Philip II. of Spain dies, Sept. 13. Edward Squyer, convicted of attempting to poison the queen, is executed, Nov. 13. The queen's declining health gives rise to speculations as to her successor. The secretary Cecil' endeavours to come to an understanding with James of Scotland; others bring forward the pretensions of Arabella Stuart *. A.D. 1599. Great preparations made against a threatened invasion from Spain; the earl of Nottingham is made lieutenantgeneral of the kingdom, as well by sea as land. O'Neal having foiled various commanders sent against him, the earl of Essex is, at his own request, appointed lord-lieutenant of Ireland, March 12. He lands at Dublin April 15. Essex wastes his army with fruitless marches, but without fighting; holds a suspicious secret conference with O'Neal, and then suddenly leaves Ireland, Sept. 24. He abruptly presents himself before the queen at Nonsuch, Sept. 28. The earl is committed to the custody of the lord keeper (Sir Thomas Egerton), October 2; and Lord Mountjoy (Charles Blount) is sent as his successor into Ireland. He was a soldier on board Essex's fleet against | the Azores in the preceding year, and being taken prisoner, was, according to his indictment, induced to undertake the task of killing the queen, by the persuasion of one Walpole, an English priest, in the service of Philip of Spain. Walpole is recorded to have administered the Eucharist to him, and assured him that if he succeeded "he should be a glorious saint in heaven." Then he embraced him, throwing his left arm about his neck, and making the sign of a cross on his head, saying, 'God bless thee, and give thee strength, my son, and be of good courage; I will pawn my soul for thine, and thou shalt have my prayers both dead and alive, and full pardon of all thy sins.'" Robert Cecil, a younger son of the minister Burghley, was born about 1565, and, though weakly and deformed, yet served in the fleet against the Spanish Armada. He kept about the court, and on the death of Walsingham (1590) succeeded to his office. On the arrival of James in England, Cecil became his chief adviser, was made earl of Salisbury in 1605, and died May 24, 1612. The younger Cecil is usually esteemed more subtle and more implacable than his father; and the ruin of both Essex and Ralegh is generally ascribed to him. She was cousin to James, and was believed to incline to Romanism. Ralegh, who was governor of Jersey, supported her claim, as did lord Cob A.D. 1600. Sixteen priests and four Romish laymen removed from the prisons about London to Wisbech castle. Negotiations for peace with Spain entered into at Boulogne, in May, but without success. The earl of Essex is examined be fore the council, and ordered to keep himself to his own house, June 5. Five priests and two laymen executed in London, Durham, and Lincoln, June and July; one layman for being reconciled, the other for relieving a priest, who was hanged with him. Ambassadors received from the king of Barbary, who profess to desire a commercial treaty, but are looked on as spies. James of Scotland is seized by Lord Gowrie and his brother Alexander Ruthven, Tuesday, Aug. 5, but rescued by his attendants. Essex makes attempts to regain the queen's favour, and being repulsed, enters into negotiations with James of Scotland. He also leagues with Romanists as well as Puritans, and at length concerts a scheme for driving Cecil, Ralegh, and other opponents from the court. A charter for exclusive trade to the East Indies and China is granted to certain merchants of London, Dec. 31. b They were the sons of the earl of Gowrie executed in 1584 (see p. 354). According to the king's own account, he was decoyed while hunting to their castle, when an armed man threatened him with a dagger, but his guards forced their way in, and the Ruthvens were killed. The transaction, usually called the Gowrie plot, is one of the most obscure in Scottish history. James, in remembrance of his deliverance, went to church every Tuesday during the rest of his life; and an annual thanksgiving was held in Scotland, as was also done in England after his accession. This was the origin of the English East India Company. They dispatched five ships in the following year, under the command of James Lancaster; a very profitable trade was the result, and the vessels, after visiting Sumatra and Java, reached the Downs in safety, Sept. 11, 1603. A.D. 1601. The earl of Essex imprisons the councillors sent to him to warn him to desist from an alleged attempt to seize the queen's person, Sunday, Feb. 8. He then marches into the city, accompanied by the earls of Rutland and Southampton (Roger Manners and Henry Wriothesley) and William, lord Sandys, and "a multitude of armed men, but not being joined by the citizens, returns by water to Essex house, and at ten at night surrenders to the earl of Nottingham. He is tried (Lord Buckhurst being lord steward) on a charge, among other things, of endeavouring to "raise himself to the royal dignity," Feb. 19, and is found guilty. He is executed Feb. 25. John Pybush, a seminarist, is executed, after seven years' imprisonment, Feb. 18. Two others, and a widow lady who had assisted a priest, are executed Feb. 27. Cecil enters into a correspondence in cipher with James of Scotland, March 101. A body of Spaniards land in Ireland, and fortify Kinsale, Sept. They were Sir Thomas Egerton, Henry Somerset earl of Worcester, Sir William Knollys, and Sir John Popham. When he went into the city he left them in the care of Sir John Davyes, Francis Tresham and Owen Salysburye, "many of the rebels then assembled, crying aloud. Kill them! kill them!" but they were released after a confinement of a few hours, and before his return. The earl of Southampton was tried with him and was found guilty, but his life was spared. Indictments were also found against William lord Sandys, and Edward lord Cromwell, Sir Edmund Bayneham, and 30 other knights and gentlemen, among whose names appear those of several who afterwards joined in the Gunpowder plot, as Catesby, Tresham, and Christopher and John Wright, but comparatively few of them were brought to trial; they were instead imprisoned, and paid heavy fines. On Feb. 28, a young man, named Woodcock, was hanged for speaking in condemnation of the arrest of Essex. On Feb. 20, Sir Edmund Bayneham and two others were found guilty, 1595 1598 and on March 5. Sir Christopher Blunt and four others were condemned, of whom Sir Gelly Merrick and Henry Cuffe were executed March 13, and Sir Christopher Blunt and Sir Charles Danvers, March 18. This is the date of the first letter now known to exist; the prior communications had apparently been verbal, through trusted messengers. "Little was done," says Stow, "and small effect followed, more than of other the like pro clamations beforetime made, and even an act of parliament to that purpose" [35 Eliz. c. 6. "against new buildings," passed in 1593]. In spite of legis lation, he complains, "these cities are still increased in building of cottages and pestered with inmates, to the great infection and other annoy. ances of them both." The law, however, was not suffered entirely to remain a dead letter, commissions of inquiry being frequently issued, particularly in the time of Charles I., which raised large suns by composition with the offenders; and this prac tice was revived under the Commonwealth. THE House of Stuart, though it was comparatively late in attaining the royal dignity, was, equally with the Plantagenets, descended from our Anglo-Saxon kings, and in the person of James VI. it succeeded in 1603 to the throne of England. From Margaret, the sister of Edgar Atheling, was descended Robert Bruce, whose daughter Margery married Robert the Steward, and their son became king of Scotland, as Robert II., in 1371. Seven kings and one queen of the House reigned in Scotland alone, and five more in Great Britain, their rule extending over a period of 343 years (A.D. 1371-1714), of which the last twenty-six years are, as embracing the reigns of the limited monarchs, William and Mary, and Anne, strikingly distinguished from the long preceding period. This, in Scotland, was harassed during much of the time by contests with England, often caused by the intrigues of France, whose unequal alliance was more disastrous to the weaker state than her hostility could have been. In Great Britain it was, throughout, of a stormy character, from the conflict of regal rights and popular claims, both of them pushed, by designing men, to unwise tremes. ex consequences of their predecessors' misgovernment. Though in spirit the same as ever, the Tudor rule had become sensibly weakened before the close of Elizabeth's reign, and the Puritans in particular were unalterably resolved to obtain something like the freedom which every one happily enjoys at the present day, but they desired it only for themselves, and had no idea of true liberty. The first Stuart king was of a character particularly ill fitted to deal with the difficult circumstances that surrounded him, and his reign was passed in quarrels with his parliaments, which grew every day more serious, though their ultimate result was hardly anticipated. The reign of Charles I. is especially memorable for a fierce outbreak ostensibly in the cause of civil and religious liberty, in the course of which the whole fabric of government, in Church and State, both in England and in Scotland, suffered a total, though happily but temporary, subversion. This struggle between the Church and its Puritan opponents was, like preceding convulsions, providentially overruled for good, but the character of the parties to it is too often entirely misrepresented. The State Papers of the period, which are now being rendered, in substance at least, accessible to all, afford the means for a more satisfactory judgment. The reverence for authority, which was the so loudly demanded for themselves, was shewn by innumerable instances during the period of their unhappy ascendancy. See Note, p. 388. great actuating motive of the royal | James III. was slain when fleeing from party, has been unjustly described as a field where he had been defeated by a love of slavery, and the Puritans his own son; that son (James IV.) fell at have been held up as the champions Flodden-field; James V. was foiled in of liberty while they were in reality an invasion of England, and died soon bent on destroying all reasonable go- after; his daughter Mary ended her unvernment, without which true freedom happy life on the scaffold; the death of is impossible, and the whole course of James VI. (or I.) was popularly suptheir conduct shews that the maxim posed to be accelerated by grief at the of "No bishop, no king," ascribed to misfortunes of his daughter and son-inJames I., is perfectly just. As the law (the Elector Palatine); Charles I., event shewed, it was absolutely neces- after a long civil war, was publicly put sary to curb them if either Church or to death by his subjects, and his sons State was to be preserved, whilst their fared little better; Charles II. regained stubbornness rendered mild measures the throne after years of exile, but by unavailing; those taken would pro- his ill government prepared the way bably not have been so severely con- for the expulsion of his brother, James demned as they have been, had they II., who died a pensioner of France. succeeded. Though harsh in them- Mary II. and Anne can hardly be reselves, they were far less so than the garded as more fortunate, as they only government of the Tudors, and they obtained the throne through the exile were justified in the consciences of of their father. James's son (James those who employed them by the duty Edward) and grandson (Charles Edof upholding insulted authority; hence ward) attempted to recover their kingthey cannot fairly be said to have doms, but their efforts were unsucsprung from any purpose of perse- cessful, and Henry, the last of their House, who was an ecclesiastic, and known as Cardinal York, lived a recipient of the bounty of the House of Brunswick ". cution. Several of the Stuart rulers were remarkable for their talents and their literary acquirements, but they are still better known for the uninterrupted series of calamities which befel them. Robert II. was a prince of mild character, whose authority was entirely disregarded by his nobles; his son, Robert III., was a mere tool in the hands of his brother, the duke of Albany, and through his machinations he lost both of his sons, dying himself of grief; James I. passed many years in an English prison, and was at last murdered by his nobles; James II. was killed at the siege of Roxburgh; From the time that England and Scotland came under the same ruler by the succession of James VI. to the throne lately occupied by Elizabeth, the arms of the two countries were borne on the same shield, with the addition of the harp for Ireland. The roses, both red and white, the fleurde-lis, the thistle, and the harp (all crowned), appear as badges, and the royal supporters have usually been the lion and the unicorn, as seen at the present day. JAMES VI. of Scotland and I. of Great Britain, was the only child of Mary, queen of Scots, by Henry, Lord Darnley, and was born in the castle of Edinburgh, June 19, 1566. Early in the following year his father was murdered; in a few months more his mother was obliged to resign her crown, and James was proclaimed king when an infant of little more than a twelvemonth old, July 24, 1567. His infancy had a rapid succession of governors, three of whom perished by violence, and in his 14th year he assumed the reins of power, but it was only to give them into the hands of worthless favourites, who quarrelled among themselves, yet kept such a correspondence with the English court as obliged their young and needy king to witness the judicial murder of his mother without an effort either to save or to avenge her. His own liberty was abridged, and his life apparently endangered, through hatred caused by their misconduct, as at the Raid of Ruthven, in 1582, and by the Gowrie Plot, in 1600. Though Elizabeth deferred the indication of her successor to the latest hour of her life, her courtiers felt assured that it could be no other than James of Scotland, and they paid their court to him so assiduously in her declining years as to cause her abundant anxiety; at length she died, and James, in his thirty-seventh year, became king of England, without the shadow of opposition. He was scarcely established in his new kingdom, however, when discontents began to appear. He had, while The earl of Murray, his uncle, was the first; | ton, a mere tool of the English ministers; Mar Matthew earl of Lenox (the king's grandfather), alone of the four died a natural death succeeded him; then came Erskine earl of Mar, b See A.D. 1580, 1582. who was followed by James Douglas earl of MorBb |