Read The History of England - Vols. 1 to 6 Online
Authors: David Hume
[a]Strype, vol. iii. Append. p. 221.
[d]Bentivoglio, part ii. lib. 4.
[NOTE [Z]]
Strype, vol. iii. p. 525. On the fourth of September, soon after the dispersion of the Spanish Armada, died the earl of Leicester, the queen’s great, but unworthy, favourite. Her affection for him continued to the last. He had discovered no conduct in any of his military enterprizes; and was suspected of cowardice: Yet she entrusted him with the command of her armies during the danger of the Spanish invasion; a partiality, which might have proved fatal to her, had the duke of Parma been able to land his troops in England. She had even ordered a commission to be drawn for him, constituting him her lieutenant in the kingdoms of England and Ireland; but Burleigh and Hatton represented to her the danger of entrusting such unlimited authority in the hands of any subject, and prevented the execution of that design. No wonder, that a conduct, so unlike the usual jealousy of Elizabeth, gave reason to suspect, that her partiality was founded on some other passion than friendship. But Elizabeth seemed to carry her affection to Leicester no farther than the grave: She ordered his goods to be disposed of at a public sale, in order to reimburse herself of some debt which he owed her; and her usual attention to money was PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011)
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observed to prevail over her regard to the memory of the deceased. This earl was a great hypocrite, a pretender to the strictest religion, an encourager of the puritans, and a founder of hospitals.
[NOTE [AA]]
Strype, vol. iii. p. 542. Id. append. p. 239. There are some singular passages in this last speech, which may be worth taking notice of; especially as they came from a member who was no courtier: For he argues against the subsidy. “And first,” says he, “for the
necessity
thereof, I cannot deny, but if it were a charge imposed upon us by her majesty’s commandment, or a demand proceeding from her majesty by way of request, that I think there is not one among us all, either so disobedient a subject in regard of our duty, or so unthankful a man in respect of the inestimable benefits which, by her or from her, we have received, which would not with frank consent, both of voice and heart, most willingly submit himself thereunto, without any unreverend enquiry into the causes thereof. For it is continually in the mouth of us all, that our lands, goods, and lives are at our prince’s disposing. And it agreeth very well with that position of the civil law, which sayeth,
Quod omnia regis
sunt.
But how?
Ita tamen ut omnium sint. Ad regem enim potestas omnium pertinet;
ad singulos proprietas.
So that although it be most true, that her majesty hath over ourselves and our goods,
potestatem imperandi;
yet it is true, that until that power command (which, no doubt, will not command without very just cause) every subject hath his own
proprietatem possidendi.
Which power and commandment from her majesty, which we have not yet received, I take it (saving reformation) that we are freed from the cause of
necessity.
And the cause of necessity, is the dangerous estate of the commonwealth, &c.” The tenor of the speech pleads rather for a general benevolence than a subsidy: For the law of Richard III. against benevolence was never conceived to have any force. The member even proceeds to assert, with some precaution, that it was in the power of a parliament to refuse the king’s demand of a subsidy. And that there was an instance of that liberty in Henry III.’s time, near four hundred years before.
Sub fine.
[h]Strype’s Life of Whitgift, p. 280. Neal, vol. i. p. 500.
[m]
Si rixa est, ubi tu pulsas, ego vapulo tantum.
Juven.
[NOTE [BB]]
We may judge of the extent and importance of these abuses by a speech of Bacon’s against purveyors, delivered in the first session of the first parliament of the subsequent reign, by which also we may learn that Elizabeth had given no redress to the grievances complained of. “First,” says he, “they take in kind what they ought not to take; secondly, they take in quantity a far greater proportion than cometh to your majesty’s use; thirdly, they take in an unlawful manner, in a manner, I say, PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011)
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directly and expressly prohibited by the several laws. For the first, I am a little to alter their name: For instead of takers, they become taxers: Instead of taking provisions for your majesty’s service, they tax your people
ad redimendam vexationem;
imposing upon them and extorting from them divers sums of money, sometimes in gross, sometimes in the nature of stipends annually paid,
ne noceant,
to be freed and eased of their oppression. Again, they take trees, which by law they cannot do; timber trees, which are the beauty, countenance, and shelter of men’s houses; that men have long spared from their own purse and profit; that men esteem, for their use and delight, above ten times the value; that are a loss which men cannot repair or recover. These, do they take, to the defacing and spoiling of your subjects mansions and dwellings, except they may be compounded with to their own appetites. And if a gentleman be too hard for them while he is at home, they will watch their time when there is but a bailiff or a servant remaining, and put the ax to the root of the tree, ere ever the master can stop it. Again, they use a strange and most unjust exaction in causing the subject to pay poundage of their own debts, due from your majesty unto them: So as a poor man, when he has had his hay or his wood, or his poultry (which perchance he was full loath to part with, and had for the provision of his own family and not to put to sale) taken from him, and that not at a just price, but under the value, and cometh to receive his money, he shall have after the rate of twelve pence in the pound abated for poundage of his due payment upon so hard conditions. Nay farther, they are grown to that extremity (as is affirmed, though it be scarce credible, save that in such persons all things are credible) that they will take double poundage, once when the debenture is made, and again the second time, when the money is paid. For the second point, most gracious sovereign, touching the quantity which they take far above that which is answered to your majesty’s use; it is affirmed unto me by divers gentlemen of good report, as a matter which I may safely avouch unto your majesty, that there is no pound profit, which redoundeth unto your majesty in this course, but induceth and begetteth three pound damage upon your subjects, beside the discontentment. And to the end they may make their spoil more securely, what do they? Whereas divers statutes do strictly provide, that whatsoever they take shall be registered and attested, to the end that by making a collation of that which is taken from the country and that which is answered above, their deceits might appear, they, to the end to obscure their deceits, utterly omit the observation of this, which the law prescribeth. And therefore to descend, if it may please your majesty, to the third sort of abuse, which is of the unlawful manner of their taking, whereof this question is a branch; it is so manifold, as it rather asketh an enumeration of some of the particulars than a prosecution of all.
For their price, by law they ought to take as they can agree with the subject; by abuse, they take at an imposed and enforced price: By law they ought to make but one apprizement by neighbours in the country; by abuse, they make a second apprizement at the court-gate, and when the subjects cattle come up many miles lean and out of plight by reason of their travel, then they prize them anew at an abated price: By law, they ought to take between sun and sun; by abuse, they take by twilight and in the night-time, a time well chosen for malefactors: By law, they ought not to take in the high-ways (a place by her majesty’s high prerogative protected, and by statute by special words excepted); by abuse, they take in the highways: By law, they ought to shew their commission, &c. A number of other particulars there are, &c.” Bacon’s works, vol. iv. p. 305, 306.
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Such were the abuses, which Elizabeth would neither permit her parliaments to meddle with, nor redress herself. I believe it will readily be allowed, that this slight prerogative alone, which has passed almost unobserved amidst other branches of so much greater importance, was sufficient to extinguish all regular liberty. For what elector, or member of parliament, or even juryman, durst oppose the will of the court, while he lay under the lash of such an arbitrary prerogative. For a farther account of the grievous and incredible oppressions of purveyors, see the Journals of the house of commons, vol. i. p. 190. There is a story of a carter, which may be worth mentioning on this occasion. “A carter had three time been at Windsor with his cart to carry away, upon summons of a remove, some part of the stuff of her majesty’s wardrobe; and when he had repaired thither once, twice, and the third time, and that they of the wardrobe had told him the third time that the remove held not, the carter, clapping his hand on his thigh, said,
Now I see, that the queen is a woman as well as my wife.
Which words being overheard by her majesty, who then stood at the window, she said,
What a villain is this?
and so sent him three angels to stop his mouth.” Birch’s Memoirs, vol. i. p. 155.
[o]See the statutes under this head of purveyance.
[q]An act was passed this session, enforcing the former statute, which imposed twenty
pounds a month on every one absent from public worship: But the penalty was restricted to two thirds of the income of the recusant. 29 Eliz. cap. 6.
[r]Birch’s Memoirs of queen Elizabeth, vol. i. p. 61. Monson, p. 267, says, that there
were only fourteen thousand soldiers and four thousand seamen in the whole on this expedition: But the account contained in Dr. Birch, is given by one of the most considerable of the adventurers.
[u]Birch’s Memoirs, vol. i. p. 61.
[w]Birch’s Memoirs, vol. i. p. 61.
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[NOTE [CC]]
This year the nation suffered a great loss, by the death of Sir Francis Walsingham, secretary of state; a man equally celebrated for his abilities and his integrity. He had passed through many employments, had been very frugal in his expence, yet died so poor, that his family was obliged to give him a private burial. He left only one daughter, first married to Sir Philip Sidney, then to the earl of Essex, favourite of queen Elizabeth, and lastly to the earl of Clanricarde of Ireland. The same year died Thomas Randolph, who had been employed by the queen in several embassies to Scotland; as did also the earl of Warwic, elder brother to Leicester.
[f]Birch’s Negociations, p. 5. Rymer, tom. xiv. p. 123, 140.
[h]Rymer, vol. xvi. p. 151, 168, 171, 173.
[NOTE [DD]]
This action of Sir Richard Greenville is so singular, as to merit a more particular relation. He was engaged alone with the whole Spanish fleet of fifty-three sail, which had ten thousand men on board; and from the time the fight began, which was about three in the afternoon, to the break of day next morning, he repulsed the enemy fifteen times, though they continually shifted their vessels, and boarded with fresh men. In the beginning of the action he himself received a wound; but he continued doing his duty above deck till eleven at night, when receiving a fresh wound, he was carried down to be dressed. During this operation he received a shot in the head, and the surgeon was killed by his side. The English began now to want powder; all their small arms were broken or become useless; of this number, which were but a hundred and three at first, forty were killed, and almost all the rest wounded; their masts were beat overboard, their tackle cut in pieces, and nothing but a hulk left, unable to move one way or other. In this situation Sir Richard proposed to the ship’s company, to trust to the mercy of God, not to that of the Spaniards, and to destroy the ship with themselves, rather than yield to the enemy. The master gunner, and many of the seamen, agreed to this desperate resolution; but others opposed it, and obliged Greenville to surrender himself prisoner. He died a few days after; and his last words were: “Here die I, Richard Greenville, with a joyful and quiet mind; for that I have ended my life as a true soldier ought to do, fighting for his country, Queen, religion, and honour: My soul willingly departing from this body, leaving behind the lasting fame of having behaved as every valiant soldier is in his duty bound to do.”
The Spaniards lost in this sharp though unequal action, four ships, and about a thousand men. And Greenville’s vessel perished soon after, with two hundred Spaniards in her. Hackluyt’s Voyages, vol. ii. part 2. p. 169. Camden, p. 565.
[m]Ibid. p. 165. Camden, p. 569.
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