HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. 423 



to this succession. A king in the strength of his 

 years, supported with great alliances abroad, esta 

 blished with royal issue at home, at peace with all the 

 world, practised in the regiment of such a kingdom, 

 as might rather enable a king by variety of acci 

 dents, than corrupt him with affluence or vain-glory ; 

 and one that besides his universal capacity and judge 

 ment, was notably exercised and practised in matters 

 of religion and the church : which in these times, 

 by the confused use of both swords, are become so 

 intermixed with considerations of estate, as most of 

 the counsels of sovereign princes or republics depend 

 upon them : but nothing did more fill foreign na 

 tions with admiration and expectation of his succes 

 sion, than the wonderful, and, by them, unexpected 

 consent of all estates and subjects of England, for 

 the receiving of the king without the least scruple, 

 pause, or question. For it had been generally dis 

 persed by the fugitives beyond the seas, who, partly 

 to apply themselves to the ambition of foreigners, 

 and partly to give estimation and value to their own 

 employments, used to represent the state of England 

 in a false light, that after Queen Elizabeth s decease 

 there must follow in England nothing but confu 

 sions, interreigns, and perturbations of estate, likely 

 far to exceed the ancient calamities of the civil wars 

 between the houses of Lancaster and York, by how 

 much more the dissentions were like to be more 

 mortal and bloody, when foreign competition should 

 be added to domestical, and divisions for religion to 

 matter of title to the crown. And in special, Par- 



