Page:The Works of Francis Bacon (1884) Volume 1.djvu/523

 BIOGRAPHY. IN HAPPY MEMORY OF ELIZABETH QUEEN OF ENGLAND; OR, A COLLECTION OF THE FELICITIES OF QUEEN ELIZABETH WRITTEN BY HIS LORDSHIP IN LATIN, AND ENGLISHED BY DB. RAWLEY. QUEEN ELIZABETH, both in her natural endow ments, and her fortune, was admirable amongst women, and memorable amongst princes. But this is no subject for the pen of a mere scholar, or any such cloistered writer. For these men are eager in their expressions, but shallow in their judgments; and perform the scholar s part well, but transmit things but unfaithfully to pos terity. Certainly it is a science belonging to statesmen, and to such as sit at the helms of great kingdoms, and have been acquainted with the weight and secrets of civil business, to handle this matter dexterously. Rare in all ages hath been the reign of a woman, more rare the felicity of a woman in her reign, but most rare a perma nency and lasting joined with that felicity. As for this lady she reigned four-and-forty years complete, and yet she did not survive her felicity. Of this felicity I am purposed to say somewhat; yet without any excursion into praises; for praises are the tribute of men, but felicity the gift of God. First, I reckon it as a part of her felicity, that she was advanced to the regal throne from a pri vate fortune. For this is ingenerate in the nature and opinions of men, to ascribe that to the great est felicity, which is not counted upon, and cometh unlocked for, but this is not that I intend, it is this, princes that are trained up in their father s courts and to an immediate and apparent hope of SHCCI ssi..n. do irrt this by the tenderness and re- missness of their education, that they become, commonly, less capable and less temperate in their affections. And therefore you shall find those to have been the ablest and most accomplished kin-is that were tutored by both fortunes. Such was I with us, King Henry the Seventh ; and with the French, Lewis the Twelfth : both which, in recent memory and almost about the same time, obtained. their crowns, not only from a private, but also from an adverse and afflicted fortune ; and did both excel in their several ways ; the former in prudence, and the other in justice. Much like was the condition of this princess, whose blossoma and hopes were unequally aspected by fortune, that afterwards when she came to crown, fortune might prove towards her always mild and constant. For Queen Elizabeth, soon after she was horn, was entitled to the succession in the crown, upon the next turn disinherited again, then laid aside and slighted : during the reign of her brother, her estate was most prosperous and flourishing; dur ing the reign of her sister, very tempestuous and full of hazard. Neither yet did she pass imme diately from the prison to the crown, which sud den change might have been enough to make her cast off all moderation : but first she regained her liberty, then there buded forth some probable hopes of succession; and lastly, in a great still and happiness she was advanced to the imperial crown without either noise or competitor. All which I allege that it may appear that the divine Providence, intending to produce a most exquisitt princess, was pleased to prepare and mould her by these degrees of discipline. Neither ought the misfortune of her mother justly to stain the pure stream of her blood ; especially seeing it in very evident that King Henry the Eighth did firs burn with new loves, before he was intlamed with indignation against Queen Anne: neither is it unknown to the ages since that he was a king naturally prone to loves and jealousies; and ii&quot;t containing himself in those cases from tlieeil usion of blood. Besides, the very person for whom she was suspected showeth the accusation to be less probable, and built upon weak and frivolous suppositions; which was both secretly whispereU &quot;395