From this time Elizabeth, who had been brought up in their roll• gion, became the hope of the party. Her position however was one of greet difficulty. At first she refused to attend her sister to mass, endeavouring to soothe Mary by appealing to her compassion. after some time however she yielded an outward compliance. The act passed by the parliament, which, although it did not mention her by name, bastardised her by implication, by annulling her father's divorce from his first wife, could not fail to give her deep offence. Availin1 herself of an order of Mary, assigning her • rank below what her birth entitled her to, as an excuse for wishing to retire from court, she obtained leave to go to her house at Ashridgo, in Buckinghamshire, it the beginning of December. About the same time Mary has beer supposed to have been irritated agrinet her sister by the preference shown for Elizabeth by her kinsman Edward Courtonay, whom, after releasing from the Tower, the queen had restored to his father's tith of Earl of Devon, and is said to have had some thoughts of marrying It appears to have been part of the design of the rash and unfortunate attempt of Wyatt, in the beginning of the following year, to about a marriage between Elizabeth and Courtenay, who was one o those engaged In the revolt. This affair involved Elizabeth in thi greatest danger. On the 8th of February, the day after the suppres don of the insurrection, certain members of the council were gen with a party of 250 (other accounts say 600) horse to Aahridge, witl orders to bring her to London "quick or dead." They arrived durim the night, and although they found her sick in bed, they immediate!: forced their way into her chamber, and informed her that she :nue "prepare against the morning, at nine of the clock, to go with them declaring that they had brought with them the queen'e litter for her. She was so Ill however that It was not till the fourth night that eh reached Highgate. "Here," says Fox, "she being very sick, tarries that night and the next day ; during which time of her abode then mum many pursuivants and messengers from the court, but for wha purpose I cannot tell." When she entered London great multitude of people came flocking about her litter, which she ordered to b opened to show herself. The city was at this time covered wit! gibbets; fifteen had boon erected in different places, on which fifty two persons were hanged ; and it appears to have been the genera belief that Elizabeth would suffer, as Lady Jane Grey had done a fed days before. From the time of her arrival in town she was kept I close confinement In Whitehall. It appears that her case was twee debated in ocearmil ; and although no evidence had been obtained b all the exertions of the crown lawyers which went farther than to mak It probable that Wyatt and Courtenay had solicited her to give he meat to their projects of revolt., her immediate destruction was trongly advised by some of the members. Elizabeth long afterwards lied to declare that she fully expected death, and that she knew her ester thirsted for her blood. It was at last determined however that or the present she should only be committed to the Tower, although he seems herself still to have been left in doubt as to her fate. She vas conveyed to her prison by water on the moruing of the I lth of darch, being Palm Sunday, orders being issued that, in the meantime, 'every one should keep the church and carry their palms." In ,ttempting, to shoot the bridge the boat was nearly swamped. She at first refused to land at the stairs leading to the Traitor s Gate ; but me of the lords with her told her she should have no choice ; " and >emus° it did then rain," continues Fox, "ho offered to her his cloak, which she (putting it back with her hand with a good dash) refused. io she coming out, having one foot upon the stair, said, ' Here landeth re true a subject as ever landed at these stairs ; and before thee, God, I speak it, having none other friends but thee alone.' " She remained in close custody for about a month, after which she was allowed to walk in a small garden within the walls of the fortress. Da the 19th of May she was removed, in charge of Sir Henry Beading leld, to Woodstock. Hera she was guarded with great strictness and severity by her new jailor. Camden says that at this time she received private letters both from Henry II. of France, inviting her to that montry, and from Christian III. of Denmark (who had lately embraced the Protestant religion), soliciting her hand for his son Frederick. When these things came to the oars of her enemies, her life was again threatened. " The Lady Elizabeth," adds the historian, " now guiding herself as a ship in blustering weather, both heard divine service after the Remit& manner, and was frequeutly confessed; and at the pressing instances and menaces of cardinal Pole, professed herself. for fear of death, a Roman Catholic. Yet did not Queen Mary believe her." She remained at Woodstock till April 1555, when she wan, on the interpositiou, as it was made to appear, of King Philip, allowed to take up her residence at the royal palace of Hatfield, under the superintendence of a Roman Catholic gentleman, Sir Thomas Pope, by whom she was treated with respect and kindness. Philip was auxious to have the credit of advising mild measures iu regard to the princess, and perhaps he was really more disposed to treat her with indulgence than his wife. According to Camden, some of the Roman Catholic party wished to remove her to a distance from England, and to marry her to Emanuel Philibert, duke of Savoy; but Philip opposed this scheme, designing her for his eldest son Charles (the unfortunate Don Carlos). Elizabeth also was herself averse to a marriage with the Savoyard.
She continued to reside at IIatfield till the death of Mary, which took place on the 17th of November 1553. The news was commu nicated the same day, but not till after the lapse of some hours, to the House of Lords, which was sitting at the time. "They were seized at first," says Camden (or rather his translator), " with a mighty grief and surprise, but soon wore off those impressions, and, with an handsome mixture of joy and sorrow, upon the loss of a deceased and the prospect of a succeeding princess, they betook themselves to publics business, and, with one consent, agreed that the Lady Elizabeth should be declared the true and lawful heir of the kingdom according to the act of succession made 35 Hoary VIII." It is probable that Elizabeth's outward compliance in the matter of religion had con siderable effect in produciug this unanimity, for the majority of the lords were Catholics, and certainly both the bishops and many of the lay peers would have been strongly inclined to oppose her accession if they had expected that she would venture to disturb the established order of things. The members of the lower house were now called up, and informed of what had been done by Archbishop Heath, the chancellor. He concluded by saying that, since no doubt could or ought to be made of the Lady Elizabeth's right of succession, the House of Peers only wanted their consent to proclaim her queen. A vote to that effect immediately passed by acclamation; and, as soon as the houses rose, the proclamation took place. Elizabeth came to London on Wednesday the 23rd : she was mot by all the bishops in a body at Highgate, and escorted by an immense multitude of people of all ranks to the metropolis, where she took up her lodgings at the residence of Lord North, in the Charter House. On the afternoon of Monday the 28th she made • progress through the pity in a chariot to the royal palace of the Tower : hero she continued till Monday the 5th of December, on the morning of which day she removed by water to Somerset House.
Elizabeth was twenty-five years of age when she came to the throne; and one of her earliest acts of royalty, by which, as Camden remarks, she gave proof of a prudence above her years, was what we should now call the appointment of her ministers. She retained of her privy council thirteen Roman Catholics, who had been of that of her sister ; including lIoath, archbishop of York and lord chancellor ; William Paulett, marquis of Winchester, the lord high treasurer; Edward, Lord Clinton, the lord high admiral ; and William, Lord Howard of Effingham, the lord chamberlain. But with these she associated seven
others of her own religion, the most eminent of whom was the cele brated William Cecil, afterwards Lord Burleigh, whom she appointed to the office of secretary of state, which he had already hold under Edward VI. Soon after, Nicholas Bacon (the father of the great chancellor) was added to the number of the privy councillors, and made at first lord privy seal, and next year lord keeper of the great seal, on the resignation of Archbishop Heath. Cecil became lord high treasurer on the death of the Marquis of Winchester in 1572, and con tinued to be Elizabeth's principal adviser till his death in 1598, when he was succeeded by Thomas Sackville, Lord Buckhurst (afterwards made Earl of Dorset by James I.). Of the other persons who served as ministers during Elizabeth's long reign, by far the most worthy of note were Sir Francis Walsingham (who was principal secretary of state from 1573 till his death in 1590, and was all the time they were in office together the confidential friend and chief assistant of Cecil the premier, under whose patronage he had entered public life), and Burleigh's son, Robert Cecil (afterwards Earl of Salisbury), who suc ceeded Walsingham as secretary of, state, and held that till the end of the reign. Among the other persons of ability that were employed in the course of the reign, in different capacities, may be mentioned Sir Nicholas Throckmorton ; " a man," says Camden, "of a large experience, piercing judgment, and singular prudence, who discharged several embassies with a great deal of diligence and much to his praise, yet could he not be master of much wealth, nor rise higher than to those small dignities (though glorious in title) of chief cupbearer of England and chamberlain of the Exchequer ; and this because he acted in favour of Leicester against Cecil, whose greatness he envied ; " Sir Thomas Smith, the learned friend of Cheke, who had been one of the secretaries of state along with him under Edward VI., and held the same office again under Elizabeth for some years before his death in 1577 ; and Sir Christopher Hatton, who was lord chancellor from 1587 till his death in 1591, and whom Camden, after having related his singular rise from being one of the band of gentle Men pensioners, to which he was appointed by the queen, who was taken with his handsome shape and elegant dancing at a court masque, characterises as "a great patron of learning and good sense, and one that managed that weighty part of lord chancellor with that equity and clearness of principle as to be able to satisfy his conscience and the world too." The affair to which Elizabeth first applied her attention on coming to the throne, and that in connection with which all the transactions of her reign must be viewed, was the settlement of the national religion. The opinions of Cecil strongly concurred with her own in favour of the reformed doctrines, to which also undoubtedly the great mass of the people was attached. For a short time however she kept her intentions a secret from the majority of the council, taking her measures hi concert only with Cecil and the few others who might be said to form her cabinet. She began by giving permission, by pro clamation, to read part of the church-service in English, but at the same time strictly prohibited the addition of any comments, and all preaching on controversial points. This however was enough to show the Roman Catholic party what was coming: accordingly, at her coronation, on the 15th of January 1559, the bishops in general refused to assist, and it was with difficulty that one of them, Oglethorp of Carlisle, was prevailed upon to set the crown on her head. The principal alterations were reserved to be made by the parliament, which met on the 25th of this month. Of the acts which were passed, one restored to the crown the jurisdiction established in the reign of Henry VIII. over the estate ecclesiastical and spiritual, and abolished all foreign powers repugnant to the same; and another restored the use of King Edward's book of common prayer, with certain alterations, that had been suggested by a royal commission over which Parker (afterwards archbishop of Canterbury) presided. In accordance with this last statute publio worship began to be performed in English throughout the kingdom on Whit-Sunday, which fell on the 8th of May. By a third act the first fruits and tenths of benefices were restored to the crown ; and by a fourth, her Majesty was authorised, upon the avoidance of any archbishopric or bishopric, to take certain of the revenues inte;her own hands; and conveyances of the tempera. litiea by the holder for a longer term then twenty-one years, or three lives, were made void. The effect of these laws was generally to restore the church to the state in which it was in the reign of Edward VI., the royal supremacy sufficing for such further necessary alteratinns as were not expressly provided for by statute. A strong opposition was made to the bills in the House of Lords by the bishops and fourteen of them, being the whole number, with the exception of Anthony, bishop of Llandaff, were now deprived for refusing to take the oath of supremacy. About one hundred prebendaries, deans, archdeacons, and heads of colleges, were also ejccted. The number of the inferior clergy however that held out was very small, amounting to no more than eighty rectors and other parochial ministers, out of between nine and ten thousand. On this subject it is only necessary further to state that the frame of ecclesiastical polity now set up, being in all essential particulars the same that still subsists, was zealously and steadily maintained by Elizabeth and her ministers to the end 0: her reign. The Church of England has good reason to look upon hei and Cec:l as the true planters and rearers of its authority. They has soon to defend it against the Puritans on the one hand as well al against the Roman Catholics on the other, and they yielded to thi former as little as to the latter. The Puritans had been growing it the country ever since the dawn of the Reformation, but they firs: made their appearance in any considerable force in the parliamen vhish met in 1570. At first their attempts were met on the part of he crown by evasive measures and slight checks; but in 1537, on our members of the House of Commons presenting to the house a All for establishing a new Directory of Public Worship, Elizabeth at nice gave orders that they should be seized and sent to the Tower, where they were kept some time. The High Commission Court also, which was established by a clause in one of the acts for the settlement of religion passed in the first year of her reign, was, occasionally at least, prompted or permitted to exercise its authority in the punish ment of what was called heresy, and in enforciug uniformity of worship with great strictness. The determination upon which the queen acted in these matters, as she expressed it in a letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, was, "that no man should be suffered to decline either to the left or to the right hand, from the drawn line limited by authority, and by her laws and injunctions." Besides the deprivation of their livings, which many of the clergy underwent for their refusal to comply with certain particulars of the established ritual, many other persons suffered imprisonment for violations of the Statute of Uniformity. It was against the Roman Catholics however that the most severe measures were taken. By an act passed in 1535 (the 27th Eliz., c. 2), every Jesuit or other popish priest was commanded to depart from the realm within forty days, on pain of death as a traitor, and every person receiving or relieving any such priest was declared guilty of felony. Many priests were afterwards executed under this act.