THERE was great rejoicing all over the land when the Lords of the Council went down to Hatfield,to hail the Princess Elizabeth as the new Queen of England.Weary of the barbarities of Mary's reign,the people looked with hope and gladness to the new Sovereign.The nation seemed to wake from a horrible dream;and Heaven,so long hidden by the smoke of the fires that roasted men and women to death,appeared to brighten once more.
Queen Elizabeth was five-and-twenty years of age when she rode through the streets of London,from the Tower to Westminster Abbey,to be crowned.Her countenance was strongly marked,but on the whole,commanding and dignified;her hair was red,and her nose something too long and sharp for a woman's.She was not the beautiful creature her courtiers made out;but she was well enough,and no doubt looked all the better for coming after the dark and gloomy Mary.She was well educated,but a roundabout writer,and rather a hard swearer and coarse talker.She was clever,but cunning and deceitful,and inherited much of her father's violent temper.I mention this now,because she has been so over-praised by one party,and so over-abused by another,that it is hardly possible to understand the greater part of her reign without first understanding what kind of woman she really was.
She began her reign with the great advantage of having a very wise and careful Minister,SIR WILLIAM CECIL,whom she afterwards made LORD BURLEIGH.Altogether,the people had greater reason for rejoicing than they usually had,when there were processions in the streets;and they were happy with some reason.All kinds of shows and images were set up;GOG and MAGOG were hoisted to the top of Temple Bar,and (which was more to the purpose)the Corporation dutifully presented the young Queen with the sum of a thousand marks in gold-so heavy a present,that she was obliged to take it into her carriage with both hands.The coronation was a great success;and,on the next day,one of the courtiers presented a petition to the new Queen,praying that as it was the custom to release some prisoners on such occasions,she would have the goodness to release the four Evangelists,Matthew,Mark,Luke,and John,and also the Apostle Saint Paul,who had been for some time shut up in a strange language so that the people could not get at them.
To this,the Queen replied that it would be better first to inquire of themselves whether they desired to be released or not;and,as a means of finding out,a great public discussion-a sort of religious tournament-was appointed to take place between certain champions of the two religions,in Westminster Abbey.You may suppose that it was soon made pretty clear to common sense,that for people to benefit by what they repeat or read,it is rather necessary they should understand something about it.Accordingly,a Church Service in plain English was settled,and other laws and regulations were made,completely establishing the great work of the Reformation.The Romish bishops and champions were not harshly dealt with,all things considered;and the Queen's Ministers were both prudent and merciful.
The one great trouble of this reign,and the unfortunate cause of the greater part of such turmoil and bloodshed as occurred in it,was MARY STUART,QUEEN OF SCOTS.We will try to understand,in as few words as possible,who Mary was,what she was,and how she came to be a thorn in the royal pillow of Elizabeth.
She was the daughter of the Queen Regent of Scotland,MARY OF GUISE.She had been married,when a mere child,to the Dauphin,the son and heir of the King of France.The Pope,who pretended that no one could rightfully wear the crown of England without his gracious permission,was strongly opposed to Elizabeth,who had not asked for the said gracious permission.And as Mary Queen of Scots would have inherited the English crown in right of her birth,supposing the English Parliament not to have altered the succession,the Pope himself,and most of the discontented who were followers of his,maintained that Mary was the rightful Queen of England,and Elizabeth the wrongful Queen.Mary being so closely connected with France,and France being jealous of England,there was far greater danger in this than there would have been if she had had no alliance with that great power.And when her young husband,on the death of his father,became FRANCIS THE SECOND,King of France,the matter grew very serious.For,the young couple styled themselves King and Queen of England,and the Pope was disposed to help them by doing all the mischief he could.
Now,the reformed religion,under the guidance of a stern and powerful preacher,named JOHN KNOX,and other such men,had been making fierce progress in Scotland.It was still a half savage country,where there was a great deal of murdering and rioting continually going on;and the Reformers,instead of reforming those evils as they should have done,went to work in the ferocious old Scottish spirit,laying churches and chapels waste,pulling down pictures and altars,and knocking about the Grey Friars,and the Black Friars,and the White Friars,and the friars of all sorts of colours,in all directions.This obdurate and harsh spirit of the Scottish Reformers (the Scotch have always been rather a sullen and frowning people in religious matters)put up the blood of the Romish French court,and caused France to send troops over to Scotland,with the hope of setting the friars of all sorts of colours on their legs again;of conquering that country first,and England afterwards;and so crushing the Reformation all to pieces.