[13] We hear of thirty-three-pounders and even sixty-pounders in the Queen’s ships. Whereas the Spanish admiral, sending to Parma for balls, asks for nothing heavier than ten pounds.
[14] The Earl of Sussex, after inspecting the preparations for defence in Hampshire towards the end of 1587, writes to the Council that he had found nothing ready. The “better sort” said, “We are much charged many ways, and when the enemy comes we will provide for him; but he will not come yet.”
[15] Sir Edward Radcliffe to the Earl of Sussex.—Ellis, 2nd Series, vol. iii. p. 142.
[16] The story of the ring, said to have been intercepted by Lady Nottingham, has been shown to be unworthy of belief. See Ranke, History of England, vol. i. p. 352; transl.
[17] The increase was not so great as it appears. A subsidy with two tenths and fifteenths in the thirteenth year of the reign yielded £175,000; in the forty-third only £134,000.
[18] Elizabeth made large use of the courage and fidelity of her kinsmen on the Boleyn side, but she did little to advance them either in rank or wealth. Hunsdon had set his heart on regaining the Boleyn Earldom of Wiltshire. When he was dying, Elizabeth brought the patent and robes of an earl, and laid them on his bed; but the choleric old man replied, “Madam, seeing you counted me not worthy of this honour while I was living, I count myself unworthy of it now I am dying.”
[19] Son of Catherine Grey by the Earl of Hertford. “Rascal” at that time meant a person of low birth.
[20] Bacon, In felicem memoriam Elizabethæ.
[21] Carlyle, Letters and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell, Speech v.
[22] As Earl of Surrey commanded at Flodden.