1594-1598
All through the year 1593 Lord Burghley’s agents in Spain had sent news
of the powerful naval preparations being made at Pasages, Coruña, and
elsewhere, and the war-party at home and abroad had strained every nerve
to induce the Queen to assume the offensive. Raleigh,[611] Drake, and
Hawkins supported Essex in his efforts; but the caution of “the Cecils,”
the Queen, and the Lord Admiral restrained, as well as might be, the
ardour of the forward party.
There were, indeed, many elements of danger near home which amply
justified a cautious policy. James Stuart’s extraordinary lenity to the
Catholic lords who had rebelled against him, and his known dallying with
Spain and Rome, again suggested the possibility of a Spanish invasion
of England over the Border, simultaneously with a rising of Catholics
in England. The almost complete control of the coast of Brittany by the
Spaniards, their recent seizure and fortification of a strong position
in Brest harbour, and their continued intrigues in Ireland, all pointed
to the aggressive policy against this country which Philip’s newly
reorganised fleet enabled him to adopt. What would have caused but
modified alarm to England a few years before, became much more terrible
now that Henry IV. had become a Catholic and was making peace with the
League. Elizabeth and her trusted advisers, therefore, kept Drake and
Hawkins at home, and with the exception of sending Frobisher and Norris
in the autumn of 1594 to oust the Spaniards from Brest harbour,[612]
stood on the defensive.
Essex, often in temporary disgrace with the Queen, headstrong and
inexperienced, was no match in diplomacy for Robert Cecil, fortified by
the experience and sagacity of his father; but he had enlisted in his
service some of the cleverest and most unscrupulous spies and agents to
aid him. Wherever the Queen had an ambassador, or the Cecils an agent,
Essex also had a man to represent his interest. Every envoy that came
from James Stuart or Henry IV. to ask for aid which the Cecils considered
it imprudent to give under the circumstances, was received by Essex
and his friends with open arms; and counter intrigues were carried on
through them against the policy of Lord Burghley. In Scotland, Holland,
and France, it was Essex who posed as the friend at the expense of the
Cecils.[613]
It had been to a considerable extent owing to the diplomacy of Antonio
Perez that Henry IV. had decided to come to terms with the League, in
order that the united forces of France might be opposed to the Spaniards.
It was now Perez’s secret mission from the French King, with the aid of
Essex, to exacerbate English feeling against Spain nationally, and to
pledge Elizabeth to help him against the common enemy, independently of
the question of religion. This would have been a distinct departure from
the traditional policy of England, which had usually been to stand aloof
whilst the two great rivals were fighting; and only the attachment of
the King of France to the Protestant cause had for a time altered this
policy. Elizabeth’s interests in France, now that Henry was a Catholic,
were limited to preventing the permanent establishment of the Spanish
power on the north coast opposite England, and to that end the Cecils
directed their efforts. This, however, did not satisfy Essex and the
war-party; and the persistent plots of the English Jesuits in Spain and
Flanders[614] added constant fuel to the flame, which Perez so artfully
fanned from Essex House.[615]
An opportunity occurred late in 1593 by which some of the instruments of
the Cecils might be discredited, and a fresh blow dealt at the policy
of cautious moderation. Many of the Portuguese gentlemen who surrounded
the pretender, Don Antonio, had for years sold themselves both to
Philip and to England—and played false to both. It has been seen that
Lord Burghley’s network of secret intelligence, under the management of
Phillips, was extremely extensive; and, amongst others, several of these
Portuguese were employed.[616] The most popular physician in London at
the time was Dr. Ruy Lopez, a Portuguese Jew, the Queen’s physician, who
was frequently employed by Burghley as an intermediary with the spies,
in order to avert suspicion from them. On several occasions suggestions
had been made to Philip by these spies of plans to kill the pretender,
and Lopez’s name had been mentioned to the Spanish Government as one who
would be willing to undertake the task of poisoning him.
In 1590 one Andrada had been discovered in an act of treachery against
Don Antonio, and arrested in England, and a letter of his to Mendoza had
been intercepted, in which he said that he had won over Lopez to the
cause of Spain. In another letter, not intercepted, he gave particulars
of a proposal of Lopez to bring about peace between England and Spain, if
a sum of money was paid to him. Through the influence of Lopez, however,
Andrada was liberated, and sent abroad as a spy in the interests of
England. Thenceforward for three years secret correspondence was known,
by Lord Burghley, to be passing between Spanish agents in Flanders and
Spain, and Dr. Lopez, through Andrada and others. The intermediaries
were all double spies and scoundrels who would have stuck at nothing,
and were so regarded by Lord Burghley; but Lopez was thought to be above
suspicion, and to be acting solely in English interests. He had, however,
made an enemy of Essex; and Perez artfully wheedled some admissions
from him that he was in communication with Spanish agents about some
great plan. In October 1593, Gama, one of the agents, was, at Essex’s
suggestion, arrested in Lopez’s house and searched. The letters found
upon him were enigmatical, but suspicious. Then another agent named
Tinoco, with similar communications and bills of exchange in his pocket
from Spanish ministers, was laid by the heels. Essex, prompted by
Perez, was indefatigable in the examination of the men. They lied and
prevaricated—for it is certain that they were paid by both sides; but
one of them mentioned Dr. Lopez as being interested in some compromising
papers found upon him, and suddenly on the 30th January the Queen’s
physician was arrested. He was immediately carried to Cecil House in the
Strand, and there examined by the Lord Treasurer, Sir Robert Cecil, and
Essex.[617]
His answers seemed satisfactory to the Cecils, whose agent Lopez was,
but did not please Essex. The Earl, however, was forestalled by Robert
Cecil, who posted off to Hampton Court and assured Elizabeth of the
physician’s innocence. Whilst he was assuring her that the only ground
for the accusation—which had now assumed the form of a plot to murder
the Queen—arose from the Earl’s hatred of Lopez, Essex was endeavouring
to strengthen the proofs against the accused. When the Earl appeared
at court the Queen burst out in a fury against him, called him a rash
and temerarious youth to bring this ruinous accusation of high treason
against her trusty servant from sheer malice, and told him that she
knew Lopez was innocent, and her honour was at stake in seeing justice
done. Gradually, however, the nets closed around the doctor. The Cecils
did as much as they dared in his favour, but the presumptive evidence
against him was too strong. The underlings competed with each other
in the fulness of their confessions against Lopez, in hope of favour
for themselves; and at length some sort of confession was said to have
been wrung from Lopez himself,[618] Robert Cecil, with horror, was
forced to admit his belief that he was guilty,[619] and Lopez and his
fellow-criminals were executed at Tyburn early in June.[620] This,
together with the simultaneous declaration of other Spanish Jesuit plots
against the Queen, and the activity of Perez’s venomous pen, aroused a
feeling of perfect fury against Philip and his country.
All eyes looked to Drake and the sailors again to punish Spain upon
the sea. Talk of great expeditions to America, to the Azores, to Spain
itself, ran from mouth to mouth. What had been done with impunity
before, might, said the Englishmen, be done again, even though the King
of France had become a Papist and was unworthy of English help. But
the Queen was in one of her timid moods, and the Cecils held the reins
tightly. Essex remained sulking or in disgrace for the greater part of
the summer, and, we learn from a letter from Sir Thomas Cecil to his
brother, only became ostensibly reconciled with the Lord Treasurer in
August.
Little of the routine business passed through Lord Burghley’s hands now,
thanks to the activity of his son, but we get a glance occasionally at
the aged minister from friends and foes who visited him. In the latter
category we may place the spy Standen, a place-hunter and double traitor,
who had fastened himself upon Essex, and yet was for ever pestering
Burghley for an appointment. Sometimes the Lord Treasurer pretended to
forget who he was, sometimes he gravely and politely expressed his regret
at his inability to help him; but on one occasion, at least, he let him
know that as he had joined Essex he must expect nothing from him. Standen
was hanging about Hampton Court in the spring, and when the Queen had
left, thinking the Lord Treasurer would be less busy than usual, “he
stepped into his Lordship’s bedchamber, and found him alone sitting by
the fire.” After some compliments, the place-hunter, for the hundredth
time, set forth his claims. Burghley replied as before, that Standen was
in England for a long time after his return from abroad without even
coming to salute him. Standen said he had been ill with ague; “but,”
said the minister, “you have been about the court all the winter and
must have had some good days. And,” he asked, “how is it I have not seen
the statement the Queen told you to draw up about Spain and to hand to
me?” Standen hemmed and ha’d, but at last had to confess that he had
given the statement to Essex for the Queen six months before. “Then my
Lord began to start in his chair, and to alter his voice and countenance
from a kind of crossing and wayward manner which he hath, into a tune
of choler,”[621] and told the spy that since he had begun with the
Earl of Essex he had better go on with him, and hoped him well of it.
Then angrily telling him some home-truths about his conduct, the Lord
Treasurer dismissed the spy; though for the rest of the great minister’s
life he was not free from his importunities.
It was not often that Lord Burghley thus exhibited anger, even to a man
like Standen. We seem to know the aged statesman better in the following
pathetic little word-picture contained in a letter from his faithful
secretary, Sir Michael Hicks, to Sir Robert Cecil[622] (27th September):
“My Lord called me to him this evening, and willed me to write to you
in mine own name, to signify to you that the Judge of the Admiralty
came hither to him a little before supper time, to let him understand
that he was not furnished with sufficient matter to meet the French
Ambassador, and required five or six days’ further respite … wherewith
he (Burghley) was well contented … for at the time of his coming to him
he found himself ill, and not fit to hear and deal in suits, and he doth
so continue. And truly, methinks, he is nothing sprighted, but lying on
his couch he museth or slumbereth. And being a little before supper at
the fire, I offered him some letters and other papers, but he was soon
weary of them, and told me he was unfit to hear suits. But I hope a good
night’s rest will make him better to-morrow.”[623]
But though the great statesman was nearing his end, his mind was as
keen as ever, and his influence was strong enough to prevent Essex from
dragging England into an offensive war with Spain for the benefit of
Henry IV. The Béarnais had still to cope with rebellion in various parts
of his realm, and the Spaniards had secured a firm footing in Picardy
and Brittany; his finances were in the utmost disorder, and against the
advice of Sully he declared a national war against Philip in January. He
had clamoured and cajoled in vain for more aid from Elizabeth, and in his
pressing need had appealed with more success to the Hollanders.
This was the last straw. All the old distrust of the Burghley school
against the French revived. The Queen was furious that these ingrate
Dutchmen, whom she alone had rescued from the Spanish tyranny, should now
curry favour with France. They owed her vast sums of money and eternal
gratitude, they had offered her the sovereignty of their States, and yet
instead of paying their debts and releasing some of her forces occupied
in their service, they must needs seek fresh friends. If possible she was
more indignant still with Henry; for, as we have seen, one of the two
pivots upon which English policy turned was to exclude French influence
in the Low Countries. Thomas Bodley was sent back to the States with
reproaches for their ingratitude, and a peremptory demand that they
should pay her what they owed her. Before he left England, however, he
also was gained by Essex, and notwithstanding Burghley’s and the Queen’s
strict instructions, was far more careful to provide excuses for the
States than to press them.[624] Henry IV., too, never ceased to declare
that unless much more English help was sent to him, the north of France
would slip from his grasp whilst he was busy in the south; and in the
autumn, point was given to his warning by the treacherous surrender of
Cambray to the Spaniards. This was a direct danger to England, and Henry
made the most of it by sending a special envoy to demand fresh English
aid. But still Burghley was against violent measures, for a great Spanish
fleet was being fitted out in Galicia, and Tyrone’s rebellion in Ireland
was being actively promoted by Philip. Defence, as usual, was the first
thought of the Lord Treasurer; and disabled as he was, he drew up in
the autumn a complete scheme for the protection of the country against
invasion.[625]
But though Elizabeth would not commence offensive warfare against Spain,
she was induced to listen at last to Drake’s oft-rejected prayer for
permission to raise a powerful privateer squadron to capture prizes
and raid Panama. This was what people wanted. Drake’s name had not
lost its magic, and volunteers joined in thousands, eager for fighting
and loot under the great admiral. The ports of Spain and Portugal were
panic-stricken at the mere prospect of a visit, and if the fleet had
sailed promptly in the spring, Philip might have been crippled again. But
the Queen and Burghley were still apprehensive, and loath to let Drake
sail too far away. Suddenly on 23rd July four Spanish pinnaces landed
600 soldiers on the Cornish coast, and without resistance they ravaged
and burnt the country round Penzance. It was a mere predatory raid from
the Brittany coast; but it seemed to justify all Elizabeth’s fears, and,
to Drake’s despair, she forbade him to go direct to Panama. He was,
she said, to cruise about the Channel and Ireland for a month, then to
intercept any fleet from Spain that might threaten, and finally to lay in
wait for the Spanish treasure flotilla before he crossed the Atlantic.
The orders doubtless originated from Howard, who was as cautious as
Burghley himself; but Drake and his officers flatly refused to obey them.
They had, they said, on the Queen’s commission fitted out at vast expense
a private fleet for a certain purpose, and it was utterly inappropriate
to the service now demanded of it. The Queen was angry, and, as usual,
called upon Burghley to refute the strategical arguments of the sailors,
which he did in a learned minute. But it was never sent, for Drake was
obviously in the right, and the Queen was obliged to give way. She made
Drake pledge his honour to be back in England again in the following
May to fight the new Armada, and, on the 28th August, Drake and Hawkins
sailed out of Plymouth to failure and death.
All through the year, with but short intervals of comparative ease, Lord
Burghley remained ill, but manfully determined to perform his duty. His
letters to his son, written, of course, with greater freedom than to
others, disclose more of his private feelings than we have been able
to see at any earlier period of his career. Both in these letters and
those of his secretaries the note touched is intense devotion to the
public service at any cost to his own repose. Maynard writes to Sir
Robert Cecil (23rd December 1594) that the sharp weather had increased
the Lord Treasurer’s pain. “But for your coming hither his Lordship
says you shall not need, although you shall hear his amendment is grown
backward.” A few months later at Theobalds, Clapham sends to Sir Robert
very unfavourable news of the invalid, and in the following month of
May we find him confined to his bed at Cecil House in London, suffering
greatly, and fretting at his inability to go to court. In the autumn he
tells his son that he is obliged to sign his letters with a stamp, “for
want of a right hand”; but even then he concludes his letter thus—“And
if by your speech with her Majesty she will not mislike to have so bold
a person to lodge in her house, I will come as I am (in body not half a
man, but in mind passable) to the muster of the rest of my good Lords,
her Majesty’s Councillors, my good friends.… Upon your answer I will make
no unnecessary delay, by God’s permission.”[626] In the midst of his
pain his letters are full of directions upon State matters. In a letter
to Cecil in October, urging the Queen to send prompt reinforcements to
Ireland, which apparently she was inclined to neglect, he says, “My
aching pains so increase that I am all night sleepless, though not idle
in mind.”[627]
That the Lord Treasurer’s bodily weakness and overpowering
political influence were recognised elsewhere than in England as a
powerful factor in the international situation, is evident from the
correspondence—amongst many others—of the Venetian Ambassador in France.
Henry had gone north, and was besieging La Fère, in Picardy, in the
late autumn, after the fall of Cambray, and had sent his agent Lomenie
to England to support the efforts of Essex in his favour. But the Earl
was in semi-disgrace, and the French agent went back with but small
promises of aid. Henry was about to send a stronger envoy, Sancy, but
Essex told him it would be useless, and the clever Béarnais, knowing
best how to arouse Elizabeth’s jealousy, despatched Sancy to Holland.
Thereupon the Venetian Ambassador writes to the Doge: “If Sancy went to
England just now he would not find the Queen well disposed towards the
policy of his Majesty (Henry IV.), not only on the grounds I have so
often explained, but also because she does not approve of the conduct of
the French ministers. The chief reason, however, is that there reigns a
division in the councils of the Queen, and her two principal ministers
are secretly in disaccord. One of these ministers, the Lord Treasurer, is
very ill-disposed towards the crown of France, and uses all his influence
to prevent the Queen from taking an active part in this direction. There
is a strong suspicion that he has been bought by Spanish gold. The other
nobleman, a prime favourite with the Queen, is of the contrary opinion,
urging that every effort should be made to quench the fire in one’s
neighbour’s house to prevent one’s own from being burnt. The Queen is in
the greatest perplexity. The Lord Treasurer, in addition to his other
arguments, urges the plea of economy, to which women are naturally more
inclined than men. All the same, no efforts are being spared to dispose
her mind, so that should Sancy go to England he may easily obtain all he
asks for.”[628]
When it became evident that Henry was again appealing to the States,
Elizabeth was forced to make a counter-move, and decided to send Sir
Henry Unton to offer further English help, if certain French towns,
especially Calais, were placed in her hands as security. It was clear
that Henry neither could nor would agree to such terms, and probably
the Queen and Burghley were quite aware of the fact; but upon Unton’s
embassy Essex founded a regular conspiracy for the purpose of outwitting
the Cecils and dragging England into war. Antonio Perez had already been
sent back to France in July 1595, self-pitying and lachrymose at leaving
the luxury of Essex House to follow a camp; but to be received in France
almost with royal consideration, and to be welcomed once more as the
bosom friend of the King. He betrayed everybody; but his real mission was
to send alarming news to Essex as to Henry’s intentions, in order that
Elizabeth might be frightened into an alliance with him to prevent his
joining her enemies against her. Perez thought more of his own discomfort
than of his English patron’s policy, and had to be brought to book more
than once. The Earl sent Sir Roger Williams to upbraid him for not making
matters more lively. “I am doing,” says the Earl, “what I can to push on
war in England; but you! you! Antonio, what are you doing on that side?”
But when Unton went on his mission early in January 1596, a stronger ally
than Perez was gained. He was entirely in Essex’s interests, and received
secret instructions from the Earl.[629] Perez and Unton were to work
together, of course without the knowledge of Sir Thomas Edmonds, the
regular Ambassador, who was a “Cecil man.” Henry IV. was to be prompted
to feign anger and indignation with England, and threaten to make friends
with Spain. “He must so use the matter as Unton may send us thundering
letters, whereby he must drive us to propound and to offer.” Perez, too,
was to keep the game alive by assuring Essex that a treaty was on foot
between France and Spain, and to reproach Essex for allowing Unton to be
sent on such an errand as would mortally offend the King.
But the Cecils were too clever for Essex and Perez combined. One of
Perez’s secretaries played him false, for which he was afterwards
imprisoned in the Clink by Essex; and it is probable that the threads of
the intrigue, all through, were in the hands of Burghley. In any case,
there was no great change in Elizabeth’s policy,[630] and Unton himself
died in France before his mission was complete (23rd March 1596). Only a
few days afterwards news reached London that the Spaniards were marching
on Calais. This, at all events, was calculated to arouse Elizabeth to
action; and on Easter Sunday 1596 all the church doors in London were
suddenly closed during service, and there and then a number of the
men-worshippers pressed for service. They were hurriedly armed and on the
same night marched to Dover for embarkation under Essex. No sooner were
the men on board and ready to sail than a counter order came from London.
Essex was frantic, and wrote rash and foolish letters to the Queen and
the Lord Admiral. He writes to Sir Robert Cecil on the same day: “O! pray
get the order altered. I have written to the Queen in a passion. Pray
plead for me, that I may not be disgraced by any one else commanding
the succour whilst I have done the work. Pray do not show the Queen my
letter to the Admiral; it is too passionate.”[631] Almost in sight of
Essex, the day after this was written (14th), the citadel of Calais fell
into the hands of the Spaniards, and Elizabeth found she had overreached
herself.[632] When Unton had asked for Calais as the price of her help,
the Béarnais had said, with his usual oath, that he would see it in the
hands of the Spaniards first; and for once he had told the truth.
The blow to Elizabeth’s policy was undoubtedly a severe one, and a
counter-stroke had to be delivered. The old project which on several
occasions had been submitted by Howard to the Council for an attack upon
the shipping in Cadiz harbour, was revived. Essex was all aflame in the
business from the first; but the Queen changed her mind from day to day.
“The Queen,” wrote Reynolds in May,[633] “is daily changing her humour
about my Lord’s voyage, and was yesterday almost resolute to stay it,
using very hard words of my Lord’s wilfulness.” Lord Burghley appears
to have been very ill at the time of the preparations;[634] but he was
sufficiently well to secure the appointment of the aged Lord Admiral to
the joint command of the fleet, to the discontent, and almost despair, of
Essex; and to pen an order from the Queen strictly limiting the objects
of the expedition to the destruction of the Spanish ships manifestly
intended for the invasion of England. The great fleet of 96 sail, with
a contingent of 24 sail of Hollanders, left Plymouth on the 5th June,
and on the 20th appeared before the astounded eyes of the citizens of
Cadiz. The divided command, and the small experience of actual fighting
at sea of Howard and Essex, was nearly bringing about a disaster to the
English; but at a critical moment Ralegh’s advice was taken. The fleet
sailed boldly into the harbour, and destroyed the shipping first, and
then captured and sacked the city.
It was the greatest blow that had ever been dealt to the power of Spain;
and it proved that Philip’s system was rotten, and that the Spanish
pretensions were incapable of being sustained by force of arms. When
Essex came back he found that Sir Robert Cecil had been appointed
Secretary of State (July) in his absence.[635] The Queen was fractious,
and offended that her orders had been exceeded, and above all, that she
had not received so much booty as she expected; and for a time Essex
was kept at arm’s length. But now that Cecil had obtained the coveted
post of Secretary, he wisely endeavoured to make friends with Essex, who
had so bitterly opposed him;[636] and, greatly to the Queen’s delight,
a new appearance of cordiality between them was the result. Sir Robert
even brought Ralegh into the circle of grace. He had been for five years
under the Queen’s frown, but Cadiz had made him friendly with Essex,
and now Cecil and Essex together brought about a reconciliation with
the Queen. On the 2nd June 1597 Ralegh once more knelt before his royal
mistress, and donned his long-neglected silver armour as captain of the
guard.
The sacking of Cadiz had irretrievably ruined Philip’s prestige; but
it had not deprived him of all material resources, heavy and ceaseless
as had been the drain upon his treasury for the war in France. The
Irish chiefs left him no peace from their importunities, and assured
him again and again that with the aid of a few men the island might be
his, and Elizabeth and the heretics at his mercy. Promises, sums of
money, and slight succour were sent from time to time; but the insult of
Cadiz and the exhortations of the Church, at length prevailed upon the
King to attempt one great effort in Ireland to crush his enemy before
swift approaching death struck him down. We understand now that such a
system as his foredoomed to failure any attempt to organise promptly an
efficient naval armament; for penury, peculation, delay, and ineptitude
were the natural result of the minutest details being jealously retained
in the hands of an overworked hermit hundreds of miles away from the
centre of activity. But in England the news of his intentions caused far
greater apprehension than we now know that they deserved; and Essex was
again all eagerness to take out another fleet, and repeat elsewhere the
_coup_ of Cadiz.
This time he found no obstacles raised by the Cecils. In a biography of
Lord Burghley, it is not necessary to probe the vexed question of the
sincerity of Sir Robert Cecil’s reconciliation with Essex. Most inquirers
of late years have assumed, with some show of justification, that it
was from the first a deep-laid plot of Cecil, perhaps with Ralegh’s
co-operation, to ruin the Earl, as in its results it certainly did. But
without admitting this, or at least implicating Burghley himself in such
a plan,[637] it may fairly be assumed that when Cecil saw how smoothly
things went for him, and how soon he obtained the Secretaryship when
Essex was absent, he may have welcomed any opportunity of again getting
rid of so turbulent and quarrelsome a colleague.[638] The earl’s pride
and jealousy had also taken from him much of the Queen’s regard, and she
was determined to humble or to break him. The first project had been to
raise a small expedition under Ralegh and Lord Thomas Howard to intercept
the Spanish treasure fleets; but when it became known that the Adelantado
of Castile was making ready a fleet of 100 ships and a powerful army in
the Galician ports, Essex proposed a great enlargement of the plan. He
was authorised to raise a force of 120 ships, the Dutchmen were induced
to send a strong contingent, and with infinite labour Essex and Ralegh
induced the Queen to consent to their plan for burning the Spanish fleet,
in port or wherever they could find it, and then to intercept and capture
the homeward-bound flotillas from the East and West Indies.
Lord Burghley’s attitude is seen by a cordial letter he wrote to Essex
early in May (State Papers, Domestic). “I thank you,” he says, “for not
reproving my objections for the resolutions for conference. I hope to
see you at Court to-morrow, if God by over-great pains do not countermand
me. _I like so well to attempt something against our Spanish enemy that I
hope God will prosper the purpose._”
The fleets gathered in Plymouth Sound early in July, and sailed in three
fine squadrons under Essex, Thomas Howard, and Ralegh respectively.[639]
On the day he sailed unsuspecting Essex in the fulness of his heart wrote
a fervent letter of thanks to Cecil.[640] He would, he said, never forget
his kindness whilst he lived; “and if I live to return, I will make you
think your friendship well professed.” Unfortunately he returned sooner
than he expected, for the fleets were caught in a storm and driven back
with much suffering and danger. Famine and sickness broke out, and for a
whole month the fleets were wind-bound in the Channel, whilst the Queen
began to waver about allowing her ships and men to be exposed again so
late in the season. Once more the aged Lord Treasurer wrote to Essex on
his return (July 23), “It is not right that I should condole with you
for your late torment at sea, for I am sure that would but increase your
sorrow, and be no relief to me. I am but as a monoculus, by reason of
a flux falling into my left eye; and you see the impediment by my evil
writing and short letter.… In the time of this disaster I did by common
usage of my morning prayer on the 23rd of every month, in the 107th
Psalm, read these nine verses proper for you to repeat, and especially
six of them, which I send to you. This letter savours more of divinity.
As for humanity, I refer you to the joint-letter from the Lord Admiral,
myself, and my son.”[641]
Essex and Ralegh posted to London early in August and prayed the Queen
to let them resume their voyage. “Only,” said Essex, “allow me to take
half the ships and to do as I please where I like, and I will perform
a worthy service.” But the Queen would not hear of such a thing, nor
should they with her permission enter any Spanish port at all. At last,
as a compromise, she consented to Ralegh’s sending a few fire-ships
into Ferrol, on condition that Essex was to keep quite away from the
enterprise; and to be sure she should be obeyed, she insisted upon the
soldiers being left at home. At length, on the 17th August, the truncated
expedition again sailed. Disaster, jealousy and division dogged it from
the first. Another great storm drove the squadrons asunder. The winds
prevented them from approaching Ferrol. Ralegh, under a misunderstanding,
attacked Fayal, in the Azores, in the absence of Essex, and the
sycophants around the Earl bred evil blood between them. The main body
of the flotillas from the Indies escaped them; and eventually Essex,
with his ships battered and disabled, crept into Plymouth at the end
of October, bringing with them hardly sufficient plunder to pay their
expenses. Fortunately in their absence the Spanish fleet for the invasion
of Ireland had also been driven back and practically destroyed by a
storm, and all present danger from that quarter had disappeared.
Essex found that in his absence the Lord Admiral had been made Earl of
Nottingham, which, in conjunction with his office, gave him precedence,
and that Secretary Cecil had been made Chancellor of the Duchy of
Lancaster. The Earl was furious, and sulked at Wanstead instead of going
to court; but the old Lord Treasurer was once more amiability itself—as
well he might be, for his son was winning all along the line. On the 9th
November he wrote to the Earl, “My writing manifests my sickness. Some of
your friends say that the cause of your absence is sickness, so I send my
servant to ascertain your health. I wish I could remedy any other cause
of your absence; but writing will do no good. It requires another manner
of remedy, in which you may command my service.”[642] And again, ten days
later, “I hoped you would have come to court for the fortieth anniversary
of her Majesty’s coronation. I hear, to my sorrow, that you have been
really sick, but hope you will soon be back at court, where you shall
find a harvest of business, needful for many heads, wits, and hands.”[643]
Although the young Earl obstinately absented himself from court, he
seems to have sent a letter of thanks and friendship to Lord Burghley;
for the latter on the 30th November writes expressing his joy at the
Earl’s contentment, but chiding him for his continued absence, which he
says is exposing him to “diversity of censures.” “I find,” he says, “her
Majesty sharp to such as advise her to that which it were meet for her
to do, and for you to receive. My good Lord, overcome her with yielding
without disparagement of your honour, and plead your own cause with your
presence; whereto I will be as serviceable as any friend you have, to
my power—which is not to run, for lack of good feet, nor to fight, for
lack of good hands, but ready with my heart to command my tongue to do
you due honour.”[644] At length, probably at the suggestion of Burghley,
the angry Queen made Essex Earl-Marshal, which gave him precedence over
Howard, and he came back to court sulky and quarrelsome, galled that
cooler heads and keener wits than his could work their will in spite of
him.
In the meanwhile the war between France and Spain was wearing itself out.
Since the conversion of Henry IV. matters were gradually working back
into their natural groove of nationalities instead of faiths. Philip
was bankrupt in purse, broken in spirit, and already on the brink of
the grave; but the awful sacrifices his ruined country had made had at
least prevented France from becoming a Protestant country. He was leaving
Flanders to his beloved daughter Isabel, and wished to bequeath to her
peace as well. By Henry’s treaty with England and the United Provinces
two years before he had bound himself to make common cause with them
against the King of Spain; but the main cause of his own quarrel with
Spain had nearly disappeared, for the Leaguers were now mostly on his
side, and for a year past the Pope (Clement VIII.) had been busy trying
to bring about a reconciliation between the two great Catholic powers.
The pontiff assured Henry that he was not bound to keep faith with
heretics, and might break the treaty with Elizabeth and Holland. “I
have,” replied the Béarnais, “pledged my faith to the Queen of England
and the United Provinces. How could I treat to their detriment, or even
fail in a single point, without betraying my duty, my honour, and my own
interests? No pretext would excuse such baseness and perfidy, and if it
could, sooner than avail myself of it I would lose my life.”
But when, in the autumn of 1597, the Spaniards were finally routed
at Amiens, it was evident that Spain could fight no longer, and that
the moment for peace had come. The Archduke, who was to marry the new
sovereign of Flanders, was especially anxious for peace before the
Spanish King died, and at his instance advances to Henry were made.
This was the last great international question in which Burghley was
personally interested, and by a curious coincidence it brought once
more to the front the traditional English policy, of which he was the
representative; a policy which had for many years past been broken and
interrupted by the religious position on the Continent. The growing power
and ambition of the Dutch United Provinces, and their aid sent to Henry
IV. against Spain, together with Henry’s conversion to Catholicism, had
once more aroused the fear of England that by an arrangement between them
the French might dominate Spanish Flanders. The project of making the
Infanta and her husband practically independent sovereigns of the Belgic
provinces was therefore eminently favourable to English interests, and
drew England once more irresistibly to the side of Spain, as against the
Dutchmen and Henry IV.; for the possession of Flanders by the French (or
now even by the strong pushing young Republic under French influence) was
one of the two eventualities against which for centuries the traditional
policy of England had been directed. Coincident, therefore, with Henry’s
negotiations, secret approaches were made by England to the Archduke, and
once more, after a half-century of fighting, England was smiling as of
old on a “Duke of Burgundy,” as against a French King.[645]
In November Henry sent envoys to the States and to England to demand
further aid, but with the alternative of a peace conference. The Dutchmen
thought they had been betrayed, and indignantly said so; refusing
absolutely to make peace with ruined, defeated Spain, except on their
own terms, and in their own time. Elizabeth had far greater reason
than they for indignation with her ally, and had to be approached more
gently and with greater diplomacy. De Maisse, Henry’s envoy, arrived in
London on the 2nd, and was received by the Queen on the 8th December. He
found the Cecils absolute masters of the Council; for all of Burghley’s
predictions of the falsity of Frenchmen had come true, and his objection
to the treaty of alliance (May 1596) had been more than justified. Essex,
only just returned to court from his sulky fit at Wanstead, took in
earnest Henry’s demands for reinforcements against Spain, and was all
for fighting again, whilst Burghley of course understood them to be only
a mask for the peace suggestion. The Queen and Burghley were determined
to assume indignation and grievance in order that, in the coming peace,
they might get the best possible terms for England; indignant, however,
as they might pretend to be, there was nothing they desired more than
a pacification that should open all ports to English trade and leave
Flanders in the hands of a modest, moderate sovereign under the guarantee
of Spain. But withal it behoved them to walk warily, for Spain had
outwitted them in the peace negotiations of 1588, and Protestant Holland
could not be abandoned.
On the 8th December De Maisse was received in State by Elizabeth at
Whitehall,[646] whither Lord Burghley was brought in a litter, but Essex
was still absent. The Queen was enigmatical but polite, and referred
the envoy to Lord Burghley, with whom he conferred on the 10th, when it
became evident that the object of the English was to gain time whilst
other negotiations were proceeding. The Queen exerted all her wiles and
ancient coquetry on De Maisse to delay matters, and not without success;
whilst she inflamed Caron, the envoy of the Dutch States, with hints of
Henry’s desertion and perfidy, in order to embitter French relations with
them.
At length Henry IV. got tired of this buckler play, and De Maisse plainly
told Elizabeth that the King considered that her delay in giving him
a definite answer released him from his pledges under the treaty of
alliance. Again he was referred to Burghley, whom he saw again early in
January. The Queen could not treat with the Archduke, said the Treasurer.
If her envoys were to attend a peace conference, it could only be with
the representatives of the King of Spain; besides, he said, the Queen
must settle with States before she entered into any negotiations at all.
It was well known to Henry and his minister at this time that brisk
secret negotiations were being conducted between Elizabeth and the
Archduke; and in a final interview with Burghley on 10th January, De
Maisse gave him an ultimatum. His master must make peace or be supported
in war. Essex was present at the interview; and although the Lord
Treasurer invited him to speak he remained obstinately silent, except to
say that he did not see how religious dissensions would allow of peace
being made with Spain.
At length Burghley announced that the Queen would send an embassy to
France to settle with Henry the whole question of peace or war, in
conjunction with an embassy from the States. The embassy consisted of Sir
Robert Cecil, Sir Thomas Wilkes, and Dr. Herbert; and the instructions
taken by them are contained in the last of the important State papers
written by the failing hand of the great statesman. The document is a
long and sagacious one, laying down as an absolute condition of any peace
with Spain that the United Provinces should be secured from all fear of
future attempts to subdue them. An earnest desire for peace breathes all
through the document, but it must be a real peace, which acknowledged
accomplished facts, abandoned inflated claims, and recognised the rights
of Protestantism to equal treatment.
Cecil and his companions embarked from Dover on the 17th February,
and on the death of Wilkes in Rouen, the whole burden of the embassy
fell upon the Secretary. It was not until they reached Angers on the
21st that Cecil saw the King. In effect the Béarnais had already made
peace secretly with the Archduke; the States were determined that they
would give up no tittle of their hard-won independence, and haughtily
refused even a truce if their rights were not recognised. England dared
not abandon them, so that Cecil on his interview with Henry could only
reproach him for his desertion of the ally to whom he owed so much. Henry
replied that his position was such that he could not do otherwise. “I
am,” he said, “like a man clothed in velvet that hath no meat to put in
his mouth.”[647]
On the 28th March Cecil received a letter from his father dated the
1st, which caused him deep alarm. “The bearer,” it said, “will report
to you my great weakness. But do not take any conceit thereby to hinder
your service; but I must send you a message delivered to me in writing
by Mr. Windebanke. I make no comment, not knowing out of what shop the
text is come, but in my opinion _non sunt ponendi rumores ante salutem_.
God bless you in earth and me in heaven, the place of my present
pilgrimage.”[648] Cecil unwillingly followed Henry to Nantes on his
hollow errand; but this letter disturbed him, and at the earliest moment
he took leave of France and returned, although on the way somewhat better
news reached him. “Mr. Secretary returned the 1st of the month” (May),
says Chamberlain, “somewhat crazed with his posting journey, the report
of his father’s dangerous state gave him wings; but for aught I can learn
the old man’s case is not so desperate but he may hold out another year
well enough.”[649]
Before Cecil had left on his mission, greatly against his inclination,
he had received a promise from Essex that during his absence he would
not cause any alteration to be made either in policy or court affairs.
The Earl had been as good as his word, and for a few days after Cecil’s
return they were friendly; but when the Peace of Vervins was actually
signed between Henry and Philip the old feud between the policies of
peace and war broke out again. This was one of those junctures when
France and Spain being friendly, it had always been the Burghley policy
to draw closer to the latter power, whilst at the same time fortifying
those who were opposing her; and this was the course adopted by the
Cecils on the present occasion. Francis Vere was sent to Holland with
promises and encouragement for the States to stand firm; whilst the
Archduke in Flanders was secretly informed that the Queen desired peace,
and would enter into negotiations if she were assured that her desires
were reciprocated. This policy soon alienated Essex and the war-party,
and after one stormy interview on the subject with the dying Lord
Treasurer, the latter handed to the Earl a book of Psalms and silently
pointed with his finger to the line, “Bloodthirsty men shall not live
out half their days;” a last prophecy which the Earl’s pride and folly
hastened to fulfil.[650]
All the summer the aged minister lingered sick unto death in his palace
in the Strand, sometimes taking the air in a coach or litter, and on two
occasions going as far as Theobalds. During the time his great yearning
was to bring about a peace before he died between his mistress and
the old enemy, who, in the bitterness of defeat, was dying too in the
frowning mountains of the Guadarrama far away. For forty years these two
men had striven as none ever strove before to maintain peace between
England and Spain; and their efforts had been unavailing, for religious
differences had for a time obliterated national lines of policy. But
Burghley had had the supreme wisdom of bending before superior force
and adapting his varying means to his unvarying objects. England thus
had gained, whilst Philip, buoyed up with the fatuous belief in his
divine power and inspiration, scorning to give way to considerations
of expediency, had been ruined by war and had failed in most of his
aims. And yet through the welter of wrong and slaughter, Providence had
decreed that the objects that both men aimed at should not be utterly
defeated. The alliance between the countries was needed both by Spain
and England in order that Flanders should not fall into the hands of the
French, and this at least had been attained. By England it was required
to counterbalance a possible French domination of Scotland, and this had
ceased to be a danger. On the side of Philip had been gained the point
that France was still a Catholic country; whilst to England it was to be
credited that Protestantism was now a great force which demanded equality
with the older form of belief, and, above all, that England was no longer
in the leading strings of France or Spain, but had, in the forty years of
dexterous balance under Elizabeth and Burghley, attained full maturity
and independence, with the consciousness of coming imperial greatness.
To say that this was all owing to the management of the Queen and her
minister would be untrue. Circumstances and the faults and shortcomings
of their rivals—nay, their own shortcomings and weaknesses as well—aided
them powerfully to attain the brilliant success that attended them; but
it may safely be asserted that without a man of Burghley’s peculiar gifts
at her side Elizabeth would at an early period of her reign have lost the
nice balance upon which her safety alone depended.
It was curious that the last hours of Burghley should have been occupied
in striving still to bring about peace with Spain, which had been his
object through life, though he had attained for England already most of
the political advantages which a peace with Spain might bring; but old
prejudices against France were still as strong as they had been in his
youth, for, as he had truly foretold, the Béarnais had played them false,
and thenceforward no Frenchman should ever be trusted again. Spain, in
any case, would keep the false Frenchmen out of Flanders; so Spain was
England’s friend.
For twelve days the Lord Treasurer lay in his bed at Cecil House
before he died, suffering but slightly, and resigned, almost eager
for his coming release. On the evening of the 3rd August he fell into
convulsions, and when the fit had passed, “Now,” quoth he, “the Lord be
praised, the time is come;” and calling his children, he blessed them
and took his leave, commanding them “to love and fear God, and love one
another.”[651] Then he prayed for the Queen, handed his will to his
steward Bellot, turned his face to the wall, and died in the early hours
of the next morning; decorous, self-controlled, and dignified to the last.
His death, though long expected, was a blow which the aged Queen felt for
the rest of her life. She wept, and withdrew herself from all company,
we are told, when she was informed of her loss;[652] and two years
afterwards Robert Sidney, writing to Sir John Harrington, says, “I do see
the Queen often; she doth wax weak since last troubles, and Burghley’s
death doth often draw tears from her goodly cheeks.”
Even Essex, who had wrought so much against him, felt the loss the
country had sustained. At the splendid funeral in Westminster Abbey[653]
on the 29th August, we are told by an eye-witness that “my Lord of
Essex to my judgment did more than ceremoniously show sorrow”;[654] and
Chamberlain, writing on the next day, says, “The Lord Treasurer’s funeral
was performed yesterday with all the rites that belonged to so great a
personage. The number of mourners were above 500, whereof there were many
noblemen, and among the rest the Earl of Essex, who (whether it were
upon consideration of the present occasion or for his own disfavours),
methought, carried the heaviest countenance of the company.”[655]
Throughout Europe the death of the Lord Treasurer was looked upon as a
loss to the cause of peace. Essex, it was thought, would now hold sway
and launch England upon a policy of warlike adventure. But Essex was
himself hurrying to his doom; and Robert Cecil held firmly in his hand
the strings of his great father’s policy—a policy which was on the death
of the Queen to bring a Scottish king to the English throne, and unite
England and Spain again in a friendly alliance. The baseness and trickery
that accompanied the reunion of the countries belong to the history of
the reign of James, and formed no part of the plan of Lord Burghley or
his mistress. There was no truckling in their relations with foreign
nations, however powerful they might be, and the servile meanness of the
Stuarts in carrying out Lord Burghley’s traditions must be ascribed to
their degeneracy rather than to the policy itself.
Of Lord Burghley’s place amongst great statesmen it may be sufficient
to say that his gifts and qualities were exactly what were needed by
the circumstances of his times. He was called upon to rule in a time of
radical change, when vehement partisans on one side and the other were
fiercely struggling for the mastery of their opinions. It is precisely
in such times as these that the moderate, tactful, cautious man must in
the end be called upon to decide between the extremes, and to prevent
catastrophe by steering a middle course. This throughout his life was the
function of William Cecil. His gifts were not of the highest, for he was
not a constructive statesman or a pioneer of great causes. He often stood
by and saw injustice done by extreme men on one or the other side rather
than lose his influence by appearing to favour the opposite extreme;
and, as we have seen in his own words, he was quite ready to carry out
as a minister a policy of which as a Councillor he had expressed his
disapproval. This may not have been high-minded statesmanship, but at
least it enabled him to keep his hand upon the helm, and sooner or later
to bring the ship of State back to his course again. He was a man whose
objects and ideals were much higher than his methods, because the latter
belonged to his own age, whereas the former were based upon broad truths
and great principles, which are eternal. But it may safely be asserted
that the rectitude of his mind and his great sense of personal dignity
would prevent him from adopting any course for which warrant could not
be found, either in the law of the land or what he would regard as
overpowering national expediency. The first cause he served was that of
the State; the second was William Cecil and his house. Through a long
life of ceaseless toil and rigid self-control these were the mainsprings
of his activity and devotion. If he was austere in a frivolous court, if
bribes failed to buy him in an age of universal corruption, if he was
cool and judicious amidst general vehemence, it was because the qualities
of his mind and his strict self-schooling enabled him to understand that
his country might thus be most effectively served, and that it would be
unworthy of William Cecil to act otherwise. The gifts which made him a
great minister at a period when moderation was the highest statesmanship,
would have made him a great judge at any period, and it is in its
judicial aspect that the finest qualities of his mind are discovered.
It was to the keen casuist who weighed to a scruple every element of a
question and saw it on every side; it was to the calm, imperturbable
judge, that from the first hour of her reign Elizabeth looked to save her
against herself; and whatever may be said of Cecil’s statesmanship in
its personal aspect, it had the supreme merit of having kept the great
Queen upon the straight path up which she led England from weakness,
distraction, and dependence, to unity and strength.
FOOTNOTES
[1] “Sadler State Papers,” vol. i. p. 375.
[2] _Memoires sur les affaires d’Angleterre MS._ Bibliothèque Nationale.
Colbert, 35.
[3] Naunton, in _Fragmenta Regalia_, says that he was personally
acquainted with the senior branch of Cecil’s family in Herefordshire,
which was of no mean antiquity: but he speaks of David Cecil, the
statesman’s grandfather, as “being exposed, and sent to the city, as
poor gentlemen used to do their sons, became to be a rich man on London
Bridge, and purchased (an estate) in Lincolnshire, where this man (_i.e._
Sir William) was born.” Cecil’s enemies in his lifetime, especially
Father Persons, spoke of David Cecil as having been an innkeeper at
Stamford; but this is very improbable, though he may well have owned inns
in the town, of which he was an alderman.
[4] The date of his death in the “journal” at Hatfield is given as 1536,
and Collins states it to have happened in 1541, his will being proved in
that year.
[5] Peck, _Desiderata Curiosa_.
[6] “Courtships of Queen Elizabeth.”
[7] That Cecil’s father was much displeased at his marriage is seen by a
letter from Alford, his steward, at Burghley, after the death of Richard
Cecil. Mrs. Cecil, the widow (to whom Burghley belonged), appears to
have been an extremely self-willed old lady, and refused to exhibit her
husband’s will to her son’s agents. In conversation with one of them, she
said she knew that her husband had made a will (besides the one in her
possession) touching his goods, when he went to Boulogne (_i.e._ 1544).
Alford says: “Thinking this might have been about the time he conceived
displeasure against you for your first marriage, I rode off immediately
to the attorney who, according to Mrs. Cecil, held it, in order, if
possible, to learn the contents of the will in your (Cecil’s) interests”
(Alford to Cecil, 9th April 1553; Hatfield Papers).
[8] Perpetual Calendar MS., Hatfield.
[9] _Desiderata Curiosa._ This is confirmed by a letter at Hatfield from
Griffin, the Queen’s attorney (27th April 1557), saying, “I am sorry
that you never were of Gray’s Inne nor can skill of no lawe,” by which
it is clear that Cecil was never called to the bar, and probably never
seriously studied law.
[10] _Ibid._
[11] Roger Ascham, writing to Sturmius (August 1550), says: “But there
are two English ladies whom I cannot omit to mention.… One is Jane Grey …
the other Mildred Cooke, who understands and speaks Greek like English,
so that it may be doubted whether she is most happy in the possession
of this surpassing degree of knowledge, or in having for her preceptor
and father Sir Anthony Cooke, whose singular erudition caused him to be
joined with John Cheke in the office of tutor to the King; or finally,
in having become the wife of William Cecil, lately appointed Secretary
of State: a young man, indeed, but mature in wisdom, and so deeply
skilled, both in letters and affairs, and endued with such moderation
in the exercise of public offices, that to him would be awarded, by
the consenting voice of Englishmen, the fourfold praise attributed to
Pericles by his rival Thucydides: ‘To know all that is fitting, to be
able to apply what he knows, to be a lover of his country, and superior
to money.’”
[12] _Desiderata Curiosa_, and Camden.
[13] State Papers, Dom., 1547-80.
[14] _Ibid._, and Tytler.
[15] December 1547, Lansdowne MSS., 2, 16.
[16] _Diarium Expeditionis Scoticæ._
[17] _Desiderata Curiosa._
[18] This is the assertion made by Nares, but it is very questionably
correct, as a letter dated 1st July 1548 from Sir Thomas Smith in
Brussels (State Papers, Foreign) is addressed to Mr. Cecil, Master of
Requests to the Lord Protector’s Grace, and a similar letter from Fisher
at Stamford on the 27th July 1548 bears the same superscripture (State
Papers, Dom.).
[19] Harl. MSS., 284.
[20] State Papers, Dom.
[21] State Papers, Dom., and also in Tytler.
[22] State Papers, Dom.
[23] The correspondence will be found in Ellis’s original letters, and
State Papers, Dom., and also in Strype’s “Memorials.”
[24] Burnet.
[25] State Papers, Dom.: Northumberland to Cecil, 31st May 1552.
[26] This disposes of the suggestion that Cecil was Secretary of State at
this time.
[27] See Correspondence, Lady Mary and the Council. “Foxe’s Acts and
Monuments.”
[28] She afterwards became the third wife of Philip II. of Spain, 1560.
[29] State Papers, Dom.: Duchess of Suffolk to Cecil, 2nd October 1550.
[30] Or 1553, according to the Perpetual Calendar at Hatfield.
[31] Hatfield Papers.
[32] State Papers, Foreign.
[33] Hatfield Papers, part i., p. 88.
[34] _Desiderata Curiosa._
[35] King Edward’s Journal, printed in Burnet.
[36] There is, however, a memorandum in the Cotton MSS., Titus B 11,
(printed in Ellis’s original letters) which proves that, though Cecil
may not have been publicly prominent in the condemnation of Somerset,
his acumen and diligence were, as usual, made use of to that end. The
document is entirely written by Cecil, and is a list of fifteen questions
to be put to Somerset in the Tower, all of them of a leading character
and calculated to compromise the prisoner. In Cotton, Vesp. 171, will
be found the minutes of the Council which discussed the execution of
Somerset. Cecil has written thereon, as if to exonerate himself from all
responsibility, that the minutes are in the King’s hand.
[37] State Papers, Dom.
[38] State Papers, Foreign.
[39] _Ibid._
[40] Strype.
[41] King Edward’s Journal (Burnet).
[42] In Sir William Cecil’s handwriting.
“_Question_:—
[Sidenote: 1552 Windsor. 23d Sep., 6ᵒ Ed. VI.]
“1. Whether the K. Mt̅i̅e̅ shall enter into the ayd of the Emperor.
“_Answer._ HE SHALL.
[Sidenote: _a pacto_]
“1. The Kyng is bound by the treaty, and if he will be helped by that
treaty he must do the reciproque.
[Sidenote: _a periculo vitando_]
“2. If he do not ayde, the Emperor is like to ruyne and consequently the
House of Burgundy come to the French possession, which is perilous to
England, and herein the greatness of the French King is dreadfull.
[Sidenote: _Religio Chr̅i̅s̅ana_]
“3. The F. King bringeth the Turke into Chre̅n̅dome and therefore that
exploit be stayed.
[Sidenote: _periculum violati pacti_]
“4. If the Emperor for extremitie should agree now with the F. the said
perill were dooble grettur. First th’ Emperor’s offence for lacke of
ayde. 2. The F. King’s enterprises towards us; and in this peace the
bishop of Rome’s devotion towards us.
[Sidenote: _pro Republica et patria_]
“5. Merchants be so evill used that both for the losse of goods and
honour some remedy must be sought.
[Sidenote: _pericula consequentia_]
“6. The F. Kynge’s procedings be suspisiose to the realm by breaking and
burning of our shippes, which be the old strength of this isle.
“_Answer._ HE SHALL NOT.
[Sidenote: _difficile quasi impossibile_]
“1. The ayde is too chargeable for the cost, and almost impossible to be
executed.
[Sidenote: _solitudo in periculis_]
“2. If the Emperor should dye in this confederacy we should be left alone
in the warr.
[Sidenote: _amicorum suspitio vitanda_]
“3. It may be the German Protestants might be more offended with this
conjunction with the Emperor, doubting their owne cause.
[Sidenote: _sperandum bene ab amicis_]
“4. The amytie with France is to be hooped will amende and continue and
the commissioner’s coming may perchance restore.
“COROLLARIUM OF A MEANE WAY.
[Sidenote: _judicium_]
“1. So to helpe the Emperor as we maye also joine with other Christian
princes and conspyre against the F. King as a common enemy to chr̅e̅dome.
“REASONS FOR COMMON CONJUNCTION.
[Sidenote: _auxilia communa_]
“1. The cause is common and therefore there will be more parties to it.
[Sidenote: _sumptus vitandi_]
“2. It shall avoyd the chargeable entry into ayde with the Emperor
accordyng to the treaties.
[Sidenote: _amicorum copia_]
“3. If the Emperor should dye or breake off, yet it is most likely some
of the princes will remayne so as the K. Mā shall not be alone.
[Sidenote: _dignitas causæ_]
“4. This friendship shall much advance the King’s other causes in
Chre̅n̅dome.
[Sidenote: _pro fide et religione_]
“5. It shal be more honourable to breake with the F. Kyng for this common
quarrel of Chre̅n̅dome.
“REASONS AGAINST THIS CONJUNCTION.
[Sidenote: _inter multos nihil secretum_]
“1. The treaty must be with so many parties that it can nether be spedely
nor secretly concluded.
[Sidenote: _amiciæ irritatæ_]
“2. If the matter be revealed and nothing concluded then consider the F.
Kyng’s offence, and so may he at his leisure be provoked to practice the
like conjunction agaynste England with all the papists.
“The above is in Cecil’s handwriting. To it the young King himself has
added in his own boyish hand.
“CONCLUSION.
1. “The treaty to be made wᵗʰ the Emperor and by the Emperor’s meanes wᵗʰ
other princes.
“2. The Emperor’s acceptation to be understood before we treat anything
against the F. King.”
After long reasoning it was determined to send to Mr. Morysine willing
him to declare to the Emperor that “i haveing pitee as al other Christian
princes should have on the envasion of Christendome by the Turkes would
willingly joine with the Emperor and other states of the Empire if the
Emp. could bring it to passe in some league against the Turke and his
confederates but not to be knowen by the F. King … Morysine to say he
hath no more commission but if the Emperor will send a man to England
he shall know more. This was done on intent to get some friends. The
reasonings be in my deske.”
[43] _Desiderata Curiosa._
[44] Nares.
[45] State Papers, Dom.
[46] Another remedy was a hedgehog stewed in rose-water.
[47] The office at first entailed considerable expense to him. In his
diary there is an entry on 12th April, “Paid the embroiderer for xxxvi.
schutchyns for my servants coats at iiˢ each. iiiˡ xiiˢ;” and in a letter
(State Papers, Dom.) from Petre to Cecil he tells him that the “fashion
of his robes” will be decided when _Garter_ comes to court.
[48] Strype regards the illness as being a diplomatic one, and I am
inclined to side with him; but it is only fair to say that Cecil’s old
friend Dr. Wotton, Ambassador in France, attributed it to overwork. He
writes (State Papers, Foreign), 21st June: “Yow perceive yow must needes
moderate your labour, your complexion being not strong ynough to continue
as yow begone; and my Lords, I doubt not, will not be so unreasonable as
to requyre more of yow than yow be able to do. A good parte of the labour
which was wont to lye on the Clerkes of the Counsell’s hands is now
turned to yow, whereof I suppose yow may easily disburden yourself. It is
better to do so betimes than to repent the not doinge of it after, when
it shalle be too late.”
[49] The ceremony took place at Durham House, in the Strand, which had
been granted by Somerset as a town residence for the Princess Elizabeth,
but which Northumberland had, much to Elizabeth’s indignation, exchanged,
without her acquiescence, for Somerset’s unfinished palace in the Strand.
In answer to her remonstrances, Northumberland humbly protested that
he had no desire to offend her Grace, but he made no alteration in his
arrangements.
[50] Strype’s “Annals,” vol. iv. Alford’s deposition was made at Cecil’s
request twenty years afterwards, and doubtless echoes what Cecil desired
to be said.
[51] This statement also must be taken for what it is worth. It was
written in Cecil’s extreme old age—or soon after his death—and of course
reflected his own version of affairs. It was natural that after the fall
of Jane, and particularly when he was Elizabeth’s minister, he should be
anxious to dissociate himself from an act which deprived the Queen of her
birthright.
[52] B. M. Lans. MSS., 2, 102.
[53] Notwithstanding this protest, there is in Lansdowne MSS., 1236,
No. 15, a draft or copy, _in Cecil’s own handwriting_, of the document
referred to, addressed to the Lords-Lieutenant of counties, in which they
are begged “to disturbe, repell, and resyste the fayned and untrue clayme
of the Lady Mary, basterd daughter of … Henry VIII.” The date of this is
the 10th July; but the Duke of Northumberland’s draft of the same letter
is endorsed by Cecil, 12th July. This would seem to suggest that at all
events Cecil had helped the Duke in the composition of the first draft of
the document. On the dorse of Northumberland’s copy (Lansdowne MSS., 3,
34), Cecil has written: “First copy of a l’re to be wrytte from ye Lady
Jane … wrytte by ye Duk of Northūblā.” But, as stated above, the date of
his own copy is two days earlier.
[54] This interesting document is also printed in Tytler’s “Edward VI.
and Mary.”
[55] An early copy of this document is in Harl. MSS., 35, and the
original draft or “devise” is in Petyt Papers, Inner Temple Library. See
also Strype and Burnet.
[56] “Queen Jane and Queen Mary,” Camden Society.
[57] Harl. MSS., 194. Also Hollingshead and “Queen Jane and Queen Mary.”
[58] Harl. MSS., 353.
[59] It is not quite clear whether Cecil preceded or followed Arundel
and Paget in their journey to meet the Queen. It is nearly certain that
Cecil started after them. They were certainly present at the proclamation
at Baynard’s Castle on the 19th July, whereas Cecil does not appear to
have been there. The letter, moreover, written the same morning from the
Tower by the Council to Lord Rich, exhorting him to stand firm for Jane
(Lansdowne MSS., 3) which Cecil said was written by Cheke, is signed
by all the Councillors in London, including Arundel, Paget, Petre, and
Cheke, _but not by Cecil_. The letter to Mary from the Council, carried
by Arundel and Paget, appears to have borne no signatures (Strype’s
“Cranmer”); but the letter to Northumberland shortly afterwards ordering
him to obey the Queen bears Cecil’s signature. Probably, therefore,
Cecil found some excuse for absenting himself on the critical 19th
July, and when Mary’s triumph was assured, signed the denunciation of
Northumberland, and at once started to greet the Queen.
[60] 7 Julii Libertatem adeptus sū morte regis et ex misere aulico factus
libertas mei juris.
[61] An interesting letter from Northumberland to the Council and
Secretaries of State, written during his illness (27th November 1552,
State Papers, Foreign) shows how much Cecil and his colleagues distrusted
Northumberland’s new departure in foreign policy. The French Ambassador’s
secretary had desired audience of the Duke alone, to convey a private
message from Henry II. to him. Northumberland knew that this would be
resented by the Council, and wrote: “I have availed myself of my sickness
to direct the Secretary, who was very importunate, to communicate what
he had to say, to one of the Secretaries of State or to the Council. And
thus I trust within a while, although I may be thought affectionate to
the French, as some have reported me, yet I doubt not this way which I
intend to use with them to continue but a little while in their graces,
which I never desired in all my life but for the service of my master, as
knoweth the Lord.”
[62] Dalby’s letter in Harl. MSS., 353.
[63] Hatfield Papers.
[64] Strype.
[65] In Lansdowne MSS., 2, will be found many letters on these subjects
to and from Cecil, showing the deep interest he took in educational
matters.
[66] _Ambassades de Noailles_, vol. ii., and Hatfield Papers, part i. 25.
[67] Hatfield Papers, part i., and Haynes.
[68] Hatfield Papers.
[69] Reproduced by Tytler.
[70] Lansdowne MSS., 3.
[71] State Papers, Foreign.
[72] “Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth,” vol. iv. 629.
[73] Lansdowne MSS., 3.
[74] See an account of the pursuit of these exiles in the narrative of
John Brett (“Transactions Royal Hist. Soc.,” vol. xi.), and also Foxe’s
“Acts and Monuments.”
[75] A few months afterwards his brother-in-law, Sir John Cheke, wrote
from abroad (February 1556), evidently in fear that Cecil was going too
far in his conformity. “He hoped,” he said, “that he would not suffer
his judgment to be corrupted in these evil times by what a multitude of
ignorance might approve” (Lansdowne MSS., 3). Cheke’s evil fate fell upon
him very shortly, as if in judgment for his own pharisaism. In the same
spring he was lured by promise of pardon into Philip’s Flemish dominions
with Sir Peter Carew. He was treacherously seized, bound, and kidnapped
on board a vessel at Antwerp (much as Dr. Story was in the reign of
Elizabeth), brought to England, and lodged in the Tower. Threatened with
the stake, he allowed Dr. Feckenham to persuade him to recant. Mary’s
Government made him publicly drink the cup of degradation to the dregs,
and the unhappy man—pitied by his friends, and betrayed and scoffed at
by his enemies—died of a broken heart the following year (September
1557). See Strype’s “Memorials.” Archbishop Parker’s remark, written
on the margin of one of Cheke’s recantations, is the most merciful and
appropriate to the case, “_Homines Sumus_.”
[76] _Desiderata Curiosa._
[77] _Desiderata Curiosa._
[78] Sir Thomas Cornwallis to Cecil: Hatfield Papers, part i.
[79] Hatfield Papers, part i.
[80] Hatfield Papers, part i.
[81] The powerful Earl of Bedford was a prime favourite of Philip—though
afterwards so strong a Protestant—and had been sent to Spain to accompany
the Queen’s consort to England. He appears to have been on close terms
of friendship with Cecil, who managed his affairs in his absence, and to
whom he wrote an interesting account of the great victory of St. Quentin
(Hatfield Papers). The friendship of such men as Bedford, Clinton, and
Paget would of itself almost account for Cecil’s immunity and favour
under Philip and Mary.
[82] State Papers, Dom.
[83] _Ibid._
[84] Cecil seems to have been greatly in request for commissions
involving a knowledge of rural dilapidations and the management of landed
estates. In March 1557 the Lords of Queen Mary’s Council commissioned him
to examine the damage done to Brigstock Park, Northamptonshire, and to
place Sir Nicholas Throgmorton there as keeper (Lansdowne MSS., 3). He
was also steward of Colly Weston and other manors belonging to Princess
Elizabeth.
[85] Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth.
[86] Feria had visited Elizabeth at Hatfield a few days before the Queen
died, and had then written to Philip: “I am told for certain that Cecil,
who was Secretary to King Edward, will be her Secretary also. He is
considered to be a prudent, virtuous man, although a heretic.”
[87] Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth.
[88] Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth.
[89] _Fragmenta Regalia._
[90] Cotton MSS., Titus cx.
[91] A proclamation was issued on the 27th December, that no alterations
should be made in the rites and ceremonies of the Church, and that no
unauthorised person should preach; but a few days afterwards orders were
given that the Litany, Epistle, and Gospel should be read in English, as
in the Queen’s chapel, which was done on the following day, 1st January,
Sunday (Hayward).
[92] Hayward’s reference to this point would seem to prove that the
sermons at Paul’s Cross were discontinued altogether for some months. He
says preachers had been warned—in accordance with Cecil’s note—to avoid
treating of controversial points, and to the raising of any “dispute
touching government eyther for altering or retayning the present form.
Hereupon no sermon was preached at Paules Crosse until the Rehearsall
sermon was made upon the Sunday after Easter; at which tyme, when the
preacher was ready to mount the Pulpit, the keye could not be found; and
when by commandment of the Lord Mayor it was opened by the smyth, the
place was very filthy and uncleane” (Hayward’s “Annals,” Camden Society).
[93] Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth.
[94] Original draft in Cotton MSS., Cal. E. V.
[95] State Papers, Foreign; also printed _in extenso_ in Forbes.
[96] Cotton MSS., Cal. E. V.; printed in Forbes.
[97] It must not be forgotten that Mary Stuart, the young Queen of
Scots, was married to Francis, the heir to the French throne, and that
the disappearance of Elizabeth from the throne would almost inevitably
have meant the complete dominion of both Scotland and England by the
French. This would have rendered the position of Spain in the Netherlands
untenable, and would have destroyed the Spanish commerce, and the fact
explains Philip’s forbearance with Elizabeth in the earlier years of her
reign. Both Cecil and the Queen were fully cognisant of the advantage
they derived from the situation.
[98] Hatfield Papers, part i. p. 151.
[99] Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth.
[100] _Ibid._
[101] Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, vol. i. p. 11.
[102] Parry had just been made Treasurer of the Household _vice_ Sir
Thomas Cheynes.
[103] Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, vol. i.
[104] The treaty was ratified simultaneously by the French King at Notre
Dame, the English special Ambassador being the Lord Chamberlain, Lord
Howard of Effingham. The correspondence on, and descriptions of, the
ceremonies in France, will be found printed _in extenso_ in Forbes.
An account of the festivities in England will be found in Nichols’
“Progresses of Queen Elizabeth,” and in the Calendar of Venetian State
Papers.
[105] Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, vol. i.
[106] Strype.
[107] A great impetus had been given to the building of warships on
the accession of Elizabeth, and a programme of naval construction was
presented, providing for the building of twenty-eight ships during the
ensuing five years; an enormous increase when it is considered that the
whole navy when Mary died consisted of only twenty-two sail. The first
measure of Elizabeth was to turn a large number of the merchantmen,
which had been built under subsidy, into warships. These were probably
the ships referred to by Cardinal Lorraine. On the 3rd July, shortly
afterwards, the Queen was present at the launch of a fine new warship at
Woolwich, which she christened the _Elizabeth_.
[108] State Papers, Foreign; _in extenso_ in Forbes.
[109] See also Throgmorton to Cecil, 1st July. _Ibid._
[110] The Queen to Throgmorton, 17th and 19th July (State Papers,
Foreign).
[111] Sadler to Cecil, 16th September 1559 (Sadler Papers, vol. i.).
[112] Printed _in extenso_ in Sadler Papers, vol. i.
[113] Arran travelled as a Frenchman under the name of De Beaufort.
[114] Sadler Papers, vol. i.
[115] The scandalous gossip sent by all the foreign agents in England,
especially by Feria and his successor, caused much heart-burning.
Challoner had been sent to the Emperor in connection with the Archduke’s
match, and in the Imperial court found scandal rife about his mistress
and Lord Robert. He writes to Cecil a cautious, confidential letter (6th
December 1559), saying that “folks there are broad-mouthed” about it. Of
course, he says, it is a false slander; “but a Princess cannot be too
wary what countenance of familiar demonstration she maketh more to one
than another. No man’s service in the realm is worthy the entertaining
with such a tale of obloquy” (Hatfield Papers, part i.).
[116] Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, vol. i.
[117] Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, vol. i.
[118] Feria to the Bishop of Aquila, 1st October 1559 (Spanish Calendar,
Elizabeth, vol. i.).
[119] The original of the address of the Lords of the Congregation to
Elizabeth will be found in the Cotton MSS., Caligula B x. (printed by
Burnet). In November the famous William Maitland of Lethington was
sent by the Lords to England for the purpose of pressing the cause of
the Scottish reformers. He was secretly received by Sir James Crofts
in the castle of Berwick, and there, by Cecil’s instructions, Crofts
gave him a draft written by Cecil of the best form in which to make his
representation to the English Queen and Council. This is a good example
of Cecil’s foresight and thoroughness. He knew that Dudley and other
French partisans would oppose in the Council the sending of an army to
Scotland, and in order to strengthen Maitland’s hands and avoid the
introduction of anything upon which his opponent could seize, he himself
drafted the address of the Scottish Protestants to the Queen and Council.
It is needless to say that Maitland adopted his suggestions. The original
Scotch draft is in the Cotton MSS., Caligula B ix., and extracts of it
have been printed by Dr. Robertson and Dr. Nares. See also Sadler Papers,
vol. i. p. 602.
[120] Sadler State Papers, vol. i.
[121] Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, vol. i. 121.
[122] Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, vol. i.
[123] The drafts of De Glajon’s letters to the Duchess of Parma,
describing his mission to England, are in B. M. Add. MSS. 28, 173_a_,
printed in Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, vol. i.
[124] Although I can find no hint of such a thing in De Glajon’s letters
to the Duchess of Parma, an entry in Cecil’s diary seems to prove that
Philip’s jealousy of France was now so keen as to have led him secretly
to approve of the English attack in Scotland. The entry in Cecil’s own
hand runs: “April 10, M. de Glason came and joined with the Bishop of
Aquila to move the revocation of the army out of Scotland, _but Glason
privately to my Lord Admiral and me the Secretary counselled us to the
contrary_.” There is in the Record Office (printed _in extenso_ by
Forbes) a long Latin document in Cecil’s hand, being his reply or speech
to the official representations of De Glajon and the Bishop of Aquila.
[125] The French protest is printed by Forbes.
[126] All in Hatfield Papers, part i.
[127] The “device” proposed by Cecil would appear to have been the clause
that if the article relative to the abandonment of the royal arms of
England by Mary and her husband was rejected by them, the point was to
be submitted to the arbitration of the King of Spain. Cecil’s own draft
of the clause is at Hatfield (Papers, part i.). There is no doubt that
Cecil was safe in making this condition, as he must have known from his
interview with De Glajon what Philip’s real sentiments were.
[128] Cecil was paid during his absence £4 per diem—£252; and for postage
with twenty two horses from London to Edinburgh and back, £117.
[129] That this would be the case was foreseen before he started from
London in May. Killigrew writes to Throgmorton (in France) on the day
before Cecil’s departure, “who (Cecil), for his country’s sake, hath been
contented to take the matter in hand. The worst hath been cast of his
absens from hence by his frendes, but at length jugged (judged) for the
best.… I know none love their country better; I wold the Quene’s Majesty
could love it so well” (Throgmorton Papers, _in extenso_ in Forbes).
[130] Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, vol. i.
[131] The twentieth Earl of Huntingdon (Hastings) was the son of
Catharine Pole by the nineteenth Earl. He was consequently the
grandson of Henry, Lord Montacute, the eldest of the Poles, and
great-great-grandson of George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence, the younger
brother of Edward IV. His claim to the crown could only be made good by
the failure or invalidation of those of all the descendants of Henry VII.
and Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV.
[132] Hatfield Papers, _in extenso_ in Haynes.
[133] Bedford writes to Throgmorton, 16th March 1561, “Cecil is now more
than any other in special credit, and does all” (Foreign Calendar). The
Spanish Ambassador says the same.
[134] Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, vol. i. 177.
[135] Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, vol. i.
[136] Cecil appears at this time to have satisfied himself that the Queen
did not mean to marry Dudley. He writes to Throgmorton, 4th April, saying
that the Queen was making the Swedish envoy Guldenstern very welcome. “I
see no small declensions from former dealings (_i.e._ with Dudley); at
least I find in her Majesty by divers speeches a determination not to
marry one of her subjects” (State Papers, Foreign).
[137] Anthony de Bourbon, titular King-Consort of Navarre, husband of
Jeanne d’Albret, and father of Henry IV. of France.
[138] Hatfield Papers, part i.
[139] Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, i.
[140] Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, vol. i.
[141] Throgmorton, a zealous Protestant, who was in France, and, of
course, not behind the scenes in London, appears to have been seriously
alarmed, and to have thought that Cecil was really about to change his
religion. He wrote (29th April) almost vehemently exhorting him not to
ruin the country by doing so (Foreign Calendar).
[142] When Throgmorton first heard that James Stuart was on his way to
France he was in great alarm. He was sure that he would be bought over by
Mary and the Catholic party, who intended to obtain for him a Cardinal’s
hat. Throgmorton thought that no prominent or powerful Scotsman should
come to France for fear of his falling under the influence of the
anti-English party. But Cecil saw young Stuart on his way and satisfied
himself that he might be trusted; and when Stuart returned to Paris from
Rheims on his way home, Throgmorton was almost extravagant in his praise
of him, and regarded him as firmly wedded to English interests, as indeed
he was. Mary, on the advice of Cardinal Lorraine, refused to ratify the
treaty of Edinburgh until she arrived in Scotland; but she consented to
hand over the government of her realm to James and his friends until
her return. She promised to send after him patents under her great seal
constituting him Regent, but this she failed to do. Nevertheless he
went back to Scotland with practically a free hand, pending the Queen’s
arrival in her realm. (Foreign Calendar.)
[143] Hatfield State Papers, _in extenso_ in Haynes.
[144] For months Throgmorton’s spectre was that Mary might marry Philip’s
only son, Don Carlos, which, he pointed out to Cecil, would inevitably
ruin England and Protestantism. It may be doubted whether Cardinal
Lorraine had reached this point yet; though, as will be told, it was
broached later from another quarter. It is more likely that at this
time—the early summer of 1561—the Cardinal’s view was to marry his niece
to the Archduke Charles, Elizabeth’s former suitor, which would have
greatly strengthened the Catholics of Germany and the House of Lorraine.
The English Catholics at the same time, at the instigation of the
Countess of Lennox, were anxiously advocating a marriage between her son,
Lord Darnley, and his cousin, Mary Stuart.
[145] Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, vol. i.
[146] Hatfield Papers, part i.
[147] Throgmorton to Elizabeth, 26th July, in Cabala.
[148] For Maitland’s interviews with the Queen, see Hayward (Camden
Society).
[149] Hatfield Papers, part i.
[150] Lady Margaret, and the Earls of Westmoreland and Northumberland,
with the Duke of Norfolk, were summoned to London, whilst the Earl of
Arundel was obliged to absent himself from court (November 1561), and the
students of the University were in a condition of revolt at the attempt
to reform the worship in the college chapels. “The whole place,” said the
Mayor of Oxford, “was of the same opinion (_i.e._ Catholic), and there
were not three houses in it that were not filled with papists,” “whereat
the Council were far from pleased, and told the Mayor to take care not to
say such things elsewhere” (Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, vol. i.).
[151] Quadra to the King, 13th September 1561 (Spanish Calendar,
Elizabeth).
[152] The Perpetual Calendar at Hatfield frequently mentions attacks of
illness about this time, “fitts of ague,” or gout, fever, and so on.
[153] At first the difficulty of obtaining the new coins caused some
inconvenience, and several of Elizabeth’s Councillors were in favour
(1562) of a fresh debasement of the coinage. By Cecil’s and Paget’s
efforts, however, this was avoided, as it was feared that such a measure
would cause disturbance. For the first year or two the demand was so
great for the new money that the supply was quite inadequate to the
demand, but the people greatly resented the idea of a fresh debasement.
[154] As early as 1555, in the reign of Mary, Cecil had been one of the
original promoters and shareholders of the Russia Company, but he always
steadily refused to share in privateering.
[155] The expedition and its object had first been suggested to
Throgmorton in Paris by an old Portuguese pilot, named Captain Melchior,
who had formerly lived for many years on the Sus coast and other parts of
West Africa. He had been a pensioner of Francis I. and Henry II., but on
the death of the latter, lost his pension. The King of Navarre (Anthony
de Bourbon) supported him for a time, and then sent him with his scheme
to Throgmorton, who referred him to Cecil. The expedition itself was
unsuccessful, but was followed by others under the younger Hawkins, which
established a lucrative trade in slaves and produce between Africa, the
Spanish Indies, and England. There is an interesting paper in the Record
Office, dated 27th May of the following year, 1562, when a Portuguese
Ambassador was in England remonstrating against the despatch of a new
expedition to Guinea. It is a full description of the coast by Martin
Frobisher, who had been for nine months a prisoner of the Portuguese
at Elmina. He shows that the Portuguese on the coast exercised no
control outside of their forts, and were so detested by the natives that
Frobisher and other Englishmen were employed as intermediaries.
[156] Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, vol. i.
[157] Foreign State Papers.
[158] Foreign State Papers.
[159] Foreign State Papers.
[160] In 1559 Throgmorton speaks of the youth at that period as being of
great promise—unfortunately unfulfilled.
[161] Foreign Calendar.
[162] The first war of religion in France.
[163] The massacre of Vassy, which began the civil war, took place on the
1st March 1562.
[164] See Grindall’s long list of recusants in prison, in hiding, and in
exile at the end of 1561 (Domestic Calendar).
[165] See Sidney and Throgmorton’s letters to Cecil (Foreign Calendar,
May 1562).
[166] Almost every letter from Throgmorton to Cecil at this juncture
sounds the note of alarm at the possibility of such a combination. A
Portuguese Ambassador had recently been sent to England, once more to
remonstrate about the English trade with Guinea (as fruitlessly as in
the previous year). He lodged with the Bishop of Aquila at Durham Place,
and Throgmorton was confident that the real object of his mission was to
perfect the arrangement of a Catholic rising in England in conjunction
with Mary Stuart, the Guises, and Philip. The fears, however, were
perfectly groundless as yet so far as regarded Philip. He was in no hurry
to help the Guises until he had them pledged body and soul, and had
crushed reform in his own Netherlands. But of course Cecil was unable to
penetrate Philip’s policy so well as we can, with all his most private
correspondence before us. It is worthy of mention that D’Antas, the
Portuguese Ambassador above referred to, offered Cecil a regular pension
from his sovereign if he would look favourably upon his interests.
Cecil’s reply is not forthcoming; but the offer cannot have been
accepted, for the Secretary never varied in his assertion of the right of
English merchants to trade on the West African and Brazilian coasts.
[167] See statements of Borghese Venturini (State Papers, Foreign).
[168] Throgmorton Papers; _in extenso_ in Forbes.
[169] State Papers, Foreign; _in extenso_ in Forbes.
[170] See the examinations in State Papers, Foreign, 1562.
[171] Sir Henry Sidney divulged it to the Bishop.
[172] Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, vol. i.
[173] Bitter as the Bishop was against Cecil’s policy, which checkmated
him on every side, it is only fair to say that he usually speaks of his
character with great respect.
[174] Dudley wrote to Throgmorton (May 1562) that the Queen was
favourable to Condé and the Huguenots, “but her Majestie seemeth very
wareful in too much open show towards them” (State Papers, Foreign).
[175] _In extenso_ in Forbes.
[176] Smith sent a message to Throgmorton (21st November 1562) assuring
him that his peace negotiations with the Queen-mother and his friendship
with the Cardinal were not sincere, but only to “discover their minds.”
It is hardly probable that this was the case; although Smith, as a
zealous Protestant, certainly did not anticipate the abandonment of the
cause of the reformers. Much less did he intend for England to be thrown
over by both sides as she was. In a letter to Cecil (17th December) he
relates his indignant remonstrance to the Queen-mother when he heard
that the Guisans in Paris had issued a proclamation of war against Queen
Elizabeth as an enemy of the faith. (Letters _in extenso_ in Forbes.)
[177] Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, vol. i.
[178] Cecil had built for himself (1560) a splendid mansion in the
Strand, on the site of the present Exeter Hall, the grounds extending
back to Covent Garden. It was joined on the west by the Earl of Bedford’s
estate, for which in a subsequent generation it was exchanged. Cecil
appears to have continued in the possession of his house at Westminster,
adjoining Whitehall, no doubt for business purposes.
[179] Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, vol. i.
[180] Sir Simon D’Ewes’ Journal.
[181] Strype.
[182] The Bishop of Aquila, in giving an account of these measures,
says, that it would seem as if they were designed to mimic the Spanish
Inquisition.
[183] Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, vol. i.
[184] The marriage of the unfortunate Lady Catharine Grey with Lord
Hertford—the eldest son of Somerset—was contracted secretly, and when the
birth of a son made the matter public, the Queen was intensely indignant,
and refused to acknowledge the union, both Lord and Lady Hertford
being committed to the Tower. Guzman says that Cecil brought about the
marriage; but there is no evidence whatever of this. Lord Hertford was in
Paris with Cecil’s son, Thomas, when the affair was discovered, and was
recalled in haste by the Queen. As soon as Cecil heard of it, he warned
his son not to associate with Hertford. Cecil wrote to his friend Smith
at the same time, “I pray that God may by this chance give her Majesty a
disposition to consider hereof (_i.e._ the succession), that either by
her marriage or by some common order we her poor subjects may know where
to lean and adventure our lives with content to our consciences.” Greatly
to Cecil’s annoyance the question of Catharine’s guilt was referred to
him for examination and report. He assured Smith in a letter that he
would judge impartially, and he did so; for Parker, the Archbishop, on
his report, pronounced against the marriage, but Cecil continued on close
terms of intimacy with the Grey family, who all called him cousin (Lady
Cecil’s brother married Catharine Grey’s cousin), and certainly favoured
Lady Catharine’s claims under the will of Henry VIII. Cecil cautiously
did his best to soften the punishment, and finally obtained the removal
of both husband and wife from the Tower into private custody. Many
letters on the subject from the Greys to Cecil will be found in Lansdowne
MSS. 2.
[185] Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, vol. i.
[186] She was probably correct in this. When Elizabeth saw Maitland in
London she suggested Dudley as a suitable husband to Mary; and when
the Scotsman hinted that his mistress was not so selfish as to deprive
Elizabeth of a person so much cherished by herself, the English Queen,
greatly to Maitland’s confusion, hinted at the Earl of Warwick, Dudley’s
brother. Maitland cleverly silenced the Queen by suggesting that, as
Elizabeth was so much older than Mary, she should marry Dudley first
herself, and when she died, leave to the Scottish Queen both her widower
and her kingdom.
[187] Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, vol. i.
[188] Cecil was also much interested in the promotion of mineralogy. A
patent was granted in 1563 to a German named Schutz who was skilled in
the discovery of calamine and the manufacture of brass therewith. For the
working of this patent a company was afterwards formed, Cecil, Bacon,
Norfolk, Pembroke, Leicester, and others being shareholders, and a great
impetus was given in consequence to the founding of brass cannon. Much
encouragement was also given by Cecil at this and later periods to German
mineralogists for the working of English mines.
[189] In a letter to the Vice-Chancellor (Dr. Perne) in April 1560, Cecil
conveyed the pleasant news of the Queen’s intention to grant a number
of prebends and exhibitions to those divinity students that shall be
recommended “as fittest to receive the same promotions and exhibitions.”
The object of this was to encourage the divinity students to embrace the
Protestant form of worship, which they were loth to do. (Harl. MSS.,
7037, 265-66).
[190] There is in the Domestic State Papers of 1565 a draft letter of the
Council, written by Cecil to the Vice-Chancellor, forbidding and ordering
the suppression in Cambridge of all shows, booths, gaming-houses, &c., as
being unseemly and dangerous.
[191] Full account of the visit, with the speeches, &c., will be found in
Nichol’s “Progresses of Queen Elizabeth.”
[192] The old Bishop of Aquila had died, probably of the plague, in the
previous autumn at Langley, near Windsor. He had been succeeded by Don
Diego Guzman de Silva.
[193] The official account makes no mention of this. It says only that
great preparations had been made to represent Sophocles’ tragedy of Ajax
Flagellifer. “But her Highness, as it were, tyred with going about the
colleges and hearing disputations, and overwatched with former plays, …
could not, as otherwise no doubt she would, … hear the said tragedy, to
the great sorrow not only of the players but of the whole University.”
If the scene as described by the Spaniard took place, it must have been
at the house of Sir Henry Cromwell, the great Oliver’s grandfather, at
Hinchinbrook, where the Queen slept on the night of the day she left
Cambridge.
[194] The Queen had, however, supped with him at his yet unfinished
mansion in London—Cecil House—in 1560, and had there stood godmother to
his infant daughter Elizabeth (6th July 1564).
[195] This splendid place, to which further reference will be made, was
visited on his first voyage south by James I., who was so enamoured of
it that he obtained it from the first Earl of Salisbury, Cecil’s younger
son, in exchange for Hatfield. It was at Theobalds that King James died.
[196] The details of, and correspondence with relation to this
commercial war, with the various negotiations, and especially
those of the conference of Bruges, will be found in the Hatfield
Papers, correspondence of the Merchant-Adventurers, Foreign Papers,
correspondence of Valentine Dale, Sheres, &c., and in the B. M. Add.
MSS., 28,173, correspondence of Dassonleville and other Flemish agents,
as well as in Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. i.
[197] Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. i.
[198] The book in question was that written by John Hales, Clerk of the
Hanaper, in favour of the succession of Lady Catharine Grey and her
children. He had been indicted in January 1564 for “presumptuously and
contemptuously discussing, both by words and in writing, the question of
the succession to the imperial crown of England, in case the Queen should
die without issue;” and thenceforward for months interrogatories and
depositions with regard to his sayings and doings, and those of Catharine
Grey and her husband, Lord Hertford, continued before Cecil without
intermission. (The papers in the case are all at Hatfield, and are mostly
published _in extenso_ by Haynes.) Hales himself was the scapegoat, and
was in the Fleet prison for six months; but in all probability, as Dudley
said, Cecil and his brother-in-law, Bacon, had a great share in drawing
up the book. Cecil was probably too powerful and useful to touch; but
Bacon was reprimanded, and Lord John Grey of Pyrgo, an old friend of
Cecil’s, was kept under arrest until his death, a few months later.
[199] Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. i.
[200] Philip s reply, partly in his own hand, to his Ambassador’s
reports of Dudley’s offers is characteristic: “I am pleased to see what
Lord Robert says, and will tell you my will on the point. I am much
dissatisfied with Cecil, as he is such a heretic; and if you give such
encouragement to Robert as will enable him to put his foot on Cecil and
turn him out of office, I shall be very glad. But you must do it with
such tact and delicacy, that if it fails, none shall know that you had a
hand in it” (Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. i.).
[201] Hatfield Papers, part i.
[202] Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. i.
[203] This refers to the order issued shortly before, called
“Advertisements for the due order of the administration of the Holy
Sacrament, and for the apparel of all persons ecclesiastical”; which
commenced the bitter “vestments controversy.”
An interesting series of returns from the bishops, of this date (October
1564) is at Hatfield. Their lordships had been directed to make reports
of the persons of note in their respective dioceses, classified under the
heads of “favourers of true religion,” “adversaries of true religion,”
and “neutrals.” To the reports the bishops append their recommendations
for reform. The Bishop of Hereford says that all his canons residentiary
“ar but dissemblers and rancke papists.” He suggests that all those who
will not conform should be expelled; and most of his episcopal brethren
advocate even stronger measures than these. Another paper of this time
(1564) addressed to Cecil, and printed by Strype in his “Life of Parker,”
shows the remarkable diversity of the service in English churches. As
will be seen later, Cecil’s attitude on the great vestment question
divided him from many of his Protestant friends.
[204] Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, vol. i.
[205] Memoirs of Sir James Melvil of Hallhill.
[206] Bedford and Maitland subsequently met at Berwick to discuss the
proposed match. It suited Mary to pretend some willingness to take
Leicester in order to obtain leave for Darnley to come to Scotland.
She was probably right in supposing that finally Elizabeth did not
mean to allow Leicester to marry the Scottish Queen. Cecil was of the
same opinion. Writing to his friend Smith at the end of December 1564
(Lansdowne MSS., 102), he says, “I see her Majesty very desyroose to have
my L. of Leicester placed in this high degree to be the Scottish Queen’s
husband, but when it cometh to the conditions which are demanded I see
her then remiss of her earnestness.”
[207] Melvil’s Memoirs.
[208] Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. i.
[209] Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, vol. i.
[210] Humphrey and Sampson, both eminent divines and friends of Cecil,
amongst others, stood out. The former, after much hesitation, was
forced into obedience; but the latter was dismissed from his deanery
of Christ Church (Strype’s “Annals”). The students and masters of
Cecil’s own College of St. John gave him as Chancellor much trouble by
refusing to wear their surplices and hoods. After much correspondence
and remonstrance with them, the Chancellor became really angry, and the
students assumed a humbler attitude.
[211] Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. i.
[212] _Dépêches de De Foix, Bibliothèque Nationale._
[213] Foreign State Papers.
[214] _Dépêches de De Foix, Bibliothèque Nationale._
[215] Castelnau de la Mauvissière was in London in May 1565 on his way
to France from Scotland, and gives, in a letter to the Queen-mother, a
most entertaining account of a conversation with Elizabeth at a night
garden-party given by Leicester in his honour (the letter itself is
in a private collection, but is printed in Chéruel’s _Marie Stuart
et Catharine de Medici_). She said how much more popular in England
Frenchmen were than Spaniards; praised the young King as “the greatest
and most virtuous prince on earth.” She asked Castelnau whether he would
be vexed if she married the King. “Although she had nothing,” she said,
“worthy of so great a match: nothing but a little realm, her goodness and
her chastity, on which point at least she could hold her own against any
maiden in the world,” and much more to the same effect. Castelnau says
he never saw her look so pretty as she did. Catharine took the hint, and
her industrious approaches to Smith were largely prompted by Elizabeth’s
coquetry to Castelnau on this occasion.
[216] Hatfield Papers, _in extenso_ in Haynes.
[217] Cecil writes to Smith, 3rd June 1565 (Lansdowne MSS., 102). “My
Lord of Lecester furdereth the Quene’s Majesty with all good reasons to
take one of these great princes, wherein surely perceaving his own course
not sperable, he doth honourably and wisely. I see few noblemen devoted
to France; but I being _Mancipum Reginæ_, and lackyng witt for to expend
so great a matter, will follow with service where hir Majesty will goo
before.” This attitude is very characteristic of the writer.
[218] There is an enigmatical entry in Cecil’s journal at this period,
August 1565, saying, “The Queene’s Majestie seemed to be much offended
with the Earle of Leicester, and so she wrote an obscure sentence in a
book at Windsor.” Strype, who has been followed by most other historians,
thought that this referred to Leicester’s opposition to the Archduke’s
suit. The real reason for the Queen’s squabble with Leicester is given by
Guzman (Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. i.). August 27: “I wrote to
your Majesty that the Queen was showing favour to one Heneage, who serves
in her chamber. Lord Robert and he have had words, and as a consequence
Robert spoke to the Queen about it. She was apparently much annoyed at
the conversation.… Heneage at once left the court, and Robert did not
see the Queen for three days, until she sent for him. They say now that
Heneage will come back at the instance of Lord Robert, to avoid gossip.”
[219] Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. i.
[220] Harl. MSS., 6990.
[221] Randolph to Cecil, 3rd June. Harl. MSS., 4645.
[222] Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, vol. i.
[223] The action of the French representatives was extremely perplexing.
On the one hand, they offered help to Elizabeth against Scotland, and
urged Mary to make terms with Murray; whilst on the other, they continued
to intercede with Elizabeth for Lady Margaret and Mary, and conveyed the
kindest messages to the Queen and Darnley. (See Randolph’s letters.)
[224] Yaxley was sent back from Madrid with glowing promises and
encouragement from Philip to Mary and Darnley, and 20,000 crowns in
money. The ship, however, in which he sailed from Flanders was wrecked,
and Yaxley’s lifeless body was washed up on the coast of Northumberland,
with the money and despatches attached to it. The money, of course,
never reached Mary, but formed the subject of a long squabble as to the
respective claims for it, of the Crown and the Earl of Northumberland.
(Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. i.).
[225] State Papers, Scotland.
[226] Randolph’s letter, 6th February 1566, gives particulars of Mary’s
adhesion to the League of Bayonne (Harl. MSS. 4645); but she does not
appear actually to have signed the “bond” sent to her, as she was urged
to do by the Bishop of Dunblane and other papal emissaries. There is
not the slightest doubt, however, that she looked at this time to the
Catholic league alone for help in her claims, and had decided to defy
England and the Protestant party.
[227] Randolph to Cecil, 1st March; and Randolph and Bedford to Cecil,
6th March (Scottish State Papers).