1589. CHAP. but hearing that great preparations were making at the XLII. Groine for the invasion of England, they were induced to go thither, and destroy this new armament of Spain. They broke into the harbour, burned some ships of war, particularly one commanded by Recalde, vice-admiral of Spain; they defeated an army of four or five thousand men, which was assembled to oppose them; they assaulted the Groine, and took the lower town, which they pillaged; and they would have taken the higher, though well fortified, had they not found their ammunition and provisions beginning to fail them. The young Earl of Essex, a nobleman of promising hopes, who, fired with the thirst of military honour, had secretly, unknown to the queen, stolen from England, here joined the adventurers; and it was then agreed by common consent to make sail for Portugal, the main object of their enterprise. The English landed at Paniche, a sea-port town, twelve leagues from Lisbon; and Norris led the army to that capital, while Drake undertook to sail up the river and attack the city with united forces. By this time the court of Spain had gotten leisure to prepare against the invasion. Forces were thrown into Lisbon: the Portuguese were disarmed: all suspected persons were taken into custody and thus, though the inhabitants bore great affection to Don Antonio, none of them durst declare in favour of the invaders. The English army, however, made themselves masters of the suburbs, which abounded with riches of all kinds; but as they desired to conciliate the affections of the Portuguese, and were more intent on honour than profit, they observed a strict discipline, and abstained from all plunder. Meanwhile they found their ammunition and provisions much exhausted; they had not a single cannon to make a breach in the walls; the admiral had not been able to pass some fortresses which guarded the river; there was no appearance of an insurrection in their favour; sickness, from fatigue, hunger, and intemperance in wine and fruits had seized the army; so that it was found necessary to make all possible haste to re-embark. They were not pursued by the enemy; and, finding at the mouth of the river sixty ships laden with naval stores, they seized them as XLII. 1589. lawful prize, though they belonged to the Hanse towns, CHAP. a neutral power. They sailed thence to Vigo, which they took and burned; and, having ravaged the country around, they set sail and arrived in England. About half of these gallant adventurers perished by sickness, famine, fatigue, and the sword; and England reaped more honour than profit from this extraordinary enterprise. It is computed that eleven hundred gentlemen embarked on board the fleet, and that only three hundred and fifty survived those multiplied disasters". When these ships were on their voyage homewards, they met with the Earl of Cumberland, who was outward bound, with a fleet of seven sail, all equipped at his own charge, except one ship of war which the queen had lent him. That nobleman supplied Sir Francis Drake with some provisions; a generosity which saved the lives of many of Drake's men, but for which the others afterwards suffered severely. Cumberland sailed towards the Terceras, and took several prizes from the enemy; but the richest, valued at a hundred thousand pounds, perished in her return, with all her cargo, near St. Michael's Mount, in Cornwall. Many of these adventurers were killed in a rash attempt at the Terceras; a great mortality seized the rest; and it was with difficulty that the few hands which remained were able to steer the ships back into harbour. Scotland. Though the signal advantages gained over the Spa- Affairs of niards, and the spirit thence infused into the English, gave Elizabeth great security during the rest of her reign, she could not forbear keeping an anxious eye on Scotland, whose situation rendered its revolutions always of importance to her. It might have been expected, that this high-spirited princess, who knew so well to brave danger, would not have retained that malignant jealousy towards her heir, with which, during the life-time of Mary, she had been so much agitated. James had indeed succeeded to all the claims of his mother; but he had not succeeded to the favour of the Catholics, which could alone render these claims dangerous'. And as the queen was now well advanced in years, and enjoyed an uncon • Birch's Memoirs, vol. i. p. 61. a Monson, p. 161. p Ibid. vol. i. p. 61. r Winwood, vol. i. p. 41. 1589. CHAP. trolled authority over her subjects, it was not likely that XLII. the King of Scots, who was of an indolent unambitious temper, would ever give her any disturbance in her possession of the throne. Yet all these circumstances could not remove her timorous suspicions; and so far from satisfying the nation by a settlement of the succession, or a declaration of James's title, she was as anxious to prevent every incident which might anywise raise his credit, or procure him the regard of the English, as if he had been her immediate rival and competitor. Most of his ministers and favourites were her pensioners; and as she was desirous to hinder him from marrying and having chil dren, she obliged them to throw obstacles in the way of every alliance, even the most reasonable, which could be offered him; and during some years she succeeded in this malignant policy. He had fixed on the elder daughter of the King of Denmark, who, being a remote prince and not powerful, could give her no umbrage; yet did she so artfully cross this negotiation, that the Danish monarch, impatient of delay, married his daughter to the Duke of Brunswick. James then renewed his suit to the younger princess; and still found obstacles from the intrigues of Elizabeth, who, merely with a view of interposing delay, proposed to him the sister of the King of Navarre, a princess much older than himself, and entirely destitute of fortune. The young king, besides the desire of securing himself, by the prospect of issue, from those traitorous attempts too frequent among his subjects, had been so watched by the rigid austerity of the ecclesiastics, that he had another inducement to marry, which is not so usual with monarchs. His impatience therefore broke through all the politics of Elizabeth: the articles of marriage were settled: the ceremony was performed by proxy, and the princess embarked for Scotland, but was driven by a storm into a port of Norway. This tempest, and some others which happened near the same time, were universally believed in Scotland and Denmark to have proceeded from a combination of the Scottish and Danish witches; and the dying confession of the criminals was supposed to put the accusation beyond all controversy. James, however, though a great believer in Melvil, p. 166. 177. t Ibid. p. 180. sorcery, was not deterred by this incident from taking a CHAP. voyage in order to conduct his bride home: he arrived. XLII. in Norway; carried the queen thence to Copenhagen; 1589. and, having passed the winter in that city, he brought her next spring to Scotland, where they were joyfully received by the people. The clergy alone, who never neglected an opportunity of vexing their prince, made opposition to the queen's coronation, on account of the ceremony of anointing her, which they alleged was either a Jewish or a popish rite, and therefore utterly antichristian and unlawful. But James was as much bent on the ceremony as they were averse to it; and after much controversy and many intrigues, his authority, which had not often happened, at last prevailed over their opposition". u Spotswood, p. 381. СНАР. XLIII. CHAPTER XLIII. FRENCH AFFAIRS.-MURDER OF THE DUKE of Guise.—Murder of HENRY AFTER a state of great anxiety and many difficulties, Elizabeth had at length reached a situation where, 1590. though her affairs still required attention, and found employment for her active spirit, she was removed from all danger of any immediate revolution, and might regard the efforts of her enemies with some degree of confidence and security. Her successful and prudent administration had gained her, together with the admiration of foreigners, the affections of her own subjects; and, after the death of the Queen of Scots, even the Catholics, however discontented, pretended not to dispute her title, or adhere to any other person as her competitor. James, curbed by his factious nobility and ecclesiastics, possessed at home very little authority; and was solicitous to remain on good terms with Elizabeth and the English nation, in hopes that time, aided by his patient tranquillity, would secure him that rich succession to which his birth entitled him. The Hollanders, though overmatched in their contest with Spain, still made an obstinate resistance; and such was their unconquerable antipathy to their old masters, and such the prudent conduct of young Maurice, their governor, that the subduing of that small territory, if at all possible, must be the work of years, and the result of many and great successes. Philip, who, in his powerful effort against England, had been transported by resentment and ambition beyond his usual cautious maxims, was now disabled, and still more discouraged, from adventuring again on such hazardous enterprises. The situa tion also of affairs in France began chiefly to employ his attention; but notwithstanding all his artifice, and force, and expense, the events in that kingdom proved |