FOR USE IN LIBRARY ONLY DA 20 C17 no. 7 cop. 3 c. ' ANNALS OF THE FIRST FOUR YEARS OF THE QUEEN ELIZABET I, ONTARiO. V' BY SIR JOHN HAYWARD, KNT. D.C.L. EDITED FROM A MS. IN THE HARLEIAX COLLECTION, BY JOHN BRUCE, ESQ. F.S.A. LONDON: PRINTED FOR THE CAMDEN SOCIETY, BY JOHN BOWYEB NICHOLS AND SON, PARLIAMENT STREET, M.DCCC.XL. COUNCIL OF THE CAMDEN SOCIETY, ELECTED MAY 2, 1839. President, THE RIGHT HON. LORD FRANCIS EGERTON, M.P. THOMAS AMYOT, ESQ. F.R.S. Treas. S.A. Director. THE REV. PHILIP BLISS, D.C.L., F.S.A., Registrar of the University of Oxford. JOHN BRUCE, ESQ. F.S.A. Treasurer. JOHN PAYNE COLLIER, ESQ. F.S.A. C. PURTON COOPER, ESQ. Q.C., D.C.L., F.R.S., F.S.A. RT. HON. THOMAS PEREGRINE COURTENAY. T. CROFTON CROKER, ESQ. F.S.A., M.R.I.A. THE REV. ALEXANDER DYCE. SIR HENRY ELLIS, K.H., F.R.S., Sec. S.A. THE REV. JOSEPH HUNTER, F.S.A. JOHN HERMAN MERIVALE, ESQ. F.S.A. JOHN GAGE ROKEWODE, ESQ. F.R.S., Director S.A. THOMAS STAPLETON, ESQ. F.S.A. WILLIAM J. THOMS, ESQ. F.S.A. Secretary. THOMAS WRIGHT, ESQ. M.A., F.S.A. INTRODUCTION. WHEN some future Hallam, or, I would rather say, when Mr. Hallam, in some future edition of his History of European Literature,, shall have bestowed a critical attention upon the works of our national historians, the author of the following Annals will be found to have occupied a prominent literary position. Amongst the many consequences which followed upon the Introduction of Printing into England, one of the earliest was, that it made our history popular. Caxton's Chronicle effected, in that respect, a change which, half a century later, would have been the result of the dis- solution of the monasteries. It withdrew History from the exclusive care of the Church, and taught her to speak the language, and appeal directly to the feelings, of the people. But the vernacular chroniclers who succeeded the monastic writers of history, were little conscious of the importance of their task. They followed in the foot- steps of the humblest of their predecessors, and seldom VI INTRODUCTION. aimed at any higher mark than that of being found faithful and diligent annalists. They were industrious collectors of facts, pains-taking chronologists, honest narrators, but, as a body, were totally devoid of that power of description which makes manifest the truth respecting past events in such manner as to render it conducive to the instruction of mankind. In such hands History lost much of its usefulness and all its dignity, and greatly is it to be regretted that this depression of historical literature took place at a time when, in other departments of human knowledge, our at its intellectual strength was height ; when Poetry shone with pre-eminent brilliancy, and the profoundest depths of Theology were investigated with an acuteness which has never been surpassed. No doubt there were many men who saw and deplored the state of things upon which I am commenting, and there were, at any event, two who endeavoured to amend it Camden and Hayward; united in their lives as the joint historiographers of King James's College at Chelsea, and now, after the lapse of two centuries, again brought together in name, the one as the author of the follow- ing work, and the other as the patron of the Society by whom it is published. Camden and Hayward took, in- deed, different paths, and I by no means seek to place them an it is for upon equality ; honour enough Hay- INTRODUCTION. vii ward if it be allowed that both were well acquainted with the great classical models of historical composition,, and wrote with minds imbued with a strong persuasion of their many excellent qualities,, and an anxious de- sire to of their * that catch some portion spirit ; and whilst Camden was setting forth in pure and simple Latin, his admirable Britannia, and his Annales, and was placing before the world some of the most valuable of the foundations of English History in his collection of Chronicles, Hayward was composing, in our own lan- guage, works which, notwithstanding their many defects, were of a higher character, and approached more nearly to a better description of historical writing, than any which had then been published. But these remarks are premature, until I have given an outline of Hayward's biography. The rank or station of his parents, the place and time of his birth, have not been ascertained the few ; but, judging from particulars which exist, we may infer that he was born shortly after 1 560, * Hayward's feeling of respect for the authors of antiquity is " strongly expressed in the following passage in his David's Teares :" " rich admire The compositions of ancient times I reverence and ; they do not only satisfie but astonish mee. I see them not to the depth, but I see them so farre, that I conceive the farthest reach of our age cannot neerely approach them. Of my own productions, never any did fully content mee, and the approbation of others is no warrant to my own judgment tender and severe in what I doe/' Vlil INTRODUCTION. at, or near, Felixstow, a small town on the sea-coast of Suffolk, not far from Land-guard Fort, and that his father was a man of no family,* but possessed, at his " death, of some lands and tenements," which he devised to his son. Hayward mentions in his will several of his relatives, and some of them as residents in that part " " Suffolk as Ursula James of ; Revett, my sister," Revett, ec of Witlesham, my sister's sonne," my halfe-brother, Mr. Thomas Brandston," "Ann Snell, of Wolverston, daughter to my half-sister ;" and, in the same document, he dis- " poses of all his lands and tenements" in Felixstow to his grandaughter, and, in case of her death under age, " directs that they shall descend according to the purport of his father's will." In his will he also states, that he received the means of his education from the parish of Felixstow, and, in " return, he bequeathes to the poor of that parish twentie pounds, to remaine as a stocke, and the profits thence ariseing to be converted to the use of the poore there * There is a coat of arms argent gutte, a fesse nebule gules in the right-hand upper corner of Hayward's engraved portrait, inserted in his Edward VI., edition 1630, but I have not been able to find any authority for rightly attributing those arms either to Hayward or any one else. They do not seem to have been recognised as be- longing to Hayward by the College of Arms, for there is a blank shield in the place usually occupied by the arms in the Book which contains the certificate of his burial : vide post, p. xlvii. INTRODUCTION. ix for the tyme being." His education was completed at Cambridge, where he took the degree of Doctor in Civil Law.* From thence he removed to London, and prac- tised as a pleader in the Ecclesiastical Courts. He entered the world as an author at a time, and under circumstances, well calculated to secure public attention. It was near the close of the reign of Eliza- beth, when the question of the succession to the throne and the intrigues of the Earl of Essex disquieted both court and country. That nobleman, whilst apparently belonging to the party which upheld the indefeasibleness of the succession, and the consequent right of the King of Scotland, was diligently seeking popularity, surrounding himself by a band of able, zealous, and not over-peaceable followers, and acting as if he entertained ambitious hopes of himself supplanting the various competitors. Appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland, he embroiled the affairs of that country by mismanagement, and then, either acting upon a persuasion that his popularity would be a suffi- * I state this fact upon the authority of all the biographical writers who have made mention of Hayward, with the addition, also, of Cole, the Cambridge Antiquary (Addit. MS. 5871); but 1 must add that Hayward's name does not occur in the transcript from the Register amongst the Baker MSS. (Harleian MS. 7038), and J. O. Halliwell, Esq. of Jesus College, having, very kindly, done me the favour to make a search at Cambridge, has not been able to find the date of Hayward's degree there. CAMD. SOC. /. b X INTRODUCTION. cient protection for his person, or misled by that singular want of judgment which marred all his noble qualities, he excited universal astonishment by the sudden desertion of his government. Whilst in custody, preparatory to an investigation into his conduct, his numerous friends endeavoured to excite and maintain the popular feeling on his behalf. The conduct of the Queen's advisers, and, through them, that of the Queen herself, was made the of subject unsparing condemnation ; defamatory libels them were side against spread abroad on every ; " " whilst loose idlers," remarks Camden, wherever they came together, and even some clergymen in their pulpits, lauded Essex with most immoderate praise."* Hayward took part in these indiscreet and censurable proceed- the of his first the ings by publication -f~ work, being com- mencement of a Life of Henry IV., dedicated to the Earl of Essex, in terms which are an ample specimen of the " " immodicce laudes to which Camden alludes. * " Homines male feriati Essexium ubique per circulos, et ministri quidam etiam e suggestu, immodicis laudibus extulerunt." Annales, ii.