Memoirs of the Court of Queen Elizabeth Lucy Aikin Memoirs of the Court of Queen Elizabeth Table of Contents Memoirs of the Court of Queen Elizabeth........................................................................................................1 Lucy Aikin...............................................................................................................................................2 PREFACE................................................................................................................................................4 VOL. I...................................................................................................................................................................5 CHAPTER I. 1533 TO 1536....................................................................................................................6 CHAPTER II. 1536 TO 1542................................................................................................................14 CHAPTER III. 1542 TO 1547...............................................................................................................25 CHAPTER IV. 1547 TO 1549...............................................................................................................29 CHAPTER V. 1549 TO 1553................................................................................................................41 CHAPTER VI. 1553 AND 1554...........................................................................................................49 CHAPTER VII. 1554 AND 1555..........................................................................................................57 CHAPTER VIII. 1555 TO 1558............................................................................................................70 CHAPTER IX. 1558 AND 1559...........................................................................................................81 CHAPTER X. 1559...............................................................................................................................90 CHAPTER XI. 1560..............................................................................................................................99 CHAPTER XII. 1560...........................................................................................................................105 CHAPTER XIIIa. 1561........................................................................................................................115 CHAPTER XIIIb. 1561 TO 1565........................................................................................................120 CHAPTER XIV. 1565 AND 1566.......................................................................................................134 CHAPTER XV. 1567 AND 1568........................................................................................................142 CHAPTER XVI. 1568 TO 1570..........................................................................................................155 VOL. II..............................................................................................................................................................165 CHAPTER XVII. 1571 TO 1573.........................................................................................................166 CHAPTER XVIII. 1573 TO 1577.......................................................................................................176 CHAPTER XIX. 1577 TO 1582..........................................................................................................184 CHAPTER XX. 1582 TO 1587...........................................................................................................200 CHAPTER XXI. 1587 AND 1588.......................................................................................................228 CHAPTER XXII. FROM 1588 TO 1591............................................................................................241 CHAPTER XXIII. FROM 1591 TO 1593...........................................................................................264 CHAPTER XXIV. FROM 1593 TO 1597...........................................................................................272 CHAPTER XXV. 1595 to 1598..........................................................................................................285 CHAPTER XXVI. 1597 AND 1598....................................................................................................291 CHAPTER XXVII. 1599 TO 1603......................................................................................................303 i Memoirs of the Court of Queen Elizabeth 1 Memoirs of the Court of Queen Elizabeth Lucy Aikin This page formatted 2007 Blackmask Online. http://www.blackmask.com • PREFACE. • VOL. I. • CHAPTER I. 1533 TO 1536. • CHAPTER II. 1536 TO 1542. • CHAPTER III. 1542 TO 1547. • CHAPTER IV. 1547 TO 1549. • CHAPTER V. 1549 TO 1553. • CHAPTER VI. 1553 AND 1554. • CHAPTER VII. 1554 AND 1555. • CHAPTER VIII. 1555 TO 1558. • CHAPTER IX. 1558 AND 1559. • CHAPTER X. 1559. • CHAPTER XI. 1560. • CHAPTER XII. 1560. • CHAPTER XIIIa. 1561. • CHAPTER XIIIb. 1561 TO 1565. • CHAPTER XIV. 1565 AND 1566. • CHAPTER XV. 1567 AND 1568. • CHAPTER XVI. 1568 TO 1570. • VOL. II. • CHAPTER XVII. 1571 TO 1573. • CHAPTER XVIII. 1573 TO 1577. • CHAPTER XIX. 1577 TO 1582. • CHAPTER XX. 1582 TO 1587. • CHAPTER XXI. 1587 AND 1588. • CHAPTER XXII. FROM 1588 TO 1591. • CHAPTER XXIII. FROM 1591 TO 1593. • CHAPTER XXIV. FROM 1593 TO 1597. • CHAPTER XXV. 1595 to 1598. • CHAPTER XXVI. 1597 AND 1598. • CHAPTER XXVII. 1599 TO 1603. Produced by Paul Murray, Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) 2 Memoirs of the Court of Queen Elizabeth [Transcriber's note: A small number of typographical errors found in the original, printed book have been corrected; neither the language nor the spelling has been modernized. There are two chapters numbered thirteen; they have been labeled XIIIa and XIIIb.] [Illustration: QUEEN ELIZABETH In the dress in which she went to St Pauls, to return thanks for the defeat of the Spanish Armada. Engraved by Bond, from the extremely rare print by Crispin de Passe, after a drawing by Isaac Oliver.] MEMOIRS OF THE COURT OF QUEEN ELIZABETH BY LUCY AIKIN IN TWO VOLUMES. (combined) LONDON: PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, AND BROWN, PATERNOSTER ROW. 1818. PRINTED BY RICHARD AND ARTHUR TAYLOR, SHOE−LANE. 3 Memoirs of the Court of Queen Elizabeth PREFACE. In the literature of our country, however copious, the eye of the curious student may still detect important deficiencies. We possess, for example, many and excellent histories, embracing every period of our domestic annals;—biographies, general and particular, which appear to have placed on record the name of every private individual justly entitled to such commemoration;—and numerous and extensive collections of original letters, state−papers and other historical and antiquarian documents;—whilst our comparative penury is remarkable in royal lives, in court histories, and especially in that class which forms the glory of French literature,—memoir. To supply in some degree this want, as it affects the person and reign of one of the most illustrious of female and of European sovereigns, is the intention of the work now offered with much diffidence to the public. Its plan comprehends a detailed view of the private life of Elizabeth from the period of her birth; a view of the domestic history of her reign; memoirs of the principal families of the nobility and biographical anecdotes of the celebrated characters who composed her court; besides notices of the manners, opinions and literature of the reign. Such persons as may have made it their business or their entertainment to study very much in detail the history of the age of Elizabeth, will doubtless be aware that in the voluminous collections of Strype, in the edited Burleigh, Sidney, and Talbot papers, in the Memoirs of Birch, in various collections of letters, in the chronicles of the times,—so valuable for those vivid pictures of manners which the pen of a contemporary unconsciously traces,—in the Annals of Camden, the Progresses of Nichols, and other large and laborious works which it would be tedious here to enumerate, a vast repertory existed of curious and interesting facts seldom recurred to for the composition of books of lighter literature, and possessing with respect to a great majority of readers the grace of novelty. Of these and similar works of reference, as well as of a variety of others, treating directly or indirectly on the biography, the literature, and the manners of the period, a large collection has been placed under the eyes of the author, partly by the liberality of her publishers, partly by the kindness of friends. In availing herself of their contents, she has had to encounter in full force the difficulties attendant on such a task; those of weighing and comparing authorities, of reconciling discordant statements, of bringing insulated facts to bear upon each other, and of forming out of materials irregular in their nature and abundant almost to excess, a compact and well−proportioned structure. How far her abilities and her diligence may have proved themselves adequate to the undertaking, it remains with a candid public to decide. Respecting the selection of topics