The Best of the Bureau/The_Best_of_the_Bureau_Bureau_Development_Inc._1992.iso/dp/0006/00067.txt

Text File | 1992-08-07 | 23KB | 367 lines

$Unique_ID{bob00067}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{Makers Of History Queen Elizabeth
Preface And Chapter I}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Abbott, Jacob}
$Affiliation{}
$Subject{queen
king
upon
anne
marriage
palace
greenwich
time
elizabeth
england
see
pictures
see
figures
}
$Date{1876}
$Log{See Portrait Of Anne Bolelyn*0006701.scf
See The Tower Of London*0006702.scf
}
Title:       Makers Of History Queen Elizabeth
Book:        Queen Elizabeth
Author:      Abbott, Jacob
Date:        1876

Preface And Chapter I

Preface

     The author of this series has made it his special object to confine
himself very strictly, even in the most minute details which he records, to
historic truth.  The narratives are not tales founded upon history, but
history itself, without any embellishment or any deviations from the strict
truth, so far as it can now be discovered by an attentive examination of the
annals written at the time when the events themselves occurred.  In writing
the narratives, the author has endeavored to avail himself of the best sources
of information which this country affords; and though, of course, there must
be in these volumes, as in all historical accounts, more or less of
imperfection and error, there is no intentional embellishment.  Nothing is
stated, not even the most minute and apparently imaginary details, without
what was deemed good historical authority.  The readers, therefore, may rely
upon the record as the truth, and nothing but the truth, so far as an honest
purpose and a careful examination have been effectual in ascertaining it.

Chapter I. Elizabeth's Mother.

     Travelers, in ascending the Thames by the steamboat from Rotterdam, on
their return from an excursion to the Rhine, have often their attention
strongly attracted by what appears to be a splendid palace on the banks of the
river at Greenwich.  The edifice is not a palace, however, but a hospital, or,
rather, a retreat where the worn out, maimed, and crippled veterans of the
English navy spend the remnant of their days in comfort and peace, on pensions
allowed them by the government in whose service they have spent their strength
or lost their limbs.  The magnificent buildings of the hospital stand on level
land near the river.  Behind them there is a beautiful park, which extends
over the undulating and rising ground in the rear; and on the summit of one of
the eminences there is the famous Greenwich Observatory, on the precision of
whose quadrants and micrometers depend those calculations by which the
navigation of the world is guided.  The most unconcerned and careless
spectator is interested in the manner in which the ships which throng the
river all the way from Greenwich to London, "take their time" from this
observatory before setting sail for distant seas.  From the top of a cupola
surmounting the edifice, a slender pole ascends, with a black ball upon it, so
constructed as to slide up and down for a few feet upon the pole.  When the
hour of 12 M. approaches, the ball slowly rises to within a few inches of the
top, warning the ship-masters in the river to be ready with their
chronometers, to observe and note the precise instant of its fall.  When a few
seconds only remain of the time, the ball ascends the remainder of the
distance by a very deliberate motion, and then drops suddenly when the instant
arrives.  The ships depart on their several destinations, and for months
afterward when thousands of miles away they depend for their safety in dark
and stormy nights, and among dangerous reefs and rocky shores, on the nice
approximation to correctness in the note of time which this descending ball
had given them.

     This is Greenwich, as it exists at the present day.  At the time when the
events occurred which are to be related in this narrative, it was most known
on account of a royal palace which was situated there.  This palace was the
residence of the then queen consort of England.  The king reigning at that
time was Henry the Eighth.  He was an unprincipled and cruel tyrant, and the
chief business of his life seemed to be selecting and marrying new queens,
making room for each succeeding one by discarding, divorcing, or beheading her
predecessor.  There were six of them in all, and, with one exception, the
history of each one is a distinct and separate, but dreadful tragedy.  As
there were so many of them, and they figured as queens each for so short a
period, they are commonly designated in history by their personal family
names, and even in these names there is a great similarity.  There were three
Catharines, two Annes, and a Jane.  The only one who lived and died in peace,
respected and beloved to the end, was the Jane.

     Queen Elizabeth, the subject of this narrative, was the daughter of the
second wife in this strange succession, and her mother was one of the Annes.
Her name in full was Anne Boleyn.  She was young and very beautiful, and
Henry, to prepare the way for making her his wife, divorced his first queen,
or rather declared his marriage with her null and void, because she had been,
before he married her, the wife of his brother.  Her name was Catharine of
Aragon.  She was, while connected with him, a faithful, true, and affectionate
wife.  She was a Catholic.  The Catholic rules are very strict in respect to
the marriage of relatives, and a special dispensation from the pope was
necessary to authorize marriage in such a case as that of Henry and Catharine.
This dispensation had, however, been obtained, and Catharine had, in reliance
upon it, consented to become Henry's wife.  When, however, she was no longer
young and beautiful, and Henry had become enamored of Anne Boleyn, who was so,
he discarded Catharine, and espoused the beautiful girl in her stead.  He
wished the pope to annul his dispensation, which would, of course, annul the
marriage; and because the pontiff refused, and all the efforts of Henry's
government were unavailing to move him, he abandoned the Catholic faith, and
established an independent Protestant church in England, whose supreme
authority would annul the marriage.  Thus, in a great measure, came the
Reformation in England.  The Catholics reproach us, and, it must be confessed,
with some justice, with the ignominiousness of its origin.

     The course which things thus took created a great deal of delay in the
formal annulling of the marriage with Catharine, which Henry was too impatient
and imperious to bear.  He would not wait for the decree of divorce, but took
Anne Boleyn for his wife before his previous connection was made void.  He
said he was privately married to her.  This he had, as he maintained, a right
to do, for he considered his first marriage as void, absolutely and of itself,
without any decree.  When, at length, the decree was finally passed, he
brought Anne Boleyn forward as his queen, and introduced her as such to
England and to the world by a genuine marriage and a most magnificent
coronation.  The people of England pitied poor Catharine, but they joined very
cordially, notwithstanding, in welcoming the youthful and beautiful lady who
was to take her place.  All London gave itself up to festivities and
rejoicings on the occasion of these nuptials.  Immediately after this the
young queen retired to her palace in Greenwich, and in two or three months
afterward little Elizabeth was born.  Her birth-day was the 7th of September,
1533.

[See Portrait Of Anne Bolelyn: The young queen retired to her palace in
Greenwich, and in two or three months afterward little Elizabeth was born.]

     The mother may have loved the babe, but Henry himself was sadly
disappointed that his child was not a son.  Notwithstanding her sex, however,
she was a personage of great distinction from her very birth, as all the realm
looked upon her as heir to the crown.  Henry was himself, at this time, very
fond of Anne Boleyn, though his feelings afterward were entirely changed.  He
determined on giving to the infant a very splendid christening. The usage in
the Church of England is to make the