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.

Wright, II. 302, 303; "The declaration of B. Bland, lately arrived from Spain."

2 Ante, p. 109.

CHAPTER IV.

THE PARLIAMENT OF 1586-7.

COMMISSIONERS APPOINTED FOR THE TRIAL OF THE QUEEN OF SCOTS. -- THEIR
SENTENCE. ELIZABETH RECOMMITS THE CASE TO PARLIAMENT. THE
LORD CHANCELLOR'S PETITION IN BEHALF OF THE LORDS, FOR THE EXECU-
TION OF MARY. THE SPEAKER'S PETITION IN BEHALF OF THE COMMONS.
ELIZABETH'S REPLY. HER SPECIAL MESSAGE, THAT THE PARLIAMENT
MIGHT DEVISE OTHER MEANS FOR THE SAFETY OF THE REALM. THEY
REPLY, THAT THEY CAN FIND NO OTHER WAY"; AND ITERATE THEIR
PETITION. HER" ANSWER ANSWERLESS."-PARLIAMENT ADJOURN.. PUB-
LIC REJOICINGS FOR THE PROCEEDINGS AGAINST MARY. THE SINCERITY
OF ELIZABETH CONSIDERED. -THE HONESTY OF THE PARLIAMENT, PARTICU-
LARLY OF THE PURITAN MEMBERS, CONSIDERED. HOSTILE PLANS OF SPAIN
ARE DISCOVERED. A SPECIAL EMBASSY FROM FRANCE. THE AMBASSA-
DOR ORDINARY SCHEMES FOR THE MURDER OF ELIZABETH. HIS PLOT
DISCOVERED. ALARMING RUMORS. ELIZABETH'S PERPLEXITY.
SHE OR-
DERS A WARRANT FOR MARY'S EXECUTION TO BE DRAWN. IT IS SIGNED
DESPATCHED WITHOUT THE QUEEN'S KNOWLEDGE. HER ANGER.
HER BEHAVIOR UPON HEARING OF MARY'S DEATH. THE PRESBYTERIAN
PLATFORM.-PARLIAMENT REASSEMBLE. A BILL OFFERED
A BILL OFFERED IN THE COM-
MONS FOR A NEW BOOK OF DISCIPLINE AND OF COMMON PRAYER. THE
QUEEN DEMANDS IT. -THE BILL AND BOOK READ, UPON A MOTION OF
PETER WENTWORTH. A SPEECH AGAINST THEM. WENTWORTH TAKES
HIS STAND FOR THE LIBERTIES OF THE HOUSE. HIS ARTICLES, OR QUES-
TIONS, THEREUPON. HE IS SENT TO THE TOWER; AND OTHERS ALSO. A
MOTION, AND A COMMITTEE OF CONFERENCE, FOR THEIR RELEASE. — THE
QUEEN PETITIONED IN BEHALF OF THE NEW MODEL" OF DISCIPLINE.
HER ANSWER. — THE BILL OF THE PURITANS CONSIDERED THE ATTEMPT
OF MARGUERITE LAMBRUN TO ASSASSINATE QUEEN ELIZABETH.

AND

THE Queen of Scots had been seriously involved in the late conspiracy. Elizabeth's Council had long been of the opinion that while Mary livedwhose 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.2 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. 2 "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.)

by any other person or persons with the privity of the same Mary, . . .. and thereupon to give sentence or judgment as upon good proof matter shall appear. ,, 1 These Commissioners, or Judges, were noblemen, Privy Councillors, and Judges of the Courts, most of whom arrived at Fotheringay Castle in the County of Northampton whither the Queen of Scots had been removed on the 11th day of October, and on the next day convened. For two days, Mary refused to recognize such a tribunal; but on the 14th of the month, "she yielded to appear before them to her trial." On the 25th, having adjourned to the Starchamber in Westminster, the Court "pronounced and delivered their sentence and judgment,

that Mary had compassed and imagined, within the realm and since the first day of June, divers matters tending to the hurt, death, and destruction of the royal person of our sovereign lady the queen.

1

"3

(Oct. 27th), wrote, "Some of the Commissioners" at Westminster "stood well affected to Mary;

1 Hargrave, I. 146. Camden, 345, 346. Hume III. 143, 144. Lingard, VIII. 232, and note. 2 Murdin, 576. Holingshed, IV. yet, considering the plainness and

941.

3 The reporter of the trial (Hargrave, I. 155) says that, upon their reassembling at Westminster, "all the Commissioners met saving Shrewsbury and Warwick,.... by whom sentence was pronounced against the Queen of Scots, and confirmed with the seals and subscriptions of the Commissioners, and recorded in these words: 'By their joint assent and consent, they do pronounce and declare,'" &c. Again, Walsingham, in a letter to Sir Edward Stafford

evidence of the proofs, every one of them gave their sentence against her," &c. (Wright, II. 320.) Thus to their unanimity we have testimony from two distinct sources.

Now two of the Commissioners the Lord Admiral Howard and the Viscount Montague were Catholics. Montague was present at Fotheringay and at Westminster. Of Howard's presence at either place I find no indication; but this is immaterial if it be true, as Lingard asserts (VIII. 244), that “ the several Commissioners subscribed to

To this they added, on the same day, an important declaration: "That the said sentence did derogate nothing from James, King of Scots, in title or honor; but that he was in the same place, degree, and right, as if the same sentence had never been pronounced." 1

Queen Elizabeth, hoping to avert, or at least to mollify, the odium which must attach to her name, avowed-we are not warranted to say affected great reluctance to proceed to extremities against her kinswoman; and added that, but for her maternal regard for her loving people, she would pardon the royal culprit upon the moment.2 These sentiments she afterwards expressed publicly, as we shall narrate. Professing, therefore, not to be satisfied with the trial and attainder of Mary by the Commissioners as a sufficient warrant for proceeding to her execution, she resolved-and she had resolved it before Mary's trial- to recommit the case, not to a new special Commission, but "to the impartial examination and final judgment of the whole realm." For this purpose, she had in anticipation dissolved the late Parliament on the fourteenth day of September, and assembled a new one on the twenty-ninth day of October, "merely about this business."

4 دو

the verdict, even those who had not attended at Fotheringay." If two Catholics so eminent, or even one, gave sentence under hand and seal that Mary “was not only accessory and privy to the conspiracy, but also imaginer and compasser of her Majesty's destruction," such is the language in Hargrave and in

Wright, it is a fact of no small importance.

1 Hargrave, I. 145, 146, 148, 155. Wright, II. 319, 320; Sir Francis Walsingham to Sir Edward Stafford. 2 Hume, III. 149.

3

Wright, II. 314; Burleigh to Leicester.

4 D'Ewes, 375.