Her religious policy was hostile alike to Pioman Cath- olics and Puritans ; yet Howard of Effingham, -who commanded the navies of England against the Span- ish Armada, belonged to the Roman communion ; and nearly all her chief ministers were supporters of the Puritan doctrine. There seems to be substantial truth in the declaration of lord Bacon, who had ample op- portunities of forming a correct judgment, who was Puritan by family and political connections, but toler- ant by disposition. He says, with an affirmation of "certain knowledge," "Most certain it is that it was the firm resolution of this princess not to oflfer any vi- olence to consciences ; but then, on the other side, not to suff'er the state of her kingdom to be ruined under pretence of conscience and religion." Her aim was to maintain her ascendency in Church and State, in order to prevent internal divisions which would invite external aggressions. It was impossible, in the tur- moil and religious acrimony of the period, to draw pre- cisely the line of discrimination between religious be- lief and political intrigue. There is reason to believe that the persecutions which darkened her reign did not contemplate capital penalties till her crown and life had both been endangered by papal excommuni- cations, by Papist plots, and by Spanish or domestic schemes of assassination.
These principles also controlled in large measure her harsh, unsympathizing treatment of her beautiful and accomplished cousin, Mary of Scotland, whose graces have been employed, like the charms of Aspa- sia and Phryne in an Athenian court, to secure acquit- tal when the evidence compels a condemnation. If Mary was innocent of the murder of her husband ; if she was not involved in the Northern rebellion ; if she did not beguile the duke of Norfolk ; if she did not connive at Babington's conspiracy and other similar transactions ; if she did not instigate Hamilton of Both- wellhaugh to murder her royal jailor ; if she practised no collusion v.ith Philip of Spain — all these things might have been readily credited by the English queen and her council, and such belief would remove the atrocity, if not the formal illegalitj', of their proce- dure. But if all, or most of these suspicions were well founded ; if they have been confirmed by the most dispassionate historians, and by the most recent and diligent investigations, the action of Elizabeth may still be illegal, but it ceases to be iniquitous. It should be remembered, too, that Elizabeth did not consent to the trial of Mary till after repeated and urgent de- mands from the lords and commons of England in Parliament assembled ; that h?r signature of the death- wjrrant is by no means certain ; that it was issued and carried into effect without her consent, and con- trary to her orders ; and that the execution caused her bitter agony and horror. This plea is, indeed, coun- terbalanced liy the suspicion that she sought the remo- val of her royal captive bj' secret murder. Such a design is, of course, infamous, though in accordance with the spirit and practices of the age.
To these habits of indirect procedure may be referred much of that matrimonial coquetting which furnished occasion for the malignant censures of hostile contem- poraries. There was much female -sanity in the fre-
ELIZABETH
163
ELIZABETH
quent and not alwa3'-s C07 reception of tender address- es. The Tudor blood displayed its licentious warmtii 9n Margaret and Mary, the sisters of Henry VIII, and (n their female descendants, as well as in "blulf liing Harry." But there was much also of policy in Eliza- beth's demeanor. It introduced a courtly language ivhich has often been misconstrued. It cannot have been entirely' un worth j^, degrading, or vicious, when it inspired the compliments of Sidney, and Raleigh, and Bpenser, and Shakspeare, and Bacon. There is a fashion in language and manners as well as in dress, and the fashion must be regarded if we would inter- pret their signiticance.
The supposition of a warmer attachment to Essex than the natural attachment of an aged relative for the hopeful representative of an almost extinct line has neitlier foundation nor probability. Just as little truth is there in the fancy that her life was overcast and her death hastened by the execution of Essex. The misguided earl had been guilty of the grossest breach of trust and treachery at the head of the gov- ernment and armies of Ireland; he had repeated his treason, and menaced her existence and crown, in the midst of her capital. H:3 had a solemn trial, and was inevitably condemned. He confessed the enormity of his guilt, and the queen shortlv after assured the em- bassador of Henry IV that she felt no scruples in re- gard to his punishment.
Whatever may be thought on these points, which will always be disputed, the spirit, the conduct, and the measures of Elizabeth encouraged and produced the most splendid outburst of national prowess and of varied abilities that any age has ever witnessed. Strong men surrounded her from the first — men of marked capacitj'' as statesmen, of eminent qualities as precursors of the approaching splendor — Sir William Cecil, Sir Nicholas Bacon, Sir Francis Walsingham, Sir Ralph Sadler, the earl of Sussex, and lord Sack- ville. But she had been a quarter of a century on the throne, more than half her reign was passed, and she was verging to old age before the great names which immortalized her times commenced those achievements which have immortalized themselves. It was under the inspiration of her rule, and of the re- sults attained Ij}' her rule, that the brilliant generation grew up which has left to all future admiration the namas of Sidney, and Spenser, and Shakspeare, and Bacon — of Raleigh, and Vere, and Essex, and Gren- ville — of Hooker and Gilbert — the generation which confirmed the independence of England and of Europe, which invented new arts, extended and applied the principles of law and government, secured the Pro- testant ascendency, founded colonies, extended com- merce, glorified letters, discovered new sciences, and established the political eminence, the industrial wealth, and the intellectual empire of England.