Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 2.djvu/559

] and dispersed his fleet. Essex's fleet was also involved in the same tempest, but could escape into friendly ports, whilst the Spanish was compelled to brave the hurricane, and, pursued by it across the Bay of Biscay, reached the Tagus minus sixteen of its best ships.

Essex, on landing, hastened to Court, but the queen was in the worst of humours at the missing of the treasure-ships, and complained that he had done nothing to discharge the expenses of the expedition. She laid all the blame of failure on him, and gave all the credit to Sir Walter Raleigh, whom she accused him of oppressing and insulting. With his usual choleric petulance, he hastily left the Court and retired to his own house at Wanstead. He was so far from admitting that he was in the wrong, that he demanded satisfaction for the injuries which he considered had been done him in his absence. The Chancellorship of the Duchy of Lancaster, which he had asked for a dependent, had been conferred on Cecil, and the Lord Admiral Howard had been created Earl of Nottingham, and thus had attained an official precedence over him. Worse still, and more unjust, the honour of the capture of Cadiz was allowed to be usurped by Lord Howard in his new patent, though it really belonged to Essex. The passionate favourite was so enraged that he offered to fight Nottingham in vindication of his claim, or one of his sons, or any gentleman of the name of Howard.

Elizabeth at length began to relent; and knowing very well that she had in her anger been very unjust to Essex, she now upbraided the Cecils with being the cause of his natural resentment at the infringement of his honour. Happening about this time to meet with Sir Francis Vere in Whitehall Gardens, she entered into conversation with him on the causes of the escape of the treasure-fleet, and on the Spanish fleet not being attacked and burnt in the port of Ferrol. Sir Francis had been in the expedition, and when he heard the queen charge Essex with the failure, he boldly defended him, and did him justice in regard to the whole affair. Elizabeth saw that she had, through the misrepresentations of interested courtiers, been guilty of a still greater injustice, and she set about making the necessary amends. On the 18th of December all was made smooth, and Essex again appeared at Court, being created Earl Marshal, by which he regained the precedency over the new Earl of Nottingham. But in pacifying Essex the unlucky queen had only offended Nottingham, for the office of Earl Marshal had been in his family for many generations, being claimed by right of descent from Thomas of Brotherton, their Royal ancestor, and transferred by his daughter, Margaret Plantagenet, to her grandson, Mowbray, Earl of Norfolk, as her deputy, not being capable of discharging its duties as a woman. Nottingham, deeply offended, on the 20th resigned his staff as Lord Steward of the Household, and retired to his house at Chelsea.

The King of France, in the commencement of the year 1598, announced to the Queen of England his intention to seek peace with Spain. This was news by no means agreeable to Elizabeth, as such a peace would leave Philip at liberty to pursue his designs against her; and she endeavoured by her ambassador to dissuade Henry from such a measure. But Henry had now for thirteen years been harassed by the cares of a kingdom involved on two sides in war with Philip, and rent in every quarter by religious dissension. The death of the Guises had broken up, in a great measure, the Roman Catholic League, but the spirit of opposition was still as much alive as ever, and was fanned into flame by a Protestant League, formed on the same principles. He longed intensely for peace, that he might more fully exert himself to abate this religious discord. His anxiety for it had been doubled by the capture of Amiens by the Spaniards in February, 1597; and his recovery of it in the following September only rendered him the more willing to treat, because he could do it on better terms. It was necessary to send over Sir Robert Cecil as ambassador extraordinary, to attend the negotiations: and fearing the influence of Essex in his absence, the cunning minister had been induced to favour his advancement to the post of Earl Marshal, and he sought to win the earl over more completely by moving the queen to present Essex with a cargo of cochineal worth £7,000, and a contract for the sale of a much larger amount out of the Royal stores. Greatly pleased by these instances of Cecil's friendship, as he deemed it, Essex transacted the business of the secretaryship for Sir Robert in his absence, and that politic gentleman took his departure for France on the 10th of February, 1598.

At the conference both Cecil and the Dutch deputies did everything in their power to prevent the peace, but in vain. Henry was resolved on giving tranquillity to his kingdom; and when reproached by Cecil for deserting Elizabeth, he replied, in aiding him she had served her own interests. On the 20th of April he published the Edict of Nantes, giving security and toleration to the Protestants; and on May the 2nd he signed the treaty with Spain, which was so advantageous that he recovered Calais and all other places which had been taken during the war. Elizabeth was, in reality, a gainer, for she thus became freed from a charge of £120,000 per annum in holding the cautionary towns; and the States gave an acknowledgment of a debt of £800,000, which they engaged to pay by instalments.

On the return of Cecil he submitted to the queen the proposals which Philip had made for the extension of the peace to England, and Burleigh and Sir Robert contended that Spain having made peace with France, it was wise for this kingdom to do the same. Essex, on the contrary, contended for war, and for still punishing the Spaniards for their attempt at invasion. In the midst of one of the debates in the Council, Burleigh put his pocket Bible gently before him, open at these words in the Psalms:—"Blood-thirsty men shall not live out half their days." Essex took no apparent notice of it, but after his death the circumstance came to be looked on as prophetic. The Council was in favour of peace. The nation sympathised with Essex, and especially the army and navy, who hated the Spaniards, and thought Essex stood up for the honour of the country. But if Essex's favour rose with the people, it was in utmost peril at Court. Bacon wrote warningly to him, telling him that in his conversation with the queen it was palpable to every one that he was paying compliments with a bad grace; "that anyone might read the insincerity of his words in his countenance." Bacon saw and remarked, too, that he had fallen into his old intrigue with the fair Bridges, and that if Elizabeth discovered it there would be an end of Essex.