Daring exploits and cruelty of Lord Thomas Cobham,
Not the least daring of the English aristocratic
freebooters were the sons of Lord Cobham of Cowling
Castle. Having distinguished themselves during their
youth in Wyatt's rebellion, they had grown up after
the type of their boyhood, lawless Protestants, half
knight-errants of the Reformation, and half pirates
roving the seas, with a combined spirit of revenge
and love of plunder. Thomas Cobham, the most
intrepid and daring of the sons, was one of many
whom Elizabeth was, for some time, powerless to
suppress, even had she been so disposed. Indeed, he
was continually at war on his own account with the
enemies of the truth wherever he could combine the
service of the cause of Protestantism with pecuniary
gain. Although in his case there may have been
more of the crusader than of the marauder, he had
become so desperate a rover, that Elizabeth was at
last forced to proclaim him an outlaw, but she was
evidently not anxious about his capture. Alike
cruel and daring, Cobham had resolved not to be
- [Footnote: following curious addition:— "Long peace, such as it is by force of the
Spanish Inquisition, becometh to England more hurtful than open war. It is the secret and determined policy of Spain to destroy the English fleets and pilots, masters and sailors, by means of the Inquisition. The Spanish king pretends that he dare not offend the Holy House, while it is said in England we may not proclaim war against Spain for the revenge of a few, forgetting that a good war may end all these mischiefs. Not long since, the Spanish Inquisition executed sixty persons of St. Malo in France notwithstanding an entreaty to the king of Spain to stay them. Whereupon the Frenchmen armed and manned forth their pinances, and lay in wait for the Spaniards, and took a hundred and beheaded them, sending the Spanish ships to the shore with the heads, leaving in each ship only one man to relate the cause of the revenge, since which time the Spanish Inquisition has never meddled with those of St. Malo."]
