whom the hated; all these preyed upon her mind, and threw her into a lingering fever, of which fhe' died, after a fhort and unfortunate reign of five years, four months, and eleven days, in the forty-third year of her age.

No

CHA P. XXVI.

ELIZABETH.

TOTHING could exceed the joy that was diffused among the people upon A. D. the acceffion of Elizabeth, who now came to the throne without any oppofition.

1558.

This favourite of the people, from the beginning, refolved upon reforming the church; even while the was held in the constraints of a prifon; and now upon coming to the crown fhe immediately fet about it. A parliament foon after completed what the prerogative had begun; act after act was paffed in favour of the reformation; and in a single feffion the form of religion was established as we at prefent have the happiness to enjoy it.

A ftate of permanent felicity is not to be expected here; and Mary Stuart, commonly called Mary queen of Scots, was the first perfon that excited the fears or the refentment of Elizabeth. Henry the seventh had married his eldeft daughter, Margaret, to James, king of Scotland, who dying, left no iffue that came to maturity except Mary, afterwards furnamed queen' of Scots. At a very early age, this princefs being poffeffed of every accomplishment of perfon and mind, was married to Francis, the dauphin of France, who dying left her a widow at the age of nineteen. Upon the death of Francis, Mary, the widow, ftill feemed difposed to keep up the title; but finding herself exposed

to

to the perfecutions of the dowager queen, who now began to take the lead in France, the returned home to Scotland, where the found the people strongly impreffed with the gloomy enthufiafm of the times. A difference in religion between the fovereign and the people is ever productive of bad effects; fince it is apt to produce contempt on the one fide, and jealoufy on the other. Mary could not avoid regarding the four manners of the reformed clergy, who now bore fway among the Scotch, without a mixture of ridicule and hatred; while they, on the other hand, could not look tamely on the gaities and levities which the introduced among them, without abhorrence and refentment. The jealousy thus excited began every day to grow stronger; the clergy waited only for fome indifcretion in the queen to fly out into open oppofition; and her indifcretion but too foon gave them fufficient opportunity.

Mary, upon her return, had married the earl of Darnley; but having been dazzled by the pleasing exterior of her new lover, the had entirely forgot to look to the accomplishments of his mind. Darnley was but a weak and ignorant man; violent yet variable in his enterprizes; infolent, yet credulous, and easily governed by flatterers. She foon therefore began to convert her admiration into difguft; and Darnley, enraged at her increafing coldnefs, pointed his vengeance against every person he supposed the cause of this change in her fentiments and behaviour.

There was then in the court one David Rizzio, the fon of a mufician at Turin, himself a musician, whom Mary took into her confidence. She confulted him on all occafions; no favours could be obtained but by his interceffion, and all fuitors were first obliged to gain Rizzio to their interefts, by presents, or by flattery. It was eafy to perfuade a man of Darnley's jealous uxorious temper, that Rizzio was the perfon who had estranged the queen's affections

from

from him; and a furmife once conceived became to him a certainty. He foon therefore confulted with fome lords of his party, who accompanying him into the queen's apartment, where Rizzio then was, they dragged him into the anti-chamber, where he was difpatched with fifty-fix wounds; the unhappy princefs continuing her lamentations, while they were perpetrating their horrid intent. Being informed however of his fate, Mary at once dried her tears, and faid the would weep no more, for fhe would now think of revenge.

She therefore concealed her refentment, and fo far impofed upon Darnley, her husband, that he put himself under her protection, and foon after attended her to Edinburgh, where he was told the place would be favourable to his declining health. Mary lived in the palace of Holyrood houfe ; but as the fituation of that place was low, and the concourfe of perfons about the court neceflarily attended with noife, which might difturb him in his prefent infirm ftate, fhe fitted up an apartment for him in a folitary houfe at fome diftance, called the Kirk of Field. Mary there gave him marks of kindness and attachment; fhe converfed cordially with him, and the lay fome nights in a room under him. It was on the ninth of February that the told him the would pafs that night in the palace, because the marriage of one of her fervants was to be there celebrated in her prefence. But dreadful confequences enfued. About two o'clock in the morning the whole city was much alarmed at hearing a great noife; the house in which Darnley lay was blown up with gunpowder. His dead body was found at fome distance in a neighbouring field, but without any marks of violence or contufion. No doubt could be enter taired but that Darnley was murdered; and the general fufpicion fell upon Bothwell, a perfon lately taken into Mary's favour, as the perpetrator.

One crime led on to another; Bothwell, though accufed of being ftained with the hufband's blood,

Q

though

though univerfally odious to the people, had the confidence, while Mary was on her way to Stirling, on a visit to her fon, to seize her at the head of a body of eight hundred horfe, and to carry her to Dunbar, where he forced her to yield to his purposes. It was then thought by the people that the measure of his crimes was complete; and that he who was fuppofed to kill the queen's husband, and to have of. fered violence to her perfon, could expect no mercy; but they were aftonifhed upon finding, instead of difgrace, that Bothwell was taken into more than former favour; and, to crown all, that he was married to Mary, having divorced his own wife to procure this union.

1

This was a fatal alliance to Mary; and the people were now wound up by the complication of her guilt, to pay very little deference to her authority. An affociation was formed that took Mary prifoner, and fent her into confinement to the caftle of Lochlevin, fituated in a lake of that name, where the fuffered all the feverities of an unkind keeper, and an upbraiding confcience, with a feeling heart.

The calamities of the great, even though juftly deferved, feldom fail of creating pity, and procuring friends. Mary, by her charms and promifes, had engaged a young gentleman, whofe name was George Douglas, to aflift her in efcaping from the place where he was confined: and this he effected, by conveying her in difguife in a small boat rowed by himfelf a-fhore. It was now that the news of her enlargement being spread abroad, all the loyalty of the people feemed to revive once more, and in a few days the faw herself at the head of fix thousand

men.

A battle was fought at Langfide, near Glasgow, which was entirely decifive against her, and now being totally ruined, the fled fouthwards from the field of

battle

battle with great precipitation; and came with a few attendants to the borders of A. D. England, where the hoped for protection 1568. from Elizabeth, who, instead of protecting,

ordered her to be put to confinement, yet treated her with all proper marks of refpect.

She was accordingly fent to Tutbury castle, in the county of Stafford, where fhe was put under the cuftody of the earl of Shrewsbury, where the had hopes given her of one day coming into favour, and that unlefs her own obftinacy prevented, an accommodation might at last take place.

The duke of Norfolk was the only peer who enjoyed that highest title of nobility in England; and the qualities of his mind correfponded to his high station. Beneficent, affable, and generous, he had acquired the affections of the people; and yet from his moderation, he had never alarmed the jealoufy of the fovereign. He was at this time. a widower, and being of a fuitable age to espouse the queen of Scots, her own attractions, as well as his interefts, made him defirous of the match. Elizabeth however dreaded fuch an union, and the duke was foon after made prifoner and fent to the Tower. Upon his releafement from thence new projects were fet on foot by the enemies of the queen and the reformed religion, fecretly fomented by Rodolphi, an inftrument of the court of Rome, and the bishop of Rofs, Mary's minifter in England. It was concerted by them, that Norfolk fhould renew his defigns upon Mary, and raise her to the throne, to which it is probable he was prompted by paffion as well as intereft; and this nobleman entering into their fchemes, he from being at firft only ambitious, now became criminal. His fervants were brought to make a full confeffion of their mafter's guilt; and the bishop of Rofs, foon after finding the whole difcovered, did not fcruple to confirm their teftimony. The duke

Q 2

was