Chapter XI: Part 11

He had spent £40,000--the equivalent of something like five times that sum at the present day. For a dozen years his ships sailed--sometimes with fresh settlers, sometimes with stores only; to meet only with disappointment--often with nothing but reports that the bones of the last party left behind were bleaching in some undiscovered spot. Half of the pioneers themselves were ready to turn back, abandoning the adventure, as soon as they realised that their business was not going to be picking up gold and silver. Men of Grenville’s type enjoyed themselves thoroughly when they were boarding Spanish galleons against immense odds, or engaged in any other form of dare-devilry; a different type was required to settle down to a stubborn fight with Nature, and found rural or commercial communities. The necessary type was forthcoming in course of time, but it had not yet realised the field that was open to it. As yet there were none to experiment, save adventurers who wanted something quite other than North America had to give. At last Raleigh felt that for a time, but only for a time, he was beaten; that to obtain support he must have prospects to suggest, at least, of gold mines and silver mines; and his next great venture was in another region where the golden city of Manoa was fabled to be hidden. But he never lost faith in his own ideal, or recanted his prophecy that the northern Continent would yet be possessed and peopled by men of his own race, that he would live to see Virginia an English nation. His own experiment failed; yet he lived to see the beginnings of fulfilment under other auspices, when again a colony of Virginia received a charter in 1606--this time to establish and maintain herself as the mother of the American people.

IV

AFTER THE ARMADA

The spirit of aggression engendered by the Armada was too strong for Burghley and his mistress to oppose directly. Their object was to give it such an outlet as would satisfy popular sentiment without ruining Spain; and popular sentiment, as they saw, would find satisfaction in a mere extension of the old raiding warfare upon Spanish commerce. The danger, in their eyes, was that the control of operations might fall into the hands of men who not only desired to annihilate Spain but knew how to do it. Drake and Raleigh recognised in Spain the one Power which stood in the way of a complete English dominion of the seas, with everything that would mean: that dominion was already almost won, and could be made good. But if Drake were discredited, Raleigh would be unable to give their policy effect. This was duly brought about by the manipulation from headquarters of the Lisbon expedition, which caused it to fail of accomplishing its immediate object. Thereafter the policy was indeed anti-Spanish, but on the lines advocated by Hawkins and Essex (who may now be said to have taken the place occupied by Leicester till his death in 1588), not by Raleigh and Drake.

The distinction between Raleigh’s political conceptions and those of his contemporaries marks the transition of which he was conscious and they were not. Their eyes were fixed upon Europe. Burghley’s calculations were always directed to the preservation of a balance of power on the Continent; he was afraid of France, and knew the commercial value of the Burgundian alliance. The New World did not appeal to him at all--a rivalry there would hardly have seemed to him desirable. The ordinary Englishman, on the other hand, felt that Spain had proved herself the enemy of his country and his creed, and in the moment of victory his views were roughly summed up in two phrases--_vae victis_; and, _the spoils for the victors_. He had no very definite ideas as to the further results, though he might have the triumph of “the Religion” over Popery in his mind. If he thought of the New World, it was not as a land where he might make himself a new home, but as a Tom Tiddler’s ground for bold adventurers. Raleigh saw the vision of the boundless empire occupied by the men of his own race. There are indications that if Walsingham had lived Raleigh would have stood less alone; but Walsingham died, poor and in disfavour, in 1590.

Roughly speaking, then, for some years after the Armada the war party at large predominated; maintaining the system of persistent warfare on Spanish commerce, varied at intervals with more effective blows such as the attack on the Bretagne forts held by the Spaniards (in league with the Guises), and the great Cadiz expedition. In these moves Raleigh’s voice and hand were heard and felt; but they were isolated moves, not followed up--largely owing to the clever management of the Cecils, in whom the Queen really placed her reliance. The war party itself was ruled in effect by the young Earl of Essex, whose personality was particularly obnoxious to the Cecils, while his policy was comparatively acceptable to them. Essex, being desperately jealous of Raleigh’s general favour with the Queen, Sir Walter was generally on friendly terms with the Cecils; whereas anything but a very temporary show of amity between the two Court rivals was entirely out of the question. And whenever Essex had access to the Queen he had the better of the contest. These controlling conditions make Raleigh’s career at this time intelligible.

Both Raleigh and Essex accompanied the Lisbon expedition in 1589. Raleigh was with Drake; Essex, who had joined in defiance of orders, with the land force. The fleet was in no way responsible for the failure, though the blame was carefully laid on Drake; Raleigh, ostensibly at any rate, rather gained in favour with the Queen, who was extremely angry with Essex. The Earl, however, recovered his ascendency while his rival was in Ireland in this same year. Then came another period of Raleigh’s ascendency. Essex married Philip Sidney’s widow, thereby infuriating his mistress; and, when he had been forgiven, was not kept at Court, but sent to command the English contingent in France in support of the king, Henry IV.--who was warring for his throne against the Guises, backed by Philip. Still, the raiding policy held the field, and the naval operations of 1590 were conducted by Hawkins and Frobisher. The Treasure fleet, against which it was directed, had warning and did not sail into the trap, so that the expedition was practically a failure. A similar expedition was planned for the next year, in which Raleigh was to have sailed as Vice-Admiral, Lord Thomas Howard being in command; but, Essex being in France, Elizabeth would not spare him, and Grenville went instead, to meet his death in the last famous fight of the _Revenge_. The next year, Raleigh and the Earl of Cumberland had a great enterprise on hand; but, again, Raleigh was ordered to turn back and resign his command to Frobisher.

At this time Sir Walter fell into complete disgrace at Court, partly because he did not at first obey the Queen’s orders, partly because of the discovery of his _liaison_ with Elizabeth Throgmorton, who became his wife--whether he was already secretly married to her is a matter of some doubt. He was placed in confinement, and wrote the most outrageous letters to Robert Cecil anent the misery of being deprived of the sunshine of the Royal presence; in the then conventional form of adulation for Gloriana. He was more or less forgiven when the ships under the command of his lieutenant, Borough, returned, with a very rich prize, of the value whereof Elizabeth took one-half for herself. Incidentally, the whole story of this enterprise shows that Raleigh could make himself as popular with sailors as unpopular elsewhere; for the crews nearly mutinied when they found he was to be displaced by Frobisher; and after they landed, Robert Cecil was quite perturbed at the discovery of their devotion to him, their wrath at his imprisonment, and his influence over them when he was sent down to the port to keep matters straight.

Raleigh was released, but he no longer basked in the sunshine of the Virgin Queen’s favour, and lived away from the Court, spending much of his time at his newly acquired estate of Sherborne. About this time his rival, returned from France, was admitted to the Privy Council, from which he himself was still excluded; but he became active in Parliament, in private matters relating to his various estates, and in planning his great expedition for the “discovery of Guiana”; while he was also an energetic advocate of the policy of expelling the Spaniards from Brittany, relying--in full accord with the school of Drake--on the navy as England’s instrument for fighting her great foe. The persuasive eloquence of his tongue would seem to have equalled the picturesque force of his pen, which had been displayed in more than one pamphlet, notably in his extremely vivid account of the great fight in which his kinsman Grenville lost his life--where his narrative powers are associated with a singularly telling rhetorical invective directed against the Spaniards.

For a dozen years past, however, Raleigh had hardly put to sea in his own person, or seen much fighting. In 1595 he reappears as emphatically a man of action.

V

FAVOUR AND FALL

The Virginia project was for the time abandoned, since it had become clear that no serviceable co-operation could be expected from any quarter. If the establishment of a working colony in North America was out of his power, Raleigh came to the conclusion that territorial acquisitions on the southern continent might prove more attractive. Rumour declared that the Peruvian Incas had set up in the interior a new empire, known as Guiana, whose capital was the golden city of Manoa; Spanish attempts to penetrate inland had failed. If England established her sovereignty in the heart of South America, taking possession of what was believed to be the richest country in the world, the most short-sighted could see what a prospect was offered of dominating her rival, in the field to which that rival laid exclusive claim; and the most avaricious might anticipate opportunities of accumulating enormous wealth.

So Raleigh organised his expedition for the exploration of the Orinoco in 1595, taking command of it in person. The record of it we have from his own pen. As a matter of course, he had sundry collisions with the Spaniards, very much of his own seeking, capturing Berreo, the Governor of Trinidad, from whom he extracted a certain amount of information. Then he made his way some distance up the great river, enduring many hardships, seeing many strange sights, and gathering still more astonishing reports; collecting also samples of ore which suggested the auriferous character of the district. It seems, however, a somewhat curious omission on his part that he had sailed without proper means either for mining or assaying. In all other respects he proved himself an extremely competent explorer, in especial recognising the necessity of cultivating--in contrast to the Spaniards--the confidence and friendliness of the natives; carrying out his scheme, not on the hypothesis of bringing home the maximum of loot, but of preparing the way for the systematic entry of England into a great inheritance. He was again doomed to disappointment. The Cecils at this period were cooperating with him cautiously, but he could still get no other support; the Queen was minded to participate royally in profits, but she preferred to leave all the risks to others--and the others preferred the immediate return from raids to any systematic and laborious methods, however paying in the long run. Moreover, the credit which Sir Walter gave to apparently authentic but fabulous tales of Amazons and men whose heads do grow beneath their shoulders, brought undeserved discredit on the explorer’s account of what he had actually seen. In short, the result of his adventure seemed very likely to be, that adventurers with very different methods would visit Guiana in search of Eldorado; but the beginnings of an English Empire in America were brought no nearer.

By this time Elizabeth was awaking to the fact that Spain’s power of aggression on the seas had by no means disappeared; and Drake had once more been called into counsel. In the winter of 1595, the great seaman and his old colleague and rival John Hawkins were in joint command of a new Panama expedition, in the course of which both of them died. The Cadiz expedition next year was the fruit of the more efficient policy which was being forced to the front by circumstances. General reconciliation was the order of the day in England; the Cecils, the Howards, Raleigh, and Essex were all on formal terms of alliance. Philip was making great naval preparations, when an English force appeared off Cadiz; Essex was the General, Effingham the Admiral; his cousin, Lord Thomas Howard and Raleigh, were both on the War Council. Effingham wished to land the soldiers and attack the town; Raleigh, who had been absent from the Council of War, appeared in time to get a hearing; the decision arrived at was reversed, and Raleigh in his vessel headed the squadron as it sailed into Cadiz harbour. There is no doubt that Sir Walter was the hero of the occasion, setting the example of doing the right thing in the right way. The result was that thirteen of Philip’s best warships were sunk or captured, a great fleet of forty sail packed full of riches was taken or burnt, and Cadiz itself was sacked completely and thoroughly, while the persons of the inhabitants were protected and cared for with a most unaccustomed generosity. Raleigh’s own narrative--he was badly wounded during the engagement--gives the fullest account of the proceedings, but is in the main substantiated by other evidence; and if he had no qualms about asserting the merits of his own performance, he was also at pains to emphasise with generous frankness the frank generosity displayed towards him by his personal rival. In all the relations between him and Essex, this is the pleasantest--one might almost say the only really pleasing--episode.

At last Raleigh was restored to Court favour; but for a time a superficial friendliness with Essex was maintained, and the pair were again united with Lord Thomas Howard in the following year in what was known as the Islands voyage: a futile performance, in which the English fleet had the worst of luck in respect of weather, and Essex, who was in supreme command, showed grave incompetence--which was hardly unnatural, since he was quite inexperienced in naval warfare and knew nothing whatever of naval strategy. At one stage Raleigh, awaiting Essex off Fayal (in the Azores), with orders not to attack till the whole force was assembled, found sufficient reason, after some days’ delay, for effecting the capture of the place on his own responsibility--to the extreme annoyance of Essex. The action was executed with brilliant courage and success; but the Earl’s anger was with difficulty appeased, and the old animosity between the rivals was to a great extent revived by the incident.

For a time, however, Raleigh was not much at Court. But Essex, who was popular with the mob, as the other was not, was jealous of every one, and nearly every one was jealous of Essex. Old Lord Burghley died, and a considerable part of the story of the Queen’s last years is really the story of the crafty intriguing by which Robert Cecil first urged Essex to the ruin on which he was ready enough to rush, and then laid his mines for the destruction of Raleigh--while carefully avoiding the odium in both cases. Essex, when in Ireland, acquired a fixed idea that Sir Walter was the principal person whose machinations were compassing his downfall; but there is little enough reason to suppose that he had any one but himself to thank. The only effective machinations were those of the people who covertly encouraged his own arrogance and misconduct. Nevertheless, it is matter of regret that when Essex fell, Raleigh--who had recently received insults from him--did take a vindictive line, while Cecil was posing as the advocate of magnanimity.

A sketch such as this does not permit of an examination of the intricate plottings that surrounded the old Queen as she was wearing rapidly to her grave. Roughly speaking, the English Catholics outside the country were zealous for the quite impossible succession of Philip III. of Spain--a plan which did not appeal to the Catholics in England. There were schemes for the succession of that monarch’s sister, which found supporters only on the basis of her uniting the crowns of the Netherlands and England, in independence of Spain. There were ideas of marrying Arabella Stewart and Lord Beauchamp--each of whom had some sort of title--with the object of preventing the accession of James VI., whose claim on purely legitimist grounds was quite indisputable. Cecil, satisfied that James was the winning candidate, made it his business to convince that prince that his peaceful accession would be entirely due to Cecil’s own masterly management, and that Raleigh in particular was extremely antagonistic; while Raleigh himself was at no pains to curry favour with the Scots king.

Scarcely was Elizabeth dead and James on the throne when a plot for his removal and the substitution of Arabella was brought to light, and Raleigh was charged with having sold himself to Spain and being a principal agent in the conspiracy, which involved the introduction of Spanish troops. The conduct of the trial was a monstrous perversion of justice, and Raleigh was condemned as a traitor. Apart from the inadequacy of the evidence and the palpable fact that it was full of contradictions and of perjury, it remains incredible that Raleigh should ever have seriously intended to support a Spanish domination. It would not only have been a flat contradiction of his whole career, a merely amazing folly in the man who in all England was the most absolutely convinced of the rottenness of the power of Spain; there was also no man alive who more thoroughly appreciated the historical truth, that he who sells his own country to her enemies purchases for himself not power and confidence but suspicion and contempt. The part of Themistocles would not have attracted him. He might have been capable of playing a selfish game; he was certainly not likely to play a consciously unpatriotic one; but the game attributed to him by his enemies would have been in his own eyes not only unpatriotic, but, from the selfish point of view, egregiously stupid.

VI

CAPTIVE AND VICTIM

Raleigh was condemned to die as a traitor; but the sentence was not carried out. Instead, he was relegated to the Tower, and was there held a prisoner for twelve years--mainly occupied in scientific and literary pursuits, varied by petitions for release. His chemical experiments may be accounted as a hobby; but his writings would have assured his fame had he possessed no other claim to recognition. They range over the whole field of what the Greeks included under the term “politics”--economics, the art of war, the art of government, political institutions, as well as other subjects. The incidental discourses on such matters, illustrated from the events _quorum pars magna fuerat_, with his comments thereon, give the main permanent interest to his “History of the World”--in itself a monument of such historical learning as was available in his day. On every subject he touched he wrote with a knowledge of facts and a penetrating perception of causes which distinguish him as a political thinker of a high order; alive, like Thomas More, to truths which had hardly won general recognition two centuries after he was in his grave. He who in the great days had been the intimate of Edmund Spenser was in the days of his captivity on terms of friendship with Ben Jonson. He, too, wrote poetry, but this was for him rather in the nature of an intellectual exercise or accomplishment than of a creative order; little that can with certainty be attributed to him has been handed down, though that little includes lines (like “The Lie” and the sonnet to Spenser) which are immortal, assuring him his place on the English Helicon. But his _magnum opus_ was that “History of the World” which King James condemned because it spoke too “saucily” of the doings of princes, but which was ranked by Oliver Cromwell next to his Bible.

Raleigh’s condemnation produced a curious effect. Hitherto, he had been able to win the devotion of the few chosen intimates whom he accounted his intellectual peers, and of the mariners who sailed under his command, who adored him in much the same way and for the same reasons as they adored Francis Drake. Among courtiers his open and aggressive consciousness of intellectual superiority and his scornful attitude made him intensely unpopular; and he was the pet aversion of the mob, who had made a hero of Essex and regarded him as the Earl’s principal enemy. Yet the sense that he was a victim of gross injustice, the dignity and eloquence he displayed at his trial, the contrast between this typical Elizabethan and the minions of the new Stewart Court, brought about a revulsion of sentiment, and Raleigh in the Tower became an object of admiration, and to Henry Prince of Wales of hero-worship.

A curious psychological study is afforded by Sir Walter’s letters when he was lying under sentence of death. He condescended to appeal to the king for mercy in terms which can only be called abject; yet the ink was scarcely dry when he was writing to his wife with tender affection and beautiful dignity. The conclusion afforded by a comparison of the documents is that his personal attitude towards death was that expressed in the letter to his wife, but that for the sake of his family he felt bound to appeal for life, and the only form of appeal from which anything might be hoped must be couched in that style of pitiful self-abasement and fulsome flattery which he adopted--and by which he felt himself degraded.

While Robert Cecil lived there was never much hope of liberty for Sir Walter, who yet seems never to have realised that his old friend and colleague was, under the surface, his most determined enemy. But the prisoner, though now advanced in years--he was already fifty-one at the time of the trial--never ceased to dream of Eldorado, and to petition for liberty in order to make one more expedition to Guiana. Cecil died; the rising favourite, Villiers, was a person whose influence could be secured--at a price; and at last, after more than twelve years of captivity, Raleigh was released, to prepare for his last voyage. But the attitude of England to Spain had changed since Elizabeth’s death: the ambassador Gondomar could twist King James round his little finger. Raleigh meant to win his golden empire, and incidentally to teach the old lesson of Spanish incapacity over again; Gondomar intended to use that expedition for Raleigh’s destruction. Sir Walter played the game on the old familiar theory of twenty--thirty--forty years before: that success would excuse proceedings unauthorised, and even forbidden. Every soul, from the king down, knew perfectly well that if the adventurer did not set Spain at defiance, the adventure itself would be a stupid farce.

So the greatest living Englishman was sent forth to his carefully prepared destruction, to entangle himself in the toils laid by, and at the bidding of, the minister of England’s old foe. Of course, under the conditions the expedition was a disastrous failure. Raleigh returned from it with a perfect knowledge that he was coming back to irretrievable ruin and disgrace. It would have been easy enough for him to find refuge in a French port; that he deliberately faced his fate is sufficient proof that the charge of his having already sold himself to France was a base slander. Raleigh’s enemies were everlastingly accusing him of selling himself; they never produced a scintilla of proof, and the sales were singularly unremunerative to a man who was as careful of his own interests as any one when he did drive a bargain. He had hardly landed in Plymouth when he was placed under arrest. Even now he had an opportunity of escaping to France, but he refused to avail himself of it. His doom was a foregone conclusion; the death sentence passed on him in 1603 had never been cancelled.

He bore himself worthily; with the fortitude and dignity which were almost a commonplace with Englishmen of the Tudor tradition. The king of England, Elizabeth’s successor, struck off the head of the last of the Elizabethan heroes, at the orders of the king of Spain. But the degradation was only for a time. Spain had laid her enemy low; but the lesson he had spent his life to teach his countrymen was bearing its fruit even in the hour of his doom; to the men of Raleigh’s race was destined the Empire of the seas, and of the new worlds which Spain had arrogantly claimed.

INDEX

A

Agrarian distress, 20-21, 90-91, 95, 211, 223-224, 262

Alençon, Duke of, 335-336, 341, 343-344, 347

Alva, Duke of, 308, 330, 331, 335, 338

Annates Act, 132, 135, 182

Armada, 315-316, 367-369

Arthur, Prince, 26, 30

Ascham, Roger, 282, 283

Askew, Anne, 328

Assassinations, 349-350

B

Babington plot, 315, 353, 366-367

Bacon, Nicholas, 282, 307

Beauchamp, Lord, 385

Benevolences, 51

Beton, Cardinal, 189-190, 200, 214, 300

Bible, vernacular version of, 185, 199, 218, 254

Blount, Elizabeth, 192

Bocher, Joan, 221

Boleyn, Anne, Henry’s passion for, 57, 171-172, 175, 192, 194-195;
marriage, 55, 56, 104, 136, 170, 195, 248;
Act of Succession for issue of, 104;
Henry’s treatment of, 199;
fall of, 249-251;
Cranmer’s attitude towards, 192, 194-195;
execution of, 148, 195

Boleyn, Mary, 192, 194, 251

Bonner, Bishop, 210, 219, 221, 231, 261, 268, 272

Buckingham, Duke of, 46, 50, 177

Bucer, 264

Burghley, Lord (William Cecil), family and early years of, 281-282;
first marriage, 282;
relations with Somerset, 283-284;
second marriage, 283;
relations with Warwick, 284;
retirement, 288;
ecclesiastical policy, 297;
financial policy, 298-299;
Scottish policy, 301-303;
foreign policy, 303-306, 308, 311-312, 319;
relations with Queen Elizabeth, 279-280, 289;
views on privateering, 312-314;
made Lord High Treasurer, 312 _note_, 339;
war with Spain, 316;
contrasted with Cromwell, Somerset, and Philip of Spain, 321;
relations with Walsingham, 326, 346, 356-357;
secret service created by, 330;
death of, 318;
characteristics of, 319-322

Burgundy, 292, 304, 317, 334, 377

Burning of heretics, 101, 271;
repeal of statutes, 220, 226

C

Cabot, 19

Calais Conference, 167

Catherine de Medici, 295, 304, 332, 336-338

Catherine of Aragon, &c. _See_ Katharine of Aragon

Cecil, David, 281-282

Cecil, Robert, 317, 362, 379, 385, 386, 387, 389

Cecil, William. _See_ Burghley

Chantries Act, 219

Chapuys _cited_, 127, 132, 193, 195, 197

Charles V., Emperor, candidature of, for the Empire, 45, 164;
relations with France, 46-47, 146-147, 152-154, 166, 169, 184;
on More, 111;
Katharine’s policy as to, 194;
Cromwell’s attitude towards, 183;
Henry VIII.’s alliance with, 189

Church:
Act in Restraint of Appeals, 135, 137
Act of Uniformity, 220-221;
second Act of Uniformity, 232
Annates Act, 132, 135, 182
Burning of heretics. _See_ that title
Cranmer’s views as to, 244-245
Formularies, need for, 255
Henry VIII.’s anti-clerical campaign, 102-103, 130-134, 246;
Henry proclaimed Supreme Head, 181
Indulgences, 241
Litany, vernacular, 255
Marriage of Secular clergy, 246, 259
Monasteries, suppression of, 141-142, 145, 211, 224, 253
Oath of Obedience to Pope, 247-248 _and note_
Parties in, under Elizabeth, 296-297
Prayer Books of Edward VI. (1549), 220, 261-262;
(1552), 231, 265
Reformation. _See_ that title
Six Articles Act. _See_ that title
Submission of the clergy, 134, 181, 246, 247
Unpopularity of ecclesiastics, 64

Clarke, John, 282

Clement VII., Pope, 127, 133-135, 175, 241, 242

Cleves, Anne of, 196;
marriage with Henry VIII., 152-153, 184, 196-197

Coinage,
debasement of, 190, 229, 298;
new issue under Elizabeth, 298

Colet, Dean, 38, 63, 65, 78-81, 83, 85, 185, 240, 241

Coligny, Admiral, 336-337

Columbus, Christopher, 19

Commercial and industrial policy, 16-18

Conscience, 174-175, 326-327, 354-355

Conservatism and Liberalism, 75-76

Cranmer, Archbishop, family and early years of, 239;
at Cambridge, 239-240;
marriage, 240;
on the divorce question, 135, 178, 242-243, 245;
embassy to Bologna, 179, 245;
second marriage, 246;
appointed archbishop, 134, 185, 246-247;
Erastianism, 150, 244-245;
relations with Henry, 185-186, 218, 257;
attitude towards Anne Boleyn, 195, 249-251;
efforts for education, 253;
pleads for Cromwell, 154, 252;
at Henry’s death, 199;
relations with Somerset, 222, 260;
on the Lady Jane Grey succession, 267-268, 286;
Book of Homilies by, 219, 259;
moderating influence of, 231, 260, 266;
views on the Eucharist, 264-265;
on forms and ceremonies, 265;
arrest and imprisonment, 269-270;
disputation at Oxford, 270-271;
Papal commission on, 271;
excommunication, 272;
recantations, 272-273;
martyrdom, 273-275;
estimates of, 237-239, 274-275;
otherwise mentioned, 126, 198, 211, 230

Crofts, Sir James, 315-316

Cromwell, Thomas, family and early years of, 117-118, 121-122;
in Parliament, 118-119, 122-123;
relations with Wolsey, 120;
Machiavellian principles of, 123-125;
conduct on Wolsey’s fall, 125-126;
rise in royal favour, 126-129;
anti-clerical campaign, 130-131, 133, 135, 141-145, 181-182, 253;
crushes More and Fisher, 137-140;
Treasons Act, 139-140;
Royal proclamations Act (1539), 141, 145;
appointed Vicar-General, 141;
campaign against the monasteries, 141-145;
Statute of Uses, 143;
the Exeter Conspiracy, 144-145;
packing of parliaments, 145;
attitude towards Protestantism, 146-147, 149-150;
foreign policy of, 146-147, 183, 185, 188;
Lutheran marriage scheme, 148, 152;
position with the king, 179-181;
differences, 183-186;
relations with Cranmer, 150-151, 154, 252, 257;
fall and execution, 153-154, 158, 186, 251-252;
compared with Wolsey, 115-116;
with More, 124;
with Burghley, 321;
characteristics of, 115-116, 174;
estimate of, 115-117

Cromwell, Walter, 117-118, 121

D

Darnley, 303, 329

Davis, John, 373

Day, Bishop, 231, 268

Dorset, Marquess of, 38, 39, 228, 229

Doughty, 313-314

Drake, Admiral, 312-315, 340, 344, 373, 374, 383;
the Lisbon expedition, 316, 318, 356, 378

Dudley, Edmund, 22, 23, 29, 39, 83, 160

Dudley, John (Northumberland).
_See_ Northumberland

Dudley, Robert.
_See_ Leicester

E

Eastern rising (1549), 262

Edward VI., King, accession of, 208;
Scottish marriage project, 213, 215;
first Prayer Book of (1549), 220, 261-262;
second Prayer Book of (1552), 231, 265;
names Lady Jane Grey his heir, 267-268

Effingham, Lord Howard of, 316, 379, 383, 384

Elizabeth of York, 7-8, 31-32

Elizabeth, Queen, birth of, 248;
Lord Seymour’s schemes regarding, 228-229;
caution during Mary’s reign, 289;
accession, 288;
financial policy, 298-299;
attitude towards Protestantism, 306;
position in Continental politics, 47-48;
Papal Bull deposing, 308-309, 350;
sends Walsingham to the Netherlands, 341-342;
encourages privateering, 312, 314, 341;
policy of vacillation, 314;
relations with Walsingham, 325-326, 342-343, 345, 355;
Anjou marriage project, 334-335;
Alençon marriage project, 335-336, 341, 343-344, 347;
_rapprochement_ with Philip, 338;
relations with Raleigh, 356, 365;
in league with the Netherlands (1585), 315-316, 348;
characteristics of, 15, 279-280, 291, 333-334, 348;
estimate of, 325

Empson, 22-23, 29, 39, 83, 160

Erasmus, 79-80, 83, 97, 240

Essex, Earl of, 376, 378-380, 383, 384, 385

Exeter, Marquis of (1538), 144

Exeter, Lord (Thomas Cecil), 282-283

F

Ferdinand of Aragon, 19, 24, 25-27, 39-41, 44-45, 161-162, 200

Field of the Cloth of Gold, 49, 166

Fisher, Bishop, 104-105, 137, 241, 249

Fleet, English, 19, 201, 362

Fox, Bishop, 40, 65, 161, 241, 242

France:
Antagonism with, before Henry VIII., 292
Charles V.’s relations with, 146-147, 152-154, 184
Guise party in, 294, 333, 338
Henry VII.’s relations with, 25-26, 40-41
Huguenot position in (1571), 330-333
Philip II.’s relations with, 295-296, 304
_Politique_ party in, 295, 304, 330, 331
St. Bartholomew massacres, 309, 336-337
Scotland allied with, 42, 189, 216, 293, 300
War with (1522), 46-47, 51, 167-169; 188, 189;
(1558), 293

Francis I., King, accession of, 40;
relations with Spain, 46-47, 152-154, 184;
relations with England, 146-147;
Pavia, 169;
death of, 210;
contrasted with Henry VIII., 193

Frith, John, 255

Frobisher, 378, 379

Froude, J. A., _cited_, 53, 59, 329

G

Gardiner, Bishop, introduces Cranmer to Henry VIII., 242;
Henry’s attitude towards, 185;
on the divorce, 127, 247, 252;
excluded from Council of Executors, 198, 209, 218, 258;
imprisoned, 219, 221;
deprived of his see, 231, 268;
attitude towards Cranmer, 247, 261;
otherwise mentioned, 150, 154, 179, 187, 210, 263

Germany, Cromwell’s relations with, 146-148, 152-154;
Peasants’ war, 97-98

Gilbert, Humphrey, 363-365, 371-372

Gondomar (Spanish Ambassador), 389, 390

Greater Britain, 362

Greek, study of, 78

Grenville, Richard, 373, 375, 339, 380

Grey, Lady Jane, 228, 267, 282, 283, 286

Grey, Katharine, 307

Grocyn, 79, 81

Gueran de Espes, Don (Spanish Ambassador), 294, 329, 330, 333

H

Hales, 267

Hatton, 370

Hawkins, Captain John, 310, 317, 367, 378, 383

Heath, Bishop, 231, 268

Henry VII., King, early years of, 5-7;
position as king, 7-9;
moderation, 9, 28;
fines and confiscations, 10-11, 13;
financial policy, 14, 16, 22-23;
commercial policy, 16-18;
maritime policy, 18-20;
judicial policy, 21;
foreign policy, 16, 25-27;
dispenses with Parliament, 178;
Wolsey appointed chaplain to, 38;
characteristics of, 27-32;
prestige of, 43;
Bacon’s estimate of, 3;
general attitude towards, 4

Henry VIII., King, education and youth of, 159-160;
accession, 39, 160;
place in European politics, 162-163;
Wolsey’s position with, 8, 41-42, 163, 165, 169-173, 176;
candidature for the Empire, 164-165;
war with France (1522), 168-169, 188;
attitude towards Parliament, 52, 179-180;
rise of More, 84, 96;
_apologia_ for the Papacy, 97, 177, 241;
relations with Katharine of Aragon, 193-194, 199;
the divorce, 53-61, 96, 103-104, 127, 134-135, 170-175, 178, 179,
188, 242-243, 245, 249;
makes Cranmer archbishop, 134, 185, 246-247;
anti-clerical campaign, 102-103, 181, 246;
crushes Wolsey, 102, 158, 176;
marriage with Anne Boleyn, 55-56, 104, 136, 170, 195, 248;
Cranmer’s relations with, 185-186, 218, 257;
marriage with Jane Seymour, 195;
Cromwell’s rise in favour, 126-129;
proclaimed Supreme Head of the Church, 131, 181;
breach with the Papacy (1533), 135-136;
Acts of Succession, 105, 138-139;
Oath of Supremacy, 105, 138-139, 249;
Treasons Act, 139-140;
crushes More, 105-106, 137-139, 200;
Cromwell’s position with, 179-181;
differences with Cromwell, 183-186;
Six Articles Act, 151, 152, 186, 199, 218;
death of Jane Seymour, 148;
marriage with Anne of Cleves, 153, 184, 196-197;
fall of Cromwell, 153-154, 158, 186;
marriage with Katharine Howard, 196;
marriage with Katharine Parr, 197;
debasement of the coinage, 190, 298;
later war with France, 189;
naval policy, 19, 201;
Scottish policy, 189-190, 213, 300;
theological views, 150, 183-184, 199;
closing years, 191;
death, 198-199;
will and executors, 198, 208-209, 218, 267;
characteristics, 15, 83, 174-175, 178, 193, 199-202;
estimates, 157-159

Henry of Anjou, 330-333

Henry of Navarre, 318, 336, 347, 356, 378

Herbert, 218, 230

Hertford, Earl of. _See_ Somerset

Howard, Katharine, 196

Howard, Lord Thomas, 316, 379, 383, 384

Howard, Charles (Effingham). _See_ Effingham

I

Ideals, 86-87

Imagination, illusions of, 88

Ireland under Elizabeth, 299, 320, 331, 344, 364-365

Italy, religious condition of, 121

J

James I., King, 385-386, 388

John, Don, 335, 340, 343

Judicature, 21-23

K

Katharine de Medici. _See_ Catherine

Katharine Howard, 196

Katharine of Aragon, betrothal of, to Prince Arthur, 26;
Henry VII.’s plans regarding, 29;
policy of, 169, 194;
relations with Henry VIII., 193-194, 199;
the divorce question, 52-61, 96, 103-104, 127, 134-135, 170-175,
178, 179, 188, 242-243, 245, 249;
death of, 147

Katharine Parr, 197, 228-229

Ket’s rebellion, 262

Kildare, Earl of, 10

Knox, John, 264, 265, 354

L

Latimer, Bishop, 185, 269, 270, 272

Leicester, Earl of (Robert Dudley), 307, 333, 339, 376

Liberalism and Conservatism, 75-76

Louis XI., King of France, 7, 23

Louis XII., King of France, 25, 40, 43

Luther, Martin, 95, 96-98, 177, 241

M

Machiavelli, 120, 123-125

Margaret, Dowager Duchess of Burgundy, 8

Mary of Guise, Queen, 189, 210, 294, 301, 302

Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, projected marriage of, with Edward, 213,
215;
taken to France, 216, 301;
marriage with the Dauphin, 293;
Queen of France, 295;
returns to Scotland a widow, 302;
Elizabeth’s policy towards, 303;
marriage with Bothwell, 307;
projected marriage with Anjou, 330-332;
Spanish plots, 308-310, 329-330, 333, 335, 349-350, 352, 366-367;
trial and condemnation, 353-355;
execution, 315

Mary Tudor, Queen, 172;
birth of, 194;
Henry’s later treatment of, 199; granted licence for the Mass, 232;
accession, 268;
early moderation, 269;
imprisonment of Cranmer, 269-270;
vindictive persecution of Cranmer, 273

Maximilian, Emperor, 24-26, 39-41, 200

Mendoza, Bernardino de, 341, 344, 347, 354

Monasteries, suppression of, 141-145, 211, 224, 253

Moray, Earl of, 303, 331

More, John, 77-78

More, Sir Thomas, family and youth of, 77-78;
law studies, 78, 81;
friendship with Erasmus, 79-80, 241;
in Parliament, 29, 81;
marriage, 82;
appointed Under-Sheriff in the City, 83;
on the Netherlands embassy, 84;
at Court, 84;
second marriage, 84;
the “Utopia,” 85-94, 98-99, 241;
as Privy Councillor, 94;
knighted, 95;
as Speaker, 95;
views on the royal divorce, 96, 178, 247;
attitude towards the Papacy, 63, 97;
towards heresy, 99-101, 106;
as Lord Chancellor, 101-102;
resignation of office, 102, 108, 134, 168;
crushed by Henry, 105, 137-139, 249;
in the Tower, 109;
executed, 106, 110-111, 200;
characteristics, 80, 106-108, 174;
estimates, 76-77

Morton, Cardinal, 4, 14

Morton, Earl of, 331, 339-340

N

Navigation Acts, 18-19

Navy, 19, 201, 362

Netherlands, revolt of, against Spain, 304-305, 307-308, 311, 330,
335, 338, 347;
the “Spanish Fury,” 340;
Walsingham’s mission, 341-342

Nobles, 13, 50

Norfolk, Duke of, 108-109, 128, 143, 154, 187, 196, 198, 208

Norreys, Sir John, 317, 364

Norris, Sir Henry, 332

Northampton, Earl of, 229

Northumberland, Earl of, 250-251

Northumberland, Duke of (Dudley-Warwick), deposes Somerset, 221, 231,
285;
crushes him, 233, 266;
relations with Burghley, 284-285;
ecclesiastical policy, 218, 263, 265;
debasing of coinage, 190;
scheme for the succession, 267, 286;
execution, 268;
contrasted with Somerset, 205-206

Nun of Kent, 104, 139

O

Oaths, nature of, 247-248 and _note_

Orderly element of society, 12-13

Orange, Prince of, 333-336, 339, 341, 343-345, 347

Oxford, Earl of, 14-15

P

Pace, Richard, 44, 164

Paget, 209, 218, 230, 232

Parliament:
Cromwell’s description of, 119
Henry VII.’s attitude towards, 178
Henry VIII.’s attitude towards, 52, 179-180
Somerset’s attitude towards, 227
Wolsey’s treatment of, 51, 95

Parma, Duke of, 315, 343, 347

Parr, Katharine, 197, 228-229

Peasants’ War in Germany, 97-98

Perrot, Sir John, 192

Philip II., King of Spain, policy of, 295, 304;
embarrassments, 331;
_rapprochement_ with Elizabeth, 338;
annexation of Portugal, 344;
death, 318

Pilgrimage of Grace, 143

Pinkie Cleugh, 215-216

Pole, Cardinal, 120, 144, 271-273

Pollard, A. F., _cited_, 206

Proclamation, government by, 210

R

Raleigh, Sir Walter, family and early years of, 363-364;
voyage with Humphrey Gilbert, 364;
in Ireland, 364-365;
at Court, 365, 370, 378;
Elizabeth’s relations with, 356;
anti-Spanish policy, 366, 377, 386;
Spanish negotiations story, 366-367;
1568-1581, 369;
knighted, 372;
expeditions to Virginia, 372-375;
the Lisbon expedition, 378;
disgrace and imprisonment, 379;
marriage with Elizabeth Throgmorton, 379;
expedition to the Orinoco, 381-382;
Cadiz expedition, 383;
restored to favour at Court, 384;
the Islands voyage, 384;
tried for treason under James, 386;
appeal for life, 389;
twelve years’ imprisonment, 387;
writings, 362, 387, 388;
release and last voyage, 389-390;
return and execution, 390-391;
estimate, 361-363

Reformation:
Act in Restraint of Appeals, 135, 137
Annates Act, 132, 135, 182
Aspects of, political and religious, 62-63
Cranmer’s influence on, 238-239, 260, 266
Eucharist, question of, 264-265
Forms and ceremonies, question of, 265
Monasteries, suppression of, 141-145, 211, 224, 253
Organisation of, by Cromwell, 127-129
Pilgrimage of Grace, 143
Scholars’ attitude towards, in early days, 240-241
Scottish attitude towards, 210
Somerset’s attitude towards, 217
Tendencies and development of, 263-266
Thirty-nine Articles, 265

Requesens, 339, 340

Religious repression, 99-100

Richmond, Duke of, 192-193

Ridley, Bishop, 231, 265, 266, 269, 270, 272

Ridolfi plot, 309, 310, 329-330, 333, 335

Rizzio, 303

Rogers, 271

Roper, Margaret, 106, 108-110

Roper, William, _cited_, 81, 82 _note_, 96, 106, 108, 139

Royal Proclamations Act (1539), 141, 145

Russell, 218, 230

S

Scotland:
Burghley’s policy, as to, 301-303
Elizabeth’s policy as to, 339-340
England menaced by, 42
English supremacy impossible in, 212-213
French alliance with, 189, 216, 293, 300
Henry VII.’s policy as to, 213
Henry VIII.’s policy as to, 189-190, 213, 300
Military operations against, 208;
condition during Somerset’s Protectorates, 210;
his policy, 214-217, 300
Moray’s assassination, 331
Protestantism in, 301-302
Reformation, attitude towards, 210
Treaty of Edinburgh, 302

Seymour, Admiral Lord, 197, 228-230

Seymour, Edward. _See_ Somerset

Seymour, Jane, 148, 193, 195-197

Sharington, 229

Sheep-farming, 20, 211, 223, 262

Simnel, Lambert, 8, 9

Sitsilt, Richard, 281

Six Articles Act (1539), 151, 152, 186, 199, 218, 256;
repeal of, 220, 260

Somerset, Duke of (Earl of Hertford), family and rise of, 207-208;
position on Henry’s death, 198, 208, 258;
appointed Lord Protector, 209;
aims, 212;
Scottish policy, 214-217, 300;
religious views, 217;
religious policy, 101, 219-222, 226, 232, 261;
social policy, 225-226;
Court of Requests, 225, 262;
Cranmer’s relations with, 221, 260;
Cecil’s relations with, 283;
Treason Act, 227;
proceedings against Lord Seymour, 228-230;
deposed, 226, 230-231, 285;
arrested and executed, 205, 233-234, 266;
characteristics, 234, 283;
contrasted with Northumberland, 206;
with Burghley, 321;
estimates, 205-207

Spain:
Armada, 315-316, 367-369
Cadiz expedition, 383-384
English attitude towards, under Elizabeth, 310-314;
war, 316-318
Henry VII.’s relations with, 25-27
Inquisition, 308-310
Philip’s policy. _See_ Philip
Raleigh’s attitude towards, 366-367, 377, 386

Star Chamber, 21-22

Stokesley, Bishop, 247, 252, 254

Stuart, Arabella, 385-386

Stuart, Mary. _See_ Mary Stuart

Stukely, 331, 333

Suffolk, Duchess of (Frances Brandon), 267

Suffolk, Duke of (Charles Brandon), 143, 162

Suffolk, Earl of (Edmund de la Pole), 29, 177

Surrey, Thomas and Earl of, 10, 40

Surrey, Henry Earl of, 192, 198, 208

T

Taunton, Father, _cited_, 57-59

Throgmorton, Elizabeth, 379

Throgmorton conspiracy, 315, 347, 352

Toleration, 101, 220-221, 226, 232

Torture, 233, 320-321, 351

Treasons Acts of Henry VIII., 139-140, 226;
of Somerset, 227;
of Northumberland, 227, 232

Tudor absolutism, 12

Tunstal, Bishop, 84, 164-165, 211, 218, 231, 258, 268

U

“Utopia,” 85-94, 98-99, 241

V

Villiers, George, 389

Virginia, 372-375

W

Walsingham, Sir Francis, family and early years of, 328;
residence abroad, 328;
employed on secret service, 328-330;
Ambassador in France, 330, 332-334, 337-338;
appointed Secretary of State, 339;
Netherlands mission, 341-342;
Protestant sympathies, 280, 306, 343, 348;
relations with Queen Elizabeth, 279-280, 342-343;
relations with Burghley, 326, 346, 356;
on colonial expansion, 372;
mission to Paris, 344-347;
measures against the Queen of Scots, 353-355;
closing years and death, 356-357, 377;
characteristics, 325-327;
estimate, 326-327

Warbeck, Perkin, 9, 11, 18

Warham, Archbishop, 134, 241, 246

Warwick (Dudley). _See_ Northumberland

Warwick, Richard Earl of, 4, 5, 7-9

Welsh ancestry, 282

Western rising (1549), 230, 261-262

Weston, Dean, 271

Whitgift, Archbishop, 320

Wiltshire, Earl of, 179, 245

Wriothesly, Lord Chancellor, 209, 218, 328

Wolsey, Cardinal, family and early years of, 38;
rise, 40;
aims, 24, 36, 49;
foreign policy, 41-45, 166-170;
relations with Henry VIII., 41-42, 163, 165, 169-173, 176;
The French War, 46-47, 167-169, 188;
domestic policy, 49-52;
relations with nobility, 50-51, 69;
attempts to overawe Parliament, 51, 95;
the divorce question, 55-61, 170-173, 176, 179;
the Reformation, 63-66;
educational foundations, 65, 240-241;
relations with More, 96;
relations with Cromwell, 120, 125-126;
fall, 52-53, 67-68, 102, 125-126, 158;
at York, 68, 69;
characteristics, 64;
estimates, 35-37, 64, 70-71

Wyatt’s rebellion, 270

Y

Yorkists, 5-6, 8

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Transcriber’s Notes

Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a predominant preference was found in this book; otherwise they were not changed.

Simple typographical errors were corrected; occasional unbalanced quotation marks retained.

Ambiguous hyphens at the ends of lines were retained.

Index not checked for proper alphabetization or correct page references.

Page 246: “he was again despatched as an enemy to Germany” was printed that way; perhaps “emissary” was intended.