Struggles for Catholic Supremacy in the Last Years of Queen Elizabeth
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I Olairnril KtmuetsitB Jitatg BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME FROM THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND THE GIFT OF Hi^nrg m. Sage 1891 AjH^Hr uj^u^j Cornell University Library DA 356.H92T7 Treason and plot: 3 1924 027 983 844 W =m;t1926 M' 1. \ The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924027983844 TREASON AND PLOT Treason AND Plot STRUGGLES FOR ^ j*» CATHOLIC SUPREMACY IN THE LAST YEARS OF QUEEN ELIZABETH sr BY MARTIN A. S. HUME ^ EDITOR OP THE CALENDARS OF SPANISH STATE PAPERS (public record OFFICE) <# NEW YORK D. APPLETON C5r COMPANY I go I Printed by Ballantyne, Hanson &• Co. Edinburgh TO THE MANY UNKNOWN FRIENDS IN ENGLAND AND AMERICA WHOSE WELCOME LETTERS OF APPROVAL HAVE SWE:BTENED MY LABOURS IN A GRUDGING AND TOILSOME FIELD MARTIN A. S. HUME. PREFACE The adoption of the Reformation by England was an event which did not alone concern the nation itself, but threw out of balance the whole edifice of European power, built upon traditional alliances and international policies that had survived for centuries. However much it may have suited the temporal ends of Spanish monarchs to incite their subjects to religious exaltation, it was not crusading zeal or spiritual fervour which impelled them for half a century to lavish the blood and substance of their countries, and to exhaust every expedient, from marriage to murder, for the purpose of bringing England back to the Catholic fold. A Protestant England and a divided Germany inevitably meant the decadence and final ruin of the great Spanish empire which the "Catholic sovereigns" had reared upon a base of bigotry. Without a close alliance with England, and the certainty of efficient support from Germany, Spain found herself with a jealous rival, France, on each flank. On the one hand, her dominions in Italy, only held by the right of the sword, would sooner or later be lost to her ; and, on the other hand, Flanders and Holland, shut off by land if the viii PREFACE Italian dominion passed away, could not be reached from Spain even by water, unless England held the Channel and England were friendly. When the spread of the Reformed doctrines in Holland drove the Burghers to shake off the yoke of intolerant Spain, and Protestant England, for her own national safety, found it necessary to aid the insurgents, it became no longer a matter of future policy, but of vital and immediate necessity, for Philip II. to persuade or force England into alliance or benevolent neutrality. The need was still further increased when the Huguenot power in France bade fair to overcome the Catholic supremacy there, and thus to leave Spain isolated without the possibility of alliance either with England or France : for it must be remembered that Spain could not afford to deal on equal terms with a Protestant power, because the admission of any question as to the supremacy of the Church, in all its rigidity, would have struck at the power by which Spain held together her mixed and recently reconciled populations, and have invalidated the exclusive right she claimed over the whole of the New World. It was, therefore, a matter of national life or death for her that England, by some means, should be made Catholic. On the other hand, the circumstances which sur- rounded the birth and accession of Elizabeth were such that an acknowledgment on her part of the Papal supremacy would have branded her as a bastard, and would have deprived her of her here- PREFACE ix ditary right to rule. Whilst this was the case with her, there is no doubt that her personal leanings were to a great extent in favour of a ceremonious form of worship, and of the authority and dignity which belonged to the ancient Church ; and it was equally important for England as it was for Spain to prevent the Flemish dominions of. the latter power from ever falling into the hands of France. It will be understood, therefore, that, although the religious problems between England and Spain were opposed and irreconcilable, their national and traditional interests still to a great extent coincided ; and it was this latter circumstance which enabled Elizabeth and Lord Burghley, through a long series of years, to play their consummate game of balance and chicanery, which paralysed Spain for harm, whilst England was growing in potency and wealth. The imminence of the succession of a Huguenot to the throne of France, which threatened an approximation of French religious interests with those of England, at length compelled Philip to abandon a temporising policy with Elizabeth. If he could not force England to be Catholic before Henry of Navarre ruled France as a Protestant and made common cause with Elizabeth, then indeed had the star of Spanish power sunk to rise no more. But, as was usual with all his resolutions of action, Philip adopted his policy too late ; and the defeat of the Armada exhibited to a scoffing and ; X PREFACE envious world a nation already in decadence, not only in material strength, but in the moral forces which had previously been the principal secret of her success. But though her Armada was defeated and Spain was riddled with corruption, her national necessity to make England sufficiently Catholic to be a fit ally for her ends remained unchanged. Her dreams of greatness, moreover, continued to loom large in her uneasy slumbers long after the decay of her potency had set in. The Catholic interests in England were many, and, for a multitude of reasons, devotional, sentimental, and mundane, a consider- able portion of the people would have welcomed the return of a Catholic dispensation. But the long years of antagonism and informal warfare which the circumstances just mentioned had produced between England and Spain, had before the last de- cade of Elizabeth's reign given birth to a new pride of country in the breasts of most Englishmen, and a determination that a people who had shown their inability even to hold their own against England on the sea should not gain dominion over the land by means of religion or otherwise. It was this new patriotism that divided the Catholic forces in England, and the knowledge, then general, of Spain's selfish objects that divided them abroad and, as a consequence of the changed position, the struggles to impose Catholic supremacy upon Eng- land that followed the catastrophe of the Armada differed entirely from those that preceded it. ; PREFACE xi The story of these struggles up to 1588 has been told fully by Froude and many other historians but it has usually been assumed that with the defeat of the Armada the strenuous attempts to bring England again into the circle of the Roman Catholic Church and to a close alliance with Spain came to an end. That this was far from being the case will be admitted by those who honour me by reading these pages, in which I have en- deavoured to set forth, as fully as the limits of one volume would permit, the continuous efforts made by the various Catholic elements, English and foreign, to establish the supremacy of their faith in England from 1593 to the accession of James in 1603; which latter date marks the final extinc- tion of their hopes. Much of the material from which the story is written is now used for the purpose for the first time, especially the Spanish MSS. transcribed by the present writer at Simancas, and abstracted in the last volume of ; the Spanish Calendar of Elizabeth. I have also drawn upon the calendared and un- calendared Irish State papers, the latest volume of the Venetian papers, the Hatfield papers, calen- dared and uncalendared ; and, for the story of the Lopez conspiracy, I have been permitted to make abstracts of some interesting manuscripts in the possession of Lord Calthorpe, and also some un- published papers in the Archives Nationales, Paris. I have endeavoured to set forth the historical facts xii PREFACE in all simplicity, and with absolute detachment so far as regards their religious aspect ; and in every case where I have ventured to draw a deduction of any sort, the evidence upon which I have de- pended is placed before the reader, in order that he may judge for himself how far my conclusions are justified. This book does not claim to be a contribution, however small, to religious contro- versy, but is a diligent attempt to add something to the knowledge of historical fact, and to set forth, by the light of modern research, one phase of the important last ten years of the reign of Elizabeth ; a decade which, for various reasons, has been inadequately treated by recent English historians. MARTIN A. S. HUME. — CONTENTS CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Change in the European situation caused by the defeat of the Armada—The Jesuits and the English Mission—The unmask- ing of Philip's designs — The influence of England's new maritime strength — Spain's renewed preparations for the struggle CHAPTER II Intrigues of the Scottish Catholics with Spain—James's share in them—The "Spanish blanks"—The Parliament of 1593 Fears of a new Spanish invasion—John Cecil's mission from Scotland to Spain—The influence of Father Persons—The Spanish mission to the Scottish Catholic Lords—John Cecil's betrayal of the cause 23 CHAPTER III Appeal to Spain of the Irish Catholics—Meeting of the Chiefs in Donegal—The Archbishop of Tuam's mission to Spain—James sends another envoy to Spain—The battle of Glenlivat Walter Lindsay in Madrid — Suppression of the Catholic Lords in Scotland—Their renewed appeal to Philip—Its failure, and the reason for it 50 CHAPTER IV The condition of the Catholics in England—Disagreement between the Jesuits and Seculars^—Party politics in the English Court —Real and pretended plots against the Queen—Father Young's confessions^The irreconcilable English refugees—The con- —— xiv CONTENTS PAQE fessions of Webster—Polwhele's and CoUen's plots—Daniel's and Cahill's confessions—Arrest of Father Henry Walpole The doubtful evidence in support of most of the so-called plots 80 CHAPTER V The conspiracy of Dr.