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    Female Sovereigns ofEngland when young. ...

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    The Accession Of Queen To The Throne Ayo...

    in gaiety or sheer unfeelingness she did what she thus frightfullythought to be her duty . She suffered bitterly herself ; and she not only suffered for herself and her own personal sorrows ,

    but sharply for her sense of the public welfare , and that of men ' s very souls . In sending people to the stake , she fancied ( with that dreadful involuntary blasphemy taught her by the then state of the Catholic creed , now humanized like other

    creeds ) that it was necessary , in order to save millions from eternal wretchedness ; and if in all this perverted sense of duty there was a willing participation of the harsher parts of her

    character , she had sensibility enough to die of a broken heart . —Peace and pardon to her memory , — long pardoned , we may be sure , by that benevolent mystery of all things , by which her reign was permitted .

    Both Mary and her sister Elizabeth passed the earlier portion of their lives in singular vicissitudes of quiet and agitation , —each unwelcome to their fathers , —each at times tranquilly pursuing their studies , and each persecuted for their very different opinions ;—Mary

    The Accession Of Queen To The Throne Ayo...

    by her Protestant brother Edward , and Elizabeth by her Catholic sister Mary . At one time they were treated like great princesses , at another as if they were aliens in blood , or

    had been impudently palmed upon it . Now they were brought before councils , to answer for opinions that put their lives in jeopardy ; now riding about with splendid retinues , and flattered by courtly expectants . How different from the retired

    and apparently beautiful manner in which the present Queen has been brought up , safe in her pleasant home in Kensington Gardens : and whenever she

    moves about , moving m unostentatious comfort , and linked with a loving mother . Oh ! never may she forget , that it was free and reforming opinions which brought her this great

    good ; and that if Elizabeth had gone back with her age , instead of advancing with it , and succumbed to the anti -popular part of the priesthood and the aristocracy , she , the secure , and

    tranquil , and popular Victoria , might this moment have been dragged before councils as Elizabeth was , or been forced to struggle with insurrections and public hatred , like Mary . *

    * The following ( abridged by Ellis from Hollinshed ) is a specimen of the way in which heiresses to the throne were liable to be treated in those days : —The day after the breaking out of Wyat ' s rebellion was known at Court , he says , the Queen sent three of her council , Sir Richard Southwell , Sir Edward Hastings , and Sir Thomas Cornwallis to Ashridge , with a strong guard , to escort the Princess Elizabeth , who lay sick there , to London . When they arrived , at 10 o ' clock at night , the Princess had gone to rest , and refused to see them : they however entered her chamber rudely , when her Grace , being not a little amazed , said unto them , " Is the haste such that it might not have pleased you to come to-morrow in the morning ?* They made answer , that they were right sorry to aee her in such a ease . * And I , ' quoth she , " am not glad to see you here at this time of night . ' Where unto they answered that they came from the Queen to do their _message and duty ;

    Female Sovereigns Ofengland When Young. ...

    Female Sovereigns ofEngland when young . 5

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 1, 1837, page 5, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/mrp_01071837/page/3/