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4 | <meta name="content" content="biography of Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603) by Edward Spencer Beesly, 1892">
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5 | <meta name="page_topic" content="biography of Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603) by Edward Spencer Beesly, 1892">
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11 | <title>Secondary Sources: Queen Elizabeth by Edward Spencer Beesly, 1892:
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12 | Chapter I</title>
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23 | <tr>
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24 | <td width="25%" height="29"></td>
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25 | <td valign="top" width="50%" height="29"> </td>
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26 | <td width="25%" height="29"></td>
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27 | </tr>
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30 | <td width="50%" height="3"><font size="3"></font></td>
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32 | </tr>
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33 | <tr>
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34 | <td width="25%" height="610"></td>
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35 | <td valign="top" width="50%" height="610">
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36 | <p align="center"><b><font size="7">Queen Elizabeth<br></font></b>
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37 | <font size="4">by Edward Spencer Beesly, 1892</font></p>
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38 | <p align="center">
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39 | <img border="2" src="eliz1-ermine.jpg" width="400" height="478" alt="'The Ermine Portrait' of Elizabeth I, c1585, by Nicholas Hilliard"><p align="center">
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40 | <i><font size="2">'The Ermine Portrait' of Elizabeth I, c1585, by Nicholas
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41 | Hilliard;<br>from the <a href="http://www.marileecody.com/eliz1-images.html">Portraits of Queen Elizabeth I</a> website</font></i></td>
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42 | <td width="25%" height="610"></td>
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43 | </tr>
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44 | </table>
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45 | <blockquote>
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46 | <blockquote>
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47 | <font style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">
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48 | <font style="font-family: Times New Roman"></font>
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49 | <font style="font-family: Times New Roman"></font>
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50 | <font style="font-family: Times New Roman">
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51 | <div align="left">
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52 | <b>CHAPTER <font class="highlight_yellow">I</font></b><br>
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53 | <b>EARLY LIFE: 1533-1558</b></div>
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54 | <p class="3text" align="left"><font class="highlight_yellow"><font size="3">
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55 | I</font></font><font size="3"> HAVE to deal, under strict limitations of
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56 | space, with a long life, almost the whole of its adult period passed in the
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57 | exercise of sovereignty--a life which is in effect the history of England
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58 | during forty-five years, abounding at the same time in personal interest,
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59 | and the subject, both in its public and private aspects, of fierce and
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60 | probably interminable controversies. Evidently a bird's-eye view is all that
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61 | can be attempted; and the most important episodes alone can be selected for
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62 | consideration. </font></p>
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63 | <p class="3text" align="left"><font size="3">The daughter of Henry VIII and
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64 | Anne Boleyn was born on 6 September 1533. Anne was niece of Thomas, third
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65 | Duke of Norfolk, and all the great Howard kinsmen attended at the baptism
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66 | four days afterwards. <font class="highlight_yellow">Elizabeth</font> was
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67 | two years and eight months old when her mother was beheaded, and she herself
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68 | was declared illegitimate by Act of Parliament. It is not recorded that in
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69 | after years she expressed any opinion about her mother or ever mentioned her
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70 | name. She never took any steps to get the Act of Attainder repealed; but
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71 | perhaps she indirectly showed her belief in Anne's innocence by raising the
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72 | son of Norris, her alleged paramour, to the peerage, and by the great favour
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73 | she always showed to his family. </font></p>
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74 | <p class="3text" align="left"><font size="3">During her father's life
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75 | Elizabeth lived chiefly at Hatfield with her brother Edward, under a
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76 | governess. Henry had been empowered by Parliament in 1536 to settle the
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77 | succession by his will. In 1544 he caused an Act to be passed placing Mary
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78 | and Elizabeth next in order of succession after Edward. By his will, made a
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79 | few days before his death, he repeated the provisions of the Act of 1544,
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80 | and placed next to Elizabeth the daughters of his younger sister, the
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81 | Duchess of Suffolk, tacitly passing over his elder sister, the Queen of
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82 | Scotland. </font></p>
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83 | <p class="3text" align="left"><font size="3">After her father's death
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84 | (January 1547) Elizabeth, then a girl of thirteen, went to reside with the
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85 | Queen Dowager Catherine, who had not been many weeks a widow before she
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86 | married her old lover Thomas Seymour, the Lord Admiral, brother of the
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87 | Protector Somerset, described as "fierce in courage, courtly in fashion, in
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88 | personage stately, in voice magnificent, but somewhat empty of matter." The
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89 | romping that soon began to go on between this dangerous man and Elizabeth
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90 | was of such a nature that early in the next year Catherine found it
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91 | necessary to send her away somewhat abruptly. From that time she resided
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92 | chiefly at Hatfield. </font></p>
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93 | <p class="3text" align="left"><font size="3">In August 1548 Catherine died,
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94 | and the Admiral at once formed the project of marrying Elizabeth. This and
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95 | other ambitious designs brought him to the scaffold (March 1549). It does
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96 | not appear that Elizabeth saw or directly corresponded with him after he was
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97 | a widower. But she listened to his messages, and dropped remarks of an
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98 | encouraging kind which she meant to be repeated to him. She knew perfectly
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99 | well that the marriage would not be permitted. She was only flirting with a
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100 | man old enough to be her father just as she afterwards flirted with men
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101 | young enough to be her sons. We already get a glimpse of the utter absence
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102 | both of delicacy and depth of feeling which characterised her through life.
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103 | When she heard of the Admiral's execution she simply remarked, "This day
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104 | died a man with much wit and very little judgment." With Elizabeth the heart
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105 | never really spoke, and if the senses did, she had them under perfect
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106 | control. And this was why she never loved or was loved, and never has been
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107 | or will be regarded with enthusiasm by either man or woman. For some time
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108 | after this scandal she was evidently somewhat under a cloud. She lived at
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109 | her manor-houses of Ashridge, Enfield, and Hatfield, diligently pursuing her
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110 | studies under the celebrated scholar Ascham. </font></p>
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111 | <p class="3text" align="left"><font size="3">When Edward died (6 July 1553)
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112 | Elizabeth was nearly twenty. Although Mary's cause was her own, she remained
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113 | carefully neutral during the short queen-ship of Jane. On its collapse she
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114 | hastened to congratulate her sister, and rode by her side when she made her
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115 | entry into London. During the early part of Mary's reign her life hung by a
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116 | thread. The slightest indiscretion would have been fatal to her. Wyatt's
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117 | insurrection was made avowedly in her favour. But neither to that nor any
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118 | other conspiracy did she extend the smallest encouragement. Her prudent and
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119 | blameless conduct gave her the more right in after years to deal severely
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120 | with Mary Stuart, whose behaviour under precisely similar circumstances was
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121 | so very different. </font></p>
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122 | <p class="3text" align="left"><font size="3">Renard, the Spanish ambassador,
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123 | demanded her execution as the condition of the Spanish match, and Mary
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124 | assured him that she would do her best to satisfy him. In the time of Henry
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125 | VIII. such an intention on the part of the sovereign would have been
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126 | equivalent to a sentence of death. But Mary was far from being as powerful
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127 | as her father. The Council had to be reckoned with, and in the Council
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128 | independent and even peremptory language was now to be heard. It was not
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129 | without strong protests on the part of some of the Lords that Elizabeth was
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130 | sent to the Tower, Sussex, a noble of the old blood, who was charged to
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131 | conduct her there, took upon him to delay her departure, that she might
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132 | appeal to the Queen for an interview. Mary was furious: "For their lives,"
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133 | she said, "they durst not have acted so in her father's time; she wished he
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134 | was alive and among them for a single month." But it was usless to storm.
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135 | The absolute monarchy had seen its best days. Sussex, fearing foul play,
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136 | warned the Lieutenant of the Tower to keep within his written instructions.
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137 | Howard of Effingham, the Lord Admiral, had done more than any one else to
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138 | place Mary on the throne. But he was Elizabeth's great-uncle, and he angrily
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139 | insisted that her food in the Tower should be prepared by her own servants.
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140 | A proposal in Parliament to give the Queen the power to nominate a successor
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141 | was received with such disfavour that it had to be withdrawn. Finally the
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142 | judges declared that there was no evidence to convict Elizabeth. Sullenly
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143 | therefore the Queen had to give way. </font></p>
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144 | <p class="3text" align="left"><font size="3">Elizabeth was sent to
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145 | Woodstock, where she resided for about a year under guard. This was only
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146 | reasonable. An heir to the throne, in whose favour there had been plots,
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147 | could not expect complete freedom. In October 1555 she was allowed to go to
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148 | Hatfield under the surveillance of Sir Thomas Pope. During the rest of the
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149 | reign she escaped molestation by outward conformity to the Catholic
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150 | religion, and by taking no part whatever in politics. But as it became clear
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151 | that her accession was at hand there can be no doubt that she was engaged in
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152 | studying the problems with which she would have to deal. She was already in
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153 | close intimacy with Cecil, and it is evident that she mounted the throne
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154 | with a policy carefully thought out in its main lines. </font></p>
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155 | <p class="3text" align="left"><font size="3">When Mary was known to be
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156 | dying, the Spanish ambassador, Feria, called on Elizabeth, and told her that
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157 | his master had exerted his influence with the Queen and Council on her
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158 | behalf, and had secured her succession. But she declined to be patronised,
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159 | and told him that the people and nobility were on her side. </font></p>
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160 | </font>
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161 | <hr>
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162 | <p align="left"><font style="font-family: Times New Roman" size="2">From <i>
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163 | Queen Elizabeth</i> by Edward Spencer Beesly. Published in London by
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164 | Macmillan and Co., 1892.</font></p>
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165 | </font>
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166 | <font face="Times New Roman" size="2">
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167 | </blockquote>
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168 | </blockquote>
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169 |
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170 | <p align="center">
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171 | <a href="beeslychaptertwo.html">to Chapter
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172 | II: The Change of Religion: 1559</a></p>
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173 | <p align="center">
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174 | <a href="monarchs/eliz1.html">to the Queen
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175 | Elizabeth I website</a> /
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176 | <a href="relative/maryqos.html">to the Mary,
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177 | queen of Scots website</a></p>
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178 | <p align="center"><a href="secondary.html">
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179 | to Secondary Sources</a></p>
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180 | </font>
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181 |
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182 | </body>
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183 |
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