DA CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND GIVEN IN 189I BY HENRY WILLIAMS SAGE Date Ehie m "^"1 i4t »^ i'- 1 i\pp - - 1043 G\3 WlAYiO !y4y KU MAY2A- ■^'■'^Kff -^oFCX^ 303~"4"«|» IHmm J -us* •^lUJJ fiJB^ ««»»».. — Fwr — JUU— J > IQfg7 (r7i«i.Ffr.»^ Cornell University Library DA 358.B12A13 3 1924 027 984 834 The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924027984834 BACON AND ESSEX. BACON AND ESSEX. A SKETCH OF BACON'S EARLIER LIFE. EDWIN A. ABBOTT, D.D., EDITOK OF " bacon's ESSAYS." " Are not the pleasures of the affections greater than the pleasures of the senses, and a/re not thepleaswres of the intellect greater them the pleas^vres of the affections i "—Bacon's Confereiice of Pleasure. SEELEY, JACKSOK, & HALLIDAY, 54, FLEET STREET, LONDON, MDCCCLXXVII. 6r u A. > (^^%^ LONDON: K. CLAY, SONS. AND TAVLOB, PKINTEES, BBEAD STREET HILL, QDEEN VICTOKIA STREET. PREFACE. Having lately had occasion to examine some of the original authorities which supply the materials for the biographies of Francis Bacon, I was impressed with the conviction that, although not many new facts could be brought forward, many old facts might be placed in a very new light. The notes made in the course of these investigations I have accordingly thrown into the form of the follow- ing sketch of Bacon's earlier life. To attempt anything more than a sketch would have been a task far exceed- ing the little leisure at my disposal ; but sketch though it is (full of imperfections, and probably not without some minor inaccuracies), it will, I think, prevent any impartial person who may read it, from ever again disputing the truth of the three following propositions. The first proposition is, that Essex, though guilty of treasonable conduct, was not so deliberate and hypo- critical a traitor as he was represented by Francis Bacon, and as of late years he has been supposed to be by Bacon's most eminent biographer. vi PEEFACB. The second is, that Bacon's Declaration of the Treasons of Essex, instead of being a "strictly and scrupulously veracious narrative," has been far more accurately described by Lord Clarendon as " a pestilent libel." My third proposition is, that Bacon himself is not (as he has been painted by his most recent biographer) a man who " all his life long thought more of his duty than of his fortune," and " all his life long had been studying to know and speak the truth," but — a man whose character still awaits a careful, consistent, and impartial analysis. Towards that future analysis, the following sketch is intended as a slight contribution. In quoting from Bacon's letters or other works I have of course used Mr. Spedding's edition, and in such cases I have not thought it necessary always to append a reference : but whenever I have used Mr. Spedding's quotations from other original authorities, without myself verifying them, references have been in each case given. I must express my obligations to Professor Brewer for transcripts of three or four important letters from the MSS. of Hatfield House, not before printed. For the purposes of reference, Bacon's Apology and Declaration of the Treasons of Essex are printed at the end of the book. CONTENTS. CHAPTBE PAGE I. — The Court op Elizabeth 1 II. — Bacon "Like Himself" 13 III. — Essex in Pavoue 23 IV. — Bacon Suin& for Office 37 V. — Politics or Philosophy ? 50 VI.— Bacon Holds aloof from Paction 65 VII. — Bacon's MoNsr Matters 80 VIII. — The Decline op Essex 90 IX. — Essex assumes the command in Irelani 100 X. — The Irish Campaign 116 XI. — " Tyrone's Propositions " 134 XII. — Bacon Interceding for Essex 148 XIII. — Bacon's Part in the Proceedings against Essex . . 164 XIV. — Essex Soliciting the Queen 176 XV. — Essex enters upon Treason . . ' 194 viii CONTENTS. CHAPTER ^^"^ XVI.— The Outbreak ^^^ XVII.— The Trial and Execution of Essex .221 XVIII.— Bacon's " Declaration of the Treasons of Essex " . 235 XIX.— The Enemies of Essex 243 APPENDIX. I. — Bacon's Apoloqt , [1—21] II. — The Declaration op the Treasons of Essex . , [1] — [29] Index. BACON AND ESSEX. CHAPTER I. THE COURT OF ELIZABETH. Somewhere in. the correspondence of Anthony Bacon, Francis Bacon's brother, there occurs the following description of the Four Arts, without which no one could hope to succeed at Court in the later days of Queen Elizabeth : " Cog, lie, flatter and face, Four ways in Court to win you grace. If you be thrall to none of these. Away, good Piers ! Home, John Cheese ! " ' Criticism in verse is generally too epigrammatic_to be accurate : but certainly the doggerel just quoted will not seem very over- strained to any one who turns over Birch's Memoirs of the Keign of Queen Elizabeth or the MS. of Anthony Bacon's correspond- ence. In the nation at large there was no lack of moral health ; but the Court breathed an atmosphere of falsehood and intrigue. Intellect had free play, litei'ature throve, the English language was in such perfection that it seemed impossible for the men and women of those days to write weakly or nerve- lessly ; but truthfulness seemed extinct at Court. The old religion was dead, and the new religion had taken no hold of the Court circle. Greece and Eome were recognized as the model states, and Machiavelli as the great authority on politics. As ' I am not sure of the spelling of " Piers," and have lost the exact reference. B 2 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. I. for applying the principles of Christianity to politics, we in these days cannot be surprised that the Elizabethan politicians did not dream of doing it: but they went far beyond us in their consistent disregard for truthfulness. For the untruthfulness of the Court the Queen seems to have been, to some extent, responsible. We may admire, as it deserves, her calm courage, her common sense, her knowledge of human nature, and her intuition into the feelings of her subjects ; we may make all due allowance for the dangers and necessities of the times, and for the then low standard of poli- tical honesty : but it will scarcely be denied that the example of the Queen was unfavourable to the raising of that low standard. Essex himself, though naturally one of the bluntest of men, confesses that, in order to serve her, he is forced, "like the waterman, to look one way and row another." Walsingham is recorded to have outdone the Jesuits in their own arts and overreached them in equivocation and mental reservation. The history, now generally accepted, of the famous Casket letters, convicts the leading statesmen of England of an attempt to bring Mary Stuart to the block by forgeries. Sir Eobert Cecil urges his intimate friend Carew to entrap the young Earl of Desmond into a conspiracy for the purpose of getting rid of him. To be a politician meant in those days to be an adept in suspecting and lying. " Envious and malignant dispositions," says Bacon, " are the very errors of human nature, and yet they are the fittest natures to make great poHtiques of." To the same effect is Hamlet's pithy description of the politician — " one that would circumvent God." Foreign policy was the principal, but by no means the only, sphere for the evil arts of the " politique." Untruthfulness, on a pettier scale, was the basis of Court life. The rival politicians of the Essexian faction and the Cecilian faction entirely dis- trusted one another. Anthony Bacon accuses Sir Eobert Cecil of intercepting his letters. Bacon advises Essex to take care to flatter the Queen in face as well as in word, and to imitate the craft of the former favourite Leicester, in taking up measures (which he never intended to carry out,) for the mere purpose of appearing to bend to the royal will by dropping them in compliance with the Queen's command. 1585-1603.] THE COURT OF ELIZABETH. 3 These Court shifts and tricks were reduced to a system, some of the secrets of which are to be found in Bacon's Essays. There was the art of procuring oneself to be surprised ; there was the art of writing a letter in which the main point should be casually added or introduced ; there was the art of being found reading a letter of which one desired to make known the contents, but not in a direct way ; there was the art of laying a bait for a question, and a whole budget of similar arts — all taken from life, all (as Bacon says of the Essays) " of a nature whereof a man shall find much in experience, little in books." It is true that Bacon calls these arts " cunning," as distinct from " wisdom ; " and he does not like them. But there was no choice for a man who elected to live at Court. What the art of oratory was in democratic Athens, that the art of lying and flattering was for a courtier in the latter part of the Elizabethan monarchy. No courtier was safe of his position without it. Truth, Bacon declares, is noble, and falsehood is base; yet " mixture of falsehood is like alloy in coin of gold and silver, which may make the metal work the better." Theory on such subjects is generally purer than practice, and Bacon's theory is summed up in these words: "The best composition and tem- perament is to have openness in fame and opinions ; secrecy in habit ; dissimulation in seasonable use ; and a power to feign, if there be no remedy." ^ If a courtier objected to feigning — " Home, John Cheese ! " For the corruption of the Court the Queen was in a much less degree responsible. It is usual to lay the blame upon her parsimony, which drove her servants to reimburse themselves out of bribes for the losses which they could not make good out of their salaries. But it was perhaps not so much the Queeu's parsimony as the increasing expense of state services, which had once been performed by voluntary efforts, but were now becom- , ing too burdensome for the old system. Be that as it may, the effect (whether of the Queen's parsimony or of the collapse of the old system of voluntary service) was bad in every way both for the country and the Court. The evil fell most heavily on the military of&cers and ambas- sadors, who were forced to supplement the public supplies out of 1 Essay xix. 110. B 2 4 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. T. their own purses. Burgliley and Cecil, who for the most part stop at home, feel little of it ; but the ambassadors, Sir Henry Unton, Sir Thomas Bodley, Sir Eobert Sydney, all write in the same strain, constantly complaining of their expenses, and im- ploring to be recalled. Essex hereafter wO appear — in spite of the many estates and valuable offices which he enjoyed — over- whelmed with debt towards the end of his career. The same thing had happened to other military commanders besides him. Lord Howard is said by Sir Eobert Cecil, in 1598, to have expended £20,000 in four journeys. "There came no penny of treasure ever since my coming hither," writes Leicester to Burghley from the Netherlands ; " that which came was due before it came. The soldiers cannot get a penny. They perish for want of victual and clothing in great numbers." ^ In the critical year of the Armada, Lord Howard had been obliged to increase his officers. "He was challenged for the extra pay. ' The inatter is not great,' he said, ' iive hundred pounds with the help of my own purse will do it However it fall out, I must see them paid.' Again, he writes to Walsingham, 'I did take them (three thousand pistoles), as I told you I would ; for by Jesus; I had not three pounds left in the world, and I have not anything to get money in London. My plate was gone before. But I will repay it within ten days after coming home. ... If I had not some to have bestowed upon some poor miser- able men, I should have wished myself out of the world.' " ^ But if the pecuniary evil fell most heavily upon those who went abroad, the moral evil fell on those who stayed at home. " My Lord," writes the Eecorder of London to Burghley, " there is a saying, when the Court is furthest from London, then there is the best justice done in England. . j: . . It is grown for a trade now in the Court to make means for reprieves. Twenty pounds for a reprieve is nothing, though it be but for ten days."* 1 Froude, vol. xii. p. 169. « JFroude, toI. xu. p. 493. 3 Fleetwood to Burgliley, July 7, 1585, quoted by Froude, vol. xii. p. 4. It is true that military commanders, especially in the navy, were accustomed to "flesh themselves" (the phrase is used hy Standen of Sir Anthony Ashley in the Cadiz expedition) with booty and prize-money, and so to compensate them- selves to some extent for their disbursements. A naval expedition was something like a venture in which the Queen and her subjects went as partners, each paying his quota and taking his winnings. But the winnings of the chief in command (whatever the inferior officers may have gained) could hardly compensate for their heavy expenses. See p. 177 below. 1586-1603.] THE COURT OF ELIZABETH. 5 In 1598, Sir Anthony Ashley thus writes to Sir Eohert Cecil, " I am advertised that Wm. Whorewood is very deeply to be touched in the treasonable matter of one Tydie, late a scrivener here in Holborn, not long since executed at Tyburn for having counterfeited her Majesty's great seaL .... If you, either by yourself or in some other name, will deal in this suit, it will easily pay your extraordinary expenses in the French embassy ; for his yearly revenue in land and leases is 2,000 marks, besides much money If you neglect it, the party will promote it to the great one." ^ The " great one " is probably Cecil's rival, Essex. There is no reason to suppose that Essex would have been much more scrupulous than Cecil in " dealing " in such a suit. Egerton was one of the most incorrupt men of the time, yet we find Essex writing to Egerton firs't in behalf of one party to a suit, and then (finding that he had been unwittingly supporting an enemy of Anthony Bacon) in behalf of the opposite party. To the same Egerton we shall find Francis Bacon offering something closely approximating to a bribe, and showing how the transaction can be arranged without any one's noticing it.^ Lady Edmondes, a lady about the Queen's person, declines £100 as too little to save the ears and liberty of a certain Mr. Booth who has fallen under the justice of the Court of Chancery for some criminal practice.^ Concerning this Booth, Mr. Standen (a correspondent of Anthony Bacon's) writes that he heard Lord Keeper Puckering say to Lady Edmondes, " Do your endeavour, and you shall not find me wanting ; " and Standen unquestion- ably lays the blame in the right place when he adds, " This rufiBanry of causes groweth by the Queen's straitness to give to these women, whereby they presume thus to grange and buck causes." * Anthony Bacon taking up poor Booth's case, offers £100, but will not come up to the lady's price, which is £200. Even for this sum she will only save his ears, but not his fine — ^which has been already assigned to some servant in the royal stables. We must not be too hard on this Lady Edmondes. She was but one of a class, " these general contrivers of suits," 1 S. P. 0., 1598, June 21 ; see also June 23. 2 See chapter vii. ^ Add. MS. 4116, 3 Jan. 1596 [7].; * Dec. 1596, Birch's Memoirs, &c. 6 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. I. whom Bacon justly stigmatizes as "a kind of poison and infection to public proceedings." ^ Apart from the corruption and mendacity for which the Queen appears, in part at least, to be personally responsible, the system of government was radically bad, demoralizing both the governor and the governed. The slavish adoration of the Sovereign debased the whole court. The sort of reverence that we pay to "the British Constitution" is now, in our minds, quit^ distinct from the feeling of loyalty to the person of the sovereign. But to the courtiers of Queen Elizabeth the Queen was not Queen merely, but Constitution too. No minister could dare to assume responsibility for the royal actions : and yet the Queen could do no wrong, and was responsible to no one.^ If she chose, for example, to leave the succession un- settled, the courtiers were bound to postpone the welfare (or what they might deem the welfare) of their country to the will of the sovereign, and not to think about the future. " In her Majesty's time," says Cecil, justifying some unusual subsidies, " it is not to be feared that her Majesty's forces will do us harm. After her reign, I never had so much as one idea in my head what would he our estate then!' The increasing years. and infirmities of the sovereign increased the friction of the imperfect system and the debasement of those who were subjected to it. Gloriana in her brighter years standing up against Duessa as the champion of the Truth against Superstition, Britomartis in arms at the head of an armed people defying the enemies of pure Eeligion — this was a fitting and worthy centre for the homage of a court; but Gloriana senile, yet destitute of the graces of old age, Gloriana flirting and lying, Britomartis abusing her chief minister as " a peevish old fool," or amusing herself with making Francis Bacon " frame," or boxing Essex on the ears, or swearing at her god-son Harring- ton, or in her final stage of melancholy with a rusty sword before her on the table hacking at the arras — who could worship such an idol as this without becoming a hypocrite or a veritable ' Essay xlix., 62. * See Bacon's account of the proceeding at York House : " Her Majesty being imperial, and immediate under God, was not holden to render account of her actions to any," ii. 176. The "action" is the imprisonment of Essex for nine months wiihout trial. 1585-1603.] THE COURT OF ELIZABETH. 7 slave? To the outside world the Queen's imperfections were less visible, and they could stUl undebased revere in her the fearless champion of their religion and their national inde- pendence : but for the inner circle of the Court the old reverence had become unnatural, hypocritical, and incompatible with the spirit of freedom and honour. If the Queen's aims had been invariably directed towards objects useful for the country, the mischief of her personal influence might have been much diminished. But it was not so. She thought of England, it is true ; but she thought of the interests of England as being included in the interests of the crown. " Divide and command " was her motto. She did not desire to see her courtiers too friendly together. Elizabeth, no doubt, was in Bacon's mind when he wrote that "Many have an opinion not wise, that for a priace to govern his estate according to the respect of factions is a principal part of policy."^ To the same effect writes Clarendon, though more approvingly, " That trick of countenancing and protecting factions . . . was not the least ground of much of her quiet and success. Inso- much that during her whole reign she never endeavoured to reconcile any personal differences in the Court."^ Well may Clarendon say that this is a policy seldom entertained by princes that have issue to survive them ! Elizabeth had no issue, and the maintenance of her own power seems to have been her first care. Grant that her policy of keeping the succession uncertain turned out ultimately the best for the nation ; yet there is nothing to disprove, and everything to prove, that she pursued that policy and all her other policy, not because it was best for the nation, but because it was best for herself. In any case, her policy of dividing her servants against one another was injurious, not only to her immediate ministers, but to the nation at large. " There were in Court," says Wotton, " two names of power and almost of faction, the Essexian and the Cecilian, with their adherents."^ But he might have added that the bickerings of these rival factions at Court penetrated to the most distant parts of England, and weakened the action of the nation even in Ireland and France. If, for example. Sir 1 Essay li., 1. " "Wotton's EeUquim, 1672 p. 188. 3 Wotton's Heliguice, 1672, p. 168. 8 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. I. Francis Allen seeks a post at Court and is supported by Essex, the Cecils are sure to have another candidate in the field. Sir Thomas Bodley loses the post of Secretary of State simply because Essex takes up his cause out of spite against Cecil, and because Cecil consequently feels himself bound in honour to oppose him. Standen, applying to Burghley for a reward for the valuable foreign correspondence with which he has supplied the Queen, is frankly told by the Lord Treasurer that, since he has chosen to send his information through Essex, and not through him, he must look to Essex for support. Anthony Bacon supports a certain Mr. Trott in his suit for the clerkship to the Council of York, and procures for him the sup- port of Essex. Immediately the opposite party at York sends word to Burghley, that Essex has put forward a candidate, and prays Burghley's support for a rival. So keen is the rivalry between the two parties, and so absolute the necessity of always being in the Queen's eye, that the heads of the contending factions are ready to shirk the service of their country rather than to absent themselves from Court. Cecil refuses to go on an important embassage to France, unless Essex will promise to take no advantage of his absence, and will conclude an afivrjaria. Essex in the same way shrinks for a long time from taking the command of the Irish Expedition, although the unanimous opinion of the country designated him as the fittest leader in a dangerous crisis. Even when he has at last consented to go, he will not stir tiU he has it under the broad seal that he may return at pleasure. He is even guilty of the crime of designating for the critical office Carew, a most intimate friend of Cecil's, simply with the view of bringing discredit on the Cecilian faction. For the same reason the cautious Francis Bacon most earnestly begs Essex to avoid foreign expeditions, and to stop at home in the precincts of the Court. That the Earl of Essex was, in the general estimation at that time, the fittest man to serve England abroad, does not seem to have been thought an argument worthy of serious consideration. Bacon warns Essex not to be like Martha, " cumbered about much serving," but rather to imitate the pious Mary. " One thing is needful," and that one thing is — the Queen : " win the Queen," 1585-1603.] THE COURT OF ELIZABETH. 9 The acute Cecil is equally emphatic on this point : " I desire you to know this, that men are never more in a state to desire to be freed from any tongue that conceives unkindness than when they are in foreign employments." ^ Thus he writes to his friend Carew when the latter is serving the state in Ireland, and he proceeds to advise him to throw up his duty as soon as possible, and to return on the pretext of sickness. " Things done for absent men come not so easily ... for my part I would wish that after the end of the harvest you wrote that you are sick, and desire but to return two or three months." All this party bickering was encouraged by the Queen for her own ends. It was pleasant to her to play off one party against another, and to know that at any moment her finger could shift the scales. She was not content with being supreme — " one mistress at Court and no master " — as she told Leicester : she desired to have her courtiers absolutely dependent upon her beck and nod, and rather encouraged them to look upon one another as enemies. " Look to thyself, good Essex," she says, while giving him a gift of money ; and in the act of assuring him that her hand shall not be backward to do him good, she begs him to give no occasion to his enemies. If the Queen herself used such language, it is no wonder that the courtiers adopted it. Lady Anne Bacon most solemnly warns her son Anthony against the machinations of his cousin Cecil when the latter rises to power.^ Essex, as we shall here- after see, is continually influenced, especially towards the end of his career, by the belief that he is surrounded by enemies, who are ready to assail not only his honour, but his life. Francis Bacon shares and encourages the same belief, warning the Earl to beware of " such instruments as are never faiUng about princes, which spy into their humours and conceits, and second them ; and not only second them, but in seconding increase them; yea and many times, without their knowledge pursue them further than themselves would." ^ We shall hereafter see how ' Carew Papers, p. 86. 2 Add. MS. 4120. The letter ends, " Bum, burn, in anywise." Compare also Sydney Papers, 2nd Oct., 1599. " I pray you write very often unto him (Cecil), for his love is very worthy the seeking." This is written by a friend of Essex to a friend of Essex at the time when the Earl is imprisoned, shortly after his return from Ireland. ^ lAfe and Letters, ii. p. 41. 10 ■ BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap, I. powerfully this suspicion of the " instruments " about the Queen impelled Essex towards his mad and fatal treason. Torn by these contending factions — while the supreme arbiter held aloof, and, when she interfered, interfered out of mere caprice — the changes of parties at court often presented the appearance of a transformation scene in a pantomime. No one knew what scene was to come next. Nothing in Ovid's Metamorphoses, writes Anthony Bacon to Essex during a moment of Essexian triumph, was so sudden as the change brought about by the Earl at the Court.i At one time it is Essex who has the upper hand, and has (to quote Anthony Bacon's bitter expression) made " the old fox (Burghley) to crouch and whine," so that even Carew goes humbly to court the favour of the powerful Earl. At another time it is Cecil who is the great man, with all the business pass- ing through his hands, the object of general homage or fear, picturesquely enough described, with a bundle of papers under his arm, walking straight through the ante-room of the Court, and seeing no one as he goes ; while discomfited Essex is sulking at Wanstead. No wonder that, under such conditions, the Court seemed to the poets of the day the very type of mutability and inconstancy. There was no law or order in it, no just recognition of merit, no certain condemnation of oppression, chicanery, or factious strife. The sole regulation of the seasons of the Court-world lay in the fancies and caprices of a selfish, despotic woman, who was almost destitute of all spiritual and all moral sense. Such an idol as this it was not possible to serve and at the same time to maintain one's own self-respect. Yet no one could remain at Court without joining in the general idolatry. To the language of honest loyalty and simple respect, the Queen's ears were not attuned : she must and would be flattered like a woman, and obeyed like a god. No flattery was so acceptable as that which lauded her for virtues that had never been hers and for graces that she had long ceased to possess. But servile obedience was sweeter to her even than flattery. Leicester estimated her character aright when he continually appeared to oppose her, that he might ' Add. MS. 4118. " Ovid, for all his Metamoi-plioses, has not represented a more strange alteration than I have seen and heard this day." 1585-1603.] THE COURT OP ELIZABETH. 11 gratify her by the appearance of continually receding from opposition into subservience. Her courtiers countenanced her in her belief that her wUl should be their law. " Yield," writes Egerton to Essex, when the latter had retired from Court, after having been thrust out of the room by the Queen's orders,^ " let policy, duty, and religion enforce you to yield : submit to your sovereign, between whom and you there can he no proportion of duty." Essex could at times shake himself free from such a debasing adulation. To Egerton's 'letter, just quoted, he replies, " In such a case I must appeal from all earthly judges .... I keep my heart from baseness, although I cannot keep my fortune from declining." ^ But, with few exceptions, the courtiers made no such appeal from earth. The Queen's will determined for them what was honourable or dishonourable, what was right or wrong. To be excluded from her presence is described by them as being equivalent to a living death,^ Francis Bacon records as a noteworthy event, a salutation from the Queen on her way to chapel : to a disgraced courtier, the little act of graciousness was a foretaste of restoration to favour, and the royal favour was essential for a courtier's life. When Essex was freed from imprisonment, and allowed to go where he pleased, it was with this significant qualification, that he must consider himself still under the royal "indignation." Modern readers may find it difficult to understand the force of this qualification. But Cecil understood it, when he wrote to Carew, that this distinction of the Earl's being still under the royal displeasure prevented any from resorting to him, except those that were of his own blood.* In other and more sub- tantial ways the Queen's favour was essential to ft courtier. Estates, wards, of&ces, monopolies flowed from the Sovereign; and to nobles beggared by the expenses of public services, these ' "I sometimes think of nmning {i.e. at the ring), and then rememher what it will be to come in Bimour triumphing into that presence out of which both by your own voice I was commanded, and ly ycmr hands thrust out." The reference in this letter (Lives of the Earls of Essex, 17th November, 1600) appears to be to the well-known quarrel scene between Essex and the Queen in 1598. ' Li/ves of the Earls nf Essex, October, 1598. 8 SirW. Kalegh to Sir Robert Cecil, 1592, July. "My heart was never broken till this day, that 1 hear the Queen goes away so far off, whom 1 have followed so many years with so great love and desire in so many journeys, and am now left behind her in a dark prison all alone." — Mu^!||n, p. 657. The letter seems intended to be shewn by Cecil to the Queen. * Carew Papers, August 29, 1600. 12 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. I. were necessary parts of income. Essex we shall find hereafter depending upon one of these monopolies as his principal revenue ; the fear of beggary consequent on his being deprived of it by the Queen, will be recognized as one of the motives that will drive him into treason. Such a Court as this might well be described by Wotton as being for Essex a fatal " circle." Once drawn into the meshes of it, the highest ambition and the most unselfish purity might become entangled and defiled. The rivalry of faction, and the passion for success, the traditions of courtier-like suppleness, the ever-present power of flattery and finesse, the prospects of fortune if one could but struggle onward to the centre of the cobweb, and the certaiuty of beggary and disgrace if one attempted to go back, all together encompassing and clogging resistance, suc- ceeded in breaking or bending the purest and proudest spirit. The following pages will attempt to shew how Bacon was thus bent and Essex was thus broken. Moralizers will extract a moral from the respective faults and fates of the two friends, and will find much to pity and blame in their individual con- duct. But no one will " moralize the spectacle " aright who does not see a third and leading actor in the tragedy — I mean the Tudor Monarchy, which was a principal cause of the tragic end of Essex, and of the darker (though invisible) tragedy of Bacon's degraded soul. Perhaps therefore the true moral to be drawn from this sad history is not of an individual but of a general nature : and Montesquieu has expressed it succinctly for us in the saying, " que la vertu n'est point le principe du Gouverne- ment monarchique." ^ Or if the abrupt force of this dictum is' too startling for us, we may accept the same truth more euphe- mistically expressed in the courtlier period of Clarendon: " There is a certain comparity, conformity and complacency in the manners, and a discreet subtilty in the composition, without which .... no man in any age or Court shall be eminent in the aulical function." ^ 1 L'Esprit des Lois, iii. 5. " 'Wotton's Eeliquios, p. 186. CHAPTEE 11. BACON LIKE HIMSELF. In the year 1585, a young barrister, no more than twenty-five years old, composed a juvenile work on philosophy which, he tells us "with great confidence and a magnificent title," he named The Greatest Birth of Time} A barrister of twenty-five who could at such an age compose a work with such a title is clearly an exceptional character ; and if we wish to understand him we shall do well to attend to what he himself tells us about his own youth and the projects of his early manhood. These he describes as follows : — "Whereas I believed myself bora for the service of mankind, and reckoned the care of the common weal to be among those duties that are of public right, open to all alike, even as the waters and the air, I therefore asked myself what could most advantage mankind, and for the performance of what tasks I seemed to be shaped by nature. Thereon I found no work so meritorious as the discovery and development of the arts and inventions that tend to civilize the life of man. . . . Above all, if any man could succeed — not in merely bringing to light some one pai-ticular invention, however useful — but in kindling in nature a luminary which would, at its fcst rising, shed some light on the present limits and borders of human discoveries, and which afterwards, as it rose still higher, would reveal and bring into clear view every nook and cranny of darkness, it seemed to me that such a discoverer would deserve to be called the true Extender of the Kingdom of Man over the universe, the champion of human liberty, and the exterminator of the necessities that now keep man in bondage. More- over, I found in my own nature a special adaptationfor the contempla- tion of truth. For I had a mind at once versatile enough for that most ' Life, vol. ii. p. 533. "Where hereafter numbers are given in a reference without the name of any book, the reference will always be to some volume and page of Mr. Spedding's Life arid Letters of Lord Bacon, 1 4 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. II. important object — I mean the recognition of similitudes — and at the same time sufficiently steady and concentrated for the observation of subtle shades of difEerence. I possessed a passion for research, a power of suspending judgment with patience, of meditating with pleasure, of assenting with caution, of correcting false impressions with readiness, and of arranging my thoughts with scrupulous pains. I had no hankering after novelty, no bhnd admiration for antiquity. Imposture in every shape I utterly detested. For all these reasons I considered that my nature and disposition had as it were a kind of kinship and connection with truth. " But my birth, my rearing and education, had all pointed, not towards philosophy, but towards politics : I had been as it were imbued in politics from childhood. Moreover, as is not unfrequently the case with young men, I was sometimes shaken in my mind by [other men's] opinions.^ I also thought that my duty tcssvards my country had special claims upon me, such as could not be urged by other duties of life. Lastly, I conceived ■ the hope that, if I held some honourable office in the state, I might thus secure helps and supports to aid my labours, with a view to the accomplish- ment of my destined task. With these motives I appKed myself to politics, and with all due modesty I also recommended myself to the favour of influential friends. There wag one other consideration that influenced me. The objects of philosophy just now mentioned, be they what they may, do not extend their influence beyond the condition and culture of this present mortal life. Now, as my life had fallen on times when religion was not in a very prosperous state, it occurred to me that in the discharge of the duties of political office it might be also in my power to make some provision even for the safety of souls." ^ ' All that we know of Francis Bacon from other sources con- firms thus much, at all events, of what he here sets down about himseK — that he looked upon himself as " specially moulded by- nature for the contemplation of the truth," and that even his attainment of office and his "commendations of himself to influential friends " were regarded by him (in theory) as stepping- stones to " his destined task," which was the establishment of the Kingdom of Man over Nature. However strong may have been the political tendencies of his " birth and education," as he says above, there can be no doubt that from his earliest years his natural leanings were towards philosophy. Even in his fourteenth year, while he was an undergraduate at Cambridge, he had already conceived a dissatisfaction with Aristotle, and had noted, so Eawley tells us, " the unfruitfulness of a philosophy 1 After long consideration I am incliusd to think that this is the meaning of the passage. It is in accordance with Bacon's use of the word " opinio." ^ De Interpretatione Natures Procemium, Works, vol. iii. pp. 518, 519. 1580-02.] BACON LIKE HIMSELF. ' 15 only strong for disputations and contentions, but barren of the production of works for tbe benefit of the life of man." Such is the testimony of his biographer ; and he adds that this had been " imparted from his lordship." ^ The three or four little anecdotes which preserve all that we know about Bacon's youth, exhibit the young philosopher already with a gravity beyond his years, and with a predis- position to observe Nature, not merely to study books. At Cambridge we find him noting the transmission of sound through a pniar from the room of one student to another. Of his life in his father's house we have no reminiscence except of some conjuring trick which he observed and attempted to explain in his boyhood. Another tale about the rumbling sound pro- duced by shouting down a conduit in St. James's Fields, and another about the multiplication of echoes noted by him at some place near Paris, make up nearly the whole of what Bacon tells us about his youth. There seems to have been noted in him from the first a strange mixture of grave dignity and of shyness — the dignity or " magnificence " (as he himself calls it) of a man conscious of great powers, and the shyness of one who felt that he was not in his element in active life, moving unrecognized among common people. By the Queen his great parts were early noticed, and his precocious gravity and " magnificence " appears in the well-known compliment in which he connected his age with her Majesty's happy reign. HiUiard, who painted his portrait in his youth, notes on the canvas that he would have preferred to have painted the boy's mind, and not his face: When he was in his confident mood, writes Yelverton in after years, he excelled all persons in powers of persuasion.^ In the days of his greatness "he commanded where he spoke, and had his judges angry and pleased at his devotion."^ But in the days of his obscurity. Bacon was not so genial or so attractive. " AU things move violently to their place, but easily in their place" — this is one of Bacon's own favourite ' Works, vol. i. p. 4. 2 "Open yourself," writes Yelrerton to Bacon, "bravely and confidently, wherein you can excel all subjects," vi. 248. ' Ben Jonson, Discoveries, ed. Gifford, p. 749. 16 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. II. axioms ; and he tells us it applies to men as well as to things. It certainly applied to him. He was not " in his place," as long as he was not recognized to be great ; and while he was rising to greatness he " moved violently." The grave dignity and magnificence which might be attractive in Bacon the Lord Chancellor, repelled those who had to do with him as Mr. Francis Bacon. Sometimes indeed it created admiration, as in the case of the client who was ashamed to thank Mr. Bacon for his services, for " he seemed more like a god than like a man ; " ^ but more often it caused offence. Anthony Bacon's friend, Mr. Faunt, complains bitterly of "the strangeness which hath at other times been used to me by your brother." ^ The principal creditor of the two brothers, Mr. Trott by name, addresses the younger brother Francis with far more respect than the elder, even though he expostulates with Anthony upon what he deems the unfairness and ingratitude of Francis. The same difference of tone is observable in the letters addressed by Lady Anne Bacon to the two brothers. She lectures Anthony far more freely than Francis, and often makes Anthony the medium of warnings and expostulations indirectly addressed to Francis. Essex apologizes to Puckering for Bacon's abrupt behaviour. " This manner of his," he writes, " was only a natural freedom and plainness, which he had used with me, and, in my know- ledge, with some other of his best friends," and he explains that it had been caused by " a diffidence of your Lordship's honourable favour and love towards him." ^ Bacon himself admits to Lady Burghley that he is " not yet greatly perfect in ceremonies of court." But making this admission in his twentieth year, he is not disposed at present to enslave himself to these ceremonies. He is a young man, and takes the high style of a young man. " My thankful and serviceable mind shall he always like itself, howsoever it vary from the common disguising. Your Ladyship is wise and of good nature to discern from what mind every action proceedeth, and to esteem of it accordingly." Six years however pass away and Bacon finds that being "like himself" does not quite answer in society, at all events in Court society. The charges of arrogance and pride become so loud and numerous ^ i iiSiVe lost the exact reference. It is in Birch's MS?, of Anthony Bacon's correspondence, in the British Museum. ' Life, i. Zly ' 2bid. i. 366. 1580-92.] BACON LIKE HIMSELF. 17 that they reach the ear of his patron Lord Burghley, who thought them important enough to remonstrate with his nephew upon his conduct. Bacon answers by denying the charge, but pro- mising amendment of his outward behaviour. " For that your Lordship may otherwise have heard of me, it shall make me more wary and circumspect in carriage of myself. Indeed, I find in my simple observation that they which live as it were in umbra, and not in public or frequent action, how moderately and modestly soever they behave themselves, yet lahnrant invidia. I find also that such persons as are of nature" bashful (as myself is), whereby they want that plausible familiarity wliich others have, are often mistaken for proud. But once,' I know well, and I most humbly beseech your Lordship to believe, that arroganoy and overweening is so far from my nature as, if I think well of myself in anything, it is in this, that I am free from that vice. And I hope upon this, your Lordship's speech, I have entered into those considerations aa my behaviour shall no more deliver me for other than I am." ^ If we had leisure to pursue the life of Bacon into his later years, we should see how anxiously and deliberately he set him- self to work to- rid himself of this inconvenient bashfulness and to cultivate "plausible familiarity." In a miscellaneous note- book written in 1608 we find an infinite variety of devices set down in writing, all tending to the achievement of this " fami- liarity." Tor example : — " To attend sometime his (the King's) repasts, and to fall into a course of familiar discourse ... to have ever in readiness matter to minister talk with every of the great counsellors respective, both to induce familiarity, and for countenance in public place ; ... to correspond with Salisbury in a habit of natural but noways perilous boldness, and in vivacity, invention, care to oast and enterprise (but with due caution, for this manner I judge both in his nature f reeth the stands, and in his ends pleaseth him best and proraiseth most use of me) ; ... to have par- ticular occasions, fit, and grateful, and continual, to maintain private speech with every the great persons, and sometimes drawing more than one of them together. This specially in public places, and without care or affectation." ^ So inconvenient is this vice of shyness and proud formality that he finds it preferable to appear to be even rude : — " To free myself at once from payment of formality and compliment, though with some show of carelessness and rudeness." 1 i.e. Once for all. " Life, i. 59, 6th of May, 1586. s Ufe, iv. pp. 40-93. 1 8 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. II. Nervousness often causes a gasping habit of speech, and Bacon notes this also as one of his defects : — " To suppress at once my speaking with panting and labour of breath and voice. Not to fall upon the main too sudden, but to induce and inter- mingle speech of good fashion. To use at once, upon entrance given, of speech, though abrupt, to compose and draw in myself." ^ It would take far too much space to transcribe from this notebook the compliments, forms of condolence, forms of con- gratulations, and other formularies which Bacon jotted down as means to attain the much-desired plausible familiarity. Suffice it to say that in the year 1608, Bacon had nearly learned to master the art of conversing and living with great people in the great style, and had committed some of the precepts and practice of that art to writing. Yet in spite of all his attempts at ease, Bacon appears to have moved uneasily in the active world, and to have felt at home only in philosophy. In 1605, writing to Sir Thomas Bodley, he says : — " I think no man may more truly say with the Psalm, mnltum, incolafuit anima mea than myself. For I do confess since I was of any understand- ing, my mind hath been absent in effect from that I have done ; and in absence are many errors which I do willingly acknowledge ; and amongst the rest this great one that led the rest — that knowing myself by inward calling to be fitter to hold a book than to play a part, I have led my life in civil causes, for which I was not very fit by nature, and more unfit by the preoccupation of my mind." ^ When he rides to court as Lord Chancellor, with three hundred gallants attending him, the people wondered to see how " our Lord Keeper exceeds all his predecessors in the bravery and multitude of his servants " ; ^ but the Lord Keeper himself, writing to Buckingham the account of this very day, declares : — " There was much ado and a great deal of world. But this matter of pomp, which is heaven to some men, is hell to me, or purgatory at least." So it remains even to the last. When his public career is closed in disgrace, and he pours forth his sorrows and confessions to the Searcher of Souls, the great sin of aU is, in his judgment, 1 Life, iv. p. 94. » lUd. iii. p, 253. s Ihid. vi. p. 181. 1580-92.] BACON LIKE HIMSELF. 19 his desertion of philosophy and his having allowed himself to \ be diverted into politics : — ' " Besides my innumerable sins, I confess before Thee that I am debtor to Thee for the gracious talents of Thy gifts and grace^ which I have neither put into a napkin, nor put it as I ought to exchangers, where it might have made most profit, but^ misspent it in things for which I was least fit, so as I may truly say my soul hath been a stranger in the course of my pilgrimage." It is the same story throughout — multum incola ; with this Bacon's public life begins, and with this it ends. But it is time to return to the young barrister whom we left in his twenty-fifth year writing the Greatest Birth of Time. Up to this date and for some years afterwards he had pursued the path of independence indicated in his letter to Lady Burghley. He had been " like himself." Anxious as he was to obtain some lucrative post which might leave him time for his philosophic studies, he nevertheless will not offer an unconditional or servile adhesion to his patron Burghley. " I cannot," he writes in 1.580, " account your Lordship's service distinct from that which I owe to God and my Prince " ^ ; and again, " To your Lordship, whose recommendation, I know right well, hath been material to advance her Majesty's good opinion of me, I can be but a bounden servant. So much may I safely promise and purpose to be, seeing public and private bonds vary not, but that my service to God, her Majesty, and your Lordship, draw in a line." ^ These expressions indicate the cautious and almost cold reserve of one who felt that, if he entered politics under the wing of the Cecils, he must not irrevocably commit himself to a party instead of studying the interests of the nation. Seven years have passed away since the writing of the Greatest Birth of Time in 1585, and as yet Francis Bacon's dignified applications to Lord Burghley have had little success. Playing an active part in Parliamentary business, and writing letters of Advice to Queen Elizabeth, or tracts On the Controversies of the Church, however creditable to Bacon and useful to the country, did not bring him in money : and the want of money was beginning to make itseK felt. Francis was a youngest son by a second marriage, and his father Sir Mcholas had died 1 Life, i. p. 13. ^ Ibid. p. 18. C 2 20 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. II.- suddenly before he had made for Francis the provision he had intended. The purse of liis elder brother Anthony, it is true, was always open to him ; but Anthony was abroad spending money fast ; and in 1584 we iind Francis arranging for the mortgage or sale of some of his brother's estates. In 1585 Bacon puts Walsingham in remembrance of some " poor suit," and it appears to have been a suit of long standing.^ But nothing substantial came of it, or of the suit to Burghley. In 1589, a new power appears in the English court. On the death of Leicester, Essex, his stepson, is adopted as her favourite by Elizabeth. We know on the testimony of Anthony Bacon that Francis had been placed under many obligations by the young Earl before Anthony's return from the Continent in 1592,^ and there is evidence to show that Bacon had used the good services of Essex in 1588.^ It is therefore possibly a mark of the influence of Essex as well as of the good-will of Burghley,* that we find the year 1589 a prosperous one for Prancis Bacon. In the October of that year he receives the reversion of the clerkship of the Council in the Star Chamber. The office was of great value, worth about £1600 a year ; but it was of no present value, and he did not enjoy it till four-and- twenty years afterwards. Meantime Francis Bacon is drawing towards his thirty-second year, and the "necessity of estate" which in 1585 (as he had told Walsingham) he did not anticipate, is gradually approach- ing. Even the author of the Greatest Birth of Time must live, and he could not live on a reversion. Nearly six years had passed since his last application to Burghley, the last we know of ; * and Burghley had given him nothing but a prospect of an office. What was the reason for the great man's unwillingness to help his wife's nephew ? In after times 1 _'' I think the ohjection of my years will wear away mth the length of my suit J 1. J Of. ' Birch, vol. i. 73. Anthony assigns as one reason for attaching himself to Essex, on his return from the' Continent in the hegiuning of 1692, the Earl's "special noble kindness to my germain brother, whereby he (Francis) was no less bound and m deep arrearages to the Earl than I knew myself to be free and beforehand with my Lord Treasurer." 3 See my edition of the Essays, vol. i. p- x. note; * It is true that, in writing to Burghley, he speaks of the reversion as granted "by your Lordship's only means agamst the greatest opposition," ii. 60. 1580-92.] BACON LIKE HIMSELF. 21 Bacon declared that " in the times of the Cecils able men were, of purpose, suppressed:" and the following letter indicates that he thought he was being kept down out of a fear that his rise might interfere with the rise of his cousin Eobert Cecil. If he could not rise with the help of Burghley, he might perhaps rise with the help of Essex : but in any case, before giving up all hope of Burghley, it would be well to make one last attempt to remove the Lord Treasurer's jealousies and suspicions ; and accordingly, toward the beginning of his thirty-second year, Bacon writes the following letter to him, avowing his readiness not to interfere with Eobert Cecil's prospects, if the Lord Treasurer would help him : on the other hand, if his Lordship " wiU not carry him on," he will shift for himself, sell his inheritance, and turn plain student. " To MY Lord Teeasueer Burghley.' " My Loed, — With as much confidence as mine own honest and faithful devotion unto your service, and your honourable correspondence unto me and my poor estate, can breed in a man, do I commend myself unto your Lordship. I wax now somewhat ancient ; one and thirty years is a great deal of sand in the hour-glass. My health, I thank God, is confirmed ; and I do not fear that action shall impair it, because I account my ordinary course of study and meditation to be more painful than most parts of action are. " I ever bare a mind (in some middle place that I could discharge) to serve her Majesty ; not as a man born under Sol, that loveth honour ; nor under Jupiter, that loveth business (for the contemplative planet canieth me away wholly) ; but as a man born under an excellent sovereign, that deserveth the dedication of all men's abilities. Besides, I do not find in myself so much self-love but that the greater part of my thoughts are to deserve well (if I were able) of my friends, and namely^ of your Lordship, who, being the Atlas of this commonwealth, the honour of my house, the second founder of my poor estate, I am tied by all duties, both of a good patriot, and of an unworthy kinsman, and of an obliging servant, to employ whatsoever I am to do you service. " Again, the meanness of my estate doth somewhat move me ; for though I cannot accuse myself that I am either prodigal or slothful, yet my health is not to spend nor my course to get. Lastly, I confess that I have as vast contemplative ends as I have moderate civil ends ; for I have taken all know- ledge to be my province, and if I could purge it of two sorts of rovers (whereof the one with frivolous disputations, confutations, and verbosities, the other ' i. 108. ' i.e. particularly. 22 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. II. with blind experiments and auricular traditions and impostures, hath com- mitted so many spoils) I hope I should bring in industrious observations, grounded conclusions, and profitable inventions and discoveries — the best state of that province. This, whether it be curiosity, or vain-glory, or nature, or (if one take it favourably) philanthropia, is so fixed in my mind as it cannot be removed. And I do easily see that place of any reasonable countenance doth bring commandment of more wits than of a man's own — ^which is the thing I greatly affect. " And for your Lordship, perhaps you shall not find more strength or less encounter in any other. And if your Lordship shall find now, or at any time, that I do seek or affect any place whereunto any that is nearer unto your Lordship shall be concurrent, say then that I am a most dishonest man. " And if your Lordship will not carry me on, I will not do as Anaxagoras did, who reduced himself with contemplation unto voluntary poverty. But this I will do. I will sell the inheritance that I have, and purchase some lease of quick revenue, or some ofBce of gain that shall be executed by deputy, and so give over all care of service, and become some sorry book-maker, or a true pioner_ in that mine of truth which (he said) lay so deep. " This which I have written unto your Lordship is rather thoughts than words, being set down without all art, disguising, or reservation. Wherein I have done honour to your Lordship's wisdom in judging that that will be best beUeved of your Lordship which is truest, and to your Lordship's good nature in retaining nothing from ydu. And even so I wish your Lordship all happiness, and to myself means and occasion to be added to my faithful desire to do you service. From my lodging at Gray's Inn." CHAPTEE III. ESSEX IN FAVOUR. When Essex was nine years old (in the year 1576) his father died ; his mother married the Earl of Leicester ; and he himself at ten years old became a member of Lord Burghley's house hold. His close connection with the Lord Treasurer does not seem to have resulted in the formation of any binding ties between the two. Perhaps Essex was a little wild and unsteady. We find him in 1582 apologizing to his guardian for extrava- gance : " I hope your Lordship will pardon my youth if I have in some sort passed the bounds of economy." Against this however, we ought in fairness to set the complaint of his tutor at Trinity College, when the poor boy was but ten years of age, that it was absolutely necessary to buy him some new clothes because of " his extreme necessity of apparel." ^ Perhaps there- fore Burgliley's notions of " economy " were as much too strict as the little Earl's were too loose. But the difference between Burghley and Essex went deeper down than mere differences as to the worth and uses of money. In their virtues and in their faults the Cecils not only differed from Essex, they were incompatible with him, and he with them. Let us hear Cecil's account of the matter. Writing to King James after the death of Essex Cecil says : " If I could have contracted such a friendship with Essex as could have given me security that his thoughts and mine should have heen no further distant than the disproportion of our fortunes, I should condemn my judg- ment to have willingly intruded myself into such an opposition. For who know not, that have lived in Israel, that such were the mutual aflEections ^ Lives of the Earls of Essex, by Devereux, vol. i. p. 16?, 24 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. III. in our tender years, and so many reciprocal benefits interchanged in our growing fortunes as — -besides the rules of my own discretion which taught me how perilous it was for Secretary Cecil to have a bitter feud with an Earl Marshal of England, a favourite, a nobleman of eminent parts and a counsellor — all things else in the composition of my mind did still concur on my part to make me desirous of his favour." ' Cecil was at least consistent in the view that Essex was too impulsive and too inconstant to be relied on as a permanent friend. When the Earl was imprisoned, and the Secretary's good services were sought in his behalf, he replied that, although he would not actively oppose Essex, yet he would not affect to renew a friendship with a man who was not only ruined, but so inconstant that his promises of friendship could not be trusted.^ There is much to be said for Cecil's view of the matter, and — due regard being had to the strife of faction and to the absence of any arbitrator — there is probably little ground for finding fault with Cecil's conduct towards Essex. Essex was ex- tremely overbearing and violent towards his equals and towards all whom he regarded as his rivals for the Queen's favour. From the first he treated the Queen rather as an accepted lover than as a subject. Soon after he had been recognized as her favourite, he told her that he disdained Ealegh's competition of love, and could have no comfort to give himself to the service of a mistress that was in awe of such a man.^ Sir Thomas Bodley confesses that Essex "sought all devices to direct the liking and love of the Queen both from the father and the son (Burghley and Sir Eobert), but from the son in special, and (to draw my affection from the one to the other and to win me altogether to depend upon himself) did so often take occasion to entertain the Queen with some prodigal speeches of my sufficiency for a secretary, which were ever accompanied with words of disgrace against the present Lord Treasurer, that both my Lord Burghley and his son would jealous."* Essex's quarrel with Blount is an instance in point. Meeting his antagonist decorated with a favour recently bestowed on him by 1 Hatfield MS,, cxxxv. p. 55, quoted In an article in the Quarterly Review January, 1876. s^ Sydney Papers, 25 October, 1599. * ' Qiutrterly Review, January, 1876, p. 23. * Ibid. p. ,24. 1576-88.] ESSEX IN FAVOUR. 25 the Queen, he exclaimed, " N"ow I see that every fool must wear a favour," and provoked Blount to a duel.^ It is true that the quarrel thus hegim ended in a reconciliation and a firm friend- ship ; but the origin of it undoubtedly convicts Essex of being exclusive, domineering, and impatiently jealous of all rivals for the Queen's favour or affection. But much of the blame must be laid not on Essex but the Queen. The Queen encouraged Essex to address her rather as a lover than as a minister or courtier. She acted as though she enjoyed Essex's indignation at Ealegh's "competition of love." Writing to the Queen in 1597, Essex says, " Since I was iirst so happy as to know what love meant, I was never one day nor one hour free from love and jealousy, and, as long as you do me right, they are the inseparable companions of my life" ; and again in 1598, " I do confess that, as a man, I have been more subject to your natural beauty than as a subject to the power of a king." ^ It is more than probable that Essex is flattering here ; but it is certain that he was using language that the Queen liked to hear. She had not promoted him — a mere boy of nineteen — because of his military or political abilities, but because he combined " with a most goodly person, a kind of urbanity and innate courtesy which hath won the Queen."^ He seemed to have come just in time to supply the place of his stepfather Leicester, her former favourite; and she accepted him not as a guide or counsellor, but as one on whom she could bestow her affection, without fear of dictation or political collisions. It was by no desire of Essex that he stepped into the position of favourite. By nature he was a student or soldier rather than a courtier. In his Apology, which he addresses to Anthony Bacon, he appeals to the "rarely qualified" Francis whether this is not so. " For my affection in nature, it was indifferent to books and to arms, and was more inflamed with the love of knowledge than with the love of fame. Witness your rarely qualified brother, and that most learned and truly honest Mr. Saville, and my bookishness from my very childhood."* ^ Birch, ii. 62, quoted in the Quarterly Review, Januai-y, 1876. ^ Devereux's Lives of the Earls of Essex, vol. i. pp. 465-97. ^ Naunton, quoted iu the Quarterly, January, 1876. * Essex's Apology, p. 2. 26 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. III. AVotton's testimony is to the same effect : " Certain dt is that he (Leicester) drew him (Essex) first into the fatal circle from a Icind of resolved privateness at his house at Lampsie in South "Wales, when, after the academical life, he had taken such a taste for the rural as I have heard him say (and not upon any flashes or fumes of melancholy, or traverses of discontent, but in a serene and quiet mood) that he could well have bent his mind to a retired course." ^ More than once he withdraws from the Court in his fits of resentment at the insults to which he con- ceives himself to have been subjected, and his private secretary, Eeynolds, on one occasion, expresses his fears that his " Lordship is wearied,' and scorn eth the practices and dissembling courses of this place, and therefore desireth to solace himself, and by degrees to discontinue, and so to retire from among them." ^ Anthony Bacon expostulates with him on his " sudden departures " and frequent absences from Court. " Though your Lordship's mark "be never so honourable, and you draw never so fair and shoot never so near, yet if the judge be blind, and those that give aim partial, your worth and merit shall be by most malicious envy disguised and perverted, and receive no other reward than censure and disgrace." ^ Besides his other defects, Essex's violent temper unfitted him for Court life. Cuffe, his most intimate secretary, said of him that " he always carried on his brow either love or hatred, and did not understand concealment."* Wotton describes him as a " great resenter," and as " no good pupil to my Lord of Leicester, who was wont to put all his passion in his pocket." In the Island voyage he is said to have thrown a soldier out of a ship with his own hand ; ^ and one of the? charges against his Irish campaign is that he decimated some troops who had behaved disgracefully in action. Standen gives a very graphic description how, while he was waiting in the Earl's ante-room, the Earl being out, the door is suddenly thrown open and Essex strides past him, and through the ante-chamber, not noticing his presence, and slamming the door violently behind him, fresh from an audience with Elizabeth, at which he had been called ' Wotton's Eeliquioe, p. 162. ' Lives of the Harls of Essex, March, 1597. ' Add. MSS., 4116, 1597, 6th January. ■* WoUon'a Beliciuix, p. 187. ' Wolton, Reliquim, pp. 175-9. 1576-88.1 ESSEX IN FAVOUE. 27 by the Queen, in the presence of Burghley, a " rash and teme- rarious youth." Even the affectionate Anthony Bacon has occasion sometimes to remonstrate with his patron upon the prolongation of some of these fits of sullenness and aversion to business. On the other hand he has a generosity, a truthfulness, and a warmheartedness that, in the judgment of his friends, atoned for a thousand faults. The impression produced by a short interview with him, when suddenly he calls in on Anthony Bacon and a little group of friends, and brightens them up with the sunshine of his hopeful nature,i reminds one of Shakespeare's description of Henry V. : " A largess universal as the sun, His liberal eye doth give to every one ; That every wretchj pining and pale before, Beholding him, plucks comfort from his looks." He is always ready to acknowledge himself in the wrong if he has been hasty to a friend. If, for example, he has a little hurt Anthony Bacon by an appearance of neglect one evening, on the following day he apologizes thus : — " Sir, if I gave you not satisfaction in my answer yesternight, the unseasonableness of the hour, my indisposition, and the dulness of both my wits and senses will plead my excuse ; but this most of all, that what was wanted may be amended, and yourself may have of me what satisfaction you will yourself. As for S., do you direct, and I will perform it." ^ Or again, if he fails to obtain a suit for a friend (Sir Francis Allen), see how he consoles him. "Frank, if I had delayed the effecting of your suit, through for- getfulness or sloth, I had committed a great fault. But I have been kept at a bay, I know not how, not only in my friends' causes, but also in mine own. Wherein, if I should shew unto you the particulars, I should deliver a strange story. But, how- soever I fare, I doubt not within a very few days to despatch you. And if I be so unfortunate that the Queen will break her word with me for you, I will divide one house with you if you 1 Add. MSS., 3rd February, 1594. " The Earl left us all merry and comforted with hia sweet words and countenance : " so writes Mr. Standen. ' Add. MSS., 4115, p. 39. 28 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. III. will live with me, or settle you in one, if I had but two in the world. For while I have any fortune, Sir Francis Allen shall have part of it." ^ It is no wonder that, with this warm and generous disposition, he attracted the lonely Queen, and indissolubly bound to him- self the hearts of those whom he loved. His faults seemed the faults of youth, likely to vanish with youth. Standen speaks of him as being a boy who requires to be pulled by the ear, just as a pupil is corrected by his singing-master. Anthony Bacon rejoices that the Earl is getting over his "rawishness," and " clean forsaking all his youthful tricks."^ But the mischief was, that the Earl, however morally amiable, had neither ability enough, nor physical vigour enough, to play the part that he would be called on to play in the " fatal circle " into which Leicester had seduced him. His terrible destiny was leading him, in the character of the Queen's favourite, to assume responsibilities for which he was unfit, and to enter upon rivalries to which he was unequal. He was neither a deep statesman nor an able general, yet he was allowing himself to be drawn into a position where statesman- ship and military ability were almost indispensable, if he was not ultimately to come to a ruinous catastrophe. Having entered court at the age of seventeen in 1584, he accompanies Leicester to Holland in the following year. In 1586 we find him named for Master of the Horse, and in 1587 he receives the appointment and is recognized as the Queen's new favourite : " When she is abroad, nobody near her but my Lord of -Essex ; and at night my Lord is at cards at one game or another with her, that he cometh not to his own lodging till birds sing in tl^e morning." ^ Such a life was the road to favour, to ofBce, and to wealth : but it was not the life that Essex loved, and he chafed against his fetters. In 1589 he escapes secretly from the Court in order to take part in the expedition against Lisbon, in which he " engaged his means, kinsfolk, friends, and followers," * and he returns with his revenue no greater than when he sued his livery, and burdened wi-th a debt of two or three thousand pounds.^ 1 Add. MSS., 4112, [72.] ^ ^dd. MSS. 25th February, 1593. 2 lAves of (he Earls of Essex, Ms,y, 1587. * Essex's Apology, p. 5. '> Lives, fee, i. p. 206. ^^■^6-88.] ESSEX IN FAVOUR. 29 In 1590 he incurs the anger of the Queen — who had an eccentric aversion to the marriage of any of her courtiers — by marrying the daughter of Walsingham, the widow of Sir Philip Sydney. In the spring of the following year, when he desires to carry aid to Henry IV. in France, he is at first refused permission to absent himself from Court ; but in June that year he obtains the requisite permission. In a characteristic letter he issues instructions that his tenants of Chartley are to furnish their quota for the war, or to expect "no friendship after;" but he is careful to add that they are "not to be charged above their abilities." ^ The campaign in France ought to have been, in itself, a suffi- cient proof that Essex had no administrative ability. He would have made a capital colonel of a regiment, but he had not the art of managing large masses of men, or of seciiring prompt obedience from his staff ; and he was afflicted with the fatal defect of desiring to do everything himself. It is pathetic to notice how he seems to awaken to a consciousness of his admin- istrative shortcomings in a letter written by him to Francis Bacon, shortly before the Island voyage in 1596, in which he says that he had once " thought the contemplation of the art military harder than the execution. But now I see, where the number is great, compounded of sea and land forces, the most tyrones, and almost all voluntaries, the second officers equal almost in age, quality, and standing in the wars, it is hard for any man to approve himself a good commander. So great is my zeal to omit nothing, and so short my sufficiency to perfomi all, as, besides my charge, myself doth afflict myself. . . . And sometimes I am as much troubled with them (the officers) as with all the troops." Precisely the same characteristics does he manifest in the French campaign. He has a " zeal to omit nothing," but not a " sufficiency to perform all." He is charged by the Queen's Council with " trailing a pike " like a common soldier, and with endangering his life by going a-hawking in districts swarming with the enemy. Deserting the main body of his forces, and accompanied by a single troop of cavalry, he gallops through a dangerous country to hold a conference with King Henry at his 1 Lives, &.C., June, 1591. 30 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. Ill- quarters, and thence back again at such a pace that many of his small band sink beneath the fatigue of the journey. Succumb- ing at last himself to a fever, he has to be carried from place to place on a litter. In the end, after sending a fruitless challenge to the hostile general, he reluctantly returns to England with an army reduced from four thousand to one thousand men. During the whole of this ill-starred expedition, it is interest- ing to note how the same reproaches as were afterwards heaped upon his conduct of the Irish campaign, and the same fretful recriminations on the part of Essex, appear here, on a small scale. The Earl describes himself as the most perplexed and afflicted man he ever did know. "I was blamed," he says, "as negligent, undutiful, rash in going, slow in returning, indiscreet in dividing the horse from the foot, faulty in all things — because I was not fortunate enough to please." Among other charges, not the least was that he had not written often enough to the Queen. " Her Majesty," he replies, " is angry that I did not write often unto her. I answer that I wrote four times in fourteen days." Two extracts will be sufficient to shew the nature of the letters which the Queen delighted to receive from the com- mander of her forces in France. In the first he says, " I must not let this second day pass without complaining to your Majesty of the misery of absence." In another, " I am jealous of all the world .... I do conjure you to be constant to him who will, for your Majesty's favour, forsake himself and all the world beside." ^ In a third letter, he admits that his journey to the French King was an error ; but the reason he gives amounts to this, that it was a sin against her Majesty as a woman, though it was a service to her as a Queen. It is difficult to suppose the passage not to be bitterly ironical ; yet irony, one would think, must have been fatal, if understood : " I confess I did ill in going to the King. . . . not but that it was necessary for your Majesty's service, but because by that means I could not know of your Majesty's coming to Portsmouth." ^ Seldom did a royal favourite stand more in need of wise and righteous counsel than the young Master of the Horse of Elizabeth, when he first made the acquaintance of Francis Bacon. Outwardly brilliant and promising, his position was in 1 Lives, &c., 17th August, 1591. " Ibid. 13tlx September, 1591. 1576-88.] ESSEX IN FAVOUE. 31 reality so insecure that almost any dispassionate observer (sa one now thinks) might have pronounced his ruin a certainty, a mere matter of time. The Queen and Essex could not work together, unless Essex would give up all freedom of will. Bacon hits the nail on the head when he points out to the Earl the difference between " favour of affection " and " other corre- spondence and agreeableness." ^ " Favour of affection," Essex had from the Queen ; but the " other correspondence " he had not. His political objects and his political means were not hers. He was all for war, the Queen for peace. He was for straight- forward courses and rapid action ; she had a preference for crooked courses, and delighted in simulation and delays. The Qaeen trusted only those who were prudent, deliberate, and worldly-wise. Essex flaunted his impulsiveness in her face, and scandalized her by his neglect of his estate and constant debt. The Queen loved not only to be flattered as a woman, but to be obeyed as an ideal sovereign ; Essex did not grudge the incense of conventional flattery, but disdained to give up high plans of policy for a woman's wishes; and it was a favourite saying with him that he must do the Queen good against her will. The Queen's former favourite Leicester had known how to put up with affront from her and to pocket his resentments ; the Queen's new favourite was touchy and sensitive, and incapable of concealing the least shade of displeasure. The whole strength of the new favourite depended upon the hold he had secured on fhe Queen's womanly affections. But as her infirmities increased with her age, the flattery that had once seemed not utterly absurd, when addressed to her in the days of her prime and vigour, was becoming more and more obviously hypocritical and hollow, and the hoUowness of it was in danger of becoming apparent to the Queen herself Clearly there would come a time when the Queen would be tempted to ask how far her favourite deserved her favour : " A man of a nature not to be ruled ; that hath the advantage of my affection and knoweth it." ^ It is all very well for Essex, in the days of his early favour, to win the Queen by calling her an angel, and by swearing that he has preferred her beauty above all things : but 1 II. 40. ' 11- «■ 32 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. III. the time will come when the Queen's eyes, being cleared from the film of her fond affection, will regain their wonted power of cool analysis, and will detect beneath the praises of her beauty nothing but a prayer that she will be pleased to continue to the Earl his monopoly of sweet wines. The tables will then be turned. Indignant at thus being trifled with, the Queen will resent the treason against her love even more bitterly than the treason against her government. Essex had played upon her, and she, to use her own words — " intends now to play upon him." There is something of the inevitable in all this. Given such a favourite as Essex, such a sovereign as the Queen, and such a court as the Elizabethan Court — and it would seem as though the whole drama were summed up in the first act. Essex might almost seem at that moment irrevocably destined to the block when the Queen appointed the boy Master of the Horse, or when Leicester first drew him from his resolved retirement at Lampsie within " the fatal circle." Nothing but a heaven-sent counsellor could have saved Essex from the final catastrophe ; and the heaven-sent counsellor did not appear in the hour of need. Leicester died at the very time of the rise of the young favourite ; Walsingham followed shortly afterwards. Burghley, though he seems to have at times medi- ated between Essex and the opposing faction, had not inspired the young Earl, during the days of his residence in his house- hold, with such affection or respect as to look to him as his natural guide. Essex sorely needed guidance, and, unlike many of the guideless, he knew that be needed it. Like Hamlet, he was, and knew that he was, too liable to be " passion's slave ; " and he longed for some calm steadfast, philosophic Horatio, who would not be passion's slave, who would be his counsellor and guide, and whom he would wear in his heart of hearts. Physi- cally and mentally, Essex was as unstable as Hamlet, at one moment riding incredible distances and subjecting himself to incredible privations, then stricken with a sudden fever, and keeping his bed with a long and lingering illness ; at one time outshining all his peers in the glory of the tilt-yard, at the next, sulking in solitude at Wanstead ; now, the Queen's chief counsellor and sole depository of all state secrets, now again 1576-88.] ESSEX IN FAVOUR. 33 forswearing all work, neglecting his own interests and even those of his friends ; at one moment exulting in triumph, at another exclaiming Vanitas vanitatum, and despairing even of honour and safety, not to speak of success. His instability more often injured himself than his friends ; but on one occasion, at all events, a friend suffered from it. He would do anything for Francis Bacon ; yet a curious story in the correspondence of Anthony Bacon tells us how, at a crisis when it was most impoiftaln|i for Francis that Essex and Burghley should confer for a few minutes upon Bacon's proposed pro- motion, the proposed interview fell through because the Earl could not be induced to break off, at the moment, a game at tennis.^ (Half an hour afterwards^ when the game was over, and the Earl ready, the Lord Treasurer was fast asleep and not to be disturbed.) Bat the consciousness of this impulsiveness and instability made the Earl desire only all the more earnestly the help of a trustworthy counsellor. More than once Francis Bacon, in his letters and writings, admits that the Earl's habit was to listen patiently to any counsel that he gave him, even though it might be distasteful. When he addresses the Earl plainly, he reminds him that it is " according to his charter." And the Earl himself, in a letter to Puckering, bears witness to the terms of familiarity and plainness of speech with which he was in the habit of receiving counsel from Francis Bacon. The willingness of Essex to hear counsel is illustrated by many incidents in his life. Carried to an excess, it was probably the cause of many of his miUtary and political failures. In his last fatal and treasonable outbreak he complains piteously of " the confusion that his friends drew him into even in his own house that day he went into the city." ^ We have heard above, his confession that the ofiicers of his army on the Island voyage caused him more trouble than all the rest of the army put together. The fact was that he had not really a ruling nature, but rather, as Sir W. Monson expresses it, " a nature flexible to be overruled." Bacon's testimony is strong on this point. Writing to a friend of his, a former agent of Walsingham, he: says, " The more 1 April, 1594. See Birch or Add. MSS. I have not the exact reference. * II. 320, This sentence is suppressed in the Government Declaration. D 34 BACON AND ESSEX. [Ohap. III. plainly and frankly you shall deal with my lord, not only in disclosing particidars, but in giving him caveats and admonishing him of any error which in this action he may commit, such is his Lordship's nature, the better he will take it." If a man would only give him righteous and honourable counsel, no man was more willing to listen to it than Essex. A curious instance of this is preserved in his early life. When he was barely twenty years old, after a stormy quarrel with the Queen at his own house, where she had heaped insults upon his mother, and had commanded his sister to keep her chamber,^ poor Essex flies from the Court in fury : " I will be this night at Margate, I will see Sluys lost or relieved ; una hella morire is better than a disquiet life." But in the midst of these gaspings of passion he breaks out into a piteous lamentation over the absence of some wiser and older friend. " I would have given a thousand pounds to have had one hour's speech with you : so much would I hearken to your counsel, and so greatly do I esteem your friendship." ^ A year or two after this letter to Mr. Edward Dyer, Essex falls in with a new friend and adviser of much greater ability than Mr. Dyer, and one who seemed shaped by nature to be the very counsellor to guide him in his perplexities and to supple- ment his defects. Francis Bacon was six years older than Essex. If Essex was impulsive and unstable. Bacon was no less cool and steadfast. He never changes his mind, and he appeals to the Earl to attest his steadfastness. " Consider," he asks, " whether I shift my counsel, and do not constare mihi." ^ If Essex was too much given to military action, Francis Bacon was the " gownsman " who could keep these tendencies in check. If Essex was too passionate and destitute of the art of self- control, he might learn sobriety and tact from the philosopher who was studying, or soon to study, how to master the arts of "plausible familiarity." If Essex offended the Queen by his early marriage, he might take warning from the wiser guide and friend, who regarded, or was soon to regard, love as the child of folly, wife and children as impediments to great enter- ' Lives of ^ the Earls of Essex, vol. i. p. 186. Essex had told the Queen befove- han'l that his sister, Lady Rich, was at Northall. '^ Letter to Mr. Edward Dyer, Tiid. s H. 40. 1576-88.] ESSEX IN FAVOUR. 35 prises, and who carried his precepts into effect by deferring his own marriage to the ripe age of forty-five. Again, if Essex is guilty of wearing his love or hatred on his brow, and is deficient in the virtue described by Clarendon as " aulical corn- parity," here is a philosopher skilled, or soon to be skilled, in the arts of simulation and dissimulation, who will teach him to flatter in face and feature as well as in word -^ who wUl caution him against passing too soon from simulation to verity •,' and who will inculcate upon him the lesson that " the best com- position and temperature is to have openness in fame and opinion ; secrecy in habit, dissimulation in reasonable use ; and a power to feign if there is no remedy." ' If Essex could assimilate these lessons of Francis Bacon, is it not possible that he might yet escape the perils that encompass him ? It is possible. But if he tries to assimilate them and fails ; if, while trying to mend the defects in his own truthful and impulsive nature with patches of Baconian simulation and dissimulation, he proves untrue to himself, and yet reveals his own clumsy attempts at imposture to his enemies, then is it not also possible that, instead of escaping, Essex may precipi- tate, the hour of ruin ? And besides political ruin, he will be in danger of forfeiting his self-respect. His thoughtless selfishness and his youthful ambition. will become tinged with a darker shade ; and dissimulation and simulation will prepare the way for treason. And if the hour of ruin should fall on Essex, what will be the conduct of the two friends: can this also be predicted? Certainly it can. If we trust the accounts given by the two friends of the origin of their friendship, Essex could give no satisfactory reason of his friendship for Francis Bacon. "I cannot be other than your friend," he writes to him, after a long silence on Bacon's part, "either upon humour or mine own election." A poor and illogical explanation, not worthy of a philosopher ! But Bacon is more logical. He " applied " him- self to Essex— so he writes in the Apology — not because he liked Essex, nor because Essex liked him, but because he con- sidered "my lord the fittest instrument to do good to the State." Perhaps this explanation may fairly be supplemented 1 II 42 " II. 99- ' Essays, vi. 1. 110. D 2 36 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. III. by the writer's other detinitions and illustrations of friendship. Writing to Essex in 1596, he calls on Essex not to trust in him "upon humour or upon election," but for much more logical reasons. "Look about," he writes to the Earl, " even jealously, if you win ; and consider whether I have not reason to think that ycrur fortune comprehendeth mine." ^ This phrase is not an accident. The " comprehension " of one friend's fortune within the fortune of the other was, in Bacon's judgment, a sine qud non for genuine friendship. If we doubted it, we might find confir- mation of the letter of 1596 in the Essay of 1597, where the self-same phrase occurs in the definition of the basis of friend- ship. " There is little friendship in the world, and least of all between equals, which was wont to be magnified. That that is, is between superior and inferior, whose fortunes may covijprehend the one the other." Thus, then, in 1588, or a few months afterwards, begins the friendship between the Earl of Essex and Erancis Bacon, a friendship on the one side illogical, and based upon no basis except that the Earl finds "he cannot be other;" but on the other side strictly logical, and based, partly perhaps on the services to the State likely to be rendered- by Essex under the guidance of Bacon, but more certainly — if we trust Bacon's own account of the origin of friendships — on the fact that the fortunes of Essex — in 1588 or thereabouts — comprehended the fortunes of Bacon. » II. 40. A letter written in 1696, CHAPTEE IV. BACON SUING FOR OFFICE, The first extant letter from Francis Bacon to Essex speaks of some "course imparted to your lordship touching mine oion fortune," and, with scarcely an exception, the whole of Bacon's correspondence with the Earl during the years 1593-1595 turned on the same subject— Bacon's "own fortune." The contrast between the letters of Francis and those of Anthony is, in this respect, very striking. Throughout the whole of the elder brother's voluminous correspondence with the Earl there is scarcely a single mention made of any favour asked by Anthony for himself: but the letters of Francis during the first three years of his friendship with Essex contain scarcely anything but requests for favours. This may be partially explained by the different motives which had induced the two brothers to attach themselves to Essex. Anthony had been moved by simple gratitude — so he himself tells us — for the many kindnesses bestowed by Essex on his brother Francis. Francis, on the other hand — as we saw above — had applied himself to the Eairl as being " the fittest instrument to do good to the State." We shall not be doing Francis an injustice if we assume that he considered that his own fortunes to some extent "comprehended" those of the State, and that by " doing good " to him (Francis Bacon), the Earl would be indirectly doing good to the State, which would gain by his promotion. Be this as it may, the fact remains that, whereas the letters of Anthony exhibit him indefatigably labouring as secretary and procurer of foreign intelligence for his adopted patron, the letters of Francis exhibit him, no less 38 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. IV. indefatigably, labouring to secure, through Essex, his own pro- motion, as long as promotion could be hoped for, and afterwards some other advantage for himself. There is little to which we can take exception in Bacon's early attempts to obtain office. They are in no way unworthy of him. He had not yet been drawn by the heat of the chase into any excessive admiration of power for its own sake, nor did he at first lose his self-control in suing, or in enduring the prospect, and afterwards the certainty, of defeat. His earlier letters both to the Queen and to Burghley, are the expostu- lations of one who feels himself entitled to office, and who will not cringe in order to obtain it. Moreover, the act by which he had alienated the Queen, and brought upon himself exclusion from her presence, was one of the most creditable and patriotic acts in his life. Indeed it may almost be said that it was the only unselfish and inconsistent action of which he was ever guilty, and therefore it must not be entirely passed over. But a brief mention of it must suffice here. The taxation during the last twelve years of Elizabeth's reign nearly quad- rupled the average taxation of the whole reign. Writing at the end of February, 1593, Anthony describes the subsidies proposed by the Government in the pending session of Parlia- ment as " more than had been given to any king before."^ Francis, in Parliament, took the same view. He thought the tax too heavy, and the time allowed for the levying of it too short. Further, he objected to the way in which the subject had been introduced by the Government, and to the "attempts apparently made by the House of Lords to draw the House of Commons into a conference touching subsidies.^ For express- ing his views in a speech in the House of Commons, he was excluded from the Queen's presence. Finding that his speech had given offence. Bacon at once wrote to Burghley, explaining that his conduct had not been dictated by " popularity or opposition," but that he had spoken " simply, and only to satisfy his conscience." It would be easy to show by extracts from Bacon's writings that his explanation is truthful. Kepeatedly elsewhere he complains of the custom of treating Parliament like a mere shop, a mere place for 1 Birch. ' I. 218. 1693-5.] BACON SUING FOR OFFICE. 39 getting money out of the nation, instead of a great deliberative assembly, in which the Crown should propound measures for the good of the realm, and should receive — naturally and without suggestion on the part of the Government — the spontaneous contributions of the nation for the national service. Over- taxation also was one of Bacon's bugbears. "In histories it is to be observed that, of all nations, the English care not to be subject, base, taxable : "^ so runs his speech, and the Essays speak precisely to the same effect, " neither will it be that a people overlaid with taxes should ever become valiant and martial."^ This is just the language of a theorist and philosopher who did not recognize that, if taxes were increasing, the prosperity of the nation was quadrupling at the same time. Bacon could therefore declare in perfect good faith, what was an entire mistake, that " the gentlemen must sell their plate and the farmers their brass pots ere this will be paid."^ But Bacon's honesty did not prevent his being excluded from the Court, and exclusion could not have come at a more unlucky season for him. The death of the Master of the Rolls on the 4th of February, 1593, and the probable promotion of the Attornej'- General to the vacancy, seemed likely to throw open the Attorney's place. Eelying probably on the support of Essex, Bacon determined to sue for the office ; but, though Essex was his mainstay, he endeavours also to gain over Cecil and Burghley. In July of the previous year (probably about the time when Bacon wrote the letter to Burghley quoted on page 21) Cecil and Essex had been at odds* ; but apparently there was now, for the present, outward concord between them. Replying to Bacon's application, Cecil advises his cousin to seek access to the Queen before office ; and as for access, " you must press the Earl for it, who hath both true love towards you and the. truest and greatest means to win it of her Majesty."^ The grave dignity with which Bacon enters on the suit affords a painful contrast with the passion and absence of self-control 1 I 223 " Essays, xxix. 91. M. 223. * See Letter from Essex to Cecil, July, 1592, in Miirdin's Burghley Papers. Id one of these Essex writes to Cecil, "Whether you have mistaken the Queen, or used cunning with me, I know not. I will not condemn you, but leave you to think, if it were your case, whether you ivould not be jealous. 5 I. 238. 40 . BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. IV. which occasionally mark his conduct towards its fruitless termination. He tells a noble correspondent (probably Essex) that he esteems, no worldly thing above the comfort of enjoying her Majesty's favour, exce,pt it he the consciousness of deserving her favour} The Queen herself he assures that, although he desires office in order to do her Majesty service, yet if any of his friends press his suit, " I do assure your Majesty my spirit is not with them. . . . Your Majesty's favour indeed, and access to your royal person, I did ever, encouraged by your own speeches, seek and desire; and I would be very glad to be reintegrate in that. But I will not now wrong mine own good mind so much as to stand upon it now, when your Majesty may conceive I do it but to make my profit of it."^ A letter to Essex, written shortly before this time, seems to shew that Bacon had had some thoughts of breaking off from the Court and of retiring' into a life of study. Certainly Bacon's tone about this time is that of a man who would desire office, if office can be honourably obtained, but not of a passionate suitor for office. He sues not like a courtier, but like a philosopher, like a man who is seeking office, not because he is dazzled by the mere outward splendour of it, but because he feels he is entitled to it, and because it is for the general good that he should obtain it. The Earl promises to do his utmost for Bacon, and he does it. In season and out of season he plies the Queen, and hopes by continual dropping to wear out the stone — scepe cadendo, as he says. But aU his pleading is fruitless. As the autumn ap- proaches, the suit still continues ; and Bacon has to hang about the Court, ready at a moment's notice, should he be sent for by the Queen. He snatches a few hours to visit his mother, who is lying ill at Gorhambury, but Cecil writes warningly, " I think your absence (longer than for my good aunt's comfort) will do you no good ; for as I ever told you, it is not likely to find the Queen apt to give you an office, when the scruple is not removed of her forbearance to speak with you. This being not perfected, may stop good when the hour comes of conclusion, though it be but a trifle, and questionless would be straight despatched if it were luckily handled."^ ' I. 240. = IbU. 241. 3 I, 257, 27th September, 1593. 1593-5.] BACON SUING FOE OFFICE. 41 Still Essex finds the Queen "stiff in her opinion that she wonld have her own way." His best course, he discovers, is a negative one, i.e. to discredit Bacon's rivals for the post and in particular Coke, " the Huddler," as he is disparagingly called by Bacon and his friends. "Warming to the chase, Bacon watches the intrigues of his antagonists and stimulates to renewed activity his already active patron. In particular he begs Essex to dis- parage C oke. " Be pleased," he writes, " to sound again whether they have not, amongst them, drawn out the nail which your Lordship had driven in for the negative of the Huddler, which if they have, it will be necessary for your Lordship to iterate more forcibly your former reasons, whereof there is such copia as I think you may use all the places of logic against this placing."! A perceptible falling off from the calm dignity of his earlier applications I To sue for office is one thing, to disparage rivals quite another. But this is but a slight downward step in a descent that will afterwards become more perceptible. A few years hence, had we leisure to trace Bacon's development of the Art of Making One's Fortune, we should iind him elaborating " Dis- paragement " into a system, and making careful notes of all the defects of a rival with a view to the effective exposure of them in quasi-casual utterances f but already we are forced to feel that there has been something of a degeneration from the spirit of the author of the Temporis Partus Maximus, the youth- ful philosopher who promised Lady Burghley, years ago, that his ndnd should " always be Uke itself" Not a vestige remains much longer of the indifference with which Bacon assured the Queen that, if his friends pressed the matter, " his spirit was not with them." The year 1593 passes away, and still Bacon is unplaced. By March, 1594, he is content to offer himself for the inferior post of Solicitor, while Coke is destined for the Attorney's place. Still Essex, more kindly than judiciously, pleads his friend's cause. The Queen, on one occasion, in passion, bids him go to bed if he will talk of nothing else but 1 I. 263, dated October or November, 1593. 2 Compare iv. p. 63, et scq. "To have in mind and use the Attorney's weakness ; . . . the coldest examiner ; weak in Gunter's cause ; too full of cares and distinctions ; nibbling solemnly, he distinguisheth but apprehends not." Some of these notes are entitled " Hubbard's Disparagement." 42 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. IV. Bacon, and accordingly " in passion," he writes to Francis, " I went away, saying while I was with her, I could not but solicit for the cause and the man I so much affected." In later days, it has become the fashion to say that Essex spoiled his friend's chance by his injudicious pleading. It may be so : but it is at least noteworthy that Bacon, so far from remonstrating with the Earl on his violence, continually (up to this time) urges him to fresh efforts. In answer to a letter from Essex, docketed the 29th March, in which the Earl promises " to use the exceptions against the competitors," Bacon writes back commending his cause to his friend's love, " only I pray you communicate afresh this day with my Lord Treasurer and Sir Eobert Cecil ; and, if you esteem my fortune, remember the point of precedency. The objections to mf competitors your lordship knoweth partly. I pray spare them not, not over the Queen, but to the great ones, to shew your confidence and to work their distaste." He had once declared to Burghley that " the thing he greatly affected " in office was not the office itself, but the consequent " commandment of more wits than of a man's own ; " but now it is success for its own sake that he covets, and his failure appears to him an intolerable disgrace. " I must confess," he says, " that this very delay hath gone so near me, as it hath almost over- thrown my health"; and when he revolves in his mind the circumstances of his new suit, he declares that " no man ever received a more exquisite disgrace." Once more he casts back his thoughts on philosophy. " Therefore, my lord, I was determined, apd am determined, if her Majesty reject me, this to do. My nature can take no evil ply ; but I will, with God's assistance, with this disgrace of my fortune, and yet with the comfort of the good opinion of so many honourable and worthy persons, retire myself with a couple of men to Cambridge, and there spend my life in my studies and contemplations without looking back."^ On the next day (Easter Sunday, 1594) Francis Bacon is rejected, or at least receives the foretaste of rejection. Egerton and Coke receive their respective patents, and Bacon is left out in the cold. Yet he cannot now tear himself away from the suit. 1 I. 291. Docketed 30th March, 1593 [4]. 1593-5.] BACON SUING FOR OFFICE. 43. His disappointment only induces him to apply himself stiU more sedulously to the great ones about the Court. He sends letter upon letter to Lord Keeper Puckering, imploring him to declare that his rivals are unfit for the Solicitorship. For this kindness he is ready to be Puckering's servant for ever. When he was a young man and inexperienced in suing, he had written to Burghley more like a philosopher than a courtier: " So much may I safely promise and purpose to be, seeing public and private bonds vary not, but that my service to God, her Majesty, and your lordship draw in a line. "^ Compare this youthful, stiff, and formal independence with the familiar polished suppleness of his unqualified and conditional promises to Puckering : " If your lordship consider my nature, my course, my friends, my opinion with her Majesty (if this eclipse of her favour were past), I hope you will think I am no unlikely piece of wood to shape you a true servant of" This letter last quoted had been written from Greenwich on Friday, the 19th of April, where Bacon had hurried down from London to be in prompt attendance in case the Queen should be pleased to call for him. At this very time he ought to have been in his chambers preparing for a great case in which he was to argue on the following Thursday. His errand to Court proving fruitless, he hurries back to London to get up his case. But scarcely has he returned when he receives a note from Essex's private secretary, dated Monday night, telling him that, the Queen had promised the Vice-Chamberlain on Wednesday or Thursday next to speak with him. Bacon is to write to the Vice; Chamberlain a letter of thanks, and is not to forget to send to the Queen the present of a jewel which he had been intending to offer her. A day or two afterwards — the day before his great case — Bacon had a still more urgent letter from Essex, saying that if it be no impediment to the cause he handles to-morrow, he is to come to the Court that very afternoon. After all this flutter of expectation, this posting to court and back, this currying of favour with chamberlains, and hanging about the Court-stairs in expectation of the royal summons, the whole plan coUapsed. Sunday, the 28tli of April, finds Essex and the Vice-Chamber] ain 1 I. 15. Dated 18th October, 1580. 2 I. 2fl3. Dated 19th April, 1594. 44 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. IV. both out of favour, and Francis Bacon, out of hope, perhaps expressing his feelings in the words of a poem that had just then come out : — " Full little knowest thou that hast not tride What hell it is in suing long to bide : To lose good dayes that might be better spent ; To wast long nights in pensive discontent ; To speed to-day, to be put back to-morrow, To feed on hope, to pine with feare and sorrow ; To fret thy soule with crosses and with cares. To eate thy heart through comfortlesse dispaires ; To fawne, to crowche, to waite, to ride, to ronne, To spend, to give, to want, to be undonne."* How Essex could plead for a friend, when he himself was in disgrace, is well exemplified by the following letter, written by him to Cecil, on Sunday, the 20th of April. As it has not been printed before, I make no apology for giving it at full length : — ^ " Sir,— . ' " I write this to desire you to solicit the Queen for Mr. Francis Bacon, whom not only lawyers, 'but men of all professions and degrees do think the only fit and worthy man to be Solicitor. I have heretofore, while I thought my mediation was anything worth, pleaded with her Majesty, not only for his worthiness' sake, but for my comfort sake, to hearken unto this suit. But now all presumption and hope is dead in me, though duty and passionate zeal to her service can never die. " To you therefore, as to a councillor, I write this, that her Majesty never in her reign had so able and proper an instrument to do her honourable and great services as she hath now, if she will use -him. For, if this maxim were only strengthened by mine own weak judgment, I should not, be so confident ; but I have' heard the opinion of the leamedst gentlemen, the ablest lawyers, the gravest judges in her realm. I heard him yesterday handle the great question of perpetuities so far above all that I ever heard come out of a lawyer's mouth as, without private respect of love or friendship, I should grieve in iliy soul that Her Majesty should not have use of him. His adversary yesterday was one of the ablest lawyers in England, and a man far above any that I hear is named for the Solicitor. But in all men's opinion, Mr. Bacon had such odds in the comparison as the one did both persuade and prove all things he undertook, and the other did nothing but serve for an excellent foil. ' Mother Hubherd's Tale, 1. 900. ^ Hatfield MSS. 26, 68. I am indebted for this letter to the kindness of Professor Brewer. 1593-5.] BACON SUING FOR OFFICE. 45 " I know in Parliament, in arraignments,' and in causes where the Prince's prerogative must be stretched, what service is done to a monarch by a man of such excellent gifts ; and how, of the other side, a harsh and rude speaker doth mar a good cause ; and that the abiUty or insufficiency of the instruments have made princes' causes gracious or odious. There- fore, Sir Robert, let us all, who have in this world nothing so much recommended as the honour and greatness of the Queen, plead for him. For the world shall know both the Queen's manner to choose the worthiest ; and knowing none worthy to be compared unto him, wiU say it is our fault by whom Her Majesty should be truly informed. And so I commend you to God's protection, and rest " Your assured friend, " Essex. " Wanstead, this Sunday [28 April, 1594]. " To my Honble. Friend, " Sir Robert Cecil, of Her Majesty's Privy Council." But still all the pleading of Essex could not save Bacon from the disgrace of failure, and from , the more substantial " neces- sity of estate/' not without its disgrace too, which had been gradually approaching, and which threatened to make his position unendurable. The details of Francis Bacon's relations with his debtors are somewhat tedious : but they throw so much Ught on his character that they cannot entirely be passed over. A certain Mr. Nicholas Trott was the principal creditor of Francis and his brother Anthony, and in 1593 they owed him £1300. Trott was a gentle creditor as long as his debtor Francis was, in general estimation, the Attorney or the Solicitor elect ; and besides — if we are to believe his account, which is confirmed by a good deal of external as well as internal evidence — there was an understanding between him and Francis that, if the latter should be appointed Attorney or Solicitor, the valuable reversionary office of the Clerk to the Star Chamber, bestowed by Burghley on Francis Bacon, should be transferred by Francis to Trott jointly with Anthony Bacon. The £1300 was borrowed by Francis on the security of an estate called Marks : ' For the irony of this unconscious prophecy compare the speech of Hastings : — „ . ^ — " So falls it out With Rivers, Vanghan, Grey : and so 'twill do With some men else, who think themselves as safe As thou and I ; who, as thou know'st, are dear To princely Richard and to Buckingham."— iSicAarti ///., iii. 66. 46 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. IV. but six montlis after the borrowing — here again we are following Trott's account — being in need of money, Francis begged Trott to let him mortgage Marks to Harvey (another of his creditors), promising to Trott his other lands for assurance, "and such present performance as he desired." Trott consented, apparently hoping for a speedy arrangement for his inclusion in the patent •of reversion. But soon after this promise the present value of the reversion- ary office became greatly increased. Mr. Mill (or Mills) the present Clerk of the Star Chamber— apparently a person who rigidly insisted on his rights and perquisites, and thereby made many enemies — had recently (not for the iirst time) had his proceedings made the subject of judicial investigation. On the 16tli November, 1594, two Lord Chief Justices report unfavour- ablj^ This, if it made Mill's tenure of office precarious, would make Bacon's reversion proportionately more valuable. Accord- ingly Trott is informed by Francis Bacon that the understanding must be considered at an end, for he (Francis Bacon) has received an offer of £.3,000 for it.^ Here then for the present we must leave the unfortunate Mr. Trott ; but this is not the last we shall be compelled to hear of him. Amid all this increasing debt Bacon is obliged to lead the life of a courtier and to keep up appearances on a continually ■diminishing income, with a train of costly servants, " making," — to quote Bacon's Essays against Bacon's life — "his train longer and his wings shorter." Bacon's servants are a constant theme of denunciation for Lady Anne, his mother. She has been asked to allow Francis to mortgage Marks ; but she will do nothing for him, she declares, " so long as he pitieth not himself, but keepeth that bloody Percy, as I told him then, yea, as a couch companion and bed companion, a proud, profane, costly fellow. . . . That Jones (?) never loved your brother indeed, but for his own credit, living upon your brother, and thankless though bragging. ... It is most certain till first Enney (?), a filthy wasteful knave, and his Welshmen one after another — for take [one] and they still swarm ill-favouredly — did so lead ^ See Trott's letter, p. 85. This also may perhaps be referred to in Bacon's letter (Jan. 1.595) to Anthony (i. 353). "Mr. Trott I have desired to be hero after to-morrow, to see how he taketh this at second hand." 1593-5.] BACON SUING FOR OFFICE. 47 him as in a train, he was a towardly young gentleman and a son of much good hope in godliness." ^ Such lectures the fiery old lady heaps upon her incorrigible son : but she has discretion enough to know that she is hardly a match for him in a direct attack, and, with some skiU, attacks Francis through the less dignified and formidable An- thony. Francis resents his mother's interference and her offer to pay his debts on conditions, replying with a cold and reserved dignity thut the drift of her wordy letters, her " circumstance " as he calls it, was that she meant to retain him in the position of a ward. Again Lady Anne returns to the attack, but again in- directly, addressing not Francis, but Anthony, and apparently relenting. " I send herein your brother's letter. Construe the interpretation. I do not understand his enigmatical folded writing. Oh that by not hearkening to wholesome and careful good counsel, and by continuing still the means of his own great hindrance, he had not procured the means of his own early discredit, but had joined with God that hath bestowed on him good gifts of natural wit and understanding !" ^ Meanwhile, in addition to the annoyances of conducting an unsuccessful suit, Francis Bacon has to live from hand to mouth, in debt to the expectant clerk of the Star-Chamber, Trott, borrow- ing money from the present clerk of the Star-Chamber, Mill, and receiving driblets ^ of money from his brother Anthony, who is alienating his manor of Barley in great part for Francis' sake. Besides all these humiliations, the aspirant to the Solicitorship has to endure the mortification of receiving such letters as the following : "To Mr. Francis Bacon. " SlE, — I received your letter even now, therein closed fifty shillings, for so much I laid out for 3'ou upon the 27th of July last to Mr. Cheeke. I did think you would have paid the whole sum of £52 10s. at the day, without being put in mind thereof, considering what Mr. Byng said to me 1 I. 2ii. 2 I. 247. ' See i. 322. Sept. 11, Anthony gives Pierre (Francis Bacon's servant) £20 ; S"pt. 21, £5; Oct. 26. to Fierre, £20; Oct. 30, £1 ; Oct. 31, to Kellet for Francis, i£23 ; Nov. 18, to Ashford for Francis, £5. These are in 1593, and there is a similar list for 1591. 48 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. IV. in that matter; and so did I think also to have received answer of iny letter before this time. I was ever willing, and am still, to do you any pleasure I can, and therefore will take such order as this your bond due to Mr. Cheeke shaU be tolerated till the time you desire, which is till the fifth of November. But as to the £106 due to you and Mr. Offley by you and Mr. Woodcock the 24th of this month, I cannot promise it : for he hath requested me that his money may then be paid in, and Mr. Woodcock hath been warned thereof. But I will shew you aU the favour I can therein. " But I take it unkindly that you write that you think the £5 of the interest was abated at the day of sealing of the bond. Mr. Woodcock knoweth the contrary ; neither is it used. There is but one truth. I did never think you would thus have written. And thus, being grieved with your writing therein, I end and commit, you, to God in haste, because the waterman hyeth away." ^ Amid such distractions and humiliations as these we must leave the author of the Greatest Birth of Time pursuing his canvass for the place of Solicitor- General. A gleam of delusive sunshine lights up the latter part of his suit. . There is a lull in the importunity of his debtors. Mr. Trott's kindness is described by Anthony as exceeding the kindness of a brother;^ and Francis himself, in his colder fashion,, informs his mother that "as for anything to be passed to Mr. Trott, such is his kindness as he demandeth it not." ^ But a greater hope lay in the Queen's supposed change of behaviour towards him. Indeed the Queen had good reason for relenting. Bacon had not indeed apologized for his speech in the House of Commons : this, of course, he could not do with any regard to his own interest ; for to apologize for it would have been to admit that it was dictated by party feeling or by self-interest, and thereby to make himself suspected for ever. But, short of apologizing, he had done every- thing he could to indicate that he prized the royal favour as much as any one in the Court, and that he would not a second time forfeit it. The philospher who had begun his course with so noble an independence, had stooped to a contest in which the palm would ' 15th September, 1593, from John Davenant to Mr. Francis Bacon, at Twickenham, Add. MSS. 4111, 155. ^ I. 323. "Who, truly, madam, hath shewed more real confldenoe and kindness than I think all our brothers aud uncles together would have performed." — Anthony to Lady Anne. 3 \ 3gQ_ 1593-5.] BACON SUING FOB OFFICE. 49 be awarded not according to merit but by caprice ; he had accepted as his champions, favourites and chamberlains, and had exhibited himself to the whole Court in the character of a philosopher learning how to comply — or let us use the Queen's own expressive language and say, learning "howto/rawie,"^ suing for access to a sovereign whom he had in no way offended, and striving to make his peace for what he had never admitted to be an offence. His passionate expressions of regret had been reported to the Queen, and were beginning to produce their effect. A friend of Bacon's, Foulk Greville, reports to the Queen how Francis lamented his misfortune in that he remained " as a withered branch of her roots which she had cherished and made to flourish in her service " ; whereupon, continues the writer to Bacon, " it pleased her Majesty to confess that indeed you began to frame very well, in so much as she saw an amends in those little supposed errors." ^ Bacon for his part left nothing undone to encourage her in this belief Writing a month afterwards to the Queen, he sees in all his humiliations and disgraces not the unjust caprices of a despotic sovereign, but the hand of the Divine Goodness, and addressing Elizabeth as "most gracious and admirable sovereign" he assures her that he acknowledges a providence of God towards him that findeth it expedient for him to tolerate the yoke in his youth. ' The word is stiU used in Derbyshire of a refractory horse learning to submit. 2 I. 302. Dated 17th June, 1591. CHAPTER V. POLITICS OE PHILOSOPHY? The history of Bacon's suit for the Solicitorship need not detain us much longer. In August, 1594, Bacon writes to the Lord Keeper declaring that " he cannot bear himself as he should till it is settled ; " and again in September, " if her Majesty should not be pleased presently to give order for a patent, yet if your Lordship may by her warrant give me warning to prepare myself, it will be some hold and satisfaction." ^ Meantime, he is still living upon his brother Anthony, and is driven to think about parting with his reversion. The year 1594 passes away, and in January, 1595, he is sent for to the Court, but still he is not allowed to see the Queen, and he soon finds that she has taken in ill part a request made by him to be permitted to travel. "To be plain- with you," he writes to his brother Anthony, " I mean even to make the best of those small things I have with as much expedition as may be without loss, and so sing a mass of requiem, I hope, abroad."^ To Essex, in a letter which, as Mr. Spedding justly observes, was probably intended to be .read by the Earl to the Queen, he declares that he will never find a greater grief than this, relinq^oere amorejn primum, "but, since principia actionum sunt tantitm in nostra potestate, I hope her Majesty of her clemency, yea, and justice, will pardon me and not force me to pine here with melancholy. For though mine head be good, yet mine eyes will be sore ; so as I shall have no pleasure to look abroad." In the letter to Anthony, quoted above, which was not intended to be seen, " I • I. 320. « I. 349, 25th January, 1594 [i!]. 1594-5.] POLITICS OR PHILOSOPHY? 51 know," he says, "her Majesty's nature, that she neither careth though the whole surname of the Bacons travelled, nor of the Cecils neither." In defiance of the Queen's wishes Bacon could not have pressed his petition for license to travel. But it was open to him to have retired to Cambridge as he had before threatened to do. In the spring and summer of 1595 however we find him still engaged in the suit for the Solicitorship even more ardently than before. Driven beyond all self-control by the Queen's delays and by the suspicion that the Cecils were thwarting him, he writes to Sir Eobert Cecil in terms approximating to a charge of un- truthfulness,^ and he concludes by bitterly declaring that he is " weary of asserviling himself to every man's charity." To his intimate friend, Foulk Greville, he declares that he has been " like a piece of stuff bespoken in the shop .... like a child following a bird which, when he is nearest, flieth away and lighteth a little before, and then the child after it again, and so in infinitum, I am weary of it, as also of wearying my good friends." Lady Anne laments that Francis "with inward secret grief hindereth his health. Everybody saith he looketh thin and pale." ^ But lately he suspected Cecil of intriguing against him ; now he suspects the Lord Keeper Puckering, and a second time he breaks out into uncourtier-like plainness of speech. " There hath nothing happened to me in the course of my business more contrary to ray expectation, than your Lordship's failing me and crossing me now in the conclusion, when friends are best tried." ' Meeting the Lord Keeper in public, he behaves with such coldness that Puckering takes offence and complains to Essex. The Earl explains that it was nothing but Bacon's " natural freedom and plainness : " and Bacon slightly softening the objectionable words of his letter, declares that he said nothing to give offence : " Further I remember not of my letter, except it were that I writ, / hoped your lordship would do vie -no ^ "I trust on, and yet do not smother what I hear. I do assure you, sir, that hy a wise friend of mine, and not factious towards your Honour, I was told with asseveration that your Honour was bought by Mr. Coventry for two thousand angels . . . the truth of which tale 1 do not believe. You know the event will shew, and God will right. " 1.355. 2 1. 364, .5th August, 1595. ^ i. 355^ 28th July, 1595. E 2 52 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. V. wrong ; which hope I do still continue." ^ In the 5th of November of the same year the new Solicitor-General is appointed, and it is Serjeant Fleming. The advocacy of the Earl of Esssex had heen a very dubious benefit to Bacon, and possibly it had even been a partial cause of his failure. The main reason was perhaps Elizabeth's distrust of Bacon's theorizing nature, her doubt of his practical ability, and above all her resentment at his early attempt at independ- ence. But the pertinacity with which the Earl had urged his friend's suit can hardly have failed to set the Queen against it. This, however, Bacon does not seem to have discovered, or even to have thought of, till the suit was nearly over. In a letter to the Lord Keeper, dated 11th October, 1595, he tells Puckering that he has desired Essex to limit his affection for him : but this, I believe, is almost the only instance in which Bacon is found reining in his patron's importunitj'. In almost every extant letter to Essex we find him carrying out the advice given by Cecil and Burghley — certainly advice fatal to Bacon and dangerous to Essex, whether the advisers knew it or not — to " press " and to " implore " the Earl. Now, however, that the Earl had done his best and had failed, it was scarcely possible for Bacon to shut his eyes any longer to the weak- nesses of Essex and to the possibility of future weaknesses resulting in future similar failures. "When the Queen took offence at his proposition to travel,^ she expressed herself in language which, if correctly reported by Cecil to Bacon in the interview between the two cousins, implied that Essex was the cause of Bacon's unruly independ- ence : " This is Essex ! " cries the Queen in her passion, and she declares she is more angry with Essex than with Bacon. Francis Bacon was a little suspicious of Cecil's accuracy in the report of some of the Queen's exact expressions. "Note the words," he writes to Anthony, " for they cannot be her own." But he begins to think that Cecil must be so far right as this : it is not he, but some other person or thing, that causes the Queen to be so inexorable : " My conceit is that I am the least part of mine own matter." ^ So he writes in January 1 595, and 1 I. 366. ^ 25th January, 1595, i. 348. 3 Curiously enough, in the Apology Bacon puts these very words into the mouth f Essex. See Apology, p. 4, in the Appendix. 1594-5.] POLITICS OR PHILOSOPHY? 53 in the spring of the same year his suspicions are increased and so far defined that in a letter to his intimate friend Foulk Greville he hints at the possibility that his failure may he con- nected with Essex. He is in doubt "whether 'invidus homo hoc fecit,' or whether my matter must be an appendix to my Lord of Essex' suit." This language seems to indicate a growing suspicion in Bacon's mind that in siding with Essex he had taken the losing side. If Essex, in the height of his favour, could not gain for him a place to which he was by his own merits entitled, what could be expected from him hereafter ? " Upon me the disgrace will lie of his being refused" — so Essex himself had written to Puckering, and this verdict would be confirmed by the general voice of the Court. Even in April, 1594, when Egerton and Coke were placed and Bacon was passed over, the failure was noted by an observer friendly to Essex as " a thing as much bringing this great man's (Essex's) credit in question as any other he hath managed all this time." ^ Naturally, there- fore. Bacon might now begin to ask himself whether in applying himself to Essex because he " held at that time my Lord to be the fittest instrument to do good to the State," ^ he had not made a mistake. The following letter has been taken by some as a proof that Bacon's eyes were gradually being opened to the ambition of Essex. It has been thought that in warning the Earl that he was " a common," Bacon expressly guards himself against being supposed to give for the future any blind adherence to his patron. But this is not probable. The whole tenour of the letter shews that Bacon, under the influence of recent dis- appointment, is planning to return to those " better purposes " of philosophy, from which the law has too much diverted him. He writes like a philosopher who has been too long detained from those studies to which he now intends religiously to devote him- self. As in after years he tells his patron Cecil that "to do him service he wUl come out of his religion, i.e. philosophy, at any time," ^ so now he assures his patron Essex that, although he is a " common," natus ad utilitatem humanam, yet he will always be ready to reserve for Essex so much of his labour as 1 r. 291. ' Apology, p. 3. ' III. 315. 54 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. V. may fairly be deducted from the great work of establisliing the Kingdom of Man. LXj,^ "To MY Lord of Essex, " It may please your good Lordship, " I pray God her Majesty's weighing be not like the weight of a balance ; gravia deorswm, levia sursum. But I am as far from being altered in devotion towards her as I am from distrust that she will be altered in opinion towards me, when she knoweth me better. For myself, I have lost some opinion, some time, and some means. This is my account. But then, for opinion, it is a blast that cometh and goeth ; for time, it is true it goeth and cometh not ; but yet I have learned that it may be redeemed. " For means, I value that most, and the rather because I am purposed not to follow the practice of the law (if her Majesty command me in any particular I shall be ready to do her willing service), and my reason is, only because it drinketh too njuoh time, which I have dedicated to better purpose. But even for the point of estate and means I partly lean to Thales' opinion, that a philosopher may be rich if he will. Thus your Lordship seeth how I comfort myself, to the increase whereof I would fain please myself to believe that to bo true which my Lord Treasurer writeth, which is, that it is more than a philosopher morally can digest. But without any such high conceit, I esteem it like the pulling out of an aching tooth, which, I remember when I was a child and had little philosophy, I was glad of it when it was done. " For your Lordship, I do think myself more beholding to you than to any man. And I say I reckon myself as a common (not popular, but common) ; and as much as is lawful to be enclosed of a common so much your Lordship shall be sure to have. " Your Lordship's to obey your honourable commands, " More settled than ever." ^ With all his faults Essex, was not wanting in generosity. We saw him above, assuring Sir Francis Allen that as long as he had ^ This letter is undated ; but as it speaks of " means " without any reference to Essex's munificent gift (spoken of below), I infer that it was written before that gift. The address, " It may please your good Lordship, " is more stiff and formal than is usual from Bacon to Essex. In the large coUeotion of Bacon's letters to Essex only (me hitherto (there is also one in ii. lOi) has this address, viz., the one in i. 351 (quoted above on p. 50) ; and of that letter Mr. Spedding justly says that " it was probably intended for the Queen to read." I cannot help feeling that this letter may also have been intended for the same purpose. The assurance of unalterable devotion to the Queen, the asseveration that he has no thought of being "popular," and the perfect good temper that pervades the letter, are all calculated to impress the Queen most favourably, if the letter were read to her by Essex. The charge of "popularity" is an old one. Cf. i. 2i0, "Whereas popularity hath been objected, 1 muse what care I should take to please many, that taketh a course of life to deal with few. ' ' 1594-5.] POLITICS OR PHILOSOPHY ? 55 two liouses, Frank should have one of them : and in the same generous spirit he now responds to the claims of Francis Bacon. As to the manner of the bestowal of the gift we have no trustworthy evidence; but this much is certain that Essex presented his disappointed friend with a piece of ground worth, at the time, eighteen hundred pounds or more, i.e. worth, in our money, between £7,000 and £9,000.^ During the period of Bacon's suit for of&ce his pen had been almost idle. He had composed a couple of political pamphlets, and two or three Devices. The pamphlets call for no special mention; but the Devices are noteworthy 'as exhibiting an apparent change in Bacon's attitude towards philosophy. He has described himself in an autobiographical passage as being, at one period of his life, " shaken by opinions," ^ and temporarily diverted from philosophy. Some .such diversion may, I think, be traced if we compare the treatment of philosophy by Bacon, first in his Conference of Pleasure in 1592, then in the Gesta Orayorum in 1594, and last in the Device on the Queen's Day in 1595. These works of Bacon are so little known that no apology is needed for giving ample extracts from them. The first passage represents Bacon, unused as yet to failure, triumphantly proclaiming the advent of a new philosophy that will carry all before it : — "The Praise of Knowledge. " Silence were the best celebration of that which I mean to commend ; for who would not use silence there where silence is not made, and what crier can make silence in such a noise and tumult of vain and popular opinions ? "My praise shall be dedicate to the mind itself. The mind is the man and knowledge mind ; a man is but what he knoweth. The mind itself is but an accident to knowledge, for knowledge is a double of that which is. The truth of being and the truth of knowing is all one. " Are not the pleasures of the afEections greater than the pleasures of the senses, and are not the pleasures of the intellect greater than the pleasures of the afEections ? Is not that only a true and natural pleasure whereof 1 The only evidence as to the oircimistances of the bestowal of this gift is found in Bacon's Apology ; and it will be shewn hereafter that the evidence of the Apology, where unsujiported by other testimony, must be accepted with great caution. ^ See above, p. 14. 5 6 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. V. there is no satiety ? Is not that I^nowledge alone that doth clear the mind of all perturbations ? How many things be there which we imagine are not ? How many things do we esteem and value more than they are ? These vain imaginations, these ill-proportioned estimations, these be the clouds of error that turn into the storms of perturbations. Is there then any such happiness as for a man's mind to be raised above the confusion of things, where he may have a respect of the order of nature and the error of men ? " Is there but a view only of delight and not of discovery ? Of content- ment and not of benefit? Shall we not discern as well the riches of nature's warehouse as the beauty of her shop ? Is truth barren ? Shall we not thereby be able to produce worthy effects and to endow the life of man with infinite commodities ? " But shall I make this garland to be put upon a wrong head ? Would any man believe me if I should verify this upon the knowledge that is now in use ? Are we the richer by one poor invention by reason of all the learning that hath been this many hundred years ? The industry of artificers maketh some small improvements of things invented, and chance sometimes in experimenting makes us stumble upon somewhat that is new. But all the disputations of the learned never brought to light one effect of nature before unknown. When things are known and found out, then they can descant upon them ; they can knit them into certain causes ; they can reduce them to their principles. If any instance of experience stand against them, they can range it in order by some distinctions. But all this is but a web of the wit : it can work nothing. " I do not doubt but that common notions which we call reason, and the knitting of them together, which we call logic or the art of reason, may have use in popular studies ; but they rather cast obscurity than give light to the contemplation of nature. AH the philosophy of nature which is now received is either the philosophy of the Grecians or tliat other of the Alchemists. That of the Grecians hath the foundation in words, in osten- tation, in confutation, in sects, in auditories, in schools, in disputations. The Grecians are, as one of them saith, "You Grecians ever children." They knew little antiquity. They knew (except fables) not much above 500 years before themselves. They knew but a small portion of the world. That of the Alchemists hath the foundation in imposture, in auricular traditions and obscurity. It was catching hold of religion, but the best principle of it is populus vult decipi : so as I know no great difference between these great philosophers, but that the one is a loud crying folly, the other a whispering folly : the one is gathered out of a few vulgar observations, and the other out of a few experiments of the furnace : the one never faileth to multiply words, and the other oft f aileth to multiply gold. " Who would not smile at Aristotle, when he admireth the eternity and invariableness of the heavens, as if tliere were not the like in the bowels of the earth. Tliey be the confines and borders of these two great 1594-5.] POLITICS OE PHILOSOPHY?. 57 kingdoms, where the continual alterations and incursions are. The super- ficies and upper part of the earth is full of variety, the superficies and lower part of the heavens, which we call the middle region of the air, is full of variety. There is much spirit in the one place which cannot be brought into mass, there is much massy body in the other place which cannot be refined into spirit : the common air is as the waste ground between the borders. " Who would not smile at astronomers, I mean not these new car-men which drive the earth about, but the ancient astronomers that feign the moon to be the swiftest of the planets in motion, and the rest in order, the higher the slower, and so are compelled to imagine a double motion ? Whereas how evident is it that that which they call a contrary motion is but an abatement of motion ! The fixed stars overgo Saturn, and Saturn leaveth behind him Jupiter, and so in them and the rest all is but one motion, and the nearer the earth the -slower. A motion also whereof the air and the water do participate though much interrupted. " But why do I in a conference of pleasure enter into these great matters in sortth^at, pretending to know much, I should know not season ? Pardon me, it was because almost all things may be indued and adorned with speeches, but knowledge itself is more beautiful than any apparel of words that can be put upon it. " And let me not seem arrogant without respect to these great reputed authors. Let me so give every man his due, as I give time his due, which is to discover truth. Manj' of these men had greater wits, far above mine own, and so are many in the universities of Europe at this day, But alas ! they learn nothing there but to believe ; first to believe that others know that which they know not, and after [that] themselves know that which they know not. But indeed facility to beheve, impatience to doubt, temerity to assever, glory to know, doubt to contradict, end to gain, sloth to search, seeking things in words, resting in a part of nature, these and the like have been the things which have forbidden the happy match between the mind of a man and the nature of things, and in place thereof have married it to vain notions and blind experiments. And what the posterity and issue of so honourable a match may be it is not hard to consider. " Printing, a gross invention ; artillery, a thing not far out of the way ; the needle, a thing partly known before ; what a change have these three made in the world in these times, the one in the state of learning, the other in the state of war, the third in the state of treasure, commodities and navigation ! And these were, as I say, but stumbled upon and lighted on by chance. " Therefore no doubt the sovereignty of man lieth hid in knowledge, wherein many things are reserved which kings with their treasure cannot buy, nor with their force command ; their spies and intelligencies can give no news of them : their seamen and discoverers cannot sail where they grow. Now we govern nature in opinions, but are thrall to her in 58 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. V. necessities. But if we would be led by ber [in] invention, we should command her in action." ^ The second eulogy of knowledge is couolied in humbler terms. It has less of the imperious, arrogant, and almost wiKuUy obscure and mystical, tone of the eulogist in the Conference of Pleasure. It is more practical, and while adhering to the in- ductive method, lays greater stress on the influence of wealth and power in furthering philosophic investigations : — "The Secokd Counsellor, advising the Study of Philosophy. " It may seem, most excellent Prince, that my Lord, which now hath spoken, did never read the just censures of the wisest men, who compared gi'eat conquerors to great rovers and witches, whose power is in destruction and not in preservation. Else would he never.have advised your Excellency to become as some comet or blazing star, which should threaten and portend nothing but death and dearth, combustions, and troubles of the world. And whereas the governing faculties of men are two, force and reason, whereof the one is brute and the other divine, he wisheth you for your principal ornament and regality, the talons of the eagle to catch the prey, and not the piercing sight which seeth into the bottom of the sea. But I contrariwise will wish unto your Highness the exercise of the best and purest part of the mind, and the most innocent and meriting conquest, being the conquest of the works of nature ; making this proposition, that you bend the excellency of your spirits to the searching out, inventing, and discovering of all whatsoever is hid and secret in the world ; that your Excellency be not as a lamp that shineth to others and yet seeth not itself, but as the Eye of the World, that both carrieth and useth light. "Antiquity, that presenteth unto us in dark visions the wisdom of former times, informeth us that the [governments of] kingdoms have always had an affinity with the secrets and mysteries of leaniing. Amongst the Persians, the kings were attended on by the Magi. The Q-ymnosophists had all the government under the princes of Asia ; and generally those kingdoms were accounted most happy that had rulers most addicted to philosophy. The Ptolemies in Egypt may be for instance ; and Salomon was a man so seen in the universality of nature that he wrote an herbal of all that was green upon the earth. No conquest of Julius Gsesar made him so remembered as the Calendar. Alexander the Great wrote to Aristotle upon the publishing of the Physics, that he esteemed more of excellent men in knowledge than in empire. " And to this purpose I will commend to your Highness four principal works and monuments of yourself. First, the collecting of a most perfect ' Mr. Spedding's edition of the Conference of Pleasure. Longmans, 1870. 1595.] POLITICS OE PHILOSOPHY? 59 and general library, wherein whatsoever the wit of man hath heretofore committed to books of worth, be they ancient or modern, printed or manuscript, European or of other parts, of one or other language, may be made contributory to your wisdom. Next, a spacious, wonderful garden, wherein whatsoever plant the sun of divers climates, out of the earth of divers moulds, either wild or by the culture of man, brought forth, may be with that care that appertaineth to the good prospering thereof, set and cherished ; this garden to be built about with rooms to stable in all rare beasts and. to cage in aU rare birds, with two lakes adjoining, the one of fresh water, the other of salt, for like variety of fishes. And so you may have in small compass a model of universal nature made private. The third, a goodly huge cabinet, wherein whatsoever the hand of man by exquisite art or engine hath made rare in stuff, form, or motion ; whatso- ever singularity, chance, and the shufSe of things hath produced ; whatsoever nature hath wrought in things that want hfe and may be kept, shall be sorted and included. The fourth, such a still-house, so furnished with mills, instruments, furnaces, and vessels as may be a palace fit for a philo- sopher's stone. Thus, when your Excellency shall have added depth of knowledge to the fineness of [your] spirits and greatness of your power, then indeed shall you be a Trismegistus, and then, when all other miracles and wonders shall cease, by reason that you shall have discovered their natural causes, yourself shall be left the only miracle and wonder of the world." The third eulogy differs greatly from the first two. It eulo- gizes contemplation rather than knowledge, and it is put into the mouth of a hermit, who is but one of three servants of Philautia, or Selfishness, seeking to decoy the Squire's Master, (Essex) from the love and service of the Queen. " The Hermit's Speech in the Phesence. " Though our ends be diverse, and therefore may be one more just than another, yet the complaint of this Squire is general, and therefore alike unjust against us all. Albeit he is angry that we offer ourselves to his master uncalled, and forgets we come not of ourselves, but as the mes- sengers of Self -Love, from whom all that comes should be well taken. He saith when we come we are importunate. If he mean that we err in form, we have that of his master, who, being a lover, useth no other form of soliciting. If he will charge us to err in matter, I for my part will presently prove that I persuade him to nothing but for his own good. For I wish him to leave turning over the book of fortune, which is but a play for children, where there be so many books of truth and knowledge better worthy the revolving ; and not fix his view only upon a picture in a little table, where there be so many tables of histories, yea to life, excellent to behold and admire. 60 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. V. "Whether he believe me or no, there is no prison to the prison of the thoughts, which are free under the greatest tyrants. Shall any man make his conceit as an anchor, mured up with the compass of one beauty or person, that may have the hberty of all contemplation ? Shall he exchange the sweet travelling through the universal variety for one wearisome and endless round or labyrinth ? Let thy master. Squire, offer his service to the Muses. It is long since they received any into their court. They give alms continually at their gate, that many come to live upon ; but few have they ever admitted into their palace. There shall he find secrets not dangerous to know, sides and parties not factious to hold, precepts and commandments not penal to disobey. " The gardens of love wherein he now playeth himself are fresh to-day and fading to-mon-ow, as the sun comforts them or is turned from them. But the gardens of the Muses keep the privilege of the golden age : they ever flourish and are in league with time. The monuments of wit survive the monuments of power ; the verses of a poet endure without a syllable lost, while states and empires pass many periods. Let him not think he shall descend, for he is now upon a hill as a ship is mounted upon the ridge of a wave ; but that hill of the Muses is above tempests, always clear and calm ; a hill of the goodliest discovery that man can have, being a prospect upon all the errors and wanderings of the present and former times. Yea, in some clifi (?) it leadeth the eye beyond the horizon of time, and giveth no obscure divinations of times to come. " So that if he will indeed lead vitam vitalem, a life that unites safety and dignity, pleasure and merit ; if he will win admiration without envy ; if he will be in the feast and not in the throng, in the light and not in the heat ; let him embrace the life of study and contemplation. And if he will accept of no other reason, yet because the gift of the Muses will enworthy him in his love, and where he now looks on his mistress's, outside with the eyes of sense, which are dazzled and amazed, he shall then behold her high perfections and heavenly mind with the eyes of judgment, which grow stronger by more nearly and more directly viewing such an object." Contrasted vpifh the first passionate Praise of Knowledge, written in 1592, the Praise of Contemplation, in 1595, seems cold indeed. The Hermit's speech is addressed to a Squire who is represented as being lured from the service of her Majesty by three different ministers of Philautia or Selfishness, the Hermit, the Soldier, and the Statesman. The Squire rejects them all. " You, Father, that pretend to truth and knowledge " — thus he addresses the Hermit — " how are you assured that you adore not vain chimeras and imaginations ? that in your high prospect, when you think men wander up and down, that they stand not indeed still in their place, and it is some smoke or cloud 1595.] POLITICS OB PHILOSOPHY ?' 61 tetween you and them •whicli moveth, or else the dazzling of your own eyes ? Have not many which take themselves to le inward counsellors with Nature proved hit idle believers, .that told us tales which were no such matter ? " ^ It is of course Essex, not Bacon, who is intended to speak through the Squire, and to assure the Queen that for her sake he renounces the works of Philautia, and will devote himself to her Majesty's service : but it is difficult to resist the conviction that in the contrast between the Device of 1592 and the Device of 1595, one may read a change in the mind of Bacon also. The vagueness of the prospects of philosophy seem at this time to have impressed him with new force, and to have been contrasted with the present and substantial realities of a life of action. I know no other period in Bacon's life to which we can point with more probability as being the time when he was " made to waver," as he tells us, and tempted to set science on one side. There was interest enough and variety enough in the study of the New Philosophy ; but who would guarantee that it should not prove a chase after mere phantoms ? " Attend," says the Squire to the Hermit, " attend you beadsman of the Muses, you take your pleasure in a wilderness of variety ; but it is hut of shadows." Where a man has two motives, the love of power and the love of knowledge, and these two conflicting, and now one, now the other uppermost, it must necessarily be impossible, without a great mass of evidence, to determine which motive from time to time prevails with him. If we are to believe Francis Bacon, power and wealth had always been in his mind subordinate to the interests of philosophy. He coveted office, — so we found him writing to Lord Burghley years ago — not for its own sake but because it would give him command of wits other than his own. To the same effect he expresses himself in the theories of his later years. "N"o man's fortune," he writes in the Advancement of Learning, " can be an end worthy of his being .... but nevertheless fortune as an organ of virtue and merit deserveth the consideration." ^ Elsewhere he blames " the tenderness and want of compliance in some of the most ancient and revered philosophers, who ' I. p. 383. 2 jf^orJcs, iii. 456. G2 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. V retired too easily from civil business that they might avoid indignities and ggrturbations, and live (as they thought) more saint-Like." ^ And again, " it is of no little importance to the dignity of literature that a man, naturally fitted rather for literature than for anything else, and borne by some destiny, against the inclination of his genius, into the business of active life, should have risen to such high and honourable appoint- ments." This then is Bacon's own explanation of his motives : he seeks knowledge first, he tells us (the highest kind of power), and power, i.e. place or office, second ; and he seeks power mainly as "a step to the attainment and diffusion of knowledge, but also as an " organ of virtue and merit " generally. Whether Bacon was not deceiving himself in this account of his own motives may very reasonably be questioned : but there seems little doubt that this self-deceit, if it was self-deceit, was as sincere as most of such convenient self-deceits usually are. It must always be very hard to determine where self-deceit ends and hypocrisy begins, and Bacon seems to have had more than ordinary powers of deceiving himself Let us admit that he came by degrees to admire and to seek power and wealth for their own sakes — ^yet the high tone of self-respect which he retained to the very last, indicates that, in his own estimation at all events, he was pursuing fortune throughout his life, only as " an organ of virtue and merit." Up to this point in his career he has done nothing greatly inconsistent with his professions of allegiance to truth first, and to power only as a means towards the attainment of truth. But now there'are symptoms that he is beginning to waver. The inde- pendent attitude which he had assumed towards the Crown had issued in consequences for. which he had been unprepared. The fiat of the Queen, or rather the refusal of her Jiat, had kept him in torture for three years. Such a power was not to be triiled with ; and it is not surprising if he conceived a new respect for it. " Four lagging winters and four wanton springs End in a word ; such is the breath of kings," — this is the exclamation of Bolingbroke musing on the delight- ful powers of monarchy. Very similar seems to have been the 1 JVorks, V, p. 10. 1594-5.] POLITICS OR PHILOSOPHY? 63 feeling of Bacon towards the high powers which had made him " tolerate the yoke in his youth." In comparison with so present and real a power what were the dreams of science ? How if the realm of philosophy, which he liad mapped out for himself in habitable and culturable provinces, turned out, as the Squire had predicted, nothing but " a wilderness of shadows ? " The conflict in Bacon's mind during this period is curiously illustrated by a Kttle collection — treatise it cannot be called — of extracts, proverbs, and thoughts jotted down by him in the Christmas vacation of 1594.^ Many of the extracts bear witness to his aversion to the practice of the law and to his love of philosophy, such as : — (1.) Vse vobis, juris periti ! (2.) Nee me verbosas leges ediscere, nee me Ingrato voces prostituisse fero. Others express his desire to return to his old philosophic life : — (1 .) Vitas me redde priori. (2.) I had rather know than be known. Others express his contempt for the existing standard of know- ledge : — (1.) In acr.demiis diseunt eredere. (2.) Vos adoratis quod neseitis. (3.) Vos, GriEei, semper pueri. (4.) Scientiam canimus inter perfectos. Others express his sense of the grandeur of his philosophic plans, and, at one time, the possibility of failure, at another time, the glorious completeness of the ultimate fulfilment : — (1.) Quern si non tenuit, magnis tamen exeidit ausis. (2.) Conamur tenues grandia. (3.) Aspiee venturo lastontur ut omnia saeelo. But others lastly — and these form a very large class — are simply forms and turns of words, smart repartees and retorts occasionally of a complimentary, but more often of an uncom- plimentary nature — such as in his note-book of 1608 he sys- tematically entitled " Disparagement." In some of these Bacon ' Wor^s, vii. 189. 64 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. V. deliberately writes down some good quality, such as, for example, the power of giving vividness to a discourse by the use of question and answer, and opposite each good quality he often jots down some disparaging description of it : — (1.) No wise speech, though easy and voluble. (2.) Notwitlistanding his dialogues {of one that giveth life to his speech by way of question). ■ (3.) He can tell a tale well (of those courtly gifts of speech which are better in describing than in considering). (4.) A good comediante (of one that hath good grace in his speech). It is impossible to read these forms of " disparagement," with- out being reminded that Francis Bacon had probably found recent occasion to use them. More than once we have found him urging his intimate friend Essex to remember the " exceptions " against his competitors, as when he begs him above to " drive in the nail for the Huddler." ^ But it is a terrible falling off that the man who wrote the Greatest Birth of Time in 1585 should think it right or seemly in 1594, not only to suffer his mind to rest on such petty tricks of the Art of the Architecture of Fortune (as he afterwards called it), but even to commit them to paper. " How can a man comprehend great matters," asks Bacon in the Essays, " that breaketh his mind to small observations ! " It is characteristic of Bacon that he apprehended most, not the moral, but the intellectual dangers, attendant on petty pursuits. But in reality the moral danger was the more imminent of the two. It was scarcely possible for Bacon to pursue the petty arts of Court-advancement without becoming morally callous. He has already lost the youthful indifference to wealth and power with which he had entered on Court-life when he was determined to be "like himself;" he has now begun to "frame." But will the " framing " be favourable to the moral development of the philosopher who is " born for the utility of mankind 1 " Is it possible to pursue office and power with so much passion, and to cultivate the arts of pushing and disparaging so assiduously, without ultimately forgetting that fortune is only worthy of consideration when it is " the organ of merit and virtue ? " That is a question which the further life of Bacon may perhaps help us to answer. ' i.e. Bacon's rival, Coke. See p. 41 above. CHAPTER VI. BACON HOLDS ALOOF FROM FACTION. In the spring of 1596 an offensive movement against Spain was decided on, and Essex was entrusted with the command of the land forces. Burghley, who was supposed to be against the expedition, was ill and out of favour with the Queen. " The old man," writes Standen to Anthony Bacon on the 13th March, " upon some fit would needs away against her wiU on Thursday last, saying her business was ended, and that he would for ten days go take physic. When she saw it booted not to stay him, she said he was a froward old fool." The expedition was suc- cessful, Cadiz was captured on the 21st June, and soon afterwards, rejecting the advice of Essex to wait for and intercept a home- ward-bound Spanish fleet, the English force returned laden with spoils. Shortly before the Earl's return. Sir Eobert Cecil (5th July) was sworn Secretary. Lady Anne Bacon expresses her dread of her nephew in his new position, and in a letter (July 10) ending with a postscript, " burn, burn in anywise," she warns her son to be more cautious, " now that Sir Eobert is fully stalled in his long longed-for Secretary's place." ^ The jealousy between the Essexian and the Cecilian faction seems to have run high at this time. Anthony, even in his correspondence with Lady Anne, calls Burghley " the old man ; " Perez calls Cecil " Eoberto il Diavolo." In a curious letter, couched in language intended to be unintelligible except to Essex, Lord Henry Howard exults that " the dromedary that would have won the favour of the Queen of Sabez is almost enraged," and with a pretty clear 1 Add. MS. 4128] 66. 66 BACON AND ESSEX. [Cuap. VI. reference to the Cecils, asks the Earl whether he cannot " drag out the old leviathan and his cub." ' On the 10th of August Essex, safe from perils of war and sea, lands at Plymouth, but not to enjoy the unmixed pleasures of a triumph. Not only is Cecil Secretary, but the Queen is dis- satisfied that the royal share of the booty is not greater. On August 18 he and the Lord Admiral have to attend the " gaol- delivery," as Essex calls it, that is, to give account of the prisoners and plunder. What with the dissatisfaction of the Queen, the discontent of his greedy followers, envious of each other's spoils, the curtailment of the campaign by the council of war, and his sense of general misappreciation, Essex is ready to cry " Vanity of vanities, all is vanity ! " So he writes to his friend Anthony, adding "however that against that quotation he opposes another, "That when God looked upon all His works. He saw that they were good. To this work therefore if I can but carry one brick or one trowel-fuU of mortar, I shall live happily and die contented." But about this time came news which changed the aspect of affairs at Court. The homeward-bound fleet from the Indies, which Essex had wished to intercept, sailed into the Tagus, it seems, within a day or two after the Earl's proposition had been overruled. This intelligence at once shifted the balance at Court in favour of Essex. The Earl's uncle. Sir William Enollys, is immediately appointed a member of the Privy Council, and also Comptroller. The Cecils at first appear to have attempted to resist the changing tide. On the 8th September Essex wrote to Anthony Bacon that the Lord Treasurer and Sir Eobert Cecil had been contesting with him before the Queen that he (Essex) is not to be excused for bringing no booty home. "This day," he says to Anthony, "I was more braved by your little cousin, tha'n ever I was by any man in my life." At the same time, according to Anthony Bacon's account, an attempt was made by the Cecils to detach him from the side of Essex. Lady Eussell, Anthony's aunt, and sister to the Lord Treasurer's wife, calls on Anthony and informs him that the Lord Treasurer has conceived a just displeasure at Anthony's ' Add. MS. 4121] 155. Dated l7th November, 1596. 1596.] BACON HOLDS ALOOF FROM FACTION. 67 estrangement from him.^ " I find my Lord Treasurer," she says, "unfeignedly very honourably and friendly disposed towards yourself, pitying himself of your estate and sickness, and sorrowing to hear that you have diminished what your father left you." But the aunt's charges resolve themselves to little more than this, that Anthony is carrying on a suspicious correspondence with Scotland, and that he is over meddlesome with foreign politics : " You are too well known and beloved in Scotland to be a true Englishman, and busy yourself with matters above your reach, as, foreign intelligences and entertainment of spies." Anthony answers that his foreign information has been welcomed by the principal men of the state, and that his conduct has been approved by the Queen. As to Sir Eobert Cecil, he accepts his cousin's enmity, declaring that Cecil, in Lady Anne's presence, had vowed that he held Anthony Bacon for his mortal enemy, and that he would make him (Anthony) feel it, when he could. In conclusion, Anthony expresses his hope " that the Lord Treasurer will neither find it strange nor amiss in him, if he (Anthony) continues his former honest course in giving no just cause to his Lordship's displeasure." binding the Earl too strong for them, the Cecils, if we may believe Anthony Bacon and Essex himself, set to work to devise some scheme for removing him from Court under pretext of foreign employment. As early as the beginning of August, Anthony writes to Essex that there is a plot laid to recoil his Lordship,^ and to keep him aloof by some new employment which, it was presumed, would be pleasing to him : " I most humbly beseech your Lordship to balance thoroughly in the depth of your wisdom the plausible offers which may be made unto you to prolong your absence." To the same effect Essex himself, on the 14th September, writes about himself, in the third person, to Antonio Perez. " ' He has returned.' say they, ' sunburnt, bearded, and devoted to business of state. He has made his friend and uncle Comptroller.and Privy Councillor. Then let him be banished under the appearance of giving him military command. Let Ireland be entrusted to him, an army assigned 1 Add. MS. 4,121, Lambeth, 659] 21. 2 Birch. I 2 68 ■ BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. VI. to him. If he will but depart, let him make his own conditions.' But he foresees their tricks, asks advice of the Queen, offers his services, but yet reveals to her Majesty with what intent his enemies thus burden him with praises, and would fain send him on that errand. The upshot is, he is retained at home ; and unless he is to go forth with a great navy, choosing his own companions in arms, and making his expedition on his own terms, he will remain at Court." ' There is little doubt that the fears and jealousies of the Essexian faction were, at least, exaggerated. Lord Burghley for his part, at all events, seems at this time to have done his utmost to conciliate Essex. We have his own testimony that he even advocated the Earl's right to profit from the ransoms of the Spanish prisoners, thereby bringing down on himself the wrath of the Queen. " I came from the Court," he writes to Essex (September 22), " with the burden of her Majesty's dis- pleasure, expressed with words of indignity, reproach, and rejecting of me as a miscreant and a coward, for that I would not assent unto her opinion that your Lordship ought [not] to have the profit of the prisoners." ^ The old statesman goes on to deplore, as he well might, his hard fate, in that he must either keep up the factious conflict against Essex, or else incur the jealous Queen's suspicions that he was conspiring for his own ends with the Earl against her interest. But so keen is party-strife that Anthony Bacon receives the news of the Lord Treasurer's humiliation with an outbreak of exultation : " Our Earl hath made the old Fox to crouch and whine." ^ The power of Essex was now at its zenith. He was, as he says to Perez, " given up to business," and he seemed to have gained at last the confidence as well as the "affection of the Queen. " The Queen," writes Anthony, " used the Earl most graciously, and will, no doubt, more and more, by God's good- ness, so long as he continues his Christian zealous course, which he hath begun since his return, not missing preaching or prayers in the Court, and shewing true noble kindness towards his virtuous spouse, entirely without any diversion." * Essex writes to Lord Henry Howard that he had never been so busy in his life. They had, at one and the same time, "to provide for the saving of Ireland, the contenting of France, the ' The original is in Latin. ° Lives of the Ea/rls of Essex, i. 389. 2 October 2. * Lives of the Earls of Essex, September 7. 1596.] BACON HOLDS ALOOF PROM FACTION. 69 "winning of the Low Countries to such conditions as they are far from." i Well might Ireland take the first place in Essex's anxieties. As early as January, 1596, the Lord Deputy had written to Essex that " he thought all the Irish in general were either in action or conspiracy, insomuch that the whole kingdom would be lost if it were not better supplied," and now (October 2) Anthony writBS that the Spaniards have effected a landing on the Irish coast. All the influence of Essex's friends was now needed to restrain the Earl from taking upon himself the command in Ireland. Esssex was acknowledged (on insufficient grounds no doubt) to be the ablest general in England, and Ireland was the post where England's ablest general was just then most needed ; but all this seemed to the friends of Essex as nothing in com- parison with the paramount necessity of remaining in the eyes of the Queen, so as not to give his enemies an opportunity of gaining the upper hand during his absence. We have just read Anthony Bacon's warning. To this Antonio Perez adds his remonstrances, " Trust not their conditions. Your enemies will grant you everything, provided they can get rid of you from Court." It is at this crisis that Francis Bacon appears for the first time in the character of a counsellor to Essex. From 1593 to 1596 the letters of Bacon to Essex solely concerned Bacon's interests, not Essex;'s. It is probable that there may have passed other letters of advice ; but, if so, they have not been pre- served. Now, in October, 1596, Bacon is proved for the first time on undoubted evidence to have written to Essex, not on his own, but on the Earl's concerns. The letter is a most im- portant one. But before considering it, we must return to Bacon's affairs for a moment, and briefly give the substance of his previous correspondence with Essex during the earlier part of the year 1596. On the 30th April, 1596, the sudden death of Lord Keeper Puckering, followed by the immediate appointment of Egerton, Master of the Eolls, to be Lord Keeper, made the Mastership of the Eolls vacant, and thus once more suggested to Francis Bacon hopes of advancement. But, taught by bitter experience, 1 October 7. 70 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. VI. "he does not now apply to the Earl of Essex for his support. Had he done so, he would have brought on himself a repetition of his previous failure, and would have a second time come into collision with the Cecils. He therefore leaves Essex to his brother Anthony ;' and, as though for the purpose of being able to assure the Cecils that he had had no communication with Essex on the subject of the Mastership of the Rolls, he does not say a word about it, even when he writes to the Earl imme- diately after Puckering's death. All that he asks Essex to do (the Earl was then at Plymouth very busy, preparing for his Spanish expedition) is to write for him to Egerton, commending him to the newly-appointed Lord Keeper. But this letter to Essex was inclosed in a letter of Anthony's, in which the latter mentions the vacancy, enlarges on the fitness of Francis for the vacant post, and begs the Earl to write in his brother's favour to Egerton and Sir John Fortescue, but to say nothing about the matter to the Cecils. Clearly Francis Bacon intends to have all the advantage of Essex's sujpport, without any of the disadvantage of appearing to have ashed for it. Less than ten days after his own letter to the Earl had been written, Francis writes to his brother with some appearance of impa- tience, " I hear nothing from my Lord of Essex." But a few days after, Essex makes ample amends for any apparent remissness. Three open letters, to Egerton, to Sir John Fortescue, and also to Lord Buckhurst, are inclosed in the following letter to Anthony : — "To Anthony Bacon. " SlE,— " I send you three letters, to my Lord Keeper, my Lord of Buckhurst, and my cousin Fortescue. They are all open, because you may read them ; and when you have done with them, Eeynolds shall both seal and deliver them. If you knew what a pUrgatory it were to govern this unwieldy body, and to keep these sharp humours from distempering the whole body, you would rather free me from writing than challenge my short writing. I wish to you as to myself) and rest for ever " Your true friend, " Essex." ' A letter of Essex, July, 1596 (Birch), illustrates the confidence placed by Essex in Anthony. "When I say that this is only for your eyes, I exclude all men but Mr. Anthony Bacon, who in all these things is to me as the hani with which I write this." The letter is written to the Earl's Secrotnry, Rpynolds. 1596.] BACON HOLDS ALOOF FROM FACTION. 71 To Francis Bacon Essex writes by the same messenger. With the greatest delicacy, he says not one word of the vacant office for which Bacon is indirectly begging his support. The difficulties of managing a mixed military force constitute the main subject of his letter, and he merely adds in conclusion, " But, though these be warrants for my seldom writing, yet they shall be no excuses for my fainting industry. I have written to my Lord Keeper and some other friends to have care of you in my absence. And so, commending you to God's happy and heavenly protection," &c. On ' receiving these letters Francis Bacon and Anthony begin their campaign, and Francis gives directions how the letters are to be used. After a tribute to the Earl's kindness-^" You may perceive my lord's good affection and care, being surcharged with business, to write and write so many letters," — Francis comes to business. Egerton being a friend, there was no special need that he should be cozened : " My desire is the letter to my Lord Keeper should simply be delivered by one of your men." But against Fortescue's suspicions special precautions must be taken, and here Francis Bacon does not scruple to instruct his brother to " feign." ' The letter to Sir John Fortescue is to be " accompanied with soine few words of your own, taking know- ledge of the contents, and that it is a thing carried, wholly without my knowledge, hetween my Lord and yourself." As for the letter to Lord Buckhurst, Francis deems it unsafe to send it until his chances appear to be improving : but it will be useful to keep it in order to shew Lord Buckhurst at some future time — should his chances improve — how modest he (Francis) had been, and how loth to trouble his Lordship with importunities.^ If Bacon instructs his brother to " feign," he himself, in his letter to Fortescue, is not backward in " feign- inCT," or perhaps rather — as Bacon would himself have expressed it — in dissembling. For a few days afterwards, when Fortescue speaks to him of Essex and his letters, " I seemed," says Francis 1 In tlie Essays "feigning" is only allowed where there is "no remedy." " The test composition and temperature is to have openness in fame and opinion ; secrecy in habit ; dissimulation in seasonable use ; and a power to feign, if there be no remedy."— Essays, vi. 110. '^ " The letter to Lord Buckhurst would be stayed and kept by us to the end, if need be, I may take occasion to shew his Lordship what my Lord infeided and what I detained, if the matter grow to any life. " 72 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. VI. to Anthony, " to make it but a love-wish, and passed presently from it, the rather because it was late in the night, and I mean to deal with him at some better leisure after another manner, as you shall hereafter understand from me."^ In the same letter he informs his brother with evident pleasure that he is gaining reputation at Court : " I do find in the speech of some ladies and the very face of this Court some addition of reputation, as methinks to us both; and I doubt not but God hath an opera- tion in it that will not suffer good endeavours to perish. The Queen saluted me to-day as she went to Chapel." Bacon's guarded behaviour towards Fortescue may perhaps be explained by some previous conversation between the two. It has been mentioned above that Essex was at this time carrying on a correspondence with the King of Scotland. Both he and Anthony Bacon appear to have believed that in doing this, and in attempting to keep up friendly relations between Scotland and England, so as to facilitate James's ultimate succession, and to exclude the blaims of Spain, they were doing a service to the English nation.^ N"ow on the departure of Essex for Spain Anthony recommended the Earl's cousin, Fortescue, as the fittest person to receive letters from Scotland addressed to Essex. But Fortescue very decidedly refused to undertake this responsibility. Writing to Anthony on the 16th April, he says, " The dealing with that Priace (James), standing to her Majesty in so dainty, terms, and the suspicious conceit her Majesty hath of his titulary hopes, maketh, yea, rather forbiddeth and forewarneth me to have no commerce where my loyalty may receive blemish. And therefore / made hold to deliver mine opinion to your brother, advising you to make known [to her Majesty] that you would not entertain anything that should not have her Majesty's good allowance."^ After this warning it would obviously be useful to Francis Bacon to give Sir John Fortescue the impression that a great deal might pass between Anthony and Essex pf which he (Francis) knew nothing. In this way not only would Francis be thought ignorant of the Earl's recommendation of him for the 1 II. 37. 2 Anthony speaks in strong tenns of the conduct of those English statesmen who took a pleasure in creating difficulties and misunderstandings between the English and the Scotch Courts, 8 Birch. 1090.] BACON HOLDS ALOOF FROM FACTION. 73 Mastership of the Eolls, but he might also be supposed to know nothing of any Scotch negotiations which might hereafter provoke the Queen's suspicion or anger. But we may now return to Bacon's first letter of advice to Essex. However he might think it desirable to hold aloof from the Cecilian and Essexian factions during his attempt to gain the Mastership of the Eolls, there is no doubt that Bacon remained on the most friendly terms with Essex, and wished well towards him. The letter written by him to the Earl in October, 1596, proves that he had made Essex's disposition and circum- stances a matter of anxious study, and that he had carefully pondered the advice he gave. The misfortune is that much of the advice, though kindly intended by Francis Bacon, was fit only for a dissembler and hypocrite, and peculiarly unfit for a man who could not pocket affronts like my Lord of Leicester, but always wore his feelings on his forehead.^ The tenour of the letter is this, that every other duty of life must be subordinated to winning the Queen. "I said to your Lordship, last time, Martha, Martha, attendis ad plurima, unum sufficit ; win the Queen." Essex must give up his passion for military pursuits, for it excites the Queen's suspicion, " and is it not more evident than demonstration itself, that whilst this impression continueth in her Majesty's breast, you can find no other condition than inventions to keep your estate bare and low ; crossing and disgracing your actions, extenu ating and blasting of your merit ; carping with contempt at your nature and fashions ; breeding, nourishing, and fortifying such instruments as are most factious against you ; repulses and scorns of your friends and dependents that are true and stedfast ; winning and inveigling away .from you such as are ilexible and wavering ; thrusting you into odious employ- ments and offices, to supplant your reputation ; abusing you, and feeding you with dalHancies and demonstrations, to divert you from descending into the serious consideration of your own case ; yea, and per case venturing in perilous and desperate enterprises." ^ What then is to be done ? "I wish," continues the counsellor, " a cure applied to every one of the five former impressions, which I wiU take, not in order, but as I think they are of weight." First comes the impression that the Earl is " opiniastre and ' "Amorem et odium semper in frontegessit." This was said of him by Cuffe, his private secretary, "Wotton's Reliquiae, &c. p. 197. ^ IL 41. 74 - BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. VI. not rulable." This is to be removed by the following means. ■ Instead of shunning and expressing distaste for the examples of previous favourites, such as Leicester and Hatton, Essex is to allege them, as often as he finds occasion, for authors and patterns. When he compliments the Queen in speeches he is not to do it so that a man may read formahty in his countenance, but familiarly et oratine fida. Lastly : " Your Lordship should never be without some particulars afoot, which you should seem to pursue with earnestness, and affection, and then let them fall, upon taking knowledge of her Majesty's opposition, and disUlce." The next impression to ib.e removed is "that of a militar dependence." Essex is to give up wars for a time at all events. " Tou have property good enough in that greatness. There is none can, of many years, ascend near yoil in that competition. Besides, the disposing of the places and^ffairs both concerning the wars (you increasing in other greatness) will of themselves flow to you, which will preserve that dependence in full measure. It is a thing that of all things I would have you retain, the times considered, and the necessity of the service ; for other reason know I none. But I say, keep it in suhstanpe, hut abolish it in shows to the Queen." In order to divert her Majesty from this "impression of a martial greatness," Essex is to try, not for the Earl Marshal's place, nor for that of Master of Ordnance, but for the place of Lord Privy Seal. He is also to be diligent in attendance at the Star Chamber, to keep up foreign correspondence, and to " pretend to be as bookish and contemplative as ever he was." Most important of all is : " The bringing in of some martial man to be of the Council ; dealing directly with her Majesty in it, as for her service and your better assistance ; choosing nevertheless some person that may be known not to come in against you by any former division. . . And if your Lordship see dceplier into it than I do, that you would not have it done in efEect ; yet, in my opinion, you may serve your turn by the pretence of it, and stay it The third impression is "of a popular reputation." Five years after the date of this letter, when Essex had been be- headed, and Bacon was employed by the Court as a scribe to 1596.] BACON HOLDS ALOOF FROM FACTION. 75 draw up the naixative of his friend's treasons, he enlarged upon : — " Those points of popularity, which every man took notice and note of, as his afEable gestures, open doors, making his table and his bed so popu- larly places of audience to suitors, denying nothing when he did nothing, feeding many men in their discontentments against the Queen and the State." So writes Bacon the Scribe, in 1601, and he adds that these " were either the qualities of a nature disposed to disloyalty, or the beginnings and conceptions of that which afterwards grew to shape and form," and that Essex " had long ago plotted to become a dangerous supplanter " of the English Constitution.^ But in 1596 Bacon's eyes, it would seem, had not yet been opened to his friend's deep schemes, and he writes as follows : — " The third impression is of a popular reputation which (because it is a thing good in itself) being obtained as your Lordship obtaineth it, that is honis artihus ; and besides, well governed, is one of the best flowers of your greatness both present and to come) it would be handled tenderly. The only way is to quench it verbis and not rehis ; and therefore to take all occasions to the Queen to speak against popularity and popular ■causes vehemently, and to tax it in all others, but nevertheless to go on in your honourable commonwealth courses as you do." The fourth and fifth " impressions " are^ that Essex is careless in money matters, and that he takes advantage of his position as favourite. These are to be remedied, the former by increased prudence, and by changing some of his servants ; the latter by introducing to the Queen some other favourite who shall be at his (Essex's) devotion. No one will deny that there is much shrewdness in all this advice; and if Essex had been exhorted, for the sake of the national interests, to avoid exciting the Queen's suspicions, to de- cline all military employment that was not imposed upon him by the necessities of the country, to restrain his passionate temper, to moderate his jealousies, and to subordinate to the honour of England his own ambitious craving for personal distinction, we should have called such advice not only shrewd, but wise, honourable, and righteous. But the mischief is, that the greater part of Bacon's advice is based on nothing but ' See the Declaration, pp. 2, ?, in the Appendix to this volume. 76 ' BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. VI. selfishness, and presupposes in Essex a power of continuous dissimulation which he did not possess. The reason why Essex is to give up military pursuits is not because the country requires the sacrifice, but because the Queen is suspicious of military greatness, and because Essex has already made a sufficient military reputation. It might have been predicted with safety that Essex would not and could not (if he would) continuously act upon his friend's subtle policy of dissimulation, He could be impulsively, but not deliberately selfish. He abominated in his nobler moments that policy of Philautia, which Bacon had so skilfully satirized for him in the Device of 1595. In effect Bacon was now recommending him to adopt that very life of selfishness which he had then himself condemned. The "hollow States- man " who was reprobated by the honest Squire in that Device gives just the advice that Bacon now offers to Essex. " But, if he will believe Philautia, and seek most his own happiness, he must. . . . avoid all matter of peril, displeasure, and charge, and turn them over to some novices that know not manacles from bracelets, nor burdens from robes, For himself, let him set for matters of commodity and strength, though they be joined with envy. Let him not trouble himself too laboriously to sound into any matter too deeply, or to execute anything exactly ; but let him make himself cunning rather in the humours and drifts of persons than in the nature of business and affairs. . . . Let him entertain the propositions of others, and- ever rather let him have an eye to the circumstances than to the matter itself. . , . Let him be true to himself and avoid all tedious reaches of state that are not pertinent to his particular. . . . The merit of war is too outwardlj^ glorious to be inwardly grateful, and it is the exile of his eye, which, looking with such affection upon the picture, cannot but with infinite contentment behold the life." ^ To Bacon's advice Essex might reply, out of Bacon's own mouth, iu the words of the honest Squire : — "Corrupt statesman, you that think by your engines and motions to govern the wheel of fortune ; do you not mark that clocks cannot be long in temper, that jugglers are no longer in request when their tricks and sleights are once perceived ? Nay, do you not see that never any man made his own cunning and practice (without religion, honour, and moral honesty) liis foundation, but he overbuilt himself, and in the end made his house a windfall ? " 2 Eeserving for a future occasion the question of the influence exerted by Bacon's advice on the conduct of Essex, let us 1 I. rp, 382-3. a Ibid. p. 884. 1596.] BACON HOLDS ALOOF FROM FACTION. 77 conclude our account of the year 1596 with a short notice of Bacon's literary occupations at this time. It is probable that during the autumn of this year he was preparing for the press the first edition of the work by which he is most widely known, the Essays. They were published in January, 1597.^ One of Bacon's objects in publishing them was, perhaps, to create the impression that he had bidden adieu to ambition, and was purposing to devote himself to a life of study. At all events, he avows in his Dedication the same preference for a contemplative life at which he had hinted in the letter to Essex in which he describes himself as " a common." " I sometimes wish," he writes to his invalid brother, " your infirmities trans- lated upon myself, that her Majesty mought have the service of so active and able a mind, and I mought be with excuse confined to these contemplations and studies for which I am fittest." ^ It is interesting to note the titles of these Essays. They are all such as might naturally have been suggested by the events of his own life — Study, Discourse, Ceremonies and Eespects, Followers and Friends, Suitors, Expence, Eegiment of Health, Honour and Eeputation, Faction, Negociating. They do not exhibit, or pretend to exhibit, a high morality. They are a manual of the Art of Getting on, or, as Bacon afterwards called it, the Architecture of Fortune. In one or two respects the moral standard of the Essays seems below that of some of Bacon's other works. He had told Lady Burghley long ago that he intended to be " like himself ; " but now, in the Essay on Ceremonies and Eespects, he tells us that " he that is only real had need have exceeding great parts of virtue." ^ He tells us in the Apology that he applied himself to Essex, because he considered Essex the fittest instrument to do good to the state, and his letters are profuse in professions of attachment to Essex : but in the Essays he is cynical in the plain straightforwardness ' Tke date of tlie " Epistle Dedicatory " is 30 January, 1597. As the civil year then ended on the 24th March, this date wonid be our 30 January, 1598. But it is probable that the publishers preferred to use the " historical " year, which began on the 1st Januaiy. See, for a (probably) similar instance. Professor Craik's conjecture as to the date of Spencer's DopAjMsicJa, Spencer's Poetical Works, Globe Edition, p. xliii. ^ Works, vi. 524. 5 Compare also the Advancement of Learning, ii. xxiii. 33. "These grave and solemn wits which mvst be like themselves and cannot make departures, have more dignity than felicity." 78 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. VI. of his assertion that " there is little friendship in the world .... That which is, is between superior and inferior, whose fortunes may comprehend the one the other." But the sentence that will most of all help us to understand Bacon's conduct in 1596 is one in the Essay on Faction, " Mean men must adhere,^ hut great men that have strength in themselves were better to maintain themselves indifferent and neutral. Yet even in beginners to adhere so moderately as he he a man of the one faction, which is passahlest with the other, commonly giveth best way." This appears to give us the key to Bacon's course of action in this and in the following years. He had tried " adhering," and it had not answered. Now he intended to try a different course. He would either be neutral, or " adhere " to Essex in such a way as not to forfeit the favour of the Cecils. It is creditable to Bacon's judgment that he should have resolved on this course as, early as 1596, when Essex was in the zenith of his power. But the event justified his decision. Whatever course he might take, he was sure of the affection of Essex, Not only could he com- mand the Earl through his brother Anthony, but Essex was drawn irresistibly towards him, whether by fascination or by choice.^ Being therefore certain of Essex, but not certain of the Cecils, he was obviously acting wisely— at least with a view to the architecture of his fortune^-in appearing outwardly to decline any active support from the Earl, and in making as little shew of adherence to him as possible. It was probably with this view -that he dedicated the first edition of his Essays, not to Essex, but to his brother Anthony. The third edition of the Essays he dedicated to the Duke of Buckingham ; the second he dedicated at first to the Prince of Wales, and only dedicated it to Constable afterwards because of the Prince's unexpected death : why then did he not dedicate the first to Essex? Because of the insignificance of the volume ? It is not like Francis Bacon to shrink from dedicating small volumes to great names. The Wisdom of the Ancients he dedicates to the University of Cambridge and Lord Salisbury. The Advancement of Learning he dedicates to the King. ' I quote of course from the edition of 1697. See my editioa of the Essays, yol. il. p. 75. The later editions insert the words " in their rising." 2 II. 192. 1596.] BACON HOLDS ALOOF FEOM FACTION. 79 Moreover we must remember tliat along with the Essays were published the Eeligious Meditations and Colours of Good and Evil — so that the volume would not have been so very insignifi- cant. Be the reason for Bacon's dedication to Anthony what it may, thus much is certain, that Anthony himself did not think the volume unworthy of the Earl's acceptance ; and in a very significant letter he re-dedicates it to Essex. " My siNGnLAR GOOD LOED, — I am bold, and yet out of a most entire and dutiful love (wherein my germain brother and myself stand infinitely bound unto your Lordship) to present unto you the first right and taste of such fruit as my brother was constrained to gather, as be professeth himself, before they were ripe, to prevent stealing ; and withal most humbly to beseech your Lordship that, as my brother, in token of a mutual firm brotherly affection, hath bestowed by dedication the property of them upon myself, so your Lordship, to whose disposition and commandment I have entirely and inviolably vowed my poor self, and whatever apper- taineth unto me, either in possession or right^^that your Lordship, I say, in your noble and singular kindness towards us both, will vouchsafe first to give me leave to transfer my interest unto your Lordship, then humbly to crave your honourable acceptance and trustworthy protection. And so I most humbly take my leave." ' 1 Works, vi. 521. Docketed 8th February. CHAPTEE VII. bacon's money matters. We have seen that Trott, the kind and brotherly creditor of the two Bacons, was disappointed in January, 1595, of the expecta- tion of succeeding to Bacon's reversion; and when he found Francis Bacon unsuccessful in his suit for the Solicitorship, he became alarmed for his money. To compensate him for his dis- appointment the two brothers appear in April, 1595, to have supported him in a suit for the Clerkship of the Council of the North. But in June the Cecilian faction, up in the North, petitions Lord Burghley against Trott, alleging that Trott is favoured by the Earl of Essex,^ and by the Cecilian candidate Trott is accordingly beaten.^ Thus cast adrift a second time, poor Trott becomes more anxious than ever. He has been, it would seem, not so much Bacon's creditor as Bacon's agent, borrowing money from others, and in particular from his own brother, to lend it to Bacon ; and he now wants some security that all this money will be repaid. This not unnatural desire on the part of Trott causes a certain coldness between him and Francis. "If," writes Trott to Anthony, "this cloud between your brother and me clear or be overblown by honesty (which I despair not of, and so much less if you shaU deal effectually with him and satisfy me, that require nothing but mine own, and that in some time, so I be competently assured), both this mortgage may be prolonged for a year or more, and I may return to that confidence and readiness wherewith I have always served you."^ A few days ^ S. P. 0. Domestic, June 6, 1595. ' Murdin's Burghley Papers, p. 807. 8^ Lambeth MSS. 6.52], HI. 1595-7.] BACON'S MONEY MATTERS. 81 afterwards Trott, importuned by tlie brother from whom he has borrowed money for Francis, again implores Anthony to have consideration for his credit, " With which all the means I have, and all the state of my poor friends, hath been employed and adventured for you and at your entreaty."^ In the following year, 1596, a new friend appears to relieve the monetary distress of the two brothers. This is a cousin of theirs, Mr. Eobert Bacon by name. Mr. Eobert has a cause pending in Chancery, relating to some wards of his, in which cause the intercession of his influential cousins may be useful. On the other hand he has a certain office, the proiits of which he can make over to the two cousins in return for their services. On the 1st August, 1596, he makes over to them the profts and receipts of the Office of the Fleet, amounting to £600 a year.^ A few days before the date of this document, Anthony tries (22nd July) to rouse Francis to a sense of what is owing to their cousin Eobert in return for his kindness. But finding that Francis has done nothing, Anthony writes again : — " Good Beothbe, — Having understood by my cousin, Robert Bacon, that lie had seen you this morning, I thought verily you and he had been at a point ; till, asking of him whether you were both satisfied, he answered that the matter of the bond was not spoken of, and persisteth still in demanding the same of us, protesting that otherwise he shaU be utterly unsatisfied. Whereof I thought meet to certify you. Also that Mr. Trott was with me this morning marvellously discontented, usque ad lacrymas, charging me very deeply to have been cause sine qud non he fell into the labyrinth of encumbers with you, and therefore challenging my earnest and effectual mediation of sufficient assurance of his speedy satisfaction ; which if you deny him further, I find him resolved to a desperate course unseemly and inconvenient for you both." ^ But once more Francis is too busy to heed this second remon- strance, and Anthony has to step forward and do his brother's work. " I will not forget," he writes to Eobert Bacon, on the 22nd September, 1596, to do my part, which my brother, belike by reason of his strangeness with my Lord Treasurer and my Lady Eussell, or of his sickness, or of his daily state-business and foreign despatches, hath let softly slide from himself upon me." 1 im. 642] 69. Add. MSS. 4114, 28tli October, 1595. 2 Add. MSS. 4120] 140. 3 Endorsed 7th December, 1596. Add. MSS. 4122] 186. 82 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. VII. It is possible, no doubt, that Prancis may have been prevented by a feeling of just pride from interfering with the course of law by recommending his cousin, Eobert Bacon, to the Lord Treasurer. But that is hardly likely. Bacon does not scruple to recommend, on other occasions, friends who have cases pend- ing.i "We shall also hereafter find him not deterred apparently by such scruples when his own interests are at stake.^ More- over, it seems clear that he participated with Anthony in the benefit of some transaction of Eobert's on the condition of doing something which "he now declined or neglected to perform. Trott is satisfied in the same way as Eobert Bacon. Prancis being unable or unwilling to do anything, Anthony has to do his brother's work. From the tone of the following letter it seems clear that Anthony, though kind and affectionate as usual, has done some service for his younger brother, which he feels that the latter ought not to have required : — " Good Bbdtheb, — What I wish and wouH effectuate as a brother and a friend betwixt you and Mr. Trott I mean not to profess, but leave to yourself and him to believe. But how far my endeavour prevaileth with him I think necessary you should know. Upon the hour of supper, after he had read my respective answer to his passionate letter, he came unto me, and after some acknowledgment and protestation from me in mine own behalf, accompanied with a triie declaration of my grief if this breach should grow any wider betwixt you, he with some earnestness offered, very respectively, lirst to send me to-morrow the last points of intended agree- ment, then to accept my covenant for the performance of whatsoever should he now concluded. Which, as I took thankfully, so referred I my resolution tiU I had spoken and conferred with you. And so I wish you good rest." ^ That what Anthony had done for Francis was ia some way a " burdening of himself," is proved by an extract from a letter of his to his cousin Eobert Bacon. Eobert, it seems, had warned Anthony that he was in danger of entangling himself in some pecuniary difficulty for the sake of Francis, and the following reply from Anthony to Eobert proves that the warning had been verified : — " What hath passed betwixt my brother and him (Trott) I doubt not but you have partly understood from himself, and therefore I will only 1 See i, 315. « See p. 87, below. 3 The letter is endorsed 7th December, 1596. Add. MSS. 4122] 186. 1595-7.] BACON'S MONEY MATTERS. 33 signify one particularity unto you, which is, that according to your fore- warning, or rather fore-telling, it hath pleased God to make me an unprofitable, so happy, person, as, hy a hurihening myself in brotherly hindness and friendly respect, to ease and content a brother and a friend." 1 It is but fair to add that Francis Bacon appears at this time to have heen encumbered with debt on all sides. In the March of this same year 1596 he has to part with an estate in Woolwich, and on the sudden withdrawal of the buyer, he has to apply for a loan to Maynard and Hicks, the private secretaries of Burghley. When the estate is sold for " sixteen hundred and odd pounds," Francis Bacon finds himself still unable to pay poor Trott more than £300." Anthony, for his part, is no less busy in alienating his estates. But without entering into further details, we may say that the impression left on the reader of the correspond- ence of the two brothers is, that on the one hand Anthony Bacon truly described himself to his brother as being " by an imperfection of nature, not only careless of myself, but incapable of what is best for myself," while on the other hand, Francis Bacon, whatever may be his other imperfections, has not to blame himself for this. During the spring of 1597, Bacon made more than one effort to improve his fortunes. In three or four letters,^ written probably during the early part of this year, he appeals for help to Lord Burghley, Sir John Stanhope, and Essex, for the obtain- ing of some place mysteriously hinted at. In the first letter to Burghley he says, " Had I that in possession which by your Lordship's only means, against the greatest opposition, her Majesty granted me, I would never trouble her Majesty, but serve her still voluntarily without pay." Bacon is here speaking of his reversion to the Clerkship of the Star Chamber. The of&ce was still held by MiU ; but owing to some misconduct, or charges of misconduct. Mill's tenure, may have been at this time insecure. We know that in June, 1595, Mill's office was threatened ; and the Lord Keeper gave Bacon then to understand that there was a prospect that Mill's mis- feasance might at once vacate the office for Bacon. But at that time Bacon was a candidate for the Solicitorship, and looked at 1 Add. MSS. 19th December, 1596. = See ii. 28 ; iii. 42. ' II. pp. 49-52. G 2 84 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. VII. this mention of the Clerkship as an attempt to divert him from his higher ambition. He therefore replied to the Lord Keeper — " As I never liked so much as the coming in upon a lease by- way of forfeiture, so I am so much enemy to myself as I take no contentment in any such hope of advantage. For, as your Lordship can give me best testimony that I never in my life propounded any such-like motive, though I have been incited thereto; so yet the world will hardly believe but that it is underhand quickened and nourished from me."^ Now however, Bacon was doubtful about the attainment of any of&ce ; and it was natural that, after two years of unsuccess- ful suing, he should be willing to take the valuable Clerkship of the Star Chamber, even upon the condition that he should apply for no further office. In the present changed circumstances, "therefore, the danger lest the world should believe that MUl's expulsion from office was " underhand quickened " by Bacon, would appear not to have assumed its once formidable aspect. If office could not be obtained, and in case the Clerkship should not be vacated, a wealthy marriage might extricate Bacon irom his debts ; and the death of Sir William Hatton on the 12th March, 1597, left a young and wealthy widow who might answer this purpose. Less than three months after the death of her husband, Bacon begs Essex to use his influence with the widow's friends in Bacon's favour. " I brake with your Lordship myself at the Tower, and I take it my brother hath since renewed the same motion, touching a fortune I was in thought to attempt in genere ceconomico. In genere politico certain cross winds have blown contrary. My suit to your Lordship is for your several letters to be left with me dormant, to the gentlewoman and either of her parents." Essex was at this time busj' preparing for the Island voyage : but he finds time to write a letter for Francis Bacon: "Jf she were my sister or daughter, I' protest I could as confidently resolve myself to further it as now I persuade you." ^ The marriage scheme having come to nothing. Bacon recurs once more to his reversionary office of Clerk of the Star Chamber. In the summer (3rd July) of 1597, the present ' I. 364. ' Birch, ii. 347, 24th June, 1597. 1595-7.] BACON'S MONEY MATTERS. 85 Clerk (Mill) had petitioned Egerton concerning his fees, which had been restrained by the Lord Keeper. Bacon, whose interest it of course was to sustain the fees and value of his reversionary ofi&ce, supported Mill in a second petition, docketed 5th July. But while it was Bacon's interest that the fees of the office should be maintained, it was not his interest that Mill should retain the office. It is true that some time ago he had received offers for his reversion ; but if he had parted with it, he had now regained it, as we know from correspondence about this date.^ Accordingly Bacon, in a private note to the Lord Keeper, suggests the possibility that he may come into the reversion at once by MUl's expulsion, and declares that, if this should hap- pen, he is quite willing to swrrender Ms reversion to Mr. John Egerton (a son of the Lord Keeper) provided that JEgeHon will do his lest to obtain the Mastership of the Rolls for Bacon. " I will present your Lordship with the fairest flower of my estate, though it yet bear no fruit ; and that is the poor reversion which, of her Majesty's gift, I hold ; in tlie which I phall be no less willing, Mr. John Egerton, if it seeui good to you, should succeed me, than I would be willing to succeed your Lordship in that other place." Considering tljat the question of restraining Mill's fees rested with Egerton, and that his decisioji must have great weight in determining whether Mill should or should not retain his office^ the above offey of ^rancis Bacon appears indelicate, if nothing more. But his subsequent remarks upon Mill — whom he had recently supported in his petition of July — appear open to still graver objection, ' Early in August Trott writes to Anthony declaring that, though he has borrowed money from ?,11 his friend? to oblige the two brothers, now Francis has not only iDroken the understanding touching the reversion, but requires abate- ments. In a letter of the 7th August, he speaks of the reversion as in Bactin's power. " I will be sworn and make it ajjpear I am not worth of mine own ^500. I have been forced by your brother's default to pay for him above £600, for interest to my mother and others, which is more by £100 than I am worth. If you either doubt or deny anything hereof that lieth for me to prove, I can make due proof of it. If he agree the truth of the case, let us, before suit, refer it to my Lord Keeper to determine as arbitrator. I refuse none ; and I think there is no conscience wUl allow him to get another man's money in such sort as to keep it to serve his own turn perfm-ce." (Birch ii. 354.) In answer to Anthony's urgent request for delay, Trott replies that, if part of the debt can be paid at once, of which he is in pressing need, he is content, in lieu of £800, "to take your brother's covenant and yours that you should do your best [for me] to he joined in patent with the one of you mthin this half year." Add. MSS. 4,123] 114. 86 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. VII. " And now lastly, my right honourable good Lord, for my third poor help, I account it will do me small good except there be a heave' — and that is this place of the Star Chamber. I do confess ingenuously to your Lordship, out of my love to the public, besides my particular, that I am of opinion that rules without examples will do little good, 'at least not to continue.^ . . . And 1 will not, as the proverb is, spit against the wind, but yield so far to a general opinion, as there was never a more particular example.' But I submit it wholly to your honourable grave considera- tion ; only I humbly pray you to conceive that it is not any money that I ha 76 borrowed of Mr. Mills, nor any gratification I receive for my aid, that makes me shew myself anyways in it ; but simply a desire to preserve the rights of the ofEce, as far as it is meet and incorrupt, and secondly his importunity ; who nevertheless, as far as I see, taketh a course to bring the matter in question to his further disadvantage, and to be principal in his own harm. But if it he true thai* I have heard of more than one or two, that beside.^ this fore-running in talcing of fees, there are other deeper cor- ruptions which in an ordinary course are intended to he proved against him ; surely, for my part, I am not so superstitious as I will tahe any shadow of it, nor lahour to stop it, since it is a thing medicinahle for the office of the realm. And then, if the place, hy such an occasion or otherwise, should come in possession, the hetter to testify my affection to your Lordship I should he glad, as 1 offered it to your Lordship afore hy way of ... ^ so in this case to offer it by way of joint patency, in nature of a reversion.'^ Even though Egerton may not at that precise date have received a commission to report judicially upon Mill's conduct, such a communication to the Lord Keeper respecting an official ■who had already come under the Lord Keeper's cognizance, and might at any time come again, could not, even in Bacon's time, be considered justifiable. Accordingly, although there is evidence to make it probable that Eawley, Bacon's biographer, knew of this letter, yet he did not think fit to print it.^ Bacon himself shuns publicity for his letter, "which," he says, in conclusion, "I most humbly pray your Lordship may be private to yourself." ^ i.e. A. "move up," a promotion of Baoon into Mill's place. So Chamberlain to Carleton, 3rd October (?), " Sir Francis Vere with heave and shove has got the government of the Brill." So Birch, 2nd September, 1595, "Sir Robert Cecil heaved hard to be secretary." " i.e. the rules laid down by Egerton in May, 1596, touching the abatement of frivolous suits and the restraint of fees, are not likely to be observed, unless an example is made of Mill. ' i.e. there never was such a gross offender as Mill. * "It . , . that " = "that . . . which." » Blank left in MS. Mr. Spedding says, "I infer that Rawley had seen this letter, though he did not print it." He adds that it "was not printed by Rawley probably as being of too private a, character," ii. 60, 61. The italics are mine. 1595-7.] BACON'S MONEY MATTERS. 87 This last letter is undated : but we come next to a dated letter, which by external as well as internal evidence is shewn to have been probably addressed by Bacon to Egerton, at a time when the latter was actually appointed upon a Commission to investigate these graver charges against Mill, which might result in his removal from office. The letter is dated the 12th of November. Now we know from one of Bacon's apophthegms that the Queen in a conversation with Bacon, soon after the latter had spohen in Parliament against enclosures, informed him that she had referred the hearing of Mill's case to certain counsellors and judges, and asked him how he liked it. He replied, " Oh, Madam, my mind is known ; I am against all enclosures, but especially against enclosed justice." Bacon's speech against enclosures was on Saturday, the 5th of Novem- ber, 1597. If the conversation with the Queen took place, as is likely, in the following week, i.e. on or before the 12th of November, while the speech was fresh in memory and being talked about, it would follow that the Cotumissioii to try Mill's case had been appointed lefore the 12th of November. If this is so, then the following offer (dated 12th November), to make over to Egerton's son indirectly (through a " deputation "), and quietly ( " without all note " ) the office then held by Mill, was made at a time when Egerton himself was one of the judge? appointed to investigate the charges which might result in Mill's dis'/riissal. The internal evidence of the letter confirms this supposition. It indicates that, in the interval between this letter and the last, something had happened which made Bacon's offer even more open to censure than before, and which increased the necessity for secrecy. "To THE LOED KeEPEB. ." It may please your honourable good Lordship, " As I began by letter, so I have thought good to go on, signifying to your Lordship, with reference had to my fornjer letter, that I am the same man and bear the same mind, and am ready to perform and make good what I have written, desiring your Lordship not only to discern of this my intention (howsoever in other circumstances concerning the quick and not th.e impostume of the ofEce I may seem to stand') but also to think that I ) 1 ujidefstajid this to mean, ''howsoeyer I may seem to have stood out for the healthy rights of the office and not for the morbid corruptions of it." 88 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap, VII. had considered and digested with myself how I mought put in execution my purpose of goodwill to he carried without all note ; ' as, first to a deputation in some apt person your Lordship mought choose, and so to a passing over to such depute, and then a name in the next degree is soon changed. All which I do now write, both lest your Lordship mought conceive any alteration or inconstancy in me, and also that you mought think that I had sufficient regard to all bye matters of discretion before I would expound anything to a person of such honour. I am assured the matter is honum in se, and therefore accidents may be accommodate. So in most humble manner I take my leave, commending your Lordship to God's preservation. From Gray's Inn, this 12th of November, 1597, " Humbly at your Lordship's honourable commandments, "Fb. Bacon." This scheme also failed. The much-assailed Clerk of the. Star Chamber succeeded in resisting the attacks of all his enemies and friends, and died years afterwards in the enjoy- ment of his office. As for the rest of the money-matters of Francis Bacon, they may be briefly despatched here. As his brother Anthony grew poorer, Francis seems to have grown richer ; and in March, 1600, the tables are so turned that Francis Bacon, petitioning the Queen for a grant of land, informs her that he fears his brother Anthony is purposing to alienate Gorhambury, and he has hopes of getting it into his own hands. In August, 1600, however, he is forced to borrow from Trott again. But in May, 1601, Anthony dies ; and Francis, receiving something probably from his brother, and enriched with 1 ,200Z., as the reward for his services in securing the conviction of Essex, determines to clear off his debts. But Trott and he xiiffer as to the state of the account between them. Francis on the one hand — in a document entitled, " The state of the account between Mr, Trott and me, as far as I can collect it by such remembrances as I find (my trust in him being such as I did not carefully preserve papers), and my demand upon the same account " — characteristically demands abatement of some part of the interest, " considering he (Trott) hath been beholding to me, and his estates good and without charge, and mine indebted." Compound interest he will not hear of. " Ab- 1 i.e. without any one's noticing it. It has been suggested that "note" must mean "blame." But compare Coriolanus, i. ix. 49 : — "Which without note here's many else have done,"— i.e. without attracting (favourable) notice. 1595-7.] BACON'S MONEY MATTERS. 89 solutely," he says, " I demand the abatement of interest upon interest, which no creditor that ever I had did so much as offer to require." In answer to this, Trott might have urged that his estate, so far from being good, consisted of no more than £500, and that he had borrowed money from his friends for Francis Bacon, for which he himself had to pay them, even when Bacon neglected to pay him. As for the " beholding," Trott would naturally say that the only service bestowed by Francis on him was the recommending him for the Clerkship of the Council of the North, which had proved futUe. He might have added, that he considered himself aggrieved by the refusal of Francis to carry out the understanding touching the Clerkship of the Star Chamber. And certainly the general impression left from the correspondence of Anthony and Francis Bacon with Trott and with one another is, that Trott was mainly in the right and Francis Bacon in the wrong. But at this distance of time it is almost an impossibility to unravel all the complication of the accounts, and to decide between debtor and creditor. What we could best trust to would be some kind of authoritative decision made at the time by some impartial arbitrator. Fortunately we have such a decision extant ; and the arbitrator was one of the most trustworthy men of the day, and a special friend of Francis Bacon. The dispute was referred to the Lord Keeper, Egerton. Trott (in addition to expenses and interest amounting to £138 .4s. 8d.) claimed £1,897 12s. Bacon offered £1,259 12s. The Lord Keeper awarded Trott £1,800. The sum was to be paid by the 22nd of December, 1601. But even after the Lord Keeper's decision Trott cannot get his money; and the last we hear of Francis Bacon's unfortunate creditor is that, at Hickes's intercession he wiU allow another month's delay, and make some further abatement.^ i III, 44. CHAPTER VIII. THE DECLINE OF ESSEX. The year 1596 closed well for the Essexian faction. In the October and Decemher of that year the Earl is reported by Anthony Bacon to be on very good terms both with prince and people, and, at the latter date (December 11), " exeeeding well with her Majesty, in spite, as Signor Perez called him, del Eoberto il Diavolo (Sir Eobert Cecil), who finds a secretaryship a harder province to govern than he looked for, aijid beginneth inwardly to be weary of it, as outwardly the world is weaiy of him." ^ Anthony writes to Lady Anne, his njother, that Secretary Cecil had professed very seriously an absolute amnesty and oblivion of all misconceits passed. Sir George Carew is sent on a message of peace from Cecil, and, by Anthony's own report of their conversation, the blame of the .quarrel between Essex and Cecil, seems not to have rested wholly with the latter. Carew, who has a post in the Ordnance, begs to receive early informa- tion of any intended expedition, that his department may not be found unprepared. Anthony coldly replies that the Secretary win let him know. " Nay, God's soul," repliiSS Carew, " I may not trust to that ; for neither his father nor he can yet discover what your Earl intendeth or pretendeth." But the reconciliation was hollow, and the fir&t nionth of the new year (1597) brought evil omens. All sorts of rumours fly about the Court unfavourable to Esse?, " I must conjure you," writes Essex to Lord Henry Howarql, " to tajie no 9,laFms of me but from me, — I mean of any impression that may be macje in me — but when you shall hear it of myself : for the world is as 1 Birch. 1597-8.] THE DECLINE OF ESSEX. 91 idle as it is false ; and both these properties wiU unquiet, if you be not resolved beforehand to let rumour pass in at one ear and out at the other." ^ In a letter to Lady Anne Bacon a few days before, the Earl expresses his sense of the hoUowness of the present truce, " I live in a place where I am hourly compassed against and practised upon." ^ At this very time, when an absolute amnesty is being pro- claimed, Anthony Bacon accuses Cecil of tampering with his correspondence. The Earl feels ill at ease amid all this intrigue, and once more resorts to his old expedient of absenting himself from Court, and going no one knew whither. On January 16, Anthony expostulates with him on his "sudden departure." " Though your Lordship's mark be never so honourable, and your draws never so fair, and shot never so near, yet if the judge be blind, and those that give aim partial, your worth and merit shall be by most malicious men disguised and perverted, and receive no other reward than censure and disgrace." The cause of Essex's present trouble appears to have been an intended expedition against 'the Spanish dominions, which placed him in a dilemma. If on the one hand he volunteered to take the command, as his inclination led him to do, then he was breaking Bacon's advice by rousing the Queen's suspicions and fears of " a militar dependence," and by exposing himself during his absence from Court to the plots of his enemies. If, on the other hand, he declined the command, then he was shrink- ing from a duty for which he seemed obviously fitted, and he ■ would allow some other general to carry off the honour of a triumph and to eclipse his own military reputation.^ In the January or February of 1597 Essex was commanded by the Queen to set down in writing his opinion about the pro- posed campaign. "The drift of some," writes poor Eeynolds, Essex's trusty servant, who was always looking for reward or promotion and never getting it, " is to draw his Lordship by insinuations to take the charge of chief commander."* While 1 Add. MSS. 4,116, 7th January. ^ lAves of the Earls of Essex, i. 392. 3 A strange anonymous letter (S. P. 0.), November 16, 1597, signed "Thy true servant," encourages Essex to pursue the course of dissimulation soon after- wards recommended by Francis Bacon: "Dissemble like a courtier, and shew thyself outwardly unwilling of that thou art inwardly most willing." * January 20. 92 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. VIII. committing his opinion to paper, the Earl is informed that he is to be associated in the command with Sir Walter Ealegh and Lord Thomas Howard. Offended at this, and perhaps believing that under a command so divided, the expedition could not prosper, he refuses to go, and is " well chidden for it." ^ Sick in mind and body he takes to his bed, talks about reducing the number of his servants and leading -a retired life,^ and though visited by the Queen on the 6th of February, still remains in retirement. The correspondence of Anthony Bacon about this time, ex- hibits at once Anthony's deep affection for Essex, and at the same time the Earl's fitful, impulsive, and unbusiness-like dis- position. The Earl is evidently no match for the Secretary. Cecil is never ill when illness is inconvenient, never absent from Court, never overburdened with work, never ill-tempered to friends or overbearing to enemies. Cecil never forgets, never neglects. Essex is guilty of all these unbusiness-like faults. " My Lord is so full of business," replies Eeynolds to Anthony, when the latter sends the Earl- a packet of foreign correspond- ence, " and so much troubled with the crosses and traverses which he findeth in the intended journey, as you must excuse his silence." ^ When the Earl is iu one of his melancholy moods, he has to be humoured like a child. Yet in spite of all this Anthony loves him and adheres to him. The following is an extract from a letter of Anthony's, dated 9th February, 1597 : — "My singular good Loed, — As your Lordghip's indisposition this last week increased, I fear me, with just cause of undeserved discontent of mind (which, God knoweth, are far more irksome to me than mine own hodily pains) have withheld me from troubling your Lordship with any particular cumbersome remembrance. ... I am bold to send them to your Lordship, of whose deep wisdom, sound judgment, and true magnanimity I rest so assured as that my confidence in them checketh and choketh such grievous and stinging apprehensions as may, without ofEenoe, spring from dutiful care and unspeakable devotion of a continual sympathising heart ; which, since my first entire vow, both doth, and — by God's grace, so long as it hath being — shall prize more your Lordship's most worthy love than all worldly happiness whatsoever, and, possessing so inestimable a jewel, shall never envy their endless ambitious hopes and insatiable > II. 48. « 4th February, Add. MS3. ' Add. MSS. 4118, 4th March. 1597.] THE DECLINE OF ESSEX. 93 desires, who set the height of their felicity on a prince's momentary favour and temporal greatness." A new incident occurring early in March widened tlie rupture between Essex and the Queen. The death of Lord Cobham vacated the Wardenship of the Cinque Ports, which the Queen purposed to give to the eldest son of the deceased Lord, whom Essex considered one of his foremost enemies. As the Queen persisted in her resolution, in spite of the Earl's desire that it should be given to Sir Eobert Sydney, Essex either resolved or affected to resolve to retire from Court.^ In doing this he was possibly following the advice of Francis Bacon. It will be remembered that Bacon had advised the Earl never to be with- out some project in hand, which he was to pursue with earnest- ness and affection, and then to let fall, upon taldng knowledge of Her Majesty's opposition and dislike : " a less weighty sort of particulars may be the pretence of some journeys, which at her Majesty's request your Lordship mought relinquish ; as if you would pretend a journey to see your living and estate towards Wales, or the like." ^ This was precisely what Essex now did. But he did it in such a way and with such a result as to take all the grace from his subsequent submission. " Upon Thursday morning, 10th March, himself, his followers, and horses were ready. He went to speak with my Lord Treasurer about ten o'clock, and by Somerset House Mr. KiUigrew met him, and willed him to come to the Queen. After some speech had privately with her, she made him Master of the Ordnance, which place he hath accepted and receives contentment by it." ^ Erom a letter of Eeynolds it would seem that one cause of Essex's indignation had been some attempt made by the Law Officers of the Crown to deprive the Countess of Northumber- land of her jointure. "The Countess of ISTorthumberland's jointure shall be established," he writes, "notwithstanding all Mr. Attorney's traverses." He adds that "this journey given up hath made the Earl good friends." * Nevertheless poor Eeynolds, whose hopes of advancement depended upon the 1 n. 48. 2 jhid. 42. '<' Sydney Papers, ii. 27 ; quoted ii. 48. * Add. MSS. 4118, 12th FarcTi. 94 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. VIII. Eaii's fortunes, expresses a fear that "his Lordship is wearied and scorneth the practice and dissembling ways of the Court, and therefore desireth to solace himself and by degrees to discontinue and so to retire from among them." ^ But at last peace is made between the two factions. On the 18th of April Essex, Cecil, and Ealegh dine together at Essex House, and all differences are settled. Eor the next few weeks the Earl is busy preparing his fleet, attempting to sail, and refitting again at Plymouth, after being driven back by stress of weather. We have no evidence to show that Bacon dissuaded Essex from taking the command of this expedition : but there is no doubt that he was averse to it. He had emphatically warned Essex that it was not for his interests to assume any military command. It might be for the interests of the country, bu-fc Bacon had warned Essex to think of his own interests. In Bacon's Apology he gives a somewhat different account of his advice to Essex. " I was thus plain with him upon his voyage to the Islands, when I saw every spring put forth such actions of charge and provocation, that I said to him, ' My Lord, when I came first unto you, I took you for a physician that desired to cure the diseases of the State ; but now I douht you will be like those physicians which can be content to keep their patients low because they wiU be always in request." ^ We shaU hereafter give reasons for thinking that the Apology contains many grave inaccuracies ; and this is probably one of them. There is abundant proof that Bacon approved not only of war in general, but also of this expedition in particular. So far from regarding war as a keeping of the patient " low," he teUs us in the Essays that he looks upon it as the natural exer- cise for a healthy state.^ Of this expedition in particular, as well as of the previous expedition, he spoke in Parliament, entirely approving and justifying the aggressive policy. " Myself can remember, both in this honourable assembly and in all other places of this realm, how forward and afEectionate men were to have an invasive war. Then, we would say, a defensive war was like eating 1 Lives of_ the Earls of Essex, 30th March, 1597. 2 Apology, p. 5. s ' ' Certainly, to a kingdom or estate, a just and honourable war i's the" &ue exercise. — Essays, xxix. 1. 261. 1597.] THE DECLINE OF ESSEX. 95 and consuming interest, and needs would be adventurers and assailants. Hdbes quod tota mente petisti. Shall we not now make it good, especially when we have tasted so prosperous fruit of our desires ? " The first of these expeditions invasive was achieved with great felicity, ravished a strong and famous port in the lap and bosom of their high countries, brought them to such despair as they fired themselves and their Indian fleet in sacrifice, and a good odour and incense unto God for the great barbarous cruelties which they have committed upon the poor Indians, whither that fleet was sailing, disordered their reckonings, so as the next news we heard of was nothing but protesting of bills and breaking credit. "The second journey was with notable resolution borne up against weather and aU diflSculties, and besides the success in amusing him and putting him to infinite charge, sure I am it was like a Tartar's or Partliian's bow, which shooteth backward, and had a most strong and violent efEeot and operation both in France and in Flanders, so that our neighbours and confederates have reaped the harvest of it, and while the life-blood of Spain went inward to the heart, the outward limbs and members trembled and could not resist. And lastly, we have a perfect account of all the noble and good blood that was carried forth, and of all our sea-walls and good shipping, without mortality of persons, wreck of vessels, or any manner of diminution. And these have been the happy effects of our so long and so much desired invasive war." ' This seems to prove conclusively that Bacon and the House of Commons generally approved of the policy of " invasive war," and were far from regarding it aS a starving of the nation. It also quite agrees with what Essex himself says, that " the expedition had been decided on by the Queen," and that she had actually " armed and victualled ten of her own ships and caused the States of the Low Countries to furnish the like number, before ever he was spoken of to go to sea." ^ Though therefore we need not doubt that Bacon was averse to the Earl's taking the command, we are justified in doubting whether his aversion was based on the reasons specified in the Apology. Whether there is evidence or not that Essex forced an aggressive policy on the nation in order that he himself might be " in request," there is no evidence that Bacon thought so or said so — until in after years he found it necessary to write the A'pology ; and such evidence as we have would lead to the conclusion that Bacon neither thought nor said anything of the kind. During the Earl's absence in September, his friends seem to have found it necessary to assure him, with a strength of 1 II. 89. 2 Quoted from Essex's Apology, ii. 68. 96 BACON AND ESSEX,, [CuAr. VIII. language that might have seemed superfluous, of their unalter- able fidelity. Anthony Bacon, whose faithfulness should have been past doubt, being disabled by the gout from writing, employs the pen of Lord Henry Howard to convey his protestations. The letter is noticeable, as conveying the first indication that Francis Bacon was coming to be regarded by the friends of Essex as a possible deserter. In the letter last quoted from Anthony, the allusion to those who " set the height of their felicity on a prince's momentary favour and temporal greatness " — may have been meant not for Francis, but for the Cecils ; but the following letter mentions Bacon by name. On the 14th of September, Lord Hen&y Howard writes thus in Anthony's name : — " Lest one of your pretended friends, in respect of his (Anthony's) alliance with a certain person " (? Cecil or Francis Bacon) " might, out of humour, lend him (Anthony) a charity ... he (Anthony) hath required me, by way of caution, to put in a bar to any wrongful plot that might be professed to his prejudice. He knows your noble disposition, and hath [so] often had experiment of your facihty in acquitting persons guilty, as he cannot fear your hard conceit against him, that ever wiU be innocent. His brother, as the whole world knows, is dear to himj and yet I dare he sworn that he would rather wish him underground than that he should live to your Into the details of the Island voyage it is unnecessary to enter. They appear to prove, what might seem to have been proved already by Essex's expedition to France in 1591, that he had not the administrative power requisite to manage a large force. Eetuming from his expedition dissatisfied with every- thing, he found that in his absence Sir E,obert Cecil had been appointed Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and Lord Howard of Effingham had been ereated Earl of Nottingham, which would have the result of giving Lord Howard precedence over him. In a fit of indignation, Essex retires to "Wanstead ; and in spite of the kindly remonstrances of Burghley, he refuses to come again to Court,^ remaining in retirement till he was pacified by receiving the of&ce of Earl Marshal of England, which had the effect of restoring to him the precedence of which he had been deprived. ' " SoiTy I am to see your absence from here. ... I find her Majesty sharp to such as advise to that which it were meet for her to do and for you to receive." November 30, Lord Burghley to Essex. 1598.] THE DECLINE OF ESSEX. 97 Perhaps one reason why the Cecils did not care to press their present advantage against the Earl was, that Sir Eohert Cecil was soon likely to be in a position where it would be important for him to be on good terms with Essex. The imminent danger that Henry IV. of France might conclude a peace with Spain without any reference to the interests of England his ally, forced the Secretary to go upon a message to the French Court. Before he left the English Court open to Essex, it was desirable to conciliate him. " There were many private conferences, many consultations observed between the Earl of Essex and Sir Eobert Cecil before his (the Secretary's) going away : and, as I said in my last, he was resolved not to stir one foot till the Earl of Essex assured him that nothing should pass here in his ab- sence, that might be a prejudice or offensive to him : and upon that assurance he is gone." So writes Eowland Whyte, the author of the Sydney Papers, on the 12th February, 1598. Essex on his part, appears to have been in no Vindictive mood. The writer just quoted speaks of him as being engaged in some love affair at this time. Party strife seemed suspended. On the 10th February, the Queen (at the instance, it was thought, of Sir Eobert Cecil) had given Essex £5000 worth of cochineal; and on the 15th we hear that he is " giving very diligent attendance upon the Queen, and in some sort taking upon him the dis- patching of all business, in the absence of the Secretary, that concerns her Majesty's service." ^ It was during Cecil's absence in France that the fatal Irish campaign, which proved Essex's ruin, was first suggested to him. Bacon appears to have induced Essex to turn his mind in that direction, not for a moment intending that he should assume the command there, but merely that he should " declare himself and profess to have a care of that kingdom," and that he should gain honour by selecting his friends who should pacify the kingdom.^ Adopting his advice, Essex soon afterwards sends him the last news from Ireland and asks him what is next to be done. In his reply Bacon, after enumerating other steps to be taken, adds, • " And, but that your lordship is too easy to pass in such cases from dissimulation to verity, I think, if your lordship lent your 1 Sydney Facers, quoted ii. 93. a 11. 95. H 98 • BACON AND ESSEX. - [Chap. VIII. reputation in this case — that is, to pretend that {if peace go not on, and the Queen mean not to make a defensive war as in times past, hut a full re-conquest of these parts of the country) you would accept the charge — I think it would help to settle Tyrone in his seeking accord, and win you a great deal of honour gratis." ^ At this time Cecil was absent from England, and therefore not he, but Essex, is responsible for tlie proposed appointments for Ireland. The only fault that Bacon could find with them would be that, instead of appointing his own creatures, he appears to have siiggested the appointment of the best men indifferently. Sir Walter Ealegh and Sir William Eussell (who were his enemies, or not his friends^), and of the number of his friends, Sir Eobert Sydney and Sir Christopher Blount.^ Friends and enemies aUke decline the onerous and invidious responsibility. But on the return of Cecil from the French Court at the end of April, the factious spirit at once springs up again, and the election of a general for Ireland becomes a mere party question. But neither Essex nor Cecil desires to see a friend of his own appointed to the post. It would be scarcely credible, if it were not supported by unquestionable evidence, that, in the face of the critical position of Ireland, the object of either of the two contending parties in the English Court seems to have been to appoint an enemy to the chief command there, in order to discredit the opposite party by the inevitable failure of the officer. Essex presses at one time for the appointment of Ealegh, his bitterest enemy ; then he would appoint Carew, Cecil's closest friend ; at another time he wishes to have them appointed to a joint command.* On the other hand, the CecDian faction sup- port the appointment of Sir William Knollys, Essex's uncle. The Cecilian faction at this juncture are for peace with Spain, the Essexian for war ; the Queen, who favours peace, inclining towards the peace-party, favours the appointment of Knollys. During a stormy council meeting in June or July, the Earl of Essex, goaded to fury by the Queen's opposition, is said to have expressed his contempt for her by some insolent gesture, upon ' II. 100. » See what Bacon says about Eussell, ii. 95. 3 Charoljerlain, May i, * JUd, May 31, 1598.] THE DECLINE OF ESSEX. 99 which the Queen struck him and ignominiously had him expelled from the Council Chamber.^ Essex at once retires to Wanstead, not to emerge from it till the death of Burghley, on the 31st of July, summons him to attend the old Lord Treasurer's funeral; looking — so say the letter-writers of the time — as much grieved as any one present. And well he might be grieved : for the death of Burghley re- moved an obstacle between Essex and the ruin to which he was tending. While he lived, Burghley had done much to assuage the quarrels between his son and the Earl, and the writer of tKe Sydney Papers bitterly laments, a month or two after his death, that there is now no longer any one " to play the physician's part." ^ In his Essay on Ambition Bacon says that one means to curb favourites is " to balance them by others as proud as they." But then, he continues, " there must be some middle counsellors to keep things steady ; for without that ballast the ship will roll too much."^ Such "middle counsellors" had been found in Burghley and Egerton : but Egerton without Burghley will no longer have power to keep things steady. Henceforth, therefore, we are to expect that " the ship will roll too much." 1 Camden, Ann. iii. p. 771, quoted ii. 103. See also a letter of Essex to tHe Queen in the lAves of the Earls of Essex, 17th November, 1600, quoted on p. 11 above. 2 September, 1598. = Essay, xxxi. 1. 43-47. H 2 CHAPTER IX. ESSEX ASSUMES THE COMMAND IN IKELAND. After Burghley's funeral, Essex returned again to his retirement at Wanstead. But a fortnight afterwards a crisis came in Ireland. On the 14th August, 1598, Sir Henry Bagnall, march- ing' to the relief of the English garrison of Blackwater, was defeated and slain, and with him fell thirteen officers and fifteen hundred men. Blackwater at once surrendered to Tyrone. Ulster was already in arms ; but now Connaught also revolted ; the rebels of Leinster swarmed in the English pale, and Munster seemed on the point of joining in the general defection.^ The English everywhere shut themselves up in their forts and stood upon the defensive. On hearing of this disaster Essex at once posted up to London and sought access to the Queen ; but she refused to see him. Knowing how advice might be distorted or misunderstood, or depreciated, if unsupported by the adviser, he had previously declined to give counsel to the Lord Keeper unless he might be permitted first to be heard by the Queen herself ; and he now retired to Wanstead, merely writing to the Queen a letter of defence and expostulation. On the 29th of August Chamber- lain writes that the Earl " had relented much, and sought by divers means to recover his hold." But the Queen said, " He had played long enough upon her, and that she meant to play a while upon him, and to stand as much upon her greatness as he had done upon his stomach." ^ On the 12th September he saw the Queen for the first time since the quarrel, and was supposed to be in favour again.' But ' 11- 123. 2 Quoted ii. 123. 8 Letter of Toby Matthew, S. P. 0, 15th September, riuoted ii. 123. 1598.] ESSEX ASSUMES THE COMMAND IN IRELAND. 101 on the 3rd October Chamberlain significantly qualifies his note of the Earl's restoration to favour. " The Earl is at Court on as good terms {they say) as ever he was." The same writer, a few days afterwards, indicates his suspicion of the soundness of the reconciliation. The Mastership of the Wards was at this time vacant, and it was thought her Majesty would mark her forgive- ness by bestowing it upon Essex^ " All men," says Chamberlain, " give him their voices to be Master of the Wards." But even after the 18th of October when, as we are informed by Camden, the Earl "became more submiss, and obtained pardon, and was received of her into favour," still Essex was not Master of the Wards. " Though the Earl be alone in election," writes Chamberlain on October 20th, "yet there is still some rub in his way." What the " rub " was may be gathered by a letter of Essex's written on the 18th October. The Lord Keeper Egerton had urged him to make a more humble submission to the Queen, and (if we may judge from the Earl's reply) to admit that he had deserved the blow he had received from the Queen, and his ignominious expulsion from the Council Chamber : " Let policy, duty and religion enforce you to yield. Submit to your sovereign, between whom and you there can be no proportion of duty." To this Essex replies that such submission as is demanded would be a baseness to which he cannot stoop : " Let Solomon's fool laugh when he is stricken .... In such a case I must appeal from all earthly judges. I keep my heart from baseness, though I eannot keep my fortunes from declining. I owe to her Majesty the duty of an Earl and Lord Marshal of England. I have been content to do her Majesty the service of a clerk, but can never serve her as a villain or slave When the vilest of all indignities are done unto me, doth religion enforce me to sue ? Doth God require it ? Is it impiety not to do it ? What, cannot princes err? Cannot subjects receive wrong? Is an earthly power or authority infinite ? Pardon me, pardon me, my good Lord, I can never subscribe to these principles." ^ Now was the time for Francis Bacon to use his influence over the friend to whom he was "more beholding than any man," and to recall Essex to a sense of his duty. The Earl was always, 1 lAiJSS of the Earls of Essex, i. 501. , 102 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. IX. as Bacon himself testifies, patientissimus veri : Bacon felt able to remonstrate freely with him " according to his charter," as he expresses it. " If at this crisis the Earl had been told plainly that, though injured, he had brought the injury in part on him- self by his own jealousy of rivals, his want of self-control, his excessive touchiness, and his imperious neglect of the interests and feelings of others ; if he had been further told that in his Sovereign he ought to recognize the Queen as she had been, rather than the Queen as she was, and that common gratitude and respect ought to induce him to make allowance for her infirmities, and to see in her, not a capricious and irritable old woman, but the sovereign who had guided England through forty years of peril ; if in a word, Essex's feelings of gratitude and patriotism had been touched by a friend who knew how his emotional and impulsive character responded to appeals to his higher nature, I do not say such an appeal would have certainly succeeded, but it is certain that it would have been far more effectual with Essex than the following letter, which contains the only communication addressed, as far as we know, by Bacon to Essex at this turning-point in his fortunes. " To MY Lord of Essex. " It may please your Lordship,' " That your Lordship is in statu quo prius no man taketh greater gladness than I do ; the rather because I assure myself that of your eclipses, as this hath been the longest, it shall be the last. As the comical poet saith, Neque illam tu satis noveras, neque te ilia : hoc uhifit ihinon mvitur. For, if I may be so bold as to say what I think, I believe neither your Lordship looked to have found her Majesty in all points as you have done, neither her Majesty per case looked to find your Lordship as she hath done. And therefore I hope upon this, experience may found more perfect knowledge, and upon knowledge more true consent. Which I for my part do infinitely wish, accounting these accidents to be like the fish Eemora, which, though it be not great, yet hath it a hidden property to hinder the- sailing of the ship. And therefore, as bearing unto your Lordship, after her Majesty, of all public persons the second duty, I could not but signify unto you my afEectionate gratulation. And so I commend your good Lordship to the best preservation of the Divine Majesty. " From Gray s Inn." rather more formality than was usual with Bacon when writing to Essex. 1598.] ESSEX ASSUMES THE COMMAND IN IRELAND. 103 But let us hear Bacon's owa explanation of Lis failure to influence Essex. He lays the blame on Essex. He was for compliance with the Queen and for peace — so he tells us in the Arpology — while the Earl was for independent policy and war. " This diflEerence in two points so main and material bred, in process of time, a discontinuance of privateness (as it is the manner of men seldom to communicate where they think their courses not approved) between his Lordship and myself ; so as I was not called nor advised with for some year and a half before his Lordship's going into Ireland, as in former time." ' Such is Bacon's account, written some years afterwards iu the Apology, and there is nothing essentially improbable in it. But contemporary evidence indicates that it is inaccurate, and that it was Bacon who withdrew himself from Essex, not Essex who shunned Bacon. Bacon probably felt that he was quite sure of the Earl's secret support for all his suits, and that his open support did him more harm than good. As early as March, 1597, we find him therefore shunning Essex's company in Court, desiring to speak with him, but " somewhere else than at Court."^ A little later he excuses himself to Burghley for the violence of his brother Anthony, and begs that his brother's misconduct may not be imputed to him : " I pray your Lordship to pardon mine errors, and not to impute unto me the errors of any other ."^ Anthony himself, as we have seen above, seems to have some suspicions that his brother is deserting the Earl.* It is also noteworthy that, on more than one occasion, instead of complaining that he was not invited, Bacon is found apolo- gizing for not attending Essex when he might have been expected to attend. In Jtme, 1597, he writes, " I know not whether I shall attain to see your Lordship before your honour- able journey ; " and again in March, 1598, " I have not yet had time fully to express my conceit, nor now to attend your Lordship."^ Yet about that very time he has leisure to write two letters to the Secretary (Cecil) in France, " empty of ' Apology, p. 5. " 11. 51. ' IL 53, /'Alluding prohablj--," says Mr. Speddiug, "to his brother Anthony." * See above, p. 96. " The italicized words are omitted in the copy of the letter kept by Bacon himself and printed in the Resuscitation ; but they are recognized by Mr. Spedding as belonging to the letter actually sent. 104 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. IX. matter, out of the observance of love," in one of which he assures his cousin, " To leave such as write to your fortunes, 1 write to yourself, in regard of my love to you : you being as near to me in heart's blood as in blood of descent." ^ Again in the same month we find that Essex had " imparted advertisements " to Bacon, upon which he had requested the latter's advice. Bacon himself admits in the Apology that " touching his going into Ireland, it pleased him expressly and in a. set manner to desire mine opinion and counsel."^ Lastly, in March, 1599, so far from complaining that he was not asked ' for advice. Bacon himself in one of his own letters records the complaint of the Earl, who had " taken note of his silence in his {the Earl's) occasions." All this evidence tends rather to support the belief that it is to Bacon and not to Essex that we must impute the " discontinuance of privateness " between the two friends. However, to return to Essex at the Council Board. The choice of a general was made still more urgent by a second disaster, which befel the English arms in Ireland on the 13th of October. This was the death of Sir Eichard Bingham, the newly-appointed marshal of Ireland. His previous successes against the rebels had gained for him general confidence ; but his arrival in Dublin was immediately followed by his death. The state of Ireland now became more critical than ever. As far back as June, 1596, the Lord Deputy had written that "he thought all the Irish in general were either in action or con- spiracy, insomuch that the whole kingdom would be lost if the government'of it were not better supplied."^ Now things were infinitely worse, and, as Mr. Spedding justly observes, " The reconquest of Ireland became the main problem of the time." These words require special attention — "the reconquest of Ireland." For, if things had come to this, now had arrived the very crisis spoken of by Bacon in his letter to Essex, when he advised the latter what to do if the Queen intended, "not to make a defensive war, as in times past, but a full reconquest of those parts of the country." In the midst of the stir and strife of the Council Board, and the increasing alarm consequent on the daily tidings of swelling rebellion, there could not fail to ' n. 102. » III. 146. 5 26th January, 1590. 1598.] ESSEX ASSUMES THE COMMAND IN IRELAND. 105 recur to Essex tlie advice given by the calm, collected friend, who boasted that he never " shifted his counsel," but always constahat sibi. This advice, in his own words, had been :— " I think if your Lordship lent your reputation in this case — that is, to pretend that . . . you would accept the charge — I think it would help you to settle Tyrone in his seeking accord, and win you a great deal of honour gratis." ^ In an evil hour Essex adopted his friend's advice without having the ability to carry it out. It was a policy of dissimu- lation, and he was no dissembler. To do Bacon justice, he had warned the Earl against his faiUng. " But that your Lordship is too quick to pass in such cases from dissimulation to verity "^ — ^liad been the qualification subject to which Bacon had tendered his advice. Besides, the condition of things in Ireland had now made the advice out of date. No mere "pretending that he would accept the charge in Ireland " on the part of Essex would now suffice to " settle Tyrone." But Essex, im- pulsive and trusting in the wisdom of a friend who was not impulsive, did not discern the changed times. We shall now see him, therefore, blindly and unseasonably following Bacon's advice, first " pretending " that he would accept the command, and then (as Bacon himself had feared and almost predicted) "passing from dissimulation to verity," and accepting it in reality. Both Essex and the Council were placed at this moment by the factious spirit of the times under a disgraceful necessity of dissembling. Neither party felt able to recommend the man whom all felt to be fittest for the hour of need. The crisis in Ireland demanded the best general that England could produce ; and no one disputed that this was Essex. We are apt to allow the Earl's subsequent dismal failure to efface from our minds the remembrance that no other general of that day was then thought comparable with the Earl of Essex in fitness to cope with the Irish rebels. There was no general, said Bacon, who 1 See p. 97 above, whero the passage is quoted in full. 2 The meaning appears to be that " in such cases " i.e. incases concerning military command, Essex would be in danger of allowing his love of warfare to conquer his fears of enemies at Court. He might begin by only pretending to be willing to accept command, but he was "too quick" to pass from a mere ^re- tended willingness to veritable willingness. 106 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. IX. could " ascend near him in competition."^ Essex knew this ; the Council, knew it; the country knew it; yet no one dared to suggest the (seemingly) fittest general of the day for the post to which his country appeared to summon hi&i. The Coiincil on the one hand dared not suggest him, for fear they should be suspected by him of plotting to exile Mm from the Court ; Essex, on the other hand, dared not suggest himself for fear of being suspected by the Queen of an ambitious craving after military greatness ; and he also feared that, if he actually went to Ireland, his enemies would, as Bacon had warned him they would, effect the disgrace, if not the ruin, both of himself and of his friends. In this dilemma the Council, not venturing directly to appoint Essex, adopted their former policy of selecting one of his closest friends. This time, however, it was not KnoUys, but Charles Blount, Lord Montjoy, a man who afterwards proved himself far superior to Essex in administrative power, but who at that time was not thought worthy to be compared with the Earl. Accordingly, on October 20, Chamberlain writes : " The state of Ireland grows daily di mal in peggio. Some think the Lord Montjoy shall be sent thither deputy ; others say the Earl of Essex means to take it upon him, and hopes by his counte- nance to quiet that country."^ That this was more than a mere rumour is proved by the fact that Montjoy was actually named by the Council; but it is equally certain that this was a mere blind, a stratagem to decoy Essex into assuming the command for himself. This can be proved by the testimony of Cecil. The outside world thought that the Council was in earnest. Fynes Moryson, Montjoy's secretary, on hearing of his nomination, informs us that he obtained his Lordship's promise to be allowed to follow him to Ireland ; and he records his disappointment when Montjoy was supplanted (as he deemed it) by Essex. But Cecil, writing on the 6th November to Sir Thomas Edmondes, reveals, as a secret, that though Montjoy was named, the intention was to send Essex, "My Lord Montjoy is named; but to you, in secret I speak it, not as a sem-etary, hut as a friend, that I think the Earl of Essex shall go Lieutenant of the Kingdom."^ ' II. 43. • Quoted ii. 124. ^ Birch's Negotiations, &c. i. p. 184. 1598.] ESSEX ASSUMES THE COMMAND IN IRELAND. 107 Essex on his side, as lie had before resisted the appointment of his uncle Knollys, so now with equal pertinacity resists the appointment of his friend Montjoy. But he no longer ventured to repeat his unseemly attempt to send some enemy, such as Ealegh or Carew. Adopting the policy suggested by Bacon, he allows it to be given out, rather than himself gives out, that he himself is willing to go. To deliver Montjoy from the perilous appointment, he does not hesitate to declare that his friend is a man of little experience in the wars, a student rather than a general. Clearly indicating himself, though not by name, he asserts that " into Ireland must be sent some prime man of the nobility ... so as he seemed with the finger to point to himself."! Taking advantage of these unmistakable suggestions, and closing with the request implied in them, the Queen at once determined to send Essex to Ireland ; and now it was the Earl's turn to draw back in, accordance with Bacon's advice. But drawing back was not easy. He had disparaged Knollys before, and Montjoy recently; he dared not again suggest Ealegh or Carew ; he had indicated himself as the fittest person to be sent, in language so clear that now he could not withdraw without belying himself. His natural impulses made him love war and hate the Court. Moreover, if the Queen insisted that he should go, he could hardly resist without danger of a second collision with her; and it seemed reasonable that she should claim from him the undertaking of this dangerous service as a pledge that he had wholly returned to a sense of what was due to his country and Queen. If he persisted in refusing, it was easy for the Council to resort to their former course. Eor a time he did persist. But once more the Council brought forward the name of Montjoy or Knollys. Once more Essex pertinaciously protested, and the Council was again torn by their disputes. It seems to have been during one of these stormy debates in the Council, that Essex finally committed himself to accepting the command, and though opposed by Knollys and Montjoy, and perhaps, for form's sake, by others for a time, he readily obtained his fatal wish. Flushed with momentary exultation at his apparent ^ Camden, quoted ii. 125. 108 BACON ANt) ESSEX. [Chap. IX triumpli at the Council-board, proud of having sacrificed his interests to her Majesty's honour, and of having rescued his two best friends from the invidious position into which he had thrown himself, he writes to Harrington in the language of a man beside himself with success, " I have beaten KnoUys and Montjoy in the CouncU, and by God I will beat Tyr-Owen in the field ; for nothing worthy her Majesty's honour hath yet been achieved."^ But the reaction soon came. Eeflection soon convinced him that, with the Queen not yet heartily reconciled to him, and with enemies at Court who would sooner see him fail than succeed, the position in which he had entangled himself was full of danger. Wow might well recur to his mind Bacon's ominous warning against the devices of his enemies — "yea and per case venturing you in perilous and desperate enterprises."^ This was just what had happened ; and Essex would now have gladly found a pretext for disentangling himself. The next few weeks are full of complaints and contests, and we shall find Essex repeatedly declaring that he would resign his command if this or that demand were not granted. It is possible that his desire was- merely to ensure success ; but the impression derived from the evidence is, that he was seeking for a plausible reason for throwing up his command. Chamberlain, it is true, appears to throw the blame of the variations in the Irish plans, in part at least, upon the enemies of Essex, who desired to curtail the dimensions of the expedi- tion. But this is very doubtful. Essex himself, in one of his impulsive moods, writes to Cecil about this time, declaring that the latter in his zealous forwarding of the expedition " heaped coals of fire upon his head."^ Eynes Moryson speaks to the same effect : " His enemies gladly put forward his design, that they might have him at more advantage by his absence from Court."* " He (the Earl) could ask for nothing," says Camden, " which he did not obtain by the officious, not to say crafty, assistance of his adversaries."^ This evidence helps us to discern, in the account given by ^ Nug(B Antiqiue, i. 245, quoted ii. 126. ^ ij_ ^^^ ' I am indebted to Professor Brewer for this ijuotation ; but I have lost tlio reference. ■• Fyues Moryson's History of Ireland, p. 63. " Quoted, ii. 128. 1598.] ESSEX ASSUMES THE COMMAND IN IRELAND. 109 Chamberlain, not the opposition of the Earl's enemies, hut the Earl's own attempts to find a pretext for withdrawing from a " perilous and desperate enterprise." Particularly noteworthy is the condition exacted by Essex on his first offer to undertake the command : — October 20. — "The state of Ireland grows daily di mal inpeggio. Some think the Lord Montjoy shall be sent thither deputy ; others say the Earl of Essex means to take it upon him, and hopes by his countenance to quiet that country. Marry, he would have it under the broad seal of England that after a year he may return if he will," But it is worth while grouping together all that Chamberlain has to say about the intended campaign, from November, 1598, to March, 1599. November 22. — " It is said that the Earl of Essex shall go thither about February or March with as ample commission as ever any had ; the con- ditions whereof were lost labour to set down, because they vary and alter every weelc." December 8. — " The Earl of Essex's journey to Ireland is neither fast nor loose, by reason the proportions are daily dipt and diminished. ... It was first set down that his number should be 14,000 . . . but these rates are brought lower.'''' December 20. " From Friday the 15th to Sunday the 17th it held fast and firm that the Earl of Essex was to go . . . but a sudden alteration came cm Sunday night, the reason whereof is kept secret. . . . He (the Earl) and Mr. Secretary have so good leisure that they ply the tables hard in the Presence Chamber, and play so much game as if Ireland was to be recovered at Irish bowls." January 3. — " The disgust that made stay of the Earl's going for a while is sweetened and removed." January 31. — "The press of his followers wiU be much abated by reason the Queen countermands many. . . . The unJcindness Hwixt him, and others is not yet reconciled, which no doubt %oill much hinder this action, that hajd need of all furtherance." February 15. — " Our provisions for Ireland go forward with leaden feet, and the Earl's commission is no nearer signing in shew than when I wrote last. . . . Many things pass which may not be written ; but in conclusion, ' Hiacos intra muros peccatur et extra.' There is fault on both sides, and 'Quidquid delirant reges, plectuntur Achivi,' whosoever offends, the commonweelth is punished." March 1. — " My Lord of Essex, much crossed, does not succeed ; new difficulties arise daily about his commission as touching the time of his abode, his entertainment, and the disposing of offices ; his Lordship so dissatisfied that it is doubtful whether he will go." 110 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. IX. Now, for facts and rumours Chamberlain's testimony is im- portant and trustworthy; but for the underlying motives and secret intrigues that resulted in those facts, his opinion cannot for a moment be weighed with the evidence of Camden, of Pynes Moryson, and of Essex himself : and that evidence points unanimously to the conclusion that these delays and objections arose in great part, not from Essex's enemies, but from Essex's own desire to withdraw, if he could find a pretext for doing so, from the Irish command. Cecil himself may be called as an additional witness to prove that the Earl's reluctance was the cause of the delay. Writing to Sir Thomas Edmondes on the 4th December, he says, "The opinion of the Earl's going to Ireland hath some stop by reason of his Lordship's indisposition to it except with some such conditions as were disagreeable to her Majesty's mind, although the cup will hardly pass from him, in regard of his worth and fortune ; but if it do, my Lord Montjoy is named." ^ If one vestige of doubt could still remain that, in accepting the Irish command, Essex was acting involuntarily and with a strong sense that he was exposing himself to great peril, and giving a great advantage to his enemies, all remaining doubt would be dissipated by the two following letters.^ "Essex to Southampton.^ " Into Ireland I go ; the Queen hath irrevocably decreed it, the Council do passionately urge it, and I am tied in my own reputation to use no tergiversation ; and, as it were indecorum to slip collar now, so would it also be minime tutum ; for Ireland would be lost, and tho' it perished by destiny I should only be accused for it, because I saw tho fire bum and was called to quench it, but gave no help. " I am not ignorant what are the disadvantages of absence, the oppor- tunities of practising enemies, when they are neither encountered nor overlooked, the construction of Princes under whom magna fama is more dangerous than mala and successus nimius quam nullus ; the difficul- ties of a war where the rebel that hath been hitherto ever victorious is the least enemy that I shall have against me, for without an enemy the disease of that country consumes our armies ; and if they Jive, yet famine 1 I believe this passage is in Birch's Negociations, &c. ; but I have lost the exact reference. 2 I am indebted for them to the kindness of Professor Brewer 3 Hatfield MSS. 58]86. 1598.] ESSEX ASSUMES THE COMMAND IN IRELAND. HI and nakedness make them lose both hearts and strength ; and if victuals be sent over, yet there will be no means to carry it. And yet all these were better endured than to have a Hanno at Carthage or a Cato at Home barking at him that is every day venturing his life for his country abroad. " All these things which I am like to see I do now foresee. For the war, ' [it] is hard '—pulchra qum difficilia. ' The rebel successful ' — ^that only makes him worthy to be undertaken. ' The supplies uncertain ' — it is safety for me to perform as much as shall lie in me, or depend upon me, and to show the world that my endeavours were more than ordinary when the State that sent me out, must conspire with the enemy against me. ' Too ill success will be dangerous' — let them fear that who allow excuses or can be content to overlive their honour. ' Too great will be envious ' — I will never forswear virtue for fear of ostracism. ' The Court is the centre.' But methinks it is the fairer choice to command armies than humours. ' In the meantime enemies may be advanced ' — so I shew who should be, let Fortune shew who be. These are my private problems and nightly disputations, which from your Lordship, whom I account another myself, I cannot hide, &c. « 1 Jan., 1598 [9].» "Charles Blount to Essex. ^ " You have now given me to understand that you are embarked in this Irish action, and that duty, with our State's necessity, hath tied you there- unto. I will no more, like a timorous mariner putting to sea, speak of the security of the harbour whence you put, but will wish, and would advise (if I saw not by your Honour's manner of writing that you know well into what bottom you put your foot) you should so arm against all intended mischiefs that no adversary shall hinder your designed purpose : for seth you see and know, who possesses the mind of her that rules, I beseech you leave none of your provisions to the pleasure of your enemies; for not by what the Estate promiseth, but by that you have in your own power this affair is to be managed ; and then I fear not, since needs go you must, but that your virtue shall beget as great a necessity for your welcome home, &c. « 3 Jan. [1599]." But what was Bacon doing all this time ? From the end of October, 1598, up to the middle of March, 1599, the going of Essex into Ireland was not definitely settled.^ If it was a 1 HatEeldMSS. 58] 81. ' " Tandem aliquando the OTeat commission for Ireland is despatched." — Chamberlain, March 15. The Earl was appointed Lord Deputy on the 12th. 112 BACON AND ESSEX.. [Chap. IX. calamity, it was, during that period, a preventible calamity. Now Bacon tells us that he regarded it not merely as a calamity, but as utter destruction : "I did as plainly see his overthrow chained, as it were, by destiny to that journey as it is possible for a man to ground a judginent upon future contingents. But, my Lord, howsoever his ear was open, yet his heart and resolu- tion was shut against that advice."^ These words certainly imply that Bacon frequently warned Essex of his danger. But if so, it is strange that we have no record whatever of those reiterated warnings, no letter, no account of a conversation or letter (except what will be mentioned presently), no reference or allusion either on the part of Essex or Bacon to any warning of any kind. One letter indeed remains, written probably a very short time before the Earl's actual departure from London on the 27th March; but this letter contains a confession of Bacon that Essex had lately complained that he (Bacon) had been "silent in his (the Earl's) occasions." Now if we take the 'most favourable view for Bacon, and suppose that this letter was written only a day or two before the Earl's departure, say on the 24th, and that the Earl's complaint of his silence had been made to Bacon on the 22nd or 21st, yet it will still remain that on the 21st or 22nd of March Essex complained to Bacon that the latter had latel]/ been remiss in giving him advice. Now, even if " lately " implies no more than that for two or three weeks past Bacon had been thus remiss, we are still driven to the conclusion that from the end of February or early part of March Bacon had preserved a " silence " of which his friend had complained. But we know that up to nearly the middle of March (the 12th) there was still opportunity for Essex to withdraw from his perilous enterprise. This certainly does not seem consistent with the statement implied by Bacon in his Apology, that he had reiterated advice till he was tired, and that the Earl's " heart and resolution was shut " against his warnings.^ ' Apology, p. 6. " I have taken the supposition most favourable to Bacon, in assuming that the following letter was written late in March. I have no doubt, however, from in- ternal evidence (it is undated) that it was written before the ] 2th of March. It speaks of the "intended charge for Ireland" — an expression which hardly applies to a general who is to set out to-morrow for an expedition, but applies very weU 1599.] ESSEX ASSUMES THE COMMAND IN IRELAND. 113 But now let us go a step further, and compare the statement in the Apology with ascertained facts. For these facts at aU events are indisputable, first, that the only letter extant from Bacon to Essex concerning this proposed assumption of the Irish command was written before the Earl had finally accepted the command ; secondly, that instead of containing any remon- strance addressed by Bacon to Essex upon his unwillingness to listen to advice, the letter contains evidence of a remonstrance from Essex to Bacon on the prolonged silence of the latter; lastly, that this letter so far from dissuading the Earl from going^ encourages and instigates Mm to go. But it will be well to set do1vn Bacon's own account of his advice, as he records it in the Apology, side by side with the letter of advice actually written a&d extant. There are similarities of expression between the letter and the passage in the Apology, which place it beyond a doubt that Bacon in the Apology is referring to this and to no other letter. First for the actual letter : " Your late note of my silence in your occasions hath made me set down these few and wandering Knes, as one that would say somewhat and can say nothing, touching your Lordship's intended charge for Ireland. . . . But I am at the last point first, some good spirit leading me to presage success. , . . Per first, looking into the course of God's providence in things now defending, and calling to consideration how great things God hath done hy her Majesty and for her, I collect He hath disposed of this great defection in Ireland, thereby to give an urgent occasion to the reduction of that whole Jcingdom. . . . And so the honour counter vaileth the adventure. Of which honour your Lordship is in no small possession, when that her Majesty hath made choice of you (nierely out of her Royal judgment, her affeition inclining rather to continue your attendance^ into whose hand and trust to put the commandment and conduct of so great forces. "And if any man he of opinion that the nature of the enemy doth extenuate the honour of the service, being but a rebel and a savage — / to an appointment not yet definitely settled. The words " your Lordship is designed," &c., point in the same direction. So do the words " it is most fit for you to desire, convenient liberty of instructions" — which surely would rather not he "is," but "was most fit," if they were written on the 24th of March, only three days before his actual departure, when Essex had obtained his "con- venient liberty of instructions." Lastly, the reference to Africanus, and the saying that "success stirreth up envy," seem as though they may have been in Essex's mind on the 1st January, when he wrote, " Too great [success] will be envious," and when he tacitly com- pares himself to Africanus, with a Cato left behind him "at Rome, baiking at him that is every day venturing. his life for his country abroad." T 114 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. IX. differ from him. For I see the justest triumphs that the Eomans in their greatness did obtain were of such an enemy as this, that is, people barbarous and not reduced to civility, magnifying a kind of lawless liberty, prodigal in life, hardened in tody, fortified in woods and hogs, and placing both justice and felicity in the sharpness of their suiords. Such we/re the Germans and the ancient Britons and divers others.^'' Next for the account in the Apology : " Touching his going into Ireland it pleased him expressly and in a set manner to desire mine opinion and counsel. At which time I did not only dissuade, hit protest against his going : telling him with as much vehemency and asseveration as I could, that absence in that kind would eomlcerate the Queen's mind, whereby it would not be possible for him to carry himself so as to give her sufScient contentment. And because I would omit no argument, I remember I stood also upon the difficulty of the action : setting before him out of histories that the Irish were such an enemy as the ancient Gauls or Germans or Britons were : and we saw how the Eomans, yet when they came to do with enemies which placed their felicity only in liberty and the sharpness of their swords, and had the natural elemental advantages of bogs and woods, and hardness of bodies, they ever found they had their hands full of them : and therefore concluded that going over with such expectation as he did, and through the churlishness of the enterprise not likely to answer, it would mightily diminish his The reader will perceive that in writing the Apology, Bacon's memory served him here so hadly that he could only rememher one or two things that he actually said, and invented a great many other things that he did not say, but afterwards thought he ought to have said. Essex had expressly asked his advice, and he had given it ; moreover, in giving it, he had mentioned the " Eomans," the " Gauls," and " ancient Britons," their " woods and bogs," and the " hardness of their bodies : " but he had brought forward these historical references not to deter Essex, but to encourage him. Instead of prognosticating failure, he had " presaged success ; " instead of predicting that absence would " exulcerate the Queen's mind " he had congratulated Essex that " her Majesty had made choice of him merely out of her royal judgment, her affection inclining rather to continue his a,ttendance," Instead of predicting that it would " mightily diminish his reputation," he had declared that " the honour countervaileth the adventure." 1 Apology, r- 6, 1509.] ESSEX ASSUMES THE COMMAND IN IRELAND. 115 Unless we are prepared to believe there were two discourses addressed by Bacon to Essex, within the space of three or four months, both arising from the express request of Essex, and both mentioning the " Eomans," the " Gauls," and " ancient Britons," " the bogs and woods," the " sharpness of their swords " and the " hardness of their bodies," but in other respects entirely different or rather opposite, the one depre- cating, the other recommending the expedition to Ireland — I do not see how we are to resist the conclusion that Bacon's Apology is here untrustworthy. Yet we are not, I think, driven to believe that Bacon wished to decoy his former benefactor into ruin. On the contrary, he had desired to divert him from it. But fate was against Essex. He could not now draw back without offending the Queen, and without the danger of fresh collisions with the Council. He probably seemed to Bacon, even early in 1599, inextricably entangled. The Secretary appeared clearly to have gained the upper hand, and Essex was vainly struggling in the toils. With his insight into the characters of the two antagonists, it is not surprising if Bacon foresaw, with the clearness of actual vision, the ultimate ruin of Essex and triumph of Cecil. What he says about the "journey" would probably apply to the Earl's first apceptancp of the command, when he " passed from dissimulation into verity." Bacon at once saw his " overthrow chained as it w^ye by destiny " to that fatal error. It was useless to tender counsel to a man in such a condition. The only course that remained was gradually to withdraw him- self from him, and tg attach himself to Cecil. "When the Earl innocently expostulated vith him upon his "silence," what should he reply ? Just as a physician may humour a dying patient with suggestions of hope that may give a momentary pleasure, so Erancis Bacon sees with perfect clearness the ruin of his former patron " chained to that journey;" yet, since his friend insists on his saying something, he says a few smooth words that mean nothing, to cheer bitn on the road to destruction. I 2 CHAPTEE X. THE IRISH CAMPAIGN. In the letter in wMcli Bacon encourages Essex in his purpose of assuming the Irish command, he gives the Earl some good advice which, if it had been taken, might have changed the result of the campaign. He warns Essex against his passion for immediate and ostentatious results and for the distinction to be gained by mere personal valour. " Designing to fame and glory may make your Lordship in the adventure of your person to be valiant as a private soldier rather than as a general ; it may make you in your commandments rather to be gracious than disci- plinary ; it may make you press action (in respect of the great expectation conceived) rather hastily than seasonably and safely ; it may make you seek rather to achieve the war by fine force than by intermixture of practice ; it may make you (if God shall send prosperous beginnings) rather seek the fruition of that honour than the perfection of the work in hand." Every one of these warnings (except the second) was fulfilled, and Essex's neglect of his friend's advice can be traced in each of the false steps that led to his ultimate failure. But it is fair to Essex to remember that he could not have adopted Bacon's counsel, as long as he was what he was. Bacon required him to act as a general and a statesman : Essex was a knight- errant and a student, " bookish and contemplative." The letter from him to Bacon, written in 1596, and quoted above, curiously reveals the Earl's unfitness for administration and organisation. After confessing that he finds the practice harder than the theory of the military art, he adds : " So great is my zeal to omit nothing, and so short my sufficiency to perform all, as, besides my charge, myself doth afSict myself." ' ' See above p. 29. 1599.] THE IRISH CAMPAIGN. 117 This "self-afflicting" and "zeal to omit nothing" — or, in other wordsj the attempt to do what should be done by subor- dinates — ^is the sure sign of a deficiency in administrative power. But even without Bacon's warning and Essex's con- fession, we might have anticipated the result of the Irish campaign. In describing the Island voyage, Mr. Spedding — after shewing that, when Essex intended to intercept a Spanish fleet coming to a certain island from the north-west, he, according to his (Essex's) own account, went just out of the fleet's way to lay wait for it on the south-east of the island— adds, " Had this been anybody's account of the matter but his own, I should not have believed it : the proceeding seems so unaccountable." This should not be forgotten. If in reading the account of the Irish campaign we find much mismanagement and in- capacity, so much indeed that it "seems unaccountable," we have to remember that a previous campaign exhibited similarly " unaccountable " conduct. And if such conduct in the Island voyage did not expose Essex to the charge of treason, there is no cause why similar conduct (apart from further evidence) should prove Essex to have been a traitor in Ireland. Nor let it be said that the failure of the Island voyage was owing to Essex's inexperience of naval matters. The French campaign in 1591 revealed the same administrative incapacity, the same greed for personal distinction, the same hasty impulsive movements iu the field, and the same fretfulness and touchiness when he was checked or interfered with by the Council. The result too was strikingly similar. If in the course of the Irish campaign Essex succeeded in reducing a force of 16,000 men to 4,000 men without effecting anything, in the French campaign an army of 4,000 men was, with equally little result, reduced to 1,000. Yet no one has (hitherto) thought of imputing treason to Essex for his conduct of the French campaign. Certainly the whole conduct of Essex in preparing for his Irish expedition is as little like that of a traitor as can be con- ceived. Most generals plotting treason insist on f he prolongation of their command. Essex insisted on its curtailment, and would not stir from London till he had received permission, under the Queen's broad seal, " to return to her Majesty's presence at such times as he shall find cause." Traitors cover their treason with 118 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. X. smooth words till their plots are matured. Essex freely ex- presses his fretfulness, his suspicions and jealousies, from the time when he leaves London to the time when he returns. Traitors, instead of wasting an army against a national foe, husband their forces to be used against the nation. Generals aiming at crowns indulge and demoralize and seduce their troops by gifts and promises and exemptions from hardship. The charge against Essex is that he wore out his army with excessive hardship, and that, at least on one occasion, he punished them for misconduct with unnecessary and cruel severity. Caesar crosses the Rubicon with an army at his back ; Essex returns to Nonsuch with half-a-dozen attendants. From every point of view it seems as impossible to find treason in Essex's Irish campaign as it is to avoid finding error and incapacity. The omens attending his departure from London were not favourable. The most cheerful thing that he can find to say to Bacon, when they bid one another farewell, is that he trusts, when he returns, they will be able to say, " Quis putasset ? " Jealousy and suspicion were in the air of the Court, and do what he might, Essex could not avoid them. A book published and dedicated to Essex shortly before his departure was used by the Court as a means for indirectly casting suspicion on him. « The Earl is crazed," writes Chamberlain, " but whether more in body or mind is doubtful." He adds that "there is much descanting about " Dr. Hayward's new book on Henry IV., and that there are " many exceptions taken, especially to the Epistle, which is a short thing, a Latin dedication to the Earl. . . . Whereupon there was commanded it should be cut out of the book ; yet I have got you a transcript of it, that you may pick out the offence if you can. For my part I find no such hugges words, but that everything is as it is taken." In after times the dedication of this very book was taken up as a special charge against Essex, ajid Bacon himself was instructed to bring it forward ; but for the present the Court was contented with indirectly discrediting the Earl by cancelling the dedication. It is not surprising that, amid such manifestations of hostility and suspicion, Essex determined at least to secure success so far 1£99.] THE lEISH CAMPAIGN. 119 as he could, by appointing officers whom he could thoroughly- trust. It was said that spies were scattered through his army. Not a soldier in the force but knew that Essex was out of favour with the Queen and opposed by the leading men at Court. All sorts of discouraging reports and rumours were freely circulated among officers and men to the discredit of their commander. Here is a letter sent to one of Essex's officers, Harrington, by a confidential friend of his who had some appointment about the Court. Harrington was the Queen's godson, and his friend is anxious that he may do nothing to forfeit the Queen's favour : " I hear you are to go to Ireland with the Lieutenant, Essex. If so, mark my counsels. . . . Observe the man who commandeth, and yet is commanded himself ; he goeth not forth to serve the Queen's realm, but to humour his own revenge. ... If the Lord Deputy performs what he hath ■ promised in the Qouncil, all will be well ; but although the Queen hath granted forgiveness for his late demeanour in her presence, we know not what to think thereof. She hath in all outward resemblance placed con- fidence in the man who so lately sought other treatment at her hands ; we do sometime think one way and sometime another. . . . You have now a secret from me that wisheth you all welfare and honour ; 1 know there are overlooJcers set on you all, so God direct your discretion. Sir William KnoUys is not well pleased, the Queen is not well pleased, the Lord Deputy may be pleased now, but I sore fear what may happen hereafter. " What betideth the Lord Deputy is known to Him only who knoweth all. But when a man hath so many shewing friends and so many unshew- ing enemies, who leameth his end here below ? You have difSculties enough to encounter besides Tyrone and the rebels." ^ To guard against these " unshewing enemies " and to avoid as far as possible the danger of " overlookers " in the shape of officers, Essex determined to retain his military appointments in his own hands. Accordingly he wished to make the Earl of Southampton General of the Horse, and to give a seat in the Council to his stepfather Sir Christopher Blount. But South-* ampton had incurred the Queen's displeasure by a secret marriage, and she accordingly desired that the appointment should be revoked. Blount, being a Koman Catholic, and also perhaps too closely connected with Essex, was also objected to as a member of the Council ; but she was willing to allow that he should go with Essex as Marshal. 1 Harrington, Kug^e Awtiqux, i. 240-242. 120 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. X. Essex, in a fit of paiSsion, a,fc first refiiaed to take Blount, though he afterwards thought hetter of it. But as to South- apiptop, he openly told the Queen that she might eamcel his (?oinmiasi, and Qod uiill right." " Apology, p. 12. 1599.] BACON INTERCEDING FOR ESSEX. 159 enemy and underminer of the fallen favourite ? " Some coun- sellor must have borne the brunt, as the Queen was thought incapable of such cruelty" — then why did not Cecil bear the brunt ? "Why does Eowland White over and over again acquit Cecil of any hostile conduct to Essex 1 Why does he expressly say that one attack against Essex was diverted by the kind- ness of Cecil ? Why does he expressly mention Bacon as an enemy ? Why is Bacon himself forced to confess that Cecil remonstrated with him on the discreditable rumours of his treacherous conduct towards his former patron ? I think the best explanation will be given by Bacon himself — not however in the Apology, but in a letter written by him about this time to the Queen to excuse himself for his absence from the Star Chamber on the 29th of November, when the Star Chamber statement was made. No excuse ought to have been needed for Bacon's absence on that occasion. No friend of Essex ought to have been expected to be present. Bacon could not have had even the excuse that his legal advice might be required, for as Mr. Spedding justly observes, " the lawyers having no part in the proceeding. Bacon was not wanted in his place." ^ Nevertheless Bacon assures us, first, that the Queen imputed absence to him as a fault; secondly, that he excused himself on the plea of illness : " She did directly charge me, that I was absent that day at the Star Chamber, which was very true : but / alleged some indisposition of body to excuse it." ^ This is the statement of his excuse given in the Apology ; but now compare this with the letter of excuse actually written by Bacon to the Queen. It will be found that, instead of making illness his excuse. Bacon excused himself gn grounds the fittest possible to conciliate the Queen to himself and to -exasperate her against Essex. His excuse amounts to this, that he durst not serve the Queen against Essex, because Essex was so popular and the Queen's service so unpopular ; and he insinu- ates, not obscurely, that the friends of Essex threatened, if not the Queen's life, at all events her crown. 1 11. 159. " Apology, p. 12. 160 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. XII. "To THE QUEBN.l " It may please your excellent Majesty, " I most humbly entreat your Majesty not to impute my absence to any weakness of mind or unworthiness. But I assure your Majesty / do find envy heating so strongly upon me, standing as I do (if this be to stand), as it were not strength of mind hut stupidity, if I should not decline the occasions ; except I could do your Majesty more service than I can any ways discern that I am able to do. My course towards your Majesty (God is my witness) hath been pure and unleavened, and never poor gentleman (as I am per- suaded) had a deeper and truer desire of your glory, your safety, your repose of mind, your service : wherein if I have exceeded my outward vocation, I most humbly crave your Majesty's pardon for my presumption. On the other side, if I have come short of my inward vocation, I most humbly crave God's pardon for quenching the spirit. But in this mind I iind such (? much) solitude and want of comfort ; which I judge to be because I take duty too exactly, and not according to the dregs of this. age, wherein the old anthem might never be more truly sung, ' Totus mundus in maligno positus est.' My life hath been threatened and my name libelled, which I count an honour. But these are the practices of those whose despairs are darigerous, but yet not so dangerous as their hopes ; or else the devices of some that would put out all your Majesty's lights, and fall on reckoning how many years you have reigned, which I beseech our blessed Saviour may be doubled, and that I may never live to see any eclipse of your glory, interruption of your safety, or indisposition of your person ; which I commend to the Divine Majesty, who keep you and fortify you." But it may he said that Bacon was not referring here to the party of Essex, or that he was not aware of the mischief he was doing his friend by tjius forcing upon the Queen's notice the violence and turbulence of some of the Earl's partisans. In answer to this, we may quote an extract from a letter written about the same date by Bacon to Lord Henry Howard. " For my Lord of Essex I am not servile to him, having regard to my superior duty. I have been much bound unto him. And on the other side I have spent more time and more thoughts about his well doing than ever I did about mine own. I pray God you his friends amongst you be in the right. ' NuUa remedia tarn f aciunt dolorem quam quas sunt salutaria.' For my part I have deserved better than to have my name objected to envy or my name to a ruffian's violence. But I have the privy coat of a good conscience. / am sure these courses and bruits hurt my Lord more than all." 1 II. 160. 1599.] BACON INTERCEDING FOR ESSEX. 161 Of course these " courses " injured Essex. The knowledge that her servants feared to serve her, because they were threatened with violence by the partisans of Essex, was enough to drive the Queen into issuing an immediate order for his committal to the Tower. But why then did one of the nearest friends of Essex, who had only two months ago described himself as " more the Earl's than any man's," after so short an interval — during which the Earl had done nothing whatever (to Bacon's knowledge) of a nature to make him unworthy of his friendship — think it necessary to force on the Queen's notice facts for which the Earl was not in any way responsible and which " hurt my Lord more than all " ? If this letter may be accepted as a specimen of Bacon's conversations with the Queen, then it is not hard to understand how, whenever he left her presence, her councillors found her freshly embittered against Essex : and perceiving this, men would naturally attribute the Queen's irritation to Bacon. Yet if any one were to infer from the letter above quoted that Bacon was. deliberately bent upon ruining Essex in order to establish himself with the Queen, he would, I think, be in error. The fact would rather seem to be that Bacon was not thinking much of Essex, for good or ill, but was thinking a good deal about himself. At the time when he wrote this letter, it was extremely unlikely that Essex would ever recover from his illness; and Bacon had to study his own interests. He and Cecil and the Queen were together on the unpopular side. Here then was an opportunity of shewing the Queen and Cecil that he was theirs, not Essex's. He had complained (possibly a year or two ago) that he was like a hawk anxious to be em- ployed by the hand of royalty, but unable to fly because he was " tied to another's fist," ^ and had perceived with alarm that the Queen " had him in jealousy, that he was not hers entirely, but still had inward and deep respects towards my Lord." Now here was a chance of shewing her unmistakably that, so far from maintaining these " inward respects," he had alienated by his loyalty the whole of the Essexian faction. ' II. 163. The letter is undated, but contains internal evidence tliat it accom- panied a New Year's present (a "garment" was perhaps too common a present to iix the date). I should place it at the beginning of 1599. M 162 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. XII. For strengthening himself with Cecil this accident was equally- opportune. He had been for some time courting the Secretary. In the spring of 1598 he had assured his cousin that he was as near to him "in heart's hlood as in blood of descent." But it was impossible to be " near in heart's blood to Cecil " and at the same time to be (as Sir Eobert Sydney was warned above ^) " factiously inward " with my Lord of Essex. Here then was an admirable opportunity for demonstrating to the Secretary the truth of his professions. What could be a better proof of his having separated himself from Essex and attached himself to Cecil, than the fact that he and Cecil shared together the odium of undermining the Earl ? Such honourable unpopularity Bacon affects to be proud of : indeed he regards it as too great an honour for his humble self. He is attacked, he assures Cecil, not for his own sake, but because he is Cecil's cousin and devoted friend. " The root of this (slander) I discern to be, not so much a light and humorous envy at my accesses to her Majesty (which of her Majesty's grace being begun in my first years, I would be sorry ehe should estrange in my last years ; for so I account them, reckoning them by health, not by age), as a deep malice to your honour- able self; upon whom, by me, through nearness, they think to make some aspersion." ^ Those who are disposed to blame Bacon, for this cold-blooded disregard of the interests of his friend in comparison with his own interests, ought at least to bear in mind what was Bacon's notion of friendship, and of the knowledge of the art which he called the Architecture of Fortune. " One precept of this knowledge," he says, "is by all possible endeavour to frame the mind to be pliant and obedient to occasion .... and nothing is more politic than to make the wheels of our mind concentric and voluble with the wheels of fortune." ^ Now the wheel of fortime had turned, and was soon to turn full circle, since the time when he had asseverated to Essex that he was " more his than any man's." To be consistent therefore. Bacon was bound to be " voluble " with the turning wheel. Essex was declining, Cecil rising. A few months hence, Bacon wiU write to Cecil's private secretary, "Let him know ' Seep. 153. * II. 162, ' Advancement of Learning, xaiii. 33. 1599.] BACON INTERCEDINa FOR ESSEX. 16-3 that he is the personage in this state which I love most." Things had not come to that yet, but they were fast coming ; and Bacon, like a philosopher, was preparing for the change. As for friendship, what was it ? " That which is, is between superior and inferior, whose fortunes may comprehend the one the other." But how could the fortunes of Essex, now lying at point of death in the Lord Keeper's house, be said to compre- hend the fortunes of Bacon? Obviously they could not: and therefore the friendship between the two, having no longer any logical basis, must cease to exist. This again was in accordance with the rules of the art of the Architecture of Fortune; for "another precept of this know- ledge is that ancient precept of Bias, construed not to any point of perfidiousness, but only to caution and moderation. 'Et ama tanquam inimicus futurus et odi tanquam amaturus ! ' For it utterly betrayeth all utility for men to embark themselves too far into unfortunate friendships, troublesome spleens, and childish and humorous envies or emulations."^ Eemembering Bacon's recent allusions to the " hopes " of those who had begun "to fall on reckoning" how many years the Queen had reigned, we can have little difficulty in determining the date of the following New Year's letter : — "To THE Queen. " It may please your excellent Majesty, " I presume, according to the ceremony and good manner of the time and my accustomed duty, in all humbleness to present your Majesty with a simple gift ; almost as far from answering my mind as from sorting with your greatness ; and therewith wish that we may continue to reckon on, and ever, your Majesty's happy years of reign ; and they that reckon upon any other hopes, I would they moitght reckon short, and to their cost. And so craving pardon most humbly, I commend your Majesty to the preservation of the Divine goodness." With this imprecation upon the plotters of the Essexian faction. Bacon concludes his first stage of intercession for his friend. ' Advancement of Learning, xxiii, 42. M 2 CHAPTER XIII. bacon's part in the PEOCEEDINGS against ESSEX. Dissatisfied with the result of the statement in the Star Chamber made on the 29th of November, the Queen determined to institute some kind of proceedings against Essex. The account of the Queen's motive given in Bacon's Apology is very different from that contained in a letter written by him. The Apology represents the resolution as originating with the Queen; the letter represents the Queen as yielding to com- pulsion, and attributes the resolution to her advisers. The discrepancy requires consideration. The account in the Apology is as follows : — " I besought her Majesty io he advised again and again how she brought the cause into any public question. . . . Immediately after, the Queen had thought of a course to have somewhat published in the Star Chamber ... which, when her Majesty propounded unto me, I was utterly against it. . . . Towards the end of Easter term her Majesty told me that she was determined now, for the satisfaction of the world, to proceed against my Lord ' ad castigationem, et non ad destructionem.' . . . Whereunto I said, utterly to divert her, &c. . . . But yet I think it did good at that time and liolp to divert that course of proceeding. Nevertheless, afterwards it pleased her to make a more solemn matter of the proceeding." ' Compare this, than which nothing can be more explicit, with a letter, written it is true in Anthony Bacon's name, but actually written by Francis Bacon, and containing a statement supposed to be made by Francis to Anthony. " I do assure your Lordship that my brother, Francis Bacon, who is too wise (I think) to be abused, and too honest to abuse, though he be more ''■Apology, p. 12. 1600.] BACON'S PART AGAINST ESSEX. 165 reserved in all particulars than is needful, yet in generality he hath ever constantly and with asseveration aflSrmed to me that both those days, that of the Star Chamber and that at my Lord Keeper's, "were won from the Queen, merely upon necessity and point of honour, against her own inclina,tion," ' Which of these two accounts are we to believe ? The first im- pulse is to prefer the account in the letter, as being written nearer to the time, and therefore more likely to be accurate. But on the other hand, the account in the letter stands alone, and is incompatible with all that can be gathered from contem- porary writers about the Queen's attitude. Moreover, the peculiar nature of the letter has to be taken into consideration. It came to be written in the following way : — In the summer of 1600, after Bacon's temporary reconciliation with Essex, for the purpose of conciliating Essex to the Queen, Francis Bacon, who was supposed to know better than other people what would please the Queen, agreed to draw up for Essex a letter to Anthony Bacon, which Essex might copy out in his handwriting and send : and then Francis would shew it to the Queen as a proof of Essex's contrition and loyalty. To make , the thing more natural and deceptive, Francis Bacon also drew up, in Anthony's name, a letter to Essex, which letter was to elicit in answer the letter above-mentioned. The two letters might naturally be supposed to be shewn by Anthony Bacon to his brother Francis ; and Francis might then shew them to the Queen. This being the origin of the letter last quoted, it is clear that we must not expect to find the truth in it, but rather such a version of the truth as would be best for the work in hand. Now it would be best for the Earl's interests that he should not know that the Queen had resolutely determined to bring him to a public humiliation, but that he should attribute the disgrace to her councillors. That was false, no doubt ; but it was best for- the Earl to be under that false impression, as it would leave the way more open to a reconciliation between the Queen and him- self. Now who should give the Earl this false impression ? who but Francis Bacon ? And by giving it, and by appearing to the Queen to give it, would not Bacon be commending himself to 1 See p. 187, where the letter is given at full length. 16G 13AC01^ AND ESSIiX. [Chap. XIII. the Queen, and so serving his own interests as ■well as the Earl's ? Would it not be the part of a truly loyal servant thus to simulate in the service of his mistress 1 Bacon had frequently advised her to make her ministers bear the brunt of any severity that it might be needful to shew towards Essex, while she herself was to assume the position of a gracious sovereign. Now, as she perused this letter, Bacon would appear to the Queen carrying out, at the cost of his own veracity, the very policy he had urged upon her for her good. Could she fail to be touched at the spectacle of Francis Bacon (innocently imagined by his brother Anthony "too honest to abuse ") deceiving his brother and his friend, and all to serve her and to screen her by his falsehood from the consequences of a resolution of her own, against which resolu- tion he himself had ineffectually remonstrated ? In this way Francis Bacon made the interests of Essex " comprehend " his own interests ; and where both their interests appeared to require a little simulation. Bacon was not the man to shrink from using that " alloy " of falsehood which, however it may embase the metal of action, makes the metal wear the better. Whether Bacon really deceived his brother and the Earl, or only deceived the Queen into the belief that he had deceived them, we have no means of knowing : but if we may attach any weight to the evidence derivable from the letter written by Bacon in Essex's name, the Earl had been led to suppose that the Queen was against his being subjected to any public censure. " You say the Queen never meant to call me to public censure, which sheweth her goodness ; but you see I passed it, which sheweth others' power. I believe most steadfastly her Majesty never intended to bring my cause to a sentence ; and I believe as verily that, since the sentence, she meant to restore me to attend upon her person. But they that could use occasions (which it was not in me to let), and amplify occasions, and practise occasions, to represent to her Majesty a necessity to bring me to the one, can and will do the like to stop me from the other." As we proceed, we shall see indications that Essex was not prepared for the trial to which he was subjected. An attempt appears to have been made to surprise him into confessions and 1600.] BACON'S PART AGAINST ESSEX. 167 admissions of serious charges of wliich he had received no warning, and against which he indignantly protested. The Queen had at first fixed February, 1600, for a proceeding in the Star Chamber; but her resolution was for the time diverted by a piteous letter from Essex, imploring her not to subject him to such a humiliation.^ Her mind was however still bent upon a proceeding of some kind, and it was at last definitely determined that Essex should be informally tried in the Lord Keeper's house (York House) on the 5th June, 1600, " before an assembly of counsellors, peers, and judges, avd some audience of men of quality to be admitted." So Bacon writes in the Apology ; but the report of the proceedings which he drew up for the Queen implies that the audience was rather larger and more miscellaneous, " an auditory of persons to the number, as I could guess, of two hwndred, almost all men of quality, but of every kind of profession : nobility, court, law, country, city."^ Bacon's report goes on to inform us that after " the auditory was quiet from the first throng to get in, and the doors shut, the Earl presented himself, and kneeled down at the board's end, and so continued till he was licensed to stand up." A prelimi- nary declaration was then made that "her Majesty being imperial, and immediate under God, was not holden to render account of her actions to any : " but, on account of recent rumours and slanders, and especially on account of a letter written to the Queen by a lady nearest to my Lord in blood (Lady Eich), she " was pleased to call the world to an under- standing of her princely course held towards the Earl of Essex." On the Earl's return, continues the report, her Majesty merely committed him to his chamber, till he had been heard by the Council. His defence was, first, good intention ; second, that he had yielded to the " over-ruling persuasion of the Irish Council." Although this was no excuse for disobeying her instructions, yet she referred him to the Lord Keeper's house, sub libera custodia, ' He was probably still ill and quite unfit to defend himself. Chamberlain speaks of him as being still ill in March, 1600, This letter is not mentioned in Bacon's Apology. _ " II. 176. 1(58 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. XIII. till information should have been procured from the Irish Council. " After, when both parts of this defence plainly failed my Lord, yea, and proved utterly adverse to him (for the Council of Ireland in plain terms disavowed all those his proceedings, and the event made a miserable interpretation of them), then her Majesty began to behold the offence in nature and likeness as it was divested from any palliation or cover, and in the true proportion and magnitude thereof, importing the' peril of a kingdom." Nevertheless " in the heat of aU the ill news out of Ireland, and other advertisements thence to my Lord's disadvan- tage, her Majesty entered into a resolution, out of herself and her inscrutable goodness, not to overthrow my Lord's fortune irre- parably by public and proportionable justice." ^ Consequently she caused first a declaration to be made in the Star Chamber, and finding that ineffectual, she instituted the present proceed- ings. The charges are described as being " of two natures : of an higher, and of an inferior degree of offences." " The former kind purported great and high contempts and points of misgovemance in his office of her Majesty's Lieutenant and Governor of her realm of Ireland, and in this trust and authority therehy to him committed. " The latter contained divers notorious errors and neglects of duty, as • well in his government as otlierwise. " The great contempts and points of government and malversation in office were articulate into three heads. " I. The first was the journey into Munster, whereby the prosecution in due time upon Tyrone in Ulster was overthrown ; wherein he proceeded contrary to his directions, and the whole design of his employment ; whereof ensued the consumption of her Majesty's army, treasure, and provisions, and the evident peril of that kingdom. " II. The second was the dishonom-ahle and dangerous treaty held, and cessation concluded with the same arch-rebel, Tyrone. " III. The third was his contemptuous leaving his government, contrary to her Majesty's absolute mandate under her hand and signet, and in a time of so imminent and instant danger." The report is unfortunately incomplete, not extending beyond the demonstration of the first charge mentioned above {i. e. the 1 Contrast this with Bacon's warning to the Queen that Essex would be too much for her in a legally constituted court, " I doubted his words would have so unequal passage above theirs that should charge him, as would not be for her Majesty's honour." — Apology, p. li. 1600.] BACON'S PART AGAINST ESSEX. 169 journey into Munster), and for our knowledge of the rest of the proceedings we have been hitherto entirely dependent upon the account given by Fynes Moryson. But we have now the addi- tional evidence of a letter (hitherto unpublished) from Sir Gilly Meyrick to the Earl of Southampton ; and both Moryson and Meyrick agree in this, that Essex repudiated many of the charges brought against him. Indeed several circumstances indicate that the proceeding was intended, not only to lead the Earl to submission, but also to surprise him into an avowal of faults of which he was not guilty. Essex seems to have been persuaded that " her Majesty never intended to bring his cause to a sentence ; " yet sentence was passed. The understanding was that the trial should be intra domesticos parietes ; but the Queen had changed her mind, and it now " pleased her to make a more solemn matter of the pro- ceeding," for when Essex kneeled before his judges, he found himself in the presence of a " throng " of no less than two hundred, " of every kind or profession, nobility, gentry, law, country, city." He had been probably told — or at all events the Queen had given distinct orders to that effect — that there should be " tw register nor clerk to take this sentence, nor no record or memorial made up of this proceeding ;" ^ but when Essex " was licensed to stand up, " he found before him " two clerks of the council, the one to read, the other as a register." ^ Again he had been told that no charge savouring of disloyalty would be brought against him, and he had accordingly come prepared to make a confession of errors and indiscretions, and to submit himself unreservedly to the Queen ; but he suddenly found himself attacked with accusations, to admit which would have been to confess himself a traitor. He was accused of having entertained from Tyrone " abominable and odious conditions, a public toleration of idolatrous religion, pardon for himself (Tyrone) and all the traitors in Ireland, and full restitution of lands and possessions to all the sort of them.^ It was added that ' So Bacon writes in the Apology. Speaking to the Queen, he says, " Your express direction was there should be »o register," &c. " So Bacon states in his Eeport to the Queen, ii. 183. 3 A curious "Table drawn by the Earl of Essex, being prisoner in the Lord Keeper's House, of such things as he supposed he should be taxed withal " {C'urcw Manuscripts), would prove, if it were genuine, that Essex anticipated 1^0 hACON ANt) ESSEX. [Chap. XIll. before the "parley a messenger went secretly from the Earl's camp to the traitor, namely Captain Thomas Leigh, if not sent by the Earl, at least by his connivancy."^ Cecil also, who some few weeks ago spoke with apparent approval of the intended expedi- tion into Munster, now " laid the whole fault of the bad success in Ireland upon the Earl's ominous journey " — so he called it — " into Munster." In order to convict Essex of graver charges, the Attorney read letters from Ormond, Bowker, Warham, and Leger.' Francis Bacon was not behind the rest. The part allotted to him was indeed slight. It was nothing but to touch on the Earl's indiscretion in allowing a treatise on Henry IV. to be dedicated to himself Chamberlain, as we have seen, covdd find nothing amiss in the dedication, and forwarded it to a friend to see whether the latter could detect any offence in it. Had there been ever so much offence, the Earl's fault, if a fault had been committed before his setting out for Ireland, had been condoned by silence and by the Court's persistence in entrusting him with a high command. It was a ridiculously trifling task to assign to Bacon, and Bacon himself earnestly protested against it, and had desired a more substantial part in the prosecution. But his request having been refused, he had determined to find out fresh material for himself. He therefore brought forward a letter written by Essex to Egerton at a time when the Earl was chafing under the blow he had received from the Queen. Commenting with loyal bitter- ness on this letter, he accuses Essex of having declared that there was " ' no tempest to the passionate indignation of a prince " — as if her Majesty were devoid of reason, and carried away with passion (the only thing that joineth man and beast together) — ' her Majesty's heart is obdurate,' he would not say that the Earl meant to compare her absolutely to Pharaoh, but in this particular only, which must needs be very odious." ^ What reply Essex made to Bacon we do not know, but the Boine objections to his toleration of the Romish religion, and to other parts of hia conduct previously attacked in the Star Cluimljer. But it is in Carew's hand ; and we do not know either that it was Essex's composition, or that it was not com- posed some time before the proceeding at York House, when he had not received the assurance that there would be no imputation of disloyalty. It is not dated. 1 Fynes Moryson, history of Ireland, p. 161. ' See the letter on p. 175 below. ^ Fynes Moryson, Histm'y of Ireland, p. 163. IGOO.] BACON'S PART AGAINST ESSEX. l')'! indignation of the Earl's friends is expressed in the words of Sir Gilly Meyrick: "Mr. Bacon was very idle, and I trust shall have the reward of that honour in the end." With Coke however Essex was not reticent, and he repudiated the charges brought against him by the Attorney with a truthfulness and force which impressed the Court. The Attorney had probably expected to find Essex broken down by more than eight months of imprisonment, and by a protracted and almost fatal disease. Essex would come into Court utterly unprepared to defend himself against Coke's charges, which amounted to an impu- tation of disloyalty, but with a carefully conned speech of penitence and submission, Without notice or opportunity for preparation of any kind, without papers for reference, without advisers or witnesses, he would either defend himself so im- potently as practically to admit the charges, or — more probably — not defend himself at all, but simply deliver his speech of submission. This Coke may naturally have anticipated. But Essex disappointed his enemies. The letters of Ormond, Bowker, and the rest he rejected as fabrications, calling God to witness their falsehood. The charge of having entertained " abominable and odious conditions," he met in the same way : " toleration," he said, had been proposed to him by Tyrone, but he had expressly refused to accord it.^ The Attorney was silent. He had brought a charge that he could not prove. It was one thing to accuse Essex of entertaining traitorous propo- sitions when he was lying on a sick bed in the Lord Keeper's house last November, and a Declaration was being made of his faults in his absence : but it was quite a different thing now that he was present and able to defend himself. The Court had made a palpable mistake : but the dexterous Cecil came to the rescue and covered the Attorney's retreat: "Master Secretary also cleared the Earl in that respect, that he never yielded to Tyrone in that foul condition, though by reason of Tyrone's vaunting afterwards it might have some shew of probability." ^ Having thus successfully repudiated the charges of treason- able conduct — for such they amounted to — ^brought against him by the Attorney, Essex was assured by his judges that they did not intend to impute any disloyalty to him, and was urged to ' iloryson, Histwy of Irelaml, p. 168. ' Ibid, 172 BACON AND ESSEX. [Cbtap. XIII. make his submission to the Queen. This he accordingly did. He was then sentenced to be suspended from the execution of his offices, and to remain a prisoner in his own house, " untU. it should please her Majesty to release both this and all the rest." ^ It is characteristic of Bacon that, in defending the part he took in these proceedings, he admits with unconventional honesty that he was actuated primarily by a regard to his own interests ; it is no less characteristic that he persuades himself that the course he took was also advantageous to his friend. It will be best to give his defence in his own words. He had been informed, he says, by one of the councillors that her Majesty had not yet resolved whether he (Bacon) should be employed or not. " And hereupon might arise that other sinister and untrue speech that 1 hear is raised against me, how I was a suitor to be used against my Lord of Essex at that time ; for it is very true that I, that knew well what had passed between the Queen and me, and what occasion I had given her both of distaste and distrust in crossing her disposition by standing stead- fastly for my Lord of Essex, and suspecting it also to be a stratagem arising from some particular emulation,^ I writ to her two or three words of compliment, signifying to her Majesty that, if she would be pleased to spare me in my Lord of Essex's cause, out of tbe consideration she took of my obligation towards him, I should reckon it for one of her highest favours ; but otherwise desiring her Majesty to 'think that I knew the degrees of duties, "and that no particular obligation whatever to any subject could supplant or weaken that entireness of duty that I did owe and bear to her and her service ; and this was the goodly suit I made, being a ' II. 174. Mr. Spedding's account of the matter is as follows: "Essex, who knew well enough what he was to be charged with (for the offences were the same which he had been called on to answer before the Council, and which had been openly declared in the Star Chamber), came prepared with a speech of acknowledgment and submission to be delivered with tears and tear-moving accents. But though prepared for the substance, he was not prepared for the style. From the Councillors, whether friends or enemies, he had always received good language. In the mouth of Coke the same cJuirges assumed a form so irritating that he was provoked to alter his tone and attempt a justification of all his acta point by point. " The italics are mine. An interesting letter from Reynolds, Essex's Secretary, to Sir Gilly Meyrick, written some time after the Star Chamber Declaration (S. P. 0. ) tells us that Essex was earnestly desirous of examining his papers in order to clear himself from the charges brought against him in the Star Chamber. But Reynolds is much more anxious that Essex should submit to the Queen than that he should prove his innocence. If the Earl defends himself he will only irritate the Queen — that is the burden of the letter. ^ i.e. A stratagem of Coke's to exclude Bacon from the credit of taking part in the prosecution. 1600.] BACON'S PART AGAINST ESSEX. 173 respect that no man that had his wits could have omitted ; hut nevertheless I had a further reach in it, for I judged that day's work would be a full period of any bitterness or harshness between the Queen and my Lord, and therefore, if I declared myself fully according to her mind at thai time, which could not do my Lord any manner of prejudice, I should heep my credit with her ever after, whereby to do my Lord service. " Hereupon the next news that I heard was that we were all sent for again, and that her Majesty's pleasure was, we all should have parts in the business ; and the Lords falling into distribution of our parts, it was allotted to me, that I should set forth some undutiful carriage of my Lord, in giving occasion and countenance to a seditious pamphlet, as it was termed, which was dedicated to him, which was the book before mentioned of King Henry the Fourth. " Whereupon I replied to that allotment and said to their Lordships that it was an old matter and had no manner of coherence with the rest of the charge, being matters of Ireland, and therefore that I having been wronged by bruits before, this would expose me to them more ; and it would be said I gave in evidence mine own tales. It was answered again with good shew that, because it was considered how I stood tied to my Lord of Essex, therefore that part was thought fitter for me which did him least hurt ; for that whereas all the rest was matter of charge and accusation, this only was but matter of caveat and admonition. " Wherewith though I was in mine own mind little satisfied, because I knew well a man were better to be charged with some faults than ad- monished of some others, yet the conclusion binding upon the Queen's pleasure directly volens nolens, I could not avoid that part which was laid upon me ; which part, if in the delivery I did handle not tenderly (though no man before me did in so clear terms free my Lord from all disloyalty as I did), that, your Lordship knoweth, must be ascribed to the superior duty I did owe to the Queen's fame and honour in a public proceeding, and partly to the intention 1 had to uphold myself in credit and strength with the Queen, the letter to he able to do my Lord good offices afterwards." ' To some it may appear that Bacon, by writing those "two or three lines of compliment " to the Queen, virtually sought the task which he affected to decline : others may be disposed to think that the circumstances did not justify his accepting, much less courting, the task of prosecuting his former benefactor. But setting these views aside, we must point out that in two or three important respects the Apology appears to be inaccurate. Bacon says he freed the Earl of disloyalty in specially clear terms : on the contrary, he rather implied that the Earl might have been accused of disloyalty */ the Queen had thought fit to have 1 Apology, p. 13. 174 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. XIII. proceeded against him in a regular way : " for if that [dis- loyalty] had been the charge, this," said Bacon in his speech at York House, " had not been the place." Again he says in the Apology, " I could not avoid that part which was laid upon me." But he could have avoided mention of the unfortunate letter written by Essex to the Lord Keeper : he could have avoided recalling to the Queen's mind the ex- pressions in which the Earl had declared that the Queen's heart was obdurate, and that there was no tempest to the passionate indignation of a prince. This was not contained in " that part which was laid upon" him. Even if we excuse aU else, this part of Bacon's attack on Essex seems utterly inexcusable. The motive for travelling outside his part to rake up these indiscreet utterances may well have been " the intention I had to uphold myself in credit and strength with the Queen," but hardly the second purpose asserted by Bacon — " the better to be able to do my Lord good ofSces afterwards." It may well be supposed that the Earl's friends keenly re- sented the unfriendly part played on this occasion by Francis Bacon. Fear would no doubt compel them to express their feelings to none but their most intimate friends, and the letters containing such expressions would for the most part be burned lest they should prejudice the receivers. But what Sir GUly Meyrick thought of Bacon's conduct we know from the following letter : — " To THE Eael of SODTIrA^rPTON. " Eight honoheable and my singular good Lord, " I cannot set down directly the particulars of the proceedings against my Lord. There was present Sir Charles Danvers, who, I doubt not, hath particularly advertised your Lordship ; but, as near as I can, I will acquaint your Lordship with what I have heard from those [who] were present. My Lord was charged by the Sergeant, Attorney, the Solicitor, and Mr. Bacon —who was very idle and, I hope, will have the reward of tJiat sooner [.* honour] in the end. " They did insist to prove my Lord's contempt in five points. The first was the making of your Lordship General of the Horse, being clouded with her Majesty's displeasure. It was bitterly urged by the Attorney, and very worthily answered by my Lord. The next was the making of knights. His lordship did answer that very nobly. The next was the Munster journey, some inventions urged by the Attorney with letters IGOO.] BACON'S PART AGAINST ESSEX. 175 shewed from Ormond, Bowker, and Warham and Leger. My Lord, in the satisfying of that, answered, ' God knew the truth of [ ],^ and hath rewarded one of them for their perfidiousness.' " Then his Lordship was interrupted and wished to continue as he had begun, which was to submit to her Majesty's gracious favour. In the end, the Lords did dehver their opinions, and, in that course, did sentence that my Lord should forbear the execution of his Councillor's place, and the (?) Marshal's place, the Master of the Ordnance' place, until it were her Majesty's further pleasure to restore him. "There were other three points his Lordship was charged with, which was, the making of knights, the speaking with Tyrone,^ and his coming home without leave. To all my Lord spake with answer to his ends. " The Lords and the rest freed his Lordship from any disloyalty. All delivered their opinions touching the sequestration of the offices, saving my Lord of Worcester. My Lord of Cumberland dealt very nobly. The rest all held the course which was fitting to clear the Queen's honour : which, God be thanked, I hear she is well satisfied. And yet a part is to-morrow to he handled in the Star Chamber and [ ] liberty [? then will use all] thank God [ ]. " GiLLY Mbyrick.2 "11 June, 1600." < Blauk.in MSS. ° Objection appears to have been taken more than once to the want of dignity and ceremony with which the parley was conducted between Essex and Tyrone. In the Sydney Papers (June 11), though no mention is made of Tyrone's Propo- sitions, it is said that the Earl was blamed " that he did parU very basely iinth Tyrone." ' Hatfield MSS. 80] 20. I am indebted to Professor Brewer for the transcript of this letter. Mr. Spedding defends Bacon as " the subject was not of hia own choosing ; " and he infers that Bacon's treatment of the subject was not unfriendly, partly because Essex subsequently accepted Bacon's services in the attempt to reconcile him to the Queen, and partly because "I do not find that any fault was found with him at this time by the Sari's partisans." The italics are mine. CHAPTER XIV. ESSEX SOLICITING THE QUEEN. On the 5th of July Essex was released from his keeper, though still confined to his house; and on the 26th of August he was released from all restraint and free to go where he wished. Now, therefore, it was open to him to carry out those resolutions which had often at different times passed through his mind, of forswearing the Court and retiring to a life of study and contemplation. "Why did he not do this ? The answer is that he was overwhelmed with debt, and that his only chance of extricating himself lay in the continuance of his offices to him, and more especially in the continuance of the sweet-wine monopoly, which formed the principal part of his revenue. This expired in September, and if the Queen refused to renew it, he knew, and all the world knew, that he was a ruined man. Many of these debts had been incurred in the service of his country. It was almost impossible, in those days, to assume any high military command without involving oneself in debt. Of this, instances have been given in the Introductory Chapter ; ^ and Essex was no exception to the rule. No doubt his liberality to his friends plunged him still deeper in debt than he would otherwise have been. When he promises Sir Francis Allen that, as long as he has two houses, Frank shall have one of them,2 and when he gives Francis Bacon a piece of ground worth £7,000 or £8,000 of our money at a gift, we cannot find it difficult to understand that Essex should be in debt : but it seems clear that much of his debt was incurred in the service of the State, and particularly in military service. 1 Writing to Mr. Windebank in Jannary, 1598, Cecil says, " The Lord Admiral hath spent £20,000 in four journeys." a See p. 28 ahovo. 1600.] ESSEX SOLICITING THE QUEEN. 177 The correspondence of Anthony Bacon contains abundant evidence that the Earl was in the habit of spending large sums of money for the purpose of obtaining early and accurate news from the Continent. In May, 1596, he writes to Anthony just before the Cadiz expedition, " I have racked my wits to get this commission and my means to carry that M'hich should do the feat, as they say : " i and in November of the same year he writes to Sir Kobert Sydney, " Until I can pay mine own debts and take up all my unthrifty humours, I will not think owing of money any sin in you." In his Apology he speaks of his " sea- journeys these two last summers, wherein both myself and my friends ventured deeply for our private means," and he describes the adventure to Portugal as "a mere adventure of private men in which I engaged my means, kinsfolk, friends, and followers." In October, 1596, Francis Bacon thinks it necessary to warn him of the " inequality between his estate of means and greatness of respects." ^ The same letter indicates one reason why Essex did not amass wealth so rapidly as others ; he reaped a large revenue, it is true, from the sweet- wine monopoly, but he was not disposed to accumulate such monopolies nor to make money out of his influence. At least Bacon implies as much, by advising him to go on in his honourable commonwealth courses as he does, and not to try to " cure " the dangerous impression of popularity " by dealing in monopolies and other oppressions." In July, 1597, his friends "laid before him the difficulty of his esta,te, his being in debt, his speedy time of payment appointed, and the near time of the expiration of the lease of sweet-wines." Cecil, when obtaining from the Queen the renewal of the lease, makes the significant entry that he " shewed the Earl's debts " to her Majesty. Shortly before he set out on his Irish expedition in 1599, it had been generally expected that he would obtain the lucrative Mastership of the "Wards ; but he had failed, and it had been bestowed upon Cecil. Chamberlain speaks^ of an intention on the part of the Queen at that time to contribute £20,000 toward extricating him from his debts : but according to Moryson, the 1 Add MSS. " n. 44. 3 8th December, 1598. N 178 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. XIV. debts released amounted to no more than half that sum.^ From this alone we should be justified in inferriag that the Earl was stUl heavily burdened with debt ; but the testimony of the Sydney Papers is explicit.^ When "300 brother" (probably cypher for Lord Henry Howard) tries to reconcile Essex and Cecil, Cecil will say no more than that " he is content to shew no malice " ; but he will entertain no propositions of friendship, for " there was no constancy in the Earl's love, and his passions were too violent, and his estate being now hrokev, he might be forced to solicit the Queen for better means.'^ ^ But it may be urged, though Essex would be a poor man, yet he would have enough to live on, and amid the delights of study and the solaces of society he might have spent a retired life on his estate at Lampsie in Wales, away from the " fatal circle " of the Court, for which he had always professed a theoretic aver- sion. That was not possible. He could not have lived in the enjoyment of his former free intercourse with his friends without exciting the Queen's anger. To be excluded from Court and under the Queen's " indignation " meant, in the days of Elizabeth, to be excluded from the society of the nobility, and to be shunned by all who desired the reputation of loyal subjects. The testimony of Cecil is explicit on this point. Writing to his intimate friend, Sir George Carew, on the 29th of August (three days after the Earl had been finally released from all restraint and supervision), the Secretary makes the following ' Moryson, p. 161. a Sydmey Papers, October 25, 1599. ^ I have laid some stress on the Earl's pecuniary difficulties at this time, because they appear in part to explain his subsequent action. Mr. Spedding ends his account of Essex's imprisonment and release in these words : ' ' This opens a new chapter in his fortunes. No longer in danger, no longer under re- straint, he cannot henceforth he supposed to be acting from fear. All that in the life of a private man is most prized — freedom, leisure, popularity, wealth, gifts of nature, and accomplishments of education — he possesses in greater abundance than most other men. If his purposes are good and his aspirations pure, there seems to be no reason why he may not be happy in retirement and earn the right to reappear in his former, or more than his former, greatness. " Life and Letters, ii. 189. In a corresponding passage in the Cmtemporary Review, August, 1876, p. 379 the word "wealth" is silently omitted. " "Why was Essex unhappy ? He had liberty, leisure, the society of his friends, the love of his countrymen, all accom- plishments of mind and body, and all the tastes which give sweetness and dignity to private life. He was unhappy (for anything that anybody not in his innermost confidence then knew) only because he was no longer a Court favourite." So important an omission deserved some comment. 1600.] ' ESSEX SOLICITING THE QUEEN. 179 comment on the Earl's release. " The Queen is pleased to grant him liberty to go into Oxfordshire to one of his uncle's houses, ■with this commandment, that although she is contented he shall hold himself to be under no guard but the guard of duty and discretion, yet he must in no sort take himself to be freed of her Majesty's indignation. That distinction of being free from guard but tonder indignation makes very few resort to him but those who are of his own blood." ^ What could Essex do, or what could he hope amid circum- stances so hopeless ? His debtors, pressing him on all sides, were only likely to refrain from their extreme remedy tUl they saw -whether the Queen would or would not renew his sweet- wine monopoly ; his friends were holding aloof from him for fear of the Queen's indignation ; his health, enfeebled by his long disease and imprisonment, and by the anxieties of his position, appears (if we may judge from indirect evidence) to have been by no means firmly re-established : as for his " popu- larity," Bacon had wisely warned him that it was his greatest danger. Seek where he might, he could see no hope but in a frank and full reconciliation to the Queen. But she, for her part, aware of her advantage and of his necessity, was by no means disposed to be reconciled. She had probably never forgiven him that act of insolence which had induced her to strike him. Once convinced that her former favourite had never loved, never even respected her, she had readUy begun to suspect and fear him. Now she was to have revenge. To quote an old phrase of hers, " Essex had played upon her, now she intended to play upon him." But Essex, ignorant, it would seem, of the Queen's settled determination, innocently thought that he could secure his return to favour by his old flatteries. " Since I was first so happy as to know what love meant, I was never one day nor one hour free from jealousy ; and as long as you do me right, they are the inseparable com- panions of my life ;" ^ " I do confess that, as a man, I have been more subject to your natural beauty than as a subject to the power of a king "^ — so he writes to the Queen in 1597 and 1598, ' Carew Papers, August 29 . 2 1697 (? October), lAves of the Earls of Essex, i. 465. 3 Ibid. p. 497/'September or October, 1698. 180 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. XIV. and he seems to have thought that the same old wiles would avail him still. But the Queen saw through them now with the clear-sighted- ness of a woman who had ceased to love. She makes a bitter jest upon the affectionate letter of the Earl, which she was on the point of taking to be out of the abundance of his heart, till she found that all the affection was but a preface to the petition for the renewal of the sweet- wine monopoly. In this difficulty, the Earl sorely needed some one who should represent to him the Queen's mind, and teach him how to regain the royal favour. Such a counsellor he seemed most likely to find in Erancis Bacon, who now at this juncture offered the Earl his services. It is more creditable to Bacon's heart than to his head, that he should have thought it worth while to effect a reconciliation with his former benefactor. Knowing, as he did know, the present temper of the Queen, and the nature of Essex, he might have predicted, one would have thought, that what had passed between them could never be forgiven and forgotten. Cecil's was the wise and correct judgment when (while at the same time disclaiming active hostility) he refused to be an active friend of the Earl's, on the ground that the Earl was inconstant and a man of " broken means " to boot. But Bacon's calm and passionless nature perhaps scarcely appreciated the Queen's passionate resentment on the one side, and, on the other side, the Earl's inability to make himself a passive tool in the Queen's hands. The possibility therefore of a reconciliation between the Queen and Essex seemed to him not so very remote. In this belief he was perhaps confirmed by the general tendency of the opinion of the Court, which pointed to a speedy reconciliation. On the 11th of June, White writes: "Her Majesty is very much quieted and satisfied to see that the Lords of her Council, her nobility and the grave judges of her land, do hold him worthy of far more punishment than hath been inflicted on him." ^ On the 13th of June Chamberlain writes that it is daily expected that the Earl will have liberty to go to Barn Elms, as the first stage towards complete freedom. To do justice to Bacon's prudence, it must be admitted that ^ Sydmey Papers. 1600.] ESSEX SOLICITING THE QUEEN. 181 he is not precipitate in giving way to the general opinion, and in tendering his services to Essex. The Earl was released from his keeper on the 5th of July. It was not till the 2Qth of July that Bacon, after a fortnight's deliberation, resolved that it was worth while, after a silence of nine months, once more to address the friend to whom, in his last letter, he had declared that he was " more his than any man's, and more his than any man." Here, as elsewhere, the account in the Apology is incompatible with facts. That account is as follows : — " From this time forth, during the whole latter end of that summer, while the Court was at Nonesuch and Oatlands, I made it my task and scope to take and give occasions for my Lord's reintegration in his fortune, which my intention I did also signify to my Lord as soon as ever he was at his liberty, whereby I might, without peril of the Queen's indignation, write to him, ; and having received from his Lordship a courteous and loving acceptation of my good will and endeavours, I did apply it in all my accesses to the Queen." ' To allow fifteen days to elapse after the Earl's release from prison before writing to him, cannot be called writing " to my Lord as soon as ever he was at his liberty." But it may be suggested that, though released from his keeper on the 5th of July, Essex was not allowed then to leave his house, and therefore Bacon did not venture to write to him. The answer to this is, that Essex was not allowed to leave his house till the 26th of August. Now Bacon's letter is dated the 20th of July. It is therefore certain that he did not wait tiU the Earl received licence to go whither he would, but merely till the Earl was released from his keeper : and after this release, he allowed fifteen days to elapse before writing, although it was in his power to write. The Apology is therefore once more convicted of error.^ ^ Apology, p. 15. 2 "Bacon's memory," says Mr. Spedding, " was not very accurate in counting time," iv. 48. For instances see iv. 48, i. 350, i. 361. It might have been added, with equal truth, that Bacon's memory was not very accurate in any matters of detail. He was one of the most inaccurate of quoters ; and his biographers naively convert this fault into a virtue. Rawley says, " I have often observed, and so have other men of great account, that if he had occasion to repeat another man's words after him, he had an me and faculty to dress them, in letter vestments and apparel tlutn before." Less picturesquely, but almost as boldly, Mr. Spedding observes, "This is probably the true explanation of a habit of Bacon's which seems at first sight a fault, and perhaps sometimes is; and 182 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. XIV. "To THE Earl of Essex. " My Lord, " No man can better expound my doings than your Lordship, which maketh me say the less. Only I humbly pray you to believe that I aspire to the conscience and commendation of first bonus civis, which with us is a good and true servant to [the Queen, and next of bonus vir, that is an honest man. I desire your Lordship also to think that, though I confess I love some things much better than I love your Lordship, as the Queen's service, her quiet and contentment, her honour, her favour, the good of my country and the like, yet I love few persons better than yourself, both for gratitude's sake, and for your own virtues, which cannot hurt but by accident or abuse. Of which my good afEection I was ever and am ready to yield testimony by any good offices, but with such reservations as yourself cannot but allow. For as I was ever sorry that your Lordship should fly with waxen wings, doubting Icarus' fortune, so for the growing up of your own feathers— especially ostrich's or any other save of a bird of prey — ^no man shall be more glad. And this is the axle-tree whereupon I have turned and shall turn. "Which to signify to you, though I think you are of yourself persuaded as much, is the cause of my writing. And so I commend your Lordship to God's goodness. From Gray's Inn, this 20th day of July, 1600. " Your Lordship's most humbly, "Fb. Bacon." Bacon's letter found the Earl in one of his melancholy despairing fits, when he was crying Vanifas vanitatum, after his manner, and vowing to lead henceforth a life of contempla- tion. But he frankly accepted Bacon's proffered services for the future. As for Bacon's past actions during his imprison- ment, not having heard from his friend for the last nine months, he owns himself unable to expound them, "being ignorant of all of them save one "■ — -he knows that Bacon attacked him in the proceedings at York House. "With a touching dignity he de- clares that their friendship for one another differs in this way : he can never cease (whether it be the result of his disposition or of whieh a great many instances have been pointed out by Mr. Ellis— a habit of inaccurate quotation." The fact was that Bacon was one of the most inaccurate of men. " De minimis non curat lex " — said King James of him ; and the saying is true alike of Ms philosophical and his political works. Partly through this habitual inaccuracy, and partly through a strong sense of the efi'ective way of putting things, Bacon appears to me more often to have 11 11 consciously erred than consciously, in colouring facts to suit his purposes. He had an instinctive bias towards convenient statements, and an unconscious antipathy for inconvenient truth. 1600.] ESSEX SOLICITING THE QUEEN. 183 of deliberate choice) to love Bacon ; but Bacon,'s friendship for him is only based upon a past belief that Essex was once his benefactor. The illustration of Icarus he treats as new and inapplicable to himself, and defends himself against the implied charge of ambition. "Me. Bacon, " I can neither expound nor censure your late actions, being ignorant of them all save one, and having directed my sight inward only to examine myself. You do pray me to believe that you only aspire to the conscience and commendation of bonus civis and bonus vir ; and I do faithfully assure you that while that is your ambition (though your course be active and mine^ contemplative), yet we shall both convenire in eodem tertio, and con- venire inter nos ipsos. Your profession of affection and your offer of good ofiSoes are welcome to me. For answer to them I will say but this : that you have beUeved I have been kind to you, and you may believe that I cannot be other, either upon humour or miue own election. I am a stranger to all poetical conceits, or else I should say somewhat of your poetical example. But 'this I must say, that I never flew with other wings than desire to merit, and confidence in, my sovereign's favour, and when one of these wings failed me, I would hght nowhere but at my sovereign's feet, though she suffered me to be bruised with my fall. And till her Majesty — ^that knows I was never bird of prey — finds it to agree with her will and her service that my wings should be imped again, I have com- mitted myself to the mue. No power but my God's and my sovereign's can alter this resolution of " Your retired friend, " Essex." One point in this letter requires notice. It must be apparent, I think, that the comparison between himself and Icarus strikes Essex as not only unjust, but as novel. " I am a stranger to all poetical conceits, or else I could say somewhat of your poetical example" — these are not the words of one who had had the warning of Icarus dinned into his ears by a familiar friend who for the hundredth time was now repeating that warning. Yet in the Apology, Bacon would have us believe that " Icarus " was as a household word between him and Essex. "Another point was, that I always vehemently dissuaded him from seeking greatness by a military dependence, or by a popular dependence. ' This is Mr. Spedding's suggestion instead of the textual reading, "mind." The text would imply a charge of inconsistency against Bacon. 184 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. XIV. as that which would breed in the Queen jealousy, in himself presumption, and in the State perturbation ; and I did usually compare them to Icarus' two wings, which were joined on with wax, and would make him venture to soar too high and then fail him at the height." ' E"ow there is not only no mention of Icarus, but also no warning against seeking " popularity " in any extant letter from Bacon to Essex. That he had warned the Earl against the suspicion of popularity is true : but in what terms ? " The third impression is of a popular reputation ; which because it is a thing good in itself, being obtained as your Lordship obtaineth it, that is bonis artibus— and besides, well governed, it is one of the best flowers of your greatness both present and to come— it would be handled tenderly. The only way is to quench it verbis and not rebus. And therefore to take all occasions to the Queen to speak against popularity and popular causes vehemently, and to tax it in all others ; but nevertheless to go on in your honourable commonwealth courses as you do," ^ On the whole, this is probably one of the many instances in which Bacon allowed his memory of facts to be biased by what happened after those facts. He had warned Essex against " seeking greatness by a military dependence," but not against seeking it by "a popular dependence." Also when the Earl was in disgrace and suspected by the Queen, Bacon had warned him in a single letter against following the example of Icarus. So much is true : but in after years, sitting down to write his Apology, Bacon throws the Icarian warning back into a remoter past, and taking as it were a bird's-eye view of the whole career of Essex, persuades himself into the belief that he had all along deprecated not only his friend's love of war, but also his craving for "popularity," and had repeatedly warned him against trusting to the waxen wings of ambition. But however the Apology may misrepresent the extent of Bacon's foresight, there is no reason to suppose that it exagge- rates the assiduity with which at this time he endeavoured to conciliate the Queen to Essex. The flatteries of Essex had failed : but Bacon now undertook to shew the Earl how to ^ain her favour. He had before insisted on the necessity of some- thing more than mere " favour of affection : " there was to be " correspondence and agreeableness " between Essex and the p- 5. 2 II. 42. 1600.] ESSEX SOLICITING THE QUEEN. 185 Queen. Essex had always followed a different path. While flattering and humouring the Queen, he had disregarded her opinion and judgment, and it was a favourite saying with him that he " must do the Queen good against her will." Now this policy having heen tried and found wanting, Bacon desires Essex to give the Queen the impression that henceforth he will be entirely " corresponding and agreeable " to her will. Writing a letter ^ in Essex's name to the Queen, he would have the Earl assure her Majesty that henceforth " he has not whither to resort but unto the oracle of her Majesty's direction." His \ \ only fear will be that he may not always discern her Majesty's will. "As you have determined," so runs the letter prescribed by Bacon to Essex, "your hope in a good hour not willingly to offend her Majesty either in matter of court or state, but to depend absolutely upon her will and pleasure, so you do more doubt and mistrust your wit and insight in finding her Majesty's mind, than your conformities and submission in obeying it." ^ Essex is to be a mere child in the hands of the inscrutable sovereign : he has offended her perhaps by mis- understanding her commands literally, henceforth he will be better advised.^ But these letters, skilfully though they are composed, do not adequately represent either the diligence of Bacon's intercession, or the v/onderful versatility with which he could assume the character of another. No account of Bacon's earlier life should omit the two famous letters composed by him in the naine of his brother Anthony, and again in the name of Essex, in reply. The wonderful exactness with which he has caught the somewhat quaint, humorous, cumbersome style of Anthony, and the abrupt, incisive, antithetical, and passionately rhetorical style of Essex, makes the perusal of these composi- tions a literary treat, independently of their other merits. Then again the manner in which Anthony, the sickly invalid, divided between his devotion to his brother and his patron, pours ' Mr. Spedding thinks the letter would come in appropriately at this date, ii. 194. I should have thought it had been written eariier. 2 II. 196. ^ Ibid. "You cannot nourish a doubt that her Majesty, as princes' hearts are inscrutable, hath many times towards you aliud in ore and alivd in corde. So that you, that take her secundum literam, go many times farther out of your way." 186 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. XIV. forth his somewhat lengthly conjectures about the Queen's moti-^-es, affords a truly dramatic contrast with the peremptory despair of Essex. Noteworthy also are the references to Francis Bacon in the two letters. If the Queen read them, she could hardly fail to think the better of Francis in con- sequence of them. He is described as being "reserved" even to a fault, yet giving the most favourable account of the Queen's gracious intentions. Essex must expect an eclipse at least for a time : but Anthony desires and hopes to see his brother Francis "established ly her Majesty's favour, as he thinks him well worthy, for that he hath done and suffered." If the Queen was jealous lest Francis Bacon was still too well loved by Essex, nothing was more likely to disarm her jealousy than the Earl's almost sullen admission to Anthony, "For your brother, I hold him an honest gentleman, and wish him all good, rfiiich the rather for yov/r sake!' Again, the whole tenour of the letter appeals to the Queen's sense of administrative policy as well as to her sense of power. The enemies of Essex are represented as triumphant. The Queen has desired to be merciful; but the "enemies" have thwarted and will thwart her. The Queen is still prepared to forgive ; but the " enemies " will not allow her to have a chance of forgiving, and for that purpose will keep Essex from Court and force him to despair. To a Queen who had an opinion that " government, with respect to factions was a principal part of policy," it might well seem that it was not wise thus to allow one faction of her Court to be completely crushed. From every point of view these letters are, artisti- cally considered, admirable compositions. The commencement of Anthony's letter implies that the Earl — who was intensely religious with a somewhat narrow Protes- tantism — was just now in one of his religious moods. Francis makes Anthony hint that people wiU say that he is like Leicester, and call his religion mere hypocrisy; and by that very hint he both suggests to the Queen — who was fully aware of the difference between Essex and Leicester — that it is not hypocrisy, and also paves the way for the Earl to quit his religious melancholy and to enter on a new course of application to the Queen. 1600.] ESSEX SOLICITING THE QUEEN. 187 " Two LETTEES FRAMED BY SiR FrANCIS BACON, THE ONE AS IN THE NAME OF Mr. AnTHONY BaCON, HIS BROTHER, TO THE EaRL OF EsSEX ; THE OTHER AS THE EAEL'S ANSWER THEREUNTO. ''^ Both which, by the advice of Mr. Anthony Bacon, and with the privity of the said Barl, were to he shewed Queen Elizabeth upon some occasion, as a mean to work her Majesty to receive the Earl again to favour and attendance at Court. They were devised while my Lord remained prisoner in his own house. "My SINGTOAE GOOD LOBD, "This standing at a stay in your Lordship's fortune doth make me in my love towards your Lordship jealous lest you do somewhat, or omit some- what, that amounteth to a new error ; for I suppose of all former errors there is a full expiation. Wherein for anything that your Lordship doth, I for my part (who am remote) cannot cast nor devise wherein any error should be, except in one point, which I dare not censure nor dissuade ; which is, that (as the prophet saith) in this affliction you look up ad manum percutientem-, and so make your peace with God. And yet I have heard it noted that my Lord of Leicester (who could never get to be taken for a saint) nevertheless in the Queen's disfavour waxed seeminglj'- religious ; which may be thought by some and used by others as a case resembling yours, if men do not see, and will not see, the difierence between your two dispositions. " But to be plain with your Lordship, my fear rather is, because I hear how some of your good and wise friends, not unpractised in the Court, and supposing themselves not to be unseen in that deep and inscrutable centre of the Court, which is her Majesty's mind, do not only toll the bell, but even ring out peals, as if your fortune were dead and buried, and as if there were no possibility of recovering her Majesty's favour, and as if the best of your condition were to live a private and retired life, out of want, out of peril, and out of manifest disgrace ; and so in this persuasion of theirs include a persuasion to your Lordship to frame and accommodate your actions and mind to that end — I fear, I say, that this untimely despair may in time bring forth a just despair, by causing your Lordship to slack and break ofE your wise, loyal, and seasonable endeavours and industries for redintegration to her Majesty's favour ; in comparison whereof all other circumstances are but as atomi, or rather as vacuum without any sab.stance at all. " Against this opinion it may please your Lordship to consider of these reasons which I have collected, and to make judgment of them, neither out of the melancholy of your present fortune, nor out of the infusion of that which cometh to you by others' relation (which is subject to much tincture), but ex rebus ipsis, out of the nature of the persons and actions themselves, as the trustiest and least deceiving grounds of opinion. For 188 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. XIV. though I am so unfortunate as to be a stranger to her Majesty's eye and to her nature, yet by that which is apparent, I do manifestly discern that she hath that character of the Divine nature and goodness, ' Quos amavit, amavit usque ad finem ; ' and where she hath a creature, she doth not deface nor defeat it. Insomuch as, if I observe rightly, in those persons whom heretofore she hath honoured with her special favour, she hath covered and remitted not only defects and ingratitudes in afEection, but errors in state and service. " Secondly, if I can spell and scholar-like put together the parts of her Majesty's proceeding now towards your Lordship, I can but make this construction — that her Majesty in her royal intention never purposed to call your Lordship's doings into pubUo question, but only to have used a cloud without a shower, in censuring them by some temporary restraint only of libertjr, and debarring you from her presence. For first, the handling the cause in the Star Chamber, you not called, was enforced by the violence of hbelling and rumours, wherein the Queen thought to have satisfied the world, and yet spared your Lordship's appearance. And then after, when that means which was intended for the quenching of malicious bruits, turned to kindle them (because it was said your Lordship was condemned unheard, and your Lordship's sister wrote that piquant letter), then her Majesty saw plainly that these winds of rumours could not be commanded down without a handling of the cause by making you party, and admitting your defence. And to this purpose I do assure your Lordship that my brother, Francis Bacon, who is too wise (I think) to be abused, and too honest to abuse, though he he more reserved in all particulars than is needful, yet in generality he hath ever constantly and with asseveration affirmed to me that hoth those days, that of the Star Chamber and that at my Lord Keeper's, were won from the Queen merely upon necessity and point of honour, against her ovm inclination. " Thirdly, in the last proceeding I note three points, which are directly significant, that her Majesty did expressly forbear any point which was irreparable, or might make your Lordship in any degree incapable of the return of her favour, or might fix any character indelible of disgrace upon you. For she spared the pubKc place of the Star Chamber ; she limited the charge precisely not to touch disloyalty ; and no record remaineth to memory of the charge or sentence. " Fourthly, the very distinction which was made in the sentence, of sequestration from the places of service in State, and leaving your Lord- ship the place of Master of the Horse, doth to my understanding, indicative, point at this — that her Majesty meant to use your Lordship's attendance in Court, while the exercises of the other places stood suspended. " Fifthly, I have heard, and your Lordship knoweth better, that now, since you were in your own custody, her Majesty in verho regio and by his mouth to whom she committeth her royal grants and decrees, hath assured your Lordship she will forbid and not suffer your ruin. 1600.] ESSEX SOLICITINQ THE QUEEN. 189 " Sixthly, as 1 have heard her Majesty to be a prince of that magnanimity that she will spare the service of the ablest subject or peer when she shall be thought to stand in need of it ; so she is of that policy as she will not lose the service of a meaner than your Lordship, where it shall depend merely upon her choice and will. " Seventhly, I hold it for a principle, that generally those diseases are hardest to cure whereof the cause is obscure ; and those easiest whereof the cause is manifest. Whereupon I conclude that, since it hath been your errors in your courses towards her Majesty which have prejudiced you, that your reforming and conformity will restore you, so as you may be faber fortuncB propriae. " Lastly, considering your Lordship is removed from dealing in causes of State, and left only to a place of attendance, methinks the ambition of any man who can endure no partners in State matters may be so quenched, as they shall not laboriously oppose themselves to your being in Court. " So as, upon the whole matter, I can find neither in her Majesty's person, nor in your own person, neither in former precedents nor in your own case, any cause of dry and peremptory despair. Neither do I speak this, but that if her Majesty out of her resolution do design you to a private life, you should be as willing upon her appointment to go into the wildei-ness as into the land of promise. Only I wish your Lordship will not preoccupate despair, but put trust, next to God, in her Majesty's grace, and not be wanting to yourself. " I know your Lordship may justly interpret that this which I persuade may have reference to niy particular, because 1 may truly say, ' te stante,' not ' virebo ' (for I am withered in myself), but ' manebo ' or ' tenebo ' ; I shall in some sort be able to hold out. But though your Lordship's years and health may expect i a return of grace and fortune, yet your eclipse for a time is an ' ultimum vale ' to my fortune ; and were it not that I desire and hope to see my brother established by her Majesty's favour (as I think him well worthy for that he hath done and suffered) it were time to take that course from which I dissuade your Lordship. But now in the meantime, I cannot choose but perform these honest duties to you, to whom I have been so deeply bounden." '' The Lettee feamed as feom the Eael in answee of the FOEMEE Lettee. " Mb. Bacon, " I thank you for your kind and careful letter. It persuadeth me that which I wish strongly and hope for weakly ; that is, a possibility of restitu- tion to her Majesty's favour. "Your arguments, that would cherish hope, turn to despair. You say the Queen never meant to call me to public censure ; but you see I passed it, which sheweth others' power. I believe ' i.e. await. 190 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. XIV. most steadfastly her Majesty never intended to bring my cause to a sen- tence ; and I believe as verily that, since the sentence, she meant to restore me to attend upon her person. But they that could use occasions (which it was not in me to let ') and amplify occasions, and practise occasions, to represent to her Majesty a necessity to bring me to the one, can and will do the like to stop me from the other. "You say my errors were my prejudice and therefore I can mend myself. It is true. But they that know that I can mend myself, and that, if I ever recover the Queen, I will never lose her again, will never suffer me to obtain interest in her favour. You say the Queen never forsook utterly where she inwardly favoured. But I know not whether the hour-glass of time hath altered her : but sure I am the false glass of others must alter her, when I want access to plead my own cause. "I know I ought doubly infinitely to be her Majesty's, both 'jure creationis,' for I am her creature, and ' jure redemptionis,' for I know she hath saved me from overthrow. But for her first love, and for her last protection, and all her great benefits, I can but pray for her Majesty. And my endeavours are now to make my prayers for her and myself better heard. For, thanks be to God, they that can make her Majesty believe I counterfeit with her, cannot make G-od believe that I counterfeit with Him. And they which can let me from coming near unto her, cannot let me from drawing near unto Him, as I hope I do daily. " For your brother, I hold him an honest gentleman, and wish him all good, much the rather for yowr sahe. Yourself, I know, hath suffered more for me than any friend I have. But I can but lament freely, as you see I do, and advise you not to do that which I do, which is, to despair. " You know letters, what hurt they have done me,^ and therefore make sure of this. And yet I could not (as having no other pledge of my love) but communicate freely with you for the ease of my heart and yours." It is of course 'impossible to determine with certainty from these letters whether Bacon was encouraging the Earl in a hypocritical affectation of religious melancholy, -or simply ex- pressing the Earl's actual feelings in the manner in which he thought they would he most acceptable to the Queen. Bacon, as we know from his Essays and from his practice, did not condemn dissimulation nor even simulation where " there is no remedy : " stiU we can hardly conceive that he would have written in Essex's name, " Thanks be to God, they that can ' i.e. prevent. 2 Perhaps the reference is to the letter wi'itten by Essex to Egerton for which he was attacked by Francis Bacon at York House. "Make sure of this " of coui-se means " destroy this." It is a very artistic insertion in a letter written, not to be burned or " made sure of," but to be preserved by Anthony and to be giyei by him to Francis, and to be shewn by Francis to the Queen. 1600.] ESSEX SOLICITING THE QUEEN. 191 make her Majesty believe I can counterfeit with her, cannot make God believe that I counterfeit with Him," and "they which can let me from coming near unto her, cannot let me from drawing near unto Him, as I hope I do daily " — unless he believed that the Earl was reaUy now, as he often had been before, in one of his religious moods. The mood might be transient, but it would appear that' Bacon wrote under the impression that it was genuine. But compare this with the corresponding passage in the Declaration of the Treasons of Essex, penned by Bacon for the Court : — "Neither was the effect of the sentence that there passed against him any more than a suspension of the exercise of some of his places : at which time also Essex, that could vary himself into all shapes for a time, infinitely desirous (as by the sequel now appeareth) to be at liberty tu practise and revise his former purposes, and hoping to set into them with better strength than ever, because he conceived the people's hearts were kindled to him by his troubles, and that they had made great demonstra- tion of as much — he did transform himself into such a strange and dejected humihty, as if he had been no man of this world, with passionate protestations that he called God to witness, ' That he had made an utter divorce with the world ; and he desired her Majesty's favour not for any worldly respect, but for a preparative for a Nunc dimittis; and that the tears of his heart had quenched in him all humours of ambition.' " ' I do not deny that Essex may have been dissembling. We know that Bacon persistently urged him to dissemble long ago, and to " pretend to be bookish and contemplative : " but if Essex was really dissembling at Bacon's advice, and expressing his dissimulation in Bacon's own words, then it is intolerable that Bacon himself should afterwards turn round upon the Earl and charge him (by way of proving treason) with the dissimulation which he had himself put into the Earl's mouth. But this alternative is not probable. It is almost incompat- ible with Essex's character that he should have dissembled in religious matters. In such things he was timid even to super- stition.^ It is much more probable that he was not dissembling ^ Declaration, p. 14. ^ See Dr. Barlow's aosount of the Earl's confession, how that " sometimes in the field encountering the enemy, being in any danger, the weight of his sins lying heavy , upon his conscience, being not reconciled to God, quelled his spirits and made him the most timorous and fearftd man that might be." — Dr. Barlow's Sermon, Ed. 1601. 192 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. XIV at all, and that Bacon, at the time, knew that he was expressing the Earl's true feelings. " But the ' sequel ' shewed Bacon afterwards that the Earl had really been dissembling." It is just this " sequel " that pervades the whole of Bacon's Apology and Declaration, making them both historically worthless. Bacon cannot look at the past with a simple eye, but always views it through the " sequel," doing violence to facts, converting impulsiveness into treason, and seeing in transient religious melancholy a deep hypocrisy.^ The next point to be considered in these two letters is the theory of "enemies," the theory — of which Bacon apparently admits the truth,- for upon it the whole of the correspondence is based — that Essex was being kept from the Court by " enemies " against the Queen's will. Here there is less doubt than before, that Bacon was expressing (and stamping with his approval) the genuine belief of Anthony and Essex. Any other supposition is fraught with many difficulties. It is very hard to suppose that Francis Bacon told his brother and Essex the truth, i.e. that the Queen of her own self was violently opposed to the Earl — and yet at the same time urged them to ignore the facts and to attribute the opposition to Cecil. Had he revealed the truth, such a revelation (if made known to the Queen) would have ruined him for ever in the Queen's eyes. Moreover, Bacon had repeatedly in former times warned Essex against his enemies at Court, " crossing and disgracing your actions, extenuating and blasting of your merit, .... yea, and per case venturing you in perilous and desperate enterprises." It is therefore much more probable, and indeed almost certain, that Bacon was on this occasion deceiving the Earl and his brother as well as the Queen, and that he thought it best for all parties and for all purposes, that Essex should attribute his disgrace not to the Queen but to the Cecilian faction, and that the Queen 1 A version of Bacon's own speech in Essex's trial, printed below (see p. 225), and taken from the Lambeth MSS. 931]61, charges Essex with "carrying a shew of religion. " When Coke brings this accusation of "hypocrisy in religion," Mr. Spedding justly says "the imputation was not only irrelevant, but unjust." It may be urged that Bacon— who describes himself as nothing but " the pen " wherewith the Court drew up the Declaration— was not responsible for its truth. But few will admit that a man is justified in so far subordinating his own per- sonality as to make himself a mere " pen," especially for the purpose of penning about a benefactor and former friend what the " pen " knows to be false. 1600.] ESSEX SOLICITING THE QUEEN. 193 should believe that Essex was ignorant of her own hostility to him. But now compare the implication contained in these two letters, and the statement in the last-quoted letter, with the following attack made by Bacon on Essex when the latter was on his trial for treason. " For God hath imprinted such a majesty in the face of a prince that no private man dare approach the person of his sovereign with a traitorous intent. And therefore they run another side course, oblique et a latere : some to reform corruptions of the State and rehgion ; some to reduce the ancient liberties and customs pretended to be lost and worn out ; some to remove those persons that being in high places make themselves subject to envy ; but all of them aim at the overthrow of the State and destruction of the present rulers. And this likewise is the use of those that work mischief of another quality, as Cain, that first murderer, took up an excuse for his fact, shaming to outface it with impudency. Thus the Earl made his colour the severing some great men and councillors from her Majesty's favour, and the fear he stood in of his pretended enemies lest they should murder him in his house. Therefore he saith he was compelled to fly into the city for succour and assistance ; not much unlike Pisistratus, of whom it was so anciently written how he gashed and wounded himself and in that sort ran crying into Athens that his life was sought and like to have been taken away ; thinking to have moved the people to have pitied him and taken his part by such counterfeited harm and danger ; whereas his aim and drift was to take the government of the city into his hands, and alter the form thereof. With hke pretences of dangers and assaults the Earl of Essex entered the City of London and passed through the bowels thereof, blanching rumours that he should have been murdered, and that the State was sold — whereas he had no such enemies, no such dangers." CHAPTEE XV. ESSEX ENTERS UPON TEEASON. Bacon's attempts failed, as Essex's had failed, in bringing about a reconciliation between Essex and the Queen. " For the space of six weeks or two months," says Bacon in the Apology, " it {i.e. his management of the simulated correspondence and other attempts at reconciliation) prospered so well as I expected continually his restoring' tb his attendance. . . . But," he con- tinues, " the issue of all his dealing grew to this that the Queen, by some slackness of my Lord's, as I imagine, liked him worse and wotse, and grew more incensed towards him." Finding that he himself, on account of his advocacy of the Earl's cause, was coming to be included with Essex in the Queen's growing dis- pleasure, he remonstrated with her, assuring her of his loyalty and sincerity. Upon this " her Majesty was exceedingly move'd, and accumulated a number of kind and gracious words upon me, and willed me to rest upon this, ' Gratia mea sufiicit,' and a number of other sensible and tender words and demonstra- tions, such as more could not be ; but as touching my Lord of Essex, ne verlum quidem. Whereupon I departed, resting then determined to meddle no more in the matter ; as that that I saw would overthrow me, and not be able to do him any good."i It was no mere " slackness " of the Earl's that caused Bacon's efforts to fail. During the six or eight weeks from the end of August to the beginning of October, the Earl was waiting to see what were the Queen's intentions concerning' him. Soon ^ Apology, p. 18. 1600.] ESSEX ENTERS UPON TREASON. 195 after the 26th of August/ Essex told Sir Charles Davers that, " at Michaelmas the lease of his wines ended, which was the greatest part of his state, that by the renewing it, or taking it from him, he should judge what was meant him ; that about that time he expected there would be a Parliament ; that if then he were not restored to his place and offices, of which he seemed much to doubt, he would for his own part give over the hope thereof" On her side the Queen was possibly waiting to see what would be the effect on Essex of the deprivation of his lease of sweet-wines. All his prayers to be forgiven seemed to her (not unnaturally) merely hypocritical disguises of the prayer for the renewal of the monopoly. " I remember," says Bacon in the Apology, " she told me for news that my Lord had written her some very dutiful letters, and that she had been moved by them, and when she took it to be the abundance of the heart, she found it to be but a preparative to a suit for the renewing of his farm of sweet-wines." It was vain for Bacon to reply that all creatures hate a natural instinct towards " preservation " as well as " perfection," " My Lord's desire to do you service is as to his perfection, that which he thinks himself to be born for ; whereas his desire to obtain this thing of you is but for a sustentation." ^ The Queen was not content that Essex should allow " sustentation " to occupy a place in his thoughts when the " perfection " of doing her service ought to have engrossed him. It was most unfortunate for Essex that the lease of sweet-wines expired at this time; for it would have made any one, and much more a woman so suspicious and jealous as the Queen, disbelieve in the sincerity of his prayers for reconciliation. Up to the 18th of October, Essex had not given up the hopes or language of a suppliant : " Till I may appear in your gracious presence, time itself is a perpetual night, and the whole world a sepulchre unto your Majesty's humblest vassal." But at the end of October he was deprived of his sweet- wine patent, which was assigned to Commissioners for the benefit of the Crown. One last hope remained. If Essex could but for a moment obtain access to the Queen, he felt confident he 1 Sir Charles Davers says, "not long after," ii. 338; Essex (ii. 319) says, "within one month after." ' Apology, p. 16. . 2 196 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. XV, could remove her suspicions and obtain a reconciliation. Now the anniversary of the Queen's coronation-day, the 17th of November, was at hand, a day on which Essex had been wont in old times to outshine all competitors in running for the ring. A letter of Essex indicates that he had hopes of pre- senting himself before her on that day even without her permission : " I sometimes think of running, and then remember what it wlU be to come in armour triumphing into that presence out of which both by your own voice I was commanded, and by your hands thrust out." On October 10th Chamberlain writes " his friends make great means that he may run on the Queen's day." But NevUle (who had written to Winwood on the 9th of September that the Queen began to " relent towards him ") writes on the 2nd of November that there is now ■' no argu- ment of any such relenting disposition as was supposed." By this time Essex was fast drifting into treason — ^treason- able projects as well as mere treasonable words. His state of mind at this crisis is probably well described by Sir Henry Neville's description of his secretary, Cuffe :• " Cuffe would come sometimes unto me. And when I asked him how his Lord's matters stood in Court, he would sometimes give show of hope and sometimes of despair. And at those times when he seemed to despair, he would break out with words of heat and im- patience : as, namely,^ once I remember he repeated this verse : — ' Arma tenenti omnia dat qui justa negat.' " ^ Eeturning from an interview with Essex, Harrington describes him as oscUlating and at times as furious even to insanity : " The man's soul seemeth tossed to and fro like the waves of a troubled sea. . . . His speech of the Queen became no man who hath inem Sana in corpore sano." ^ "What language of his may have been reported to the Queen at this time we do not know on very good evidence, but Ealegh said " that the expression of Essex that the Queen was cankered, and that her mind had become as crooked as her carcase cost him his head, which his insurrection had not cost him, but for that speech."* The Queen on her part set no bounds to her indignation against Essex. " What perils have 1 i.r.. for example. ^ II. 345. ' Harrington, quoted ii. 203. * lAva of the Earls of Essex, ii. 131. 1600:] lESSEX ENTERS UPON TREASON. 197 I escaped," writes Harrington. " I was entrusted by Essex, whom I did adventure to visit, with a message to the Queen's majesty setting forth his condition. But ere I could bear these tidings (which I was well advised to do) the Earl's petition reached her hand." " She catched my girdle when I kneeled to her and swore ' By God's Son I am no queen ! That man is above me.' " ^ Every week now increased the danger of Essex's position. The failure of his flatteries, and probably the report of his reproaches of the Queen, had made her suspect him more than ever. While there was a chance that he might be restored to honour, Essex was in favour of conciliation ; but if he was to remain in disgrace, ruin seemed to await both him and his friends. He had worked himgelf intp the belief that not only his life but the prosperity of his country was endangered by his enemies. He believed them to be plotting for the trans- mission of the crown to the Spanish Infanta. He believed that they had suborned false testimony against him and counterfeited his hand; and that if he could not in some way neutralise their influence, he himself would be sooner or later brought to the block, his friends disgraced and ruined, and England, imme- diately on the Queen's death, would be subjected to Spanish government, and to the Eoman Catholic faith. That he had no substantial grounds for this alarm is tolerably certain, and the charge which he afterwards brought against Cecil, of supporting the claims of the Spanish Infanta, could not be proved. But he may have suspected — what is now certain — that Cecil and others about the Court were in receipt of pensions from the Spanish Court : and this alone might have supplied excuse, though it could not supply basis, for suspicions of intended treachery. But, in any case, we are not now so much concerned with what Essex ought to have feared as with what he did fear : and there can be no question at all that, rightly or wrongly, he believed that his enemies around the Queen's person were plotting the betrayal of his country as Fell as the ruin of himself, and also that, in his moods of depression and melancholy, he thought his life to be in immediate danger. The following letter, written soon after the birth of Essex's 1 Nugce, i. 356. 198 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. XV. son in the autumn of 1599 by Sir Walter Ealegh to CeciL — whUe it bears strong testimony to the kindliness of the latter — also indicates the height which party feeling had reached, and the mutual distrust between the factions of Cecil and of Essex. Ealegh clearly was an enemy of Essex, and a relentless enemy, who would leave nothing undone that he could safely do to procure the Earl's destruction. "SlE,l "I am not wise enough to give you advice ; but, if you take it for a good counsel to relent towards this tyrant, you will repent it when it shall be too late. His malice is fixed and will not evaporate by any your mild courses ; for he wUl ascribe the alteration to her Majesty's pusillanimity, and not to your good nature, knowing that you work but upon her humour and not out of any love towards him. The less you make him, the less he shall be able to harm you and yours. And if her Majesty's favour fail him, he will again dechne to a common person. " For after-revenges, fear him not. For your own father that was esteemed to be the contriver of Norfolk's ruin — yet his son followeth your father's son, and loveth him. Humours of men succeed not, but grow by occasions and accidents of time and power. Somerset made no revenge upon the Duke of Northumberland's heirs. Northumberland that now is, thinks not of Hatton's issue. KeUoway lives that murdered the brother of Horsey : and Horsey let him go by, all his lifetime. I could name you a thousand of these ; and therefore after-fears are but prophecies, or rather conjectures from causes remote. " Look to the present, and you do wisely. His son shall be the youngest Earl of England but one ; and, if his father be now kept down. Will Cecil shall be able to keep as many men at his heels as he, and more too. He may also riiatch in a better house than his. And so that fear is not worth the fearing. And if the father continue he will be able to break the branches and pull up the tree root and all. Lose not your advantage. If you do, I rede your destiny. " Let the Queen hold BothweU while she hath him. He will ever be the canker of her estate and safety. Princes are lost by security and preserved by prevention. I have seen the last of her good days and all ours — after his liberty. " Yours, "W. E." But Essex had other grounds for alarm. He had been for some time engaged in negociations which (however he may have 1 Murdin'a Burghley Papers, p. 811. The letter is endorsed, "Sir Walter Ealegh, to the Right Hon. Sir Robert Cecil, Knight, Principal Secretary to her Majesty." 1600.1 ESSEX ENTERS UPON TREASON. 199 merely taken them up as alternatives only to be resorted to in case of necessity) woTild, if discovered, imperil his freedom, if not his life. In the summer of 1599 Montjoy had written to the King of Scotland a letter of which Davers says : — • " I conceive it was to assure the King that my Lord of Essex was free from those ambitious conceits which some of his enemies had sought to possess the world withal ; to give assurance that next after her Majesty he would endure no succession but his ; and to intimate some course for his declaration during her Majesty's timtf. The cause that moved my Lord Montjoy to enter into this course with Scotland, and to proceed therein afterward, was, as he protested, his duty to her Majesty and his country ; for he could not think his country safe unless by declaration of the successor it were strengthened against the assaults of our most potent enemies, who pretended a title thereunto ; nor he could not think her Majesty so safe by any means as by making her own kingdom safe by that union against their attempts now. He entered into it the rather at that time to serve my Lord of Essex, who, by loss of her Majesty, was like to run a dangerous fortune unless he took a course to strengthen himself by that means." ' We have no evidence connecting Essex with this first action of Montjoy 's : and Southampton's version of it indicates that the step was taken without consulting Essex : — • " At my first coming out of Ireland and upon the commitment of my Lord of Essex, my Lord Montjoy came to my lodging to Essex House, where he told me that he had before his coming foreseen his ruin, and desiring to save him if it mought be, had sent a messenger to the King of Scots to wish him to bethink himself, and not to suffer, if he could hinder it, the government of this State to be wholly in the hands of his enemies." ^ Apparently therefore the letter was written at a time when the failure of Essex's campaign was assured, and only a few days before Essex's return. This is almost proved from the fact that, when Montjoy spoke to Southampton, his messenger had not returned.^ This therefore can furnish no basis for a charge of treason against Essex, as though Essex had concerted it with Montjoy and had promised the co-operation of the Irish army. ^ II. 336. The last sentence is added from the Adv. Lib. MS. version of the Confession. - , . , / ^^?^8- ,-, „. 3 Ibid. "Not long after he told me he- had heard from him (the Kmg of Scotland)." 200 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. XV. But about the middle of November Montjoy became more anxious for his friend. The closeness of the restraint was threatening the Earl's life,i and upon a new alarm that he would be committed to the Tower, his friends suggested to him an attempt to escape. But Essex replied that he would run any danger sooner than live the life of a fugitive. At the same time he pressed Montjoy to think of some course that might relieve him. Accordingly, soon after the middle of November : — "When the government of Ireland was imposed upon my Lord of Montjoy, his former motives growing stronger in him by the apprehension of my Lord of Essex's danger, whose case he seemed extraordinarily to tender, being pressed lilcewise earnestly by my Lord of Essex to think of some course that might relieve him, my Lord Montjoy first swearing and exacting the like oaths from my Lord of Southampton and myself, to defend with the uttermost of our lives her Majesty's person and govern- ment, during her life, against all persons whatsoever, it was resolved to send H. Lee again into Scotland, with ofEer that, if the King would enter into the cause at that time, my Lord Montjoy would leave the kingdom of Ireland defensibly guarded, and, with four or five thousand men assist that enterprise, which with the party that my Lord of Essex would be able to make, were thought sufBcient to bring that to pass which was intended." ^ About the time when Henry Lee was sent to Scotland, Essex's illness was threatening his life : on the 29th of November, his wife sought access to him in the belief that he was in extremis. But although he was thus prevented from taking any active part in sending Lee to the King of Scotland, there can be no doubt that he would have approved of the step. This is shewn by the following paper of Instructions afterwards drawn up by Essex for the Scottish ambassador. It is given from the confession of Cuffe, who delivers, he says, "the effect of those instructions, observing, as far as my memory will serve me, the very words of the original itself" " Insteuction foe the Eael of Mar. " That the King his master thought it necessary to beseech her Majesty to declare his right to the succession of this Crown, not because he observed ' " On thp 3rd November he had been allowed the liberty of the garden of the Lord Keeper's house, as his Illness was threatening his life "—Birch. ' IL 336, Davers' evidence. 1000.] ESSEX ENTERS UPON TREASON. 201 in her Majesty any want of princely favour and afEection towards liini-, but because he hath found by infallible proof that some very gracious with her Majesty, being of extraordinary both power and malice, will not fail one day, if God prevent it not, to make their advantage of the uncertainty of succession, not only to the prejudice, but also to the evident hazard, and almost inevitable ruin, of the whole island. " For proof of their power there needeth no long discourse, all means in all parts and quarters of this realm being in a manner wholly in their hands. In the west, Sir Walter Ralegh commanding the uttermost pro- vince, where he may assure the Spaniard his first landing, if that course be held fittest, being also captain of the Isle of Jersey, there to harbour them upon any occasion. In the east the Cinq Ports, the keys of the realm, are in the hands of Lord Cobham, as likewise the county of Kent, the next and directest way to the imperial city of this reahn ; the treasure (the sinews of action) and the navy (the walls of this realm) being commanded by the Lord Treasurer and Lord Admiral, both these great ofScers of State and the rest above-named being principally loved by the Principal Secretary, Sir Robert Cecil, who, for the further strength- ening of himself, hath established his own brother, the Lord Burghley, in the government of the north parts ; and in the Presidentship of Wales, now void, will undoubtedly place somebody who shall me:ftly acknowledge it of him. As likewise, in Ireland, he hath already procured for Sir Gfeorge Carew that province which, of all others, is fittest for the Spaniard's designs, in whose hands, if the commander himself may be believed, there is a greater army than he needeth ; to omit that the said Sir George is shortly in expectation to succeed to the government of that whole kingdom, upon the recaUing of the now Lord Deputy. " That their malice towards that King was no less than their power, it appeared first, that some of them had given direct proof of ' their ill afEection by ill ofSces, &o. [This point was left to the ambassador, because the Earl of Essex was informed that the King was able to produce clear evidence thereof.] " Secondly, because all their counsels and endeavours tend to the advance- ment of the Infanta of Spain to the succession of this Crown. " This point was confirmed by nine arguments : — " 1. Their continual and excessive commending of the excellencies of the Infanta, and seeking by aU means to breed both in her Majesty and in all others an extraordinary good opinion of her. " 2. The earnest seeking to revive the treaty lately broken, notwith- standing it was interrupted by the Spaniard, not without some disadvantage to this Crown. " 3. The speech of a principal councillor tp an honourable personage that, though he knew there could no sound peace be made betwixt us and Spain, yet for the better compassing of some purposes he could be willing it> entertain the treaty again. "4. The slack and easy hand that hath been lately carried towards the 202 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. XV. priests of the Jesuitical faction, of all others the most pernicious, which can have no other interpretation but that the Popish faction favouring the Infanta, which are in effect as many as the Jesuits can prevail with, might depend on them as on their chief protectors. " 5. The speech of Mr. Secretary to a Councillor of State, that he could prove the Infanta's title to be better than the title of any other competitor to the Crown. " 6. The speech of the Lord Treasurer, who, upon news that the Arch- duke was hurt and, as some thought, slain in the last year's battle at Newport, answered that, if he were slain, he thought her Majesty had lost one of her best friends. " 7. The alteration of their proceeding with Alabaster and one EoHstone, who have always found more and more favour since they professed themselves to have been agents for Spain. Two more reasons there were which I cannot now call to mind." The reader will probably be of opinion that such reasons as Cuffe did " call to mind " were very unsubstantial and very poor justifications for an English subject instigating a foreign King (even though that King were the lawful successor to the English throne) to remove by force the present advisers of the reigning Sovereign, But the question is, not whether Essex's conduct can be justified, but whether it can he extenuated. That he is a traitor, is admitted : but was he the hypocritical traitor that he was made out to be by Coke and Bacon. Had he really any fears of a Spanish succession, and did he really believe that the CecUian faction was endeavouring to compass it ? That Cecil was aiming at any such thing seems highly improbable ; but it is probable, if not certain, that Essex thought he was aiming at it : and, if so, though a traitor, he was not a hypocrite. No doubt his hate was father to his thoughts : he believed in the plots of Cecil and Cecil's friends all the more readily because they were his own enemies ; and, against them, he was ready to accept evidence which he would have rejected as worthless, if brought against his friends. But such a bias as this does not amotmt to hypocrisy. The genuineness of Essex's belief seems guaranteed by his afterwards publicly bringing forward against Cecil the charge of favouring the Infanta, and mentioning the witness on whose evidence he and Southampton relied. It is true the charge collapsed : but it is by no means certain that a cross-examination of the Comptroller (on whose evidence Essex and Southampton had brought the charge against IGOO.] ESSEX ENTERS UPON TREASON. 203 Cecil) and an examination of further witnesses, might not have revealed some kind of basis for the charge : and, as has been said above, thus much is matter of history, that CecU, at this very time, was in receipt of a pension from the Spanish Court. "When therefore all the evidence is dispassionately weighed, and Essex's impulsive and unreasoning nature taken into con- sideration, I do not think that any unbiased judge can place him, as his friend Francis Bacon placed him, among the number of those hypocritical traitors who simply " aim at the overthrow of the state, and destruction of the present rulers ; " or can think it fair to compare him, as his friend Bacon compared him, to " Cain that first murderer," who " took up an excuse for his fact, shaming to outface it with impudency." But to return to Essex and Montjoy. H. Lee, the Envoy to Scotland, returning to England shortly after Montjoy's departure for Ireland in December 1599, was committed to prison. In the spring of 1600 Essex sent Southampton with letters to Montjoy in Ireland to urge the latter to accomplish his previous design. But (about the middle or end of April) : — " My Lord of Montjoy's answer was (which I understood in substance before, but more particularly from himself in Ireland) that he thought it more lawful to enter into such a cause with one that had interest in the succession than otherwise ; and though he had been led before, out of the opinion he had to do his country good by the establishment of the succes- sion, and to deliver my Lord of Essex out of the danger he was in, yet now (that) his life appeared to be safe, to restore his fortune only, and to save himself from the danger which hung over him by discovery of the former project, and to satisfy my Lord of Essex's private ambition, he would not enter into an enterprise of that nature." ^ For the present therefore all projects seem to have been given up : but in July, 1600, they reappear. " Not long after my Lord was dehvered from his keeper," says Sir Charles Davers, " Mr. CufEe brought me word that my Lord was desirous to speak with me. . . . After my Lord had answered these things, particularly in answering the imputation had been laid upon him of condemning them" (his friends), " and protesting that he esteemed them the best friends he had, and would ever run a common and united course with them touching ' Sir Charles Davers' Evidence, ii. 338. 204 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. XV. his own fortunes, as I remember, he said that at Michaelmas the lease of his wines ended, which was the greatest part of his state ; that by the renewing it, or taking it from him, he should judge what was meant him ; that about that time he expected there would be a Parliament ; that if then he were not restored to his place and offices, of which he seemed much to doubt, he would for his own part give over the hope thereof. I remember very well he told me that for his own particular he could content himself with any fortune, but desired me to strengthen my determination of going into Ireland, and that I should communicate with his friends such things as he would think of for the good of his country, and for their common good and safety. Before my going from him I remember he fell again upon the drawing over of the army. I wished him to put that out of his mind. What reasons soever there were besides, I knew my Lord Montjoy would never assent unto it. He then fell upon this project "—i.«. the project ultimately attempted — " of the Court, and upon some courses by Parliament, which, as I remember, he di4 Iiot explain," ' At Essex's rec[uest, Dg.vers went to Montjoy in Ireland and communicated to him the Earl's requests and projects. Montjoy's answer was, that he did not approve the projects. "He desired my Lord to have patience, to recover again by ordinary means the Queen's ordinary favour. That, though he had it not in such measure as he had had heretofore, he should content himself. That at his coming home, he would do for him like a friend." Essex, by Davers, had requested " that my Lord Montjoy, for my Lord of Essex' better justification in whatsoever he did, should write a letter of complaint of the misgovernment of the state, and a summons to my Lord to do somewhat to redress it." To this Montjoy replied, " that he hoped my Lord would do nothing but that which should be justifiable in honour and honesty. In that confidence, if he sent for a letter, he would send him such a one as he might justify." After his coming back from Ireland, Davers says that he conveyed to Essex Montjoy's requests, and seconded them by his own and his brother's : and again Essex gave up his project. " For some time I did not find that my Lord did resolve of this or any other project, but hoped at the Parliament to be restored in some measure to his fortunes. And not long before Christ- mas, when it was feared by some of his friends that he should 1 II. 840. 1601.] ESSEX ENTERS UPON TREASON. 205 be committed, in respect of the resort unto his sermons, there was more thought of flying than of enterprising in this sort." ^ In estimating Essex's conduct in the final execution of his plot, we are bound to distinguish between what he intended to do, and what he actually did. What he intended to do was to surprise the Court without violence : what he actually did was to attempt to arm the city in his favour. The former plan might have been— though it was barely possible — carried out without bloodshed and subversion of the state ; the latter could not be. The two plans so far differed that Sir Henry ISTevnie regards the one with tolerance, the other with horror. He does not reveal the former, and indeed gives a kind of promise not to oppose it. The latter plan appears to the same nobleman an act of the basest treason, If therefore it can be proved that the latter plan was substituted for the former, at a moment's notice, and in consequence of a sudden disarrangement of the plans of the conspirators, we shall have vindicated Essex from" Sir Henry Neville's accusation, who, although he had at least connived at the Earl's first intention, yet writes, " when I understood what course the Earl took, and saw the vizard taken from him, and his true intents laid open which he had so disguised before with specious pretences and cloaks of religion and virtue, I detested him from the bottom of my heart." ^ Here then is the account given by Sir Henry NeviUe. After a lengthy preface to shew his previous unwillingness to enter into any communications with the Earl, or even to be in his society, he thus describes the plan of Essex, as it was commu- nicated to him by Southampton on the Candlemas-day before the outbreak. " ' My Lord, finding his life sought by his enemies by undue means — and despairing of justice against them because they were so potent about the Queen, and did besiege her so as nothing could come to her knowledge but what they listed, was advised to make his repair to her presence, to declare both his particular grievances and many other, which because he knew he should not be suffered to do in private sort, he was advised to go so well accompanied as he might not be kept from her. " ' That, for the effecting thereof, it was proposed to send some forty persons in several companies to the Mews, who, upon the discovery of my II. 341. ^ II. 350. 206 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. XV. Lord's approach (who should come m coach, well attended, with my Lord of Southampton), should make on hefore to the Court gate and possess it. And some other of the company to be before in the hall of the Court, who, upon the sight of their possessing the gate, should make up into the Guard Chamber and seize upon tlie Guard's halberds, and so be master of that chamber. And in the presence that there should be some lords and others to welcome my Lord when he came, and to go in with him to the Queen, and countenance the action.' " Herein my Lord required my advice. I told him it was a matter of too great weight to be suddenly digested. But for the assurance Mr. CufEe had given of me, if he had not exceeded his commission — which I hoped he would not, being an honest man — I would perform what he had delivered from me. But for ofEering to draw my sword in the cause, I vow before God and His angels I never ofEered it nor even meant it. " Some objections and difficulties I proposed, as upon the sudden, as namely these. That this was an action of the nature of those which, as Tacitus saith, non laudantw nisiperacta, and would be interpreted by the success. That it was full of difficulties and dangers ; first, because it was almost impossible to prepare so many hands as should suffice for it without communicating it to so many as it needs must be revealed. Secondly, if any door were shut upon them they were disappointed. And lastly, the City of Westminster was at hand, which, though they should prevail at the first so far as to possess the gate, yet might quickly bring in force enough to dispossess them and puU them out by the ears. " To the first difficulty they answered that they would not make their purpose known till the morning they intended to execute it ; and that they would draw their company together upon some other pretext. To the second, that they hoped to come so unexpected, and those which they appointed to be before in course should be so vigilant, as there should not be time to shut any doors. And to the last, that being once in Court and having the show of the State on their side, nobody would stir against them. " Their end, as it seemed, was to seize on the persons of those they accounted my Lord's enemies and to require justice against them, tendering other presently to supply their places. I cannot say that they then spake of any Parliament to be called. But I am sure CufEe did afterwards. In speech of their means I do not remember that they spoke of above a hundred and twenty hands. Some noblemen they named that they would take along vrith them, as among other my Lord of Rutland. But they said they could not trust him t^rith the matter above two hours before tiiey attempted it. They spake of seizing the Tower as a matter which they could do when they would, by the means of Sir John Davies. But surely at that time they had resolved certainly, as it seems to me, neither of the time, nor any circumstance of their attempt. . . . About the middle of that week, he (CufEe) told me that there had been warning given to the Mayor of London to look to the City, but that he made account that the 1601.] ESSEX ENTERS UPON TREASON. 207 affection of the City was sure unto my Lord, and that of twenty-four Aldermen they held themselves assured of twenty or twenty-one. The last time I spake with him, he (Cuffie) desired me from my Lord that although I would not be an actor myself in the matter, I would command my men, if I were in the Court, when my Lord came thither, either to take part with him or at least not to take part against him. Whereunto I answered ' very well ; ' which how he construed I know not. But God is my witness that I neither did it nor ever meant it. And I humbly desire that my servants, if it be thought meet, may be examined of it." • The words italicized atove, require special attention. They prove that a man of undoubted loyalty, who had been recently her Majesty's ambassador in France, and who was acquitted, after Essex's trial, of any disloyal intentions, nevertheless kn*w the full extent of Essex's proposed outbreak (I say proposed, as distinct from executed), and yet did not think himself bound to reveal it to the Government. He knew that the Earl's friends intended " to seize on the persons of those they accounted my Lord's enemies, and to require justice against them, tendering other presently to supply their places ; " and, though he did not approve of the project, and — let us say — did not intend even if it had succeeded, to countenance it, yet he did not think he was acting disloyally in not revealing the conspiracy. The fact is important in forming an estimate of Essex's conduct, as shewing the distinction made by contemporary opinion ' between " sub- verting the State " and removing by force the ministers of the Sovereign. We shall now bring forward evidence to prove that Essex intended that his project should be executed without bloodshed. It will be seen that most of this evidence is suppressed or distorted by the Government. To begin with the testimony of Essex himself. In the original MS. of his own confession, four days before his execution — of which we shall have to speak more in detail hereafter — he declared that his friends : — '* Had more malicious and dangerous ends for the disturbance of the estate than he doth now find could have heen, prevented, if his project had gone forward ; as well appeareih by the confusion they drew him to even II, 320. " II. 317. It is similarly printed also in the Declaration " (Blount) said publicly before all the people, that he saw plainly with himself, that if they could not have obtained all that they had would {sic), they must have drawn blood even from the Queen herself," ii. 288. " II. 332. * II. 342. 1601.] ESSEX ENTERS UPON TREASON. 209 which, for various reasons — partly hecause some of it touched on the Scotch negociations — the Government did not think fit to publish. They cannot therefore he fairly blamed for not extracting from this unpublished evidence such portions of it as tended to extenuate Essex's crime. But we shall now proceed to quote several passages from the published evidence, all of the same tendency, omitted, as wUl appear, for the express purpose of aggravating his offence — and this too, although the Declaration professes '■ for the better warranting and verifying of the narration to set down in the end the very confessions and testimonies themselves, word for word, taken out of the originals), whereby it will be most manifest that nothing is obscured or 1. In the confession of Sir John Davies the Government omits the following passage: — " He further saith that the Earl himself, with the Earl of Southampton and the lords and others, should have come hy land, and so entered into the Court and passed to her Majesty's presence without any great difficulty." ^ 2. In Sir Charles Davers' confession they omit : — " Being asked what should have been done with those that had been likely to have made resistance, he saith that they meant to have surprised the Captain of the Guard, who was likely to have resisted them, either at his house or at the Court, or where they could have found him."' 3. Again, in the second confession of Sir Charles Davers, they omit a similar passage, shewing that the conspirators had made preparations, as far as possible, to avoid bloodshed by surprising their principal opponents and preventing them from coming to Court : — " I take it, it was another article, whether it were not fit, and, being fit, who were to be appointed, to stay the Lord Admiral, Mr. ^Secretary, and the Captain of the Guard in their lodgings." * 4. In the confession of Sir Ferdinando Gorge they omit : — " The means they did urge to be sufficient ; for as they seemed to assure themselves, the greatest resistance that was likely to he made, was by the Guard y and of many of them there was no doubt to he had, for they had been my Lords servants."^ 1 Declaration, p. 1. » II. 299. ^ n. 301. * II. 303. 6 n. 298. P 210 BACON AND ESSEX. [Cuap. XV. Another class of passages consistently cut out of the evidence hy the Government are those which indicate that up to the last moment no definite plan had been resolved on. The object of the Court being to shew that Essex was a hypocritical, deliberate, and dangerous traitor, it was impossible for them to allow it to go forth to the world that Essex had formed no definite plans at the moment when he issued from Essex House, and that he only turned towards the City because he had been anticipated in his design to surprise the Court. Eor this reason the Govern- ment omitted the following passages : — 5. " The most resolved both the Court and Tower were to be attempted at first." 1 6. They also omit a paragraph of similar tendency, in which occur words shewing that, on the Tuesday before the outbreak, the conspirators could agree on nothing : " This was so evil Uked of, as we brake up aud resolved of nothing, but referred all to my Lord of Essex himself." ^ 7. From the confession of Sir John Davies they omit : — " After which time, because these four could not conclude to his Lord- ship's liking, but were long about it, his Lordship resolved to set a course in all things himself." ^ 8. Erom the evidence of Sir Charles Davers they omit : — " But upon Saturday at night, the 7th of February, this examinate, finding that there was likelihood of resistance, whereupon mischief would have followed, which he ever shunned, he did dissuade the Earl. . . . But the Earl gave him no answer ; but, as he conceiveth, the Earl was dis- suaded from this counsel (Davers' counsel to flee) by Christopher Blunt.* " 9. From the confession of Sir Christopher Blount they omit : — " He saith further that this matter was not fully resolved on because of the contrariety of opinions and accidents that happened after." ^ 10. From the examination of Sir Christopher Blount they omit : — " He saith on Saturday there was no certain day set down for his rising, more than it should have been done between that day and the end of term." 6 ' Confession of Sir Ferdinand Gorge, ii. 297. ' Ibid. 298. ' II. 299. " * II. 802. ' II. 806. « II. 856. 1601.] ESSEX ENTERS UPON TREASON. 211 It is scarcely possible to read over these and other passages omitted by the Government from the confessions, without per- ceiving that there is an object in the omissions. That object is not far to seek. Some of the passages are. marked to be omitted, in Voice's hand. Now we know that Coke, in the trial of Essex, laid great stress upon the Earl's intention to resort to violence. As Mr. Spedding says, " Colce however was not satisfied to stop there. They must in their consultations have counted on resist- ance — must have foreseen that in case of resistance there would be violence — must therefore have intended violence."^ Such was Coke's argument on the trial, and therefore, even if we had not the evidence of " 07n." in his own handwriting, we might naturally trace his influence in the omission, from the evidence, of all those passages which tend to prove the Earl's intention to abstain from violence.^ Wearisome and tedious as these details of the evidence may be, they must not be rejected if we are to arrive at the truth.. The Declaration of the Treasons of Essex, penned by Bacon, and described by Mr. Spedding as a narrative which was " meant by the Government to be, and believed by its authors to be, strictly and scrupulously veracious"^ but by Lord Clarendon as "a pestilent libel " — must be put entirely on one side if we are to do justice to the foUy of Essex in his outbreak, and to the unfriendly vigour and cruel unfairness of Bacon in the subsequent prosecu- tion. Not till we have done this, shall we be able to understand liow much truth there was in Bacon's intercession with Elizabeth in favour of the Earl of Essex, when, as he tells us in the Apology, he " took hardiness to extenuate — not the fact, for that I durst not — but the danger, telling her that if some base or cruel-minded > II. 229. ^ It is fair to state that the evidence of the Earl of Rutland differs from that of all the rest of the conspirators in attributing to Essex a purpose of violent revenge. " And farther the Earl of Essex said that he meant to possess himself of the City, the better to enable himself to revenge him on his enemies, the Lord Cobham, Sir Kobert Cecil, and Sir Walter Ealegh. And this examinate confesseth, that he resolved to Uvb and die with the Earl of Essex ; and that the Earl of Essex did intend to make his forces so strong that her Majesty should not be able to resist him in the revenge of his enemies," ii; 309. The Earl of Kutland appears to have been of a somewhat light-minded and unstable disposi- tion, if one may judge from Neville's evidence : "Some noblemen they named that they would take along with them, as among other my Lord of Rutland. But they said they could not trust him with the matter above two hours before they attempted it," ii. 3i8. In any case, his evidence is not of great weight as compared with the mass of evidence on the other side. ^ II. 24i. P 2 212 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. XV. persons had entered into such an action, it might have caused blood and combustion ; but it appeared well they were such as knew not how to play the malefactors." How true, but how much more usefully and seasonably true would this declaration have been on the trial of Essex and in public, rather than in a private audience with Elizabeth, where it proved so ineffectual that, if Bacon had not told us he thus pleaded for his friend, we should never have known of it ! From these words of Bacon's it would appear that, in spite of his harsh views of Essex's conduct. Bacon after all did not (in private) see anything "base or cruel-minded" in the man whom (in public) we shall find him comparing with the hypocritical Pisistratus and the artful Duke of Guise, and whose crime he illustrates by reference to the pretexts of Cain and the kiss and all-hail of Judas. CHAPTEE XVI. THE OUTBEEAK. " From a little before Christmas," ^ the resolution to surprise the Court was taken. Before, in the earUer part of December, all projects of the kind had been quite laid aside. But involved as Essex now was in intrigues and plots, he could not feel safe; and even if he had felt safe, his remaining in London would probably have brought upon him the suspicion of the Court. " It was feared," says Davers, " by some of his friends that he should be committed, in respect of the resort unto his sermons." He was more popular than ever with the citizens of London, and his friends, attracted by the rumours that their master intended " to stand upon his guard," took every oppor- tunity of gathering round him. Among other pretexts, the resort to divine service in Essex House was used ; and the Govern- ment became alarmed at the weekly gathering of the Essexian faction. A little before Christmas it was anticipated that the Earl would be committed to the Tower.^ Essex accordingly now determined no longer to defer to Montjoy's representations, but to pursue his scheme of surprising the Court. Early in the first week of Eebruary accordingly he collected his friends around him. To divert suspicion, it was arranged that plans should be discussed at Drury House, where Essex would not be present. Accordingly, on Tuesday the 3rd of Eebruary, Sir Eerdinando Gorge resorting, at Essex's request, to Drury House, found Southampton, Sir Charles Davers, Sir John Davies, with a list of gentry and nobility to the number of a hundred and twenty. The question had been propounded 1 II. 341. 2 Ibid. 214 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. XVI. by Essex whether it was fit to attempt the Tower after the Court had been surprised/ in case his project should cause a hostile rising of the citizens. But the conspirators believed that by means of Sir John Davies they could seize the Tower whenever they liked,^ and there is no proof at all that they intended at any time first to seize the Tower. Davers' words are these, " The points which the Earl of Essex projected under his hand were these. First, whether it were fit to take the Tower of London. The reason whereof was this : that, after the Court was possessed, it was necessary to give reputation to the action by having such a place to bridle the City, if there should be any mislike of their possessing the Court." The other points are not mentioned in the evidence ; but the " first " obviously refers to the order in which the " points " were to be mentioned, and not to a proposal to seize the Tower first, i.e. before the Court. It is true that Sir Ferdinando Gorge in his evidence says that " the projects were these : Whether to attempt the Court, or the Tower, or to stir his friends in London first, or whether both the Court and Tower at an instant."^ But, in the first place, this evidence is inconsistent with the whole body of the other evidence ; in the second place the witness's testimony given on the trial was impugned by Essex, who declared that he was perjuring himself, and called attention to his demeanour ; and, in the third place, the spirit of it is entirely inconsistent with the passage of Sir Ferdinando' s own evidence, which is omitted ly the Government. In this suppressed passage he states that he himself suggested the appeal to the City first, and that the others rejected the course : " I was demanded what I would then advise that my Lord should do ? 'If there be a necessity,' I answered, ' he should do something, let him stir his friends in the City, of whom you say he is so well assured of This was so evil liked of, as we brake up and resolved of nothing, but referred all to my Lord of Essex himself." * That the Government had a very good reason for suppressing this passage will appear from the following passage in the Declaration, which is based upon the hypothesis that a main ' Davera' Eridenoe, ii. 301. ' Neville's Evidence, ii. 848. « ir. 297. ■■ II. 298. 1001.] THE UUTBHEAK. 215 part of Essex's conspiracy consisted in a plot to stir the City to rebellion, previous to Ms attempt on the Court. The darker complexion thereby given to the Earl's conduct is obvious. If he intended to seduce the City as a " preparative " to an attack on the Court, then resistance must have been anticipated, blood must have been shed, and all disclaimers of violence were but hypocrisies intensifying the crime — which was just what Bacon and the Court desired to prove. Accord- ingly they suppress Sir Ferdinando's evidence to pave the way for the following representation of the facts : — " There passed speech also in this conspiracy of possessing the City of London, which Essex himself, in his oiim particular and secret inclination, had ever a special mind unto : not as a departure or going from his purpose of possessing the Court, but as an inducement and preparative to perform it upon a surer ground. An opinion bred in him (as may be imagined) partly by the great overweening he had of the love of the citizens ; but chiefly in all likelihood by a fear, that although he should have pre- vailed in getting her Majesty's person into his hands for a time with his two or three hundred gentlemen, yet the very beams and graces of her Majesty's magnanimity and prudent carriage in such disaster, working with the natural instinct of loyalty, which, of course (when fury is over), doth ever revive in the hearts of subjects of any good blood or mind (such as his troop for the more part was compounded of, though by him seduced and bewitched) would quickly break the knot, and cause some disunion and separation amongst them ; whereby he might have been left destitute, except he should build upon some more popular number ; according to the nature of all usurping rebels, which do ever trust more in the common people than in persons of sort or quality. And this may well appear by his own plot in Ireland, which was to have come with the choice of the army, from which he was diverted, as before is shewed. So as his own courses inclined ever to rest upon the main strength of the multitude and not upon surprises or the comhinations of a few." ' To return to the conspirators. Nothing had been settled by Wednesday the 4th of February, neither the day of action nor the plan of action : ^ and it was quite within the limits of 1 Declaration, -p. 19. Cpmpare also, "So, concluding that alarm was taken at Court, he thought it to be in vain to think of the enterprise of the Court by way of surprise ; but that now his only way was to come thither in strength, and to that end first to attempt the City, wherein he did but fall back to his oum former opinion, which he had in no sort neglected," &c. , Ibid. p. 20. ^ See above, "we brake up and resolved of nothing." Mr. Spedding says (ii. p. 208) "By the 4th of February the plan of action had-been agreed upon ; the posts and parts of the several leaders assigned ; everything settled hut tin day." The italics are mine. - , 216 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. XVI. possibility, and consistent with Essex's inconstant nature, that even now nothing should have been done at all. Even on the morning of Saturday the 7th of February no day had been fixed for the rising.^ But now the Government thought that it was time to bring matters to a head. The concourse at Essex House could hardly have failed before to attract their notice. But on Saturday the 7th of Eebruary the Government sent to require the Earl of Essex to come before the Lords of her Majesty's Council, then sitting in counsel at Salisbury Court, being the Lord Treasurer's house, The Declaration asserts that " it was only intended that he should have received some reprehension for exceeding the limitations of his liberty granted to him in a qualified manner, without any intention towards him of restraint." ^ Whether this is to be believed or not, it is certain that Essex did not believe it. If he had feared a little before Christmas that he was on the point of being thrown into prison, much more reason had he for fearing it now. Accordingly he declined to R,ttend, on the plea of ill-health. The hour for action had now arrived, and by Saturday night many of his friends had been summoned and were around him. They found Essex in a state of passionate excitement, declaring that his foes purposed to murder him on his way to the Council. There is not the least ground for believing in the truth of the charge : but it is by no means certain that Essex did not believe it. On the contrary there are many reasons for supposing that he was convinced of its truth. He accused Ealegh of it on his trial, which he would hardly have done if he had thought the evidence for it was so slight as it proved to be. Moreover, throughout the Earl's career we have seen that he was given to fits of gloom and despair, in which he was ready to believe anything however incredible which imputed evil designs to those whom he called his enemies. And just now one of these fits was upon him, such as Harrington had described when he had declared that " the man's soul tosseth to and fro like a troubled sea." His irresolution bordered on the fitfulness of insanity. ' Blount's evidence (suppressed) : " He saith on Saturday there was no certain day set down for his rising, more than that it should have been done between that and the end of the t«a'm," ii, 866. ' II. 266. 1601.] THE OUTBREAK. 217 Even now at the last moment, when he might expect the Queen's guard at the gates of Essex House, nothing had been settled, nor seemed likely to be settled. Word had just been brought that the Court had taken the alarm and that the guards were doubled, so that a surprise was hopeless. If, therefore, the Court was to be atteinpted at all, it must now be with the certainty of resistance and bloodshed, to avoid which had been a primary object. At this crisis Davers advised flight, and he implies that the Earl would have assented but for the dissuasion of Blount.^ Neither that night nor the next morning was any plan resolved on in Essex House. But, meantime, attracted by the Earl's appeal for help, and stimulated by all manner of rumours which were now floating about the City, noising abroad that the Earl's life was imperilled, his friends were flocking into Essex House : and by ten o'clock on Sunday morning there were assembled some three hundred. They were all assembled in the Court of Essex House without order or control, with no plans and no one capable of making plans, when the hubbub was interrupted by a knocking at the gate, and admission was demanded by the Lord Keeper, the Earl of Worcester, the Comptroller, and the Lord Chief Justice. They were admitted, and, advancing towards Essex, the Lord Keeper declared that they were sent from her Majesty to understand the cause of their assembly, and to let them know that, if they had any particular cause of grief against any persons whatsoever, it should be heard and they should have justice. So great was the confusion that it was with difficulty that the Lord Keeper could make himself heard, even by his three companions, above the clamour of the crowd around him.^ ' " But upon Saturday at night, the 7th of February, this examinate iinding there was likelihood of resistance, whereupon mischief would have followed, which he ever shunned, he did dissuade the Earl, when he came back from the Court that night, to take any such course, and persuaded him rather to fly away with some hundred gentlemen into some part of the sea-side or into Wales : the rather because he knew he might have commanded some ports there. But the Earl gave him no answer : but as he conceiveth, the Earl was dissuaded from this counsel by Sir Christopher Blunt," ii. 302. This passage is not a part of the "Additional Confessions:" it is fouud in the original MS. of the Confession printed by the Government : but it was suppressed Try the Government. But Blount's evidence being less favourable to Essex and less expressive of the desire to avoid violence, was not suppressed : " When he (Blount) saw some suspicion was taken, he thought it vain to attempt the Court, and persuaded him rather to save himself by flight." (ii. 305.) • Popham and Worcester append to Egerton's evidence, declarations of their 21 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. XVI. But " the Earl of Essex," to quote the evidence of Egerton, " with a very loud voice declared that his life was sought, and that he should have been murdered in his bed; that he had been perfidiously dealt with ; that his hand had been counter- feited, and letters written in his name ; that therefore they were assembled there together to defend their" lives; with much other speech to like effect." The Lord Chief Justice replied that they were willing to carry to her Majesty any complaints that Essex might make. But the crowd would no longer be con- trolled. They had no trust in their leader, and they feared that at the last moment his irresolution might be worked on, and he might be induced to give up his project. In the midst of the conversation between the Lord Chief Justice and Essex, they broke in with a shout, " Away, my Lord, they abuse you ; they betray you ; they undo you ; you lose time." The Lord Keeper now commanded them all to lay down their weapons and depart, if they were good subjects: he also implored Essex, if he would not state his complaints publicly, to impart them to him privately at once. But while they shouted in attestation of their loyalty, "all, all," the crowd became more uproarious than ever. Essex with the intention (as the Lord Keeper conceived) of giving him the private audience which he desired, now retired from the court, and the Lord Keeper with his three companions followed him into the house, and then into his library. Here the Lord Chief Justice again entreated the Earl to have a private conference with them : but the uncontrollable and disorderly crowd, with shouts and threats of violence, had forced its way into the library ; and Essex was now unable, even if he was willing, to remove them, for fear of exciting their suspicions. They knew his variable and impulsive nature too well to trust him out of their sight. Essex himself, when begged by the Chief Justice to cause the crowd to depart from the room, answered, " that he would not cause them to depart, for that they should not think he would betray them." '• own that they did Twt hear certain words uttered by the crowd and by the Earl and attested by Egerton alone. But the Government suppressed their declaraticms and printed their signatures, with Egerton' s, as though they attested the whole of tlie evidence. 1 This passage is contained in Popham's Declaration, which is suppressed by tim Government. 1001.] THE OUTBREAK. .219 Time pressed. To let the Lord Keeper and his companions depart a,t once was out of the question, if any active step was to be taken. If he had sent them hack through the midst of the raging crowd, their lives would have been scarcely safe : for the Earl could hardly even now control his followers. "Kill them," cried some : " Nay," cried others, " let us shop them up, keep them as prisoners, let them be pledges for our return." On this course Essex resolved, and giving orders that the further door should be barred, he turned to leave them under guard, declaring that "if the Lord Keeper and the rest would have patience until his return, both he and they would go together and lay himself and his cause at the feet of her Majesty." ^ He then departed leaving them under guard ; and now the tumultuous crowd, no longer to be restrained, poured out from the gates of Essex House. Even at the very moment when they issued from the gates, no definite plan appears to have been agreed on ; and the majority seem to have thought that the old plan of surprising the Court was still to be adhered to. " At the going out of Essex House gate," says Gorge, " many cried out, ' To the Court, to the Court.' But my Lord of Essex turned him about toward London." The Earl may have thought, if he could think at all in the state in which he then was, that even a slight resist- ance at the Court would have resulted in certain bloodshed, and that his only chance now lay in gathering the whole forces of the City and marching on the Court in such numbers as to make resistance useless. But no steps had been taken for this sudden change of plans. Horses would be needful ; but horses had not been provided. Above all, a leader was needful ; and the Earl, in his present condition, had no control either over his followers or over him- self; and bore, even in his countenance and aspect, signs of utter despair. The citizens had been forewarned by the Government, and had received orders that every man should ' II. 309. This is the Earl of 'Worcester's version. Egerton's version is, " My lords, be patient a wMle, and stay here, and I will go into London, and take order with the mayor and sheriffs for the city, and be here again within this half hour." But Popham, the Ciiief Justice, says he did not hear the words "touch- ing his going to the lord mayor and settling the city ; " and Worcester substi- tutes for Egerton's version the version given above. 220 • BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. XVI be in readiness both in person and armour, but yet to keep within his own door, and to expect commandment.^ But even if they had not received the royal orders, there was little to inspire confidence in a leader who is described as being " ex- tremely appalled, as divers that happened to see him then might visibly perceive in his face and countenance, and almost moulten with sweat, though without any cause of bodily labour, but only by the perplexity and horror of his mind." ^ His bewilderment is described by the Declaration as an " amazement " with which he had been smitten by the hand of God. Usually he was a fluent and persuasive speaker ; but now he could find no words to harangue the citizens. " After he had once, by Ludgate, entered into the city, he never had so much as the heart or assurance," says the Declaration, " to speak any set or confident speech to the people (but repeated only over and over his tale, as he passed by, 'that he should have been murdered,') nor to do any act of foresight or courage." As he passed through Cheapside a few of the citizens came round him, but not in arms ; and his appeal to them to arm was ineffectual. Meantime, while he refreshed himself in the sheriff's house, he had been proclaimed a traitor in the principal parts of the city ; and now word was brought that the Queen's forces were coming against him under the command of the Lord Admiral. His followers were beginning to slip away; Sir Ferdinand Gorge deserting him, made his way back to Essex House, and by pretending the Earl's orders, effected the release of the CouncUlors. Essex, repulsed in an attempt to force his way back by land through Ludgate, fled towards the water-side, where he took boat ; and then, entering Essex House by the water-gate, proceeded to barricade it. Here he burned some papers, saying ' that they should tell no tales to hurt his friends.' But re- sistance was hopeless ; and about ten o'clock that night Essex and his friends surrendered to the Lord Admiral, and the Earl was committed to the Tower. ' Declaration, ii. 271. 2 Ibid. CHAPTEE XVII. THE TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF ESSEX. On the 11th of February the learned counse], a^d Bacon among them, received a command from the Council to assist in unravelling the conspiracy, and by the 16th of February they had obtained Sir Ferdinando Gorge's signature to a confession shewing that the outbreak had originated from some previously concerted plot. On the 18th they had in their hands additional evidence from him, together with evidence from Davers, Blount, and Davies, disclosing the meetings at Drury House. The 19th was the day appointed for the trial of Essex.^ The opening of the trial shewed that the Government intended to represent the outbreak as a deliberate conspiracy for the sub- version of the State. Essex was compared bj' the Queen's Sergeant to Catiline, and was told by Coke that he had intended to take " not only the Tower of London, but the royal palace and person of the prince, and to take away her life." At the same time Coke enumerated in detail the plans for the surprise of the Court (which had been suggested and rejected) in the meeting of Tuesday the 3rd February, in Drury House ; and promising to prove the truth of these details, he spoke as if, should they be proved, the accused would have no defence left. Here Essex intervened. He desired, at the outset of the trial, to distinguish between actions and motives. He protested that he had never intended any harm to the Queen, but of course could not deny that he had intended to seek access to her by force. He therefore desired leave to answer, first, to the accusa- tions in general, and then to the particular evidences. Speaking ^ I follow Mr. Spedding's account of the trial, so far as facts are concerned. 222 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. XVII. for Southampton and himself, he declared that their memories were not able to retain so many matters. As they were not allowed pen and ink, the request was a natural one, and in spite of Coke's opposition, it was granted, upon the advice of the Lord Chief Justice. Knowing that it would be impossible to prove that there had been any definite plan of rebellion (much less attempt to murder the sovereign) Coke very wisely fastened apon the disorderly and tumultuous conduct of the crowd in Essex House, and in particular on their threats against the life of the Lord Keeper, for which he sought to make Essex responsible. Essex had no difficulty in refuting this charge. The next witness was the Lord Chief Justice. Admitting that he had acted illegally in detaining him, Essex stated no more than the truth in dis- claiming any disloyal intention. He added that he was in fear for his life, and that he could not dismiss his followers without peril of destruction. Coke now produced Sir Ferdinando Gorge's evidence, in which was revealed " the consultation at Drury House, wherein was moved the taking of the city, the Tower, and the Court." ^ It has been shewn above that the " taking of the City " formed no part of the original plan of the conspirators, and Essex begged to be confronted with Gorge. While the witness was being sent for, Essex explained that his object had been, not to storm the Court, but to surprise it without bloodshed. For political as well as private reasons, he desired to obtain the removal of his enemies from the' Queen's person. " But (he added) when I and my company had procured access to her Majesty, we meant to have submitted ourselves to the Queen with paper, and not to have justified our act with sword." ^ Sir Ferdinando, on being produced, reaffirmed his statements, but with such a change of colour and mien that Essex indig- nantly appealed to the Court not to accept his evidence. But now the Council required to hear the Earl's reason for appre- hending danger to his life from his personal enemies. And here, as might have been expected, his case completely broke down. Evidence that might satisfy a man who desires to be satisfied, in his own house, surrounded by friends and flatterers, > II. 220. = Ibid, 221. 1801.] THE TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF ESSEX. 223 M'ho assent, and amplify, and corroborate — looks very poor and paltry indeed when produced in a public law-court before dis- passionate judges. When pressed for particular evidence, all that he had to say was, that Sir Ferdinando Gorge on the Sunday morning of the outbreak had been desired by Sir Walter Ealegh to " come from them, or else he were a lost man, and as a person entering a sinking ship : of which words," added the Earl, " when we heard them, what other construction could we make, but that there was some imminent mischief intended towards us ? " On Ralegh's explanation this charge collapsed; though it seems probable that Sir Ferdinando Gorge's exaggerated account of the conversation between himself and Ealegh in- duced Essex really to believe in the truth of the charge.^ The Attorney-General now sought to prove treasonable intention from speeches of Essex in the city, and from the fact that many of his followers were Eoman Catholics : while Essex for his part insisted that he was driven to the course he had adopted, by the courses taken by his enemies. Coke now called on him to justify these complaints, and, in particular, the charge that the State was sold to the Spaniards by Mr. Secretary. Once more Essex's ground gave way beneath him. Both he and Southampton seem to have firmly believed in the truth of the charge. And, as we have said above, Cecil was actually, at this very time, in receipt of a pension from the Spanish Government. But the only basis they could shew for the charge, was a conversation reported by Sir William KnoUys between himself and Cecil, in which the latter had simply mentioned to him, and offered to shew him, a book wherein the Infanta's title to the crown was preferred before any other. '■^ Cecil, who came forward from behind a curtain where he had been listening to the trial, repelled the charge, and begged that Sir William Knollys might be at once examined; and the ' When Sir Walter Ealegh denied the charge on oath, Essex cried out, " Look what book it is he swears on." And thereupon "the hook being in decimo-sexto, or the least volume, was looked in, and changed to a book in folio of the largest size." In answer to the denial on oath, the Earl replied that " it was told them otherwise." ' H- 224. 224 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. XVII. examination completely e xculpa ted him and proved the groundlessness of Essex's charge. If the object of the prosecutors had heen to convict Essex of legal treason, the way was now clear for them. His fears for his personal safety, if not shewn to be groundless, had been shewn, at all events, to rest upon grounds so unsubstantial that they could not be brought forward in Court : and, besides, when the judges were questioned by the Peers "whether the rising to go to Court with such a company only to present my Lord of Essex his complaints, without all manner of purpose of violence to the person of her Majesty or any other — whether this were treason," they gave opinion that it was treason. Clearly there- fore Essex was proved a traitor. But this was not enough for the prosecution. It would scarcely have justified the Government in bringing Essex to the block. For this purpose it was necessary to shew that there was a deliberate intention to subvert the State : and it was most important to prove hypocrisy if possible. This could not be proved from the facts j but it could be made to appear probable in two ways, firstly by reference to other cases in history where pretexts, such as those of Essex, had been used by hypocrites ; and, secondly, it could be made probable (inform- ally) by an asseveration of the charge from the lips of some one who had known Essex intimately, and could therefore accuse him with all the weight and authority of friendship. "With consummate art. Bacon, who now rose, placing the facts on one side, made the following general attack on Essex. Skilfully confusing together the ^proposed plan of surprising the Court and the actually executed plan of raising the City, he insists that Essex's action, instead of being a sudden after-thought, was the result of three months' deliberation, and concentrates all his efforts on proving that Essex was not only a traitor but a hypocritical traitor. "In speaking of this late and horrible rebellion which hath been in the eyes and ears of all men, I shall save myself much labour in opening and enforcing the points thereof, insomuch as I speak not before a country jury of ignorant men, but before a most honourable assembly of the greatest peers of the land, whose wisdoms conceive far more than my 1601.] THE TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF ESSEX. 225 tongue can utter.' Yet with your gracious and honourable favours I will presume, if not for information of your Honours, yet for the discharge of my duty, to say thus much. No man can be ignorant that knows matter of former ages — and all history makes it plain — that there was never any traitor heard of that durst directly attempt the seat of his liege prince, but he always coloured his practice with some plausible pretence. For God hath imprinted such a majesty in the face of a prince that no private man dare approach the person of his sovereign with a traitorous intent. And therefore they run another side course, ohliqui et a latere ; some to reform corruptions of the State and religion ; some to reduce the ancient liberties and customs pretended to be lost and worn out ; some to remove those persons that being in high places make themselves subject to envy. But all of them aim at the overthrow of the State and the destruction of the present rulers. And this likewise is the use of those that work mischief of another quality : as Cain, that first murderer, took up an excuse for his fact, shaming to outface it with impudency. Thus the Earl made his colour the severing some great men and councillors from her Majesty's favour, and the fear he stood in of his pretended enemies lest they should murder him in his house. Therefore he saith he was compelled to fly into the city for succour or assistance ; not much unlike Pisistratus, of whom it was so anciently written how he gashed and wounded himself, and in that sort ran crying into Athens that his life was sought and hke to have been taken away : thinking to have moved the people to have pitied him and taken his part by such counterfeited harm and danger ; whereas his aim and drift was to take the government of the city into his hands and alter the form thereof. With like pretences of dangers and assaults the Earl of Essex entered the City of London and passed through the bowels thereof, blanching rumours that he should have been murdered ' I append another version of this speech from the Lambeth MSS. 931]61. It is principally noticeable for charging Essex with "the show of religion." "Then Mr. Francis Bacon spake to this effect. I expected not (quoth he) that the matter of defence should have been alleged for excuse, and therefore I must alter my speech from that I intended. To rebel in defence is a matter not heard of. In case of mm-der, to defend is lawful ; but in this case to do all that was done that day and then, to go about to blanch it — I cannot allow. I speak not with simple men, I speak to those that can draw proof out of the nature of things themselves. It is known by books, by experience, and by common talk, that no unlawful intendments are bent directly against the Prince, but there is a (?) walteriug of government, as the phrase is in Scotland. These go (?) by no ways, but by particular someways. My Lord, I cannot resemble your proceedings more rightly than to that of Pisistratus in Athens, who lanced himself to the intent that by the sight of bleeding wounds the people might believe he was set upon. Your Lordship gave out that your life was sought by the I^ord Cobham and Sir Walter Ealegh, and carried always such a shew of religion in you that men's eyes were not able through such a mist to lehold the deceit. But you imprisoned the Council. What reference had that fact to my Lord Cobham or the rest ? You alleged that matter to have been resolved upon the sudden. No; you were .three months in deliberation. My Lord, descend into youftelf, and strip you of excuse. The persons you shoot (? shot) at, if you oould have rightly understood them, were your best friends." Q 226 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. XVII and that the State was sold — ^whereas he had no such enemies, no such dangers— persuading themselves that if they could prevail, all would have done well. But now, magna scelera terminantur in Jueresin : for you, my Lord, should know that, though princes give their subjects cause. for discontent, though they take away the honours they have heaped upon them, though they bring them to a lower estate than they raised them from, yet ought they not to be so forgetful of their allegiance that they should enter into any undutiful act, much less upon rebellion, as you. my Lord, have done. All whatsoever you have, or can say in answer hereof, are but shadows. And therefore methinks it were best for you to confess, not to justify." Essex felt, and the Peers must have felt, the tremendous force of this unexpected attack. If the brother of the Earl's most trusted secretary, Anthony Bacon, if one of the Earl's chief friends and counsellors, who had but a few months ago professed himself more beholden to the Earl than to any human being, could now thus confidently asseverate his belief in the Earl's hypocrisy, and accuse him of feigning " enemies " and dangers out of his own imagination, to suit and cover his own treason- able purposes, then indeed the Peers might well be disposed to take the same view. Logically and formally the speech of Bacon should have had little weight ; but informally it may well have had immense weight, and Essex at once endeavoured to meet it. He instinct- ively felt that all the force of Bacon's speech was derived not from its logic, but from his personal relations with himself : and he therefore endeavoured to bring forward what had passed in those personal relations, as a disproof of Bacon's charge. Bacon had asserted that " there were no such enemies, no such dangers." Here then the Earl retorted that : — " The speeches of Mr. Bacon gave him occasion to place himself against himself. For, saith he, Mr. Bacon being a daily courtier and having access to her Majesty, undertook to go to the Queen on my behalf. He drew a letter very artificially which was subscribed with my name. Also another letter was drawn by him to occasion that (?) herewith others should come from his brother, Mr. Anthony Bacon, both which he should shew the Queen. Gosnold brought me both the letters, and in my letter he did plead for me as feelingly against those enemies, and pointed them out as plainly as was possible." ' ' I quote from the version in the Lambeth MSS. quoted above. The version printed, by Mr. Spedding runs thus: "To answer Mr. Bacon's speech at once, I 1601.] THE TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF ESSEX. 227 The retort was a home-thrust ; and, in his first irritation, Bacon could only reply "that these digressions were not fit, neither should be suffered ; but that the honour and patience of that assembly was great." Had the letters been in the hands of the Peers, it is possible that the prejudice produced by Bacon's speech might have been dispelled : and they might have been enabled to realise — from seeing how Bacon encouraged the Earl's dread of "enemies" — the extent to which Essex, rightly or wrongly, did actually dread them. But as they were not pro- duced or producible, Bacon was quite safe in adding, when he recovered his equanimity, that "he had spent more hours to make him a meet servant for her Majesty than ever he (?) desired. Por anything contained in these letters, it would not blush in the clearest light." ^ The confessions of Davers, Davies, and Blount were now read; and if they were read as they were printed in the Government Declaration — ^that is, with the omission of all of the passages tending to shew, first, the intention to abstain from violence, secondly, the intention not to raise the City, but only to surprise the Court, and, thirdly, the suddenness and unpremeditatedness of the attempt upon the City — ^it is not surprising that the Peers were convinced that Essex was guilty of premeditated treason, amounting to an attempt to subvert the State. StiU pressing his charges of hypocrisy and deliberateness. Coke desired to add, as a proof, Essex's intended tolerance of Eoman Catholics.^ But the earnestness with which Essex say thus much and call Mr. Bacon against Mr. Bacon. You are then to know that Mr. Francis Bacon hath written two letters, the one of which hath been artificially framed in my name, after ho had framed the other in Mr. Anthony Bacon's name to provoke me. In the latter of these two he lays down the grounds of my discontentment and the reasons I pretend against mine enemies, pleading as orderly for me as I could myself. ... If those reasons were then just and true, not counterfeit, how can it be that now my pretences are false and injurious ? For then Mr. Bacon joined with me in mine opinion, and pointed out those to be mine enemies, and to hold me in disgrace with her Majesty, whom he seems now to clear .of such mind towards me. And therefore I leave the truth of what I say and he opposeth unto your Lordship's indifferent considerations," ii. 227. ' Lambeth MSS. 931] 61, quoted above. " Coke probably quoted Bloimt's evidence ii. ZOi : " Being asked upon his conscience, whether the Earl of Essex did not give him comfort that, if he came to authority, there should be a toleration for religion ? He confesseth he should have been to blame to have denied it [for in, the Earl's usual talk he was wont to say that he liked not that any man should be troubled for his religionj." The words in italics are marked in the original to be omitted (in Coke's handwriting). The Q 2 228 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. XyiT, refuted the charge of trifling with religion told on the Peers-,, and they refused to allow Coke to proceed with this charge. The opinion of the Judges had been ascertained that the mere " rising to go to Court with such a company only to present my Lord of Essex his complaints " constituted treason, even though unaccompanied by any purpose of violence. Clearly therefore, Essex and Southampton were traitors. But this was not enough for Coke and Bacon. They must be proved to be traitors as well in intention as in act, and of this the Peers did not appear as yet to be convinced to Coke's satisfaction. " Our law," said the Attorney, " judgeth the intent by the overt act." " Well," saith the Earl, "plead your law, and we will plead conscience." ^ Once more therefore Bacon rose to press the charge of deliberate and hypocritical treason. Ignoring the Earl's un- reasonable fears, and impulsive nature, and complete want of self-control and forethought, he again treated Essex as though the whole of his defence was a mere after-thought to excuse a treasonable plot deliberately planned and deliberately carried out. As though Essex had not committed himself past recall by summoning round him the noisy crowd in Essex House, he lays stress upon the warning of the Lord Keeper, and then on the proclamation of the herald. The disregard of these, if nothing else, constitutes Essex a deliberate traitor. " I have never yet seen in any case such favour shewn to any prisoner ; so many digressions, such delivering of evidence by fractions, and so silly a defence of such great and notorious treasons. May it please your Grace, you have seen how weakly he hath shadowed his purpose and how slenderly he hath answered the objections against him. But my Lord, I doubt the variety of matters and the many digressions may minister occasion of f orgetfulness, and may have severed the judgments of tlie Lords j and tlieref ore I hold it necessary briefly to recite the Judges' opinions." This being done, he proceeded to this effect : — " Now put the case that the Earl of Essex's intent were, as he would have it believed, to go only as a suppliant to her Majesty. Shall their reason is obvious. The only basis for Blount's statement is the Earl's " usual talk ; " such a basis was felt to invalidate the evidence, and therefore the Govern- ment omit the basis of hearsay in order to strengthen the cvidenee. For a similar omission, where evidence is based on mer6 hearsay, compare ii. 301. "Being asked what they would have done after ? He saith, they would have sent to have satisfied the city, and have called a parliament [as he hath heard them talk}." ' II. 220. 1601.] THE TRIAL AND EXECUTION OP ESSEX. 229 petitions be presented by armed petitioners ? This must needs bring loss of liberty to the prince. Neither is it any point of law, as my Lord of Southampton would have it believed, that condemns them of treason, but it is apparent in common sense. To take secret counsel, to execute it, to run together in numbers armed with weapons — ^what can be the excuse ? "Warned by the Lord Keeper, by a herald, and yet persist. Will any simple man take this to be less than treason ? " The Earl of Essex answered that, if he had purposed anything against others than those his private enemies, he would not have stirred with so slender a company. But Bacon crushed him with an illustration from modern history far more damaging to Essex, and likely to make him far more suspected by Elizabeth, than the previous reference to Pisistratus. ■" It was not the company you carried with you, but the assistance which .'you hoped for in the city, which you trusted unto. The Duke of Guise thi-ust himself into the streets of Paris, on the day of the Barricadoes, in ihis doublet and hose, attended only with eight gentlemen, and found that ihelp in the city which (thanks be to God) you failed of here. And what followed ? The King was forced to put himself into a pilgrim's Weeds ■and in that disguise to steal away to scape their fury. Even such was my Lord's confidence too ; and his pretence the same — an aU-haU and a kiss to the city. But the end was treason, as hath been sufficiently proved. -But when he had once delivered and engaged himself so far into that which the shallowness of his conceit could not accomplish as he expected, the Queen for her defence taking arms against him, he was glad to yield himself, and, thinking to colour his practices, turned his pretexts, and ■alleged the occasion thereof to proceed from a private quarrel." "To this," adds the reporter, "the Earl answered little:" and indeed to an assertion of this kind, not based upon any fresh ■evidence, but deriving all its weight from the fact that the asserter had been one of the Earl's most intimate friends and might be supposed to be best acquainted with his nature, it is hard to see what the Earl could have found to answer. Both the prisoners were found guilty, and sentence was passed in the usual form.i We have the testimony of a contemporary to prove that the garbling of the evidence by the Government and the persistent imputations of hypocrisy and deliberation brought by Coke and Bacon, produced, for the moment, their natural result even 1 n. 230. 230 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap, XVII. upon dispassionate or favourable spectators of the trial, who knew nothing of the evidence except what the Government chose to produce. Here is Chamherlain's account : — "The 19th hereof" (writes John Chamherlain to Dudley Carleton, on the 24th of February, 1600-1) " the Earls of Essex and Southampton were arraigned at Westminster before the Lord Treasurer, Lord High Steward of England for that day, and twenty-five of their peers, whereof were nine Barls and sixteen Barons. The only matters objected were his practice to surprise the Court, his coming in arms into London to raise rebellion, and the defending his house against the Queen's forces. To the two latter he answered that he was drawn for the safety of his life ; to the former that it was a matter only in consultation and not resolved upon ; and, if it had taken effect, it was only to prostrate himself at her Majesty's feet and there manifest such matter against his enemies as should make them odious and remove them from about her person, and recall him to her former favour. This was the sum of his answer, but delivered with such bravery and so many words, that a man might easily perceive that, as he had ever lived popularly, so his chief care was to leave a good opinion in the people's minds now at parting. But the worst of all wa:s his many and loud protestations of his faith and loyalty to the Queen and State, which no doubt carried away a great part of the hearers ; but I cannot be so easily led to believe protestations (though never so deep) against manifest proof. ... At his coming to the bar his counte- nance was somewhat unsettled ; but after he was once in, I assure you I never saw any go through with such boldness and shew of resolution and contempt of death ; but whether this courage were borrowed and put on for the time, or natural, it were hard to judge." ■ Such was the immediate impression produced upon a dis- passionate witness of the trial. But it was rapidly dispelled. When men came to take into consideration the tenour of Essex's life, his impulsiveness and excitability, his deficiency in fore- thought, much more in craft, and then the wild, harebrained, desperate character of the plot — when also the effect of the evidence, not as it was printed by the Government, but as it was actually given by the witnesses, oozed abroad, then a juster verdict was given by contemporary oirinion. "Some," says Camden, " called it a fear, others an error : they which censured it more hardly, termed it an obstinate impatience and desire of revenge, and such as censured it most heavily, called it an inconsiderate ' Quoted ii, 232. 1601.] THE TEIAL AND EXECUTION OP ESSEX. 281 rashness : and to this day few there are who have thought it a capital crime.^ " The Government seized every opportunity that presented itself of deepening the temporary impression they had made^ by blackening Essex's character and representing his whole life as one continuous plot. Essex himself here aided them ; and^ to some— who attach importance to death-bed estimates and self- judgments made under a servile dread of heU and damnation, by a mind unnerved for sober thought — his own confession will appear the most weighty evidence that the Government could produce. A document is extant signed by three ministers of religion stating that " he publicly in his prayer and protestation, as also privately, aggrava ted the detestation of his offence ; and especially in the hearing of them that were present at the execution, he exaggerated it with four epithets, desiring God to forgive him his great, his bloody, his crying, his infectious sin : " and it may be urged that these last words from the Earl's own lips justify the severest views of his conduct. But the truth is that, in the immediate prospect of death, Essex seems to have lost all power of distinguishing between offences grea,t and small, all sense of honour, and almost the faculty itself of discriminating between the innocent and the guilty among his friends. For a few hours after his trial he maintained his composure. To the Dean of Norwich he " denied that in anything he was guilty of offending Almighty God." " Oh ! my Lord," said the Archbishop, " I am sorry to see this day that you have so far forgot yourself." The Earl replied smilingly, "The sincerity of my conscience and the goodness of my cause doth comfort me." ^ When the Dean asked him why he refused to come to the Lords, being sent for by the appointment of her Majesty, he answered, in terms that imply a jest : " David refused to come to Saul when he sent for him. Ergo, I might lawfully refuse to come to Queen Elizabeth;" and the Dean's further remonstrances he cut short with the reply, " Why should I reason with you, since we hold not one principle that we might remove evils from the land ? " * But the closer view of death changed all this. 1 Quoted ii. 231. 2 pr. Barlow's Sermon at Paul's Cross, Ed. 1601. » IbU. iJ32 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap, XVII. He had deep feelings of what some would call religion : his life had been by no means morally irreproachable ; he was conscious of ambition, conscious of having entertained projects which, if they had taken effect, woujd, as he now perceived, have wrought great harm in the realm. He felt now that his fears for his personal safety, and his alarms as to the foreign intrigues of his enemies had been grossly exaggerated, and had been exaggerated by his wish that they should prove true. His real reason for action he now perceived to have been, in part at least, his own selfish ambition ; and for this he had endan- gered the peace and^order of the realm, spilt blood, and brought his friends to ruin. For all this he was now to give account at the judgment seat of God. The fear of heU came strongly on him. Dr. Barlow tells us that the Earl had confessed to him that, even in former days, " sometimes in the field encountering the enemy, being in any danger, the weight of his sins lying heavy upon his conscience, being not reconciled to God quelled his spirits and made him the most timorous and fearful man that might be." In this condition of mind, with self and nothing but self before his eyes, his moral balance being disturbed, he was sedulously worked upon by a private chaplain, whom a friend of Anthony Bacon's describes as a " base mercenary person," till at last, cringing before the Supreme Being, like a slave in prospect of the lash, be became, says Camden, " so disordered in his own thoughts that he could think of nothing but damnation unless he discovered the whole scene." But he " discovered " more than " the whole scene." In his distraction he scattered about random accusations, not only against Blount and Cuffe, his private secretary, but also against Montjoy, against his own sister, and even against Sir Henry Neville and Sir Thomas Smith, both of whom were afterwards recognized as practically guiltless. The Earl of Nottingham, writing to Lord Montjoy on the 31st of May, 1601, gives the following account of Essex's first communication to the Councillors.^ " And thus he did begin to us : ' I do humbly thank her Majesty that it ' Dr. Barlow's Sermons, quoted above. '^ Quoted ii. 236; 1601.] THE TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF ESSEX. 233 hath pleased her to send you unto me, and you are both most heartily welcome. And above all things I am most bound unto her Majesty that it hath pleased her to let me have this little man Mr. Ashton my minister with me for my soul. For,' said he, ' this man in a few hours hath made me know my sins unto her Majesty and to my God ; and I must confess to you that I am the greatest, the most vilest, and most unthankful traitor that ever has been in the land ; and therefore, if it shall please you, I shall deliver now the truth thereof. Yesterday, at the bar, like a most sinful wretch, with countenance and words I imagined all falsehood.' Then he began to lay open the practices for the surprising of her Majesty and the Court; who were at the- Councils at Drury House, the Earl of Southamp- ton's lodging ; that there were these appointed by the Earl to consider how it should be put in execution, the Earl of Southampton, Sir Charles Davers, Sir F. Gorge, Sir John Davies, Sir [Henry] Nevill, and CufEe. Sir Christopher Blount he ever kept with him. He spared none of these to let us know how continually they laboured him about it. ' And now,' said he, ' I must accuse one who is most nearest unto me, my sister ; who did continually urge me on ■ndth telling me how all my friends and fol- lowers thought me a coward, and that I had lost all my valour,' And then thus, ' that she must be looked to, for that she had a proud spirit ' ; and spared not to say something of her affection to you. Would your Lordship have thought this weakness and this imnaturalness in this man ? ' " But if the confession of Essex is to be put aside as regards Sir Henry Neville and Sir Thomas Smith, then it is only reason- able that it should he, if not put aside, at all events regarded as exaggerated when he speaks about himself. It may fairly be treated as the utterance of one who was, to some extent, (as Harrington had described him before) " devoid of good reason or right mind." Like his speeches about the Queen, so his con- fession about himself " became no man who hath mens sana in corpore sano." Cecil's account of the Earl's confession to the Lords of the Council, so far as it concerns the details of the projected surprise of the Court, may be accepted as accurate, but when he goes on to say that the Earl accused himself of hypocrisy, then, although we may acquit Cecil of inaccuracy, we are driven by all the evidence to believe that Essex was striving to make his peace with Heaven by taking his chaplain's view of himself.^ 1 " Then he did most passionately desire in Christian charity forgiveness at the hands of those persons -whom he had particularly called his enemies ; protesting that, when he had resolyed of this rebellious act to come to the Court with force, he saw not what better pretext he could have than a particular quarrel to those whom he had at the bar named his gi-catest adversaries." 234 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. XVII. It was quite true that he had been actuated all along by self- interest and ambition, as well as by fear and suspicion ; but it was a gross exaggeration to speak of himself as the -vilest traitor that ever lived, or to charge himself with dissimulation and falsehood. Nor ought any more stress to be laid upon his confession to his chaplain that he was "a burthen to the commonwealth to be spewed out of the land" (which word " spewed," says Dr. Barlow, " he enforced with a violence,") than upon his last words and behaviour in the agony of his soul^ ■when " at the public place of his suffering he did use vehement detestation of his offence, desiring God to forgive him his great, his bloody, his crying, and his infectious sin — and so died very penitently, but yet with great conflict (as it should seem) for his sins. For he never mentioned nor remembered there wife, children, or friend, nor took particular leave of any that were present, but wholly abstracted and sequestered himself to the state of his conscience and prayer."^ 1 II. 285. CHAPTEE XVIII. bacon's "DECLAEATION of the treasons of ESSEX." "On the Sabbath after the insurrection," says Dr. Barlow of himself and his brother ministers, " we, being commanded by authority, did in our several courses describe the nature and ugliness of the rebellion." What a dispassionate observer — even one who had taken an unfavourable view of Essex's conduct — ^thought of some of these sermons " commanded by authority " about this time, may be inferred from Chamberlain's comment : " Though divers preachers were commanded the Sunday before, to deliver to the people that he had complotted with Tyrone and was reconciled to the Pope . . . yet no such matters were once mentioned in the arraignment."^ The following notes of Dr. Barlow's sermon, taken down apparently by one of his congregation in St. Pavd's, may interest the reader, as a specimen of a "communicated" sermon of those days.^ "Spoken by Doctor Baelow at Paul's Cross. "To have BEEN Confessed by the Earl of Essex ilT his hearing. "1. He desireth his life to be shortened, for that he knew the Queen could not be safe so long as himself was living. " 2. He called his sin of rebellion, a great sin, a bloody sin, a crying sin, an infection like a leprosy far and near. " 3. He called himself a burthen to the commonwealth worthy to be spewed out. 1 February 24, 1601. " Lambeth MSS. 931] 62. 236 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. XVIII, "4. He desireth private death to avoid the acclamations of the people, and to have time and leave to set down with his own hand his own confes- sion, which contained four sheets of note paper. " 5. He intended to have surprised the Court with a power of men, and afterwards the Tower to have been as bridle to the city, and then to have called^a parliament. ".6. He said men would wonder if they knew how many motions men had made to him to remove the evils of the commonwealth. " 7. He confessed his rebellion was first plotted when he was first prisoner at the Lord Keeper's house. " 8. He thanked God that he was thus prevented, for had his purpose taken efEect he knew not what misery might have befallen the land. ' " 9. He excused his not coming to the Queen for that David, being sent for to Saul, refused to come. " 10. He said that London was a dagger to his soul ; for had he not trusted to them of London . . . the cause of his treas [on]. " 11. He 'called the men of London a base, cowardly people, saying that he had driven them from their barricadoes with two rapiers across (?), and would undertake to sack London with four hundred men." The drift of the sermon, as we have it, is much to the same effect as these notes. It is much less malignant than Bacon's attack upon Essex, but presumes that the Earl's ambition is the origin of the whole conspiracy. His fault was that he was not content with being a great man, and could not be content unless he was "the only great man." Essex is compared to Corio- lanus, " a gallant, young, but discontented Eoman, who might make a fit parallel for the late Earl, if you read his life."^ But the sermon is most forcible in its attempt to turn the minds of the citizens of London against the Earl : " But here you of the City will say, ' It should not have been bloody to us ; he loved us well.' He said that you were a very base people ; that he trampled up and down your city without any resistance ; that he would undertake with four hundred men of his choice to have overrun your city ; that he pa'ssed many of your lanes and chains barricadoed— it was his word — without one blow offered unto him." And more to the same effect. Lord Clarendon pays far too high a compliment to Dr. Bar- low's sermon when he places it in the same category as Bacon's Declaration of the Treasons of Essex, describing them both as * It has often occurred to me that for the bluntness and pride of Coriolanus, and for the instability of Hamlet, Essex might have sat to Shakespeare. 1601.] BACON'S " DECLARATION." 237 " pestilent libels." The former, if occasionally it misrepresents, rarely or never rises to the level of an effective falsehood, and though a little slanderous, was but an ephemeral slander : but Bacon's Declaration is an artistic production adapted for a per- manent life, and admirably constructed for the purpose of blactening a character for all posterity. Its great merit is that it rarely lies, and yet is invariably producing the effect of a lie. Bacon's aversion to positive lying is, well known. He most carefully distinguishes in the Essays between " simulation " (or positive lying), which is never to be used " without all remedy," and "dissimulation" (or the suppression of truth), which is to be " in seasonable use." Accordingly, in the whole of the Declaration it would probably be impossible to point out more than two definite misstatements of fact : but by a " seasonable use of dissimulation" he produces precisely the same effect, and enables the unsuspecting reader to follow him smoothly forward while he unveils the whole character and career of Essex, and exhibits him even from his youth a consistent though at first an landeveloped traitor. " Who was the fittest man to draw it (the Declaration) up, if she (the Queen) had read any account of the trial, she could have little doubt," says Mr. Spedding : ^ and I entirely concur with him. Accordingly, on the 16th of March, Coke " delivered to Mr. Solicitor twenty-five papers concerning the Earl of Essex's treasons, &c., to be delivered to Mr. Erancis Bacon for her Majesty's service." ^ Here is Bacon's account of the part he played in this matter : — r " It is very true also, about that time, her Majesty taking a liking of my pen, upon that which I had done before concerning the proceeding at York House, and likewise upon some other declarations which in former times by her appointment I put in writing, commanded me to pen that book, which was published for the satisfaction of the world. Which I did, but so as never secretary had more particular and express directions and instructions in every point how to guide my hand in it. And not only so, but after that I had made a first draught thereof, and propounded it to certain principal councillors, by her Majesty's appointment, it was perused, weighed, censured, altered, and made almost a new writing, according to their Lordships' better consideration ; wherein their Lordships and myself both were as religious of truth as desirous of satisfaction, and myself 1 II. 240. " S. P. 0. quoted ii. 240. ■ 238 BACON AND ESSEX. [Chap. XVIII. indeed gave only words and form of style in pursuing their direction. And after it had passed their allowance, it was again exactly perused by the Queen herself, and some alterations made agajp by her appointment. Nay, and after it was set to print, the Queen, who, as your Lordship knoweth, as she was excellent in great matters, so she was exquisite in small, and noted that I could not forget my ancient respect to my Lord of Essex, in terming him ever my Lord of Essex, my Lord of Essex, in almost every page of the book, which she thought not fit, but would have it made Essex, or the late Earl of Essex; whereupon of force it was printed de novo, and the first copies suppressed by her peremptory commandment." ' " What the particular alterations were," says Mr. Spedding, ' or how far Bacon, in his private judgment, approved of them, we have no means of knowing, no part of the original draft heing in existence. . . . But with regard to the more material changes introduced at the instance of the councillors, he dis- tinctly states that 'their Lordships and himself toth were as religious and curious of truth as desirous of satisfaction.' In matters of substance, therefore, it must be considered as having his personal imprimatwr as well as that of the Government." Mr. Spedding goes on to speak of the Declaration as a " careful ofdcial declaration, framed with studious accuracy," and "guarded at every step with attested depositions." He ex- presses his conviction that " it was meant to be, and was by its authors believed to be, a narrative strictly and scrupulously veracious," as well as " a very luminous and coherent narrative." Now, therefore, vre will simply set down with as little com- ment as possible the misstatements and suppressions of the Declaration, merely premising that the evidence and all the papers having been placed in Bacon's hands, the suppression of truth could not have been the result of ignorance. Besides, it has been pointed out that, in several places of the evidence, the letters om. have been written in Bacon's handwriting ; and wherever these words are written in the evidence, there a corresponding omission is found in the Declaration.^ 1 Apology, p. 3.9. " Mr. Spedding admits this, tut apparently justifies Bacon. For the justifi- cation—which I cannot pretend to understand — I refer the reader to JJife and Letters, &o., ii, 243. '' 1601.] BACON'S "DECLARATION." 239 1. " It hath been thought fit ... to set down in the end the very con- fessions and testimonies themselves, word for word taken out of the originals." (Declaration, p. 1.) The confessions, as has been shewn above, are systematically mutilated by suppressions, and occasionally perverted. 2. " Those points of popularity whicli every man took notice and note of . . . were either the qualities of a nature disposed to disloyalty, or the beginnings and conceptions of that which afterwards giew to shape and form." {Declaration, p. 3.) Contrast this with Bacon's own advice to Essex : " to speak against popularity and popular courses vehemently, and to tax it in all others : but, nevertheless, to go on in your honourable commonwealth courses as you do." See above, p. 75. 3. " It was strange with what appetite and thirst he did affect and compass the Government of Ireland, which he did obtain." (Declaration, p. 3.) It has been shewn above that so far from desiring it, he desired to force it upon his enemies. See pp. 100 — 115, above. 4. " He meant besides, when he was once in Ireland, to engage himself in other journeys that should hinder the prosecution in the North." (Declaration, p. 4.) There is not a vestige of evidence for this statement. 5. " He did^ voluntarily engage himself in an unseasonable and fruitless journey into Munster, a journey never propounded in the council there, never advertised over hither while it was past." (Declaration, p. 6.) It has been shewn above (see pp. 123 — 4) that the Council approved of the journey into Leinster, of which the journey into Munster was intended to be a mere extension, and that Cecil knew of the jmirney into Munster before it had been com- menced, and spoke of it with apparent approval. 6. " This message (from Tyrone) was delivered by Knowd to Lee, and by Lee was imparted to the Earl of Essex." (Declaration, p. 7.) This passage is based upon a mutilated passage in the evidence, in which the Earl's rejection of the message or treat- ment of it as idle is omitted : — " And of this message this examinate made the Earl acquainted with, before his coming to this examinate's house, at that time when this 240 BACON AND ESSEX. [Ghap. XVIII. examinate was. sent to Tyrone land the Earl of Essex shaleed his head at it and gave no certain answer]." The bracketed words are omitted both in the Government edition of the evidence and in the Declaration. 7. " A little before my Lord's coming over into England." (Declaration, p. 10.) This is a falsehood, and in direct contradiction of the (sup- pressed) evidence : — " He confesseth that at the Castle of Dublin . . . the Earl of Essex, purposing his return into England, advised with the Earl of Southampton and himself of his best manner of going jnto England for his security, since to go he was resolved. [This was some days Tiefore the HarPs journey into the North.]" Compare ii. 356 with ii. 314. Bacon's intention in altering the date is to make the Earl's proposed return to England appear to be the result of a treason- able concert with Tyrone. See p. 129, above. 8. " Blomit advised him rather to another course, which was to draw forth of the army some 200 resolute gentlemen, and with those to come over, and so to make sure of the Court, and so to make his own conditions." (Declaration, p. 12.) The passage in which the evidence assumes this shape, is found in the Government edition of Blount's speech at his execution. But the fuller version (printed by Mr. Spedding, ii. 318) contains nothing of the kind : and the evidence, as signed by Blount himself, runs thus : — " He rather advised him, if needs he would go, to take over some com- petent number of choice men [who might only have secured him from, any commitment to prison, if he had not found her Majesty gracious, except it were no further than to the house of the Lord of Canterbury, the Lord Keeper, or his uncle.]" The italicized words were suppressed, at the request of Cecil, in a letter addressed to Cohe in Bacon's handwriting. Cecil gives as a reason for suppressing them (II. 314) that their insertion might render the evidence suspected ; but it is clear that they qualify Blount's advice, and make it far less objectionable. 9. " Therefore condescending to Blount's advice to surprise the Court, he did pursue that plot accordingly." (Declaration, p. 12.) 1601.] BACONS " DECLARATION." 241 By misdating Blunt's advice Bacon Conveys the impression that Essex returned in pursuance of that advice ■ whereas (1) several weeks elapsed between Blount's advice and the Earl's return ; (2) instead of surprising the Court with " 200 resolute gentlemen/' he took with him no more than six attendants to Nonsuchi 10. " The principal article of them (the conditions of peace with Tyrone) . t . tending in efEect to thiSj that all the Queen's good suhjects, in most of the provinces, should have been displanted, and the country abandoned to the rebels." (Declaration, p. 12i) No evidence of this, and much evidence to the contrary : see pp. 134^147, above. 11. "There passed speech also iil this corispirsLcy of possessing the City of London, which Essex himself in MS own particular and secret inclinatioil, had ever a special mind unto : not as a departure or going from his purpose of possessing the Courtj but as an inducement and preparative to p IT X a changing them_ at Milford Haven in Wales, or thereabouts ; not doubting, of that but ih&this army vjould so increase within a small time by such the'othel-" as would come in to him, as he should be able to march with his design of power to London, and make his own conditions as he thought good, the Queen But both Southampton and Blunt dissuaded him from this enter- ^^^ ^o"'*- prise ; Blunt alleging the hazard of it, and that it would make him odious: and Southampton utterly disliking of that course, upon the same and many other reasons. Howbeit thereupon Blunt advised him rather to another course, which was to draw forth of the army some 200 resolute gentlemen, and with those to come over, and so to make sure of the Court, and so to make his own conditions. Which confessions it is not amiss to deliver by what a good providence of God they came to light : for they could not be used at Essex arraignment to charge him, because they were uttered after his death. iBut Sir Christopher Blunt at his arraignment, being charged that the Earl of Essex had set it down under his hand that he The speech had been a principal instigator of him to his treasons, in passion "opher brake forth into these speeches : That then he must be forced to Blunt at disclose what further matters he had held my Lord from, and de- raignment, sired for that purpose (becaiose the present proceeding should not ^^^ t^^ ■ ■jT-rTAj-i 1 TUT CI occasion of he interrupted) to speak with the Lord Admiral ana Mr. Secre- the falling tary after his arraignment ; and so fell most naturally and most J-^g^^fg^g. voluntarily into this his confession, which if it had been thought said con- fit to have required of him at that time publicly, he had delivered '^^^^°"^- before his conviction, And the same confession he did after (at the time of his execution) constantly and fully confirm, discourse V 2 [12] BACON AND ESSEX. particularly, and take upon his death, where never any man showed less fear, nor a greater resolution to die. And the same matter so hy him confessed was likewise con- fessed with the same circumstances of time and place by South- ampton, being severally examined thereupon. So as now the world may see how long since my Lord put off his vizard, and disclosed the secrets of his heart to two of his most confident friends, falling upon that unnatural and detestable treason, whereunto all his former actions in his government in Ireland (and God knows how long before) were but introduc- tions. But findi.ng that these two persons, which of all the rest he The place thought to have found forwardest, Southampton, whose dis- ofthe placing he had made his own discontentment (having placed Horse in jjjjji^ qq question, to that end, to3 find cause of discontentment), of Ireland and Blunt, a man so enterprising and prodigal of his own life (as ftrreTby himself termed himself at the bar), did not applaud to this his Essexupon purpose, and thereby doubting how coldly he should find others ampton minded, that were not so near to him ; and therefore conde- oontraiy scending to Blunt's advice to surprise the Court, he did pursue Majesty's that plot accordingly, and came over with a selected company of command- ^^V^^^ ^^^ voluntaries, and such as he thought were most affec- ment. tionate unto himself and most resolute, though not knowing of his purpose. So as even at that time every man noted and wondered what the matter should be, that my Lord took his most particular friends and followers from their companies, which were countenance and means unto them, to bring them over. But his purpose (as in part was touched before) was this ; that if he held his greatness in Court, and were not committed (which in regard of the miserable and deplored estate he left Ireland in, whereby he thought the opinion here would be that his service could not be spared, he made full account he should not be) then, at the first o-pportunity, he would execute the surprise of her Majesty's person. And if he were committed to the Tower or to prison for his contempts (for besides his other contempts, he came over expressly against the Queen's prohibition under her signet), it might be the care of some of his principal friends, by the help of that choice and resolute company which he brought over, to rescue him. A DECLARATION OF THE TREASONS, ETC. [13] But the pretext of his coming over was, by the efficacy of his own presence and persuasion to have moved and drawn her Ma- jesty to accept of such conditions of peace as he had treated of with Tyrone in his private conference ; which was indeed some- what needful, the principal article of them being, That there should he a general restitution of rebels in Ireland to all their lands and possessions, that they could pretend any right to before their going out into rebellion, without reservation of such lands as were by Act of Parliament passed to the Crown, and so planted with English, both in the time of Queen Mary, and since ; and without difference either of time of their going forth, or nature of their offence, or other circumstance : tending in effect to this. That aU the Queen's good subjects, in most of the provinces, should have been displanted, and the country abandoned to the rebels. When this man was come over, his heart thus fraughted with treasons, and presented himself to her Majesty, it pleased God, in his singular providence over her Majesty, to guide and hem in her proceeding towards him in a narrow way of safety between two perils. For neither did her Majesty leave him at liberty, whereby he might have commodity to execute his purpose j nor restrain him in any such nature, as might signify or betoken matter of despair of his return to Court and favour. And so the means of present mischief being taken away, and the humours not stirred, this matter fell asleep, and the thread of his pur- poses was cut off. For coming over about the end of September, and not denied access and conference with her Majesty, and then being commanded to his chamber at Court for some days, and from thence to the Lord Keeper's house, it was conceived that these were no ill signs. At my Lord Keeper's house he remained till some few days before Easter, and then was removed to his own house, under the custody of Sir Eichard Barkley, and in that sort continued tiU the end of Trinity Term fol- lowing. For her Majesty all this while looking into his faults with the eye of her princely favour, and loath to take advantage of his great offences in other nature than as contempts, resolved so to proceed against him as might (to use her Majesty's own words) tend ad corredionem, et non ad ruinam. [14] BACON AND ESSEX. ISTevertheless afterwards, about the end of Trinity Term fol- . lowing, for the better satisfaction of the world, and to repress seditious bruits and libels which were dispersed in his justifica- tion, and to observe a form of justice before he should be set at full liberty; her Majesty was pleased to direct, that there should be associate unto her Privy Counsel some chosen persons of her nobility, and of her judges of the law ; and before them his cause (concerliing the breaking of his instructions for the northern prosecution, and the manner of his treating with Tyrone, and his coming over and leaving the kingdom of Ireland contrary to her Majesty's commandment, expressed as well by significa- tion thereof made under her royal hand and signet as by a most binding and effectual letter written privately to himself) to receive a hearing ; with limitation nevertheless that he should not be charged with any point of disloyalty ; and with like favour directed that he should not be called in question in the open and ordinary place of offenders in the Star Chamber, from which he had lUtewise by a most penitent and humble letter desired to be spared, as that which would have wounded him for ever as he affirmed, but in a more private manner at my Lord Keeper's house. Neither was the effect of the sentence that there passed against him any more than a suspension of the exercise of some of his places : at which time also, Essex, that could vary himself into aU shapes for a time, infinitely desirous (as by the- sequel now appeareth) to be at liberty to practise and revive his former purposes, and hoping to set into them with better strength than ever, because he conceived the people's hearts were kindled to him by his troubles^ and that they had made great demonstra- tions of as much ; he did transform himself into such a strange and dejected humility, as if he had been no man of this world, with passionate protestations that he called God to witness That he had made an utter" divorce with the world ; and he desired her Majesty's favour not for any worldly respect, but for a preparative for a Nunc dimittis ; and that the tears of his heart had quenched in him all humours of ambition. All this to make her Majesty secure, and to lull the world asleep, that he was not a man to be held any ways dangerous. Not niany days after, Sir Eichard Barkley his keeper was removed from him, and he set at liberty ; with this admonition A DECLARATION OF THE TEEASOXS, ETC. [15] only, That he should not take himself to be altogetJier discharged, though he were left to the guard of none but his own discretion. But he felt himself no sooner upon the wings of his liberty but (notwithstanding his former shows of a mortified estate of mind) he began to practise afresh, as busily as ever reviving his former resolution ; which was the surprising and possessing the Queen's person and the Court. And that it may appear how early after his liberty he set his engines on work, having long before enter- tained into his service, and during his government in Ireland drawn near unto him in the place of his chief secretary, one Henry Cuffe, a base fellow by birth, but a great scholar, and indeed a notable traitor by the book, being otherwise of a turbulent and mutinous spirit against all superiors : This fellow, in the beginning of August, which was not a month after Essex liberty granted, fell of practising with Sir Henry NeviU, that served her Majesty as leiger ambassador with The deck- the French King, then newly come over into England from Bui- gyHenry leyn ; abusing him with a false lie and mere invention, that his Nevill. service was blamed and misliked and that the imputation of the breach of the treaty of peace held at BuUeyn was like to light upon him (when there was no colour of any such matter), only to distaste him of others and fasten him to my Lord ; though he did not acquaint him with any particulars of my Lord's designs till a good while after. But my Lord having spent the end of the summer (being a private time, when everybody was out of town and dispersed) in digesting his own thoughts, with the help and conference of Master Cuffe, they had soon set down between them the ancient principle of traitors and conspirators, which was, to prepare rrmny, and to acquaint few ; and, after the manner of mines, to make ready their powder and place it, and then give fire but in the in- stant. Therefore the first consideration was of such persons as my Lord thought fit to draw to be of his party ; singling o.ut both of nobility and martial men and others such as were dis- contented or turbulent, and such as were weak of judgment and easy to be abused, or such as were wholly dependants and followers (for means or countenance) of himself, Southampton, or some other of his greatest associates. And knowing there were no such strong and drawing cords of [1 6] BACON AND ESSEX. popularity as religion, he had not neglected, hoth at this time and long before, in a profane policy to serve his turn (for his own greatness) of both sorts and factions, both of Catholics and Puri- tans, as they term them ; turning his outside to the one and his inside to the other, and making himself pleasing and gracious to the one sort by professing zeal and frequenting sermons and making much of preachers, and secretly underhand giving assur- The con- ^nce to Blunt, Davies and divers others, that (if he might prevail fessiou of jjj jiig desired greatness) he would bring in a toleration of the Davies. Catholic religion. Then having passed the whole Michaelmas Term in making himself plausible, and in drawing concourse about him, and ia affecting and alluring men by kind provocations and usage (wherein, because his liberty was qualified, he neither forgot exer- cise of mind nor bodf^, neither sermon nor tennis-court, to give the occasion and freedom of access and concourse unto him) and much other practice and device ; about the end of that term, towards Christmas, he grew to a more framed resolution of the time and manner, when and how he would put his purpose in execution. And first, about the end of Michaelmas Term, it passed as a kind of cipher and watchword amongst his friends and The deck- followers. That my Lord would stand upon his guard : which might s^r^Henry ^^^^ive construction in a good sense, as well guard of circumspec- Nevill,and tion as guard of force : but to the more private and trusty persons of Sir Fer- ^^ ^^^ content it should be expounded that he would be cooped dinando -up no more, nor hazard any more restraints or commandments. But the next care was, how to bring such persons as he thought fit for his purpose into town together, without vent of suspicion, to be ready at the time when he should put his design in execu- tion ; which he had concluded should be some time in Hilary Term ; wherein he found many devices to draw them up, some The con- for suits in law, and some for suits in Court, and some for Blunt °^ assurance of land : and one friend to draw up another, it not being perceived that all moved from one head. And it may be truly noted, that in the catalogue of those persons that were the eighth of February in the action of open rebellion, a man may find almost out of every county of England some ; which could not be by chance or constellation : and in the particularity of examinations (too long to be rehearsed) it was easy to trace in A DECLARATION OF THE TREASONS, ETC. [17] what sort many of them were brought up to town, and held in town upon several pretences. But in Candlemas Term, when the time drew near, then was he content consultation should be had by certain choice persons, upon the whole matter and course which he should hold. And because he thought himself and his own house more observed, it was thought fit that the meeting and conference should be at Drury House, where Sir Charles Davers lodged. There met at this council, the Earl of Southampton, with whom in former times he had been at some emulations and differ- ences in Court. But after, Southampton having married his kins- woman, and plunged himself wholly into his fortune, and being his continual associate in Ireland, he accounted of him as most assured unto him, and had long ago in Ireland acquainted him with his purpose, as was declared before. Sir Charles Davers, one exceedingly devoted to the Earl of Southampton, upon affection begun first upon the deserving of the same Earl towards him, when he was in trouble about the murther of one Long. Sir Eerdinando Gorge, one that the Earl of Essex had of purpose sent for up from his government at Plymouth by his letter, with particular assignation to be here before the second of February, Sir John Davies, one that had been his servant, and raised by him, and that bare of&ce in the Tower, being Surveyor of the Ordnance, and one that he greatly trusted : and John Littleton, one they respected for his wit and valour. The consultation and conference rested upon three parts : The The con- perusal of a list of those persons, whom they took to be of their sh^charles party : The consideration of the action itself which they should Davers, i, set afoot, and how they should proceed in it ; And the distribu- Davies, 2 ; tion of the persons, according to the action concluded on, to their ^"^ Ferdin. several employments. Sir Chris- The list contained the number of sixscore persons, noblemen ^J^^^ 2 • and knights and principal gentlemen, and was (for the more South- credit's sake) of the Earl of Essex own handwriting. the bar. For the action itself, there was proposition made of two princi- pal articles : The one, of posssessing the Tower of London : The other, of surprising her Majesty's person and the Court ; in which also deliberation was had what course to hold with the City, either towards the effecting of the surprise or after it was effected. [18] BACON AND ESSEX. For the Tower was alleged, the giving a reputation to the action, by getting into their hand the principal fort of the realm, with the stores and provisions thereunto appertaining, the bridling of the City by that piece, and commodity of entrance in and pos- sessing it, by the means of Sir John Davies. But this was by opinion of all rejected, as that which would distract their attempt from the more principal, which was the Court, and as that which they made a judgment would follow incidently, if the Court were once possessed. But the latter, which was the ancient plot (as was well known to Southampton), was in the end by the general opinion of them all insisted and rested upon. And the manner how it should be ordered and disposed was this : That certain selected persons of their number, such as were well known in Court, and might have access without check or suspicion into the several rooms in Court, according to the several qualities of the persons and the differences of the rooms, should distribute themselves into the Presence, the Guard- chamber, the Hall, and the utter Court and gate, and. some one .principal man undertaking every several room with the strength of some few to be joined with him, every man to make good his charge, according to the occasion. In which distribution, Sir Charles Davers was then named to the Presence and to the great chamber, where he was appointed, when time should be, to seize upon the halberds of the guard ; Sir John Davies to the Hall ; and Sir Christopher Blunt to the utter gate ; these seeming to them the three principal wards of consideration. And that things being within the Court in a readiness, a signal should be given and sent to Essex to set forward from Essex House, being no great distance off. Whereupon Essex, accompanied with the noblemen of his party, and such as should be prepared and as- sembled at his house for that purpose, should march towards the Court ; and that the former conspirators already entered should give correspondence to them without, as well by making them- selves masters of the gates to give them entrance, as by attempting to get into their hand upon the sudden the halberds of the guard, thereby hoping to prevent any great resistance within, and by filling aU full of tumult and confusion. This being the platform of their enterprise, the second act of A DECLARATION OF THE TREASONS, ETC. [19] this tragedy was also resolved ; which was, that my Lord should present himself to her Majesty as prostrating himself at her feet, and desire the remove of such persons as he called his enemies from about her. And after that my Lord had obtained posses- sion of the Queen and the state, he should call his pretended enemies to a trial upon their lives, and summon a Parliament, and alter the government, and obtain to himself and his associates such conditions as seemed to him and them good. There passed speech also in this conspiracy of possessing the City of London, which Essex himself, in his own particular and secret inclination, had ever a special mind imto : not at a depar- ture or going from his purpose of possessing the Court, but as an inducement and preparative to perform it upon a surer ground. An opinion bred in him (as may be imagined) partly by the great overweening he had of the love of the citizens ; but chiefly, in all likelihood, by a fear that although he should have prevailed in getting her Majesty's person into his hands for a time with his two or three hundred gentlemen, yet the very beams and graces of her Majesty's magnanimity and prudent carriage in such dis- aster working with the natural instinct of loyalty, which of course (when fury is over) doth ever revive in the hearts of subjects of any good blood or mind (such as his troop for the more part was compounded of, though by him seduced and bewitched) would quickly break the knot, and cause some disunion and separation amongst them ; whereby he might have been left destitute, except he should build upon some more popular number ; according to the nature of all usurping rebels, which do ever trust more in the common people than in persons of sort or quality. And this may well appear by his own plot in Ireland, which was to have come with the choice of the army, from which he was diverted, as before is showed. So as his own courses inclined ever to rest upon the main strength of the multitude, and not upon surprises, or the combinations of a few. But to return : These were the resolutions taken at that con- sultation, held by these five at Drury House some five or six days before the rebellion, to be reported to Essex, who ever kept in himself the binding and directing voice : which he- did to pre- vent all differences that might grow by dissent or contradiction. And besides he had other persons (which were Cuffe and Blunt) [20] BACON AND ESSEX. tion. of more inwardness and confidence with him than these (South- -ampton only excepted) which managed that consultation. And for the day of the enterprise, which is that must rise out of the knowledge of all the opportunities and difficulties, it was referred to Essex his own choice and appointment ; it being nevertheless resolved that it should be some time before the end of Candlemas Term. But this council and the resolutions thereof were in some points refined by Essex, and Cuffe, and Blunt : for first it was Sir Henry thought good, for the better making sure of the utter gate of the dedara- Court, and the greater celerity and suddenness, to have a troop at receipt to a competent number^ to have come from the Mews, where they should have been assembled without suspicion in several companies, and from thence cast themselves in a moment upon the Court gate, and join with them which were within, while Essex with the main of his company were making forward. It was also thought fit, that because they would be common- wealth's men and foresee that the business and service of the public state should not stand still, they should have ready at Court and at hand certain other persons to be offered to supply the offices and places of such her Majesty's counsellors and servants as they should demand to be removed and displaced. But chiefly it was thought good, that the assembling of their companies together should be upon some plausible pretext : both to make divers of their company, that understood not the depth of the practices, the more willing to foUow them^ and to engage themselves ; and to gather them together the better without peril of detecting or interrupting : and again, to take the Court the more unprovided, without any alarm given. So as now there wanted nothing but the assignation of the day : which neverthe- less was resolved indefinitely to be before the end -of the term, as was said before, for the putting in execution of this most dan- gerous and execrable treason. But God, who had in his divine providence long ago cursed this action with the curse that the psalm speaketh of, That it should he like the untimely fruit of a woman, brought forth before it came to perfection, so disposed The con- fession o; Blunt, 3.» ' Mr. Spedding annotates, " In the original there is a semicolon after 'them,' and a oomraa after ' themselves ; ' which must be a misprint." , ' See p. 215 above. A DECLARATION OF THE TREASONS, ETC. [21] above, that her Majesty, understanding by a general churme^ and muttering of the great and universal resort to Essex House, contrary to her princely admonition, and somewhat differing from his former manner (as there could not be so great fire with- out some smoke), upon the seventh of February, the afternoon before this rebellion, sent to Essex House Mr. Secretary Harbert> to require him to come before the Lords of her Majesty's Council, then sitting in counsel at Salisbury Court, being the Lord Treasurer's house : where it was only intended that he should have received some reprehension for exceeding the limitations of his liberty granted to him in a qualified manner, without any intention towards him of restraint ; which he, under colour of not being well, excused to do : but his own guilty conscience applying it that his trains were discovered, doubting perU in any further delay, determined to hasten his enterprise, and to set it on foot the next day. But then again, having some advertisement in the evening that the guards were doubled at Court, and laying that to the message he had received overnight, and so concluding that alarm was taken at Court, he thought it to be in vain to think of the enterprise of the Court by way of surprise : but that now his only way was to come thither in strength, and to that end first to attempt the City. "Wherein he did but fall back to his own former opinion, which he had in no sort neglected, but had for- merly made some overtures to prepare the City to take his part ; relying himself (besides his general conceit that himself was the darling and minion of the people and specially of the City) more particularly upon assurance given of Thomas Smith, then sheriff of London, a man well beloved amongst the citizens, and one that had some particular command of some of the trained forces of the City, to join with him. Having therefore concluded upon this determination, now was fhe time to execute in fact all that he had before in purpose digested. First therefore he concluded of a pretext which was ever part of the plot, and which he had meditated upon and studied long before. For finding himself (thanks be to God) to seek, in her Majesty's government, of any just pretext in matter of state^ either of innovation, oppression, or any unworthiness : as in all ^ charme in the original. [22] BACON AND ESSEX. his former discontentments he had gone the beaten path of traitors, turning their imputation upon counsellors and persons of credit with their sovereign, so now he was forced to descend to the pretext of a private quarrel ; giving out this speech, how that evening, when he should have been called before the'Lords of the "Council, there was an ambuscado of musketers placed upon the water by the device of my Lord Cobham and Sir Walter Raleigh, to have murdered him by the way as he passed. A matter of no probability ; those persons having no such desperate estates or minds, as to ruin themselves and their posterity by committing so odious a crime. But contrariwise, certain it' is Sir Ferdinando Gorge accused Confession Blunt to have persuaded him to kill, or at least apprehend, Sir dinando^'^' Walter Ealeigh; the latter whereof Blunt denietb not, and asked Gorge. Sir Walter Ealeigh forgiveness at the time of his death. But this pretext, being the best he had, was taken ; and then did messages and warnings fly thick up and down to every par^ ticular nobleman and gentleman, both that evening and the next morning, to draw them together in the forenoon to Essex House, dispersing the foresaid fable, That he should have been murdered ; save that it was sometime on the water, sometime in his bed, varying according to the nature of a lie. He sent likewise the same night certain of his instruments, as namely one William Temple,^ his secretary, into the City, to disperse the same tale, having increased it some few days before by an addition. That he should have been likewise murdered by some Jesuits to the number of four : and to fortify this pretext, and to make the more buzz of the danger he stood in, he caused that night a watch to be kept all night long towards the street, in his house. The next morning, which was Sunday, they came unto him of all hands, according to his messages and warnings. Of the nobility, the Earls of Eutland, Southampton, and the Lord Sands, and Sir Henry Parker, commonly called the Lord Mountegle ; besides divers knights and principal gentlemen and their followers, to the number of some three hundreth. And also it being Sunday and the hour when he had used to have a sermon at bis house, it gave cause to some and colour to others to come upon 1 Mr. Speddiiig adds, "There were two Temples, Edward and William. I suspect it was Edward who was employed in this service." A DECLARATION OF THE TREASONS, ETC. [2 3] that occasion. As they came, my Lord saluted and embraced, and to the generality of them gave to understand, in as plausible terms as he could, That Ms life had been sought, and that he meant to go to the Court and declare his griefs to the Queen, because his enemies were mighty, and used her Majesty's name and commandment ; and desired their help to take his part ; but unto The con- the more special persons he spake high and in other terms, [he Xrl of telling them That he was sure of the City, and would put himself ^^^^'°^- into that strength that her Majesty should not be able to stand against him, and that he would take revenge of his enemies. All the while after eight of the clock in the morning, the gates to the street and water were strongly guarded, and men taken in and let forth by discretion of those that held the charge, but with special caution of receiving in such as came from Court, but not suffering them to go back without my Lord's special direction, to the end no particularity of that which passed there might be known to her Majesty. About ten of the clock, her Majesty having understanding of this strange and tumultuous assembly at Essex House, yet in her princely wisdom and moderation thought to cast water upon this fire before it brake forth to further inconvenience : and therefore using authority before she would use force, sent unto him four persons of great honour and place, and such as he ever pretended to reverence and love, to offer him justice for any griefs of his, but yet to lay her royal commandment upon him to disperse his company, and upon them to withdraw themselves. These four honourable persons, being the Lord Keeper of the ration of ' Great Seal of England, the Earl of Worcester, the Comptroller of the Lord her Majesty^s household, and the Lord Chief Justice of England, the Earl of came to the house, and found the gates shut upon them. But ^°''?^t*f'"' after a little stay, they were let in at the wicket ; and as soon as Chief Jus- they were within, the wicket was shut, and all their servants kept thg^'r"^'' ^^ out, except the bearer of the seal. In the court they found the ianda. Earls with the rest of the company, the court in a manner full, the Lord and upon their comins towards Essex, they all flocked and p.^i^f Jus- thronged about them ; whereupon the Lord Keeper in an audible voce. voice delivered to the Earl the Queen's message. That they were rat^n^o^'f*' sent by her Majesty to understand the cause of this their assembly, the Es.rl of and to let them Tcnow that if they had any particular cause of mva voce. ' [24] BACON AND ESSEX. griefs against any persons whatsoever they should have hearing and justice. Whereupon the Earl of Essex in a very loud and furious voice declared, That his life was sought, and that he should have been murdered in his bed, and that he had been perfidiously dealt vnthal ; and other speeches to the like effect. To which the Lord Chief Justice said, If any such matter were attempted or intended against him, it was fit for him to declare it, assuring him hoth a faithful relation on their part, and that they could not fail of a princely indifferency and justice on her Majesty's part. To which the Earl of Southampton took occasion to object the assault made upon him by the Lord Gray : which my Lord Chief Justice returned upon him, and said. That in that case justice had been done, and the party was in prison for it. Then the Lord Keeper required the Earl of Essex, that if he would not declare his griefs openly, yet that then he would im- part them privately ; and then they doubted not to give him or procure him satisfaction. Upon this there arose a great clamour among the multitude : Away, my Lord ; they ahiise you, they betray yoii, ; they undo you ; you lose time. Whereupon my Lord Keeper put on his hat, and said with a louder voice than before, My Lord, let us speak with you privately, and understand your griefs ; and I do command you all upon you^ allegiance to lay down your weapons and to depart. Upon which words the Earl of Essex and all the rest, as disdaining commandment, put on their hats ; and Essex some- what abruptly went from him into the house, and the Counsellors followed him, thinking he would have private conference with them as was required. And as they passed through the several rooms, they might hear many of the disordered company cry, Kill them, hill them ; and others crying, Nay, but shop them up, keep them as pledges, cast the great seal out at the window ; and other such audacious and traitorous speeches. But Essex took hold of the occasion and advantage to keep in deed such pledges if he were dis- tressed, and to have the countenance to lead them with him to the Court, especially the two great magistrates of justice and the great seal of Ilngland, if he prevailed, and to deprive her A DECLARATION OF THE TREASONS, ETC. [25] Majesty of the use of their counsel in such a strait, and to engage his followers in the very beginning by such a capital act as the imprisonment of Counsellors carrying her Majesty's royal com- mandment for the suppressing of a rebellious force. And after that they were come up into his book-chamber, he gave order they should be kept fast, giving the charge of their custody principally to Sir John Davis, but adjoined unto him a warder, one Owen Salisbury, one of the most seditious and wicked persons of the number, having been a notorious robber, and one that served the enemy under Sir "William Stanley, and that bare a special spleen unto my Lord Chief Justice ; who guarded these honourable persons with muskets charged and matches ready fired at the chamber-door. This done, the Earl (notwithstanding my Lord Keeper still required to speak with him) left the charge of his house with Sir GiUy Mericke ; and using these words to my Lord Keeper, Have patience for awhile, I will go take order with the Mayor and Sheriffs for the City, and he with you again within half an hour, issued with his troop into London^ to the number of two hundreth, besides those that remained in the house ; choice men for hardiness and valour ; unto whom some gentlemen and one nobleman did after join themselves. But from the time he went forth, it seems God did strike him with the spirit of amazement, and brought him round again to the place whence he first moved. For after he had once by Ludgate entered into the City, he never had so much as the hea,rt or assurance to speak any set or confident speech to the people, (but repeated only over and over his tale as he passed by, that he should have heen murthered,) nor to do any act of foresight of courage ; but he that had vowed he would never be cooped up more, cooped himself first within the walls of the City, and after within the walls of an house, as arrested by God's justice as an example of disloyalty. For passing through Cheapside, and so towards Smith's house, and The con- 7. T , , ■, 1 ■ J • • J J fession of nnding, though some came about him, yet none jomed or armed the Earl of with him, he provoked them by speeches as he passed to arm, ^jj^'^jj teUing them. They did him hurt and no good, to come about him Sandis. with no weapons. But there was not in so populous a city, where he thought X [26] BACON AND ESSEX. himself held so dear, one man, from the chiefest citizen to the meanest artificer or prentice, that armed with him : so as being extremely appalled, as divers that happened to see him then might visibly perceive in his face and countenance, and almost moulten with sweat, though without any cause of bodUy labour but only by the perplexity and horror of his mind, he came to Smith's house the sheriff, where he refreshed himself a little and shifted him. But the meanwhile it pleased God that her Majesty's direc- tions at Court, though in a case so strange and sudden, were judi- cial and sound. For first there was commandment in the morn- ing given unto the City, that every man should be in a readiness both in person and armour, but yet to keep within his own door, and to expect commandment ; upon a reasonable and politic con- sideration, that had they armed suddenly in the streets, if there were any ill-disposed persons, they might arm on the one side and turn on the other, or at least if armed men had been seen to and fro, it would have bred a greater tumult, and more blood- shed ; and the nakedness of Essex troop would not have so well appeared. And soon after, direction was given that the Lord Burghley, taldng with him the King of Heralds, should declare him traitor in the principal parts of the City ; which was performed with good expedition and resolution, and the loss and hurt of some of his company. Besides that, the Earl of Cumberland, and Sir Thomas Gerard, Knight-marshal, rode into the City, and declared and notified to the people that he was a traitor : from which time divers of his troop withdrawing from him, and none other coming in to him, there was nothing but despair. For having stayed awhile, as is said, at Sheriff Smith's house, and there changing The con- his pretext of a private quarrel, and publishing TJmt the realm th' E° 1^ should have been sold to the Infanta, the better to spur on the Rutlaud. people to rise, and [having] called and given commandment to ftssioh^X' ^^^^ brought arms and weapons of all sorts, and been soon after the bar, advertised of the proclamation, he came forth in a hurry. So having made some stay in Gracious Street, and being dis- mayed upon knowledge given to him that forces were coming for- wards against him under the conduct of the Lord Admiral, the Lieutenant of her Majesty's forces, and not knowing what course A DBCLAEATION OF THE TREASONS, ETC. [27] to take, he determiiied in the end to go back towards his own house, as well in hope to have found the Counsellors there, and by them to havs served some turn, as upon trust that towards night his friends in the City would gather their spirits together and rescue him, as himself declared after to M. Lieutenant of the Tower. But for the Counsellors, it had pleased God to make one" of the principal offenders his instrument for their delivery ; who seeing my Lord's case desperate, and contriving how to redeem his fault and save himself, came to Sir John Davis and Sir GUly Mericke, as sent from my Lord ; and so procured them to be released. But the Earl of Essex, with his company that was left, think- ing to recover his house, made on by land towards Ludgate ; where being resisted by a company of pikemen and other forces, gathered together by the wise and diligent care of the Bishop of London, and commanded by Sir John Luson, and yet attempting to clear the passage, he was with no great difficulty repulsed. At which encounter Sir Christopher Blunt was sore wounded, and young Tracy slain, on his part; and one Waits on the Queen's part, and some other. Upon which repulse he went back and fled towards the waterside, and took boat at Queenhive, and so was received into Essex House at the Watergate, which he fortified and barricado'd ; but instantly the Lord Lieutenant so disposed his companies, as all passage and issue forth was cut off from him both by land and water, and aU succours that he might hope for were discouraged : and leaving the Earl of Cum- berland, the Earl of Lincoln, the Lord Thomas Howard, the Lord Gray, the Lord Burghley, and the Lord Compton, Sir Walter Ealeigh, Sir Thomas Gerrard, with divers others, before the house to landward, my Lord Lieutenant himself thought good, taking with him the Lord of Ef&ngham, Lord Cobham, Sir John Stanhope, Sir Eobert Sidney, M. Eoulk GrevUl, with divers others, to assail the garden and banquetting-house on the waterside, and presently forced the garden, and won to the walls of the house, and was ready to have assailed the house ; but out of a Christian and honourable consideration, understanding that there were in the house the Countess of Essex, and the Lady Eich, with their gentlewomen, let the Earl of Essex know by Sir X 2 [28] EACON AND ESSEX. Eobert Sidney, that he was content to suffer the ladies and gen- tlewomen to come forth. Whereupon Essex, returning the Lord Lieutenant thanks for the compassion and care he had of the ladies, desired only to have an hour's respite to make way for their going out, and an hour after to barricado the place again. Which because it could make no alteration to the hindrance of the service, the Lord Lieutenant thought good to grant. But Essex, having had some talk within of a sally, and despairing of ' the success, and thinking better to yield himself, sent word that upon some conditions he would yield. But the Lord Lieutenant utterly refusing to hear of capitu- lations, Essex desired to speak with my Lord, who thereupon went up close to the house ; and the late Earls of Essex and Southampton, with divers other lords and gentlemen their par- takers, presented themselves upon the leads : and Essex said, he would not capitulate, but entreat ; and made three petitions. The first. That they might be civilly used : whereof the Lord Lieutenant assured them. The second. That they might have an honourable trial: whereof the Lord Lieutenant answered they needed not to doubt. The third. That he might have Ashton a preacher vnth him in prison for the comfort of his soul ; which the Lord Lieutenant said he would move to her Majesty, not doubting of the matter of his request, though he could not abso- lutely promise him that person.^ Whereupon they all, with the ceremony amongst martial men accustomed, came down and sub- mitted themselves and yielded up their swords, which was about ten of the clock at, night ; there having been slain in holding of the house, by musket shot, Owen Salisbury, and some few more on the part of my Lord, and some few likewise slain and hurt on the Queen's part : and presently, as well the Lords as the rest of their confederates of quality were severally taken into the charge of divers particular lords and gentlemen, and by them conveyed to the Tower and other prisons. So as this action, so dangerous in respect of the person of the 1 ""Whereas the Earl of Essex desired to have a chaplain of his own sent unto him to give him sacrificial comfort, wherein the Lord Admiral hath moved her Majesty ; hut his own chaplain being" evil at ease, Dr. Don, the Dean of Norwich, is sent unto him to attend there, for whose diet and lodging the Lieutenant of the Tower is to take order." — Letter to Lord Thomas Howard, (Jonstable of the Tower of London. Feb. 16. Council Beg. Eliz. No. 17, foL 83. I quote from a copy. A DECLAEATION OF THE TREASONS, ETC. [29] leader, the manner of the combination, and the intent of the plot, brake forth and ended within the compass of twelve hours, and with the loss of little blood, and in such sort as the next day all courts of justice were open, and did sit in their accustomed manner ; giving good subjects and all reasonable men just cause to think, not the less of the offenders' treason, but the more of her Majesty's princely magnanimity and prudent foresight in so great a perU ; and chiefly of God's goodness, that hath blessed her Majesty in this, as in many things else, with so rare and divine felicity. INDEX. Accounts, Bacon's accounts with his creditor, Trott, 89 Adhere, "mean men must adhere," 78 "Advice to Queen Elizabeth," written by Bacon, 19J Africanus, Essex compares himself to, 113 Alchemist, philosophy of the, 56 Allen, Sir Francis, Essex's kindness to, 27 Apology, Bacon's, inaccurate, 94 ; 112- 115,' 149-151, 159-160, 173, 174, 181, 183. For the full text of the Apology, see the Appendix Apology, Essex's, 95 Architecture of Fortune, the, 77 Aristotle, Bacon on, 14, 56, 58 Armada, the, 4 Artillery, "a thing not far out of the way," 57 Ashley, Sir A., attempts to corrupt Cecil, 4 Ashton, Essex's chaplain, 232-233 Asti'onomers, "the new car-men," 67 Atlas, Burghley "the Atlas of this commonwealth," 21 Attorney-General, place of, sought by Bacon, 39 ; obtained by Coke, 42 B Bacon, Lady Anne (Bacon's mother), to her sons, 16, 47 ; warns Anthony against Cecil, 66 Bacon, Anthony (Bacon's elder brother), his charges against Cecil, 2, 67 ; his early life, 20 ; returns from the Con- tinent, 20 ; alienates lands for his brother, 47 ; resists attempts to de- tach him from Essex, 66 ; supports his brother's suit for the Mastership of the Rolls, 70 ; his negociations with Scotland, 72 ; Francis dedicates the Essays to him, 78 ; he re-dedi- cates them to Essex, 79 ; undertakes his brother's pecuniary responsibili- ties, 81, 82 ; in danger of alienating Gorhamburj', 88 ; expostulates with Essex, 91, 92 ; his death, 88 ; his violence apologized for by Francis to Burghley, 102; letters written in his name to Essex by Francis, 187 ; a pension for his services bestowed on Francis, 252 Bacon, B'rancis, 'writes the Cheater Birth of Time, 13 ; his account of himself 14 ; in the days of his greatness, 16 ; his shyness, 16 ; his attempts to cure his shyness, 18 ; his independence at first, 16, 17 ; obtains a reversionary of&ce, 20 ; he appeals to Burghley, 21 ; applies himself to Essex, 35 ; sues for office, 37-51 ; excluded from Court for a speech in Parliament, 38 ; accuses CeeU and Puckering of thwart- ing him, 51 ; presented with a gift of land by Essex, 55 ; his alleged motive for desiring ofB.oe, 22, 61 ; tries for the Mastership of the Rolls, 70 ; his dissimulation, 71 ; he ad- vises Essex to dissemble, 73 ; dedi- cates the Essays to Anthony, 78 ; shifts his pecuniary reponsibilities on Anthony, 81, 82 ; encumbered with debts, 83 ; tries to obtain his rever- sionary office, 83 ; aims at a wealthy marriage, 84 ; endeavours to bribe Egerton, 85-87; advises Essex to pre- tend to be willing to assume the com- mand in Ireland, 97 ; his letter to Essex after the Earl's quarrel with the Queen, 102 ; his gradual with- drawal from Essex, 103, 104 ; his si- lence complained of by Essex, 104 ; his proposed alteration of Camden's history, 135 ; recommends to Cecil toleration of Roman Catholicism in Ireland, 143 ; intercedes for Essex, 148-163 ; is accused of prolonging INDEX. Essex's disgrace, 156, 157 ; his New' Year's Letter to the Queen, 163 ; writes letters in the name of Anthony Bacon and of Essex, 165, 166, 187- 190 ; his account of the proceeding at York House, 167, 168 ; his own part in that proceeding, 170 ; had warned Essex against debt, 177 ; offers Essex his services, 181 ; his inaccuracy, 181 ; intercedes for Essex after his outbreak, 212 ; charges Essex with hypocrisy, 224-229 ; his account of his part in drawing up the Declaration of the Treasons of Essex, 237 ; what is the explanation of his self-respect, 250 ; rewarded by the Government for his prosecution of Essex, 251 ; receives a pension from King James for Anthony's services, 252 : his devotion to Cecil during the life of the latter, 253 ; his de- scription of Cecil after the death of ' the latter, 254 See also Apology, Declaration Bacon, Sir Nicholas, Lord Keeper and father of Francis Bacon, 19 Bacon, Eobert (cousin of Francis), his pecuniary dealings with Anthony and Francis Bacon, 81 Bagnall, Sir Henry, death and defeat of, 100 Bashfulness, Bacon's, 17 Bias, the precept of, 251 Bingham, Sir Kiohard, death of, 104 Barlow's, Dr., Sermon on Essex, 232, 235, 236. Birch, his Memoirs of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, 1 ; quoted passim Blackwater, surrender of, 100 Blount (Blunt) Charles ; see Montjoy Blouut (Blunt), Sir Christopher, re- commended by Essex for the com- mand in Ireland, 98 ; appointed Marshal by Essex, 119 ; detached to suppress disorders in Ophaly, 126 ; his account of Essex's [proposal and motive for returning to England, 127, 128 ; his speech before execu- tion, 208 ; said to have dissiiaded Essex from flight, 210 Bodley, Sir Thomas, desires to be re- called, 4 ; favoured by Essex in a factious spirit, 8, 24 ; Bacon's letter to, 18 Booth, condemned to the pillory, 5 Bothwell, Ralegh's name for Essex, 198 Buckhurst, Lord, Essex writes to, iu behalf of Bacon, 70 Buckingham, the Duke of, his charge against Bacon, 157 Bnrghley, Lady, Bacon's letter to, 16 Burghley, Lord, Essex's guardian, 13 ; ill and out of favour, 66 ; his com- plaint to Essex, 68 ; his death, 99 ; Bacon's appeal to, 21 ; bestows a reversionary office on Bacon, 20 ; tries to recall Essex to Court, 96 ; acts as a "middle counsellor," 99 Cabinet. The Royal Cabinet of Phi- losophy, 59 Cadiz, Essex's expedition to, 65 Cain, Bacon illustrates Essex's trea- son by reference to Cain Calendar, the calendar of Julius Caesar more memorable than his conquests, 58 Cambridge, Bacon at, 15 Camden, on Essex's appointment to the Irish command, 107, 108 ; his judg- ment of Essex, 230 ; Bacon's pro- posed substitation for a passage in Camden's History, 135 Carew, Sir George, Cecil's friend, 245 ; courts the favour of Essex, 90 ; re- commended by Essex for the Irish command, 98 ; advised by CeoU to throw up his command on the plea of illness, 9 Casket letters, the, 2 Catholics, Roman ; see Toleration Cato, a Cato at home barking at Africanus, 111 Cecil, Sir Robert, speech about the suc- cession, 6 ; his account of the quar- rel between him and Essex, 24 ; sus- pected by Bacon of hostility, 51 ; how nicknamed by Perez, 65 ; sworn Secretary, 65 ; contends with Essex, 66 ; reconciled to Essex, 94 ; ap- pointed Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, 96 ; refuses to go as an ambassador without an duvriaTta from Essex, 97 ; Bacon's professions of affection to, 104 ; informs Sir Tho- mas Edmondes that Essex will be sent to Ireland, 106, 110 ; approves of Essex's march to Munster, 124; alarmed by report of Spanish inva- sion, 135 ; informs Neville of Essex's parley with Tyrone, 138 ; anticipates Essex's release, 142 ; his speech on the proposed " toleration," 142 ; withdraws the charge of toleration brought against Essex, 143, 171 ; un- popular during Essex's disgrace, 156 ; remonstrates with Bacon on the ru- mours about hia conduct, 158 ; blames Essex's march into Munster, 170 ; declines a reconciliation with INDEX. Essex, 178 ; suspected by Essex of favouring the Infanta, 197; urged by Kalegh to destroy Essex, 198 ; de- fends himself against the charge of favouring the Infanta, 224 ; his ac- count of Essex's confession, 233 ; his plot against the Ear] of Desmond, 245 ; how courted by Bacon during his life, 253 ; how described by Bacon after his death, 254 CeoiUan faction, the, 7 Chamberlain, his comments on Essex's appointment to Ireland, 109 ; on Essex's trial, 230 ; on the subsequent sermons, 234 ; on Dr. Hayward's book, 118 Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Cecil appointed, 96 "Cheese," "Home, John Cheese," I Church, Bacon writes a treatise on the controversies of the Church, 19 Clarendon, Lord, his judgment of Eliz- abeth, 7 ; on the arts of a courtier, 12 ; on Bacon's Deda/ratwnj 236 Clifford, Sir Conyers, defeat and death of, 130 Clothing for the soldiers in Ireland, the, 121 Cobham Lord, death of, 93 ; his son appointed Warden of the Cinque Ports, 93 ; the latter regarded . by Essex as a friend of Spain, 201 Coke, "the Huddler," 41 ; appointed Attorney, 42; incurs the enmity of Essex, 93 ; his part in the proceeding at York House, 171 ; marks passages to be omitted in the evideuce against Essex, 211 ; his prosecution of Essex, 221, 222 Colowrs of Oood and Evil, the, publi- cation of, 79 "Common." " I reckon myself to be a common," meaning of, 54 Commons, the House of, Bacon's speeches in, 38, 95 Comptroller ; see KnoUys, Sir William Conference of Pleasure, the, 55 Contemplation, the Hermit's Praise of, 60 ; disparaged by Bacon, 62 Coriolanus, Essex compared to, 236 Corruption at Court, 3, 4 Council, Essex marches into Munster ■without waiting for the sanction of the Council in England, 122 ; Essex excuses himself from attending the Council, 216 Councillors shut up by Essex, 219 Court of Elizabeth, the, 1-12 Gonitier, the Four Arts of the, 1 Cuffe, Essex's secretary, 26 ; his charge against Essex's enemies, 152; his conduct described by Neville, 196 ; reveals Essex's instructions for the Scottish Ambassador, 201 ; de- clares that Essex never intended violence, 208 D Davbes (or DanVers), Sir Charles, his evidence against Essex, 195, 199, 203, 209, 213 ; goes to Montjov in Ireland, 204 Davies, Su- John, his evidence against Essex, 209 Declarations of the Treasons of Essex, 235-242 ; Bacon's part in composing, 237 ; inaccurate, 122, 123, 129, 130 ; suppressions in, 227 ; imputes to Essex a purpose from the first to raise the City, 215 ; its version of Blount's speech, 208 ; its version of Essex's - confession, 208 ; Lord Clarendon's description of, 236. For the full text of the Declaration, see the Ap- pendix Deputy, the Lord Deputy in Ireland, 119 ; see Essex Desmond, the Earl of, Cecil's plot against, 245 " Devices," Bacon's, 55 Disparagement : Bacon's " Art of Dis- paragement," 63 Dissimulation, Bacon's use of, 71,237, and passim ; recommended to Essex by an anonymous friend, 91 Drogheda, Essex goes to, after dismiss- ing his army, 131 Drury House, meetings at, 221 Dyer, Mr. Edmund, Essex desires his advice, 34 E Edmondbs, Lady, 5 Edmondes, Sir Thomas, Cecil's letter to, 106 Egerton, Sir Thomas, appointed Lord Keeper, 69 ; restrains the fees of the Clerk of the Star Chamber, 85 ; Bacon's letter to, touching the Clerk- ship, 85-87 ; arbitrates between Bacon and his creditor, 88 ; advises Essex to submit himself to the Queen, 11, 101, 171 ; speaks of Essex's "dis- honourable conditions," 142 ; goes to Essex House on the day of the outbreak, 217 Elizabeth, her love of balancing fac- tions, 7 ; her Court, 1-12 ; her love for Essex, 26 ; excludes Bacon from Court, 38 ; takes offence at Bacon's INDEX. petition for licence to travel, 50 ; her suspicions of Essex's military tend- encies, 73 ; gives Essex igSOOO worth of cochineal, 97 ; strikes Essex, 99 ; "means to play upon Essex," 100 ; her indignation against Essex's in- action in Ireland, 123 ; orders Essex to march to Ulster, 125 ; cancels Essex's licence to return, 126 ; orders Essex not to make terms with Tyrone till he has heard from her, 131 ; has a brief made of Essex's contempts towards her, 141 ; her letter to Fen- ton in Ireland ; why iiTitated against Essex, 151 ; resolves to publish a Declaration of Essex's faults in the Star Chamber, 155 ; determines to institute a judicial proceeding against Essex, 164 ; jests at Essex's &,tterie3, 180 ; her fury against Harrington, 197 ; revises the Dedwrations of the Treasons of Essex, 238 Enclosures, Bacon's speech on, 87 Enemies, Essex's exaggerated fears of enemies at Court, 216 ; the fears en- couraged by Bacon, 73, 190 ; declared groundless by Bacon, 226 England, increasing prosperity of, 39 ; the interests of England subordinated to the interests of party, 105 Essays, Bacon's, when written, 77 ; why not dedicated to Essex, 78 ; second edition of, 254 Essex, the Countess of, excluded from her husband, 152 Essex, the Earl of, his early life, 23 ; his violent disposition, 24, 25 ; his flattery of the Queen, 25 ; his love of study, 26 ; his virtues, 27 ; his pro- motion, marriage, and campaign in France, 28, 29 ; differences between him and the Queen, 31 ; his insta- bility, 33 ; intercedes for Bacon, 40- 44 ; returns from Cadiz, 65 ; contends with Cecil, 66 ; suspects an attempt to decoy him from England, 67 ; his power at its zenith, 68 ; advised by Bacon to dissemble, 74 ; his decline, 90 and foil. ; refuses at first to go on the Island voyage, 92 ; created Mas- ter of the Ordnance, 93 ; his Apology, 95 ; goes on the Island Voyage, 96 ; created Earl Marshal, 96 ; promises Cecil an (J/tvijo-rfo, 97 ; insults the Queen, 98 ; retires to Wanstead, 9-9 ; geeks access to the Queen, 100 ; his reply to Egerton when the latter counsels submission, 101; complains of Bacon's silence, 104 ; accepts the command in Ireland, 108 ; his want of administrative power, 117 ; dis- credited by the Court, 118, 119 ; his commission in Ireland, 120 ; his march into Munster, 121-4 ; his ill- ness in Ireland, 124-5 ; his proposal to return to England, 127 ; his mo- tive in proposing to return, 128 ; parleys with Tyrone and disbands his army, 131 ; returns to England, 132 ; imprisoned, 134 ; petty charges brought against, 1 39 ; charges fabri- cated against, 145 ; his base proposaj. to the Queen, 146 ; conduct on his return from Ireland, 150 ; his illness, 152 ; averts a proceeding in the Star Chamber, but only for a time, 167 ; released from restraint, 176 ; his debts, 4, 177 ; accepts Bacon's offer of service, 183 ; charged with hypo- crisy in the Declaration, 191 ; enters upon treason, 194 and foil.; writes instructions fortheEarlofMar, 201 ; urges Montjoy to assist him, 203 ; his change of plan, 207, 210 ; the Earl of Eutland's evidence against, 211 ; finally resolves on action, 213 ; excuses himself from obeying the summons of the Council, 216 ; his outbreak, 219 ; his surrender, 220 ; accuses Kalegh of an attempt to murder him, 223 ; accused by Bacon of hypocrisy, 224-229 ; his conduct before death, 231-234 Essex House, meeting of conspirators at, 216, 217 Essexian faction, the, 7 F Pactions, Elizabeth's policy in ba- lancing factions, 7 ; the disastrous results of, 2, 98 ; Bacon's Essay on, 78 Falsehood, "mixture of falsehood is Hk'e alloy," 3 Familiarity, cultivated by Bacon, 17 Faunt, Mr., his description of the Four Arts of a Courtier, 1 Fleet, the ofiice of the, 81 Formality, Bacon resolves to free himself from payment of foi-mality, 17 Fortescue, Sir John, warns Anthony Bacon against meddling with Scotch negociations, 71, 72 Fortune, the wheels of the mind to be concentric with the wheels.of fortune, 249 ; deserves consideration as the organ of virtue and merit, 63 ; the book of fortune, 59 ; the "compre- hension of one fortune in another," 36 ; the Architecture of Fortune, 77 INDEX. "Frame," Bacon learns to "frame," 49 France, Essex's campaign in, 28 ; Ce- cil's mission to, 97 Friendship, Bacon's notions of, 36, 251 cub, " 66 ; writes in Anthony Bacon's name to Essex, 96 ; letter of Francis Bacon to, 160 ; indicated (?)in cypher, 178 " Huddler," the, 41 Hypocrisy, imputed by Bacon to Essex, 225 Garden, the Boyal Garden of Philo- sophy, 59 Oesta Cfrayorvm, 55, 58 Godwin to Shelley, on "the prepon- derance of good, 250 Gosnold, a messenger between Francis Bacon and Essex, 226 Gorge, Sir Ferdinando, his evidence, 209 ; accused of perjury by Essex, 21 4, 222 ; his evidence inconsistent, 214 ; releases the Councillors, 220 Grecians, the, philosophy of, 56 Greville, Foulk, 49 Guise, the Duke of, Essex compared to, by Bacon, 229 Gunpowder falls short with the soldiers in Ireland, 121 Gymnosophists, the, 58 Hanno, a Hanno at Carthage, 111_ Harrington, the Queen's god-son, warn- ed against Essex, 119 ; his descrip- tion of the Queen's care for the soldiers, 121 ; describes the oscilla- tions of Essex's mind, 196 ; describes the Queen's fury, 197 Hatton, Lady, desired in marriage by Francis Bacon, 84 Hatton, Sir Christopher, to be alleged by Essex as an example, 74 Hayward, Dr., his book on Henry IV. dedicated to Essex, 118 Henry IV. of France, Essex with, 29 ; on the point of concluding peace with Spain, 97 Hermit, The Hermit's Praise of Con- tcn^lation, 60 Hicks (Burghley's private secretary). Bacon applies to for money, 88 ; be- friends Bacon, 89 Hilliard, painted Bacon's portrait in his boyhood, 15 Horse, Master of the, Essex appointed, 28 Howard, Lord, created Earl of Not- tingham, 96 ; his account of Essex's conduct before his execution, 233 Howard, Lord Henry, calls Burghley and -Cecil "the leviathan and his IcAEUs, Bacon compares Essex to Icarus, 184 Infanta, Essex suspects that the Infanta is favoured by Cecil, 197, 223 Instruments of Princes, the, 9 Intellect, superior to the affections in Bacon's estimation, 55 Ireland, 100-133, avA passim Island Voyage, the, 96 James (of Scotland), Montjoy writes to, 199 ; bestows a pension on Francis Bacon on account of Anthony's ser- vices, 252 ; Cecil explains to James his differences with Essex, 23 Jonson, Ben, his description of Bacon in the days of his greatness, 15 Julius Csesar, more memorable for his calendar than for his conquests, 58 Jupiter, Bacon not born under Jupiter, 21 Knollts, Sir 'William, appointed comptroller, 66 ; recommended by Cecil for the command in Ireland, 98 ; his appointment resisted by Essex, 98 ; visits Essex House on the day of the outbreak, 217 Knowledge, Bacon's Praise of^ Know- ledge, 65 Lampsie, Essex's estate in Vales, 26 Lee, Heniy, Montjoy 's messenger to the King of Scotland, 200, 203 Leicester, the Countess of, (Essex's mother), letter from her to Essex, 129 Leicester, the Earl of, his flattery of the Queen, 2 ; his complaints of want of pay for the soldiers, 4 ; introduces his step-son Essex to Court, 28 ; difference between him and Essex, INDEX. 31, 187 ; held up to Essex by Bacon as an example, 7i ; pretended to be religious when he was out of favour, 187 Leinster, Essex resolves on a present prosecution in Leinster, 121 Letters, intended to be seen by others to whom they were not written, 3, 60, 187 ; the Casket Letters, 2 ; the address of Bacon's letters to Essex, rarely " It may please your good Lordship," 54 Library, the Eoyal Library of Philo- sophy, 59 London, the men of, 236 ; supposed by Essex to be devoted to him, 215 Lord Keeper ; see Puckering, Egerton Love, the child of foUy, 251 Low Counties, the, 95 M Machiavklli, 1, 250 Magi, the, in attendance on the Persian Kings, 58 Mar, the Earl of, instructions for, com- posed by Essex, 201 Marriage, Bacon's, 252 Marshal, Essex appointed Earl Marshal, 96 ; Blount created Marshal in Ire- land, 119 Martha, Essex compared by Bacon to, 73 Master of the Horse, Essex appointed, 28 , Mastership of the Ordnance, bestowed on Essex, 74 Mastership of the Rolls, Bacon aims at, 70 Mastership of the Wards, Essex named for, 101 Maynard, Bacon applies for money to, 83 Meyrick, Sir Gilly, his indignation against Francis Bacon, 157, 175 MiU, clerk of the Star Chamber, lends money to Bacon, 47 ; in danger of losing his office, 83 Mind, the mind is the man, 55 Monarchy, influence of the Tudor monarchy on Essex and Bacon, 12 Monoply, of sweet wines, the principal part of Essex's revenue, 195 ; mono- polies, 177 MonsoD, Sir William, his description of Essex, 33 Montesquieu, "que la vertue n'est point le principe du gouvernement monarohique," 12^ Montjoy, Lord (Charles Blount or Blunt), nominated for Ireland, 106 ; his letter to Essex on the Irish com- mand, 111 ; writes to King James of Scotland, 199 ; appointed to the Irish command, 200 ; ipressed by Essex to assist him, 200 Monuments. The monuments of wit survive the monuments of power, 60 Moryson, Pynes, secretary to Montjoy, disappointed by Essex's assumption of the Irish command, 106 ; quoted, 108, 120, 170, 171 Muuster, Essex's march to, 121 ; ap- proved of by Cecil, 124 Muses, the gardens of the, 160 N Natuke, the philosophy of, 66 Neville, Sir Henry, informed by Cecil of the alarm of Spanish invasion, 135 ; informed by Cecil of Essex's parley with Tyrone, 137 ; describes Cuffe's conduct, 196 ; his evidence touching the conspiracy of Essex, 205 ; connives at Essex's first de- sign, 207 ; accused by Essex, 233 "Northern Journey," the, i.e. the march into Ulster, 121 and ■passim, ; " before the Earl's journey into the North, " the reason for the suppression of these words in Bacon's Declara- tion, 127 Northumberland, Countess of, the, 93 Norwich, the Dean of, Essex's reply to, 231 Nottingham, the Earl of, his account of Essex's behaviour after his con- demnation, 233 O'DONNBLL, 137, 141 Office, brings commandment of more wits than a man's own, 22 Office of the Fleet, the, 81 Omissions, in the evidence against Essex, 240 O'Neale, 137 Ophaly, disturbances in, 126 Ordnance, Master of the, Essex is appointed, 93 j the office deprecated for Essex by Bacon, 74 Ormond, his letter rejected by Essex as a fabrication, 171 INDEX. Pakis, reminiscence of, 15 Parliament, Bacon's speeches in, 38, 94 Paul's Cross, Dr. Barlow's sermon at, 235-36 Perez, Sir Antonio, his nickname for Cecil, 66 ; Essex's letter to, 67 ; his advice to Essex, 69 Perpetuities, Bacon engaged in the case of, 43 Persians, the Kings of, attended by the Magi, 58 PhiUmthropia, 22 Philcmtia, or Self-Love, a charaiter in the Device composed by Bacon for Essex, 59, 76 Philosophy, the Philosophy of 3^ature, 50, 63 ; of Aristotle, 14 ; of the Grecians, 56, 63 ; the Councillor advising the study of Philosophy, 58 Pisistratus, Bacon compares Essex's conduct to the hypocrisy of, 193 Place, all things move violently to their place, 16 Planets, the motions of the, 57 Pleasure, the conference of, 56 Pleasures, the pleasures of intellect greater than the pleasures of the affections, 55 Politics, Bacon imbued with, from his childhood, 14 Popularity, Bacon advises Essex to retain it, 74 ; Bacon charges Essex with seeking it, 184 ; imputed to Bacon, 54 Preachers commanded to publish false accusations against Essex, 145 ; see also Barlow, Dr. Preservation, all things have a natural instinct towards preservation as well as perfection, 195 Printing, " a gross invention, " 57 Privy Seal, Essex is advised by Bacon to aim at the place of Lord Privy Seal, 74 Promus, Bacon's storehouse of "For- mularies and Elegancies," 63 Propositions, the so-called " Tyrone's Propositions," no evidence for their genuineness at present, 134-147 ; possible origin of, 146 Provisions for the soldiers in Ireland, " to be defalked out of the soldiers' pay," 121 Ptolemies, the, addicted to Philosophy, 58 Puckering, Sir John (Lord Keeper), Bacon appeals to, 43 ; reproached by Bacon, and soothed by Essex, 61 ; his death, 69; accused of corrup- tion, 5 Q QuAKRELS, Essex promises to " find quarrels (i.e. grounds) to break " the treaty with Tyrone, 146. (See Essays, viii. 54 ; xxix. 234) E Ralegh, Sir Walter, his flattery of the Queen, 11 ; Essex's jealousy of, 24 ; reconciled to Essex, 94 ; recom- mended by Essex for the command in Ireland, 98 ; he urges Cecil to destroy Essex, 198 ; accused by Essex of an attempt to murder him, 223 Rawley, Bacon's biographer, his ac- count of Bacon's early dissatisfaction with Aristotle, 15 ; suppresses one of Bacon's letters, 86 ; defends Bacon's inaccuracy of quotation, 181 Rebellion in Ireland, the, 100 Religion, not in a prosperous state, 14 ; toleration of, imputed to Essex, 136 ; 142, 143, 171 Beligious Meditations, the, publication of, 79 Reynolds, Essex's secretary, 26 ; anxious that the Earl should submit to the Queen, 172 Rich, Lady, Essex's sister, 154 ; the Queen is incensed by a letter from her, 167, 168 Running, at the ring, 11, 196 Russell, Lady, aunt of Anthony Bacon, 66 Russell, Sir WiUiam, recommended by Essex for the command in Ireland, 98 Rutland, the Earl of, his character and evidence against Essex, 206, 211 S. Salisbtjky, the Earl of (Cecil), Bacon's professions of devotion to, 263 Salomon, well "seen in universality," 68 SaviUe, Essex appealed to, 25 Scotland, Essex's negociations with, 66, 72 ; Essex's instractions for the ambassador from, 201 ; Montjoy's letter to the King of, 199 Self-Love, a character in the Device composed by Bacon for Essex, 59 Silence, the best celebration of know- ledge, 55 Simulation, when justifiable, 71, 237 INDEX. Sol, Bacon "not born under Sol," 21 Solioitorsliip, Bacon sues for, 41-61 Southampton, the Earl of, Essex's letter to, touching the Irish com- mand, 110; appointed General of the Horse by Essex, 119 ; his ap- pointment objected to by the Queen, 141 ; imparts Essex's project to Sir Henry Neville, 206 Spain, Essex's expedition to Spain, 65; see also Infanta Spedding, Mr., his edition of the Life and Letters of Lord Bacon, quoted passim; his description of Bacon's character, see Preface ; thinks that the letter of Bacon containing an offer of a bribe to Egerton was not printed by Eawley " as being of too private a character," 86 ; implies that Essex went in person to suppress the disorders in Ophaly, 126 ; thinks that the discovery of the evidence suppressed by the Government makes Essex's case worse instead of better, 130 ; implies that a large number of soldiers accompanied the Earl to London, 133 ; prints as genuine the so-called '"Tyrone's Propositions," 136 ; his inferences from those " Propositions," 137 ; omits the fact that Cecil withdrew the charge brought against Essex by Coke, 172; thinks that Essex's friends were not indignant at Bacon's conduct, 175 ; speaks of Essex's "wealth" at a time when he was crushed with debt, 178 ; silently omits "wealth" in a correspcnding passage in the Con- temporwry Review, 178 ; extenuates, while admitting, Bacon's inaccuracy, 181 ; admits that the accusation of " hypocrisy in religion " brought against Essex was unjust, 192 ; ap- parently justifies Bacon's suppres- sions and falsifications in the Decla/ra- (ion, 238 Spenser, quoted, 44 ; the date of his Daphnaida, 77 Squire, the, a character in Essex's Device, 61 Standen, Anthony, a correspondent of Anthony Bacon, quoted, 5, 26 ; ap- plies vainly to Btirghley, 8 Stanhope, Sir JoKn, 83 Star Chamber, Declaration in, 155 ; proceeding in averted by Essex's submissive letter, 167 ; Clerk of the, see Clerk and Mill Statesman, "the hoUow Statesman," a character in Essex's Device, 76 Still-house, the Royal Still-house of Philosophy, 69 Subsidies, Bacon's speech on, 38, 39 Sydney, the Sydney Papers by Rowland White, quoted passim; impute to Mr. Bacon the proposal to un-knight the knights made by Essex, 167 Sydney, Sir Robert, 4 ; recommended by Essex for the command in Ireland, 98 ; cautioned against being too friendly with Essex, 153 Taxation, Bacon's dislike of, 39 "Temporis Partus Maximus," or, the " Greatest Birth of Time," composed by Bacon, 13 Toleration of Roman Catholicism, im- puted to Essex as a charge, 142 ; denied by him, 143 ; recommended by Bacon to Cecil, 143 Tower of London, Essex's project to take, 214, 215 Treasurer, Lord ; see Burghley Trinity College, Essex at, 22 ; Baoou at, 15 Trismegistus, 59 Trott, Bacon's creditor, his deference for Bacon, 16 ; his understanding with him touching the clerkship of the Star Chamber, 45 ; his kindness, 48 ; supported by Francis and Anthony Bacon for the clerkship of the Northern Council, 80 ; his differences with Francis Bacon, 81, 89 Tyrone, 100, 145 ; his parley with Essex, 131 ; his so-called " Proposi- tions," 136 ; cannot persuade O'Don- nell to accede to Essex's terms, 143 ; see also Propositions. Ulstbb, the march to, 121 Unton, Sir Henry, 4 Vanitas vamtatii/n, Essex's readiness to cry, 66. Verity, Essex is "too quick to pass from dissimulation to verity," 105 Virtue, fortune is worth consideration as the organ of virtue, 63 INDEX. "W Walsingham, his skill in equivocation, 2 ; dies, 32 War, approved by Bacon, 94, 95 Warren, Sir William, Essex's instruc- tions to, 139 ; his report of Tyrone's boasts, 1S3 Whyte, Rowland (the author of the Sydmy Papers) quoted passim, ; his charge against Bacon, 156 Winwood, Neville writes to, 196 Winwood Memorials, the, 137 Worcester, the Earl of, his evidence against Essex, 219 Wotton, Sir Henry, on the Essexian and Ceoilian factions, 7 ; his descrip- tion of Essex's introduction to Court, 26 Ybab, the "historical year," 77 Yelverton, his description of Bacon, 15 York House, Essex confined in, 134 ; judicial proceeding at, 167 THE END. LOKDOX : «. .CMX, SW^ A»iB I/iXiXm., KRUITEiie.