a number of other gifts disguised by other names, "Tutus bos etenim rura perambulat; "Condit quisque diem collibus in suis." The opulency of the peace such, as if you have respect, to take one sign for many, to the number of fair houses that have been built since her reign, as Augustus said, "that he had received the city of brick, and left it of marble;" so she may say, she received it a realm of cottages, and hath made it a realm of palaces: the state of traffic great and rich: the customs, notwithstanding these wars and inter honourable discoveries: and lastly, to make an end where no end is, the shipping of this realm so advanced and made so mighty and potent, as this island is become, as the natural site thereof deserved, the lady of the sea; a point of so high consequence, as it may be truly said, that the commandment of the sea is an abridgement or a quintessence of a universal monarchy. sions were used, and the law never the nearer the execution, the course was straight suppressed and discontinued. Yea, there have been made laws more than one in her time for the restraint of the vexations of informers and promoters: nay, a course taken by her own direction for the repealing of all heavy and snared laws, if it had not been crossed by those to whom the benefit should have redounded. There shall you find no new taxes, impositions, nor devices; but the benevolence of the subject freely offered by assent of parliament, according to the ancient rates, and with great moderation in assessment; and not so only, but some new forms of contribution offered likewise by the subject in parlia- Or that other, ment; and the demonstration of their devotion only accepted, but the thing never put in ure. There shall you find loans, but honourably answered and paid, as it were the contract of a private man. To conclude, there shall you find monies levied upon failts of land, alienation, though not of the ancient patrimony, yet of the rich and commodious purchases and perquisites of the crown only, because she will not be grievous and burdensome to the people. This treasure, so innocently levied, so honourably gathered and raised, with such tender-ruptions, not fallen: many profitable trades, many ness to the subject, without any baseness or dryness at all; how hath it been expended and employed? | Where be the wasteful buildings, and the exorbitant and prodigal donatives, the sumptuous dissipations in pleasures, and vain ostentations, which we find have exhausted the coffers of so many kings? It is the honour of her house, the royal remunerating of her servants, the preservation of her people and state, the protection of her suppliants and allies, the encounter, breaking, and defeating the enemies of her realm, that hath been the only pores and pipes whereby the treasure hath issued. Hath it been the sinews of a blessed and prosperous peace? Hath she bought her peace? Hath she lent the king of Spain money upon some cavillation not to be repeated, and so bought his favour? And hath she given large pensions to corrupt his council? No, but she hath used the most honourable diversion of troubles that can be in the world. She hath kept the fire from her own walls by seeking to quench it in her neighbours. That poor brand of the state of Burgundy, and that other of the crown of France that remaineth, had been in ashes but for the ready fountain of her continual benignity. For the honour of her house it is well known, that almost the universal manners of the times doth incline to a certain parsimony and dryness in that kind of expense; yet she retaineth the ancient magnificence, the allowance as full, the charge greater than in time of her father, or any king before: the books appear, the computation will not flatter. And for the remunerating and rewarding of her servants, and the attendance of the court, let a man cast and sum up all the books of gifts, fee-farms, leases, and custodies that have passed her bountiful hands. Let him consider again what a number of commodious and gainful offices heretofore bestowed upon men of other education and profession, have been withdrawn and conferred upon her court. Let him remember, what | This and much more hath she merited of her subjects: now to set forth the merit of her neighbours and the states about her. It seemeth the things have made themselves purveyors of continual, new, and noble occasions for her to show them benignity, and that the fires of troubles abroad have been ordained to be as lights and tapers to make her virtue and magnanimity more apparent. For when that one, stranger born, the family of Guise, being as a hasty weed sprung up in a night, had spread itself to a greatness, not civil but seditious; a greatness, not of encounter of the ancient nobility, not of pre-eminency in the favour of kings, and not remiss of affairs from kings; but a greatness of innovation in state, of usurpations of authority, of affecting of crowns; and that accordingly, under colour of consanguinity and religion, they had brought French forces into Scotland, in the absence of their king and queen being within their usurped tutele; and that the ancient nobility of this realm, seeing the imminent danger of reducing that kingdom under the tyranny of foreigners and their faction, had, according to the good intelligence betwixt the two crowns, prayed her neighbourly succours: she undertook the action, expelled the strangers, restored the nobility to their degree. And lest any man should think her intent was to unnestle ill neighbours, and not to aid good neighbours, or that she was readier to restore what was invaded by others than to render what was in her own hands; see if the time provided not a new occasion afterwards, when through their own divi by those pressing dangers, was compelled to execute But sions, without the intermise of strangers, her forces were again sought and required; she forsook them not, prevailed so far as to be possessed of the castle of Edinburgh, the principal strength of that kingdom, with peace, incontinently, without cunctations or cavillations, the preambles of a wavering faith, she rendered with all honour and security; and his person to safe and faithful hands; and so ever after during his minority continued his principal guardian and protector. In the time and between the two occasions of Scotland, when the same faction of Guise, covered still with pretence of religion, and strengthened by the desire of retaining government in the queen-mother of France, had raised and moved civil wars in that kingdom, only to extirpate the ancient nobility, by shocking them one against another, and to waste that realm as a candle which is lighted. at both ends: and that those of the religion, being near of the blood-royal, and otherwise of the greatest house in France, and great officers of the crown opposed themselves only against their insolency, and to their supports called in her aid, giving unto them Newhaven for a place of security: see with what alacrity, in tender regard towards the fortune of that young king, whose name was used to the suppliants of his strength, she embraced the enterprise; and by their support and reputation the same party suddenly made great proceedings, and in conclusion made their peace as they would themselves and although they joined themselves against her, and performed the parts rather of good patriots than of good confederates, and that after great demonstration of valour in her subjects. For as the French will to this day report, specially by the great mortality by the hand of God, and the rather because it is known she did never much affect the holding of that town to her own use; it was left, and her forces withdrawn, yet did that nothing diminish her merit of the crown, and namely of that party who recovered by it such strength, as by that and no other thing they subsisted long after: and lest that any should sinisterly and maliciously interpret that she did nourish those divisions; who knoweth not what faithful advice, continual and earnest solicitation she used by her ambassadors and ministers to the French kings successively, and to their mother, to move them to keep their edicts of pacification, to retain their own authority and greatness by the union of her subjects? Which counsel, if it had been as happily followed, as it was prudently and sincerely given, France at this day had been a most flourishing kingdom, which now is a theatre of misery. And now at last, when the said house of Guise being one of the whips of God, whereof themselves are but the cords, and Spain the stock, had by their infinite aspiring practices wrought the miracles of states, to make a king in possession long estab-ed what hath passed in that matter between the lished to play again for his crown, without any title of a competitor, without any invasion of a foreign enemy, yea, without any combination in substance of a blood-royal or nobility; but only by furring in audacious persons into sundry governments, and by making the populace of towns drunk with seditious preachers and that king Henry the third, awaked king of Spain and her: how in the beginning of the troubles there, she gave and imparted to him faithful and friendly advice touching the course that was to be taken for quieting and appeasing of them. Then she interposed herself to most just and reasonable capitulations, wherein always should have been preserved unto him as ample interest, jurisdiction, : and superiority in those countries as he in right could claim, or a prince well-minded would seek to have and, which is the greatest point, she did by her advice, credit, and policy, and all good means, interrupt and appeach, that the same people by despair should not utterly alien and distract themselves from the obedience of the king of Spain, and cast themselves into the arms of a stranger: insomuch, that it is most true, that she did ever persuade the duke of Anjou from that action, notwithstanding the affection she bare to that duke, and the obstinacy which she saw daily growing in the king of Spain. Lastly, to touch the mighty general merit of this queen, bear in mind, that her benignity and beneficence hath been as large as the oppression and ambition of Spain. For to begin with the church of Rome, that pretended apostolic see is become but a donative cell of the king of Spain; the vicar of Christ is become the king of Spain's chaplain; he parteth the coming in of the new pope, for the treasure of the old: he was wont to exclude but some two or three cardinals, and to leave the election of the rest; but now he doth include, and present directly some small number, all incapable and incompatible with the conclave, put in only for colour, except one or two. The states of Italy, they be like little quillets of freehold being intermixed in the midst of a great honour or lordship: France is turned upside down, the subject against the king, cut and mangled infinitely, a country of Rodamonts and Roytelets, farmers of the ways: Portugal usurped by no other title than strength and vicinity: the Low Countries warred upon, because he seeketh, not to possess them, for they were possessed by him before, but to plant there an absolute and martial government, and to suppress their liberties: the like at this day attempted upon Arragon: the poor Indies, whereas the christian religion generally brought enfranchisement of slaves in all places where it came, in a contrary course are brought from freemen to be slaves, and slaves of most miserable condition: sundry trains and practices of this king's ambition in Germany, Denmark, Scotland, the east towns, are not unknown. Then it is her government, and her government alone, that hath been the sconce and fort of all Europe, which hath lett this proud nation from overrunning all. If any state be yet free from his factions erected in the bowels thereof; if there be any state wherein this faction is erected, that is not yet fired with civil troubles; if there be any state under his protection upon whom he usurpeth not; if there be any subject to him that enjoyeth moderate liberty, upon whom he tyrannizeth not: let them all know, it is by the mercy of this renowned queen, that standeth between them and their misfortunes. These be some of the beams of noble and radiant magnanimity, in contempt of peril which so manifestly, in contempt of profit which so many admire, and in merit of the world which so many include in themselves; set forth in my simplicity of speech with much loss of lustre, but with near approach of truth; as the sun is seen in the water. not severally, do make so sweet a wonder, as I fear to divide them. Again, nobility extracted out of the royal and victorious line of the kings of England; yea, both roses, white and red, do as well flourish in her nobility as in her beauty, as health, such as was like she should have that was brought forth by two of the most goodly princes of the world, in the strength of their years, in the heat of their love; that hath been injured neither with an over-liberal nor over-curious diet, that hath not been sustained by an umbratile life still under the roof, but strengthened by the use of the pure and open air, that still retaineth flower and vigour of youth. For the beauty and many graces of her presence, what colours are fine enough for such a portraiture ? let no light poet be used for such a description, but the chastest and the royalest: If this be presumption, let him bear the blame that owneth the verses. What shall I speak of her rare qualities of compliment; which as they be excellent in the things themselves, so they have always besides somewhat of a queen: and as queens use shadows and veils with their rich apparel; methinks in all her qualities there is somewhat that flieth from ostentation, and yet inviteth the mind to contemplate her more. What should I speak of her excel- A sermone. lent gift of speech, being a character of the greatness of her conceit, the height of her degree, and the sweetness of her nature? What life, what edge is there in those words and glances wherewith at pleasure she can give a man long to think; be it that she mean to daunt him, to encourage him, or to amaze him! How admirable is her discourse, whether it be in learning, state, or love! what variety of knowledge; what rareness of conceit; what choice of words; what grace of utterance! Doth it not appear, that though her wit be as the adamant of excellencies, which draweth out of any book ancient or new, out of any writing or speech, the best; yet she refineth it, she enricheth it far above the value wherein it is received? And is her speech only that language which the child learneth with pleasure, and not those which the studious learn with industry? Hath she not attained, besides her rare eloquence in her own language, infinitely polished since her happy times, changes of her languages both learned and modern? so that she is able to negotiate with divers ambassadors in their own languages; and that with no disadvantage unto them, who I think cannot but have a great part of their wits distracted from their matters in hand to the contemplation and admiration of such perfections. What should I wander on to speak of the excellencies of her nature, which cannot endure to be looked on with a discon tented eye of the constancy of her favours, which maketh service as a journey by land, whereas the service of other princes is like an embarking by sea. For her royal wisdom and policy of government, he that shall note and observe the prudent temper she useth in admitting access; of the one side maintaining the majesty of her degree, and on the other side not prejudicing herself by looking to her estate through too few windows: her exquisite judgment in choosing and finding good servants, a point beyond the former: her profound discretion in assign ing and appropriating every of them to their aptest employment: her penetrating sight in discovering every man's ends and drifts: her wonderful art in keeping servants in satisfaction, and yet in appetite: her inventing wit in contriving plots and overturns: her exact caution in censuring the propositions of others for her service: her foreseeing events: her usage of occasions: he that shall consider of these, and other things that may not well be touched, as he shall never cease to wonder at such a queen, so he shall wonder the less, that in so dangerous times, when wits are so cunning, humours extravagant, passions so violent, the corruptions so great, the dissimulations so deep, factions so many; she hath notwithstanding done such great things, and reigned in felicity. A fortuna. To speak of her fortune, that which I did reserve for a garland of her honour; and that is, that she liveth a virgin, and hath no children: so it is that which maketh all her other virtues and acts more sacred, more august, more divine. Let them leave children that leave no other memory in their times: "Brutorum æternitas, soboles." Revolve in histories the memories of happy men, and you shall not find any of rare felicity but either he died childless, or his line spent soon after his death; or else was unfortunate in his children. Should a man have them to be slain by his vassals, as the posthumus of Alexander the Great was? or to call them his imposthumes, as Augustus Cæsar called his? Peruse the catalogue: Cornelius Sylla, Julius Cæsar, Flavius Vespasianus, Severus, Constantinus the Great, and many more. "Generare et liberi, humana: creare et operari, divina.” And therefore, this objection removed, let us proceed to take a view of her felicity. A felicitate. : A mate of fortune she never took: only some adversity she passed at the first, to give her a quicker sense of the prosperity that should follow, and to make her more reposed in the Divine Providence. Well, she cometh to the crown it was no small fortune to find at her entrance some such servants and counsellors as she then found. The French king, who at this time, by reason of the peace concluded with Spain, and of the interest he had in Scotland, might have proved a dangerous neighbour: by how strange an accident was he taken away! The king of Spain, who, if he would have inclined to reduce the Low Countries by lenity, considering the goodly revenues which he drew from those countries, the great commodity to annoy her state from thence, might have made mighty and perilous matches against her repose; putteth on a resolution not only to use the means of those countries, but to spend and consume all his other means, the treasure of his Indies, and the forces of his ill-compacted dominions there and upon them. The Carles that rebelled in the North, before the duke of Norfolk's plot, which, indeed, was the | strength and seal of that commotion, was fully ripe, brake forth, and prevented their time. The king Sebastian of Portugal, whom the king of Spain would fain have persuaded that it was a devouter enterprise to purge christendom, than to enlarge it, though I know some think that he did artificially nourish him in that voyage, is cut a-pieces with his army in Africa: then hath the king of Spain work cut out to make all things in readiness during the old cardinal's time for the conquest of Portugal; whereby his desire of invading of England was slackened and put off some years, and by that means was put in execution at a time for some respects much more to his disadvantage. And the same invasion, like and as if it had been attempted before, it had the time much more proper and favourable; so likewise had it in true discourse a better season afterwards for, if it had been dissolved till time that the League had been better confirmed in France; which no doubt would have been, if the duke of Guise, who was the only man of worth on that side, had lived; and the French king durst never have laid hand upon him, had he not been animated by the English victory against the Spaniards precedent. And then, if some maritime town had been gotten into the hands of the League, it had been a great surety and strength to the enterprise. The popes, to consider of them whose course and policy it had been, knowing her Majesty's natural clemency, to have temporized and dispensed with the papists coming to church, that through the mask of their hypocrisy they might have been brought into places of government in the state and in the country: these, contrariwise, by the instigation of some fugitive scholars that advised him, not that was best for the see of Rome, but what agreed best with their eager humours and desperate states; discover and declare themselves so far by sending most seminaries, and taking of reconcilements, as there is now severity of laws introduced for the repressing of that sort, and men of that religion are become the suspect. What should I speak of so many conspiracies miraculously detected? the records show the treasons: but it is yet hidden in many of them how they came to light. What should I speak of the opportune death of her enemies, and the wicked instruments towards her estate? Don Juan died not amiss: Darleigh, duke of Lenox, who was used as an instrument to divorce Scotland from the amity of England, died in no ill season: a man withdrawn indeed at that time to France; but not without great help. I may not mention the death of some that occur to mind: but still methinks, they live that should live, and they die that should die. I would not have the king of Spain die yet; he is seges gloriæ: but when he groweth dangerous, or any other besides him, I am persuaded they will die. What should I speak of the fortunes of her armies, which, notwithstanding | the inward peace of this nation, were never more renowned ? What should I recount Leith and Newhaven for the honourable skirmishes and services? they are no blemish at all to the militia of England. In the Low Countries; the Lammas day, the retreat of Ghent, the day of Zutphen, and the prosperous progress of this summer: the bravado in Portugal, and the honourable exploits in the aid of the French king, besides the memorable voyages in the Indies; and lastly the good entertainment of the invincible navy, which was chased till the chasers were weary, after infinite loss, without taking a cock-boat, without firing a sheep-cot, sailed on the mercies of the wind, and the discretion of their adventures, making a perambulation or pilgrimage about the northern seas, and ignobling many shores and points of land by shipwreck: and so returned home with scorn and dishonour much greater, than the terror and expectation of their setting forth. These virtues and perfections, with so great felicity, have made her the honour of her times, the admiration of the world, the suit and aspiring of greatest kings and princes, who yet durst never have aspired unto her, but as their minds were raised by love. But why do I forget that words do extenuate and embase matters of so great weight? Time is her best commender, which never brought forth such a prince, whose imperial virtues contend with the excellency of her person: both virtues contend with her fortune and both virtue and fortune contend with her fame. "Orbis amor, famæ carmen, cœlique pupilla: CERTAIN OBSERVATIONS UPON A LIBEL PUBLISHED THIS PRESENT YEAR, 1592, ENTITLED, A DECLARATION OF THE TRUE CAUSES OF THE GREAT TROUBLES, PRESUPPOSED TO BE INTENDED AGAINST THE REALM OF ENGLAND. IT were just and honourable for princes being in | wars together, that howsoever they prosecute their quarrels and debates by arms and acts of hostility; yea, though the wars be such, as they pretend the utter ruin and overthrow of the forces and states one of another, yet they so limit their passions as they preserve two things sacred and inviolable; that is, the life and good name each of other. For the wars are no massacres and confusions; but they are the highest trials of right; when princes and states, that acknowledge no superior upon earth, shall put themselves upon the justice of God for the deciding of their controversies by such success, as it shall please him to give on either side. And as in the process of particular pleas between private men, all things ought to be ordered by the rules of civil laws; so in the proceedings of the war, nothing ought to be done against the law of nations, or the law of honour; which laws have ever pronounced these two sorts of men, the one, conspirators against the persons of princes; the other, libellers against their good fame; to be such enemies of common society as are not to be cherished, no not by enemies. For in the examples of times which were less corrupted, we find that when in the greatest heats and extremities of wars, there have been made offers of murderous and traitorous attempts against the person of a prince to the enemy, they have been not only ejected, but also revealed; and in like manner, when dishonourable mention hath been made of a prince before an enemy prince, by some that have thought therein to please his humour, he hath showed himself, contrariwise, utterly distasted therewith, and been ready to contest for the honour of an enemy. According to which noble and magnanimous kind of proceeding, it will be found, that in the whole course of her Majesty's proceeding with the king of Spain, since the amity interrupted, there was never any project by her Majesty, or any of her ministers, either moved or assented unto, for the taking away of the life of the said king: neither hath there been any declaration or writing of estate, no nor book allowed, wherein his honour hath been touched or taxed, otherwise than for his ambition; a point which is necessarily interlaced with her Majesty's own justification. So that no man needeth to doubt but that those wars are grounded, upon her Majesty's part, upon just and honourable causes, which have so just and honourable a prosecution; considering it as a much harder matter when a prince is entered into wars to hold respect then, and not to be transported with passion, than to make moderate and just resolutions in the beginnings. But now if a man look on the other part, it will appear that, rather, as it is to be thought, by the solicitation of traitorous subjects, which is the only poison and corruption of all honourable war between foreigners, or by the presumption of his agents and ministers, than by the proper inclination of that king, there hath been, if not plotted and practised, yet at the least comforted, conspiracies against her |