This extraordinary woman, the daughter of Henry VIII. and Anne Boleyn,
was born in 1533. Being educated a Protestant, and having adopted the
principles of the reformation, she was looked upon with suspicion and
treated with harshness during the reign of her sister Mary. She
devoted herself, however, to study, and is thus described at this
period: "She was of admirable beauty, and well deserving a crown; of a
modest gravity, excellent wit, royal soul, happy memory, and
indefatigably given to the study of learning, insomuch as, before she
was seventeen years of age, she understood well the Latin, French, and
Italian tongues, and had an indifferent knowledge of the Greek.
Neither did she neglect music, so far as it became a princess, being
able to sing sweetly, and play handsomely on the lute."
On the death of Mary, in 1558, she was immediately proclaimed queen,
and was received in the metropolis with the loudest acclamations. She
consigned to oblivion all the affronts she had received during the
late reign, and prudently assumed the gracious demeanor of the common
sovereign of all her subjects. Philip of Spain soon made her proposals
of marriage; but she knew the aversion borne him by the nation too
well to think of accepting him.
[Illustration: QUEEN ELIZABETH ON A TOUR THROUGH HER REALM.]
She now proceeded to the arduous task of settling the religion of the
state. In comparison with the harsh and cruel measures of her
predecessor, her conduct was marked with moderation. Yet the Catholics
were made to feel the severest restraints upon their liberty of
thought and action. It was not long before she began that interference
in the affairs of Scotland which produced the most singular and
painful events in her reign. These we have sufficiently detailed in
the life of the unhappy Queen Mary.
The political history of Elizabeth would fill a volume. She soon
acquired great reputation for vigor and sagacity, and was regarded as
the head of the Protestant party in Europe. She took the part of the
revolted provinces of Holland against Spain in 1585, and three years
after, when threatened by what was called the "Invincible Armada," she
displayed a degree of energy and personal courage which would have
done credit to a sovereign of the other sex. She mingled largely in
the political affairs of the continent, and, in 1601, held a
conference with the celebrated Sully, with a view to the adjustment of
a new balance of European power. While thus directing her attention to
general politics, she did not neglect the internal affairs of her
kingdom. These were indeed conducted with great sagacity and wisdom,
and such was the state of prosperity among the people, that the "good
old days of Queen Bess" is still a proverb in England. Although thus
attentive to the concerns of government, Elizabeth devoted much time
and expense to dress, of which she was excessively fond; and she even
affected a love of literature and learning. The age in which she lived
is remarkable for the great men it produced--Shakspere, Bacon, Sidney,
Hooker, and Raleigh, whose works contributed so much to give vigor,
strength, and elegance, to the English tongue. Literature owes,
however, little to her; she was much more fond of displaying her own
acquirements than encouraging the learned. Whatever countenance
Shakspere received from royalty, he owed to his friends Essex and
Southampton; and Spenser, who has sung the praises of the queen in
"strains divine," died in neglect and poverty.
Elizabeth was fond of multiplying pictures of herself, and so far
encouraged painting. One of her most characteristic ordinances is a
proclamation forbidding all manner of persons from drawing, painting,
graving, &c., her majesty's person and visage, till some perfect
pattern should be prepared by a skilful limner, "for the consolation
of her majesty's loving subjects, who were grieved, and took great
offence, at the errors and deformities committed by sundry persons in
this respect." She was so little capable of judging of works of art,
that she would not allow a painter to put any shadows upon the face,
"because," as she said, "shade is an accident, and not in nature."
During her whole reign, Elizabeth was subjected to the influence of
favorites. The most celebrated of these are the Earls of Leicester and
of Essex. The first was a most weak and worthless man, contemned and
feared by the nobles, and odious to the people; yet, in spite of all
his vices and incapacity, he maintained his influence for nearly
thirty years. Her partiality for Essex seems to have been the dotage
of a vain old woman. She could not appreciate his fine qualities; she
would not make allowance for his faults; and he was too frank and
spirited to cringe at her footstool. "I owe her majesty," said he upon
an occasion when she had repaid some want of obsequiousness by a blow,
"the duty of an earl, but I will never serve her as a villain and a
slave!" Essex was too rash and unsuspecting to be a match for the cool
and wily ministers, whose interest it was to have him out of their
way, not only as the favorite of the present sovereign, but as likely
to be all powerful with her successor; and partly by their arts, and
partly by his own fiery temper, he was brought to the block in the
thirty-fourth year of his age. In the exasperation of offended power
and jealous self-will, the queen signed the warrant for his execution,
and pined away the remainder of her life in unavailing remorse. This
grief, with which she long struggled in secret, at length broke forth
superior to control. The occasion was as follows:--
The Countess of Nottingham, a near relation, but no friend, of Essex,
being on her death-bed, entreated to see the queen, declaring that she
had something to confess to her before she could die in peace. On her
majesty's arrival, the countess produced a ring, which she said the
Earl of Essex had sent to her, after his condemnation, with an earnest
request that she would deliver it to the queen, as a token by which he
implored her mercy; but that, in obedience to her husband, she
withheld it. Elizabeth at once recognized the ring as one which she
had herself presented to her favorite, with the tender promise, that
of whatsoever crimes his enemies might have accused him, or whatever
offences he might actually have committed against her, on his
returning to her that pledge, she would either pardon him, or admit
him, at least, to justify himself in her presence. It was in a moment
of pique at his supposed pride and obstinacy in refusing to ask her
forgiveness, that she had signed the death-warrant. She now learned
that he had been the victim, and herself the dupe, of the most
barbarous treachery. Transported with grief and rage, she shook the
dying countess in her bed; and, vehemently exclaiming, "God may
forgive, but I never will," she flung herself out of the chamber.
Returning to the palace, she surrendered herself without resistance to
the despair which had seized her heart on this fatal disclosure. She
refused medicine, and almost the means of sustenance; days and nights
she sat upon the floor, sleepless, her eyes fixed, and her finger
pressed upon her mouth, the silence only broken by her sighs, groans,
and ejaculations of anguish. Her sufferings were at length relieved by
her death, on the 24th of March, 1603. Her last words were strongly
characteristic. During her whole life, she had shown a perverse dread
of naming her successor; but it was necessary that the question should
be put to her in her last moments. She replied, "My seat has been the
seat of kings, and I will have no rascal to succeed me." Cecil, whom
the weakness of the dying lioness rendered bold, inquired what she
meant by the words, "that _no rascal_ should succeed her;" to which
she answered, "I will have a king to succeed me, and who should that
be but the king of Scots?"
The personal character of Elizabeth presents little that excites our
sympathy or respect. She was vain, jealous, and selfish, in the
extreme. She was capable of the deepest hypocrisy, and often practised
it. She sacrificed every thing to her despotic love of sway, her
pride, and her vanity, except the interests of her kingdom. These she
guarded with care, and, though a tyrannical and selfish monarch, she
must be ranked as among the best sovereigns of her time.