Preface

PREFACE.

The present volume completes the regular series of Domestic State Papers of the reign of Queen Elizabeth from March 1601 to March 1603. Among the noticeable papers are those detailing the proceedings taken against the adherents of the late Earl of Essex. They elicit much curious information as to the motives and the modus operandi of his wild scheme to attain his own ends by putting compulsion on the Queen. The chronological notes of the whole proceedings relating to that rebellion, from 8th February to August 1601, calendared on pp. 88, 89, are worthy of attention.

Then follow many details of the controversy between the Jesuits in England and the secular priests, the appeal of the latter to the Papal authority, and the distinct recognition by the Pope, Clement VIII., that the jurisdiction of the Jesuits was to be confined to their own order, and to the pupils from their seminaries who had come over to England (p. 258). An attempt was made to induce the English Government to recognise a distinction, in its persecuting edicts, between those two classes of priests, on the ground that the seculars condemned the violent practices of the Jesuits to procure the invasion of the kingdom and murder of the Queen. But whilst a difference was acknowledged between the elder priests, who were educated in England whilst still Catholic, and those who had their education in seminaries supported by foreign princes, and surrounded by influences antagonistic to a Protestant Queen and country, the plea was refused, on the ground that even these latter laboured to withdraw the Queen's subjects from their allegiance and knit them to the Pope (p. 261).

Next come minute details of the last illness and death of Queen Elizabeth. The legend that a ring was sent by the Earl of Essex to the Queen, through the Countess of Nottingham, as a token of submission and plea for mercy, but detained, and the detention confessed by the Countess on her death-bed, may be thought to receive confirmation from the fact that the Queen is twice said to have been extremely moved by the death of the Countess, not resting at nights, and so irritable that none of the Court but Cecil dared to approach her (pp. 298, 301).

The papers in the latter part of the volume consist of Addenda to the Domestic Papers of Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth, which have been discovered since the Calendar of the late Mr. Lemon, the printing of which commenced as early as 1848, was put to press. They include especially a large number of papers relating to the Borders between England and Scotland, which at that time formed a separate series of papers, but which are now distributed, according to the nature of their contents, between the Domestic and Foreign series of State Papers. Also a similar collection of papers, formerly constituting a separate class, relating to the Channel Islands.

During the reign of Edward VI. the details of the rough wooing by the English Government, under Protector Somerset, of the young Queen Mary of Scotland for their King, styled in the parlance of the times, "the Godly purpose," are numerous and valuable.

There is also a noteworthy series of returns made from the hundred of Kerry, Cornwall, of inventories from the parish churches, detailing the vestments and other appliances for public worship found in each (p. 398).

The Addenda of Mary's reign are not numerous. Among them may be noted, the fragment of a letter from Lady Jane Grey as Queen (p. 429), a letter from an Italian secretary of the Queen to her truant husband, Philip II., of regret and submission, and a few papers illustrative of the change of religion (pp. 477, 478).

The Addenda of Elizabeth in the present volume only extend to the first six years of her reign. A pardon granted to Sir Ralph Chamberlain in 1560 records curious particulars of the surrender of Calais in 1558 (p. 562). Several papers relate to the restoration of religion, the study of theology in the universities, as much encouraged by the Queen (p. 505), the rigid enforcement of the Act of Uniformity (pp. 510, 526), and the treatment of the recusants, or those who refused compliance with it, of the principal of whom a list is given, with their characters, &c. (pp. 521–524). The volume concludes with a list of the numerous livings vacant in the several dioceses of England and Wales, the cause of the vacancies being generally the poverty of the livings. The record gives their value, and in some instances the names of those who hold the patronage.

The Addenda yet remaining to be calendared will occupy two more volumes.

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October 6, 1870.