BOOK II. That Henry IV. with all his means of information and desire to find her as erring as himself, was unable to discover any FACT to her dishonor, may be decisively inferred from his humorous, but not very commendable observation; because a single fact to the contrary would have turned the scale of his intellectual balance.o But the grand verdict of acquittal to this calumniated queen is given by the French ambassador, De Castelnau Mauvissiere. He had been so much in England, and was so much in confidential correspondence with Mary, and in diplomatic intercourse with the enemies of Elizabeth; and was so familiar at her court, and with her favorites and nobles; that he must have known all that was to be known on this curiosity-inciting subject; and yet so convinced was he of the untruth of the defaming stories which had gone abroad, that he has left us this honorable and decisive testimony: And if some persons have wished to tax her FALSELY with having amorous attachments, I will say, with truth, that THEY ARE INVENTIONS FORGED by the malevolent, and from the cabinets of ambassadors, to avert from an alliance with her, those to whom it would have been useful.' This was 111 110 Henry IV. in a jovial humor, told a Scotch marquis, That there were three things inscrutable to intelligence: 1. Whether Maurice, then prince of Orange, was valiant in his person ? 2. What religion he himself was of? 3. Whether queen Elizabeth was a maid or no?' Osborne, p. 75. The just inference from this remark is, that, notwithstanding all the prying of ambassadors and courtiers, and of inveterate enemies; and notwithstanding all their long circulated slanders, not one single fact had been detected to convict her of unchastity; otherwise that point never could have been such a mystery as, to his dishonor, his own religion was, to this too voluptuous and worldly, tho clever and active minded king. His own words in French are, Et si l'on a vouler taxer faussement d'avoir de l'amour, JE DIRAI AVEC VERITE que ce sont INVEN XXXVII. written by him, in his private memoirs, where there CHAP. could have been no motive to mistate the truth; and with this acquitting verdict of a foreigner, a Frenchman, and an ambassador, no impartial Englishman can have reason or desire to dissent.112 If from her venial faults and foibles, and from the hostile slanders which pursued even her death-bed," and her grave," 114 and ever since her memory, we ascend to the unquestionable qualities of her mind, we perceive, amid a majesty of demeanor which her gait as well as her regal conduct always displayed," a tenderness of sensibility for which she has had no credit, and a gracious affability and kind fami 116 115 TIONS FORGEES de ses malveillans, et de cabinets des ambassadeurs pour degouter de son alliance ceux auxquels elle eut été utile.' Memoirs, v. 1. p. 62. 112 The idea of a physical impossibility, if it did not arise from the actual fact, is evidence that her moral resolution was so steady and unbroken, that some chose to account for it by supposing, that not virtue and reason, but necessity, produced the chastity which they rather wondered at, than commended. 113 One calumny, which is ascribed to Parsons the Jesuit, was, that she drove away from her the bishops who came to her as she was dying, and called them hedge priests, a phrase which he remarked was only applied to beggars and strumpets who had no home. Bayle, voc. Eliz. 1114. Lord Monmouth mentions, ‘I know there have been many false lies reported of the end and death of that good lady.' Mem. p. 122. How the English clergy at that time had been led, from their experience, to estimate Parsons, we may infer from bishop Hall's short notice of him: That honest politician, father Parsons, who wanted nothing but a gibbet, to have made him a saint.' Strype, 4. p. 503. 414 The same worthy bishop Hall, after remarking of the queen, that pope Clement had called her miseram fœminam, miserable woman,' adds, Those that durst not bring her on the stage living, now being dead, bring her into their processions like a tormented ghost, with fiends and firebrands, to the terror of their ignorant beholders; as I have heard by those that have seen it.' Sermon preached March 24, 1613. Strype, v. 4, p. 502. is Puttenham repeatedly mentions the majesty of her deportmentYour stately port;' 'stately presence, such as becometh one who seems to rule realms by her look alone.' Parthen. 26-9. 116 Her feelings, as to Mary's execution, have been entirely ascribed II. BOOK liarity to her personal friends, household and people," which are rarely united with so much superior intellect, and determined maintenance of her stately dignity.18 She always repelled what she considered to be disrespect to her regal station. She did so when the Polish ambassador delivered to her unexpectedly, a menacing oration in a peremptory tone. to dissimulation; and as to Essex, as unjustly, to undue attachment. It is therefore with pleasure that I cite another instance of her sensibility, which cannot be misinterpreted, as it was on the loss of lord Burghley, on 4th August 1598. Sir William Knollys thus mentioned it: Her majesty hath been this afternoon made privy of my lord treasurer's death, which she seemeth to take very grievously, SHEDDING OF TEARS, and separating herself from all company.' Birch, Mem. v. 1. p. 390. We may therefore believe that her feelings as to Mary, mentioned in our preceding page 469, were genuine. That she was sincere in these to the Scottish queen, we may infer from the expressions in this letter of lord Leicester. In December 1572, he thus represented, to earl Shrewsbury, his observation of her feelings: Touching talk that the Scottish queen hath had of me as her enemy, I have been no aggravater of that queen's cause, neither a hinderer of any favorable inclination, that at any time I have found in the queen's majesty towards her. Neither will I rob her majesty of her due desert, but must confess, that her own goodness hath had more natural consideration of that queen, THAN ALL THE FRIENDS she hath besides are able to challenge thanks for.' Lodge, v. 2. 85. 6 p. 117 Puttenham mentions her affable grace, p. 26; and Naunton her' affable virtues,' which made her so popular. p. 175. One of the strongest indications of this quality in her is the following sentence in T. Wilson's letter, written two months after her death. Speaking of James I. he adds, The people, according to the honest English nature, approve all their prince's actions and words, saving that they desire some more of that GRACIOUS AFFABILITY, which their good old queen did afford them.' Ellis, Second Series, v. 3. p. 201. 118 We have an instance of her kind reception of her people, and yet how carefully, at the same time, she observed and maintained her ceremonial dignity, in the recorder's (Fleetwood's) letter to Burghley. "This present Sunday my lord mayor was presented, when her majesty most graciously accepted of my lord, and of my foolish speech, to the great comfort of my lord mayor, and of all his brethren the aldermen. Her majesty was wonderfully well pleased in all things, saving for that some young gentlemen, being more bold than well mannered, did stand upon the carpet of the cloth of state, and did almost lean upon the cushions. Her highness found fault with my lord chamberlain and Mr. vice chamberlain, and with the gentlemen ushers, for suffering such disorders.' Ellis, First Lett. v. 3. p. 31. My lord chamberlain made my lord mayor, knight; my lord kissed her highness's hand, and soon departed.' ib. XXXVII. She closed her Latin rebuke with the emphatic words, CHAP. 'Farewell, and be quiet.' Then, says our old historian, Lion-like, rising up, she daunted the malapert orator, not less with her stately port and majestical departure, than with the tartness of her princely cheeks.'119 To the Danish envoy's application, she expressed, with an immediate greatness of feeling, the intrepidity of her own spirit, and the dignity and self-security of her country: I would have the king of Denmark, and all princes, christian and heathen, to know, that England hath no need to crave peace; nor have I myself endured one hour's fear since I attained its crown, guarded as I am by such valiant and faithful subjects.'120 Thus she combined two opposing features of her character, high spirit and gracious benignity, into an harmony of effect, which excited in her subjects deep veneration and affectionate popularity. Her frequent progresses among them increased these feelings; and in these journeys she was always affable and condescending.' She sometimes playfully sported with 122 121 119 This was in 1597. On leaving him, she turned to the train of her attendants, and said, ' I have been enforced this day to scour my old Latin, that hath lain long in rusting.' Speed, 898. 120 Speed, 898. 121 The Sloane MS. describes her as affable to her subjects, but always with due regard of the greatness of her estate, by reason whereof she was both loved and feared.' Ellis, v. 3, p. 191. 122 Puttenham thus pourtrays her: 'Thou, that beside foreign affairs, BOOK II. her gravest counsellors, 123 and at times amused them with a jocular pen.' 124 If she was occasionally irritable, it was a transient flash, which was followed by increased kindness to And thus to do art less afraid, With household train a silly maid, Durst do with troops of armed men.'-Putten. 37. 123 Thus she named Burghley her Spirit,' and Walsingham her 'Moon.' Davison, writing to them, thus notices this sportive appellation: Being specially commanded by her majesty to signify to you both, how greatly she doth long to hear how her SPIRIT and Moon do find themselves, after so foul and wearisome a journey.' Nicholas's Life of Dav. p. 47. 124 On sending to Burghley a permission to enjoy a temporary relaxation at his country seat, at Theobalds, in 1591, she put it into the shape of an official charter, drawn up by the queen herself in a facetious style to cheer the said treasurer,' who was rather melancholy. It is therefore a specimen of her good humor and playful wit, sporting with her own title and lauded person. ELIZABETHA Anglorum, id est, a nitore Angelorum, regina formosissima et felicissima: To the disconsolate and retired Spryte, the hermit of Theobalds, and to all other disaffected souls, claiming by from or under the said hermit, sendeth greeting: 'Whereas in our high court of chancery it is given to us to understand that you, sir Hermit, the abandonate of nature's fair work, and servant to heaven's wonders, have for the space of two years and two months possessed yourself of fair Tybolt, with her sweet rosary; the recreation of our right trusty and right well-beloved sir William Sitsilt, knight, [Cecil's old family name,] leaving to him the old rude repose, wherein twice five years your contemplative life was relieved: Which place and fate inevitable hath brought griefs innumerable; for lovers grief abideth no compare; suffering your solitary eye to bring into her house desolation and mourning, whereby paradise is grown wilderness, and for green grass are come gray hairs: We, upon advised consideration, have commanded you, Hermit! to your old cave; too good for the forsaken, too bad for our worthily beloved counsellor. 'And because we greatly tender your comfort, we have given power to our chancellor to make out such writs as to him shall be thought good, to abjure desolations and mournings, the consumers of sweetness, to the frozen seas and to the deserts of Arabia Petrosa, upon pain of 500 despites to their terror and torments, if they attempt any part of your house again. ENJOINING you to the enjoyment of your own house and of delight, without any mortal accident or wretched adversary." This little effusion of her gaiety to make an old and ailing friend smile, was sealed with the great seal, signed by the chancellor, and sent to rouse the spirits of her declining minister. Strype, v. 4. p. 108, 9. Nothing could be more kindly intended. |