If one thing more than another was calculated to precipitate a rupture between England and Spain it[pg 519] was the action of English seamen, who roved the seas and indirectly rendered assistance to the Netherlanders by plundering Spanish vessels, in spite of all proclamations to the contrary.[1602] The Londoner was not behind-hand in this predatory warfare.

A loan of£30,000, June, 1575.

A city Chamberlain dismissed from office.

In June, 1575, the queen borrowed a sum of £30,000 from the citizens on security.[1603] The money was subscribed by the wealthier class of citizens, and a moiety of the loan was repaid in little more than a twelvemonth.[1604] Whatever may have been her faults, Elizabeth honestly paid her debts, and when she discovered in 1577 that money which she had repaid to certain officials had not reached the hands of the original creditor, she forthwith issued a proclamation commanding all such creditors to send in their claims in writing to the chief officer of her majesty's household.[1605] It is difficult to dissociate altogether this proclamation from the removal of George Heton from the office of Chamberlain of the City three months afterwards.[1606]

The city called upon to furnish soldiers, 1578.

In February, 1578, the City was called upon to provide 2,000 arquebusiers. Refusal was useless, although an attempt was made to get the number reduced to 500. The mayor had scarcely issued his precept to the aldermen to raise the men before he received another order for 2,000 to be trained as directed in handling and using their weapons and kept[pg 520] in readiness for future service.[1607] One hundred and fifty men were ordered (12 June) to be ready at an hour's notice for foreign service.[1608] Strangers and foreigners were not exempt.[1609] Some of the city companies were slow in paying their quota of expenses of fitting out the men, and pressure had to be brought to bear on them by the Court of Aldermen.[1610]

Count Casimir at Gresham House, Jan., 1579.

Death of Sir Thomas Gresham, 21 Nov., 1579.

Count Casimir presented by the city with a gift of 500 marks.

In the following year Casimir, Count Palatine of the Rhine, paid a visit to England to answer a charge brought against him by the English envoy in Holland, of having used forces against the Netherlanders which had been despatched from these shores for their support. On the evening of Thursday, the 22nd January, 1579, the Count landed at the Tower, where he was received by a party of noblemen and others, among whom we may conjecture was the Mayor of London and representatives of the city.[1611] Thence he was conducted by the light of cressets to Gresham's house, in Bishopsgate Street, where he was received with music and lodged and feasted by the worthy owner for three days. The honour thus shown to Gresham is only one more proof of the esteem and respect in which he was universally held by all parties, and, "in truth," as his biographer justly remarks,[1612] "his great experience, his long and[pg 521] familiar intercourse with men of all grades and professions, from princes and nobles—with whom ... he was on as intimate a footing as the impassable barrier of rank will permit—to the lowliest of his own dependants, the knowledge of men and manners which he must have derived from foreign travel, and his acquaintance with all the languages of civilised Europe, must have rendered him, towards the close of his life especially, as favourable a specimen as could have been selected of the English gentleman of that day." Casimir's reception was one of the last acts of public service performed by Gresham, for before the close of the year he had died (21 Nov.). On Sunday (25 Jan.) the Count was conducted to Westminster for an interview with the queen, after which lodgings were assigned to him in Somerset House. The court of Common Council had already (23 Jan.) voted "Duke Cassimerus" a gratification "in moneye or anye other thinge" to the value of 500 marks.[1613] His visit was one round of feasting, hunting and sight-seeing; one day dining with the lord mayor, another with the merchants of the Steelyard; one day hunting at Hampton Court, and another day witnessing athletic sports at Westminster. That the Count succeeded in clearing his character may be surmised from the fact of his receiving the Order of the Garter before his departure.[1614]