THE HISTORY O F ENGLAND, AS WELL Ecclefiaftical as Civil. BY M DE RAPIN THOYRA S. VOL. IX CONTAINING I. The laft Twenty-Three Years of the Reign of II. The Reign of King JAMES I. Done into ENGLISH from the FRENCH, with Illuftrated with the HEADS of MARY Queen of Scots, and LONDON: Printed for JAMES and JOHN KNAPTON, at THE HISTORY of ENGLAND. BOOK XVII. SECT. II. The laft Three and Twenty Years of the Reign of 23. ELIZA B E T H. P is extreme Camden. RINCE Cafimire left not the 1579. Court of England till about the Mid- The Queen dle of February. He had been ho- ly civil noured and careffed in an extraor- to Prince dinary Manner, the Queen having Cafimire. intimated that it would be grateful to her to render his Stay in England as agreeable as poffible. Before his Departure the conferred on him the Order of St. George, and put on the Garter herself about his Leg. It was not without Reason that the used him thus civilly. He had ftill a confiderable Body of Troops ready to affift the Proteftants, and it was a great Matter to her that the could rely upon him, by fupplying him with Money. In the prefent Situation of her Affairs, nothing deferved her Care more than to hinder the Ruin of the Proteftants in France and the Netherlands, fince VOL. IX. Α on 1579. Simier the Envoy pro motes the on their Prefervation depended her Safety. Cafimire was her Inftrument to keep up in the Low-Countries, Troubles which made her fleep in Peace. When he came back to the Netherlands, he found his Horfe had accepted the Duke of Parma's Pafs-port, that they might return fafely into Germany, becaufe, wanting their Pay, they would neither ferve any longer, nor ftay in the Country. At the fame Time, the Queen was taken up with an Affair which required her whole Attention: I mean the Negotiation of her Marriage with the Duke of Anjou.. Befides, Rambouillet and Bacqueville who had been in England fome Time upon that Account, the King of France had fent alfo Simier. a Man of Parts and very fit for the Purpofe. Elizabeth had a good deal of Wit and Senfe, and was perfectly well acquainted with her own Interefts: but he was not free from all the Paffions of her Sex. Simier foon finding out her Temper, beftowed not his Time and Pains in folliciting the Duke of Anjou's Suit, by Reafons of State and Policy: She knew more of that Matter than himfelf. But he underflood fo well the moft proper Way to win her Heart, that he gained her Ear more than the Duke of Anjou would have done himfelf. All the World were furprized at the great Change they faw in her, and at the Progress the Duke of Anjou had made by the Help of Simier. Nay, it was believed he had uled Love-Potions and other unlawful Arts, fuch was his Addrefs to render himself agreeable, if after all, he was not himfelf over-reached by the Queen. Above all Things, he took great Care to ruin the Earl of Leicester, not having the fame Reafons as the English Courtiers to keep fair with that Favourite. It was he who revealed to the Queen Leicester's clandeftine Marriage with the Earl of Effex's Widow, and this Difcovery put her into fuch a Paffion, that he was just going to fend him to the Tower. Leicester was vexed to the Heart If Suffex, though his deadlieft Adverfary, had not generously diffuaded |