290

EARLY PROSPECTS OF ROBERT, EARL OF ESSEX.

till two years afterwards; and we have no certain authority for the fact of the criminal connexion of the parties during the life of the earl of Essex; nor for the private marriage said to have been huddled up with indecent precipitation on his decease.

Walter, earl of Essex, left Robert his son and successor, then in the tenth year of his age, to the care and protection of the earl of Sussex and lord Burleigh; but Mr. Edward Waterhouse, a person of great merit and abilities, then employed in Ireland, and distinguished by the favor both of lord Burleigh and sir Henry Sidney, had the immediate management of the fortune and affairs of the minor. Of this friend Essex is related to have taken leave in his last moments with many kisses, exclaiming, 'O my Ned, my Ned, farewell! thou art the faithfullest and friendliest gentleman that ever I knew.' He proved the fidelity of his attachment by attending the body of the earl to Wales, whither it was conveyed for interment; and it was thence that he immediately afterwards addressed to sir Henry Sidney a letter, of which the following is an extract.

'The state of the earl of Essex, being best known to myself, doth require my travel for a time in his causes; but my burden cannot be great when every man putteth to his helping hand. Her majesty hath bestowed upon the young earl his marriage, and all his father's rules in Wales; and promiseth the remission of his debt. The lords do generally favor and further him; some for the trust reposed; some for love to the father; others for affinity with the child; and some for other causes. All these lords that wish well the children, and, I suppose, all the best sort of the English lords besides, do expect what will become of the treaty between Mr. Philip Sidney and my lady Penelope.

Truly, my lord, I must say to your lordship, as I have said to my lord of Leicester and Mr. Philip, the breaking off of this match, if the default be on your parts, will turn to more dishonor than can be repaired with any other marriage in England. And I protest unto your lordship, I do not think that there is at this day so strong a man in England of friends as the little earl of Essex; nor any man more lamented than his farher since the death of king Edward.' [Sidney Papers.]

Under such high auspices, and with such a general consent of men's minds in his favor, did the celebrated, the rash, the lamented Essex commence his brief and ill-starred course! The match between Philip Sidney and lady Penelope Devereux was finally broken off, as Waterhouse seems to have apprehended. She was married to lord Rich

and afterwards to Charles Blount, earl of Devonshire, on whose account she had been divorced from her first husband.

How little all the dark suspicions and sinister reports to which the death of the earl of Essex had given occasion, were able to

influence the mind of Elizabeth against the man of her heart, may appear by the tenor of an extraordinary letter written by her in June, 1577, to the earl and countess of Shrewsbury.

6 Our very good cousins ;

'Being given to understand from our cousin of Leicester how honorably he was not only lately received by you, our cousin the countess at Chatsworth; and his diet by you both discharged at Buxton's; but also presented with a very rare present, we should do him great wrong (holding him in that place of favor we do) in case we should not let you understand in how thankful sort we accept the same at both your hands, not as done unto him but to our own self; reputing him as another self; and therefore ye may assure yourselves that we, taking upon us the debt, not as his but our own, will take care accordingly to discharge the same in such honourable sort as so well deserving creditors as ye shall never have cause to think ye have met with an ungrateful debtor,' &c.

Lord Talbot, on another occasion, urged upon his father the policy of ingratiating himself with Leicester by a pressing invitation to Chatsworth; adding, moreover, that he did not believe it would greatly either further or hinder his going into that part of the country.

CHAP. XX. 1577 TO 1582.

Relations of the queen with France and Spain.—She sends succours to the Dutch-is entertained by Leicester, and celebrated in verse by P. Sidney.—Her visit to Norwich.—Letter of Topcliffe.—Notice of sir T. Smith.-Magical practices against the queen.-Duke Casimir's visit to Englaad.-Duke of Anjou urges his suit with the queen.— Simier's mission.-Leicester's marriage.—Behaviour of the queen.A shot fired at her barge.-Her memorable speech.—First visit of Anjou in England.—Opinions of privy councillors on the match.— Letter of Philip Sidney.-Stubb's book.-Punishment inflicted on him.-Notice of sir N. Bacon.-Drake's return from his circumnavigation.-Jesuit seminaries.-Arrival of a French embassy.—A triumph.-Notice of Fulke Greville.-Marriage-treaty with Anjou. His second visit.—His return and death.

ABOUT the middle of the year 1576, Walsingham, in a letter to sir Henry Sidney, thus writes: "Here at home we live in security as we were wont, grounding our quietness upon other's harms.' The harms here alluded to,—the religious wars of France, and the revolt of the Dutch provinces from Spain,-had proved indeed, in more ways than one, the safeguard of the peace of England. They furnished so much domestic occupation to the two catholic sovereigns of Europe most

292

FRANCE AND SPAIN-HOLLAND AND ENGLAND.

formidable by their power, their bigotry, and their unprincipled ambition, as effectually to preclude them from uniting their forces to put in execution against Elizabeth the papal sentence of deprivation : and by the opportunity which they afforded her of causing incalculable mischiefs to these princes, through the succours which she might afford to their rebellious subjects, they long enabled her to restrain both Philip and Charles within the bounds of respect and amity. But circumstances were now tending with increased velocity towards a rupture with Spain; and in 1577 the queen of England saw herself compelled to take steps in the affairs of the Low Countries equally offensive to that power and to France.

The states of Holland, after the rejection of their sovereignty by Elizabeth, cast their eyes around in search of another protector; and Charles IX., suffering his ambition and his rivalry with Philip II. to overpower all the vehemence of his zeal for the catholic religion, showed himself eager to become their patron. His brother the duke d'Alencon, doubtless with his concurrence, offered on certain terms to bring a French army for the expulsion of Don John of Austria, governor of the Low Countries; and this proposal he urged with so much importunity, that the Hollanders, notwithstanding their utter antipathy to the royal family of France, seemed likely to accede to it, as the lightest of that variety of evils of which their present situation offered them the choice. But Elizabeth could not view with indifference the progress of a negotiation which might eventually procure to France the annexation of these important provinces; and she encouraged the states to refuse the offers of Alencon, by immediately transmitting for their service liberal supplies of arms and money to duke Casimir, son of the Elector Palatine, then at the head of a large body of German protestants in the Low Countries.

At the same time, she endeavoured to repress the catholics in her own dominions by a stricter enforcement of the penal laws; and two or three persons in this year suffered capitally for their denial of the queen's ecclesiastical supremacy.*

These steps on the part of Elizabeth threatened entirely to disconcert the plans of the French court; but the king and his brother believed it still practicable to produce a change in her measures; and two or three successive embassies arrived in London during the spring

Dr. Whitgift, then bishop of Worcester, and vice-president of the marches of Wales under sir Henry Sidney, peculiarly distinguished himself by his activity in detecting secret meetings of catholics for the purpose of hearing mass and practising other rites of their religion. The privy council, in reward of his zeal, promised to direct to him and to some of the Welsh bishops a special commission for the trial of these delinquents. They further instructed him, in the case of one Morice, who had declined answering directly to certain interrogatories tending to criminate himself in these matters; that if the prisoner remained obstinate, and the commissioners saw cause, they might at their discretion cause some kind of torture to be used upon him. The same means he was also desired to take with others, in order to come to a full knowledge of all reconcilements to the church of Rome, and other practices of the papists in these parts.-Strype's Life of Whitgift, p. 83.

and summer of 1578, to renew with fresh earnestness the proposals of marriage on the part of the duke d'Alencon. The earl of Sussex and his party favored this match; Leicester and all the zealous protestants in the court and the nation opposed it. The queen 'sat arbitress; and perhaps prolonged her deliberations on the question, for the pleasure of receiving homage more than usually assiduous from both the factions.

The favorite, anxious to secure his ascendancy by fresh efforts of gallantry, and fresh instances of devotedness, entreated to be indulged in the privilege of entertaining her majesty for several days at his seat of Wanstead-house; a recent and expensive purchase, which he had been occupied in adorning with a magnificence suited to the ostentatious prodigality of his disposition.

It was for the entertainment of her majesty on this occasion that Philip Sidney condescended to task a genius worthy of better things, Iwith the composition of a mask in celebration of her surpassing beauties and royal virtues; entitled 'The Lady of May.' In defence of this public act of adulation, the young poet had probably the particular request of his uncle and patron to plead, as well as the common practice of the age; but it must still be mortifying, under any circumstances, to record the abasement of such a spirit to a level with the vulgar herd of the court-flatterers.

Unsatiated with festivities and homage, the queen continued her progress from Wanstead through the counties of Essex, Suffolk, and Norfolk; receiving the attendance of numerous troops of gentry, and making visits in her way to all who felt themselves entitled, or called upon, to solicit with due humility the costly honor of entertaining her. Her train was numerous and brilliant, and the French ambassadors constantly attended her motions. About the middle of August she arrived at the city of Norwich.

This ancient city, then one of the most considerable in the kingdom, yielded to none in a zealous attachment to protestant principles and te the queen's person; and as its remote situation had rendered the arrival of a royal visitant within its walls an extremely rare occurrence, the magistrates resolved to spare nothing which could contribute to the splendor of her reception.

At the furthest limits of the city she was met by the mayor, who addressed her in a long and very abject Latin oration; in which he was not ashamed to pronounce that the city enjoyed its charters and privileges 'by her only clemency.' At the conclusion he produced a large silver cup filled with gold pieces, saying, 'Sunt hic centum libræ puri auri: Welcome sounds! which failed not to reach the ear of her gracious majesty, who, lifting up the cover with alacrity, said audibly to the footman, to whose care it was delivered; 'Look to it; there is a hundred pound.' Pageants were set up in the principal

294

THE QUEEN AT NORWICH-THE MASKS.

streets, one of which had at least the merit of appropriateness; since it accurately represented the various processes employed in those woollen manufactures for which Norwich was already famous.

Two days after her majesty's arrival, Mercury, in a blue satin doublet lined with cloth of gold, with a hat of the same, garnished with wings, and wings at his feet, appeared under her chamberwindow in an extraordinary fine painted coach, and invited her to go abroad and see more shows; and a kind of mask, in which Venus and Cupid, with Wantonness and Riot, were discomfited by the goddess of Chastity and her attendants, was performed in the open air. A troop of nymphs and fairies lay in ambush for her on her return from dining with the earl of Surrey; and in the midst of these heathenish exhibitions, the minister of the Dutch church watched his opportunity to offer to her the grateful homage of his flock. To these deserving strangers, protestant refugees from Spanish oppression, the policy of Elizabeth, in this instance equally generous and descerning, had granted every privilege capable of inducing them to make her kingdom their permanent abode. At Norwich, where the greater number had settled, a church was given them for the performance of public worship in their own tongue, and according to the form which they preferred; and encouragement was held out to them to establish several branches of manufacture which they had previously carried on to great advantage at home. This accession of skill and industry soon raised the woollen fabrics of England to a pitch of excellence unknown in former ages, and repaid with usury to the country this exercise of national hospitality.

It appears that the inventing of masks, pageants, and devices, for the recreation of the queen on her progresses, had become a distinct profession. George Ferrers, formerly commemorated as master of the pastimes to Edward VI., one Goldingham, and Churchyard, author of "The Worthiness of Wales,' of some legends in the 'Mirror for Magistrates,' and of a prodigious quantity of verse on various subjects, were the most celebrated proficients in this branch; all three are handed down to posterity as contributors to 'The princely Pleasures of Kenilworth,' and the two latter as managers of the Norwich entertainments. They vied with each other in the gorgeousness, the pedantry, and the surprisingness of their devices; but the palm was surely due to him of the number who had the glory of contriving a battle between certain allegorical personages, in the midst of which, 'legs and arms of men, well and lively wrought, were to be let fall in numbers on the ground as bloody as might be.' The combat was to be exhibited in the open air; but the skies were unpropitious, and a violent shower of rain unfortunately deprived her majesty of the satisfaction of witnessing the effect of so extraordinary and elegant a device.