CHAP. into a better condition the strength and ornaments of her kingdom within itself. XXXIII. Anno 1562. Money that was embased, and made of brass, she made Her money pure and good silver. A hard and truly royal work: which neither Henry nor Edward, her predecessors, great kings, ever dared to do. Her armory. Her navy. Her royal qualities. Her armory she had already so completely furnished, that no prince in Europe could shew the like. Her navy she had by this time so strengthened with all manner of store and furniture, whether you respect plenty of provision and ammunition, or numbers of men, that the treasure of some opulent kingdom seemed to have been laid out upon this thing alone. These great things she had done within these few years for the public good estate of the whole nation. Then as to her own person and qualities, she was a queen that easily forgat private injuries, but a severe dispenser of common justice, favouring none in their crimes, nor leaving them hope of impunity. She cut off all licentiousness from all, giving no countenance thereunto in any. This precept of Plato she always set before her in all her doings, "that Ut leges do- "laws should rule over men, and not that men should rule mina ho- "and be lords over the laws," in all her kingdom. Besides homines do- this, she was a princess that least of all desired the estates and goods of her subjects; and for her own treasure, she commanded it to be sparingly and frugally laid out for her private pleasure, but royally and liberally for any public use, whether it were for common benefit or domestic magnificence. minum,non mini legum. Her wit and learning. Next, for her endowments of wit and learning, there was not in the court, in the university, nor among those who 376 were the chief in religion or the state, that understood the Greek language better than she. When she read Demosthenes or Æschines, Ascham (with whom she daily read both Latin and Greek) professed she made him often wonder, when he saw how critically she understood, not only the force of the words, the structure of the sentences, the propriety of the language, the ornament of the speech, XXXIII. Anno 1562. and the handsome contexture of the whole discourse; but CHAP. those things also which are greater, viz. the sense and mind of the orator, and the stress and drift of the whole cause, the law and desire of the people, the manner and institution of every city, and all other things of that nature. In other languages, what and how much she could do, all her subjects at home, and many abroad, were witnesses. Ascham added, that he was present one day, when she gave answer to three ambassadors one after another, viz. the emperor's, the French, and the Swede, in three tongues, Italian, French, and Latin; and that easily, without hesitancy, and readily, according to the several matters they came about. And to the rest of her qualifications, she wrote an excellent hand. And that Sturmius (to whom Ascham was relating all this) might see how exquisitely she could write, he sent him, in a scrap of paper enclosed in his letter, the word quemadmodum written by the queen's own hand. state of the der the Confut. And then to look upon the satisfaction the people her The flousubjects took in her; it added much to their content and rishing easiness under her reign, that plenty as well as peace by nation unthis time flourished in the nation. Add her success in all queen. her undertakings, and the prosperity and wealth that appeared more and more, the longer she reigned. This made another author at that time compare queen Mary's reign Pilking. and this queen's together. He bade them look on the days of popery, and see the dearth, the death, the scarcity that then was, when acorns were thought good to make bread of: and compare the present days with those, and the plenty of God's blessing on the people now; which the blind might see, it was so evident. There was no cause of complaint, nor was there any that complained.. And it was thought England had not the like plenteous time in many years; although this present year corn had been dear, and was somewhat scarce, yet now notwithstanding, the ordinary sort had almost disdained brown bread. And as tokens of further success, God had wrought these great things for the queen's majesty. When once the realm was in danger to be given into strangers' hands [viz. the VOL. I. XXXIII. CHAP. Spaniards] in the former reign, and none could tell how to deliver themselves, God set the queen up, who, contrary to Anno 1562. all men's expectations, avoided them all. What danger was from Scotland! Yet God so blessed the queen, that she not only delivered her people from them, but the Scots also from their enemies the French. And what relief in France the poor oppressed had at her hands, every one saw. All her loving subjects rejoiced, though the envious papists murmured and grudged. God did, past all human expectation, prosper the queen's doings. She at her great cost also restored to her people a fine coin from a base: and she took but few taxes of her parliament to do all this; 377 when many and great were the taxes levied before without any advantage to the subject. How was this our realm then pestered with strangers, strange rulers, strange gods, strange languages, strange religion, strange coin! And now, how peaceably rid of them all! Insomuch, that the foresaid writer concludes, God had wrought such wonderful strange things in so short a time by a weak vessel, as he never did by any her noble progenitors, which had been so many, and so worthy, before her. THE END OF VOL. I. PART I. |