and disgrace.

lishing himself as in some sort independent Governor of Ireland. Tyrone demanded that half the army should consist of Irishmen, that the judges and chief officials should be Irish, that his lands and those of Desmond should be restored, and added the suspicious clause that some great Earl should be sent over to represent the Crown. The whole course of Essex's conduct was such as to draw down upon him a reprimand from the English Council which his hasty temper could ill brook. It is possible that he designed to use his Irish army against his enemies in the Council, but he first determined to make a final trial of that personal influence His hasty return over the Queen which had so often served him. He hurried across the Channel, and hastened to the Queen's presence, using all the freedom of a favoured lover. All soiled as he was from his long journey, he burst into her room before she was dressed, for her hair was hanging loose about her, and throwing himself upon his knees and kissing her dress, sought to revive her old affection for him. For the moment he was successful. But that wiser and more queenly part of her, which was so frequently opposed to her inclination, rapidly awoke, and no sooner had he left her presence than her anger rose, and she never saw him again. He was finally, after some questioning, committed to free custody, but his temper could not bear even this moderate restraint. Believing that his disgrace was the work of his private enemies, he was hurried into a violent course of action. He sought partisans among the disaffected of all parties. The penal laws at that time pressed heavily upon the Catholics. An affectation of religion gathered round him the Puritans, and to these he added some of the more violent Catholics, ready to make common cause with any who would oppose the Government. Among the number were some who played a part afterwards in the Gunpowder treason; Tresham, Catesby, and Mounteagle were among his followers. His house was filled with armed men, and the Council at length determined to take action against him. The Lord Chancellor, the Lord Chief-Justice, and other members of the Council, went to his house to inquire into the cause of the assembly. Essex, who seems to have believed that the critical moment had arrived, and that he must either strike at once or be destroyed, led them into an inner chamber and locked them in, and then, with the Earl of Southampton, rode through the streets with swords drawn, attempting to raise the populace. He had expected that a crowd, and many of his own partisans, would have been gathered at Paul's Cross, hearing a sermon. Measures had been

His treason. 1601.

1601]

ELIZABETH'S LAST PARLIAMENT

579

taken to prevent the meeting. The attempt to rouse the city was a complete failure. No man stirred on his behalf, and before many hours were over the Council thought it safe to order his apprehension, and set a price upon his head. He was tried by the Trial and death. Peers, on the whole fairly, though the trial was not Feb. 1601. without those marks of tyranny which characterize the State trials of the period. He was found guilty and beheaded. Essex asserted to the end that he was free from treason to the Queen, and desirous only to save his own life, threatened by the intrigues of Raleigh and Cobham. That he was technically guilty of treason is obvious. On all grounds, it seems probable that he was aiming at playing a part resembling that of the Duke of Guise in France. Against the Queen's person it may well be believed he had no designs, but a complete and violent change of the Government was almost certainly his object. Lord Mountjoy succeeded him in his Irish command. The Spaniards who had been expected Irish affairs. arrived, in number about 4000, at Kinsale. Tyrone joined them with 6000 Irish. The united army was defeated, and Tyrone yielded on condition that his life and land should be spared.

Sequel of

Nov. 1602.

1601.

The end of Elizabeth's reign is marked by one other characteristic event. Among the unwise exertions of her power of which the Queen had been guilty was the grant of numerous monopolies. The effect of these was to raise the price of the monopolized articles, to the great detriment of her people. The Queen's last Queen's last Parliament, which assembled in October 1601, com- Parliament. plained of this exercise of the prerogative, and an Act was introduced by Lawrence Hyde against them. While the Bill was still pending, a message was brought from the Queen, in which she declared, that as she understood that patents she had granted were grievous to her people, they should be looked to immediately, and none be put into execution but such as should first have a trial according to the law, for the good of the people. This declaration was received with enthusiasm, and a large deputation from the Commons waited to return thanks. She answered them with words full of kindness and dignity, declaring that "she appealed to the judgment of God, but never withdrawal thought was cherished in her heart that tended not to her people's good." She closed her address, the last she ever uttered to the Commons, with these words: "Though you have had, and may have, many Princes more mighty and wise sitting in this seat, yet you

PER. MON.

Her wise

of monopolies,

never had, or shall have, any that will be more careful and loving." It was this real sympathy which existed between the Queen and her people, this real desire to reign for their good, and this readiness to acknowledge and retract her errors, when once they were made plain to her, which has covered the multitude of her whimsical oddities and arbitrary exertions of authority, and fixed the love of her so deeply in the heart of the nation, that her reign has ever been looked back to as the most glorious era of England's history.

THE

Chancellors.

Lord Ellesmere, 1596.

Lord Bacon, 1617.

John Williams, 1621.

Change in the

royalty.

HE period which has now been reached is one of marked change. No one can compare the position of Elizabeth with that of one of the earlier Kings of the Hanoverian house, without being struck with the complete alteration that had taken place in the position of royalty. Two classes of men had exercised position of influence during the reign of the Queen; on the one hand her counsellors, such as Burghley and Walsingham, whose claim to her trust was their fidelity and wisdom, on the other hand the courtiers, such as Essex and Raleigh, whose influence rested upon the personal attachment which the Queen felt for them. But both courtiers and counsellors had found it necessary constantly to earn the Queen's approval; the wisest among them could only get his views put into action by dressing them in a shape which would be

agreeable to the Queen. In fact, in all externals she was absolute, and is the central figure of her own reign. With the Hanoverian Kings the very reverse is the case, the position of King and Minister appears to be inverted; it was the King who now found it difficult to get his wishes put into execution, and could only do so by rendering them acceptable to his aristocratic masters.

Two causes for it.

This change in the condition of the monarchy is the main feature of the time, and was the fruit of two great convulsions, the one popular, and the other aristocratic. The first, as is usual in exhibitions of popular force, rested upon enthusiasm and violence, at once the fruit and parent of rich and pregnant ideas. It was, in its character, destructive. For enthusiasm is in its nature evanescent, and want of material force, of education, and of political practice preclude a popular party from founding institutions and putting the stamp of permanence on their work. The other was aristocratic, and marked by the constructive wisdom which is the characteristic of aristocratic movements. For aristocracies, not fertile in new ideas, are well capable of appropriating and rendering permanent the ideas of others. On many occasions, in English history, the aristocracy has shown itself willing to take the lead in patriotic movements. Indeed, the strength of English liberty depends on the union of classes which has produced it. But in this instance, as in all others, the aristocracy has sought its own ends in its patriotic action. When those ends had been attained it settled back into its natural exclusive conservatism, and became an obstacle at once in the way of the ruler who desired to govern and the people who desired to be free. The interest of the period is centred in tracing the causes and history of these two great convulsions.

The original

idea of a King,

But there is something more than the facts to be observed. For political changes are not the products of fortuitous circumstance, but depend upon the growth of ideas. Many causes had led to a complete change in the idea of royalty. The original royal relation of clan or tribal chief had disappeared before the advance of feudalism. The two most prominent ideas of feudalism were the double ownership of land, and the dependence of authority both judicial and executive on the possession of land. In accordance with the first of these, every man knew that, while absolute master as proprietor of the land.

of his own property as regards those below him, there was some one above him to whom the land belonged also. Working backwards from the base towards the summit, any one examining this theory would arrive at length at the King, and naturally putting him in the same position with regard to his subjects as that