very good for her Majesty's service that the number aforesaid, appointed hither, be by your Lordship's order commanded to be at all times ready, upon such warning as shall be given them by your good Lordship. And yet mean I not hereby that their preparation so upon the sudden should minister any occasion of overture of wars, for that is not her Majesty's intent in this behalf; but so to have all things in readiness as to provide for wars and yet to preserve good peace. Of this their doings I have advertised her Majesty, hoping of some speedy answer and resolution herein. And so, with my most hearty thanks, I bid your good Lordship as myself farewell. From Berwick, this 21st of August, 1565. To the right honourable and my very good Lord the Earl of Shrewsbury, Lord Lieutenant of the Counties of York, Nottingham, and Derby, and Knight of the most noble order of the Garter. Haste, haste, haste, haste, post, haste with all possible haste. F. BEDFORD. to have been meant as a screen for Randolph's operations. He was sent to remonstrate to Mary on her late marriage with Lord Darnley, without Elizabeth's consent, and, as she pretended, without her knowledge. He had the character of a vain, insolent man; and his behaviour to the Queen of Scots and her husband was accordingly deficient even in point of common decency The detention of these persons in Scotland is not mentioned in any history that I have examined. Randolph, who was, in fact a complete spy in Scotland, is always called in the multifarious secret correspondence of Elizabeth's ministers with her agents there, Mr. Barnaby." (Sadlier Papers passim.) No. XXII. (Talbot Papers, Vol. E. fol. 165.) FRAGMENT. SIR THOMAS GARGRAVE TO THE EARL OF SHREWSBURY. -THE last week but one, about Thursday sevennight, the Scotch Queen went from Edinburgh to Stirling, and then to Glasgow, where her company, about 3000 men, were assembled ;* and the next day the Duke and his company came into the field nigh Glasgow, and there looked for the battle; but, for that none came abroad, they marched forward to the to vn's end, where the Queen lay, and so to Hamilton, and the next day to Edinburgh, where they remain. The Queen hath 500 harquebusses, and certain field pieces; the others have neither shot nor ordnance, nor any better holds than their dwelling-houses. There is, also, on the other side, the Queen, the Earl of Argyle, with 2000 of the Irishmen; so the Queen is bewixt her enemies. God send all quiet to his plea Murray, who had been lately outlawed for his violent opposition to the Queen's marriage, now appeared in arms with the Duke of Chatelherhault, and other Lords of the reformed party, encouraged by the secret promises of Elizabeth, and Mary, within one month after her nuptials, marched in person to chastise them. Her army soon increased to the number of 18,000, and her opponents, after various ineffectual offers of treaty, fled into England to claim the performance of Elizabeth's engagements; but she, who had meant no more than to make them the temporary instruments of reviving a factious spirit which Mary's growing popu larity had almost extinguished, not only openly slighted them, but, reprimanding them for their disloyalty, in the face of her whole Court, banished them from her presence. VOL. I. 2 F sure, and preserve your Lordship in health and honour, to your Lordship's good contentation. At York, in haste, the 7th of September, 1565. Your good Lordship's ever humble to command, THOMAS GARGRAVE. To the right honourable and his singular good Lord the Earl of Shrewsbury, Lord Lieutenant of the counties of York, Nottingham, and Derby, be these delivered. No. XXIII. (Talbot Papers, Vol. E. fol. 187.) SIR WILLIAM CECIL TO THE EARL OF SHREWSBURY. My honourable and singular good Lord, My due commendations humbly remembered, I send you herewith the Queen's Majesty's letters, being sorry to have you troubled therewith, but that I know the service of the Queen's Majesty is always acceptable to you. Whatsoever your Lordship shall hear otherwise I cannot otherwise ascertain you but that it is meant by her Majesty to keep peace with Scotland; and not to make war, but what she shall be provoked by invasion; and to that end I think all counsellors here are inclining. And yet it is true that the ruin of the Lords* * The exiled noblemen remained in England for several months, in the most abject situation, though privately supplied with money by Elizabeth. The assassination of Rizzio, in March following, a circumstance which again divided the Scots into two rancorous parties, afforded them a fit opportunity of returning; and, prudently considering how material their weight would prove our friends in Scotland, must needs hinder the intelligence and amity betwixt the realms; but, for my part, I think no surety to enter into war without just cause. My Lord Montague came home yesterday, and his colleagues will be here this night. They have, by consent, suspended the treaty until the 15th of March next. And so, And so, with my humble commendations to my honourable good Lady, I end. From Westminster, the 8th of November, 1565. Your Lordship's humbly at commandment, To the Right honourable my very good Lord, the Earl of Shrewsbury, Lord Lieutenant for the Queen's Majesty, in the counties of York, Nottingham, and Derby. W. CECIL. No. XXIV. (Talbot Papers, Vol. E. fol. 189.) FRANCIS ALEN TO THE EARL OF SHREWSBURY. IF I have not, good my Lord, satisfied your honour's expectation (as is my chief desire) in that I have not of late visited you with some occur to either, they appeared in the royal presence the very day after that weak and barbarous fact was perpetrated. The event was equal to their warmest wishes. The King received them with open arms; and Mary, with that unhappy versatility which always marked her character, joyfully accepted the countenance of those men for whom, not three days before, she had been meditating the severest punishments. rence, your Lordship shall understand that the forbearing so to do has partly proceeded of the hope I conceived, and looked for every day, when this bearer, Mr. Constable, should make his repair unto you; by whom, because he is a friend, I thought my letter should be both the better welcome, and also the more safely delivered unto your Honour's hands. And, the account being made, your Lordship shall loose nothing thereby; for look, what I have hitherto omitted I mean to supply herein with the more diversity of matter. In my last letter I remember to have signified. of my Lord Lumley's and Sir Walter Mildmay's going into Scotland, which was then as verily meant as I meant now to write to your Honour when I took pen in my hand; and whether the embassy hold yet or not it is hitherto uncertain, and chiefly depends upon such answer as the Queen our mistress is to receive from the Queen of Scots, of her letters lately sent thither touching that matter. The Earl of Lennox is made Governor of Scotland, to whom the Queen there hath given 20,000 marks, Scottish, by the year, which they say amounts to 5000 marks a year sterling, or thereabout. This morning departed the Duke of Norfolk from London towards his country; whom the Earls of Leicester and Warwick, my Lord Chamberlain, and other nobles and gentlemen of the This embassy appears not to have taken place. † We have here a remarkable proof of the little commercial intercourse between England and Scotland at that time. Alen, who seems to have been a man of business, speaks doubtfully of the value of Scottish money. |