CHAPTER VII ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND PUBLIC LIFE-ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE-TRADE-TREATMENT OF IRELAND-PIRACY THE last chapter dealt with Elizabethan England mainly from its domestic and social side. Let us now see how the men of this time look from another point of view. And first we will consider those in public life. A few figures stand out in the Elizabethan era which would do honor to any age; chief among these are Burghley and Walsingham. It is fortunate for England and for the world that these men lived; it is largely to them that England owes her greatness. They were patriots, pure of life, incorruptible, working for their country, and not for self. Burghley was wealthy, but in his own right; from the queen he did not receive enough, he said, to cover his expenses.* Walsingham spent his fortune in the public service and died in poverty. These are the men who, with a very few others, such as Sir Francis Knollys, Sir Nicholas Bacon, and Sir Philip Sidney, are often held up to illustrate the public morality of the age; but they neither represent the officials nor the courtiers. Most of the men about them were mere parasites fattening on the nation-gamblers, spendthrifts, pardon-brokers, monopolists, and pirates. *Strype's "Annals," iii. Appendix, p. 128. For public services, however splendid or long continued, Elizabeth had scarcely a word of thanks. It must have been that, believing herself more than mortal, there was no room in her composition for such an earthly trait as gratitude. She allowed her ministers to go without reward, and her soldiers in the field to starve for want of food, apparently because she thought it their duty not only to serve her with their lives, but at their own expense. It speaks well for human nature and for the English character that she found so many willing to serve her, as the representative of their country, on these terms. Such men, however, were in a small minority, and with a few notable exceptions were not found about the court. Those who daily saw the queen discovered two modes of gaining the rewards denied to patriotic service or devotion to her interests. One was to satisfy her greed by presents of gold or jewels, no matter how acquired; the other was to feed her hunger for adulation, which was insatiable as the grave. Historians, to excuse her conduct towards her ministers, soldiers, and all the true friends with whom she had financial dealings, say that her avarice amounted to a monomania. But her life was not controlled by avarice. The miser who heaps up treasures from mere love of acquisition denies himself as well as others; the selfish spendthrift it is who defrauds his creditors and robs his friends in order to have means for self-indulgence or display. To the parasites about her court, Elizabeth could be lavishness itself. Leicester, who began life with nothing, became the wealthiest nobleman in England. Burghley estimated that Elizabeth gave Essex, her last favorite, three hundred thousand pounds,* and this * Hume, iii. 258. CORRUPTION IN STATE AND CHURCH 365 was at a time when the country was at war with Spain, and the drains upon the public purse the most severe. Hatton, her "sheep," who danced himself into favor, was rewarded with broad acres of land and profitable sinecures, and was finally made Lord Chancellor. Others received grants of monopolies, which extended to so many articles and forms of industry as to become a grievous burden to the State, without benefit to the royal treasury.* But the monopolies were not the worst of the abuses caused by the conduct of the queen. Men who could not get pay for honest service took pensions from France and Spain, both natural enemies of England. Officials, when out of the queen's sight, robbed the government, as they always will where the government shows no honesty in its own dealings. Even the Church became infected. Many of the bishops plundered their dioceses, sold the lead and brick from the buildings, cut down the timber, and made grants of church property to the crown, either for a bribe in money or for a portion of the spoils. In addition, they almost openly sold the livings in their gift, the Bishop of Lichfield making seventy "lewd and unlearned ministers for money" in one day.+ *Hallam's "Const. Hist." i. 260. See Hall, p. 68, etc., for an account of the mode in which Sir Thomas Gresham, the queen's financial agent, until recent times regarded as a model of official integrity, acquired his large fortune; and p. 122, etc., for the exploits of Sir George Carey, the Treasurer at War in Ireland. These men were shining lights in their age, far removed from the horde of petty plunderers. Froude, xii. 22; xi. 21; vii. 476. Further authorities for these statements regarding the condition of the Church will be given in Chapter IX. The law courts were little better. In 1592, Elizabeth appointed to the office of Chief Justice of England a lawyer, John Popham, who is said to have occasionally been a highwayman until the age of thirty. At first blush this seems incredible, but only because such false notions generally prevail regarding the character of the time. The fact is that neither piracy nor robbery was considered particularly discreditable at the court of Elizabeth. The queen knighted Francis Drake for his exploits as a pirate, and a law on the statute-books, passed in the middle of the century, gave the benefit of clergy to peers of the realm when convicted of highway robbery. Men may doubt, if they choose, the stories about Popham, but the testimony of this statute cannot be disputed.+ The elevation of a reputed highwayman to preside over the highest criminal court in the kingdom did not, however, mean that the laws were not to be enforced with rigor. In fact, Popham received the name of the "hanging judge," and well deserved the title. All the *See "Life of Popham," Campbell's "Lives of the Chief Justices." Hall, it should be said, discredits this story as romantic gossip, p. 148. + 1 Ed. VI. cap. 12, sec. 14 (1547). Shakespeare's contemporaries saw nothing remarkable in the fact that Sir John Falstaff, a knight, was represented as a highway robber, and that a prince was his associate. Popham is said to have left the largest fortune ever accumulated by a lawyer. Among his other possessions was Littlecote House, which he acquired in some strange way from Wild Will Darrell. Upon his death, he was succeeded by a son who kept one of the grandest establishments in England. When at home his house was full of guests, and when abroad, his wife gathered in the women of the surrounding country, and they all got drunk together. Campbell's "Life of Popham." Both died from the effects of their debauchery, after squandering the ill-gotten wealth of the Chief Justice. judicial proceedings of the time are marked by the mixture of ferocity and corruption which characterizes a semi-barbarous condition of society. In prosecutions by the State, every barrier which the law has ever attempted to erect for the protection of innocence was ruthlessly cast down. Men were arrested without the order of a magistrate, on the mere warrant of a secretary of state or privy councillor, and thrown into prison during the pleasure of the minister. In confinement they were subjected to torture, for the rack rarely stood idle while Elizabeth was on the throne. If brought to trial, they were denied the aid of counsel and the evidence of witnesses in their behalf. Nor were they confronted with the witnesses against them, but written depositions, taken out of court and in the absence of the prisoner, were read to the jury, or rather such portions of them as the prosecution considered advantageous to its side. On the bench sat a judge holding office at the pleasure of the crown, and in the jury-box twelve men, picked out by the sheriff, who themselves were punished if they gave a verdict of acquittal.* Well does Hallam compare the English courts of justice, in cases of treason, to the "caverns of murderers." Hentzner counted on London Bridge the heads of over thirty persons who had been executed for high treason, and he was there in a very quiet time. Concerning the Tower he has this significant remark: "N.B. It is to be noted that when any of the nobility are sent hither on the charge of high crimes punishable with death, such as treason, etc., they seldom or never recover their lib "The Trial of the Earl of Somerset," by Amos; Jardine's "Life of Coke;" Hallam's "Const. Hist.," i. 232, 234, etc.; Wade, i. 141. |