BOOK own nation.13 She stated her intentions without disguise to the Spanish government," and sent her little army into Flanders, under sir John Norris, who soon distinguished themselves by that martial intrepidity, which has long been the characteristic and reputation of their country.15 Death in the next year ended the projects and successes of don John, the conqueror of the Turkish navy and the aspirant for Elizabeth's throne.16 But his plans were succeeded by a new combination of pope Gregory XIII. and Philip II., to dispossess this princess," whose wise and steady reign was the main support of the Protestant Reformation, and whom it therefore was still essential to destroy, if that was to be subverted in Europe. The wild attempt was even begun;18 and the celebrated don 13 Camden, 144. They applied for a loan of 100,000l. which she told them her city of London would advance on sufficient security. ib. Still her object was unambitious; and her desire of a mutual peace so great, that it was the condition with the provinces, that in Philippi obsequio continerentur.' Grotius, 53. Tho on fair and equitable conditions. 14 See it in Camden, 195 15 Camd. 199. 16 His first victories gave him the command of Brabant and Limburg. Grot. 54. Margaret, wife of Henry IV. recommended her brother to the states, whose republica became undique confusa. ib.56. Articles of peace were discussed, p. 58; but John obtaining new forces, broke off all treaty, 59. At last, in 1578, a vis morbi subita removed him. 'Quam facile receptabat, æger animus et fortunæ iratus.' ib. 60. 17 Camd. 202. One of the pontiff's objects also was to obtain the kingdom of Ireland for his son Boncompagnon, whom he had made marquess of Vincola. ib. 18 Štukely, an English fugitive, whom the pope created marquess of Leinster, sailed from Civita Vecchia, with eight hundred Italians, to the Tagus, to join the Spanish and Portuguese forces that were to form the expedition. Camd. 203. Of this Stukely, Catena states, that he, a noble Inglese, from the dealings which he had in Ireland, undertook in a few weeks, with 3000 Spaniards, to cause all the island to revoltar alla devotione de Catholici, and to send his pilot with two ships, and two zaure armati, to burn all the naval forces in the Thames.' Catena Vita P. P. p. 118. Walsingham, on 8 Feb. 1572, apprised Burghley, that Stukely, in Spain, presented an instrument unto the king there, not only subscribed with the names XXXI. Sebastian was to have commanded the Portuguese CHAP. and Spanish forces, that were to co-operate with the papal troops. But Sebastian's first passion was to have the glory of conquering Morocco, or of reestablishing in it an emperor who had been dethroned. To this his ambitious eye was directed by that unseen agency, which moves the results of human wishes and actions to suit its own grand purposes instead of ours; and he led his army, with Stukely's papal battalion, to that fierce and disappointing battle on the plains of Fez, in which both the Moorish rivals left the world, while the king of Portugal so mysteriously disappeared from it, that history has never been able to ascertain or narrate with undoubted certainty his exact fate; nor can now discern whether the destitute individual who some years after claimed to be his real personality, was himself, or a bold impostor. Stukely perished with the larger part of the Christian army; and as Sebastian's death tempted the Spanish king to add Portugal to his own kingdom, the invasion of England was at that critical moment abandoned, for the nearer and more seizable booty.19 of most part of the Irish nobility, but also with the names of divers in England, of good quality, ready to be at his devotion.' Cabala, 36. Sebastian, in 1567, had the correspondence with Elizabeth, which is in MS. Nero, B. 1; and on 2d February 1572, entered into the treaty of peace with her, which is in the same MS. 19 Camd. 203, 4. Nothing is more deserving of our study in history, than that connection and relation of events to each other, by which grand results are produced without any supernatural disturbance of the apparent course of things; and by which, even the opposers of important improvements are made unintentionally the instruments of their establishment, while pursuing only their own selfish projects. Thus the expedition and death of Sebastian, in Morocco, not only averted his invasion of England, but by tempting Philip II. to seize the opportunity of securing Portugal, relieved the struggling Netherlands at an important crisis, from the weight of his military power; and postponed also for some years his attack on England, until BOOK II. We now approach the period and the incidents of the greatest personal danger to Elizabeth, from her Romish persecutors, in the plots and activity of the inveterate and indefatigable Seminarists and Jesuits, from whose secret machinations and daring perseverance she with difficulty escaped. To be at that time a Catholic, and to think Elizabeth an usurper, and Mary the rightful queen— and to desire to have a Catholic sovereign on the throne of England,—were inseparable circumstances. There was not perhaps one member of the Romish church in Europe, who had other sentiments. Their pope and hierarchy in all its branches held and taught unvaryingly such opinions. That it would be meritorious to depose Elizabeth; and that it was meritorious to conspire and to exert themselves to do so, became a regular inference from these opinions in the Romish church; and was zealously inculcated by its priesthood and agents on all their adherents: nor did such tuition fall at that time on averted ears. That these doctrines and instigations made great impression on the minds of the English Catholics, and roused many of all classes to insurrection, and kept alive a formidable and spreading conspiracy, nothing exterior favored it, and till nothing remained to repair its discomfiture. On 6 July 1580, the cardinal Granville wrote to the provost Morillon, in the Low Countries, Portugal nous ruine; mais il ne s'est peu de laisser d'y entendre pour non faire trop du tort au roi et à sa posterité.' Lett. de Granv. Šo two days afterwards he remarked to count Mans Feld, Cette emprinse de Portugal est tombée en mauvaise saison; yet his majesty could not avoid embracing it, without too much prejudicing himself and his people.' Letter, ib. The Portuguese preferred their own king, Don Antonio s'est fait appeller roi par le mênu peuple de Lisbona: mais ceux qui ont a perdre n'en sont contens.' Therefore Philip had at the end of June sent a flect from Cadiz to blockade the Tagus, que leur exclusa tout secours et les vivres.' ib. This diversion enabled the prince of Orange and Elizabeth to complete the emancipation of the United Provinces. to realise their objects by the queen's downfall or destruction; our readers have perceived from the facts and documents of some of our preceding chapters. But all such hostilities, however occasionally menacing and really formidable, had been hitherto unavailing: the failure of the precipitate attempt of the earls of Westmoreland and Northumberland-the detection and execution of the duke of Norfolk-the admonition and arrest of some of his noble confederates-the natural deaths of several of these the renewed and penetrating vigilance of lord Burghley-the decease of Pius V.-the increasing popularity of Elizabeth-the universal indignation and alarm in every Protestant mind at the massacre of St. Bartholomew, and the private or avowed detestation of these horrors, by the humaner and more enlightened Catholics,-diminished for several years after this failure, both the desire and the plots to dispossess the reigning queen: and she lived in comparative security and happiness from the year 1572 to 1580: But new agents arising to form and execute new machinations, a renewed spirit and fresh train of secret treason and destructive conspiracy, were then again excited and spread by the papal missionaries, among her satisfied and tranquil population; 20 compelling her government to enact I 20 In stating impartially the authentic history of Elizabeth's reign, the writer, who seeks only to explore and narrate the truth, cannot avoid exhibiting the papal court and its agents in a succession of conduct, which it will be displeasing to many to advert to now. regret the necessity of reviving the recollection of such transactions; but the fidelity of history must not be compromised from any temporary convenience. My own wishes on the still contesting parties, are those which were so interestingly and so happily expressed at Carlingford, on 3 Sept. 1828, by the MARQUIS OF СНАР. XXXI. BOOK II. and to enforce legal severities against all such agitators; and from the impossibility of discriminating the persons who were secretly yielding to their influence, or determining to execute their plots, these stern laws were extended to the Catholic body in general. They certainly resembled tyranny, in their nature; and were vindicable only as temporary correctives, or preventatives of great temporary evils. These new instruments of agitation among the English Catholics, whose dangerous and persevering restlessness produced all the penal enactments against them which appear on our statute books after the year 1580, were the Seminarists and Jesuits; a succession of trained missionaries, chiefly English youths educated for the purpose, sent under the papal sanction to England, avowedly to prevent the Catholic religion from declining in our island ;21 but many of them secretly instructed and zealously ANGLESFA, lord lieutenant of Ireland, when presiding at a dinner, to his tenantry : I consider the present moment one of the happiest of my life. How delightful is it to my heart to behold my tenantry, Protestant and Catholic, here MEETING WITH ONE MIND, to-day. I trust the time is not far distant when all religious distinctions will be forgotten. I arraign no man for his religious belief. None of you can for a moment suppose that our beneficent Deity will refuse to receive the prayers of upright men, because they may happen not to agree in politics, or to entertain a different religious belief; the doctrines of which each considers essential to his eternal salvation. I quarrel with no man on account of his religious opinions or political principles and I feel assured, that you will not act differently. I beseech you to live as brothers, worshippers of the same God. The man who is honest and obedient to the laws, is my friend. Now, my tenantry! I implore you, one and all, Protestants and Catholics, to be an example to Ireland. Shake hands, and live in friendship one with another: I trust I shall meet you all in heaven.' Dublin paper, Sept. 1828. 21 Ribadineira states, that some zealous men' formed the plan, 'to prevent the Catholic religiou from being cut up by the roots; for they did not doubt, that the more this sect of perdition [the Protestants] prevailed, it would yet, if the Catholics were not dismayed, fall as others had done in past ages.' Hist. p. 259. |