Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 2.djvu/432

418 and Elizabeth then giving way to her rage, she discharged Warner from his office, fined the Earl of Hertford £15,000, for seducing, as she called it, a lady of the blood royal, and for breaking his prison to renew his offence. The sister of Hertford, Lady Jane Seymour, being dead, who was the sole witness to the marriage, Elizabeth declared it null and void, and the children illegitimate. Lady Catherine was kept in confinement till death released her, in 1567; and Lord Hertford, who had recovered his liberty, was again incarcerated for endeavouring to prove the legitimacy of his children.

This lawless and tyrannic conduct of Elizabeth, true daughter of Henry VIII., caused much discontent; for the house of Suffolk had many adherents in opposition to the Scottish claim to the throne, but few dare speak out loudly. Those who did were severely punished. Hales, clerk of the Hanaper, was committed to the Tower for defending Lady Catherine's marriage, and her claim to the succession. Lord Keeper Bacon was visited with the resentment of his Royal mistress, on suspicion of inciting Hales to this task; and even Cecil was brought into jeopardy on the same ground, notwithstanding his apparent readiness to prosecute and malign the unfortunate victim of Elizabeth's jealousy. Nor did this arbitrary conduct of Elizabeth end here. In 1564, Lady Mary Grey, the remaining sister of Lady Catherine, perpetrated the like crime of marrying, and Elizabeth immediately committed her and her husband to separate prisons.

In the spring of 1562 Elizabeth became engaged in the support of the Huguenots, or Protestants of France, against their government, as she had supported the Covenanters of Scotland. After the failure of the conspiracy to surprise the court at Amboise, and the accession of Catherine de Medici to the regency, the heads of the party again flew to arms; but Catherine making concessions, in order to engage Condé, Coligny, and their party to assist her in counteracting the influence of the house of Guise, a treaty was entered into by which the Protestants were to be allowed free exercise of their religion. But the Duke of Guise becoming possessed of the person of the king, soon persuaded Catherine, his mother and regent, to infringe the conditions of the treaty. The Huguenots again rose in defence of their lives and principles, and no less than fourteen armies were soon on foot in one part or another of France. The Duke of Guise headed the Catholics; the Prince of Condé, Admiral Coligny, Andelot, and others, commanded the Huguenots. The Parliament of Paris issued an edict, authorising the Papists to massacre the Protestants wherever they found them; the Protestants retaliated with augmented fury, and carnage and violence prevailed throughout the devoted country. The Duke of Guise found himself so hard driven by the Protestants, in whose ranks the very women and children fought fiercely, that he entreated Philip of Spain to come to his aid. Philip gladly engaged in a work so congenial, his own Protestant subjects having had bloody experience of his bigotry, and sent into France 6,000 men, besides money. On this the Prince of Condé appealed to Elizabeth for support against the common enemies of their religion. To induce her to act promptly in their favour, he offered to put Havre-de-Grace immediately into her hands. Nowadays, in such a case, the English Government would take the public means of endeavouring by negotiation to induce its ally to concede their rights to its subjects. But Elizabeth took her favourite mode of privately aiding the discontented subjects of a power with whom she was at peace, against their sovereign. She made no overtures to Catherine de Medici, as queen-regent. She made no declaration of war, but dispatched Sir Henry Sidney, the father of the afterwards celebrated Sir Philip Sidney, ostensibly to mediate betwixt the Roman Catholics and Protestants, but really to enter into a compact with Condé. She was to furnish him with 100,000 crowns, and to send over 6,000 men, under Sir Edward Poynings, to take possession of the forts of Havre and Dieppe.

On the 3rd of October a fleet carried over the stipulated force, took possession of the ports, and Ambrose Dudley, Earl of Warwick, the brother of the favourite, Lord Robert Dudley, was made commander-in-chief of the English army in France. The French ambassador, with the treaty of Cateau Cambresis in his hand, demanded the cause of the infringement of the thirteenth article of this treaty, and reminded the queen that, by proceeding to hostilities, she would at once forfeit all claim to Calais at the expiration of the prescribed period. Elizabeth replied that she was in arms, in fact, on behalf of the King of France, who was a prisoner in the hands of Guise; and when the ambassador required her, in the name of his sovereign, to withdraw her troops, she refused to believe that the demand came from the king, because he was not a free agent, and that it was the duty of Charles IX. to protect his oppressed subjects, and to thank a friendly power for endeavouring to assist him in that object.

But these sophisms deceived nobody. The nobility of France regarded Guise, who had driven the English out of France by the capture of Calais, as the real defender of the country; and Condé, who had brought them in again by the surrender of Havre and Dieppe, was considered a traitor. Numbers flocked to the standard of Guise and the queen-regent, who were joined by the King of Navarre. The Royal army, with Charles in person, besieged Rouen, to which Poynings, the English commander at Havre, sent a reinforcement. The governor of the city defended it obstinately against this formidable combination, and the Englishmen, mounting a breach which was made, fought till their last man fell. Two hundred of them thus perished, and the French, rushing in over their dead bodies, pillaged the place for eight days with every circumstance of atrocity.

The fall of Rouen and the massacre of a detachment of her troops was news that no one dared to communicate to Elizabeth. The ministers induced her favourite, Lord Robert Dudley, to undertake the unwelcome task; but even he dared only at first to hint to her that a rumour of defeat was afloat. When at length he disclosed the truth, Elizabeth blamed nobody but herself, confessing that it was her own reluctance to send sufficient force which had caused it all. She determined to send fresh reinforcements; commissioned Count Oldenburg to raise 12,000 men in Germany, and ordered public prayers for three days in succession for a blessing on her arms in favour of the Gospel.

Condé, who had been engaged near Orleans, on the