OF ELIZABETH (1547-1603).
REIGN OF EDWARD VI. (1547-1553).--_Henry VIII_., with Parliament,
had determined the order of succession, giving precedence to
_Edward_, his son by _Jane Seymour_, over the two princesses,
_Mary_, the daughter of _Catherine_, and _Elizabeth_,
the daughter of _Anne Boleyn_. _Edward VI_., who was but ten
years old at his accession, was weak in body, but was a most remarkable
instance of intellectual precocity. The government now espoused the
Protestant side. _Somerset_, the king's uncle, was at the head of
the regency. The _Six Articles_ (p. 407) were repealed. Protestant
theologians from the Continent were taken into the counsels of the
English prelates, _Cranmer_ and _Ridley_. Under the
leadership of _Cranmer_, the Book of Common Prayer was framed, and
the _Articles_, or creed, composed. The clergy were allowed to
marry. The Anglican Protestant Church was fully organized, but the
progress in the Protestant direction was rather too rapid for the sense
of the nation. _Somerset_, who was fertile in schemes and a good
soldier, invaded Scotland in order to enforce the fulfilling of the
treaty which had promised the young Princess _Mary_ of Scotland to
_Edward_ in marriage. He defeated the Scots at _Pinkie_, near
Edinburgh; but the project as to the marriage failed. _Mary_ was
sent by the Scots to France, there to become the wife of _Francis
II_. Land belonging to the Church was seized by _Somerset_ to
make room for _Somerset House_. A Catholic rebellion in Cornwall
and Devonshire, provoked by the Protector's course, was suppressed with
difficulty. The opposition to him on various grounds, which was led by
the _Duke of Northumberland_, finally brought the Protector to the
scaffold. But _Northumberland_ proved to be less worthy to hold
the protectorate than he, and labored to aggrandize his relatives. He
was one of the nobles who made use of Protestantism as a means of
enriching themselves. He persuaded the young king, when he was near his
end, to settle the crown, contrary to what Parliament had determined,
on _Lady Jane Grey_, Northumberland's daughter-in-law, a
descendant of _Henry's_ sister.
THE REIGN OF MARY.--Notwithstanding the Protector's selfish scheme,
_Mary_ succeeded to the throne without serious difficulty.
_Northumberland_ was beheaded as a traitor. An insurrection under
_Wyat_ was put down, and led to the execution of the unfortunate
and innocent _Lady Jane Grey_. From her birth and all the
circumstances of her life, _Mary_ was in cordial sympathy with
the Church of Rome and with Spain. She proceeded as rapidly as her
more prudent advisers, including her kinsman _Philip II._, would
allow, to restore the Catholic system. The married clergy were
excluded from their places, and the Prayer-Book was abolished. The
point where Parliament showed most hesitation was in reference to the
royal supremacy. The nobles were afraid of losing their fields and
houses, which had belonged to the Church. It was stipulated that the
abbey lands, which were now held by the nobles and gentry as well as
by the crown, should not be given up. Personally, _Mary_ was
inclined to any measure which obligation to the Catholic religion
might dictate. Contrary to the general wish of her subjects, she
married _Philip II_. Rigorous measures of repression were adopted
against the Protestants. A large number of persons, eminent for
talents and learning, were put to death on the charge of heresy. Among
them were the three bishops, _Cranmer_, _Ridley_, and
_Latimer_, who were burned at the stake at Oxford
(1556). _Gardiner_, _Bonner_, and the rigid advocates of
persecution, had full sway. These severe measures were not popular;
and, although the queen was not in her natural temper cruel, they have
given her the name of the "Bloody Mary." Each party used coercion when
it had the upper hand. A great number of the Protestant clergy fled to
the Continent. _Mary_ sided with Spain against France, and,
greatly to the disgust of the English, lost _Calais_ (1558). Pope
_Paul IV._ was disposed to press upon England the extreme demands
of the Catholic Reaction. He was, moreover, hostile to the
Spanish-Austrian house. There was great fear respecting the
confiscated Church property: her own share in it, the queen persuaded
Parliament to allow her to surrender. Cardinal _Pole_, a moderate
man, no longer guided her policy. He was deprived of the office of
papal legate. General discontent prevailed in the kingdom. The queen
herself was dispirited, and her life ended in anxiety and sorrow.
CHARACTER OF ELIZABETH (1558-1603).--The nation welcomed Elizabeth to
the throne. Her will was as imperious as that of her father. Her
character was not without marked faults and foibles. She was vain,
unwisely parsimonious, petulant, and overbearing, and evinced that want
of truthfulness which was too common among rulers and statesmen at that
period. But she had regal virtues,--high courage, devotion to the
public good, for which she had the strength to sacrifice personal
inclinations, together with the wisdom to choose astute counselors and
to adhere to them. Her title to the throne was disputed. She had to
contend against powerful and subtle adversaries. Her defense lay in the
mutual jealousy of France and Spain, and in the determination of
Englishmen not to be ruled by foreigners. Her reign was long and
glorious.
HER RELIGIOUS POSITION.--In her doctrine, _Elizabeth_ was a
moderate Lutheran, not bitterly averse to the Church of Rome, but, in
accordance with the prevalent English feeling which _Henry
VIII_. represented, clinging to the royal supremacy. The Protestant
system, with the Prayer-Book, and the hierarchy dependent on the
sovereign, was now restored.
PROTESTANTISM IN SCOTLAND.--In case _Elizabeth's_ claim to the
crown were overthrown, the next heir would be _Mary, Queen of
Scots_. Her grandmother was the eldest sister of Henry VIII. Her
claim to the English crown was a standing menace to _Elizabeth_.
When _Mary's_ father, _James V_., died (1542), she was only
a few days old. Her mother, _Mary of Guise_, became regent. The
Reformation had then begun to gain adherents in Scotland. On the
accession of _Elizabeth_, at a time when the religious wars in
France were about to begin, the Scottish regent undertook repressive
measures of increased rigor. The principal agent in turning Scotland
to the Protestant side was _John Knox_, an intrepid preacher,
honest, and rough in his ways, deeply imbued with the spirit of
Calvinism, and free from every vestige of superstitious deference for
human potentates. He returned from the Continent in 1555. Many of the
turbulent nobles, partly from conviction and partly from covetousness,
adopted the new opinions. More and more, however, _Knox_ gained a
hold upon the common people. His preaching was effective: one of its
natural consequences was an outburst of iconoclasm. Even _Philip
II_. was willing to have the nobles helped in the contest with the
regent, Scotland being the ally of _France_. The queen-regent
died in 1560. The Presbyterians now had full control, and Calvinistic
Protestantism was legally established as the religion of the country.
THE QUEEN OF SCOTS.--Such was the situation when _Mary_, the
young widow of _Francis II._, came back to Scotland to assume her
crown. A zealous Catholic, she undertook to rule a turbulent people
among whom the most austere type of Protestantism was the legal and
cherished faith. She had personal charms which _Elizabeth_
lacked, but as a sovereign she was wanting in the public virtue which
belonged to her rival. _Mary_ was quick-witted and full of
energy; but she had been brought up in the court of _Catherine de
Medici_, in an atmosphere of duplicity and lax morals. She had the
vices of the _Stuarts_,--an extravagant idea of the sacred
prerogatives of kings, a disregard of popular rights, a willingness to
break engagements. Her levity, even if it had been kept within bounds,
would have been offensive to her Calvinistic subjects. She had at
heart the restoration of the Catholic system. In _Knox_ she found
a vigilant and fearless antagonist, with so much support among the
nobles and the common people that her attempts at coercion, like her
blandishments, proved powerless. Contrary to the wishes and plans of
_Elizabeth_, she married _Darnley_, a Scottish nobleman
(1565), whom, not without reason, she soon learned to despise. Her
half-brother _Murray_, a very able man, and the other Protestant
nobles, had been opposed to the match. She allowed herself an
innocent, but unseemly, intimacy with an Italian musician,
_Rizzio_. With the connivance of her husband, he was dragged out
of her supper-room at Holyrood, and brutally murdered by
_Ruthven_ and other conspirators. In 1567, the house in which
Darnley was sleeping, close by Edinburgh, was blown up with gunpowder,
and he was killed. Whether _Mary_ was privy to the murder, or
not, is a point still in dispute. Certain it is that she gave her hand
in marriage to _Bothwell_, the prime author of the crime. A
revolt of her subjects followed. She was compelled to abdicate:
_Murray_ was made regent, and her infant son, _James VI._,
was crowned at Stirling (1567). Escaping from confinement at
_Lochleven_, she was defeated at _Langside_, and obliged to
fly to England for protection.
EXECUTION OF MARY.--Elizabeth had no liking for the new religious
system in Scotland. She hated the necessity of aiding rebels against
their sovereign. But there was no alternative. In 1569 the defeat of
the Huguenots in France was followed by a Catholic rebellion in the
North of England. Elizabeth was excommunicated by Pope _Pius
V_. There was a determination to dethrone her, and to hand over her
crown to Mary. The drift of events was towards a conflict of England
with _Spain_. The Duke of _Norfolk_, a leader in conspiracy
and rebellion, who acted in concert with _Philip_ and with
_Mary_, was brought to the scaffold (1572). _Elizabeth_
secretly aided the revolted subjects of _Philip_ in the
Netherlands, as _Philip_ encouraged the malcontents in England
and Ireland. The Queen of Scots was the center of the hopes of the
enemies of England and of _Elizabeth_. When her complicity in the
conspiracy of _Babington_, which involved a Spanish invasion and
the dethronement and death of Elizabeth, was proved, _Mary_,
after having been a captive for nineteen years, was condemned to
death, and executed (1587) at Fotheringay Castle.
THE SPANISH ARMADA.--In 1585 Elizabeth openly sent troops to the
Netherlands under the command of her favorite, _Leicester_. The
contest with Spain was kept up on the sea by bold English mariners,
who captured the Spanish treasure-ships, and harassed the Spanish
colonies. It was a period of maritime adventure, when men like
_Frobisher_, _Hawkins_, and _Raleigh_ made themselves
famous, and when _Sir Francis Drake_ sailed around the world. In
the course of this voyage, Drake had seized from the Spanish vessels,
and from the settlements on the coast of Peru and Chili, a vast amount
of silver and gold. When it was known that _Philip_ was preparing
to invade England, Drake sailed into the harbor of _Cadiz_, and
destroyed the ships and stores there (1587). He burned every Spanish
vessel that he could find. He boasted on his return that he had
"singed the king of Spain's beard." _Philip_ made ready a mighty
naval expedition, the "Invincible Armada," for the conquest of
England. The fame of it resounded through Europe. A Spanish force in
the Netherlands, under _Parma_, was to coöperate with it. In
_England_, there were preparations to meet the attack. Catholics
and Protestants were united for the defense of the kingdom. At
_Tilbury_, Queen _Elizabeth_ reviewed her troops on
horseback, saying to them in a spirited speech, "I know I have the
body but of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach
of a king, and of a king of England too." The tempest, aiding the
valor of the English seamen, dispersed the great fleet. No landing was
effected, and the grand enterprise proved a complete failure. Only
fifty-four out of the one hundred and fifty vessels succeeded in
making their way back to Spain.
MONOPOLIES.--The queen knew how to yield to the people when she saw
that they were determined upon a measure. This she did near the close
of her reign, when the Commons called upon her to put an end to the
monopolies which she had been in the habit of granting to individuals
whom she specially liked.
THE EARL OF ESSEX.--The queen had her personal favorites. Among them,
_Robert Dudley_, whom she made the Earl of Leicester, was the one
of whom she was most fond. She esteemed him much above his merits.
Another of her favorites was the young _Earl of Essex_, who was
vain and ambitious. He went in 1596 with _Lord Howard_ in an
expedition which took and plundered _Cadiz_. Then he was sent to
Ireland in command of an army. He failed, and came back to England
without leave. He made a foolish attempt at insurrection, was tried
for treason, and convicted; and Elizabeth reluctantly signed the
warrant for his execution (1601).
CONQUEST OF IRELAND.--After the return of _Essex_ from Ireland,
where he had done nothing well, _Lord Mountjoy_ was sent to
conquer _Tyrone_, the _Desmonds_, and other Irish chiefs. It
was a long and fierce contest. He succeeded in subduing the country;
but the effect of his conquest was a terrible famine in the North,
where the food had been destroyed. At the end of Elizabeth's reign,
all Ireland was subject to England.
THE PURITANS.--Uniformity in the forms of religious worship was
ordained by law in England, and the queen was bent on enforcing it. A
_Court of High Commission_ was established to punish heresy and
nonconformity. This policy early brought on a conflict, not only with
the Roman Catholics, but also with the large and growing class of
Protestants who were called "Puritans." These wished to carry the
Reformation farther than it had been carried by the Tudors in England,
and to make the English Church more like the Calvinistic churches in
Scotland and on the Continent. They disliked surplices and other
vestments worn by the clergy, which they pronounced "badges of
popery," the sign of the cross used in baptism, and like customs
retained in the Church as established by law. Many of them became
opposed to the whole prelatical organization. They did not admit the
supremacy of the sovereign, as _Elizabeth_ claimed it, in things
having to do with the Church and religion. Many of the Puritans
conformed to the existing system of Church government and worship, but
under a protest and with the hope of seeing it changed. Others were
_nonconformists_; that is, they did not formally break off from
the English Church, but avoided taking part in the forms of worship of
which they disapproved. This class was numerous. A third and smaller
class, the "Independents," separated from the Established Church, and
disbelieved in national churches, or a national organization of
religion, altogether. They formed religious societies of their
own. Thus English Protestants were divided among themselves. Upon both
Puritans and Roman Catholics--upon the latter, partly on political
grounds--severe penalties were inflicted. Churchman and Puritan, while
they agreed substantially in theology, stood at variance in regard to
Church government and modes of worship.