"to invade my neighbours, or to ufurp over any; "I am contented to reign over mine own, and to "rule as a juft Prince.

"Yet the King of Spain doth challenge me to "be the quarreller and the beginner of all these "wars, in which he doth me the greatest wrong "that can be; for my confcience doth not ac"cufe my thoughts wherein I have done him "the least injury; but I am perfuaded in my confcience, if he knew what I know, he himself "would be forry for the wrong that he hath done

es me.

"I fear not all his threatenings; his great pre"parations and mighty forces do not ftir me; for "though he come against me with a greater power "than ever was his Invincible Navy, I doubt not (God affifting me, upon whom I always truft) "but that I fhall be able to defeat and overthrow "him. I have great advantage against him, for my cause is juft.

"I heard fay, when he attempted his last invafion, fome upon the fea-coaft forfook their "towns, and flew up higher into the country, "and left all naked and expofed to his entrance. "But I fwear unto you by God, if I knew those "perfons, or any that shall do fo hereafter, I will "make them know and feel what it is to be fo fearful in fo urgent a caufe.

"The

"The fubfidies you gave me, I accept thank"fully, if you give me your good wills with them; "but if the neceffity of the time and your prefer "vations did not require it, I would refuse them. "But let me tell you, that the fum is not fo much, but that it is needful for a Prince to have "fo much always in her coffers for your defence "in time of need, and not to be driven to get it "when we should use it.

"You that be Lieutenants and Gentlemen of "command in your countries, I require you to "take care that the people be well armed, and in "readiness upon all occafions. You that be Judges and Justices of the Peace, I command " and ftraitly charge you, that you fee the laws "to be duly executed, and that you make them " living laws when we have put life into them."

Puttenham tells us, that when some English Knight, who had behaved himself very infolently towards his Queen, while fhe was Princess Elizabeth, fell upon his knees before her, foon after she became the Sovereign of these kingdoms, and befought her to pardon him, fufpecting (as there was good cause) that he should have been sent to the Tower, she said to him, very mildly, " Do you "not know that we are defcended of the lion, "whofe nature is, not to prey upon the moufe, or "other small vermin?"

Osborne

Ofborne, in his Memoirs of Queen Elizabeth, tells this story of her:-That one of her purveyors having behaved with fome injuftice in the county of Kent, one of the farmers of that county went to the Queen's palace at Greenwich, and watching the time when the Queen went to take her ufual walk in the morning, cried out loud enough for her Majesty to hear, "Pray which is "the Queen?” She replied very graciously, "I am your Queen; what would you have with "me?" "You (replied the farmer) are one of "the rarest women I ever faw, and can eat no "more than my daughter Madge, who is thought "the propereft lafs in the parifh, though far fhort "of you but that Queen Elizabeth I look for "devours fo many of my ducks, hens, and capons, "as I am not able to live."

The Queen, as Ofborne adds, always aufpicious. to fuits made through the mediation of her comely fhape, enquired who was the purveyor, and caused him to be hanged."

What pardon could the Earl of Effex hope from Queen Elizabeth, when it had been reported to her, that he had faid her mind was grown as crooked as her body?

"As to her own perfonal qualities," fays Strype," fhe was a Queen that eafily forgave pri«vate injuries, but a severe dispenser of common juftice, favouring none in their crimes, nor "leaving

f

leaving them hopes of impunity. She cut off "all licentioufnefs from all, giving no countenance thereunto to any. This precept of Plato "The always fet before her in all her doings, That laws fhould rule over men, and not that men "fhould rule, and be lords, over the laws. Be"fides this, he was a Prince that least of all defir"ed the eftates and goods of her fubjects; and "for her own treasure, fhe commanded it to be frugally and fparingly laid out for her private "pleasure, but royally and liberally for any public "ufe, whether it were for common benefit or do"meftic magnificence."

The proficiency in learning of this great Princefs is thus defcribed by Roger Afcham, in his "Schoolmaster:"

"It is to your fhame (I fpeak to you all, you "yong Jentlemen of England) that one Mayd "fhould go beyond you all in excellencie of

learnyng, and knowledge of divers tonges. "Pointe forth fix of the beft given Jentlemen of "this Court, and all they together fhew not fo

much good-will, fpend not fo much tyme, be"ftow not so many houres dayly, orderly, and conftantly, for the increase of learnyng and "knowledge, as doth the Queene's Majestie herfelfe. Yea I believe, that befide her perfect readines in Latin, Italian, French, and Spanish, the readeth here now at Windfore

VOL. I.

L

more

་

86

"more Greeke every day than fome Prebendarie " of this Church doth read Latin in a whole weeke. "And that which is most praife-worthy of all, "within the walls of her Privie-Chamber the hath obteyned that excellencie of learning, to underftand, fpeak, and write both wittily with head, "and faire with hand, as fcarce one or two rare "Wittes in both the Univerfities have in many << yeares reached unto."

Queen Elizabeth made many progreffes through her kingdom. The account of the preparations made at Canterbury for receiving her Majesty are thus described in a letter of Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury, copied from the original at the Bodleian Library in Oxford.

<" SIR,

"Gladlie would I do all the fervice I could to "the Queenes Majestic, and to all her Nobiles, "with the reft of her most honourable household. "I have no other council to followe, but to "fearche out what fervice my predeceffors have "been wont to doe. My oft diftemperance and "infirmitie of bodye maketh me not to do fo "much as I woulde. If her Majeftie would

please to remayne in my house, her Hyghness fhould have convenient rome. And I could place for a progreffe-time your Lordship, my Lord Chamberlaine, my Lord of Leicester, and .1 "Mr,

Сс