CHAP. with that monarch was unavoidable, refolved not to leave XLII. him unmolested on that quarter. The great fuccefs of the Spaniards and Portugueze in both Indies had excited 1585. a spirit of emulation in England; and as the progress of commerce, still more that of colonies, is flow and gradual, it was happy, that a war, in this critical period, had opened a more flattering profpect to the avarice and ambition of the English, and had tempted them, by the view of fudden and exorbitant profit, to engage in naval enterprizes. A fleet of twenty fail was equipped to attack the Spaniards in the West Indies: Two thousand three hundred volunteers, befides feamen, engaged on board of it: Sir Francis Drake was appointed admiral; Chrifto1586. pher Carlisle commander of the land forces. They took January. St. Jago, near Cape Verde, by furprize; and found in it plenty of provifions, but no riches. They failed to Hifpaniola; and easily making themselves mafters of St. Domingo by affault, obliged the inhabitants to ransom their houfes by a fum of money. Carthagena fell next into their hands after some more refiftance, and was treated in the fame manner. They burned St. Anthony and St. Helen's, two towns on the coaft of Florida. Sailing along the coaft of Virginia, they found the small remains of a colony, which had been planted there by Sir Walter Raleigh, and which had gone extremely to decay. This was the first attempt of the English to form fuch fettlements; and though they have fince furpaffed all European nations, both in the fituation of their colonies, and in the noble principles of liberty and industry, on which they are founded; they had here been fo unfuccessful, that the miserable planters abandoned their fettlements, and prevailed on Drake to carry them with him to England. He returned with fo much riches as encouraged the volunteers, and with fuch accounts of the Spanish weakness in those countries as ferved extremely to enflame the fpirits of the nation to future enterprizes. The great mortality which the climate had produced in his fleet, was, as is ufual, but a feeble restraint on the avidity and fanguine hopes of young adventurers T. It is thought that Drake's fleet first introduced the use of tobacco into England, T Camden, p. 509. THE XLII. 1586% THE enterprizes of Leicester were much lefs fuccefsful' CHA P. than those of Drake. This man poffeffed neither courage nor capacity, equal to the trufts repofed in him by the queen; and as he was the only bad choice fhe made for any confiderable employment, men naturally believed, that he had here been influenced by an affection still more partial than that of friendship. He gained at first some advantage in an action against the Spaniards; and threw fuccours into Grave, by which that place was enabled to make a vigorous defence: But the cowardice of the governor, Van Hermert, rendered all these efforts useless. He capitulated after a feeble refiftance; and being tried for his conduct, fuffered a capital punishment from the fentence of a court martial. The prince of Parma next undertook the fiege of Venlo, which was furrendered to him, after fome refiftance. The fate of Nuys was more difmal; being taken by affault, while the garrifon was treating of a capitulation. Rhimberg, which was garrifoned by twelve hundred English, under the command of colonel Morgan, was afterwards befieged by the Spaniards; and Leicester, thinking himself too weak to attempt raising the fiege, endeavoured to draw off the prince of Parma by forming another enterprize. He first attacked the Doefberg, and fucceeded: He then fat down before Zutphen, which the Spanish general thought fo important a fortrefs, that he haftened to its relief. He made the marquis of Guafto advance with a convoy, which he intended to throw into the place. They were favoured by a fog; but falling by chance on a body of English cavalry, a furious action enfued, in which the Spaniards were worsted, and the marquis of Gonzaga, an Italian nobleman of great reputation and family, was flain. The purfuit was stopped by the advance of the prince of Parma with the main body of the Spanish army; and the English cavalry, on their return from the field, found their advantage more than compenfated by the lofs of Sir Philip Sidney, who, being mortally wounded in the action, was carried off by the foldiers, and foon after died. This perfon is defcribed by the writers of that age as the moft perfect model of an accomplished gentleman, that could be formed even by the wanton imagination of poetry or fiction. Virtuous conduct, polite conversation, heroic valour, and elegant erudition, all concurred to render him the ornament and delight of the CHAP. the English court; and as the credit, which he poffeffed XLII. with the queen and the earl of Leicester, was wholly em ployed in the encouragement of genius and literature, his 1586. praifes have been tranfmitted with advantage to pofterity.. No person was fo low as not to become an object of his humanity. After this laft action, while he was lying on the field, mangled with wounds, a bottle of water was brought him to relieve his thirft; but obferving a foldier near him in a like miferable condition, he said, This man's neceffity is fill greater than mine: And refigned to him the bottle of water. The king of Scots, ftruck with admiration of Sidney's virtue, celebrated his memory by a copy of latin verses, which he compofed on the death of that young hero. THE English, though a long peace had deprived them of all experience, were ftrongly poffeffed of military genius; and the advantages, gained by the prince of Parma, were not attributed to the fuperior bravery and difcipline of the Spaniards, but folely to the mifconduct of Leicester, The ftates were much difcontented with his mifmanagement of the war; ftill more with his arbitrary and imperious conduct; and at the end of the campaign, they applied to him for a redress of all their grievances. But Leicester, without giving them any fatisfaction, departed foon after for England". THE queen, while the provoked fo powerful an enemy as the king of Spain, was not forgetful to fecure herself on the fide of Scotland; and the endeavoured both to cultivate the friendship and alliance of her kinsman, James, and to remove all grounds of quarrel between them. An attempt, which the had made fome time before, was not well calculated to gain the confidence of that prince. She difpatched Wotton as her ambaffador to Scotland: but though he gave him private inftructions with regard to her affairs, the informed James, that, when he had any political business to difcufs with him, fhe would employ another minifter; that this man was not fitted for ferious negotiations; and that her chief purpose in fending him, was to entertain the king with witty and facetious converfation, and to partake without referve of his pleasures and amufements. Wotton was mafter of profound diffimulation, and knew how to cover, under the appearance U Camden, p. 512. Bentivoglio, part 2. lib. 4. XLII. appearance of a careless gaiety, the deepest designs, and CHA P. most dangerous artifices. When but a youth of twenty, he had been employed by his uncle, Dr. Wotton, ambaffador in France during the reign of Mary, to enfnare the 1586. conftable, Montmorency; and had not his purpose been frustrated by pure accident, his cunning had prevailed over all the caution and experience of that aged minifter. It is no wonder that, after years had fo much improved him in all the arts of deceit, he fhould gain an ascendant over a young prince, of fo open and unguarded a temper as James; especially when the queen's recommendation prepared the way for his reception. He was admitted into all the pleasures of the king; made himself master of his fecrets; and had fo much the more authority with him in political transactions, as he did not feem to pay the leaft attention or regard to these matters. The Scotch minifters, who obferved the growing intereft of this man, endeavoured to acquire his friendship; and fcrupled not to facrifice to his intrigues the most effential interests of their mafter. Elizabeth's ufual jealoufies, with regard to her heirs, began now to be levelled against James; and as that prince had attained the years proper for marriage, fhe was apprehenfive, left, by being ftrengthened with children and alliances, he fhould acquire the greater intereft and authority with her English fubjects. She directed Wotton to form a secret concert with fome Scottish noblemen, and to procure their promife, that James, during three years, fhould not, on any account, be permitted to marry. In confequence of this view, they endeavoured to embroil him with the king of Denmark, who had fent ambaffadors to Scotland, on pretence of demanding reftitution of the Orkneys, but really with a view of opening a propofal of marriage between James and his daughter. Wotton is faid to have employed his intrigues to purposes ftill more dangerous. He formed, it is pretended, a confpiracy with fome malcontents, to seize the person of the king, and to deliver him into the hands of Elizabeth, who would probably have denied all concurrence in the defign, but would have been fure to retain him in perpetual thraldom, if not captivity. The confpiracy was detected, and Wotton fled haftily from Scotland, without taking leave of the king. VOL. V. * Melvil. JAMES'S CHAP. JAMES's fituation obliged him to diffemble his resentXLII. ment of this traiterous attempt, and his natural temper inclined him foon to forgive and forget it. The queen 1586. found no difficulty in renewing the negotiations for a strict alliance between Scotland and England; and the more effectually to gain the prince's friendship, the granted him a penfion, equivalent to his claim on the inheritance of his grandmother, the countess of Lenox, lately deceased Y. A league was formed between Elizabeth and James, for the mutual defence of their dominions, and of their religion, now menaced by the open combination of all the catholic powers of Europe. It was ftipulated, that if Elizabeth was invaded, James fhould aid her with a body of two thousand horfe and five thousand foot; that Elizabeth, in a like cafe, fhould send to his affistance three thousand horse and fix thousand foot; that the charge of these armies should be defrayed by the prince who demanded affistance; that, if the invafion fhould be made upon England, within fixty miles of the frontiers of Scotland, this latter kingdom fhould march its whole force to the affiftance of the former; and that the present league fhould fuperfede all former alliances of either ftate with any foreign kingdom, fo far as religion was concerned z. BY this league James fecured himself againft all attempts from abroad, opened a way for acquiring the confidence and affectious of the English, and might entertain some profpect of domeftic tranquillity, which, while he lived on bad terms with Elizabeth, he could never expect longto enjoy. Befides, the turbulent difpofition, and inveterate feuds of the nobility, ancient maladies of the Scottish government, the spirit of fanaticism had introduced a new diforder; fo much the more dangerous, as religion, when: corrupted by falfe opinion, is not reftrained by any rules of morality, and is even fcarcely to be accounted for inits operations, by any principles of ordinary conduct and policy. The infolence of the preachers, who triumphed in their dominion over the populace, had, at this time, reached an extreme height; and they carried their arrogance fo far, not only against the king, but against thewhole civil power, that they excommunicated the archbishop of St. Andrew's, because he had been active in parliament for promoting a law, which reftrained their feditious |