tw 



ELIZABETH. 



ELIZABETH. 



Cmdn gives the following account of the si tuition aud employ- 

 menu of Elizabeth at thU period of bar life, in the introduction to 

 his history of her reign. She was both, he says, "in great grace and 

 favour with King Edward, her brother, at likewwe in singular esteem 



insomuch, a* before the waa seventeen yean of age ahe uudentood 

 well the Latin, French, aud Italian tongues, and had an indifferent 

 knowledge of the Greek. Neither did she neglect music, so far ai it 

 became a princess, being able to sing sweetly, and play handsomely 

 on the Into. With Roger Aschani, who was her tutor, she read over 

 Helancthon's ' Common-Places,' all Tally, a great part of the histories 

 of Titus Livius, certain select orations of Isocr.ites (whereof two she 

 turned into Latin), Sopbocles's Tragedies, and the New Testament in 

 Greek, by which means she both framed her tongue to a puro and 

 elegant way of speaking, &c." ('Engluh Translation in Kenuet's 

 Collection.') 



It appears from what Asoham himself tells us in his 'Schoolmaster' 

 that Elisabeth continued her Qreok studies after she ascended the 

 throne : "After dinner" (at Windsor Castle, 10th December 1563), he 

 says, " I went up to read with the Queen's Majesty : we read there 

 together in the Greek tongue, as I well remember, that noble oration 

 of Demosthenes against JSschines for bis false dealing in his embassage 

 to king Philip of Macedonia." 



On the death of Edward, Camden says that an attempt was made 

 by Dudley to induce Elizabeth to resign her title to the crown for a 

 sum of money, and certain lands to be settled on her : her reply was, 

 " that her elder sister, the Lady Mary, was first to be agreed withal ; 

 for as long as the said Lady Mary lived she, for her part, could challenge 

 no right at all" Burnett says that both she and Mary, having been 

 allured by messages from Dudley, who no doubt wished to get them 

 into his hands, were on their way to town, when the news of Edward's 

 approaching end induced them to turn back. When Mary came to 

 London after being proclaimed queen, the Lady Elizabeth went to 

 meet her with 500 horse, according to Camdeu, others say with 2000. 

 Fox, the niartyrologiat, relates that " Queen Mary, when she was first 

 queen, before she was crowned, would go no whither, but would have 

 her by the hand, and send for her to dinner and supper." At Mary's 

 coronation, in October 1553, according to Holinshed, aa the queen rode 

 through the city towards Westminster, the chariot in which she sat 

 was followed by another " having a covering of cloth of silver, all 

 white, and six horses trapped with the like, wherein sate the Lady 

 Elizabeth and the Lady Anne of Cleve." Another account says that 

 Elizabeth carried the crown on this occasion. 



From this time Elizabeth, who had been brought up in their reli- 

 gion, became the hope of the Protestant^ party. Her position however 

 was on* of great difficulty. At first she refused to attend her sister 

 to mass, endeavouring to soothe alary by appealing to her compassion 

 after some time however she yielded an outward compliance. The act 

 ]nsiH by the parliament, which, although it did not mention her by 

 name, bastardised her by implication, by annulling her father's divorce 

 from his first wife, could not fail to give her deep offence. Availing 

 herself of an order of Mary, ntsigning her a rank below what her 

 birth entitled her to, as an excuse for wishing to retire from court, she 

 obtained leave to go to her house at Ashridge, in Buckinghamshire, in 

 the beginning of December. About the same time Mary has been 

 supposed to have been irritated agrinst her sister by the preference 

 shown for Elizabeth by her kinsman Edward Courtenay, whom, after 

 releasing from the Tower, the queen bad restored to his father's titlo 

 of Karl of Devon, and is said to have had some thoughts of marrying 

 It appears to have been part of the design of the rash and unfortunate 

 attempt of Wyatt, in the beginning of the following year, to brinj 

 about a marriage between Elizabeth and Courtenay, who was one o 

 those engaged in the revolt This affair involved Elizabeth in the 

 greatest danger. On the 8th of February, the day after the suppres- 

 sion 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 siok in bed, they immediately 

 forced their way into her chamber, and informed her that she mus 

 " prepare against the morning, at nine of the dock, to go with them 

 declaring that they bad brought with them the queen's litter for her. 

 Bbe was so ill however that it was not till the fourth night that *h 

 reached Higbgate. "Here," says Fox, "she being very sick, tarried 

 that night and the next day ; during which time of her abode there 

 BOM many pursuivant* and messengers from the court, but for wha 

 purpose I cannot tell." When she entered London great multitude 

 of people came flocking about hrr litter, which she ordered to be 

 opened to show herself. The city was at this time covered wit) 

 dbUUiWUen had been erected in different places, on which fifty 

 two persons wre hanged ; and it appears to have been the genera 

 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 oonBaemetit in Whitehall It appears that her oane was twioe 

 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 Wyatt and Courtenay had solicited her to give her 



it to their projects of revolt, her immediate destruction was 

 trongly advised by some of the members. Elizabeth long afterwards 

 used to declare that she fully expected death, and that she knew her 

 iater thirsted for her blood. It was at last determined however that 

 or the present she should only be committed to the Tower, although 

 he seems herself still to have been left in doubt as to her fate. She 

 was conveyed to her prison by wtr on the morning of the lltli of 

 larch, being Palm Sunday, orders being issued that, in the meantime, 

 every one should keep the church aud carry their palms." In 

 ttempting to shoot the bridge the boat was nearly swampeil. She at 

 irst refused to land at the stairs leading to the Traitor s Gate ; but 

 >ue 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 good dash) refused. 

 <o ahe coming out, having one foot upon the stair, said, ' Here laudutli 

 as true a subject as ever landed at these stain ; and before thee, 

 God, I speak it, having none other friends but thee alone.' " Sue 

 remained in close custody for about a month, after which ahe was 

 illowed to walk in a small garden within the walls of the fortress. 

 Ou the 19th of May she was removed, in charge of Sir Henry IJeding- 

 ield, to Woodstock. Here she was guarded with great strictness and 

 severity by her new jailor. Camden says that at this time she received 

 >rivate letters both from Henry II. of France, inviting her to that 

 country, and from Christian III. of Denmark (who had lately embraced 

 he 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, " nowr guiding 

 lerself as a ship in blustering weather, both heard divine service 

 after the liomUh manner, and was frequently confessed ; aud at the 

 >rauing instances and menaces of cardinal Pole, professed her* -If. for 

 'ear of death, a Roman Catholic. Yet did not Queen Mary 1 

 ler." She remained at Woodstock till April 1555, when she wai, on 

 ;he 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 Human 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 iu regard to 

 the princess, aud perhaps he was really more disposed to treat her 

 with indulgence than his wife. According to Camdeu, some of the 

 Roman Catholic party wished to remove her to a distance from England, 

 and to marry her to Emanuel PhUibert, duke of Savoy; but Philip 

 opposed this scheme, designing her for hu 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 of November 1553. The news was commu- 

 nicated 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 mode 35 Henry VIII." It is probable that 

 Elizabeth's outward compliance in tho matter of religion had con- 

 siderable 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 bo made of the Lady Elizabeth's right of succession, the 

 House of Peer* 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 on 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. 



Elizabeth was twenty-five years of age when she came to the throne ; 

 and one of her 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 Roman Catholics, who hud been of that of her sinter ; 

 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 

 Effingbau), the lord chamberlain. But with these she associated seven 

 others of her own religion, the most eminent of whom was the cele- 

 brated William Cecil, afterwards Lord liurleigh, 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 tho great 



