In 1560, one of our merchants there, Henry Len, gave this specimen of their speedy method of determining law-suits on property: 'I owed 600 roubles to a Russia merchant, who claimed double that sum of me. It was necessary to have recourse to the judgment by lot, (jerebo). An immense crowd assembled in the Kremlin. In the front of the hall were the judges. I and my antagonist were called in. I was allowed to sit down, and in order to reconcile us, we were advised to divide the difference. I agreed to give 100 roubles more than I owed, but he refused it. The judges then took two small balls of wax, put my name on one and his on the other, and then calling a stranger to both out of the crowd, threw them into his hat, and bade him with a naked arm draw out one. He did so, and it was mine. I then paid only my 600 roubles, from which a tenth was stopped by the crown for the fault of the demandant; and the people made great acclamations to heaven for thus manifesting the honor of the English merchants.' The Vestnik Yevrodoni, cited by Ferussac in his Bull. Univ. 1828. N° 1. p. 84. Hist. CHAP. IX. II. CHAP. X. CONTINENTAL TRANSACTIONS-PERSECUTIONS BY THE GO- BOOK ALTHO the French were repulsed in their attempt to retake Boulogne while the insurrections were agitating England,' it was agreed in the following March to cede it to them within six months, on payment of four hundred thousand crowns.2 Within this pacification Scotland was included. When the French ambassadors came to complete it, they were entertained with running at the ring; bull baiting and bear baiting; fair suppers; the bear hunted in the river, wild fire cast out of boats, and many pretty conceits." Occupied with its extensive war with the emperor in Italy, Flanders, and Germany, the French government anxiously maintained its friendly relations with England to the end of the reign, to keep this nation from joining its powerful arm to the imperial hostilities. After firing above 20,000 shot on the town from their long battery, they made an assault, and failed. They planted ordnance on the sand hills, and sank a galley with stones, to prevent victuallers from supplying the town. The ship was taken up by the garrison.' Edw. Jour. 11. 2 Edw. Jour. 13. It was too expensive to be kept. It was indeed of no use beyond a national trophy, as Calais gave all the facility that could be wanted for landing in France. The peace was proclaimed 28 May 1550. Strype, 342. 'The king's description, p. 20. A marriage was afterwards proposed between him and the French king's eldest daughter Elizabeth, but neither party was to be bound till she reached twelve years of age. ib. 40, 1. The articles of the marriage are in Strype's Ecc. v. 2. p. 476. They were ratified in December 1551. p. 508.* 5 Our intercourse with the emperor was more complicated, but the discussions with him never went beyond amicable negotiations. He complained, that by the peace with Scotland the league was broken with him; but his chief interferences were limited to obtain for the princess Mary a license to have mass. Yet credible information was given to the English cabinet, that plans were on foot to convey her privately out of England to Antwerp, and then to combine an external war from the imperial forces, with an inward conspiracy to place her on the throne, with the re-establishment of popery. The coast of Essex was therefore watched to defeat their schemes, as the vicinity of the imperial ports in Flanders, and its regent queen, made it always a practicable risk." When the alarm of these 6 Edw. Jour. 15. It was answered that the French king, not I, did comprehend them, saving that I might not invade them without occasion. ib. A treaty of peace had been signed between Edward and Charles, on 31 Jan. 1548. Strype's Ecc. v. 2. p. 122. The first application for this, which the king notes, is in April 1550, p. 15. This was denied, but renewed the next March, when no answer was given, ib. 33; but a month after Edward has noted, that Dr. Wotton was sent to declare this resolution: that if the emperor would suffer my ambassador with him to use his service, then I would his.' p. 35. Strype details this more fully, Eccl. M. v. 2. p. 469. In September 1551, the imperial request was renewed, that she might have her mass, but not assented to. p. 48. In the ensuing January the same urgency was made, but denied.' ib. 63. Strype. 613 July 1550. Sir John Gates was sent into Essex, to stop the going away of the lady Mary; because he was credibly informed, that Scipperus should steal her away to Antwerp. Divers of her gentlemen were there; and Scipperus, a little before, came to see the landing places.' Edward, p. 24. The next paragraph shews the measures taken to prevent it. 7 Edward, p. 27. • The information came from the English ambassador with the Hungarian widow, who was governing Flanders for her brother Charles V. But the vigilance of Gates seems to have been effectual; for Edward remarks, on 14 August, The queen said Scipperus was but a coward; CHAP. X. BOOK II. 10 machinations was repeated, the navy was prepared to counteract them;" but the activity of France in its military exertions so fully occupied the attention and consumed the resources of the emperor, that he could attempt no hostilities against England; and in July 1552 was so pressed by the French invasion of Luxemburg as to call for assistance from it, in pursuance of a treaty made ten years before. A civil refusal was agreed upon by the state council," and given; but a discovery having been made, that France was meditating, if she made peace with Charles, to employ her forces to attack Calais, and invade England at Falmouth, while the duke of Guise entered it from Scotland,13 intimation was afterwards conveyed to the emperor, that as the Turk was invading Christendom, England would willingly join the empire in a confederacy to resist the menacing aggressor,1 apparently with the object of directing his 12 and for fear of one gentleman that came down, durst not go forth with his enterprize to my lady Mary.' Journ. 27. 9 Edw. p. 39, in June 1551. In July ships were also made ready 'to defend, if any thing should be attempted against England, by carrying over the lady Mary.' ib. 41. At the end of the next month also, "Certain pinnaces were prepared, to see that there should be no conveyance over sea of the lady Mary secretly done.' p. 47. fo In the late reign, at Dordrecht, in 1542, which stipulated, that if either was invaded, 5,000 footmen or 700 crowns a day for four months, should be supplied by the other. Edw. p. 82. The French king, and the German princes also, urged him to join their league. Strype's Eccl. v. 2. p. 559. 11 Edw. 83. 12 Ib. 84. 13 The information of this plan was given by one of Somerset's adherents who had fled to France. Edw. 87. The council immediately sent to their ambassador at the French court, the letter about it, dated 24 Sept. 1552, which Strype had printed from Galba, B. 12, p. 571, with secretary Cecil's reasoning on the propriety of breaking with the French, and joining the emperor. 573. The ambassador endeavored to discredit the reports. 14 This was resolved upon by the council, 19 Sept. 1552, after long reasoning,' three days after the intelligence reached it of the Parisian 15 X. martial energies to that distant quarter. The solici- CHAP. tations of his opponents, the German Protestant princes, to aid them and their persecuted religion against the imperial and papal hostilities, were also taken into consideration. They required large pecuniary supplies. A friendly answer, without immediate compliance, was returned. The emperor continued to make no public infraction of his amity with Edward; but his secret intrigues endeavored to abet civil factions against him." Thus it appears that the cabinets of both France and Spain were so decidedly Romish in their ecclesiastical policy, that their quarrels with each other alone preserved England from their united attacks to subvert its Protestant go vernment. The great wish of the emperor, as age advanced upon him, was to procure his son Philip to succeed to the imperial crown, instead of his brother, that the same great circle of dominion which he ruled might descend unbroken to his filial successor.18 His next desire was to obtain from the pope an ecclesiastical reformation, and a confirmation of his Interim, till the projects. The instructions to Morison for his address to the emperor, are in Strype, 577-83: with council's letter of 24 Sept. Edw. 88. The emperor thanked us for our gentle offer.' p. 91. 16 6 15 The first aid asked was, 400,000 dollars. Edw. 54. The three princes who applied for this were, Duke Maurice of Saxony, the duke of Mecklenburgh, and the marquis John of Brandenburgh. ib.57. First, that I was very well inclined to make bargain with them I knew to be of my religion. 2dly, I would know whether they could get any such strength of other princes, and therefore will them to open the matter to the duke of Prussia, and to all princes about them, and to get the good will of Hamburgh, Lubeck, Bremen, &c.' Edw. 57. Nov. 24. Thomas Gresham came from Antwerp hither. He shewed certain instructions given 1548, upon the admiral's fall, to a gentleman that came hither, that if there were any here of the admiral's faction, he should do his uttermost to raise an uproar.' Edw. 95. 18 Lett. 29 July 1550. 2 Rib. 284. |