suitor, the Duke of Savoy, one of the most ap-guise. When Philip obtained a hint of the inproved captains of those times; and they soon tended project of Guise, he offered to reinforce distinguished themselves by their bravery in a the garrison of Calais with a body of Spanish fierce battle under the walls of St. Quentin, troops; but the English council, with a jealousy where many of the chief nobility of France were certainly not groundless, declined this offer. But either slain or taken prisoners; and such a con- at the same time they were unable to make any sternation was spread among the French, that it ready effort themselves, even when warned of the was thought by many that Philip might have danger: the English navy had been allowed to go taken Paris had he marched immediately upon to wreck and ruin :' to victual the remnant of it, it. But Philip was always wary and cautious; to send the troops to Flanders, the queen had nor does he appear ever to have contemplated seized all the corn she could find in Norfolk and the doing of much more than the forcing of the Suffolk, without paying for it: to meet the exDuke of Guise to come out of Italy. He sat penses of that expedition she had forced the city down before the town of St. Quentin, which made of London to lend or give her £60,000; she a gallant resistance for seventeen days, during had levied before the legal time the second year's which the French had time to fortify Paris, and subsidy voted by parliament; she had issued to call up troops from the provinces. But an many privy seals to procure loans from people invading army of 60,000 men was so formidable of property; she had, in short, exhausted her that they were obliged even to recal the Duke of means for her husband, and at the moment of Guise, and, as Philip had calculated, that general, crisis she appears to have dreaded calling her who had advanced to the frontiers of Naples, hurried back across the Alps. To prolong the campaign in an easy manner, Philip ordered the Spaniards, English, Croats, and the rest, to lay siege to Ham and Cattelet, which places they took, and then, on the approach of winter, they retired into quarters in Flanders.

I II E

FORT
NIEULAY

FORT

RISERAN

S E A

THE
TOWY

To Flanders.ty

Gravelines & Dunkirk/

A, Castle. B, Ditch filled with water. CC, Canal communicating with the sea, and capable of being used to lay the surrounding country under water. D, Gate leading to Boulogne.

winter, had generally its garrison reduced at that season; but in the present year, through want of money and the efforts made to serve Philip, that reduction had amounted to twothirds of the whole force. In the month of November two skilful Italian engineers, Strozzi and Delbene, reconnoitred the town and all the forts adjacent, having gained admittance in dis

The whole of the blame is not to be laid to Mary's government. The navy had been much diminished, and shamefully neglected during the reign of Edward VI., when all the servants of government, from the highest to the lowest, were addicted to gaspillage.

2 The above plan of Calais is derived from a curious Italian

parliament together to ask for more money. And thus were the weak garrison and the English citizens and merchants of Calais left to their fate, almost without a single effort being made for their relief.

A.D. 1558.

On New Year's Day Guise entered the English pale; and, sending one part of his army along the downs to Risebank, work, De' disegni delle piu illustri Città et fortezza del monde. . . raccolta da M. G. Ballino. Venetiis, 1568. This work, it will be observed, was published only ten years after the siege of Calais by the Duke of Guise, and the plan may, therefore, be presumed to represent the actual extent and fortifications of the town at the time it was lost by the English.

he, with the other, and an unusually heavy train | destroy them fail. After passing the night in the of artillery, marched towards Nieulay, or Newn- castle, Guise sent on his men to the assault of the ham Bridge, and, attacking in force an outwork town, which he fancied would be taken with at the village of St. Agatha, at the head of the causeway, drove the garrison into Newnham, and took possession of that outwork. The English lord-deputy Wentworth feeling that, from the miserable weakness of the garrison, he could spare no assistance for the defence of the other outworks, ordered them to be evacuated as soon as they should be attacked. This was done at Newnham Bridge, whence the captain retired with his soldiers into Calais; but the outwork of Risebank surrendered with its garrison. Thus, by the third morning of the siege, the Duke of Guise had made himself master of two most important posts, of which one commanded the entrance of the harbour, the other the approach across the marshes from Flanders. The next day, he battered the walls near to the Watergate, in order to make the English believe that he intended to force an entrance at that point, and cause them "to have the less regard unto the defence of the castle," which was the weakest part of the town, and the place "where the French were ascertained by their espials to win easy entry;" and while the garrison lost time in repairing a false breach made by the Watergate, Guise suddenly brought fifteen double cannons to bear upon the castle, which, with astounding negligence on the part of the English government, had been suffered to fall into such decay that it tottered at the first cannon shot, and a wide breach was made in it before evening. When that was done, Guise detached one body to occupy the quay, and another, under Strozzi, to effect a lodgment on the other side of the harbour; but Strozzi was beaten back with loss. About eight in the evening, at ebb-tide, De Grammont was thrown forward with some 300 arquebusiers to reconnoitre the great breach in the castle. The ditch was broad and deep, but the water was low, having been partially drained off, and the French had brought up by sea a great quantity of hurdles and other materials to facilitate the passage. Upon Grammont's report that the breach seemed to be abandoned, Guise threw himself into the ditch, and forded it, not finding the water much above his girdle: his men followed in great haste --and happy men were they to enter the rotten old castle without resistance. The Lord Wentworth, as the best thing that could be done, had withdrawn the English soldiers, had made a train with certain big barrels of gunpowder, and now anticipated the pleasure of blowing the castle and the Frenchmen into the air together. But this train was badly laid; the French, coming up out of the ditch with their clothes wringing wet, moistened the gunpowder, and saw the attempt to

CALAIS, THE OLD BELFRY, &c.

From Voyages dans l'Ancienne France.

equal ease; but the marshal, Sir Anthony Agar, with a small body of brave men, repulsed the French, and drove them back to the castle. Sir Anthony next tried to drive them from that position, and persevered till he himself, his son and heir, and some fourscore officers and men, were laid low in front of the castle-gate. So miserably weak was the garrison, that this small loss of men was decisive. Having in vain expected aid from Dover-having received no tidings, nor so much as a sign-the lord-deputy on that same night demanded a parley. The French acceded, but would grant none but the harshest terms of capitulation.'

"About two of the clock next day at afternoon, being the 7th of January, a great number of the meanest sort were suffered to pass out of the town in safety, being guarded through the army with a number of Scottish light-horsemen, who used the English very well and friendly; and after this, every day for the space of three or four days together, there were sent away divers companies of them till all were avoided, those only excepted that were appointed to be reserved for prisoners, as the Lord Wentworth and others. There were in the town of Calais 500 English

Holished.

with Edward, part of the garrison of Berwick made an inroad to prevent the erection of the works. This proceeding, as she had calculated, exasperated the Scottish people, who anon retaliated in their own fashion by making forays into England, without waiting or caring for any declaration or orders from the government. But when D'Oisel, in person, undertook the siege of the castle of Wark, the council prevented him, and not only recalled him, but gave him a sharp rebuke.

After the French king had visited Calais he made great haste for the accomplishment of the marriage between Francis his eldest son, called the dauphin, and Mary Stuart, daughter and sole heir of James V., late King of Scotland. The great

oped in the following reign. For the present it will suffice to state that Mary Queen of Scots, in the sixteenth year of her age, was united to a sickly, silly boy, a few months younger than herself, and that the memorable marriage was solemnized in the city of Paris on the 24th of April (1558). Before this great event, but at a time when it was known it would take place, and when the nation was smarting with the pang of the recent loss and disgrace at Calais, Queen Mary summoned a parliament that she might implore for more money. This parliament met, and the members being evidently excited by a passionate desire to recover Calais, or to vindicate the honour of the national arms by giving some notable defeat to the French, without making any reflections on the arbitrary methods recently resorted to by the queen for the raising of money, they proceeded to vote her a fifteenth, a subsidy of 48. in the pound on land, and 28. 8d. on goods, to be paid in four years, by equal instalments. From this liberal parliament the queen turned to the clergy, who readily granted her 88. in the pound, to be paid in the like manner in four years. With the money thus raised, Mary hired a number of ships, and despatched a fleet of upwards of 100 sail of all sizes, but chiefly small, under the high

The grief of the English court, and the vexation of the people, were as great as the joy and triumph of the French. Yet, except as a humiliation to military fame, and as a blow to national pride, the loss was not so serious. Calais, indeed, had been reckoned "as one of the eyes of Eng-political importance of this match will be develland," but it was an eye constantly in pain and peril, costing immense sums for its care and cure; and it was soon found that England could see very well without it. The people, however, long murmured and lamented, and the government was disgraced and depressed in the extreme by this result of a war which they had engaged in without justice or reason. At the same time the Scots, acting on the usual impulse from France, began to stir upon the Borders. After the peace, which we have mentioned in the preceding reign, the Queen-dowager Mary of Guise made a journey to France, carrying with her many of the principal Scottish nobility. She visited her daughter Mary and her relations, and arranged a grand political plan, by which, on her return, though not without difficulty, the Earl of Arran was induced to resign the whole government of the kingdom into her hands. On the 12th of April, 1554, she assumed the name of regent. In this capacity she acted chiefly under the guidance of D'Oisel, a Frenchman of great ability. Her government, upon the whole, was judicious and beneficial to Scotland; it would have been more so had the regent not been obliged to make sacrifices to the politics, religion, and interests of her family and friends in France. When Mary declared war in the preceding year, the French court re-admiral, Edward Lord Clinton, who was ordered quired the Queen-regent of Scotland to make a diversion in their favour. She summoned a convention at Newbottle, and requested the states to concur in a declaration of hostilities against England; but the Scottish nobles, in part from a jealousy of the French, in part from their conviction that the war would be unprofitable, refused their assent. Upon this, she ordered D'Oisel to begin some fortifications at Eyemouth. As this was upon ground mentioned in the last treaty

Holinehed.

2 Arran had been gratified with French pensions, with the high-sounding title of Duke of Chatellerault, and with a public

acknowledgment of his right as next heir (after the young Mary) to the Scottish throne.

to join King Philip's squadron, and while the French king should be engaged in the field with the Spanish army and their auxiliaries, to lay waste his coast and surprise some of his towns, Brest in particular. But the expedition was badly managed: instead of making at once for Brest, Clinton and the Flemish admiral lay to, near the little town of Conquet, where one morning at break of day they sounded their trumpets, "as the manner was," and, "with a thundering peal of great guns," awoke the poor inhabitants. They landed with little or no opposition, and, mastering the town, "put it to the sackage, with a great abbey and many pretty towns and villages

and high-minded, and shrunk from that trickery and treachery in state matters which her more fortunate sister Elizabeth adopted without hesitation as a general rule of conduct. Notwithstanding her sad experience of the world, and the depressing influences of ill-health, she was capable of warm and lasting friendships: as a mistress she was not only liberal, but kind and attentive, even towards the meanest servant of her household; she was charitable to the poor, and most considerate for the afflicted; she was the first to suggest the foundation of an establishment, like Chelsea Hospital, for the reception of invalid soldiers, and in her will she appropriated certain funds to this national object.' Like all the rest of her testamentary bequests, this was utterly neglected by her successor, notwithstanding the dying queen's earnest entreaties that she would suffer the intention of her will to be carried into effect."

Nor was Mary deficient in acquirements and accomplishments. As well as her junior half

sister, she had received what may be called a learned education; she had some acquaintance with Greek, and not only read but also wrote Latin, and her letters in that language were praised by Erasmus. Among her accomplishments are enumerated embroidering, dancing, and music. She played three instruments-the virginals, regals, and lute.3

In most matters her taste was more delicate and better than that of Elizabeth, and though she had less personal dignity, and cared not "to go slowly and to march with leisure and with a certain grandytie,” as her half-sister always did when in public, she never gave way to violent gesticulation and the swearing of gross oaths, which her successor was almost as much addicted to as her father Henry. But as a queen all these qualities and accomplishments (abilities of a high order she had none) were of the slightest value, and their insignificance is shown in the records of her miserable reign, and the boundless triumph over all of her master-passion.1

1 See her will as published by Sir Frederick Madden, Privy indebted, has collected the best proofs of Mary's possessing some Purse Expenses of the Princess Mary, &c.

2 "No one of our historians has been so severe on Mary's reign, except on a religious account, as Carte, on the authority of the letters of Noailles. Dr. Lingard, though with these before him, has softened and suppressed till this queen appears honest and even amiable. A man of sense should be ashamed of such partiality to his religion. Admitting that the French ambassador had a temptation to exaggerate the faults of a government wholly devoted to Spain, it is manifest that Mary's reign was inglorious, her capacity narrow, and her temper sanguinary; that, although conscientious in some respects, she was as capable of dissimulation as her sister, and of breach of faith as her husband; that she obstinately and wilfully sacrificed her subjects' affections and interests to a misplaced and discreditable attachment; and that the words with which Carte has concluded the character of this unlamented sovereign, though little pleasing to men of Dr. Lingard's profession, are perfectly just-Having reduced the nation to the brink of ruin, she left it, by her seasonable decease, to be restored by her admirable successor to its ancient prosperity and glory.'"-Hallam, Const. Hist. England. 3 The Venetian ambassador praises her great skill in playing on the lute, "so that, when she attended to it, for now she pays little attention to those things, she astonished good professors both by her rapidity of hand and her style of playing." The Italian was likely to be a good judge of music, but it should appear that he had not been in the habit of hearing the queen play with his own ears.

Dr. Lingard's defence of Queen Mary will not stand for a moment the examination of an impartial eye. He would make Mary appear not only as the best of women, but as a good sovereign. Sir Frederick Madden, to whose researches we have been

He

amiable qualities, which none but bigots on the other side will attempt to deny; but in removing some prejudices he seems to contract others, and almost to fall in love with his subject. carries most of his arguments too far, relying occasionally on the most doubtful kind of evidence, giving an interpretation at other times to words and things which they will scarcely bear, and now and then drawing conclusions directly contrary to what the premises would justify. Hume, knowing that Mary suffered a wretched state of health, and having other good evidence to go upon, described her as being of a sour and sullen disposition. This, says Sir Frederick Madden, is an inaccuracy notorious to those at all acquainted with the history of the period; and to support his opinion he mentions that Mary was once seen to laugh heartily at a tumbler at Greenwich-that she kept in her service a female jester (every king at the time kept a fool royal)

that she once had a kennel of hounds-that she was fond of music, played at cards, allowed valentines to be drawn in her household, and once lost a breakfast wagered on a game at bowls. But the accuser of Hume admits (and gives, from the plainspoken Venetian, the broadest account of her malady) that Mary, from the age of puberty, had suffered the most distressing of all female disorders. Ill-usage and ill-health were not likely to produce the best of tempers. But though Sir Frederick Madden may have known cheerful and light-hearted valetudinarians, we much question whether he ever knew a cheerful bigot. The disorders of body and of mind must have made Mary what Hume described her to be on her accession. In the minutiae of the Privy Purse Expenses, and incidental occurrences of court holidays, Sir Frederick Madden forgets Smithfield, and the fires that blazed in all parts of the kingdom during this cheerful reign.

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