Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VI.djvu/541

 ELIZABETH 533 ers. The commons were stubborn, but tbe dis- pute was compromised, the queen taking half the money without naming her successor. The murder of Darnley led to the overthrow of Mary Stuart, and to her flight to England the next year (May, 1568), when she was made Elizabeth's prisoner. Mary submitted her case to be tried by English commissioners. Serious internal troubles now began, and those from without assumed a critical character. The asy- lum England afforded to those who fled from persecution in Flanders offended Spain. The English flag was insulted in the gulf of Mex- ico, and the English minister at Madrid bad- ly treated. The queen retaliated by seizing treasure found in Spanish vessels which had taken refuge in English ports ; and when Alva laid an embargo on Englishmen and their prop- erty, she arrested all the Spaniards in Eng- land, not even excepting the ambassador. She corresponded directly with Philip II., but that monarch took a high tone, and threatened war. The duke of Norfolk had become at- tached to Mary Stuart, and Elizabeth bade him be on his guard. He was arrested and im- prisoned. The great northern rebellion broke out (1569), headed by the Catholic earls of Westmoreland and Northumberland, but was rapidly crushed by the earl of Sussex, and 800 of the rebels were executed. In 1570 the queen was excommunicated by Pope Pius V., and a copy of the bull was fastened on the gate of the episcopal palace of London by a Catholic named Felton, who was put to the rack and executed. After the failure of another attempt to bring about a marriage between the queen and the archduke Charles, it was pro- posed that she should marry the duke of Anjou, afterward Henry III. of France, and last of the Valois. When the council was informed of this, one of them observed that the duke was rather young for the queen (Anjou was 20 years old, Elizabeth 37), which enraged her. In this, as in all her negotiations of a similar character, she does not seem to have been sincere ; but it was always a source of anger when any one of her suitors saw fit to marry some other lady. Cecil was now created Lord Burleigh, and made lord high treasurer, and Sir Thomas Smith principal secretary of state. Hatton now began to attract attention, being high in the queen's favor because of his personal ac- complishments and beauty ; and her reputation has been assailed on account of her fondness for him. For his good she despoiled the bishop of Ely of much church property, and wrote him a truculent epistle in three lines. The French marriage project halting, Anjou's mo- ther proposed his younger brother Alencon in his place, who was Elizabeth's junior by 22 years, and as ugly in person as he was morally depraved. Subsequently the negotiation with Anjou was resumed. The emperor Maximilian II. offered the hand of his son Rudolph to the queen, who was more than old enough to be .his mother. Henry of Navarre was also placed at her disposal. She favored Anjou most, but finally rejected him, ostensibly on religious grounds. Philip II. was now engaged in a plan involving the assassination of Elizabeth, with which Norfolk and Mary Stuart had some connection. It was discovered, and Norfolk was executed. The Alengon marriage project was now resumed. Parliament passed a bill to put Mary Stuart to death, but Elizabeth would not give her consent to it. Meantime, in 1572 occurred the St. Bartholomew mas- sacre, which made the English clamorous for the death of Mary. Elizabeth would not di- rectly consent to this ; but she agreed to a pro- ject for giving Mary up to her Scottish subjects, who it was understood would at once put her to death. In 1575 the Dutch offered their gov- ernment to Elizabeth, whom they respected as descended from Philippa of Hainaut. She did not at first help them, and it was not till 1578 that she agreed to aid them with money and men, on conditions by which she could not lose anything. Ireland gave her great trouble, and the contest which was waged there by Lord Mountjoy was called by the Irish " the hag's war," in derision of the queen. Con- spiracies began to multiply around her, natural- ly having Mary Stuart for their central figure. The Jesuits were conspicuous in these plots, in one of which the Spanish minister Mendoza was implicated, and forced to leave the coun- try. Many persons were executed and others imprisoned. Philip Howard, earl of Arundel, son of the duke of Norfolk, was condemned to death, and died in the tower after a long im- prisonment. An association to protect the queen against "popish conspirators" was formed by Leicester, and was converted into a statute by parliament, which actually prepared the way for the murder of Mary Stuart, should Elizabeth be assassinated in her name. The discovery of a conspiracy, in which Anthony Babington was a leading actor, which aimed at the simultaneous assassination of Elizabeth and the liberation of Mary, proved fatal to the latter. Her trial has been the subject of bitter discussion. She was convicted of complicity in the conspiracy, and was executed at Fother- ingay, Feb. 8, 1587. Elizabeth professed great grief and anger at her execution. It is now pretty well established that her signature to Mary's death warrant was a forgery, and it ia beyond doubt that it was sent to Fotherin- gay castle without her knowledge or sanction. Burleigh was the sender of it, and the forgery is supposed to have been perpetrated by the orfler or under the direction of Walsingham. Angry as she was, Elizabeth dared to punish no one but the secretary Davison, who was only a tool of the higher ministers ; for not only had foreign affairs assumed a serious as- pect, but the killing of Mary was unquestiona- bly a popular act with the ruling classes and party. The Scotch people were enraged, and gladly would have assailed their old enemy; but nothing was done. The condition of France