coast of Lapland; and the second in command, Richard Chancellor, who had fortunately parted company with him, entered the river of St. Nicholas, travelled to the court of the czar Ivan Basilowitz, delivered the king's letters to that sovereign, and obtained for the English the privilege of a free trade in any part of his dominions, being their first entrance into Russia. On the accession of queen Mary, he was created a peer of the realm, by the title of lord Howard of Effingham, and appointed high admiral of England and Wales, Ireland, Gascony, and Aquitaine; the queen, "in consideration of his fidelity, prudence, valour, and industry," constituting him "her lieutenant-general and chief commander of her whole fleet and royal army going to sea for the defence of her friends." In the discharge of this office, he kept the seas about three months; and having met with Philip, then prince of Asturias, escorted him to Southampton, and attended his marriage with the queen. At the commencement of the following reign, he was one of the persons empowered to conclude peace with France.

Under such a father Charles Howard was trained, serving under him by land and sea. He was about twenty-two years of age at the accession of Elizabeth; and his "most proper person" is said to have been one reason why that queen "(who, though she did not value a jewel by, valued it the more for, a fair case,) reflected so much upon him." ."* She sent him to France, A.D. after the death of Henry II., on an embassy of condo- 1559. lence and congratulation to the young king. He was elected one of the knights for his native county of Surrey in the parliament of 1562-3; and afterwards distinguished himself as general of the horse in quelling the rebellion of the earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland. In the ensuing year, he commanded 1569. ten ships of her majesty's "navy royal; " which, when the emperor Maximilian's daughter, Anne, sailed from Zeeland to marry her uncle, Philip II., were ordered to

* Fuller.

convoy her through the British seas, as a singular testimony of the queen's respect for the house of Austria ; and on this occasion, it is said, that he enforced the Spanish fleet "to stoop gallant, and to veil their bonnets to the queen of England." It was probably at this time that he received the honour of knighthood. Having a second time been elected for Surrey, he was installed knight of the garter in 1574, and made lord chamberlain of the household, - an office which had been held by his father, who, dying in 1572-3, had bequeathed to him his collar of gold, and all his robes belonging to the order of the garter. Upon the death of the earl of Lincoln, he was raised to the office of lord high admiral of England; in which capacity he was called upon to perform a more serious service with regard to the Spaniards than when he required from them in peace a recognition of the queen's sovereignty in the English seas.

Elizabeth, when she succeeded in happy hour to the English throne, was far from entertaining any sentiments of ill will toward the king of Spain. "Whatsoever," saith Fox* the martyrologist, " can be recited touching the admirable working of God's present hand in defending and delivering any one person out of thraldom, never was there, since the memory of our fathers, any example to be showed, wherein the Lord's mighty power hath more admirably and blessedly showed itself, to the glory of his own name, to the comfort of all good hearts, and to the public felicity of this whole realm, than in the miraculous custody and out-scape of the then lady Elizabeth, in the strict time of queen Mary." To be near the throne was almost as perilous in the Plantagenet and Tudor families as in the Ottoman house; and in her case the danger was fearfully enhanced by a clear apprehension, on the part of the Romish hierarchy, that the reformed religion, which they were labouring to extirpate by fire and sword, would be re-established if Elizabeth should succeed to her sister,

* Vol, iii. 792.

RELATIONS OF ENGLAND AND SPAIN.

281

Some of the laity, who in their station forwarded the persecution which has rendered queen Mary's reign for ever infamous, entered fully into this fear; and if Elizabeth was not brought to the scaffold, or made away with in confinement, it was not for want of wicked counsellors, or fitting keepers. One who was in authority is said to have declared in his place that there would never be "any quiet commonwealth in England unless her head were stricken from the shoulders *;" and "it would make a pitiful story to recite what examinations and rackings of poor men there were to find out that knife which should cut her throat." To the honour of the Spaniards, in that persecuting age, it ought never to be forgotten in this country, that their good offices were effectually interposed in her behalf, and that Philip "showed himself in that matter a very friend." Nor will it be regarded by an equitable mind as any impeachment of his motives, that the part which he took on this occasion was that of sound policy, if policy alone had influenced him. Let him have credit for justice in this instance, if not for humanity! He had some great qualities, and some good ones; and his worst actions must be imputed to a deluded conscience, acting under a mistaken sense of religious duty.

If Elizabeth had been at that time cut off, Mary Stuart, then dauphiness, would have become presumptive heiress to the crown of England; and her succession, by uniting England, Scotland, and Ireland to the crown of France, would have been, of all possible contingencies, the most injurious to the interests of Spain. That contingency became more probable upon queen Mary's death; and it seemed as if the French government, in pursuit of its ambitious hopes, was too impatient to wait for it, for Henri II. commanded that

* Fox, iii. 797. 794. 798. The queen's feelings toward her sister are truly stated by Ribadeneira, who had opportunity of knowing them well, and who may be believed when he had no motive for writing falsely; "una muger," he says, speaking of Elizabeth, " que ella nunca tuvo por hermana, sino por bastarda y enemiga suya, y de la religion catolica; y que siempre temio que la avia de arruynar y destruyr, y a quien por estas causas desseó y procuró excluyr de la succession del reyno." Hist. Eccl. de Inglaterra, l. ii. c. 19.

the dauphin and dauphiness should, in all public instruments, style themselves by the grace of God king and queen of Scotland, England, and Ireland.* The arms of England, quartered with those of Scotland, were set forth every where in their household stuff, and painted upon the walls, and wrought into the heralds' coats of arms; and by his agents at Rome, Henry ceased not to importune the pope that he would pronounce Elizabeth a heretic and illegitimate, and Mary of Scotland to be the lawful queen of England. But here both Philip and the emperor, earnestly, though closely, interfered. The question of illegitimacy no longer touched the pride, or affected the interests, of their house; and that of heresy even Spain and Austria could be contented to postpone, rather than allow the power of France to be aggrandised. Philip, therefore, ceased not secretly to oppose the practices of the French at the papal court, even when he refused to renew the league made of old between the kings of England and his forefathers, and sent back his insignia of the garter, whereby he seemed quite to renounce amity with the English. Still there remained the bond of mutual interest between Philip and Elizabeth, and not, it may be believed, without some sense of grateful remembrance on one part, and of personal respect on both. That bond was broken by the decease of Francis II., a few months after his succeeding to the throne; and no kindly feelings, in a man of Philip's temperament, could long withstand that bigotry which was in him a principle and passion, — a principle, indeed, to which, under a dreadful persuasion of duty, he would have made any sacrifice. The first animosity that he felt was excited by a trifling circumstance.

* Pollini. Istoria Eccles. della Revol. d'Inghilterra, p. 406. "In very deed from this title and arms, which through the persuasion of the Guises, Henry king of France had imposed upon the queen of Scots, being now in her tender age, flowed as from a fountain all the calamities wherein she was afterwards wrapt. For hereupon queen Elizabeth bare both enmity to the Guises, and secret grudge against her, which the subtile malice of men on both sides cherished, emulation growing be twixt them, and new occasions daily arising, in such sort that it could not be extinguished but by death. For a kingdom brooketh no companion; and majesty more heavily taketh injuries to heart." Camden, 34.

PHILIP'S FIRST DISPLEASURE.

283

He requested, through his ambassador, that four persons, who had withdrawn themselves without license into his dominions, for religion's sake, might be exempted from the existing laws, and permitted to remain there.* One of these persons was grandmother to the condesa de Feria; another was an old lady who had been much in queen Mary's confidence, and used to distribute her private alms to those of her own sex; the other two were men "most devoted to the popish religion, and most dear to the Spaniard." A distinction might well have been made between these persons, especially in the first instance, where there existed so valid a plea. Elizabeth, however, replied, it was without example that such a licence of perpetual absence from their own country should be granted to women; and though it seemed in itself a matter of no moment, yet she thought it a thing not to be granted, "seeing the private benefit to the individuals would not be so great as the hurt to the community, when others should take courage by their example." The conde de Feria resented this refusal as a private injury, though made upon public grounds: he caused a servant of the English ambassador to be seized by the inquisition, and "kindled the coals of the displeased king's mind, his wife in vain labouring to the contrary."

But though Philip became more and more estranged

"For by the ancient laws of England it was provided, under pain of confiscation of goods and lands, that none but the great noblemen of the land and merchants should without the king's special licence depart the realm, nor abide in foreign countries beyond a time prefixed, and this, either for the recovery of their health in a hotter climate, or for the more plentiful adorning of their wits in the universities, or else to learn the discipline of the wars." Camden, 46.

No doubt he felt that he had rendered himself personally obnoxious to Elizabeth, for refusing, though residing at London as Philip's representative, to be present at her coronation; which refusal, Ribadeneira says, he made como cavallero catolico y valeroso. For he enquired, "si se avian de guardar en la coronacion todas las ceremonias de los otros reyes Christianos conforme al uso de nuestra santa madre yglesia Romana, y como supiesse que avia de aver alguna alteracion, nunca se pudo acabar con el que assistiesse a la solennedad, ni estuviesse en la yglesia, ni en publico, ni encubierto, ni con los otros grandes del reyno, ni aparte en un tablado que le quisieron hazer, por no autorizar con su presencia aquel auto impio, y dar exemplo del recato y circunspecion que en semejantes cosas, por pequenas que parezcan, deven tener los catolicos para no contaminarse." 1. 2. c. 22.