Twelve English Statesmen
QUEEN ELIZABETH
[Illustration: colophon]
QUEEN ELIZABETH
BY
EDWARD SPENCER BEESLY
_Sine ira et studio, quorum causas procul habeo._
TACITUS, Ann. I. 1.
London
MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1906
_All rights reserved_
FIRST EDITION PRINTED FEBRUARY 1892.
REPRINTED MARCH 1892; 1895; 1897; 1900; 1903; 1906.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
PAGE
EARLY LIFE, 1533-1558 1
CHAPTER II
THE CHANGE OF RELIGION, 1559 6
CHAPTER III
FOREIGN RELATIONS, 1559-1563 18
CHAPTER IV
ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART, 1559-1568 38
CHAPTER V
ARISTOCRATIC PLOTS, 1568-1572 78
CHAPTER VI
FOREIGN AFFAIRS, 1572-1583 101
CHAPTER VII
THE PAPAL ATTACK, 1570-1583 128
CHAPTER VIII
PROTECTORATE OF THE NETHERLANDS, 1584-1586 156
CHAPTER IX
EXECUTION OF THE QUEEN OF SCOTS: 1584-1587 174
CHAPTER X
WAR WITH SPAIN, 1587-1603 188
CHAPTER XI
DOMESTIC AFFAIRS, 1588-1601 211
CHAPTER XII
LAST YEARS AND DEATH, 1601-1603 230
APPENDIX
A.--SESSIONS OF PARLIAMENT IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH 243
B.--PRINCIPAL HOWARDS CONTEMPORARIES OF ELIZABETH 244
C.--PRINCIPAL BOLEYN RELATIONS OF ELIZABETH 245
CHAPTER I
EARLY LIFE: 1533-1558
I have to deal, under strict limitations of space, with a long life,
almost the whole of its adult period passed in the exercise of
sovereignty--a life which is in effect the history of England during
forty-five years, abounding at the same time in personal interest, and
the subject, both in its public and private aspects, of fierce and
probably interminable controversies. Evidently a bird’s-eye view is all
that can be attempted: and the most important episodes alone can be
selected for consideration.
The daughter of Henry VIII. and Anne Boleyn was born on September 6,
1533. Anne was niece of Thomas, third Duke of Norfolk, and all the great
Howard kinsmen attended at the baptism four days afterwards. Elizabeth
was two years and eight months old when her mother was beheaded, and she
herself was declared illegitimate by Act of Parliament. It is not
recorded that in after years she expressed any opinion about her mother
or ever mentioned her name. She never took any steps to get the Act of
attainder repealed; but perhaps she indirectly showed her belief in
Anne’s innocence by raising the son of Norris, her alleged paramour, to
the peerage, and by the great favour she always showed to his family.
During her father’s life Elizabeth lived chiefly at Hatfield with her
brother Edward, under a governess. Henry had been empowered by
Parliament in 1536 to settle the succession by his will. In 1544 he
caused an Act to be passed placing Mary and Elizabeth next in order of
succession after Edward. By his will, made a few days before his death,
he repeated the provisions of the Act of 1544, and placed next to
Elizabeth the daughters of his younger sister, the Duchess of Suffolk,
tacitly passing over his elder sister, the Queen of Scotland.
After her father’s death (Jan. 1547) Elizabeth, then a girl of thirteen,
went to reside with the Queen Dowager Catherine, who had not been many
weeks a widow before she married her old lover Thomas Seymour, the Lord
Admiral, brother of the Protector Somerset, described as “fierce in
courage, courtly in fashion, in personage stately, in voice magnificent,
but somewhat empty of matter.” The romping that soon began to go on
between this dangerous man and Elizabeth was of such a nature that early
in the next year Catherine found it necessary to send her away somewhat
abruptly. From that time she resided chiefly at Hatfield.
In August 1548 Catherine died, and the Admiral at once formed the
project of marrying Elizabeth. This and other ambitious designs brought
him to the scaffold (March 1549). It does not appear that Elizabeth saw
or directly corresponded with him after he was a widower. But she
listened to his messages, and dropped remarks of an encouraging kind
which she meant to be repeated to him. She knew perfectly well that the
marriage would not be permitted. She was only flirting with a man old
enough to be her father just as she afterwards flirted with men young
enough to be her sons. We already get a glimpse of the utter absence
both of delicacy and depth of feeling which characterised her through
life. When she heard of the Admiral’s execution she simply remarked,
“This day died a man with much wit and very little judgment.” With
Elizabeth the heart never really spoke, and if the senses did, she had
them under perfect control. And this was why she never loved or was
loved, and never has been or will be regarded with enthusiasm by either
man or woman. For some time after this scandal she was evidently
somewhat under a cloud. She lived at her manor-houses of Ashridge,
Enfield, and Hatfield, diligently pursuing her studies under the
celebrated scholar Ascham.
When Edward died (July 6, 1553) Elizabeth was nearly twenty. Although
Mary’s cause was her own, she remained carefully neutral during the
short queenship of Jane. On its collapse she hastened to congratulate
her sister, and rode by her side when she made her entry into London.
During the early part of Mary’s reign her life hung by a thread. The
slightest indiscretion would have been fatal to her. Wyatt’s
insurrection was made avowedly in her favour. But neither to that nor
any other conspiracy did she extend the smallest encouragement. Her
prudent and blameless conduct gave her the more right in after years to
deal severely with Mary Stuart, whose behaviour under precisely similar
circumstances was so very different.
Renard, the Spanish ambassador, demanded her execution as the condition
of the Spanish match, and Mary assured him that she would do her best to
satisfy him. In the time of Henry VIII. such an intention on the part of
the sovereign would have been equivalent to a sentence of death. But
Mary was far from being as powerful as her father. The Council had to be
reckoned with, and in the Council independent and even peremptory
language was now to be heard. It was not without strong protests on the
part of some of the Lords that Elizabeth was sent to the Tower. Sussex,
a noble of the old blood, who was charged to conduct her there, took
upon him to delay her departure, that she might appeal to the Queen for
an interview. Mary was furious: “For their lives,” she said, “they durst
not have acted so in her father’s time; she wished he was alive and
among them for a single month.” But it was useless to storm. The
absolute monarchy had seen its best days. Sussex, fearing foul play,
warned the Lieutenant of the Tower to keep within his written
instructions. Howard of Effingham, the Lord Admiral, had done more than
any one else to place Mary on the throne. But he was Elizabeth’s
great-uncle, and he angrily insisted that her food in the Tower should
be prepared by her own servants. A proposal in Parliament to give the
Queen the power to nominate a successor was received with such disfavour
that it had to be withdrawn. Finally the judges declared that there was
no evidence to convict Elizabeth. Sullenly therefore the Queen had to
give way. Elizabeth was sent to Woodstock, where she resided for about
a year under guard. This was only reasonable. An heir to the throne, in
whose favour there had been plots, could not expect complete freedom. In
October 1555 she was allowed to go to Hatfield under the surveillance of
Sir Thomas Pope. During the rest of the reign she escaped molestation by
outward conformity to the Catholic religion, and by taking no part
whatever in politics. But as it became clear that her accession was at
hand there can be no doubt that she was engaged in studying the problems
with which she would have to deal. She was already in close intimacy
with Cecil, and it is evident that she mounted the throne with a policy
carefully thought out in its main lines.
When Mary was known to be dying, the Spanish ambassador, Feria, called
on Elizabeth, and told her that his master had exerted his influence
with the Queen and Council on her behalf, and had secured her
succession. But she declined to be patronised, and told him that the
people and nobility were on her side.