Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

A. D.

own country, being roused by the cruelty of the Spanish government under Alva,- a great but merciless man, who in his last illness accounted those actions which have entailed an everlasting reproach on his name among his good works! He had used his influence in Spain to restrain* the violence with which the English in that country were persecuted on the score of their religion, either because that persecution was urged by a rival statesman, or because he deemed it politic at that time to keep up a friendly understanding with England, certainly not from any principle of toleration or feeling of compas

sion.

But when governor of the Netherlands he clearly saw that in England lay the strength of that protestant cause, for the extirpation of which he was exerting all the energies of his strong head and obdurate heart. No 1568. direct or open offence had as yet been offered by either party, when some French privateers whom the prince of Condé had equipped, but who infested the seas as pirates, fell in with five Spanish vessels which with difficulty escaped, some getting into Falmouth, the others into Plymouth and the Southampton river. The French also put into an English port, waiting to renew the pursuit, whenever the Spaniards should depart from their asylum.

The Spanish ambassador, being apprised of this, applied to the queen: he informed her that there was money on board, for the payment of the king's troops in the Low Countries, and requested that she would protect it in her harbours, and grant it a safe convoy to Antwerp; or if advisable, let it be carried through the country to a port where it might be safely re-embarked. This the queen granted, and promised security both by sea and land. Even in harbour the freebooters would have mastered one of these ships, if they had not been beaten off by the English: and after this danger, the money was landed. No sooner had this been done than the Spanish resident began to fear that it was trusted to dangerous hands, and he imparted his suspicions to Alva.

* Camden, 61.

DETENTION OF MONEY.

287

Meantime cardinal Chastillon, who was then in England, assured the queen that the money was not in fact the king of Spain's, but belonged to certain Genoese, from whom Alva intended to take it as a loan, against their will. The matter was then laid before the council, and it was debated whether this money, which was to be employed for the destruction of the protestants in the Low Countries, should not be borrowed by the queen, security being given; a practice then usual among princes, and to which Philip himself had sometimes resorted; and upon this the queen resolved, though most of her advisers were of a different opinion, and feared to exasperate a powerful king, who was already sufficiently incensed against the English. This resolution was communicated to the Spanish ambassador, with a solemn engagement to restore the money, if it should be proved to belong not to the merchants but to the king of Spain. Alva, on the very day that this communication was made to the resident, upon the first suspicion seized the goods of all the English in the Netherlands, and arrested the owners. He thought to intimidate a government, the strength of which had not been tried, and the foundations of which he was then working to undermine. But the courageous queen immediately made reprisals upon the ships and property belonging to the Netherlanders. *

Ships were now sent out to cruise against the English, not only from the Netherlands, but from the ports of Spain, where the English merchants and mariners were arrested by the inquisition, and condemned to the galleys, and their goods confiscated. When this was known in England, privateers were fitted out with the utmost activity; but they acted with such indiscriminating rapacity, that it became necessary to issue proclamations forbidding all men from purchasing any merchandise from sea rovers. Meantime Alva was prosecuting what

* Camden, 120. Pieter Bor, Oorsprongk, &c. der Nederlandsche Oorlo. gen, i. 272.

The property embargoed here is said to have far exceeded in value what was seized in the Netherlands, though Pieter Bor states the yearly value of our exports to those countries at more than twelve million crowns of

he hoped would prove a far more effectual plan of operations against Elizabeth, and in her person against the protestant religion, whereof she was the chief earthly support. The hostile disposition of Philip towards England was such, that he had reprimanded this minister not long before for having written as if he were well inclined towards what the king called that "lost and undone kingdom*;" for the inquisition had now obtained as much influence over the councils of that monarch, prudent as he was deemed, as over his conscience. The language of the popes was, that for the diseases which then afflicted Christendom fiery cauteries were required; that corrupt members must be cut off; that nothing was more cruel than to show mercy to the heretics; that all who fell into the hands of the true servants of the church ought immediately to be put to death, and that no king who suffered himself to be entreated in their favour could satisfy his Redeemer.† They acted themselves in the spirit of these exhortations. Pius V. laid a plot for restoring the Romish religion in England, by taking off Elizabeth, and raising the queen of Scots to the throne. Her agents in this country conducted it with great dexterity, so as to engage in it some who were in Elizabeth's council, and in her favour as well as confidence, but who were now actuated by ambition, or by envy and hatred of their rivals, or by a dreadful persuasion of duty to the papal church; and all things seemed ripe when the dispute concerning the money which the English government had detained afforded Pius a favourable opportunity § for engaging Philip in the conspiracy. Philip lent an obedient ear. Alva was ordered to hold 3000 harquebussiers in readiness for embarkation: the marquis Vitelli was sent to.London under the pretext of an embassy, but with the intent that he should take

*Turner's Elizabeth, 454. n. 2.

+ Ib. 461. 480. n. 45. 481. n. 56.

Unâ quidem ex parte ipsi Scotorum reginæ-opem ferre, eamque omnino liberare; ex alterâ vero lapsam in Anglia religionem renovare cogitabat, simul et illam malorum omnium sentinam, seu, ut appellabat ipse, flagi. tiorum servam de medio tollere, si minus posset ad sanitatem revocari. Gabutius, Vita B. Pii. V. Acta ii. SS. Mar. t. i. p. 658.

Oblatam occasionem haud contemnendam esse ratus. Ib.

PIUS THE FIFTH'S BULL.

289

the command of those troops as soon as they should have landed near London, where an understanding had been established with the Tower, at the palace, and among the queen's guards.*

These arrangements having been made, the pope fulminated that memorable bull, wherein, as one whom the Lord had made prince over all people and all kingdoms, to pluck up, destroy, scatter, consume, plant, and build, he passed sentence of excommunication against Elizabeth, as being a heretic, and a favourer of heretics; pronounced that she was cut off from the unity of the body of Christ, and deprived of her pretended title to the kingdom; absolved her subjects from the oath of allegiance, and all manner of duty towards her, and included all who should obey her in the same sentence of anathema. It was thought imprudent to let this bull appear in Spain or France before it had been published in England, lest it should provoke the queen † to take more active measures against the Spaniards, and to appear decidedly in support of the French protestants. Its first appearance, therefore, was in London, where Felton nailed it upon the bishop of London's palace gate. But an earlier insurrection in the North had broken the strength and abated the hopes of the more eager papists; and secret information of the conspiracy was given to the English ministers by the French government, which, though possessed with the most. deadly hatred against the protestant cause, dreaded the union of England and Scotland under one sovereign, and the subjugation of this country to the influence, or possibly § to the power, of Spain. Thus did France, at this critical time, interpose in favour of Elizabeth

*Turner, 505. 509.

+ Acta Sanctorum, 658. Pollini, 458. Turner, 509. This 'most diligent historian, whose industry and in tegrity, and perfect fairness, entitle him always to be trusted, has shown that this information was given by Catherine de' Medicis, upon the cardinal of Lorraine's advice.

"-divino judicio permissum est (Gabutius says) ut de rerum serie totâ ad Elizabetham referretur à nonnullis, Galliæ regno politicè magis quam piè consulentibus, statusque jure (quod Pius diabolicum jus appellare solebat) atque vanâ suspicione implicitis, ne scilicet Angliâ receptâ, Galliarum regno potirentur Hispani."-Acta SS. 658.

"Yerentes nimirum ne Anglia in Hispanorum caderet potestatem."

against the Spaniards, upon motives precisely similar to those by which Spain had before been led to interfere for her against the French; and the conspiracy was frustrated*, though its extent was not discovered, nor the magnitude of the danger as yet fully understood.

But though the treason had failed, and the duke of Norfolk, who was to have been the catholic husband of a second queen Mary, suffered death, the design was still pursued by the Spaniards and the pope: the latter spared no money for this pious purpose, as it was deemed at the Vatican, and declared that, were it necessary, for such an object he would expend the whole revenues of the apostolic see, and sell the chalices and the crosses, and even the very vestments.* That the blow

might more surely be struck, the semblance of peace, if not of amity, was still maintained; not with sincerity, indeed, on Elizabeth's part; but on the part of Philip perfidiously. She did not restrain her subjects from those maritime adventures which nourished her naval strength; and he, in conformity to what was then the avowed doctrine of the Romish church, acted upon the principle that all means were justifiable whereby the interests of that church could be promoted. The Spanish ambassador complained that the rebellious Netherlanders were supplied with warlike stores from England, and harboured in the English ports; and, in consequence of his complaint, she ordered their ships of war to be de

Pollini imputes the delay to Alva's fear of bringing about a league between France and England in aid of the protestants in the Netherlands; and afterwards to his desire that his son D. Fadrique should command the expedition instead of Vitelli. The first fear he ascribes to the suggestion of the devil, and insinuates (falsely beyond all doubt) that, owing to his resentment at being disappointed in his views for his son, Elizabeth was made acquainted with the plot; whereby " hebbe finalmente quello che desiderava il diavolo." 471, 472.

Philip is asserted to have said to the legate, "nullam unquam hoc ipso vel preclarius vel sanctius compositum stratagema fuisse; neque vero majorem unquam visam esse conjuratorum sive concordiam, sive constantiam; siquidem per tot dies nihil unquam ab ipsis temere enuntiatum erat, magnaque res bene gerendæ atque opportuna sese offerebat occasio. Sed enim summus ille mundi Opifex, cujus nutu omnia gubernantur, seu mortalium peccatis id emerentibus, seu ut ex Angliâ vigente persecutione plures interim Christi martyres, uti deinceps factum est, in cœlum evolarent, nos alioqui pios conatus irritos esse permissit."-Acta SS. 659. † Ibid.

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »