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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of England Under the Tudors, by Arthur D. Innes
+
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+Title: England Under the Tudors
+
+Author: Arthur D. Innes
+
+Release Date: October, 2004 [EBook #6727]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on January 23, 2003]
+
+Edition: 10
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+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ENGLAND UNDER THE TUDORS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Karl Hagen, David Moynihan, Charles Franks
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+ENGLAND UNDER THE TUDORS
+
+BY ARTHUR D. INNES
+
+SOMETIME SCHOLAR OF ORIEL COLLEGE, OXFORD
+
+FOURTH EDITION
+
+INTRODUCTORY NOTE
+
+BY THE GENERAL EDITOR
+
+In England, as in France and Germany, the main characteristic of the last
+twenty years, from the point of view of the student of history, has been
+that new material has been accumulating much faster than it can be
+assimilated or absorbed. The standard histories of the last generation need
+to be revised, or even to be put aside as obsolete, in the light of the new
+information that is coming in so rapidly and in such vast bulk. But the
+students and researchers of to-day have shown little enthusiasm as yet for
+the task of re-writing history on a large scale. We see issuing from the
+press hundreds of monographs, biographies, editions of old texts,
+selections from correspondence, or collections of statistics, mediaeval and
+modern. But the writers who (like the late Bishop Stubbs or Professor
+Samuel Gardiner) undertake to tell over again the history of a long period,
+with the aid of all the newly discovered material, are few indeed. It is
+comparatively easy to write a monograph on the life of an individual or a
+short episode of history. But the modern student, knowing well the mass of
+material that he has to collate, and dreading lest he may make a slip
+through overlooking some obscure or newly discovered source, dislikes to
+stir beyond the boundary of the subject, or the short period, on which he
+has made himself a specialist.
+
+Meanwhile the general reading public continues to ask for standard
+histories, and discovers, only too often, that it can find nothing between
+school manuals at one end of the scale and minute monographs at the other.
+The series of which this volume forms a part is intended to do something
+towards meeting this demand. Historians will not sit down, as once they
+were wont, to write twenty-volume works in the style of Hume or Lingard,
+embracing a dozen centuries of annals. It is not to be desired that they
+should--the writer who is most satisfactory in dealing with Anglo-Saxon
+antiquities is not likely to be the one who will best discuss the
+antecedents of the Reformation, or the constitutional history of the Stuart
+period. But something can be done by judicious co-operation: it is not
+necessary that a genuine student should refuse to touch any subject that
+embraces an epoch longer than a score of years, nor need history be written
+as if it were an encyclopaedia, and cut up into small fragments dealt with
+by different hands.
+
+It is hoped that the present series may strike the happy mean, by dividing
+up English History into periods that are neither too long to be dealt with
+by a single competent specialist, nor so short as to tempt the writer to
+indulge in that over-abundance of unimportant detail which repels the
+general reader. They are intended to give something more than a mere
+outline of our national annals, but they have little space for controversy
+or the discussion of sources, save in periods such as the dark age of the
+5th and 6th centuries after Christ, where the criticism of authorities is
+absolutely necessary if we are to arrive at any sound conclusions as to the
+course of history. A number of maps are to be found at the end of each
+volume which, as it is hoped, will make it unnecessary for the reader to be
+continually referring to large historical atlases--tomes which (as we must
+confess with regret) are not to be discovered in every private library.
+Genealogies and chronological tables of kings are added where necessary.
+
+C. OMAN
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+THE TUDOR PERIOD, 1485-1603 An era of Revolutions--The Intellectual
+Movement--The Reformation and Counter-Reformation--The New World--The
+Constitution--Nobility, Clergy, and Gentry--International Relations.
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+HENRY VII (i), 1485-1492-THE NEW DYNASTY 1485. Henry's Title to the Crown--
+Measures to strengthen the Title--1486. Marriage--The King and his Advisers
+--Henry's enemies--1487. Lambert Simnel--The State of Europe--France and
+Brittany--1488. Henry intervenes cautiously--England and Spain--1489.
+Preparations for war with France--Spanish treaty of Medina del Campo--The
+Allies inert--1490. Object of Henry's Foreign Policy--1491. Apparent Defeat
+--1492. Henry's bellicose Attitude--Treaty of Etaples.
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+HENRY VII (ii), 1492-1499-PERKIN WARBECK Ireland; 1485--1487-1492. The Earl
+of Kildare--1491. Perkin Warbeck's Appearance--Riddle of his imposture--
+1492-5. Perkin and Margaret of Burgundy--Diplomatic Intrigues--Ireland:
+Poynings, 1494-6--1495. Survey of the Situation--Perkin attempts Invasion
+--Success of Henry's Diplomacy--1496. Perkin and the King of Scots--A
+Scottish Incursion--1497. The Cornish rising--Its suppression--Perkin's
+final effort and failure--The Scottish Truce--The End of Perkin Warbeck:
+1497-9--1498. The situation.
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+HENRY VII (iii), 1498-1509-THE DYNASTY ASSURED Scotland and England--
+Henry's Scottish Policy--France and Scotland--Relations in 1498--Marriage
+Negotiations; 1498-1503--Marriage of James IV. and Margaret, 1503--Spain
+and England; Marriage Negotiations, 1488-1499--France, 1499--Spain;
+Marriage Negotiations, 1499-1501--1501; the Spanish Marriage--1502. New
+Marriage Schemes--1504. The Papal Dispensation--The Earl of Suffolk;
+1499-1505--1505. Henry's Position--Schemes for Re-marriage--1506: The
+Archduke Philip in England--Philip's Death--1507-8. Matrimonial Projects
+--The League of Cambrai--Wolsey--1509. Death of Henry.
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+HENRY VII (iv), 1485-1509--ASPECTS OF THE REIGN 1485; Henry's Position
+--Studied Legality--Policy of Lenity--Repression of the Nobles--The
+Star-Chamber--Henry's Use of Parliament--Financial Exactions--Sources of
+Revenue--Henry's Economics--Trade Theories--Commercial Policy--The
+Netherlands Trade--The Hansa--The Navigation Acts--Voyages of Discovery--
+The Rural Revolution--The Church--Henry and Rome--Learning and Letters--
+Appreciation.
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+HENRY VIII (i), 1509-1527--EGO ET REX MEUS Europe in 1509--England's
+Position--The New King--Inauguration of the reign--Henry and the Powers--
+1512. Dorset's Expedition--Rise of Wolsey--1513. The French War--Scotland
+(1499-1513)--The Flodden Campaign--The Battle--Its Effect--Recovery of
+English Prestige--1514. Foreign Intrigues--The French Alliance and Marriage
+--1515. Francis I.--Marignano--1516-7. European changes--1518-9. Wolsey's
+Success--1519. Charles V.--The Imperial Election--1520. Wolsey's Triumph--
+Rival Policies--Field of the Cloth of Gold--Wolsey's Aims--Charles V. and
+Francis I.--Scotland: 1513-1520--1520-1. Affairs Abroad--1521. Buckingham
+--Wolsey's Diplomacy--1522. A Papal Election--War with France--Scotland--
+1523. Progress of the War--Election of Clement VII.--1524. Wolsey's
+difficulties--Intrigues in Scotland--1525. Pavia--The Amicable Loan--A
+Diplomatic struggle--1526-7. Wolsey's success--A new Factor.
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+HENRY VIII (ii), 1509-1532--BIRTH OF THE REFORMATION _The Reformation in
+England_--Its true Character--Religious Decadence--The Scholar-
+Reformers--Ecclesiastical Demoralisation--Monastic Corruption--The
+Proofs--Corruption of Doctrine--Evidence from Colet and More--Later
+Evidence--Dean Colet--His Sermon: 1512--Erasmus--The _Utopia_: 1516--
+Exaggerated attacks--Clerical Privileges--Tentative Reforms--The
+Educational Movement--Wolsey and the Reformation--_The Lutheran
+Revolt_: 1517--Luther's Defiance--The Diet of Worms; 1521--The German
+Peasants' Revolt; 1524--Its Effect in England--1525. The Empire and the
+Papacy--The Sack of Rome, 1527--Diet of Augsburg, 1530-The Swiss Reformers;
+1520-1530--English Heretics Abroad--Contrasted Aims.
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+HENRY VIII (iii), 1527-1529--THE FALL OF WOLSEY "The King's Affair"--Story
+of the Marriage--Anne Boleyn--1527. The King Prepares--Theoretical
+Excuses--The Need of an Heir--The Plea of Invalidity--Conjunction of
+Incentives--The Orleans Betrothal--Conclusions--The first Plan--The second
+Plan--Knight's Mission--Its Failure--The Pope and the Cardinal--1528.
+Gardiner's Mission--Wolsey's Critical Position--Campeggio and Wolsey--
+Henry's Attitude--1529. The Trial--The Storm Gathers--The Storm Breaks--
+Wolsey's fall--1530. Wolsey's Death--His Achievement--Appreciation of
+Wolsey.
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+HENRY VIII (iv), 1529-1533--THE BREACH WITH ROME 1529. No Revolt Yet--
+Growth of Anti-clericalism--Thomas Cranmer--Appeal to the Universities
+--The New Parliament--Thomas Cromwell--Pope, Clergy, and King--Double
+Campaign Opens--1530. Answer of Universities--Preoccupation of the
+Clergy--Menace of Praemunire--1531. "Only Supreme Head"--Proceedings in
+Parliament--1532. Parliament--Supplication against the Ordinaries--
+Resistance of Clergy--"Submission of the Clergy"--Mortmain, Benefit of
+Clergy, and Annates--The Powers and the Divorce--The Turn of the Year--
+1533. The Crisis--Restraint of Appeals--Cranmer Archbishop--The Decisive
+Breach.
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+HENRY VIII (v), 1533-1540--MALLEUS MONACHORUM 1533. Ecclesiastical Parties
+--Pope or King?--1534. Confirmatory Acts--The Pope's Last Word--The Nun of
+Kent--The Act of Succession--The Oath Refused--The "Bishop of Rome"--
+Parliament--Treasons Act--1529-1534: The New Policy--Thomas Cromwell--1535.
+More and Fisher--Cromwell Vicar--General--The German Lutherans--Overtures--
+Visitation of the Monasteries--1536. Suppression of Lesser Houses--The
+Evidence--The Black Book--The Consequent Commission--The Policy--Anne
+Boleyn Threatened--Her Condemnation and Death--The Succession--Punishment
+of Heresy--The Progressive Movement--The Ten Articles--The Lincolnshire
+Rising--The Pilgrimage of Grace--Aske Beguiled--1537. Suppression of the
+Rising--Turned to Account--Scotland, 1533-6--1536-7. Naval Measures--1537.
+An Heir--1538. Diplomatic Moves--The Exeter Conspiracy--1539. Cromwell
+Strikes--Menace of Invasion--The King and Lutheranism--The Six Articles--
+Final Suppression of Monasteries--Royal Proclamations Act--Anne of Cleves--
+1540. The Marriage--Fall of Cromwell.
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+HENRY VIII (vi), 1540-1547--HENRY'S LAST YEARS 1540. Katharine Howard--The
+King his own Minister--England and the Powers--Scotland and England; 1541--
+Cardinal Beton--1542--Solway Moss--1543. Henry's Scottish Policy--Alliance
+with Charles V.--French War--1544. Domestic Affairs--Intrigues in Scotland
+--Sack of Edinburgh--French War--Peace of Crepy--1545. Ancram Moor--A
+French Armada--1546. Peace concluded--1532-1549. _Europe_--Lutherans
+and the Papacy--Conference of Ratisbon-Council of Trent: first stages--
+Death of Luther-Charles and the League of Schmalkald--The Jesuit Order--
+Calvin--_England_: the Ecclesiastical Revolution--Progressives and
+Reactionaries--1543. The King's Book-1546. Surrey--1547. Death of Henry.
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+HENRY VIII (vii), 1509-1547--ASPECTS OF HENRY'S REIGN _Ireland_:
+1509-1520--Surrey in Ireland, 1520--Irish Policy, 1520-1534--Fitzgerald's
+Revolt--1535-1540: Lord Leonard Grey--1540: St. Leger--"King of Ireland"--
+_England_: Wolsey's work--The Army--The Navy--The New World--
+Absolutism--The Parliamentary Sanction--Depression of the Nobles--
+Parliament and the Purse--Finance--The Land--Learning and Letters--The
+_Utopia_--Surrey and Wyatt--_Appreciation of Henry VIII._: Morals
+and Character--Abilities and Achievement--Dominant Personality--
+Conclusions.
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+EDWARD VI (i), 1547-1549--THE PROTECTOR SOMERSET 1547. The New Government--
+Relations with France and Scotland--with Charles V.--Somerset's Scottish
+Policy--Pinkie--The Advanced Reformers--Benevolent Legislation--
+Ecclesiastical Legislation--1548. Progress of the Reformation--Somerset's
+Ideas--The French in Scotland--The Augsburg Interim--Parliament--1549. A
+New Liturgy--The Treason of the Lord Admiral: 1547-9--1549--Troubles in the
+Provinces--The Western Rising--Ket's Insurrection--The Protector's
+Attitude--The Council attacks him--His Fall--Ireland: St. Leger and
+Bellingham.
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+EDWARD VI (ii), 1549-1553--THE DUDLEY ASCENDANCY 1549. Foreign Relations--
+State of England--1550. Terms with France--Protestant zeal of Warwick--
+Treasons Act--Protestant Fanaticism-1551. The Council and Charles V.--His
+Difficulties--Groups among the Reformers--Somerset--His final overthrow--
+1552. Execution of Somerset--Pacification of Passau--English Neutrality--
+The Reformation: its Limits hitherto--Revision of the Liturgy--
+Nonconformity--Parliament--1553. A New Parliament--Northumberland's
+Programme--Plot to change the Succession--Adhesion of King and Council--
+Death of Edward VI.--Willoughby and Chancellor.
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+MARY (i), 1553-1555-THE SPANISH MARRIAGE The Marian Tragedies--1553.
+Proclamation of Queen Jane--The People support Mary--Collapse of the Plot--
+Mary's Leniency--Cause of the Popular Loyalty--Problems: Marriage and the
+Reformation--Possible Claimants--Moderate Reaction--Proposed Spanish Match
+--Parliament: Repeal of Edward's Legislation--1554. Wyatt's Rebellion and
+the Lady Elizabeth--Subsequent Severities--The Marriage Treaty-Pole,
+Renard, and Gardiner--Public Tension--Parliament; Reconciliation with Rome
+--Reaction consummated, 1555.
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+MARY (ii), 1555-1558-THE PERSECUTION Mary's early Policy--The Persecution--
+Who was Responsible?--Comparison with other Persecutions--Some
+Characteristic Features--1555. The First Martyrs--Trial of Cranmer--Ridley
+and Latimer--Fate of Cranmer--His Record and Character--Policy of Philip--
+Paul IV.--Mary disappointed of an Heir--A New Parliament--Gardiner's Death
+and Character--Mary's Difficulties--1556. The Dudley Conspiracy--Foreign
+Complications--1557. War with France--1558. Loss of Calais--National
+Depression--Mary's Death and Character.
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+ELIZABETH (i), 1558-1561-A PASSAGE PERILOUS
+
+1558. Accession--Mary Stewart's Claim--Strength of Elizabeth's Position--
+Sir William Cecil--Finance--Philip II. and Elizabeth's Marriage--The
+Religious Question--A Protestant Policy--1559. Parliament: Act of
+Supremacy--The Prayer-Book--France and Peace--State of Scotland--Arran and
+Elizabeth--The Archduke Charles--Wynter in the Forth--1560. Difficulties of
+France--Vacillations of Elizabeth--Siege of Leith--Treaty of Edinburgh--
+Elizabeth's Methods--The Dudley Imbroglio--The Huguenots--The Pope--1561.
+Return of Mary to Scotland.
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+ELIZABETH (ii), 1561-1568-QUEENS AND SUITORS 1561. The Situation--Council
+of Trent--France; State of Parties--1561-8. France: Catholics and Huguenots
+--The Netherlands: Philip's Policy--Prelude to War--1561. The Queens'
+suitors--1562. Mary in Scotland--1562-3. Elizabeth and the Huguenots--The
+English Succession-1564. Darnley and Others--1565. The Darnley Marriage--
+Mary and Murray--1566. The Murder of Rizzio--1567. Kirk o' Field--The
+Bothwell Marriage--Mary at Loch Leven--Murray Regent--1568. Langside, and
+the Flight to England--1562-8. Protestantism of Elizabeth's Government--
+Religious Parties--1566-7. Parliament and the Queen's Marriage--The Queen
+and the Archduke.
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+ELIZABETH (iii), 1568-1572--THE CATHOLIC CHALLENGE 1568. Mary in England--A
+Commission of Enquiry--Proceedings at York--Attitude of Philip--The
+Commission at Westminster--Comment on the Enquiry--Seizure of Spanish
+Treasure--1569. The Incident passed over--The Northern Rebellion--1570.
+Murder of Murray--The Bull of Deposition--The Anjou Match--1570-1. The
+Ridolfi Plot--1571. Parliament--Collapse of the Anjou Match--The Ridolfi
+Plot Develops--1572. Parliament and Mary Stewart--Lepanto--The Netherlands
+Revolt--The Alençon Match--St. Bartholomew.
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+ELIZABETH (iv), 1572-1578--VARIUM ET MUTABILE Elizabeth's Diplomacy--The
+Queen's Subjects--Development of Protestantism--1572. Katharine de Medici
+--The Aim of Elizabeth--England and the Massacre--Spain seeks Amity--1573.
+A Spanish Alliance--Scotland: End of the Marian Party--The Netherlands,
+France, and Spain--The Netherlands, England, and Spain--1574. Amicable
+Relations of England and Spain--1575. A Deadlock--1576. Attitude of the
+Nation--The Queen evades War--Alençon and the Huguenots--The Netherlands
+and Don John--Elizabeth's Attitude--1577. The Political Kaleidoscope--The
+Archduke Matthias--1578. Mendoza--Orange and Alençon--Death of Don John--
+NOTE: The Portuguese Succession.
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+ELIZABETH (v), 1558-1578--IRISH AND ENGLISH 1549-58--1558. Shan O'Neill--
+The Antrim Scots--1560-1. Shan and the Government--1562. Shan in England--
+1563-5. Shan's supremacy in Ulster recognised--1566. Sir Henry Sidney
+Deputy--Overthrow of O'Neill--Catholicism in Irish Politics--1568. The
+Colonising of Munster--1569. Insurrection in Munster--Ireland and Philip--
+Experimental Presidencies--1573-4. Essex in Ulster--1576-8. Sidney's second
+Deputyship.
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+ELIZABETH (vi), 1578-1583--THE PAPAL ATTACK 1579. The Union of Utrecht--
+1578. The Matrimonial Juggle--Alençon's wooing--1579. Popular Hostility to
+the Match--Loyalty to Elizabeth--Yea and Nay--The Papal Plan of Campaign--
+1580. Philip annexes Portugal--_Ireland_: 1579; the Desmond Rising--
+1580: Fire and Sword--Development of the Rebellion--Smerwick: and after--
+_Scotland_: 1579-1581--_England_: 1580--The Jesuit Mission--
+Walsingham at Work--1581. An Anti-papal Parliament--Alençon redivivus--His
+visit to England--1582. Alençon in the Netherlands--1583. Exit
+Alençon--Scotland.
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+ELIZABETH (vii), 1583-1587-THE END OF QUEEN MARY 1583. Throgmorton's
+Conspiracy--Catholics abroad sanguine--Division in their Counsels--The Plot
+discovered--1584. Assassination of Orange--The "Association"--1585. Its
+Ratification--France: The Holy League--Elizabeth's agreement with the
+States--Drake's Cartagena Raid--Elizabeth's Intrigues-1586. Leicester in
+the Netherlands--The Trapping of Mary--Babington's Plot--Trial of the
+Queen of Scots--Elizabeth and Mary--1587. Execution of Mary.
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+ELIZABETH (viii), 1558-1587-THE SEAMEN The New World--The English Marine
+before Elizabeth--The Royal Navy--Privateering--"Piracy"--Reprisal--The
+Explorers--Spain in America--John Hawkins, 1562-6--San Juan d'Ulloa, 1567--
+Francis Drake--Darien Expedition, 1572--Oxenham, 1575--_Drake's Great
+Voyage_: 1577--Drake in the Pacific, 1578--in the North Pacific, 1579--
+his Return, 1580--_Various Voyages_: 1576-1587--Raleigh--Humphrey
+Gilbert--Virginia.
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+ELIZABETH (ix), 1587-1588-THE ARMADA 1587. Results of Mary's Death--
+Attitude of Philip--Attitude of Elizabeth--The situation--Drake's Cadiz
+Expedition--Negotiations with Parma--Elizabeth's Diplomacy--French Affairs
+--Preparations for the Armada--1588. Plans of Campaign--Forces of the
+Antagonists--The New Tactics--Defective Arrangements--The Land Forces--May
+to July--The Fleets off Plymouth--The Fight off Portland--The Fight off the
+Isle of Wight--Effect on the Fleets--The Armada at Calais--The Battle off
+Gravelines--Flight and Ruin of the Armada.
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+ELIZABETH (x), 1588-1598-BRITANNIA VICTRIX After the Armada--A new
+Phase--Death of Leicester--France, 1588-9--England aggressive--Alternative
+Naval Policies--Don Antonio--Plan of the Lisbon Expedition--1589. The
+Expedition; Corunna and Peniche--The Lisbon Failure--Policies and Persons--
+France, 1589-1593--1590. Death of Walsingham--The Year's Operations--1591.
+Grenville's Last Fight--France, 1590-3--Operations, 1592-4--Survey, 1589-94
+--Spain and the English Catholics--Scottish Intrigues--Ireland: 1583-1592
+--Tyrone, 1592-4--1595. Drake's Last Voyage--1596. The Cadiz Expedition--
+Ireland--The Second Armada--1597. The Island Voyage--1598. Condition of
+Spain--Death of Philip--Death of Burghley: Appreciation.
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+ELIZABETH (xi), 1598-1603--THE QUEEN'S LAST YEARS A new Generation--1598.
+Ireland--The Earl of Essex--1599. Essex in Ireland--His Downfall--Catholic
+Factions--Philip III.--1600--Ireland--Succession Intrigues--The End of
+Essex--Robert Cecil--1601. Ireland: Rebellion broken--1602. The Succession
+--Last Intrigues--1603. Death of Elizabeth.
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+ELIZABETH (xii), 1558-1603--LITERATURE Birth of a National Literature--
+_Prose_: before 1579--1579-1589--_Euphues_--Sidney--Hooker--
+_Verse_: before 1579--1579-1590--_Drama_: before Elizabeth--
+early Elizabethan--_The Younger Generation>_: pervading
+Characteristics Displayed in the Drama--and other Fields--Breadth of
+view--Patriotism--Normal Types.
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+ELIZABETH (xiii), 1558-1603--ASPECTS OF THE REIGN Features of the Reign--
+_Religion_: State and Church--The State and the Catholics--The Church
+and the Puritans--Archbishop Whitgift--The Persecutions--_Economic
+Progress_--Retrenchment--Wealth and Poverty--Trade Restrictions and
+Development--_Travellers_--Maritime Expansion--_The Constitution--
+Elizabeth_: her People--her Ministers--Appreciation.
+
+
+
+APPENDICES
+
+APPENDIX A--TABLES
+
+I. CONTEMPORARY RULERS--1475-1542
+II. CONTEMPORARY RULERS--1542-1603
+III. THE LENNOX STEWARTS
+IV. HOWARDS AND BOLEYNS
+V. HABSBURGS
+VI. VALOIS AND BOURBONS
+VII. GUISES
+DESCENDANTS OF EDWARD III.
+THE PORTUGUESE SUCCESSION
+
+APPENDIX B
+
+CLAIMS TO THE THRONE
+
+APPENDIX C
+
+THE QUEEN OF SCOTS
+
+APPENDIX D
+
+BIBLIOGRAPHY
+
+MAPS
+
+I. THE WORLD: AS KNOWN _circa_ 1485-1603.
+II. WESTERN EUROPE: _circa_ 1558
+III. ENGLAND AND IRELAND
+IV. SPANISH AMERICA: _circa 1580
+V. THE LOW COUNTRIES AND THE CHANNEL
+THE FLODDEN CAMPAIGN
+
+INDEX
+
+
+
+ENGLAND UNDER THE TUDORS
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+THE TUDOR PERIOD, 1485-1603
+
+[Sidenote: An era of Revolutions]
+
+The historian of the future will, perhaps, affirm that the nineteenth
+century, with the last years of the eighteenth, has been a period more
+fraught with momentous events in the development of the nations than any
+equal period since the Christian era commenced. Yet striking as are the
+developments witnessed by the last four generations, the years when England
+was ruled by Princes of the House of Tudor have a history hardly if at all
+less momentous. For though what we call the Tudor period, from 1485 to
+1603, is determined by a merely dynastic title affecting England alone, the
+reign of that dynasty happens to coincide in point of time with the
+greatest territorial revolution on record, a religious revolution
+unparalleled since the rise of Mohammed, and an intellectual activity to
+match which we must go back to the great days of Hellas, or forward to the
+nineteenth century: revolutions all of them not specifically English, but
+affecting immediately every nation in Europe; while one of them extended
+itself to every continent on the globe. Moreover, the accompanying social
+revolution, though comparatively superficial, was only a little less marked
+than the others. Nor was there any country in Europe more influenced by the
+general Revolution in any one of its aspects than England.
+
+_Nihil per saltum_ is no doubt as true of historical movements as of
+physical evolution. Before Columbus sighted Hispaniola, Portuguese sailors
+had told tales of some vast island seen by them far in the west.
+Botticelli had passed out of Filippo Lippi's school, and Leonardo was
+thirty, before Raphael was born; the printing press had reached England,
+and Greek had been re-discovered, in the last years of the previous
+"period"; the Byzantine Empire had fallen; the power of the old Baronage in
+England and France had been broken before Richard fell on Bosworth
+field. There were Lollards at home and Hussites abroad before Luther came
+into the world. The changes did not begin in 1485, or in any particular
+year. In Italy the intellectual movement had already long been active, and
+had indeed produced its best work; outside of Italy, its appearances had
+been quite sporadic. At that date, the Ocean movement was in its initial
+stages. There had been foreshadowings of the Reformation; and, to speak
+metaphorically, the castles which had maintained the power of the nobility,
+overshadowing the gentry and the burghers, were already in ruins. But the
+fame of every one of the great English names which are landmarks in every
+one of these great movements belongs essentially to the years after 1485.
+And every one of those movements had definitely and decisively set its mark
+on the world before Elizabeth was laid in her grave.
+
+[Sidenote: The Intellectual Movement]
+
+The intellectual movement to which we apply the name Renaissance in its
+narrower sense [Footnote: In the more inclusive sense the Renaissance of
+course began in the time of Cimabue and Dante, but it was not till the
+latter half of the fifteenth century that it became a pervading force
+outside of Italy.] has many aspects. Whatever views we may happen to hold
+as to schools of painting and architecture, it is indisputable that a
+revolution was wrought by the work of Raphael and Leonardo, Michael Angelo
+and Titian, and the crowd of lesser great men who learned from them. The
+limitations imposed on Art by ecclesiastical conventions were deprived of
+their old rigour, and it was no longer sought to confine the painter to
+producing altar pieces and glorified or magnified missal-margins. The
+immediate tangible and visible results were however hardly to be found
+outside of Italy and the Low Countries; and if English domestic
+architecture took on a new face, it was the outcome rather of the social
+than the artistic change: since men wanted comfortable houses instead of
+fortresses to dwell in. The Renaissance in its creative artistic phase
+touched England directly hardly at all.
+
+On its literary side, the movement was not creative but scholarly and
+critical, though a great creative movement was its outcome. In the earlier
+period the name of Ariosto is an exception; but otherwise the greatest of
+the men of Letters are perhaps, in their several ways, Erasmus and
+Macchiavelli abroad and Thomas More in England. Scholars and students were
+doing an admirable work of which the world was much in need; displacing the
+schoolmen, overturning mediaeval authorities and conventions, reviving the
+knowledge of the mighty Greek Literature which for centuries had been
+buried in oblivion, introducing fresh standards of culture, spreading
+education, creating an entirely new intellectual atmosphere. An enormous
+impulse was given to the new influences by the very active encouragement
+which the princes of Europe, lay and ecclesiastical, extended to them, the
+nobility following in the wake of the princes. The best literary brains of
+the day however were largely absorbed by the religious movement. The great
+imaginative writers, unless we except Rabelais, appear in the latter half
+of the sixteenth century--Tasso and Camoens and Cervantes, [Footnote:
+_Don Quixote_ did not appear till 1605; but Cervantes was then nearly
+sixty.] Spenser and Marlowe and Shakespeare, as well as Montaigne. But even
+in the first half of the century, Copernicus enunciated the new theory that
+the Sun, not the Earth, is the centre of the astronomical system; and
+before the end of our period, the new methods had established themselves in
+the field of science, to be first formulated early in the new century by
+one who had already mastered and applied them, Francis Bacon. Essentially,
+the modern Scientific Method was the product of the Tudor Age.
+
+[Sidenote: The Reformation and the Counter-Reformation]
+
+For many centuries, Christendom had in effect been undivided. There had
+indeed been a time when it was uncertain whether the Arian heresy might not
+prevail over orthodoxy, but that was a thousand years ago. The Byzantine
+Church later had separated from the Roman on a subtle point of Theology;
+but in spite of various dissensions, and efforts on the part of kings and
+of Churches which may be called national to assert a degree of
+independence, all Western Europe had acknowledged the supremacy of the
+papacy; and though reformers had arisen, the movements they initiated had
+either been absorbed by orthodoxy or crushed almost out of sight. The Tudor
+period witnessed that vast schism which divided Europe into the two
+religious camps, labelled--with the usual inaccuracy of party labels--
+Catholic and Protestant: the latter, as time went on, failing into infinite
+divisions, still however remaining agreed in their resistance to the common
+foe. Roughly--very roughly--in place of the united Christendom of the
+Middle Ages, the end of the period found the Northern, Scandinavian, and
+Teutonic races ranged on one side, the Southern Latin races on the other;
+and in both camps a very much more intelligent conception of religion, a
+much more lively appreciation of its relation to morals. The intellectual
+revolution had engendered a keen and independent spirit of inquiry, a
+disregard of traditional authority, an iconoclastic zeal, a passion for
+ascertaining Truth, which, applied to religion, crashed against received
+systems and dogmas with a tremendous shock rending Christendom in twain.
+But the Reformers were not all on one side; and those who held by the old
+faiths and acknowledged still the old mysteries included many of the most
+essentially religious spirits of the time. If the Protestants won a new
+freedom, the Catholics acquired a new fervour and on the whole a new
+spirituality. For both Catholic and Protestant, religion meant something
+which had been lacking to latter-day mediaevalism: something for which it
+was worth while to fight and to die, and--a much harder matter than dying
+--to sever the bonds of friendship and kinship. That these things should
+have needed to be done was an evil; that men should have become ready to do
+them was altogether good. The Reformation brought not peace but a sword;
+Religion was but one of the motives which made men partisans of either
+side; yet that it became a motive at all meant that they had realised it as
+an essential necessity in their lives.
+
+[Sidenote: The New World]
+
+It is hardly necessary to dwell at length on the magnitude of the
+maritime expansion; the Map [Footnote: See Map 1] is more eloquent than
+words. In 1485 the coasts that were known to Europeans were those of
+Europe, the Levant, and North Africa. Only such rare adventurers as
+Marco Polo had penetrated Asia outside the ancient limits of the Roman
+Empire. In 1603, the globe had been twice circumnavigated by Englishmen.
+Portuguese fleets dominated the Indian waters; there were Portuguese
+stations both on the West Coast of India and in the Bay of Bengal;
+Portuguese and Spaniards were established in the Spice Islands whence
+there was an annual trade round the Cape with the Spanish Peninsula:
+the English East India Company was already incorporated, and its first
+fleet, commanded by Captain Lancaster, had opened up the same waters
+for English trade. Mexico and Peru and the West Indies were Spanish
+posses-*
+
+** Two pages missing from original book here
+
+[Sidenote: Nobility, clergy and gentry]
+
+In the business of managing the Estates, the problem was further simplified
+to the Tudors because circumstances enabled them arbitrarily to replenish
+their treasuries largely from sources which did not wound the
+susceptibilities of the Commons. Henry VII. could victimise the nobles by
+fines or benevolences, and Henry VIII. could rob the Church, without
+arousing the animosity of the classes which were untouched; while neither
+the nobility nor the clergy were strong enough for active resentment. In
+each case the King made his profit out of privileged classes which got no
+sympathy from the rest--who did not grudge the King money so long at least
+as they were not asked to provide it themselves, and in fact felt that the
+process diminished the necessity for making demands on their own pockets.
+
+The disappearance of the old almost princely power of the greater barons,
+completed by the repressive policy of Henry VII., with the redistribution
+of the vast monastic estates effected by his son, were the leading factors
+which changed the social and political centre of gravity. The old nobility
+were almost wiped out by the civil wars; generation after generation, their
+representatives had either fallen on the battlefield, or lost their heads
+on the scaffold and their lands by attainder. The new nobility were the
+creations of the Tudor Kings, lacking the prestige of renowned ancestry and
+the means of converting retainers into small armies. With the exception of
+the Howards, scarce one of the prominent statesmen of the period belonged
+to any of the old powerful families. For more than forty years the chief
+ministers were ecclesiastics; after Wolsey's fall, the Cromwells, Seymours,
+Dudleys, and Pagets, the Cecils and Walsinghams, and Bacons, the Russels,
+Sidneys, Raleighs, and Careys, were of stocks that had hardly been heard of
+in Plantagenet times, outside their own localities. It was the Tudor policy
+to foster and encourage this class of their subjects, who from the Tudor
+times onward provided the country with most of her statesmen and her
+captains, and in the aggregate mainly swayed her fortunes. At the same time
+the political influence of the Church was reduced to comparative
+insignificance by the treatment of the whole hierarchy almost as if it were
+a branch, and a rather subordinate branch, of the civil administration; by
+the appropriation of its wealth to secular purposes, to the enrichment of
+individuals and of the royal treasury; and by the suppression of the
+monastic orders. The effect of this last measure, limiting the clerical
+ranks to the successors of the secular clergy, was to restrict them much
+more generally to their pastoral functions; and at any rate after the death
+of Gardiner and Pole, no ecclesiastic appears as indubitably first minister
+of the Crown, and few as politicians of the front rank. England had no
+Richelieu, and no Mazarin. Lastly while the diminution in the importance of
+the ecclesiastical courts increased the influence of the lay lawyers, the
+great development in the prosperity of the mercantile classes, due in part
+at least to the deliberate policy of the Tudor monarchs, led in turn to
+their wealthy burgesses acquiring a new weight in the national counsels
+which, however, did not take full effect till a later day.
+
+[Sidenote: International relations]
+
+Finally we have to observe that in this period the whole system of
+international relations underwent a complete transformation. At its
+commencement, there was no Spanish kingdom; there was no Dutch Republic;
+the unification even of France was not completed; England had a chronically
+hostile nation on her northern borders; the Moors still held Granada; the
+Turk had only very recently established himself in Europe, and his advance
+constituted a threat to all Christendom, which still very definitely
+recognised one ecclesiastical head in the Pope, and--very much less
+definitely--one lay head in the Emperor. Elizabeth's death united England
+and Scotland at least for international purposes; France and Spain had each
+become a homogeneous state; Holland was on the verge of entering the lists
+as a first-class power. The theoretical status of the Emperor in Europe had
+vanished, but on the other hand, the co-ordination of the Empire itself as
+a Teutonic power had considerably advanced. The Turk was held in check, and
+the Moor was crushed: but one half of Christendom was disposed to regard
+the other half as little if at all superior to the Turk in point of
+Theology. The nations of Western Europe had approximately settled into the
+boundaries with which we are familiar; the position of the great Powers had
+been, at least comparatively speaking, formulated; and the idea had come
+into being which was to dominate international relations for centuries to
+come--the political conception of the Balance of Power.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+HENRY VII (i), 1485-92--THE NEW DYNASTY
+
+[Sidenote: 1485 Henry's title to the Crown]
+
+On August 22nd, 1485, Henry Earl of Richmond overcame and slew King Richard
+III., and was hailed as King on the field of victory. But the destruction
+of Richard, an indubitable usurper and tyrant, was only the first step in
+establishing a title to the throne as disputable as ever a monarch put
+forward. To establish that title, however, was the primary necessity not
+merely for Henry himself, but in the general interest; which demanded a
+secure government after half a century of turmoil.
+
+Henry's hereditary title amounted to nothing more than this, that through
+his mother he was the recognised representative of the House of Lancaster
+in virtue of his Beaufort descent from John of Gaunt, [Footnote: See
+_Front_. and Appendix B. The prior hereditary claims of the royal
+Houses of Portugal and Castile and of the Earl of Westmorland were
+ignored.] father of Henry IV.; whereas the House of York was descended in
+the female line from Lionel of Clarence, John of Gaunt's elder brother, and
+in unbroken male line from the younger brother Edmund of York. On the
+simple ground of descent therefore, any and every member of the House of
+York had a prior title to Henry's; the most complete title lying in
+Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Edward IV.; while the young Earl of Warwick,
+son of George of Clarence, was the first male representative, and John de
+la Pole, Earl of Lincoln, son of Edward's sister, had been named by Richard
+as heir presumptive.
+
+But Henry could support his hereditary title, such as it was, by the actual
+fact that it was he and not a Yorkist who had challenged and overthrown the
+usurper Richard.
+
+[Sidenote 1: Measures to strengthen the title]
+[Sidenote 2: 1486 Marriage]
+
+Now the idea that the rivalry of the Houses of York and Lancaster should be
+terminated and their union be effected by the marriage of the two
+recognised representatives had been mooted long before. But in Henry's
+position, it was imperative that he should assert his own personal right to
+the throne, not admitting that he occupied it as his wife's consort. His
+strongest line was to claim the Crown as his own of right and procure the
+endorsement of that claim from Parliament, [Footnote: The intricacies of
+descent, and the position of the crowd of hypothetical claimants, are set
+forth in detail in Appendix B, and the complete genealogical chart
+(_Front_.).] as Henry IV. had done on the deposition of Richard II. He
+could then without prejudice to his own title effectively bar other rivals
+by taking as his consort Elizabeth of York; since the Yorkists, as a group,
+would at any rate hesitate to assert priority of title to hers for either
+Warwick or De la Pole (who in fact never himself posed as a claimant for
+the throne). In accordance with this plan of operations, the contemplated
+marriage with Elizabeth of York was in the first instance postponed as a
+matter for later consideration. Henry proceeded forthwith to London,
+entering the City _laetanter_, amidst public rejoicings; [Footnote:
+Gairdner, _Memorials of Henry VII_., p. xxvi, where a curious
+misapprehension is explained for which Bacon is mainly responsible.] writs
+for a new Parliament being issued a few days later. The coronation took
+place on October 30th; a week afterwards Parliament met, and an Act was
+promptly passed, declaring--without giving any reasons, which might have
+been disputed--that the "inheritance of the Crowns of England and France
+be, rest, remain and abide, in the person of our now Sovereign Lord, King
+Harry the Seventh, and in the heirs of his body". This was sufficiently
+decisive; but the endorsement of Henry's title in the abstract was
+confirmed by further enactments which assumed that he had been King of
+right, before the battle of Bosworth (thus repudiating title by conquest),
+since they attainted of treason those who had joined Richard in levying war
+against him. Thus Henry had affirmed his own inherent right to the throne;
+and had hedged that round with an unqualified parliamentary title. In the
+meantime he had also disqualified one possible figure-head for the Yorkists
+by lodging the young Earl of Warwick in the Tower. It remained for him to
+convert the other and principal rival into a prop of his own dignities by
+marrying Elizabeth of York. Accordingly he was formally petitioned by
+Parliament in December to take the princess to wife, to which petition he
+graciously assented, and the union of the red and white roses was
+accomplished in January. Any son born of this marriage would in his own
+person unite the claims of the House of Lancaster with those of the senior
+branch of the House of York.
+
+[Sidenote: The King and his advisers]
+
+It is difficult to think of the first Tudor monarch as a young man; for his
+policy and conduct bore at all times the signs of a cautious and
+experienced statesmanship. Nevertheless, he was but eight and twenty when
+he wrested the kingdom from Richard. His life, however, had been passed in
+the midst of perpetual plots and schemes, and in his day men developed
+early--whereof an even more striking example was his son's contemporary,
+the great Emperor Charles V. Young as Henry was, there was no youthful
+hot-headedness in his policy, which was moreover his own. But he selected
+his advisers with a skill inherited by his son; and the most notable
+members of the new King's Council were Reginald Bray; Morton, Bishop of
+Ely, who soon after became Archbishop of Canterbury and was later raised to
+the Cardinalate; and Fox, afterwards Bishop of Durham and then of
+Winchester, whose services were continued through the early years of the
+next reign. Warham, afterwards Archbishop, was another of the great
+ecclesiastics whom he promoted, and before his death he had discovered the
+abilities of his son's great minister Thomas Wolsey. For two thirds of his
+reign, however, Bray and Morton were the men on whom he placed chief
+reliance.
+
+[Sidenote: Henry's enemies]
+
+Difficult as it was after Henry's union with Elizabeth to name any
+pretender to the throne with even a plausible claim, Bosworth had been
+in effect a victory for the Lancastrian party, and many of the Yorkists
+were still prepared to seize any pretext for attempting to overthrow
+the new dynasty. Not long after the marriage, Henry started on a
+progress through his dominions; and while he was in the north, Lord
+Lovel and other adherents of the late king attempted a rising which was
+however suppressed with little difficulty. A considerable body of
+troops was sent against the rebels, while a pardon was proclaimed for
+all who forthwith surrendered. Many of the insurgents came in; the
+promise to them was kept. Of the rest, one of the leaders was executed,
+Lovel escaping; but the affair, though abortive, illustrated the
+general atmosphere of insecurity which was to be more seriously
+demonstrated by the insurrection in favour of Lambert Simnel in the
+following year--some months after the Queen had given birth to a son,
+Prince Arthur.
+
+Outside Henry's own dominions, the Dowager Margaret of Burgundy, widow
+of Duke Charles the Bold and sister of Edward IV., was implacably
+hostile to Henry, and her court was the gathering place of dissatisfied
+Yorkist intriguers. Within his realms, Ireland, where the House of York
+had always been popular, offered a perpetual field in which to raise
+the standard of rebellion, any excuse for getting up a fight being
+generally welcomed. In that country the power of the King's government,
+such as it was, was practically confined to the limits of the Pale--and
+within those limits depended mainly on the attitude of the powerful
+Irish noble, Fitzgerald, Earl of Kildare, who held the office of Deputy.
+
+[Sidenote: 1487 Lambert Simnel]
+
+At the close of the fifteenth century accurate information did not travel
+rapidly, but vague rumours were readily spread abroad. Rumours were now
+rife that one of the princes murdered by Richard III. had really escaped
+and was still living; and on the other hand that the boy Warwick was dead
+in the Tower. Some one devised the idea of producing a fictitious Richard
+of York, or Warwick. A boy of humble birth named Lambert Simnel was taught
+to play the part, carried over to Ireland, and produced after some
+hesitation as the Earl of Warwick. Presumably the leaders of the Yorkists
+intended to use the supposititious earl only until the real one could be
+got into their hands; but Lincoln, who certainly knew the facts, espoused
+the cause of the pretender, in complicity with Lovel and Margaret of
+Burgundy. In Ireland, Simnel was cheerfully and with practical unanimity
+accepted as the king, and a band of German mercenaries, under the command
+of Martin Swart, was landed in that country to support him; though in
+London the genuine Warwick was paraded through the streets to show that he
+was really there alive. Lincoln, who had first escaped to Flanders, joined
+the pretender; they landed in Lancashire in June. Within a fortnight,
+however, the opposing forces met at Stoke, and after a brief but fierce
+conflict the rebel army, mainly composed of Irish and of German
+mercenaries, was crushed, Lincoln and several leaders were slain, and their
+puppet was taken captive. Henry's action was the reverse of vindictive, for
+Simnel was merely relegated to a position, appropriate to his origin, in
+the royal kitchen, and was subsequently promoted to be one of the King's
+falconers. Kildare, [Footnote: The narrative in the _Book of Howth_
+gives the impression that Kildare was at Stoke, and was made prisoner; but
+this is probably a misinterpretation arising from a lack of dates.] in
+spite of his undoubted complicity in the rebellion and the actual
+participation therein of his kinsmen, was even retained in the office of
+Deputy. Twenty-eight of the rebels, however, were attainted in the new
+Parliament which was summoned in November, the Queen's long-deferred
+coronation taking place at the same time.
+
+The same Parliament is noteworthy as having given a definitely legal status
+to the judicial authority of the Council by the establishment of the Court
+thereafter known as the Star Chamber, of which we shall hear later. Besides
+this, however, it had the duty of voting supplies for embroilments
+threatening on the Continent.
+
+The complexities of foreign affairs form so important a feature in the
+history of the next forty years that it is important to open the study of
+the period with a clear idea of the position of the Continental powers.
+
+[Sidenote: The state of Europe]
+
+Lewis XI., the craftiest of kings, had died in 1482, leaving a tolerably
+organised kingdom to his young son Charles VIII., under the regency of Anne
+of Beaujeu. With the exception of the Dukedom of Brittany, which still
+claimed a degree of independence, and of Flanders and Artois which, though
+fiefs of France, were still ruled by the House of Burgundy, the whole
+country was under the royal dominion; which had also absorbed the Duchy of
+Burgundy proper. The daughter of Charles the Bold, wife of Maximilian of
+Austria, inherited as a diminished domain the Low Countries and the County
+of Burgundy or Franche Comté.
+
+East of the Rhine, the kingdoms, principalities, and dukedoms of Germany
+owned the somewhat vague authority of the Habsburg Emperor Frederick, but
+the idea of German Unity had not yet come into being. On the south-east the
+Turks who had captured Constantinople some thirty years before (1453) were
+a militant and aggressive danger to the Empire and to Christendom; while
+the stoutest opponent of their fleets was Venice. Switzerland was an
+independent confederacy of republican States: Italy a collection of
+separate States--dukedoms such as Milan, kingdoms such as Naples, Republics
+such as Venice and Florence, with the Papal dominions in their midst. In
+the Spanish peninsula were the five kingdoms of Navarre, Portugal, the
+Moorish Granada, Aragon, and Castile. The last two, however, were already
+united, though not yet merged into one, by the marriage of their respective
+sovereigns Ferdinand and Isabella. Sardinia and Sicily were attached to
+Aragon.
+
+Finally we have to note that Maximilian, son of the Emperor, had married
+Mary of Burgundy; but on Mary's death the Netherlanders recognised as their
+Duke not Maximilian but his young son Philip--the father exercising only a
+very precarious authority as the boy's guardian; while the Dowager
+Margaret, the second wife of Charles the Bold, the lady whose hostility to
+the House of Lancaster has been already noted, possessed some dower-towns,
+and considerable influence. In 1486 Maximilian was elected "King of the
+Romans," in other words his father's presumed successor as Emperor.
+
+[Sidenote: France and Brittany]
+
+For the time, then, the consolidation of France was more advanced than that
+of any other Power; her desire was to complete the process by the
+absorption of Brittany. Spain, i.e., Castile and Aragon, had made
+considerable progress in the same direction, but for her the conquest of
+Granada was still the prime necessity.
+
+The absorption of Brittany, however, was opposed alike to the interests of
+Maximilian, of the Spanish monarchs, and of England. To the former two, any
+further acquisition of power by France was a possible menace. To the last,
+France was traditionally the enemy, and if Breton ports became French
+ports, the strength of France in the Channel would be almost doubled. Henry
+personally was under great obligations both to France and to Brittany,
+especially to France; but political exigencies evidently compelled him to
+favour the maintenance of Breton independence.
+
+During 1487 France had been carrying on active hostilities in Brittany, but
+the results had been small and a treaty had been signed. Lewis, Duke of
+Orleans, and others of the French nobility who were hostile to the regency
+of Anne of Beaujeu, were actively promoting the Breton cause within the
+dukedom; there was no longer an active French party there; and now that
+Henry in England had suppressed the Simnel rising France became anxious to
+secure English neutrality. But, if Henry could not keep clear of the
+complication altogether; if once the parties in the contest began appealing
+to him; he was liable to find himself forced to take part with one side or
+the other. Hence the necessity for calling upon Parliament to vote money
+for armaments.
+
+[Sidenote: 1488 Henry intervenes cautiously]
+
+Thus in the opening months of 1488 we find Henry on the one hand fitting
+out ships, and on the other offering friendly mediation both to France and
+to Brittany: while his policy was not simplified by the unauthorised
+interposition of his queen's uncle Edward Woodville, who secretly sailed
+with a band of adventurers to support the Bretons. Henry repudiated
+Woodville's action, and extended the existing treaty of peace with France
+to January, 1490. In the same month (July, 1488) the Bretons suffered a
+complete defeat, and the Duke was obliged to sign a treaty on ignominious
+terms. Within a fortnight, however, the Duke was dead, and his daughter
+Anne, a girl of twelve, succeeded him.
+
+The result was the renewal of war; since Anne of Beaujeu and the Breton
+Marshal de Rieux both claimed the wardship of the young Duchess, for whose
+hand the widower Maximilian was already a prominent suitor. Now up to this
+point Henry had refused to adopt a hostile attitude towards France, and had
+treated overtures from Maximilian with frigidity. But in six months' time
+he was concluding alliances both with Brittany and with Maximilian.
+
+[Sidenote: England and Spain]
+
+The determining factor in this change of attitude, practically involving a
+French war, is probably to be found in Henry's relations with Spain. It was
+of vital importance to him to get his dynasty recognised in an emphatic
+form by foreign Powers. In Spain under its very able rulers he saw the most
+valuable of allies, and during the first half of 1488 he had made it his
+primary concern to procure the betrothal of his own infant son Arthur to
+their infant daughter Katharine. And virtually his hostility to France was
+the price they demanded. The preliminaries were settled in July, 1488; the
+treaty was not definitively signed till March of the next year; and as the
+essential nature of the Spanish requirements became more apparent, Henry
+found himself compelled to accept active antagonism to France as part of
+the bargain. With his subjects, a French war was always secure of a certain
+popularity, though the provision of funds for it would entail a degree of
+opposition. Moreover, though foreign wars might give extreme malcontents
+their opportunity, it is a commonplace of politics that they distract
+attention from domestic grievances. Thus it is easy to perceive how the
+benefits of the Spanish alliance would very definitely turn the scale. And
+we shall still find that Henry had no intention of expending an ounce of
+either blood or treasure which might be saved consistently with the
+ostensible fulfilment of the Spanish Compact.
+
+[Sidenote 1: 1489 Preparations for war with France]
+[Sidenote 2: Spanish treaty of Medina del Campo]
+
+So in December, 1488, Henry was sending friendly embassies to all the
+Powers, but while that to France was merely offering mediation, the envoy
+to Brittany was offering military assistance--on terms. In January a new
+Parliament was asked for, and after considerable debate granted, £100,000.
+In February the embassy to Maximilian concluded an alliance for mutual
+defence; while that to Brittany pledged Henry to defend the young Duchess,
+but exacted in return the occupation by the English of sundry military
+positions in the duchy, and the right to forbid any marriage or alliance
+except with Maximilian or Spain. Then in March the Spanish treaty was
+completed: whereof the terms were very significant. The children were to be
+betrothed. If Spain declared war on France, England was to support her.
+Spain might retire independently if she recovered the small districts of
+Roussillon and Cerdagne, which had been surrendered (though only in pledge)
+to Lewis XI.; England might similarly withdraw if she got back Guienne--a
+very much more visionary prospect. Otherwise, one was not to retire without
+the other being equally satisfied. If England attacked France, Spain was to
+help; but occupied as she was with Granada the amount of aid likely to be
+forthcoming was problematical. In brief, Henry was prepared to pay for the
+marriage, and Spain could exact a high price.
+
+France then was occupied in the west with the contest in Brittany, and in
+the north she was supporting the Flemings in their normal resistance to
+Maximilian. The English could use Calais as a base for operations on this
+side, and also began to throw troops into Brittany. Incidentally there was
+a rising in the north of England headed by Sir John Egremont, of which the
+pretext was resistance to the levying of taxes; this, however, did not take
+very long to suppress, nor was any one of importance involved in it. Still
+the hostilities with France were carried on in a very half-hearted fashion;
+being confined to defensive operations in Brittany which were supposed to
+be no violation of the peace recently prolonged to January, 1490.
+
+[Sidenote: The allies inert]
+
+Henry was satisfied to make a show of fighting, and Spain made no haste to
+help him, England not being formally at war. As early as July, Maximilian,
+shiftiest and most impecunious of princes, concluded at Frankfort an
+independent treaty with France; who agreed to give up the places she
+occupied in Brittany if Henry were compelled to withdraw his garrisons;
+while there were signs that she might cede Roussillon and thus deprive
+Henry of his claim to Spanish support. Within the duchy itself, the Marshal
+de Rieux and his ward were in a state of antagonism; since he wished her to
+marry the Sieur D'Albret, a powerful Gascon noble who was not too
+submissive to the French monarchy; while the Duchess declared she would
+rather enter a convent. Anne at last announced her adhesion to the treaty
+of Frankfort; but as Henry had no intention of evacuating his forts,
+nothing particular resulted. The English King could not afford simply to
+drop the contest, and when the New Year came in, he demanded and obtained
+from Parliament fresh supplies for carrying on the war.
+
+[Sidenote: 1490 Object of Henry's foreign policy]
+
+The game Henry had to play in 1490 was a sufficiently difficult one: and he
+played it with consummate skill. He meant to hold his position in Brittany
+until he received adequate indemnities; he had to satisfy his own subjects
+that he was not going to draw back before the power of France; and he had
+to carry out the letter of his obligations to Spain under the treaty of the
+previous March, On the other hand, he had in fact no ambitious military
+projects, and while Spain abstained from sending active assistance in
+force, she could not complain if he merely stood on the defensive. The
+Duchess, finding herself no better off for accepting the Frankfort treaty,
+adopted the alternative policy of throwing herself on his protection. So he
+welcomed a mediatorial embassy from the Pope and showed no unwillingness to
+negotiate, but continued to strengthen his own position; while he could
+exhibit a sound reason for abstaining from aggressive action and still
+accumulate war-funds.
+
+By Midsummer France had enlarged her demands since the treaty of Frankfort,
+requiring the withdrawal of the English from Brittany as a preliminary not
+to her own withdrawal but to arbitration on her claims. In September the
+shifty King of the Romans reverted to an alliance with Henry for mutual
+defence; and the scheme of his marriage with the Duchess Anne was pressed
+on. Marshal de Rieux had by this time become reconciled to the Duchess,
+thrown over D'Albret, and come into agreement with Henry. At this time,
+moreover, Henry ratified publicly the Spanish treaty which had been
+accepted by Ferdinand and Isabella eighteen months before; but he also
+submitted an alternative treaty [Footnote: Busch, _England under the
+Tudors_. pp. 59, 330; and Gairdner's note, p. 438.] (which Spain
+rejected) modifying the portions which placed the contracting Powers on an
+unequal footing. By this step he forced the Spanish monarchs to resign any
+pretence of having treated him generously or having placed him under an
+obligation; and the step itself was significant of the increased confidence
+he had acquired in the stability of his own position. In December
+Maximilian was married by proxy to Anne--whom he had never seen--and not
+long afterwards she assumed the style of Queen of the Romans.
+
+[Sidenote: Apparent defeat of Henry's policy]
+
+Ostensibly, the object of Henry's diplomacy had failed. Spain had rejected
+his proposals: and the direct results of Anne's marriage were that the
+activity of France was renewed; Spain, with the pretext of the Moorish war
+to plead, was less inclined than ever to render assistance; Maximilian as a
+matter of course proved a broken reed; D'Albret, his pretensions being
+finally shattered, surrendered Nantes to the French by arrangement. England
+was apparently to bear the entire brunt of the war. Henry was justified in
+appealing to his subjects for every penny that could be raised, and
+resorted to "benevolences"--an insidious method of extortion which had been
+declared illegal in the previous reign, but under the existing abnormal
+conditions could hardly be resisted. A great demonstration of warlike
+ardour was made, on the strength of which Spain was urged to pledge herself
+to throw herself into the war next year with more energy and on more
+reasonable terms than the existing treaty of Medina del Campo provided for.
+But in the meantime the French were reducing Brittany, and held the Duchess
+besieged in Rennes. The French King, Charles VIII., proposed that the
+marriage with a husband whom she had never seen should be annulled, and the
+dispute be terminated by his wedding her himself. Resistance seemed
+hopeless; Anne assented; the necessary dispensations were secured from
+Rome, and Anne of Brittany became Queen of France.
+
+[Sidenote: 1492 Henry's bellicose attitude]
+
+Now the defence of Brittany had been the primary ground of England's
+quarrel with the French; with Henry himself, however, this object had been
+secondary to the matrimonial alliance with Spain, from which the latter was
+now not likely to withdraw. Henry, moreover, had made use of the whole
+affair to acquire a full money-chest; and since it was of vital importance
+that this should be done without turning his subjects against him, it had
+been necessary to lend the war as popular a colour as possible. Hence it
+was part of his policy to emphasise at home as his ultimate end the
+recovery of the English rights in the French Crown, so successfully
+utilised by his predecessor Henry V. in the first quarter of the century.
+It would have been manifestly dangerous for him in establishing his dynasty
+to recede from a claim which both Yorkists and Lancastrians had maintained.
+Incidentally also, there was the matter of indemnities owing to him by Anne
+of Brittany for which Maximilian had been made responsible.
+
+[Sidenote 1: France makes peace]
+[Sidenote 2: Treaty of Etaples (Dec.)]
+
+Since then it was impracticable simply to retire, the alternative course
+was to demonstrate; and Henry spent the greater part of 1492 in making the
+greatest possible display of preparation for war on a great scale--with a
+view to obtaining satisfying terms of peace. The one real piece of military
+work taken in hand was the siege and capture of Sluys in Flanders (in
+conjunction with Albert of Saxony, on behalf of Maximilian); from which
+port much injury of a piratical order had been wrought upon English
+merchants. Meantime negotiations had been carried on, but with no
+appearance of success. At last in October the King actually crossed the
+Channel to take command of the army of invasion; and sat down before
+Boulogne. Then on a sudden the air cleared. Charles in fact did not want a
+serious English war, out of which he could make nothing. But he had
+developed a very keen ambition to enter Italy and win the Crown of Naples.
+Henry by himself, or even in conjunction with the much offended Maximilian,
+was hardly likely to penetrate very far into France, if the forces of that
+kingdom were arrayed against him; but while he threatened, Charles could
+not move on Italy; moreover, his presence was an encouragement to those of
+the nobility whose allegiance was doubtful. So the French King resolved to
+buy off the English King at his own price. Lewis XI., threatened by Edward
+IV., had agreed to pay what Edward called a tribute, in return for which he
+held his claim to the French throne in abeyance. Henry need have no qualms
+about following his Yorkist predecessor's example. Beyond that, Charles was
+prepared to pay off the Brittany indemnities. Thus Henry secured Peace with
+Honour and a solid cash equivalent for his expenditure; besides being able
+to silence the complaints of the warlike by emphasising the gravity of
+embarking on a great campaign with winter coming on. He threw over
+Maximilian, but the faithlessness of the King of the Romans was so palpable
+and notorious that at the worst Henry was only paying him back in his own
+coin. As to Spain, Henry knew that the monarchs had been endeavouring to
+negotiate a separate peace, and they had never carried out their part of
+the contract. So far as he was breaking engagements with his allies, their
+own conduct had given him ample warrant. The event had justified Henry's
+management of a very difficult situation. The Peace of Etaples was ratified
+in December; and Henry emerged from the war with England's continental
+prestige restored to a respectable position, a full treasury, and his
+throne in England infinitely more secure than it had been three years
+before. He was never again driven to enter upon a foreign war; and now the
+appearance of Perkin Warbeck on the scene, though it kept England in a
+state of uneasiness for some years, was incomparably less dangerous than it
+would have proved at an earlier stage.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+HENRY VII (ii), 1492-99--PERKIN WARBECK
+
+
+[Sidenote: Ireland, 1485]
+
+Before entering upon the career of Perkin Warbeck, we must give somewhat
+closer attention to the affairs of the sister island, to which reference
+has already been made in connexion with the Simnel revolt. Ireland had
+never been really brought under English dominion. Within the district known
+as the English Pale, there was some sort of control, extending even less
+effectively over the province of Leinster, and beyond that practically
+ceasing altogether, except in a few coast towns; the Norman barons who had
+settled there having so to speak turned Irish, and even in some cases
+having translated their names into Celtic forms. The most powerful of the
+nobles at this time were the Geraldines, at whose head were the Earls of
+Kildare and of Desmond, and the Butlers whose chief was the Earl of
+Ormonde. But the primacy belonged to Kildare, who moreover had stood high
+in favour with the House of York. It had been the practice for the English
+kings to appoint a nominal absentee governor, whose functions were
+discharged by a Deputy; and Kildare was Deputy under both Edward IV. and
+Richard.
+
+[Sidenote: 1487-92 The Earl of Kildare]
+
+Henry, on his accession, had seen that the one chance of keeping the
+country in any degree quiet lay in securing Kildare's allegiance and
+support; and proposals for his continuation in the office of Deputy had
+been under discussion when Lambert Simnel was hailed as King and crowned,
+with the open support not only of Kildare but of nearly all the barons and
+bishops. It did not suit Henry's policy to attempt punishment under these
+conditions; he preferred conciliation; and after Stoke, Kildare was
+retained as Deputy, when he and Simuel's principal adherents had sworn
+loyalty. In 1490 Henry had found it necessary to reprimand Kildare for
+sundry breaches of the law, commanding his presence in England within ten
+months. Kildare made no move, but at the end of the ten months wrote to say
+that he could not possibly come over, as the state of the country made his
+presence there imperative. The letter was written in the name of the
+Council, and signed by fifteen of its members. This was backed by another
+letter from Desmond and other nobles in the south-west, declaring that they
+had persuaded the Deputy that the peace of Ireland quite forbade his
+departure.
+
+Probably it was much about this period--that is, some time in 1491--that a
+new claimant to Henry's throne (Perkin Warbeck) appeared in the south-west
+of Ireland, declaring himself to be that Richard Duke of York who was
+reported to have been murdered in the Tower along with his brother Edward
+V. Desmond espoused his cause, while Kildare and others coquetted with him.
+Agents from Desmond and the pretender visited the court of the young King
+of Scots James IV., in March, 1492, and in the summer Charles VIII., whose
+territories Henry was then ostentatiously preparing to invade, invited the
+young man over to France where he was received as the rightful King of
+England. The conclusion of peace, however, at the end of the year, made it
+necessary for the French King to withdraw his countenance from Henry's
+enemies; and the pretender retired to the congenial atmosphere of the court
+of Margaret of Burgundy. In the meantime Kildare, whose complicity with
+Desmond it had become impossible entirely to ignore, had been deprived of
+his office, and a new Deputy appointed.
+
+[Sidenote 1: 1491 Perkin Warbeck's appearance]
+[Sidenote 2: Riddle of his imposture]
+
+The self-styled Richard of York is known to history as Perkin Warbeck. The
+account of his early career subsequently given to the world in his own
+confession is generally accepted as genuine. The son of a Tournai boatman,
+he served during his boyhood under half a dozen different masters in three
+or four Netherland cities and in Lisbon. At the age of seventeen he took
+service with one Prégent Meno, a Breton merchant, and incidentally appeared
+at Cork where he paraded in costly array. Such was the effect of his
+appearance and bearing that the citizens of Cork declared he must be a
+Plantagenet. Taxed with being in reality either the Earl of Warwick or an
+illegitimate son of Richard III., he swore he was nothing of the kind; but
+his admirers declared that in that case he could only be Richard of York,
+who had somehow been saved from sharing his brother's fate in the Tower.
+Perkin found himself unable to resist such importunity, accepted the
+dignity thrust upon him, and set himself to learn his part. The partisans
+of the White Rose had shown in the case of Lambert Simnel their preference
+for even a palpable impostor bearing their badge, as compared with the
+objectionable Tudor; and a genuine Duke of York would have the advantage of
+a claim stronger even than that of his sister Elizabeth, Henry's queen.
+Perkin, however, must have acted up to his part with no little skill to
+have maintained himself as a plausible impostor up to the time when
+Margaret of Burgundy received him--even though he met no one in whose
+interest it was to pose him with inconvenient questions. So apt a pupil
+would then have had little difficulty in assimilating the instructions of
+Margaret; and, after a couple of years' training with her, in at least
+supporting his role with plausibility. That Perkin himself told this story
+is not very conclusive, since the confession was produced under
+circumstances quite compatible with the whole thing having been dictated to
+him; yet difficult as it is to believe, it is less incredible than the
+alternative--that he was the real duke, who had been smuggled out of the
+Tower eight years before he was produced, and kept in concealment all
+through the interval, even while the Yorkist leaders had been reduced to
+setting up a supposititious Earl of Warwick for a figurehead.
+
+[Sidenote: 1492-95 Perkin and Margaret of Burgundy]
+
+It certainly does not seem that on Perkin's appearance in Ireland he had
+any active supporters outside that country, or that he caused any
+perturbation in Henry's mind. Foreign princes, whether they regarded him as
+genuine or as an impostor, would certainly not espouse his cause unless
+they were at enmity with Henry. Even Charles VIII. made no haste to lend
+him countenance until it seemed almost certain that there was to be a war
+with England on a great scale; and he had no hesitation in dismissing the
+pretender when peace was concluded; while the Spanish sovereigns, though
+quite ready to intrigue against their Tudor ally, had no intention of
+committing themselves to an open breach with him. The peace, however, which
+dismissed Perkin from France, gave him a zealous adherent in the person of
+Maximilian, who was now filled with a righteous animosity to Henry; and the
+young lord of the Netherlands, his son Philip, Duke of Burgundy, declared
+that he had no power to control the Dowager Margaret, dwelling on her own
+estates. So Perkin made her court his head-quarters--a useful tool for the
+weaving of Yorkist intrigues. Henry might, if he would, have legitimately
+founded a _casus belli_ on this attitude, but he preferred to
+institute a commercial war; from which, however, the English merchants
+suffered little less than the Flemings.
+
+In 1493 the Emperor died, and was in effect succeeded by the King of the
+Romans, though his election to the Imperial throne did not take place for
+some years. Maximilian, however, remained impecunious and inefficient;
+Charles VIII. was giving his entire attention to his Italian projects; the
+whole affair of Perkin Warbeck was carried on mainly below the surface on
+both sides, by a process of mining and counter-mining. Henry was well
+served by Sir Robert Clifford and others, who wormed themselves into the
+confidence of the Yorkist plotters, revealing what they learnt to the King.
+When the time was ripe (January, 1495), Henry's hand fell suddenly on the
+unsuspecting conspirators in England; whose chiefs, including Sir William
+Stanley, who was supposed to be one of the King's most trusted supporters,
+were sent to the block. It was this same Sir William Stanley who, striking
+in at Bosworth on the side of Henry, had been mainly instrumental in
+deciding the fortunes of the day; and he had been rewarded with the office
+of Chamberlain.
+
+[Sidenote: Diplomatic intrigues]
+
+During the two years following the Treaty of Etaples Charles VIII. had
+early made his peace also with Spain by the treaty of Barcelona and with
+Maximilian by that of Senlis. The desired provinces, Roussillon and
+Cerdagne, were restored to Ferdinand and Isabella, who adopted a distant
+attitude to Henry. The French King, free to follow his own devices, entered
+Italy towards the close of 1494, marched south without opposition, and was
+crowned at Naples in February, 1495, the reigning family fleeing before
+him. So early and important an accession of strength to the French Crown
+had hardly been anticipated, and the European sovereigns made haste to form
+a League against France. Spain was desirous of bringing England into the
+league; but the wayward Maximilian was still determined to support Perkin
+Warbeck, apparently thinking that by substituting a Yorkist prince for
+Henry he would secure a more amenable ally.
+
+[Sidenote: 1492-95 Ireland]
+
+Meanwhile, Ireland also had been undergoing judicious treatment. Kildare,
+removed from the Deputy-ship in 1492, came over to England to give an
+account of himself in the following year. Here he was detained until, in
+the autumn of 1494, the King appointed a new three-year-old Governor in the
+person of his second son Henry, whom he also created Duke of York, making
+Sir Edward Poynings Deputy. Poynings was an experienced and capable
+soldier, who had been in command before Sluys in the recent campaign; and
+on his departure for Ireland Kildare went with him. Both the ex-Deputy and
+the Earl of Ormonde promised to render loyal service; but it was no very
+long time before Kildare was sent back to England under accusations of
+treason. We may here anticipate matters by observing that this was the last
+case of misbehaviour on his part. He won his way once more into the royal
+favour, and when Poynings left Ireland in 1496 Kildare yet again went back
+as Deputy, which office he retained for the remainder of Henry's reign, and
+a portion of his son's also.
+
+It is curious to observe in the turbulent Deputy traits of that audacious
+humour which we are wont to regard as peculiarly Irish: a characteristic
+fully appreciated by the English King. When taken to task for burning the
+Cathedral at Cashel, he is reported to have said that he would not have
+done so, only the bishop was inside. His casual announcement on a previous
+occasion that he could not obey the royal summons to England because the
+country could not get on without him was paralleled either in 1493 or 1495
+--it is uncertain which--by his defence against the Bishop of Meath's
+charges. He said he must be represented by Counsel; the King replied that
+he might have whom he would. "Give me your hand," quoth the Earl. "Here it
+is," said the King. "Well," said Kildare, "I can see no better man than
+you, and by St. Bride I will choose none other." Said the Bishop, "You see
+what manner of man he is. All Ireland cannot rule him." "Then," said the
+King, "he must be the man to rule all Ireland."
+
+[Sidenote: Poynings in Ireland 1494-96]
+
+The government of Poynings was not prolonged, but it was very much to the
+point. "Poynings' Law," passed by the Parliament assembled at Drogheda in
+December, 1494, fixed Constitutional procedure for a very long time. Irish
+Parliaments were to be summoned only with the approval of the King's
+Council in England, and only after it had also approved the measures which
+were to be submitted to them by the Irish Deputy and Council. In effect,
+however, these legislative functions at this time were hardly more limited
+than those of English Parliaments, which were summoned at the King's
+pleasure, and only had what might be called "Government Bills" submitted to
+them. The royal Council was practically in the position of a Cabinet
+holding office as representing not the parliamentary majority but the
+King's personal views. The Parliament might discuss and accept or reject,
+but had not as yet acquired a practical initiative itself. At the same time
+that this law was passed, a declaratory Act abolished the theory which had
+grown up at an early stage of the conflict between the White and Red Roses,
+of regarding Ireland as a country where a rebel in England was a free man:
+a notion which had greatly facilitated the intrigues of both Lambert Simnel
+and Perkin Warbeck on Irish soil. Further, besides some enactments for
+checking feudal customs which tended to disorder, it was ordained that the
+principal castles should always be under the command of Englishmen.
+Poynings also endeavoured, by bestowing pensions (on terms) on some of the
+principal chiefs outside the Pale--such as O'Neill in Ulster and O'Brien in
+the west--to convert their position into one of semi-official
+responsibility to the official Government. A basis for the maintenance of
+law and order having thus been provided, the Irish difficulty was solved
+for the time when "the man to rule all Ireland," benevolently disposed to a
+King who had shown that he knew the right way to take him, was restored to
+the office of Deputy.
+
+[Sidenote: 1495 Survey of the situation]
+
+In the early spring, then, of 1495, this was the position of affairs.
+Perkin Warbeck lay at the court of Margaret of Burgundy; but his plans had
+been upset by Clifford's information and the punishment of the ringleaders
+in England. Poynings was in Ireland, and the prospect of keeping that
+country in reasonable order was unusually promising. Charles VIII. had just
+made himself master of Naples; and the Spanish sovereigns (who had
+completed the destruction of the Moorish dominion in Granada some three
+years earlier) were now occupied in forming with the Pope, Venice, Milan,
+and Maximilian the Holy League against French aggression; into which they
+were anxious to draw Henry, whose weight if thrown into the other scale
+would be of considerable value to France. For the last two years, since the
+treaty of Barcelona, they had evaded the recognition or reconstruction of
+any compact with England; but under the changed conditions, while they
+would not admit that the old engagements were binding, they offered to
+frame new treaties for Henry's inclusion in the League, at the same time
+confirming the project of the marriage between their daughter Katharine and
+the Prince of Wales. Henry, however, was now in a much stronger position at
+home; and though he desired the Spanish alliance, he had no intention of
+allowing that bait to seduce him into making himself a cat's-paw. France
+was offering a counter-inducement in the shape of a marriage with the
+daughter of the Duke of Bourbon; Henry indicated that while Maximilian was
+fostering the pretensions of the impostor Warbeck, it was not serious
+politics to talk of being associated with him in the League. Spain might
+make promises on Maximilian's behalf, but could not ensure that he would
+keep them.
+
+[Sidenote: 1495 Warbeck attempts invasion]
+
+Time was working in Henry's favour. In July (1495) an expedition sailed
+from Flanders to place Perkin on the English throne. Maximilian's hopes
+were high: he bragged to the Venetians that the "Duke of York" would
+immediately unseat the Tudor, and when he was on the throne, England would
+be at the beck of the League. The Emperor's impracticability was
+sufficiently shown by his having procured from Perkin his own recognition
+as heir, if the pretender should die without issue. The expedition
+attempted to land at Deal, but the men of Kent assembled in arms, and drove
+it off with ignominious ease. For once Henry was severe, and put to death
+no fewer than 150 of Warbeck's followers, who had been taken prisoners.
+Warbeck himself did not even set foot on the realm he claimed, but made for
+Ireland where he had first been so warmly welcomed. Here his old supporter
+Desmond took up his cause again, and Waterford was attacked by sea and
+land; but there was no general rising, and Poynings had no difficulty in
+raising the siege. Foiled both in England and Ireland, Perkin now betook
+himself to Scotland to obtain the help of the young King, James IV.
+
+[Sidenote: Success of Henry's diplomacy]
+
+The affair showed conclusively how small was the danger in England of a
+Yorkist rising in favour of the pretender--a fact very fully recognised by
+Ferdinand and Isabella, though Maximilian clung pertinaciously to his
+protégé. Moreover, the position of the League was somewhat precarious,
+since both Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, and the Venetians, were
+suspected with justice of readiness to make their own terms with France. It
+was more than ever necessary to bring Henry into the combination; and
+Henry, still diplomatically suave, was less than ever prepared to accept
+conditions which would fetter him inconveniently. He would not commit
+himself to make war on France except at his own time; and Maximilian must
+definitely and conclusively repudiate Warbeck. At last in July, 1496, the
+new League was concluded. Henry's diplomacy achieved a distinct triumph.
+His alliance had been won, but only on his own terms; all he wished to
+secure had been secured. The Spanish sovereigns were so far from feeling
+that they could make a tool of him that they were in considerable
+trepidation lest he should still throw them over if a tolerably legitimate
+excuse offered, and were anxious to do all they could to conciliate him
+without betraying the full extent of their fears. Henry had already, in
+February, terminated the commercial war with the Flemings by the treaty
+with Philip known as the _Intercursus Magnus_, which included a
+proviso against the admission into Philip's territories of rebels against
+the English King.
+
+[Sidenote: 1496 Warbeck and the King of Scots]
+
+When Perkin Warbeck made his way to Scotland the young King of that country
+was already fully informed as to the nature of his claims. James, when a
+boy of sixteen, had taken part in the rebellion headed by Douglas Earl of
+Angus, in which his father the late King had been overthrown at Sauchie
+Burn and murdered after the battle. He was now twenty-four years of age, of
+brilliant parts, no mean scholar, an admirable athlete, and ambitious to
+raise the name of Scotland among the nations. His weakness lay mainly in a
+boyish impulsiveness, which often caused him to mar well-laid plans on the
+spur of the moment, and in an exaggerated fondness for chivalric ideas more
+appropriate to a knight-errant than to a king or a leader of armies. Perkin
+appealed to him as early as 1492; and before the pretender's expedition
+sailed, Tyrconnel, chief of the O'Donnells of the north-west of Ireland,
+presented himself in Scotland to renew the appeal. The antagonism of
+Scottish feeling to the ruling powers in England was chronic. There was a
+treaty of peace between England and Scotland, but the unfailing turbulence
+of the borders kept each country constantly provided with a tolerable
+excuse for accusing the other of having broken its engagements. James was
+well within his rights in receiving the claimant; of the justice of whose
+title he evidently persuaded himself, since he bestowed a kinswoman of his
+own upon him in marriage, Lady Katharine Gordon. In the summer of 1496 he
+was making active preparations for an incursion into England on Warbeck's
+behalf; largely influenced no doubt by the promise that, should it prove
+successful, Berwick, which had been finally ceded to England fourteen years
+before, was to be once more surrendered to the Scots. The astute Henry
+turned all this to account, by impressing on the Spanish and Venetian
+agents the urgent necessity laid on him to abstain from military operations
+against France while Scotland was so threatening.
+
+[Sidenote 1: A Scottish incursion (Sept.)]
+[Sidenote 2: 1497]
+
+James did in fact raid the North of England in September; but the incursion
+was a raid and nothing more. Perkin, to the surprise and even contempt both
+of Scots and English, protested against the sanguinary methods of border
+warfare, on behalf of the people whom he aspired to rule over. But the
+people themselves would have none of him. The expedition withdrew without
+having produced even the semblance of a Yorkist rising. After that, James
+no longer felt eager to plunge into a war on behalf of the pretender: but
+was inclined to retain him as a political asset. When, in the following
+year (1497), Charles VIII.--with a precisely similar object in view--
+offered him a considerable sum if he would send his guest over to France,
+the Scots King declined. In July, however, Perkin sailed from Scotland,
+apparently with intent to try Ireland again, where Kildare was once more
+Deputy. Henry had utilised the raid to obtain the recommendation of a large
+grant and loans from the Great Council forthwith; Parliament, which was
+called for January (1497), ratifying the grant as a subsidy. The raising of
+the loans had, however, been proceeded with, without waiting.
+
+[Sidenote: The Cornish rising]
+
+The defence of England against invading Scots was a matter of much
+importance to the northern counties, but lacked personal interest in
+Cornwall. Year after year the King had been receiving subsidies to arm for
+impending wars, borrowing, and levying benevolences. When a hostile France
+was the excuse, the population might murmur but was quite as willing to pay
+as could reasonably be expected. But the Scots had never invaded Cornwall,
+and the Cornishmen felt that it was time to protest. They would march to
+London--peaceably, of course--to demand according to custom the removal of
+the King's evil counsellors; Morton and Bray, to wit, who probably used
+their influence in reality to mitigate rather than intensify the royal
+demands. The insurgent leaders were a blacksmith, Joseph, and a lawyer,
+Flamock--appropriate chiefs for working men trying honestly enough to
+formulate what they had been led to regard as a grievance of what we should
+now call an unconstitutional character. With bills and bows, some thousands
+of them started on their march; preserving their peaceable character, till
+at Taunton the appearance of a commissioner for collecting the tax proved
+too much for their self-restraint, and the man was killed. A little later
+they were joined by Lord Audley, who became their leader. They expected the
+men of Kent, who of old had risen under Wat Tyler and again under Jack
+Cade, to take up the cause: but Kent did not recognise the similarity of
+the present conditions and gave them no welcome.
+
+[Sidenote: The suppression (June)]
+
+Meantime, Henry had not been idle; but he saw that the insurgents were not
+rousing the country as they progressed, and therefore he judged that the
+further they were drawn away from their own country the better. Except for
+a slight skirmish at Guildford, the Cornishmen were not actively interfered
+with till they encamped on Blackheath. Then, on June 17th, the royal forces
+proceeded to envelop them. Some two thousand were slain on the field.
+Audley, the lawyer, and the blacksmith, were put to death as traitors; the
+rest were pardoned, as having been not so much rebels as victims of
+demagogic arts.
+
+[Sidenote: Warbeck's final failure (Sept.)]
+
+The policy of leniency was not entirely successful, for the Cornishmen
+imagined it merely meant that the King recognised the impossibility of
+dealing sternly with every one who thought as they did. Warbeck, now in
+Ireland, where he was not finding the sympathy for which he had hoped,
+received messages to the effect that if he came to Cornwall he would find
+plenty of supporters. He came promptly, with a scanty following enough; but
+only a few thousand men joined him. He marched on Exeter, but that loyal
+town stoutly refused to admit him, and his attempts to carry gates and
+walls failed completely. Royal troops were on the march: the gentlemen of
+Devon, headed by the Earl, were up for the King. Perkin marched to Taunton,
+and then fled by night to take sanctuary at Beaulieu in Hampshire, where he
+was surrounded, and very soon submitted himself to the King's clemency.
+
+[Sidenote: The Scottish truce]
+
+In the meantime the Scottish King, though his sentiments towards Perkin had
+sensibly cooled, had no intention of leaving him in the lurch, and had
+advanced on Norham Castle very shortly after his protégé had sailed for
+Ireland. The Earl of Surrey, however, who commanded in the north, was well
+prepared, and very soon took the field with twenty thousand men. James was
+obliged to withdraw, and though he challenged the Earl to single combat
+with Berwick as the stake, Surrey replied that Berwick was not his property
+but his master's, and he must regretfully decline the proposed method of
+arbitrament. He advanced over the border, making some captures and doing
+considerable damage; but after a week, commissariat difficulties made him
+retire in turn. In September Perkin's Cornish rising collapsed, and a seven
+years' treaty was entered upon between the two countries.
+
+[Sidenote: The end of Perkin Warbeck 1497-99]
+
+Towards the pretender and his followers, the King behaved with his usual
+leniency. A few leaders only were put to death; other penalties were
+reserved. Warbeck was compelled publicly to read at Exeter and later in
+London a confession of the true story of his own origin and that of the
+conspiracy; and was then relegated to not very strict confinement under
+surveillance. His supporters were allowed to purchase their pardon by heavy
+fines, which satisfactorily aided in the replenishment of the royal
+treasury.
+
+The end of the pretender's story may be told in anticipation. It was
+ignominious and less creditable in its accompanying circumstances to Henry.
+In the summer of the next year, 1498, Perkin tried to escape, was promptly
+recaptured, set in the stocks, and required to read his confession publicly
+both in Westminster and London. He was then placed in strict confinement in
+the Tower, where the luckless Warwick had been kept a prisoner for thirteen
+years. The son of Clarence, still little more than a boy, was the only
+figure-head left for Yorkist malcontents. Another attempt to impersonate
+him by a youth named Ralph Wilford was nipped in the bud at the beginning
+of 1499; but Henry's nerve seems to have been seriously shaken by it, and
+probably he now began to make up his mind to get rid of his kinsman. Then
+some kind of conspiracy was concocted, in which both Warbeck and Warwick
+were involved; on 23rd November, 1499, Perkin was hanged, and five days
+later Warwick was beheaded, dying as he had lived a victim to his name;
+suffering for no treason or wrong-doing of his own, but simply because he
+was the nephew of Edward IV.
+
+[Sidenote: 1498 The situation]
+
+When the year 1497 closed, the preliminaries of a Scottish peace had been
+agreed upon; Perkin Warbeck was a prisoner: and the French King had already
+found his position in Italy untenable, and agreed to evacuate Naples and
+surrender the crown. His death and the accession of the Duke of Orleans as
+Lewis XII. in April of the next year further altered the face of
+international politics, already changing with the final collapse of Warbeck
+and his disappearance as a pawn in the game.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+HENRY VII (iii), 1498-1509-THE DYNASTY ASSURED
+
+[Sidenote: Scotland and England]
+
+From time immemorial almost, it might be said that Scotland had been a
+perpetual menace to her southern neighbour. Since the days of Bruce she
+had, it is true, been torn by ceaseless dissensions; a succession of long
+royal minorities with intrigues over the regency, family feuds between the
+great barons, strong kings who found themselves warring on a turbulent
+nobility, weak ones who could exercise no control, had not given the
+country much chance of consolidation; but the one binding sentiment that
+could be relied on in a crisis was antagonism to England. To settle the
+question by conquest had been proved impossible. Scotland might be
+over-run, but she could not be held in subjection. If England's eyes were
+bent on France, she must still manage to keep a watch on the north: but so
+long as dissensions were raging, there was not much fear of anything more
+serious than raiding expeditions.
+
+[Sidenote: Henry's Scottish policy]
+
+To keep Scotland innocuous was a primary object with the Tudor King. At the
+time when he grasped the sceptre of England, the King of Scots, James III.,
+was a feeble ruler surrounded by unpopular favourites, with a baronage
+preparing to rise against him, and there was little danger to be
+apprehended. He was over-thrown and murdered in 1488. But James IV, who
+succeeded to the throne was of a different type. He was only a boy,
+however, and Henry was not long in initiating a policy, more fully
+developed by his descendants, of purchasing the support of leading nobles,
+notably at this time and for forty years to come, the Earls of Angus-with
+whom there was a compact as early as 1491. James, however, soon proved
+himself a popular and vigorous monarch, of a type which attracted the
+loyalty of his subjects, with a strong disposition to make his country a
+serious factor in the politics of the time, and by no means devoid of
+political sagacity despite his unfortunate impulsiveness and want of
+balance. To block Scotland out of the field by the simple process of
+keeping her thoroughly occupied with internal factions was not practicable
+under these conditions, and the attitude of James in the affair of Perkin
+Warbeck showed that he must be taken into serious account. Henry's
+political acuteness recognised in alliance with Scotland a more hopeful
+solution of the national problem than in eternal strife. The idea of a
+matrimonial connexion had indeed once before, since the days of Edward I.,
+taken shape in the union of James I. to Jane Beaufort; but with little
+practical effect. This idea Henry revived in a form destined ultimately to
+revolutionise the relations of the two kingdoms. His own eldest daughter
+Margaret was but eighteen years younger than the King of Scots--quite near
+enough for compatibility. From the time of the peace entered upon after
+Warbeck's capture, Henry began to work with this marriage as one of his
+objects. His foresight and sagacity is marked by the fact that he
+recognised--and did not shrink from the possibility--that a Scottish
+monarch might thus one day find himself heir to the throne of England.
+
+[Sidenote 1: France and England]
+[Sidenote 2: 1498]
+
+The peace-policy towards Scotland was facilitated by the development of
+friendly relations with France, especially after the accession of Lewis
+XII.: for the traditional "auld alliance," between France and Scotland, had
+proved times out of mind too strong to be over-ridden by English treaties.
+If France wanted Scottish help, or Scotland wanted French help, there was
+always some excuse for rendering it; the plain truth being that no treaties
+could restrain the forays and counter-forays of the border clans on both
+sides of the Tweed, whether the Wardens of the Marches winked at them or
+not; so that there was, in either country, a standing pretext for declaring
+that the other had broken truce. An instance of these border difficulties
+occurred within a few months of the truce of December, 1497. A small party
+of Scots crossed the border, and appeared in the neighbourhood of Norham.
+They were challenged, and replied--with insolence or with proper spirit,
+according to the point of view. Thereupon they were attacked by superior
+numbers; some were slain; in the pursuit, damage was done on the north side
+of the border. The Scots King felt that he had been outraged, and was on
+the verge of breaking off all negotiations with his brother of England. It
+required all the diplomatic skill of Fox (at this time Bishop of Durham),
+and the mediatorial efforts of the Spaniard Ayala to prevent a serious
+breach from resulting.
+
+[Sidenote: Marriage negotiations, 1498-1503]
+
+The opportunity, however, was seized by Fox to emphasise his master's
+pacific intentions by bringing forward the proposal for the marriage of
+James with Margaret. Nevertheless, for the next twelve months, Henry
+displayed no eagerness in the matter. Margaret was only in her eighth year,
+so that in any case the marriage could not be completed for some time; but
+apart from that, there was already existing a project of marriage between
+James and one of the Spanish princesses--which Spain had no real wish to
+carry out, while James was disposed to push it. It would appear, therefore,
+that Henry meant to give effect to his own scheme, but did not intend Spain
+to feel free of the complication while it could be used as a means of
+pressure.
+
+[Sidenote: Marriage of James IV, and Margaret 1503]
+
+At last, however, in July, 1499, a fresh treaty of peace was concluded with
+Scotland, but it was not till January, 1502, that the marriage treaty was
+finally ratified; the marriage to take place in September, 1503 (when
+Margaret would be nearly thirteen), and the two Kings to render each other
+mutual aid in case either of them was attacked. James, however, declined to
+bind himself permanently to refuse renewal of the French alliance. There
+was much characteristic haggling over dower and jointure, matters in which
+the Tudors always drove the hardest bargain they could. The ceremony was
+performed by proxy, after the fashion of the times, the day after the
+treaty was ratified; and the actual marriage took place at the time fixed,
+in the autumn of 1503--a momentous event, since it brought the Stuarts into
+the direct line of succession, next to descendants of Henry in the male
+line; and--inasmuch as one of Henry's sons had no children, and the other
+no grandchildren--ultimately united on one head the Crowns of England and
+Scotland, exactly one hundred years after the marriage.
+
+[Sidenote: Spain and England: marriage negotiations, 1488-99]
+
+In the meantime the other and much older project for the union between the
+Prince of Wales and a daughter of Spain had been carried out. Originally,
+Henry's prime motive in this matter had been to secure a decisive
+recognition of his dynasty by the sovereigns, whom he regarded as the
+greatest political force in Europe. By this time, however, (1498), the
+stability of his throne and of the succession was no longer in peril; but
+Spain was still the Power whose alliance would give the best guarantees
+against hostile combinations. Neither Spain nor England wished to be
+involved in war with France; but neither country could view her
+aggrandisement with complete equanimity. At the same time, while her
+ambitions were chiefly directed to Italy both could afford for the most
+part to abstain from active hostilities. On the other hand, times had
+changed since Henry had been ready to go almost cap-in-hand to Ferdinand
+and Isabella for their support. The Spanish sovereigns were now quite as
+much afraid of his joining France as he was of any step that they could
+take. So the marriage treaty was ratified in 1497 on terms satisfactory
+enough to Henry; and both in 1498 and 1499 proxy ceremonies took place. In
+the latter year, clauses left somewhat vague in the earlier treaties were
+given a clearer definition in a sense favourable to Henry.
+
+[Sidenote: 1499 Lewis XII]
+
+The accession of Lewis XII. in 1497 affected French policy. Lewis required
+in the first place, to gain the friendship of the Pope Alexander VI., in
+order to obtain a divorce from his wife and a dispensation to marry
+Charles's widow, Anne of Brittany, so as to retain the duchy. In the second
+place, he claimed Milan as his own in right of his descent from Valentina
+Visconti (not as an appanage of the French Crown). He was anxious then to
+conciliate both Spain and England, and ready to make concessions to both in
+order to hold them neutral. His first steps, therefore, aimed at satisfying
+them, and at detaching the Archduke Philip from his father Maximilian; all
+of which objects were rapidly accomplished, England obtaining the renewal
+of the treaty of Etaples, with additional undertakings in the matter of
+harbouring rebels. Lewis made separate treaties with Spain and with Philip;
+but the former remained none the less anxious on the score of a possible
+further _rapprochement_ between France and England.
+
+[Sidenote: The Spanish marriage negotiation, 1499-1501]
+
+So long as Perkin Warbeck had been able to pose as Richard of York, he was
+necessarily, to all who believed in him, the legitimate King of England.
+Setting him aside, it was still possible to argue for the Earl of Warwick
+as against his cousin Elizabeth, Henry's queen. But when Perkin and Warwick
+were both put to death at the end of 1499, there was no arguable case for
+any one outside Henry's own domestic circle. Even if it were held that
+Henry's title was invalid, and that a woman could not herself reign in her
+own right, Elizabeth's son had indisputably a title prior to any other
+possible claimant. It was stated, though the truth of the statement is
+doubtful, that the Spanish sovereigns had never felt at ease as to the
+stability of the Tudor dynasty till November, 1499; but, at any rate, after
+that date they could not even for diplomatic purposes pretend to feel any
+serious apprehensions. The year 1500 presents the somewhat curious
+spectacle of Henry on one side and Ferdinand and Isabella on the other,
+each quite determined to carry through the marriage of Arthur and
+Katharine, but each also determined to make a favour of it. In this
+diplomatic contest, Henry proved the more skilful bargainer, though the
+Spaniards were adepts. He frightened them not a little by crossing the
+Channel and holding a conference with the Archduke Philip, which was
+suspected of having for its object the negotiation of another marriage for
+the Prince of Wales with Philip's sister (Maximilian's daughter) Margaret,
+who was already a widow. [Footnote: Margaret had been married to Don John,
+son of Ferdinand and Isabella; while Philip married their second daughter
+Joanna. Their eldest daughter married the Portuguese Infant.] In fact,
+there was no such intention; but an agreement was actually made that Prince
+Henry should many Philip's daughter, while the youngest Tudor princess,
+Mary, should be betrothed to Philip's infant son Charles, then a babe of
+four months, in after years the great Emperor Charles V.
+
+[Sidenote: Marriage of Prince Arthur and Katharine 1501]
+
+So the marriage treaty was once more ratified. But it was not till the
+summer of the next year (1501) that Katharine sailed from Spain; and in
+November the actual marriage took place with no little display. It is
+probable, however, that Arthur and Katharine were still husband and wife in
+name only when, six months later, the Prince of Wales was stricken with
+mortal illness and died; leaving his brother Henry heir to the throne, and
+a fresh crop of matrimonial schemes to be matured.
+
+[Sidenote 1: 1502 New marriage schemes]
+[Sidenote 2: 1504 Dispensation granted]
+
+The truth was that Ferdinand of Aragon and Henry of England were men of
+very much the same type. Both were crafty diplomatists, cautious and
+long-headed, not to be inveigled into rash schemes, keenly suspicious,
+masters of the art of committing themselves irrevocably to nothing; both
+had a keen appreciation of the value of money, and were experts at striking
+a bargain; while each wanted the political support of the other. Each had
+been working up to the matrimonial alliance which was now nullified by
+Arthur's death. Ferdinand had already paid over half his daughter's dower;
+he now declared that the Princess and her dower ought to be returned to
+Spain. Henry argued on the other side that the balance of the dower should
+be paid over. The Spaniards then proposed that the young widow should be
+betrothed to the still younger prince, Henry; but at a comparatively early
+stage in the negotiations over the new project, Henry's own queen died
+(February, 1503), and it was no long time before the English King began to
+contemplate a new marriage for himself. He is even said [Footnote:
+Gairdner, _Henry VII._ (_Twelve English Statesmen_), p. 190. The
+rumour was current, but it is doubtful whether it was more than a rumour;
+_cf._ Busch, p. 378.] to have thought of proposing that he should take
+his own son's widow to wife. Logically, of course, as a mere question of
+affinity, the idea was not more inadmissible than that of Katharine's
+marriage with Henry Prince of Wales; but it was infinitely more repellent,
+and Isabella was horrified at the suggestion. At any rate, nothing came of
+it, and an agreement for the marriage of Katharine with the younger Henry
+was ratified in the course of the year [Footnote: It was in the August of
+this same year (1503) that the other marriage, between James of Scotland
+and Henry's elder daughter Margaret, was finally concluded.]--subject, of
+course, to a papal dispensation. This was obtained, during 1504, from the
+successor of Alexander VI., Pope Julius II., and Isabella had the
+satisfaction of seeing it before her death. Political exigencies had only
+recently been accepted by Pope Alexander as justifying a dispensation for
+the divorce of Lewis XII. from his wife, to enable him to marry Anne of
+Brittany; but this dispensation of Pope Julius was destined to an immense
+importance in history--to be the hinge whereon swung open the gates of the
+English Reformation.
+
+[Sidenote: 1499-1506 Affairs on the Continent]
+
+The years from 1498 to 1503 had not been without importance in Franco-
+Spanish relations, more particularly with reference to the position of the
+two Powers in Italy. Lewis had made himself master of Milan in 1499; but
+the kingdom of Naples presented a more difficult problem; since, after
+disposing of the reigning family, the French King would still find a rival
+claimant in Ferdinand of Spain. In 1500 these two monarchs agreed to a
+partition; but French and Spaniards quarrelled, war broke out, the Spanish
+captain Gonsalvo de Cordova expelled the French; and in 1508 Naples was
+annexed to Aragon. A renewed attempt of France upon Naples in the following
+year proved a complete failure.
+
+In 1503 died the Borgia Pope, Alexander VI.--poisoned, as it was believed,
+by the cup he had intended for another. The personal wickedness of
+Alexander and his relatives was the climax of papal iniquity, the
+_reductio ad absurdum_ of the claim of the Roman Pontiff to be the
+representative of Christ on earth. His immediate successor hardly survived
+election to the Holy See; and was followed by Julius II., an energetic and
+militant Pope, who was bent on forming the Papal States into an effective
+temporal principality.
+
+In the next year Isabella of Castile died, and by her death the European
+situation was again materially affected. While she lived she worked in
+complete accord with her husband, Ferdinand of Aragon; her name stands high
+among the ablest of European sovereigns. But with her death the Crowns of
+Castile and Aragon were no longer united. Ferdinand was not King of
+Castile; the sceptre descended to the dead Queen's daughter Joanna,
+[Footnote: The elder sister was already dead, as well as the one brother.]
+and in effect to her husband, the Archduke Philip, Maximilian's son, and
+after her to their son Charles. At the most, Ferdinand could hope only to
+exercise a dominant influence (converted after Philip's death in 1506 into
+practical sovereignty as Regent), with a perpetual risk of Maximilian
+turning his flighty ambitions towards asserting himself as a rival.
+
+[Sidenote: The Earl of Suffolk 1499-1505]
+
+Although both Warbeck and Warwick had been removed in 1499, Henry had not
+been altogether free from Yorkist troubles in the succeeding years. Edmund
+de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, was brother of that Earl of Lincoln who had
+fallen at the battle of Stoke, and son of a sister of Edward IV. The Earl
+had not hitherto come forward as a claimant to the throne; but in 1499 he
+developed a personal grievance against the King, and betook himself to the
+Continent, where a certain Sir Robert Curzon espoused his cause with
+Maximilian. At the time, nothing came of the matter; Henry was not afraid
+of Suffolk, whom he induced to return to England with a pardon. In 1501,
+however, the Earl again betook himself to the Continent and made a direct
+appeal to Maximilian for assistance. But Henry was now on particularly good
+terms with the Archduke Philip, and Maximilian was inclining to revert to
+friendly relations with England. He was in his normal condition of
+impecuniosity, and Henry was prepared to provide a loan to help him in a
+Turkish war if his own rebellious subjects were handed over. The issue of
+these negotiations, towards the end of 1502, was a loan from Henry of fifty
+thousands crowns, and a promise from Maximilian to eject Suffolk and his
+supporters. In the meantime several of Suffolk's accomplices were executed
+in England, including James Tyrrel who had abetted Richard III. in the
+murder of the Princes in the Tower; and [Footnote: See genealogical table
+(_Front_.).] William de la Pole and William Courtenay (son of the Earl
+of Devonshire) were imprisoned on suspicion of complicity. Suffolk,
+however, remained at Aix la Chapelle, Maximilian making him many promises
+and providing inadequate supplies, while with equal lightness of heart--
+having got his loan--he left his pledges to Henry unfulfilled by anything
+more substantial than professions that he was doing his best to carry them
+out. In 1504 the migratory Earl had the misfortune to fall into the hands
+of the Duke of Gueldres, who detained him for use as circumstances might
+dictate--to the annoyance of the Kings of France and Scotland, both of whom
+wished him to be handed over to the King of England.
+
+[Sidenote: 1505 Henry's position]
+
+In 1505 then Henry's relations with all foreign Powers were satisfactory:
+that is, none of them were hostile and most of them were anxious for his
+friendship. In these later years, however, of Henry's reign he appears
+consistently in a more definitely unamiable light than before. The two
+counsellors who, however thoroughly they endorsed his policy, had probably
+exercised a moderating and refining influence--Cardinal Morton and Reginald
+Bray--were now both dead, and there is no doubt that Elizabeth of York,
+popular herself, had been a very judicious helpmeet to her husband.
+Moreover, though he was still by no means an old man, Henry was becoming
+worn out; yet he could never escape from dynastic anxieties, the younger
+Henry being now his only son. Marriage schemes had always been prominent
+features in his policy, and the marriage schemes for himself which he
+evolved one after the other in the closing years of his reign show him in a
+singularly unattractive light, at the same time that his financial methods
+were growing increasingly mean, and his evasions of honourable obligations
+increasingly unscrupulous.
+
+Now the Duke of Gueldres was in conflict with the Archduke Philip--at this
+time not only lord of the Burgundian domains, but also in right of his wife
+King of Castile and not on the best of terms with his father-in-law of
+Aragon. In 1505 Philip got possession in his turn of the person of Suffolk,
+by capturing the town where the Duke of Gueldres held him. Therefore during
+this year Henry became particularly anxious to make friends with Philip,
+and lent him money; having got which, Philip preferred placing his hostage
+again in the hands of the Duke of Gueldres, who had submitted to him.
+
+[Sidenote: Schemes for his marriage]
+
+Out of these conditions rose another futile suggestion of a marriage for
+Henry: who had already considered and dismissed the idea of marrying the
+younger of the two living ex-Queens of Naples--both named Joanna--a niece
+of Ferdinand of Aragon. The wife now proposed was Philip's sister,
+Margaret, who on her first widowhood had been spoken of as a possible
+alternative to Katharine for Arthur of Wales. Since then, she had become
+Margaret of Savoy, the name by which she is generally known; but had been
+widowed a second time. This proposal probably came from Philip, but was
+resolutely resisted by Margaret herself.
+
+[Sidenote: 1506 Philip in England]
+
+In 1506 fortune favoured Henry. Philip sailed from the Netherlands in
+January to take possession of the throne of Castile: but was driven on to
+the English shores by stress of weather. The English King received him
+royally, but while the utmost show of friendliness prevailed, Philip found
+that he had no alternative to acceptance of Henry's suggestions. Before the
+King of Castile departed, he had not only entered on a treaty for mutual
+defence against any aggressor, but had actually delivered over the person
+of the unhappy Suffolk [Footnote: So Busch. Gairdner is doubtful.] to his
+sovereign, though under promise that he should not be put to death. The
+prisoner, however, was committed to the Tower, and though Henry kept his
+word, he is reported to have advised his son that the promise would not be
+binding on him. At any rate Suffolk was executed, apparently without
+further trial, early in the next reign. His brother Richard, known as the
+"White Rose," who had abetted him, remained abroad, and was ultimately
+killed in the service of Francis I. at the battle of Pavia in 1525, leaving
+no children.
+
+Philip had hardly departed from England when a new commercial treaty which
+he had authorised was signed with the Netherlands, terminating the war of
+tariffs which had again become active in recent years. This treaty, it is
+not surprising to remark, was so favourable to England that in
+contradistinction to the older _Intercursus Magnus_ the Flemings
+entitled it the _Intercursus Malus_.
+
+[Sidenote: Death of Philip]
+
+The few remaining months of Philip's life were troubled. The position in
+Castile was difficult enough, and in his absence the Duke of Gueldres again
+revolted, with some assistance from France. Henry interfered, as he was
+bound to do by the recent treaty, not without some effect. But Philip's
+death in September left his wife Joanna Queen of Castile, with her father
+Ferdinand as Regent, and her young son Charles Lord of the Netherlands,
+with Margaret of Savoy at the head of the Council of Regency. Under these
+new conditions Henry agreed to modifications in the new commercial treaty,
+which indeed, as it stood, was almost impossible of fulfilment; probably in
+the hope that his project of marriage with Margaret of Savoy might still be
+carried out, the dowry she would bring being very much more satisfactory
+than that of Joanna of Naples.
+
+[Sidenote: 1507-8 Matrimonial projects]
+
+In a very short time, however, Margaret had another rival, at least for the
+purposes of diplomacy. This was Joanna of Castile, Philip's widow, whom
+Henry had seen in the spring of 1506. That her sanity was already very much
+in question seems to have made very little difference. Throughout the
+greater part of 1507 and 1508 the English King was making overtures to
+Margaret herself, and for Joanna to Ferdinand, blowing hot and cold in the
+matter of his son Henry and Katharine, and pushing on the betrothal of his
+younger daughter Mary with the boy Charles--a proposal brought forward,
+when the latter was but four months old, in 1500, but not at that time
+sedulously pressed. In part, at least, the explanation of all this
+diplomatic play lies in Henry's relations with Ferdinand. The King of
+Aragon, having lost his wife Isabella, wished to retain control of Castile;
+at the same time he was in difficulties about paying up the balance of
+Katharine's dowry, without which Henry would not allow her marriage with
+his son to go forward, while the luckless princess was kept scandalously
+short of supplies. Henry certainly wished to put all the pressure possible
+on Ferdinand to get the dowry; perhaps he seriously contemplated marriage
+with Joanna as a means of himself depriving Ferdinand of control in
+Castile; the marriage of Charles to his daughter Mary would have a similar
+advantage. On the other hand, if he married Margaret of Savoy he would get
+control of the Netherlands, and still grasp at the control of Castile
+through Charles, while playing off the boy's two grandfathers, Maximilian
+and Ferdinand, against each other. Henry was in fact paying Ferdinand back
+in his own coin; but the picture is an unedifying one, of craft against
+craft, working by sordid methods for ends which had very little to do with
+patriotism and no connexion with justice.
+
+[Sidenote: 1508 The League of Cambrai]
+
+If, however, it was now Henry's primary object to isolate Ferdinand so that
+he could impose his own terms on him, the object was not attained.
+Maximilian had just taken up a new idea--the dismemberment of Venice; an
+object which appealed both to Lewis of France and to Pope Julius.
+Ferdinand could generally reckon that if he joined a league he would manage
+to get more than his share of the spoils for less than his share of the
+work. The League of Cambrai--a simple combination for robbery without
+excuse--was formed at the end of 1508. Henry was left out, for which,
+indeed, he cared little, knowing that the process of spoliation would
+inevitably result in quarrels among the leaguers. But though he advanced
+the arrangements for the marriage of Charles and Mary so far as to have a
+proxy ceremony performed, the marriage project with Joanna was withdrawn,
+and his overtures were also finally declined by Margaret of Savoy.
+
+[Sidenote: Wolsey]
+
+In the last year of his life, however, his diplomatic successor--destined
+to outshine him in his own field--came into employment as a negotiator. It
+was Thomas Wolsey who probably carried through the arrangement for the
+union with Charles; Wolsey also who re-established friendly relations with
+Scotland, which had been becoming seriously strained. In 1505 James had
+more definitely promised not to renew the French alliance; but had
+considered himself absolved from this and other obligations, on the usual
+ground of border raids, in which Wolsey himself admitted that the English
+had been very much more guilty than the Scots.
+
+[Sidenote: 1509 Death of Henry VII.]
+
+But Henry's own days were numbered. As a boy and as a young man he had
+lived a hard life; throughout the four-and-twenty years of his reign he had
+never been free from the strain of anxiety, never relaxed his labours,
+never allowed himself to cast his cares upon other shoulders. In 1508 he
+had a serious illness, from which he never fully recovered; in the early
+spring of 1509 his health finally and fatally broke down. On April 21st
+the founder of the Tudor dynasty and of the Tudor system left the throne,
+which he had won by the sword, to a son, whose right by inheritance was
+beyond dispute.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+HENRY VII (iv), 1485-1509--ASPECTS OF THE REIGN
+
+[Sidenote: 1485 Henry's position]
+
+The task before Henry when he ascended the throne was a difficult one. He
+had to establish a new dynasty with a very questionable title, under
+conditions which could not have allowed any conceivable title to pass
+without risk of being challenged. It was therefore necessary for him not
+merely to buttress his hereditary claim by marrying the rival whose title
+was technically the strongest, and securing the pronouncement of Parliament
+in his favour, together with such adventitious sanction as a Papal Bull
+afforded; but further to make his subjects contented with his rule.
+
+Two things were definitely in his favour. The old nobility who between the
+spirit of faction and the love of fighting had kept the country in a state
+of turmoil for half a century were exhausted--not merely decimated but
+almost wiped out; while the mass of the population was weary of war and
+ready to welcome almost any one who could and would provide orderly
+government. The country was craving to have done with anarchy.
+
+[Sidenote: Studied legality]
+
+A firm hand and a resolute will were thus the primary necessities; but
+tired as the nation was, it was still ready to resent a flagrant tyranny.
+The Yorkist Kings had seen that absolutism was the condition of stability;
+Henry perceived that, applied as they had applied it, the stability would
+still be wanting. He had to find a mean between the wantonly arbitrary
+absolutism which had been attempted a century before by Richard II. and
+recently by Edward IV. and Richard III. on the one hand, and on the other
+hand the premature application of constitutional ideas under the House of
+Lancaster. The actual method evolved was the concentration of all control
+in the hands of the King, accompanied by an ostentatious deference to the
+forms of procedure which were liable to be put forward as popular rights,
+and a very keen attention to the limits of popular endurance.
+
+Thus Henry's first step was to summon Parliament and follow the Lancastrian
+precedent of obtaining its ratification of his own title to the throne. The
+next step, necessitated by his position, was to cut the claws of the
+Yorkists as a faction by striking at Richard's principal supporters. This
+could only be done effectively by treating them as traitors--a proceeding
+which could not but savour of tyranny, since they had at any rate been
+supporting the _de facto_ King: so again Henry took the only means of
+minimising the arbitrary character of his action, by obtaining
+parliamentary sanction. Some ten years later, at the time of Perkin
+Warbeck's attempted landing at Deal, he procured the remarkable enactment
+that support of a _de facto_ King should not in the future be
+accounted as treason to the successor who dethroned him--a measure
+characterised by Bacon, writing a hundred years later, as too magnanimous
+to be politic. In 1485 it would have been so; but at the actual time Henry
+was himself the _de facto_ monarch; he had no wish to punish his
+predecessor's supporters further; and he was really providing an inducement
+to his subjects to be loyal to the ruling dynasty. At the same time he
+could pose as advocating abstract justice in preference to the prevailing
+practice by which he had himself profited; strengthening his own hands in
+fact, while in theory he was introducing into politics the recognition of
+an ethical principle which--as it happened--no longer conflicted with his
+own advantage.
+
+[Sidenote: Policy of lenity]
+
+In fact Henry had an unusual perception of the political uses of a
+judicious leniency: but the leniency was deliberate and considered. He
+could also strike hard, on occasion. The rebels who were taken in the
+fighting near Deal met with scant mercy; and a very few months earlier, the
+execution of the apparently trusted and powerful William Stanley had been a
+sharp reminder that the royal clemency could not be taken for granted.
+Three years later he carried severity altogether beyond the limits of
+justice in executing Warwick. But as a rule he was lenient to a degree
+which had even its dangers. Simnel was treated as of too small account to
+be worth punishing. Warbeck from his capture till his attempt to escape was
+maintained in comfort and almost in freedom. Suffolk's earlier escapades
+were pardoned. Kildare was repeatedly forgiven, and really converted into a
+loyal subject. The Cornish insurgents of the Blackheath episode were dealt
+with so tenderly that they took clemency for weakness. Warbeck's Cornish
+rising was turned conveniently to account for the replenishment of the
+royal treasury by the infliction of fines, but no one who had supported it
+could complain of harsh treatment; rather they must have felt in every case
+that they had been let off very easily according to all precedents.
+
+Even when Lovel's and Simnel's risings were in actual progress, pardons
+were offered to such of the rebels as would make haste to repent; and there
+was no withdrawal of those pardons afterwards on more or less plausible
+pretexts, in the manner of preceding Kings and of Henry's successor after
+the Pilgrimage of Grace. Broadly speaking it was the King's policy to
+emphasise the fact that he had no intention of attempting to play the
+tyrant, or to vary a rash generosity by capricious blood-thirstiness, like
+Richard III. The sole victim of tyrannous treatment in this sense
+throughout the reign was the unhappy Warwick.
+
+[Sidenote: Repression of the nobles]
+
+But the attitude of strict conformity to law was entirely compatible with
+that steady concentration of all real control in the King's hands, which
+was the leading object of Henry's policy. For this purpose the primary
+condition was that none of his subjects should be sufficiently powerful to
+challenge his authority and raise the standard of revolt, as the King-Maker
+and others had done in the past. The old nobility were practically wiped
+out. Insignificant husbands were chosen for the daughters of York. The
+blood of the Plantagenets ran in the veins of the house of Buckingham; but
+it was only in the last generation that the De la Poles had mated with the
+royal house, and their estates were much diminished; the Howards had
+suffered as supporters of Richard. Surrey indeed was deservedly restored
+to grace; but no amount of personal loyalty or of royal favour exempted the
+nobles from the severe restriction of the old practice of maintaining
+retainers in such numbers as to form a working nucleus for a fighting
+force; nor were they allowed to accumulate wealth dangerously. Henry was
+well pleased that his subjects should gather sufficient riches to feel a
+strong interest in the maintenance of order, but not enough to use it to
+create disorder.
+
+Beyond this, however, he was careful to employ the nobles as ministers no
+more than he could help. He laid the burdens of statesmanship as much as
+possible on the clergy--on Morton and Fox and Warham. Fox, as Bishop of
+Durham, played a part in the relations of England and Scotland at least as
+influential as that of Surrey. After Morton's death Warham became
+Chancellor. Yet each of these three bishops felt happier in the conduct of
+his ecclesiastical functions than as a minister of the Crown. All three did
+worthy and conscientious service, but would willingly have withdrawn from
+affairs of State. They were counsellors, not rulers; the one real ruler was
+the King himself.
+
+While the King restrained the power of the nobility as military factors in
+the situation, he developed his own control of military force by the
+revival of the militia system, always theoretically in force, but
+practically of late displaced by the baronial levies; and his hands were
+further strengthened by the possession of the only train of artillery in
+the realm, the value of which was markedly exemplified in the suppression
+of the Cornish insurgents.
+
+[Sidenote: The Star Chamber]
+
+Another instrument in the King's hands, invaluable for the purpose of
+holding barons and officials in check, was the institution which came to be
+known as the Star Chamber. [Footnote: _Cf._ Maitland in _Social
+England_, vol. ii., p. 655, ed. 1902; Busch, p. 267.] Beside the
+development of the House of Peers as the highest court of judicature in the
+realm, the development of the Great Council on similar lines had long been
+going on. The two bodies differed somewhat in this way--that the peers had
+the right of summons to the former, when the judges might be called in to
+their assistance; whereas there were _ex officio_ members of the
+Council who were not peers, and considerable uncertainty prevailed as to
+the right of peers as peers to attend the Council. The customary powers of
+the Council arose from the need of a court too powerful and independent to
+be in danger of being intimidated or bribed by influence or wealth, able to
+penalise gross miscarriage of justice fraudulently procured, and to take in
+hand cases with which the ordinary courts would have had grave difficulty
+in dealing. In exercising this function the Council practically came to
+resolve itself into a judicial committee, meeting in a room known as the
+Star Chamber, and its authority was regularised by Act of Parliament in
+1487. Absorbing into its hands offences in the matter of "maintenance" and
+"livery,"--_i.e._, broadly speaking, practices which the nobility had
+indulged in for the magnification of their households, and the provision of
+a military following--and being peculiarly subject to the royal influence,
+it was exceedingly useful to the King in keeping the baronage within
+bounds. Following, on the other hand, a procedure analogous to that of the
+ecclesiastical courts, unchecked by juries, and having authority to punish
+officers of the law whom it found guilty of illegal or corrupt practices,
+its influence was gradually extended, so that the fear of it guided the
+judgments of inferior courts. Under Henry VII., however, its functions were
+exercised at least mainly in the cause of justice--they were used, not
+abused--to the public satisfaction, as well as to the strengthening of the
+King's own hands. The moderation with which Henry used the powers he was
+accumulating concealed the latent possibility of the misuse of those same
+powers by a capricious or arbitrary monarch.
+
+[Sidenote: Henry's use of Parliament]
+
+Not less conspicuous is Henry's application of the same principles in his
+dealings with Parliament. He was careful, as we have seen, to secure for
+his own claims the sanction of the National Assembly, and to give due
+recognition to the authority of the estates of the realm. But he gave it no
+opportunity of acquiring powers of initiative, and he directed his
+financial policy to placing himself in such a position that he could escape
+that extension of its controlling powers, which naturally followed whenever
+a King found himself dependent on it for supplies. Throughout the first
+half of his reign he summoned frequent Parliaments, obtaining considerable
+grants on the pretext of foreign wars which were in themselves popular; but
+he turned the wars themselves to account by evading extensive military
+operations, and securing cash indemnities when peace was made. He even
+resorted, when a serious emergency arose, to benevolences, which were
+illegal; but he first secured the approval of the Council, which could
+still act to some degree as a substitute for Parliament when the
+Legislature was not in session, and he afterwards obtained the ratification
+of Parliament itself. By this means he obtained more than sufficient for
+the actual expenditure; in the meantime accumulating additional treasure by
+forfeitures from rebels and fines for transgression of the law. We have
+already observed his method of consistently resorting to pecuniary
+penalties as an apparently lenient form of punishment, which conveniently
+replenished his treasury. Thus, during the latter part of his reign, he was
+able to do without Parliaments almost entirely; supplementing his revenues
+through his agents Empson and Dudley, who made it their business to
+discover pretexts for enforcing fines under colour of law, and often with
+the flimsiest pretence of real justice.
+
+[Sidenote: Financial exactions]
+
+It was in this field that Henry overstepped his normal policy of not only
+working through the law but avoiding misuse of it. For the filling of
+Henry's treasury, the law was abused. The exactions of Empson and Dudley
+were made possible by the statute of 1495, empowering judges, upon
+information received, to initiate in their own courts trials of offenders
+who were supposed to have escaped prosecution through the corruption or
+intimidation of juries. Empson and Dudley being appointed judges found it
+an easy task to provide informers, who laid before them charges on which a
+case could be made out for fining the accused. In theory, of course, the
+King was not responsible, and the guilty judges paid the penalty with their
+lives early in the following reign. But the King did in fact get his full
+share of the discredit attaching; and perhaps his methods in this
+particular have been emphasised out of proportion to other traits in his
+character and policy by popular writers. There is some reason to doubt if
+Henry was ever quite fully aware of the extent to which these extortions
+were distortions of law; and there is no doubt at all that Empson and
+Dudley did not conduct their operations with a single eye to their master's
+benefit, but contrived to intercept ample perquisites on their own account.
+The statute was soon repealed under Henry VIII.
+
+[Sidenote: Trade theories]
+
+Modern economic theories depend for their validity on the postulates of the
+transferability of capital and of labour. In proportion to the limitation
+of the industries possible to a community, their laws apply, or fail to
+apply, within that community. The development of a new industry may be
+impossible, in the competition with established rivals, without artificial
+assistance--assistance given to that industry at the expense of the
+community at large; the preservation of an existing industry may demand
+like assistance. When the labour and capital employed can be transferred
+productively to another industry, it is obviously better that the transfer
+should take place, and the failing industry lapse, than that the community
+should be charged with maintaining an industry which cannot support itself
+--whether or no the competitors driving it out of the market are enabled to
+do so only by like extraneous assistance. When the capital and the labour
+cannot be transferred, but the industry can be maintained by assistance,
+the question becomes one of weighing the cost of maintenance to the
+community against the injury to the community from the collapse of the
+industry. Thus in any state with its commerce in the making, when the
+transferability of capital and labour is at best in dispute, the theory of
+buying in the cheapest market, wherever it is to be found, is not in
+favour. It is held better to raise the prices to the point at which the
+native product pays its native producers. In mediaeval times the foreigner
+was _prima facie_ a person who came not to bring trade but to
+appropriate it. Hence he was subjected to regulations, limitations and
+charges for permission to carry on his operations. The next stage is
+reached when reciprocal free trade is recognised as an advantage and mutual
+concessions are made, restrictions and duties becoming, so to speak,
+implements of war, often enough proving two-edged.
+
+[Sidenote: Henry's commercial policy]
+
+Henry VII. was not an economist far in advance of the theories of his age;
+but economic considerations, as they were then understood, carried much
+more weight, and generally played a much larger part in his policy than was
+customary with the king-craft of the times, or with state-craft outside the
+commercial republic of Venice, the commercial association of German Free
+cities known as the Hansa or Hanseatic League, and the Netherlands.
+Accordingly we find him using every available means to obtain a footing in
+fresh foreign markets for the main English products of his day--wool and
+woollen goods; to secure for English merchants the rights and privileges
+which would enable them to compete on equal terms with the foreigner, and
+to curtail those privileges of the foreigner in England. In the matter of
+wool, the primacy of the English article was so thoroughly established that
+little extraneous aid was required. But with manufactured woollen goods the
+case was different, since the Flemings held the lead; and shipping also
+demanded artificial encouragement--first, because it was necessary to
+enterprise in the development of the export trade, at present largely
+carried on in foreign bottoms; second, because the King was, at least to
+some extent, alive to the strategic uses of a fleet which could be
+requisitioned for war purposes.
+
+[Sidenote: The Netherlands trade]
+
+The great mart for English wool was the Netherlands, whose manufacturing
+business required the raw product: the Netherlanders were more dependent on
+England than the English were on them. Hence this trade was used by Henry
+throughout his reign as a political lever--a means to political ends rather
+than an end in itself. If his own subjects suffered from a customs war,
+Philip's suffered more. So long as Burgundy made trouble on behalf of
+Perkin Warbeck the battle went on. In 1496 Philip gave up the contest, and
+the _Intercursus Magnus_ followed. Soon after the beginning of the new
+century the fight was renewed, to be terminated by what the Flemings called
+the _Intercursus Malus_, an arrangement so one-sided and pressing so
+hard on them that its terms were practically impossible of fulfilment; and
+Henry assented to their modification before his death, partly with a view
+to overcoming the reluctance of Margaret of Savoy to accept his matrimonial
+overtures.
+
+[Sidenote: The Hansa]
+
+When Henry came to the throne, he found the export trade mainly in the
+hands of two foreign groups--the Hansa, who had acquired privileges in
+England which they did not reciprocate, and the Venetians, who held their
+own without privileges by superior commercial acuteness--and of two English
+groups, the Merchants of the Staple, who controlled the wool markets, and
+the Merchant Adventurers, who were mainly interested in the manufactured
+goods. The King therefore followed a consistent policy of straining, in a
+restrictive sense, the interpretation of the concessions made to the Hansa,
+of emphasising grievances against them and of pressing for counter-
+privileges; and he successfully negotiated with Denmark in 1489 a
+commercial treaty, which interfered with the Hansa monopoly of the
+Scandinavian trade, by placing English merchants on a competitive footing
+with them. In a similar manner, he brought pressure to bear on the
+Venetians by opening direct relations with the Florentines at their port of
+Pisa. It is curious to note incidentally that the export dues on raw wool
+were enormously heavier than those on the manufactured goods; the
+difference being made in order to encourage the home sale of the wool and
+to stimulate the home manufacture by this means, as well as by encouraging
+the foreign sale of the manufactured goods. It is also observable that when
+an attempt was made by the London merchants to capture the worsted trade,
+Henry nipped it in the bud. It was no part of his policy to allow
+corporations--any more than individuals--to become powerful enough to
+demand terms for their political support.
+
+[Sidenote: The Navigation Acts]
+
+Recognising, as we saw, the commercial advantage to England of doing her
+own carrying trade and of multiplying ships and seamen, Henry--tentatively
+at first, but with increasing confidence--adopted artificial methods of
+encouraging this branch of industry, at the expense of free competition.
+Very early in the reign a Navigation Act required that goods shipped for
+England from certain foreign ports should be embarked on English vessels,
+during a specified period. Then the Act was renewed for a longer period,
+and finally without a time limit, and with more extended application. A
+great impetus was given to English shipping, with momentous results which
+can hardly have entered into Henry's calculations. He could not have
+anticipated the vast extensions of empire which were to be the prize of the
+nations with ocean-going navies, with the ocean itself for the great
+battlefield; or even the extent to which commerce and naval preponderance
+were destined to go hand in hand. The monopoly of the States with a
+Mediterranean sea-board was coming to an end.
+
+[Sidenote: Voyages of discovery]
+
+Yet it was in his reign that the vast change was initiated. In 1492
+Christopher Columbus made his great voyage: in 1497 Vasco da Gama sailed
+for India, not westwards but southwards and eastwards round the Cape of
+Good Hope. Ten years later, Albuquerque was founding a Portuguese Empire in
+the Indian seas. Spain and Portugal, pioneers of the great movement, led
+the way, one in the new world of the West, the other in the fabled world of
+the East; where for many a year to come they were to divide a monopoly
+authorised by the Papal Bull of Alexander VI. Before another century
+closed, their dominion was to be challenged by England grown mighty and by
+Holland emancipated. As yet, however, men dreamed only formless if gorgeous
+dreams of what the unknown realms might bring forth. England played no very
+large part in these early voyages. Christopher Columbus, craving to
+discover a westerly route to the Indies, and failing of Portuguese support,
+sent his brother Bartholomew to petition the English King for aid; but
+Bartholomew was captured by pirates. Ultimately he reached England, but
+before he could achieve his purpose, Christopher had found other helpers;
+the prize fell to Ferdinand and Isabella. The first historic expedition
+which sailed from English ports was captained not by an Englishman but by
+another Italian, John Cabot, and his son Sebastian, in 1497. The Cabots
+were Venetians who had for some time been established at Bristol. They
+aimed for a north-west passage, and found Labrador and Newfoundland, cold,
+inhospitable, producing no wealth: the explorers who sailed under Spanish
+auspices struck the wealthy and entrancing regions of the south. There was
+little enough material inducement beyond the simple spirit of enterprise to
+attract capital to expend itself in aid of the Bristol men who followed in
+the wake of Cabot. Henry deserves full credit for the encouragement and
+actual pecuniary help which he rendered at first, and no blame for its
+discontinuation. The daring of the adventurers was but ill repaid for the
+time; yet a mighty harvest was to be reaped by England in the days to come.
+
+[Sidenote: The rural revolution]
+
+If England, however, did not for more than half a century turn the new
+discoveries to material account, wealth and prosperity did increase greatly
+in the towns, and the country recovered her lost position among the
+commercial nations--partly from Henry's policy directed to that end, partly
+from the comparatively settled conditions of life which gradually
+prevailed. In the agricultural districts, however, this was hardly the
+case, owing to the increasing tendency to substitute pasture for
+cultivation. The country had no difficulty in producing sufficient for its
+own consumption; and the development of the woollen manufacture made
+sheep-farming in particular much more lucrative. But sheep-farming called
+for the employment of many fewer hands; proprietors dispossessed small
+tenants to make large sheep-runs; migration from the rural districts to the
+nascent manufacturing centres was not a simple matter; and thus there was
+no little distress, and a great multiplication of beggars and vagabonds.
+The monasteries, which in the past had been progressive farmers, had
+degenerated into landlords easy-going indeed but without enterprise. The
+wealth of the gentry increased, but unemployment increased also, and labour
+at the same time became cheaper. The evil was to a great extent realised;
+in the Isle of Wight, which was rapidly becoming depopulated, an attempt
+was made to improve matters by limiting the size of farms; the heavy export
+duties on raw wool were doubtless intended actually to restrict the output
+as well as to divert it to English rather than foreign manufacturers; but
+since this did not effectively check the growing demand at home, the
+production of wool remained so lucrative that it continued to be more
+attractive than cultivation. Attempts were made to transfer labour from
+agriculture to manufacture by interfering with, the restrictions imposed by
+the trade-guilds (which always aimed at making themselves close bodies),
+the object of such legislation being quite as much to prevent idleness as
+to relieve distress. Nevertheless, the evil grew. Sir Thomas More in his
+introduction to the _Utopia_, written early in the next reign, gives a
+vigorous sketch of the prevalent vagabondage just before the death of
+Cardinal Morton, adding to the causes above mentioned the number of lackeys
+employed by the wealthy who when dismissed became a useless burden on the
+community. He also charges the land-owners, expressly including many abbots
+and others of the clergy, with causing depopulation and misery by forcing
+up rents. From him too as well as from other sources we learn of the
+frequency of crimes of violence, attributed by him to the reckless
+employment of the death penalty for minor offences, encouraging the
+fugitive criminal--already doomed if caught--to take life without
+hesitation.
+
+[Sidenote: The Church]
+
+To a certain extent, then, we have to note among the causes of change in
+rural districts the failure of the monasteries to discharge their old
+function of agricultural leadership. In other respects, also, these
+communities had fallen from the high standards of earlier days. Discipline
+was lax. Visitations instituted by Cardinal Morton revealed the presence of
+gross immorality, not only among the very small houses, but in so great an
+institution as the Abbey of St. Albans, where the highest officials were
+guilty of the gravest misbehaviour; and the correspondence seems to imply
+that the disapprobation was by no means in proportion to the offences, from
+which it is fair to infer that no high standard was normally expected. The
+most to be looked for was an absence of flagrant misconduct. The clergy
+were much more particular about ceremonial observances and ecclesiastical
+privileges than about the morals either of themselves or of their flocks.
+But as yet there was no sign of a coming Reformation. Lollardry, it is
+true, had never been killed; its anti-clerical propaganda was by no means
+inactive. But it worked beneath the surface, and could not be taken to
+indicate an approaching convulsion. The greatest Churchmen of the day,
+Morton, Warham and Fox, were absorbed--albeit reluctantly--in affairs of
+State. Blameless, even austere in their own lives, patrons of learning,
+sincerely pious, they lacked the Reformer's passion, without which it was
+vain to combat the _vis inertiae_; generated by long years of clerical
+sloth, and of the formalism by which the highest Mysteries were vulgarly
+distorted into superstitions and Faith into ceremonial observances.
+
+[Sidenote: Henry and Rome]
+
+The first Tudor himself was a pious man, as piety was reckoned: punctual in
+observances, commended and complimented by Popes. His chapel in Westminster
+Abbey is evidence of his zeal in one direction; he gave alms with a
+business-like regard to their post-mortem efficacy. Throughout his reign
+the Popes made much talk of a new crusade, and Henry seems to have been the
+one European monarch who took the idea seriously. It is true that when
+Alexander VI. appealed in 1500 for funds to that end, the English King
+preferred to be excused; but the polite irony of his refusal was more than
+justified by his confidence that if the Pope got the money it would not be
+expended for the benefit of Christendom; moreover, he did actually hand
+over four thousand pounds. In fact, he took the Church as he found it.
+There was but one almost infinitesimal curtailment of ecclesiastical
+privileges in his reign, necessitated by political considerations and
+accepted by the Pope, whereby the right of Sanctuary was withdrawn in cases
+of treason.
+
+[Sidenote: Learning and letters]
+
+Practically it is only in the beginnings of an educational revival that we
+find promise of the dawn of a new order. It was in Henry's reign that the
+study of Greek, and with it the new criticism, began to establish itself.
+Grocyn and Linacre led the way. In the last decade of the century John
+Colet was lecturing at Oxford, the apostle of the new learning on its
+religious side; calling his pupils to the study of the Scriptures
+themselves, rather than of the schoolmen or doctors of the Church; treating
+them as organic treatises, not as collections of texts. There he won the
+friendship of young Thomas More; thither on flying visits came Erasmus
+twice. Colet, made Dean of St. Paul's about 1505, continued to carry on his
+educational work as the founder of the famous St. Paul's School; winning
+renown also as a great preacher and a fearless moralist; a man of rich
+learning, of a reverent enthusiasm, of a splendid sincerity, of a noble
+simplicity; the prophet of much that was best, and of nothing that was not
+best, in the coming Reformation.
+
+But during Henry's reign Colet's figure is almost the only one--apart from
+such representatives of erudition and scholarship as Grocyn and Linacre--
+which stands forth holding out a promise of intellectual and moral
+progress. In effect there was no literature; in this respect Scotland was
+in advance of England with the verse of William Dunbar. More's
+_Utopia_ was still unwritten. When Henry died the Universities had not
+yet, or had only just, received within their portals the men who were to
+fight the theological battle of the Reformation. More than half a century
+was to pass before the splendid sunrise of the Shakespearian era.
+
+[Sidenote: Henry's character]
+
+It has hardly, perhaps, been the custom to render full justice to the
+founder of the Tudor dynasty. His reign is stamped with a character sordid
+and unattractive. There is no romance in it, no clashing of arms, no
+valiant deeds, no suggestion of the heroic. The King's enemies are, for the
+most part, contemptible persons; the King himself is a cold-blooded,
+long-headed ruler, merciful indeed, but from policy, not from generosity,
+and of a meanness in money matters very far from royal. Yet he was not
+without virtues. He was not unjust; he was a statesman more loyal to his
+pledges than most of his contemporaries or their successors. He gave
+something like order and rest to a distracted land, and raised her again to
+a position at least respectable among the nations, securing himself on a
+most unstable throne without resorting to the usual methods of the tyrant.
+Had he died when Morton died, the baser aspects of his reign would never
+have achieved so unlovely a prominence as they have done.
+
+The truth is, indeed, that judged by the first half of his reign alone
+Henry might have been numbered among the princes with a title to be
+regarded almost with affection. It is only in the light of the later years
+that even his financial policy really assumes a mean aspect, though
+occasionally it came perilously near what may be called sharp practice--and
+the excuse was great, seeing that a full treasury was an absolutely
+necessary condition of establishing the new rule. The imprisonment of
+Warwick was an act of palpable injustice, yet the risk of letting him go
+free would have been enormous. In another ruler than Henry, the leniency
+which we attribute to astute policy would have been freely described as
+surprising magnanimity. He never betrayed a loyal servant. His genuine
+appreciation of the true spirit of chivalry was shown when he took Surrey
+[Footnote: Surrey, the son of "Jockey of Norfolk," Richard's supporter, was
+imprisoned in the Tower. At the time of Simnel's insurrection his gaoler
+offered to let him escape, but he refused, saying that the King had sent
+him to confinement, and only from the King would he accept release.] from
+the Tower to entrust him with high command in the North. The luckless Lady
+Katharine Gordon, the wife of Perkin Warbeck, was treated with remarkable
+courtesy and liberality. There was even a genial humour in the King's
+behaviour to Kildare. His own marriage he doubtless looked upon as a purely
+political affair; but while his wife lived his loyalty to his marriage vow
+is in strong contrast to the general licentiousness of the princes of his
+day; and the picture of Henry and Elizabeth striving in turn to comfort
+each other on Prince Arthur's death, as recorded by a contemporary,
+[Footnote: Gairdner, _Chron._, i., p. 36; Leland's _Collectanea_,
+v., p, 373.] can hardly be fitted on to the conception of Henry as a man
+almost without the more tender feelings of humanity.
+
+[Sidenote: Deterioration after 1499]
+
+Yet all this is forgotten or discoloured by reason of the ugly picture of
+those later days when Morton and Prince Arthur and Elizabeth were gone. It
+seems, indeed, as though a certain moral deterioration had set in from the
+time when Henry made up his mind to do violence to his conscience by making
+away with Warwick in 1499. Morton, his wisest counsellor, of whom More
+gives a most attractive portrait in the _Utopia_, died the next year;
+Arthur, whom he loved, in the spring of 1502; Elizabeth, always a refining
+and softening influence, within a twelvemonth of Arthur. To these latter
+years belong almost entirely the extortions of Empson and Dudley; the harsh
+treatment of Katharine of Aragon, a helpless hostage in his hands; the
+revolting proposal for a union with the crazy Joanna of Castile. This view
+is further borne out when we observe that in these years also his political
+foresight degenerates into craftiness, personal animosities playing a
+larger part. The intellectual falling off is hardly less marked than the
+moral. For the personal repute of a King who was almost, if not quite, one
+of the great, it is to be regretted that his last years have cast a
+permanent cloud over a reign which emphatically made for the good of the
+nation over which he ruled.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+HENRY VIII (i), 1509-27--EGO ET REX MEUS
+
+[Sidenote: Europe in 1509]
+
+Roughly speaking, the forty years preceding the accession of Henry VIII.
+had witnessed the birth of modern Europe. The old feudal conception of
+Christendom had passed away: the modern conception of organic States had
+taken its place. The English Kings had for some time ceased to hold sway in
+France, whether as claimants to the throne or as great feudatories. France
+herself had become a united and aggressive nation; the fusion of the
+Spanish monarchies was almost completed: the Emperor was no longer regarded
+as the titular secular head of Christendom, but was virtually the chief of
+a loose Germanic confederation. The Turk, finally established in Eastern
+Europe, was shortly to find himself regarded as a possible ally of
+Christian Powers; Christendom still reckoned the Pope as its spiritual
+head, but the cataclysm was already preparing; and the enterprise of daring
+seamen had but just rent the veils that had hidden from the nations of
+Europe the boundless possibilities of a new world in the West and an
+ancient world in the East, converting the pathless ocean into the great
+Highway.
+
+[Sidenote: England's position in Europe]
+
+Since the death of the conqueror Henry V., England herself had been rent
+and torn by internal broils. For many a long year she had taken but little
+share in the affairs of Europe. But it had been the part of the first Tudor
+King to win for her breathing time; to secure a period for rest and
+internal recuperation, which should fit her to hold her own in the counsels
+of Europe should her interests demand it. The civil broils were ended;
+trade had revived; wealth had been accumulating. Henry had not sought
+military glory, but he had played the game of diplomacy with acuteness and
+finesse. When he ascended the throne, the princes of Europe had regarded
+England as a Power that might safely be neglected unless she could be used
+as a cat's-paw; but before he died they had learned that they could no
+longer negotiate with him except on equal terms. In a sense, perhaps, it is
+true that England was still reckoned as no more than a third-rate
+[Footnote: _Cf._ Brewer, _Reign of Henry VIII._, i., p.3;
+Creighton, _Wolsey_, p. 11. The estimate, however, seems to be rather
+the outcome of an inclination to magnify Wolsey's achievement.] power,
+since her military prestige had fallen and the chances of its restoration
+were untested, while her interests would not naturally lead her into active
+participation in European complications; but she had at least achieved
+sufficient importance for the Powers to desire her favour rather than her
+ill-will, and for herself to be able to put a price on her support when it
+was asked.
+
+[Sidenote: The new King]
+
+So far, however, it was rather respect for the personal ability of Henry
+VII. than a high estimate of the English nation that had secured the
+English position; and when the astute old monarch was succeeded on the
+throne by a frank, high-spirited lad of eighteen, the Princes of Europe
+flattered themselves that England would revert to the position of a
+cat's-paw. From this point of view the first beginnings of the reign were
+promising. Europe, however, was soon to be undeceived; to discover that the
+young King had an unfailing eye for a capable minister, a sincere devotion
+to his own interests, and an unparalleled power of reconciling the dictates
+of desire and conscience.
+
+At home, circumstances combined to render Henry extraordinarily popular.
+Handsome, endowed with a magnificent physique, a first-rate performer in
+all manly exercises, gifted with many accomplishments, scholar enough to be
+proud of his scholarship, open of hand, frank and genial of manner, with a
+boyish delight in his endowments and a boyish enthusiasm for chivalric
+ideals, all English hearts rejoiced in his accession. The scholars looked
+forward to a Saturnian age; his martial ardour fired the hopes of the
+fighting men; the populace hailed with joy a King who began his rule by
+striking down the agents of extortion to whom he owed the wealth inherited
+from his economical sire. Henry in fact was blessed with the most valuable
+of all possessions for a ruler of men, a magnetic personality, which made
+his servants ready to go through fire and water, to stifle conscience, to
+forgo their own convictions at his bidding.
+
+When he ascended the throne, however, none had the glimmering of a
+suspicion whither that imperious will was to direct the destinies of the
+nation: his earliest acts gave little indication of the later developments
+of his character and policy.
+
+[Sidenote: 1509 Marriage]
+
+His first step was to complete the marriage with Katharine of Aragon, to
+whom he had been betrothed, under the papal dispensation, on the death of
+his elder brother, her husband. It is not without interest to note, in view
+of a plea put forward against the "divorce" in later years, that the bride
+was arrayed for the wedding as one who was not a widow but a maiden.
+Shortly afterwards Empson and Dudley, his father's unpopular agents, were
+brought to the block after attainder on a not very credible charge of
+treason, [Footnote: Brewer, i., p. 44; _L. & P._, i., 1212.] since the
+misdeeds of which they had been guilty could hardly be construed into
+capital offences.
+
+Now, however, events on the Continent were to offer a field for Henry's
+ambitions, and incidentally to disillusion, at least in part, his young
+enthusiasms.
+
+[Sidenote: The Powers: 1509-12]
+
+The three great Powers--France, Spain, and the Empire--which had been
+evolved out of the mediaeval European system, were united in the desire of
+preventing Italy from following their example and consolidating into a
+nation. Venice, as the one Italian State strong enough to have some chance
+of combining the rest under her leadership, was the object not only of
+their jealousy but also of the Pope's. A few months before the death of
+Henry VII., these four combined in the League of Cambrai, for the
+dismemberment of Venice. The allies, however, were not guided in their
+actions by any altruistic motives--any excessive regard for the interests
+of their associates. The French King, Lewis XII., by prompt and skilful
+action, made himself master of the north of Italy before the rest were
+ready to move. This was by no means to the taste of Ferdinand or of Pope
+Julius; but as yet Maximilian had seen no reason to be displeased.
+Ferdinand would not risk a quarrel with Maximilian, which might have led to
+that monarch's interference in Castile on behalf of the boy Charles--his
+grandson as well as Ferdinand's--the nominal King of that portion of what
+Ferdinand looked on as his own dominions. So the crafty old King bided his
+time, dropping a quiet hint to young Henry in England that a moment might
+be approaching favourable to an English attack on France, in revival of the
+ancient claim to the crown, or at any rate to Guienne.
+
+Henry, as yet unskilled in the tortuous diplomacy of his father-in-law, was
+well content to be guided by his advice. Ferdinand intrigued to unite
+Julius and Maximilian against France, and to shift the burden of battle,
+when it should come, off his own shoulders on to Henry's. Meantime, the
+outward professions to France remained of the most amicable character.
+
+[Sidenote: 1512 Dorset's expedition]
+
+Then Lewis made a blunder which gave his enemies their opening. He called a
+General Council at Pisa which was in effect an attack on the spiritual
+authority of Rome. By the end of 1510, Julius was at open war with the
+French King; Ferdinand was in alliance with the Pope; in the course of the
+next year, the Holy League was formed; a combined attack was concerted; and
+in June, 1512, an English expedition, under the command of Lord Dorset,
+landed in Spain, on the theory that it was to be assisted by Ferdinand in
+the conquest of Guienne.
+
+The expedition was a melancholy failure. The English troops and their
+commander were alike inexperienced in war; Ferdinand would not move against
+Guienne, urging with some plausibility that the securing of Navarre was a
+needful preliminary; the soldiers wanted beer and had to put up with
+Spanish wines; finally they insisted on returning to England, and Dorset
+had to put the best face he could on a very awkward situation. Officially
+it was announced that the withdrawal was made with Ferdinand's approval.
+
+So far, the European anticipations of England's incapacity had been duly
+fulfilled. A military fiasco had accompanied an innocence of diplomatic
+guile which looked promising to the Continental rulers. But the promise was
+to be disappointed.
+
+[Sidenote: Rise of Wolsey]
+
+Henry VII. had avoided war and had been his own foreign minister; when he
+died, he left to form his son's Council some capable subordinates like Fox
+the Bishop of Winchester, but no one experienced in the responsibilities of
+control. Among the noble houses, the Howards were shortly to display at
+least a fair share of military capacity. But it was to a minister of at
+best middle-class origin, a rising ecclesiastic who had, however, hitherto
+held no office of the first rank, that England was to owe a surprisingly
+rapid promotion to European equality with the first-class Powers.
+
+With that skill in selecting; invaluable servants which distinguished his
+entire career, Henry VIII. by the time he was one-and-twenty had already
+discovered in Thomas Wolsey the man on whose native genius and unlimited
+power of application he could place complete reliance.
+
+Wolsey had been employed on diplomatic missions by the old King; whose
+methods he had gauged and whose policy he had assimilated, but only as a
+basis for far-reaching developments. He was brought into the Royal Council
+by Fox, partly no doubt in the hope that he would counteract the influence
+of Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey, and others of the nobles who were
+martially inclined and imbued with a time-honoured hostility to France. It
+was no long time before he outshone his patron, who, however, had rightly
+judged his tendencies. Wolsey was no friend to war, and had no hostility to
+France, for the plain reason that he preferred diplomatic to military
+methods, and was quite as well pleased to advance English interests by
+alliance with France as by alliances against her if he saw his way to
+profit thereby. It is probable enough that he would have avoided the war
+with France if he had had the power; since he had not, he devoted his
+energies to making the war itself as successful as possible.
+
+[Sidenote: 1513 The French war]
+
+The arrangements for the Guienne expedition had not unnaturally been
+singularly defective. Wolsey devoted himself with untiring zeal to the
+organisation of a new expedition in the following spring. Nothing was left
+to chance over which it was possible for one man's energy to exercise
+supervision. The first outcome was a naval engagement off Brest on 25th
+April, wherein the English admiral, Sir Edward Howard, restored at least
+the English reputation for valour, falling--overwhelmed by numbers--on the
+deck of the French flag-ship which he had boarded almost single-handed. The
+French fleet was much larger than that of the English, and the attack on it
+which he led was a desperate enterprise in which his ships were beaten off;
+but those who had jeered at the failure in Guienne were silenced, and Henry
+was enabled to land his troops undisturbed at Calais at the end of June.
+Both the King and Wolsey were with the army, and proceeded to lay siege, on
+1st August, to Terouenne, which was partially re-victualled by the bold
+dash of a relief party of horsemen through the besieger's lines. Here the
+besiegers were shortly joined by a contingent under Maximilian (who
+professed himself a mere volunteer under the English King). The advancing
+French array was put to complete rout in the "battle of the Spurs"--the
+consequence of a sudden panic--and on August 22nd Terouenne
+surrendered. Tournai followed suit a month later.
+
+In the meantime, events of moment had been taking place on the Scottish
+border.
+
+[Sidenote: Scotland 1499-1513]
+
+James IV., as we have seen, had by no means been on continuously good terms
+with Henry VII., and had lent a good deal more than merely moral support to
+the pretensions of Perkin Warbeck. At the close of the adventurer's active
+career in the end of 1497, a treaty was made between England and Scotland
+which was to remain in force till a year after the death of either monarch;
+and there were further treaties when James married Margaret Tudor in 1503.
+On the other hand, James had always maintained the traditional alliance
+with France, and in 1507 had declined the papal invitation to enter the
+league then formed to resist French aggression. Since the accession of
+Henry VIII., the relations between the two countries had been exceedingly
+strained. There were personal quarrels about jewels retained in England
+which James claimed for his wife. Scottish sea-captains had been treated as
+pirates by the English authorities. Henry, having joined the league against
+France, wished to patch up the quarrel with James; James, incited by the
+French, would not make friends with the active enemy of France; the French
+Queen sent him a message bidding him strike a blow on English ground as her
+knight. West, [Footnote: Brewer, _Henry VIII._, p.29. _L & P_.,
+i., 1926, 3128, 3129, 3811, 3838, 3882.] the English ambassador, gives a
+highly uncomplimentary account of James's bearing at this time, but his
+evidence may be coloured. At any rate, there can have been little doubt in
+James's mind that a successful war with France would leave Henry ready to
+make himself extremely unpleasant to Scotland, even though he might not
+patently set the treaty aside; and for himself there was a degree of
+obligation to help France when she came to open hostilities with England;
+while Henry's instructions to West are hardly consistent with a character
+for stainless and unassailable honour. [Footnote: _Cf._ Lang,
+_Hist. Scot._, i., p.375; commenting on Brewer, _Henry VIII._,
+pp.28, 29 _q.v._]
+
+[Illustration: Map: Campaign of FLODDEN showing Surrey's March]
+
+[Sidenote: 1513 James invades England (Aug.)]
+
+At any rate, the conclusion of the matter was that when Henry sailed for
+Calais, James soon made up his mind, with the support of most of the
+nobility, to declare war, and sent Henry his defiance--as he had promised
+West to do before opening hostilities. On 22nd August he was in England at
+the head of a great army; by the end of the month, Norham Castle, Ford, and
+other strongholds were in his hands. [Footnote: _Cf._ Lang, _Hist.
+Scot._, i., p. 377.] Thereafter, he entrenched himself on Flodden Ridge,
+and awaited the approach of the English army.
+
+Queen Katharine and the Earl of Surrey had been left in charge at home when
+the King with Wolsey and Fox also crossed the channel. To the Queen's
+energy the successful results were in no small degree due, as well as to
+the military skill and audacity of the Howards, and to James's reckless
+disregard of strategical and tactical principles.
+
+Had the Scottish monarch held to his plans, his campaign could hardly have
+failed to be successful. His army was large, and well victualled; his
+position on Flodden Edge was exceedingly strong; he had secured the
+fortresses which might otherwise have threatened him on flank or rear. His
+object was to entice the English commander, Surrey, away from his base, and
+force him to fight at a disadvantage, or to see his levies melt away, for
+lack of provisions. Surrey, advancing from Alnwick to Wooler, tried to
+inveigle him into descending from the Ridge to the open plain, but James
+was not to be tempted.
+
+[Sidenote: Flodden (Sept.)]
+
+Eastward of Flodden the Till flows north to join the Tweed. Surrey put the
+Till between himself and the Scottish army, and marched north, his movement
+masked by hills on his left, with the intention of reaching Berwick, or of
+threatening the Scottish communications. Arrived at Barmoor Wood, the
+Admiral, Thomas Howard, Surrey's son, proposed to march west, cross the
+Till, and move south again, threatening the rear of James's position. The
+operation, involving a very hard march, was carried out. The main army
+crossed at Twizel Mill, the rearguard fording the stream as high up as
+Sandyford; the junction being effected behind Branxton Marsh. The passage
+of the troops might easily have been prevented; but James, very
+inefficiently served in scouting, knew nothing of what was going on. When
+the approach of the English became known, he suddenly resolved to descend
+and give battle [Footnote: The traditions concerning the King and the old
+Earl of Angus on this occasion have been very untenderly handled by
+Mr. Andrew Lang, _Hist. Scot._, 1., p. 390.] on the plain, instead of
+remaining in his almost impregnable position. So on the afternoon of
+September 9th was fought the bloody and decisive battle of Flodden. Of the
+two armies, the Scottish was probably the larger; but the English captains
+had their troops better in hand than the border lords on the Scottish left,
+or the highland chiefs on their right. After fierce fighting, the Scottish
+wings were broken, and the Scottish centre was completely enveloped. There,
+headed by the King, fought the pick of the Scottish chivalry. The stand
+made was magnificent, the slaughter appalling. The English victory this
+time was one not of the bow--as so often before--but of the bill or axe
+against the spears in which the northern nation trusted. By hewing away the
+spear-heads, the English disabled their opponents; yet they fought on, till
+man by man they fell around their monarch. The King himself, brave as any
+man on the field, was slain; in the ring of his dead companions in arms
+were found the bodies of thirteen earls, three bishops, and many valiant
+lords. There were few families in Scotland which did not contribute to that
+hecatomb, whereof the memory is enshrined in the national song of
+lamentation, "The Flowers of the Forest".
+
+[Effects of Flodden]
+
+For many a long year the military power of Scotland was broken on the black
+day of Flodden. From that quarter Henry was to have no more serious fears.
+Great and decisive, however, as Surrey's [Footnote: Surrey was rewarded
+with the Dukedom of Norfolk, held by his father. Accordingly, after this he
+becomes "Norfolk," and his son Thomas becomes "Surrey". In 1524 the son
+succeeded to the Dukedom, and is the "Norfolk" of the latter half of the
+reign, the "Surrey" of its last years being his son Henry.] triumph was,
+the English also had paid a heavy price, and were unable to follow up
+victory by invasion. But Scotland had not only lost the best and bravest of
+her sons; the King's death left the Crown to a babe not eighteen months
+old, and the government of the country to the babe's mother, Margaret, the
+sister of Henry VIII., and to a group of nobles, to whose personal feuds
+and rivalries, constantly fomented by English diplomacy, the interests of
+the Scottish nation were completely subordinated.
+
+[Sidenote: Recovery of English prestige]
+
+The year 1513 had completely restored the reputation of the English
+arms. The sea-fight off Brest, the successes at Terouenne and Tournai, and,
+finally, the great victory of Flodden, proved beyond dispute that
+Englishmen only needed to be well led to show themselves as indomitable as
+ever they had been in the past. The march of 8th and 9th September
+immediately before Flodden was a feat which not many commanders would have
+cared to attempt, and few troops could have carried out. And it had become
+evident that generalship was not, after all, a lost art. It was now time
+for Europe to discover that England, habitually inferior to other nations
+in the arts of diplomacy, possessed in Wolsey a diplomatist of the highest
+order. The old King had indeed been as little susceptible to the
+beguilement of fair promises, as shrewd in detecting his neighbours'
+designs, little less capable of concealing his own, little less tenacious
+in pursuing them; but his designs themselves had not the amplitude of
+Wolsey's, who shewed all Henry's skill combined with a far greater audacity
+in execution, commensurate with the greater audacity and scope of his
+conceptions. Wolsey was one of those statesmen, rare in England, who for
+half a generation aimed, with a large measure of success, at dominating the
+combinations of the European Powers without involving the country in any
+tremendous war.
+
+[Sidenote: 1514 Foreign intrigues]
+
+Before the winter of 1513 Henry VIII. returned to England, with every
+intention of following up his successes in the French war in the ensuing
+year. The campaign, however, had not been at all to the liking of
+Ferdinand, who gained nothing by the English victories in the north-west.
+These tended to strengthen his grandson Charles in the Netherlands, where
+Maximilian's influence over him was stronger; while Ferdinand was bent
+above all things on maintaining his own control over the boy, and by
+consequence over Castile. So Ferdinand set about making his own peace
+privily with France, and trying to draw off Maximilian so as to isolate
+Henry. In April, 1514, he accomplished his object, and a truce was declared
+between Ferdinand, the Emperor, and France.
+
+In mid-winter Henry had been struck down by small-pox; he recovered to find
+these intrigues in active progress, and was highly indignant. His martial
+projects were, of course, thrown entirely out of gear. Ferdinand, however,
+had found his match. The English King, when the dictates of his personal
+interests, translated into terms of conscience, did not obscure the issues
+at stake, had an acute perception of political expediency, untrammelled by
+the traditional sentiment which biased the judgment of advisers of the type
+of Surrey (now raised to the Dukedom of Norfolk). It was Wolsey who swayed
+his counsels, and Wolsey perceived in an alliance with France an effective
+alternative to the collapsed alliance against her.
+
+[Sidenote: Policy of French alliance ]
+
+No sooner had he detected the intrigues of Ferdinand than he set his
+counterplot on foot through the medium of the Duc de Longueville, who had
+been taken prisoner at the battle of the Spurs and sent over to
+England. The death of the French Queen, Anne of Brittany, gave him a
+convenient opening as early as January.
+
+Throughout this century, as in the reign of Henry VII., royal betrothals
+and royal marriages play an immense part in international negotiations:
+princesses are the shuttlecocks of statesmen. This particular form of
+diplomatic recreation now springs again into sudden prominence.
+
+[Sidenote 1: The French marriage]
+[Sidenote 2: 1515 Francis I]
+
+Henry's younger sister Mary was plighted to the young Charles of Castile
+and the Netherlands, who was to marry her in the ensuing summer; he being
+now fourteen, and she about seventeen. The boy's two grandfathers, now both
+disposed to leave England detached and isolated, began finding excuses for
+deferring the match. Wolsey pressed them, while secretly negotiating for
+Mary's marriage with Lewis of France. Thus when his plans were ripe, and
+not before, he found himself able to declare that the breach was entirely
+the fault of the other side, whose objects were frustrated by the new
+alliance, which had not entered into their reckoning. There was no further
+prospect of keeping France and England embroiled while they appropriated
+the spoils. Mary was married to the French King in October, and Henry was
+certainly projecting, in conjunction with him, an aggressive movement
+against his former allies, on the plea that his wife Katharine shared with
+her sister the succession to Castile, when the tangible results of the
+marriage were nullified by the death on January 1st of Lewis, and the
+succession to the French throne of his cousin Francis I., a prince who was
+some years younger than Henry himself, and quite as much athirst for
+military glory.
+
+Again diplomacy intrigued about the person of Lewis's widow. Charles
+Brandon, [Footnote: Edmund de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk in the last reign,
+and Yorkist intriguer, was executed, apparently without further trial, in
+1513. The Dukedom of Suffolk was bestowed on Brandon whom Mr. Froude's
+imagination has somehow developed into "the ablest soldier of the age," but
+he never did anything to justify a high estimate of his abilities.] Duke of
+Suffolk, an intimate personal friend of Henry's and a stout man-at-arms,
+who was also personally devoted to the Princess Mary, was selected by
+Wolsey as a better negotiator than one of the anti-French party. Henry and
+Francis were both keen hands at a bargain, and there was serious trouble as
+to Mary's dower and the financial arrangements connected with her
+return. Francis gained his purposes by alarming Mary and at the same time
+encouraging Suffolk to marry her out of hand; which he did, secretly. After
+that, there could be no more talk of Mary's dowry being repaid; and Henry
+had to content himself with making heavy demands on Suffolk's purse. The
+event is of further significance, because Henry at present had no
+offspring, and the young King of Scotland, son of his sister Margaret, was
+heir presumptive to the throne; whereas if his younger sister Mary should
+have children, it was certain that there would be a party to support their
+claim in preference to that of the Scottish monarch. In fact, ultimately,
+Mary's grandchild Lady Jane Grey was actually put up as a claimant to the
+throne.
+
+[Sidenote: Marignano (Sept.)]
+
+The general effect however was, that Francis drew away from the English
+alliance, and associated himself more closely with Ferdinand; having
+Italian conquests and more particularly Milan in view. In the summer he set
+out, crossed the Alps with unexpected success, and in September won the
+great victory of Marignano, routing the Swiss troops which had hitherto
+been reputed invincible. Such triumphant progress however was more than the
+other monarchs or the Pope, Leo X., had reckoned for, and there was a rapid
+and general reaction in favour of checking the French King's career. The
+inflation of the power of France was satisfactory to no one else; but
+incidentally the effect was not disadvantageous to Wolsey, since it forced
+Pope Leo into an attitude of compliance with English demands in order to
+secure English support, with the result that Wolsey was raised to the
+Cardinalate, having recently been made Archbishop of York. "The Cardinal of
+York" is the title by which he is named in official references from this
+time (Nov., 1515).
+
+Here it may be noted that a daughter, afterwards Queen Mary, was born to
+the King early in 1516. Before this time, two sons at least--according to
+some authorities no fewer than four--had been born, but had died either at
+birth or shortly after.
+
+[Sidenote: 1516-17 European changes]
+
+During the winter, Wolsey--having no wish to plunge England into war--
+persuaded Maximilian (by means of a very able diplomatic agent, Richard
+Pace) to take up arms against Francis in Italy. As a rule, Maximilian took
+sides with any one whose gold he expected to divert into his own pocket;
+but Pace managed to keep the English subsidies, which were to pay the Swiss
+Mercenaries, out of the Emperor's hands; so the Emperor retired from the
+war in the spring. Early in this year, too, Ferdinand died, leaving Charles
+lord of all Spain as well as of the Netherlands. This left the young King
+to the guidance of advisers whose interests were mainly Flemish, and who
+were consequently anxious in the first place for the friendship of
+France. Hence in August the treaty of Noyon was contracted between Francis
+and Charles; in which the Emperor shortly afterwards joined when he found
+that England would not provide him with funds unless he earned
+them. Wolsey's real strength lay in the fact that neither Maximilian nor
+Charles could afford any serious expenditure without his financial support;
+Francis was waking up to the fact that as allies they were both broken
+reeds, though in active combination with Wolsey against him they would be
+dangerous; and as the year 1517 passed, the inclination for France and
+England to revert to amicable relations revived; becoming more marked in
+the following year when the birth of a dauphin suggested his betrothal to
+the little Princess Mary.
+
+[Sidenote: 1518-19 Wolsey's success]
+
+During these two years, the reality of Wolsey's control of the situation
+was further demonstrated by his management of the Pope, who refused him the
+office of legate after having reluctantly made him Cardinal. Leo however,
+like other Princes, was in want of cash, and sent legates to the European
+Courts to raise funds under colour of a crusade: whereupon Henry declined
+to admit Cardinal Campeggio to England, on the ground that to receive a
+legate _a latere_ was against the rule of the realm. Wolsey seized the
+opportunity to suggest that if he himself, being an English prelate, were
+placed on the same official footing as Campeggio, the objection might be
+withdrawn; and Leo had to agree.
+
+In the result, an alliance was concluded with France under which the
+infants were betrothed, Tournai was restored to France. France was to pay
+60,000 crowns and promise not to interfere in Scottish affairs to the
+detriment of England, and Wolsey was enabled to pose as the pacificator of
+Europe; the other Powers with more or less reluctance all finding
+themselves constrained to give their adherence to the new treaty of
+Universal Peace.
+
+Thus when the year 1519 opened, Wolsey's policy was triumphant. France was
+bound to England; the young King of Spain wanted her friendship; Maximilian
+was still looking to her for money; and the Pope was obliged to applaud her
+for having usurped his official function as peacemaker. But in the days
+when war and peace and the movements of armies turned habitually on the
+personal predilections, quarrels, and amours of monarchs, the political
+atmosphere was liable to violent disturbances without warning. In January,
+1519, Maximilian died suddenly; and his death in fact involved a complete
+rearrangement of ideas as to the positions of the Powers.
+
+[Sidenote 1: 1519 Charles V.]
+[Sidenote 2: The Imperial election]
+
+Ten years before, when Henry came to the throne, he was the only young man
+among the European sovereigns. The Emperor and the King of France were both
+more than middle-aged: so was the King of Aragon who was virtually King of
+Spain and the Sicilies. Before six years were out there was a youthful King
+of France; not much later, all Spain was under the dominion of a boy. These
+three Kings were now twenty-eight, twenty-four, and nineteen respectively,
+while the succession to the Empire lay with the Electoral Princes. Charles
+was an obvious candidate, since the Habsburgs had actually retained the
+office among themselves for three generations; yet the Electors were in no
+way bound to maintain the tradition. In ability and in character, one of
+their number was fit for the purple--Frederick of Saxony; but Saxony was
+only one among a number of German States, and Frederick himself had no mind
+to undertake the office. Thereupon ensued the somewhat curious spectacle of
+the French King entering the lists, he being the one possible rival of
+Charles. Of all the Continental Princes, these two alone were powerful
+enough to sustain the burden of the Empire: yet either of them, achieving
+it, would have his power dangerously expanded, and would become a serious
+menace to the Pope.
+
+So Charles and Francis both intrigued and bribed the Electors; the Pope
+tried to avoid helping either; Wolsey promised support to both; and the
+Electors themselves watched for opportunities of raising the price of their
+suffrages. And presently Henry himself conceived the idea of getting
+himself put forward as a third candidate, through whom a way of escape
+might be found for those who regarded Francis and Charles as Scylla and
+Charybdis. The combination however of the Crown of England with the
+Imperial diadem was no improvement in their eyes. Leo did not wish to find
+himself in Wolsey's grip. The scheme must almost inevitably have been
+fraught with disaster both to England and the Empire. Wolsey of necessity
+made himself the instrument of his master's desires; but while he selected
+as his agent Pace, the most astute of his subordinates, Pace's own
+correspondence is a good deal concerned with hints that an over-zealous
+pursuit of the policy would be a bartering of the substance for the shadow
+of power, and with explanations of the impracticability of an effective
+electoral campaign. Pace, in fact, went very little beyond sounding the
+Electors and declaring the results to be extremely unpromising; a state of
+things to which we may infer that neither he nor Wolsey had any
+objection. In the end, the influence of England was employed in favour of
+Charles, who was chosen Emperor in the middle of summer. The three
+sovereigns, Charles V., Francis I., and Henry VIII., dominated Europe for
+nearly thirty years to come--an unusually long period for three princes to
+reign side by side.
+
+It was now Wolsey's difficult business to keep both Francis and Charles as
+suitors for the favour of England; and, having placated the latter in the
+contest for the Empire, to turn his attention to the former.
+
+[1520 Wolsey's triumph]
+
+Francis was at this time ready to meet Wolsey more than half way. He was
+particularly desirous of holding a formal interview and a personal
+interchange of courtesies with the King of England; and to this end he
+actually appointed Henry's minister his own plenipotentiary, a position
+without precedent or parallel for an English subject. Wolsey prepared to
+make the meeting an occasion for such a display of magnificence as has
+rarely been witnessed. At the same time he emphasised the independent
+position of England by arranging for a separate preliminary interview
+between Henry and the Emperor, and making it clear that herein it was not
+the Emperor who was doing the King a favour, but the contrary. If Charles
+wished to meet Henry, he must come to England for the purpose. Meantime
+both monarchs sought to obtain the great minister's goodwill by promises of
+support when the Papacy should become vacant--promises which Wolsey would
+not permit to influence his plans; whether because he rated them at their
+true value, or because he had no great anxiety to barter the position he
+had already secured for one which, however magnificent, however dominant in
+theory, might convey actual power of a much less substantial kind.
+
+[Sidenote: Rival policies]
+
+The French alliance, it must be observed, was never popular in England.
+Tradition was against it; the nobles of the old families were against it;
+the Queen was also naturally against it and very anxious for close and
+friendly relations with Spain. A degree of antagonism was thus generated
+between Katharine and the Cardinal, who held resolutely to his policy of
+maintaining the balance and never so committing himself to one party as to
+preclude a _rapprochement_ with the other.
+
+There was much intriguing on the part of Francis to bring on the meeting of
+the Kings before Charles could visit England. The state of the French
+Queen's health on one side and of the English Queen's wardrobe on the other
+figured largely as conclusive reasons for haste or delay. Wolsey however
+gained the day. The meeting was fixed to take place early in June between
+Guisnes and Ardres. In the last week of May (1520), Charles came to
+England, remaining three days; a week later, Henry sailed for Calais.
+
+[Sidenote: Field of the Cloth of Gold]
+
+It might almost be said that the entire courts of England and France,
+nobles and knights and ladies, met on the famous "field of the Cloth of
+Gold". Jousts and feastings were the order of the day. Wolsey understood
+how to impress the popular imagination; and he had a magnificent scorn or a
+cynical contempt for the enmities and jealousies aroused, of which he
+himself, as responsible for all the arrangements, became the centre. It may
+be doubted, however, whether any great goodwill between the two nations was
+born of all the display of amity; nor were there any very marked diplomatic
+results. If it was Wolsey's particular object to evolve a triple league, he
+was disappointed. The two Kings met and parted, Henry proceeding to a fresh
+conference with his nephew of Spain, from which Francis, in his turn, was
+excluded. Neither Charles nor Francis knew in the end which of them stood
+in the more favourable position with England; but the little Princess Mary,
+betrothed to the Dauphin, was half-pledged to Charles himself; while
+Charles was still formally betrothed to the French Princess Charlotte, and
+was inclining to substitute for both the well-dowered Infanta Isabella
+[Footnote: Otherwise called Elizabeth. The names are interchangeable.] of
+Portugal. Among all the surprising matrimonial complications of this
+half-century, one particular feature appears to be tolerably constant--that
+when Charles was not actually married, he was rarely without at least one
+fiancée actual, and another prospective.
+
+At any rate, the total result in 1520 was that Henry was in separate
+alliance with Francis on one side and with Charles on the other; alliances
+which neither could afford to break, but on which neither could rely.
+
+[Sidenote: Wolsey's aims]
+
+The main interest of Wolsey's career, from the national point of view,
+attaches to his conduct of foreign policy: and in the confusion of
+alliances and counter-alliances it is not always easy to recognise the
+objects of that policy or its fundamental consistency. The aim always in
+view was to prevent any Power or combination of Powers from dominating
+Europe; to substitute diplomacy for the actual arbitrament of arms; to
+secure for England recognition as the true arbiter without involving her in
+war. The three first-class Powers of the earlier years were reduced to two
+by the combination under one head, Charles V., of Spain and the Empire,
+with France as the sole Continental rival.
+
+But behind Wolsey's own policy was the traditional one of hostility to
+France, popular in the country, supported by the nobility, and offering
+attractions to an ambitious and martial-minded monarch who was not yet
+thirty years of age: whose Queen moreover was by birth and sympathy a
+strong partisan of Spain. Hence the Cardinal was liable to be forced out of
+his mediatorial position into one of hostility to France.
+
+[Sidenote: Charles and Francis]
+
+On the other hand, Francis and Charles each desired to strengthen his own
+position at the expense of the other. Each therefore desired an alliance
+with England close enough to secure her aid in an aggressive programme. But
+while Charles required active assistance and subsidies, seeking to throw on
+England the real burden of accomplishing his designs, Francis was
+comparatively satisfied with English neutrality. Again, while an
+aggressive alliance with Charles offered some uncertain prospects of the
+acquisition of French territory, circumstances were once more tending to
+enable Francis to utilise the ancient Scottish alliance as a means of
+holding England in check.
+
+[Sidenote: Scotland 1513-20]
+
+Since the decisive battle of Flodden, Scotland had not to any marked degree
+influenced Wolsey's European diplomacy. The blow dealt to her had been too
+serious: and the nobles, always turbulent, had never been more so than
+during the years which followed the great defeat. Queen Margaret, sister of
+the English King, a woman of only five and twenty when James was killed,
+made haste to marry the young Earl of Angus within a year of the event. The
+Douglases had frequently headed the Anglicising factions of the Scottish
+nobility, whereas the country at large constantly favoured the traditional
+alliance with France and hostility to the Southron. At present, the
+Douglases of whom Angus was the chief headed one faction: the Hamiltons,
+whose chief was Arran, headed the other. The marriage put an end to the
+arrangement under which Margaret had been Regent; there was intriguing and
+fighting to obtain possession of the person of the infant King; the Duke of
+Albany, [Footnote: Albany's father had been brother of James III.; their
+sister was Arran's mother.] of the royal house, who had been bred in
+France, was sent for, in the hope that as Regent he would compose discords.
+In the summer of 1515 he arrived. In the meantime, Dacre, in charge of the
+English border, had been fomenting quarrels [Footnote: _Lang_,
+_Hist. of Scotland_, i., 395. L. & P., ii., 779, 795.] and suborning
+outlaws to raid and devastate in the border counties, and plotting
+unsuccessfully to have James carried off into England to the tender care of
+his uncle. Albany, for his part, demanded the custody of the child, which
+was refused by Margaret; who however was forced to surrender with a show of
+friendliness. But she herself very shortly took refuge in England.
+
+In 1517 Albany withdrew to France with a view to resuscitating the French
+alliance; the rivals Arran and Angus were again the two most powerful of
+the nobles; Margaret returned to Scotland, but quarrelled with her husband.
+In 1520 Albany was still in France which he probably found more cheerful
+than his own country. Angus got the better of Arran, who fled to France.
+There however Francis was still aiming at close alliance with England; and
+under such a combination of favourable conditions the truce between England
+and Scotland, entered upon in 1514 and now about to terminate, was extended
+for a couple of years. But Margaret herself being now hostile to Angus,
+there was every prospect that, should Albany return to Scotland, Wolsey
+would have to reckon seriously with the anti-English party there as a
+factor in his diplomatic relations with France.
+
+[Sidenote: 1520-21 Affairs abroad]
+
+The closing months of 1520 arid the opening months of 1521 witnessed events
+of importance at the time-and one at least which had very far-reaching
+consequences. The Emperor's wide do-minions were disturbed by a local
+outbreak in Germany, a revolt in Spain, and an attempt on the part of the
+claimant to the throne of Navarre to recover that territory. The Diet of
+the Empire met at Worms, and Martin Luther was cited before it; with the
+result that the Empire was practically divided into two camps, Charles
+ranging himself on the papal side. As Henry VIII. was so far a loyal son of
+the Church, wielding an anti-Lutheran pen in theological controversy, while
+the French King's reverence for the papacy was under suspicion, the present
+tendency of this event was favourable to the union of Charles and Henry
+with the Pope against Francis. On the other hand there was very little
+question that the troubles in the Emperor's dominions were fostered by
+Francis, who was preparing for an Italian expedition. Had Charles and
+Wolsey trusted each other, their alliance would certainly have been drawn
+closer; but Wolsey was not the man to take up Charles's cause without
+securing an adequate return, while Charles wished to involve England on the
+strength of promises which he expected subsequently to find no necessity
+for carrying out. Charles found his justification in the unexpected success
+of his arms in Navarre, in Spain, and in Germany. Good fortune relieved
+him from the more pressing need of English aid, and thus the prospect of a
+close and active alliance faded.
+
+[Sidenote: 1521 Buckingham]
+
+In the late spring of 1521 there occurred in England a domestic episode
+which must have impressed both Charles and Francis with the power wielded
+in England by Henry; the first notable instance among the numerous
+executions marking the reign for which treason was the pretext. [Footnote:
+Unless we except that of Edmund de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, in 1513.] The
+Duke of Buckingham stood at the head of the nobility; accepted as
+representing the House of Lancaster, next in order to the Tudors.
+[Footnote: The Staffords of Buckingham on one side descended, like Henry,
+from the Beauforts. They were also the representatives of Thomas of
+Woodstock, the youngest son of Edward III. See _Front_, and p. 9,
+note.] The Duke no doubt had a sufficiently strong dislike to Wolsey, and
+had used very incautious language about him, and the Cardinal was popularly
+held responsible for his downfall, though there is no evidence that this
+was actually the case. Buckingham had consulted soothsayers, and was
+reputed to have used compromising expressions about tyrants and the
+succession. At any rate, he suddenly found himself arrested for high
+treason. The King had made preliminary inquiry on his own account--not in
+the presence of Wolsey--and had made up his own mind that Buckingham was to
+die. The peers were summoned to try him on May 10th, under the presidency
+of Norfolk. The depositions of the witnesses against the Duke were read;
+there was no cross-examination; he denied the charges, but was not allowed
+counsel. The decision was of course a foregone conclusion. One by one the
+peers pronounced him guilty; he was condemned to death, and executed. No
+one was found to challenge the justice of the sentence, though on a review
+of the evidence it is almost incredible that any human being could have
+honestly endorsed it. The world at large however knew nothing about the
+evidence, and merely accepted the judgment as final and indisputable. By a
+single ruthless act, Henry had practically established his own right to
+judge cases of treason on the hypothesis not that guilt had to be
+demonstrated but that the accused must prove his own loyalty or suffer the
+extreme penalty. For the King to entertain an accusation was tantamount to
+condemnation. Even to plead on behalf of such a one was dangerous: to
+maintain his innocence would have been a short way to the block.
+
+[Sidenote: Wolsey's diplomacy]
+
+By the execution of Buckingham, Henry vindicated his own authority in
+England while popular opinion laid the responsibility on the Cardinal's
+machinations. In the meantime, an impetus was given to the anti-French
+policy of Charles by the death of his Burgundian minister Chievres. As the
+summer advanced, the prospect of keeping the peace between the rival
+monarchs grew fainter. The parties however agreed to hold a conference at
+Calais, at which Wolsey should act as mediator. But matters looked as if
+England would be forced to take a side in a European war; and if she did so
+the balance of advantage to her lay on the side of the Emperor.
+
+In August the conference met. Ostensibly with a view to obtaining from
+Charles himself more concessions to France than his envoys would allow, the
+Cardinal visited him at Bruges; where however he was really engaged in
+coming to comparatively satisfactory terms as to the conditions upon which
+Charles should receive English assistance. These included the deferring of
+actual participation in hostilities, and indemnification for the inevitable
+loss of the Tournai purchase-money, of which France had paid only a part.
+Wolsey returned to Calais with a secret treaty, and the conference
+continued, the Cardinal still making every effort to avert war; but towards
+the end of November it became clear that his endeavours must be fruitless,
+and the conference was broken up. He was followed to England by the news of
+Imperial successes both in Italy and in Picardy--which went far to justify
+Charles in his refusal to postpone hostilities for his own part. Henry,
+whose own predilections were in favour of war, was very well pleased with
+the result, and rewarded his minister by presenting him to the vacant and
+lucrative office of Abbot of St. Albans. Such were the conveniences of
+being served by an ecclesiastic.
+
+[Sidenote: 1522 A papal Election]
+
+The year closed with an event of importance. Leo X. died unexpectedly and
+there was an election to the papacy. There is no doubt that Wolsey desired
+the papal crown; and both Francis and Charles in courting his favour had
+held out as a bait the influence they were prepared to promise on his
+behalf. But he had not allowed these offers to influence his actions.
+Charles now gave him fair words, but evidently intended his real support to
+be given to some candidate whom he expected to be more pliant. The man he
+would have chosen was the Cardinal de Medici, afterwards Clement VII.: but
+Italian party spirit among the Cardinals ran too high for this to prove
+practicable, and Adrian VI. who had been tutor to Charles was the new Pope.
+Wolsey can hardly have been disappointed, and never gave undue weight to
+the Emperor's promises: but the event was not calculated to increase his
+confidence or his goodwill. The present fact however of the alliance
+between the Emperor and England, with the corollary that England must
+before long be at war with France, remained unaltered.
+
+[Sidenote 1: War with France]
+[Sidenote 2: Scotland]
+
+By the end of May the war could no longer be postponed, and was duly
+declared. It was still some months before Surrey took the field in France
+at the head of the English forces--conducting his campaign on the general
+principles of Anglo-Scottish border warfare--ravaging, burning, and rousing
+the hatred of the country population, but striking no blow. If Henry
+seriously contemplated the idea of reviving old claims to the French crown,
+he could have adopted no worse policy. Charles of course gave no practical
+assistance, and the allies each blamed the other for the futility of the
+operations. Albany on the other hand had been back in Scotland for some
+months; and in opposition to Angus--in conjunction therefore with Margaret
+--threatened an invasion as soon as the French expedition started. The
+ingenious Lord Dacre however by sheer bluff--there is no other word--
+succeeded in procuring an armistice when the English border was all but
+defenceless. After this exhibition, Albany found it as well to retire to
+France; while Wolsey used the occurrence to urge upon Charles that Scotland
+required too much attention to allow French expeditions to be practicable.
+
+[Sidenote: 1523 Progress of the war]
+
+With 1523 events took a turn more favourable to Charles. The Duke of
+Bourbon, Constable of France, turned against the King, on the ground of
+insults more or less fancied, and of a genuine attempt to deprive him of
+his inheritance by legal process. The idea was revived in Henry's mind that
+in alliance with some of the French nobility he might make himself King of
+France as Henry V. had done; so Wolsey had to develop an active policy
+against France. His hand being thus forced, the Cardinal devoted his
+energies to making the combination against the French King really serious,
+coercing Venice into the coalition. The military operations however were
+not in train till the autumn; Suffolk, whose military skill was extremely
+limited, commanded the English expedition, and marched into the interior
+instead of falling on Boulogne as Wolsey had advised; Bourbon did nothing
+useful; Charles's troops gave their attention to Fontarabia instead of to a
+combined operation. From the English point of view the whole campaign was a
+complete fiasco. Wolsey had been set to carry out a policy of which he
+disapproved, with instruments of whose incompetence he was fully conscious;
+and the results were probably neither better nor worse than what he and the
+cooler onlookers like Sir Thomas More expected. The one thing that Wolsey
+could do, he had done: he had placed Surrey on the Northern border to deal
+with the inevitable return to Scotland of Albany with threats of invasion.
+Surrey was successful: Albany having advanced into England was obliged to
+fall back, and the border country was subjected to the usual process of
+raiding and harrying.
+
+[Sidenote: Election of Pope Clement VII.]
+
+Once again, the closing months of the year witnessed a papal election; and
+for the second time Wolsey was disappointed. The reign of Adrian closed in
+September. It had been brief, well intentioned, and honest: but
+ineffective. The Pope's efforts at reform had been met by the solid _vis
+inertiae_ of the ecclesiastical world. His successor, the Medici,
+Clement VII., was destined to play a much more important part in history,
+and, buffeted by forces which he could not control, to become the
+instrument whereby England was severed from Rome. In this election Charles
+played the same part as before. He promised Wolsey his support, wrote
+letters to Rome which were delayed till too late, and actually expended his
+influence on behalf of Medici. Again, though Wolsey's anxiety to achieve
+the papacy has probably been much exaggerated, he would have been more than
+human if he had not inwardly resented the Emperor's behaviour. It is to be
+noted in connexion with this election that Wolsey actually proposed the
+employment of armed coercion to secure a convenient choice--a rather gross
+method of condemning the theory that the Conclave reached its decision by
+Divine guidance.
+
+[Sidenote: 1524 Wolsey's difficulties]
+
+The year had but six weeks more to run when Clement was finally elected. In
+1524 the belligerents were all desirous of ending the war, but none was
+willing to make concessions to hasten that end. The allies had good reason
+to suspect each other of trying to make separate terms with Francis; each
+hoped to extract concessions from the French King as the price of
+defection. Wolsey in fact was neither able nor willing to carry on active
+hostilities. England had gone into the war with a light heart; but when
+Parliament was called upon in the summer of 1523 to vote the necessary
+funds, the light-heartedness was modified, and the funds were voted with
+extreme reluctance, under something very near akin to compulsion; and the
+collecting of the taxes aroused angry complaint--the blame being as usual
+laid on the Cardinal. He was well aware that any increase in the burden
+would be a dangerous matter to propose, and very dangerous indeed to try
+and carry through; yet without more funds an active campaign was
+impossible. Therefore, as concerned the Continent, Wolsey on the one hand
+sought to induce Charles to assent to a fresh conference where England
+should mediate as to the claims and counter-claims of Charles and Francis;
+and on the other made private overtures to Francis.
+
+[Sidenote: Intrigues in Scotland]
+
+In Scotland, the game of intrigue was actively carried on. Albany retired
+permanently to France soon after the failure of his invasion. While he was
+in Scotland, Margaret had sided with him; now she began to fall in with the
+English policy, and was eager for the "erection" of her son--that is for
+his recognition as actual King though he was barely twelve years old.
+Throughout the summer, schemes were on foot for a peace conference--the
+real object being the kidnapping of Beton, the Archbishop of St. Andrews,
+coadjutor of Albany, Chancellor of Scotland, and the most resolute opponent
+of the Anglicising party and policy. Wolsey is quite explicit on this point
+in a letter to Dacre, though Surrey, who had just succeeded to the Dukedom
+of Norfolk by the death of the victor of Flodden, never grasped this
+peculiar method of diplomacy. Beton declined to be trapped; still, the
+"erection" was carried through. [Footnote: _L. & P._, vol. iv., part
+i., 549. _Cf._ Lang, _Hist. Scot_., pp. 405, 406. Beton was to
+have a safe-conduct, and the kidnapping was to be done by Angus, at the
+time in England, quite as a private personal matter. Angus had come to
+England from France, whither he had been removed by Albany.] By dint of
+bribery, many of the anti-English party had now changed sides along with
+Margaret, with the curious result that Angus, who was bound to be in
+opposition to his wife, allied himself to Beton. Next year, however, the
+French or anti-English party in Scotland suffered a serious blow when the
+French King was vanquished and taken prisoner at the battle of Pavia.
+
+[Sidenote: 1525 Pavia]
+
+Meantime, Wolsey had found Francis not too ready to accept his overtures,
+and had therefore set about making a show of pursuing a more actively
+antagonistic policy in conjunction with Bourbon. The Cardinal however,
+whose object was to make Francis think it necessary to conciliate him--not
+to be forced into expeditions and armaments--intentionally made his
+conditions to Bourbon such as the Constable would not agree to; while
+obtaining the desired result of moving Francis to enter seriously on
+negotiations. He even felt that matters were progressing favourably enough
+to justify a "diplomatic episode"--the interception of the Imperial
+ambassador's dispatches, his virtual imprisonment, and the lodging of a
+protest against his conduct with the Emperor. But the battle of Pavia
+wrecked Wolsey's schemes, as well as those of his adversaries in Scotland.
+For the disaster to Francis wakened anew in Henry's breast the belief that
+the French crown was still attainable: and the minister found himself
+forced to seek means to provide war-funds, while he was alive to the
+practical impossibility of persuading Parliament to grant them.
+
+For Wolsey to protest would have been vain. He did not in any way dominate
+Henry, who was ready enough to follow his advice or allow him to carry out
+his own policy so long as it fell in with the royal views. But if the King
+chose to lay down a different policy, the Cardinal had to carry it out as
+best he could--or else to retire in disfavour. And he could not afford to
+retire in disfavour, since, if the royal countenance were once withdrawn,
+the malignity of his many enemies would be given rein, and his utter ruin
+would be inevitable. Therefore, while watching for any opportunity to
+convert the King from his martial designs, he made a desperate effort to
+fill the exchequer.
+
+[Sidenote: The Amicable Loan]
+
+Two years before, when Parliament had been called, it had been induced to
+vote the money asked for. But (according to Hall) the Speaker, Sir Thomas
+More, had taken the opportunity to resist Wolsey's high-handed methods, to
+insist on parliamentary privileges, and to refuse to debate the matter in
+the Cardinal's presence, though he actually exerted his influence in favour
+of the grant. To repeat the demand now would be to risk rebellion; at the
+best, to court an inevitable refusal. Therefore Wolsey reverted to ancient
+precedents, and demanded an "Amicable Loan," on the ground that the King
+was going to lead his armies, and must therefore go fittingly equipped. The
+loan was to amount to about one-sixth of a man's property. Very soon
+however it became clear that this was more than the country would endure.
+Wolsey revoked the demand and called for a "Benevolence". London replied
+that benevolences were illegal, by reason of the statute of Richard III.
+Wolsey protested against appealing to the laws of a tyrant; but the
+Londoners remarked that the fact of Richard having been a tyrant did not
+annul the excellence of good laws when he made them. In Norwich the
+aggrieved populace assembled in force, and presented their case
+allegorically, but convincingly, to the Duke of Norfolk, who was sent to
+deal with them. The Cardinal's attempt to raise money was a failure. The
+King grasped the situation and remitted the demand, taking all the credit
+for his clemency, while his minister had the odium for the proposal. For
+the first time, Wolsey had failed to carry his master's wishes through, for
+the simple reason that the task set him was an impossible one. The
+soundness of his own antagonism to the French war was conclusively
+demonstrated, since without the funds war could not be waged: but the cost
+of the demonstration was the increase of his unpopularity, and an
+appreciable diminution of Henry's favour. He did what he could to mollify
+the King by presenting him with his palace of Hampton Court--a present
+graciously accepted.
+
+[Sidenote 1: A diplomatic struggle]
+[Sidenote 2: 1526-27 Success of Wolsey]
+
+Now, however, a _rapprochement_ with France was again possible.
+Charles and Wolsey returned to the attitude of mutually desiring nothing so
+much as to prove their complete accord, their own anxiety to fulfil all
+obligations, provided only that the other would reasonably recognise his
+own obligations in return. Each wanted to extract what he could from
+Francis without regard to his ally: each wanted an excuse for evading his
+contract with that ally--the Emperor because he now perceived the more
+immediate pecuniary profit of the Portuguese marriage. In the diplomatic
+contest Wolsey had the advantage, that Charles, in spite of Pavia, could
+not bring the necessary pressure to bear on his captive, if the support of
+England was felt to be withdrawn. He had something to lose by an open
+breach: Wolsey had not--provided the responsibility for the breach could
+plausibly be laid on Charles. Moreover, although the French King was the
+Emperor's prisoner, the French Government was much less bitterly opposed to
+the English demand for money than to the Imperial demand for territory.
+Thus by the end of the year Wolsey achieved his end--a treaty with France,
+involving the payment of two million crowns to England, and including
+Scotland in its terms. Charles being isolated made his own peace with his
+prisoner in the following February (1526); but Francis, before signing,
+declared that his promises were extorted and not binding, and after his
+release repudiated their validity. The Cardinal in fact had extricated
+England from a very awkward situation, recovered her position as arbiter,
+and once more made the rival European monarchs feel that they could neither
+of them afford to have her definitely ranged as an enemy. As the year
+advanced, the tendency for the French alliance to draw closer, and for the
+Imperial alliance to dissolve became more marked. Charles, in his desire to
+dominate Italy, allowed a Spanish force to enter Rome and terrorise the
+Pope--though he disavowed their actions. In 1527, while he was continuing
+this policy, and preparing for the sack of Rome and the seizure of the
+Pope's person in May, Wolsey was carrying through a new French alliance, by
+which Orleans (afterwards Henry II.) was betrothed to the Princess Mary,
+and France not only bound herself to make heavy payments but also
+surrendered Boulogne and Ardres. It seemed as though the isolation of
+Charles was about to be completed, his opponents becoming the champions of
+the papacy--while his own antagonism to the Pope had been emphasised at the
+Diet of Spires by the withdrawal of the anti-Lutheran decrees, and the
+temporary recognition of each State's right to adopt or reject the
+Reformer's doctrines in its own territories.
+
+[Sidenote: 1527 A new factor]
+
+But in 1527 Henry had developed a single purpose; he had set his mind on
+one object to the achievement whereof every political consideration was to
+be subordinated. The state-craft of the great minister was dominated by and
+subjected to the king-craft of a master who never brooked opposition to his
+will; and Wolsey, failing to carry out that will, was hurled without
+remorse from his high estate. The Cardinal's fall, the breach with Rome,
+the defining of the shape which the Reformation was to take in England,
+were all the outcome of Henry's resolve to be released from the wife to
+whom he had been wedded for eighteen years. Hitherto we have made only
+incidental allusion to the Reformation; it is now time to examine the
+development of that movement, down to the moment when Henry took into his
+own hands the conduct of it within his own realms.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+HENRY VIII (ii), 1509-32--BIRTH OF THE REFORMATION
+
+[Sidenote: The Reformation in England]
+
+Down to a comparatively recent date, the popularly accepted accounts of the
+Reformation in England treated it as a spontaneous outburst of the deep
+religious spirit pervading the mass of the people; a passionate repudiation
+of the errors of Rome, born of the secret study of the Bible in defiance of
+persecution, and of repulsion from the iniquities of the monastic system.
+Then there arose a picturesque historian, who recognised in Henry VIII. and
+Thomas Cromwell the men who created the Reformation; and having once
+imagined them as the captains of a great and righteous cause, succeeded in
+interpreting all their actions on the basis of postulating their single-
+eyed devotion to reform as their ever-dominant motive. A view so difficult
+to reconcile with some other stereotyped impressions has invited criticism;
+and it is not unusual now to be told that the changes effected by the
+Reformation were small, except in so far as the Church was robbed by the
+destruction of the monasteries.
+
+[Sidenote: Its true character]
+
+As a matter of fact the change which took place was very great and very
+far-reaching for the nation, though it is easy to exaggerate the deviations
+from Roman doctrine imposed by it on the clergy of the Anglican Communion.
+But the movement was one in which many factors were at work. Moralists,
+theologians, and politicians, all had their share in it; some who were
+prominent promoters of it in one phase were its no less active antagonists
+in another; and not infrequently were guided by purely personal ambitions
+and interests throughout. In its essence however the Reformation was a
+revolt against conventions which had lost the justification of the
+conditions that had brought them into being, and had become fetters upon
+intellectual and spiritual progress instead of aids to its advancement.
+Each group of reformers was ready enough to impose on the world a new set
+of conventions of its own manufacture, but no group succeeded in dominating
+the aggregate of groups; and thus in the long run toleration became the
+only working policy, though its practice was by no means what the Reformers
+had set before themselves. After long years, religious liberty was the
+outcome of their work; but few indeed were the martyrs whose blood was
+consciously shed in that great cause. The men who died rather than submit
+their own convictions to the dictation of others were for the most part
+ready, when opportunity offered, to sit in judgment on those who would not
+accept their own dictation.
+
+[Sidenote: Religious decadence]
+
+The prevailing conditions of the Church at the dawn of the Reformation were
+exceedingly corrupt, with the corruption of worn out institutions; but they
+appeared to be part of the necessary order of things. Hitherto, occasional
+heretics had arisen, but (superficially at least) they had been suppressed
+without serious difficulty. The State, in England and elsewhere, had
+entered upon conflicts with the priesthood; secular monarchs had even
+challenged the authority of the Pope; but such quarrels had ended in
+compromises formal or practical. Moral reforming movements like that of
+St. Francis had arisen within the Church herself; they had not been
+antagonistic to her, and they had thriven and decayed without producing
+revolutionary results. Clerical abuses had been for centuries the objects
+of satire, but the satirists rarely had any inclination for the role of
+revolutionaries or martyrs. The recent revival of learning had developed a
+scepticism which was however habitually accompanied by a decent profession
+of orthodoxy. That there was prevalent unrest had long been obvious; that
+there was risk of disturbing developments was not unrecognised; but that
+these things were the prelude to a vast revolution had been realised
+neither by Churchmen, Statesmen, nor literati.
+
+[Sidenote: The Scholar-Reformers]
+
+It did not appear, then, that the revolt of Wiclif in England and of Huss
+in Europe was about to be renewed: though they had in fact prepared the
+soil to receive the new seed. Lollardry had been driven beneath the
+surface. Still, so far at least as it represented anti-clericalism rather
+than a theological system, its secret disciples were accorded a
+considerable measure of popular sympathy; though it numbered few professors
+among the cultivated classes, it had semi-adherents even among the
+wealthier burgesses of London; it was active enough to cause some alarm to
+Convocation, and to excite reactionary bishops. But it was not in this
+quarter primarily that any notable movement seemed likely to arise. The
+demand for Reformation during the first quarter of the century was
+formulated by scholars who were not heretics--Dean Colet of St. Paul's;
+Thomas More; the cosmopolitan Erasmus, who was but a bird of passage in
+this country, yet one who was warmly and generously welcomed.
+
+To men of this school, a schism in the Church never presented itself as a
+desirable end. Luther had not yet burned Pope Leo's Bull when Colet died;
+Lutheranism changed More into a reactionary, as, centuries later, the
+French Revolution changed Edmund Burke; Erasmus would not range himself
+beside the stormy controversialists of Germany and Switzerland. To the
+scholars, the Roman system was not irreconcilable with truth; its defects
+were accidents, excrescences, curable by the application of common-sense
+and moral seriousness. In the eyes of Luther and Zwingli, the corruption of
+Rome was vital, organic, incurable. Ecclesiastical Authority was the
+corner-stone of the Roman system: Colet and More never attacked it; Luther
+attacked it because it maintained opinions which he held to be
+fundamentally false; but in England it is possible to doubt whether the
+attitude of More and Colet would ever have been officially discarded, had
+it not been for the political and personal considerations which led Henry
+and Cromwell to trample ecclesiastical authority under foot. Nevertheless,
+by their attacks on ecclesiastical abuses, Colet and More helped
+intelligent people to perceive that the abuses were intolerable, and to
+acquiesce even in the extreme remedy of schism rather than continue to
+endure the burden.
+
+[Sidenote: Ecclesiastical demoralisation]
+
+It is not disputable that the existing corruption was so serious that some
+kind of Reformation was absolutely necessary. Where the head is corrupt,
+there cannot be much general health. If the spiritual head of Christendom
+were unworthy of his office the ecclesiastical body was certain to suffer;
+nor could much spirituality be looked for therein, if it habitually
+acquiesced in the election of Popes in whom spirituality was the last
+quality recognisable. The climax was perhaps reached when a Borgia--
+Alexander VI.--was raised to the papal throne; a man who revelled in the
+practice of every imaginable vice, and shrank from no conceivable crime.
+The mere fact that such an election was possible is sufficient proof of the
+utter absence of religious feeling in the ruling ranks of the clergy: nor
+was its presence compatible with the appointment either of his free living
+and warlike successor Julius II. or of Leo X. who followed--a person of no
+little culture, a patron of art and of letters, whose morals were not
+exceptionally lax as compared with those of the average Italian noble, but
+in all essentials a pagan. With few exceptions, the princes of the Church
+owed their position to their connexion, by birth or otherwise, with great
+families; not a few of them were territorial lords of considerable
+dominions, for whom it was a sheer necessity to be politicians first,
+whether they were scholars, ministers of the Gospel, or mere pleasure-
+seekers afterwards. Italians completely dominated the college of cardinals,
+looking upon the control of the Church as a national prerogative. The
+characteristics of the ecclesiastical princes were shared in due degree by
+bishops and abbots. The fact that until recent years learning had been
+practically a clerical monopoly necessarily made the clergy the fittest
+instruments for carrying on much State business, thereby withdrawing many
+of the better men from the service of religion to the service of politics.
+In brief, the whole system tended to entangle the able members of the
+ecclesiastical body in the temptations not so much of the Flesh and the
+Devil as of the World.
+
+[Sidenote: Monastic corruption]
+
+Further, the monastic system had utterly fallen away from its pristine
+ideals. It had served a great purpose. Born as it was when the world was
+just emerging from paganism, and the Roman civilisation was being engulfed
+in the flood of barbarian invasion, the men and women who withdrew from the
+desperate turmoil without to the sheltering walls of the monastery or the
+convent, invested with a sacrosanct character which was at least in part
+respected, found therein the opportunity for prayer, meditation and study
+which was denied them elsewhere. They could maintain a standard of piety,
+and keep a rudimentary education from altogether dying out. For centuries
+they were the only source of alms and succour to which the afflicted and
+needy could turn; and so long as the rules of the Orders were observed in
+the spirit and in the letter, they were a genuine help towards a life of
+self-devotion, of self-abnegation whereof the ultimate motive was not
+always a subtle form of self-seeking. But as time passed, the monasteries
+became the recipients of the bounty of pious benefactors. Their
+inhabitants, in spite of ascetic regulations, found that life was none so
+hard--at least in comparison with that of serfdom or villeinage; luxuries
+were not less available than to the laity. The privileges of the sacred
+office gave increasing opportunities for vicious indulgence when once
+corruption had entered a Religious house. Promotion became the prize of
+intrigue instead of the recognition of piety; till it came to be no scandal
+when a political priest was rewarded for his services by presentation to
+the rule of a wealthy abbey, with which he was connected only as the chief
+recipient of its revenues, as when Wolsey had St. Albans bestowed on him in
+return for his diplomatic labours. Apart from the diatribes of zealots and
+the evidence of interested informers, apart also from the inclination to
+generalise from well authenticated but extreme examples, it is evident
+that, in the absence of a positive religious enthusiasm, the system was
+peculiarly liable to grave degeneration; and it was long since there had
+been any active spiritual revival to counteract that tendency.
+
+[Sidenote: The proofs]
+
+To these general considerations we have also to add the direct positive
+evidence in connexion with Cardinal Morton's visitations of the Monasteries
+in the reign of Henry VII. It was neither shown nor attempted to be shown
+that the Religious houses _en bloc_ were hotbeds of vice. But it was
+shown beyond question that even among the great Abbeys there were to be
+found appalling examples of corruption and profligacy, where the heads were
+the worst offenders and the rank and file imitated their superiors; and
+that small houses were not infrequently conducted in the most scandalous
+manner--for the simple reason that, when once corruption had found an
+entry, there was no supervising external authority sufficiently interested
+to intervene vigorously.
+
+_Mutatis mutandis_, what was true of the Monasteries was also true of
+the Mendicant Orders. The class of men who had no desire to dig, and no
+shame about begging, found the friar's robe a useful adjunct to the latter
+occupation. Long after enthusiasm had ceased to draw any large numbers into
+the ranks of the friars, they were increased and multiplied by crowds of
+ignorant and idle rogues, who were subjected to no adequate control.
+
+[Sidenote: Corruption of doctrine]
+
+But the corruption of the clerical body fostered also the degeneration of
+popular religious conceptions. The actual teaching of the clergy was a
+grotesque distortion of the doctrines they professed to expound. The
+intelligible doctrine of absolution following on repentance and confession,
+and accompanied by penance, had been transformed into that of absolution
+purchasable by cash. Reverence for the relics of saints and martyrs had
+been degraded by their spurious multiplication. The belief that such relics
+were endowed with miraculous properties had been utilised to convert them
+into fetishes, and pampered by fraudulent conjuring tricks. The due
+performance of ceremonial observances was treated as of far more vital
+importance than the practice of the Christian virtues. The images of the
+Saints had virtually come to be regarded not as symbols, but as idols
+possessed of various degrees of power, the assistance of one and the same
+saint proving more or less efficacious according to the shrine favoured by
+his suppliant.
+
+[Sidenote: Evidence from Colet and More (1512-18)]
+
+These facts are not disputable. They were fully recognised by Reformers of
+the type of Colet and More, who would have had the Church reform herself by
+reverting to the primitive and orthodox expression of the doctrines of
+which these deformities were a corrupt latter-day misrepresentation, and to
+the ideals of life and conduct which had been overlaid by ceremonial
+observances. The primitive doctrines they accepted without question; as
+regarded the ceremonial observances, they objected to them not in
+themselves but only so far as they obscured in practice the much higher
+value of moral ideals. In the view of such men the remedy for heresies lay
+in the hands of the clergy: would they but bring their lives into some
+conformity with primitive ideals, surrendering the pursuit of place,
+profit, or pleasure to tread in the footsteps of the apostles, heresy would
+perish of inanition.
+
+[Sidenote: Later evidence]
+
+When Colet was preaching at St. Paul's, when More was imagining the
+_Utopia_, when Erasmus was preparing his _Praise of Folly_ and
+his edition of the Greek Testament, the name of Luther was still unknown.
+Their aim was the active propagation of reform; not to exercise thereon a
+restraining influence, which at that time would have seemed superfluous.
+The only reason they could have had for understating the existing
+corruption would have been fear of the authorities, a fear from which both
+Colet and More always showed themselves conspicuously free. Colet's most
+vigorous exhortations were addressed to prelates and persons in high
+places; More never throughout his career hesitated to oppose Chancellors,
+or even Tudor Kings, when a principle was involved. We are therefore
+entitled to assume that they neither over-coloured nor deliberately toned
+down the prevalent conditions. A decade later, when fanaticism had broken
+loose, the anathemas hurled at the clergy by irresponsible pamphleteers, or
+zealots who were sheltered in the Lutheran States of Germany, were of a
+much more sweeping character. Later, again, the reports of the
+Commissioners for the suppression of monasteries formed an appalling
+indictment. Later still, when the Protestant party won the upper hand after
+a season of relentless and embittering persecution, the pictures they
+painted of the past were lurid in the extreme. But the evidence of such
+witnesses could not be other than passionately biassed, just as the
+evidence of persecuted monks and nuns must have been biassed on the other
+side: whereas the evidence of Colet, of More in his earlier days, and, with
+certain reservations, of Erasmus, is that of honest and high-minded men of
+great intellectual capacity, speaking without prejudice of conditions with
+which they were in direct contact. Their assertions, and the fair
+inferences from their assertions, are a safe basis from which we can
+ascertain both the gravity and the limits of the corruption which existed
+in England.
+
+[Sidenote: Dean Colet]
+
+John Colet was appointed to the Deanery of St. Paul's four or five years
+before the death of Henry VII., being transferred thither from Oxford,
+where he had won high repute, not merely for character and learning, but as
+the initiator of a new and rational method of Scriptural study in place of
+the old scholasticism. At St. Paul's the Dean proved himself a great
+preacher, exercising also in private life a powerful influence on all who
+came in contact with him, alike from the splendour of his intellect and the
+large-hearted purity of his character. His outspoken sermons were by no
+means to the liking of his bishop; but some of the leading prelates,
+notably Warham of Canterbury and Fox of Winchester, were well disposed to
+the new school of learning and exposition and to higher moral standards, as
+Cardinal Morton had been. When the young King ascended the throne in 1509,
+his accession was hailed by all men of the new school as heralding the
+reign of intellectual liberty and enlightenment.
+
+[Sidenote: Colet's sermon, 1512]
+
+Accordingly, when Convocation was summoned in 1512 to discuss the
+suppression of heresy, in consequence of some stray reappearances of
+Lollardry, the prevalence of a wider spirit was shown by the selection of
+Colet to preach the opening sermon, and by the subsequent ignominious
+failure of the Bishop of London to have the Dean punished as a heretic. It
+is to the sermon preached on this occasion that we must turn to see how
+Colet viewed the situation. It was a direct indictment of the manner of
+life of the clergy from Wolsey down; a summons to them to amend their ways,
+to set a higher example to their flock; an appeal to them to fix their eyes
+on apostolic ideals, and so to remove the real incitement which turned
+men's minds to heretical speculation. While the positive arguments of the
+preacher are evidence not only of the purity of his own aims and his
+courage in supporting them, their reception shows that the substantial
+justice of the indictment was recognised by the audience at whom it was
+personally directed, however little disposed they might be to act
+individually on his appeal. On the other hand however, it is a striking
+fact that the charges brought are almost exclusively of worldliness,
+laxity, indiscipline, unbecoming in pastors and in ministers of the Gospel
+of Christ--though these charges were pressed home relentlessly; not at all
+of that rampant immorality and vice of which the clergy were so freely
+accused in later years. From what Colet did _not_ say, we may fairly
+infer a reasonable average of respectability among them.
+
+[Sidenote: Erasmus]
+
+If, in the _Encomium Moriae_ or _Praise of Folly_, which Erasmus
+wrote at about the same period (1511), the vices and follies of the Church
+were lashed with a mockery still more unsparing, we have to note, first,
+that the great scholar drew his picture less from England than from the
+Continent; next, that it had no injurious effect on his appointment to the
+professorship of Greek at Cambridge. The patronage extended to him by the
+Primate, and by Fisher of Rochester, the most orthodox and saintly of the
+English bishops, is a sufficient proof that the authorities were not
+bigoted enemies of all reform; a proof borne out by the enthusiastic
+welcome extended to his edition of the Greek Testament in 1518, by Fox of
+Winchester amongst others.
+
+[Sidenote: The _Utopia_, 1516]
+
+From the _Utopia_ of Sir Thomas More we derive precisely the same
+impression. In 1516, when the work was published, Luther had not yet defied
+the Pope; the German Peasants' War had not yet broken out, nor the spread
+of new ideas been associated with Anarchism under the name of Anabaptism.
+Persecution, which fifteen years later More advocated and practised as the
+unavoidable remedy for the spread of doctrines which he had come to regard
+as actively pernicious, was alien to his instincts; in his ideal
+Commonwealth, men might expound whatever they honestly held, provided they
+did not deny God and the Future Life. More's nature was tolerant and
+charitable. But his own convictions were thoroughly orthodox; he had at one
+time a strong disposition to enter the priesthood himself; he held the
+priestly office in high reverence. Yet his restriction of the number of
+priests in _Utopia_ shows his vivid consciousness of the evil wrought
+by their unrestricted multiplication in England; and in the description of
+English social conditions in the introductory portion of his work, he
+refers in emphatic terms to the large proportion of "sturdy vagabonds"
+among them. His whole tone in the section of his book devoted to religious
+matters implies that he is pointing a contrast between his ideal order of
+things and that familiar to his readers, wherein non-essentials are so
+emphasised that essentials are practically forgotten. Yet More, like Colet,
+makes no sweeping attack on the morality (in the narrower popular sense of
+the term) prevalent among the clerical body.
+
+[Sidenote: Exaggerated attacks]
+
+The wholesale condemnation of later days has been largely due to the
+acceptance without qualification of denunciations poured forth in the heat
+of controversy, in days when men did not mince words and were not given to
+the careful weighing of evidence. Typical of such works is the
+_Supplicacyon for the Beggers_ produced by one Simon Fish in 1527,
+which has been seriously treated as a sober indictment. The Clergy, from
+Bishops to "Somners" are a "rauinous cruell and insatiabill generacion"
+... "counterfeit holy and ydell beggers and vacabundes" ... "that corrupt
+the hole generation of mankind," committing "rapes murdres and treasons".
+They are a "gredy sort of sturdy idell holy theues" habitually guilty of
+every conceivable form of vice and profligacy. The pamphlet teams with
+arithmetical absurdities. It is simply inconceivable that the growth within
+the realm of such an organisation as is here depicted would have been
+permitted; or that, if there, it would not have been sternly repressed by
+Henry VII.; or that if it had survived the first Tudor, the second would
+have suffered it to flourish unregarded for eighteen years of his reign.
+The exaggeration is so flagrant that we can hardly infer from it even a
+substratum of truth. Such diatribes as this must be referred to, not as
+being valid evidences against the accused, but as proving the passion of
+the controversy, and the hesitation necessary before accepting conclusions
+traceable to the wild and whirling words of such controversialists.
+
+[Sidenote 1: Clerical privileges]
+[Sidenote 2: Tentative reforms]
+
+In another respect however there was a serious demand for reform; namely
+the legal and judicial privileges which the ecclesiastical body had
+acquired in the course of centuries, and which had gradually become the
+source of serious abuses. The administration of certain branches of the
+Civil Law had been absorbed by the Clerics, who were charged with
+converting their functions into an elaborate machinery for extorting fees;
+and on the Criminal side, what was known as Benefit of Clergy, as well as
+the rules of Sanctuary, had become not merely anomalous but an actual
+encouragement to crime. Any criminal or accused person who succeeded in
+reaching Sanctuary was safe from the secular arm; and any one who could
+produce evidence, even of the flimsiest character, that he was a cleric
+could claim to be tried by the ecclesiastical instead of the secular
+courts. Originally these privileges had been of very great service in the
+wild days when judicial treatment was at least more readily obtainable from
+the Clergy, when trial by ordeal was common, and the merciless punishments
+of the ordinary law gave place to the milder but not ineffective penalties
+of Ecclesiastical discipline. Even the legal fictions by which evildoers
+were allowed to claim Benefit of Clergy as Clerics had their justification.
+But when even murderers could escape with a moderate penance as Clerics,
+because they could read, the general public were hardly the better. A
+beginning of reform in this direction had been made when Henry VII.
+obtained a Bull diminishing the rights of Sanctuary in cases of treason;
+and again in 1511 when the rights both of Sanctuary and Benefit of Clergy
+were withdrawn from murderers. It was noteworthy however that there was a
+protest against even this made by the Clergy in 1515; when one Dr.
+Standish, for justifying the measure, was attacked by the Bishops in
+Convocation. Warham and Fox both supported the old privileges. The temporal
+lords on a commission appointed to enquire into the matter sided with
+Standish, and declared that the Bishops had incurred the penalties of
+praemunire. Wolsey tried to persuade the King to refer the question to the
+Pope, but the King asserted the rights of the Crown in uncompromising
+terms. The Bishops had to submit to a sharp rebuke, and Standish was made a
+Dean not long after. The episode was a premonition of future events.
+
+[Sidenote: The Educational Movement]
+
+It does not appear that the writings or the preaching of the scholars had
+any marked effect on the conduct of the clergy, or aroused any general
+reforming zeal. But in one direction, that of education, they exercised a
+very material influence on the intellectual attitude of the younger
+generation. Dean Colet is known to-day to many even of those who take
+little interest in his times, as the founder of St. Paul's School, where he
+endeavoured to make the teaching of the young a real training instead of a
+drill in pedagogic formulae. And as he set the example which was by degrees
+followed in other grammar schools, so the example he had already set at
+Oxford was followed both there and at Cambridge by his disciples. To him,
+more than to any other man, was due the practical application of the new
+knowledge of Greek to the study of the New Testament, resulting primarily
+in the treatment of the Pauline Epistles as organic structures; as
+connected treatises, instead of collected texts according to the custom of
+the schoolmen; who, dragging phrases from their context, expanded,
+interpreted and harmonised them with other phrases for fresh expansion and
+interpretation; neglecting the apostolic argument to illustrate their own
+theses or those of the mediaeval doctors. Fox, of Winchester, when he
+founded Corpus Christi College, Oxford, Fisher in the Lady Margaret
+foundations at Cambridge, put into them men of the new school. Wolsey
+himself had evidently been influenced by the new methods, for his active
+connexion with Oxford had not ceased when Colet was there; and when in
+later years he founded Cardinal College, afterwards Christ Church, the men
+he appointed to it were chosen from the disciples of the school of Colet
+and Erasmus. To this higher ideal of University education, perhaps the
+strongest impulse was given by Erasmus himself, during the brief time about
+1512 when he was Professor of Greek at Cambridge, where he proved himself
+the most brilliant exponent of the principles which in part at least he had
+imbibed from the Dean. Cranmer, his great rival Gardiner, and many others
+among the protagonists in the coming religious struggle, received their
+training under the new conditions--conditions very markedly affected by
+that edition of the New Testament, to which reference has already been
+made, issued by Erasmus from Basle in 1516 after he had left England: a
+work in which the Greek text appeared side by side with a new Latin
+translation, in place of the orthodox "Vulgate" whereof the stereotyped
+phraseology had acquired, through centuries of authorised interpretation, a
+meaning often very far removed from that of the original.
+
+[Sidenote: Wolsey and the Reformation]
+
+Thus what the Scholars accomplished was not Reform but the preparation of
+men's minds for Reform. What Wolsey the Statesman might have done, if
+foreign affairs had not occupied the best of his energies, we can only
+guess. His point of view was that of a Politician, not that of a man of
+religion. Such reforms as he might have been prepared to introduce would
+not have been the outcome of any lofty idealism, but only such as seemed to
+be dictated by public decency. As a Statesman, he was alive to the
+advantages of education, desired much of the wealth of the Church to be
+turned into that channel, and founded colleges, which he staffed with men
+of the new school and financed in part from the proceeds of suppressed
+religious houses. He went so far as to procure a papal Bull for the
+abolition of all Houses numbering less than seven inmates. But it may be
+doubted whether the real motive of the suppression was not rather the
+appropriation of funds for his favourite schemes than zeal for monastic
+morality. As Cardinal and Legate and an aspirant to the Papacy, he could
+never have lent himself to a policy calculated to weaken the ecclesiastical
+organisation; he could never have associated himself with Colet's campaign
+against clerical worldliness, of which there was no more conspicuous
+example in the kingdom than he. Having children himself by an illicit
+union, he could hardly have taken high ground as a reformer of morals. In
+brief, he must have confined his treatment of the situation within the
+limits of the work of a politician with educational leanings. What he
+actually did was to renew the monastic visitations set on foot by Cardinal
+Morton, to suppress some few small houses as corrupt or superfluous, and to
+encourage the new school of teaching which no one of authority had hitherto
+condemned as heretical. As to actual heresy, he looked on it with the eyes
+not of a theologian but of a politician; as a thing to be suppressed if it
+threatened public order, but otherwise negligible. He sought also to
+diminish the abuses connected with the ecclesiastical courts by the
+establishment of a Legatine Court of his own. But there is no sign that he
+was ever alive to the volcanic forces at work; or recognised that sooner or
+later the revolution which Luther initiated in Europe would have to be
+reckoned with in England also. Even at the time when the great Cardinal
+fell from power, there were but slight signs within the realm of the coming
+revolt, mutterings of a growing storm. No prophet had arisen denouncing the
+evil of the times convincingly, no statesman propounding drastic remedies;
+only the scholars had been preaching amendment, and occasional zealots had
+been bringing discredit on the cause of reformation by the violence of
+their incriminations. The far-reaching political effect of the religious
+differences was long in being realised on the Continent; in England it was
+still longer in making itself felt. Yet the Lutheran revolt was destined
+vitally to influence both the international relations and the internal
+order of every State in Christendom.
+
+[Sidenote: The Lutheran Revolt, 1517]
+
+In 1517 Pope Leo X. was in want of money: and one of the recognised methods
+of obtaining it was the sale of Indulgences--that is to say, remissions in
+the duration of Purgatorial sufferings, ratified by His Holiness, and
+purchasable for cash. The whole thing being simply a commercial
+transaction, the Indulgences were offered at popular prices. There was
+nothing new in the method. The Lay Princes had no objections to the sale in
+their territories, since they could demand a share in the profits as the
+condition of their permission. The system moreover had been held up to
+ridicule before. But on this occasion, there were two novel features: one,
+the unprecedented scale on which the transaction was to be worked, the
+other the nature of the opposition it aroused. Doctor Martin Luther, an
+Augustinian monk and Professor at the University of Wittenberg in Saxony
+had been coming to the conclusion that the practices of the Church were not
+what they should be, and that much of her teaching was false. The affair of
+the Indulgences brought things to a head; and when Tetzel the Papal
+Commissioner was approaching Saxony, Luther drew up a counterblast in the
+form of a series of propositions which he nailed up publicly on the Church
+doors. Moreover he received unexpected support from the "Good Elector"
+Frederick, who forbade Tetzel to enter his dominions.
+
+[Sidenote: Luther's defiance, 1520]
+
+Leo was occupied with political affairs, which seemed for the time to be
+more important than the heretical vagaries of an obscure monk. Wolsey's
+diplomacy was working up to the point at which in 1518 he attached France
+to England in the alliance which culminated in the "Universal Peace," the
+Cardinal having supplanted the Pope as the moderator in the disputes of the
+great Powers. Then Maximilian died, and the Imperial Election absorbed
+political attention, with the ensuing complications described in a previous
+chapter. Meantime however, Luther was waxing increasingly determined;
+instead of quailing at threats, he was fully resolved to maintain his
+convictions and fight the matter out. As to what he had done, he appealed
+to a General Council; what he was going to do he made clear by exhorting
+the German Princes to stop their tributes to Rome. The advice had a natural
+attraction for the German Princes though they might lack enthusiasm on
+questions of theology. Leo issued a Bull condemning Luther. Luther answered
+by publicly burning the Bull (December 10th, 1520).
+
+[Sidenote: The Diet of Worms, 1521]
+
+The young Emperor, fresh from his coronation at Aachen, was about to hold
+the Diet of the Empire at Worms. It was his policy to maintain friendly
+relations with Rome; and Luther was summoned to the Diet under a
+safe-conduct. The precedent of Huss showed how little such a safe-conduct
+was worth; but the great Reformer was undaunted. Frederick of Saxony,
+encouraged by Erasmus, was known to be on his side. He faced the Diet,
+reaffirmed his heresies, and emphasised his flat repudiation of Papal
+Authority. He had fiery supporters and fiery opponents. His life was in the
+gravest danger, and his death would have been followed by a bloody
+collision between the two parties. The disaster was averted by the Elector
+Frederick who kidnapped him for his own sake and carried him off to a
+secure retreat in the Wartburg: where he remained for nearly a year,
+working at his translation of the Bible. The Diet however confirmed an
+edict condemning Luther and his doctrines. The English King moreover, who
+accounted himself no mean theologian, issued a refutation of the Lutheran
+heresies which won for him from Pope Leo the title of Defender of the
+Faith.
+
+At this time, and for some time to come, the Papacy regarded Francis I.
+with hostility, and looked upon his Italian ambitions as dangerous to
+itself. Hence there was a natural tendency to alliance between Rome and the
+Emperor. 1521 was the year of the ineffectual Conference of Calais,
+followed by the death of Leo X., the election of the (Imperial) Pope Adrian
+in the next year, and the embroilment of England in the European wars.
+Charles was sufficiently occupied with these high political matters, and
+was personally withdrawn from Germany, whose affairs were more or less
+controlled by an Imperial Council in which Frederick of Saxony was the
+guiding spirit; popular sentiment was on Luther's side, and the Worms edict
+was practically a dead letter. But the seclusion of the great Reformer
+threw the movement largely into the hands of extremists such as Carlstadt
+and Münzer to whose anarchical theories he was opposed as vehemently as to
+Rome.
+
+[Sidenote: 1524 The German peasant rising]
+
+Now we shall presently see that in England itself there was strong ground
+for discontent with the prevailing social order and the relations between
+the peasantry and the landed classes: but in Germany matters were very much
+worse. In England there had always been a tendency for the religious
+reformers to associate their movements with demands for social reform; and
+so it was now to an exaggerated degree in Germany. Social revolution was no
+part of the scheme of Luther and his lieutenant Melanchthon; but in defying
+the authority of Rome they had awakened the revolutionary spirit. Fired
+with religious fanaticism, the demagogues acquired a new character, a
+devouring zeal, a reckless courage. At last in 1524 the peasants rose
+demanding redress for their grievances. What they asked was indeed bare
+justice according to any intelligent modern view; yet the granting of their
+demands would have been completely subversive of the existing social order.
+The upper classes were united against them, Luther and his associates
+denounced them. The fiercest passions broke loose: there were ghastly
+massacres and ghastly reprisals, ending in the slaughter of scores of
+thousands of peasants, and the complete suppression of the rising.
+
+[Sidenote: Its effect in England]
+
+The Lutherans proper had emphatically dissociated themselves from the
+zealots who stirred up the "peasants' war," which did not alter the general
+attitude of the Germans on the religious question. But in England, these
+things had a serious effect. The Lutheran heresies were condemned as
+heresies in this country before the outbreak, and a considerable number of
+heretically inclined Englishmen took refuge in the German States, where
+they looked to find countenance. Being for the most part men of extreme
+tendencies, those tendencies were quickened; whence it resulted that in
+importing the new religious doctrines from Germany they combined them more
+or less with the doctrines of social revolution. Thus the distinction
+between the two movements was lost sight of, and the profession of the new
+doctrines was regarded as not merely heretical but in itself anarchical--a
+thing which must be suppressed in the interests of public order. Hence we
+find the curious paradox of Thomas More, the one-time advocate of a
+toleration which was obviously in accord with his instincts, becoming in
+course of time the advocate and agent of a rigorous intolerance and a
+relentless persecution.
+
+[Sidenote 1: 1525 The Empire and the papacy]
+[Sidenote 2: 1527 The sack of Rome]
+
+The Peasants' Revolt was crushed in the summer of 1525. Before this end was
+accomplished, the Good Elector passed away--a wise, kindly, tolerant man
+who had exercised an immense moderating influence by simple benignity,
+shrewdness, and force of character. A little earlier, the ambitious schemes
+of Francis I. had been shattered by the disaster of Pavia. In effect, the
+whole European situation was changed completely since the death of Leo X.
+in 1521. His successor Adrian was a man of good intentions but limited
+purview; the great issues at stake were beyond his grasp, and his attempts
+at disciplinary reforms were made nugatory by the stolid immobility of the
+hierarchy. After a brief reign he was succeeded by Clement VII., a man of
+considerable talent and inconsiderable ability: a man shifty and fearful,
+not fitted to cope with the stubborn wills of the reigning princes and
+their ministers, or with the moral and intellectual forces which were
+threatening the supremacy of the historic Church. The collapse of the
+French in Italy gave Charles a power which filled Clement with alarm, since
+his friendliness was no longer of political moment to the Emperor, while
+sentimental considerations would certainly not suffice to retain the active
+support of Wolsey and England. In 1526 the insecurity of his position was
+emphasised by the attitude of the Imperial Diet held at Spires, where
+Charles through his brother Ferdinand withdrew from the position of
+anti-Lutheranism to adopt that of impartial toleration, and it was decreed
+in effect that each Prince might sanction what religion he would, within
+his own territories; thus cancelling the Decree of Worms. The capture and
+occupation of Rome by troops mainly Spanish in the same year, despite the
+Emperor's repudiation, was another alarming symptom; which received a
+terrifying confirmation in 1527, when the Imperial troops, Spanish and
+German, headed by the "Lutheran" Frundsberg and the Constable of Bourbon,
+turned their arms upon the Holy City, stormed it, sacked it with a savage
+thoroughness unparalleled since the days of Alaric, and held the Pope
+himself a prisoner.
+
+[Sidenote: 1530 Diet of Augsburg]
+
+Thus the Pope himself was now not merely dominated by the Emperor but
+actually in his hands. The successes of Charles however urged Francis--who
+had been liberated in 1526--to renewed activity, and for a time it seemed
+not unlikely that he would recover his ascendency in Italy, a consummation
+as little to Clement's taste as the Imperial dominance. But the French King
+misused his opportunities and his armies met with fresh disasters. In 1529,
+the Pope and the Emperor were reconciled, with the result that at another
+Diet of Spires the Worms edict was revived and the last Spires edict
+revoked, in face of the protest of the Lutheran Princes which earned for
+them the title of Protestants. That party however was sufficiently strong
+to prevent its opponents from enforcing the decree over the Empire. At the
+Diet of Augsburg next year (1530) the decree was confirmed: the Protestants
+replying by drawing up the Confession of Augsburg, formulating their
+doctrines, a document which became the definite expression of Protestantism
+in the least general sense of the term--while they bound themselves for
+mutual support in the League of Schmalkald. The two parties seemed to be on
+the verge of war; but the sentiment of nationality in face of the
+threatening of a Turkish advance and of the non-German leanings of Charles
+--a sentiment most zealously preached by Luther who was a typical German
+patriot as well as a religious reformer--deferred the rupture till after
+Luther's death.
+
+[Sidenote: The Swiss Reformers, 1520-1530]
+
+The active aggressive Reformation began in Germany with Luther's attack on
+Indulgences. In France it made no headway for many years; in Spain and
+Italy none at all; in England none, till the meeting of Parliament in 1529.
+But the movement in Switzerland was as marked as that in Germany, and
+hardly less important in the influence ultimately exercised by the Swiss
+teachers, though of less direct political weight. Nor is it possible to
+follow the course of the Reformation in England, unless the separate
+existence of the Swiss School is duly appreciated. Switzerland was not a
+Political entity which could rank effectively as a make-weight in
+international rivalries; but its geographical conditions preserved it from
+interference, and permitted it, so to speak, to work out its own salvation.
+The country was a federation of small democratic States or Cantons, with no
+Princes and no nobility. It followed that when once the question of
+ecclesiastical reform was raised, the theories of Church Government which
+would find acceptance would be democratic in principle: and accordingly it
+was from Switzerland that the vital opposition to Episcopal systems sprang.
+But the main fact to be observed at this stage is, that the Swiss Reformers
+were not the outcome of the Lutheran movement; their movement was
+spontaneous, independent, and parallel. Their leader Zwingli anticipated
+rather than followed Luther. But an agitator who appealed to Germany and an
+agitator who appealed to Switzerland seemed to be of very different degrees
+of public importance. Hence comparatively speaking Zwingli was ignored by
+the authorities. Half Switzerland might--and did--revolt from the Pope,
+without greatly exercising the Papal mind. But in the process Zurich became
+hardly less important as a teaching centre and an asylum for heretical
+refugees than Wittenberg; and in many respects, the teaching of Zurich
+departed from the teaching of Rome more seriously than did the teaching of
+Luther. The element of Mysticism, to which the German genius is generally
+prone, had no attraction for the Swiss mind, while it was essential in the
+eyes of the Wittenberg school; so that Luther and the Zurich Reformers
+assailed each other with hardly less virulence than they both lavished on
+the Papal party. It was a long time before the term "Protestant" was
+extended so as to include the disciples of Zurich and Geneva.
+
+[Sidenote: English heretics abroad]
+
+Alike to Switzerland and to the German States which may by anticipation be
+called Protestant, there gathered during these first years an appreciable
+number of Englishmen, who were either already touched with Lollardry, or
+found themselves in revolt against prevailing doctrines or practices, or
+were discovering by the light of the New Learning discrepancies between the
+teaching of the Gospels and the current interpretation. In these
+territories they were for the time assured of such liberty as enabled them
+to issue pamphlets, dissertations, and commentaries, which found their way
+into England and not infrequently received effective advertisement by being
+publicly condemned and burnt, with the result that the few copies which
+escaped acquired an adventitious interest and influence. Considering the
+violence of the invective often conspicuous in them, and the extravagance
+of the controversial methods usually adopted, the treatment they met with
+can hardly be condemned as oppressive; whether it was politic is another
+question. The modern English view generally is that such repressive acts
+tend to defeat their own ends. On the whole however it would seem that it
+was the manner rather than the matter of these productions which caused the
+authorities to treat them and their authors with such severity, though it
+was done largely at the instigation of theological partisans. Thus Tindal's
+translation of the Bible was attacked as being _per se_ dangerous; but
+it was the accompanying commentary which ensured its suppression.
+
+[Sidenote: Contrasted aims]
+
+The fundamental fact, however, which must be borne in mind in the early
+stages of the Reformation in England is this: that whereas the cause to
+which both Luther and Zwingli devoted themselves was primarily a revision
+of dogmas and of the practices associated with them, the work which Henry
+VIII. and Thomas Cromwell were to take in hand was the revision of the
+relations between Church and State--of the position of the Clerical
+organisation as a part of the body politic; not the introduction of
+Lutheran or Zwinglian doctrines. Such countenance as was given to
+Lutheranism was given for purely political reasons. Luther's was a
+Religious Reformation with political consequences: Henry's was a Political
+Reconstruction entailing ultimately a reformed religion.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+HENRY VIII (iii), 1527-29--THE FALL OF WOLSEY
+
+[Sidenote: "The King's affair"]
+
+The whole prolonged episode concerned with the "Divorce" of Queen Katharine
+is singularly unattractive; the character of almost every leading person
+associated with it is damaged in the course of it--save that of the unhappy
+Queen. Unfortunately it is an episode which demands close attention and
+examination, because its vicissitudes exercised a supreme influence on the
+course of the Reformation initiated by the King, besides bringing into
+powerful relief the nature of that strange historical phenomenon, the
+Conscience of Henry VIII. Moreover it has received from the pen of a
+particularly brilliant writer a colouring which is so misleading and so
+plausible that the evidence as to facts requires to be presented with
+exceptional care.
+
+[Sidenote 1: Story of the marriage]
+[Sidenote 2: Anne Boleyn]
+
+It is not till 1527 that the project of a Divorce emerges definitely, so to
+speak, into the open; but the evolution of the project had its origin at a
+considerably earlier date. We have to begin with a review of the conjugal
+relations between the King and the Queen. Arthur, Prince of Wales had
+celebrated his marriage with Katharine, daughter of Ferdinand of Spain and
+aunt of the infant who was to become Charles V. A few months later he died.
+The young widow was thereafter betrothed to Henry; a dispensation being
+obtained in 1504 from the Pope, Julius II, since marriage with a brother's
+widow is forbidden by the laws of the Church. Henry VII. however, who never
+liked to make any pledges without providing himself with some pretext by
+which they might be evaded, instructed his son to make a sort of protest at
+the time. The second marriage was not carried out till Henry VIII. was on
+the throne: the bride being robed in the manner customary for maidens, not
+for widows, on such occasions. She was older than her husband, and not
+particularly attractive; but they lived together with apparent affection.
+It is uncertain how many children were actually born; but none lived long
+after birth until Mary (1516), when the King showed himself conspicuously
+fond of his infant daughter. Henry does not in fact seem to have displayed
+that extreme licentiousness which characterised most of the monarchs of the
+time, though one illegitimate son was born to him, three years after Mary,
+by Mistress Elizabeth Blount--"mistress" being the courtesy title of
+unmarried ladies. The Court however was undoubtedly licentious, and many of
+his favourite companions were notoriously profligate. In 1522 Anne Boleyn,
+then an attractive girl of sixteen, the daughter of Sir Thomas Boleyn, came
+to Court. At what time Henry became seriously enamoured of her is
+uncertain; but from 1522 her father became the recipient of numerous
+favours; and in 1525 was made a peer. It was a symptom of alienation
+between Henry and his wife that the six-year-old son of Elizabeth Blount
+was at the same time created Duke of Richmond and Lord High Admiral, with
+much pomp. [Footnote: Brewer, ii., 102. _L.& P._ iv., 639.]
+
+[Sidenote: 1527 The King prepares]
+
+Apart from expressions in letters of 1526 which can only be reasonably
+interpreted as having reference to a contemplated divorce, letters of
+Wolsey's and the King's in the early months of 1527 prove incontestably
+that Henry had at that time determined that he would marry Anne, and that
+Wolsey [Footnote: Brewer, ii., 182, 184; _S. P. Henry VIII._, i, 194.
+_L. & P._, iv., 1467.] was elaborating a case, for presentation to the
+Pope, against the validity of the dispensation under which the marriage
+with Katharine had been contracted.
+
+What, then, was the King's attitude? In April 1527, he had made up his mind
+to break with Charles, Katharine's nephew, and concluded a treaty with
+France; but under this the French King's second son, the Duke of Orleans,
+was to marry the Princess Mary. It is difficult to believe that when this
+was done, the King was actually intending at a later stage to have Mary
+declared illegitimate. He would hardly have proposed to alienate Charles
+and Francis simultaneously. Possibly he anticipated no difficulty in
+legitimating Mary while annulling her mother's marriage--as was ultimately
+done. It may be noted that it is absolutely impossible to maintain that
+_both_ Mary and Elizabeth were born in lawful wedlock; yet the country
+accepted both as legitimate without demur. But this French treaty darkens
+rather than illuminates the problem.
+
+The only fact definitely apparent in the papers of 1527 is that Henry had
+determined to make Anne his wife. There is no hint of the conscientious
+scruples or the patriotic motives afterwards alleged, though that of course
+does not preclude their having been present. Those two alleged motives
+require to be examined merely as _a priori_ hypotheses.
+
+[Sidenote: Theoretical excuses]
+
+There was one possible plea, then, for urging that a divorce was necessary:
+namely that political considerations made it imperative for the good of the
+nation that the King should take to himself a wife who might bear him a
+male heir to the throne. And there was one possible plea for demanding a
+formal enquiry into the validity of the dispensation: namely a
+conscientious doubt on the part of the King or Queen whether the union with
+a brother's widow was contrary to the Moral Law. No doubt existed as to the
+Pope's power of abrogating a law, made by the Church for the public good,
+in a specific case; but it was not claimed that he could abrogate the Law
+of God in like manner. If this was a case in which the Pope possessed the
+dispensing power, the dispensation held; if it was not, the marriage was no
+marriage however innocently the parties entered upon it. One or other of
+these pleas must be made the pretext of any public action.
+
+[Sidenote: The need of an heir]
+
+The plea that Henry must have a male heir is so absolutely conclusive in
+the judgment of Henry's great apologist that he feels it necessary to offer
+excuses for the womanly weakness which blinded Katharine to her obvious
+duty. It may also have appealed with considerable force to a statesman who
+regarded all pledges and bonds as being in the last resort dissoluble on
+grounds of national expediency. England had suffered enough from disputed
+successions; and while it is not probable that a title so incontrovertible
+as Mary's would have been directly challenged, it is evident that
+disastrous complications might have been involved by her union with any
+possible husband, or by her death. It may have been that it was Henry's own
+wish to act directly on this view, and to declare his marriage null,
+arbitrarily, on the ground of public expediency. But whatever were Wolsey's
+views on expediency, and on the desirability of nullifying the marriage,
+such a course would have been too flagrant a violation of the universally
+accepted belief in the sanctity of the marriage tie to meet with his
+support. Moreover the offspring of a new marriage contracted under such
+conditions could hardly escape having his legitimacy challenged when
+opportunity offered. The security of the succession could not therefore be
+obtained by this method. Yet the burden of discovering some way to enable
+Henry to marry again was laid upon the Cardinal's shoulders.
+
+[Sidenote: The plea of invalidity]
+
+A pretext was forthcoming, whether devised by the Cardinal or another. The
+marriage with Katharine might be held invalid on the ground that the
+dispensation under which it was contracted was invalid, as being _ultra
+vires_. [Footnote: _Cf._ however Wolsey's letter, Brewer, ii., 180.
+Katharine argued that since she had remained a maiden, no actual affinity
+had been contracted, therefore the re-marriage was not contrary to God's
+Law. Wolsey was prepared to reply that in that case, the dispensation was
+invalid; since it specified only the impediment of "affinity" but not that
+of "public honesty" created by a contract not consummated, and so failed to
+cover the admitted circumstances. It appears from the complete context that
+this plea was hit upon only as a rejoinder to this particular plea of
+Katharine's. But see Taunton, _Thomas Wolsey_, chap, x., where a
+different view is taken; the whole context, however, is not there cited.]
+This was the line that Wolsey advised, and to which the King committed
+himself. It should be clear that it finally precluded the other line of
+arbitrary dissolution, since it rested on the inviolability of a marriage
+once validly contracted. If the Pope could not set aside the bar to
+re-marriage with a dead husband's brother, the King could hardly set aside
+his own marriage, if it had been itself lawful. Stated conversely; if the
+King could, so to speak cancel a living wife on the ground of public
+expediency, the Pope had surely been entitled to cancel a dead husband on
+the same ground.
+
+[Sidenote: Conjunction of incentives]
+
+When Wolsey had propounded the theory that the validity of the dispensation
+was doubtful, it is easy enough to see how Henry might have persuaded
+himself that his conscience must be set at ease. What if the death of all
+his male children had been a Divine Judgment on an unlawful union? The wish
+is father to the thought. From this point, it was a short step to a
+conviction that, whatever any one might say, the union was unlawful. Thus
+Henry could with comparative equanimity adopt the role of one who merely
+felt that his doubts must be set at rest, while he would be only overjoyed
+to be finally certified that they were groundless. It is not till this
+professed hope is in danger of being realised that the mask is dropped and
+the King's determination to have a divorce by hook or by crook is avowed.
+
+On this view of the policy pursued, passion and patriotism may have
+combined--in uncertain proportions--to make the King desire a new marriage;
+obedience and patriotism may have likewise combined to produce the same
+desire in the Cardinal. But it is extremely difficult to doubt that the
+King's conscientious scruples were an after-thought, since they had not
+overtly troubled him for eighteen years of married life; while the
+Cardinal's position was painfully complicated by an intense aversion to the
+particular marriage in contemplation. The Boleyns were closely associated
+with the group of courtiers who were most antagonistic to Wolsey; while on
+the other hand, Katharine had for long regarded him as her husband's evil
+genius.
+
+[Sidenote: The Orleans betrothal]
+
+There is a single feature of the situation in the spring of 1527 which
+might be taken as pointing to a belief on the King's part that the validity
+of the marriage would be confirmed: namely the betrothal of his daughter to
+Orleans. This however would completely negative the activity of that
+patriotic motive by which Mr. Froude set so much store. Moreover, it is
+flatly contradicted by the letter to Anne [Footnote: _L. & P._, iv.,
+1467.] in which Henry unmistakably declares his determination to marry her:
+and by Wolsey's [Footnote: _S. P._, i., 194. Brewer, ii., 193 ff.]
+letter to him, stating the case for the divorce.
+
+[Sidenote: Conclusion]
+
+The only possible conclusion is that the one motive which really actuated
+the King was the desire to gratify an illicit passion. Other subsidiary
+motives he may have called in to justify himself to himself, on which he
+dwelt till he really persuaded himself that they were genuine. For it was
+his unfailing practice to do or get done whatsoever served his personal
+interest, and to parade some high moral cause as his unimpeachable
+motive--or if this proved quite impossible, to condemn a minister as the
+responsible person. Yet however difficult it is to reconcile such avowed
+motives with the known facts, the avowal always has about it a tone of
+conviction which can only have been the outcome of successful
+self-deception.
+
+[Sidenote: The first plan (May)]
+
+It was the Cardinal's task then to procure by some means a formal and
+authoritative pronouncement that the Papal Dispensation was invalid. The
+first scheme was that he should hold a Legatine Court before which the King
+should be cited for living in an unlawful union with his brother's widow.
+Since the Legate was also the King's subject, the royal assent had to be
+formally given. This was duly arranged in May, the affair being conducted
+with the utmost secrecy; but after the first beginnings [Footnote: _L. &
+P._, iv., 1426.] these proceedings were dropped: presumably because, if
+they had been carried through, Katharine might have appealed to the Pope
+and Wolsey would have had no voice in the ultimate decision. [Footnote: The
+Pope in that case must either have decided the case himself, or have given
+full powers to a Legatine Court to act without appeal. In the latter event,
+Wolsey could not have been appointed, since Katharine's appeal would have
+been an appeal against his previous decision.]
+
+In the same month the world learnt with amazement that the troops of
+Bourbon and the Lutheran Frundsberg had stormed and sacked Rome; and that
+the Imperial troops held Clement himself a prisoner in the castle of
+St. Angelo. The Pope was thus completely in the Emperor's power: the
+Emperor was Katharine's nephew and would most certainly veto the divorce.
+Moreover, Katharine had now an inkling that steps to obtain a divorce were
+being projected; and, unknown to Henry, Mendoza the Spanish ambassador had
+already warned the Emperor.
+
+[Sidenote: The second plan (June)]
+
+Thus the difficulties of Wolsey's task were increased; since the next move
+must be to get a Papal Commission appointed which should be under Wolsey's
+control. To that end, the ecclesiastical support of the English Bishops and
+the political support of Francis were requisite. Wolsey played upon the
+guilelessness of Fisher of Rochester, till he persuaded the saintly bishop
+that the confirmation of the marriage was the one thing desired--that the
+Queen's opposition was due to an unfortunate misconception, and entirely
+opposed to her own interests. The same course was pursued with Warham of
+Canterbury. [Footnote: Brewer, ii., pp. 193 ff.] The necessity for the
+enquiry was fathered upon the Bishop of Tarbes, a member of the French
+embassy which had settled the betrothal of Orleans and Mary, who was said
+[Footnote: There is some reason to suppose that this story of the Bishop of
+Tarbes was merely concocted by Wolsey and Henry. It appears to have been
+referred to only in Wolsey's communications with Warham and Fisher.--
+Brewer, _Henry VIII._, ii., 216. But _cf._ Pollard, _Henry
+VIII., sub loc._] to have questioned the validity of the dispensation,
+and by consequence the certainty of the princess's legitimacy.
+
+In July Wolsey proceeded to France, ostensibly for the settlement of
+details in connexion with the recent treaty: actually, that Francis might
+be induced to bring pressure to bear on Charles for the release of the
+Pope--in the somewhat desperate hope that Clement in his gratitude would
+thereupon grant Henry's wishes. Should the Pope's release be refused,
+Wolsey had the idea (soon to be abandoned) that the Cardinals might be
+summoned to meet in France, on the ground that the Pope was being forcibly
+deprived of the power of action. [Footnote: _S. P_., i., 230, 270.
+Brewer, ii., 209, 219.]
+
+[Sidenote: Knight's mission (Autumn)]
+
+The treaty of Amiens, cementing the union between Francis and Henry, was
+signed late in August without reference to divorce. Now however Henry began
+to conduct operations independently of Wolsey, sending his own secretary
+Knight to Rome with private instructions, the object of which was to evade
+the ultimate submission of the question to Wolsey's jurisdiction. Under the
+influence of the Boleyn clique, and knowing Wolsey's aversion to the Boleyn
+marriage, the King may have suspected that his minister would play him
+false if he lost all hope of averting that conclusion to the divorce. Or he
+may merely have resolved that it was time to check any development of his
+minister's authority. On Wolsey's return to England, instead of being
+received in privacy according to precedent, he was summoned on his arrival
+at Richmond Palace to meet his master in the presence of Anne Boleyn.
+
+[Sidenote: Its failure (Dec)]
+
+Knight's mission was a failure. In December, Clement escaped in disguise
+from his Imperial guards: Knight found him at Orvieto. It was evident that
+the secret plan of getting the Pope's permission to marry again without
+upsetting the existing marriage [Footnote: Brewer, ii., 224, 234-239. Both
+the Conscience of the King and the need of an heir, are dwelt on in the
+instructions.] was out of the question. So the Secretary presented a form
+for a dispensation, and for a Commission which was to give Wolsey power to
+decide summarily against the validity of the dispensation granted by Pope
+Julius, without appeal; and power to declare Mary legitimate at the same
+time. The dispensation was to enable Henry to marry thereafter in despite
+of difficulties which might be raised on certain specified
+grounds--intelligible only if those difficulties applied in Anne Boleyn's
+case: and implying the truth of allegations subsequently made as to
+relations between Henry and Anne's mother and sister. Knight was outwitted
+by a Cardinal, Lorenzo Pucci, who redrafted the documents so as to make
+them useless for Henry's purpose. The deluded envoy returned to England
+under the impression that he had achieved a diplomatic triumph. But the
+King saw that he must leave the management of such delicate matters to
+Wolsey.
+
+[Sidenote: The Pope and the Cardinal]
+
+It is evident that the Pope's one desire was to evade all responsibility in
+the matter; as it was Wolsey's, on the contrary part, to fix the ultimate
+responsibility on him. Clement wanted the support of England and France;
+but, though now no longer actually the Emperor's prisoner, he was
+distinctly in greater danger from him than from the other Powers. Moreover
+for one Pope to be invited to nullify the proceedings of another was a
+somewhat dangerous precedent: as implying that a papal decision was not
+necessarily unimpeachable. The Cardinal however required the Pope's
+authority. The divorce was not popular in England, where the general
+inclination was towards the Imperial alliance. Besides, Katharine was
+firmly convinced that Wolsey was the moving spirit; so was the general
+public. If the divorce were carried through by any method which seemed to
+bear out that theory--if it could be looked upon as a political job of the
+Cardinal's--Henry too would come in for a share of the odium, and might be
+trusted to visit that misfortune on his minister. So Wolsey would have
+nothing to say to the suggestion that the King should act on his own
+account without the Pope, and take his chance of an appeal.
+
+[Sidenote: 1528 Gardiner's mission]
+
+Early in 1528, the negotiations were again on foot. This time they were in
+the hands of Wolsey's own men--Steven Gardiner and Foxe, the King's
+almoner. Their instructions were to obtain a commission with absolute
+authority, in which a legate--Campeggio for choice--should be associated
+with Wolsey; failing that, a legate without Wolsey but one on whom Wolsey
+could depend; finally, as least desirable, the commission was to consist of
+Wolsey and Warham. If the Pope continued recalcitrant, he was to be given
+to understand that the results for him might be very awkward. Gardiner in
+fact did not hesitate to indulge in threats which were more than
+hints. England's goodwill was at stake. If Clement had so little faith in
+his own authority that he dared not exercise it in a manifestly righteous
+cause, Henry might repudiate papal authority altogether. Nevertheless, in
+spite of all Gardiner's skill and vigour--and he showed himself deficient
+in neither--the result was unsatisfactory. A commission was obtained for
+Wolsey with Campeggio; but it was not absolute. The decision they might
+arrive at could not take effect till referred to Rome for confirmation.
+
+[Sidenote: Wolsey's critical position]
+
+Although the purpose of Gardiner and Foxe was not completely achieved, it
+certainly appeared at this time that Wolsey had practically won over the
+Pope; in other words, had made sure that the King should get his desire
+under cover of law, and of the highest moral sanctions, without any breach
+with the Church, defiance of Authority, or association with heresy. So far,
+the credit was the Cardinal's, who had dissuaded his master from following
+a much more arbitrary course. Nevertheless indications were not wanting
+that the Boleyn influence was at work in a manner very detrimental to
+Wolsey; that Henry was fully alive to his minister's unpopularity; and that
+if occasion served he might take the popular side. Thus when Wolsey
+appointed a suitable person to be Abbess of Wilton, instead of a very
+unsuitable person who was connected with the Boleyns, the King reprimanded
+him in his most elevated style--taking occasion at the same time to be
+scandalised at the subscriptions to Wolsey's educational schemes provided
+by monasteries which had pleaded poverty at the time of the "Amicable
+Loan". It was at least tolerably evident that "the King's matter" as the
+divorce was generally called would have to be brought to a speedy and
+successful issue if Wolsey was to retain the royal favour.
+
+Clement VII. however was a dexterous procrastinator. Campeggio got his
+Commission in April. But he did not start from Rome till June: he did not
+reach French soil till the end of July: in September he got as far as
+Paris. Meantime, the French troops in Italy were not doing so well, but the
+Pope was strongly suspected of Imperial leanings. The French King formed
+the opinion--which he transmitted to his brother of England--that
+Campeggio's object was to induce Henry to change his determination.
+
+[Sidenote: Campeggio and Wolsey (Autumn)]
+
+When at last Campeggio reached London, still suffering seriously from the
+gout which was the ostensible cause of his dilatory journeying, Wolsey was
+explicit. He warned the Legate that the business must be put through
+promptly. The need of a male heir was imperative; the King was convinced
+that his wedlock with Katharine was contrary to the Divine law: if he were
+not quickly released, the respect hitherto shown for the Church by the
+Defender of the Faith would certainly vanish; while Wolsey himself, whose
+influence had hitherto kept his master loyal in the face of strong
+temptation, would no longer be able to restrain him. From Campeggio's
+letters, [Footnote: Brewer, ii., 296.] it is evident that the King had
+mastered his own case thoroughly, and knew the legal aspects better than
+any one else: also, that the intention was to declare Mary his heir unless
+there should be male issue of the new marriage. The Legate let slip that in
+view of the determined attitude of Henry and Wolsey, he would have to await
+further instructions from Rome; whereupon he was again threatened with the
+secession of England from the Roman Obedience. Next, the two Cardinals
+tried to induce Katharine to accede to a divorce without a formal trial; on
+the ground that thereby she would ensure that save on the single point of
+the re-marriage any demand she might put forward would be granted, and much
+scandal would be averted. The Queen took some days to consider her reply:
+but was absolutely obdurate. She was Henry's wife; she could not and would
+not profess that she was not. On every ground, she would fight to the last.
+
+Campeggio did his best to impress the Pope with the urgency of the case:
+but Clement was more than ever afraid of Charles, and persisted in the
+first place that proceedings were to be postponed and prolonged by every
+effort of ingenuity, and in the second that no verdict adverse to the
+marriage was to be pronounced without his ratification.
+
+[Sidenote: Henry's attitude]
+
+Henry for his part, learning or knowing before that Ferdinand had received
+from Pope Julius a confirmation of the dispensation in ampler terms, urged
+upon Katharine the necessity of obtaining this document in her own
+interests--hoping that there would be a chance of repudiating it as a
+forgery. Also he instructed his agents at Rome to persuade the Pope to give
+him a dispensation for re-marriage, without a divorce, if Katharine retired
+into a nunnery; [Footnote: _L. & P._, iv., 2157, 2161. Brewer, ii.,
+312, 313, and note. Such a marriage was admissible according to some of the
+Lutherans.] or even for an openly bigamous union. Moreover about the same
+time, Henry openly separated himself from his wife, and began to treat Anne
+Boleyn publicly as his partner-elect on the throne.
+
+[Sidenote 1: 1529]
+[Sidenote 2: The trial]
+
+The Pope's one object was to evade the responsibility of any pronouncement.
+The Imperialist cause in Italy was progressing: Charles was growing
+steadily stronger. Clement dared not pronounce in Henry's favour; he was
+only less afraid of pronouncing against him. He told the agents that the
+King should act on his own responsibility on the ground of dissatisfaction
+with Campeggio's conduct; whereas the King was quite resolved to act, but
+also quite resolved to force the responsibility for his action on Clement.
+There was a limit to the possibilities of procrastination, but it was not
+till June 1529 that the Court opened proceedings, citing the King and Queen
+to appear. Fisher of Rochester, appearing on behalf of the Queen, boldly
+declared that the marriage was valid and could not be dissolved. Standish
+supported him, less vigorously. The Queen challenged the jurisdiction of
+the Court, and appealed from it to the Pope. She regarded Wolsey as the
+source of her woes; Anne believed that the procrastination was due to his
+machinations; the King was quite capable of crushing the Cardinal to
+relieve his own feelings. Popular sentiment was entirely on the Queen's
+side, but held the Cardinal to blame rather than the King: though even in
+Court Henry declared, in answer to Wolsey's appeal, that the minister had
+not suggested but had deterred him from the course adopted. Campeggio
+prorogued the Court in July. At about the same time, Clement, acting under
+Imperial pressure, formally revoked the case to Rome. Before the revocation
+reached England, a desperate attempt was made to persuade Katharine to
+place herself in the King's hands: it failed. A sharp public altercation
+between Wolsey and Suffolk showed how the current was setting.
+
+[Sidenote: The storm gathers]
+
+During the following months, Wolsey's loss of the royal favour became
+increasingly evident, and the opposition to him on the part of the nobility
+more and more open. Steven Gardiner, who had proved his conspicuous
+ability, was made the King's private secretary, and became the normal
+medium of communication--the close personal intercourse hitherto prevalent
+was at an end. Wolsey's European policy was thrown over by Henry, who
+allowed Francis and Charles to come to terms without his claiming any voice
+in the negotiation. A treaty of amity was signed at Cambrai, which
+terminated all prospect of Francis being induced to assist Henry in
+bringing pressure to bear either on the Emperor or the Pope, and released
+Clement from serious alarms as to the results of his accepting the Imperial
+policy. England had deliberately vacated the position of arbiter, because
+Henry was too thoroughly engrossed with the divorce to care about anything
+else. Since both Francis and Charles were for the time satisfied to
+restrict their ambitions so as not to collide with each other, there was no
+further demand for the Cardinal's diplomatic genius. The best to which
+Wolsey could now look forward was that he might be permitted to turn his
+vast talents to the reform of administration, ecclesiastical, legal, and
+educational, which he had always postponed to what he regarded as the more
+vital demands of international politics.
+
+[Sidenote: The storm breaks (Oct.)]
+
+It was not long before even these hopes were destroyed. At the beginning of
+October, Campeggio departed from England. At Dover, his baggage was
+ransacked by the King's authority, in the hope of discovering documents
+which would enable Wolsey to deal with the divorce in his absence. The
+documents were not forthcoming. Wolsey was of no more use to his master.
+The day after Campeggio reached Dover a writ was demanded by the King's
+attorney against the Cardinal for breach of the statute of Praemunire in
+acting as Legate.
+
+[Sidenote 1: Wolsey's fall]
+[Sidenote 2: 1530]
+[Sidenote 3: Wolsey's death (Nov.)]
+
+The fatal blow had been struck. From that hour, the Cardinal's doom was
+sealed. He ceased absolutely to be a political force and became merely an
+object for the King, and for every enemy he had raised up against himself,
+to buffet. A week later, on October 16th, the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk
+demanded the seals from Wolsey as Chancellor; he was deprived of all his
+benefices and retired to his house at Esher, where he abode in poverty.
+This contented Henry for the time, and he sent gracious messages--but
+restricted them to words. Even Thomas More, who succeeded him as
+Chancellor, is said to have acted so far out of character as to speak of
+him publicly in insulting terms. Parliament had been summoned for November;
+a bill depriving him for ever of office was introduced in the Lords: in the
+Commons, it was boldly resisted by Thomas Cromwell who won thereby great
+credit for his loyalty; and it was dropped--not against the wishes of the
+King, who was as yet disinclined to deprive himself of the chance of
+resuscitating the great minister. In February Wolsey was restored to the
+see of York, whither he departed to act in the novel capacity of a diocesan
+devoted solely to his duties--duties which he so discharged as to change
+bitter unpopularity into warm affection. The King kept a firm hold on his
+forfeited properties, Gardiner was advanced to his see of Winchester: the
+college at Ipswich was dissolved. Wolsey was rash enough to attempt to open
+secret communications with Francis I., in the hope that his influence might
+be exercised to restore to favour the man who had done so much for him. But
+Norfolk, in power, had to cultivate Francis; and Francis, finding him a
+much simpler diplomatic antagonist, had no wish to reinstate the
+Cardinal. The attempted correspondence became known, and in November,
+without warning, Wolsey was arrested for high treason. Sick and worn, he
+started on his last journey towards London; but was stricken with mortal
+illness, and could travel no further than Leicester Abbey where the end
+came.
+
+[Sidenote: Wolsey's achievement]
+
+So died the great Cardinal who for nearly twenty years had mainly swayed
+the destinies of England. Henry VII. had slowly recovered a place among the
+nations for a country brought low by long years of reckless civil strife.
+His son's minister again raised her to be the arbiter of Europe, holding
+the scales between the two mighty princes who virtually ruled Christendom:
+not by deeds of arms like Edward III. or Henry V., for no English soldier
+of real distinction arose in his time; but by a diplomatic genius almost
+without parallel among English statesmen. In this field, the superiority of
+his abilities to those of his contemporaries made his position with his
+master absolutely secure, so long as foreign relations were the primary
+consideration; for though the ends the minister himself had in view were
+always the same, he was ready to exert his powers to the full, even at the
+expense of those objects, in carrying out any policy on which Henry himself
+might determine; and as a general rule the King's wishes did not run
+counter to his own.
+
+[Sidenote: Appraisement of Wolsey]
+
+His absorbing aim was to magnify England and the King of England in the
+eyes of Europe: nor was personal ambition lacking, but it was subordinate.
+That he desired the popedom is clear, and that Henry desired it for him;
+but he was above the temptation of allowing that desire to dominate his
+national aims, and had he achieved it, he would have regarded the alliance
+of the Ecclesiastical Power with England as the real prize secured. His
+personal weight in the Counsels of Europe would hardly have been increased;
+and he cared more for Power than for the appearance of it, though he had a
+possibly exaggerated perception of the practical value of magnificence in
+securing both national and personal prestige. In part at least this was the
+cause of that habitual display which, while impressing, also roused the
+anger of the nobles, who regarded him as an upstart, and of the satirists
+of ecclesiastical ostentation and luxury. Secure in the confidence of the
+King, he never attempted to conciliate either popular sentiment or the
+rivals whom he deposed.
+
+But at all times, if he magnified his own office, it was as the King's
+right hand. If the King's will, even in opposition to his own, necessitated
+unpopular measures, he carried those measures out, and took the odium for
+them on his own head, preserving his master's popularity at the price of
+his own. He ruled the country on autocratic principles, and the increase of
+his power was the increase also of the King's. And the King rewarded him
+after his kind.
+
+But for the all-absorbing interest of diplomacy, his vast abilities as an
+administrator and organiser might have achieved great things. He would at
+least have pruned ecclesiastical abuses; and would have forced upon the
+clergy as an ecclesiastic those reforms which they were always on the verge
+of introducing when they found themselves anticipated by the drastic action
+of the temporal Power. Reform was the inevitable corollary of Education,
+and the development of Education was of all schemes the nearest to Wolsey's
+heart. Yet whether, if the Divorce question had never arisen, he would have
+played an effective part in the Reformation is open to doubt, for at bottom
+the Puritan movement in these islands, the Lutheran movement, and the
+Counter-reformation, were all the outcome or expression of Moral ideals,
+not of state-craft; and for Wolsey morals were subordinate to state-craft.
+It is probable that in any case the assertion in England by the State of
+its supremacy over the Church would only have been deferred; but Wolsey
+might have deferred it. As it was, Henry willed otherwise. The great
+statesman, failing to carry out his master's demands, was hurled from
+power. The battle of the Reformation was to be fought under other captains.
+
+NOTE.
+
+The term "Divorce" has been employed above, because, although a misnomer,
+it is universally applied. Properly a divorce is the cancellation of a
+legally contracted marriage. What Henry sought was a _declaration of
+nullity_--that no valid marriage had ever taken place.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+HENRY VIII (iv) 1529-33--THE BREACH WITH ROME
+
+[Sidenote: 1529 No revolt as yet]
+
+It will have been observed that when Wolsey found that the divorce was
+inevitable, his energies were concentrated on the single purpose of
+securing it under papal authority. For this he had two reasons--one, that
+without that authority the King's act would appear in all its
+arbitrariness, causing grave scandal: the other that if that authority were
+refused, he foresaw the cleavage between England and Rome which did
+eventually take place. Apart however from the divorce, there had not been
+up to the time of Wolsey's fall any hint of an opinion in high places that
+such a cleavage was _per se_ desirable or desired--although both
+Wolsey himself and Gardiner had given Clement fair warning that Henry was
+likely to reconsider the papal claims altogether unless the Pope complied
+with his wishes. The revocation of the cause to Rome immediately brought
+the execution of this threat into the sphere of practical politics.
+
+In the second place there had been no tendency to encourage or allow
+deviations from recognised orthodox doctrine. The new criticism had been so
+far admitted as to produce a rigid section and a liberal section among the
+orthodox, such leading prelates as Wolsey himself, Warham, Fox, Fisher, and
+Tunstal, all favouring the new learning in various degrees, and being
+supported therein by such learned laymen as Sir Thomas More. Their
+toleration however had not extended to anything censurable as heresy, and
+their attitude had been somewhat stiffened by the course of the Lutheran
+revolt on the Continent. The increased licence within the Empire, following
+the edict of Spires in 1528, led to an increased activity in the
+suppression of heretics and heretical publications in England, first under
+Wolsey and then under his successor in the Chancellorship.
+
+[Sidenote: Growth of anti-clericalism]
+
+In a third direction however, though not much had been done in the way of
+measures, an _anti-clerical_ party had been growing up: a party which
+sought to diminish clerical jurisdiction, clerical privileges, and clerical
+emoluments. Among the ecclesiastics themselves there were not a few who
+desired to improve clerical administration from within, but without
+diminution of ecclesiastical authority; the anti-clericals were laymen who
+wished the reforms to be forced on the Church from outside, reducing
+ecclesiastical authority in the process. These two policies were in direct
+opposition, seeing that antagonism to Wolsey--emphatically a reformer of
+the prior class--was the leading motive with the nobility who headed the
+second class; while the Commons in general desired primarily to be freed
+from the exactions by which the clergy benefited, and from which they did
+not believe the clergy would of their own initiative cut themselves
+off. Wolsey had begun the internal amendment, by his visitation and
+suppression of the smallest monasteries and the appropriation of
+ecclesiastical property to educational purposes, and by some substitution
+of the superior organisation of the legatine court for that of the
+Ordinaries; but the latter step had been cancelled by his fall and by the
+ominous appeal to the statute of Praemunire against legatine
+jurisdiction. On the other hand, the anti-clerical action had been
+practically confined so far to the modifications as to Benefit of Clergy;
+unless we include the publication of pamphlets and rhymes attacking the
+ecclesiastical body in general, or Wolsey in particular as the incarnation
+of their shortcomings.
+
+Some years were still to elapse before any material changes from orthodox
+theological doctrine were to be entertained. But in 1529, the suspension of
+the Trial was forthwith followed by the adoption of a policy--as yet only
+provisional--setting aside the Pope's authority; and the assembly of
+Parliament in November was marked by an immediate attack on ecclesiastical
+abuses.
+
+[Sidenote: Thomas Cranmer]
+
+In the last six months of this year the King discovered two instruments
+consummately adapted for executing his will. It appears that the idea of
+obtaining the opinions of the Doctors at the English Universities had
+already been mooted, and that one of those selected [Footnote: Strype,
+_Memorials of Cranmer_. Hook, _Life of Cranmer_.] at Cambridge
+was Thomas Cranmer, a learned and amiable divine with marked leanings
+towards the New Learning; who in his early graduate days had fallen under
+the influence of the teaching at Cambridge of Erasmus; in scholarship
+subtle and erudite, in affairs guileless and easily swayed; timorous by
+nature, but capable of outbreaks of audacity as timid persons often are: a
+gentle and lovable man, but lacking in that robust self-confidence needed
+by one who would take a resolutely independent line; a man intended to be a
+student and forced by an unkind fate to assume the role of a man of action.
+Such a character, brought under the direct influence of a powerful will and
+a magnetic personality, is readily led to see everything as it is desired
+that he should see it, and at the worst to differ from the master-mind only
+with submission.
+
+[Sidenote: Appeal to the universities]
+
+When Campeggio suspended the sittings of the Commission the, King withdrew
+to Waltham Cross. Steven Gardiner and Foxe the King's almoner, who were in
+his suite, met Cranmer who had left Cambridge on account of an outbreak of
+the sweating sickness. They had, as was natural, a conversation on "the
+King's affair"; when Cranmer propounded the theory that if the Universities
+of Europe--that is, the qualified divines--gave it as their opinion that
+the union with Katharine had been contrary to the Divine Law, the King
+might follow the dictates of his conscience and pronounce the marriage null
+without recognising Papal jurisdiction. This was clearly quite a different
+thing from producing the judgment of the Doctors merely as an expert
+opinion which must carry weight with the Judge at Rome. It was practically
+an assertion that the Pope's judgment was not of higher authority than the
+King's; an answer to a question as to jurisdiction; a suggestion of
+replying to the Pope's revocation of the case by a counter-revocation. Foxe
+reported the conversation to Henry, who caught at the new method of giving
+a constitutional colour to an arbitrary proceeding. Cranmer was summoned to
+court, attached to the Boleyn household, set down to write a thesis on the
+point of conscience, and sent off early in 1530 in the train of the Earl of
+Wiltshire (to which dignity Sir Thomas Boleyn--had been raised) on an
+embassy to the Emperor at Bologna. Moreover his plan for consulting the
+Universities was actively taken in hand.
+
+[Sidenote: The new Parliament]
+
+In the meantime, in November, Henry's most famous Parliament had opened
+session. The last, called six years before under Wolsey's regime to obtain
+supplies, had shown a qualified submissiveness. The new one, whether packed
+or not, displayed prompt signs of activity. Known to fame as the "Seven
+Years'" or "Reformation" Parliament, it consistently displayed three
+characteristics: it was anti-papal and anti-clerical; it endorsed the Royal
+will; but it refused dictation where its pocket was concerned. Its first
+session lasted only a few weeks, but was marked by an attack on clerical
+abuses, and by the sudden prominence achieved by Thomas Cromwell.
+
+[Sidenote: Thomas Cromwell]
+
+Concerning Cromwell's early years, much is reported and little is known.
+The common rumour declared that he was the son of a blacksmith--as it
+declared Wolsey to be the son of a butcher. He is said to have tried
+various trades, among others those of man-at-arms in the mercenary troop of
+an Italian nobleman, wool-merchant and usurer at Antwerp, usurer and petty
+attorney in England. On all these points the evidence is scanty and
+inconclusive. About 1520, he found his way into Wolsey's entourage, and was
+a member of the 1523 parliament. Wolsey found him an apt man of business,
+and entrusted him with a good deal of the financial management of his
+educational schemes; in the course of which it is at least probable that he
+applied the twin practices of bribery and blackmail, which not without
+reason were attributed at a later date to his servants. Yet, however
+unscrupulous he may have been in his dealings with others, to the master
+whose service he had followed he was always loyal. Wolsey made him his
+secretary; and when the Cardinal fell, the secretary's position seemed
+exceedingly precarious. Whether from an admirable fidelity or through
+amazingly astute hypocrisy, he boldly and openly took up the cudgels in
+parliament on behalf of the stricken minister, apparently challenging
+imminent ruin for himself. Action so courageous won him applause and
+good-will instead of present hostility. More than that, it immediately
+marked him in the eyes of the King--an exceedingly shrewd judge of men--as
+an invaluable prospective servant for himself. A combination of audacity
+and fidelity with shrewdness, resourcefulness, and unscrupulosity, was
+precisely what he wanted and precisely what he had found. The Cardinal's
+secretary became the King's secretary, and forthwith identified himself
+with the policy of establishing the Royal autocracy in a stronger form than
+it had ever before assumed in England. Whether or no Thomas Cromwell learnt
+his political principles as an adventurer in Italy, he became himself the
+living embodiment of those doctrines of state-craft which were systematised
+by Macchiavelli in his treatise "The Prince".
+
+[Sidenote: Pope, Clergy and King]
+
+In the reconstruction of the relations between Church and State which
+covers more than nine-tenths of the Reformation under Henry VIII. there
+were three parties concerned; the Pope, the Sovereign, and the Clerical
+Organisation in England. From time immemorial, Popes and Kings had striven
+periodically with each other in asserting antagonistic control over the
+ecclesiastical body; and the ecclesiastical body had made common cause, now
+with the Pope and now with the King, in resisting encroachments by the
+rival authority. If the clergy submitted to one or the other, it was always
+with a reservation that submission to physical force could not impair the
+inherent rights of the successors of the Apostles. Similarly, if the Pope
+gave way to the King or the King to the Pope, their respective successors
+regarded the claims surrendered as rights not cancelled but in abeyance.
+The prevailing conditions at any given time were always looked upon as a
+_modus vivendi_ liable to readjustment when any of the three parties
+felt impelled to claim a larger freedom of action or a larger power of
+control. In the past however the Spiritual Powers had drawn effectively
+upon their armoury of excommunications and interdicts in the conflict; it
+was now to be seen whether these ancient weapons had become obsolete. If
+they could be defied with comparative impunity, there could be but one end
+to a struggle between the Spiritual and the Temporal forces.
+
+[Sidenote: Double campaign opens]
+
+By the appeal to the Universities, Henry gave warning of a possible
+anti-papal campaign: in which he could look for a considerable degree of
+clerical support up to a certain point, more particularly because the
+clergy generally were ready to be released from the financial exactions of
+the Holy See, as well as from its practical exercise of patronage.
+Parliament opened an anti-clerical campaign, but its measures at first were
+confined to dealing with almost indefensible and obvious abuses. Bishop
+Fisher recognised the familiar thin end of the wedge, and charged the
+Commons with desiring "the goods, not the good" of the Church; but the
+opposition was slender. In the six weeks of the first session, there were
+passed, the Probate and Mortuaries Acts, abolishing, reducing, or
+regulating fees, and the Pluralities Act, forbidding the clergy in general
+to hold more than one benefice, and requiring Residence--a very
+inconvenient arrangement for papal nominees. The general value of the Act
+however was impaired by a schedule of exemptions. Fisher's protest had its
+counterpart in the protest of Convocation, not against the avowed objects
+of this legislation but against Parliament as its source: the position
+being that Convocation was itself preparing legislation with the same ends
+in view, and was the proper body to do so.
+
+[Sidenote: 1530 Answers of the Universities]
+
+During 1530, Parliament remained inactive. The Earl of Wiltshire's embassy
+to Bologna, of which the object was to induce Charles to withdraw his
+opposition to the divorce, naturally proved abortive. The consultation of
+the Universities however went on apace. The theory propounded for their
+acceptance was that Katharine had been in actual fact the wife of Henry's
+brother; that this being so her marriage with Henry was contrary to the Law
+of God; and that by consequence the second contract was actually not only
+voidable but void, the dispensation being under those circumstances a dead
+letter. On the other side it was maintained that whatever validity there
+might be in this argument, it fell to the ground if--as was asserted on the
+Queen's behalf--her first marriage had been ceremonial only. The answers of
+the Universities were inconclusive, some declaring the marriage valid,
+others declaring it void, and others, including Oxford and Cambridge,
+declaring that it was against the Law of God without pronouncing the
+dispensation of Julius _ipso facto_ invalid. Moreover, had the
+opinions given been decisive in themselves, the method by which they were
+obtained would have destroyed their moral value. Francis, finding that
+England's friendship was in the balance, dictated a favourable reply to the
+French Universities. Those in England knew they were not free agents.
+Clement professed to give those in Italy a free hand, but in that country
+Charles was the dominant power. In Germany the Lutherans were hostile to
+Henry personally on account of his own anti-Lutheran pronouncements.
+Nowhere was a judgment on the simple merits of the case procurable.
+
+[Sidenote: Preoccupation of the Clergy]
+
+In the meantime, the clergy in England had been mainly occupied with a
+campaign against heresy, and with the suppression of dangerous literature;
+[Footnote: According to Mr. Froude, Henry only assented with reluctance to
+the suppression of Tindal's Testament on condition of the preparation of an
+authorised version being agreed to. But even Hall, whom he cites, only says
+that both proposals were adopted after long debate.--Froude, i., p. 298
+(Ed. 1862).] but willingly or not found themselves committed to approving
+the preparation of an authorised translation of the Scriptures--the one
+movement under Henry which tended definitely, in effect though not of set
+purpose, to a revision of Doctrine.
+
+[Sidenote 1: Menace of Praemunire]
+[Sidenote 2: 1531 "Only Supreme Head"]
+[Sidenote 3: Proceedings in Parliament]
+
+In December of 1530, however, the Church was to receive a rough reminder
+that the Defender of the Faith was a stickler for the rigidity of the
+statutes. He had already struck at Wolsey because, urged thereto by
+himself, the Cardinal had obtained and exercised legatine powers contrary
+to the Statutes of Praemunire. Such was the King's reverence for the Law
+that after it had been transgressed with his sanction for ten years he felt
+it his duty to penalise the transgressor. After another twelve-month, he
+felt it his further duty to penalise all who had submitted to the illegal
+authority. The clergy were informed that they lay one and all under the
+royal displeasure for breach of praemunire (of which they had in fact been
+technically guilty), and could only hope for pardon by purchasing it for
+something over £100,000--practically equivalent to about a couple of
+millions now. Convocation, alive to the futility of resistance, apologised
+for its iniquity and admitted the justice of the punishment. Thereupon, in
+the preamble to the bill by which they were to mulct themselves, the King
+required the insertion of a clause which designated him "Protector and Only
+Supreme Head of the Church and Clergy in England". This roused general
+resistance. Convocation proposed conferences, and sought some compromise
+which they could reconcile with their consciences. The King would have no
+compromise, demanding instant submission. At last Warham hit upon the
+expedient of one of those saving phrases which might mean everything or
+nothing, and yet could not be objected to on the face of it; inserting the
+words "so far as the laws of Christ permit": the precise degree to which
+the said laws did permit being susceptible of unlimited argument, as the
+royal claims or the clerical conscience might respectively demand. Even so
+had Becket in the past shielded himself with the words "Saving the rights
+of my Order". For the time being, this diplomatic evasion or pitiful
+subterfuge, as the advocates and contemners of the clergy respectively call
+it, saved the situation. At the time, it must be remarked, Henry did not
+intend the title to be read as repudiating the Papal Supremacy, which had
+not hitherto been formally called question. On the face of it, it looks
+like a touch of Cromwell's; in a thing designed to force the hand of the
+Clergy in the future if the Papal Supremacy should be directly challenged.
+The clause was accepted (for the Province of Canterbury) on March 22nd; six
+weeks later it was also accepted by the Convocation of York, with a protest
+from Tunstal, now bishop of Durham, who had been distinguished by his
+diplomatic services under Wolsey's régime. During the corresponding session
+(January-March 1531) no anti-clerical measures were introduced in
+Parliament; which registered the Royal pardon and received the formal
+announcement of the decision of the Universities. The "stern and lofty
+moral principles" [Footnote: Froude, i., 307, 310 (Ed. 1862). The
+historian's enthusiasm may seem to require some qualification. The
+retrospective creation of crimes is a dangerous practice: and the penalty
+applied might even be considered savage.] of the nation were however
+vindicated, in consequence of the wholesale poisoning of the bishop of
+Rochester's household, attributed to an attempt to make away with Fisher
+himself. By a special enactment, the essentially un-English practice of
+poisoning was retrospectively classified as high treason, and the criminal
+sentenced to death by boiling.
+
+[Sidenote: 1532 Parliament]
+
+In the beginning of 1532 the campaign was renewed with vigour; whether from
+the laudable desire of reforming abuses, or with the object of terrorising
+the Church into complete subservience. Incidentally it is to be observed
+that so far as the activity of the Commons was directed against the payment
+of extortionate fees, the Church had a part only, not the whole, of their
+opposition. They logically and manfully resisted a "Bill of Wards"
+legalising claims of the Lords in sundry cases of the marriage of wards.
+This has been jibed at [Footnote: Moore (Aubrey), _Hist. of the
+Reformation_, 103.] as showing that they cared for cash and not for
+principle. As a matter of fact it appears to prove the first, but to have
+no bearing on the second. It also proves that when they did care, they
+could be obstinate, for the Bill was dropped: which illustrates the tact
+with which the King could yield on a point unimportant to him personally.
+
+In especial however this session was signalised by three Acts, dealing with
+Mortmain, Benefit of Clergy, and Annates: and by the "Supplication against
+the Ordinaries" which took partial effect in the "Submission of the
+Clergy".
+
+[Sidenote: Supplication against the Ordinaries]
+
+The Supplication [Footnote: Mr. Froude, i., 211 (Ed. 1862), dates this
+1529, but without apparent reason. _Cf._ Dixon, i., 77, note.] was in
+effect a statement of grievances, directed against the powers of
+Convocation in the way of ecclesiastical legislation, and the conduct of
+the ecclesiastical Courts and their fees. Under this second head it was
+simply the expression of a popular outcry, which had already begun to take
+effect in the legislation of 1529; an outcry so far justified that the
+clergy themselves met it, in part, by declaring that they were giving
+independent attention to the abuses complained of. As an indictment its
+weakness lay in the inadequate support by specific instances of the general
+charges of miscarriage of justice. Under the first head it has the
+appearance of being inspired by Cromwell, of whose policy a main feature
+was the concentration of all effective legislative power in the King.
+
+[Sidenote: Resistance of Clergy]
+
+The Supplication was presented, and laid before Convocation for an answer.
+The answer was given on the lines that, as concerned the grievances in
+general, so far as they were real they were in process of removal, and that
+as concerned miscarriage of justice it was impossible to answer effectively
+unless the charges were made specific. As to ecclesiastical legislation it
+was replied that this was a function of the Clergy, and that their canons
+were in accord with Scripture and therefore not antagonistic to the Civil
+Law; to which was added an appeal to the King as the Protector of the
+Faith. They were informed that this answer was "too slender"; so sent a
+second in which appeal was made to Henry's own book against Luther, and an
+offer was added that they would publish no ordinances without the royal
+assent excepting on matters of faith. In both answers Gardiner, now bishop
+of Winchester, is reputed to have been the guiding spirit--thereby showing
+that Henry could not count upon his assistance in reducing his Order to
+subservience.
+
+[Sidenote: "Submission of the Clergy"]
+
+This attitude however was by no means sufficient for Henry and Cromwell.
+It is in fact clear that they had made up their minds to put an end to an
+anomalous condition of affairs. Hypothetically, the Church and the State
+had been making laws independently of each other side by side. The two
+sets of laws might involve incompatibles; the King's lieges might be
+harassed by the canons of the Church, and loyal churchmen might be
+embarrassed by the laws of the realm. The time had come when one ultimate
+authority must be recognised. There was no manner of doubt which of the two
+that ultimate authority was to be. Yet for the attainment of this end, the
+Clergy must be required to surrender what they had always accounted a right
+inviolable, sacred, vested in them by divine commission. The Clergy had to
+surrender or take the risk of martyrdom: and they elected to surrender--in
+effect to recognise that they were beaten _de facto_ if not _de
+jure_. They struggled hard for a compromise which would salve their
+collective conscience. Finally (May) they agreed to enact no new canons
+without the Kind's authority, and to submit to a commission such of the
+existing canons as were contravened. The wording of this "Submission of the
+Clergy," as it is called, does not leave it absolutely clear whether the
+entire canon law or only a portion was to be subjected to the revision of
+the commission--which was to consist of thirty-two members, half laymen and
+half clergy--but the balance of opinion is in favour of the partial
+theory. The defeat was a crushing blow to the aged Warham who never
+recovered from it and died three months later; and it caused the immediate
+resignation of the Chancellorship by Sir Thomas More--a _rara avis_
+among statesmen of the day, with whom conscience actually had the last
+word, not the King's will.
+
+[Sidenote 1: Mortmain and Benefit of Clergy]
+[Sidenote 2: Annates Act]
+
+The other Acts referred to above were passed before the Submission of the
+Clergy was completed. The Mortmain and Benefit of Clergy Acts were
+respectively in limitation of bequests to the Church and of privileges of
+clerical criminals. They were merely normal steps in the reform of
+abuses. The Annates Act however demands closer attention. Every bishop on
+appointment to his see paid the first year's income to Rome--whether on an
+original appointment, or on translation from one see to another. Obviously
+this was a tremendous tax on the bishops and a source of large income to
+Rome. There had been frequent complaints, and suggestions that the Pope
+should reduce his claim. Very recently, Gardiner had been obliged to borrow
+heavily to meet the exaction on becoming bishop of Winchester. The Bill
+provided that five per cent. only should be paid, by way of compensation
+for expenses of papal Bulls, the ground taken up being that the papal claim
+was contrary to the ruling of the General Council of Basle, and that the
+payment, being an alienation of the property of the See, was contrary to
+the bishops consecration oath. The Bill was passed, the bishops--according
+to letters of the foreign ambassadors in London--dissenting; a course
+perfectly natural on their part as a protest, not in favour of the payment,
+but against the authority of the temporal power to intervene. Yet it is
+frequently stated as a matter of common knowledge that the clergy
+themselves were the prime movers, and that the Bill was brought in on their
+petition. This belief would seem to rest exclusively on the
+misinterpretation of a document attributed by a later historian [Footnote:
+Strype, _Eccl. Memorials_ I., ii., 158. Froude, i., 361 ff.
+(Ed. 1862). But _cf._. Gairdner, _English Church_, p. 116. The
+present writer fell into the usual error in a previous volume on
+_Cranmer_; and has to thank Mr. Tomlinson for correcting him.] to
+Convocation, but almost certainly of parliamentary origin.
+
+The Act however was not put in immediate execution: but the English agents
+in Italy were instructed to hold it _in terrorem_ over Clement's head.
+
+[Sidenote: The European Powers and the Divorce]
+
+The subsequent methods of procedure were largely the outcome of the
+diplomatic situation on the Continent. In the first place, the idea of
+calling an Oecumenical Council had been much in the air. Each of the three
+great monarchs was desirous of calling one, on his own terms; so were the
+Lutherans. But for each the terms must be such as should ensure practical
+subservience to his own dictation: while to the Pope the proposal, so long
+as it was hypothetical, was a thing he could produce as either a sop or a
+threat, as circumstances might commend. In the next place, for the time
+Charles dominated the Pope; but while he was making terms with the
+Lutherans, under pressure of the advance of the Turks on the east, whereby
+his loyalty to the papacy was made doubtful, he was also on the other hand,
+Katharine's unyielding champion. Thus any positive declaration on the
+divorce from Clement was tolerably certain to finally alienate either
+Charles or Henry. Now the rivalry of Charles was the great obstacle to
+Francis: whose object had come to be to utilise England so as to obtain for
+himself the concessions he wanted from the Emperor; extorting them as the
+result of joint pressure on the part of France and England or as the price
+of a separation between France and England. The thing he most feared was a
+compromise between Henry and Charles. Thus his policy was, by associating
+himself with Henry, to detach the Pope also from Charles, by the menace of
+a joint Anglo-French schism from the Roman obedience. Therefore in the
+summer and autumn of 1532 Francis was ostentatiously friendly to Henry and
+the cause of the Divorce. Conferences to which Henry was invited to bring
+Anne Boleyn as his Queen-elect were arranged, and took place at Calais and
+Boulogne. Henry thereafter made up his mind to a decisive step and on their
+return to England in November or perhaps in the following January he
+married Anne privately. Francis however had successfully avoided committing
+himself unequivocally to an uncompromising English alliance.
+
+[Sidenote: 1533 The crisis arrives]
+
+In December, the Pope and the Emperor both being at Bologna, Clement
+professed to the English agents a more amenable spirit, suggesting that the
+divorce should be held over for a General Council, or that Henry should
+agree to have the trial held outside his own realms; propositions, however,
+to neither of which the King could be lured to assent. But the year 1533
+had hardly opened when Charles was enabled to publish a Papal warning of
+excommunication against Henry unless he restored Katharine to her full
+rights as his wife (Feb.); while he detached France from England by the
+promise of concessions restoring her position in Italy.
+
+Clement might now defer a pronouncement in favour of Katharine; there was
+no practical room for hoping that he might still pronounce against her.
+Henry stood alone; if the Pope were finally driven to choose between
+defying the King or the Emperor there could be no doubt which of the two he
+would rather have for an enemy. It only remained for Henry to put it beyond
+question that the declaration must be made, and that his own enmity would
+take an energetic form. His reply to the Pope was decisive. Early in April,
+parliament passed the great Act in Restraint of Appeals, which was
+virtually the announcement of the repudiation of the Roman allegiance;
+before the end of May, the new Archbishop of Canterbury in his court
+pronounced the marriage with Katharine void _ab initio_, and the
+recent marriage with her rival valid.
+
+[Sidenote: Restraint of Appeals]
+
+In form, the Act in Restraint of Appeals was not a fresh piece of
+legislation but a declaration of the existing law; a flat assertion that
+any appeal to the jurisdiction of Rome from the English courts brought the
+appellant under the penalties of praemunire, the "spiritualty" of the
+country being competent to deal with spiritual cases, and the sovereign
+recognising no jurisdiction superior to his own. It did not raise the
+question of authority in matters of doctrine; nor was it a formal
+declaration of schism from Rome. Its meaning however was clear. The
+constitutional theory of independence, put forward on many occasions as the
+warrant for legislation, was henceforth to be acted upon in its most ample
+interpretation: though, as with the Annates Bill, the final confirmation
+was suspended to leave Clement a last chance of surrender. Taken on its
+merits the Act laid down principles entirely acceptable to all parties who
+claim or claimed independence of Rome: yet it was quite obviously issued
+with the direct purpose of setting aside the Pope's authority in a
+particular case already referred to him.
+
+[Sidenote 1: Cranmer Archbishop]
+[Sidenote 2: The decisive breach]
+
+It is in fact doubtful whether Henry could have procured a judgment from
+Warham; but Warham was dead, and the successor appointed was Thomas
+Cranmer, who already before he had been dragged into public life had
+committed himself to the sufficiency of the judgment of the English
+courts. Since taking part in Wiltshire's embassy in 1531 he had been for
+the most part in Germany on diplomatic affairs, associating with
+Protestants and imbibing their views. The most pronounced and definite of
+his doctrines was that of the supremacy of the crown; and on his
+installation as Archbishop in March, he had qualified [Footnote: Moore
+(Aubrey), _Hist. of Reformation_, 109, finds a proof in this of
+"servility and dishonesty," which terms appear to be in his view
+equivalents of Erastianism.] his oath of allegiance to Rome accordingly.
+Other ecclesiastics, from Becket to Gardiner, had been appointed to
+bishoprics under the impression that they were going to support the secular
+arm against the claims of their Order, and had falsified
+expectation. Cranmer maintained as Archbishop the theories of clerical
+subordination which he had adopted as a University Doctor. Convocation was
+called on to express an opinion on the marriage; and whether from
+conviction or despair, it supported the King by a majority. The Archbishop
+obtained the royal licence to convene a court. Katharine, refusing to
+appear, was declared contumacious; and the Court pronounced her marriage
+void while confirming Anne's. The Pope rejoined by pronouncing the judgment
+void. Henry retorted by confirming the Acts in Restraint of Annates and
+Appeals; and himself appealed against the Pope to a General Council. Until,
+in March of the next year, Clement himself definitely pronounced judgment
+in favour of Katharine, there remained a shadow of a chance of a
+reconciliation tantamount to the submission of the Holy See; but the chance
+was not accepted. Practically the judgment of Cranmer's court marked the
+definite schism from Rome.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+HENRY VIII (v), 1533-40--MALLEUS MONACHORUM
+
+[Sidenote: 1533 Ecclesiastical Parties]
+
+WE have noted that a proportion of the higher clergy were at least not
+unwilling to be freed from the domination and the financial exactions of
+Rome; this attitude being either the cause or the effect of the line they
+took as to the divorce. When, however, it was borne in upon them that the
+price of escaping the yoke of the Popedom was to be the subjection of the
+Church, in form to the lay monarch, and in fact to the State, the bulk of
+them endeavoured to protest against the newly imposed subordination. With
+the "Submission of the Clergy" and the appointment of Cranmer as Warham's
+successor, it became entirely clear that to protest or resist would be
+worse than useless. Accordingly we shall now find this section of the
+clerical body, including such prelates as Gardiner of Winchester, Stokesley
+of London, and Tunstal of Durham, devoting themselves to evading or
+rendering nugatory the directions of the Temporal power and its instrument
+Cranmer, under colour of obedience, while dissociating themselves from the
+more rigid of the Old Catholics such as Fisher of Rochester, More, the
+London Carthusians and others. On the other hand, the newer school, who
+were much more antagonistic to the papacy, such as Cranmer, Latimer and
+Barlow, found more personal favour with the King and with Cromwell, though
+their leanings towards the doctrinal tenets of Continental reformers were
+checked from time to time with sufficient rudeness.
+
+[Sidenote: Pope or King?]
+
+A very peculiar situation however soon resulted from the Royal rejection of
+the Papal supremacy. To hold the opinion that the Pope was head of the
+Church implied the recognition of a divided allegiance, casting a doubt on
+the holder's loyalty to the Secular Sovereign, and easily translated into
+treason; since the papal party were bound to maintain in theory the
+validity of the marriage with Katharine, and the rights of her daughter
+Mary. Henry never lacked a plausible theory to justify his most tyrannous
+actions. Modern historians however who carry their support of Henry to the
+extreme point ignore the two facts, that to hold an opinion which if acted
+on would lead to treason is not in itself treason; and that it was quite
+logical to maintain the supreme authority of the Pope in matters spiritual,
+without admitting his power to depose a recalcitrant monarch or to
+determine the line of succession--which was in fact the position adopted by
+Sir Thomas More.
+
+[Sidenote: 1534 Confirmatory Acts]
+
+The Spring session of Parliament in 1534 was devoted mainly to the passing
+of Acts in confirmation and extension of what already been done. The
+Submission of the Clergy and the Restraint of Appeals were re-affirmed in
+one Act; but with the important difference that the whole of the Canon law
+was to be subjected to the Commission when appointed, [Footnote: See
+p. 128, _ante_]. till which time the clergy would be acting at their
+peril in enforcing any rules which might subsequently be condemned as
+against the Royal Prerogative. This was accompanied by an Act in
+confirmation of the Annates Act, coupled with the _congé d'élire_,
+assuring to the King the right of nomination to ecclesiastical appointments
+under the form of permitting the Chapters to elect his nominee. A third,
+the "Peter Pence" Act, abolished the remaining contributions to the Papal
+Treasury. At the same time the "exempt" monasteries--those, that is, which
+had not been subject to the supervision of the bishops--were conveyed to
+the King's control, still without episcopal intervention. A fourth Act, not
+_prima facie_ ecclesiastical in character, was the Act of Succession,
+declaring the offspring of Anne Boleyn (the princess Elizabeth had been
+born in the previous September) heirs to the throne.
+
+[Sidenote: The Pope's last word]
+
+While these proceedings were in progress, the last attempt to subdue the
+Pope by diplomacy was failing. At the end of March, Clement gave the long
+deferred judgment on the divorce, pronouncing the marriage with Katharine
+valid, and that with Anne Boleyn void. Clement survived but a short time.
+His successor Paul III. had at one time been in Henry's favour; but
+reconciliation was now outside the range of practical politics, and the new
+Pope soon found himself more definitely antagonistic to the English monarch
+than his predecessor had been.
+
+[Sidenote: The Nun of Kent]
+
+The prevailing superstitions of the day and their reality as factors even
+in public life are curiously illustrated by the story of the "Nun of Kent"
+--a story concluded by her execution about this time. The "Nun" was a young
+woman named Elizabeth Barton of humble birth, who was subject to fits or
+trances, presumably epileptic in character, in which trances she gave vent
+to utterances which were supposed to be inspired, being generally religious
+in their bearing. Having acquired some notoriety and a reputation for
+sanctity, her prophesyings before long took the form of denunciation of the
+divorce, at that time in its earlier stages. She was exploited by sundry
+fanatical persons honest or otherwise--in such cases it is seldom possible
+to fathom the extent to which mania, intentional deception, conscious or
+unconscious suggestion, and mere credulity, are mingled. In those days,
+there were few people who would venture to attribute such phenomena to
+purely natural causes. Such a man as Thomas More, who was eminently
+rational as well as deeply religious, was not easily beguiled; but the more
+credulous and equally honest bishop of Rochester was unable to regard the
+prophesyings as mere imposture, as was also the case with Warham; and being
+thus countenanced, when the Nun's utterances reached the point of
+denouncing the wrath of Heaven upon those who consented to the Divorce, she
+became really dangerous. She and her associates were charged with treason
+and executed, while Fisher was necessarily to some degree
+implicated. Before her death the Nun made a confession of elaborate
+imposture, but too much weight should not be attached to confessions made
+under such conditions. Given a certain degree of mental aberration, the
+case is not without parallels pointing to an absence of conscious fraud.
+But whether in her case it was fraud or mania, the important fact remains
+that there were numbers of people who attributed her utterances neither to
+the one nor the other but to inspiration; numbers more who were in doubt on
+the point; and that those utterances were to some extent utilised in a
+seditious propaganda; for to declare as a message from on high that the
+King and his advisers had brought upon themselves the curse of the Almighty
+must be recognised as effectively, even if not intentionally, preaching
+sedition.
+
+[Sidenote 1: The Act of Succession]
+[Sidenote 2: The oath refused]
+
+The proceedings against Elizabeth Barton had been accompanied by
+revelations of more or less suspicious conduct on the part of the Countess
+of Salisbury and of Poles, [Footnote: The Countess of Salisbury's
+children. The de la Poles were now extinct. The Nevilles were the
+Countess's kinsfolk, her mother having been a daughter of the Kingmaker.
+See _Front_.] Courtenays and Nevilles, while the Princess Mary
+declined to regard herself as illegitimate. This was made the pretext for
+adopting a very irregular course in connexion with the Act of
+Succession. The Act not only established the order of Succession to the
+throne, but in the preamble asserted the invalidity of Katharine's
+marriage, it was accompanied by an authority to exact an oath of obedience
+to the Statute, the form of the oath not being laid down. Commissioners
+were appointed to exact the oath, which was drawn up in a form accepting
+the entire terms of the Act, not merely promising adhesion to its
+provisions. Presented to them in this form, both More and Fisher refused to
+take the oath. Both were prepared to swear to maintain the succession as
+laid down; neither would avow a belief that the marriage with Katharine was
+void _ab initio_. More laid down definitely the doctrine that it was
+in the power of the State to determine the succession, and the duty of the
+citizen to accept its decision; but that obviously does not involve an
+opinion that the reasons for its decision are sound. Cranmer would fain
+have persuaded the King to accept the oath thus modified as sufficient--not
+realising that the primary object of Henry and Cromwell was to drive the
+opponents of the divorce into a public recantation of their opinion. More
+and Fisher were resolute, and were sent to the Tower, though in form an
+indictment ought first to have been brought against them in the courts.
+Cromwell expressed and no doubt felt a very genuine regret at the failure
+of the plan; but it was ever Cromwell's method to strike at the most
+influential opponents of his policy. If they would bend, well: if not, they
+must break. The device of the oath would force the surrender or else the
+destruction of the best members of the high Catholic party. Three of the
+most zealous and most irreproachable monastic establishments--the London
+Carthusians, the Richmond Observants, and the Brentford Brigittines--were
+inveigled or cowed into temporary submission, but later reverted to the
+position of More and Fisher, and suffered accordingly. The Greenwich
+Observants refused submission altogether, and were dissolved.
+
+[Sidenote: "The Bishop of Rome"]
+
+Before the administration of the oath, the news of Clement's decision had
+come from Rome, with a Bull of Excommunication to follow. It was well for
+Henry that Francis could be relied on to keep Charles in check; for the
+foreign ambassadors, whether well-informed or mainly because the wish was
+father to the thought, were reporting serious disaffection in the country,
+which otherwise might have led to armed intervention by the Emperor. The
+answer to Rome however took the emphatic form of a declaration by
+Convocation and the Universities that "the Bishop of Rome has no more
+authority in England than any other foreign Bishop"; in addition to the
+Acts of Parliament already recorded.
+
+[Sidenote 1: Parliament (Nov.)]
+[Sidenote 2: Treasons Act]
+
+Before the end of the year (1534) Parliament was again in session. The
+argument submitted to the Pope before the passing of the Annates Act--that
+it pressed with undue severity on the bishops--was shown in its true
+character by a new Annates Act which appropriated to the King the funds of
+which the Pope had been deprived. The relief of the bishops was ignored. By
+the "Act of the Supreme Head," Parliament also professedly confirmed the
+declaration of Convocation in 1531; but omitted the saving [Footnote: See
+p. 125] clause; and by a fresh Act of Succession, regularised the treatment
+of More and Fisher, enforcing the oath in the form in which it had been
+submitted to them, retrospectively. Then came the Treasons Act, the coping
+stone of Resolute Government; bringing into the category of Treason not
+only the specific overt actions to which it had been limited by the Act of
+Edward III., but also "verbal treason" and even the refusal to answer
+incriminating questions. It is easy to see what vast opportunities were
+thus given for fastening a practically irrefutable charge of treason on any
+victim selected, when the recognised principle was that the _onus
+probandi_ lay with the accused. An irresistible instrument of tyranny
+was created, justified of course by the usual argument that without such
+powers it was not possible to deal adequately with the abnormal dangers of
+the situation. It need only be remarked that where there is practically no
+check on the abuse of such powers save the scrupulosity of the persons in
+whom they are vested, the risk of flagrant injustice becomes almost
+incalculable. Since the days of Edward III., no monarch had occupied the
+throne with less risk of serious treason than Henry VIII. Under all save
+Henry V. there had been active rebellion, and under him there was at least
+one serious plot. Yet the treason statute of Edward III. had under them
+been held sufficient. The new Act was in truth but one step in the
+systematic development of autocracy under constitutional forms to which the
+policy of Thomas Cromwell was devoted.
+
+[Sidenote 1: 1529-34 The New Policy]
+[Sidenote 2: Cromwell]
+
+When Wolsey fell in 1529 the Duke of Norfolk became ostensibly the King's
+most powerful subject. But it is impossible to trace to him or to his
+following among the nobility the formulation of any sort of definite
+policy. Nevertheless, a quite definite policy had been initiated after a
+short lapse of time. Starting with the checking of palpable ecclesiastical
+abuses, it had gone on to assert with steadily increasing rigour the
+subjection of the entire clerical organisation to the Supreme Head, and to
+embody the assertion of the theory in practical legislation, and dictation
+to Convocation. It had threatened the papacy, till the threats issued
+virtually in an ultimatum followed by repudiation of papal authority. It
+had placed papal and ecclesiastical perquisites under gradual restrictions,
+till by the last Annates Act it began transferring them openly to the
+Crown. In many instances, the initiative had been ostensibly taken by
+Parliament; in others, the King had exercised direct pressure on the
+clergy, but had obtained from Parliament a ratification of the
+ecclesiastical concessions. The whole trend of the policy, culminating in
+the Treasons Act, was to concentrate effective control in the hands of the
+sovereign, by consent of Parliament. And now Cromwell emerges as the man
+who was to give that policy tremendous effect, and by inference at least as
+its probable creator and organiser from the close of 1530. It is not till
+1535 however that he becomes openly and indisputably first minister;
+Wolsey's successor in Henry's confidence--and to Henry's gratitude.
+
+[Sidenote: 1535 More and Fisher]
+
+Before the prorogation of Parliament in February (1535) the two
+recalcitrants in the Tower, More and Fisher, were attainted High Treason
+for maintaining their refusal to take the prescribed oath under the Act of
+Succession. It was perhaps in the hope that the King might hesitate to
+proceed to extremities, in the face of a very marked expression of
+sentiment, that the new Pope, Paul III., proceeded to nominate Fisher a
+Cardinal. It ought to have been obvious that the very contrary effect would
+have been produced: the step was naturally looked upon as a challenge. More
+and Fisher were condemned to death and executed in the summer--martyrs
+assuredly to conscience. The whole of their offence consisted in the single
+fact that they could not and would not recant their belief in the validity
+of Katharine's marriage. Had they sought to make converts to that opinion,
+or to make it a text for preaching sedition, there might have been some
+colour of justice in their punishment. As it was, such danger as there
+might be in their holding that view lay entirely in the advertisement of it
+by insistence on the oath. All Europe shuddered, and half England trembled
+at the demonstration of ruthless power, when those two were struck down--
+the aged bishop whose spotless character and saintly life had for many a
+year given the lie to those who included all the higher clergy in a
+universal condemnation; and the ex-chancellor, the friend of Erasmus, whose
+wide learning, kindly wit, intellectual eminence, and unswerving rectitude
+had won for him a European reputation greater than that of any other
+Englishman of his time. The Carthusians, Brigittines, and Observants who
+had been induced to give way on the question of the Oath reverted to the
+position of More and Fisher. Their heads also were put to death, and the
+houses broken up.
+
+The wrath of the Pope was expressed in a Bull of Deposition; which however
+on second thoughts he found it advisable to hold in suspense till three
+years later.
+
+[Sidenote: Cromwell made Vicar-General]
+
+When More and Fisher opposed themselves obstinately to the King's will,
+there was no doubt that the King would see to it that they paid the
+penalty. But we may suspect that it was not Henry's brain but Cromwell's
+which devised the policy of presenting them with the fatal dilemma. Before
+they were put to death, the minister's supremacy was already established by
+his appointment as Vicar-General, with full power to exercise on the King's
+behalf all the rights vested in the Supreme Head of the Church: rights
+which--however it might be asserted that they were and had been at all
+times inherent in the sovereign--were now to be interpreted in a novel and
+comprehensive spirit. But besides the development alike in extent and
+intensity of the attack on the clerical organisation, we now find foreign
+policy taking a new direction for which Cromwell was assuredly responsible.
+
+[Sidenote 1: The German Lutherans]
+[Sidenote 2: Overtures]
+
+Hitherto, since the fall of Wolsey, the Emperor had been in steady
+antagonism to the English King: so had the Pope, except when he had hopes
+of the Imperial pressure on him being removed. France had on the whole
+given support to England, usually of a lukewarm character. But it does not
+appear that, until this time, Henry had learnt to look upon the German
+Lutherans as an available political force: while his active hostility to
+the Lutheran theology seemed to preclude anything in the nature of a
+_rapprochement_ with the Protestant princes. Yet the Lutherans, like
+Henry, had repudiated papal authority. Recently the French King had taken
+up the idea of bringing about a compromise between the Pope on one side,
+and the Lutherans and English on the other, which would place Charles in
+dangerous straits. The prospect however was unpromising at the best; a
+reconciliation with Rome was really impossible. Cromwell, then, conceived
+the idea of a Protestant league, which would suggest to Francis the
+advantage of following Henry's lead in throwing off the Roman allegiance,
+and ranging himself with the Lutherans and the English. Henry's own
+theological predilections stood in the way, and the Lutherans regarded him
+with suspicion: but Cromwell looked to political expediency as a potent
+salve for healing controversial differences. Thus in the late summer of
+1535, the first advances were made in the direction of seeking a mutual
+understanding with the German Protestants--not without hints that Henry had
+an open mind on the subject of the Augsburg Confession. The Germans however
+were in no haste to accept Henry as a brand plucked from the burning;
+rather, they had a not unnatural suspicion that he merely wanted to make
+use of them. They propounded conditions, which Cromwell submitted to
+Gardiner, at this time ambassador at Paris. Whatever Gardiner's views were
+as to papal ascendancy, he was no Lutheran; and he pointed out that to
+accept the terms would deprive England of her ecclesiastical
+independence. Thus the negotiations fell through--as might have been
+expected. Nevertheless, the desire for the Lutheran alliance remained at
+the back of Cromwell's policy; not avowed but latent; and it was in an
+attempt to entangle Henry irrevocably in that policy that he committed, not
+five years later, the blunder which cost him his head.
+
+[Sidenote: Visitation of the Monasteries]
+
+In the same Autumn--1535--Cromwell as Vicar-General opened his great
+campaign against the monasteries; actuated, according to the historians on
+one side, by a determination to remove a cancer which was destroying the
+morality of the nation; according to the historians on the other side, by
+the vast opportunities afforded for plunder.
+
+[Sidenote: 1536 Suppression of Lesser Houses]
+
+Heretofore the visitation of "exempt" monasteries had lain with the
+Superiors of their respective orders, except when special authority had
+been granted by the Pope to a Morton or a Wolsey. In other cases it had
+been deputed to the bishops, each in his own diocese. At the time of the
+recent Peter Pence Act (1534) the exempt houses had been formally subjected
+to the King. Cromwell now took upon himself the right of visitation, not
+only of the exempt monasteries, but of the others as well, suspending the
+jurisdiction of the bishops while his enquiries were going forward, and
+thus emphasising the doctrine that that jurisdiction was derived from the
+King. Commissioners were appointed--Legh, Leyton, Bedyl, and Ap Rice--to
+investigate and report upon the conduct and the finances of the various
+houses. In a period of about three months (Oct.-Jan.), they made their
+investigations and prepared their report, keeping up an active
+correspondence with Cromwell in the meantime. On the strength of this
+report, a bill was laid before Parliament and passed in February (1536),
+suppressing all houses with less than £200 a year, 376 in number--of which
+however 31 were reinstated later in the year as having been well
+conducted. In part, their inmates were to be redistributed among the
+greater houses; in part they were to be released from their vows; and in
+part they were to receive some compensation.
+
+[Sidenote: The evidence discussed]
+
+Now it is clear that in the time at their disposal, the commissioners could
+not possibly have sifted thoroughly the evidence brought before them. In
+many cases there was enough that was gross, palpable, obvious, to warrant
+condemnation at sight. But the scandalous levity and domineering insolence
+with which they carried out their task must have suggested to the
+ill-conditioned members of every community that slander and false-witness
+might lead to favour and profit, and were not likely to be too carefully
+tested: while it is easy to see how the insulting interrogatories would be
+angrily resented, and answers be refused, or given in the most injudicious
+manner, by perfectly innocent persons; while demands for inventories of
+valuables were met by prevarication and concealment, when the object of the
+commissioners was suspected of being spoliation. The letters of Leyton and
+Legh convey the impression that the fouler the scandals unearthed or
+retailed, the more enjoyment and humour they discovered in their
+occupation. There can be no doubt that the state of things they found was
+in general bad; but by their own statement it was by no means universally
+so; and it is also clear that they accepted adverse witness almost without
+examination and wilfully minimised all that was favourable.
+
+[Sidenote: The Black Book]
+
+Also, it is very doubtful whether the "black book" of monastic offences was
+ever laid before parliament. The preamble to the bill set forth, luridly
+enough, the conclusions arrived at by the King and the vicar-general, and
+summed up the grounds for them. But it seems by no means improbable that
+parliament simply accepted the statement thus laid before it. The black
+book itself disappeared. The Protestant historians of Elizabeth's reign
+said that Bonner destroyed it; the Roman Catholics affirm that it was the
+other party who took care that the evidence on which they acted should
+never be made known. The actual surviving evidence is to be found in the
+partial summaries known as the Comperta and in the letters of the
+commissioners to Cromwell. The examination of these can hardly fail to
+leave the reader with a conviction that the methods of the Commissioners
+were atrociously iniquitous, but that a strictly judicial investigation
+would still have revealed a state of things often appalling, not seldom
+vicious, and commonly reprehensible, without the elements which might have
+made effective reform possible: while it is beyond a doubt that especially
+among the younger monks and nuns, the desire to escape from the bonds of
+monastic rule was common.
+
+[Sidenote: The Consequent Commission]
+
+In favour of the monasteries however, it is to be noted that these 376
+minor houses were suppressed not as having been individually condemned, but
+on the theory that the report pointed to the system of maintaining minor
+houses as bad. Mixed commissions were now appointed to continue the
+visitation, carry out the suppression, and recommend exemptions when it was
+desirable; and the reports of these commissions were of a far less
+unfavourable character, though (as we have seen) only 31 houses were
+actually reinstated. It is to be observed also, in a somewhat different
+connexion, that the further visitation was accompanied by the issuing of
+Injunctions for the conduct of monastic establishments which may have been
+designed solely with a view to enforcing a pure and pious manner of living,
+but are undoubtedly open to the suspicion of having been deliberately
+calculated to make the monastic life insupportable and so to encourage the
+religious houses to efface themselves by voluntary surrender--a course
+which was not infrequently adopted.
+
+[Sidenote: The policy discussed]
+
+There was sufficient precedent for laying the Church under heavy
+contributions to the exchequer. The idea of deliberately confiscating
+Church property had before now been seriously put forward. There had been
+previous suppressions of monastic establishments; but in these cases the
+funds, ostensibly at least, had been diverted to other purposes recognised
+as ecclesiastical, such as Wolsey's schools and colleges. The
+differentiating feature of Cromwell's confiscation was that the funds were
+for the most part withdrawn from any ecclesiastical purpose whatever.
+[Footnote: There was precedent for the proposal however in Parliamentary
+petitions of Richard II.'s reign; but these had not taken effect in
+legislation.] The monastic lands passed to lay owners by grant or purchase;
+they enriched the King or his friends or those whom Cromwell thought fit to
+enrich or to gratify. The evidence that in the public interest it was time
+for the religious houses to go is convincing; the method of proceeding
+against the smaller houses first was tactically shrewd, as evoking less
+opposition at the outset; but even if it be conceded that the Church had
+forfeited her property, it is impossible to find any excuse for the
+application of the spoils to other than public objects. The Church might
+simply be looked upon as a vast corporation, holding its wealth in trust
+for the nation, and rightly deprived of that wealth when it failed to
+fulfil the trust. But on that view, the wealth was bound to be handed over
+to another body, to administer as a trust for the nation. The fact that
+this was not done makes possible only one conclusion as to the motive of
+the suppression. The Church was both the wealthiest and the least dangerous
+victim available for bleeding, besides being open to the charge of
+deserving to be penalised.
+
+[Sidenote 1: Anne Boleyn threatened]
+[Sidenote 2: Her condemnation and death]
+
+In January 1536 the deeply-injured Katharine died; to be followed ere many
+months had passed by her supplanter. Ostensibly, Henry had married Anne
+Boleyn, because a male heir was needed to secure the succession; but she
+had borne him only a daughter and a still-born son. Henry was disappointed
+in her. Moreover, his passion had for some time been cooling: nor was her
+character--even on the most favourable reading--calculated to retain
+affections that had begun to wane. She was frivolous and undignified; her
+arrogance and her assumption had left her few friends. She was jealous of
+the attentions paid by her husband to Jane Seymour, who had been one of
+Katharine's ladies-in-waiting--attentions which she received with a
+becoming reserve. Suddenly it appeared that Anne had been guilty of gross
+misconduct. Sundry gentlemen of the court, including her brother Lord
+Rochford were charged with sharing her guilt. One of them ultimately made
+confession--true or false. There were stories, flatly denied, that she had
+been contracted to Northumberland: that she had actually been his wife when
+she married Henry. There were stories that the marriage was void, because
+of earlier relations between Henry and her mother and sister. Whether the
+queen was guilty or not, the judges of course did what they were expected
+to do; she was tried for treason and condemned. Cranmer was torn between an
+affectionate conviction that she was really a good woman and an inability
+to believe that the King could be misled, much less do her a deliberate and
+conscious wrong. But some sort of admission which she made before him was
+interpreted by the Archbishop as involving the nullity of the
+marriage. Anne was executed: next day, the King married Jane Seymour; the
+marriage with Anne was officially declared to have been invalid; Elizabeth
+being of course de-legitimatised, and so occupying precisely the same
+position as Mary. Thus Henry was left with three illegitimate children (the
+third being the Duke of Richmond who died not long after), and no
+legitimate heir--truly an ironical outcome of that divorce which his
+apologists defend as having been demanded by the need of a successor with
+an indisputable title to the throne!
+
+[Sidenote: The Succession]
+
+Within three weeks of Anne Boleyn's execution (May 19th, 1536), a new
+parliament was sitting; for that which had commenced its sessions at the
+end of 1529 had been dissolved in the spring of this year. The first
+business was formally to ratify the late proceedings, and fix the
+succession on the offspring of the new queen; the second was formally to
+authorise the King himself to lay down the order of succession
+thereafter. Incidentally we may note that the actual legitimate heir
+presumptive [Footnote: See _Appendix B_, and _Front_.] to the
+throne was now the King of Scotland, the son of Henry's elder sister
+Margaret. The claims of a child of Jane Seymour could alone on legitimist
+principles take precedence of his, if the judgments invalidating the two
+previous marriages held good. It is only by admitting the power of
+parliament to fix or delegate its power of fixing the succession, that
+James's claim to be heir presumptive could be challenged. But there was no
+sort of doubt that it would be in actual fact challenged, simply because
+the English would not take a King from another land. There was not much
+room in England for advocates of the doctrine of Divine Right. Neither
+Henry IV, and his successors, nor Henry VII., nor Elizabeth, could have
+maintained a plausible claim to the throne apart from their title by Act of
+Parliament. Of present importance however was the fact that both Katharine
+and Anne were dead before the marriage of Queen Jane; there could therefore
+be absolutely no ground for challenging the legitimacy of any children of
+hers, while any conceivable claims on behalf of either Mary or Elizabeth
+would necessarily yield precedence to the claim of Jane's son, should she
+bear one. Moreover, since there was now no Katharine to claim rights as a
+queen, and her supplanter had died a traitor's death, Mary might without
+risk be re-instated as a Princess on sufficient grounds. Thus a door was
+opened for a renewal of amity with the Emperor.
+
+[Sidenote: Punishment of Heresy]
+
+The aims and objects of the Reformation in England had been entirely
+political and financial. There had been no official movement towards a new
+doctrinal standpoint. On the contrary, the suppression of heresy had been
+not less active after Cranmer's accession to the primacy than before. The
+prosecutions however do not at any time appear to have originated with the
+clergy: and the Ordinaries habitually endeavoured to procure the
+recantation of heresy rather than the exaction of its penalties. But the
+most advanced of the clergy, even those who like Latimer were continually
+verging on doctrines which their stricter brethren regarded as heretical,
+showed as little mercy as any one to the upholders of Anabaptism; whose
+theology was usually combined--or supposed to be so--with perverted views
+on the political and social order. To this class belong most of the martyrs
+of the period; with the notable exception of John Frith. Frith was a young
+man of great piety and learning, who would probably never have been
+arrested but for his association with the distributors of forbidden
+literature. Being arrested, he maintained--in spite of earnest efforts to
+persuade him to recant--the Zwinglian doctrine of the Lord's Supper: but
+further he stood almost alone in declaring that to hold a correct opinion
+on this point of doctrine could not be essential to salvation. Frith was
+the first and almost the only martyr (July, 1533) to the theory of
+toleration, to which neither Romanists nor Protestants, Anglicans nor
+Zwinglians, were yet ready to give ear.
+
+[Sidenote 1: Progressive Movement]
+[Sidenote 2: The Ten Articles]
+
+Although, however, there had been no revolt from orthodox doctrine the
+course of the Reformation abroad could not be without influence in
+England. There was a growing inclination to think and speak of minor
+questions as being debatable; an increasing suspicion on one side that the
+spread of knowledge and of discussion tended to heresy and to
+irreverence--on the other, that they tended to edification. In theory the
+leading ecclesiastics agreed that an authorised translation of the Bible
+would be good, but half of them were afraid that it would lead to novel and
+dangerous interpretations. The general attitude may be regarded as one of
+uneasiness. Hence the commission appointed under Cranmer's auspices did
+little; and Cranmer himself, whose heart was really in the scheme, was
+overjoyed [Footnote: Dr. Gairdner (_Eng. Church_, p. 192) thinks
+however that it was Matthew's Bible, issued next year, to which Cranmer's
+expressions of satisfaction were applied.] when Coverdale produced a
+rendering to which an authoritative _imprimatur_ could be given. The
+general sense of unrest, aggravated perhaps by some alarm lest the Augsburg
+Confession should attract adherents--especially since the Lutherans had
+been told that there might be room for its discussion--led to the
+enunciation of the first of the Anglican formulae of Faith, known as the
+Ten Articles "for establishing Christian Quietness," in July 1536:
+professedly prepared by the King's own hand. These Articles contained no
+deviation from orthodox dogma; but their most notable feature lay in the
+distinction drawn between institutions necessary and convenient, with the
+implication that the latter were liable to modification.
+
+[Sidenote: The Lincolnshire rising]
+
+The issuing of these Articles with the sanction alike of King, Parliament,
+and Convocation, was probably intended to counteract the alarm attendant on
+the visitation and suppression of the monasteries. Those institutions,
+though not popular in cities, and viewed with jealousy by the secular
+clergy, provided in many country districts the only existing charitable or
+educational organisations; and moreover, whatever their defects were in the
+eyes of the Economist, they were much more lenient landlords than the
+average lay landowner. It would have been strange indeed if some of the
+dispersed monks had not allowed their tongues to wag, to the stirring up of
+alarm and discontent. In the autumn of this year, the effect of these
+things were seen in a rising in Lincolnshire. This was promptly suppressed
+without any undue tenderness either of speech or action; but it was very
+soon followed by the much more significant and formidable insurrection in
+the North, known as the Pilgrimage of Grace.
+
+[Sidenote: The Pilgrimage of Grace]
+
+The insurgents were headed by a very remarkable man, a lawyer named Robert
+Aske of a good North-country family. He had taken no part in inciting
+rebellion; but the position of leader was thrust upon him, and as it would
+seem not unwillingly accepted. His abilities were great: the rising was
+organised with much skill, and with wonderful system and discipline. Yet
+Aske's very virtues unfitted him for his office under the existing
+conditions. He was honest himself; he wished to avoid bloodshed: what he
+sought was the remedying of genuine grievances. As with the Lincolnshire
+insurgents, this meant the restoration of the monasteries, the removal of
+evil councillors, notably Cromwell, the removal of the advanced bishops,
+such as Cranmer and Latimer, the remission of a tax granted in 1534 which a
+commission was collecting, the repeal of a recent land-act ("Statute of
+Uses") which had increased the difficulty of providing younger sons with
+sufficient endowments, the restoration to the Church of revenues lately
+attached by the Crown. All over the North, cities and strongholds fell
+into the hands of Aske's followers without a blow. With thirty thousand
+well equipped and fairly disciplined troops he advanced to the Don, where
+he was faced by Norfolk with a far smaller force.
+
+[Sidenote 1: Aske beguiled]
+[Sidenote 2: 1537 Suppression of the rising]
+
+It was then that Aske committed his fatal but noble error. Had he struck
+then, he could in all probability have marched triumphantly to London and
+have dictated his own terms. But he did not wish to strike. He sought a
+conference, and laid his proposals before Norfolk. Norfolk temporised, and
+referred the proposals to London. The insurgents were allowed to believe
+that they would be pardoned, and their demands be essentially conceded. The
+nobles and gentry among them were appealed to privately; Norfolk even
+sought to get Aske betrayed into his hands. Aske still would not give up
+the hope of a peaceful solution. At last in December the King gave Norfolk
+powers to concede a free pardon and a Parliament at York; but there is no
+doubt that Norfolk's statements to the insurgents gave the totally
+different impression that they could count upon the fulfilment of their
+demands. By the King's command the leaders went South to be personally
+interviewed, and returned in sanguine mood. But their army was breaking up,
+and it was very soon apparent that in fact the North was being rapidly
+garrisoned for the King. The pardons were accompanied by a new oath of
+allegiance which showed very clearly that the grievances were not going to
+be remedied. Wild spirits broke out again in deeds of violence. By this
+time, the royal armies were in a position to strike. It was declared that
+the conditions of the pardon had been violated; the insurgents had now no
+prospect of making head in the field. Hangings were freely resorted to;
+Aske and other leaders were seized and executed: an impressive series of
+abbots and priors was among the victims. And so, early in 1537, ended the
+one formidable insurrection of Henry's reign.
+
+[Sidenote: The rising turned to account]
+
+Not only had half the nobility and gentry of the North been seriously
+implicated in the rising; the clergy had taken active part in fomenting
+it. Being followed up by a visitation from Cromwell's most energetic
+commissioners, such guilt as there had been was presented in the strongest
+colours and was made a new ground for Suppression, or the application of
+the drastic regulations which induced voluntary surrender; and at the same
+time pains were taken to impress the Ten Articles on the public mind. These
+were supplemented by the publication of the "Institution of a Christian
+Man" otherwise known as the "Bishops' Book"; in which some points which had
+been omitted or left vague in the Articles were laid down with a more
+defined orthodoxy, though the prelates of every shade of opinion had their
+share in the work. On the other hand, the preparation of an authorised
+version of the Scriptures was going forward. In spite of Cromwell's
+Injunction that the Bible should be set up in English and Latin in the
+Churches, Coverdale's work had not been adopted; and though this was
+followed by "Matthew's Bible," a combination of Tindal's and Coverdale's,
+in 1537, it was not till the issue of the revised version, known on account
+of its size as the Great Bible, more than a year later, that the injunction
+was given general effect.
+
+[Sidenote: 1533-36 James V.]
+
+Abroad, the reluctant but anxious desire to maintain friendly relations
+with England which attended the domination of Wolsey had practically
+disappeared since the Cardinal's fall. From 1529 to 1536, there had been no
+prospect of a reconciliation between Henry and Charles; Francis had only at
+intervals been disposed to make advances; the demeanour of the Lutheran
+princes had been cold at the best. In Scotland, the young King, who only
+attained his majority in 1533, displayed that lack of confidence in the
+disinterested generosity of England which seems to be always a cause of
+pained surprise to the English politicians and historians. In fact it was
+his firm and extremely natural conviction that his uncle was responsible
+for keeping the whole border country in a perpetual state of unrest,
+fomenting the rivalries of the Scottish nobility, and generally promoting
+disorder, in order to bring about the subordination of the Northern to the
+Southern kingdom. The clerical body in Scotland, which had always been most
+energetic in maintaining resistance to England, was of course rendered more
+Anglophobe than ever by Henry's ecclesiastical policy; and its influence
+was strong, since it had done a good deal in the way of fighting James's
+battles with his nobles. Henry proposed a conference with his nephew, to be
+held at York, in 1538; James had at first welcomed the proposal, but
+presently evaded it in the belief that his uncle would kidnap him, as he
+had before designed to kidnap Beton. Instead he went to France, to arrange
+a marriage with a daughter of Francis; and on his return was reported to
+have given encouragement to the North-country rebels.
+
+[Sidenote: 1536-37 Naval measures]
+
+Meantime, in the Channel, the estimation in which England was held had been
+shown by the increasingly piratical proceedings of French, Spanish, and
+Flemish ships; since of late Henry's hands had been too full for him to
+give clue attention to naval affairs. Now however the opportunity was taken
+to devote some of the monastic funds to coast defence. A series of forts
+was raised, commanding the principal harbours on the south coast; and a few
+ships, secretly prepared, were suddenly sent out under competent captains,
+to teach the channel pirates a lesson in English seamanship; which was very
+effectively accomplished.
+
+[Sidenote 1: 1537 Birth of Prince Edward]
+[Sidenote 2: Marriage projects]
+
+The problem of the succession to the throne was at last settled by the
+birth of a prince in October (1537). There was now an heir whose claims if
+he lived would be unassailable. But within a few weeks the queen died; and
+there was still only the life of one baby to shield the country from
+anarchy, in case Henry himself should die. With probably genuine
+reluctance, the King agreed that he would marry again if a suitable wife
+could be found for him; and the whirligig of intriguing for his union with
+one or another foreign princess was set in motion; princesses related to
+Charles, or to Francis, or to one of the Lutheran chiefs. Two years elapsed
+before the choice was made which, led to Cromwell's downfall. And in the
+meantime Mary of Guise (or Lorraine) was withdrawn from the lists by her
+marriage with James V., whose Queen Madeleine had died a few months after
+the nuptials: while the Duchess of Milan, a youthful niece of the Emperor,
+was for some time utilised by Charles as a diplomatic asset. The risk of an
+Anglo-Imperial alliance was employed by him in negotiations with Francis;
+and when these negotiations were brought to a successful issue the proposed
+alliance was gradually allowed to drop.
+
+[Sidenote: 1538 Diplomatic moves]
+
+During 1538 however, this marriage was being dangled before Henry,
+accompanied by the hope that it might cause a rupture between Charles and
+the Pope, from whom a dispensation would be necessary--a question which
+could not now be raised without the kindling of explosive
+materials. Further the English quarrel with Rome was being embittered by a
+campaign against spurious relics, miracle-working shrines, and the like,
+involving a particularly virulent attack on St. Thomas of Canterbury, the
+type of defiant ecclesiasticism. Moreover, the arrival of a deputation of
+Lutheran divines in England was ominous of the closer association of the
+bodies which had revolted from Rome. Reginald Pole, a member of the house
+which stood high in the Yorkist line of succession [Footnote: See
+_Front_.], who had been not long before raised to the Cardinalate, had
+for some time been carrying on from the Continent a violent propaganda
+against Henry. Pope Paul's Bull of Deposition was again being talked of,
+though there is some doubt as to whether it was actually published.
+
+[Sidenote 1: The Exeter Conspiracy]
+[Sidenote 2: Cromwell strikes]
+
+Under all these circumstances, it is scarcely surprising that a new and
+formidable conspiracy, essentially Yorkist, was brought to light. In fact
+the whole country was sown with spies, and there was not much difficulty in
+obtaining information of treasonable speeches, when hasty expressions of
+discontent counted for treason. Now outside the offspring of Henry VII.,
+the Marquis of Exeter, Edward Courtenay, was a grandson of Edward IV.; the
+Poles were grandsons of his brother, Clarence, whose daughter, their mother
+the Countess of Salisbury, was living still. The theory that a tyrant might
+be deposed and another scion of the royal house substituted, had ample
+precedent; and it is in no way improbable that the Courtenays, who were
+all-powerful in the West, might have been ready enough in conjunction with
+the Poles to make a bid for the throne, if they could have found or created
+a favourable opportunity. The Cardinal had warning from Cromwell that the
+safety of his kinsmen was jeopardised by his diatribes; while Lord
+Montague, the head of the family, was on very close terms of friendship
+with Exeter. Exeter's own conduct on the occasion of the Pilgrimage of
+Grace had been suspicious. Out of these materials there was no difficulty
+in constructing a damning case against as many members of these Plantagenet
+houses as might be considered advisable: since there was no need to prove
+that rebellion was actually organised. It was enough to have a record of
+the use of disloyal expressions, or even of the concealment of the
+knowledge that such expressions had been used. Finally it was notorious
+that there was no love lost between Cromwell and the suspected
+nobles. Cromwell, having collected sufficient evidence for his purpose,
+struck. Geoffrey Pole, a younger brother, learned that the blow was coming
+in time to turn informer. How far there was anything really deserving the
+name of a conspiracy the evidence produced did not show; but the existence
+of treason under the Treasons Act was indisputable. The policy which had
+struck down Buckingham nearly a score of years before was repeated even
+more ruthlessly. The materials for formulating a Yorkist rising were
+destroyed; there was no figure-head for one left when Exeter and Montague
+had been executed (Dec.), even though the old Countess of Salisbury's doom
+was deferred. And men realised afresh--if there was need that they should
+do so--the irresistible machinery that Cromwell had prepared for the
+certain annihilation of any one worth annihilating.
+
+[Sidenote: 1539 Menace of Invasion]
+
+The warning was perhaps necessary; for in the beginning of 1539 the
+attitude of the foreign Powers was menacing. The Pope was planning a sort
+of crusade, with invasion and insurrection in Ireland as its basis. The
+marriage of James of Scotland to Mary of Guise would make matters the more
+dangerous if France assumed a definitely hostile attitude; and the pretence
+of negotiating the union between Henry and the Duchess of Milan had been
+ended by the reconciliation of Charles and Francis. A combination including
+the Emperor was threatening. Wriothesly the English ambassador in the Low
+Countries, did not believe on the whole that there would be a breach of the
+peace, unless the Imperialists felt that their victory would be assured.
+Nevertheless, a great armament was assembled in the Dutch harbours.
+England, however, had awakened to the need of defence in the Channel;
+fleets were assembled and forts manned. The solidarity of the country had
+been demonstrated by the easy suppression of the Courtenays and Poles. If
+an invasion was contemplated--which can hardly be doubted--the invaders
+thought better of the situation, and the armada dispersed without any overt
+hostilities taking place.
+
+[Sidenote 1: The King and Lutheranism]
+[Sidenote 2: The Six Articles]
+
+The Lutheran conference of the previous year had been without direct
+results: but it had the effect of forcing to the front the settlement of
+the official position as to several points of doctrine. The advanced
+bishops were distinctly inclined to admit the Lutheran views: the other
+powerful body within the English Church was in strong opposition.
+Theologically, the King was in agreement with the latter section, although
+he retained a particularly strong and persistent personal affection for
+Cranmer--apparently the only persistent affection of his life. The result
+was the production of the Six Articles Act, pronouncing in favour of
+Transubstantiation, clerical celibacy, auricular confession, communion in
+one kind only for the laity, prayers for the dead, and the permanence of
+vows once taken. On the first head there was not as yet any real difference
+of opinion. As to the second, Cranmer was actually a married man when he
+became archbishop, and many of the clergy, especially in country districts,
+had wives, in spite of the fact that the law did not recognise the
+relationship: so that an awkward situation was created. Considering the
+abolition of the monasteries, the Article concerning vows was
+remarkable. But on all these doctrines the views of the reformers were not
+yet sufficiently crystallised to prevent their submission when the Jaw
+demanded it, though it justified a determined opposition to the passing of
+the law; in this Cranmer was particularly conspicuous, and two of the
+bishops, Latimer and Shaxton, lost their sees. That the Act should have
+been passed is not surprising; but the ferocity of the attendant penalties
+is best explained by the fact that, on an attempt being made to apply the
+statute in a wholesale fashion, the accused were promptly pardoned and set
+at liberty. The object was not so much to punish as to silence the advanced
+section.
+
+[Sidenote: Final Suppression of Monasteries]
+
+At the same time two other Acts of grave import were passed. One was the
+Act for the suppression and forfeiture of those religious houses which had
+not been accounted for in the Act of 1536. The new Act was merely the
+logical corollary of the old one. The distinction in morals between the
+lesser and greater monasteries was not marked: and to the old charges of
+the commissioners were added the new charges of complicity in the rebellion
+of the North and in Exeter's conspiracy, and of fomenting disloyalty
+generally. The measure was carried out with great harshness, and especial
+severity was shown in the cases where abbots and monks attempted to conceal
+the monastic treasures. The aged and beloved abbot of Glastonbury was found
+guilty of treason and put to death. The great estates became for the most
+part the prizes of the nobility. Some few of the houses were converted into
+Chapters. There was a scheme for constructing twenty-one new bishoprics out
+of the proceeds of the suppression, but the twenty-one dwindled to six.
+[Footnote: Chester, Peterborough, Oxford, Gloucester, Bristol and
+Westminster.] A fraction of the money was expended on the Channel
+defences. But broadly speaking the vast bulk of the spoils went to no
+national or ecclesiastical purpose but to the enrichment of private
+individuals. Still the amount realised by the National Exchequer did no
+doubt relieve the present necessity for taxation in other forms, which
+would have been a more fruitful source of murmuring and discontent than
+sympathy with the dispossessed monks.
+
+[Sidenote: Royal Proclamations Act]
+
+The second measure was the Royal Proclamations Act, giving to Royal
+Proclamations made with the assent of the Privy Council the force of
+law. This was the coping stone of that edifice of absolutism built up by
+parliamentary enactments of which Cromwell was the Architect: an adaptation
+of the system initiated by Henry VII. and developed by Wolsey; springing
+now from the assertion of the doctrine of the Supreme Head, continuing with
+the novel practical interpretations of that doctrine in matters
+ecclesiastical, and buttressed by the Treasons Act, which effectually
+translated discontent into Treason. Now the King was left in such a
+position that his will became formally law unless his Privy Council opposed
+him.
+
+[Sidenote: Anne of Cleves]
+
+Cromwell had shattered the ecclesiastical power of resistance: he had
+shattered also the dangerous elements among the nobility: he had
+systematically secured parliamentary confirmation for every step. But he
+wished to carry still further the anti-clericalism which was part of his
+policy. He desired the domination in England of the Lutheranising section
+of Churchmen, and the central idea of his foreign policy was the
+construction of a Protestant League. In these respects he went beyond his
+master, and in the attempt to carry his master with him, he made ship-wreck
+of himself. The question of another marriage for Henry was still unsettled;
+if more children were to be hoped for, it must be settled soon. Cromwell
+fixed upon Anne of Cleves as politically the wife to be desired. By wedding
+with her, Henry would be drawn into closer relations with the Protestant
+League of Schmalkald. He painted for the King a misleading picture of the
+lady's charms: the King consented to his plans; the negotiation flowed
+smoothly.
+
+[Sidenote 1: 1540 The Marriage]
+[Sidenote 2: Fall of Cromwell]
+
+Early in the year (1540) the bride came to England; bringing
+disillusionment. Matters had gone too far for the King to draw back, and
+the marriage was carried out; but his wrath was kindled against its
+projector. The blow fell not less suddenly than with Wolsey. The Earl of
+Essex--such was the title recently bestowed on Cromwell--was without
+warning arrested and attainted of high treason. The instrument he himself
+had forged and ruthlessly wielded with such terrible effect was turned as
+ruthlessly against him. He had over-ridden the law. He had countenanced and
+protected anti-clerical law-breakers. He had spoken in arrogant terms of
+his own power. As it had availed Wolsey nothing that his breach of
+praemunire had been countenanced by the King, so it availed Cromwell
+nothing that the King had seemed to support him. If the King had done so,
+in each case, it was merely because he in his innocence had been misled by
+his minister, so that in fact their crime was aggravated. For the merciless
+minister, there was no mercy. That the process against Essex was by
+attainder and not by an ordinary trial is of little moment. His fate would
+have been the same in any case; nor was he so scrupulous in such matters
+that he can claim sympathy on that head. No voice but Cranmer's--in
+lamentation rather than protest--was raised on his behalf. The mighty
+minister, the most dreaded of all men who have swayed the destinies of
+England, found himself in a moment as utterly helpless as the feeblest of
+his victims had been. He was flung into the Tower; his stormy protests were
+unheeded by the King; on July 28th, his head fell beneath the executioner's
+axe.
+
+[Sidenote: Nemesis]
+
+Cromwell had learned his ethics and his state-craft in that school whose
+doctrines are formulated in "The Prince" of Macchiavelli. He had applied
+those principles with remorseless logic, untinged by the fear of God or
+man, to the single end of making his master actually the most complete
+autocrat that ever sat on the throne of England. His loyalty was as
+unfailing as it was unscrupulous; his work had been thorough and
+complete--the King was placed beyond further need of him. His reward was
+the doom of a traitor. Unpitying he lived, unpitied he died. Regardless of
+justice, he had swept down each obstacle in the way of his policy:
+regardless of justice he was in turn struck down. By his own standards he
+was judged; his end was the end he had compassed for More and
+Fisher. History has no more perfect example of Nemesis.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+HENRY VIII (vi), 1540-47--HENRY'S LAST YEARS
+
+[Sidenote: 1540 Katherine Howard]
+
+The complaisant and very plain lady who had been the cause of Cromwell's
+downfall had no objection (subject to compensation), to being discarded on
+technical grounds by her spouse. Before the minister was dead, the marriage
+had been pronounced null: not without compensatory gifts. But her brother
+the Duke of Cleves was less easily pacified, and all prospect of an
+alliance with the Protestant League was at an end. A new bride was promptly
+found for the King in the person of Katharine Howard, a kinswoman of the
+Duke of Norfolk--a marriage which marked the renewal of the ascendancy of
+the old nobility in alliance with the reactionary Church party.
+
+[Sidenote: The King his own Minister]
+
+Thirty-one years had passed since Henry, in the first flush of a manhood
+exceptionally rich in promise, but untried and inexperienced, had taken his
+place on the throne of England as the successor of the most astute
+sovereign in Europe. For nearly twenty years thereafter Wolsey had served
+him with such latitude of action that nearly every one except the Cardinal
+believed that he dominated the King. After a brief interval, for nearly ten
+years more the same statement would have applied to Cromwell. While those
+two great ministers held office, each of them towered immeasurably above
+all his fellow-subjects: though each knew that the brilliant boy had
+hardened into a masterful King who could hurl him headlong with a nod. But
+when Cromwell had fallen, none took his place; there is no statesman who
+stands out conspicuous. Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford, brother of Jane
+Seymour, showed some military capacity; Paget proved himself an astute
+diplomatist; Cranmer and Gardiner led the rival Church parties, but neither
+the parties nor their leaders exercised any semblance of control over the
+Supreme Head. Abroad, Henry's battle with the Pope was won: at home his
+autocracy was established alike as temporal and spiritual head of the
+nation. There was no one left who needed crushing. Cromwell had seen to
+that before he was dispensed with. After that revolutionary decade, there
+were no more marked changes. There were incidents in the now slowly moving
+course of the reformation; there was even an unimportant insurrection; but
+the chief interest of Henry's closing years is once more to be found mainly
+in foreign relations, and more especially in those with Scotland.
+
+[Sidenote: England and the European Powers]
+
+On the continent, the two leading Powers, France and the Empire, were in a
+chronic state of antagonism only occasionally veiled: while the Pope was in
+permanent opposition to England. This situation was complicated by the
+Schmalkaldic League of Protestant German Princes. When Charles was disposed
+to religious toleration, the League were his very good subjects, the Pope
+became antagonistic, and a Franco-papal alliance threatened. When Charles
+leaned to intolerance, the Pope grew favourable to him, and Francis turned
+a friendly eye on the perturbed Protestant League. Charles, Francis, and
+the League, would each of them have been pleased to make use of England,
+but none of them wished to be of service to her: and now Thomas Cromwell's
+great desire of bringing about a cordial relation between England and the
+League had been frustrated instead of furthered by the affair of Anne of
+Cleves. The risk of this alliance had forced Charles into a conciliatory
+attitude towards Francis; relieved from it, he could now revert to his
+normal attitude. At the end of 1540, the Emperor and the French King were
+almost within measurable distance of hostilities, while the relations
+between the latter and Henry were becoming seriously strained by his
+neglect to pay the instalments of cash due under past treaties. For the
+time being, however, there was no immediate likelihood of a breach of the
+peace.
+
+[Sidenote: Cardinal Beton]
+
+In Scotland, James Beton Archbishop of St. Andrews, the most consistent
+enemy of England, had died in 1539, and had been succeeded, both in his
+office and his influence, by his nephew, the still more famous Cardinal,
+David Beton. The Cardinal was the last of the old school of militant
+ecclesiastical statesmen; a foe to the English the more deadly because of
+Henry's anti-clerical policy, as well as on account of traditional views,
+and of the specific grounds of distrust for which Henry himself had been
+responsible during twenty years past--including the proposal to let Angus
+kidnap James Beton [Footnote: _Cf._ p. 81.] under a safe-conduct. He
+was moreover a zealous persecutor of heretics; which greatly intensified
+the bitterness with which all the historians of the reforming party treated
+not only the man himself but the whole policy which he was supposed to have
+instigated. In Scotland, religious reformers were almost of necessity
+Anglophiles, since Henry did all he could to encourage their doctrines.
+
+North of the Tweed, English writers have relied so much on the statements
+of John Knox and Buchanan that the persistent hostility not only of the
+King and the clergy but also of the Scottish Commons to Henry's overtures
+is generally represented as mere frowardness. It was in fact due to a
+distrust sufficiently accounted for by the English King's undeniable
+complicity in the deliberate fostering of disorder, and more than justified
+by his re-assertion in public documents of the English claim to suzerainty
+which had been finally and decisively repudiated at Bannockburn--a
+repudiation confirmed by treaty [Footnote: It is true that this had not
+prevented Edward III. from re-asserting the claim.] in 1328.
+
+[Sidenote: Scotland and England, 1541]
+
+In 1541 the attempt was renewed to bring about a conference with the Scots
+King at York; again it failed, after James had seemed to commit
+himself. Henry was indignant, and recriminations passed on the subject and
+on that of border raids, which culminated in the following summer in the
+affair of Haddon Rigg when an English party was very badly handled. It is a
+curious illustration of Henry's notions of honour that--although the two
+countries were nominally at peace--Wharton, one of the English Wardens of
+the Marches, proposed to take advantage of James's 1542 roving propensities
+and arrange to have him captured and brought prisoner to England; a scheme
+which Henry apparently approved, but fortunately for his own credit
+referred to his Council, whose consciences were less adaptable. In October,
+the English indulged in a week's invasion of Scotland, and the Scottish
+King would have responded in kind but that his nobles thought better of it.
+
+[Sidenote: Solway Moss (Nov.)]
+
+The counter-invasion however was not long delayed. The popular accounts of
+it are mainly derived from the narrative of John Knox; according to whom
+the Scottish army, ill-led and disorderly, was utterly routed with immense
+slaughter by three or four hundred English yeomen who succeeded in
+gathering together and smiting them after the analogy of Gideon. But the
+dispatches of Wharton [Footnote: _Hamilton Papers._ Lang, Hist.
+Scot., i., 455. Froude, iv., 190 (Ed. 1864), follows Knox picturesquely.],
+the Warden of the Marches, show that, acting on some days' information, he
+had ready a force of from 2,000 to 3,000 men, with whom, having watched his
+opportunity, he fell upon the very badly organised Scottish levies and
+entangled them in the morass called Solway Moss. The completeness of the
+disaster has not been over-rated; but it was an intelligible operation of
+war, not a miracle. James was prostrated by the blow. In three weeks time
+(December 14th, 1542) he was dead, and his week-old daughter Mary inherited
+the woful burden of the Scottish crown.
+
+[Sidenote: Intervening events]
+
+In the meantime, there had been a futile insurrection in the North, headed
+by Sir John Neville, in the Spring of 1541; which led to the execution not
+only of Neville himself, but of the old Countess of Salisbury--niece of
+Edward IV., mother of the Poles, and grandchild of the "King-maker". Not
+long after this, the Norfolk interest suffered a severe shock at Henry's
+court from the discovery of flagrant and confessed misconduct on the part
+of the monarch's fifth spouse, Katharine Howard; she was attainted and
+beheaded, in February, 1542, and succeeded by Katharine Parr; who was
+fortunate enough to outlive her husband.
+
+[Sidenote: 1543 Henry's Scottish policy]
+
+Solway Moss inspired Henry with a fresh determination to invade and
+chastise Scotland; but James's death suggested a simpler method. For the
+moment, Beton was in the hands of his enemies. Henry proposed that the baby
+Mary should be betrothed to his own son Edward, that the government of
+Scotland should be vested in a Council which he could control, and that
+sundry English garrisons should be planted in the country. The Scots lords
+captured at Solway Moss were quite ready to promise support to his plans as
+the price of returning home: they were also ready to break faith with the
+English King when they got there; and did so. As soon as the lords were out
+of Henry's reach, the Scots Estates demanded modifications in the proposed
+treaty which would have made it nugatory from the English point of view. A
+Scottish Prince might have been allowed to wed an English Princess; but
+Scotland would not take her King from England. It was not long before the
+Cardinal recovered his ascendancy, and, acting in conjunction with the
+queen-mother, Mary of Guise, sought the aid and alliance of France.
+
+[Sidenote: Alliance with Charles]
+
+The French King was already at war with Charles, and his relations with
+England were exceedingly strained; whilst he was openly declaring his
+determination to support Scotland, and French ships were playing the pirate
+in the Channel. The Emperor on the other hand had quieted the Protestant
+league by his tolerant attitude at the Diet of Ratisbon (1541); but the
+Duke of Cleves, Henry's enemy, was defying him. Hence the whole conditions
+pointed to an anti-French _rapprochement_ between Charles and Henry;
+which took the form of a treaty of alliance early in 1543. If the
+territories of either Power were invaded, the other was to render
+assistance: and thereafter neither was to make peace unless his ally was
+satisfied also. The French King attempted to detach England by offering to
+meet the bulk of her separate requirements; and considering the prevailing
+standard of bad faith, it is to Henry's credit that he refused these
+overtures.
+
+[Sidenote: War with France]
+
+In the early summer Francis invaded Flanders, and an English force, not
+numerous but in good trim, entered Picardy. The Imperial troops however
+awaited the arrival of Charles himself from the South, and it was not till
+August that he took the field, having gathered his army, largely composed
+of Spanish soldiery, at Spires. But his first objective proved to be not
+France but Cleves which he brought to rapid submission and treated with
+great severity. In October he began to concert operations with the English,
+and a scheme was prepared, to be given effect in the following summer: when
+the English were to invade France by way of Calais, and the Emperor by way
+of the Upper Rhine, the two armies converging on Paris.
+
+[Sidenote: 1544 Domestic Affairs]
+
+Though the French campaign was thus deferred, the early months of 1544 were
+not uneventful. In the realm of domestic affairs, we observe that the King
+was now resorting with vigour to the worst expedient of bad financiers, a
+monstrous debasement [Footnote: See _infra_ p. 180] of the
+currency. Also he had recently raised a considerable forced loan, pending
+the collection of subsidies already voted by Parliament but not yet due. An
+act was now passed in effect converting the loan into a gift, by reason of
+the necessities of the war--a measure not practically different from the
+voting of an additional subsidy. Parliament also had the satisfaction of
+being invited to lay down the succession to the throne in accordance with
+Henry's wishes, although he had already been empowered to fix it without
+appeal--an apt illustration of his preference for following Constitutional
+forms whenever there was no risk of his objects being interfered with.
+After Prince Edward and his heirs, Mary was to succeed, and after her
+Elizabeth. Beyond Henry's own offspring, the claims of the Stewarts through
+Margaret Tudor were postponed to those of the descendants of the younger
+sister Mary.
+
+[Sidenote: Intrigues in Scotland]
+
+In Scotland, Beton was in power, carrying out a drastic policy of religious
+persecution; the nobility were in their normal condition of kaleidoscopic
+flux, taking sides for or against Henry, the Cardinal, and each other, as
+the moment's interests might suggest. The Anglicising party made a pact
+with England to repudiate the French alliance, hand over the baby Queen if
+they could, and accept Henry's control. Scotland was to be invaded. Certain
+zealous spirits proposed to assassinate the Cardinal if they could do so
+under Henry's aegis, but the opportunity passed before he replied to their
+overtures--to the effect that the scheme was eminently laudable, but that
+he could not openly move in the matter. The assassination of a tyrant was
+not looked on as an act deserving of severe moral condemnation; many
+zealots would have accounted it a virtuous deed, to risk their lives for
+such an end. But a King [Footnote: Froude, iv., 319 (Ed. 1864), apparently
+defends Henry on the ground that he regarded Beton as a traitor; and saw
+"no reason to discourage the despatch of a public enemy".] who encouraged
+even while declining to hire assassins stands in a different category from
+such persons.
+
+[Sidenote: Edinburgh Sacked]
+
+In the beginning of May, Edinburgh was startled by the appearance in the
+Forth of a great English fleet. The idea of an invasion in this form had
+never presented itself. There was no army to give battle. The Cardinal and
+his friends fled. The English landed and sacked Leith. Edinburgh was in no
+condition for defence; the resistance of the citizens, though stubborn, was
+easily overwhelmed. The city was pillaged; the county for miles round was
+laid waste; and then, satisfied with his work of simple destruction,
+Hertford, the English commander, withdrew. Scotland was leaderless and
+powerless to strike: for months to come, the English Wardens of the Marches
+were free to carry out a series of devastating raids with practical
+immunity. Under these circumstances, Henry dismissed the idea of organising
+a subordinate government: anarchy in Scotland suited him equally well,
+without involving responsibilities or taxing his resources. His serious
+attention was given to the Continent.
+
+[Sidenote: The French War]
+
+During May, separate overtures were made on behalf of France both to
+Charles and Henry with a view to severing their alliance; each however
+declined entirely to treat apart from the other. More-over, at the Diet of
+Spires, Charles took a strong line in favour of the maintenance of the
+ordinances of Ratisbon and generally of deferring all religious differences
+till the war with France should be over. With the Pope supporting France
+and advocating alliance with the Turk as a less dangerous enemy to
+Christianity than the ecclesiastical rebel of England, Charles was not
+disposed to show favour to the Catholic princes of the Empire.
+
+[Sidenote: Charles makes peace at Crepy (Sept.)]
+
+The time was now at hand for the campaign to commence: and Henry proposed a
+modification of the original scheme. According to his view, it would be
+better for the two armies to concentrate in force on the frontiers while a
+single detachment penetrated as far into France as might seem wise. Charles
+however insisted on his plan of two separate invasions. Henry could not
+refuse, but pointed out that his own march on Paris was conditioned by the
+thorough reduction of the country as he advanced; notably of Boulogne and
+Montreuil which would otherwise perpetually threaten his
+communications. The English proceeded to lay siege to these two places, and
+the Emperor attacked St. Dizier. Until these strongholds were captured, the
+two armies were respectively unable to advance. With August, Francis
+renewed his scheme of making separate overtures accompanied by suggestions
+to each monarch that his ally was trying to make terms for himself. Each
+again refused to treat apart from the other. At last St. Dizier fell, and
+Charles advanced into France, passing by Chalons and a considerable French
+army which was enabled to act on his line of communications. Hence he very
+soon found himself in grave difficulties. Thereupon he informed Henry that
+unless the English marched straight upon Paris, regardless of Boulogne and
+Montreuil, (which he knew to be strategically impossible) he would have to
+accept for himself the terms offered by Francis. Boulogne was taken
+(September 14th) three days after the message was received, but Montreuil
+held out. Henry had honourably refused to make terms for himself; but on
+September 19th Charles signed the peace of Crepy--amounting to a simple
+desertion of his ally.
+
+Boulogne was lost to the French, and though they were now free to
+concentrate their forces against the English, all attempts to re-capture it
+were repulsed. Henry felt no disposition to abate his own terms or to
+resign Boulogne: Francis required him to do both. Charles politely
+repudiated any obligation to armed intervention, despite the efforts of
+Gardiner to persuade him--much to the bishop's disappointment, since the
+Lutheran Princes, alarmed by the Emperor's conduct, were again making
+overtures to England.
+
+[Sidenote: 1545 Ancram Moor]
+
+In Scotland, the policy of destruction adopted by the English throughout
+1544 had driven the country to a temporary rally, and a severe reverse was
+inflicted on the Southron, beguiled into an ambuscade, at Ancram Moor in
+February 1545; whereby Francis was encouraged to maintain, and Charles to
+assume, hostility to Henry: who in turn unsuccessfully sought the Lutheran
+alliance--a failure due to the persistent distrust of the German Princes,
+who could never make up their minds whether the promises of the King or the
+Emperor were the less to be relied on. To the quarrel over the desertion of
+England by Charles at the peace of Crepy, was added a quarrel over the
+seizure by the English of Flemish ships carrying what would now be called
+contraband of war, and the arrest in retaliation of English subjects in
+Flanders.
+
+[Sidenote: A French Invasion]
+
+The isolation of England was complete: and Francis now looked to effect a
+successful invasion; to which end a great fleet was collected. But there
+was now a respectable English navy, supplemented by ships from every port
+on the southern coast. The threat of invasion raised the whole country in
+arms. In the latter part of July, the French armada was off the Solent, and
+a landing was accomplished in the Isle of Wight; but though there were
+various demonstrations and a few skirmishes, there was no general
+engagement. The French could not get into the Solent: the English would not
+come out in force, so long as the lack of a sufficient breeze gave the
+fighting advantage to the enemy's oar-driven galleys. Finally, plague broke
+out in the French fleet which retired about the middle of August. Its
+dispersion allowed of the relief of Boulogne; which was becoming somewhat
+straitened, being blockaded on the land side by a large army.
+
+[Sidenote: 1546 Terms of Peace]
+
+Thus when the autumn set in, the offensive operations of the French had
+resulted in complete failure though there had been no important engagement:
+and in the meantime, the temporary nature of the reverse at Ancram Moor had
+been demonstrated by renewed ravages in Scotland directed by Hertford. The
+altered aspect of affairs made Francis ready to treat, and changed the tone
+of Charles from hostility to conciliation. Negotiations were set on foot;
+but in the course of them it became clear not only that Henry was
+determined to keep Boulogne but that Charles had no intention of letting
+Milan go. England's readiness to continue the struggle was demonstrated by
+the strength of the forces she threw onto French soil in the following
+March, and in May Francis proposed terms. Most of the cash claims were to
+be paid up; part were to be referred to arbitration; and Boulogne was to
+remain for eight years in the hands of the English as security. The
+financial pressure of the war had been terribly heavy, so that the
+expedient of debasing the coinage had been repeated in order to supplement
+taxation. Henry accepted the French terms; and almost simultaneously his
+hands were strengthened by the assassination of his most resolute opponent
+in Scotland, Cardinal Beton (May 29th, 1546). The Peace with France was
+concluded in June.
+
+[Sidenote: 1532-46 Events in Europe]
+
+Before proceeding with the account of the ecclesiastical movement in
+England during these six years, and with the narrative of the concluding
+six months of Henry's reign, we must turn aside to observe certain events
+on the Continent which have not hitherto fallen under our notice, since
+they did not at the time exercise a direct effect on English policy, and
+were not immediately influenced thereby. Yet since the treaty of Nuremberg
+in 1532--the point down to which, in a previous chapter, we followed the
+course of the Reformation in Europe--a compromise which served as a
+_modus vivendi_ between the Protestant League and the Catholic
+subjects of the Empire, important developments had been taking place, which
+very materially, if indirectly, affected the subsequent course of events in
+England as well as on the Continent. The period corresponds roughly with
+the pontificate of Paul III. which lasted from 1534 to 1549.
+
+[Sidenote: The Lutherans and the Papacy]
+
+The idea that the ecclesiastical reconciliation of Christendom was still
+possible--apart from the banned and recalcitrant sovereign of England--was
+one of which a considerable body of Churchmen by no means despaired. There
+were men like Contarini and Pole on the one side and Melanchthon on the
+other whose doctrinal attitude did not seem to be hopelessly
+irreconcilable. But while the Lutherans demanded for themselves a latitude
+of opinion beyond what the Pope would ever have been prepared to concede,
+the two sides laid down two contradictory propositions as the condition of
+reconciliation, in respect of the validity of Papal authority. Each was
+willing, even anxious, for a General Council; but neither would admit one
+unless so constituted as to imply that its own view was postulated and
+_ipso facto_ the opposing view ruled out of court. The Emperor, though
+anti-Lutheran, was unwilling either to enforce his view at the sword's
+point, or to subordinate himself to the Pope. The French King was equally
+ready to win papal favour by persecuting his own protestant subjects, and
+to encourage the protestant subjects of the Emperor, according as one
+course or the other seemed more likely to embarrass Charles. Finally the
+Pope, while set upon the suppression of the Lutheran heretics, was
+desperately afraid of the accession of strength to Charles which would
+result from their complete disappearance as a political factor: and he was
+almost equally afraid that if a Council could not be carried through,
+Charles would call a national Synod of the Empire to settle the religious
+question independently.
+
+[Sidenote 1: 1541 Conference of Ratisbon]
+[Sidenote 2: 1542 Council of Trent]
+
+Thus attempts to bring about a General Council failed repeatedly. The
+nearest approach to reconciliation was achieved when a conference was
+arranged at Ratisbon (1541) at which there were papal as well as Lutheran
+representatives and it seemed as if common ground of agreement was in
+course of emerging. But Luther himself held aloof; Paul III. would not
+ratify the concessions that Contarini and others were willing to make. The
+Conference ended in failure; and Charles--always embarrassed in his
+dealings with the Protestants by his need of their support against
+threatening Turkish aggression--was obliged, a good deal against his
+private inclinations, to reaffirm the Nuremberg toleration. The result was
+a renewal of negotiations between Pope and Emperor for the calling of a
+General Council; whereof the outcome was that in May 1542 the Pope summoned
+the famous Council of Trent which did not conclude its sittings till twenty
+years later. Although the Council was formally called for the end of the
+year, it did not succeed in holding a working Session till 1546; after the
+spring of 1547 it was transferred to Bologna; nor did it get to work again
+(once more at Trent) till 1551. The fundamental point however is that, by
+its constitution, the Lutheran controversy was prejudged and the Lutheran
+party effectively excluded. It was not a Council representing Christendom;
+it stood for the Church of Rome seeking internal reformation for itself and
+arrogating Catholicity to itself. Hence arose the custom of using the terms
+Catholic and Protestant as party labels for those within and without the
+"orthodox" pale, in spite of the objection more particularly of the
+Anglican body to its implied exclusion from the "Catholic" Church and
+inclusion in the same category with the Lutheran and Calvinistic
+bodies. The historian cannot admit that Rome has a right to monopolise the
+title of Catholic; but during the period when Europe was practically
+divided politically into two religious camps, it is difficult to avoid
+using the current labels though their adoption is in some degree
+misleading.
+
+[Sidenote: 1548 Death of Luther]
+
+With the convocation of the Council of Trent, such hope as there had been
+for a reunion of Christendom was practically terminated. Its first working
+sessions in 1546 were contemporaneous with the death of the man who had led
+the revolt against Rome. But if Martin Luther had been a great cleaving
+force, in Germany itself his influence had been consistently exerted for
+national unity. To him more than to any other man it was due that Germany
+had not as yet been plunged into a civil war. He was hardly gone, when the
+forces of discord broke loose.
+
+[Sidenote: 1546-49 Charles and the Protestant League]
+
+Charles in fact found the Schmalkaldic League a thorn in his side, and had
+for some time been resolved on its extinction should a favourable
+opportunity occur. His war with Francis was terminated by the Peace
+[Footnote: P. 162, _ante._] of Crêpy in September 1544; the pressure
+from Turkey was relaxed; there was no probability that either England or
+France would commit themselves to helping the League. In the summer of
+1546, the League was put to the ban of the Empire; in the following summer
+it was crushed at the battle of Mühlberg, largely owing to the support
+given to the Emperor by the young Protestant Duke of Saxony, Maurice. But
+while this triumph broke up the League, and led Charles to regard himself
+as all-powerful, it frightened the Pope into an attitude of hostility; the
+Protestants were not annihilated; the course taken by Charles satisfied
+neither party within the Empire; and we shall shortly find a new and
+formidable Nationalist and anti-Spanish movement evolved in Germany with
+surprising suddenness and effectiveness.
+
+During these years two religious developments had been in progress--one
+among the Protestants, the other among the Catholics--both destined to play
+a very large part in future history. These were the rise of John Calvin on
+one side and on the other the institution of the Society of Jesus
+familiarly known as the Jesuits.
+
+[Sidenote: The Order Of Jesuits]
+
+This Order was the creation of a Spaniard, Ignatius Loyola. Born in the
+same year as Henry VIII. he was taking active part as a knight in the wars
+of 1521, when he was crippled by a cannon shot. He rose from his sick bed a
+religious enthusiast; with the conception forming in his brain of an
+association for the service of his Divine Master based on the principles of
+military obedience carried to the extreme logical point. He devoted many
+years to training himself, body and brain and soul, for the carrying out of
+the idea. In course of time he found kindred spirits; at Montmartre in 1534
+a little company of seven solemnly vowed themselves to the work. All of
+them men of birth and high breeding, with rich intellectual endowments and
+full of an intense devotional fervour, they soon attracted disciples; and
+in 1543 the new Order was formally sanctioned by the Pope. Utter obedience
+was their rule, thorough education of their members the primary
+requirement. Every Jesuit was a consummately cultivated man of the world as
+well as a religious devotee, responding absolutely to the control of a
+superior officer as a finished piece of machinery answers to the touch of
+the engineer; accounting death in the service a welcome martyrdom;
+shrinking from no act demanded for the fulfilment of orders which might not
+be questioned. Within a few years of its institution, the Society had
+developed into one of the most potent organisations, whether for good or
+for evil, that the world has ever known.
+
+[Sidenote: Calvin]
+
+While Loyola was preparing himself for his work, John Calvin was growing up
+in Picardy. Having adopted the tenets of the Swiss Reformers, the
+persecution of the heretics--within French territory--by the Most Christian
+King compelled him to take refuge in Switzerland. There, when only
+twenty-seven years of age, he published the work known as the "Institutes,"
+setting forth that grim theology, the extreme logical outcome of the
+Zwinglian position, which is associated with his name; a system far more
+antagonistic to that of Rome than was Luther's. His head-quarters, save for
+a brief interval of banishment, were at Geneva, where he established about
+1542 an absolute authority, no less rigorous or intolerant of opposition
+than the papacy itself; constructing a theory of ecclesiastical government
+that dominated the civil as the old Church had never dominated the State,
+and carried the stark severity of its controlling supervision into every
+detail of private conduct: banishing the comparative tolerance and charity
+which had distinguished the Zurich school.
+
+[Sidenote: The ecclesiastical revolution in England]
+
+In the meantime the course of the Reformation in England had been almost
+stationary. The whole movement in fact during Henry's reign took outwardly
+the form not of a revision of Religion but of a revolution in the relations
+of Church and State--a revolution already completed when Cromwell was
+struck down. Until his day, Englishmen--ecclesiastics and laymen
+alike--recognised the authority of the Holy See, though not always its
+claim to unqualified obedience. That authority was now finally and totally
+repudiated: none external to the kingdom was admitted; the Church was
+affirmed to be the Church of England, coterminous with the State; while a
+new interpretation was put upon the supremacy heretofore claimed from time
+to time by the secular Sovereign. Not only was the right assumed by the
+crown of diverting or even confiscating ecclesiastical revenues and of
+controlling episcopal appointments--so that it was even held doubtful
+whether the demise of the ruler did not necessitate re-appointment--but the
+power was appropriated, (though not in set terms), of ultimately deciding
+points of doctrine and promulgating the formulae of uniformity. This was
+the essential change which had taken place: resisted to the point of
+martyrdom by a few like More and Fisher; submitted to under protest by the
+majority of the clergy; actively promoted by only a very few of them, such
+as Cranmer. In asserting the position of the Crown, however, the Defender
+of the Faith admitted no innovations in doctrine and not many in ritual and
+observances. Now and again, for political purposes, Henry dallied with the
+Lutheran League; but in this direction he made no concession.
+
+[Sidenote: 1540-46 Progressives and Reactionaries]
+
+No marked alteration then appears after the death of the Vicar-General.
+Nevertheless, the contest between the progressive and reactionary parties
+was not inactive. In one direction alone, however, did the former achieve a
+distinct success. There was an increasing feeling in favour of the use of
+the vulgar tongue in place of Latin, not only in rendering the Scriptures
+but also in the services of the Church. The advanced section had already so
+far won the contest in respect of the Bible that the reactionaries could
+only fight for a fresh revision in which stereotyped terms with old
+associations might be re-instated in place of the new phrases which were
+compatible with, even if they did not suggest, meanings subversive of
+traditional ideas--a project which was quashed [Footnote: A revising
+Commission had been appointed; but was suddenly cancelled, with an
+announcement that the work was to be entrusted to the Universities; which
+however was not done. The probable explanation is that Cranmer, seeing the
+bent of the Commission, influenced the King to withdraw the work from their
+hands, and it was then allowed to drop.] when its intention became
+manifest. Measures however were taken to restrict the miscellaneous
+discussion of doctrine, which had not unnaturally degenerated into frequent
+displays of gross irreverence and indecent brawling; while on the other
+hand the use of a Litany in English instead of Latin was by Cranmer's
+influence introduced in 1544.
+
+[Sidenote: 1543 The King's Book]
+
+A year earlier the third formulary of faith--the two preceding had been the
+Ten Articles and the Bishops' Book--was issued under the title of the
+"Erudition of a Christian Man," popularly known as the "King's Book". This
+was the outcome of a group of reports drawn up by bishops and divines,
+severally, in answer to a series of questions submitted to them. The
+reports showed great diversities of opinion on disputed questions; but the
+book which received the imprimatur of Convocation and of the King was in
+the main a restatement of the doctrines of the Bishops' Book with a more
+explicit declaration on Transubstantiation and on Celibacy in accordance
+with the Law as laid down in the Six Articles. Throughout the preliminary
+discussions, Cranmer had championed the most advanced views which had
+hitherto been held compatible with orthodoxy; and, becoming shortly
+afterwards the object of direct attack as the real disseminator of heresy,
+he openly avowed to the King that he retained the opinions he had held
+before the passing of the Six Articles Act although he obeyed the
+statute. Henry, to the general surprise, refused to withdraw his favour
+from the Archbishop, and caused much alarm to the opposing party by the
+manner in which he rebuked the Primate's traducers. The circumstances
+deserve special notice because they show that Cranmer was not the mere
+cringing time-server that he is sometimes represented to have been; and
+also as proving that the King himself was for once capable of feeling a
+sincere and continuous affection.
+
+[Sidenote: Henry stationary]
+
+The hopes of the reactionary party were in fact somewhat dashed by the
+"King's Book"; since, despite Cromwell's death, the Six Articles still
+marked the limit of their influence. A companion volume, known as the
+_Rationale_, dealing with rites and ceremonies on lines antagonistic
+to Cranmer, was refused the royal sanction. Henry never lapsed from his
+professed attitude of rigid orthodoxy. But he showed an increasing
+disposition to check random and malignant prosecutions for heresy and to
+give the accused something like fair trial; more especially after the
+culminating iniquity of Anne Ascue's martyrdom (in the last year of his
+reign) for denying the doctrine of the Real Presence in the Eucharist. The
+system of ecclesiastical spoliation was also in 1546 rounded off, by the
+formal transfer to the crown of chantries which had not been swept away in
+the dissolution of the monasteries.
+
+[Sidenote: 1546 Attainder of Surrey]
+
+The autumn of 1546 arrived. The King's health was known to be exceedingly
+precarious, and it was practically certain that there must be some form of
+regency or protectorate until the boy prince of Wales should attain a
+responsible age. The most prominent men were on the one side the Duke of
+Norfolk and Gardiner, on the other the Earl of Hertford and Cranmer. The
+King's attitude was more favourable to the second of the two parties; the
+conduct of the Earl of Surrey, Norfolk's son, ensured them the domination.
+Surrey was entitled to bear on his shield the Arms of England, as a
+descendant of the Plantagenets; [Footnote: See _Front_. He traced
+through his mother and the Staffords to Edward III, and also through the
+other line to Thomas, son of Edward I.] but he assumed quarterings proper
+only to the heir-apparent. He used language which showed that he counted on
+a Norfolk regency and might have meant that it would be claimed by force.
+And he was proved to have urged his own sister, Lady Richmond, to become
+the King's mistress in order to acquire political influence over him. It
+was also found that the Duke, his father, long a partisan of France, had
+held secret conversations with the French Ambassador. These charges were
+easily construed into treason under the comprehensive interpretation of
+that term which Thomas Cromwell had introduced. Surrey was sent to the
+block: his father escaped the same fate merely by the accident that death
+claimed Henry himself only a few hours after the Act of attainder was
+passed. The inevitable result followed, that practically the whole power of
+the State was found to be vested in Hertford and his supporters.
+
+[Sidenote: 1547 Death of Henry]
+
+On the 28th of January 1547, the masterful monarch was dead: to be followed
+to the grave two months later by one of his two great rivals, Francis. Of
+the three princes who for thirty years had dominated Europe, only one was
+left. A greater than any of them--he who, also thirty years ago, had
+kindled the religious conflagration--Martin Luther, had passed away a
+twelvemonth before.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+HENRY VIII (vii), 1509-47-ASPECTS OF HENRY'S REIGN
+
+[Sidenote: Ireland, 1509-20]
+
+Affairs in the sister island did not, after the final collapse of Perkin
+Warbeck directly affect the course of events in England: so that they lend
+themselves more conveniently to summary treatment. Ireland in fact hardly
+thrust herself forcibly on English notice until Thomas Cromwell was in
+power, and even then she only received incidental attention.
+
+[Sidenote: Surrey in Ireland, 1520]
+
+It appears to be generally recognised that when Gerald Earl of Kildare
+finally made up his mind to serve Henry VII. loyally and was for the last
+time re-instated as Deputy, he proved himself a capable ruler and kept his
+wilder countrymen in some sort of order. In 1513 he was succeeded in the
+Deputyship by his son Gerald, who bore a general resemblance to him, but
+lacked his exceptional audacity and resourcefulness. It was not long before
+the Earl of Ormonde--head of the Butlers, the traditional rivals of the
+Fitzgeralds, and chief representative of the loyalist section--was
+complaining of disorder and misgovernment; and in course of time, Kildare
+was deposed and Surrey [Footnote: The Surrey who became Duke of Norfolk in
+1524, and was under attainder when Henry died in 1547.]--son of the victor
+of Flodden--was sent over to take matters in hand (1520). Kildare was
+summoned to England, where after his father's fashion he made himself
+popular with the King whom he accompanied to the Field of the Cloth of
+Gold. Surrey was a capable soldier, and took the soldier's view of the
+situation. There would be no settled government until the whole country was
+brought into subjection; it must be dealt with as Edward I. had dealt with
+Wales. The chiefs must be made to feel the strong hand by a series of
+decisive campaigns, the whole country must be systematically garrisoned,
+and the Englishry must be strengthened by planting settlements of English
+colonists. Half-measures would be useless, and he could not carry out his
+programme with a less force than six thousand men.
+
+[Sidenote: Irish policy, 1520-34]
+
+Henry however had no inclination to set about the conquest of Ireland. His
+own theory, with which it may be assumed that Wolsey, now in the plenitude
+of his power, was in accord, was more akin to his father's. Moreover,
+Wolsey and the Howards were usually in opposition to each other. Surrey was
+instructed to appeal to the reason of the contumacious chiefs; to point out
+that obedience to the law is the primary condition of orderly government;
+to authorise indigenous customs in preference to imposed statutes where it
+should seem advisable. In fact there were two alternatives; one, to govern
+by the sword, involving a military occupation of the island; the other to
+endeavour to enlist the Irish nobles on the side of law and order and to
+govern through them. The first policy, Surrey's, was rejected; the second
+was attempted. But the Irish chiefs had no _a priori_ prejudice in
+favour of law and order, and something besides rhetoric was needed to
+convince them that their individual interests would be advanced by such a
+policy. Henry VII. had prospered by reinstating the old Earl of Kildare;
+Henry VIII. tried reinstating the young one. But precedents suggested the
+unfortunate conclusion that a little treason more or less would hurt no
+one, least of all a Geraldine. Things went on very much as before. Kildare
+was summoned to London again, rated soundly by Wolsey, suffered a brief
+imprisonment, and was again restored. Desmond, his kinsman, intrigued with
+the Emperor, who was in a state of hostility to Henry because of the
+divorce proceedings; Kildare was accused of complicity, and going to London
+a third time in 1534 was thrown into the Tower from which he did not again
+emerge. Henry had just burnt his boats in his quarrel with Rome and was by
+no means in a placable mood.
+
+[Sidenote: Fitzgerald's revolt, 1534]
+
+Kildare had named his eldest son Lord Thomas Fitzgerald, a young man of
+twenty-one, to act as Deputy in his absence; moreover he had so fortified
+his castle of Maynooth and otherwise made military preparations, as to give
+colour to the idea that he had rebellion in contemplation. Excited by a
+report that his father had been put to death, Lord Thomas--known as Silken
+Thomas from a badge worn by his men--burst into the Council at Dublin,
+threw down the sword of office, and renounced his allegiance; then raised
+an insurrection at the head of his friends and followers. Dublin Castle was
+soon besieged by a large miscellaneous force; the Archbishop, a leader of
+the loyalists, attempted to escape but was taken and foully murdered; bands
+of marauders ravaged the Pale. The only effective counter-move was made by
+Ormonde who rejected Fitzgerald's overtures, and, in spite of Desmond's
+menacing attitude on the South-west, raided the Kildare country, and
+brought Silken Thomas back in hot haste to defend his own territories.
+
+[Sidenote: 1535 The revolt quelled]
+
+Fitzgerald's rising began in June. Henry had appointed as Deputy Sir
+William Skeffington, an old soldier who had held that office before during
+Kildare's last suspension. But his departure from England with his troops
+was delayed. Fitzgerald was back before Dublin in September, after a vain
+attempt to win over Ormonde who defied him boldly. Again the Kildare lands
+were raided, and Lord Thomas had to raise the siege; and now at the end of
+October Skeffington succeeded in crossing the channel and securing Dublin,
+while the rebels carried fire and sword through the neighbouring
+districts. For the rest of the winter Skeffington did nothing but send out
+a futile expedition, a detachment of which was ambuscaded: while the
+loyalists fumed. In the spring however he shook off some of this
+inactivity, whether due to sickness, advancing years, or general
+incompetence, and besieged Maynooth which was reputed impregnable. The
+fortress fell before long; owing to treachery as tradition relates, but
+more probably to the improved siege artillery as the official despatches
+affirm. Most of the garrison were promptly hanged; a fatal blow was dealt
+to the insurrection. The "pardon of Maynooth" became a proverb.
+Skeffington, retaining the deputyship, was replaced in command of the army
+by Lord Leonard Grey, Kildare's brother-in-law, son of Lord Dorset; to whom
+ultimately Silken Thomas surrendered under a vague half-promise of lenient
+treatment. Kildare himself had died in the Tower not long before; Lord
+Thomas and his principal kinsmen were executed after a little delay; the
+one surviving representative of the great house which had "ruled all
+Ireland" was a child, preserved in hiding by loyal friends and
+retainers. The Geraldine power was at an end.
+
+[Sidenote: 1535-40 Lord Leonard Grey]
+
+Grey himself was now appointed to the deputyship in place of Skeffington,
+Desmond in the south-west and O'Neill in Ulster carried on the resistance,
+but were no match for Grey, who followed up his military successes by
+attempting to carry out the principles of conciliation which Henry had laid
+down--to the bitter indignation of those loyalists who favoured the methods
+advocated in the past by Surrey. To this and to Grey's insolent temper were
+due violent altercations between him and the Council. A Commission was sent
+over to examine and set matters straight, but instead the commissioners
+took sides with the Council or with the Deputy. Affairs were complicated by
+the application to Ireland of the English theory of ecclesiastical
+Reformation as understood by Henry and Cromwell. The suppression of the
+monasteries was acquiesced in (though not till 1541); since their condition
+was undeniably bad, and the distribution of their property convenient for
+the recipients; but the revolt from Rome was antagonistic to Irish
+feeling. Disloyalty to England, the natural and normal condition of
+three-fourths of the island, received a new authority from the sanction of
+loyalty to the Church. Grey persisted in his policy of domineering over the
+English party--who would have preferred to do the domineering
+themselves--and of laying himself open to the charge of favouring and
+fostering rebels, especially of the Geraldine faction. Another rising of
+O'Neill and Desmond in 1539 forced him to reassert his authority, but he
+again allowed it to appear that he was influenced by his connexion with the
+Geraldines; and in 1540 he was recalled, attainted, and
+executed. Experience of Henry had taught the conclusion that to fight the
+charge of treason was useless; but Grey gained nothing by throwing himself
+on the royal clemency, though his admission of guilt is not under the
+circumstances very conclusive.
+
+[Sidenote: 1540 St. Leger]
+
+Whatever the extent of his actual guilt, his downfall was due not so much
+to his professed policy as to the personal methods adopted which in the end
+had excited almost universal distrust and hostility. The proof of this lies
+in the fact that St. Leger, his successor as Deputy, carried out the same
+nominal policy with very remarkable success, and, it would seem, with
+general approval: mainly because he applied the principles impartially
+instead of as a partisan. The agent of conciliation was judicious,
+clear-headed, and tactful, instead of being injudicious, hot-headed, and
+tactless. The new Deputy distributed titles and monastic lands with a
+shrewd perception of the value of the services to be purchased thereby;
+legal commissioners were appointed who were allowed a due latitude in
+applying native customs and relaxing the rigour of English law; a number of
+important chiefs were converted into supporters of the Government instead
+of its more or less open enemies; the Pale settled down into the condition
+of a reasonably well ordered State. In the last years of Henry there is a
+complete disappearance of the wonted turmoil. At length he had found a man
+capable of administering the policy he had enunciated in 1520. The
+Deputyship of St. Leger gave promise of initiating a new era; but it showed
+also how completely the working out of the Irish problem would depend on
+the character and capacity of the men to whom the task should be
+successively entrusted.
+
+[Sidenote: Henry "King of Ireland"]
+
+One significant change remains to be noted. Hitherto the King of England
+had borne the title of Lord of Ireland, the theory being that Ireland was
+held as a fief from the Pope. As marking a final repudiation of every kind
+of papal authority, Henry, after the suppression of the Geraldine rising,
+assumed the style of King of Ireland. The fact that the change was needed
+has some bearing on the opposed papal and royal claims to Irish
+allegiance. Wales, it may be remarked, acquired citizenship when for the
+first time she sent representatives to Parliament in 1537.
+
+[Sidenote: Wolsey's work]
+
+Throughout the first half of Henry's reign the figure of the great Cardinal
+dominates the political field. In two respects at least his work was the
+extension of what Henry VII. initiated. By his efforts, the personal power
+of the crown became irresistible; and as the old King raised England from
+being almost a negligible quantity on the Continent to become at the lowest
+an effective make-weight in European combinations, so Wolsey raised her
+still further to a position of equality with the two great Powers which
+overshadowed all the rest. This he did by the same method of evading
+serious military operations whenever the evasion was possible, and by the
+exercise of a diplomatic genius almost unmatched among English
+statesmen. After his fall, the King's domestic interests withdrew him from
+a like active participation in the quarrels of Charles and Francis,
+although in his last years he became involved in a French war.
+
+[Sidenote: The Army]
+
+It is singular however to observe that Wolsey won for England all the
+prestige of a great military Power, after a period during which that
+ancient reputation of hers had been all but completely lost, without any
+single achievement memorable in the annals of war, and without producing
+any commander even of the second rank. With the sole exception of Surrey's
+victory at Flodden, due rather to the disastrous blunder of James than to
+the Earl's exceptional ability, no striking strategical or tactical feats
+are recorded, and few remarkable displays even of personal valour: nothing
+at all comparable to the brilliant if sometimes hazardous operations of the
+great Plantagenets. Nothing more is heard of that once triumphant arm, the
+Archery: the English bowmen had not, it would seem, lost their cunning, but
+they could no longer overwhelm hostile battalions. Nor does this seem to
+have been owing as yet to the displacement of the bow by firearms, though
+cannon both for defence and destruction of fortresses were improving--as
+exemplified at Maynooth. In the Scots wars, the border moss-troopers fought
+after their own fashion: but in the French wars the levies, no longer
+fighting in bodies following their own lord's flag, and feeling neither a
+personal tie to their leaders nor any particular bond among themselves,
+repeatedly displayed mutinous tendencies--as befel in Ireland under Lord
+Leonard Grey, and earlier with the entire army commanded by Dorset in 1512
+and again with Suffolk's soldiery in 1523. The transition period from the
+era of feudal companies to that of disciplined regiments was a long one,
+particularly in England. During the whole of that period, English armies
+accomplished no distinguished military achievement.
+
+[Sidenote: The Navy]
+
+It was otherwise with English navies. All through the Tudor period, the
+nation was steadily realising its maritime capacities. Whether the
+strategic meaning of "ruling the seas" was understood or not, the century
+witnessed the rise of the English naval power from comparative
+insignificance to an actual pre-eminence. The two Henries fostered their
+fleets; when Elizabeth was reigning, the sea-faring impulse was past any
+need of artificial encouragement. But it is noteworthy that coast defence
+and ship-building were almost the only public purposes to which an
+appreciable share of the King's ecclesiastical spoils was appropriated. The
+King's ships were few, but they were supplemented by an ever-increasing
+supply of armed merchant-craft; and in the French war at the end of Henry's
+reign is the premonition of the great struggle with Spain, in which one
+most characteristic feature was the comparative reliance of England on
+sails and of her rivals on oars. As yet however, naval fighting was still
+governed by military analogies.
+
+[Sidenote: The New World]
+
+Though Henry was keenly interested in ship-building and naval construction,
+in the matter of ocean voyages and the acquisition of new realms Spain and
+Portugal still left all competitors far behind. Albuquerque had already
+founded a Portuguese Maritime empire in the Indian Ocean when Henry
+VIII. ascended the throne, and Spain was established in the West Indies. In
+1513, Balboa sighted the Pacific from the Isthmus of Darien. In 1519 Cortes
+conquered Mexico; in 1520 Magelhaens passed through the straits [Footnote:
+It was still believed that Tierra del Fuego was a vast continent stretching
+to the South.] that bear his name, and his ships completed their voyage
+round the globe in the course of the next two years; in 1532 Pizarro
+conquered Peru; Brazil and the River Plate were already discovered and
+appropriated. All that England had done was represented by some Bristol
+explorers in the far North, some tentative efforts in the direction of
+Africa; and some four voyages to Brazil, the first two under William
+Hawkins, father of the more famous Sir John.
+
+[Sidenote: Absolutism]
+
+As Wolsey's policy was a development of that of Henry VII. in the direction
+of raising England's international prestige, so it was also in the
+concentration of power in the hands of the sovereign: and the process was
+carried still further though in a somewhat different way when Wolsey had
+fallen. It is curious to note that Henry VII. for the first half of his
+reign ruled by a skilful reliance on parliamentary sanctions, in the second
+half almost dispensing with parliaments. This order was reversed by his
+son. For the first twenty years, there were hardly any parliaments: from
+1529 there was no prolonged interval without one. The economies of the old
+King sufficed to support the extravagant expenditure of his successor with
+only an occasional appeal to the purses of the Commons. It was only the
+necessities of a war-budget that involved such an appeal, so that none took
+place between 1514 and 1523. Had Wolsey been permitted to maintain his
+peace-policy unbroken, there would have been no rebuff from the House of
+Commons in 1523, no trouble over the Amicable Loan two years later. The
+country, habituated to an absence of parliaments, might have come to accept
+a monarchy absolute in form as well as in fact.
+
+[Sidenote: The Parliamentary sanction]
+
+But when Wolsey fell, Henry was embarking on a policy in which he knew that
+he must keep the nation on his side; the support of the body representing
+the nation must be secured. Whether that support was granted spontaneously,
+or was encouraged by manipulation, or spurred by the menace of coercion,
+was comparatively unimportant. The powers which the King was resolved to
+exercise must ostensibly at least have the sanction of national
+approval. The thing was managed with such thoroughness that long before the
+close of the reign the royal absolutism was confirmed by the Act which gave
+the force of law to the King's proclamations, and by the authorisation for
+him to devise the crown by will; and with such skill that Henry's and
+Cromwell's critics are obliged to fall back on the alleged subserviency of
+the parliaments to account for it, although these same subservient
+parliaments were quite capable of offering an obstinate resistance whenever
+their own pockets were threatened. Henry was one of those born rulers who
+impress their own views on masses of men by force of will. He made the
+country believe that it was with him. But behind the dominant force of
+will, he possessed the instinctive sense of its limits, besides being
+endowed with that final remorseless selfishness which made him ready to
+make scape-goats of the most loyal servants, to deny responsibility himself
+and to fling the odium upon them, as soon as he found that those limits had
+been transgressed.
+
+[Sidenote: Depression of the Nobles]
+
+Alike, then, by his disuse and his use of parliaments, Henry strengthened
+the royal power, the initiative of all legislation remaining in his
+hands. To the same end he continued to depress the great nobles and to
+create a new nobility dependent on royal favour. All who threatened to
+display a dangerous ambition, from Buckingham on, were struck down; the
+House of Norfolk survived till the end of the reign, when the Duke was
+attainted and his son was sent to the block. No ancient House was
+represented in the Council of Regency nominated under Henry's will. The men
+who served the King were those whom he had himself raised, and could
+himself cast down with a word. The edifice of his absolutism was complete,
+though it was modified by the conditions under which his son and his two
+daughters succeeded to the throne.
+
+[Sidenote: Parliament and the purse]
+
+The theory of absolutism from Richard II. to Wolsey had been that the King
+should make it his aim to rule without parliaments; whereas we are
+confronted with the apparent paradox that Henry was never more absolute
+than when his parliaments were in almost continual session. The explanation
+lies in this, that he did not usually call them to ask them for money out
+of their own pockets; for the most part he invited them to approve of his
+taxing some one else, by confiscations or the conversion of loans received
+into free gifts--a much more congenial task. The King had found other
+methods of raising revenues than by appealing to the generosity of his
+faithful Commons--methods which in effect relieved them of demands which
+they would otherwise have been obliged to face. The vast sums wrung from
+Convocation or from the Monasteries went to relieve the Commons from
+taxes. The parliament of 1523, summoned to grant subsidies, faced Wolsey
+with an independence which fully justified the minister in avoiding the
+risk of similar rebuffs: the Reformation parliament itself offered a
+stubborn resistance to the Bill of Wards, which touched its own pocket.
+Independence and resistance vanished when the incentive was withdrawn, and
+the diversion of the stream of ecclesiastical wealth into the abysses of
+the royal treasury was acquiesced in with a certain enthusiasm. The King
+got the credit of the ends secured, his minister the odium for the methods
+of obtaining them: and so year by year the crown became more potent.
+
+[Sidenote: The Land]
+
+The economic troubles brought about mainly by the new agricultural
+conditions in the reign of the first Tudor were exaggerated in that of the
+second, and were further intensified by the dissolution of the
+Monasteries. The evils at which More pointed in his _Utopia_, when
+Henry VIII. had been but seven years on the throne, showed no diminution
+when another thirty years had passed. The new landowners who came into
+possession of forfeited estates or of confiscated monastic lands continued
+to substitute pasture for tillage, and to dispossess the agricultural
+population as well by the reduced demand for labour as by rack-renting and
+evictions. The country swarmed with sturdy beggars; and the riotous
+behaviour encouraged when religious houses were dismantled or even
+"visited" must have tended greatly to increase the spirit of disorder,
+evidenced by the frequent popular brawling over the public reading of the
+Bible. The usual remedies of punishing vagabondage, and of attempting to
+force industry into unsuitable fields and to drive capital into less
+lucrative investment in order to provide employment, failed--also as
+usual. The landowners did not emulate the monastic practice of dispensing
+charity, so that distress went unrelieved. Charity often encourages
+un-thrift; but its absence sometimes leads not to industry but to thieving;
+and in this reign, crimes of violence were notably abundant. The economic
+conditions were therefore in fact unfavourable to thrift. But apart from
+economic conditions, the practice of that virtue is apt to be largely
+influenced by social standards. An ultra-extravagant court, and the
+calculated magnificence of such a minister as Wolsey, went far to induce a
+reckless habit of expenditure in the upper classes; and the inordinate
+display of the Field of the Cloth of Gold was merely an extreme instance of
+the prevalent passion for costly pageantries.
+
+[Sidenote: Finance]
+
+The resulting distress was not compensated in other directions. During the
+earlier half of the reign, Commerce did no doubt continue to prosper; but
+the King's financial methods were hardly more conducive to public industry
+and thrift than his personal example. Wolsey indeed was an able finance
+minister. In spite of the enormous expenditure on display, his mastery of
+detail prevented mere waste; and until the pressing necessities of a
+war-budget arose in 1523, enough money was found by tapping the sources to
+which Henry VII. had applied, supplemented by the ample hoards which that
+monarch had left behind. In 1523, the Cardinal's scheme of graduated
+taxation was sound and scientific in principle, so far as existing methods
+of assessment permitted. But for the remaining years of his life, the
+process of raising money to meet the King's requirements was exceedingly
+difficult and unpopular. After his death, the King discovered an additional
+and productive source of revenue in the property of the Church; but even
+this did not suffice for his needs.
+
+[Sidenote: The Currency]
+
+Henry therefore resorted to an expedient as disastrous as it was
+dishonest--a wholesale debasement of the coinage, which was continued into
+the following reign and was remedied only under Elizabeth. The first
+experiment was made as early as 1526; but it was the financial
+embarrassments of Henry's last years which brought about a debasement that
+was almost catastrophic. From 1543 to 1551 matters went from bad to worse
+till the currency was in a state of chaos: and the silver coin issued in
+the last year contained only one-seventh of the pure metal that went to
+that of twenty-five years before.
+
+It followed that the purchasing power of the debased coinage sank--in other
+words, prices went up. On the other hand, the new coin remaining legal
+tender in England up to any amount, creditors who were paid in it lost
+heavily, the Royal debtor--and others--discharging their obligations by
+what was practically a payment of a few shillings in the pound. Also as a
+matter of course, the better coins, with each fresh debasement, passed out
+of the country or at any rate out of circulation, the base coins becoming
+the medium of exchange. Thus the foundations of commercial stability were
+sapped, while foreign trading operations were thrown into desperate and
+ruinous confusion.
+
+Nor did the evil end here. For the influx of silver and gold from the
+Spanish possessions in America, though its effects were felt only very
+gradually, tended to depreciate the exchange value of the metals
+themselves. This depreciation, added to the debasement, further increased
+the rise of prices. But while prices went up, money-wages did not rise in
+anything like the same proportion; labour being cheapened by the continuous
+displacement of the agricultural population, which was not attended by an
+equivalent increase of employment in the towns, and by the dissolution of
+the monasteries, which at the same time wiped out the sole existing system
+of poor-relief. The natural Economic transition that began in the previous
+reign, while producing wealth, was also attended by distress: now, for a
+vast proportion of the population, Henry's artifical expedients for filling
+his own coffers converted distress into grinding want, destitution, and
+desperation.
+
+[Sidenote: Learning and Letters]
+
+The earlier half of the reign promised well for Education; but the promise
+was not duly fulfilled in the latter portion. The funds which Wolsey would
+have devoted to that object were wanted for other purposes. The
+Universities discarded the study of the schoolmen, but their attention was
+absorbed rather by loud-voiced wrangling than by the pursuit of learning.
+Nevertheless, in great families at least, the education of the younger
+members was carried to a high pitch. The King, a man of accomplishments
+which would have made him remarkable in any station, himself set the
+example, and in this respect at least his children were not lacking; the
+literary impulse was at work.
+
+[Sidenote 1: The _Utopia_]
+[Sidenote 2: Prose and Verse]
+[Sidenote 3: Surrey and Wyatt]
+
+Yet the literary achievements of Henry's time can hardly be called
+great. One work by an Englishman, More's _Utopia_, alone stands out as
+a classic on its own merits: and that was written in Latin, and remained
+untranslated till a later reign. In its characteristic undercurrent of
+humour, and its audacious idealism, it betrays the student of Plato;
+standing almost alone as a product of the dawning culture. Partly by direct
+statement, partly by implication, we may gather from it much information as
+to the state of England in Henry's early years, much as to the political
+philosophy of the finer minds of the day. But that philosophy was choked by
+revolution; More himself so far departed from its tenets of toleration as
+to become a religious persecutor. Most of the English writing of the reign
+took the form of controversial or personal pamphlets in prose or verse;
+such as the extravagant _Supplicacyon for the Beggers_, a rabid tirade
+against the clergy, or Skelton's rhyme _Why come ye nal to Court_, an
+attack chiefly on the Cardinal. The splendid raciness of Hugh Latimer's
+sermons belongs to oratory rather than to letters. The exquisite prose of
+Cranmer found its perfection in the solemn music of the Prayer-book of
+Edward VI. The translations of the Bible made no great advance on
+Wiclif. In the realm of verse, John Skelton was a powerful satirist with a
+unique manipulation of doggerel which has permanently associated a
+particular type of rhyme with his name; an original and versatile writer
+was Skelton, but without that new critical sense of style which was to
+become so marked a feature of the great literary outburst under
+Elizabeth. Herein, two minor poets alone, Surrey and Wyatt, appear as
+harbingers of the coming day. A hundred anonymous writers of Gloriana's
+time produced verses as good as the best of either Wyatt or Surrey; but
+these two at least discovered the way which, once found, became
+comparatively easy to tread. They introduced the sonnet, learnt from
+Petrarch; Surrey (the same who was executed on the eve of Henry's death)
+wrote the first English blank verse. The moribund tradition of the
+successors of Chaucer continued to find better exponents in Scotland than
+in England, in the persons first of bishop Gawain Douglas--who perhaps
+should rather be connected with the previous reign--and later of Sir David
+Lyndsay. But doctrinal controversy does not provide the best atmosphere for
+artistic expression. The whole literature of the reign, while showing
+emphatic signs of reviving intellectual activity, is remarkable not for its
+own excellence, for profundity of thought, intensity of passion, or mastery
+of form, but as exhibiting the first random and tentative workings of the
+new spirit.
+
+[Sidenote: Estimate of Henry VII.]
+
+The most arresting figure of the period is that of Henry himself. No
+English King has been presented by historians in more contradictory colours
+than he. One has painted him as the Warrior of God who purged the land of
+the Unclean Thing: to another he is merely a libidinous tyrant. One
+contrasts his honesty and honour with the habitual falsehood of his
+contemporaries: to another he appears supreme in treachery. In fact, there
+is an element of truth in both estimates, however exaggerated.
+
+[Sidenote: His Morals]
+
+In the matter of personal morality, in the restricted sense, it does not
+appear--in spite of his list of wives--that he compares unfavourably with
+contemporary princes. He had only one child certainly born out of
+wedlock--which cannot be said even of Charles V., [Footnote: It should
+perhaps be remarked that whenever Charles had a wife living he appears to
+have been faithful to her. His divagations took place in the intervals.]
+and contrasts with the unbridled profligacy of Francis, the frequent amours
+of his Stewart brother-in-law and nephew. The stories of his relations with
+both Anne and Mary Boleyn before the marriage, even if untrue (which is not
+probable), would never have been told of a man whose life was clean; but it
+is what may be called the accident of his numerous marriages which has
+given a misleading prominence to licentious tendencies not perhaps
+abnormally developed. With the exception of his passion for Anne Boleyn,
+there is no trace of his amours influencing his general conduct: and it is
+at least probable that after the death of Jane Seymour he would have
+remained a widower, but for the desire to make the succession more
+secure. Yet the story of his reign hinges upon the Divorce; and in the
+divorce, however much other considerations may have influenced him, the
+controlling consideration was the determination to make Anne Boleyn his
+wife since she would have him on no other terms. That fact, with the
+disastrous termination of the marriage with her, the fiasco of Anne of
+Cleves, and the catastrophe of Katharine Howard, is responsible for the
+somewhat mythical monster of popular imagination. The man who divorced two
+wives and beheaded two more is too suggestive of Bluebeard to be readily
+regarded as after all to some extent the victim of circumstance.
+
+[Sidenote: His general character]
+
+While Anne Boleyn was the object of his pursuit, Henry was dominated by his
+passion for her: but that passion cooled quickly enough after
+possession. Jane Seymour was not his wife long enough to put him to the
+test: but it would certainly seem that his affections were short-lived and
+easily transferred. This was manifestly the case with men: at least it
+never appeared to cause him a moment's compunction to hand over an intimate
+to the executioner. While a man was rendering him efficient service the
+King was lavish of praises and rewards; when the need for him was past the
+services were forgotten. His sentiments were always of the loftiest; it
+habitually "consorted not with his honour or his conscience" to do
+otherwise than he did; but the correspondence between his honour and
+conscience on one side and his personal advantage on the other presents a
+unique phenomenon. His conscience permitted him to connive at schemes for
+kidnapping the King of Scots or assassinating his ministers, and his honour
+permitted him to encourage his own servants in a course of action for which
+he had subsequently no hesitation in sending them to the block. He could
+give, prodigally; but what he gave had generally been taken from some one
+else. He could protest against the cruel burden of the annates, and then
+absorb them himself. And with all this, it is not difficult to suppose that
+he constantly persuaded himself that he was an honest man beset with
+dishonest rogues, since he rarely broke the letter of an engagement except
+on the pretext of bad faith made manifest in the other party.
+
+[Sidenote 1: His peculiar abilities]
+[Sidenote 2: Intention and achievement]
+
+Henry's ethical standards were thus in no way calculated to hamper his
+actions, owing to his happy capacity for colouring his actions in
+conformity with them. When he set an end before himself, no influence could
+make him waver a hair's-breadth in his pursuit of it, and he spared neither
+friend nor foe in the attainment of it. As a statesman he did not lay down
+far-seeing designs. But he had the art of maintaining popularity, and a
+shrewd eye for a good servant. Thus as a rule he gave Wolsey a free hand
+and very vigorous support. But when he elected to order a change of policy,
+the Cardinal proved to have been right and the King wrong. His candidature
+for the Empire, and his dreams of the French and Scottish thrones show him
+capable of indulging in entirely impracticable visions. The vital
+achievement of his reign was the severance from Rome; and that was
+merely--as far as he was concerned--the accidental outcome of the Pope's
+opposition to the Divorce. In the destruction of the ecclesiastical
+_imperium in imperio_, the subordination of the Church to the State,
+it is difficult to tell how far the policy was his own and how far it was
+Cromwell's; but the King never recognised as Cromwell did that the logical
+corollary of the whole ecclesiastical policy was a Protestant League. The
+defiance of Rome, and the subjection and spoliation of the Church, were
+accompanied by a measure in which Cranmer was the moving spirit, and to
+which Henry gave full support--the open admission of the Scriptures in the
+vernacular--which made it no longer possible for the individual to disclaim
+responsibility on the score that the priesthood alone held the key to the
+mysteries of religion. This was in truth the keystone of the Reformation,
+since it entailed upon every man the _duty_ of private judgment even
+though the _right_ continued to be denied; yet this was not the effect
+which Henry contemplated. Hence, out of the four points in the
+ecclesiastical revolution of the reign: the subordination of the Church to
+the State was a constitutional change absolutely Henry's or Cromwell's own;
+the spoliation was the same, but reflects no credit on either; the
+severance from Rome was an accident; and the creation of the duty, to be
+ultimately recognised as the right, of private judgment was
+unintentional. And on the kindred subject, the persecution of innovators
+labelled as heretics, Henry's policy represented nothing but the
+commonplace attitude of Authority in his times.
+
+[Sidenote: A Dominant personality]
+
+We cannot, in short, find in Henry a statesman remarkable for far-sighted
+perceptions or ennobling idealism: but he gauged the sentiment of his
+subjects and the abilities of his servants acutely and was shrewd enough as
+a rule to identify himself with the schemes of those whom he trusted.
+Nevertheless he stands out, with all his faults, as a very tyrannical King
+yet a very kingly tyrant. If his personal ambitions and desires over-ruled
+other considerations, he never forgot the greatness of the country he
+ruled, and his personal ambitions at least involved England's
+magnification. For good or for evil, his actions were on a great scale. He
+knew his own mind, and he never shrank from the risks involved in giving
+his will effect. He defied successfully the Power which had brought the
+mightiest monarchs to their knees. He had the kingly quality, shared by his
+great daughter, of inspiring in his servants a devotion which made them
+ready to sacrifice everything for his glorification. Two of the most
+powerful ministers known in English history recognised the domination of
+his personality whenever he chose to exercise it.
+
+[Sidenote: Summary]
+
+Even when he was most feared he maintained his place in the popular
+affection. His parliaments carried out his will, but his will and theirs
+were in conformity: while Wolsey ruled, he rarely consulted them, but after
+Wolsey's fall they were called upon to ratify all the King's measures, and
+were in frequent session. He promoted a revolution, but while he lived he
+controlled it; through all the accompanying shocks and upheavals his
+mastery remained unshaken. The proof of the man's essential force, the
+greatness we may not deny him, is made manifest by the chaos which followed
+his death. He was gross; he was cruel; he was a robber; he suborned
+traitors and was prepared to suborn assassins; but his selfishness,
+flagrant as it was, did not wholly absorb him; behind it there was a sense
+of the greatness of his office, a desire to make England great; and
+therewith he had the indomitable resolution and the untiring energy for
+lack of which statesmen have failed who intellectually and morally stand
+far above him, while no monarch has left on the history of England a stamp
+more indelible than Henry VIII.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+EDWARD VI (i), 1547-49--THE PROTECTOR SOMERSET
+
+[Sidenote: 1547 Jan.-Feb. The New Government]
+
+In accordance with the extraordinary powers granted to him, Henry VIII.
+laid down in his will both the order of succession to the throne and the
+method of government to be followed during his son's minority. Under this
+instrument he nominated sixteen "executors," forming virtually a Council of
+Regency, giving precedence to none. Superficially, the list represented
+both the progressive and the reactionary parties. Cranmer was balanced by
+Tunstal of Durham; Wriothesly the Lord Chancellor was a strong
+Catholic. But as a matter of fact, the influential men belonged for the
+most part to the advanced section. Edward Seymour, Lord Hertford, was their
+leader: but Paget, Dudley (Lord Lisle), Russell, and Herbert, were all of
+the same way of thinking. None of the rest were of the same weight as
+these; while Norfolk, the natural head of the conservative nobility was a
+prisoner in the Tower, and Gardiner, the ablest of the ecclesiastics, was
+omitted from the list.
+
+Henry died in the early morning on January 28th; the fact was not made
+public till the 31st; and in the meantime, Hertford had carried the
+Council, which forthwith nominated him Lord Protector. The next step was a
+distribution of honours: Hertford was made Duke of Somerset; his brother,
+the Lord Admiral, (not an executor), Lord Seymour of Sudeley; Dudley became
+Earl of Warwick, Wriothesly Earl of Southampton, and Parr, brother of the
+late King's widow, Earl of Northampton. A couple of months later, that
+lady--who had succeeded in surviving two husbands including Henry--herself
+wedded Seymour of Sudeley,
+
+Southampton was the one man whose opposition on the Council was to be
+feared; and he gave himself into his enemies' hands by an act of
+indiscretion. He issued a commission appointing four judges to act in the
+Court of Chancery, under the Great Seal, on his own responsibility: and was
+promptly declared to have forfeited his office which was bestowed upon
+Rich. This was immediately followed by the granting of new powers to the
+Protector, enabling him to act virtually without consulting the Executors:
+while he was already guardian of the King's person. In effect, Somerset
+meant himself, as representing Edward, to exercise all those powers which
+had been surrendered to the formidable Henry. In the meantime, the trend of
+the ecclesiastical policy to be anticipated was shown by the treatment of
+the bishops; who--with the approval of Cranmer--were required to receive
+their commissions anew from the new King as though they had been Civil
+servants. Cranmer, in the Coronation sermon, made pointed references to
+Josiah, which could only be regarded as precursors of a war against
+"images," and the more advanced among the clergy began to express
+themselves with a freedom which would have been very promptly and
+unpleasantly dealt with by the late King. Ecclesiastical conventions
+received a startling shock when it was made known that the Primate himself
+was openly eating meat in Lent.
+
+To carry the Reformation beyond the stage at which it had been left by
+Henry in a tolerably peaceful manner was a sufficient task in itself; but
+the situation which the new Government found that it had to face, by the
+time Somerset had secured his position, towards the end of March, was
+complicated by many additional problems--not least among these being the
+lack of funds.
+
+[Sidenote: Relations with France]
+
+The recent peace with France had given the English Boulogne for eight years
+as security for the payment of a substantial annual sum. But while this
+might be looked upon as a valuable diplomatic asset--a means to graceful
+concession in return for adequate benefits--it remained an incitement to
+French hostility; the more so when Francis I. followed his great
+contemporary to the grave after less than two months, and was succeeded by
+Henry II.; with whom the retention of Boulogne was a particularly sore
+point, as he had failed in an attempt to recapture it. If England found
+herself in difficulties it was tolerably certain that France would try to
+recover Boulogne without waiting the eight years for its restitution.
+
+[Sidenote: with Scotland]
+
+France was not unlikely to find her opportunity in Scotland. There the
+group who had murdered Cardinal Beton in the previous summer retained the
+castle of St. Andrews in defiance of the weak government, at whose head
+were the regent Arran and the queen-mother Mary of Guise, whose family was
+now the most influential in France. The one means by which an English party
+could be maintained in Scotland was the giving active support to the
+"Castilians" as the St. Andrews faction was called; whereas French
+interference on behalf of the Government would immensely strengthen the
+anti-English party.
+
+[Sidenote: with Charles V.]
+
+The German situation was more complicated. The Emperor, supported by
+Maurice of Saxony, was at war with the Lutheran League. As yet the issue of
+that contest was doubtful; the League had at least a chance of success, but
+had appealed to England for aid. Charles on the other hand, not wishing for
+war with England, had declined the Pope's suggestion that he should enforce
+the substitution of Mary for Edward on the English throne: the Pope was
+annoyed, because the Schmalkaldic war was being fought on a political and
+not a theological issue; and he was alienating Charles by withdrawing the
+Council of Trent from that city, which was within Imperial territory, to
+Bologna where Italian influences would be predominant. If then England
+intervened on behalf of the League, she would reconcile the Pope and the
+Emperor, and possibly unite them with France against herself. If she stood
+aside, she would lose the chance of creating a powerful Protestant League,
+while experience had shown that any gratitude Charles might feel would
+count for less than nothing in determining his future policy. The
+Government hesitated; and while they temporised, the Emperor by a sudden
+blow became master of the situation. At the end of April, crossing a river
+by night, he fell upon the unexpectant army of the League at Mühlberg,
+crushed it, and secured its chiefs. The League of Schmalkald was
+irrevocably shattered. No effective counterpoise to his power was apparent
+within the Empire. Now however the task before Charles was to organise the
+supremacy which had at last become convincingly actual. This, and his
+quarrel with the Pope over Trent and Bologna, was likely to keep his hands
+full for some time. Thus the important thing for the Protector was more
+emphatically than before to conciliate France and gain over a strong party
+in Scotland to support the policy of friendly relations with England;
+whereof the chief corner stone was still the marriage of Edward who was
+about ten years old to the four-year-old Queen of Scots.
+
+[Sidenote: Somerset's Scottish policy]
+
+But Somerset did not conciliate France, which had recently been further
+irritated by the construction of so-called harbour works at Boulogne which
+were evidently intended to be fortified, contrary to the treaty; while in
+Scotland he was meditating a step which could only drive that country into
+the arms of France.
+
+Somerset in fact was one of those visionaries who are the despair of more
+clear-sighted persons who are in sympathy with their objects. He suffered
+from a permanent incapacity for realising the immense difficulties in his
+way, and the infinite tact necessary to the accomplishment of his
+aims. Hence the methods he adopted were invariably calculated to bring into
+full play every conceivable force that could act in opposition. Sincerely
+anxious to alleviate the lot of the rural population, he went out of his
+way to irritate the landlord class into more effective combination. Almost
+alone in a desire for the widest religious toleration, the moderation of
+his ecclesiastical laws was discounted by the licence of speech and action
+allowed to the progressives. In like manner, his theory of Scottish policy
+was admirable, his practice absurd. The Union of England and Scotland was
+his ideal, as it was to be the ideal in later years of that most acute of
+Scottish politicians, Lethington. But he could not appreciate the absolute
+necessity that the Union should be by consent; and even while endeavouring
+to procure it by consent, for which he appealed in noble language whereof
+the sincerity is apparent, he adopted methods which aroused the hostility
+even of those Scots who were most favourably disposed to Union in the
+abstract. By making common cause with the Reformers, he might have
+check-mated France; yet he neglected his opportunity. His own solution of
+the problem was the marriage of Edward and Mary, which he might have
+brought about by diplomatic persuasion, or by carrying the Reformers with
+him. Yet he could see nothing for it but to dictate his terms at the
+sword's point, the one quite certain way of making sure that they would be
+rejected, by setting even the Reformers against him. To make matters worse,
+it was in his mind to re-assert the English sovereignty; to which Henry
+had indeed audaciously affirmed his claim, though only as a right held in
+reserve. This intention he had already conveyed not to the Scots but to the
+French who warned him that they would stand by their old allies: while the
+mere suspicion of such an insult in Scotland was enough to rouse the
+fiercest hostility of the whole nation.
+
+[Sidenote: Pinkie (Sept.)]
+
+The natural result was that while Somerset was contenting himself with
+border raids, instead of espousing the cause of the Castilians, Prance was
+acting. About the beginning of July a French fleet appeared off St.
+Andrews; at the end of the month the castle surrendered. English ships
+might have prevented this, but the Protector elected instead to prepare a
+great invasion. In September he was over the border, in command of a
+considerable army, supported by a large fleet. The Scots of all parties
+mustered in force and were lying between the advancing English and
+Edinburgh in a strong defensive position not far from the spot made
+memorable two hundred years later by the rout of Prestonpans. The English
+ships were in the Forth hard by. The Scots in essence repeated the blunder
+of Flodden before and of Dunbar later. A successful attack by Somerset, who
+had the smaller army, was almost impossible; they thought that he was
+delivered into their hand, and mistook a tactical movement for a retreat to
+the ships. Abandoning their position and racing to cut him off, their
+leading troops received and broke a charge of horse; but the mass of the
+English, who were greatly superior in cavalry and artillery, and whose
+advance had been concealed by the formation of the ground, were already at
+hand and fell upon them. The Scottish army was completely shattered; ten
+thousand dead or dying men were left on the field of Pinkie Cleugh. The
+English loss was small.
+
+[Sidenote: Effect of Pinkie]
+
+Somerset however merely did very much what he had done before when he
+sacked Edinburgh in the last reign, ravaging and retiring. Pillage and
+destruction were arguments which invariably stiffened Scottish defiance,
+and it was now absolutely certain that the Scots would not consent on any
+terms to the English marriage. Dictation from England by force of arms was
+the one method of minimising the internal warring of factions in the
+Northern Country. Had Somerset been prepared to follow up his campaign by
+an effective military occupation, his plans might have been dignified with
+the name of a policy. In practice, they amounted almost to a negation of
+policy. A month after the battle the only effective result for Scotland was
+a renewed and intensified bitterness of hatred to England, and a
+corresponding inclination to amity with France. The practical reply to the
+invasion was the proposal to France of a marriage between the Queen of
+Scots and the Dauphin.
+
+For the Protector himself however, the victory of Pinkie was a personal
+triumph. He returned to England in a halo of military glory and popularity,
+to receive new compliments and honours, and to assume the rôle of
+beneficent dictator with self-complacent confidence when Parliament met for
+the first time in the beginning of November.
+
+[Sidenote: The Progressive Reformers]
+
+In the meantime the progressive Reformers, increasingly guided by Swiss
+rather than Lutheran ideas, were already hurrying forward with their
+schemes, acting upon Royal proclamations under the authority of the
+Council. Injunctions were issued for the destruction of "abused" images
+which term was liberally interpreted so as to cover stained glass,
+paintings, and carvings which might conceivably be regarded as objects of
+idolatry--that is to say, become in themselves objects of worship instead
+of being recognised as mere symbols: a process which unless conducted with
+the most studied moderation and caution was absolutely certain to give the
+rein not only to passionate zealotry but to wanton irreverence. Cranmer
+obtained an order for the reading in churches of the "Book of Homilies,"
+for the most part in lieu of all other preaching. The _Paraphrase_ of
+Erasmus, done into English, was ordered to be set up in the churches. A
+commission was issued for a Royal Visitation, superseding the authority of
+the bishops, though some months elapsed before this was fairly at
+work. Paget, having the instincts of statesmanship, endeavoured to warn
+Somerset against keeping too many irons in the fire; but Paget was guided
+solely by political expediency, not by principle. The one man who did
+boldly take up his stand on principle was Gardiner. His remonstrances were
+open. He urged that the intentions of the dead King should be carried out;
+that no revolutionary changes should be introduced during Edward's
+minority; that arbitrary proclamations by the Council had no sanction of
+law; that the personal powers bestowed upon Henry remained in abeyance
+until the young King should be of age; that aggressive measures in Scotland
+ought to be similarly deferred. The introduction of the Homilies, he
+argued, to which authorisation had been refused in the last reign, was in
+itself unjustifiable in the circumstances; the more so as--mainly by their
+omissions--they were inconsistent with the doctrinal attitude affirmed by
+Henry's legislation. Gardiner's remonstrances, supported by Bonner, bishop
+of London, were of no effect. Matters came to a head when the two bishops
+refused to submit without qualification to the injunctions. Both were
+imprisoned in the Fleet, while Somerset was in Scotland.
+
+[Sidenote: Nov. Repeal of more stringent laws; Social legislation]
+
+In November, Parliament met, and began its career of benign legislation.
+Since Cromwell's day, the land had lain under the grip of ruthless laws.
+Of these the sternest were repealed as no longer necessary. The Treasons
+Act disappeared; so did the old Acts against the Lollards; so did the Act
+of the Six Articles. A curious attempt was made to deal with the problem of
+vagrancy, the outcome of prevalent economic conditions, which the penalties
+of flogging and hanging had failed to repress. The vagrant was to be
+brought before the magistrates, branded, and handed over to some honest
+person as a "slave" for two years. If he attempted to escape from
+servitude, he was to be branded again and made a slave for life; if still
+refractory he could be sentenced as a felon. The intention of the Act was
+merciful, its effect probably more degrading than that of the superseded
+statutes. At any rate, it failed entirely of its purpose and was repealed
+after two years.
+
+[Sidenote: Ecclesiastical legislation]
+
+In matters ecclesiastical, Parliament on its own account abolished the form
+of the _congé d'élire_, giving the appointments directly into the
+King's hands. Also the chantries and other foundations which had been
+conferred on Henry, but had not been suppressed by him, were now--despite
+the strong opposition of Cranmer, Tunstal, and a few of the bishops--
+formally subjected to the Council and for the most part abolished. It is to
+be noted however that of the Church property acquired by the crown in this
+reign a comparatively respectable though still niggardly proportion was
+re-appropriated to educational purposes. [Footnote: In most cases, only in
+the way of restoring pre-existing endowments.]
+
+[Sidenote: 1548]
+
+Convocation, sitting concurrently with Parliament, presented petitions for
+representation of the clergy in parliament, for the administration of the
+Communion in both kinds to the laity, for the suppression of irreverent
+language about the Sacrament, and for sanctioning the marriage of the
+clergy. The first was ignored; the two next were embodied in Acts of
+Parliament; the last was deferred for a year. The session was rounded off
+in January by a general pardon, except for the graver offences; with the
+result that the imprisoned bishops were for a time released.
+
+[Sidenote: Progress of Reformation]
+
+Between this and the next session of Parliament, in November, the arbitrary
+method of proceeding by proclamations was in full force. The Reformers did
+not as yet press advanced doctrinal views. There was a proclamation for the
+observance of the Lenten Fast--expressly for the sake of the
+fisheries. Another enforced a new Communion Office, pending the completion
+of a new Prayer-book; but in this the service of the Mass remained
+unaltered and in Latin: no doctrinal change was implied, though the
+Communion in both kinds was ordered to be administered to the laity, in
+accordance with the recent Act and the recommendation of Convocation. More
+significant was a further proclamation for the destruction of "images," in
+which the distinction between "abused" images and others, previously laid
+down, was cancelled. In the meantime no unauthorised innovations were to be
+permitted. Cranmer was still striving vainly after his ideal of a
+conference between leading continental and English reformers, who should
+come to an agreement upon a common body of doctrine. It was _prima
+facie_ reasonable that while awaiting the new authoritative formularies,
+now avowedly in course of preparation by a commission on which the Catholic
+party was not unrepresented, partisan preaching should be discouraged, and
+all but licensed preachers be confined to the Homilies; it was however
+unfortunate that the licences for preaching should have been systematically
+granted both by Somerset and Cranmer--to whom the power was
+restricted--only to keen and sometimes extravagant partisans of the "New
+Learning"; a term at that time appropriated to the advocates of
+Protestantism at large. It is not surprising that Gardiner so far placed
+himself in opposition as to be called upon to express publicly his approval
+of these proceedings, nor that he should have found himself unable to do so
+in terms satisfactory to the Council. Before the summer was over the Bishop
+of Winchester was relegated to the Tower. More unfortunate still was the
+encouragement to sacrilegious irreverence given by the personal conduct of
+the Protector, who pulled down one chapel and began to lay hands on another
+in order to build himself a new palace.
+
+[Sidenote: Somerset's ideas]
+
+Nor were Somerset's activities confined to the campaign against "idolatry,"
+a term conveniently used to include any observances which, in the eyes of
+the Swiss school, savoured of superstition. With no sense of the
+limitations of his own intelligence, no suspicion of the subtle skill in
+adjustment needed at all times to impose ideals on a materially minded
+community, unable to realise that though his object might be excellent the
+methods adopted in achieving it might be fruitful of unexpected evils, he
+conceived in his arrogant self-confidence that he had but to say the word
+and difficulties would vanish. He resolved to appear as the Poor Man's
+Friend, establishing a Court of Requests in his own house so that appeal
+might be made personally to him from the normal processes of the Law; also,
+he appointed a commission to investigate and deal with that evasion of the
+agricultural statutes which he imagined to be the actual cause of the
+prevailing distress. The end in view was admirable, the method high-handed
+and unconstitutional: the policy won him popularity for the time among the
+depressed classes, but roused the enmity of nobility and gentry without
+achieving useful results.
+
+[Sidenote: The French in Scotland]
+
+Meanwhile, affairs in Scotland were aggravating the tension with France,
+where the proposal to marry the Scots Queen to the French Dauphin was
+approved. English troops harried the borders, and in the course of the
+spring captured and garrisoned Haddington. French troops were landed in
+Scotland, and the marriage proposal was formally ratified; in spite of a
+belated offer from the Protector to leave Scotland alone and postpone his
+own marriage scheme till Edward and Mary were old enough to have views of
+their own, provided that Scotland would hold aloof from France. French
+ships, evading the English by sailing round the Orkneys, took Mary on board
+on the west coast and carried her off in safety to France. A diplomatist
+would have seized the chance of reviving an English party, when it was
+found that a violent animosity was growing up between the Scots and the
+French troops; but the opportunity was allowed to pass, and the animosities
+were reconciled by some minor successes of Scots and French together
+against the English: while privateering operations--in other words,
+authorised piracy--were going on in and near the Channel, which amounted to
+something not far removed from a state of war between France and England.
+
+[Sidenote: The Augsburg Interim]
+
+It was fortunate that affairs in Germany continued to preclude that union
+of the Catholic Powers against England which the Pope desired; since
+neither Charles nor Paul would bend to the other. Charles, with no one to
+fear since Mühlberg had witnessed the destruction of the League of
+Schmalkald, was preparing future disaster by his high-handed attitude
+within the Empire. Deeming his position absolutely secure, his tone to the
+Pope was peremptory and dictatorial. The French King encouraged Paul to be
+equally peremptory. In May 1548, Charles, repudiating the authority of the
+Council, or section of the Council, sitting at Bologna, took the law in his
+own hands and imposed the "Interim of Augsburg" on the Germans. It was one
+of those compromises which satisfies no one; schismatical in the eyes of
+the Catholics, in the eyes of the Protestants an insignificant
+concession. Many of the latter, including the moderate and conciliatory
+Bucer, withdrew to England rather than accept it. The Protector however was
+secured against any present danger of a coalition between Henry II. and
+Charles; while the incursion of foreign Protestants of extreme views,
+especially those of the Swiss school, had a marked influence on the
+ecclesiastical movement in England.
+
+[Sidenote: Nov. Parliament]
+
+At the end of November, Parliament again met--to reject a first, a second,
+and a third Enclosures Bill, based on the report of the Agricultural
+Commission; for the labouring classes were unrepresented in the
+House. Making the rough places smooth proved not so simple a process as the
+Protector had imagined. The petition of the clergy for the legalisation of
+their marriages, deferred from the last session, was given effect, and
+fasting was again enjoined on economic grounds. The real business of the
+session, however, was the discussion of the new Prayer-book and the first
+Act of Uniformity.
+
+[Sidenote: 1549 A New Liturgy]
+
+Hitherto, there had been no uniform Order of Service: a variety of "Uses"
+being sanctioned. The idea however was by no means new, and had in fact
+long been theoretically approved, though never pressed with sufficient
+fervour to pass the stage of theoretical approbation. Cranmer had expended
+an infinity of learning and labour on the work now to be issued, and to him
+we owe chiefly the solemn harmonies, the gracious tenderness, of its
+language. To him too in chief, but partly also to the composite character
+of the "Windsor Commission" under whose auspices [Footnote: _Cf._
+Moore, 183.] it was prepared, is due that conscious ambiguity of
+phraseology which enables persons of opinions so diverse on points so
+numerous to find in it a sufficiently satisfactory expression or
+recognition of their own views. It was possible alike for Day and for
+Ridley, even for Tunstal and for Hooper, to conform to it. Whether it was
+actually submitted to Convocation is a moot question, [Footnote: Moore,
+186,187.] as to which the evidence is inconclusive, but informally, if not
+formally, it is clear that it received the _imprimatur_ of general
+clerical opinion. In the discussions, the Archbishop--generally regarded by
+the Swiss school as sadly backward--won from that section unexpected
+approval; but his other utterances continued to be so difficult to
+reconcile with their attitude that it is at least doubtful whether he went
+so far with them as they supposed. At any rate the book known as the
+Prayer-book of 1549 was accepted, and in January the Act of Uniformity was
+passed, compelling the clergy throughout the kingdom to adopt it uniformly
+under severe pains and penalties for recalcitrance. The Act was to come
+into force at Whitsuntide. Eight of the bishops however opposed the Bill,
+including some who had been on the Commission. It may be inferred that
+while they gave the book itself their sanction, they resisted its
+imposition on the clergy by lay authority.
+
+[Sidenote 1: 1547-49 The treason of the Lord Admiral]
+[Sidenote 2: 1549 Fall of the Lord Admiral]
+
+One other matter was to occupy the attention of Parliament before the close
+of the session, namely the treason of the Protector's brother, the Admiral,
+Lord Seymour of Sudeley. He was the King's uncle; he had taken to wife the
+late King's widow on being refused the hand of the Princess Elizabeth; he
+was violently jealous of his brother and angry at not having the
+guardianship of the King entrusted to him--an office which in his opinion
+ought to be separated from that of Protector of the realm. After marrying
+Katharine Parr he did obtain from the Council the guardianship of
+Elizabeth, and from Lord Dorset that of his daughter Lady Jane Grey, who,
+under Henry's will, stood next in succession to the throne after his own
+offspring. As Admiral, he had refused to take command of the fleet which
+accompanied the march to Pinkie; and had entered into secret relations with
+the pirates who infested the Channel. It had long been palpable that he was
+intriguing for power, but no one was disposed to take part with him, and
+Somerset was lenient to him. His principal ally was one Sharington, master
+of the mint at Bristol, who abused his office by debasing the coinage and
+pocketing or sharing his nefarious profits: Dorset and probably his
+brother-in-law Northampton (Parr) favoured him. Thus supported, he had
+money enough in hand to maintain a considerable armed following should
+occasion arise, and had established a private cannon foundry. When his wife
+died, he renewed his pretensions to the hand of Elizabeth, and was not
+unnaturally suspected of having hastened Katharine's end with that
+intention. Trusting to the soreness of Southampton (Wriothesly) at his
+deprivation of the Chancellorship, he tried to win him over, and also
+Rutland. The attempt failed, and was reported to the Protector; who
+summoned him to give an account of himself before the Council. Seymour
+refused to attend, using defiant language; and on January 17th he was
+arrested. Practically there is no doubt of his treason, and had he then
+been fairly brought to trial, Somerset would have been free from reproach.
+But the question was debated in parliament whether the Admiral should be so
+tried, or attainted, and attainder was decided on after he had refused to
+answer to the Council; as he was entitled to do. He was allowed to plead
+before a committee of both Houses in his own defence, but did not take
+advantage of the permission: virtually he was denied the right of an open
+trial, and was condemned without such defence as he had to make being
+heard. Cranmer signed the death-sentence: Latimer defended it. The fact is
+significant of the chaos into which English ideas of justice and fair play
+had fallen. The Protector's brother was executed at the end of March.
+
+[Sidenote: Troubles in the Provinces]
+
+From April to September, Somerset's troubles thickened. Formidable
+insurrections took place both in the western and eastern counties, and the
+hostilities with France, not yet openly at war, were assuming an aggravated
+form. The one piece of good fortune for England was that the antagonism
+between Charles and the French King in other fields still prevented any
+rapprochement between them.
+
+[Sidenote: The Western Rising]
+
+In the country districts there were two exciting causes of disturbance
+--one, the general agricultural distress due to the selfish policy of the
+landowners, the extension of sheep-farming and consequent displacement of
+labour, the enclosure of common lands and evictions from small holdings;
+the other, the innovations in religion and interference with immemorial
+practices to which the people were attached with the persistent
+conservatism of rural folk. The two types of grievance were associated by
+the recent abolition of the monasteries, and the transfer of their lands to
+the most obnoxious class of landlord--a class in the nature of the
+circumstances popularly identified with the enemies of the old
+ecclesiastical system, since it was they who conspicuously profited by the
+change. The North and the West, then and for more than a century to come,
+were the strongholds of traditional faiths and traditional ideals, as
+Yorkshire had shown by the Pilgrimage of Grace. Now the main trouble arose
+in the West. The introduction of the new Service Book at Whitsuntide was
+met with violent opposition; the men of Cornwall and Devon rose, and
+demanded the redress of grievances. They would have the religious houses
+reinstated, and at least half their lands restored. They would have the old
+services, not the new one which was "like a Christmas play". They would not
+have it in English which the Cornishmen "did not understand". Elsewhere
+there had already been disturbances, the peasants anticipating Somerset's
+efforts to remedy the agricultural grievances by a commission to enforce
+what was actually the law, and assembling in mobs to level fences and
+enclosures; whereat the Council was wrath, but the Protector as Friend of
+the People was disposed to applaud them. A religious revolt however was an
+attack on the Protector's own policy, and must be put down. Foreign
+mercenaries were called in, to embitter the quarrel. The insurgents
+besieged Exeter, and had been for some months in arms before they were at
+last crushed by the Government forces, in August, after desperate fighting.
+
+[Sidenote: Ket's insurrection]
+
+In the meantime a separate rising came to a head in the Eastern counties,
+where however the religious question was not involved. In that part of the
+country, destined to be the head-quarters of puritanism, the new ideas had
+made early way with the population; and Ket, the leader of the rising,
+conducted it on the hypothesis that his followers were merely enforcing
+legal rights because the agents of the Government neglected to do so. A
+great camp was formed at Mousehold Hill near Norwich; order was strictly
+maintained; morning and evening the new services were read. There was so
+much to be said in favour of the insurgents that they were offered a free
+pardon if they would disperse; but unfortunately Ket cavilled at the word
+"Pardon" on the ground that no offence had been committed, whereupon the
+herald called him a traitor. The indignant insurgents, ready enough to
+disperse before, thereupon changed their tone, assaulted and captured
+Norwich, and carried off the guns and ammunition. Northampton was sent down
+in command of the Government forces, but the rebels attacked him with such
+determination that he had to fly--the insurgents maintaining their policy
+of abstaining from robbery and violence generally. At last however, at the
+end of August, Warwick, who replaced Northampton, succeeded by the aid of
+German and Italian mercenaries in inflicting a crushing defeat on them; Ket
+himself being taken and hanged soon after.
+
+[Sidenote: Somerset's attitude]
+
+Another rising was also attempted in Yorkshire, but this was easily quelled
+by the local authorities. It is however of interest to note that the
+nobility regarded Somerset as the real cause of these troubles, on account
+of the open sympathy he expressed for the grievances of the rural
+population, and his public admonitions to the landowners urging them to
+amend their ways. He was driving the country faster than it was prepared to
+go in the direction of religious innovations; he was attacking the
+privileges which the new landowners had usurped; his Scottish policy had
+been upset, in spite of Pinkie, by the young Queen's escape to France; he
+was further alienating all but a few of the nobility by his increasing
+arrogance of demeanour and disregard of advice, as well as by an assumption
+of powers which had no precedent; he was giving a handle to his enemies by
+the profusion of his own household, his appropriations of clerical lands
+and even of the fabric of consecrated buildings to his own use; and finally
+his conduct of foreign affairs had been so incompetent that while the
+Emperor declined an English alliance, the position of Boulogne--which
+remained quite inefficiently garrisoned--was becoming critical, and a
+French squadron, ostensibly in pursuit of English pirates, attacked the
+island of Jersey. By the end of September war was declared with France.
+
+[Sidenote 1: The Council attacks the Protector]
+[Sidenote 2: Fall of Somerset (Sept.)]
+
+The lords of the Council, headed by Warwick, made up their minds that it
+was time the protectorate should end, and that one vain-glorious nobleman
+should not absorb so undue a share of power and profit. Somerset,
+discovering that there was a cabal on foot, attempted to stir up popular
+feeling against the Council, and retired hurriedly to Windsor with the
+King, accompanied by Cranmer and Paget; a journey which is said to have
+materially shaken the health of Edward, who was in a very delicate
+condition. But the people did not rise in Somerset's favour; the Council
+had so far taken no improper action, whereas the Protector had evidently
+incited to violence by the steps into which panic had led him; Herbert and
+Russell, returning from the West with the troops employed there to put down
+the insurrection, declared in favour of the Council; who were of course
+forced--very much to their own satisfaction--to stand on their right to
+control the Government, and call the Protector to account, at the same time
+promising him life and declaring that they had never sought his personal
+injury. By mid-October, Somerset had fully realised that he was without
+effective support; he surrendered to the Council, and was sent to the
+Tower. His deposition from the Protectorate was confirmed by Parliament
+three months later, and a substantial portion of his estates was forfeited,
+after which he was again set at liberty. But his control in politics was at
+an end.
+
+[Sidenote 1: Ireland, 1547-49]
+[Sidenote 2: Bellingham Deputy]
+
+Before proceeding to the second division of Edward's reign, it remains to
+deal with affairs in Ireland, where Sir Anthony St. Leger held sway, with
+general approval, during the closing years of Henry's life. St. Leger
+embodied the policy of conciliation by the method of converting Irish
+chiefs into responsible supporters of the government in return for honours
+gilded with spoils of the Church. The method worked well, but the
+condoning--almost, it might be said, the rewarding--of treason, initiated
+by Henry VII., carried risks which are obvious. Whether it was that the
+extension to Ireland of the energetic iconoclasm of the English Reformation
+in 1547 excited new hostility; or that a repressive policy was anticipated
+from the new Government; or that death withdrew the loyal influence of the
+old Earl of Ormonde, whose young heir was in England; or that the chiefs
+were tired of behaving peaceably after six years; or that all these causes
+combined: signs of disturbance and rumours of French intrigues
+arose. St. Leger was recalled, and replaced by Sir Edward Bellingham, a
+stern and rigorous soldier, who ruled autocratically with a strong
+hand. Fortresses and garrisons were established up and down the country
+outside the Pale, among the tribes which had been in the habit of raiding
+or levying blackmail--very much after the fashion of various Highland
+clansmen in Scotland; while O'Connor and O'More, two chiefs whose lands lay
+between the English Pale and the Shannon, were attached for treason. In
+short, Bellingham asserted the authority of the English government, not, it
+would seem, unjustly, but certainly with severity, and in a dictatorial
+fashion which thoroughly re-awakened the normal rebellious instincts of a
+population never really subjugated. While he was present, his power was
+feared and respected; but if St. Leger's policy had been taking real
+effect, that effect was thoroughly cancelled. Bellingham died in 1549, and
+Desmond told Allen the Chancellor, that the Deputy's methods had reduced
+all Ireland to despair. [Footnote: A phrase expanded by Mr. Froude, v.,
+421 (Ed. 1864)--perhaps legitimately--into "despair of being able to
+continue their old habits".] In any case, no long time elapsed after
+Bellingham's death before the country was again in a ferment. The fall of
+Somerset left the new Government, controlled by Warwick, with a normally
+distracted Ireland on its hands as well as an abnormally distracted
+England. So long, however, as ferment did not mean active rebellion, the
+English rulers were not greatly troubled.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+EDWARD VI (ii), 1549-53--THE DUDLEY ASCENDANCY
+
+When Somerset fell, the state of affairs which his successors had to face
+was singularly threatening, calling for the most skilful statesmanship both
+at home and abroad.
+
+[Sidenote: 1549 (Winter) The Situation]
+
+Externally, the chance of maintaining the hold on Boulogne was
+disappearing: but while it was maintained, the hostility of France was
+assured. Scotland, defiant, allied with France and helped by French troops,
+might become actively embarrassing. Within two months of the Protector's
+fall Pope Paul died. He was succeeded by Julius III. who promptly made
+friends with the Emperor; to whom there was now hardly any open resistance
+save at Magdeburg which stubbornly refused to accept the Interim. With the
+Protestants apparently under his heel, and on good terms with the Papacy,
+he might assume a hostile attitude to England. The one hope for her lay in
+buying from France the friendship of the party in that country which, ever
+mindful of the Italian provinces, might make common cause against the
+Emperor if the immediate source of friction with England were removed.
+
+[Sidenote: State of the Country]
+
+At home there were the rural discontents and the swelling ardours of
+religious partisanship to deal with, while the financial position was
+growing worse from day to day. The natural fall in the value of silver
+everywhere, owing to the quantities of the metal now beginning to pour into
+Spain from America, depreciated the purchasing power of wages; and this was
+made infinitely worse in England by the persistent debasement of the
+coinage. The rulers of the country rewarded their own very inconspicuous
+merits with the forfeited spoils of the Church, instead of applying them to
+the public needs. The Treasury was nearly empty, and was maintained even at
+its alarmingly low level only by borrowing from foreign bankers at usurious
+interest. For the time being, the country had lost its moral balance;
+landowners, merchants, and manufacturers were absorbed in rapid
+money-making at the expense of their traditional integrity. Religion had
+fallen into a controversial wrangle between contradictory dogmas; the most
+earnest of the Reformers have given us the blackest pictures of the
+prevailing irreligion and moral anarchy, rampant products of theological
+acrimony. It is true that the Moralists of all ages have usually been
+engaged in expressing a vehement conviction that the decadence of their own
+age exceeds that of any other known to history; and within the next decade,
+the denunciations of Latimer were to be lost in the paean of the martyrs.
+Had the corruption he depicts been vital, those sublime tragedies would
+never have taken place. But for the time, chaos prevailed. It is true that
+some of the subjects of controversy were logically vital ultimately; but it
+is true also that, absorbed in them, the controversialists lost sight of
+other matters more spiritually vital immediately. If the Christian is
+taught that his duty to God is comprised in the acceptance or
+non-acceptance of dogmas and ceremonial observances, while his duty towards
+his neighbour comprises the whole of his moral conduct; if then his
+spiritual guides omit to preach the latter in their devotion to the former
+subject; his morality is in danger of being entirely neglected. "This ought
+they to have done, but not to leave the other undone."
+
+[Sidenote: 1550 Terms with France]
+
+In one respect, the new Government recognised the force of facts. It made
+up its mind that France must be reconciled by the evacuation of Boulogne,
+if any colourable concession could be obtained in return. France however
+so obviously held the whip-hand that even Paget's diplomacy could do little
+to qualify the completeness of the surrender. There was a brave display of
+preparation for a determined defence, but the negotiators on both sides
+were fully aware of its emptiness. There was nothing that Henry II. desired
+more than the termination of strife with his excellent neighbours, provided
+that they would hand over Boulogne, cancel most of the money claim under
+the treaty of 1546 for which they held it as security, and withdraw their
+troops from the forts they still retained in Scotland. The reconciliation
+might then be sealed by the betrothal of Edward to a French princess, the
+young Queen of Scots being bespoken by the Dauphin--only nothing
+considerable in the way of a dowry could be expected. France however would
+pay within a few months what might pass as a ransom for Boulogne. Such were
+the terms which Paget, the cleverest statesman in England, was obliged to
+advise the Council to accept: though the suggested marriage project was
+dropped. The treaty of peace was signed on March 24th (1550).
+
+[Sidenote: Warwick's Protestant zeal]
+
+On the religious question, Warwick lost little time in showing that he was
+on the same side as Somerset. For a moment, the Protector's fall raised
+vain hopes in the breasts of those who supported the Old Learning. Gardiner
+appealed from his prison: so did Bonner who not long before had not only
+been incarcerated for the second time, but even, in October, deprived of
+his see. It was useless. Warwick saw that he must either pose as an
+enthusiastic reformer, or bring the reactionaries into power. In the former
+case, he could lead; in the latter, he would have to throw himself on the
+support of the old nobility. Not only Gardiner but Norfolk also would have
+to be released from the Tower, and he himself would inevitably drop to the
+second rank. Warwick, with a fine consistency, never permitted any other
+motive to influence him when his own aggrandisement was involved in the
+issues. The first step of the parliament which re-assembled in November
+(1549) was to pass an Act for the removal of Images. Gardiner, and Bonner,
+remained in prison. Even an attempt of the whole body of Bishops to have
+something of their disciplinary jurisdiction restored, in the interests of
+public morality, was quietly suppressed. Three more bishops of the Old
+learning were at intervals sent to prison and deprived--Heath, Day, and
+Tunstal. Every vacancy was filled from the ranks of the advanced reformers.
+
+[Sidenote: A new treasons and felonies Act]
+
+Norfolk, like the bishops, continued a prisoner. Somerset on the other
+hand, no longer regarded as dangerous, was released in February, the major
+part of the fine imposed on him was remitted, and after a brief interval he
+was even re-instated in the Privy Council, and his official reconciliation
+with Warwick sealed by a family marriage. But while his anti-clerical
+policy was carried to much greater lengths, his social policy and his
+relaxation of the treason laws were entirely reversed. Parliament made
+felony or treason out of assemblages presumed to intend disturbance of the
+peace, to some extent legalised enclosures, made acts against Privy
+Councillors treasonable as if they were against the King, and included in
+the ban assemblies for the purpose of altering the laws.
+
+[Sidenote: Activity of the extreme Reformers]
+
+The peace with France still left opportunities for friction; but Warwick's
+reforming enthusiasm drove him into the course--manifestly irritating to
+the Emperor--of interfering with the private devotions of the Princess
+Mary, who was ordered to give up the Mass: to which she replied that she
+was bound by the law as left by her father, and would not recognise orders
+in contravention thereof, as long as her brother was a minor. Charles
+himself was at this very time reverting to an intolerant policy in the Low
+Countries, and Protestants were hastening to England from Flanders. The
+risk that the Emperor might adopt Mary's cause in arms was obvious, and it
+was known that the Guise party at the French court would miss no
+opportunity of reviving the war with England in the hope of capturing
+Calais. In the meantime, the extreme reformers of the Swiss school were
+steadily gaining weight, in comparison with that section which, like
+Cranmer, continued to favour less drastic changes. One of their chiefs,
+Hooper, being nominated to a bishopric, for a long time declined to accept
+it on account of the vestments ordered to be worn at consecration--an
+attitude however for which he was condemned by all the cooler heads,
+including some of the most advanced. Hooper ultimately gave way--a
+narrow-minded but sincere man, who at the last won the crown of
+martyrdom. An unsuccessful effort was made to obtain Gardiner's
+release--the failure being the more pointed because Somerset interested
+himself on the bishop's part. Gardiner, with thorough consistency, declared
+himself ready to accept the Prayer-book since it did not preclude his view
+of the Sacrament; but he would not profess opinions in contradiction of the
+doctrines formally affirmed in the last reign. In the end, he was not only
+kept in prison, but deprived of his see of Winchester.
+
+[Sidenote 1: 1551 The Council and the Emperor]
+[Sidenote 2: Charles's difficulties]
+
+In the early months of 1551 the friction with the Emperor on the subject of
+the Princess Mary's Mass was becoming alarming; Charles was refusing to let
+the English Ambassador in his dominions use the English Communion Service;
+and the Council went so far as to propose making the Princess personally
+and alone exempt from Conformity: fortunately, however, for them, affairs
+in Italy took a turn which gave fresh impulse to the anti-Imperialists in
+France. The Protestant city of Magdeburg was still holding out against the
+Imperial troops which were under the command of Maurice of Saxony, and the
+French King was becoming inclined to give active support to the
+resistance. The Pope had devoted himself to Charles's interests, and
+assented to the return of the Council to Trent; and there were hints that
+Henry might call a Gallican synod, instead of allowing the French
+ecclesiastics to attend, unless the Lutherans were also represented. The
+Emperor could no longer imagine himself to be completely master of the
+situation. In April, the Council felt that he was so far hampered that they
+could venture to assume a bold front. They informed him that the Act of
+Uniformity was the Law; that it applied to all subjects, including the
+Princess; and that they claimed the same freedom for their own ambassador
+which they were willing to concede reciprocally to his. About the same time
+the German Diet foiled a pet scheme of Charles, who wished his son Philip
+(afterwards Philip II. of Spain) to be nominated as his successor to the
+Imperial crown in place of his brother Ferdinand [Footnote: Charles had
+ceded the Austrian dominions of the house of Habsburg to Ferdinand in
+1522.] who was already King of the Romans. The Germans however preferred
+the Austrian to the Spanish succession, and rejected the proposal. In June
+he found that the English and French had come to terms, and had agreed to a
+French marriage for Edward, on exceedingly easy conditions for France. He
+still continued to threaten war unless England gave way on the disputed
+points; but the Council answered only by temporising, and he was soon in no
+position to threaten. The unrest of the German Protestants and later in the
+year the assembling of the Council at Trent demanded all his attention. In
+fact, though he did not suspect it, Maurice of Saxony was even now laying
+his plans for snapping the bonds which the Emperor was seeking to rivet
+upon his German subjects. The incompetent hand-to-mouth conduct of foreign
+affairs in England did not bring disaster on the country, mainly because
+Charles had not rightly taken the measure of his own strength and of the
+forces in the Empire adverse to his policy.
+
+[Sidenote: Groups among the Reformers]
+
+The domestic history of England during 1551 is not marked by events of
+magnitude, but the general trend of affairs is not without significance.
+No serious attempt was made to deal with any of the existing causes of
+disorder and uneasiness. Warwick, a man whose entire career presents no
+evidence of his having possessed any religious convictions whatever, had
+fixed upon the ultra-protestants as the party whose support would be most
+valuable to him. Honest enough themselves, these men, typified by Bishop
+Hooper, were ready to credit with a like honesty any one who talked their
+particular jargon with sufficient fervour, and to stigmatise as Laodiceans
+any one who did not go to every length along with them. Cranmer and more
+positively his right-hand man Ridley--recently made bishop of London in
+Bonner's room--were now leaning more towards them than when the Prayer-book
+of 1549 was promulgated; and a considerable personal animus cannot but have
+entered into their feeling towards Gardiner, whose present unimpeachable
+attitude of legality was discounted by his participation in the intrigues
+against Cranmer during the last reign.
+
+[Sidenote: Attitude of Somerset]
+
+It is less really surprising than it seems at first sight to find in
+Somerset the one man who really interested himself on the side of
+toleration towards individuals, in the cases both of Mary and of
+Gardiner. As a matter of fact, although when Protector he had been
+particularly zealous in the war against images, had carried desecration to
+abnormal lengths in his private appropriation of spoils, and had grossly
+transgressed his constitutional powers for the repression of the bishop of
+Winchester as the ablest of the opponents of his policy: yet he was not
+generally vindictive, was probably quite satisfied with the compromise of
+the first prayer-book which did not actually contravene the _King's
+Book_, and--except when he was commanding troops in Scotland--liked at
+least the posture of magnanimity. Entirely devoid of statesmanlike
+qualities, but afflicted with inordinate vanity, he had been an intolerably
+incompetent ruler: yet his intentions were usually quite commendable; while
+the government which succeeded the Protectorate had failed in every
+particular to establish a claim to respect, nor could he be, like the
+zealots, hoodwinked into a belief in its honesty. Apart therefore from
+personal considerations he did not favour its extreme policy, and personal
+considerations suggested that he might once more oust his rival from
+power. Lacking the capacity to organise an opposition, he still lent
+himself to intrigues. He was a possible danger to the Government for one
+reason and only one--that popularity with the commonalty which had been
+gained by his well-meant but ill-directed efforts to espouse their cause
+against the oppression of the wealthier classes.
+
+[Sidenote 1: Fresh attack on Somerset]
+[Sidenote 2: 1552 Execution of Somerset]
+
+Warwick therefore, endowed with plentiful cunning and no scruples, decided
+to be rid of him once for all, and put in the mouth of an accomplice a
+story, with enough truth in it to be plausible, which sufficed for his
+purpose. In October Warwick, having procured his own elevation to the
+Dukedom of Northumberland, that of Dorset to the Dukedom of Suffolk, and
+that of Herbert to the Earldom of Pembroke, arrested Somerset at the
+Council. The Duke was accused of compassing the deaths of several Lords of
+the Council, and of preparations for an armed revolt and for appealing to
+the populace. On the greater part of the specific charges, the evidence was
+quite inadequate--but finding that Somerset might be held to have gone far
+enough to incur the death-sentence for felony under the law passed by the
+parliament of 1549-50, Northumberland (as Warwick must now be called) made
+a show of magnanimously withdrawing the accusations so far as he was
+personally affected. Somerset was duly condemned; but it was not till the
+end of January (1552) that he was actually executed, in spite of the
+somewhat pathetic demonstrations in his favour of the populace, who refused
+to the last to believe that the sentence would really be carried out, and
+lamented his doom with tears.
+
+[Sidenote: Pacification of Passau]
+
+While Somerset's trial was still going on, agents arrived in England from
+the German Protestants, inviting assistance in the contemplated revolt
+against Charles--a movement carried out with sudden and triumphant
+effectiveness by Maurice of Saxony in the following spring. Had
+Northumberland given his adhesion, the formation of a Lutheran alliance at
+this juncture might have very materially altered the subsequent course of
+events. The opportunity however was not taken. Indeed it is scarcely
+surprising that the signs of the times should have been misread. Maurice
+had helped Charles against the Schmalkaldic League before; yet everything
+depended on his discarding the apparently erratic politics of his past
+career, and displaying in full measure the organising and military genius
+of which he had given promise, though it still remained to be conclusively
+proved. He did in fact prove it a few months later, when he all but
+succeeded in pouncing on the Emperor at Innsbruck. Charles was forced to a
+hasty flight, and, finding a practically united Germany in arms against
+him, was reduced to accept the pacification of Passau (July), conceding all
+that the Lutherans demanded. Maurice's brilliant exploit not only
+terminated Charles's resistance to the Reformation in Germany; it also
+released England from all danger of his active hostility.
+
+[Sidenote: England stands aside]
+
+In view however of the uncertainty still, at the end of 1551, attendant on
+the motives, the aims, and the capacity of Duke Maurice, the decision of
+the professedly enthusiastic protestants in England to stand aside is
+hardly a ground for reproach. Disaster had so often been escaped during
+recent years, through some lucky turn of events abroad supervening on the
+purely temporising policy of the Government, that they had good reason to
+hesitate about committing themselves to any irrevocable course; while
+personal intrigues and the strife of religious parties gave the individual
+leaders sufficient occupation. Possibly also the influence of the Swiss
+school, antagonistic as ever to the peculiar tenets of Lutheranism, was not
+altogether in favour of a too intimate association with German
+protestantism.
+
+[Sidenote: The Reformation;]
+
+We have remarked upon the increasing influence of this party in the Church;
+an influence which, as far as concerns the formularies of the Anglican
+body, was to reach its high-water mark in 1552 and 1553, in the revised
+prayer-book authorised by Parliament immediately after Somerset's death,
+and the "Forty-two Articles" promulgated about a year later.
+
+[Sidenote: Its Limits under Henry and under Somerset]
+
+In the reign of the late King, the Reformation which had taken place was
+almost entirely political and financial--in the constitution of the
+government of the ecclesiastical body, and the allocation of its
+endowments. The Sovereign had claimed and enforced his own supremacy,
+involving the repudiation of papal authority, the submission of the clergy
+to the Supreme Head, and the appropriation by the Crown of Monastic
+property. As a necessary corollary, the Crown had also taken upon itself to
+sanction formularies of belief and to regulate rites and ceremonies; but in
+doing so it had held by the accepted dogmas, suppressed little except
+obvious and admitted abuses, and affirmed no heresies. The Archbishop had
+been in favour of further innovations, but these had not been allowed. All,
+however, that Cranmer had then advocated, was adopted by Somerset's
+administration--the extended destruction of images, the liturgy in the
+vulgar tongue, the marriage of the clergy, the Communion in both kinds; the
+last being perhaps the most marked deviation from the established
+order. But though the new liturgy might be reconciled with acceptance of
+doctrines hitherto accounted heretical, it did not enjoin them; it was
+still reconcilable also with the _King's Book_. It had aimed, in short
+at the maximum of comprehension. The result was to include within the same
+pale the adherents of a very slightly modified Mass and the extremists of
+the Swiss school, for whom the Communion Service was purely and simply
+commemorative.
+
+[Sidenote: The extremists dissatisfied]
+
+Until the death of Henry, the English clergy from the Archbishop down had
+almost without exception held the hitherto authorised view of the
+Eucharist. Since then however Cranmer had followed the lead of Ridley,
+under the influence of the foreign theologians, and had adopted personally
+a conception [Footnote: This conception is expressed in the phrase of the
+Catechism that "the Body and Blood of Christ are verily and indeed taken
+and received by the faithful," coupled with the direct repudiation of
+Transubstantiation, _i.q._ the doctrine that the substance of the
+bread and wine is changed by the Act of Consecration.] which rejected
+alike in set terms the Transubstantiation of the Roman Mass, the
+Consubstantiation of the Lutherans, and, implicitly though not explicitly,
+the purely commemorative theory of Hooper and the Zwinglians.
+
+[Sidenote: 1552 The Liturgy revised]
+
+Thus the extreme comprehensiveness of the first Prayer-book failed to
+satisfy the school who could not away with the Mass, and those who regarded
+the Swiss doctrine as heretical. Greater precision, closer definitions,
+were called for--by way not of changing doctrines but of removing
+uncertainties. To this end a revision of the volume had been taken in hand,
+and now received the sanction of Parliament: a revision favouring in the
+main the Swiss interpretations, the term "minister" taking the place of
+"priest," "altar" giving way to "table," and the doctrine of
+transubstantiation being clearly eliminated. At the same time the
+instruction that the Sacrament was to be received kneeling conveyed a
+presumption, though not the necessity, that the rite involved a Mystery,
+that it implied an act of adoration. This was most unsatisfactory to the
+ultra-protestants, recently re-inforced by the vigorous presence in the
+North of England of John Knox the Scottish reformer; and before the volume
+was issued from the press at the end of the year a determined attempt was
+made to have the obnoxious instruction removed by order. The Archbishop
+however with resolute dignity protested against the arbitrary subversion of
+what Parliament had sanctioned. He carried his point, and the instruction
+was retained, though an explanatory note (known as the Black
+Rubric)[Footnote: _Cf_. Dixon, iii., 475 ff.] was appended, with which
+Knox and his friends were forced, however reluctantly, to be satisfied.
+
+[Sidenote: Nonconformity]
+
+This episode, with that of the consecration of Hooper as bishop of
+Gloucester, are illustrative of the original sense of the term
+Nonconformity. Nonconformity, of which Hooper is often referred to as the
+"father," did not seek separation from the ecclesiastical organisation, but
+expressed dissatisfaction with particular observances, which it sought to
+have modified in the Swiss sense: not as being in themselves intolerable,
+but as tending to encourage superstitious and papistical ideas. So Hooper,
+after an obstinate struggle, submitted to don the vestments ordered at his
+consecration; so also Knox, when he was finally worsted in the "kneeling"
+controversy, submitted to the order though with a very ill grace. The
+Nonconformists in short may be defined as Puritans who still remained
+within the pale of the Church. The idea of forming sects outside her
+borders, of challenging the right to enforce uniformity where points in
+dispute were not "essential" but "convenient," was still opposed to all
+recognised principles; the Nonconformists themselves being by no means
+disposed to surrender the position that if they became predominant they
+would be entitled to enforce their own views no less rigidly. No one
+thought of protesting against the burning of one Joan Bocher, in 1550, for
+affirming a peculiarly unintelligible heresy concerning the mode of the
+Incarnation.
+
+[Sidenote: Parliament]
+
+The session at the beginning of 1552 was the last held by this, the first,
+Parliament of Edward VI. Besides authorising the revised Prayer-book, it
+passed a second Act of Uniformity, of which the novel feature was that
+penalties were imposed on laymen for non-compliance. In other respects, it
+did not show itself altogether subservient to Northumberland. A new
+Treasons Act further reviving some of Henry's provisions was introduced in
+the Upper House, but rejected by the Commons; who did indeed restore
+"verbal treason," but pointedly required that two witnesses at least should
+prove the guilt of the accused to his face-with evident reference to the
+recent trial of Somerset.
+
+Cranmer had been occupied not only with the Prayer-book, but also with the
+preparation of Articles of Belief, and of a scheme which, as drawn up, was
+generally known as the _Reformatio Legum_, elaborating a plan of
+ecclesiastical administration. The latter appears to have seen the light
+either in 1551 or 1552, but it was never authorised. The Forty-two
+articles, substantially the same as the Thirty-nine of the present
+Prayer-book, certainly did not come before parliament and probably did not
+come before Convocation, [Footnote: Dixon, iii., 513 ff. Gairdner,
+_English Church_, 311.] but were sanctioned by almost the last act of
+the King in Council in 1553.
+
+[Sidenote: 1553 A new Parliament]
+
+The national finances continued in an increasingly chaotic condition, and
+Northumberland's struggles to raise money during 1552 were attended with
+such inadequate results that he found it necessary to summon a new
+Parliament in the spring of 1553. There were not wanting, from the last
+reign, precedents for bringing royal pressure to bear on constituencies to
+secure the selection of amenable representatives, and the principle was now
+applied with a reckless comprehensiveness. Nevertheless the Houses when
+assembled were by no means prepared to carry out a programme which would
+satisfy Northumberland.
+
+[Sidenote: Northumberland's programme]
+
+In fact that man of many wiles lacked the art, necessary for one with his
+ambitions, of securing a devoted personal following. For some time past the
+probability of the young King's early decease had been recognised, and
+Northumberland's intrigues had been directed to excluding Mary from the
+succession, and securing a sovereign whom he would himself be able to
+dominate. He had had his chance, when the Protector was overthrown in 1549,
+of taking the line of policy which would bring him into accord with the
+heir presumptive; he made his election, and thenceforward was committed to
+the Reforming party and to political destruction if Mary should become
+Queen. He devoted his attention then primarily to gaining a predominant
+influence over the young King, with great success-the result, in no small
+measure, of his posing as a puritan; for the boy had all the uncompromising
+partisanship natural to the morbid precocity which his ill-health and Tudor
+cleverness combined to develop. If Edward had lived, no doubt the Tudor
+penetration would have unmasked Northumberland in due course; but this the
+Duke would hardly have anticipated in any case, and, as it was, he laid his
+plans on the hypothesis that Edward would die without leaving an heir of
+his body. Now the succession was fixed by Henry's Will, ratified by Act of
+Parliament, first on Mary and then on Elizabeth, though both had been
+declared illegitimate. If they could be set aside, the first claim by
+descent would lie with Mary Stewart, grandchild of Henry's sister Margaret;
+but the country would not take her at any price. The next claimant,
+confirmed also by Henry's Will, would be Lady Jane Grey, passing over her
+mother Frances Brandon, daughter of Henry's second sister Mary. Frances
+Brandon had married Lord Dorset, created Duke of Suffolk at the same time
+that Dudley became Duke of Northumberland.
+
+[Sidenote: Plot to change the succession]
+
+The Duke's scheme then was to supplant the Tudor princesses, on the score
+of their illegitimacy once officially affirmed, by Lady Jane Grey; having
+first secured a dominating influence over his unhappy puppet by marrying
+her to one of his sons, Guildford Dudley. It might plausibly be argued
+that, since the courts had definitely declared that neither Mary nor
+Elizabeth was born in lawful wedlock, no subsequent legitimation could give
+them precedence over an indubitably legitimate descendant of Henry VII. and
+Elizabeth of York: while political expediency excluded the sole claimant
+with a prior hereditary right.
+
+There remained, however, the inconvenient fact that the whole country from
+the Council down had deliberately and unhesitatingly pledged itself to
+maintain the order of succession laid down in Henry's Will. Something more
+than an abstract argument from legitimacy was needed to cancel a decision
+arrived at and established after mature deliberation. Had Mary made
+herself feared or detested--had Lady Jane been a popular favourite with an
+organised following--there might have been some chance for a _coup
+d'état_. But the treatment of Mary coupled with her dignified and
+courageous conduct had made her the object of popular sympathy; the only
+people who feared her were those who had been prominent in attacking the
+Old Learning, and their following in the country was by no means
+proportionate to their political and theological activity. Their
+support--all that Northumberland could hope for--would be quite
+insufficient for carrying his plan through; while the Duke himself, very
+unlike his late rival Somerset, was an object of such general aversion that
+any scheme calculated to maintain him in power would have excited keen
+popular antagonism.
+
+[Sidenote 1: Northumberland gains over Edward and the Council]
+[Sidenote 2: Death of Edward]
+
+The marriage of Lady Jane was accomplished early in May (1553); Pembroke,
+as well as Suffolk, was apparently secured by the marriage [Footnote: After
+Northumberland's fiasco, this marriage was judiciously voided.] of his son
+to a sister, Katharine Grey. Besides these Northumberland could count on
+Northampton. Further, he could be sure that France would go as far as
+diplomacy permitted to prevent the accession of Mary, on account of her
+relationship with the Emperor, to whom she had all her life looked for
+counsel. As Edward's death drew nearer, the Duke prepared his final
+_coup_. If Henry by Will could lay down the course of succession, his
+son was equally free to change it. It was not difficult to persuade the
+dying boy of the woes that would follow when a reactionary monarch was on
+the throne--though there had hitherto been no sign that the reaction would
+go beyond a reversion to the position of Henry's last years. Under
+Northumberland's influence, he devised the crown to the issue of the
+Duchess of Suffolk who was herself passed over in favour of her eldest
+daughter. In June this "device" was submitted to the Council, with whom
+however it found little favour. But in view of the personal danger in which
+they stood, they gave assent subject to the approval of Parliament, arguing
+that it was unprecedented for a King, to say nothing of one who was still a
+minor, to set aside an Act of Parliament by his own authority. The Judges,
+summoned to the Royal presence, unanimously declared that it would be
+unconstitutional--in effect treason--if they drew up letters patent in the
+sense desired without authority of parliament; and the more they examined
+the law, the more convinced they were of their position. But the King was
+insistent; and at last one by one, they reluctantly gave way, on condition
+of receiving positive instructions under the Great Seal and an anticipatory
+pardon in case their obedience should prove--as they believed it--to be a
+crime. The Letters were drawn, and at last signed by a number of peers and
+representative men, Cranmer finally yielding his adhesion after prolonged
+resistance, on the strength of the assertion that the judges had given
+their sanction. He was not informed how that sanction had been
+obtained. Cecil, the Burghley of a later reign, would only sign "as a
+witness". The signatures were appended on June 21st. The affair was still
+kept secret--though the existence of some conspiracy to supplant Mary was
+becoming generally suspected. The interval was spent in making preparations
+to support the _coup d'état_ in arms. On July 4th the rumour that the
+King was already dead was only partially dispelled by letting his face be
+seen at a window. On the 6th he actually died. On the 8th the fact began to
+leak out, and on the 10th Lady Jane was proclaimed Queen in London.
+
+[Sidenote: A memorable voyage]
+
+One incident of note occurred during King Edward's last months--the
+departure of Chancellor and Willoughby's expedition in search of a
+North-East passage, an entirely novel direction. Chancellor reached the
+White Sea, and from thence was conveyed to Moscow, with the result that
+relations were opened between England and Russia. In other respects there
+was some private activity in the voyages of this and the ensuing reign, but
+nothing else demanding special attention.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+MARY (i), 1553-55--THE SPANISH MARRIAGE
+
+[Sidenote: The Marian Tragedies]
+
+From first to last, Tragedy is the note of the reign of England's first
+Queen regnant: the human interest is so intense that the political and
+religious issues seem, great as they were, to sink into the background of
+the picture, mere accessories of the stage on which are presented the
+immortal figures of Doom. First is the tragedy of the sweet-souled and most
+innocent child, Lady Jane Grey, sacrificed to the self-seeking ambition of
+shameless intriguers. Then the tragedy of the Martyrs--of Rowland Taylor,
+of Ridley and Latimer, of Ferrar and Hooper, of many another of less note,
+who died for the Glory of God, giving joyful testimony to the faith that
+was in them; the tragedy of Cranmer, the gentle soul of wavering courage,
+the man born to pass peaceful days in cloistered shades, torn from them to
+be the unwilling pilot of revolution, who at the tenth hour fell as Peter
+fell, yet at the last rose to the noblest height. Last, and greatest, the
+tragedy of the royal-hearted woman whose passionate human love was answered
+only with cold scorn; who won her throne by the loyalty of her people only
+to bring upon her name such hate as attaches to but two or three other
+English monarchs; who, for the wrongs done to her personally, showed almost
+unexampled clemency, yet, shrinking not to shed blood like water in what
+she deemed a sacred cause, is popularly branded for ever amongst the
+tyrants of the earth; who, sacrificing her own heart in that cause, died in
+the awakening knowledge that by her own deeds it was irreparably ruined. No
+monarch has ever more utterly subordinated personal interests, personal
+affections, all that makes life desirable, to a passionate sense of duty;
+none ever failed more utterly to work anything but unmixed woe.
+
+[Sidenote: 1553 (July) Proclamation of Queen Jane]
+
+Northumberland's plans had been carefully laid. The military forces were at
+the service of the Government. The whole Council--with varying degrees of
+sincerity and reluctance--had endorsed his scheme; the persons of its
+members were apparently at his mercy; he meant also to have Mary safely
+bestowed in the Tower before any opposition could be organised. The foreign
+ambassadors, and their masters, hardly dreamed that there was any
+alternative course to submission. Neither they nor Northumberland realised
+the intensity of the general feeling in Mary's favour, or its practical
+force; nor did they appreciate the capacity of Henry Tudor's daughters for
+rising to an emergency. On the day of Edward's death, Mary was on her way
+to London, when she was met with the secret warning that all was over. She
+turned and rode hard for safer country, just escaping the party who had
+been sent out to secure her. Jane Grey, the sixteen-year-old bride of a few
+days, was summoned to the throne by the Council; every person about her
+implored her to claim what they called her right and fulfil her duty in
+accepting the crown: what else could she do? Yet, child as she was, they
+found to their indignant astonishment that she would not move a
+hair's-breadth from the path her conscience approved. She knew enough to
+refuse point blank the notion that her young husband should be crowned
+King. The men of affairs, of religion, of law, having unanimously affirmed
+that the heritage of royalty was hers, she could not dispute it; but no one
+could pretend that the heritage was his. Her refusal was of ill omen for
+Northumberland's ascendancy, and the ill omens multiplied.
+
+[Sidenote 1: The people support Mary]
+[Sidenote 2: Collapse of the Plot]
+
+The refusal was given on the evening following the proclamation of Lady
+Jane as Queen: even at the proclamation, a 'prentice was bold enough to
+remark aloud that the Lady Mary's title was the better. That same night, a
+letter arrived from Mary herself, claiming the allegiance of the Council in
+true queenly style. They were not yet prepared to defy Northumberland, and
+a reply was penned the next day affirming Lady Jane's title. Two of the
+Duke's sons were already in pursuit of Mary, and a general impression
+prevailed that they had captured her and were on their way to London. They
+had indeed reached her, but their whole force promptly acclaimed her as
+queen, and the Dudleys had to fly for their lives. The Eastern midlands and
+the home counties were gathering in arms to her support. It was necessary
+to take the field without delay, but of those members of the Council who
+were fit to command there was none on whom Northumberland could rely, when
+once out of his reach. The Duke must go himself. On the eighth day after
+Edward's death, the fourth after the proclamation of Lady Jane, he rode
+gloomily from London at the head of a force which he mistrusted, without a
+plaudit from the populace which, for all its Protestantism, listened with
+apathy two days later to the declamations of Ridley at St. Paul's Cross.
+Northumberland was hardly on his way before news came that the crews of the
+fleet had compelled their captains to declare for Mary. He had not advanced
+far before his own followers in effect followed suit. In the meantime, the
+Council reinstated Paget; who had always been in ill odour with Dudley as
+being a friend of Somerset, and had been recently dismissed from office and
+relegated to the Tower. On the 19th came news of further reinforcements for
+Mary. On that day several members of the Council, who had hitherto been
+practically under guard in the Tower, escaped, and, headed by Pembroke,
+declared for Mary. One party returned in arms, to demand surrender; another
+marched to Paul's Cross and proclaimed Mary amid enthusiastic
+acclamations. That night they dispatched a message to Northumberland at
+Cambridge ordering him to lay down his arms. Before it reached him, he had
+thrown up the struggle. The messengers arrived to arrest a cringing
+traitor. The stream of his repentant supporters was already hastening to
+sue for pardon.
+
+[Sidenote: The Queen's leniency]
+
+Never did rebellion collapse more ignominiously; never were rebels treated
+so leniently. The conspicuous but calculated clemency of the seventh Henry
+pales in comparison with the magnanimity of his grand-child. Those who had
+been most active and prominent in word and deed were arrested; but after a
+brief interval the majority even of these were pardoned. Some, including
+the innocent figurehead of the rebellion, the nine days' queen, her
+husband, and Ridley, were detained, in ward; but even Suffolk was allowed
+to go free; and it was only in deference to the remonstrances of every
+adviser that the Queen ultimately consented to the execution of the
+Arch-traitor Northumberland with two of his companions.
+
+[Sidenote: Meaning of the popular attitude]
+
+Mary's triumph, swift and bloodless, in defiance of all prudent
+presumptions, requires some explanation; which is not to be found in the
+theory of a sweeping Catholic reaction. London and the eastern counties
+were the strongholds of the new ideas, yet they went uncompromisingly in
+her favour. But it seems to prove that the country had definitely made up
+its mind some years before to accept a given solution of the problem of the
+succession, and to abide by it. Mary and Elizabeth might both be
+illegitimate technically, but each had been supposed legitimate at the time
+of her birth, and it seemed only fair that both should be reinstated in the
+line of succession. But the decision had been left to Henry, and had gone
+precisely in accord with popular sentiment. The English people had no mind
+to allow their settled conclusions to be set aside at the dictation of the
+best-hated politician in the country. They would have none of
+Northumberland, and the attempt to coerce them simply collapsed. The fact
+that all their sympathies--apart from judgment--were with the hitherto
+persecuted princess, and were not extended to her helpless rival, is in no
+way remarkable; for Lady Jane had been brought up in retirement, and her
+charms of mind and of character, though known to posterity, were quite
+unknown to the world in her own day. She had lent herself, however
+innocently, to an outrageous conspiracy; nor would any one have thought of
+remonstrance if the Queen had followed the advice of her counsellors
+instead of the dictates of her own magnanimity, and sent the girl with her
+husband and her father to the block along with Northumberland.
+
+[Sidenote: The Queen's marriage and the Reformation]
+
+A woman more politic and less conscientious than Mary--a woman such as her
+sister Elizabeth--might now have seized a great opportunity for making
+herself exceptionally popular. The Roman allegiance had been wiped out by
+Henry, with the entire approval even of Bonner and Gardiner; but of late
+years the extreme puritan party had gone much further in imposing their
+theories than the nation generally approved. They, at least, might now
+have been bridled without exciting serious opposition. Toleration within
+reasonable limits was what the bulk of the people wanted. Too many of them
+had really taken hold of the new ideas for a ready assent to be given to a
+strong reaction; too many still clung to the old ideas for the censorship
+of the Knoxes and Hoopers to be acceptable.
+
+No one was more thoroughly alive to the impolicy of religious coercion than
+the Queen's life-long adviser, Charles V.--who had had his lesson in
+Germany--and his ambassador at Mary's court, Simon Renard. A policy of
+judicious toleration was the first condition of domestic peace, and would
+have met with their entire approval. But there was another question of
+pressing importance on which counsels were likely to be divided--the
+question of the Queen's marriage. Popular sentiment was flatly opposed to
+her union with any one who, being a foreigner, might subordinate England's
+interests to those of his own country, and drag her into the vortex of
+continental broils. On these two points anxiety was concentrated when the
+Queen arrived in London.
+
+[Sidenote: Mary's rivals]
+
+The situation was the more complicated because, however popular Mary might
+be for the moment, there were at least three possible nominees who might be
+put forward if she lost her popularity. There was her half-sister
+Elizabeth, who was a protestant. There was Mary Stewart, whom the French
+would make every effort to place on the throne. Noailles, the French
+ambassador, would exercise all his powers of intrigue to shake Mary, on the
+chance of his master having an opportunity of intervention; indeed, but for
+the rapidity of the Queen's success, there is little doubt that French
+troops would have come to Northumberland's assistance--for the time; to
+turn affairs to their own account as soon as might be. And finally there
+was still Lady Jane, with a title of a sort.
+
+[Sidenote: Moderate Reaction]
+
+There was immediate alarm, when it was known that Mary intended her brother
+to be buried with the old rites; and though she was with difficulty
+dissuaded from carrying out that intention she nevertheless did celebrate a
+requiem Mass. It was however only natural that her first step was to
+release and restore the old Duke of Norfolk, young Edward Courtenay,
+[Footnote: Courtenay, a boy of eleven at the time, had been sent to the
+Tower when his father was executed in 1538.] son of the Marquis of Exeter,
+and the imprisoned bishops, making Gardiner her Chancellor: though London
+did not welcome Bonner. Mary frankly professed her desire that religion
+should return to the position at her father's death, but she was equally
+definite about exercising no compulsion without parliamentary sanction. The
+reinstated bishops had been suspended in the most arbitrary manner; those
+now dispossessed had been appointed under the new theory that they held
+office only during the royal pleasure. The prompt departure of the foreign
+preachers and their English allies was facilitated and encouraged. The
+imprisonment of Ridley was a legitimate reward for his activity on behalf
+of Lady Jane, in August, Latimer was arrested for seditious demeanour, but
+was carefully allowed the opportunity of flight. Cranmer was not touched
+till the draft of a letter he wrote, courageously repudiating the libel
+that he had restored the Mass, had been copied and widely disseminated.
+Then he was removed to the Tower, ostensibly for his support of
+Northumberland. He, like Latimer, was given ample opportunity to fly, but
+also like Latimer stood to his colours. In all this there was no savour of
+injustice, though it filled the Protestants with apprehension: as also did
+the removal of sundry bishops on the ground that they were married. Mary,
+like Gardiner, had always denied the validity of legislation during the
+minority; but to take action on that hypothesis without waiting for
+parliament was hardly consistent with her declarations. Great pressure was
+also brought to bear on Elizabeth, to induce her to recant her
+protestantism; but while she declared herself open to argument, and
+actually presented herself at Mass though with patent reluctance, she
+steadily refused to pronounce herself converted--which Renard at least
+attributed to political not to say treasonable intentions.
+
+These events took place during August, and in the meantime Mary reopened
+communications with the Pope, resulting in the appointment of Cardinal Pole
+as legate--though more than a twelvemonth elapsed before he reached
+England. A matter of still greater importance was the Emperor's proposal,
+not at first openly put forward, that Mary should marry his son Philip.
+
+[Sidenote: Proposed Spanish Marriage]
+
+Now, the sequence of events of which the Peace of Passau between Charles
+and the Lutherans was a part had resulted in war between France and the
+Empire. To Charles, the projected marriage might obviously be of immense
+value. The French on the other hand desired not Mary's marriage but her
+deposition to make way for Mary Stewart. National sentiment in England
+demanded her union with an Englishman, pointing to Courtenay, now restored
+to the earldom of Devon; he and Reginald Pole being the representatives of
+the House of York. [Footnote: See Genealogical Table. _Front_.] Pole,
+though a Cardinal, had never taken priest's orders, so was also eligible as
+a husband, but had no desire for the position, recommending Mary to remain
+unwedded. Mary herself was already inclining towards the Spanish marriage,
+though Paget was almost the only prominent Englishman who favoured it;
+Gardiner being in strong opposition, and pressing for Courtenay. Noailles
+intrigued against it; but his object was to use Elizabeth as a
+stalking-horse for Mary Stewart. Finally, before anything could be done,
+parliament must meet to give its sanction; and before parliament could
+meet, the seal must be set on Mary's authority by her coronation. It is
+curious to note that Mary felt it necessary to obtain the Papal pardon for
+herself and Gardiner for the performance of the ceremony while the nation
+was still excommunicate. The Coronation took place on October 1st, and four
+days later parliament assembled.
+
+[Sidenote: Oct. Parliament revokes Edward's legislation]
+
+It began by abolishing once more all new treasons created since the ancient
+Act of Edward III., and new felonies since the accession of Henry VIII. It
+proceeded to declare Mary legitimate, though by so doing it did not
+invalidate Elizabeth's title as heir presumptive, since that rested on
+Henry's will, which had ignored equally the illegitimacy of both his
+daughters. It repealed the whole of the ecclesiastical legislation of the
+last reign, reverting to the position at Henry's death. As originally
+submitted, these two bills asserted the validity of the papal dispensation,
+and repealed Henry's ecclesiastical legislation as well as his son's: but
+in this form the Commons would not accept them. Some past attainders were
+also reversed, and the Archbishop, as well as Lady Jane, her husband, and
+one of his brothers, were attainted, though not, it would seem, with any
+present intention of inflicting the full penalty. Early in December,
+parliament was dissolved.
+
+In the meantime the Queen definitely made up her mind that she would marry
+Philip, and was extremely indignant when the Commons petitioned her to wed,
+but not to wed a foreigner. So far, parliament at any rate did not ratify
+the Spanish connexion, though the Lords--including Gardiner--had
+practically lost all hope of resisting it, and were giving their attention
+to introducing into the treaty stipulations for the safe-guarding of
+English interests.
+
+[Sidenote: 1554 Wyatt's rebellion]
+
+Enough however had been done to raise the anti-Spanish sentiment to a
+painful pitch; the national nerves being already over-strung with
+excitement and uncertainty as to the coming course of events, deliberately
+aggravated by the subtle manipulation of the French ambassador. The
+marriage treaty was signed on January 12th: within a week, there was a
+rising in Devon--the Courtenay country--a premature movement in the great
+conspiracy known as Wyatt's rebellion. The leaders were all strong
+protestants, and it is likely enough that fear of the reaction was with
+them the primary motive; but their cry was anti-Spanish, not anti-Catholic,
+they appealed to the national not the religious sentiment. The rising in
+Devon forced the hand of the other conspirators, before they were really
+ready to act. Suffolk, pardoned for his share in Northumberland's plot, ill
+requited the Queen's clemency by an attempt--futile though it was--to raise
+the Midlands; but for a time it seemed that Sir Thomas Wyatt, who headed
+the rebellion in Kent--a county prolific of popular movements against the
+Government--might actually succeed in dethroning Mary.
+
+[Sidenote: Elizabeth]
+
+Ostensibly, the cry was against foreigners. There is very little doubt that
+Wyatt really intended to marry Elizabeth to Courtenay, and set her on the
+throne. Whether Elizabeth herself, now twenty years of age, was in the
+plot, remains uncertain. There were suspicious circumstances, but no
+proofs, and Wyatt himself ultimately exonerated her. But the atmosphere was
+thick with suspicions which later historians have crystallised into facts
+according to their sympathies. Mary is charged with having desired her
+sister's death, but on insufficient evidence; [Footnote: Stone, _Mary
+I. Queen of England_, p. 270. The historian asserts Elizabeth's
+complicity without proof, while criticising Froude for inventing a proof of
+Mary's culpability.] double-dealing was not the Queen's way, and her
+behaviour towards her sister points rather to a desire to believe in her
+innocence coupled with something like a conviction of her actual
+guilt. Renard certainly did his best to blacken Elizabeth's character, even
+while he urged her arrest--a measure to which both Gardiner and Paget were
+opposed.
+
+[Sidenote: Progress of the rebellion]
+
+The news of Wyatt's own rising arrived on January 26th, some days after
+Gardiner had frightened Courtenay into betraying at least the existence of
+the plot. Elizabeth had been summoned from Hatfield to London, but declared
+herself too ill to travel. While it was believed that the only aim was to
+stop the Spanish marriage, feeling favoured Wyatt, and it seems as if even
+Gardiner and his supporters were in no haste to put down the rising. Wyatt
+and his followers were at Rochester: Norfolk was sent down with guns and a
+company of Londoners to deal with him, but the men deserted to Wyatt crying
+"we are all English," and the Duke had to ride for safety. London was in a
+panic: the Council could only quarrel among themselves. Wyatt advanced
+towards the Capital. Mary rose to the occasion, and herself addressed the
+populace, her speech going far to allay the panic. Wyatt found the bridge
+at Southwark impassable, and after some hesitation marched up the river,
+crossing at Kingston. The loyalists however had plucked up heart. The
+insurgents' column, in the advance to London, was cut in two. Wyatt at the
+head of the leading section made a desperate effort to reach Ludgate with
+ever dwindling numbers; but when he arrived at the City gates, though he
+did indeed in his own words "keep touch," his small and exhausted following
+was in no condition for prolonged fighting. He was taken prisoner without
+difficulty. Many of his followers were captured. The whole affair was over
+in less than a fortnight from the first rising.
+
+[Sidenote: Subsequent severities]
+
+The leniency previously shown could not be repeated. It seemed dangerous to
+leave Lady Jane any longer as a possible centre for plots, and she was
+executed with her husband and father. Wyatt was beheaded; about a hundred
+of the rebels were hanged. Elizabeth and Courtenay were both committed to
+the Tower, but were liberated after some two months. At the worst the
+punishment meted out may be compared favourably with the proceedings after
+the Pilgrimage of Grace. It was severe, but could not reasonably be called
+cruel.
+
+[Sidenote: The Marriage Treaty]
+
+Neither the expectation of leniency nor the experience of severity allayed
+the antagonism to the Spanish marriage. The treaty however, which came up
+for ratification in Mary's second parliament--summoned to meet in London at
+the beginning of April--conceded every safeguard against Spanish domination
+which could be secured by words; and in addition the succession to Burgundy
+for the offspring of the union, in priority to Philip's son, born to him of
+his first wife. The terms could not have been more favourable, but the
+unpopular fact remained that the connexion would inevitably influence
+Mary's policy in Europe. It was not till July that it was considered that
+Philip could safely entrust his person in England, when the wedding was
+completed.
+
+[Sidenote: Pole, Renard, and Gardiner]
+
+Up to this point at least, the Emperor's influence had been exercised in
+favour of toleration, and in restraint of any disturbance of the subsisting
+religious conditions. On the other hand he had taken pains to impress upon
+Mary that the union itself was a practical step towards reconciliation with
+Rome, which he knew to be her ideal. But he was afraid of the protestants
+being so much alarmed as to make opposition to the marriage
+irresistible. For this reason he raised constant obstacles to the arrival
+in England of Cardinal Pole, believing that the legate's presence would be
+an irritant. Pole being also entrusted with the task of endeavouring to
+reconcile Charles with Henry II., it had not been difficult to find
+imperative reasons for occupying him on the Continent. But when the
+marriage was safely accomplished, an effective counterpoise secured to the
+betrothal of the young Queen of Scots to the Dauphin, and time allowed for
+the English to become accustomed to the new state of affairs and to settle
+down, it was no longer so important to exercise a restraining
+influence. Mary was eager for the country to be once more received into the
+bosom of the Church: and Gardiner, who was bent on the restoration of the
+old worship, had now come fully to the conclusion that the maintenance of
+it was conditioned by the restoration of the Roman obedience, although
+twenty years before at the time of the schism he had been one of Henry's
+most useful supporters. Still however it was necessary to ensure that the
+Pope would consent to leave the holders of former Church lands in
+undisturbed possession, as they might otherwise be relied on to become
+ardent protestants. It was not till these conditions were assured that the
+legate was allowed, in November, to set sail for England.
+
+[Sidenote: Public tension]
+
+Between the Wyatt rebellion which collapsed in February and the arrival of
+Pole in November, the great event was the royal marriage, but there were
+several other occurrences not without significance. Sir Nicholas
+Throgmorton, who had certainly been in communication with Wyatt, was
+nevertheless unanimously acquitted by a jury, and the result was hailed
+with acclamation by the populace though the jurymen were summoned before
+the Star-Chamber and fined. Renard, and, if Renard's accusations and the
+general tongue of rumour are to be trusted, Gardiner also, did their best
+to persuade Mary to strike at her sister; but Paget and the Council
+generally were stoutly opposed to the idea, and Mary herself declared that
+Elizabeth should not be condemned without full legal proof, which was not
+forthcoming. After some two months she was released from the Tower but kept
+under surveillance at Woodstock. A Romanising preacher at St. Paul's Gross
+was fired at, and the culprit was not given up. On the other hand, not only
+married Bishops but married clergy in general were deprived, though some
+were restored on doing penance and parting with their wives. These are said
+to have numbered about one-fifth of the beneficed clergy, a computation
+which does not seem excessive as Convocation had itself petitioned for the
+permission of marriage. Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer, were taken from
+London to Oxford to hold a disputation on those doctrines as to which their
+views were held to be heretical. The ecclesiastical condemnation of their
+argument was of course a foregone conclusion. The parliament, however,
+which ratified the marriage treaty, was chiefly remarkable for following
+Paget in refusing assent to bills excluding Elizabeth from the succession
+and restoring the Six Articles Act and the old Act against Lollards. Paget
+acquired considerable strength from the fact that William, Lord Howard of
+Effingham, who was in command of the fleet, was known to be in agreement
+with his views. The parliament was dissolved in May. It is noteworthy also
+that France was affording harbourage to many gentlemen of the West Country
+who had been more or less implicated in the January rising.
+
+[Sidenote: Nov. Reconciliation with Rome]
+
+Mary's third parliament--in which the nation by its representatives was to
+be formally reconciled to Rome--was called in November. Its first task was
+to reverse the attainder against Pole which was of ancient date. The
+Cardinal had distinguished himself in Henry's time by the vehemence of his
+opposition (from abroad) to the divorce and to the King's subsequent
+ecclesiastical proceedings, and his brothers as well as his mother had all
+been found guilty of treason in connexion with real or manufactured
+conspiracies. The reversal of the attainder was required to legalise his
+position. On the 25th he landed with official pomp at Westminster. On the
+29th, the Houses agreed--with but one dissentient in the Commons--to a
+"supplication" entreating for pardon and the restoration of the nation to
+communion with Rome. The next day was performed the ceremony of presenting
+the supplication to the Legate and receiving his solemn Absolution. Two
+days later, Gardiner from the pulpit confessed the sin of which he in
+common with the nation in general had been guilty in the great schism, and
+declared himself a loyal and repentant son of the Church. Since loyalty and
+repentance did not involve restitution of Church property, most of his
+countrymen were equally ready to declare themselves loyal and
+repentant. Yet were there not a few who would by no means repent.
+
+[Sidenote 1: Reaction consummated]
+[Sidenote 2: 1555]
+
+The Reconciliation of the Authorities to Rome was complete. It remained to
+compel her erring children to return to the fold. During the month
+following the submission, two fateful Acts were passed; one, almost without
+discussion, reviving the old acts, "_De heretico comburendo_" and
+others, which had been restricted under Henry and abolished under Somerset;
+the other repealing all the anti-Roman legislation since the twentieth year
+of Henry (1529), with a proviso, however, securing the alienated wealth of
+the Church to its present holders. On this there was more debate, and it
+was not actually passed till January 3rd. The former authority of the
+bishops and of the canon law was restored. It is to be observed that in all
+this legislation, the Commons were a good deal more amenable than the
+Lords; and this was even more markedly the case with the purely political
+measures. An Act was passed to secure the regency to Philip if there should
+be a child and Mary herself died, it being supposed at the time that the
+Queen was _enceinte_. But the suggestion that the succession should be
+secured to Philip was emphatically rejected, and the regency was by the
+Lords made conditional on his residence in England. He bore the title of
+King of England, but his Coronation was refused. Parliament was dissolved
+on January 16th.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+MARY (ii), 1555-58--THE PERSECUTION
+
+Here we reach the turning point of the reign; the point at which the great
+persecution began. If anything like justice is to be rendered to the
+leading actors in the ensuing tragedy, it is necessary to differentiate
+between these two divisions of Mary's rule.
+
+[Sidenote: Mary's policy, 1553-4]
+
+We must remark that throughout these first eighteen months, Mary had proved
+herself to be the reverse of a vindictive woman. Her leniency in the case
+of Northumberland's accomplices had been almost unparalleled. A second
+rebellion when she had been barely six months on the throne was treated
+with no more than ordinary severity, though a very few of those implicated
+with Northumberland, who would otherwise have been spared, were executed in
+consequence. The advocates of the old religion had come into power, but
+their power had certainly not been used more oppressively than that of the
+opposition party under Warwick or even under Somerset: and there was more
+excuse for the treatment of Cranmer and Ridley at least than there had been
+for that of Gardiner and Bonner. If Latimer and Hooper, Ferrar and
+Coverdale, were imprisoned, it was no more than Heath and Day and Tunstal
+had suffered. The deprivation of the married clergy was certainly a harsh
+measure, since the marriages had been made under the aegis of the law; but
+that appears to be the one measure which had hitherto savoured of
+bigotry--at least, which had gone beyond the bounds of even-handed
+retaliation. What, then, was the change which now took place? And how may
+we account for it?
+
+[Sidenote: 1555 The persecution]
+
+The sanction of parliament had at last been obtained by the Acts just
+passed for the enforcement of the old religion by the old methods. There
+was nothing novel about the procedure or the penalties; but practically a
+reversion to the pre-latitudinarian line of demarcation between heresy and
+orthodoxy. All or very nearly all of the martyrs of the Marian persecution
+would have been sent to the stake under Henry for making the same
+profession of faith. The crucial question was acceptance of
+Transubstantiation, for the denial of which several victims had perished
+within the last twenty years, whose doom both Cranmer and Latimer had at
+the time held to be justified. But in the interval, the conditions had
+changed. A large proportion of the most learned scholars had adopted the
+new doctrine, and the legislature had sanctioned it. The methods which were
+usually efficacious in stamping out sporadic heresy, methods which only
+involved an execution here and there, lost their efficacy when the heresy
+had ceased to be sporadic. Hecatombs were required instead of occasional
+victims; and even the sacrifice of occasional victims had already begun to
+revolt the public conscience before Henry's career was closed. But this did
+not alter the vital postulate. Falsehood was none the less falsehood
+because it had been sanctioned for a time, none the less demanded drastic
+excision. Gardiner, standing for the old order, saw nothing revolting in
+applying again the principles which had been consistently applied before he
+became an old man. It is probable also that he expected immediate success
+to result from striking fearlessly and ruthlessly at the most prominent
+offenders--the rule of action habitually adopted by Henry and Cromwell--a
+rule generally maintained while Gardiner himself lived: that he never
+anticipated the holocaust which followed. It is remarkable that in his own
+diocese of Winchester there were no burnings. Mary had already sufficiently
+proved her own freedom from vindictiveness; it cannot fairly be questioned
+that she was moved entirely by a sense of duty however distorted.
+
+[Sidenote: Whose was the responsibility?]
+
+From the Spaniards [Footnote: See Renard's correspondence, _passim_.
+But the numerous citations therefrom alike in the Anti-Catholic Froude and
+the Catholic Stone (_Mary I._) are sufficiently conclusive on the
+point.] there was no incitement to persecution, but the contrary--not that
+Philip had any abstract objection, but both he and Renard were concerned
+entirely with the present pacification of the country and its
+reconciliation to the Spanish marriage; both were aware that persecution
+would have the opposite effect. The demand for the suppression of heresy
+did not take its rise among the lay nobility, of whom the majority were
+prepared to accept whatever formulae might be most convenient. The theory
+[Footnote: Moore, p. 221, asserts this view.] that they rather than a
+section of the clergy were the moving cause has no foundation in the
+evidence, beyond the fact that the Council officially as a body urged
+Bonner and others forward. Paget and his associates certainly resisted the
+enactments at first. Still neither they nor the Commons can be freed from
+responsibility. The persecution was not however a move of one political
+party against the other; no section was so committed to protestantism as to
+be exposed to serious injury: no political motive can be even
+formulated. Vindictiveness, or a moral conviction of the duty of stamping
+out heresy, alone can make the proceedings intelligible. Of the former
+there is no fair proof, while the latter is entirely consistent with the
+prevailing spirit among the zealots on both sides, and with the known
+character of the persons who must be regarded as the principal
+instigators. Its source lay with Mary herself, a passionately devoted
+daughter of the old Church, and with a few ecclesiastics. Since there is no
+doubt that from the time of Pole's arrival, his influence predominated with
+her personally, he, more than Gardiner, must share with her the ultimate
+responsibility.
+
+[Sidenote: Comparison with other persecutions]
+
+Of old, an occasional example had sufficed to hold heresy in check; the
+changed conditions were not now realised. The case had ceased to be one of
+checking; nothing short of up-rooting would now be of any avail. For Mary,
+with her intense conviction of the soul-destroying effect of heresy, no
+sufferings in the flesh would have seemed too severe to inflict if thereby
+souls might be saved. But a persecution such as she initiated was
+absolutely the most fatal of all courses for the end she had in view. Tens
+of thousands among her subjects had assimilated the new ideas, and were
+prepared to die rather than surrender their hope of Heaven. These the
+martyrdom of a few hundreds could not terrify; and the heroic endurance of
+the martyrs changed popular indifference into passionate sympathy. Applied
+on this scale, the theory of conversion by fire, hitherto generally
+acquiesced in, brought about its own condemnation. Such a persecution, on
+the simple issue of opinion, has never again been possible in England.
+Catholics or Covenanters might be doomed to death, but the excuse had to be
+political. Religious opinions as such might be penalised by fines,
+imprisonment, the boot or the thumbscrew, the imposition of disabilities;
+still the ultimate penalty had to be associated at least with the idea of
+treason. In Mary's time, heresy as such was the plain issue. The status of
+all but some half dozen of the early clerical victims precludes any other
+view: and the first movement against the heretics in January 1555 was
+contemporaneous with an amnesty for the surviving prisoners of the Wyatt
+rebellion. The immediate practical effect was that every martyrdom brought
+fresh adherents to protestantism, and intensified protestant sentiment
+while extending the conviction that persecution was part and parcel of the
+Roman creed. That any of those responsible, from Mary down, took an unholy
+joy in the sufferings of the victims, appears to be a libel wholly without
+foundation; for the most part they honestly believed themselves to be
+applying the only remedy left for the removal of a mortal disease from the
+body politic; Bonner, perhaps the best abused of the whole group,
+constantly went out of his way to give the accused opportunities of
+recanting and receiving pardon. The fundamental fact which must not be
+forgotten in judging the authors of the persecution is, that the general
+horror of death as the penalty for a false opinion was not antecedent to
+but consequent upon it. What they did was on an unprecedented scale in
+England because heresy existed on an unprecedented scale; and the result
+was that the general conscience was awakened to the falseness of the
+principle. The same ghastly error for which Christendom has forgiven Marcus
+Aurelius was committed by Mary and endorsed by Pole, both of them by nature
+little less magnanimous and no whit less conscientious than the Roman
+emperor, though the moral horizon of both was infinitely more restricted.
+
+[Sidenote: Gardiner]
+
+The Marian persecution lasted for nearly four years. During that time, the
+number of victims fell little if at all short of three hundred, of whom
+one-fourth perished in the first year. The striking feature of the year is
+the distinction of the sufferers. One only of high position went to the
+stake after Gardiner's death--which took place only a few days after the
+burning of Ridley and Latimer, in November--that one, the highest of all,
+the whilom head (under the King) of the English Church. And he had then
+already been doomed. These facts point to the definite policy pursued by
+the Chancellor--the application of the principles which had proved so
+effective under Henry and Cromwell. Every prominent leader of the
+Reformation party who had not elected to conform was either dead or doomed
+or in exile within a twelve-month of the revival of the Heresy acts. After
+his time there was no process of selection; the victims were simply taken
+as they came. To find a sort of excuse in the conviction of an imperative
+duty to crush out the poison of heresy at any cost is in some degree
+possible. The attempt to explain the matter as in fact a crusade against
+Anabaptism [Footnote: _Cf._ Moore, P. 220.] as a social and political
+crime makes the thing not better but incomparably worse; while the
+endeavour to compare it with any other persecution in England is absurd.
+Henry before and Elizabeth afterwards could be ruthless; but while one
+reigned thirty-eight years and the other forty-five, yet in neither reign
+was the aggregate of burnings or executions for religion so great as in
+these four years of Mary's.
+
+[Sidenote: Some characteristics]
+
+In London itself, in Essex, and in the dioceses of Norwich and Canterbury,
+many informations were laid. Some five-sixths of the deaths were suffered
+within this restricted area, nearly half of these falling under the
+jurisdiction of Bonner; so that he was naturally looked upon as the moving
+spirit, and his conduct was imagined in the most lurid colours. As a matter
+of fact there is little sign that he initiated prosecutions--indeed he
+received a fairly strong hint from the Queen and Council that he was less
+active than he might have been; he certainly tried hard to persuade the
+accused to recant and escape condemnation; in several cases where he had
+hopes he deferred handing them over to the secular arm. But protestants
+were very disproportionately numerous in his diocese; if the accepted
+principle were sound at all, he of all men was most bound to strictness
+with the persistently recalcitrant, and that fact of itself sufficed to
+encourage heresy-hunters. Moreover in London, it must also be remarked,
+heresy was particularly defiant and audacious, and was not infrequently
+accompanied by acts of gross public disorder which merited the sharpest
+penalties quite apart from questions of orthodoxy. Acts of ruffianism were
+done in the name of true religion, [Footnote: _E.g._ the notorious
+cases of William Branch or Flower, and John Tooley.] and the doers thereof
+were enrolled among the martyrs. Moreover among the genuine martyrs for
+conscience' sake--by far the majority of those who suffered--not a few were
+zealots who took up their parable against the judges when under examination
+in a fashion calculated to enrage persons of a far less choleric
+disposition than the bishop of London. In short if once the postulate be
+granted that to teach persistently doctrines regarded by authority as false
+is deserving of the death penalty, the manner [Footnote: The popular
+impression is derived mainly from accounts based on Foxe's _Book of
+Martyrs_. Stripped of picturesque adjectives and reduced to a not
+superfluously accurate statement of facts resting on easily accepted
+stories by a strongly biased reporter, his evidence against Bonner and
+Gardiner is not very damnatory.] in which Bonner and his colleagues
+conducted their task is not to be greatly censured. In Ireland, and in
+several English dioceses, there were no actual martyrdoms.
+
+[Sidenote: The first Martyrs]
+
+The new year, 1555 had barely begun before the revived heresy laws were set
+in operation. For Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer, all now at Oxford, there
+was to be some delay; for the chief prisoners elsewhere there was none.
+These were headed by Hooper and Ferrar, both bishops; Rogers, commonly
+identified with the "Matthew" of _Matthew's Bible_; Rowland Taylor of
+Hadley, a man generally beloved; Bradford, who had begun life as a rogue,
+but becoming converted, had lived to make restitution, so far as was
+possible, for the wrong doings of his youth, a very genuine instance of a
+striking reformation. Most of them belonged to the school of Ridley rather
+than of Hooper; but on the question of Transubstantiation, all were equally
+firm--and all were now in the eye of the law undoubtedly heretics. Had they
+recanted, they would have suffered but lightly. They were urged to do so,
+but steadfastly refused. It must even be admitted that they challenged
+martyrdom, for before they were brought to trial, the London group,
+including most of those above named, had issued an appeal which was
+practically a solemn reproof to those whose opinions differed from their
+own. Rogers was the first to suffer; after brief intervals all of those
+named went to the stake.
+
+[Sidenote 1: Trial of Cranmer (Sept.)]
+[Sidenote 2: Martyrdom of Ridley and Latimer (Oct.)]
+
+Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer, were all condemned as a result of the
+disputation held at Oxford in 1554: but since this preceded the
+reconciliation with Rome, it was not accounted sufficient. On the old
+Catholic theory, the Metropolitan of England could only be condemned by the
+authority of the Pope himself--direct, or delegated _ad hoc_. The
+first move was made against him in September, before a court whose business
+was not to adjudicate, but to lay its conclusions before the Pope himself.
+Cranmer declined to recognise the authority, answering the charges brought
+against him not as a defendant on trial but as making a public profession
+of his views. Judgment however could not be passed till the results were
+submitted to the Pope. In the meantime, Ridley and Latimer were condemned
+under legatine authority, and were burnt at Oxford in November. Cranmer is
+said to have witnessed the martyrdom from his prison. The aged Latimer's
+exhortation to his companion at the stake rang like a trumpet note through
+the Protestant world. Ridley was the learned theologian and keen
+controversialist who more than any other man had moulded the plastic mind
+of the Archbishop since he had been released from the thraldom of Henry's
+moral and intellectual domination: who had led the campaign against
+"idolatry" but stood fast against the extravagances of the Nonconformists:
+who had without hesitation opposed Mary's accession. No one could have
+murmured against his punishment for treason two years before; but he died a
+martyr, for denying Transubstantiation and the Papal authority. Latimer was
+no theologian; but he was a pulpit orator of extraordinary power, an
+enthusiastic if erratic moralist, who had suffered for his own freely
+expressed opinions in the past and shown scant consideration for false
+teachers--a quixotic but heroic figure.
+
+[Sidenote: Fate of the Archbishop 1555-56]
+
+The condemnation by the court which tried the Archbishop carried with it no
+penalty; that was reserved for the Pope to pronounce--by implication, in
+handing him over to the secular arm, and explicitly by sentence of
+degradation, which was notified in December. Until this time Cranmer
+remained steadfast; but about the new year, he displayed signs of wavering,
+and was said to have been influenced by the arguments of a Spanish friar,
+Garcia. Possibly he attended Mass; certainly, about the end of January and
+beginning of February (1556) he wrote three "submissions" recognising the
+papal authority. These did not avail to save him from public degradation,
+in the course of which ceremony he produced a written appeal to a General
+Council, which was ignored. Two more "submissions" followed, but in neither
+did he go beyond the admission that the papal authority was now valid,
+since the Sovereign had so enacted. Nevertheless, on February 24th the writ
+committing him to the flames was issued. There is no reason to suppose that
+the idea of sparing him was ever entertained; but, wherever the blame lay,
+he was led to believe that a recantation might save him; and he did now at
+last break down utterly, and recant in the most abject terms. Had this won
+a pardon, the blow would have been crushing; the Court in its blindness
+suffered him to retrieve the betrayal. His doom was unaltered. While the
+fagots were prepared, he was taken to St. Mary's Church to hear his own
+funeral sermon and make his last public confession; but that confession, to
+the sore amazement and dismay of the authorities, proved to be the cry of
+the humble and self-abasing sinner repenting not his heresies but his
+recantations. And in accordance with his last utterance, when he came to
+the fire he was seen to thrust forth his right hand into the flame, crying
+aloud "this hand hath offended"; and so held it steadfastly till it was
+consumed. The chief prelate of the English Church was struck down at the
+bidding of a foreign Ecclesiastic; the recusant had been gratuitously
+glorified with the martyr's crown. It is likely enough that he won less
+personal popular sympathy than his fellows; but the moral effect must have
+been tremendous.
+
+[Sidenote: Cranmer's record]
+
+It is natural but hardly just that Cranmer should be judged on the basis of
+the impression created by his last month of life. That the protagonist in a
+great Cause should recant in the face of death seems to argue an almost
+incredible degree of pusillanimity, and suggests that pusillanimity and
+subservience are the key to his career. Nevertheless, but for that short
+hour of abasement nobly and humbly retrieved, the general judgment would
+probably be altogether different. And that breakdown does not appear to
+have been characteristic. Twice in the reign of Henry he had bowed to the
+King's judgment, acknowledging that Anne Boleyn and Thomas Cromwell must be
+guilty since Henry was convinced: but there was no man in the country who
+took the part of either. To have defied the King would have been heroic,
+and there is a wide interval between failing of heroism and being
+pusillanimous. He withdrew his resistance to Northumberland's plot; but he
+resisted on the ground that it was illegal and withdrew only when he was
+assured that the Judges had unanimously affirmed its legality. He changed
+his views on Transubstantiation; but to surrender an abstruse dogma is not
+a crime. He repeatedly maintained opinions in opposition to Henry as well
+as to Mary at the risk of losing royal support and favour--which loss would
+certainly have meant delivering himself into the hands of his enemies. In
+practice he conformed to the restrictions laid upon him, but it was only on
+points of expediency that he personally gave way, though he would fain have
+allowed to others a larger latitude of opinion than he required for
+himself.
+
+[Sidenote: His character]
+
+Yet the virtues of Thomas Cranmer fail of recognition. The extreme Anglican
+joins with the Roman Catholic in condemning the ecclesiastical leader of
+the Schism; the puritan condemns the advocate of compromise; and the
+advocate of compromise, at least within the clerical ranks, condemns the
+Erastian cleric. In his day, and in Elizabeth's, the lay statesmen were
+Erastians to a man; that is forgiven to them; but the ecclesiastic who
+adopts and preaches without reservation the theory that the Church--its
+organisation, its administration, even its doctrines--is ultimately subject
+to the secular sovereign, essentially and not owing to the accidental
+sanction of force--such a one is inevitably regarded as a traitor to his
+order; that he was guided by honest conviction seems incredible. Cranmer
+was a man of peace, driven to do battle in the front rank; an academic,
+forced to take a leading part in exceedingly practical affairs; a student,
+compelled so far as he might to control a revolution. Yet to him, more than
+any other single man, it is due that the Church of England allows a larger
+latitude of opinion within her borders than any other, and that she
+possesses a liturgy of unsurpassed beauty. A man so weak, so lacking in
+self-reliance, can hardly be called great; yet one who, despite his
+weakness, has carved himself so noble and so lasting a monument can hardly
+be denied the epithet.
+
+For the rest of the persecution it is sufficient to say that year by year
+the number of victims did not diminish; neither sex nor age brought
+immunity; but as they were of less standing, an attempt was made to
+intensify the effect by putting them to death in larger batches--which
+increased the horror. The laymen of station, it may be remarked, with one
+accord conformed, at least outwardly.
+
+[Sidenote: 1555 Philip's policy]
+
+The Parliament which passed the Heresy Acts was dissolved before the end of
+January. Rogers was burnt some three weeks later. Symptoms of unrest were
+quickly apparent, and Philip felt it necessary to dissociate himself
+publicly from the persecution. On this point Renard was urgent, and he was
+also anxious about the succession. If the Queen's hopes of a child should
+be disappointed, neither Mary Stewart nor Elizabeth would be
+satisfactory. The only thing to be done was to secure a convenient husband
+for the latter, and a project was on foot (not with her approval) for
+marrying her to the Prince of Savoy, which might incidentally make the
+English more disposed to join in the war with France, which was in
+occupation of Savoy. But by April the belligerents were thinking of holding
+a conference to discuss terms of peace, with an English Commission to
+mediate.
+
+[Sidenote 1: Pope Paul IV.]
+[Sidenote 2: Mary has no child]
+
+The death of Pope Julius, however, promptly followed by that of his
+immediate successor Marcellus, caused the election of the Cardinal Caraffa
+who became Paul IV. On both occasions, Reginald Pole had been perhaps the
+favourite candidate: but the election of Paul was a victory for the French,
+the new Pope being an austere zealot with a violent anti-imperial
+prejudice. Having thus secured the papal alliance, Henry of France was by
+no means disposed to so easy a compromise as had been looked for. The
+conference collapsed. If Philip really had hoped, as rumour said, to be
+enabled by the peace to introduce Spanish troops into England for his own
+ends, he was doomed to disappointment. So it was also with his hopes of an
+heir to secure him the English succession. Mary had been misled partly by
+the symptoms of what proved to be a fatal disease and partly by hysterical
+hallucinations. It became certain that there was no prospect of her ever
+having a child at all; which necessitated a complete reconsideration of the
+Spanish prince's policy. Possibly also the expectation that the Queen's
+life could not be a long one led the nobles with protestant inclinations to
+acquiesce in the prolonged persecution rather than countenance a danger of
+civil war. Neither they nor Elizabeth could be implicated in any of the
+abortive conspiracies which cropped up periodically during the remainder of
+the reign.
+
+[Sidenote: Effect on Philip]
+
+In August, Philip left the country, not to return again till more than
+eighteen months had passed; and then only for a very brief sojourn.
+Already his father was meditating abdication in his favour, and Philip was
+pondering how he might secure at least a preponderating influence with
+Elizabeth, whose ultimate accession he regarded as inevitable. Thus the
+Spanish counsels were now directed largely to securing favourable treatment
+for her--a complete reversal of Renard's earlier policy. It may be that the
+idea of marrying her himself after her sister's death was even now present
+in Philip's mind.
+
+[Sidenote: Oct. A new parliament]
+
+In October, about the time of the martyrdom of Ridley and Latimer at
+Oxford, a fresh parliament was summoned, which was called upon to grant a
+subsidy. The diminution in the royal revenues from normal sources, which
+had been growing steadily more serious throughout the last twenty years,
+made the appeal necessary; the more so as the Queen had been honestly
+struggling to pay off the debts bequeathed to her. The subsidy was granted
+in part at least owing to the exertions of Gardiner, who in spite of mortal
+illness attended the opening of parliament.
+
+[Sidenote: Nov. Gardiner's death and character]
+
+It was his last public act. A few days later he followed Ridley and Latimer
+to the grave; dying stoutly, in harness almost to the last. He was of the
+old school of ecclesiastical statesmen. Five and twenty years before, he
+had been statesman first, churchman afterwards; but when he found that the
+ecclesiastical organisation as well as the Pope was the objective of
+Henry's attack, he took his stand by his Order, though stubbornly loyal to
+the King. In Henry's later years, he tried a fall with Cranmer and was
+worsted through the King's favour. All through the reign of Edward, he
+watched with continual protest--mostly from prison--the toppling over of
+the fabric which Henry had established; himself, as he judged, the victim
+of unconstitutional oppression. Released and restored to power by Mary, he
+repented what he conceived to have been his initial error, the repudiation
+of Roman authority, and was not averse to exacting the full penalty from
+those who had dealt hardly with him; was zealous to restore the power of
+the Church and to stamp out heresy. But to the last, he stood for the Law,
+and for English freedom from foreign domination, and to the last he fought
+for his Queen. His wildest panegyrist would not call him a saint; but
+according to his lights he was rarely cruel or even unjust, though often
+harsh; the records of his life have been written almost entirely by
+bitterly hostile critics; [Footnote: This applies not only to the
+Protestant historians, but also to the correspondence of Renard (on account
+of the Chancellor's anti-Spanish attitude), and of Noailles who detested
+him personally.] and his name deserves more honour and less obloquy than is
+usually attached to it.
+
+[Sidenote: Mary's difficulties]
+
+An embassy to Rome earlier in the year, which had been charged with the
+formal announcement of the reconciliation, had also intimated Mary's
+intention of restoring to the Church such of the alienated property as
+still remained in the hands of the Crown. The new Pope was with difficulty
+restrained from demanding more. Parliament however, when a bill was
+proposed for the restoration of "first-fruits and tenths" displayed so much
+resentment at the suggestion that it was so modified as only to authorise
+the Queen to dispose personally of the "tenths" actually remaining in her
+hands. Even this was not carried without vehement opposition. An
+impoverished exchequer which required replenishment by a subsidy could not
+afford to surrender a solid portion of revenue to Rome. The hostility to
+any such tribute was no less active than it had been twenty-five years ago:
+and the Pope's attitude served only to intensify the feeling, and to stir
+up general animosity towards the Papacy. The Opposition was so outspoken
+that some of the members were sent to the Tower. Parliament was dissolved
+before Christmas.
+
+[Sidenote: 1556; The Dudley conspiracy; Foreign complications]
+
+In January, Charles abdicated--his Burgundian possessions he had resigned
+to his son three months before--and Philip became King of Spain. Next
+month, the peace of Vaucelles was signed between France and Spain; but with
+a consciousness that war was likely to be renewed at the first convenient
+opportunity. Philip's hands were full, and the French King did not cease
+from intrigues in England, while French soil continued to be an asylum for
+English conspirators. In March, Cranmer closed the tragedy of his life, and
+Pole, who had long ago been nominated to the Archbishopric, was immediately
+installed. Before Easter, a plot on the old lines was discovered. Elizabeth
+was to be made Queen and married to Courtenay (now in Italy where he died
+soon after); France was to help. A number of the conspirators were taken
+and put to death after protracted examination; others escaped to France,
+including a Dudley, a connexion of the dead Northumberland, who gave his
+name to the plot. Most of them were hotheaded young men, who did not
+appreciate, as did their shrewder elders, the danger of relying on French
+assistance which would only be granted for ulterior ends. As the year went
+on, the violent temper of Paul IV. involved him in war with Philip; France
+naturally took up his cause; and it was more difficult than ever for Mary
+to escape being dragged into the imbroglio--a singularly painful position
+for so fervent a daughter of Rome; while the English refugees checkmated
+their own party at home by their readiness to pay any price-even to the
+betrayal of Calais-for French support. But for timely reinforcements, the
+English foothold in France would probably have been captured by a _coup
+de main_ before the close of 1556. Meantime in England the severity of
+the persecutions was increased.
+
+[Sidenote 1: 1557, June: the War with France]
+[Sidenote 2: 1558, Jan: The loss of Calais]
+
+In the spring of 1557, France and Spain were again at open war, and Philip
+paid his last brief visit to his wife to obtain English co-operation.
+Anti-Spanish feeling was strong; but when one of the refugees, Sir Thomas
+Stafford, [Footnote: A grandson of Buckingham] starting from France, landed
+in Yorkshire, captured Scarborough Castle, and attempted to raise a
+rebellion, jealousy of French interference proved an effective
+counterpoise. The rebellion collapsed at once, and war with France was
+declared in summer. The success of Philip's troops, which included a
+considerable English contingent, at St. Quentin in Picardy compelled the
+French to withdraw from Italy; and the Pope, thus deserted, was forced to a
+reconciliation with Philip. His animosity however, now aroused against
+England, was not easy to remove: and it was an additional source of grief
+to Mary and a great vexation to the Cardinal that Paul deprived him of his
+Legatine authority. The contest between Philip and Henry of France
+continued. It is curious that after the experience of the previous year the
+English authorities still did not realise the precarious position of
+Calais, and allowed the garrison to be weakened again--though the strain of
+maintaining its strength with the depleted exchequer would have been almost
+impossible. The natural result followed. At the end of December, Guise
+appeared before its walls: on January 6th 1558 it surrendered. Calais was
+lost for ever. A fortnight later, Guisnes, after a desperate resistance by
+its commandant, Lord Grey de Wilton, was forced to surrender also.
+
+[Sidenote: National depression]
+
+Whatever else was won or lost in France, the maintenance of the English
+grip on Calais had been a point of military honour for centuries--like the
+retention of its colours by a regiment. Nothing substantial was lost with
+its fall; but the wound to the national honour was deep and bitter. For
+Mary herself it was the bitterest portion in a cup that was filled with
+little else than bitterness. Talk of recapture was vain. A subsidy was
+demanded and granted, but only on the theory that the whole was required
+not for expeditions but to set the home defences in order against invasion.
+More could not be done without taxation, which the country could not
+support. In the attempt to fulfil what Mary and Pole deemed a pious and
+supreme duty--the restoration to the Church of the property whereof it had
+been sacrilegiously robbed--political considerations had been ignored and
+the absolutely necessary expenditure on national objects had been diverted
+into ecclesiastical channels, at a time when the national revenue was
+already desperately impoverished. The loss of Calais was reckoned as one
+more item in the account against Rome.
+
+[Sidenote: Mary's death Nov.]
+
+The whole country was in fact in a condition of irritated despondency, sick
+of persecution, sick of disaster, disheartened by epidemics and bad
+harvests; without the spirit or the material means to attempt a whole-
+hearted prosecution of the war, yet too sore to be willing to make peace
+till Calais should be recovered. And so in despair and gloom dragged out
+the last months of Mary Tudor's life. The last message she received from
+her husband was to beg her to make no difficulties about the succession of
+the sister who, she knew, would seek to reverse her policy. It was not till
+November that she passed away--to be followed in a few hours by her one
+trused friend, Cardinal Pole: the most disastrous example on record of one
+who with conscientious and destructive persistence aimed at an ideal which
+her own methods made for ever impossible of attainment.
+
+[Sidenote: and character]
+
+From the time of her childhood she was exposed to unceasing harshness; a
+princess born, she was treated as a bastard; despite it all, her natural
+generosity survived. Royally courageous, loyal and straightforward; to her
+personal enemies almost magnanimous; to the poor and afflicted pitiful;
+loving her country passionately: she was blind to the forces at work in the
+world, obsessed with the idea of one supreme duty, and she set herself, as
+she deemed, to do battle with Antichrist by the only methods she knew,
+though they were alien to her natural disposition, facing hatred and
+obloquy. She whose life was one long martyrdom, for conscience' sake
+offered up a whole holocaust of martyrs: she who thirsted for love died
+clothed with a nation's hate. Where in all history is a tragedy more
+piteous than that of Mary Tudor?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+ELIZABETH (i), 1558-61--A PASSAGE PERILOUS
+
+[Sidenote: 1558 Accession of Elizabeth]
+
+On November 17th 1558, the sun had not yet risen when Mary passed away;
+within a few hours, Elizabeth had been proclaimed Queen. No dissentient
+voice was raised in England. Heath, Mary's Chancellor and Archbishop of
+York, announced her accession to the Houses of Parliament; the proclamation
+was drawn up by Sir William Cecil, the Council's Secretary under Edward
+VI. From one quarter, and only one, could a colourable challenge come. In
+the legitimate course of succession by blood, the claim lay with Mary
+Stewart, Queen of Scots and now Dauphiness of France. But the Will of Henry
+VIII., authorised by Parliament, was paramount. That Will had given
+priority to the two children of his body who had both been declared
+illegitimate--not born in wedlock--by the national courts. The Papal
+pronouncement in an opposite sense in Mary's case would have made nugatory
+any attempt on the part of a Catholic to question her rights; but that
+difficulty did not apply in the case of Elizabeth. As a matter of practical
+politics, the Scots Queen might waive her claim; as a matter of high
+theory, no personal disclaimers could cancel the validity of her title; as
+a matter of English Constitutional theory, Elizabeth's legal title rested
+on the superior validity of a Parliamentary enactment as compared with the
+divine right of inheritance. And in the minds of the entire English nation,
+there was unanimity as to the acceptable doctrine. But the rejected
+doctrine remained to fall back on if discontent should arise.
+
+[Sidenote: The claim of Mary Stewart]
+
+The English people might settle the antagonistic claims of Mary and
+Elizabeth to their own satisfaction: but the rivalry also of the very
+strongest interest to the European Powers. was actually queen of Scotland;
+prospectively she was also queen of France. If to these two crowns she
+united that of England, the hegemony of the empire thus formed would
+inevitably fall to France, and France would become the premier European
+Power. That position was now occupied by Spain, [Footnote: See _Appendix
+A_, ii.] which, in the face of such a combination, would lose its naval
+ascendancy, and be cut off from the Netherlands both by sea and land. For
+Philip therefore it was absolutely imperative to support Elizabeth at ail
+costs.
+
+[Sidenote: Strength of Elizabeth's position]
+
+Here then lay the strength of Elizabeth's position, which she and her
+chosen counsellors were quick to grasp. The only alternative to Elizabeth
+was the Queen of Scots; her accession would mean virtually the conversion
+of England into an appanage of France. Of Elizabeth's subjects none--
+whatever their creed might be, or whatever creed she might adopt--would be
+prepared to rebel at the price of subjection to France; the few hot-heads
+who had ventured on that line when Mary Tudor was at the height of her
+unpopularity had found themselves utterly without support. For the same
+reason, do what she would, Philip could not afford to act against her--more
+than that, he had no choice but to interfere on her behalf if Henry of
+France acted against her. He might advise--dictate--threaten--but he must,
+as against France, remain her champion, whether she submitted or no. As
+long as she kept her head, this young woman of five and twenty, with an
+empty treasury, with no army, a wasted navy, and with counsellors whose
+reputation for statesmanship was still to make, was nevertheless mistress
+of the situation. Mary Stewart's claim presented no immediate danger,
+though it might become dangerous enough in the future.
+
+There were two things then on which Elizabeth knew she could count; her own
+ability to keep her head, and the capacity for loyalty of the great bulk of
+her subjects. If either of those failed her, she would have no one but
+herself to blame. The former had been shrewdly tested during her sister's
+reign, when a single false step would have ruined her. The latter had borne
+the strain even of the Marian persecution--nay, of the alarm engendered by
+the Spanish marriage, which showed incidentally that fear of domination by
+a foreign power was the most deeply rooted of all popular sentiments; a
+sentiment now altogether in Elizabeth's favour, unless she should threaten
+a dangerous marriage.
+
+But the cool head and the clear brain, and unlimited self-reliance, were
+necessary to realise how much might be dared in safety; to distinguish also
+the course least likely to arouse the one incalculable factor in domestic
+politics--religious fanaticism; which, if it once broke loose, might count
+for more than patriotic or insular sentiment. And these were precisely the
+qualities in which the queen herself excelled, and which marked also the
+man whom from the first she distinguished with her father's perspicacity as
+her chief counsellor.
+
+[Sidenote: Cecil]
+
+Throughout the last reign, Cecil had carefully effaced himself. In matters
+of religion, though he had been previously associated with the Protestant
+leaders, he had never personally committed himself to any extreme line, and
+under the reaction he conformed; as did Elizabeth herself, and practically
+the whole of the nobility. He had walked warily, keeping always on the safe
+side of the law, never seeking that pre-eminence which in revolutionary
+times is apt to become so dangerous. He was not the man to risk his neck
+for a policy which he could hope to achieve by waiting, and he was quite
+willing to subordinate religious convictions to political expediency. On
+the other hand, he never betrayed confidences; he was not to be bought; and
+he was not to be frightened. Further, he was endowed with a penetrating
+perception of character, immense powers of organisation, and industry which
+was absolutely indefatigable. It was an immediate mark of the young queen's
+singular sagacity that even before her accession she had selected Cecil to
+lean upon, in preference to any of the great nobles, and even to Paget who
+had for many years been recognised as the most astute statesman in England.
+
+[Sidenote: Finance]
+
+Secure of her throne, Elizabeth was confronted by the great domestic
+problem of effecting a religious settlement; the diplomatic problem of
+terminating the French war; and what may be called the personal problem of
+choosing--or evading--a husband, since no one, except it may be the Queen
+herself, dreamed for a moment that she could long remain unwedded. To
+these problems must be added a fourth, less conspicuous but vital to the
+continuance of good government--the rehabilitation of the finances, of the
+national credit. A strict and lynx-eyed economy, a resolute honesty of
+administration, and a prompt punctuality in meeting engagements, took the
+place of the laxity, recklessness, and peculation which had prevailed of
+recent years. The presence of a new tone in the Government was immediately
+felt in mercantile circles, and the negotiation of necessary loans became a
+reasonable business transaction instead of an affair of usurious
+bargaining, both in England and on the continent. Finally, before Elizabeth
+had been two years on the throne, measures were promulgated for calling in
+the whole of the debased coinage which had been issued during the last
+fifteen years, and putting in circulation a new and honest currency. It
+seems to have been owing to a miscalculation, not to sharp practice, that
+the Government did in fact make a small profit out of this transaction.
+
+[Sidenote: Marriage proposals: Philip II.]
+
+Philip of Spain and his representatives in England had not realised the
+true strength of Elizabeth's position, and certainly had no suspicion that
+she and her advisers were entirely alive to it. On this point they had
+absolutely no misgivings. They took it for granted that the English queen
+must place herself in their hands and meekly obey their behests, if only in
+order to secure Spanish support against France. Philip began operations by
+proposing him self as her husband, expecting thereby to obtain for himself
+a far greater degree of power than he had derived from his union with her
+sister, while inviting her to share the throne of the first Power in
+Europe. But Elizabeth and Cecil were alive to the completeness of the hold
+on Philip they already possessed; and Elizabeth, the daughter of Anne
+Boleyn, would have utterly stultified her own position by marrying her dead
+sister's husband, since it would be necessary to obtain a papal
+dispensation, acknowledge the Pope's authority, and recognise by
+implication the validity of her father's marriage with Katharine of
+Aragon. To the ambassador's amazed indignation, the Queen with the support
+of the Council, decisively rejected the honour. Paget, who had in the last
+reign stood almost alone in commending the Spanish match, would have
+repeated his counsel now; but he had been displaced, while Cecil and his
+mistress were entirely at one.
+
+The Queen's argument that the marriage, however attractive to herself or
+desirable politically, was, from her point of view out of the question, was
+unanswerable. The Spaniards had to cast about for some other candidate for
+her hand, whose success would still be likely to attach England to the
+chariot-wheels of Spain; besides seeking another bride for their own King.
+
+When Philip's hand was definitely declined, three months after Elizabeth's
+accession, the most pressing danger arising out of the Marriage question
+was at an end. Thenceforward, dalliance with would-be suitors became simply
+one of the tactical tricks of Elizabeth's diplomacy, employed by her
+perhaps not less to the torment of her own advisers than to the
+perturbation of foreign chancelleries; seeing that whether she knew her own
+mind or not, up to the last she invariably took very good care that no one
+else should know it.
+
+[Sidenote: The Religious Question]
+
+One of Philip's main objects was as a matter of course to secure England,
+through its queen, for Catholicism; and there is very little doubt that at
+this time the majority of Englishmen--at any rate outside the dioceses of
+London, Norwich and Canterbury--would have acquiesced much more readily in
+the maintenance of the old forms of worship than in institutions modelled
+after Geneva. Elizabeth however, with her trusted advisers, leaned neither
+to the one nor to the other. They were guided by considerations not of
+creed but of politics. They had realised that the repudiation of the
+authority of the Holy See, and the assertion of the supremacy of the
+sovereign in matters ecclesiastical, were essential. If they were
+determined not to submit to Papal claims, they were equally disinclined to
+submit to the claims of a Calvinistic Ministry, posing as the mouth-pieces
+of the Almighty, demanding secular obedience on the analogy of Samuel or
+Elijah. As to creed, what the statesmen saw was that the utmost latitude of
+dogmatic belief must be recognised; provided that it was consistent with
+the supremacy of the secular sovereign, and with a moderately elastic
+uniformity of ritual. The personal predilections of Elizabeth might be in
+favour of what we call the Higher doctrines, or those of Cecil might lean
+to the Lower; but neither was willing to impose penalties or disabilities
+for opinions or practices which did not tend either to the anarchism of the
+Anabaptists, or to the Sacerdotalism of Rome on the one hand or Geneva on
+the other hand; both were even disposed to remain in official
+unconsciousness of such individual transgressors as could conveniently be
+ignored.
+
+[Sidenote: A Protestant policy]
+
+While the Spanish ambassador, De Feria, like his master, had almost taken
+it for granted that if Philip offered to marry Elizabeth he would be
+accepted, he was from the first greatly perturbed as to the attitude of the
+new Government towards the religious question. That Cecil was going to be
+chief minister, and that he was, in the political sense, a Protestant, were
+both manifest facts. All the extreme Catholics, and some of the moderate
+ones, were displaced from the Council; those who were left might prefer the
+Mass to the Communion, but only as King Henry had done. The new members
+were definitely Protestants. Heath, Archbishop of York, Mary's Chancellor,
+though personally esteemed, gave place to Nicholas Bacon (as "Lord
+Keeper"), whose wife and Cecil's were sisters, and measures were being
+taken to secure a Protestant House of Commons when Parliament should
+meet. The number of lay peers was increased by four Protestants; among the
+twenty-seven bishoprics, Archbishop Pole had omitted to fill up several
+vacancies, while a sudden mortality was afflicting the episcopal
+bench. Around the queen, Protestant influences were immensely
+predominant. It is quite unnecessary to turn to an injudicious letter from
+Pope Paul to find a motive for the anti-Roman attitude which from the very
+outset was so obvious to De Feria. [Footnote: _MSS. Simancas, apud_
+Froude, vii., p. 27. De Feria to Philip.] Whatever prevarications or
+ambiguities Elizabeth might indulge in to him, it is quite clear that,
+whether she liked it or not, she felt that her position required an
+anti-Roman policy, if her independence was to be secured and the prestige
+of England among the nations was to be restored.
+
+[Sidenote: 1559 Parliament: The Act of Supremacy]
+
+The methods of the new Government however were to be strictly legal;
+changes must have parliamentary sanction. At the coronation, the authorised
+forms obtained. But at the end of January, the Houses met; and during the
+following four months the whole of the Marian legislation was wiped out, as
+Mary had wiped out the legislation of the preceding reign. The first
+measures brought forward were financial--as the first step Cecil had taken
+was to dispatch an agent to the Netherland cities to negotiate a loan--a
+Tonnage and Poundage bill, a Subsidy, and a First-fruits bill which marked
+the revival of the claims of the Crown against ecclesiastical
+revenues. These bills were skilfully introduced, and well-received; for it
+was expected that the money would be expended where it was needed, on
+national defence. Next, the new Act of Supremacy was introduced, against
+which the small phalanx of bishops fought with determination, supported by
+the protest of Convocation. It was not in fact carried till April; and then
+the actual title of "Supreme Head," which Mary and Philip had surrendered,
+was not revived, but a different formula was used, the Crown being declared
+"Supreme in all causes as well ecclesiastical as civil". The Act once more
+repealed the lately revived heresy Acts, and forbade proceedings on the
+ground of false opinions, except where these were opposed to the decisions
+of the first four General Councils or the plain words of
+Scripture. Moreover, the refusal of the Oath was not to be treason, as
+under Henry VIII.; it merely precluded the recusant from office. All save
+one of the Marian bishops did refuse it and were deprived; most of them
+doubtless would have done so even in the face of the old
+penalties. Incidentally it authorised the appointment of a Commission to
+deal with ecclesiastical offences, which took shape five and twenty years
+later as the Court of High Commission. But taken altogether, the measure
+was a long step in the direction of a much wider toleration than had ever
+been practised before.
+
+[Sidenote: The Prayer-book, etc.]
+
+In the meantime, the Prayer-book had been undergoing a final revision; and
+here Elizabeth's own wish would undoubtedly have been to revert to that of
+1549. The disciples however of the Swiss school were too strong, and the
+last Prayer-book of Edward was the basis of the new one, though some
+sentences were so modified as to cause them dissatisfaction, and higher
+practices in the matter of ornaments and ceremonial were enjoined. The Act
+of Uniformity, imposing the use of the Prayer-book on the clergy, resulted
+in resignations which according to the records did not exceed two
+hundred. To account for so small a number, we must suppose that the
+regulations were to a considerable extent evaded; if not, the clergy must
+have been singularly obsequious.
+
+The only remaining Act of importance was that for the Recognition of the
+Queen, which declared her to be the lawful sovereign by blood, and repealed
+in general terms all Acts or judgments [Footnote: _Cf._ Moore,
+p. 241.] passed in a contrary sense, legitimating her without examining the
+grounds on which her mother's marriage had been declared invalid--a method
+of settling the question entirely sufficient on the theory of parliamentary
+sovereignty, but wholly inadequate on the theory of Divine Right.
+
+It was not till some months later that the depletion of the bench of
+Bishops by deaths or deprivations was remedied. Matthew Parker, a man of
+moderation and ability, was selected as Archbishop of Canterbury, the
+consecration being performed by Barlow--who had resigned Bath and Wells
+under Mary--with Coverdale, Scory, and Hodgekins. The question whether the
+Apostolic Succession was duly conveyed at the hands of these prelates
+belongs rather to ecclesiastical history--even to theological
+controversy--than to general history. It is sufficient here to observe that
+it turns mainly on the doubt which has been thrown without real
+justification on Barlow's own ordination as a Bishop. [Footnote: See the
+Lives of Parker by Strype and Hook; and a brief summary in Moore,
+pp. 245-247.] After the Archbishop's consecration, the vacant sees were
+filled up, generally with moderate men, with a leaning towards Zurich or
+even Lutheranism rather than the old Catholicism or Calvinism, but always
+in accord with the Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity.
+
+In point of time, however, the story of these last events has carried us a
+year forward, and we have to return to the first six months of the new
+reign and the relations of Elizabeth to France.
+
+[Sidenote: France and Peace]
+
+Before Mary's death, an armistice was in operation. England did not mean to
+conclude peace with France, unless Calais was restored, and Philip could
+not desert England lest an effort should be made to place Mary Stewart on
+the throne--on which Henry could not venture while Spain supported
+Elizabeth. Unsuccessful diplomatic attempts were made to negotiate
+separately with the allied Powers, and to induce Elizabeth formally to
+recognise the Queen of Scots as heir presumptive--which however she stoutly
+declined to do, being aware that the obvious effect of such a course would
+be to invite her own immediate assassination, to secure Mary's immediate
+accession. Moreover, Philip was not without a direct interest in England's
+recovery of Calais, because of its position on the border of the
+Netherlands. In the event, however, the English felt that, since the
+Spanish marriage was rejected, the claims on Philip must not be pressed too
+hard; and in the final terms of the Peace of Cateau Cambresis, France was
+allowed to retain Calais under promise to restore it after eight years,
+while she was formally to recognise Elizabeth as lawful queen of England,
+with the adhesion of Mary and her husband.
+
+Now however, parties and persons in Scotland become so inextricably
+interwoven with the English queen's policy and her relations with parties
+and persons in France, that Scottish affairs demand close attention.
+
+[Sidenote: State of Scotland]
+
+In December, 1542, James V. of Scotland had died leaving a daughter just a
+week old. When Elizabeth ascended the English throne, the Northern country
+had for sixteen years been governed or misgoverned by regents and Councils
+of regency. From early childhood, the little queen had been brought up at
+the French court, under the more particular tutelage of her uncles, the
+Duke of Guise and his brothers. In 1558, at the age of fifteen, she was
+married to the Dauphin. Now (and for some time past) her mother, Mary of
+Guise--not the least able member of a very able family--was Regent of
+Scotland, supported in that position against the Protestant factions by a
+French garrison. In the natural course of events, the Scottish Protestant
+party looked to England for support, and favoured in the abstract the idea
+of uniting the English and Scottish crowns, though in the concrete they
+would not admit an English King. All Scottish sentiment, without
+distinction of party, rebelled against any prospect of Scotland becoming an
+appanage of any foreign Power, and the idea of subordination to France was
+only less unpopular than that of subordination to England. Moreover, with
+their young queen married to the Heir Apparent of France, and with a Guise
+supported by French troops as Regent in Scotland, this latter danger seemed
+the less pressing.
+
+Now the extremes of religious partisanship were more general and more
+deeply rooted in Scotland than in England; partly because the corruption of
+the clergy had been more flagrant; partly because in a country where deeds
+of violence were comparatively ordinary, they had been freely committed
+under the cloak of religion. The French influence had been cast against the
+Reformation. The Reformers had murdered Cardinal Beton; John Knox had been
+taken from St. Andrews to the French galleys; and the Preachers were at war
+with the Regency. The two men who were about to prove themselves along with
+Knox the ablest statesmen in Scotland--James Stewart, afterwards famous as
+the Regent Murray, and young Maitland of Lethington--were on the side of
+the Preachers, and of what was the same thing, now that a Protestant
+government was restored in England, the English alliance. Moreover it has
+to be borne in mind that whereas in England the Reformation was imposed,
+whether willingly or unwillingly, on the Nation by the Government; in
+Scotland it was a popular movement which a Government, itself half French,
+endeavoured to repress. Whatever the sincerity of the aristocratic leaders
+might be, the Scottish Reformers felt themselves to be fighting for their
+liberties against an alien domination.
+
+[Sidenote: 1559 Religious parties in Scotland]
+
+In the spring of 1559 the quarrel between the party of the Preachers and
+the Regency assumed a very threatening aspect. After the peace of Cateau
+Cambrésis, in March, the French King decided in favour of an
+anti-Protestant policy. In spite of the promise to recognise the title of
+the English queen, the Dauphin and his wife were allowed to assume the Arms
+of England, and it seemed that Mary of Guise in Scotland was about to wage
+a more active war than of late against the heretics; also that more French
+troops would be sent to help her. On the other hand, Knox, who on his
+retirement from England had withdrawn to Geneva, to await an opportunity
+when his presence might be effective, now returned to Scotland in a very
+unconciliatory spirit. For the party who desired union with England, it was
+unfortunate that the great preacher while in exile had issued a tract
+entitled _The Monstrous Regiment of Women_, aimed against the two
+Maries, but inferentially (though not of set purpose) condemning Elizabeth;
+who entirely refused to forgive him, while he on the other hand refused to
+eat his words. The fact undoubtedly increased the difficulty of harmonious
+accord between the English Government and the Scottish "Lords of the
+Congregation," as the Protestant leaders entitled themselves collectively.
+
+[Sidenote: Arran as a suitor to Elizabeth]
+
+The situation however produced a new candidate for the hand of Elizabeth in
+the person of the Earl of Arran, son of the quondam Earl of Arran now Duke
+of Chatelherault. The Duke was head of the house of Hamilton, and was in
+fact at this time heir presumptive [Footnote: As descending from the
+daughter of James II., sister of James III, Albany was now dead.] to the
+throne of Scotland. If then a legitimate ground could be devised for
+dethroning Mary--as for instance, if she employed foreign (_i.e._
+French) troops against her subjects lawfully maintaining their
+constitutional rights--the succession would fall to the Hamiltons; and if
+Arran and Elizabeth were married, the crowns of the two kingdoms would be
+united. Thus this marriage became a primary object with the Lords of the
+Congregation; and the Earl was included in the list of those with whose
+aspirations Elizabeth coquetted.
+
+In July, the French King was killed in a tournament. Francis and Mary
+became king and queen of France and Scotland, and Mary's uncles the Guises
+immediately became decisively predominant with the French Government.
+
+[Sidenote: The Archduke Charles]
+
+The Spanish ambassador was in the greatest anxiety. The one thing his
+master could not afford was to see the queen of France and Scotland
+established as queen of England also. But it was only less necessary to
+avoid war with France on that issue. If the Arran marriage were in serious
+contemplation, Mary would have very strong justification for asserting her
+claim to England as a counter-move. What Philip wanted was that Elizabeth
+should marry his cousin the Archduke Charles, a younger son of his uncle
+the Emperor Ferdinand who had succeeded Charles V. Then Philip would
+practically have control of England; France would not venture to grasp at
+the crown; and Elizabeth would of course have to leave the Scots to
+themselves. Elizabeth saw her advantage. She prevaricated with the Scots
+about the Arran marriage, and with Philip about the Austrian marriage. She
+did her best to make the Lords of the Congregation fight their own battles,
+a task which they were equally bent on transferring to England. And
+meantime, Cecil never wavered in his determination of at least maintaining
+the Scottish Protestants against active French intervention: while the
+whole body of Elizabeth's more Conservative Counsellors favoured the
+Austrian marriage and non-intervention in Scotland.
+
+[Sidenote: Wynter sails for the Forth; 1560]
+
+Elizabeth's own procedure was entirely characteristic. She had, it would
+seem, no sort of intention of marrying either Charles or Arran; but she
+worked her hardest to persuade their respective partisans of the
+contrary. Her officers were in secret communication with the Scots, and
+were supplying them with money, while she was openly vowing that she was
+rendering them no assistance whatever. Neither Scots nor Spaniards trusted
+her, but neither altogether disbelieved. Finally--having devoted the
+parliamentary grants and all available funds to the equipment of her
+fleet--when it was evident that a French expedition was on the point of
+sailing for the Forth, she allowed Admiral Wynter to put to sea; with
+orders to act if opportunity offered, but to declare when he did so that he
+had transgressed his instructions on his own responsibility. In January,
+1560, Wynter appeared in the Forth, seduced the French into firing on him
+from the fort of Inch Keith, and blew the fort to pieces--in self-defence.
+Meantime, D'Elboeuf, brother of Guise, had sailed with a powerful flotilla,
+which was however almost annihilated by a storm. For a time then at least
+there was no danger of another French expedition to Scotland. Wynter's
+fleet commanded the Firth of Forth, and the French soon found that, except
+for an occasional raid, they would have to confine their efforts to making
+their position at Leith impregnable.
+
+[Sidenote: Difficulties of France]
+
+Wynter's protestations that he was not acting under orders can hardly have
+deceived any one, though the Queen, Cecil, and Norfolk [Footnote: Grandson
+of the old duke, and son of the Earl of Surrey executed by Henry VIII.]--
+who had accepted the command on the Border, after refusing it--confirmed
+his story. The Spaniards were intensely annoyed. Philip proposed that he
+should himself send an army to Scotland, to put affairs straight; but this
+was equally little to the taste of the French and the English. Moreover,
+Philip had not yet grasped the fact that the one way to make Elizabeth
+definitely defiant was, to threaten her. Hitherto she had repudiated
+Wynter's action, and refused to allow Norfolk to march in support of the
+Congregation, though she had secretly given them encouragement and hard
+cash; now she came to a definite agreement with them, and by the end of
+March Norfolk was over the Border. The Queen had doubtless drawn
+encouragement from the latest turn of affairs in France. D'Elboeufs
+disaster had greatly diminished the present danger of attack from that
+quarter; while now the conspiracy of Amboise revealed such a dangerous
+development of party antagonisms in France as to make it unlikely that she
+would be able to spare her energies for broils beyond her own borders. The
+aim of the plot was to overthrow the Guises, and place the young king and
+queen under the control of the Protestant Bourbon princes, Condé and
+Anthony King of Navarre. [Footnote: See _Appendix A_, vi.] The
+conspiracy itself collapsed, but it served as a very effective
+danger-signal.
+
+[Sidenote: Elizabeth's vacillations]
+
+Elizabeth had no sooner allowed the advance into Scotland than she was
+again seized with her usual desire to avoid becoming involved in active
+hostilities; and she continued the exasperating practice--for her servants
+--of sending them contradictory and hampering instructions. The very men
+who, like Norfolk, had been flatly opposed to the policy of interference
+were now convinced that, being once committed to it, there must be no
+turning back. Vacillation would presently drive the Congregation to such a
+pitch of distrust that they would break with England in despair; whereas
+the primary object of interference had been to make sure of a powerful
+party which would be inevitably committed to forwarding Elizabeth's
+interests. However, Philip again stiffened her by dictatorial messages,
+which failed to frighten because the essential fact remained true that he
+dared not facilitate the substitution of Mary for Elizabeth on the English
+throne. The Queen refused to recall her troops, and explained elaborately
+that she was not taking part with rebels against their sovereign, but with
+loyal subjects who were resisting the abuse by the Guises of authority
+filched from Mary, who in her turn would approve as soon as she came to
+Scotland and saw the true state of affairs.
+
+[Side note: The English at Leith]
+
+And so the English army sat down before Leith and set about starving it and
+bombarding it; till the process appeared to be too slow, and Lord Grey de
+Wilton, who was in command of the operations, was forced by urgent messages
+against his own judgment to attempt an assault which was repulsed with very
+severe loss. Elizabeth was shaken, but her Council remained resolute. Then,
+if she had really been afraid that Philip might actually mean what he
+threatened, her fears were dispelled by a disaster to his fleet in a battle
+with the Turks. She became aggressively inclined once more. The position of
+Leith, despite the valour of its garrison, was becoming hopeless; and in
+June the central figure of the French and Catholic party was removed by the
+death of the Regent Mary of Guise--an able woman, who had played her part
+with unfailing courage, no little skill, and quite as much moderation as
+could reasonably be expected, under extraordinarily difficult conditions.
+
+[Sidenote: the Treaty of Edinburgh July 6th]
+
+Cecil had already been sent north to negotiate. The terms required were the
+entire withdrawal of French troops from Scotland, the recognition of
+Elizabeth's right to the throne of England, the recognition of her compact
+with the Congregation as legitimate, and the confirmation of their demands
+for toleration. It was not till after the Regent's death that the
+arrangement known as the Treaty of Edinburgh was signed; by this instrument
+the French gave the promise that the demands of the Congregation should be
+conceded, but without formally admitting that Elizabeth was ever entitled
+to make a compact with Mary's subjects. The other two points were allowed,
+and the French departed for ever. Fortunately a dispatch from Elizabeth
+requiring more stringent terms (which would have been refused) arrived a
+day too late, after the treaty was signed. It was comparatively of little
+consequence that Mary declined to ratify the treaty. When the French had
+gone, the Congregation were masters of the situation; and before the year
+was out, the French and Scottish crowns were separated by the death of
+Francis. The Guise domination in France was checked, and while Mary's
+accession to the English throne remained desirable to the Catholic party in
+that country, the hope of combining the three crowns under the hegemony of
+France came to an end.
+
+[Sidenote: Elizabeth's methods]
+
+The whole episode deserves to be dwelt on at length, because it very
+forcibly illustrates the strength and the weakness of Elizabeth's methods
+and the character of her entourage. She saw the sound policy; she
+maintained her confidence in the men who also saw it. Yet she perpetually
+wavered and hesitated till the eleventh hour to authorise the steps
+necessary to carrying it out. At the eleventh hour, she did authorise them;
+and that, repeatedly, because at the last moment an injudicious threat
+stirred her to defiance. For herself, she could have secured inglorious
+ease by simply accepting Philip's patronage, but she elected to play the
+daring game, and won. Her methods were tortuous. She lied unblushingly,
+but she was an adept at avoiding acts which palpably would prove beyond a
+doubt that she was lying. The Spanish ambassador lived under a perpetual
+conviction that she was rushing on her own ruin--that she would drive his
+master to choose between the deplorable alternatives of fighting on her
+behalf or allowing the Queen of France and Scotland to become Queen of
+England also--that the Catholics would rise to dethrone her. But her
+calculations were sound, and Norfolk himself commanded her armies and
+served her loyally in a policy which, in his opinion, ought never to have
+been initiated. She never allowed herself to be bullied or cajoled; but she
+perpetually kept alive the impression that a little more bullying or a
+little more cajolery might turn the scale. And she drove the French out of
+Scotland.
+
+[Sidenote: The Dudley Imbroglio]
+
+All the intriguing at this time about suitors for the hand of Elizabeth is
+mixed up with the scandals associated with the name of Lord Robert Dudley
+(afterwards made Earl of Leicester), a son of the traitor Duke of
+Northumberland. Lord Robert, although a married man, was allowed an
+intimacy with the Queen which not only points conclusively to an utter
+absence of delicacy in the daughter of Henry VIII. and Anne Boleyn, but
+filled the entire Court circle with the gravest apprehensions. It was the
+current belief that if Dudley could get free of his wife, Elizabeth would
+marry him, and that this desire was at the back of her vacillation. The
+affair was brought to an acute stage by the sudden death of Amy Robsart,
+Dudley's wife, in September; when already for some time past, his
+innumerable enemies had been hinting that he meant to make away with
+her. The facts are obscure; but the impression given by the evidence is
+that she was murdered, though not with the direct connivance of her
+husband. Still, the suspicion of his guilt was so strong that if the Queen
+had married him she would have strained the loyalty of her most loyal
+subjects probably to breaking point. Yet so keen was her delight in playing
+with fire that it was many months before English statesmen began to feel
+that the danger was past; while overtures were certainly made on Dudley's
+behalf to the Spanish Ambassador, De Quadra, to obtain Philip's sanction
+and support, in return for a promise that the Old Religion should be
+restored. Sussex alone expressed a conviction that Elizabeth would find her
+own salvation in marrying for Love. Every one else was convinced that,
+whatever might be her infatuation for Dudley, marriage with him would spell
+total ruin for her: and there was a general belief that Norfolk and others
+would interfere in arms if necessary; while the secret marriage of Lady
+Katharine Grey (who stood next in succession under Henry's will) to Lord
+Hertford, son of the Protector Somerset, was suspected of being a move to
+which even Cecil was privy, for placing her on the throne should the worst
+befall. At last, when the limit of endurance was almost reached, Elizabeth
+finally declared that she was not going to marry the favourite. Judging her
+conduct by her whole career, it would seem that she never really
+contemplated the commission of so fatal a blunder, but could not resist the
+temptation of tormenting her best friends, and torturing politicians of
+every kind with uncertainty--perhaps even of half believing herself that
+she actually would set all adverse opinion at defiance if she chose.
+
+[Sidenote: The Huguenots]
+
+From one suitor at any rate Elizabeth felt herself freed by the death of
+the young French King in December. The main interest of France in the
+Scottish Crown was thereby ended; more than that, the Huguenot Bourbons,
+who stood in France next in succession to the sons of Katharine de Medici,
+recovered for the time much of their power. The political arguments in
+favour of the Arran marriage lost enough of their force to enable the
+English Queen to brave the wrath of the Congregation and finally decline
+the Hamilton alliance. It is of interest to find Paget, once again called
+in to her Counsels, declaring in favour of a Huguenot alliance, in despite
+of Spain.
+
+[Sidenote: The Pope]
+
+The position of the Huguenots in France, and the proposed resuscitation of
+the Council of Trent under the auspices of Pope Pius IV., who had succeeded
+Paul in 1559, had revived ideas of Protestant representation therein; and
+Elizabeth, after her fashion, played with the hopes of the Catholic party,
+at home and abroad, that she might be drawn into participation. It was only
+when it had become perfectly clear that the admission of the Papal
+Supremacy was a condition precedent, that these hopes were dashed, and the
+proposal that a papal Nuncio should be received in England, with which the
+Queen had been coquetting, was definitely declined; while Philip was
+obliged to intimate to the Pope that he must not launch against the
+recalcitrant England ecclesiastical thunderbolts which would involve him in
+war, whether against or on behalf of Elizabeth.
+
+[Sidenote: 1561 Mary sails for Scotland]
+
+In the meantime however, both the Catholic party in Scotland and the
+Congregation were hoping to bring Mary back from France, and to control her
+policy when she should arrive. For the Protestants felt now that without
+foreign interference they could hold their own. Elizabeth had rejected
+their scheme for bringing the union of the crowns in reach by the Arran
+marriage: they were now bent on the alternative course of inducing
+Elizabeth to acknowledge their own Queen as her heir presumptive. Mary
+herself was more than ready for the adventure. Elizabeth refused her a
+passage through England which might easily have been utilised, especially
+in the North, for the organisation of a Stewart party within the realm;
+while on the other hand it would obviously be an easy thing for an
+"accident" to happen while the Scots Queen was running the gauntlet of her
+ships on the seas. But Mary was nothing if not daring. In August,
+accompanied by her Guise uncle, D'Elboeuf, she set sail from the "pleasant
+land of France," and four days later, without disaster, the Queen of Scots
+landed at Leith.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+ELIZABETH (ii), 1561-68--QUEENS AND SUITORS
+
+[Sidenote: 1561 The Situation]
+
+On August 19th, 1561, Mary Stewart returned to Scotland; in May 1568, she
+left her kingdom for ever. During those seven years, what she did, what she
+was accused of doing, what she was expected to do, what she intended to do,
+formed the subject of the keenest interest and anxiety in England at the
+time; and the problems and mysteries of those years, never unravelled to
+this day, never with any certainty to be unravelled at all, continued to
+perplex English statesmen and to complicate the situation in England for
+nearly nineteen years more. We shall have to follow them therefore in much
+greater detail than would _a priori_ seem justifiable in a volume
+ostensibly dealing not with Scottish but with English History.
+
+During these same years it may be said that the great antagonisms were
+formulated, which were to rend the two great Continental monarchies for
+forty years to come. Thus in order to follow the subsequent story
+efficiently even from the purely English point of view, we must devote what
+may seem somewhat disproportionate attention to foreign affairs, which do
+not appear at first sight to have a very intimate connexion with events in
+England. For France these events may be summed up as the opening of the set
+struggle between Catholics and Huguenots; for Spain, as the preliminaries
+to the revolt of the Netherlands: while for all Europe, the effective
+sessions of the Council of Trent laid down finally the sharp dividing line
+between Protestant and Catholic--terms which have a well defined political
+meaning, in neither case identical with their original or correct
+theological import, in which latter sense half the Protestant world
+continued to assert its claim to membership in the Catholic Church.
+
+[Sidenote: (1) The Council of Trent]
+
+That Council reassembled under the auspices of Paul's successor, Pius IV.,
+in January 1562. While the Protestants could not recognise it as a Catholic
+Council, in the sense of representing the whole Catholic Church, it claimed
+that character for itself, and those who maintained its authority
+appropriated the name, which thus became a party title. In the course of
+its sessions, it rejected doctrines, notably that of Justification by
+Faith, which had been strongly favoured even by such men as Pole and
+Contarini, so narrowing the bounds of orthodoxy. But while cutting off all
+possibility of reconciliation with the Protestants, it marked a strong
+tendency to reformation not of dogma but of practice; while an increased
+intolerance of what was stigmatised as error, an intensification of the
+spirit which demanded the most merciless repression of heresy, was
+accompanied in other respects by an elevation of the standard of
+ecclesiastical morals, and a zeal for the Faith more pure and less
+influenced by worldly considerations, if narrower, than in the past. From
+this time, as the exemplar both of the new discipline, and of the new
+warfare against heresy, the Order of Jesuits takes its place as the
+dominating force. The Council terminated in 1563; in 1566 the Pope died and
+was succeeded by Pius V., the nominee of the most rigid section of the
+Church.
+
+[Sidenote: (2) France: Catholics, Huguenots, and _Politiques_]
+
+In France, from the days of Francis I., the tendency had been to persecute
+the followers of the reformed doctrines, who were for the most part
+disciples of Calvin rather than of Luther. On the other hand, the political
+attraction of alliance with the German Lutherans had served to keep the
+mind of the court open, and throughout the sittings of the Council of Trent
+there had been and continued to be threats that the Gallican Church might
+follow the Anglican in claiming independence of the Pope. In France however
+the opposition lay between the Catholics and the Calvinists, who by 1561
+had acquired the general name of Huguenots: in England, the Reformation was
+carried through under the auspices of a middle ecclesiastical party. In
+France the middle party was purely political, not aiming at a compromise
+tending to amalgamation, but rather at holding the two parties balanced.
+
+Before the death of Henry II., the Guise brothers were recognised as the
+heads of the Catholic faction. The Duke, Francis, was the popular and
+successful soldier who won back Calais from England: his brother, the
+Cardinal of Lorraine, was one of the ablest of living ecclesiastics and
+statesmen. There were four more brothers, all men of mark; and their sister
+was the mother of Mary Stewart. On the other hand, the family came from
+Lorraine only in the time of Francis I., and though the first Duke of Guise
+married a daughter of the house of Bourbon, they were regarded with
+jealousy by a considerable body of the French nobility, who, partly in
+consequence, threw their weight in favour of the Protestants. At the head
+of these now were Anthony of Bourbon, nominal King of Navarre in right of
+his wife, his brother Condé, and Admiral Coligny, with his brother the
+Cardinal Chatillon. When Henry II. died, the Guises--uncles of the new
+Queen (Mary Stewart)--assumed unmistakable supremacy; but when Francis also
+died, and was succeeded by his younger brother Charles IX., the
+Queen-mother, Katharine de Medici, obtained for herself the regency, which
+would naturally have fallen to Navarre as next Prince of the Blood, and the
+control passed not to the Huguenots but to the "_Politiques_".
+[Footnote: The name for the "Middle" Party, which was not however generally
+adopted till a later date.] It may be remarked that this century is
+noteworthy for the number of women who made their mark in history as
+politicians; for Isabella of Castile was still living when it opened, and
+Elizabeth of England when it closed; Katharine de Medici and Mary Stewart
+were of ability not much inferior; while Mary of Guise, regent of Scotland,
+and Mary Tudor in England, were both striking figures; and the women of
+Charles V.'s family were conspicuous as Governors of the Netherlands.
+
+[Sidenote: Religious war in France 1561-68]
+
+The rule of the Politiques was, unlike that of the Guises, favourable to
+toleration--as a matter not of conscience but of policy. Katharine's was
+the controlling spirit, and her chief supporters in the policy were the
+Chancellor L'Hôpital and the Constable Montmorency, a connexion of
+Coligny's but an orthodox Catholic. In January 1562 a large extension of
+toleration was granted to the Huguenots, which roused the fanaticism of the
+other party and drew the Constable over to their ranks. Navarre was induced
+to go over to the Catholics, leaving the Protestant leadership to
+Condé. Some of Guise's followers massacred a number of unarmed Huguenots at
+Vassy; Paris, frantically anti-Huguenot, gave a triumphal reception to
+Guise, who held Katharine and the boy-king practically prisoners. The
+Huguenots rose in arms; Navarre was killed, leaving a boy--afterwards Henry
+IV.--as his heir and the hope of the Huguenots; for his mother Jeanne of
+Navarre had not followed her husband in his apostasy. A great battle,
+indecisive in result, was fought at Dreux, in which each of the commanders,
+Condé and Montmorency, fell into the hands of their antagonists; and then,
+in February 1563, Francis of Guise was assassinated by the fanatic Poltrot.
+About the same time died two of his brothers, D'Aumale and the Grand Prior.
+The result was the termination of the war by the Peace of Amboise,
+practically confirming the recent edict of toleration. Katharine still
+refused to adopt the policy, urged on her by Spain as well as by the Guise
+faction, of suppressing the Huguenots by the sword. The Huguenots, however,
+believing that Katharine was merely actuated by motives of expediency, and
+would seek to crush them if a favourable opportunity offered, organised
+with a view to enforcing their demands in arms, and again took the field in
+1567, thereby deciding the Regent in the policy which they had--up to this
+time perhaps erroneously--attributed to her. For the time being, however,
+the war was closed in the spring of 1568, by a treaty confirming the terms
+of the previous Peace of Amboise.
+
+[Sidenote: The Netherlands and Spain]
+
+The Netherlands or Low Countries was the general title of a group of
+provinces, corresponding in area roughly but not accurately to the modern
+States of Holland and Belgium. These provinces, originally independent
+States, but latterly associated in a loose federation, had owned allegiance
+to the Dukes of Burgundy, and so had passed in due course to Charles V.,
+who in turn transferred them to Philip shortly before his own abdication of
+the Spanish crown. The institutions within the provinces varied, as did the
+character and race of their populations: but in general their industrial
+development was of a high standard, and their wealth was of great
+importance to the Spanish monarchy. At the hands of Charles, who was
+brought up as a Netherlander, they enjoyed considerable favour; but Philip,
+by instinct and training, was a Spaniard, who looked on them as a paying
+appanage of Spain, had no sympathy with them, and no regard for their
+political organisations, and did not set foot among them after 1559. Before
+that year, most of his time since his marriage with Mary had been spent
+there; but in 1559 he departed, leaving as Governor his sister Margaret of
+Parma, and ignoring the nobility of the country.
+
+The Reformation doctrines had obtained a very extensive hold, more
+particularly in the Northern provinces; but had been suppressed with
+considerable rigour by Charles, who early established the Inquisition in
+the country. By Philip the severities were increased, and the government of
+Margaret of Parma was conducted on the like intolerant principles: her
+chief adviser being Philip's nominee, Cardinal Granvelle. The native
+nobles--at whose head were Egmont, Horn, and William (the Silent), Prince
+of Orange [Footnote: William was a Netherlander in virtue of the lordship
+of Breda.] and Count of Nassau--as well as the burghers, were indignant at
+the encroachment on the constitutional liberties of the provinces by the
+appointment of foreigners to offices of State, and by the presence of
+Spanish troops; and the removal of both was demanded. The multiplication of
+bishops and endowment of the new bishoprics constituted another grievance.
+The troops had to be withdrawn, and in 1564 Granvelle left the Netherlands
+to join his master in Spain; but Philip's determination to bring the whole
+country into the system of Spanish despotism remained unchanged: and
+whereas the whole population was in favour of general religious toleration,
+he insisted, in the face of remonstrance, on intensifying instead of
+relaxing the edicts against the Reformed doctrines. To avoid the
+persecution, multitudes of Flemish weavers left the country, to be welcomed
+by Elizabeth in England, which was rapidly supplanting the commercial
+supremacy of the Low Countries.
+
+[Sidenote: 1566 Resistance in the Netherlands]
+
+In 1565 it was generally believed that Katharine de Medici was concerting
+measures, with the Duke of Alva on behalf of Spain, for the suppression of
+heretics; and this brought matters in the Netherlands to a head. In 1566 a
+League, widespread though not openly supported by the greatest nobles, was
+formed for the abolition of the Inquisition, an institution, introduced
+forty years before by Charles V., which had worked as mercilessly as in
+Spain. The supporters of the league included Lewis of Nassau, brother of
+William of Orange; it was known as the Compromise, and its adherents were
+nick-named the _Gueux_, or beggars. The general ferment resulted in
+violent anti-"idolatry" riots, accompanied by great destruction of Church
+property. The disturbances were quieted down by the exertions of Egmont and
+William of Orange; the Governor, Margaret of Parma, promising the
+concessions they advised. Philip however was enraged, repudiated the
+concessions, and in 1567 sent Alva with an army of Spanish and Italian
+veterans to restore order. Margaret, finding herself virtually superseded,
+retired. Alva's conception of order was the enforcement of the worst type
+of combined military and ecclesiastical tyranny. Egmont (a Catholic), and
+Horn, though both had rendered the Government conspicuous assistance, were
+arrested; Orange escaped by retiring to his German dominions. Not
+Protestants only, but even Maximilian who now occupied the Imperial throne
+in succession to Ferdinand, remonstrated; yet Philip obstinately encouraged
+Alva to go on his way. William of Orange avowed himself a Protestant; and
+in the spring a mixed army of Netherlander, Huguenots, and Germans, took
+the field under Lewis of Nassau. The revolt of the Netherlands may be
+reckoned as dating from the first engagement, at Heiligerlee, in May
+1568. The Spaniards were worsted, and as an immediate consequence, Egmont
+and Horn were sent to the block.
+
+[Sidenote: Elizabeth, Mary, and their Suitors]
+
+The arrival of Mary Stewart in Scotland brings her personality into more
+intimate relation with that of Elizabeth than before. The problem of
+finding bridegrooms politically and personally acceptable to the two queens
+becomes particularly prominent. Arran, flatly declined by Elizabeth,
+becomes for a time one of her cousin's actual suitors. The Archduke Charles
+becomes a possible candidate for either. Dudley, still looked upon as
+Elizabeth's favoured lover, is offered by her to Mary as a husband. Now,
+too, we first meet with Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley, [Footnote: See
+Appendix A, iii.] whose mother, Lady Lennox, was daughter of Margaret Tudor
+by her second husband, the young man himself being a possible successor to
+the English throne. Being an English as well as a Scottish subject, brought
+up in England and therefore not, like Mary--whatever her claims by
+descent--an alien, that technical ground for disputing her succession did
+not apply to him. He too was mentioned as a possible suitor both for
+Elizabeth's and for Mary's hand. Then there was Don Carlos, son of Philip
+of Spain by his first wife, to whom Mary had a political inclination; or
+again there was for her a possibility of marrying her dead husband's
+brother, the boy-king Charles IX. of France. Mary herself, it must be
+remembered, was still some months short of nineteen when she landed at
+Leith. And it was a matter of grave political importance to Elizabeth, who
+should be the man to share the Scottish throne.
+
+[Sidenote: 1562 Mary in Scotland]
+
+Mary's reception was austere not to say brutal on the part of Knox and his
+friends; but the Earl of Murray (as Lord James Stewart soon after became)
+and Maitland, confident now in the security of Protestantism, were not
+disposed to subordinate polities to zealotry. They were ready for a degree
+of toleration. Their ultimate goal was the union of the crowns; and they
+wished Mary to repose her confidence on them. They would not press her to
+ratify the Treaty of Edinburgh, at any rate unless she was formally
+recognised as heir presumptive of England. Mary, for her part, though
+holding by her own faith, was not slow to perceive that for the present at
+least she must not challenge the Reformers. Her first business was
+conciliation.
+
+The year 1562 was not far advanced when the first Huguenot war broke out in
+France. Condé was soon making overtures to Elizabeth, and her Protestant
+counsellors, headed by Cecil, were zealous that she should lend his party
+active support, with the restoration of Calais to England as the
+price. Philip of Spain, bent on suppressing the Netherlands heretics, was
+strongly on the side of the Guises, and threatened Elizabeth if she should
+venture to intervene. The house of the Spanish Ambassador in London was the
+centre of much Catholic intriguing; and much of what was going on was
+betrayed to Cecil by a secretary. Elizabeth was angry enough, but could not
+afford an open rupture with Philip, who, now that Mary was no longer Queen
+of France, might find it in his interest to support her pretensions to the
+English throne. On the other hand, the French Queen-mother could not now
+view with complacency the succession of Mary with her Guise connexions,
+coupled with the possibility of her matrimonial alliance either with the
+Spanish Don Carlos or the Habsburg Archduke Charles. Elizabeth's own desire
+now was to be in amity with Mary, and to have her married to some one who
+would not be dangerous. For a long time she dallied with the idea of
+meeting Mary with a view to a settlement as to the ratification of the
+Edinburgh treaty and her recognition as heir presumptive; and Catholic
+hopes ran high. But the successes of the Guise party in France forced her
+hand by alarming the Protestants. She had to decline the meeting with Mary,
+and at least to make a show of enforcing the laws against attendance at
+Mass more energetically. She had, in fact, been letting herself believe
+that she could indulge her personal predilection for the more ceremonial
+worship of the old faith; but as usual when a crisis seemed, really
+imminent, her personal predilections were suppressed for the time.
+
+[Sidenote: 1562-63 Elizabeth and the Huguenots]
+
+As the year went on, the intrigue with Condé reached a point at which the
+Huguenot leader actually handed over Havre to the English, and promised the
+restitution of Calais; and before the autumn was far advanced, the town was
+garrisoned, and a troop of English--ignoring instructions from home--went
+to join Condé. The colour for Elizabeth's action was that the Guises had
+usurped the government, and that they palpably and avowedly directed their
+policy to the injury of England; also that she was entitled to take
+measures to ensure the restoration of Calais, promised by treaty. The
+fighting went steadily against the Huguenots, and Elizabeth made the
+mistake--in which the country supported her even with passion--of holding
+Condé to his promise as to Calais, instead of applying herself to the
+establishment of the Huguenots as a powerful Anglophil anti-Guise
+party. Throwing over the method which had so successfully cleared Scotland
+of the French, she staked everything on the recovery of Calais, forced half
+Condé's friends to look upon him as something very like a traitor, and
+alienated Huguenot sentiment completely. The battle of Dreux in December,
+followed early in the next year by the murder of Guise, led to the truce of
+Amboise, in April, between the warring factions; England was left in the
+lurch. A desperate effort was made to retain the grip on Havre, but an
+outbreak of the plague among the garrison ruined all chance of success. It
+fell, and with it the last hope of recovering Calais (July 1563). It was
+not till the spring of 1564 that the French war was formally terminated by
+the treaty of Troyes, when the English, after much vain haggling, found
+themselves obliged to accept the French terms.
+
+[Sidenote: The English Succession]
+
+Near the end of 1562 the Queen had been stricken with smallpox and her life
+all but despaired of; so that the grave problem of the Succession assumed a
+momentary prominence. Henry's Will had never been set aside; but no one
+would have viewed with favour the claims of the Greys. Mary of Scotland,
+the heir by inheritance, was an alien, and abhorrent to the Protestants.
+Darnley was the only remaining claimant of Tudor stock; [Footnote: Except
+the Clifford or Stanley branch, junior to the Greys. See _Front._]
+while the House of York had still representatives living, in two grandsons
+of the old Countess of Salisbury executed by Henry--the Earl of Huntingdon
+and Arthur Pole, the latter of whom did actually become the centre of a
+still-born plot. What would have happened had the Queen died at this
+juncture it is impossible to guess: happily for England, she recovered. But
+the interest attaching to Mary's course was intensified.
+
+The Scots Queen had in the meantime ostensibly given her support to Murray
+and Maitland, accompanying her half-brother on an expedition to crush
+Huntly, the head of the Catholic nobility. Murray and Maitland did their
+best during the early months of 1563 to force the recognition of their
+Queen as Elizabeth's heir by the menace of her marriage with the Prince of
+Spain; Elizabeth in turn did her own best to induce Mary to marry Dudley,
+whom she later on raised to the rank of Earl of Leicester. This union
+however was one which neither Mary herself nor any of her counsellors would
+accept; and when the year closed, Knox and the extreme Calvinists were
+grimly assimilating the to them portentous probability that she would end
+by marrying either Don Carlos or the young King of France--either event
+threatening the restoration of the Old Church in Scotland.
+
+[Sidenote: 1564 Darnley and others]
+
+The civil war in France ended, as we saw, in the triumph of the
+Politiques. The corollary was the treaty of Troyes with England in the
+spring of 1564. The French court was now disposed to be friendly towards
+Elizabeth; the Guises had lost weight by the death of the Duke; Philip of
+Spain saw nothing to gain by further embroilments; so the chances of Mary's
+marriage either with his son or with Charles IX. were small. The Scots
+Queen began to give Darnley a leading place in her own mind, feeling that a
+marriage with him would give a double claim to the English succession, and
+one in favour of which the whole of the English Catholics would be
+united. So far Elizabeth had only urged her to marry an English nobleman,
+with an implication that Leicester [Footnote: Dudley was not in fact raised
+to the Earldom till the year was well advanced.] was intended. Mary tried
+to extract approval for Darnley, but with the result only that Leicester
+was definitely and explicitly nominated. Yet even on behalf of her
+favourite, the English Queen would not commit herself on the subject of the
+succession. On the other hand, with the exception of Maitland of Lethington
+who was not actually opposed to the Darnley marriage on condition of
+Elizabeth's public approval, the Scottish Protestants were very
+unfavourable to that solution. So the year passed in perpetual diplomatic
+fencing, Mary trying to draw Darnley to Scotland, while Elizabeth kept him
+at her own court, to which he with both his parents had been attached for
+many years past. It is not a little curious to find all this intriguing
+crossed by a proposal from Katharine de Medici that King Charles should
+marry not Mary but Elizabeth, who was eighteen years his senior: while
+Elizabeth herself was trying to revive the idea of her own marriage with
+the Archduke Charles, whose brother Maximilian had just succeeded Ferdinand
+as Emperor. In February 1565, Elizabeth found it no longer possible to
+prevent Darnley's return to Scotland, and in April it was tentatively
+announced that he was to be Mary's husband.
+
+[Sidenote: 1565 The Darnley marriage]
+
+It is not impossible [Footnote: The case for this view is effectively put
+in Lang, _Hist. of Scotland_, ii., pp. 136 ff.; and _cf._
+Creighton, _Queen Elizabeth_, p. 87.] that privately Elizabeth had
+expected and desired that Mary should jeopardise her position precisely in
+this manner, counting on the animosity to the marriage not only of Knox's
+party but of all the adherents of the rival house of Hamilton. If so she
+was justified in the event. But publicly she expressed a strong
+disapproval, which took colour from the risk that the marriage might serve
+to rally the English Catholics in support of the joint Stewart succession.
+At any rate, whether Mary merely miscalculated the political forces; or,
+weary of the shackles which preachers and politicians sought to impose on
+her, determined to take her own way at last at any cost; or allowed herself
+to be swayed by an unaccountable fancy for the person of her young cousin,
+a spoilt, arrogant, and vicious boy; marry him she did, at the end of July:
+in defiance of the sentiment of all her Protestant subjects, half of whom
+were really afraid of the attempted revival of Catholic domination, while
+the rest foresaw, at the best, the gravest political complications, and the
+revival of internecine clan and family feuds and intrigues. Mary however
+had not taken the step until she was sure in the first place that there was
+no prospect of her marriage with Don Carlos, and had in the second place
+received assurances of support from Philip [Footnote: _Cf._ Hume,
+_Love Affairs of Mary Queen of Scots_, p. 262. Mary was aiming at a
+Catholic combination under Philip, with the active co-operation of Rome.
+Cecil and Elizabeth however had good reason from experience to count on
+Spain's immobility, and may very well have counted also on Darnley's
+imbecility. They knew him.] if she married Darnley. For a girl of two and
+twenty, working single handed, it was an exceedingly clever move--on the
+hypothesis that Philip was capable of taking open action, and Darnley of
+acting with common decency and common intelligence.
+
+[Sidenote: Mary and Murray]
+
+The Protestant lords however were not unanimous. Maitland and the Douglases
+did not join Murray and the Hamiltons who, even before the actual marriage,
+were practically in open rebellion. But Mary was now playing for her own
+hand; if she had any trusted counsellor it was her deformed Italian
+secretary, David Rizzio. She dropped diplomatic fencing. Elizabeth, who had
+been privately sending money to Murray, remonstrated on his behalf; but
+Mary asserted her right to deal with her own rebellious subjects. Now, as
+always, she maintained that she had no intention of subverting the
+Protestant religion, though she desired the same freedom for Catholics as
+for Calvinists. But she would not submit to dictation; and any promises she
+was willing to make were conditional on the recognition first of herself
+and her heirs and afterwards of Lady Lennox's heirs, as Elizabeth's
+successors. At the end of August she marched against Murray and the
+insurgents; they however avoided battle. On October 6th Murray and his
+principal adherents crossed the Border. A little later he was allowed to
+present himself at the English court, where Elizabeth [Footnote: Froude,
+viii., pp. 213 ff. (Ed. 1864): with which cf. Lang, _Hist. Scotland_,
+ii., pp. 150 ff., and authorities there cited.] publicly rated him, and
+declared that she would never assist rebels against their lawful
+sovereign. Murray, who had just written to Cecil that he would "never have
+enterprised the action but that he had been moved thereto by the Queen" of
+England, accepted Elizabeth's lecture without protest.
+
+[Sidenote: The murder of Rizzio, 1566]
+
+The expulsion of Murray from Scotland did not hinder the coming tragedy;
+perhaps it had the contrary effect. The lords round Mary were bitterly
+aggrieved by Rizzio's influence; Darnley long before he was six months
+married, chose to be jealous of the secretary, a sentiment carefully
+fostered by the lords. The common hatred united them in a "band" for the
+murder of Rizzio, of which Sadler, the English envoy, was cognisant; Murray
+probably knew just so much as he chose to know. The plot was carried out in
+March. The conspirators broke into Mary's room at Holyrood, and butchered
+Rizzio almost before her eyes.
+
+[Sidenote: Kirk o' Field, 1567]
+
+It may be doubted whether Mary ever forgave any one who was implicated or
+supposed to be implicated in that outrage. For her husband, as the offence
+in him was foulest and the insult from him to her deepest, she assuredly
+conceived and cherished a bitter loathing. But there was one man who had
+always been ready to champion her cause, the daring, reckless, ruffianly
+James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell, who nevertheless was no mere
+swash-buckler, but according to Scottish standards of the day, a man of
+education [Footnote: Lang, _Hist. Scotland_, ii., p. 168.] and even,
+it would seem, of some culture. From this time, Bothwell was her one ally.
+She had the policy and the self-control to profess a desire for
+reconciliation even with Darnley: to receive Murray and even Lethington
+into apparent favour. But Darnley's brief rapprochement with the lords was
+soon over; his intolerable arrogance was made the worse by his
+contemptibility. Three months after Rizzio's murder, the envy of the Virgin
+Queen of England was roused by the birth of a son to Mary. The history of
+the following months becomes a chaos of which there are a dozen conflicting
+versions. The one clear fact is that another "band" was formed to put
+Darnley out of the way. There were pretences at attempted reconciliation
+between Mary and Darnley, while the Queen's relations with Bothwell were so
+intimate as to produce rumours no less scandalous than those which had
+prevailed about Elizabeth and Dudley. Darnley fell ill; a better appearance
+than usual of reconciliation was patched up. The sick man was conveyed to
+Kirk o' Field, a house near Edinburgh, where Mary joined him. Thence one
+evening she went to Holyrood to attend a bridal masque. That night the
+house was blown up; Darnley's unscathed corpse was found in the garden.
+
+From the tangled mass [Footnote: The evidence has been discussed in many
+volumes. The most judicial examination with which the present writer is
+acquainted is that in Mr. Lang's _Mystery of Mary Stewart_, summarised
+in his _History of Scotland_, ii., pp. 168 ff.] of letters,
+narratives, and confessions, it remains, and will for ever remain,
+impossible to ascertain more than a fragment of the real truth. As to many
+of the documents, it is hard to say whether the theory of their genuineness
+or of their forgery is the more incredible. For the confessions, every man
+had a dozen good reasons for sheltering some of the guilty, implicating
+some of the innocent, and garbling the actual facts. That the thing was
+done by Bothwell is absolutely certain; it is hardly less doubtful that
+both Maitland and Morion helped to hatch the plot; there is no conclusive
+proof that Mary was active in it. No single act can be brought home to her
+which was necessarily incompatible with innocence--or with guilt. It is the
+accumulation of suspicious circumstances which makes the presumption lean
+heavily to guilt; but it remains no more than a presumption; no jury would
+have been justified in convicting. Her accusers had a strong case; but they
+tried to strengthen it by inventing or suborning additional evidence
+palpably false, with the result of discrediting the whole--and her friends
+adopted the same tactics. That both Mary and Murray knew that _some_
+plot existed, and that neither of them stirred a finger to frustrate it, is
+hardly an open question.
+
+Guilty in the fullest sense or not guilty, Mary's detestation of Darnley
+was notorious; and within three months of the murder she was the wife of
+the man whom the whole world accounted the murderer. Naturally, the whole
+world believed that she was Bothwell's accomplice in the act, and his
+mistress before it. There was a show at least of the marriage being brought
+about by force. A formal attempt at investigation into the murder had
+collapsed. Bothwell had his supporters; he kidnapped the Queen and
+Maitland--_not_ one of his supporters-with her. A scandalous divorce
+was pronounced between him and his wife, and Mary wedded him. The only
+credible explanation is that she was over-mastered by a passion for the
+daring ruffian who at least had always stood by her. The lords--accomplices
+in the murder with the rest--were almost immediately in arms to "rescue"
+the Queen, who took the field by her husband's side. The opposing forces
+met at Carberry Hill; Bothwell, seeing the contest to be hopeless, fled;
+Mary surrendered.
+
+[Sidenote: Mary made prisoner]
+
+The Queen was forthwith imprisoned in Lochleven Castle; and just at this
+time the famous casket of letters from Mary to Bothwell was seized, in the
+custody of a servant of Bothwell's. Of the documents subsequently produced
+as having formed part of that collection, the experts are totally unable to
+prove decisively whether any or all are genuine, or forged, or a mixture of
+forgeries and transcripts from genuine originals; though on the whole the
+last hypothesis is the least incredible of the three.
+
+[Sidenote 1: Murray made regent]
+[Sidenote 2: 1568 Mary's escape to England]
+
+All this took place in June. Elizabeth was now suggesting that the baby
+prince James should be sent to her safe-keeping: there were similar
+hints--_mutatis mutandis_--from France. The Scots lords played off
+French and English against each other, and kept the child in their own
+hands. There was a strong desire in some quarters that Mary should be put
+to death; she was actually compelled, at the end of July, to sign her
+abdication in favour of the infant James. Soon after Murray arrived from
+France, whither he had gone shortly after the murder, and she assented to
+his appointment as Regent--indeed begged him to undertake it, having
+virtually no other course open. Both he and Lethington probably desired to
+protect her. Meantime however, Elizabeth was demanding her release, the
+successful rebellion of subjects against their lawful prince being by no
+means to her liking. Murray, however, felt that such a course could only
+involve civil war, and if pressed would force him to have Mary executed on
+the strength of the evidence, genuine or forged, of her complicity in the
+murder of Darnley. Yet it was universally believed that many of the lords
+now with Murray were no less guilty; over their heads too the sword was
+hanging by a thread. Murray as Regent ruled with vigour; and his
+enforcement of the anti-Catholic laws soon roused the hostility of that
+section. After many months of imprisonment, the Queen succeeded in escaping
+from Lochleven in May (1568); but the attempt to rally her followers was
+desperate. There was a fight at Langside on May 13th; Mary's party were
+completely routed; she herself fled south; and on May 16th she crossed the
+Solway; becoming, and remaining from thenceforth, Elizabeth's prisoner.
+
+Thus, in June 1568, there was in France an uneasy truce between Catholics
+and Huguenots; in the Netherlands, the struggle between the Prince of
+Orange and Alva was just commencing; in Britain, the Queen of Scots had
+just fallen into the power of her sister of England--disgraced in the eyes
+of the world by her marriage with Bothwell, and on almost all hands
+credited with the murder of Darnley; so that whatever might happen it was
+certain that no foreign Power would have either the will or the means to
+intervene on her behalf.
+
+The affairs of Ireland will demand our attention; but, as they did not at
+the time directly influence English policy, it will be more convenient to
+treat of them consecutively in a later chapter. The same may be said of the
+great sea-going movement, which was now active and was in a few years' time
+to be revealed as a feature of the first importance in the development of
+"our island story". Here we will merely note that the consideration of
+these subjects is deferred. The progress however of the religious
+settlement, always a present factor in the relations of England with other
+Powers, requires to be treated _pari passu_ with the other events of
+the period; as also do the relations between the Queen and her Parliament.
+
+[Sidenote: England: Protestantism of the Government]
+
+We have already observed that Elizabeth had personal predilections in
+favour of the ceremonial, if not the actual theological, position adopted
+by her father. The weightiest of her counsellors however, headed by Cecil
+and Bacon, succeeded in a more definite protestantising of the bench of
+bishops than the Queen herself would have desired. The formularies of the
+Church, confirmed by the Act of Uniformity, were very much easier to
+reconcile with Calvinism than with what Calvinists called idolatry, and in
+particular the abolition of the law of celibacy in itself had a very strong
+tendency to abolish the sense of differentiation between clergy and laity
+so essential to the old Catholic position. It may have been the
+consciousness of this which made Elizabeth feel and express with much
+freedom her own objection to married clerics. But Cecil and his party were
+alive to the fact that the religious cleavage was everywhere becoming
+intensified as a political cleavage also; that politically, England would
+be obliged to declare for one side or the other, or would be rent in twain;
+that danger to Elizabeth's throne--and this she fully recognised herself--
+was much more likely to arise from Catholic than from Protestant
+quarters. Being therefore determined that she should take the Protestant
+side--whether from genuine religious conviction or from motives of
+political expediency--they steadily encouraged moderate Protestants of the
+type of Archbishop Parker, and others who were still more under the
+influence of the Swiss, or at least the Lutheran, reformers; a course in
+which they were greatly aided by the direct hostility to Elizabeth of the
+Guise party in France. In that country, the _Politiques_ found
+themselves driven into the Catholic camp; in England, the Queen, whose
+personal sentiments were not unlike those of Katharine de Medici, was
+reluctantly compelled by the force of circumstances to yield to her
+Protestant advisers.
+
+[Sidenote: Religious parties]
+
+Elizabeth's first Parliament was puritan in its tendencies, and only fell
+short of that which had approved the second prayer-book of Edward. The bulk
+of the clergy still no doubt favoured the old religion, but it was the
+followers of the new lights who received promotion, and it was they who
+were encouraged by the Act of Uniformity. In many parts of the country,
+however, and especially in the North, the magnates countenanced a hardly
+veiled disregard of the new laws: and the Queen's apparent inclination to
+find a way of recognising Mary as her successor, as well as her favour for
+crosses and disfavour for married clergy, raised the hopes of the
+Catholics. The Huguenot war in 1562 compelled her to change her tone, and
+enabled Cecil to enforce the law against attendance at Mass with greater
+vigour. The first Parliament had been dissolved in 1559; the second, which
+met in the beginning of 1563, was not less strenuously Protestant and
+opposed to the Stewart succession. It was only the determined stand of the
+Catholic peers which prevented sharp legislation against the Catholics in
+general; and even as it was, the application of the oath of Supremacy was
+widened. Then Parliament was prorogued, and the affair of Havre caused the
+Huguenot alliance to cool. By the winter of 1564-5, the English Queen was
+irritating the bishops and the clergy, the most capable of whom were
+increasingly identifying themselves with puritan views, by insistence not
+altogether successful on obedience to the Act of Uniformity in the matter
+of vestments; although it was notorious that there was strong feeling
+against some of the regulations, which in not a few instances were
+habitually ignored. The feeling was intensified by a lively suspicion that
+she really wished for the Darnley marriage which actually took place a few
+months later, though she was professedly urging Leicester's suit, and
+beyond all doubt encouraged Murray and the Scottish Protestants to
+rebellion.
+
+[Sidenote: 1566-67 Parliament and the Queen's marriage]
+
+It was not till the autumn of 1566 that Parliament reassembled; more than
+ever determined to get the Queen committed to a marriage which should end
+the menace of the Stewart succession. This desire was in some cases the
+cause and in others the effect of a zealous protestantism. A Bill was
+introduced, at the instance of the Bishops acting on a vote of Convocation,
+to compel the clergy to subscribe the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion, a
+slight modification of Edward's Forty-two Articles; but this was withdrawn
+after passing the Commons. The Queen was enraged by the audacity of the
+Commons in discussing the question of her marriage and the succession, and
+she attempted to suppress debate; but was met with a stubborn insistence,
+headed by Cecil, on the constitutional rights of the House. Elizabeth had
+to give way; but while on the question of principle the Parliament was
+victorious, it did not press the victory and the Queen was enabled to evade
+the immediate issue. The house voted supplies generously, after which she
+succeeded in dissolving it with a sharp reprimand and without definitely
+committing herself on the subject either of her own marriage or of the
+succession. But this was hardly accomplished, when the murder of Darnley,
+for the time being at least, divided the party which had hitherto supported
+Mary's claim to the English throne.
+
+[Sidenote: The Queen and the Archduke]
+
+For some months, the question of Elizabeth's marriage was allowed to fall
+into abeyance; but the effect of the murder was in some degree counteracted
+by the imprisonment of Mary in Lochleven the appeal to chivalry of a
+deserted, helpless, and lovely woman, and the very unattractive character
+of most of the men now at the head of the Scottish Government. The Stewart
+cause seemed to be in some danger of reviving, and once again the English
+Council began to urge the marriage with the Archduke Charles. Elizabeth
+pretended concurrence, but when she refused to promise that Charles should
+be allowed the free exercise of his own religion in England, it was no
+longer possible to doubt that she was merely playing with the idea; while
+there were certainly a great many of her subjects who entirely sympathised
+with the ostensible grounds on which the negotiation was broken off. The
+prospect of a closer union with the House of Habsburg was dispelled, almost
+at the moment when the Scots Queen fell into Elizabeth's hands, and the
+standard of revolt against the Spanish system was being raised in the
+Netherlands.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+ELIZABETH (iii), 1568-72--THE CATHOLIC CHALLENGE
+
+[Sidenote: 1568 May, Elizabeth and Mary]
+
+Before crossing the Solway, Mary wrote to Elizabeth throwing herself on
+her hospitality. She followed hard on the heels of her missive, and
+awaited the reply at Carlisle, where the Catholic gentlemen of the
+North rallied to receive her. The situation indeed was a singularly
+embarrassing one for the English Queen. Mary claimed in fact that
+Elizabeth should either restore her, or allow her to appeal to those
+who would do so--that is, to France. To take her part unconditionally
+had its obvious dangers; not less obvious were the dangers of acceding
+to the alternative demand. To detain her in England, on the other hand,
+would inevitably make her the centre of Catholic intrigue. The most
+convenient arrangement would be to restore her under conditions which
+would minimise her power of becoming dangerous; and, in the meantime,
+she was perhaps less to be feared under careful supervision in England
+than anywhere else. So Elizabeth took the line of informing her that if
+she cleared herself of the charges of crimes such as made it impossible
+to support her if she were guilty, she should be restored; which being
+interpreted meant that there was to be an investigation, and Elizabeth
+would act on the findings. Murray on the other hand was in effect
+advised that the English Queen would not countenance him in levying war
+but that he might read between the lines of her instructions; in view
+of course of the fear that the party opposed to Murray might seek to
+procure French intervention.
+
+[Sidenote: A Commission of enquiry]
+
+Elizabeth was in fact in a position to dictate her own terms. Whatever
+right she might think fit to assume, whatever technical grounds she
+might assert for that right, Mary was effectively in her power. The
+Scots Queen--transferred for greater safety to Bolton, away from the
+dangerous proximity of the Border--indignantly repudiated the
+jurisdiction, demanded to be set at liberty, asseverated her own
+innocence. Elizabeth could not afford to set her at liberty; and with
+some plausibility declared that the innocence must be proved, before
+her rule could be re-imposed on a nation which had rejected it.
+Elizabeth quite evidently intended that the investigation should
+neither clear nor condemn her. Mary's objections were perfectly
+compatible with innocence. Submission might be taken as implying the
+recognition of English suzerainty; and if the investigation was to be
+earned just so far as suited her sister sovereign, if evidence was to
+be admitted, tested, or sup-pressed, with a view not to ascertaining
+truth but to securing a convenient judgment, innocence was no sort of
+reason for welcoming enquiry. [Footnote: Mr Froude (viii., Ed. 1866)
+informs us in one breath that Mary was impelled to protest by the
+consciousness of guilt (p. 253), but admits in the next that Elizabeth
+had no intention of allowing either her guilt or her innocence to be
+definitely proved (pp. 262, 270, 277).]
+
+The plan of operations was that a Commission should be appointed,
+before whom the Scots lords should answer for their rebellion;
+obviously they would defend themselves on the ground of Mary's guilt of
+which they professed to hold ample proof in the casket of letters,
+which if genuine were assuredly damning. On the other hand, Maitland
+and others of the lords must have suspected at least that evidence of
+their own complicity in Darnley's murder would be forthcoming. The
+English Protestants were convinced beforehand of Mary's guilt; they
+were too much interested in preventing her succession to the English
+throne to form an unbiased judgment; whereas her condemnation would
+have been a serious blow to the Catholic party, which included
+professing Protestants like Norfolk. Altogether, what Elizabeth desired
+was a compromise between Mary and the Scots lords, by which both should
+assent to her restoration as queen with Murray as actual ruler, coupled
+with the confirmation of the unratified Treaty of Edinburgh, and the
+establishment of the Anglican form of worship as Elizabeth's price. Her
+real difficulty perhaps was that she did not want Mary cleared to the
+world by the definite withdrawal of the charge of murder; she wanted
+the charge to be made and to be left indefinitely not-proven.
+
+[Sidenote: Oct. Proceedings at York]
+
+The commission--Norfolk, Sussex, and Sadler, who had spent many years
+in Scotland as ambassador--was to sit at York in October. Thither came
+the Scots lords. Murray was prepared to rely upon the general charges
+of misgovernment, while privately submitting the evidence as to the
+murder to the Commissioners. Norfolk was staggered by the letters, and
+very nearly threw up a scheme which the Catholic party had been
+hatching for his own marriage with Mary. But Elizabeth's sudden
+discovery that this scheme existed filled her with alarm, and for the
+moment she cancelled the Commission.
+
+[Sidenote: Doubts of Philip's attitude]
+
+For the course of events on the Continent was making the outlook more
+complicated. The initial success of the Netherlanders had been very
+soon followed by the crushing disaster of Jemmingen, and the country
+seemed to be under Alva's heel. Catholicism in its most militant and
+merciless form was predominant; what if Philip, irritated by the
+practically open piracy of English ships in the Channel and elsewhere,
+should espouse the cause of Mary? De Silva, the ambassador whose
+relations with the English court were highly satisfactory, was replaced
+by the less diplomatic and more aggressive Don Guerau de Espes. The
+English envoy in Spain was so unguarded in his own religious
+professions as to give Philip fair ground for handing him his passports.
+If the English Catholics, irritated by the growth of Calvinism and the
+increased vigilance of Protestantism in England, founded new hopes on
+these signs of a changing attitude in Philip, their present loyalty
+might very soon alter its colour with Mary Stewart in England.
+
+[Sidenote: Nov. The Commission at Westminster]
+
+It seemed safer then that the enquiry should be held in London, with a
+large increase in the number of the Commissioners. Of the Scots lords,
+Lethington was undoubtedly anxious that the murder charge should be
+withdrawn. Nevertheless, at the sitting held at the end of November,
+Murray definitely put in the charge, producing copies or translations
+of the Casket Letters. These the commissioners examined; later on, they
+were shown the originals, which they judged to be genuine documents in
+the Queen's hand. Whether they were competent to test forgeries
+executed with tolerable skill is at least open to question. The rest of
+the evidence produced was not only that of interested persons, but
+contained inconsistencies; neither Mary herself nor her agents were
+ever put in possession of copies of the incriminating documents; one
+side only was heard. If it was Elizabeth's object to create in the
+minds of the English lords a strong presumption that Mary was guilty,
+that purpose was successfully effected. Under such conditions Mary
+declined compromises. The Commission was broken up. The farce was over.
+Murray returned to Scotland: the Queen remained a prisoner in England,
+to be--with or without her own complicity--the centre of every papist
+plot till the final tragedy.
+
+[Sidenote: Comment on the enquiry]
+
+So the mystery of Mary Stewart remains a mystery to this day. That she
+was cognisant of the plot to murder Darnley is the more probable theory,
+in view of facts which no one denies; yet those facts remain
+intelligible if she was innocent. There are no admitted facts which
+preclude her guilt: none which prove it conclusively. The various
+confessions of interested witnesses, voluntary or extorted, are
+untrustworthy. The genuineness of the Casket Letters is doubtful. No
+opportunity was given for cross-examining the witnesses or examining
+the letters. The world believed that Mary was guilty, however it may
+have been disposed to condone the guilt. The world was probably right.
+But to pretend that there was a fair or complete investigation--that
+Mary's guilt was proved before the Commission--is absurd. That Mary
+from first to last protested against being brought to the bar of an
+English tribunal--whose authority she could not acknowledge without
+implying a recognition of that suzerainty which Edward I of England had
+claimed, and Robert I of Scotland had wiped out at Bannockburn--was
+entirely compatible with the innocence of a high-spirited and
+courageous princess: and would have been so, even if she could have
+counted on the absolute impartiality of her judges. Knowing that she
+could count on nothing of the kind, fully aware that Elizabeth herself
+would in fact be the judge, and suspecting with very good reason that
+any verdict pronounced by her would be shaped strictly with a view to
+her own political convenience, it is almost inconceivable that Mary
+should have acknowledged the jurisdiction merely because Innocence in
+the abstract ought to invite enquiry. Had Mary been less beautiful,
+less unfortunate, less of a heroine of romance, it is likely enough
+that she would find few champions; but the pretence that she had a fair
+trial would still be none the less untenable.
+
+[Sidenote: Dec. Seizure of Spanish Treasure]
+
+In the meantime, an incident had occurred which shows what an immense
+change had been taking place in England during the ten years of
+Elizabeth's reign; how completely the nation had recovered confidence
+in itself. Throughout these years, English ships had been multiplying,
+English sailors had been ignoring the Spanish and Portuguese monopolies
+of ocean traffic, and English captains had been, with only the most
+perfunctory official discouragement, and under colour of the flimsiest
+pretexts or of no pretext at all, indulging in what was virtually
+piracy. Now, the religious struggle, after a few months' smouldering,
+had again broken out in France. La Rochelle, the Huguenot head-quarters,
+was a nest of privateers, with whom the English adventurers consorted,
+and the water-way for Spanish ships to the Netherlands was infested
+with dangers. Alva was in want of money. Philip borrowed a great sum
+from the Genoese bankers. The vessels conveying the bullion were forced
+to put into English ports, in fear of capture. Elizabeth was not ready
+to declare war in favour of the revolted provinces; but Cecil was
+extremely anxious to render them all the help possible short of
+declaring war. The treasure-ships had sailed into a trap. Don Guerau
+invited Elizabeth to send them on under escort to the Netherlands; she
+replied that as the money belonged not to Philip but to the Genoese
+bankers, who would not object, she intended to borrow it herself. Don
+Guerau was furious, and sent messages to Alva, who promptly seized all
+English goods and persons in the Netherlands. With equal promptitude,
+all Spaniards and Spanish goods were seized in England. The balance of
+loss was heavily in favour of the English.
+
+It seemed most probable that this astonishingly audacious proceeding
+must result either in the fall of Cecil, to whom it was due, or in open
+war with Spain, and the immediate committal of England to the formation
+of a Protestant League; which might force the English Catholics in
+their turn directly to espouse the cause of Mary. The reception given
+in this country shortly before to the Cardinal of Chatillon, Coligny's
+brother, was a symptom of Cecil's Protestant policy, and he at least
+was probably willing enough that any tendency of the English Catholics
+towards revolt should be precipitated rather than delayed.
+
+[Sidenote: 1569 The incident passed over]
+
+Even Cecil however was not anxious for open war, while Elizabeth always
+shrank from that last extremity. On the other side, Philip had three
+very good reasons for passing over the affront he had received. First,
+the Netherlands were giving him enough to do for the time. Secondly,
+Don Guerau was satisfied that the downfall of Cecil and the reversal of
+his policy were imminent. Thirdly, the French court would assuredly
+subordinate religious questions to the political gain of uniting with
+England against him. A definite league between Condé and the English
+might have averted that danger, by driving the French Catholics to make
+common cause with Spain; but any immediate prospect of such a solution
+of the entanglement vanished when the Huguenots were defeated and Condé
+himself killed at the battle of Jarnac in May. The result of that event
+was the immediate prohibition of the English adventurers from joining
+the Huguenot fleet of Rochelle and sailing under the Huguenot flag; as
+many of them had been in the habit of doing.
+
+In May, then, the risk of a rupture between the French Government and
+England, and of the formation of a universal Protestant league, was
+over for the time at least; and within a few months, in England, the
+Northern Earls, by a premature rising, inflicted a severe blow on their
+own party, and decided large numbers of the Catholics to take their
+stand as in the first place patriots and loyalists.
+
+[Sidenote: The Northern Rebellion]
+
+What we have called the Catholic party included many professing
+Protestants--_i.e._ men who conformed with entire equanimity, yet
+would have preferred to see the old worship restored; such as Norfolk.
+Extreme men saw in the union of the Duke with Mary a prospect of
+immediately placing the captive Queen on the English throne. The
+moderate men wanted the marriage, accompanied by her recognition as
+heir presumptive. There were others outside the Catholic connexion who
+dreamed rather of Mary under the circumstances conforming to the
+Anglican faith. Norfolk dallied with all three. There was a moment when
+Elizabeth herself might have been persuaded to assent; but the Duke
+missed his opportunity, and she, reverting to a conviction that the
+marriage would soon be followed by her own assassination, presently
+forbade it, and summoned Norfolk to answer for his loyalty. After brief
+hesitation he surrendered himself and was confined in the Tower: but
+the Northern Earls, Northumberland and Westmorland, believing that they
+must strike at once if at all, rose and marched to deliver Mary from
+Tutbury--whither she had been suddenly conveyed to safe keeping, in the
+expectation of some such event. The rest of the Catholics however were
+not ready for such a venture; being forced to make up their minds, they
+resolved to stand loyal. The royal musters were quickly advancing to
+meet the insurgents, who presently concluded that the cause was
+hopeless, and fled. Northumberland was subsequently arrested and
+detained by Murray in Scotland: Westmorland made his way to Spain.
+Sussex received and carried out orders to punish with a heavy hand
+those who had taken part in the rebellion; and so without any great
+difficulty the one serious revolt of the reign was stamped out.
+
+[Sidenote: 1570 Murder of Murray]
+
+The year 1570 had hardly opened when Elizabeth lost one of her most
+valuable allies by the murder of the Regent Murray, assassinated by
+Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh. Murray's figure in history is a sombre one,
+and the sombreness is thrown into the greater relief by the picturesque
+brilliancy of his hapless sister. It was his fate to fight on the
+gloomy side; to stand at the head of a nobility conspicuously sordid
+and unprincipled, half of whom, when not occupied in plotting against
+the life of a hereditary foe or a political rival, were posing as
+representatives of the "godly"--an attitude held to be entirely
+compatible with a total disregard for the decalogue. Perhaps there is
+no prominent statesman of his times who came through the heavy ordeal
+of public life with cleaner hands. There is no fair ground for
+associating him directly and actively with any of the great crimes in
+one or another of which almost every one of the Scots lords had a share.
+When his sister married Darnley, he took up arms against her: he did so
+again when she married Bothwell: and on both occasions he was probably
+obeying an elastic conscience. While he was endeavouring to fix the
+odium of the Darnley murder on Mary, he must have been quite aware that
+both Lethington and Morton, his allies, were steeped in the guilt of it.
+But he could neither stand aside from the turmoil, nor pick and choose
+his associates. The political support or countenance of Elizabeth
+seemed absolutely necessary to the cause of the Reformation in Scotland.
+A man of a more generous spirit would more than once have felt that the
+price was too high, that he was accepting a too ignominious position;
+he stooped to a course which if not exactly dishonourable was
+perilously near it. But the part he was forced to play was the hardest
+and the most thankless imaginable; and he played it with a constant
+effort to be tolerant, to be as just as circumstances permitted, to be
+true to himself. He was the one man in Scotland who had striven
+resolutely amid the kaleidoscopic chaos of factions to maintain some
+sort of order, some sort of liberty, some sort of standard of public
+spirit. With his fall, anarchy became more rampant than ever. Elizabeth
+lamented, not without reason, that she had lost her best friend; but
+while he lived she had not made his task the easier.
+
+[Sidenote: March The Bull of Deposition]
+
+In March, the Pope took the step which paralysed Catholicism as an open
+political force in England, by issuing a Bull against Elizabeth which
+virtually declared loyalty to the Queen and loyalty to the Faith to be
+incompatible; yet since the profession of loyalty was to be condoned,
+every Catholic was _ipso facto_ rendered suspect. The suspicion of
+disloyalty breeds the disease. Englishmen of the Roman Communion have a
+right to be proud that so many in those years of storm and stress
+neither relinquished their faith nor forgot their patriotism; yet when
+their fellow-subjects had been thus absolved of their allegiance, the
+Protestants can hardly be blamed for being over-ready to assume that
+they were in league with the Queen's enemies. The Pope could have done
+nothing calculated more thoroughly to translate the ordinary sentiment
+of loyalty into a passion of resentment against its opposite.
+
+[Sidenote: The Anjou Match]
+
+The immediate situation however was fraught with sufficient peril. Mary
+for the sake of liberty was by this time fairly ready to promise
+anything, and trust to the chapter of accidents to find some plausible
+ground for repudiating her promises later. Elizabeth would have been
+glad enough to get her out of the country if she could by any means be
+rendered harmless. Once again, to the dismay of Cecil, a restoration,
+on terms, seemed probable, while the Queen herself showed a tendency to
+try at any cost to recover the support of the Catholics. In fact
+however, she would make up her mind to no decided course. But affairs
+in France suggested to her a new scheme which could be played with
+indefinitely. In spite of Jarnac, and of another defeat later in the
+year at Montcontour, Coligny and the Huguenots remained unvanquished in
+1570. In the autumn, there was a fresh pacification, and Coligny became
+once more a power at Court as well as in the country. The younger
+brother of the young French King, Henry Duke of Anjou, was now old
+enough to marry. There had been talk of uniting him to Mary. But if he
+were to marry Elizabeth, who was only some seventeen years his senior,
+Protestants and Catholics in both countries might make their peace, and
+all present a united front to Philip and to Papal aggression--for even
+the Cardinal of Lorraine had dallied with the notion of Nationalism in
+matters ecclesiastical. Cecil and Walsingham, who had recently come to
+the front and now represented England in Paris, were keenly in favour
+of the scheme. As for the Queen she probably intended to use it
+precisely as she had used all the previous marriage schemes, simply as
+an instrument for manipulating foreign courts and her own ministers.
+
+[Sidenote: 1570-71 The Ridolfi plot initiated]
+
+Under these conditions, a new plot was initiated for the liberation of
+Mary, her marriage to Norfolk, and the removal of Elizabeth; to be at
+last actively if secretly aided by Alva and Philip, on whom the
+vehement remonstrances of the Pope were now taking effect--in view of
+the threatened alliance between England and France. The agent was one
+Ridolfi, who combined cleverness sufficient to deceive even Walsingham
+for a time with a garrulity and carelessness which proved ruinous in
+the long run. It was fortunate for Elizabeth that of the two necessary
+figure-heads for any conspiracy, Mary and Norfolk, one was more than
+half-believed even by her own party to be stained by the grossest
+crimes, while the other was nerveless and vacillating.
+
+[Sidenote: 1571 April, Parliament]
+
+At this juncture, need of funds made it impossible for Elizabeth to
+continue longer without calling a Parliament, which met early in April
+(1571). The bulk of the peers were still in sympathy with Catholicism
+and the ideas associated therewith; the lower House, always Protestant,
+was now more emphatically so than ever. The Puritan element, naturally
+enough, had come to regard Catholicism as _prima facie_ evidence
+of treason, and was bent on enforcing a more uncompromising conformity,
+with a greater severity, than heretofore. The Commons insisted on
+discussing religious matters, and ignored the Queen's attempts to
+silence them. They gave, what the last parliament had refused, their
+sanction to the Thirty-nine Articles. The effect of the Papal
+excommunication was seen in an Act making it high Treason to question
+the Queen's title, or to call her a heretic, and disqualifying from the
+succession any one who laid claim to the crown; they sought even to
+make the Act retrospective, which would have forthwith excluded Mary
+permanently. They submitted however to some modification of the
+original harshness of their intentions; whereby it is probable that not
+a few Catholics, who would otherwise have been fatally alienated, did
+as matters turned out remain loyal. Finally, a substantial grant of
+money was made. The Commons in short were thoroughly at one with Cecil,
+now known as Lord Burghley. They were intensely loyal, and showed their
+loyalty none the less emphatically because they ignored the Queen's
+predilections in the manner of doing it.
+
+[Sidenote: Collapse of Anjou marriage]
+
+At the end of May, Parliament was dissolved. In the meantime, and for some
+months longer, the affair of the Anjou marriage was running the usual
+course. As mere postponement seemed to become impossible, the old pretended
+difficulties by which the Archduke Charles had been finally evaded were
+rehabilitated. Anjou must not have even his private Mass. The Queen's
+Ministers understood the position, and their one object became the
+avoidance of a breach with France. By the exercise of much dexterity, Anjou
+was drawn into taking the initiative in breaking off the match in a quite
+complimentary manner; and there was even discussion of the substitution for
+him of his still younger brother Alençon. France, in fact, at this time was
+swaying strongly towards antagonism to Spain, at any price which would
+secure English support; the idea of partitioning the Netherlands being part
+of the programme. Cecil and Walsingham, believing with reason that an
+accident might again turn the balance with the French government, and
+painfully distrustful of Elizabeth's endless vacillations, were on
+tenterhooks till the amicable conclusion of the Anjou affair.
+
+[Sidenote: Developments of the Ridolfi plot]
+
+They had also been on the alert over the Ridolfi plot. In the spring,
+Ridolfi was concocting with Alva designs for an invasion; in the summer he
+was in Spain. In the meantime, the capture of an agent, and the liberal use
+of spies and of the rack, placed important clues in Burghley's hands. At
+this juncture the famous seaman Sir John Hawkins, in collusion with
+Burghley, placed himself at the service of Mary and Philip, in the
+character of an ill-used and revengeful servant of Elizabeth. Yet it was
+only by another accidental capture, and more use of the rack, that
+complicity was actually brought home to Norfolk, who was arrested in
+September. Norfolk once arrested, traitors and spies soon did what else was
+necessary to reveal the whole plot, in which invasion and assassination
+were combined. It was no longer possible to account Spain and the Spanish
+King as anything but mortal enemies to England and the English Queen. Don
+Guerau was ordered to leave the country; his parting move was a plot for
+Burghley's assassination, duly detected by spies, Norfolk was convicted for
+treason, and condemned to a death which was deferred for some months. Mary
+Stewart expected a like fate. Elizabeth however still rejected the extreme
+measure. But the _Detectio_ of George Buchanan--in other words a
+complete _ex parte_ statement of the case against Mary, including the
+contents of the Casket Letters--was published.
+
+[Sidenote: 1572 Parliament and Mary (May)]
+
+The effect was seen when a new Parliament met in May. The people of England
+believed with an absolute conviction in the truth of the whole indictment
+against the Scots Queen. Nor was there any question that she had appealed
+both to France and Spain to liberate her; so far at least she was
+implicated in the Ridolfi plot, even if the assassination proposals had not
+come within her ken. She was believed to be a criminal, who had forfeited
+all right to sympathy and consideration; she was palpably a standing menace
+to the internal peace of the realm, a standing incitement to its enemies
+abroad. The Commons therefore demanded her attainder; as for the technical
+right, no sovereign at the time or in the past would have hesitated to
+ignore or evade the point. The question was outside the range of
+technicalities. The plea that England had no right to detain her, or to
+judge her, that she had a right to seek her own release by any available
+means, was perfectly sound; the counter-plea that the safety of the State
+forbade her release, and her attempts to procure war against it justified
+her destruction, was equally unanswerable. But Elizabeth could not resolve
+to act upon either plea, ignoring the other. So Mary remained a prisoner,
+and the centre of intrigue. Even an alternative Bill, supposed to have
+Elizabeth's approval, which merely excluded Mary from the succession, never
+reached the statute book.
+
+[Sidenote: Lepanto; April Revolt of the Netherlands]
+
+A notable triumph had recently been achieved for Philip's arms, in the
+crushing defeat of the Turks at Lepanto by the combined Venetian and
+Spanish fleets commanded by the Spanish King's half-brother, Don John of
+Austria. To this perhaps may be attributed the less defiant tone of
+communications with Spain. The narrow seas were swarming not only with
+English privateering craft, but with Dutchmen commanded by the privateer De
+la Marck on behalf of William of Orange, who were habitually succoured in
+English harbours. But though these were now ordered to depart, and the
+English mariners aboard them were commanded to leave them, there is no
+doubt that their privy equipment was deliberately connived at, in the
+flattest possible contradiction to the public declarations. At the close of
+March, De la Marck's fleet sailed from Dover to fall upon a Spanish convoy;
+a few days later, it appeared in the Meuse before Brille. The town promptly
+surrendered. The whole of the Netherlands was seething under Alva's savage
+rule; trade, already in a fair way to be ruined by the cessation of
+commerce with England since the seizure of the treasure ships, was being
+throttled also by the system of taxation which Alva had recently
+instituted. The capture of Brille fired the train. City after city raised
+the standard of revolt. The rebellion which Alva fancied he had utterly
+stamped out was suddenly in full blaze once more; and on the south, Mons,
+like Brille, was seized by a rapid dash of Lewis of Nassau, operating from
+French territory.
+
+[Sidenote: The Alençon marriage]
+
+In the meantime also the Alençon marriage project seemed to be
+advancing, and in April a defensive treaty was struck between England
+and France, where it appeared that Coligny was paramount at court. Both
+English and French volunteers were fighting in the Netherlands. Small
+wonder that Burghley and Walsingham believed that a French marriage
+would clinch matters, make France a virtually Huguenot Power, and
+secure a combination which would bring the Pope and the King of Spain
+to their knees. The approaching marriage of the French King's sister,
+Margaret, to young Henry of Navarre--now standing next after the King's
+brothers in the line of succession--pointed emphatically in the same
+direction.
+
+Walsingham however also knew that, to achieve the desired end, the
+Huguenots must at once have convincing proofs that they could depend on the
+English alliance. The marriage, and concerted armed intervention in the
+Netherlands, were the conditions. But Alençon [Footnote: He was singularly
+ugly, and Elizabeth who had nicknames for many of her Court, used to call
+him her "Frog" when he was wooing her, later.] was an incredibly
+distasteful husband; and however near Elizabeth might suffer herself to be
+brought to the brink of war, she hung back when the time came. There was
+very good reason [Footnote: _State Papers: Spanish,_ ii., 338.] for
+believing that even now she was secretly negotiating with Alva, and in a
+very short time the English and French volunteer contingents in Flushing
+[Footnote: _S.P., Foreign,_ x., 491, 530.] were on the verge of
+hostilities. The power of the Huguenots was on the surface; fanatics
+themselves when their religion was not merely political, they were the
+objects of savagely fanatical hatred. The queen-mother, who had always
+striven to preserve her own domination by holding the balance between
+Guises and Huguenots, saw Charles falling more and more under Coligny's
+influence instead of her own. It may be that if she had felt sure of
+Elizabeth, she would have gone through with the proposed policy;
+distrusting the English Queen she resolved to end it. She made a desperate
+and successful attempt to recover her ascendancy over her weak-minded
+son. She played upon his terrors, and prepared for one of the most
+appalling tragedies in all history.
+
+[Sidenote: Aug. St. Bartholomew]
+
+A plot for the assassination of Coligny failed, the Admiral being but
+slightly wounded. Paris was full of Huguenots, who had gathered for the
+celebration of Navarre's marriage on August 18th; the attempt on Coligny
+led to threatening language against the Guises. Katharine stirred her son
+into a sudden panic. The attack on the Admiral had taken place on August
+22nd; with the booming of a bell on the early morning of the 24th, St.
+Bartholomew's day, the most recklessly devastating mob in the world found
+itself let loose on its prey, headed and urged on by the Guises and other
+Catholic chiefs. The Huguenots, utterly surprised, were slaughtered from
+house to house; with the taste of blood the populace went mad; Paris was a
+shambles. How many thousands were massacred in that awful frenzy none can
+tell. The tale of the tragedy flew from end to end of France; all over the
+country, wherever the Catholics were in a majority, like scenes were
+enacted. The total of the victims has been computed as high as a hundred
+thousand; a fourth of that number would certainly not be an exaggerated
+estimate. In England, all the martyrs for religion in the century did not
+amount to a thousand, on both sides; in France, twenty thousand at least
+were slain in a few days' orgy of fanaticism. And the new Pope Gregory sang
+_Te Deum_ in solemn state; and the morose monarch of Spain laughed
+aloud in unwonted glee; but Charles of France, men said, was haunted to the
+hour of his death by red visions of that ghastly carnival of blood.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+ELIZABETH (iv), 1572-78--VARIUM ET MUTABILE
+
+[Sidenote: The Queen's diplomacy]
+
+The picture of Elizabeth and of her surroundings hitherto presented in
+these pages has been one which rouses rather a reluctant admiration for
+a combination of good fortune and dexterity than a moral enthusiasm.
+Statesmen, in fact, had to pick their way with such extreme wariness
+through such a labyrinth of intrigues that little play was permitted to
+their more generous instincts; and it is undeniable that Elizabeth
+herself loved intricate methods, and made it quite unnecessarily
+difficult for her ministers to pursue a straightforward course. This is
+the aspect of the national life which is inevitably forced on our
+attention--the diplomatic aspect in an age when diplomacy was playing
+an immense part in public affairs. For England, it might almost be said
+that diplomatic methods had been created by Henry VII., maintained by
+Wolsey, dropped again for thirty years, and then re-created by
+Elizabeth. As Wolsey had played France and the Empire against each
+other, to make England the arbiter of Europe, so Elizabeth played
+France and Spain against each other, so that neither could afford to go
+beyond empty threats against her in her own territory; while both
+governments had recalcitrant Protestant subjects who were a good deal
+more hampering and disquieting to them than were Elizabeth's Catholic
+subjects to her. In Scotland, Elizabeth's policy, like her father's,
+was that of maintaining factions which kept the country divided.
+
+Now the persons with whom Elizabeth had to deal were for the most part
+perfectly unscrupulous. The Queen-mother in France, the Scots lords,
+Philip of Spain, and the Spanish ambassadors with the exception of De
+Silva, were as ready to make and ignore promises and professions as was
+Elizabeth herself. If they found her fully a match for them at their
+own game, we can hardly reproach her if we cannot applaud. But it is
+notable that in England, the arch-dissembler is Elizabeth herself. It
+is she who manages the undignified but eminently successful trickery of
+the marriage negotiations. It is she who evades committing herself
+irrevocably to the Huguenots or to the Prince of Orange. It is she who
+preserves Mary's restoration as a possibility, to be held _in
+terrorem_ over Scotland after publishing her accusers' evidence
+against her.
+
+[Sidenote: The Queen's subjects]
+
+But the success of this supreme wiliness, a quality in which perhaps
+Elizabeth's one rival was Lethington, was due to the presence in her
+ministers and in her people of moral qualities which she did not
+herself display. First and foremost was their loyalty to her. They
+acted boldly on secret instructions, with entire certainty that they
+must take the whole responsibility upon themselves; that to be pardoned
+for success was the highest official recognition they could hope for;
+that flat repudiation and probable ruin would follow failure. Burghley
+in particular repeatedly risked favour to save the Queen from herself,
+when her vacillation, calculated or not, was on the verge of being
+carried too far; nor was he alone in speaking his mind; yet in spite of
+merciless snubs his fidelity was unimpaired; none of her enemies ever
+dreamed for an instant that he could be tampered with. Nor did it ever
+appear that more than a very few even among the most discontented of
+her subjects would lend themselves to open disloyalty. In England,
+there were almost none who would have anything to say to the political
+assassinations which repeatedly stained the annals of the nations of
+the Continent and of Scotland: a peculiarity remarked on in the Spanish
+correspondence.
+
+Again, the religious tone and temper of the country were in striking
+contrast to those prevailing where the Reformation assumed the
+Calvinistic model. In France and in Scotland, Protestants and Catholics
+were ready to fly at each other's throats; in England that inclination
+was confined to extremists of either party. The bulk of the population
+was quite content with conformity to a compromise, and was tolerant of
+a very considerable theoretical disagreement, and even of actual
+nonconformity, so long as it was not actively aggressive. It was not
+till Jesuits on one side, and ultra-puritans on the other, developed an
+active propaganda directed against the established order, that there
+was any general desire to strike hard at either; nor did even the
+puritan parliaments display any violent anti-Catholic animus till
+roused by the insult to the nation of the Bull of Deposition.
+
+[Sidenote: Development of Protestantism]
+
+While the characteristically English love of compromise and devotion to
+conventions kept the bulk of the population loyal to the established
+Forms of religion, acquiescent but not enthusiastic, their normal
+conservatism also disposed them more favourably to teachers of the old
+than of the innovating school; but other forces were at work, which
+encouraged the growth of what may be called the Old Testament spirit of
+militant religiosity directed against Rome and all that savoured of
+Rome. Stories of the doings of the Inquisition, the enormities
+perpetrated by Alva in the Netherlands, the fate of English sailors who
+might, not without justice, have been punished for piracy, but were in
+fact made to suffer on the ground of heresy, the crowning horror of St.
+Bartholomew, appealed luridly to the popular imagination. The country
+was threatened with internal discord by the presence of a Catholic
+aspirant to the throne, which concentrated the forces of
+disorganisation on the Catholic side. Protestantism, thereby at once
+extended and intensified, took its colour from the most active and
+energetic of the religious teachers, and developed a vehement popular
+sympathy with the French Huguenots and the revolting Netherlanders; and
+however politicians might evade official entanglement, English
+sentiment--at any rate after St. Bartholomew--was always ready to take
+arms openly in the Protestant cause.
+
+[Sidenote: Katharine de Medici]
+
+When Katharine and the Guises let the Paris mob loose on the Huguenots,
+they had doubtless no intention of perpetrating so vast a slaughter.
+They found that it was one thing to cry "Havoc" and quite another to
+cry "Halt". When the thing was done, they could not have disavowed it
+wholly, even if they would. Katharine however made desperate efforts to
+minimise her own responsibility, and to justify what she had done by
+charges of treason against the murdered admiral and his associates. She
+had in fact meant to cripple the Huguenots by destroying their leaders,
+yet to provide a defence sufficiently plausible to prevent a breach
+with England. Her object had been to recover her own ascendancy in
+France, not to replace Coligny by the Guises. What she succeeded in
+doing was to turn France into two hostile camps; since the massacres
+had not sufficed to destroy the Huguenot power of offering an organised
+defence and defiance. On the other hand Alva was prompt, and Philip as
+prompt as his nature permitted, to realise that some capital might be
+made out of the revulsion in England against the French Government.
+
+[Sidenote: The aim of Elizabeth]
+
+Walsingham, the English Ambassador in Paris, was a sincere Puritan;
+Burghley's sympathies, personal as well as political, were strongly
+Protestant. For some time past, both had desired on the mere grounds of
+political expediency to bid defiance to Spain and frankly avow the
+cause of the Prince of Orange. They believed that England was already
+strong enough to face the might of Philip. The moral incentive was now
+infinitely stronger. That this would be the generous and the courageous
+course was manifest. Now, too, the English people would have adopted it
+with a stern enthusiasm worth many ships and many battalions. The
+course Elizabeth adopted was less heroic, more selfish, safer for the
+interests of England. That sooner or later a duel with Spain was all
+but inevitable she must have recognised; but she had seen the power and
+wealth of England growing year by year, the stability of the Government
+becoming ever more assured; if an immediate collision could be averted,
+she calculated that the process would continue, whereas the strain of
+repressing and holding down the Netherlanders would tell adversely on
+the power of Spain. The longer, therefore, that the struggle could be
+staved off, the better.
+
+Fortune favoured her: for the resistance of the Netherlands was very
+much more stubborn than could have been anticipated. The Protestant
+fervour in her people, aroused by St. Bartholomew, was kept alive and
+intensified, as time went on, by other events, and was moreover
+concentrated upon animosity to Spain. When the great conflict took
+place, sixteen years later, its result was decisive. It cannot be
+affirmed with confidence that it would have been so now. From the
+prudential point of view, Elizabeth was justified by the event. But it
+is at least possible that the victory would have been equally decisive
+at the earlier date, and its moral value in that case would undoubtedly
+have been greater.
+
+[Sidenote: 1572 England and St. Bartholomew]
+
+At the first moment when intelligence of the massacre at Paris was
+brought to England, the Queen as well as her ministers believed that it
+was simply the prelude to a Romanist crusade. It was imagined that the
+plot had been concocted in collusion with Philip and Alva, the outcome
+of the suspected Catholic League of 1565. Instant preparations were
+made for war; the musters were called out, the fleet was manned, troops
+were raised in readiness to embark for Flushing; and immediate
+overtures were made to Mar--the second Regent in Scotland since the
+murder of Murray--for handing Mary over to him to be executed. The
+popular indignation was expressed in bold and uncompromising terms by
+Walsingham in Paris, in answer to the attempts of the French Government
+to excuse itself. In England, it was long before the Queen would admit
+the French Ambassador to audience; when she did so, her Council was in
+presence; all were clad in mourning; Elizabeth spoke in terms of the
+most formal frigidity; on her withdrawal, Burghley, speaking for the
+Council, expressed their sentiments in very plain language. It is
+abundantly clear that the whole nation from the Queen down was grimly
+and confidently prepared for war if war should come.
+
+[Sideline: Spain seeks amity]
+
+But war was not to come. Katharine was not in collusion with Philip;
+she knew well enough that as things stood, in such an alliance France
+would begin in a subordinate position, and success would only
+accentuate and render overwhelming the predominance of Spain. Her one
+desire was to patch up a reconciliation with England. Alva had no
+illusions about a Catholic crusade; he only rejoiced that the danger of
+an Anglo-French coalition was scotched; and only desired to make sure
+that Elizabeth, left to herself, should not make his task in the
+Netherlands more difficult. Therefore he strove strenuously, and with
+ultimate success, to impress the same view of affairs on the slowly
+moving mind of his master at Madrid, who was at first bitten with the
+idea of effecting a Catholic revolution in England and marrying Mary to
+Anjou.
+
+So when Mons, with Lewis of Nassau in it, was forced to capitulate,
+Alva, by way of contrast to the massacre at Paris, allowed the
+Huguenots to march out with the honours of war--ostentatiously
+reversing his usual merciless policy: and he pointedly adopted the most
+conciliatory attitude towards England.
+
+[Sidenote: 1573]
+
+Elizabeth for her part was ready enough to respond. A renewal of the
+commercial relations in the Netherlands was eminently desirable. The
+war going on in that country was not to her own taste; politically and
+theologically she thought the example of the Netherlanders dangerous--
+one of the real reasons which helped to make her hold back from
+espousing their cause--and she offered to mediate between Alva and
+William of Orange, expressing readiness for her own part to have a
+settlement of all the outstanding grievances between Spain and England.
+She even went so far as to revive the suggestion of a really
+representative Council, for the purpose of arriving at a general
+religious settlement---a suggestion so entirely impracticable that it
+was quite safe to make it. Also with regard to some of the grievances,
+it was tolerably certain that no solution could be offered in which
+both the parties would acquiesce. But the fundamental thing, both in
+her eyes and in Alva's, was to revive the old status of amity,
+officially if also superficially.
+
+[Sidenote: April: A Spanish alliance]
+
+Finally, in spite of the remonstrances of the Pope and the protests of
+the English Catholic exiles of the Northern Rebellion, who had found an
+asylum in the Netherlands under the aegis of Spain, a provisional
+alliance was effected, to last for two years, in April 1573. Spain
+deserted the English revolutionary Catholics; Elizabeth recalled the
+English volunteers from Flanders; and commerce was restored. There was
+a brief lull in the piratical activity of English sailors; and the
+French were officially left alone to settle the domestic hostilities
+which afforded them a quite sufficient occupation.
+
+[Sidenote: Scotland: End of the Marians]
+
+By this time, too, the last serious struggle of the Marian party in
+Scotland was entering on its final stage. There, after Murray's death,
+the Hamiltons, joined by Lethington and Kirkcaldy of Grange, refused to
+acknowledge the young King, or the authority of the Regency---an office
+in which Murray was succeeded first by the incompetent Lennox, and
+afterwards by Mar, Lennox being killed in the course of a fight.
+Finally Lethington and Grange were shut up in Edinburgh Castle, where
+they continued to bid defiance to the Government. When however
+overtures were made by England for the delivery of Mary to Mar for
+execution, the negotiation broke down on the question of Responsibility.
+Mar would not carry out the extreme measure, unless supported by
+English troops and by the presence of high English officials. Elizabeth
+as usual insisted, in effect, that she must be able to repudiate
+complicity. As the fear of a combined Catholic attack melted away, the
+English Queen lost her anxiety to be rid of her rival. Mar died; Morton
+was nominated to the regency. Then also died John Knox, the last of the
+men who had seen the Reformation through from its commencement; grim to
+the end.
+
+[Sidenote: The Netherlands, France, and Spain]
+
+When the new year, 1573, came in, Elizabeth, fearing that the Scots
+lords might, unless they received something besides vague promises,
+turn to France after all, at length acknowledged the Regent and the
+King. A compromise was accepted by the Marian lords with the exception
+of Lethington and Grange in the Castle. But while these held out, the
+conflagration might be renewed at any time. Elizabeth then reluctantly
+yielded to the pressure on her from every side. Money, troops, siege-
+guns, and Drury in command, were sent in April to the help of Morton.
+After a stubborn resistance, the siege artillery proved too much for
+the garrison; their outworks were carried, their water-supply cut off,
+and they were forced to surrender in the last days of May. Lethington
+survived only a few days; rumour had it that he died by his own act.
+The craftiest brain in Scotland was stilled but a few months after her
+sincerest and fiercest tongue was silenced. With Maitland's death, all
+prospect of reconstructing an organised Queen's-party vanished. It was
+not many months after these events that Alva, in accordance with his
+own wishes, was recalled. Conquest did not mean pacification. Haarlem
+after a prolonged and desperate resistance, fell in July, and the
+garrison was put to the sword; but there was no hint of yielding on the
+part of the Hollanders. When the Spaniards advanced on Alkmaar, they
+were threatened with the opening of the dykes.
+
+Hardly less significant of the determination of Orange and his
+following never to submit, at whatever cost, is the fact that they were
+prepared in the last resort to receive Anjou as their Protector---Anjou,
+who was regarded as a ring-leader in the Paris massacre. The same fact
+is convincing evidence of the overwhelming antagonism of French and
+Spanish political interests. Had the French been capable of arranging
+their religious quarrels on the basis of a fairly inclusive compromise,
+like that in England, so that the moderates could have worked together,
+such a league as Walsingham had hoped for before St. Bartholomew would
+have been entirely in the interest both of France and of England. The
+advantage of it to France was so obvious that, even after the massacre,
+it was possible for the perpetrators to contemplate friendly relations
+with foreign Protestants, and for foreign Protestants to regard such
+relations as possible. Still it was only in the last resort that the
+Anjou scheme could have been embraced, and perhaps it was now
+propounded more by way of forcing Elizabeth's hand than for any other
+purpose. At any rate the project did not deter Anjou from accepting the
+crown of Poland---only to drop it and hurry back to assume the sceptre
+of France as Henry III. when King Charles IX. sank to the grave in 1574.
+
+[Sidenote: 1573-74 The Netherlands, Spain, and England]
+
+Requescens, Alva's successor, adopted a comparatively conciliatory
+policy. The restoration of the constitutional Government of the States
+of the Netherlands was offered, on condition of acceptance of
+Catholicism. In the eyes of Elizabeth, who regarded religious
+observances as falling entirely to the supreme government to settle,
+while she could not understand a conscientious objection to outward
+conformity, the refusal of those terms by Orange seemed quite
+unreasonable; even Burghley was detached from Walsingham and from those
+who, thinking with him, still counted the maintenance of Protestantism,
+and as a necessary corollary hostility to Spain, as the first object
+which ought to be pursued. This attitude of England, coupled with the
+irreconcilable character of French religious animosities, which made
+the prospects of effective French interference a mere will-o'-the-wisp,
+reduced Orange and his party to a condition verging on desperation.
+
+[Sidenote: 1574 Spain amicable]
+
+Requescens, however, made no haste to crush the stubborn remnant. It
+was his policy rather to achieve a _modus vivendi_ in which the
+bulk of the Netherlands would concur, and to conciliate England. Alva
+before him had realised the true danger of the island-nation's
+hostility. As we shall presently see in more detail, the growth of the
+English marine had rendered it extremely formidable. Not only had
+English rovers for years past been giving unspeakable trouble on the
+Spanish Main and the Ocean highways, but the English fleets also
+practically controlled the narrow seas: and could make it impossible
+for any ordinary convoys, whether of transports, or merchantmen, or
+treasure-ships, to pass up-channel. In other words, England could block
+the lines of communication between Spain and the Netherlands. Until
+Spain should bestir all her might, rise up, and annihilate the English
+shipping, Elizabeth must be kept neutral; whereas, if Orange were
+pressed too hard, she might be forced even against her will to support
+him vigorously, if only to prevent France from doing so single-handed,
+and perhaps thereby capturing the Netherlands for herself.
+
+[Sidenote: Reciprocal Concessions; 1575]
+
+So the Spaniard was polite to Elizabeth, Elizabeth was polite to the
+Spaniard, and in France the factions fought furiously round Rochelle or
+rested in temporary truce. The politeness was carried to very
+considerable lengths. Allen's seminary at Douay, where young English
+Catholics had been trained to go forth as missionaries and seek
+martyrdom in their native land, was ordered to remove itself. The
+refugees who had found shelter at Louvain and elsewhere were required
+to depart across Philip's borders. Claims on either side for the
+seizure of merchandise or treasure were balanced against each other. In
+the spring of 1575, Elizabeth fell upon certain anabaptists with
+ostentatious severity, by way of demonstrating how narrow after all was
+the division between Anglican and Catholic in their fundamental ideas.
+Yet there remained one serious difficulty to adjust; one point, or
+perhaps we should say two points, on which neither side could or would
+give way.
+
+[Sidenote: A Deadlock]
+
+On the soil of Spain the dominating force was the Inquisition. Within
+his own dominions, Philip was absolutely committed to the rigid
+enforcement of orthodoxy, as understood by the Holy Office. The Holy
+Office claimed, and the claim was endorsed by Philip, that its
+jurisdiction extended over vessels in Spanish waters, and it was in the
+habit of haling English sailors from their ships into its dungeons, as
+heretics. In this Elizabeth declined to acquiesce; and Sir Henry Cobham
+was sent to Madrid to demand recognition of the English view, and to
+propose that resident Ambassadors should again be established, the
+Englishman to be privileged--as the Spaniard should be in England--to
+enjoy the Services of his own Church. Further, inasmuch as fortune had
+so far smiled upon Orange of late that Leyden had triumphantly resisted
+a determined siege, Elizabeth offered friendly mediation; emphasising
+the suggestion by a hint that unless Spain could see her way to a
+pacification, Orange could now appeal with a prospect of success to
+France; and England could not afford to decline the preferable
+alternative of an appeal to herself.
+
+On Spanish soil, however, Catholic zealotry was too strong. Alva would
+fain have made diplomatic concessions, which could be revoked when
+convenient; Philip was dominated by the extremists, who were
+scandalised by the presence of a heretic envoy, who in his turn was
+furious at being called a heretic. The proffered mediation was
+declined; Philip flatly refused to concede religious privileges to an
+Ambassador, suggesting only that the difficulty could be got over by
+sending a Catholic; as to the action of the Inquisition, he was pledged
+not to interfere.
+
+[Sidenote: 1576 Attitude of the Nation]
+
+With this message Cobham returned, to find that the revolted States
+were on their part offering the sovereignty of the Provinces to
+Elizabeth. Walsingham and his allies were supporting the proposal, and
+under present conditions Burghley too inclined to it. Elizabeth,
+confident that Spain would not declare war, was ready to carry what we
+can only call bluff to the extreme limit, though she scolded her
+Council with energy. The Spaniards took the opportunity to render the
+Council most effective support, by seizing the crew of another English
+ship. Elizabeth sent warnings or threats to Requescens; and in February
+(1576), Parliament was summoned to vote supplies; which it did without
+hesitation. If the action of Parliament was any sort of index to
+popular sentiment, the idea that there was any widespread or deep-
+rooted feeling in the country against a war of religion is certainly
+fallacious; while there can be no question that the entire sea-going
+population--which had attracted into its ranks all that was most
+adventurous, most daring, most energetic, and most capable in the
+country--was heart and soul hostile to Spain. How much of that feeling
+was due to enthusiastic Protestantism, and how much to the fact that
+men hankered after the Spanish El Dorado may be matter of debate; but
+that the feeling was there is patent. That the attitude of Parliament
+was not due to any subserviency is emphasised by the open attack in
+this session on the granting of Monopolies to the Queen's favourites,
+which sent Wentworth who made it to the Star-Chamber--and found for him
+early and popular pardon instead of severe punishment.
+
+[Sidenote: The Queen evades war]
+
+Evidently, the force which did really operate against war was the Queen
+herself. From beginning to end of her reign, she never entered upon any
+war at all, so long as any possible means could be found for evading it
+without surrendering some right or claim vital in her eyes either to
+the nation's interests or her own. On such points she was never
+prepared to yield: in the last resort she would fight, but at the same
+time make the most of her reluctance, and relieve her feelings by
+roundly rating her ministers. Yet repeatedly she went as far as it was
+possible to go without actually declaring war, relying securely on the
+certainty that the irrevocable step would not be taken by the other
+party, and that she could find some plausible though perhaps
+undignified excuse for not taking it herself.
+
+So it was now. So long as France could be deterred from espousing the
+cause of Orange, she saw no necessity for her own intervention. If the
+Inquisition maltreated some of her sailors, others might be relied on
+to effect reprisals and to collect compensation, on their own
+responsibility, without her actually applying the grievance as a
+_casus belli_: it could always be employed to that end, if
+occasion should arise. Requescens died suddenly, a few days before the
+prorogation of the English Parliament in March. Elizabeth dismissed the
+States' envoys, refused all assistance, and threatened open hostility
+if they appealed to France. The Spanish arms were prospering again, and
+as the summer advanced, Orange was reduced to such straits that he
+seriously contemplated a wholesale emigration to the New World, from
+the two States which remained stubborn, Holland and Zeeland.
+
+[Sidenote: 1575-76 The Huguenots and Alençon]
+
+The involved state of French parties probably accounts for Elizabeth's
+action. Since the death of Charles IX., the middle party or
+_Politiques_ had been revived, and with this, for some time, both
+Henry of Navarre and Alençon--now heir presumptive to the French
+throne--were associated. In the autumn of 1575 however Alençon betook
+himself to the Huguenots at Dreux. Being thus openly supported by the
+heir presumptive, the Huguenot position was considerably strengthened.
+Once more the English Queen resolved to employ matrimonial negotiations,
+as a means for keeping others inactive and evading action herself. The
+idea that she should marry Alençon was revived, and found favour at
+least with the Politiques. The French King approved. In May 1576, a
+peace was patched up which promised to give neither party undue
+ascendancy. The great danger of the winter months--that Alençon and the
+Huguenots would make common cause with the Netherlanders--had passed;
+and Elizabeth thought she could now afford to decline both the marriage
+and the entreaties of the revolted States.
+
+[Sidenote: 1576 The States and Don John]
+
+But the impending collapse of the Hollanders was averted. Before a
+successor to Requescens arrived, the Spanish troops, whose pay was
+heavily in arrear, mutinied, took the law into their own hands,
+pillaged in the States which had submitted, and finally perpetrated the
+sack of Antwerp, known as "the Spanish Fury," when some thousands of
+the inhabitants were wantonly slaughtered. The result was that the
+States General, meeting at Ghent, were so alarmed and angered that all
+the Provinces again united and by the Pacification of Ghent, resolved
+unanimously to demand the total withdrawal of the Spanish troops before
+they would admit the new Governor, Don John of Austria, Philip's
+illegitimate brother, the victor of Lepanto. Vehemently Catholic as
+were the Southern Provinces, they were even ready to demand freedom of
+worship for the Protestants, for the sake of political unity in the
+face of the Spaniard.
+
+[Sidenote: Attitude of Elizabeth]
+
+Don John's military reputation stood exceedingly high; he was known to
+entertain very ambitious ideas; his brother was gloomily jealous of him.
+It was more than suspected that in his own mind Don John wished to
+invade England, raise the Catholics, marry Mary, set her on the throne,
+and from that vantage ground secure the erection of the Netherlands
+into a separate kingdom for himself. It was Elizabeth's policy to
+retain the good-will of Philip, who would certainly hold Don John in
+check, unless she provoked him beyond endurance. Therefore, while she
+was ready to lend money but no troops to the States, it was on
+condition that they would yield on the question of religion; so that
+she could impress upon Philip that while she must support them in the
+demands which, after the recent outrages, were obviously reasonable,
+her influence was being exerted to make them in turn submit to what she
+did and some of them did not consider reasonable terms.
+
+[Sidenote: The Political Kaleidoscope]
+
+When the new year (1577) opened, Don John saw nothing for it but to
+accede to the bulk of the States' demands, reserving the question of
+freedom of worship for Philip. The Catholic Provinces accepted the
+compromise, and the others had to follow suit. The new Governor was
+admitted into the Netherlands. Elizabeth sent to Spain a new Ambassador,
+Sir John Smith, to demand again that the Inquisition should recognise
+the rights of English sailors. Sir John asserted himself with energy;
+forced his way into the presence of the Grand Inquisitor, when the two
+stormed at each other with picturesque vigour; carried his point with
+the King; and, so far as promises went, returned successful towards the
+end of the year. In the meantime, the Spanish troops were paid and
+withdrawn from the Netherlands: but letters to Spain from Escobeda, Don
+John's Secretary, were intercepted, which showed that the Governor
+meant after all to reconquer the Provinces, though desiring to postpone
+that operation to his schemes in England. Also in the meantime, Alençon
+had been won over to the Guises, and there was a danger of France
+reviving an aggressively Catholic policy. Once more, circumstances were
+forcing Elizabeth towards a Protestant alliance, to counteract the
+schemes not so much of Philip as of Don John.
+
+[Sidenote 1: The Archduke Matthias]
+[Sidenote 2: 1577-78 Diverse Measures]
+
+Yet fortune again enabled Elizabeth to put off the evil day. The
+discovery of Don John's intentions again set the whole of the Provinces
+against him, but they were divided on the question of leadership. The
+Catholics of the south, disliking the sovereignty of Elizabeth or the
+dictatorship of Orange, turned to the Catholic Archduke Matthias,
+brother of the Emperor Rudolf. The Archduke favoured the proposal; and
+though the English Queen began by promising help in men and money,
+before the year was out she had made up her mind that Matthias must
+look after his own affairs, and that she could afford to continue an
+interested spectator. Nor did her views change materially when, in
+January 1578, Don John--having reassembled a number of the recently
+withdrawn troops--moved suddenly against the forces of the Southern
+States and shattered them at Gemblours (January 29th). She did indeed
+send Orange some money, and promised to increase the loan, but declined
+to do more. Her public policy, however, had not prevented her from
+privately sanctioning, in November 1577, the departure of Francis Drake
+on that famous voyage, wherein he circumnavigated the globe, and
+incidentally wrought much detriment to Spain. Of that voyage, which
+reached its triumphant conclusion almost three years later, in
+September 1580, we shall hear more in another chapter.
+
+[Sidenote: 1578 Mendoza]
+
+Since the expulsion of Don Guerau de Espes there had been no regular
+Spanish Ambassador in England. Now, in accordance with the arrangements
+effected by Sir John Smith, the complete restoration of friendly relations
+was to be sealed by accrediting Don Bernardino de Mendoza to England. In
+March Mendoza arrived. The English Council was as usual much more inclined
+to war than its mistress. But the Ambassador's instructions were entirely
+conciliatory. As concerned the Netherlands, Philip could not give way on
+the point of allowing religious freedom--for which Elizabeth cared nothing
+--but he would concede all the political demands, even to the withdrawal of
+Don John in favour of a substitute less dangerous to England.
+
+[Sidenote: Orange and Alençon]
+
+Elizabeth would have been satisfied; but the Protestant provinces were as
+resolute as Philip on the religious question. The plan of calling in the
+Archduke had collapsed at Gemblours; but the sovereignty of the Netherlands
+was still a bait which would tempt Alençon from the Guise alliance; though
+no one could tell what he might ultimately do if he were received by the
+States, even that desperate remedy was preferable to submission.
+Nevertheless, Elizabeth still tried, in despite of her ministers, to force
+Orange's hand by the singular process of with-holding the bonds by which
+her last loan to him had been effected. Walsingham, who was sent to
+overcome Orange's scruples was so disgusted that he thought of giving up
+his position; naturally his negotiation was a failure. It was announced
+that Orange would wait no longer and that the arrangement with Alençon
+would be carried through. Also at this time Don John met with a defeat at
+Rymenant, mainly owing to the obstinate valour of a battalion of English
+volunteers commanded by Sir John Norreys. For a moment the Queen was
+carried away, but immediately reverted to her antagonistic attitude. All
+she could be induced to do was at last to issue the bonds. The old trick,
+which had so often served her purpose of suspending action, was to do duty
+once more. The matrimonial shadow was more alluring to Alençon than the
+Netherland bone.
+
+[Sidenote: Sept. Death of Don John]
+
+The persistence of happy accidents--of unforeseen events which saved
+Elizabeth from the disasters which her ministers anticipated, giving
+her tortuous policy an undeserved success and thereby in the eyes of
+some historians discrediting the more honourable and straightforward
+courses which Walsingham and Burghley habitually advocated--is one of
+the most remarkable features of Elizabeth's reign. Her good fortune did
+not desert her now. Don John died suddenly, not without the usual
+suspicions of foul play. The peculiar danger of his association with
+Mary Stewart, disappeared with his death. No wild schemes were likely
+to be conceived or encouraged by his successor Alexander of Parma, one
+of the ablest statesmen and probably the ablest soldier of the day.
+Moreover about the same time, King Sebastian of Portugal was killed--as
+was also the English adventurer Thomas Stukely who had been diverted
+from invading Ireland to take part in this affair--in an expedition
+against Morocco. Dying without issue, Sebastian was succeeded by his
+great-uncle Henry, a cardinal whose Orders precluded the possibility of
+his leaving an heir. Philip of Spain therefore was now, through his
+mother, claimant to the position of heir apparent. [Footnote Philip
+claimed as the son of Isabella, sister of Henry and of John III.,
+Sebastian's grandfather. The prior right however really lay with the
+daughters of their younger brother Edward, of whom the elder, Katharine,
+was married to John of Braganza and the younger, Mary, to Alexander of
+Parma. Parma's title was invalidated by Braganza's, and Braganza did
+not push his own claim. Don Antonio of Crato who did come forward as a
+pretender was himself the illegitimate son of another brother, Luis.
+Thus when, later on, Philip claimed the English throne as the lineal
+descendant of John of Gaunt, his title, such as it was, was inferior to
+that of either Braganza or Parma.] The prospect of this further
+accession to his dominions, and increase of his power and resources,
+made it more than ever necessary for France to hold aloof from any
+alliance with him, in which she must play an entirely subordinate part,
+and to court the friendship of England. The stars in their courses
+seemed to fight for Elizabeth's policy.
+
+Down to this point the course of events in Ireland does not appear as
+materially influencing English policy; and it has seemed better, for
+the sake of clearness to defer its history for consecutive treatment.
+To this we now turn in the chapter following; after which Irish affairs
+will be dealt with in the regular progress of the general narrative.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+ELIZABETH (v), 1558-78-IRISH AND ENGLISH
+
+[Sidenote: 1549-58]
+
+The Deputyship of Bellingham in Ireland, which terminated just before
+the fall of Somerset, left the Irish chiefs in a state of angry
+discontent. As inaugurating a system of severe but consistent
+government, Bellingham's rule might have been valuable; as matters
+stood, no doubt he gave the Irish what is commonly called a lesson--
+from which nothing was learnt. If the Geraldines--Kildare and Desmond--
+of the South, the O'Neills and O'Donnells of the North, the Burkes and
+O'Briens in the West, had possessed the slightest capacity for working
+in harmony, they might have raised such a revolt as the incapable and
+distracted governments of Edward VI. and Mary could not have coped with.
+Ormonde however served as a permanent check on the Geraldines, while
+the young Kildare had neither the inclination nor the opportunity to
+head rebellions: and the great septs were far too ready to turn on each
+other for any effective combination. Leix and Offally, the territories
+of O'More and O'Connor [Footnote: See p. 201, _ante_.] on the west
+of the Pale, were absorbed into it and partially colonised, becoming
+King's County and Queen's County; and when Elizabeth ascended the
+throne, the extent of the Pale corresponded roughly, though not
+accurately, to the Province of Leinster.
+
+[Sidenote: 1558]
+
+In matters ecclesiastical, religion officially swung with the pendulum
+in England. Church lands were distributed among the great men under
+Edward, and within the Pale the clergy generally conformed after a
+fashion, reverting again under Mary. Outside the Pale no great
+attention was paid to the orders of the Government. On Elizabeth's
+accession, the Act of Uniformity was enforced and some bishops resigned.
+But the new Queen had plenty to occupy her in England, and in Ireland
+was fain to take the least troublesome course, giving diplomatic sops
+to the chiefs and spending as little money as possible: Sussex, who was
+Deputy when Mary died, being continued in that office.
+
+[Sidenote: Shan O'Neill]
+
+The policy was destined to prove difficult. The two great chiefs of
+Ulster, O'Donnell of Tyrconnel in the West, and O'Neil, created Earl of
+Tyrone, in the East, had been more or less successfully conciliated by
+the policy of St. Leger. But Tyrone had a numerous progeny, and the
+laws of legitimacy were at a discount. The English elected to recognise
+as his heir a favourite son, Matthew, who certainly was not legitimate.
+But another legitimate son, Shan or Shane, a man of great if erratic
+abilities, declined to submit to this arrangement when he grew up.
+Matthew was killed in a brawl, leaving a young son to claim the
+succession. Thereupon Shan virtually deposed his father, and in
+accordance with ancient practice was elected "The O'Neill," head of the
+clan which claimed that their chiefs were the old-time Kings of Ulster:
+ignoring the choice of the English Government, and scorning the earldom
+bestowed by them. Next, no doubt with a view to alliance, Shan married
+O'Donnell's sister; but when he found that the minor chiefs were
+disposed to attach themselves rather to him than to O'Donnell, he
+decided to adopt the policy of breaking his rival in Ulster, as
+preferable to alliance with him; and his maltreatment of his wife very
+soon resulted in hostilities.
+
+[Sidenote: The Scots of Antrim]
+
+Now in Antrim there was a considerable colony of Scots from the Islands,
+whose chief was James M'Connell. Also, a sister of the Earl of Argyle,
+curiously referred to in the records as the Countess of Argyle, was the
+wife of O'Donnell. The Antrim Scots were supposed to be in alliance
+with O'Donnell; whom however Shan's proceedings were now causing to
+seek English friendship, whereas the Scots were antagonistic to
+Elizabeth, holding that their own Queen Mary had the better title to
+the English throne. So Shan got rid of his O'Donnell wife, and married
+the sister of James M'Connell by way of cementing a union with the
+Scots; but then proceeded to write to Argyle, suggesting that he should
+get rid of the M'Connell wife in turn, and that the Countess should be
+transferred from O'Donnell to himself, on the assumption that this
+would give him an equal hold on the Antrim Scots. Whereby he merely
+enraged the Scots and disgusted Argyle. However, a short time
+afterwards, Shan raided Tyrconnel's country, and carried off the chief
+and his wife; who seems to have been fascinated by her captor, and
+willingly became his consort, irregular as the conditions were.
+M'Connell was somehow outwardly pacified despite the insult to his
+sister; but the bad blood engendered took effect in due time.
+
+[Sidenote: 1560-61 Shan and the Government]
+
+Before the overthrow of Tyrconnel, O'Neill was already becoming a
+serious source of alarm to the English. It is the fact that a
+considerable number of farmers migrated from the Pale into Ulster,
+feeling greater security under the aegis of O'Neill than under English
+law; which did little to protect them, while the English soldiery,
+badly disciplined and badly maintained, were in effect a serious
+element of disorder. O'Neill, cited to appear in England, wrote a
+letter to Elizabeth in which he dwelt with some complacency on this
+testimony to his own superior government, besides arguing very
+conclusively in favour of his own claim to recognition as head of the
+O'Neills. But he evaded the journey to London, and made his raid on
+Tyrconnel instead.
+
+That exploit made Shan more completely master of Ulster than ever. The
+result was that in the summer of 1561, Sussex marched into the Northern
+Province. Shan after some preliminary skirmishes surprised his
+rearguard, and would have cut his whole force to pieces but for a
+desperate rally. When Elizabeth learned what had happened, she made up
+her mind that it would be best to concede O'Neill's demands, and induce
+him to visit England, while Sussex was actually trying to drive a
+bargain for his murder. The plot fell through, but Sussex received some
+supplies and was allowed to make another less disastrous expedition
+before Kildare was sent to negotiate with O'Neill on the Queen's behalf.
+The chief stipulated for complete amnesty, a safe-conduct, and the
+payment of his expenses, as a condition of his paying the desired visit.
+
+[Sidenote: 1561-2 Shan in England]
+
+When Shan arrived in London, he made his formal submission, but was
+informed that though he had his safe-conduct for return the date when
+that return would be permitted lay with the Queen. He must wait for his
+rival, young Matthew, to have their claims tried. Meantime Shan, who
+seems to have adopted Henry VIII. as his matrimonial model, suggested
+that he should be given an English wife, and that he would manage the
+government of Ulster admirably in Elizabeth's interests, as soon as he
+went back--with the Earldom. But as time went on he learned that
+Matthew was being intentionally kept in Ireland. Then another of
+O'Neill's kinsmen, Tirlogh, succeeded in murdering Matthew, while Shan
+in England was vowing that his great desire was to be instructed in
+English ways by Dudley (not yet Earl of Leicester). Now he remarked on
+the necessity for his return to keep his kinsmen in order. There was a
+good deal of ground for believing that he was in fact the only person
+who could rule Ulster: and after four months (April 1562) he was
+allowed to return, with promises on his part to be a model ruler and on
+the Queen's part a concession of something not far short of sovereignty.
+
+Before the end of the year it was evident enough that Shan's promises
+were not intended to be kept. His murder had been plotted; Sussex had
+certainly endeavoured to entrap him treacherously; his detention in
+England had been technically justified by a distinctly dishonourable
+trick. He did not mean to be tricked again, and if there was duplicity
+in his conduct the English had set the example. He entered into
+correspondence with the Queen's potential enemies on all hands, and
+proceeded to suppress every one in the North whose submission to
+himself was doubtful.
+
+[Sidenote: 1563 Shan's supremacy recognised]
+
+So in the spring, Sussex made another futile raid, after which
+Elizabeth thought it best once more to play at conciliation, and to
+adopt the scheme of formally constituting Ulster, Munster and Connaught
+into Provinces, with O'Neill as President in the north, Clanricarde
+(Burke) or O'Brien in the west, and Desmond or Kildare in the south.
+Shan was to be so completely supreme that he was even to be free to
+make his own Catholic nominee Archbishop of Armagh. An indubitable
+attempt to poison O'Neill gave him a moral advantage, though the
+English authorities indignantly repudiated the perpetrator. Shan was
+content to allow the affair to be hushed up, and established his own
+rule throughout Ulster with a combination of barbarity and real
+administrative ability which to students of Indian History recalls the
+methods and the ethics of Ranjit Singh or Abdurrhaman. Within the Pale,
+the exceedingly corrupt administration of recent years was overhauled
+by Sir Nicholas Arnold; who was no respecter of persons, but outside
+the Pale regarded the Irish--in his own words--as so many "bears and
+bandogs" who were best employed in ravaging and cutting each other's
+throats. And in the south, the Butlers and Geraldines carried out that
+policy with devastatory results. It is to be noted however that Cecil
+found Arnold's views very difficult to stomach. [Footnote: _State
+Papers_, _Ireland_, i., p. 252.]
+
+It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that in spite of Shan's
+peculiar views as to marriage and murder, Ulster under his sway was on
+the whole better off than any other part of Ireland.
+
+[Sidenote: 1565]
+
+In 1565 Mary Stewart married Darnley, in pursuit, as we have seen, of
+an aggressive policy towards England. In this year, O'Neill was hand in
+glove with Sir Thomas Stukely, a gentleman-adventurer of Devon, who
+made the harbours of the west coast his base for piratical cruises in
+search of treasure-ships. Englishmen at home were devising paper
+schemes for an ideal government in the sister island, but something
+very different was required if Shan was not to become strong enough to
+endanger the very existence of English dominion there. There was
+considerable risk that Argyle, in disgust at Elizabeth's double-dealing,
+would sink his differences with the Irish Chief, and give him the
+active support of the Antrim Scots. Meantime, though Shan himself was
+careful to render plausible explanations of his very obvious activity,
+Sir Henry Sidney, a man of very different calibre from Sussex, was
+appointed to succeed that nobleman in the Deputyship.
+
+[Sidenote: 1566 Sir Henry Sidney Deputy]
+
+Sidney had been in Ireland before and knew the conditions. He said
+plain terms that he would not accept office, unless he could have the
+troops and the money needed to compel the success of the military
+movements of which he foresaw the necessity if order was to be secured.
+He required in fact that the Government should possess actually the
+sanction of superior force. The experiment of constituting Munster a
+Presidency was to be tried, with Ormonde, Desmond, and the other
+southern lords as a Council. But before he arrived early in 1566,
+Argyle and O'Neill had already made their new pact, and a crisis seemed
+to be at hand.
+
+Sidney found the Pale in a state of anarchy, Munster half devastated by
+the Ormonde and Desmond feud, and O'Neill supreme in the north.
+Summoned to meet Sidney in the Pale, Shan replied in effect that he
+knew too much about the traps previously laid for him to run any risks.
+Sidney employed Stukely to negotiate. Stukely reported that Shan was
+defiant. Sidney wrote urgently both to Leicester and to Cecil that he
+mush put O'Neill down and must have money to pay his troops and keep
+them paid. The Council were willing enough, but Elizabeth kept the
+purse-strings tight. Moreover she was pleased to rate Sidney for
+stoutly refusing to settle the Ormonde-Desmond dispute in favour of the
+former; the Deputy declaring that the questions between them involved
+complicated points of laws which could only be properly dealt with by
+lawyers. In April, she sent him half the money he demanded, and
+dispatched her kinsman, Knollys, to oversee Sidney. Knollys, who was
+given to speaking his mind, promptly told her that Sidney was entirely
+in the right and ought to have a free hand. An immediate aggressive
+campaign against Shan was necessary, especially as the chief was now in
+correspondence with Charles IX. of France. This was at the time when a
+general suspicion was prevalent that a universal Catholic League for
+the destruction of Protestantism was being formed; and Shan wrote as an
+enthusiastic Catholic.
+
+[Sidenote: 1567 End of O'Neill]
+
+Under extreme pressure then, Elizabeth at last increased the supplies.
+Unluckily for O'Neill, Argyle's friendship was cooling under pressure
+from Murray, and the Antrim M'Connells, in spite of recent marriages,
+did not forget the old feud: while Desmond, encouraged by Sidney's
+attitude, was deaf to his appeals. Sidney swept Ulster, establishing a
+strong garrison in a new and well-chosen fort which in course of time
+developed into Londonderry, and restored Tyrconnel in the north-west.
+Sidney himself was seriously hampered by constant reproofs from
+Elizabeth; but O'Neill was now grievously harassed by the O'Donnells on
+one side, the M'Connells on another, and by the garrison at Derry.
+Renewed attempts to obtain aid from the Guises, in February (1567),
+failed; and though Derry had to be abandoned owing to an outbreak of
+plague, the death of the commandant, and a fire which destroyed the
+buildings, O'Neill's fate was already sealed. He marched to meet an
+incursion of the O'Donnells, but was completely overthrown, and had to
+flee for his life to seek the ambiguous hospitality of the M'Connells
+of Antrim; who received him for the sake of subsisting relationships.
+But the situation was too volcanic. Insults passed over the wine-cup,
+knives were drawn, and O'Neill was slaughtered. So perished the most
+formidable challenger of the English rule who had appeared in Ireland;
+for his one predecessor of equal ability, the old Kildare, had never
+schemed for the creation of an independent Nation.
+
+The death of O'Neill was followed by a brief period of rest from
+perpetual warfare: but the peace was not to last for long.
+
+[Sidenote: Irish Catholicism in politics]
+
+From the days of Elizabeth until now the antagonism of the Irish to
+protestantism has been one of the two great sources of disaffection. As
+the English power extended, efforts were made to carry out beyond the
+Pale the principles of the Act of Uniformity, and the cause of
+Rebellion became more and more identified with the cause of Catholicism.
+Before the fall of Shan, Queen and Deputies had been disposed to shut
+their eyes to the open disregard of the Act all over the country. Now,
+recalcitrant chiefs began to make the preservation of religion the
+ground of appeal for foreign assistance to cast off the yoke of England.
+Curiously, however, neither they nor the Catholic clergy grasped the
+political situation. Irish nationality, _per se_, was profoundly
+uninteresting to foreign potentates. In England, Scotland, and Ireland,
+the cause of Catholicism was the cause of Mary Stewart. Unless in
+support of her, it was impracticable for either France or Spain to move
+against Elizabeth. The murder of Darnley, three months before O'Neill's
+fall, destroyed the Queen of Scots' chances, but only for a time. Shan
+himself had been acute enough to seek Mary's friendship; but now the
+disaffected prelates and chiefs will be found hoping vainly to place
+themselves under the dominion of a foreign power, in preference even to
+a Catholicised English supremacy. Any such scheme would have destroyed
+the relations between the English Catholics and their friends abroad.
+
+Of the second great disturbing factor, the Land, we have hitherto heard
+little; but now was about to commence the era of attempts at forcibly
+establishing an English landed proprietary, displacing the native
+owners; on the hypothesis that they would be able to keep the
+population in subjection.
+
+[Sidenote: 1568 The Colonisation of Munster]
+
+The first schemes would probably have been beneficial had they been
+practicable, as they involved nothing in the shape of forfeiture. But
+they would have been costly, while offering no temptations to
+Adventurers. In 1568 a scheme was devised which tempted the Adventurers,
+made little demand on the exchequer--Elizabeth always argued that
+Ireland ought to pay for itself--but involved forfeitures on a large
+scale.
+
+Desmond, who had declined alliance with O'Neill, was summoned to answer
+charges of treason. He surrendered at once, and was sent to London.
+Then he tried to escape, and was only allowed to purchase freedom from
+close imprisonment or worse by surrendering all his lands to the Queen
+to receive back so much as she chose to grant. A group of Devonshire
+gentlemen proposed that the titles of other landowners in Munster
+should be investigated, and that all the lands held under
+unsatisfactory titles should be handed over to themselves. They would
+occupy and rule at their own charges, and compel complete submission by
+the strong hand; a process by which it is quite evident that they
+intended practical extermination of the Irish. The business was started
+on Desmond lands; but it was carried to a dangerous point when Sir
+Peter Carew took possession of Butler property--seeing that the loyalty
+of the Ormonde connexion was the one source of Irish support which had
+never been even suspected of failing. There were massacres and
+reprisals; but fortunately when the other Munster chiefs took the
+opportunity to petition Philip of Spain to come and take possession,
+the Butlers still stood firmly to their allegiance.
+
+[Sidenote: 1569 Insurrection in Munster]
+
+An insurrection was headed in 1569 by Fitzmaurice (Desmond's brother);
+some of the English households were wiped out. The O'Neills in Ulster
+and the Burkes in Connaught rose. Ormonde declared plainly that if the
+colonising policy were carried on it would be impossible for him to
+support the government. Sidney ravaged Munster, and left Sir Humphrey
+Gilbert in command behind him for a time: but the actual scheme was
+dropped. There is no evading the fact that the English, who could wax
+hot enough over the cruelties of Spaniards in America or in Holland,
+did without compunction or any sense of inconsistency regard the Irish
+not even as mere human savages but as wild beasts. And many of these
+were men who in any other circumstances were capable of displaying an
+admirable chivalry and a heroic valour. Gilbert was a man full of noble
+ideals, learned, pious, cultivated, valiant, kindly; but if there was a
+chance of killing an Irish man, woman, or child, he took it.
+
+[Sidenote: Ireland and Philip II.]
+
+In England, 1569 was the year of the Northern rebellion. France was
+viewing the Scots Queen's pretensions with increasing lukewarmness, and
+Philip was regarding her with corresponding favour. The Ridolfi plot
+was developing in 1570 and 1571. In brief, at this period Philip's
+disposition towards Elizabeth was becoming definitely, though not
+avowedly, hostile instead of--as hitherto on the whole--friendly. Yet
+he would not accept the Irish invitation to intervene. But he received
+at Madrid, and treated with great favour, the very remarkable
+adventurer Thomas Stukely, already mentioned as a piratical ally of
+Shan O'Neill's. Stukely had been sent over to England to answer for his
+miscellaneous misdeeds; but was--perhaps intentionally--allowed to
+escape to Spain; where he represented himself as an enthusiastic
+Catholic, and the most influential man in Ireland, and bragged hugely
+of the coming conquest of that country, of which he was to become in
+some sort the Prince, with the assistance of Spain. The entertainment
+of Stukely however summed up all that Philip was prepared to do for
+Ireland. By September 1572 he was again seeking Elizabeth's amity.
+
+[Sidenote: Experimental Presidencies]
+
+In the meantime, the experiment of constituting Connaught a Presidency
+had been tried and failed ignominiously. The curse of the English
+Government--a soldiery whose pay was permanently and hugely in arrear,
+who were constantly on the verge of mutiny, and lived virtually by
+pillage--remained unabated; and Sidney, having tried vigorous
+government first and then, lacking the means to maintain it properly,
+extirpation as an alternative, but still without success, clamoured to
+be recalled, and at last got his wish.
+
+Desmond was still detained in England, but the Geraldines in Munster
+had not been crushed either by Sidney or by Gilbert. Despite the
+failure in Connaught, the Presidency plan was tried in the southern
+province, Sir John Perrot being appointed thereto. Perrot blew up
+strongholds, captured and hanged some hundreds of the population, but
+could not lay hold of the chiefs or bring the country into subjection.
+In 1572, Fitzmaurice made his way to Ulster, gathered a force of Scots,
+and came down the Shannon. The President got his chance of a fight, and
+shattered the force: but Elizabeth was dissatisfied with the results of
+an unwonted if still inadequate expenditure, and declared that the
+whole experiment was too costly. A general amnesty and the withdrawal
+of Perrot ended it.
+
+[Sidenote: 1573 Essex (the elder) in Ulster]
+
+Yet experiments continued to be the order of the day. The one expedient
+not attempted was a government supported by obviously efficient
+physical force, but aiming at the prosperity of the people, and not
+running violently counter to the customs and the prejudices of
+centuries. Another inefficient colony was started in Ulster, which only
+excited popular animosity; Desmond was at last in 1573 allowed to
+return to Munster with many promises on his part, from which, like
+O'Neill before him, he considered himself absolved by a breach of faith
+towards him. Finally Walter Devereux, Earl of Essex, was allowed to try
+the biggest and perhaps the most disastrous of the whole series of
+experiments; being virtually granted authority to invade Ulster with a
+free hand to make laws and generally to do what seemed to him good
+there--all at his own cost--save only for some provisions safe-guarding
+the royal prerogative. He went with excellent intentions, romantic
+ideals, a respectable force, and a sublime ignorance of facts. The
+Irishmen, mindful of the Munster colonisation, tricked him with an
+apparently warm welcome at Carrickfergus, permitted him to congratulate
+himself on roseate prospects, and then at one swoop cleared the
+district of provisions. They professed to owe allegiance to the Queen,
+but repudiated the claims of a private adventurer. His own troops were
+volunteers, with no mind for hardships and no prospects of plunder. In
+three months he found his dreams hopelessly dissipated, and himself
+almost deserted, with no remotest chance of carrying out the Utopian
+projects with which he had started.
+
+[Sidenote: 1574]
+
+The volunteer method having failed thus ignominiously, Essex was made
+officially Governor of Ulster, and supplied with troops; for the
+O'Neills were now threatening, and the Deputy, Fitzwilliam, was
+inactive. Tirlogh O'Neill and his kinsman Sir Brian were very promptly
+brought to submission. In the south Desmond, between threats and
+promises, was persuaded to resume an air of loyalty. Essex however had
+learned to adopt the common view of the Irish in its extremest form. By
+a ruse which anywhere else he would have counted a piece of the
+blackest treachery, he seized Sir Brian and his wife and cut up their
+following when they were actually his own guests; and followed up the
+performance by a hideous and wanton massacre of women and children and
+decrepit men at Rathlin off the Antrim Coast; of which things he wrote
+with a perfect complacency, and for which he was highly applauded.
+Thereafter he returned to England.
+
+[Sidenote: 1576 Sidney's second Deputyship]
+
+Once more, Sidney was persuaded to accept the Deputyship. It is
+probable that his honest desire was to govern firmly and justly,
+although, when denied the means for steady rule he had fallen back on
+extirpation. At any rate the Irish themselves, genuinely or not, hailed
+his return with apparent enthusiasm. The chiefs hoped that after so
+many experiments had collapsed, the pristine plan of making them
+responsible for their own districts and leaving them alone might be
+tried again. But no English statesman could divest himself of the idea
+that no government was worth having unless it was conducted by English
+methods. Sidney insisted on reconstituting the Presidencies of
+Connaught and Munster, Malby taking charge of the former and Drury of
+the latter. Naturally enough, and with plenty of excuse, they set about
+hangings on an extensive scale, and where they met with resistance gave
+no quarter. English methods, as usual in Ireland, promptly degenerated
+into massacre and devastation. Sidney left the country again two years
+after he had returned to it--and left it as ripe for rebellion as it
+had ever been.
+
+And the omens abroad were dangerous. For the Jesuit Sanders was seeking
+to stir up a Catholic crusade, Stukely was in high favour at Madrid,
+and the ablest of the Geraldines, James Fitzmaurice, was in Spain.
+Moreover Philip's indisposition to interfere was on the verge of being
+seriously disturbed by Drake's great expedition, which had sailed from
+England in 1577.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+ELIZABETH (vi), 1578-83--THE PAPAL ATTACK
+
+[Sidenote: Union of Utrecht 1579]
+
+The presence of Alexander of Parma in the Netherlands soon resulted in
+a definite division between the seven northern and the ten southern
+States. The latter, Catholic themselves, were not inclined to hold out
+for religious liberty. The rest, being Protestant, and realising that,
+while William of Orange lived, two at least, Holland and Zealand, would
+hold out to the very death, resolved to stand together; combining,
+under the title of the United Provinces, in the Union of Utrecht at the
+beginning of 1579. Their strength lay in their command of the estuaries
+of the Scheldt and the Meuse.
+
+[Sidenote: 1578 The Matrimonial juggle]
+
+Elizabeth's great object now was to keep Alençon (otherwise known as
+Anjou, the title held by Henry III. before he ascended the throne; also
+very commonly as "Monsieur") dancing in obedience to her manipulation
+of the wires. In this, as in all the previous matrimonial negotiations,
+not one of her ministers seems ever to have grasped her policy; the
+policy, that is, which modern historians attribute to her: a policy of
+which the successful issue really depended on its never being
+suspected; which was possible only to one who was entire mistress of
+all arts of dissimulation; which did in fact succeed completely every
+time she applied it; a policy however of which no statesman could have
+dared to recommend the risk. This was, in brief, to make the whole
+world including her ministers believe that she really intended to marry,
+to keep that conviction alive over a protracted period of time, and yet
+to secure a loop-hole for escape at the last moment. She had played the
+farce for years with the Archduke Charles; she had played it with Henry
+of Anjou; she had already played it with Alençon once; yet every time
+she started it afresh, potentates and ambassadors, her own ministers,
+and the wooer she selected, took the thing seriously, played into her
+hands, and were cajoled by her boundless histrionic ingenuity. Either
+she treated the world to a series of successful impositions, carried
+through, unaided and unsuspected, with the supreme audacity and skill
+of a consummate _comedienne;_ or she was a contemptibly capricious
+woman whose inordinate vacillations invariably took the turn which
+after-events proved to have been the luckiest possible in the
+circumstances. Of these two interpretations, the theory of a deliberate
+policy is the more acceptable, if only because it is inconceivable that
+the habitual indulgence of sheer wanton caprice should never once have
+involved her in some irrevocable blunder, some position from which she
+could not be extricated. Yet history affords no parallel to such
+repeatedly and universally successful dissimulation.
+
+[Sidenote: Alençon's wooing]
+
+The comedy had fairly begun three months before Don John's death. In
+response, as it would seem, to a private invitation, Alençon's envoys
+came over at the end of July to propose the marriage. Monsieur wanted
+the affair settled at once, as he must decide whether he was going to
+help Orange or Don John. After a little formal procrastination,
+Elizabeth had her answer ready. She was quite prepared to receive him
+as a suitor though somewhat hurt by his conduct before; still she could
+not promise to marry any man till they had met, and could really feel
+sure that they would be happily mated. He had better come over and see
+her.
+
+Alençon did not want to come over and see her; but his alternative plan,
+of taking part with Don John, was opportunely spoilt by the Governor's
+death, coupled with the new Spanish prospects opened up by the death of
+the Portuguese King. An alliance with Parma under these conditions was
+not at all the same thing for the French prince as an alliance with the
+ambitious and somewhat Quixotic schemer who was now dead. Elizabeth,
+thus strengthened, added a new condition, that he must withdraw for the
+present from the Netherlands. He could hardly, under the circumstances,
+support Orange against her will, and he obeyed her behest. Then she
+consented to receive another representative on his behalf, but held to
+her declaration that she would settle nothing till she had met Monsieur
+himself in person.
+
+[Sidenote: 1579 Popular hostility]
+
+At the beginning of the year (1579) Alençon's emissary Simier arrived.
+In England however practically every one--except apparently the Queen
+herself--was opposed to the marriage. The traditional animosity to
+France was strong, and had been intensified by the Paris massacre. The
+French Huguenots, for whom there was some sympathy, had no confidence
+in Alençon. The more unpopular the marriage showed itself, the more the
+Queen seemed to incline to it--since the more reasonably she could also
+insist to him on the necessity of delay, that her people might first be
+reconciled to it. Yet however much the Council might dislike it, they
+now felt bound to advise that Monsieur should be allowed to pay his
+visit. In August he arrived, and she could no longer urge the plea that
+she had not seen him. Mendoza, the Spanish ambassador, thought she
+would marry him, that a civil war would follow, and the end would be
+the return of England to Catholicism. On the whole Mendoza was not ill
+pleased.
+
+[Sidenote: Loyalty to the Queen]
+
+Now however capricious and apparently irrational the conduct of the
+Queen might be, however her ministers might resent it, condemn it,
+bewail it to each other, and remonstrate with her, they remained always
+obstinately loyal. We may cynically attribute the fact to their
+consciousness that if they deserted her their doom under her rival
+would be sealed. Were that the true interpretation--were they really
+guided merely by a more or less enlightened self-interest--it is rather
+natural to suppose that some of them would have played a double game
+and secured friends in the other camp, like the Whig and Tory statesmen
+of the early eighteenth century; that they would have managed their own
+affairs so that they could change sides. None of them ever did anything
+of the kind. Whatever the Queen did, they held to their own views,
+advocated them stubbornly, but obeyed their mistress, even when they
+thought her caprices were on the verge of bringing them all to ruin.
+And yet they never seem to have fully realised the extent to which
+their own loyalty was shared by the people at large. Men may surrender
+themselves to such a sentiment, without venturing to count upon its
+influence on others. But Elizabeth reckoned on it in ministers and
+people alike; and her calculation was invariably justified.
+
+[Sidenote: Yea and Nay]
+
+So it was in this instance. What might have happened if she really had
+married Alençon can only be guessed. Short of that, popular loyalty was
+equal to the strain. A passionate pamphlet against the marriage was
+issued by a lawyer named Stubbs. The Council, confident in the real
+strength of the country, urged her to take the bold attitude, place
+herself frankly at the head of European protestantism, and take
+measures at home to make a Catholic rising impossible. They could see
+no alternative but the marriage. She stormed at them, burst into tears,
+vowed that she had expected them all to declare that the marriage would
+be the fulfilment of all their hopes. They replied that since she would
+have it so they would do their best to make the marriage acceptable.
+She had Stubbs and his publisher pilloried, and their right hands
+struck off--on the strength of a most iniquitous misinterpretation of a
+law of Queen Mary's. The victims waved their caps with the hand that
+was left and cried "God save the Queen". The marriage treaty was drawn
+up (November) but a couple of months were to pass before its
+ratification, to quiet the public mind. When the two months were over
+it was still unratified, and the whole negotiation was treated as
+having lapsed. Burghley at the end of January (1580) was falling back
+on the leadership of Protestantism as the only alternative to adopt,
+since France must be regarded as hopelessly alienated.
+
+[Sidenote: The Papal plan of Campaign]
+
+In the meantime the Papal plan of campaign against England--a plan
+which appears to have been matured early in 1579--was well under way.
+The Pope himself could not, and Philip of Spain would not, prepare
+Armadas to bring the recusant island back to the Roman submission. But
+there were other means to be tried than Armadas. Setting aside schemes
+for assassination, there was trouble to be made for Elizabeth in
+Ireland, trouble in Scotland, and trouble in England itself. Ireland
+was ripe for rebellion; a Catholic faction might be reorganised in
+Scotland; missionary zeal and martyrs' crowns might still revolutionise
+sentiment in England. The triple attack was resolved on--war in Ireland,
+diplomacy in Scotland, in England Seminarists from Rheims (whither
+Allen's Douay college had migrated some years before) and Jesuits from
+Rome.
+
+In Ireland we have already seen the scheme taking shape, but scotched
+for the time by Stukely's diversion to Morocco and his death there, in
+1578. In the following summer however, an expedition landed in Kerry,
+with Sanders as Papal Nuncio, and half the island was soon in a blaze.
+There, for some little time, such of the wilder spirits of English
+youth as were not occupied with ventures on the high seas were to find
+ample employment: and though Philip would not make open war, Philip's
+subjects were not restrained from seeking to pay back the blows which
+Drake had been dealing to Spain on the other side of the ocean--the
+report whereof had already found its way to Europe. In Scotland, the
+autumn was not far advanced when young Esmé Stewart, Count D'Aubigny,
+of the House of Lennox, James's cousin, arrived in Scotland to win his
+way into the boy-king's favour and plot the overthrow of Morton and of
+the Preachers. In the summer of 1580, Campian and Parsons began to
+deliver their message to the Catholics of England.
+
+[Sidenote: 1580 Philip annexes Portugal]
+
+In this same summer, the Cardinal-King of Portugal, Sebastian's
+successor, died. Philip's opportunity for annexation had arrived, and
+he seized it, expelling with little difficulty another claimant, Don
+Antonio, prior of Crato, the bastard son of the Cardinal's brother
+Luis; who however for the next ten years hovers through English
+politics as a pretender to be supported or dropped at convenience; used
+as a menace to Philip, much as the enemies of Henry VII. had used
+Perkin Warbeck. Then, in September, the great English seaman was back
+on English shores, in the ship that had sailed round the world--back
+with the spoils of Spain on board.
+
+With this impression in our minds of the leading features of the year
+1580, we can turn first to the detailed record of events in Ireland.
+
+[Sidenote: Ireland: 1579 The Desmond rising]
+
+The Expedition which landed in July at Dingle on the furthest south-
+west coast was small enough; but it brought with it Sanders the
+accredited representative of the Pope, and Fitzmaurice, cousin of
+Desmond. It appealed therefore at once to the Catholics at large and
+the Geraldine connexion in particular. There was no strong or united
+English force in the country; it was the custom of Elizabeth to provide
+her officers with the very minimum of equipment. Desmond at first
+hesitated; but his brother seized an early opportunity to commit him by
+treacherously murdering two English officers and their servants. Half
+Munster was up in arms at once, and the new arrivals made haste to
+fortify Smerwick, in the neighbourhood of Dingle where they had landed.
+It was expected and declared that reinforcements from Spain would soon
+be forth-coming. Malby, the President of Connaught, acted with
+promptitude and energy, marching south with his own troops and some of
+the Burkes who were at feud with the Geraldines. Fortune favoured them;
+Fitzmaurice was slain almost at the outset, and the Papal standard
+captured and sent off to Dublin. Desmond with his immediate following,
+who had not taken part in the engagement, fell back on Ashketyn, near
+Limerick; the rest of the insurgents retired on Smerwick. Drury however,
+advancing from Cork, was less fortunate, his troops being attacked by
+the Irish and very severely handled, so that he was forced to retreat.
+He died soon after.
+
+The vigorous Malby assumed control of the Presidency, marched through
+Desmond's country dealing miscellaneous slaughter and destruction,
+burnt the town at Ashketyn since the castle could not be carried
+without cannon, and then went his way into Connaught. When Malby was
+gone, Desmond sallied forth, marched quietly south to Youghal where
+there was an English colony, sacked it, put the English to the sword,
+and burnt the place. Thence, with increasing musters, he marched upon
+Cork, which however he abstained from attacking. In January the
+insurgents were encouraged by the arrival of some military stores from
+abroad, with promises of further assistance in response to messages
+from Desmond to the King of Spain.
+
+[Sidenote: 1580 Fire and Sword]
+
+Meantime, neither Malby at Athlone nor Pelham in Dublin had sufficient
+troops to take the field in force. Ormonde, dispatched from England to
+take the chief command, had neither money nor material allowed him to
+take the offensive. It was not till March that the Queen was induced to
+send the urgently needed reinforcements, and Admiral Wynter with a
+squadron of ships arrived at the mouth of the Shannon. Ormonde from
+Kilkenny in the Butler country, and Pelham from Dublin, marched in two
+columns converging on Tralee, burning and slaughtering mercilessly
+along the route, sparing none. Then they turned on Carrickfoyle,
+impregnable without artillery, but easily breached by the heavy guns
+landed from Wynter's ships. The garrison was put to the sword. Desmond
+at Ashketyn, having no mind for a like fate, withdrew from it, blowing
+up the castle behind him. But Elizabeth stopped the supplies; the
+English were again forced to inaction, and parties of insurgents went
+marauding over Cork and Kerry, taking their turn of murdering. In June
+the purse-strings were loosened again; Pelham marched into Kerry, and
+only just failed to surprise Desmond and his people, with Sanders, in
+their beds. They escaped however, and Pelham went on to Dingle. Ormonde,
+making his way to the same point, added considerably to the tale of
+burnings and slaughterings. This loyal earl in 1580 accounted for
+"forty-six captains and leaders, with eight notorious traitors and
+male-factors, and four thousand other folk". [Footnote: _Carew
+Papers_.]
+
+[Sidenote: Development of the Rebellion]
+
+The people in despair were beginning to turn against Sanders and the
+Geraldines, though persistently loyal to Desmond himself. But a
+diversion was created by a rising of the Catholics of the Pale. Lord
+Grey de Wilton had just arrived in Dublin as Deputy. He marched against
+the rebels, but the greater part of his force was ambushed and cut to
+pieces in the Wicklow mountains. And on the top of this disaster, the
+long delayed foreign expedition landed at Dingle--Wynter having
+withdrawn--and Smerwick was re-occupied by a force mainly consisting of
+eight hundred Italian and Spanish adventurers. The rebellion seemed to
+be reviving everywhere. Ormonde, again marching into Kerry with four
+thousand men, accomplished nothing. But the murderous work of the
+summer had had effect, and the septs would not openly take the field
+without immediate cash inducements, which were lacking.
+
+[Sidenote: Smerwick: and after]
+
+In October Grey made a fresh start and marched down from Dublin to
+Kerry: in the first week of November, Wynter's fleet reappeared, having
+been held back by stress of weather with the exception of one vessel
+which had been lying off Smerwick for three weeks. The siege now was
+brief enough. On the 9th, the garrison, after a vain attempt to obtain
+terms, surrendered at discretion. The officers were put to ransom; the
+rest were slaughtered; even women were hanged. The dead numbered 600.
+Grey doubtless regarded the measure as a just return for the doings of
+the Inquisition, and the punishment of English sailors as pirates, for
+his retort to the garrison's overtures had been that their presence in
+Ireland was piracy. But the whole business illustrates the sheer
+ruthlessness which characterised both sides, at least where there was a
+technical excuse for denying belligerents' rights to the vanquished.
+
+It was no longer possible for the rebellion to make head; but for the
+next two years a guerrilla warfare was kept up, in which English and
+Irish killed each other without compunction whenever anything in the
+shape of an excuse offered itself. Most of the English honestly
+believed that the only practicable policy was one of extermination, and
+the Irish retaliated in kind. There is nothing so ugly as this history
+in the annals of a people which, outside of Ireland, has shown a unique
+capacity for tempering conquest with justice. The very men whose blood
+boiled, honestly enough, over cruelties to the Indians, adopted to the
+Irish the precise attitude of mind which so horrified them in the
+Spaniards. Elizabeth herself, Burghley, Walsingham, and Ormonde, were
+opposed to the extermination policy; but the bloodshed went on,
+unsystematically instead of systematically. Sanders, wandering a hunted
+fugitive, died in a bog. It was not till 1583 that Desmond himself was
+surprised and slain in his bed. In the meantime, there had been no
+variation in the story. But the exhaustion of ceaseless slaughters and
+ceaseless famines had practically terminated the struggle. Sir John
+Perrot, who became Deputy in 1584, could adopt a conciliatory attitude,
+without fear that his leniency would be immediately abused--though it
+led to his recall and condemnation for treason [Footnote: This sentence
+however was not carried out. It is perhaps worth noting that Sir John
+was reputed to be a natural son of Henry VIII.] three years later.
+
+[Sidenote: Scotland, 1579-81]
+
+The diplomatic campaign in Scotland need not detain us long. Morton as
+Regent governed that country with a strong hand, and at least held down
+its normal turbulence: but while his forcefulness was recognised, he
+went his own way, quite regardless of the enemies he made. Despite his
+religious professions, he treated the preachers with scant courtesy,
+and was unpopular with all parties. D'Aubigny on his arrival promptly
+found his way into the young King's good graces, was made Duke of
+Lennox very shortly, and set himself to conciliate the Puritans by
+professing to have been converted from Popery by James's dialectical
+skill. In England, there was no doubt that he was an agent in the papal
+programme, and Walsingham would have had him removed in the usual
+lawless fashion, failing other means. But Elizabeth, as always, was
+confident of the practical impossibility of making Scotland united for
+any purpose except resistance of an English invasion. She made it
+evident that armed intervention from her need not be looked for; and in
+December (1580) Lennox (D'Aubigny) struck at Morton by accusing him of
+complicity in the murder of Darnley. The agent in this proceeding was
+another James Stewart, an adventurer, now Captain of the Guard, who was
+shortly after advanced to the Earldom of Arran. Morton was imprisoned,
+brought to trial in the following June (1581) and executed. The strong
+hand being gone, the usual chaos supervened. For the time the Papal
+party was uppermost, but Elizabeth's calculations were correct. The
+risk of French intervention was brought nearer, but it was
+counterbalanced partly by the bait of the Alençon marriage, which the
+Queen managed to keep dangling, partly by the fact that many of the men
+who had overthrown Morton were anti-papal, and preferred playing for
+their own hand to encouraging a French ascendancy. By the "Raid of
+Ruthven" in 1582 James was removed from the influence of Lennox, who
+had to leave the country; and in 1583 James Stewart Earl of Arran was
+carrying out a policy which was to make the King himself, with Arran at
+his elbow, the force predominating alike over preachers and nobles.
+
+[Sidenote: England 1580]
+
+We may now revert to England and Elizabeth in 1580. Throughout the
+earlier half of the year, it was as usual the Queen's first object to
+commit herself to nothing, but to persuade Orange that she might yet
+help him, and Alençon that she might yet marry him. But in July, Philip
+was master of Portugal, and the Jesuit campaign was beginning in
+England. In September, Orange's patience was worn out, and the crown of
+the Netherlands was definitely offered to Alençon; within a few days
+Drake and the Pelican were home, and Mendoza was demanding restitution;
+and again a few days later Spanish and Italian adventurers were
+fortifying themselves at Smerwick.
+
+[Sidenote: The Jesuit Mission]
+
+The Papal Bull of Deposition ten years before had stiffened the
+attitude of Government towards the English Catholics, but had neither
+broken down the loyalty of the latter nor led to any serious
+persecution. On this head, the mission of 1580 was the turning point of
+the reign. The moving spirit was Allen, of Douay and Rheims; a man of
+high ability and character who conceived that the recovery of his
+country for the true Church was the highest of all objects for a
+patriot, and one to which all other considerations should give way.
+
+[Sidenote: Campian and Parsons]
+
+It cannot be disputed that the aim of the Mission was to sow disloyalty
+as well as to gain converts, though the allegation that incitement to
+assassinate the Queen was part of the programme is not quite
+conclusively proved. Of the two chief missioners, Parsons and Campian,
+it is at least tolerably certain that the latter, an amiable enthusiast,
+was quite innocent of complicity in any such design. That certainty
+does not apply to Parsons. But the instructions were clearly
+treasonable in character. The Catholics were told that in spite of the
+Bull of Deposition they might profess loyalty to the Queen, but must
+assist in her overthrow if called upon. That is to say that if treason
+were brewing against the _de facto_ Government, it was to be a
+point of conscience and a condition of the Church's approval for all
+Catholics that they should assist that treason. There is nothing about
+that instruction which can fairly be called hypocritical; but _ipso
+facto_, it converted every Catholic, willy nilly, into a potential
+traitor, who if treason arose could only remain loyal under censure of
+the Church. Moreover it was the business of the missioners not only to
+impress on those who were already Catholics this view of their duty;
+but also, by an active propaganda, to increase the number of such
+potential traitors; while it was quite certain that under such
+conditions, converts would be actuated by a zeal which would render
+them doubly dangerous.
+
+For some months the emissaries travelled the country in various
+disguises, shifting their quarters secretly, but in favourable
+districts occasionally appearing quite openly, more or less winked at
+by the authorities. Their immunity made them the more sanguine, but it
+also alarmed the Protestants, and before the end of the year, there was
+a change.
+
+[Sidenote: Walsingham]
+
+Walsingham--a sincere Puritan, a man who never soiled his hands for
+private gain, who by his outspoken opposition to her political double-
+dealing provoked Elizabeth's anger more frequently than any other of
+her many outspoken advisers, of whom more than any other statesman of
+the day it might be said that he loved righteousness and hated
+iniquity--had yet the fault of the Puritan character, a certain
+remorselessness in dealing with the servants of the Scarlet Woman. He
+would have connived at the murder of D'Aubigny; his organisation of
+"Secret Service" was as unscrupulous as Burghley's; and he more than
+any one else approved and fostered the revival of the illegal
+application of torture as a means of extorting information from
+recalcitrant prisoners. In this iniquity, however, it is fair to
+recognise that the rack and the boot were not employed wantonly but, as
+it would seem, honestly: with the single intention of obtaining true
+information for the unravelment of plots which endangered the public
+weal, and only on persons who were known to possess that information.
+
+[Sidenote: 1581 An anti-papal Parliament]
+
+Walsingham then, at the close of 1580, appears to have undertaken the
+conduct of the operations against the emissaries, several of whom were
+promptly captured and put to the torture without result, though one or
+two made haste to change sides to save themselves. The rest showed that
+magnificent constancy which had characterised alike the Carthusians
+under Henry and the Protestants under Mary. In January (1581)
+parliament was called, and passed a very stringent act making it
+treason to proselytise, or to join the Church of Rome; imposing a heavy
+fine as well as imprisonment for celebrating Mass, and a fine of £20
+per month for exemption from attendance at the Anglican ritual. Drastic
+as the measure was, and a complete departure from the comparative
+toleration hitherto prevalent in practice if not altogether in theory,
+the basis of it was quite manifestly the conviction that as a result of
+the mission every Catholic must now be suspect of treason, and every
+convert to Catholicism something more than suspect.
+
+When the parliament had completed its business by voting supplies, it
+was prorogued. Through the spring and the summer the pursuit of the
+Emissaries and the oppression of the Catholics under the new Act went
+on. Campian himself was taken in July, and after some months'
+imprisonment, in the course of which he was racked, was executed for
+treason at the end of the year: his martyrdom, with others, producing
+the usual effect.
+
+[Sidenote: Alençon again]
+
+In the meantime, the acceptance in January of the lordship of the
+Netherlands by Alençon forced Elizabeth to redouble her pretence of
+desiring the furtherance of the Alençon marriage--a pretence through
+which Walsingham alone seems to have penetrated. The French King sent
+over a magnificent embassy in April, which was magnificently received.
+Then Elizabeth suggested that a League would serve every purpose.
+France replied that the League was what it wished for, but the marriage
+was a condition. Everything was discussed and agreed upon--but the
+Queen succeeded in retaining her saving clause; the agreement was
+subject to Alençon and herself being personally satisfied. She was
+still able to hold off, while she had brought France into such a
+position that if war should be declared between England and Spain,
+France must join England. Walsingham was sent off to Paris, with the
+task before him of evading the marriage, avoiding war while entangling
+France in it, and all with a full conviction that his instructions
+would vary from week to week. He believed, and he told her, that France
+would make the League without the marriage, if her sincerity were only
+guaranteed by something more substantial than promises; but that if
+neither the League nor the marriage were completed, she would have
+Spain, France, and Scotland--where Morton had just been executed--all
+turning their arms against her at once. But contrary to all reasonable
+expectation Elizabeth succeeded in avoiding a breach with France and in
+keeping Alençon still dangling: and however Mendoza--who had quite
+failed to obtain any compensation for Drake's expedition--might
+threaten, Philip still refused to declare war openly.
+
+[Sidenote: His visit to England]
+
+The story of the Alençon farce, if it were not unquestionable fact,
+would be almost incredible. Monsieur was some twenty years younger than
+the amorous Queen; in person he was offensive and contemptible; his
+character corresponded to his person, and his intelligence to his
+character. Elizabeth was eight and forty. Yet the man's amazing vanity
+made him a perpetual dupe, while it must have taken all her own vanity
+to persuade the lady that she could play Omphale to his Hercules. Yet
+she did it. In November she had him back in England. She kissed him
+before Walsingham and the French Ambassador, [Footnote: _State Papers,
+Spanish,_ iii., p. 226.] and gave him the ring off her finger,
+declaring that she was going to marry him. But as soon as it came to
+business, she made one fresh demand after another. When concession was
+added to concession, she capped the list by requiring the restoration
+of Calais, an obvious absurdity. Burghley thought the whole thing was
+ended, and was for conciliating Spain by restoring Drake's booty.
+Walsingham would have handed those spoils over to Orange. The Queen did
+neither, but told Alençon that his presence in the Netherlands had now
+become quite necessary to his own honour--which was true--and that with
+a little patience unreasonable people would be pacified, and she would
+still marry him.
+
+[Sidenote: Alençon in the Netherlands]
+
+Thus this most unlucky dupe was once more got out of the country, in
+February (1582), a dupe still; and the United Provinces swore
+allegiance to him under the new title of Duke of Brabant--giving him to
+understand, however, that they accepted him simply as a surety for
+English support. When he was safely out of the country, Elizabeth
+became more emphatic than ever in her declarations that she would marry
+him. After all, however, she was reluctantly compelled to salve her
+lover's wounded feelings by cash subsidies, real and substantial though
+secret.
+
+[Sidenote: Exit Alençon]
+
+At the end of March an attempt was made to assassinate the strong man
+of Holland, William the Silent. He was in fact very dangerously wounded,
+and Elizabeth became alarmed lest a like danger were in store for her.
+Orange recovered, but Parma continued his course of gradual conquest,
+and Alençon bethought him of playing the traitor, seizing the principal
+towns, and handing them over to Spain as a peace-offering. In the
+following January he made the attempt; but the capture succeeded only
+here and there, and at Antwerp, where he himself lay, the _coup_
+failed ignominiously and disastrously. The city got wind of what was
+going to happen; the French troops were admitted, and, being in, found
+themselves in a trap and were cut to pieces. Alençon was deservedly and
+finally ruined, and no one in France or England could pretend any more
+that he was a possible husband. The year after he sank to a dishonoured
+grave, leaving the Huguenot Henry of Navarre heir presumptive to the
+throne of France.
+
+[Sidenote: Scotland]
+
+Before Alençon's disaster, Elizabeth's policy in Scotland had been
+justified by results: the raid of Ruthven had placed the King in the
+hands of the Protestant nobles again, and Lennox was out of the country
+for good. It is probable that from Elizabeth's point of view, it was
+not worth while to attempt to obtain the friendship of an Anglophil
+party, either by force or by bribery. Bribes would have told only just
+for so long as they were accepted as an earnest of more to follow;
+while force would have had its invariable result of uniting Scotland in
+determined resistance. The one thing which would have given reality to
+the overtures perpetually passing between Scotland and the Guises was
+an English attempt to grasp at domination. Elizabeth, with Mary a
+prisoner, had a permanent diplomatic asset in her hands, since she
+could hint a threat of either executing her, or liberating her, or
+surrendering her on terms as might seem most convenient at a given
+crisis. Intrigues which like the marriage projects were never intended
+to be consummated were more effective than either bribery or force--and
+cheaper.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+ELIZABETH (vii), 1583-87--THE END OF QUEEN MARY
+
+
+[Sidenote: 1583 The Throgmorton Conspiracy]
+
+The collapse of Alençon was the precursor of a comprehensive conspiracy.
+Before the Raid of Ruthven (August 1582), the Guise faction in France had
+contemplated a descent on Scotland in conjunction with Lennox's friends
+there, with a view of course to raising England in favour of Mary.
+Alençon's relations with Elizabeth had not made the French King or his
+mother, neither of whom loved the Guises, particularly favourable to the
+scheme. The Raid destroyed the prospects of the definitely Catholic party
+in Scotland; on the other hand, the failure of Alençon affected, though
+only slightly, the objections on the part of King Henry. But any enterprise
+against England would have to take a somewhat different form. In May, Guise
+was planning a fresh scheme of assassination and invasion; [Footnote:
+_State Papers, Spanish_, iii., pp. 464, 479.] while as against the
+Guise intrigues still going on in Scotland, Elizabeth at the suggestion of
+the French ambassador was again proposing diplomatically to release Mary
+[Footnote: _Ibid_., p. 465.]--on terms.
+
+[Sidenote: Sanguine Catholic forecast]
+
+The English refugees and the Seminarists suffered from the same sanguine
+conviction that two-thirds of the country was thirsting to throw off the
+hated yoke of the existing Government, by which Jacobite agents were
+eternally possessed in the first half of the eighteenth century; and with a
+good deal less reason. For whereas the House of Hanover had no enthusiastic
+adherents, while the House of Stuart had many, and the Whig politicians
+were for the most part ready to transfer themselves to the other side if
+the other side should look like winning: at this time, the most energetic
+portion of the population, gentry and commons, including practically all
+who had practised the art of war by land or sea, in the Low Countries, in
+Ireland, on the Spanish Main and in Spanish waters, were fierily
+Protestant, and the Ministers, nearly all irrevocably bound to the Queen,
+were singularly prompt and alert men of action. Enthusiasts there were on
+the other side, but they were few. Yet in their prolific imaginations, the
+enthusiasts multiplied their own numbers pathetically, and believed
+passionately in phantom hosts only waiting for the word to draw the sword,
+or at least the dagger, in the sacred cause.
+
+Neither the Spaniards nor the Guises appear ever to have allowed themselves
+to accept unreservedly the Churchmen's estimate of the state of feeling in
+England; but the Spanish Ambassadors, one after another, and Mendoza
+certainly not the least, gave more credence to these impressions than they
+deserved, placing far too high a value on the assurances of a very small
+number of the nobility. It is probable also that the Jesuits greatly
+exaggerated the exciting effect of the martyrdom of Campian and his
+associates; for these bore no sort of comparison with the burnings of
+Mary's reign, of which every man nearing forty years of age was old enough
+to have a tolerably vivid personal recollection. At any rate the advices of
+Mendoza went far to confirm the declarations of Allen that a determined
+Catholic rising might be relied on, in case of an invasion which should
+have for its object the substitution of Mary for Elizabeth and the
+restoration of the old Religion.
+
+[Sidenote: Divided Counsels]
+
+The counsels however of the plotters were divided. The priests would have
+kept the French out of the affair altogether. Philip was as reluctant as
+ever to take an English war upon his shoulders until he had completed the
+subjugation of the Netherlands. Mendoza, recognising that Guise was not
+France--for now as always, Spain could not afford to let France dominate
+England--was willing enough that Guise should head an expedition in which
+Frenchmen should otherwise play no more than an equal part; on the
+hypothesis that, when the revolution was accomplished, circumstances would
+compel the new regime to dependence on Spain. All the parties--Guise,
+Philip, Allen--were prepared to yield unofficial sanction to the
+simplification of the problem by assassination. Even when the different
+interests in the scheme had been compromised, prompt action was obviously
+essential if the English Government, with its vast network of spies and
+secret agents, was not to get wind of the plot. Promptitude however was the
+one thing of which Philip was constitutionally incapable, and Guise was
+obliged to consent to wait till the following spring.
+
+[Sidenote: The plot discovered]
+
+As a natural result, an active member of the conspiracy, Francis
+Throgmorton, was suddenly pounced upon in his house in London. He succeeded
+in conveying sundry important documents to Mendoza, but lists of the
+English conspirators and other conclusively incriminating documents were
+found. The rack did the rest. The unhappy man endured through the first
+application: the second conquered him. He told the whole story--possibly
+more than the truth, though that is hardly probable; but of course the
+persons incriminated denied complicity, and there was in some cases no
+other evidence against them, while the confessions of a victim under
+torture are--biased.
+
+The main facts at any rate were indisputable--the plan of a Guise invasion,
+under Spanish auspices, with the complicity of a number of English
+Catholics, as well as of Mendoza. The presumption that Mary was cognisant
+of it was supported by Throgmorton's confession, but such presumptions and
+such evidence fall short of being absolutely conclusive. [Footnote:
+Mendoza's letters of this period (_State Papers, Spanish,_ iii.)
+implicate Mary _prima facie_: but do not _necessarily_ mean more
+than that her life was endangered by the discoveries.] Under such
+conditions however, grave and well founded suspicion was enough to justify
+the severest precautionary measures. Northumberland and Arundel [Footnote:
+Son of the late Duke of Norfolk. The title came through his mother.] were
+thrown into prison; several of the seminarists, already in ward, were
+executed; a number of arrests were made; known Catholics all over the
+country were placed under strict surveillance, and removed from any
+commands they might hold. Mendoza was ordered in uncompromising terms to
+leave the country; fleets were manned, and musters levied. The delay had
+proved fatal to the combined scheme.
+
+The collapse of two assassination plots, not forming part of the
+Throgmorton conspiracy, may be mentioned. One was that of an apparently
+half-crazy person named Somerville, who betrayed himself by bragging; the
+other, the more curious affair of Parry, who got himself introduced into
+the Queen's presence several times, but "let I dare not wait upon I would"
+persistently, till he retired with nothing accomplished; to reappear
+presently.
+
+[Sidenote: 1584 Death of Orange]
+
+Elizabeth escaped; but death was soon to lay his hand on two personages of
+consequence. In May (1584) Alençon decayed out of a world in which accident
+only had allowed him for a time to occupy a very disproportionate share of
+the political stage. A month later, the most heroic figure of a time when
+heroes were rare among politicians was struck down by the hand of a
+fanatic. William of Orange, the head, hand, and heart of the great fight
+for freedom being waged in the Netherlands, was assassinated by a zealot.
+More than ever it seemed that the Hollanders must submit to Philip, unless
+the power of France or the power of England were devoted whole-heartedly to
+their cause. The death of Alençon made Henry of Navarre the actual heir
+presumptive to the throne of France. The King and his mother hated and
+feared Protestantism less than they hated and feared the Guises, and
+publicly acknowledged Navarre as next in succession.
+
+As usual, Elizabeth's advisers would have had her play boldly for
+Protestantism; as usual, she herself was bent on evading the open collision
+with Spain. Her hope was to entangle France in the Netherlands war, and
+herself to strike in--if she must strike in at all--only when her
+intervention would enable her to make her own terms. The French King would
+not be inveigled. If he could have relied on her support, or if the Guises
+had been somewhat less dangerous, he would have been ready to strike; but
+his distrust of the English Queen was too justifiably complete. She was in
+fact saved from the absolute necessity of yielding to the persuasions of
+Burghley and Walsingham only by the dogged tenacity with which the
+Hollanders held out. And while they held out, she still held off.
+
+[Sidenote: The "Association"]
+
+In England however, one fact was more universally and vividly present in
+men's minds than any other. In the eyes of every Protestant, the supreme
+danger still lay in the death or deposition of Elizabeth and the elevation
+of Mary Stewart to the throne. Recent events had brought home the enormous
+risks of assassination; and an Association was formed for the defence of
+the Queen. A declaration was framed, the signatories whereof bound
+themselves by a solemn vow not only to pursue to the death all persons
+concerned in any plot against the Queen, but also any person in favour of
+whose succession to the throne any attempt should be made against her; to
+bar any such person absolutely from the succession; and to treat as
+perjured traitors any of the Association who failed to carry out this
+oath. It was sufficiently obvious that the declaration was aimed directly
+against Mary; but it may be said that the entire nation forthwith enrolled
+itself. And with the bulk of them, the enrolment was anything but an empty
+form.
+
+[Sidenote: 1584-85 The Association ratified]
+
+At the same time, it was difficult to see how the members of the
+Association could carry out their pledge without a breach of the law;
+stronger legal measures for the defence of the Queen and the frustration of
+assassination as a means to secure the inheritance in any particular
+quarter were required. Parliament was summoned at the end of November.
+Ministers wished to have definite provision made for carrying on the
+Government in case of the Queen's murder; but she would go with them no
+further than to sanction the Association, with the entirely laudable
+modification that the person for whose sake the deed was done should not be
+held _ipso facto_ guilty of complicity. The differences of opinion
+were so strong that the session closed without the passing of any Act. In
+January however, an accomplice of that Parry already mentioned [Footnote:
+See p. 330] denounced him for intending to kill the Queen. Threatened with
+the rack, Parry made a full confession, and was hanged, drawn, and
+quartered. At the renewed Session in February, it was enacted that an
+invasion, rebellion, or attempt on the Queen's person, on behalf of any one
+with a claim to the succession, should disqualify such person from the
+succession absolutely, if complicity in the attempt should be proved after
+due enquiry. A commission was appointed to put the Act in execution in the
+event of assassination; and the Association was sanctioned subject to these
+provisions. Subsidies were then voted, and parliament prorogued, after an
+unusually gracious speech from the throne.
+
+[Sidenote: 1585: France: the Holy League]
+
+Meantime the United Provinces, despairing of an English overlordship, were
+again making overtures to France for a Protectorate, or even annexation if
+France should insist on that alternative. Relations between the King and
+Mendoza, now Ambassador at Paris, were so strained that war seemed all but
+inevitable; Henry seems to have been held back only by the well-founded
+fear that Elizabeth was intriguing to draw him into the war and frustrate
+him in carrying it on. But in that fear he declined the offer of the
+Provinces. In March the Guises produced a new development by the open
+announcement of the formation of the Holy League, for the exclusion of
+Navarre from the succession and the enforcement in France of the decrees of
+the Council of Trent.
+
+But for the unconquerable mutual distrust of Henry and Elizabeth, Henry,
+relying on English support, would have bidden defiance to the League; but
+the memories of St. Bartholomew and Elizabeth's character as an intriguer
+made confidence on either side impossible. The great siege of Antwerp
+seemed to be on the verge of terminating in a catastrophe for the revolting
+States, which would enable Parma to co-operate actively with Guise; and
+Henry found himself threatened with excommunication. Before midsummer he
+capitulated, and declared for the League. On the other hand, Navarre was
+not the man to yield, and while Elizabeth again had the chance of playing a
+bold part and espousing his cause heartily, she judged rightly that he was
+strong enough unaided to keep the alliance of the League and the Court very
+thoroughly occupied for some time to come. As a factor in the Netherlands
+question. France was for the present at least a negligible quantity. So she
+left Navarre to fight his own battles in France, while she should dole out
+to the Netherlanders just so much or so little support as might suffice for
+her own ends.
+
+While the French King was surrendering to the League, the Spanish King took
+a step which was intended to frighten England, and had as usual the
+precisely contrary result. He ordered the seizure of all English ships and
+crews on his coasts. The order was carried out; and England instead of
+being cowed was forthwith ablaze with defiance. The effect was promptly
+apparent.
+
+[Sidenote: Agreement with the States]
+
+The United Provinces were again offering themselves to England. In August
+an agreement was arrived at. The Queen was to hold Ostend and Sluys as well
+as Flushing and Brille, as security. She was to send over five thousand men
+with Leicester in command. Some Queen's troops and large numbers of
+volunteers were shipped off in a few days--too late however to save
+Antwerp. Still weeks and even months passed before pay or commanders were
+allowed to follow. But before the year was out, Sidney, Leicester, and
+others had taken up their commands, the last named representing the Queen
+of England.
+
+[Sidenote: Drake's raid]
+
+Already, however, an enterprise still more ominous to Spain was in
+hand--unofficial, like most other great enterprises of the reign. Letters
+of reprisal for the seizure of the English ships had been promptly issued,
+and numbers of privateers were quickly in Spanish waters. Among others,
+Francis Drake fitted out a flotilla, the Queen being an interested
+shareholder in his venture--though even under those conditions he put to
+sea before time, lest counter-orders should arrive. The adventurers sailed
+into Vigo, demanded the release of all English prisoners in the province,
+which was promised, captured some prizes, and betook themselves to the
+ocean, with a view to seizing the Spanish Plate Fleet, which was on its way
+from America. They just missed the Fleet, but proceeded to San Domingo
+(Hayti) which they held to ransom, went on to treat Cartagena in like
+manner, and then being attacked by Yellow Fever, came home with the spoils.
+Whatever fears of a Spanish war might be entertained by Elizabeth herself,
+the English seamen had no qualms as to their own immeasurable superiority,
+and desired nothing better than opportunities for demonstrating it.
+
+[Sidenote 1: Elizabeth's intrigues]
+[Sidenote 2: 1586 Leicester in the Netherlands]
+
+While Drake was thus congenially employed, Elizabeth was carrying on her
+system of inaction and double-dealing. She intrigued--behind the backs of
+her ministers--with Parma, for the surrender to him of the towns she held,
+on terms which from her point of view were quite good enough for the
+Provinces, namely the restitution of their old Constitutional Government
+without religious liberty; although in their own view, religious liberty
+was primarily essential. Leicester complicated matters for her by
+accepting, in flat contradiction to her orders, the formal Governorship of
+the United Provinces: finding in fact that if he was to stay in the
+Netherlands nothing short of that would prevail against the suspicions of
+the Queen's treachery. At home, Burghley himself threatened to resign if
+she would not take a straightforward course. Walsingham wrote to Leicester,
+with his usual bitterness, of the "peril to safety and honour" from her
+behaviour. If she had indeed contemplated the surrender of the cities to
+Parma, that plan was frustrated. Still she stormed at Burghley and
+Walsingham, flatly and with contumely refused to ratify Leicester's
+arrangement, and continued to keep back the pay of the troops. Parma,
+though he too was starved in men and money by Philip, continued inch by
+inch to absorb the revolted territory. All that Leicester succeeded in
+accomplishing by the month of September was the brilliant and entirely
+futile action of Zutphen where in one great hour Philip Sidney won death
+and immortality (September 22nd). Thereafter, inaction and short supplies
+continued to be the rule, on both sides. In November, Leicester was back in
+England, where a fresh situation was developing.
+
+[Sidenote:1585-86 The trapping of Mary]
+
+While the arrangements for armed intervention in the Netherlands were in
+progress, Walsingham had been busy preparing for the last act in the
+Tragedy of Mary Stewart. The Secretary was foremost among those who held
+not only that the captive Queen deserved death, but that her death was more
+necessary to the welfare of England than any other event. Yet it was quite
+certain that Elizabeth would not assent to her death, unless she thought
+she could convince herself and the world that Mary had been actively
+engaged in treasonous plots. Recently however at Tutbury under the charge
+of Sir Amyas Paulet, she had been guarded so strictly that no surreptitious
+correspondence had a chance of passing. Walsingham was confident that if
+the opportunity were given, a treasonous correspondence would be opened. It
+became his object therefore to give her the opportunity in appearance,
+while securing that the channel through which communications passed should
+be a treacherous one, and the whole of what was supposed to be secret
+should be betrayed to him. To this end, the Queen was removed in December
+1585 to Chartley Manor, avowedly in response to her own demands for a less
+rigorously unpleasant residence than Tutbury. The instrument of the plot
+was a young man named Giffard, supposed to be in the inner counsels of the
+Jesuits, actually in Walsingham's service. Through Giffard, communications
+were opened between Mary and a devoted adherent of hers in France named
+Morgan: but every letter passing was deciphered and copied, and the copies
+placed in the Secretary's hands.
+
+[Sidenote: 1586 Babington's plot]
+
+In the late spring, the great Babington conspiracy was set on foot; whereof
+the main features were, that Elizabeth was to be assassinated by a group of
+half a dozen young men who had places at court and occasional access to her
+person. The two leading spirits were Anthony Babington and a Jesuit named
+Ballard. Of course a Catholic rising and a foreign invasion were part of
+the plan, and Mendoza at Paris was playing his own part. Much of the plot
+was confided to Giffard, who reported to Walsingham. The Secretary and his
+Queen were satisfied to let the plot develop while they gathered all the
+threads in their own hands before striking. The correspondence, as copied
+for Walsingham at Chartley, conveyed not details but general intelligence
+of what was on foot to Mary, and approval from Mary to the conspirators. In
+August, Walsingham's moment came: the conspirators were seized; under
+torture or threat of torture they made complete confession. The Scottish
+Queen's rooms at Chartley were ransacked, and all her papers impounded.
+Again, as after the Throgmorton conspiracy, fleets were manned and musters
+called out. In September, the conspirators were tried and executed, and a
+Commission was appointed to try Mary herself in October.
+
+[Sidenote: Trial of Mary]
+
+Mary, as before, denied the jurisdiction, professing readiness to answer
+only before Parliament. She ignored an invitation from the Queen to obtain
+pardon by a confession of guilt. She assented under protest to appear
+before the Court, and there avowed that she had consistently appealed to
+the Powers of Europe to aid her, as she was entitled to do, but flatly
+denied complicity in the Babington plot. The evidence against her was
+entirely that of letters--said to be copied from her correspondence, but
+quite possibly invented in whole or in part--and the confessions of the
+conspirators or of her secretaries, extorted under torture or the fear of
+it. Those letters might even have been concocted to suit Walsingham without
+his actual privity, by the man who had the task of deciphering and copying
+them. Having heard her denial, the Court was transferred from Fotheringay,
+where it first sat, to Westminster: and at Westminster, after further
+examination of the documents and of Mary's secretaries, it unanimously
+pronounced her guilty. The sentence was left for Parliament and the Queen
+to settle. The Parliament which had passed the recent Act for the Defence
+of the Queen was dissolved, and a new one was summoned. On its meeting in
+November, it petitioned for Mary's execution, in accordance with the terms
+of the "Association" which Mary herself had offered to join. The
+publication of the sentence was received with public acclamation: but
+whether the Queen would assent to it remained to be seen.
+
+What then were the guiding considerations, whether of Ethics or of
+Expediency?
+
+[Sidenote: The situation reviewed;]
+
+For eighteen years, Mary had been in Elizabeth's power. Elizabeth had held
+her captive for the sufficient reason--amongst others--that were she
+outside of England and free from restraint, there was nothing to prevent
+her from actively agitating the Catholics of Europe to assert her claim to
+the English throne. No monarch having in his grip a claimant with an
+undeniably strong title to his throne would have allowed that claimant to
+escape from his clutches. Few would have hesitated to concoct some more or
+less plausible pretext for the claimant's death. Half England considered
+that a sufficient pretext was provided by Kirk o' Field; but even assuming
+that Mary's guilt in that matter was legally proved, which it assuredly was
+not, it is sufficiently obvious that the sovereign of England had no
+jurisdiction. Still any monarch situated like Elizabeth would have
+maintained, and probably have acted upon, the right to put the captive to
+death, if proved to be guilty of complicity in treason or subornation
+thereof. Throughout the eighteen years, Elizabeth had deliberately
+abstained from seeking to prove definitely that Mary was an accomplice in
+the various plots on her behalf, while she was no less careful to leave the
+imputation of complicity clinging to her. But now, if the Chartley
+correspondence were genuine, the case was decided. The Court, which cannot
+be said to have been packed, was satisfied. Again it does not appear that
+any monarch, regarding the captive's death as _per se_ desirable,
+would have doubted the sufficiency of the ground for her execution.
+
+But hitherto the English Queen had not regarded her rival's death as _per
+se_ desirable. Conceivably there was an element of generosity in that
+view. Certainly there was the fact that Mary was an anointed Queen, and
+Elizabeth had a most profound respect for the sanctity of crowned
+heads. But apart from this, there was the purely political argument. Mary
+living, and in her power, was an asset. She might always be set at liberty
+on terms. Elizabeth hated parting with a political asset even at a high
+price, for good value. Hitherto she had reckoned the living Mary as worth
+more than Mary's death would be: for Mary might simply be replaced as a
+claimant by James, who was not, like his mother, in her power, and might
+very well think the crown of England worth a Mass.
+
+[Sidenote: its recent developments]
+
+Now however, a considerable change had come over the situation. Failing
+Mary the English Catholics were divided as to the succession. James could
+profess filial affection when it suited him; but for some time past he had
+dropped that attitude; he had just made a convenient compact with England;
+and his mother, making up her mind to his antagonism, had by will
+disinherited him and bequeathed her rights to Philip of Spain, who had a
+clear claim to the blood Royal of England as descending through his mother
+Isabella of Portugal from John of Gaunt. [Footnote: See _Front._
+Philip's cousins, however, the duchesses of Braganza and Parma, daughters
+of Isabella's brother, had a better title--as they also had to the crown of
+Portugal. See p. 303. The exiled Westmorland had a better title still.] The
+accession of Philip would suit neither France, nor the Pope; the accession
+of James would be at best an uncertain gain to the Catholics; and so Mary's
+execution would leave no one claimant for the discontented to rally to. On
+the other hand, if Mary were allowed to live, her restoration by Elizabeth
+would be almost incredible. Her value as an asset had fallen, the security
+given by her death would be much more assured. Political expediency,
+therefore, entirely favoured her death, unless the execution would bring
+France or Scotland against Elizabeth in arms. France protested earnestly,
+but clearly intended nothing stronger than protests, and it very soon
+became equally clear that no serious trouble need be feared from James.
+
+[Sidenote: 1587 The sentences carried out]
+
+Still through December and January Elizabeth continued to vacillate. The
+sentiment as to the sanctity of an anointed Queen still influenced her; yet
+it is sufficiently clear that her real motive for hesitation was the
+desire, not to spare Mary, but herself to escape the odium of sanctioning
+the execution. At last however the warrant was signed, and received the
+Chancellor's seal. Yet she made the Secretary Davison write to Paulet and
+urge him to put Mary to death without waiting for the warrant. Paulet
+flatly refused. She used such terms to Davison that he feared on his own
+responsibility to forward the warrant to the appointed authorities
+Shrewsbury and Kent. He went to Burghley: Burghley summoned privately all
+members of the Council then in London. They agreed to share the
+responsibility for acting without further reference to the Queen. On
+February 4th, the letters were issued. On the 7th, in the afternoon, Kent
+and Shrewsbury presented themselves at Fotheringay and told Mary that on
+the following morning she must die.
+
+[Sidenote: Death of Mary]
+
+It was characteristic of her that during the few hours of life left to her,
+she forgot neither loyal servant nor victorious foe. Her last written words
+were to bid her friends remember both. When the morrow came, she mounted
+the low scaffold in the great hall with unfaltering step, far less moved
+outwardly than the six attendants whom she had chosen for her last moments,
+a splendid tragic figure; every word, every gesture those of a woman
+falsely charged and deeply wronged, majestic in her proud self-control. Was
+it merely a superb, an unparalleled piece of acting? [Footnote: See
+Appendix C. Mr. Froude is dramatically at his best in telling the story;
+but his partisan bias is correspondingly emphasized.] Was it the heroism of
+a martyr? The voice of England had doomed her; she appealed to a higher
+Tribunal than England. King or Queen never faced their end more
+triumphantly. Mary Stewart, royal in the fleeting moments of her
+prosperity, royal throughout the long years of her adversity, was never so
+supremely royal as in her last hour on earth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+ELIZABETH (viii), 1558-87--THE SEAMEN
+
+As before we postponed the story of Ireland, in order to give a consecutive
+narrative down to the point at which the interaction of Irish and English
+affairs became marked and definite, so we have hitherto deferred
+consideration of the most tremendous factor in the Elizabethan evolution,
+the development of the Island nation into the greatest Ocean Power in the
+world. The charter of the Queen of the Seas was drawn by the Tudor seamen,
+and received its seal when the great Armada perished. It is time therefore
+to see how it came about that England was able to challenge and to shatter
+the Power which threatened to dominate the world.
+
+[Sidenote: The New World]
+
+Throughout the Middle Ages, until what we conveniently term, from the
+English point of view, the Tudor Period, the European peoples were
+confined to the European Continent and the adjacent islands. In Asia
+and in Mediterranean Africa the Mohammedan races were a militant
+barrier to expansion. The discoveries of Columbus and Vasco da Gama
+opened new fields, whereof the inheritance was destined to the nations
+who should achieve the dominion of the Ocean. Always important, the
+capacity for maritime development now became the primary condition of
+ultimate greatness. The fact was at the first recognised by Spain and
+Portugal; and an immediate incentive was given to those two Powers, and
+something of a check to the rest, when Pope Alexander VI., with an
+authority as yet unchallenged, divided between them the newly found
+countries and the lands still to be discovered. Acquiescence in the
+award was limited; with the ecclesiastical revolt from Rome it
+vanished; but Spaniards and Portuguese were already in full possession
+of vast territories before their exclusive title to the whole was
+called in question.
+
+[Sidenote: The English Marine before Elizabeth]
+
+Nevertheless, more than before, the eyes of statesmen were turned to
+the sea and the eyes of merchants to the ocean. The nucleus of a Royal
+Navy was formed by Henry VII., and his son very greatly increased the
+number of the King's ships and built many tall vessels. The merchants
+of Bristol and the western ports made daring voyages in hitherto
+unexplored and half-explored waters, as we have seen; while the general
+activity of the mercantile marine was greatly increased.
+
+Prosperity, and as a necessary result, enterprise, suffered a check
+under the disastrous financial conditions prevalent in the reigns of
+Edward and Mary; yet the closing months of Edward's reign had been
+marked by the departure of the expedition of Willoughby and Chancellor
+in search of a North-East Passage; while several voyages to the Guinea
+Coast--whither William Hawkins had sailed in Henry's day--were
+undertaken by John Lock and Towerson, during the reign of Mary. We have
+seen also how the young hot-heads of Protestantism had taken to
+privateering in the Channel, in the name of Patriotism and true
+Religion. That course was reprehensible enough; but it led at least to
+the cultivation of the art of seamanship. On the other hand, that art
+suffered from a curious draw-back. The partial cessation of the
+practice of fasting which accompanied the development of Protestantism
+reacted on the fishing trade, which was the regular school of sailors;
+insomuch that not only Somerset but Cecil in Elizabeth's time, proposed
+ordinances in favour of fasting, simply and solely to check the
+collapse of that industry.
+
+[Sidenote: The Royal Navy]
+
+The Royal Navy developed by Henry VIII. was allowed perforce to decay
+under his two immediate successors. According to the most authentic
+lists, [Footnote: Sir W. Laird Clowes, _The Royal Navy_, vol. i.,
+pp. 419 ff. Throughout this chapter, the figures for tonnage are
+adopted from this work.] in 1548 there were 53 ships in the Fleet, with
+a total tonnage of about 11,000. In 1558 there were but 26, with a
+tonnage of little more than 7,000. During the first half of Elizabeth's
+reign, the numbers were not increased; in 1575 there were but 24
+vessels; but the tonnage had risen 50 per cent., and was within 10 per
+cent, of what Henry had bequeathed to Edward. When the Armada came, in
+the twenty-ninth year of Elizabeth's reign, 34 ships of the Royal Navy
+were engaged, which had a slight superiority [Footnote: Clowes,
+_Royal Navy_, i., p. 561.] of armament over any equal number of
+the enemy's fleet. The aggregate tonnage is given [Footnote:
+_Ibid_., p. 588.] as 15 per cent. more than that of Henry's 53--an
+average per ship of very nearly double. It is clear therefore that the
+policy of strengthening the navy was not neglected; but it took the
+form of acquiring not more ships, but larger and better fighting
+craft. [Footnote: Corbett, _Drake and the Tudor Navy_, i., pp. 370
+ff. It is pointed out (p. 372) that medium sized ships were regarded as
+better weapons in general than those of the largest size.] The
+multiplication of smaller craft would have been a far less effective
+means for achieving the desired end. The Royal Navy, a creation of the
+century, was not supposed to constitute the naval defences of the
+country. It occupied a position among the marine fighting force
+analogous to that of our white troops in India to-day; who form only
+one-third of the army there while reckoned and intended to be its
+mainstay.
+
+[Sidenote: Privateering]
+
+It is possible that in the simple legitimate processes of trade, the
+merchant captains would never have learnt the art of extracting every
+ounce of value out of their ships as fighting machines; certainly they
+would not have developed the very marked supremacy in gunnery which was
+so decisive a feature in the contest with Spain. The mere temptations
+of successful barter would not have sufficed to attract the fiery and
+alert young gentlemen of Devon or elsewhere, and the daring mariners
+who revelled in meeting and overcoming any apparent odds. But the
+circumstances of the time presented to the men, who in other days would
+have found no outlet for their energies but in land-service abroad, the
+opportunity of giving those energies a wider scope in the more exacting
+but also more inspiring service by sea: where richer prizes were to be
+won, with greater risk no doubt, but risk which called every faculty of
+manhood into vigorous play.
+
+[Sidenote: Piracy?]
+
+It has become the common practice to apply the term "piracy" at large
+to the doings of the Elizabethan seamen; but a single category which
+embraces Captain Kidd and Francis Drake ceases to imply any very
+specific condemnation. The suggestion that their acts were on the same
+moral plane is absurd. The "piracy" of the great Elizabethans was
+compatible with a clean conscience. At the present day we rightly
+account a man a murderer who slays another in his own private quarrel;
+but we do not give that name to one who two centuries ago killed his
+man in a duel. We decline to recognise the validity of the reasoning by
+which men justified such acts to themselves; but before the fallacy in
+that reasoning was understood, the degree of guilt involved in acting
+upon it was something very different from what it would be to-day. In
+the same way, a century ago honourable and honest men countenanced
+smuggling; but we do not classify them with footpads. Yet a similar
+confusion of thought is involved in this indiscriminate application of
+the term piracy, unless we emphasize the fact that in this connexion it
+must be divested of its ordinary moral connotation.
+
+Plain sea-robbers there were, not a few, who had no compunction about
+seizing and looting any vessel of any nationality except--for politic
+reasons--their own. The records show clearly enough that there were
+plenty of these, who found harbourage in the Scillies or on the Irish
+Coast, or even on the English Channel, or would lie in wait to cut out
+peaceable traders of any nation almost at the mouth of the Thames. The
+Government took little enough pains to repress them. They did not
+attack their own countrymen, and were a useful source for recruiting:
+but they were indisputably Pirates.
+
+[Sidenote: Volunteers]
+
+Then there were the privateers who had a colour for their depredations;
+professedly volunteers on the side of recognised belligerents. As it
+was considered legitimate for troops of English volunteers to fight for
+the revolted Netherland States, while the Government refused to
+acknowledge that their doing so constituted an act of war against
+Spain; so Englishmen were allowed to man ships and sail under the flag
+of the Huguenots of Rochelle, carrying a commission to wage war on
+"Papist" ships, French, or others regarded as in alliance with them.
+This was not piracy in the accepted sense, though it was not perhaps
+very far removed from it in the majority of cases. The kind of
+fanaticism which, two hundred years after Elizabeth's accession,
+elevated Frederick the Great into "the Protestant Hero" could easily,
+without conscious insincerity, make Religion an excuse for spoiling the
+Papists in Elizabeth's day; and the privateers who looted a Spanish
+vessel or one carrying Spanish treasure or merchandise believed as a
+rule that they were thereby laying up treasure in Heaven as well as on
+Earth, Their Ethics were derived from the Old Testament; and they
+looked upon the "Idolaters" very much as the Israelites were told by
+the prophets to look upon the Philistines, or Amalek, or Ammon.
+
+[Sidenote: Reprisal]
+
+Moreover it must be borne in mind that as concerned the raiding of
+Spanish ships, the Government balanced the injury done against the
+grievances of the British sailors and ships seized in Spanish ports by
+the Inquisition. So long as the Spanish King refused to interfere with
+the jurisdiction of the Holy Office, the English Queen in effect
+refused to interfere with acts of reprisal. If these rovers could have
+been caught and hanged at the yard-arm, she could hardly have
+protested; but as breaches of international amity the practices were
+very much on a par. In the technical sense, that they made war on their
+own account on the ships of a theoretically friendly Power, the rovers
+of this class were no doubt pirates; what we have to recognise is that
+the normal condition of affairs was one unknown to the law-books, a
+state of quasi-war; having no little resemblance to that prevalent for
+centuries on the Anglo-Scottish border, where it was not to be expected
+that the Wardens of the Marches on the one side would carry out their
+duties while the Wardens on the other side were neglecting theirs with
+the connivance of the Government. And in this case, Philip's connivance
+at the proceedings of the Inquisition was open and avowed; by
+consequence, the English Government refused to treat the proceedings of
+the privateers as piracy; and again by consequence the privateers
+considered themselves to be acting in a perfectly legitimate, not to
+say laudable, manner, in treating the enemy's commerce precisely as
+they would have done under a state of declared war.
+
+No doubt the desire of plunder was usually a stronger incentive than
+either retaliation or religion. Privateering was not _per se_
+admirable or praiseworthy. But it was something entirely different from
+what we understand by Piracy pure and simple. And manifestly it
+provided a very excellent and efficient school for the sons of a nation
+which was about to challenge the Colossus of the South for the title to
+the Empire of the Seas.
+
+[Sidenote: The Explorers]
+
+But while privateering bred in numbers men who knew how to handle and
+fight their ships, something more was needed to produce a race of great
+captains; something which was provided by the vast fields opened to
+exploration. Here was to be found the necessary training in calculated
+daring, in conquering seemingly impossible obstacles, in defying
+apparently insurmountable dangers, in rising to overwhelming
+emergencies, in learning to a nicety what it was possible for
+seamanship to accomplish.
+
+[Endnote: Spain in America]
+
+At the opening of Elizabeth's reign, Spain and Portugal were
+practically and theoretically in possession of the inheritance of the
+explorers and the Conquistadores. The latter Power held complete sway
+on the African Guinea Coast, and in the Indian Ocean, undisturbed by
+European rivals; while the Pope had bestowed upon it so much of the New
+World as lies East of the mouth of the Amazon--in effect, what lies
+behind the coast-line of Brazil. All that lies west of the mouth of the
+Amazon he had bestowed upon Spain; and this gift the swords of
+Spaniards had made good. In the West India Islands, their head-quarters
+were the Island and port of San Domingo (Hayti). From Florida, north,
+to the mouth of the Amazon, south, all was Spanish territory. On the
+Atlantic coast: Mexico had Vera Cruz with its haven of San Juan
+d'Ulloa; on Darien was Nombre de Dios; on the _Tierra Firma_ known
+to the English as the Spanish Main lay Cartagena and several other
+ports of varying importance. On the Pacific coast, the most notable
+spots were Panama, the port whither came the treasure ships from Peru
+to transport their stores by land to Nombre de Dios; Lima, the great
+city of Peru, which had its port of Callao; and further south the town
+of Santiago and the harbour of Valparaiso. The straits of Magellan, the
+only known entry for ships to the Pacific from the Atlantic, were
+deemed virtually impassable, while Tierra del Fuego was supposed to be
+the head of another Continent extending continuously to the south. In
+all these regions, the Spaniard claimed an absolute monopoly, and the
+right of excluding foreign vessels and foreign trade from what he
+regarded as Spanish waters.
+
+It is chiefly with transactions on these seas and territories that we
+are concerned, in giving some account of the rovers, who first in their
+private capacity challenged the power of Spain, and then led the
+English fleets to their triumph over the "Invincible" Armada.
+
+[Sidenote: John Hawkins's early voyages, 1562-1566]
+
+First on the roll stands the name of John Hawkins--greatest of the
+"sea-dogs" till his fame was surpassed by the mightiest of all, Francis
+Drake. In Henry's day his father, old William Hawkins, had won high
+repute, for himself as a sailor and for his countrymen as honourable
+dealers, by his voyages to the Guinea coast, where the Portuguese were
+in very evil odour, and to the Brazils. John Hawkins fell as far behind
+his father in the latter respect as he surpassed him in the former: for
+he was responsible for initiating the Slave-trade. His first notable
+voyage was made in 1562, when he sailed to the Guinea coast, purchased
+or kidnapped from the African chiefs some three hundred negroes,
+crossed the Ocean, and sold them to the Spaniards in Hayti (or
+Hispaniola). In 1564 he sailed again with four ships; but on reaching
+America he was told at Rio de La Hacha and Cartagena that the traffic
+was forbidden. The Englishmen, however, held that these regulations
+were invalid, as a contravention of ancient treaty rights of free trade
+with the Spanish dominions. The Spaniards for their part were willing
+enough to find an excuse for transgressing their orders, which was
+given by a slight display of force; and Hawkins came home again with
+large profits, after visiting Florida where there were Huguenot
+settlers, and Newfoundland where fishing fleets of all nations
+congregated. It is noteworthy that while the Queen herself and sundry
+of her courtiers had a large pecuniary interest in these ventures of
+Hawkins, Cecil conscientiously declined to have part or lot in them,
+now or later: lawlessness being to him a thing abominable.
+
+Philip was naturally indignant at the Englishman's method of overriding
+his trade regulations, and Hawkins had to lie quiet for a time; but in
+1567 he sailed for the third time, taking with him his young cousin
+Francis Drake.
+
+[Sidenote: San Juan d'Ulloa 1567]
+
+For a while all went well. The Spaniards wanted to buy in spite of the
+regulations; though at Rio de La Hacha Hawkins had to emphasise the
+advantages of trading with him by seizing the town in force. But when
+he started for home, contrary winds and storms compelled him to put
+back to the Mexican port of San Juan d'Ulloa (Vera Cruz) to refit his
+three vessels. He was well received; but while he was in harbour, a
+Spanish fleet of thirteen sail arrived. The entry was narrow, and
+Hawkins could have held them at bay; but his theory was that he was
+behaving in a perfectly regular and well-conducted manner. For three
+days there was a peaceful interchange of courtesies; then without
+warning the Spaniards attacked him. Two of his ships succeeded in
+escaping, despite the heavy odds against them, taking a number of
+survivors from the third. But next day they parted company; Hawkins's
+ship was terribly overcrowded; a hundred of his men, by their own
+desire, were landed--to fall into the hands of the Inquisition; and
+Hawkins and Drake finally reached England separately with a remnant of
+their crews, and the loss of all that had been gained in the first
+stages of the venture.
+
+[Sidenote: Francis Drake]
+
+Now the Spaniards manifestly had a very good case for arresting Hawkins
+on the ground of his overriding forcibly the regulations which they
+were, in their own view at least, entitled to make: but they had chosen
+to receive him hospitably and attempt his capture by flagrant treachery.
+When his men fell into their hands, they might have been tried as
+participators in his lawlessness; but the crime laid to their charge
+was heresy. It is small wonder then that the feeling inspired by the
+affair of San Juan d'Ulloa was: first, that the Inquisition, claiming
+itself to be above international law, was outside international law, a
+tyranny which should be fought without regard to law: second, that
+Spain had no more right to the wealth of the New World than any one
+else; third, that since in the New World she elected to rule not by
+legal methods but by the high hand, it was legitimate to ignore law in
+dealing with her. There and then Francis Drake, now twenty-seven years
+old, made up his mind that he would for his own hand wage war on Spain
+and the Inquisition in the New World. If to do so was piracy, Drake
+resolved to become a pirate. But he assuredly did not conceive himself
+to be a pirate; nor were his motives the same; and his methods were
+utterly unstained by the blood-thirstiness and cruelty inseparably
+associated with the title. He was rather an Ocean knight-errant,
+smiting and spoiling, and incidentally enriching himself, but in
+knightly fashion and for a great cause: not a miscellaneous robber, but
+a scourge of the enemies of his country and his faith.
+
+[Sidenote: The Venture of 1572]
+
+Drake laid his plans with care and deliberation, making two more
+voyages in small vessels to the West Indies to acquire thorough
+knowledge and information, before starting on the first of his great
+expeditions. Then in 1572, some months before the _rapprochement_
+with Spain which followed St. Bartholomew, he sailed for the Spanish
+Main; his whole force consisting of three small ships of a burden
+ranging from 25 to 70 tons [Footnote: _Royal Navy,_ i., p. 621.]
+with picked crews numbering in all 111 men. With this small company,
+arriving by night, he fell suddenly upon Nombre de Dios, a principal
+port of embarkation on the Isthmus of Darien. The surprise was not
+complete, and though the resistance of the Spaniards was overcome and a
+large capture of silver ingots was effected, Drake himself was somewhat
+severely wounded. One of the ships went home; the other two with the
+commander remained, and took several prizes. But this did not satisfy
+him, and he conceived the daring scheme of landing and crossing the
+Isthmus, to intercept the trains of treasure on their way overland from
+Panama. In February he got, from a tree-top, his first sight of the
+Pacific. He succeeded in ambushing a small train of mules laden with
+gold, and, on his way back, another large one laden with silver. Then
+where he expected to meet his own ships he found a Spanish squadron;
+but undaunted by this ill-fortune, reached the shore undiscovered,
+improvised a raft, put to sea, found his own ships, and returned to
+Plymouth a rich man: having won golden opinions from the Cimmaroons--
+escaped slaves of the district--from the contrast between the English
+and the Spanish methods of treating them.
+
+[Sidenote: 1575 John Oxenham]
+
+This was but the precursor of that most famous of his voyages which
+made his name more terrible to the Spaniards than that of John Hawkins
+had ever been. More than four years, however, elapsed before that
+expedition started; and in the interval one of his lieutenants, John
+Oxenham in 1575 undertook his own disastrous venture, [Footnote: The
+details of his story are familiar to all readers of Westward Ho.] which
+well illustrates the boldness of conception and audacity of execution
+that characterise the Elizabethan seamen. His plan was a development of
+Drake's Darien exploit. On reaching the Isthmus, he hid his ship and
+guns, crossed the mountains as Drake had done, built himself a pinnace,
+and first of all Englishmen sailed on the Pacific. He captured two
+treasure-ships, which of course had never dreamed of meeting a hostile
+vessel; but allowed the crews to depart. Naturally a force was soon in
+pursuit. Oxenham, with a fourth of their numbers, attacked them: half
+his men were killed in the fight, and nearly all the rest including
+Oxenham himself were put to death. Drake had already started before the
+news reached England.
+
+[Sidenote: Drake's great voyage, 1577]
+
+In December 1577 Drake sailed from Plymouth with five ships; himself on
+board the largest, the _Pelican_, of 100 tons. His purpose was to
+invade the Pacific by the straits of Magellan. Therefore, after
+touching at the Cape Verde Islands, he made not for the Spanish Main
+but for Patagonia. Here at Port St. Julian occurred the famous episode
+of the execution of Thomas Doughty, [Footnote: See the examination of
+the authorities and the evidence in Corbett, _Drake and the Tudor
+Navy_, i., ch. viii.] on charges which may be summed up as those of
+treason and incitement to mutiny, wherewith was apparently mixed up a
+conviction on Drake's part that Doughty exercised witch-craft to bring
+on bad weather. It is not improbable at least that Doughty was really
+acting in the interests of that party in England which was opposed to
+the whole policy of the raid, and believed that he would have at his
+back Lord Burghley, from whom the objects of the expedition were
+supposed, erroneously, to be a secret. The Straits were reached at the
+end of August; but were scarcely passed when a storm parted the ships.
+John Winter, Drake's second in command, after waiting some while, gave
+his consorts up for lost and returned home. The Pelican, which Drake
+had re-christened the Golden Hind, alone remained to carry on the
+adventurous voyage. The precise course taken by the ships in the storms
+at this time is uncertain: but it seems clear that in some way or other
+Drake obtained satisfactory evidence that Tierra del Fuego was only an
+island, and that the Pacific could be reached by rounding Cape Horn.
+[Footnote: _State Papers, Spanish_, iii., p. 341. See also Corbett,
+i., pp. 269, 270.]
+
+[Sidenote: Drake in the Pacific, 1578]
+
+In due time then, when there seemed to be no more prospect of being
+rejoined by Winter, the Pelican proceeded on its expedition. In
+December, Drake astonished Valparaiso by sailing in and seizing a prize
+and stores: no one had dreamed of an English ship in the Pacific.
+Thence he proceeded, exploring the coast, and creating general alarm,
+till he reached Callao, the port of Lima; where he secured a prize,
+with which he started in pursuit of a great treasure ship known as the
+Cacafuego, which he learnt had sailed a few days before. A couple of
+ships were sent after him; so he cleared out his prize, left it adrift
+for his pursuers to recover, and showed them a clean pair of heels.
+After a long pursuit, and the capture of more minor prizes--which he
+let go, after taking what he wanted, leaving intact the private
+property of those on board--he overtook the Cacafuego, securing an
+immense treasure and some exceedingly useful charts.
+
+[Sidenote 1: Drake in the Northern Pacific 1579]
+[Sidenote 2: The return, 1580]
+
+Satisfied, after securing two more prizes, with the damage done to
+Spain, and the rich spoils collected, he turned his attention to
+geographical discoveries; for in passing Magellan's Strait he had had
+two predecessors, but none in the northern regions which he had now
+reached. Finding harbourage on the Californian coast, he repaired the
+Pelican thoroughly, and then proceeded on a voyage of circumnavigation;
+the spring of 1579 being now well advanced. His first idea was to look
+for that imagined North East Passage, in the search for which
+Willoughby had lost his life nearly five and twenty years before: and
+with this object in view he sailed some hundreds of miles further North
+than any explorers in the Pacific had hitherto gone. Coming, however,
+to the conclusion that he was not equipped for such a venture as this
+promised to be, he again returned to California to refit. There he
+established most friendly relations with the natives, who were anxious
+to deify him: and thence he started again to find his way across the
+Pacific to the Cape of Good Hope. After much intricate and dangerous
+navigation among the Spice Islands-in the course of which Drake made a
+treaty with the Sultan of Ternate, and the Pelican was all but lost on
+a reef-she rounded the Cape in January, sailing into Plymouth Sound on
+September 26th, 1580, a little less than three years from the day when
+she began her voyage. Drake was the first commander who conducted a
+circumnavigation from start to finish. His precursors had died on the
+voyage, and left their ships to be brought home by subordinates.
+
+Luckily perhaps for Drake, he arrived just at the time when Philip's
+subjects were aiding the Irish rebellion; and the English Queen could
+claim that her great subject had been doing to Spain nothing so bad as
+what Philip was countenancing in Ireland. Burghley alone refused to
+have part or lot in the profits of what he held to be a lawless exploit,
+but the rigid Walsingham applauded. Drake was knighted, and his name
+was on every lip. More than that, the whole performance imbued English
+sailors with an un-conquerable conviction that they were more than a
+match for all the maritime power of Spain, and with an ardent longing
+to put that conviction to the proof. Drake was the idol not only of
+every seaman who had sailed under him, but of the entire English People.
+
+Hawkins after 1567 and Drake after 1580 made no more great voyages for
+their own hand. Hawkins, a past master in all that concerned ships and
+shipping, was presently appointed Treasurer and practically controller
+of the Royal Navy, and brought the Queen's ships to a high pitch of
+perfection. Drake became, practically if not nominally, the first of
+the Queen's admirals. Both, with two more among the explorers of whom
+we have still to speak, were to play leading parts in the fight with
+the Armada.
+
+[Sidenote: Various Voyages, 1576-88]
+
+Of these two, the more famous is Martin Frobisher, who in the early
+sixties was one of the captains who made war on Philip's ships in the
+English Channel. Between 1576 and 1578, he made three voyages in search
+of the North West Passage-accompanied on two of them by the second
+explorer referred to, Edward Fenton-visiting Greenland and exploring
+Frobisher's Strait. [Footnote: Now known to be not a Strait but a Bay.]
+The ships with which he made the first voyage were of no more than 25
+and 20 tons [Footnote: _Royal Navy,_ i., p. 624.] respectively. In
+1582 Fenton captained another expedition, which seems to have been
+intended for Magellan but got no further than the Brazils, returning
+after a successful engagement with some Spanish ships. Another
+circumnavigation was accomplished by Thomas Cavendish (1586-8), who
+wrought great damage to the Spanish settlements, burning as well as
+looting, and brought home considerable spoils; but this expedition was
+undertaken when England and Spain were technically at war.
+
+Just before Cavendish sailed, John Davis, second to no English explorer
+save Drake, commenced his series of Arctic voyages, learned much of
+ice-navigation, and on the third voyage in 1587 discovered Davis'
+Strait. These Arctic expeditions were of course quite unconnected with
+the Spanish struggle; but while they exemplified the magnificent spirit
+of English sailors, they also materially advanced English seamanship.
+
+[Sidenote: Raleigh]
+
+In these years preceding the Armada, there were those who, not content
+with adventure and exploration by sea, made the first tentative efforts
+from which in after days was to spring the vast colonial dominion of
+Britain. There was hardly one of these enterprises which was not
+directly due to the initiative, the exertions, and the persistence of
+Walter Raleigh. Others no doubt took their share, whether moved by his
+arguments or in a miscellaneous spirit of adventure; but Raleigh's was
+the vision of a New England beyond the seas; a goal to dream of and to
+strive for through weary years of failure and disappointment: an ideal
+which appealed at once to an intellect among the keenest and an
+imagination among the boldest of a time which abounded in keen
+intellects and bold imaginations.
+
+[Sidenote: Gilbert]
+
+As early as 1578, when he was but six and twenty, Raleigh took part in
+one such abortive venture, along with his half-brother the enthusiast
+and dreamer Humphrey Gilbert: the same man whose paradoxical barbarity
+in Ireland [Footnote: See p. 311, _ante_.] we have already
+noticed: a barbarity very difficult at first sight to reconcile with
+the high chivalrous spirit, the odd sentimentality, and the fundamental
+piety which, besides his absolutely fearless courage, characterised Sir
+Humphrey in a degree only a little more marked than numbers of his
+contemporaries. A few years later, in 1583, Gilbert made his second
+disastrous attempt to establish a colony in "Norumbega," the name given
+to a vague region in the Northern parts of North America. Five ships
+sailed. The attempt was a complete failure, and on the return voyage
+Sir Humphrey went down with the little _Squirrel_, the smallest of
+his ships, which foundered with all hands. The last time a consort was
+within hail, he greeted her with the natural expression of his faithful
+and courageous soul--"we are as near God by sea as by land". The story
+is worth pausing over, for it is supremely characteristic. We may call
+these men what we will; they persuaded themselves of the righteousness
+of acts which shock an age in some respects more sensitive; but they
+wrought mightily for England, and a main source of their triumphs was
+their trust in the God whose cause they identified with their own, a
+faith which was a living, impelling, force.
+
+[Sidenote: Virginia]
+
+Raleigh had not accompanied the expedition though he was one of the
+promoters. In the following year he dispatched an expedition for
+exploration and settlement in Norumbega, which took possession of a
+district in what is now Carolina, naming it Virginia in honour of the
+Virgin Queen. Thither, again on an expedition of Raleigh's, went Sir
+Richard Grenville with Ralph Lane and others a year later (1585). Lane
+remained with a company of a hundred men at Roanoake; Grenville
+accomplished a characteristic feat of arms against a Spaniard on his
+way home. But when after another year Raleigh sent succours to his
+colony, the company was found to have withdrawn, having been taken off
+by Drake's flotilla after he had accomplished his raid on Cartagena.
+[Footnote: see p.334, _ante_.] Grenvilie however, reappearing,
+left a small party. In 1587 Raleigh sent again; Grenville's party had
+vanished, but a new colony was left. Twice again he sent, in 1590 and
+in 1602, but both times without success. The colonists, except some
+half dozen, had been massacred. The path to Empire is whitened by the
+bones of the Pioneers. In the reign of the Virgin Queen, the attempt to
+colonise Virginia failed utterly; but the failure was the precursor of
+ultimate triumph. The United States owe their being to Sir Walter
+Raleigh.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+ELIZABETH (ix), 1587-88--THE ARMADA
+
+[Sidenote: 1587 Results of Mary's Death]
+
+If Mary Stewart displayed the most royal side of her character in the hour
+of her doom, Elizabeth displayed the least royal side of hers in the weeks
+that followed. She disavowed Davison's act, disgraced him, sent him to the
+Tower; she would have had him tried for treason but that the judges
+declared emphatically that the charge could not hold water. She was obliged
+to be content with the infliction of a heavy fine, and dismissal. She could
+not trample on the whole of her Council, who had deliberately assumed the
+responsibility: but to France and to Scotland she clamoured that the deed
+was none of her doing. There was an elvish humour in the Scots King's reply
+that he would hold her innocent when she had faced and disproved the charge
+--accentuated by her answer that as a sovereign she was not amenable to
+trial; for it was a quite precise reversal of the tone adopted eighteen
+years before, when Mary was the accused party; and Elizabeth now found
+herself reduced to the very plea which she had ignored when Mary urged it
+in her own behalf. The position was ignominious; yet Elizabeth had no one
+but herself to thank. She might have avowed and justified the Act;
+disavowing it, the only logical course was to punish those on whom the
+guilt lay. She tried to evade the dilemma, by crushing the most
+insignificant one among them and scolding the rest, while protesting on her
+own part an innocence which was a palpable hypocrisy.
+
+The Scots however might rage; James might find gratification in an
+argumentative victory; but for more pronounced action he wanted more than a
+sentimental inducement. Politically Elizabeth had won the game by the
+method peculiar to herself and her father--of counting on their servants to
+shoulder the responsibility. While Mary lived there was always the chance
+that the Catholics of England might be rallied to the standard of a
+Catholic princess whose legitimacy was indisputable. But they would not
+rally to that of her Protestant son, or consent to have England turned into
+a province of the Spanish King. Even Catholic Europe could not view such a
+prospect with enthusiasm or even equanimity, however much the
+uncompromising devotees of the Holy See might desire it. In France it was
+only the extremists of the League who could countenance such a scheme. In
+England, the death-blow of the Scots Queen was the death-blow also to the
+chances of a Catholic revolt. Despite the fervid dreams of Allen and
+Parsons, the entire Nation was ready to oppose an undivided front to any
+foreign assailant.
+
+[Sidenote: Attitude of Philip]
+
+The time, however, had at last arrived when Philip had definitely made up
+his mind that the overthrow of Elizabeth must no longer be deferred. This
+was an end which he had desired certainly for eighteen years past.
+Whenever he had an ambassador in England, that ambassador had been more or
+less deeply involved in every plot or attempted insurrection against the
+throne. But Philip had never concentrated his efforts on that design. He
+had held on to the theory that the Netherlands must be first crushed. When
+once they were brought into complete subjection, he would make England feel
+the full extent of his power. And so year after year passed, the revolted
+Provinces obstinately holding out in a struggle which year after year it
+had seemed impossible for them to go on maintaining. More than once
+advisers had suggested that it would be better to reverse the order; to
+crush England first, and then finish off the Netherlands at his
+leisure. But this scheme always involved a danger: he had no alternative,
+if he succeeded, but to set Mary on the throne in place of her cousin;
+Mary, once established, even by his aid, might attach herself to France
+instead of to Spain; and the balance of parties in France was so uncertain
+--depended so much on the action of the Politiques--that in such an event
+he might still find that he had a very dangerous Anglo-French combination
+to reckon with in settling his accounts with the Provinces.
+
+[Sidenote: Attitude of Elizabeth]
+
+On the other hand, whether Elizabeth's policy had been dictated by a most
+consummate, if by no means elevated, state-craft based upon an abnormally
+astute calculation of risks and chances, or merely by a desperate desire to
+stave off an immediate contest, whatever shifts might be involved; whether
+it was in fact peculiarly long-sighted, or opportunist to the last and
+lowest degree; it had been actually a complete success. She had given the
+Provinces just that minimum of assistance or apparent countenance which did
+enable them to keep their resistance alive. In France she had done just
+enough, for the Huguenots, to hamper the Guises and no more; and she had
+kept up the eternal marriage juggle, the eternal menace of an alliance with
+the French court, which would have doubled Philip's difficulties in the
+Netherlands, and might have trebled the dangers of a direct attack on
+England--thereby perpetually driving Spanish diplomacy to seek to detach
+her decisively from France by professions of a desire for amicable alliance
+with her. She had replied to the Spanish efforts by perpetual declarations
+of a corresponding order, and by constant negotiations, always at the last
+moment rendered futile by the introduction of some condition at the time
+impossible of acceptance.
+
+[Sidenote: The situation]
+
+At last, however, the endless evasion had ceased to be possible.
+Leicester's campaign in the Netherlands, feeble as it was, and Drake's
+expedition to Cartagena, put an end to the theory that Spain and England
+were at peace. It was known that in the ports of Spain and Portugal Philip
+was making his slow preparations for a naval attack; his ablest admiral,
+Santa Cruz, had formulated a vast scheme--vaster indeed than Philip was
+ever prepared to adopt. The Guises were prepared to go any lengths to
+prevent the legitimate Protestant succession in France; and the French King
+had publicly thrown in his lot with the Guises. Now also Mary Stewart was
+not only out of the way herself, but before her death had declared against
+the succession to her own claims of her son, and had acknowledged Philip,
+[Footnote: _State Papers, Spanish,_ iii., p. 581; and _ante,_ p.
+338.] a legitimate descendant of John of Gaunt, as her heir. At last in
+Philip's mind the suppression of Elizabeth acquired precedence over the
+suppression of the Provinces.
+
+The near approach of a life-and-death struggle made no difference whatever
+in the English Queen's methods. Eighteen months before, she had struck one
+hard blow by sea, when she dispatched Drake on the Cartagena expedition,
+but otherwise had merely played at helping the Netherlanders, by sending an
+army and paralysing it for action. She did exactly the same thing now.
+
+[Sidenote: April: Drake's Cadiz expedition]
+
+Drake, with a squadron not large either in numbers or in tonnage but
+exceedingly efficient, had orders to sail from Plymouth to "singe the King
+of Spain's beard," as he phrased it. Drake knew his Queen, and got himself
+out of port before the appointed day, on April 2nd. The expected counter-
+orders arrived in due time--when he was out of reach. Elizabeth possibly
+knew her Drake and reckoned on his premature departure, while she had
+secured her loop-hole for shuffling out of the responsibility. He carried
+out the singeing business most effectively. Making for Cadiz, where it was
+known that stores and ships were accumulated, he stood into the harbour,
+sunk one ship of war there, cleared out so much of the stores as he could
+accommodate, and fired the bulk of the shipping, cutting the cables. Drake
+then captured the Sagres forts at Cape St. Vincent, intending to lie in
+wait for an expected squadron from the Mediterranean; but departed after a
+short interval, being minded to sail into the port of Lisbon where the
+Admiral Santa Cruz lay with the bulk of the Armada. This exploit, however,
+he was obliged to forgo, [Footnote: Corbett, _Drake and the Tudor
+Navy_, ii., pp. 97 ff. The account there given is followed here. The
+author points out that Froude and others have been misled by the almost
+certain misdating of a letter of Drake's which he attributes to 1589.]
+contenting himself with a challenge to Santa Cruz to come out and fight,
+which he was in no condition to do. Returning to Cape St. Vincent, Drake
+there remained long enough to stop the expected squadron, and throw the
+whole of Philip's transport arrangements out of gear. Satisfied with the
+destruction wrought, which served to cripple at least the mobility of the
+Armada for many months, he then sailed for the Azores, where he fell in
+with a great Spanish _East_ Indiaman, the _San Felipe_, whereof
+the spoils very satisfactorily filled the pockets of his crews; and so
+returned home, having made it all but impossible that the invading fleet
+should sail during 1587.
+
+[Sidenote: Negotiations with Parma]
+
+Then, month after month, Elizabeth carried on the old practice in the
+Netherlands. She negotiated persistently with Parma, on the old basis, that
+the Provinces had a right to their old constitution but nothing more. Of
+course she knew that the Provinces would never assent to that solution. On
+the favourable view of her policy, it must be held to have rested on a
+fixed determination not to make the Netherlands her field of battle. For
+Sluys, one of the forts which she held, so to speak, in pawn from the
+States, was taken after a stubborn siege and at immense cost both in money
+and men by Parma, simply because Maurice of Nassau was too uncertain as to
+her real intentions to make a serious effort for its relief. Confidence in
+her had sunk to the lowest point when, some months before, an English
+captain, Stanley, had handed over the town of Deventer, which was in his
+charge, to the Spaniards, whose service he himself entered. The Provinces,
+Parma, Elizabeth's own Ministers, believed that she meant the negotiations
+in earnest. Parma, who knew how tremendous a task the invasion of England
+must be, would have liked to come to terms, but Philip would not give him
+the authority; the terms approved by his lieutenant must be referred back
+to him. They were never finally formulated. All through 1587, through the
+first months of 1588, the thing dragged on; and then Elizabeth declared
+that the surrender of the Cautionary Towns, always hitherto treated as the
+necessary first step, was only to be thought of as the last step--a quite
+impossible condition from the Spanish point of view. But by the time the
+negotiations had thoroughly broken down, a whole year had been practically
+wasted by Spain. Taking on the other hand the unfavourable view--which
+appears to have been that of almost every statesman and soldier of the day
+--she engaged in a highly discreditable negotiation for a betrayal of the
+Provinces by the surrender of the Cautionary Towns, in the hope of
+obtaining with Philip a peace which would have rendered him infinitely more
+dangerous than he actually was; being only saved from that disaster by
+saner counsels and against her own will at the last moment.
+
+[Sidenote: The Queen's Diplomacy]
+
+From beginning to end, the facts are consistent with either view of her
+character. If the second view be true, history affords no parallel to the
+amazing good fortune which attended her; for her whole career was a
+succession of apparently hopeless entanglements, each one leading to
+inevitable disaster; yet from every one a loop-hole of escape was found.
+If the first be true, history again affords no parallel to the invariable
+success which attended a series of deceptions practised alike upon her
+servants, her friends, and her enemies. But whichever solution we accept--
+and there is no third alternative--her personal policy remains one of pure
+political opportunism, either very short sighted or singularly long
+sighted, without a particle of the idealism which, mixed though it might be
+with other motives, was so emphatically characteristic of half her
+ministers and more than half her subjects. Towards the cause of the
+Reformation, as such, she was entirely cold; to her, its adherents in the
+Netherlands and in France were merely pieces on the political
+chess-board. It is an odd paradox that such a ruler should have won and
+maintained among her own people a personal popularity amounting to
+enthusiasm, which was a very strong force in binding the nation together.
+
+[Sidenote: 1587-88 French affairs]
+
+While Elizabeth was keeping up the diplomatic game above described, she was
+very materially aided by the state of affairs in France, where what is
+known as the "War of the three Henries"--Henry III., Henry of Navarre, and
+Henry of Guise--was in full progress. The King, professing to support the
+League, was in fact doing his best to play into the hands of his nominal
+opponent, Navarre, and to paralyse his nominal adherent, Guise, who had
+Philip of Spain behind him. Philip, aware of this ambiguous position--as
+also was Elizabeth--found himself unable to trust to France for support, or
+absolutely to repudiate her demands to share in the Armada expedition
+viewed as a Catholic Crusade. The position became acute when Guise,
+ignoring the King's orders, entered Paris in force, receiving a general
+ovation while the King himself had to fly, on the "Day of the Barricades"
+(April-May, 1588). There was a nominal reconciliation in July; but it was
+then already too late for the Guises to hold the French ports at the
+service of the Spaniard.
+
+Neither from Scotland nor in Ireland was any danger to be apprehended in
+the coming struggle. We turn again to the story of the Armada itself.
+
+[Sidenote: 1587 Preparations for the Armada]
+
+Great as was the damage wrought by Drake, it was energetically repaired,
+and Philip warned Parma to be ready for the arrival of the Armada in
+September 1587. The plan of operations was for Santa Cruz to sail up the
+Channel, dominate the passage from the Low Countries, and so enable Parma,
+heavily reinforced by the soldiers on board the great fleet, to pour his
+troops into England. Philip's plans were quite unaffected by the talk of
+peace; but the English were justified in their confidence that the Armada
+would not be ready to sail in time. When it was ready, Santa Cruz
+pronounced that the storms to be looked for so late in the year would make
+the voyage itself dangerous, and would render it impossible to keep the
+necessary control of the water-ways: which was what the English authorities
+had calculated on.
+
+[Sidenote: 1588 Plans of Campaign]
+
+There was indeed a very considerable risk in deferring the mobilisation of
+the English fleet; for in January, Philip resolved to delay no longer, and
+if the Armada had sailed then there was no force ready to meet it. But the
+death of Santa Cruz at the critical moment destroyed the plan. In February
+the English were in trim to take the seas; the opportunity was lost, and
+another was not given. If the seamen had been allowed their own way, the
+Lord Admiral Howard of Effingham, Drake, Hawkins, Frobisher and the other
+captains would have sailed for the Spanish coast; nor can it be doubted
+that they would then have done completely what Drake and his squadron had
+done only in part a year before, and practically have annihilated the
+Armada in its own ports; but other counsels prevailed, to their great
+chagrin. The idea that the Spanish fleet might evade the English, if the
+latter left the Channel, and make the invasion a _fait accompli_
+without a sea-fight at all, was too alarming to the landsmen. Whether Parma
+would ever have taken the enormous risk of throwing himself into a hostile
+country, with an unfought fleet hastening to cut him off from his base, is
+another matter. It is noteworthy however that even the seamen do not seem
+to have realised the enormous risk involved in such an undertaking. They
+knew that a small squadron was quite sufficient to frustrate any invasion
+that Parma without the Armada could contemplate. But when the Armada was
+already in helpless and headlong flight round Scotland, Drake [Footnote:
+Laughton, S. P. _Armada,_ ii., pp. 99, 100: Drake to Walsingham.]
+still regarded an attempted coup by Parma as a danger to be seriously
+guarded against.
+
+[Sidenote: The opposing forces]
+
+We are in the habit of looking upon the destruction of the Armada as a feat
+verging on the miraculous. Yet it is apparent that every one of the great
+sailors anticipated a complete victory with entire confidence. They knew
+that they understood the conditions of naval warfare, and that the enemy
+did not. Although, on paper, the Spaniard had all the best of it, he never
+really had a chance, for the plain reason that his fleet was utterly
+outclassed. The Armada put to sea with about 130 ships. Of these, 62 were
+of over 300 tons burden. The whole English fleet is given as 197 ships
+including the 34 of the Royal Navy. Of these, only 49 exceeded 200
+tons. The average [Footnote: Laughton, i., p. li.] tonnage of the 62 was
+quite double that of the 49; and the aggregate of the 130 was approximately
+double that of the 197. The recorded lists and estimates also give the
+Spaniards double the number of men and guns. Many of the great Spaniards
+were little more than transports; on the other hand, half the English ships
+were too small for effective fighting. But there is little doubt that the
+English fighting ships were much better armed relatively to their size;
+that the guns were better, and infinitely better handled. The ships were in
+fact far superior as fighting machines, because the two fleets were built,
+armed, and manned, on two diametrically opposed theories of naval tactics:
+which may be summed up by saying that the Spaniards relied upon mass, and
+hand to hand fighting, the English on mobility and artillery; applying
+unconsciously by sea the principles by which the great land-tacticians of
+the past, Edward III. and Henry V., had shattered greatly superior hosts at
+Crecy and Agincourt. The finer comprehension of naval strategy on the part
+of the English admirals had been made of no account by the ignorance of the
+supreme authority, which detained the fleet on the coast: but their
+tactical developments were unhampered. For the first time on a large scale
+the accustomed rules were about to be discarded.
+
+[Sidenote: The New Tactics]
+
+Hitherto, naval battles had been assimilated to land battles; ships had
+attacked, moving abreast in military formation; they had grappled and
+fought for possession of each other's decks; the work had been soldiers'
+work, and for that the Spaniards were equipped, carrying two soldiers for
+every mariner. But this was to be mariners' work, and on the English ships
+the complement of soldiers was quite insignificant in comparison to that of
+mariners and gunners. The English ships were handled by seamen, many of the
+Spanish by landsmen. The English ships answered the helm and could go
+"about," with a rapidity which amazed the Spaniards. They were constructed
+to deliver broadsides, which the Spaniards could not do. Their guns could
+be discharged three times or more to the Spaniards once. The Spaniards,
+with a dim perception of the English point of superiority, tried to nullify
+it by futile firing at the rigging, which was for the most part a pure
+waste of shot; the English pounded the Spanish hulls and their crowded
+decks; systematically refusing to come to close quarters, so that the enemy
+never had a chance of utilising his soldiery. With ships built and rigged
+for speed and for manoeuvring, with men who had learnt how to handle them
+in many a storm, with captains whose seamanship was trusted by every
+sailor, the Englishmen repeatedly secured the weather-gauge, joining battle
+or refusing it as they liked; and the final result was never seriously in
+doubt.
+
+[Sidenote: Defective arrangements]
+
+From the month of March then, the departure of the Spanish fleet was
+delayed only by its own unreadiness to sail, due in part to the obvious
+incompetence of the Duke of Medina Sidonia who had been appointed, very
+much against his own will, to the command; for he was absolutely devoid of
+any naval or even military experience. The English ships were in admirable
+order; [Footnote: Laughton, i., p. 79: Howard to Burghley, Feb. 21.] but
+the great trouble with them was in the commissariat. The emergency was
+quite without parallel, and the system, such as there was, was quite
+inadequate to cope with it. To maintain, month after month, supplies for so
+large an armament, was next to impossible; and to this much more than to
+the "niggardliness" of the Queen, [Footnote: Laughton, i., pp. lvii ff.
+Froude's latitude of paraphrase makes his handling of the evidence
+peculiarly inconclusive.] must be attributed the vehement complaints of
+deficiencies. Sanitary conditions also were not at all generally
+understood, and it was dangerous to keep crews constantly on board. On the
+whole, the denunciations of the authorities were not different from those
+to which they always have been, and probably always will be, subjected.
+Individuals did their best to work a defective organisation with only
+partial success. And there was very much the same tale from the Spanish as
+from the English; the notable difference lay mainly in the great
+superiority of the latter in the purely naval department of administration.
+
+[Sidenote: The Land forces]
+
+As concerns the adequacy of the arrangements on land for resisting the
+invader if he succeeded in reaching the shore, it is difficult to speak.
+It was almost a matter of course that Leicester was given the command,
+though he had no military talent; but he had at his elbow the one
+thoroughly experienced captain available, Sir John Norreys. A great camp
+was formed at Tilbury to cover London; the raw country musters were in
+readiness every where to fly to arms when the signal beacons should flash
+their message over the land. How much resistance they could have offered to
+Parma's veterans, none can tell. But it may safely be laid down, that while
+the English fleet was in being, the invaders' chances of ultimate success
+were infinitesimal, but that if the fleet had been wiped out they would
+have been, at least _prima facie_, exceedingly promising. As
+Leicester, not Norreys, was in command of the army, so Howard of Effingham,
+not Drake, was in command of the fleet. But of Effingham we know that he
+was not himself ignorant of naval matters, and that he had no notion of
+ignoring the judgment of the colleagues who were technically his
+subordinates. With Drake as Vice-Admiral and Hawkins as Rear-Admiral, there
+was no danger of inefficient command. The naval appointments were in every
+way admirable; and even the noblemen and gentlemen who were captains of so
+many of the ships knew better than to overrule the practical command of
+their mariner-subordinates. On May 20th the Armada sailed from Lisbon, but
+was scattered by a storm in the second week of June, reassembling at
+Corunna--when Medina Sidonia vainly urged that the expedition should be
+given up. Some of the ships had proceeded within ken of the Scillies,
+causing considerable excitement; but these too put back to Corunna, whence
+the whole armament made its final start on July 12th.
+
+At the end of May, the English fleet was collected at Plymouth, a squadron
+with Seymour and the veteran Wynter being left on guard at the East end of
+the Channel. The admirals were again anxious to seek out the Spaniards and
+give account of them in their own seas, but supplies were short, and Howard
+was again definitely ordered to remain on the coast. It is however inferred
+by some authorities [Footnote: Corbetts ii., pp. 179-181.] that Drake and
+Howard did make a dash for the Spanish coast, about July 7th, while the
+Armada was at Corunna, in the hope of striking a swift and decisive blow;
+but that the favouring wind was lost, a South-Wester set in, and they had
+to return to the Channel, being insufficiently provisioned to remain at a
+distance from home.
+
+Howard then, with Drake and Hawkins and the major part of the English fleet
+was lying in Plymouth, getting stores aboard as fast as might be, while
+Seymour and Sir William Wynter with their squadron were lying at the East
+end of the Channel, when on July 19th the news came that the Armada had
+been sighted off the Lizard, coming up with a favouring wind. There was
+nothing for it but to work out of Plymouth Sound in the teeth of the
+wind. When the Spaniards came in view on the 20th (Saturday) the move had
+been accomplished. In the night, the English passed out to sea, across the
+Spanish front, and so in the morning found themselves to windward and
+attacked--as it would seem, for the first time in naval warfare, in
+"line-ahead" formation, pouring successive broadsides into the enemy's
+"weathermost" ship. This action lasted little more than two hours. Not many
+of the Spaniards were actually engaged, but the working effect of the new
+tactics was tested, Admiral Recalde's ship was crippled, some others had
+suffered from a very severe fire very inadequately returned; incidentally
+too, one great galleon had been almost blown to pieces by an accident, and
+the ship of Valdez was disabled through collision. The Duke of Medina
+Sidonia left her to her fate, and she surrendered to Drake early next
+morning, the two fleets in the meantime having proceeded up Channel. Drake
+ought to have led the pursuit during the night, and by not doing so caused
+some confusion and delay-also, it would seem much indignation on the part
+especially of Frobisher; [Footnote: Laughton, ii., pp. 101 ff.] but his
+conduct is capable of legitimate if not complete justification. [Footnote:
+Corbett, ii., pp. 231 ff.]
+
+[Sidenote: The fight off Portland, July 23]
+
+In consequence however, the English were unable to form for attack--though
+the half-blown-up ship, the _San Salvador_, fell into their hands--
+till late on the next day, when they were foiled by the falling of a
+calm. When the breeze got up again on Tuesday, the Spaniards were to
+windward, off Portland, and challenged an engagement. In manoeuvring to
+recover the weather-gauge, Frobisher, with some other vessels, was for a
+time cut off, and fought a very valiant fight, till a change in the wind
+enabled them to extricate themselves, and there was more sharp fighting in
+which the Spaniards suffered most. Neither side however could claim a
+victory. But it was seen that much more would have been effected had the
+Armada been less systematically organised, and the English more so. Before
+the next general engagement, the defect had been remedied by the
+distribution of the fleet into four divisions, under Howard, Drake,
+Hawkins, and Frobisher respectively.
+
+[Sidenote: The fight off the Isle of Wight, July 25]
+
+It was supposed to be the intention of the Armada [Footnote: Corbett, ii.,
+228. This was no doubt the recommendation of Recalde and others. But it was
+in the teeth of Philip's instructions. In any case however, it was what the
+English expected, and their action was based on that hypothesis.] to secure
+the station at the Isle of Wight and Portsmouth; and it was to frustrate
+this object that the third battle was fought on Thursday. In the interval,
+Howard had only worried the enemy, being in need of fresh supplies of
+ammunition which were now arriving. On the Thursday, the fluctuating airs
+again forced the English to manoeuvre for the weather gauge, in order to
+attack. The brunt of the resulting engagement was borne by Frobisher and
+Howard, who occupied the enemy and were very thoroughly occupied
+themselves; until the Armada, which had not in appearance been getting the
+worst of it, went about and sailed off up Channel in good order. The
+explanation would appear to be that the Spaniard found himself suddenly
+threatened with a crushing flank attack [Footnote: Corbett, ii., p. 254.
+The explanation is Mr. Corbett's conjecture.] by the combined squadrons of
+Drake and Hawkins, which would have driven him upon the banks known as the
+"Owers"; and to escape destruction, he had no alternative but to give up
+the design on Portsmouth, if he had ever entertained it, and continue his
+unimpeded course up Channel. To fight where he was had become impossible.
+Thus, although the comparative injury to his fleet was not very great, the
+action was a very decisive victory for the English. The Spaniards had to
+revert to the desperate plan of a junction with Parma, instead of securing
+a station in the Channel.
+
+[Sidenote: Effects on the fleets]
+
+Although strategically a great point was secured by this third engagement,
+the ostensible strength of the Spanish fleet remained virtually unaltered,
+and the English captains were evidently disappointed at having achieved no
+more marked results. Of course, on the theory that the odds were,
+professionally speaking, all in favour of the Armada, they had done
+exceedingly well; but they were fighting under the perfectly correct
+impression that the odds were in their own favour, and yet they had done no
+signal injury. In fact however they had accomplished a good deal more than
+appears on the surface. Their losses were far short of 100 men all told;
+their ships were intact; the spirit of the fleet had been tested; and they
+had already learnt and remedied the defect in their organisation at the
+start. On the other hand, the Armada had lost three ships, several more had
+suffered so severely as to be useless for further action, its ammunition
+was running short, some hundreds of men had been killed or wounded, and the
+whole fleet had realised that in manoeuvring capacity it was completely
+outclassed, so that its _morale_ was failing. Already it felt itself
+fighting a losing battle. Whereas, when the Isle of Wight was left behind,
+the English were more confident than ever that they themselves were
+fighting to win.
+
+[Sidenote: The Armada at Calais]
+
+The Duke then made his course for Dunkirk, sending urgent messages to Parma
+to come out and help him: which it was not possible for Parma to do. On
+Saturday evening, without any further fighting, the Armada anchored in
+Calais Roads. The same evening, Howard was joined by Seymour's squadron,
+and for the first time his fleet was at its full strength. It now became
+his great object to force the decisive engagement before Medina Sidonia and
+Parma at Dunkirk could effect a junction. To this end it was needful to
+dislodge the Armada from its anchorage. Wind and tide both favouring, on
+Sunday night eight fire-ships were sent drifting on to the Spanish fleet.
+A panic arose; the Spaniards cut their cables and made for the open, to
+escape the danger. They were to suffer later on for this loss of their
+anchors. Now, when the morning broke, the great fleet which had
+successfully preserved its formation hitherto, was scattered along a
+dangerous coast, with the entire English force lying to windward within
+striking distance.
+
+[Sidenote: The battle off Gravelines, July 29]
+
+For the Duke, the first thing to do was to recover his formation; for the
+English, to prevent his doing so. Howard should have led the attack, but
+turned aside to make sure of a crippled galleon. Drake, followed by
+Hawkins, Frobisher, and Seymour, sailed down on the Spaniards, and the last
+decisive engagement began. Medina Sidonia was never able to bring more than
+half his ships into action. He gained some time, by Howard's aberration,
+but in the course of the day the entire English fleet was engaging him. The
+ships and the captains, however, who were able to rejoin him, were the best
+in the Armada, and they made a magnificent and desperate struggle. Raked
+with broadside after broadside they fought on, drifting into ever more
+dangerous proximity to the shoals, their hulls riddled, their decks
+charnel-houses; resolved to sink rather than strike; while the English
+poured in a ceaseless storm of shot at close range but always evaded the
+one danger, of being grappled and boarded, the sole condition under which
+the Spaniard could fight at an advantage. At last the English drew off;
+partly because their ammunition, like the Spaniards', was all but
+exhausted, except in Howard's squadron, the expenditure having been quite
+unparalleled; partly because a fierce squall for a time provided them with
+a new enemy which it took all their energies to meet. That squall was the
+salvation of the Spaniards; when it cleared, they were already in full
+flight to the North East.
+
+[Sidenote: The Armada in flight]
+
+The Armada was now to leeward of Dunkirk, and a junction with Parma had
+been rendered impossible. On the following day indeed, it seemed that the
+whole fleet was doomed to destruction on the shoals, when a change of wind
+enabled them to make for the North Sea, the main part of the English fleet
+following in pursuit, while Seymour's squadron, to his intense disgust, was
+left to guard the Channel. But for the English shortage of ammunition,
+which made it impossible to provoke another general engagement, half the
+Armada might very well have fallen a prey to the pursuers; for it was a
+fleet that knew itself hopelessly beaten; its morale was gone, its
+ammunition was exhausted, its best crews were much more than decimated,
+many of its vessels were hopelessly crippled. As it was, the English were
+content to follow and watch while the Spaniards drove Northwards before a
+stiff gale; giving up the chase on August 2nd, by which time it was evident
+that the enemy had no course open to them but to attempt the passage round
+the North of Scotland, and so to make for home by the Irish coast as best
+they might; though later, the wind changing to the North created a passing
+fear that they might return with it to Denmark, to refit.
+
+[Sidenote: The End of the Armada]
+
+In the whole series of actions, the English lost only about a hundred men
+and one ship. Out of that great Armada which had sailed with the Papal
+blessing to lower the insolent pride of heretic England, not more than half
+the ships found their way back to Spain. Of the sixty or more that were
+lost, nine [Footnote: Clowes, _Royal Navy_, i., p. 585.] only are
+definitely accounted for in the actual fighting. Of the rest, nineteen are
+recorded as wrecked on the Scottish or Irish coast: there must have been
+many more. Of their crews, those whom the winds and the waves spared, the
+Irish slew; and those who escaped the Irish, the English soldiery slew. Of
+the fate of the remainder, one-fourth of the entire fleet, nothing is
+known.
+
+_Dominus flavit, et dissipati sunt._ The Lord blew and they were
+scattered. Small wonder that the puritan spirit saw in that huge disaster
+the direct intervention of the Almighty, smiting on behalf of His
+People. Yet the winds and the seas had but given an awful completeness to
+the already triumphant handiwork of the English Seamen. From first to last,
+through all the fighting, till the desperate _sauve qui peut_ of the
+battered and shattered foe across the Northern seas began, no particular
+good fortune in the matter of wind and weather had favoured England. She
+had won, against apparent odds, because her sons had found out on many a
+venturous voyage how the great game of war by sea ought to be played; and
+her enemy had not. She had won decisively. Philip might stiffen his pride
+and boast that he could yet send forth fleets mightier than the lost
+Armada. But on the day of the fight off Gravelines the doom of his power
+was sealed; and the Empire of the Ocean passed from Spain to England.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+ELIZABETH (x), 1588-98-BRITANNIA VICTRIX
+
+[Sidenote: After the Armada]
+
+The sceptre had passed. The world awoke suddenly to the truth of which
+the great debacle was only the unexpected testimony. The Spanish People
+were slow to realise the overwhelming fact--overwhelming, because for
+the best part of a century at least they had accounted themselves the
+nation favoured by Heaven, chosen for the crushing of the heathen and
+the heretic, assured of victory. So, for a few years, had the English
+thought of themselves; but with a difference; for their spirit was that
+expressed in the later Puritan adage, "Trust in God and keep your
+powder dry". The Spaniard had neglected to keep his powder dry. The
+nation which observes both injunctions is tolerably certain to defeat
+that which observes only one.
+
+The sceptre had passed; but Spain would not acquiesce without a
+struggle, and, in his slow fashion, Philip set himself to adapt to his
+own navy the lesson taught by the fate of the Armada. England had won
+the lead, but she was not to hold it unchallenged, though she did
+maintain it convincingly. For her alertness did not leave her, and to
+her had been transferred not the power only but also the enormous
+prestige which Spain had hitherto enjoyed, and which counts for much in
+every struggle where it is recognised on both sides.
+
+But the re-organisation of the Spanish Navy was a matter of time. For
+the moment, the result of the collision was absolutely to reverse the
+hypothetical though not the actual position of the two countries. Spain
+was reduced completely to the defensive. England no longer thought of
+guarding herself, but only of smiting her foe--a theory of the mutual
+relations on which, unofficially, the seamen had been acting for the
+last decade.
+
+If during the closing ten years of his life Philip's strongest desire
+was to recover the lost supremacy, his energies were still divided by
+his extreme anxiety to prevent the Bourbon succession in France; while
+the conviction was proving day by day more irresistible that the
+Protestant Netherlands would be lost for ever to Spain. Yet the eternal
+series of abortive plots for restoring the old religion and placing
+either Philip or a tool of Philip on the English throne went on; not in
+fact ending till the death of Elizabeth joined England and Scotland
+under a single crown.
+
+[Sidenote: A new phase]
+
+Politically the dramatic climax of Elizabeth's reign is the dispersion
+of the Armada. The dragon has been fought and vanquished, and at this
+point, the curtain ought to ring down and leave the audience to imagine
+the Red-cross knight and his ladye-love living happy for ever
+afterwards. But in history no climax is more than an incident; at the
+most it is but the decisive entry on a new phase. The chain of
+causation, of the interdependence of events, is continuous.
+
+The moment of the Armada then may be regarded as the conclusion of a
+phase. The work of the great statesmen, whose names are most intimately
+associated with that of Elizabeth, was accomplished. They had kept
+England united and at peace within her own borders through a long
+period of recurring crises. They had so fostered the national spirit
+and the national resources that she had finally proved herself a match
+for the mightiest Power in Europe. They had achieved for her the
+premier position upon the Ocean. They had defeated every attempt to
+entice or to force her back to the Roman obedience. They had secured a
+larger latitude of religious tolerance than prevailed in any other
+State of Europe. These things they had definitely won, though there was
+still need of keen brains, stout hearts, strong hands, and sturdy
+consciences to hold them. They had been responsible for the planting
+and watering. It was left mainly to others in the last years of
+Elizabeth to assure the beginnings of the increase.
+
+[Sidenote: 1588 The Death of Leicester]
+
+Of the counsellors who had played a prominent part in Elizabeth's reign,
+Nicholas Bacon had died in 1579. The rest still lived, but none of them
+for long. The next to disappear was Leicester, who survived the
+dispersion of the Armada by only a few weeks. So long as he had been an
+aspirant to the hand of his royal mistress, he existed chiefly to
+trouble the minds of statesmen--a piece of grit in the machinery; an
+apparently quite worthless person After he had settled down into the
+less ambiguous position of a mere personal favourite, with no chance of
+satisfying swelling ambitions, he became a definite partisan of the
+Walsingham school whose ideal lay in the advancement of protestantism
+and antagonism to Spain. When not warped by the vain imaginings of his
+earlier years, he would seem to have been a person of respectable
+abilities, little decision of character, decently loyal; an ornamental
+figurehead whose position enabled him to serve his friends; shallow;
+neither dangerous, nor conspicuously incapable; not entirely deserving
+of the extreme contempt which is usually poured upon him; but at best a
+poor creature whose importance was wholly adventitious.
+
+[Sidenote: France, 1588-89]
+
+Of infinitely more consequence in its influence on the political
+situation was the death on December 23rd, by the hands of assassins of
+the Duke of Guise. The murder, planned by Henry III., deprived the
+League of its head, and decisively forced the French King into the arms
+of his Protestant heir. Nine months later (August 1589), Henry III. was
+assassinated in turn, and Henry of Navarre laid claim to the crown, his
+uncle Charles, Cardinal of Bourbon, being proclaimed King by the
+Catholics. Hence in Philip's eyes a closer union than ever between
+himself and the League--now headed by Mayenne, brother of the murdered
+Guise--became imperative. A Huguenot king in France, a heretic queen in
+England, and heretic rebels in the Netherlands, threatened a
+combination which he was bound to try and paralyse. The attempt went
+far to thwart itself; for numbers of the French Catholics were ready to
+go a long way towards a compromise with Henry of Navarre when they felt
+the alternative to be a Spanish domination; while that astute prince
+hailed the opportunity which enabled him to claim the role of patriot,
+and to point to the Leaguers as the clients of the foreigner. On the
+other hand, Philip's energies during the remainder of his life were
+largely absorbed in futile efforts to redress on French soil the loss
+of Spanish supremacy on the seas.
+
+[Sidenote: 1588 England aggressive]
+
+Under the new conditions, the antagonism between the two schools of
+English statesmanship takes a slightly altered form. Walsingham among
+the ministers, Drake among the seamen, had always believed fervently in
+the theory of breaking the power of Spain to pieces. Elizabeth and (in
+the main) Burghley had clung to the theory of gradually making England
+so secure and so formidable that Spain and England alike should
+ultimately recognise a condition of amicable equality as the best for
+both. Spain would then become amenable to reason in matters
+ecclesiastical and commercial, the old intercourse would be restored in
+its fulness, and general prosperity would result. Against their wishes,
+matters had been by the inevitable trend of events forced to the
+arbitrament of battle. But even now, terrible as the disaster of the
+Armada had been, Spain was by no means shattered; in fact, though the
+English nation was more than jubilant, the seamen themselves were
+evidently disappointed that they had not in the encounter inflicted
+more complete ruin upon their rivals. They had found the Spaniards less
+easy to dispose of than they had anticipated.
+
+[Sidenote: Alternative Naval policies]
+
+The victory however had been won by the great captains of the
+aggressive party; it was followed almost immediately by the revolt of
+Henry III. from the Guise domination; all the conditions were in favour
+of an offensive campaign. For the time being, a peace-party had ceased
+to exist. The only question now was, how to strike. And at this stage
+we see the two rival theories of naval policy in war time beginning to
+be formulated, since naval policy on a large scale was only brought
+into being by the development of an oceanic field for it to work in. Of
+the one policy which has constantly prevailed with our great English
+admirals, that of making the destruction of the enemy's fighting fleet
+the primary object, with mere commerce-destroying secondary, Drake was
+in practice the father; of the other, that of concentrating on his
+trade-routes and menacing his commerce, not unusually favoured by
+France in her wars with England, John Hawkins was the advocate.
+
+For the moment Drake, being undoubtedly the hero of the hour, appeared
+to triumph. His was the scheme of operations approved. But before it
+could be put in practice, its essential features were distorted;
+through no fault of his the plan failed of its full effect; disfavour
+followed; and war on Spanish commerce again became the prevalent policy.
+Its attractions for adventurers are obvious; and its inferiority as a
+method of transforming superiority into supremacy was not yet
+recognised.
+
+[Sidenote: Don Antonio]
+
+Drake's actual design, however, was not on this occasion a precise
+exemplification of the theory just associated with his name, although
+its failure brought the supporters of the opposing school to the front.
+The Armada disaster had already given the English for the time complete
+command of the sea, and his intention was to strike a crippling blow at
+the Spanish power by establishing the Pretender Don Antonio on the
+throne of Portugal and in control of the Azores. Ever since Philip had
+grasped the Portuguese crown in 1580, Elizabeth had played
+diplomatically with the notion of helping Don Antonio to challenge his
+title by force of arms, and Walsingham would have found a grim joy in
+turning the play into earnest. But Antonio could count upon no support
+worth mentioning from other quarters; Elizabeth's help had been in
+quality the same as and in quantity less than she had doled out to
+Huguenots and Netherlanders. The one real attempt in his favour,
+wherein there had hardly been a pretence of English participation, had
+been crushed by Santa Cruz at the naval battle of Terceira in the
+Azores in 1583. But what had been impracticable before the Armada was
+so no longer. With the command of the sea, Portugal might now be won;
+the loss in itself would be a grievous weakening to Spain; and in
+alliance with England. Portugal would be to her neighbour very much
+what Scotland would have been to England had Mary been restored--and
+accepted--by Spanish aid.
+
+[Sidenote: Plan of the Lisbon Expedition, 1588-89] Such was Drake's
+idea, which was to be carried out after the method beloved by the Queen.
+It was not to be exactly a Government affair, but the enterprise of a
+Company, in which her Majesty was to hold shares, providing some money
+and half a dozen ships from her fleet, and various guarantees. It was
+to be a joint naval and military venture, with Drake and Norreys
+respectively in command of the two arms, with a free hand in the
+conduct of operations. All through the winter of 1588 Drake and Norreys
+were hard at work preparing this counter-Armada; but as spring came on,
+the Queen's passion for tying her servants' hands developed on the
+familiar lines. It was not till April that Drake succeeded in
+definitely starting, and he went with a very fine armament; but with
+only a month's commissariat, without the siege train promised, and
+fettered by instructions wholly inconsistent with his own plan of
+campaign.
+
+The Spaniards acquired what purported to be a statement of the terms
+agreed on between Elizabeth and Don Antonio, under which Portugal, with
+the Azores, was to be reduced to a province of England. It does not
+appear however that this document was based upon facts; and the
+instructions [Footnote: _Cf._ Corbett, ii, ] issued to the
+expedition are quite inconsistent with the whole idea. The attempt to
+establish Antonio in Portugal was only to be made if the conditions
+were favourable; if it succeeded, the English were then to retire; if
+it were dropped, they were to make for the Azores. But in any case they
+were to begin by attacking the shipping in Biscayan and other Northern
+harbours of Spain--an entirely superfluous proceeding, as Spain for the
+time had no naval force which could give trouble.
+
+[Sidenote: 1589 May: Corunna and Peniche]
+
+Consequently the expedition--which was accompanied by Elizabeth's
+latest favourite, the young Earl of Essex, a runaway and from his
+Mistress--instead of making straight for Lisbon attacked Corunna. The
+troops were landed, the town stormed and sacked, and the shipping
+destroyed, the Spaniards being driven into the citadel. Immediate
+departure being prevented by the wind, after nearly a week's operations
+a fierce but unsuccessful attempt was made to storm the citadel also.
+This however was followed by a brilliant action, at the Bridge of El
+Burgo, in which Norreys decisively defeated a relieving force of
+greatly superior numbers, prodigies of valour being performed during
+the battle. But the capture of the citadel was unimportant; and the
+wind improving, the expedition proceeded--with many prizes and much
+spoil--to operate against Lisbon. On the way, for some not very
+intelligible reason, Peniche, some fifty miles from Lisbon, was stormed
+by the soldiers--as it would seem, against Drake's will. The whole army
+was here disembarked, to operate against Lisbon by land, while the
+fleet proceeded to the mouth of the Tagus.
+
+[Sidenote: Failure at Lisbon]
+
+Drake at once captured Cascaes, which commanded the entry. But he could
+do nothing more till the army was ready to co-operate. Norreys arrived
+presently: but he had no siege train, and resolved that unless the
+Portuguese rose, as Don Antonio had promised, the attempt on Lisbon
+must be abandoned. It is practically certain that had the attack been
+made, the resolute commandant and his slender garrison would have been
+easily overpowered, the mob favouring the assailants. But Norreys was
+unaware of the facts; the partisans of Don Antonio did not rise; and
+the English fell back to Cascaes to reimbark; having destroyed a
+considerable quantity of stores, and defied Spain on her own soil with
+a handful of men, but otherwise having failed to accomplish the purpose
+of the expedition. Drake however also captured a great convoy of store-
+ships. Contrary winds prevented the fleet from proceeding to the Azores,
+and nothing more was accomplished but the destruction of Vigo, while in
+the subsequent storms a number of ships were damaged or lost. The
+business was a failure, though it had given convincing proof that even
+in Spanish territory--much more on the seas--Spain was incapable of
+taking the offensive. The expedition found its way home about the end
+of June; a few weeks before the assassination of the French King, which
+transformed the Prince of Navarre into Henry IV., a legitimate monarch
+fighting for his throne against a threatened alien domination.
+
+The ships had suffered; the booty was small; the crews and the troops
+had been wasted by sickness and sharp fighting. Consequently Drake and
+Drake's policy were generally discredited. It had in fact been quite
+clearly demonstrated that Spain was on her knees, and that nothing but
+inadequate armament and deficient supplies had prevented the admiral
+from reducing her to a condition still more desperate. But
+superficially, he had failed.
+
+[Sidenote: Policies and Persons]
+
+Now the policy of the forward school, of which Drake was the leading
+example and Walter Raleigh was to be the exponent both with sword and
+pen, was twofold; to prostrate Spain and her naval power, and to plant
+English colonies in direct competition with and open antagonism to the
+colonies of Spain. But the men who had grasped the whole conception
+were few. Walsingham, the one among the elder statesmen who was in
+touch with these ideas, had but a few months to live. The ordinary idea
+of the ordinary Anti-Spaniard was to damage Spain as much as possible;
+but the means to that end which he recognised lay mainly, if not
+entirely, in the raiding of Spanish commerce and the interception of
+treasure-fleets. This was avowedly the view of John Hawkins, which
+naturally appealed to the Adventurers of the day.
+
+On the other side was the school of Burghley himself, and of Elizabeth;
+who had never wished, and did not now wish, to see Spain prostrate, and
+had never been without hopes of converting the rivalry into an alliance,
+though not averse to the bringing of severe pressure to bear for the
+recovery of commercial privileges and the suppression of political
+antagonism. Burghley had not by any means always approved of
+Elizabeth's methods; when it was only by those tortuous wiles that
+peace could be preserved he had joined with Walsingham and Leicester in
+counselling war; but if war could be with honour avoided, it had been
+his constant desire to avoid it; while he had consistently and
+honourably opposed Drake, condemned his buccaneering methods, and
+refused to profit by his daring ventures. Burghley's second son Robert,
+destined to be the old statesman's successor, already establishing his
+position, was the agent of his father's policy. The Queen's latest
+favourite, the young Earl of Essex--a son-in-law of Walsingham, and
+stepson of Leicester--was no statesman in fact, though he fancied
+himself one. His ambition was unlimited; and while, as an anti-Spaniard,
+he was a leader of the party opposed to the Cecils, he was not less
+hotly jealous of his rival within that party, Walter Raleigh (at an
+earlier period, and also afterwards, associated with the Cecils), whose
+large conceptions he could hardly appreciate. Finally the Queen herself,
+with the same political ideals as her old minister, had still never
+been able to resist the temptation of the profits accruing from the
+unauthorised raiding policy--a policy which dealt no blows from which
+it was impossible for Spain to recover, while it kept her in too
+bruised a condition to have any prospect of fighting again at an
+advantage.
+
+It was Elizabeth who had ensured the failure of Drake's expedition, for
+which Drake himself was made responsible. Drake's policy was in
+consequence driven off the field, which was held by that of Essex and
+Hawkins--to which, as a policy, the Cecils were not vehemently opposed,
+while it satisfied the aroused bellicosity of the nation. Private
+enterprise was left to struggle with schemes of colonisation; and Spain
+held her trans-oceanic possessions.
+
+[Sidenote: France, 1589-93]
+
+But Spain's activity was crippled, her recuperation checked; and thus,
+indirectly, as well as with some direct assistance from England, Henry
+IV was enabled more than to hold his own in France, until in 1593, by
+accepting the Mass, he definitely won over to his side all but the
+extreme supporters of the League: from which time his ultimate triumph
+and that of at least limited toleration in France was secured: since
+Alexander of Parma, the one man whose military genius was more than a
+match for that of Henry, died in 1592.
+
+[Sidenote: 1590 Death of Walsingham]
+
+Here however we are anticipating. From the summer of 1589, Drake drops
+into the background. How matters might have gone if Walsingham or even
+Leicester had lived and retained their influence, it is not easy to
+say; both were staunch supporters of the admiral. But Leicester was
+already dead; and though the Queen had full confidence in the Secretary,
+she never liked him. Already he was practically in retirement; and in
+the following April he too died. With him, a very genuine puritanism
+and a determined antagonism to Spain had always been first principles.
+No man had expressed himself more openly in Council or more bitterly in
+private correspondence in condemnation of the tricks and the falsehoods
+which constituted--with a success which cannot be denied--the stock in
+trade of the Queen's diplomacy. He repeatedly risked favour and
+position by his outspokenness. His own policy and conduct had at all
+times been conducted in accordance with a standard of morals and of
+honour which was none the less strict though it does not always command
+sympathy. To Mary Stewart he was a relentless enemy. He had no
+compunctions in his system of espionage, and in his employment of
+traitors and of the _agent provocateur._ He, more than anyone else,
+was probably responsible for the extensive and extended application of
+torture as a means to extract information. These, in his eyes, were
+methods without which it was impossible to fight the enemy who must be
+fought at any cost. He was ready, even eager, to join battle openly
+with Spain in the cause of the Religion, which to him was a reality,
+while to Elizabeth, if not also to Burghley, it was only a political
+factor which it annoyed her to be obliged to recognise. And of his high
+personal integrity, the final proof is that when he died, he left means
+insufficient to provide a decent funeral. If his mantle may be said to
+have fallen on anyone, it was on Walter Raleigh; and Raleigh was not of
+the Council, while his favour with the Queen was at best an extremely
+fluctuating quantity.
+
+[Sidenote: Operations in 1590]
+
+It was not Drake then, but Hawkins and Frobisher who in 1590 commanded
+the armaments sent out to Spanish waters; with the primary intention of
+intercepting the annual convoy of treasure-ships. Disappointment was
+again in store, for the Spaniards had news of the expedition, the
+treasure-fleet did not sail, and the admirals returned home without
+spoils. Not, however, without hurting the enemy; for Spanish finance
+was dependent on the arrival of the bullion, Philip was crippled for
+want of it, and for the same reason Parma was almost paralysed. The
+Huguenot cause was advanced in France by Henry's victory at Ivry. In
+spite of his difficulties, however, Parma prevented the King from
+capturing Paris and so completing his triumph; but, with his resources
+so exhausted, even his genius was unable to accomplish more.
+
+In the same year the splendid qualities developed by English seamen
+were illustrated by a valiant fight, in which twelve Spanish ships of
+war attacked a flotilla of ten English merchantmen, who fought so
+stubbornly that after six hours of conflict the Spaniards drew off,
+fairly defeated; the English having lost neither a ship nor a man.
+
+[Sidenote: 1591 The "Revenge"]
+
+In the meantime, however, Philip was making strenuous efforts to adapt
+his navy to the conditions of maritime warfare introduced by the
+English. In Havana, ships were being built of a greatly improved
+construction for fighting and manoeuvring, and the Spanish yards were
+busy. So when in 1591 a fleet sailed from England under Lord Thomas
+Howard [Footnote: Son of the Duke of Norfolk (executed in 1572) by his
+second wife; and half-brother of the Earl of Arundel, who died in the
+Tower in 1589.] and Richard Grenville, with much the same intent as
+that of Hawkins and Frobisher in 1590, they found themselves no longer
+in possession of the same complete command of the seas. Their squadron
+was a comparatively small one, including only six regular fighting
+ships; and as they lay in the Azores, in waiting for the treasure-fleet,
+tidings reached them that an armada of fifty-three vessels was hard at
+hand on its way to convoy that fleet. Howard put to sea at once,
+avoiding an action; but Grenville on the _Revenge_ [Footnote: The
+_Revenge_ was Drake's ship in the Armada conflict.] of set purpose
+allowed himself to be entangled in the Spanish fleet; and thereupon
+ensued that great fight, that glorious folly, which has been told in
+immortal prose and sung in immortal verse; in which for fifteen hours
+Drake's favourite vessel did battle, almost unaided, with fifty-three
+Spaniards. Not more splendid, not less irrational, were the great deeds
+of the three hundred at Thermopylae, of the six hundred at Balaclava.
+False moves in the game of war, all of them, from the scientific point
+of view; objectless, unreasoning, without possibility of material gain
+accruing; but for all that, deeds which for their sheer daring will
+ring for ever in the ears of men; of which the bare memory is an
+inspiration; whereof the fame in their own day roused the emulous
+courage of every Spartan and of every Englishman, making them ready to
+face any odds, and chilling the blood of their foes. Vain deeds, when
+we count the cost and the tangible gain--but very far from vain when we
+take into account the intangible moral effect.
+
+Yet it was but the supreme example of that heroic spirit, shown times
+and again, at Zutphen, at the Bridge of El Burgo, in countless fights
+with Spaniards and with the elements, which in Elizabeth's day raised
+England to be the first among the nations. A deed therefore to be dwelt
+upon, if we would understand aright the history of those times, in
+which the historian must perforce discourse most frequently and at
+greatest length on doings of a less inspiring order. The craft of the
+statesman, the skill of the general, are the prominent factors in the
+making of history; but the character, the types, of the men of whom
+nations are constituted, are no less fundamental and vital.
+
+[Sidenote: France, 1590-93]
+
+In the meantime, the death in France of Henry IV.'s nominal rival, his
+uncle the titular Charles X., had increased the difficulties of the
+League, which was reduced to putting forward as its candidate the
+Infanta Isabella, the daughter of Philip and his third wife Elizabeth
+of Valois--whom also Philip destined as his nominee for the English
+throne when he should overthrow the heretic Queen. This involved the
+setting aside of the Salic law of succession, and an unmistakable
+Spanish ascendancy, which no conceivable marriage could make
+satisfactory to any one but Philip. Thus Elizabeth still found herself
+compelled to give Henry material assistance, and the English contingent
+before Rouen, which the French King was seeking to capture in the
+latter part of 1591, was commanded by Essex. Again however Parma
+intervened, compelling the siege to be raised: though his death a year
+later left no commander of equal ability to oppose Henry.
+
+[Sidenote: Operations of 1592-94]
+
+During the next three years, 1592-94, no attacks were made on a large
+scale. One was planned for the first year, to be commanded jointly by
+Raleigh and Frobisher. But Raleigh was recalled; the men who had joined
+his flag were indisposed to serve under Frobisher; the squadron divided,
+and ultimately accomplished little beyond the capture of a single rich
+prize. Nevertheless, the process of raiding Spanish commerce by
+privateering ships or squadrons was carried on, with much injury to
+Spanish trade, and collection of considerable spoils; the chief of the
+raiders being perhaps the Earl of Cumberland, who never failed to
+conduct at least one such expedition annually. But though Philip's
+finances continued thereby to be materially crippled, he was not
+prevented from carrying on the work of reorganising his navy; while
+towards the end of 1593 he had secured more than one station at Blavet
+and elsewhere on the coast of Brittany, where he hoped to establish an
+advanced base from which he could constantly threaten the Channel and
+Ireland. This scheme however was frustrated at the end of 1594 by a
+successful joint attack of Frobisher by sea and Norreys by land on a
+position at Crozon which threatened to dominate Brest; and by the
+expulsion of the Spaniards from other points in that neighbourhood
+where they had sought to plant themselves. Frobisher however died from
+a wound he received in the fighting. The move was one that Raleigh had
+advocated zealously; and it proved thoroughly effective.
+
+Important as was this blow to Philip's naval aspirations, the political
+situation was still more decisively affected during these three years
+by the death of Parma in December 1592, Henry's acceptance of the Mass
+in July 1593, and his consequent recognition by the bulk of the French
+Catholics early in 1594: although the extremists of the League
+continued their opposition to him, and their support of the Spanish
+Infanta, a course which secured the maintenance of the alliance between
+Henry and Elizabeth.
+
+[Sidenote: 1589-94 A survey]
+
+From 1589, when the English Queen had deliberately dislocated the plans
+of Drake's Lisbon expedition, changing it from a great political stroke
+into an unsatisfactory raid, till the closing months of 1594 when once
+again a decisively damaging blow was dealt to Philip's naval schemes,
+the war had given ample occasion for stirring deeds of valour and
+brilliant feats of arms, but the scheme of operations throughout had
+been narrow and shortsighted. Though the honours still lay unmistakably
+with England, Spain had in fact been gaining ground, slowly remedying
+those defects in her organisation which had been so glaringly exposed
+by the breakdown of the Armada: and when Frobisher fell at Crozon, she
+was more formidable than at any time since Medina Sidonia had sailed
+from Corunna But besides the main open contest, Philip throughout these
+years had been dallying after his old fashion with the factions outside
+of England which might be looked to as possible instruments for shaking
+the throne of Elizabeth.
+
+These were to be found among the exiled English Catholics, in Scotland,
+and in Ireland.
+
+[Sidenote: Spain and the English Catholics]
+
+With the Catholic exiles however, there was little to be done. Those
+indeed who were closely associated with the Jesuits founded their hopes
+of a Catholic restoration on Spanish dominion, with the Infanta
+Isabella as Queen of England; but the fact by itself sufficed to keep
+the bulk of the party cold if not antagonistic. The price was too high
+to pay, for any but Parsons and his associates. English Catholics
+looked by preference to the succession possibly of the Catholic
+Stanleys of Derby [Footnote: See _Front_]--who unfortunately stood
+aloof--or of either James of Scotland or his cousin Arabella
+(representing the half-English Lennox Stewarts), both Protestants of
+whose conversion hopes were maintained. Patriotism, Nationality, held
+precedence over Religion: even although in 1593 fresh and harsh
+measures against Catholics as well as Puritans were adopted by
+Parliament. Under these conditions, plots for the removal of Elizabeth
+by methods which would make all the lukewarm elements in England
+actively hostile to Spain were not likely to receive encouragement from
+Philip. A variety of such plots were in fact concocted and duly
+revealed by informers or suspects under torture, and fathered on Philip
+or his ministers; but in every case the evidence connecting them with
+the Spaniards is of the weakest. Naturally, Essex and the war-party in
+England made the most of these stories, in order to inflame public
+opinion against Philip, and with no little success. Nevertheless,
+whatever element of truth they may have contained, they are too flimsy
+and unsubstantial to be seriously included in the indictments against
+Philip's character-which are indeed sufficiently grave without
+them. [Footnote: See Hume's _Treason and Plot,_ cc. iv. v., where
+the evidence in a series of these plots is impartially set forth. The
+most notable of the group is that of Lopez, who was executed in 1594.]
+
+[Sidenote: Scottish Intrigues]
+
+Scottish intrigues with Philip were equally abortive. James, on the
+throne, played an unceasing game of chicane and double-dealing,
+perpetually playing off parties and persons against each other with
+that curious cunning which he designated "king-craft". The Catholic
+nobles alternated between hopes of capturing him, or of ejecting him,
+and fears of their own suppression. They tried to bargain with Philip,
+on the hypothesis of effecting James's conversion and placing him on
+the English throne; on the hypothesis of a Catholic restoration in
+Scotland; for one brief interval, on the hypothesis of giving Philip a
+free hand. But James had an ingenious trick of playing at friendship
+with his Catholic lords and introducing himself into these
+negotiations; whereas Philip had no idea of stirring a finger to help
+James to the English succession: and the Scottish Catholic lords
+themselves were by no means ready to relinquish the national aspiration
+to seat a Scots king on the throne of England. So that while these
+intrigues caused some perturbation in the English court, and led
+Elizabeth to lecture her young kinsman and disciple with a fine show of
+pained indignation, they never came within measurable distance of
+definite action.
+
+[Sidenote: Ireland, 1583-92]
+
+Ireland however offered a more promising field of operations. For a
+decade following the suppression of Desmond's rebellion, that country
+had lain in a state of exhaustion. English "under-takers" had been
+planted in the desolated and forfeited lands of Munster. In the North,
+Tyrconnel was loyal--that is, was not disposed to rebellion; Tirlough
+Lynagh, head of the O'Neills, was of a like mind; and Hugh O'Neill, the
+successor to the Earldom of Tyrone, had been brought up in England, and
+was a professed supporter of English rule: against which there was no
+one to make head. Even the coming of the Armada, while creating some
+nervousness, produced no disturbances, though the assistance given by a
+chief here and there to ship-wrecked Spaniards brought them into
+trouble. But this was the calm of exhaustion merely. The unvarying
+impression produced by the Irish letters of the time is that Englishmen
+regarded the native chiefs as a low type of savage, and the common folk
+as a noxious kind of vermin; and it is painfully clear that the
+standard of civilisation was of that debased type which must prevail
+where the governing powers have habitually set the example of
+distorting the first four commandments of the decalogue and ignoring
+the other six. The normal attitude of the bulk of the native Irish and
+Anglo-Irish was one of repressed hatred and veiled defiance towards the
+English, ready to break out openly whenever an opportunity should seem
+to present itself. That attitude would probably have been universal had
+not some of the chiefs, like Ormonde, been convinced that even the
+English system was preferable to the anarchy and strife of septs which
+would result from a temporarily successful rebellion: finding in
+friendly relations with the Government the best guarantee for the
+security of their own position.
+
+Masterful and capable men however like the old Kildare and Shan O'Neill
+had demanded more. To Kildare the Henries had granted that more; Shan
+had come near to securing it in despite of Elizabeth. Now an abler man
+than either, Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, dissatisfied with his
+treatment at the hands of the English was making up his mind to renew
+the contest.
+
+[Sidenote: Tyrone, 1592-94]
+
+Tyrone did not raise the standard of revolt. But in 1592-3, Tyrone, his
+brother in law Hugh Roe O'Donnell, [Footnote: Hugh O'Donnell had been
+trapped and held prisoner in Dublin as a hostage for Tyrconnell's good
+behaviour; but succeeded in making his escape.] Tyrconnell's son, his
+neighbours Maguire and O'Rourke, and the McWilliams or Burkes of
+Connaught--dwellers in the parts furthest from the Pale--were in active
+defiance of the Government. Tyrone was engaged in officially placating
+or repressing or remonstrating with them, ostensibly doing his best to
+serve the Queen; ready to hand over hostages, to present himself in
+person to the Deputy Fitzwilliam and demonstrate his loyalty, or to
+take the field against the rebels with the royal forces. The Deputy,
+and the President of Connaught, had information that he was in fact in
+collusion with the rebels, but none which could be brought home to him;
+and the royal forces--amounting only to between four and five thousand
+men--were as usual inadequate to doing more than march into disturbed
+districts, accomplish some burnings and hangings, enjoy one or two
+sharp skirmishes, and march out again. But by 1594 Tyrone and his
+friends were in communication with Spain, and Philip was again
+contemplating the expulsion of the English from Ireland as an effective
+line of operation in his war with Elizabeth.
+
+[Sidenote: 1595 Drake's last voyage]
+
+By this time the Queen was waking up to the fact that the Spanish sea-
+power was not diminishing but recovering: the attack on the Brittany
+ports points to the revival of a more far-seeing naval policy; Drake
+was returning to favour, and the younger Cecil was well-disposed
+towards him. It was decided that he and old John Hawkins should revive
+the past methods and conduct a grand attack on the Spanish Main and
+Panama. As usual however, fluctuating orders from the Queen delayed the
+start till some months after the intended date; the Plate fleet reached
+its destination in safety; the Spaniards got wind of the expedition;
+and when Drake and Hawkins at last put to sea they had instructions
+calculated effectively to prevent their accomplishing anything like a
+surprise. Porto Rico, the first main objective, had due warning, and so
+was able to offer a successful resistance to the attack, energetically
+as it was conducted. The death of Hawkins, who had grown too cautious
+to work well with Drake, relieved the expedition of divided counsels;
+but Drake had not realised that in the years of his inaction the
+Spaniards had profited by the lessons he had taught them. Though he
+sacked and burnt La Hacha, Santa Marta, and Nombre de Dios, the spoils
+were small; the enemy, prepared for his coming, had secured the passes
+through Darien to Panama, and it was found that there was no
+possibility of forcing them. Then came the final disaster; Drake
+himself was seized with dysentery, and on January 28th, 1598, the great
+seaman died. He found in the Ocean his fitting grave: and the
+expedition returned to England having failed to accomplish anything
+noteworthy, though it had to fight a not unsuccessful battle with a
+slightly superior fleet on the way home.
+
+Six months before Drake sailed on his last voyage, Raleigh had gone on
+a notable exploring expedition to the Orinoco; the forerunner of not a
+few voyages in search of the fabled Eldorado. Beyond some extension of
+geographical knowledge however, the venture was unfruitful.
+
+[Sidenote: 1596 The Cadiz expedition]
+
+Although Drake's expedition had been spoilt, his theories were once
+more, in the main, in the ascendant; and in June 1598 a great attacking
+force was again organised, with Cadiz for its principal objective. An
+effective blow at Philip's navy was made all the more necessary at the
+moment, because the Archduke Albert, now in command in the Netherlands,
+had just succeeded in capturing Calais from the French. Howard of
+Effingham again commanded as admiral, with Essex as general in chief, a
+council which included Raleigh and Lord Thomas Howard, and a Dutch
+contingent which was under the orders of the English chief. The
+Spaniards had this time no suspicion of what was on foot. The harbour
+of Cadiz was full of shipping; which included however a number of ships
+of war in fighting trim. Thus it was not without a fierce conflict that
+the English drove their way in. Two ships only were captured, and
+transferred from the Spanish to the English navy, but numbers were sunk
+or burnt. The exploit was a brilliant one, owing its success largely to
+a change from the original plan of attack, for which that advocated by
+Raleigh was substituted. Cadiz itself was stormed, captured, and put to
+ransom; but the victors displayed what was in those days a singular and
+notable restraint and courtesy in their treatment of the vanquished. In
+spite, however, of the protests of Essex, who wished to remain in
+occupation of Cadiz, Lord Howard was content with the heavy spoils
+secured and the immense destruction wrought, and the expedition
+returned home.
+
+[Sidenote: Ireland, 1595-96]
+
+Tyrone in the meantime was playing his difficult game in Ireland with
+remarkable success. He consistently maintained his professions of
+loyalty, though by now calling himself "The O'Neill," like Shan, he
+fostered the belief that he was only waiting to declare himself anti-
+English; he continued to evade action against the more open rebels; he
+continued to correspond with Spain; and yet Sir John Norreys, now in
+command of the army in Ireland, could not resist the belief that he
+meant to be loyal and would be loyal and would make the other chiefs so,
+if his assistance were loyally accepted and his position frankly
+confirmed by the English. Whether such anticipations would have proved
+true if he had been treated as Henry VII. treated Kildare, it is
+impossible to say. But the Deputy Fitzwilliam, and his successor
+Russell, regarded him as a traitor at heart, and persistently provided
+him with palpable excuse for distrusting them [Footnote: Tyrone received
+a letter from Philip, which he showed the Deputy, as a proof of the
+tempting offers made to him and of his own loyalty, on condition that
+it should neither be copied nor retained. But it was kept by the
+English, and used by them to attack Philip, and others.] in turn. Under
+such conditions, loyal or not at bottom, it was no part of the Earl's
+policy to break with Philip, or on the other hand to commit himself too
+deeply till Philip should be also irrevocably committed to rendering
+real solid assistance.
+
+So Norreys went on recommending conciliation, and Russell went on
+opposing that policy, while Elizabeth persistently abstained alike from
+effective conciliation and from the one practicable alternative policy
+of placing a really strong organised and orderly garrison in the
+country: maintaining instead only a few ill-paid ill-disciplined ill-
+behaved troops who might on occasion meet the raw Irish levies but were
+wholly unfitted to be the instruments of a firm government. And all the
+time from every officer in Ireland arose the perpetual petition to be
+recalled from service in a country where neither a soldier nor an
+administrator could possibly escape lowering any reputation he might
+have previously acquired. It was well for England that Drake's last
+expedition demanded the entire attention of the Spanish Fleet; and that,
+following thereon, the Cadiz expedition was even more destructive to
+the prospects of the new Armada which Philip was still seeking to
+organise, than Drake's former Cadiz expedition had proved itself to the
+Great Armada in 1587. Tyrone was thereby baulked of Spanish help,
+without which he would not plunge into such a rebellion as might
+threaten seriously to embarrass Elizabeth and benefit Philip.
+
+[Sidenote: 1596 The second Armada]
+
+So matters stood in the summer of 1596. One quality however Philip
+possessed with which Englishmen must sympathise; he never recognised
+that he was beaten. Crushing as the blow at Cadiz was, the northern
+ports were left alone, and there the laborious building up of a great
+fleet was in steady progress. Philip was stirred to deal a
+counterstroke, and late in October a huge new Armada of nearly a
+hundred vessels sailed from Vigo Bay, its destination unknown save to
+Philip, its very existence unrealised in England, where no one believed
+that a Spanish fleet would put to sea so late in the year. The Irish
+chiefs however had notice that an invading force was coming. But the
+old story was repeated. The preparations had been thrown out of gear by
+the disaster of the summer; all the provisions were incomplete; the
+ships were hopelessly ill-found; and the fleet had hardly started when
+a terrific storm fell on it and shattered it. Thirty or more of the
+vessels were lost at sea; when the rest of the battered armament
+struggled back to Ferrol, pestilence broke out, and the crews died and
+deserted by hundreds if not by thousands. The stars in their courses
+fought against Philip and ruined the second Armada--this time without
+the help of hostile man.
+
+[Sidenote: 1597 The Island Voyage, etc.]
+
+This was followed again in the next summer by another English
+expedition, known as the "Island Voyage," with Essex, Lord Thomas
+Howard, and Raleigh in command; with a score of ships from the Royal
+Navy, and a Dutch contingent as in the Cadiz expedition. [Footnote: The
+soldiers wanted an army to attack Calais. Raleigh's insistence however
+carried the day in favour of a naval blow. (Raleigh, _Opinion on the
+Spanish Alarum_.)] The affair however was mismanaged. From the start,
+there were adverse tempests. [Footnote: _S. P. Dom._ iv., p. 463.]
+Corunna and Ferrol, which it was intended to attack, were found warned
+and armed for defence; and the gales were unfavourable. The fleet made
+for the Azores, and captured Fayal, Graciosa, and St. Michael's; but
+the treasure-fleet by good fortune evaded the English and found safety
+at Terceira. Raleigh and Essex quarrelled violently; and the fleet
+returned home with little accomplished. It succeeded however in
+weathering a storm which once more had made havoc of still another
+Spanish Armada, which sought to seize the opportunity for making a raid
+on Cornwall with a view to seizing and holding some port, to be used as
+an advance post for operations in the Channel--a sufficiently wild
+scheme at the best, with Essex's fleet returning almost on the heels of
+the expedition.
+
+The failure decided Tyrone that Spain was a thoroughly broken reed; and
+he succeeded in making terms with the English Government [Footnote: _S.
+P. Irish,_ vi., pp. 477-479.] that winter, if only with a view to
+organising a more determined and independent rebellion in the near
+future.
+
+[Sidenote: 1598 Spain]
+
+It is abundantly evident in this the last year of Philip's life that he
+was beaten at every point, however his obstinate fanaticism might
+refuse to admit it. His designs on the throne of France were foiled;
+the negotiations were already far advanced for the Peace of Vervins
+which was to set the French King free from the war. The prospect of
+placing Isabella [Footnote: Philip was now arranging to bestow Flanders
+upon her as an independent sovereignty.] on the English throne was more
+visionary than ever. The Spanish party among the English Catholics were
+growing more and more out of favour; pride in the prestige of English
+arms, scorn that England should be dominated by a nation which could
+not match her in open fight, strengthened the patriotic section. The
+Scots would not stir a finger except to make their own monarch king of
+the neighbouring country. The Pope himself had no desire to see Spain
+so aggrandised as to be able to dictate to Christendom. The prospect of
+the Netherlands being reduced to submission had all but vanished. As
+for the maritime rivalry, all the Spanish efforts had been in vain. The
+ships had been improved; the defence of the trade-routes had been
+better organised. Several of the blows aimed by England had been more
+or less abortive; but one at least had been staggering, and every
+attempt at a counterstroke had ended in plain disaster. Moreover from
+first to last the Spaniards, valiant as they often proved themselves,
+had fought as beaten men, the English as assured victors; both alike
+with a perfect conviction that the latter were certain to win against
+any but overwhelming odds. Such a fight as that of the _Revenge,_
+with the nationalities of the combatants reversed, was unimaginable.
+
+Yet even in 1598 Philip and some of his ecclesiastical counsellors were
+unconvinced, and a brief alarm was created when a Spanish flotilla
+dashed up the Channel and made its way to Calais, not yet restored to
+France. Completely unexpected as it was, however, English squadrons
+were on the seas almost at a day's notice. Half the flotilla was lost
+outside Calais, and immediately afterwards the Spanish ports were in a
+ferment at the report that Cumberland was hovering off their own coast
+--very sufficient evidence of the immense superiority of the English,
+both in organisation and _morale._
+
+[Sidenote: Death of Philip, Sept.]
+
+In September, Elizabeth's great enemy breathed his last. He was not
+exactly the monster of iniquity that he has been painted; not a
+criminal for the love of criminality. He was a Tiberius rather than a
+Nero; a morbid influence, not a devouring pestilence. A perfectly
+sombre bigot; an example of what the Greeks would have called [Greek:
+hubris] of a very exceptional kind, who believed devoutly in himself as
+the instrument chosen by the Saints for the overthrow of heretics;
+convinced that his aims and interests were favoured by Heaven, ranking
+before those of the Papacy itself; without a qualm as to the
+righteousness of all means he could adopt to further those aims. Save
+in one slight instance, we seek in vain to find in him any sign of
+human affections--tenderness, sympathy, generosity. Infinitely
+laborious, his idea of government was to elaborate an enormous
+machinery, of which every portion should be under his personal control;
+eternally suspicious, he trusted no man, and kept the hands of his
+servants tied and bound; immovably cautious, he always waited to strike
+till he thought he could do so with overwhelming force, and he always
+waited till the time to strike had passed--till his opponent had
+crippled him by striking first. Forty years before, he was lord of the
+New World, lord of the seas, lord of Spain, of half Italy, of the
+Netherlands, and seemed destined to be lord of England, almost of
+Europe. Elizabeth and Cecil had seen where lay the weakness of his
+position; they had evaded, cajoled, finally had defied and triumphed
+over him. When he sank to the grave, the lordship of the sea had passed,
+the lordship of the Netherlands was passing, the lordship of the New
+World was tottering. His overweening egotism had sucked the life-blood
+of Spain. The Power which forty years before had threatened to dominate
+the world was no better than a decrepit giant; the form still loomed
+gigantic, but the substance was gripped with the chill paralysis
+wherewith Philip had smitten it, since he had entered like a poisonous
+blight upon his inheritance.
+
+[Sidenote: Death of Burghley, Aug.]
+
+Philip was seventy-one when he died. Six weeks earlier Lord Burghley,
+seven years his senior, passed away, leaving Elizabeth with none beside
+her of her own generation. For forty years too, he had been the Queen's
+first minister. However we read the enigma of Elizabeth's apparent
+frivolity, vacillation, trickery and success, he had been throughout
+the one man with whose counsel she would not dispense, even when she
+seemed to flout him. Essentially he was a master of compromise, of
+balance; a devotee of moderation, of the _via media._ Hardly less
+averse to war than his mistress, he would yet have preferred war to
+some of the ignominious shifts by which she evaded it; for he had a
+cool level-headed confidence in England's essential vitality and power
+of weathering the storm, if it should burst, even at times when outside
+observers imagined that that confidence was hurrying her to ruin. When
+obliged to lean to one side or the other in religious controversy, he
+adopted the cause of "his brethren in Christ" as Elizabeth dubbed them
+with a sneer, because that was more compatible with his _via
+media_ than the other: but he had none of Walsingham's puritanic
+enthusiasm. His ideal for England was a prosperous respectability:
+breaches of political propriety shocked him. He would take no share in
+the profits of buccaneering exploits: but it was the same mental
+quality which kept him from any zeal for Causes which might drag the
+country into incalculable ventures. When it seemed to him that a
+vigorous support of European Protestantism was the only alternative to
+submission to Spain, he went with Walsingham, though Elizabeth found
+her own alternative in spite of them both: but he did it reluctantly,
+and always at bottom with the hope that Spain and England might yet
+attain mutual amity. After the death of Nicholas Bacon in 1579 he
+inclined more to believe in that possibility, and in proportion as the
+war-party was strengthened by the Armada his antagonism to it became
+the more marked. After his seventieth year his direct interference in
+politics had become less; but his astute son, Robert Cecil, represented
+him. All through his career, he was a consistent opportunist, using
+without scruple all currently admissible tools, never missing the
+chance of the half-loaf. The most industrious of men, a supremely
+shrewd judge of character and motive, he was rarely--save in the case
+of the Queen--misled by superficial appearances; though his own lack of
+sentiment prevented him from fully appreciating the sentimental factor
+in politics. Always at all risks he was loyal to Queen and Country; and
+habitually, even at some risk, to servants and colleagues. If he does
+not stand absolutely in the first rank of English statesmen, they are
+yet few who stand above him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+ELIZABETH (xi), 1598-1603-THE QUEEN'S LAST YEARS
+
+[Sidenote: A new generation]
+
+By Burghley's death, Elizabeth was left alone, reft of all her earlier
+counsellors. Nicholas Bacon had died as far back as 1579, Leicester in
+1588, Walsingham in 1590, her kinsmen Knollys and Hunsdon--less prominent,
+but of sober weight--more recently. Except Howard of Effingham (created
+Earl of Nottingham after the Cadiz expedition), Burghley was the last; and
+their sombre antagonist of forty years had followed him in a few weeks. She
+herself was sixty-five years old. The leading men at home and abroad--Henry
+IV., Philip III., Robert Cecil, Raleigh, Essex, who was now only thirty--
+were of a younger generation. Lonely but stubborn and indomitable as ever
+she ruled still to the end.
+
+Those last five years were troubled enough.
+
+[Sidenote: 1598 Ireland]
+
+We have seen that in Ireland Tyrone was resolved to place no more
+dependence on Spanish aid; but it was equally clear that the Government as
+constituted was quite unable to quell him. Norreys was now dead, and
+Ormonde was in command of the Queen's army, such as it was. The English
+garrison was quite incapable of vigorous aggression. In 1598 a few raw
+levies were sent over, instead of the strong disciplined force without
+which nothing could be effected. In the middle of August a force was
+dispatched against Tyrone, who was beleaguering the Blackwater fort not far
+from Armagh; and Tyrone inflicted on it a complete and disastrous defeat,
+[Footnote: S. P. _Irish_, pp. 236 ff.] which caused nothing less than
+a panic among the Council at Dublin. The practical effect was that outside
+the Pale the chiefs were doing as they chose, and the English could hardly
+move beyond their fortifications; even within the Pale ravaging was almost
+unchecked; and if it had been possible for Tyrone to march in force on
+Dublin, the capital would probably have fallen.
+
+In the troubles of Ireland, Essex was to seek a ladder for his ambitions,
+and to find, as others before and after him have found, the road to ruin.
+
+[Sidenote: Essex]
+
+The personal interest of these years belongs very much to the rivalries of
+three men; Robert Cecil, sly, cautious, and plausible; Raleigh, brilliant
+and bitter, intellectually a head and shoulders above the rest; Essex, not
+lacking in abilities distorted by inordinate vanity. Associated on equal
+terms, in war, with the experience of Howard and the genius of Raleigh, at
+the Council-board with the astute and consummately trained Cecil, petted
+and spoiled by the elderly Queen as she had spoiled no one since the days
+of Leicester's youth, a public favourite by reason of his undoubted courage
+and his popular habits, Essex, young as he was, had long imagined himself
+the greatest man in the kingdom, chafing at every favour bestowed on a
+rival, and treating men who knew themselves his superiors with intolerable
+arrogance. Now, when the state of Ireland, and the remedies, were the
+subject of grave anxiety, he clamoured of the blank incompetence to the
+task of every one who had undertaken it or could be suggested as fitted for
+it; with the result that he was invited to undertake it himself. Thereupon
+he made unprecedented conditions. Some months elapsed before the conditions
+could be arranged; it would certainly seem that his object was to get under
+his own captaincy a force large enough to enable him to defy all control,
+though he was not without friends to warn him that his influence with
+Elizabeth depended on the fascination of his presence--a fact of which his
+ill-wishers were equally aware, and by which they intended to profit to the
+full. Not the least part of the danger to Essex lay in the fact that the
+political air was thick with intrigues as to the succession when Elizabeth
+should die, and that his rivals might utilise his absence to secure the
+throne for a candidate who under the circumstances would be certain to
+prove unfriendly to him.
+
+[Sidenote: 1599 Essex in Ireland]
+
+But the hot-headed Earl had deprived himself of the power of choice though
+he was almost equally unwilling to resign or to undertake the task to which
+he was committed. In April 1599 he appeared in Ireland as Lord Lieutenant,
+virtually with plenary powers alike in civil and military affairs, and a
+warrant to return in a year's time. Yet he chafed at such restrictions as
+were imposed upon him, at the incompetence of the officers with whom he was
+provided, at the refusal to permit appointments objectionable to the Queen,
+at the inefficiency of his troops and the inadequacy of his supplies. In
+theory, he was come to Ireland to strike straight at the heart of the
+rebellion and crush Tyrone in his own fastnesses. He found that the
+condition of the country absolutely precluded an immediate campaign in the
+North. He proceeded instead on a military progress through Leinster and
+Munster, capturing castles which surrendered with no more than a show of
+resistance, scattering small garrisons, perpetually harassed by guerilla
+companies who avoided pitched battles. He gave Southampton command of the
+cavalry in defiance of the Queen's orders, and then received from her so
+peremptory a message that he dared not maintain the appointment. The rebels
+cut up the forces of the President of Connaught, and another detached
+column in Wicklow: and on his way back to Dublin, Essex himself had much
+ado to beat off an attack on his main army at Arklow.
+
+In the meantime, he was writing letters of furious complaint that the
+Council in London--in especial Raleigh, who was now associated with
+Cecil--were deliberately seeking to cripple him for their own ends--a
+charge which they declined to answer, as being merely a piece of excited
+extravagance; and Elizabeth rated him, not more sharply than he deserved,
+for wasting the unusually large sums provided for Ireland on a procedure so
+vain. Further, she peremptorily ordered him to march against O'Neill
+without delay, warning him on no account to withdraw from the country.
+
+[Sidenote: Fall of Essex]
+
+So at the end of August Essex set out. But when he found himself within
+striking distance of Tyrone's forces, the latter invited him to a
+parley. It was granted and held, and was followed by two more meetings;
+with the amazing result that a truce was concluded and both armies
+withdrew. That some personal compact was made can hardly be doubted; what
+it was remains unknown, and it was never carried out; but the presumption
+is that there was some joint scheme for securing the succession of King
+James to the throne, with Tyrone supreme in Ireland and Essex in England.
+Tyrone himself gave the Spaniards an obviously improbable version of the
+plan (after it had collapsed), according to which he had induced Essex to
+contemplate adhesion to the ultra-Spanish party, though he was the most
+pronouncedly hostile to Spain and to Catholicism of all the English
+leaders.
+
+Whatever the plot, the ignominy of such a termination to the lavish
+preparations and boastings preceding was palpable. Elizabeth was furious,
+and her expressions of resentment were scathing. Whereupon Essex took the
+very worst step possible in his own interests. Relying on the Queen's
+curious infatuation for his person, which had survived innumerable quarrels
+and flagrant impertinences, he left his office, sped across the channel,
+rode post haste across England, flung himself, all mud-bespattered into the
+presence of his mistress in her chamber, and prayed for pardon. For the
+moment, she was too utterly taken aback to be herself; he left her thinking
+he had won. But the outrage was too gross. That evening he found himself
+under arrest. His enemies' policy of "giving him rope enough" had been more
+completely successful than they could have hoped. He had set the noose
+about his neck with his own hand, though it was not yet tightened.
+
+[Sidenote: Catholic factions]
+
+The whole of the Essex story is inextricably interwoven with the crowd of
+intrigues in progress in connexion with the succession. In England by this
+time the ultra-Spanish or Jesuit faction, which would have enthroned the
+Inquisition with a Spanish nominee as sovereign, was all but non-existent.
+The division was into two main parties. One desired a sovereign under whom
+either Catholicism should be restored under such tolerant conditions as
+prevailed under Henry IV. in France, or else Anglicanism might be retained,
+extending a like toleration to Catholics. There was of course a
+fundamental divergence between these two positions; but very many of the
+nobility, whether professed Anglicans or professed Catholics, were prepared
+to accept either alternative. Of this party the intellectual chief was
+Cecil. The second party, that of which Essex was the head, relied primarily
+upon the Puritan element, and advocated persistent hostility to Spain.
+
+Now the effective Spanish position had been materially changed since,
+shortly before his death, Philip II. had erected the Netherlands into a
+separate sovereignty under the Infanta Isabella and the Austrian Archduke
+Albert to whom she was betrothed: he had thus made possible for England a
+revival of the old-time Burgundian alliance independent of Spain. The
+Archduke knew that as a Spanish Princess Isabella would never be accepted
+in England, but the union under one head of England and Burgundy was a very
+different matter, which might provide a key to the religious problem very
+much akin to that which France had recently found. It was in this direction
+that the eyes of the majority of the Cecil party were probably turned. For
+Essex however--unless indeed he really contemplated the hare-brained scheme
+of striking for the throne himself--the course was clearly to bring in
+James as his own puppet. It is no doubt easy to remark that that crafty
+prince would very soon have outwitted and tripped up the shallow and
+overweening Earl: but the Earl himself was the last person to anticipate
+such a _denouement_.
+
+[Sidenote: Philip III]
+
+But outside England there was the cunning King of Scots, on the one hand
+intriguing with Essex, on the other appealing to the Pope, as a Catholic at
+heart who was only waiting for adequate support to drop the mask--bidding
+in fact for the countenance of both camps. There was Tyrone in Ireland,
+similarly posing to Spain as the champion of Catholicism, while intriguing
+with Essex and James indubitably for something like sovereignty for himself
+as the price of supporting the Scots King. And there was the young Philip
+III. of Spain, idle and vain, who, with a bankrupt treasury and a rotten
+administration had his head full of the most inflated ideas of his own
+power, and still fancied himself quite capable of conquering England at a
+blow; a delusion from which the fanatical religionists who trusted not in
+the arm of flesh, were also suffering. To him therefore the idea of James
+ascending the English throne even as a Catholic was quite repugnant; as was
+also the succession of his sister, unless she restored the Netherlands to
+him. Whereas the union with the Netherlands was precisely the one condition
+which made her candidature possible in England.
+
+While Essex was still in Ireland this imagination of Philip's had borne
+curious fruit. He ordered the preparation of another Armada: the greatest
+of all. The Spanish vapourings on the subject actually created some alarm
+in England; Raleigh and Lord Thomas Howard very promptly had efficient
+fleets on the narrow seas; the Lord Admiral (now Earl of Nottingham) was
+appointed Lord General and there was a great mustering of troops and
+raising of companies by noblemen and gentlemen. But it is more than
+probable that, as far as the land forces were concerned, these measures
+were intended quite as much to be a hint to Essex that he would find any
+attempt at coercion an exceedingly dangerous game, as for protection
+against any effort which Philip was capable of putting forth. In fact this
+Armada ended in the feeblest of all these feeble fiascoes: for while it was
+making ready, a Dutch fleet was raiding the Canaries and the trade routes;
+when it put to sea its energies were absorbed in a futile attempt to catch
+these audacious enemies; and before it reached the Azores, a fourth part of
+it had foundered and the balance had been practically crippled by foul
+weather.
+
+Such then was the position when in the autumn of 1599 Essex suddenly found
+himself a prisoner. Cecil however did not think it politic to go to
+extremities. The Earl was not haled before the Star-Chamber as was proposed
+in some quarters; it was not till the following June that he was brought
+before a commission of the Privy Council for enquiry and censure; and some
+two months later he was released. But from October 1599 to August 1600 he
+remained in custody.
+
+[Sidenote: 1600 Ireland]
+
+In the meantime, Tyrone was appealing to Spain and to the Archduke Albert.
+The latter, with ulterior objects, was negotiating for peace with Cecil--
+who was following a path of his own--and had no mind to complicate the
+intrigue by an Irish embroilment. Philip immediately gave orders that
+everything was to be provided to conquer Ireland out of hand; but as the
+means for carrying out those orders were entirely lacking, there were no
+results. Moreover, Elizabeth had at last realised that the systematic
+reduction of Ireland was now an absolute necessity which could only be
+accomplished by adequate forces under a competent commander. Montjoy, a
+connexion of Essex, was sent over; his dealings with Tyrone met with
+increasing success. Essex had at first counted on Montjoy acting in effect
+as his own deputy; but in this he was disappointed. Placed in a position of
+responsibility, the Deputy immediately rejected the overtures he made. The
+army in Ireland was not to be the instrument of Essex's ambition.
+
+[Sidenote: Succession intrigues]
+
+Where so many of the actors were simultaneously engaged in alternative
+intrigues, some of them with entire insincerity, and solely for the purpose
+of keeping inconvenient persons or groups in play until they were harmless,
+it is not possible to be sure in most cases of the real policy intended.
+Cecil's party were in some sort of communication even with Parsons, who
+persuaded himself that if only Philip would definitely commit himself to a
+nominee, and would strike in before the Scots King could secure himself,
+the chiefs of that party would support him. It is not credible that this
+was really the case, but it is at least probable that the group were
+deliberately seeking to produce that impression at the Spanish head-
+quarters. For them the essential thing was to wreck Essex on the one side
+and out-wit the extreme Catholics on the other. Others might be deceived,
+but Cecil and Raleigh at least must have been fully alive to the
+worthlessness of any programme which assumed political intelligence on the
+part of Philip, or effective activity in Spain. James was playing for the
+support of every section, by inducing each to believe that his overtures to
+the other sections were mere blinds: and during this year he was working
+for the support of Henry IV., as being at heart a tolerant Catholic.
+Whether Essex, who must have been aware of the intrigue, accepted the
+policy or regarded it as merely a useful diplomatic deception remains
+uncertain; at any rate it did not alienate him. But the appearance of a
+Franco-Scottish rapprochement was an immediate incentive to and excuse for
+counter negotiations with Philip and the Archduke on the part of the
+English government.
+
+[Sidenote: The end of Essex 1600-1]
+
+At the end of August, Essex was released, though still excluded from
+favour. The Cecil party had complete control of the situation, and to all
+appearance meant to come to terms with the Archduke: which would wreck the
+Earl's ambitions irretrievably. Now, when his one chance lay in playing the
+repentant and tearful adorer of a mistress cruel and fair if somewhat
+mature--a very familiar role for him--his cry was all for the restoration
+of lost pecuniary privileges; and his mistress would naturally have none of
+a lover so self-centred. Despairing of the Queen's favour, he was rash
+enough to pose as a popular champion, declaiming against the intriguers who
+were selling England to the Infanta, and drawing round him the young
+hot-heads and scape-graces of the nobility, in the insane belief that their
+swords and the cheers of the London mob would enable him to effect the
+overthrow of Cecil by a _coup de main_. When the time was ripe, early
+in February, Cecil struck. Essex was summoned to appear before the Council.
+He evaded the summons, and next day with his friends made a frantic attempt
+to raise the City for the removal of the Queen's false Counsellors. That
+evening he was a prisoner in the Tower. A few days later, he was brought to
+trial for treason before a Court of Peers, and was condemned and
+executed. Pardon was impossible, though Elizabeth's grief at signing his
+death warrant was poignant and permanent.
+
+[Sidenote: Robert Cecil]
+
+The triumph of Cecil was complete. The utter overthrow of Essex had been
+his first objective; now he was free to work his own underground policy.
+Publicly and ostensibly as before he remained the chief of the "moderate"
+party, seeking reconciliation with Spain and a _modus vivendi_ between
+Catholics and Anglicans; privately he took Essex's vacated place as the
+friend of the Scots King. Thenceforth, from the Moderate camp, directing
+the Moderate programme, he was in intimate correspondence [Footnote: Now
+published in its entirety by the Camden Society.] with James; working for
+the ultimate destruction of his rivals and associates, when the Stewart
+should become King of England, owing his crown to Cecil's dexterity. James,
+realising his position, promptly fell in with Cecil's plans, dropped
+coquetting with Catholics abroad, and was quite content to wait for a dead
+woman's shoes, and to give up irritating demands for an immediate
+recognition, of which, with Cecil on his side, he felt ultimately assured.
+
+[Sidenote: Ireland 1600-1]
+
+During 1600, Montjoy had already been doing good service in Ireland. The
+14,000 troops at his disposal--though thrice as many as had been allowed to
+Norreys--were insufficient for dealing a rapid and crushing blow at the
+heart of the rebellion in Ulster. In Munster, however, the Deputy had a
+vigorous lieutenant in Carew, and the chiefs were of a divided mind--
+largely because many of them held their positions precariously, in virtue
+of the English tenure which had been officially substituted for the Irish
+method of succession--so that the forces of resistance were to a great
+extent broken up. But in Ulster, Montjoy accomplished a fine strategic
+stroke by making a feint of invading the province from the south, while he
+sent a large force of 4000 men by sea, under command of Docwra, to Loch
+Foyle, where they established themselves at Londonderry. He was thus in a
+position to strike at Tyrone or O'Donnell whenever those chiefs should
+attempt to move southward in force: as was exemplified next year, when
+Donegal was seized, and the Blackwater fort was recaptured by a move from
+the South, because Tyrone could not withdraw his attention from Derry.
+
+[Sidenote: 1601 The Irish rebellion broken]
+
+About the time of Essex's crash, there were again rumours of a Spanish
+invasion. Carew could deal with the Irish rebels alone, but hardly with a
+strong invading force as well. When in September 1601 a real Spanish force
+did arrive at Kinsale, Montjoy had to concentrate in Munster. But though
+this expedition showed the limits of Philip's capacities, it was as usual
+so ill found that many of the ships had been obliged to put back to
+Corunna, and others, failing to make Kinsale, put in at Baltimore. Montjoy
+was in strength near Cork, Carew at Limerick ready to intercept the
+approach of the rebels from the North. In a very short time, Kinsale was
+beleagured, and when a portion of a Spanish reinforcement managed to reach
+the coast in December, it found an English flotilla before it, and its
+troops were isolated in a third station at Castlehaven. O'Donnell however
+succeeded in evading Carew, who then joined forces with Montjoy and the
+fleet before Kinsale. When Tyrone arrived, an attempt was made to relieve
+Kinsale; but Montjoy was unusually well served by his intelligence, his
+dispositions were skilful, and the rebels were totally routed beyond
+possibility of present recovery. Aguilar, the Spanish commander, was
+admitted to terms; Baltimore and Castlehaven were surrendered. Thus
+abortively collapsed the last effort of Philip III. The Irish rebellion was
+broken. Many of the chiefs after vain and desperate resistance escaped to
+Spain; others surrendered to the Queen's mercy. O'Donnell was of the
+former; he died soon after reaching Spain. But Tyrone the diplomatic
+succeeded in making terms. It seemed that once more the English Government
+was supreme.
+
+[Sidenote: 1602 The Succession]
+
+Once again, as the death of the great Queen becomes imminent, we must
+remind ourselves that to the last she refused to recognise any heir, and
+that there were various claimants, [Footnote: Genealogical Tables;
+_Front._ and _App. A_, iii.] each one with a colourable claim.
+In point of priority by heredity King James of Scotland unquestionably
+stood first of the descendants of Henry VII. and Elizabeth of York; yet the
+fact that he was not only an alien but King of Scotland made him in himself
+an unwelcome candidate. Next to him, since like him she descended from
+Margaret Tudor, stood his cousin Arabella--a Stewart too, but of the Lennox
+Stewarts, not the Royal House: an English subject; but with the drawback
+that she was a woman and unmarried. Third, but first under the will of
+Henry VIII. was Lord Beauchamp, son of Katharine Grey and the Earl of
+Hertford; about the validity of his parents' marriage however there was a
+doubt. The Stanleys of Derby, who through Margaret Clifford could claim
+descent from the younger daughter of Henry VII., would have nothing to do
+with inheriting the crown; no more would the Earl of Huntingdon who
+descended from Edward IV.'s brother, George of Clarence. But Philip of
+Spain claimed the crown for himself as a descendant of John of Gaunt;
+though, the union of the crowns of England and Spain being admittedly
+impracticable, he was under promise to transfer his claim to a hitherto
+unnamed nominee, presumably his sister. Virtually therefore Isabella ranked
+as a possible though not very enthusiastic candidate.
+
+[Sidenote: The last intrigues]
+
+By this time, it was perfectly obvious that the Infanta could not be forced
+upon England, though it was supposed that the Moderates would have favoured
+her candidature provided she brought Flanders with her: whereas the
+negotiations controlled by Cecil were not tending to bring about any such
+result. As 1602 drew to a close, the ablest man in Spain, Olivares, was
+emphasising the necessity for giving the English Catholics as a body a free
+hand to nominate an English candidate instead of an alien. It is probable,
+though it cannot be called certain, that there was a plot to unite the
+claims of Arabella and Lord Beauchamp by marrying them, with an implication
+that both were prepared in due time to declare themselves Catholics.
+Meantime the Moderates were awaiting direction from Cecil; who ostensibly
+was himself waiting on a hint from the Queen, but was privily keeping the
+way clear for James, while seeking to implicate Raleigh and others in
+language and actions which might at any rate be interpreted as hostile to
+him. In this secret intriguing, Cecil's great ally was Lord Henry Howard, a
+brother of the last Duke of Norfolk; and he had with him the Careys of the
+Hunsdon family. Of the Moderates in general it can only be said that, while
+there was no candidate in whose favour they could combine with any warmth,
+James was rather more obnoxious to them than others. Yet they did not
+combine against him, while if any of them sought to ingratiate themselves
+with him Cecil was particularly careful to sow distrust of them in the
+Scots King's mind, unless they happened to be partisans of his own or at
+any rate probable allies. When Arabella tried to escape from what was
+practically the custody of her grandmother the Dowager Countess of
+Shrewsbury, the famous "Bess of Hardwick," the attempt was nipped in the
+bud: and the Catholics were still without any declared candidate when the
+lonely old Queen was seized in March with her last mortal illness.
+
+[Sidenote: 1603 Death of the Queen]
+
+As Elizabeth lay on her death-bed, her entourage consisted almost
+exclusively of Cecil and his friends, among whom is to be numbered the old
+Lord Admiral, though he was innocent of the intrigues going on. The ships
+in the Thames, the troops in the North, were commanded by members of the
+same group; almost before the breath was out of her body Robert Carey was
+galloping North to hail James I. King of England: and the world was told
+that Elizabeth's last conscious act was to ratify by a sign the succession
+of her old-time rival's son. In her seventieth year, in the early hours of
+March 24th, 1603, ended the long and glorious reign of the Virgin Queen.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+ELIZABETH (xii), 1558-1603--LITERATURE
+
+The Elizabethan Literature demands from the general Historian something
+more than the incidental references which may suffice in other periods. In
+earlier days, he may draw upon Piers Plowman or Chaucer for evidence and
+illustrations of the prevalent social conditions; in the century following
+he may appeal to Milton and Bunyan to elucidate aspects of Puritanism. But
+the Elizabethan literature is in a degree quite unique, the expression of
+the whole spirit of the time, its many-sidedness, its vigour, its creative
+force; helping us to realise how it was that Elizabeth's Englishmen made
+Elizabeth's England. And this of course is beside the other fact that for
+the historian of literature _per se_ there is no period quite so
+interesting and instructive, none of such vital importance in the evolution
+of English Letters.
+
+[Sidenote: Birth of a National Literature]
+
+In the five centuries since the Norman Conquest, ending in 1566, England
+had produced but one single poet of the front rank or anything approaching
+it, Geoffrey Chaucer. From the time when Edmund Spenser in 1579 delighted
+his contemporaries by the publication of the _Shepherd's Calendar_,
+she has never been without writers whose claim to eminence among poets can
+be at least plausibly maintained. Before very much the same date, English
+prose as a consciously artistic medium of utterance had hardly begun to be
+recognised; even Thomas More wrote his _Utopia_ in Latin, and it was
+not translated into English till many years after his death. The
+possibility of an English Prose Style--written prose as distinguished from
+spoken oratory--had hardly presented itself except to the translators of
+Scripture and the Liturgy. Before the century closed, the world was
+enriched by the compact and pregnant sentences of Francis Bacon's
+_Essays_ and the dignified simplicity of Hooker's _Ecclesiastical
+Polity_. As with the Poets, so also the chain of masters of English
+Prose is unbroken from that day forward. But most sudden and startling of
+all the various developments was that of the Drama. It may be doubted if
+any critical observer in 1579 would have ventured even to suspect that the
+crowning glory of Elizabeth's reign was to be the work of playwrights; yet
+before she died the genius of Marlowe had blazed and been quenched,
+_Hamlet_ had appeared on the boards, Jonson's "learned sock" had
+achieved fame; the men whose names we are wont to associate with the
+"Mermaid" had most of them already begun their career, even if they had not
+yet passed the stage of merely adapting, doctoring, and "writing up" for
+managers the stock-plays in their repertory. The Drama, proving itself the
+form of literary expression most perfectly adapted to the spirit of the
+age, absorbed the available literary talent as it has never done since.
+
+Sudden as the outburst was however, it had been made possible by many years
+of wide and miscellaneous experiment, though little of any permanent
+intrinsic value had been actually achieved.
+
+[Sidenote: Prose: before 1579]
+
+Except for Ascham's _Toxophilus_, very few passages [Footnote: Such as
+may be lighted on for instance in "Sir John Mandeville," Mallory, and
+Hall's _Chronicle_.] of English prose notable as prose--that is,
+consciously essaying what is connoted by the term _style_--had been
+produced before Elizabeth's accession, apart from the liturgical,
+rhetorical, or controversial work of the clergy or clerical disputants. The
+_Acts and Monuments_ of Foxe, popularly known as, the "Book of
+Martyrs," published in the first decade of the reign, showed the
+development of a power of vigorously dramatic narrative which should not be
+overlooked. The enormous popularity however which that work achieved was at
+least in part the outcome of the general sterility. Men had not yet learned
+to write, but they were ready to read even voraciously. Culture was in
+vogue. As things stood culture, in practice, meant and could mean little
+else than the study of Latin and Italian authors--Greek being still
+reserved for the learned--of whose works translations, some of notable
+merit, were very soon beginning to appear on the market. It was inevitably
+to these two literatures--the Latin and the Italian--that men turned in the
+first instance to find the models and formulate the canons of literary art;
+with only occasional divagations in the direction of France or Spain,
+countries which were scarcely a generation in advance of England. We remark
+that the old idea that for prose which was intended to live the true medium
+was still the one international literary language, Latin, died exceedingly
+hard; Bacon himself, great master though he was of his mother-tongue,
+maintaining it quite definitely. This pedantic attitude however was not
+involved in the idea of culture, and men welcomed with avidity an author
+who made his appeal to the non-academic public in vigorous English. The
+conversion even of the academic mind was close at hand.
+
+[Sidenote: 1579-89]
+
+The year 1579 is in the strictest sense an epoch in the history of English
+Literature; as witnessing the first appearance of a new and original force
+in English verse, and the first deliberate and elaborate effort in the
+direction of artistically constructed English Prose. In that year, John
+Lyly published his _Euphues: the Anatomy of Wit_, and Edmund Spenser
+his _Shepherd's Calendar_.
+
+[Sidenote: Euphues]
+
+_Euphues_, and its companion volume _Euphues and His England_
+enjoyed a very remarkable if temporary vogue; running through numerous
+editions in the course of the ensuing fifty years. After that, it dropped.
+It is not surprising that it dropped. The work is tedious, prolix,
+affected, abounding in pedantry and in intellectual foppery. But its whole
+meaning and significance at the time when it was written are lost to us if
+we pay attention only to the ridicule which very soon fell upon it, to the
+mockery in Shakespeare's burlesques of Euphuism, or to Scott's later parody
+of it in the character of Sir Piercie Shafton. The everlasting antitheses,
+the perpetual playing with words, the alliterative trickery, the
+accumulation of far-fetched similes, the endless and often most
+inappropriate classical, mythological, and quasi-zoological allusions and
+parallels, are indeed sufficiently absurd and wearisome; and when
+"Euphuism" became a fashionable craze, its sillier disciples were a very
+fit target for jesting and mirth, very much as in our own day the humorists
+found abundant and legitimate food for laughter in the vagaries of what was
+known as "aestheticism". In both cases, the extravagances were the
+separable accidents, the superficial excrescences, of a real intellectual
+movement with a quite healthy motive. _Euphues_ itself was a real and
+serious if somewhat misdirected effort at making a moralised culture
+fashionable, and at elevating; the English tongue into a medium of refined
+and polished expression. If the Euphuists included Armados among them, they
+numbered also their Birons and Rosalines. Though Lyly practised exuberances
+of verbal jugglery, he was not their inventor; they were a vice of the
+times, largely borrowed from foreign models; and Shakespeare himself, in
+moments of aberrant ingenuity, produced--not for laughter--samples which
+Lyly might have admired but could never have emulated.
+
+[Sidenote: Sidney's prose works]
+
+Lyly's work was a novel experiment in prose, without previous parallel;
+critical judgments were no very long time in detecting and condemning his
+extravagances. But the same intellectual motive was soon to find a more
+chastened and artistic expression in the work of one who was still but a
+literary experimentalist when he meet his death at Zutphen. When Sir Philip
+Sidney, that "verray parfit gentil knight," scholar, soldier, and
+statesman, if the unanimous appraisement of the best of his contemporaries
+is worth anything, wrote his _Defence of Poesie_, he had not indeed
+broken free from the trammels of academic theory; but it is a very often
+acute and always charming piece of critical work in scholarly and graceful
+language. More affected and generally inferior in style, but also still on
+the whole scholarly and graceful in its language, is his _Arcadia_, an
+example of the indefinitely constructed amorphous Romances out of which in
+course of long time the novel was to be evolved. The dwellers in that
+Arcady are as far removed from the nymphs and swains of Watteau's day as
+from a primitive Greek population; they behave as no human beings ever did
+or could behave; they belong in short to a particularly unconvincing kind
+of fairy-land, of which the vogue happily died out at an early stage. The
+_Arcadia_ is not intrinsically a great book, nor can it be read to-day
+without a considerable effort; yet it must always be notable as not merely
+an experiment but a positive achievement in English prose style. Neither of
+these works was published till after 1590; but both must have been written
+before 1583.
+
+[Sidenote: Hooker 1594]
+
+It was not till the last decade of the reign had begun that the first great
+monument of English Prose appeared; nor is it surprising that, when it did
+come, it was an example of the Ecclesiastical or politico-ecclesiastical
+order. With the publication in 1594 of the first four books of Richard
+Hooker's _Ecclesiastical Polity_, the full claims of English as a
+great literary language were decisively established by his rhythmical,
+stately, and luminous periods. In their own field, Poets and Dramatists had
+already secured those claims; with the works of Marlowe, the earliest plays
+of Shakespeare, and the opening books of the _Faerie Queene_.
+
+[Sidenote: Verse; before 1579]
+
+While the Eighth Henry was still ruling England, Surrey and Wyatt, heedful
+of things Italian, had already discovered that verse-making was at any rate
+a delectable pastime for a gentleman of wit, especially if he had a
+love-affair on hand; a pastime certainly pleasing to himself and probably
+agreeable to his mistress. They made metrical experiments, introducing both
+the sonnet and blank verse. The example they set was followed by others,
+and _Tottel's Miscellany_, published towards the end of Mary's reign,
+shows that a considerable skill in this minor art had already been
+acquired, and not only by the two principal contributors, though the
+writers were still working within very narrow metrical limitations. In 1559
+appeared the _Mirrour for Magistrates_, for the most part dull and
+uninteresting but containing in the _Induction_ and the _Complaint
+of Buckingham_ two contributions by Thomas Sackville (afterwards Lord
+Buckhurst) which are a good deal more than clever verse-making. But after
+one other experiment--the part-authorship of the first English Tragedy in
+blank verse, _Gorboduc_--Sackville deserted the Muses, for public
+affairs; in his later years becoming a leading member of Elizabeth's
+Council. The little verse that he left is of a quality to make us wish that
+he had written more: for there is in him at least a hint of some
+possibilities which were actualised in Spenser. But twenty years passed
+before the appearance of the _Shepherd's Calendar_, during which it is
+probable enough that courtiers and lovers continued to practise, after the
+school of Surrey and Wyatt; nothing however was published that has
+survived, save the work of the universal experimentalist and pioneer George
+Gascoigne, who tried his hand at most forms of literary production,
+achieving distinction in none but a laudable respectability in all.
+
+[Sidenote: 1579-90 Spenser and others ]
+
+The _Shepherd's Calendar/_ by itself would give Spenser nothing more
+than a high position among minor poets; but with him verse reappeared as
+something more than an elegant exercise for courtiers, scholars or lovers.
+Above all, the _Shepherd's Calendar_ gave unexpected proof of the
+metrical capacities and verbal felicities of the English language, though
+setting it forth to the accompaniment of an excessive use of archaic forms
+and expressions. Even that excess had its value as a protest against the
+pedantic precision of the Latinists, who were already indulging in a
+grotesque attempt to displace natural English metres by Ovidian and
+Horatian prosody. Spenser himself made some futile efforts in this
+direction; so did Sidney--sundry more or less ingenious examples are
+scattered about the _Arcadia_; but Sidney realised his error in time
+to write the _Astrophel and Stella_ sonnets (about 1581-2), which
+though still somewhat stiff and academic might well have been the
+precursors of some noble poetry had the writer lived longer. As it is, his
+life and death form the noblest poem he has bequeathed to us.
+
+Those sonnets also remained unpublished till some years later. The first
+three books of the _Faerie Queene_, which at once established Spenser
+for all time as a true poet of the highest rank, did not appear till
+1590. In the interval, the English Drama was finding itself, and some of
+the dramatists were revealing that gift of song--in the restricted sense of
+the word--which was bestowed in such unparalleled measure on the later
+Elizabethans. To this decade belong songs by Lyly and Peele, Lodge and
+Greene, which have already caught the delicate daintiness and the exquisite
+lilt of Shakespeare's songs and a host of others found in the later
+songbooks--qualities of which there is little more than a rare hint here
+and there in the earlier Miscellanies, for all the bravery of such titles
+as _A Paradise of Dainty Devises_ (1576): _A Gorgeous Gallery of
+Gallant Inventions_ (1578): or _A Handefull of Pleasant
+Delites_(1584).
+
+[Sidenote: The Drama before Elizabeth]
+
+The definite triumph of Christianity over Paganism killed the Drama of the
+old world, the Church deliberately setting its face against the
+theatre. But primitive popular instincts, embodied in the continued
+celebration, as holiday sports, of what had originally been pagan rites,
+kept in existence crude and embryonic forms of dramatic representation at
+the festival seasons; which after a time the ecclesiastics saw more
+advantage in adapting to their own ends than in suppressing. Hence arose
+the miracle plays or Mysteries (probably _ministerium_, not [Greek:
+mystaerion]) of the middle ages--representations chiefly of episodes in the
+Biblical narrative. These in turn suggested the Moralities, dialogues with
+action in which the characters were personifications of virtues or vices
+relieved, in consideration of the weakness of the flesh, by passages of
+broad buffoonery. Lastly in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth
+centuries came the representation of what were called "Interludes," for the
+most part short farces of a very primitive order--probably the offspring of
+the aforesaid passages of buffoonery. These did not constitute a literary
+drama; but they kept the idea of dramatic representation in being, though
+no such thing as a theatre or building constructed for the purpose existed
+as yet. The performances were given either in Church, or, later, in a
+nobleman's hall, or in the courtyard of an inn. The "masque" or pantomimic
+pageant, without dialogue, was also a familiar spectacle of the later
+times, and remained an occasional feature of the drama in its development.
+
+The revival of interest in the classics caused some attention to be paid to
+the Roman drama; and hence Italy led the way--as in all things literary--in
+producing imitations of the plays then known. These however hardly got
+beyond the stage of being mere imitations; though as models Terence and
+Seneca were superior to the compilers of miracle plays, something more was
+required than copying their works before a Drama worthy of the name could
+be evolved. But from about the middle of the sixteenth century, the
+dramatic instinct in England was struggling to find for itself new and
+adequate expression.
+
+[Sidenote: Early Elizabethan Drama]
+
+With the Educational revival, it would appear that schoolmasters
+occasionally caused their pupils to act scenes, in Latin or perhaps at
+times in a translated version, from Terence: and it is not surprising to
+find that what is recognised as the first English Comedy was written by a
+schoolmaster for his boys to perform. _Ralph Roister Doister_ derived
+from the Latin model, and is in doggerel couplets. It was the work of
+Nicholas Udall who was Master of Eton and afterwards of Westminster; but
+whether it was produced in the earlier or later period is not certainly
+known. At any rate it preceded the accession of Queen Mary. _Gammer
+Gurton's Needle_, dated 1553, holds the second place in point of time;
+and _Gorboduc_ otherwise known as _Ferrex and Porrex_, the first
+English blank-verse tragedy, the work of Sackville and Norton, was acted in
+1561. From this time, we have notices of the production of a considerable
+number of plays of which it may be assumed that they were exceedingly
+crude, being either very formless experiments derived from the interludes
+or else direct imitations or translations of Latin or Italian plays; to
+which Gascoigne contributed his share. A nearer approach to the coming
+Comedy is found in the plays of John Lyly preceding his _Euphues_. By
+this time dramatic performances had achieved such popularity that the City
+Fathers were scandalised--not indeed without reason--by their encroachments
+on the more solid but less inviting attractions of Church Services; and by
+banishing them from the City precincts caused the first regularly
+constructed theatres to be established outside the City bounds in
+Shoreditch: a departure which no doubt tended to the more definite
+organisation of the Actor's profession. As the Eighties progressed, a
+higher standard of dramatic production was attained by the group of
+"University" play wrights---Peele, Greene, Nash, and others; wild Bohemian
+spirits for the most part, careless of conventions whether moral or
+literary, wayward, clever, audacious; culminating with Marlowe, whose first
+extremely immature play _Tamburlaine_, was probably acted in 1587 when
+he was only three and twenty; his career terminating in a tavern brawl some
+six years later. By that time (1593) it is certain that Shakespeare, born
+in the same year as Marlowe, was writing for the managers; though none of
+his known work can with confidence be dated earlier than the year of
+Marlowe's death. The great age of the Drama had begun.
+
+[Sidenote: The younger generation]
+
+It will have become apparent from this survey that, although we talk with
+very good reason of the Elizabethan Age of English Literature, the Queen
+had been reigning for thirty years, the great political crisis of her rule
+had been reached, the Armada had perished, before any single work had been
+written, or at any rate published, which on its merits--judged by the
+criteria of an established literature with established canons--would have
+entitled its author to a position of any distinction on the roll of fame.
+Up to 1589, the most remarkable productions had been: in prose, Foxe's
+_Book of Martyrs_ and Lyly's _Euphues_; in verse, some lines of
+Sackville, and the _Shepherd's Calendar_. Even when we have added to
+these Sidney's _Sonnets_ and his _Arcadia_--written but not
+published--the significant fact remains that he, as well as Spenser and
+Lyly, was not born till the second half of the century had begun: and all
+three were older than any of the group of dramatists who are named as
+Shakespeare's precursors. Spenser was actually the eldest of all the men
+whose writings shed lustre on the great Queen's reign: and Spenser himself
+had not attained to the full maturity of his genius--had not, at least
+given its fruits to the world--at the hour of England's triumph. Had he
+died in the year of Zutphen, "Colin Clout" would have ranked little if at
+all higher than "Astrophel." Further: save for Sidney and Marlowe, who were
+both cut off prematurely, and Spenser himself who died at forty-six, the
+work of all the greater Elizabethan writers--Shakespeare, and Ben Jonson,
+Bacon, Hooker, Raleigh, Middleton, Drayton--lies as much in the time of
+James as in that of Elizabeth; while a whole group of those to whom the
+same general title is applied--Beaumont and Fletcher, Webster, Ford,
+Massinger--belong in effect wholly to the later reign.
+
+Broadly speaking therefore it is worth noting that state-craft, soldiering,
+seamanship, affairs of a very practical character, absorbed the keen brains
+and the abundant energies of the earlier generation; even for the men born
+in the fifties, like Raleigh and Sidney, literature (except with Spenser)
+held a quite secondary place. But no sooner is the National triumph ensured
+than the younger generation displays in the literary field characteristics
+essentially the same as those whereby their elders had raised England in
+war and in politics to the first rank among the nations.
+
+For years to come, for the first time certainly in English History,
+literature in one form or another appropriates the best work of the best
+brains. There are men of ability in politics, but no giants: or if one of
+the giants, like Bacon, divides his attention between the two fields, the
+best half of it goes to literature. Yet it is essentially the same spirit
+which works in the great men of Elizabeth's closing years as in the great
+men of her youth and of her maturity.
+
+[Sidenote: Pervading Characteristics]
+
+The quality which conditions the whole English character through the period
+is an exuberant, often even a riotous energy, a vast imaginativeness, which
+breeds in the first place an immense daring, saved from degenerating into
+mere recklessness by a coolness of head in emergencies which is singularly
+marked. Whether we look at Elizabeth, Cecil, and Walsingham, or at Hawkins
+and Drake and Frobisher, or broadly at the actions of the rank and file,
+these characteristics are apparent. They are no less patent in the poets.
+
+[Sidenote: displayed in the Drama and other fields]
+
+Thus if we consider the tragedies of the period, their tremendous audacity
+is perhaps their most prominent feature. The stage reeks with blood and
+reverberates thunder, to an extent which could not fail to become merely
+grotesque but for the immense pervading vitality. These men could and did
+venture upon extravagances and imbue them with a terrific quality, when in
+weaker hands they would have become ridiculous. For anything less than the
+vibrating energy of Marlowe, the final scene of his _Faustus_ would
+have sunk to burlesque. A cold analysis of the plot of _Hamlet_ or
+_Macbeth_ would suggest mere melodrama. A Shakespeare or a Marlowe had
+no hesitation in facing tasks which offered no mean between great success
+or great failure. Nor was the audacity in their choice of subjects more
+remarkable than in their methods, their defiance of recognised canons. Just
+as the seamen had ignored the convention of centuries, creating a new
+system of naval tactics and a new type of navy, so the Tragedians brushed
+aside the academic convention, creating new dramatic canons and a new type
+of drama. The innovation in the structure of comedy was no less daring,
+since it proceeded on parallel lines. And here again the same quality of
+superabundant vitality is equally prominent. But it is to be noted that
+while the Elizabethan vitality would have made the drama great in spite of
+its audacity, the greatest productions are distinguished from the less
+great precisely by that peculiar sanity which stamped the master-spirits of
+the time. As it is with the dramatists, so is it with the rest. The same
+fulness of life is apparent in the luxuriance of Spenser's imagination, and
+in the spontaneity of half a hundred anonymous song-writers, the same
+audacity in Raleigh, embarking on his History of the World, and in Bacon,
+assuming all knowledge to be his province, while affirming and formulating
+the principles of Inductive Reasoning in substitution for the Deductive
+methods by which the Schools had lived for centuries. Wherever the critic
+turns his glance, he can find no sign of the Decadent. In every field of
+life, in politics, in war, in religion, in letters, the Elizabethan was
+virile even in his vices. His offences against morals or against art were
+essentially of the barbaric not the effete order; as the splendours of his
+productions were the natural beauties of plants nurtured in the open, not
+in the hothouse.
+
+[Sidenote: Breadth of view]
+
+Other aspects of the national character could be readily inferred from the
+prevalent tone of this literature. Toleration as a political principle was
+not yet recognised: tolerance as a private attitude of mind was very
+prevalent. The Jesuit and the extreme Puritan, the doctrinal propagandists
+who would endure no deviation from their own standard, were thoroughly
+unpopular, and managed to put themselves outside the field of
+consideration; the immense bulk of the nation was in sympathy with neither
+the one nor the other, and it is only to the extremists that the men of
+letters show a direct antipathy. Catholics can make a presentable case for
+the theory that Shakespeare himself was a "crypto-Catholic," though the
+case is not more than presentable. Rome is abhorrent to Spenser, yet it is
+apparent that many of his ethical conceptions are infinitely nearer akin to
+those of mediaeval Catholicism than of the current Puritanism. Hooker, most
+earnest of Christians, was also the most liberal-minded of men. Jonson was
+half a Catholic. All were manifestly men of deep religious feeling, but
+none can be associated with any religious party. When England was pitted as
+a Protestant Power against a Power aggressively determined on the
+eradication of Protestantism, it was inevitable that the prevailing
+sentiment should be increasingly Protestant; on the whole, it is surprising
+that there should have been so little bigotry in it. The public inclination
+was to be tolerant of all but the intolerant, and that attitude is
+reflected in all the literature of the time, except the specifically
+partisan writings of controversialists.
+
+[Patriotism]
+
+So also another note of the day was the general patriotism, national pride,
+or insularity; the sentiment which made the Catholics themselves, even when
+they were most under suspicion and had most cause to welcome an opportunity
+for rebellion, ready and eager to fall into line and resist the invader who
+was to liberate them. Again the poets gave voice to the national feeling,
+none more emphatically or more admirably than Shakespeare himself.
+Patriotic lines might of course be written for the sake of the gallery's
+inevitable applause; but Shakespeare's panegyrics of England are absolutely
+and unmistakably whole hearted, and it may be doubted if in all his plays
+he presented any single character with a more thorough and convincing
+sympathy and appreciation than his Henry V., the incarnation of English
+aggressiveness.
+
+[The Normal Types] Finally, what manner of men and women they were who
+peopled the England that Shakespeare knew, we can see from the men and
+women whom Shakespeare drew. The types manifest themselves; the normal and
+the exceptional are readily distinguishable. The normal type is keen of
+wit, impulsive; it is observable for instance that both men and women
+habitually--almost invariably--fall in love unreservedly at first sight;
+generous for the most part; in action prompt and more often than not
+over-hasty, but resourceful--the women more resourceful than the men. It is
+a commonplace of course to remark that his types are types for all time;
+but different types are more prevalent at one time than another, and the
+inference is that Shakespeare's prevalent types were the prevalent ones of
+his own day. Hamlet, Brutus, Cleopatra, belonged to eternal but not to
+normal types; Hotspur and Mercutio, Rosalind and Cordelia--even if the
+latter were glorified examples--were obviously normal. For in play after
+play, whether as leading or as minor characters, they recur again and
+again; and more than that we find the same characteristics--presented no
+doubt with less incisiveness and less brilliancy--reappearing in the
+Dramatis Personae of the whole Elizabethan group. Such were the gentlemen
+of England who fought the Spaniard and overthrew him; such were their
+sisters and their wives.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+ELIZABETH (xiii), 1558-1603--ASPECTS OF THE REIGN
+
+[Sidenote: Features of the Reign]
+
+The reign of Elizabeth may be said to have been distinguished primarily by
+three leading features. The first is the development and establishment of
+England as the greatest maritime power in the world, a process which has
+been traced with some fulness. The second is that sudden and amazing
+outburst of literary genius in the latter half, and mainly in the last
+quarter, of the reign, for which there is no historical parallel except in
+Athens, unless once again we find it in England two centuries later:
+whereof the last few pages have treated. The third is the Ecclesiastical
+settlement, on which it has hitherto been possible only to touch. This,
+with certain other aspects of the reign, remain for discussion in this
+concluding chapter.
+
+[Sidenote: State and Church]
+
+In this settlement, the primary fundamental fact, politically speaking--
+for theological problems do not fall within our range--is the recognition
+by the State of the Church as an aspect of the body politic, and of her
+organisation as a branch of the body politic, subject to the control of the
+Sovereign and maintained by the sanction of the Sovereign's supremacy;
+precluding the interference of any external authority, and overriding any
+claims to independent authority on the part of the organisation itself;
+requiring from all members of the body politic conformity, under penalties,
+to the institutions thus regulated, and rejection of any authority running
+counter thereto. The secondary fact is that the State thus sanctioned such
+institutions as, under a reasonable liberty of interpretation, might be
+accepted without a severe strain of conscience by persons holding opinions
+of considerable diversity; so that conformity should be possible to the
+great bulk of the nation, including many who might not in theory admit the
+right of the State to a voice in the matter at all.
+
+The politicians, that is, deliberately chose a _via media_.
+Theologically, the dividing line lay between those who desired the Mass and
+reunion with Rome, and those who rejected the Mass and derived their dogmas
+from Geneva. Under Mary, the Government had thrown itself on the side of
+the former; under Edward, mainly on that of the latter. Elizabeth's
+Government would have neither. It would not admit the papal claim to
+override the secular authority, or the equally dictatorial claims of the
+Genevan ministry as exemplified by John Knox; the first necessity for it
+was to assert secular supremacy, the second to make its definitions of
+dogma sufficiently ambiguous to be reconcilable with the dogmatic scruples
+of the majority of both parties; with the result however of shutting out
+both determined Romanists and determined Calvinists, while the Church thus
+regulated contained two parties, one with conservative, the other with
+advanced, ideals.
+
+The outward note of Conservative churchmen was insistence on ceremonial
+observances, as that of the advanced men was dislike of them. But as the
+reign advanced, another feature acquires prominence--the protest of the
+Puritans against the Episcopalian system of Church Government, with the
+correspondingly increased emphasis laid on the vital necessity of that
+system by the Conservatives.
+
+[Sidenote: The State and the Catholics]
+
+The Queen's personal predilections were at all times on the Conservative
+side; those of her principal advisers always leaned towards the Puritans--
+at the first Cecil, Bacon, and Elizabeth's own kinsmen, Knollys and
+Hunsdon; then Walsingham, drawing Leicester with him. But in the early
+years of her rule, when it was imperative to minimise all possible causes
+of discontent, the admission of the largest possible latitude in practice
+was required, even if it was accompanied by legislation which gave
+authority for restrictive action. It followed however from the political
+conditions that direct hostility to the Queen was to be feared only from
+the Catholics--the whole body of those who would have liked to see the old
+religion restored in its entirety. This was emphasized by the Papal Bull
+excommunicating Elizabeth in 1570--a political blunder on the part of the
+Pope which greatly annoyed and embarrassed Philip at the time. The result,
+joined with the Northern Rising, the Ridolfi plot, and the indignation
+aroused by the day of St. Bartholomew, was to strengthen the hands of the
+Puritans and to give open Catholicism the character of a political offence;
+and to this an enormously increased force was added in 1581 by the Jesuit
+mission. During these years, parliaments were all unfailingly and
+increasingly Puritan, and Puritanism was steadily making way all over the
+country, not without the favour of the leading divines. Elizabeth herself
+viewed this tendency with extreme dislike, mercilessly snubbing bishops and
+others who seemed to betray inclinations in this direction--Grindal in
+particular, Parker's successor at Canterbury, suffered from her
+displeasure; but she could not suppress it. She might--and did--say a good
+deal; but she could not in act go nearly as far as she would have wished,
+in opposition to subjects whose political loyalty was indisputable, as well
+as extremely necessary to her security.
+
+[Sidenote: The Church and the Puritans]
+
+So long as the advanced movement concerned itself chiefly with the
+"Vestiarian Controversy" and matters of ceremonial observance, it did not
+assume primary importance in the eyes of politicians. But by the middle of
+the reign the question of the form of Church Government had come to the
+front, and the demand to substitute the Presbyterian system for the
+Episcopalian was being put forward by Cartwright and his followers and had
+even produced a Presbyterian organisation within the Church. Moreover the
+school commonly called Brownists, who developed into the sect of
+Independents, were propounding the theory that the Church consisted not of
+the whole nation but only of the Elect. Puritanism was therefore
+threatening to become directly subversive of the established order. Then
+came the mission of Parsons and Campian. The effect of this in regard to
+Catholics was twofold. It necessitated an increased severity in dealing
+with any one who recognised papal authority: and made it more imperative
+than ever to induce Catholics to be reconciled with the State Church, by
+emphasizing the Catholic side of her institutions, and consequently by
+checking Puritan developments. On the other side, it was so obviously
+impossible for the Puritans to withdraw their loyalty from Elizabeth that
+to conciliate them was superfluous; they were adopting an attitude
+antagonistic to the approved constitution of the Church; and there was a
+suggestion of rigid even-handed justice in waging war upon their propaganda
+at the same time as on that of Rome. Whitgift, succeeding Grindal at
+Canterbury in 1583, opened the campaign against Puritanism--not indeed with
+the favour either of parliament or of the leading statesmen, whose personal
+sympathies were with the advanced party, but manifestly with encouragement
+from the Queen.
+
+[Sidenote: Archbishop Whitgift]
+
+Whitgift's own attitude was that of the Disciplinarian rather than of the
+theologian. The method of operation was by the issue of Fifteen Articles to
+which all the clergy were required to subscribe: the sanction thereof being
+the authority of the Court of High Commission. Under the Act of Supremacy
+of 1559, the appointment of a Commission to enforce obedience to the law in
+matters ecclesiastical had been authorised. This Court was fully
+constituted in December 1583, and proceeded by methods which Burghley
+himself held to be too inquisitorial. A good deal of indignation was
+aroused, and the Puritans were in effect made more aggressive, their
+attacks on the existing system culminating in 1589 in the distinctly
+scurrilous "Martin Mar-prelate" tracts, which were so violent as to
+produce a marked reaction. This on the one side, coupled with the partly
+genuine and partly mythical plots of the ultra-Catholics on the other,
+brought about sharp legislation in 1593, resulting in an increased
+persecution of the Catholics after that time, and in the compulsory
+withdrawal of the extreme nonconformists to the more sympathetic atmosphere
+of the Netherlands. At the same time the "High" theory of the Church's
+authority was formulated by Bancroft (afterwards Archbishop), and what may
+be called the Constitutional theory of Church Government was propounded in
+the _Ecclesiastical Polity_ of Hooker. All of this was the prologue to
+the great controversy which was to acquire such prominence under the
+Stuarts.
+
+[Sidenote: The Persecutions]
+
+In writing of the persecutions under Elizabeth alike of Catholics and of
+Puritans, it is not uncommon to imply that the political argument in their
+defence was a mere pretext with a theological motive. As a matter of fact
+however, the distinction between Elizabeth's and Mary's persecutions is a
+real one. Broadly speaking, it is now the universally received view that no
+man ought to be penalised on the score of opinions conscientiously held,
+however erroneous they may be; but that if those opinions find expression
+in anti-social acts, the acts must be punished. Punishment of opinions is
+rightly branded as persecution. Now although in effect not a few persons,
+Puritans or Catholics, were put to death by Elizabeth, and many more
+imprisoned or fined--as they would have said themselves, for Conscience'
+sake--this was the distinction specifically recognised by her; which,
+without justifying her persecutions, differentiates them from those of her
+predecessors. Henry and Mary frankly and avowedly burnt victims for holding
+wrong opinions--for Heresy. Anabaptism no doubt was accounted a social as
+well as a theological crime; but no one ever dreamed of regarding Ann Ascue
+or Frith as politically dangerous. Mary kindled the fires of Smithfield for
+the salvation of souls, not for the safety of her throne. Whereas the
+foundation of Elizabeth's persecutions was that _opinions_ as such
+were of no consequence: but that people who would not conform their
+_conduct_ to her regulations must either be potential traitors
+politically or anarchists socially. Her proceedings are brought into the
+category of persecutions, because she treated potential anarchism or
+treason as implying overt anarchism or treason, though unless and until she
+discovered such implication in a given opinion, any one was at liberty to
+hold it or not as he chose; its truth or falsity was a matter of entire
+indifference. To punish the implied intention of committing a wrong act is
+sufficiently dangerous in principle; but it is to be distinguished from
+punishment for holding an opinion because it is accounted a false one.
+
+Finally, while we must condemn her persecution both of Puritans and of
+Catholics alike, it is only fair, in comparing her with her predecessor, to
+remember that, in the five and forty years of her reign, the whole number
+of persons who suffered death as Catholics or as Anabaptists was
+considerably less than the number of the Martyrs in four years of Mary's
+rule.
+
+[Sidenote: Economic progress]
+
+By adopting Cecil's ecclesiastical policy of the _via media_,
+Elizabeth saved England from the internecine religious strife which almost
+throughout her reign made the political action of France so
+inefficient. The constant wars of the Huguenots with the Leaguers or their
+predecessors had their counterpart for Philip also, whose struggle with the
+Netherlanders was to a great extent in the nature of a civil war. Fully
+realising how seriously both France and Spain were hampered by these
+complications, she was able to conduct her diplomatic manoeuvres with an
+audacity quite as remarkable as her duplicity, gauging to a nicety the
+carrying capacity of the very thin ice over which she was constantly
+skating. Thus while both those Powers were perpetually exhausting their
+resources and draining their exchequers with costly wars, England, free
+from any similar strain, was rapidly growing in wealth; and while the
+national expenditure was kept comparatively low, manufactures were
+multiplied, and the commerce which was driven by the stress of war from the
+great trade-centres of the Netherlands was being absorbed by English ports.
+Moreover that forcible trading indulged in by John Hawkins in the earlier
+ventures of the reign--giving place, as time went on to the process of
+systematic preying upon Spanish treasure--provided very substantial
+dividends for the Queen, as well as filling the pockets of her loyal
+subjects. Thus again she was able to avoid making perpetual demands on her
+parliaments, and when demands were made the parliaments could usually meet
+them in a generous and ungrudging spirit.
+
+[Sidenote: The currency; Retrenchment]
+
+Nevertheless, no little financial skill and courage were required to
+restore the public credit which had fallen to such disastrous depths in the
+two preceding reigns; and this was done to a large extent by a policy of
+determined financial honesty. The miserable system of debasing the coinage
+was brought to an end; the current coins were called in and paid for at not
+much under their actual value in silver, and the new coins issued were of
+their face value. Debts contracted by Government were punctually paid, and
+as an immediate consequence the Government soon found itself able to borrow
+at reasonable instead of ruinous rates of interest. Private prosperity and
+public confidence advanced so swiftly that before Elizabeth had been a
+dozen years on the throne substantial loans could be raised at home without
+applying to foreign sources. Elizabeth never spent a penny of public money
+without good reason; sometimes--as in Ireland habitually, and to some
+degree at the time of the Armada though not so seriously as is commonly
+reputed--her parsimony amounted to false economy; often it took on a
+pettifogging character in her dealings with the Dutch, with the Huguenots,
+and with the Scots, though in the last case at least it must be admitted
+that either party was equally ready to overreach the other if the chance
+offered. But for very many years a very close economy was absolutely
+essential if debts were to be paid. That economy was facilitated by the
+lavish expenditure of prominent men on public objects; due partly to a
+desire for display, partly--at least in the case of the buccaneering
+enterprises--to bold speculation in the hope of large profits, but partly
+also beyond question to a very live public spirit. Yet when every allowance
+has been made for the assistance from such sources, it remains clear that
+Elizabeth's resources were husbanded with great skill, and her government
+carried on with a surprisingly small expenditure; that expenditure being on
+the whole very judiciously directed--so that, for instance, the royal navy,
+at least throughout the latter half of the reign, was maintained in a very
+creditable state of efficiency; though the number of the ships was not
+large, and the organisation proved inadequate, when the crisis came, to
+meet all the demands of the seamen.
+
+[Sidenote: Wealth and Poverty]
+
+The general prosperity however was not due to any notable advance in
+official Economics. What it owed to the Government was the immense
+improvement in public credit brought about by the restored coinage, and the
+punctual repayment of loans and settlement of debts, coupled with
+confidence in a steady rule and freedom from costly wars. Trade did indeed
+greatly benefit by the enlightened action of the State in encouraging the
+settlement in England of craftsmen from the Netherlands, with the
+consequent development of the industries they practised and taught. But the
+vital fact of the enormously increased wealth of the country must be
+attributed to the energy and initiative of the merchants and the
+adventurers in taking advantage of the new fields opened to them, of the
+displacement of trade by the wars on the Continent, and of the exposure of
+foreign, especially but not exclusively Spanish, shipping to depredation.
+
+How far this increased wealth benefited the labouring classes is a moot
+question. It would seem on the whole that the process of converting arable
+land into pasture which had been going on all through the century was
+already becoming less active even in the first years of the reign, and had
+reached its limit some while before the Armada. As the displacement of
+labour diminished, fixity and regularity of employment increased, while the
+labour already displaced was gradually absorbed by the rapid growth of
+manufactures. This may perhaps in some degree explain the almost
+unaccountably sudden cessation of laments over agricultural depression.
+Still, the effective wage earned tended to drop: that is, although wages
+rose when measured in terms of the currency, that rise did not keep pace
+with the advance in prices, the influx of silver into Europe diminishing
+its purchasing power. Hence the old problem of dealing with poverty in its
+two forms--honest inability to work and dishonest avoidance of work--
+remained acute. There was always a humane desire that the deserving poor
+should be assisted, and an equally strong sentiment in favour of punishing
+rogues and vagabonds--persons who declined to dig but were not ashamed to
+beg; with perhaps an excessive inclination to assume that wherever there
+was a doubt the delinquent should not have the benefit of it. The savagery
+however of the earlier Tudor laws against vagabonds was mitigated, and
+honest efforts were made to find a substitute for the old relief of genuine
+poverty by the Monasteries. This took in the first place the form of
+enactments for the local collection of voluntary contributions to
+relief-funds; and culminated in the Acts of the last five years of the
+reign, substituting compulsory for voluntary contribution, and establishing
+that Poor-law system which remained substantially unchanged until its
+reformation in the nineteenth century.
+
+[Sidenote: Trade Restrictions and Development]
+
+The idea that Governments do well not to interfere with the natural unaided
+operation of economic laws had not yet come into being; and attempts,
+mainly futile, to control wages and to force labour into particular
+channels, continued. In one direction however the artificial encouragement
+of one industry may have had a beneficial effect. Navigation laws tended,
+_per se_, to check general commerce; but they gave a stimulus to the
+English marine at a time when its rapid development was of the utmost
+national importance; not directly increasing the interchange of commodities
+as a whole, but encouraging the English carrying-trade, and advancing the
+growth of the sea-power which made a more extended commerce possible; and
+thus indirectly counterbalancing the direct ill effects. It is possible
+even to find some defence for one aspect of Monopolies. The granting of a
+monopoly of trade in particular regions--Russia, Guinea, the Levant, the
+East Indies--to Companies of merchants, had a definite justification.
+Individual private competitors could not conduct the trade on a large
+scale; large corporations, secured against rivals, could face the risks and
+the heavy expenditure requisite to success, and could be granted a liberty
+of action, being left to their own responsibilities, which was
+impracticable for the private trader. Amongst these, very much the most
+notable is the great East India Company which was incorporated on the last
+day of December 1600. Here, its birth only is to be chronicled; its history
+belongs to the ensuing centuries. But the bestowal on individuals of the
+monopoly of trade in particular articles by the Royal privilege was
+manifestly bad in itself; it became so serious an abuse that a determined
+parliamentary attack was made on the system in 1597; and even then
+Elizabeth found it necessary to promise enquiry. Nothing practical however
+was done, and the parliament of 1601 returned to the charge with such
+obvious justification that the Queen very promptly and graciously promised
+to abolish the grievance, and thanked the Commons for directing her
+attention to the matter.
+
+[Sidenote: Tavellers]
+
+We have already in a previous chapter followed in the wake of adventurous
+voyagers and explorers prior to the Armada, and recorded the first
+disastrous experimental efforts towards colonisation; but, in dealing
+specifically with the seamen, we passed by overland explorations such as
+those of Jenkinson, who during the first decade of Elizabeth's reign
+journeyed through Russia, and into Asia over the Caspian sea. More
+momentous still in its results was the Eastern expedition of Newbery and
+Fitch; who starting in 1583 went through Syria to Ormuz, and were thence
+conveyed to Goa, the Portuguese head-quarters on the West coast of India.
+Fitch remained longer than his chief, visiting Golconda, Agra (the seat of
+the Great Mogul Akbar), Bengal, Pegu, Malacca, and Ceylon, and bringing
+home in 1591 stories of India and its wealth, which were in no small degree
+responsible for the formation, in 1599, of the Association which was next
+year incorporated as the East India Company.
+
+[Sidenote: Maritime expansion]
+
+After the Armada, the sea-faring spirit was naturally even intensified. To
+a great extent however it was absorbed in privateering--which combined with
+its attractions in the way of mere adventure the advantages of being
+profitable, patriotic, and pious. In connexion with the direct scheme of
+colonial settlements, we have only Raleigh's two unsuccessful relief
+expeditions to Virginia conducted by White and Mace, and the attempt, also
+unsuccessful, to start a colony in what afterwards became New England,
+under Bartholomew Gosnold in 1602. More striking, but belonging to a
+somewhat different category, was Raleigh's own voyage to the Orinoco, in
+search of Eldorado and the golden city of Manoa; disappointing in its
+results, but ably conducted and from the point of view of explorers, as
+such, by no means unfruitful. Equally noteworthy are the two great voyages
+of James Lancaster, who was the first English captain to reach the Indian
+seas by the Cape route (1592), and in 1601 sailed thither again in command
+of the first fleet of the new Association of East India Merchants, and
+opened up for his countrymen the trade with the Spice Islands. But except
+for this second voyage of Lancaster's, a very real and definite achievement
+in the history of commercial expansion, the voyages of the day, full of
+brilliant exploits in the annals of seamanship and of adventure, and
+collectively marking an epoch in England's oceanic development, were not
+individually notable for specific results.
+
+[Sidenote: The Constitution]
+
+Constitutional theory does not appear to have differed in the reigns of
+Henry VIII. and his great daughter. The monarch's will was supreme; but the
+people could give expression to its will through Parliament when in
+session. The practical rule, however, which prevented any collision between
+the two forces, was that both monarchs kept a careful finger on the pulse
+of the nation. Like her father, Elizabeth never allowed herself to set a
+strong popular feeling at defiance. She desired that her people should be
+prosperous and free, though she objected to their interference in the
+conduct of political affairs; she desired that within the realm of England
+order should be maintained and the law strictly administered. If practices
+inconsistent with the liberty of the subject prevailed, they were applied
+only to persons who were assumed by herself, her ministers, and the bulk of
+their fellow-subjects, to have placed themselves outside the pale. The
+ministers who carried out her will avoided the arbitrary methods of Wolsey
+and Cromwell, whose master had preserved his own popularity by making
+scape-goats of them when their unpopularity ran too high, squaring his
+account with the People at their expense. Elizabeth never found it
+necessary to square her account with the People, whose hearts vibrated in
+sympathy with her essential loyalty to them. Few of them probably shared
+her views on the sanctity of crowned heads as such, which amounted almost
+to a superstition; but the country was pervaded with a passionate loyalty
+to the person of its Queen. On the other side, the record of her
+Parliaments shows that freedom of speech was making way, though she would
+not formally admit the principle: while the Parliaments cared much less
+about its formal admission than its practical prevalence. She snubbed the
+persistent Puritans for their obstinate oratory on the ecclesiastical and
+matrimonial questions, but they managed to have their say (which she
+ostensibly ignored), without suffering more than sharp reprimands and
+occasional detention in ward; and that contented them. Like Henry, she
+recognised that the one thing Parliaments would not endure was taxation
+without their own consent. On one occasion when she found she could do
+without a grant she had asked for and obtained, she remitted it; the
+harmony of mutual confidence ensured the readier co-operation.
+
+Parliament under Elizabeth gave not infrequent proof that it was tenacious
+of what it held to be its privileges: as the Queen showed that she was
+tenacious of what she considered her prerogatives. But each, without
+abating their right, or prejudicing their theoretical claim, was willing to
+make practical concession to the other in action. It was only in the
+closing years of the reign that abstract Theories of the State began to be
+formulated--a process which became exceedingly active in the next century,
+when kings and parliaments began to take diametrically conflicting views of
+political exigencies. Under Elizabeth, all such discussions were purely
+academic; under the Stuarts, they became actively practical. For the
+Stuarts, unlike Elizabeth, recklessly challenged popular opposition
+precisely on the points as to which popular opinion was most sensitive.
+Harmony gave way to discord, co-operation to antagonism; collision and
+disaster followed--"red ruin and the breaking up of laws".
+
+[Sidenote: The Elizabethans]
+
+The popular judgment which has glorified the reign of Elizabeth as perhaps
+the most splendid period in the annals of England can be endorsed, without
+ignoring the defects in the character of the Queen, her Ministers, her
+Courtiers, or her People. A new day had dawned upon the world; new
+possibilities, vast and undefined, were presenting themselves; new thoughts
+were possessing the minds of men; new blood was throbbing in their veins.
+The English race was awaking to a sense of its powers, grasping with a
+splendid audacity at the mighty heritage whose full import was yet
+unrealised. The Elizabethans were, as a nation, triumphing in the first
+glow of exuberant and healthy youth: with the faults of youth as well as
+its virtues. Sheer delight in the exercise of physical energies, in
+perilous adventure for its own sake irrespective of ulterior ends, in the
+keen encounter of wit, in the bold fabric-building of imagination,
+characterised the Elizabethan as they characterised the
+_Marathonomachoi_ two thousand years before; as the Athens of Salamis
+was the mother of Aeschylus and Sophocles, so the England of the Armada was
+the mother of Marlowe and Shakespeare and Spenser.
+
+[Sidenote: Raleigh]
+
+The typical Elizabethan, the man who presents in his own person the most
+marked characteristics that belong to his time, is Sir Walter Raleigh. His
+was the large imagination which conceived a new and expanding England
+beyond the seas; the broad grasp of ideas which made him a leading exponent
+of the theory of the Oceanic policy and the new naval methods; the ready
+practicality which made him, after Drake's day, perhaps the ablest of
+Elizabeth's captains; the versatility and culture, which place him securely
+in the second flight of the writers of the time; the breadth of
+intellectual outlook which caused his enemies to call him an atheist,
+coupled with an actual sincerity of belief; boundless energy, daring,
+ambition. His too were the fiery temper and the contemptuous arrogance
+which made him at one time the best-hated man in England outside a narrow
+circle of devoted admirers; while for all his pride he could match Hatton
+himself in preposterous adulation of the Queen. He could be as chivalrous
+as Sidney, and as merciless as an Inquisitor: he could be gorgeously
+extravagant, or the veriest Spartan, as circumstances demanded. He was in
+brief the epitome of Elizabeth's England: a figure assuredly very far from
+godlike but no less assuredly heroic.
+
+It may be doubted if ever the _joie de vivre_ was so generally
+prevalent in England as in those spacious days. Such a national mood is in
+danger of being followed by a lapse into an effeminate hedonism, from which
+England as a whole was saved by the antagonistic development of the
+essentially masculine if crude puritanism, whose vital spirit had already
+begun to take possession of a large proportion of the population without as
+yet evicting paganism. Under this at present secondary impulse,
+attributable very largely to the new familiarity with the Old Testament
+engendered by the translation of the Bible, men quickly learnt to look upon
+themselves as the chosen people of the Lord of Sabaoth who gave them the
+victory over their enemies, and to whom with entire sincerity they gave the
+glory; while they found a satisfying warrant in the Scriptures for spoiling
+the Egyptians and smiting the Amalekites, symbolising specifically the
+Spaniards and the Irish. The particular aspect of Puritanism which belongs
+to rigid Calvinism, in all its grim austerity, was confined so far to a
+very limited section: for the majority an extensive biblical vocabulary was
+consistent with a thorough appreciation of virile carnal enjoyments: the
+dourness of John Knox hardly infected the neighbouring country. For the
+most part, even the intolerance of the age was not that born of religious
+fanaticism, but was the normal outcome of a full-blooded self-confidence.
+The Elizabethans are apt to startle us by a display of apparently callous
+cruelty at one moment, and an almost reckless generosity at the next. They
+slaughtered the garrison of Smerwick in cold blood, and treated the
+vanquished at Cadiz with a chivalrous consideration which amazed its
+recipients. They kidnapped the sons of Ham from Africa for lucre; with the
+"Indians" of South and Central America they were always on excellent terms,
+and the Californians proffered divine honours to Francis Drake. These are
+paradoxes precisely similar in kind to those which so often puzzle amiable
+and mature observers of the British schoolboy to-day. Broadly, they were
+governed by instincts and impulses rather than by reasoned ethical theory,
+instincts occasionally barbaric but for the most part frank and generous;
+and they were sturdily loyal to the somewhat primitive code of right and
+wrong which was the outcome.
+
+[Sidenote 1: The Queen's Ministers]
+[Sidenote 2: The Queen]
+
+These qualities, joined with an indomitable audacity and an eminently
+practical shrewdness, were characteristic of the men who were the hand and
+heart of England. Other qualities were needed for the brains which had to
+direct her policy; the patient common sense of Burghley, the keen
+penetration of Walsingham, the solid shrewdness of Nicholas Bacon, _vir
+pietate gravis_. The craftiness of the younger Cecil, the time-serving
+of Francis Bacon, mark a lower type of politician; not rare perhaps in
+Elizabeth's time, but not generally characteristic among her servants. To
+draw full value, however, from the capacities of those statesmen, a monarch
+of exceptional ability was needed. It was the peculiar note of Elizabeth's
+dealings with her ministers that having once realised their essential
+merits, she never withdrew her confidence. She flouted, insulted and
+browbeat them when their advice ran counter to her caprices; but no man
+suffered in the long run for standing up to her, however she might be
+irritated. Nor can we attribute this to such a loyalty of disposition on
+her part as marked her rival Mary alone among Stuarts: to whom such
+baseness as she displayed in her treatment of Davison would have been
+impossible. Elizabeth had no sort of compunction in making scape-goats of
+such men as he. But she knew the men who could not be replaced, a faculty
+rare in princes; she would never have deserted a Strafford as did Mary's
+grandson. She drove Burghley and Walsingham almost to despair by her
+caprices; but if she overrode their judgment, it was not to displace them
+for other advisers more congenial to her mood, but to take affairs into her
+own hands, and manipulate them with a cool defiance of apparent
+probabilities, a duplicity so audacious that it passed for a kind of
+sincerity, which gave her successes the appearance of being due to an
+almost supernatural good luck. Histrionics were her stock-in-trade: she was
+eternally playing a part, and playing it with such zest that she habitually
+cheated her neighbours, and occasionally, for the time being, even herself,
+into forgetting that her role was merely assumed for ulterior purposes.
+When a crisis was reached where there was no further use for play-acting,
+she was again the shrewd practical ruler who had merely been masked as the
+comedienne. Other queens have been great by the display of intellectual
+qualities commonly accounted masculine, or of virtues recognised as the
+special glories of their own sex; Elizabeth had the peculiar ingenuity
+deliberately to employ feminine weakness, incomprehensibility, and caprice,
+as the most bafflingly effective weapons in her armoury.
+
+A noble woman she was not. The miracle of virtues and charms depicted by
+courtiers and poets existed, if she did exist at all, entirely in their
+exuberant imaginations. She could be indecently coarse and intolerably
+mean; she could lie with unblushing effrontery; her vanity was inordinate.
+But voracious as she was of flattery it never misled her; she could
+appreciate in others the virtues she herself lacked; behind the screen of
+capriciousness, an intellect was ever at work as cool and calculating as
+her grandfather's, as hard and resolute as her father's. To understand her
+People was her first aim, to make them great was her ultimate ambition. And
+she achieved both.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDICES
+
+A. TABLES.
+   i.   Contemporary Rulers, 1475-1542.
+   ii.      Do.       do., 1542-1603.
+   iii. Genealogy of Lennox Stewarts.
+   iv.  Genealogy of Howards and Boleyns.
+   v.   House of Habsburg.
+   vi.  Houses of Valois and Bourbon.
+   vii. House of Guise.
+B.   Claims to the English Throne.
+C.   The Queen of Scots.
+D.   Bibliography.
+
+APPENDIX A
+
+[Tables omitted]
+
+APPENDIX B
+
+CLAIMS TO THE THRONE
+
+CLAIMANTS TO THE CROWN OF ENGLAND
+
+ACTUAL OR POTENTIAL; FROM 1485 TO 1603
+
+When Henry of Richmond was hailed king of England on Bosworth Field, the
+principles and the practice of succession to the English throne were in a
+state of chaos; as far as hereditary right is concerned, his claim could
+hardly have been weaker. The titles both of his son and grandson were
+indisputable. Those of Mary and of Elizabeth were both questionable. From
+Elizabeth's accession to her death, it was uncertain who would succeed her.
+Accordingly, in the reign of Henry VII. we find actual pretenders put
+forward, and potential ones suspected and punished. No attempt was ever
+made to challenge Henry VIII. or Edward VI.: but there were sundry
+executions on the hypothesis of a treasonous intent to grasp at the crown,
+in the reign of the former. Lady Jane Grey was set up against Mary, and
+Elizabeth herself was under suspicion in that reign. Against Elizabeth,
+Mary Stewart's title was constantly urged; after the death of the Queen of
+Scots, Philip of Spain set up a claim on his own account; and at different
+times, the claims to the succession of a large variety of candidates were
+canvassed. It has seemed advisable therefore to give a complete
+genealogical table, which appears at the beginning of this volume: and the
+following summary, for convenient reference.
+
+HENRY VII
+
+It was perfectly certain that whoever was rightful king or queen of England
+in 1485, Richard III. was personally a usurper who had secured the throne
+by murdering the king and his brother, and setting aside his other nieces
+and nephew, the children of his elder brothers of the House of York. They
+however were not in a position to assert themselves. If therefore the
+representative of the rival House of Lancaster could succeed in deposing
+the usurper, he would thereby create a claim for himself, beyond that of
+heredity, as the man who had released the nation from the tyrant; as Henry
+IV. had done. If he married the heiress of York, the two would unite the
+hereditary claims of the rival Houses, and the title of their offspring
+would be technically indisputable.
+
+Through his mother, Henry Tudor was now the acknowledged representative of
+the House of Lancaster. On the assumption--for which there was no
+indisputable precedent--that a woman could succeed in person, his mother
+had the prior title, but since she did not appear as a claimant that
+technical difficulty could be passed over. On the like assumption, the
+Princess Elizabeth represented the House of York. Henry thus stood for the
+one House, the Princess Elizabeth for the other. Henry deposed and killed
+Richard. As soon as Elizabeth was his wife, and while both he and she
+lived, no one living could with much plausibility assert a prior
+claim. Henry's own personal claim however would continue disputable (though
+not his children's) in the event of his wife's demise; therefore, to
+strengthen his position, he sought and obtained the ratification of his own
+title by parliament before marrying Elizabeth, so as to have a sort of
+legal claim independent of her.
+
+Still, until the sons of this union should be old enough to maintain their
+own rights in person, there remained the obvious possibility that the
+claims of a male member of the House of York might be asserted: the male
+members living being Warwick, and, through their mother, his De la Pole
+cousins.
+
+Now the hereditary claim of the House of Lancaster, descending from John of
+Gaunt, the fourth son of Edward III., required _ab initio_ the
+assumption that descent must be in direct male line; for if succession
+through the female line were recognised, the House of York had the prior
+claim, as descending through females from Lionel of Clarence third son of
+Edward III. But when Henry VI. and his son were both dead, there was left
+no representative of John of Gaunt in direct male line. The only male
+Plantagenet remaining was young Warwick, son of George of Clarence, of the
+House of York; Plantagenet in virtue of his descent, in unbroken male line,
+not from Lionel of Clarence but from Edmund of York, fifth son of Edward
+III.
+
+Thus, except on the hypothesis that the settlement of 1399 had excluded the
+entire House of York from the succession, no Lancastrian claim could hold
+water, technically. Granting succession through females, Elizabeth was the
+heir; denying it, Warwick was the heir.
+
+Although accepted as the sole possible representative of John of Gaunt, and
+therefore of the House of Lancaster, Henry Tudor's claim to that position
+lay only in the female line, through his Beaufort blood. This title was the
+more ineffective because the Beauforts themselves were the illegitimate
+offspring of John of Gaunt by Katharine Swynford, and had only been
+legitimated by Act of Parliament under Richard II.; while even that
+legitimation had been rendered invalid, as concerned succession to the
+throne, by the Act of Henry IV. which in other respects confirmed it.
+
+Nevertheless although there were other indubitably legitimate descendants
+of John of Gaunt living, no claim on behalf of any of them was put forward
+till a full century had elapsed. The royal House of Portugal sprang from
+the second and that of Castile from the third daughter of Lancaster; so
+that after the death of Mary Stewart, Philip II. of Spain, posing as their
+representative, claimed the inheritance, ignoring the superior title of his
+cousin Katharine of Braganza. But in 1485, the title of any alien would
+have been flatly repudiated by the whole country. There remained only in
+England, descending through his mother from John of Gaunt's eldest
+daughter, a young Neville who had just succeeded to the Earldom of
+Westmorland; whose line was extinguished in the person of the Earl who took
+part in the Northern rising of 1569. This branch however appears to have
+been completely ignored from first to last.
+
+The vital fact remained, that Henry was the representative, acknowledged on
+all hands, of the House of Lancaster. He claimed the throne on that ground,
+ratified the claim on the field of Bosworth, and confirmed it by a
+Parliamentary title. The Plantagenet Princess, he married: their offspring
+combined the titles of the two Houses. The Plantagenet Earl was shut up in
+the Tower, and finally perished on the scaffold without offspring.
+
+The accession of Henry was bound politically, in spite of his marriage, to
+have the effect of a Lancastrian victory. The extreme Yorkist partisans,
+who could always find asylum and encouragement with Margaret of Burgundy,
+were not likely to be satisfied with such a result; but they had nothing
+approaching a case for anyone except the young Earl of Warwick, a prisoner
+in the Tower. Hence the first attempt was to put forward a fictitious
+Warwick, Lambert Simnel. This scheme collapsed at the battle of Stoke. Then
+it was that the Yorkists fell back on the resuscitation of Richard of York,
+murdered in the Tower with Edward V. If he was alive, his title could not
+be seriously challenged. So he was brought to life in the person of Perkin
+Warbeck. When Warwick and Perkin were both dead, there was no one to fall
+back on but the De la Poles of Suffolk; since at this stage the two senior
+Yorkist branches--the Courtenays of Devon, and the Poles (a quite different
+family from the De la Poles) could not be erected into dangerous
+candidates. [See _Frontispiece._] The claims of the Courtenays would
+derive from the younger daughter of Edward IV.: those of the Poles from the
+Countess of Salisbury, Warwick's sister: those of the De la Poles from
+Elizabeth, sister of Edward IV.
+
+HENRY VIII
+
+Under Henry VIII., there was no claim which could stand against the king's
+own. But in the course of his reign, he found it convenient to put out of
+the way Buckingham, who was not only (like the Tudors) of Beaufort blood
+but also traced descent from Thomas, sixth son of Edward III.; and
+twenty-five years later his grandson Surrey: also the heads of the De la
+Poles, the Poles, and the Courtenays.
+
+EDWARD VI
+
+Edward succeeded his father as a matter of course, being his one
+indubitably legitimate son. But who was to follow Edward? Henry had two
+daughters, born ostensibly in wedlock. But the marriages of both mothers
+had been pronounced void by the courts. _Prima facie_ therefore, the
+succession went first to the offspring of Henry's eldest sister Margaret;
+but these might be ruled out as aliens. Next it would go to the offspring
+of his younger sister Mary, the Brandons, of whom the senior was Frances
+Grey; who however gave place (as Margaret of Richmond had done for Henry
+VII.) to her daughter Lady Jane. It will thus be seen that Lady Jane had
+technically a respectable title. It left out of count however that the
+Lennox Stewarts, the offspring of Margaret Tudor by her second marriage,
+were English as well as Scottish subjects and therefore not barred as
+aliens.
+
+But, in spite of the ruling of the Courts, no one who believed in the Papal
+authority could admit that Mary Tudor was illegitimate. Again both she and
+Elizabeth were the children of unions entered on in _bona fides,_ and
+only invalidated subsequently on technical grounds: grounds, in the one
+case, inadequate in the eyes of the Roman Church, and in the other never
+made public. Hence; although it is perfectly clear that if Katharine was
+Henry's lawful spouse, the marriage with Anne was bigamous and its
+offspring illegitimate, whereas, if Anne was Henry's lawful spouse then the
+marriage with Katharine was void from the beginning and its offspring
+illegitimate--that is, while both Mary and Elizabeth might be illegitimate,
+it was quite impossible that both should be legitimate--yet the advantages
+of setting the whole problem on one side by acknowledging the right of each
+to the succession, in order, were obvious. And this was done by the Will of
+Henry VIII. to which Parliament by anticipation gave the validity of a
+statute.
+
+Mary then succeeded Edward, and Elizabeth succeeded Mary, in virtue of
+their recognition under Henry's will.
+
+ELIZABETH
+
+On Elizabeth's accession then; the validity of Henry's Will being admitted,
+no other title could stand against that instrument, and the Brandon branch
+would succeed in priority to the Stewarts. But evidently it could be argued
+that no instrument whatever could confer priority on an illegitimate heir
+over a legitimate one; or on a junior over a senior branch; and since no
+secular authority had power to annul the marriage between Henry and
+Katharine, nothing after Mary Tudor's death could set aside the title of
+Mary Stewart. Mary might accede to an arrangement as a matter of policy,
+but she could not abrogate her right, or admit that she was barred as an
+alien. On the other hand, the Greys might be pushed forward under the Will
+as heirs, in opposition to Mary; but they could not be seriously upheld as
+rivals to Elizabeth herself; and the same applied to the living
+representatives of the Poles, the Earl of Huntingdon and Arthur Pole. There
+were now no De la Poles, nor Courtenays.
+
+With Mary Stewart as the only possible figure-head for a revolt, Elizabeth
+had no disposition to strengthen her position by acknowledging her as heir
+presumptive, since that would be an immediate incentive to her own
+assassination by Mary's adherents, who would be anxious to secure their
+candidate against the possible appearance of an heir apparent. It was safer
+to leave the question of her successor an open one, so that any overt act
+in favour of any particular candidate would be tolerably certain to recoil
+on that candidate's head. Therefore Elizabeth would acknowledge neither
+Mary nor another, though it can hardly be doubted that she did herself look
+upon the royal Stewarts as the rightful claimants, throughout her reign.
+
+But when the Queen of Scots was dead, the Catholics were at once in want of
+a Catholic candidate. James of Scotland was a Protestant: so was Arabella,
+representing the Lennox Stewarts; so were Katharine Grey and her husband
+Lord Hertford (the son of the old Protector Somerset); so was their son.
+Lord Beauchamp; Huntingdon, the Pole representative, was a Protestant too.
+The Countess of Derby, like Katharine Grey, was a grandchild of Mary
+Brandon; but the Stanleys, though Catholics, rejected all overtures. As
+Elizabeth's end approached, various schemes were no doubt propounded for
+marrying Arabella to a Catholic, even to Beauchamp on the understanding
+that both were in due time to declare themselves Catholics. But the
+immediate result of Mary Stewart's death was that Philip of Spain entered
+the field as the Catholic candidate, as tracing descent from John of Gaunt
+through both his father and his mother. Later, his daughter Isabella was
+put forward.
+
+From the legitimist point of view however the title of James of Scotland
+was indisputable. The stroke of deliberate policy by which Henry VII. had
+mated his eldest daughter to the Scots King James IV. bore its fruit when,
+precisely a hundred years later, the crowns of England and Scotland were
+united by the accession of Margaret's great-grandson to the southern
+throne.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX C
+
+THE QUEEN OF SCOTS
+
+The life of Mary Tudor has been in its place described as supremely tragic;
+that of Mary Stewart presents a tragedy not greater but more dramatic--
+whatever view we may take of her guilt or innocence with regard to Darnley,
+to Bothwell, to the conspirators who would fain have made her Queen of
+England. Of the misdeeds laid to her charge, that of unchastity has no
+colourable evidence except in the case of Bothwell, for whom it may be
+considered certain that she had an overwhelming passion; and even there the
+evidence is not more than colourable. That she was _cognisant_ of the
+intended murder of Darnley can be doubted only by a very warm partisan: but
+in weighing the criminality even of that, it must be remembered not only
+that Darnley himself had murdered her secretary before her eyes, and had
+insulted her past forgiveness, but that _political_ assassinations
+were connived at by the morals of the times. Henry VIII. had preferred to
+commit his murders through the forms of law, but had encouraged the
+assassination of Cardinal Beton which John Knox applauded. In Italy, every
+prominent man lived constantly on his guard against the cup and the dagger.
+Philip, Parma, Alva, Mendoza, encouraged the murder of Elizabeth, and
+incited or approved that of Orange. The royal House of France was directly
+responsible for the slaughter of St. Bartholomew. Henry III. of France
+assassinated Henry of Guise; the Guises in turn assassinated Henry. Many of
+the Scottish nobility, including certainly Lethington and Morton, if not
+Murray, were beyond question as deep as Mary, if not deeper, in the murder
+of Darnley. And in England it may be said frankly that there was no
+sentiment against political murder, but only against murder without
+sanction of Law. Given a person whose life was regarded as possibly
+dangerous to the State, the public conscience was entirely satisfied if any
+colourable pretext could be found on which the legal authorities could
+profess to find warrant for a death sentence, though the proof, on modern
+theories of evidence, might be wholly inconclusive. In plain terms, if
+Mary had not followed up the murder by marrying the "first murderer," the
+deed would not have been regarded as particularly atrocious, or as placing
+her in any way outside the pale. But that marriage was fatal. Darnley was
+killed because while he lived his intellectual and moral turpitude were
+perfectly certain to wreck his wife's political schemes; but the new
+marriage was equally destructive politically and drove home the belief that
+passion, not politics, was the real motive of the murder. Whether politics
+or passion were the real motive, whether either would have sufficed without
+the other, whether even together they would have sufficed without the third
+motive of revenge for Rizzio, no human judgment can tell. But if under
+stress of those three motives in combination, Mary connived at the murder,
+it proves indeed that her judgment failed her, but not that according to
+the standards of the day she was unusually wicked.
+
+As to her conduct in England--whatever it was--in connexion with the
+Ridolfi, Throgmorton, and Babington plots. In the first place, she owed
+Elizabeth no gratitude. She was perfectly well aware that the Queen kept
+her alive because--unlike her ministers and her people--she thought Mary
+alive was on the whole more useful than dangerous. Mary always without any
+sort of concealment asserted throughout the eighteen years of her captivity
+her quite indisputable right to appeal to the European Powers for
+deliverance. She always denied that she had any part in or knowledge of
+schemes for Elizabeth's assassination. Those denials were never met by any
+evidence [Footnote: Cf. Hume in _State Papers, Spanish,_ III., iii.]
+more conclusive than alleged copies of deciphered correspondence, or the
+confessions of prisoners on the rack or under threat of it. But assuming
+that her denials were false, that in one or other instance or in all three
+she was guilty, she did only what Valois and Habsburg and half the leading
+statesmen in Europe were doing, with the approbation of Rome, and without
+Mary's excuse. For they had the opportunity of overthrowing Coligny,
+Orange, Henry of Guise, and Elizabeth herself in fair fight; Mary had not:
+her crime therefore at the worst was infinitely less than theirs. To a
+caged captive much may be forgiven which in those others could not be
+forgiven.
+
+And if in her prison she did assent to her own deliverance by
+assassination, and condescend (as no doubt she did) to use in some of her
+dealings with her captor some of that duplicity whereof that captor was
+herself a past mistress--if she used on her own behalf the weapons which
+were freely employed against her--she displayed at all times other
+qualities which were splendidly royal. She never betrayed, never disowned,
+never forgot a faithful servant or a loyal friend. If she bewitched the men
+who came in contact with her, she was the object of a no less passionate
+devotion on the part of all her women; not that transient if vehement
+emotion which a fascinating fiend can arouse when she wills, but a devotion
+persistent and enduring. And withal she dreed her weird with a lofty
+courage, faced it full front with a high defiance, which must bespeak for
+ever the admiration at least of every generous spirit.
+
+All this we may say and yet do justice to the attitude towards her of the
+people of England. For to them, her life was a perpetual menace. The idea
+of her succession was to half of them unendurable, yet if Elizabeth died it
+could be averted only at the cost of a fierce civil war, aggravated almost
+certainly by a foreign invasion. About her, plots were eternally brewing
+which if they came to a head must involve the whole nation in a bloody
+strife. She engaged when she could in negotiations which could not do
+otherwise than imperil the peace of the realm. If no law or precedent could
+be found applicable to such a situation, there was clear moral
+justification for removing such a public danger in the only possible way.
+Mary's release would only have aggravated it; her death was the one
+solution. England had no hesitation in assuming the grim responsibility
+which the Queen of England was fain to evade at her servants' expense.
+
+APPENDIX D
+
+BIBLIOGRAPHY
+
+The works enumerated in this bibliography are such as may usually be found
+in the larger public libraries, or are available to members of the London
+Library. In most cases a few words of description are added, and the whole
+list has been so classified that the reader--it is hoped--will be able
+without much difficulty to pick out those volumes which will best help him
+whether to a general view or in gathering detailed information on specific
+points.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+To a student "taking up" the Tudor period, the best brief general
+introduction, as a preliminary survey of the whole subject is to be found--
+judging from the writer's early experiences--in two small volumes in the
+"Epoch" Series (Longmans), Seebohm's _Era of the Protestant
+Revolution,_ and Creighton's _Age of Elizabeth._
+
+The continuous narrative, _in extenso,_ is presented consecutively in
+_The Tudor Period,_ vol. i., by W. Busch (translated by A. M. Todd)
+for Henry VII.: Brewer's _Henry VIII._ (2 vols.) for Henry VIII. to
+the fall of Wolsey: Froude's _History of England_ (12 vols.) from the
+fall of Wolsey to the Armada--cautious though the reader must be; with
+Major Martin Hume's _Treason and Plot_ for Elizabeth's closing years.
+
+Proceeding to the detailed list; the first division gives authorities
+covering all sections of the Tudor Period. Then, under each reign, are the
+authorities for that reign, selected as being on the whole the most
+prominent or the most informing. These are divided into contemporary,
+_i.e._ Tudor; Intermediate; and Modern, _i.e._ publications
+(roughly) of the last half century. Further classification is introduced,
+where it seems likely to be of assistance.
+
+TUDOR PERIOD CONTEMPORARY
+
+The _Carew Papers_ (Ireland).
+
+_Four Masters, Chronicle of The:_ Celtic Chronicles, collated and
+translated _circa_ 1632 by four Irish Priests. Hakluyt's
+_Voyages_.
+
+The _Hatfield Papers_ (Historical MSS. Commission). The period before
+Elizabeth occupies only half of vol. i.; the rest of which, with the
+following volumes of the series, is devoted to that reign. Rymer's
+_Foedera_. Stow, _Annals_ and _Survey of London and
+Westminster_.
+
+INTERMEDIATE
+
+Hallam's _Constitutional History of England_. A valuable study of the
+constitutional aspects of the period; and especially of the attitude of the
+Government to the great religious sections of the community.
+
+Hook's _Lives of the Archbishops_; a work somewhat coloured by the
+author's ecclesiastical predilections.
+
+Lingard's _History of England_; a fair-minded account written avowedly
+from a Roman Catholic point of view. Valuable data have however been
+brought to light since Lingard wrote.
+
+Von Ranke's _Englische Geschichte_, translated as "_History of
+England principally in the seventeenth century_": not a detailed history
+of this period, but marked by the Author's keen historical insight.
+
+------ _History of the Popes_, for those aspects of the period
+suggested by the title: see also Macaulay's _Essay_ on this work.
+
+Strype's _Ecclesiastical Memorials_, containing transcripts of many
+important documents. The compiler however occasionally went astray; as in a
+remarkable instance noted at p. 129.
+
+MODERN
+
+Ashley, W. J., _Introduction to English Economic History_. Brown,
+P. Hume, _History of Scotland_.
+
+_Cambridge Modern History_: vol. ii., The Reformation. Useful for
+reference, and containing a very full bibliography of the subject. Cc.
+xiii.-xvi. deal more particularly with England. Also vol. iii., The Wars of
+Religion.
+
+Chambers, _Cyclopaedia of English Literature_, containing useful
+surveys, criticisms, and extracts. [New edition.]
+
+Chambers, E. K., _The Mediaeval Stage_, invaluable prolegomena to a
+History of the Elizabethan stage as yet unwritten. Clowes, Sir W. Laird,
+_The Royal Navy_; vol. i.
+
+Cunningham, W., _Growth of English Industry and Commerce_: the best
+Economic Authority. _Dictionary of National Biography_.
+
+Green, J. R., _Short History of the English People_, admirably
+reproducing the atmosphere of the period.
+
+Lang, Andrew, _History of Scotland_, vols. i. and ii.: a strong
+corrective to the ordinary English treatment of Scottish relations.
+
+Morley, Henry, _English Writers_; partly critical, partly
+consisting of numerous and ample extracts.
+
+Rait, J. S., _Relations between England and Scotland, 500 to 1707_. A
+short study.
+
+Rogers, Thorold, _Six Centuries of Work and Wages_, and _History of
+Agriculture and Prices_.
+
+_Social England_, edd. H. D. Traill and J. S. Mann. Contributions by
+leading authorities, dealing at length with aspects commonly neglected in
+Political Histories.
+
+Stubbs (Bishop), _Seventeen Lectures on the Study of Medieval and Modern
+History_; and _Lectures on European History_ (pub. 1904, delivered
+twenty-five years earlier); very useful to the student, from their
+extremely lucid method.
+
+
+HENRY VII CONTEMPORARY
+
+André, Bernard, _De Vita atque gestis Henrici Septimi_, and _Annales
+Henrici Septimi_ (to be found in Gairdner's _Memorials,
+infra_). André was the court historiographer, and was blind. Honest, but
+not altogether trustworthy, or adequate.
+
+Fabyan, Robert, _New Chronicles of England and France_, (supplement),
+ed. Ellis: and _London Chronicle_: both, in their present form,
+probably summaries from the original record compiled by Fabyan as the
+events took place; upon which original it would seem that both Hall and
+Stow largely based their Chronicles of the reign.
+
+Hall, Edward, _Chronicle_: compiled chiefly from Polydore Vergil, and
+Fabyan for this reign. For Henry VIII., he is literally a contemporary.
+
+_Italian Relation, An_, (Author unknown: ed. Camden Society), by an
+Italian visitor to England.
+
+_Letters and Papers, Richard III. and Henry VII._, ed. Gairdner.
+
+_Letters and Papers Henry VIII._, (vols. i. and ii.) ed. Brewer.
+
+_Letters, Despatches and State Papers_, from Simancas, ed.
+Bergenroth. Spanish relations.
+
+Lyndsay of Pitscottie, _Historie of Scotland_: picturesque but not too
+trustworthy.
+
+Macchiavelli, N., _The Prince_. An interesting contrast to the
+political philosophy of the _Utopia_.
+
+_Memorials of Henry VII._, ed. Gairdner: contemporary records.
+
+More, Sir T., _Utopia_, first book (illustrating social and economic
+conditions).
+
+_Paston Letters_, ed. Gairdner; correspondence of the Paston
+family.
+
+Polydore Vergil, _Historiae Anglicae Libri_. P. V. was an Italian who
+came to England in 1502. For the earlier years of Henry VII. he had access
+to good sources of information; for the latter years he was a witness, but
+with the inevitable limitations of a foreign observer.
+
+INTERMEDIATE
+
+Bacon, Francis, _History of the Reign of King Henry VII._ This has
+been the basis of all the popular histories, for the reign. It is often
+referred to as "contemporary". But Bacon was not born till fifty years
+after Henry's death, and did not write the history till he was over fifty
+himself. His work contains much that is merely rhetorical amplification of
+above named contemporary authorities, with occasional imaginative
+variations and misreadings: nor does he appear to have had additional
+sources of information.
+
+Ware, _De Hibernia;_ a supplement to which contains annals of Irish
+History in the reign of Henry VII.; written in the time of Charles I.
+
+MODERN
+
+Busch, Wilhelm, _England under the Tudors,_ vol. i., Henry VII.
+Translated by A. M. Todd. The one complete and thorough account of the
+reign, with an exhaustive examination of the authorities: and notes by
+J. Gairdner.
+
+Gairdner, J., _Henry VII._ (Twelve English Statesmen series), an
+admirable study but with less detail; written before Busch's work was
+published.
+
+Seebohm, F., _The Oxford Reformers,_ Colet, Erasmus and More: an
+illuminating study.
+
+HENRY VIII
+
+CONTEMPORARY: A. DOCUMENTARY
+
+_Calendar of State Papers_
+
+(1) _State Papers, Henry VIII._ A series of eleven volumes edited
+before the commencement of the series next named. These are referred to in
+this work as "S. P."; and the next series mentioned, as "L. & P."
+
+(2) _Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the reign of Henry
+VIII._ Vols. i.-iv. ed. Brewer, vols. v. ff. ed. J. Gairdner and
+others. Dr. Brewer carried his work down to the fall of Wolsey, arranging
+all available documents so far as possible chronologically, but without
+other classification. His introductions have been edited as two solid
+volumes (_v. infra_) by Dr. Gairdner. The subsequent editors were
+restricted as to the length of introduction permitted but the same system
+of arrangement is followed. Throughout, all documents of any importance are
+transcribed with fulness.
+
+(3) _State Papers, Venetian,_ (4) _State Papers, Ireland,_ (5)
+(State Papers, Spanish;_ all official collections throwing some light on
+(various aspects of the history. [2, 3, and 5 belong to the Rolls series.]
+
+_Hamilton Papers_ (Scotland) 2 vols.: full transcriptions of the
+Hamilton collection of Papers.
+
+_Letters of Thomas Cromwell,_ ed. Merriman, a complete collection of
+all the available letters of Cromwell, with a historical survey.
+
+B. CHRONICLES AND OTHER PUBLICATIONS
+
+Buchanan, G., _History of Scotland;_ the author was an excellent
+scholar but a violent partisan with a rudimentary idea of evidence.
+
+Cavendish, _Life of Cardinal Wolsey_. The author was a member of
+Wolsey's household, from 1526, and regarded him with affection and
+admiration.
+
+Fabyan: see under Henry VII.
+
+Fish, Simon, _The Supplicacyon for the Beggers,_ a pamphlet
+illustrating the most extravagant anti-clerical attitude, just before
+Wolsey's fall.
+
+Foxe, J., _Acts and Monuments,_ commonly known as the "_Book of
+Martyrs_". The work of a strong but honest partisan and a good hater.
+_Narratives of the Reformation_ by the same author.
+
+Hall's Chronicle: see under Henry VII.
+
+Holinshed, Raphael, _Chronicle_: compiled in the reign of
+Elizabeth. It forms with Hall's Chronicle, the basis of the popular
+impressions of English History down to Elizabeth, partly no doubt because
+Shakespeare, drawing upon those works, has made those popular impressions
+permanent.
+
+Knox, John, _History of the Reformation;_ less valuable perhaps as a
+record of facts set forth with a strong bias than as a revelation of the
+mental attitude of the great Reformer and his followers.
+
+Latimer, Hugh, _Sermons_.
+
+Lyndsay, Sir David, _Poetical Works,_ for Social and Ecclesiastical
+conditions in Scotland.
+
+Lyndsay of Pitscottie, _Historie of Scotland_. See under Henry VII.
+
+More, Thomas, _Utopia_ (1516) expresses the ideas of an advanced
+political thinker, and incidentally, directly or by implication, conveys
+much information as to prevalent social economic and intellectual
+conditions.
+
+Pole, Reginald (Cardinal), _Epistolae,_ illustrating the Cardinal's
+own views.
+
+Roper, W., _Life of Sir T. More,_ whose son-in-law the author was.
+
+Sanders, Nicholas, _History of the Anglican Schism_ presented from the
+extreme (contemporary) Catholic point of view.
+
+Skelton, J., _Poems_.
+
+Macchiavelli, N., _The Prince_.
+
+INTERMEDIATE
+
+Burnet, Gilbert, _History of the Reformation;_ painstaking,
+liberal-minded and Orthodox, but requiring modification in the light of
+later information.
+
+Prescott, _Conquest of Mexico and Peru_: the classical work on the
+subject.
+
+Robertson, _Charles V_.
+
+Strype, _Memorials of Cranmer_.
+
+MODERN: A. GENERAL
+
+Armstrong, E., _Charles V_., the best record of the Emperor's career.
+
+Brewer, J. S., _The Reign of Henry VIII._: Introductions to the
+vols. of "L. & P." to the fall of Wolsey: edited in 2 vols. by J.
+Gairdner. Incomparable as an examination and exposition of the Cardinal's
+career.
+
+Creighton (Bishop), _Wolsey_ (in the Twelve English Statesmen series),
+practically an exposition of Brewer for the general reader.
+
+Froude, J. A., _History of England_ from the fall of Wolsey to the
+defeat of the Armada. An English classic, but an unsafe guide. Mr. Froude
+studied and made use of an immense mass of evidence not before available;
+but his transcriptions and summaries are not always distinguishable nor
+always accurate. He was unable to describe otherwise than picturesquely and
+impressively, and his colouring of events is frequently imaginative; he was
+overpowered by an anti-clerical passion and an almost blind enthusiasm for
+Henry VIII.
+
+Oppenheim, M., _History of the Administration of the Royal Navy, etc._
+
+Seebohm, F., _Era of the Protestant Revolution_ ("Epoch" series),
+professedly for school use, but extremely useful to even advanced students.
+
+Pollard, A. F., _Henry VIII.;_ a sumptuous study.
+
+MODERN: B. REFORMATION
+
+Dixon, R. W., _History of the English Church_ (vols. i. and ii.):
+actually, of the Reformation in England, down to Elizabeth. Further volumes
+have however been added. The author holds a brief against the
+anti-clericals of every kind; his view may be summarised as Anglo-Catholic:
+the precise antithesis of Froude. He is full and careful in his documentary
+evidence, but is so persistently ironical as occasionally to convey
+_prima facie_ an impression diametrically opposed to what was
+intended.
+
+Gairdner, J., _History of the English Church in the Sixteenth
+Century,_ concluding with the death of Mary. An admirably judicial
+survey, with a moderate predilection for the Conservative side.
+
+Gasquet, F. A., _Henry VIII. and the English Monasteries,_ and _The
+Eve of the Reformation_. Very able and judicial statements of the case
+for Home and the loyal Roman Catholics.
+
+Innes, A. D., _Cranmer and the English Reformation_ (in "The World's
+Epoch Makers"): a short study.
+
+Mason, A. J., _Thomas Cranmer_ (in "Leaders of Religion"): a short
+study.
+
+Moore, Aubrey, _History of the Reformation_. This volume consists
+almost entirely of notes, varying in fulness, for courses of lectures
+delivered by Canon Moore. The student will find them of much assistance in
+classifying and correlating events, and touched with flashes of
+insight. The High Anglican position is taken for granted throughout.
+
+Pollard, A. F., _Cranmer_ (in "Heroes of the Reformation" series);
+somewhat fuller than the above-mentioned studies.
+
+Seebohm, F., _The Oxford Reformers_. (See under Henry VII.)
+
+Taunton, E., _Thomas Wolsey, Reformer and Legate_--from the Roman
+point of view.
+
+Westcott (Bishop), _History of the English Bible_.
+
+EDWARD VI
+
+CONTEMPORARY: A. DOCUMENTARY
+
+_Calendar of State Papers, Edward VI., etc., Domestic;_ vol. i.
+(Rolls.) Little more than a catalogue. Somewhat amplified by the Addenda in
+vol. vi.
+
+_Calendar of State Papers, Edward VI., Foreign,_ 1 vol. (Rolls.)
+Fairly full.
+
+_Calendar of Scottish State Papers,_ Ed. Bain.
+
+_Hamilton Papers_ (Scotland).
+
+
+B. CHRONICLES AND OTHER PUBLICATIONS
+
+Buchanan, _History of Scotland_.
+
+Foxe, _Acts and Monuments_.
+
+Holinshed, _Chronicle_.
+
+Knox, _History of the Reformation_.
+
+Lyndsay of Pitscottie, _Historie of Scotland_.
+
+_Literary Remains of Edward VI.,_ Ed. Nichols.
+
+Pole, Reginald, _Epistolae_.
+
+Sanders, Nicholas, _History of the Anglican Schism_.
+
+Smith, Sir T., _De Republica Anglorum_
+
+INTERMEDIATE
+
+As for Henry VIII.
+
+MODERN: A. GENERAL
+
+Armstrong, E., _Charles V._
+
+Dicey, A. V., _The Privy Council_.
+
+Froude, J. A., _History of England_. In this and the next reign,
+Mr. Froude is much less erratic.
+
+Oppenheim, M., _The Royal Navy, etc._
+
+Pollard, A. F., _England under Protector Somerset_. The best work on
+the time; though the impression given of Somerset is somewhat more
+favourable than the facts quite warrant, the rehabilitation was to a great
+extent necessary and justified. Much information as to authorities is given
+in the bibliography.
+
+Tytler, P. F., _England in the Reigns of Edward VI. and Mary_.
+
+B. REFORMATION
+
+Dixon, _History of the English Church,_ vols. iii, iv.
+
+Gairdner, J., _History of the English Church in the Sixteenth
+Century._
+
+Gasquet, F. A., _Edward VI. and the Book of Common Prayer_.
+
+Innes, A. D., _Cranmer and the English Reformation_.
+
+Mason, A. J., _Thomas Cranmer_.
+
+Moore, Aubrey, _History of the Reformation_.
+
+Pollard, A, F., _Cranmer_.
+
+MARY
+
+CONTEMPORARY
+
+_Calendar of State Papers, Mary, Foreign,_ 1 vol.
+
+Otherwise, the list of contemporary authorities is the same as for Edward
+VI., with some omissions. The _Domestic Calendar, Edward VI., etc._
+(vol. i.) extends on to 1580: and the remaining vols. to the end of
+Elizabeth bear the same title.
+
+INTERMEDIATE
+
+As for Henry VIII.
+
+MODERN
+
+Stone, J. M., _Mary I. Queen of England_ takes the place of _England
+under Protector Somerset_ for Edward VI. The facts are fairly and
+honestly stated; though the perspective differs considerably from that of
+Protestant writers, the bias is not nearly so marked as in the same
+writer's work on the _Renaissance_: and the portrait of Mary herself
+is probably the truest we have.
+
+Otherwise, the list for Edward VI. is practically repeated for Mary.
+
+ELIZABETH
+
+CONTEMPORARY: A. DOCUMENTARY
+
+_Calendar of State Papers, Edward VI., etc., Domestic_: (Rolls).
+Vol. i. 1547-80. A meagre catalogue. Vol. ii. 1580-90, somewhat less
+meagre. Vols. iii.-vi. 1590-1603, generally full transcriptions; but the
+Introductions are of much less use to the student than in _Henry VIII.
+L. & P.,_ or the other "Rolls" series of Elizabeth. Vols. vi. and vii.,
+addenda to vols. i. and ii.; the description, as for vols. iii-vi.
+
+_Calendar of State Papers, Foreign, Elizabeth_: (Rolls). 14 vols.,
+1558-81. Very full and informing; the introductions being very useful
+guides to the contents.
+
+_Calendar of State Papers, Irish_: (Rolls). Sufficiently full and
+satisfactory.
+
+_Calendar of State Papers, Spanish_: (Rolls). 1558-1603. Selected and
+translated by Major Martin Hume, chiefly from the Simancas archives. Very
+valuable, and full for most of the period.
+
+_Slate Papers relating to the Spanish Armada_: 2 vols.: ed. Professor
+Laughton, whose Introduction is of great interest. _Sidle Papers:
+Scotland and Mary Queen of Scots_. _Hamilton Papers_. _Hardwicke
+Papers_. _Letters of Mary Queen of Scots_: ed. A. Strickland.
+_Statutes and Constitutional Documents_: ed G. W. Prothero.
+
+B. CHRONICLES AND OTHER PUBLICATIONS
+
+Buchanan, _History of Scotland_. Camden, W., _Britannia_, a
+survey of the realm, and _Annals of Queen_ _Elizabeth_. Foxe, J.,
+_Book of Martyrs_. Holinshed, _Chronicle_. Knox, John,
+_Works_. Lesley, John (Bishop of Ross), _History of Scotland_.
+The Bishop was in constant diplomatic employment, on behalf of Mary.
+Lyndsay of Pitscottie, _Historie of Scotland_, ending 1563.
+_Marprelate_ Tracts. Sanders, N., _History of the Anglican
+Schism_. Raleigh, Sir W., _Works;_ notably _The Discovery of
+Guiana_, _The Fight at_ _the Azores_, and the _Relation of
+the Cadiz Action_. But the works contain _passim_ discussions which
+throw light on contemporary history. Spenser, E., _Faerie Queen_, Book
+I.; the Elizabethan spirit embodied in poetry. Not less necessary to a
+sympathetic understanding of the times than the Canterbury Tales, or
+Milton's Poems, for other periods.
+
+INTERMEDIATE
+
+Burnet, _History of the Reformation_. Macaulay, Lord, Essay on
+_Burleigh and his Times_, ostensibly a critique on the Nares
+Biography. Nares, E., _Memoirs of Lord Burleigh_. Neal, D., _History
+of the Puritans_. Strype, _Annals of the Reformation_; and _Lives
+of Parker_, _Grindal_, and _Whitgift_. Wright, T., _Queen
+Elisabeth and her Times_.
+
+MODERN
+
+Beesley, E. S., _Queen Elizabeth_ in the Twelve English Statesmen
+series. Rather a biography than a history; _i.e._ the Queen's
+personality holds almost exclusive possession of the stage. Brown, P.
+Hume, _Scotland in the Time of Queen Mary_; a study of social
+conditions, not politics or persons, in Scotland; inferentially, useful to
+the student of English social conditions.
+
+Corbett, J., _Drake and the Tudor Navy_, 2 vols., the most complete
+study of the Naval development under Elizabeth. Indispensable for this
+subject. Also _Drake_ in the English Men of Action series.
+
+Creighton (Bishop), _Queen Elizabeth_.
+
+Dixon, _History of the English Church_.
+
+Fleming, D. Hay, _Mary Queen of Scots; (to her captivity in England).
+
+Frere, W. H., _History of the English Church_.
+
+Froude, _History of England_, vols. vii.-xii.; closing with the
+Armada. Mary Queen of Scots is the wicked heroine, Burghley the hero, the
+dramatic presentation of other characters depending largely on--and varying
+with--their relations to these two. These preconceptions must be borne in
+mind, in following a most fascinating narrative. Mr. Froude accumulated an
+unprecedented quantity of evidence, but does not always present it with
+accuracy, or weigh its value. The _Elizabethan Seamen_ is also an
+interesting and graphic study.
+
+Harrison, F., _William the Silent_, in the "Foreign Statesmen" series.
+
+Hosack, J., _Mary Queen of Scots and her Accusers_, a vigorous
+presentation of the case on Mary's behalf.
+
+Hume, Martin: (1) _The Courtships of Queen Elizabeth_--a special
+aspect of the reign which called for a specific treatment. (2) _The Love
+Affairs of Mary Queen of Scots_ treated from the political, not the
+dramatic, point of view. (3) _The Great Lord Burghley_, a sympathetic
+study. (4) _The Year after the Armada_, to be read in conjunction with
+Corbett's _Drake_. (5) _Treason and Plot_, the best account of
+the Queen's closing years. (6) _Life of Sir Walter Ralegh_. (7)
+Introductions to the _State Papers, Spanish, Elizabeth_.
+
+Jusserand, J. J., _The Elizabethan Novel_, a very interesting study,
+by a Frenchman, of this particular literary development; and _A Literary
+History of the English People_.
+
+Lang, Andrew, _The Mystery of Mary Stewart_, a most ingenious
+examination of a practically insoluble problem: performed in the true
+spirit of historical investigation. The conclusions, with a less exhaustive
+treatment of the evidence, are presented in the _History of
+Scotland_--which is also a running criticism on English affairs as they
+affected, or were affected by, Scotland.
+
+Laughton, Introduction to the _State Papers relating to the Armada_.
+
+Lee, Sidney, _Life of Shakespeare_; and _Great Englishmen of the
+Sixteenth Century_.
+
+Moore, Aubrey, _History of the Reformation_.
+
+Motley, J. R., _Rise of the Dutch Republic_, the classical work on the
+subject.
+
+Oppenheim, M., _History of the Administration of the Royal Navy, etc._
+
+Procter, F., and Frere, W. H., _New History of the Book of Common
+Prayer_.
+
+Rodd, Sir Rennell, _Raleigh_ in English Men of Action series.
+
+Seeley, Sir J. R., _The Expansion of England_, lecture v.; and, _The
+Growth of British Policy_ from Elizabeth to William III. (2 vols.).
+
+Sichel, E., _Catherine de Medici_, etc.; an account of some leading
+characters on the Continent.
+
+Skelton, J., _Maitland of Lethington_, an able study of the "Scottish
+Macchiavelli".
+
+Tomlinson, J. R., _The Prayer-Book, Articles, Homilies_--from a
+strongly "Protestant" point of view.
+
+[Illustration: Spanish America about 1580]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's England Under the Tudors, by Arthur D. Innes
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ENGLAND UNDER THE TUDORS ***
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