Nearly all omens were adverse. The state was di- vided into factions — all opposed to her. Foreign states were hostile or indifferent in interest and in sentiment. Her title was most questionalde, if not utterlj' invalid. She had no support but her own brave heart, the pa- triotic antipath}' of her people to foreign rule, the civil wars and discords prevailing or in prospect in the kingdoms around her, and the sagacity of the advisers whom she might choose. She had to knit together her own people into a nation, to win popular support by suppressing all factions at home, to avert foreign dangers by creating a party for herself, and provoking occupation for her enemies in the realms by which she was menaced. The character and conduct of Eliza- beth present a most interesting, but most difficult moral and historical study. No hasty and sweeping cen- sures, whetlier of praise or blame, can exhibit the com- plicated intertexture of threads of various material and hue in that strange fabric. All was not virtue, all was not vice. The virtues were obscured, soiled,
ELIZABETH
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ELIZABETH
or dwarfed by supposed state necessities; the vices were darkened or deepened by ceaseless provocations and harassing perplexities. Never, perhaps, was an illustrious character composed of a more undistinguish- able admixture of fine gold, and dross, and claj', and never was tliere one better calculated to invite and re- ward curious examination.
In tlie earlier years of her reign she could trust only to those political friends whose fortunes were indisso- lubly connected with her own, and to her relatives, principally by her mother's line — tlie descendants of Mary Boleyn. As her tlirone became more assured, she attracted to her court the young men of ancient gentry, of adventurous spirit, of chivalrous bearing, of great but restricted ambition, and of high physical and intellectual advantages. Gentle birth, great tal- ents, and good looks were the passports to the favor of the court. She thus created supporters and officers for her crown. The old nobility she did not and could not trust. They were powers in the land which de- spised, envied, and menaced her own. She accumu- lated favors on Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester, from compassion for the fate of his father and brother, from regard for his courtlj' manners, perhaps for a tenderer feeling, which she deemed it unregal and unsafe to gratifj'. Leicester, like his father, was ever scheming for a crown. Essex she petted, indulged, spoiled, as a bright, petulant, promising j'outh, who was one of her nearest male relatives, and the chief hope of her lonely old age.
Her crown was at first held merely by the acqui- escence of the nation ; it was not confirmed by any parliamentary sanction till the fourteenth year of her reign. Civil and religious disorder desolated Scotland, France, and the Netherlands : she prevented such com- motions in her own realm. She promptly suppressed the commencements of revolt; she arrested the nu- mei-ous conspiracies against her life and throne before they had time to explode ; and she left her people a united, if not a harmonious nation — prosperous, intel- ligent, powerful, independent, and free.
IMenaced bj' the claims of Marj', and by their pro- spective advocacy bj' France or Spain, she placed her- self at the head of the Protestant movement, and aid- ed, openly or secretl}-, the Protestant lords in Scotland, the Huguenots in France, William of Orange, and the Gueux in the Netherlands. She assisted all; she gave no decisive aid to any.
In the midst of perils and successes at home and abroad, she made head against the incessant revolts of Ireland, which has been a thorn in the side of Brit- ain from the fabulous days of king Arthur to the cur- rent year of queen Victoria. Throughout her reign she was harassed by its state of chronic though inter- mittent rebellion, but in the year preceding her death she received its submission through lord Mountjo}'.
The important results achieved in the long reign of Elizal)eth were mainly due to the impulses communi- cated by lierself and the polic}' pursued by her minis- ters. All portentous stars were in conjunction in her horoscope. Internal and external hazards environed her. Industrj' was disorganized, agriculture disor- dered, trade inactive, enterprise stagnant, fortunes were shattered, ranks confused, beggars and vaga- btjnds multiplied by the confiscation and private ap- propriation of Church lands, by the inclosure of com- mons, and the extension of pasturage. These social evils were aggravated by the growtli of colossal for- tunes alongside of increasing destitution among the masses, as commerce rapidly advanced under her rule. They were augmented also by the progressive depre- ciation of the precious metals, which grievously aftect- ed the puldic revenue, and the condition of families ■with fixed and moderate means.
All these circumstances must be considered in order to ap[)reciate justly the otherwise suspicious and un- intelligible policy of Elizabeth. They explain the
meaning, if they do not evince the propriety of her ecclesiastical measures ; they illustrate the spirit of her internal government ; they interpret her severity to the Ijeautiful and unfortunate queen who sought as a kinswoman an asjdum and protection in her realm. They enable us to see how she fostered the high em- prize and the transcendent genius of the Elizabethan Age ; and how, in the midst of all the clouds and mists which obscured her career, she remained a right royal woman, created the national spirit of England, estab- lished the English Church, maintained the Protestant cause, and spread such blessings over the land that to this day the popular imagination still fondly looks back to " the merry days of good queen Bess."