How England should emerge from the welter of the old tides and the new, depended to some extent upon providential circumstances, but more largely still upon the personal characteristics of those who guided her national policy and that of her competitors. Never was nation more favoured in this respect than was England at this crisis of the world’s history. The conditions of the Queen’s birth compelled her to embrace the cause of religious freedom, whilst her intellect, her sex, and her versatility6 enabled her during a long course of years successfully to play off one continental7 rival against another, until she was strong enough openly to grasp and hold the balance. But withal, her vanity, her fickleness8, the folly9 and greed of her favourites, or the machinations of her enemies, would inevitably10 have dragged her to ruin again and again, but for the fact that she always had near her, in moments of weakness or danger, a fixed11 point to which[viii] she could turn, a councillor whose gaze was never diverted from the ultimate goal, a man whom flattery did not move, whom bribery12 did not buy—wise, steady William Cecil, who, to her honour and his, remained her prime adviser13 from the moment of her accession to the day of his death.
It has happened that most of the historians who have dealt in detail with Elizabethan politics, and especially with Cecil’s share in them, have dwelt mainly upon the religious and ecclesiastical aspect of the subject, and have usually approached it with a strong doctrinal bias14 on one side or the other. It is true that Cecil’s life was coeval15 with the rise and triumph of the great religious schism16 in the Christian17 faith in England, that in his boyhood there was hardly a whisper of revolt against the papal supremacy18, and that ere he died the Protestant Church of England was firmly established, and the country freed from the fears of Rome. Upon this text most of his biographers have founded their discourse19, and have regarded the great minister as first and foremost a religious reformer. That he was at heart, at all events in his later years, sincerely attached to the Protestant faith, there is no reason to doubt; but before all things, he was a statesman who sought to raise and strengthen England by political means, and used religion, as he used other instrumentalities, to attain20 the object he had in view. He was far too prudent21 to say so, but he probably regarded religious dogma in as broad a spirit as Catharine de Medici, Henry IV., and Elizabeth herself. His youthful training and early circumstances had associated him with an advanced school of thinkers, who had naturally adopted the cause of religious reform, condemned22 by their opponents. The current of events and the blindness of the other side identified that party with the cause of national independence and prosperity; and for political aims, Cecil made the most of the support to[ix] be obtained from those who demanded a simpler and less rigid23 form of Christian doctrine24 than that imposed by Rome. But in the party of reform Cecil was always the most conservative element. Other councillors might be, and were, driven hither and thither25 by bribery, by passion, by a desire to flatter the Queen’s caprice, by religious zeal26 or mere27 ineptitude28, but Cecil was judicious29, well-nigh incorruptible, prudent, patriotic30, and clear-headed; and though he was often obliged to dissemble and give way, he always returned to his point. Protestant zeal must not hurry the Government too far, or too fast, against the sworn enemies of Protestantism. England must be kept free from entanglements31 with Rome, but she must also avoid as long as possible national warfare32 with Rome’s principal supporter; for Spain was England’s buckler against French aggression33, and the possessor of the rich harbours of the Netherlands where English commerce found its main outlet34.
Throughout a long life of ceaseless activity, in which he had to deal with ever-varying circumstances and problems; hampered35 by bitter rivals at home and sleepless36 enemies abroad, Cecil’s methods shifted so frequently, and apparently37 so contradictorily38, as to have bewildered most of those who have essayed to unravel39 his devious40 diplomacy41. But shift as he might, there was ever the one stable and changeless principle which underlay42 all his policy, and guided all his actions. He had been brought up in the traditional school of English policy which regarded the House of Burgundy as a friend, and France as the natural enemy whose designs in Scotland and Flanders must be frustrated43, or England must be politically and commercially ruined. For centuries England’s standing44 danger had been her liability to invasion by the French over the Scottish border, and for the first forty years of Cecil’s life the main object of[x] English statecraft was to break permanently45 the secular46 connection between Scotland and France, and to weaken the latter country by favouring her great rival in Flanders.
When Spain, under rigid Philip, assumed the championship of extreme Catholicism, and pledged herself to root out the reformed doctrines47 throughout Europe, whilst France, on the other hand, was often ruled by Huguenot counsels, it will be seen that Cecil’s task in endeavouring to carry out the traditional policy, was a most difficult one, and he alone of Elizabeth’s ministers was able to preserve his equilibrium48 in the face of it. Some of them went too far; drifted into Spanish pay, or became open Catholics and rebels; others, moved by opposite religious zeal, lost sight of the political principle, and were for fighting Spain at all times and at any cost. But Cecil, though sorely perplexed49 at times, never lost his judgment50. The first article in his political creed51 was distrust of the French, and it remained so to the day of his death, though France was ruled by the ex-champion of the Huguenots, and Spain and England were still at daggers52 drawn53. In the first year of Elizabeth’s reign54 Cecil wrote:[1] “France, being an ancient enemy of England, seeketh always to make Scotland an instrument to exercise thereby55 their malice56 upon England, and to make a footstool thereof to look over England as they may;” and forty years afterwards, when the great minister was on the brink57 of the grave, De Beaumont, the French ambassador, spoke58 of him as still leading “all the old councillors of the Queen who have true English hearts; that is to say, who are enemies of the welfare and repose59 of France.”[2]
To allow the French to become dominant60 in Scotland would have made England weak, to have stood by idly[xi] whilst they overcame the Netherlands would have made her poor, and to these national reasons for distrust of French aims, was added, in Cecil’s case, the personal suspicion and dislike bred of early associations and tradition. The Queen, on the other hand, could not be expected to look upon the French in the same light as her minister. She was as determined61 as he was that the French should gain no footing in Flanders or Scotland; but through the critical times of her girlhood France had always stood her friend, as Spain had naturally been her enemy. Her mother’s sympathies had, of course, been entirely62 French, and her own legitimacy63 and right to rule were as eagerly recognised by France as they were sullenly64 questioned by Spain. But when passion or persuasion65 led her into a dangerous course, as they frequently did, she knew that Cecil, sagacious, and steady as a rock, would advise her honestly; and sooner or later she would be brought back to his policy of upholding Protestantism, whilst endeavouring to evade66 an open war with the deadly enemy of Protestantism, which could only result in strengthening France.
The present work will accordingly aim mainly at presenting a panorama67 of Cecil’s career as a statesman, whose active life was not only coincident with the triumph of the Reformation, but also with the making of Modern England, and with the establishment of her naval68 supremacy. In the space available it will be impossible to relate in detail the whole of the complicated political transactions of the long and important reign of Elizabeth, and no attempt will be made to do so. But Cecil, to his lasting69 glory, did more than any other man to guide the nation into the groove70 of future greatness; and the primary object of this book is to trace his personal and political influence over the events of his time: to show the effects produced by his clear head and steady hand[xii] on the councils of the able and fortunate sovereign, who transformed England from a feeble and distracted, to a powerful and united, nation.
The task of writing the life of Lord Burghley has been attempted more than once, but in every case with but indifferent success. The failure has certainly not been caused by lack of material, for no English statesman was ever so indefatigable71 a correspondent and draftsman as Cecil, and the stupendous masses of manuscript left behind by him frightened even the indefatigable Camden from the work of writing an account of Cecil’s ministry72 three centuries ago. “But,” he writes, “at my very first entrance upon the task, an intricate difficulty did in a manner wholly discourage me, for I lighted upon great files and heaps of papers and writings of all sorts, … in searching and turning over whereof, whilst I laboured till I sweat again, covered all over with dust, to gather fit matter together, … that noble lord died, and my industry began to flag and wax cold.” Strype also, who has reproduced so many important documents relating to Cecil in his “Annals of the Reformation,” and “Ecclesiastical Memorials,” was preparing materials for a life of the statesman, when death stopped his labour. Besides several less pretentious73 works by various authors, and the curious contemporary memoirs74 published in Peck’s Desiderata Curiosa, a spirited attempt was made seventy years ago by Dr. Nares, Regius Professor of History at Oxford75, to produce a book worthy76 of the subject. After many years of laborious77 plodding78 through countless79 thousands of documents, the worthy professor produced one of the most ponderous80 and unreadable books in the English language, of which Lord Macaulay made merciless sport in his famous essay on Burghley. “Compared,” he says, “with the labour of reading through these volumes, all other labour, of thieves on the treadmill81, of[xiii] children in factories, of negroes on sugar-plantations, is an agreeable recreation.… Guicciardini, although certainly not the most amusing of writers, is a Herodotus or a Froissart when compared with Dr. Nares.”
The embarrassment82 of riches in the way of material is, indeed, the rock upon which most of the serious biographers of Cecil have foundered83. In the Lansdowne MSS., at the British Museum alone, there are 122 folio volumes of Burghley manuscripts, which descended84 through the minister’s secretary, Sir Michael Hicks, besides large numbers in the Cotton and Harley collections. The Burghley Papers at the Record Office are almost innumerable, the foreign documents subsequent to 1577 being still uncalendared, whilst the priceless collection in the possession of Lord Salisbury at Hatfield consists of over 30,000 documents, bound in 210 large volumes. From comparatively early times many of the more interesting of these papers have been in print. The Scrinia Ceciliana in the third edition of Cabala, “The Compleat Ambassador,” the “Sadler State Papers,” Haynes’ and Murdin’s selections from the Hatfield archives, Forbes’ “Public Transactions,” Birch’s “Memoirs of Elizabeth,” Burgon’s “Sir Thomas Gresham,” Nicholas’ “Sir Christopher Hatton,” Burnet, Collier, Lodge85, Strype, Foxe, Ellis, the Harleian Miscellany, and Tytler contain a great number of original documents from Cecil’s collections. Above all—since the excellent sketch86 of Cecil in the “Dictionary of National Biography” was written—the Historical MSS. Commission have completed the six volumes of Calendars of the Hatfield Papers to 1597, and the Calendars of Spanish State Papers of Elizabeth have been published by the Record Office. By the aid of these, and the Domestic and Foreign Calendars of State Papers, it is now, for the first time, possible to obtain a comprehensive view in an accessible form of[xiv] thousands of documents which have hitherto been difficult or impossible to reach; and obstacles which have marred87 the success of previous labours in the same field, may, it is hoped, now be more easily surmountable88. The sources above mentioned have all been placed under contribution for the production of the present summary account of Cecil’s political life, as well as some uncalendared manuscripts kindly89 placed at my disposal by the Marquis of Salisbury.
I cannot hope to have succeeded entirely where others have failed, but I have not spared time or labour in the attempt; and I have endeavoured, at least, to prevent my view of the events themselves from being obstructed90 by the documents which relate to them; and, so far as is possible in a short readable book, to present a general view of the policy of the reign of Elizabeth, especially with relation to the influence exerted upon it by her principal minister.
I have written with no preconceived theory to prove, no religious or political aim to serve, or doctrine to establish. My only desire has been to follow facts whithersoever they may lead me, and to pourtray a lofty personality who has left an enduring impress on the history of his country. I have not sought to present Cecil as a demigod—or even as a genius of the first class—as most of his biographers have done. The ways and methods of Elizabethan statesmen need not be concealed91 or apologised for because they do not square with the ethics92 of to-day. At a time when the bulk of the English people cheerfully changed their faith four times in a generation to please their rulers, it would be absurd to hold up to especial obloquy93 a minister for having persecuted94 at one time a religion which at another time he professed95. The final triumph of England in that struggle of giants was won by statesmen who, like their mistress,[xv] owed as much to what we should now call their failings as they did to their virtues96. Their vacillation97 and tergiversation in the face of rigid and stolid98 opponents were main elements of their success. Cecil was by far the most honest and patriotic of them; but he, too, was a man of his age, and must be judged from its standpoint—not from that of to-day. If I have succeeded in presenting more clearly than some of my predecessors99 a view of the process by which England was made great, the man who, above all others, was instrumental under God in making it so, may well be judged by the splendid results of his lifelong labour; and his reputation for religious constancy, moral generosity100, and political scrupulousness101, placed in the opposite scale, will hardly stir the balance.
MARTIN A. S. HUME
London, September 1898.
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1
aspirations
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| 强烈的愿望( aspiration的名词复数 )； 志向； 发送气音； 发 h 音 | |
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civilisation
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| n.文明，文化，开化，教化 | |
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garb
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| n.服装，装束 | |
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dross
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| n.渣滓；无用之物 | |
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hamper
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| vt.妨碍，束缚，限制；n.(有盖的)大篮子 | |
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versatility
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| n.多才多艺，多样性，多功能 | |
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continental
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| adj.大陆的，大陆性的，欧洲大陆的 | |
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fickleness
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| n.易变；无常；浮躁；变化无常 | |
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folly
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| n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话 | |
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inevitably
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| adv.不可避免地；必然发生地 | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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bribery
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| n.贿络行为，行贿，受贿 | |
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adviser
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| n.劝告者，顾问 | |
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bias
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| n.偏见，偏心，偏袒；vt.使有偏见 | |
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coeval
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| adj.同时代的；n.同时代的人或事物 | |
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schism
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| n.分派，派系，分裂 | |
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Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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supremacy
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| n.至上；至高权力 | |
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discourse
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| n.论文，演说；谈话；话语；vi.讲述，著述 | |
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attain
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| vt.达到，获得，完成 | |
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prudent
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| adj.谨慎的，有远见的，精打细算的 | |
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condemned
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| adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词 | |
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rigid
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| adj.严格的，死板的；刚硬的，僵硬的 | |
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doctrine
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| n.教义；主义；学说 | |
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thither
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| adv.向那里；adj.在那边的，对岸的 | |
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zeal
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| n.热心，热情，热忱 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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ineptitude
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| n.不适当；愚笨，愚昧的言行 | |
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judicious
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| adj.明智的，明断的，能作出明智决定的 | |
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patriotic
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| adj.爱国的，有爱国心的 | |
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entanglements
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| n.瓜葛( entanglement的名词复数 )；牵连；纠缠；缠住 | |
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warfare
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| n.战争(状态)；斗争；冲突 | |
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aggression
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| n.进攻，侵略，侵犯，侵害 | |
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outlet
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| n.出口/路；销路；批发商店；通风口；发泄 | |
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hampered
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| 妨碍，束缚，限制( hamper的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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sleepless
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| adj.不睡眠的，睡不著的，不休息的 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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contradictorily
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| adv.反驳地，逆，矛盾地 | |
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unravel
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| v.弄清楚（秘密）；拆开，解开，松开 | |
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devious
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| adj.不坦率的，狡猾的；迂回的，曲折的 | |
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diplomacy
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| n.外交；外交手腕，交际手腕 | |
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underlay
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| v.位于或存在于（某物）之下( underlie的过去式 )；构成…的基础（或起因），引起n.衬垫物 | |
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frustrated
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| adj.挫败的，失意的，泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的过去式和过去分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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permanently
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| adv.永恒地，永久地，固定不变地 | |
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secular
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| n.牧师，凡人；adj.世俗的，现世的，不朽的 | |
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doctrines
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| n.教条( doctrine的名词复数 )；教义；学说；（政府政策的）正式声明 | |
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equilibrium
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| n.平衡，均衡，相称，均势，平静 | |
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perplexed
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| adj.不知所措的 | |
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judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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creed
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| n.信条；信念，纲领 | |
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daggers
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| 匕首，短剑( dagger的名词复数 ) | |
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53
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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reign
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| n.统治时期，统治，支配，盛行；v.占优势 | |
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thereby
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| adv.因此，从而 | |
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malice
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| n.恶意，怨恨，蓄意；[律]预谋 | |
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brink
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| n.(悬崖、河流等的)边缘，边沿 | |
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58
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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59
repose
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| v.(使)休息；n.安息 | |
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60
dominant
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| adj.支配的，统治的；占优势的；显性的；n.主因，要素，主要的人(或物)；显性基因 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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legitimacy
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| n.合法，正当 | |
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sullenly
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| 不高兴地，绷着脸，忧郁地 | |
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65
persuasion
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| n.劝说；说服；持有某种信仰的宗派 | |
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66
evade
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| vt.逃避，回避；避开，躲避 | |
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panorama
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| n.全景，全景画，全景摄影，全景照片[装置] | |
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naval
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| adj.海军的，军舰的，船的 | |
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lasting
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| adj.永久的，永恒的；vbl.持续，维持 | |
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70
groove
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| n.沟，槽；凹线，（刻出的）线条，习惯 | |
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indefatigable
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| adj.不知疲倦的，不屈不挠的 | |
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ministry
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| n.(政府的)部；牧师 | |
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pretentious
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| adj.自命不凡的，自负的，炫耀的 | |
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memoirs
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| n.回忆录；回忆录传( mem,自oir的名词复数) | |
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Oxford
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| n.牛津（英国城市） | |
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worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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laborious
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| adj.吃力的，努力的，不流畅 | |
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plodding
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| a.proceeding in a slow or dull way | |
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countless
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| adj.无数的，多得不计其数的 | |
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ponderous
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| adj.沉重的，笨重的，(文章)冗长的 | |
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treadmill
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| n.踏车；单调的工作 | |
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embarrassment
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| n.尴尬；使人为难的人(事物)；障碍；窘迫 | |
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foundered
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| v.创始人( founder的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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lodge
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| v.临时住宿，寄宿，寄存，容纳；n.传达室，小旅馆 | |
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sketch
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| n.草图；梗概；素描；v.素描；概述 | |
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marred
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| adj. 被损毁, 污损的 | |
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surmountable
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| 可战胜的，可克服的 | |
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kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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obstructed
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| 阻塞( obstruct的过去式和过去分词 )； 堵塞； 阻碍； 阻止 | |
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concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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ethics
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| n.伦理学；伦理观，道德标准 | |
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obloquy
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| n.斥责，大骂 | |
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persecuted
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| （尤指宗教或政治信仰的）迫害(~sb. for sth.)( persecute的过去式和过去分词 )； 烦扰，困扰或骚扰某人 | |
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professed
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| 公开声称的，伪称的，已立誓信教的 | |
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virtues
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| 美德( virtue的名词复数 )； 德行； 优点； 长处 | |
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vacillation
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| n.动摇；忧柔寡断 | |
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stolid
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| adj.无动于衷的，感情麻木的 | |
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predecessors
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| n.前任( predecessor的名词复数 )；前辈；（被取代的）原有事物；前身 | |
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100
generosity
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| n.大度，慷慨，慷慨的行为 | |
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scrupulousness
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| n.一丝不苟；小心翼翼 | |
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