Elizabeth I, Queen of England, 1533-1603; Great Britain -- History -- Elizabeth, 1558-1603
The queen, however, had not magnanimity enough to let the quarrel end
without taunting and irritating the penitent with expressions of
triumph. In reply to his acknowledgments and professions, she told him
that she was glad to hear of his good intentions, and she hoped that he
would show, by his future conduct, that he meant to fulfill them; that
he had tried her patience for a long time, but she hoped that henceforth
she should have no further trouble. If it had been her father, she
added, instead of herself, that he had had to deal with, he would not
have been pardoned at all. It could not be a very cordial reconciliation
which was consummated by such words as these. But it was very like
Elizabeth to utter them. They who are governed by their temper are
governed by it even in their love.
Essex was not restored to office. In fact, he did not wish to be
restored. He said that he was resolved henceforth to lead a private
life. But even in respect to this plan he was at the mercy of the queen,
for his private income was in a great measure derived from a monopoly,
as it is called, in a certain kind of wines, which had been granted to
him some time before. It was a very customary mode, in those days, of
enriching favorites, to grant them monopolies of certain kinds of
merchandise, that is, the exclusive right to sell them. The persons to
whom this privilege was granted would underlet their right to merchants
in various parts of the kingdom, on condition of receiving a certain
share of the profits. Essex had thus derived a great revenue from his
monopoly of wines. The grant, however, was expiring, and he petitioned
the queen that it might be renewed.
The interest which Essex felt in the renewal of this grant was one of
the strongest inducements to lead him to submit to the humiliations
which he had endured, and to make concessions to the queen. But he was
disappointed in his hopes. The queen, elated a little with the triumph
already attained, and, perhaps, desirous of the pleasure of humbling
Essex still more, refused at present to renew his monopoly, saying that
she thought it would do him good to be restricted a little, for a time,
in his means. "Unmanageable beasts," she said, "had to be tamed by being
stinted in their provender."
Essex was sharply stung by such a refusal, accompanied, too, by such an
insult. He was full of indignation and anger. At first he gave free
expression to his feelings of vexation in conversation with those around
him. The queen, he said, had got to be a perverse and obstinate old
woman, as crooked in mind as she was in body. He had plenty of enemies
to listen to these speeches, and to report them in such a way as that
they should reach the queen. A new breach was consequently opened, which
seemed now wider than ever, and irreparable.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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