REIGNED FROM A.D. 1553 TO A.D. 1558.

ANE GREY, Northumberland proclaims,

JANE

But MARY1 soon her birth-right gains ;
She marries PHILIP, Prince of Spain,
And marks with blood her cruel reign!
A party ventur'd to rebel,

But Wyatt, their bold leader, fell.
Jane Grey and Dudley next expire,2
While sacred victims 3 feed her fire.
Till stung by PHILIP's proud disdain,
Disease and grief conclude her reign.*

'Mary, the daughter of Henry the Eighth, by Catherine of Arragon.

2

Lady Jane Grey and her husband were beheaded on Towerhill, within one hour of each other.

3 She released the popish bishops, Gardiner and Bonner, from the Tower, while Cranmer and Hooper, Ridley and Latimer, with scores of other victims, were burned in Smithfield and other places.

Queen Mary died in the forty-third year of her age, and sixth of her reign.

REIGNED FROM A.D. 1558 TO A.D. 1603.

LIZABETH,1 in Mary's room,

ELIZAB

Succeeds, and soon dispels the gloom
Of bigot rage; reforms the State,
While Scotland boils with civil heat;
Mary, their Queen, to England fled,
Was long confin'd, and lost her head.2
The great Armada sent by Spain,
Was vanquish'd in this glorious reign.
The Queen's regard on Essex shone,
He slights her favour, threats the throne,
Till on the scaffold3 doom'd to smart,

His hasty sentence broke her heart.*

1 Sister to the late Queen.

2 Mary Queen of Scots was confined eighteen years in Fotheringay Castle, and there beheaded, in February, 1587, by order of Elizabeth.

3 Essex had received a ring from the Queen as a pledge of her favour, which he sent her by the Countess of Nottingham, who never delivered it to Elizabeth; thinking him obstinate, she suffered him to be executed.

+ Queen Elizabeth died at the age of seventy, having reigned forty-five years.

REIGNED FROM A.D. 1603 TO A.D. 1625.

HE Scottish King1 to England's throne

THE

Succeeding, claims it as his own.

But soon conspiracies appear,

Exciting jealousy and fear;

2

And Guy Fawkes, with his powder train,
In memory will long remain.

Prince Charles in Spain first seeks a wife,
But Henrietta 3 takes for life.

Great Raleigh's on the scaffold slain,*
Victim of Court intrigues with Spain.

The Commons wound the monarch's pride.
He of a tertian ague died.5

1 James the Sixth of Scotland, son of the unfortunate Mary, united the two Crowns, as James the First of England.

2 This was a conspiracy to blow up the Houses of Parliament while the King was present.

3 A French princess.

Lords Grey and Cobham and Sir Walter Raleigh had been accused of conspiracy; the two former were pardoned, but Raleigh, after long imprisonment, was executed to please the King of Spain.

5 In the twenty-second year of his reign.