CHAPTER XIII.

REIGN OF ELIZABETH (_continued_).

Elizabeth Determines to Imprison Mary--The Conference at

York--It is Moved to London--The Casket Letters--Mary is sent

Southwards--Remonstrances of the European Sovereigns--Affairs

in the Netherlands--Alva is sent Thither--Elizabeth Aids the

Insurgents--Proposed Marriage between Mary and Norfolk--The

Plot is Discovered--Rising in the North--Its Suppression--Death

of the Regent Murray--Its Consequences in Scotland--Religious

Persecutions--Execution of Norfolk--Massacre of St.

Bartholomew--Siege of Edinburgh Castle--War in France--Splendid

Defence of La Rochelle--Death of Charles IX.--Religious War in the

Netherlands--Rule of Don John--The Anjou Marriage--Deaths of Anjou

and of William the Silent.

Elizabeth, on reading Mary's letter, felt that she was now entirely in

her power; and all her art was exerted to draw her over into the heart

of the kingdom, so that she could neither retreat nor escape to France.

She took every measure to avoid alarming her. She dispatched letters

to the sheriff of Cumberland, commanding him to treat the Scottish

queen with all honour, but to keep the strictest watch over her, and to

prevent any possibility of escape. Nothing was farther from Elizabeth's

intentions than to enter on friendly terms with the Queen of Scots.

She had never forgiven her the offence of insisting on her claims of

succession to the crown of England. She had a personal jealousy of the

fame of her superior beauty; and, with such a counsellor as Cecil, it

was certain that a selfish and suspicious policy would prevail. In those

days, honour and high principle were of little account: expediency was

the only statesmanship. It was, therefore, easy for Elizabeth and her

ministers to plead the accusations against Mary--the imprudence of her

conduct, and her still unabated infatuation for the murderer Bothwell.

Mary was a firm Papist, Murray was a high professing Protestant, and to

favour him and his party was to be the champion of Protestantism. To let

Mary escape to France was not to be thought of, for of all things it was

essential to keep asunder the union of French and Scottish interests. It

was clear, therefore, that Mary must be detained in England, at least for

the present; after she had been sufficiently discredited she might be

allowed to return to Scotland.

Elizabeth, after some consideration, determined that Mary's conduct

should be submitted to a formal inquiry. When Mary learned that a message

was actually on its way to call Murray and his accomplices to England,

to prefer their charges against her, she protested vehemently against

such a proceeding and declared that she would rather die than submit to

such indignity. Murray received his summons with his usual artfulness.

He was required by Elizabeth to prefer his charges against the Queen of

Scots, but in the meantime to refrain from hostilities. He obeyed the

requisition; placed his soldiers in quarters; but demanded to know what

was to be the result of the inquiry. If the queen was declared innocent,

what guarantee was he to receive for his own security? If guilty, what

then? He said he had already sent copies of his proofs by his servant

Wood; and if they were found to be faithful to the originals, would they

be deemed conclusive?

Thus the cunning Regent was seeking to ascertain whether he had already

evidence deemed by the selected judge sufficiently damnatory, or whether

he should fabricate more. Nothing could be cleverer than Elizabeth's

dealings in reply. She assured Murray, and also Mary, that she did not

set herself up as a judge of the Scottish queen, far less as an accuser;

that her sole object was to settle the disputes between Mary and her

subjects, and to reinstate her at once in their good opinion and in her

full power; but in secret she assured Murray, as we learn from Goodall

and Anderson, that, whatever were her assurances to Mary, she really

meant to try her and, if she could find her guilty, to retain her in

perpetual imprisonment.

After considerable delay Murray appointed his commissioners--the Earl

of Morton, the Bishop of Orkney, Lord Lindsay, and the commendator of

Dunfermline, who were to be assisted by Maitland, Buchanan, and Macgill.

Elizabeth appointed, as hers, the Duke of Norfolk, the Earl of Sussex,

and Sir Ralph Sadler. Maitland, at this juncture, while engaged on the

part of Murray, sent Mary copies of the letters which Murray intended to

present against her, and begged her to say what he could do to assist

her. She replied, that he should use his influence to abate the rigour of

Murray, influence the Duke of Norfolk as much as possible in her favour,

and rely on the Bishop of Ross as her sincere friend. She then named, on

her part, the said Bishop of Ross, the Lords Herries, Boyd, Livingston,

the abbot of Kilwinning, Sir John Gordon of Lochinvar, and Sir John

Cockburn of Stirling.

The Commissioners, Murray attending in person with his own, met at York,

on the 4th of October. Some obstruction of business was occasioned by

the Duke of Norfolk insisting that, as the Regent had consented to plead

before Elizabeth, he must first do homage to the English crown. This was

refused, and was therefore waived; but the step discovered the desire

of Elizabeth to seize on this occasion to achieve what none of her

ancestors could accomplish--the acknowledgment of the feudal vassalage

of Scotland. The next betrayed the duplicity of her promises to the two

parties. Mary's commissioners claimed that the engagement of Elizabeth

to place Mary on the throne of Scotland in any case, should appear in

their powers; and Murray's, on the contrary, pleaded the queen's promise

that if Mary were pronounced guilty she should remain a prisoner. These

contradictory powers were granted, and Mary's commissioners opened

the conference with their charges that Murray and his associates had

rebelliously risen in arms against their lawful sovereign, had deposed

and imprisoned her, and compelled her to seek justice from her royal

kinswoman.

Murray was now called upon to reply, but, instead of openly and boldly

stating his reasons for the course he had pursued, and producing and

substantiating, as Elizabeth hoped and expected, the charges of her

participating in her husband's murder, which he had so long and loudly

vaunted, he solicited a private interview with the English commissioners,

before whom he stated his defence. In this defence, to the unmitigated

astonishment and disappointment of Elizabeth and her ministers, he made

no charge against Mary of participation in the murder of Darnley; but

reiterated the charges against her of marrying Bothwell, and the danger

thereby incurred by the prince. Nor was this all. Mary's commissioners

did not so far excuse him; they accused him boldly of complicity with

Bothwell and the murderers, and of being on the most friendly terms with

Bothwell whilst the marriage with the queen was in progress. Murray, with

all his art, was confounded and silenced.

[Illustration: LORD BURLEIGH. (_From the Portrait by Mark Gerard._)]

It is said that the arguments and disclosures of the Duke of Norfolk

had, at this moment, greatly staggered him. Norfolk had conceived the

design of marrying the Queen of Scots; and, in order to deter Murray

from pressing the worst charges, intimated to him privately that he was

pursuing a dangerous course, for that Elizabeth, it was well known,

never meant to decide against Mary. Murray was rendered sufficiently

cautious to abstain from the public accusation of the queen; but he laid

privately before Norfolk, Suffolk, and Sadler, the alleged contents of

the celebrated silver casket, consisting of love-letters and sonnets,

addressed by Mary to Bothwell, and a contract of marriage in the

handwriting of Huntley. Copies of these were transmitted to Elizabeth.

Being now in possession of Murray's charges, Elizabeth determined to

compel him to make them openly, her grand object being to establish an

accusation of Mary sufficiently atrocious to warrant her in keeping her

a perpetual prisoner. For this reason she summoned the Commission to

Westminster, alleging that York was too distant for a quick transaction

of business. When Murray appeared before Elizabeth, he found, to his

dismay, that she was perfectly informed of his private interviews with

Norfolk, and she insisted that he should make a public accusation of

Mary, threatening in case of refusal, to transfer her interests to the

Duke of Chatelherault, and to favour the latter's claim to the Regency.

But Murray was not inclined to make this accusation, unless assured that

Elizabeth would pronounce sentence on Mary, which Norfolk had led him

to doubt. Mary, on the other hand, received information from Hepburn of

Riccarton, a confederate of Bothwell's, that Elizabeth was of all things

really anxious to compel Murray to this accusation. To prevent this, she

ordered her commissioners, if any such attempt was made at accusing her,

to demand her immediate admission to the presence of Elizabeth, and, if

that were refused, to break up the conference.

[Illustration: FARTHING OF ELIZABETH.]

[Illustration: HALFPENNY OF ELIZABETH.]

[Illustration: PENNY OF ELIZABETH.]

[Illustration: TWOPENCE OF ELIZABETH.]

These conferences were opened in the Painted Chamber at Westminster,

the commissioners of Mary refusing to meet in any judicial court; and,

acting on the instruction of their queen, they at once demanded the

admission of Mary to Elizabeth's presence, on the reasonable plea that

that privilege had been granted to Murray. This was again declined, on

the old ground that Mary must first clear herself; and on the retirement

of the commissioners it was demanded of Murray to put in his accusation

in writing, Bacon, the Lord Keeper, assuring him that, if Mary were found

guilty, she should be either delivered to him, or kept safe in England.

To this Murray replied, that he had prepared his written accusation,

but that before he would give it in he must have an assurance, under

the hand of Elizabeth, that she would pronounce judgment. On this Cecil

said, "Where is your accusation?" and Murray's secretary, Wood, taking it

imprudently from his bosom, replied, "Here it is, and here it must remain

till we have the queen's written assurance." But while he spoke the paper

was snatched from his hand by Bothwell, Bishop of Orkney, who rushed over

the table, pursued by Wood, and handed it to the English commissioners.

It was received amid roars of laughter, and Cecil, who had now gained his

great object, became radiant with exultation. The confusion of the scene

was extraordinary; Lord William Howard, a blunt sea-officer, shouting

aloud in his glee, and Maitland whispering to Murray that he had ruined

his cause for ever.

[Illustration: HALF-CROWN OF ELIZABETH.]

[Illustration: HALF-SOVEREIGN OF ELIZABETH.]

But as there was now no going back, the paper was read, and found to

contain the broadest and most direct charge against Mary, not only of

being an accomplice in the murder of her husband, but even of inciting

Bothwell to it, and then marrying the murderer. This was totally

different from Murray's former declaration to the English ministers; but

it was now backed by a similar one from Lord Lennox, demanding vengeance

for the death of his son. No sooner did the commissioners of the Queen

of Scots hear this than they most indignantly condemned the conduct of

the English commissioners, declared themselves prepared to prove that

Murray and his friends themselves were the actual authors, and some of

them the perpetrators of the murder. They demanded instant admittance

to the presence of Elizabeth; complained loudly of the breach of the

contract that nothing should be received in prejudice of their queen's

honour, in her absence; demanded the instant arrest of the authors of the

foul charge, and, on that being refused, broke off the conference.

Here, indeed, the conference really ceased. Elizabeth, despite the

withdrawal of Mary's commissioners, summoned Murray to produce his

proofs; and the pretended love-letters and sonnets, of which Elizabeth

had already had copies, were spread before her commissioners. The

originals of these celebrated documents have long disappeared, but

the copies which remained have evidently been tampered with, and have

been pronounced most suspicious by all who have examined them. Mary,

on hearing this, demanded by her commissioners the right to see these

papers, declaring that she would prove the exhibitors of them the real

murderers, and expose them as liars and traitors. This most reasonable

request was refused, and Elizabeth, having now all she wanted, delivered

by her Council this extraordinary decision on the 10th of January,

1569:--That neither against the Queen of Scotland, nor against Murray,

had any convincing charge of crime, on the one hand, or treason on

the other, been shown; and that the Queen of England saw no cause to

conceive an ill opinion of her good sister of Scotland. It was conceded

that Mary should have copies of the papers in the casket, on condition

that she should reply to them, which she consented to do, provided that

Murray and her accusers were detained to abide the consequence. This,

however, did not suit the object of Elizabeth. Murray and his associates

were permitted to retire to Scotland, but it was declared that, on many

grounds, the Queen of Scots must remain in England.

Meanwhile Elizabeth had removed Mary farther from the Scottish border.

She evidently doubted the security of the Queen of Scots so near her

Scottish subjects, and in a part of the country so extremely Popish.

Mary, on her part, was quite sensible of the views of Elizabeth, and

protested against going farther into the interior of England. She did

not hesitate to express her opinion that it was the intention of Cecil

to make away with her. But resistance on her part was now hopeless.

She was in the hands of a powerful and unscrupulous woman, who every

day felt more and more the difficult position in which she had placed

herself by thus making herself the gaoler, against all right and honour,

of an independent queen. She sent express orders to Scrope and Knollys

to permit no person to approach the Queen of Scots who was likely to

dissuade her from her removal, and furnished them with a list of such

well-affected gentlemen as should attend her on her way through the

different counties. On the 26th of January, 1569, in wintry weather,

Mary and her attendants were obliged to quit Bolton Castle and, mounted

on miserable horses, to take their way southward. On the 2nd of February

they reached Ripon, and thence proceeded to Tutbury Castle, a ruinous

house belonging to the Earl of Shrewsbury, who was now her keeper. The

castle lay high above the valley of the Dove, and was a wretched abode

for a crowned head; and Mary was watched and guarded with the utmost

anxiety lest some of her partisans should find means of communicating

with her.

Not only were the Roman Catholic subjects of Elizabeth greatly

discontented with the detention of the Scottish queen--whom Elizabeth

had again removed to Wingfield Manor, in Derbyshire, in April--but the

sovereigns of the Continent also remonstrated with Elizabeth on the

injustice of treating a queen--as much a sovereign as herself--as a

captive and a criminal. Elizabeth, however, feeling that she had now

little to fear from them, replied that they were labouring under a

mistake; and that so far from treating the Queen of Scots as a captive,

she was giving her refuge and protection against her rebellious subjects,

who sought her life, and laid the most grievous crimes to her charge.

The Duke of Norfolk, and the Earls of Arundel and Pembroke, as friends of

Mary, were extremely hostile to Cecil, regarding him as the real mover

and influencer of the queen against her. They succeeded in securing the

favour of Leicester to their design against him, who ventured to lay

their complaints, as the complaints of the country, before Elizabeth,

representing the clamour against the measures of Cecil, and the belief

that his policy was prejudicial to her reputation and injurious to the

interests of the realm, as universal. Elizabeth defended her favourite

minister with zeal; but the politic Cecil was struck with a degree

of alarm at their combination, which might have eventually proved

formidable, had they not stumbled on the scheme of marrying Norfolk to

Mary. The results of that scheme, however, we must postpone till we have

noticed some anterior affairs.

We have seen how Elizabeth assisted the Huguenots in France. In the

Netherlands she was not less active. The commercial natives of these

countries had not only grown rich under the mild sway of the Dukes of

Burgundy, but they had exercised privileges which did not accord with the

bigoted and despotic notions of Philip II. Both Protestants and Romanists

murmured at his harsh and arbitrary government. The latter complained

that opulent abbeys in the possession of natives were dissolved to

form bishoprics for Spaniards. The Protestants groaned under a stern

persecution, and every class of subjects beheld with horror and disgust

the Spanish Inquisition introduced. Protestants and Papists alike united

to put down this odious institution. The league, from including both

religious parties, was named the Compromise, and the Prince of Orange and

the Counts Egmont and Horn took the lead in it. The Duchess of Parma,

who governed the country, gave way before the storm, and abolished the

Inquisition, which had the effect of separating the Roman Catholics from

the Protestants. The latter deemed it necessary, when thus deserted, to

conduct their worship with arms in their hands; and the duchess, alarmed

at this hostile attitude, issued a proclamation forbidding all such

assemblies. In Antwerp and other cities where the English and German

Protestants greatly abounded, no notice was taken of her proclamation;

but it was resolved no longer to remain on the defensive, but to carry

the war into the enemy's quarters.

The people, assembling in April, 1567, in vast crowds, proceeded to

demolish the images and altars in the churches, and even to pull the

churches down. On the feast of the Assumption, as the priests were

carrying an image of the Virgin through the streets, the crowd made

terrible menaces against it, and the procession was glad to hasten back

to the church from which it had set out. But a few days afterwards the

people rushed to the cathedral, which was filled with rich shrines,

treasures, and works of art, and set systematically to work to smash and

destroy every image that it contained. Amongst these was a crucifix,

placed aloft, the work of a famous artist, which they dragged down with

ropes, and knocked in pieces. The pictures, many of them very valuable,

they cut to shreds, and the altars and shrines they tore down and

utterly destroyed. From the desecrated cathedral they proceeded to the

other churches, where they perpetrated the same ruin, and thence to the

convents and monasteries, driving the monks and nuns destitute into the

streets. The example of Antwerp was zealously followed in every other

province in the Netherlands, except in the Walloons. The iconoclasts were

at length interrupted in their work by the Duchess of Parma, who fell

upon them near Antwerp, and defeated them with great slaughter. Philip

dispatched the notorious Duke of Alva to take vengeance on the turbulent

heretics, and overran the Netherlands with his butcheries. The Prince of

Orange retired to his province of Nassau, but Horn and Egmont were seized

and beheaded on the 5th of June, 1568.

The Huguenots in France, alarmed at this success of Alva, and believing

that he was appointed to carry into execution the secret league of

Bayonne, for compelling the Protestants of France, Spain, and Flanders,

to give up their religion or their lives, rose under Condé, and attempted

to seize the king, Charles IX., at Monceaux. Charles, however, was

rescued by his Swiss guards, who, surrounding him in a body, beat off

the Huguenots, and conducted him in safety to Paris. There, he was,

nevertheless, a prisoner, till he was released by the defeat of the

Huguenots at the battle of St. Denis, where his principal general, the

constable Montmorency, was killed. Condé had fallen in the battle of

Jarnac (March 15, 1569). Norris, the English ambassador, was accused

of giving encouragement and aid to the insurgents, and the king was

compelled to make a treaty with his armed subjects. In the spring of

1568, 3,000 of these French Huguenots marched into Flanders, to join the

Prince of Orange, who had taken the field against Alva. After various

successes, the prince, at the close of the campaign, was obliged to

retreat across the Rhine.

Throughout these struggles, both in France and Belgium, Elizabeth lent

much aid and encouragement in the shape of money; but, with her usual

caution, she would take no public part in the contest, and all the while

professed herself the friend of Philip, and most hostile to rebellion.

The summer of 1569 was distinguished by a remarkable scheme for

the marriage of the Duke of Norfolk to the Queen of Scots, which

ended fatally for that nobleman, and increased the rigour of Mary's

incarceration. The scheme was said to have originated in the ever-busy

brain of Maitland. Murray fell into it, probably under the idea that

Mary would then content herself with living in England, and leave the

government of Scotland in his hands; or it might have entered into his

calculations that it would, on discovery, so exasperate Elizabeth, as

to lead to what it did, the closer imprisonment of the Queen of Scots,

which would be equally acceptable to him. Elizabeth was not long in

catching the rumours of this plot, and she burst out on the duke in her

fiercest style; but Norfolk had the art to satisfy her of the folly of

such an idea, by replying that such a thing had, indeed, been suggested

to him, but that it was not a thing likely to captivate him, who loved to

sleep on a safe pillow. The plan, however, went on, and from one motive

or another, it eventually included amongst its promoters the Earls of

Pembroke, Arundel, Bedford, Shrewsbury, Northumberland, and Westmoreland.

Leicester and Throgmorton were induced to embrace it, and even Cecil was

made aware of it and favoured it. In Scotland, Murray, Maitland, the

Bishop of Ross, and Lord Boyd, were favourable to the measure. Mary was

sounded on the subject, and professed her readiness to be divorced from

Bothwell; but as to marriage, from her past sorrowful experience, she

would rather retain her solitary life; yet, if the sanction of Elizabeth

was obtained, she would consent to take Norfolk--but not, since all her

miseries had flowed from her marriage with Darnley, contrary to the Queen

of England's pleasure. The duke, on his part, when it was proposed to

him, had recommended Leicester rather, and on his declining, his own

brother Lord Henry Howard. How far either party was sincere in these

statements matters little; the promoters were urgent and they acquiesced.

The Bishop of Ross, with the apparent approbation of Murray, undertook

to negotiate with Elizabeth for the restoration of the Scottish queen,

on condition that neither she nor her issue should lay claim to the

English throne during the life of Elizabeth; and that Mary should

enter into a perpetual league, offensive and defensive, with England,

and establish the Reformed religion in Scotland. Elizabeth affected

to listen to these proposals, and the matter went so far that, on the

assembling of the Scottish Parliament in July, 1569, Murray professed to

be quite agreeable to the liberation of Mary, but took care to reject

the proposals approved of by Elizabeth, and opposed the appointment to

examine the queen's marriage with Bothwell. Maitland at once fathomed

the long-concealed deceit of the Regent, and dreading his vengeance on

those who had committed themselves in the matter, took a hasty flight

into the fastnesses of Athole.

And now befell what, no doubt, Murray had calculated upon. He despatched

an envoy to the English queen, bearing full details of the propositions

laid before the Scottish Parliament, and the consent received from

Bothwell in Denmark to the divorce. The marriage with Norfolk, which was

the end and object of all these plottings, had never been communicated

to Elizabeth; for though Leicester had promised to impart it to her,

he had not ventured to do it. Elizabeth immediately invited Norfolk to

dine with her at Farnham, and, on rising from table, reminded him, in

a very significant tone, of his speech when charged with such a design

some time before, saying, "My lord duke, beware on what pillow you lay

your head." Alarmed at this expression, Norfolk urged Leicester to

redeem his promise, and speak to the queen on the subject; and this he

did, under pretence of being seriously ill, while the queen was sitting

by his bedside. The rage of Elizabeth was unbounded, but on Leicester

expressing the deepest regret for his meddling in the matter, she forgave

him, but sent for Norfolk and poured out on him her wrath and scorn.

Norfolk expressed himself perfectly indifferent to the alliance, though

so strongly recommended by his friends; but his words and manner did not

deceive the deep-sighted queen. She continued to regard him with stern

looks, and the courtiers immediately avoided him as a dangerous person.

Leicester, who had promised him so much, lowered upon him as a public

disturber. Norfolk felt it most agreeable to withdraw from Court, and

his example was followed by his staunch friends Pembroke and Arundel.

From Norfolk he wrote to Elizabeth excusing his absence, and expressing

fears of the acts and slanders of his enemies. Elizabeth immediately

commanded him to return to London. Her first information from Murray had

been increased by the treachery of that nobleman and of Leicester, who

had hastened to reveal to her the secret correspondence of Norfolk with

them. His friends advised him to fly, but he did not venture on this, but

wrote to Cecil to intercede with the queen. Cecil assured him there was

no danger; the duke, therefore, proceeded to London, and was instantly

arrested and committed to the Tower in October, 1569.

At the same time Elizabeth joined the Earl of Huntingdon, an avowed

enemy of the Queen of Scots, in commission with her keeper, the Earl

of Shrewsbury, and Viscount Hertford, to secure more completely the

person of Mary, who was again removed to Tutbury, and to examine her

papers for further proofs of the correspondence with Norfolk. Her

confidential servants had been dismissed; her person surrounded by an

armed force; and her cabinets and apartments were strictly searched for

this correspondence, but without effect. It is also asserted that it was

determined to put her to death, if, as had been expected, the Duke of

Norfolk should attempt her rescue by force. The friends of Mary blamed

the duke for not having taken arms for her rescue, declaring that a short

time would have brought whole hosts to his standard, but Norfolk must

have too well known the hopelessness of such an enterprise.

[Illustration: THE DUKE OF NORFOLK'S INTERVIEW WITH ELIZABETH. (_See p._

280.)]

The disclosure of the plot produced consternation and distrust on all

sides. Murray, in revealing the correspondence with Norfolk, had not been

able to escape suspicion himself. Elizabeth saw enough to believe that

he had been an active promoter of the scheme; she saw still clearer that

Maitland had been the originator of it; she was, moreover, incensed at

the double-faced part which Murray's secretary, Wood, had been playing

in the matter in London; and she ordered Lord Hunsdon, and her other

agents in the North, to keep a sharp eye on Murray, and the movements

of the leading Scots. To propitiate Elizabeth Murray determined to

sacrifice Maitland; he, therefore, lured him from his retreat by some

plausible artifice, when, on the demand of Lennox, he was arrested in the

Council as one of the murderers of his son Darnley. Sir James Balfour,

whom Lennox also accused, was seized with his brother George, in spite

of the pardon which had been granted him on this head. In the midst of

Murray's exultation over his success, Kirkaldy of Grange, dreading fresh

disclosures, attacked the house where Maitland was kept, and carried him

off.

As the autumn approached, there were repeated rumours of rebellion

in the North, which alarmed the Court of Elizabeth. On inquiry,

however, no trace of such a thing could be discovered, and the Earls of

Northumberland and Westmoreland, when questioned, gave such apparently

honest and satisfactory answers, that the Government was perplexed.

Suddenly, however, at the beginning of October, the two earls received

a summons to York on the queen's business, and the Earl of Sussex was

instructed, when he had secured them, to forward them to London. The

fate of Norfolk, and consciousness of their actual secret proceedings,

determined them to disobey the summons. But, unfortunately for them,

their plans of action were yet so immature that they were not prepared

to take up arms. While consulting what course to follow, the summons of

Sussex arrived, and at the same time a rumour that a force was on the

march to arrest Northumberland at Topcliffe. He and his countess hastened

to Branspeth Castle, where the Earl of Westmoreland had already assembled

around him his guests and retainers. Northumberland was still of opinion

that they should avoid hostilities, for which they were unprepared;

but others, and amongst them the Countess of Westmoreland, the sister

of Norfolk, the Markenfields and Nortons, demanded war. Northumberland

still dissented, and resolved to set out for Alnwick; but was detained by

force, and the banner of revolt was unfurled.

The first step of the insurgents was to occupy the city of Durham. So

insignificant was their number at this moment, that only sixty horsemen

followed the banner of the two earls. But their appeals to rise and

defend the ancient faith found a strong response. Mass was celebrated

in the cathedral before some thousands of people, who tore up the

English Bible and destroyed the Communion table. They then, continually

increasing in numbers, marched through Staindrop, Darlington, Richmond,

and Ripon, everywhere turning out the appliances of the Reformed worship

from the churches, and reinstating the ancient ritual.

They proceeded as far as Bramham Moor, or, according to other

authorities, Clifford Moor, near Wetherby, where their forces were found

to amount to 1,700 horse, and something less than 4,000 foot, but many of

them badly armed. The earls, who were famous for their hospitality, had

but little ready money; Northumberland bringing only 8,000 crowns, and

Westmoreland nothing at all. The Roman Catholics did not rise in their

favour, as they had calculated. The insurgents had sent to the Spanish

ambassador soliciting his help, but he referred them to the Duke of

Alva, and the duke waited for orders from Philip. This aid not arriving

cast a damp on the Romanists, who now, doubting of the expedition, lay

still, or went over to the Royal army under the Earl of Sussex. To add to

their confusion, 800 horse, whom they had despatched to Secure the Queen

of Scots at Tutbury, returned with the news that she was removed thence

to Coventry. They were confounded by this intelligence, and still more by

the rumours of the numerous forces which were being raised under Ambrose

Dudley, Earl of Warwick, and the Lord Admiral, whilst Lord Hunsdon from

Berwick was hastening down upon them with his garrison and Royalists from

the Borders.

Dissension now began to appear in their ranks and amongst the leaders.

The Earl of Westmoreland, who at first was the most daring, now began

to hesitate; and Northumberland, who was, in a manner, dragged into the

rising, on the contrary, counselled bold measures, as they had committed

themselves. The result, however, was that they retreated to the Earl of

Westmoreland's castle of Branspeth. They there issued a new manifesto;

and as the Papists had not come forward as they expected, they now

dropped the argument of religion, and took up the plea that there was a

determination at Court to exercise arbitrary power over the lives and

liberties of the subject, and that it was necessary to drive from her

Majesty's counsels the persons who gave her pernicious advice.

But this retreat had shaken the confidence of the people; and the

different noblemen to whom they sent messengers followed the example

of the Earl of Derby, and arrested them and sent them to the queen.

The measures on the part of Elizabeth's Government were active and

effectual. Orders were issued to muster a large army in the south. The

Earl of Bedford was despatched to maintain quiet in Wales. A regiment of

well-disciplined troops was marched from the Isle of Wight to defend the

person of the sovereign, and suspected persons were arrested. To prevent

any communication with the foreign princes, the mail-bags of the Spanish

and French ambassadors were stopped and examined. Leicester entreated to

be sent against the rebels, but Elizabeth would not risk his precious

life, and kept him near her as her chief adviser, Cecil being indisposed.

The patience of Elizabeth was greatly tried by the cautious delay of the

Earl of Sussex, who was her commander in the north, and especially as his

procrastination allowed the two earls to besiege Sir George Bowes in

Barnard Castle for eleven days, which then opened its gates. There were

even insinuations that Sussex was in secret league with the rebel earls.

On the approach of the army of the Earl of Warwick, 12,000 in number,

the insurgents held a council at Durham, on the 16th of December, 1569;

but dissension again broke out between Westmoreland and Northumberland

to such a degree that the forces scattered, and the enterprise was at

an end. The foot got away to their homes, and the earls fled across the

Border with 500 horse.

In England no severity was spared in punishing the fallen insurgents.

Those who possessed property were reserved for trial in the courts,

to secure the forfeiture of their estates. These, and the fugitives

together, amounted to fifty-seven noblemen, gentlemen, and freeholders,

so that their wealth would form a good fund for the payment of the

expenses of the campaign, and the reward of the officers and soldiers.

On the poorer class Sussex let loose his vengeance with a fury which

was intended to convince Elizabeth of his before-questioned loyalty. In

the county of Durham he put to death more than 300 individuals, hanging

at Durham at one time sixty-three constables; and Sir George Bowes made

his boast that, for sixty miles in length, and fifty miles in breadth,

between Newcastle and Wetherby, there was hardly a town or village in

which he did not gibbet some of the inhabitants as a warning to the rest;

a cruelty, says Bishop Percy, "which exceeds that practised in the West

after Monmouth's rebellion; but this was not the age of tenderness or

humanity." Sussex, in writing to Cecil, says, "I gesse it will not be

under six or seven hundred at leaste of the common sort that shall be

executed, besides the prisoners taken in the field."

Meanwhile the Regent Murray, finding that there would never be any rest

for either England or Scotland while the Queen of Scots was detained in

her unjust captivity, entered into serious negotiations with Elizabeth,

to have her surrendered to his own custody, when it would have been in

his power to get rid of her on some pretence. Knox, in no equivocal

language, in a letter to Cecil which still remains, had recommended her

being put out of the way, telling him, "If ye strike not at the root, the

branches that appear to be broken will bud again, and this more quickly

than man can believe, with greater force than we could wish." On the

day on which this letter was dated, Murray despatched Elphinstone to

Elizabeth, to impress upon her the absolute necessity of some immediate

and decisive dealing with Mary. He assured her that the faction in her

favour both at home and abroad was daily acquiring fresh force; that the

Spaniards and the Pope were intriguing with the Romanists of England and

Scotland, and that daily succours were expected from France. He demanded

that she should, therefore, at once exchange the Queen of Scots for

Northumberland, and enable him, by a proper supply of money and arms, to

resist their common foes. He entreated her to remember that the heads

of all these troubles--no doubt meaning Mary and Norfolk--were at her

command, and that if she declined this arrangement, he must forbear to

adventure his life as he had done.

These negotiations, however private, did not escape the knowledge of

Mary's friends. The Bishop of Ross immediately entered a protest before

Elizabeth against the scheme, which he declared would be tantamount

to signing the death-warrant of the Queen of Scots. He induced the

ambassadors of France and Spain to enter like protests; but whether they

would have been effective remains a mystery, for Elizabeth had despatched

Sir Henry Gates to the Regent on the subject, when the news of Murray's

end altered the whole position of affairs.

Private revenge and public had combined to accomplish this tragedy.

James Hamilton, of Bothwellhaugh, an estate adjoining the celebrated

Bothwell-brig, was one of the Hamilton clan who fought at Langside, and

was there taken and condemned to death, but let off with the forfeit of

his estate. The loss of his property might have been cause enough of

discontent to a proud and high-spirited gentleman, but this was rendered

tenfold more intolerable by the seizure of that of his wife, and her

ejectment from it in the most brutal manner. He determined to have

revenge.

Murray was about to proceed from Stirling to Edinburgh, and had arranged

to pass through Linlithgow. The Archbishop of St. Andrews, the uncle

of Bothwellhaugh, had an old palace in the High Street of that town,

through which Murray must pass. Bothwellhaugh took possession of this,

and made all his preparations for the murder with the coolest exactness.

He barricaded the front door, so that no one could, without considerable

delay, force their way in to seize him. In the back yard he placed a

powerful and swift horse, ready bridled and saddled for flight; and even

removed the head of the doorway, so as to admit him to spring upon his

steed, and ride through it without the moment's delay of leading the

horse there. He then cut a hole for the barrel of his gun through a panel

below a window, in a sort of wooden gallery, from which he could survey

the procession. To prevent his booted steps from being heard, he laid

a feather bed on the floor, and to prevent the possible casting of a

shadow, hung up behind him a black cloth. These preparations being made,

he stood ready, with his piece loaded with four bullets.

[Illustration: THE REGENT MURRAY.

(_From the Portrait in the Collection at Holyrood Palace._)]

The Regent had been duly warned of his danger by a faithful servant named

John Herne, who seems to have had full knowledge of Bothwellhaugh's plan

and place of ambush, and offered to take the Regent where he could seize

the assassin on the spot. With that fatal neglect which so often attends

such victims, Murray agreed to avoid the public street, but took no means

to secure the murderer. The crowd on entering the town became so great

that he allowed himself to be densely surrounded--as it were, borne

irresistibly along the fatal street. The throng, moreover, compelled him

to move slowly, giving his enemy ample time to take aim. As he passed the

archbishop's house, Bothwellhaugh fired so accurately that he shot him

through the body, and killed the horse of the person riding next to him

(January 23, 1570). The confusion which followed allowed the assassin

to escape before his barricade could be forced, and he was just seen

galloping away towards Hamilton. There the archbishop, the Lord Arbroath,

and the whole clan of the Hamiltons, received him in triumph, as the

liberator of his country from an unnatural tyrant who was plotting the

murder of his sister and sovereign. They immediately flew to arms, and

resolved to march to Edinburgh, liberate the Duke of Chatelherault, and

assume the government.

The assassination of Murray greatly disconcerted the policy of Elizabeth.

The wily diplomatist who had such strong reasons for securing her

co-operation in detaining the Queen of Scots from the throne, being gone,

there was a serious danger of the two parties combining, and, by the aid

of France, placing Mary, if not on the throne, at least at their head

during the minority of her son. The Hamiltons, Maitland, Herries, Huntly,

and Argyll, were all on the side of the Queen of Scots, and Morton and

his associates were in no condition of themselves to resist them. They

were on the march to secure the castles of Dumbarton and Edinburgh;

the French were already on the Clyde; the Kers and Scots, friends of

Mary, had burst across the Border, accompanied by the refugee Earl of

Westmoreland; and an emissary from the Duke of Alva had arrived, bringing

money, and promise of substantial help from Philip. It was necessary

to sow instant dissension in Scotland, and for this purpose Elizabeth

dispatched that subtle intriguer, Sir Thomas Randolph, to that country

only three days after Murray's death, and resolved to recommend Lennox,

whom the Hamiltons hated, as Regent. The young king, indeed, was his

grandson, and therefore he had a natural claim to that position, if his

abilities had been adequate to its responsibilities.

[Illustration: HIGH STREET, LINLITHGOW.]

Fortune seemed to favour Elizabeth. At the very moment that Cecil was

recommending these measures, Lord Hunsdon, the Governor of Berwick,

wrote to inform her that Morton was anxious to secure her support, and

that nobleman lost no time in waiting on Sir Henry Gates and Sir William

Drury, who had arrived on a mission to Murray, just before he was killed.

He represented that his party trusted to the Queen of England not to

liberate the Queen of Scotland, or the foreigners would soon possess the

chief power in Scotland, but to send them Lennox as Regent, and assist

them as she had assisted Murray, and they would pledge themselves to

pursue the same policy. Randolph, on his arrival, promised them the

queen's aid, and encouraged them to refuse any connection with the

Hamiltons, who had warned them to acknowledge no authority but that of

the queen. Morton and his friends replied by a proclamation, maintaining

the rights of the king, and forbidding any one, on pain of treason, to

hold communication with the Hamiltons. As they wanted a clever head,

they liberated Maitland from the castle; and on his declaration of

innocence of the murder of Darnley--a notorious untruth--they reinstated

him in his old post of Secretary, and made Morton Chancellor. Randolph

assured them of Elizabeth's determination to increase the rigour of

the imprisonment of the Queen of Scots, and promised them both money

and soldiers on condition that they should take care that the young

king should not be carried off to France, that they should maintain the

Protestant religion, and deliver up Westmoreland and Northumberland.

These conditions were readily accepted, and letters were dispatched to

hasten the arrival of Lennox.

On the queen's side were now ranged the whole power of the Hamiltons,

the Earls of Argyll, Huntly, Athole, Errol, Crawford, and Marshall;

Caithness, Cassillis, Sutherland, and Eglinton; the Lords Home, Seton,

Ogilvy, Ross, Borthwick, Oliphant, Yester, and Fleming; Herries, Boyd,

Somerville, Innermeith, Forbes, and Gray. But more than all, their

strength lay in the military abilities of Kirkaldy of Grange, and the

diplomatic abilities of Maitland, who was no sooner at liberty than he

went over to them. On the side of the king were Lennox, Mar, the governor

of his youthful majesty, Glencairn, Buchanan, and the Lords Glammis,

Ruthven, Lindsay, Cathcart, Methven, Ochiltree, and Saltoun.

The friends of Mary, encouraged by promise of support from Spain and

France, liberated Chatelherault from the castle of Edinburgh, and

compelled Randolph to fly to Berwick. They then addressed a memorial to

Elizabeth, calling upon her to put an end to the miseries of Scotland by

liberating the queen. But Elizabeth was in no humour to listen to such

requests. She had excited all Mary's friends at home and abroad, and a

perpetual succession of intrigues, plots, and menaces of invasion kept

her in no enviable condition. The intrigues of Norfolk for obtaining

Mary, the successive rebellions in the northern shires, the invasions

of the Borderers under Buccleuch and Ferniehurst--who had announced

the death of Murray before it took place--and the constant rumours of

expeditions from France or Spain, wrought her to such a pitch, that on

pretence of seizing her rebels Northumberland and Westmoreland, she sent

the Earl of Sussex into Scotland at the head of 7,000 men, the real

object being to take vengeance on the allies of Mary, and to devastate

the country with fire and sword.

This excessive fury so roused the indignation of all parties in

Scotland, and such loud remonstrances were made by Maitland, the Bishop

of Ross, and the French ambassador, that Elizabeth began to fear that

she had gone too far and, instead of ruining Mary's party, had created

her one out of her old enemies. She wrote to Sussex, commanding him to

stop the siege of Dumbarton, and to Randolph, ordering him to proceed

again from Berwick to Edinburgh, and to inform the two parties that,

having reasonably chastised her rebels, she had listened to the request

of Mary's ambassador the Bishop of Ross, and was about to arrange at

Chatsworth for the liberation and restoration of the Queen of Scots.

On this Sussex retired with his forces, and the commissioners for the

adjustment of the terms with Mary proceeded to the Peak. Cecil and

Mildmay were then the agents of Elizabeth; the Bishop of Ross that of

Mary. The Scottish queen, who had been removed about four months to this

palace of the Peak, then one of the houses of the Earl of Shrewsbury, her

keeper, during these negotiations showed herself a complete match for

the deep and practical diplomatists of Elizabeth; but of course she was

under the necessity of complying with many things which she would never

have listened to at liberty. Elizabeth expressed herself quite satisfied;

still the assent of the two parties in Scotland had to be obtained, and

that was not at all likely, so that Elizabeth's offer could appear fair,

and even liberal, with perfect safety. Morton, the head of the opponents

to Mary, advocated the right of subjects to depose their sovereigns

where they infringed the rights of the community--a doctrine which was

abominable to the ears of Elizabeth, and called forth her unqualified

censure. On the other hand, the guarantees to be given by and on

account of the Queen of Scots were such as never could be settled, from

Elizabeth's fears of the resentment of Mary if once she became free. Thus

the discussion was prolonged till Cecil found a way out of it without the

liberation of the Scottish Queen. He represented that if Elizabeth were

to marry a French prince, she would almost entirely annihilate any hopes

of the English crown in Mary: for if she had issue her claims would be

superseded; if she had not, then the French would be directly interested

in keeping Elizabeth firm on her throne. The Duke of Anjou was the prince

this time proposed, and Elizabeth appeared, as she generally did at

first, to listen with pleasure to the proposal. No sooner was this scheme

entertained than she caused the commissioners on the part of the King of

Scotland to be dismissed for the present, on pretence that they were

not furnished with sufficient credentials, by which she left herself at

liberty to renew the treaty if necessary, or to take no further notice

of it if she came to an arrangement with the French prince. Prolonged

negotiations with the French Court were set on foot, but neither party

was sincere, and eventually the marriage project was abandoned, though it

was subsequently revived in favour of Anjou's brother Alençon.

No sooner had the Scottish commissioners withdrawn than Elizabeth

summoned a Parliament, in which she proceeded to the enactment of

severities against both Romanists and Protestants. Pope Pius V. had had

the folly to cause a bull of excommunication against Elizabeth to be

published. This now effete instrument of Papal vengeance could only serve

to enrage the heretic Queen, and to cause her wrath to fall heavily on

some zealous unfortunate. The lawyers being amongst those who clung the

longest to the old faith, a search was made in the inns of court for

copies of the offensive paper. One was found in the chambers of a poor

student, who, being stretched on the rack to force a confession from

him of the party from whom he had received it, to save himself from

torture, confessed that it was given to him by John Felton, a gentleman

living near Southwark. Felton was seized, and confessed to the fact of

delivering the bull to the student: and to force a revelation of his

accomplices from him he was tortured, but to no purpose--he would confess

nothing more. He was committed to the Tower on the 25th of May, and kept

till the 4th of August, when he was tried at Guildhall on a charge of

high treason, condemned, and executed with the disgusting cruelties of

being cut down alive, and then embowelled and quartered in St. Paul's

Churchyard, before the gates of the palace of the Bishop of London.

On the 2nd of April, 1571, Parliament met at Westminster. A subsidy of

two shillings and eightpence in the pound was granted by the Commons,

and of five shillings in the pound by the clergy, towards defraying

the charges of suppressing the rebellion in the North, and of pursuing

the rebels and their abettors into Scotland. This obtained, a bill was

introduced to make it high treason for any one to claim a right to the

succession of the Crown during the lifetime of the queen, or to say that

it belonged to any other person than the queen. A second bill was passed

this session enacting that any one was guilty of high treason who not

merely obtained any bull from, or entered any suit in, the Court of

Rome, but who was merely absolved by the Pope, or by means of any Papal

instrument; and that all persons should suffer the pains of Præmunire who

received any _Agnus Dei_, cross, bead, or picture, which had been blessed

by the Pope, or any one deriving authority from him; and their aiders

and abettors the same. All persons whatsoever, of a certain age, were

bound to attend the Protestant worship, and receive the Sacrament as by

law established; and all such as had fled abroad in order to escape this

most despotic state of things were ordered to return within six months

and submit themselves, under penalty of suffering the forfeiture of all

property or rents from land. This Parliament was distinctly Puritan in

its temper, and introduced several bills for the reform of religious

worship, which were dropped in the House of Lords, or failed to receive

the royal assent.

The result of the friendship between England and France was that many

of the English Catholics turned to Spain, and the dangerous conspiracy

was hatched which is known as the Ridolfi plot. In the month of April,

1571, Charles Bailly, a servant of the Queen of Scots, who was coming

from Brussels to Dover, was arrested at the latter place, and upon him

was discovered a packet of letters, which being written in cipher created

suspicion. The Bishop of Ross, Mary's staunch and vigilant friend, who

knew very well whence they came, on the first rumour of their seizure,

contrived to obtain them from Lord Cobham, in whose hands they were, from

a pretended curiosity to read them before they were sent to the Council.

Having obtained his desire, he dexterously substituted others, and very

innocent ones, in their place in a like cipher: but Bailly being sent to

the Tower and placed on the rack, at length confessed that he had written

the letters from the dictation of Ridolfi, of Brussels, formerly an

Italian banker in London, and then had been commissioned by him to convey

them to England. He further confessed that they contained assurances

from the Duke of Alva of his warm sympathy with the cause of the captive

queen, and approved of the plan of a foreign invasion of England; that

if his master the King of Spain authorised him, he should be ready to

co-operate with "30" and "40." Who these "30" and "40" were Bailly said

he did not know, but that all that was explained by a letter enclosed

to the Bishop of Ross, who was requested to deliver them to the right

persons.

One of these persons was immediately believed to be the Duke of Norfolk.

When he had been ten months a prisoner without any matter having

been brought against him of more consequence than that of his having

desired to marry the Queen of Scots, provided the Queen of England was

willing--which was no treason--and had been brought to no trial, he

petitioned to be liberated, contending that though he was wrong in not

communicating everything fully to the queen, yet that he had neither

committed nor intended any crime, and that his health and circumstances

were suffering greatly from his close imprisonment. In consequence, he

was removed from the Tower on the 4th of August, 1570, to one of his

own houses, under the custody of Sir Henry Neville. He certainly then

obtained sufficient variety of prisons, but no more liberty, for he

was repeatedly removed from one house to another. He petitioned to be

restored to his seat in the Council, but was refused; and in August of

1571 circumstances transpired which occasioned his return to the Tower.

A man of the name of Brown, of Shrewsbury, on the 29th of August carried

to the Privy Council a bag of money which he said he had received from

Hickford, the Duke of Norfolk's secretary, to carry to Bannister, the

duke's steward. The money on being counted in presence of the Council was

found to amount to £600. But besides the money there were two papers in

cipher; and on this suspicious appearance Hickford, the secretary, was

at once arrested, and ordered to decipher the notes, which then showed

that the money was intended to be sent to Lord Herries in Scotland, to

assist in making fresh efforts on behalf of Mary. Here was treason, and

the duke was immediately sent back to the Tower in the custody of Sir

Ralph Sadler, Sir Thomas Smith, Sir Henry Neville his old keeper, and

Dr. Wilson. The duke denied all knowledge of it; but Bannister, and

Barker, another secretary of Norfolk's, being now apprehended, as well as

the Bishop of Ross, the rack forced a confession from them. The result

was the destruction of the entire conspiracy. The Bishop of Ross, who

was immediately arrested, made such revelations, that when the Duke of

Norfolk, who had hitherto stoutly denied everything laid to his charge,

saw the depositions of the bishop, of Hickford, and Barker, he exclaimed

that he had been betrayed and ruined by those in whom he put confidence.

On comparing the various answers of these men and of the duke, it would

appear that several plans had been in agitation for the liberation of the

Queen of Scots; that Norfolk, though he would confess to nothing of the

kind, had taken active part in them; that the money lately taken from

Hickford had been sent from France for the Scottish friends of Mary. But

the most fatal to the duke was the revelation of the mission of Ridolfi,

who had it appeared been sent by him to Alva, to the King of Spain, and

to the Pope--or rather by Mary, with the cognisance and approbation of

the duke.

From further disclosures it appeared that the Pope placed a sum of money

at the disposal of Mary, and accompanied it by a letter to Norfolk,

regretting that he could send him no further aid this year. Thence

Ridolfi hastened to Spain, and reaching Madrid on the 3rd of July, 1571,

he delivered his letters to Philip. Meanwhile Philip had received letters

from both the Pope and Alva. The Pope urged him to accept the enterprise

and rescue England from heresy. The more astute Alva advised him to have

nothing to do with it, for he had no faith in the men engaged in it,

nor in the soundness of their plans. Philip, however, listened to the

scheme, and was so much impressed by it as to determine to undertake the

expedition, and to appoint Vitelli its commander. Ridolfi assured the

king that he would find plenty ready to co-operate with his forces in

England; that he might calculate on an army of 20,000 infantry and 3,000

cavalry meeting his troops on landing, led on by the Duke of Norfolk,

the Earls of Worcester and Southampton, the Lords Montague, Windsor, and

Lumley, with many others; that it was intended to dispatch Elizabeth

while on a visit to some country house, and also to destroy with her

Cecil, Bacon, Leicester, and Northampton. All this Ridolfi wrote to

communicate; but the scheme was suddenly scattered to the winds by the

discovery of his money and letters.

At length the queen determined to bring Norfolk to the bar. She named

the Earl of Shrewsbury High Steward, and he summoned six-and-twenty

peers, who were in the first place chosen by the ministers, to attend

on the 16th of January, 1572, in Westminster Hall. Thither Norfolk was

brought by the Lieutenant of the Tower and Sir Peter Carew, and was

charged with having compassed and imagined the death of the queen, and

with levying war upon her within the realm--1st, By endeavouring to marry

the Queen of Scots, and supplying her with money, well knowing that she

claimed the Crown of England; 2nd, By sending sums of money to the Earls

of Westmoreland and Northumberland and other persons concerned in the

rebellion in the North, enemies to the queen, and attainted of high

treason; 3rd, By despatching Ridolfi to the Pope, Alva, and the King of

Spain, recommending them to send forces to depose the queen, and set

up the Queen of Scots in her place; he himself marrying the said Queen

of Scots. Norfolk was found guilty on the fullest evidence, and the

complicity of Mary was also brought to light.

[Illustration: KENILWORTH CASTLE.]

On Saturday, the 8th of February, Elizabeth signed the warrant for

Norfolk's execution on the Monday; but late on Sunday night she sent for

Cecil--now more commonly called Burleigh--and commanded the execution

to be stayed, revoking the warrant, to the great disappointment of the

good citizens of London, who had seen all the preparations made for the

spectacle. Elizabeth soon after signed a fresh warrant which, as the time

of execution approached, she also revoked. As she herself hung back, the

preachers and the Commons took it up, and demanded the duke's death,

for the security of both the sovereign and the State. When the public

excitement had reached its height, then the queen slowly and reluctantly

yielded, and issued a third warrant, which she did not revoke, for now

it was become the act of the nation rather than her own. On the 2nd of

June, 1572, at eight o'clock in the morning, the duke was brought out

of the Tower to a scaffold on Tower Hill, the drawing to Tyburn and all

its revolting accompaniments being dispensed with on account of his high

rank. He addressed the people, confessing the justice of his sentence,

though he still denied all treason. On being offered a handkerchief to

bind his eyes, he refused, saying he was not afraid of death; and after

a prayer he stretched his head across the block, and it was severed at a

stroke.

Meanwhile, Elizabeth had been making a gay procession amongst her

subjects, and had been royally feasted at the castle of her favourite,

Leicester, at Kenilworth, and was at Woodstock, on her return towards

town, when she was met by one of the most horrible pieces of news

which ever flew across affrighted Europe. This was the massacre of St.

Bartholomew.

The pacification which had been patched up between the Romanists and

the Huguenots in France had no sincerity in it. All the old hatred and

resentment were fomenting beneath the surface. The Huguenots had no faith

in the Papists, and the Papists longed to annihilate the Huguenots as

heretics. None thirsted so much for their blood as the queen-mother,

Catherine de Medicis. She entered into the most subtle and daring schemes

for their destruction, and the imbecile Charles IX. was mere wax in her

hands. Her plans ripened, the massacre broke out on St. Bartholomew's

day, August 24th, 1572, and it continued until many Protestants of all

ages had been cruelly murdered.

A sensation of horror was diffused all over Europe by the news of this

unexampled atrocity of bigotry, which was greatly augmented in England

by the crowds of Protestants who fled thither for refuge. The body of

the nation called for instant war, to avenge on the sanguinary French

Government this infamous treatment of the Reformed church. The French

ambassador hastened to apologise to the Queen of England for what he

termed this unfortunate accident. Burleigh carefully impressed upon

Elizabeth the necessity of the death of Mary as "the only means of

preventing her own deposition and murder;" and Sandys, the Bishop of

London, sent in a paper of necessary precautions to be adopted, the first

and foremost of which was to "forthwith cut off the Scottish queen's

head." The nation also clamoured for her execution. Elizabeth listened

to the advice, but was too politic to imbrue her hands in the blood of

the Queen of Scotland, without exerting herself first to transfer the

odium to some other person. Killigrew was therefore sent down to Scotland

to see if the execution of the queen could not be effected there. His

ostensible mission was to arrange, if possible, the terms of an armistice

between the adherents of Mary and those of the young king in Scotland,

at the head of which parties were Huntly and Morton. But the private and

real object was to lead the Protestant lords to the point of removing

Mary from the hands of Elizabeth, "to receive that she had deserved by

order of justice." But before an answer could be received the Regent

Mar died suddenly. This occurred on the 28th of October, 1572, and on

the 9th of November Morton, by the influence of Elizabeth, was elected

Regent in his place. Thus Elizabeth had obtained the appointment to

be guardian of the young king of the very man who had for many years

been in her pay, and was ready to execute any designs demanded by her

policy. Both Mary and her son might now be said to be in her hands. No

sooner was Morton in power than he managed, with the help of Elizabeth,

who had always _weighty_ persuasions at hand, to bring over Mary's

chief friends the Hamiltons, and Huntley's people the Gordons, and he

demanded the immediate and unconditional surrender of the castle of

Edinburgh. Kirkaldy, Maitland, and Hume, who held it, however, refused

to give it up, and thus put them at the mercy of their enemies. On this,

Elizabeth ordered Drury, the marshal of Berwick, to advance to Edinburgh

with a strong force furnished with a powerful battering train, and,

if necessary, lay the castle in ashes. In this extremity the besieged

lords, and Mary from her prison in England, implored the King of France

to hasten to their assistance, and not to allow Elizabeth to extinguish

the last spark of opposition in Scotland. But Charles replied that it was

quite out of his power, for Elizabeth, on the very first movement, would

send a fleet to La Rochelle, where he was besieging the Huguenots. The

castle was consequently compelled to surrender on the 9th of June, 1573,

after a siege of thirty-four days, and the King's party was for the time

being triumphant.

Though the French king had refused to assist Mary's party in Scotland

in their last extremity, for fear of Elizabeth's affording aid to the

Huguenots besieged in La Rochelle by the Duke of Anjou, that did not

prevent Elizabeth assisting the Rochellais. She allowed a strong fleet

of Englishmen, under the nominal command of the Count de Montgomery, to

assemble in Plymouth for their relief, and she promised them further

help. To avert this, Charles IX. endeavoured to flatter Elizabeth into

neutrality. He requested her to stand godmother to his infant daughter.

The French Protestants, however, were so incensed at Elizabeth's

compliance, which they regarded as an act of apostacy, that they attacked

the squadron which conveyed the English ambassador, Elizabeth's proxy,

seized one of his ships, slew some of his attendants, and put his own

life in peril. Charles IX. saw in this a favourable opportunity for

inducing Elizabeth to cause the Plymouth fleet to disperse. He therefore

despatched an ambassador before the queen's anger could cool, requesting

her to refuse a promised loan to these audacious Rochellais, and to

disperse the hostile fleet at Plymouth. But Elizabeth referred the envoy

to her ministers on that point, who assured him that they had no power

whatever to impede the sailing of the fleet, for that Englishmen sailed

on the plea of traffic wherever they pleased; and if they committed any

acts of hostility on friendly powers, they were at the mercy of those

powers to seize them and treat them as pirates.

Elizabeth was soon, however, punished for this flagrant equivocation.

Montgomery sailed in April; but on discovering the strength of the

French fleet moored under the forts and batteries of La Rochelle he

was seized with terror, and returned to Plymouth without striking a

blow. Elizabeth, indignant at his failure, then sent him word that she

was highly displeased at his presuming to unfurl the English flag, and

forbade his access to any of the English ports. In June, 1574, he was

taken prisoner in Normandy, and on the 26th of that month he was executed

as a traitor in Paris. The bravery of the people of La Rochelle, however,

and the election of the Duke of Anjou to the throne of Poland, saved that

city. A new pacification was entered into, but the peace of France was

again disturbed by a coalition between the heads of the Huguenots and the

Marshals Montmorency, De Cossé, and Damfont, the Papal leaders called

the Politiques. This league was formed to get possession of the king,

whose health was now fast failing, remove Catherine and the Duke of Guise

from power, and proclaim Alençon as the successor to the crown in the

absence of Anjou in Poland. Elizabeth was actively engaged in all these

movements, especially in advising Alençon to place himself at the head

of affairs. But the watchful genius of Catherine discovered and defeated

the plot: Montmorency and Cossé were committed to the Bastille, Alençon

and the King of Navarre were so closely watched that they were stopped in

five attempts to escape, and numbers of the inferior actors were put to

death.

In May, 1574, Charles IX. of France died a miserable death, full of

remorse and horror, worn out with consumption, in the twenty-sixth year

of his age. By the management of Catherine, the throne was secured by her

next son, Anjou, notwithstanding his being absent in Poland. Anjou as

ended the French throne under the title of Henry III., detested by all

the Protestants for his share in the massacre of St. Bartholomew. In the

following year a new plot was formed between the Protestant council at

Millaud in Rovergne and the Romanists under Damville, to place Alençon

on the throne--a scheme cordially supported by Elizabeth, in favour of

her present lover, Alençon. Alençon effected his escape from Court in

September, 1575; and Elizabeth, notwithstanding her recent renewal of

the treaty of Blois, advanced him money to raise him an army of German

Protestants. In February, 1575, the King of Navarre also escaped, and

the two princes called on Elizabeth to declare war in their favour; but

the demand was overruled in the Council, and Elizabeth offered herself

as mediatrix between the king and his brother, Alençon, who was grown

jealous of the ascendency of Navarre.

On the 21st of April a treaty was concluded by which the exercise of

the Protestant religion was permitted to a certain extent; the king

promised to call an assembly of the States to regulate the affairs of the

kingdom, and Alençon succeeded to the appanage of his elder brother, and

hence-forward was styled Anjou.

This settlement of the differences of creeds was of very short duration.

The Protestant league of Millaud stimulated the Roman Catholics to

counter-leagues, which entered into obligation under oath to maintain

the ascendency of the ancient faith, and to resist all the encroachments

of the Protestants. Henry III., who beheld his own authority usurped

by these leagues, determined to place himself at the head of a great

combined league of the Catholics, which he did in February, 1577, the

deputies of the assemblies of the States, for the most part, following

his example, and annulling the bulk of the privileges lately conceded

to the Protestants. The consequence was another religious war, followed

by as short-lived a peace, by which the privileges revoked were again

restored.

But our narrative of the French contests between the two parties has

passed ahead of the disturbances in the Netherlands. A furious war had

been raging there between the Protestant and Papist interests, which also

represented the interests of the native Netherlanders and Spain. The Duke

of Alva had waded through oceans of blood to maintain the bigoted and

cruel power of his master, Philip; but the natives had found a resolute

and skilful champion in the Protestant Prince of Orange. He succeeded in

establishing the independence of Holland and Zealand; and Philip, angry

with Alva for his want of success, recalled him, and treated him with a

stern neglect, which, however ungrateful in the king, was perhaps the

best reward for the commission of such crimes as Alva had given himself

up to work for him. In the place of Alva, Philip despatched Requescens,

who adopted a more conciliatory policy towards the people, and thus

weakened the influence of the Prince of Orange.

In these circumstances William applied to Elizabeth for help; but, since

he had assumed the government of Holland and Zealand, Elizabeth had begun

to regard him with jealousy. She felt sure that, from his connection

with the Protestants of France, he would seek for their assistance, and

this once gained would afford a pretext for Henry III. invading Holland;

and the extension of the sway of France into the Netherlands by no means

offered a pleasing prospect to the commerce and tranquillity of England.

Instead of granting aid to the struggling Protestants of Flanders, she

withdrew her forces from Flushing, and entered into negotiations with the

Spaniards. Requescens, rejoiced at this change, conceded what he could,

agreed to expel the English refugees from the Netherlands, and obtained,

in return, an order to arrest all the vessels of the insurgents in her

ports, and for their exclusion from England.

This change of policy greatly mortified the Prince of Orange and the

Protestant interests in the Netherlands, but Elizabeth represented it

as her object to mediate between them and France. The Prince of Orange,

however, would listen to no such mediation, till the civil war breaking

out again in France put an end to all hope of assistance thence. To

effectually secure the aid of Elizabeth, the prince sent over deputies

to make her an offer of the sovereignty of Holland and Zealand, as the

representative of the ancient princes of those countries by descent

from Philippa of Hainault. This proposal flattered her; but, after much

discussion and diversity of opinion in her Council, it was deemed best

to decline it, but she intimated that she would do all in her power to

reconcile them to their sovereign, Philip.

About a month after this decision, Requescens died, and was succeeded

towards the end of the year by Don John of Austria, the bastard brother

of Philip, attended by all the reputation of his victory over the

Turks at the great battle of Lepanto. He was compelled to ratify an

accommodation which had just taken place between Holland and Zealand and

the Popish states of the Netherlands, which was styled the Pacification

of Ghent, and provided that no foreign soldiers should be permitted in

the States, and that they should help each other against all opponents.

This treaty was known as the "perpetual edict," but it appeared very

likely to be broken immediately. Don John, without a foreign army,

found himself impotent to contend with the independent Belgians. He

therefore sent for the Spanish army from Italy, and the Prince of Orange

also appealed to Elizabeth for men and money to resist this direct

violation of the edict. Elizabeth recommended both parties to abide by

that contract, but the Prince of Orange, hopeless of any justice or

toleration with a Spanish army in the country, threatened to transfer the

sovereignty of his estates to Alençon, Elizabeth's suitor, now Anjou. He

moreover despatched an envoy to communicate a grand design of Don John of

Austria against England. He represented that Don John was of a restless

and ambitious character, that he had been disappointed of becoming King

of Tunis by the commands of Philip, and that he now found that he had

conceived a plan for making himself monarch of England and Scotland. This

plan had already received the sanction of the Pope, who had engaged to

aid him with 6,000 mercenaries on pretence of assisting the knights of

Malta. The prince assured her that the recall of the Spanish army was

for the invasion of her realm; that the Pope's reinforcement was to meet

them at sea, and together they were to land in England and, aided by the

friends of the Queen of Scotland, liberate that princess, who was to

marry Don John, and they were to reign as John and Mary, King and Queen

of England and Scotland.

Elizabeth must have credited the reality of this design, for she agreed

to guarantee a loan of £100,000 to the States, and to furnish 1,000

horse and 5,000 foot, on condition that they should not make peace

without her approbation, nor allow her rebels to find an asylum amongst

them. This was not a defence of her own country, but an invasion of

her ally Philip's; and she was obliged to assure him that she had no

hostile intention, but to compel the observance of the Pacification

of Ghent, and to defend her own territory against the designs of his

brother, Don John. Philip affected to hope that her mediation might be

successful, but probably trusted to the talents of Don John and the army

from Italy to subdue the insurgent people, in spite of the English aid.

The Netherlanders, notwithstanding the money which they had raised on

Elizabeth's guarantee, wanted yet more; and they put into her hands the

jewels and plate which Matthias of Austria, the brother of the Emperor

Rudolph and nominal governor of the States, had pledged to them. On this

pledge Elizabeth advanced them £50,000. Animated by this supply, the

Dutch proceeded to attack the army of Don John, but were defeated in

the great battle of Gembloux, an overthrow which spread consternation

throughout the Netherlands. Once more they appealed to Elizabeth, to the

Protestant princes of Germany, and to the Duke of Anjou.

[Illustration: THE HOUSE OF THE ENGLISH AMBASSADOR DURING THE MASSACRE OF

ST. BARTHOLOMEW. (_After the Picture by P. H. Calderon, R. A._)]

Casimir, brother of the Elector Palatine, marched across the Rhine with

12,000 men, paid with English gold, and Anjou also advanced at the head

of 10,000. The Protestant followers of Casimir, however, seemed to act

rather as invading an enemy's country than as come to succour friends

and the people, wherever they came, declared that they had better remain

under Philip than under such allies. The Prince of Orange, despairing of

being able to resist such commanders as Don John and Farnese, Duke of

Parma, formed a confederation of the Northern States alone, afterwards

known as the United Provinces; and Don John dying (not, it has been said,

without a suspicion of having been poisoned) on the 1st of October, 1578,

the Duke of Parma won over the Walloon States to Philip by promising to

observe the Perpetual Edict, and replacing the foreign army by native

troops.

However, the contest in the Netherlands went on. On March 15th, 1580,

Philip published a ban, offering 25,000 crowns for the head of the

Prince of Orange; and Anjou, on the other hand, prosecuted his claim

to the Netherlands. Elizabeth, who probably was now looking for a

plausible excuse for dismissing Anjou, professed to doubt how far, if he

succeeded in making himself master of those provinces, she could keep

her engagement to marry him, as it would, probably, be dangerous to the

trade and independence of England; and moreover, if she did marry Anjou,

would not such a marriage be as hateful to her subjects as that of Mary

with Philip? Yet, immediately afterwards, she consented to his acceptance

of the government of the Netherlands, and made him a present of 100,000

crowns, by means of which he put his army in motion.

In April, 1581, in consequence of this return of regard for Anjou, a

distinguished embassy was sent over from France, and was received by the

nobles and the authorities of the city of London with great _éclat_. The

ambassadors persuaded themselves that this time success would attend

them; but they were much astonished to find that the queen had now

discovered a new objection to the match: that it would involve her in a

war with Philip, who had lately become additionally formidable by the

acquisition of Portugal, and proposed to enter, instead of marriage,

into a league, offensive and defensive, with France. By the perseverance

of the ambassadors, however, these scruples were also overcome, and the

marriage was definitively settled to take place in six weeks, provided

that the league of perpetual amity were signed within that time. The six

weeks having expired, and Elizabeth still continuing undetermined, Anjou,

who had crossed the frontier with 16,000 men, and expelled the Prince of

Parma from Cambray, hastened over to settle matters with his wavering

mistress.

Elizabeth received him with every demonstration of affection, and

probably would have married him had it not been for the public

indignation. She let her vengeance fall on the author of a pamphlet

called "The Gaping Gulf," showing the dangers of this marriage. The

author was one John Stubbs, a student of Lincoln's Inn. Elizabeth laid

hold on him, his printer and publisher, and had them condemned in the

Court of Queen's Bench to have their right hands cut off. The printer

was suffered to depart, but the sentence was executed on Stubbs and

his publisher in the market-place of Westminster, by driving a cleaver

through the wrist with a mallet. The foolish Stubbs, the moment his hand

was off, waving his cap with the left, cried--"Long live the queen!"

At the end of three months Anjou grew weary of this silly farce, and

announced his determination to depart. Even then Elizabeth would not

permit him to go without exacting a promise that he would soon return.

She stormed, she raved, she called the States of the Netherlands, which

summoned him to his duties there, _des coquins_, and accompanied the duke

to Canterbury, where she parted from him weeping like a girl.

On his arrival in the Netherlands, Anjou found plenty of employment in

contending with the genius and the forces of the Prince of Parma. He

found, also, that the real authority in the country was centred in the

Prince of Orange, and resolving to make himself the actual master of

it, he laid a plan of seizing all the chief towns in the states on the

same day. But this extraordinary scheme failed. The Dutch, resenting the

attempt, attacked his troops on all sides, and soon compelled him to fly

back to France, where he terminated his existence at Château-Thierry, on

the 10th of June, 1584, not without suggestion of foul play. So great was

Elizabeth's fondness for this prince, whom she might have married, and

would not, that even at this period no one dare for some time inform her

of his death, which she appeared to bewail with all the symptoms of deep

grief.

Within one month of the death of Anjou there fell a far more noble and

important man. William the Silent, Prince of Orange, the great champion

and founder of the independence of Holland, perished by the hand of

an assassin. The ban of Philip had not failed to operate, though at a

distance of four years. Balthazar Gerard, impelled by fanaticism and the

25,000 crowns offered by the unscrupulous Spanish King, shot him on the

10th of July, 1584.