16. One of the greatest historians was a contemporary of the Queen. He was her junior by a score of years. He spent his whole life in writing that marvellous Latin production now generally known as Histoire universelle. The greater part of it was written before Elizabeth died. Yet it is as magnificent in style as the work of Froude. What a tremendous distance there was between the English historians of that time and this Frenchman, Jacques Auguste de Thou, may be appreciated by comparing a page of Froude with one of Camden or Naunton. There is almost as much difference as between the Englishman of to-day and his hairy ancestor dressed in a wolfhide, and armed with a stone hammer. The work covers the years 1546 to 1607, in sixteen quarto volumes, each of some 470 pages. He was a most erudite scholar, trained for the law, for diplomacy, and the Church, and widely travelled. The Encyclopædia Britannica says of this history: "De Thou was treated as a classic, an honour which he deserved. His history is a model of exact research, drawn from the best sources. . The greatest excellence of the work is its reliability, which three centuries of study has never shaken.

De Thou was certainly in daily touch with the leading men of his time. He was a member of the French Parliament, a conseiller d'état, and he had spent several years on a diplomatic mission with Paul de Foix, who, seven years before, had completed four years of service as French Ambassador at the Court of Elizabeth.

He deals with this matter of Elizabeth's morals in these words:

"The hatred of her religion has caused much evil to be said against her but her long life, and the good fortune,

when Elizabeth died. He seems soon after to have come to Court, and there remained in some office or other for the next thirty or forty years. He was one of the most popular literary men of his age, a thing very difficult to comprehend by those who peruse his works. There is no doubt that he had close companionship with many men and women who had known the intimate side of Elizabeth's life during its later years. As already quoted, under 3, CHARGE 4, in Chapter IX., Ösborne writes in his Memoirs, p. 60, 1658 ed.:

that she (Elizabeth.-F. C.) had a Son bred in the State of Venice, and a Daughter I know not where or when, with other strange tales that went on her, I neglect to insert, as better for a Romance, then to mingle with so much truth and integrity as I professe. . .

never wavering, which accompanied her clear up to her death with the favour of heaven as constant as impenetrable, has sufficiently refuted the greatest part of it. She had the weakness to like to be courted and loved for her beauty; and even when she was no longer young, she yet affected to have lovers. It seemed as if she made it a diversion to herself to renew the remembrance of those fabulous islands, where noblemen and famous knights formerly wandered and piqued themselves on loving-but in a noble and virtuous manner, and into which there entered no impurity. If these amusements did some hurt to her reputation, they never injured the majesty of her state."*

17. Under 3, CHARGE 4, in Chapter IX., we have reprinted extracts from the Memoirs of Francis Osborne which show clearly that he had little faith in the accusations against the Queen. There Osborne says that the remark of Henry the Great of France that one of the "three things inscrutable to intelligence [was] Whether Queen Elizabeth was a maid or no,” may render reports dubious that come from meaner men." We know that Osborne disbelieved the tales that Elizabeth had had children. He also said that the favour shown to Essex did not come " from a nearer familiarity then I have been informed it did "; and, giving his last comment upon this matter in general, he thus sums up: †

"Now whether these Amorosities were naturall, or meerely poetical and personated, I leave to conjecture."

18. Bacon, we take it, will be deemed of much importance to our inquiry. He was a contemporary of Elizabeth. He was at Court. He was for years the chief adviser of Essex. For long, he was almost as much as that to the Queen herself. There must have been no man better informed of the inner doings of the Court during the greater part of her reign. In his essay upon the Queen he writes: I

Some of the graver sort may, perhaps, aggravate her levities; in loving to be admired and courted, nay, and to have love poems made on her; and continuing this humour longer

* Histoire universelle, vol. xiv. p. 146.

† Memoirs, p. 73 of the ed. 1658.

‡ Essays, Queen Elizabeth, Ward, Lock & Co. ed. p. 117.

than was decent for her years; yet to take even these matters in a milder sense, they claim a due admiration; being often found in fabulous narrations; as that of a certain queen in the fortunate islands, in whose court love was allowed, but lust banished.' . . . This queen was certainly good and moral; and as such she desired to appear."

19. We have now reached the final piece of testimony. It is from the pen of one of the most celebrated, most experienced, most learned, and most respected men of the Elizabethan era, Michel de Castelnau, Sieur de la Mauvissière. Thirteen years older than Elizabeth, he was very carefully educated and then travelled in Italy, staying long at Rome. He then went to Malta, and then into the army in the war with Italy. At the age of thirty-seven he held a command in the navy, but returned to the army and fought in Picardy. He was sent on various delicate diplomatic missions, including one to Mary Stuart before she married the Dauphin. In 1559, a year after Elizabeth came on the throne, he was sent to negotiate with her for the restoration of Calais, when began that intimate acquaintance with the English Court which was to endure for a quarter of a century. An embassy to Germany, to Margaret of Parma, to Savoy, and yet another to Rome followed. Then he accompanied Mary Stuart on her fatal return to her own country, after she had ceased to be Queen of France. For a year he was then in Scotland, except when at the London Court in his efforts to reconcile the two queens. His wise and moderate advice to Mary, his fellow Catholic, however, was unheeded, and she plunged into the abyss. Upon returning to France he fought the Protestants in Brittany, and then followed ten years of more embassies to different Courts, including that of Elizabeth and of Alba in the Netherlands.

In 1572 he was hurried over to Elizabeth to try to alleviate the effect of St. Bartholomew. Next he was sent to Germany, to Switzerland-and then, in 1574, he came to Elizabeth's Court as regular Ambassador, to remain continuously for ten years. With this service completed, he returned to France to be further entrusted with other missions until his death in 1592, eleven years before the Great Queen left the scene. The Encyclopædia Britannica says of his Mémoires: "They rank very high among the original authorities for the period they

cover. . . . They were written during his last embassy in England (1574-1584.-F. C.) for the benefit of his son, and they possess the merits of clearness, veracity and impartiality."

We now offer this great man's verdict upon the scandalous charges against Elizabeth that have come down to us through the centuries, until we have come to believe them. After a quarter of a century of the closest possible acquaintance with Elizabeth and all the men and women of her Court, he solemnly leaves this message to his boy :

"Et si l'on l'a voulu taxer faussement d'avoir de l'amour, je diray avec verité que ce sont inventions forgées de ses mal-veillans, & és cabinets des Ambassadeurs, pour dégoûter de son alliance ceux auxquels elle eut esté utile.” *

An exact translation is:

"And if some persons have wished to tax her falsely with having amorous attachments, I shall say with truth that these are inventions forged by the malevolent, and from the cabinets of some Ambassadors, to prevent those to whom it would have been most useful from making an alliance with her."

Such is the case for Elizabeth. The forthcoming and final chapter will demonstrate the principal reason why, in spite of the many positive and overwhelming evidences of Elizabeth's purity, all posterity has regarded her as unchaste. No other verdict has been possible.

• Mémoires, vol. i. p. 62, ed. 1731.

T

CHAPTER XII

HOW ELIZABETH WAS CONVICTED

E are now nearing the end of the road we have been so long travelling.

W

A glance at the following tables will demonstrate to the reader better than any other statement why it is that the public at large in every country has been almost unanimously of the opinion that there was no reasonable doubt of the immorality of " that Great Queen," to adopt Cromwell's description of her.

These tables comprise all the biographies of the Queen, all the important histories of England, and all other authorities whose scope comprehends a consideration of her character. We believe that every book of this classification is included in this list. We believe it comprises every volume which has had any appreciable influence upon the subject of our work. It is intended to present a complete list, and, as just said, it is believed that that has been done. The opinion of the world upon the chastity of Elizabeth must have been formed upon its reading of these fifty-three works, for there are, substantially at any rate, no others dealing importantly with the matter for it to have read.

It is desired to show the reader how the public for three centuries has not been able to learn of the nineteen Defences which have been presented upon the Queen's behalf in the preceding chapter.

The fifty-three authorities are as follows, with the authors arranged alphabetically:

AIKIN, The Court and Times of Queen Elizabeth.

BEESLY, E. S., Queen Elizabeth.

BEKKER, ERNST, Elizabeth and Leicester.