ways delivered out by speech unto the world, when any occasion hath been offered to make mention of him. And touching the prosecution, committed unto him, of the wars in the Low Countries, as all men of judgment know, that the taking away of his life carrieth no likelihood that the same shall work any end of the said prosecution, so is it manifestly known that no man hath dealt more honourably than the said prince, either in duly observing of his promise, or extending grace and mercy where merit and desert hath craved the same; and, therefore, no greater impiety by any could be wrought, nor nothing more prejudicial to ourself (so long as the king shall continue the prosecution of the cause in that forcible sort he now doth), than to be an instrument to take him away from thence by such violent means, that hath dealt in a more honourable and gracious sort in the charge committed unto him, than any other that hath ever gone before him, or is likely to succeed after him. Now, therefore, how unlikely it is, that we should be either author, or any way assenting to so horrible a fact, we refer to the judgment of such as look into causes, not with the eyes of their affection, but do measure and weigh things according to honour and reason. The best course, therefore, that both we and all other princes can hold, in this unfortunate age, that overfloweth with malignant spirits, is, through the grace and goodness of Almighty God, to direct our course in such sort, as they may rather show their wills through malice, than with just cause by desert to say ill either by speech or writing; assuring ourselves, that besides the punishment that such wicked libellers shall receive at the hands of the Almighty for depraving of princes and lawful magistrates, who are God's ministers, they both are and always shall be thought by all good men unworthy to live upon the face of the earth." When Elizabeth thus openly allied herself with the United States, which was, in fact, declaring war against Spain, the other Christian princes" admired such manly *Holinshed, 621–630. NEW PLANS OF INVASION. 317 fortitude in a woman; and the king of Sweden said, she had taken the crown from her head and adventured it upon the chance of war.' But no new or additional danger was drawn upon her by this declaration. The plan of invasion which Sebastian's expedition to Africa had frustrated, and which had been suspended in consequence of the subsequent events in Portugal, had been resumed two years before this treaty with the States was concluded. The prince of Parma had at that time been ordered to obtain accurate information respecting the English ports, and their means of defence: the Milanese engineer, Battista Piatti, who constructed the bridge over the Scheldt during the siege of Antwerp, was one of the persons thus employed; he had drawn up a report accordingly, and proceeded to Spain to give what farther information might be required.† A negotiation pending with the queen of Scots, for her release, upon her engagement that her agents should attempt nothing to the injury of Elizabeth or of England was broken off, partly, says Camden, because of certain fears cast in the way by those who knew how to increase suspicions between women already displeased with one another; but chiefly in consequence of certain papers, which a Scotch jesuit, on his passage to Scotland, when captured by some Netherlanders, tore in pieces, and cast overboard: the wind blew them back into the ship, and from these fragments the designs of the pope, the Spaniard, and the Guises, for invading England, were discovered. The detection of a nearer treason led to the death of the queen of Scots, an act by which Elizabeth, if she lessened her own immediate danger and that of the nation, (which may well be doubted), brought upon herself an ineffaceable stain §, purchasing self-preservation at a * Camden, 321. † Strada, 526. Camden, 299. Parry in a letter to the queen, after his condemnation, says, "The queen of Scots is your prisoner. Let her be honourably entreated, but yet surely guarded. She may do you good; she will do you no harm, if the fault be not English. It importeth you much; so long as it is well with her, it is safe with you. When she is in fear, you are not without peril. Cherish, and love her, She is of your blood, and your undoubted heir in succession. It is so taken abroad, and will be found so at home.". Strype's Annal. App. No. 46. 66 greater price than it is worth. But it is not upon Elizabeth that the blackest stigma should be affixed. The English parliament called upon her for blood. Not a voice in either house was raised against the popular cry. The commons came to a resolution, "that no other way, device, or means whatsoever could possibly be found or imagined, that safety could in any wise be had so long as the queen of Scots were living. *—To spare her," they said, were nothing else but to spill the people, who would take all impunity in this case very much to heart, and would not think themselves discharged of their oath of association, unless she were punished according to her deserts. And they called upon Elizabeth to remember the fearful examples of God's vengeance upon king Saul for sparing Agag, and upon king Ahab for sparing Benhadad."† To such purposes can public feeling be directed, and Scripture perverted! Some of those great personages who had corresponded with the royal prisoner, and were implicated more or less in the treasonable practices which under her name and with her concurrence were continually carried on, began now to act as her deadly enemies, thereby the better to conceal their own guilt.‡ The Spanish party thrust her forward to her own danger, that by her destruction the way might be cleared for the pretended title of the king of Spain. They had persuaded themselves that nothing but an absolute conquest of the island, like that by William of Normandy, could establish a catholic prince here, and reinstate the Romish religion in its full powers. And when the French king, Henry III. ||, sent a special ambassador publicly to speak in the queen of Scots behalf, that ambassador was charged with secret instructions to press upon Elizabeth the necessity of putting her to death as * Parliamentary History, 844. + Ibid. 344. Camden, 363. Parry says of him, in the remarkable letter above quoted, " in which he ' speaks with the freedom as well as the sincerity of a dying man, the French king is French; you know that well enough. You will find him occupied when he should do you good. He will not lose a pilgrimage to save your cro wn." PREPARATIONS FOR INVASION. 319 an enemy, who, if she succeeded to the English throne, would, through her connection with the Guises, be as dangerous to him as she now was to the queen of England! * The death of Mary may have preserved England from the religious struggle which would have ensued upon her succession to the throne, but it delivered Elizabeth from only one, and that the weakest of her enemies; and it exposed her to a charge of injustice and cruelty, which, being itself well founded, obtained belief for any other accusation, however extravagantly false. It was not Philip alone who prepared for making war upon her with a feeling of personal hatred: throughout Romish Christendom she was represented as a monster of iniquity; that representation was assiduously set forth not only in ephemeral libels, but in histories, in dramas, in poems, and in hawkers' pamphlets f; and when the king of Spain equipped an armament for the invasion of England, volunteers entered it with a passionate persuasion that they were about to bear a part in a holy war against the wickedest and most inhuman of tyrants. The pope exhorted Philip to engage in this great enterprize for the sake of the Roman catholic and apostolic church, which could not be more effectually nor more meritoriously extended than by the conquest of England; so should he avenge his own private and public wrongs; so should he indeed prove himself most worthy of the glorious title of Most Catholic King. And he promised, as soon as his troops should have set foot in that island, to supply him with a million of crowns of gold towards the expenses of the expedition. Opportunity could never be more favourable: he had concluded a truce with the Turk; the French were em *Turner, 643. Bayle's critique on Maimbourg's Hist. of Calvinism there quoted. + They are circulated to this day in Spain and Portugal. t The money, however, was not forthcoming. Strada, when he relates the offer, adds, " quod magis Xysti magnanimitatem ostendit, quam belli subsidium fuit: quippe, ut partem hujus summæ aliquam pontifex elargiretur ante præfinitum hoc tempus, nullis adduci potuit aut Hispani legati, aut Cæsii comitis à Parmensi duce propterea Romam missi, persuasioni broiled in civil war, and could offer to him no opposition. England was without forts or defences: long peace had left it unprovided of commanders or soldiers; and it was full of catholics, who would joyfully flock to his standard. The conquest of Portugal had not been easier than that of England would be found; and when England was once conquered, the Low Countries would presently be reduced to obedience. Such exhortations accorded with the ambition, the passions, and the rooted principles of the king of Spain. The undertaking was resolved on; and while preparations were making upon the most formidable scale, it was deliberated on what plan to proceed. Sir William Stanley, the most noted of those persons who for conscience-sake betrayed their trust, deserted to the enemy, and bore arms against this country, advised that Ireland should be the first point of attack. He knew that country well, having served in it fifteen years; and if Waterford, he said, were once taken and fortified, the Spaniards might from thence reduce the one island and invade the other. Piatti was of opinion that it were better to begin with Scotland, where he was led to believe the king might be induced to join with them for the sake of revenging his mother's death. Having established a footing there, he thought the Isle of Wight should next be occupied. A noble inhabitant of that island had promised the prince of Parma to show him a place, known only to himself, by which ships could approach, and in four-and-twenty hours obtain possession of it; and he laid before Philip a plan of the island, and a memoir concerning it, which had been drawn up at the prince of Parma's desire. The marquis of Santa Cruz, who was to be commander in chief, objected to neither of these plans, but he urged the necessity of perpending all things well before an expedition should be sent out, in which Spain put forth all her strength: and he advised that a port should previously be secured, either in Ireland, or, which he thought more desirable, in Holland or Zeeland. The enterprize might safely be |