260

REBELLION OF THE CATHOLIC LORDS OF THE NORTH.

that Mary, when at liberty, might fall into the hands of a foreign and catholic party; and desert her engagements with him for a marriage with the king of Spain. Dacre, however, was not to be diverted from his design, especially by the man with whom he was at open enmity, and he assembled a troop of horse for its execution; but suspicions had probably been excited, and the sudden removal of the prisoner to Wingfield frustrated for the present his measures, but left him ripe for any future mischief.

In the enterprise of the two earls, Leonard Dacre had found no opportunity to take an active part, though a deep participator in their counsels; for knowing that their design could not yet be ripe for execution, and foreseeing as little as the rest of the faction those measures of the queen by which their affairs were prematurely brought to a crisis, he had proceeded to court on his private concerns; and was there, amusing her majesty with protestations of his unalterable fidelity and attachment, while his associates in the north were placing their lands and lives on the hazard of rebellion. Learning on his journey homewards the total discomforture of the earls, he carefully preserved the semblance of a zealous loyalty, till, having armed the retainers of his family on pretence of preserving the country in the queen's obedience, and strongly garrisoned his hereditary castles of Naworth and Greystock, which he wrested from the custody of the Howards, he declared himself, and broke out into rebellion.

The late severities had rather exasperated than subdued the spirit of disaffection in this neighbourhood; and three thousand men ranged themselves under the scallop-shells of Dacre ;-a well known ensign which from age to age had marshalled the hardy borderers to deeds of warlike prowess. Lord Hunsdon, the governor of Berwick, marched promptly forth with all the force he could muster to disperse the rebels; but this time they stood firmly on the banks of the little river Gelt, to give him battle. Such indeed was the height of fanaticism or despair to which these unhappy people were wrought up, that the phrensy gained even the softer sex; and there were seen in their ranks, says the chronicler, 'many desperate women that gave the adventure of their lives; and fought right stoutly.' After a sharp action, in which about three hundred were left dead on the field, victory at length declared for the queen's troops; and Leonard Dacre, who had bravely sustained, notwithstanding the deformity of his person, the part of soldier as well as general [Camden's Annals], seeing that all was lost, turned his horse's head and rode off full speed for Scotland; whence he passed into Flanders and took up at Louvain his melancholy abode.

The treason of this unfortunate gentleman was, it must be confessed, both notorious and heinous; and had he been intercepted in making his escape, no blame could have attached to Elizabeth in exacting the

full penalty of his offence. But when, five-and-twenty years after this time, we find his aged mother at court 'an earnest suitor' for the pardon of her two sons [Letter of R. Whyte in Sidney Papers] obtaining, probably by costly bribes, a promise of admission to the queen's presence; and at length gaining nothing more;-it is impossible not to blame or lament that unyielding severity of temper which rendered Elizabeth so much a stranger to the fairest attribute of sovereign power. The case of Francis Dacre indeed, was one which ought to have appealed to her sense of justice rather than her feelings of mercy. This gentleman, after the expatriation and attainder of his elder brother, had prosecuted at law the claims to the honors and lands of the barony of Gilsland which had thus devolved upon him; but being baffled in all his appeals to the equity of the courts, he had withdrawn in disgust to Flanders; and on this account suffered a sentence of outlawry. He lived and died in exile, leaving a son, named Ranulph, heir only to poverty and misfortunes, to noble blood, and to rights which he was destitute of the power of rendering available. Lord Dacre of the south, as he was usually called, settled on this poor man, his very distant relation, a small annuity; and on his death the following lord Dacre, becoming the heir male of the family, received by way of compromise from the Howards no less than thirteen manors which they had enjoyed to the prejudice of Leonard Dacre, of his brother and his nephew.

On the suppression of this second rising in the north, the queen, better advised, or instructed by experience, granted a general pardon to all but its leader; and such was the effect of this lenity, or of the example of repeated failure on the part of the insurgents, that the tranquillity of her kingdom was never more disturbed from this quarter; the most dangerous of all from the vicinity of Scotland.

The earl of Sussex had been kept for some time in a state of dissatisfaction, as appears from one of his letters to Cecil, by her majesty's dilatoriness in conferring upon him such a mark of her special favor as she had graciously promised at the conclusion of his efficaciou defence of himself before the council; but she at length appeased his wounded feelings, by admitting him to the council-board, and giving him the command of a strong force she had appointed to act on the Scottish border.

The occasion for this military movement arose out of the tragical incident of the assasination of the regent Murray; which had proved the signal for a furious inroad upon the English limits by some of the southern clans, who found themselves, immediately released from the restraints of an administration vigorous enough to make the lawless tremble. Sussex was ordered to chastise their insolence; and he performed the task thoroughly and pitilessly; laying waste with fire and sword the whole obnoxious district.

Besides recognizing in Murray a valuable coadjutor, neighbour, and

262

THE REGENT MURRAY SLAIN, AND RESULTS THEREOF. ally, Elizabeth appears to have loved and esteemed him as a man and a friend; and she bewailed his death with an excess of dejection honorable surely to her feelings, though regarded by some as derogatory from the dignity of her station. It was indeed an event which broke all her measures; and presented fresh causes of solicitude, at a period when difficulties and dangers were besetting her on every side. What degree of compunction she felt for her unjustifiable detention of Mary may be doubtful; but it is certain that her mind was now shaken with perpetual terrors and anxieties for the consequences of that irrevocable step; and that there was nothing which she more earnestly desired than to transfer to other hands the custody of so dangerous a state prisoner.

She had nearly concluded an agreement for this purpose with Murray, to whom she was to have surrendered the person of the captive queen, receiving six Scottish noblemen as hostages for her safe keeping; and though the interference of the French and Spanish ambassadors had obliged her to suspend its execution, there is no reason to suppose that the design was relinquished, when this unexpected stroke rendered it for ever impracticable. The regency of Scotland likewise was now to be contested by the enraged factions of that distracted country; and it was of great importance to Elizabeth that the victory should fall to the party of the young king; yet such were the perplexities of her political situation, that it was some time before she could satisfy herself that there would not be too great a hazard in supporting by arms the election of the earl of Lennox to whom she gave her interest.

Her first recourse was to her favorite arts of intrigue; and she sent Randolph, her chosen instrument for these occasions, to tamper with various party-leaders, while Sussex, whose character inclined him more to measures of coercion, exhorted her to put an end to her irresolution and throw the sword into the scale of Lennox. She at length found reason to adopt this counsel; and the earl re-entering Scotland with his army, laid waste the lands, and took or destroyed the castles of Mary's adherents.

Sir William Drury, marshal of the army, was afterwards sent further into the country, to chastise the Hamiltons, Bothwellhaugh, to which clan the assassin of Murray belonged.

The contemporary accounts of this expedition, amid many lamentable particulars of the ravages committed, afford one amusing trait of manners. Lord Fleming, who held out Dumbarton castle for the queen of Scots, had demanded a parley with sir William Drury; during which he treacherously caused him to be fired upon; happily without effect. Sir George Carey, burning to avenge the injury offered to his commander, sent immediately a letter of defiance to lord Fleming, challenging him to meet him in single combat on this

quarrel, when, where, and how he dares; concluding thus: Otherwise I will baffle your good name, sound with the trumpet your dishonor, and paint your picture with the heels upwards, and bear it in despite of yourself? That this was not the only species of affront to which portraits were in these days exposed, we learn from an expression of Ben Johnson's :-'Take as unpardonable offence as if he had torn your mistress's colors, or breathed on her picture! [Every Man out of his Humour.]

The Scotch war was terminated a few months afterwards by an agreement between Elizabeth and Mary: in virtue of which the former consented to withdraw her troops from the country, on the engagement of the latter that no French forces should enter it in support of her title. After this settlement, Elizabeth returned to her usual ambiguous dealing in the affairs of Scotland; and so far from insisting that Lennox should be named regent, she sent a request to the heads of the king's party that they would refrain for a time from the nomination of any person to that office. In consequence of this mandate, which they dared not disobey, Lennox was only chosen lieutenant for a time; an appointment which served equally well the politic purposes of the English queen.

Connected with all the other measures adopted by the zeal of the great combination of catholics for the destruction of Elizabeth and the ruin of the protestant cause, was one from which their own narrow prejudices or sanguine wishes, rather than any just views of the state of public opinion in England, led them to anticipate important results. This was the publication of a papal bull solemnly anathematizing the queen and dispensing her subjects from their oath of allegiance. A fanatic named Felton was found willing to earn the crown of martyrdom by affixing this instrument to the gate of the bishop of London's palace. He was taken in the fact; and suffered the penalty of treason without exciting a murmur among the people. A trifling insurrection in Norfolk ensued, of which however the papal bull was not openly assigned as the motive; and which was speedily suppressed with the punishment of a few of the offenders according to law. Even the catholic subjects of Elizabeth for the most part abhorred the idea of lifting their hands against her government and the peace of their native land; and several of them were now found among the foremost in their sincere offers of service against the disaffected.

On the whole, the result of the great trial of the hearts of her people afforded to the queen by the alarms of this anxious period, was satisfactory beyond all example. Henceforth she knew, and the world knew, the firmness of that rock on which her throne was planted ;-based on religion, supported by wisdom and fortitude, and adorned by every attractive art, it stood, dear and venerable to the people, defying the assaults of her baffled and malignant enemies.

264

THE BIRTH-DAY ANNIVERSARY OF ELIZABETH. The anniversary of her accession began this year to be celebrated by popular festivals all over the country;-a practice which was retained not enly to the end of the reign, but for many years afterwards; during which Nov. 17 continued to be solemnly observed, under the designation of the Birthday of the Gospel.

CHAP. XVIII. 1571 TO 1573.

Sir T. Gresham.-Building of his exchange.-The queen's visit to it.Cecil created lord Burleigh.-Fousts at Westminster.-The earl of Oxford, Charles Howard, sir H. Lee, sir Chr. Hatton.-Negotiations for the marriage of Elizabeth with the duke of Anjou.-The intrigues of Norfolk.-His re-committal, trial, and conviction.Death of Throgmorton.-Sonnet by Elizabeth.-Norfolk beheaded— His character and descendants.-Hostility of Spain.-Wylson's translation of Demosthenes.-Walsingham ambassador to France.Treaty with France.-Massacre of Paris.-Temporizing conduct of Elizabeth.-Burleigh's calculation of the queen's nativity.—Notice of sir Philip Sydney.

FROM the intrigues and violences of crafty politicians and discontented nobles, we turn aside to trace the prosperous and honorable career of a private English merchant, whose abilities and integrity · introduced him to the notice of his sovereign, and whose patriotic munificence still preserves to him the respectful remembrance of posterity. This merchant was Thomas Gresham. Born of a family at once enlightened, wealthy, and commercial, he had shared the advantage of an education at the university of Cambridge previously to his entrance on the walk of life to which he was destined, and which, fortunately for himself, his superior acquirements did not tempt him to desert or despise.

His father, sir Richard Gresham, had been agent to Henry VIII. for the negotiation of loans with the merchants of Antwerp, and in 1552 he himself was nominated to act in a similiar capacity to Edward VI., when he was eminently serviceable in redeeming the credit of the king, which had fallen to the lowest ebb through the mismanagement of a former agent. Under Elizabeth he enjoyed the same appointment, to which was added that of queen's merchant; and it appears by the official letters of the time, that political as well as pecuniary affairs were often intrusted to his discreet and able management. He was also a spirited promotor of the infant manufactures of his country, several of which owed to him their first establishment. His diligence and commercial talents at length rendered him the most opulent