1556-7. AN. REG.4, escaped the wreck; and, having furnished him with money and all other necessaries, caused him to be conducted towards the court'. 1557. 14. Taking his leave of Scotland on the 14th of February, he is brought by easy journeys within twelve miles of London, -honourably entertained in all places as he passed along, and there received by fourscore of the Russian merchants in their chains of gold. Furnished with gold, velvet, silk, and all other things, he is by the whole company of the Russian merchants magnificently brought into London on the last of that month; met on the way by the Lord Viscount Montacute, attended with a gallant train of three hundred horse, at the Queen's command, and received at Smithfield-bars by the Lord Mayor and Aldermen in their scarlet robes. Conducted to his lodg- 7 ings in Fan-Church street, he was there presented in the 24 Queen's name with a piece of cloth of tissue, two pieces of cloth of gold, one whereof was raised with crimson velvet, with many other pieces of the like rich making; which very thankfully he received. Abiding at his lodging till the King's coming back from Flanders, which was not till the 21st of March, he was brought upon our Lady-day by water to the court at Westminster. Received at his landing by six Lords, he was by them brought into a chamber, where he found the Lords Chancellor, Treasurer, Privy Seal, Admiral, Bishop of Ely, and other Councillors; who, having exchanged salutations with him, attended him to the King and Queen, sitting under a rich canopy or cloth of state in the great hall there. Having presented his letters of credence, expressed himself unto their Majesties in a short oration, which was interpreted to them both in English and Spanish, and presented them with two timber of sables, which with much diligence had been recovered out of the wreck, he was by them remitted to his lodging with the like solemnity. Attended shortly after by the Bishop of Ely and Mr Secretary Petre; who, after much communication and several treaties, settled at last a friendly intercourse and commerce betwixt the nations; the articles whereof, engrossed in parchment, were afterwards presented to him, ratified and confirmed by the Great Seal of England. On the 23rd of April he was brought again into the court, where, having seen Stow, p. 629. 1 1557. the pomps and orders of St George's feast, the service of the AN. REG. 4, royal chapel, and the magnificent procession of the Knights of the Garter, he takes his leave of the King and Queen, is reconveyed unto his lodging, and on the 3rd of May embarks for Russia, accompanied with four good ships well fraught with merchandise most proper for the trade of that country to which they were bound. The costly presents sent by him from the King and Queen to the Russian Emperor, and those bestowed upon himself, I leave to be reported by him at his coming home, and the relation of John Stow in his Annals of England, fol. 630. Nor had I dwelt so long upon these particulars, but to set forth the ancient splendour and magnificence of the state of England, from which we have so miserably departed in these latter times. Stafford. 15. Worse entertainment found an agent from the French Attempt of King at his coming hither, because he came on a worse errand. Stafford, an English gentleman of a noble family, having engaged himself in some of the former enterprises against this Queen, and finding no good fortune in them, retired with divers others to the court of France; from whence they endeavoured many times to create some dangers to this realm, by scattering and dispersing divers scandalous pamphlets and seditious papers, tending to the apparent defamation of the King and Queen. And having got some credit by these practices amongst the ministers of that King, he undertakes to seize upon some fortress or port town of England, and put the same into the hands of the French. In prosecution of which plot, accompanied with some English rebels, and divers French adventurers intermingled with them, he seizeth on the strong castle of Scarborough, in the county of York. From thence he published a most traitorous and seditious manifest, in which he traitorously affirmed the Queen neither to be the rightful Queen of this realm, nor to be worthy of the title, affirming that the King had brought into this realm the number of twelve thousand Spaniards, who had possessed themselves of twelve of the best holds in all the kingdom; upbraiding the Queen with her misgovernment, and taking to himself the title of Protector of the realm of England. But the Queen being secretly advertised of the whole design, by the diligence of Dr Nicholas Wotton, Dean of Canterbury, who was then Embassador in that court, 1557. AN. REG. 4, order was taken with the Earl of Westmorland and other noble men of those parts to watch the coasts, and have a care unto the safety of those Northern provinces. By whom he was so closely watched and so well attended, that, having put himself into that castle on the 24th, he was pulled out of it again on the last of April; from thence brought prisoner unto London, 73 condemned of treason, executed on the Tower Hill, May 28, 24and on the morrow after three of his accomplices were hanged at Tyburn, cut down, and quartered1. Preparations for War with France. 16. But, as it was an ill-wind which blows nobody good, so this French treason, so destructive to the chief conspirators, redounded to the great benefit and advantage of Philip. He had for three years borne the title of King of England, without reaping any profit and commodity by it. But being now engaged in war with King Henry III., though in pursuit rather of his father's quarrels than any new ones of his own, he takes this opportunity to move the Queen to declare herself against the French, and to assist him in his war against that King, for the good of her kingdoms. It was not possible for the Queen to separate her interest from that of her husband without hazarding some great unkindness, if not a manifest breach, between them. She therefore yields to his desire, and by her Proclamation of the 7th of June2, chargeth that King in having an hand not only in the secret practices of the Duke of Northumberland, but also in the open rebellion of Wyat and his confederates. She also laid unto his charge, that Dudley, Ashton, and some other malcontents of England were entertained in the house of his Embassadors, where they contrived many treasons and conspiracies against her and her kingdom; that, flying into France, they were not only entertained in the Court of that King, but relieved with pensions. Finally, that he had aided and encouraged Stafford with shipping, men, money, and munition, to invade her realm,— thereby if it were possible, to dispossess her of her Crown. She therefore gives notice to her subjects that they should forbear all traffic and commerce with the realm of France; from which she had received so many injuries as could admit no reparation but by open war. And that she might not 1 Stow, 630. Speed, 859. Godwin, 192. 1557. seem to threaten what she never intended, she causeth an AN. REG.4, army to be raised, consisting of one thousand horse, four thousand foot, and two thousand pioncers, which she puts under the command of the Earl of Pembroke, and so dispatcheth them for Flanders, to which they came about the middle of July. King Philip had gone before on the sixth of that month, and all things here were followed with such care and diligence that the army stayed not long behind; but what they did, falls not within the compass of this present year. 17. All which remains to be remembered in this present New Bishops year relates unto such changes and alterations as were made amongst the Governors of the Church and the Peers of the realm. It hath been signified before that White of Lincoln had prevailed by his friends in Court to be translated unto Winchester, as the place of his nativity and education. To whom succeeded Dr Thomas Watson3, Master of St John's College in Cambridge and Dean of Durham, elected to the See of Lincoln before Christmas last, and acting by that name and in that capacity against the dead body of Martin Bucer. To Day of Chichester, who deceased on the second of August, in the beginning of this year, succeeded Dr John Christopherson, a right learned man, Master of Trinity College in Cambridge and Dean of Norwich,-elected about the same time when the other was, and acting as he did against Bucer and Fagius; as also did Dr Cuthbert Scot, who at that time was actually invested in the See of Chester, upon the death of Dr Cotes, the preceding Bishop. And finally, in the place of Aldrick, Bishop of Carlisle, who died on the fifth of March, 1555, Dr Owen Oglethorp, President of Magdalen College in Oxon and Dean of Windsor, receives consecration to that See in that first part of this year; but the particular day and time thereof I have nowhere found". Within the compass of this year (that is to say, the fourth year of the reign of 2 Sup. p. 173. 1 Stow, 631. 3"Bulla provisionis data 9 Kal. April, 1556; consecratus, decimo quinto Augusti, 1557." Godwin, de Præsul. 301. 513. "Provisus bulla data non Maii, 1557; consecratus, 21 Nov." Godw. 5 66 "Temporalia habuit restituta 29 Sept. 1556." Godw. 776. 1557. AN. REG. 4, this Queen) died two other Bishops, Salcot or Capon1, Bishop of Salisbury, and Chambers, the first Bishop of Peterborough ; to the first of which there was no successor actually consecrated or confirmed, for the reasons to be shewed anon, in the reign of this Queen3. But to the other succeeded Dr David Pool, Doctor of both laws, Dean of the Arches, Chancellor to the Bishop of Lichfield, and Archdeacon of Derby; elected before the end of this year, but not consecrated till the fifteenth 74 of August in the beginning of the next1. Restoration of the Earldom of land. : 18. Some alterations happened also amongst the Peers Northumber of the realm, in the creation of one, and the destruction of another. A rebellion had been raised in the North upon the first suppression of religious houses, anno 1536; in which Sir Thomas Percy, second son to Henry, the fifth Earl of Northumberland of that name and family, was thought to be a principal stickler, and for the same was publicly arraigned, condemned, and executed. By Eleanor his wife, one of the daughters and heirs of Sir Guiscard Harebottle, he was the father of Thomas and Henry, who hitherto had suffered under his attaindure but now it pleased Queen Mary to reflect on their father's sufferings and the cause thereof; which moved her not only to restore them to their blood and honours, but also to so much of the lands of the Percies as were remaining in the Crown. In pursuance whereof she advanced Thomas, the elder brother, on the last of April, to the style, title, and degree of Earl of Northumberland, the remainder to his brother Henry, in case the said Thomas should depart this life without issue male. By virtue of which entail the said Henry afterwards succeeded him in his lands and honours, notwithstanding that he was attainted, condemned, and executed for high treason in the time of Queen Elizabeth, anno 1572. Execution of ton. 19. Not many weeks before the restitution of which noble family, that of the Lord Sturton was in no small danger of a final destruction;-a family first advanced to the state of a 1 Oct. 6, 1557. Godw. 353. 2 Richardson dates the death of Chambers in the end of February 1555-6. Ibid. 558. 24 |