641 revolt. This affair involved Elizabeth in the greatest danger. On the 8th of February, the day after the suppression of the insurrection, certain members of the council were sent with a party of 250 (other accounts say 600) horse to Ashridge, with orders to bring her to London "quick or dead." They arrived during the night, and although they found her sick in bed, they immediately forced their way into her chamber, and informed her that she must " prepare against the morning, at nine of the clock, to go with them, declaring that they had brought with them the queer's litter for her." She was so ill however that it was not till the fourth night that she reached Highgate. Here, says Fox, "she being very sick, tarried that night and the next day; during which time of her abode there came many pursuivants and messengers from the court, but for what purpose I cannot tell." When she entered London great multitudes of people came flocking about her litter, which she ordered to be opened to show herself. The city was at this time covered with gibbets; fifteen had been erected in different places, on which fifty-two persons were hanged; and it appears to have been the general belief that Elizabeth would suffer, as Lady Jane Grey had done a few days before. From the time of her arrival in town she was kept in close confinement in Whitehall. It appears that her case was twice debated in council; and although no evidence had been obtained by all the exertions of the crown lawyers which went farther than to make it probable that Wyat and Courtenay had solicited her to give her assent to their projects of revolt, her immediate destruction was strongly advised by some of the members. Elizabeth long afterwards used to declare that she fully expected death, and that she knew her sister thirsted for her blood. It was at last determined however that for the present she should only be committed to the Tower, although she seems herself still to have been left in doubt as to her fate. She was conveyed to her prison by water on the morning of the 11th of March, being Palm Sunday, orders being issued that, in the mean time, "every one should keep the church and carry their palms." In attempting to shoot the bridge the boat was nearly swamped. She at first refused to land at the stairs leading to the Traitor's Gate; but one of the lords with her told her she should have no choice; "and because it did then rain," continues Fox, "he offered to her his cloak, which she (putting it back with her hand with a a good dash) refused. So she coming out, having one foot upon the stair, said, "Here landeth as true a subject as ever landed at these stairs; and before thee, O God, I speak it, having none other friends but thee alone."" She remained in close custody for about a month, after which she was allowed to walk in a small garden within the walls of the fortress. On the 19th of May she was removed, in charge of Sir Henry Bedingfield, to Woodstock. Here she was guarded with great strictness and severity by her new jailor. Camden says that at this time she received private letters both from Henry II. of France, inviting her to that country, and from Christian III. of Denmark (who had lately embraced the Protestant religion), soliciting her hand for his son Frederick. When these things came to the ears of her enemies, her life was again threatened. "The Lady Elizabeth," adds the historian, now guiding herself as a ship in blustering weather, both heard divine service after the Romish manner, and was frequently confessed; and at the pressing instances and menaces of Cardinal Pole, professed herself, for fear of death, a Roman Catholic. Yet did not Queen Mary believe her." She remained at Woodstock till April, 1555, when she was, on the interposition, as it was made to appear, of King Philip, allowed to take up her residence at the royal palace of Hatfield, under the superintendence of a Catholic gentleman, Sir Thomas Pope, by whom she was treated with respect and kindness. Philip was anxious to have the credit of advising mild measures in regard to the princess, and perhaps he was really more disposed to treat her with indulgence than his wife. According to Camden, some

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of the Roman Catholic party wished to remove her to a distance from England, and to marry her to Emanuel Philibert, duke of Savoy; but Philip opposed this scheme, designing her for his eldest son Charles (the unfortunate Don Carlos). Elizabeth also was herself averse to a marriage with the Savoyard.

She continued to reside at Hatfield till the death of Mary, which took place on the 17th November, 1558. The news was communicated the same day, but not till after the lapse of some hours to the House of Lords, which was sitting at the time. "They were seized at first," says Camden (or rather his translator), “with a mighty grief and surprise, but soon wore off those impressions, and, with an handsome mixture of joy and sorrow, upon the loss of a deceased and the prospect of a succeeding princess, they betook themselves to public business, and, with one consent, agreed that the Lady Elizabeth should be declared the true and lawful heir of the kingdom according to the act of succession made 35 Henry VIII." It is probable that Elizabeth's outward compliance in the matter of religion had considerable effect in producing this unanimity, for the majority of the lords were Catholics, and certainly both the bishops and many of the lay peers would have been strongly inclined to oppose her accession if they had expected that she would venture to disturb the established order of things. The members of the lower house were now called up, and informed of what had been done by Archbishop Heath, the chancellor. He concluded by saying that, since no doubt could or ought to be made of the Lady Elizabeth's right of succession, the House of Peers only wanted their consent to proclaim her queen. A vote to that effect immediately passed by acclamation; and, as soon as the houses rose, the proclamation took place. Elizabeth came to London on Wednesday, the 23rd: she was met by all the bishops in a body at Highgate, and escorted by an immense multitude of people of all ranks to the metropolis, where she took up her lodgings at the residence of Lord North, in the Charter House. On the afternoon of Monday the 28th she made a progress through the city in a chariot to the royal palace of the Tower: here she continued till Monday the 5th of December, on the morning of which day she removed by water to Somerset House.

One of Elizabeth's earliest acts of royalty, by which, as Camden remarks, she gave proof of a prudence above her years, was what we should now call the appointment of her ministers. She retained of her privy council thirteen Catholics, who had been of that of her sister, including Heath, archbishop of York and lord chancellor; William Paulett, marquis of Winchester, the lord high treasurer; Edward, Lord Clinton, the lord high admiral; and William, Lord Howard of Effingham, the lord chamberlain. But with these she associated seven others of her own religion, the most eminent of whom was the celebrated William Cecil, afterwards Lord Burleigh, whom she appointed to the office of secretary of state, which he had already held under Edward VI. Soon after, Nicholas Bacon (the father of the great chancellor) was added to the number of the privy councillors, and made at first lord privy seal, and next year lord keeper of the great seal, on the resignation of Archbishop Heath. Cecil became lord high treasurer on the death of the marquis of Winchester in 1572, and continued to be Eliazbeth's principal adviser till his death in 1598, when he was succeeded by Thomas Sackville, Lord Buckhurst (afterwards made earl of Dorset by James I.). Of the other persons who served as ministers during Elizabeth's long reign, by far the most worthy of note were Sir Francis Walsingham (who was principal secretary of state from 1573 till his death in 1590, and was all the time they were in office together the confidential friend and chief assistant of Cecil the premier, under whose patronage he had entered public life). and Burleigh's son, Robert Cecil (afterwards earl of Salisbury), who succeeded Walsingham as secretary of state, and held that office till the end of the reign. Among

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the other persons of ability that were employed in the course of the reign, in different capacities, may be mentioned Sir Nicholas Throckmorton; a man," says Camden, "of a large experience, piercing judgment, and singular prudence, who discharged several embassies with a great deal of diligence and much to his praise, yet could he not be master of much wealth, nor rise higher than to those small dignities (though glorious in title) of chief cupbearer of England and chamberlain of the Exchequer; and this because he acted in favour of Leicester against Cecil, whose greatness he envied;" Sir Thomas Smith, the learned friend of Cheke, who had been one of the secretaries of state along with him under Edward VI., and held the same office again under Elizabeth for some years before his death, in 1577; and Sir Christopher Hatton, who was lord chancellor from 1587 till his death in 1591, and whom Camden, after having related his singular rise from being one of the band of gentleman pensioners, to which he was appointed by the queen, who was taken with his handsome shape and elegant dancing at a court masque, characterizes as a great patron of learning and good sense, and one that managed that weighty part of lord chancellor with that equity and clearness of principle as to be able to satisfy his conscience and the world too.” The affair to which Elizabeth first applied her attention on coming to the throne, and that in connexion with which all the transactions of her reign must be viewed, was the settlement of the national religion. The opinions of Cecil strongly concurred with her own in favour of the reformed doctrines, to which also undoubtedly the great mass of the people was attached. For a short time however she kept her intentions a secret from the majority of the council, taking her measures in concert only with Cecil and the few others who might be said to form her cabinet. She began by giving permission, by proclamation, to read part of the church service in English, but at the same time strictly prohibited the addition of any comments, and all preaching on controversial points. This however was enough to show the Catholic party what was coming; accordingly, at her coronation, on the 15th January, 1559, the bishops in general refused to assist, and it was with difficulty that one of them, Oglethorp of Carlisle, was prevailed upon to set the crown on her head. The principal alterations were reserved to be made by the parliament, which met on the 25th of this month. Of the acts which were passed, one restored to the crown the jurisdiction established in the reign of Henry VIII. over the estate ecclesiastical and spiritual, and abolished all foreign powers repugnant to the same; and another restored the use of King Edward's book of common prayer, with certain alterations, that had been suggested by a royal commission over which Parker (afterwards archbishop of Canterbury) presided. In accordance with this last statute public worship began to be performed in English throughout the kingdom on Whitsunday, which fell on the 8th of May. By a third act the first fruits and tenths of benefices were restored to the crown; and by a fourth, her majesty was authorized, upon the avoidance of any archbishopric or bishopric, to take certain of the revenues into her own hands; and conveyances of the temporalities by the holder for a longer term than twenty-one years or three lives were made void. The effect of these laws was generally to restore the church to the state in which it was in the reign of Edward VI., the royal supremacy sufficing for such further necessary alterations as were not expressly provided for by statute. A strong opposition was made to the bills in the House of Lords by the bishops; and fourteen of them, being the whole number, with the exception of Anthony, bishop of Llandaff, who, Camden says, 66 was the scourge of his diocese," were now deprived for refusing to take the oath of supremacy. About 100 prebendaries, deans, archdeacons, and heads of colleges, were also ejected. The number of the inferior clergy however that held out was very small, amounting to no more than 80 rectors and other parochial ministers, out of between nine and ten thousand. On this subject it is

only necessary farther to state that the frame of ecclesiastical polity now set up, being in all essential particulars the same that still subsists, was zealously and steadily maintained by Elizabeth and her ministers to the end of her reign. The church of England has good reason to look upon her and Cecil as the true planters and rearers of its authority. They had soon to defend it against the Puritans on the one hand, as well as against the Catholics on the other; and they yielded to the former as little as to the latter. The Puritans had been growing in the country ever since the dawn of the Reformation; but they first made their appearance in any considerable force in the parliament which met in 1570. At first their attempts were met on the part of the crown by evasive measures and slight checks; but, in 1587, on four members of the House of Commons presenting to the house a bill for establishing a new Directory of public worship, Elizabeth at once gave orders that they should be seized and sent to the Tower, where they were kept some time. The High Commission Court also, which was established by a clause in one of the acts for the settlement of religion passed in the first year of her reign, was, occasionally at least, prompted or permitted to exercise its authority in the punishment of what was called heresy, and in enforcing uniformity of worship with great strictness. The determination upon which the queen acted in these matters, as she expressed it in a letter to the archbishop of Canterbury, was, "that no man should be suffered to decline either to the left or to the right hand, from the drawn line limited by authority, and by her laws and injunctions." Besides the deprivation of their livings, which many of the clergy underwent for their refusal to comply with certain particulars of the established ritual, many other persons suffered imprisonment for violations of the statute of uniformity. It was against the Catholics, however, that the most severe measures were taken. By an act passed in 1585 (the 27 Eliz. c. 2) every Jesuit or other popish priest was commanded to depart from the realm within forty days, on pain of death as a traitor, and every person receiving or relieving any such priest was declared guilty of felony. Many priests were

afterwards executed under this Act.

It was the struggle with popery that moved and directed nearly the whole policy of the reign, foreign as well as domestic. When Elizabeth came to the throne, she found the country at peace with Spain, the head of which kingdom had been her predecessor's husband, but at war with France, the great continental opponent of Spain and the Empire. Philip, with the view of preserving his English alliance, almost immediately after her accession, offered himself to Elizabeth in marriage; but, after deliberating on the proposal, she determined upon declining it, swayed by various considerations, and especially, as it would appear, by the feeling that by consenting to marry her sister's husband on a dispensation from the pope, she would in a manner be affirming the lawfulness of her father's marriage with Catharine of Aragon, the widow of his brother Arthur, and condemning his subsequent marriage with her own mother, the sole validity of which rested on the alleged illegality of that previous connexion. A general peace, however, comprehending all the three powers, and also Scotland, was established in April, 1559, by the treaty of Cateau Cambresis. By this treaty it was agreed that Calais, which had been taken by France in the time of Queen Mary, and formed the only difficult subject of negotiation, should be restored to England in eight years, if no hostile act should be committed by Elizabeth within that period. Scarcely, however, had this compact been signed, when the war was suddenly rekindled, in consequence of the assumption by the new French king, Francis II., of the arms and royal titles of England, in right, as was pretended, of his wife, the young Mary, queen of Scots. Elizabeth instantly resented this act of hostility by sending a body of 5000 troops to Scotland, to act there with the Duke of Chatelherault and the lords of the

congregation, as the leaders of the Protestant party called themselves, against the government of the queen and her mother, the Regent, Mary of Guise. The town of Leith soon yielded to this force; and the French king was speedily compelled both to renounce his wife's pretensions to the English throne and to withdraw his own troops from Scotland, by the treaty of Edinburgh, executed 7th July, 1560. The treaty however never was ratified either by Francis or his queen; and in consequence the relations between the three countries continued in an unsatisfactory state. Charles IX. succeeded his brother on the throne of France before the end of this year; and in a few months afterwards Mary of Scotland returned to her own country. Meanwhile, although the two countries continued at peace, Elizabeth's proceedings in regard to the church had wholly alienated Philip of Spain. The whole course of events and the position which she occupied had already in fact caused the English queen to be looked upon as the head of the Protestant interest throughout Europe as much as she was at home. When the dispute therefor between the Catholics and the Huguenots or reformed party in France came to a contest of arms, in 1562, the latter immediately applied for assistance to Elizabeth, who concluded a treaty with them, and sent them succour both in men and money. The war that followed produced no events of importance in so far as England was concerned, and was terminated by a treaty signed at Troyes, 11th April, 1564. A long period followed, during which England preserved in appearance the ordinary relations of peace both with France and Spain, though interferences repeatedly took place on each side that all but amounted to actual hostilities. The Protestants alike in Scotland, in France, and in the Netherlands (then subject to the dominion of Philip), regarded Elizabeth as firmly bound to their cause by her own interests; and she on her part kept a watchful eye on the religious and political contentions of all these countries, with a view to the maintenance and support of the Protestant party, by every species of countenance and aid short of actually making war in their behalf. With the Protestant government in Scotland, which had deposed and imprisoned the queen, she was in open and intimate alliance; in favour of the French Huguenots she at one time negotiated or threatened, at another even went the length, scarcely with any concealment, of affording them pecuniary assistance; and when the people of the Netherlands at length rose in revolt against the oppressive government of Philip, although she refused the sovereignty of their country, which they offered to her, she lent them money, and in various other ways openly expressed her sympathy and good will. On the other hand, Philip, although he refrained from any declaration of war, and the usual intercourse both commercial and political long went on between the two countries without interruption, was incessant in his endeavours to undermine the throne of the English queen and the order of things at the head of which she stood, by instigating plots and commotions against her authority within her own dominions. He attempted to turn to account in this way the Catholic interest, which was still so powerful both in England and in Ireland-the intrigues of the Scottish queen and her partizans materially contributing to the same end. The history of Mary Stewart and of the affairs of Scotland during her reign and that of her son must be reserved for a separate article. But it is necessary to observe here, that Mary was not merely the head of the Catholic party in Scotland, but as the descendant of the eldest daughter of Henry VII., had pretensions to the English crown which were of a very formidable kind. Although she was kept in confinement by the English government after her flight from the hands of her own subjects in 1568, the imprisonment of her person did not extinguish the hopes or put an end to the efforts of her adherents. Repeated rebellions in Ireland, in some instances openly aided by supplies from Spain —the attempt made by the duke of Alva in 1569, through the agency of Vitelli, to