be borne in mind that co-operation with foreign forces aiming at the deliverance and enthronement of Mary must have comprised action for the death of Elizabeth. We see no reason to doubt the statement of Ballard to Mendoza, that there were "noblemen and knights in divers shires" who had sworn to take arms with invading troops from Spain. Nor is it to be supposed that Babington and his associates would have advanced so far in their schemes had they not believed that invasion would have been sustained by a formidable insurrection; for, to the most enthusiastic and rash, it must have been obvious that either movement would have been mad without the conjunction of the other. This conspiracy should not be estimated by itself. There were certain circumstances which gave it peculiar importance. Such had lately been the dearth of religious instruction by the English Church, on the one hand,-so many zealous preachers silenced, so many ignorant, and, in some instances, graceless substitutes installed, and so many cures left vacant, and such religious diligence of the Papists, on the other hand, that they "had gained more in these few years than in many years before"; and in proportion to their proselyting success, and to the increase of their religious zeal, had become inclined, "upon any occasion offered by the show of any outward force, to rebel suddenly." We have Sir Francis Knollys's opinion to the same effect, expressed in two Papers, one of which he laid before the Privy Council when in serious deliberation about 1 Strype's Annals, V. 624, 625; from a Paper entitled "The Dan VOL. III. 16 gerous State of the Realm," and indorsed by Lord Burleigh. the late conspiracy. He maintained that one cause of her Majesty's peril was the absolute authority of the bishops, who condemned, without appeal, preachers who were zealous against the Pope's authority, sound in doctrine, but scrupulous about ceremonies of a papistical complexion, merely because they would not subscribe certain "unlawful articles." He further stated, that the fourteen conspirators were all born under her Majesty's reign, but that, in consequence of the neglect of the prelates to provide competent preaching for the young, when there were competent men willing freely to teach, these youth have fallen into the hands of the diligent Jesuits, who had corrupted their minds and seduced them from their allegiance.1 Again, the protection of Elizabeth's person, upon whom the first blow was to have been struck, was usually only nominal,2 so that she might easily have fallen a prey to a resolute handful of armed men. Yet again, Philip of Spain, having been pressed with the chivalric argument that to abandon the Queen of Scots without a blow for her rescue would redound to his lasting infamy, and having been persuaded by letters out of England that one half the realm was ready for revolt, and that therefore success to his forces was insured, had already mustered 1 Strype's Whitgift, 266, bis; Appendix, Book III. No. XXXIV. p. 116. To the same purpose is another Paper, drawn by Mr. Beal, Clerk of the Council, "Whether to be delivered in this Parliament, whereof he was a member," says Mr. Strype, "or by direction, and for the use, of the Privy Council, it three hundred sail of his navy, and had gathered his veteran soldiers "out of all his holds and forts, both in Spain and Italy."1 Finally, some of his ships had actually put to sea to make the attack upon England in concert with her Majesty's assassination, when their plans were disconcerted by the arrest of the conspirators.2 With all these things in view, it is evident that the conspiracy of Babington was far more formidable to the queen and to the realm than any other movement of her enemies since the day of her accession. We can therefore say with emphasis, — fortunately it was crushed in the very hour of its ripeness. 1 Wright, II. 302, 303; "The declaration of B. Bland, lately arrived from Spain." Ante, p. 109. CHAPTER IV. THE PARLIAMENT OF 1586-7. THE COMMISSIONERS APPOINTED FOR THE TRIAL OF THE QUEEN OF SCOTS.THEIR AND A THE THE Queen of Scots had been seriously involved in the late conspiracy. Elizabeth's Council had long been of the opinion that while Mary lived — whose name, as we have before said, was the fulcrum on which to rest the plots of the religious and political enemies of the commonwealth neither the life of their queen nor the tranquillity of the . realm could be assured.1 This conviction had easily been exalted to certainty by the murderous and revolutionary enterprise which had just been undertaken in Mary's behalf, and with her privity and concurrence. The question was now agitated at the Council-board, What should be done with the royal captive? Some reasoned that, as she was only an accessory to the late plot, and as her failing health indicated but a short life, they should have recourse simply to her more rigorous confinement, rather than to the invidious and ill-omened measure of shedding the blood of an anointed prince. The Earl of Leicester wrote from Holland, advising that she should be despatched by poison. He even sent over a divine to urge upon Walsingham the righteous policy of an operation so safe and silent. The honorable statesman revolted at the proposal, and spurned it. At length it was resolved, for the security of religion and of the realm, that Mary should be put to death; but openly, and after legal conviction under the late "Act for the surety of her Majesty's person and the continuance of the realm in peace." Therefore, and according to the tenor of that act, Queen Elizabeth appointed Commissioners to examine all and singular matters compassed and imagined tending to the hurt of our royal person, as well by Mary, daughter and heir of James V., King of Scots, and commonly called Queen of Scots and Dowager of France, as 1 Ante, Vol. I. 419, 429, and note. "It seems continually forgotten, that in regard to the projects in hand for Mary's deliverance, the removal of Elizabeth was to be a preliminary step." (Nares, III. 305, note.) |