Read The History of England - Vols. 1 to 6 Online
Authors: David Hume
The History of England - Vols. 1 to 6 (265 page)
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David Hume,
The History of England, vol. 4
[1778]
The Online Library Of Liberty
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Online Library of Liberty: The History of England, vol. 4
Edition Used:
The History of England from the Invasion of Julius Caesar to the Revolution in 1688,
Foreword by William B. Todd, 6 vols. (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund 1983). Vol. 4.
Author:
David Hume
About This Title:
Volume 4 of “Hume’s great
History of England
the theme of which is liberty, above all English constitutional development from the Anglo-Saxon period to the Revolution of 1688. This Liberty Fund edition is based on the edition of 1778, the last to contain corrections by Hume.
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Online Library of Liberty: The History of England, vol. 4
About Liberty Fund:
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Copyright Information:
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Online Library of Liberty: The History of England, vol. 4
Table Of Contents
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[Back to Table of Contents]
XXXVIII
ELIZABETH
Queen’s popularity — Re-establishment of the protestant religion — A parliament —
Peace with France — Disgust between the queen and Mary queen of Scots — Affairs
of Scotland — Reformation in Scotland — Civil wars in Scotland — Interposal of the
queen in the affairs of Scotland — Settlement of Scotland — French affairs — Arrival
of Mary in Scotland — Bigotry of the Scotch Reformers — Wise government of
Elizabeth
In a nation so divided as the English, it could scarcely be 1558.
expected, that the death of one sovereign, and the accession of another, who was generally believed to have embraced opposite principles to those which prevailed, could be the object of universal satisfaction: Yet so much were men displeased with the present conduct of affairs, and such apprehensions were entertained of futurity, that the people, overlooking their theological disputes, expressed a general and unfeigned joy that the scepter had passed into the hand of Elizabeth.
That princess had discovered great prudence in her conduct Queen’s popularity.
during the reign of her sister; and as men were sensible of the imminent danger, to which she was every moment exposed, compassion towards her situation, and concern for her safety, had rendered her, to an uncommon degree, the favourite of the nation. A parliament had been assembled a few days before Mary’s death; and when Heathe, archbishop of York, then chancellor, notified to them that event, scarcely an interval of regret appeared; and the two houses immediately resounded with the joyful acclamations of “God save queen Elizabeth: Long and happily may she reign.” The people, less actuated by faction, and less influenced by private views, expressed a joy still more general and hearty on her proclamation; and the auspicious commencement of this reign prognosticated that felicity and glory,
which, during its whole course, so uniformly attended it.a
Elizabeth was at Hatfield when she heard of her sister’s death; and after a few days she went thence to London through crowds of people, who strove with each other in giving her the strongest testimony of their affection. On her entrance into the Tower, she could not forbear reflecting on the great difference between her present fortune and that which a few years before had attended her, when she was conducted to that place as a prisoner, and lay there exposed to all the bigotted malignity of her enemies.
She fell on her knees, and expressed her thanks to Heaven, for the deliverance, which the Almighty had granted her from her bloody persecutors; a deliverance, she said, no less miraculous than that which Daniel had received from the den of lions. This act of pious gratitude seems to have been the last circumstance, in which she remembered any past hardships and injuries. With a prudence and magnanimity truly laudable, she buried all offences in oblivion, and received with affability even those who had acted with the greatest malevolence against her. Sir Harry Bennifield himself, to whose PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011)
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Online Library of Liberty: The History of England, vol. 4
custody she had been committed, and who had treated her with severity, never felt, during the whole course of her reign, any effects of her resentment.
b
Yet was not the gracious reception, which she gave, prostitute and undistinguishing. When the bishops came in a body to make their obeisance to her, she expressed to all of them sentiments of regard; except to Bonner, from whom she turned aside, as from a man polluted with blood, who was a just object of horror to every heart susceptible of humanity.
c
After employing a few days in ordering her domestic affairs, Elizabeth notified to foreign courts, her sister’s death, and her own accession. She sent Lord Cobham to the Low Countries, where Philip then resided; and she took care to express to that monarch, her gratitude for the protection which he had afforded her, and her desire of persevering in that friendship which had so happily commenced between them. Philip, who had long foreseen this event, and who still hoped, by means of Elizabeth, to obtain that dominion over England, of which he had failed in espousing Mary, immediately dispatched orders to the duke of Feria, his ambassador at London, to make proposals of marriage to the queen; and he offered to procure from Rome a dispensation for that purpose. But Elizabeth soon came to the resolution of declining the proposal. She saw, that the nation had entertained an extreme aversion to the Spanish alliance during her sister’s reign; and that one great cause of the popularity, which she herself enjoyed, was the prospect of being freed, by her means, from the danger of foreign subjection. She was sensible, that her affinity with Philip was exactly similar to that of her father with Catherine of Arragon; and that her marrying that monarch was, in effect, declaring herself illegitimate, and incapable of succeeding to the throne. And though the power of the Spanish monarchy might still be sufficient, in opposition to all pretenders, to support her title, her masculine spirit disdained such precarious dominion, which, as it would depend solely on the power of