CHAPTER XII.

ACCESSION OF ELIZABETH, 1558.

LATING TO RELIGION.
QUEEN.

PUBLIC ACTS REROMISH TENDENCIES OF THE

ELIZABETH, the daughter of Henry VIII. and Anne Boleyn, was joyfully proclaimed queen of England on Thursday, November 17th, 1558, "about eleven or twelve o'clock, forenoon." "In the afternoon the bells in all the churches in London rung in token of joy; and at night bonfires were made, and tables set out in the streets, where was plentiful eating and drinking, and making merry. The next day being Friday [a fast day], it was not thought decent to make any public rejoicing, but on the next, viz: Saturday, November 19th, Te Deum Laudamus was sung and said in the churches of London. Thus the satisfaction generally conceived by the people for this new queen superseded all outward appearances of sorrow for the loss of the old one." 11 * Elizabeth's accession to the throne was in accordance with the act of succession, 35 Henry VIII. And though Mary's death was concealed for a few hours,† as if to

* Strype's Annals, vol. 1. pt. 1. p. 1, Introduction.

† Camden's Elizabeth, in Kennet's Hist. Eng., vol. 11. p. 369, folio, Lond. 1719.

give her council time for deliberation, no opposition was made to her successor; which is the more remarkable, since the propriety of removing Elizabeth out of the way had been repeatedly considered during her sister's reign.

*

Elizabeth was born September 13th or 14th, 1553,† and consequently had passed her twenty

* Strype's Annals, vol. 1. pt. 1. sect. 1, p. 4; Memorials, vol. 111. pt. 11. ch. 64, p. 138. See also Fox's "Miraculous Preservation of the Lady Elizabeth," III. 792-800; Sharon Turner's Modern History of England, vol. 11. pp. 435–43.

Dr. John Story, a civilian of considerable distinction, and “one of Queen Mary's trusty commissioners for taking up, imprisoning, and burning the gospellers," in a bold and bitter speech in the house of commons against the act for the uniformity of common prayer, etc., justified his cruelties against the protestants, and said, "he saw nothing to be ashamed of, nor sorry for; and that it grieved him that they labored only among the young and little twigs, whereas they should have struck at the root!' By which words it was well enough known he meant the queen."- Strype's Annals, vol. 1. pt. 1. ch. 3, p. 115. See "A Declaration of the Life and Death of John Story," Phoenix Britannicus, pp. 289-97. Burnet says that Gardiner "thought all they did about religion was but half work, unless the Lady Elizabeth were destroyed."- Vol. 11. pt. 1. bk. III. pp. 576, 727-29. Fox tells us that "Ste. Gardiner especially hunted for the life of the Lady Elizabeth." - Acts and Mons., 111. 450. See also pp. 33, 794, 797. Strype calls Gardiner Elizabeth's "great enemy."- Memorials, vol. 111. pt. 1. ch. 9, p. 131. Hallam seems disposed to speak a kind word for Gardiner, who, he says, "had some virtues, and entertained sounder notions of the civil constitution of England than his adversaries. According to Lingard, on the imperial ambassador's authority [Noailles], he saved Elizabeth's life against all the council." —Constitutional Hist., vol. 1. pp. 96, 97, note, Lond. 1846; Lingard, vII. 165. The most elaborate defence of Gardiner may be found in the Biographia Britannica, vol. III. pp. 2089-2129.

† Strype says: "Queen Elizabeth was born the 13th or 14th of

fifth birthday when called to the throne. She had, besides mature years to recommend her, a mind quick, acute, and comprehensive, which had been diligently cultivated and disciplined by study.*

September, for so Cranmer wrote to Hawkins.” — Burnet, vol. III. pt. 11. Appendix No. 6, p. 543. Other authorities say, September 7th.

* Dr. Haddon, a contemporaneous writer, praises her "sharpness and judgment," and "strength of reason and understanding"; and says that "she read the holy Scriptures much and often; that she compared the best interpreters together; that she collected everywhere the sentences of the most learned divines; that of herself she excelled in the knowledge of tongues; and that as she was of a prompt and sharp wit, so she added so much wisdom to it as was scarcely credible in that sex." Reply to Osorius, in

Strype's Annals, vol. 1. pt. 11. ch. 37, p. 80.

The famous Greek and Latin scholar, Roger Ascham, was her classical teacher, and in a letter to his friend Sturmius, speaks of the almost incredible rapidity with which she acquired Greek and Latin. Ascham's Eng. Works, p. 337. Lond. 1815. And in a letter to the same correspondent, dated September 14th, 1555, Ascham praises her excellence in the Greek, Latin, Italian, and French languages. He says that in reading Æschines and Demosthenes for the Crown, she, at the first glance, seemed not only to understand the meaning of the language and the force of the oratory, but also the whole cause of contention, the situation of the people, and the manners and customs of the city. And that he himself was one day present at court, when she gave audience, at the same time, to a Spanish, and French, and Swedish ambassador, whom she readily addressed, without hesitation or perturbation, one after another, in Italian, French, and Latin. Aschami Epistolæ, pp. 20, 51, 53, 56. Oxoniæ, ed, 1703.

Giovanni Michele, the Venetian ambassador to England in 1557, speaking of Elizabeth, says: "She is a lady of great elegance, both of body and mind, although her face may rather be called pleasing than beautiful. She is tall and well made; her complexion fine, though rather sallow. Her eyes - but above all

She was mistress of the Latin and Greek languages, and was able to converse in the chief modern languages of the continent-French, Italian, Spanish, German. She was a woman of great energy and firmness, with a will like her father's, strong and imperious, and a temper as violent, which all the trials and dangers of her early life did little to chasten and mellow. Unlike Mary, she was not vindictive. She manifested no disposition to avenge the insults and injuries which she had suffered from her sister's instruments. Even Sir Henry Benefield, who had used her so roughly while in his custody at Woodstock that she apprehended a design to murder her privately, she merely called her "jailor," when he made his court to her after her accession. But Benefield felt the taunt so keenly, though spoken playfully, that he never again appeared at court. All of Mary's bishops,

who went to meet Elizabeth at Highgate, immediately on her accession, she treated civilly, except

are of superior

her hands, which she takes care not to conceal beauty." - Ellis' Orig. Letters, 2d series, vol. 11. p. 237. And even sober, practical Burleigh, in reply to a playful remark of Elizabeth's, which was reported to him-that she would have a battle with his fingers — gallantly retorted: "I have no warrant for my fingers; but her majesty is allowed to say as King David said in the one hundred and forty-fourth Psalm [first verse]: 'Benedictus Dominus meus, qui docet manus meas ad prelium, et digitos meos ad bellum!' *** If her majesty's hands and fingers were to fight, I durst match her with King Philip, and overmatch him." - Wright's Orig. Letters, vol. II. p. 453. Lond. ed. 1838.

Bonner; and that "beast," though imprisoned by her, she did not otherwise harm.*

Elizabeth had outwardly conformed to all the requisitions of the papal hierarchy during her sister's reign she was ever a dissembler when her interests tempted her; † yet, the fact that her mother had been a cordial friend of the Reformation, and that her own legitimacy had never been acknowledged by the papal church, naturally rendered her sincerity suspected during Mary's reign, and might have cost her life, had not Philip befriended her. This he did, as was generally believed, in the hope of one day finding in her what

* Burnet, vol. 11. pt. 11. bk. 11. pp. 573, 729, 748; bk. 111. pp. 749, 791, 792.

Fox gives some particulars of " the rude and ungentlemanly behavior of Sir Henry Benefield" towards the Lady Elizabeth. Acts and Mons., III. 796. So does Burnet, vol. 11. pt. II. bk. II. p. 729. Strype calls him “an austere man." But Miss Aiken says: "The instances related of the severity and insolence of Sir Henry Beddingfield [Benefield?] are to be received with more distrust, for it is known from the best authority, that Beddingfield was frequently at the court of Elizabeth, and that she once visited him on a progress." Memoirs of the Court of Queen Elizabeth, vol. 1. p. 174, Lond. 1826. And Lingard calls Fox's stories about Benefield's treatment of Elizabeth, slander. ·Hist. Eng., vII. 167, note. It is obvious that if the forgiving character ascribed to Elizabeth was her real character, then the facts adduced by Miss Aiken, and relied on by Lingard as a vindication of Benefield from "the slander of Fox," may prove nothing in Benefield's favor, though much in Elizabeth's.

† Strype's Annals, vol. 1. pt. 1. sect. 1, pp. 2, 3. “For my part,” says Lloyd, a panegyrist of Elizabeth, "I don't pretend to deny that she made great use of dissimulation *** But the question is to know whether, in her circumstances, her dissimulation was blamable."-State Worthies, vol. 1. p. 349. Lond. 1766.