death and destruction? For the jealousy of an usurper cannot suffer the just prince to live. This your Lordships are to search and consider, and to your judgments we refer it. Now my Lord of Norfolk's chief and only answer to this part of the charge is but his bare denial, which is no sufficient answer, especially since he himself hath fallen into so great discredit by acting against his word, his hand, his oath. He promised, being commanded upon his allegiance, never more to deal in that matter; he promised by his submission, under his own hand, utterly to forsake it, and to practice no more with the Scottish Queen for that marriage. He promised by oath, specially taken when he was Commissioner for hearing the matter at York, to do therein directly and indifferently without partiality. All these oaths and promises he hath broken, besides the oath of a privy councillor, which he hath also broken in disclosing the Queen's secrets, and in secret practising contrary to her express commandment. Now also, since he was last apprehended and committed, he hath denied certain things, which he hath afterwards being constrained with strength of proof, confessed; yea, he hath denied those things upon his oath, which he hath afterwards granted to be true; so that, notwithstanding his high dignity, he is not to be believed upon his word, having shown himself altogether unworthy of credit.

Duke. My Lord, from the several matters which have been alleged, the Attorney-General infers that I am guilty of treason under the statute of Edward III, by imagining and compassing the deprivation and death of the Queen; and the Lord forbid, and I pray God I may sooner be buried in the earth than I should seek or attempt anything to the destruction of her Majesty's person. There is a maxim in law, that penal statutes must be construed strictly, and no penal statute ought to be extended further than the very words. Now in all that my accusers have deposed or said against me, how false soever it be, there is not one of them that says I ever intended any harm to her Majesty's person; or that I levied, or practised to levy, any power against her, or to do any of those things that

are treasons within the express words of the statute. To prove me guilty of treason, you must prove some overt act of treason against her Majesty's person. As to the witnesses, I think I have spoken sufficiently. Is the Bishop of Rosse a sufficient witness against me? He is a stranger and a Scot; a stranger can be no sufficient witness, much less a Scot; for when there is peace between the Queen's Majesty and a foreign realm, the people of that realm may freely come and traffic in this realm: yet though there be a peace between England and Scotland, if a Scot come into England without a passport, be may be a lawful prisoner. Bracton saith, that witnesses must be liberi homines — free men, of full age, honest, and of good report: the Bishop of Rosse is none of these; the Bishop of Rosse, therefore, can be no sufficient witness against me. What care I what Hameling says? It toucheth me not. I deny that I ever sent any such message by him. If I might have brought forth my proofs, I could have produced persons of good fame to prove that I sent no such message: I could have proved it by confessions, and not by hearsay. I never heard of the Rebellion, till Sir Henry Neville* told me of it. If I had been conscious of treason, when I was in Norfolk, I needed not to have come hither. If I had intended any rebellion, I would not have put my Lord of Northumberland in trust withal, nor yet my brother of Westmoreland; nor would I have come hither to put my bead in a halter in the Tower. As touching my dealing with the Scottish Queen, I have, with all repentance and humility, submitted myself to the Queen's Majesty; and I beseech you confound not my meaner faults with this high charge of treason. In my dealing with her about marriage, I pray you draw it not to an intention to advance her title against the Queen; I pray you remember, though she once made such claim, what amity hath since been between the Queen and her, and what a hard construction it is to make her now an enemy; and though I treated of marrying her, I never concluded such treaty, or intended so to do. As to my being

* At the time of the Rebellion in the North, the Duke was in the custody of Sir Henry Neville.

privy to the device of her taking away, I utterly deny it ; I ever advised her to submit herself to the Queen's Majesty. I beseech you, my Lords, to consider, that no overt fact of treason has been proved against me; though an attempt is now made to bring me into treason by arguments and circumstances.

Attorney. My Lords, besides what we have already proved, there is another part of the charge in this indictment, which I will give you in evidence, which most evidently proveth the Duke of Norfolk's imagining and compassing to depose and destroy the Queen. It is well known that Pius V, the Bishop of Rome, is the Queen's open and notorious enemy: it hath been so published and proclaimed; he hath showed himself so in his proceedings; he hath declared it by his Bulls brought into this realm, for which some persons have suffered.* The Duke of Norfolk, knowing it to be so, hath practised with his agent — hath sent unto the Pope for aid and force against the Queen: he conferred with one Rudolphi, a merchant stranger, to go over sea to the Duke of Alva, and to the Pope, in the name of the Scottish Queen and himself, to procure a force to invade this realm, for the advancement of the Scottish Queen's title to the Crown of England; and in the mean time the Duke promised to move her friends to levy such power as they were able, to assist the strangers when they came in. If this be proved unto you, it is flat treason. To use force against her Majesty in her own realm, can only be done with intent to depose her; for that force she must needs resist; and if she resist it unsuccessfully, then followeth her death and destruction. In support of this part of the charge, God himself shall be witness: for this is a matter which hath been discovered by God himself. When Rudolphi had performed his message with the Duke of Alva, he sent over by one Baily, a servant of the Scottish Queen, a packet containing several letters: one of these was directed to Quarante; and another to Trente. The packet

*He alludes here to the case of Felton, who affixed the Pope's Bull, excommunicating Queen Elizabeth, and absolving her subjects from their allegiance to her, to the Bishop of London's gate. He was executed on the 8th of August, 1570.

was lost, having been sent away to the Bishop of Rosse; but Baily was apprehended and committed to the Tower; and there, after a time, he confessed that he had written these two letters in cypher, by the direction of Rudolphi at Brussels, and that they contained treasonable matters respecting the invasion of the realm by the Duke of Alva; he knew not, however, who the persons were who were signified by the cyphers Quarante and Trente. It was well known, therefore, to my Lords of the Privy Council, so long since as in April, that a treason was in hand; many searches were made to understand it, but no man could by any travail find it out, till God disclosed it by a marvellous chance. In August last there was 600l of money pre pared to be sent, with letters, into Scotland to the Queen's enemies, for their relief and maintenance, and by the Duke of Norfolk's appointment to be conveyed to his man Bannister, and so into Scotland. This money was delivered to one Browne of Shrewsbury, by Hickford, one of the Duke's servants, who told Browne that it was 50l, and desired him to convey it to Bannister's dwelling, near Shrewsbury. Browne having received the money, suspected from the weight that all was not right; whereupon he went to one of the Queen's Privy Council, and disclosed his suspicions. This bag being opened, there was found 600 in gold, and certain treasonable letters to the Queen's enemies, and to Bannister. Upon this the Duke's man, who sent the money, was apprehended; and certain of his servants being examined, at length confessed that Quarante signified the Duke of Norfolk; they were kept in several places, the Bishop of Rosse, also a prisoner, in a place separate from them all, and yet they all agreed in one story; and so the whole plot came to light. Now see what the plot was. The great treason was contained in those letters from Rudolphi, written in cypher and addressed to Quarante and Trente, in which mention was made of provision of men and money, to be sent from beyond the seas by the Duke of Alva, to invade this realm, according to the order and request of the person meant by Quarante, and which person was the Duke. lf then we shall prove unto you that Rudolphi had this message

and commission from the Scottish Queen and the Duke of Norfolk, to treat with the Pope, King Philip, and the Duke of Alva, for the bringing in of foreign troops, to invade England, and to make war against the Queen in her own realm, there must needs be compassing by the Duke to depose the Queen and to bring her to death, and so high treason. Now to prove that the Duke of Norfolk dealt in this manner, I will first show what manner of man this Rudolphi was: he was one that lived divers years here in this realm, a notable traitor and enemy to the Queen and realm of England, and of long time the Pope's factor. In. the Duke's first trouble he was suspected of such practices, and therefore by the Council committed to the custody of Mr Walsingham till October twelvemonth; and because no evident matter then appeared against him, he was delivered again in the November following. So soon as he was delivered, he opened to the Bishop of Rosse that he was factor for the Pope; he showed him his commission, and sundry letters written to him by the Pope's Nuncio in France. He was well known to the Scottish Queen, the Pope himself and his Nuncio recommending him to her. Now the Duke knowing him to be such a one, thought he was a fit man to deal with. That he was such a one, and that the Duke well knew it, and sent him in message to the Duke of Alva and to the Pope, you shall see plainly proved: Then what his message was you shall see also disclosed. The cypher in which these letters were written having been hid in the tiles, was found by chance; and thus it will appear how things hidden will, by God's providence, come to light.

Then was read part of the Examination* of the Bishop of Rosse, dated 3rd November, 1571, as follows:

When Rudolphi was delivered from the custody of Mr Walsingham, he showed this Examinate that he had authority from the Pope, and showed him continually letters from the Pope's Nuncio; and he saith that when this money granted by the Pope to be paid by Rudolphi, being twelve thousand crowns, to the help of the rebels that were in Scotland, was in readi

* Murdin's State Papers, p. 42.