Twelve English Statesmen QUEEN ELIZABETH [Illustration: colophon] QUEEN ELIZABETH BY EDWARD SPENCER BEESLY _Sine ira et studio, quorum causas procul habeo._ TACITUS, Ann. I. 1. London MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1906 _All rights reserved_ FIRST EDITION PRINTED FEBRUARY 1892. REPRINTED MARCH 1892; 1895; 1897; 1900; 1903; 1906. CONTENTS CHAPTER I PAGE EARLY LIFE, 1533-1558 1 CHAPTER II THE CHANGE OF RELIGION, 1559 6 CHAPTER III FOREIGN RELATIONS, 1559-1563 18 CHAPTER IV ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART, 1559-1568 38 CHAPTER V ARISTOCRATIC PLOTS, 1568-1572 78 CHAPTER VI FOREIGN AFFAIRS, 1572-1583 101 CHAPTER VII THE PAPAL ATTACK, 1570-1583 128 CHAPTER VIII PROTECTORATE OF THE NETHERLANDS, 1584-1586 156 CHAPTER IX EXECUTION OF THE QUEEN OF SCOTS: 1584-1587 174 CHAPTER X WAR WITH SPAIN, 1587-1603 188 CHAPTER XI DOMESTIC AFFAIRS, 1588-1601 211 CHAPTER XII LAST YEARS AND DEATH, 1601-1603 230 APPENDIX A.--SESSIONS OF PARLIAMENT IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH 243 B.--PRINCIPAL HOWARDS CONTEMPORARIES OF ELIZABETH 244 C.--PRINCIPAL BOLEYN RELATIONS OF ELIZABETH 245 CHAPTER I EARLY LIFE: 1533-1558 I have to deal, under strict limitations of space, with a long life, almost the whole of its adult period passed in the exercise of sovereignty--a life which is in effect the history of England during forty-five years, abounding at the same time in personal interest, and the subject, both in its public and private aspects, of fierce and probably interminable controversies. Evidently a bird’s-eye view is all that can be attempted: and the most important episodes alone can be selected for consideration.