CHAP. VI.

here; and although it rests on doubtful evidence, it must not be lightly rejected.*

Prospects of the accession

of James Scotland.

of

Cecil in secret correspon

James.

85. The Queen's last years. The time, so long dreaded by the Queen, had at length arrived, when, to use her own expression, men would turn their backs on the setting, to worship the rising sun. In vain she affected the vigour and gaiety of youth; in vain she persisted in making her annual progress; and in vain she rode out daily to view the labours of the chase. No art could conceal her age and infirmities from her subjects; she only fatigued her decrepit frame by persisting in the exercises which belong to strength and youthful blood; the consequences of her approaching demise became the general topic of conversation at court; and every man who dared to give an opinion was careful to name as her successor the King of Scots. Great apprehensions, however, were excited by the mysterious silence of Cecil. That wily minister had held a secret interview with the Earl of Mar and the Scottish emissaries whom James had sent to consult with the Earl of Essex, and had pledged himself to support the claims of the Scottish King. But the compact was to be kept secret; Cecil was to continue dence with to act as if the accession of James were no concern of his, and James, as if he still considered Cecil his enemy; and their correspondence passed through Lord Henry Howard, who had been Essex's medium with the King of Scots. Elizabeth herself was not at all indifferent about this matter of the succession; and the extraordinary affair, called the Gowrie Conspiracy, which happened only a few months before the rebellion of Essex, is considered by many to have been encouraged by her, that she might obtain possession of James, and so control the course of events even after her death. Lord Cobham and Sir Walter Raleigh also sought to assure James of their attachment, and, if possible, supplant Cecil; and, at the same time, the Roman Catholic exiles abroad warmly agitated the question of the succession:- the Jesuitical party advocating the claims of Lady Arabella Stuart, whom they proposed to marry to the Cardinal Farnese, a descendant of John of Ghent; and the Moderate party, under Paget, supporting the cause of James, upon whom they considered the rights of Mary had devolved. In the midst of these intrigues and dissensions, the last scene of Elizabeth's long and eventful life gradually approached. That life, the Elizabeth's splendour of whose course had surprised the nations of last

* Strickland's Lives, IV., 747.748. + Lingard, VIII., 385.

illness.

1603

The

Europe, was destined to close in gloom and sorrow. profound melancholy which seized her has been attributed by historians to many causes: her bodily infirmities; her remorse for the precipitous execution of Essex; the disclosures which his confession made concerning the intrigues of her ministers with the King of Scots; the pardon which she had been obliged to grant to Tyrone. Whatever was the cause of her illness, it is certain that she became pensive and taciturn after the execution of Essex; and her gloom, and the imaginary terrors with which she was afflicted, were increased by the solitude of her court, the opposition of the Commons to her prerogative, and the silence with which the citizens received her when she appeared in public. Sir John Harrington, her godson, who visited her about seven months after the death of Essex, found her reduced almost to a skeleton; she ate nothing but manchet bread and succory pottage; she had not changed her dress for days; she tormented all who came near her, and kept a sword beside her for her protection. A year afterwards he found her in as pitiable a state. Notwithstanding these ills, she persisted in riding and hunting, regardless of the inclemencies of the weather; and, on the last day in January, 1603, she removed from Whitehall to Richmond, being forewarned by Dee, the astrologer, who always retained a mysterious influence over her mind, to beware of Whitehall. The day was wet and stormy, and her indisposition increased; but she obstinately refused the advice of physicians. Her appetite left her; her spirits fell lower; she spent her days and nights in tears. If she spoke, it was always upon some unpleasant subject. In March she rapidly became worse, and was seized with fits of stupor; her imagination conjured up frightful phantoms; she obstinately refused to lie on her bed, and sat both day and night on a stool bolstered up with cushions, having her finger in her mouth, and her eyes fixed on the floor, seldom condescending to speak, and rejecting every offer of nourishment.* Only from the lord admiral, because he was of her own blood, would she accept any service, but every one else she treated with contempt. On the last night of her life, the lords who were present, anxious about the succession, mentioned to her the King of France and the King of Scotland. She neither spoke nor stirred. They then mentioned Lord Beauchamp. At the sound of this name her spirit was roused, and she hastily replied, "I will have no rascal's son in my seat." These were the last words she uttered; she relapsed into a state

* Strickland's Life; Lingard VIII, 396.

Her death.

CHAP. VII.

of insensibility, and, at three the next morning (March 24th, 1603), it was discovered that she was dead. *

CHAPTER VII. CONSTITUTION AND POLITICS.

SECTION I.-THE MONARCHY.

1. Limitations upon the Royal Authority at the Accession of the Tudors. The government of the Tudors was in practice not a little arbitrary, yet in theory, the monarchy was limited; the essential checks upon the royal authority, according to the constitution, being these five :

1. The King could levy no sort of new tax upon his people, except by the grant of his parliament.

2. The previous assent and authority of this parliament was necessary for every new law.

3. No man could be imprisoned except by a legal warrant specifying his offence; and he must be tried speedily, at the regular sessions of gaol delivery.

4. The guilt or innocence of a criminal was to be determined in open court, and in the county where the offence was alleged to have occurred, by a jury of twelve men, from whose unanimous verdict no appeal could be made. Civil rights, so far as they depended on questions of fact, were subject to the same decision.

5. Officers of the crown violating the personal liberty, or other right of the subject, could be sued for damages, to be assessed by a jury; and no royal warrant or King's order, could be pleaded in justification.+

These limits were, however, frequently transgressed; the first by the exaction of loans and benevolences; the second by royal proclamations having the force of law; and the other three by the coercion which the crown exercised over the courts of justice. But the general privileges of the nation, protected by the first two, were less invaded than those of individual subjects defended by the others. The first limit was completely established. No sovereign,

* Strickland's Lives, VII., 296. + Hallam's Const. Hist., I.. 2-3.

1485-1603

for nearly a hundred years, had imposed taxes without consent of parliament; and the recent device of demanding benevolences was, in effect, a recognition of the general principle which it sought to elude, rather than transgress. The same may be said of the second limit; indeed we know not of any laws that were ever enacted by our kings without the advice and consent of parliament; and this principle was observed by the Tudors: for, although they issued proclamations and orders in council, these never dictated any change in the constitution, whether in the code of private rights, or in the penalties of criminal offences.*

of

2. State of the Law at the Accession of the Tudors. The three courts at Westminster-the King's Bench, Common Pleas, and Exchequer consisting each of four or five judges, The great administered justice to the whole kingdom; the first courts, and having an appellant jurisdiction over the second, and the assize. third being, in a great measure, confined to causes affecting the crown's property. But as all suits relating to land, as well as most others, and all criminal indictments, could only be determined by a jury of the county, it was necessary that justices of assize and gaol delivery being in general the judges of the courts at Westminster, should travel into each county, commonly twice a year, in order to try issues of fact, so called in distinction from issues of law, where the suitors, admitting all essential facts, disputed the rule applicable to them. By this device, the fundamental privilege of trial by jury, and the convenience of private suitors, as well as accused persons, were made consistent with an uniform jurisprudence; and the different parts of England were knit together in one common bond of government and law. The minor tribunals of each county, hundred, and manor, had in a great measure Local gone into disuse, though not so much as in modern times; but in a few counties there still remained a palatine jurisdiction, exclusive of the King's courts, though the common rules of law, and trial by jury, were preserved in them. Quarter sessions were held, according to the same forms as the assizes and gaol delivery, by the justices of the peace, who were appointed out of the gentlemen of each county to inquire into criminal charges, and commit offenders to prison; the chartered towns had their separate jurisdiction under the municipal magistracy. †

courts.

3. Causes of the high prerogative of the Tudors. With such plainly marked limitations upon the power of the crown, and courts of justice whose jurisdiction and authority were so exactly

CHAP. VII.

defined, it becomes a very natural inquiry, how a government so arbitrary and violent in itself, and so plainly inconsistent with the acknowledged law, could be maintained. There was evidently a retrograde tendency towards absolute monarchy, between the reigns of Henry VI. and Henry VIII. This was not owing to the common engine of despotism, a military force; for except the yeomen of the guard, fifty in number, and the common servants of the King's household, there was not, in time of peace, an armed man receiving pay throughout England. A government that ruled by intimidation, was absolutely destitute of force to intimidate. Again it was not owing to the servility of the people, as the numerous rebellions testify. The Tudors might safely be tyrants within the precinct of the court; but it was necessary for them to watch with constant anxiety the temper of the country. Henry VIII. encountered no opposition when he sent his victims to the scaffold; but when he demanded a contribution from his subjects, without the consent of parliament, he soon found it necessary to retract; and in the Suffolk rebellion, he not only cancelled his illegal commissions; he not only granted a general pardon to all the malcontents; but he publicly and solemnly apologised for his infraction of the laws.*

The causes, then, of the high prerogative exercised by the Tudors were:

1. The selfish subserviency of the nobility. The Wars of the Roses had destroyed so many of them, either by the sword, or by attainder and execution, that the remnant was thoroughly subdued. There was, besides, a new nobility; the Cromwells, the Riches, the Pagets, the Russells, and the Powletts, who owed their elevation and position to the reigning family, and who, to retain their estates and honours, adhered servilely to the present power; supporting all the religions of Henry, Edward, Mary, and Elizabeth; adjudging the death of Somerset to gratify Northumberland, and of Northumberland, to redeem their participation in his fault; setting up the usurpation of Lady Jane Grey, and abandoning her on the first doubt of success. †

2. The subserviency of the Parliament. This cause sprung from the previous one, and was similar in its operation. Thus the 31 Henry VIII. declared, that the King's proclamations had the force of law, by which he was empowered to exact benevolences. Another act authorised Henry to bequeath the crown to whomsoever he chose. Under Elizabeth, again, great restrictions were laid upon the press; no book could be published without licence; nor any one become a printer without entering his name at the Stationers' Hall.

3. The jealousy of the two religious parties, both of which, during Henry VIII.'s reign, contended for the royal favour. This cause more than any other, sustained the arbitrary power of Henry; and the dissolution of the monasteries only made the nobles still more slavish, each courtier struggling to gain favour

* Macaulay, I., 41-42; Ante, chap, II., paragraph 22.

↑ Hallam's Const. Hist., I., 47.