ejeroito  que  viniese  de 
Escocia  vendria  siguiendo  de  mano 
en  mano  para  juntarse  con  los  amigos 
que  se  levantaran,  y  de  pasada  llevar 
consigo  la  lleyna  de  Escocia,  la  per- 
sona de  la  qual  se  puede  tener  por 


cierta,  porgue  assi  la  promete  quien 
la  tiene  en  guarda  [underlined  in  the 
original],  llevantandose  tin  ejercito 
de  la  parte  de  Norfolk  y  por  opposite 
de  la  parte  hacia  el  Canal  de  Ir- 
landa,  llevantandose  todo  el  pays  del 


THE  R  WOLF  I  CONSPIRACY. 


445 


sailed  thus  on  all  sides,  taken  by  surprise  and  without 
time  to  raise  a  force  for  her  defence,  Elizabeth  would  be 
taken  in  a  net.  The  Catholic  religion  would  be  restored 
from  the  Orkneys  to  the  Land's  End,  and  the  Queen  of 
Scots,  as  Sovereign  of  the  whole  island,  would  dispose 
as  she  pleased  of  the  life  and  person  of  her  oppressor. 

In  such  rhetorical  fashion  Eidolfi  prearranged  the 
campaign.  Doubtless  there  were  elements  of  hope  in 
what  he  said,  and  the  conquest  of  England  was  of 
supreme  importance  for  the  security  of  the  Nether- 
lands ;  but  the  silent  Duke  formed  no  favourable  opinion 
of  the  messenger,  whatever  attention  he  might  pay  to 
the  message  itself.  He  knew  England  too  well  to. be- 
lieve that  the  enterprise  would  be  so  easy.  He  had 
learnt  something  of  the  toughness  of  Protestantism; 
he  had  a  solid  respect  for  established  governments,  with 
a  distrust  equally  deep  of  noisy  explosive  insurrections. 
Bidolfi  too  could  not  hold  his  tongue.  He  was  so  vain 
of  the  part  which  he  was  playing  that  he  told  his 
secrets  to  Chapiii  Yitelli  and  the  Spanish  generals.  He 
struck  Alva  as  too  great  a  fool  to  have  been  trusted  on 
a  serious  errand  of  such  magnitude,  and  half  doubted 
whether  he  was  more  than  a  spy  of  Cecil. 

The  letters  of  which  he  was  the  bearer  however  were 
genuine  ;  the  Queen  of  Scots'  pretensions  were  a  reality ; 


Conde  de  Derby  que  eonfina  con  la 
Wallia  y  son  todos  Catolicos  :  suc- 
cede  desto  que  a  la  Reyna  Isabel  se 
le  cierra  el  paso  de  poder  ir  5.  hacer 


dano  a  la  dicha  Reyna  de  Escocia.' 
— MS.  endorsed  de  Roberto  Ridolfi. 
April,  1571  :  Simancas, 


446  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  56. 

and  were  Elizabeth  out  of  the  way,  something  indis- 
putably might  be  made  of  them.  Were  Elizabeth  out 
of  the  way — this  on  reflection  seemed  to  Alva  to  be  the 
hinge  of  the  matter ;  but  the  step  which  he  contem- 
plated was  not  to  be  risked  on  his  undivided  responsi- 
bility, and  to  Philip  therefore  he  proceeded  to  state  at 
length  his  private  opinion.  After  sketching  generally 
Ridolfi's  proposals,  he  continued  thus  : — 

'  I  replied  that  what  Bidolfi  suggested  was  full  of 
danger  ;  the  Earls  of  Westmoreland  and  Northumber- 
land had  tried  an  insurrection  and  had  failed,  and  the 
Duke  of  Norfolk,  who  was  to  have  joined  them,  was 
still  in  partial  confinement.  Ridolfi  assured  me  that 
Norfolk  could  leave  his  house  when  he  pleased,  and 
that  the  Catholics  would  not  fail  a  second  time  if  the 
Pope  and  one  or"  other  of  the  great  Powers  would  help 
them.  He  showed  me  a  list  of  the  Confederates,  and 
he  mentioned  July  or  August  as  the  time  when  the  en- 
terprise would  be  most  easy.  I  asked  him  what  they 
would  do  if  the  Queen  married  the  Duke  of  Anjou. 
He  said  that  the  Queen  was  trifling  as  usual.  She 
would  never  marry  unless  she  was  forced  into  it,  and  if 
it  became  at  all  likely,  the  Duke  and  the  other  noblemen 
would  interfere.1 


1  Yet  Norfolk  and  his  friends  at 
this  very  time  were  assuring  La 
Mothe  Fenelon  that  there  \vas  no- 
thing which  they  desired  more  than 
tln>  marriage. 


the  2nd  of  May,  4  parceque  je  luy 
avois  desja  faict  quelque  communica- 
tion de  ce  propos,  avec  asseurance  de 
la  volonte  de  Voz  Majestez  vers  luy 
et  la  Royne  d'Escoce,  m'a  envoye 


'Ledict  Due,'  La  Mothe  wrote  on  (dire  qu'il  se  sentoit  tres  oblige  a 


THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY. 


1-17 


( I  then  talked  over  the  matter  with  the  council  of 
State.  To  Eidolfi — his  commission,  not  being  addressed 
immediately  to  me — I  said  merely  that  he  might  assure 
the  Duke  of  Norfolk  and  the  Queen  of  Scots  of  your 
Majesty's  goodwill  to  both  of  them ;  and  if  the  Duke 
was  really  a  Catholic,  and  the  Queen  of  Scots  was  will- 
ing to  marry  him,  your  Majesty  I  was  sure  would 
make  no  objection.  I  charged  him  however  as  he 
valued  their  lives  to  keep  better  guard  upon  his  tongue, 
and  I  have  written  to  Don  Juan  de  Cuniga,1  to  impress 
on  his  Holiness  also  the  necessity  of  caution.  Should 
the  Queen  of  England  hear  of  what  is  going  on  she 
will  have  a  fair  excuse  to  execute  them  both.  I  have 
desired  Don  Juan  to  tell  his  Holiness  that  he  may  rely 
upon  your  Majesty,  but  that  he  must  submit  to  your 


Voz  Majestez  de  la  consideration 
qu'il  vousplaysoit  avoir  d'eulx  deux 
en  ceste  affaire,  auquel  il  m'avoit 
desja  faict  declaration  de  son  cosur 
.qu'il  se  deliberoit  avec  toutz  ses 
amys  de  s'y  employer  droictement ; 
car  se  reputoit  tout  oultre  vostre 
serviteur  et  que  Monsieur  vostre  filz 
he  doubtast  plus  qu'il  ne  fut  obey, 
revere  et  ayme  en  ce  Eoyaulme  ;  et 
a  escript  a  1'Evesque  de  Boss  qu'il 
me  voulut  ayder  de  toutz  sesmoyens 
et  intelligences  en  ceste  cause,  car 
il  cognoissoit  qu'il  estoit  besoing 
d'avancer  icy  la  reputation  de  la 
France  pour  bien  faire  les  affaires  de 
la  Royne  d'Escoce.  Milord  de  Lum- 
ley,  pour  gaiges  dela  volunte  du 
Comte  d'Arundel  son  beau-pere,  du 
Comte  de  "Worcester  et  de  luy  en 


cest  endroict,  m'a  envoye  une  bague, 
et  m'a  mande  que  si  je  le  trouvois 
bon,  ilz  s'employeroient  de  bon  cceur 
et  y  procederoient  par  effectz.' — La 
Mothe  a  la  Royne,  Mai  2.  Depeches, 
vol.  iv.  To  cover  language  of  this 
kind,  should  it  be  carried  round,  Ri- 
dolfi  told  Alva  that  the  Lords  were 
playing  with  France  till  Spain  was 
ready,  lest  France  might  withdraw 
its  subsidies  from  their  friends  in 
Scotland.  It  did  not  answer.  They 
lied  to  both  the  Great  Powers,  that 
if  one  failed  them  they  might  fall 
back  upon  the  other  ;  they  earned 
only  in  the  end  the  distrust  and  con- 
tempt of  both. 

1  The   Spanish    ambassador  at 
Rome. 


448  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  56. 

Majesty's  decision  whatever  it  be,  and  that  he  must 
leave  the  execution  of  the  enterprise  to  those  who  are 
to  act  in  it. 

'  His  Holiness  sent  some  one  here  a  while  ago  to 
press  these  English  matters  upon  me.  I  said  then  that 
he  ought  not  to  believe  that  the  thing  was  as  easy  as 
the  English  Catholics  pretended.  The  difficulty  was 
not  so  much  in  the  enterprise  itself  as  in  the  impossi- 
bility of  any  common  understanding  about  it  between 
your  Majesty  and  the  French.  If  his  Holiness  could 
have  prevailed  on  France  to  leave  all  to  us,  your 
Majesty  could  at  least  have  compelled  that  Queen  to  set 
the  Queen  of  Scots  at  liberty,  you  would  have  provided 
her  with  a  Catholic  husband,  and  would  have  opened  a 
way  for  the  restoration  of  religion.  I  thought  then  that 
his  Holiness  might  do  something  in  this  way  if  he  would 
proceed  with  the  necessary  discretion,  but  I  have  told 
Don  Juan  to  say  that  now  it  had  better  be  left  alone. 
Nothing  which  the  Pope  can  do  at  present  will  produce 
good;  so  far  from  it,  if  a  hint  of  what  is  intended 
reach  the  French  Court,  all  will  be  ruined. 

'  But  to  come  to  details.  Certain  points  are  clear : 
the  unhappy  condition  of  the  Queen  of  Scots,  the  ill- 
usage  of  herself  and  her  friends,  the  obligation  which 
rests  on  your  Majesty  to  make  an  effort  for  the  restora- 
tion of  the  faith  in  those  islands,  and  the  injuries  which 
your  Majesty  and  your  subjects  have  sustained  from  the 
Queen  of  England — injuries  which  will  not  be  redressed 
as  long  as  she  continues  on  the  throne. 

'  All   these   things  may  be  set  right  through  the 


15 7 1.]  THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY.  449 

offers  wliich  are  now  made  to  us.  It  will  never  do 
however  simply  to  send  our  troops  as  these  people  pro- 
pose, on  the  chance  of  what  may  follow.  A  large  force 
will  be  required,  many  persons  will  have  to  be  admitted 
into  the  secret,  and  a  secret  which  is  widely  shared  will 
infallibly  be  betrayed.  The  Queen  will  have  the  oppor- 
tunity, for  which  she  has  long  been  looking,  of  put- 
ting the  Queen  of  Scots  and  her  adherents  to  death, 
and  the  blow  will  recoil  upon  your  Majesty.  I  do  not 
trust  Ridolfi.  He  is  a  babbler.  He  .has  talked  over 
the  plan  with  a  person  here  who  is  not  a  member  of  the 
council.1  If  we  land  and  do  not  succeed  at  the  first 
stroke,  you  may  be  sure  that  the  Queen  of  England 
will  move  heaven  and  earth  to  defend  herself.  She  will 
throw  herself  wholly  upon  France.  She  will  instantly 
marry  the  Duke  of  Anjou,  though  at  present  nothing 
is  further  from  her  thoughts ;  and  your  Majesty  may 
consider  how  you  will  then  stand,  with  England, 
France,  and  Germany  your  enemies.  No  one  should 
advise  your  Majesty  to  run  such  a  risk  as  this. 

1  But-  there  is  another  possibility.  Suppose  the  Queen 
of  England  dead — dead  by  the  hand  of  nature  or  by 
some  other  hand  ;  or  suppose  the  Catholics  to  have  got 
possession  of  her  person  before  your  Majesty  has  inter- 
fered ;  the  case  is  then  altered.  There  would  then  be 
no  danger  from  Anjou  or  any  other  prince  ;  and  the 
French  will  no  longer  suspect  your  Majesty  of  intend- 
ing the  conquest  of  England.  Then  you  will  be  able 


1  A  side  note  says,  '  debe  decir  &.  Chapin  Vitelli.' 
VOL.  ix.  29 


45o  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  56. 

to  say  to  the  Germans  that  you  go  there  only  to  main- 
tain the  rights  of  the  Queen  of  Scots  against  her  com- 
petitors. The  Duke  of  Norfolk  says  he  can  himself 
keep  the  field  for  forty  days :  long  before  that  time  i& 
out  we  can  give  him  the  6000  men  that  he  asks  for, 
and  all  will  go  well. 

'Your  Majesty  understands.  The  Queen  being 
dead — naturally  or  otherwise — dead  or  else  a  prisoner, 
there  will  be  an  opportunity  which  we  should  not  allow 
to  escape.  The. first  step  must  not  be  taken  by  us,  both 
for  our  sake  and  for  theirs,  but  we  may  tell  the  Duke 
that  those  conditions  being  first  fulfilled,  he  shall  have 
what  he  wants.  The  enterprise  will  be  as  honourable 
to  your  Majesty  as  it  will  then  be  easy  to  execute.  So 
confident  am  I  of  this,  that  if  I  hear  that  either  of 
these  contingencies  has  taken  place,  I  shall  act  at  once 
without  waiting  for  further  instructions  from  your 
Majesty/  l 

Alva,  it  is  clear,  understood  the  business,  and,  if 
every  one  concerned  in  it  had  been  as  prudent  as  he,  the 
result  might  have  been  something  considerable.  He 
dismissed  Ridolfi  with  such  cautions  as  he  described 
to  Philip,  to  pursue  his  journey  to  Rome,  and  he  himself 
at  his  leisure  made  arrangements  to  move  on  the  in- 
stant, if  the  opportunity  for  which  he  waited  should 
present  itself.  Had  Norfolk  possessed  sufficient  spirit, 
the  Queen  might  perhaps  have  been  taken  at  the  open- 


Alva  to  Philip,  April  7,  1571  :  JllSti.  Simancas 


15 7 1-]  THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY.  451 

ing  of  the  Parliament ;  the  occasion  was  not  lost  so  long 
as  the  session  lasted,  and  Ridolfi  thought  it  desirable  to 
let  his  friends  know  before  he  left  the  Low  Countries 
what  the  Duke  had  said  to  him. 

There  happened  to  be  at  Brussels  at  this  time  a 
certain  half  Scot  half  Fleming,  named  Charles  Baily, 
one  of  those  many  young  men  who  were  carried 
away  by  enthusiasm  for  the  Queen  of  Scots ;  who 
speaking  English  .and  French  perfectly  well,  was  em- 
ployed by  the  Bishop  of  Ross  to  conduct  the  commu- 
nications between  the  refugees  and  their  friends  at  home. 
When  Ridolfi  took  leave  of  Alva,  Baily  was  on  the 
point  of  leaving  for  England  with  letters  from  Sir 
Francis  Englefield,  Lady  Northumberland,  and  the  Earl 
of  Westmoreland,  and  with  a  number  of  copies  of  the 
Bishop  of  Ross's  book  in  defence  of  Mary  Stuart's  title, 
which  the  Bishop  wished  to  distribute  while  Parlia- 
ment was  sitting.  A  safe  messenger  being  thus  ready 
to  his  hand,  Ridolfi  wrote  to  the  Bishop  of  Ross,  and 
with  singular  imprudence,  when  one  letter  would  have 
answered  his  purpose,  he  enclosed  others  containing  the 
same  dangerous  secret  to  the  Duke  of  Norfolk  and  Lord 
Lumley.  Each  of  the  three  was  in  cipher,  but  either 
\>y  accident  or  further  carelessness  he  sent  the  key  with 
them  on  a  separate  sheet,  and  the  only  precaution  which 
he  observed  was  to  cipher  the  addresses  of  the  two  noble- 
men, in  figures  which  had  been  arranged  with  the  Bishop 
while  he  was  in  England.1 


The  letters  to  Lumley  and  Norfolk  were  addressed  to  30  and  40. 


452  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  56. 

With,  this  perilous  addition  to  his  burden  .Charles 
Baily  sailed  for  Dover.  There  were  spies  everywhere 
and  on  every  one.  He  had  no  sooner  set  foot  on  shore 
than  a  hint  was  given  to  an  officer  to  search  his  bag- 
gage ;  the  letters  and  books  were  found,  and  he  and 
they  were  sent  under  guard  to  Lord  Cobham,  the  War- 
den of  the  Cinque  Ports,  who  was  in  London  for  the 
session. 

Cobham' s  house  was  in  Blackfriars.  While  the  pri- 
soner was  being  taken  thither,  intimation  was  sent  to 
the  Bishop  of  Ross  that  a  person  had  been  arrested  with 
some  mysterious  papers  enclosed  under  cover  to  him- 
self ;  and  the  Bishop,  not  knowing  his  precise  danger, 
but  feeling  only  the  possibility  of  a  tremendous  discovery, 
first  thought  of  throwing  himself  upon  La  Mothe,  tell- 
ing him  as  much  As  he  dared,  and  asking  him  to  claim 
the  enclosures  as  his  own.  On  reflection  it  seemed 
better  to  trust  to  Cobham  himself,  whose  name  was  in 
Hidolfi's  list,  and  to  wait  to  see  what  Cobham  would  do.1 

It  was  the  evening  of  the  loth  of  April,  when  the 
Commons  were  in  full  discussion  of  their  Communion 
Bill.  Baily,  when  brought  before  the  Warden,  was 
again  searched.  The  alphabet  of  the  ciphers  was  found 
wadded  in  his  coat  at  the  hollow  of  his  back  ;  the  books 
were  manifestly  dangerous ;  and  according  to  his  own 
story,  which  must  be  received  with  suspicion,  Lord 
Cobham  was  preparing  to  discharge  his  natural  duty 
and  lay  what  he  had  discovered  before  the  council.  His 


1  Confession  of  the  Bishop  of  Ross,  October,  November,  1571  :  MUKDIN. 


I57L]  THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY.  453 

brother  Thomas  Cobham,  however,  who  had  escaped 
hanging  for  his  atrocities  in  the  Bay  of  Biscay,  and  had 
taken  now  to  conspiracy  and  Catholicism,  happened  to 
be  in  the  room ;  the  prisoner  contrived  to  let  him  know 
by  signs  that  the  letters  were  of  consequence;  and 
young  Cobham,  taking  the  Warden  apart,  '  threw  him- 
self in  tears  at  his  feet/  and  told  him  that  if  the  packet 
was  taken  to  the  council  the  Duke  of  Norfolk  was  a  dead 
man.  Lord  Cobham  said  that  at  first  he  refused  to  listen. 
He  put  the  letters  in  his  pocket,  and  with  the  books  and 
other  papers  in  a  bag  he  crossed  the  river  to  Cecil's 
house.  On  the  way  his  heart  failed  him.  He  left  the 
bag  with  Cecil;  he  said  nothing  of  the  letters,  but 
carried  the  packet  back  to  his  house,  and  '  being  again 
importuned  by  his  unhappy  brother/  he  sealed  it  and 
sent  it  to  the  Bishop  of  Ross,  desiring  him  to  come  the 
next  day  to  Blackfriars  and  open  it  in  his  presence.1 
As  it  had  been  seen  by  the  searchers,  the  Warden  knew 
that  he  would  be  called  upon  to  account  for  it.  He 
could  but  give  the  Bishop  a  few  hours  to  do  the  best 
that  he  could. 

The  Bishop,  with  the  packet  in  his  hands,  instantly 
possessed  himself  of  the  dangerous  letters,  and  then, 
creeping  across  in  the  darkness  to  Don  Guerau,  he  com- 
posed, with  the  ambassador's  assistance,  another  set  of 
ciphered  papers  sufficiently  tinctured  with  disloyal  mat- 
ter to  satisfy  Cecil's  suspicions,  while  all  that  touched 
the  real  secret  was  kept  out  of  sight.  A  copy  of  the 

1  Notes  of  Lord  Cobham's  confession,  in  Cecil's  hand,  taken  October 
14  :  JI1SS.  Domestic,  Hulls  House. 


4  $4  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  56. 

Bull  of  excommunication  was  introduced,  an  old  letter 
from  Mary  Stuart  to  Don  Gruerau,  another  to  Mary 
Stuart  herself  from  an  Italian  in  the  Netherlands,  and 
two  from  some  one  else  to  the  French  ambassador.  The 
malcontent  tone  which  characterized  the  Queen  of  Scots' 
secret  correspondence  was  carefully  preserved  ;  one  or 
more  of  the  letters  were  written  in  the  cipher  which 
Charles  Baily  had  brought  over,  and  the  Bishop  detained 
the  key,  intending  to  produce  it  with  affected  reluctance 
when  it  was  asked  for.  Norfolk's  and  Lumley's  letters 
were  then  conveyed  to  their  address,  and  the  Bishop,  in 
the  belief  that  he  had  done  the  work  effectually,  ven- 
tured to  write  himself  to  Burghley  to  say  that  a  packet 
of  letters  had  been  brought  over  for  him  by  one  of  his 
servants,  that  the  servant  had  been  arrested,  and  the 
letters  detained.  He  trusted  that  Burghley  would  assist 
in  recovering  them  for  him.  He  did  not  know  what  the 
letters  might  contain,  '  but  if  they  came  to  his  hands,  no 
one  of  them  should  be  used  except  as  Burghley  should 
think  good/1 

It'  was  a  dexterous  performance  —  perhaps  too  dex- 
terous —  especially  the  last  stroke  of  it.  Cecil  was  better 
informed  of  what  was  passing  underground  than  the 
Bishop  supposed.  The  capture  of  Story  was  but  one 
instance  of  the  adroitness  of  his  agents  on  the  Continent. 
His  spies,  in  the  disguise  of  refugees,  were  to  be  met 
with  at  the  Earl  of  Westmoreland's  dinner-table,  and  in 
the  closet  of  Lad^  Northumberland.  Men  who  had 


1  The   Bishop  of  Ross  to  Lord  Burghley,  April  12:    MSS.  MARY 
QUEEN  OF  SCOTS. 


1571  ]  THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY.  455 

been  out  in  the  rebellion  compounded  for  their  pardon 
by  betraying  their  friends,  and  Cecil  had  already  heard 
from  Flanders  that  mischief  of  some  kind  was  in  the 
wind.1  The  Bishop's  books  unquestionably  were  meant 
to  cause  a  stir  on  the  Succession  question,  besides  con- 
taining '  many  manifest  lies.'  The  forged  packet  was 
duly  sent  to  him,  and  no  suspicion  was  at  first  enter- 
tained that  a  trick  had  been  played ;  but  Charles  Baily 
was  committed  by  Cecil's  orders  to  the  Marshalsea,  and 
means  were  taken  to  probe  something  deeper  into  his 
secrets. 

Statesmen  who  have  to  grope  their  way  among  plots 
and  treasons  soil  their  hands  with  the  instruments  which 
they  are  compelled  to  use.  Among  the  persons  who 
had  been  arrested  and  sent  to  London  after  the  rebel- 
lion was  a  dissolute  cousin  of  Lady  Northumberland, 
named  Thomas  Herle.  Poor,  cunning,  and  unprin- 
cipled, and  connected  by  birth  with  the  high  Catholic 
families,  this  Herle  was  willing  and  able  to  be  useful. 
He  was  confined  under  warrant  from  the  council  in  the 
Marshalsea,  apparently  as  a  political  prisoner,  his  occu- 
pation in  any  other  capacity  being  known  only  to  Cecil 
and  himself.  He  was  treated  at  times  with  exceptional 
severity — examined  often  before  the  council,  heavily 
manacled,  and  sometimes,  to  sustain  his  character  with 
greater  completeness,  he  was  threatened  by  Cecil  with 
the  rack — and  all  the  time  he  was  employed  in  winding 
himself  into  the  confidence  of  his  fellow-prisoners,  as  a 


1  Letters  of  John  Lee  to  Cecil,  February,  March,  April,  1571:  MSS. 
Flanders. 


4^6  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  56. 

common  sufferer  in  the  same  cause  with  them.  He  was 
an  object  of  interest  to  the  Bishop  of  Ross,  who  had 
been  melted  to  tears  by  the  report  of  the  weight  of  his 
irons.  He  had  been  in  communication  with  the  Bishop. 
He  had  been  in  communication  with  Don  Gruerau.  His 
last  creditable  duty  had  been  to  find  a  person  who  could 
be  trusted  to  go  to  Flanders  and  kidnap  or  kill  the  Earl 
of  Westmoreland.1  A  hint  from  Cecil  set  him  at  once 
upon  the  new  arrival.  The  prisoners  had  access  to  each 
other  during  the  day,  and  sometimes  at  night.  Charles 
Baily,  friendless,  desolate,  terrified,  warmed  at  the 
friendly  voice  of  a  companion  in  misfortune  and  an 
acquaintance  of  the  Bishop  of  Eoss  ;  and  Herle  was 
able  to  tell  Cecil,  in  a  few  hours,  that  '  he  had  in  his 
hands  the  most  secret  minister  in  all  the  ill  practices  in 
Flanders/  There  was  a  mystery  about  the  letters 
which  he  had  not  yet  fathomed,  but  he  said  that  he 
would  soon  learn  all  that  was  in  him.  '  Baily  was  fear- 
ful, full  of  words,  glorious,  and  given  to  the  cup,  a  man 
easily  read.' 2 

The  Bishop  of  Eoss  meanwhile,  knowing  that  he 
must  expect  to  be  questioned,  had  arranged  the  story 
which  he  intended  to  tell.  He  meant  to  say  that  his 
mistress,  against  his  own  advice,  had  been  applying  to 


1  No  other  meaning  can  be  forced 
upon  his  words.  '  Touching  Rams- 
den,'  Herle  wrote  to  Cecil,  '  no  doubt 
he  is  an  apt  man  to  do  some  great 
feat  against  the  E-arl  of  Westmore- 
land or  any  other,  if  he  be  cherished, 
which  may  not  only  discourage  a 
rebel  when  he  is  nowhere  safe  from 


his  prince,  but  express  a  wonderful 
vigilancy  in  every  action  that  her 
Majesty  and  your  Lordship  doth  in- 
tend.'— Herle  to  Burghley,  April  II : 
MSS.  MARY  QUEEN  OF  SCOTS. 

2  Herle  to  Burghley,  April  H 
MSS.  MARY  QUEEN  OF  SOOTS. 


I57i.]  THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY.  457 

France  and  Spain  for  assistance  to  put  down  what  she 
called  the  Rebellion  in  Scotland.  He  would  gain  credit 
by  the  seeming  importance  of  the  confession,  while, 
though  Elizabeth  might  be  angry,  she  could  not  justly 
complain.  Scotland  was  not  hers,  nor  had  she  yet  re- 
cognized any  other  authority  there  but  the  Queen's. 
But  it  was  essential  that  he  and  Baily  should  tell  the 
same  story  ;  and  as  suspicion  might  be  provoked  if  he 
moved  in  the  matter  himself,  Don  Guerau  sent  a  serv- 
ant to  the  Marshalsea  to  ask  permission  to  see  the  pri- 
soner under  pretence  of  inquiring  after  the  missing 
letters.  The  servant  went,  but  did  not  return.  Fore- 
seeing something  of  the  kind,  Cecil  had  given  orders 
that  any  person  coming  to  inquire  for  Charles  Baily 
should  be  detained.  An  Irish  priest  whom  the  Bishop 
next  employed  was  equally  unsuccessful,  and,  as  Cecil 
hoped,  recourse  was  then  had  to  Herle.  By  steady 
attention,  by  lamentations  over  the  growth  of  heresy, 
by  expressions  of  indignation  at  the  hanging  of  the 
Archbishop  of  St  Andrews,  the  wretch  had  won  Baily's 
confidence,  and  as  he  had  confederates  outside  the 
prison  who  were  permitted  to  see  him,  he  became  the 
channel  of  intercourse  between  the  Bishop  and  the 
prisoner. 

The  letters  each  way  passed  through  Cecil's  hands. 
They  were  in  cipher,  but  were  carefully  copied,  and 
were  then  passed  on  to  their  address.  Could  they  be 
read  they  would  tell  all  which  he  desired  to  know  ;  but 
he  could  not  trust  them  out  of  his  hands,  and  the 
characters  baffled  his  skill.  He  consulted  Herle,  and 


458  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  56. 

p 

Herle  suggested  that  if  lie  could  be  allowed  to  leave 
the  prison,  Baily  might  trust  him  with  a  verbal  mes- 
sage ;  he  would  '  then  enter  into  more  familiarity  with 
the  Bishop/  and  might  learn  much.1  Before  this 
could  be  done  however  the  keeper  of  the  Marshalsea 
would  have  to  be  admitted  into  confidence,  and  that 
could  not  be  thought  of.  The  best  hope  was  that  Baily 
might  be  brought  to  use  Herle  as  his  secretary,  and 
trust  him  with  the  ciphers,  or  that  Herle  might  other- 
wise catch  him  with  some  skilful  question.  The  doors 
of  the  sleeping  cells  in  the  prison  were  left  occasionally 
unlocked.  One  night,  in  the  small  hours,  the  spy  stole 
out  of  his  bed  and  crept  to  Baily 's  side.  He  woke 
him,  and  whispered  that  he  had  a  letter  for  him  from 
the  Bishop  of  Ross,  which  he  had  concealed  and  could 
not  find  till  daylight ;  but  the  Bishop,  he  said,  wanted 
meanwhile  to  know  whether  the  council  had  examined 
him  about  the  books  which  he  had  brought  over,  or  if 
they  had  questioned  him  about  his  dealings  with  the 
refugees.  The  two  points  were  ill  selected,  for  Baily, 
in  the  ciphered  letters,  had  given  the  Bishop  full  inform- 
ation on  both  of  them.  Herle  heard  his  teeth  chatter 
in  the  dark,  and  felt  the  bed  tremble.  <  What  !  '  he 
said,  'had  not  my  Lord  his  letters,  then,  wherein  I 
answered  Yes  ?  '  He  felt  that  he  was  betrayed,  and 
not  a  word  more  could  be  extracted  out  of  him,  only 
cold  answers,  and  assertions  that  he  knew  nothing  of 
refugees.2  The  next  morning,  the  forlorn  creature 

1  Herle  to  Cecil,  April  22 :  Cotton.  MSS.  CALIG.  iii. 
a  Herle  to  Burghley,  April  24. 


THE  kIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY, 


459 


attempted  to  warn  the  Bishop  that  Herle  was  false.1 
This  note  also  was  intercepted,  and  not  being  in  cipher, 
showed  Burghley  that  if  he  wanted  more  information 
he  must  try  other  means,  Baily  was  removed  from 
the  Marshalsea  to  the  Tower,  where  he  was  confined 
*  in  a  cave  '  '  rheumatic  and  unsavoury/  foul  with  the 
uncleansed  memorials  of  generations  of  wretches  who 
had  preceded  him  there,  '  without  a  bed/  and  '  with 
only  a  little  straw  on  the  moist  earth- floor  to  lie 
upon  ; '  the  wardens  answering  to  his  complaints  that 
'  they  provided  prisoners  only  with  place  and  room  ; ' 
1  beds  and  other  necessities '  they  must  obtain  from 
their  friends.2 

But  this  was  not  the  worst.  Burghley  meant  to 
make  Baily  speak,  and  to  use  whatever  means  might  be 
necessary  to  break  his  spirit.  He  sent  for  him,  laid 
his  ciphered  letters  to  the  Bishop  of  Ross  before  him, 
and  required  him  to  read  them.  He  said  he  could  not, 
and  pretended  that  he  had  lost  the  alphabet.  Burgh- 
ley sternly  told  him  that  he  was  lying,  and  that  if  he 
would  not  confess  he  should  be  tortured.3  It  was  no 
idle  threat.  From  his  cave,  to  which  he  was  remanded, 
he  once  more  sent  a  few  words  to  the  Bishop  of  Ross. 
He  implored  the  Bishop  to  save  him  from  La  Gfehenne, 
or  he  was  '  lost  for  ever/  The  Bishop  rushed  to  the 
council,  claimed  Baily  as  his  servant,,  and  insisted  on 


1  Charles  Baily  to  the  Bishop  of 
Ross,  April  25  (evening).    Misdated 
by  Murdin,  April  22. 

2  Charles  Baily  to  the  Bishop  of 


Eoss,  April  26:  MSS.    QUEEN  OF 
SCOTS. 

3  Baily  to  the  Bishop  of  Eoss, 
April  29 :  MURJHN. 


460 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


[CH.  56. 


his  privilege  as  ambassador.  Finding  no  comfort  there, 
he  let  fall,  when  he  returned  to  his  house,  a  passionate 
expression  '  that  those  who  lived  a  month  would  see 
strange  changes.'  To  keep  up  Baily's  spirits 
he  sent  him  a  note  to  entreat  him  to  be  firm, 
to  bid  him  '  comfort  himself  in  God,  and  remember  the 
noble  heroes  who  had  suffered  death  rather  than  betray 
their  masters/  *  The  treacherous  messenger  carried 
the  paper,  and  the  report  of  the  Bishop's  words,  to 
Cecil,  and  the  following  brief  order  was  sent  to  Sir 
William  Hopton,  Lieutenant  of  the  Tower : — 

'You  and  Edmund  Tremayne3  are  to  examine 
Charles  Baily  concerning  certain  letters  written  by 
him  in  cipher  from  the  Marshalsea  to  the  Bishop  of 
Ross.  You  will  ask  him  for  the  alphabet  of  the  cipher, 
and  if  he  shall  refuse  to  show  the  said  alphabet,  or  to 
declare  truly  the  contents  of  the  said  letters  in  cipher, 
vou  shall  put  him  upon  the  rack;  and  by  discretion 
with  putting  him  in  fear,  and  as  cause  shall  be  given 
afterwards,  you  shall  procure  him  to  confess  the  truth 
with  some  pain  of  the  said  torture.' 3 

A  few  hours  later  Baily  was  seen  staggering  back 
to  his  dungeon,  '  scarce  able  to  go,'  '  discoloured  and 
pale  as  ashes.' 4  He  had  told  nothing,  so  far  ;  but  the 


1  Bishop   of    Ross    to    Charles 
Baily,  May  -i :  MURDIN. 

2  Younger  brother   of  the   two 
Tremaynes  who  were  killed  at  Havre, 
a  man  of  special  ability,  much  trusted 
by  Cecil,  whose  name  will  be  heard 
of  hereafter  in  connection  with  Irish 
matters. 


3  Burghley  to  the  Lieutenant  of 
the  Tower  :  Hatfield  MSS. 

4  Herle   to   Burghley,  May  i  : 
Cotton.  MSS.  CALIG.  iii.  .  .     The 
Spanish  ambassador  said  that,  though 
racked,  he  had  been  more  frightened 
than  seriously  hurt. 

'  Con  haber  tornado  a  aquel  criado 


I57I-]  THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY  461 

experiment  was  to  be  tried  again  more  severely,  and 
he  was  left  in  the  darkness  to  reflect  on  what  was 
before  him. 

One  more  ingenious  refinement  was  yet  behind. 
Doctor  Story  was  still  in  the  Tower  waiting  for  execu- 
tion. It  had  been  ascertained  that  Baily  was  unac- 
quainted with  Stor}r's  person,  though  he  regarded  him, 
like  the  Catholics  generally,  as  a  confessor  and  a  saint. 
There  appeared  one  night  by  the  side  of  the  straw  heap 
on  which  Baily  lay  extended,,  the  figure  of  a  man  who 
said  that  he  was  Story  himself,  admitted  into  the  cell 
by  the  kindness  of  a  gaoler,  to  console  him  in  his 
sufferings.  The  deceit  could  be  successfully  maintained, 
for  the  counterfeit  was  Parker,  the  treacherous  friend 
who  had  betrayed  Story  in  Flanders.  In  the  character 
of  a  ghostly  father,  and  an  experienced  conspirator, 
Parker  recommended  Baily  -to  dig  below  Burghley's 
mines.  He  persuaded  him  that  so  much  was  already 
discovered  that  it  was  useless  to  persist  in  complete 
denial.  By  deciphering  his  own  letters  he  told  him 
that  he  would  gain  credit  with  Burghley,  while  he 
would  leave  him  no  wiser  than  he  was  already.  He 
might  offer  to  be  a  spy  upon  the  Bishop  of  Eoss,  while 
in  fact  he  would  be  a  spy  upon  the  Government,  and 
would  serve  the  cause  of  the  Queen  of  Scots  more  effect- 
ually than  ever.1 


del  Obispo  de  Ross  y  ver  las  cartas  j  MSS.  Simancas. 
con  cifra,  le  ban  dado  tormento  aun-  I        l  Baily  in  writing  afterwards  to 
que  no  muy  rezio  y  esta  en  la  Torre.'  I  Don  Guerau  to  say  what  he  had  con- 
— Don  Guerau  to   Philip,  May  9    |  fessod,  adds  innocently,  'He'hecho 


462  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH,  [CH.  56. 

Too  happy  to  escape  a  repetition  of  La  Grehenne 
under  so  high  a  sanction,  the  victim  of  this  singular 
network  of  deceit  fell  at  last  into  the  pit  which  was 
laid  before  him.  He  gave .  up  the  keys  of  the  cipher, 
which  revealed  at  once  the  story  of  the  abstracted 
packet,  with  the  existence  of  other  letters  addressed  to 
unknown  persons  which  had  missed  his  hands;  and 
Burghley  must  have  smiled  as  he  read  the  passionate 
promises  of  Baily  before  his  experience  of  the  rack,  that 
'  the  council  should  get  nothing  from  him  though  he 
was  torn  in  pieces/  He  confessed  now  to  all  that  he 
knew.  He  could  not  tell  who  the  persons  were  for  whom 
he  had  brought  over  the  letters  because  they  were 
under  cover  to  the  Bishop  of  Hoss ;  but  he  gave  a 
sketch  of  the  conversation  which  had  passed  between 
Ridolfi  and  Alva,  so  far  as  Bidolfi  had  communicated 
it  to  himself;  he  described  the  intended  landing  of 
the  Spaniards  in  the  Eastern  counties,  and  with  many 
entreaties  to  Burghley  that  he  would  keep  his  secret 
and  save  his  honour,  he  undertook,  if  he  was  allowed  to 
return  into  the  Bishop  of  Boss's  service,  to  watch  his 
correspondence  and  keep  copies  of  all  letters  written  by 
or  to  him.1 


todo  lo  que  he  dicho  por  consejo  y  with  his  long  imprisonment  and  the 
exhortation  del  Doctor  Story  que  ha  trouble  which  he  had  with  Parker 
visto  como  he  sido  tratado,  y  estaha  feigning  himself  Doctor  Story,  and 
avisado  de  la  manera  que  determimm  other  such  matters  as  he  told  him, 
do  tratarme.' — Charles  Baily  to  Don  '  that  he  was  not  able  to  write  ten 


Guerau,  May  10  :  MSS.  Simancas. 

Four  months  after  we  find  him 

answering  at  another   examination 

'  that  -his  memory  was  so  troubled 


words  together.'— MSS.   Hatficld, 
September  19. 

1  Charles    Baily    to    Burghley, 
May  2 :  MURDIN. 


1 5  7 1 .  ]  THE  RID  OLF7  CONSPIRA  C  Y.  463 

Yet  he  was  still  but  half  false,  and  Parker  had  pre- 
pared Burghley  to  understand  the  meaning  of  this  base 
offer.  Baily  was  left  in  the  Tower,  to  find  himself,  to 
his  surprise,  in  no  better  favour  with  Cecil,  and  re- 
proached as  a  coward  by  his  old  friends.  He  could  but 
excuse  himself  to  Don  Guerau,  by  saying  that  Cecil  knew 
already  more  about  Ridolfi  than  he  had  himself  admitted ; 
and  that  except  for  what  Doctor  Story  had  told  him, 
he  would  have  suffered  death  rather  than  have  confessed 
a  single  thing.1 

The  Bishop  of  Boss  meanwhile,  sick,  with  fears  that 
Baily  would  confess  under  the  rack,  had  taken  to  his 
bed.  He  ate  nothing  for  three  days,  and  lay  barricaded 
in  his  house,  having  given  orders  to  his  porter  to  admit 
no  one  to  him.  He  could  tell  secrets  which  Baily  could 
not,  and  the  question  now  with  Cecil  was  how  to  ex- 
tract them  from  him.  Herle's  services  were  again 
therefore  put  in  requisition.  The  warning  against  him 
which  had  been  sent  by  Baily  having  been  intercepted, 
the  Bishop,  though  he  had  vague  misgivings  about 
him,  had  no  reason  to  suspect  him  of  treachery,  and 
with  judicious  treatment  his  full  confidence  might 
perhaps  be  recovered.  After  a  short  correspondence, 
in  which  the  stages  of  the  farce  were  pre-arranged, 
Herle  was  sent  for  to  the  council,  examined,  and  being 
found  contumacious,  was  loaded  with  irons  and  threat- 
ened with  torture.  In  this  seeming  extremity  he  wrote 
to  the  Bishop  to  implore  his  prayers,  and  his  advice. 
He  desired,  as  he  told  Burghley,  '  to  beget  some  kind 

Charles  Baily  to  Don  Guerau,  May  10  :  MSS.  Simancas. 


464 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


[CH.  56. 


of  second  trust  in  the  Bishop,'  and  he  swore  that  no 
extremity  should  force  him  to  reveal  anything.  Ap- 
pealed to  thus  earnestly,  the  Bishop  sent  a  friend  to 
the  Marshalsea,  who  found  Herle  '  plunged  into  the 
depths  of  wretchedness,  and  lamenting  that  he  was  re- 
garded with  mistrust/  He  complained  of  Baily,  '  utter- 
ing his  speech/-  as  he  triumphantly  described  it,  '  in 
such  piteous  forms,  his  irons  jingling  up  and  down 
by  meet  occasions,  as  the  fellow  wept  and  sobbed/ 1 
Following  up  the  favourable  impression,  he  wrote  again 
to  the  Bishop,  that  '  he  was  between  the  anvil  and  the 
hammer  ;'  but  whatever  was  thought  of  him,  '  his  right 
hand  should  play  Mucius's  part  before  he  would  break 
his  faith  ; '  '  they  should  rather  rend  his  poor  carcase 
than  he  would  betray  the  least  tittle  of  what  had  passed ; ' 
'  He  spoke  it  with  sorrow  of  mind,  and  he  would  seal  it 
with  his  blood/  '  esteeming  no  torment  greater  than 
unjust  jealousy  conceived  of  a  true  friend/  With  mild 
reproaches  for  the  discouraging  of  his  honest  service,  he 
said  that  he  looked  for  consolation  at  his  Lordship's 
hand,  protesting,  '  that  for  any  that  would  maintain  he 
was  dealing  otherwise  than  honestly,  he  would  make 
them  liars  in  their  throats/  2 

The  Bishop  was  taken  in  to  the  extent  of  again  be- 
lieving Herle  to  be  honest ;  but  the  rascality  was  thrown 
away  so  far  as  practical  results  arose  from  it.  Baily 
had  told  all  which  Cecil*  desired  to  hear,  except  the 


1  Herle  to  Burghley,  April  29 : 
MSS.  QUEEN  OF  SCOTS. 

2  Herle  to  the  Bishop  of  Ross, 


April  29 :  MSS.  MARY  QUEEN  OP 
SCOTS. 


157I-]  THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY.  46$ 

names  of  the  English  noblemen  designated  by  the 
ciphers,  and  these  the  Bishop  saw  no  reason  for  trust- 
ing to  Herle's  curiosity.  Other  and  more  honourable 
measures  therefore  had  now  to  be  substituted.  On  the 
1 3th  of  May,  Sir  Ralph  Sadler,  Lord  Sussex,  and  Sir 
Walter  Mildmay  repaired  to  the  Bishop's  house.  He 
was  obliged  to  admit  them,  and  he  was  then  questioned 
on  his  servant's  confession.  He  was  required  to  tell 
what  he  knew  about  Eidolfi's  mission.  His  previous 
story  served  him  in  good  stead.  Eldolfi,  he  said,  had 
carried  a  petition  from  his  mistress  to  the  Duke  of  Alva, 
the  Pope,  and  the  King  of  Spain  for  assistance  against 
the  rebels  in  Scotland.  He  was  asked  to  explain  the 
ciphers  30  and  40. l  He  first  denied  any  recollection  of 
them.  Then  he  said  that  30  was  the  Spanish  ambassa- 
dor, and  40  was  his  own  mistress.  The  examiners  in- 
quired what  had  become  of  the  letters  which  had  been 
addressed  in  these  figures.  He  said  that  he  had  burnt 
them.  They  asked  why,  and  he  could  give  no  explana- 
tion.2 They  knew  that  he  was  not  telling  the  truth, 
but  the  rack  could  not  safely  be  applied  to  an  ambassa- 
dor, especially  on  mere  suspicion,  nor  could  Cecil  ven- 
ture prudently  to  commit  him  to  the  Tower.  His 
papers  were  sealed  up,  his  servants  separated  .from  him, 
and  he  himself  placed  under  the  charge  of  the  Bishop 
of  Ely,  to  whose  house  in  Holborn  he  was  soon  after 
removed.  That  he  had  given  a  false  account  of  the 
figures  was  easily  ascertained.  Don  Guerau  was  asked 

1  The    addresses    on    Ridolfi's  I        2  Examination  of  the  Bishop  of 
letters  to  Norfolk  and  Lumley.  j  Ross,  May  13  :  MUBDIN. 

VOL.  ix  30 


466  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  56 

whether  lie  had  ever  been  designated  by  the  cipher  30 
Ignorant  of  what  the  Bishop  of  Ross  had  said,  he  an- 
swered that  he  had  not.  The  Queen  of  Scots  was  ex- 
amined at  great  length  whether  she  had  sent  any  mes- 
sage by  Ridolfi,  whether  she  had  heard  from  Ridolfi, 
and  whether  she  was  the  cipher  40.  She  too,  knowing 
as  little  as  Don  Gfuerau,  declared  boldly  that  she  had 
sent  no  message  by  Ridolfi,  that  she  had  never  heard 
from  Ridolfi,  and  had  no  cipher  of  any  kind  in  which 
she  corresponded  with  Ridolfi.  Finding  however  by 
the  questions  which  were  put  to  her  that  something  had 
been  discovered,  she  was  ready-witted  enough  to  say 
that  the  Bishop  of  Ross  might  have  arranged  a  cipher 
in  her  name  which  she  did  not  know ;  and  when  Shrews- 
bury asked  her  further  whether  she  had  written  to  the 
Pope  or  to  the  King  of  Spain,  she  replied  boldly,  that 
finding  herself  without  hope  of  support  in  England, 
she  had  written  to  all  foreign  princes  for  aid  against 
her  rebels.1 

But  Burghley  knew  from  the  confession  of  Baily 
that  more  was  meant  than  aid  in  Scotland.  The  con- 
tradictions in  the  several  stories  taught  him  to  distrust 
them  all,  and  he  found  other  means,  as  will  be  seen, 
more  successful  to  find  the  bottom  of  the  conspiracy. 
The  Bishop  of  Ross  was  left  in  imprisonment.  Mary 
Stuart  was  placed  under  stricter  guard;  her  servants 
were  locked  out  of  her  apartments  at  night,  and  only 
allowed  to  return  to  her  after  daybreak.  The  real 


1  Shrewsbury  to  Burghley,  May  18  :  MS8.  QUEEN  OF  SCOTS. 


R1DOLFI  CONSPIRACY.  4^7 

Story,  the  farce  having  been  played  out  in  the  Tower, 
was  hanged.  Don  Guerau  claimed  him  as  a  subject  of 
Philip.  Elizabeth  answered  that  the  King  of  Spain 
might  have  his  body  if  he  wished  for  it,  but  his  head 
should  remain  in  England.1 

The  investigation  had  been  simultaneous  with  the 
sitting  of  Parliament,  and  they  came  to  an  end  together. 
The  discovery  that  she  was  surrounded  with  treason  now 
rendered  it  imperative  upon  Elizabeth  to  come  to  a  dis- 
tinct resolution  upon  her  proposed  marriage  with  the 
Duke  of  Anjou.  The  more  it  was  pressed  upon  her, 
the  more  she  hated  the  thought  of  it.  The  mocking 
world  outside  believed  that  she  was  only  trifling ;  yet 
among  her  many  changes,  her  own  ministers  were  un- 
able to  discover  her  real  wishes. 

Here  too,  as  in  so  many  other  matters,  the  historian 
finds  himself  staggering  among  quicksands  of  false- 
hood. Burghley  and  Walsingham  alone  are  to  be  de- 
pended upon  as  saying  what  they  meant.  Some  points 
however  can  be  made  out  with  an  approach  to  certainty. 

Both  the  principals  first  of  all  detested  the  marriage 
in  itself,  although  the  force  of  the  political  reasons  in 
its  favour  was  felt  by  each  of  them.  Elizabeth  herself 
believed  that  when  the  Duke  found  himself  the  husband 
of  '  an  ugly  old  woman/  he  would  give  her  ung  brerage 
de  France  which  would  leave  him  a  happy  widower  in 
six  or  seven  months.  He  would  then  marry  the  Queen 
of  Scots  and  be  King  over  the  whole  island.2 

1  La  Mothe,  June  9 :  Depeches,  vol.  iv. 
:  La  Mothe,  May  2  :  Depeches,  vol.  iv. 


468  KE1GN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [en.  56. 

Anjou,  on  tlie  other  hand,  in  his  confidential  mo- 
ments repeated  his  suspicions  of  Elizabeth's  character, 
and  when  there  seemed  to  be  a  hope  that  the  objections 
would  be  found  insuperable  did  not  conceal  his  delight.1 

The  position  so  far  was  not  a  hopeful  one,  but  the 
interests  at  stake  were  so  tremendous,  and  the  pressure 
exerted  upon  both  Queen  and  Prince  was  so  heavy,  that 
Anjou  was  ready  to  yield,  and  Elizabeth  at  times  per- 
suaded others  if  not  herself  that  she  might  yield  also. 
En  France  the  fortunes  of  the  Huguenots  were  supposed 
to  depend  upon  the  marriage.  It  was  no  hopeful  sign 
for  them  that  their  prospects  could  turn  upon  so  poor  a 
contingency,  but  so  they  judged  themselves  of  their  own 
situation.  The  marriage  was  to  be  the  keystone  of  a 
policy.  If  the  support  of  England  could  be  secured  to 
France  in  a  war  with  Spain,  the  jealousies  of  Catholics 
and  Protestants  would  be  superseded  by  a  revival  of  the 
old  temper  of  Francis  and  Henry.  Catherine  de  Medici 
hated  the  Protestants,  but  she  hated  Spain  more.  With 
Elizabeth  for  an  ally  she  could  revenge  St  Queiitin  and 
oxtend  the  French* frontier  to  the  Rhine. 

On  the  side  of  England  the  advance  of  the  Reforma- 
tion had  been  connected  at  every  stage  of  its  progress 
with  an  approach  to  France.  The  divorce  of  Catherine 
of  Arragori  broke  up  the  ancient  European  combina- 
tions. Henry  VIII.  became  the  friend  of  Francis. 


1  Speaking  to  a  lady  one  day 
about  the  marriage,  he  said,  '  La 
Reyna  mi  madre  muestra  tener  pena 
de  que  esta  desbaratado  mi  casa- 
miento,  y  yo  estoy  el  mas  coutento 


hombre  del  mundo,  de  haber  esca- 
pado  de  casar  con  una  puta  publica.' 
— Don  Francis  de  Alava  to  Philip, 
May  1 1  :  TEULET,  vol.  v. 


i57i.]  THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY.  469 

Edward  was  to  have  married  a  French  princess :  a 
French  king  had  befriended  the  English  Reformers 
during  the  Marian  persecution,  and  in  the  face  of  the 
late  discoveries,  Elizabeth's  condition  appeared  so  '  des- 
perate '  to  Walsingham  and  Burghley,  that  they  were 
ready  for  their  own  part  to  agree  to  any  terms  '  rather 
than  the  matter  should  quail/  Walsingham  especially 
'  challenged  to  himself  no  great  judgment,  but  he  said 
that  if  it  proceeded  not,  he  saw  at  hand  the  ruin  of 
England ; 7  1  and  he  told  Catherine  that  the  Duke 
'  would  be  welcome  there  as  a  Temporal  Messias  to  save 
them  from  the  mischief  of  the  civil  sword/  2  Some 
hundreds  of  letters  about  it  were  exchanged  during  the 
spring  between  the  French  and  English  ambassadors 
and  their  Courts  and  Sovereigns.  The  perusal  of  them 
leaves  an  impression  that  everything  turned  upon 
Elizabeth  herself.  Could  the  French  Court  have  been 
satisfied  that  when  the  conditions  on  both  sides  had  been 
drawn  out  and  agreed  to,  Elizabeth  would  have  then 
honestly  completed  the  marriage,  she  could  have  asked 
nothing  to  which  they  would  not  have  consented : 
without  that  preliminary  certainty,  they  were  unwilling 
to  compromise  themselves  with  concessions  which  might 
prove  to  have  been  made  in  vain. 

Elizabeth's  '  sincerity ' — that  was  the  point.  She 
had  admitted  the  general  arguments  in  favour  of  the 
marriage,  but,  exactly  as  she  had  done  with  the  Arch- 
duke Charles,  she  had  suddenly  told  Walsingham  that 


1  Walsingham  to  Burghley,  May 
15;  MSS.  France. 


Walsingham  to  Burghley,  June 


21  :  MSS.  Ibid. 


470  REIGN  OP  ELIZABETH,  [CH.  56. 

Anjou  could  not  be  allowed  to  hear  mass  in  England ; 
and  although  neither  Anjou  nor  his  mother  would  have 
allowed  such  an  objection  to  have  stood  in  their  way, 
could  they  have  assured  themselves  that  if  they  yielded 
the  Queen  would  be  satisfied,  they  feared  that  it  was 
merely  an  excuse,  and  that  a  fresh  difficulty  would  be 
immediately  raised.  It  was  admitted  on  all  sides  that 
if  he  married  Elizabeth  Anjou's  Catholicism  would  be  of 
no  long  continuance.  Charles  IX.  gave  Walsingham  to 
understand  '  that  he  was  no  enemy  to  the  Protestant 
religion,  as,  if  the  marriage  proceeded,  would  well  ap- 
pear/ Anjou  was  ruled  by  his  mother,  and  '  what  her 
religion  is/  Walsingham  wrote  to  Burghley,  'your 
Lordship  can  partly  guess.'  M.  de  Foix,  who  was  em- 
ployed by  Catherine  to  discuss  matters  with  the  English 
ambassador,  '  swore  to  him  using  God  for  witness/ 
'  that  in  his  conscience  he  thought  Monsieur  within  a 
twelvemonth  would  be  as  forward  to  advance  religion 
as  any  in  England/'  Monsieur  himself  said,  'that  if 
England  meant  to  proceed  there  was  no  fear  that  re- 
ligion would  prove  a  cause  of  breach ; '  and  Walsing- 
nam  concluded,  'that  if  the  match  went  forward  it 
would  set  the  triple  crown  quite  aside.' 1 

Yet  that  Anjou  should  formally  bind  himself  never 
while  in  England  to  attend  mass  or  confess  to  a  priest, 
was  a  demand  to  which  a  French  prince  could  not  be 
expected  to  submit,  while  there  was  a  doubt  whether 
the  uncertain  object  of  his  ambition  would  not  flit  be- 

1  Walsingham  to  Burghley,  April  22  :  DIGGES.  Walsingham  to  Burgh- 
ley,  June  21  :  MSS.  France. 


I57I-J 


THE  RTDOLFI  CONSPIRACY. 


471 


fore  his  grasp  after  all.  He  would  affront  the  Catholic 
world  in  his  own  country  and  beyond  it  by  consenting, 
and  he  would  gain  nothing  in  return  ;  '  neither  honour, 
credit,  nor  safety  itself '  could  allow  him  to  show  Europe 
that  he  held  so  lightly  by  his  creed. 

Thus  on  this  point  of  religion  sovereigns,  ambassa- 
dors, ministers  continued  through  the  spring  and  sum- 
mer to  argue  up  and  down.  The  French  asked  whether 
the  Queen  of  England  '  wished  Monsieur  to  be  an 
atheist  that  he  should  abandon  his  faith  at  a  word  for 
mere  worldly  advancement.'  Elizabeth  in  her  usual 
'formulas  replied  that  in  England  faith  and  conscience 
were  free ;  Monsieur  might  believe  what  he  pleased ; 
but  the  peace  of  the  realm  could  not  be  disturbed  by  a 
license  to  use  a  service  forbidden  by  the  law. 

'  Her  son/  Catherine  answered,  '  would  soon  be  over- 
come by  the  Queen's  persuasions  ; '  the  inconvenience 
at  worst  would  be  brief,  for  the  Catholics  everywhere 
felt  '  that  the  match  would  breed  a  change  of  religion 
throughout  Europe.' 

Elizabeth  rejoined  that  if  the  case  was  reversed,  if 
she  were  going  to  France  to  marry  Monsieur,  and  if  the 
exercise  of  her  religion  would  create  trouble  there,  she 
would  raise  no  difficulty  on  any  such  ground.1  She 
hinted  that  if  Monsieur  would  yield  in  form  she  might 
relieve  his  conscience  by  a  private  permission.  La 
Mothe  reminded  Catherine  that  many  of  the  English 


1  '  Que  si  elle  avoit  a  aller  en 
1'estat  do  mondict  Seigneur  et  que 
1'exercice  de  sa  religion  y  deust  ap- 


porter  du  trouble,  qu'elle  s'en  pas- 
seroit.' — La  Mothe,  May  10 :  Di- 
peches,  vol.  iv. 


472  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [011.56. 

nobles  had  mass  in  their  houses,  the  Queen  shutting  her 
eyes  to  it.  The  ambassador  could  accommodate  Mon- 
sieur at  his  chapel,  or  if  the  worst  came  to  the  worst  he 
could  cross  the  Channel  now  and  then  to  Boulogne  : 
Philip  when  he  wished  to  be  devout  withdrew  from 
Madrid  to  Segovia,  and  Boulogne  was  at  least  as  easy 
of  access  from  London  ;  nay,  as  Monsieur  would  not  be 
called  on  to  declare  himself  a  Protestant,  the  Pope 
might  be  brought  to  give  a  dispensation  to  secure  a 
titular  Catholic  husband  for  the  heretical  Queen.1 

To  the  English   ministers  on   the   other 
June. 

hand  the  Duke's  request  was  so  modest  that  it 

did  not  seem  worth  disputing;  he  asked  only,  like  the 
Archduke,  to  have  a  priest  now  and  then  privately  in 
his  closet ;  the  people  should  neither  see  him  nor  hear  of 
him,  and  in  public  he  would  appear  in  church  with  the 
Queen.  Cecil's  Protestantism  was  above  suspicion,  and 
Cecil  saw  no  reason  to  refuse  so  slight  a  favour. 

It  was  but  too  obvious  that  the  nominal  obstacle 
was  not  the  real  one.  The  French  Government  sug- 
gested that  the  religious  question  should  stand  over 
for  a  time,  and  that  the  other  conditions  of  the  mar- 
riage should  be  arranged  first.  Cecil,  anxious  to  do 
anything  that  would  help  things  forward,  entered  upon 
them  with  the  Queen.  He  met  at  first  with  the  coldest 
discouragement.  She  clung  convulsively  to  her  objec- 
tion ;  and  when  she  was  driven  from  it  at  last,  with  a 
desperate  clutch  at  the  next  plank  which  was  floating 


1  La  Motlie,  July  n  :  Depeches, 


I57I-]  THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY.  473 

near  her,  she  said  that  the  first  article  should  be  'the 
restoration  of  Calais/ 

La  Mothe  exclaimed  that  it  was  plain  now  that  she 
was  trifling,  and  he  gave  no  obscure  intimation  that 
France  might  be  more  dangerous  to  play  tricks  with 
than  Sweden  or  Austria.  The  Emperor  was  far  off, 
while  a  night's  sail  would  bring  the.  French  into  Eng- 
land. To  speak  of  Calais,  as  Cecil  said,  could  mean  only 
that  she  intended  '  to  procure  a  break/  and  a  break  of 
the  most  dangerous  kind. 

The  council  unanimously  entreated  her  '  to  forbear 
that  toy  of  Calais/  and  generally  again  urged  upon  her 
'  the  prosecution  of  the  marriage  as  a  matter  of  all 
others  most  necessary.'1  She  listened,  and  as  Burghley 
said,  '  seemed  to  intend  it  earnestly ;  '  she  told  La 
Mothe  that  she  was  most  anxious  to  bring  the  matters 
to  a  happy  termination  ;  but  as  fast  as  one  obstacle  was 
removed  she  raised  another,  and  the  situation  was  the 
more  embarrassing  because  she  had  herself  begun  the 
negotiation.  The  French  might  naturally  conclude 
that  she  had  been  amusing  them  with  proposals  which 
she  had  predetermined  should  end  in  nothing,  merely 
to  extricate  herself  from  immediate  embarrassments. 
Probably  this  was  not  the  truth  :  with  the  present,  as 
with  all  her  marriage  projects,  she  perhaps  hoped  and 
expected  at  first  that  she  might  be  able  to  overcome  her 
repugnance,  and  only  found  her  resolution  fail  her 
when  the  moment  came  to  decide.  Even  yet  she  could 


Burghley  to  "Walsingham,  June  7  :  DIGGES. 


474 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


[CH.  56. 


not  face  her  own  conclusion.  She  wrote  to  Catherine 
and  she  wrote  to  Anjou,  not  committing  herself  to  any- 
thing positive,  but  repeating  the  general  declaration? 
which  she  had  made  to  La  Mothe ; l  but  Burghley, 
who  knew  her  thoroughly,  saw  where  all  was  tending, 
and  naturally  dreaded  the  resentment  which  further 
trifling  might  provoke. 

' Her  Majesty/  he  wrote  to  Walsingham,  'is  not 
unwarned  how  dangerous  it  were,  if  in  her  default  the 
matter  taketh  not  success,  and  she  seemeth  to  conceive 
thereof,  and  pretendeth  that  if  the  point  of  religion 
may  be  granted,  there  will  be  no  other  difficulty.  But 
whether  she  is  persuaded  that  therein  the  breach  will 
be  on  that  side,  and  so  she  to  escape  the  reproof,  I  can- 
not tell.  God  direct  the  matter,  for  I  have  done  my 
uttermost,  and  so  hath  other  councillors.  My  Lord 
Keeper  hath  earnestly  dealt  in  it,  and  so  have  others 
This  amity  was  needful  to  us,  but  God  hath  determined 
to  plague  us.  The  hour  is  at  hand.  His  will  be  done 
with  mercy/  2 

Even  Leicester  had  outwardly  united  with  Burghley 
in  recommending  Elizabeth  to  yield ; 3  and  as  Burghley 
had  ascertained  that  Leicester  had  been  the  person  who 
had  at  first  urged  her  to  stand  out  so  peremptorily 
about  religion,  he  had  been  at  a  loss  to  understand  his 
conduct.4  In  public  Leicester  had  appeared  to  go  with 


1  Elizabeth  to  Catherine  de  Me- 
dici, June  6  ;  Elizabeth  to  the  Duke 
of  Anjou,  July  9  :  3fSS.  France, 
Rolls  House. 


3  Burghley  to  Walsingham,  July 
9  :  DIGGES.  3  Ibid. 

4  '  It  was  strange  that  any  one 
man  should  give  comfort  to  the  am- 


THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY. 


47* 


the  council  so  heartily,  and  he  had  spoken  so  warmly 
in  private  to  La  Mothe,  that  it  was  hard  to  doubt  his 
sincerity.  '  Unless/  wrote  La  Mothe,  '  he  is  altogether 
sans  foy,  he  is  with  us/  Sans  fay,  unfortunately,  might 
have  been  the  motto  on  Leicester's  shield.  While  '  the 
poor  Huguenots  '  were  telling  Walsingham  in  tears  that 
an  affront  from  England  would  bring  back  the  Guises, 
and  end  in  a  massacre  of  themselves,  Leicester  was  work- 
ing privately  upon  the  Queen,  who  was  but  too  willing  to 
listen  to  him,  feeding  her  through  the  ladies  of  the  bed- 
chamber with  stories  that  Anjou  was  infected  with  a 
loathsome  disease,  and  assisting  his  Penelope  to  unravel 
at  night  the  web  which  she  had  woven  under  Cecil's 
direction  in  the  day.1 

Anjou  was  growing  impatient.    '  Religion 
would   not  have   been  the  let.'      So  anxious 
was  Catherine  for  the  marriage,  that  she  was  on  the 
point  of  openly  giving  way  wholly ;  but  the  Duke  be- 
gan to  see  that  ( he  was  one  of  the  forsaken  ;  '  and  '  to 
yield  in  religion,  and  after  to  miss  of  their  purpose, 
they  thought  would  be  a  touch  in  honour/  2     The  best 
that  "Walsingham  could  now  hope  to  do  was  to  secure 


bassador  in  the  cause,  and  yet  the 
same  man  to  persuade  the  Queen's 
Majesty  that  she  should  persist. 
Both  these  things  are  done,  but  I 
dare  not  affirm  by  any  one.' — Burgh - 
tey  to  "Walsingham,  May  n  : 
DIGGES.  The  allusion  is  evidently 
to  Leicester. 

T  '  El  Conde  de  Leicester  hace 
demostracion  exteriormente  de  desear 


el  casamiento  de  la  Reyna  de  Ingla- 
terra,  mas  por  tercera  mano  hace  lo 
contrario,  habiendo  hecho  a  entender 
a  la  Reyna  por  su  hermana  y  otras 
mugeres  que  M.  de  Anjou  estaba 
llagado  de  lepra.' — MS.  endorsed, 
Por  cartas  de  Londres  de  Agosto  23  : 
Simancas. 

*  Walsingham  to  Leicester,  July 
27  :  DIGGES, 


47f>  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  56. 

his  mistress  an  honourable  retreat,  and  Anjou's  own 
pride  came  opportunely  to  his  assistance. 

If  the  thing  was  not  to  be,  religion  was  a  fair  ex- 
cuse on  both  sides ;  and  Anjou,  in  fear  of  ridicule,  de- 
termined to  save  his  credit  with  the  Catholics  by  him- 
self making  the  difference  of  creed  an  insurmountable 
objection.  He  began  to  talk  largely  of  his  conscience. 
He  protested  that  he  would  not  marry  a  heretic  of 
questionable  character.  The  clergy  and  the  Cardinal  of 
Lorraine  encouraged  his  humour,  and  the  English  am- 
bassador now  watched  it  growing  with  secret  satisfac- 
tion. The  Queen-mother  and  Charles  still  hoped  that 
Elizabeth  could  not  break  off.  The  King  swore  he 
would  make  those  who  had  dared  to  interfere  '  shorter 
by  the  head ;  ' 1  Catherine  used  all  her  arts  with 
Anjou,  and  '  never  sobbed  so  much  since  the  death  of 
her  husband ;  '  and  '  Monsieur  himself  retired  to  his 
cabinet  and  bestowed  half  a  day  in  shedding  tears/ 
But  '  neither  the  King's  threatening  nor  the  Queen- 
mother's  persuading  could  draw  him  to  proceed  further.' 
Mass  or  no  mass,  toleration  or  no  toleration,  he  refused 
definitely  to  think  any  more  of  the  marriage.2 

Nothing  could  have  happened  more  conveniently. 
Except  for  this  fit  of  temper  the  rejection  would  have 
come  from  England,  and  Walsingham  congratulated 
himself  that  'at  least  her  Majesty's  honour  could  be 
saved,  and  she  could  be  thought  to  have  proceeded 
with  sincerity.'  Elizabeth  made  a  new  danger  for  her 

1   Walsingham  to  Cecil,  July  30:  MSS.  France. 
2  Walsingham  to  Cecil,  July  27     Ibid. 


1571.  ]  rHE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY.  477 

self.  As  Anjou  drew  back,  her  scruples  became  less, 
and  the  peculiarity  of  her  character  enabled  her  to  per- 
suade even  herself  that  she  had  been  and  still  continued 
to  be  willing  to  accept  him.  Had  it  Been  so  indeed, 
Anjou  could  doubtless  have  been  whistled  back  to  the 
lure.  But  further  vacillation  would  have  been  deliber- 
ate suicide.  Cecil  was  too  happy  that  she  was  credit- 
ably extricated  from  a  dangerous  position,  and  however 
anxious  he  still  admitted  himself  to  be  for  the  marriage, 
he  showed  her  that  it  was  absolutely  necessary  for  her 
to  make  up  her  mind. 

'  Should  she  marry  with  France/  he  said 
in  an  elaborate  paper  which  he  laid  before 
her,  '  many  things  evil  digested  and  dangerous  would, 
by  God's  providence,  prove  easy  to  be  ordered — the 
perilous  causes  of  the  Scottish  Queen  and  Scotland,  the 
discontent  of  a  great  number  of  her  subjects  upon 
sundry  causes,  the  differences  with  Spain,  the  dangerous 
and  unreasonable  changes  growing  up  in  Ireland,  and, 
generally,  the  uncertainty  which  obliged  her  to  stand 
continually  on  her  guard  by  sea  and  land.  Her  Majesty 
believed  that  a  league  with  France  would  answer  these 
purposes  as  well  as  her  marriage.  The  league,  no  doubt, 
would  be  better  than  nothing  ;  but  it  would  last  only  as 
long  as  France  was  interested  in  maintaining  it.  The 
danger  to  her  from  the  pretended  title  of  the  Queen  of 
Scots  would  continue,  and  probably  increase.  The  dis- 
satisfaction of  her  subjects  would  increase  also,  and  with 
it  the  Queen  of  Scots'  faction.  The  uncertainty  of  the 
succession  would  divide  England  into  parties,  and  the 


478  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  56. 

people,  all  alike,  would  become  against  nature  careless 
of  her  Majesty's  felicity.  If  however  these  considera- 
tions did  not  satisfy  her  that  the  marriage  was  abso- 
lutely necessary,  if  she  was  not  positively  and  finally 
determined  to  go  through  with  it,  she  had  better  leave 
it  as  it  stood ;  she  had  better  persist  in  her  answer  that 
she  could  not  allow  the  Duke  to  have  private  mass,  how 
secret  soever ;  so  it  would  appear  that  the  only  cause 
of  the  interruption  of  the  marriage  was  the  scruple  of 
her  conscience,  which,  being  offended,  she  could  never 
live  in  quietness.  In  that  case  she  must  look  about  her 
for  some  other  means  to  preserve  her  state,  surety,  and 
life ;  and  how  her  Majesty  would  obtain  a  remedy  for 
her  perils,  he  thought  was  only  in  the  knowledge  of 
Almighty  Grod.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  for  the  urgent, 
necessary,  and  honourable  causes  many  times  plainly, 
earnestly,  and  at  length  delivered  to  her  Majesty,  she 
could  bring  herself  to  take  the  Duke  of  Anjou  for  her 
husband,  then,  no  doubt,  without  oifending  her  best 
subjects,  as  she  had  affected  to  fear  she  might  do,  or 
without  seeming  to  consent  that  there  should  be  two 
kinds  of  religion  in  England,  means  could  be  found 
to  settle  all  conditions  to  the  satisfaction  of  both 
countries.' l 

The  game  had  been  played  to  the  latest  moment 
and  was  now  dropped :  Elizabeth  talked,  protested, 
played  with  the  idea,  and  affected  to  be  anxious  that 
the  marriage  should  be  brought  about ;  but  she  held 


1  Cecil  to  Elizabeth,  August  31,  condensed  :  MSS.  France. 


1571-1  THE  R1DOLFI  CONSPIRACY.  4?g 

fast,  as  Cecil  advised,  to  her  plea  of  conscience*  Mon- 
sieur was  delighted  to  show  his  zeal  for  the  faith  in 
which  he  had  been  bred;  and  the  French  Court  was 
left  in  the  belief  that  the  ultimate  breach  had  been 
more  on  their  side  than  on  Elizabeth's.  Walsinghani 
and  Cecil  agreed  '  to  hide  the  imperfections  of  both 
parties,  not  knowing  what  thereafter  might  follow ;  ' x 
and  to  Walsinghani' s  extreme  relief  and  partial  amuse- 
ment, the  French  King  said,  '  that  for  her  upright 
dealing  he  would  honour  the  Queen  of  England  during 
his  life/ 

It  can  now  be  understood  why  she  refused  her  con- 
sent to  the  Communion  Bill.  That  measure  was  part 
of  an  organized  Protestant  policy,  of  which  the  Anjou 
marriage  formed  an  essential  element ;  and  feeling  that 
her  own  part  in  the  drama  was  not  likely  to  be  per- 
formed effectively,  she  preferred  to  trust  still  to  her  old 
policy  of  humouring  and  conciliating  the  Catholics.  In 
one  sense  she  may  well  be  pardoned  for  having  declined 
to  accept  as  her  husband  the  miserable  Henry  de  Yalois, 
especially  as  to  England  no  harm  came  from  her  refusal 
Yet  Elizabeth  may  not  be  credited  with  a  deeper  in- 
sight than  Burghley's,  and  the  moral  worthlessness  ol 
the  Duke  of  Anjou  could  not  have  formed  the  real  ob- 
jection to  him  in  the  mind  of  a  woman  who  had  been 
devoted  so  long  and  so  deeply  to  such  a  wretch  as 
Leicester.  Had  Anjou  been  a  second  St  Louis,  she 
would  have  acted  in  the  same  way  ;  and  possibly  also 


1  Wulsiiigliam  to  Cecil,  September  26 ;  MSS.  France. 


480  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  56. 

Walsingham  and  Burghley  .were  right  in  believing 
that,  had  the  marriage  taken  place,  the  course  of 
European  history  would  have  been  different,  and  the 
power  of  the  Papacy  have  been  rolled  back  in  one  broad 
wave  across  the  Alps  and  Pyrenees. 

The  Queen  having  finally  discovered  that  she  was 
unequal  to  the  sacrifice  which  was  required  of  her,  the 
next  step  was  to  secure  the  political  alliance  of  France : 
and  here,  for  a  time,  the  success  seemed  considerable. 
The  Queen-mother  flattered  herself  with  the  hope  that 
although  Anjou  had  proved  untractable,  Elizabeth  might 
yet  in  time  accept  her  third  son,  the  Due  d'Alencon. 
The  anti-Spanish  party  .remained  in  the  ascendant  at 
Court.  Count  Louis,  at  the  beginning  of  August^ 
brought  a  petition  from  the  Netherlands  for  help  against 
Alva,  and  was  graciously  received.  He  had  tried  Eliza- 
beth first,  but  Elizabeth,  fearing  then  that  she  had 
brought  a  quarrel  with  France  upon  herself,  was  in- 
tending to  make  up  again  to  Spain — as  if,  as  Walsing- 
ham  said,  l  Spain  would  forget  the  injuries  which  it  had 
received  from  her.'  Count  Louis  had  asked  for  50,000 
crowns,  which  Walsingham  considered  '  would  save  the 
disbursing  of  300,000  ;  but  they  could  not  be  obtained ' 
— '  God/  as  he  said,  '  at  times  blinding  the  hearts  of 
princes,  not  suffering  them  to  see  the  perils  that  hung 
over  them/1 

At  Paris  however  Count  Louis  found  a  Government 
more  ready  to  listen  to  him.  It  was  not  now  a  question 


Waisingham  to  Cecil,  June  30     JUSS.  France. 


I57I-]  THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY.  481 

of  money  ;  he  had  come  to  lay  the  Low  Countries  at 
the  feet  of  the  French  King,  to  ask  him  to  assist  in 
expelling  the  Spaniards,  and  to  prevail  on  Elizabeth's 
unwillingness  to  induce  her  also  to  give  help.  In  re- 
turn, the  Provinces  might  be  divided — Flanders  and 
Hainault  could  be  reunited  to  France;  Brabant,  Gel- 
derland,  and  Luxemburg  to  Germany,  while  England 
might  have  Holland  and  the  islands  at  the  mouth  of 
the  Scheldt. 

Could  the  marriage  have  been  arranged,  an  aggress- 
ive league  with  this  object  would  have  unquestionably 
followed  between  England,  France,  and  the  German 
Protestant  States;  and  a  European  revolution  would 
have  been  the  inevitable  consequence.  Without  the 
marriage,  it  was  doubtful  whether  either  of  the  con- 
tracting Powers  would  have  sufficient  confidence  in  the 
other  to  risk  a  breach  with  Spain.  It  had  been  the 
traditionary  policy  of  English  statesmen  to  embroil 
France  with  Spain,  and  to  make  their  own  market  out 
of  the  discord  of  their  rivals.  Catherine  de  Medici 
naturally  feared  that  Elizabeth  would  '  leave  her  in  the 
briars,'  or  perhaps  purchase  back  Spanish  friendship  by 
turning  against  her,  unless  Elizabeth  had  given  securi- 
ties for  her  good  faith. 

Nevertheless  it  appeared  on  the  surface  as  if  Cathe- 
rine and  Charles  were  willing  to  venture  the  experiment. 
The  King  desired  Walsingham  to  acquaint  his  mistress 
with  Count  Louis's  proposal.  '  If  she,  being  Lady  of 
the  Narrow  Seas,'  would  go  along  with  him,  Charles 
offered  to  take  his  share  of  the  enterprise,  and  to  make 

VOL.   IX.  31 


4*2 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


[CH.  56. 


a  league  with  England  for  the  liberation  of  the  Nether- 
lands. '  It  would  be  as  much  honour  to  Elizabeth/  he 
said,  '  to  unite  Zealand  to  the  English  Crown,  as  the  loss 
of  Calais  had  been  shame  to  her  sister.'1  There  was  no 
reason  to  suppose  Charles  insincere.  The  Admiral  was 
invited  to  the  Court.  The  ships  of  the  Prince  of  Orange" 
were  entertained  at  Rochelle.  When  the  Spaniards 
complained,  the  King  replied  that  the  Prince  of  Orange 
was  a  Prince  of  the  Empire,  and  could  not  be  denied 
the  use  of  the  ports  of  France  ;  Count  Louis  was  neither 
subject  nor  pensioner  of  Spain,  and  the  Catholic  King 
should  not  think  he  could  give  laws  to  other  countries 
than  his  own.2  'The  Queen-mother/  said  Walsing- 
ham,  '  is  incensed  against  Spain,  being  persuaded  that 
her  daughter  was  poisoned/ 

The  ambassador  however  was  obliged  to  admit  that 
his  own  expectations  were  not  shared  by  every  one.3 
France  feared  that  England  would  go  over  to  Spain. 
It  was  equally  possible  that  the  Catholics  might  recover 
their  ascendency  at  the  Louvre,  and  England  might  be 
left  to  fight  out,  single-handed,  a  quarrel  which  it  had 
entered  at  the  side  of  France.  To  Cecil  as  well  as  to 
Catherine  the  failure  of  the  marriage  seemed  fatal  to 
an  aggressive  policy.  Zealand  and  Holland  might  be- 


1  Walsingham  to  Cecil,  August 
12  :  MS8.  DIGGES. 

2  Ibid. 

8  'Some,'  he  wrote,  'do  judge 
these  things  only  to  be  colours  and 
to  tend  to  some  dangerous  issue :  but 
they  that  think  so  have  nothing  but 


jealousy  for  ground.  The  Admiral 
himself  believing  that  good  may 
come  of  his  access  means  to  proceed, 
laying  all  fear  aside,  and  to  commit 
himself  to  God's  protection.' — "Wal- 
singhamto  Cecil,  August  12  :  MSS. 
France. 


I57J-]  THE  R1DOLFI  CONSPIRACY.  483 

coine  English  provinces,  but  they  would  probably  be 
purchased  by  the  loss  of  Ireland ;  it  was  folly  to  risk  a 
kingdom  in  possession  in  seeking  other  countries  by 
conquest ; l  and  the  loss  of  Ireland  might  prove,  '  in 
the  end,  the  loss  of  all  else,'  for  Spain  would  then  ac- 
quire the  command  of  the  sea.  '  When  England  and 
Spain  were  enemies,  France  might  be  accorded  with 
Spain  by  practice  of  the  Pope,  and  on  small  quarrel, 
fall  off  from  England/2  The  English  share  of  the 
war  would  be  chiefly  naval,  '  and  the  loss  of  men 
and  ships  by  tempest,  shot,  and  fire  would  be  most 
costly/ 3 

So  thought  Cecil,  having  lost  heart  from  his  mis- 
tress's inconstancy.  If  the  French  would  be  content 
with  a  defensive  alliance,  in  which  the  German  princes 
were  comprehended,  each  power  to  assist  the  rest  in  case 
of  invasion,  that  would  be  most  welcome — but  he  feared 
that  their  disappointment  would  not  incline  them  to  so 
mild  a  policy.  They  would  make  a  league  if  England 
would  go  along  with  them  in  a  war  of  conquest.  Other- 
wise, it  was  too  likely  that  they  would  change  their 
front  and  fall  back  on  Spain.4 

Walsingham,  in  Paris,  where  he  was  in  daily  inter- 
course with  the  Huguenot  leaders,  viewed  the  situation 
more  hopefully.  He  thought  that  whatever  Elizabeth 
might  do  or  forbear  to  do,  war  between  England  and 
Spain  was  surely  approaching ;  and  being  so,  it  would 


1  Objections  to  the  league  with  France,  August  22,  Cecil's  hand: 
MSS.  France. 

2  Ibid.  »  Ibid.  4  Ibid. 


484  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  56. 

be  better,  on  all  accounts,  to  give  it  at  once  the  com- 
plexion of  a  war  of  liberation.  When  the  fighting  was 
once  begun,  he  assured  himself  that  the  pride  of  France 
would  be  roused,  and  the  Huguenots  would  be  strong 
enough  to  prevent  the  desertion  which  Cecil  anticipated. 
*  Another  dangerous  sore/  he  said,  '  would  be  remedied 
also ; '  for  France,  in  return  for  the  alliance,  would 
abandon  once  for  all  the  cause  of  the  Queen  of  Scots. 
Members  of  the  French  council,  in  conversation  with 
him  on  the  subject,  had  confessed  '  that  Mary  Stuart 
had  made  herself  unworthy  of  government;'  that 
Elizabeth  '  had  shown  rare  favour  to  her ; '  '  that  their 
King  for  the  future  would  forbear  to  recommend  her ; ' 
and  that  in  fact,  'his  former  recommendation  of  her 
cause  proceeded  rather  for  manners'  sake  to  content 
others  than  of  affection  of  his  own,  being  by  him 
thought  guilty  of  so  horrible  crimes/1  If,  on  the  other 
hand,  '  the  league  went  not  forward/  the  reconciliation 
of  Spain  and  France  'would  come  about  another  way;' 
the  toleration  edicts  would  not  be  observed ;  '  religion 
would  be  clean  overthrown  ; '  '  the  House  of  Guise  would 
bear  the  sway,  who  would  be  as  forward  in  preferring 
the  conquest  of  Ireland,  and  the  advancement  of  their 
niece  to  the  crown  of  England,  as  the  other  side  was 
bent  to  prefer  the  conquest  of  Flanders.'2 

The  arguments  were  evenly  balanced ;  but  in  Cecil's 
mind  the  prospect  every  way  was  almost  desperate- 
desperate,  not  through  its  inherent  difficulty,  but  from 

1  Walsingham  to  Cecil,  August  3 :  MSS.  France. 
2  Walsiugham  to  Cecil,  September  26 :  MSS.  France. 


I57L] 


THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY. 


485 


the  combination  of  obstinacy  and  vacillation  in  the 
Queen,  who  was  at  once  determined  to  go  her  own  way 
and  unable  to  decide  which  way  she  wished  to  go.  He 
had  exhausted  his  powers  of  persuasion  and  remonstrance. 
He  could  now  but  stand  by,  as  he  said,  and  wait  for  the 
visitation  of  the  Almighty. 

It  is  remarkable  that  while  the  public  policy  of  the 
English  Government  was  so  uncertain,  while  Elizabeth 
believed  it  possible  to  recover  Philip's  friendship,  and 
Cecil  believed  that  if  England  abstained  from  meddling 
with  the  Low  Countries  she  might  perhaps  escape 
being  assailed  at  home  or  in  Ireland,  the  provocations 
of  the  privateers  in  the  Channel  continued  unchecked, 
and  were  allowed  to  assume  proportions  which  would 
be  incredible  but  for  the  evidence  on  which  they  rest. 
In  the  spring  of  the  year  the  Prince  of  Orange's  fleet, 
under  Brederode  and  de  la  Mark,  came  down  into  Dover 
roads.  There,  joined  by  their  English  consorts,  they 
held  complete  command  of  the  Straits.  Every  Spanish 
vessel  which  attempted  to  pass  was  pursued  and  usually 
caught ;  a  market  was  held  in  Dover  for  the  sale  of  the 
cargoes,  while  some  of  the  more  daring  cruisers  would 
harass  the  Spanish  coast,  pillaging  churches  and  con- 
vents, depreciating  the  price  of  silver  by  the  quantities 
which  they  captured,  and  at  their  banquets,  when  they 
came  back  in  triumph,  drinking  success  to  piracy  from 
the  consecrated  vessels.1 


1  '  Es  tanto  el  robo  que  truxeron 
ahora  que  la  plata  de  Iglesias  no  se 
vendia  sino  a  einco  sueldos  la  onga, 


y  con  los  Calices  se  brindaban  en 
Dobra  unos  d  otros  '  (underlined  by 
Philip). —Don  Guerau  to  the  King 


486 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


Alva  sent  an  armed  squadron  from  Ant] 
out  this  nest  of  hornets.  Brederode  risked  an  engage- 
ment, but  getting  the  worst  of  it,  he  drew  in  under 
the  cliffs,  and  the  English  shore  batteries  opened  upon 
the  Spaniards,  cut  them  up  and  drove  them  off  to  sea.1 
Don  Guerau  complained,  and  demanded  the  punishment 
of  the  officers  in  command.  He  was  referred  in  answer 
to  the  example  of  Don  Alvarez  at  Gibraltar,  and  was 
told  that  the  English  waters  were  a  sanctuary.2  The 
Spanish  ships  had  suffered  too  severely  to  lie  at  sea 
upon  the  watch.  They  retired,  with  Brederode  and  La 
Mark  hanging  in  their  rear,  cutting  off  the  stragglers 
which  had  been  lamed  by  the  English  shot ;  and  the  next' 
news  which  came  to  London  were  that,  not  content 
with  selling  their  cargoes,  they  were  selling  their  pri- 
soners, like  the  Algerine  corsairs,  for  the  chance  of  the 
ransom  which  they  would  fetch.  The  extraordinary 
spectacle  was  actually  witnessed,  of  Spanish  gentlemen 
being  disposed  of  openly  in  Dover  market  at  a  hundred 
pounds  a  piece,  and  being  kept  in  irons  at  the  court- 
house till  their  friends  could  purchase  their  liberty.3 


of  Spain,  April  15,  1571  ;  DoA 
Guerau  to  Alva,  April  23  :  MSS. 
Simancas. 

1  '  Navi  jam  una  ex  piraticis 
capta,  reliquis  consternatis,  subito 
prseter  spem  ex  Doverensi  arce 
m  imitionibusque  vicinis  magna  pi- 
larum  procella  tormentis  continenter 
emissa  nostram  classem  dissipavit 
magno  accepto  incommodo. ' — Don 
Guerau  to  Burghley,  August  19. 
MSS.  Spain. 


2  Don  Guerau  to  Philip,  August 
23 :  MSS.  Simancas. 

3  This  remarkable  story  rests  on 
the  apparently  sufficient  authority  of 
a  complaint  addressed  by  the  Span- 
ish ambassador  to  Burghley.     The 
charge  was  openly  brought  and  was 
never,  so  far  as  I  can  learn,  denied. 
It  will  be  seen  that  I  have  not  over- 
stated the  purport  of  Don  Guerau's 
words : — 

'Mitto  ad  Dominationem  tuam 


TPIE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY. 


487 


It  required  no  small  audacity  on  the  part 
of  Elizabeth,  when  her  harbours  were  the 
scene  of  outrages  so  unparalleled,  to  send  a  minister  to 
Madrid  to  settle  her  differences  with  Philip.  She  cal- 
culated however  on  the  notoriously  extreme  reluctance 
of  the  King  of  Spain  to  quarrel  with  her.  The  un- 
licensed violences  of  her  subjects,  if  he  was  without  the 
courage  to  resent  them,  might  increase  his  anxiety  for  a 
better  understanding  with  her ;  and  she  probably  ex- 
pected that  Philip  would  submit  to  any  conditions  which 
she  might  please  to  dictate.  She  was  herself  uneasy  at 
the  possible  consequences  of  her  behaviour  to  France. 
She  trusted  perhaps  to  Philip's  alarm  at  the  report  of 
her  intended  marriage,  and  she  may  have  hoped  that  he 
would  meet  her  overtures  with  an  open  hand.  In  ful- 
filment therefore  of  her  promises  to  Alva,  she  commis- 
sioned Sir  Henry  Cobham  to  the  Spanish  Court  in  the 
spring,  and  he  arrived  there  just  after  Philip  had 
received  the  Duke  of  Alva's  letter,  and  was  told  to  expect 
the  coming  of  Ridolfi. 

The  first  impression  of  the  King  when  he  heard  that 
an  English  envoy  was  coming,  was  much  what  Eliza- 


domesticum  meum,  ut  te  certiorem 
reddat  de  rebus  quse  fcede  admodum 
Dovevi  aguntur,  ubi  prostant  publice 
prsedao  piraticse  venales,  hominesque 
ctiam  nostri  a  latronibus  capti  ven- 
duntur,  neque  vili  valde  pretio.  Ad 
centum  enimlibrarumsummamunus 
et  alter  censi  fuere,  plurimique  etiam 
ex  his  captivis  apud  Baillivium  Do- 
vercnsem  in  vinculis  asservantur,  in- 


terim piratis  et  Serenissimse  Reginae 
magistratibus  de  illorum  redemptione 
agentibus.  Tanta  est  autem  illic 
tarn  mercium  captarum  quam  homi- 
num  auctio  ut  nullum  possit  esse 
aliud  magis  piratarum  emporium  in 
tota  EuropaV  —  Don  Guerati  to 
Burghley,  September  12 :  MSS. 
Spain. 


488  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  56. 

beth  expected  :  the  pirates  on  one  side,  and  the  support 
continually  given  to  the  Prince  of  Orange  by  the  Flem- 
ish refugees  who  had  found  an  asylum  in  England,  had 
troubled  his  peace  of  mind.  He  had  been  taught  by 
Alva  to,  distrust  the  resources  of  the  English  Catholics, 
and  he  was  ready  to  endure  considerable  humiliation  if 
he  could  be  relieved  at  once  of  a  source  of  perpetual  un- 
easiness and  danger.  His  father's  last  advice  to  him 
had  been  to  hold  fast  by  the  English  alliance ;  and  Eng- 
land whether  Protestant  or  Catholic,  was  of  equal  politi- 
cal importance  to  him. 

The  endurance  of  his  subjects  however  had  been  ex- 
hausted, if  Philip  himself  continued  patient.  On  the 
appearance  of  Cobham  a  memorial  was  presented  to  the 
King  by  the  Spanish  merchants,  setting  forth  that,  be- 
sides the  losses  which  they  were  daily  experiencing  from 
the  pirates,  the  property  already  taken  from  them  by 
the  English  privateers  amounted  to  more  than  three 
millions.1  As  the  flag  of  Spain  was  no  longer  a  pro- 
tection to  them,  they  said  that  they  must  decline  for  the 
future  to  fulfil  their  contracts  with  his  Majesty,  or  make 
themselves  responsible  for  the  transport  of  further  money 
or  stores  to  the  army  in  Flanders.2 

The  remonstrance  of  the  merchants  was  followed  by 
a  remarkable  letter  from  the  Duke  of  Feria.  to  Philip's 
secretary,  written  no  doubt  for  the  King  to  see,  but 
without  the  constraint  which  must  have  been  imposed 
upon  his  pen  had  he  addressed  himself  to  Philip  directly 

1  3,000,000  ducats.  J  Madrid  to  the  King  of  Spain,  April 

1<!  Address  of  the   merchants  at  I  28 :  MSS.  Simancas. 


I571-]  THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY.  489 

De  Feria,  with  his  English  wife,  his  English  friends, 
and  his  English  experience,  believed  himself  qualified  to 
speak  with  authority.  He  had  seen  Cobham,  and  had 
heard  what  he  had  to  say.  His  opinion  of  the  situation 
he  expressed  thus : — 

THE    DUKE    OF    FERIA.    TO    CAY  AS.1 

'May  io. 

'  We  propose,  I  am  told,  to  keep  on  terms  of  friend- 
ship with  England ;  because  to  make  ourselves  complete 
nasters  of  that  country  and  of  Ireland  is  not  immedi- 
ately practicable.  If  the  Sovereign  of  England  is  not  a 
Catholic,  it  will  be  very  difficult  for  us  to  maintain  that 
friendship ;  and  yet,  without  it,  we  are  unable  to  keep 
our  hold  upon  the  Low  Countries.  The  Queen  has 
found  us  timid,  and  she  now  thinks  to  frighten  us  by 
pretending  that  she  will  marry  with  France.  She  will 
no  more  marry  with  France  than  she  will  marry  me. 
She  is  no  more  young,  she  has  no  strength  to  bear 
children,  and  she  cannot  live  much  longer.  She  is 
loathed  by  the  nobility.  She  persecutes  the  Catholics, 
and  she  closes  her  ports  to  prevent  them  from  leaving 
the  realm ;  but  for  all  this  she  has  failed  to  break  their 
spirit.  They  are  stronger  than  ever,  and  she  knows  it. 
That  France  and  England  can  become  friends  is  most 
unlikely.  The  two  nations  instinctively  hate  each  other, 
and  the  two  Queens  can  never  trust  one  another.  Against 
us,  on  the  other  hand,  they  have  no  natural  enmity ; 


1  M8S.  Sitnancas. 


490  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  56 

our  relations  with  them  have  been  uniformly  good,  and 
commerce  with  Spain  and  the  Netherlands  has  been 
most  profitable  to  them,  while  the  French  have  not  a 
friend  in  the  realm.  The  whole  Catholic  party  are  on 
our  side,  consisting  as  it  does  of  all  the  greatest  families. 
If  we  do  not  help  them  in  their  need,  we  shall  offend 
God,  and  we  shall  leave  the  country  to  the  heretics. 
The  Queen  is  only  prevented  from  making  open  war 
upon  us  by  the  want  of  men  and  money ;  and  if  Cob- 
ham  is  not  now  sent  away  with  an  answer  of  becoming 
spirit,  an  attempt  to  conciliate  her  will  only  involve  us 
in  fresh  troubles,  and  we  shall  have  ruined  the  Catholics, 
even  while  they  have  arms  in  their  hands  to  help  them- 
selves and  us.  Let  the  Queen  know  that  our  King 
undertakes  to  protect  her  Catholic  subjects  :  I  warrant 
she  will  no  more  ill  use  them,  and  there  is  no  other  way 
out  of  our  present  difficulties.  For  two  years  now  we 
have  been  taking  the  coward's  road,  we  have  found  it  a 
dirty  one,  and  it  is  time  for  us  to  try  another.  ISTo  one 
has  a  better  right  than  I  to  speak  of  this  matter :  I  have 
had  much  to  do  with  the  English,  I  know  the  Queen,  I 
know  her  ministers,  I  know  their  ways  and  their  resources, 
and  I  cannot  conceive  for  what  reason  we  are  so  need- 
lessly hesitating.1  Cobham  called  on  me  the  morning 
on  which  he  arrived.  He  brought  me  most  loving  mes- 
sages from  the  Queen,  and  remained  some  time  with  me. 

1  De  Feria's  effective  metaphor  I  no    longer  in   use  in   Spanish.     It 


does  not  bear  a  closer  translation. 
His  words  arc  : 

*  No  se  porque  nos  meamos  en  el 
vado  tan  sin  porque.' 

The  phrase  '  mear  eu  el  vacio  '  is 


means  however  obviously  that  the 
ford  of  a  river  is  no  place  to  stop  in 
for  purposes  which  can  be  attended 
to  elsewhere. 


157 1.]  THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY.  491 

But  I  could  get  nothing  from  him  of  any  consequence, 
except  entreaties  that  I  would  exert  myself  for  the  re- 
storation of  trade.  He  left  me  more  assured  than  ever 
that  this  is  not  the  time  for  us  to  turn  our  backs  upon 
the  Catholics.  If  we  are  not  prompt  in  moving  we 
shall  find  ourselves  in  a  dilemma  from  which  there  will 
be  no  escape.  Tell  the  Lords  of  the  council  from  me, 
to  be  careful  what  they  do  or  say.' 

The  English  envoy  seems  to  have  been  wholly  unpre- 
pared for  the  temper  with  which  his  arrival  was  re- 
ceived. The  Spanish  Government  considered  themselves 
beyond  comparison  the  party  most  aggrieved.  Cobham 
presented  himself  merely  with  a  list  of  complaints  against 
Philip  and  his  ministers.  The  Queen,  he  said,  had  desired 
above  all  things  to  remain  on  good  terms  with  Spain. 
The  Duke  of  Alva,  without  the  smallest  provocation,  had 
arrested  the  English  ships  and  goods  in  the  harbours  of 
the  Low  Countries.  He  had  since  attempted  to  arrange 
the  quarrel,  but  his  proposals  had  been  such  as  the 
Queen  could  not  honourably  accept;  and  meanwhile, 
both  at  Madrid  and  at  Brussels,  English  traitors  were 
received  with  open  arms,  and  treated  with  marked  con- 
sideration. He  was  directed  by  his  mistress  to  say,  that 
she  declined  to  correspond  with  the  Duke  of  Alva  any 
longer  on  these  subjects.  She  requested  his  Majesty 
to  discuss  them  immediately  with  herself.  If  his  Ma- 
jesty would  banish  Sir  Thomas  Stukely  from  Spain,1  and 
if  he  would  send  orders  to  Flanders  for  the  immediate 

1  Stukely's  story  will  be  told  I  land  to  ask  for  help  in  an  intended 
hereafter.  He  had  come  from  Ire-  I  insurrection  there. 


492  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  56 

dismissal  of  the  refugees,  the  differences  between  the 
two  countries  could  be  satisfactorily  adjusted,  and  the 
arrested  property  on  both  sides  be  restored. 

Elizabeth  as  the  wife  of  the  Duke  of  Anjou  might 
have  held  this  language  with  success.  Resting  as  it 
did  upon  a  mere  threat  of  a  marriage  which  no  one  out 
of  England  expected  to  see  fulfilled,  and  coming  simul- 
taneously with  an  offer  which  promised  to  place  Eliza- 
beth and  her  throne  at  Philip's  mercy,  the  insolence  of 
it  was  too  much  for  the  already  sorely  tried  Castilians. 
The  sluggish  blood  of  the  King  himself  ran  quicker  in 
his  veins  when  he  was  required  to  refuse  even  common 
hospitality  to  the  Catholic  exiles. 

The  council  sat  for  a  week  to  consider  their  reply. 
Their  discussions  were  submitted  day  after  day  to  the 
King,  and  returned  with  his  comments  on  the  margin. 
Their  resolution  shaped  itself  at  last  into  the  following 
form : — 

'  The  envoy  had  come  to  treat  with  the  King  in 
person.  The  King  should  decline  to  hear  or  speak  with 
him  on  any  public  matter.  The  envoy  should  be  in- 
formed privately  that  his  complaints  and  demands  were 
alike  preposterous.  The  disputes  had  notoriously  com- 
menced in  the  seizure  of  the  Spanish  treasure ;  and 
while  the  English  harbours  were  dens  of  pirates  from 
which  the  King's  revolted  subjects  preyed  upon  his 
commerce,  while  the  crews  were  recruited  from  English 
subjects,  and  guns  and  powder  supplied  to  them  from 
English  arsenals,  to  make  a  grievance  of  the  residence 
of  a  few  persecuted  Catholics  in  the  King's  dominions 
was  intolerably  monstrous.' 


I57I-]  THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY.  493 

This,  and  this  alone,  ought,  in  the  opinion  of  the 
council,  to  be  the  answer  of  the  Spanish  Government, 
and  Philip  at  first  wished  to  dismiss  the  envoy  from 
the  Court  without  so  much  as  admitting  him  to  his 
presence.  When  he  consented  at  last  to  grant  him  an 
interview,  it  was  to  make  the  permission  more  insulting 
than  a  refusal.  He  was  at  the  Palace  of  Aranjuez, 
thirty  miles  from  Madrid.  Cobham  went  down  there, 
and  the  King  saw  him  for  a  few  minutes  only ;  the 
common  form?  of  hospitality  were  not  extended  to  him ; 
he  was  left  to  dine  at  an  inn,  and  returned  to  the 
capital  the  same  evening.  The  council  thought  that 
for  the  King's  credit  some  small  present  might  be 
given  to  him ;  there  was  no  precedent  for  the  reception 
of  an  ambassador  and  his  departure  empty-handed. 
But  Philip,  being  once  launched  upon  the  bold  course, 
was  more  bitter  than  his  advisers.  '  Presents/  wrote 
the  King  in  a  side-note,  'are  given  to  envoys  when 
they  come  on  a  mission  of  goodwill,  and  they  are 
given  when  they  come  to  declare  war.  But  this  man 
comes  merely  to  threaten  and  terrify  us.  If  we  bestow 
a  present  on  him  he  will  boast  of  it,  we  shall  dispirit 
the  Catholics,  and  inflate  the  heretics  with  the  belief 
that  we  are  afraid.' l 

De  Feria  in  the  character  of  an  acquaint- 

June. 
ance  delivered  the  private  message..    Cobham 

tried  to  argue  that  Alva  had  been  the  aggressor  ;  but 
De  Feria  cut  him  short  with  saying,  that  he  was  sorry 


1  '  Lo  quo  parece  sabre  el  negocio  de  Cobham.' — Aranjuez,  Mayo  14  e 
19 :  MS 8.  Simancas. 


494 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


[CH. 


to  hear  an  English  ambassador  condescend  to  falsehoods. 
Cobham  asked  for  the  answer  in  writing,  but  lie 
could  not  have  it,  and  he  was  then  sent  for  by  the 
council. 

Spinosa,  the  Cardinal  President,  made  a  difficulty 
in  addressing  a  heretic,  and  would  have  transferred  the 
duty  to  a  lay  member  of  the  Cabinet.  The  words  how- 
ever it  was  thought  would  come  with  more  imposing 
effect  from  one  who  might  be  supposed  to  speak  in  the 
name  of  God  as  well  as  of  man.  The  Cardinal  there- 
fore swallowed  his  scruples,  and  thus  delivered  the 
reply  of  Spain  to  the  Queen  of  England : — 

'  If  that  Queen  would  fulfil  the  office  of  a  good 
neighbour  and  friend,  his  Majesty  had  given  proofs 
already  that  he  would  not  on  his  part  be  found  want- 
ing towards  her.  It  would  please  him  much  if  the 
differences  between  the  two  countries  could  be  com- 
pounded, and  as  a  step  towards  it  his  Majesty  trusted 
that  the  Queen  of  England  would  at  once  restore  the 
Spanish  treasure.  The  details  of  the  negotiation  how- 
ever were  committed  to  the  management  of  the  Duke 
of  Alva,  and  to  him  she  was  referred.' 1 

With  this  answer  and  without  his  present  Sir  Henry 
Cobham  returned  to  England,  sick  at  heart  with  the 
same  fears  which  haunted  Cecil,  and  little  dreaming 
then  how  soon  he  would  again  be  at  Madrid  with  the 
same  message,  to  find  the  note  of  defiance  dying  away 
in  prostration  and  humility. 


1  '  Lo  que  parece  se   debe  re- 
sponder  &  Enrique  Cobham  de  pala- 


bra,    y  ninguna   cosa  por   scripto. 
Mayo,  1571.'— MSS.  Simancas. 


157I-J  THE  RIDOLFi  CONSPIRACY.  49$ 

The  Spanish  ambassador  chuckled  over  the  dismay 
with  which  the  news  of  his  failure  was  received.  *  My 
Lord  Burghley's  burlesques/  l  he  said,  '  had  gone  off  so 
well  hitherto  that  he  despised  danger  and  thought  that 
he  had  taken  a  bond  of  fortune.  He  with  his  friends 
had  made  a  jest  of  our  endurance.  His  conscience 
stings  him  now,  but  his  malice  is  inveterate.  He  is 
given  over  to  reprobate  courses  and  cannot  turn  to  any 
good.  His  Majesty  is  wise  and  will  provide  against 
their  tricks,  though  to  see  through  them  he  requires 
more  eyes  than  Argus.  I  will  do  my  part  to  make 
him  respected,  as  the  great  Prince  which  he  is,  both  by 
friends  and  enemies  :  but  we  must  dissemble  and  be  as 
Proteus,  and  hide  our  purposes,  and  they  shall  pay  for 
their  iniquities  at  last  as  they  deserve.  The  audacity 
of  Burghley  in  sending  Cobham  with  such  a  message 
was  indeed  marvellous  ;  but  knowing  them  as  I  do,  I 
am  surprised  at  nothing.  We  must  provide  in  time. 
If  this  French  marriage  or  league,  or  both  together, 
come  about,  they  can  do  us  harm  in  the  Provinces,  but 
as  certainly  we  can  make  a  revolution  in  England ;  and 
I  have  no  fear,  if  we  are  only  prompt  enough  and  do 
not  allow  this  French  business  to  consolidate  itself.  It 
need  seem  no  work  of  ours,  but  merely  a  rebellion  in 
which  we  may  be  called  in  to  assist ;  and  before  the 
summer  is  over  we  can  transfer  to  their  own  island  the 
mischief  which  they  tried  to  work  in  Flanders/  2 


1  The  pun  is  Don  Guerau's.  'Y 
como  a  Milord  Burghley  todas  las 
burlas  hasta  aqui  le  han  salido  bien,' 


&c. — Don   Guerau  to  Cayas,   July 
12  :  MSS.  Simancas. 

2  Don  Guerau  to  Cayas,  July  12 


496 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


[CH.  56 


Once  more  we  go  back  to  Ridolfi,  who,  leaving  Alva, 
made  his  way  with  all  speed  to  Home.  His  commission 
was  duly  delivered,  and  the  Pope,  the  Cardinals,  and 
Don  Juan  de  Cuniga  sat  in  conclave  upon  it.  Pius 
himself  was  in  ecstasies,  eager  to  begin,  and  seeing 
nothing  but  the  bright  side  of  the  prospect.  Don  Juan 
attempted  to  moderate  his  transports  by  pointing  to 
France ;  but  the  Pope  would  listen  to  nothing.  As 
Christ's  vicar  he  was  in  the  secrets  of  Providence,  and 
he  answered  '  that  God  would  manage  it.'  This  convic- 
tion Don  Juan  could  not  interfere  with.  He  contented 
himself  with  advising  caution  and  with  sending  a  careful 
account  of  Bidolfi's  reception  to  his  master :  one  curious 
point  only  he  was  able  to  mention,  .which  it  seems 
Eidolfi  had  told  him.  There  was  no  hope  that  the 
Spanish  property  detained  in  England  could  be  recovered 
by  treaty,  for  not  only  those  who  had  prompted  the 
seizure  of  the  treasure  were  unwilling  to  part  with  it, 
but  the  Catholics  and  the  Queen  of  Scots  intended  to 
support  them  in  their  refusal,  that  they  might  compel 
Spain  to  go  to  war.1 

But  Philip  now  required  no  additional  pressing. 
After  dismissing  Cobham  he  was  only  eager  for  Ei- 
dolfi's  coming.  He  had  learned  from  England  that  the 
Government  was  alarmed,  and  he  was  uneasy  at  delay 
as  giving  Elizabeth  time  to  prepare — time  perhaps  to 
marry  Anjou,  or,  still  worse,  time  to  make  discoveries 
which  might  cost  Norfolk  and  the  Queen  of  Scots  their 


and  July  19,  abridged  :  MSS.  Si- 
inancas. 


1  Don  Juan  de  Cuniga  to  Philip, 
May  ii  and  17  :  MSS.  Simancas. 


1571-1  THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY.  497 

heads,1  The  same  misgiving  crossed  his  mind  at  first 
which  had  occurred  to  Alva,  that  Ridolfi  might  at 
bottom  be  an  agent  of  Cecil ;  but  it  passed  off ;  Don 
Guerau's  letter  satisfied  him  that  on  this  ground  there 
was  nothing  to  fear. 

At  length,  the  closing  week  of  June,  Ridolfi  came. 
'  He  has  arrived  at  last/  wrote  Philip,  giving  an  account 
to  Don  Guerau  of  his  appearance.  'I  have  received 
your  letter  with  those  also  from  the  Queen  of  Scots 
and  the  Duke  of  Norfolk.  Eidolfi  has  brought  me 
also  a  note  from  his  Holiness.  I  am  most  anxious  to 
do  something,  not  for  any  object  of  my  own  or  for  any 
human  interest,  but  merely  and  simply  for  God's  glory. 
What  I  can  and  ought  to  do  shall  be  done,  and  I  shall 
now  decide  what  it  is  to  be.  You  will  say  thus  much 
from  me  to  the  Catholics,  and  bid  them  be  secret  and 
quiet.  Oppressed  and  ill-treated  as  they  have  been,  they 
may  possibly  be  too  precipitate  in  their  thirst  for  venge- 
ance and  may  move  before  the  time.  Tell  them  that 
of  all  things  they  must  keep  still  till  our  preparations 
are  complete  ;  if  not,  they  may  share  the  fate  of  the  two 
Earls  ;  their  cause  will  be  lost,  the  Queen  of  Scots  will 
be  put  to  death,  and  all  the  other  misfortunes  which 
they  can  easily  imagine  will  follow.  I  have  sent  a 
courier  to  the  Duke  of  Alva  to  desire  him  at  once  to 
place  himself  in  communication  with  you,  and  to  direct 
you  from  time  to  time  how  you  are  to  conduct  yourself.'2 

To  resolve  to  do  something  was  by  no  means  the 

1  Philip  II.  to  Don  Guerau,  June  20 :  MSS.  Simancas. 

2  Philip  II.  to  Don  Guerau,  July  13. 
VOL.  ix.  32 


498  REIGN  OF  ELfZABETH.  [CH.  56. 

same  as  to  resolve  what  to  do.  Alva,  it  was  seen, 
disapproved  Eidolfi's  method,  briefly  indicating  another 
of  his  own ;  and  in  the  council  chamber  at  Madrid,  to 
which  Philip  returned  from  Aranjuez  in  the  beginning 
of  July,  there  was  held  a  remarkable  discussion,  the 
notes  of  which  were  preserved,  though  not  intended  for 
the  curious  eyes  of  mankind — a  discussion  first  on  the 
fitness,  and  then  on  the  feasibility,  of  murdering  the 
Queen  of  England. 

The  assassination  of  political  enemies  has  an  ugly 
sound,  and  in  later  and  calmer  times  men  of  all  beliefs  and 
parties  have  agreed  in  one  opinion  about  it  Yet,  in  the 
first  place,  it  does  not  differ  so  very  widely  from  a  practice 
still  in  use  in  our  dependencies,  of  offering  a  reward  for 
the  body  of  troublesome  persons,  whether  quick  or  dead  ; 
and  secondly,  in  that  passionate  1 6th  century  it  was  not 
peculiar  to  creed  or  nation.  Catholics  profess  abhor- 
rence of  the  murder  of  Beton  in  Scotland.  Protestants 
retort  with  effect  by  pointing  to  the  Regent  Murray,  the 
Prince  of  Orange,  and  the  black  butchery  of  St  Bar- 
tholomew. But  both  Protestants  and  Catholics  might 
well  drop  their  mutual  reproaches  ;  their  sin  was  the 
sin  of  their  age,  the  natural  refuge  of  men  who  were 
driven  desperate  by  difficulties  which  fair  means  would 
not  clear  away  for  them.  Lord  Sussex,  in  Ireland, 
would  have  murdered  Shan  O'JNeil.  Cecil,  a  few  pages 
back,  was  seen  treating  with  some  villain  for  the  death 
of  the  Earl  of  Westmoreland:  In  this  meeting  of 
Philip's  Cabinet  there  was  the  most  profound  impression 
that  they  could  invite  the  blessing  of  God  upon  the 


IS 7 1-]  THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY.  499 

execution  of  Elizabeth — that,  on  the  whole,  God  would 
look  upon  it  with  decided  approbation.  There  were 
present,  Cardinal  Spinosa,  Ruy  Gomez,  famous  after- 
wards as  the  Prince  of  Eboli,  the  Papal  Nuncio,  the 
Grand  Prior,  Alva's  son,  Bon  Ferdinand  of  Toledo,  and 
the  Duke  of  Feria.  Chapin  Vitelli  had  come  across 
from  Flanders  to  attend  the  council,  with  a  purpose 
presently  to  be  seen.  The  account  of  what  passed  is 
compendious — taken  down,  apparently,  in  shorthand — 
in  some  places  confused,  in  others  imperfect.  The 
general  drift  however  is  intelligible,  with  some  notice- 
able details. 

On  the  essential  desirableness  of  inter- 
fering, and  interfering  promptly,  in  England, 
the  whole  Cabinet  was  agreed.  The  cause  was  the  cause 
of  God,  and  the  King  of  Spain  was  the  person  on  whom 
the  duty  manifestly  devolved.  The  Catholic  party  was 
wearing  away.  It  would  never  «be  stronger  than  it  was 
at  that  moment.  If  the  Catholic  Powers  hung  back,  it 
would  lose  heart  and  dissolve.  The  Queen  of  England 
might  marry  the  French  Prince,  and  heresy  would  be- 
come too  powerful  throughout  Europe  to  be  afterwards 
put  down.  The  broad  principle  was  plain ;  the  details 
were  less  easy  to  settle.  Alva,  who  was  supposed  to 
have  crushed  the  rebellion  in  the  Low  Countries,  had 
long  solicited  his  recall,  preferring  to  leave  to  other 
hands  the  work  of  reconstruction  and  reconciliation. 
The  Duke  of  Medina  Celi  had  been  chosen  for  his  suc- 
cessor ;  but  with  the  usual  slowness  of  Spanish  move- 
ments, the  preparations  for  the  change  were  still  incom- 


5oo  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  56. 

plete.  It  was  thought  however  that  with  an  effort  the 
intended  arrangements  could  be  hurried  forward.  It 
could  be  represented  that  Alva's  troops  required  to  be 
relieved,  as  well  as  their  general,  and  without  exciting 
a  suspicion  a  second  army  and  a  large  fleet  could  then 
be  collected,  under  pretence  of  accompanying  the  new 
Viceroy.  The  army  in  the  Netherlands,  in  the  same 
way,  could  be  marched  to  the  ports,  as  if  to  embark  for 
Spain ;  and  the  money  for  the  English  campaign  could 
be  provided,  p,lso,  as  if  for  the  necessities  of  the  Brussels 
treasury.  So  far  no  great  difficulty  was  anticipated. 
Twice  the  number  of  men  for  which  Norfolk  asked  could 
be  landed  in  England  with  ease  ;  but  the  question  next 
arose,  what  reason  they  were  to  allege  to  the  world  for 
their  appearance  there?  what  proclamation  were  the 
Spaniards  to  put  out  ?  what  were  they  to  announce  that 
they  were  come  to  do  ? 

The  Nuncio  at  onee  took  upon  himself  to  answer. 
Like  his  master,  he  made  light  of  difficulties.  He  be- 
lieved that  twelve  legions  of  angels  would  accompany 
the  expedition.  The  one  sufficient  pretext,  he  said,  was 
in  the  Bull  of  Excommunication.  The  Yicar  of  God 
had  deprived  Elizabeth  of  her  throne.  The  soldiers  of 
the  Church  were  the  instruments  of  his  decree,  and 
were  executing  the  sentence  of  Heaven  against  the 
heretical  tyrant. 

The  Spanish  ministers  were  loyal  members  of  Holy 
Church.  Alone  among  Christian  Sovereigns,  the  Span- 
ish King  had  upheld  in  the  Mediterranean  the  Cross 
against  the  Crescent,  and  was  still  performing,  single- 


I57I-3  THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY.  501 

handed,  the  duties  in  which  every  baptized  prince  had 
once  sought  and  claimed  his  share.  Philip  II.  was  the 
one  Crusader  that  survived  in  Europe ;  but  change  of 
times  had  not  left  even  Spain  untouched  by  the  modern 
spirit.  Popes  had  more  than  once  shifted  sides  in  the 
long  war  with  France,  and  an  unconditional  recognition 
of  their  claims  to  dispose  of  kingdoms  was  no  longer 
convenient.  The  border  could  not  be  denned  precisely 
of  that  cloudy  debateable  land  where  the  temporal  and 
spiritual  powers  passed  one  into  the  other  ;  but  the  Ca- 
tholic King  himself  could  not  allow  the  two  provinces 
to  be  co- extensive,  or  seem  to  sanction  the  pretensions 
of  the  Holy  See  to  depose  sovereigns  or  absolve  subjects 
from  their  allegiance.  The  Bull  had  been  issued  with- 
out Philip's  knowledge ;  it  had  not  yet  been  published 
in  Philip's  dominions ;  and,  as  the  Duke  of  Feria  ob- 
served, some  Pope  of  the  future  might  trouble  Spain 
with  similar  assumptions.1  Even  the  Cardinal  Spinosa 
preferred  national  to  ultramontane  interests,  and  the 
Nuncio's  proposal  was  politely  waived  on  the  plea  that 
it  would  needlessly  complicate  the  problem ;  that  it 
would  defeat  the  plan  of  the  Duke  of  Norfolk,  and  be 
a  signal  for  a  general  league  between  all  the  heretics  in 
the  world.  The  justification,  it  was  soon  concluded, 
should  and  could  be  only  the  Queen  of  Scots'  claim  on 
the  succession  to  the  crown,  which  the  Queen  of  Eng- 
land unjustly  refused  to  recognize.  Even  the  wrongs 
of  Spain  were  to  be  passed  over  in  silence.  The  King 

1  '  Peligroso  hacer  la  empresa  en  I  lo  de  adelante  vendria  otro  Papa  quo 
nombre  de  su  Saiitidad,  porque  para  |  quisiese  mezclarse  con  nosotros.' 


50^  REIGN'  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  56. 

should  appear  in  the  matter  solely  as  the  champion  of  a 
princess  who  was  injured  and  oppressed.  This  being 
determined,  the  next  point  was  the  time  and  manner  of 
the  invasion.  Should  Spain  begin  ?  or  should  the  Eng- 
lish Catholics  begin?  The  English  Catholics  wished 
to  see  Spain  commit  itself  before  they  ventured  another 
insurrection.  The  Duke  of  Alva  had  insisted  that  they 
should  first  'do  something  for  themselves,  and  the  Span- 
ish Cabinet  were  of  the  same  opinion.  Bidolfi,  who 
was  admitted  to  the  council,  reproduced  the  scheme 
which  he  had  laid  before  the  Duke  ?  but  the  Duke's 
letter  was  at  hand,  to  be  considered  by  the  side  of  it ; 
and  it  was  thought  certain  that  any  such  step  as  Ri- 
dolfi  proposed  would  bring  France  into  the  field.  The. 
Nuncio  said  that  the  Pope  would  undertake  for  France ; 
but  the  Pope's  temperament  was  more  sanguine  than 
judicious;  and  thus  the  question  narrowed  down  to  the 
ground  taken  by  Alva.  The  key  of  the  situation  was 
Elizabeth's  life.  The  Catholics  would  make  nothing  of 
an  insurrection  while  the  Queen  was  alive  and  at  large. 
She  must  either  be  killed  or  captured.  That,  in  Alva's 
opinion,  should  be  the  reply  which  Eidolfi  should  carry 
back.  The  English  must  do  that  part  of  the  business 
themselves  ;  as  soon  as  it  was  accomplished,  the  Spanish 
army  should  be  instantly  set  in  motion. 

Yet  it  was  felt  that  if  they  waited  for  this  consum- 
mation they  might  wait  long  or  for  ever.  There  were 
traitors  in  plenty  about  the  Queen.  There  was  Leices- 
ter's accursed  crew  in  the  household,  and  Arundel  and 
Crofts  upon  the  council ;  but  either  they  were  faint- 


i57i-j  THM  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY.  $6$ 

hearted,  or  the  English  nature  did  not  understand  the 
art  of  murder.  Spaniards  and  Italians  could  do  it ; 
Scots  could  do  it  excellently ;  but  the  English,  from 
some  cause  or  other,  were  wanting  in  the  necessary 
qualities.  Ridolfi,  when  questioned  on  the  possibilities 
that  way,  gave  unsatisfactory  answers.  There  was  not 
one  among  Norfolk's  friends  about  the  Queen  who  could 
be  thoroughly  relied  upon  for  any  desperate  enterprise.1 
There  were  seven  or  eight  noblemen  however,  he  said, 
any  one  of  whom  would  make  the  necessary  opportuni- 
ties, if  some  one  else  could  be  found  to  do  the  thing,  and 
all  would  be  ready  to  come  forward  afterwards.  He 
named  Windsor,  Lumley,  Southampton,  St  John, 
Arundel,  Worcester,  Montague — especially  and  pecu- 
liarly Montague;  and  Chapin  Yitelli,  who  had  come 
from  the  Netherlands  for  this  particular  purpose,  now 
presented  himself  to  help  the  council  in  their  dilemma. 
They  would  give  him  credit,  he  said,  for  being  disinter- 
ested, for  he  was  going  to  risk  his  own  life.  He,  if  the 
matter  was  trusted  to  him,  would  take  or  kill  the  Queen. 
He  knew  England.  He  was  acquainted  with  the  noble- 
men whom  Bidolfi  mentioned.  It  could  not  be  done  in 
London ;  but  at  the  end  of  the  summer  Elizabeth  would 
go  on  progress.  She  travelled  inadequately  guarded. 
She  stayed  at  different  country  houses.  He  would  go 
over  with  ten  or  fifteen  companions  ;  and  when  she  was 
— as  she  need  not  fail  to  be — the  guest  of  Montague,  or 
some  other  of  the  set,  he  would  obtain  access  to  her 

1  '  El  Duque  no  tiene  persona  de  los  que  estan  con  la  Eeyna  en  quieii 
hucer  fundamento.' 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


[CH.  56. 


person,  perhaps  pretending  some  commission  such  as  he 
had  been  sent  upon  before,  and  then  and  there  cut  the 
knot  of  all  difficulties.1  The  Lords  would  have  a  force 
in  readiness  to  support  him.  The  Queen  of  Scots  would 
be  safe  with  Lord  Shrewsbury :  the  Countess  was  a 
Catholic,  and  conducted  that  Queen's  secret  correspond- 
ence^ The  Catholics  would  then  everywhere  rise, 
Alva  would  cross  the  Channel,  and  the  revolution  would 
be  over  before  the  French  had  recovered  from  their  first 
astonishment. 

The  date  of  this  notable  conference  agreed  nearly  with 
that  of  Cecil's  saddest  letter  to  Walsingham.  Not  with- 
out reason,  Cecil  believed  that  England's  supreme  hour 
of  trial  was  drawing  near,  and  but  for  the  accident  that 
the  intended  bridegroom  was  as  reluctant  as  the  bride, 
Elizabeth  would  have  selected  that  particular  oppor- 
tunity for  insulting  France,  and  adding  another  enemy 


1  '  A  mi  conviene  comeiKjar  por 
ellos,  y  matar  6  prender  la  Reyna 
que  de  otra  manera  luego  se  casaria 
y  mataria  a  la  de  Escocia.  El  punto 
principal  que  prendiesen  a  la  Reyna. 
Offresce  Chapin  de  prenderla  con 
diez  6  quince  hombres  en  la  oasa  de 
placer ;  que  fuesen  con  titulo  de  de- 
mandar  justicia ;  que  en  Londres 
seria  dificultoso.  Oifrece  de  ir  a  ello 
en  persona. 

'  Lo  que  dixo  Vitelli  que  pues  el 
pone  la  vida,  bien  se  entendera  que 
no  le  mueve  interesse.  .  .  .  que  el 
efecto  se  ha  de  hacer  yendo  la  Reyna 
en  progreso,  y  en  ninguna  manera 
en  Londres,  porque  alii  es  la  heregia. 


'  James  Graffs  (Crofts)  es  bombre 
para  el  efecto.  Que  en  caso  que  se 
baya  de  bacerlo  en  progreso  serian 
convenientes  Montague  y  .  .  .  .  y 
on  casa  de  algunos  de  los  caballeros, 
y  bastaran,  seys,  siendo  luego  asis- 
tidos  de  otra  geute :  que  ellos  estan 
resueltos  en  despacbar  a  la  Reyna. 
Tienen  a  Clinton  y  James  Crofts, 
Windsor,  Lumley,  Montague,  South- 
ampton, St  John,  Arundel,  "Wor- 
cester.'— Lo  que  se  platico  en  consejo 
sobre  las  cosas  de  Inglaterra  en  Ma- 
drid, Sabado  7  de  Julio,  1576 : 
HfSS.  Simancas. 

2  l  Por  medio  della  van  y  vienen 
las  cartas  y  avisos.' 


THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY. 


to  those  who  were  already  in  league  against  her. 
The  resolution  of  Philip's  council  was  immediately 
forwarded  to  Alva ;  and  Ridolfi,  according  to  the  Queen 
of  Scots'  instructions,  would  have  gone  on  to  Portugal. 
But  Philip  was  unwilling  to  extend  further  the  circle 
of  conspiracy.  If  the  enterprise  was  to  succeed  at  all, 
his  own  troops  would  be  sufficient,  and  Ridolfi's  head 
long  temper  did  not  personally  recommend  him  to  con- 
fidence. He  too  was  sent  to  Brussels  to  be  at  Alva's 
orders.  He  wrote  enthusiastic  letters  to  Norfolk,  to 
Mary  Stuart,  and  the  Bishop  of  "Ross,  detailing  his  sue' 
cess,  and  forwarded  them  under  cover  to  Don  Guerau ; 
but  there  was  so  much  fear  of  a  premature  disturbance, 
that  Alva  ordered  Don  Guerau  not  to  deliver  them, 
forbade  him  to  mention  their  arrival,  or  to  open  his 
lips  upon  the  subject  to  any  living  person  till  further 
orders.1 

The  Catholic  King  meanwhile  made  such 

August, 
haste  as  he  was  able  to  fit  out  the  Duke  of 

Medina  Celi,  whom  Chapin  was  to  accompany.2     The 
power  of  Spain  was  still  vast,  but  its  movements  were 


1  Alva  to  Don  Guerau,  July  30  : 
MSS.  Simancas. 

2  There  seems  to  have  been  some 
uncertainty,  after  all,  whether  1'hilip 
did   not  withdraw   his  sanction  of 
the  murder.     "Writing  on  the  4th  of 
August  to  Alva,  he  tells  him  simply 
to   prepare  to  invade   England,   to 
assist  the  Catholics  who  were  to  rise 
in  rebellion.     Chapin,  he  says,  was 
to  command  the  expedition. 


Alva  understood  this  to  mean  that 
Philip  would  carry  out  Ridolfi's  ori- 
ginal proposal.  He  referred  the 
King  to  the  objections  which  he  had 
already  laid  before  him,  and  insisted 
that  no  force  should  be  sent  to  Eng- 
land till  the  Queen  was  in  the  hands 
of  Norfolk  and  the  Queen  of  Scots  at 
liberty. — Precis  de  la  Correspondance 
de  Philip  II :  GACHARD,  vol.  ii. 


$06  kEIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  56. 

ponderous  and  slow.  The  Duke  of  Feria  died  in  August, 
and  with  him  the  most  ardent  in  the  matter  of  all  the 
council.  Other  matters  too  claimed  attention.  Don 
John  of  Austria  was  in  the  Mediterranean,  getting 
ready  for  Lepanto.  Too  much  time  was  already  gone, 
and  what  remained  of  the  summer  was  all  too  little  for 
the  work  that  was  to  be  done.  Don  Guerau  was  grow- 
ing restless  and  impatient.  The  English  council,  he 
said,  suspected  much,  although  as  yet  they  knew  but 
little.  If  the  blow  could  be  struck  quickly,  all  would 
go  well.  The  Catholics  were  three  to  one,  and  were  all 
prepared.  If  the  summer  went  by,  they  might  despond 
again ;  Scotland  might  be  conquered,  the  Queen  of 
Scots  killed ;  and  Lord  Hertford  or  the  little  Prince  of 
Scotland  declared  heir  to  the  throne.  Other  factions 
were  fast  merging  in  the  two  great  religious  divisions, 
and  the  longer  the  delay,  the  stronger  the  Protestants 
would  grow.  Above  all,  there  was  no  safety  while  such 
a  man  as  Cecil  was  at  the  head  of  the  Queen's  Govern- 
ment. '  Tell  his  Majesty/  Don  Guerau  wrote  to  Cayas, 
'  that  Cecil  is  a  fox,  cunning  as  sin,  and  the  mortal  enemy 
of  Spain.  He  moves  in  silence  and  falsehood,  and  what 
he  will  do  or  try  to  do  against  us,  is  only  limited  by  his 
power.  The  Queen's  opinion  goes  for  little,  and 
Leicester's  for  less  ;  Cecil  rules  all,  unopposed,  with  the 
pride  of  Lucifer.' 

But  Cecil  could  be  rolled  in  the  dust  if  only  Philip 
would  be  prompt,  while  the  fire  was  burning  and  the 
iron  hot.  On  the  night  of  the  4th  of  August,  the  Lon- 
doners were  in  the  streets  gazing  at  a  huge  arch  in  the 


J57I-J 


THE  RIDOLFt  CONSPIRACY. 


So? 


sky,  which  seemed  to  span  the  city,  and  filled  their 
hearts  with  terrors  of  approaching  change.  The  Catholic 
Don  Gruerau  scoffed  at  the  cowardly  superstition  of  the 
enlightened  and  Protestant  English,  but  he  pressed  his 
master  to  use  the  moment,  and  take  advantage  of  their 
fears.1 

Tried  by  his  own  standard,  Philip  was  not  working 
without  diligence.  He  had  meditated  for  two  years  on 
sending  Alva  to  the  Low  Countries.  He  had  kept  his 
secret,  matured  his  arrangements,  and  believed  that  he 
had  accomplished  what  he  desired.  To  be  slow  and 
silent,  to  take  every  precaution  to  ensure  success,  and 
then  to  deliver  suddenly  at  last  the  blow  which  had 
been  long  vaguely  impending — this  was  the  Spanish 
method.  It  had  answered  before :  it  might  answer 
again. 

So  Philip  thought,  and  let  the  days  go  by.  He  had 
taken  a  false  measure  of  his  antagonist.  It  was  not 
without  reason  that  Don  Guerau  warned  him  to  beware 
of  Cecil. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  Sir  John.  Hawkins,  in 
his  great  disaster  on  the  coast  of  Mexico,  left  the  major- 
ity of  the  survivors  of  his  crews  in  the  hands  of  the 
Spaniards.  Prisoners  of  war  in  all  countries  were  con- 
siderably worse  off  than  well- befriended  felons  in  com- 
mon gaols.  The  felon  who  had  money  commanded  all 
the  luxuries  which  the  corruption  of  the  warders  could 


1  'Puede  pensar  V.  Magd  quan 
alborotados  deben  andar  los  de  Lon- 
dres  que  es  gente  muy  medrosa  y 


credula  de  prodigies.' — Don  Guerau 
to  Cayas,  August  5  ;  Don  Guerau  to 
Philip,  August  8  :  MSS.  Simancas. 


508  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  56. 

provide.  The  prisoner  of  war,  stripped  of  everything 
that  he  possessed  at  his  capture,  and  far  away  from  his 
friends,  experienced  the  hardest  extremities  which  the 
inhumanity  of  carelessness  could  innict.  English  captives 
everywhere  would  have  had  no  enviable  lot.  In  Spain, 
and  in  the  Spanish  colonies,  they  fell  as  heretics  into 
the  hands  of  the  Inquisition.  Some  of  Hawkins's  men 
had  been  burnt ;  all  had  been  more  or  less  tortured ; 
and  such  as  had  not  died  or  been  murdered,  had 
been  transferred  to  Europe,  and  were  lying  half 
dead  of  hunger  in  the  Archbishop  of  Seville's  dun- 
geons.1 Sir  John  was  not  a  virtuous  man  in  the 
clerical  sense  of  the  word,  but  he  had  the  aifection  of  a 
brave  man  for  the  comrades  who  had  fought  at  his  side  ; 
and  the  fate  of  those  poor  fellows  who  had  hunted 
negroes  with  him  in  the  mangrove  swamps,  had  sur- 
veyed the  reefs  in  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  shared  so 
many  dangers  and  so  many  successes,  now  lying  in 
those  horrid  dens  at  the  mercy  of  the  familiars  of  the 
Holy  Office,  never  left  his  mind.  Two  years  after  his 
return,  while,  they  were  still  in  Mexico,  he  had  intended 
to  go  out  in  search  of  them.  The  Government,  afraid 
of  the  consequences,  prevented  the  expedition,  and 
Hawkins,  since  he  was  forbidden  to  use  force,  deter- 
mined to  try  what  he  could  do  by  cunning.  With 
Cecil's  secret  permission,  he  paid  a  visit  to  Don  Guerau, 
complained  of  his  ill-usage  by  the  Crown,  and  asked 
whether  nothing  could  be  done  for  the  relief  of  his 

1  '  Muertos  de  hambre,'  was  the  admission  of  the  Spaniards  them- 
selves. 


1 5 7I-]  THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY.  509 

companions.  Don  Guerau  never  lost  an  opportunity  of 
encouraging  discontent,  and  Hawkins  allowed  himself 
to  be  led  on  to  speak  so  bitterly  of  the  Government, 
that  Don  Guerau  suggested  to  Alva  that  it  might  be 
worth  while  to  secure  the  gratitude  of  so  able  and 
formidable  a  person  by  setting  the  prisoners  at  liberty.1 
Hawkins  however  was  not  able  to  secure  his  object  so 
easily ;  nothing  came  of  Don  Guerau's  suggestion  ;  the 
men  were  not  released,  and  it  grew  necessary  to  wade  a 
little  deeper. 

About  the  time  when  Ridolfi  was  leaving  England, 
Sir  John  intimated  to  Don  Guerau,  that  he  too  was 
weary  of  serving  an  ungrateful  Sovereign.  He  pro- 
fessed himself  willing,  if  his  companions  were  restored 
to  him,  to  enter  the  Spanish  service,  and  to  carry  over 
with  him  the  finest  ships  and  the  bravest  sailors  in  the 
Queen's  navy.  Don  Guerau,  who  was  full  of  the  idea 
that  three-quarters  of  the  people  were  disaffected,  saw 
nothing  to  surprise,  but  much  to  delight  him  in  this 
communication.  He  had  sufficient  prudence  not  to 
admit  his  new  friend  to  the  Bidolfi  mystery,  but  he 
wrote  to  Cayas  with  an  account  of  the  offer  which 
seemed  to  fit  providentially  with  the  scheme  of  the  in- 
tended invasion.  The  sea  was  Elizabeth's  strongest 
defence,  and  Hawkins  was  the  ablest  commander  that 
she  possessed — given  to  piracy,  indeed,  but  piracy  was 
a  common  English  failing,  for  which  Spanish  apathy 
was  much  to  blame2 — otherwise,  bold,  resolute,  a 

1  Don  Guerau  to  Alva,  August  I  2  '  Inclinado  a  robar  como  lo  soil 
21,1570:  MSS.  Simancas.  |  todos  de  su  nacion,  mayormcnto 


510  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  56. 

splendid  seaman,  and  a  person  of  station  and  property. 

Encouraged  by  the  ease  with  which  the  ambassador 
was  taken  in,  but  perhaps  disappointed  at  the  little 
which  he  had  learnt,  Sir  John,  next,  contrived  the  more 
daring  step  of  applying  immediately  to  Philip.  He 
sent  George  Fitzwilliam,  who  seemingly  was  one  of 
his  officers,  to  Madrid,  to  tell  the  King  that  his  master 
was  one  of  the  many  Englishmen  who  were  broken- 
hearted at  the  progress  of  heresy ;  to  say  that,  as  a 
faithful  son  of  Holy  Church,  he  was  waiting  for  the 
time  when  the  Queen  would  be  overthrown,  and  the 
crown  pass  to  its  rightful  owner,  the  Queen  of  Scots ; 
and  that  he  himself,  with  his  friends  in  the  navy,  were 
ready  to  do  their  part  in  bringing  about  that  happy 
c  onsummation. 

The  King,  to  whom  Hawkins's  reputation  had  long 
been  terribly  familiar,  who  could  never  read  his  name 
in  a  despatch  without  scoring  opposite  to  it  a  note  of 
dismay,  who  had  heard  of  him  only  in  connection  with 
negro-hunting,  sacked  towns,  and  plundered  churches, 
was  more  astonished  then  Don  Guerau  at  an  overture 
so  utterly  unlooked  for.  One  of  the  pirate  race,  Thomas 
Stukely,  had  indeed  already  come  over  to  him.  Stukely 
was  Sir  John's  cousin,  and  so  far  the  thing  was  not 
utterly  incredible ;  but  his  instinct  told  him  to  distrust 
the  advances  of  Hawkins.  He  asked  Fitzwilliam  whe- 
ther his  master  was  acquainted  with  the  Queen  of 
Scots  ?  Fitzwilliam  was  obliged  to  say  that  he  was  not. 

ahora,  viendo  que  se  salen  con  todo  sinque  nadie  los  contradiga.' — Don 
Guerau  to  Cayas,  March  25,  1571. 


r 571.1  THE  RIDOLFT  CONSPIRACY.  511 

Was  lie  in  communication  with  the  Catholic  noblemen, 
or  with  the  refugees  in  Flanders  ?  He  had  never 
spoken  to  one  of  them.  But  when  Philip  went  on  to 
inquire  who  and  what  he  was  then,  and  what  claim 
he  possessed  to  he  believed,  Fitzwilliam  haughtily 
answered,  that  the  credit  of  Sir  John  Hawkins  was 
in  his  right  hand,  and  what  he  said  he  meant.  He  had 
offered  to  pass  over  to  the  service  of  his  Majesty  with 
the  English  fleet.  He  desired  nothing  in  return  but 
the  release  of  a  few  poor  prisoners  at  Seville,  who  were 
not  worth  the  cost  of  keeping  them.  The  crews  of  the 
ships  would  follow  where  he  led  them.  The  King  need 
only  pay  them  their  usual  wages,  and  advance  some 
small  sum  of  money  to  complete  the  equipment  of  the 
vessels  to  which  his  own  means  were  unequal.1 

The  thing  was  strange,  but  the  very  boldness  and 
simplicity  of  Fitzwilliam's  language  was  against  the 
notion  of  deception.  The  Duke  of  Feria,  whom  Philip 
consulted,  took  his  cue  from  his  wife's 2  relations,  who 
were  enthusiastic  believers  in  the  success  of  the  re- 
volution. The  Duke  saw  in  the  adherence  of  the 
king  of  the  buccaneers  only  a  fresh  proof  that  all 
England  was  returning  to  the  faith.  Don  Guerau's 
letters  were  favourable  ;  and  Philip  at  last  listened — 
listened  so  far  at  least  as  to  write  to  the  ambassador 
for  fuller  information,  and  to  tell  Fitzwilliam  that  if 
he  would  return  to  him  with  a  letter  of  introduction 


1   *  Las  cosas  de  que  Jorge  Fitzwilliam  ha  de  traer  claridad.'     April, 
1571 :  MSS.  Simancas.     Respuesto  a  los  Articulos  :  Ibid. 

2  Jane  Dormer,  one  of  Queen  Mary's  maids  of  honour. 


5 12  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  56. 

from  the  Queen  of  Scots,  and  with  a  precise  and  exact 
account  of  what  was  to  be  done,  his  master's  proposi- 
tions should  be  favourably  received,  and  money  also 
should  not  be  wanting  to  put  the  fleet  in  good  order. 
Not  a  hint  had  been  dropped  by  the  cautious  King 
about  the  meditated  invasion  ;  but  the  Duke  and 
Duchess  of  Feria  were  less  cautious.  They  talked  over 
with  Fitzwilliam  the  possible  achievements  which 
Hawkins  might  accomplish.  They  trusted  him  with 
letters  and  presents  to  the  Queen  of  Scots,  giving  him 
the  excuse  which  he  wanted  for  being  introduced  to 
her;  and  with  these,  and  with  the  information  at 
least  that  the  King  of  Spain  was  willing  to  encourage 
the  desertion  of  fee  fleet,  he  returned  to  England  a 
little  before  Sir  Henry  Cobham.  He  had  gone  over 
merely  to  dupe  Philip  into  letting  go  the  prisoners. 
Before  he  came  back  the  arrest  and  examination  of 
Charles  Baily  had  sharpened  Cecil's  suspicions,  and 
more  might  now  be  made  of  the  original  purpose  of 
the  deception.  If  followed  up,  it  might  lead  either  to 
Hawkins  being  admitted  into  the  whole  secret  of  the  con- 
spiracy ;  or,  if  the  trick  was  discovered,  he  would  at  the 
worst  discredit  other  overtures  from  English  disloyalty, 
and  make  Philip  doubt  whether  it  was  not  all  treachery 
together.  Thus  it  was  decided  to  go  on.  Hawkins 
was  bent  on  recovering  his  friends,  and  Cecil  on  ,un- 
ravelling  the  mystery  of  which  Baily  had  revealed 
the  existence,  but  had  left  but  half  explained.  The 
important  thing  was  now  to  obtain  the  letter  of  in- 
troduction from  the  Queen  of  Scots. 


THE  RIDOLPI  CONSPIRACY 


In  this  there  was  an  unexpected  difficulty.  Fitz- 
william  went  down  to  Sheffield  to  deliver  the  packets 
from  the  Duke  of  Feria.  The  Queen  of  Scots  had  been 
kept  close  prisoner  since  the  confession  of  Charles  Baily, 
and  Shrewsbury  had  been  commanded  to  allow  no  one 
to  have  access  to  her,  except  with  an  order  from  the 
Government.  It  was  not  safe  to  admit  Shrewsbury 
into  the  secret  of  Hawkins's  treachery,  and  unless 
Fitzwilliam  could  sustain  his  character  of  a  bona-fide 
Catholic  conspirator,  the  Queen  of  Scots  would  be  on 
her  guard. 

Hawkins  consulted  Cecil.1     The  release  of 

May. 
the  prisoners,  which  was  Hawkins's  principal 

object,  was  considered  a  sufficient  excuse  to  cover  the 
application.     Cecil  wrote  to  Shrewsbury,  say- 
ing merely  that  some  poor  friends  of  Fitz- 


1  '  Your  good  Lordship  may  be 
advertised  that  Fitzwilliam  has  been 
in  the  country  to  deliver  his  tokens, 
and  to  have  had  some  speech  with 
the  Queen  of  Scots,  which  by  no 
means  he  could  obtain.  Wherefore 
he  hath  devised  with  me  that  I 
should  make  some  means  to  obtain 
him  license  to  have  access  to  her  for 
her  letters  to  the  King  of  Spain  for 
the  better  obtaining  of  our  men's 
liberty,  which  otherwise  are  not  to 
be  released ;  which  device  I  promised 
him  that  I  would  follow,  and  that  if 
it  shall  seem  good  unto  your  Lord- 
ship he  may  be  recommended  by 
such  credit  as  to  your  Lordship  shall 
seem  best ;  for  unless  she  be  first 

VOL.   IX. 


spoken  with  and  an  answer  from  her 
sent  to  Spain,  the  credit  for  the 
treasure  cannot  be  obtained.  If 
your  Lordship  think  meet  that  Fitz- 
william shall  be  recommended  to 
speak  with  her,  if  I  may  know  by 
what  sort  your  Lordship  will  ap- 
point, there  shall  be  all  diligence  for 
his  despatch  used,  and  hereof  I 
humbly  pray  your  Lordship's  speedy 
resolution. 

'  Your  good  Lordship's 

'  Most  humbly  to  command, 

'JOHN  HAWKINS. 
'  The  Right  Honble 
May  13.     The  Lord  BURGHLEY.' — 
MS$.    QUEEN    OF     SCOTS,    Rolls 
House. 

33 


514  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  56. 

william  were  dying  in  a  Spanish  dungeon,  and  that  a 
letter  from  the  Queen  of  Scots  might  induce  Philip  to 
let  them  go.  Fitzwilliam  was  then  admitted  to  a  private 
audience.  He  delivered  the  letters  from  the  Ferias,  and 
the  Queen  of  Scots,  little  dreaming  that  she  was  being 
made  the  instrument  of  a  plot  by  which  her  own  hopes 
were  to  be  destroyed,  said  good-naturedly  'that  she 
must  pity  prisoners,  for  she  was  used  as  one  herself,  and 
that  she  would  do  any  pleasure  she  could  to  relieve  an 
Englishman.' l 

Suspecting  no  treachery  in  a  friend  of  the  Duchess 
of  Feria,  Mary  Stuart  talked  with  much  unreserve  to 
Fitzwilliam.  Fitzwilliam  told  her  about  Hawkins  and 
his  offer  to  the  King  of  Spain,  and  she,  on  her  part, 
wrote  to  Philip  at  once  in  his  favour.  Don  Guerau 
was  delighted  at  so  important  an  acquisition  to  the 
Catholic  cause,  and  told  the  King  that  he  might  expect 
service  from  Hawkins  of  infinite  value,2  while  Hawkins 
sent  the  Queen  of  Scots'  letters  to  Cecil  to  be  examined, 
with  a  list  of  the  presents  which  in  her  innocence  she 
had  trusted  to  the  false  hands  of  Fitzwilliam  for  her 
Spanish  friends,3  and  inquired  whether  it  was  Eliza- 
beth's pleasure  that  he  should  pursue  the  game  further. 


1  Shrewsbury  to  Cecil,  June  3  : 
MSS.  QUEEN  OF  SCOTS. 

2  Don  Guerau  to  Philip,  June 
15  •  MSS.  Simcmcas. 

3  '  Fitzwilliam   is  returned  and 
hath  letters  from  the  Queen  of  Scots 
to  the  King  of  Spain,  which  are  en- 
closed with  others  in  a  parcel  direct- 
ed to  your  Lordship.     He  hath  also 


a  book  sent  from  her  to  the  Duchess 
of  Feria  with  the  old  service  in 
Latin ;  and  in  the  end  hath  written 
this  word  with  her  own  hand  :— 

' '  Absit '  nobis   gloriari  nisi    in 
cruce  Domini  nostri  Jesu  Christi. 
' '  MARIA  E.' ' 

— Hawkins  to  Burghley,  June  7: 
MSS.  QUEEN  OF  SCOTS. 


I57L]  THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY.  515 

If  it  was  thought  good  by  her  Majesty  that  he  should 
proceed,  there  was  no  doubt,  he  said,  but  various  com- 
modities would  follow : — '  The  practice  of  the  enemy 
would  be  daily  more  and  more  discovered ;  there  would 
be  credit  gotten  for  a  good  sum  of  money ;  the  same 
money,  as  the  time  should  bring  forth  cause,  should  be 
employed  to  their  own  detriment ;  and  the  ships  which 
should  be  appointed  as  they  would  suppose  to  serve  their 
own  turn  might  do  some  notable  exploit  to  their  g'reat 
damage/ l 

JSTo  very  creditable  correspondence,  on  the  face  of  it, 
between  Elizabeth's  greatest  minister  and  England's 
ablest  seaman  :  the  Queen  of  Scots  was  being  betrayed 
through  her  good  nature,  and  Philip  was  to  be  duped 
into  dependence  upon  a  pretending  traitor,  and  to  be 
relieved  at  all  events  '  of  a  good  sum  of  money '  by  a 
process  which  resembled  swindling.  Hawkins  doubtless 
took  a  keener  interest  than  Cecil  in  the  money  part  of 
the  transaction.  He  maintained  that  the  King  of  Spain 
was  in  his  debt  to  the  full  value  of  the  ships  and  pro- 
perty which  had  been  destroyed  in  Mexico,  and  that  he 
was  doing  no  more  than  recover  what  justly  belonged 
to  him.  Cecil  was  soiling  his  hands  for  no  such  sordid 
purpose.  He  was  in  search  of  secrets  of  state  of  tre- 
mendous moment,  and  treachery  in  extreme  exigencies 
becomes  but  the  legitimate  feint  of  a  general  in  the 
presence  of  the  enemy.  Fitzwilliam  returned  to  Ma- 
drid with  as  little  delay  as  possible.  He  found  the 


Hawkins  to  Burghley,  June  7  :  MSS.  QUEKN  OF  SCOTS. 


516  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  56. 

King  in  the  credulous  flush  of  excitement  which  fol- 
lowed the  resolution  of  the  Cabinet  on  the  7th  of  July. 
The  murder  of  Elizabeth  had  been  decided  upon,  tho 
instrument  chosen  and  sent  upon  his  errand.  England 
was  to  be  recovered  to  the  Church  and  the  penitent 
Hawkins  was  accepted  as  the  first  fruit  of  the  national 
conversion.  The  letters  of  the  Queen  of  Scots  removed 
every  doubt  that  remained.  The  sailor  cap- 
tives were  set  at  liberty  and  sent  back  to  their 
country  each  with  ten  dollars  in  his  pocket  to  atone  for 
his  sufferings.  Fitzwilliam  was  introduced  to  the  Cabi- 
net, and  explained  at  length  his  master's  views.  Sir 
John  Hawkins,  he  said,  was  struck  with  horror  at  the 
condition  to  which  his  country  was  reduced.  Heresy 
and  tyranny  were  alone  dominant  there  in  frightful 
combination,  and  the  Queen  of  Scots  was  the  only  hope 
that  good  men  saw  remaining.  She  had  so  many  friends 
that  if  the  King  of  Spain  would  but  say  the  word 
the  work  of  raising  her  to  the  throne  could  be  done 
with  ease  and  safety.  Sir  John  himself  had  but  to  sail 
up  the  Humber  with  half-a-dozen  ships,  land  the  crews 
and  proclaim  her  Queen,  and  the  whole  nation  would 
declare  for  her. 

Mary  Stuart  in  her  letter  to  Philip  had  said,  after 
all,  less  than  Hawkins  wished,  and  had  confined  herself 
to  generalities.  Fitzwilliam  explained  her  reserve  by 
saying  that  he  had  himself  seen  and  spoken  with  her, 
and  she  had  told  him  to  say  that  her  correspondence 
was  watched  and  that  she  dared  not  write  more  than  a 
few  words.  Hawkins  himself  however,  Fitzwilliam 


IS7I-]  THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY.  517 

stated,  had  16  vessels,  1600  men,  and  400  guns,  all  at 
his  Majesty's  disposition,  ready  to  go  anywhere  and  to 
do  anything  which  his  Majesty  might  command  so  as  it 
was  in  the  Queen  of  Scots'  service.  For  himself  Sir 
John  asked  for  nothing  save  pardon  for  the  sins  which 
he  had  committed  in  the  Indies.  He  would  cover  the 
preparation  of  his  ships  by  pretending  that  he  was 
going  to  serve  with  Count  Louis  in  an  expedition 
against  the  Spanish  coast.  The  Queen  would  give  him 
leave  and  would  fall  into  her  own  pit.  He  desired  only 
to  have  the  fleet  in  a  condition  to  do  his  Majesty  royal 
service.  In  this  he  was  obliged  to  throw  himself  on 
his  Majesty's  liberality,  and  he  requested  his  Majesty 
also  to  advance  him  two  months'  wages  for  1600  men. 
The  proposal  seemed  so  liberal  that  Philip  forgot  his 
caution  and  dropped  his  reserve.  He  had  still  prudence 
enough  to  conceal  the  correspondence  with  Norfolk, 
Chapin's  mission,  and  the  intended  assassination;  but 
Fitzwilliam  was  allowed  to  know  that  England  was 
really  to  be  invaded,  and  that  the  blow  was  to  be  struck, 
if  possible,  at  the  end  of  the  summer.  Indentures  were 
drawn  at  the  Escurial  and  were  signed  by  Fitzwilliam 
for  Hawkins  and  by  the  Duke  of  Feria — just  before 
his  death — for  Spain.  Hawkins  bound  himself  to  have 
his  fleet  at  sea,  to  be  at  the  disposition  of  the  Duke  of 
Alva,  in  September  and  October.  Philip  consented  to 
advance  the  necessary  moneys,  and  being  in  a  generous 
mood,  expressed  a  hope  that  in  the  event  of  success  Sir 
John  and  his  friends  would  accept,  in  addition,  some- 
thing handsome  for  themselves.  The  pardon  for  the 


KEIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


[en.  56. 


misdoings  in  the  Spanish  main  was  drawn  out  in  full, 
with  an  assurance  that  if  the  expedition  failed,  they 
should  be  sure  of  employment  in  the  Spanish  service.1 

This  prodigious  ' practice'  was  thus  entirely  suc- 
cessful. The  English  Government  learnt  the  particulars 
of  the  danger  which  lay  before  them  and  were  able  to 
prepare  for  it — prepare  for  it  in  part  with  finances 
furnished  by  Philip  himself;  Hawkins  held  himself  in 
readiness  to  join  Alva  as  soon  as  he  should  sail,  intend- 
ing to  sink  him  in  mid- channel.  Philip  paid  the  money 
for  which  Fitzwilliam  asked,  some  forty  or  fifty  thousand 
pounds,  through  his  agents  in  England.  He  made 
Hawkins  himself  a  grandee  of  Spain,  and  sent  him, 
through  Fitzwilliain's  hands,  his  patent  of  nobility. 

One  more  communication  from  Sir  John  to  Cecil 
contains  all  that  requires  to  be  told  further. 


SIR   JOHN    HAWKINS   TO    LORD    BURGHLEY. 

'  Plymouth,  September  4. 

'  My  very  good  Lord, — It  may  please  your  Honour 
to  be  advertised  that  Fitzwilliam  is  returned  from  the 
Court  of  Spain,  where  his  message  was  acceptably  re- 
ceived both  by  the  King  himself,  the  Duke  of  Feria, 
and  others  of  the  privy  council.  His  dispatch  and 
answer  was  with  great  expedition,  and  great  counten- 


1  The  documents  relating  to  these 
negotiations  are  very  numerous,  and 
with  the  exception  of  the  letters 
which  passed  between  Hawkins  and 
Burghley,  are  all  at  Simancas.  The 
Spanish  historians,  knowing  only 


their  own  archives,  have  supposed 
that  Hawkins  was  really  acting  in 
good  faith  with  Philip.  The  King 
did  not  care  to  leave  on  record  an 
accoun  of  the  trick  by  which  he  hud 
been  taken  in. 


i$7i-3  THE  R2DOLF2  CONSPIRACY.  51$ 

mice  and  favour  of  the  King.  The  Articles  are  sent  to 
the  ambassador,  with  orders  also  for  the  money  to  be 
paid  to  me  by  him,  for  the  enterprise  to  proceed  with 
all  diligence.  Their  pretence  is,  that  my  powers  should 
join  with  the  Duke  of  Alva's  powers,  which  he  doth 
secretly  provide  in  Flanders,  as  well  as  with  the  powers 
which  cometh  with  the  Duke  of  Medina  out  of  Spain, 
and  so  altogether  to  invade  this  realm  and  set  up  the 
Queen  of  Scots.  They  have  practised  with  us  for  the 
burning  of  her  Majesty's  ships,  therefore  there  would 
be  some  good  care  had  of  them,  but  not  as  it  may 
appear  that  anything  is  discovered — as  your  Lordship's 
consideration  can  well  provide. 

'  The  King  hath  sent  a  ruby  of  good  price  to  the 
Qaeen  of  Scots,  with  letters  also,  which  in  my  judg- 
ment were  good  to  be  delivered.  The  letters  be  of  no 
importance,  but  his  message  by  word  is  to  comfort  her 
and  say  that  he  hath  now  none  other  care  but  to  place 
her  in  her  own.  It  were  good  also  that  the  ambassador 
did  make  a  request  unto  your  Lordship  that  Fitzwilliam 
may  have  aceess  to  the  Queen  of  Scots,  to  render  thanks 
for  the  delivery  of  the  prisoners  which  are  now  at 
liberty.  It  will  be  a  very  good  colour  for  your  Lord- 
ship to  confer  with  him  more  largely.  I  have  sent  your 
Lordship  the  copy  of  my  pardon  from  the  King  of 
Spain,  in  the  very  order  and  manner  I  have  it.  The 
Duke  of  Medina  and  the  Duke  of  Alva  hath  every 
of  them  one  of  the  same  pardons  more  amplified  to 
present  unto  me,  though  this  be  large  enough,  with  my 
great  titles  and  honours  from  the  King,  from  which 


520  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  56. 

God  deliver  me.  I  send  your  Lordship  also  the  copy 
of  my  letter  from  the  Duke  of  Feria,  in  the  very 
manner  as  it  was  written,  with  his  wife's  and  son's 
hand  in  the  end.1  Their  practices  be  very  mischievous, 
and  they  be  never  idle,  but  God,  I  hope,  will  confound 
them,  and  turn  their  devices  upon  their  own  necks.  I 
will  put  my  business  in  some  order,  and  give  my  at- 
tendance upon  her  Majesty,  to  do  her  that  service  that 
by  your  Lordship  shall  be  thought  most  convenient  in 
this  case.  I  am  not  tedious  with  your  Lordship,  be- 
cause Fitzwilliam  cometh  himself,  and  I  mind  not  to 
be  long  after  him,  and  thus  I  trouble  your  Lordship  no 
further. 

'  Your  Lordship's  most  faithfully  to  my  power, 

'  JOHN  HAWKINS.'  2 

The   letter   came  opportunely,   for  Cecil, 
September.  J 

as  will  presently  be  seen,  had  by  this  time 

the  few  remaining  threads  in  his  hand  which  would 
ravel  out  the  whole  conspiracy.  Very'  hateful  such 
proceedings  may  seem  to  some  readers,  as  if  it  were 
better  that  a  Government  should  perish  than  to  be 
driven  to  maintain  itself  by  treachery.  Elizabeth  won 
the  game,  and  therefore  the  faults  on  her  side  appear 
gratuitously  wicked.  We  fancy  that  she  might  have 
succeeded  as  easily  by  fairer  means,  while  the  like 
doings  on  the  other  side  are  passed  over  in  a  general 
sentiment  of  compassion  for  the  losing  cause.  Yet 


1  Not  found.  'i  Domestic  MSS.  Jtolls  Home. 


157I-]  THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY.  521 

treachery  was  but  meeting  treachery.  The  Queen,  of 
Scots,  on  the  whole,  held  better  cards  than  Elizabeth, 
and  but  for  Cecil,  the  Queen  of  Scots  would  probably 
have  won,  and  Chapin's  poniard  and  Alva's  legions 
might  have  given  another  complexion  to  English 
history.  The  Queen  of  Scots'  iniquities  would  then 
have  stood  out  in  the  relief  of  success.  The  pity  would 
have  been  for  Elizabeth,  the  moral  censure  for  her 
more  lucky  rival.  In  this  and  all  such  conditions, 
our  praise  and  our  blame  are  alike  impertinent,  for  it  is 
impossible  to  apportion  them  fairly.  The  rules  which 
insist  on  truth  and  candour  between  man  and  man  and 
Government  and  Government,  apply  only  to  quiet,  or 
at  least  to  honourable  ages.  Wars  and  treasons  and 
conspiracies  derange  the  natural  relation  of  things,  and 
bring  about  situations  where  other  balances  are  re- 
quired. The  baser  crimes  which  spring  from  selfish- 
ness and  cowardice  are  hideous  in  every  time  and  place  : 
but  Hamlet  is  not  condemned  for  rewriting  his  uncle's 
packet,  because  Shakespeare,  in  the  fulness  of  genius, 
places  the  facts  before  us  with  all  their  surroundings. 
Let  the  reader  exert  his  imagination  to  call  up  before 
him  the  situation  of  Elizabeth  and  her  minister,  and  he 
will  be  sparing  of  his  outcries  in  proportion  to  the 
vigour  of  his  thought. 

The  anticipation  that  the  year  1571  would  prove  a 
critical  one  in  the  fortunes  of  England  was  entirely 
verified.  The  Ridolfi  conspiracy  was  the  last  combined 
effort  of  the  English  aristocracy  to  undo  the  Reforma- 
tion and  strangle  the  new  order  of  things  before  it 


$2* 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


[en.  56. 


grew  too  strong  for  them.  The  exigencies  of  history 
compel  us  to  follow  in  single  lines  the  many  threads  of 
which  the  situation  was  made  up.  London,  Paris, 
Brussels,  Home,  Madrid — we  have  had  to  transport 
ourselves  from  one  to  the  other,  while  at  each  and  all, 
at  the  same  time,  the  warp  and  the  woof  of  Elizabeth's 
destiny  were  forming.  We  have  watched  the  English 
Parliament  at  home  labouring  for  the  cause  of  God  and 
freedom.  "We  have  seen  Philip's  Cabinet  planning 
murder,  in  the  cause  also,  as  they  believed,  of  God  and 
Holy  Church ;  while  Cecil  and  "Walsingham  were 
struggling  desperately  to  bind  England  and  France 
together,  and  the  Queen  was  choosing  the  edge  of  the 
precipice  to  execute  her  matrimonial  coquet  dance. 
Dungeons  have  been  thrown  open,  where  wretched 
prisoners  were  yielding  their  secrets  to  the  rack,1 
or  cheated  out  of  them  by  the  midnight  visits  of  pre- 
tended friends.  And,  last  of  all,  we  have  seen  the 
Catholic  King  and  his  Council  of  State  becoming  the 
dupes  of  a  buccaneering  adventurer.  All  these  scenes 
were  going  on  together;  while  Cecil  had  his  eyes 
everywhere,  conscious  or  unconscious  that  on  him,  and 
on  what  he  could  do,  the  fate  of  England  and  its  Queen 
depended. 

It  remains  to  observe,  during  the  same  months,  the 


1  Charles  Baily  Avas  not  the  only 
sufferer.  Hall,  Sir  Thomas  Stanley's 
friend,  who  was  taken  at  Dumbar- 
ton, was  made  to  tell  .what  he  knew 
by  the  same  means.  The  Queen  and 
Cecil  ordered  Sir  "William  Drury  to 


submit  a  series  of  questions  to  him, 
adding,  '  Let  him  look  to  be  racked 
to  all  extremity  if  he  will  conceal 
the  truth.'— Elizabeth  to  Sir  William 
Drury,  May  20,  Cecil's  hand  :  MSS. 
/Scotland. 


157I-]  THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY.  &$ 

fortunes  of  the  two  parties  which  divided  Scotland.  On 
the  fall  of  Dumbarton  and  the  ineffectual  close  of  the 
London  Conference,  the  civil  war  broke  again  into  a 
blaze.  War,  in  a  large  sense,  it  could  not  be  called,  but 
a  general  breaking  down  of  all  order  and  authority,  the 
parties  which  respectively  called  themselves  subjects  of 
the  King  or  Queen  flying  at  each  other's  throats,  burn- 
ing each  other's  houses,  and  indulging,  under  the  pre- 
tence of  loyalty,  their  private  hates  and  feuds.  Neither 
France  nor  England  could  openly  interfere.  The  mar- 
riage project  made  them  unwilling  to  quarrel ;  and  till 
that  marriage  was  accomplished,  they  were  equally  un- 
able to  act  in  concert.  At  the  same  time,  neither  cared 
to  desert  their  friends  entirely  ;  and  thus  both  sides  were 
encouraged  with  promises  and  fed  with  money.  King's 
party  and  Queen's  party  were  called  to  the  field,  and 
one  could  not  overwhelm  the  other;  and  the  hopeless 
struggle  was  varied  only  by  some  gallant  achievement 
like  the  storming  of  Dumbarton.  Had  Elizabeth  re- 
solved from  the  beginning,  as  she  had  now  resolved  at 
last,  to  keep  Mary  Stuart  prisoner — had  she  supported 
Murray — had  she  allowed  Sussex  to  take  Edinburgh 
Castle — still  more,  had  she  recognized  James  not  only 
as  King  in  his  own  country,  but  as  her  own  prospective 
hoir — she  would  have  added  nothing  to  the  danger  of 
her  position  with  the  European  Powers,  and  the  peace 
of  Scotland  would  never  have  been  disturbed.  The  set- 
tlement in  James's  favour  was  the  one  step  which,  be- 
yond question,  she  ought  to  have  taken,  and  which  she 
only  did  not  take  from  the  peculiar  perversity  of  tern.- 


524  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  56. 

perameiit  which,  never  would  allow  her  to  move  directly 
and  openly  towards  any  object,  however  excellent,  how- 
ever just,  however  expedient. 

She  had  played  fast  and  loose  so  often  with  the  Pro- 
testants that,  but  for  the  interest  of  their  common  re- 
ligion, they  would  long  ago  have  fallen  off  from  her. 
As  it  was,  the  position  of  parties  was  briefly  this.  The  Re- 
gent, supported  by  Mar  and  Morton,  held  Stirling,  Glas- 
gow, and  Dumbarton.  The  Laird  of  Grange  and  Maitland 
were  in  Edinburgh  Castle,  where,  after  the  execution  of  the 
Archbishop  of  St  Andrews,  they  were  joined  in  force  by 
the  Hamiltons,  with  Buccleuch,  Fernihurst,  and  Lord 
Hume,  and  then  took  possession  of  the  town.  The  North 
and  West,  with  the  Gordons,  Argyle,  and  Athol,  were 
for  the  Queen.  From  Stirling  to  St  Andrews,  and  south 
till  within  thirty  miles  of  the  Border,  the  farmers  and 
peasants  were  mainly  Protestants.  The  French  were 
more  liberal  of  money  than  Elizabeth.  Elizabeth  re 
luctantly  doled  out  a  thousand  pounds  to  the  Regent  on 
a  single  occasion.  Mary  Stuart's  dowry  was  regularly 
paid  to  the  other  side,  with  four  thousand  crowns  a-month 
in  addition  from  Charles  and  Catherine. 

So  matters  stood  on  the  arrest  of  Charles  Baily  and 
the  partial  discovery  of  Ridolfi's  plot.  Elizabeth,  as 
usual,  was  roused  for  a  time  into  resolution.  Drury  was 
sent  to  Edinburgh  to  remonstrate  with  Grange  and 
Haitland  '  for  occupying  the  city  in  warlike  manner/ 
And  to  inform  them  that  if  he  or  his  party  '  brought  in 
strangers/  'the  Queen  would  avenge  their  obstinacy 
against  the  common  peace.'  Cannon  were  prepared  in 


I57I.J  THE  RIDOLF1  CONSPIRACY.  525 

Berwick,  and  an  expeditionary  force  was  organized  and 
put  in  marching  order  for  the  reduction  of  Edinburgh 
Castle.1 

So  obviously  necessary,  if  Elizabeth's  throne  was  to 
be  preserved,  was  the  reduction  of  Scotland  under  the 
Regent's  authority,  that  Mary  Stuart's  party  were  un- 
able to  believe  that  decisive  measures  could  be  longer 
postponed.  Lord  Seton  flew  to  Paris  to  entreat  assist- 
ance. It  was  at  the  moment  when  the  Queen-mother 
was  most  sanguine  about  the  English  marriage,  and  the 
application  was  especially  unwelcome.  Seton  said  that 
he  hoped  that  in  the  midst  of  her  new  schemes  she 
would  not  forget  her  old  friends.  He  reminded  her  of 
the  many  gallant  Scots  who  '  had  offered  themselves  for 
the  country  of  France  and  had  left  their  'banes '  behind 
them  there.'  Catherine  gave  but  cold  answers.  The 
Archbishop  of  Glasgow  stood  sadly  by,  but  did  not  speak 
a  word. 

'  Madam,'  said  the  old  lord  passionately,  '  I  must 
speak  two  words  to  you,  and  pray  you  to  receive  them 
as  coming  out  of  a  true  French  heart.  Madam,  since 
Charlemagne's  time  there  was  never  sent  from  Scotland, 
by  King,  Queen,  or  nobility,  a  more  honourable  suit 
than  is  desired  at  the  present  by  me ;  and  seeing  that 
this  vain  opinion  of  the  Queen  of  England's  marriage 
is  so  had  in  conceit  of  you  that  ye  heed  not  us  who  are 
invaded  with  fire  and  sword  and  our  castles  and  houses 
demolished  ;  as  I  have  shown  you  before,  the  nobility 


1  Elizabeth  to  Sir  William  Drury,  May  20  :  JtfSS.  Scotland. 


526  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  56. 

of  Scotland  will  not  fail  to  sue  where  they  may  best.'1 
Lord  Seton  fell  back  on  Brussels.  The  friends  of 
Mary  Stuart  in  Scotland  followed  the  lead  of  the  Eng- 
lish Lords,  and,  deserted  by  France,  flung  themselves 
upon  Alva  and  Spain.  The  coldness  of  the  French 
Court  gave  fresh  facilities  for  the  organization  of  the 
intended  invasion.  Should  accident  prevent  a  landing 
at  Harwich,  the  coast  of  Aberdeen  was  close  at  hand 
and  always  open,  and  the  presence  of  a'  Spanish  army  in 
the  island  was  all  that  was  needed  to  call  the  Catholics 
to  the  field. 

Meanwhile,  till  the  Spaniards  were  ready 
it  was  necessary  to  keep  Elizabeth  in  play,  and 
to  prevent  her  from  executing  her  threat  of  reducing 
the  castle  of  Edinburgh.  Her  determined  moods  seldom 
lasted  more  than  a  few  days,  and  Maitland' s  pen  was 
called  into  requisition  to  soothe  her  into  a  false  se- 
curity. 

Maitland  had  a  singular  influence  over  Elizabeth. 
She  corresponded  with  him  in  private,  and  while  Cecil 
was  threatening  him  in  her  name,  she  was  herself  un- 
saying Cecil's  language  behind  the  scenes.  Whatever 
may  have  been  her  secret  purpose  in  so  doing,  she 
allowed  him  to  see  that  she  did  not  desire  to  interfere  if 
she  could  help  it,  and  that  she  would  welcome  any  open- 
ing which  he  could  make  for  her  to  escape  from  the  ne- 
cessity which  was  being  forced  upon  her.  Maitland  be- 
lieved her  incapable,  through  her  vacillation,  of  any 


1  Seton  to  Maitland.  May  31  :  MSS.  Scotland. 


I57I-]  THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY.  527 

consistent  policy.  He  despised  her  and  played  upon 
her  weakness.  When  he  received  Drury's  message,  and 
heard  of  the  preparations  at  Berwick,  he  wrote  to  re- 
mind her  '  how  often  she  had  urged  him  to  remain  faith- 
ful to  his  own  Queen,  how  at  times  she  had  reproached 
him  for  his  seeming  want  of  duty,  how  incredible  it  ap- 
peared to  him  that  she  should  now  take  his  fidelity  to 
his  mistress  unkindly.  He  could  not  and  would  not  ac- 
knowledge the  Regency  of  Lennox.  His  property  had 
been  confiscated.  He  and  many  other  noblemen  had 
been  declared  outlaws.  The  King,  when  he  took  on 
him  the  administration,  would  find  no  kingdom  apt  for 
rule,  but  a  confused  chaos,  where  within  short  time  there 
would  start  up  two  or  three  hundred  resembling  Shan 
O'Neil,  whereof  every  one  would  be  king  in  his  own 
bounds  or  within  ten  miles'  compass.  Neither  he  nor 
his  friends  would  permit  five  or  six  earls  and  lords,  not 
of  the  greatest  degree,  to  make  slaves  of  all  who  would 
not  serve  their  turn;  and  for  himself,  he  had  not  been 
accustomed  to  misery,  and  would  find  it  strange  to  be 
driven  to  live  on  other  men's  charity.  This  however 
he  was  ready  to  do.  He  would  use  his  credit  to  procure 
a  reasonable  union  of  all  the  states  of  the  realm  to  main- 
tain peace  with  England.  He  would  procure  that  her 
Majesty  should  be  put  in  trust  to  make  a  final  end  of  all 
controversies  and  be  moderatrix  in  all  their  debates ; 
this  point  only  reserved,  that  she  would  so  deal  with  the 
Queen  of  Scots  that  he  and  his  friends  might  not  be 
condemned  of  having  dealt  undutifully  with  their  Sove- 
reign, to  whom  he  for  his  own  part  was  particularly 


528  REJGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH. 


bound  for  benefits  received,  and  had  made  promises 
which  in  honour  he  might  not  break.' l 

The  intention  of  this  letter  was  to  gain  time  till 
Alva  could  land,  the  Catholics  rise,  and  Elizabeth  and 
the  Queen  of  Scots  change  places.  Mary  Stuart  and 
the  Bishop  of  Ross  had  admitted,  in  explanation  of 
Charles  Baily's  confession,  that  the  Spaniards  had  been 
invited  into  Scotland.  It  was  more  than  ever  essential 
to  put  down  the  party  which  would  open  their  ports  to 
receive  them.  But  Maitland's  words  chimed  in  exactly 
with  Elizabeth's  detestation  of  resolute  action.  She 
underlined  particular  expressions  in  the  letter  with 
marks  of  her  approval,  and  Drury  was  again  ordered 
up  to  Edinburgh  and  Stirling,  to  say  that  force,  after 
all,  was  not  to  be  used ;  a  commission  should  sit  again 
in  London  to  arrange  a  compromise. 

The  Queen's  friends  had  as  much  intention 
June. 

of  submitting  to  Elizabeth  as  of  accepting  the 

Archbishop  of  Canterbury  for  their  Metropolitan. 
When  Drury  came  to  Edinburgh,  he  found  Chatelher- 
ault  holding  a  Parliament  in  the  Tolbooth  to  reinstate 
Mary  Stuart  '  as  only  lawful  Sovereign  of  Scotland/ 
Making  a  mild  protest — all  that  he  was  now  allowed  to 
make — he  went  on  to  the  Lords  at  Stirling,  where  his 
appearance  was  the  signal  for  a  burst  of  execrations. 
'  Among  the  hot  bloods  of  the  young  men  '  he  was  '  in 
danger  of  his  life  ; '  '  shot  at  divers  times  ; '  dreaded  by 
the  Regent  as  the  minister  of  that  uncertain  action 


1  Maitland  to  Elizabeth,  May  30,  condensed ;  MSS.  Scotland. 


15 7i.]  THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY.  529 

which,  had  caused  all  the  existing  misery,  hated  and 
cursed  as  '  a  false  treacherous  Saxon/  The  Lords  had 
hoped  that  at  last  Elizabeth  must  declare  decisively  for 
them.  If  they  waited  till  Alva  landed  they  were  lost, 
and  the  first  impulse  was  to  throw  up  for  ever  the  serv- 
ice of  a  mistress  who  never  for  two  days  together  re- 
mained in  one  mind,  and  make  terms  with  their  enemies 
at  Edinburgh.  The  Regent,  old,  infirm,  and  over-in- 
fluenced by  Lennox  partisanship,  had  grown  unpopular 
with  his  own  party,  and  Drury  feared  that  he  would 
soon  be  sent  the  way  of  his  son.  Maitland  had  been 
making  overtures  to  Morton,  to  which  Morton  was  sup- 
posed to  be  listening.  '  The  Castilians/  as  the  Queen's 
faction  was  called,  were  supported  with  money  from 
France  and  Flanders.  The  Regent,  to  maintain  a  force, 
was  driven  to  distrain  still  upon  the  few  noblemen  who 
adhered  to  the  King.  The  situation  could  not  be  pro- 
longed under  such  conditions.  On  the  I4th 

July. 

of  July  Drury  reported  to  Cecil  that,  unless 
her  Majesty  could  make  up  her  mind  at  once  what  she 
meant  to  do,  '  both  parties  were  determined  to  agree 
among  themselves,  the  same  being  already  in  hand/  1 
Had  the  Queen  of  England  been  liberal  with  money, 
the  Regency  might  have  continued ;  but  with  ample 
supplies  on  one  side  and  on  the  other  only  contradictory 
advice  and  perpetual  vacillation,  the  Lords  who  had 
stood  for  the  King  could  no  longer  persevere  in  so 
thankless  and  dangerous  a  course.  Even  Elizabeth's 


1  Drury  to  Cecil,  July  14 :  MSS.  Scotland. 

VOL.   IX.  34 


530  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  56, 

own  people  could  not  be  paid  their  own  justly  earned 
wages.  Drury  complained  that  he  had  himself  incurred 
such  expenses  in  her  Majesty's  service  that  he  wa& 
weighed  down  with  debt.1 

In  the  midst  of  these  distractions,  and  immediately 
arising  out  of  them,  a  third  party  now  appeared,  which y 
though  unfavourable  to  Mary  Stuart  and  scarcely  less 
so  to  Elizabeth,  seemed  likely  for  a  time  to  obtain  the 
control  of  Scotch  policy.  It  was  the  misfortune  of  the 
Queen  of  Scots  that  she  was  unable  to  apply  for  help  to- 
one  of  the  great  Powers  without  offending  the  friends  of 
the  other.  Out  of  the  large  body  of  noblemen  who  had 
hitherto  supported  her,  the  Protestant  section  disap- 
proved entirely  of  the  new  connection  with  Spain.  They 
remained  true  to  their  French  sympathies ;  and  the 
change  of  policy  at  Paris,  the  reviving  influence  of  the 
Huguenots,  and  the  liberalizing  tendencies  of  the  King, 
produced  a  corresponding  effect  upon  his  friends  in 
Scotland.  As  the  Guises  lost  their  ascendancy  the 
French  Court  became  again  indifferent  to  Mary  Stuart, 
and  was  as  willing  as  it  had  been  four  years  before  to 
support  the  King  if  it  could  win  back  the  Scotch  alli- 
ance. If  the  Anjou  marriage  had  come  off,  France  and 
England,  and  the  Scotch  friends  of  both,  would  work 
together.  If  the  marriage  failed,  France  would  not  al- 
low Scotland  to  become  Spanish ;  and  if  Mary  Stuart 
flung  herself  on  Philip,  for  their  own  sakes  they  were 
forced  to  take  up  the  cause  of  her  son.  In  the  universal 


1  Drury  to  Cecil,  July  14:  MSS.  Scotland. 


J57I-]  THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY.  531 

uncertamity  no  definite  resolution  was  possible  ;  but  3L 
de  Virac  was  sent  back  with  large  discretionary  powers  ; 
and  thus  through  the  summer  months  there  followed  a 
series  of  intrigues  and  counter-intrigues,  the  principles 
of  which  are  generally  intelligible  but  the  details  utterly 
confounding.  This  only  is  clear,  that  all  alike  were 
bidding  for  popularity  by  appealing  to  the  national 
sentiment,  swearing  '  that  Scots  would  never  thrall 
their  land  to  England ;  the  King  of  France,  if  he 
would,  should  be  judge  in  all  their  differences/  *  The 
nobler  element  in  Scottish  life  was  for  a  time  in  abey- 
ance. Knox  had  withdrawn  from  Edinburgh  to  St 
Andrews.  The  reforming  noblemen  were  divided  and 
disheartened.  The  commons  were  lying  in  the  dead 
water  between  the  opposite  tides,  and  for  the  present 
attending  chiefly  to  their  farms  and  their  trades.  At 

length,   towards   the   end  of  August,  things 

August. 
began   to   assume   defined    outlines.      Three 

parties  had  shaped  themselves — French,  Spanish,  and 
English.  Chatelherault,  Maitland,  Huntly,  Fernihurst, 
Euccleuch — those  who  had  been  most  nearly  connected 
with  the  English  Catholics,  and  were  to  some  extent  in 
the  secret  of  their  plans — followed  the  main  line  of  the 
conspiracy  and  remained  in  correspondence  with  Alva. 
Argyle,  Cassilis,  Eglinton,  and  several  others  broke 
away  and  declared  for  the  King — for  the  King  and 
France — or  for  the  King  and  France  and  England — as 
events  and  as  their  friends  should  direct  them.  Thev 


1  John  Case  to  Druvy,  August  29  :  3fSS.  Scotland. 


532 


REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH. 


[CH.  56. 


September. 


came  to  an  understanding  with  the  party  at  Stirling. 
Lennox,  for  general  convenience  and  through  Morton's 
interest,  was  to  be  continued  as  Regent.  Elizabeth  had 
bought  Morton's  services,  finding  it  cheaper  to  bribe  a 
single  nobleman  than  maintain  a  Government.1  But 
he  was  to  be  placed  under  restraint,  unable  to  act  with- 
out consent  of  a  council,  and  generally  rendered  so  un- 
easy in  his  seat  '  that  he  would  be  glad  to  be  gone/  ~ 

A  great  meeting  of  the  Lords  was  held  at 
Stirling,  to  consider  the  propositions  which 
should  be  submitted  to  Elizabeth.  This  much  only 
they  had  at  once  resolved,  that  the  Prince  should  in  no- 
case  be  sent  to  England  as  Elizabeth  desired ;  and  no 
right  whatever  should  be  recognized  as  existing  in  the 
Queen  of  England  to  decide  who  should  or  should  not 
be  the  Scottish  Sovereign.  The  unfortunate  Lennox  could 
but  lament  to  Cecil  the  indecision  of  his  mistress,  which 
had  thus  shaken  her  influence :  was  it  not  for  his  grand- 
son, he  said,  no  earthly  interest  should  tempt  him  to 
remain  in  office  another  day.3  Neglected  in  the  midst  of 
the  crowd,  desolate  and  weeping  with  such  few  friends 
as  privately  came  to  him,  the  father  of  Darnley  sat 
waiting  for  his  approaching  fate. 

If  threatening  to   England,  the   new   combination 
was  no  less  unfavourable  to  the  projects  of  the  '  Cas- 


1  Morton  took  her  money  and 
professed  to  place  himself  at  Eliza- 
beth's- disposition,  '  either  to  use  him 
to  quench  the  fire  among  them  or  to 
make  the  flame  break  out  further.' 
— Drury  to  Cecil,  August  24  :  MSS. 


Scotland. 

2  John  Case  to  Drury,  September 
2 :  MSS.  Scotland. 

3  Lennox  to  Cecil,  August  25  :. 
MSS.  Ibid. 


I57I-J  THE  R1DOLFI  CONSPIRACY.  533, 

tilians.'  Whether  a  French  faction,  or  an  English  fac- 
tion governed  Scotland,  or  both  combined,  there  would 
be  an  equal  difficulty  in  making  arrangements  for  the 
landing  of  the  Spaniards,  or  for  the  march  southwards- 
to  the  rescue  of  the  Queen  of  Scots.  In  reply  to  the 
Hamiltons'  Parliament  at  the  Tolbooth,  a  rival  meeting 
was  held  at  Stirling,  where  Chatelherault  and  Huntly 
were  attainted,  and  the  assembled  Lords  gave  out  that 
they  meant  to  march  immediately  upon  Edinburgh,  and- 
starve  the  Castle  into  submission. 

The  Castilians — or  rather  Maitland,  for  Maitland  was 
the  inventor  of  the  enterprise — proposed  to  anticipate 
them.  He  flattered  himself  that  if  he  could  bring  all 
parties  together  with  some  vantage  ground  of  position 
to  himself,  he  could  settle  matters  in  his  own  way,  and 
flatter  the  ambition  of  Scotland  by  a  sketch  of  the 
prospect  which  that  autumn  was  to  open  for  the  Queen. 
His  plan  was  characteristic  both  of  himself  and  his 
countrymen  —  a  companion  enterprise,  though  far 
grander  in  its  aim  and  scope,  to  Crawford's  capture  of 
Dumbarton.  Including  the  Lords,  their  friends,  and 
their  followers,  there  were  at  Stirling,,  in  all,  2000 
armed  men.  The  town  as  well  as  the  castle  was  forti- 
fied. The  Queen's  party  had  no  kind  of  force  in  the 
field,  and  the  last  thought  which  would  have  occurred 
to  any  one  would  have  been  that  there  was  danger  of 
surprise.  Buccleuch  and  Fernihurst,  with  a  few  score 
border  troopers,  men  accustomed  to  desperate  adven- 
tures, had  been  for  some  time  at  Edinburgh.  It  was- 
given  out  that  they  were  going  back  to  their  own 


534  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  56. 

country.  Half  a  dozen  of  them  were  sent  forward  to 
Queen's  Ferry  to  keep  the  passage,  and  on  the  evening 
of  the  3rd  of  September,  the  two  border  leaders,  with 
Huntly,  Lord  Claud  Hamilton,  and  120  troopers,  rode 
quietly  out  of  the  gate.  They  took  the  Jedworth  road 
to  prevent  suspicion.  Dusk  fell  as  they  cleared  the 
suburbs,  and  they  swept  round  to  the  right,  galloped 
rapidly  through  the  darkness,  and  by  three  in  the 
morning  were  within  a  mile  of  Stirling.  Here  they 
dismounted  and  left  their  horses,  l  lest  the  clattering  of 
hoofs  upon  the  paved  road'  should  be  heard  by  the 
guard.  Stealing  silently  on,  they  crept,  '  by  a  secret 
passage/  through  the  wall,  and  made  their  way  undis- 
covered to  the  market- cross  at  the  head  of  the  town.  It 
was  now  between  four  and  five  in  the  morning,  and 
day  was  breaking.  The  King  was  in  the  castle  beyond 
their  reach,  but  the  noblemen  were  lodged  in  the 
houses  round  the  market-place.  They  had  exact  in- 
formation of  the  place  where  each  of  them  would  be 
found,  and  Lennox,  Argyle,  Glencairn,  Sutherland, 
Cassilis,  and  Eglinton  were  taken  one  by  one  out  of 
their  beds  without  a  blow  being  struck.  They  were  less 
successful  with  Morton,  who,  hearing  the  disturbance, 
had  time  to  barricade  his  door,  and  with  a  party  of  his 
servants  held  out  desperately  till  the  house  was  set  on 
fire.  It  was  one  of  those  high,  narrow  buildings  so 
common  in  Scotch  towns.  As  the  flames  spread  up- 
wards the  poor  women  and  children  in  the  upper  stories 
leapt  from  the  windows  and  were  killed  upon  the  pave- 
ment. At  length,  when  the  roof  began  to  fall  in, 


I57L]  THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY.  535 

Morton,  singed  and  scorched,  grimed  with  smoke,  and 
half  dressed,  came  out  and  surrendered  to  his  kinsman 
Buccleuch. 

So  far  the  success  had  been  brilliant.  The  Regent 
and  the  leading  noblemen  were  prisoners,  and  they  had 
now  only  to  make  off  as  they  had  come,  before  the 
soldiers  in  the  castle  were  roused.  The  fighting  had 
made  hot  blood.  Lord  Claud  Hamilton  owed  Morton  a 
grudge  for  Drury's  invasion,  and  attempted  to  stab 
him ;  and  Buccleuch,  to  save  his  life,  called  off  some  of 
his  men,  and  putting  Morton  in  the  midst  of  them, 
made  his  way  down  the  street  to  the  gate.  The  party, 
which  was  small  already,  was  thus  divided,  and  when 
Huntly  would  have  followed  with  the  rest,  there  was  a 
difficulty  in  collecting  them.  Border  thieves,  if  useful 
in  some  aspects  of  them,  had  their  disadvantages.  A 
town  seemingly  at  their  mercy  was  too  much  for  their 
habits  to  resist.  The  stables  were  filled  with  the  finest 
horses  in  Scotland.  The  lives  of  the  freebooters  of 
Hawick  and  Jedburgh  depended  often  on  the  fleetness 
of  their  steeds,  and  such  a  chance  as  the  present  might 
never  return.  Thus  having,  as  they  supposed,  secured 
their  prisoners,  they  dispersed  in  search  of  plunder, 
Morton's  resistance  had  already  cost  too  much  time  and 
created  too  much  disturbance.  The  recall  bugle  was. 
sounded  impatiently,  but  the  men  were  too  busy  to  at- 
tend to  it ;  and  by  this  time  the  town  was  awake,  the- 
guard  had  turned  out  in  the  castle,  and  parties  of 
armed  men  came  streaming  into  the  market-place  from 
every  wynd  and  alley.  Further  delay  was  impossible. 


536  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.  [CH.  56. 

Those  who  were  left  to  guard  the  prisoners  made  after 
Buccleuch  to  the  gate.  The  prisoners  themselves,  most 
of  them  seeing  their  friends  at  hand,  shook  themselves 
easily  free ;  and  Buccleuch,  who  was  taking  care  of 
Morton's  life,  was  obliged  in  turn  to  surrender,  Len- 
nox was  less  fortunate.  He  had  been  tied  on  a  horse's 
back,  and  a  handful  of  men  were  scrambling  off  with  him 
down  one  of  the  side  streets.  They  were  hotly  pursued, 
and  Claud  Hamilton,  remembering  the  Archbishop, 
and  fearing  that  he  would  be  rescued,  ran  after  them, 
calling  out,  '  Shoot  him,  shoot  the  Regent !  '  A  trooper, 
named  Cawdor,  drew  a  pistol  and  fired,  and  Lennox  fell 
mortally  wounded,  and  was  left  upon  the  ground.  Then 
all  was  confusion.  The  Borderers  had  done  their 
peculiar  portion  of  the  business  well.  They  got  off 
with  300  horses,  f  besides  a  great  butin  of  merchants' 
goods ; '  but  from  twenty  to  thirty  of  the  party  were 
taken  or  killed,  Scott  of  Buccleuch  among  them,  and 
to  the  plunder  had  been  sacrificed  the  whole  serious 
fruit  of  an  enterprise,  which,  in  the  opinion  of  the 
Castilians,  '  if  it  had  been  wisely  followed  out,  had  put 
an  end  to  the  troubles  of  Scotland  without  blood  or 
difficulty.' 

Lennox  survived  only  a  few  hours,  and  '  then  de- 
parted to  God  very  peacefully,'  '  exhorting  all  men  to 
follow  still  the  action  for  the  maintenance  of  the  King.' 
Stepchild  of  fortune  through  a  hard  life,  his  father 
killed,  his  son  murdered,  he  himself,  a  second  Regent, 
now  went  down  in  blood,  and  was  hardly  paid  by  the 
poor  honour  of  being  father  of  the  line  of  English  kings. 


1571 


THE  RIDOLFI  CONSPIRACY. 


$37 


Cawdor,  who  was  taken,  was  broken  on  the  wheel. 
He  confessed,  and  a  comrade  confessed  also,  that  their 
orders  had  been  to  kill  Morton  and  Ruthven  also. 

On  the  spot,  that  there  should  be  no  trouble  with 
Elizabeth,  the  Earl  of  Mar  was  elected  as  Lennox's 
successor.  The  fire  of  hate  was  fanned  into  fury,  and 
Maitland' s  stroke  of  brilliant  strategy  served  only  to 
draw  a  sharper  line  of  separation  between  the  Castilians 
and  the  rest  of  their  countrymen. 

Had  Alva  come,  the  north  and  east  were  still  held 
by  Huntly,  and  Aberdeen  would  have  been  open  to  re- 
ceive him ;  but  on  that  same  week  of  September,  when 
Lennox  was  dying  at  Stirling,  and  Hawkins  was  writing 
from  Plymouth  of  his  officer's  success  at  Madrid,  a 
happy  accident  explained  to  Cecil  the  missing  ciphers, 
and  extinguished  the  remaining  chances  of  the  Ridolfi 
conspiracy.1 


1  For  the  attempt  at  Stirling 
see  Advertisements  from  Scotland, 
September  6  :  MSS.  Scotland.  An- 
other account :  Ibid.  Maitland  and 
Grange  to  Sir  William  Drury,  Sep- 
tember 6  :  Ibid.  Drury  to  Cecil, 


September  10  and  September  13  : 
Ibid.  Confession  of  Cawdor  and 
Bell :  Ibid.  Two  letters,  ciphers 
deciphered,  from  Maitland  to  Mary 
Stuart,  September  —  :  MSS.  QUKEN 
or  SCOTS. 


EKD    OF   VOL.    IX. 


RICHAKD  CLAY  &  SONS,  LIMITED, 
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ESSAYS  which  may  be  had  separately, 
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Addison  and  Wai-  Ranke  and  Glad- 
pole,  stone. 

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Johnson.  velli. 

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tional  History.  Lord  Clive. 

Warren  Hastings.  Lord  Byron, and  The 

The   Earl  of  Chat-  Comic  Dramatists 

ham(Two  Essays).  of  the  Restoration. 

Frederick  the  Great. 

MISCELLANEOUS  WRITINGS. 

People's  Edition,  i  vol.  Cr.  8vo.( 
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SELECTIONS  FROM  THE  WRITINGS  OF 
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May.— THE  CONSTITUTIONAL  HISTORY 
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Sharpe.— LONDON  AND  THE  KINGDOM  : 
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Fox. — THE  EARLY  HISTORYOF  CHARLES 
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Haweis. — MY  MUSICAL  LIFE.  By  the 
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LONGMANS  6*  CO.'S  STANDARD  AND  GENERAL  WORKS. 


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Macaulay.— THE  LIFE  AND  LETTERS 

OF  LORD  MACAULAY.    By  the  Right 

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Marbot.— THE  MEMOIRS  OF  THE  BARON 
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Nansen. —  FRIDTIOF  NANSEN,  1861- 
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Romanes.— THE  LIFE  AND  LETTERS 
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Stephen. — ESSAYS  IN  ECCLESIASTICAL 
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Turgot.— THE  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS  OF 
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Veriiey. — MEMOIRS  OF  THE  VERNEY 
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Seebohm.— THE  OXFORD  REFORMERS  Wolf.— THE  LIFE  OF  JOSEPH  WOLF, 

— IOHNCOLET,  ERASMUS  AND  THOMAS  ANIMAL  PAINTER.     By  A.  H.  Palmer, 

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Travel  and  Adventure,  the  Colonies,  &c. 

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Bicknell. — TRAVEL  AND  ADVENTURE 
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8vo.,  i5J. 

Brassey. — VOYAGES  AND  TRAVELS  OF 
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1894.  Arranged  and  Edited  by  Captain 

S.      EARDLEY-WlLMOT.        2  VOls.        Cr. 

8vo. ,  ioj. 

Brassey  (The  late  LADY). 
A  VOYAGE  IN  THE  '  SUNBEAM  ' ;  OUR 
HOME  ON  THE  OCEAN  FOR  ELEVEN 
MONTHS. 

Library  Edition.     With  8  Maps  and 
Charts,  and  118  Illustrations.    8vo. , 

2IJ. 

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Quillinan  —JOURNAL  OF  A  FEW 
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8        LONGMANS  &•  CO.'S  STANDARD  AND  GENERAL   WORKS. 


Travel  and  Adventure,  the  Colonies,  &c. — continued 


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Stephen.  —  THE  PLAYGROUND  OF 
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Sport  and  Pastime. 
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continued. 


TRUE  (A)  RELATION  OF  THE 
TRAVELS  AND  PKRILOUS  ADVEN- 
TURES OF  MATHEW  DUDGEON,  Gentle- 
man :  Wherein  is  truly  set  down  the 
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Jefferies'  (R.)  Wood  Magic:  a  Fable. 
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V.  B.  y.  6d. 

Jefferies'  (R.)  The  Toilers  of  the  Field. 
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Knight's  (E.  F.)  The  Cruise  of  the '  Alerte' : 
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Knight's  (E.  F.)  Where  Three  Empires 
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Lang's  (A.)  Angling  Sketches.    20  Illus. 


28       LONGMANS  &  CO.'S  STANDARD  AND  GENERAL   WORKS. 


The  Silver  Library — continued. 


Lang's  (A.)  Custom  and  Myth :  Studies 
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Lang's  (Andrew)  Cock  Lane  and 
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Lees(J.  A.) and  Cluttarbuck's  (W.J.)B.C. 
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Marshman's  (J.  C.)  Memoirs  of  Sir  Henry 

Havelock.     y.  6d. 

Max  Mailer's  (F.)  India,  what  can  it 

teach  us  ?     y.  6d. 

Max  Miller's  (F.)  Introduction  to  the 

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Meri  vale's  (Dean)  History  of  the  Romans 

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Mill's  (J.  S.)  Political  Economy.    3;.  6d. 
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35.  6d. 
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y.  6d. 
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Proctor's  (R.   A.)   Other  Worlds   than 

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Proctor's    (R.    A.)     Other  Suns  than 

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De  Sails  (Mrs.). 

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By  EDMUND  J.ARMSTRONG.  Fcp.  8vo.,5J. 

Bagehot.— LITERARY  STUDIES.  By 
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Boyd  (A.  K.  H.)    ('  A.K.H.B.'). 

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AUTUMN  HOLIDAYS  OF  A   COUNTRY  i 
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continued. 

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30 


LONGMANS  6>  CO.'S  STANDARD  AND  GENERAL   WORKS. 


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Butler  (SAMUEL). 

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of  the   Miraculous    Element   in   our 

Lord's  Ministry.     Cr.  8vo. ,  js.  6d. 
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los.  6d. 
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LUCK,  OR  CUNNING,  AS  THE  MAIN 

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Ex  VOTO.    An  Account  of  the  Sacro 

Monte  or  New  Jerusalem  at  Varallo- 

Sesia.     Crown  8vo.,  IDS.  6d. 

Dreyfus. — LECTURES  ON  FRENCH 
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G- wilt.— AN  ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  ARCHI- 
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Hamlin.— A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  HIS- 
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ABERDEEN    UNIVERSITY    PRESS. 


i**YJ 


DA 

315 
F76 

1893 
v.9 


Froude,  James  Anthony 
History  of  England 
New  ed. 


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