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Mary Stewart

Famous Faces

A HISTORY OF ENGLAND By H. O. ARNOLD - FORSTER

Published By Cassell & Company's Publications

"Good Queen Bess." 'Garter King At Arms - " Heaven, from thy endless goodness, send prosperous life, long, and ever happy, to the High and Mighty Princess of England, Elizabeth ! " Shakespeare :" Henry VIII.."

"Send her victorious,
Happy and glorious,
Long to reign over us,
God save the Queen !"

Henry; Carey : " God save the Queen.."

We now come to the story of the reign of one of the most famous of all the sovereigns of England. The name of Queen Elizabeth, or of "Good Queen Bess," as her people called her, is justly held in honour by Englishmen. It is true that Elizabeth did many things which appear to us cruel and harsh, and that she can he fairly charged with being mean in some things, and deceitful in others. More than once she used her power and her high position to injure those of whom she was jealous or whom she feared. But when all that can be said against Queen Elizabeth has been said, we must still admit that she was a wonderful woman and a great queen.

Whatever mistakes she made, there was one mistake which Elizabeth was never guilty of. She never forgot that she was Queen of England, and that it was her duty to make England great. prosperous, and respected.

Edward VI. had tried to reign as king of the Protestants of England. Mary as queen of the Roman Catholics of England. But from the very beginning of her reign. Elizabeth tried to reign, not as queen of this party or of that, but as queen of all the people of England. As long people served her faithfully obeyed the laws which she approved, and were true to the country, she was true to them. Her faults were best known to those who lived near her, and who had much to do with her but it was her virtues and not her faults which English men and English women who did not live at the Court saw and understood.

The accession of the new queen was the signal for rejoicing throughout the land. Men of all parties were tired of the cruelties and the misfortunes of Mary's reign, and there was not one cry heard as Elizabeth rode into London - it was the cry of "God save the Queen. 'Parliament, in the time of Henry VIII., had passed an Act declaring that Elizabeth had no right to come to the throne. But by a later Act the King had been given power to declare in his will who should succeed him. and he had actually made a will naming Elizabeth as Queen in due course . Now nearly everyone was glad to see Elizabeth on the throne, safe and well, for during Mary's reign her life had often been in danger.

Mary was, above all things, a friend of the Pope: Elizabeth had been brought up in the Reformed Religion, and was the hope of all those who belonged to it. During her sister's reign, Elizabeth had really been kept prisoner, first in one place and then in another. The Pope's party had over and over again tried to find her out in some plot against Queen Mary, or to prove that she was trying to upset the Old Religion. But Elizabeth had been wise and wary. She had taken care not to give offence, or to do anything which might give her enemies power over her, and thus she had managed to escape safely through all the dangers which had threatened her.

It was, perhaps, a good thing for Elizabeth that she had been a prisoner while she was young, and that she had learnt what was meant by the religious persecutions Which had gone on all around her. When she came to he queen. she showed a caution and wisdom which were not to be expected in so young a woman.

As soon as the news of Queen Marys death, was known, Elizabeth was brought up from Hatfield, where she was staying, and was at once recognised as queen by all parties. She was twenty-five years old when she came to the throne., and seldom was any woman, whether queen or not, better provided with learning and accomplishments She had studied deeply history, philosophy, and poetry. She wrote, and wrote well, English, French, Italian, Latin, and Greek. She was a beautiful dancer, and could play and read music.

Whether at any time of her life she were really beautiful, it is hard to say. If we were to believe all that her flatterers said and wrote about her, we must believe that she was the most beautiful creature that ever lived upon earth. If, on the other hand, we are to take as true all the unkind things that were said of her by her enemies, we shall think of her as a plain, awkward, dried-up little shrew, who had no beauty in anybody's eyes except her own .

The pictures of Queen Elizabeth do not tell us very much, for, in the first place, they are not all alike, and, in the second place, pictures can flatter as well as courtiers; though, to tell the truth, if we are to judge by the pictures only, we shall not think that Elizabeth was a very beautiful woman. It seems most likely that the real Elizabeth was something between what her friends on the one side, and her enemies on the other, declared her to be.

When she was young she was probably bright, graceful, and dignified, and most people were ready to think that a graceful young queen, dressed in the richest clothes that wealth could buy, was beautiful. As years went by and the queen became an old woman, not only did she lose her good looks, but there seems no doubt that she made the mistake of trying by her dress and by her manner to look young and beautiful, long after the time of youth and beauty had gone.

The Queen's Ministers - The Claim of the Queen of Scots.

" The wisest Princes need not thinke it any diminution of their Gretnesse, or derogation to their Sufficiency to rely upon counsell." Bacon's Essays.

We now come to an account of what took place in the first years of Elizabeths reign. Mary had been the queen of the Old Religion, Elizabeth was to be the queen of the New Religion; and she was wise enough to see that she could only be safe if she open]y declared herself on the side of the Reformers, who were now the stronger party in the kingdom, and who were ready to serve her with devotion.

One of the first things that Elizabeth did was to choose her ministers, and she showed her wisdom by her choice. Her chief minister was William Cecil. Cecil had been a friend of the Duke of Northumberland in the time of Edward VI. Under Mary he had declared himself to be a friend of the old religion. Now that Elizabeth was on the throne he came forward as a Protestant but though he had made many changes before he became Elizabeth's minister, he made none after that time.

For forty years Cecil served the queen faithfully. He helped her with his wise counsel in all her difficulties. Elizabeth, on her side, knew that she could trust Cecil more than any other adviser, and she was true to him to the end of his life. She made him Lard Burleigh, and she gave him great wealth and power, which he always used wisely. Few sovereigns have had a better ministers than Elizabeth, and few ministers have ever been better trusted or better rewarded than William Cecil, Lord Burleigh.

From the time of Queen Elizabeth, the family of Cecil has often taken a part in directing the affairs of this country. In our own lifetime Robert Cecil, Marquess of Salisbury. has, like William Cecil, Lord Burleigh, been the trusted minister of the Sovereign of England. Among the other ministers whom the queen chose were Walsingham, Nicholas Bacon, and Lord Robert Dudley ,the unfortunate husband of Lady Jane Grey.

As soon as Elizabeth had been crowned queen, it became clear that there were ,many difficulties before her. Most of the countries of Europe accepted her as the true queen of England, but there were two exceptions. Paul IV., who was then Pope, told the English ambassador that Elizabeth had no right to be queen, but that if she would send and beg for his permission to succeed to the throne he would give it. Elizabeth did not trouble Paul IV. She neither asked for nor wanted his permission. She ordered her ambassador to leave Rome; and she reigned for forty-five years without the Pope's leave. but with the full agreement of the people of England.

The other exception to the friendliness of the sovereigns of Europe was the conduct of Henry II, King of France. Henry declared that Elizabeth had no right to come to the throne. The true heir, he said, was Mary Stuart great-granddaughter of Henry VII., who had married the Dauphin Francis, the heir to the throne ,of France.
As this claim which was made by the King of France on behalf of Mary Stuart was the beginning of a bitter quarrel between Elizabeth and Mary, and led to much trouble and sorrow, we must try to understand how it arose.

Elizabeth properly came before Mary Stuart, because she was the daughter of Henry VII's son', while Mary, was descended from Margaret, Henry Vll.'s daughter. It is true that Margaret was older than Henry, but by the law and custom of England, the son of the king had the right to succeed to the throne before the daughter.

But the King of France did not forget that both the Pope and the Parliament of England had at one time declared that Elizabeth had no right to come to the throne. The Pope had declared that she could not come to the throne because Henry had no right to divorce Catharine, and to marry Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth's mother. The English Parliament in the reign of Henry VIII. had declared that Elizabeth could not succeed, because at that time Henry was angry with Anne Boleyn, and had ordered her to be executed. If it were true that Elizabeth had no right to come to the throne, then the King of France was quite right when he said that Mary Stuart was the next heir.

But there was a great deal to be said on the other side. In the first place, Henry VIII. had, with the consent of Parliament, made a will before he died, in which he specially declared that Elizabeth should come to the throne. In the second place, whatever the King of France thought, the people of England had made up their minds that they did not want, and would not have, either a foreign queen or a queen of the old religion, but that they did want, and would have, an English and a Protestant queen.

And there was a third reason, which no doubt had a great deal of weight with people in England who at first felt inclined to agree with the King of France, namely, that Parliament passed an Act declaring that Elizabeth was the true heir to the throne both by birth and by law, and that any man or woman who declared the contrary should be put to death, and thus it came about that, despite the Pope and despite the King of France, Elizabeth found herself seated firmly upon the throne.

The Act of Uniformity, and the Court of High Commission - The "Puritans."

" Men must beware, that in the Procuring of Religious Unity, they doe not Dissolve and Deface the Lawes of Charity and of humane Society." - Bacon's Essays.

Two things began at once to occupy the new queen. One was the question of religion, the other was the question of marriage. Just as Mary had turned out the Protestant bishops, so Elizabeth now turned out all the Roman Catholic bishops who would not admit that Elizabeth was the true head of the Church. All the bishops but one were turned out, and Protestants put in their places but most of the parish clergymen kept their places, and readily agreed to accept the Protestant services. Indeed, most of them were Protestants at heart.

Parliament then passed two Acts (1559), called respectively the Act of Uniformity and the Act of Supremacy. The former enacted not only that everybody in the country should publicly attend the Protestant services, but declared that all the Protestant services throughout the country were to be of one uniform pattern. The latter declared all persons to he guilty of high treason who did not admit the queen's title. Many persons were punished under these laws, and many were put to death for disobeying them. The charge which was made against those who offended against the Act of Supremacy was that they had been guilty of high treason. In order to carry out the Act of Uniformity, a special Court was set up called the Court of High Commission .

Most of those who were tried and punished by the Court of High Commission were Roman Catholics and friends of the Pope, but some were Protestants. Many of the Protestants who had fled from the country in the time of Queen Mary had lived during their exile in Germany or Switzerland. In the latter country they had become the followers of a French Protestant preacher named Calvin, and were known as Calvinists .

In England they soon got another name. They believed that the Reformation had not gone nearly far enough, and that the Church which Elizabeth had set up under the Act of Uniformity was too much like the Roman Catholic Church whose place it had taken. They said that in a true Protestant Church there ought to be no bishops, and that each congregation ought to choose its own minister, and they declared that many other things were needed to purify the Protestant Church and to make it what it ought to be.

Because they desired, as they said, to purify the Church, these men came to he called Puritans ; and though they did not become very powerful in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, we shall learn further on in our history that they played a great part in later times.

Elizabeth would not allow anyone, whether Roman Catholic or Protestant, to break the laws which she had made. She did not, like Queen Mary, say that people might not think what they liked, nor did she put people to death on account of what they thought or believed, but she declared that everyone who publicly broke the Act of Uniformity or the Act of Supremacy should be punished. And thus it was that both Roman Catholics and Puritans alike came to be condemned by the Court of High Commission.

It is sad to think that a Protestant queen and a Protestant parliament should have forgotten how much they owed to those who had fought and died for the right to worship God in the way they thought right. It is sad to think that under Elizabeth men were put to death for their religion, but, unfortunately, there is no doubt that such was the case.

There is one thing, however, which we must remember. The Roman Catholics who refused to obey the Acts were friends of the Pope, and there is no doubt that the Pope would have gladly given his help to any foreign nation which would have sent an army into England, to take the crown away from Queen Elizabeth, and to force the country back to the old religion.

It is not true to say that all the Roman Catholics who were put to death by the Court of High Commission were guilty of high treason. But it cannot be doubted that many of them hoped to see a change made in England by the help of foreign armies. No one need ever feel sorry for an Englishman who is put to death because he has been plotting to bring foreign soldiers into England against the will of the people. A man who does this is a traitor, and the sooner he is punished the better.

The Queen and Her Suitors.

"Cupid all arm'd; a certain aim he took
At a fair vestal throned by the west
And loos'd his love-shaft smartly from his bow,
As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts
But I might see young Cupid's fiery shaft
Quench'd in the chaste beams of the wat'ry moon
And the imperial votaress passed on,
In maiden meditation, fancy-free."

Shakespeare " Midsummer Night's Dream ."

There was another important question besides that of religion which troubled Elizabeth and her ministers at the very beginning of her reign. This was the question of the queen's marriage. It was very important to the country that the queen should marry, so that there might be a Protestant heir to the throne; but to those who remembered the harm which had been done by Queen Mary's marriage with Philip of Spain, it seemed also of the greatest importance that the queen should marry the right person.

There was not likely to he any difficulty in finding a suitor for the hand of a young queen, and, indeed, there was 'to lack of persons ready to offer themselves ; and it was soon seen that the difficulty would now be to choose among so many.

Among those who sought the hand of the queen were her brother in-law, Philip the Second of Spain: Charles of Austria. son of the Emperor Ferdinand; Eric, King of Sweden; the Duke of Holstein, son of the King of Denmark ; and the Duke of Anjou, brother of Henry III., King of France. Never did a lady have such distinguished wooers. Parliament sent an address to the queen begging her to take a husband. The queen thanked the members, but said she would rather remain single At the same time she would not say "No" to her suitors and seemed to incline now to one and now to another .

The Duke of Anjou was, perhaps, the one for whom she had the greatest liking, but in the end Elizabeth stuck to the resolution which she had expressed in her answer to Parliament. She would have no husband, and remained single to the end of her days - The Virgin Queen. Whether it were that she feared the loss of her power if she had a husband, or whether it were that she never found a husband to her liking, is not certain, but, whatever her reason, Elizabeth chose to remain unmarried.

The first part of the new reign was not fortunate for England. The queen was forced to agree to give up the English claims to Calais, a town which every Englishman still hoped might he won back again; and the French town of Havre, which had been captured by the English troops, was retaken by the French after a fierce siege.

France at this time was governed by the Roman Catholic party, and for this reason was hostile to Protestant England. There were, however, in France, a great number of Protestants who, under the name of Huguenots (derived from the German word Eidgenossen, meaning "Confederates" ) were trying hard to upset the French Government and to put a Protestant king upon the throne. Although Elizabeth did not like to make war openly upon France, she constantly sent help to the Huguenots, and allowed English soldiers to go over and fight on their side.

THE LAST YEARS OF THE GREAT QUEEN.
The Queen and Her Favourite.

" Essex, the ornament of the Court and of the Camp, the model of chivalry, the munificent patron of genius, whom great virtues, great courage, great talents, the favour of his sovereign, the love of his countrymen, all that seemed to ensure a happy and glorious life, led to an early and ignominious death. " Macaulay :Burleigh and his Times " (1832).

It was in the year 1588 that the Spanish Armada was defeated. and Elizabeth had already reigned for thirty years. She was still unmarried. She had always feared that if she took a husband she might have to submit to his will and to give up her own. This, however, did not prevent her choosing from among her courtiers favourites, by whom for a time she allowed herself to be governed, and on whom she bestowed wealth, honours, and power.

It was in the year 1588 that the Earl of Leicester, who for several years had been the favourite of the queen, died. It was not long before she chose another of her courtiers to take his place. This was the Earl of Essex. a young man of great courage, very handsome, and much loved by the people. The earl soon gained great power over the queen, and like all men who gain great power, he made many enemies. Among these enemies were Sir Walter Raleigh and Robert Cecil, son of Lord Burleigh.

The enemies of Essex at length found an opportunity of injuring him in the eyes of the queen. A rebellion had broken out in Ireland (1599), at the head of which was 0'Neil, Earl of Tyrone. Raleigh and Cecil persuaded the queen to send Essex as her general into Ireland. They felt sure that Essex, though brave, had not the wisdom nor the knowledge to enable him to carry on this difficult war. They proved to be right.

Essex failed to put down the rebellion, and returned to London disappointed and disgraced. Lord Mountjoy took his place as general in Ireland, and after fierce fighting he succeeded in defeating O'Neil (1601). The war was marked by great cruelty on both sides, and the land was laid waste, towns and villages were burned to the ground over a large part of Ireland; but peace was at last restored, and the authority of the queen was fixed in the country more firmly than before.

Meanwhile the enemies of Essex were not content with what they had done. They brought charges against him, and accused him of having played the part of a coward in the war against the Earl of Tyrone. Essex was found guilty, and was sentenced to be imprisoned in his own house. He was soon set at liberty, and in fierce anger against his enemies he was unwise enough to try by force of arms to compel the queen to punish Cecil and his friends.

He appeared in the streets of London with three hundred armed men. He hoped that the Londoners. who had always been fond of him, would rise and help him. But no one moved. Essex was imprisoned, and sent to the Tower. He was tried, and condemned to death as a traitor. For some time Elizabeth refused to sign the order for his death, but at last she consented to do so, and her favourite was executed at the Tower.

There is a well-known story told of the death of Essex. It is said that Queen Elizabeth had given her favourite a ring, and had told him that if ever he needed her help in the time of danger or trouble, he should send this ring to her. As he lay in prison shortly before his death, the earl saw from the window of his cell a boy who, from his appearance, he thought might be trusted with the precious ring. He threw the ring through the window, the boy picked it up, and Essex begged him to carry it to his cousin Lady Scrope.

But the boy, unluckily, made a mistake. He took the ring on which Essex's life depended to Lady Nottingham, sister of Lady Scrope. Now, Lady Nottingham was a bitter enemy of the earl's, and she kept the ring. Elizabeth, so the story goes, waited long for the token which she expected to receive, but it never came. Believing that Essex was too proud or too angry to claim his life at her hauds, Elizabeth signed the fatal order; and Essex, believing that Elizabeth had been false to him and to her promise, met his death (1601).

After the earl's death the Countess of Nottingham fell ill. On her death-bed she sent to beg the queen to come to her, and she confessed what she had done. She begged the Queen's pardon for her crime. Elizabeth was furious. She struck the dying countess in her fury " God may pardon you," she cried, " but I will never pardon you. "

The Death of the Great Queen .

" That great queen has now been lying two hundred and thirty years in Henry VII.'s Chapel. Yet her memory is still dear to the hearts of a free people." - Macaulay (1832).

The long reign of Elizabeth was now drawing to its close, and its close was sad and dark. Essex had been a favourite with the people, and Elizabeth felt that she had lost the love of many of her subjects by consenting to the death of a man whom she, too, loved. In her old age she had grown feeble, and her proud spirit often deserted her. She lay for hours by herself, speaking to no one, and refusing to be comforted. She had no child, and her courtiers were beginning to turn their thoughts from the old queen to the young king, who must so soon follow her on the throne.

Cecil and Raleigh had already begun to write letters to James of Scotland, for it was James VI King of Scotland, who, by right of descent and by the will of Elizabeth herself, was now to become King of England. The fear which had been expressed when Henry VII. gave his daughter in marriage to the Scottish king, was now proved to be well-founded. The Queen of England, the granddaughter of Henry VII., was childless, and the Scottish king, descended from Margaret Tudor, was to take his place upon the throne of England.

On the 24th of March, 1603, Queen Elizabeth died, at her palace at Richmond, in the seventieth year of her age and the forty-fifth of her reign. With all her faults she was one of the greatest of our sovereigns. With her we come to the end of the Tudor period. She was the last of the Tudors; and, what is more, she was the last sovereign of England. Never had England been greater or richer in famous men and famous deeds than in the time of its last sovereign.

The next reign brought a Stuart king to the throne. This Stuart king was king not only of England but of Scotland, and from that time onwards the history of England and the history of Scotland go forward, side by side, as the history of one great and united country'. The last Queen of England lies in Westminster Abbey, and the beautiful monument raised to her memory may be seen to this day, in the stately chapel built by her grandfather, which forms part of the ancient Abbey of Westminster.