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prince; as by the ancient laws, and by special privileges granted by some of the lords and dukes to the people, they do pretend and affirm, that in such cases of general injustice, and upon such violent breaking of their privileges, they are free from their former homage, and at liberty to make choice of any other prince to be their head. By some such alteration, as stories testify, Philip, the duke of Burgundy, came to his title, from which the king of Spain's interest is derived. And now, to stay them from yielding themselves in any like sort to the sovereignty of any other strange prince, we yielded some years past to the importunate requests of some of the greatest persons of degree and most obedient subjects to the king, and granted them prests of money, only to continue them as his subjects, and to maintain themselves in their just defence against the violence of the Spaniards, their oppressors; and during the time of that our aid thus given, and their stay in their obedience to the king of Spain, we did freely acquaint the same king with our actions, and did still continue our friendly advices to him, to move him to command his governors and men of war not to use such insolent cruelties against his people as might make them to despair of his favour, and seek some other lord.

"For we did manifestly see if the nation of Spain should make a conquest of those countries, as was and yet is apparently intended, and plant themselves there as they have done in Naples and other countries, adding thereto the late examples of the hostile enterprise of a power of Spaniards, sent by the king of Spain and the pope into our realm of Ireland, with an intent, confessed by the captains, that their number was sent to seize upon some strength there, and with other great forces to pursue a conquest thereof, we did manifestly see in what danger our ourself, country, and people might shortly be, if in convenient time we did not speedily otherwise regard to prevent or stay the same. The queen then complained, that notwithstanding her often requests and advices, the king's governors in the

Low Countries increased their cruelties toward his own afflicted people, and his officers in Spain offered daily greater injuries to the English resorting thither for traffic: yea, her express messengers with her letters were not permitted to come to the king's presence, a matter very strange, and against the law of nations." She contrasted the unworthy treatment of her ambassadors in Spain, with her conduct towards the Spanish ambassadors, and especially Bernardino de Mendoza;

-"one," said she, "whom we did accept and use with great favour a long time, as was seen in our court, and we think cannot be denied by himself: but yet of late years (we know not by what direction), we found him to be a secret great favourer to sundry our evil-disposed and seditious subjects, not only to such as lurked in our realm, but also to such as fled the same, being notoriously condemned as open rebels and traitors, with whom, by his letters, messages, and secret counsels, he did in the end devise how, with a power of men, partly to come out of Spain, partly out of the Low Countries, (whereof he gave them great comfort in the king's name,) an invasion might be made into our realm; setting down in writing the manner how the same should be done, with what number of men and ships, and upon what coasts, ports, and places of our realm, and who the persons should be, therein of no small account, that should favour this invasion, and take part with the invaders: facts which have been most clearly proved, and confessed by such as were in that confederary with him; yet when he had been charged with these practices, and it had been made patent to him how and by whom, with many other circumstances we knew it, he was caused, in very gentle sort, to depart out of our realm, the rather for his own safety, as one in very deed mortally hated of our people."

The declaration proceeded to state what the queen had done for delivering Scotland from the servitude into which the house of Guise meant to have brought it, and that by her means only it had been restored to its an

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cient freedom, and was so possessed by the present king, whereby Scotland had remained in better amity and peace with England than could be remembered for many hundred years before. It concluded by saying how, upon the continued and lamentable requests of the states of Holland, Zeeland, Gueldres, and other provinces with them united, the queen had, with good advice, and after long deliberation, determined to aid them, "only to defend them and their towns from sacking and desolation, and to procure them safety, to the honour of God, whom they desire to serve sincerely as Christian people, according to his holy word, and to enjoy their ancient liberties for them and their posterity, and so consequently to preserve the lawful and ancient commerce betwixt those countries and ours. And so," said this magnanimous queen, we hope our intentions herein, and our subsequent actions, will be, by God's favour, honourably interpreted of all persons (saving of the oppressors themselves and their partisans), in that we mean not hereby, either for ambition or malice, the two roots of all injustice, to make any particular profit hereof to ourself or to our people; only desiring at this time to obtain, by God's favour, for these countries a deliverance of them from war by the Spaniards and foreigners, a restitution of their ancient liberties and government by some Christian peace, and thereby a surety for ourselves and our realm to be free from invading neighbours, and our people to enjoy their lawful intercourse of friendship and merchandise, according to the ancient usage and treaties of intercourse made betwixt our progenitors and the lords and earls of those countries, and betwixt our people and theirs. And though our farther intention also is, or may be, to take into our guard some few towns upon the sea-side, next opposite to our realm, which otherwise might be in danger to be taken by the strangers, enemies of the country; yet therein considering we have no meaning at this time to take and retain the same to our own proper use, we hope all persons will think it agreeable with good reason and princely policy

that we should have the guard and use of some such places, for sure access and recess of our people and soldiers in safety, and for furniture of them with victuals and other things requisite and necessary, whilst it shall be needful for them to continue in those countries, for the aiding thereof in these their great calamities, miseries, and imminent danger; and until the countries may be delivered of such strange forces as do now oppress them, and recover their ancient lawful liberties and manner of government, to live in peace as they have heretofore done, and do now most earnestly in lament– able manner desire to do, which are the very only true ends of all our actions now intended."

At the conclusion, the queen alluded to the "cankered conceits," uttered by malicious tongues, and blasphemous reports, in such infamous libels, that in no age had the devil employed more spirits replenished with all wickedness to utter his rage. An appendix was added to this declaration, in consequence of an account of the siege of Antwerp, printed at Milan, in which, said she, we found ourselves most maliciously charged with two notable crimes, no less hateful to the world than most repugnant and contrary to our own natural inclination. The one with ingratitude towards the king of Spain, who, as the author saith, saved our life, being justly by sentence adjudged to death in our sister's time; the other, that there were persons corrupted with great promises, and that with our intelligence, to take away the prince of Parma's life. Now, knowing how men are maliciously bent, in this declining age of the world, both to judge, speak, and write maliciously, falsely, and unreverently of princes, and holding nothing so dear unto us as the conservation of our reputation and honour to be blameless, we found it very expedient not to suffer two such horrible imputations to pass under silence. And for answer of the first point, touching our ingratitude towards the king of Spain, as we do most willingly acknowledge that we were beholding unto him in the time of our late sister, which we then did acknowledge very thank

fully, and have sought many ways since in like sort to requite, so do we utterly deny as a most manifest untruth, that ever he was the cause of the saving of our life, as a person by course of justice sentenced unto death, who ever carried ourself towards our said sister in such dutiful sort, as our loyalty was never called in question, much less any sentence of death pronounced against us: a matter such as in respect of the ordinary course of proceeding, as by process in law, by place of trial, by the judge that should pronounce such sentence, and other necessary circumstances in like cases usual, especially against one of our quality, as it could not but have been publicly known, if any such thing had been put in execution. This, then, being true, we leave to the world to judge how maliciously and injuriously the author of the said pamphlet dealeth with us in charging us with a Ivice that of all others we do most hate and abhor. And by the manifest untruth of this imputation, men, not transported with passion, may easily discern what untruth is contained in the second, by which we are charged with an intended attempt against the life of the prince of Parma. He is one of whom we have ever had an honourable conceit, in respect of those singular rare parts we always have noted in him, which hath won unto him as great a reputation as any man this day living carrieth of his degree and quality; and so have we al

*This accusation was not made by pamphleteers and mere libellers only. Herrera, the royal chronicler, in his Historia General del Mundo for the first seventeen years of Philip's reign, asserts that Elizabeth was on three several occasions condemned to death for treason against her sister, and as often pardoned through the king's intercession: "Y el librarla los Españoles con tanto cuydado de la muerte, dezian los Franceses que se hazia porque no sucediesse en la corona de Inglaterra Maria reyna de Escocia, casada con Francisco delfin de Francia; y los Españoles dezian contra los Franceses que procuravan de engañar a Ysabel, metiendola en estos trabajos, para que muriendo por ellos, quedasse desembarazada la sucession a la reyna de Escocia. Let. vi. c. 13. p. 399. Herrera probably believed what he asserted, if what Strada affirms be true, that the statement was made by Philip himself! That king, the jesuit says, was incensed against Elizabeth," tanto quidem acriore sensu, quanto pro beneficiis, proque vitâ ipsâ, quam ei bis terque se dedisse rex affirmabat, dum conspirationum insimulatam, è carcere, capitalique judicio liberaverat; pro his aliisque promeritis alias super alias accepisse se indesinenter injurias agnoscebat." P. 526. The chronicler adds that Calais was betrayed, with Elizabeth's consent, she hoping thereby to break her sister's heart, "para acabar con estos enojos tanto mas presto la vida de su hermana."