London and the Kingdom Volume I Part 38

This was in December, 1595. The money was found by imposing a tax of 2_s._ 8_d._ in the pound for goods and 4_s._ in the pound for lands on every inhabitant of the city,(1725) and by advances made by the livery companies.(1726) On the 8th January (1596) the queen addressed a very gracious letter of thanks to the City for the prompt.i.tude displayed in furnishing the ships.(1727) Instead of waiting for Spain to attack, Elizabeth carried the war into the enemy's country, and Cadiz was captured six months later by Ess.e.x and Howard. This exploit, in which the city of London took its share, has been described(1728) as the most brilliant that had ever been achieved by English arms between Agincourt and Blenheim, and it was celebrated in London with bonfires and general rejoicing.(1729) As soon as the Common Council heard of the arrival of the fleet from its successful voyage it despatched commissioners to see after the City's share of prize money.(1730)

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In the meantime (April, 1596) the queen's tortuous and parsimonious policy had led to Calais falling into the hands of Spain. She had called upon the Londoners to furnish 1,000 soldiers to a.s.sist in raising the siege, but it is a question whether they ever got beyond Dover.(1731) Roused for the time to a more energetic line of action, she determined to prevent, if possible, the sister town of Boulogne falling into the hands of Spain, and she called upon the city of London to supply 405 men towards the force to be despatched in the autumn for its defence.(1732)

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The necessity of recruiting the garrison of the cautionary town of Flushing, from which troops had recently been withdrawn for service on the high seas, compelled the queen to apply again to the City (July, 1596) for a contingent of 200 men.(1733)

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This constant drain on the resources of the city at length called forth a remonstrance. The city was being threatened with famine at the close of the year (1596), when another demand arrived for ten ships to be fitted out for the public service. The matter was referred to a committee, and a reply was drawn up, which was practically a refusal to obey the commands of the council.(1734)

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It set forth the utter inability of the citizens, however willing they might be, to supply more ships. They had already expended on sea service alone, and irrespective of their disburs.e.m.e.nts in 1588, no less a sum than 100,000 marks within the last few years; so that the lords of the council would see that the citizens had not been wanting in good will and affection towards] that service. The same good will still remained, but there was lacking the like ability, owing partly to former charges by sea and land, but more especially to the great scarcity of victual which had continued in the city for the past three years, and had compelled many who had formerly been well off to reduce their expenditure, whilst others had been obliged to relinquish their trades and break up their households. As a proof of the poverty existing in the city their lordships were reminded that when wheat was offered at a very moderate rate many were too poor to purchase any. The wealthier sort would therefore have to be called upon to subscribe towards the maintenance of the poorer cla.s.s, and so be rendered less able to contribute to other demands. The letter proceeded to draw their lordships' attention to what after all was the reason which weighed most with the citizens for refusing to contribute any more to the naval service. "Besides theis defectes" wrote the mayor and corporation "we may not conceale the great discontentment and utter discouragement of the common people wthin this citie touchinge their adventure in the late viage to the towne at _Cales_ [Cadiz] wch albeit it was perfourmed wth soe great honor and happy successe as that the enemye was greatly weakned, the army enritched and such store of treasure and other comodities (besides that wch was thear embeazelled) brought safe home as was sufficient to defraye the charges of the whole voyage, yet forasmuch as neither their princ.i.p.all nor any parte thereof was restored unto them contrarie to the meaninge of the contract set downe in writinge under the signatures of two n.o.ble persons in her highnes name, they are made hereby utterly unfitt and indisposed for the like service to be done hereafter."(1735) The Cadiz adventure-they went on to say-had cost the City 1,900, a great part of which sum was still not collected, whilst the City's Chamber was already in debt to the extent of 14,000 and utterly unable to afford relief. The writers, in conclusion, expressed themselves ready to contribute towards the defence of the whole realm in like proportion as others of her majesty's subjects, and with this arrangement they felt sure her majesty would be well content.

What was the effect of this reply does not appear; but in one respect the queen was more than a match for the citizens. They had pleaded scarcity of provisions and poverty as an excuse for not carrying out her recent orders. Very good; let the livery companies, whose duty it was to find men and money when required, practise a little self-restraint in the coming summer (1597). Let them, she said, forbear giving feasts in their halls and elsewhere, and bestow half the money thus saved on the poor; and the order of the Court of Aldermen went forth accordingly.(1736)

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For some years past it had always been feared lest Spain should again endeavour to strike at England through Ireland. A rising in Ulster under Hugh O'Neill, known in England as the Earl of Tyrone, in 1594 was followed by an appeal to Spain for help in 1595. Philip acceded to the request and another Armada was got ready; but the fleet had scarcely put to sea before it suffered a similar fate to the Armada of 1588 and was shattered by a storm (Dec., 1596). The Tyrone rebellion necessitated further calls on the City for men and money. In May, 1597, it was asked to furnish 500 men, such as Sir Samuel Bagnall might approve of.(1737) In the following year-when Bagnall met with a crushing defeat on the Blackwater-it was called upon to supply a further contingent of 300 men and to lend the queen a sum of 20,000.(1738) In 1599 Elizabeth sent her favourite Ess.e.x to conquer Ireland in good earnest, to prevent the country falling into the hands of Spain. She at the same time called upon the City for more soldiers, and borrowed another sum of 60,000 on mortgage.(1739)

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In the meantime a report again got abroad that a Spanish fleet was a.s.sembling at Brest for a descent on England. On the 25th July, 1598, the lords of the council wrote to the mayor calling upon him to see that some twelve or sixteen vessels were provided with ordnance and powder for the defence of the Thames, and the court of Common Council at once took the necessary steps for fitting out the ships as well as for mustering a force of 3,000 men, afterwards raised to 6,000.(1740) The city's forces and the charge of the river were confided to the Earl of c.u.mberland. Sir Thomas Gerrard had at first been appointed colonel of the Londoners, "but for an old grudge since the last parliament they wold none of him."(1741) It was proposed to throw a bridge of boats across the Thames near Gravesend, after the fashion of Parma's famous bridge erected across the Scheldt in 1585, and the court of Common Council (4 Aug.) gave orders for collecting "hoyes, barges, lighters, boardes, cordes" and other material necessary for the purpose.(1742) This project was, however, abandoned in favour of sinking hulks in the channel of the river if occasion should arise. Watch was ordered to be strictly kept in the city night and day, lanterns to be hung out at night and the streets blocked with chains.(1743) It had been rumoured that the Spanish fleet had been descried off the Isle of Wight, and although the rumour proved false it caused no little alarm in the city and gave rise to these precautions.(1744) After a few days the supposed danger pa.s.sed away. The fleet, which had been rapidly got together, and included twelve ships and thirty hoys furnished by the city for the defence of the river, put to sea nevertheless, whilst the land forces were gradually disbanded.(1745)

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The administration of Ess.e.x in Ireland was a signal failure, and he made matters worse by quitting his post without leave and forcing his presence upon the queen. He had hoped to recover her good grace by his unexpected appearance. Elizabeth was not to be thus cajoled. She ordered him into custody, deprived him of his offices, and, what was of more importance to him, refused to renew his patent of a monopoly of sweet wines. Although the earl soon regained his liberty he could not forget his disgrace, and his overweening vanity drove him to concert measures against the government. In 1601 he rode at the head of a few followers into the city, expecting the citizens to rise in his favour. The mayor had, however, been forewarned, and 1,000 men were held in readiness in each ward fully armed for the safeguard of the city.(1746) The earl and his band proceeded to the house of Thomas Smith, in Fenchurch Street, one of the sheriffs, who had represented himself, or been represented by others, as able and willing to further the earl's cause. That the sheriff was thought by his fellow citizens to have been implicated in Ess.e.x's mad attempt is seen from the fact that within a week he was deprived, not only of his sheriffwick, but also of his aldermanry,(1747) but to what extent he had compromised himself it is difficult to determine. Finding the citizens averse to a rising and his pa.s.sage stopped by pikemen under the command of Sir John Gilbert and Sir Robert Cross, who respectively had charge of Ludgate and Newgate,(1748) and who refused to surrender them except to the sheriff in person as the queen's representative, the earl and his company hastened to the riverside and returned to Ess.e.x House by water. He was subsequently arrested and committed to the Tower, together with two of his accomplices, the Earls of Rutland and Southampton. Another of his followers, the Earl of Bedford, was committed for a while to the custody of Leonard Holiday, a city alderman.(1749) The queen, who had shown no more agitation at the news of the attempt to raise the city than "of a fray in Fleet Street,"(1750) took an early opportunity of thanking the citizens and her subjects generally for the loyalty they had displayed.(1751)

A sum of 200 was distributed by the civic authorities among the officers engaged in the city's defence, but the two knights at Ludgate and Newgate refused to accept any gratuity.(1752) For a week or more strict guard was kept at the city's gates, whilst bodies of troops fully armed were kept in readiness at the Royal Exchange and Saint Paul's Churchyard in case of disturbance.(1753) Ess.e.x was brought to trial on a charge of treason, convicted and executed (25 Feb.). Sheriff Smith was made to undergo a severe cross-examination, but appears to have got off with his life.(1754)

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Lord Mountjoy, who had succeeded Ess.e.x in Ireland, set to work systematically to bring the country into complete submission. The conquest was not effected without considerable aid from the city of London. From 1600 to 1602 the citizens were being constantly called upon to supply fresh forces for Ireland.(1755) A Spanish force which at length came to Tyrone's a.s.sistance in 1601, and established itself at Kinsale, was compelled to surrender. The work of the sword was supplemented by famine; until at last Tyrone himself was carried in triumph to Dublin, and the conquest of Ireland was complete.

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Mountjoy's work could not be carried on without money, and Elizabeth had been compelled in 1601 to summon a parliament to obtain supplies. Hitherto the Puritans, who began in the early part of the reign to gain a hold in the House of Commons, and had gradually increased in strength, had been content, in the presence of a common danger, to refrain from offering any systematic opposition to Elizabeth's government. But now that the defeat of the Armada, the death of Philip II and the firm establishment of Henry IV on the throne of France had removed all danger from abroad, they began to change front. As soon as the House met the Commons chose Croke (or Crooke), the City's Recorder, their Speaker, an honour which the City acknowledged by ordering (3 Nov.) a gift of forty marks to be made to him.(1756) When the question of supplies came before the House they were readily granted, but a bill was introduced to abolish patents of monopolies, which the queen had been in the habit of lavishly bestowing upon her favourites by virtue of her prerogative, and by which the price of nearly every commodity had been grievously enhanced. It was in vain that the minority in the House found fault with the Speaker for allowing the queen's prerogative to be called in question. The majority had the nation at its back; and finding this to be the case Elizabeth, who knew when to give way, yielded with grace. When a deputation of the Commons waited upon her and expressed the grat.i.tude of the House at her concession, she replied in words full of kindness and dignity, thanking the Commons for having pointed out her error, and calling G.o.d to witness that she had never cherished anything but what tended to her people's good, "Though you have had," she a.s.sured them, "and may have, many princes more mighty and wise sitting in this seat, yet you never had, or ever shall have, any that will be more careful and loving."

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These were the last words addressed by the queen to her people, and their truth was borne out by her conduct throughout her long reign. Under her the country had become united and prosperous. By the citizens of London she was especially beloved, for they always found in her a supporter of trade and commerce. If the Hanseatic towns behaved unfairly to the merchant adventurers Elizabeth promptly retaliated upon the merchants of the Steelyard. She had threatened to close the Steelyard altogether in 1578, when English merchants were ordered to quit Hamburg, and twenty years later (1598), when fresh difficulties had arisen, the threat was carried out.(1757)

The queen rarely left London to make one of her many gorgeous progresses from country house to country house or returned home without some notice being sent to the city to allow of its inhabitants taking "the comfort of behoulding her royall persone."(1758) Her love of personal admiration and of handsome men continued to the last. As late as November, 1602, she commanded the mayor and aldermen and a number of the "best and most grave"

citizens to attend her from Chelsea to Westminster, and the mayor, knowing her weakness, ordered the livery companies to choose the "most grave and comlie" members to join the procession.(1759) In the early morning of the 24th March, 1603, she died at Richmond, to the sincere regret of the citizens no less than of the nation at large.

END OF VOL. I.