[115] The scandalous gossip sent by all the foreign agents in England, especially by Feria and his successor, caused much heart-burning. Challoner had been sent to the Emperor in connection with the Archduke’s match, and in the Imperial court found scandal rife about his mistress and Lord Robert. He writes to Cecil a cautious, confidential letter (6th December 1559), saying that “folks there are broad-mouthed” about it. Of course, he says, it is a false slander; “but a Princess cannot be too wary what countenance of familiar demonstration she maketh more to one than another. No man’s service in the realm is worthy the entertaining with such a tale of obloquy” (Hatfield Papers, part i.).

[116] Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, vol. i.

[117] Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, vol. i.

[118] Feria to the Bishop of Aquila, 1st October 1559 (Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, vol. i.).

[119] The original of the address of the Lords of the Congregation to Elizabeth will be found in the Cotton MSS., Caligula B x. (printed by Burnet). In November the famous William Maitland of Lethington was sent by the Lords to England for the purpose of pressing the cause of the Scottish reformers. He was secretly received by Sir James Crofts in the castle of Berwick, and there, by Cecil’s instructions, Crofts gave him a draft written by Cecil of the best form in which to make his representation to the English Queen and Council. This is a good example of Cecil’s foresight and thoroughness. He knew that Dudley and other French partisans would oppose in the Council the sending of an army to Scotland, and in order to strengthen Maitland’s hands and avoid the introduction of anything upon which his opponent could seize, he himself drafted the address of the Scottish Protestants to the Queen and Council. It is needless to say that Maitland adopted his suggestions. The original Scotch draft is in the Cotton MSS., Caligula B ix., and extracts of it have been printed by Dr. Robertson and Dr. Nares. See also Sadler Papers, vol. i. p. 602.

[120] Sadler State Papers, vol. i.

[121] Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, vol. i. 121.

[122] Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, vol. i.

[123] The drafts of De Glajon’s letters to the Duchess of Parma, describing his mission to England, are in B. M. Add. MSS. 28, 173a, printed in Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, vol. i.

[124] Although I can find no hint of such a thing in De Glajon’s letters to the Duchess of Parma, an entry in Cecil’s diary seems to prove that Philip’s jealousy of France was now so keen as to have led him secretly to approve of the English attack in Scotland. The entry in Cecil’s own hand runs: “April 10, M. de Glason came and joined with the Bishop of Aquila to move the revocation of the army out of Scotland, but Glason privately to my Lord Admiral and me the Secretary counselled us to the contrary.” There is in the Record Office (printed in extenso by Forbes) a long Latin document in Cecil’s hand, being his reply or speech to the official representations of De Glajon and the Bishop of Aquila.

[125] The French protest is printed by Forbes.

[126] All in Hatfield Papers, part i.

[127] The “device” proposed by Cecil would appear to have been the clause that if the article relative to the abandonment of the royal arms of England by Mary and her husband was rejected by them, the point was to be submitted to the arbitration of the King of Spain. Cecil’s own draft of the clause is at Hatfield (Papers, part i.). There is no doubt that Cecil was safe in making this condition, as he must have known from his interview with De Glajon what Philip’s real sentiments were.

[128] Cecil was paid during his absence £4 per diem—£252; and for postage with twenty two horses from London to Edinburgh and back, £117.

[129] That this would be the case was foreseen before he started from London in May. Killigrew writes to Throgmorton (in France) on the day before Cecil’s departure, “who (Cecil), for his country’s sake, hath been contented to take the matter in hand. The worst hath been cast of his absens from hence by his frendes, but at length jugged (judged) for the best.… I know none love their country better; I wold the Quene’s Majesty could love it so well” (Throgmorton Papers, in extenso in Forbes).

[130] Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, vol. i.

[131] The twentieth Earl of Huntingdon (Hastings) was the son of Catharine Pole by the nineteenth Earl. He was consequently the grandson of Henry, Lord Montacute, the eldest of the Poles, and great-great-grandson of George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence, the younger brother of Edward IV. His claim to the crown could only be made good by the failure or invalidation of those of all the descendants of Henry VII. and Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV.

[132] Hatfield Papers, in extenso in Haynes.

[133] Bedford writes to Throgmorton, 16th March 1561, “Cecil is now more than any other in special credit, and does all” (Foreign Calendar). The Spanish Ambassador says the same.

[134] Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, vol. i. 177.

[135] Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, vol. i.

[136] Cecil appears at this time to have satisfied himself that the Queen did not mean to marry Dudley. He writes to Throgmorton, 4th April, saying that the Queen was making the Swedish envoy Guldenstern very welcome. “I see no small declensions from former dealings (i.e. with Dudley); at least I find in her Majesty by divers speeches a determination not to marry one of her subjects” (State Papers, Foreign).

[137] Anthony de Bourbon, titular King-Consort of Navarre, husband of Jeanne d’Albret, and father of Henry IV. of France.

[138] Hatfield Papers, part i.

[139] Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, i.

[140] Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, vol. i.

[141] Throgmorton, a zealous Protestant, who was in France, and, of course, not behind the scenes in London, appears to have been seriously alarmed, and to have thought that Cecil was really about to change his religion. He wrote (29th April) almost vehemently exhorting him not to ruin the country by doing so (Foreign Calendar).

[142] When Throgmorton first heard that James Stuart was on his way to France he was in great alarm. He was sure that he would be bought over by Mary and the Catholic party, who intended to obtain for him a Cardinal’s hat. Throgmorton thought that no prominent or powerful Scotsman should come to France for fear of his falling under the influence of the anti-English party. But Cecil saw young Stuart on his way and satisfied himself that he might be trusted; and when Stuart returned to Paris from Rheims on his way home, Throgmorton was almost extravagant in his praise of him, and regarded him as firmly wedded to English interests, as indeed he was. Mary, on the advice of Cardinal Lorraine, refused to ratify the treaty of Edinburgh until she arrived in Scotland; but she consented to hand over the government of her realm to James and his friends until her return. She promised to send after him patents under her great seal constituting him Regent, but this she failed to do. Nevertheless he went back to Scotland with practically a free hand, pending the Queen’s arrival in her realm. (Foreign Calendar.)

[143] Hatfield State Papers, in extenso in Haynes.

[144] For months Throgmorton’s spectre was that Mary might marry Philip’s only son, Don Carlos, which, he pointed out to Cecil, would inevitably ruin England and Protestantism. It may be doubted whether Cardinal Lorraine had reached this point yet; though, as will be told, it was broached later from another quarter. It is more likely that at this time—the early summer of 1561—the Cardinal’s view was to marry his niece to the Archduke Charles, Elizabeth’s former suitor, which would have greatly strengthened the Catholics of Germany and the House of Lorraine. The English Catholics at the same time, at the instigation of the Countess of Lennox, were anxiously advocating a marriage between her son, Lord Darnley, and his cousin, Mary Stuart.

[145] Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, vol. i.

[146] Hatfield Papers, part i.

[147] Throgmorton to Elizabeth, 26th July, in Cabala.

[148] For Maitland’s interviews with the Queen, see Hayward (Camden Society).

[149] Hatfield Papers, part i.

[150] Lady Margaret, and the Earls of Westmoreland and Northumberland, with the Duke of Norfolk, were summoned to London, whilst the Earl of Arundel was obliged to absent himself from court (November 1561), and the students of the University were in a condition of revolt at the attempt to reform the worship in the college chapels. “The whole place,” said the Mayor of Oxford, “was of the same opinion (i.e. Catholic), and there were not three houses in it that were not filled with papists,” “whereat the Council were far from pleased, and told the Mayor to take care not to say such things elsewhere” (Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, vol. i.).

[151] Quadra to the King, 13th September 1561 (Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth).

[152] The Perpetual Calendar at Hatfield frequently mentions attacks of illness about this time, “fitts of ague,” or gout, fever, and so on.

[153] At first the difficulty of obtaining the new coins caused some inconvenience, and several of Elizabeth’s Councillors were in favour (1562) of a fresh debasement of the coinage. By Cecil’s and Paget’s efforts, however, this was avoided, as it was feared that such a measure would cause disturbance. For the first year or two the demand was so great for the new money that the supply was quite inadequate to the demand, but the people greatly resented the idea of a fresh debasement.

[154] As early as 1555, in the reign of Mary, Cecil had been one of the original promoters and shareholders of the Russia Company, but he always steadily refused to share in privateering.

[155] The expedition and its object had first been suggested to Throgmorton in Paris by an old Portuguese pilot, named Captain Melchior, who had formerly lived for many years on the Sus coast and other parts of West Africa. He had been a pensioner of Francis I. and Henry II., but on the death of the latter, lost his pension. The King of Navarre (Anthony de Bourbon) supported him for a time, and then sent him with his scheme to Throgmorton, who referred him to Cecil. The expedition itself was unsuccessful, but was followed by others under the younger Hawkins, which established a lucrative trade in slaves and produce between Africa, the Spanish Indies, and England. There is an interesting paper in the Record Office, dated 27th May of the following year, 1562, when a Portuguese Ambassador was in England remonstrating against the despatch of a new expedition to Guinea. It is a full description of the coast by Martin Frobisher, who had been for nine months a prisoner of the Portuguese at Elmina. He shows that the Portuguese on the coast exercised no control outside of their forts, and were so detested by the natives that Frobisher and other Englishmen were employed as intermediaries.

[156] Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, vol. i.

[157] Foreign State Papers.

[158] Foreign State Papers.

[159] Foreign State Papers.

[160] In 1559 Throgmorton speaks of the youth at that period as being of great promise—unfortunately unfulfilled.

[161] Foreign Calendar.

[162] The first war of religion in France.

[163] The massacre of Vassy, which began the civil war, took place on the 1st March 1562.

[164] See Grindall’s long list of recusants in prison, in hiding, and in exile at the end of 1561 (Domestic Calendar).

[165] See Sidney and Throgmorton’s letters to Cecil (Foreign Calendar, May 1562).

[166] Almost every letter from Throgmorton to Cecil at this juncture sounds the note of alarm at the possibility of such a combination. A Portuguese Ambassador had recently been sent to England, once more to remonstrate about the English trade with Guinea (as fruitlessly as in the previous year). He lodged with the Bishop of Aquila at Durham Place, and Throgmorton was confident that the real object of his mission was to perfect the arrangement of a Catholic rising in England in conjunction with Mary Stuart, the Guises, and Philip. The fears, however, were perfectly groundless as yet so far as regarded Philip. He was in no hurry to help the Guises until he had them pledged body and soul, and had crushed reform in his own Netherlands. But of course Cecil was unable to penetrate Philip’s policy so well as we can, with all his most private correspondence before us. It is worthy of mention that D’Antas, the Portuguese Ambassador above referred to, offered Cecil a regular pension from his sovereign if he would look favourably upon his interests. Cecil’s reply is not forthcoming; but the offer cannot have been accepted, for the Secretary never varied in his assertion of the right of English merchants to trade on the West African and Brazilian coasts.

[167] See statements of Borghese Venturini (State Papers, Foreign).

[168] Throgmorton Papers; in extenso in Forbes.

[169] State Papers, Foreign; in extenso in Forbes.

[170] See the examinations in State Papers, Foreign, 1562.

[171] Sir Henry Sidney divulged it to the Bishop.

[172] Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, vol. i.

[173] Bitter as the Bishop was against Cecil’s policy, which checkmated him on every side, it is only fair to say that he usually speaks of his character with great respect.

[174] Dudley wrote to Throgmorton (May 1562) that the Queen was favourable to Condé and the Huguenots, “but her Majestie seemeth very wareful in too much open show towards them” (State Papers, Foreign).

[175] In extenso in Forbes.

[176] Smith sent a message to Throgmorton (21st November 1562) assuring him that his peace negotiations with the Queen-mother and his friendship with the Cardinal were not sincere, but only to “discover their minds.” It is hardly probable that this was the case; although Smith, as a zealous Protestant, certainly did not anticipate the abandonment of the cause of the reformers. Much less did he intend for England to be thrown over by both sides as she was. In a letter to Cecil (17th December) he relates his indignant remonstrance to the Queen-mother when he heard that the Guisans in Paris had issued a proclamation of war against Queen Elizabeth as an enemy of the faith. (Letters in extenso in Forbes.)

[177] Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, vol. i.

[178] Cecil had built for himself (1560) a splendid mansion in the Strand, on the site of the present Exeter Hall, the grounds extending back to Covent Garden. It was joined on the west by the Earl of Bedford’s estate, for which in a subsequent generation it was exchanged. Cecil appears to have continued in the possession of his house at Westminster, adjoining Whitehall, no doubt for business purposes.

[179] Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, vol. i.

[180] Sir Simon D’Ewes’ Journal.

[181] Strype.

[182] The Bishop of Aquila, in giving an account of these measures, says, that it would seem as if they were designed to mimic the Spanish Inquisition.

[183] Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, vol. i.

[184] The marriage of the unfortunate Lady Catharine Grey with Lord Hertford—the eldest son of Somerset—was contracted secretly, and when the birth of a son made the matter public, the Queen was intensely indignant, and refused to acknowledge the union, both Lord and Lady Hertford being committed to the Tower. Guzman says that Cecil brought about the marriage; but there is no evidence whatever of this. Lord Hertford was in Paris with Cecil’s son, Thomas, when the affair was discovered, and was recalled in haste by the Queen. As soon as Cecil heard of it, he warned his son not to associate with Hertford. Cecil wrote to his friend Smith at the same time, “I pray that God may by this chance give her Majesty a disposition to consider hereof (i.e. the succession), that either by her marriage or by some common order we her poor subjects may know where to lean and adventure our lives with content to our consciences.” Greatly to Cecil’s annoyance the question of Catharine’s guilt was referred to him for examination and report. He assured Smith in a letter that he would judge impartially, and he did so; for Parker, the Archbishop, on his report, pronounced against the marriage, but Cecil continued on close terms of intimacy with the Grey family, who all called him cousin (Lady Cecil’s brother married Catharine Grey’s cousin), and certainly favoured Lady Catharine’s claims under the will of Henry VIII. Cecil cautiously did his best to soften the punishment, and finally obtained the removal of both husband and wife from the Tower into private custody. Many letters on the subject from the Greys to Cecil will be found in Lansdowne MSS. 2.

[185] Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, vol. i.

[186] She was probably correct in this. When Elizabeth saw Maitland in London she suggested Dudley as a suitable husband to Mary; and when the Scotsman hinted that his mistress was not so selfish as to deprive Elizabeth of a person so much cherished by herself, the English Queen, greatly to Maitland’s confusion, hinted at the Earl of Warwick, Dudley’s brother. Maitland cleverly silenced the Queen by suggesting that, as Elizabeth was so much older than Mary, she should marry Dudley first herself, and when she died, leave to the Scottish Queen both her widower and her kingdom.

[187] Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, vol. i.

[188] Cecil was also much interested in the promotion of mineralogy. A patent was granted in 1563 to a German named Schutz who was skilled in the discovery of calamine and the manufacture of brass therewith. For the working of this patent a company was afterwards formed, Cecil, Bacon, Norfolk, Pembroke, Leicester, and others being shareholders, and a great impetus was given in consequence to the founding of brass cannon. Much encouragement was also given by Cecil at this and later periods to German mineralogists for the working of English mines.

[189] In a letter to the Vice-Chancellor (Dr. Perne) in April 1560, Cecil conveyed the pleasant news of the Queen’s intention to grant a number of prebends and exhibitions to those divinity students that shall be recommended “as fittest to receive the same promotions and exhibitions.” The object of this was to encourage the divinity students to embrace the Protestant form of worship, which they were loth to do. (Harl. MSS., 7037, 265-66).

[190] There is in the Domestic State Papers of 1565 a draft letter of the Council, written by Cecil to the Vice-Chancellor, forbidding and ordering the suppression in Cambridge of all shows, booths, gaming-houses, &c., as being unseemly and dangerous.

[191] Full account of the visit, with the speeches, &c., will be found in Nichol’s “Progresses of Queen Elizabeth.”

[192] The old Bishop of Aquila had died, probably of the plague, in the previous autumn at Langley, near Windsor. He had been succeeded by Don Diego Guzman de Silva.

[193] The official account makes no mention of this. It says only that great preparations had been made to represent Sophocles’ tragedy of Ajax Flagellifer. “But her Highness, as it were, tyred with going about the colleges and hearing disputations, and overwatched with former plays, … could not, as otherwise no doubt she would, … hear the said tragedy, to the great sorrow not only of the players but of the whole University.” If the scene as described by the Spaniard took place, it must have been at the house of Sir Henry Cromwell, the great Oliver’s grandfather, at Hinchinbrook, where the Queen slept on the night of the day she left Cambridge.

[194] The Queen had, however, supped with him at his yet unfinished mansion in London—Cecil House—in 1560, and had there stood godmother to his infant daughter Elizabeth (6th July 1564).

[195] This splendid place, to which further reference will be made, was visited on his first voyage south by James I., who was so enamoured of it that he obtained it from the first Earl of Salisbury, Cecil’s younger son, in exchange for Hatfield. It was at Theobalds that King James died.

[196] The details of, and correspondence with relation to this commercial war, with the various negotiations, and especially those of the conference of Bruges, will be found in the Hatfield Papers, correspondence of the Merchant-Adventurers, Foreign Papers, correspondence of Valentine Dale, Sheres, &c., and in the B. M. Add. MSS., 28,173, correspondence of Dassonleville and other Flemish agents, as well as in Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. i.

[197] Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. i.

[198] The book in question was that written by John Hales, Clerk of the Hanaper, in favour of the succession of Lady Catharine Grey and her children. He had been indicted in January 1564 for “presumptuously and contemptuously discussing, both by words and in writing, the question of the succession to the imperial crown of England, in case the Queen should die without issue;” and thenceforward for months interrogatories and depositions with regard to his sayings and doings, and those of Catharine Grey and her husband, Lord Hertford, continued before Cecil without intermission. (The papers in the case are all at Hatfield, and are mostly published in extenso by Haynes.) Hales himself was the scapegoat, and was in the Fleet prison for six months; but in all probability, as Dudley said, Cecil and his brother-in-law, Bacon, had a great share in drawing up the book. Cecil was probably too powerful and useful to touch; but Bacon was reprimanded, and Lord John Grey of Pyrgo, an old friend of Cecil’s, was kept under arrest until his death, a few months later.

[199] Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. i.

[200] Philip s reply, partly in his own hand, to his Ambassador’s reports of Dudley’s offers is characteristic: “I am pleased to see what Lord Robert says, and will tell you my will on the point. I am much dissatisfied with Cecil, as he is such a heretic; and if you give such encouragement to Robert as will enable him to put his foot on Cecil and turn him out of office, I shall be very glad. But you must do it with such tact and delicacy, that if it fails, none shall know that you had a hand in it” (Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. i.).

[201] Hatfield Papers, part i.

[202] Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. i.

[203] This refers to the order issued shortly before, called “Advertisements for the due order of the administration of the Holy Sacrament, and for the apparel of all persons ecclesiastical”; which commenced the bitter “vestments controversy.”

An interesting series of returns from the bishops, of this date (October 1564) is at Hatfield. Their lordships had been directed to make reports of the persons of note in their respective dioceses, classified under the heads of “favourers of true religion,” “adversaries of true religion,” and “neutrals.” To the reports the bishops append their recommendations for reform. The Bishop of Hereford says that all his canons residentiary “ar but dissemblers and rancke papists.” He suggests that all those who will not conform should be expelled; and most of his episcopal brethren advocate even stronger measures than these. Another paper of this time (1564) addressed to Cecil, and printed by Strype in his “Life of Parker,” shows the remarkable diversity of the service in English churches. As will be seen later, Cecil’s attitude on the great vestment question divided him from many of his Protestant friends.

[204] Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, vol. i.

[205] Memoirs of Sir James Melvil of Hallhill.

[206] Bedford and Maitland subsequently met at Berwick to discuss the proposed match. It suited Mary to pretend some willingness to take Leicester in order to obtain leave for Darnley to come to Scotland. She was probably right in supposing that finally Elizabeth did not mean to allow Leicester to marry the Scottish Queen. Cecil was of the same opinion. Writing to his friend Smith at the end of December 1564 (Lansdowne MSS., 102), he says, “I see her Majesty very desyroose to have my L. of Leicester placed in this high degree to be the Scottish Queen’s husband, but when it cometh to the conditions which are demanded I see her then remiss of her earnestness.”

[207] Melvil’s Memoirs.

[208] Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. i.

[209] Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, vol. i.

[210] Humphrey and Sampson, both eminent divines and friends of Cecil, amongst others, stood out. The former, after much hesitation, was forced into obedience; but the latter was dismissed from his deanery of Christ Church (Strype’s “Annals”). The students and masters of Cecil’s own College of St. John gave him as Chancellor much trouble by refusing to wear their surplices and hoods. After much correspondence and remonstrance with them, the Chancellor became really angry, and the students assumed a humbler attitude.

[211] Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. i.

[212] Dépêches de De Foix, Bibliothèque Nationale.

[213] Foreign State Papers.

[214] Dépêches de De Foix, Bibliothèque Nationale.

[215] Castelnau de la Mauvissière was in London in May 1565 on his way to France from Scotland, and gives, in a letter to the Queen-mother, a most entertaining account of a conversation with Elizabeth at a night garden-party given by Leicester in his honour (the letter itself is in a private collection, but is printed in Chéruel’s Marie Stuart et Catharine de Medici). She said how much more popular in England Frenchmen were than Spaniards; praised the young King as “the greatest and most virtuous prince on earth.” She asked Castelnau whether he would be vexed if she married the King. “Although she had nothing,” she said, “worthy of so great a match: nothing but a little realm, her goodness and her chastity, on which point at least she could hold her own against any maiden in the world,” and much more to the same effect. Castelnau says he never saw her look so pretty as she did. Catharine took the hint, and her industrious approaches to Smith were largely prompted by Elizabeth’s coquetry to Castelnau on this occasion.

[216] Hatfield Papers, in extenso in Haynes.

[217] Cecil writes to Smith, 3rd June 1565 (Lansdowne MSS., 102). “My Lord of Lecester furdereth the Quene’s Majesty with all good reasons to take one of these great princes, wherein surely perceaving his own course not sperable, he doth honourably and wisely. I see few noblemen devoted to France; but I being Mancipum Reginæ, and lackyng witt for to expend so great a matter, will follow with service where hir Majesty will goo before.” This attitude is very characteristic of the writer.