Will Durant---The Great Queen (1558 - 1603)

the great Queen 1558 to 1603 won the uses of adversity on November 17th 1558 the courier galloped into the court of the Royal Palace at Hatfield 36 miles north of London and announced to Elizabeth Tudor that she was Queen of England her half-sister Queen Mary of pitiful Fame had died in the dark of that morning in London the Parliament receiving the news cried out god save Queen Elizabeth long may she reign over us not dreaming that it would be 45 years the churches though foreboding trouble thrilled the air with the clangor of their bells the people of England as they had done for Mary spread festive tables in the streets that evening they colored the sky with bonfires of eternal hope by Saturday the 19th the leading Lords ladies and commoners of the realm had gathered at Hatfield to vow their allegiance and feather their nests to them on the 20th Elizabeth spoke right royally my Lords the laws of nature move me to sorrow for my sister the burden that has fallen upon me maketh me amazed and yet considering I am God's creature ordained to obey his appointment I will there to yield desiring from the bottom of my heart that I may have assistance of His grace to be the minister of his heavenly will in the office now committed to me and as I am but one body materially considered though by his permission a body politic to govern so shall I desire you all my Lords chiefly you of the nobility everyone in his degree and power to be assistant to me that I with my ruling and you with your service they make a good account to Almighty God and leave some comfort to our posterity on earth on the 28th clad in purple velvet Elizabeth rode through London in public procession to that same tower where four years earlier she had been a prisoner awaiting death now on her route the populace acclaimed her choruses chanted her glory children tremblingly recited to her the little speeches of homage they had memorized and such shooting of guns as never was heard a four heralded arraign destined to abound beyond any English precedent in splendour of men and minds twenty-five years of trials and tempered Elizabeth to mastery it seemed in 1533 good fortune to have been fathered by Henry the eighth but it was dangerous to have been born of Anne Boleyn the disgrace and execution of the mother fell within the child's forgetful years 1536 yet the pain of that somber heritage outlived her youth and yielded only to the bomb of sovereignty an act of parliament 1536 declared Anne's marriage null making Elizabeth illegitimate course gossip debated the girls paternity in any case to most Englishmen she was the daughter of adultery her legitimacy was never reached in law but another act of parliament 15:44 confirmed her right after her half-brother Edward and her half-sister Mary to succeed to the throne during Edwards rule 1547 253 she adhered to the Protestant worship but when Catholic Mary acceded Elizabeth preferring life to consistency conformed to the Roman ritual after Wyatt's rebellion 15:54 had failed to unseat Mary Elizabeth was accused of complicity and was sent to the tower but Mary judged her guilt unproved and released her to live under surveillance at Woodstock before Mary died she recognised her sister as her successor and sent her the jewels of the crown we owe Elizabeth's reign to the kind leanness of the bloody Queen Elizabeth's more formal education was overwhelming her famous tutor Roger asked him boasted that she talks French and Italian as well as she does English and has often talked to me readily and well in Latin moderately in Greek she had a daily stint of theology and became expert in Protestant dogma but her Italian teachers seemed to have transmitted to her something of the skepticism they had imbibed from pompe Nazi Machiavelli and Renaissance Rome she was never sure of her crown Parliament 15:53 had reaffirmed the invalidity of her mother's marriage to her father state and church agreed that she was a bastard and English law ignoring William the conquerer excluded bastards from the throne the whole Catholic world and England was still largely Catholic believed that the legal heir to the English sceptre was Mary Stuart great-granddaughter of Henry the seventh it was intimated to Elizabeth that if she made her peace with the church the Pope would wash her free of bastardy and recognize her right to rule she was not so inclined thousands of Englishmen held property that had been expropriated from the church by parliament under Henry the eighth and Edward the sixth these influential possessors fearing that a continued Catholic restoration might enforce restitution were prepared to fight for a Protestant Queen and the Catholics of England preferred her to civil war On January 15 1559 amid the acclamation of Protestant London Elizabeth was crowned in Westminster Abbey as Queen of England France and Ireland defender of the faith for English monarchs since Edward the 3rd had regularly claimed the throne of France nothing had been left undone to provide the Queen with problems she was now 25 in all the charm of maturing womanhood she was moderately tall with a good figure fair features olive complexion flashing eyes auburn hair and beautiful hands which she knew how to display it seemed impossible that such a lass should cope successfully with the chaos that encompassed her Hostel creeds divided the land playing for power and wielding arms pauperism was endemic and vagrancy had survived the terrible penalties laid upon it by Henry the eighth domestic trade was clogged by a dishonest currency half a century of false coinage had left the credit of the Fisk so low that the government had to pay 14% for loans Mary Tudor absorbed in religion and skimped on national defense the fortresses were neglected the coasts unprotected the Navy unfit the army ill paid and ill fed and it's CAD Rees unfilled England which under Wolsey had held the balance of power in Europe was now a political bandied about between Spain and France French troops were in Scotland and Ireland was inviting Spain the Pope was holding over the Queen's head the threat of excommunication and interdict and of invasion by the Catholic States invasion definitely loomed in 1559 and fear of assassination was part of Elizabeth's life from day to day she was saved by the disunion of her enemies the wisdom of her counselors and the courage of her soul the Spanish ambassador was shocked by the spirit of the woman she is possessed of the devil who was dragging her to his place Europe had not expected to find the spirit of an emperor behind the smiles of a girl two Elizabethan government her penetration proved itself at once in her choice of aides like her embattled father and despite her political speech at Hatfield she chose men of untitled birth for most of the older Nobles were Catholic and some thought themselves fitter than she'd to wear the crown as her secretary and principal advisor she named William Cecil whose genius for prudent policy and deciduous detail became so outstanding a factor in her success that those who did not know her thought him King his grandfather was a prosperous yeoman become country gentleman his father was yeoman of the Wardrobe to Henry the eighth his mother's dowry raised the family to a comfortable estate William left Cambridge without a degree took law at Gray's Inn sowed his Wild Oats in London's common fields entered the House of Commons at twenty-three 1543 and married as his second wife Mildred cook whose grim Puritanism helped him tow the Protestant line he served Protector Somerset then Somerset's enemy Northumberland he supported Lady Jane Grey to succeed Edward the sixth but switched to Mary Tudor in the nick of time he became a conforming Catholic at her suggestion and was appointed by her to welcome Cardinal Poole into England he was a man of affairs who did not allow his theological summersaults to disturb his political equilibrium when Elizabeth made him her secretary she addressed him with her usual sagacity I give you this charge that you shall be of my Privy Council and contend to take pains for me and my realm this judgment I have of you that you will not be corrupted by any manner of gift and that you will be faithful to the state and that without respect of my private will you will give me that counsel which you think best and if you shall know anything necessary to be declared to me of secrecy you shall show it to myself only and assure yourself I will not fail to keep taciturnity therein and therefore herewith I charge you the test of his fidelity and competence is that she kept him as secretary for 14 years then his Lord treasurer for 26 more till his death he presided over the council managed Foreign Relations directed public finance and national defense and guided Elizabeth and the definitive establishment of Protestantism in England like Richelieu he thought the safety and stability of his country required the unifying absolutism of the monarch is against the divisive ambitions of contentious No covetous merchants and fratricidal faiths he had some Machiavellian ways rarely cruel but relentless against opposition once he thought of having the Earl of Westmorland assassinated but that was an impatient moment in a half-century of patient tenacity and personal rectitude he had eyes and spies for everything but eternal vigilance is the price of power he was a quiz ative and thrifty but Elizabeth pardoned his wealth for his wisdom and loved the parsimony that accumulated the means for defeating the Armada without him she might have been misled by such lighter lights and spendthrift peacocks as Leicester Hatton and Essex Cecil reported the Spanish ambassador as more genius than the rest of the council put together and is therefore envied and hated on all sides Elizabeth sometimes listened to his enemies and now and them treated him so harshly that he left her presence broken and in tears but she knew when out of her tantrums that he was the steadiest pillar of her reign in 1571 she made him Lord Burleigh head of the new aristocracy that in the face of hostile Nobles upheld her throne and made her Kingdom great her minor aides deserve a line even in hurried history for they served her with competence courage and scant remuneration to the exhaustion of their lives Sir Nicholas Bacon father of Francis was Lord keeper of the Great Seal from the outset of the reign till his death 1579 Sir Francis Knowles was privy councillor from 1558 and treasurer of the royal household till his end 1596 Sir Nicholas Throckmorton was her skillful ambassador in France and Thomas Randolph in Scotland Russia and Germany only next to Cecily in devotion and craft was Sir Francis Walsingham a secretary of state from 1573 to his death 1590 a man of sensitive refinement whom Spencer called the great mice eNOS of his age so shocked by repeated plots against the Queen's life that he formed for her protection a web of espionage that stretched from Edinburgh to Constantinople and caught in its skein the tragic Queen of Scots seldom has a ruler had servitors so able so loyal and so poorly paid for the English government itself was poor private fortunes out shown public funds the revenue in 1600 totalled five hundred thousand pounds which even now would be a paltry twenty five million dollars Elizabeth seldom levied direct taxes and she took in only thirty six thousand pounds in customs dues ordinarily she relied on income from Crown lands on grants in aid from the English church and on loans from the rich which were practically compulsory but punctually repaid she honored the debts left by her father her brother and her sister and acquired such a reputation for solvency but she could borrow money at Antwerp at five percent while philip ii of spain at times could not borrow at all she was extravagant however in her expenditure for dresses and finery and in gifts of economic privileges to her favourites rarely and reluctantly she summoned Parliament to her financial aid for she did not patiently bear opposition criticism or surveillance she put no stock in theories of popular or parliamentary sovereignty she believed with homer and Shakespeare that only one head should rule and why not hers in which ran the blood and burned the pride of Henry the eighth she held to the divine right of kings and queens she imprisoned persons at her own sharp will without trial or stated cause and her Privy Council acting as the court of Star Chamber to try political offenders suspended without appeal the rights of habeas corpus and jury trial she punished MPs who obstructed her purposes she suggested to the local magnates who manipulated elections to Parliament that it would facilitate matters if they chose candidates with no boyish notions about free speech she wanted pounds without palaver her early Parliament's yielded gracefully her middle Parliament's yielded angrily her later Parliament's neared revolt she got her will because the nation preferred her judicious absolutism to the fury affections competing for power no one thought of letting the people rule politics was as always a contest of minorities to determine which should rule the majority half of England resented Elizabeth's religious policy nearly all England resented her celibacy but by and large the people grateful for low taxes flourishing trade domestic order and prolonged peace returned the affection offered them by the Queen she gave them pageants and progresses listened to them without visible boredom shared in their public games and in a hundred other ways fished for men's souls the Spanish ambassador while bemoaning her Protestantism wrote to Philip she is much attached to the people and is confident that they are all on her side which is indeed true the attempts that were made on her life strengthened her popularity and power even the Puritans whom she persecuted prayed for her safety and the anniversary of her accession became a day of national Thanksgiving and festival was she the actual ruler or only a popular front for the lower nobility of England and the mercantile oligarchy of London her aides though fearing her temper often corrected her mistakes of policy but she often corrected theirs they told her disagreeable truths gave her their contradictory counsels and obeyed her decisions they governed but she ruled she gives her orders reported the Spanish ambassador and has her way as absolutely as her father Cecil himself seldom knew how she would decide and he fretted over her frequent rejection of his laborious and meticulous advice when he urged her not to treat with France but to rely solely on Protestant support she pulled him up with some asperity mr. secretary I mean to have done with this business I shall listen to the proposals of the French King I'm not going to be tied any longer to you and your brethren in Christ her statesmanship drove both friends and enemies to tears she was maddeningly slow and D resolute in determining policy but in many cases her indecision paid she knew how to allow herself with time which dissolves more problems than men solve her procrastination allowed the complex factors in a situation to settle themselves into focus and clarity she admired the fabled philosopher who when important for an answer silently recited the alphabet before replying she took the sur motto video at da che oh I see and am silent she discovered that in politics as in love he who does not hesitate is lost if her policy often fluctuated so did the facts and forces to be weighed surrounded by perils and intrigues she felt her way with forgivable caution trying now one course now another and making no claim to consistency and so flew at a world her vacillation stumbled into some serious errors but it kept England at peace until it was strong enough for war inheriting a nation politically in chaos and militarily in decay her only practicable policy was to keep England's enemies from uniting against it to encourage the Huguenots revolt against the French monarchy the Netherlands revolt against Spain the Protestant revolt against the Scottish Queen too closely bound to France it was an unscrupulous policy but Elizabeth believed with Machiavelli that scruples are not becoming in rulers responsible for States by whatever means her subtle weakness could devise she preserved her country from foreign domination maintained peace with some brief intervals for 30 years and left England richer than ever before in matter and mind as a diplomat she could give the foreign secretaries of the age many a lesson in alert information resourceful expedience and incalculable moves she was the ablest liar of her time of the four women Mary Tudor Mary Stuart Caterine de MIDI sees and Elizabeth who illustrated Knox's monstrous regiment rule of women in the second half of the sixteenth century Elizabeth was unquestionably supreme and political acumen and diplomatic skill Cecil thought her the wisest woman that ever was for she understood the interest and dispositions of all the princes in her time and was so perfect in the knowledge of her own realm that no counsellors she had could tell her anything she did not know before which of course requires a grain of salt she had the advantage of conferring directly with ambassadors in French Italian or Latin and was thereby independent of interpreters and intermediaries this woman said the Spanish ambassador is possessed with a hundred thousand devils yet she pretends to me that she would like to be a nun live in a cell and tell her beads from morning till night every Continental government condemned and admired her if she were not a heretic said Pope Sixtus v she would be worth the whole world 3 the amorous virgin the secret weapon of her diplomacy was her virginity this condition of course is a recondite detail on which historians must not pretend to certainty let us be as trustful as raleigh naming a colony sessile watching Elizabeth's long flirtation with Leicester and some passing doubts but two Spanish ambassador's not loath to dishonor the Queen concluded to her honor the gossip of the court is reported by Ben Johnson to Drummond of Hawthorne Dhin held that she had a membrane on her which made her incapable of man though for her delight she tried many a French surgeon undertook to cut it yet fear stayed her the people wrote Camden in his analyst 1615 cursed hue ik the Queen's physician as having dissuaded the Queen from marrying on account of some impediment and defect in her yet Parliament repeatedly begging her to marry assumed her capacity to bear something went wrong in this regard with most of Tudor royalty probably the misfortunes of Catherine of Aragon in childbirth were due to Henry the eighth's syphilis his son Edward died in youth of some ill described disease his daughter Mary tried fervently to have a child only to mistake dropsy for pregnancy and Elizabeth though she flirted as long as she could walk never ventured on marriage I have always shrunk from it she said and as early as 1559 she declared her intention to remain a virgin in 1566 she promised Parliament I will marry as soon as I can conveniently and I hope to have children but in that same year when Cecil told her that Mary Stewart had borne a son Elizabeth almost wept and said the Queen of Scots is the mother of a fair son and I am but a barren stock there for a moment she revealed her lasting grief that she could not fulfill her womanhood the political implications deepened the tragedy many of her Catholic subjects believed her sterility a proper punishment for her father's sins and a promise that Catholic Mary Stuart would inherit the crown but Parliament and the rest of Protestant England dreaded such a prospect and important her to find a mate she tried but began by losing her heart to a married man Lord Robert Dudley tall handsome accomplished courtly brave was the son of that Duke of Northumberland who had died on the scaffold for trying to disinherit Mary Tudor and make Jane Grey Queen Dudley was married to a mihrab Sartre but was not living with her rumor called him an unprincipled philanderer he was with Elizabeth at Windsor when his wife fell down stairs had come near halt and died of a broken knack 1560 he and the Queen were suspected by the Spanish ambassador and others of having arranged this clumsy annulment the suspicion was unjust but it ended for a while Dudley's hopes of becoming consort to Elizabeth when she thought she was dying 1562 she begged that he might be appointed protector of the realm she confessed that she had long loved him but called God to witness that nothing unseemly had ever passed between them two years later she offered him to the Queen of Scots and made him Earl of Leicester to enhance his charms but Mary was loath to have her rivals lover in her bed Elizabeth comforted him with monopolies and favoured him till his death 1588 Cecil had borne this romance with dignified hostility for a time he thought of resigning in protest for his own plan contemplated a marriage that would strengthen England with the friendship of some powerful state for a quarter of a century a succession of foreign suitors danced about the Queen there are 12 ambassadors of us wrote one of them all competing for her Majesty's hand and the Duke of Holstein is coming next is a suitor for the King of Denmark the Duke of Finland who is here for his brother the king of Sweden threatens to kill the emperor's man and the Queen fears they will cut each other's throat in her presence she must have felt some satisfaction when Philip the second the greatest potentate in Christendom offered her his seasoned hand 15:59 but she rejected this device for making England a Catholic dependency of Spain she took more time in answering a proposal from Charles the ninth of France for France was meanwhile kept on good behavior the French ambassador complained that the world had been made in six days and she had already spent 80 days and was still undecided she artfully replied that the world had been made by a greater artist than herself two years later she allowed English agents to propose her marriage to Charles Archduke of Austria but at Lester's urging she withdrew the plan when the international situation favoured humor in France 1570 the Duke of Allen song son of Omri ii and catherine de medicis was encouraged to think of becoming the sixteen-year-old husband of the 37 year old queen but the negotiations were wrecked on three obstacles the duke's catholic faith is tender youth and his pockmarked nose five years softened one of these deterrents and Alan Saul now Duke of Anjou was considered again he was invited to London and for five years more Elisabeth played with him in France after a final flurry 1581 this gay courtship petered out and Don Shue retired from the field waving as a trophy a Garter of the Queen meanwhile she had kept him from marrying the Infanta thereby allowing her to enemies France and Spain rarely as a woman derived so much advantage from Baroness or so much pleasure from virginity for Elizabeth and her court there was more satisfaction in being courted by virile Elizabethans than in being bedded by a poxy youth and the courtship could last as long as marriage did not stifle it and Cilicia both enjoyed perennial adulation and savored it insatiably lords ruined themselves to entertain her masks and pageants allegorized to glory poets smothered her with sonnets and dedications musicians strummed her praise a magical celebrated her eyes as war subduing orbs and her breast as that fair hill where virtue dwells and sacred skill Raleigh told her that she walked like Venus hunted like Diana rode like Alexander sang like an angel and played like Orpheus she almost believed it she was as vain as if all the merits of her England were the Blessed fruit of her mothering and to a degree they were distrustful of her physical charms she robed herself in costly dress is varying them almost every day at her death she left 2,000 she wore jewelry and her hair on her arms and wrists and ears and gowns when a bishop reproved her love of finery she had him warned not to touch on that subject again lest he reach heaven a 4-time her manners could be alarming she cuffed or fondled courtiers even foreign emissaries she tickled the back of Dudley's neck when he knelt to receive his earldom she spat as she lists once upon a costly coat she was usually amiable and easy of access but she talked volubly and she could be an unanswerable shrew she swore like a pirate which by proxy she was by God's death was among her milder oaths she could be cruel as in playing cat-and-mouse with Mary Stuart or letting Lady Catherine Grey languish and die in the tower but she was basically kind and merciful and she mingled tenderness with her blows she often lost her temper but she soon regained control of herself she roared with laughter when amused which was often she loved to dance and pirouette until she was sixty-nine she gambled and gambled and hunted and was fond of masks and plays she kept her spirits up even when her fortunes were low and in the face of danger she was all courage and intelligence she was obstinacy in food and drink but covetous of money and jewelry with relish she confiscated the property of rich rebels and she managed to get and to hold the crown jewels of Scotland burgundy and Portugal besides a hoard of gems presented by expectant Lords she was not renowned for gratitude or liberality sometimes she tried to pay her servants in fair words but there was a certain patriotism in her parsimony and her pride when she acceded there was hardly a nation so poor as to do England reverence when she died England controlled the Seas and challenged the intellectual hegemony of Italy or France what sort of mind did she have she had all the learning that a queen could carry gracefully while ruling England she continued her study of languages correspondent in French with Mary Stuart bandy ditalion with a Venetian ambassador and berated a Polish envoy in virile Latin she translated Sallust and boëthius and knew enough Greek to read Sophocles and translate a play of Euripides 'as she claimed to a read as many books as any Prince in Christendom and it was likely she studied history almost every day she composed poetry and music and played forgive ibly on the loot and the virginal but she had sense enough to laugh at her accomplishments and to distinguish between education and intelligence when an ambassador complimented her on her languages she remarked it it was no Marvel to teach a woman to talk it were far harder to teach her to hold her tongue her mind was as sharp as her speech and her wit kept pace with the time Francis Bacon reported that she was wont to say of her instructions to great officers that they were like two garments straight at the first putting on but did by-and-by wear loose enough her letters and speeches were composed in an English all her own devious involved and affected but rich in quaint turns fascinating in eloquence and character she excelled in intelligence rather than intellect Walsingham pronounced her in apt to embrace any matter of weight but perhaps he spoke in the bitterness of unrequited devotion her skill lay in feminine delicacy and subtlety of perception not in laborious logic and sometimes the outcome revealed more wisdom in her feline tentative z' than in their reasoning it was her indefinable spirit that counted that baffled Europe and enthralled England that gave spur and color to her country's flowering she reestablished the Reformation but she represented the Renaissance the lust to live this earthly life to the full to enjoy and embellish it every day she was no exemplar of virtue but she was a paragon of vitality Sir John Hayward whom she sent to the tower forgiving rebellious notions to the younger Essex forgave her enough to write of her nine years after she could reward him now if ever any person had either the gift or the style to win the hearts of people it was this Queen if ever she did express the same it was in coupling mildness with majesty as she did and in stately stooping to the meanest sort all her faculties were in motion and every motion seemed a well guided action her eyes were set upon one her ears listened to another her judgement ran upon 1/3 to 1/4 she addressed her speech her spirit seemed to be everywhere and yet so entire in herself as it seemed to be nowhere else some she pitied some she commended some she thanked that others she pleasantly unwittingly jested contaminant electing no office and distributing her smiles looks and graces so artificially artfully but thereupon the people again redoubled the testimonies of their joys her court was her character loving the things she loved and raising her flair for music games plays and vivid speech to an ecstasy of poems madrigals dramas and masks and such prose as England has never known again in her palaces at Whitehall Windsor Greenwich Richmond and Hampton Court lords and ladies nights and ambassador's entertainers and servitors moved in an exciting alternation of regal ceremony and gallant gaiety a special office of the revels prepared amusements that ranged from riddles and backgammon to complex masks and Shakespeare's plays Ascension Day Christmas New Year's Twelfth Night Candlemas and Shrovetide were regularly celebrated with pastimes athletic contests jost smullins plays and masks the mask was one of many Italian import ations into Elizabethan England a gaudy mixture of pageantry poetry music allegory buffoonery and ballet put together by playwrights and artists presented at court or on rich estates with complex machinery and evolutions and performed by masked ladies and gentlemen burdened with costly costumes and simple lines Elizabeth was fond of drama especially of comedy who knows how much of Shakespeare would have reached the stage or posterity if she and Leicester had not supported the theater through all the attacks of the Puritans not content with her five palaces Elizabeth's a lead out almost every summer on cross country progresses to see and be seen to keep an eye on her vassal lords and to enjoy their reluctant homage part of the court followed her delighted with the change and grumbling at the accommodations and the beer towns dressed their gentry in velvet and silk to welcome her with speeches and gifts Nobles bankrupted themselves to entertain her hard-pressed lords prayed that she would not come their way the Queen rode on horseback or in an open litter greeting happily the crowds that gathered along the road the people were thrilled by the sight of their invincible sovereign and bewitched - fresh loyalty by her gracious compliments and infectious happiness the court took on her gaiety her freedom of manners her luxury of dress her love of ceremony and her ideal of the gentleman she liked to hear the rustle of finery and the men around her rivaled the women in moulding oriental stops - Italian styles pleasure was the usual programme but one had to be ready at any moment for martial exploits beyond the Seas seductions had to be circumspect for Elizabeth felt responsible to the parents of her maids of honour for their honour and she banished the Earl of Pembroke from the court for making Mary fitten pregnant as at any court intrigue wove many entangling webs the women competed unscrupulously for the men the men for the women and all for the favor of the Queen and the perquisites dependent there on those same gentleman who exalted in poetry the refinements of love and morality itched in prose for sine occurs took or gave bribes grasped at monopolies or shared in piratical spoils the avid Queen looked indulgently upon a banality that eat doubt the inadequate pay of her servitors through her grants or by her permission Leicester became the richest Lord in England Sir Philip Sidney received vast tracts in America Raleigh acquired 40,000 acres in Ireland the 2nd Earl of Essex enjoyed a corner on the importation of sweet wines and Sir Christopher Hatton rose from the Queen's lap dog to Lord Chancellor Elizabeth was no more sensitive to industrious brains than two handsome legs for these pillars of society were not yet shrouded in pantaloons despite her faults she set a pace and a course to elicit the reserved energies of England's worthies she raised their courage to high enterprise their minds to brave thinking their manners to grace and width in the fostering of poetry drama and art around that dazzling court and woman gathered nearly all the genius of England's greatest age 5 Elizabeth and religion but within the court and through the nation the bitter battle of the Reformation raged and created a problem that many thought would baffle and destroy the Queen she was a Protestant the country was 2/3 perhaps three-quarters Catholic most of the magistrates all of the clergy were Catholic the Protestants were confined to the southern ports and industrial towns they were predominant in London where their number was swelled by refugees from oppression on the continent but in the northern and western counties almost entirely agricultural they were a negligible few the spirit of the Protestants however was immeasurably more ardent than the Catholic in 1559 John Fox published his rare room in ecclesia just our impairment and describing with passion the sufferings of Protestants under the preceding reign the volumes were translated 1563 as acts and monuments popularly known as the Book of Martyrs they had an arousing influence on English Protestants for over a century Protestantism in the 16th century had the feverish energy of a new idea fighting for the future Catholicism had the strength of traditional beliefs and ways deeply rooted in the past in a spreading minority the religious turmoil had generated skepticism even here and there atheism the conflict of Creed's their mutual criticism their bloody intolerance and the contrast between the professions and the conduct of Christians it made some matter-of-fact Minds doubtful of all theologies here roger Askins schoolmaster 1563 that Italian that first invented the Italian proverb against our Englishman Italianate meant no more their vanity and living than their lewd opinion in religion they make more account of Tully's offices Cicero's Dale Fiji's than st. Paul's epistles of a tail in Boccaccio than a story of the Bible then they count as fables the holy mysteries of the Christian religion they make Christ and His gospel only serves civil policy then neither religion Protestantism or Catholicism cometh amiss to them in time they be promoters of both openly in place again mockers of both privily for where they dare in company where they like they boldly laugh to scorn both Protestant and papist they care for no scripture they mock the Pope they rail on Luther the heaven they desire is only their personal pleasure and private profit whereby they plainly declare of whose school they be that is epic URIs in living and Osseo in doctrine sessile complained 1569 that two riders of religion Epicureans and atheists are everywhere John stripe declared 1571 that many were holy departed from the communion of the church and came no more to hear divine service John Lily 1579 thought there never were such sets among the heathens such miss belief among infidels as is now among scholars theologians and others wrote books against atheism which however could mean belief in God but disbelief in Christ's divinity in 1579 1583 and 1589 men were burned for denying the divinity of Christ several dramatists Green kid Marlowe were reputed atheists the Elizabethan drama which otherwise so widely pictures life contains remarkably little about the strife of faiths but makes a great play of pagan mythology in Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost act 4 scene 3 line 250 are too obscure lines o paradox black is the badge of hell the hue of dungeons and the school of night many have interpreted the last phrase as referring to the evening assemblies of Walter Raleigh the astronomer Thomas Harriot the scholar Lawrence Chema's probably the poets Marlowe and Chapman and some others in Raleigh's country house at Sherbourne for the study of astronomy geography chemistry philosophy and theology Harriet apparently the intellectual leader of the group had strange thoughts of the scriptures reported the antiquary Anthony ax would and always undervalued the old story of the creation he made a philosophical theology wherein he cast off the old testament he believed in God but rejected revelation and the divinity of Christ robert parsons the jesuit wrote in 1592 of Sir Walter Raleigh's school of atheism were in both Moses and our Savior the old and New Testaments are gestured at and the scholars taught to spell God backwards Raleigh was accused of having listened to Marlowe's reading of an essay on atheism in March 15 94 a government commission set at CERN Abbas Dorset to investigate rumors of a set of atheists in the vicinity which included Raleigh's home the inquiry led to no action now known to us but charges of atheism were brought against Raleigh during his trial 16:03 in the preface to his history of the world he made it a point to enlarge upon his belief in God some suspicion of free thinking clings to Elizabeth herself no woman said John Richard Greene ever lived who were so totally destitute of the sentiment of religion Elizabeth in fruits judgment was without distinct emotional conviction Elizabeth to whom the Protestant Creed was as little true as the Catholic had a latitudinarian contempt for theological dogmatism she called upon God with terrible oaths that horrified her ministers to destroy her if she did not keep her promise to marry Alan Saul while in private she jested over his pretensions to her hand she declared to a Spanish envoy that the difference between the warring Christian Creed's was a mere Bagatelle whereupon he concluded that she was an atheist nevertheless she took it for granted like almost all governments before 1789 but some religion some supernatural source and sanction of morality was indispensable to social order and the stability of the state for a time till she had consolidated her position she appeared to hesitate and she played upon the hopes of Catholic potentates that she might be one to their public faith she liked the Catholic ceremony the celibacy of the clergy the drama of the mass and she might have made her peace with the church had not this involved submission to the papacy she distrusted Catholicism as a foreign power that might lead Englishmen to put loyalty to the church above allegiance to the Queen she had been reared in the Protestantism of her father which was Catholicism - the papacy and this is essentially what she decided to re-establish in England she hoped that the semi Catholic liturgy of her Anglican Church would mollify the Catholics of the countryside while the rejection of the papacy would satisfy the Protestants of the towns meanwhile state control of Education would form the new generation - this Elizabethan settlement and the disruptive religious strife would be quieted into peace she made her hesitations in religion as in marriage serve her political purposes she kept potential enemies bemused and divided until she could face them with an accomplished fact many forces urged her to complete the Reformation continental reformers wrote to thank her in advance for restoring the new worship and their letters touched her holders of formerly church property prayed for a Protestant settlement Cecil urged Elizabeth to make herself the leader of all Protestant Europe London Protestants indicated their sentiments by beheading a statue of st. Thomas and casting it into the street her first Parliament January 23rd to May 8th 1559 was overwhelmingly Protestant the funds she asked for were voted without reservation or delay and to raise them a tax was laid upon all persons ecclesiastical or secular a new act of uniformity April 28 1559 made Cranmer's Book of Common Prayer revised the law of English liturgy and forbad all other religious ritual the mass was abolished all Englishmen were required to attend the Sunday service of the Anglican Church or forfeit a shilling for the succor of the poor a new act of Supremacy April 29th declared Elizabeth to be the supreme governor of England in all matters spiritual or temporal an oath of Supremacy acknowledging the religious sovereignty of the Queen was required of all clergymen lawyers teachers university graduates and magistrates and all employees of the church or the crown all major ecclesiastical appointments and decisions were to be made by an ecclesiastical court of high commission chosen by the government any defense of papal authority over England was to be punished by life imprisonment for the first offence by death for the second 1563 by 1590 all English churches were Protestant Elizabeth pretended that she was not persecuting opinion any man she said might think and believe as he pleased provided he obeyed the laws all she asked was external conformity for the sake of national unity sessile assured her that that state could never be in safety where there was toleration of two religions which did not deter Elizabeth from demanding toleration of French Protestants in Catholic France she had no objection to peaceful hypocrisy but freedom of opinion was not to be freedom of speech preachers who disagreed with her views on any important subject were silenced or dismissed the laws against heresy were redefined and enforced Unitarians and Anabaptists were outlawed five heretics were burned during the reign which seemed a modest number in its day in 1563 a convocation of theologians to find the new Creed all were agreed on predestination god of his own free will before the creation of the world and without regard to individual human merit or demerit it chosen some of mankind to be elect and saved leaving all the rest to be reprobate and Damned they accepted Lutheran justification salvation by faith that is the elect were saved not by their good works but by belief in the grace of God and the redeeming blood of Christ however they interpreted the Eucharist in Calvin's sense as a spiritual rather than a physical communion with Christ by an act of Parliament 1566 the thirty-nine articles embodying the new theology were made obligatory on all the clergy of England and they still Express the official Anglican Creed the new ritual too was a compromise the mass was abolished but to the horror of the Puritans the clergy were instructed to wear white surpluses in reading the service and copse in administering the Eucharist communion was to be received kneeling in the two forms of bread and wine the invocation of saints was replaced by annual commemoration of Protestant heroes confirmation and ordination were retained as sacred rites but were not viewed as sacraments instituted by Christ and confession to a priest was encouraged only an expectation of death many of the prayers kept Roman Catholic forms but took on English dress and became a noble informative part of the nation's literature for 400 years these prayers and hymns recited by congregation and priests in the spacious splendor of cathedrals or the simple dignity of the parish church have given English families inspiration consolation moral discipline and mental peace six Elizabeth and the Catholics it was now the turn of the Catholics to suffer persecution though still in the majority they were forbidden to hold Catholic services or possess Catholic literature religious images in the churches were destroyed by government order and altars were removed six oxford students were sent to the tower for resisting the removal of a crucifix from their College Chapel most Catholics submitted sadly to the new regulations but a considerable number preferred to pay the fines for non-attendance at the Anglican ritual the Royal Council calculated some 50,000 such recusants in England 1580 Anglican bishops complained to the government that mass was being said in private homes that Catholicism was emerging into public worship and that in some ardent localities it was unsafe to be a Protestant Elizabeth rebuked Archbishop Parker for laxity 1565 and thereafter the laws were more rigorously enforced Catholics who had heard mass in the chapel of the Spanish ambassador were imprisoned houses in London were searched strangers found there were ordered to give an account of their religion magistrates were commanded to punish all persons possessing books of Roman Catholic theology 1567 we must not judge this legislation in terms of the relative religious toleration earned for us by the philosophers and revolutions of the 17th and 18th centuries the faiths were then at war and were entangled with politics a field in which toleration has always been limited all parties and governments in the 16th century agreed the theological dissent was a form of political revolt the religious conflict became explicitly political when pope pius v after what he felt had been a long and patient delay issued a bull 1570 but not only excommunicated Elizabeth but absorbed her subjects from allegiance to her and forbade them to obey her monition z' mandates and laws the bull was suppressed in France and Spain which were then seeking friendship with England but a copy of it was clandestinely posted on the door of the Episcopal residence in London the culprit was discovered and put to death faced by this declaration of war the Queen's ministers asked Parliament for stricter anti-catholic laws statutes were passed making it a capital crime to call the Queen a heretic schismatic usurper or tyrant or to introduce a papal bull into England or to convert a Protestant to the Roman Church the court of high commission was authorized to examine the opinions of any suspected person to punish any of his unpunished offenses against any law including fornication or adultery the Catholic Monarchs of Europe could not with much face protest against these oppressive measures which so resembled their own most English Catholics continued to submit peaceably and Elizabeth's government hoped that habit would generate acceptance and in time believed it was to prevent this that William Allen an émigré Englishman founded it to a then in the Spanish Netherlands a college in seminary to Train English Catholics for missionary service in England he expounded his purpose fervently we make it our first and foremost study to stir up in the minds of Catholics zeal and just indignation against the heretics this we do by setting before the eyes of the students the exceeding majesty of the ceremonial of the Catholic Church in the place where we live at the same time we recall the mournful contrast that obtains at home the utter desolation of all things sacred which there exists our friends and kins folk all our dear ones and countless souls besides perishing and schism and godlessness every jail and dungeon filled to overflowing not with thieves and villains but with Christ's priests and servants may with our parents and kinsmen there is nothing then that we ought not to suffer rather than to look on at the ills that affect our nation the College functioned at 2a till 1578 when the Calvinists captured the town then a trans then again at Dewey 1593 the do a Bible an English translation of the Latin Vulgate was produced a trans and do a 1582 to 1610 and reached publication a year before the King James Version between 1574 and 1585 the college ordained 275 graduates and sent 268 to labour in England Allen was called to Rome and made a cardinal but the work went on a hundred and seventy additional priests were dispatched to England before Elizabeth's death in 1603 of the 438 total 98 suffered the capital penalty the leadership of the missionaries passed to a Jesuit Robert Parsons a man of enthusiasm and courage a firebrand of polemics and a master of English prose he frankly announced that the bull deposing Elizabeth justified her assassination many English Catholics were shocked but Tolomeo galleys Secretary of State to Pope Gregory the 13th gave the idea his approval Parsons urged the Catholic powers to invade England the Spanish ambassador in England condemned the plan as criminal folly and Everard Mercurian General of the Jesuit Order for bad Parsons to meddle in politics undeterred he decided on a personal invasion he disguised himself as an English officer returning from service in the Netherlands his martial swagger gold lace coat and feathered hat carried him through the frontier officials 1580 even smoothed the way for another Jesuit Edmund Campion to follow him in the guise of a jewel merchant they were secretly housed in the heart of London they visited imprisoned Catholics and found them leniently treated recruiting lay and Sasser total aides they began their work of inspiring Catholics to remain faithful to the church and reconverting recent apostates to the Protestant Creed secular priests hiding in England alarmed at the boldness of the missionaries warned them that they would soon be caught and arrested and that their detection would make matters worse for the Catholics and they begged them to return to the continent but Parsons and Campion persisted they moved from town to town holding secret assemblies hearing confessions saying Mass and giving their benediction to the whispering worshipers who looked upon them as messengers from God within a year of their coming they made it was claimed 20,000 converts they set up a printing press and scattered propaganda tracts declaring that Elizabeth having been excommunicated was no longer the lawful Queen of England were found in London streets a third Jesuit was sent to Edinburgh to urge the Scottish Catholics to invade England from the north the Earl of Westmorland answered a summons from the Vatican he brought back from Rome to Flanders a mass of bullion to finance an invasion from the Netherlands by the summer of 1581 many Catholics believed the Spanish troops of Oliver would cross into England warned by its spies the English government doubled its efforts to capture the Jesuits Parsons found his way across the channel but Campion was caught July 15 81 he was carried through sympathetic villages and hostile London to the Tower Elizabeth sent for him and tried to save him she asked did he consider her his lawful sovereign he replied that he did but to her next question could the Pope lawfully excommunicate her he answered that he could not decide an issue on which learned men were divided she sent him back to the tower with instructions that he be kindly treated but Cecil ordered him to be tortured into naming his fellow conspirators after two days of agony he yielded a few names and more arrests were made recovering his audacity Campion challenged Protestant Divine's to a public debate by permission of the council the debate was staged in the chapel of the tower courtiers prisoners and public were admitted and the Jesuits stood for hours on weakened legs to plead for the Catholic theology neither side convinced the other but when Campion was brought to trial the charge was not heresy but conspiracy to overthrow the government by internal subversion and external attack he and fourteen others were convicted and on December 1st 1581 they were hanged those Catholics proved right who had predicted that the Jesuit mission would exasperate the government into further persecution Elizabeth issued an appeal to her subjects to judge between her and those who sought her throne or her life Parliament decreed 1581 that conversion to Catholicism should be punished as high treason that any priest who said Mass should be fined 200 marks and be imprisoned for a year and that those who refused to attend Anglican services should pay 20 pounds a month enough to bankrupt any but the richest Catholics failure to pay the fine incurred arrest and confiscation of property soon the prisons were so crowded with Catholics that old castles had to be used as jails tension rose on all sides heightened by the imminent execution of Mary Stuart and the intensified conflict with Spain and Rome in June 15 83 a papal nuncio offered Gregory the 13th a detailed plan for the invasion of England by three armies at once from Ireland France and Spain the Pope gave sympathetic consideration to this decennial Pelham presser Dingell Terre and specific measures were prepared but English spies got wind of them England made counter preparations and the invasion was postponed Parliament retaliated with more repressive legislation all priests ordained since June 15 59 and still refusing the oath of Supremacy were required to leave the country within 40 days or suffered death as treasonous conspirators and all who harbored them were to be hanged on the basis of this and other laws 123 priests and 60 laymen were executed during the reign of Elizabeth and probably another 200 died in jail some Protestants protested against the severity of this legislation some were converted to Catholicism Cecil's grandson William fled to Rome 1585 and pledged obedience to the Pope most English Catholics were opposed to any violent action against the government one faction among them addressed an appeal to Elizabeth 1585 affirmed their loyalty and asked for a merciful consideration of their sufferings but is it to bear out the government's claim that its measures were justified by war Cardinal Allen issued 1588 attract designed to rouse the English Catholics to support the approaching attack on England by Spain he called the Queen an incestuous bastard begotten and born in sin of an infamous courtesan charged that with Leicester and divers others she hath abused her body by unspeakable and incredible variety of lust demanded that the Catholics of England should rise against this depraved accursed excommunicate heretic and promised a plenary indulgence to all who should aid in deposing the chief spectacle of sin and abomination in this age the Catholics of England answered by fighting as bravely as the Protestants against the Spanish Armada after that victory the persecution continued as part of the continuing war sixty-one priests and 49 laymen were hanged between 1588 and 1603 and many of these were cut down from the jib itand were drawn and quartered that is they were disemboweled and torn limb from trunk while still alive in a remarkable address presented to the Queen in the year of her death 13 priests petitioned her to be allowed to remain in England they repudiated all attacks on her right to the throne and denied the authority of the Pope to depose her but could not in conscience acknowledge anyone but the Pope as head of the Christian Church the document reached the Queen only a few days before her death and no result of it is recorded but unwittingly it outlined the principles on which two centuries later the problem would be solved the Queen died a victor in the greatest struggle of arraign stained with no darker block than this victory seven Elizabeth's and the Puritans against an apparently weaker enemy a handful of Puritans she did not prevail they were men who had felt the influence of Calvin some of them had visited Calvin's Geneva as Marian refugees many of them had read the Bible in a translation made and annotated by John even Calvinists Samet heard or read the blasts of John Knox's trumpet some may have heard echoes of wit Clift's Lollard poor priests taking the Bible as their infallible guide they found nothing in at about the Episcopal powers and Sasser total vestments that Elizabeth had transferred from the Roman to the Anglican Church on the contrary they found much about presbyters having no sovereign but Christ they acknowledged Elizabeth as head of the Church in England but only to bar the Pope in their hearts they rejected any control of religion by the state and aspired to control of the state by their religion toward 1564 they began to be called Puritans as a term of abuse because they demanded the purification of English Protestantism from all forms of faith and worship not found in the New Testament they took the doctrines of predestination election and damnation deeply to heart and felt that Hell could be escaped only by subordinating every aspect of life to religion and morality as they read the Bible in the solemn Sundays of their homes the figure of Christ almost disappeared against the background of the Old Testaments jealous and vengeful Jehovah the Puritan attack on Elizabeth took form 1569 when the lectures of Thomas Cartwright professor of theology at Cambridge stressed the contrast between the Presbyterian organization of the early Christian church the Episcopalian structure of the Anglican establishment many of the faculty supported Cartwright but John Whitgift headmaster of Trinity College denounced him to the Queen and secured his dismissal from the teaching staff 1570 cartwright emigrated to Geneva where under Teodor de bez he imbibed the full ardor of Calvinist theocracy returning to England he shared with Walter Travers and others in formulating the Puritan conception of the church Christ in their view had arranged that all ecclesiastical Authority should be vested in ministers and lay elders elected by each parish province and state the consistory x' so formed should determine creed ritual and moral code in conformity with Scripture they should have access to every home power to enforce at least outward observance of godly living and the right to excommunicate recalcitrance and condemn heretics to death the civil magistrates were to carry out these disciplinary decrees but the state was to have no spiritual jurisdiction whatever the first English parish organized on these principles were set up at Wandsworth in 1572 and similar presbyteries sprang up in the eastern and middle counties by this time the majority of the London Protestants and of the House of Commons were Puritans the artisans of London powerfully infiltrated by Calvinist refugees from France and the Netherlands applauded the Puritan attack on Episcopacy and ritual the businessmen of the capital looked upon Puritanism as the bulwark of Protestantism against a catholicism traditionally unsympathetic to usury in the middle classes Calvin was a bit too strict for them but he had sanctioned interest and had recognised the virtues of Industry and thrift even men close to the Queen had found some good in Puritanism sessile Leicester Walsingham and Knowles hoped to use it as a foil to Catholicism if Mary Stewart reached the English throne but Elizabeth felt that the Puritan movement threatened the whole settlement by which she had planned to ease the religious strife she thought of Calvinism as the doctrine of John Knox whom she had never forgiven for his scorn of women rulers she despised the Puritan dogmatism even more heartily than the Catholic she had a lingering fondness for the crucifix and other religious images and when an iconoclastic fury destroyed paintings statuary and stained glass early in her reign she awarded damages to the victims and forbad such actions in the future she was not finicky in her own language but she resented the description which some Puritan had given of the prayer book as culled and picked out of that Pope ish dunghill the mass book and of the court of high commission as a little stinking ditch she saw in the popular election of ministers and in the government of the church by presbyteries and synods independent of the state a republican threat to monarchy only Herman R kacal power she thought could keep England Protestant popular suffrage would restore Catholicism she encouraged bishops to trouble the troublemakers Archbishop Parker's suppressed their publications silenced them in the churches and obstructed their assemblies Puritan clergymen and organized groups for the public discussion of scriptural passages Elizabeth bad Parker put an end to these prophecies which he did his successor Edmund Grindle tried to protect the Puritans Elizabeth suspended him and when he died 1583 she advanced to the Canterbury see her new chaplain John Whitgift who dedicated himself to the silencing of the Puritans he demanded of all English clergy an oath excepting the thirty-nine articles the prayer book and the Queen's religious supremacy he subpoenaed all objectors before the High Commission court there they were subjected to such detailed and insistent inquiry into their conduct and belief that Cecil compared the procedure to the Spanish Inquisition the Puritan rebellion was intensified a determined minority openly seceded from the Anglican Communion and set up independent congregations that elected their own ministers and acknowledged no Episcopal control in 1581 Robert Brown a pupil later an enemy of Cartwright and chief voice of these independence separatists or Congregationalists crossed over to Holland and he published their two tracks outlining a democratic constitution for Christianity any group of Christians should have the right to organize itself for worship formulate its own Creed on the basis of Scripture choose its own leaders and live its religious life free from outside interference acknowledging no rule but the Bible no authority but Christ two of Brown's followers were arrested in England were judged in contempt of the Queen's religious sovereignty and were hanged 1583 in the campaign for election to the Parliament of 1586 the Puritans waged oratorical war upon any candidate unsympathetic to their cause one such was branded as a common game stir and pot companion another was much suspect of popery cometh very seldom to his church and is a whoremaster those were days of Beryl speech when Parliament convened John Penry presented a petition for reform of the church and charged the bishops with responsibility for clerical abuses and popular paganism Whitgift ordered his arrest but he was soon released antony cope introduced a bill to abolish the entire episcopal establishment and reorganize english christianity on the Presbyterian plan Elizabeth ordered Parliament to remove the bill from discussion peter wentworth rose to a question of parliamentary freedom and four members supported him Elizabeth had all five lodged in the tower frustrated in Parliament Penry and other Puritans took to the press alluding wit gifts severe censorship of publications they deluge tinglin 1588 to 89 with a succession of privately printed pamphlets all signed Martin Maher prelate gentlemen and attacking the authority and personal character of the bishops in terms of satirical abuse with gift and the High Commission deployed all the machinery of espionage to find the authors and printers but the printers moved from town to town and public sympathy helped them to escape detection until April 15 89 professional writers like John Lilly and Thomas Nash were engaged to answer Martin and gave him good competition and scre ility finally his Billingsgate ran out the controversy subsided and moderate men mourned the degradation of Christianity into an art of by 2 per Asian stunned by these pamphlets Elizabeth gave which gift a free hand to check the puritans the Mar prelate printers were found arrests multiplied executions followed Cartwright was sentenced to death but was pardoned by the Queen to leaders of the Brownian movement John Greenwood and Henry Barrow were hanged in 1593 and soon thereafter John Penry Parliament decreed 1593 that anyone who questioned the Queen's religious supremacy or persistently absenting himself from Anglican services or attended any assemblies conventicle Zoar meetings undercover or pretence of any exercise of religion should be imprisoned and unless he gave a pledge of future conformity should leave England and never return on pain of death at this juncture and amid the turmoil and fury a modest parson raised the controversy to the level of philosophy piety and stately prose richard hooker was one of two clergymen assigned to conduct services in the london temple the other was Walter Travers Cartwright's friend in the morning sermon hooker expounded the ecclesiastical polity of Elizabeth in the afternoon Travers criticised that church government from the Puritan view each developed his sermons into a book as hooker was writing literature as well as theology he begged his bishop to transfer him to a quiet rural parsonage so at Boscombe in Wiltshire he completed the first four books of his great of the laws of ecclesiastical polity 1594 three years later at bishops born he sent book five to the press and there in 1600 age 47 he died his laws astonished England by the calm and even-tempered dignity of its argument and the sonorous majesty of it's almost Latin style Cardinal Allen praised it as the best book that had yet come out of England Pope Clement the eighth lauded its eloquence and learning Queen Elizabeth read it gratefully as a splendid apology for her religious government the Puritans were mollified by the gentle clarity of its tone and posterity received it as a noble attempt to harmonize religion and reason hooker astonished his contemporaries by admitting that even a pope could be saved he shocked the theologians by declaring that the assurance of what we believe by the Word of God is to us not so certain as that which we perceive by sense man's reasoning faculty is also a divine gift in Revelation Hooker based his theory of law on medieval philosophy as formulated by st. Thomas Aquinas and he anticipated the social contract of Hobbes and Locke after showing the need and boon of social organization he argued that voluntary participation in a society implies consent to be governed by its laws but the ultimate source of the laws is the community itself a king or a parliament may issue laws only as the delegate or representatives of the community law makes the king the Kings grant of any favour contrary to the law is void or peaceable contentment on both sides the assent of those who are governed seemeth necessary laws are not which public approbation has not made so and hooker added a passage that might have warned Charles the first the Parliament of England together with the ecclesiastical convocation annexed thereunto is that whereupon the very essence of all government within this kingdom death depend it is even the body of the whole realm it consisteth of the king and of all that within the land or subject to him for they are all there present either in person or by such as they voluntarily have derived delegated their power unto to Hooker religion seemed an integral part of the state for social order and therefore even material prosperity depend on moral discipline which collapses without religious inculcation and support consequently every state should provide religious training for its people the Anglican Church might be imperfect but so would be all institutions made and manned by the children of adam' he that goeth about to persuade a multitude that they are not so well off as they ought to be shall never want attentive in favourable hearers because they know the manifold defects were unto every kind of regiment government is subject but the secret let's and difficulties which in public proceedings are innumerable and inevitable they have not ordinarily the judgment to consider Hookers logic was too circular to be convincing his learning to scholastic to meet the issues of his time his shy spirit to thankful for order to understand the longing for liberty the Puritans acknowledged his eloquence but went on their way compelled to choose between their country and their faith many of them emigrated reversing the movement of continental Protestants into England Holland welcomed them and English congregations rose at Middleburg Leiden and Amsterdam they're the exiles and their offspring laboured taught preached and wrote preparing with quiet passion for their triumphs in England and their fulfilment in America 8 Elizabeth and Ireland Ireland had been conquered by the English in 1169 271 and had been held ever since on the ground that otherwise it would be used by France or Spain as a base for attacks on England at Elizabeth's accession direct English rule in Ireland was confined to the eastern coast the pale around and south of Dublin the rest of the island was governed by Irish chieftains only nominally acknowledging English sovereignty the perennial conflict with the English disrupted the tribal administration that had given Ireland chaos and violence but also poets scholars and saints most of the land was left to woods and bogs transport and communication were heroic enterprises and the native Celtic population of some eight hundred thousand souls lived in a half lawless misery on the edge of barbarism the English in the pale were almost as poor and they made Elizabeth's problem worse by debauchery peculation and crime they robbed the London government to senselessly as they plundered the Irish peasantry throughout the reign English settlers drove Irish proprietors and tenants from clearances the dispossessed fought back with assassinations and life for conquerors and conquered alike became a persisting fever of force and hate sessile himself thought that the Fleming's had not such cause to rebel against the oppression of the Spaniards as the Irish against English rule Elizabeth's Irish policy was based on the conviction that a Catholic Ireland would be a peril to a Protestant England she ordered a full enforcement of Protestantism throughout the island mass was prohibited the monasteries were closed public worship ceased outside the narrow pale priests survived in hiding and administered the sacraments furtively to a few morality deprived of both religion and peace almost disappeared murder theft adultery and rape flourished and men changed wives without grudge or qualms Irish leaders appealed to the Pope's and philip ii for protection or aid philip feared to invade Ireland lest the English should invade and help the rebellious Netherlands but he established centers and colleges for Irish refugees in Spain Pyrus the forth sent to Ireland and Irish Jesuit David Wolfe 1560 with the courage and devotion characteristic of his order Wolfe established clandestine missions brought in other disguised Jesuits and restored Catholic piety and hope The Chieftains took heart and one after another rose in revolt against English rule the most powerful of them was Shane that is John O'Neill of Tyrone here was such a man as legend could sing of and Irishman could fight for he fiercely defended his title of VE O'Neill against a usurping brother he ignored the commandments and adored the church he foiled all English efforts to subdue him risked his head to visit London and win Elizabeth's alliance and support and returned in triumph to rule Ulster as well as Tyrone he fought the rival o'donnell clan ferociously and was finally defeated by it 1567 and was killed when he took refuge with the McDonnells Scottish immigrants whose settlement at Antrim he had formerly attacked the history of Ireland after his death was a parade of rebellions massacres and Lords Deputy Sir Henry Sidney father of Sir Philip served Elizabeth faithfully in that ungrateful office for nine years he joined in defeating O'Neill hunted Rory owe more to the death and was recalled 1578 because of the high cost of his victories in two years as Lord deputy Walter Dever Oakes 1st Earl of Essex distinguished himself by a massacre on the island of Rathlin off the Antrim coast whither the rebel MacDonald's had sent for safety their wives and children their aged and ailing with the protective guard Essex dispatched a force to capture the island the garrison offered to surrender if they might be allowed to sail for Scotland the offer was refused they surrendered unconditionally they and the women and children the sick in the old numbering 600 were put to the sword 1575 the great revolt of the reign was that of the Geraldine clan in Munster after many captivity 's and escapes james fitzmorris Fitzgerald cross to the continent raised a troop of Spaniards Italians Portuguese Fleming's and English Catholic Emma greys and landed them on the coast of Kerry 1579 only to lose his life in an incidental war with another clan his cousin Gerald Fitzgerald 15 Thurl of Desmond carried on the revolt but the neighbouring Butler clan under the Protestant Earl of Ormond declared for England the Catholics of the pale organized an army and defeated the levies of the new Lord deputy Arthur Lord gray 1580 reinforced gray besieged Desmond's main force by land and sea on a promontory in samara Bay finding themselves defenseless against Gray's artillery the six hundred surviving rebels surrendered and begged for mercy all were slaughtered women and men except for officers who could promise substantial ransoms the war of English against Irish and of Klan against Klan so ravaged Munster that said an Irish chronicler the lowing of a cow or the voice of a Plowman was not to be heard that year from Dingle to the rock of cashel and an Englishman wrote 1582 that there have died by famine 30,000 in Munster in less than half a year besides others that are hanged and killed for to kill an Irishman in that province wrote a great English historian was thought no more of than to kill a mad dog almost denuded of Irish Munster was divided into plantations for English settlers 1586 one of them edmund spenser whoo there are completed the fairy queen the desperate Irish rose again in 1593 Hugh O'Donnell Lord of Takano joined forces with Hugh O'Neill 2nd Earl of Tyrone Spain now at open war with England promised help in an interregnum between lords deputy O'Neil routed an English army at our MA captured Blackwater an English stronghold in the north 1598 and sent a force to renew the Munster revolt the English colonists fled abandoning their plantations hope and joy spread in Ireland and even the English expected that Dublin itself would fall it was in this crisis that Elizabeth appointed the youthful Robert Devereux --ks 2nd Earl of Essex as her Lord deputy in Ireland March 15 99 she gave him an army of 17,500 men the greatest that England had ever sent to the island she bade him attack O'Neill and Tyrone make no peace without consulting her and not return without her permission arrived in Dublin he dallied through the spring undertook a few skirmishes let his army waste away with disease signed an unauthorised truce with O'Neill and returned to England September 15 99 to explain his failure to the Queen quickly replacing him Charles Blount Lord Mountjoy faced with courage and skill a combination of tricky O'Neill fearless O'Donnell and a fleet landing at Kinsale with troops and arms from Spain and indulgences from Clement the 8th for all who would defend Ireland and the faith Mountjoy rushed south to meet the Spaniards and defeated them so decisively that O'Neill submitted the revolt collapsed and a general amnesty brought a precarious peace 16:03 meanwhile Elizabeth had died her record in Ireland subtracted from her glory she underestimated the difficulty of conquering in an almost roadless country the people whose love of their land and their faith was their only to life and decency she scolded her deputies for failures that were due in part to her own parsimony they were unable to pay their troops who found it more profitable to rob the Irish than to fight them she vacillated between truce and terror and never followed one policy to a decision she founded Trinity College and Dublin University 1591 but she left the people of Ireland as illiterate as before after the expenditure of 10 million pounds the peace achieved was a desert of desolation over half the lovely Isle and over all of it the spirit of unspeakable hatred that only bided it's time to kill and devastate again 9 Elisabeth in Spain the Queen was at her best in her management of Spain she allowed Philip to think she might marry him or his son and in his hopes of winning England with a wedding ring he played the game of patience till his friends were alienated and Elizabeth was strong Pope and Emperor and a hapless Scottish Queen might beg him to invade England but he was too doubtful of France too troubled in the Netherlands to venture upon so incalculable a throw of the political dice he had no assurance that France would not pounce upon the Spanish Netherlands the moment he became embroiled with England he was loathe to encourage revolution anywhere he trusted in his heavy procrastinating way that Elizabeth would in due time find one or another of the many exits that an ingenious nature has provided from our life and yet he was in no haste to give the throne of England to a Scottish lass in love with France for years he held back the Pope from promulgating the excommunication of Elizabeth he bore in somber silence her treatment of Catholics in England and her protests against the treatment of English Protestants in Spain for almost 30 years he kept the peace while English privateers made war upon Spanish colonies and trade the nature of man confesses itself in the conduct of States for these are but ourselves in gross and behaved for the most part as men presumably did before morals and laws were laid upon them by religion and force conscience follows the policeman but there were no police for States on the seas there were no Ten Commandments and trade existed by permission of piracy small pirate craft used the inlets of the British coast as layers and thence sallied forth to seize what they could if the victims were Spanish the English could enjoy the religious fervor of plundering a papist bald men like John Hawkins and Francis Drake fitted out substantial privateers and took all the oceans for their province Elizabeth disowned but did not disturb them for she saw in the privateers the makings of a navy and in these Buccaneers her future Admirals the Huguenots port of La Rochelle became a favorite rendezvous of English Dutch and Huguenots vessels which preyed on Catholic commerce under whatever flag had sailed and in need on Protestant commerce too from such piracy the Buccaneers passed to that lucrative trade in slaves which the Portuguese had opened up a century before in the Spanish colonies of America the natives were dying out from toil too arduous for their climate and constitutions the demand arose for a sturdier breed of laborers las Casas himself defender of the natives suggested to Charles the first of Spain that African Negroes stronger than the Caribbean Indians should be transported to America to do the heavy work for the Spaniards there Charles consented but philip ii condemned the trade and instructed the spanish american governors to prevent the importation of slaves except under licence costly and rare by the home administration aware that some governors were evading these restrictions Hawkins led three ships to Africa 1562 captured 300 Negros took them to the West Indies and sold them to Spanish settlers in exchange for sugars by and drugs back in England he induced Lord Pembroke and others to invest in a second venture and persuaded Elizabeth to put one of her best vessels at his disposal in 1564 he headed south with four ships seized 400 African Negroes sailed for the West Indies sold them to Spaniards under threat of his guns if they refused to buy and returned home to be hailed as a hero and share his spoils with his backers and the Queen who made 60% on her investment in 1567 she lent him her ship the Jesus with this and four other vessels he sailed to Africa captured all the Negroes his holds could stow sold them in Spanish America at 160 pounds a head and was homeward bound with loot valued at a hundred thousand pounds when a Spanish fleet caught him off the Mexican coast at San Juan de Ulua and destroyed all of his fleet but two small tenders in which Hawkins after a thousand perils returned empty-handed to England 1569 among the survivors of that voyage was Hawkins's young kinsman Francis Drake educated at Hawkins expense Drake became so to speak a native of the sea at 22 he commanded a ship on Hawkins's futile expedition at 23 having lost everything but his reputation for bravery he vowed vengeance against Spain at 25 he received a privateers Commission from Elizabeth in 1573 aged 28 he captured a convoy of silver bullion off the coast of Panama and returned to England rich and revenged Elizabeth's counselors kept him in hiding for three years while Spain cried out for his death then Leicester Walsingham and Hatton fitted out for him four small vessels totalling 375 tons with these he sailed from Plymouth on November 15 1577 on what turned out to be the second circumnavigation of the globe as his fleet issued from the Straits of Magellan into the Pacific it ran into a heavy storm the ships were scattered and never reunited Drake alone in the Pelican moved up the west coast of the Americas to San Francisco raiding Spanish vessels on the way then he turned boldly westward to the Philippines sailed through the Moluccas to Java across the Indian Ocean to Africa around the Cape of Good Hope and up the Atlantic to reach Plymouth on September 26th 1580 34 months after leaving it he brought with him 600 thousand pounds of booty of which 275 thousand pounds were handed over to the Queen England hailed him as the greatest seaman and pirate of the age Elizabeth dined on his ship and dubbed him Knight all this time England had been technically at peace with Spain Philip lodged repeated protests with the Queen she made excuses hugged her spoils and pointed out that Philip was also violating international law by sending help to the rebels in Ireland when the Spanish ambassador threatened war she threatened marriage with Allen saw and alliance with France Philip busy conquering Portugal ordered his envoy to keep the peace as usual good luck supplemented the vacillating genius of the Queen what would have happened to her if Catholic France had not been cut into by Civil War if Catholic Austria and the Emperor had not been harassed by the Turks if Spain had not been embroiled with Portugal France the papacy and its rebellious subjects in the Netherlands for years Elizabeth played fast and loose with the Netherlands shifting her policy with fluid circumstance and no charges of a resolution or treachery could make her move in blinders on one course she had no more liking for Dutch Calvinism than for English Puritanism no more liking than Philipp for abetting revolution she recognized the importance to the English economy of uninterrupted trade with the Netherlands she planned to support the revolt of the Netherlands sufficiently to keep them from surrendering to Spain Orbach weaving themselves to France for as long as the revolt continued Spain would stay out of England a blessed windfall allowed the Queen to help the rebels and a delectable profit to her Treasury in December 15 68 several Spanish vessels carrying a hundred and fifty thousand pounds to pay off his troops in the Netherlands were driven by English privateers into Channel ports Elizabeth who had just heard of Hawkins's disaster at San Juan de Ulua recognized a providential opportunity to make up for what England had lost in that defeat she asked Bishop Jewell whether she had a right to the Spanish treasure he judged that god-being surely a Protestant would be pleased to see the Papists plundered moreover the Queen learned the money had been borrowed by Philip from Genoese bankers and Philip and refused to take title to it until it's safe delivery and Antwerp Elizabeth had the money transferred to her vaults Philip complained all the seized all English nationals and goods that he could lay hands upon in the Netherlands Elizabeth arrested all Spaniards in England but the necessities of trade gradually restored normal relations Oliver refused to prod Elizabeth into alliance with the rebels Philip kept his temper Elizabeth kept the money the uneasy peace dragged on until continued English raids on Spanish shipping and the appeals of the imprisoned Mary Stewart's friends involved Philip in a plot to assassinate the Queen convinced of his participation Elizabeth expelled the Spanish ambassador 1584 and gave open aid to the Netherlands English troops entered flushing Brill Ostend and sluice Leicester was sent to command them they were defeated by the Spaniards at Zutphen 1586 but now at last the issue was drawn both Philip and Elizabeth prepared with all their resources for the war that would decide the mastery of the Seas and the religion of England perhaps of Europe perhaps of the new world Spain had risen to wealth by grace of Columbus and Pope Alexander the sixth whose arbitration decrees of 1493 had awarded nearly all of the Americas to his native Spain with those voyages and Bulls the Mediterranean ceased to be the center of the white man's civilization and power and the Atlantic age began of Europe's three great Atlantic nations France was debarred by civil war from the contest for oceanic Dominion England and Spain remained jutting out like grasping promontory stored the promised land it appeared impossible to dislodge Spain from her preeminence in America by 1580 she had hundreds of colonies there England none and each year immense riches passed from the mines of Mexico and Peru to Spain it seemed manifest destiny that Spain should rule all the Western Hemisphere and make both the Americas in her political and religious image Drake was not content with this prospect for a time the war for the world was between himself and Spain in 1585 financed by his friends and the Queen he fitted out 30 vessels and sallied forth against the Spanish Empire he entered the estuary of Vigo in northwest Spain plundered the port of Vigo disrobed a statue of the Virgin and carried away the precious metals and costly vestments of the churches he sailed on to the canary and Cape Verde Islands pillaged the largest of them crossed the Atlantic raided Santo Domingo took 30,000 pounds as a deucer not to destroy the Columbian city of Cartagena plundered and burned the town of st. Augustine in Florida and returned to England 1586 only because yellow her had killed a third of his crew this was war without its name on February 8th 1587 the English government put to death the Scottish Queen Philip informed Sixtus the 5th that he was now ready to invade England and dethrone Elizabeth he asked the Pope to contribute two million gold crowns Sixtus offered six hundred thousand to be paid to Spain only if the invasion actually occurred Philip bad his best Admiral the Marquis of Santa Cruz to prepare the largest Armada so far known in history ships were gathered or built at Lisbon stores were assembled at Cadiz Drake urged Elizabeth to give him a fleet to destroy the Armada before it could take irresistible form she consented and on April 2nd 1587 with 30 ships he hurried out from Plymouth before she could change her mind she did but too late to reach him on April 16th he ran his fleet into Cadiz Harbor maneuvered out of range of the batteries on the shore sank the Spanish man-of-war raided the transports and store ships captured their cargoes said all enemy vessels on fire and departed unharmed he anchored off Lisbon and challenged Santa Cruz to come out and fight the Marquis refused for his ships were not yet armed Drake moved north to La Coruna and seized great stores collected there then to the Azores where he took a Spanish galleon with it in tow he returned to England even the Spaniards marveled at his audacity and seamanship and said that worth not that he was a Lutheran there was not the like man in the world Philip patiently rebuilt his fleet the Marquis of Santa Cruz died January 1588 Philip replaced him with the Duke of Medina Sidonia a grandiy with more pedigree than competence when finally the Armada was complete it numbered a hundred and thirty vessels averaging 445 tons half the ships were cargo carriers half were men of war 8050 sailors manned them nineteen thousand soldiers sailed Philip and his Admirals thought of naval warfare in ancient terms to grapple and board the enemy and fight man-to-man the English plan was to sink the enemy's ships with their crowded crews by broadside fire Philip instructed his fleet not to seek out and attack the English squadrons but to seize some English beachhead crossed the Flanders and take onboard the 30,000 troops that the Duke of Parma had ready they're so reinforced the Spanish were to march on London meanwhile a letter composed by Cardinal Allen April 1588 was smuggled into England bidding the Catholics joined the Spanish in deposing their usurping heretic prostitute queen to help restore Catholicism in England hundreds of monks accompanied the Armada under the vicar general of the Inquisition a devout religious spirit moved the Spanish sailors and their masters they sincerely believed they were on a sacred mission prostitutes were sent away profanity subsided gambling ceased in the morning when the fleet sailed from Lisbon may 29th 1588 every man on board received the Eucharist and all Spain prayed the winds favored Elizabeth the Armada ran into a damaging storm it took refuge in the harbor of La Coruna healed its wounds and set forth again July 12th England awaited it in a feverish mixture of divided councils hurried preparations and desperate resolve now the time had come for Elizabeth to spend the sums that she had saved through 30 years of skimping and deviltry her people Catholic as well as Protestant came manfully to her rescue volunteer militia trained in the town's London merchants financed regiments and asked to fit out 15 ships provided 30 for 10 years now Hawkins had been building men of war for the Queen's Navy Drake was now a vice admiral privateers brought their own vessels to the fateful rendezvous early in July 1588 the full complement of 82 ships under command of Charles Lord Howard of Effingham as Lord High Admiral of England gathered at Plymouth to greet the advancing foe on July 19th the vanguard of the Armada was sighted in the mouth of the channel the defending fleet sailed out of Plymouth and on the 21st the action began the Spaniards waited for the English to come close enough for grappling instead the light English vessels built two low lines and narrow beam scurried around the heavy Spanish galleons firing broad sides as they went the spanish decks were too high their guns fired too far above the English vessels doing only minor damage the English boats ran beneath the fire and their maneuverability and speed left the Spaniards helpless and confused as night fell they fled before the wind leaving one of their ships to be taken by Drake another was blown up reportedly by a mutinous German gunner and the wreck fell into English hands luckily both ships contained ammunition which was soon transferred to the Queen's fleet on the 24th more ammunition came but still the English had only enough for a day's fighting on the 25th near the Isle of Wight Howard led an attack his flagship sailed into the center of the Armada exchanging broadsides with every galleon that had passed and the superior accuracy of the English fire broke the Spanish morale the enemy pursue me rote Medina Sidonia that night to the Duke of Parma they fire on me from morn till dark but they will not grapple there is no remedy for they are Swift and we are slow he begged Parma to send him ammunition and reinforcements but Parma's ports were blockaded by Dutch ships on the 27th the Armada anchored in Calais roads on the 28th drake set fire to eight small and dispensable vessels and placed them in the wind to sail amid the Spanish fleet fearing them Medina Sidonia ordered his ships to put out to sea on the 29th Drake attacked them off the French coast at grav allene in the main action of the war the Spaniards fought bravely but with poor seamanship and gunnery at noon Howard's squadron came up and the full English fleet poured such fire into the Armada that many of its ships were disabled and some were sunk their wooden hulls though three feet thick were penetrated by the English shot thousands of Spaniards were killed blood could be seen flowing from the decks into the sea but the clothes of that day the Armada had lost four thousand men four thousand more were wounded and the surviving vessels were with difficulty kept afloat seeing that his crews could bear no more Medina Sidonia gave orders to withdraw on the 30th the wind carried the broken fleet into the North Sea the English followed them as far north as the Firth of Forth then lacking food and ammunition they returned to port they had lost 60 men and not one ship for the remnants of the Armada there was no Haven nearer than Spain itself Scotland was hostile and Irish ports were held by English troops desperately the injured ships and starving men made their way around the British Isles the water was rough and the wind was wild masts were shattered and sails were torn day after day some vessel sank or was abandoned dead men were dropped into the sea seventeen ships were wrecked on the rugged Irish shores of Sligo alone 1,100 drowned Spaniards were washed up on the beach some of the crews made landings in Ireland and begged for food and drink they were refused and hundreds too weak to fight were massacred by the half savage denizens of the coasts of the 130 vessels that had left Spain 54 returned of 27,000 men 10,000 most of them wounded filip learning of the prolonged disaster day by day shut himself up in his escorial cell none dared speak to him Sixtus the fifth pleading that no invasion of England had occurred sent not one duck to bankrupt Spain Elizabeth was as careful with ducats as the Pope wary of peculation in the Navy she demanded accounting of every shilling spent by Navy and Army before during and after the battle Howard and Hawkins made up out of their own pockets whatever discrepancies they could not explain Elizabeth expecting a long war had kept the crews and troops on short rations and low pay now a violent disease akin to typhus ran through the returning men on some vessels half the crew died or were disabled and Hawkins wondered what England's fate would have been had the epidemic preceded the enemy the naval war continued till Philips death 1598 Drake took a fleet and 15,000 men to help the Portuguese in their revolt against Spain 1589 but the Portuguese hated Protestants more than Spaniards the English drank themselves drunk on captured wine and the expedition ended in failure and disgrace Lord Thomas Howard led a fleet to the Azores to intercept the Spanish flota bringing silver and gold to Spain but Philips new Armada put Howard's ships to flight except the revenge which caught lagging behind the rest fought fifteen Spanish ships heroically until overcome 1591 Drake and Hawkins made another Salley to the West Indies 1595 but they quarreled and died on the way in 1596 Elizabeth sent still another fleet to destroy ships in Spanish ports at Cadiz it found 19 men of war and 36 merchantman but these escaped to the open sea while Essex plundered the town this expedition too was a failure but it demonstrated again the English mastery of the Atlantic the defeat of the Armada effected almost everything in modern European civil it marked a decisive change in naval tactics grappling and boarding gave way to cannonading from ship side and deck the weakening of Spain helped the Dutch to win their independence advanced Henry the fourth to the throne of France and opened North America to English colonies Protestantism was preserved and strengthened Catholicism waned in England and James the sixth of Scotland ceased to flirt with the Pope's at the Armada been more wisely built and led Catholicism might have recovered England the geezers might have prevailed in France Holland might have succumbed the great burst of pride and energy that raised up Shakespeare and bacon as the symbols and fruit of a triumphant England might never have been and the Elizabethan ecstasy would have had to meet the Spanish Inquisition so wars determined theology and philosophy and the ability to kill and destroy is a prerequisite for permission to live and build 10 Raleigh and Essex 1588 to 1601 though Cecil and Walsingham Drake and Hawkins had been the immediate instruments of glory and victory Elizabeth personified triumphant England and at 60 she was at the top of her fame and power her face was a bit wrinkled her hair was detachable some teeth were missing and some were black but in her awesome finery of lacy headdress flying ruff padded sleeves and hoop skirt all the sparkle with encrusted gems she stood proud and straight and undeniably a queen Parliament grumbled at her Royal ways but submitted old councilors offered advice with the timidity of young suitors and young suitors fluent with adoration surrounded the throne Lester and Walsingham paid their debt to nature Drake and Hawkins would soon be swallowed by the sea they had thought to rule Cecil the Atlas of this Commonwealth bacon called him was now old and he creaked with gout presently Elizabeth would nurse him in his final illness and feed him his last food with her own hand she grew sad with these amputations but she did not let them darken the splendor of her progresses or the vivacity of her court new faces shone about her bringing her some vicarious youth Christopher Hatton was so handsome that she made him Chancellor 1587 she waited nine years before accepting burly's advice to make his sagacious hunchbacked son Robert Cecil her Secretary of State she relished more the fine features and rattling sword of Walter Raleigh and did not mind his private theological doubts she had some of her own Raleigh was almost a complete Elizabethan man gentleman soldier Mariner adventurer poet philosopher orator historian martyr here was the Lomo universally of Renaissance Dreams who touched genius at every point but never let the part become the whole born in Devonshire in 1552 entered at Oxford in 1568 he fled from books into life and joined a gallant group of pedigree volunteers who crossed to France to fight for the Huguenots six years in those Wars may have taught him some of the unscrupulous violence of action and reckless audacity of speech that molded his later fate back in England 1575 he forced himself to study law but in 1578 he went off again as a volunteer to help the Dutch against Spain two years later he was in Ireland as a captain in the army that put down Desmond's rebellion and he played no hesitant part in the samara classic er Elizabeth rewarded him with 12,000 acres in Ireland and favour at her court pleased with his figure his compliments and his wit she listened with less than her customary skepticism to his proposal for English colonies in America she gave him a charter and in 1584 he sent out did not accompany the first of several expeditions that tried and failed to establish a settlement in Virginia only the name survived as a lasting memorial to the Queen's inaccessibility Elizabeth Throckmorton a maid of honor proved more approachable she accepted Raleigh as her lover and secretly married him 1593 as no member of the court might marry without the Queen's consent the ardent couple received an unexpected honeymoon in the tower Raleigh earned release with banishment from the court by writing to Burleigh a letter describing the Queen as an amalgam of all the perfections in history he retired to his Sherbourne estate planned voyages and discoveries played with atheism and wrote poetry whose every line had a characteristic Tang and sting but two years of quiet exhausted his stability with the help of Lord Admiral Howard and Robert Cecil he fitted out five vessels and headed for South America seeking Eldorado a fabled land of golden palaces rivers running gold and Amazon's with undiminished charms he sailed a hundred miles up the Orinoco but found no female warriors and no gold baffled by Rapids and falls he returned to England empty-handed but he told how the American natives had marveled at the beauty of the Queen when he showed them her portrait and soon he was readmitted to the court his eloquent account the discovery of the large rich and beautiful Empire of Guiana reaffirmed his faith that the Sun covers not so much riches in any part of the world as the region of the Orinoco tirelessly he preached the desirability of getting America's wealth out of Spanish into English hands and he phrased the doctrine of sea power perfectly whoever commands the sea commands the trade whoever commands the trade of the world commands the riches of the world and consequently the world itself in 1596 he joined the expedition to Cadiz fought as vigorously as he wrote and received a wound in the leg the Queen now used him graciously and made him captain of the guard in 1597 he commanded part of the fleet that Essex led to the Azores separated from the rest by a storm Raleigh's squadron encountered and defeated the enemy Essex never forgave him for pre-empting victory Robert Devereux 'qs 2nd Earl of Essex surpassed even Raleigh in fascination he had Walter's ambition and Verve and pride a little more of his hot temper a little less of his wit much more of generosity and noblesse oblige he was a man of action enamored of intellect Victor in jousts and on the athletic field distinguished for bravery and audacity in war yet also the helpful and appreciative friend of poets and philosophers when his mother became Lester's second wife Leicester advanced him at court to offset Raleigh's ingratiating charm the Queen 53 fell maternally in love with the high-strung handsome lad of 2015 87 here was a son to console her childlessness they talked rode heard music played cards together and My Lord said a gossip cometh not to his own lodging till birds sing in the morning her aging heart suffered when he secretly married Philip Sidney's widow but she soon forgave him and by 1593 he was a member of the Privy Council however he was poorly fitted for court life or statesmanship he carried his love and hate always on his face said his servant cuff and knew not how to hide them he made enemies of Raleigh William Cecil Robert Cecil finally of the ungrateful bacon and the reluctant Queen Francis Bacon who was destined to have more influence on European thought than any other Elizabethan had been born 1561 in the very aura of the court at York House official residence of the Lord keeper of the Great Seal who was his father Sir Nicholas Elizabeth called the boy the young Lord keeper his frail constitution drove him from sports to studies his agile intellect grasped knowledge hungrily soon his airy edition was among the wonders of those spacious times after three years at Cambridge he was sent to France with the English ambassador to let him learn the ways of state while he was there his father unexpectedly died 1579 before buying an estate that he had intended for Frances who was a younger son and the youth suddenly reduced to meager means returned to London to study law at Gray's Inn being a nephew of William Cecil he appealed to him for some political plays after four years of waiting he sent him a whimsical reminder that the objection of my years will wear away with the length of my suit somehow in that year 1584 he was elected to Parliament though still but 23 he distinguished himself by favoring more toleration of the Puritans his mother was one the queen ignored his arguments but he restated them bravely in a privately circulated advertisement touching the controversies of the Church of England 1589 he proposed that no man should be molested for his religious faith who promised to defend England against any foreign power including the papacy the threatened England's for sovereignty and freedom Elizabeth and Cecil thought the young philosopher a bit forward and in truth he was ahead of his times Essex relished the keenness of Bacon's mind and invited his advice the young sage counseled the young noble to seem if he could not be modest to moderate his expenditures to seek civil rather than military office since setbacks and politics could be sooner redeemed than defeats in war and to regard his popularity with the populace as a danger with the Queen bacon hoped that Essex would mature into a statesman and give his mentor some opportunity to rise in 1592 he appealed again to sessile in famous lines I wax now somewhat ancient one in 30 years is a great deal of sand in the hourglass the meanness of my estate does somewhat moved me I confess that I have as vast contemplative ends as I have moderate civil ends for I have taken all knowledge to be my province this whether it be curiosity or vainglory or nature is so fixed in my mind as it cannot be removed when Essex important the Cecil's and Elizabeth to give bacon the vacant office of attorney general his appeals were in vain edward cook older and technically more fit was chosen instead Essex took the blame handsomely and gave bacon in a state to Twickenham with 1800 pounds before bacon could use this he suffered a brief and genteel imprisonment for death in 1597 he was appointed to the learned counsel of lawyers who advised the Privy Council despite Bacon's advice Essex joined the war party and planned to make himself head of the army his dashing bravery at Cadiz made him too popular for the council's taste failure at the Azores and his undiminished pride extravagance and sharp tongue alienated the court and irritated the Queen when she flatly rejected his recommendation of Sir George Carew for office in Ireland he turned his back on her with a gesture of contempt furious she boxed his ears and cried go to the devil he grasped his sword and shouted at her this is an outrage that I will not put up with I would not have borne it from your father's hands he rushed in anger from the room and all the court expected him to be clapped into the tower 1598 Elizabeth did nothing on the contrary or was it to get rid of him a few months later she appointed him Lord deputy for Ireland bacon had cautioned him not to seek that ungrateful task of countering a faith by force but Essex wanted an army on March 27 $15.99 he left for Dublin amid the acclamations of the populace the misgivings of his friends and the satisfaction of his enemies six months later having failed in his mission he hurried back to England without permission of the Queen rushed unannounced into her dressing room and tried to explain his actions in Ireland she listened to him with patient wrath and had him committed to the custody of the Lord keeper at York House until the charges against him could be heard the people of London murmured for they were ignorant of his failure and remembered his victories the Privy Council ordered a semi-public trial and commissioned bacon as a member of the learned counsel and as a lawyer pledged to defend the Queen to draw up a statement of the charges he asked to be excused they insisted he consented the indictment he formulated was moderate Essex acknowledged its truth and offered humble submission he was suspended from his offices and was told to remain in his own home till the Queen should be pleased to free him June 5th 1600 bacon pleaded for him and on August 26th Essex was restored to Liberty now in his own Essex House he continued his search for power one of his intimates was Shakespeare's patron Henry Risley Earl of Southampton him Essex sent to Ireland to propose that Mountjoy now Lord deputy there should return to England with the English army and help Essex take control of the government Mountjoy refused early in 1601 Essex wrote to James the sixth of Scotland asking his aide and promising to support him as successor to Elizabeth James sent him a letter of encouragement wild rumours spread through the excited capital that Robert Cecil was planning to make the Spanish in Fanta Queen of England that Essex was to be a mirrored in the tower the trolley had vowed to kill him perhaps to force Essex to show his hand the younger Cecil induced the Queen to send Essex a message requiring him to a and the council his friends warned him that this was a ruse to seize him one friend sir Gilley Marik paid the Chamberlain's company to stage that evening in Southwark Shakespeare's Richard the second showing a sovereign justly deposed the next morning February 7th 1601 some 300 supporters of Essex fervent and armed gathered in the courtyard of his home when the Lord keeper and three other dignitaries came to ask the cause of this illegal assembly the crowd locked them up and swept the hesitant Earl on with them to London and revolution he had hoped that the people would rise to his cause but the preachers bad them stay indoors and they obeyed the forces of the government were on guard and routed the rebels Essex was captured and lodged in the tower he was quickly brought to trial on a charge of treason the council bad bacon helped cook in preparing the government's case his refusal would have ruined his political career his consent ruined his posthumous reputation when cook faltered in presenting the indictment bacon rose and stated the matter with convincing convicting clarity Essex confessed his guilt and named his accomplices five of these were arrested and beheaded Southampton was sentenced to life imprisonment James the first later released him legend told how Essex sent the Queen a ring once given him by her with a promise to come to his aid if he should ever return it in his hour of need if sent it did not reach her On February 25th 1601 aged 35 Essex went gallantly to the fate that was the seal of his character Raleigh his enemy wept when the blow fell for a year the tower displayed the severed and decaying head 11 the magic fades 1601 to 1603 the sight of that head or the knowledge that it was staring down upon her night and day have shared in the somber mood of Elizabeth's final years she sat alone for hours in silent pensive melancholy she maintained the amusements of her court and maid at times a brave pretense of gaiety but her health was gone and her heart was dead England had ceased to love her it felt that she had outlived herself and should make room for younger royalty the last of her Parliament's rebelled more vigorously than any before against her infringement of parliamentary freedom her persecution of Puritans arising demands for funds her gifts of trade monopolies to her favourites to everyone's surprise the Queen yielded on the last point and promised to end the abuse all the members of the Commons went to thank her and they knelt as she gave what proved to be her last address to them her wistful golden speech November 20th 1601 there is no jewel be it of never so rich a price which I prefer before your love bride to esteem it more than any treasure and though God has raised us high yet this I count the glory of my crown that I have reigned with your loves she bad them rise and then continued to be a king and wear a crown is a thing more glorious to them that see it than it is pleasant to them that Barrett for my own part were it not for conscience sake to discharge the duty that God hath laid upon me and to maintain his glory and keep you in safety in my own disposition I should be willing to resign the place I hold to any other and glad to be freed of the glory with the Labour's for it is not my desire to live or Terrain longer than my life and reign shall be for your good and though you have had and may have many mightier and wiser Prince's sitting in the seat if you never had nor shall have and he loved you better she had postponed as long as she could the question of a successor for while the Queen of Scots lived as legal heir to her throne Elizabeth could not reconcile herself to letting Mary undo the Protestant settlement now that Mary was dead Mary's son James the sixth of Scotland was heir apparent it was some comfort to know that however vacillating and devious he was Protestant she knew that Robert Cecil and others of her court were secretly negotiating with James to ease his accession and feather their nests and were counting the days when she should die rumours moved across Europe that she was dying of cancer but she was dying of too much life her frame could not bear any more the joys and sorrows the burdens and blows of the relentless years when her godson Sir John Harington tried to amuse her with witty verses she sent him off saying well now dust feel creeping time at thy gate these fuller ease will please the less in March 1603 having exposed herself to boldly to the winter cold she caught a fever through three weeks it consumed her she spent them mostly in a chair or reclining on cushions she would have no doctors but she asked for music and some players came finally she was persuaded to take to her bed Archbishop Whitgift expressed a hope for her longer life she rebuked him he knelt beside the bed and prayed when he thought it was enough he tried to rise but she bad him continued and again when the old man's knees were weary she motioned him to pray some more he was released only when late at night she fell asleep she never woke the next day March 24th John Manningham wrote in his diary this morning about three o'clock her majesty departed this life mildly like a lamb easily like a ripe apple from a tree so it seemed England which had long awaited her passing felt the blow nevertheless many men realized that a great age had ended the powerful hand had fallen from the helm and some like Shakespeare feared a chaotic interlude bacon thought her such a great Queen that if Plutarch were now alive to write lives by parallels it would trouble him to for her a parallel among women this lady was endued with learning in her sex singular and rare even among masculine princes as for her government this part of the island never had 45 years of better times and yet not through the calmness of the season but through the wisdom of her regiment for if there be considered of the one side the truth of religion established the constant peace and security the good administration of justice the temperate use of the prerogative the flourishing state of learning and if there be considered on the other side the differences of religion the troubles of neighbor countries the ambition of Spain and opposition of Rome and then that she was solitary and of herself these things I say considered as I could not have chosen another instance so recent and so proper so I suppose I could not have chosen one more remarkable or eminent concerning the conjunction of learning in the prince with felicity in the people looking back now in the hindsight of time we should shave the portrait a little noting and forgiving the faults of the incomparable queen she was no saint or sage but a woman of temper and passion lustily in love with life the truth of religion was not quite established and not all her subjects could as Shakespeare may have thought eat in safety under their own vines what they planted and sing the merry songs of peace the wisdom of her rule was partly that of her aides the vacillations of her mind proved often fortunate perhaps by the chance of change sometimes they brought such weakness of policy that the internal troubles of her enemies had to help her to survive but survived she did and she prospered by fair means or devious she freed Scotland from the French and bound it with England she enabled Henry of Navarre to balance his mass in Paris with the Edict of Nantes found England bankrupt and despised and left it rich and powerful and the sinews of learning and literature grew strong in the wealth of her people she continued the despotism of her father but moderated it with humanity and denied husband and child she mothered England loved it devotedly and used herself up in serving it she was the greatest ruler that England has ever known

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Keywords: Will Durant, Queen Elizabeth, History

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Length: 139min 3sec (8343 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 25 2017