396 THE FELICITIES Ol QUEEN ELIZABETH. in many men s ears at that time; and which Queen Anne herself testified by her undaunted courage, and that memorable speech of her s at the time of her death. For having gotten, as she supposed, a faithful and friendly messenger, in the very hour before her death, she delivered him these words to relate unto the king : " That she had ever found the king very constant and firm to his purpose of advancing her; for first, from the estate of a gentlewoman only, and no way pretending to noble titles, he raised her to the honour of a marchioness ; next, he vouchsafed to make her his consort both of his kingdom and bed : and now that there remained no higher earthly honour, he meant to crown her innocency with the glory of martyrdom." But though the messenger durst not relate these words to the king, who was already inflamed with new loves, yet certain tradition, the conserver of truth, hath conveyed them to posterity. Another principal thing, which I cast into Queen Elizabeth s felicity, was the time and period of her reign ; not only for that it was long, but also because it fell into that season of her life, which was most active and fittest for the swaying of a sceptre, for she was fully five-and-twenty years old (at which age the civil law freeth from a curator) when she came to the crown, and reign ed to the seventieth year of her life ; so that she never suffered either the detriments of pupilage, and check of an over-awing power, or the incon veniences of an impotent and unwieldy old age ; and old age is not without a competent portion of mise ries, even to private men ; but to kings, besides the common burden of years, it brings for the most part a declining in the estates they govern, and a conclusion of their lives without honour. For there hath scarce been known a king that hath lived to an extreme and impotent old age, but he hath suffered some detriment in his territories, and gone less in his reputation. Of which thing there is a most eminent example in Philip the Second, King of Spain, a most puissant prince, and an excellent governor, who, in the last years of his life, and impotent old age, was sensible of this whereof we speak; and therefore with great circumspection submitted himself to nature s law, voluntarily surrendered the territories he had got ten in France, established a firm peace in that kingdom, attempted the like in other places, that so he might transmit his kingdoms peaceable and entire to his next heir. Contrariwise, Queen Elizabeth s fortune was so constant and deeply rooted, that no disaster in any of her dominions accompanied her indeed declining, but still able years : nay, further, for an undeniable token of her felicity, she died not before the rebellion in Ire land was fortunately decided, and quashed by a battle there, lest otherwise it might have defal cated from the total sum of her glory. Now the Condition also of the people over whom she reign-
ed, I take to be a matter worthy our observation ;
- for if her lot had fallen amongst the desolate
Palmyrenes, or in Asia, a soft and effeminate race of men, a woman-prince might have been suffi cient for a womanish people; but for the English, a nation stout and warlike, to be ruled by the check of a woman, and to yield so humble obedience to her, is a thing deserving the highest admiration Neither was this disposition of her people (hungry of war, and unwillingly bowing to peace) any impediment to her, but that she enjoyed and maintained peace all her days : and this desire in her of peace, together with her fortunate accom plishment thereof, I reckon to be one of herchief- est praises. For this was happy for her time, comely for her sex, and comfortable to her con science. Indeed, about the tenth year of her reign, there was an offer of a commotion in the northern parts, but it was soon laid asleep and ex tinguished; but all her reign beside was free from the least breath or air of civil broils. Now I judge the peace maintained by her to be the more eminent for two causes, which indeed make nothing for the merit of that peace, but much for the honour : the one, that it was set off, and made more conspicuous by the broils and dissensions of neighbouring nations, as it were by so many lights and torches: the other, that amidst the benefits of peace she lost not the honour of arms ; insomuch, that the reputation of the English arms was not only preserved, but also advanced by her upon many glorious occasions. For the suc cours sent into the Netherlands, France, and Scotland, the expeditions by sea into both the Indies, whereof some circled the whole globe of the earth; the fleets sent into Portugal, and to annoy the coasts of Spain: and lastly, the often suppressions and overthrows of the rebels in Ire land, did both show the warlike prowess of out nation to be no whit diminished, and did much increase the renown of the queen. There was another thing that did greatly ad vance her glory ; that both by her timely succours, her neighbour kings were settled in their rightful thrones, and the suppliant people, who by the ill advisedness of their kings were abandoned ami given over to the cruelty of their ministers, and to the fury of the multitude, and to all manner of butchery and desolation, were relieved by her; by reason whereof they subsist unto this day. Neither was she a princess less benign and for tunate in the influence of her counsels than of her succours ; as being one that had oftentimes interceded to the King of Spain, to mitigate his wrath against his subjects in the Netherlands, and to reduce them to his obedience upon some tolerable conditions; and further, as being one that did perpetually and upon all occasions repre sent to the French kings the observation of their own edicts, so often declaring and promising peace to their subjects. I cannot deny but that
