princes should come to some agreement. Among other conditions, Henry demanded the restitution of Navarre to its lawful owner; Philip, that of Calais and its territory to England; but in the midst of these negotiations, news arrived of Mary's death. She had long been in a decli

ning state of health; and the loss of Calais, and the A. D. absence of her husband, brought on a lingering 1558. fever, of which she died, after a short and inglorious reign of five years, four months, and eleven days.

Mary possessed few qualities either estimable or amiable; and her person was as little engaging as her behaviour and address. Obstinacy, bigotry, violence, cruelty, malignity, revenge, and tyranny, the fruits of bad temper, and a narrow understanding, attach to her character; and amidst this complication of vices, we can find no other virtue than that of sincerity.

Under her reign, the naval power of England was so inconsiderable, that fourteen thousand pounds being ordered to the repairing and victualling of the fleet, it was computed that ten thousand pounds a-year would afterwards answer all necessary charges.

1558.

CHAP. XII.

The reign of Elizabeth.

ELIZABETH had displayed great prudence during the reign of her sister; and as men were sensible of the im-minent danger to which she was exposed, compassion towards her situation, and concern for her safety, had rendered her the favourite of the nation. A parliament had been assembled a few days before Mary's death; A. D. and when that event was notified to them, scarcely an interval of regret appeared: the two houses immediately resounded with the joyful acclamations of "God save queen Elizabeth; long and happily may reign!" The people, less actuated by faction, expressed a joy still more general and sincere. With a prudence and magnanimity truly laudable, Elizabeth buried all of fences in oblivion; but when the bishops came to make obeisance to her, she turned away from Bonner, as from a man polluted with blood.

she

In notifying her accession to Philip, she expressed to him her gratitude for the protection which he had afforded her; and that monarch, hoping by means of Elizabeth to obtain that dominion over England of which he had failed in espousing Mary, made her proposals of marriage. To these, however, she returned an obliging, but evasive

answer.

The education and conviction of Elizabeth determined her to pursue the measures of the reformation; and she frequently deliberated with sir William Cecil on the means of restoring the protestant religion; but she resolved to proceed with cautious steps, and not to imitate the example of Mary, in encouraging a violent invasion on the established religion. She recalled those who had fled; she set at liberty those who had been confined on account of religion; she ordered a great part of the service to be read in English; and after enjoining all the churches to conform to the practice of her own chapel, she forbade the host to be any more elevated in her presence. By her affability and address she gained the affections of her subjects; and she delayed the entire change of religion till the meeting of the parliament, which was summoned to assemble.

The elections had gone entirely against the catholics; and the houses met in a disposition to gratify the queen. They began the session with an unanimous declaration, "that queen Elizabeth was, and ought to be, as well by the word of God, as the common and statute laws of the realm, the lawful, undoubted, and true heir to the crown, lawfully descended from the blood-royal, according to the order of succession settled in the thirty-fifth of Henry VIII." This act of recognition was probably dictated by the queen herself and her ministers; and she did not follow the example of Mary, in declaring the validity of her mother's marriage, or in expressly repealing the act formerly passed against her own legitimacy.

The first bill brought into parliament was for suppressing the monasteries lately erected, and for restoring the tenths and first-fruits to the queen. This point being gained, a bill was next passed, annexing the supremacy to the crown, which was vested with the whole spiritual power; and whoever denied, or refused to acknowledge the queen's

supremacy, was subjected to certain pains and penalties. A law was passed, confirming all the statutes enacted in king Edward's time with regard to religion.

A solemn and public disputation was held during this session, between the divines of the protestant and those of the catholic communion, in which, it may be easily imagined, the champions of the former were entirely triumphant. Emboldened by this victory, the protestants ventured on bringing a bill into parliament for abolishing the mass, and re-establishing the liturgy of king Edward. Thus, in one session, without any violence or tumult, the whole system of religion was changed, and placed on another foundation.

The commons also voted the queen a liberal subsidy; but when, in an importunate address, they besought her to fix her choice of a husband, she rejected the proposal, and observed that England was her husband, and the people her children. She added, that she desired no higher character than to have it inscribed on her tombstone, "Here lies Elizabeth, who lived and died a maiden queen."

While the queen and parliament were employed in settling the national religion, negotiations for peace were carried on between the ministers of France, Spain, and England. Philip employed his utmost efforts to procure a restitution of Calais to England. So long as he entertained hopes of espousing the queen, he delayed to conclude a peace with Henry; and he seemed willing to continue the war till she should obtain satisfaction. But EliZabeth, sensible of the low state of her finances, ordered her ambassadors to conclude a peace with Henry on any reasonable terms. It was agreed, that Henry should restore Calais at the expiration of eight years; but it was evident, that this was only a colourable pretence for abandoning that fortress. A peace with Scotland was a necessary consequence of that with France.

But though peace was concluded between France and England, there soon appeared serious grounds for misunderstanding. The king of France ordered his son and daughter-in-law to quarter the arms of England on all their equipages and liveries; and as the queen of Scots was next heir to that throne, Elizabeth plainly saw, that the king of France intended, on the first opportunity, to

dispute her legitimacy, and her title to the crown. Soon after Francis II. succeeded to the throne of France, and still continuing to assume without reserve the title of king of England, she began to consider him and his queen as her mortal enemies; and the jealousy thus excited against the queen of Scots terminated only with the life of the un

fortunate Mary.

The present situation of affairs in Scotland afforded Elizabeth a favourable opportunity both of revenging the injury, and providing for her own safety. Popery was still the religion of the state in that country; but the English preachers, who took shelter in Scotland on the accession of Mary to the throne of England, had filled the whole kingdom with horror at the cruelties of the catholics; and by their means, the reformation in that country had acquired additional strength, and even threatened the established religion.

About this critical time, when the queen-regent, agreeably to the orders received from France, had been proceeding with rigour against the protestants, John Knox arrived from Geneva, where he had imbibed, from his commerce with Calvin, the highest fanaticism of his sect, augmented by the natural ferocity of his own character. He had been invited back to Scotland by the leaders of the reformation; and mounting the pulpit at Perth, during the present ferment of men's minds, he declaimed against the idolatry and other abominations of the church of Rome, and incited his audience to exert themselves for its subversion. A tumult immediately succeeded; and, in a short time, a civil war raged through the whole kingdom.

The leaders of the reformers, who had assumed the title of the congregation, solicited succours from Elizabeth; and the wise council of the queen did not long deliberate in agreeing to this request. She equipped a fleet, which consisted of thirteeen ships of war; and she assembled at Berwick an army of eight thousand men, under the command of lord Grey, warden of the east and middle marches. The court of France, sensible of the danger, offered the immediate restitution of Calais, provided she would not interfere in the affairs of Scotland; but she resolutely replied, that she would never put an inconsiderable fishing-town in competition with the safety

of her dominions. Accordingly, she concluded a treaty o mutual defence with the congregation, and receiving from the Scots six hostages for the performance of articles, she ordered her fleet and army to begin their operations.

A. D.

The appearance of the English soon decided the fate of the contest; and a treaty was speedily concluded, in which it was stipulated that the French should im 1560. mediately evacuate Scotland, and that an amnesty should be granted for all past offences. Soon after, the parliament abolished the papal jurisdiction in Scotland, and established the presbyterian form of discipline, though Mary refused to sanction their statutes.

Francis IV. died soon after, and Mary, finding her abode in France disagreeable, began to think of returning to her native country; and she applied to Elizabeth for a safe conduct, in case she should be obliged to pass through England; but she received for answer, that till she had ratified the treaty of Edinburgh, she could expect no favour from a person whom she had so much injured. To this Mary replied with indignation, "With God's permission, I can return to Scotland without her leave ;" and embark. ing at Calais, she passed the English fleet in a fog, and arrived safely at Leith. Though a widow, yet she was only in her nineteenth year; and by her beauty, and the polite. ness of her manners, she was well qualified to gain the affections of her subjects, who rejoiced at her arrival among them. Her first measures were calculated to establish order in a country divided by public factions and private feuds; but there was one circumstance which bereaved Mary of the general favour that her agreeable manners and judicious deportment entitled her to expect. She was still a papist; and this exposed the helpless queen to unmerited contumely, which she bore with benignity and patience. In particular, John Knox, who possessed an uncontrolled authority in the church, and even in the civil affairs of the nation, triumphed in the contumelious abuse of his sovereign, whom he usually denominated Jezebel.

The queen of Scots, destitute of the means of resistance, and pressed by a turbulent nobility and a bigotted people, found that her only expedient for maintaining tranquillity was the preservation of a friendly connexion with Elizabeth. Secretary Lidington was, therefore, sent to Lon