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He had levity, indolence, and irrefolution, in common with other weak princes; but the diftinguishing foible of his character, was that unaccountable paffion for the reigning favourites, to which he facrificed every other confideration of policy and convenience, and at last fell a miferable victim.

Smollett.

$ 54. Character of EDWARD III. The English are apt to confider with peculiar fondnefs the history of Edward the Third, and to efteem his reign, as it was one of the longest, the most glorious alfo, which occurs in the annals of the nation. The afcendant which they began to have over France, their rival and national enemy, makes them caft their eyes on this period with great complacency, and fanctifies every meafure which Edward embraced for that end. But the domeftic government is really more admirable than his foreign victories; and England enjoyed, by his prudence and vigour of adminiftration, a longer interval of domeftic peace and tranquillity, than fhe had been bleft with in any former period, or than fhe experienced for many years after. He gained the affections of the great, and curbed their licentioufnefs: he made them feel his power, without their daring, or even being inclined to murmur at it; his affable and obliging behaviour, his munificence and generofity, made them fubmit with pleafure to his dominion; his valour and conduct made them fuccessful in most of their enterprizes; and their unquiet fpirits, directed against a public enemy, had no leifure to breed disturbances, to which they were naturally fo much inclined, and which the fame of the government feemed fo much to authorize.

This

was the chief benefit which refulted from Edward's victories and conquefts. His foreign wars were, in other refpects, neither founded in justice, nor directed to any very falutary purpose. His attempt against the king of Scotland, a minor, and a brother-in-law, and the revival of his grandfather's claim of fuperiority over that kingdom, were both unreasonable and ungenerous

and he allowed himfelf to be too foon

reduced, by the glaring profpects of French conqueft, from the acquifition of a point which was practicable, and which might really, if attained, have been of lafting utility to his country and to his fucceffors. But the glory of a conqueror is fo dazzling to the vulgar, and the animofity of nations fo extreme, that the fruitlefs defolation of fo fine a part of Europe as France is totally dif regarded by us, and never confidered as a blemish in the character or conduct of

this prince: and indeed, from the unfortunate ftate of human nature, it will commonly happen that a fovereign of great genius, fuch as Edward, who ufually finds every thing eafy in the domeftic government, will turn himself towards military enterprizes, where alone he meets oppofition, and where he has full exercise for his industry and capacity. Died 21ft of June, aged 65, in the 51ft years of his reign. Hume.

$55. Another Character of ED

WARD III.

Edward's conftitution had been impaired by the fatigues of his youth; fo that he began to feel the infirmities of old age, before they approach the common courfe of nature: and now he was feized with a malignant fever, attended with eruptions, that foon put a period to his life. When his diftemper became fo violent, that no hope of his recovery remained, all his attendants forfook him, as a bankrupt no longer able to requite their fervices. The ungrateful. ALICE, waiting until the perceived him in the agonies of death, was fo inhuman as to ftrip him of his rings and jewels, and leave him without one domeftic to clofe his eyes, and do the last offices to his breathlefs corfe. In this deplorable condition, bereft of comfort and affiftance, the mighty Edward lay expiring; when a prieft, not quite fo favage as the rest of his domeftics, approached his bed; and, finding him fill breathing, began to adminifter fome comfort to his foul. Edward had not yet loft all perception, when he found himfelf thus abandoned and forlorn, in the latt moments of his life. He was just able to exprefs a deep fense of forrow and contrition for the errors

of

of his conduct, and died pronouncing the name of JESUS.

Such was the piteous and obfcure end of Edward the Third, undoubtedly one of the greatest princes that ever fwayed the fcepter of England; whether we refpect him as a warrior, a lawgiver, a monarch, or a man. He poffeffed all the romantic fpirit of Alexander ; the penetration, the fortitude, the polished manners, of Julius; the liberality, the munificence, the wifdom, of Auguftus Cæfar. He was tall, majestic, finely shaped, with a piercing eye, and aquiline vifage. He excelled all his contemporaries in feats of arms, and perfonal addrefs. He was courteous, affable, and eloquent; of a free deportment, and agreeable converfation; and had the art of commanding the affection of his fubjects, without feeming to folicit popularity. The love of glory was certainly the predominant paffion of Edward, to the gratification of which he did not fcruple to facrifice the feelings of humanity, the lives of his fubjects, and the interefts of his country. And nothing could have induced or enabled his people to bear the load of taxes with which they were encumbered in his reign, but the love and admiration of his perfon, the fame of his victories, and the excellent laws and regulations which the parliament enacted with his advice and concurrence.

Smollett.

gard to her conduct. Her vigour, her conftancy, her magnanimity, her penetration, vigilance, and address, are allowed to merit the highest praises, and appear not to have been furpaffed by any perfon who ever filled a throne: a conduct lefs rigorous, lefs imperious, more fincere, more indulgent to her people, would have been requifite to form a perfect character. By the force of her mind, fhe controlled all her more active and stronger qualities, and prevented them from running into excefs: her heroifm was exempt from all temerity, her frugality from avarice, her friendship from partiality, her enterprize from turbulency and a vain ambition. She guarded not herself with equal care or equal fuccefs from leffer infirmities; the rivalfhip of beauty, the defire of admiration, the jealousy of love, and the fallies of anger.

Her fingular talents for government were founded equally on her temper and on her capacity. Endowed with a great command over herself, she foon obtained an uncontrolled afcendant over the people; and while fhe merited all their efteem by her real virtues, she also engaged their affections by her pretended ones. Few fovereigns of England fucceeded to the throne in more difficult circumftances; and none ever conducted the government with fuch uniform fuccefs and felicity. Though unacquainted with the practice of toleration, the true fecret for managing religious fac

$56. The Character of Queen ELIZA- tions, the preferved her people, by her

BETH.

There are few perfonages in hiftory who have been more exposed to the calumny of enemies, and the adulation of friends, than Queen Elizabeth; and yet there fcarce is any whofe reputation has been more certainly determined by the unanimous confent of pofterity. The unufual length of her adminiftration, and the ftrong features of her character, were able to overcome all prejudices; and, obliging her detractors to abate much of their invectives, and her admirers fomewhat of their panegyrics, have at laft, in fpite of political factions, and what is more, of religious animofities, produced an uniform judgment with re

fuperior prudence, from thofe confufions in which theological controverfy had involved all the neighbouring nations; and though her enemies were the most powerful princes of Europe, the most active, the moft enterprizing, the leaft fcrupulous, fhe was able by her vigour to make deep impreffions on their state; her own greatnefs meanwhile remained untouched and unimpaired.

The wife minifters and brave warriors, who flourished during her reign, fhare the praife of her fuccefs; but, inftead of leffening the applaufe due to her, they make great addition to it: they owed, all of them, their advancement to her choice; they were fupported by her conftancy; and with all their

ability,

ability, they were never able to acquire any undue afcendant over her. In her family, in her court, in her kingdom, the remained equally mistress: the force of the tender paflions was great over her, but the force of her mind was ftill fuperior; and the combat which her victory visibly coft her, ferves only to difplay the firmness of her refolution, and the loftinefs of her ambitious fentiments.

The fame of this princess, though it has furmounted the prejudices both of faction and of bigotry, yet lies ftill expofed to another prejudice, which is more durable, because more natural, and which, according to the different views in which we furvey her, is capa ble either of exalting beyond measure, or diminishing the luftre of her character. This prejudice is founded on the confideration of her fex. When we contemplate her as a woman, we are apt to be ftruck with the higheft admiration of her qualities and extenfive capacity; but we are alfo apt to require fome more softness of difpofition, fome greater lenity of temper, fome of thofe amiable weakneffes by which her fex is diftinguished. But the true method of eftimating her merit, is to lay afide all thefe confiderations, and to confider her merely as a rational being, placed in authority, and intrufted with the government of mankind. We may find it difficult to reconcile our fancy to her as a wife or a miftrefs; but her qualities as a fovereign, though with fome confiderable exceptions, are the object of undifputed applaufe and approba

tion.

Hume.

infancy to be treated as a queen. No ftranger, on fome occafions, to diffimulation; which, in that perfidious court where the received her education, was reckoned among the necessary arts of government. Not infenfible to flattery, or unconscious of that pleasure, with which almost every woman beholds the influence of her own beauty. Formed with the qualities that we love, not with the talents that we admire; she was an agreeable woman rather than an illuftrious queen. The vivacity of her fpirit, not fufficiently tempered with found judgment, and the warmth of her heart, which was not at all times under the reftraint of difcretion, betrayed her both into errors and into crimes. To fay that he was always unfortunate, will not account for that long and almost uninterrupted fucceffion of calamities which befel her; we must likewise add, that he was often imprudent. Her paffion for Darnly was rafh, youthful, and exceffive. And though the fudden tranfition to the oppofite extreme was the natural effect of her ill-requited love, and of his ingratitude, infolence, and brutality; yet neither thefe, nor Bothwell's artful addrefs and important fervices, can justify her attachments to that nobleman. Even the manners of the age, licentious as they were, are no apology for this unhappy paffion; nor can they induce us to look on that tragical and infamous fcene, which followed upon it, with lefs abhorrence. Humanity will draw a veil over this part of her character, which it cannot approve, and may, perhaps, prompt fome to impute her actions to her fituation, more than to her difpofition; and rather than accufe the perverfenefs of the latter. Mary's fufferings exceed, both in degree and in duration, thofe tragical diftreffes which fancy has feigned to excite forrow and commiferation; and while we furvey them, we are apt altogether to forget her frailties, we think of her faults with lefs indignation, and approve of our tears, as if they were fhed for a person who had attained much nearer to pure virtue.

§ 57. The Character of MARY Queen of to lament the unhappinefs of the former,

$57.

SCOTS.

To all the charms of beauty, and the utmoft elegance of external form, Mary added thofe accomplishments which render their impreffion irrefiftible. Polite, affable, infinuating, fprightly, and capable of speaking and of writing with equal eafe and dignity. Sudden, however, and violent in all her attachments; because her heart was warm and unfufpicious. Impatient of contradiction, because she had been accustomed from her

With regard to the queen's perfon, a circumftance not to be omitted in writ

ing the hiftory of a female reign, all contemporary authors agree in afcribing to Mary the utmost beauty of counte nance and elegance of fhape of which the human form is capable. Her hair was black, though, according to the fafhion of that age, the frequently wore borrowed locks, and of different colours. Her eyes were a dark grey, her complexion was exquifitely fine, and her hands and arms remarkably delicate, both as to fhape and colour. Her ftature was of an height that rofe to the majestic. She danced, she walked, and rode with equal grace. Her tafte for music was juft, and fhe both fung and played upon the lute with uncommon kill. Towards the end of her life fhe began to grow fat; and her long confinement, and the coldnefs of the houses in which fhe was imprifoned, brought on a rheumatism which deprived her of the ufe of her limbs. No man, fays Brantome, ever beheld her perfon without admiration and love, or will read her hiftory without forrow.

Robertfon.

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Francis died at Rambouillet, on the laft day of March, in the fifty-third year of his age, and the thirty-third year of his reign. During twentyeight years of that time, an avowed rivalfhip fubfifted between him and the emperor, which involved not only their own dominions, but the greater part of Europe in wars, profecuted with more violent animofity, and drawn out to a greater length, than had been known in any former period. Many circumftances contributed to both. Their animofity was founded in oppofition of intereft, heightened by perfonal emulation, and exafperated not only by mutual injuries, but by reciprocal infults. At the fame time, whatever advantage one feemed to poffefs towards gaining the afcendant, was wonderfully balanced by fome favourable circumftance, peculiar to the other. The emperor's dominions were of great extent, the French king's lay more com

pact: Francis governed his kingdom with abfolute power; that of Charles was limited, but he fupplied the want of authority by addrefs: the troops of the former were more impetuous and enterprifing; thofe of the latter better difciplined, and more patient of fatigue. The talents and abilities of the two monarchs were as different as the advantages which they poffeffed, and contributed no lefs to prolong the conteft be

tween them. Francis took his refolutions fuddenly, profecuted them at first with warmth, and pushed them into execution with a moft adventurous courage; but, being deftitute of the perfeverance neceffary to farmount difficulties, he often abandoned his defigns, or relaxed the vigour of purfuit, from impatience, and fometimes from levity.

Charles deliberated long, and determined with coolnefs; but, having once fixed his plan, he adhered to it with inflexible obftinacy, and neither danger nor difcouragement could turn him afide from the execution of it. The fuccefs of their enterprises was as different as their characters, and was uniformly influenced by them. Francis, by his impetuous activity, often difconcerted the emperor's beft laid fchemes: Charles, by a more calm, but fteady prosecution of his defigns, checked the rapidity of his rival's career, and baffled or repulfed his moft vigorous efforts. The former, at the opening of a war or of a campaign, broke in upon his enemy with the violence of a torrent, and carried all before him; the latter, waiting until he faw the force of his rival begin to abate, recovered in the end, not only all that he had loft, but made new acquifitions. Few of the French monarch's attempts towards conqueft, whatever promifing afpect they might wear at first, were con ducted to an happy iffue; many of the emperor's enterprises, even after they appeared defperate and impracticable, terminated in the most profperous manner. Francis was dazzled with the fplendour of an undertaking; Charles was allured by the profpect of its turning to his advantage. The degree, however, of their comparative merit and reputation has not been fixed, either by a ftrict fcrutiny into their abilities for government,

vernment, or by an impartial confideration of the greatnefs and fuccefs of their undertakings; and Francis is one of thofe monarchs who occupies a higher rank in the temple of Fame than either his talents or performances entitle him to hold. This pre-eminence he owed to many different circumstances. The fuperiority which Charles acquired by the victory of Pavia, and which from that period he preferved through the remainder of his reign, was fo manifeft, that Francis's ftruggle against his exorbitant and growing dominion was viewed, by most of the other powers, not only with the partiality which naturally arifes from those who gallantly main tain an unequal conteft, but with the favour due to one who was refifting a common enemy, and endeavouring to fet bounds to a monarch equally formidable to them all. The characters of princes too, especially among their contemporaries, depend not only upon their talents for government, but upon their qualities as men. Francis, notwithstand ing the many errors confpicuous in his foreign policy and domestic adminiftration, was nevertheless humane, beneficent, generous. He poffeffed dignity without pride; affability free from mean. nefs, and courtesy exempt from deceit. All who had access to him (and no man of merit was ever denied that privilege) refpected and loved him. Captivated with his perfonal qualities, his fubjects forgot his defects as a monarch, and admiring him as the most accomplished and amiable gentleman in his dominions, they never murmured at acts of mal-adminiftration, which in a prince of lefs engaging difpofitions would have been deemed unpardonable. This admiration, however, must have been temporary only, and would have died away with the courtiers who bestowed it; the illufion arifing from his private virtues must have ceafed, and pofterity would have judged of his public conduct with its ufual impartiality; but another circumftance prevented this, and his name hath been tranfmitted to pofterity with increafing reputation. Science and the arts had, at that time, made little progrefs in France. They were juft beginning to advance beyond the limits of

Italy, where they had revived, and which had hitherto been their only feat. Francis took them immediately under his protection, and vied with Leo himfelf in the zeal and munificence with which he encouraged them. He invit ed learned men to his court; he converfed with them familiarly, he employed them in bufinefs; he raised them to offices of dignity, and honoured them with his confidence. That race of men, not more prone to complain when denied the refpect to which they fancy themfelves entitled, than apt to be pleased when treated with the diftinction which they confider as their due, though they could not exceed in gratitude to fuch a benefactor, strained their invention, and employed all their ingenuity in panegyric.

Succeeding authors, warmed with their defcriptions of Francis's bounty, adopted their encomiums, and refined upon them. The appellation of Father of Letters, bestowed upon Francis, hath rendered his memory facred among hiftorians, and they feem to have regarded it as a fort of impiety to uncover his infirmities, or to point out his defects. Thus Francis, notwithstanding his inferior abilities, and want of fuccefs, hath more than equalled the fame of Charles. The virtues which he poffeffed as a man have entitled him to greater admiration and praife, than have been bestowed upon the extenfive genius and fortunate arts of a more capable, but lefs amiable rival. Robertfon.

$59. The Character of CHARLES V.

As Charles was the first prince of his age in rank and dignity, the part which he acted, whether we confider the greatnefs, the variety, or the fuccefs of his undertakings, was the most confp`cuous. It is from an attentive obfervation of his conduct,not from the exaggerated praifes of the Spanish hiftorians, or the undif tinguishing cenfure of the French, that a juft idea of Charles's genius and abilities is to be collected. He pofeffed qualities fo peculiar, as frongly mark his character, and not only distinguish him from the princes who were his contemporaries, but account for that fupeNn 2

riority

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