that without the caprice and inconstancy which were so remarkable in the conduct of that monarch. To which we may add, that in many circumstances of her life she gave indications of resolution and vigour of mind; a quality which seems to have been inherent in her family. Cardinal Pole had long been sickly, from an intermitting fever; and he died the same day with the queen, about sixteen hours after her. The benign character of this prelate, the modesty and humanity of his deportment, made him be universally beloved; insomuch that in a nation where the most furious persecution was carried on, and where the most violent religious factions prevailed, entire justice, even by most of the reformers, has been done to his merit. The haughty pontiff, Paul IV. had entertained some prejudices against him: and when England declared war against Henry, the ally of that pope, he seized the opportunity of revenge; and revoking Pole's legantine commission, appointed in his room cardinal Peytu, an observantine friar and confessor to the queen. But Mary would never permit the new legate to act upon the commission; and Paul was afterwards obliged to restore cardinal Pole to his authority. There occur few general remarks, besides what have already been made in the course of our narration, with regard to the general state of the kingdom during this reign. The naval power of England was then so inconsiderable, that, fourteen thousand pounds being ordered to be applied to the fleet, both for repairing and victualling it, it was computed that ten thousand pounds a-year would afterwards answer all necessary charges.50 The arbitrary proceedings of the queen above-mentioned, joined to many monopolies granted by this princess, as well as by her father, checked the growth of commerce; and so much the more, as all other princes in Europe either were not permitted, or did not find it necessary to proceed in so tyrannical a manner. Acts of parliament, both in the last reign and in the beginning of the present, had laid the same impositions on the merchants of the still-yard as on other aliens: yet the queen, immediately after her mar riage, complied with the solicitations of the emperor, and by her prerogative suspended those laws.51 Nobody in that age pretended to question this exercise of prerogative. The historians are entirely silent with regard to it; and it is only by the collection of public papers that it is handed down to us. An absurd law had been made in the preceding reign, by which every one was prohibited from making cloth unless he had served an apprenticeship of seven years. The law was repealed in the first year of the queen; and this plain reason given, that it had occasioned the decay of the woollen manufactory, and had ruined several towns.52 It is strange that Edward's law should have been revived. during the reign of Elizabeth; and still more strange that it should still subsist. A passage to Archangel had been discovered by the English during the last reign; and a beneficial trade with Muscovy had been established. A solemn embassy was sent by the czar to queen Mary. The ambassadors were shipwrecked on the coast of Scotland; but being hospitably entertained there, they proceeded on the journey, and were received at London with great pomp and solemnity.53 This seems to have been the first intercourse which that empire had with any of the western potentates of Europe. A law was passed in this reign,54 by which the number of horses, arms, and furniture, was fixed, which each person, according to the extent of his property, should be provided with for the defence of the kingdom. A man of a thousand pounds a-year, for instance, was obliged to maintain at his own charge six horses fit for demilances, of which three at least to be furnished with sufficient harness, steel saddles, and weapons proper for the demilances; and ten horses fit for light-horsemen, with furniture and weapons proper for them: he was obliged to have forty corslets furnished; fifty almain revets, or, instead of them, forty coats of plate, corslets or brigandines furnished; forty pikes, thirty long bows, thirty sheafs of arrows, thirty steel caps or skulls, twenty black bills or halberts, twenty harquebuts, and twenty morions or sallets. We may remark, that a man of a thousand marks of stock was rated equal to one of two hundred pounds a year: a proof that few or none at that time lived on their stock in money, and that great profits were made by the merchants in the course of trade. There is no class above a thousand pounds a year. We may form a notion of the little progress made in arts and refinement about this time from one circumstance: a man of no less rank than the comptroller of Edward the Sixth's household paid only thirty shillings a year of our present money for his house in Channel row:55 yet labour and provisions, and consequently houses, were only about a third of the present price. Erasmus ascribes the frequent plagues in England to the nastiness and dirt and slovenly habits among the people. The floors," says he, are commonly of clay, strewed with rushes, under which lies unmolested an ancient collection of beer, grease, fragments, bones, spittle, excrements of dogs and cats, and every thing that is nasty." 56 66 Hollingshed, who lived in queen Elizabeth's reign, gives a very curious account of the plain, or rather rude way of living of the preceding generation. There scarcely was a chimney to the houses, even in considerable towns: the fire was kindled by the wall, and the smoke sought its way out at the roof, or door, or windows: the houses were nothing but watling plaistered over with clay: the people slept on straw pallets, and had a good round log under their head for a pillow; and almost all the furniture and utensils were of wood. [See note E, at the end of this Vol.] In this reign we find the first general law with regard to highways, which were appointed to be repaired by parish duty all over England.57 NOTES. 1 Heylin, p. 47. 2 Burnet, vol. ii. Heylin, p. 47. It is not likely, however, that Charles gave any such advice: for he himself was at this very time proceeding with great violence in persecuting the reformed in Flanders. Bentivoglio, part i. lib. 1. 3 Fox, vol. ii. p. 119. Burnet, vol. ii. p. 302. 4 Fox, vol. iii. p. 145, &c. Burnet, vol. ii. p. 302. Heylin, p. 48, 49. Godwin, p. 349. 3 Strype, vol. iii. p. 261. and Coll. No 58. 6 Heylin, p. 47, 48. 7 Fox, vol. iii. p. 187. 8 Fox, vol. iii. p. 216. 9 Burnet, vol. ii. p. 318. p. 52. Heylin, 10 Fox, vol. iii. p. 265. 33 Burnet, vol. ii. p. 331, 332, &e 34 Burnet, vol. ii. p. 324, 325. 36 Heylin, p. 72. Burnet, vol. ii. p. 351 39 Thuan. lib. xx. cap. 2. +1 Keith, p. 59. 42 12th April, 1554. 43 Knox, p. 89. Keith, p. 56 44 Keith, p. 70. Buchanan, lib. xvt. 45 Buchanan, lib. xvi. Thuan. lib. xix. c. 7. 46 Knox, p. 93. 47 Burnet, vol. ii. Collect. No 37. 11 Fox, vol. iii. p. 747. Heylin, p. 57. 48 The common net at that time, says Burnet, vol. ii. p. 337. 12 Burnet, vol. ii. p. 306. 19 Heylin, p. 56. 14 Burnet, vol. ii. col. 32. 15 Burnet, vol. iii. p. 243. 16 Burnet, vol. iii. p. 246, 247. 17 Burnet, vol. ii. p. 363. Heylin, p. 79. 18 Father Paul, lib. v. 19 Heylin, p. 45. 20 Heylin, p. 45. Father Paul, lib v. 21 Father Paul, lib. v. 22 Father Paul, lib. v. Heylin, p. 45. 23 Depeches de Noailles, vol. iv. p. 312. 24 Heylin, p. 53. 65. Hollingshed, p. 1127. Speed, p. 826. 25 Burnet, vol. ii. p. 322. 26 2 & 3 Phil. & Mar. cap. 4. 27 Depeches de Noailles, vol. v. p 370. 562. sir Richard Baker, for catching of Christ was the word that spake it, That I believe and take it. 28 Godwin, p. 359. Cowper's Chro-49 Hollingshed, p. 1150. nicle. Burnet, vol. ii. p. 359. Carte, 50 Burnet, vol. iii. p 259. p. 330. 333. 337. 3+1 Strype's 51 Rymer, vol. xv. p. 364. Memor. vol. iii. p. 428. 558. Annals, 52 1 Mar. Parl. 2. cap. 7. vol. i. p. 15. 49 Thuan. lib. xvi. cap. 20. 30 Father Paul, lib. v. 31 Mem. of Cranm. p. 375. 32 Heylin, p. 55. Mem. p. 383. 53 Hollingshed, p. 732. Heylin, p. 71. 54 4 & 5 Phil. & Mar. cap. 2. 55 Nicholson's Historical Library. 56 Eras. Epist. 432. 57 2 & 3 Phil. & Mar. cap. 8. CHAPTER XXXVIII. ELIZABETH. Queen's Popularity.... Re-establishment of the Protestant Religion....A Parlia ment.... Peace with France.... Disgust between the Queen and Mary Queen of Scots.... Affairs of Scotland.... Reformation in Scotland.... Civil Wars in Scotland.... Interposal of the Queen in the Affairs of Scotland....Settlement of Scotland.... French Affairs.... Arrival of Mary in Scotland.... Bigotry of the Scotch Reformers.... Wise Government of Elizabeth. IN "N a nation so divided as the English, it could scarcely be expected that the death of one sovereign, and the accession of another, who was generally believed to have embraced opposite principles to those which prevailed, could be the object of universal satisfaction: yet so much were men displeased with the present conduct of affairs, and such apprehensions were entertained of futurity, that the people, overlooking their theological disputes, expressed a general and unfeigned joy that the sceptre had passed into the hand of Elizabeth. That princess had discovered great prudence in her conduct during the reign of her sister; and as men were sensible of the imminent danger to which she was every moment exposed, compassion towards her situation, and concern for her safety, had rendered her, to an uncommon degree, the favourite of the nation. A parliament had been assembled a few days before Mary's death; and when Heathe, archbishop of York, then chancellor, notified to them that event, scarcely an interval of regret appeared; and the two houses immediately resounded with the joyful acclamations of God save queen Elizabeth; long and happily may she reign!" The people, less actuated by faction, and less influenced by private views, expressed a joy still more general and hearty on her proclamation; and the auspicious commencement of this reign prognosticated that 66 |