YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

From the library of
FRANCIS BACON TROWBRIDGE
YALE 1887

MEMOIRS

OF THE

Court of Htng fames $e $ix&t

VOL. I.

FrontLspircX to 'frZ 2 .

'Ifaisamer pair

JAMES the FlRST.XlHG ©if ENGLA5B,

Fubfi.tfi,;* 4 y.vij///,;/?.^jr.'t.7!ccj-y-v.'/c-^-3n^irn.7.r7:r^i.JtT/h\',i^tlS:i2.

MEMOIRS

OF

THE COURT

OF

KING JAMES THE FIRST.

By LUCY AIKIN.

IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. I.

SECOND EDITION.

lontion :
TRINTED FOR LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME AND BROWN,
PATERNOSTER-ROW.

1822.

R. AND a. TAYLOK, PRINTERS,
SHOE-LANE, LONDON.

TO JOHN AIKIN, M.D.
THE REVERED PARENT, DELIGHTFUL TEACHER
AND INDULGENT FRIEND,
WHOSE JUDGEMENT HAS BEEN HER SUREST GUIDE
IN THOSE STUDIES WHICH HIS EXAMPLE
INCITED HER TO PURSUE,
HIS DAUGHTER INSCRIBES THIS BOOK
IN AFFECTIONATE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
OF OBLIGATIONS
NOT TO BE REPAID.

ADVERTISEMENT.

In offering to the public the following work, the
author deems it unnecessary to detain her readers
with any preliminary remarks respecting its de
sign or the mode of its execution. She has only
to announce, that it is intended as a sequel to her
Memoirs of the Court of Queen Elizabeth ; and to
express her hope that the indulgence which has at
tended her former labors will not be found to have
deserted her on the present occasion, when many
circumstances, some of them connected with the sub
ject of these pages, others of a personal nature, con
spire to increase her anxiety and her diffidence.

CONTENTS.

VOL. I.

CHAPTER I.
1566 to 1586. Page
Birth of James. — He is set on the throne by a protestant
party. — Care taken of his education. — Buchanan his
tutor; character of him. — His treatment of James.—
Dedication of his book Dejure regni ; account of this
work.— Death of Buchanan. — Civil wars in Scotland. —
James assumes the government. — His favorites the duke
of Lenox and earl of Arran. — Ruin and death of regent
Morton. — Malversation ofthe favorites. — Bad principles
instilled into James.— Raid of Ruthven. — Conduct of the
French and English sovereigns. — James released from
control. — Return of Arran to power. — Mission of Wal
singham. — The church humbled. — Oppression of Arran.
— Rebellion. — King's person seized. — Arran disgraced.
Alliance with England.— James's commentary on the
Apocalypse  1

CHAPTER II.
1586 TO 1603.
Death of queen Mary. — Administration of Maitland. —
Lenity of James towards catholic conspirators. — His
voyage

X Page
voyage to Denmark. — His own account of his motives.
— His marriage.— Character of the queen. — King's pro
fessions respecting presbytery. — His zeal against witch
craft. — Rebellion of Bothwell. — Murder of Murray. —
Fresh attempt of Bothwell; of the -catholic lords. —
Weak conduct of James. — Queen's faction. — Fresh re
bellions. — Doleman's conference. — James conciliates the
catholics. — His contests with the Scotch church .—Letter
to the pope. — Basilicon Doron. — Measures to secure
the English succession. — Gowrie conspiracy. — Birth of
prince Charles. — The queen of Scotland and the Gow-
ries. — James's conduct towards her. — His transactions
with the earl of, Essex, and sentiments respecting him.
— Sir Robert Cecil. — Earl of Northumberland, — his let
ters to James. —Summary of James's Scotch reign and
character  18

CHAPTER III.
1603.
Principal persons of the English court at the death of Eliza
beth.— Lord Buckhurst.— Sir Robert Cecil. — Sir Tho
mas Egerton. — Raleigh. — Coke. — Sir Francis and sir
Horace Vere. — State ofthe church. — Hooker. — Hall. 
Andrews. — Whitgift. — Cartwright.— Udal  Political
state of the country, connected with religious parties. —
Church divided into puritans and prelatists. — James al
lies himself with the last, and renounces presbyterianism.
— Catholics and puritans compared. — State of literature.
— Abuse of patronage. — Corruption of taste. — Poets.—
Dramatists — Shakespear, Jonson, Fletcher. — Sir Henry
Saville. — Camden. — Sir Robert Cotton.  Dr. Dee. 
Dedications.— Painting.— Music  State of manners. 
Court affectation. — Increase of drinking. — Ordinaries.
—Gamblers. — Usurers.— Small number of the nobility.
— Gentry rich and powerful.— Laush distribution of
honors,

Page
honors. — Changes introduced by James.— Ballad of the
old and new Courtier  63

CHAPTER IV.
1603.
James proclaimed. — Foundation of his title. — Homage
paid him. — Journey of sir Robert Cary to Edinburgh,
— His memoirs and character. — Thomas Somerset, — sir
Charles Percy, — sir John Davies, author of " Nosce te
ipsum.'" — James takes leave ofthe Scotch, — enters Eng
land. — Sentiments of the people. — Descriptions of his
person and manners. — Proclamation forbidding resort to
him. — Reception of sir Robert Cecil, — his conduct as
minister. — James discourages catholics, — hangs a thief
without trial. — Incidents on his journey. — Mr. Oliver
Cromwell. — Ceremony at Godmanchester. — Receives a
deputation from Cambridge. — University poems. — Notice
of lord-keeper Egerton, — of Bacon. — James at Theo
balds. — Privy-councillors. — Lords Montjoy — T. and H.
Howard. — New peers. — Lord Wotton. — Sir Henry
Wotton. — Sir J. Harrington. — Letter of Cecil to Har
rington  86

CHAPTER V.
1603.
Embassy of Rosni to England. — His account of the court
factions. — Particulars of James's reception of him. — Re
marks on James's contempt for the memory of Elizabeth.
— Conduct of the queen. — Anger of James. — Treatment
of Tyrone. — Letter of sir J. Harrington. — Raleigh plot.
— Unfavorable situation of Raleigh. — King's prejudice
against him. — Title of Arabella Stuart. — Design of the
pope in her favor. — Her inoffensive conduct. — Plot of
Brook

XH Page

Brook and others.— Conduct of lord Grey of Wilton. —
Designs of lord Cobham. — He is apprehended, — accuses
Raleigh, — retracts. — Raleigh committed for trial. —
Plague in London. — Pageants for the coronation. — No
tice of Ben Jonson. — Raleigh club. — Coronation. — Pro
clamation for commemorating the Gowrie plot.— Doubts
of its reality. — Letters of court news  127

CHAPTER VI.
1603 and 4.
Trial and conviction of Brook, Markham and others, — of
Raleigh. — Behaviour of the prisoners. — Conduct of the
king. — Reprieve of Cobham, Grey and Markham at the
scaffold. — Hampton-court conference. — Proclamation for
conformity. — Death of archbishop Whitgift. — Bancroft
succeeds. — Parliament summoned. — Number of the
peers. — King's procession through London. — His speech
to parliament. — Offence given by it. — Election dispute.
—Parliament averse to the union. — Angry letter of the
king. — His impiety and arrogance. — Commissioners for
the union. — Conduct of Bacon. — His speech against pur
veyors. — His book on the advancement of learning, and
further promotion  ; . 163

CHAPTER VII.
1604.
Peace with Spain, — terms murmured at. — Proofs that the
English ministers were bribed. — King's progress to Roy-
ston. — Puritans imprisoned for petitioning. — Cruel treat
ment of Pound a catholic— Philip Herbert a favorite, 
character of him, — anecdotes of his marriage  Venetian
ambassador and duke of Hoist.— Festivities.— The mask.
— Ben Jonson's mask of Blackness,— lady performers. 
Countess

XIII Page
Countess of Bedford, — verses on her — ladies Derby —
S. Herbert— Suffolk— E. Howard— A. Herbert— Effing
ham — M. Wrothe. — Prince Charles created duke of
York  New year's gifts disused  197

CHAPTER VIII.
1605.
Letter of news. — Privy seals. — Earl of Nottingham's Spa
nish embassy. — Stone the jester. — Embassy of the earl
of Herts to Brussels. — Anecdotes of the earl of Herts, —
his quarrel with lord Salisbury.— Treatment of the old
courtiers. — License of the players. — King's love of wit.
—Comedy of Eastward Hoe ! — Roaring boys and Roy-
sters. — Sleeping preacher. — Princess born,— honors and
gifts conferred at the christening. — Enforcement of con
formity against puritans. — Catholics menaced. — Gun
powder plot discovered  Catesby. — Tresliam. — Percy.
— Garnet. — Guy Fawkes. — Sir W. Stanley. — Proceed
ings of the conspirators. — Letter to lord Monteagle. —
Seizure of Fawkes. — The conspirators proceed to War
wickshire.— Their revolt and defeat. — Hagley hall. —
Lyttelton family. — Habington family. — Hendlip hall. —
Sir Everard Digby  220

CHAPTER IX.
1606 and 7.
King's speech on the powder-plot. — Parliament prorogued.
— King's pamphlet on the powder-plot. — Conduct of
Spain respecting it. — Trials of several conspirators. —
Speech of Coke. — Trial of Digby, — of father Garnet. —
Garnet's straws. — Use of torture against the conspirators.
— Catholic miracle. — Behaviour of the king of Spain. —
Lord Monteagle rewarded. — Star-chamber sentence against

Page
against lords Mordaunt and Stourton. — Case of the earl
of Northumberland. — Parliamentary measures against ca
tholics. — Popularity of Salisbury. — Letter of sir H. Nevil.
—Visit of the king of Denmark. — Letter of sir J. Har
rington, — ofthe countess of Nottingham. — King's speech
in favor of a union with Scotland. — Causes of the rejec
tion of this measure. — James's conversation with Har
rington  255
CHAPTER X.
1607 to 1610.
Parliament prorogued for three years. — Death and charae,
ter of Blount earl of Devon. — Flight of Tyrone. — Mask
of Beauty. — Account of lady Anne Clifford. — Ramsey a
favorite, — created viscount Haddington,^his marriage.
— Jonson's mask on the occasion. — rAccount of the earl
of Pembroke, — ofthe pari of Arundel. - — Severities ofthe
high-commission court. — Case of N. Fuller. — Puritans
emigrate. — Death and character of Sackvil earl of Dorset.
— Salisbury succeeds as treasurer.— Illegal taxation. —
Peace between Spain and the Dutch. — Conduct of James
as mediator. — Patriotic conduct of Salisbury. — Conduct
. of the court of Spain. — Extracts from Cornwallis's letters.
— Marriage proposed between prince Henry and the in
fanta. — Controversy respecting the oath of allegiance.
— King's apology for the oath, — how received at the
courts of France, — of Spain, — at Venice. — Robert Carr
becomes a favorite, — account of him. — Letter of lord T.
Howard. — Cardinal Bentivoglio's description of England. 289
CHAPTER XI.
1610.
Court news. — Account of prince Henry. — Parliament. —
Lord Salisbury's speech. — Grievances. — King's dislike to

to the common law. — Cowell's Interpreter. — Arrogant
speech of the king. — Sir J. Spencer. — Letter of lady
Compton. — Creation of the prince of Wales. — Mask of
queens. — Tilting. — Assassination of Henry IV. — Prose
cutions of Jesuits; — death of Cadwallader. — Death and
character pf father Parsons. — Of archbishop Bancroft. —
Motives of Abbot's promotion. — Affair of Sprot. — Bald-
wyn the Jesuit. — Lord Herbert of Chirbury. — Free speech
of sir H. Nevil. — Parliament dissolved  337

CHAPTER XII.

Adventures of lady Arabella Stuart. — Affair of Vorstius.
—Burning of Legate and Wightman for heresy. — Arbi
trary modes of raising money. — Institution of baronets. —
Proclamation against resort of Scotchmen to court. — Na
tional animosity. — Quarrel between Ramsey and Mont
gomery. — Other quarrels. — Execution of lord Sanquar.
— Death and character of the earl of Salisbury, — his letters
to his son. — Royal marriages proposed. — Arrival of the
elector Palatine. — Death of prince Henry. — Rumors on
this subject. — Proof of his not being poisoned. — His fu
neral sermon by Hall. — University poems to his honor
by various poets. — Account of Donne. — Extracts from his
letters  378

CHAPTER XIII.
1613, 1614.
Marriage of the princess to the elector Palatine. — The pro
fusion and poverty of the court. — Schemes to raise mo
ney. — James refuses to liberate lord Grey. — Expensive
progress of the queen. — Account of sir Thomas Overbury,
— his imprisonment. — Intrigues ofthe countess of Essex.
—Rochester

Page
— Rochester incensed by her against Overbury. — Over.
bury poisoned in the Tower. — Divorce of the countess of
Essex ; — she marries Rochester, who is created earl of
Somerset. — The addle parliament. — Revenge taken by
the king on those who oppose him. — Death and character
of the earl of Northampton. — Second visit of the king of
Denmark. — Money illegally raised  426

MEMOIRS

OF THE

COURT OF KING JAMES I.

CHAPTER I.
1566 to 1586.
Birth of James, — He is set on the throne by a protestant
party.— Care taken of his education. — Buchanan his tutor ;
character of him. — His treatment of James. — Dedication
of Ms book De jure regni ; account of this work. —
Death of Buchanan. — Civil wars in Scotland. — James as
sumes the government.— His favorites the duke of Lenox
and earl of Arran. — Ruin and death of regent Morton. —
Malversation of the favorites. — Bad principles instilled
into James. — Raid of Ruthven. — Conduct of the French
and English sovereigns. — James released from control. —
Return of Arran to power. — Mission of Walsingham. —
The church humbled. — Oppression of Arran. — Rebellion.
— King's person seized. — Arran disgraced. — Alliance with
England. — James's commentary on the Apocalypse.
ON the personal character of a sovereign whose
authority is extensive, the manners of his court and
even the political events of his reign in great mea
sure depend; and character is principally formed
voi,. i. b upon

2
upon the impressions of childhood and early youth:
in order, therefore, to estimate truly the destiny pre
pared for England by the accession of the first of
the line of Stuart, the monarch must be traced back
to the land of his forefathers and the period of his
infancy. Prince James, only son of Mary queen of Scots
by Henry lord Darnleyher second husband, was born
at Edinburgh castle on the nineteenth of June 1566;
and in consequence of the dethronement of his mo
ther, was proclaimed king of Scotland by the title
of James VI. on July 29th 1567.
The revolution by which Mary had been deposed,
and her infant son elevated into her place, was prin
cipally, though not entirely, effected by the chiefs
ofthe presbyterian party associated under the appel
lation of the Lords ofthe Congregation. The ca
tholic leaders, during the whole miserable remnant
of Mary's days, continued to correspond with her,
to exert themselves in a variety of Avays for her de
liverance, and to form schemes for her return to
power : thus James, like Elizabeth, was placed by a
political necessity at the head of a protestant party,
and in fact held his crown by no other tenure than
its continued preponderance.
The direction of his childhood appears to have de
volved principally on the earl of Mar, governor of
Stirling castle, a nobleman of high integrity, to whose
faithful custody his mother had the prudence and
affection to commit him, before she madly surren
dered up to Bothwell her person and her reputation.
To

3
To imbue the mind of the prince as early and as
deeply as possible with the principles of that religion
which his situation thus imperiously called upon
him to adopt, was naturally regarded as an object of
high importance ; it was also judged a desirable one
that he should be early and diligently grounded in
classical learning, and both appeared to be effectu
ally secured by the appointment of the celebrated
George Buchanan to the office of preceptor. Se
veral circumstances, however, contributed to render
the instructions of this eminent man and illustrious
scholar less beneficial in their influence on the mind
of the royal pupil, than the hopes of his patrons had
anticipated. Buchanan, born in 1506, was sixty years older
than the king of Scots ; a disparity certainly too
great in a relation which bears so close an analogy
to that of parent and child : the faculties indeed of
the tutor had suffered nothing by the lapse of time;
for his great work, the History of Scotland, was the
product of a still later period of his life ; but his ori
ginal faults of temper appear to have been exaspe
rated into habitual moroseness during the course of
that long struggle which his fine genius and ener
getic character had been doomed to wage with pe
nury and persecution through half the countries of
Europe. . That contempt also for the artificial di
stinctions of rank and fortune, so natural to men con
scious of having elevated themselves from obscurity
by the unaided force of native genius, was in Bu
chanan exaggerated into a species of republican
b 2 cynicism

4
cynicism which often impelled him to trample on the
pride of kings with greater pride of his own. It has
been recorded, that he once took upon him to inflict
on the young monarch- a severe whipping, for per
sisting in disturbing him at his studies ; and the
general impression of him left upon the mind of Tiis
pupil may be collected from a speech used by James
concerning a person in high place about him in
England ; " That he ever trembled at his approach,
he minded him so of his pedagogue V The tutor,
on his part, confessed a failure when, being re
proached for making the king a pedant, he replied,
that it was the best he could make of him.
James was not deficient either in quickness of
parts or in application ; and under the guidance of
so able a master, he accumulated a mass of erudition
which formed through life his pride and boast : but
the original and irremediable defects of his nature,
feebleness of judgement and frigidity of character,
defeated all the nobler ends of his instructor. The
most accomplished Latin poet and scholar of the
age was unable to form hiM to elevation and purity
of taste; the most intrepid and able champion of
popular rights, could neither inspire him with due
respect for the public will, nor warm his bosom with
the sentiments of a patriot king. The last, however,
was a point zealously, if not judiciously, labored by
Buchanan, since it was expressly for the instruction
of the king, then in his fourteenth year, that he pub-

Osborn's Advice to a Son. lished,

5
lished,in 1579, his learned Latin dialogue concerning
the constitution of Scotland11 ; a work which called
forth enthusiastic plaudits from one party, while it
provoked the keenest invectives from the other. This
piece, as an authentic record of the principles at this
period maintained by that party in Scotland of which
Buchanan was the oracle, appears worthy of a some
what detailed examination.
It opens with a dedication to James, explaining that
the author had composed it several years before as a
defence of the actions ofthe party with whom he act
ed at the juncture; that the return of tranquillity had
then caused him to suppress it; but lately meeting
with it among his papers, and finding it to contain
many things with which the monarch ought now to
become acquainted, he had resolved to publish it, both
as a testimony of his affection to his pupil, and as an
admonition to him of his duty towards his people.
" Many circumstances," he adds, " give me confi
dence that this attempt will not prove fruitless : your
age, uncorrupted as yet by evil principles; a genius
above your years, spontaneously urging you on to
every splendid enterprise ; a docility towards good
counsel, whether offered by your instructors or by
others; but united with an acuteness in examining
and judging, which causes you in these matters to
be little swayed by authority, unless supported by
sound reasoning. I also observe in you a kind of
instinctive abhorrence of adulation, that nurse of
* De Jure Regni apud Scotos. tyranny

tyranny and pest of lawful rule, Which teaches you
to scorn the barbarisms and solcecisms of court lan
guage, no less than they are admired and affected
by those self-constituted judges of all elegance who
perpetually season their discourse with, 'your Ma
jesty,' 'your Highness,' 'most illustrious,' and terms
still more disgusting. Fearing notwithstanding lest
evil custom, the fosterer of all vices, added to the
seductions of which the senses are but too suscep
tible, might at some future time draw aside your
youthful mind towards errors from which you are
as yet preserved by the goodness of your own dis
position and the cares of your instructors, I here offer
to you, not a gentle or timid, but a bold, and even
an importunate and authoritative monitor ; who in
these pliant years may guide you through the rocks
of flattery, and, not content with warning, may, in
case of any deviation, reprehend and lead you back :
a monitor, to whom if you shall yield obedience, you
will obtain tranquillity for the present, and for the
future, everlasting glory."
The tone of the dialogue itself, written expressly
in vindication of the dethronement of Mary, is per
fectly in unison with this courageous and lofty de
dication, and with the character ofthe author. The
examples of antiquity, whether sacred or profane,
were in this age regarded as of high authority in
the decision of political, and even of legal questions ;
and Buchanan has been careful to fortify his argu
ment by adverting to the most celebrated acts in
vindication of freedom recorded in the histories of
Greece

7
Greece and Rome ; and by abundant quotation of
those glowing sentences in praise of liberty, and
those bold assertions of the right and duty of tyran
nicide, which rushed upon a memory rich in classic
stores. He has also referred to such events in the
Jewish annals as appeared to bear upon his subject;
"and he labors, with much earnestness and skill, to
refute the arguments in favor of right divine and
of passive obedience, deduced from certain texts in
St. Paul's epistles and in other parts ofthe scriptures.
With respect to Scotland, he makes a strong asser
tion of the authority anciently exercised by the peo
ple in the election of their kings; and he argues in
defence of their inalienable right to protect them
selves from tyranny by circumscribing their princes
within the bounds of laws. From the history of that
turbulent country he also produces numerous ex
amples of sovereigns deposed; banished, or put to
death; on all which he pronounces judgement ac
cording to what he conceives the individual merits
ofthe case.
With respect to the right of resistance, Buchanan
lays down without hesitation the following maxims:
That princes ought of right to be amenable for their
private crimes to the ordinary tribunals of the land,
in the same manner as the meanest individual ; and
that a refusal on their part to submit to such juris
diction, authorizes the wise and virtuous part ofthe
citizens to rise in arms, and to punish or dethrone
them. Thus the deposition of Mary by the arms of
the Lords of the Congregation, seconded by the im
pulse

8
pulse of popular indignation against her crime and
that of Bothwell, is clothed in the attributes of formal
as well as substantial justice.
It was immediately to the revolution thus defend
ed that James was indebted for the possession of
his crown ; yet we cannot wonder that the doctrine
of Buchanan should have sounded harshly in the
ears of this representative of a long line of princes ;
or that, in spite ofthe instinctive abhorrence of adu
lation for which his preceptor had somewhat hastily
given him credit, he should have turned with com
placency towards persons disposed to address him
in more soothing and courtly language. An instruc
tor who made himself thus awful could not at the
same time be the object of love ; but James ought
to have preserved so much respect for one of the
first literary characters of Europe, and the founder
of his own erudition, as neither to have suffered
him to die in penury, nor to receive interment at
the cost of the city of Edinburgh, which charged
itself with this honorable burthen.
Buchanan expired in 1582, aged 76. Camden,
who composed his annals of queen Elizabeth under
the superintendence of James, and with sufficient
obsequiousness ta his royal patron and prompter,
has recorded, that this eminent person, near the
end of his life, expressed great compunction for
what he had advanced against the regal preroga
tive, and especially against the honor of the queen
of Scots. But the firmness and consistency of his
character through life, and the philosophiccompo- sure

sure with which he met his end, discredit the courtly
tale of the annalist, and corroborate an opposite ac
count, which is as follows : — That when Buchanan,
on his death-bed, was entreated by his friends to
soften some passages of his history for fear of in
censing the king ; " Is not what I have said true? "
asked he ; they assented ; " Then," said he, " I will
stand his feud and that of all his kin ; I am going
shortly where very few kings are admitted."
In the year 1584, Buchanan's history and his
dialogue on the constitution of Scotland were pro
hibited by the English government, with other works
reflecting on James, on his mother, and on the
Scotish council.
During the civil wars which agitated Scotland
under the successive regencies of the earls of
Murray, Lenox, Mar and Morton, the royal minor
remained tranquil and secluded in Stirling castle ;
but in the year 1577 the earls of Athol and Argyle
succeeded in depriving Morton of the regency,
and, gaining access to the young king, they per
suaded him, then in his twelfth year, to affect to
take into his own hands the administration of the
country. Morton shortly after repossessed him
self of Stirling castle, and of the custody of James's
person ; yet a parliament assembled in 1578, had
the absurdity to confirm the, king's premature as
sumption of manhood.
Thus invested with power unfit for his years, he
was enabled to exhibit that propensity to favoritism
which became his permanent and characteristic weakness,

10
weakness, by the honors and emoluments which
he heaped upon his cousin Esme Stuart, created
duke of Lenox : a young man distinguished by his
personal graces and courtly accomplishments, and
respectable in his private conduct, but totally igno
rant of affairs, and obnoxious to the people by his
religion, which they suspected to be that of Rome,
by his French education, and by the secret under
standing which he was believed to maintain with
the formidable house of Guise. Nearly at the same
time, the king also began' to entertain an extraor
dinary affection for captain James Stuart, a man of
the most profligate and daring character, whom he
speedily advanced to the dignity of earl of Arran.
By these two favorites, who for some time acted in
concert, the ruin of Morton was long meditated ;
and it was finally accomplished in 1581, when this
minister was brought to the scaffold, after a trial
which was a mere mockery of justice, on an ill-
founded charge of having been accessary to the
murder of Darnley. Extraordinary efforts were
made by queen Elizabeth to preserve the life of
Morton, by whose wisdom and vigor James had
been firmly maintained on the throne during seve
ral turbulent years of his minority, while the coun
try was preserved in strict friendship with England.
But her threats and remonstrances, as they failed
to intimidate his enemies, served no other purpose
than to hurry them on with greater fury to his de
struction. The only individual of weight sufficient to check them

11
them in their headlong career being thus removed,
Lenox and Arran found themselves in possession
of uncontrolled authority, which they began to ex
ercise with the wantonness and insolence characte
ristic of those who wield the destinies of a nation
by no better title than that of a conquest over the
feebleness of the individual who personates the part
of sovereign. They gratified their rapacity and
their private animosities by instituting arbitrary
, courts of justice all over the kingdom, which ex
acted fines of exorbitant severity from such land
holders as were found guilty of neglecting even the
most trifling of the burtbensome forms attending
feudal tenures. They exasperated both the clergy
and the people by a violent attempt to revive epi
scopacy, now abolished by law, and by silencing in
an arbitrary manner one of the popular ministers,
who had dared in his pulpit to inveigh against them
as the only authors of the miseries of the country.
They appeared to seek occasions of provoking the
queen of England, and of violating that alliance
with her which the vital interests of Scotland re
quired them to preserve. Lastly, they strangely
sacrificed their own importance, together with the
sovereignty of their master, by entering into nego
tiations with Mary for uniting her title with that
of her son.
James was prevailed upon to reside almost con
stantly at the country seats of one or other of these
favorites ; and while they engaged him in amuse
ments and surrounded him with society which ren
dered

12
dered him essentially contemptible, they flattered
him with an imaginary dignity derived from the
extravagant and unconstitutional notions of regal
prerogative which they instilled into him with per
nicious diligence.
But the nobility of Scotland, in whom the power
of the country chiefly resided, were not of a temper
long to endure the abuses of a government at once
odious and feeble. In the autumn of 1582 they
formed a confederacy, seized upon the person of
the king at Ruthven castle, and "after presenting to
him a strong remonstrance on the mal-administra-
tion of his favorites, committed Arran to prison,
and made it necessary for James to command
Lenox to quit the kingdom. They even extorted
from him a proclamation approving of their enter
prise, declaring himself to be at full liberty, and
forbidding any attempt on the part of his subjects
at large against the lords concerned in the raid of
Ruthven. The queen of England in various ways
lent effectual support to the associated nobles,
whilst the assembly of the church and the conven
tion of states separately and solemnly ratified their
enterprise. Henry III. of France at this juncture
ordered la Mothe Fenelon, his ambassador in Eng
land, to proceed to Scotland, with the view of
rescuing if possible the king from thraldom, and
reviving a French party in the country. But this
emissary found himself watched with unceasing
vigilance by the agents of the queen of England ;
and he also encountered so stern a reception from the

13
the presbyterians, who would not endure to behold
in their capital an ambassador from a prince so
deeply stained with the blood of their brother pro
testants, that his mission proved abortive. He quit
ted Scotland with speed; and James, who saw him
depart with ineffectual regret, was compelled to dis
guise for the present his violent indignation at the
control to which he found himself subjected.
In somewhat less than a year, a counterplot re
stored the king of Scots to freedom ; and sir James
Melvil and other prudent counsellors gained his
ear, and prevailed upon him, in the midst of his
exultation on his deliverance, to conduct himself
with moderation, and toj tranquillize the minds of
the Ruthven conspirators by an amnesty. They
also endeavoured to prevent the return of Arran to
court; but the importunities of the king to be per
mitted to see him but for one day, at length pre
vailed. They met ; James forgot his promise, and
that worthless favorite was speedily restored to all
the power of which he had been so deservedly.
despoiled. He easily prevailed upon the king to
break his compulsory engagements towards the
confederated lords, who speedily retired from court,
perceiving that their ruin was resolved. On re
ceiving a summons to surrender themselves pri-^
soners, they fled to England, or to the continent,
and were soon after, by a base artifice of Arran's,
declared in their absence guilty of high treason.
It was partly with a view of preserving these
noblemen that Elizabeth, in 1583, dispatched Wal
singham

14
singham as her ambassador into Scotland : but his*
arguments made no impression on the king, who
had been inspired with a vehement jealousy of
English interference ;¦ and notwithstanding the ad
vanced age of this minister, his dignity, and the
formidable character of her whose person he repre
sented, repeated affronts were offered him by the
unthinking insolence of Arran and his creatures.
It is believed, that Walsingham carried back to his
mistress a more favorable report of the character
and abilities of her young kinsman than after ex
perience proved him to deserve. We are told,
however, that he was at this time of opinion that
the king was "either inclined to turn papist, or to
be of no religion*." Arran, in fact, had made
himself notorious " as the enemy of every thing-
decent and sacredb ;" from him, and the dissolute
crew who followed him, James had probably al
ready learned the habit of profane swearing and
blasphemy which disgraced him through life ; and
it is possible that, certain efforts of Campion the
Jesuit for his conversion to the Romish faith, might
have produced at least a transient impression on
his mind. ,
An unsuccessful attempt of the conspiring lords
to re-establish their ascendancy, and again to dis
place the favorite, had the effect of bringing a great
accession of strength to the party of the king ; and
 1  —  — — —
" Burnet's Own Times, p. 7.
b Robertson's History of Scotland, book vi. he

15
he was now enabled to humiliate, by several severe
statutes, the pride of the clergy, who had assumed
an unbounded license of inveighing in their pul:
pits against the abuses of government and the vices
of men in power, and who claimed, respecting
every thing said or done in the discharge of what
they were pleased to regard as their professional
duty, an entire exemption from the cognisance of
the civil power. The clerical body failed not,
however, to enter their solemn protest against the
statutes thus enacted, as being passed without the
concurrence of their order ; for it must not escape
remark, that the presbyterian divines were at this
period well disposed to regard themselves as legiti
mate heirs to all the prerogatives, sacred and civil,
of their catholic predecessors.
Flushed with his double victory, over the church
and over the associated nobles, and apprehending
no check in his career of crime from a master
equally weak and callous, Arran now urged on his
course in that intoxication of mind which is the
forerunner of destruction. He caused the king to
heap upon him the offices of governor of Edinburgh
and of Stirling castles; of lord chancellor, — to the
injury of the earl of Argyle, who had the patent of
that post for life, — and finally, of lieutenant-general
of the kingdom. He permitted his shameless wife,
who had become such through a scandalous divorce
from her former husband, openly to sell justice, and
to make herself a party in almost every cause; and
he grasped with insatiable rapacity at the inherit ances

16
ances of the nobles, whom, on their slightest op
position to his lawless will, he crushed by his ty
ranny. By means of spies and informers he held
the whole country in dread, and caused innocent
men to be put to death for feigned plots ; he in
duced James to write a letter of great cruelty to
his captive mother; and, to complete his assump
tions, he claimed, not indeed without reason, a
better title to the crown by descent than the king
himself. The monarch, devoted to frivolous amusements
or useless studies, remained an unconcerned spec^
tator of these enormities : but the banished nobles,
sure of their welcome, returned in 1585 as the de
liverers of their country; and finding themselves
almost instantly at the head of 10,000 men, obliged
James to capitulate in Stirling castle, possessed
themselves without bloodshed of the fortresses of
the kingdom, and banished Arran. and his creatures .
from court for ever. A parliament, which was im
mediately summoned, stripped the detested minion
of all his ill-gotten spoils, not excepting his title of
nobility ; but his life was spared, from a magnani
mous disdain of his original and intrinsic insignifi
cance. James now contracted a fresh alliance with Eliza
beth, for the avowed purpose of affording protection
to the reformed faith from the machinations of the
great catholic league of Europe. No other plea
could have rendered the measure so acceptable to
the Scotch presbyterians, whose zeal against popery was

17
was carried to a degree of fury, and who had lately
conceived strong disgust and apprehension from
the measures taken by the king for the partial re
storation of the order of bishops, to which he re
tained during life a strong attachment. About the
same time, the monarch thought proper to afford a
more remarkable indication of his attachment to
the faith of the reformers, by writing a Latin com
mentary on the Apocalypse, in which he professed
to demonstrate that the pope is Antichrist. A work
of such a nature, proceeding from the pen of a prince
not yet twenty years of age, chiefly known by his
devotedness to the chase and to the society of buf
foons and flatterers, and, in public life, by the tame-
ness with which he sacrificed his own honor and the
welfare of his people to the inordinate appetites of
his favorites, must doubtless have excited no small
astonishment in the whole church militant, to which
it was with much solemnity addressed. No truer
presage could have been afforded of the strange in
congruities which were in future to distinguish the
life and character of the royal author.
James's eminent disregard of decorum, or rather,
his total inability to resist importunities, was soon
after displayed by his granting a pardon to Archi
bald Douglas, publicly known as one of his father's
murderers, and appointing him, immediately after
wards, his ambassador to England.

VOL. I.

CHAPTER

CHAPTER II.
1586 to 1603.
Death of queen Mary. — Administration of Maitland.—
Lenity of James towards catholic conspirators. — His
voyage to Denmark. — His oisn account of his motives. —
His marriage.— Character of the queen.— King's profes
sions respecting presbytery. — His zeal against witchcraft.
—Rebellion of Bothicell.— Mvrder of Murray .—Fresh
• attemptof Bothwell ; of the catholic lords. — Weak conduct
of James. — Queen's faction. —Fresh rebellions. — Dole-
man's conference. — James conciliates the catholics. — His
contests with ihe Scotch church. — Letter to the pope. —
Basilicon Doron. — Measures to secure the English succes
sion. — Gowrie conspiracy .—Birth of prince Charles. — The
queen of Scotland and the Gowries. — James's conduct to
wards her. — His transactions icilh the earl of Essex, and
sentiments respecting him. — Sir Robert Cecil.— Earl of
Northumberland, his letters to James. — Summary of
James's Scotch reign and character.
J. HE sentence of death solemnly pronounced by
an English tribunal, on the 25th of October 1586,
against Mary queen of Scots, roused to momentary
energy the reckless temper of her son. To pre
serve her life, and with it his own honor, he
pleaded, negotiated, implored, and at length me
naced. But the cause was betrayed by his new
favorite Gray, whom he dispatched into England
on this momentous affair; and when the irrevocable
deed was done, Elizabeth found little difficulty in
appeasing

19
appeasing James, by a judicious mixture of intimi
dation and cajolery. Gray- however, was banished
on discovery of his perfidy ; and by some happy ac
cident Maitland, a man of sense and conduct, rose
to the office of chancellor and the influence of prime
minister. To him, probably, the chief praise is
due of the steadiness with which James adhered to
his alliance with England during the trying year
1588 ; when Philip II. exerted all his efforts to gain
him over to his party. But he relapsed into weak
ness when, on discovery of a formidable and atro
cious conspiracy of several catholic noblemen, partly
for the. purpose of aiding the king of Spain. in a
design of invading England through Scotland, he
treated the offenders with an excess of lenity by
which they were emboldened again and again to
attempt the seizure of his person and the overthrow
of his government.
James's voyage, in the winter of the year 1589,
through tempestuous seas to Denmark, for the pur
pose of convoying- home his bride, was a sally so
little to be anticipated froiri his timid and indolent
temper, combined with his known indifference to fe
male charms, that it appears to have perplexed riot
a little all to whom his character has furnished mat
ter of speculation ; but a statement on the subject
drawn up by himself and left behind him at his
departure, has lately been discovered in some
abridged records of the Scotch privy council, which
clears up the mystery, whilst it affords a rich display
of the style and character of the monarch. The
c 2 preamble

20
preamble runs thus :— " In respect I know that the
motion of my voyage at this time will be diversly
scansit upon, the misinterpreting whereof may tend
as well to my great dishonour as to the wrangous
blame of innocents, I have been moved te set down
the present declaration with my own hand  As to
the causes, I doubt not but it [is] manifestly known
to all how far I was generally found fault with by
all men for the delaying so long of my marriage ;
the reasons were, that I was alane, without fader or
moder, brither or sister, king of this realme, and
heir apperand of England. This my nakedness
made me to be weak and my enemies stark; ane
man was as na man, and the want of hope of suc
cession breeds disdain .... Thir reasons, and innu-
inerable others hourly objected, moved me to hasten
the treaty of my marriage ; for as to my own nature,
God is my witness, I could have abstained langer,
nor the well of my patrie could have permitted." —
Having cleared this point, his majesty proceeds to
relate, with characteristic prolixity, the manner of
his proceedings in this business ; laying particular
emphasis upon the circumstance of his having spon
taneously formed the resolution of sailing to meet
his bride, then detained by stress of weather in
Norway, " not ane of the haill council being pre-.
sent," and upon the cunning with which he had
disguised his determination. "As I kept it gene
rally closs from all men," he adds, " so I say, upon
mine honur, I kept it sa from the chancellor, as I
never was wont to do any secrets of my weightiest affairs ;

21
affairs ; two reasons moving me thereto : first, be
cause I know that gif I made him on the council
thereof, he had been blamed of putting it in my
head, which had not been his duty ;. . . .and there
fore, remembering that invidious and unjust burding
he daily bears of leading me by the yose, as it were,
to all his appetaytes, as if I were ane unreasonable
creature, or a bairn that could do nothing of myself,
1 thought it pity to be the cause of heaping further
unjust slander on his head  Thus far I speak for
his part, as well as for my own honor's sake, that
I be not unjustly slandered as an irresolute asse,
who can do nothing of himself; as also, that the
honesty and innocency of that "man be not unjustly
and untruly reported and reproached ; and as for
my part, what moved me ye may judge by that
whilk I have already said ; besides the shortness of
the way, the surety of the passage, being clean of
all sands, foirlands or sic like dangers; the har-
bouries in these parts sa suir, and na foreign fleets
resorting upon these seas." Thus chivalrous were
the motives and sentiments of the youthful mo
narch*! The object of his choice, Anne, second daughter
of Frederic II. king of Denmark, appears to have
been a lady not greatly distinguished by personal
graces, and essentially deficient in the mental en
dowments which might have formed his domestic
happiness or added to his public respectability. A
*' Secret History of the Court of James I. vol. ii. 332 et seq.
courteous

<?<?

courteous and affable manner recommended her in
some degree to the favor of the people ; but in the
early years of their connexion her conduct appears
frequently to have excited the jealousy, both politi
cal and conjugal, of her husband,' while her domi
neering temper disturbed his repose, and her pas
sion for show and expense added to the embarrass
ment of his finances.
The stream of popular opinion in Scotland ran
so strongly in favor of presbytery, that the efforts
of the king for the support of the episcopal order
proved for the present totally unavailing ; and it
was abolished by public opinion. On the solemn
occasion ofthe coronation of the queen, which took
place in 1590, not a single bishop gave his attend
ance, and the ceremony was performed by Robert
Bruce, a leading minister of the Scotish church.
In the same year, James was compelled to sanction
the measures of a general assembly for the forma
tion of an ecclesiastical establishment on a model
purely presbyterian ; on which occasion, resolved,
as it should appear, to make a virtue of necessity,
" he stood up^, with his bonnet off and his eyes
lifted up to heaven, and said he praised God that
he was born in the time ofthe light of the gospel ;
and in such a place as to be king of such a church;
the sincerest kirk in the world :" adding, " As for
our neighbouring kirk of England, their service is
an evil said mass in English; they want nothing of
the mass but the liftings." He ended with an ex
hortation to all classes to " stand to their purity," and

and a protestation that " during life he would main
tain the sameb." How he was inwardly inclined to
wards the observance of this promise will amply
appear in the sequel.
A firmer hand than that of James was required
to hold in check the fierce and lawless nation over
which it was his destiny to rule. Under his lax
rather than lenient administration, murders and
outrages of every kind became horribly frequent,
and the hereditary feuds of the nobles broke out
afresh with a fury almost unprecedented in the
Scotish annals. Witchcraft seemed to be the only
crime which appeared to him worthy of condign
punishment ; for this imaginary enormity numbers
were apprehended, tortured, and put to death ; and
it was on a ridiculous charge of having consulted
wizards respecting the king's death, and for the
purpose of raising the storms which had impeded
the passage of the royal pair from Denmark, that
a spurious descendant of James V., lately created
earl of Bothwell, was seized and imprisoned.- This
profligate and turbulent man, who had previously
been connected with the catholic rebels so inconsi
derately pardoned, escaped from his confinement,
and by an attempt to seize James in his own palace,
had nearly revenged upon him at one stroke both
the facility which had made his authority contemp
tible, and the superstitious credulity which was ren
dering him barbarous and unjust.
a Calder wood's Church History.
The

24
The king was rescued with difficulty by his at
tendants and by the citizens of Edinburgh ; Both-
well fled northward ; and James, rashly or treache
rously, gave to the earl of Huntly, one of the par
doned catholics, a commission to bring to his pre
sence the earl of Murray, who was said to have
been concerned in this attempt. Huntly was the
private enemy of the earl of Murray, and meeting
with some resistance in the attempt to seize him, he
set fire to his house, and murdered him during the
confusion. The young nobleman thus sacrificed
was the idol of the people, partly from his own pro
mising qualities, and partly from the reverence en
tertained for the memory of his grand-father, popu
larly called the Good Regent. The cry, therefore,
for justice on this assassin was loud and general; yet
James did not scruple to appropriate to himself the
principal odium of this ferocious deed, by screen
ing the offender even from the formality of a trial.
An obscure murmur arose, traceableeto no certain
source, that the king had been moved by conjugal
jealousy to issue secret orders to Huntly for this as
sassination ; and a dirge exists, composed for " the
bonny earl of Murray," in which he is expressly
styled " the queen's lovea."
In the following year a second attempt was made
by Bothwell on the person of the king, from which
he owed his preservation to the vigilance and cou
rage of his faithful servant sir Robert Melvil. A
* Percy's Reliqucs, vol. ii. p. 210. fresh

25
fresh conspiracy of the catholic lords also re-awak
ened the zeal and the apprehensions of the people.
The ministers of Edinburgh, in the casual absence
of the king from his capital, convoked an assembly
of the peers, to consult on the means of preserving
the country from a threatened restoration of the
Romish religion by force of Spanish arms ; and
James, hurried along unresistingly by the popular
impulse, in which he was far from cordially sympa
thising, was surprised into some vigorous demonstra
tions against the conspirators ; but having brought
one of them to the scaffold, and at the head of an
army compelled the earls of Huntly, Errol and
Angus, leaders of the enterprise, to retire into the
north, while he placed garrisons in their castles and
exacted oaths of allegiance from their vassals, he
returned to his usual system of indulgence, or ra
ther of impunity. Queen Elizabeth on this occa
sion exhorted him to a vigorous prosecution of the
catholic traitors ; but he dexterously evaded her im
portunities by requesting from her a small supply
of money for the purpose ; which she refused, from
an apprehension, probably not ill-founded, that he
would divert it to other purposes.
The easy temper of James had early encouraged
his consort to place herself at the head of an oppo
sition party at court, which now proceeded without
remorse to the most violent insults upon his person
and authority. Hostility to the influence of chan
cellor Maitland formed the bond of union of this fac
tion ; and the queen, by constant importunities, prevailed

26
prevailed with her husband to banish this favorite
minister for a time from court : but impatient of
his absence, and greatly needing his counsels, he
in 1593 recalled him. Instantly, the whole family,
or name, of Stuart, already enlisted in the party of
the queen, combined to prevent the reinstatement
ofthe chancellor ; and they even went so far as to
associate with themselves the incorrigible traitor
Bothwell ; against whom even James had become
implacable. Headed by this ruffian and followed by
an armed train, they suddenly burst into the royal
apartments, and compelled the king, who was desert
ed by his courtiers, to grant them Bothwell's par
don and such other conditions as they were pleased
to dictate. For a short time, their sovereign was
in effect their prisoner; but they wanted power to
detain him permanently in a bondage so ignomini
ous, under which he also exhibited extreme impa
tience ; and a convention of nobles at Stirling, before
which the conspirators were unable to prevent James
from making his appearance, finally pronounced this
outrage on majesty, high treason. Bothwell, not
withstanding, presuming on the countenance which
Elizabeth, much to her reproach, had constantly af
forded to his enterprises, rejected with disdain the
pardon which was offered him on condition of quit
ting the kingdom ; but after failing in a fresh at
tempt to possess himself of the person of James, he
was compelled to retreat to the border.
The respite thus afforded to the unhappy prince
was transient: in the ensuing year, 1594, his life was

brought

27
brought into imminent peril by a new enterprise of
Bothwell's : and he was obliged to purchase the aid
of the citizens of Edinburgh by a solemn promise of
proceeding with the utmost rigor of law against the
catholic lords ; with whom Bothwell, after the faiU
ure of his last attempt, had been driven to reunite
himself. A parliament assembled soon after, was
in consequence authorised to pass an act of attain
der against these conspirators, and the Highland
clans were armed to put the sentence in force. On
the defeat of these irregulars by the rebels, James
was roused to take the field in person with a small
body of troops which he had raised by pawning the
crown jewels. The clans at enmity with the ca
tholic earls came in quickly to his aid; and the in?
surgent leaders, conscious of their inability to meet
him in open fight, and already reduced to extreme
distress, implored, and at length obtained, his license
to banish themselves the kingdom.
James was at this juncture less than ever disposed
to drive the catholic insurgents to extremities ; for
the celebrated work entitled " Doleman's conference
on the next succession to the crown of England,"
of which father Parsons was the sole or principal
author, had now made its appearance ; and the
king began to tremble for his reversionary sceptre.
"The conference," says an eminent catholic writer
of the present day, " turns upon these positions : —
that the claim of succession to any government by
nearness of blood, is not established by the law of
nature or by the divine law, but only by the human and

and positive laws of every particular commonwealth ;
and consequently may upon just causes be altered
by the same ;— that this is clear from history ;---that
the want of the true religion is a just cause for ex
cluding the heir apparent ;— and that, under all cir
cumstances, the infanta of Spain had. the fairest pre
tensions to succeed queen Elizabeth in the throne of
England. Every true whig must admire Doleman's
discussions ofthe first point; — every man of learning
and antiquarian must be pleased with his discussion
of the second ; the king of Spain could not have
rewarded too munificently his discussions ofthe third
and fourth*."
The effects of this powerful piece on the minds of
the catholics of England, if exasperated by fresh se
verities against their Scotish brethren; appeared to
James so much to be dreaded, that to conciliate this
party became henceforth a primary object of his po
licy : regardless therefore of the repetition of dis
turbance and civil contest certain to result from the
speedy return of the Romish lords, and of the ob
loquy to which his measures oould not fail of expo
sing him amongst his presbyterian subjects, he im
mediately began to meditate the recall of the turbu
lent chiefs whom he had so lately driven into merit
ed exile ; and as an earnest of further favor, he per
mitted their wives to reside in their houses and to
collect the rents of tneir forfeited estates.
' Butler's Historical Memoirs of the English Catholics,
vol. i. p. 286.
By

29
By these and similar proceedings, at a period when
hot alarms of a Spanish invasion again prevailed,
the jealousy of the national church was quickly
roused ; and a general assembly being convened to
take into consideration the state of affairs, a public
fast was proclaimed, and the covenant for the pre
servation ofthe reformed religion, originally institu
ted during the alarms of the year 1588, was solemn
ly renewed. A committee likewise waited on the
king to urge him to take further precautions against
the papists. Notwithstanding these strong manifes
tations of the spirit of the people, James proceeded
to license the banished lords, who had already re
turned in secret, to reside unmolested on their es
tates, on the sole condition of giving security for
their peaceable behaviour. Filled with rage and af
fright at a step which they regarded as ominous of
nothing less than the re-establishmentof Romish ido
latry and superstition, the committee of the general
assembly met, and took measures of counteraction of
the most formidable character. They directed cir
cular letters to all the presbyteries, warning them of
their dangers, and urging them to defend their
rights ; they ordered the publication from every pul
pit ofthe sentence of excommunication against the
catholic leaders, and directed, that by a summary pro
cess the same penalty should be denounced against
all suspected favorers of their cause. This done,
they appointed a standing committee of the church
and broke up.
James, considerably alarmed at these measures, made

30
made some efforts towards a compromise ; but they
failed through thebigoted obstinacy of theclergy, who
declared that no submissions should induce them to
withdraw their sentence of excommunication against
the popish lords, whose crime, being that of idolatry,
ought to be considered as irremissible and punish
ed by the magistrate with death. After this, the
quarrel proceeded with increased exasperation on
both sides. A minister at St. Andrews named Black,
remarking on the indulgence of the king towards
the catholic lords, declared that by this action he had
revealed the treachery of his heart; and that all
kings were "the Devil's bairns ;" with other expres
sions of a highly undutifuland indecorous nature; for
which he was summoned to answer before the privy
council. Black refused to appear to the citation ;
and in this refusal he was supported by the whole
clerical body, who regarded it as their brightest pri
vilege to comment, with whatever rudeness and viru
lence they thought fit, on the actions of their rulers.
The king in anger ordered the council of the church
to disperse ; Black was sentenced in contempt, and
his punishment was referred by the privy council to
the king, who, after attempting several schemes of
compromise, which were frustrated through faults
on both sides, banished the contumacious minister
beyond the river Spey during pleasure, and required
all the clergy to sign a bond, by which they obliged
themselves to submit in civil matters to the civil ju
dicature. A furious tumult in Edinburgh was the immedi ate

ate result, of this vigorous step on the part of the
king, whose life was exposed in the course of it to
imminent peril. By the interference of the magis
trates, however, the storm was laid almost as sudden
ly as it had risen ; and James, without waiting to
receive a petition prepared for him by the leaders'
ofthe malcontents, retired before day to Linlithgow,
in order to concert measures of chastisement against
his rebellious capita!. The citizens, intimidated by his
menaces, prepared to desert the contest in which the
headlong zeal or haughty pretensions of their pastors
had involved them ; the nobles refused to fight the
battles of .the church, and rallied round the throne ;
James assumed courage to direct the seizure of those
ecclesiastics who had acted the part of incendiaries
between himself and his people ; and they were re
duced to consult their safety by a hasty flight towards
the English border.
Fortified by this triumph, the king proceeded to
take a severe vengeance on the city of Edinburgh;
from which, after strippingitwithoutmercy of its most
valuable privileges, heexactedalarge sum asthe price
of reconcilement: what was of more consequence to
him, he brought the clergy themselves into so sub
missive a frame, that two successive general assem
blies gave their assent to several important regula
tions, by Which the independent jurisdiction of the
clerical body was in a manner yielded up, and that
"fierce democraty-" tamed into obedience. James
even made an effort, in 1598, to procure the re'admis-
gion of dignitaries of thechurch into parliament; but
such

32
such was the vehement outcry raised by the pastors
against this scheme, in which, through many artful
disguises, they espied, according to the phrase of
one of their number, "the horns of the mitre," that
its completion was deferred to a more favorable op
portunity. It was in vain that James had declared
in his speech to parliament in 1598, that "he minded
not to bring in papistical or Anglicane bishops*;" a
decided hostility to the presbyterian discipline mark
ed all his projects and all his actions; and his ear
nestness in procuring from the general assembly the
absolution of the catholic earls from their sentence of
excommunication, assisted in reviving the suspicion
of his cherishing a secret partiality for the religion
of his mother. These suspicions, however, appear
to have been in one sense ill-founded : James, as a
polemic, was probably sincere in maintaining the
doctrine ofthe reformers ; but as a prince, he dreaded
and abhorred the republican spirit of presbyterian-
ism; and as expectant ofthe English crown, he was
at this time politically bent on conciliating the favor
of the church of Rome at whatever expense of pro
testant consistency. With a view to thisobject, he had
restored the temporalities of the see of Glasgow to
Beaton the catholic archbishop, who had fled his coun
try at the Reformation, and appointed him his am-'
bassador to France. What was much more flagrant,
he addressed a courtly letter to the pope himself, in
which, after many professions of regard, and even
a Calderwood, p. 418. Of

33
of gratitude, to the holy father, he declared himself
firmly resolved to treat the catholics with indulgence;
and, for the sake of promoting a more frequent and
intimate intercourse between Scotland and Rome,
solicited the pope to confer the rank of cardinal on
Drummond bishop of Vaison. This letter was dis
covered and copied by the master of Gray, who now
resided at Rome in the character of an English spy,
and conveyed with all speed to queen Elizabeth.
Shocked at the sight, she immediately dispatched
Bowes privately to remonstrate on this subject with
James; but, happily for this prince, who would other
wise have.had every thingto dread from popular fury,
the letter was never made public till some years after
James had quitted Scotland. It was then printed
by cardinal Bellarmine, in the controversy respect
ing the oath of allegiance, and was never disavowed
by its royal author.
A work intituled Basilicon Doron, which was pub
lished by James during this year, being a collection
of precepts and maxims in religion, in morals, and
in the arts of government, addressed to his eldest son
prince Henry, served to exhibit in a clearer light
the views and sentiments ofthe monarch.
In speaking of offences to be irremissibly punish
ed with death, he says, " Here would I also eke an
other crime to be unpardonable if I should not be
thought partial : but the fatherly love I bear you
will make me break the bounds of shame in opening
it unto you. It is then the false and unreverent wri
ting and speaking of malicious men against your pa-
vql. i. n rents

34
rents and predecessors ; ye know the command in
God's law, 'Honor your father and your mother ;' and
consequently, sen ye are the lawful magistrate, suffer
not both your princes and your parents to be dis
honored by any ; especially sith the example also
tOueheth yourself, in leaving thereby to your suc
cessors the measure of that which they shall mete
Out again to you in your like behalf. I grant we
have all our faults, which privately between you and
God, should serve you for examples to meditate upon
and mend in your person ; but should not be a mat
ter of discourse to others whatsoever. And sith ye
are come of as honorable predecessors as any prince
living, repress the insolence of such as under a pre
tence to tax vice in the person, seek craftily to stain
the race, and to steal the affection ofthe people from
their posterity : for how can they love you that hate
them whom of ye are come ?  It is therefore a
thing monstrous to see a man love the child and
hate the parents : as, on the other part, the infaming
and making odious of the parent is the readiest way
to bring the son in contempt. And for conclusion
of this point, I may also allege my own experience :
for besides the judgements of God that with my
eyes I have seen fall upon all them that were chief
traitors to my parents, I may justly affirm, I never
found yet a constant biding by me in all my straits,
by any that were of perfite age in my parents days,
but only by such as constantly bode by them ; I
mean specially by them that served the queen my
mother." The reader should bear in mind that the

35
the merit of adhering to queen Mary's title against
her son belonged exclusively to the. Roman catholics
in Scotland.
Proceeding to treat of the disorders of the church,
James issues the following manifesto against the
spirit of presbyterianism : — " But the reformation
in Scotland, being extraordinarily wrought by God,
wherein many things were inordinately done by a
popular tumult and rebellion of such as blindly were
doing the work of God,  and not proceeding
from the prince's order,  some fiery-spirited
men in the ministry got such a guiding ofthe people
at that time of confusion, as finding the gust of go
vernment sweet, they begouth to fancy to themselves
a democratic form of government ; and having (by
the iniquity of the time) been over well baited upon
the wrack, first of my grandmother and next of
mine own mother, and after usurping upon the li
berty of the time in my long minority, settled them
selves so fast upon that imagined democracy, as they
fed themselves with the hope to become Tribuni
plebis :. .. . And for this cause, there never rose fac
tion in the time of my minority, nor trouble sensyne,
but they that were upon that factious part were ever
careful to persuade and allure these unruly spirits
among the ministry to spouse that quarrel as their
own : where-through I was oft-times calumniated
in their popular sermons, not for any evil or vice in
me, but because I was a king, which they thought
the highest evil  And yet for all their cunning,
whereby they pretended to distinguish the lawful-
d 2 ness

36
ness of the office from the vice of the person, some
of them would sometimes snapper out well grossly
with the truth of their intentions ; informing the
people that all kings and princes were naturally ene
mies to the liberty of the church, and could never
bear patiently the yoke of Christ : with such sound
doctrine fed they their flocks. And because the
learned, grave and honest men of the ministry were
ever ashamed and offended with their temerity and
presumption,.  there could be no way found
out so meet in their conceit,  for maintaining
their plots, as parity in the church :  parity the
mother of confusion, and enemy to unity, which is
the mother of order :  Take heed therefore,
my son, to such puritans, very pests in the church
and commonweal; whom no deserts can oblige,
neither oaths or promises bind ; breathing nothing
but sedition and calumnies ; aspiring without mea
sure, railing without reason, and making their own
imaginations (without any- warrant ofthe word) the
square of their conscience. I protest before the
great God, and since Iam here as upon my testa
ment it is no place for me to lie in, that ye shall
never find with any Highland or Border thieves
greater ingratitude and more lies and vile perjuries,
than with these fanatic spirits : And suffer not the
principals of them to brook your land, if ye like to
sit at rest; except ye would keep them for trying
your patience, as Socrates did an evil wife*."

8 Basil. Doron, book ii. passim. Tin

37
The king proceeds to point out the restoration of
bishops, and their re-admission into parliament, as
the sole remedy for this national pest; concluding
by an earnest exhortation to his son to complete
whatever part of this good work he should himself
be obliged to leave unfinished.
That James should have ventured to publish sen
timents like these in the face of the Scotish nation,
may at first sight appear inconsistent with the cha
racter of timidity popularly imputed to him. But
the monarch was not less irascible than fearful ; and
it is certain that the infirmity of his nature, whatever
might be its degree, never restrained him from mea
sures of a strong and even dangerous character
against the church of Scotland, which he constantly
regarded with unmeasured, and certainly not un
provoked, hostility ; and which policy as well as
passion prompted him to oppose in its most cherished
pretensions. With respect to the Basilicon Doron,
however, it should be remembered that the senti
ments inculcated in it were adapted to serve his
purposes with the English episcopalians no less than
with the catholics both of England and Scotland ;
and for the sake of securing the suffrages of these
important portions ofthe two nations, it was worth
while to risk any thing short of an insurrection on
the part ofthe Scotish presbyterians.
The means, in fact, of securing his English suc
cession now occupied almost without intermission
the thoughts of the impatient king, who had Jong
since begun to number the days of his illustrious
kinswoman.

38
kinswoman. Nothing marks more strongly the little
ness of James's character and his natural propensity
to artifice, than the numberless and endless mazes
of futile intrigue in which he imagined it conducive
to his great end to involve himself. Besides address
ing a needless mission to Henry IV. of France,
whose determination to use no efforts for impeding
the union of the British crowns was already fixed
on the solid basis of political wisdom, James took
the trouble of sending an ambassador to the king
of Spain, his competitor and irreconcileable enemy ;
and another to the pope, who, still believing him
to be at the bottom of his heart a protestant, re
mained inflexibly hostile to his title. Nor was there
any petty protestant prince in the north of Germany
allied to him by his marriage, to whom he did not
deem it requisite to direct a solemn embassy for the
purpose of explaining his right, and of soliciting
such aid as each of these redoubtable potentates
might be able and willing to lend, in the event of
his encountering resistance from the machinations
of a popish faction.
lt was with better judgement that, in the year
1599, James dispatched into England as his ambas
sador, Edward Bruce, lord of Kinloss, an able and
accomplished minister, who, though unsuccessful in
obtaining from Elizabeth the long desired public
recognition of her successor, served however his
master's interests in no inconsiderable degree, by
procuring from many persons of rank and conse
quence assurances of their firm attachment to the

king

39
king of Scots/and their resolution to support his
title against all competitors.
On the 5th of August 1600, occurred that extra
ordinary event known by the name of the Gowrie
conspiracy ; an enigma in the life and character of
James which seems to defy solution. The only
indubitable facts of the case are the following : —
That the king, who at this time was resident at
Falkland, going out to hunt, was joined by Alex_-
ander Ruthven, brother of the earl of Gowrie, and
after the chase, followed by a small train, accompa
nied him to the mansion of his brother at Perth ;
and that an affray arose in the house in which three
ofthe king's attendants were wounded ; and, on the
other side, the earl of Gowrie and Alexander Ruth->
ven were slain. The account given by James of
this transaction was, That Ruthven had decoyed him
to the house, by inviting him to examine in person
a suspicious stranger who hadTaeen taken near his
brother's house with a pot of foreign gold under his
cloak : that for this pretended purpose, Ruthven
had conducted him alone to a retired apartment,
where he found a man in armour with a sword and
dagger by his side : that as he stood confounded at
this sight, Ruthven snatched the dagger of the man
in armour, and holding it to the king's breast, bade
him remember how unjustly he had put his father
the earl of Gowrie to death ; adding, that the king
was now his prisoner, and that if he did not submit
gilently, and without any attempt at resistance, he
would instantly revenge upon him the blood of his
father.

40
father. That the man in armour remained trem
bling, silent and neutral, during this scene; that
Ruthven, wishing to consult with his brother, quitted
the room, leaving the king in custody of this per
son; but having previously assured his royal prisoner
that his life was in no danger if he forbore to raise
an alarm, and having also exacted from him an oath
that he would remain quiet during his absence. —
That his attendants becoming in the mean time un
easy at his absence, a servant of Gowrie's was sent
into the room where they were sitting, to inform
them that the king had ridden off towards Falkland ;
on which they all hurried out, calling for their horses.
That Ruthven meantime, returning to his prisoner,
declared that there was no help ; he must now die;
and prepared to bind his hands : That, on his re
sisting, a fierce struggle ensued, during which the
man in armour stood motionless as before : That he
dragged Ruthven towards a window, which he had
previously persuaded the man in armour to open ;
and that his cries of "Treason !" "Murder!" were
then heard by his attendants ; who rushed into the
house, burst the doors, rescued him from the assas
sins, double their own number, and finally slew the
two brothers.
It seems needless to point out the glaring impro
babilities, not to say absurdities, of this story ; they.
struck so. forcibly a nobleman to whom James re
lated it, immediately after his return from Perth,
that he could not restrain himself from remarking
aloud, that it was a strange tale, provided it were a
true

41
true one. The first accounts of the affair transmit
ted to Edinburgh appear to have been heightened
with many other preposterous and contradictory,
and some even miraculous circumstances; insomuch
that the clergy of Edinburgh, — not indeed the most
candid interpreters ofthe actions of James, — being
required by the privy council immediately to collect
their congregations, and, after relating all the parti
culars, to return solemn thanks to God for the^ pro
vidential escape ofthe king, replied, — that they were
willing indeed to give thanks for the safety of their
sovereign, but that they must be excused from en
tering into any details, and from promulgating in the
house of truth things which appeared still dubious.
Some days afterwards, James returned to Edin
burgh and commanded the minister of his own
chapel to harangue the people at the public cross
on the subject of the Gowrie conspiracy ; himself
confirming in their hearing all the particulars. He
also caused a narrative of the affair to be published ;
but in spite of his utmost efforts, the clergy as a
body, and not a few of the laity, persisted in their
incredulity. Finally however, partly by arguments,
partly by threats, the preachers were all convinced,
or silenced, except their leader Robert Bruce ;
against whom his majesty was pleased to maintain
his own veracity by the unanswerable arguments of
deprivation and banishment.
A very different spirit was manifested by the par-
liairient of Scotland. The dead bodies of the two
brothers being produced before this supreme tribu nal.

42
nal, as required by an absurd and barbarous custom
ofthe country, they were indicted of high treason,
tried, found guilty, and: sentenced to be dismem
bered as traitors. It was even enacted, that the
surname of Ruthven should be abolished, and that
a solemn thanksgiving should be observed for ever
on the anniversary of the king's deliverance from
this foul conspiracy. Notwithstanding these legis
lative testimonials to the treason of the brothers, it
must be observed, that the witnesses produced on
this trial contradicted, in many important circum
stances, both the printed narrative and each other.
In particular, the earl of Gowrie's steward, having
been prevailed upon by a promise of pardon to con
fess himself to be the man in armour, — who was said
to have escaped unobserved during the fray, — laid
claim to a much larger share of merit in the preser
vation of the king than his majesty himself had as
signed him. He declared that it was he who wrested
the dagger from Ruthven, and who prevented him
from binding the king's hands and from stopping
his mouth ; and that during the struggle, and not
before, he opened the window. He also declared
that he was left in total ignorance of the purpose
for which he was armed and placed in that solitary
apartment. The unaccountable circumstance of
Ruthven's quitting the king after having threatened >
him, and when it was entirely in his power to take
his life, was rendered utterly incredible by its being
made apparent, that the brothers neither had nor
could have had any interview at that juncture. No
accomplices

4a
accomplices in the plot were discovered ; nor couldi
any rational motive be assigned, on the parts of
Gowrie and Ruthven, for an attempt so desperate
as that of assassinating, or detaining prisoner in
their own unfortified mansion, a king of full age,
not on the whole odious to his subjects, and against
whose authority there subsisted at this time no in
surrection, or organized faction. On the other
hand, nothing appears more incredible than that
James, attended by a mere hunting party, should
have entered the house of Gowrie for the purpose
of assassinating him or his brother. The extraor
dinary favors heaped by the monarch, during the
whole of his after-life, upon those persons who were
present at the transaction and alone acquainted with
the real facts, might equally bear the opposite in
terpretations, that they had been his accomplices in
a great crime, or his deliverers from a formidable
danger : but his extreme anxiety to cause his own
narrative ofthe affair, with all its incongruities about
it, to be implicitly received by his people, and the
violent and arbitrary manner in which he thought
proper to chastise the incredulity of Bruce, seem
scarcely susceptible of a favorable interpretation.
The proceedings held several years afterwards with
respect to the confessions of one Sprot, supposed to
have been concerned in this conspiracy, will be con
sidered in their place; at present it is sufficient to
observe, that in the judgementof the loyalarchbishop
Spottiswood, they concluded nothing.
On the whole, it is impossible, for various reasons, to

44
to believe that James went to the house of Gowrie
for the purpose of attacking the brothers, or that he
caused them to be slain without some immediate
provocation ; but it seems nearly certain, that for
unknown reasons he distorted or disguised the real
circumstances ofthe transaction, and concealed the
most material ones.
On the 9th of November 1600, the day on which
the bodies of the earl of Gowrie and his brother were
dismembered, in pursuance of the posthumous sen
tence passed upon them, the queen of Scotland was
delivered, in the castle of Dumbarton, of her second
son Charles, afterwards king of Great Britain. The
infant was so weakly, that it was judged necessary
to perform without delay the rite of baptism ; — it is
referred to the reader how far this circumstance, -
combined with the day ofthe birth, may be regarded
as corroborating the surmises conveyed in the fol
lowing passage of a letter addressed by sir Henry
Neville to sir Ralph Winwood, then resident in a
diplomatic capacity at Paris. " Out of Scotland we
hear that there is no good agreement, but rather an
open diffidence, between the king of Scots and his
wife ; and many are of opinion, that the discovery
of some affection between her and the earl of Gow-
rie's brother, who was killed with him, was the truest
cause and motive of all that tragedy." That a
close intimacy continued to subsist between the
queen of Scotland and the surviving members of

a Winwood's, Memorials, vol. i. p. 274. the

4.>
the Ruthven family, appears from a letter written
by Nicholson, a political agent of queen Elizabeth
in Scotland, and dated September 22nd 1602. After
mentioning the return of two younger .brothers of
Gowrie into Scotlarid, he adds ; " The coming in
of these two, and the queen of Scots dealing with
them, and sending away and furnishing Mrs. Bea
trix, their sister; with such information as sir Tho
mas Erskine has given; hath bred great suspicion in
the king of Scots that they come not in but upon
some dangerous plot." In another letter Nicholson
says ; " The day of my writing last, Mrs. Beatrix
Ruthven was brought by the lady Paisley and mis
tress of Angus, as one of their gentlewomen, into the,
court in the evening, and stowed in a chamber pre
pared for her by the queen's direction ; where the
queen had much time and conference with her. —
Of this the king got notice, and showed his dislike
thereof to the queen, gently reproving her for it,
and examining quietly of the queen's servants of
the same, and of other matters thereunto belonging,
with such discretion and secrecy as requires such a
matter*." On what plea the queen justified or ex
cused her conduct does not appear; but we find that
James, soon afterwards, had thought proper to re
sume towards her the customary demonstrations of
harmony and affection. One of the Ruthvens, how
ever, was afterwards committed to the Tower of
London, and by an act of mere despotism detained

Robertson's Hist, of Scotland, p. 477, thirteenth edit. 8vo.

46
as a state prisoner for many years without trial or
public accusation.
The affairs of the eari of Essex agitated with con
tending hopes and fears the whole court of queen
Elizabeth from Michaelmas-day 1599, the epoch of
his unexpected return from Ireland, to the conclu
sion of the following year; nor could his character,
his projects and his fate, fail to excite an anxious in
terest in the bosom of the king of Scots. Intent as
the queen of England at present appeared on making
her offending favourite feel the weight of her dis
pleasure, it was still generally believed, that, accord
ing to her own expression, it was her purpose to
chastise and not to ruin ; and should he deign to
propitiate her by humbly kissing the rod, the return
of her affection might speedily, it was supposed, re
store him to his accustomed place of love and trust,
Nor did it appear likely that he would rest even here:
as the affection of the queen merged in dotage, he
might rather be expected to elevate himself on the
ruin of his enemies and competitors to the absolute
dictatorship of her court and kingdom. Essex was
at the same time the favorite of the soldiery and the
idol of the people ; and as his descent from the line
of Plantagenet was frequently insisted upon by the
more zealous of his partisans, James might easily be
led to contemplate him as an eventual competitor of
no despicable pretensions.
But Essex, a short time previously to the breaking
out of his rash and fatal revolt, had sought to obviate
the jealousy which he anticipated on the part of
the

¦Vi
the king of Scots, and even to engage his co-ope
ration in certain designs of his own for banishing
his enemies from the presence ofthe queen. For this.
purpose he had dispatched into Scotland his follower
Henry Lee, with instructions to assure that prince
of his inviolable attachment to his title, and to an
nounce to him his purpose of resorting even to mea
sures of force, if necessary, in order to extort from
the queen a public recognition of his majesty as her
successor : A recognition, which, according to Essex,
she was withheld from making by the artifices of
Cecil and Raleigh, whom he represented, certainly
in opposition to his own better knowledge, as secret
partisans ofthe claim ofthe infanta. James received
the advances of the earl with every demonstration
of cordiality, and a frequent correspondence was es
tablished between them. Shortly after, the deputy
of Ireland, lord Montjoy, sent a confidential person
to James to inquire whether he might rely on his
approbation in conducting the Irish army over to
England, according to the desire of the earl of Es
sex, for the purpose of overawing the queen.
James, besides his natural averseness to all enter
prises of hazard, was doubtless restrained from con
curring in this design by a rational distrust of the
motives of Essex ; and by a doubt in whose favor
troops brought over to England for the express pur
pose of rebellion against their present sovereign,
might afterwards be disposed to declare themselves.
He therefore expressed in unequivocal terms to
Montjoy his decided disapprobation of this part of
the

48
the plot; and it was in consequence given up.
James's correspondence, however, with Essex was
still maintained with every appearance of mutual
confidence ; the king continued to lend to the pro
jects ofthe party leader such a degree of countenance
as he judged conducive to his own interests; and
he even engaged to send into England ambassadors
who should co-operate actively, though by peaceable
means, in the steps to be taken by Essex with re
spect to the succession. But the departure of these
ambassadors was delayed, perhaps not undesignedly,
till Essex, weary of awaiting their arrival, and pressed
in the mean time by some vigorous proceedings on
the part of the queen, rushed into revolt and de
struction. On learning: that he was committed to custody,
James, indeed, thought it necessary to dispatch the
earl of Mar and the laird of Kinloss, furnished with
instructions to intercede in the most pressing man
ner for the life of the earl ; and even, if necessary,
publicly to own his cause as that of the king their
master ; — but Essex was beheaded before they
reached London.
After his accession to the throne of England,
James was accustomed to mention the earl of Essex
by the title of his martyr; and to restore in blood
the children of this unfortunate leader, and release
from imprisonment his surviving partisans, were
among the earliest acts of his reign : Cobham and
Raleigh, the capital enemies of Essex, were also for
bidden to attend upon their new sovereign, and
plunged

49
plunged into irretrievable disgrace. But notwith
standing all these demonstrations, we may certainly
be permitted to call in question the genuineness of
that sentimental kind of attachment professed by
James for the memory of a man whose life he had,
to say the least, taken no effective measures to pre
serve ; one to whom he was personally a stranger ;
and whose moral qualities exhibited the strongest
contrast both to his own, and to those of all the per
sons whom he was ever seen to distinguish by his fa
vor. The single circumstance of the king's receiv
ing with entire cordiality the advances of Robert
Cecil, certainly a principal artificer of the intrigues
by which the credit of Essex with his sovereign was
undermined and his fall prepared, might of itself
suffice to cast a doubt on the sincerity of the king
in this matter ; but we possess direct evidence of his
duplicity in a letter, hereafter to be cited, of the earl
of Northumberland ; to whom it appears that James
had distinctly expressed the opinion, that Essex was
a noble gentleman, but that he had lost no friend in
him. The remark does credit at least to James's
sagacity : of the pretensions of Essex, if of any
man's, he had reason to stand in awe; and his death,
by extinguishing all faction in the English court,
produced an immediate and undisguised unanimity
in favor of the succession of the king of Scots.
Sir Robert Cecil now lost no time in tendering
his allegiance to his future sovereign ; and an inti
mate correspondence was immediately opened be
tween them through the medium of lord Henry
vol. I. e Howard;

50
Howard ; who had previously conducted that be
tween the king and Essex. This correspondence,
besides the solid security which it was calculated to
afford to James in his most important interests, was
ingeniously contrived to flatter his notions of political
refinement, by the affected mysteriousriess of style
which prevailed throughout the letters, and by the
excess of caution observed in their circuitous mode
of conveyance, which was through Ireland.
Amongst the English correspondents of James,
the most conspicuous place, after Cecil, appears due
to the earl of Northumberland; a person not less
distinguished by learning and talents than by the
splendor of his birth. Several letters have been pre
served, in which this nobleman undertakes to set
before the king a true picture of the situation of the
country and of the minds of men, with reference
to the king's present hopes and future policy. He
had of course his own ends to serve in these repre
sentations, and his partiality in speaking of public
characters is often very discernible ; yet the follow
ing extract may be regarded as important both for
the clear and original information which it conveys,
and for the refutation which it affords of Osborn's
statement, in his memoirs of king James, that an
offer was made by the earl of Nothumberland to
levy a body of troops in support of that prince's title :
it will be seen that the earl was decidedly hostile to
the employment of any military force for this pur
pose.
Henry

51
Henry earl of Northumberland to king James.
 " The two main points that are most in
question amongst us, and that I think may give your
majesty best satisfaction to understand, are these ;
the one, whether after her majesty's life your right
will be yielded you peaceably without blow or not ;
the other, whether it be likely that your majesty
before your time will attempt to hasten it by force
for matter of your claim after her majesty. Here
none almost call it in question, howsoever some
books of the infanta's title be divulged by the fac
tious Jesuits that move little or nothing; neither
can I doubt but your majesty, from so many as I
conceive are devoted to your right, must needs re
ceive discoveries of their affections in this nature ;
and some of them I doubt not but in this delivery
Of it will make your difficulties appear with what art
they can to be many (for such is the common sup-
posal) whensoever it shall please God to call the
queen from amongst us ; but, neither to sift their
ends, whether their arguments-be formed from the
truth of their conceits, or from policy to endear
themselves in your favor, I must conclude, that my
weak understanding cannot discern, as our state now
stands, and as it hath taken upon itself a new face
within this year past, but that you shall as quietly,
without opposition, have it yielded, as ever prince
had any kingdom was due to him.
" The reason that induceth me thus to believe are
these : the world assumeth greater freedom since
e 2 Essex'

52
Essex' death to speak freely of your title, with the
allowance of it, than ever ; nor can I mark out any
one precedent that any man is troubled for it ; but
rather, such persons that other faites have brought
within compass of justice are with a gentler hand
corrected if any thing done for your sake be apart
of the offence; which some argueth that it is not
distasteful to the chief agents in our state : at this
instant all men's minds looking after their private
gain, no man's ambition is discovered stirring to work
for power to be able to oppose against your right,
either by strengthening themselves with popularity,
with arms, with followers, or by making themselves
masters of the strength of our country ; for plotting
with any foreign princes, no humour or circum
stance towards it doth appear, howsoever some have
been challenged with that imputation ; an imputa
tion, out of mine own knowledge, rising from the
dregs of former malice than out of just cause ; when
we look into your competitors at home, we find the
eyes of the world, neither of the great ones nor
small ones, once cast towards them ; for either in
their worth are they contemptible, or not liked for
their sexes, wishing no more queens, fearing we
shall never enjoy another like to this  For
the papists, it is true their faction is strong, their
increase is daily, and their diffidence in your majes
ty is not desperate ; some of the purer sort of them,
who hath swallowed the doctrine of putting down
princes for religion, may perhaps be hotter than there
were reason, wishing the infanta a better share in
the

53
th0 kingdom than yourself. But since your majesty
understandeth better how to lead this cause than I
can give instructions, I will dare to say no more but
it were pity to lose so good a kingdom for the not
tolerating a mass in a corner, if upon that it resteth,
so long as they shall not be too busy disturbers ofthe
government of the state, nor seek to make us contri
butors to a Peter-priest. Yet is not my scope out of
these circumstances so to over-assure you, that your
preparations be not answerable to an expected op
position, and your resolutions of expedition so con
cluded, when that shall fall to your turn, that there
may be no giving of breath to consult; in which
your majesty hath much the advantage of any fo
reign prince, having neither ships to rigg or con
trary winds or tides to hinder : and now, since it falls
within the compass of my pen, I may not forget to
yield censure in this point, if not my knowledge,
that I think her majesty, in the secret of her heart,
wishes it you before any creature, when she must
leave it.
" Now to unfold the arguments we use amongst us
whether it be reasonable and likely your majesty will
attempt to hasten your right by force before your
time, many of your faithful servants fear [it], though
an exceeding confidence assures me the contrary,
which I will never cease to wish, for many reasons
 It is true that of the nobility some are not
satisfied, the gentility displeased, the men of war
mutters, and the popularity is grieved ; yet, let it be
from whence these discontents do result considered, und

54
and they will be found weak pillars to adventure so
great an action upon. The nobility are not satis
fied that places of honor are not given them so soon
as they become judges of their own deserts; that
offices of trust are not laid in their hands to manage
as they were wont; that her majesty is parcimoni-
ous, and slow to relieve their wants, which from
their own prodigalities they have burdened them
selves withal ; they repine that the state value them
not at that rate they prize themselves- worthy of:
neither is there many in this rank, for some are
pleased, and others are not capable of them ; so as
your majesty may discern these to spring from heat
of youth, insufficiency, want and self-conceit; hot
discontents soon born and soon dying in themselves;
stings not bitter enough to lead them on to so
great a hazard when their considerations upon
cold blood shall tell them, that that .prince which
shall follow cannot but conclude them in his heart
apt to embrace the same disloyalties upon like ap
prehensions : discontents rising from the ingrati
tude of human nature, which for the most part for
gets former benefits if unsatisfied in his last desires.
The burden that the gentility repines at chiefly is
wardships, a law first instituted for preserving them
in time of their minority, now become the ruin of
almost all men's houses once in three descents ; a
commodity small in the prince's coffers when the
accounts are cast up. Neither doth this so far move
them to discontent that they will venture the loss
of all to redress this one ; both because custom hath
riiade

made them obedient to it, and hopes give them be
lief they may be freed upon easier conditions here
after. " The soldier mutters only when he wants employ
ment, which, in effect, is as much as when he wants
means to rob the common treasure of the kingdom,
(by pilling and polling a company of poor crea
tures committed under his charge,) to satisfy the hu
mors of their riotous excesses ; a sort of people
that no sooner hears the drum beat but their discon
tents are quenched, and instantly become less ser
vants to a stranger prince than they were when
their sword did hang quietly in their scabbard; so
as I say their conditions are not much to be relied
upon ; of whom to say more, a kind of men fit to be
nourished out of necessity to help the ministers of a
state, rather than to be chosen ministers in a state
themselves. " The popular griefs are subsidies, taxes for the
wars, grants of monopolies and delays qf justice ;
in all which they rather condemn her majesty's in
struments with the burden of it than conceive ha
tred to her person. This observance being almost
infallible, that a commonalty may sooner be drawn
to rebellions under color of setting strength against
justice, than advancing any man's.title, I am of opi
nion, that it is much easier for a great man popular
in his own country to move them to commotion, than
for your majesty, if you were so disposed.
" So as I conclude, all these circumstances well
laid together, that none can deny but that your ma
jesty

56
jesty shall without all contradiction enjoy that you
are so nigh to by right, and that it cannot be good
for jou or us that you should seek it sooner by force:
for this I have ever almost noted, that lesser king
doms seldom kept long a greater got by conquest,
but by right and succession often."
In a subsequent letter illustrative of his own party
views and connexions, the noble writer has hazard
ed an opinion respecting the character and designs
ofthe earl of Essex, which, whether just or not, is
very remarkable, considering from whom it comes
and to whom it is addressed.
 " And now that it falls out in course to
speak of particular men, your majesty's judgement
of Essex to be a noble gentleman, but that you lost
no great friend by him, leads me on the rather to
this discourse. To confirm therefore your majesty's
censure I may say justly, that although he was a
man endued with good gifts, yet was his loss the
happiest chance for your majesty and England that
could befal us ; for either do I fail in my judgement,
or he would have been ane bloody scourge to our
nation. Of this I can speak very particularly, as one
who was as inward with him as any living creature
the first two years I was matched with his sister;
and could he then dream of any thing but having the
continual power of an army to dispose of; of being-
great constable of England, to the end that in an
interregnum he might call parliaments to make laws
for ourselves ? Did he not decree that it was scan
dalous to our nation that a stranger should be our
kine 4

57
king ? Was not his familiarity with me quite can
celled when he discovered my disposition leaning
to your right, and that I was not to be led by his
fortunes ? did he not secretly keep me from all pre
ferments ofthe north part, with planting jealousies
in the queen's mind of me ; which are there still
fresh when those matters come in dispute ? Did he
not ever prefer other of more facility to his will
than myself in any actions whereby I might come
any way to equal them in the reputation of a soldier?
How often have I heard that he inveighed against
you amongst such as he conceived to be birds of his
own fortune ? Did his soldiers-followers dream or
speak any thing but of his being king of Eng
land ? Did his dealings with Valentine Thomas
declare his affection to your majesty ? In these last
actions did he not go to a chemist with Montjoy,
when he would not consent to set up for themselves,
when he saw your majesty walked with caution, and
would not be drawn in to be made the bridge over
which he would have passed for his last refuge ?
Did he ever offer you his service but in his declin
ing time, and at the last push ? Did he not promise
papists, freedom in religion ; puritans, the sway of
the commonwealth ; soldiers, other men's lands and
houses ; and those he knew was yours, that for you
it was that he wrought for ? Well, to conclude, he
wore the crown of England in his heart these many
years, and therefore far from setting it upon your
head if it had been in his power.
" As for Cobham and Raleigh, how they bend to
wards

58
wards your right, this is my censure : although they
be in faction contrary to some that hold with your
title, yet in that point I cannot deny but they be of
the same mind and to run the same course. The
first of these two I know not how his heart is affect
ed ; but by the latter, whom sixteen years of ac
quaintance hath confirmed unto me, I mjjst needs
affirm Raleigh's ever allowance of your right ; and
although I know him insolent, extremely heated, a
man that desires to seem to beable tosw^ay all men's
fancies, all men's courses, and a man that out of
himself, when your time shall come, will never be
able to do you much good nor harm, yet I must
needs confess what I know ; that there is excellent
good parts of nature in him ; a man whose love is
disadvantageous to me in some sort; which I che-
.rish rather out of constancy than policy ; and one
whom 1 wish your majesty not to lose, because I
would not that one hair of a man's head should be
against you that might be for you11."
The earl next proceeds to speak of sir Robert
Cecil, whom he represents as favorable, doubtless,
in his heart to the title of James; though habitual
caution, and a kind of official decorum, will restrain
him, as he supposes, from declaring himself to the
iking in such a manner as to acquire the merit of an
early adherence to his cause. But the wily, secre
tary had long since established himself with James
on the most confidential footing ; and in his letters
" From a transcript out of the Hatfield collection. he

59
he was already employing every art to ruin in the
opinion of the prince his old associates Cobham,
Raleigh, and even this unsuspecting Northumber
land, who believed himself at the bottom of his se
crets, and who accounted the friendship of the se
cretary among the most secure and inviolable of his
possessions. The Gowrie conspiracy, if so it merits to be en
titled, was the last event of James's reign in Scot
land ; every thing was now hushed into tranquillity
around him ; and he had only to await, with as little
impatience as possible, the moment destined to bring
within his grasp the sceptre on which his hopes and
expectations had so long been fixed.
Five-and-thirty years of royalty had now fully
accomplished James VI. in what he called "king
craft;" but they had left him deplorably ignorant
of the only true art of government, — the best mode
of securing the honor and happiness of a civilized
nation. Amid the turbulence and lawlessness of the
contending factions who had alternately seized the
custody of his person and protected themselves by
the authority of his name, self-preservation had be
come the first object of the monarch's solicitude;
and destitute of all higher and better resources, he
had learned to avail himself of the natural weapons
of the feeble, — deceit and artifice. A temporising
policy, which flattered and disappointed every party
by turns, which exposed all his professions to con
tempt, and all his principles to suspicion, thus be
came habitual to him, and passed upon himself for
the

60
the perfection of civil wisdom. Two classes of men
indeed, he regarded with undisguised aversion ; the
Jesuits, who preached up the right of the pope to
release subjects from their allegiance to heretical so
vereigns ; and the presbyterian clergy, who claimed
the privilege of controlling the actions of their
prince, and of excommunicating him if he refused
to obey their admonitions. Against these enemies
he exerted himself with all the energy of which he
was capable ; combating the Jesuits with his pen,
and the Scotch church not with this instrument
alone, but with acts of parliament, and acts of power
and prerogative, which in any other cause he would
have feared to hazard. It seems to have been partly
out of opposition to the contumacious spirit of vthe
followers of Knox, that James adopted, and endea
voured to inculcate upon his subjects, that sublime
theory of the absolute power and ineffable majesty
of kings, which consoled his vanity in some degree
for those practical limitations to which a haughty
nobility and an intractable presbytery compelled him
to submit.
The temper of this prince, though childishly iras
cible, was only on great and repeated provocations
susceptible of rancor and revenge; towards his
courtiers and favorites he overflowed with affability
and good nature, and unfortunately both for himself
and his people he was able to deny them nothing.
Of dignity, whether moral, intellectual, or personal,
he was totally destitute ; and his indifference to fe
male society, his passion for the sports of the field, the

61
the love of ribaldry and buffoonery which he had
caught from Arran and the vile crew of sycophants
with which this favorite surrounded him, added to
his odious habit of profane swearing, contracted
probably in the same society, gave to his manners a
decided stamp of coarseness and vulgarity.
James's private morals seemed to be free from
any other stain than the grossnesses to which we
have alluded ; it was only in later life that he be
came somewhat intemperate in the use of wine ;
and it appears from a passage of the Basilicon Do
ron, in which he speaks of the evil consequences
which resulted from those amours of his grandfather
James V. by which the honor of many ancient fami
lies had been wounded, that he made his own ex
emption from similar transgressions a topic of self-
approbation and religious gratitude*.
One ofthe most respectable and pleasing features
* Hume has thought proper to impute to the Scotch clergy the
exertion of a control over the morals of the young king before
his marriage,' from which he found it impossible" to escape ; but
this charge is entirely gratuitous, or rather false. As they were
not able to keep him out of the hands of Arran and his profli
gate associates, it is clear that they could not have debarred him
of the opportunities of indulging in any vice to which his dispo
sition had inclined him. In fact, though these ecclesiastics as
sumed the freedom of openly, and even insolently, reproving in
the pulpit the public faults or follies of their sovereign, it does
not appear that they familiarly frequented his court, to become
spies upon his private actions, or that they possessed there either
credit or authority. The merit of this virtue must therefore rest
with himself alone. of

62
of James's character was his'attachment to learning
and his kind and munificent patronage of its pro
fessors. It is true that his taste was incorrect, and
his style pedantic and tedious, and readers would
have lost little had the monarch never dipped his
pen in politics or divinity ; but he would himself
have lost the most creditable occupation and the best
solace of his leisure hours, and several of the most
eminent scholars both of Great Britain and of the
continent would have lost the notice which cheered
and the bounty which sustained them.

CHAPTER

CHAPTER III.
1603.
Principal persons ofthe English court at the death of Eliza-'
beth.—Lord Buckhurst. — Sir Robert Cecil. — Sir Thomas
Egerton. — Raleigh.— Coke. — Sir Francis and sir Horace
Vere. — State of the church. — Hooker. — Hall. — Andrews.
— Whit gift. — Cartwright. — Udal. — Political state of the
country, connected with religious parties.— Church divided
into puritans und prelatists. — James allies himself with the
last, and renounces' presbyterianism.— Catholics and puri
tans compared. — State of literature. — Abuse of patro
nage. — Corruption of taste. — Poets. — Dramatists— Shake.
spear, Jonson, Fletcher. — Sir Henry Saville. — Camden. —
Sir Robert Cotton. — Dr. Dee.; — Dedications. — Painting. —
Music. — State of manners- -r-Court affectation. — Increase
of drinking. — Ordinaries. — Gamblers. — Usurers. — Small
number of the nobility. — Gentry rich and powerful. —
Lavish distribution of honors. — Changes introduced by
J ames.— Ballad of the old and new Courtier.
XlAVING thus conducted the king of Scots to
the eventful crisis when his destiny calls him to re
ceive a second and more brilliant diadem, let us
pause to take a survey ofthe scene on which he is
• about to appear, and of the actors who prepare to
sustain their parts around him.
The reign of queen Elizabeth embraced a period
of nearly five-and-forty years; and ofthe distinguished
political characters who had entered into life as her
contemporaries, scarcely a solitary individual sur
vived

64
vived to occupy a public station after her departure.
The once great names of Cecil, of Bacon, of Lei
cester, of Walsingham, of Sussex and of Sidney,
had either ceased to be heard, or had descended to
the sons of those by whom they were first raised
into celebrity ; and it perhaps remained for the ac
complished Buckhurst alone, after having kissed her
hand as a member of that parliament which pro
claimed her accession, to break his wand of office
over her grave. But every circumstance was fa
vorable to the development of talent, and a second
generation of eminent men had arisen to surround
the throne and support the glory of the maiden
queen. Burleigh had been satisfactorily replaced by
Buckhurst as lord treasurer, and the more arduous
though less dignified post of secretary of state was
filled by sir Robert Cecil with ability perhaps supe
rior to his father's, and with diligence which he had
never surpassed.
Sir Thomas Egerton held the seals with official
reputation little inferior perhaps to that of sir Ni
cholas Bacon, whose comprehensive intellect, whose
flashing wit, and whose commanding eloquence,
were gifts redoubled many fold upon his. illustrious
though morally unworthy son.
Raleigh, with a genius equal to the highest con
cerns which could be committed to his manage
ment, survived to deplore the loss, irreparable to
him, of a mistress capable of estimating abilities of
the first class, and free from that jealousy of base and

65
and inferior natures which shrinks from their em
ployment. In Coke, attorney -gen eral, the crown possessed
an officer unrivalled by any predecessor in the ex
tent of his professional acquirements, and singularly
adapted, by the vigor of his mind, the keenness of
his temper, and the brutality of his vituperation, to
serve an arbitrary government in the management
of state trials. He had already brought these qua
lities into full view as conductor of the prosecution
of the unhappy earl of Essex, and under the new
reign his powers were destined soon to find fresh
exercise. Elizabeth had prided herself on possessing, in
sir Francis Vere, an officer whose skill and valor,
proved and perfected by long experience in those
hard-fought fields where Dutch freedom was con
quered, entitled him to rank among the great cap
tains of Europe. Sir Horace Vere trod in the steps
of his elder brother, and wanted nothing but oppor
tunity to show himself his equal in the art of war.
The naval service could still boast of several able
men ; but Francis Drake had left no successor.
Religious unity was in this age regarded, by pro
testants no less than catholics, as a circumstance so
essential to the well-being of a state, that the schism
which the dispute concerning habits and ceremonies
had caused in the English church, was deplored by
both parties as a national calamity, but charged by
each upon the unreasonable obstinacy of the other.
Much suffering to the weaker part, and much un-
vol. i. f charitable

66
charitable violence on both parts, had been the re
sult of this division ; but these evils were tempered
by some -incidental benefits, of which the increase
of learning among the clergy was the chief.
On the accession of Elizabeth, the vacancies in
parish churches throughout the kingdom, occasioned
by the resignation or expulsion of the Roman ca
tholic incumbents, had been supplied in the best
manner, probably, that so sudden and extraordinary
an emergency admitted ; but the gross ignorance
of one portion of the newly constituted protestant
clergy, who had been brought up to mechanical
trades, the scandalous lives of a second, and the
superstitions of a third, who had commenced their
career as priests or monks, long supplied matter of
complaint and offence throughout the country. Gra
dually, however, as the first set dropped off, the two
universities sent forth in their room a new race, bet
ter instructed in the doctrine of their church, and
more fitted, it may be presumed, to adorn it by their
lives. Some of the venerable features of a primi
tive church necessarily vanished from the aspect of
the English establishment with the generation of
exiles and confessors who had suffered in the per
secution of Mary ; but other graces succeeded, cal
culated to reflect dignity on its prosperous state.
Nor was it left destitute of several distinguished
luminaries. Under the benign and generous pa
tronage of Jewel, its-first apologist, had arisen the
profound, the candid, the judicious Hooker, whose
defence of the ecclesiastical polity is still regarded

as

67
as the most efficient which has yet appeared. Hall,
the conscientious and the charitable, was treasuring
up for future use stores of eloquence and of argu
ment unsurpassed, perhaps, by any pulpit composi
tions in our language. Lancelot Andrews added
to his vast erudition and to the virtues most appro
priate to a dignitary of the church, those of an
Englishman and a patriot. Whitgift, before he at
tained the dignity of primate and the conviction
that it was safer and better t6 silence schismatics
than to confute them, had brought considerable vi
gor of parts to the defence of the habits and cere
monies against the formidable attacks of Cartwright,
the distinguished leader of the Calvinistic or puri
tanical party ; a party which was also supported by
the acuteness, zeal and learning of the unfortunate
and ill-treated Udal, and by other champions both
bold and able, Several amiable and exemplary di
vines were expending much thought and labor on
schemes of conciliation, by which the Calvinistic
clergy might be restored to the benefices from
which rigid decrees of conformity had expelled
them. But these generous projects served no other
good purpose than that of exercising the charity and
benevolence of their authors. From a church so
abounding in talents and erudition, James found
little difficulty in selecting, soon after his accession,
fit workmen for the construction of that great mo
nument of his reign, a new translation of the scrip
tures. The political state of the country was peculiar
f 2 and

68
and critical ; the parties which divided it were all
religious sects, a circumstance which rendered their
management an affair of great difficulty and com
plexity. Elizabeth, it has been frequently and justly
observed, preserved her authority by an exact ba
lance of parties ; but this nice equipoise, which she
herself, with all her skill and experience, might have-
found it difficult much longer to maintain, was ne
cessarily disturbed by a change of hands, and it was
a great problem on what principle to re-establish it.
The church of England was divided within itself
into two parties, which called each other puritans
and prelatists, and the catholics formed a third sec
tion hostile alike to both. The prelatists, or, as they
called themselves, the orthodox, who professed to be
perfectly satisfied with the church establishment as
it stood, and to desire nothing more than to guard
it from puritan innovation, might be considered as
the natural allies of the prince ; he had only to pro
tect them in their present ascendency, and they were
ready to repay him with the most implicit submis
sion to his will, and the surrender of all the remain
ing liberties of their country. The only objection
to such a compact was, that it exposed the prince
to the hazard of falling together with the church,
should the popular will be found at any time strong
enough to work its overthrow. But this danger
probably appeared to James at his accession the
most distant and the least formidable of all ; and his
interests and his inclinations conspiring, it was one
of his first acts to conciliate this party by the formal
renunciation

69
renunciation of the presbyterian principles of his
education. The system of conduct to be observed towards
the puritans and the catholics was a matter of much
greater difficulty : James had flattered by turns both
these parties, but the catholics far the most fre
quently ; both were numerous, both powerful, both
exasperated by oppression ; neither was disposed to
forgo its claims to indulgence for the present, its
hopes of pre-eminence for the future. These were
the only points of agreement between them ; all the
rest was contrast. The catholics, with some excep
tion for those congregated in London, belonged for
the most part to the two extremes of society ; they
were of the high nobility, of the most ancient and
considerable gentry, or ofthe most indigent and ig
norant of the peasantry. The puritans were chiefly
of the middle class ; tlieir strength lay in towns and
cities, where the preachers performed the functions
of lecturers, or parish priests of the lower order, and
the laity occupied the stations of wealthy traders,
substantial shop-keepers, mechanics, journeymen
and manufacturers. London was their New Jeru
salem ; their other strong holds were Gloucester and
some clothing towns ofthe West, the county of Nor
thampton, where many even of the principal gentry
had embraced their cause, and the counties of Nor
folk, Suffolk and Essex ; at that time the most po
pulous and the most civilised quarter of the island,
the principal seat of manufacture, the asylum of the
foreign protestants, and the scene of a large pro
portion

70
portion of the martyrdoms of Mary's days. The
chief seats ofthe catholics were, Lancashire and the
other Northern counties, Staffordshire and War
wickshire, Wales and the West.
The most confidential advisers and chief favorites
of Elizabeth, Leicester, Walsingham, the two Ce
cils and Essex, had all, either from inclination or
interest, in some degree courted the puritans; and
a decided majority in the house of commons was fa
vorable to their cause. From all the queen's mi
nisters, with the exception of Essex when he medi
tated revolt, the catholics had experienced the most
unqualified hostility, and the house of commons was
never satiated with enacting penal laws and impos
ing tests and disabilities to restrain and punish them.
The queen herself, not greatly averse in her heart
to the doctrines or ceremonies of the catholics, and
conciliated both by the professions and the solid
proofs of loyalty which she received from the more
moderate of them, had uniformly shown them all the
indulgence and connivance which she believed com
patible with her safety ; she had publicly declared
that the puritans were greater enemies of hers; and
she had fostered the natural propensity ofthe Romish
church to lean to the side of arbitrary power, bysome-
times interposingwith herroyal prerogativeto screen
them from the rigor of popular laws. Yet, to deny
in the most unqualified terms all the authority claim
ed by the sovereign as head of the church, was with
every catholic an inviolable point of conscience ; the
close correspondence which they maintained with the

71
the king of Spain, the great foreign enemy of the
country, exposed their patriotism to just suspicions;
the head of their religion not only claimed, but in
the case of Elizabeth had exercised, the power of
excommunicating an heretical prince and releasing
subjects from their oath of allegiance ; and father
Parsons, the oracle of the Spanish faction, had not
scrupled, in furtherance of its present purposes, to
assail even the divine, indefeasible, hereditary right
of kings, James's favorite dogma. The pope had
made a strenuous though fruitless effort to raise up
a competitor for the English crown, and had secretly
transmitted to England letters in which he exhorted
his spiritual children to admit none but a catholic
to fill the throne of Elizabeth. On the whole, con
sidering the great continental alliances of this party,
and the spirit displayed by the church of Rome in all
nations, it could not be doubted that it still consi
dered itself as the rightful claimant of all that had
been wrested from it by the Reformation, and would
still regard itself as injured if it did not rule.
The puritans were at least a party purely English,
and neither treason nor civil war was at present to
be apprehended from them. In the early part of
the reign of Elizabeth, they had constantly pleaded,
not only that they were protestants of the most sin
cere and zealous kind, but that they were as firmly
attached as their opponents to the principles of the
church of England. Take but away, they said, a
few habits, a few ceremonies, which our adversaries
treat as things indifferent, but which we regard with
horror

72
horror as remnants of the abomination of popery
and idolatry, and we are ready to subscribe to all
the articles, yield obedience to every point of disci
pline, and close up for ever the protestant schism.
This language seems to have been sincere in the
first who held it, and it is probable that small con
cessions, early and graciously made, might have re
stored for some time the unity of the church ; but it
must be stated as well ascertained, that the objec
tions of the puritans were not long nor generally
restricted to these minor points. The "beauteous
discipline" of Geneva, as they quaintly termed it,
quickly became the object of their ardent aspira
tions. The example of Scotland, where prelacy had
been abolished by the will ofthe people, roused their
emulation ; the persecution which they endured from
the English bishops confirmed their antipathy to the
order ; and it is more than probable, that for some
time before the accession of James, nothing less
than the establishment of presbytery would have
sufficed to satisfy their leading zealots.
Elizabeth had shown herself resolute in the
maintenance of episcopacy, and she had constantly
refused in the most absolute tone to Suffer any part
of her ecclesiastical establishment to be regulated,
or even discussed, by the house of commons ; her
supremacy being, as she said, a branch of her pre
rogative royal, and therefore by no means to be
called in question by them. These stern rebuffs had
reduced the puritans to seek their remedy through
an abridgement of that exorbitant prerogative of the
house

73
house of Tudor which lorded it thus over ancient
custom, the common law of the land, and the char
tered rights of Englishmen. The first object of
their attacks had been of course the supremacy, —
that enormous usurpation of Henry VIII,, from the
exercise of which in the erection ofthe inquisitorial
court of high commission, with its terrible appen
dages of ex-officio oaths, arbitrary imprisonments,
and discretionary penalties, sprung all their griefs
But the discussion of this grievance led impercep
tibly to the exposure of others ; and a small sect of
assertors of civil liberty, called political puritans by
the courtiers, had arisen in the house of commons,
by whom the attack was extended to other obnoxious
branches of prerogative. Such were, the creation
of monopolies ; the exercise of the right of purvey
ance ; the dispensing power ; the granting of pro
tections against actions at law ; the extension of
the jurisdiction ofthe star-chamber arid other arbi
trary courts; and above all, the -imprisonment of
members of parliament for their speeches in the
house, and the peremptory prohibition of all dis
cussion there of certain highly important topics
both religious and political. Of these champions of
English liberty, a small proportion appear to have
been indifferent to the Calvinistic cause ; but there
was a strong natural connexion between presbyte
rian principles in religion and popular principles in
government, and they were so usually found united,
that the sect and the party came to be considered as
one, and the individuals composing it thus secured to

^4
to themselves by a double title the jealousy and en
mity of the court. There was this further circum
stance of contrast between the two parties ; that of
the catholics had been on the decline for nearly half
a century ; it had spent its rage in vain efforts against
the person and government ofthe queen ; and though
some expiring struggles rnight still be expected, it
appeared to be entirely within the power of a pro
testant administration, by a steady perseverance in
the policy of Elizabeth, to reduce it to perfect harm-
lessness and insignificance. The puritan on the con
trary was a rising sect ; it was that of the most im
portant, because the most active classes of the com
munity ; its numbers, already formidable, had in
creased under every degree of persecution which
brother protestants had hitherto prevailed upon
themselves to apply ; and those who had had the op
portunity in Scotland of becoming acquainted with
its stern and inflexible spirit, ought to have been
aware that the whole force of government might
well be foiled in the attempt to suppress it.
It was clearly the policy of James neither to flat
ter into consequence the sinking party, nor to ex
asperate into virulence the rising one : but his pre
dilections and antipathies prevented him from mak
ing this discovery ; he rushed into both errors, and
by both did he suffer.
English literature at this period might in some re
spects be regarded as flourishing beyond all former
example ; yet it had received from the state of man
ners and society a taint which was already turning its

75
its beauty to corruption. At the court of Elizabeth
the patronage of letters was not less a fashion than
at that of Augustus. Every book, whatever might
be its subject, was inscribed to some noble, " wor
shipful," or wealthy dedicatee ; and every author of
the smallest pretensions to celebrity found his cover
regularly spread at the table of a peer, bishop^ mi
nister of state, or other " person of honor." There
is something highly gratifying to the imagination in
such a state of things ; we love to contemplate such
men as Burleigh and Camden, Raleigh and Spenser^
linked together by the ties of benefits on one part
and gratitude on the other : yet on calmer conside
ration, it cannot but be acknowledged that this ge
neral association of men of letters with the great,
on the footing of patron and client, in whatever age
or country it may have subsisted, has begun by de
basing the minds ofthe votaries of letters, and ended
in the degradation of literature itself. It is usually
by no easy or honorable tenure that the dependent
child of genius is permitted to hold the favors of a
patron. His Mecsenas becomes his task-master;
by his will however unenlightened, by his taste how
ever perverted, the unfortunate bondsman must sub
mit to have his labors directed and over-ruled: hence
we have had Michael Angelo bestowing his inimi
table workmanship on a mass of snow, and a French
academy tormenting their imaginations to invent
new modes of deifying their mighty Louis.
Nor can any person be widely conversant in the
literature of the age of Elizabeth without discover ing

76
ing and deploring numerous similar abuses. Com
plimentary effusions, commanded strains of congra
tulation or condolence on subjects then interesting
to few, and now to no one, form the larger portion
of the occasional pieces of Spenser, of Jonspn, of
Donne, and of the whole herd of minor poets.
Shakespear alone, pre-eminent in moral as in intel
lectual dignity, disdained to prostitute his immortal
lines to temporary or to selfish purposes, and stands
nobly acquitted of the vice of adulation. Fashion
also required from the votary of the muse the dedi
cation of another considerable portion of his rhymes
to the passion of love, and to the glory of some fair
one, real or imaginary, who was to be clothed in all
the graces and perfections of a Laura, and adored
in as many high-flown sonnets as the brain of her
poet could be compelled to produce ; and it was not
till his fancy had been worn and his moral sensibi
lity irreparably injured, by the performance of this
task-work of the lyre, that he was at liberty to de
vote the relics of his genius to some theme of gene
ral and lasting interest. Need we search further
for the source of that depravation of taste which
had already begun to substitute quaintness and bom
bast, forced conceits and unmeaning similes, couch
ed in stiff and rugged verse, for the free and harmo
nious flow of natural sentiment and lively imagery
which still delights us in the elder strains of Surry,
of Sackville and of the anonymous poets whose oc
casional pieces still shine in the collections of the
early years of Elizabeth ? In

77
In the drama, however, English .genius still ex
ulted in the wildness of its liberty. Shakespear was
in his zenith ; Jonson had commenced his celebra
ted series of comedies of character on a perfectly re
gular model, — a species of composition with which
he was the first to enrich the English theatre.
Fletcher had lately begun to devote to the drama
poetical powers of a high order ; and the contem
porary names of Decker, Marston, Chapman, Hey
wood and Chettle, served further to attest the flou
rishing condition ofthe stage. The dramatic poets
were, for the most part, men of mirth and pleasure;
poor from thoughtless profusion rather than from
any deficiency of remuneration ; flattered by the
public ond caressed by the great.
It was not however from the cultivation of poetry
alone, or lighter literature, that the fruits of fame
aud favor were at this time to be reaped. The clas
sical reputation of Henry Saville had procured for
him in the first instance the office of Greek preceptor
to Elizabeth, who frequently commanded his attend
ance at her hours of privacy for the benefit of his
learned discourse ; his annotated translation of the
annals of Tacitus, and of the life of Agricola, had
been eagerly welcomed by the reading public ; and
his collection of English chroniclers and historians,
illustrated with chronological tables, had further ad
vanced his reputation, and entitled him in the judge
ment of his royal pupil to the creditable appointment
of provost of Eton : he afterwards received from the
hand of James the honor of knighthood. The to
pographical

rxvraphical and antiquarian pursuit? of Camden,
beside, being celebrated in verse by Spenser, and
encouraged by Philip Sidney and by his friend Fulk
Greville, had obtained for him the valuable patro
nage of Burleigh. His Britannia was celebrated as
a great national monument; and sir Robert Cotton,
a leading member of the Society of antiquaries and
afterwards eminent by many learned works on the
constitution and ancient usages of his country, was
impelled by a liberal curiosity to attend the veteran
topographer in an expedition to Carlisle, for the pur
pose of examining the remains ofthe Picts' wall.
The mathematicians and natural philosophers of
the age, such as they were, found many favorers,
and certainly not the fewer because their course of
study comprehended alchemy, astrology, and what
was then called natural magic. Dr. Dee, the chief
of his class, had been honored with the notice of
the queen herself.
Essex had been a general patron of merit in al
most every department; and Raleigh, in his double
capacity of a splendid courtier and of the most va
riously gifted genius of the age, received and re
warded numerous dedications of works on a variety
©f topics; amongst these may be enumerated for
their appropriateness. Hooker's of his continuation
of the chronicles of Ireland, and Hakluyt's of a
translation from the French of four voyages to the
Floridas. On the subject of dedications it may be
mentioned, as a singular proof of the general accept-
ableness of these purchased flatteries, that Decker, in

79
in his English Villanies, minutely describes one
class of impostors who lived by them. These per
sons, it seems, travelled the country with some
worthless pamphlet headed by an epistle dedicatory
to let, — on the plan of Falstaff's love letter, — in
which they contrived to insert successively the names
of all the principal persons in the counties through
which they passed; extracting from each, in return
for the compliment, a fee of three or four angels.
England possessed as yet no native school of art;
but from the time of Henry VIII. royal patronage
and example had been gradually diffusing a taste for
painting among the nobility. Elizabeth possessed
a considerable number of pictures ; there still exists
at Knowle a collection of portraits believed to have
been formed by lord Buckhurst ; and artists from
Holland and Flanders frequently visited the coun
try as portrait painters and found abundant encou
ragement. Music was highly fashionable and practised both
by men and women of the first rank. A set of very
difficult lessons for the virginals, composed expressly
forthe use of queen Elizabeth,attestsherproficiency ;
and a viol de gamba was seen hanging up in every
fashionable house, and even in the barbers' shops,
to occupy the leisure moments of the guests. Se
veral English composers, as well as performers, had
attained to high celebrity among their contempora
ries ; but Italy was then, as now, honored as the
great mistress of the art. Yonge published at Lon
don in 1 588 his Musica Transalpina, the dedication to

80
to which supplies the following interesting notice
ofthe state of music in the metropolis : — " Since I
first began to keep house in this city, it hath been
no small comfort unto me, that a great number of
gentlemen and merchants of good account, as well
of this realm as of foreign nations, have taken in
good part such entertainments of pleasure as my
poor ability was able to afford them, both by the
exercise of music daily used in my house, and by
furnishing them with books of that kind, yearly sent
me out of Italy and other places, which, being for
the most part Italian songs, are for sweetness of air
very well liked of all, but most in account with them
that understand the language."
With respect to the manners of the court over
which James was called to preside, it may be re
marked, that the chivalrous spirit with which Eliza
beth was approached in the earlier period of her
reign, had gradually faded away with her youth, her
graces, and the ambitious hopes of her adorers ; and
that amid the gloom thrown around her declining
years, a tone of pedantry, of constraint, and of in
sipid affectation had become general. In no other
state of public taste could Euphuism have been
adopted as the reigning language of the fair and
the noble.
The vice of drinking was a prevalent and grow
ing evil, by the testimony of all the satirists and
moralists of the age, and of the preamble of more
than one act of parliament ; and its increase was
principally attributed to the habits acquired by mi
litary

81
litary men during theirservice in Flanders; a country
long notorious for this species of excess. The ordi
naries newly established in London, and at this time
the most fashionable places of resort for gentlemen,
are represented as exhibiting most disgraceful scenes
of intoxication and riot ; nor was this the only mis
chief attending them ; gaming was here pushed to
a frightful excess. Gangs of sharpers haunted these
places, who made it their business to single out the
wealthy and heedless heir, or the unsuspecting
country gentleman ; to insinuate themselves into his
confidence, and by a long-drawn train to lure him
on to his destruction. The money-lender took his
station by the side of the infatuated victim : and,
when the sense of intolerable losses had deprived.
him ofthe use of his reason, rushed in to supply him
with the means of completing his ruin. Ofthe class
of usurers, indeed, the reigns of Elizabeth and of her
successor afforded specimens odious and formidable
beyond all modern example. The sir Giles Over
reach of Massinger is believed to represent without
considerable aggravation a contemporary character;
and his variety of iniquitous expedients for obtain
ing the forfeiture of bonds, and possessing himself of
the lands and houses mortgaged to him by unwary
debtors, were doubtless copied from the genuine
practice of these harpies.
The sex and the character of Elizabeth had con
spired to preserve decorum, if not purity, in the
manners of her court, and to repress those vicious
extravagancies of various kinds which were ready
vol. i. Q to

82
to. burst forth in full luxuriance under her successor.
In her days, acts of violence and outrage were never
encouraged by impunity, and the savage practice of
duelling was comparatively rare : neither was it a
part of her policy to excite a ruinous prodigality
amongst her nobility and gentry for the purpose of
rendering them dependent and corrupt. On the
contrary, she desired to see them such prudent ma
nagers of their own revenues, as to want little from
her except the favor of her smiles and gracious
speeches ; and she appears to have been the more
sparing of titles of honor on account of the higher
style of living by which new dignities would require
to be supported. In consequence of this system
James, at his entrance into England, found a nobi
lity neither numerous, recent, nor necessarily de
pendent on the crown ; and a gentry very nume
rous, extremely wealthy, and abounding with indi
viduals eagerly pressing for admission into the order
of knighthood or into the peerage, the dignity of
which they could well support and had long in vain
aspired to. This consideration ought somewhat to
modify the censure generally passed upon James
for the lavish distribution of titles by which the first
years of his reign were distinguished ; he found in
fact many subjects ripe for honors : there can be no
question, however, that great and numerous evils
sprung from the passion for show and pomp and
ostentatious rivalry in every mode of luxury and ex
pense which was partly an effect of the new digni
ties with which so many heads were turned at once. But

83
But the change of manners amongst the English
gentry which bears date from the death of queen
Elizabeth, can scarcely be described with so much
vivacity, or even accuracy, as in the words of the
following excellent old ballad.
THE OLD AND YOUNG COURTIER.
An old song made by an aged old pate,
Of an old worshipful gentleman who had a great estate,
That, kept a brave old house at a bountiful rate,
And an old porter to relieve the poor at his gate ;
Like an old courtier of the queen's,
And the queen's old courtier.
With an old lady, whose anger one word assuages ;
He ev'ry quarter paid his old servants their wages,
And never knew what belong'd to coachmen, footmen nor pages,
But kept twenty old fellows with blue coats and badges1 ;
. Like an old courtier, &c.
With an old study filled full of learned old books,
With an old reverend chaplain, you might know him by his looks,
With an old buttery hatch worn quite off the hooks,
And an old kitchen that maintain'd half a dozen old cooks ; -
Like an old courtier, &c.
With an old hall hung about with pikes, guns and bows,
With old swords and bucklers, that had borne many shrewd blows,
And an old frieze coat, to cover his worship's trunk hose,
And a cup of old sherry to comfort his copper nose ;
Like an old courtier, &c.
With a good old fashion, when Christmas was come,
To call in all his old neighbours with bagpipe and drum,
With good cheer enough to furnish ev'ry old room,
And old liquor able to make a cat speak and a man dumb ;
Like an old courtier, &c.
g 2 With

84
With an old falconer, huntsman, and a kennel of hounds,
That never hawked nor hunted but in his own grounds,
Who like a wise man kept himself within his own bounds,
And when he died gave ev'ry child a thousand good pounds ;
Like an old courtier, &c.
But to his eldest son his house and land he assign'dj
Charging him in his will to keep the old bountiful mind,
To be good to his old tenants and to his neighbours be kind :
But in the ensuing ditty you shall hear how he was inclin'd,
Like a young courtier of the king's,
And the king's young courtier.
Like a flourishing young gallant, newly come to his land,
Who keeps a couple of painted madams at his command,
And takes up a thousand pound upon his father's land,
And gets drunk in a tavern till he can neither go nor stand ;
Like a young courtier, &c.
With a new-fangled lady, that is dainty, nice and spare,
Who never knew what belong'd to good house-keeping or care,
Who buys gaudy-colored fans to play with wanton air,
And seven or eight different dressings of other Women's hair ;
Like a young courtier, &c.
With a new-fashion'd hall, built where the old one stood,
Hung round with new pictures, that do the poor no good,
With a fine marble chimney, wherein burns neither coal nor wood,
And a new smooth shovel-board, whereon no victuals ne'er stood ;
Like a young courtier, &c.
With a new study, stuft full of pamphlets and plays,
And a new chaplain, that swears faster than he prays,
With a new buttery hatch that opens once in four or five days,
And a French cook, to devise fine kickshaws and toys ;
Like a young courtier, &c.
With a new fashion , when Christmas is drawing on,
On a new journey to London straight we all must be gone, And

85
And leave none to keep house but our new porter John,
Who relieves the poor with a thump on the back with a stone ;
Like a young courtier, &c.
With a new gentleman-usher whose carriage is complete,
With a new coachman, footmen, and pages to carry up the meat,
With a waiting-gentlewoman, whose dressing is very neat,
Who, when her lady has dined, lets the servants not eat;
Like a young courtier, &c.
With new titles of honor bought with his father's old gold,
For which sundry of his ancestors' old manors are sold ;
And this is the course most of our new gallants hold,
Which makes that good housekeeping is now grown so cold
Among the young courtiers of the king,
Or the king's young courtiers'.
"Percy's Reliques, vol. ii. p. 318.

CHAPTER IV.
1603.
James proclaimed. — Foundation of his title. — Homage paid
him. — Journey of sir Robert Gary to Edinburgh. — His
memoirs and character. — Thomas Somerset, — sir Charles
Percy, — sir John Davies, author of " Nosce te ipsum." —
James takes leave of the Scotch,* — enters England. — Sen
timents of the people. — Descriptions of his person and
manners. — Proclamation forbidding resort to him. — Re
ception of sir Robert Cecil, — his conduct as minister. —
James discourages catholics, — hangs a thief without trial.
— Incidents on his journey. — Mr. Oliver Cromwell. — Cere
mony at Godmanchester. — Receives a deputation from Cam
bridge. — University poems. — Notice of lord-keeper Eger
ton,-— of Bacon. — James at Theobalds. — Privy council
lors. — Lords Montjoy — T. andH. Howard. — New peers.—
Lord Wotton.— Sir Henry Wotton. — Sir J. Harrington.
— Letter of Cecil to Harrington.
J.HE royal line of Tudor, after giving in the
course of 118 years five sovereigns to the English
throne, became extinct on March the 28th 1603,
by the death of Elizabeth, the most eminent of the
race ; and on the same day James Stuart king of
Scotland, great-grandson of Margaret daughter of
Henry VII. and wife of James IV. of Scotland, was
proclaimed without the slightest opposition by the
title of James I. It was by sir Robert Cecil, se
cretary of state, that this proclamation was made ;
and

87
and it rested on his evidence and that of the lord-
admiral alone, that the late queen had verbally de
signated the new sovereign as her successor. That
she left behind her no written testament to this ef
fect is certain ; and as the will of Henry VIII. ex
cluding the Scotish line had never been abrogated,
as an alien was legally incapable of inheritance in
England, and as no parliamentary sanction had yet
been given to the title of James, it may with truth
be affirmed that he ascended the throne by no other
title than the acquiescence ofthe people^
It has been asserted, that amongst the causes of
that profound melancholy which involved in clouds
and darkness the close of the brilliant career of
Elizabeth, one of considerable influence was, the
neglect and desertion which she had begun to ex
perience from a court which, during the vigor of
her years, had lavished upon her an excess of adula
tion and obsequiousness scarcely to be distinguished
from the worship of a superior being. This revolt of
their parasites has been the common scourge of the
comfortless old age of arbitrary prinees ; and that
the queen of England was by no means exempted
from its operation, may clearly be inferred from
what we know of the devotedness exhibited towards
James by the English courtiers, long before the
eyes of their mistress were closed in death. To
say nothing ofthe political leaders who had assured
him of their support, there was scarcely, as it ap
pears, a private nobleman, a household officer, a
placeman or pensioner of the smallest considera tion,

88
tion, who had omitted to apply himself either to the
king of Scots personally; or to some one amongst his
ministers and favorites. Sir John Harrington him
self, notwithstanding the real sorrow with which, as
appears from a confidential letter to his lady, he had
contemplated the declining state of his godmother
and benefactress, did not neglect to make oblation
to James of a new-year's gift, accompanied by some
quaintlines of Latin verse of a sufficiently adulatory
import. Nor did any scruple of feeling or decorum
deter sir Robert Cary, son of the first lord Hunsdon
and one of the nearest kinsmen of Elizabeth, from
volunteering his service to be the first to carry to a
new prince, a foreigner and an alien from his blood,
the welcome news of her decease.
This last mentioned person composed memoirs
of himself, in which he gives a very frank account
both of his motives and his proceedings on the oc
casion, in the following words : — " I, hearing' that
neither the physicians nor none about her could
persuade her (the queen) to take any course for her
safety, feared her death would soon ensue. I could
not but think in what a wretched state I should be
left, most of my livelihood depending on her life.
And hereupon I bethought myself with what grace
and favor I was ever received by the king of Scots,
whensoever I was sent to him. I did assure myself
it was neither unjust nor dishonest for me to do for
myself, if God at that time should call her to his
mercy. Hereupon I wrote to the king of Scots,
knowing; him to be the right heir to the crown of
England,

89
England, and certified him in what state her ma
jesty was. I desired him not to stir from Edin
burgh : if of that sickness she should die, I would
be the first man that should bring- him news of it.
. . . . " Between one and two of the clock on Thurs
day morning, he that I left in the cofferer's cham
ber brought me word the queen was dead. I rose
and made all the haste to the gate to get in. There
I was answered I could not enter; the lords of the
council having been with him and commanded him
that none should go in or out, but by warrant from
them. At the very instant, one of the council, the
comptroller, asked whether I was at the gate. I
said, Yes. He said to me, if I pleased he would let
me in. I desired to know how the queen did. He
answered, Pretty well. I bade him good night. He
replied and said, ' Sir, if you will come in, I will
give you my word and credit, you shall go out again
at your own pleasure.' Upon his word I entered
the gate and came up to the cofferer's chamber,
where I found all the ladies weeping bitterly. He
led me from thence to the privy chamber, where all
the council was assembled : there I was caught hold
of and assured I should not go for Scotland till their
pleasures were further known. I told them I came
of purpose to that end. From thence they all went
to the secretary's chamber, and as they went they
gave a special command to the porters that none
should go out of the gates, but such servants as they
should send to prepare their coaches and horses for
London.

90
London a. There was I left in the midst of the court
to think my own thoughts, till they had done coun
cil. I went to my brother's chamber, who was in
bed, having been overwatched many nights before.
I got him up with all speed ; and when the coun
cil's man was going out of the gate, my brother
thrust to the gate. The porter, knowing him to be
a great officer, let him out. I pressed after him, and
was stayed by the porter. My brother said angrily
to the porter, ' Let him out, I will answer for him.*
Whereupon I was suffered to pass, which I was not
a little glad of.
" I got to horse, and rode to the knight-marshal's
lodgings by Charing-cross, and there stayed till the
lords came to Whitehall garden. I stayed there
till it was nine o'clock in the morning, and hearing
that all the lords were in the old orchard at White
hall, I sent the marshal to tell them, that I had
stayed all that while to know their pleasures, and
would attend them if they would command me any
service. They were very glad when they heard I
was not gone, and desired the marshal to send for
me, and I should with all speed be dispatched for
Scotland. The marshal believed them, and sent sir
Arthur Savage for me. I made haste to them. One
of the council, my lord of Banbury that now is,
whispered the marshal in the ear, and told him if I
came they would stay me, and send some other in
my stead. The marshal got from them, and met
- The queen died at Richmond palace.
. me

91
me coming to them between the two gates. He
bade me begone, for he had learned for certain, that
if I came to them, they would betray me.
" I returned, and took horse between nine and
ten o'clock, and that night rode to Doncaster, The
Friday nighta I came to my own house at Wither-
ington, and presently took order with my deputies
to see the border kept in quiet, which they had
much to do ; and gave order the next morning the
king of Scotland should be proclaimed king of Eng
land, and at Morpeth and Alnwick. Very early on
Saturday I took horse for Edinburgh, and came to
Norham about twelve at noon, so that I might well
have been with the king at supper time : but I got
a great fall by the way, and my horse with one of
his heels gave me a great blow on the head, that
made me shed much blood. It made me so weak,
that I was forced to ride a soft pace after ; so that
the king was newly gone to bed by the time I knock
ed at the gate. I was quickly let in and carried up
to the king's chamber. I kneeled by him, and sa
luted him by his title of England, Scotland, France
and Ireland b."
The next morning the new monarch sent to Cary
to desire him to name his own reward for the agree
able intelligence so speedily conveyed. He request
ed to be appointed gentleman of the bed-chamber ;
which being granted, he entered without delay upon

a He began his journey on Thursday morning.
b Memoirs of the earl of Monmouth by himself. the

92
the duties of this menial office, with many promises
of the royal favor and protection ; but he complains
that the king, soon after his arrival in London, de
ceived his expectation and adhered to those who
sought his ruin. On the whole, however, the mes
senger of good tidings appears to have had little
cause to complain ; his courtly arts were so far suc
cessful, that his lady obtained, and held during
seven years, the post of governess to the young
duke of York, afterwards Charles I., to whom he
himself subsequently became gentleman of the
chamber, master of the horse and finally, chamber
lain. King James created him baron Leppington,
and Charles at his coronation advanced him to the
earldom of Monmouth. His memoirs, which were
published by the earl of Cork and Orrery, preserve
several curious traits of the character of Elizabeth
and the manners of the times ; there is also some
thing attractive in the minuteness, the openness, and
the apparent simplicity with which the writer nar
rates his own adventures ; yet it is impossible not to
experience extreme disgust at the gross self-interest
which they exhibit, unmitigated by a single trait of
generosity or public spirit, and rendered the more
offensive by a species of sanctimonious cant which
pervades the work, and which strongly marks the
bad moral taste of the times.
Fast on the traces of sir Robert Cary followed,
as messengers to James from the English privy
council, the honorable Thomas Somerset, son to
the earl of Worcester, who was afterwards created
viscount

93
viscount Somerset, which is all that history has
found to record of him, and sir Charles Percy, bro
ther to the earl of Northumberland, a gallant sol
dier who had been knighted by the ear! of Essex
in France, and afterwards distinguished in the wars
of the Low Countries and of Ireland ; he had tar
nished his laurels by some participation in the cul
pable designs of his old leader ; but for this con
duct Elizabeth had granted him her pardon, and he
was not the less welcome on account of it to her
successor. In the train of Percy appeared a gentleman of
the name of Davies, concerning whom the king im
mediately inquired whether he was the author of
a poem on the immortality of the soul, entitled
"Nosce te ipsum ;" and being answered in the af
firmative, he embraced him and promised him his
favor and protection. Few circumstances reflect
more credit on the taste of the king, moral as well
as literary. The work in question, which still pre
serves its place in collections of English poetry, de
serves to be better known to the general reader, as
one of the closest, the most ingenious, and at the
same time the clearest pieces of reasoning ever
couched in rhyme. The author has been too sen
sible of the dignity and intrinsic interest of his theme
to break in upon it by digressions ; but he has suf
ficiently and becomingly adorned it with poetical
imagery, with graceful diction, and with flowing
and harmonious numbers. The only circumstance
to be regretted is the unfortunate choice of a mea
sure:

94
sure ; the elegiac stanza employed, has thrown over
the poem an air of languor foreign alike to the sub
ject and to the genius ofthe writer.
James performed his promise to Davies, who was
a lawyer as well as a poet, by appointing him his
solicitor-general for Ireland ; and he was speedily
advanced to the office of attorney-general for the
same country, where he also frequently sat as a judge
of assize. In 1607 he was knighted. His standard
work, entitled " A discovery of the causes why Ire
land was never entirely subdued and brought under
obedience ofthe crown of England until the begin
ning of his majesty's happy reign," appeared in 1612.
In this excellent performance, equally agreeable by
the purity and elegance of its style and valuable by
the accuracy of its statements and the solidity of its
reasonings, sir John Davies had the important merit
of recommending with respect to Ireland a liberal
and conciliating system of government, as the only
means of introducing civility and peace into that
unfortunate country. Returning after some years
to England, he was raised to the bench ; and he had
just received the appointment of lord-chief-justice,
when he was cut off by an apoplexy in the year 1626,
the 57th of his age.
Davies was likewise the author of several valuable
tracts on legal and historical subjects, particularly
of one in defence of the common law of England,
which sustained several rude attacks from the civi
lians of the days of James ; but his principal efforts
were directed to the promotion of the welfare of
Ireland.

95
Ireland. In early life this eminent person is said to
have made himself notorious for the turbulence and
violence of his temper, which were exerted in such a
manner as to bring himin to many troubles; but suf
fering and mature reflection supplied him with the
resolution necessary to subdue this infirmity of his
nature, and the only important reproach which ought
permanently to attach to his name, is that of having
courted preferment by an excessive adulation ofthe
weaknesses of two successive sovereigns. It was
sufficiently contemptible to have offered up the first
fruits of his genius to queen Elizabeth in the form
of certain acrostics, entitled " Hymns of Astreea,"
in which great ingenuity and considerable poetical
talent were lavished on the task of extolling the per
sonal graces of a nymph already trembling on the
borders of threescore ; but his fulsome panegyric on
the wisdom, power and manifold virtues of king
James, pronounced in the character of speaker of the
Irish house of commons, was an exhibition of servility
more gravely reprehensible; though palliated by the
gratitude which he doubtless entertained towards
his royal patron and literary admirer. These shame
less flatteries, proceeding from men regarded as the
ornaments and models of their age, deserve to be
carefully recorded and attentively considered, as facts
strongly illustrative of the influence of absolute mo
narchy on public feeling and individual conduct.
On the Sunday following the announcement of
his accession to the English throne, the king of Scots
repaired to the high church of Edinburgh; and
after

96
after listening to a sermon adapted to the occasion,
he rose, and addressed to his assembled subjects
many earnest protestations of his unchangeable pa
ternal affection towards his ancient people : he pro
mised that he would frequently revisit them ; that
his ears should ever be open to their petitions ; and
that notwithstanding his absence, they should feel,
in his love and care over them, that he was still
their native prince. The tears of his auditory, which
frequently interrupted his discourse, testified, not
so much perhaps the sentiment of affection towards
the present sovereign and regret for his departure,
as a painful sense of national humiliation on behold
ing the capital of Scotland bereft of her ancient
dignity and preeminence, and no more the seat and
throne of kings.
On the 5th of April 1603, having previously pro
vided for the government of his paternal kingdom,
and committed his three children to the care of dif
ferent noblemen, ordering that they with his queen
should follow him at some distance of time, James
bent his course towards England, attended by a
small but brilliant retinue.
The progress ofthe new monarch from Berwick
to London resembled a long triumphal procession ;
the noblemen and principal gentlemen whose man
sions were scattered along his road, pressed emu-
lously forward to tender their homage, and humbly
to implore that he would honor them by accepting
ofthe magnificent entertainments and royal presents
which they had exerted themselves to provide : the
keys

97
keys ofthe towns and cities through which he passed
were presented by may.ors and corporations on their
knees, accompanied by purses of gold : vast crowds
of people rushed every where upon his road, all
eager to behold what had not been beheld for fifty
years before, — a king of England. James was in
his seven-and-thirtieth year, an age which exhibits
manhood in its perfection ; and the far-famed beauty
of his captivating mother and of that Darnley who
had owed to his outward graces alone the short
lived possession of her heart, must have excited in
the English people high expectations regarding
the personal appearance of the sovereign who was
about to be offered to their homage and applause.
Their disappointment may be imagined on the first
view of a figure answering to the following descrip
tion. "He was of a middle stature, more corpulent
through his clothes than in his body, yet fat enough ;
his clothes ever being made large and easy, the dou
blets quilted for stiletto proof; his breeches in plaits
and full stuffed : he was naturally of a timorous dispo
sition, which was the reason of his quilted doublets:
his eye large, ever rolling after any stranger came
in his presence; insomuch as many for shame have
left the room, as being out of countenance : his
beard was very thin ; his tongue too large for his
mouth, and made him drink very uncomely, as if
eating his drink, which came out into the cup of
each side his mouth ; his skin was as soft as taf
feta sarsenet; which felt so because he never washed
his hands, only rubbed his fingers' ends slightly
vol. i. h with

98
with the wet end of a napkin. His legs were ve'ry
weak ; having, as some thought, some foul play in
his youth ; or, rather, before he was born, that he
was not able to stand at seven years of age ; that
weakness made him ever leaning on other men's
shoulders ; his walk was ever circular a."
The disagreeable impression of so uncouth an
exterior was aggravated in James by a dialect
scarcely intelligible to the English, and peculiarly
offensive to their ears from the sentiment of national
animosity with which it was associated ; by a strik
ing impropriety in dress ; by a total absence of all
dignity in demeanour ; and by manners at once illi
beral and ungracious. " I shall leave him dressed
for posterity," says a caustic writer, " in the colors
I saw him in the next progress after his inaugura
tion ; which was as green as the grass he trod on ;
with a feather in his cap, and a horn instead of a
sword by his side. How suitable to his age, call
ing, or person, I leave others to judge from his
pictures11." Notwithstanding all these his eminent disqualifi
cations for acting the part of sovereign before the
eyes of a people accustomed to the unrivalled per-

a Weldon' s character of king James. Notwithstanding the
satirical turn of the writer, this portrait may apparently be
trusted ; since Saunderson, in his Aulicus Coquinariw, a profes
sed refutation of Weldon, though extremely angry with it, dares
not impeach its accuracy. Wilson however represents the ap.
pearance of the king as on the whole comely.
» Osborn's Traditional Memoirs of King James, c. xvii.
formance

99
formance of queen Elizabeth, James continued to be
borne along with the full tide of popularity ; the
charms of novelty atoning, as it appears, for every
deficiency. Such, in fact, was the excess of obsequi
ousness every where exhibited, that an honest plain
Scotsman who attended him, surprised at a mode
of reception so new both to himself and his master,
could not refrain from breaking out into the " pro
phetical expression," as it is called by Wilson,
" This people will spoil a gude king!"
Nothing however could be more unwelcome to
James in some respects than these zealous efforts
of his new subjects to do him honor. The crowds
collected on his way interfered with his hunting ; a
sport to which he was too much devoted willingly
to forgo it even on this public and solemn progress ;
they likewise displeased him by the constant de
mand which they occasioned for a kind of repre
sentation to which he felt himself unequal ; his con
stitutional timidity also represented to him in formi
dable colors the dangers to be apprehended from an
unusual concourse of the borderers of two nations
which had scarcely ceased to regard each other as
natural enemies. Seizing therefore the double pre
text of the scarcity of provisions and the danger of
pestilence, occasioned by such extraordinary assem
blages, he ventured on the ungracious expedient of
issuing a proclamation by which all unnecessary re
sort to him while on his journey was strictly prohi
bited. At York, a city to which the residence of a lord-
h 2 president

100
president and coyhcil ofthe north at this time im
parted the consequence of a second capital of Eng
land, the king was received with peculiar magnifi
cence ; and his court was here augmented by the
accession of many English statesmen and courtiers.
Sir Robert Cecil, having secretly secured his wel
come, met his new master at this place, and to the
equal surprise and mortification of his enemies, —
who concluded that so capital a foe of Essex
would now be plunged into irretrievable disgrace,
— received a gracious confirmation of the offices
which he held under the late queen, not unaccom
panied with promises of a speedy advance in rank
and dignity. Great efficiency is attributed by our
memoir-writers on this occasion to the good offices
of sir Roger Aston, the king's barber ; and of sir
George Hume, one of his principal counsellors ;
to both of whom the English secretary is said to
have applied himself with extraordinary diligence,
seconded, in the case of the former at least, by ar
guments of a very substantial nature. But, without
ascribing to sir Robert Cecil either the pride or the
magnanimity which would have disdained the em
ployment of so base an instrument of court favor as
Aston, it may be remarked, that his continuance in
office was secured by a much firmer tenure than
bribery or low intrigue could give. It would have
been far too hazardous an experiment in James,
himself a foreigner, to intrust to any of his foreign
ministers or favorites the helm of the English state ;
and to whom amongst Englishmen, all equally stran gers

101
gers to him, was it probable that he could think of
committing it, to the exclusion of that'accomplished
statesman by whom it had long been held with so
much advantage to the sovereign and reputation
throughout Europe to the minister ? The Cecils,
both father and son, have been accused of design
edly impeding the advancement of all political men
whose abilities were sufficiently conspicuous to excite
in them any apprehensions of eventual rivalry ; and
certain it is, that either some precautions of this
nature, or a very remarkable concurrence of for
tuitous circumstances, had left Robert Cecil, in that
age of talent, without a competitor. Some public
men were endowed with great capacity ; others pos
sessed experience in affairs ; he alone united them.
To these recommendations, which effectually se
cured him against immediate displacement, the mi
nister was studious to goon adding others, by which
his ascendency over his master was gradually con
firmed and his power established.
James, had all his life maintained a theory of regal
prerogative by which it was carried to a height little,
if at all, inferior to the despotism ofthe East ; he was
atthesametimegreatly addicted to easeand pleasures,
and, in proportion to his means, his prodigality had
equalled that of the most magnificent among mo
narchs. Therestraintswhich in all theserespects had
been imposed upon him by the poverty, the austeri
ty, and the unyielding spirit of his native subjects,
had only served to whet his appetites; and he seemed to

102
to enter upon*the wealthy and submissive territories
so long the object of his cupidity, with no other hope,
or thought, or aim, than that of satiating himself at
length with pleasures, power, adulation and riches.
Robert Cecil sedulously devoted himself to the task
of encouraging all these propensities or prejudices:
he was careful to spare his master the unnecessary
fatigue of doing his own business or seeing any
thing* with his own eyes ; he flattered him in all his
despotic notions ; and he demonstrated, by actual
experiment, the various modes in which the abuse
of a large and ill-defined prerogative might be made
to serve the purposes of a necessitous monarch.
Death alone could put an end to the authority of
such a minister under such a prince.
The catholics lost no time in claiming the pro
tection ofthe new king, — which in fact he had more
than half promised them. Whilst he was still at
York, a petition was delivered to him from this
body, by a person who assumed no character ex
cept that of a private gentleman, but was the next
day discovered to be a seminary priest. The de
tection was unfortunate : his majesty, who loved to
play the part of inquisitor, in which he believed
himself peculiarly skilful, condescended to hold some
conference w ith this emissary ; and after a further
examination by a bishop, he was committed to pri
son ; — to the great comfort, it appears, of all good
protestants. In the county towns also through which
he passed, we arc exultingly told by the chronicler, that

103
that the king, according to the rule of mercy which
he had laid down for himself, released all prisoners
" except for papistry and wilful murder."
At Newark on Trent, James gave an omen to
his reign by a strange act of despotism on a trivial
occasion. A cut-purse, who had followed the court
from Berwick, was here taken in the fact ; and hav
ing also confessed his guilt, the king, of his own
authority and without form of trial, directed a war
rant to the recorder of Newark to have him hanged;
which was executed accordingly. No resistance
was made on any part to this needless violation of
the laws of England and of the first principles of all
civilized government; but it appears to have made
a deep impression. The Tudors, with all their
tyranny, had never perpetrated so wanton an outrage
on the most venerated institution of the country, — •
trial by jury ; and men wondered what further inno
vations would ensue.
A few other incidents may be gleaned from a con
temporary history of the royal progress, which is of
course amply circumstantial. Upon a heath where
the king was hunting, not far from Stamford, there
appeared, says the relator, "to the number of an
hundred high men, that seemed like the Patagones,
huge long fellows of twelve and fourteen foot high,
that are reported to live on the main of Brasil, near
to the straits of Magellan. The king at the first
sight wondered what they were, for that they over
looked horse and man. But, when all came to all,
they proved a company of poor honest suitors, all

going

104
going upon high stilts, preferring a petition against
the lady Hatton. What their request was, I know
not; but his majesty referred them till his coming
to London, and so past on from those giants of the
fen towards Stamford." .... At Burleigh, " his high
ness with all his train were received with great mag
nificence, the house seeming so rich, as if it had
been furnished at the charges of an emperor." It
will be remembered that this splendid mansion was
built, as well as furnished, by the celebrated minister
of this title, who does not appear to have served his
queen and country for nothing; and it was now the
seat of his eldest son. Quitting Burleigh, the king
on his way "dined at that worthy and worshipful
knight's sir Anthony Mildmay's ; where nothing
wanted in a subject's duty to his sovereign, nor any
thing in so potent a sovereign to grace so loyal a
subject. Dinner being most sumptuously furnished,
the tables were newly covered with costly banquets,
wherein every thing that was most delicious for
taste, proved more delicate by the art that made it
seem beauteous to the eye, the lady of the house
being one of the fnost excellent confectioners in
England; though I confess many honorable women
very expert." One day, "as his majesty passed
through* a great common (which, as the people
thereabout complain, sir J. Spenser of London hath
very uncharitably molested), most of the country
joined together, beseeching his majesty that the
commons might be laid open again for the comfort
of the poor inhabiters thereabout ; which his high ness

105
ness most graciously promised should be performed
according to their heart's desise. And so with many
benedictions of the comforted people he passed on
till he came within half a mile of master Oliver
Cromwell's, where met him the bailiff of Hunting
don, who made a long oration to his majesty, and
there delivered him the sword, which. his highness
gave to the new released earl of Southampton to
bear before him."  " His majesty passed in
state. . . .to master Oliver Cromwell's house, where
his majesty and all his followers, with all comers
whatsoever, had such entertainment as the like had
not been seen in any place before, since his first
setting forward out of Scotland. There was Such
plenty and variety of meats, such diversity of wines,
and those not. riff-ruff, but ever the best of the kind,
and the cellars open at any man's pleasure. And
if it were so common with wine, there is little ques
tion but the butteries for beer and ale were more
common."  "As this bounty was held back to
none within the house, so, for such poor people as
would not press in, there were open beer-houses
erected, wherein there was no want of bread and
beef for the comfort of the poorest creatures. —
Neither was this provision for the little time of his
majesty's stay; but it was made ready fourteen
days, and after his highness' departure distributed
to as many as had mind for it." The personage by
whom James was received with this magnificence
of hospitality was a loyal and jovial gentleman who
lived high, spent the greater part of his estate, and
*¦ died

106
died the oldest knight in England one-and-fifty
years afterwards, during the protectorate of his
nephew and godson, of whom he never deigned to
beg a favor. Besides all his good and costly cheer,
master Cromwell at parting presented the king with
many gifts ; as, a large gold cup, fine horses, deep-
mouthed hounds, and hawks of excellent wing; he
likewise divided fifty pounds amongst his officers.
Horses richly caparisoned were presented to James
by others of his loyal entertainers.
At Godmanchester, the bailiffs of the town and
" their brethren," on meeting their new sovereign
surprised him with an offering of seventy team of
horses harnessed to " fair new ploughs." On asking
the meaning of it, " he was resolved that it was their
ancient custom whensoever any king of England
passed through their town, so to present him. Be
sides, they added that they held their lands by that
tenure, being the king's tenants. His majesty not
only took well in worth their good minds, but bade
them well use their ploughs ; being glad he was
landlord of so many good husbandmen in one town.
I trust," adds the narrator, " his highness, when he
knows well the wrong, will take order for those, as
her majesty began, that turn plough land to pastur
age ; and where many good husbandmen dwelt,
there is now nothing left but a great house without
fire ; the lord commonly at sojourn near London,
and for the husbandmen and ploughs, he only main
tains a shepherd and his dog." We. learn from
various other authorities that the conversion of corn land

107
land to pasture, and the inclosure of commons, were
at this period the two capital grievances of the rural
inhabitants of England; — grievances, it may be
added, which it was not much within the scope of
regal authority to redress.
At one of his stages in Huntingdonshire, the heads
of the university of Cambridge met the king, and
after welcoming him in a Latin oration, presented
him with "divers books" published in commenda
tion of queen Elizabeth and in compliment to her
successor"1. The English poems produced by the
students of Cambridge on this occasion, offer to the
curious and patient reader a very perfect specimen
of the poetical manner of the day. The variety of
measures, the general smoothness of the lines, and a
certain neatness of construction in the entire pieces,
indicate a high degree of general proficiency in the
art or accomplishment of verse-writing : but the
excess of eulogy with which both the dead and the
living prince are treated in the greater part of these
effusions, betrays the moral indelicacy of the age,
whilst the far-fetched thoughts and quaint conceits
which abound chiefly in those of the number which
most evince a genuine talent for poetry, exhibit the
prevalent corruptions of taste. The names of Phi-
neas and Giles Fletcher, afterwards poets of consi
derable eminence in the school of Spenser, appear
in this collection appended to elegies in the pastoral

» See King James's entertainment from Scotland to London
in Nichols's Progresses, vol. iii. style,

108
style, full of florid description and classical allusion,
set off by great harmony of numbers, and deficient
in nothing but earnestness, simplicity and good
sense. James's nearer approach to London was marked
by a greater concourse of the lower classes along
the roads/and by the accession of the great officers
of state to his moving court. At Broxbourn in Hert
fordshire he was waited upon by sir Thomas Eger
ton, keeper of the seals, whom he confirmed for the
present in his office, and soon after gratified with
the title of baron Ellesmere and the dignity of lord
chancellor ; but his resignation of the post of master
of the rolls to the king's Scotch favorite lord Kin-
loss appears to have been the price set upon these
honors. Lord Ellesmere was a zealous servant of
the crown, and considerably more obsequious than
is fitting to its wearer : few public characters how
ever of this reign have preserved a reputation more
free from blemish. His wisdom, his mildness to
wards political opponents, his sound knowledge of
the laws and equity in administering them, were
celebrated by the concurring voices of his most di
stinguished contemporaries, and have passed down
to posterity as the leading features of his character.
The lord-keeper had been the friend, not the par
tisan, of the earl of Essex, and, on occasion of his
celebrated quarrel with the queen, had endeavoured
by his prudential counsels and gentle persuasions to
lead him back to loyalty and submissive deference.
Under the new reign, he took occasion to expostu late,

109
late, sagely, however vainly, with his unthinking
sovereign, against those lavish donations of crown
land by which he was annihilating the indepen
dent revenue ofthe kings of England-; and thus de
livering up himself and his successors to the dis
cretion of a house of commons which would be
resolute in demanding from the prince an equiva
lent in prerogative for whatever pecuniary supplies
it should consent to bestow. This chancellor was
peculiarly eminent as a patron of distinguished
churchmen and men of letters ; and few persons of
his day received a larger share of learned incense.
It was perhaps at Broxbourn also that the first
interview took place between the king and Francis
Bacon. That base desertion of his benefactor Essex,
by which this eminent person had sought to make
amends to himself for the mistake of once preferring
his patronage to that ofthe Cecils, was itself an er
ror, relatively to the favor of James and his prospects
at the new court, of which he now diligently set
himself to obviate the effects. There was appa
rently not an individual about the person ofthe king,
known to him in the slightest degree, whom he did
not seek to engage in the task of recommending
him to the protection of their master. Letters are
extant to this effect addressed by Bacon to sir David
Foulis, whom the king had made his messenger to
the English privy council and afterwards placed in
the household of prince Henry, — to sir John Davies
the poet"— to sir Thomas Chaloner, tutor to the
young prince, and to several others. He undertook the

no
the office of drawing up a proclamation to be used
by his majesty on entering England, which he beg
ged the earl of Northumberland to offer to his adop
tion, having, as he observed, been frequently em
ployed by the late queen in preparing pieces of this
nature. Nor did he hesitate to address the king
himself in a courtly letter of homage; to which,
says he, " I was not a little encouraged, not only
upon a supposal that unto your majesty's sacred ear,
open to the air of all virtues, there might come some
small breath of the good memory of my father, so
long a principal counsellor in your kingdom, but also,
by the particular knowledge of the infinite devotion
and incessant indeavours (beyond the strength of
his body and the nature of the times), which ap
peared in my good brother towards your majesty's
service; and were, on your majesty's part, through
your singular benignity, by many most gracious and
lively significations and favors, accepted and acknow
ledged, beyond the merit of any thing he could ef
fect. Which endeavours and duties, for the most
part, were common to myself with him ; though by
design, as between brethren, dissembled." A curi
ous trait of the politic arts of the two brothers f
Bacon had even the hardihood to address himself
to that bosom friend of Essex the earl of South
ampton, on occasion of his liberation from the
Tower, and to assure him that whatever he might
have conceived to the contrary, this change had only
enabled him to be safely that which he was truly
before, — his lordship's humble and much devoted. A la-

Ill
A labored apology for his conduct towards Essex,
in a letter to the earl of Devonshire, followed ; and
whether or not this artful piece produced the de
sired impression on the minds of those who had
truly loved that unfortunate leader, it soon became
apparent that the king at least was well disposed to
pardon all the injuries of Essex, in consideration of
the services towards himself which he might rea
sonably anticipate from the profound obsequious
ness united to the matchless abilities of Bacon.
The first meeting of this future lord-chancellor
with his sovereign is thu& described by himself in a
passage of his letter to the earl of Northumberland.
 "I would not have lost this journey, and yet
I have not that I went for ; for I have had no pri
vate conference to purpose with the king. No more
hath almost any other English. For the speech his
majesty admitteth with some noblemen, is rather
matter of grace than matter of business ; with the
attorney he spake, urged by the treasurer of Scot
land, but no more than needs must  Your lord
ship shall find a prince the furthest from vain glory
that may be ; and rather like a prince ofthe ancient
form than the latter time. His speech is swift and
cursory, and in the full dialect of his country, and
in speech of business short ; in speech of discourse
large. He affecteth popularity by gracing such as
he hath heard to be popular, and not by any fashions
of his own : he is thought to be somewhat general
in his favors, and his virtue of access is rather be
cause he is much abroad, and in press, than that he
giveth

112
giveth easy audience. He hasteneth to a mixture
of both kingdoms and occasions, faster perhaps than
policy will well bear. I told your lordship once be
fore, that methought his majesty rather asked coun
sel of the time past than of the time to come1."
The extensive application of this concluding remark
need scarcely be pointed out ; it well exemplifies the
prophetic sagacity of its author.
Bacon was knighted by the king in July 1603 ;
a cheap favor at this period ; but in his case an
earnest of preferment.
At Theobalds, the princely seat of secretary Cecil,
the king remained no less than four days ; " where,"
says our relator, "to speak of lord Robert's cost to
entertain him, were but to imitate geographers, that
set a little round O for a mighty province; words
being hardly able to express what was done there
indeed." All the great officers and the whole ofthe
late queen's privy-council were here in waiting to
receive the king, besides a prodigious multitude of
inferior persons. James, eager to gratify all the
world and to give proof of his own boundless good
nature, made at this house alone eight and twenty.
knights ; the whole number on whom he had be
stowed this honor in the course of his six weeks'
progress from Scotland amounting to 237.
The same facility of temper, combined with a
spirit of nationality, hurried him into the weak and
offensive measure of thrusting into the English

» Letters and Memoirs of Bacon, letter x. privy-

113
privy-council six of his Scotch favorites. He like
wise added to this honorable board three English
men ; lord Montjoy, the deputy of Ireland, to whom
he felt himself under obligations for his wary con
duct in the affair of the earl of Essex ; and the lords
Thomas and Henry Howard, the son and the bro
ther of the last unhappy duke of Norfolk. With
respect to the two last, this mark of favor appeared
at the same time a tribute of filial piety ; it showed
that the king was still mindful of those affecting-
words of his mother on her trial; " Alas ! how much
has the noble house of Howard suffered for my
sake ! " By the whole body of the English catholics,
also, the distinction conferred on these noble kins
men was regarded as a happy augury. Lord Henry
they well knew was all their own ; they probably
cherished hopes, though, as it proved, fallacious
ones, of a secret attachment on the part of lord
Thomas also to the faith of his family ; and, sup
ported by such advocates in the council, they flat
tered themselves that they should speedily reap in
the indulgence of the king of England the fruits of
the assurances given them by the king of Scots.
But these religionists were hated by those whom
James at the present juncture feared to offend ; and
he speedily disavowed by proclamation the promises
of "some innovation in religion," which he was re
ported to have made ; at the same time command
ing all manner of seminarists, priests and Jesuits,
whose numbers and boldness had greatly increased

vol. i

on

114
on presumption of his indulgence, immediately to
depart the kingdom.
Notwithstanding these demonstrations, the favor
of the king to the house of Howard, with Avhich
Cecil had closely allied himself, continued and aug
mented. Lord Henry, the medium, it may be re
membered, of James's correspondence first with
Essex and afterwards with Cecil, was appointed
warden of the Cinque ports, and the next year ad
vanced to the dignity of earl of Northampton . Lord
Thomas with the same rapidity attained the office of
lord- chamberlain and the earldom of Suffolk. The
last-mentioned nobleman was at this time proprietor
of that vast mansion the Charterhouse, where James,
on his arrival in his capital, was sumptuously enter
tained during four days ; after which he repaired
to the Tower.
The first creation of peers by the new sovereign
took place in the Tower on May 20th 1603, when
sir Robert Cecil, sir Robert Sidney younger brother
of sir Philip, sir William Knolles the uncle of Essex,
and sir Edward Wotton, were made barons.
Wotton was a diplomatist of some distinction,
who had served his apprenticeship in France under
his great-uncle the celebrated sir Nicholas Wotton.
James Melvil, who appears to have been on some
account his personal enemy, details in his memoirs
a curious plot laid by him, when a mere youth, for
the purpose of drawing into a snare that experienced
politician the constable Montmorenci, whom Melvil at

115
at this time served. This bold attempt failed, as
might reasonably be expected ; but more success at
tended its contriver in the mission to Scotland which
he undertook in 1585, by command of queen Eliza
beth, for the purpose of counteracting the influence
of James's favorite, Arran, and of preparing the way
for the return of the nobles banished for the raid of
Ruthven. By means of his wit and good breeding,
his address in all the sports to which James was ad
dicted, and his art of relating agreeably the anecdotes
and observations which he had collected during se
veral years of travel through various countries of
Europe, Wotton acquired an extraordinary influence
over the mind of the young monarch, and for some
time guided his counsels almost at pleasure. Not
satisfied however with this advantage, he was all the
while carrying on a guilty intrigue for the purpose
of seizing the person of James and conveying him
away to England; on discovery of which he found
it expedient to quit the country suddenly and with
out taking leave. This at least is Melvil's story; but
its high improbability, the evident prejudice of the
narrator, and, above all, the honors which James, on
becoming king of England, was so prompt to confer
upon Wotton, and which proceeded apparently from
no other motive but personal attachment, throw great
doubt upon the relation. Lord Wotton enjoyed to
the last the favor of his prince, and held the offices
of privy-councillor, comptroller ofthe household and
lord-lieutenant of the county of Kent.
On his first interview with Edward Wotton in his
i 2 English

116
English court, James took an opportunity of inquir
ing whether he had any acquaintance with one
Henry Wotton, who had spent much of his time in
foreign travel. Wotton answered that he was his
brother; and to the further question, where he was,
he replied, that he was at present either at Venice
or Florence; but that he was soon expected at Paris.
" ' Send for him,' said the king, ' and when he shall
come into England bid him repair to me.' The
lord Wotton, after a little wonder, asked the king if
he knew him ? to which the king answered, ' You
must rest unsatisfied of that till you bring the gentle
man to mea.'"
The person thus inquired for by James was the
afterwards celebrated sir Henry Wotton, long am
bassador to Venice and to other courts, and finally
provost of Eton ; one of the ornaments of his age
and country. He was the son of Thomas Wotton
esquire of Bocton Malherb in Kent; a gentleman of
large fortune, of great moral worth, of a highly cul
tivated mind, and, to crown all, of so unambitious a
spirit, that neither the example of Edward Wotton
his father, who had enjoyed the offices of privy-coun
cillor and treasurer of Calais, and with them a high
place in the esteem of his master Henry VIII., nor
that of his uncle sir Nicholas Wotton the able ne
gotiator, nor, finally, the persuasions and encourage
ments of queen Elizabeth herself, could ever induce
him to enter into any career of public life. Henry,
* Walton's Life of Sir Henry Wotton. a fourth

117
a fourth son of his father and by a second marriage,
was born at Bocton in 1568 : his mother was his first
instructress, and his aptitude for learning quickly
disclosing itself, he took his place at an early age on
oneof the higher forms of Winchester school, whence
he was removed in due season to Oxford. Here he
appears to have remained till the two-and-twentieth
year of his age, affording many proofs of diligence
and proficiency in the ordinary studies of the place,
but peculiarly attaching himself to the instructions
of the learned Albericus Gentilis, an Italian refugee
for the protestant faith, at this time professor of ju
risprudence at Oxford. By this able man, who
honored him with his friendship, the young scholar
was encouraged and assisted in the attainment of
that fluent use of the Italian tongue which became
a principal instrument of his advancement in after
life. His father dying during the period of his resi
dence at Oxford, bequeathed to him an annuity of
100 marks; and on this slender pittance, according
to the representation of his biographer, he deter
mined to set out on his travels. We have no very
clear or regular account of his proceedings on the
continent during several years ; but from a number
of his own letters addressed to his intimate friend
lord Zouch, and dated in the years 1590 and 1591
from Ingoldstadt and Vienna, we learn that he was at
this time passing for a German and a catholic. At
Vienna he lodged with the emperor's librarian ; and,
gaining access to the treasure of literatures and po
litics confided to the custody of this officer, he de
voted

118
voted many hours to the examination of manuscripts
of importance relative to the state of the empire.
" For my part," says he in a letter to a friend, dated
February 1591, "my chief cares and charges are
bestowed in Greek and Dutch writers and secret
letters of the Empire, of which I have in my posses
sion some that might make a great man beholding
to me." From Germany he passed into Italy; but
being desirous, and doubtless for some purposes of
a political nature, of concealing his movements, he
reported himself bound for Constantinople. In May
1592, he writes to lord Zouch from Florence, giving
the following account of his journey from Venice to
Rome:  "I had the company ofthe baron, with
whom, notwithstanding the catholic religion, I en
tered into very intrinsecal familiarity, having per
suaded him that I was half his countryman, himself
being born, though under the duke of Cleve, not far
from Colen, which went for my town : I found him
by conversation to be very indiscreet, soon led, much
given to women, careless of religion ; qualities nota
bly serving my purpose ; for while a man is held in
exercise with his own vices, he hath little leisure to
observe others ; and besides, to feign myself an ac-
commodable person to his humour in all points was
indeed most convenient for me; looseness of beha
viour and a negligent worldly kind of carriage of a
man's self, are the faults that states least fear; be-.
cause they hurt only him in whom they are found.
To take the benefit of this, I entered Rome with a
mighty blue feather in a black hat ; which though it
itself

119
itself were a slight matter, yet surely it did work in
the imaginations of men three great effects : first,
I was by it taken for no Englishman, upon which
depended the ground of all ; secondly, I was re
puted as light in my mind as in my apparel ; (they
are not dangerous men that are so ;) thirdly, no
man could think that I desired to be unknown, who
by wearing that feather took a course to make my
self famous through Rome in few days." After all
this precaution, however, Wotton proceeds to relate,
that an unexpected meeting with a Scotchman had
exposed, him to danger of detection, and he judged
it prudent to withdraw from this city ; but not be
fore he had entitled himself to boast, that no Eng
lishman containing himself within the limits of his
allegiance to her majesty, had seen more concern
ing the points at Rome than he had done. He con
cludes by saying ; " My lord Zouch and Henry
Wotton are especially laid wait for at Rome and
through the king of Spain's dominions, as I have
been signified ; and here at Florence I find the be
ginnings of a notable villany ; for one, either of
Venice or Padua, hath written unto a certain Flo
rentine of great pratique with strangers to inquire
after me amongst the Dutch nation; which was done
not long after my departure from Venice. I have
not yet searched out the bottom of it."
Wotton proceeded from Florence through most
of the Tuscan cities, and made rather a long abode
at Sienna, in consequence of instructions from home
to pass some time near the court of the grand duke. In

120
In August 1593 he was at Geneva; "Here," says
he to lord Zouch, " I am placed to my very great
contentment in the house of Mr. Isaac Casaubon, a
person of sober condition among the French ; and
this is all I can signify of myself, my little affairs
not allowing me much to speak of." It was probably
in 1595 that he returned to England.
Isaac Walton, the eulogizing biographer of sir
Henry Wotton, conducts the reader, by his narrative,
to no other inference than that the long travels of
his hero were undertaken at his own expense and
solely for the acquisition of useful and agreeable
knowledge ; but his own relation of his disguises,
his precautions and his narrow escapes, to say no
thing of his direct statement that his continuance
at Sienna was by orders from home, leads us to
different conclusions. Henry Wotton's enlightened
and liberal curiosity is indeed unquestionable ; and
his tastes had probably no small influence in shaping
out his course of life ; but there can be little doubt
that he was one of those young men of promising
talents and respectable connexions, whose travelling
expenses were secretly defrayed either by the queen
or the earl of Essex, in consideration of their dili
gent endeavours to gain private information of the
motions of the catholic powers and the intrigues of
the English fugitives for religion. The occupation
of an intelligencer, as a person of this kind was then
called, does not appear to have been held in disre
pute at the court of Elizabeth ; on the contrary,
it was often the road to political preferments. Thus

121
Thus Wotton, in 1596, was taken into the service
of the earl of Essex as one of his secretaries. In
this capacity he attended his ill-fated lord in his ex
pedition to Cadiz, in his Island voyage, and, lastly,
to Ireland: but on the earl's committal. to the Tower
after his rash revolt, Wotton, more discreet than
his friend and fellow-secretary Cuff, made his escape
from London, and with great speed and secrecy
withdrew into France. " The times," says his bi
ographer, " did not look so favorable upon him as
to invite his return to England:" having therefore
secured the remittance of his annuity to Italy, he
once more turned his steps towards that country,
which was endeared to him by numerous friend
ships formed with persons of talent and distinction,
and by his fondness for all those branches of litera
ture and of art which were there alone cultivated to
the highest perfection.
After a residence of considerable duration in his
favorite Florence, he made a visit, — it appears to
have been his fourth, — to Rome, where he had many
friends in the English college; and having gratified
his taste with the view of some particular objects of
curiosity, he returned once more to Florence, where
the incident occurred which was destined to intro
duce him to the acquaintance and favor of king
James. - Ferdinand I., grand duke of Tuscany, had inter
cepted a dispatch of great importance relative to a
certain intrigue for excluding the king of Scots from the

122
the succession to the English crown; and being-
desirous to admonish this prince of the design
against him, he was seeking a proper messenger
for the purpose. Vietta, his secretary, took this op
portunity to recommend his intimate friend Henry
Wotton : and the duke, to whom he was also known,
approving the nomination, he was sent for, and
made acquainted with the secret.
A casket of antidotes and preservatives, in which
it seems this duke excelled all the world, was de
livered to him along with his dispatches ; for it was
to be apprehended that the life of James would be
attempted by poison. Thus armed, he set out on
his journey under the disguise of an Italian and the
name of Octavio Baldi ; and thinking it best to
avoid the line of English intelligence, he posted
into Norway, and there embarked for Scotland.
On reaching Stirling, he gained admission to the
king under his assumed character of a Florentine ;
but after delivering his dispatch, he seized an op
portunity to whisper to him in his own language,
that he was an Englishman, requesting at the same
time a private interview. This was granted ; and
James, who delighted in mystery, willingly acceded
to his further petition, that his real name and cha
racter might remain a profound secret during his
abode in that country, which was about three
months : " all which time was spent with much
pleasantness to the king, and as much to Octavio
Baldi himself as that country could afford : from
which

123
whicli he departed as true an Italian as he came
thither a."
Notwithstanding the distinction with which he
was treated at the court of Tuscany, Wotton still
sighed after his native land; and he endeavoured to
earn his pardon and recall by the composition of a
work entitled " The State of Christendom," which
abounded in eulogiums on the administration of
queen Elizabeth. But his offence, whatever it might
be, was judged irremissible; and he had exhausted
all his efforts in vain, when the accession of James
not only put an end to his banishment, but opened
to him the career of fortune.
On his presentation at court, the king embraced
him and bade him welcome by the name of Octavio
Baldi ; saying that " he was the most honest and
therefore the best dissembler he had ever met with :"
he added, " Seeing I know you neither want learn
ing, travel, nor experience, and that I have had so
real a testimony of your faithfulness and abilities to
manage an arnbassage, I have sent for you to de
clare my purpose ; which is, to make use of you in
that kind hereafter15
The next year, 1604, sir Henry Wotton, for he
had been knighted, was offered his choice of the
embassies to France, to Spain, or to Venice. He
made election ofthe last; partly from his attachment
to Italy and his desire to intermix with public busi
ness the pursuits of a learned leisure, and partly

» Walton's Life of Wotton. b Ibid. from

124
from prudential considerations ; and to Venice he
accordingly proceeded with a liberal appoiritmerit
His friend and fellow-collegian the celebrated
Donne took leave of him on his departure in some
vigorous and affectionate stanzas ; and the exem
plary Bedel, afterwards bishop of- Kilmore in Ire
land, attended him as his chaplain.
It appears to have been the peculiar privilege of
sir Henry Wotton, and may be regarded by poste
rity as the most conclusive evidence of his merits,
to have secured to himself through life, and amid
all the vicissitudes of his fortune, the affection, the
esteem and the cooperation of the master-spirits of
the age in which he flourished.
The facetious knight sir John Harrington still
kept aloof from the court, in some distrust of his
welcome there ; which is thus quaintly expressed
iu his private memoranda : " I hear our new king
hath hanged one man before he was tried ; 'tis
strangely done; now, if the wind bloweth thus,
why may not a man be tried before he hath offend
ed ?  I will keep company with none but my
oves and boves (sheep and oxen), and go to Bath
and drink sack, and wash away remembrances of
past times in the streams of LetheV It was in
this state of mind that he received the following-
letter, worthy of preservation for the forcible man
ner in which it expresses the sentiments of morti-

* Nugw, Park's edition, i. 180. lie at ion

125
fication and discontent with which the late change
had filled all English bosoms, not excepting that of
the highly favored secretary of state.
Lord Cecil to sir John Harrington, 1603.
My noble knight,
My thanks come with your papers and whole
some statutes for your father's household: I shall, as
far as in me' lieth, pattern the same, and give good
heed for due observance thereof in my own state.
Your father did much affect such prudence ; nor
doth his son less follow his fair sample of worth,
learning and honor. I shall not fail to keep your
grace and favor quick and lively in the king's breast,
as far as good discretion guideth me ; so as not to
hazard my own reputation for humble suing, rather
than bold and forward entreaties. You know all
my former steps : good knight, rest content, and
give heed to one that hath sorrowed in the bright
lustre of a court, and gone heavily even to the best
seeming fair ground. 'Tis a great task to prove
one's honesty and yet not spoil one's fortune. You
have tasted a little hereof in our blessed queen's
time, who was more than a man, and, in troth, some
times less than a woman. I wish I waited now in
her presence-chamber, with ease at my food and
rest in my bed. I am pushed from the shore of
comfort, and know not where the winds and waves
of a court will bear me ; I know it bringeth little
comfort on earth ; and he is, I reckon, no wise man
that looketh this way to heaven. We have much stir

126
stir about councils, and more about honors. Many
knights were made at Theobalds during the king's
stay at mine house, and more to be made in the
city. My father had much wisdom in directing the
state ; and I wish I could bear my part so discreet
ly as he did. Farewell, good knight, but never come
near London till I call you. Too much crowding
doth not well for a cripple, and the king doth scant
find room to sit himself, he hath so many friends, as
they choose to be called ; and heaven prove they
lie not in the end. In trouble, hurrying, feigning,
suing, and such like matters, I now rest your true
friend,
R. CECIL'
a Nugm, i. 344.

CHAPTER

CHAPTER V.
1603.
Embassy of Rosni to England. — His account of the court
factions. — Particulars of James's reception of him. — Re.
marks on James's contempt for the memory of Elizabeth.
— Conduct ofthe queen. — Anger of James. — Treatment of
Tyrone. — Letter of sir J. Harrington. — Raleigh plot. — .
Unfavorable situation of Raleigh. — King's prejudice
against him. — Title of Arabella Stuart. — Design of the
pope in her favor. — Her inoffensive conduct.- — Plot of
Brook and others. — Conduct of lord Grey of Wilton. —
Designs- of lord Cobham. — He is apprehended, — accuses
Raleigh, — retracts. — Raleigh committed for trial. —
Plague in London. — Pageants for the coronation. — Notice
of Ben Jonson. — Raleigh club. — Coronation. — Proclama
tion for commemorating the Gowrie plot. — Doubts of its
reality, — Letters of court news.
XT was one of the earliest occupations of James
to give audience to the numerous embassies of con
gratulation on his happy accession which now poured
in upon him from all the potentates of Europe; and
it was thought necessary to meet the emergency by
the creation of a master of the ceremonies ; a new
office in the English court,, which was conferred,
with a salary of 200Z. per annum, on sir Lewis
Lukenor. Henry IV. of France, eager to realize with the
new sovereign of England that league against the
power

128
power ofthe house of Austria which had been agi
tated between himself and Elizabeth a short time
previously to her death, spared for this important
mission his confident and prime minister the mar
quis de Rosni, afterwards duke de Sully ; and this
eminent person has bequeathed to us in his memoirs
some interesting traits of the English court at this
juncture. It was on June 15th 1603 that he land
ed at Dover ; he was met at Canterbury by Robert
lord Sidney, many years governor of Flushing : lord
Southampton, with a brilliant train of gentry, at
tended the ambassador at Gravesend, and Arundel
house in theStrand was assigned him for aresidence;
which he commends as one of the finest and most
commodious mansions in London, on account of its
numerous suite of apartments on the same floor.
There was considerable difficulty at first in procur
ing lodgings for his train ; the dissolute and insolent
conduct of the followers of the last French embassy,
that of Biron, being still fresh in the memories of the
London citizens, — conduct, Sully remarks, by which
his countrymen had rendered themselves odious in
every capital of Europe. The court of James ap
peared to this penetrating observer divided into four
parties, which he slightly sketches out as follows.
The Scotish, consisting of the earl of Mar, lord
Montjoy (whose country the ambassador mistakes),
lords Erskine and Kinloss, and others of the bed
chamber ; all of whom were attached to France;
as was also the duke of Lenox, who was divided
from the rest of his countrymen only by a personal rivalry

129
rivalry with the earl of Mar : the Spanish faction,
headed by the whole house of Howard : an old Eng
lish faction, attached neither to France nor Spain,
but desirous of restoring the ancient kingdom of
Burgundy; of this the lord-treasurer (lord Buck
hurst) might be regarded as one of the first movers,
and Cecil another, as far as any judgement could
be formed of a man who was all mystery, and who
quitted these or united himself to those, as he found
convenient for his personal interests. A fourth party
" formed of such as were seen to mingle in public
affairs without any connexion with the former par
ties, or even any fixed agreement amongst them- -
selves, except that they kept together and would
unite with none ; seditious persons, of a character
purely English, and ready to undertake any thing
in favor of novelty, were it even against the king
himself. These had at their head the earls of North
umberland, Southampton and Cumberland, lord
Cobham, Raleigh, Griffin (probably sir Griffin or
Griffith Markham), and others." As yet, however,
these factions appeared to be but ill-defined ; since
the humor and inclinations of the king were but im
perfectly known to the several competitors for his fa
vor, and it was impossible to foresee the changes
which might be produced in them by his accession
to such a crown as that of England.
" James himself," proceeds Rosni, " was by no
means so well inclined to Henry IV. as Elizabeth
had been : he had been told that the king of France
had called him in derision, ' captain of arts and clerk
vol. i. k of

130
of arms.' As to myself, this prince had been given
to understand that my brother and I had held dis
course concerning him by no means respectful.
Let me add, to make him more particularly known,
that he was upright and conscientious, that he had
eloquence and even erudition ; but less of these
than of penetration and ofthe show of learning. He
loved to hear discourse on affairs of state, and to
have great enterprises proposed to him, which he
discussed in a spirit of system and method, but with
out any idea of carrying them into effect ; for he
naturally hated war, and still more to be personally
engaged in it ; was indolent in all his actions, ex
cept hunting, and remiss in affairs ; all indications
of a soft and timid nature formed to be governed.
This might easily be concluded also from the con
duct which he had observed with respect to the
queen his consort.
" The disposition of this princess had no point of
resemblance with that of herhusband. She was of
a bold and enterprising nature ; loved pomp and
splendor, tumult and intrigue. She had entered very
deeply into all factious movements, not only those
in Scotland relative to the catholics, whom she sup
ported and even paid court to, but those of England;
where the malcontents, whose numbers were not
inconsiderable, were well pleased to strengthen their
party by the accession of a princess destined to be
come their queen, lt is well known that women,
feeble instruments as they are in solid business,
often play a dangerous part in civil broils : of this the

131
the king could not be ignorant ; but he had the
weakness never to be able to resist or contradict
her to her face ; though she, on her part, made no
difficulty of publicly testifying that she was not
always in harmony with him. He came to London
long before her ; she was still in Scotland when I
arrived at this city, and James had not intended
that she should arrive there so soon as she did, per
suaded that her presence could only be injurious to
his affairs. He sent to signify as much to her, and
with that air of authority which it is easy to assume
towards the absent, but which she did not greatly
regard. " Instead of obeyinghis directions, the queen pre
pared to quit Scotland, after having of her own au
thority, and contrary to the will of the king, ap
pointed her own chamberlain ofthe household. . . .
She carried with her the body of the male infant of
which she had been delivered in Scotland ; because
an attempt had been made to persuade the public
that its death was only feigned; and she also brought
with her the prince her eldest son, whom she pub
licly affected to govern with absolute sway, and
whom she was said to inspire with none but Spanish
sentiments, for it was not doubted that her own
wishes leaned entirely towards this side : yet the
young prince gave her no room to exult in his de
ference for her opinions ; he had a natural hatred
for Spain and affection for France; a circumstance
of so much the happier augury, as, from the mixture
of ambition, generosity and elevation of mind which
k2 he

132
he already exhibited, he appeared fitted to become
hereafter one of those princes who give the world
much to talk of. He knew the king of France by
reputation, and proposed to take him for his model ;
which was torture to the queen his mother, who had
resolved, it was said, to cure him of his fondness for
France by causing him to be taken to Spain for
education." " One of the orders which I had given prepara
tory to the ceremony of my audience was, that my
whole suite should be put into mourning, to fulfil the
first part of my commission, which consisted in com
plimenting the king on the death of Elizabeth ; I had
however learned at Calais, that no one, either ambas
sador, stranger, or even Englishman, had presented
himself before the new king in black ; and Beau
mont had afterwards represented to me, that my in
tention would certainly be beheld with an evil eye
in a court where there was such an affectation of
consigning this great queen to oblivion that no men
tion was ever made of her, and men even avoided
to pronounce her name. This being the case, I
should have been very glad to have disguised from
myself the necessity for my appearing in a dress
which seemed to carry with it a reproach to the
king and to all England : But my orders on this head
were positive, and also highly proper ; on which ac
count I disregarded the entreaty of Beaumont that
I would defer putting myself to this expense till he
had written to sir William Erskine and some others
who best understood the ceremonial of the court;
never-

133
nevertheless he wrote. He had no answer on Thurs
day, Friday, or during the whole day on Saturday,
and I persisted in my resolution in spite of the ar
guments which he continued to urge against it. On
Saturday night, the very eve of the day of audience,
and so late that I was going to bed, Beaumont came
to tell me, that Erskine had sent him word, that all
the courtiers regarded my action as a designed af
front to them ; and that the king would take it so
ill on my part that nothing more would be necessary
to render my negotiation abortive from the very be
ginning. This information agreeing with that of
lord Sidney, of the viscount de Saraot, of La-Fon
taine and of the deputies of the States, it was impos
sible for me to doubt it. For fear of a greater evil,
therefore, I caused my whole household to change
their dresses and provide themselves with others
where they could a."
In order to his first audience of the king, Rosni,
with a train of one hundred and twenty gentlemen,
was conveyed on board the royal barges to Green
wich palace, where they found a collation awaiting
them ; " contrary," says he, " to the established
custom in England of not treating ambassadors, or
even offering them a glass of water." On a subse
quent occasion, all the gentlemen of his suite had
the honor of being entertained at dinner in the
palace, and himself and Beaumont the French am
bassador in ordinary .> that of dining with the king.
a Memoires de Sully, Iiv. xiv. passim.
" James,"

134
" James," says he, " caused only Beaumont and
myself to sit down at his table, where I was not a
little surprised to observe that he was always served
on the knee. The middle of the table was occupied
by a surtout in the form of a pyramid, covered with
the most precious pieces of plate, and even enriched
with jewels.
" The conversation during a great part of the re
past was on the same subjects as it had been before
(on the weather and on hunting), till, an occasion
presenting itself to speak of the late queen of Eng
land, the king did so, and, to my great regret, with
a kind of contempt. He went so far as to say, that
for a long time before the death of this princess, he,
from Scotland, had guided all her counsels, and had
all her ministers at his disposal ; by whom he was
better served and obeyed than herself. He then
called for wine, which it is never his practice to
mingle with water; and holding his glass towards
Beaumont and myself, he drank to the health of the
king, the queen and the royal family of France. I
pledged him in return, not forgetting his children.
He drew towards my ear when he heard them named
and whispered me, that the next glass which he
drank should be to the double union which he me
ditated between the two royal houses. This was
the first word he had said to me on the subject, and
it did not appear to me that the time which he had
taken to mention it was well chosen. I did not fail
however to receive the proposal \vith all possible
signs of joy ; and I replied, also in a whisper, that
I was

135
I was sure Henry would not hesitate when a choice
was to be made between his good brother and ally,.
and the king of Spain, who had already applied to
him on the same subject. James, surprised at what
I told him, informed me in his turn, that Spain had
made him the same offer of the infanta for his son,
as to the king of France for the -dauphin a."
The passage last cited exposes in a striking man
ner the levity and indiscretion with whicli James
was ready to commit, himself on the most delicate
and important subjects. It is further remarkable, as
affording the earliest manifestation of those projects
respecting the marriage of his children which he
afterwards pursued with such perverse determina
tion. This sovereign, who never learned to form
a just estimate of the intrinsic dignity of a king of
England, had unhappily adopted the notion, that a
prince of Wales would be degraded by matching
with any but the daughter of one ofthe great poten
tates of Europe ; and the certain evidence offered
him, thus early in the business, of the bad faith and
double dealing of the Spaniards, was insufficient
to deter him from lending an ear to the hollow pro
positions by which they continued to play upon his
credulity. The contempt expressed by James for the me
mory of his great predecessor, supplies an addition
al trait of his own character. It must be owned that
the treatment experienced by his mother at the hands
1 Mcnioircs dc Sully, liv. xv. of

136 '
of Elizabeth, and some parts also of her conduct to
wards himself, might allowably be recollected by
him with lasting resentment; of her personal cha
racter and disposition he could not think favorably:
but, to. hold her cheap as a sovereign, and above all
to display his disesteem in conversation with the am
bassador of a prince known to regard her with the
highest admiration, esteem and gratitude, was an
egregious proof of vanity and weakness, and even
a want of decorum. His neglect, or rather prohibi
tion, of the observance in her case ofthe customary
and decent marks of respect towards a deceased mo
narch, was an injury to himself alone ; but it might
be considered as an insult to the whole English na
tion ; — a bad return for the cheerfulness with which
it had consented to admit him as her successor.
He marked a sentiment which did him less dis
honor, by soon "after sending down a king at arms to
Peterborough with a splendid pall to be extended
over the remains of the queen his mother, which were
afterwards removed to Westminster Abbey, where
a monument was erected over them. In the mean
time, his royal consort, apprehensive, and not with
out cause, of sinking into insignificance, appeared
bent on asserting to the utmost her independence
and imaginary importance. Let us hear on this
subject the report of archbishop Spotswood.
" Prince Henry was assigned to the care of the
earl of Mar. On the queen's intended journey to
London, she went to his house and demanded her
son, that he might accompany her. This demand being

137
being denied by the family of the earl of Mar, she
became so incensed that it occasioned her a fever,
and that fever a miscarriage. The king, being ad
vertised of her sickness, sent the duke of Lenox with
a warrant to receive the prince and deliver him to
the queen. Notwithstanding this indulgence, she
wrote a letter to the king full of passion, requiring
a public reparation by the punishment of the earl of
Mar and his servants. The king sent her word, that
she should do wisely to forget the grudges she car
ried to the earl of Mar, and thank God for the peace
able possession they had obtained of the kingdom
of England, which, next under God, he ascribed to
the last negotiation of the earl of Mar in England.
When this message was delivered to the queen, she
replied in great wrath, that she rather would have
wished never to see England, than to be in any sort
beholden to the earl of Mara." Some further par
ticulars of her behaviour occur in the following pas
sage of a letter from sir Thomas Edmonds to the
earl of Shrewsbury  "I understand that the
king is very ill satisfied with the duke of Lenox for
not having more effectually employed himself to dis
suade the queen from some courses which she hath
taken which do very much discontent the king;
namely, for conferring the place of her chamberlain
(to the which sir George Carew was recommended)
on one Mr. Kennedy, a Scotish gentleman of whom
the king hath very ill conceit, and, as it is said, used
8 Spot6wood, p. 477. these

138
these words against him ; that if he should find that
she do bring him hither to attend her in that place,
that he would break the staff of his chamberlainship
on his head, and so dismiss him ; but we understand
that upon a commandment since sent unto him for
his return, he is gone back into Scotland. It is said
that the king taketh the like offence at the coming
of divers others that be in her company ; and there
fore the duke of Lenox was yesternight sent back
in post unto her concerning all those particulars.
It is said that she hath hitherto refused to admit my
lady of Kildare and the lady Walsingham to be of
her privy chamber, and hath only as yet sworn my
lady of Bedford to that place3."
It may perhaps be collected from these passages,
that James began to be alive to. the inconveniences
of suffering' his English court to be crowded, and
the household offices occupied, by Scotchmen, to the
injury and disgust of his new subjects, whom it was
on all accounts so much more his interest to conci
liate. For this reason, he seems to have been re
solved that no favorites but his own should attend
the removal of his family. In the mean time he
continued to shower honors on the natives of both
kingdoms with so prodigal a hand, that a pasquinade
was stuck up in St. Paul's, professing to teach a new
art of memory, very necessary in assisting persons
to retain the titles ofthe new nobility.
Lord Montjoy had now returned from his Irish
1 Lcdgf-i Illustrations, vol. iii. p. 163.
government ;

139
government; and not only was himself rewarded
for his good service with the title of earl of Devon
shire, but even his prisoner, the arch-rebel Tyrone,
to whom it had almost broken the proud heart of
Elizabeth to grant a bare pardon for his life, became
a sharer in the lavish favor of the new sovereign.
TTHe was brought to court and well received ; and
James, amidst his numberless proclamations on all
subjects, thought proper to issue one commanding
all persons to treat this Irish nobleman with civility.
This circumstance, with some other matters of more
importance, is adverted to in his usual spirited and
lively manner by sir John Harrington, in the follow
ing letter :
" To Dr Still, bishop of Bath and Wells.
" I have lived tp see that d  e rebel Tyrone
brought to England, courteously favored, honored
and well liked. O! my lord, what is there which
doth not prove the inconstancy of worldly matters!
How did I labor after that knave's destruction ! I
was called from my home by her majesty's command,
adventured perils by sea and land, endured toil, was
near starving, eat horse-flesh at Munster ; and all
to quell that man, who now smileth in peace at those
that did hazard their lives to destroy him. Essex
took me to Ireland : I had scant time to put on my
boots ; I followed with good-will, and did return
with the lord-lieutenant to meet ill-will ; I did bear
the frowns of her that sent me ; and, were it not for
her good liking, rather than my good deservings, I
had

140
had been sore discountenanced indeed  And
now doth Tyrone dare us old commanders with his
presence and protection.
" I doubt not but some state business is well nigh
begun, or to be made out ; but these matters pertain
not to me now. I much fear for my good lord Grey
and Raleigh. I hear the plot was well nigh accom
plished to disturb our peace and favor Arabella Stu
art, the prince's cousin. The Spaniards bear no
good will to Raleigh, and I doubt if some of the
English have much better affection towards him :
God deliver me from these designs ! I have spoken
with Carew concerning the matter; he thinketh ill
of certain persons whom I know, and wisheth he
could gain knowledge and further inspection hereof,
touching those who betrayed this business. Cecil
doth bear no love to Raleigh, as you well under
stand, in the matter of Essex. 1 wist not that he
hath evil design-in matter of faith or religion. As
he hath often discoursed to me with much learning,
wisdom and freedom, I know he doth somewhat
differ in opinion from some others ; but I think also
his heart is well fixed in every honest thing, as far
as I can look into him. He seemeth wondrously
fitted,. both by art and nature, to serve the state;
especially as he is versed in foreign matters, his skill
therein being always estimable and praiseworthy.
In religion he hath shown (in private talk) great
depth and good reading, as I once experienced at
his own house, before many learned men. In good
troth, I pity his state, and doubt the dice not fairly
thrown,

141
thrown, if his life be the losing stake  I will
shortly set forward to see what goeth on in the city,
and pry safely among those that trust not me ; nei
ther will I trust to them : new princes beget new
laws, and I am too well striken in years and infirmi
ties to enter on new courses  He that thriveth
in a court must put half his honesty under his bon
net ; and many do we know that never part that
commodity at all, and sleep with it all in a baga."
The state business here referred to by sir John
Harrington was the much-canvassed Raleigh plot ;
one of those mysterious designs baffled in the exe
cution, either by precaution or accident, and never
suffered to come to a full explanation afterwards,
which form a characteristic feature of the reign of
James and the administration of Robert Cecil. The
affair is principally interesting from its connexion
with the memorable name of Raleigh, whose bril
liant genius, combined with very dubious moral
qualities, with extraordinary vicissitudes of fortune,
and with a fate of unexampled cruelty, render him
at once the object of admiration, of anxious curi
osity, and of that respectful pity which is borne by
every ingenuous mind towards the victim of tyranny
and injustice. No public man had been so great a
loser as Raleigh by the change of sovereigns. Un
der Elizabeth he had indeed experienced alterna
tions of favor and disgrace ; but a patent for prose
cuting discoveries in America, granted after the ex-
a Nugw, i. 340. ploring

142
ploring of Virginia by persons under his orders in
1585; another of very considerable value for the
licensing of wine-venders, and a third for the sale of
tin ; the grants of Sherborne castle and manor, and
of the forfeited estate of Babington the conspirator;
the offices of captain of the guard, warden of the
stanneries and governor of Jersey, besides occa
sional commands both by sea and land, furnished
solid testimony of the general esteem in which he
had been held by his royal mistress, and even of his
power over her affections.
During the favor ofthe earl of Essex, Cecil had-
evidently been indefatigable in his efforts to secure
Raleigh's friendship: besides supporting on occa
sion his suits to her majesty, we find him venturing
considerable sums of money in most of his maritime
and colonising adventures ; and he did not hesitate
to afford him a much stronger proof of confidence,
by sending his only son to Sherborne castle to be
educated under theimmediate inspection of its owner.
But no sooner had an untimely fate hurried Essex off
the stage, than all was changed; and Raleigh is said
to have become suddenly and too late aware of the
folly of that relentless malice with which he had
hunted after the blood of this gallant though mis
guided nobleman. By his fall, Cecil had become
dictator of the court, and no choice remained for
Raleigh but either to allow himself to sink into the
character of a dependent of the secretary, after
having so long asserted that of an ally and an equal,
or to encounter him in a struggle for superiority in
which

143
which his mind foreboded extreme peril, if not cer
tain and irretrievable defeat. He appears to have
adopted this last alternative, — for pride was a chief
ingredient in his composition ; and during the short
remnant ofthe life of Elizabeth, her favor, joined
with his own exertions, principally in parliament,
where he appeared as an eloquent and powerful
speaker on the court side, enabled him to stand his
ground at once against popular odium and the politic
arts of his rival ; but irreparable disgrace awaited
him at the hands of her successor.
James entered his new dominions with an invin
cible prejudice on his mind against Raleigh, which
may be traced to several distinct sources. Essex, ,
in the intimate correspondence which he had held
with the king of Scots, had stigmatised his own par
ticular enemies, Cobham, Raleigh, Northumberland
and Cecil, as partisans of the title of the infanta to
the English crown, and it should seem that only the
last was ever able, in the opinion of James, entirely
to clear himself of this imputation. The charge of
atheism, malignantly brought against Raleigh by
father Parsons, had injured him deeply in public
estimation, and was probably not without its influ
ence on the mind of James; but a project which
he and several others are said to have entertained
of procuring some limitation of the numbers of
Scotchmen to be brought into England by the king,
was a more obvious cause of displeasure ; and, to
give full efficacy to the whole, it is known that Cecil,
in all his letters to Scotland, labored at the ruin of
Raleigh

144
Raleigh with unwearied diligence; and with that
subtility and refined address of which he was so in
imitable a master. Under these circumstances, a let
ter from Raleigh to James, in which he officiously
reminded him of the part taken by Burleigh and his
son in the condemnation and death of his majesty's
mother, and vainly endeavoured to cast off the
blame of Essex's unhappy fate from himself upon
Cecil, only served to draw greater indignation on
his head; and on announcing his intention of pay
ing his respects to his sovereign in his progress to
London, be received a distinct intimation that he
might spare his labor ; while a similar hint was con
veyed to lord Cobham. These rebuffs, seconded
in the case of Raleigh by the loss of the office of
captain of the guards, which was transferred to one
ofthe Scotch courtiers, naturally threw the objects
of them into the party of malcontents ; consisting
at this period, according to the remark of Sully, of
persons who agreed in nothing excepting their com
mon dissatisfaction ; while the intrigues of George
Brook, the brother of lord Cobham, contributed to
bring this nobleman, as well as Raleigh, into suspi
cion of participating in designs of which Arabella
Stuart was the subject, but not the instigatress.
This unfortunate lady was daughter and heiress, by
a lady of the family of Cavendish, of Charles Stuart,
the younger brother of lord Darnley ; and in right
of her grandmother Margaret countess of Lenox,
daughter of the queen dowager of Scotland and
niece of king Henry VIII., she stood next to James
himself

145
himself and his immediate posterity in the Scotish
line of succession to the English throne. There
were even plausible grounds for regarding her title
as the best ; since she was born and bred an Eng
lishwoman, and the maxim of English law, that an
alien should not inherit landed property within the
kingdom, appeared a fortiori to exclude him from
inheriting the kingdom itself; an argument which
was strenuously insisted upon by such members of
the great Roman catholic league of Europe as were
on any account disinclined to support the claims of
the infanta. In this number it appears that we are
to reckon pope Clement VII., who, being thoroughly
convinced, and certainly with good reason, that the
people of England would never submit to the Spanish
line, and rejecting James on account of his religion,
gave his voice and interest wholly to Arabella, an
avowed catholici The pope would have wished that
she should ally herself with the duke of Parma; but
as this prince happened to be already provided with
a wife, he proposed to secularise his brother, cardi
nal Farnese, in order to enable him to accept her
hand. He expected the king of Spain, out of re
spect for the holy see, to submit to an arrangement
which blighted his fondest hopes; and he confidently
reckoned upon the concurrence of Henry IV. of
France, because James belonged by his mother to
the house of Guise, which Henry had found so much
reason to dread and hate ; and probably, also be
cause it was the interest of this prince to impede the
union of England and Scotland under the same
vol. i. l sceptre.

146
sceptre. In pursuance of this bold and extraordi
nary project, Clement, about the end of the year
1601, had sent to his nuncio in Flanders three briefs,
to be transmitted, immediately on the death of Eliza
beth, to the clergy, nobility and commons of Eng
land, respectively requiring them to acknowledge
no one for their sovereign except a catholic who
should be recommended to them by the pope.
We learn from the correspondence of Henry IV.,
with cardinal d'Ossat, his vice-ambassador at Rome,
that this prince, whose natural good sense was cer
tainly not obscured by any excess of zeal for the
Romish faith, declined all concern in the papal
project ; treating it as a perfect chimaera, raised on
no better foundation than the wild hopes and falla
cious representations of exiles ; and pronouncing
the party of Arabella Stuart to be extremely weak
in England. What steps were taken in the business
by the king of Spain does not appear ; but even the
zealous father Garnet, to whom the briefs were sent,
found it expedient to communicate their contents to
but few persons, and, soon after the peaceful acces
sion of James, to commit them to the flames 4
As for the lady Arabella herself, who had been
educated by her grandmother in great privacy, she
appears to have possessed none of the qualities,
good or bad, required for the prosecution of a dar
ing and difficult enterprise. Elizabeth, according
to her invariable policy, had taken measures to re-
[ | Butler's Memoirs of English Catholics, vol. i. 241 et seq. tain

147
tain her in a state of celibacy ; and, in particular,
had interfered to prevent her marriage with her
cousin Esme Stuart, heir of the Lenox family ; and
James was anxious to continue her under the same
restriction. But these jealous precautions were due
to her birth alone, and she was never suspected, or
accused, of concurring in the scheme for placing her
on the throne. Notwithstanding all these unpropi-
tious circumstances, it appears that men were found
rash enough to hazard their lives on such an at
tempt. The leader of these was George Brook, who
is said not to have been inspired by religious mo-
tives,-^for he was, if any thing, a protestant, — but
by discontent and personal ambition. Sir Griffin
Markham, a catholic, and Watson and Clark, ca
tholic priests, were likewise chief conspirators ; and
through their persuasions a few other persons of the
same communion were induced to join them : but
from most of these the ultimate object of the plot
was carefully concealed, and no other intention was
avowed than that of presenting to the king a peti
tion in behalf of the suffering Roman catholics,
backed by such numbers as should secure it from
rejection. To others of the party, a project was
disclosed for seizing the persons of the whole royal
family, and detaining them prisoners in the Tower,
until the king, besides a free pardon to the conspi
rators, should be intimidated ¦ into the grant of all
their other demands, comprehending the removal of
certain of his counsellors. Watson labored to per
suade his associates that this daring attempt upon
l2 the

148
the royal person could not be construed into treason,
because the ceremony of the coronation, in which
the oaths of the king and people are reciprocally
pledged, had not yet taken place.
It was in this part of the enterprise that Markham
had the address to engage lord Grey of Wilton ;
who was a man of sense, of spirit, and moreover a
zealous puritan; but he also was a malcontent, partly
on account of the personal neglect to which he saw
himself doomed under the new reign, as an old op
ponent of Essex and a noted enemy of the earl of
Southampton, and partly on account of the oppres
sions endured by his sect, which it had now become
evident that James was rather disposed to aggravate
than to redress. Markham however had little rea
son to congratulate himself on the acquisition of
such an ally ; those deadly opposites, papist and pu
ritan, could find no ground of common interest to
meet upon ; and no sooner had a closer intercourse
discovered to Grey the character of his associates,
than he absolutely refused to take any share in the
surprisal of the king until, under pretence of raising
troops for the Dutch service, he should have assem
bled a body of men in whom he could confide, to
protect the interests of his sect. The delay occa
sioned by this scruple on the part of Grey, was one
cause of the discovery and failure of the whole plot.
In the mean time, these treasons were revealed, ei
ther wholly or in part, by Brook, to his brother lord
Cobham, who in return communicated to him some
intrigues of his own, equally unpromising, and ut
terly

149
terly disgraceful to the character of an Englishman.
It appears that he had opened a negotiation with
count A re mb erg, ambassador from the Netherlands,
the object of which was to move the archduke Albert
to procure from the king of Spain a vast sum of mo
ney to be distributed amongst discontented persona
in England, for the purpose of disturbing the go
vernment and perhaps of attacking the lives of James
and his family! In order to give more weight to his
proposals, Cobham desired his brother to obtain, if
possible, a letter from the lady Arabella to the king
of Spain, promising, in case of his affording her his
assistance to mount the throne of England, to make
a lasting peace between England and Spain, to
grant full toleration for the Romish faith, and to
be directed by him in her marriage. It appears
however that Brook did not find it expedient even
to make the proposal to Arabella, and that a letter
which lord Cobham had ventured to write in order
to prepare her for the enterprise, was immediately
carried by this lady to the king. Aremberg on the
contrary encouraged the design; two or three con
ferences took place between him and Cobham, and
he seems to have proceeded so far as to make some
offers of specific sums to different individuals, when
the affair took wind and Cobham was apprehended.
Lord Grey, Brook, Markham, the two priests and
other accomplices, were committed to custody about
the same time, or somewhat sooner.
Cobham, by the testimony of all his contempora
ries, was no other than — " that tool which knaves do

150
do work with;" and as Raleigh was well knownio
govern him, Cecil issued without delay an order for
the apprehension of his old associate; whom he had
perhaps excellent reasons for accounting a man of
more ambition than virtue. After being examined
by some of the privy-council respecting several par
ticulars of the plot, Raleigh is said to have written
a letter to Cobham, " advising him, if he were exa
mined of any thing, to stand peremptory, and not
be afraid, for one witness could not condemn him."
Cobham, however, thought fit to confess his treason
able designs ; and also, in a fit of passion to accuse
Raleigh, whom he suspected of betraying him, of
being the instigator Of his application to the king
of Spain. Raleigh, on this, was sent to the Tower
in July 1603, where in a fit of despair he stabbed
himself, but not dangerously. Afterwards, he con
veyed to his fellow-prisoner Cobham an expostula
tion on his unkind treatment of him ; and Cobham,
on his next examination, seemed "to clear sir Wal
ter in most things, and to take all the burthen to
himself V Notwithstanding this retraction on the
part of his sole accuser, Raleigh was still detained
in the Tower in order to his trial; to which he was
called on November the 17th of the same year. In
the mean time other objects claim our attention.
A dreadful plague was at this time raging in Lon-
* See a letter from Cecil to sir Thomas Parry in Cayley's Life
of Raleigh, vol. i. pp. 365 and 6. The circumstance of Ra
leigh's attempt on his life is also related in a private diary of
Cecil's. don,

151
don, imported, it is said, from Holland, of which
30,000 persons died in the course of the year 1603,
and on account of which a weekly fast had been
proclaimed ; but notwithstanding this visitation, the
queen had no sooner arrived from Scotland with her
two elder children, than preparations were com
menced for a splendid coronation. The corporation
of London, anxious to display its loyalty by the ex
hibition of costly and ingenious pageants, customary
on similar occasions, lost no time in engaging Ben
Jonson in the task of devising subjects for these
spectacles and furnishing them with appropriate
Latin mottos. The pageants were not at this time
completed, on account of the increasing ravages of
the pestilence, which caused the king to decline pass
ing in state through the city; but the labor of Jon
son was not thrown away, for a description, which
was immediately published, of all that he had devised
for the occasion, and which still remains a monu
ment of his ingenuity and erudition, was one motive,
probably, of the notice and patronage with which
he was soon after honored by his sovereign. This
great dramatist fills so large a space in the literary
history of his age, that it seems proper here to ad
vert to his private life, and to examine the claims
which he had already established to the admiration
of his contemporaries and the remembrance of pos
terity. Benjamin Jonson, born in 1574, most likely in
Westminster, was the posthumous son of a gentle
man who, after suffering, probably on a religious account.

152
account, a long imprisonment with confiscation of
his estate under the reign of Mary, had entered into
holy orders. His mother, being left in indigent cir
cumstances, remarried to a master bricklayer; she
was however a woman of a lofty spirit, and after her
son had received some preliminary instruction, she
found a generous friend who undertook to support
him at Westminster school. Of this celebrated se
minary the excellent Camden was at this time second
master; an instructor worthy of such a pupil, by the
testimony of Jonson himself, who in one of his epi
grams thus gratefully apostrophises him :
" Camden, most reyerend head, to whom I owe
All that I am in arts, and that I know ! "
On quitting school, his former benefactor ob
tained for him an exhibition at Cambridge; but ex
treme poverty compelled him to*tear himself from
the university at the end of a few weeks or months,
and to submit to be initiated in the humble calling
of his stepfather. The mortification of such a
change was too bitter to be long endured, and in
a fit of despair the young student enlisted for the
war in Flanders, in the capacity of a volunteer.
Here he signalised his valor by slaying an enemy
and carrying off his spoils in sight of both armies :
but a single campaign appears to have satiated him
with a mode of life even more incompatible with the
cultivation of letters than the irksome drudgery of a
mechanical trade ; and he returned to seek a sub
sistence in the service of the stage. The first steps
of his dramatic career are involved in doubt and
obscurity :

153
obscurity : it is probable however, that, like the most
illustrious of his contemporaries, he began as an
actor ; but that not succeeding greatly in this de
partment, and at the same time giving indications
of talent in another and a higher, he gradually laid
aside the buskin and was engaged by the theatrical
managers, according to the mode of that day, as a
mender and maker of plays, whom they at first em
ployed as an anonymous assistant to more practised
dramatists, and, after a time, indulged in the privilege
of bringing forth pieces under his own name.
The disastrous circumstance of killing a brother-
actor in a duel, interrupted the literary engagements
of Jonson almost in their commencement, by sub
jecting him to an imprisonment apparently of consi
derable duration, about the year 1593 or4. A catholic
priest, with the busy zeal which then distinguished
the order, visited him in his confinement, and con
verted him to the Romish faith ; which however,
after the lapse of twelve years, he on further exami
nation renounced. On his liberation, Jonson re
turned to his employment ; and, in spite of poverty,
thought fit to burden himself with a wife. His ear
lier efforts in the drama are not at present distin
guishable; but in the year 1596, the 23rd of his
age, "Every man in his humour" established his
fame and his popularity. It was the practice of our
early dramatists to lay the scene of their comedies
either in Spain or Italy; from the novels, romances,
or poems of which countries their plots were mostly
borrowed ; and Jonson in the first draught of this
piece

154
piece had conformed to the fashion, though the
plot seems to have been original, and the characters
were essentially English. But his excellent judge
ment soon taught him to discard this incongruity,
and in a more finished copy of this drama which he
gave to the stage three years afterwards, he changed
the Italian names for English, and adapted the man
ners to the meridian of London, to which the action
was now transferred. It was by this process that
we first became possessed of a regular English co
medy; and the author, encouraged by public ap
plause, proceeded to assume the character, for which
both nature and study had eminently qualified him,
of a comic satirist and moralist. In a series of dra
matic compositions constructed on the strictest rules
of ancient art, which no man more learnedly un
derstood, he delineated with a vigor, a distinctness,
and, it is believed, an accuracy, never surpassed, the
vices, follies and affectations, or, in his own phrase,
the humors, of his day, and sometimes, we are
told, of particular and well known individuals. It
is obvious that works of which the purposes were so
far temporary and local, must cease, in the lapse of
time and the change of manners, to interest or to
be understood by the general reader ; and to this
circumstance partly are to be imputed the neglect
and comparative obscurity which have overtaken
the once celebrated comedies of Ben Jonson. The
scholastic severity of manner with which he anato
mises, rather than exhibits, the ridiculous or the dis
gusting humorists who form his dramatis personae ;
the

155
the almost total want of amiable or respectable fe
male characters, and the general absence of gaiety
and amenity in these studies of the comic muse,
have further contributed to the same effect. Yet
the admiration of his contemporaries may be fully
justified, in the eyes of impartial criticism, by the at
traction of that comedy of character of which he
was the founder in England ; by the exquisite, inge
nuity, as well as regularity, with which his plots are
constructed; by the energy and perspicuity of his
learned and masterly style ; and by the noble bursts
of moral sentiment, and sometimes the lighter graces
of poetical imagery, which animate the sententious
severity of his scenes.
In 1599 Jonson produced his " Every man out of
his humour,"-^-r-that extraordinary chronicle of the
whims and fashions of the day, which offers so many
curious notices to the student of past times ; — and the
representation was honored by the presence of queen
Elizabeth, who thenceforth animated the poet by
many tokens of approbation. Unbribed, however,
by the smiles of royalty, he ventured in his next
piece, Cynthia's Revels, to dart the force of his ridi
cule against the pedantry and affectation which at
this time pervaded the language and manners of the
court ; nor does it appear that this freedom was ill
received either by the queen or by his other patrons
amongst the great, who had now become numerous.
His Poetaster however, which appeared in 1600,
and was desig-ned as a retaliation ofthe attacks of
certain dramatic rivals who had formed a cabal
against

156
against him, gave high offence to the players, and also
to the military and the lawyers ; for which the poet
sought to atone by an apologetical dialogue remark
able for its arrogance, a marking feature in the cha
racter of Jonson. Alarmed, or indignant, at the hos
tility manifested against his comedies, he now pro
claimed his intention of exercising his muse in tra
gedy ; and this resolve produced his Sejanus ; a
piece which displayed such a wonderful intimacy
with the writers, the manners and the history of
ancient Rome, as to call forth the compliments and
congratulations of all his learned friends, though
a total absence of dramatic interest rendered it un
successful on the stage. This piece, in which it may
be mentioned that Shakespear was one of the per
formers, was the last work of Ben Jonson during
the reign of Elizabeth ; but he had now done enough
to raise his " learned sock " into a kind of competi
tion with the "woodnotes wild" of his immortal
contemporary. It is true that at the present day,
when the great name of Shakespear has "gathered
all its fame," such a comparison appears extravagant
and almost a profanation ; but, on the other hand, he
who once shared the bays of our great dramatist, and
whose style served in some degree as a model to
the author of Comus, can only through ignorance or
prejudice be degraded to the rank of obsolete wri
ters deserving ofthe neglect which they experience.
It was honorable to James to distinguish such
a scholar and such a poet by his patronage ; and if
it were himself who recommended it to his consort to

157
to employ the pen of Jonson in the composition of
the splendid masques in which she delighted, this
choice adds to his merit : but these works ofthe au
thor may more fitly be discussed hereafter. In this
place, however, it may be mentioned that Jonson
was a member of the celebrated club instituted by
Raleigh and meeting at the Mermaid tavern in Fri
day-street, which, during the period that he frequent
ed it, boasted, amongst others, the names of Cotton,
Selden, Donne, Carew, Beaumont, Fletcher, and
Shakespear, a constellation of genius and learning
which England might safely challenge the rest of
Europe to surpass or equala.
The coronation of James and his queen was per
formed on St. James's day, July 25th, by the hands
of archbishop Whitgift, and in all respects confor
mably to ancient and catholic usage : the full attend
ance ofthe episcopal order on the occasion, and the
conspicuous part assigned to them in the ceremonial,
presented a striking contrast to the coronation of
Elizabeth; which some ofthe elder spectators might
have witnessed ; when a single bishop only, and he
one of the least considerable on the bench, had

* This notice of the life of Jonson has been in part derived
from the biographical memoir prefixed to the late edition of his
works by Mr. GifFord, who seems to have successfully vindicated
the character of his author from the charges of envy and malig
nity towards Shakespear brought against him, in many instances
with so striking a disregard of truth and justice, by the editors
and commentators of the great dramatist. been

158
been with difficulty persuaded to place the diadertt
on the head of a heretic sovereign.
The new monarch manifested a strong propen
sity to the employment on all occasions of procla
mations, for which he claimed the force of laws ;
andon the approach ofthe 5th of August, hethought
fit to issue one, commanding that this day should
for ever be observed as a festival in honor of his
escape from the perils of the Gowrie conspiracy.
Nothing could be more injudicious than such a re
quisition : the English naturally inquired how they
were interested in the commemoration of an event
in Scotish history ; and besides the ridicule called
forth by so singular a manifestatlori of royal vanity
and self-importance, it led to certain inquiries re
specting the circumstances of that mysterious trans
action, the results of which, on many minds, were
by no means such as James could either have ex
pected or desired. Weldon mentions, that there
was a weekly commemoration of the Gowrie plot
by the Tuesday's sermon at court, besides an anni
versary feast, "as great as it was possible," on the
5th of August ; " upon which day," he adds, " as
Sir Johri Ramsey, afterwards earl of Holderness, for
his good service in that preservation was the prin
cipal guest, so did the king grant him any boon he
would ask that day ; .but had such limitations set to
his asking, as made his suit as unprofitable unto
him, as that he asked it for was unserviceable to
the king ; and indeed did make the English believe as

159
as little the truth of that story as the Scots themselves
dida." The same writer mentions, as the cause of
sir George Hume's favor with the king, his partici
pation in some secret counsels, the chief of which
was the Gowrie conspiracy ; though he says the Scots
" gave little credit to the story, but would speak both
slightly and despitefully of itb " Even Wilson, a
writer less acrimonious than Weldon, thinks it ne
cessary to admonish his reader, that " whether the
Gowries attempted on the king's person, or the king
on theirs, has been variously reported0."
In such disesteem was the character of James at
this time held by his subjects of the two countries !
The king took his progress this summer through
some of the Southern and Western counties ; and
sir Thomas Edmonds, who attended the court, gives,
in the following letter to the earl of Shrewsbury,
dated Woodstock, Sept. 11, some articles of intelli
gence not unworthy of notice :  " The j udges
have of late met at Maidenhead to consider of the
crimes ofthe prisoners ; and, as I understand, they
make no question of finding them all culpable, save
only sir Walter Raleigh, against whom it is said'
that the proofs are not so pregnant a. . . . The court
hath been so- continually haunted with the sickness,
by reason of the disorderly company that do follow
us, as we are forced to remove from place to place,
* Weldon's Court of King James. b Ibid.
c Wilson's History of Great Britain, p. 12.
d So publicly were the extrajudicial opinions of judges at thjs
time delivered! and

160
and do infect all places where we come. We are'
now going within a few days from hence to Win
chester to seek a purer air there; and by reason that
the Spanish ambassador hath had one of his com
pany lately dead of the plague at Oxford, his audi
ence, which was appointed to have been given him
here, is deferred till the king's coming to Winches
ter, which doth nothing please his greatness. We
have here also Monsieur de Vitry, that is sent by
the French king to congratulate for the king's ma
jesty's happy escape from the late conspiracies; and
others are also come from the dukes of Florence and
Guise. We are presently in hand to renew the or
ders and proclamations for the banishing of suitors
from the court, and to restrain the access of any
others hither than only of ordinary attendants.
" Things do here proceed in the same course
and train as you left them, and so are like to con
tinue. My lord-treasurer is much disquieted how
to find money to supply the king's necessities, and
protested to some of us poor men that were suitors
to him for relief, that he knoweth not .how to pro
cure money to pay for the king's diet : we do here
all apprehend that the penury will more and more
increase, and all means shut up for yielding any
reliefV Lady Arabella Stuart communicates-to her uncle
the earl of Shrewsbury, in a more sprightly style,
a few additional anecdotes of the court during its
• Illustrations by Lodge, iii. 171. abode

161
abode at Woodstock. .,..." I writ to you of the
reason of the delay of Taxis' audience (the Spanish
ambassador); itremaineth to tell you how jovially he
behaveth himself in the interim : he hath brought
great store of Spanish gloves, hawks' hoods, leather
for jerkins, and moreover a perfumer; these deli
cacies he bestoweth amongst our ladies and lords,
I will not say with a hope to effeminate the one sex,.
but certainly with a hope to grow gracious with the
other, as he already is. The curiosity of our sex
drew many ladies and gentlewomen to gaze at him
betwixt his landing place and Oxford his abiding
place ; which he desirous to satisfy .... made his
coach stay, and took occasion with petty gifts and
courtesies to win soon-won affections; who compar
ing his manner with Monsieur de Rosni's hold him
their far welcomer guest  The Dutch lady my
lord Wotton spoke of at Basing, proved a lady sent by
the duchess of Holstein to learn the English fashions.
She lodgeth at Oxford, and hath been here twice,
and thinketh every day long till she be at home, so
well she liketh her entertainment, or loveth her own
country ; in truth she is civil, and therefore looketh
for the like which she brings out of a ruder coun
try. But if ever there were such a virtue as cour
tesy at the court, I marvel what is become of it ; for
I protest I see little or none of it but in the queen ;
who, ever since her coming to Newbury, hath
spoken to the people as she passeth, and receiveth
their prayers with thanks and thankful countenance,
barefaced (that is without a mask) ; to the great
vol. i. m contentment

162
contentment of native and foreign people; for I
would not have you think the French ambassador
would leave that attractive virtue of our late queen
Elizabeth unremembered or uncommended, when
he saw it imitated by- Our most gracious queen a."
It was by these slight attentions, contrasted with
the uncivil deportment of her husband towards the
English people, that James's consort, without even
understanding the language tolerably, became po
pular, and acquired the title, little merited in more
important respects, of the good queen Anne.
3 Illustrations by Lodge, iii. 171.

CHAPTER

CHAPTER VI
1603 and 4
Trial and conviction of Brook, Markham and others, — of
Raleigh. — Behaviour of the prisoners. — Conduct of the
king. — Reprieve of Cobham, Grey and Markham at the
scaffold. — Hampton-court conference. — Proclamation for
conformity . — Death of archbishop Whitgift. — Bancroft
succeeds. — Parliament summoned.— Number of the peers.
— King's procession through London. — His speech to par
liament'. — Offence given by it. — Election dispute. — Parlia
ment averse to the union. — Angry letter of the king. — His
impiety and arrogance. — Commissioners for the union. —
Conduct of Bacon. — His speech against purveyors. — His
book on the advancement of learning, and further promo
tion.
ON account of the continued ravages ofthe plague
in London, the term was held at Winchester, and
thither were Raleigh and the other conspirators
conveyed to take their trial. Brook, Markham and
some accomplices, were first put to the bar : no
overt acts were charged on these persons ; but of a
design of seizing the king and imprisoning him in
the Tower or in Dover castle, they mostly confessed
themselves guilty ; and all except sir Edward Par
ham were convicted of high treason. The priests,
Watson and Clarke, with their assistants, followed,
and experienced the same fate. " They were all,"
says sir Dudley Carlton, " condemned upon their
m 2 own

164
own confessions, which were set down under their
own hands as declarations ; and compiled with such
labor and care to make the matter they undertook
seem very feasible, as if they had feared they should
not say enough to hang themselves. Pirra was ac
quitted, being only drawn in by the priests as an
assistant, without knowing the purpose ; yet had he
gone the same way as the rest, (as it is thought,)
save for a word the lord Cecil cast in the way as his
cause was in handling ; that the king's glory con
sisted as much in freeing the innocent as condemn
ing the guilty." A significant trait, it may be re
marked, both ofthe pliant disposition of the juries,
and of the prevailing influence of Cecil, who sat as
one ofthe commissioners on these trials.
Raleigh was next brought to the bar, accused of
plotting with Cobham to set Arabella on the throne,
and to procure money for this purpose from the
king of Spain. Other counts were added in the in
dictment, but this was the only material one. Sir
Edward Coke, as attorney-general, conducted the
prosecution in a spirit of rancor against the illus
trious prisoner which stains his memory with inde
lible disgrace. He began with recapitulating the
treasons of Brook and his faction, in which Raleigh
was not even accused of participating, as if he had
been an acknowledged accomplice in the whole.
" Prove one of these things wherewith you have
charged me," exclaimed the prisoner, " and I will
confess the whole indictment, and that I am the hor-
riblest traitor that ever lived, and worthy to be cru
cified

165
cified with a thousand thousand torments." Attor-.
ney. " Nay, I will prove all ; thou art a monster ;
thou hast an English face, but a Spanish heart."
And he went on recapitulating the designs which
Cobham had confessed himself to have entertained,
charging Raleigh as. the instigator. " I do not hear
yet," said Raleigh, as soon as he was permitted to
speak for himself, "that you have spoken one word
against me ; here is no treason of mine done. If
my lord Cobham be a traitor, what is that to me ?"
Attorney. "All that he did was by thy instigation,
thou viper; for I thou thee, thou traitor." Raleigh.
"It becometh not a man of quality and virtue to call
me so ; but I take comfort in it ; it is all you can
do." In this confidence, however, the unfortunate
prisoner was fatally deceived ; no evidence what
ever was adduced against him excepting the accu
sation of Cobham, taken down by the commissioners
who examined him, and not even signed by himself;
and even this was invalidated by a written retrac
tion under Cobham's own hand which Raleigh pro
duced; but he was answered that he had procured
it by unfair means. He demanded to have Cobham
confronted with him; this_ was refused ; "You try
me," said he, " by the Spanish inquisition, if you pro-
ceedon examinations, noton witnesses." This speech
was pronounced treasonable, and the judges had the
audacity to affirm that such proceedings were accord
ing to the law of England. In vain did the defence
less prisoner reason, plead, protest ; — argue on the
vagueness of the charge of Cobham ; — the impres sion

166
sion of sudden anger under which it had been ad
vanced ; — the utter folly and absurdity of the de
signs imputed to him. In vain did he firmly and
impressively assert his innocence of the whole
plot ; confessing only that Cobham had once pro
mised to procure him money from Aremberg on con
dition of endeavouring to bring about a peace, to
which he had answered evasively, riot believing, as
he said, that he had any power to make good his
offers ; — all was ineffectual, the court had decreed
his fall, and the jury, almost without deliberation,
found him guilty of high treason, to the astonish
ment even of Coke, who said he had only charged
him with misprision of treason.
Better men and better patriots than Raleigh have
sometimes fallen by that perversion of public justice
which disgraces too many periods of the English
annals ; but none of those victims of iniquity, it may
safely be affirmed, over whom the tears of liberty
and of virtue have fallen the most copiously, have
suffered by a sentence more illegal, more oppres
sive, more worthy to be branded with the note of
infamy, than this extraordinary and memorable per
son. " I would know," writes sir John Hawles,
solicitor-general to king William, " by what law is
the deposition of a person who might be brought
face to face to the prisoner, read as evidence ; I
would know by what law it is forbidden that the
accuser should be brought face to face to the ac
cused; I would know by what law Brook's deposi
tion of what the lord Cobham told him of Raleigh, was

167
was evidence against Raleigh ; I would know by
what law the story Dyer told of what an unknown
man said to him at Lisbon of Don Raleigh, was evi
dence against Raleigh ; I would know by what sta
tute the statutes of the twenty-fifth of Edward III.
and fifth of Edward VI. are repealed."
The sequel of this disgraceful history is thus nar
rated in two letters of sir Dudley Carlton, eye and
ear witness of what he relates. " After sentence
given, his (Raleigh's) request was, to have his an
swers related to the king, and pardon begged ; of
which if there were no hope, then that Cobham
might die first. He answered with that temper,
wit, learning, courage and judgement, that, save
that it went with the hazard of his life, it was the
happiest day that ever he spent. And so well he
shifted all advantages that were taken against him,
that were not fama malum gravius quam res, and
an ill name half-hanged, in the opinion of all men
he had been acquitted.
" The two first that brought this news to the king
were, Roger Aston and a Scotchman ; whereof -One
affirmed that never any man spoke so well in times
past, nor would do in the world to come ; and the
other said, that whereas when he saw him first, he
was so led with the common hatred that he would
have gone a hundred miles to have seen him hanged,
he would, ere he parted, have gone a thousand to
have saved his life. In one word, never was man
so hated and so popular in so short a time.". . . .
" Cobham led the way on Friday, and made such
a fasting

168
a fasting day's piece of work of it, that he discre
dited the place to which he was called ; never was
seen so poor and abject a spirit. He heard his in
dictment with much fear and trembling, and would
sometimes interrupt it by forswearing what he
thought to be wrongly inserted; so as, by his fashion,
it was known ere he spake, what he would confess
or deny.. .. .Having thus accused all his friends,
and so little excused himself the peers were not long
in deliberation what to judge ; and after sentence of
condemnation given, he begged a great while for
life and favor, alleging his confession as a merito
rious act.
"Grey, quite in another key, began with great
assurances and alacrity ; spake a long and eloquent
speech, first to the lords and then to the judges, and
lastly to the king's council ; and told them well of
their charges, and spake effectually for himself. He
held them the whole day, from eight in the morning-
till eight at night, in subtle traverses and scapes; but
the evidence was too conspicuous, both by Brook's
and Markham's confessions, that he was acquainted
with the surprise. Yet the lords were long ere they
could all agree, and loth to come out with so hard a
censure against him. For though he had some heavy
enemies, as his old antagonist a, who was mute before
his face, but spake within very unnobly against him,
yet most of them strove with themselves, and would
fain, as it seemed, have dispensed with their con-
1 Lord Southamp(oi). sciences

169
sciences to have showed him favor. At the pro
nouncing of the opinion of the lords, and the de
mand whether he had any thing to say why sentence
of death should not be given against him, these only
were his words, — 'I have nothing to say;' there
he paused long ; ' and yet a word of Tacitus comes
in my mind, — Non eadem omnibus decora ; the house
of the Wiltons have spent many lives in their prince's
service, and Grey cannot beg his.'. . . .
" After sentence given, he only desired to have
one Travers3, a divine, sent for to come to him if he
might live two days. If he were to die before that,
then he might have one Field, whom he thought to
be near. There was great compassion had of this
gallant young lord ; for so clear and fiery a spirit
had not been seen by any that had been present at
the like trials. Yet the lord stewardb condemned
his manner much, terming it Lucifer's pride, and
preached much humiliation ; and the judges liked
him as little, because he disputed with them against
their laws. We cannot yet judge what will become
of him or the rest."
In Carlton's second letter we find the following
passages respecting the behaviour of the culprits.
a A celebrated and exemplary puritan divine, whom the can
did Hooker, when engaged in controversy with him, mentioned
as his antagonist, but not his enemy.
b This was lord Ellesmere, the chancellor. The trait is per
fectly in character with his celebrated prudential letter to (he
earl of Essex, urging the duty of implicit submission to the good
pleasure of her majesty.
The

170
The two priests, who underwent the penalty of trea
son in all its horrors, died courageously ; Clarke,
however, "stood somewhat upon his justification,
and thought he had hard measure ; but imputed it
to his function, and therefore thought his death me
ritorious as a kind of martyrdom.
"Brook next suffered, being in fact the chief
conspirator ; and the bishop of Chichester, after at
tending him to the scaffold, went from him to the
lord Cobham ; and at the same time the bishop of
Winchester was with Raleigh ; both by express or
der from the king, as well to prepare them for their
ends, as likewise to bring them to liberal confessions,
and by that means reconcile the contradictions of
the one's open accusation and the others peremp
tory denial. The bishop of Chichester had soon
done what he came for, finding in Cobham a will
ingness to die and a readiness to die well ; with pur
pose at his death to affirm as much as he had said
against Raleigh. But the other bishop had more
to do with his charge ; for, though, for his consci
ence, he had found him well settled, and resolved to
die a good christian and a good protestant, for the
point of confession, he found him so strait-laced that
he would yield to no part of Cobham's accusation ;
only the pension, he said, was once mentioned, but
never proceeded in.
"Grey in the mean time, with his minister Field,
having had the like summons for death, spent his
time in great devotions; but with that careless re
gard of that with which he was threatened, that he
was

171
was observed neither to eat or sleep the worse, or be
any-wise distracted from his accustomed fashions.
" Markham was told he should likewise die ; but,
by secret message from some friends at court, had
still such hope given him that he would not believe
the worst news till the last day ; and though he
could be content to talk with the preacher which
was assigned him, it was rather to pass time than
for any good purpose ; for he was catholicly dis
posed; to think of death no way disposed.
" While these men were so occupied at Win
chester, there was no small doings about them at
court, for life or death ; some pushing at the wheel
one way, some another. The lords of the council
joined in opinion and advice to the king, now in the
beginning of his reign, to shew as well examples of
mercy as severity, and to gain the title of Clemens
as well as of Justus. But some others, led by their
private spleen and passions, drew as hard the other
way ; and Patrick Galloway, in his sermon on Tues
day, preached so hotly against remissness and mo
deration of justice, in the head of justice, as if it
were one of the seven deadly sins. The king held
himself upright betwixt two waters ; and first, let
the lords know, that since the law had passed upon
the prisoners, and that they themselves had been
their judges, it became not them to be petitioners
for that, but rather to press for execution of their
own ordinances ; and to others, gave as good rea
sons ; let them know that he would go no whit the
faster for their driving, but would be led as his own
judgement

172
judgement and affections would move him ; but
seemed rather to lean to this side than the other,
by the care he took to have the law take his course,
and the execution hasted.
" Warrants were signed and sent to sir Benjamin
Tichborne, on Wednesday last at night, for Mark
ham, Grey and Cobham, who in this order were to
take their turns as yesterday, being Friday, about
ten ofthe clock  Markham, being brought to
the scaffold, was much dismayed, and complained
much of his hard hap, to be deluded with hopes, and
broug-ht to that place unprepared. One might see
in his face the very picture of sorrow ; but he seemed
not to want resolution ; for a napkin being offered
by a friend that stood by to cover his face, he threw
it away, saying, he could look upon death without
blushing. He took leave of some friends that stood
near, and betook himself to his devotions, after his
manner; and those ended, prepared himself to the
block. " The sheriff, in the mean time, was secretly
withdrawn by one John Gib, a Scotch groom of the
bed-chamber, whereupon the execution was stayed,
and Markham left to entertain his own thoughts,
which, no doubt, were as melancholy, as his counte
nance sad and heavy. The sheriff, at his return,
told him, that since he was so ill prepared he should
yet have two hours respite; so led him from the
scaffold, without giving him any more comfort, and
locked him into the great hall to walk with prince
Arthur. The lord Grey, whose turn was next, was led

173
led to the scaffold by a troop of the young courtiers,
and was supported on both sides by two of his best
friends ; and coming in this equipage had such gaiety
and cheer in his countenance, that he seemed a dap
per young bridegroom. At his first coming on the
scaffold, he fell on his knees, and his preacher made
a long prayer to the present purpose, which he se
conded himself with one of his own making, which,
for the phrase, was somewhat affected, and suited to
his other speeches ; but, for the fashion, expressed
the fervency and zeal of a religious spirit. . . . Being
come to a full point, the sheriff stayed him, and said
he had received orders from the king to change the
order of the execution, and that the lord Cobham
was to go before him. Whereupon he was likewise
led to prince Arthur's hall 
" The lord Cobham, who was now to play his
part, and by his former actions promised nothing
but matiere pour rire, did much cozen the world ;
for he came to the scaffold with good assurance and
contempt of death. He said some short prayers after
his minister, and so out-prayed the company that
helped to pray with him, that a stander by said, ' He
had a good mouth in a cry, but was nothing single.'
 For sir Walter Raleigh, he took it upon the
hope of his soul's resurrection, that what he had said
of him was true, and with these words would have
taken a short farewell of the world  He was
stayed by the sheriff, and told, that there resteth yet
somewhat else to be done, for that he was to be con
fronted with tome other ofthe prisoners, but named none.

174
none. So as Grey and Markham, being brought
back to the scaffold, as they then were  looked
strange one upon the other, like men beheaded and
met again in the other world. Now all the actors
being together on the stage (as use is at the end of
a play), the sheriff made a short speech unto them,
by way of the interrogatory of the heinousness of
their offences, the justness of their trials, their law
ful condemnation and due execution there to be
performed, to all which they assented ; then saith
the sheriff, 'See the mercy of your prince, who, of
himself, hath sent hither a countermand and given
you your lives.' There was no need to beg a plau-
dite of the audience, for it was given with such hues
and cries, that it went from the castle into the town,
and there began afresh, as if there had been some
such like accident 
" Raleigh, you must think (who had a window
opened that way), had hammers working in his head
to beat out the meaning of this stratagem. His turn
was to come on Monday next; but the king has
pardoned him with the rest, and confined him with
the two lords in the Tower of London, there to re
main during pleasure. Markham, Brookesby and
Copley are to be banished the realm. This resolu
tion was taken by the king without man's help, and
no man can rob him of the praise of yesterday's ac
tion ; for the lords knew no other but that the exe
cution was to go forward, till the very hour it should
| be performed; and then, calling them before him,
1 he told them how much he had been troubled to rer
solve

175
solve in this business; for to execute Grey, who was
a noble young spirited fellow, and save Cobham, who
was as base and unworthy, were a manner of in
justice. To save Grey, who was of a proud, insolent
nature, and execute Cobham, who had shown great
tokens of humility and repentance, were as great
a solcecism ; and so went on with Plutarch's com
parisons in the rest, still travelling in contrarieties,
but holding the conclusion in so indifferent balance
that the lords knew not what to look for till the end
came out ; ' and therefore I have saved them all/
The miracle was as great there as with us at Win
chester, and it took like effect ; for the applause that
began about the king, went from thence into the
presence, and so round about the courta."
The reader will decide how far this act of royal
clemency, under all its circumstances, merited the
eulogiums lavished upon it by the courtiers of James.
Previously to the arrival of the tardy respite, the
unhappy prisoners were made to undergo, as we
have seen, all the terror and all the ignominy of the
scaffold ; — nothing was spared them ofthe last scene
but the axe and the halter, and in comparison ofthe
misery to which they were reserved, even these
might have been regarded as mercies. Markham,
in his indigent exile, became a spy of sir Thomas
Edmonds the English resident in Flanders : the
' See for these letters Hardwicke Miscellaneous State Papers,
i. 377 et seq. Sir Dudley Carlton was afterwards viscount Dor
chester ; the earl of Northumberland, to whom he was at this
time secretary, was the friend of Cobham and Raleigh. high-

176
high-spirited Grey languished out a few years of
imprisonment, and died: Cobham, too despicable to
be the object either of jealousy or vigilance, was
after a time suffered to stray out ofthe Tower with
out inquiry ; but his ample revenues having been
confiscated and shared to the last shilling amongst
the hungry courtiers of James, he remained in a
state of utter destitution ; neither his lady, who en
joyed a large independent income, rior Cecil, who
had married his sister, nor any other connexion of
the noble and ancient house which he represented,
was moved either by humanity or common decency
to administer to his necessities; but a poor "trencher-
scraper," formerly his servant in court, is said to have
relieved him with scraps, and to have lodged him in
a miserable garret of his poor dwelling ; where he
died of filth and wretchedness. Such was the fate
of those who had owned themselves guilty of de
signed though not executed treasons. Raleig-h, who
asserted himself to be innocent, who perhaps was
really so ; and who, at all events, had been con
demned in defiance of every rule of English law
and common justice, was treated with somewhat
more decency ; since he was not exhibited to the
gaping multitude on a scaffold, and was allowed for
the present to enjoy theincomeof an entailed estate;
but his goods were confiscated; he was remanded to
an imprisonment of indefinite duration, alleviated
however by the society of his faithful wife and the
visits of some learned friends; and above all, the un
remitted sentence was still kept hanging over his
head.

177
head. The pedantic trifling of James's, speech to
his council on this occasion is highly characteristic :
nor were his peculiarities less conspicuous in the
next public affair which engaged his attention, — the
celebrated Hampton-court conference.
The numerously and respectably signed petitions
from the Calvinistic or puritanical party in the Eng
lish church for some relaxation of the articles of
subscription, which had been obtruded on the re
luctant notice of James in his progress towards
his capital, had extorted from him a promise to take
into consideration, at his first leisure, the state of
the church ; and though there is no doubt that long
before this time he had absolutely determined in
his own mind to Suffer the episcopal establishment
to receive no detriment under his administration,
he judged it decent that the forms of a public dispu
tation should be gone through. To which it might
be added, that such an opportunity of displaying
at once his eloquence and his polemical skill, was
much too tempting to his vanity to be suffered to
pass unimproved. Accordingly, in January 1604,
the divines were summoned to Hampton-court. On
the first day none were admitted to the king but a
selected number of the most orthodox ofthe bishops
and deans, from whom he desired to receive some
previous explanation and satisfaction on certain dis
puted points. At the next meeting, four ministers
only, nominated also by the king, without the con
currence of the puritans themselves, appeared for
this party ; and the conference began, in presence
vol. i. n of

178
ofthe privy-council and atbrong of courtiers; the
king himself sitting as moderator. Very different
representations of the proceedings were afterwards
published by opposite partisans ; and, as usual, the
weaker party complained of unfair and illiberal
treatment : not without reason in this instance, ac
cording to the account given by sir John Harring
ton, an eye-witness, and certainly no puritan or
friend of puritans. " The bishops came to the king
about the petition of the puritans ; I was by and
heard much discourse. The king talked much Latin,
and disputed with Dr. Reynolds at Hampton ; but
he rather used upbraidings than argument, and told
the petitiohers that they wanted to strip Christ again,
and bid them away with their snivelling  The
bishops seemed much pleased, and said his majesty
spoke by the power of inspiration. I wist not what
they mean ; but the spirit was rather foul-mouthed.
I cannot be present at the next meeting, though the
bishop of London said that I might be in the ante
chamber : it seemeth the king will not change the
religious observances. There was much discourse
about the ring in marriage and the cross in baptism;
but if I guess aright, the petitioners against one
cross will find another11."
This account of the king's demeanour is rendered
probable by the further specimens of his royal elo
quence which even church histories have handed
down.

' Nugw, i. p. 181.
When

179
When the puritan champions ventured to petition
for the revival of those meetings for religious pur
poses among the clergy called prophesyings, which
Elizabeth and her bishops had been at great pains
to suppress, he broke into violent anger; and, forget
ful of the systematic dissimulation which he called
the art of ruling, laid open his inmost thoughts and
feelings in the following harsh speeches : — " If you
aim at a Scotish presbytery, it agrees as well with
monarchy as God and the devil. Then Jack and
Tom and Will and Dick shall meet, and at their
pleasure censure me and my council. Therefore I
reiterate my former speech : Le roi s'avisera ; Stay,
I pray, for one seven years before you demand, and
then, if you find me grow pursy and fat, I may per
chance hearken unto you, for that government will
keep me in breath, and give me work enough."
Then, digressing to the subject of the royal supre-
macy, he said he would tell them a tale. " After
queen Mary had overthrown the reformation in
England, we in Scotland," said he, " felt the effect
of it. For thereupon Mr. Knox writes to the queen
regent, a virtuous and moderate lady, telling her she
was the supreme head of the church, and charged
her, as she would answer it at God's tribunal, to
take care of Christ his evangil in suppressing the
popish prelates, who withstood the same. But how
long, trow you, did this continue ? Even till, by her
authority, the popish bishops were repressed, and
Knox with his adherents, being brought in, made
strong enough. Then they began to make small
n 2 account

180
account of her supremacy, when according to that
more light wherewith they were illuminated, they
made a further reformation of themselves. How
they used the poor lady my mother is not unknown,
and how they dealt with me in my minority. I thus
apply it. My lords the bishops (this he said putting
his hand to his hat), I may thank you that these men
plead thus for my supremacy. They think they can
not make their party good against you but by ap
pealing unto it ; but if once you were out, and they
in, I know what would become of my supremacy,
for No bishop, no king. I have learned of what cut
i they have been who, preaching before me since my
I coming into England, passed over with silence my
| being supreme governor in causes ecclesiastical.
Well, Doctor, have you any thing more to say ?
Dr. Reynolds. No more, if it please your majesty.
His Majesty.- If this be all your party hath to say,
I will make them conform themselves, or else harrie
them out of the land, or else do worseV
It is. needless to remark on the indecorum, or the
folly, of menaces and revilings such as these, ad
dressed by the sovereign, in the character of mo
derator of what might be regarded as a national
synod, to disputants summoned by himself to stand
forth as the champions of their party ; and who had
maintained its opinions with learning, with temper,
and with decency. The consequences of the royal
indiscretion were irreparable : the puritans had now
" Fuller's Church History, book x. p. 18. learned

181
learned on the king's own authority, that he dreaded
their discipline as subversive of monarchy itself,
and was therefore resolved never to concede to them
any point which they had at heart : they had learned
in short, — what they were not likely to forget — the
tremendous lesson, that religion and loyalty were in
them irreconcileable.
A proclamation for the better observance of con
formity in religion, couched in the most urgent terms,
further attested the zeal of the monarch in the cause
of episcopacy. Archbishop Whitgift, that strenuous
high-churchman, who, on hearing the ecclesiastical
commission, and especially the ex-officio oath, de
fended by James, had exclaimed in a kind of rap
ture, "that his majesty spoke by the special assist
ance of God's spirit," died six weeks after the Hamp
ton-court conference ; rejoicing, it is said, that he
was thus snatched away from the scene of conten
tion which he anticipated on the meeting of parlia
ment. Richard Bancroft, bishop of London, a noted
partisan of the divine right both of kings and of
bishops, and a more rigid enforcer of conformity than
Whitgift himself, was chosen his successor. By this
prelate a considerable number of puritanical clergy
men were deprived or otherwise chastised for their
disobedience ; many families attached to the same
principles were driven into exile, and the whole
party held for some years in check.
One suggestion of Dr. Reynolds's at the confe
rence, — the expediency of providing a more accu
rate translation of the scriptures for general use,— was

182
was gladly adopted by the king, and effectual steps
were taken for carrying this great work into speedy
execution. James had been seated nearly a twelvemonth on
the throne of England when at length he judged it
necessary to call a parliament,— usually the first mea
sure of a new reign. The pestilence which had
raged in the metropolis had been the ostensible, and
in part perhaps the real cause of this delay ; but it is
sufficiently evident by many concurring indications,
that the arbitrary maxims of the king,, his aversion
to business, and his apprehensions ofthe spirit likely
to be manifested by the house of commons, were all
motives of considerable force in inclining him to
defer the evil day, as he regarded it, when he must
meet his people.
In his proclamation for the calling of the parlia
ment, the king took upon him to instruct the electors
what kind of persons they should choose or reject
for their representatives ; and he even went so far
as to threaten, that any notorious contravention of
the meaning of this his royal edict, should be visited
upon the cities or boroughs with forfeiture of their
liberties, and upon the persons elected with fine and
imprisonment ;— by what law, or in what court of
judicature, it would be superfluous to inquire. In
the house of lords the cause of prerogative might
be expected to triumph uncontrolled : the bench of
bishops, with not more than one or two exceptions,
were its devoted partisans ; and amongst the tem
poral peers, the new creations alone would g-o far
; towards

183
towards securing it from defeat; the number of
these already amounting to nineteen out of eighty-
eight, at this time the sum total of the baronage of
England, including the two attainted lords, Cobham
and Grey of Wilton. The fact may be worth stating,
that only nine peers of the creation of Elizabeth sat
in the first parliament of her successor.
It was judged proper that the solemn procession
of the king through London; which ought in com
pliance with custom to have preceded his corona
tion, should now take place : accordingly, four days
before the opening of parliament, which was fixed
for March 19th 1604, his majesty, with the queen
and the prince, rode from the Tower to Whitehall,
"the city and suburbs being one great pageant,
where," says Wilson, "he must give his ears leave
to suck in their gilded oratory, though never so nau
seous to the stomach. He was not like his prede
cessor, the late queen of famous memory, that with
a well-pleased affection met her people's acclama
tions, thinking most highly of herself when she was
borne up on the wings of their humble supplications.
He endured this day's brunt with patience, being
assured he should never have such another, and his
triumphal riding to the parliament that followed :
but afterwards, in his public appearances (especially
in his sports), the accesses of the people made him
so impatient, that he often dispersed them with
frowns; that we may not say, with cursesV'
1 Wilson's History of Great Britain, p. 12.
The

\

184
The king's speech was, after the manner of the
other productions of ~ its royal author, prolix and
filled with common places : it contained, however,
some remarkable declarations of sentiment on sub
jects which a prince of greater practical wisdom
would carefully have abstained from agitating. After
expressing, with at least as much self-complacency as
gratitude, his acknowledgements to the English peo
ple for the extraordinary alacrity with which they
had accepted him as their prince, he proceeds on
the other hand to expatiate on the blessings which
they had received in his person. Peace, it seems,
was one of these ; for James was ignorant enough
of the laws of nations to suppose, that because he, as
king of Scotland, was in amity with the court of
Spain, the war between that country and England
was ended by the mere circumstance of his acces
sion to the English throne. Even on the obvious topic
ofthe advantages ofthe union ofthe British crowns
he contrived to give extreme offence, by speaking
of his native country as half of the island, and repre
senting the resources of England as doubled by this
addition. He also threw out hints of an intended
union of the kingdoms, which alarmed at once the
pride and the prejudices of his new subjects.
Proceeding to treat on the delicate and danger
ous topic of the religious divisions subsisting in the
country, he adverted to the late conference at Hamp
ton-court, and to the proclamation for the obser
vance of uniformity which he had since issued;
taking occasion to stigmatise the puritans and "no
velists "

185
velists" as persons "ever discontented with the pre
sent government" (in church), " and impatient to
suffer any superiority," which, he added, " maketh
their seats insufferable in any well-governed com
monwealth." Towards the catholics, the laity at
least, and such as lived like good subjects, he ex
pressed himself far more indulgently : saying, that
he " would be sorry to punish their bodies for the
error of their minds." " But for the clerics," he
added, " I must directly say and affirm, that as long
as they maintain one special point of their doctrine,
and another of their practice, they are no way suf-
ferable to remain in this kingdom. The point of
doctrine is, that arrogant and ambitious supremacy
of their head the pOpe, whereby he not only claims
to be spiritual head of all christians, but also to have
an imperial civil power over all kings and emperors,
dethroning and decrowning princes with his foot as
pleaseth him, and dispensing and disposing of all
kingdoms and empires at his appetite. The other
point which they observe in continual practice, is
the assassiriates and murders of kings ; thinking it
no sin, but rather a matter of salvation, to do all
actions of rebellion and hostility against their na
tural sovereign lord, if he be once cursed, his sub
jects discharged of their fidelity, and his kingdom
given a prey by that three-crowned monarch, or ra
ther monster, their head. And on this point, I have
no occasion to speak further here, saving that I
could wish from my heart it would please God to
make me one of the members of such a general
christian

J

186
christian union in religion as, laying wilfulness aside
on both hands, we might meet in the midst, which
is the centre and perfection of all things. For if
they would leave and be ashamed of such new and
gross corruptions of theirs as themselves cannot
maintain, nor deny to be worthy of reformation, I
would for my own part be content to meet them in
the midway, so that all novelties might be renounced
on either side. For as my faith is the true, ancient,
catholic and apostolic faith, grounded upon the ex
press word of God, so will I ever yield all reverence
to antiquity in the points of ecclesiastical polity .-
and by that means I shall ever, with GodJs grace,
keep myself from being either a heretic in faith, or
schismatic in matters of policy a."
This avowal on the part of the king of his readi
ness to meet the catholics half-way, was heard by
all zealous protestants with horror; while it impress
ed the minds of thinking men with contempt for the
narrow, and as it were egotistical, view, which their
sovereign had taken of controversies so extensive,
so complicated, and, in the opinions of all the con
tending parlies, so pre-eminently important, as those
now pending in matters of religion.
The vague professions of love and gratitude to
wards his people, and care for their interests, and
the apologetical notice of a somewhat lavish expen
diture of public money, with which it had pleased
the royal orator to conclude his harangue, were
" Wilson's History of Great Britain, p. 21. felt

187
felt as slender compensation for the grounds of of
fence or alarm so wantonly obtruded ; and, what
ever ' flattering unction' he might lay to his soul,
James had certainly little reason to congratulate
himself on the effects of this first display of his boast
ed eloquence before an English parliament.
The two houses made it their earliest business to
pass an act of recognition ofthe king's title, for which
he was far from thanking them ; because such an
act appeared to militate against that divine and in
defeasible right which was more than once asserted
by him in the course of his speech, and from which
the" character of an absolute monarch, which he was
determined to assert, appeared to him to flow as a
necessary consequence. In another point also his
pretensions met with a severe check. The county
of Buckingham having returned sir Francis Good
win for its member to the exclusion of sir John For-
tescue, the court candidate, " it was advised by the
king's learned council and judges, whether there
were not some means by the law to avoid ita," and
they ventured to declare sir Francis Goodwin inca
pable of sitting, on account of an outlawry which
had formerly issued against him ; the king having
in his late proclamation prohibited the election of
persons outlawed. Notwithstanding this decision,
which was extrajudicial, the house confirmed sir
Francis in his seat. The king, resenting their dis-
" Letter from lord Cecil to Mr. Winwood. Winwood's
Memorials, vol. ii. p. 18,. obedience,

188
obedience, required them to confer on the subject
with the house of peers : this, as contrary to their
privileges, the commons declined; offering however
to argue the matter before the king in council. At
length the difference was apparently compromised
by the voluntary withdrawment of both candidates,
on which a writ issued for a new election ; but, in
effect, the commons established their claim of being
the sole judges in election causes ; and the king
was reduced to disguise his defeat in the best man
ner he was able.
It was during the ferment of this dispute, that
James was impolitic enough to urge upon the house
his favorite project, already hinted at, of an union of
the two kingdoms. Partly frorii a sentiment of na
tional animosity, which it was perhaps more to be
desired than expected that men should so speedily
have consigned to oblivion ; but partly also from
a wise and patriotic jealousy of the intentions of the
king, and from a reasonable averseness to throw
open every door of honor and emolument to the en
trance of a crowd of indigent and rapacious fo
reigners; by whom, according to the pointed ex
pression of Osborn, "nothing was unasked, and to
whom nothing was denied ;" the English parlia
ment evinced a determined hostility to this design.
Their intractableness was deeply resented by James,
who gave vent to his feelings in a bitter letter, from
which a few characteristic sentences must be ex
tracted. " Ye see with what clearness and sincerity I have
behaved

189
behaved myself in this errand, even through all the
progress thereof, though I will not say too little re
garded by you, but I may justly say not so willingly
embraced by you as the worthiness of the matter
doth well deserve. I protest to God, the fruits
thereof will chiefly tend to your own weal, prospe
rity, and increase of strength and greatness. No
thing can stay you from hearkening unto it but jea
lousy and distrust, either of me the propounder, or
of the matter by me propounded : . . . . Let not your
selves therefore be transported with the curiosity of
a few giddy heads ; for it is in you now to make the
choice, either by yielding to the providence of God,
and embracing that which he hath casten into your
mouths, to procure the prosperity and increase of
greatness to me and mine, you and yours,  or
else, contemning God's benefits so freely offered
unto us, to spit and blaspheme in his face, by pre
ferring war to peace," &c.
The last disgustingexpressions require some com
ment. James was so accustomed to regard himself,
and to be addressed by his flatterers, as, " the Lord's
anointed," " the vicegerent of God upon earth," —
in fact a kind of deputed deity, — that he was con
stantly tempted to accuse his subjects of blasphemy
and irreligion when they presumed to oppose his
will, or to call in question his lawless assumptions
of authority. At the same time, there was no form
of impiety, from the light and irreverent mention of
the sacred name in familiar speech, to profane
cursing and swearing, and to the blasphemous and
audacious

190
audacious assumption of a kind of parity with the
supreme being, by which the lips and mind of the
prince himself were undefiled : — thus he stands
chargeable with the double outrage to religion of
insulting it in his own person, and of employing it
towards others as an instrument of that selfish and
despicable species of "kingcraft" in which he made
it his boast to excel.
James was the first king of England to whom the
inappropriate title of sacred majesty was applied.
In confident anticipation of the union which he
so ardently desired, the king had already, of his own
authority, made the Scotch coin current in England,
caused the cross of St. Andrew to be quartered with
that of St. George on all flags and standards, and or
dered himself to be proclaimed kingof Great Britain :
but these precipitate steps rather tended to exaspe
rate the opposition of parliament ; and the utmost
which James was able to obtain from this assembly,
was the nomination of a certain number of its mem
bers to be joined with commissioners from Scotland
for the purpose of drawing up articles of union ;
but without the power of taking any steps towards
causing such articles to be carried into effect.
The first commissioner named by the house of
commons on this occasion was sir Francis Bacon,
who labored in the cause of the union with a zeal
and perseverance which, by flattering the feelings
of his master, certainly contributed more than all his
other merits to his political and professional ad
vancement. Notwith-

191
Notwithstanding his ambition, and even his court
ly arts, Bacon was at this time one of the most po
pular characters in the house of commons : in one
of his letters to the king he takes notice of this cir
cumstance, and glories in it because, as he observes,
it will on many occasions enable him to serve his
majesty the more effectually, by influencing the par
liament in favor of measures useful to royal prero
gative. This servile profession, however, may be in
part regarded as a kind of artifice for appeasing any
jealousies which his parliamentary conduct might
have excited in the mind of James. In fact, this
great man had not yet prevailed upon himself io
make an entire surrender of the principle of ge
nuine patriotism which resulted from the compre
hensiveness and benevolence of his mind ; — a prin
ciple which had on some occasions impelled him to
acts of generous imprudence. During the reign of
Elizabeth, he had opposed the grant of a subsidy
with a freedom and energy of language which gave
extreme offence to the queen, and was constantly
urged by her ministers in bar of every suit which
he subsequently preferred. Afterwards, both in
motions in the house of commons and memorials
addressed to the king, he was continually offering
projects for the encouragement of learning, the pro
motion of useful undertakings, the improvement of
the laws, and generally for the advancement and
cultivation of civil society and public happiness. In
this very parliament, some propositions having been
made for the abolition of the odious right of pur
veyance

192
veyance claimed by the crown, Bacon was placed at
the head of a committee deputed by the house to re
present to his majesty the nature and extent of the
grievance ; and the manner in which he performed
this duty, ought ever to be remembered for the
glory of his eloquence and the honor of his heart.
It is thus that he concludes his exposure of the
oppressions committed by the purveyors :...." In
stead of takers, they become taxers ; instead of taking
provision for your majesty's service, they tax your
people, ad redimendam vexatipnem ; imposing upon
them and extorting from them divers sums of mo
ney, sometimes in the gross, sometimes in the na
ture of stipends annually paid, ne noceant, to be
freed and eased of their oppression. Again, they
take trees, which by law they cannot do : timber
trees, which are the beauty, countenance and shel
ter of men's houses ; that men have long spared
from their purse and profit; that men esteem, for
their use and delight, ten times above their value ;
that are a loss which men cannot repair or recover;
these do they take to the defacing and spoiling of
your subjects' mansions and dwellings, except they
be compounded with to their own appetites 
Again, they use a strange and most unjust exaction
in causing the subjects to pay poundage of their
own debts due from your majesty unto them ; so as
a poor man, when he has had his hay, or his wood,
or his poultry, (which perchance he was full loth to
part with, and had for the provision of his own fa
mily, and not to put to sale,) taken from him, and
that

193
that not at a just price, but under the value, and
cometh to receive his money, he shall have after the
rate of twelve pence in the pound abated for pound
age of his due payment upon so hard conditions :
nay, further, they are grown to that extremity, as it
is affirmed, though it be scarce credible, save that
in such persons all things are credible, that they
will take double poundage, once when the deben
ture is made, and again the second time when the
money is paid."
This striking appeal failed of procuring the re
dress of the grievance complained of; not because
James was, like Elizabeth, indignant at the interfe
rence ofthe house with this branch of prerogative, or
unwilling to commute it for the fixed revenue which
was offered by the parliament ; but, in the further
progress of the treaty, legal difficulties are stated to
have arisen which caused it to be laid aside for a
time : and as no convenient season for its resump
tion occurred during the following reign, purvey
ance, with all the vexations attending it, survived
to be swept away with other abuses at the restora
tion. The conduct of Bacon in this affair gave the high
est satisfaction to the house of commons, whilst his
favor with the monarch procured for him in the
course of the year the appointment of king's coun
sel, to which a small salary was added, apparently
as a retaining fee for the service of the crown. But
neither the most liberal ofthe professions, nor even
the wider field of politics and legislation, could sup-
: vol. i. o ply

194
ply to the genius of Bacon a sufficient sphere of ac
tivity ; and turning aside for a short space from the
career of worldly ambition, in which he had many
competitors, to that in which he marched unrivalled
and alone, he completed and gave to the world in
1605 his immortal work on the Advancement of
learning. He did not however let slip the occasion
of complimenting the king at large, in an eloquent
dedication, on those his "virtues and qualities which
the philosophers call intellectual ;" ascribing to him
the character of the most learned monarch ever
known in Christendom, and ending by declaring his
majesty to be invested with "that triplicity which in
great veneration was ascribed to the ancientHermes;
the power and fortune of a king, the knowledge and
illumination of a priest, and the learning and uni
versality of a philosopher."
At the same time this extraordinary man, with
true self-knowledge, thus expressed himself in a let
ter to his learned friend sir Thomas Bodley, accom
panying a copy of his work  "I do confess,
since I was of any understanding, my mind hath
in effect been absent from that I have done ; and
in absence are many errors, which I willingly ac
knowledge ; 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 preoc
cupation of my mind. Therefore, calling myself
home, I have now for a time enjoyed myself: whereof likewise

195
likewise I desire to make the world partaker." in
the reception of his speculations by the public, how
ever, his hopes were not to be immediately gratified.
The experience of ages has shown, that he who as
sumes the character of a reformer in the art of rea
soning, an expositor ofthe errors of tlie schools, soars
above the region of popular applause only to excite
the alarms, or encounter the hostility, ofthe learn
ed; whose pride, whose prejudices and whose in
terests he offends or threatens; Thus, whilst a few
inquisitive and enlightened spirits, such as Jonson
and Wotton and Raleigh, hailed with delight and
awe the discoveries of their great contemporary,
born to establish an era in the progress of the hu
man mind, the erudite disciples of aricient error bu
sied themselves in depreciating and decrying what
they would not or could riot understand. Osborn
adverts to their attempts in the following excellent
caution addressed to his son : " Launch not too sud
denly into a rough and deep censure of such authors
as you find go contrary to the high tide of opinion
for the present, lest, compelled to a retractation, you
confess yourself to be misled by the common preju
dice daily found in the ways of desert. As such must
needs be that would have cashiered Bacon's ' Ad
vancement of learning ' as an heretical and imper
tinent piece, but for an invincible strength of con
trary judgements that came to his rescue from be
yond the seasa." a Osborn's Advice, c. 10.
o 2 James

196
James was too well acquainted with the value of
such a servant and such an adulator as Bacon, to
resign him to a life of literature. Neither the in
sinuations of Cecil, who covertly depreciated his ta
lents for business, nor the attacks of Coke, who
openly disparaged his knowledge of the law, pre
vented him from being employed and consulted by
his sovereign. The good offices of lord-chancellor
Ellesmere came in aid of these beginnings of royal
favor, and in 1607 he was nominated to the office
of solicitor-general, sought by him in vain on two
or three previous vacancies. Business, both legal
and parliamentary, now flowed in upon him with a
full stream, and nearly absorbed that precious time
which he once declared himself to have dedicated
to higher and better purposes ; but his native ardor
remained unquenched, and it struggled on through
every obstacle to the accomplishment of those great
designs by which his memory has been at once per
petuated and in some measure redeemed.

CHAPTER

CHAPTER VII.
1604.
Peace with Spain, — terms murmured at. — Proofs that the
English ministers were bribed. — King's progress to Roy-
ston. — Puritans imprisoned for petitioning. — Cruel treat
ment of Pound a catholic. — Philip Herbert a favorite, —
character of him, — anecdotes of his marriage. — Venetian
ambassador and duke of Hoist. — Festivities. — The mask.
— Ben Jonson's mask of Blackness, — lady performers. —
Countess of Bedford, — verses on her — ladies Derby —
S. Herbert— Suffolk— E. Howard— A. Herbert— Effing
ham — M. Wrothe. Prince Charles created duke of York.
— New year's gifts disused.
A. HE principal political event of the summer of
1604 was the conclusion of a treaty of peace with
Spain. The articles of this accommodation excited
a general clamor against the weakness of the king
and the corruption of his counsellors. A positive
stipulation which they contained, that no aids what
ever should be afforded by England to the united
provinces in their contest with Spain, was consi
dered as highly derogatory to national honor and to
the protestant cause; and, on the whole, the terms
were perceived to be such as neither the success of
the past war nor the actual state ofthe dominions
of Philip III. could authorize him to demand, or jus*
tify the king of Great Britain in conceding. The

198
The chief odium of this measure fell upon the
earls of Suffolk and Northampton, whose predilec
tions had been long notorious ; and it was openly
reported that the first had reared his magnificent
seat of Audley Inn, and the second his splendid
mansion in the Strand, on foundations of Spanish
gold. These charges, and similar ones against
others of James's courtiers and favorites, though
matter of great publicity, were never brought for
ward in parliament or rendered the subject of any
judicial inquiry; consequently no particulars are
known respecting the sums paid or the number of
individuals by whom they were shared ; but nume
rous hints and notices in the letters and memoirs
of the day, fully establish the general fact, that the
peace was purchased ; and afford frightful glimpses
of the extent to which corruption had diffused itself.
The patriotic sir Henry Nevil, in a letter to Win-
wood, thus speaks  " We are now full of jollity,
giving entertainment to the constable (of Castille,
the Spanish ambassador), who, as I hear, hath nei
ther in pomp nor sufficiency answered the expecta
tion we have conceived of him. The peace is to be
ratified by the king upon Sunday next, and his oath
taken, and that day the king intends to feast him,
and the next day to dismiss him, and to return to his
interrupted progress, which he much affects. . . .We
say the Spanish ambassadors have taken up many
jewels here, we suppose to bestow upon our gran
dees ; so not to leave any advantage to the French,
who began that angling fashion unto them, with the
king's

199
king's privity and all men's wondera." Robert Ce
cil loved the Spaniards no better than became a
protestant of the school of Burleigh and Elizabeth,
and there is reason to believe that he always pre
served himself pure from the pollution of foreign
bribes ; but he was probably overruled by the king
in the conclusion of this treaty. In a letter to Win-
wood, then resident at the Hague, he thus betrays
his anxiety concerning the reception which it was
likely to encounter in Holland. . . ."I have thought
good to send you the substance of our treaty, which
you may use at your discretion, and as you hear it
spoken of advertise me, for I would be glad to hear
how the several wits do descant thereupon." He
adds the following trait of the profusion which James
had introduced into his English court : " The con
stable with the rest of the commissioners, all save
Taxis, are departing from London this morning ;
during the time of whose abode here his majesty
hath been very royal and magnificent in his enter
tainment ; the charge of all, since the constable's
first coming to Somerset-house, being, at the least,
3001. a day."
Levinus Monke also, secretary to Cecil, writes
thus in a letter to Winwood  "I am sorry to
understand the failing ofthe enterprise of Antwerp ;
I could wish it might go on some other way ; for it
would give exceeding great reputation to the States,
and I do think the most part of our English good
a Winwood, ii. pp. 25, 26. patriots

200
patriots would rejoice in it, that are not intoxicated
by the Spanish pistolesV
, Sir Charles Cornwallis, who attended the lord-
admiral in his embassy to Spain, and remained be
hind him in the quality of lieger, or resident, thus
opens his mind on the subject in a confidential let
ter to the secretary, now lord Cranborne : " I find
here by many arguments that this peace came op
portunely for this kingdom, and is admired of all
Europe, yea of this kingdom itself, how it was pos
sible, with so advantageous conditions to them, and
so little profitable to our realm, it could be effected.
The duke of Anera, discoursing with one of great
privacy and trust with him, after that he heard that
the peace was in such form concluded, said in plain
terms, that the king and counsellors of England
had not their senses when in such sort they agreed
upon it; and some Spaniards have lately reported
that the king of Spain's money purchased this quiet;
otherwise peace with so good conditions would never
have been obtained1*."
The fact is brought home in a different manner
by the following passage of a letter from William
Fowler, a Scotchman and secretary to the queen,
to the earl of Shrewsbury, dated October 1604:
" The Spanish ambassador hath been here upon
Monday, and hath presented gifts to the earl of
Pembroke, Southampton, Dirleton and others ; and
I will indirectly inquire if any be received for your
u Winwood, ii. 59. l 'Ibid. ii. 75.
lordship's

201
lordship's self. This remembering proceeds, either
to convail their former wants or former wrongs, be
ing done after the feast and the faira."
No sooner had the king dispatched the Spanish
ambassador, than, proroguing the parliament, he set
out on his progress ; fully resolved to suffer no cares
of empire to interfere with his darling amusement
of hunting, which he pursued for many weeks in the
neighbourhood of Royston, more, as it should seem,
to his own content than to that of his subjects, whe
ther rich or poor. A few extracts from contempo
rary letters will best explain the principal objects of
interest at the court during this period of recess.
" The puritans about Royston," writes a friend
to Mr. Winwood, " to the number of about eight-
and-twenty, presented to the king, as he was hunt
ing there, a petition in favor of their ministers. . . .
The king took in ill part this disorderly proceeding,
commanded them presently to depart, and to depute
ten of the wisest among them to declare their griev
ances, which ten were sent to the council, who after
examination gave them their mittimus : upon their
bail they are bound over to be ready to answer the
matter before the lords, when they shall be sum
moned  This last star-chamber day was deter
mined the case of one Pound ; a gentleman who
accused serjeant Philips of injustice for condemning
to death a neighbour of his only for entertaining of
a Jesuit. The lords by their sentence declared the

J Illustrations, ii. 26.

condemnation

202
condemnation to be lawful, condemned Pound to
lose one of his ears here in London, and the other
in thg country where he dwelleth, to fine 1000/.,
and to endure perpetual imprisonment, if he im
peach not those that advised him to commence his
suit;, and if he would confess, this sentence should
be revoked, and their lordships would otherwise de
termine according to reason. In the mean time,
Pound lieth close prisoner in the TowerV
Of the victim of star-chamber justice here ad
verted to, the following notice occurs in father Par-
sons's reply to king James's defence of the oath of
allegiance : — " I pass over the cruel sentence of
cutting off the ears of so ancient and venerable a
gentleman as is Mr. Thomas Pound, that had lived
above thirty years in sundry prisons, only for being
a catholic, and now last, in his old age, had that
honor from God, as to be sentenced to leese his
ears, and stand on the pillory in divers markets, for
complaining of hard measure and unjust execution
used against catholics, contrary, as he presumed, to
his majesty's intention b."
The following "reasonable pretty jest" is related
in a letter to the earl of Shrewsbury to have also
happened at Royston : " There was one of the king's
special hounds, called Jowler, missing one day : the
king was much displeased that he was wanted ; not
withstanding, went a hunting. The next day, when
they were on the field, Jowler came in amongst the

» Winwood, ii. 36.

b Butler's Memoirs of English Catholics, i. 297. rest

203
rest of the hounds ; the king was told of him, and
was very glad ; and looking on him spied a paper
about his neck, and in the paper was written ; —
' Good Mr. Jowler, we pray you speak to the king
(for he hears you every day, and so he doth not us)
that it will please his majesty to go back to London;
for else the country will be undone ; all our provision
is spent already, and we are not able to entertain
him longer.' It was taken for a jest, and so passed
oyer ; for his majesty intends to lie there yet a fort
night*." The anecdote may be regarded as a lumi
nous comment on Bacon's exposition of the abuses
of purveyance.
James's propensity to favoritism first displayed
itself in England about this time, in the extraordi
nary bounties which he was pleased to lavish on
Philip Herbert, brother of William earl of Pem
broke. Osborn has described this personage, whom
he served as master of the horse, as one of the most
contemptible of mankind ; and he has supported his
invective by some disgraceful anecdotes, founded
indeed in fact, but highly colored by exaggeration
and malice. Lord Clarendon, in more measured
terms, but not without that hostile bias which he
uniformly exhibits with respect to the partisans of
the parliament in the great contest of Charles's days,
expatiates at some length on his character and for
tunes. " The earl of Montgomery," says he, " be
ing a young man scarce of age at the entrance of
king James, had the good fortune, by the comeli-
a Illustrations, iii. 245.
ness

204
ness of his person, his skill and indefatigable indus
try in hunting, to be the first who drew the king's
eyes towards him with affection ; which was quickly
so far improved, that he had the reputation of a fa
vorite. Before the end ofthe first or second year,
he was made gentleman of the king's bed-chamber
and earl of Montgomery ; which did the king no
harm ; for, besides that he received the king's bounty
with more moderation than others who. succeeded
him, he was generally known, and as generally es
teemed, being the son of one earl of Pembroke and
younger brother to another, who liberally supplied
his expense, beyond what his annuity from his fa
ther would bear.
" He pretended to no other qualifications than to
understand horses and dogs very well ; which his
master loved him the better for (being at his first
coming into England very jealous of those who had
the reputation of great parts), and to be believed
honest and generous, which made him many friends
and left him then no enemya." It appears that a
brutal violence of temper, and a profligacy of man
ners which grew upon the feeble character of Her
bert by long indulgence, procured him in after life
the hatred of many, and the contempt of all men.
But he was now in his zenith, and on occasion of
his marriage, the favor of the king manifested itself
in that unmeasured bounty which he delighted to
shower upon the possessors of his affection. Lady
Susan Vere, daughter of the earl of Oxford and
» Lord Clarendon's History, vol. i. p. 59.. * niece

205
niece by her mother to the secretary, was the object
of Herbert's choice. The parties, "after long love,"
were contracted without the knowledge ofthe friends
on either side; but the king, "taking the whole
matter on himself; made peace on all sides." Crown
lands to the amount of more than 1000/. a year were
settled on the bridegroom, and masks and revels, in
which no cost was spared, gave splendor to the ce
lebration of the nuptials: The ceremony, as de
scribed in a letter from sir Dudley Carleton to Mr.
Winwood, displays in lively colors the manners of
the court and of the sovereign.
" On St. John's day we had the marriage of sir
Philip Herbert and the lady Susan performed at
Whitehall, with all the honor could be done a great
favorite. The court was great, and for that day put
on the best bravery. The prince and duke of Hoist
led the bride to church ; the queen followed her
from thence. The king gave her ; and she in her
tresses and trinkets brided and bridled it so hand
somely, and indeed became herself so well, that the
king said, if he were unmarried, he would not give
her but keep her himself. The marriage dinner
was kept in the great chamber, where the prince
and the duke of Hoist and the great lords and ladies
accompanied the bride. The ambassador of Venice
was the only bidden guest of strangers, and he had
a place above the duke of Hoist, which the duke
took not well. But after dinner he was as little
pleased himself; for being brought into the closet
..... he was then suffered to walk out, his supper
unthought

206
unthought of. At night there was a mask in the
hall, which for conceit and fashion was suitable to
the occasion  There was no small loss that night
of chains and jewels, and many great ladies were
made shorter by the skirts  The presents of
plate and other things given by the noblemen were
valued at 2500/. ; but that which made it a good
marriage was a gift of the king's of 500/. land for
the bride's jointure. They were lodged in the
council-chamber, where the king, in his shirt and
night-gown, gave them a reveille matin before they
were up  .No ceremony was omitted of bride
cakes, points, garters and gloves, which have been
ever since the livery ofthe courtV
The favors distributed at this sumptuous wedding
were estimated at 1000/.
The dispute of precedence between the Venetian
ambassador and the duke of Hoist, is highly charac
teristic of the parties. We learn from the diary of
sir John Finett, master of the ceremonies, that the
Venetian was, of all the ambassadors resident at the
court of London, the most vigilantly punctilious, be
cause the claims which he advanced, in the name of
his republic, to an equality with the representatives
of crowned heads, were often eluded or contested,
and always received with jealousy.
On the other hand, the duke of Hoist, a younger
branch of the house of Denmark, who had arrived
with a slender train and made but an insignificant

* Winwood, ii. 43.

figure

207
figure at his sister's court, had reasons equally co
gent for the pertinacious defence of his dignity.
During his stay in England we learn that he had
twenty dishes of meat allowed him every meal, and
some of the guard appointed to attend him. It may
be observed, by the way, that the entertainment of
the Danish and German relations, who arrived in
multitudes to pay their respects and congratulations
to the king and queen of Great Britain, and whose
expenses were always defrayed, appears to have
formed no insignificant item in the household ac
counts. Nothing was now thought of at court but amuse
ments and festivity. The brutal sports of the cock
pit, disused and even prohibited by Elizabeth, were
revived, and served to divert the king twice a week
in the intervals of hunting : revels and a mask of
noblemen and gentlemen were exhibited in honor
of sir Philip Herbert's nuptials, and the queen caused
preparations to be made for the performance of a still
more sumptuous mask on Twelfth night, in which
parts were to be sustained by herself and by eleven
other ladies of the highest rank in the country.
This pompous and operose species of entertain
ment, which the indolence or the economy of mo
dern greatness has long since consigned to disuse,
was the favorite amusement at the court of Great Bri
tain ; and since it was under the auspices of James
the first and his consort that it attained its acme of
fashion and splendor, a sketch of its distinguishing
features will not here be misplaced. The general
purpose

208
purpose of the mask, in which it bore some resem
blance to the Italian opera, appears to have been
that of associating all the imitative and all the deco
rative arts in the production of scenes of splendid
enchantment, which the intervention of poetical
fable was to unite and form into a whole. But two
circumstances, the rank, and often the sex, of a por
tion of the performers, and the nature of the occa
sions on which these entertainments were usually
commanded, overruled the genius of the poet, and,
besides rendering indispensable the introduction of
complimentary allusions, obliged him to provide for
the appearance of a number of mute, dancing per
sonages to be represented by the royal or noble
amateurs, whilst the whole burden of dialogue and
singing was to be devolved on a small number of
professional assistants.
Every thing resembling dramatic interest was
thus inevitably excluded ; but the absence of plot
and incident left the writer at liberty to lavish all
his stores of eloquence, of harmony and of fancy,
on the addresses of allegorical and mythological
beings, and on the appropriate songs with which
they were interspersed ; whilst the whole art of the
scene-painter and machinist was placed at his dis
posal. Solemn groves or pastoral valleys, gloomy
caves or stormy oceans, appeared at his command to
form appropriate backgrounds to his figures, whom
it was his further privilege to land upon the stage
from a car drawn by w inged dragons, to disclose in
the bosom of a parting cloud, or to roll forwards in
the

209
the shell-formed chariot of Neptune, ushreed by the
sounding conchs of the Tritons, and attended by
dolphins and mermaids.
The composition of these fanciful pieces was a
task frequently imposed upon the powers of Jonson ;
and it was one in which he delighted and excelled.
To construct upon a foundation of historical or my
thological tradition a slight but apposite fable ; to
enrich it, for the select few, with allusions drawn
from the most recondite sources ; to expound it to
the eye by symbols of learned significance ; and to
impart something of the classical and the appropriate
to the music, the dances, the costly and cumbrous
machinery, the varied decorations and the gorgeous
dresses, essential to these studied exhibitions of
luxury and profusion, seem to have been to him ra
ther an animating exercise than an irksome labor.
The march of his heroic verse beneath the double
weight of erudition and of magnificence, is unem
barrassed and stately ; while the dance of his lyric
measures is festive, light and graceful in an emi
nent degree. Strains of the highest poetry of which
the muse of Jonson was capable, animate his masks;
while their number and their unfailing variety ex
cite not only admiration but wonder. The glowing
sentiments of virtue and of heroism with which they
abound, reflect still higher honor on the poet ; but
they might almost be regarded as a covert satire on
the manners of the court for which this Samson of
learning was compelled to perform his feats of agility
and strength.
vol. i. p The

210
The Twelfth-night mask composed by him on
this occasion is entitled " The mask of Blackness."
In compliance with the very vulgar taste of her ma
jesty, he was obliged to introduce into it twelve
-.-Ethiopian nymphs, daughters of the Niger, who
make a voyage to Great Britain in search of a wash
to whiten their complexions : the parts of these ne-
gresses, who do nothing but dance, were sustained
by the queen and the other ladies with blackened
faces ; and the first scene displayed them seated in
an enormous shell of mother-of-pearl. With respect
to the queen, who, according to the testimony of Os
born, was gifted with " a skin far more amiable than
the features it covered," the choice of this strange
disguise was peculiarly injudicious, and it appears
to have cast an air of ridicule, or grotesque, over the
whole performance ; which is thus satirically de
scribed by sir Dudley Carleton, an eye-witness of
the scene  "At night we had the queen's mask
in. the banqueting house, or rather her pageant.
There was a great engine at the lower end of the
room which had motion, and in it were the images
of sea-horses with other terrible fishes, which were
ridden by Moors. The indecorum was, that there
was all fish and no water. At the further end was a
great shell in form of a scallop, wherein were four
seats ; on the lowest sat the queen with my lady
Bedford ; on the rest were placed the ladies Suffolk,
Derby, Rich, Effingham, Ann Herbert, Susan Her
bert, Elizabeth Howard, Walsingham and Bevil.
Their appearance was rich, but too light and cour
tesan-

211
tesan-like for such great ones. Instead of vizards,
their faces and arms up to the elbows were painted
black, which was disguise sufficient, for they were
hard to be known ; but it became them nothing so
well as their red and white, and you cannot imagine
amore ugly sight than a troop of lean-cheeked Moors.
The Spanish and Venetian ambassadors were both
present, and sat by the king in state; at which mon
sieur Beaumont quarrels so extremely, that he saith
the whole court is Spanish. But, by his favor, he
should fall out with none but himself, for they were
all indifferently invited to come as private men to a
private sport ; which he refusing, the Spanish am
bassador willingly accepted ; and being there, seeing
no cause to the contrary, he put off don Taxis and
took upon him El Senor Embaxadour ; wherein he
outstripped our little Monsieur  He took out
the queen, and forgot not to kiss her hand, though
there was danger it would have left a mark on his
lips. The night's work was concluded with a ban
quet in the great chamber, which was so furiously
assaulted, that down went tables and tressels before
one bit was touched*."
Of the female associates of her majesty here enu
merated, several acquired in various modes celebrity
or notoriety, and appear to require something be
yond a bare enumeration.
Lucy countess of Bedford, daughter, and finally,
by the death of an amiable brother, heiress, of the
'• Winwood, ii. 44.
p 2 first

212
first lord Harrington of Exton, possessed beauty as
well as rank and fortune ; and this combination of
advantages appears to have produced some unfavor
able effects, since caprice and prodigality are enu
merated as leading features of her character. But
amongst her tastes, or her vanities, a fondness for
poetry was conspicuous, and one of her modes of
expense was bounty towards the learned. Amongst
the printed letters ofthe once-celebrated Dr. Donne,
are several addressed to this lady, all in that strain
of quaint and far-fetched compliment which this
unfortunate man was accustomed to force from his
reluctant genius in requital ofthe pecuniary favors
of his noble patrons. Drayton, Daniel and Jonson
are also to be reckoned among her poetical eulo
gists. Through the cloud of incense which they
have breathed around her, it is impossible to discern
with clearness the true image of her mind ; but
Jonson always appears inspired in writing of her ;
and we may hope that there is truth as well as poe
try in the eulogy bestowed in the following exqui
site lines. ON LUCY COUNTESS OF BEDFORD.
This morning, timely rapt with holy fire,
I thought to form unto my zealous Muse
What kind of creature I could most desire
To honor, serve and love ; as poets use.
I meant to make her fair, and free, and wise,
Of greatest blood, and yet more good than great ;
I meant the day-star should not brighter rise,
Nor lend like influence from his lucent seat. I meant

213
I meant she should be courteous, facile, sweetj
Hating that solemn vice of greatness, pride ;
I meant each softest virtue there should meet,
Fit in that softer bosom to reside.
Only a learned and a manly sopl
I purposed her; that should, with even powers,
The rock, the spindle and the sheers control
Of Destiny, and spin her own free hours.
Such when I meant to feign, and wish'd to see,
My Muse bade, Bedford write, and that was she.
The praise of learning attributed to the countess
in these lines, is also ascribed to her by Daniel in
one of his poems ; and from a letter addressed to her
by sir Thomas Roe, it appears that she was skilled
in ancient medals. Sir William Temple also, in his
E^say on Gardening, has paid the following tribute
to her taste and accomplishments : " The perfectest
figure of a garden I ever saw, either at home or
abroad, was that of Moor Park in Hertfordshire
when I knew it about thirty years ago. It was
made by the countess of Bedford, esteemed among
the greatest wits of her time, and celebrated by Dr.
Donne ; and with very great care, excellent con
trivance and much cost ; but greater sums may be
thrown away without effect or honor, if there want
sense in proportion to money," &c. This splendid
garden, which sir William proceeds minutely to de
scribe, was formed on the slope of a hill, with two
terraces placed one above the other, connected by
noble flights of steps ; it was laid out in parterre
and in wilderness, and richly decorated with foun tains,

214
tains, statues, alcoves and cloisters. The model was
probably derived from Italy, and it appears to have
been very generally followed, on various scales of
taste and magnificence, by the English gentry and
nobility of that period. The garden described by
lord Bacon in his essay on the subject is on a simi
lar plan. But the prodigality of this accomplished
woman banished her from the paradise which she
had created around her ; and she found herself com
pelled to dispose of Moor Park to the equally pro
digal and not less accomplished William earl of
Pembroke, whose possession of it seems also to have
been transient.
There were at this time two countesses of Derby;
but the performer in the queen's mask was probably
not the dowager, who had remarried with lord El
lesmere, but the other, called for distinction the
young lady, who was a daughter of Edward earl of
Oxford by Anne Cecil daughter of lord Burleigh ;
she appears to have been a favorite niece of the se
cretary's, but we do not find any peculiar celebrity
attached to her name. Lady Susan Herbert, a
younger sister of lady Derby, was the bride of sir
Philip Herbert, and one of the reigning beauties
of the court : she was also the author of a little book
of devotion entitled " Eusebia, expressing briefly
the soul's praying robes."
The countess of Suffolk was a lady notorious for
the abuse of her personal charms, which were at
last destroyed by the small pox, and of her court
interest, which she afterwards deservedly forfeited. She

215
She was accused of being a large sharer in the Spa
nish bribes, and probably not without justice : but
however this might be, her scandalous venality and
rapacity became some years afterwards matter of
judicial proof, and involved in ruin and disgrace,
along with herself, her less guilty but not blameless
husband. The lady Elizabeth Howard here mentioned, was
probably lady Suffolk's daughter, afterwards mar
ried to Edward Knolles earl of Banbury. She ex
hibited the pernicious effects of maternal bad ex
ample by misconduct which had the cruel result of
fixing on her eldest son the stigma and the penalties
of illegitimacy. Lady Rich was the favorite and
devoted sister of the unfortunate earl of Essex,
whom she strongly resembled in the most striking-
features of character ; with something of his talents
and much of his activity, she united the same warm
passions, the same fatal impetuosity. Her story con
tains much to blame and much to pity. That au
thoritative interference which the guardians of this
age judged it allowable, or perhaps meritorious, to
exert, had forbidden her to crown the wishes of sir
Charles Blount the favored lover of her youth, and
compelled her to bestow her hand on lord Rich, a
man whom she detested : but no considerations had
sufficed to restrain her from cherishing in her heart
a passion now become criminal: the consequences of
its indulgence had been such as compelled lord Rich
to sue for a divorce ; and it was just after this pub
lic note of infamy had been fixed upon her charac ter^

216
ter, and before Blount, now earl of Devonshire, had
afforded her the countenance and protection of a
husband, that the queen of Great Britain, with the
levity which characterised her, had been pleased to
select lady Rich as an associate in her royal pas--
times. Lady Anne Herbert, a daughter of the house of
Russell and one of the beauties ofthe time, was the
wife of that lord Herbert who is known in later his
tory as the marquis of Worcester. She had been
maid of honor to queen Elizabeth, and apparently a
favorite ; since her nuptials, celebrated with much
festivity and splendor, had been sanctioned by the
approbation, and graced by the presence, of that il
lustrious champion ofthe single state.
Lady Bevil was probably a sister of the countess
of Suffolk, and subsequently countess of Rutland.
Lady Walsingham was ofthe queen's household.
Viscountess Effingham, married to the eldest son
of the earl of Nottingham, was a daughter of lord
St. John of Bletsho : of her a characteristic anec
dote is preserved.
In the diary of sir John Finett it is related, that
at the nuptial feast of the princess Elizabeth, the
lord-chamberlain had ordered that the lady of the
French ambassador should be placed at table next
to the countesses, and above the baronesses ; but
the viscountess of Effingham, " standing to her wo
man's right," refused to move lower, and so held the
upper hand ofthe ambassador's lady till after dinner;
when the ambassador, hearing of the circumstance, ordered

217
ordered his wife's coach. With much difficulty, how
ever, the countess of Kildare and the viscountess
Haddington consenting to resign their places, the
ambassadress was prevailed upon to stay ; " the lady
of Effingham in the interim forbearing, with rather
top much than too little stomach, both her supper
and the company."
One of these lady-performers, whose name is by
some acident omitted in the enumeration of sir Dud
ley Carleton, was Mary, wife of sir Robert Wroth,
and daughter of Robert lord Sidney. Whilst yet a
child she had been distinguished and caressed by
queen Elizabeth ; in maturer years she exhibited
both the virtues and the accomplishments of a Sid
ney. She had some merit as a poet, and she pub
lished in 1621 a pastoral romance called Urania,
modelled probably upon the Arcadia, and inter
spersed like it with sonnets, songs and other small
pieces of verse. Though now totally neglected, the
Urania had in its day considerable vogue, and was
accounted a highly elegant production : it appears
however that the warmth of its language called forth
censures ; an extraordinary circumstance, consider
ing the estimable character, and the sex, of the wri
ter. Her husband, to whom Jonson has addressed
an excellent moral epistle in commendation of the
innocence and felicity of the country life to which
sir Robert devoted himself, appears to have been
also a votary of the muses ; and with his concur--
rence the residence of his lady became, like that of
her aunt, the celebrated countess of Pembroke, the
resort

218
resort and asylum of men of letters. Jonson dedi
cated to this distinguished woman his admirable co
medy ofthe Alchemist, and her name is otherwise
transmitted with honor to posterity as the friend of
merit and the patroness of genius in distress.
The second son ofthe king, prince Charles, had
not accompanied the other branches of the royal
family in their removal from Scotland, probably on
account of the feeble state of his health : but the
king now caused him to be brought into England ;
and no sooner did he arrive than preparations were
made for his solemn installation in the title and honor
of duke of York. Knights of the Bath were made
as at a coronation ; the ceremony of creation was
performed witlrall the pomp and parade of the new
court; and the queen's mask, which was exhibited
on the evening of the same day, seems to have been
designed as a further celebration of the event. The
poor child on whose unconscious head all this mag^
nificence was lavished, though nearly five years of
age, was still unable to stand and to speak, owing to
the weakness and distortion of his limbs, and the
malconformation of his mouth ; and it might be sug--
gested, that sensibility or good taste would have
caused his royal parents to shrink from this prema
ture exposure of so unfortunate an object to the
public gaze.
Whilst the king was thus draining his coffers to
enrich his favorites and courtiers, and to gratify the
passion of his consort for show and pageantry, his
nobles and officers judged it fit to emancipate themselves

219
selves by common consent from the burden of new
year's gifts to the sovereign ; and even the purses
of gold customarily offered by the bishops and by
privy-councillors were no longer, it seems, " to be
had without asking." These gifts, the annual
amount of which was by no means inconsiderable,
were a kind of tribute which had been punctually,
if not cheerfully, rendered to the predecessor of
James, and one from which the courtiers of that
princess would not, it may be surmised, have found
it quite so easy to establish an exemption.

CHAPTER

CHAPTER VIII.
1605.
Letter of news. — Privy seals. — Earl of Nottingham's Spa
nish embassy.' — Stone the jester. — Embassy of the earl
of Herts to Brussels.— Anecdotes of the earl of Herts, — >
his quarrel with lord Salisbury. — Treatment of the old
courtiers. — License of the players. — King's love of wit. — •
Comedy of Eastward Hoe ! — Roaring boys and Roysters.
— Sleeping preacher. — Princess bom, — honors and gifts
¦ conferred at the christening. — Enforcement of conformity
against puritans.- — Catholics menaced. — Gunpowder plot
discovered. — Catesby. — Tresham. — Percy. — Garnet. —
Guy Fawkes. — Sir W. Stanley. — Proceedings of the con
spirators. — Letter to lord Monteagle. — Seizure of Fawkes,
— The conspirators proceed to Warwickshire. — Their re
volt and defeat. — Hagley hall. — Lyttelton family.— Ha-
bington family. — Hendlip hall. — Sir Everard Digby.
JN O sooner were the Christmas festivities ended,
than the king hurried down to Royston, his favorite
sporting station, "where and thereabout," as Mr.
Chamberlain writes to Winwood on Jan. 26th, "he
hath continued ever since, and finds such felicity in
that hunting life, that he hath written to the coun
cil that it is the only means to maintain his health,
which being the health and welfare of us all, he de
sires them to take the charge and burden of affairs,
and foresee that he be not interrupted nor troubled
with too much business. He continues still," adds
Chamberlain,

221
Chamberlain, " his wonted bounty, and hath lately
given the duke of Hoist 4000/., besides 100/. a week
he is allowed for his expense ; and 200/. a year in
fee-farm to the lord of Fife for his pains in the
union and bringing up the young duke of York.
You have heard of the putting off the parliament
till October, the reason whereof I cannot under
stand nor reach unto, unless it be that they would
have all the privy seals paid in, and that they would
have those matters of the church thoroughly settled ;
wherein it is hard to say what course were best to
take, for that more show themselves opposite than
was suspected, and the bishops themselves are loth
to proceed too rigorously in casting out and depriv
ing so many well-reputed of for life and learning,
only the king is constant to have all come to con
formity. Though he seek to be very private and
retired where he is, yet he is much importuned with
petitions in their behalf, and with foolish prophecies
of danger to ensue ; and great speech we hear of a
strange apparition lately at Berwick of two armies
that fought a long time with horse, foot and ord
nance. Our merchants complain exceedingly of
their hard usage in Spain, but promise is made,
that upon the lord-admiral's coming, all shall be
amended1." From this instructive letter of news we learn, both
that James had already recurred to the illegal and
" Winwood, ii. 46. oppressive

222
oppressive mode of raising money by privy seals,
that is, by forced loans, so often practised by his
predecessor, and that he had begun to dread the in
terference of parliament with respect to this exer
tion of prerogative.
The last paragraph refers to the sumptuous em
bassy about to be undertaken by the earl of Notting
ham, for the purpose of receiving the oath of the
king of Spain to the treaty which he had recently-
concluded with England. For this mission it was
judged that great talents were not required, and the
earl had to recommend him for the employment, the
dignity of lord-admiral ; the noble name of Howard;
a person commanding and even handsome at the
age of seventy ; an air of pomp and grandeur, and
a perfect knowledge of courts ; to say nothing of
his triumph over the Armada. He begged earnestly
to be created a duke on the occasion ; but his offi
cial rank being deemed sufficient, this favor was re
fused. To make amends, he was to bear the title
of his Excellency; and the sum of of 15,000/. was
granted him for his expenses, besides two king's
ships for his transport. His vanity and his habits of
expense induced him to conduct his preparations on
a scale of magnificence, and no fewer than six lords
and fifty knights were numbered in his retinue.
But all these circumstances of honor were insuffi
cient to protect him from the ridicule of the court,
as we partly learn from a lively passage in a letter
of sir Dudley Carleton's.
" Mv

223
" My lord-admiral's number is 500, and he swears
500 oaths he will not admit of one man more. But
if he will stand to that rate, and take in one as an
other will desire to be discharged, in my opinion all
men's turns will.be served. There was great exe
cution done lately upon Stone the fool, who was
well whipped in Bridewell for a blasphemous speech,
" that there went 60 fools into Spain besides my
lord-admiral and his two sons." But he is now at
liberty again, and for that unexpected release gives
his lordship the praise of a very pitiful lordV
The Spaniards had all possible reason to be satis
fied both with the terms of the peace and with the
person of the ambassador, who, in base oblivion of
the great contest of the year 1588 in which his own
laurels had been won, was now the friend, the ad
vocate, the pensioner of Spain. Accordingly, they
lavished upon him and his followers, the highest
honors, the most sumptuous entertainments and the
richest gifts which an almost ruined country could
supply. Besides defraying all his charges of diet,
carriage and conveyance as far as Valladolid, the
Spanish monarch bestowed upon the admiral at part
ing, presents to the value of 20,000/. besides a pen
sion of 12,000 crowns to himself, and other pen
sions amounting to 20,000 crowns more, distributed

" Winwood, ii. 52. Stone further revenged himself on the
author of his chastisement by the shrewd remark, e( I might
have called myjord Cranborne fool often enough before he would
have had me whipped for it." amongst

224
amongst his followers1 :" bribes which seem to have
startled the patriotism neither of the ambassador
nor of any other person concerned. It appears,
however, that some indiscretions of speech or con
duct into which the vanity of Nottingham had be
trayed him whilst in Spain, were so represented
to his master as to procure him, on his "return, a re
ception which he retired to digest at leisure at his
country seat.
Another embassy was at the same time to be dis
patched to Brussels, for the purpose of taking the
oath of the archduke Albert to the peace, in which,
as governor of the Netherlands, he was a party con
cerned ; and for this mission the ministers of James
cast their eyes on the earl of Hertford. It was
evidently well understood by this nobleman, that his
wealth alone had obtained for him what was styled
the honor of this appointment, and that he would
be expected to serve the king chiefly at his own
cost. For this reason probably, as well as on ac
count of his advanced age, he at first peremptorily
refused to go ; and it was not till after the receipt
of a " very express letter from the king, to injoin
him to obedience, all excuses set apart," that he
yielded to take upon him so heavy a burden. But
no sooner had Hertford pledged himself to the un
dertaking, than he declared with spirit, that he
would now be " as free as another " in his prepara
tions. On these it is stated that he expended 10,000/.
' Carte. beyond

beyond his allowance, and nothing appears to have
been omitted by him which his own credit, or the
dignity of his country, could be thought to require.
In what manner his pains and expense were requi
ted, will best appear from the remarkable anecdote
contained in the following letter written by Donne;
for the better understanding of which, the reader
will bear in mind, that the acknowledged legality of
the marriage of this earl of Hertford with lady Ca
therine Grey had transferred upon their son, lord
Beauchamp, the claims of the ill-fated Suffolk line ;
— claims however which had not excited even a
whisper against the succession of the king of Scots :
" I cannot yet serve you with those books of which
your letter spake. In recompense, I will tell you a
story, which, if I had had leisure to have told it you
when it was fresh, which was upon Thursday last,
might have had some grace for the rareness, and
would have tried your love to me, how far you wbuld
adventure to believe an improbable thing for my sake
who relates it. That day in the morning, there was
some end made by the earl of Salisbury and others,
who were arbitrators in some differences between
Hertford and Monteagle ; Hertford was ill satisfied
in it, and declared himself so far as to say, he ex
pected better usage, in respect not only of his cause
but of his expense and service in his ambassage ; to
which Salisbury replied, that considering how things
stood between his Majesty and Hertford house at
the king's entrance, the king had done him special
vol. i. q favor

226
favor in that employment of honor and confidence,
by declaring in so public and great an act and tes
timony, that he had no ill affection towards him.
Hertford answered, that he was then and ever an
honest man to the king ; and Salisbury said he de
nied not that, but yet solemnly repeated his first
words again. So that Hertford seemed not to make
answer, but, pursuing his own word, said, that who
soever denied him to have been an honest man to
the king, lied. Salisbury asked him if he directed
that upon him ; Hertford said, upon any who denied
this. The earnestness of both was such, as Salis
bury accepted it to himself, and made protestation
before the lords present, that he would do nothing-
else till he had honorably put off that lie. Within
an hour after, Salisbury sent him a direct challenge
by his servant Mr. Knightley. Hertford required
only an hour's leisure of consideration (it is said
it was only to inform himself of the especial danger
of so dealing with a counsellor), but he returned his
acceptation ; and all circumstances were so clearly
handled between them, that St. James's was agreed
for the place, and they were both come from their
several lodgings, and upon the way to have met,
when they were interrupted by such as from the
king were sent to have care of ita."
The indiscriminate bounty ofthe king had already
begun to defeat the only purpose which it could
a Donne's Letters, p. 214. ever

227
ever have been expected to answer, that of attach
ing all who approached him. It was no longer pos
sible for him to gratify the desires of his new cour
tiers without neglecting the claims of the old house
hold of his predecessor ; nor could he bestow lavish
gifts of crown land on his favorites of to-day, with
out attempting cruel and arbitrary resumptions of
the long established grants of former princes.
A court letter of the period treats feelingly on
these matters : " The old servants are in a manner
rather neglected than in the least measure counte
nanced : . . . . The oldest officers in court retire
themselves, and those more young, with their money
are suffered to purchase preferment : but, in gene
ral, the form is even as you left it, only, through the
number of people, meat and drink groweth scarce.
The king is purposed to take all woods into his
hands within the compass of three miles from the
water's side, and near unto his houses, and will allow
to such as out of time have enjoyed them as their
own, recompense according to discretion ; which
course will breed in many much discontent."
" The players," proceeds the writer, " do not for
bear to present upon their stage the whole course
of this present time ; not sparing either king, state,
or religion, in so great absurdity, and with such li
berty, that any would be afraid to hear them. There
is a book lately published, but not yet to be had,
touching the late peace; wherein the author, without
reservation or respect, discovers the whole intention,
nameth the complotters, and showeth the reason
Q 2 why

228
why it was concluded1." Of the license of the the
atres, here adverted to, a striking instance had re
cently occurred in the representation of a piece
founded on the Gowrie conspiracy, in which the
monarch in person was without hesitation introduced
on the stage. The play was indeed suppressed after
a few representations, at the instance of several pri
vy-councillors ; but it does not appear that any pu
nishment was inflicted either on the author or on
the theatrical manager. In fact, it was never the
practice of James to visit with severity failures in
the respect due to his person; for his temper,
though subject to gusts of passion, was, with some
exceptions, placable, and his genuine love of wit
pleaded strongly in behalf of literary offenders. To
this effect Howel the letter-writer has given us the
following anecdote :
"As I remember, some years since, there was a
very abusive satire in verse brought to our king ;
and as the passages were a-reading before him, he
often said, that if there were no more men in Eng
land, the rogue should hang for it. At last, being
come to the conclusion, which was, after all his rail
ing* ' Now God preserve the king, the queen, the peers,
' And grant the author long may wear his ears ! '
this pleased him so well, that he broke into a laugh
ter, and said, ' By my soul, so thou shalt for me ; '
thou art a bitter, but thou art a witty knaveb."
? Winwood, ii. 54. b Howel's Letters, part i. let. xxx.
But

229
But the courtiers and countrymen of James, irri
tated by a sense of the mingled envy and contempt
with which they were regarded by the English pub
lic, were little disposed to acquiesce in the forbear
ance of their master. A comedy called Eastward
Hoe! the joint production of Jonson, Chapman and
Marston, contained the following speech : " You
shall live freely there," (that is, in Virginia,) "with
out serjeants, or courtiers, or lawyers, or intelli
gencers ; only a few industrious Scots perhaps, who
are indeed dispersed over the face of the whole
earth. But as for them, there are no greater friends
to Englishmen and England, when they are out on't,
in the world, than they are : and for my part, I would
a hundred thousand of them were there, for we are
all one countrymen now, ye know, and we should
find ten times more comfort of them there than
here." This stroke of satire, probably rendered
more galling by the applause with which a London
audience would scarcely fail to welcome it, gave such
violent offence to sir James Murray, gentleman of
the bed-chamber, that he carried his complaints to
the king, and won from him by his importunities an
order for the arrest ofthe authors. In these arbitra
ry times, the chastisement of trespasses of this nature
seems to have been entirely discretionary ; and it
was thought likely to extend in this instance to the
slitting of the ears and noses of the culprits. Jon
son's high-spirited mother had even gone so far as
to procure poison to administer, first to her son, arid
afterwards to herself, in case no other means should
remain

230
remain of rescuing him from this brutal infliction ;
but the intercession of powerful friends, and proba
bly the king's personal esteem for Jonson, preserved
them from the danger ; aud the liberation and for
giveness of the terrified poets quickly followed.
Quarrels between the Scotch and English cour^
tiers were frequent ; and all the authority and ad
dress of the monarch often proved insufficient to
check the rage for duelling, which was never so
fierce or so prevalent. Meantime, the lax admini
stration of a prince whose time and thoughts were
alternately engrossed by the sports of the field, by
the squabbles of polemics, and by the trivial inci
dents of his court, produced in England the same
mischievous results as had formerly attended it in
Scotland. In the country, the oppressions exer
cised with impunity by the great, and especially the
frequent inclosures of waste land to the injury ofthe
poorer commoners, gave rise to popular commotions
almost amounting to rebellion, whilst the streets of
London were disturbed day and night with duels
and rencounters, and with the outrages of disorderly
persons distinguished by various cant names ; such
as roaring boys and roysters, who roamed about
in troops to the terror of the peaceful inhabitant.
We do not learn that any steps were taken by
James for the suppression of these formidable of
fenders ; perhaps because his royal mind was at this
time more worthily occupied with the important
object of sifting out the secret of one Haddock,
called the sleeping preacher. It

231
It was affirmed of this personage that he had the
faculty of preaching very learned and excellent
sermons in his sleep, though but a dull fellow in his
waking hours, arid known to be no great scholar.
He would even speak " exceeding good Greek and
Hebrew" in these nocturnal discourses, being other
wise ignorarit, as it was said, of the languages.
At Oxford, where this prodigy was first manifested,
the fellows and scholars of his college went as regu
larly to hear Haddock preach in his sleep as to any
other sermon ; nor were they ever disappointed of
his performance; in fact, so methodical was he in
his proceedings, that he never failed to pray most
fervently for the king and royal family both before
and after his discourse, which he regularly opened
with a text: yet, on concluding, he would wake^
stretch, wonder to see an audience, and remember
nothing that he had said. James no sooner heard
of his fame, than he sent for him to court, and went
in person to hear him ; and the secretary caused a
bed to be put up for the preacher in his drawing-
room in order to accommodate the curious, — or to
flatter his master, who had judged the matter so
highly deserving of his attention. His majesty pro
ceeded in the business with infinite solemnity and
precaution, and, after much cross-examination by
himself and his privy-councillors, actually prevailed
with the man to confess his imposture, and to give
in writing the motives both of his beginning and of
his continuance in so strange a practice. But his
first confession not being sufficiently explicit and
minute,

232
minute, we have a letter from the earl of Worces
ter, a leading councillor, to the secretary of state,
mentioning such points as his majesty, "out ofthe
depth of his wonderful judgement," required to
have further cleared.
The addition in April 1605 of another infant to
the royal family, — a daughter who died young, —
gave occasion to a splendid christening, in honor
of which several new titles were conferred ; particu
larly those of earl of Salisbury on the secretary ; of
earl of Exeter on his brother lord Burleigh ; and of
earl of Montgomery on sir Philip Herbert. The
duke of Hoist, lady Arabella Stuart and the coun
tess of Northumberland, a sister of the late earl of
Essex, were sponsors. Lady Arabella had obtained
on this occasion a promise of a peerage for one of
her uncles of the Cavendish family, the choice to
rest with herself ; but it appears that she would not
for some time engage to open her mouth, " so wide
as a bristle might enter," in behalf of Mr. William
Cavendish, who fervently desired and at length ob
tained the honor, because he had omitted in his ap
plications to her all mention of any gratuity " which
might move her to spend her breath for him." So
notoriously venal had these high dignities become
under the auspices of a prince profuse, necessitous,
and equally reckless of his own and the country's
honor !
Meantime, the enforcement of conformity was
pursued with a zeal and activity far exceeding all
that the former reign had exhibited ; and sentences of

233
of suspension or deprivation were executed without
remorse upon such of the clergy as continued reso
lute in the scruples of puritanism. In the days of
Elizabeth, to whom the puritans were the objects
rather of disgust and contempt, or at most of a
haughty indignation, than of that more inveterate
species of animosity in which fear predominates,
ministers and even favorites might still venture to
extend a kind of half-avowed protection to the suf
fering sectaries; hut James, who, out of his Scotish
experience of the inflexible spirit of Calvinism,
dreaded much more than he despised it, would en
dure no representations ; would tolerate no lenity or
remissness in the prosecution of doctrines which
he had branded rather as seditious than schismati-
cal. Hence the nonconformists were, for the pre
sent, abandoned without defence or shelter to the
lash of irritated authority.
At the same time, additional severity was menaced
against the catholics, whose increasing boldness
had become the object of alarm. " Our puritans,"
writes Mr. Chamberlain to Winwood, " go down
on all sides; and though our new bishop of London1
proceeds but slowly, yet at last he hath deprived,
silenced, or suspended, all that continue disobedi
ent; in which course he hath won himself great
commendations of gravity, wisdom, learning, mild
ness and temperance, even among that faction ; and
" This was Dr. Vaughan, a. sensible and moderate man, who
died in 1607. indeed

234
indeed is held every way the most sufficient man of
that coat : yet those that are deprived wrangle, and
will not be put down, but appeal to the parliament
and seek prohibitions by law : but the judges have
all given their opinions that the proceedings against
them are lawful, and so they cannot be relieved that
way. Then they take another course, to ply the
king with petitions, the ringleaders whereof were
sir Richard and sir Valentine Knightley, sir Edward
Montague, with some three- or four-score gentlemen
more, that joined in a petition for the ministers of
Northamptonshire last week ; which was so ill taken
that divers of them were convented before the coun
cil, and told what danger they had put themselves
in by these associations ; and that thus combining
themselves in a cause against which the king had
showed his mislike both by public act and proclama
tion, was little less than treason ; that the subscrib
ing with so many names were armatce preces, and
tended to sedition, as had been manifestly seen
heretofore, both in Scotland, France and Flanders,
in the beginning of those troubles.
"But now, to make all even, and that the papists
should not take heart upon the depressing of the
puritans, (or that indeed they did so, and flattered
themselves with a vain hope of toleration, or that
it was cunningly imposed upon them by the contrary
part,) upon Sunday last the king made a long and
vehement apology for himself in the council-cham
ber ; that he never had any such intention ; that if
he thought his sons would condescend to any such
course,

235
course, he could wish the kingdom translated to his
daughter : that the mitigation of their payments was
in consideration that not any one of them had lift up
his hand against his coming in, and so he gave them
a year of probation to conform themselves ; which,
seeing it had not wrought that effect, he had forti
fied all the laws that were against them, and made
them stronger, (saving for blood, from which he had
a natural aversion,) and commanded they should be
put in execution to the uttermost, and that this his
intention should be made known publicly ; as it was
on Wednesday last in the star-chamber by all the
lords in very ample manner; and likewise on Thurs
day to the lord-mayor and aldermen by the re
corder1." The catholics, to whom it is pretty certain that
James had given hopes of some important relaxa
tions^ the penal laws, — if not of an avowed tolera
tion, — were no less surprised than exasperated by
this revival of severities which they justly affirmed
that they had provoked by no new offences ; while
the puritans were incensed at the king's assumption
of the power of commuting by royal authority the
capital punishments enacted against priests and their
abettors, for the lighter penalties of banishment, fine
and imprisonment. Several statesmen also arraigned
the policy of a middle course, which irritated, with
out suppressing or materially enfeebling, a sect
• Winwood, ii. 49. which

236
which it was supposed that no concessions could at
this juncture convert into good and loyal subjects.
Affairs were in this state when, on November 5,
1605, the discovery of the memorable gunpowder
treason filled the country with consternation and
horror. The design of this great and comprehen
sive mischief to the protestant cause, — a design to
be paralleled in atrocity only by the execrable Paris
massacre, — is agreed to have originated with Robert
Catesby, a gentleman of fortune and consequence,
whose history is deserving of attention. He was a
descendant of Catesby the noted favorite of Ri
chard III., and enjoyed the family estate of Ashby
St.Legers in Northamptonshire. Of his education no
particulars have reached us ; but it was probably
conducted by some priest or Jesuit, who impressed
upon his tender mind maxims which rendered at
tachment to the church of Rome the ruling passion
of his life. As far back as the year 1588, his influ
ence, his talents, and, above all, his zeal, had ren
dered him an object of suspicion to the government
of Elizabeth, and he was one of those whom it was
judged expedient, on the approach of the armada,
to cOmmit to safe custody in Wisbeach castle.
Some years afterwards, he contracted a strict in
timacy with Henry Garnet, principal ofthe Jesuits
in England, to whom he lent his assistance in carry
ing on certain traitorous negotiations with the court
of Spain. He next, in common with several violent
men of his own persuasion, threw himself into the
designs

237
designs ofthe earl of Essex, but was cautious enough'
to escape punishment. Garnet relied upon his coun
sels in the perilous affair of the papal bulls which he
had received, prohibiting the recognition of James
as king of England ; and the priests Watson and:
Clarke are said to have engaged him in the obscure
treason for which they suffered. Soon after the
failure of this last atternpt, the king of Spain was
driven by the necessity of his affairs into a peace
with James, which cut off many hopes and projects
of the Romish faction. A Spanish invasion could
no longer be employed against the British govern
ment even as a bug-bear.
No articles in favor ofthe English catholics had
been stipulated by Philip III., as the party seems to
have expected, and in the mean time the admini
stration of James gained strength daily : already
had the king ventured to disavow the flatteries with
which he had formerly soothed the professors of the
ancient faith, and there was reason to apprehend
that the penal laws of Elizabeth would not long be
permitted to sleep. Amidst the rage and despera^
tion which these circumstances were fitted to excite
in the bosom of a man who lived to no other end
than the restoration of the catholic faith, the first
thought of the powder treason burst upon the mind
of Catesby. No scruple, no misgiving, appears to
have arrested him a single moment; to conceive the
design and to begin its accomplishment were with
him one act ; and he hastened to summon aroiirid him

238
him associates on whom he could rely for an atrocity
of principle not inferior to his own.
Francis Tresham, also a gentleman of family and
fortune, was an early depositary of this portentous
secret. He seems to have been the fellow-prisoner
of Catesby at Wisbeach in the year 1588, and since
that time had run nearly the same course of guilt
and danger. In the Spanish intrigues and the Essex
plot he had been a deep sharer, and he had further
sought to advance the cause by a Latin work " On
the office of a christian prince," in which he sup
ported in the strongest terms the right and duty of
deposing a heretic sovereign, or one by whom here
tics were tolerated or in any manner countenanced.
By him the proposal of Catesby was hailed with en
couragement and applause.
One of the next persons admitted into the plot
was Thomas Percy, the only one of the number
who seems to have been in any degree actuated by
personal motives. It does not appear that this gentle
man had participated in the intrigues with Spain ;
and so far from sharing in the papal scheme for the
exclusion of the king of Scots, he had visited this
prince shortly before the death of Elizabeth as the
accredited agent of certain English catholics, and
had returned highly satisfied with the promises, or
professions, of the monarch respecting their con
cerns. The failure ofthe expectations thus excited
had exposed Percy to the suspicions and reproaches
of those by whom he was delegated, and he there fore

239
fore felt it as a private injury, — an individual in
sult,. — which he resolved to retaliate on the king by
his assassination. But, on communicating this de
sign to Catesby, he was easily prevailed upon to
abandon a useless act of solitary vengeance, for the
comprehensive and efficacious plan of destruction
now unfolded to him.
Five or six other persons, principally gentlemen
of family and character in the middle of England,
were now received into the confederacy ; an oath of
secrecy and perseverance was administered to each;
afterwards they all received absolution and took the
sacrament from the hands of Tesmond, otherwise
called Greenway, a Jesuit. Some hesitation how
ever still manifested itself among the conspirators,
which occasioned Catesby to put the following case
of conscience to father Garnet : " Whether, for the
good and promotion of the catholic cause against
heretics, the necessity of the time and occasion so
requiring, it were lawful or not amongst many guilty
to destroy also some innocents?" The Jesuit an
swered in the affirmative, and even the weakest
brother was thus relieved of every scruple.
The next step was, to provide a person endowed
with the requisite skill and courage to prepare the
mine and set fire to the train of powder. Guy
Fawkes was judged fit for the purpose; and Tho
mas Winter, who had before visited Spain as an
agent in the intrigues of Garnet and Catesby, and
had there become acquainted with Fawkes, was
sent to Flanders in search of him. This noted cha
racter

240
racter was born of a gentleman's family in York
shire, but he had followed from his youth the pro
fession of a soldier of fortune, and the Jesuits in
Flanders had formerly dispatched him into Spain to
, concert measures there for an invasion of England.
Sir William Stanley, an English officer who, after
treacherously giving up a Dutch town of which he
was governor to the Spaniards, had entered the ser
vice of the archduke, was also applied to, and re
quested to provide a force to be landed in England
as soon as the blow should be struck. Catesby now
solicited the command of a troop of horse in Flanders,
by way of a cover for his military preparations, and
subscriptions were entered into by the more wealthy
of the conspirators for the purchase of horses and
armour. It was further agreed, that, after the ca
tastrophe, some of the confederates should hasten
into Warwickshire, where the princess Elizabeth
was residing, at the house of. lord Harrington, and
possessing themselves of her person proclaim her
queen. Percy, whose situation of gentleman -pen
sioner gave him entrance at court, engaged to make
sure of the young duke of York in case he should
not be present with his elder brother at the opening
of the parliament. In the name of this conspirator,
also, a house adjoining the house of lords was hired,
in the month of December 1604, in which he and
several of his associates shut themselves up and com
menced the operation of running a mine under the
walls; but, after laboringwith indefatigable diligence
at their task during a period of some months, an op
portunity

241
portunity offered of hiring the vaults immediately be
neath the parliament-house ; which they embraced,
and, deserting their mine, lodged in this place at
different times no less than thirty barrels of gun
powder. Successive prorogations of parliament postponed
the crisis of the enterprise for nearly a year and a
half, without causing it, as far as appears, to be
betrayed, or deserted, or even repented of, by a
single conspirator ; so inviolable did they hold the
religious sanction which bound them to each other ;
so effectual had been the casuistry of the Jesuits and
their own fanaticism in obliterating from their minds
all discernment of moral right and wrong, and in
expelling all sense of humanity or pity from their
hearts !
At length the period so anxiously desired ap
proached : on the 5th of November parliament was
to meet ; the lords and commons would be assem
bled in one house ; the king in person was to open
the session ; the queen, the prince of Wales and a
brilliant court would attend as spectators ; — when
all, — unsuspecting, unprepared, — all, without di
stinction of persons, would be involved in instanta
neous, inevitable destruction. The eve ofthe deci
sive day saw every thing in readiness : the casks of
powder had been lodged without obstacle or acci
dent in the situation best adapted to their destruc
tive purpose, and they were covered with lead and
stones to increase their effect ; Guy Fawkes, who
under the character of Percy's servant had closely
vox. i. a watched

242
watched the terrible deposit, had now completed his
arrangements ; the train was laid, the match pre
pared, the resolute incendiary ready at his post with
tinder-box and dark lantern ; and furnished with a
pocket watch, an implement then little in use, to
mark the destined hour. Nothing had been neg
lected in the design, nothing had failed in the per
formance ; and the conspirators were awaiting the
morrow in the full confidence of success, when a cir
cumstance beyond calculation as beyond control, —
the intense anxiety of a woman's heart for the safety
of a beloved object, — -betrayed the plot which she
appears to have approved, and saved her country.
There is strong ground to believe that the cele
brated letter designed for the preservation of lord
Monteagle, was written by his sister, who was the
wife of Thomas Habington, of Hendlip in Worces
tershire, a person deeply implicated in the meditated
crime, — and the progress ofthe discovery from this
mysterious warning is well known. Lord Salisbury
seems to have instantly formed a true conjecture of
the nature of the intended blow, having possibly re
ceived some previous hint of it, and this he suggested
to James with such adroitness that the monarch ima
gined the idea to have been originally his own, and
thus was induced to act upon it with double zeal and
alacrity. The earl of Suffolk, as lord-chamberlain,
was directed to make strict examination the day
before the meeting of parliament into all places con
tiguous to the house of lords : in the cellar he ob-
served Guy Fawkes waiting about in a suspicious manner,

243
manner, and lord Monteagle, who attended the
chamberlain, on learning that the place was hired by
Percy, a catholic and his friend, no longer doubted
the serious import of the warning which had reached
him. A magistrate, sent at midnight under color
of searching the vault for stolen goods, speedily
brought to light its dreadful contents, and seizing
Fawkes, committed him to custody. Then, and not
before, the conspirators gave up all hopes of success
in their grand design ; but instead of making their
escape, for which there was still time, they adopted
the preposterous resolution of joining their asso
ciates in Warwickshire, possessing themselves if
possible ofthe person of the princess Elizabeth, and
raising the standard of revolt. With this purpose,
Catesby, Percy and four or five others, rode with
all speed to Dunchurch, where sir Everard Digby
had undertaken to assemble their friends on pretext
of a hunting match.
The neighbouring counties of Stafford and Wor
cester had long been noted as strong holds of the
Romish faith ; the leading gentlemen ofthe vicinity
were almost without exception zealous in the cause;
and of these counties several of the conspirators
themselves, as the two Winters, the Lytteltons and
Habington, were natives ; yet it is affirmed that the
number of those who appeared in arms on this oc
casion never exceeded eighty.
The vigilance of lord Harrington preserved the
princess from falling into their hands; and sir Fulk
Grevil, deputy -lieutenant of Warwickshire, exerted
r 2 himself

244
himself in seizing the horses and arms of several
suspected gentlemen and making prisoners of their
followers. The sheriffs raised the country ; and the
rebels, being chased through Worcestershire, threw
themselves into Holbeach-house on the borders of
Staffordshire, the family seat of Stephen Lyttelton,
a sharer in the plot. This house, like most country
mansions of that age, was in some degree defensible ;
and the conspirators, well knowing their state to be
desperate, resolved to hold it out to the last extre
mity. But an accidental explosion of apart of their
gunpow/ler, by which several of them were wound
ed, shattered the roof of the building and rendered
it untenable. They now sallied forth, and in the
fight with the besieging party which ensued, Cates
by himself, Percy and three others were slain ;
Stephen Lyttelton and Robert Winter escaped, and
the rest surrendered and were carried prisoners to
London. The two ill-fated fugitives, after conceal
ing themselves for some weeks in a barn, where they
endured great extremity of famine and hardship,
were conducted by Humphry Lyttelton, a cousin of
Stephen's and a secret accomplice in the design, to
Hagley-hall. This celebrated seat, connected in the mind of
the modern reader with so many elegant and pleas
ing recollections, had owned for its last possessor
an unfortunate John Lyttelton, the elder brother of
Humphry and a catholic, who, by the rigor of the
law, had been pronounced guilty of high treason for
some slight participation m the counsels of the earl of

245
of Essex. A large bribe to Raleigh obtained for
him a remission of the capital part of the sentence;
but his estates were confiscated, and he died a pri
soner. His widow, Muriel daughter of lord-chan
cellor Bromley, seems to have been a woman of
sense and merit ; she educated her children in the
protestant faith, and by active solicitation had won
from James a reversal ofthe attainder, with restitu
tion ofthe family property. She therefore was at
this time the mistress of Hagley, and bound by every
consideration of prudence, of gratitude and of reli
gious principle, to the support of church and state.
For a woman thus situated, a more agonizing di
lemma could scarcely be conceived than the appear
ance at her gate -of the friend and kinsman of her
departed husband, — led astray by the same religious
attachments by which he had been deluded, — re
duced to the lowest stage of human wretchedness,
and imploring her to conceal and protect him from
the certain infliction of the same cruel and ignomi
nious death which that husband had with so much
difficulty and so much suffering escaped. But she
was at this juncture absent; and Humphry Lyttel
ton unwarrantably took advantage of this circum
stance to introduce beneath her roof these proscribed
traitors, to whom it was treason to afford a shelter.
They had little reason to rejoice in the step. A ser
vant of the house, to whom the secret was unavoid
ably confided, hastened to betray it ; and in a few
hours they saw themselves in custody. Humphry
Lyttelton also had incurred a capital penalty as an
accessory

246
accessory to their treason; but he is believed to have
earned his pardon by the discovery of more import
ant conspirators who were concealed at Hendlip by
its owner.
Hendlip- or Hinlip-hall, one ofthe most remark
able houses now remaining in the kingdom, was
built by John Habington, father of Thomas and cof
ferer to queen Elizabeth. This person, being a ca
tholic at heart and a zealous partisan of the title of
the queen of Scots, had judged it advisable to furnish
his mansion with places of concealment still more
numerous and more craftily devised than was cus
tomary among persons of the same communion in
that age of plots, penalties and domiciliary visits.
"There is scarcely an apartment," writes a modern
describer of Hendlip, " that has not secret ways of
going in or going out ; some have back staircases
concealed in thewaljs; others have places of retreat
in their chimnies ; some have trap-doors, and all
present a picture of gloom, insecurity and suspi-.
cion1." After an education at Paris and Rheims calcu-i
lated to confirm him in all the principles of his far
ther, Thomas Habington had entered into posses^
sion of his paternal seat, and soon after actively en
gaged in Babington's plot for the liberation of the
queen of Scots ; in consequence of which he under
went a six years' imprisonment in the Tower of
London. But his zeal being rather invigorated than

Beauties of England, vol. xv. parti, p. 184. exhausted

247
exhausted by his sufferings in the catholic cause, he
continued to hold constant intercourse with the.je-
suits, in whose school his principles had been formed,
and entered with ardor into the powder-plot.
To Hendlip therefore, as to an assured asylum,
two of the inferior agents in the conspiracy, and
two of the Jesuits by whom the whole design had
been instigated and secretly directed, repaired, on
the failure of their enterprise. But in consequence
ofthe certain intelligence which government had at
length received of their place of concealment, a party
headed by sir Henry Bromley the sheriff was sent
thither with orders to make a persevering and effec
tual search. Mr. Habington in vain denied with
imprecations that he harboured such persons under
his roof; the sheriff was resolute, " and proceeding
on," says a contemporary manuscript, " according
to the trust reposed in him, in the gallery over the
gate there were found two cunning and artificial
conveyances in the main brick wall, so ingeniously
framed, and with such art, as it cost much labor ere
they could be found. Three other secret places,
contrived by no less skill and industry, were found
in and about the chimnies, in one whereof two of
the traitors were close concealed. These chimney-
conveyances being so strangely formed, having the
entrances into them so curiously covered with brick,
mortared and made fast to planks of wood and co
lored black like the other part of the chimney, that
very diligent inquisition 'might well have passed by
without throwing the least suspicion on such unsus
picious

248
picious places. And whereas divers funnels are usu
ally made to chimnies according as they are com
bined together and serve for necessary use in seve
ral rooms, so here were some that exceeded common
expectation, seeming outwardly fit for carrying forth
smoke ; but being further examined and seen into,
the service was to no such purpose ; but only to lend
light and air downward into the concealments, where
such as should be inclosed in them at any time should
be hidden. Eleven secret corners and conveyances
were found in the said house, all of them having
books, massing stuff and popish trumpery in them,
only two excepted, which appeared to have been
found in former searches, and therefore had now
the less credit given to them 
"Three days had been fully spent, and no man
found there all this while ; but upon the fourth day
in the morning, from behind the wainscot in the
galleries came forth two men of their own volun
tary accord, as being no longer able there to conceal
themselves ; for they confessed that they had but
one apple between them, which was all the suste
nance they had received during the time they were
thus hidden. One of them was named Owen, who
afterwards murdered himself in the Tower, and the
other Chambers  On the eighth day, the before
mentioned place in the chimney was found ; forth
of this secret and most cunning conveyance came
Henry Garnet, the Jesuit sought for, and another
with him named Hall ; marmalade and other sweet
meats were found there lying by them ; but their
better

249
better maintenance had been by a quill or reed,
through a little hole in the chimney that backed
another chimney into a gentlewoman's chamber ;
and by that passage cawdle, broths and warm drinks,
had been conveyed to them1."
Among the conspirators made prisoners at Hol-
beach, and conveyed thence to the Tower, was sir
Everard Digby of Dry-stoke in Rutlandshire, whose
history is memorable as an exemplification of the
maxims then instilled by a certain class of Jesuits
into their disciples, and ofthe manner in which they
struggled in an ingenuous mind with a dawning per
ception ofthe genuine principles of moral rectitude.
This gentleman, — to whom the epithet unfortu
nate is peculiarly appropriate, since his crimes were
in the strictest sense his errors, — was born in the
year 1581 of a very ancient and honorable family.
His father was a man of learning and capacity, the
author of several philosophical and other works, from
whom his son was likely to have received a sound
and prudent education ; but his early deathleft young
Everard, at the age of eleven, to the uncontrolled
direction of certain catholic priests, who made it
their chief business to work, as it were, into the very
texture of the mind of their docile pupil these two
principles ; — the truth, the sacredness, the para
mount importance, of the catholic faith ; and the
merit, or rather the indispensable duty, of an implicit
'Beauties of England, vol. xv. part i. p. 187. From a MS-.
in the British Museum. obedience

250
obedience to ecclesiastical authority. Beneath this
heavy yoke of mental servitude, Digby grew, up a
spirited and accomplished gentleman ; his person
was of distinguished beauty ; he excelled in all the
exercises becoming his rank ; he appeared with ho
nor at the court of Elizabeth, and received knight
hood at the hand of James ; by whom this dignity
was bestowed without distinction of religion.
These advantages, aided by the good offices of
the priests, with whom he was most deservedly a
favorite, early obtained for him the hand of the
heiress ofthe family of Mulsho of Gothurst in Bucks,
which henceforth became his principal seat. He was
already the father of two sons, one of them the after
wards celebrated sir Kenelm Digby ; and blessed
with affluence and peace and the dearest ties of do
mestic life, his enviable lot seemed almost beyond
the power of adverse fortune. But the fatal bias
given to his mind by a fanatical education was in
vincible ; it received fresh force from the intimacy
which he contracted, — probably through the intro
duction of his ghostly directors, — first with Tresham
and afterwards with Catesby, and it fatally ended by
involving him in the atrocity of the powder-plot.
Such was his ardor in this design, that he offered a
contribution of 1500/. towards the expenses; re
ceived Guy Fawkes into his own house whilst the
crisis was deferred by the prorogation of parliament,
and ended by assembling the friends ofthe cause at
Dunchurch. Great pains were taken by the privy-council, in
conformity

251
conformity with the directions of the king and the
practice of the age, to extort from the prisoners ac
knowledgements of their own guilt and indications
respecting that of others ; and many even of the
principal gentlemen concerned, in fear probably of
the rack, which was actually applied to Guy Fawkes,
became as open in their confessions as could possibly
be desired. Digby alone persisted, with the firmness
of a religious martyr, in protestations of his igno
rance of the intended explosion, and of the partici
pation of any other persons in the conspiracy than
such as were already dead, or taken, like himself, in
open rebellion. The falsehood of these solemn pro
testations had nothing in it capable of shocking the
conscience of a disciple so well-grounded in the Je
suitical doctrine of equivocation. True to his prin
ciples, he avoided with the utmost caution any ad
mission which might tend, even remotely, to crimi
nate a priest ; and being asked whether he had not
like others received the sacrament upon the plot, he
denied it ; because, as he afterwards informed his
wife in a letter, he " would avoid the question, at
whose hands he received it." In this steady and
consistent part he persisted to the end; but the notes
written to his lady during his imprisonment, with
juice of lemon, and on loose slips of paper, which
have fortunately come down to posterity, exhibit a
truly affecting picture of his doubts and inward
struggles. The following are among the most re
markable passages :...." Now, for my intentions,
¦Jet me tell you, that if I had thought there had been the

252
the least sin in the plot, I would not have been of it
for all the world ; and no other cause drew me to
hazard my fortune and life, but zeal to God's reli
gion. For my keeping it secret, it was caused by
certain belief that those which were best able to
judge of the lawfulness of it, had been acquainted
with it and given way unto it. More reasons I had
to persuade me to this belief than I dare utter, which
I will never to the suspicion of any, though I should
to the rack for it ; and as I did not know it directly
that it was approved by such, so did I hold it in
my conscience the. best not to know any more if I
might. " I have before all the lords cleared all the priests
in it, for any thing that I know : but now let me tell
you what a grief it hath been to me, to hear that so
much condemned, which I did believe would have
been otherwise thought on by catholics ; there is no
other cause but this which hath made me desire life,
for when I came into prison death would have been
a welcome friend unto me, and was most desired;
but when I heard how catholics and priests thought
of the matter, and that it should be a great sin that
should be the cause of my end, it called my consci
ence in doubt of my very best actions and intentions
in question, for I knew that myself might easily be
deceived in such a business, therefore I protest unto
you, that the doubts I had of my own good state,
which only proceeded from the censure of others,
caused more bitterness of grief in me than all the
miseries that ever I suffered, and only this caused
me

253
me to wish life, till I might meet with a ghostly
friend. For some good space I could do nothing,
but with tears ask pardon at God's hands for all my
errors, both in actions and intentions, in this busi
ness and in my whole life, which the censure of this,
contrary to my expectance, caused me to doubt. . . .
But if that I may live to make satisfaction to God
and the world, where I have .given any scandal, I
shall not grieve if I should never look living crea
ture in the face again, and besides that deprivation
endure all worldly misery."
Thus wretched is the state of him who, having
given over his conscience to the guidance of others,
is blown about by every changing wind of doc
trine! In a subsequent letter, Digby states more expli
citly his grounds of belief received from Garnet,
whom he calls by the assumed name of Farmer,
that the pope approved the enterprise generally,
though without knowing the particulars. He also
says, that he dares not take the course which he
might do for rendering their enterprise less odious,
by making it appear who were to have been brought
out of danger; since that would now rather hurt
them; — but such measures had been taken, that he
does not believe that three worth saving would have
been lost1. This
a The curious papers whence the preceding extracts are taken,
were long preserved as relics in the Digby family ; and having
been found in the year 1675 in the house of Charles Cornwallis, esq.

254
This victim of priestcraft died deeply penitent,
and rightly sensible of the enormous crime to which
he had been seduced to lend his concurrence. He
begged pardon of the king, the royal family, the
parliament ; and declared that " had he at first
known it to be so foul a treason, he would not have
concealed it to gain a world;" and he called on all
present to bear witness to his repentance. His
youth, his personal graces, the constancy which he
had exhibited whilst he believed himself a martyr
in a good cause, the deep sorrow which he testified
on becoming sensible of his error, seem to have
moved all hearts with pity and even admiration; and
if so detestable a villany as the powder-plot may be
permitted to have had its hero, Everard Digby was
undoubtedly the man.
esq. executor to sir Kenelm Digby, they were printed in 1678
by Mr. Secretary Coventry in Proceedings, Sfc. relative to the
popish plot. See also Biog. Brit, article E. Digby.

CHAPTER

CHAPTER IX.
1606 and 7.
King's speech on the powder-plot. — Parliament prorogued.
— King's pamphlet on the powder-plot. — Conduct of Spain
respecting it. — Trials of several conspirators. — Speech of
Coke. — Trial of Digby,— of father Garnet. — Garnet's
straws. — Use of torture against the conspirators. — Ca
tholic miracle. — Behaviour of the king of Spain. — Lord
Monteagle rewarded. — Star-chamber sentence against
lords Mor daunt and S tour ton. — Case of the earl of North
umberland. — Parliamentary measures against catholics. —
Popularity of Salisbury. — Letter of sir II. Nevil. — Visit
ofthe king of Denmark. — Letter of sir J. Harrington, —
of the countess of Nottingham. — King's speech in favor
of a union with Scotland. — Causes of the rejection of this
measure. — James's conversation with Harrington.
J_ HE conduct of James with respect to the disco
very of the powder-plot was strongly marked with
his peculiar character, and, like most other important
passages of his life, has undergone great variety of
interpretation. The parliament being prorogued
for four days longer, was then opened by the king
with a speech intended to guide the judgement of
the house on this momentous subject. After some
preliminary trifling respecting three differentmodes
in which men may be put to death ; by other men ;
by wild beasts ; and by insensible things ; of all
which, it seems, the last is the most cruel and un
merciful ;

256
merciful ; he proceeds to descant on the particular
providences of the case in hand ; beginning with
his own miraculous mode of interpreting some dark
phrases in lord Monteagle's letter, " contrary to the
ordinary grammar construction of them, and in an
other sort than I am sure any divine, or lawyer, in
any university, would have taken them;" — whence
the search and discovery. " One thing for mine
own part," he is pleased to say, " have I cause to
thank God in ; that if God for our sins had suffer
ed their wicked intents to have prevailed, it should
never have been spoken nor written in ages suc
ceeding, that I had died ihgloriously in an ale-house
... .or such vile place, but mine end should have
been with the most honorable and best company,
and in that most honorable and fittest place for a
king to be in, for doing the turns most proper to
his office," A singular topic of thanksgiving surely
for a monarch !
With regard to the essential point, what was to
be done on the occasion, he praises the earnestness
and diligence of his loving subjects of all degrees
in this matter ; but adds, " It may very well be
possible that the zeal of your hearts shall make some
of you in your speeches rashly to blame such as
may be innocent of this attempt : but upon the other
part, I wish you to consider, that I would be sorry"
that any being innocent of this practice, either do
mestical or foreign, should receive blame or harm for
the same. For although it cannot be denied, that
it was the only blind superstition of their errors in
religion

257
religion that led them to this desperate deyice, yet
it doth not follow that all professing the Romish reli
gion were guilty ofthe same. For, as it is true that
no other sect of heretics, not excepting Turk, Jew,
nor Pagan, no, not even those of Calicut, who adore
the devil, did ever maintain by the grounds of their
religion, that it was lawful, or rather meritorious
(as the Romish catholics call it), to murder princes
or people for quarrel of religion  Yet it is true
on the other side, that many honest men, blinded
perad venture with some opinions of popery, as, if
they be not sound in the questions of the real pre
sence or in the number of the sacraments, or some
such school question ; yet do they either not know,
or at least not believe, all the true grounds of popery,
which is indeed ' the mystery of iniquity.' And
therefore do we justly confess, that many papists,
especially our forefathers, laying their only trust upon
Christ and his merits at their last breath, may be,
and oftentimes are saved ; detesting in that point
and thinking the cruelty of puritans worthy of fire,
that will admit no salvation to any papist. I there
fore thus do conclude this point; that as, upon the
one part, many honest men seduced with some er
rors of popery may yet remain good and faithful
subjects, so, upon the other part, none of those that
truly know and believe the whole grounds and school
conclusions of their doctrine, can either prove good
christians or faithful subjects." With respect to
foreign princes, he entirely acquits them of all
knowledge and consent in the matter, judging, he
vol. i. s says,

258
says, by himself, that no christian king could ever
"think a good thought of so base and dishonorable a
treachery ;" and he therefore requires that the par
liament "will reverently think and judge of them
in this case1."
Having thus instructed the two houses in what
manner he desired that this affair should be consi
dered and treated, James prorogued the parliament
to the 21st of January ; obviously for the purpose
of evading the zealous interference of the house of
commons. The trials of the conspirators were also
deferred for several weeks, during which time each
prisoner was subjected to long and repeated exami
nations by different members of the privy-council,
and strenuously urged to make full confession of
his offence. The delay rather exasperated than ap
peased the public indignation ; and as the utility of
this mode of proceeding was not very apparent,
men were naturally induced to suspect some my
stery in the affair, which every one interpreted ac
cording to his own views or prejudices. Some did
not hesitate to affirm that the whole plot, like that
of Raleisb, was a state trick to circumvent some ob-
noxious persons ; and to this opinion the catholics
in general, and especially the Jesuits, for obvious
reasons, gave all the currency in their power : ma
ny believed that at least the letter to lord Montea-r
gle was a fabrication of the government, and that
Salisbury had received his real intelligence of the

a King James's Works, pp. 501 et seq. ,
magazine

259
magazine of gunpowder from sources which he did
not think proper to disclose. The puritans, incensed
at the strange and strangely timed declaration ofthe
king respecting their uncharitable tenets, inveigh
ed with violence against his popish predilections,
and suspected they knew not what impending mis
chiefs. The " Discourse on the powder-plot," published
at this juncture anonymously, but afterwards insert
ed among king James's works, further illustrates
the views and sentiments of the monarch. The
narrative which it gives of the plot and discovery;,
though couched in terms of horror and detestation
against the fact, is remarkably free from all in
vective against the contrivers ; and it contains not
a single reference to the ferocious spirit of Ro
man-catholic bigotry in general ; and the multiplied
atrocities of which, since the reformation, it had
been the fertile parent ; — common places of all the
protestant writers of that age. The confessions of
Thomas Winter and Guy Fawkes appended to this
piece, are bare narratives of their own concern ill
the enterprise, which throw no light whatever on
the more obscure and distant ramifications of the
plot. But it is worthy of note, that care has been
taken to insert in Winter's relation an opinion said
to have been expressed by sir William Stanley, that
the archduke would not second any enterprise of
the English catholics, on account of the general
anxiety in Flanders for peace with England, and
the negotiations already opened. An explicit de-
s 2 claration

260
claration also occurs, that the conspirators had not
judged it prudent to communicate their design to
any foreign sovereign. So anxious was James that
no breath of suspicion should sully the honor, faith
and friendship of his most catholic ally ! Yet sir
Charles Cornwallis, in a letter to the earl of Salis
bury dated from Valladolid in October 1605, after
adverting to the busy zeal of Spain- for the spread
of the Romish faith in England,, had given the fol
lowing very remarkable advertisement : " Some
great matter, without question, this state hath in
stantly in hand ; the councils of late have very ex
traordinarily sat, and many juntoes out of common
form. A general stay they have likewise made of
justice to all or any of the king my master's sub
jects. And this very night I am secretly adver
tised from a councillor of state, to whom I am ex
ceedingly beholden, that he and others are com
manded to hold me in daily hope and expectancy,
but that the intention is to have the causes better
discerned into before they pass ; and now, for con
firmation of my belief, he sent me the letters he re
ceived to that purpose. / am of opinion that they
have some great mountain of hope lately fallen up
on them, under which, for the time, they sleep*."
On the failure ofthe blow, however, the king of
Spain judged that nothing better remained to be
done than to cultivate the pacific and amicable dis
positions of James ; and, besides heaping the most
" Winwood. ostentatious

261
ostentatious courtesies on sir Charles Cornwallis,
he dispatched an ambassador extraordinary to Lon
don, laden with rich presents for the king and queen,
and charged with messages of congratulation on
their signal deliverance. When cardinal Perron,
the French ambassador at Rome, mentioned these
circumstances to the pope, this pontiff strongly re
probated the dissimulation of Philip III.
At length, late in the month of January 1606^
eight of the most guilty of the surviving conspira
tors were brought to their trial in Westminster-hall.
Coke, as attorney-general, stated the case against
them with better manners and less of personal in
sult than he had been accustomed to employ towards
persons in their unfortunate situation : — for no other
reason, perhaps, than that he was disposed to view
this conspiracy as the act not of individuals, but of
a body, and came prepared rather to send forth a
manifesto against the church of Rome, than to pro
secute a judicial charge against a small number of
atrocious fanatics.
After a formal protestation " for the clearing of
foreign princes from all imputation or aspersion
whatsoever," he proceeded to trace as it were the
pedigree of this enormous villany down through
the whole series of plots of Romish or Spanish ori
gin by which it had been preceded. He exposed
the pernicious maxims of the Jesuits respecting the
deposition or assassination of heretical or excom
municated princes, and their detestable ones con
cerning equivocation and breach of faith wit
protestant^ ;

protestants : and he exhibited this order as the ori
ginal instigators and promoters of the meditated
treason. By this mode of treating the subject, so opposite
to that adopted by the king in his speech to parlia
ment, the spirit of hatred and revenge, which the
horrible nature of the plot had called forth, was de
liberately exasperated, and directed against all who
owned the name of catholics ; and the public voice
was encouraged to demand an extension of those
repressing laws by which even the most innocent
and loyal members of this communion had been al
ready stripped of so many of the dearest rights of
citizens and of men.
The style of this great lawyer affords a remark
able instance of the prevalent corruption of taste
in the reign of James I. ; and the weight of his
proofs and arguments is strangely contrasted with
such quaintnesses and puerilities as the following :
" S.P.Q.R. was sometimes taken for these words,
Senatus populusque Romanus ; but now they may
be expressed thus, Stullus populus qucerit Romam,
a foolish people that runneth to Rome." " Note, that
gunpow der was the invention of a friar, one of that
Romish rabble, as printing was of a soldier." "It
was in the entering of the sun into the tropic of Ca
pricorn when they began their mine; noting that by
miningthey should descend, and by hangingascend."
Another passage occurs worthy to be marked with
the strongest note of reprobation. " The conclusion
shall be from the admirable clemency and mercy of
the

263
the king, in that howsoever these traitors have ex
ceeded all other their predecessors in mischief, and
so, crescente malitia, crescere debuit et poena, yet
neither will the king exceed the usual punishment
of law, nor invent any new torture or torment for
them ; but is graciously pleased to afford them as
well an ordinary course of trial, as an ordinary pu
nishment, much inferior to their offence1." And
this was the idea of the power and prerogative of a
king of England which the greatest lawyer of his
age dared to send forth under the sanction of his
authority !
Few or no witnesses were called into court ; but
after the attorney -general had concluded his speech,
the examinations of the prisoners, in which they
had confessed their guilt, were shown to them, and
each man acknowledged his own. For the more
complete satisfaction ofthe public, the examinations
were then read aloud ; after which the jury deli
vered their verdict of Guilty upon all.
Theprisoners being severally asked what they had
to say in arrest of judgement, Thomas Winter only
begged that his punishment might serve for his bro
ther as well as himself. Guy Fawkes had no plea.
Keyes said " that his estates and fortunes were de
sperate, and as good now as another time, and for
this cause rather than for another." Bates and Ro
bert Winter craved mercy. Grant, who had been
principally active in the insurrection, after a consi-
a See Proceedings against the late traitors; (unpaged pamph.)
dcrable

264
derable pause, said submissively, "that he was guilty
of a conspiracy intended but never effected." Am
brose Rookwood, in a bolder strain, first excused
his having pleaded Not guilty, because he would ra
ther lose his life than give it. He then said, that
great as was his offence, he did not despair of mer
cy ; the rather, " in that he had been neither author
nor actor, but only persuaded and drawn in by
Catesby, whom he loved above any worldly man :
and that he had concealed it, not for any malice to
the person of the king, or to the state, or for any
ambitious respect of his own, but only drawn in with
the tender respect and the faithful and dear affec
tion he bare to Mr. Catesby his friend, whom he
esteemed more dearer than any thing else in the
world1." The full sentence of the law was inflicted on all
the prisoners.
Sir Everard Digby was put to the bar separately,
after the conviction ofthe other seven. He plead
ed Guilty ;- but afterwards " fell into a speech," in
which he stated that " the first motive which drew
him into this action was not ambition or discontent
ment of his estate, neither malice to any in parlia
ment, but the friendship he bare to Catesby, which
prevailed so much, and was so powerful with him,
as that for his sake he was ever contented and rea
dy to hazard himself and his estate. The next mo
tive was the cause of religion, which alone, seeing
' Proceedings, Sec. (as

i

265
(as he said) it lay at the stake, he entered into reso
lution to neglect in that behalf his estate, his life, his
name, his memory, his posterity, and all worldly and
earthly felicity whatsoever, though he did utterly ex
tirpate and extinguish all other hopes, for the restor
ing of the catholic religion in England. His third
motive was, that promises were broken with the ca
tholics. And lastly, that they generally feared harder
laws from this parliament against -recusants, as, that
recusants' wives, and women, should be liable to the
mulct as well as their husbands, and men. And
further, that it was supposed, that it should be made
a prcemunire only to be a catholic1." He ended by
requesting that his family might not suffer by his
fault, through confiscation of his lands and goods,
and that his own sentence might be commuted for
beheading. Neither of these requests was accord
ed, but his estate had been so settled that it could
not be forfeited. The attorney -general, the earl of
Northampton and lord Salisbury made replies to
Digby's speech, and refuted it as to different points.
It seems that the prisoner had throughout denied
his privity to the plot of explosion ; but Salisbury
remarked, that this denial was manifestly false, by
the testimony of Fawkes, then present at the bar,
who had declared that during the time of his stay
at Digby's house, much wet having fallen, Digby
took him aside and said, that he feared their pow
der might have grown damp, and some fresh must
a Proceedings, &c. be

266
be provided1 It may be added that his own letters
now place beyond a doubt his acquaintance with
this worst part of the conspiracy. Tresham, who
died of disease in the Tower before he could be
brought to trial, retracted in the last hours of his
life all the evidence which on his first apprehension
he had given against Garnet ; protesting upon his
salvation that he had not seen him of sixteen years.
This statement was afterwards disproved by many
witnesses, including Garnet himself; and this Jesuit
beirig asked upon his trial what he thought of the
perjury of Tresham, coolly answered, that he thought
he meant to equivocate.
The trial of father Garnet did not take place till
about two months afterwards. It was regarded by
the government as an object of great importance to
convict him, partly on account of the odium which
would redound to the whole order of Jesuits in Eng
land from the condemnation of their principal, and
partly because he was an old offender in the trea
sons of Elizabeth's time, for which he had sued out
his pardon on the accession of James. No pains
therefore were spared, and no means were scrupled,
to render the evidence complete. The confessions
of the other conspirators had gone far to criminate
him as an accessory before the fact, or at least a
concealer of the plot; but this testimony was not
legally sufficient for his conviction. On this account
he was subjected to repeated examinations by privy-
,l Proceedings, &c. councillors..

267
councillors, and all gentle methods Were used to in
duce him to confess ; but in vain, his skill and his
constancy brought him in safety through every trial.
Al length recourse was had to artifice. The keeper
of the Tower, by way of a favor, offered Garnet the
opportunity of conversing with Oldcorn or Hall,
also a Jesuit and a prisoner for the same offence.
Garnet, less wary than might have been expected,
embraced the treacherous proposal; two persons
stationed for the purpose listenedto their conference,
and heard him avow his knowledge of the whole de
sign, adding, however, that there was but one per
son in the world who could prove his guilt, and the
name of this person escaped the listeners. This not
very satisfactory corroboration havirigbeen obtained,
Garnet was brought to the bar. Thejesuit, certain
ly a man of ability, and apparently more of a Ma-
chiavelian politician than a bigot or enthusiast, con
ducted his defence with courage, moderation and
presence of mind ; and he availed himself of all the
nice distinctions, crafty turns and dexterous evasions,
of which his education, state and calling had taught
him the habitual and skilful use. That he was in
part at least acquainted with the meditated treason,
he did not now venture, in the face of all the testi
monies which had been adduced, to deny ; but he
sought to rest his justification on the plea of his
having come to this knowledge solely through the
medium of confession, whicli a catholic priest is for
bidden under pain of perdition to reveal. It is ob
vious that such a defence could not be legally ad
missible

268
missible in any protestant court of justice ; but the
crown lawyers contented themselves with showing
that it was false in fact. Garnet had clearly been
consulted out of confession ; he bad given letters of
recommendation, and lent assistance in various cau
tious but efficacious methods, to the conspirators; had
sent a gentleman to apprize the pope of the plot, as
of a thing which he could not but approve ; and had
absolved, encouraged, and relieved from scruples
those engaged in it. On the whole, he seems to
have deserved condign punishment more, and not
less, than any of the lay fanatics whose passions he
had excited whilst he lulled their consciences ; and
the jury without hesitation brought him in Guilty.
Nothing is more striking in Garnet's case than the
-studious publicity given to the whole proceedings,
and the apparent solicitude of the great officers of
the crown to avoid affording to the catholic party
either just ground of complaint or occasion of ca
lumny. Lord Salisbury claimed of Garnet, in open
court, an acknowledgement of the perfect humanity,
care and courtesy with which he had been treated
during his imprisonment; and stated that nothing
had been drawn from him by " racking or any such
bitter torments;" " a matter ordinary," he said, in
other kingdoms, " though now forborne here." On
the same occasion he exposed the falsehood of a re
port that Bates had retracted the evidence which
he had formerly given against Greenway, or Tes-
mond, the Jesuit; and he defended the animadver
sions on the perjury of Tresham which had been
published

269
published since his death, on account of the abso
lute necessity of avoiding " their slanderous reports
and practices." But no precaution can elude or
restrain the operation of party spirit; the innocence
of Garnet became the favorite dogma of his faction,
and the shameful termination of his treasons against
his sovereign and his native land was celebrated as
a martyrdom. A crowd of catholics of both sexes
rushed to the foot of the scaffold, caught his last
words and looks with veneration, and feigned or
fancied that his sacred character was stamped by a
miracle. The perfect impression of his face, crowned
with the halo of saintship, was affirmed to be visible
on the straws used to dry up his blood on the scaf
fold, and they were long preserved as holy relics.
Osborn says that he had held one of them in his
hand ; and the prodigy is frequently alluded to, with
reverence or scorn, by the catholic or protestant
champions* of the age.
Notwithstanding the general disclaimer of the use
of torture by the minister, catholic writers affirm
that Oldcorn the Jesuit was "five several times rack
ed in the Tower, and once with the utmost severity
for several hours1." It is expressly stated in the
account published by authority that Guy Fawkes
came to his trial weakened by the effects of the
rack ; and Owen, the servant Of Garnet, who died
in prison, by his own hand according to the protest
ant accounts, is said by the catholics, with at least
• Butler's Memoirs of English Catholics, ii. 260. equal

270
equal probability, to have expired under the torture.
Even the words of Salisbury, taken with the con
text, may be thought to assert no more than that
the principal actors in the conspiracy were not sub
jected to this infliction ; and he excuses the artifice
which had been employed for the detection of Gar
net by saying, that if the truth could not thus have
been elicited, it must have been forced from him by
torture : a practice which the government was un
willing to resort to, evidently not from any scruples
of its own, but on account of what was called the
clamor raised by the catholics, and the calumnies
which they founded upon its employment.
It should be remembered' that this atrocious prac
tice, of which it was accounted factious in the ca
tholics to complain, was at all periods unwarranted
by the law of England ; and that Elizabeth herself,
by whom, to her eternal reprOach, it had been more
frequently used than by any of her predecessors, or
perhaps all of them put together, had been compelled
by public indignation to renounce it. Yet, in the
temper of the nation after the detection of the pow
der-plot, there can be no doubt that it might with per
fect safety have been avowedly recurred to against
all the conspirators ; and it is probable that the king
deserves the credit of whatever forbearance was in
reality exercised.
The Jesuit Oldcorn, otherwise Hall, who was do
mesticated at Hendlip, and who had said to Hum
phry Lyttelton that the failure of the plot did not
render the attempt less just, was tried, convicted, and

271
and suffered the penalty of treason at Worcester.
" His head and quarters," says a catholic writer,
" were set up on poles in different parts of that city ;
his heart and bowels were east into the fire, which
continued sending forth a lively flame for sixteen
days, notwithstanding the rains that fell during that
time ; whicli was looked upon as a prodigy, and as a
testimony of his innocence1."
Several other persons were put to death in War
wickshire and the adjacent counties, either for their
personal concern in the insurrection, or for the har
bouring of proclaimed traitors. One offender, who
had sought refuge in France, was given up with
alacrity by Henry IV. ; but two others, Baldwyne
and Owen, who were exiles or residents in Flan
ders, though demanded by James, on full proof, as
it is said, of their acquaintance with the powder-
plot, were withheld by the archduke. He pleaded,
that over the first, being a Jesuit, he had no juris
diction, and that he could not give up the other
without the consent of the king of Spain, whose
particular servant he was. His most catholic ma
jesty likewise, in spite of all the remonstrances and
reclamations of the English ministry, persisted in
affording to these men a zealous kind of protection,
which excited the foulest suspicions in the mind of
Salisbury, without disturbing for a moment, as it
should seem, the blind and obstinate confidence of
James in the friendship of his high ally.
a Chaloner's Memoirs of missionary priests, vol. ii. p. 488.
Lord

272
Lord Monteagle was rewarded for his communi
cation of the important letter by a grant of crown
land and a pension ; and at his intercession, the
life of his brother-in-law, Thomas Habington, was
spared, on condition of his confining himself for life
within the county of Worcester. Habington was a
man of literary habits, acquired chiefly during his
former long imprisonment, and he calmly occupied
the remaining forty years of his life in making col
lections for the history of his county, which were
afterwards arranged and employed by Dr. Nash.
Habington the poet, author of an elegant series of
love-sonnets, entitled Castara, was his son.
Two catholic peers, the lords Mordaunt andStour-
ton, were condemned in the star-chamber to fines,
the first of 10,000, the second of 6,000 marks, on a
suspicion of participation in the plot, founded on
their absence from parliament. To be bound by
none of the rules of legal evidence, and to punish
at discretion, were the peculiar privileges of this
" den of arbitrary justice," as it is emphatically
called by Osborn. A more severe infliction was in
store for the earl of Northumberland : The relation
ship in which this nobleman stood to Percy the
conspirator, who was also agent for his estates in the
north, caused his arrest two days after the disco
very ; it was proved that Thomas Percy had called
on the earl at Sion, in his way to London, a few days
before ; and the probability that he might then have
given some intimation to his friend and patron to
induce him to absent himself from parliament, ap
peared

273
peared so strong, that Northumberland's commit
ment to private custody till the matter could be in
vestigated, can scarcely be deemed an act of rigor.
But he was soon after transferred to the Tower ; and
when no evidence apppeared to convict him of any
knowledge ofthe plot, he was proceeded against in
the star-chamber on an accusation of which the follow
ing were the principal articles : — -That he had endea
voured to be the head of the papists, and to procure
them toleration ; — an indefinite charge which might
imply nothing improper : — that he, being captain of
the gentlemen-pensioners, had admitted Percy into
the band without administering the oath of supre
macy, knowing him to be a popish recusant ; — a vio
lation of the law, it is true, but one which the king
himself must apparently have connived at, since no
one could be better acquainted with the religious
principles of Percy. Other counts charged it upon
him, that he, being a privy-councillor and so bound
to watch over the safety of the state, had written
letters to his servants and friends in the north, di
recting them to keep his revenues out of the hands
of his agent Percy, whom he then imagined to have
fled into those parts, without at the same time giving
directions for the apprehension of this proclaimed
traitor. For these offences, or rather perhaps on
these pretexts, the unfortunate earl was adjudged to
pay a fine to the king of 30,000/. ; to be deprived
ofthe offices of captain ofthe pensioners, of privy -
counciflor, of lord-lieutenant of a county, and of any
others which he might hold ; he was declared inca-
vol. i. t pable

274"
pable of all offices for the future, and further sen
tenced to imprisonment in the Tower for life.
Several petitions of this nobleman have been pre
served, earnestly praying for some mitigation of a
doom scarcely less terrible than death itself : but it
was long before he could obtain any abatement of
his exorbitant fine, because, as the petitioner was
informed, the sum was wanted for the payment of
the queen's debts; and it was not till the end of six
teen years that the intercession of a favorite, who
had married one of his daughters, wrung from James
an order for his liberation. The true cause of this
inflexibility on the part of the king is still a mystery.
It is well known that this earl was extremely ob
noxious to Salisbury ; but it appears improbable that
any effects of this minister's hostility should have
survived himself so many years.
On the reassembling of parliament, the house of
commons passed with great eagerness a number of
additional acts for the suppression or punishment of
popery. By these statutes heavy penalties were
denounced on absence from the established worship,
on catholic baptisms, marriages and burials, and on
sending children abroad for education. Recusants
were declared incapable of holding any offices, ju
dicial, civil, military or naval, or of practising law or
physic ; they were forbidden to come to the court,
or to remain in London, unless they exercised some
regular calling, there, or to travel five miles from
home without a license ; and they were declared to
be, in all respects, as excommunicated persons. Theoath

275
oath of allegiance might at any time be administered
to convicted recusants and to strangers ; to refuse i*.
incurred a praemunire;, and it was made high treason
to be reconciled, or to reconcile others, to the church
of Rome, and to absolve from allegiance. Recusants
were also to deliver up their arms and gunpowder,
and to keep none in future ; and authority was
granted to magistrates to search private houses for
catholic books, relics and implements of worship,
and to carry away, burn and deface them: a power
productive, as may readily be imagined, of innume
rable acts of violence, rapacity and insult. The fifth
of November was likewise appointed to be observed
for ever as a day of solemn thanksgiving1.
The puritans, delighted to gratify their religi
ous antipathies on the plea, of political precaution,
exerted themselves with peculiar activity in fixing
this heavy yoke on the necks ofthe unfortunate ca
tholics. The king, on the contrary, anxious to con
ciliate resentments which had so lately threatened
his life, manifested in various ways his disapproba
tion of enactments which he judged dangerous,
but without venturing to refuse tjiem his- assent.
The courtiers eulogized his moderation and styled
it magnanimity ; whilst the popular party arraigned
his timorous, temporising policy; and Salisbury, true
to the maxims which had long taught the Roman
catholic party to tremble at the name of Cecil, un
relentingly pursued its destruction, in defiance of
" Statutes at large, 3 Jac. I. c. 5.
t 2 the

276
the wishes, the fears, or the scruples, of a master to
whom he felt himself necessary, and whom he pro
bably despised. In a letter addressed to Winwood,
the minister commends this session of parliament
for the religious zeal of both houses, and the good
laws made "against popery and those firebrands
Jesuits and priests, that seek to bring all things into
confusion." He then mentions with triumph the
king's resolution once more to banish them all, and
to execute the law without more forbearance upon
the refractory. But in this resolution James soon
slackened, if indeed he was ever sincere in profess
ing it ; and it may safely be affirmed, that the only
thing entirely agreeable to him in the acts of this
session of parliament was a grant of three subsidies
and six fifteenths, which the loyalty ofthe two houses,
enlivened by a false report ofthe king's assassination,
which diffused a violent panic during several hours,
induced them to grant to his necessities. The ex
ertions of Salisbury in the detection of the plot we/e
rewarded by the order of the garter.
A letter from sir Henry Nevil, a popular member
of parliament, to Winwood, throws much light on
the state of things at this juncture.
"My lord (Salisbury) hath gotten much love and
honor this parliament by his constant dealing in
matters of religion ; some fruit of it was seen in his
attendance to the installation, being such as, I dare
avow, never subject had in any memory. I hope
it will confirm and strengthen him in his good pro
ceedings. "For

277
" For my own business, I am at a stand if I go not
backward. This parliament hath done me no good,
where not only speeches and actions, but counte
nances, and conversations with men disliked, hath
been observed. But in these points I cannot betray
my own mind, speed as it will. Our laws against
recusants have been very sharp, insomuch as we are
devising already how we may qualify them in the
execution. But the mischief is, that some of them
stand upon incapacities, which are immediately in
flicted by the law itself, and cannot be dispensed ;
which troubles us much."
In the same letter, the following notices likewise
occur : — " Upon Sunday last there were divers
merchants and merchants' wives at the court, and
rftade grievous complaints unto the king, the one
of their servants, the other of their husbands, im
prisoned and put to the gallies in Spain, and of
much injustice and oppression done there to our
nation, besides some particular contumely to the
king personally ; the like complaint was made before
the lords. I hear it hath moved much, and this I
will assure you, that the kingdom generally wishes
this peace broken ; but Jacobus Pacificus I believe
will scarce incline to that side. We are in daily
expectation of the king of Denmark's arrival and
the queen's delivery, charges that we have little
need of.
" I suppose you hear that my lord Erskine and
sir John Ramsey are made viscounts, and the latter
hath a 1000/. land given him to support the title ;
so

278
so the king's land, inclosed to all other, is only open
to them ; yet there is an expectation of some pro
motions at the christening of the queen's child1."
The king of Denmark made his threatened visit
in July 1606 ; he remained in England a month,
during which time, according to Wilson, " the
court, city, and some parts of the country, with
banquetings, masks, dancings, tilting, barriers and
other gallantry (besides the manly sports of wrest
ling, and the brutish sports of baiting with beasts),
swelled to such a greatness, as if there were an in
tention in every particular man this way to have
blown up himself'"."
But these inordinate expenses were not, appa
rently, the greatest evil attendant on this royal visit.
Christian IV. was not less addicted to deep carouses
than his illustrious predecessor the uncle of prince
Hamlet ; and the effects of his gracious example in
this point may be learned by the following descrip
tion, from the lively pen of sir John Harrington, of
an entertainment given him at Theobalds by the
earl of Salisbury, for which Ben Jonson was em
ployed, very superfluously, to compose erudite in
scriptions in Latin.
"In compliance with your asking, now shall you
accept my poor account of rich doings. I came here
a day or two before the Danish king carne, and from
the day he did come until this hour, I have been
* Winwood, ii. 226.
b Wilson's History of Great Britain, p. 33.
well-

279
well-nigh overwhelmed with carousal and sports of
all kinds. The sports began each day in such man
ner and such sort as had well-nigh persuaded me of
Mahomet's paradise. We had women, and indeed
wine too, of such plenty as would have astonished
each sober beholder. Our feasts were magnificent,
and the two royal guests did most lovingly embrace
each other at table. I think the Dane hath strangely
wrought on ourgoodEnglish nobles ; for those whom
I never could get to taste good liquor, now follow
the fashion and wallow in beastly delights. The
ladies abandon their sobriety, and are seen to roll
about in intoxication. In good sooth, the parlia
ment did kindly to provide his majesty so seasonably
with money, for there hath been no lack of good
living; shows, sights and banquetings from morn
to eve.
" One day a great feast was held, and after dinner,
the representation of Solomon his temple and the
coming of the queen of Sheba was made, or, I may
better say, was meant to have been made before their
.majesties, by device of the earl of Salisbury and
others. — But alas ! as all earthly things do fail to
poor mortals in enjoyment, so did prove our present
ment hereof. The lady who did play the queen's
part, did carry most precious gifts to both their ma
jesties, but, forgetting the steps arising to the cano
py, overset her caskets into his Danish majesty's lap,
and fell at his feet, though I rather think it was in
his face. Much was the hurry and confusion ; cloths
and napkins were at hand to make all clean. His
majesty

280
majesty then got up, and would dance with the queen
of Sheba ; but he fell down and humbled himself be
fore her, and was carried to an inner chamber and
laid on a bed of state ; which was not a little defiled
with the presents ofthe queen which had been be
stowed on his garments ; such as wine, cream, beve
rage, cakes, spices and other good matters. The
entertainment and show went forward, and most of
the presenters went backward, or fell down ; wine
did so occupy their upper chambers. Now did ap
pear in rich dress, Faith, Hope and Charity : Hope
did essay to speak, but wine rendered her endea
vours so feeble that she withdrew, and hoped the
king would excuse her brevity : Faith was then
alone, for I am certain she was not joined with good
works, and left the court in a staggering condition :
Charity came to the king's feet and seemed to cover
the multitude of sins her sisters had committed ; in
some sort she made obeisance and brought gifts,
but said she would return home again, as there was
no gift which heaven had not already given his ma
jesty. She then returned to Faith and Hope, who
were both sick .... in the lower hall. Next came
Victory in bright armour, and by a strange med
ley of versification did endeavour to make suit to
the king. But Victory did not triumph long ; for,
after much lamentable utterance, she was led away
like a silly captive, and laid to sleep in the outer
steps of the antichamber. Now Peace did make
entry, and strive to get foremost to the king ; but I
grieve to tell how great wrath she did discover unto
those

281
those of her attendants ; and, much contrary to her
semblance, most rudely made war with her olive
branch, and laid on the pates of those who did op
pose her coming.
" I have much marvelled at these strange page
antries, and they do bring to my remembrance what
passed of this sort in our queen's days ; of which I
was sometimes an humble presenter and assistant :
but I did ne'er see such lack of good order, discre
tion and sobriety, as I have now done-
" I have passed much time in seeing the royal
sports of hunting and hawking, where the manners
were such as made me devise the beasts were pur
suing the sober creation, and not man in quest of
exercise or food. I will now in good sooth declare
to you, who will not blab, that the gunpowder fright
is got out of all our heads, and we are going on
hereabouts as if the devil was contriving every man
should blow up himself, by wild riot, excess, and
devastation of time and temperance.
" The great ladies go well masked, and indeed it
be the only show of their modesty to conceal their
countenance ; but, alack, they meet with such coun
tenance to uphold their strange doings, that I mar
vel not at ought that happens. The lord of the
mansion is overwhelmed in preparations at Theo
balds, and doth marvellously please both kings with
good meat, good drink, and good speeches. I do
often say, but not aloud, that the Danes have again
conquered the Britons; for I see no man, or wo
man either, that can now comniand himself or her self.

282
self, I wish I was at-home: ' Orus, quando te
aspiciam ? ' — And I will before prince Vaudefnont
cometh. " I hear the uniting the kingdoms is now at hand;
when the parliament is held, more will be done in
this matter. Bacon is to manage all this affair, as
who can better do these state jobs. .... .If you
would wish to see how folly doth grow, come up
quickly ; otherwise stay where you are, and medi
tate on the future mischiefs of those our posterity,
who shall learn the good lessons and examples held
forth in these days1."
Of the behaviour of the king of Denmark during
his visit to England, another disgraceful trait is
placed on record by the following letter addressed
by Margaret countess of Nottingham, a lady of the
Stuart family, to the Danish ambassador ; which is
further interesting as a good specimen of the indig
nant style of a high-born woman of that day.
" Sir, I am very sorry this occasion should have
been offered me by the king your master, which
makes me troublesome to you for the present. It is
reported to me by men of honor the great wrong
the king of the Danes hath done me, when I was
not by to answer for myself: for if I had been pre
sent, I would have letten him know how much I
scorn to receive that wrong at his hands. I need
not urge the particular of it, for the king himself
knows it best. I protest to you, sir, I did think as
¦ Nitga; i. 348. honorably

283
honorably of the king your master as I did of my own
prince ; but I now persuade myself there is as much
baseness in him as can be in any man : for although
he be a prince by birth, it seems not to me that
there harbours any princely thought in his breast;
for, either in prince or subject, it is the basest that
can be to wrong any woman of honor. I deserve
as little that name he gave me, as either the mother
of himself or of his children, and if ever I come to
know what man hath informed your master so wrong
fully of me, I shall do my best for putting him from
doing the like to any other : but if it hath come by
the tongue of any woman, I dare say she would be
glad to have companions. So, leaving to trouble you
any further, I rest, your friend,
"M. Nottingham1."
The prince Vaudemont mentioned in Harring
ton's letter as an expected visitor to the king, was
one of his kinsmen ofthe house of Guise, and though
but a younger son of the duke of Loraine, he ap
peared with considerable splendor at the English
court. His retinue was equal in number to that of
the king of Denmark ; it included many gentlemen
of distinction, and the civil and respectful behaviour
of the whole train is particularly insisted upon by
one of our chroniclers. The expense of his enter
tainment however appeared so formidable, that after
some consultation it was at first agreed that the
king should not defray him; but this resolution was
' Cabala. after-

284
afterwards changed, and " a diet of 200 dishes was
appointed to be served up daily during the time of
his abode at court."
Parliament met again on November 18, 1606;
and the union ofthe two kingdoms was, by the king's
command, the first business brought before it. The
proposal was as ill-received as before ; disrespectful
things were said of Scotland and Scotchmen, and
various objections to the measure were stated with
force and freedom. In this state of the business,
the king, with his usual reliance on the effects of his
own eloquence, took the somewhat irregular step
of summoning the two houses to Whitehall, to hear
from his own lips a labored pleading in behalf of
this his favorite scheme. The tone and language
of this harangue are much less intemperate than
those of his former speech on the subject ; and it
has the merit of conveying a good deal of informa
tion respecting the Scotch law, which the king de
sired to bring to a more perfect conformity with
that of England; but it abounds with sophisms,
with puerilities, and even with indecorums, and, on
the whole, can be accounted neither convincing nor
persuasive. The following passage must surely have
excited a smile :
" Some think that I will draw the Scotish nation
hither, talking idly of transplanting trees out of a
barren ground into a better, and of lean cattle out
of a barren pasture into a fertile soil. Can any man
displant you unless you will ? Or can any man think
that Scotland is so strong to pull you, out of your
houses ?

285
houses? Or do you not think I know England hath
more people, Scotland more waste ground ? So that
there is roomth in Scotland rather to plant your idle
people that swarm in London streets, and other
towns, and disburden you of them, than to bring
more unto you1?"
It is not however to the rhetorical defects of the
king that the final rejection of this measure ought
to be imputed ; it was a point in which the majority
of the lower house had predetermined to disappoint
the court ; and Bacon himself had exhausted upon
it in vain his unrivalled powers of reason and elo
quence : in another mode, however, James might
justly impute the failure to himself. Whatever
might be the intrinsic advantages of the union, he
had given his subjects too much cause to suspect
that it was urged by him with such earnestness prin
cipally for the purpose of establishing over both
countries that despotic authority which he imagined
to belong of right to the office of a king. The new
modelling of the English law, which he suggested
to parliament as a preliminary to its adoption in
Scotland, was from him a formidable proposal; and
the violent steps which he had taken for the resto
ration of episcopacy in the Scotch church, by which
it was gradually to be assimilated to that of Englarid,
had both alarmed and incensed the presbyterians of
the two kingdoms, and rendered them irreconcile-
ably hostile to the measure.
- a King James's Works, p. 514. Sir

286
Sir John Harrington, notwithstanding the disgust
at the manners of the court expressed in his former
letter, repeated his visit to it in the ensuing year,
and to this circumstance we are indebted for the
following lively delineation of some fresh traits in
the motley character of James :
" It behoveth me now to recite my journal, .re
specting my gracious command of my sovereign
prince to come to his closet. When I came to the
presence chamber, and had gotten good place to see
the lordly attendants, and bowed my knee to the
prince, I was ordered by a special messenger, that
is in secret sort, to wait awhile in an outward cham
ber, whence, in near an hour waiting, the same
knave led me up a passage, and so to a small roOm
where was good order of paper, ink and pens, put
on a board for the prince's use. Soon upon this,
the prince his highness did enter, and in much good
humor asked, If I was cousin to lord Harrington of
Exton? I humbly replied, His majesty did me some
honor in inquiring my kin to one whom he had so
late honored and made a baron ; and moreover did
add, we were both branches ofthe same tree. Then
he inquired much of learning, and showed me his
own in such sort as made me remember my exa
miner at Cambridge aforetime. He sought much
to know my advances in philosophy, and uttered
profound sentences of Aristotle and such like writ
ers, which I had never read, and which some are
bold enough to say, others do not understand; but
this I must pass by. The prince did now press my
reading

287
reading to him part of a canto in Ariosto ; praised
my utterance, and said he had been informed of
many as to my learning, in the time of the queen.
He asked me, what I thought pure wit was made of;
and whom it did best become ? whether a king
should not be the best clerk in his own country ; ¦
and if this land did not entertain good opinion of
his learning and good wisdom ? His majesty did !
much press for my opinion touching the power of
Satan in matter of witchcraft ; and asked me, with
much gravity, if I did truly understand, why the
devil did work more with ancient women than
others ?..... .His majesty, moreover, was pleased
to say much, and favoredly, of my good report for
mirth and good conceit; to which I did covertly
answer: as not willing a subject should be wiser
than his prince, nor even appear so.
" More serious discourse did next ensue, wherein
I wanted room to continue, and sometimes room to
escape ; for the queen his mother was not forg-otten,
nor Davison neither. His highness told me, her
death was visible in Scotland before it did really
happen, being, as he said, spoken of in secret by
those whose power of sight presented to them a
bloody head dancing in the air. He then did re
mark much on this gift, and said he had sought out
of certain books a sure way to attain knowledge of
future chances. Hereat he named many books,
which I did not know, nor by whom written ; but
advised me not to consult some authors, which would
lead me to evil consultations. I told his majesty, the

288
the power of Satan had, I much feared, damaged
my bodily frame ; but I had not further will to court
his friendship, for my soul's hurt. We next dis
coursed somewhat on religion, when at length he
said ; "Now, sir, you have seen my wisdom in some
sort, and I have pried into yours. I pray you, do
me justice in your report, and, in good season, I
will not fail to add to your understanding in such
points as I may find you lack amendment." I made
curtsy hereat and withdrew down the passage and
out at the gate, amidst the many varlets and lordly
servants who stood around  I did forget to tell,
that his majesty asked much concerning my opinion
ofthe new weed, tobacco, and said, it would by its
use infuse ill qualities on the brain, and that no
learned man ought to taste it, and wished it for
bidden1." How clearly do we here recognise the monarch
who had edified the world with the " Demonologia"
and the " Counterblast to Tobacco;" and who had
once declared that a king was to be " the great
schoolmaster" of his country, the deity being the
schcJoiaster of kings, and the sharpest of all to
those of them who did evil !
* Nugw, i. 366.

CHAPTER

CHAPTER X.
1607 to 1610.
Parliament prorogued for three years. — Death and character
of Blount earl of Devon. — Flight of Tyrone. — Mask of
Beauty. — Account of lady Anne Clifford. — Ramsey afavo.
rite, — created viscount Haddington, — his marriage. — Jon.
son's mask on the occasion. — Account of the earl of Pem
broke, — of the earl of Aruiidel. — Severities ofthe high-
commission court. — Case cf N. Fuller. — Puritans emi
grate. — Death and character of Sackvil earl of Dorset. —
Salisbury succeeds as treasurer. — Illegal taxation. — Peace
between Spain and the Dutch. — Conduct of James as me
diator. — Patriotic conduct of Salisbury. — Conduct of the
court of Spain. — Extracts from Cornwallis' s letters. —
Marriage proposed between prince Henry and the infanta.
— Controversy respecting the oath of allegiance. — King's
apology for the oath, — how received at the courts of France,
— of Spain, — at Venice. — Robert Carr becomes a favorite ,
— account of him. — Letter of lord T. Howard. — Cardinal
Bentivoglio's description of England.
J. HE rejection of the union highly exasperated
James against his parliament, which on its part was
little better satisfied with him. The multiplicity of
proclamations to which the king, by the aid of the
large and somewhat indefinite powers of the council,
and of the unconstitutional judicature of the star-
chamber, labored to give the force of laws, strongly
excited the jealousy ofthe house of commons; the
vol. i. u boundless

290
boundless expenses of the court, especially the sums
lavished on favorites and Scotchmen, incensed all
classes ; and, fearful of a gathering storm, James in
July 1607 announced a prorogation of parliament
till the November ofthe same year; which was af
terwards extended till February 1610. During this
extraordinary recess, the state ofthe country affords
scarcely any materials for history, but the interval
is somewhat more productive for memoir.
Charles Blount, lord Montjoy and earl of Devon
shire, died in 1606 at the age of forty-three. " Soon
and early for his years," as a friend writes to Win
wood, " but late enough for himself; and happy had
he been had he gone two or three years since, before
the world was weary of him, or that he had left that
scandal behind him." The concluding remark
evinces the strong.seUse at this time entertained of
the infamy of an adulterous marriage. This blemish
was the more to be regretted in the private character
of Montjoy, because his public merits and services
were considerable, and his accomplishments distin
guished. He was handsome and graceful, skilful
iri his exercises, a fine courtier in the judgement of
queen Elizabeth, and learned beyond almost any in
his own station. The prudence and moderation
with which he conducted himself when involved in
the councils of Essex, perhaps saved England from
the horrors of a civil war, and his vigor and conduct
put an end to the most formidable rebellion which
had ever afflicted Ireland.
The renewed turbulence of Tyrone after the
death

291
death of the earl of Devonshire, seems to indicate
that this event had freed him from the only oppo-^
nent whom he dreaded. This celebrated rebel, after
his favorable reception at the court of James, had
been permitted to return to Ireland, where he now
attempted to Organize an insurrection, applying at
the same time to Spain for aid. But being defeated
in his design, he fled with several of his associates
to the French coast, and, passing thence into Flan
ders, was very cordially received by James's good
allies the archduke Albert and the infanta Isabella,
in whose territory he remained several weeks, his
friends and followers, and even the archduke himself,
gratifying him with the titles of "the excellent
prince," " the great O'Neal1." No sooner was Ty
rone safe in this asylum, than he published a state
ment importing that the violences exercised against
the catholic religion had compelled him thus to aban
don his fortune and his country. James eagerly
repelled the charge by a printed apology, in which
he assumed the delicate task of showing that he was
by no means to be regarded as the persecutor of
that faith which his laws had rendered it so highly
penal to profess ; — laws, indeed, with which he was
eager to dispense whenever he found it safely prac
ticable. In 1607 the king was pleased to exchange his
manor of Hatfield for the earl of Salisbury's magni
ficent mansion of Theobalds, near Cheshunt, which
0 Illustrations, iii. 333.
u 2 henceforth

292
henceforth became his favorite summer palace. A
splendid entertainment was given by the secretary
to the king and court in honor of this transfer, and
Jonson composed for the occasion an elegant in
terlude, in which the Genius of the place was
introduced to present a golden key to the queen,
on whom this residence appears to have been
settled. The same able and indefatigable pen produced
for the Twelfth night festival of the following year,
a counterpart to the mask of Blackness, called the
mask of Beauty, in which parts were taken by the
queen and by fifteen ladies of quality. Among these
occurs the name of lady Anne Clifford, daughter of
the celebrated George earl of Cumberland, one of
the remarkable women of her age. She was at this
time in the bloom of youth, and just entering upon
the theatre of the world in the characters of an
heiress, a beauty, and a patroness of letters. The
death of her father when she was ten years of age,
had consigned lady Anne to the guardianship of
her excellent mother, a lady ofthe house of Russell ;
but she received her education chiefly under her
aunt the countess of Warwick, principal lady of the
bedchamber to queen Elizabeth, and the chief fe
male favorite of her discerning mistress. No pains
were spared in the cultivation of her mind ; that
worthy man and correct writer Samuel Daniel was
her tutor, and from him she acquired a fondness for
his own pursuits of poetry and history, and a general
love of reading which never forsook her. The steps
taken

293
taken by her unfeeling father to disinherit his child
in favor of his brother, who was to succeed him as
earl of Cumberland, involved her, while yet a minor,
in an anxious and costly litigation with her uncle
and his heirs. King James, who was willing to re
gard the decision of suits at law as a branch of his
royal office or prerogative, exerted all his authority
to induce her to yield up her claims for a very in
adequate compensation ; but, writes she in her own
memoirs, " Queen Anne the Dane admonished me
to persist in my denial of trusting my cause con
cerning the lands of my inheritance to her husband
king James's award; which admonition of hers, and
other my friends, did much confirm me in my pur
pose." She had need of all her resolution in this
affair ; nothing was in that age more difficult than
to prevail, by the mere force of law and right, over
private influence and the royal pleasure ; and it was
only by the failure of her uncle's male line that, at
the end of eight-and-thirty years, she saw herself
reinstated in the lands and ancient honors of her
family. Lady Anne Clifford married, at theageof eighteen,
Richard Sackvil lord Buckhurst, subsequently earl
of Dorset, and" grandson of the poet of the same
titles ; above twenty years afterwards she became
the second wife of Philip earl of Pembroke and
Montgomery, whom she also survived many years.
Her latter widowhood was the most active period of
her life : being then free from control and mistress
of a large income, she repaired to her own territories " in

294
in the North, assumed the office of hereditary she-
riffess of Westmorland, the public duties of which
she discharged in person, and set herself seriously
to the task of regulating all around her. At the ex
pense of 40,000/. she rebuilt or restored six man
sions of her ancestors and about the same number
of churches and chapels, injured or demolished in
the civil wars of Charles's reign ; she founded cha
rities, encouraged industry, patronised learning, es
tablished strict order in her household, and, to com--
plete her character, took especial care to record her
good works for the example, or admiration, of poste
rity. It is said, that no native of England has ever
been so largely commemorated in stone and marble
as this illustrious countess ; she also caused memoirs
to be written of herself and her ancestry from her
own dictation, in which she celebrates, without the
least reserve, her own extraordinary endowments
both of body and mind ; and in her diaries, which
are still preserved, she has gone so far as to chro
nicle the clipping of her hair and the paring of her
nails. Dr. Donne is reported to have said of her
during her youth, " that she could converse on any
subject, from predestination to slea silk":" She died
in 1675, at the advanced age of eighty-seven.
Among the Scotch favorites ofthe king, none was
at this time more distinguished than sir John Ram
sey, who, for his good service in stabbing the earl
of Gowrie, had been advanced by James to the title
a Untwisted silk used in embroidery; floss silk. of

295
of viscount Haddington, and, attending his royal
master into his land of promise, had been gratified,-
considerably to the discontent of the English, with
leases of crown lands, gifts and pensions. A court
letter of this period thus comments on his good for
tune : "I seldom or never, except upon an extra
ordinary cause, have known a greater court of gen
tlemen than now is ; but all of them cannot appease
and satisfy the king why a fair white jerfalcon of his
lately flew away and cannot be heard of again. But
the court will lessen for a season within these two
days, for that my lord Haddington and all his favo
rites, followers and parakells, go shortly to Hunting
don, to a match of hunting that he hath there against
my lord of Sheffield's horse ; and well may he afford
' to lose such a match ; yea, better than so poor a man
as I to be at cost to train and diet my horse to win
one ; by reason that, as I conceive it, his losing is
winning ; for he had a good and a gracious maker
in this terrestrial globe ; for he that made him saved
and delivered him out of the merchants' books : yea,
if I heard truth, he being 10,000/. deep lately : but,
good lord, it was well bestowed of him, and the king
could do no less for him, he being to match so well
as to my lord of Sussex' daughter, whicli makes a
maid of honor wear willow and keep her Christmas
in the country a."
But, notwithstanding the envy which followed the
prosperity of this favorite, his marriage was cele-
s Illustrations, iii. 335. brated

296
brated at court with every outward demonstration
of joy and festivity, and twelve noblemen and gen
tlemen, five of them English and seven Scotch, con
sented to take parts in the classical mask produced
on the occasion by Jonson under the title of " The
hue and cry after Cupid." Of this number were
the three earls of Arundel, Pembroke, and Mont
gomery. The last of these has been already suffi
ciently commemorated : Pembroke, his elder bro
ther, the nephew of sir Philip Sidney, has received
from the pen of lord Clarendon a splendid eulogium
for wit, learning, affability, disinterestedness and
generosity ; commendations, however, which are
balanced by the distinct admission of his noble pa
negyrist, "that he indulged to himself the pleasures
of all kinds almost in all excesses." His accomplish
ments, and, it is to be feared, his vices also, caused
him to be regarded as a model by the young cour
tiers of his time ; he plunged into a sea of pro
digal expense in which even his ample revenues
were speedily swallowed up ; and, to retrieve his
circumstances, he submitted to a marriage with one
of the coheiresses of Gilbert earl of Shrewsbury,
whose personal and mental qualities conspired to
render her large fortune a dear purchase to a hus
band. In his political capacity, this nobleman had
unquestionably the merit of being unbribed by
Spain; for we are told that, in discussing the conduct
of that court towards his own, he would sometimes
"rouse, to the trepidation" of king James. The
monarch however esteemed him as a member of
the

297
the council; and he obtained the offices of governor
of Portsmouth, chancellor of the university of Ox
ford and chamberlain of the household.
Thomas earl of Arundel, brother-in-law to Pem
broke by his marriage with another of the Talbot
heiresses, was the head ofthe greathouse of Howard ;
being grandson ofthe last duke of Norfolk, and son
of the scarcely less unfortunate Philip earl of Arun
del, who in 1595 died a prisoner in the Tower, where
he had languished out several years under sentence
for high treason. By the attainder of this earl, all the
family honors which still remained had been forfeited,
and it was by courtesy only that his son continued to
bear the title of lord Maltravers during the rest of
Elizabeth's reign. At the time of his father's death,
he was only nine years of age. Sir Edward Walker,
a dependent of the family, writes, that his mother,
being a lady of great and eminent virtues, was not
negligent in his education, and yet so wary, the fa
mily being under a cloud, as not to expose him,
being her only child, to travel abroad, or appear in
much conversation at home1." A still more cogent
reason, and probably a truer one, for this wariness
might have been assigned : the countess of Arun
del, who is affectionately mentioned in one of sir
Everard Digby's letters to his wife, and who long,
harboured Southwell the Jesuit under her roof, was
doubtless a zealous catholic ; and it was only under
shelter of a strict seclusion that she could safely im-
a Walker's Historical Discourses, p. 210. hue

298
bue the mind of her son with the doctrines of that
proscribed faith of which it is suspected that he con
tinued through life a secret votary, and which he
transmitted to his posterity.
The earl of Essex, who showed much kindness
to Arundel when a boy, was wont to call him " the
winter pear," and to predict that he would at last
ripen into a great and wise man. But the reserve,
the coldness, the exaggerated self-importance, which
a domestic education tends to produce, were in Arun
del never sufficiently tempered by after-intercourse
with the world ; and amid the freedom, gaiety and
splendor of the courts of James and Charles, he in
flexibly preserved the haughty austerity of a feudal
baron. From his earliest appearance at court he
seems to have disdained compliance with the gor
geous fashions which then prevailed ; at his first
tilting, usually an occasion of great cost and display,
his equipage was remarkedas "poor and penurious."
In after-life this singularity rather enhanced the
dignity of his appearance, so that the earl of Carlisle
was wont to say, "Here comes the earl of Arundel
in his plain stuff and trunk hose, and his beard in
his teeth, that looks more like a nobleman than any
of us." Lord Clarendon, who did not love him, de
scribes his exterior to the same effect, thus : "It
cannot be denied that he had in his own person, in
his aspect and countenance, the appearance of a
great man, which he preserved in his gait and mo
tion. He wore and affected a habit very different
from that ofthe time, such as men had only beheld in

299
in pictures ofthe most considerable men; all which
drew the eyes of most, and the reverence of many,
towards him, as the image and representative of the
ancient nobility and native gravity of the nobles
when they had been most venerable : but this was
only his outside ; his nature and true humor being
much disposed to levity and delights, which indeed
were very despicable and childish."
James appears to have been from the first inclined
to favor this nobleman, like the other members ofthe
Howard family ; and it was one of the earliest acts
of his reign to reinstate him in all the dignities of
his ancestors, excepting the dukedom ; and in all
the possessions of his father, abating two baronies
which the earl of Northampton begged ; as a com
pensation, perhaps, for the trouble which he might
have given himself in pleading the cause of his or
phan nephew. Soon after the period of which we
are treating, his majesty also paid him the compli
ment of standing sponsor to his son and heir ; but
the manners of the court had little congeniality with
the disposition of Arundel, and in 1609 he com
menced a tour through France and Italy which oc
cupied him for three years. He appears to have
been the first Englishman whose eyes were opened
to the charms of those master-pieces of ancient art
which adorn and dignify the Italian cities, and his
country, which had owed to the travels of his ac
complished ancestor the earl of Surry the introduc
tion of blank verse and of the sonnet of Petrarch,
was indebted to his, for her first lesson in virtu. It
became

300
became the great, object of his after-life to form a
collection of the precious relics of antiquity ; for
which purpose he had his agents in Greece, in the
Levant, and in every country of Europe where such
objects were known to exist : not that he neglected
or despised the efforts of modern genius ; on the
contrary, he had a picture-gallery filled with the
productions of the best masters, and possessed, in
particular, more Holbeins than existed in all the
world besides. Of ancient medals he formed a splen
did series ; but the peculiar boast of his collection
was its marbles, which excited in an extraordinary
degree the wonder, and sometimes the sarcasms, of
his uninitiated countrymen. Osborn has a sneer at
the folly of the earl of Arundel, who would "give so
many hundred crowns for an urn a mason would not
have valued at a penny ; and it is recorded amongst
the sayings of lord Bacon, that on entering the gar
dens of Arundel-house and casting his eyes around
on the assemblage of pale and naked figures, he af
fected to start back, exclaiming, " The resurrec
tion!" But to ridicule succeeded admiration ; under the
patronage of Charles I. taste flourished, and the
earl's expensive/oZ/y was suddenly transformed into
a pursuit, which was pronounced liberal, elegant,
and an honor to his country. He was not himself a
man of learning, but he freely promoted the literary
researches of others ; the celebrated written tables
which have preserved the appellation of the Arun-
delian marbles, were brought to England at his ex
pense.

301
pense, and, being transcribed and edited by Selden,
were eagerly received by all the scholars of Europe,
as a new and important authority on many obscure
or disputed points of Grecian chronology.
On the marriage of the princess Elizabeth to the
elector palatine, the earl of Arundel was one of the
noblemen appointed to conduct her to her husband's
dominions ; and from Germany he proceeded to re
visit his beloved Italy, where he passed some time,
occupied in increasing his collection. On his return
James summoned him to the council-board, and in
1621 granted him the office of hereditary earl mar
shal. In virtue of this office, he presided over an
arbitrary court, recently revived by the king to the
general discontent of his subjects, and which. quick
ly became an intolerable evil by the stern and
haughty spirit with which Arundel wielded his au
thority. Passing over some other notices of this re
markable personage which will appear in their places,
it will be sufficient here to mention, that the earl of
Arundel finally quitted his country on the first ap
pearances of civil war, and, taking refuge in Italy,
died at Mantua in 1646, " under the same doubtful
character of religion," says lord Clarendon, " in
which he lived."
Sir Edward Walker in his encomium on the earl
of Arundel mentions, that " he was the first person
that brought in uniformity in building, and was a
chief commissioner to see it performed in London,
whichsince that time has added exceedingly to the
beauty of that city." This notice affords an opport unity

302
tunity of mentioning that the regulation, by which
must be understood the restriction, of building in the
metropolis, was a favorite object with James, as it
had been with his predecessor ; and a proclamation
was issued as far back as the second year of his
reign3 " straightly forbidding all increase of new
buildings within the city of London and one mile
thereof; expressly commanding all persons to build
their forefronts and windows of all their new build-
ngs either of brick or stone, by reason all great and:
well-grown woods were spent and much wasted; so
as timber for shipping waxed scarce1."
Little attention however having been paid to this
arbitrary edict, a second was issued about seven
years afterwards, and severe measures were adopted
against the contraveners of the former one; who
were summoned to the star-chamber, and either
compelled to pull down all such new erections as
were obnoxious to the king's decree, or else to re^
deem them by the unmerciful fines which this de
testable tribunal seized every occasion of exacting
as offerings to the rapacity of an unfeeling and pro
digal prince. Lord Arundel certainly exhibited his
preference of architectural taste to public virtue in
lending his countenance to practices so arbitrary
and tyrannical ; and his eulogist would have done
well to sink the topic entirely.
The high-commission court was at this time in a
state of extraordinary activity, and one of its prin
cipal victims during the year 1608 was Nicholas
a Howe's Continuation of Stow. Fuller,

303
Fuller, a bencher of Gray's Inn, whose case ap
pears to have excited considerable attention. Two
puritans, of the names of Lad and Maunsel, had
been apprehended on a charge of celebrating a reli
gious meeting with a deprived minister, which was
held to be an illegal conventicle. They were exa
mined in the first instarice by the lord-chancellor ;
and having then refused to take the ex-officio oath
to answer interrogatories before the high-commis
sioners, they had been committed to prison, where
they lay a long time unbailed. Being at length
brought up by habeas corpus, Mr. Fuller, as their
counsel, moved for their discharge, on the ground
that the ecclesiastical commissioners " have not
power, by virtue of their commission, to imprison,
to put to the oath ex-officio, or to fine, any of his ma
jesty's subjects." For this plea, which little availed
his unfortunate clients, the advocate himself was
committed to private custody by archbishop Ban
croft. How long he then remained in durance does
not appear ; but having ventured after his liberation
to appeal to the public by printing his pleadings, he
was remanded to close custody in the house of the
dean of St. Paul's, and thence transferred to one of
the London gaols, where he lay untried till released
by death in February 1619 ; Bancroft having "told
the king that he was the champion of the noncon
formists, and ought therefore to be made an example
to terrify others from appearing for them1."
a Compare Lodge, Illustrations, ii. 344, and Neal, History
of the puritans, ii. 42.
These

304
These proceedings had in some degree the de
sired effect ; riiany puritan ministers quitted the
country with the most zealous of their followers and
took refuge in the principal cities of Holland, where
English presbyterian churches were maintained by
the States according to the provisions of a treaty
with queen Elizabeth.
On April 19th 1608, the country was deprived of
a wise and able minister in the person of Thomas
Sackvil earl of Dorset, baron Buckhurst and lord-
high-treasurer, who died suddenly at the council-
table in the 82nd year of his age. No character of
the time appears more worthy to excite the curiosity
of posterity than the extraordinary man of genius
who, after affording in his youth the poetical model
of Spenser, was in advanced life selected by queen
Elizabeth to succeed to the station of lord Burleigh.
It is mortifying to add, that there is no contempo
rary of equal eminence of whom we possess so few
anecdotes. His public life was^a long, an active,
and an honorable one ; but we seldom find him act
ing singly, or in chief, excepting in his mission to
Holland for the purpose of investigating the conduct
of the earl of Leicester during his command in that
country. The prudence, courage and integrity,
with which he acquitted himself in this arduous in
quiry, gained him the applause of the nation, and,
after the death of her unworthy favorite, the esteem
of Elizabeth. On various other public occasions
during her reign, we find him joined in commis
sion with the most considerable members of the
council,

305
council, and acting as assessor or coadjutor to Bur
leigh ; in whose measures he usually concurred,
without enlisting himself in the Cecil faction. As
lord-treasurer, his admirable endowments shone
forth conspicuous to all eyes. " He had excellent
parts," says the chronicler, " and in his place was
exceeding industrious ;" and he adds, on the autho
rity of " many exchequer men," that " there never
was a better treasurer, both for the king's profit and
the good ofthe subject1."
Lord Buckhurst, by the special desire of queen
Elizabeth, had been chosen in 1591 to succeed sir
Christopher Hatton in the dignity of chancellor ofthe
university of Oxford ; an honor which no one ever
better merited, or wore with more distinguished
grace. The poetical chaplet he had indeed long
since laid aside amongst the other vanities of his
youth, but the halo of genius still played around his
head. Bacon transmitted to him, when earl of Dor
set, a copy of his " Advancement of learning" with
the following beautiful and appropriate appeal to his
favor :  "I humbly present one of the books to
your, lordship, not only as a chancellor of an uhiver-
sity, but as one that was excellently bred in all learn
ing ; which I have ever noted to shine in all your
speeches and behaviours. And therefore your lord
ship will yield a gracious aspect to your first love,
and take pleasure in the adorning of that wherewith
yourself are so much adorned."
* Baker's Chron.
vol. i. x A rich

306
A rich and polished style of eloquence distin
guished him to the latest period of life. " They
much commend his elocution," says Naunton, "but
more the excellency of his pen ; for he was a scholar
and a person of a quick dispatch (faculties that yet
run in the blood) ; and they say of him, that his se
cretaries did little for him by the way of inditement,
in which they could seldom please him, he was so
facete and choice in his phrase and style : and for
his dispatches, and the content he gave to suitors,
he had a decorum seldom since put in practice ; for
he had of his attendants that took in roll the names
of all suitors, with the date of their first addresses ;
and these in their order had hearing ; so that a fresh
man could not leap over his head that was of a more
ancieut edition, except in the urgent affairs of
state1." In the star-chamber, where he often sat as a judge,
his speaking was highly admired for its uncommon
graces; but the only extant specimen ofthe powers
of his style in prose occurs, where it would not be
looked for, in his last will and testament, written in
1607 ; when, according to the best authorities, he
must have attained the age of eighty. In this paper
his beloved wife, with whom he had shared more
than fifty years of wedlock, is thus emphatically
commemorated : " Imprimis, I give, will and be
queath unto the lady Cicilie countess of Dorset, my
most virtuous, faithful and dearly beloved wife, —

Fragments Regalia. not

307
not as any recompense of her infinite merit towards
me,— who, for incomparable love, zeal and hearty
affection ever showed unto me, and for those her so
rare, reverent and many Virtues of charity, modesty,
fidelity, humility, secrecy, wisdom, patience, and a
mind replete with all piety and goodness, which
evermore both have and do abound in her, deserveth
to be honored, loved and esteemed above all the
transitory wealth and treasure of this world, and
therefore by nO price of earthly riches can by me
be valued, recompensed or requited ; — to her there
fore, my most virtuous, faithful and entirely beloved
wife, — not, I say, as a recompense, but as a true
token and testimony of my unspeakable love, affec
tion, estimation arid reverence, long since fixed
and settled in my heart and soul towards her, I
give," &c.
In bequeathing a "picture" of queen Elizabeth,
" cut out in agate," as an heir-loom in his family,
he takes occasion to recount, in terms ofthe warmest
gratitude, all the benefits bestowed upon him by his
royal kinswoman ; after which he thus sums up her
praises : " All which favors were much the more to
be esteemed by me, because they proceeded from
her that may justly be accounted among the number
of the most rarest, wisest and worthiest queens of
the world ; of whom I may truly say, that whilst she
lived, she was so fearful and formidable to all her
enemies abroad, grateful and faithful to her confe
derates and neighbours, and lastly, at home, by all her
servants and subjects, both heartily beloved, loyally
x 2 obeyed ;

308
obeyed ; and now that she is gone to God, her blessed
name remaineth glorious and famous to all posterity
and nations ; yea, even to the very uttermost ends
of the world." He speaks also with what must else
where have been entitled extreme adulation, of the
virtues of James ; and with magnificent eulogium
of the character, public and private, of the earl of
Salisbury; and having nominated him, together with
the earl of Suffolk, supervisors of his will, he thus
concludes : — " of whose firm and true friendship
like as I shall always rest with the greatest confi
dence, so must it be the less grievous unto mine if
others, of whom I have right well deserved, shall
nevertheless, when I am gone, perhaps soon forget
the memory of my deserts towards them ; consider
ing as well the great incertitude of mortal comforts,
as the common ingratitude of this iniquitous world,
where, for the most part, mislikes and misconceipts,
though never so unjustly apprehended, are graven
in brass, and good turns and benefits, though never
so kindly bestowed, are written in the dust1."
Such were the last honey-drops which distilled
from this Nestor ofthe English state ! Dr. Abbot,
afterwards archbishop of Canterbury, was chaplain
to the earl of Dorset, and preached his funeral ser
mon : this is, of course, a set panegyric ; on the
whole, however, the topics of praise appear to be se
lected with judgement ; though of his poetry not a
word is said. His hospitality and great housekeep-
1 Peerage, by sir E. Brydges, art. Duke of Dorset. ing

309
ing are highly commended ; for the last twenty years
his family is stated to have consisted of 220 persons,
besides workmen and others hired. " A very rare
example," it is added, "in this age of ours, when
housekeeping is so much decayed." A good deal
is said' of his lordship's attachment to the church of
England, of his care in the education of his grand
children, — meaning the two sons of his heir lord
Buckhurst ; — and of his anxiety " that they should
be trained up in the truth of religion, far from
popery and idolatry." "He never could endure,"
affirms his chaplain, " that they should be otherwise
matched than where there was true religion." On
which it may be remarked, that he had at least ma
nifested no such repugnance in the marriage of his
children. The wife of his eldest son, — a daughter
ofthe duke of Norfolk, — was undoubtedly a catholic,
because a laudatory and consolatory poem on her
death was written by father Southwell and dedicated
to her four children. Two of the three daughters
of the earl of Dorset were.also matched into families
noted for the Romish faith. One was the wife of
Anthony viscount Montague, the other of Henry
lord Abergavenny.
The earl of Salisbury, destined to follow his emi
nent father through all the steps of his preferment,
succeeded the earl of Dorset in the office of lord-
treasurer without resigning that of secretary of state,
or even transferring any considerable portion of its
duties to inferior hands. The earl of Northampton,
who was about this time appointed lord-privy-seal, is

310
is said to have enjoyed a considerable share of
James's polital confidence ; but with respect to all
relations with foreign courts, including the nomina
tion and direction of the diplomatic body, the autho
rity of Cecil suffered no control except from the wil
fulness, and the prejudices of his master; and now
that the treasury was added to his charge, he might
justly be regarded as prime or sole minister of Eng
land. His promotion was generally applauded, from
the confidence which his abilities and his hereditary
experience commanded; and it was fondly hoped that
he wOuld speedily apply remedies to the numerous
grievances and abuses which had been suffered to
accumulate in this department. But, with a trea
sury completely exhausted, a monarch plunged in
debt, averse to. business, surrounded by a hungry
crew of. favorites and flatterers, and cursed with an
incurable facility, no human ability could reconcile
the gratification of the prince and the satisfaction of
the people; and Salisbury had lived too long the
devoted servant of the crown to hesitate on the op
tion. It was one of his first steps to introduce a new
regulation of the customs, and under this name
nearly to double, without the concurrence of parlia
ment, this important branch of the royal revenue.
Several injurious monopolies were established ; other
expedients succeeded ; many of them oppressive, all
unconstitutional, since it was their common aim to
render the sovereign independent of his people in
money matters. Without further pursuing the sub-
Jcct>

311
ject, we may venture to remark, that it is from the
treasurership of Salisbury that the political historian
will date the silent commencement of that financial
system of the house of Stuart on which issue was
joined between the king and country by the resist
ance of John Hampden in the memorable cause of
shipmoney. During the year 1608, the eyes of all the politi-
cians of Europe were fixed on the negotiations for
a peace between the king of Spain and the United
Provinces, which began with a reluctant recogni
tion of Dutch independence, and ended in a truce
for twelve years, signed in April 1609. Both France
and England afforded their mediation, and James
dispatched sir Robert Spencer to the Hague to act
conjointly with sir Ralph Winwood, his ambassador
in ordinary. The final triumph of the Dutch in
their lorig and arduous struggle for the possession
of civil and religious liberty, was viewed with no
emotions of generous pleasure by the king of Great
Britain, who had not scrupled to stigmatize them as
rebels on more than one occasion, and who certainly
held no religion so sacred as the cause of kings.
But Salisbury exerted himself on this occasion, and
overruled the prejudices of his master for the good
of his country. He made him sign two treaties with
the States to the discontent of the king of Spain ;
and, notwithstanding some suspicions infused into
the Dutch by the ministers of France, there is rea
son to believe that a very exact neutrality was main
tained by James in his character of a mediator. The
conduct

312
conduct of the court of Madrid towards Great Bri
tain, before and during the period of these impor
tant negotiations, is worthy of close observation :
while it furnishes a striking view of the overween
ing pride, inveterate bigotry and treacherous poli
tics of the Spanish government, it also affords a just
measure ofthe patience and long-suffering of James,
and of the low estimation to which the country of
Elizabeth was reduced beneath his sceptre.
A few extracts from the correspondence of sir
Charles Cornwallis, the British ambassador, with the
earl of Salisbury, published in Winwood's Memo
rials, will illustrate these remarks.
"This night," writes sir Charles Cornwallis in
June 1606, "it was said unto me, that a question
was asked, whether I had preaching used in my
house ? the party that did put the question saying,
that I should do very well to forbear the exercise,
considering that the king could not restrain the
people if they should take offence. I said to the
party, I should be well contented to receive the
king's restraint, for then should I be in hope within
few days to enjoy the air of mine own country, and
until then said, that upon every Sunday I had, and
would, by God's grace, have a sermon." Notwith
standing this spirited and proper answer, repeated
attempts were afterwards made to alarm or cajole
the ambassador into the surrender of this essential
privilege of his office. Meantime the Spanish am
bassador freely celebrated mass in London, and not
withstanding the laws, English catholics were sel
dom

313
dom molested in attending his chapel. " Yester
day," says Cornwallis, " I had a message from the
king, that this morning about nine of the clock I
should have access unto him. I observed that hour,
but was not observed with : for I stayed till after
twelve of the clock in a little lobby, where at first I
found a little bare form (such as I think there are
few in my master's scullery which are not furnished
with much better) unaccompanied and unattended
(as ambassadors are in England), but left to walk
alone, or take my seat on the form when weariness
should inforce me. Yet much favored had I been
if the poor form had been left me ; but one of the
king's chamber (either out of want of courtesy and
respect, or of wit and good will,) caused my form to
be taken away and carried into the next chamber;
so as then, for the space of one whole hour, I was
inforced to hold me to my walk." After such a re
ception, the ambassador was, as may be imagined,
not ill-disposed to make complaints ; and he repre
sented to the king of Spain in strong terms the de
nial, or intolerable delay, of justice to English mer
chants who had suits in his country ; — the scanda
lous "increase of entertainments'^' lately given at
Madrid to Blunt and Owen, two persons notoriously
implicated in the powder-plot ; — the publication by
some Jesuits there of the "feigned and ridiculous
miracle" wrought by Garnet's blood on the straws,
and the public exhibition, even within his court, of
pictures of this atrocious conspirator, with the in
scription, — HenryGarnet, martyred in London such
a day.

314
a day. Philip III. promised redress in all these mat
ters, and really suppressed the offensive picture.
In June 1607 a cessation of arms had been con
cluded between the archduke and the States> and
Cornwallis began- to suspect that the Spaniards would
make peace without the knowledge or mediation of
his master, from whom they had carefully concealed
their negotiations. In this frame of mind he writes ;
" Touching Mr. Vanlore's business, having proved
all other means I could invent, I am now assaying
the ordinary hook that here takes the fish. If that
prevail not, I shall despair; for love us they did never,
and now of late they have left to fear us."
The flight of Tyrone and the other disaffected
Irish gave the English government much cause of
jealousy against Philip III. Salisbury writes to
Cornwallis, that long before they had thus declared
themselves, it was well known to the king, though
it could not be judicially proved, that their priests
and others had received commission from those Irish
chiefs to treat with the court of Spain respecting
their entertainment in that country when they should
have quitted their own ; that under these circum
stances, their open renunciation of their allegiance
and native land was an event rather favorable than
otherwise : " So as if the council of Spain," he adds,
" shall conceive that they have now some great ad
vantage over this state, when it shall appear what a
party their king may have if he shall like to support
it, there maybe this answer ; that those Irish, with
out the king of Spain, are poor worms upon earth ;
and

315
and when the king of Spain shall think it time to
begin with Ireland, the king my master is more like
than ever queen Elizabeth was, to findawholesomer
place of the king of Spain's where he would be loth
to hear ofthe English, and to show the Spaniards
that shall be sent into Ireland as fair a way as they
were taught before." Thus menaced Salisbury,
with all the spirit of the former reign about him ;
but the Spaniards well knew how totally the case
was altered. The Irish chieftains, in defiance of
the strongest remonstrances ofthe British ambassa
dor in Flanders, were honorably received (as has
been mentioned) by the archduke, and publicly
feasted by Spinola ; and a new company was im
mediately formed in the archduke's army, to give
"present entertainment" to their followers : finally,
they repaired, not indeed to Spain, but to Milan,
where they lived favored andpensionedby Philip III.,
notwithstanding his absolute promise to the English
court, not to suffer them to remain in any part of his
dominions ; and in defiance of the articles of the
treaty, which restrained each king from entertain
ing the traitors of the other.
Meantime, the Spanish ambassador in England
maintained an active correspondence with the con
cealed Jesuits in this country, and afforded all faci
lities to their communication with father Creswell
and other avowed English Jesuits in Spain ; where
the most atrocious calumnies, against James and
his government were industriously promulgated by
this faction, without any check from the Spanish court,

316
court, and much to the gratification ofthe Spanish
people. The treatment which awaited British merchants
trading to the friendly ports of Spain and Portugal,
is well exposed in the following advertisements of
our ambassador :
"There hath lately been apprehended by the
office of Inquisition at Ayamonte and conveyed to
Seville, one Thomas Ferres a merchant  His
trouble, as himself supposeth, groweth out of the
malice of a friar of our nation resident in that town;
who, prevailing not to draw him to subscribe to a
form of confession and oath (the copy whereof I
send here inclosed), hath, as it seems, either by
himself or some other of that malignant condition,
procured him tobeaccused to the inquisitors. These,
like hungry hawks, have been easily induced to seize
upon so pleasing a prey, having not only laid their
talons upon his person but upon his goods. . . .If in
time I had known it, so much do I presume upon
the favor I have here with , the inquisitor-general
(now president of Castile), as I would have hoped
to have prevented his restraint, and procured a
streighter cell for the friar that hath been the cause
of it. That malignant generation of our fugitive
churchmen, employ not their studies so much how
to serve God as to destroy men whom their general
mother, our dear country, hath made their brethren.
Into a great and overt hatred they are of late en
tered with the inquisitor-general himself, in regard
they take knowledge how much he respecteth me,
and

317
and desireth to give satisfaction in all things that
concerns the service of my master. One of their
crew lately, out of the abundance of that spirit, said
unto a man of mine, that he doubted not but the
pope would shortly disappoint that man of his office
of inquisition, and settle another that should have
more care to advance the church, and not so much
how to, please princes.
" Of some of our traders into this country, if I
should write unto your lordship what I find and
know, I might more easily give grief to you than
amendment to them. Howsoever they complain
there, I have gathered out of some of themselves
that their gains are great here  It is true that
some few of them that fall upon the rock suffer
much ; neither is it to be hoped that it will ever be
otherwise, so long as the principal offices of judica
ture in the ports are sold for money, and Jesuits and
fugitives of our nation appointed to places of most
concourse ; where such as they cannot infect with
the breath of their malice to their king and country,
they endeavour to cut off with the sword of the in
quisition." Thus insolent was at this time the ascendancy of
the most formidable of all the religious orders over
the councils of Spain ; thus active and inveterate
was its enmity to the English state ! Many other
instances of the uncharitable sentiments and hostile
conduct of the Spaniards with regard to their here
tical allies might here be cited from the dispatches
of sir Charles Cornwallis ; but the specimens already given

318
given may suffice. All this time the duke of Lerma
and the other ministers of Philip III. were lavish
in their professions of unbounded esteem for the
king of Great Britain, and they continued to feed
his representative with false declarations, false re
ports of their situation with the Dutch, and false
promises of redress of grievances. " Their friend
ship towards us," writes Cornwallis, " I cannot more
fitly compare than to the. weather of this spring,
which we have found some one or two days ex
treme hot, and for many days after as unseasonably
cold1." The Spanish court, amongst its other artifices,
had let fall a hint of the advantages of a marriage
between prince Henry and the eldest infanta. To
this overture the ambassador was instructed to lend
a favorable ear ; he proceeded however with cau
tion, and after several affected or real fluctuations
of counsel on the part of Spain, — not unmixed with
intimations that concessions on the point of religion,
impossible to a catholic power, would be easy to a
prince who was head of his own church, — the ne
gotiation was broken off by an explicit declaration
of Philip III., that he could not bear to risk the sal
vation of his daughter by uniting her to an heretical
prince. At the same time he was not ashamed to
propose in her stead, to that very prince, his niece
of the house of Savoy. Can it be believed, that

1 See the entire correspondence of Cornwallis in Winwood,
vol. ii. after

319
after this insult, added to so many others, James's
infatuated desire of the Spanish alliance should have
continued and even augmented ; and that after the
interval of a very few years he should have conde
scended to open a similar treaty between his son
Charles and a younger infanta ?
The adherence of James to these matrimonial
projects will appear the more extraordinary, if con
sidered in connexion with the causes which were at
this time rendering him more and more the object
of hostility and aversion to the Roman pontiff and
to all who acknowledged his authority. The prin
cipal of these causes was the famous controversy of
the oath of allegiance, which demands our attention
as one of the most remarkable features in the lite
rary and political history of the monarch.
It has been already mentioned, that an oath of al
legiance, which magistrates were impowered and in-
joined to tender to all convicted recusants and to all
strangers, was among the defensive measures adopt
ed by the English parliament against the catholics
whilst the alarm and horror of the powder-plot were
still recent. The king had interposed to modify the
original severity of this oath, and to render it one
of the least offensive tests ever imposed. It was
simply a declaration of civil obedience to the prince,
with an absolute renunciation ofthe deposing power
of the pope. On the king's supremacy it was silent ;
and as it trenched on no point whatever of catholic
faith, it was cheerfully taken by Blackwell, the arch-
priest of England, and through his influence by a
considerable

320
considerable number both of priests and laymen.
James was delighted with the success of his expedi
ent ; and he had begun to triumph over those sturdy
reformists who believed the hostility of papists to all
protestant governments radical and inflexible, when,
to the equal confusion of himself and of his catholic
subjects, the sovereign pontiff rose fiercely in de
fence of his obsolete prerogative of dethroning; and,
in a very earnest brief, affectionately exhorted his
faithful children to incur all tortures, and even the
pains of martyrdom, rather than compromise with
their consciences on so tender a point. The English
catholics demurred ; they even doubted, or affected
to doubt, the genuineness of the papal brief, till a
second, couched in still more urgent language, ar
rived to explain it. ,
Cardinal Bellarmine from behind his Alps in
veighed against the criminal compliance of Black-
well in taking the oath ; and answered the letter
which the archpriest had addressed to his catholic
fellow countrymen in defence of it. Father Pres
ton, a learned Benedictine, under the assumed name
of Widderington, vindicated the taking of the oath.
James himself entered the arena incognito, armed
with his " Triplici nodo triplex cuneus," or Apology
for the oath ; the best of his pieces. Bellarmine,
one of the most skilful champions of papal usurpa
tion, published a learned reply to it ; and Parsons,
the first English writer of his church, and almost
of his age, composed an eloquent and powerful one.
Other replies and rejoinders followed ; subsequently the

321
the doctors of the Sorbonne were consulted, when
forty-eight approved the test, and only six con
demned it. Eight priests confined in Newgate
humbly and dutifully petitioned the pope to with
draw his prohibition ; but neither this application,
nor others of a similar nature, moved the pope to
compassionate sufferings of which his own haughty
obstinacy was the cause. The Jesuits, sworn cham
pions of the tiara, animated the English catholics to
a persevering refusal ofthe oath, and set them many
examples of courageous martyrdom in this cause.
On the other hand, the English government and
nation became more and more exasperated against
the followers of the ancient faith, which appeared
thus incompatible with loyalty and patriotism ; and
James, in spite of his predilections, his policy and
his personal apprehensions, frequently saw himself
compelled to give way to the execution of the whole
system of persecuting laws1.
But before matters had arrived at this extremity,
he determined to make another experiment of the
force of his much-vaunted rhetoric ; and in 1609 he
republished his Apology with his name, and with a
dedication and praemonition addressed to all Chris
tian kings and princes. This praemonition may
justly be characterised as a learned defence of pro
testant principles, an acute exposure of the false
statements and false reasonings of Bellarmine, and
a See in Butler's Memoirs of English catholics, vol. i., a
learned and candid history of this controversy.
vol. i. y a vi-

322
a vigorous, but not intemperate, manifesto against
papal usurpation and tyranny. Yet it was a vain
and useless ostentation of parts and knowledge; and
a truer judgement, by admonishing the royal author
of the incompatibility of the polemical character
with the policy and the dignity of a sovereign, would
have spared him the numerous mortifications and in
conveniences which ensued.
' Copies ofthe work were of course to be forwarded
to all the dedicatees, and the rank ofthe writer re
quired that this should be done through his ambas
sadors, who were thus placed in very perplexing
circumstances at the catholic courts, where such an
offering could scarcely be expected to prove accept
able. Henry IV., notwithstanding his hearty con
tempt for the pursuits and performances of his Bri
tannic majesty, set the example of receiving the vo
lume with civility ; but in Spain the affair was not
likely to pass so easily. The Jesuits quickly spread
the alarm of a book written by the king of England
against the pope, so that it was repeatedly men
tioned to Cornwallis even before he had received
any advices from his own court respecting it; and
as it was easily divined that sir Charles, who was
about this time recalled, meditated the delivery of
the work at his audience of leave, steps of a very
decided character were taken to frustrate his design.
Notice was sent him at what hour the king of Spain
would receive his visit, and also, that the duke of
Lerma desired to see him previously ; Cornwallis
anticipated the event. The minister, with very un
usual

323
usual frankness, entered directly on the subject ; he
said that to his king "was and ever should be dear
and of much esteem any thing presented from his
majesty's hands, as the prince in the world whose
perfect amity he most affected ; but he marvelled
much that to his majesty it should not be under
stood, that his king was so entire and sincere in his
faith, and in obedience to the church of Rome, (from
whence is upon pain of excommunication directly
forbidden receipt or reading of any books of such
nature as is said to be that of his majesty's,) as there
could not be so much as a conceit had that he would
by any means be drawn to receive it. He therefore,
out of his particular good will to myself," adds the
ambassador, "and his ever continuing affection to
his majesty of Great Britain, and desire to hold firm
the amity and good correspondence between both
Jiings, thought fit hereof to give unto me this plain
and ample warning, to the end that, if such a book
I had to present, I might forbear to do it ; whereby
might be avoided a refusal that would be so un-
pleasing to the one to give, and so distasteful to the
other to receive." To this decision the English
ambassador found himself obliged to signify his sub
mission, though he seized the opportunity of advert
ing to the nature of the work, and of inveighing
against papal domination in a strain very novel, and
doubtless very shocking, to Spanish ears ; — and thus
unsatisfactorily the matter ended1

a_Winwood, iii. 66.
y2 At

324
At Venice, the zeal of Wotton for the literary
success of his master had nearly produced more se
rious mischiefs. Sir Thomas Edmonds writes, of the
circumstance to Winwood as "follows : "Sir Henry
Wotton hath had of late a great contestation with
the state of Venice, for that after they had received
the king's books they did by public ordinance forbid
the publishing of the same ; which he took so ten
derly, as thereupon he charged them with the breach
of their amity with his majesty, and declared unto
them, that in respect thereof he could not longer
exercise his charge in the quality of a public mini
ster among them. This protestation of his was found
so strange by that state, as they sent hither in great
diligence to understand whether his majesty would
avow him therein ; which did very much trouble
them here to make a cleanly answer thereunto, for
the salving of the ambassador's credit, who is cen
sured to have prosecuted the matter to an over-great
extremity1." It was in such petty and miserable squabbles that
James I. compromised his own dignity and the ho
nor of England, before the eyes of all the princes
of Europe.
Meantime, the king was disgracing himself at
home by a folly of a different kind ; the adop
tion of a new and despicable minion whorn we shall
observe gradually thrust forward to the dictatorship
of the court and almost ofthe kingdom. This fa-
a Winwood, iii. 77. vorite

325
vorite was a handsome youth named Robert Carr,
or Ker, born of a gentleman's family in the neigh
bourhood of Edinburgh, whose introduction to the
notice of the king is thus related. Carr had made
some abode in France, in what capacity does not
appear, and had just returned from that country with
the acquisition ofthe courtly garb and distinguished
air by which a fine person is set off to the greatest
advantage, when one of James's Scotch courtiers, —
some say sir James Hay, others lord Dingwall, — se
lected him as his page or squire at a tilting match ;
— probably that which celebrated the anniversary
of the coronation on July 25, 1606. The office as
signed him was, to present to the sovereign, accord
ing to established usage, the shield and device of
his master ; but as he was dismounting for this pur
pose, his horse started and threw him at the feet of
the monarch, with his leg broken by the fall. James,
who had been already captivated by his graces, was
filled with grief at the accident; he instantly ordered
his own surgeons to give their assistance, and as soon
as the tilting was over visited the sufferer in person.
Some accounts state, that Carr had formerly attend
ed the king as a page in Scotland, and that the in
cident ofthe tilt only produced a recognition ; which
may have been the case, though it appears probable
that another Robert Carr, a relation and friend of
the favorite, sometimes confounded with him, who
had been created a knight of the Bath at the coro
nation, and was afterwards made earl of Ancram,
had also served the king in this capacity. But, how ever

326
ever this might be, it was from his opportune frac
ture that the prosperity of Carr took its date. The
doting king visited him daily, occupied himself with
his fortune, and even with his education, which he
found miserably deficient, arid soon exhibited him
to the envying courtiers as the intercessor through
whom all graces were henceforth to be sought. On
Christmas eve 1607, he was knighted and sworn
gentleman of the bed-chamber ; in the ensuing
February, sir George Chaworth writes to the earl
of Shrewsbury that " sir Robert Carr is now the
especially graced man1;" and the following letter
of uncertain date, but probably not later than 1608,
marks the maturity of the royal phrensy, as well as
the vile adulation of his court.
Lord Thomas Howard to sir John Harrington.
"My good and trusty knight;
"If you have good will and good health to perform
what I shall commend, you may set forward for
court whenever it suiteth your own conveniency : the
king hath often inquired after you, and would readily
see and converse again with the "merry blade," as
he hath oft called you since you was here. I will
now premise certain things to be observed by you
toward well gaining our prince's good affection :—
He doth wondrously covet learned discourse, of
which you can furnish out ample means ; he doth
* Illustrations, iii. 366.
admire

327
admire good fashion in clothes, I pray you give
good heed hereunto ; strange devices oft come into
man's conceit ; some one regardeth the endowments
of the inward sort, wit, valor, or virtue ; another
hath perchance special affection towards outward
things, clothes, deportment and good countenance ;
I would wish you to be well trimmed ; get a new
jerkin, well bordered and not too short; the king
saith, he liketh a flowing garment ; be sure it be
not all of one sort, but diversely colored, the collar
falling somewhat down, and your ruff well stiffened
and bushy. We have lately had many gallants who
failed in their suits for want of due observance of
these matters. The king is nicely heedful of such
points, and dwelleth on good looks and handsome
accoutrements. Eighteen servants were lately dis
charged, and many more will be discarded, who are
not to his liking in these matters.
" I wish you to follow my directions, as I wish
you to gain all you desire. Robert Carr is now most
likely to win the prince's affection, and doth it won-
derously in a little time. The prince leaneth on his
arm, pinches his cheek, smooths his ruffled garment,
and, when he looketh at Carr, directeth discourse
to divers others. This young man doth much study
all art and device ; he hath changed his tailors and
tiremen many times, and all to please the prince,
who laugheth at the long-grown fashion of our
young courtiers, and wisheth for change every day.
You must see Carr before you go to the king, as he
was with him a boy in Scotland, and knoweth his
taste

328
taste and what pleaseth. In your discourse you
must not dwell too long on any one subject, and
touch but lightly on religion. Do not of yourself
say, 'This is good, or bad ;' but, ' If it were your
majesty's good opinion, I myself should think so and
so.' Ask. no more questions than what may serve
to discover the prince's thought. In private dis
course, the king seldom speaketh of any man's tem
per, discretion, or good virtues ; so meddle not at
all, but find out a clue to guide you to the heart and
most delightful subject of his mind. I will advise
one thing; — the roan jennet whereon the king rid-
eth every day, must not be forgotten to be praised;
and the good furniture above all, what lost a great
man much notice the other day. A noble did come
in suit of a place, and saw the king mounting the
roan ; delivered his petition, which was heeded and
read, but no answer was given. The noble de^-
parted, and came to court the next day, and got no
answer again. The lord-treasurer was then pressed
to move the king's pleasure touching the petition.
When the king was asked for answer thereto, he
said in some wrath, ' Shall a king give heed to
a dirty paper, when a beggar noteth not his gilt
stirrups ?' Now it fell out that the king had new
furniture when the noble saw him in the court-yard,
but he was overcharged with confusion, and passed
by admiring the dressing of the horse. Thus, good
knight, our noble failed in his suit. I could relate
and offer some other remarks on these matters. . . .
" You have lived to see the trim of old times, and
what

329
what passed in the queen's days. These things are
no more the same. Your queen did talk of her
subjects' love and good affections, and in good truth
she aimed well ; our king talketh of his subjects'
fear and subjection, and herein I think he doth well
too, as long as it holdeth good. Carr hath all the
favors, as I told you before ; the king teacheth him
Latin every morning, and I think some one should
teach him English too ; for as he is a Scotish lad,
he hath much need of better language. The king
doth much covet his presence ; the ladies too are
not behind hand in their admiration ; for I tell you,
good knight, this fellow is straight-limbed, well-fa
vored, strong-shouldered and smooth-faced, with
some sort of cunning and show of modesty; though,
G — wot, he well knoweth when to show his impu
dence. You are not young, you are not handsome,
you are not finely ; and yet will you come to court
and think to be well favored ? Why, I say again,
good knight, thaj your learning may somewhat
prove worthy hereunto; your Latin and your Greek,
your Italian and your Spanish tongues, your wit
and discretion, may be well looked unto for a time,
as strangers at such a place ; but these are not the
things men live by now-a-days. Will you say, the
moon shineth all the summer? that the stars are
bright jewels fit for Carr's ears? that the roan jen
net surpasseth Bucephalus, and is worthy to.be be
stridden by Alexander ? that his eyes are fire, his
tail is Berenice's locks, and a few more such fancies
worthy your noticing ? Your lady is virtuous, and
somewhat

330
somewhat of a good housewife ; has lived in a court
in her time, and I believe you may venture her forth
again ; but I know those would not so quietly rest,
were Carr to leer on their wives, as some do per
ceive, yea, and like it well too they should be so no
ticed. If any mischance be to be wished, Jtis break
ing a leg in the king's presence, for this fellow owes
all his favor to that bout; I think he hath better rea
son to speak well of his own horse than the king's
roan jennet. We are almost worn out in our endea
vours to keep pace with this fellow in his duty and
labor to gain favor, but all in vain ; where it endeth
I cannot guess, but honors are talked of speedily for
him1." The remarks of an intelligent foreigner on man
ners, characters, and the general state of a country,
are always interesting and instructive, and their im-
a Nugm, i. 390. — It is not easy to decide who was the writer
of this spirited letter ; since there existed at this period no per.
son, who, according to modern usage, Would be entitled lord
Thomas Howard. I conceive him to have been Thomas Howard
viscount Bindon, who succeeded his father in that title about
1600, and is said to have died soon after 1609. It is possible,
that the letter of sir John Harrington already cited as belonging
to the year 1607, ought to be placed later and considered as
having reference to a visit to court undertaken in consequence
of these persuasions of lord Howard; but as one of the letters
is undated, and the other manifestly wrong dated in the original
edition of the Nugm, no certainty on this head can be obtained.
There were two other Thomas Howards, the earl of Suffolk
and his second son ; but the sentiments do not suit the first, and
the second had at this time no title; afterwards he was earl of
Berkshire. portance

331
portance is much enhanced when communicated in
the form of an official statement intended for the
private information of a foreign potentate : such a
document we possess in a description of England
written in Italian by cardinal Bentivoglio, the histo
rian of the wars in Flanders, when filling the station
of nuncio at the court of the archduke and the in
fanta at Brussels, and transmitted to the court of
Rome in January 1609. An abridged translation
ofthe characters given ofthe king, queen and royal
family, will here find their place. It should be pre
mised, that it does not appear whether the cardinal
visited England in person, or collected his informa
tion from the catholic exiles who filled the Flemish
court ; but his account is drawn up with great care
and accuracy, and betrays no sinister views ; on re
ligion he speaks of course like a Romish prelate.
A brief geographical description of James's three
kingdoms represents their strength as very consi
derable : England is mentioned as fertile, rich and
populous ; its inhabitants as excelling in beauty and
stature, warlike, and particularly formidable at sea;
" and the said English are very proud, and beyond
measure disdainful of every foreign nation." Lon
don is stated to contain 400,000 inhabitants, princi
pally artisans, and those chiefly concerned in woollen
manufactures. "The king of England is about forty-six, rather
above the middle size, of a fair and florid complexion,
and of lineaments very noble to behold. In the rest
of his person, and particularly in his gestures and
carriage.

332
. carriage, he discovers no kind of grace or royal dig
nity. He eats and drinks much, and disregards al!
""regimen. His chief exercise is hunting, for which
he has so great a fondness that he consumes in it
both the principal part of his time, and it may be
said himself also ; for such continued and violent
exercise must be rather pernicious than salutary.
This is his first taste ; his second is for books and
literature, in which he professes to be greatly versed
and to have merited a high place. He has com
posed a moral and political piece, the Basilicon
Doron ,- and also the Apology, first printed anony
mously and not then known to be his, now entituled
Triplici nodo triplex cuneus.
" Occupied by these two pursuits, the king of
England lives remote and almost entirely estranged
' from the most important cares and concerns of the
j state. Besides this mode of life, more that of a theo-
} logian than a prince, a hunter than a king, he be
trays many other imperfections and defects, and thus
refutes the opinion of an ancient sage, that states
would be happy in which either learned men were
governors, or kings were men of learning. This
king is held by many to be of a nature rather mild
than cruel, and these endeavour to justify the con
tinued persecution of the catholics in England by
saying, that he permits it rather out of the necessity
of following the mode of government established by
the late queen, than to gratify himself with their
sufferings and their blood. Others think that he is
naturally little inclined to mercy, and that he conti nues

333
nues the persecution of the catholics rather from the
hatred which he entertains for their religion, and
from a desire to exalt heresy; which he favors more
from a tenacious impression of the doctrine, than
from motives of policy.
'The king is prodigal in giving and in spending,
and rather profuse than liberal. He is very courte
ous towards strangers, especially ambassadors, whom '
he caresses with all possible attentions and with rich
presents at parting.
"He speaks extremely well, and has a happy, me
mory ; gifts of whicli he has often made a great dis
play, especially on occasions of opening the parlia
ment, when, instead of confining himself to the dig
nified brevity observed by his predecessors, he has
chosen to exhibit his talents in long speeches in
terspersed with many matters belonging to erudition
rather than government.
" Through life he has shown himself of a very
timid nature, and has exhibited no martial spirit nor
love of military men. He well understands the arts
of simulation and dissimulation ; as he clearly proved
in Scotland, by amusing the catholic princes with
promises of granting the free exercise of their reli
gion to the English catholics when he should be
come their king, and flattering the heretics with
assurances that he would make no change in the
laws established by the queen. With the same ar
tifice he now entertains several treaties of marriage,
for his eldest son and only daughter, with different
princes ofthe two parties.
"The

334
"The queen, a sister ofthe king of Denmark, is
praised as one ofthe handsomest princesses of her
time. She shows a noble spirit, and is singularly
graceful, courteous and affable. She delights beyond
measure in admiration and praises of her beauty, in
which she has the vanity to think that she has no
equal. Hence she makes public exhibitions of her
self in a thousand ways and with a thousand different
inventions, and sometimes to so great an excess,
that it has been doubted which went furthest, — the
king in the ostentation of his learning, or the queen
in the display of her beauty. The queen is much
attached to the free mode of life customary in Eng
land ; and as she is very affable, she often puts it in
practice with the ladies whom she admits to the
greatest intimacy, visiting them by turns at their
own houses, where she diverts herself with private
amusements, laying aside all the dignity and majesty
of a princess.
"She rails against the Itajian jealousy of women,
and has more than once said jestingly to the am
bassadors of Italian princes, that their countrymen
ought to be banished from England, for fear of their
introducing the fashion of jealousy. Her great pas
sion is for balls and public entertainments, which
she herself arranges, and which serve as a public
theatre on which to display her grace and beauty.
She is fond of festivals after the mode of Italy, has
a great taste for every thing Italian, and understands
the language very well ; so does also the king.
" As to the royal children, the prince of Wales is
now

335
nOw fifteen, of a noble aspect, fine deportment and
high spirit; but at present he appears somewhat
fierce in his disposition. He spends much of his
time in bodily exercises, of all which he is very fond,
but most particularly those of a martial character.
"The duke of York is nine years of age, and the
daughter twelve, both handsome, and of a noble ex
pression of countenance."
In speaking ofthe relations of England with fo
reign states, it is worthy of remark, that the cardinal
represents the peace which she had recently con
cluded with Spain and with Flanders, — one power
in effect,— as " a concealed war of continual suspi
cions :" and he thus strongly states the causes of
these jealousies : " The king of England dreads
the vicinity of the Spanish army quartered in Flan
ders ; and the fomentation which might hence be
given to any disturbances among his own subjects.
In Flanders also he says that the gunpowder -plot,
an account of which has, been published, was in part
contrived ; many noble English, Scotch and Irish,
whom he calls rebels, are here received into the
army and largely pensioned ; here too seminaries
for youth of both sexes, natives of his kingdoms, are
established and largely supplied by the alms ofthe
king of Spain ; and finally, king James perceives
that Flanders is in a manner the sole refuge of the
catholics who are driven, or who fly, from his domi
nions ; and that the persons who repair to his states
for the purpose of preserving the catholic religion
within them, are principally educated here, in the
seminaries

336
seminaries above mentioned." The cardinal adds,
that the king apprehends an invasion of Ireland from
the ports of Spain. On the other hand, he observes
that the revolt of the Dutch provinces was princi
pally supported by the valor of the English auxili
aries, the best troops they ever had; and that should
the war iri Flanders recommence on the expiration
of the twelve years' truce, the king of Spain would
dread their receiving succours again from the same
quarter. On the whole, he concludes that peace
between these countries can be only nominal. It
would have been well had king James settled his
mind in a similar conviction1.
a The " Description of England" by-cardinal Bentivoglio has
never been printed. The above translations were made from a
transcript of a copy existing among bishop Tanner's MSS. in
the Bodleian library, obligingly communicated to me by B. H.
Bright, Esq.

CHAPTER

CHAPTER XL
1610.
Court news. — Account of prince Henry. — Parliament. — Lord
Salisbury's speech. — Grievances. — King's dislike to the
common law. — Cowell's Interpreter. — Arrogant speech of
the king. — Sir J. Spencer. — Letter of lady Compton. —
Creation of the prince of Wales. — Mask of queens. — Tilt
ing- — Assassination of Henry IV. — Prosecutions of Jesuits ;
• — death of Cadwallader. — Death and character of father
Parsons. — Of archbishop Bancroft. — Motives of Abbot's
promotion. — Affair of Sprot. — Bald,v»yn the Jesuit. — Lord
Herbert of Chirbury. — Free speech of sir II. Neville-. —
Parliament dissolved.
JL HE state of the court at the opening of the year
1610, is thus reported by Mr. Chamberlain in a let
ter to Winwood of February 13.
" I can make you no long relation of our Christ
mas games, being grown such a house-dove that I
stir little abroad, specially to look after such sports.
The barriers on Twelfth-night they say were very
well performed, and the prince behaved himself
every way very well and gracefully. The three
prizes were bestowed on the earl of Montgomery,
young Darcy son to the lord Darcy, and sir Robert
Gordon a Scot, more in favor of the nation than for
any due desert. Instead of a plaudite, they had an
exceeding good peal of ordnance or chambers, that
graced the matter very much.
vol. i. z " The

338
" The next day, the prince, with his assistance
all in livery, and the defendants in their best bravery,
rode in great pomp to convoy the king to St. James's,
whither he had invited bim and all the court to sup
per (the queeri only being absent), and there ended
his table ; the allowance whereof, from the publish
ing of his challenge, had been 100/. a day. If the
charge do not hinder it, he would fain undertake
another triumph, or show, against the king's day in
March, and the queen would likewise have a mask
against Candlemas or Shrovetide. She hath been
somewhat melancholy of late about her jointure,
that was not fully to her liking ; whereupon, to give
her contentment, there is 3000/. a year added to it
out ofthe customs, with a donative of 20,000/. to
pay her debts. The lady Arabella's business, what
soever, it was, is ended, and she restored to her for
mer place and grace. The king gave her a cup
board of plate better than 200Z. for a new-year's
gift, and a thousand marks to pay her debts, besides
some yearly addition to her maintenance ; want be
ing thought the chiefest cause of her discontents
ment, though she be not altogether free from sus
picion of being collapsed.
" At a supper the last week, made by the lady
Elizabeth Hatton, there grew a question between
the earls of Argyle and Pembroke about place,
which the Scot maintains to be his by seniority, as
being now become all Britons. Our nobility now
begin to startle at it (now it touches their freehold),
but, for ought I hear, the king leaves it as he finds it,

339
it, and refers it over to the parliament ; which is
now likely to hold on, for young Yelverton hath
made his peace, and divers gentlemen that were put
out ofthe commission ofthe peace for being over
busy the last sessions, are restored ; and sir Henry
Witherington released from his confining or re
straint. "Our East India merchants have lately built a
goodly ship of above 1200 ton, to the launching
whereof the king and prince were invited and had
a bountiful banquet. The king graced sir Thomas
Smiththe governorwith a chain in manner of acollar,
better than 200/. with his picture hanging at it, and
put it about his neck with his own hands, naming
the ship, Trade's increase ; and the prince a pinnace
of 250 tons built to wait on her, Peppercorn1."
The appearance of prince Henry as principal
challenger at the barriers on Twelfth-night is a
circumstance of some consequence ; being his first
introduction to the court arid the nation in a manly
character. After this period his history strictly be
longs to that of the public scene on which he was
destined to perform a short yet brilliant part ; but
the melancholy interest which the disappointment
of a nation's hopes has cast around his memory,
prompts us to trace him back to still earlier years,
and inquire into the foundation ofthe. high expec
tations which he so generally excited.
Prince Henry Frederic, eldest son of King James,

a Winwood, iii. 117.

z2

was

340
was born at Stirling castle on February 19, 1594.
His father committed his infancy to the joint care
ofthe earl of Mar and ofthe countess his mother,
vvho had been his own nurse : both were persons of
merit, who conciliated the esteem of their charge,
and even his affection, though it is said that a natural
austerity of temper, joined to a strict sense of duty,
effectually restrained the countess from any excess
on the side of indulgence. James and his queen
lived habitually much apart ; both were devoted to
amusements, though of different kinds; and neither
of them cherished their offspring with such tender
ness as to desire that they should receive education
under their own eyes, or be domesticated beneath
the same roof with themselves. In consequence,
the younger children were boarded out in the fami
lies of different noblemen ; whilst for the heir appa
rent a separate establishment was formed, almost
immediately on his quitting his nurse, which, by the
habitual carelessness of the king, was suffered to
become an immoderately expensive one. His prin
cipal attendants were, the earl of Mar as governor,
and sir David Murray as gentleman of the bed
chamber, the latter of whom attended him into Eng
land, and never quitted him till his last breath.
At five or six years of age, the prince was placed
under the tuition of Adam Newton, a good scholar,
who afterwards translated into Latin the king's dis
course against Vorstius, and was remunerated for
his services, somewhat irregularly for a layman, with
the deanery of Durham, and afterwards with a ba
ronetcy.

341
ronetcy. About the same time James composed his
Basilicon Doron, nominally for the instruction of
his child, but more truly for the purpose of display
ing his skill in common places, and uttering to the
world his maxims of state.
In the last year of queen Elizabeth, the pope ven
tured to propose to James, that the education of
Henry should be submitted to his direction, in con
sideration of which he engaged to advance large
sums for the purpose of establishing his majesty
on the throne of England : to this overture, which
will appear extraordinary to those who consider
James rather in the light of a protestant polemic
than a temporizing politician, a polite negative was
returned1. No sooner had the little prince arrived in Eng
land, than it was judged conducive to the dignity
or the royal family to create him a knight of the
garter, at nine years of age, and to settle him with
a splendid household in one of the royal palaces.
His establishment consisted at first of 70 servants;
but the king doubled their number the next year,
and in 1610 the family of the prince had swelled to
the enormous amount of 426 persons, of whom 297
received wages ; without reckoning artificers under
the management of Inigo Jones, comptroller of the
works b.
Different factions, foreign and domestic, now put
themselves in action to gain the ear and heart of the
- Birch's Life of Henry prince of Wales.
b Archmologia, xii. 85.
young

342
young prince, whose qualities appeared likely soon
to invest him with personal consequence. Some
aimed to inspire him with a taste for military glory ;
thus colonel Edmonds, a Scotch officer of merit
serving in the Low -Countries, being directed to pro
cure for his highness a suit of armour, expressed his
hopes that he would follow the footsteps of Edward
the black prince, and added, " I shall bring with
me also the book of Froissart, who will show your
grace how the wars were led in those days; and
what just title and right your grace's father has be
yond the seas1." The queen also, whose catholic
and Spanish predilections have been already ad
verted to, made many attempts to inspire him with
similar sentiments ; and told him that she hoped
one day to see him conquer France like another
Henry V. M. Beaumont the French ambassador,
in one of his letters, after taking notice of her ma
jesty's immoderate ambition of governing, adds, that
' " she used all her efforts to corrupt the mind of the
prince by flattering his passions, and diverting him
from his studies and exercises, representing to him,
out of contempt to his father, that learning was in
consistent with the character of a great general and
conqueror, and proposing to him a marriage with
the infanta of Spain b." But as Anne was a foolish
without being a fond mother to Henry, — for his bro
ther Charles was the favorite, — her insinuations pro
duced little effect. To learning indeed he does not

* Birch's Life of prince Henry, p. 46.
h Ibid. p. 46. . '

appear

3A3
appear to have been greatly addicted ; but he re
mained true to his protestant faith ; and the martial
spirit thus fostered in him had the effect of rendering
him a warm admirer of the character of Henry IV.
of France, and by degrees of drawing him strongly
within the influence of this distinguished prince and
warrior. The French ambassadors watched with diligence
the opening of the prince's mind, and early pointed
out to their master the importance of conciliating
him. " None of his pleasures," writes M. la Bo-
derie in October 1606, " savour in the least of a
child.* He is a particular lover of horses and what
belongs to them ; but is not fond of hunting ; and
when he does engage in it, it is rather for the plea
sure of galloping than for any which the dogs give
him. He is fond of playing at tennis, and at an
other Scotch diversion very like mall ; but always
with persons elder than himself, as if he despised
those of his own age. He studies two hours in the
day, and employs the rest of his time in tossing the
pike, or leaping, or shooting with the bow, or throw
ing the bar, or vaulting, or some other exercise of
that kind ; and he is never idle. He is very kind to
his dependents, supports their interests against all
persons whatsoever; and urges all that he undertakes
for them or others with such zeal as ensures it suc
cess : for, besides his exerting his whole strength to
compass what he desires, he is already feared by
those who have the management of affairs, and es--
pecially by the eari of Salisbury, who appears to be
greatly

344
greatly apprehensive of the prince's ascendency ; as
the prince, on the other hand, shows little esteem
for his lordship1." This is merely the picture of an
active, impetuous, aspiring boy ; but Henry's cha
racter afforded some better indications, among which
may be mentioned his patronage of that excellent
man and preacher Joseph Hall, afterwards bishop
of Norwich : having heard two of his sermons, the
prince, then in his fourteenth year, appointed him
one of his chaplains, and afterwards invited him to
reside constantly in his court ; but engagements to
a former patron, and perhaps an averseness to court-
attendance, induced Hall to decline the favor.
A strong sense of religion appears to have been
early impressed on the mind of Henry ; partly, it is
probable, by his able and upright governor sir Tho
mas Chaloner, who lay under some suspicion of puri
tanism. Not content with exhibiting a pattern of
perfect regularity and strict religious observance in
his own conduct, his youthful zeal displayed itself
by his ordering boxes to be kept at his three houses
to receive the penalties on profane swearing, which
he ordered to be strictly levied on his household.
The notorious culpability of the king his father in
this point rendered the contrast striking, and per
haps invidious. To the same effect we have the
following fine anecdote : " Once when the prince
was hunting the stag, it chanced the stag, being
spent, crossed the road where a butcher and his
' See Birch, p. 75. dog

345
dbg were travelling ; the dog killed the stag, which
was so great that the butcher could not carry him
off: when the huntsman and the company came up,
they fell at odds with the butcher, and endeavoured
to incense the prince against him ; to whom the
prince soberly answered, 'What if the butcher's
dog killed the stag, what could the butcher help it ?'
They replied, if his father had been served so, he
would have sworn so as no man could have endured
it. ' Away,' replied the prince, ' all the pleasure in
the world is not worth an oath1.'"
Henry's attention was early directed towards naval
matters ; he frequently visited the dock -yards; took
great delight in a model of a ship of war which was
constructed for him in 1607, and received Phineas
Pett the builder into his especial favor and protec
tion. It appears that he also studied fortification ;
for he took advantage of the return of the prince de
Joinville from his English visit, to send in his train
an engineer in his own service, charged to examine
all the defences of Calais. In a letter addressed to
the prince de Joinville soon after, Henry said that
he perceived his cousin during his abode in England
had discovered his humor, since he had sent him a
present of the two things he loved best, — arms and
horses. On another occasion, being asked by the
French ambassador if he had any message for his
master, he answered, " Tell him what I am now
doing;" — tossing the pike.
* Coke's Detection, p, 65.
The

346
The genius of sir Walter Raleigh fixed his ad
miration ; he was more than once heard to exclaim,
that " no king but his father would keep such a bird
in a cage ;" and it is suggested that his dislike of
the earl of Salisbury sprung frort! what he had heard
of his secret machinations for the destruction of Ra
leigh. The people are never convinced except by
experience that the martial genius of a prince is a
curse to his country : in Henry also this genius ap
pears to have been combined with so many prin
ciples and impulses truly good and noble, that the
subjects of James I. may well be pardoned the ex
cess of their attachment and the fond credulity of
their anticipations.
The expected meeting of parliament took place
in February 1610, for the king's necessities would
admit of no longer delay : he declined however the
now unwelcome office of opening the sessions in
person, and devolved upon the lord-treasurer the
task of apologizing in some manner for his unre
mitting profusion, and for the abuses which it had
produced or fostered, and of prefacing with some
thinglike promises of reformation and redress a dis
closure ofthe unprecedented amount of his present
wants and future expectations. Salisbury probably
did his best; but he seems to have struggled with
an invincible consciousness of the badness of his
cause, and, if the reports of his speech which have
come down to us may be trusted, seldom has so weak
a pleading proceeded from so able an advocate. His
announcement of the king's intention. of creating his
eldest

347
eldest son prince of Wales, was probably heard with
satisfaction ; but to claim merit for his purpose of
doing so during the sitting and with the concur
rence of parliament, notwithstanding the examples
given by some former princes to the contrary, was
certainly unpopular, and perhaps unconstitutional.
A general account of the chief heads of extraor
dinary expenditure followed, with an endeavour to
shew that all these charges were either absolutely
unavoidable, or "such as were highly conducive to
the praise ofthe king and the honor of the nation.
The minister added, that riches, philosophically con
sidered, were nothing but food and raiment, all be
yond was vanity, and but the purer part of earth, the
grosser part of water ; "a thing unworthy the de
nial to such a king as is not only the wisest of kings,
but the very image of an angel that hath brought
good tidings, and settled us in the fruition of all
good things. He whose depth of knowledge as well
as conscience deserves the title of 'Fideidefensor;'
whose numerous issue makes foreign princes study
to keep their own, not look abroad. He that hath
shut the back-door of the kingdom and placed two
lions, a red and a yellow, to secure it1." The orator
concluded by demanding on the part of the crown,
a supply of 600,000/., and a permanent augmenta
tion of 200,000/. per annum, in return for which it
was stated, that the king would be ready to listen
to representations of grievances, and to treat respect-

Wilson, p. 43.

ing

348
ing the commutation of wardship and purveyance
for a stated yearly revenue.
On these intimations, memorials and petitions
flowed in from all quarters, filled with complaints of
malversation and abuse in various departments, and
especially in the proceedings ofthe high-commission
court: but no redress ensued; nor did better success
attend the long-agitated project of the abolition of
wardship, on the terms of which the king and par
liament could never come to an agreement, owing
to exorbitant claims on one side and a marked dis
trust on the other.
The question ofthe union, which was revived by
a courtly member in some long orations, is said to
have been "whistled down" in the lower house.
Meantime the business of supplies went on slowly
and sullenly ; members ventured to observe, that it
was idle to bestow extraordinary sums of money on
a prince who gave away with one hand all that he
received with the other; and the existing abundance
of gold and silver in Edinburgh was pointedly al
luded to. The ill-humor of i^ie house was ae-era-
vated by the excessive indiscretion of the king; who
openly, at his own table, expressed his contempt for
the common-law of England, — so favorable to the
liberty of the subject, — in comparison with the civil
law; a declaration of sentiment the more formidable,
because a vehement contention had been for some
time carried on between these rival judicatures, on
the subject of the writs of prohibition by which the
courts of common law had been accustomed to ex
ercise

349
ercise the right of controling the proceedings ofthe
civilians. A quarrel between the high-spirited Coke,
now lord-chief-justice, and the king, respecting this
affair, is thus related in a letter to the earl of Shrews
bury, written in November 1608: "On Sunday,
before the king's going to Newmarket, .... my lord
Coke and all the judges of the common law were
before his majesty, to answer some complaints of
the civil lawyers for the general granting of prohi
bitions. I heard that the lord Coke, amongst other
offensive speech, should say to his majesty, that his
highness was defended by his laws ; at which say
ing, with other speech then used by the lord Coke,
his majesty was very much offended, and told him he
spake foolishly, and said, that he was not defended
by his laws, but by God ; and so gave the lord Coke,
in other words, a very sharp reprehension, both for
that and other things ; and withal told him that sir
Thomas Compton (the judge of the admiralty court)
was as good a man as Coke1."
A book called The Interpreter, written by Dr.
Cowella civilian,>at the instigation, as was believed,
of archbishop Bancroft, and with the king's appro
bation, carried to a still higher pitch the irritation
of the commons, and alarmed them with the appre
hension of a systematic design for the introduction
of absolute monarchy. The work in question laid
down these three principles : — " First, That the
king was solutus a legibus, not bound by his coro-
2 Illustrations, iii. 364. nation

350
nation oath. Secondly, That it was not ex necessi
tate that the king should call a parliament to make
laws, but might do it by his absolute power. Thirdly,
It was a favor to admit the consent of the subjects
in giving subsidies1." These monstrous positions
were severely animadverted upon in parliament, and
steps were also taking for bringing the author to
punishment, when the king transferred the business
into his own hands by consenting to issue a procla
mation for the suppression of the book. But these
manifestations of the spirit of parliament were
alarming, and the members of both houses were
summoned to Whitehall to listen to a " long lec
ture," in which his majesty flattered himself that he
should be able to rectify their ideas on the preroga
tive of kings and the duties of subjects.
He opened his harangue with a declaration which
more resembles the frantic blasphemies ofthe despots
of Nineveh and Babylon than any former address of
an English king to an English parliament. " Kings
are justly called Gods, for that they exercise a man
ner or resemblance of divine powrer upon earth : for
if you will consider the attributes of God, you shall
see how they agree in the person of a king. God
hath power to create or destroy, make or unmake,
at his pleasure ; to give life or send death, to judge
all, and to be judged nor accountable to none : to
raise low things and to make high things low at his
pleasure ; and to God both soul and body are due.
* Coke's Detection, p. 59.
And

351
And the like power have kings : they make and un
make their subjects ; they have power of raising and
casting down ; of life and of death ; judges over all
their subjects and in all causes ; and yet accountable
to none but God only. They have power to exalt
low things and abase high things, and make of
their subjects like men at chess : a pawn to take a
bishop or a knight, and to cry up or down any of
their subjects as they do their money. And to the
king is due both the affection of the soul and the
service of the body of his subjects." After some
further remarks he added, " I conclude then this
point, touching the power of kings, with this axiom
of divinity ; that as to dispute what God may do is
blasphemy ; but quid vult Deus, that divines may
lawfully and do ordinarily dispute and discuss,. . . .
so it is sedition in subjects to dispute what a king
may do in the plenitude of his power1." The mo
narch further asserts, that kings were before laws,
and that all laws were granted by them as matter of
favor to the people.
Yet, in the end, he is pleased somewhat to qua
lify these lofty pretensions by the admission, that
there is a certain kind of distinction between this
abstract idea of a monarch, this " king in divinity,"
as he calls him, and a king of England, who is bound
to govern according to the municipal law and the
custom of the country ; — a rule which he himself has
hitherto observed and purposes to observe in future.
* King James's Works, pp. 529, 531. • " I will

352
" I will not be content," he says, " that my power
be disputed upon; but I shall ever be willing to
make the reason appear of all my doings, and rule
my actions according to my laws."
The rest of the speech treated of grievances, of
his supposed preference of the civil law, and of his
desire of a pecuniary supply ; on all which heads he
subdivided and distinguished, in a manner more
fitted to confirm than remove the apprehensions of
those members of either house who regarded them
selves as the appointed conservators of English laws
and liberty. It appears from an allusion in the
king's speech, that many of the members took down
his words ; and we learn from other authority that
those of the " more serious sort" were much grieved
and offended at the profane parallel which he had
dared to draw.
At length the commons voted a supply considera
bly inferior to the royal demand, and in the month
of July parliament was prorogued to the ensuing
October. In this year died sir John Spencer, formerly lord-
mayor of London, respecting whom some circum
stances have been recorded worthy of notice as illus
trative of manners and private life. He was perhaps
the richest citizen of his time ; but the amount of his
wealth cannot be ascertained; it was variously stated
at three, five, and eight hundred thousand pounds.
His opulence however was so noted that one of the
pirates of Dunkirk, who during this and the follow
ing reign exercised their outrages with impunity on
the

353
the English coasts, had laid a plot for carrying him
off to France to extort a ransom ; but the design
failed. His only child was a prize worthy the notice
of a courtier, and she became the wife of William
lord Compton, afterwards created earl of Northamp
ton. At the funeral of sir John about one thousand
persons followed in mourning cloaks and gowns.
The amount of the inheritance seems to have ex
ceeded all the expectations of lord Compton ; inso
much that on the first news, "either through the
vehement apprehension of joy for such a plentiful
succession, or of carefulness how to take it up and
dispose of it1," he became distracted, and so conti
nued for a considerable length of time. It must
probably have been soon after his recovery that his
wife addressed to him a letter which may be regard
ed as the most perfect exposition we possess of the
wants and wishes of a lady of quality in the age of
James I.
" My sweet life, Now I have declared to you my
mind for the settling of your state, I suppose that it
were best for me to bethink and consider within
myself what allowance were meetest for me : 
I pray and beseech you to grant to me, your most
kind and loving wife, the sum of 2600/. quarterly to
be paid. Also I would, besides that allowance, have
600/. quarterly to be paid, for the performance of
charitable works : and those things I would not, nei
ther will be accountable for. Also, I will have three

a Winwood, iii. 136.
vol, i. 2 a horses

354
horses for my own saddle, that none shall dare to
lend or borrow : none lend but I, none borrow but
you . Also, I would have two gentlewomen, lest one
should be sick, or have some other let. Also, believe
it, it is an undecent thing for a gentlewoman to stand
mumping alone, when God hath blessed their lord
and lady with a great estate. Also, when I ride
• a-hunting, or a-hawking, or travel from one house
to another, I will have them attending; so, for either
of those said women, I must and will have for either
of them a horse. Also, I will have six or eightgentle-
men ; and I will have my two coaches, one lined with
velvet to myself, with four very fair horses ; and a
coach for my women, lined with cloth and laced with
gold, otherwise with scarlet and laced with silver,
with four good horses. Also, I will have two coach
men, one for my own coach, the other for my wo
men. Also, at any time when I travel, I will be al
lowed not only caroches and spare horses for me and
my women, but I will have such carriages as shall
be fitting for all, orderly, riot pestering my things
with my women's, nor theirs with either chamber
maids, nor theirs with wash-maids. Also, for laun
dresses, when I travel, I will have them sent away
before with the carriages, to see all safe. , And the
chambermaids I will have go before, that the cham
ber may be ready, sweet and clean. Also, for that
it is undecent to crowd up myself with my gentle
man-usher in my coach, I will have him to have a
convenient horse to attend me, either in city or
country. And I must have two footmen. And my
desire

355
desire is, that you defray all the charges for me.
And for myself, besides my yearly allowance, I would
have twenty gowns of apparel, six of them excellent
good ones, eight of them for the country, and six
other of them very excellent good Ones. Also, I
would have to put in my purse 2000/., and 200/.,
and so, you to pay my debts. Also, I wOuld have
6000/. to buy me jewels, and 4000/. to buy me a
pearl chain. Now, seeing I have been, and am, so
reasonable unto you, I pray you do find my children
apparel, and their schooling, and all my servants,
men and women, their wages. Also, I will have all
my houses furnished, and my lodging chambers to
be suited with all such furniture as is fit ; as beds,
stools, chairs, suitable cushions, carpets, silver warm
ing-pans, cupboards of plate, fair hangings and such
like. So for my drawing chamber in all houses, I
will have them delicately furnished, both with hang
ings, couch, canopy, glass, carpet, chairs, cushions,
and all things thereunto belonging. Also, my de
sire is, that you would pay your debts, build up
Ashby-house and purchase lands, and lend no mo
ney, as you love God, to my lord-chamberlain, who
would have all, perhaps your life, from you. 
So, now that I have declared to you what I would
have, and what it is that I would not have, I pray
you, when you be an earl, to allow me 2000/. more
than I now desire, and double attendance1."
The creation of the prince of Wales, performed
a Harleian MSS., No. 7003, fol. 105.
2 a 2 with

356
with pomp and ceremony scarcely inferior to a coro
nation, occupied the court in the summer of 1610.
On May the 30th the prince was met at Chelsea,
on his way from Richmond to Whitehall, by the
lord-mayor and corporation of London ; attended
by Neptune riding on a dolphin and a sea-goddess
on a whale, who greeted him with appropriate
speeches; on his landing at Whitehall-stairs the
officers of the royal household received and con
ducted him to the king and queen in the privy-
chamber. The following Sunday, five-and-twenty
knights ofthe bath were made, and the next day the
king proceeded to the creation, in a great hall of
the old palace at Westminster, in presence of both
houses of parliament, of the lord-mayor and alder
men and of several foreign ambassadors. After all
had taken their places, the prince entered, in a sur-
coat of purple velvet close girt, and kneeled on the
highest step ofthe throne : he was preceded by the
lord-chamberlain and earl-marshal, after whom fol
lowed the knights of the bath, then garter king at
arms bearing the patent, and lastly several noblemen
bearing the robes, the train, the sword, the ring, the
rod and the cap and crown ; with all of which he
was invested during the reading ofthe patent by the
earl of Salisbury. The prince then with a low re
verence offering to depart, the king stepped to him,
took him by the hand, kissed him and placed him in
the seat on his left hand. Afterwards, the prince
dined in state, being served at table by noblemen
with all the ceremony ever observed towards the
kins:

357
king himself. It is probable that no prince of Wales
had ever been invested with equal solemnity, and
the circumstance deserves to be recorded as a par
tial refutation of the cruel charges brought against
James I, in the character of a parent. It is certain,
that up to this period at least, no traces of jealousy
are to be discerned in the public conduct of the king
towards his heir, popular and aspiring as he was.
On the next day this public act was celebrated
by the queen and her ladies by the performance
of one of the most poetical of the masks of Jonson ;
— that entitled The Queens. By way of prologue,
the young duke of York appeared, attended by two
servants of Neptune and by twelve young hand
maids, all children of high rank, who danced around
him in a fairy ring ; one of the sea-slaves, as they
were called, explaining the design of the mask, the
other delivering to the duke a splendid sword, to be
presented tp his brother as the gift of one of the
queens. Next came an antimask, or burlesque re
presentation allusive to the principal action : this
consisted ofthe songs, charms and dances of w itches,
and embodied in a highly impressive form all the
" thrilling lore " with which the extensive reading
of the author had supplied him on the awful subject,
as it then appeared, of spells and sorcery. This per
formance so strongly excited the youthful imagina
tion of prince Henry, that he requested Jonson, in
printing the piece, to affix notes pointing out the
exact sources whence his witcheries had been de
rived. The mask exhibited twelve ladies seated on
a throne

358
a throne in the form of a pyramid, eleven of whom
were explained to represent the same number of
heroical queens of different ages and countries; the
twelfth was the queen of Great Britain in propria
persona, whom the poet had distinguished by the
name of Belanna, and who was unanimously elected
by the other royal ladies to form the apex of their
pyramid, as uniting in her single person all the
virtues with which each of them was separately
adorned !
The third and last day dedicated to the honor of
the prince of Wales, was distinguished by a splendid
tilting ; a kind of exercise exceedingly to the taste
of Henry, whose thoughts were always running
upon military glory, and at whose name Jonson had
poetically represented the goddess of Chivalry as
starting from a lethargic slumber. The noblemen
and gentlemen who appeared in the lists glittered
in gilded and inlaid armour ; and gold, silver, fine
embroidery and even gems and pearls, enriched
their habiliments and the trappings of their horses.
The earl of Pembroke displayed two caparisons of
peach coloured velvet, " and yet," says a spectator,
" the lord Walden carried away the reputation of
bravery (richness of decoration) for that day." The
evening closed with a naval fight, and an attack by
ships of war upon a castle built in the water oppo
site to the court, from which fire-works were also
exhibited1

" Compare Birch's Prince Henry ; Winwood, vol. iii. ; Ben
Jonson's Works.
The

359
The assassination of Henry IV. of France on
May 14, 1610, gave a shock to the whole English
nation, and especially to prince Henry, who appears
to have projected a closer alliance with this martial
sovereign. The instigators of Ravaillac were never
publicly known, but the Jesuits incurred violent sus
picion, and the house of commons eagerly improved
the opportunity to urge a fresh expulsion of all the
individuals of that order from England, and a revival
of the severities against recusants. The oath of
allegiance was at the same time more rigorously
imposed, and several persons are recorded to have
suffered capitally for their refusal of this test. One
of these was Roger Cadwallader, an ecclesiastic
much respected in his communion for zeal and learn
ing, which rendered him unusually successful as a
missionary. The remarkable feature in his case is,
that he was one of the priests who, in the last year
of Elizabeth, signed a protestation of allegiance
which was condemned at Rome as derogatory to the
-claims of the sovereign pontiff; yet he now steadily
refused to save his life by taking an oath of the same
import to her successor ; so effectually had the papal
prohibitions overruled all private judgement on this
point, even amongst the most moderate and peace
ably disposed of the Romish clergy. Herefordshire
had been the principal scene of Cadwallader's labors,
and his pastoral journeys were taken on foot ; he ap
pears to have been personally obnoxious to Bennet
bishop of Hereford, who had long watched for his
destruction. After his condemnation he was treated with

360
with much cruelty and contumely in the prison ; but
he went forth to meet his death with a firmness, and
displayed in his last moments a piety, which strongly
moved the hearts of all the spectators1 Drury,
another of the subscribers of the protestation of al
legiance, had previously undergone the penalties of
high treason under similar circumstances.
About this time, church and state were finally de
livered from an active and mischievous enemy by
the death of Parsons the Jesuit : — a name too cele
brated in the controversial and political history of
his age to be dismissed in silence.
Robert Parsons was born at Nether Stowey in
Somersetshire ; the vicar of the parish, previously a
canon-regular, took charge of his education and sent
him to Baliol college, Oxford, where his general abi
lities, and especially his keenness as a disputant, and
his satirical talents, soon raised him into repute, but
procured him many enemies. He obtained a fellow
ship in 1572 and became a noted tutor ; but in less
than two years he resigned his situation, and quit
ting England repaired to Lo vain. The motives of
this abrupt departure are variously reported ; the
protestants affirm that the detection of some pecula
tions of which he had been guilty as bursar of his
college, rendered his retreat expedient ; the catho
lics ascribe it solely to his discontent with the esta
blished religion of his country. From Lovain Par
sons proceeded to Padua and devoted himself for a
a Dodd's Church History, iii. 367. time

361
time to the study of medicine, adding that of civil
law; but on a journey which he made to Rome, he
was induced to enter among the Jesuits.
At the end of five years, Dr., afterwards cardi
nal Allen, who had at this time the direction of the
English mission, being persuaded that the Jesuits
would prove the most diligent and successful laborers
in that vineyard, prevailed on the general of the
order to try the experiment; and Parsons and Cam
pion were sent thither accordingly in the year 1580.
Scarcely however had they opened their commission
when Walsingham discovered them, and orders were
issued for their apprehension. Campion was seized,
tried, and put to death; his companion with difficulty
effected his escape and fled into France. Parsons
appears to have been entirely exempt from those
longings after martyrdom with which the more en
thusiastic members of his society were at this period
affected ; and after so intelligible a warning he was
perfectly contented to believe that providence had
destined him to a less perilous field of action. Ac
cordingly, he settled himself in Normandy, and
opened a grammar-school for the instruction of
English youths previously to their entrance into the
colleges founded for their reception, at Rheims and
at Rome. But this scheme failing, he quitted France,
and repairing to Rome was nominated in 1587 rector
of the English college, which situation he held till
his death. Previously to receiving this appointment,
he had exercised a pen of no ordinary vigor in seve
ral controversial works relative to the proceedings of

362
ofthe English government against catholics, and
in a piece of devotion entitled the Christian direc
tory, which proved extremely popular, and was read
and praised even by protestants. He had also com
posed that virulent invective called Leicester's com
monwealth, one of the most efficient libels on re
cord, since, notwithstanding its malice and evident
exaggeration, it has been held to contain truths
sufficient to blast the reputation of that hated favo
rite to all posterity. The talents of father Parsons
for political affairs, or intrigue, were not less con
spicuous than his powers as a writer. "The supe
riority of his genius, and the natural turn he had for
business," says a catholic historian, " gave him a
place among the great men of his age ; his thoughts
were penetrating, and his judgement solid and well-
regulated : and, which are two necessary qualifica
tions in a projector, he was calm upon consultations
and patient under disappointments1." To these qua
lities he added a good address, a talent for conver
sation, which served to counteract the unfavorable
impression of a harsh and forbidding countenance,
great exactness in the performance of his priestly
functions, and, in a certain sense of the words, ir
reproachable morals. But his violent love of power
and the contentiousness of his spirit involved him
in perpetual disputes, and made him almost as many
enemies amongst catholics as protestants.
He took several journeys into Spain ; and, becom-

Dodd, ii. 404.

ing

363
ing a pensioner ofthe king, composed for his ser
vice the famous piece which appeared under the
title of Doleman's conference ; asserting the right
of the people to depose sovereigns for tyranny and
especially for heresy, and the title of the infanta to
the English crown. It was entirely consistent with
the principles of this work, that the author should co
operate in all the projects of the Spanish court for
the conquest of his native country and the destruc
tion of the protestant princess who then occupied its
throne ; and on these points he appears to have en
tertained no scruples. On the other hand, he em
ployed all his credit at the Spanish court for the re
lief of English exiles and for the establishment of
places of education for catholic youth. By his sole
influence, colleges were founded for the English at
Valladolid, Seville, Madrid and St. Omers, and sup
ported by the liberal donations which he had the
art of extracting from opulent persons of both sexes.
In these seminaries, the political creed of their found
er was inculcated with no less diligence than his re
ligious system ; much to the offence of the more
moderate and respectable portion of the English ca
tholics, who held sacred the obligations of patriotism
and loyalty, and who justly apprehended that the
offences of a faction would be severely visited on
their whole body. The secular priests also accused
father Parsons of unwarrantable attempts upon their
liberties, both in the colleges and in the missions,
which were exposed by some of their number in
angry appeals to the public. But the credit of this
Jesuit

364
Jesuit remained unshaken at Madrid ; and the vio
lent part which he took against the oath of allegi
ance was an additional merit in the eyes of the so
vereign pontiff. The colleges and the English mis
sion were in effect subjected to his sole management
and control ; and to the latest day of his existence it
does not appear that his principles underwent the
slightest modification, or that repeated disappoint
ments had extinguished his hope of witnessing the
complete restoration of the Roman-catholic religion
in England. It is somewhat remarkable, that the
political influence of Parsons did not recommend
him to ecclesiastical preferment : his friends indeed
spoke of the cardinalate ; but there was apparently
no prospect whatever of his attaining this dignity,
and he died in possession of no higher office than
that of rector of a college at Rome ; an indication
of some disesteem ofthe man even in the powerful
sovereigns who made use of his efforts. None of
them, in fact, could forget that he was a traitor and
arch-rebel to his king and country.
In November 1610 died Richard Bancroft arch
bishop of Canterbury and chancellor of the univer
sity of Oxford; the first protestant promulgator ofthe
doctrine of the divine right of bishops ; the most
strenuous assertor of the interests and immunities
of his order; the great champion of church disci
pline, and the most dreaded scourge of the puritans.
Clarendon pronounces that he "understood the
church excellently, and had almost rescued it out of
the hands of the Calvinian party, and very much
subdued

365
subdued the unruly spirit of the nonconformists, by,
and after, the conference at Hampton-court ; coun
tenanced men of the greatest parts in learning, and
disposed the clergy to a more solid course of study
than they had been accustomed to ; and, if he had
lived, would quickly have extinguished all that fire
in England which had been kindled at Geneva1."
Wilson, on the contrary, calls him " a person severe
enough, whose roughness gained little upon those
who deserted the ceremonies." His doctrine and his
practice, as head of the high-commission court, were
extremely acceptable to king James, who, regarding
as he did the puritans as a rebellious, republican
faction, desired to see them crushed by the strong
hand of power. In order to the more effectual ac
complishment of this object, Bancroft devised a pro
ject for depriving the objects of his hostility of the
protection which the courts of common law had the
power of affording them by issuing writs of prohibi
tion against the proceedings of the civil or spiritual
courts ; and, in the name of the clergy of England,
he presented to the king and council 25 articles,
called articuli cleri, in which he desired that the
granting of prohibitions might be restrained. The
king was much disposed to gratify the archbishop
in this matter; but the twelve judges, being consult
ed, gave unanimously so strong an opinion against
this unheard-of exertion of prerogative, that the
king was overawed and the design was dropped.

* History of the Rebellion, vol. i, part i. p. 88.
The

366
The archbishop exhibited his articles a second time
three or four years afterwards, but with no better
success, and it was by the strong expression of his
sentiments on this occasion that Coke incurred the
displeasure of James in the manner already men
tioned. To the surprise and disappointment of the parti
sans and eulogists of archbishop Bancroft, the king
nominated for his successor Dr. George Abbot, bi
shop of London, a divine whose calvinistical prin
ciples seemed likely to inspire him with sentiments
of indulgence for the puritans utterly incompatible
with the zealous enforcement of conformity. But
James rewarded in the preferment of Abbot services
not less important in his estimation than the boldest
efforts of his predecessor. Abbot was educated at
Oxford, and, pursuing afterwards an academical life,
became in due time master of University college,
dean of Winchester and vice-chancellor ; he was
likewise chaplain to the earl of Dorset, chancellor
of that university. On the death of this patron, he
attached himself in the same capacity to sir George
Hume, earl of Dunbar and treasurer of Scotland,
that corrupt and subservient minister through whom
James proposed to carry into effect his long formed
plot against the ecclesiastical constitution of his na
tive country, where it was now his pleasure to es
tablish an episcopacy and a high commission, entirely
upon the English model. For this purpose Dunbar
visited Edinburgh in 1608, armed with those for
midable means of intimidation which his sovereign o
was

367
was now enabled to command ; and furnished with
arguments of a different nature in a sum of 40,000
marks, which was distributed amongst the leaders of
the Scotch church, and was probably the source of
that unusual abundance ofthe precious metals in the
city of Edinburgh, indignantly noticed in the English
parliament. Abbot attended thetreasurer on this jour
ney ; and, besides the services which he is said to
have rendered in conciliating some of the opponents
of episcopacy, was fortunate and adroit enough to
find and improve an occasion of gratifying his so
vereign in another matter, to which he attached ex
treme importance.
During the visit of Dunbar to Edinburgh, one
Sprot, a notary, was reported to have dropped words
which implied his knowledge of some particulars
relative to the much agitated Gowrie plot: Dunbar,
eager for such a discovery, caused him to be imme
diately apprehended, and repeatedly examined be
fore the privy-council. For above two months he
persisted either in a total denial of the fact, or in
statements to which no credit could be attached; at
length howeverhe mentioned certain letters between
Gowrie and one Logan his accomplice, which he
said he had seen and transcribed, and which proved
the existence of a plot against the person of the king.
On this evidence a posthumous sentence of high
treason was passed upon Logan ; and Sprot himself,
for the concealment of the treason at the time when
it first came to his knowledge, suffered the unmiti
gated penalty of the same offence. Spotswood, af
terwards

368
terwards archbishop, who was present at these pro
ceedings, and whose party attachments would natu
rally incline him to listen with favor to any evidence
ofthe reality ofthe Gowrie conspiracy, speaks thus
of this affair : " Whether or not I should mention the
arraignment and execution of George Sprot, who
suffered at Edinburgh, I am doubtful. His confes
sion, though voluntary and constant, carrying small
probability  It seemed to be a very fiction, and
a mere invention ofthe man's own brain; for neither
did he show the letter, nor could any wise man think
that Gowrie, who went about the treason so secret
ly, would have communicated the matter to such a
man as Logan was known to be1."
With Dunbar however and the courtiers, this evi
dence passed for triumphant demonstration of all that
was before dubious; and it afforded a fresh occasion
of humbling the presbyterians, who had avowed
their disbelief with so much boldness and pertinacity.
A circumstantial narrative of the whole affair was
immediately published, and Abbot introduced it by a
long preface abounding in that gross and solemn
adulation characteristic of the clerical eulogists of
James I. Soon after his return, this divine was con
secrated to the see of Litchfield and Coventry ;
translated to London at the end of a month, and en
throned at Lambeth in little more than a year.
The dispatches of sir Ralph Winwood from Hol
land during the summer of 1610, furnish some not
uninteresting notices of men and things. In one of
J See Robertson's Scotland, p. 476, edit. 1791. them

369
them he announces that Baldwyn the Jesuit, a dan
gerous intriguer who had been in the secret of the
powder-plot, passing in disguise through the Pala
tinate, had been discovered and apprehended, and
that the elector had sent word that he was ready to
deliver him into such hands as sir Ralph should ap
point. He had accordingly sent two captains to re
ceive the prisoner, and hoped to ship him for Eng
land without delay ; important papers had been found
on him, some of which he had attempted to destroy.
In a subsequent letter he informs the earl of Sa
lisbury, that just as Baldwyn was about to be put
into a carriage for conveyance to Wesel, he had
received intelligence from the governor of this town,
that express messengers from Brussels, Rhinberg
and other places, had been stationed there for above
a week, to carry instant information of the Jesuit's ar
rival: and that the archduke's garrison of Rhinberg
had orders to march out "for his rescue and relief."
This intimation had obliged him to defer Baldwyn's
removal till the army should return into Holland.
An additional instance of the scandalous protection
afforded by the Spanish party to the powder-trea
son ! By good management, however, the Jesuit was
at length safely lodged in the Tower, where he re
mained several years a state prisoner.
In a letter of Winwood's to the earl of Salisbury
from Dusseldorp, is the following paragraph: " That
sir Edward Herbert (will they nill they) hath forced
a quarrel, since my coming from the army, first up
on my lord Walden, after upon sir Thomas Somer-
vol. i. 2 b set,

370
set, your lordship may understand by these gentle
men, who were then present : wherein he hath of
fered an irreparable injury to my lord-general, who
hath treated him, as he hath done them all, with an
exceeding love and kindness."
This characteristic anecdote may serve to intro
duce one ofthe most singular personages of his age,
known to posterity as lord Herbert of Chirbury.
He was the eldest son of sir Richard Herbert, a gen
tleman of family and fortune, the possessor of Mont
gomery castle, and was born in 1581. At the age
of 15 he was married to an heiress of his own name
and blood, who was six years older than himself;
the lady's father having absurdly bequeathed his es
tates to his daughter on the express condition that
she should marry a Herbert, and Edward being the
only one ofthe race of an age and condition to pre
tend to her. After tying the indissoluble knot, the
boy-bridegroom, accompanied by his wife and mo
ther, returned to his studies at Oxford. Having
completed his education, he went up to London ;
and in his own memoirs he has thus related his
introduction to the queen : " Not long after this,
curiosity rather than ambition brought me to court ;
and as it was the manner of those times for all men
to kneel down before the great queen Elizabeth, who
then reigned, I was likewise upon my knees in the
presence-chamber when she passed by to the chapel
at Whitehall. As soon as she saw me, she stopped,
and, swearing her usual oath, demanded, Who is
this ? Every body there present looked upon me; but no

371
no man knew me, till sir James Croft a pensioner,
finding the queen stayed, returned back and told who
I was, and that I had married sir William Herbert
of St. Gillian's daughter : the queen looked atten
tively upon me, and swearing again her ordinary
oath, said, "It is pity he was married so young:"
and thereupon gave her hand to kiss twice, both
times gently clapping me on the cheek1."
At James's coronation he was made a knight of
the bath ; and, his romantic imagination catching
fire at the fantastic rites of chivalry employed on
this occasion, and especially at a certain clause in the
oath of knighthood by which he was bound to re
dress the wrongs of all " ladies and gentlewomen,"
he henceforth accounted himself the sworn champion
of the sex ; and never was cavalier more prompt to
quarrel in their behalf. He challenged a Scotchman
who had taken a riband from a maid of honor ; a
Welsh captain whom he " conceived to have offered
some injury" to his sister ; and another person who
had offended his cousin : and he once defied a French
gentleman to mortal combat if he should dare to
deny that it was he who had compelled him to re
store a top-knot snatched from a fair lady, ten years
of age, grandaughter of the constable de Montmo-
renci. Neither was he less jealous in honor on his
own account : he has given us the history of five or
six of his offers of combat, includirig those mentioned
by Winwood; but it is an extraordinary circum-
* The life of Edward lord Herbert, p. 53.
2 b 2 stance,

372
stance, that not one of these adventures ends in a
duel ; though in no age were duels more frequent
or more fatal. Some good offices of friends, some
interposition of the privy-council, or some strange
failure of resolution on the part of his adversary,
always occurs ; and the good-natured reader is
spared the recital of wounds and slaughter.
It was in the year 1608 that sir Edward, weary
of the restraints of the conjugal life into which he
had so prematurely entered, weary even of literary
pursuits, to which, notwithstanding the impetuosity
of his temperament, he had devoted himself with
constancy and success, left his wife in some discon
tent, and set out on a tour in France. His life af
fords an amusing account of his adventures at the
French court, amongst which he takes care to com
memorate the very extraordinary civilities shown
him by the queen, in placing him next her chair,
"not without the wonder of some and the envy of
another:" he also describes a residence of some
months at a country seat ofthe constable de Mont-
morenci, where he employed himself in learning
"to ride the great horse," and in hunting wolves ;
and further signalised his courage in single combat
against a wild boar.
On his return, he was favorably received by
James, and still more so by his queen, to whom he
had been charged to present a scarf from the prin
cess of Conti, and who, after this introduction, asked
him many questions respecting the French court,
and commanded him to wait on her frequently. He
soon

373
soon however retired from Court to his family and
his studies ; but the war respecting the succession
to the duchy of Cleves, in which most of the poten
tates of Europe took part, tempted him again from
his retreat, and in 1610 he joined as a volunteer the
English troops under sir Edward Cecil, who were
acting as auxiliaries to the prince of Orange in the
siege of Juliers. A French army was employed on
the same service ; and one of the officers, named
Balagny, a famous duellist and warrior, having
challenged Herbert to a trial of daring, they leaped
together, sword in hand, out of the trenches, and
ran towards the opposite bulwark amid a shower of
bullets, from which our knight informs us that he
was the last to retire : both however escaped un
hurt, and sir Edward was afterwards the first to pass
the ditch before the wall of Juliers. After the cap
ture ofthe town, the army broke up and he return
ed to England. " And now," adds our hero, " if I
may say it without vanity, I was in great esteem
both in court and city, many of the greatest desiring
my company, though yet before that time I had no
acquaintance with them. Richard earl of Dorset,
to whom otherwise I was a stranger, one day invited
me to Dorset-house, where, bringing me into his
gallery and showing me many pictures, he at last
brought me to a frame covered with green taffeta,
and asked me who I thought was there, and there
withal presently drawing the curtain, showed me
my own picture ; whereupon, demanding how his
lordship

374
lordship came to have it, he answered that he had
heard so many brave things of me, that he got a.
copy of a picture which one Larking a painter drew
for me  But not only the earl of Dorset, but a
greater person than I will here nominate, got an
other copy from Larking, and, placing it afterwards
in her cabinet, (without that ever I knew such a
thing was done,) gave occasion to those that saw it
after her death of more discourse than I could have
wished1." This greater person was undoubtedly
the queen; to whom also the following very remark
able passage must refer : " And novv in court a great
person sent for me divers times to attend her ; which
summons though I obeyed, yet God knoweth I de
clined coming to her as much as conveniently I could,
without incurring her displeasure : and this I did,
not only for very honest reasons, but, to speak inge
niously, because that affection passed between me
and another lady (who I believe was the fairest of
her time) as nothing could divert itb."
The adventurous disposition of Herbert carried
him abroad again in the year 1614; when. he en
tered into the service ofthe prince of Orange. Two
years after he was sent ambassador to France; where
he printed for the instruction of philosophical readers
his celebrated book " De Veritate," a system of na
tural religion ; his life and history of Henry VIII.,
composed under the correction of king Janes, was

Life of lord Herbert, p. 84. b Ibid. p. 86.
a posthu-

375
a posthumous work, and his amusing autobiography
was discovered and printed in our own times1.
Parliament reassembled in October, when the king
hoped that the lower house would be found in a more
tractable disposition respecting money matters than
it had exhibited in the last session ; and that the
large supplies which he demanded would at length
be granted, without redress of grievances or the sur
render of any portion of his cherished prerogative.
But his expectations were deceived : the arrogant
language which he had ventured to hold to the two
chouses, had roused a jealousy which could not so
soon be laid ; and the permission which he had given
to the commons to treat with the lord-treasurer for
the abolition of wardship and the exactions connect
ed with it, had inspired them with the resolution of
voting no money without an equivalent in privileges.
James recurred to his favorite expedient, a confer
ence, the remarkable particulars of which are thus
related in a letter to Winwood : " About fifteen
days since,. . . .his majesty called thirty ofthe par
liament house before him at Whitehall, among whom
was sir H. Nevil : where his majesty said, the cause
of sending for them was to ask of them some ques
tions, whereunto he desired they would make a di
rect answer. The first was, Whether they thought
he was in want, according as his treasurer and chan
cellor ofthe exchequer had informed them. Whereto
when sir Francis Bacon had begun to answer in a
more extravagant style than his majesty did delight
a By Horace earl of Orford.
' to

376
to hear, he picked out sir Henry Nevil, commanding
him to answer according to his conscience. There
upon sir Henry Nevil did directly answer to the nrst;
that he thought indeed his majesty was in want, and
that according to the relation of his council. ' Then,'
said the king, ' tell me whether it belongeth to you
that are my subjects to relieve me, or not ?' ' To
this,' quoth sir Harry, ' 1 must answer with a di
stinction ; where your majesty's expense groweth
by the commonwealth we are bound to maintain it:
otherwise, not.' And so, continuing his speech, he
gave a note, that in this one parliament they had
already given four subsidies and seven fifteenths ;
which is more than ever was given by any parlia
ment, at any time, upon any occasion ; and yet
withal they had no relief of their grievances. Then
was his majesty instant to have him declare what
their grievances were. ' To all their grievances,'
said sir Harry, ' I am not privy, but of those that
have come to my knowledge I will make recital ;'
and so began to say, that in matter of justice they
could not have an equal proceeding (aiming per
haps at his" majesty's prerogative, nullum tempus
occurret regi) ; and then falling upon the jurisdic
tion of the marches of Wales, sir Herbert Croft took
the word oijt of his mouth ; otherwise, it was thought
sir Henry, being charged upon his conscience,
would have delivered his judgement upon all, in
what respect soever it might be taken1."
* Winwood, iii. 235. After

377
After this rebuff, James had recourse to a short
prorogation, that his party might " deal every one
with his friend and acquaintance in the house to
work them to some better reason1:" but it should
seem that all was ineffectual, and the king dissolved
in anger this his first parliament, which had been
sitting for seven years. * Winwood, iii. 235.

CHAPTER

CHAPTER XII.
1611, 1612.
Adventures of lady Arabella Stuart. — Affair of Vorstius.—
Burning of Legate and Wightman for heresy. — Arbitrary
modes of raising money. — Institution of baronets. — Pro
clamation against resort of Scotchmen to court. — National
animosity. — Quarrel between Ramsey and Montgomery. —
Other quarrels; — Execution of lord Sanquar. — Death and
character of the earl of Salisbury, — his letters to his son.
— Royal marriages proposed. — Arrival of the elector pa
latine. — Death of prince Henry. — Rumors on this subject.
— Proof of his not being poisoned. — His funeral sermon
by Hall. — University poems to his honor by various poets.
— Account of Donne. — Extracts from his letters.
A Circumstance perfectly insignificant to all but
the unfortunate parties whose happiness it involved,
was able to disturb for a moment the uneventful
tranquillity of this period of the reign of James.
The nearness of lady Arabella Stuart to the Eng
lish throne, subjected her to the obligation of form
ing no matrimonial connexion without the concur
rence of the king ; and a very weak and unworthy
jealousy appears to have inspired James, as well as
his predecessor, with the resolution of keeping her
single. Against this species of tyranny she was
much disposed to rebel ; and, undeterred by a cen
sure which had been passed on her a short time
previously for listening to a clandestine proposal, she

379
she ventured to receive similar overtures from Wil
liam Seymour, second son of lord Beauchamp and
grandson of the earl of Hertford ; on discovery of
which, in February 1610, both parties were sum
moned before the privy- council and reprimanded.
They proceeded notwithstanding to complete their
marriage ; which becoming matter of notoriety, the
lady was committed to private custody and her hus
band to the Tower. But the unfortunate pair con
tinued to hold intercourse by means of confidential
agents, and in June 1611 they concerted measures
for their joint escape. Mr. Seymour, having dis
guised himself in mean apparel, walked unobserved
out of the Tower behind a cart which had brought
him billets, and made the best of his way to Lee, a
small port in Kent, where he expected to find a
French vessel in waiting. His lady in the mean
time, who was detained at a gentleman's house near
Highgate, whence she was the next day to begin
her journey for Durham, contrived to lull the vigi
lance of her keepers by a pretended resignation to
her doom, and probably by other methods. Then,
" disguising herself by drawing a great pair of
French-fashioned hose over her petticoats, putting
on a man's doublet, a man-like peruke with long
locks over her hair, a black hat, black cloak, russet
boots with red tops, and a rapier by her side, walked
forth, between three and four of the clock, with
Markham. After they had gone afoot a mile and a
half to a sorry inn, where Crompton attended with
horses, she grew very sick and faint, so as the ostler that

380
that held the stirrup said, that the gentleman would
hardly hold out to London ; yet, being set on a good
gelding, astride in an unwonted fashion, the stirring
of the horse brought blood enough into her face,
and so she rid on towards Blackwall1." Here she
found some attendants in two boats waiting for her,
and they rowed down the river to Lee, where the
French vessel received them. Her attendants dis
suaded her from waiting for Mr. Seymour, who had
not yet arrived, and they put off; but lingering af
terwards in the channel, in hopes of his reaching
them," they were overtaken by a pinnace sent in pur
suit, and after standing several shot were compelled
to strike. The unfortunate lady was immediately
conveyed to the Tower, not so much lamenting her
own captivity, as rejoicing in the hope that her be
loved husband would effect his escape ; whose wel
fare, she said, was far dearer to her than her own.
In this affectionate hope she was not disappointed;
Mr. Seymour, on finding that her bark had sailed
without him, had rowed off to a collier lying in the
roads, by which he was safely landed in Calais har
bour. The first news of the lady Arabella's escape pro
duced much confusion and alarm in the privy-coun
cil ; it was apprehended that the fugitives were bound
for Brabant, there to make themselves the heads of
the Roman catholic faction. " In this passionate
hurry," writes Mr. Beaulieu, " here was a procla-
" Winwood, iii. 279, ma lion

381
mation first Conceived in very bitter terms, but by
my lord-treasurer's moderation seasoned at the print.
.... There are likewise three letters dispatched in
haste,. . . rto the king and queen regent of France
and to the archdukes, all written with harsher ink
than now, if they were to do, I presume they should
be; especially that to the archdukes, which did seem
to pre-suppose their course tending that way ; and
all three describing the offence in black colors, and
pressing their sending back without delay1."
The ill-fated Arabella never recovered her liberty;
she became distracted with the sense of her hopeless
misery, and in that state died within the Tower in
1615. Her aunt the countess of Shrewsbury was
summoned before the privy-council on suspicion of
having concurred both in the marriage and the
escape : she was a high-spirited woman, and, on
being urged with interrogatories, declared that she
would answer nothing privately ; if she had offended
the laws, she was ready to stand her trial. For this
contempt, as it was then called, she was committed
to the Tower, and at the end of two years dismissed
without further proceedings.
The theological zeal by which James was so early
distinguished, had by no means forsaken him amid
the cares of empire and the sports of the field, which
divided his more mature attention. One day, whilst
on a hunting progress, a Latin book was brought to
him treating: on the nature and attributes of the
" Winwood, iii, 288. deity,

382
deity, and, suspending his amusement, he sat down
in earnest to the perusal. Such was his diligence
in the task, that in the space of an hour he had col
lected a copious list ofthe heresies contained in this
performance. The author was Conrad Vorstius,
on whom the states of Holland had just conferred
the professorship of divinity at Leyden, vacant by
the death of Arminius, whose leading doctrines were
held by Vorstius. James, vehemently alarmed at
the encouragement thus afforded by his allies to'
dogmas whicli he regarded as pernicious and abo
minable, wrote instantly to Winwood, commanding
him to signify to the States his detestation of these
heresies, and of all by whom they should be tolerated.
So extraordinary an interference astonished the
Dutch authorities, and they coolly replied, that if
Vorstius should be found guilty of the errors im
puted to him, he should not retain his office : an
answer which fell so far short of the vigorous results
anticipated by the sceptred polemic, that he judged
it necessary, after causing the book to be publicly
burned in London, and in both the English univer
sities, to address to his allies such an admonition as
should leave them in no uncertainty respecting the
course which it became them to pursue. " If per-
adventure," says the king, " this wretched Vorstius
should deny or equivocate upon those blasphemous
points of heresy and atheism which already he hath
broached, that perhaps may move you to spare his
person, and not cause him to be burned (which ne
ver any heretic better deserved, and wherein we
will

383
will leave him to your own Christian wisdom). But
to suffer him, upon any defence or abnegation which
he shall offer to make, still to continue and to teach
amongst you, is a thing so abominable, as we assure
ourselv.es it will not once enter into any of your
thoughts." Afterwards, with his usual propensity
to arrogate authority to himself on frivolous or so
phistical pretences, he declares, that should they
suffer " such pestilent heretics to nestle amongst"
them, he shall be constrained, "as defender ofthe
faith," not only to separate himself from such false
churches, but to exhort all other reformed churches
to join with him "in a common counsel how to
extinguish and remand to hell these abominable
heresies." Winwood was strictly enjoined to support this
royal mandate by vigorous protestations, and even
by menaces of a warlike sound; and, his own temper
and manners being stern and rugged, he pursued
the cause with such keenness as to lay himself open
to the charge, from certain privy-councillors, of hav
ing exceeded his instructions. Archbishop Abbot,
animated by a vehement zeal for the Calvinistic doc
trine of predestination, and by the hope that the
destruction of the Arminian party in Holland would
serve as a precedent for the extinction of a similar
sect at home, which had begun to excite his jealousy,
urged Winwood to perseverance, and great efforts
were also made by the Gomarist party in Holland.
Still the. States held firm to tlieir decision; and posi
tively refused the dismissal of Vorstius til] he should have

384
have been fairly heard in his own defence ; indivi
duals were also found hardy enough to stigmatize
the interference of his Britannic majesty as an un
warrantable intrusion ; and the monarch found it
expedient, in the conclusion of a tract which he
published against Vorstius, to descend considerably
from the loftiness of his former language.
It is very unlikely, he observes, that he should
have any thought of practising against the tranquil
lity of his good friends the States, on so poor a cause
as this ; much more of proposing by it the advance
ment of any designs of his own : having discharged
his conscience in this matter, he now refers the
whole management of it to those to whom it belongs;
and for the author himself, the worst that he wishes
him is, " that he may sincerely return into the high
beaten pathway ofthe catholic and orthodoxal faith.''
But the importunity of James and of the Gomarists
became at length effectual; Vorstius was expelled
with disgrace from the seat of learning to which he
had been invited with every mark of public respect ;
he was driven to wander about from place to place,
and to shrowd himself in obscurity from the furious
pursuit of his implacable enemies ; and he died just
as he had at length attained an honorable and hospi
table asylum. It maybe added, that this persecuted
• teacher was a man of unblemished morals, fervent
piety and distinguished learning; and that no theolo
gian of his day appears to have appliedso much of phi
losophical criticism to the argumentations of divines
and schoolmen, to have asserted the right of private
judgement

385
judgement with equal force of reasoning, or to have
preserved, in controversy a greater share of equani
mity and candor1.
An opportunity soon after occurred to James of
enforcing by the aid of example those precepts which
he had submitted to the " Christian wisdom" of his
Dutch confederates. One Bartholomew Legate,
being detected in the act of disseminating Arian
heresies in London, was apprehended, and the king
himself, aided by several bishops, was pleased to
hold conference with him, in the expectation of con
vincing him of his errors; but, on extracting from
him an avowal that he had not prayed to Christ
for seven years, his majesty in horror spurned at
him with his foot, and he was committed to New
gate. Here he lay a considerable time without giv
ing any signs of recantation ; after which he was
convened before the consistory court, and, being de
clared a contumacious and obdurate heretic, was
duly delivered over to the civil arm. James had the
glorious satisfaction of signing the writ "de hceretico
comburendo," and Legate was in consequence com
mitted to the flames in Smithfield on March 18,
1612. Dr. Neile, bishop of Coventry and Litch
field, a prelate eminently distinguished by the obse
quiousness of his loyalty, followed with eagerness
so edifying a precedent, and about a month after
wards was successful in bringing to the fire one

a See King James's Works. — Bayle's Dictionary, art. Vor.
stius.
vol. i. 2 c Edward

386
Edward Wightman, charged with entertaining the
errors of ten haeresiarchs, among whom were enu
merated Cerinthus, Manichaeus, Simon Magus and
the Anabaptists. A third victim was prepared : but
the lawyers had started several objections to the le
gality ofthe proceedings, and it was discovered that
such examples, however salutary in themselves, were
no longer adapted to the state of public sentiment
in England. A dangerous compassion was excited
by the constancy of sufferers, who refused, even at
the stake, to save themselves by a recantation ; and,
on the whole, it was judged preferable in future to
suffer such culprits to moulder away in solitary
dungeons removed from the sight and sympathy of
their fellow-creatures. King James was the last
sovereign of this country by whom Smithfield fires
were lighted1.
Meantime, the prodigality of the king and the
luxury of the court kept their usual course. The
queen's debts were great and urgent ; even the
large income of the prince of Wales was found in
adequate to the rapacity of the unprincipled crew
who had forced themselves into his service ; and the
revenues of the monarch himself were swallowed up
by the ceaseless demands of his minion Carr, now
created viscount Rochester and a privy-councillor,
and by the multitudes of Scotchmen who were con
tinually arriving to share the spoils of their unresist
ing sovereign. The treasury was totally exhausted ;

1 Fuller's Church History, b. x. p. 62. and

387
and during the long interval in which James did not
judge it expedient to convoke a parliament, new and
irregular modes of levying money were again re
curred to, which strongly mark the spirit of the go
vernment as well as the necessities of the prince.
The creditors of the queen were satisfied with
privy-seals,-rrarbitrary mandates addressed to indi
viduals, by which they were required to lend, with
little prospect of repayment, specific sums for the
public service.
The prince was strongly urged to petition the
king for a grant of all penalties due from Roman
catbolips, on condition of his paying into the treasury
an annual rent exceeding by 1000/. the profits pre
viously accruing to his majesty from this source,
which were estimated at 60OO/. annually. It is a
considerable derogation from the character of Henry,
that his mind did not instinctively revolt from an un
dertaking in its own nature invidious, which would
have compelled him to keep in his pay a troop of
spies and informers of the worst kind, and must
have drawn upon himself individually all the obloquy
of a more rigid enforcement of a system of laws
which, however they might be palliated by political
necessity, were certainly open to the charge of ren
dering the most peaceful indulgence of conscience
a crime. But the prince without scruple suffered
estimates to be made and reasons for and against
the project to be drawn up by his legal advisers, and
seems only to have dropped it from the intervention
of some insuperable obstacles, probably connected
2 c 2 with

388
with lord Coke's declaration a short time before, of
the illegality of all grants of penal forfeitures1.
Amongst the ways and means resorted to by the
king, are to be mentioned the revival of an obso
lete law compelling all persons possessed of 40/. a
year in land to compound for not receiving the or
der of knighthood ; and the creation of the title of
baronet, which was offered for the sum of 1000/.
to any person- who thought fit to become a pur
chaser. Salisbury is said by some to have been
the author of this latter device, though it more pro
bably originated with sir Robert Cotton : he was
however accounted a promoter of it ; for, when the
king hesitated, from the fear of offending the gentry
by creating a new rank above them, the minister is
said to have replied ; " Tush, sir! the money will do
you good, and the honor will do them very little."
It was indeed barely and simply a patent of prece
dency above knights and esquires, and, being made
attainable by money and money only, scarcely de
served at its first institution even the name of an
honor or a dignity. Yet the vanity of mankind
swallowed the bait ; the royal promise of restricting
the whole number of baronets to 200, kept up the
price and augmented the eagerness of purchasers :
but no sooner was the number completed than the
limitation was forgotten, and no one who could pro
duce the requisite fee of admission had ever cause
to lament that his application came too late.
• Birch's Prince Henry, p. 220, and Appendix xviii. Even

389
Even the peerage was set to sale with almost equal
publicity ; twenty thousand pounds would purchase
the title of an earl, ten thousand that of viscount,
and five "thousand that of baron. Monopolies in
creased to a frightful degree, and the star-chamber
fines became more than ever exorbitant. All these
expedients, however, fell far short of producing sup
plies equal to the royal expenditure, and James
sought further to relieve himself by cutting off the
access of his needy and importunate countrymen,
whose petitions he could neither deny without doing
violence to his nature, nor grant without exciting
the jealous murmurs of his English subjects; who
regarded him, says an acute writer, as little better
than a " kiug-in-law" to themselves. A procla
mation to this effect was issued at Edinburgh on
May 10, 1610, which sets forth that, forasmuch as
the daily resort of idle persons of base sort and con
dition was not only very unpleasant and offensive
to his majesty, since he was daily importuned with
their suits and begging, and his royal court almost
filled with them, they being in the conceit of all be
holders but "idle rascals and poor miserable bodies,"
—but that their country was heavily disgraced by it,
and many slanderous imputations given out against
the same, as if there were no persons " of good rank,
comeliness nor credit" within it ;— therefore it was
ordered that no captains of ships should transport
any passengers to England without license of the
privy-council. Another proclamation takes notice
that one of the errands, or pretexts, of these persons

390
sons was, to demand old debts due to them by the
king, which, it is added, " is, of all kind of importu
nity, the maist unpleasing to his majesty1."
It was indeed high time for James to devise some
means of appeasing the national animosity, which*
after indicating itself by several private quarrels be
tween individuals of the two kingdoms, had nearly
broken forth in a general fray on the following oc
casion : — At a horse-race at Croydon, where many
gentlemen, both Scotch and English, were assem
bled, that Ramsey, whose high favor with the king
and splendid marriage have been already commemo
rated, on some provocation which is not mentioned,
struck the earl of Montgomery on the face with his
switch, or horsewhip. The English, enraged at the
act, drew together with the resolution of making it
a national quarrel, " so far as Mr. John Pinchback,
though a maimed man, having but the perfect use of
two fingers, rode about with his dagger in his hand,
crying ' Let us break our fast with them here, and
dine with the rest at London.' But Herbert not
offering to strike again, there was nothing spilt but
the reputation of a gentleman1*." James however was

* Secret History of the Court of James I., London edit.
1811, vol. i. p. 144.
b Osborn adds, " in lieu of which, if I am not mistaken, the
king made him a knight, a baron, a viscount and an earl, in one
day." But he is egregiously mistaken in every part of this state
ment. First, Herbert was knighted some time before he was
raised to the peerage; secondly, he never was a viscount; thirdly, he

391
was greatly disturbed at the accident, and diligently
applied himself to do justice between the parties.
" On Sunday," writes More to Winwood, " his ma
jesty took great pains in examining the matter of
quarrel between the earl of Montgomery and young-
Ramsey, mentioned in my last;  and the same
night Ramsey was committed to the Tower, from
whence it is thought he shall be sent out of this
kingdom. His majesty carried the matter with great
indifferency : and hereupon also did the prince take
occasion to protest, that he carried an indifferent
affection to both the nations ; and that howsoever
his nearest servants now were Scots, so placed by
his father, yet that when he should come to his own
choice, he is likely to serve himself as well of the
English as of them1."
Maxwell, a rude and illiterate Scotchman, was
also compelled by the king to give such satisfaction
as should be required to Mr. Hawley, a bencher of
Gray's Inn, who, coming to court on a grand day,
had been led out of the room by Maxwell " by a
he had been earl of Montgomery several years before the affair
at Croydon took place ; for his patent bears date on the 4th of
June in the third year of James I. (1605), and the Croydon
business, — at least a quarrel between Ramsey and Montgomery,
which appears to have been the same, — was advertised as news
by Mr. More to Winwood on March 11, 1611. So lax a writer
is Osborn. Perhaps there may be as little accuracy in the par.
ticulars transcribed from his narrative in the text, and even in
the striking anecdote, that " the mother of Herbert tore her
hair at the report of her son's dishonor."
1 Winwood, iii. 349. black

392
black string he wore in his ear, — a fashion then
much in use1."
A third Scotch offender, much more heinously
guilty than either of the former, on whom James
about this time found it necessary to execute justice,
was Crighton lord Sanquar, whose case was remark
able. In a trial of skill with Turner, a fencing-
master, in which it should appear that one or both
parties had lost jtheir temper, Sanquar had had an
eye thrust out by the foil of his antagonist: five
years afterwards, he revenged the blow by causing'
two hired assassins to shoot the unfortunate man in
the midst of his school. The conduct of James on
the occurrence is thus described by the eulogizing
eloquence of Bacon, on the arraignment of the of
fender : — "This murther was no sooner committed,
and brought to his majesty's ears, but his just indig
nation, wherewith he was first moved, cast itself into
a great deal of care and prudence to have justice
done : first came forth his proclamation, somewhat
of a rare form, and devised, and in effect dictated,
by his majesty himself, and by that he did prosecute
the offenders, as it were, with the breath and blast
of his mouth : then did his majesty stretch forth his
long arms ; — for kings have long arms when they
will extend them, — one of them to the sea, where
he took hold of Gray shipped for Luedia, who gave
the first light of testimony ; the other arm to Scot
land, and took hold of Carlisle ere he was warm in
" Osborn's King James, c. 27. his

393
his house, and brought him the length of his king
dom, under such safe ward and custody as he could
have no means to escape, no, nor to mischief him
self, no, nor learn no lessons to stand mute ; in which
case, perhaps, this day's justice might have received
a stop." The orator adds, that from the first, his
majesty had said, "in a confident and undertaking
manner, that wheresoever the offenders were in
Europe, he would produce them forth to justice1."
Sanquar himself was taken soon after, and, confess
ing his crime, suffered its due punishment. It has
been said that this barbarous act was occasioned by
an unguarded question of Henry IV., who asking
lord Sanquar, when at the French court, how he
lost his eye, and being answered "With a sword,"
inquired, "Does the man live who did it?" thus
suggesting a revenge which was not before con
templated by thejparty concerned.
Osborn, far from magnifying the justice of king
James after the courtly example of Bacon, gives
the following satirical comment on the event : That
by Sanquar's death " he satisfied in part the people,
and wholly himself; it being thought he hated him
for his love to the king of France, and not making
any reply when he said, in his presence, to one that
called our James a second Solomon, that he hoped
he was not David the fidler's son : thus do princes
abuse each other."
King James was about this time deprived of his

* Scrinia Ceciliana, p. 211.

great

394
great minister, the earl of Salisbury, who, after a
long and painful decay, expired at Marlborough on
his road from Bath to London, on May 24th 1612,
in the fifty-first year of his age.
As the son of Burleigh ; as the last great states
man of the school of Elizabeth ; as the patron of
Dutch independence ; as the avowed enemy of the
Spanish alliance, and the chosen object ofthe calum
nies, the hostilities, and even the assassination-plots
of the Jesuits and other popish fanatics, Salisbury
had originally firm holds on the affections ofthe
English people : nor did his temper or manners op
pose any bar to popularity ; he bore authority with
meekness, and was not subject to the gusts of pride
and passion. Cheerful, mild, insinuating, affable
and full of bounty, he strongly attached his im
mediate dependents, and gave great satisfaction to
those who applied to him on matters of business.
Even towards the rivals or opponents whom he was
accused of conducting to their ruin, Essex and Ra
leigh, his deportment had ever been decent and ap
parently humane, and he at least avoided the gra
tuitous baseness of trampling on the fallen. In the
official virtues of diligence, order, promptitude and
dispatch, no one could excell him ; and the reforms
which he introduced into the management of the
exchequer ; the active and enlightened encourage
ment which he extended to the infant manufactures
of the country ; his skilful conduct in foreign trans
actions, and his wise and effectual cares for the im
provement of Ireland, and especially for the esta
blishment

395
blishment of legal tribunals throughout that island,
extorted the praises of all parties. Yet it is certain
that he lived and died the object of general distrust,
obloquy and hatred.
" Nothing in my lord of Salisbury's death," writes
the contemplative Donne, " exercised my poor con
siderations so much as the multitude of libels. It
was easily discerned, some years before his death,
that he was at a defensive war both for his honor
and health, and, as we then thought, for his estate;
and I thought that had removed much of the envy.
Besides, I have just reasons to think, that in the
chiefest businesses between the States, he was a very
good patriot1." These remarks are just: yet it
must not be supposed that the general sentiment
was void of reasonable foundation. The treachery
practised by Salisbury towards all his political oppo
nents, and especially towards the nation's favorite,
Essex ; the rapacity which swelled his coffers at the
expense of such as had demands upon the treasury,
of which he kept the key ; and the licentiousness
said to stain his private life, afforded the materials
for popular invective or anonymous libel ; but men
of noble minds and comprehensive views passed over
in disdain the vices of the man, to fix their note of
reprobation on the crimes ofthe minister.
During the lifetime of Elizabeth, the nation seems
to have been content, in deference to her sex and
character, to waive many of its undoubted rights and
a Donne's Letters, p. 89. privileges,

396
privileges, and to indulge her in the despotism which
she loved, confident that she would use it, on the
whole, like a parent of her people. But on her death,
it was its will and purpose to resume its own, and
to confine the foreign king whom it had been pleas
ed to accept as her successor, within the bounds of
law. A party, of which Raleigh was perhaps the
head, had even confederated for the purpose of im
posing certain specific limitations and conditions on
the king of Scots before his admission ; but all these
designs in favor-of liberty had been baffled by the
management of Salisbury, who early discovered to
what excess James was disposed to carry his prero
gative maxims, and, for his own purposes, resolved
to indulge him in this mischievous inclination to the
utmost. It is one of the charges brought by Wel
don against this minister, that he burned " a cartload
of precedents which spoke the subjects liberties;"
and whether this unsubstantiated charge be found
ed in truth or not, it is certain that he often both
spoke and acted as if no such precedents had ever ex
isted. He is said to have told the king that he might
safely ride the English people, and need no bridle
but their asses ears ; and the leading measures of
his administration were in character with so vile a
suggestion. Such were, the attack upon the free
dom of elections in the first session of James's par
liament; — the arbitrary augmentation ofthe customs
by royal authority ; — the creation of a number of
new, oppressive and illegal patents ; — and the revi
val of the old feudal exactions ; — the detestable doc
trines

397
trines promulgated by him on the state-trials ; — and,
above all, his atrocious and most shameless assertion
that torture itself might justifiably be inflicted on
free-born Englishmen, at the will and pleasure of
their sovereign.
For offences like these, no diligence, no abilities,
no merits in other branches of duty, could be accept
ed, as a compensation by any true lover of his coun
try even in that age ; and posterity, enlightened by
the political lessons of the succeeding reigns, will be
little disposed to reverse the judgement of his con
temporaries. Such however was at this time the miserable de
ficiency both of talent and integrity in the cabinet
of James, and the state of embarrassment and weak
ness to which it reduced the country, that both prince
and people soon learned to value Salisbury by his
loss. It is somewhat uncertain on what terms this mi
nister stood with the king at the time of his death.
On his departure from London for Bath, James went
in person to take leave of him, charged the physi
cians " on their heads " to be careful of him, and ex
pressed with tears to those about him his apprehen
sion of the loss of so wise a counsellor. He also sent
a gentleman to Bath, on some hopes being given of
the treasurer's amendment, to present him with " a
fair table diamond " accompanied with a most gra
cious message, and the queen added a similar mes
sage and another jewel. But in demonstrations like
these, towards a man of such rank and consequence, there

398
there is nothing conclusive ; and it was certainly a
prevalent opinion at the time, that he was menaced
with disgrace. The evidence of Donne, who lived
much with courtiers, is of some weight; but a much
stronger testimony, and probably the most conchi-?
sive to be met with respecting the personal feelings
of James towards his minister, occurs in the Apo
phthegms of Bacon.
This wary courtier, being asked by the king his
opinion of the deceased lord-treasurer, ventured, it
seems, to reply, that he was no counsellor to make
his majesty's affairs grow better, but yet one to keep
them from growing worse. James's answer was ;
" In the first you speak like a true man, in the se
cond like a kinsman." In a somewhat similar spirit
it was afterwards quaintly said, " that he was the
first ill treasurer, and the last good, of James's reign ."
It may on the whole be concluded, that James must
originally have viewed with some prejudice the son
of that statesman who had brought his mother to
the block, and that he could never cordially have
loved a minister who opposed his extravagant dona
tions to Carr and to others of his favorites; who was
irreconcileably hostile to any close alliance with
Spain, or any further indulgence to the catholics ;
and whom the high-church party, which possessed
the royal ear, was continually accusing of puritanism.
Yet the extensive influence of Salisbury, his expe
rience, his acknowledged ability, and his subservi
ency on all points where prerogative was concerned,
gave him a stability not easily to be shaken ; and it
may

399
may well be doubted whether James would ever
have ventured to displace him, to make way for the
misrule of the minion whom he advanced in his
stead. Lord Salisbury left behind him a daughter mar
ried to lord Clifford, and an only son, William vis
count Cranbourn, a person of slender abilities, vulgar
tastes and feeble character, who rewarded but indif
ferently the ceaseless solicitudes of his sagacious and
vigilant father. A series of letters to his son, still
extant in manuscript, reflects in various ways much
credit on the earl as a parent, and affords some cu
rious notices of manners and manifestations of sen
timent. The young viscount, after completing his
course at Cambridge, was married at a premature
age to the second daughter of the earl of Suffolk,
and afterwards sent to travel for two years, attended
by Mr. Lister a medical gentleman and by John
Finett, afterwards a knight, master of the ceremo
nies and one of king James's buffoons in ordinary,
— a person in all respects ill-qualified for his charge.
The following letter well explains the views of the
earl in his son's education :
" I like your letters well, and your desire to see
me, to whom you shall be welcome whensoever it
shall, not hurt you more to come up than do me
pleasure to have you. I wrote by Mr. Neal unto
you, and willed him by word of mouth to tell you
how I wished you should dispose of yourself; which
is shortly this: To reside at Cambridge till you
come away a scholar ; not a scholar to be an usher of

400
of a school, but a scholar like a gentleman ; which
if you obtain, you shall want neither liberty, plea
sure, nor honest means to maintain you, if I have
it. Always provided, and above all things, that you
confirm yourself even in your youth in true faith,
and knowledge what you believe ; not like the child
of a gross papist, who preach ignorance and gross
corruption, instead of understanding of God's word
or true religion. Avoid all such company, as you
will have my blessing ; and for your coming up, it
may be that if I hear from your tutor that you study
well, and from you what authors you read, that I
will give you leave in grass time to come up for a
fortnight ; and if you spend but two years so well
as to be once able to perform your exercises, then
shall you come up and live a year about court before
you go over," &c.
The anxious minuteness of the following remarks
recalls the letters of Chesterfield :
" Will : I like it well that you do write unto me,
because I may observe your hand, which I see would
mend if you were well taught: Yetl find ill orthogra
phy, which agreeth not well with an university. Nei
ther will I let pass the absurdity of your marking your
parenthesis thus ; ' I (thank God).' Both which you
may see I have noted, not that I account these faults
in you, but to show you the weakness of those that
are about you, who do suffer you to err in these
childish things : To which I will add this one thing,
worse than the rest; that your letters are without
date, from any place or time; which makes me doubt
whether

401
whether you be at Royston at some horserace, or
at Cambridge. Your name is not well written, and
therefore I have written it underneath as I would
have it. I have also sent you a piece of paper fold
ed as gentlemen use to write their letters, where
yours are like those that come out of a grammar
school. You must not think I am angry with you
for these toys, but take them as omissions ; for your
faults will be only when I shall find you drunk in
those sports which divert you from learning, and
which I plainly tell you, especially for keeping run
ning horses, I will no more allow."
The puritanical impressions of the writer are di
stinctly visible in his praise of Geneva, " to which
place," says he, " I would not have you forbear to
go, being so near it, but to spend some week there,
or ten days, to see the exercises of their religion ;
though I would not have you think, that whatso
ever is more in our church here must needs be too
much, because it is more in outward ceremony
than that petty state affordeth there. I would only
have you learn their inward zeal in your prayers
and attentive hearing of the word preached ; observ
ing their avoiding licentious speech and custom of
swearing, of which I tax you not, but only wish you
to be where you may be confirmed, by observation
of the doctrine and the discipline."
Prince Henry had promised the earl of Salisbury,
to take lord Cranbourn into his service on his return
from his travels, and therefore desired him to attain
such accomplishments as he liked and " had few fit
vol. i. 2d for."

402
for." These were "dancing, riding, cosmography
and any branches of the mathematics,"
His lordship was much disturbed at a report which
had reached him, that his son went abroad in Paris
with other gentlemen, French and English, without
the attendance of either Of his governors ; and after
some remarks he adds, " This I write, not as think
ing you a child, and yet you are no more man than
divers others, both princes in Germany, earls in
England and Scotland are, over whom their fathers
are so careful as they allow not the absence of such
as they trust from them at any time, especially when
they are out of their own doors ; w hereof I can
speak by good experience, for when I travelled first,
and was twenty-four years old, my lord sent with
me Mr. Richard Spencer, that lay next chamber to
me, and never parted from me. To which, if you
will say that I was not married, you may well re
member my lord of Essex, from whom Mr. Wing-
field never parted, and many others may so well as
you." " Methinks," says his lordship writing to his son
whilst in France, " you might greatly ease yourself
if you would diminish some pari of your company,
for it is true that all the world do discourse of my
vanity to suffer my son to travel with more persons
than ever subject carried out of England, whom the
state employed not." It appears from another pas
sage, that the train of this young nobleman amounted
to the number of fifty. They were all English, and
his father says he wishes that, for the sake of im-
provement

403
provement in the language, he would change them
for French; retaining however his cook and- his
brewer4. On lord Cranbourn's reaching Italy, his father
again and again enjoins him to enter rio city of which
the pope is lord ; " Under Whose roof," he says^, " I
would have you on no consideration." After the
assatssination of Henry IV. he writes to his son, that
he finds cause to think of him with; greater- anxiety
than when he was "under the protection of that
worthy king ; of whom," he adds, "if you should
suffer the precious memory to die, you were not
Worthy to live ;" and he directs him to prepare- for
quitting the country as soOn as he shall find it safely
practicable1. The offices' held by lord Salisbury were thus dis
posed of: The earl of Suffolk was thrust forward
by dint of connexions and intrigues into that of lord-
treasurer, giying up the chamberlainship to viscount
Rochester : the post of secretary remained for sortie
time vacant, during which the favorite was endea
vouring to practise the part of a minister of state ;
but his incapacity becoming more and more evident,
he resigned this pretension, and the king was con
tent to nominate sir Ralph Winwood and sir Tho
mas Lake joint secretaries.
Several -proposals for royal marriages were now
in agitation : the duke of Bouillon, at this time the
¦ These extracts of lord Salisbury's letters are from a MS.
transcribed from the Hatfield collection by Dr. Haynes.
2 d 2 head

404
head of the French protestants, arrived in embassy
from the queen-regent of France, charged, amongst
other business, to negotiate a marriage between the
prince of Wales and Madame Christine, second
daughter of France. The overture was received with
all honor; but fears were entertained at the French
court, that the necessities ofthe king of Great Bri
tain might finally induce him to prefer the offer of
a daughter of the duke of Florence, with several
millions of crowns for her dower. Soon after, an
ambassador extraordinary arrived from Savoy with
a double commission; to solicit the hand ofthe prin
cess Elizabeth for the heir of that dukedom, and to
offer that of his sister to the acceptance of the Eng
lish prince. The latter proposition was immedi
ately declined, as totally inadequate to the just pre
tensions of Henry ; but the former, it was hinted,
might become, separately, a fair object of negotia
tion. The ambassador was doubtful whether he
was authorized to treat for this match singly ; and
religious scruples arose, which threatened to protract,
and perhaps ultimately to defeat, the treaty. All
this time a kind of languid negotiation was kept up
by Spain for the marriage of the infanta to the
prince of Wales ; — there was indeed nothing press- •
ing in the affair, for the eldest infanta had been
given in marriage to the king of France, and her
sister, whom they now proposed to the English court,
had scarcely passed her infancy. A short time be
fore, the earl of Salisbury had highly affronted the
Spanish

405
Spanish ambassador by affecting to suppose, that as
the prince could not possibly be expected to keep
himself so long unmarried, it was rather to the young
duke of York that the honor of the infanta's hand
was destined.
Prince Henry is reported to have declared him
self on these matters so far as to have said openly,
that if they persisted in marrying him to a popish
princess,he desired that at least the youngest of those
proposed should be selected, as the more hope might
be entertained of her conversion. Meantime, the
fate of the princess his sister was speedily advancing
to its crisis. Fresh overtures for her marriage had
been made and accepted ; the young elector pala
tine, seconded by the prayers and good wishes of all
zealous protestants in England, Germany and Hol
land, arrived as her suitor on October 16, 1612;
and John Finett, then deputy master ofthe ceremo
nies, affords us, in the following words, a description
equally circumstantial and authentic of the forms
and honors of his reception :
" The count palatine landed at Gravesend on
Friday night last the 16th of this present. He had
his first welcome delivered to him by my lord Hay
in name of his majesty, and his second on Sunday
by my lord duke of Lenox, attended thither by many
knights and some gentlemen. At their encounter,
the count, — as one surprised, and not expecting to
hear from his majesty till Monday, — is said merrily
to have told the duke, that, but to show his obedi
ence, he would excuse that day's appearance, before his

406
his mistress especially, whom he should not see .but
in clinquant ,- his apparel being then, as in his jour
ney, but ordinary. Passing before the Tower, four
score pieces of great ordnance gave him their loud
welcome, and a warning to the earls of. Shrewsbury,
Sussex, Southampton, and other earls and lords, to
wait upon the duke of York to the .stairs at White
hall, there to receive him at his landing, and to con
duct him to the presence of his majesty, the queen,
prince and princess in the banqueting-house. His
approach, gesture and countenance were seasoned
with a well-becoming confidence; and, bending him
self with a due reyerelice before the king, he told
him, among other compliments, that in his sight and
presence he enjoyed a great part (reserving, it should
seem, the greatest to his mistress) of the end and
happiness of his journey. After, turning to the
queen, she entertained him with a fixed countenance;
and though her posture might have seemed (as was
judged) to promise him the honor of a kiss for his
welcome, his humility, carried him no higher than
her hand. From which, after some few words of
compliment, he made to the prince, and exchanging
with him, after a more familiar strain, certain pas
sages of courtesy, he ended (where his desires could
not but begin) with the princess, (who was noted
till then not to turn so much as a corner of an eye
towards him,) and stooping low to take up the low
est part of her garment to kiss it, she, most grace
fully curtsying lower than accustomed, and with her
hand staying him from that humblest reverence, gave him

407
him at his rising a fair advantage (which he took)
of kissing her. This was the first day. The next
was spent in revisiting the king and queen, and
twice the lady Elizabeth ; once in the afternoon at
her own lodging in state, and after supper with
somewhat less ceremony.
" To give you now a touch of his outward cha
racter, which may tell you his inward : He hath
most happily deceived good men's doubts and ill
men's expectations : report, of envy, malice, or weak
judgement, having painted him in so ill colors, as
the most here, and especially our ladies and gentle
women, who held themselves not a little interested
in the handsome choice of her grace's husband, pre
pared themselves to see that with sorrow which they
now apprehend with much gladness.
" He is straight and well shaped for his growing
years : his complexion is brown, with a countenance
pleasing, and promising both wit, courage and j udge-
ment. He becomes himself very well, and is very
well liked of all, unless of those that are now sorry
they did so honor him as to discommend him 
He is well followed, the number not so great as,
worthy, most of theiri men much better fashioned
than Germany usually affords them. There are in
all eight counts, besides count Henry of Nassau,
some sixteen gentlemen, and the rest do make up
about one hundred and fifty  No time, but by
conjecture, is prefixed for the marriage ; the most
think it will be ahout Easter. In the mean time, we
talk

408
talk of masks, tilts and barriers ; but they are yet
under invention, not in resolution1."
In the midst of these festive preparations, prince
Henry, who joined in them with great cordiality
and spared no demonstrations of respect and atten
tion towards his destined brother-in-law, was sud
denly taken ill, and after a painful struggle of above
a fortnight, expired on November 6, 1612, having
nearly completed his nineteenth year.
The grief of the people was unbounded; it per
vaded all ranks, all classes, and almost all parties.
The young and adventurous, weary ofthe inaction of
James's reign, passionately bewailed a prince sup
posed to resemble Henry V.,that favorite of English
story, equally in his outward form and in the nobler
qualities of his mind; and under whose auspices they
hoped to rush to victory and conquest. The zealous
party in religion mourned a patron of whom it was
fondly expected that he would reunite the protestant
church in the bond of unity, and repress by rigorous
methods the growth of popery; and whom someof the
most enthusiastic of the sect appear to have fancied
a chosen instrument in the hands of providence for
the overthrow ofthe papacy itself, which they styled
the kingdom of Antichrist. Even the rudest and
most indifferent natures were touched by that most
affecting and humiliating of lessons on the instabi
lity of human hopes, — death in the midst of youth
and happiness, and anticipated royalty.
a Winwood, iii. 403. Nothing

409
Nothing is more rapid than the transition from
one passion to another in large bodies of men ; and
the grief of the people for the loss of Henry was
almost immediately exchanged for indignation at
the apathy with which it was regarded by the court,
and for the blackest suspicions. During the early
days of his illness, the prince had been repeatedly
visited at St. James's by his father, mother and sis
ter ; but the last time that the king had approached
his sick chamber, he had been deterred from enter
ing by the suggestion of his courtiers, that the sight
was too painful for the eyes of a parent; and imme
diately quitting London, he was content to await
the result" at Theobalds. He received the melan
choly intelligence with great insensibility : after a
very short interval, all persons were prohibited from
approachingthe royal presence in the garb of mourn
ing, and special orders were given that the prepa
rations for the Christmas festivities should proceed
without interruption. Three days only after the
prince's death, viscount Rochester, who was now
regarded as minister as well as favorite, wrote to
sir Thomas Edmonds, the ambassador to France, to
recommence in the" name of prince Charles the mar
riage treaty begun for his brother ; but a sense of
decency withheld Edmonds from immediate compli
ance with these strange directions. Richard earl
of Dorset, writing to the same ambassador on No
vember 23, has the following strong passage relative
to the behaviour which he witnessed on this occa
sion : "That our rising sun is set, ere scarcely he
had

410
had shone, and that with him all our glory lies bu
ried, you know and do lament as well as we ; and
, better than some do, and more truly, or else you are
not a man, and sensible of this kingdom's loss1."
Sir Robert Nauntott, a secretary of state and pro
fessed follower of Rochester, ventures On the follow
ing dark hints in a letter to Winwood :
"Touching our Palladiurri which we have lost, I
hold it neither fit to write what I conceive, and less
fit to be written to your lordship. It is given out
by his confidents, that he had a design to have come
over with the palsgrave, and have drawn count Mau
rice along with him with some promises, and done
some exploit upon the place which shot the pals
grave's harbinger, and happily to have seen the
landgrave's daughter, or I know not what. That
this he meant to have done, whatsoever it was,
' clam patrem et senatum suum ' (unknown to his
father and the council), and hatching some such se
cret design, which was made subject to misconstruc
tion, it is new become abortive, like that of Henry
IV. of France. Sir Henry Nevil told me, that he
had vowed that never idolater should come in his
bed : and I was ascertained, that in his sickness he
applied this chastisement for a deserved punishment
upon him for having ever opened his ears to admit
treaty of such a popish matchb."
That prince Henry was poisoned by viscount
" Birch's Life of prince Henry, p. 405.
" Winwood, iii. p. 410. Rochester

411
Rochester became after a time the general belief
not merely of the vulgar, or of a party, but of per
sons of the highest rank and consequence. We
have it on the authority of Burnet, that Charles I.
always expressed himself of this opinion respecting
the death of his brother. Nor did the king himself
escape the horrid and incredible charge of being
privy to the poisoning of his son, at least after the
fact. In corroboration of these surmises, several
anecdotes are related in the secret histories, or scan
dalous memoirs, ofthe time, illustrative ofthe open
hostility which had subsisted between the prince
and the favorite, or ofthe malignant jealousy with
which the monarch was supposed to have contem
plated his heir. One of the best authenticated of
these stories is related by sir Charles Cornwallis,
treasurer to the prince, in a Discourse on his
life and death, and is to this effect : That a noble
man in the highest favor with the king, — a descrip
tion appropriate to none but Rochester, — had writ
ten to the prince, by order of his majesty, a letter
on some important and urgent affair, to which he
had subscribed himself, "yours before all theworld,"
Henry directed Cornwallis to write an answer, which,
when finished, he was about to sign ; but observing
that the subscription was couched in words of favor
towards the nobleman, he ordered it to be re-writ
ten, notwithstanding the haste required, with the
omission of these courtly phrases, declaring that this
person " had dealt with him unfaithfully and falsely, and

412
and that his hand should never attest what his heart
did not dictate."
Osborn says that Henry " contemned so far at first
his father's election of Rochester, as he was reported
either to have struck him on the back with his rac
ket, or yery hardly forborne it." Wilson's account
of the causes of their rivalry is given, in his usual
fantastical style, as follows :
" Thus was he (Rochester) drawn up by the
beams of majesty to shine in the highest glory,
grappling often with the prince in his own sphere
in divers contestations. For the prince, being a
high-born spirit, and meeting a young competitor
in his father's affections that was a mushroom of
yesterday, thought the venom would grow too near
him, and therefore gave no Countenance but oppo
sition to it ; which was aggravated by some little
scintils of love as well as hatred (rivals in passion),
being both amorous and in youthful blood, fixing by
accident upon one object, who was a third man's:
in which the viscount got the mastery, but to his
ruin, the prince showing his affection, by his neg
lecting of her, to be grounded rather upon envy to
the man, than love to the woman1."
The lady here alluded to was the countess of Essex,
whom several contemporary memoir writers concur
in representing as the object ofthe prince's gallan
try. James's jealousy of his son is rather assumed

Wilson, p. 55. by

413
by the same writers on vague grounds, or slight cir*
cumstances, than proved by decisive facts : but nei
ther the demonstration of the existence of this sen
timent in its utmost force, nor the most decided proof
of Rochester's enmity towards the prince, ought ap
parently to countervail the direct and authentic tes
timony which we possess as to the manner and causes
of Henry's death. This part of the case has thus
been stated by a biographer of that celebrated phy
sician sir Theodore Mayerne :
" One of the most important and at the same
time most unfortunate occurrences during the course
of his employment,, was the fatal sickness of Henry
prince of Wales, the eldest son of king James, and
the darling hope of his subjects. This prince was
taken ill on October 15, 1612; but it was not till
the 25th that his disorder was thought of importance
enough to require the assistance of Dr. Mayerne,
in addition to that of Dr. Hammond, his physician
in ordinary. The disease was a putrid fever; and
the most accurate account of its progress, together
with every circumstance of the prince's constitution
and manner of life which might predispose to it, is
given in the collection of cases left by Mayerne :
who, from the time of his being called in, appears
to have had the chief management of the case.
" The patient died on November 6; and from the
whole course of the symptoms, as well as the appear
ances on dissection, there cannot be the least doubt
that his death was the consequence of a natural
disease, and not induced by any iniquitous means, as

414
as some of the enemies of that unhappy family have
affected to beheve. We find, however, that certain
malicious reflections, which were at that time made,
either against the fidelity or skill of our physician in
this affair, influenced him, besides drawing up both
in French and Latin a minute account of the whole
disease and its treatment, to procure a certificate
from the king expressing the most perfect satisfac
tion with his conduct; and two others, from the
lords of the council, and the officers and gentlemen
of the prince, to the same purpose. His disagree
ment in opinion with the other physicians, with re
spect to bleeding the patient, made this caution the
more necessary1."
The prince's household continued together till
the end of December, when it was dismissed with
a pathetic funeral sermon by Hall, sometimes called
the English Seneca, ending with the following strik
ing exhortation ; " Go in peace, and live as those
that have lost such a master ; arid as those that serve
a master whom they cannot lose."
The two universities produced sermons, Latin
orations and collections of verses, in honor of the
prince of Wales ; one ofthe Oxford publications on
this.occasion consisted chiefly of pieces in the pas
toral style, — a mode of composition well suited to
the affectation of the age. Besides these established
tributes of loyal duty, most ofthe contemporary poets
of eminence, with the very remarkable exception of
- Dr. Aikin's Biographical memoirs of Medicine, p. 253. Ben

415
Ben Jonson, — who might already be styled the court
poet, though he was not yet appointed laureate, —
hastened to scatter their voluntary offerings round
the tomb of Henry. Their enumeration will serve
to recall some half-forgotten names belonging to
the literary history of the seventeenth century.
Chapman, the rugged but not spiritless translator
of Homer, bewailed in the prince his " most dear
and heroical patron." His theatrical compeers,
Webster and Heywood, each produced an elegy.
William Brown, who published in the following
year " Britannia's pastorals," and afterwards some
eclogues entitled " The shepherd's pipe," first ex
ercised his muse on this pathetic theme. The ver
sification of this writer was harmonious, his style
pure and simple, his imagery poetical and pleasing;
and if his taste or his good fortune had led him to
the cultivation of any other species of poetry than
allegorical pastoral, he might have raised a more
enduring name. Brown's immediate success how
ever was considerable ; he was esteemed and patro
nized, became tutor to a young nobleman, deserted
the muses, followed gainful ways, and died rich and
obscure. An elegy on the same subject also occurs amongst
the poems ofthe once celebrated Dr. Donne, known
to the modern reader almost solely by Pope's versi
fication of two of his satires, and as the founder of
an obsolete school of poetry, called first by Dryden,
the metaphysical. He was however a person of very
considerable endowments both moral and intellec tual,

416
tual, who excited the esteem and admiration of many
of the greatest and wisest of his contemporaries, and
whose life, character and singular modes of thinking,
may still be found worthy to interest posterity.
John Donne was born in London in 1573. His
mother was ofthe family of the excellent sir Thomas
More, and both she and his father were strongly at
tached to the church of Rome. For this reason,
probably, their son received at home the rudiments
of an education in which reUgious impressions were
sedulously combined with classical instruction. At
an early age he was however sent to Oxford, the
university constantly preferred at this period by ca
tholic parents, on account of its concealing within
its bosom many zealous members of their own com
munion, who exerted a secret but efficacious super
intendence over the spiritual concerns of such youths
as were recommended to their vigilance. Religious
scruples compelled Donne to quit this seat of learn
ing without a degree, as he afterwards did Cam
bridge, where he studied during three following
years. He now entered at Lincoln's Inn and made
some progress in the study of the law ; but his fa
ther's death putting him in possession of a patrimony
of 3000/., he thought himself at liberty to suspend
his final choice of a profession, and to indulge his in
quisitive turn of mind in an excursive range through
various fields of knowledge. One part of his occu
pation at this period, and apparently none of the
least laborious, was the composition of a multitude
of love-verses, filled with strange conceits and far
fetched

417
fetched allusions, and in which grossnessof language
was employed to counterfeit the genuine expression
of sentiment. To the reproach of public taste, these
compositions became popular, and they served as
the passport of their author to the society of the in
genious and the gay, in which he spent most of his
fortune, and stored up matter of penitence for graver
years. The native disposition however of Donne was
serious and contemplative, and the grounds of dif
ference between the religion of his country and that
of his family, early engaged his deepest attention.
The result of an anxious investigation seems to have
left him in some system which did not exactly corre
spond with either church; but it indelibly impressed
upon his mind a conviction of the right and duty of
private judgement in matters of faith, and inspired
him with a spirit of candor and conciliation which
nobly distinguished him in that age of polemical
exasperation. The following rugged but vigorous
lines of his third satire well express his manly sen
timents on this subject :
 ' ' Fool and wretch ! wilt thou let thy soul be tied

To man's laws, by which she shall not be tried
At the last day ? Or will it then boot thee
To say, a Philip or a Gregory,
A Harry or a Martin taught me this ?
Is not this excuse for mere contraries
Equally strong ? Cannot both sides say so ?
That thou mayest rightly obey power, her bounds know ;
Those past, her name and nature's changed ;- to be
Then humble to her is idolatry."
vol. i, 2 e A very

418
A very striking reflection is also conveyed in a
passage of one of his letters treating on the various
theories of the transmission of the soul. " I begin
to think that as litigious men, tired with suits, admit
any arbitrement; and princes travailed with long
and wasteful war descend to such conditions of
peace as they are soon after ashamed to have em
braced; so philosophers, and so all sects of chris
tians, after long disputations and controversies, have
allowed many things for positive and dogmatical
truths wiiich are not worthy of that dignity : and so
many doctrines have grown up to be the ordinary
diet and food of our spirits, and have place in the pap
of catechisms, which were admitted but as physic in
that present distemper, or accepted in a lazy weari
ness, when men, so they might have something to
rely upon, and to excuse themselves from more pain
ful inquisition, never examined what that was1."
In the years 1596 and 7, Donne is stated to have
attended the earl of Essex, — but in what capacity
does not appear, — in his expedition to Cadiz and in
his Island voyage, and it was perhaps through the
interest of this patron that he was preferred, soon
after his return, to the office of secretary to sir Tho
mas Egerton keeper of the seals, afterwards lord-
chancellor and baron Ellesmere, by whom he was
highly favored and marked out for further promotion.
But an attachment to a niece of lady Egerton's,
whom he clandestinely married in 1602, blighted for
x Letters to several persons of honor, by John Donne, p. 12.
ever

419
ever these fair prospects1. The father of the lady,
Sir George Moore lieutenant of the Tower, was so
violently enraged at the news of these stolen nup
tials, that he caused Donne himself, the clergyman
who performed the ceremony and the friend who
gave away the bride, to be all thrown into prison,
and never ceased importuning the lord-keeper till
he had wrung from him a reluctant dismissal of
Donne at the end of a service of five years. By
this barbarous act of paternal vengeance, the young
couple were reduced to a state of utter destitution ;
and the generous kindness of a relation, who during
several years retained them as his inmates and sup
plied the wants of their growing family, alone pre^
served them from actual beggary.
B Walton pretends that Donne, after his attendance on the earl
of Essex, " returned not back till he had stayed some years, first
in Italy and then in Spain," during which he made many " useful
observations of those countries, their laws and manner of govern.
ment, and returned perfect in their languages." But it should
seem that no part of this statement can be true. At this period
of the reign of Elizabeth an Englishman could not have travelled
so long in Italy, and most certainly could not once have set his
foot on the hostile shores of Spain, — unless, indeed, he went as
a- spy,^-without assuming the character of a catholic fugitive,
which would have subjected him to the penalties of high treason
on his return. Besides, there are only five years between the
date of the Island voyage and that of Donne's marriage ; — which
appears from the inscription on his wife's monument to have
taken place in 1602; and, according to Walton himself, he had
previously served the lord-keeper for that number of years:
Such is- the accuracy- of this amiable biographer ! Compare
Zouch's edition of Walton, vol. i. pp. 48, 100.
2e2 It

420
It is melancholy to trace the effects of dependence
and distress on the character and destiny of such a
man as Donne : — formed alike to explore the re
cesses of scholastic learning, to triumph in the social
combats of wit and argument, and to exercise in its
fullest extent the privilege of philosophic specu
lation, he saw himself doomed to task a reluctant
muse to the production of commanded strains ; — to
exhaust his powers and abase his spirit in laborious
flatteries and miserable supplications for relief; — to
reproach himself in vain for the wanderings of
thoughts which he knew not how to guide in any
gainful course ; — and finally, to silence the scruples
which had long held back his foot from the tempting
paths of church-preferment. In this unfortunate
situation, the sensibility of his temper and the ten
derness of his conscience were but sources of ag
gravated misery. " For me," he pathetically writes,
" if I were able to husband all my time so thriftily,
as not only not to wound my soul in any minute by
actual sin, but not to rob or cozen her by giving any
part to pleasure or business, but bestow it all upon
her in meditation, yet even in that I should wound
her more, and contract another guiltiness : as the
eagle were very unnatural if, because she is able to
do it, she should perch a whole day upon a tree,
staring in contemplation of the majesty and glory
of the sun, and let her young eaglets starve in the
nest1."

* Donne's Letters, p. 48. In

421
In the midst of his embarrassments, his friend Dr.
Morton, then dean of Gloucester, surprised him with
a generous offer to resign a valuable living to him,
if he could be induced to take orders. After three
days of fasting and prayer, enjoined upon him by
his friend before he decided, Donne announced to
him his conviction that the clerical profession was
to him unlawful, since he found in himself no higher
vocation to it than the want of a maintenance, and
was besides disturbed by other scruples, which he
begged to decline stating.
Notwithstanding Donne's poverty, he was at this
time the reigning wit of the court; was flattered and
caressed both by men and women of quality, and
possessed several valuable friends ; particularly sir
Henry Goodere, gentleman of the privy chamber,
and sir Robert Carr, afterwards earl of Ancram, the
relation and principal intimate of the favorite of the
same names, who likewise became his patron. It
does not appear when or by whom Donne was first
introduced to the king ; James however "was imme
diately struck with his parts and learning, delighted
to engage him in scholastic discourse, and was sup
posed to have destined him for preferment ; but
when urged to bestow upon him any civil office, he
constantly refused, having predetermined in his own
mind to force him into the church. With this view
he engaged him to write on the question of the oath
of allegiance, which was then employing his own
royal pen, and Donne in consequence produced, in
1610, his Pseudo-Martyr, said to be an able defence of

422
of the lawfulness of this test to the conscientious
catholic. How freely, and with what impartiality,
he was capable -of judging on a subject so hotly con
tested by others, will best appear from a few pas*
sages of a letter to sir Henry Good ere, respecting
some other work- written on the king's side of the
question, which unfortunately is not named.
" To you that are not easily scandalized, and in
whom I hope neither my religion nor my morality
can suffer, I dare write my opinion of that book in
whose bowels you left me. It hath refreshed and
given new justice to my ordinary complaint; that
the divines of these times are become mere advo
cates, as though religion were a temporal inherit
ance; they plead for it with all sophistications and
illusions and forgeries : and herein are they likest
advocates, that though they be feed by tlie way with
dignities arid other recompenses, yet that for which
they plead is none of theirs. They write for reli
gion without it. In the main point in question, I
truly think there is a perplexity, as far as I see yet,
and both sides may be in justice and innocence;
and the wounds which they inflict upon the adverse
part are all se defendendo ; for, clearly, our state
cannot be safe without the oath ; since they profess
that clergymen, though traitors, are no subjects,
and that all the rest may be none tomorrow. And,
as clearly, the supremacy which the Roman church
pretend, were diminished if it were limited; and
will as ill abide that, or disputation, as the preroga
tive of temporal kings, who being the only judges of

423
of their prerogative, why may not Roman bishops
(so enlightened as they are presumed by them) be
good witnesses of their own supremacy, which is
novv so much impugned 
" I know, as I begun, I speak to you who cannot
be scandalized, and that neither measure religion,
as it is now called, by unity, nor suspect unity for
these interruptions. . . .They whose active function
it is, must endeavour this unity in religion ; and we
at our lay altars (which are our tables, or bedsides,
or stools, wheresoever we dare prostrate ourselves
to God in prayer,) must beg it of him ; but we must
take heed of making misconclusions upon the want
of it : for, whether the mayor and aldermen fall out,
as with us and the puritans, bishops against priests,
or the commoners' voices differ who is mayor, or
who aldermen, or what their jurisdiction, as with
the bishop of Rome, or whosoever, yet it is still one
corporation1." In 1612 Donne accompanied sir Robert Drury,
one of his kindest patrons, to Paris, where sir Ro
bert had probably some diplomatic employment :
two years after, finding every other door to ad
vancement closed upon him, and the royal will invin
cible, he consented, after long and severe struggles
with himself, to take orders ; was admitted by royal
mandate to a doctor's degree at Cambridge, and
became one of the king's chaplains. In the quaint
and sententious style of preaching then fashionable,
- Donne's Letters, p. 160 et seq.
Donne

424
Donne was peculiarly formed to excel, and he was
soon gratified with the honorable appointment of
Lincoln's Inn lecturer. In 1619 he attended lord
Hay on his embassy to the king of Bohemia. Before
his departure, he ventured to transmit to his friend
sir Robert Carr a manuscript copy of his extraordi
nary piece entitled " Biathanatos, or a declaration
of that paradox or thesis, that self-homicide is not
so naturally a sin that it may not be otherwise."
Soon after his return, the king, who justly thought
himself bound in honor to provide for his doctor, as
he was fond of styling hini, sent and appointed him
to attend at his dinner the following day. " When
his majesty was set down, before he had eat any
meat, he said, after his pleasant manner, ' Dr.
Donne, I have invited you to dinner, and though
you sit not down with me, yet I will carve to you of
a dish that I know you love well ; for knowing you
love London, I do therefore make you dean of
Paul's ; and when I have dined, then do you take
your beloved dish home to your study ; say grace
there to yourself, and much good may it do you1.'"
This preferment placed Donne at the summit of his
wishes ; he lived beloved and respected for his cha
rity, disinterestedness and memory of past benefits,
and almost sainted for the fervor of his devotion,
which seems to have been somewhat tinged with
enthusiasm, and with the spirit of catholic mortifi
cation : he died generally regretted in 1631, and

Zouch's Walton, i. 108.

elegies

425
elegies in his honor were composed by Corbet, Ca
rew, Jonson and lord Falkland. As a poet, Donne
may be admitted to deserve the neglect which has
overtaken him ; but his letters exhibit an extent of
curious learning, a power of deep arid original
thinking, and above all a comprehensive liberality
of soul, which ought ever to preserve him in re
spectful remembrance among the ornaments of let
tered society and the guides of public opinion in an
age rich beyond all others in English genius.

CHAPTER

CHAPTER XIII.
1613, 1614.
Marriage of the princess to the elector palatine .—The pro
fusion and poverty of the court. — Schemes to raise money.
James refuses to liberate lord Grey. — Expensive pro
gress ofthequeen. — Accountofsir Thomas Overbury. — His
imprisonment. — Intrigues of the countess of Essex. — Ro
chester incensed by her against Overbury. — Overbury poi
soned in (he Tower. — Divorce of the countess of Essex. —
She marries Rochester, who is created earl of Somerset. —
The addle parliament. — Revenge taken by the king on
those who oppose him. — Death and character of the earl of
Northampton. — Second visit of the king of Denmark. —
Money illegally raised.
JL HE nuptials ofthe king's only surviving daughter,
which were solemnized in February 1613, served
to dispel the gloom which the untimely death of her
brother had diffused over the nation. An alliance
so eminently protestant was justly hailed as an inva
luable security to the religion of the country, and it
was perhaps hoped, though vainly, that the popular
applause which attended it might be received by the
king as an admonition to follow so wise and happy
a precedent in the disposal of his son and heir.
The princess Elizabeth was at this time in her
sixteenth year, and the symmetry of her features was
heightened, — if we may trust the painters, — by that
mixture of the sprightly and the soft in expression which

427
which lends to female beauty its most powerful fasci
nation. History seems to borrow the colors of ro
mance when she paints this fair young princess, on
the morning of her marriage, all accomplished in
loveliness and majesty, passing to the chapel along
a stately gallery raised for the purpose ; arrayed all
in white, her dark hair floating at length over her
shoulders and a crown of pure gold upon her head ;
the young prince her brother leading her by one
hand and the aged earl of Northampton by the
other, while a cluster of fair and noble bridemaids
hovered about her steps, also robed in white, " and
so adorned with jewels, that her path looked like a
milky way." " While the archbishop was solemnis
ing the marriage," adds Wilson, " some corrusca-
tions and lightnings of joy appeared in her counte
nance, that expressed more than an ordinary smile,
being almost elated to a laughter, which could not
clear the air of her fate, but was rather a forerunner
of more sad and dire events : which shows how slip
pery nature is to toll us along tothose thingsthat bring
danger, yea sometimes destruction, with them."
England had seen nothing equal to the sumptuous-
ness of this marriage. " It were to no end," says
Winwood's correspondent, " to write of the curio
sity and excess of bravery both of men and women,
with the extreme daubing on of cost and riches ;
only a touch shall serve in a few for a pattern of the
rest. The lady Wotton was said to have a gown
that cost fifty pound a yard the embroidering; and
the lord Montague (that hath paid reasonably well for

428
for recusancy) bestowed fifteen hundred pound in
apparel upon his two daughters1." Sir John Finett
writes thus : " The bravery and riches of that day
was incomparable ; gold and silver laid upon lords',
ladies', and gentlewomen's backs was the poorest
burden ; pearls and costly embroideries being the
commonest wear. The king's, queen's and prince's
jewels only, were valued that day by his majesty
himself. . . .at nine hundred thousand pounds ster
ling1';" The fireworks and mock-fight exhibited
upon the Thames are said to have cost above 6800Z. ;
a very rich and sumptuous mask, which proved how
ever " long and tedious," was exhibited by noble
men ; the gentlemen of the Middle Temple and of
Lincoln's Inn rode in great state to court, and exhi
bited an entertainment in which their fine dancing
was much admired; and those of Gray's Inn and
the Inner Temple, meaning to represent as their
device the marriage of the Thames and the Rhine,
made a grand procession by water.
In the midst of all this parade and profusion, the
court was reduced to the utmost extremity by the
want of money ; the household of the palatine him
self was abruptly dissolved and most of his company
sent away, lo the extreme mortification of his bride,
because " necessity had no law ; " and for the same
irresistible reason, a very slender train of ladies was
appointed to wait on the princess over the water.
The feudal aid which James did not forget to levy

• Winwood, iii. 434. b Finetli Philoxenis, p. 11. for

429
for the marriage of his daughter, as before for the
knighting of his eldest son, produced little more than
20,0001. ; half only of the portion which he actually
paid down with her ; the remainder, added to the
ether expenses ofthe nuptials, to the entertainment
of the palatine in England, and to the conveyance
ofthe princess to Germany, amounting to the enor
mous sum of 53,298/.a, went to increase the already
overwhelming burden ofthe royal debt.
Lord Harrington, who waited upon the bride
home, in discharge of 30,000/., which he said he
had spent in her service, had his suit, granted for the
coinage of a certain number of base farthings of
brass ; — a measure justly regarded as of the worst
augury. " And you must think," writes Chamber
lain, " that we are brought to a low ebb, when last
week the archduke's ambassador was carried to see
the ancient goodly plate of the house of Burgundy,
pawned to queen Elizabeth by the General States
in anno 1578 as I remember, and to know whether
his princes would redeem it, for otherwise it was to
be meltedb."
Several projects for levying money without the
interposition of parliament, began again to be agi
tated in the council ; a benevolence was talked of,
and Rochester, either by way of setting a good ex
ample, or as an atonement to popular indignation,

" See An abstract or brief declaration of the present state
of his majesty's revenue, 1698.
b Winwood, iii. 4 H. Sent

430
sent for some officers ofthe revenue, and, delivering
to them the key of a chest, bade them take its eon-
tents for the king's service : they amounted to four-
or five-and-twenty thousand pounds in gold : such
had been the lavish bounty of his royal master to
wards him !
The marriage of the princess appears to have
been accomplished by a zealously protestant party, —
at the head of which were archbishop Abbot and
secretary Winwood, — rather with the acquiescence
than the cordial approbation of the king : and the
palatine, in a letter to the archbishop immediately
before his embarkation, complained that James had
treated him rather like a "childish youth" whose
wishes were unworthy of attention, than like a
prince and a son-in-law. To the palatine's earnest
solicitations for the release of the unfortunate lord
Grey, which he made principally at the desire of
his uncle the duke of Bouillon, James had returned
a flat denial, adding, " Son, when I come to visit
you in Germany, I promise not to ask you for any
of your prisoners."
Theprejudices, religious andpolitical, ofthe queen,
rendered her daughter's alliance a source of the se
verest mortification to her ; it is said that she could
never endure the sight of Winwood afterwards;
she treated the palatine himself with great haughti
ness, and affected to call his bride by no other title
than the goodwife Palsgrave. For the purpose
apparently of dissipating her chagrin, she thought
proper, just at this crisis of the royal treasury, to
undertake

431
undertake a sumptuous progress to Bath, expected
to cost no less than 30,000/.
In the spring of 1613, some circumstances oc
curred which supplied much matter of conjecture
and discussion. There was in court a gentleman
of the name of Overbury, originally patronised, it
should appear, by the earl of Salisbury ; a person of
considerable talents and accomplishments, of a bold
carriage and an aspiring temper, who seemed mark
ed out by fortune for political advancement. After
completing his studies for public life by a long tour on
the continent, Overbury on his return had attracted
the notice of viscount Rochester, who, duly sensible
by this time of his own deficiencies in all the quali
fications of a minister of state, had not only availed
himself of his assistance in the capacity of a secre
tary, but had adopted him as a confidential friend,
and, according to the expression of lord Bacon, look
ed to him as to "an oracle of direction." James
had knighted him as an earnest of further promo
tion, and the whole tribe of suitors and court-expect
ants paid homage to him as the favorite's favorite.
In the midst of these flattering prospects a sud
den reverse had overtaken him, the occasion of which
is thus related : The king, without any previous in
timation of his purpose, sent two of his council to
propose to sir Thomas Overbury an embassy, to
France or Flanders according to some, but accord
ing to others, — and it is the more probable state
ment, — to Russia. Alarmed and disconcerted at the
offer, which he regarded in no other light than a
specious

432
specious banishment from the scene of all his con
sequence and all his hopes, Overbury, on some pre
text of health, declined the employment, and, being
further urged, was at length provoked to add, that
the king could not, in law or in justice, force him
to forsake his country. This answer was deemed
a heinous contempt ; and James in great wrath or
dered him to be committed to the Tower. Roches
ter was at this time confined by illness, and it was
at first imagined that this severity against his friend
had been inflicted without his concurrence and por
tended his fall. But the king himself took pains to
dispel this illusion by declaring to his council the
next day, respecting the viscount, " that he meant
him daily more honor and favor, as should be seen
in short time, and that he took more delight and con
tentment in his company and conversation than in
any man's living1." Orders were however given,
that the unfortunate prisoner should be kept in the
closest custody, and sir Robert KiUigrew was "com
mitted to the Fleet from the council-table for havinar
some little speech with sir Thomas Overbury, who
called to him as he passed by his window, as he
came from visiting sir Walter Raleigh1'." To such
a height, it may be observed, was the long-esta
blished abuse of illegal imprisonment at this time
carried !
Precisely at this juncture, the court-correspondent
of Winwood informed him, that there had been
8 Winwood, iii. 453. b Ibid. iii. 455. mention

433
mention of lady Essex's suing for a divorce from her
husband, but that an accident had happened which
had altered the case : "For she, having sought out
a certain wise woman, had much conference with
her, and she, after the nature of such creatures,
drawing much money from her, at last cozened her
of a jewel of great value ; for which being appre
hended and clapped up, she accused the lady of di
vers strange questions and projects ; and in conclu
sion, that she dealt with her for the making away
of her lord, as aiming at another mark. Upon which
scandal and slander, the lord-chamberlain and his
friends think it not fit to proceed in the divorce1."
The connection between this infamous affair and
the imprisonment of Overbury became in the sequel
but too evident.
The " other mark " at which the countess of Es
sex aimed was a marriage with viscount Rochester,
to compass which she scrupled no wickedness against
her husband, no opprobrium to herself : the circum
stances of the case were these : The earl of Essex
and lady Frances Howard, eldest daughter of the
earl of Suffolk, had submitted to the marriage cere
mony at the immature age then customary ; after
which the husband was sent to travel, and the wife
was brought to court, where she soon became a
reigning beauty. Regardless of the claims of a
spouse who returned to her at the end of three or
four years, almost a stranger, she pitched upon the
royal favourite as the only conquest worthy of her
a Winwood, iii. 455.
vojl. i. 2 f charms ;

434
charms ; and with an excess of female depravity to
which English story fortunately affords few parallels,
she set herself to accomplish his seduction not alone
by the artifices and blandishments of wanton beauty,
but by the atrocious agency of those vile impostors
who pretended to command the affections by spells,
by sorceries, and by philtres. Rochester was speedily
insnared, and Overbury became the confident of his
illicit passion, to which it seems that he had the mean
ness so far to lend himself as to indite the love-letters
of the illiterate viscount. But when Overbury per
ceived that a marriage with his patron was the con
summation sought by the countess, to which a scan
dalous divorce procured by perjury and artifice must
serve as the means, his judgement, if not his con
science, revolted against the design; and with great
vehemence of zeal, and many expressions of bitter
contumely against the lady, he remonstrated with him
on the enormous folly of making awoman stained with
such public reproach and infamy his wife. Roches
ter, with the usual treachery of a man so infatuated,
repeated to his fury-mistress the rash discourse of his
friend ; she vowed vengeance, and having succeeded
in rousing the indignation of her lover, persuaded
him to take effectual means for the removal of so
importunate a witness of their conduct.
For this purpose, the favorite complained to the
weak monarch whom he governed, that Overbury,
presuming upon the intimacy to which he had in
cautiously admitted him, had now become insuffer
ably insolent and headstrong ; and he suggested the
expedient

435
expedient of sending him on a distant embassy. At
the same time, he perfidiously encouraged this uiir
happy victim to persist in his refusal of the proffered
mission, undertaking within a short time to pacify
the king and procure his liberation.
By degrees Overbury became indignant at the
prolongation of his imprisonment and perhaps sus
picious of its cause; and presuming upon the im^
portance, and it may be the infamy, of the secrets
with which he had been intrusted, he sometimes
ventured to address his patron in a strain more re
proachful than supplicatory, demanding his enlarge
ment with urgent importunities, not unaccompanied
by menaces of disclosure. But the rancour of the
countess was implacable, and Rochester, judging
that Overbury was already too much injured to be
safely forgiven, consented to take other means to
secure his silence. As an indispensable preliminary,
he obtained of James the dismissal of the lieutenant
of the Tower, and placed in his stead sir Gervase
Elways, an instrument fit for the purpose. Mrs.
Turner, the agent employed by lady Essex in her
flagitious attempts against her husband, was next
put in action, and commanded to employ the most
effectual of the black arts which she professed, that
of poisoning, against the life of the helpless prisoner.
She and her associates proceeded at first with cau
tion ; judging it less hazardous to destroy the con
stitution of their destined victim by what might ap
pear the gradual progress of natural disease, than
to hurry him off the scene with a suspicious sudden-
2 f 2 ness.

436
ness. But repeated experiments having convinced
them of the inefficacy of those accounted slow poi
sons, and their noble employers expressing impa
tience under the delay, because the liberation of
Overbury could not be much longer deferred, re
course was had to more vigorous measures ; and in
September 1613, an agonising death, occasioned by
the administration of corrosive sublimate, ended the
sufferings of this unhappy man, after a lingering
affliction of half a year, during which time he was
debarred the sight of every friend he had in the
world, and exposed without defence to the barba
rous attempts incessantly renewed by the wretches
who had undertaken his destruction. The event
excited just suspicion ; especially when it appeared,
that the body, negligently wrapped in a sheet, had
been hurried to the grave on the very day of the
death, without awaiting either the inspection or even
arrival of any friend of the deceased, and without
the holding of a coroner's inquest.
Under these circumstances, a kinsman of Over
bury 's was urged to take some steps towards pro
curing an inquiry ; but the rank and power of the
offenders defeated the attempt, and notwithstanding
the sinister rumors which still prevailed, the affair
was suffered to rest for the present, and the aban
doned instruments of the murder, with their still
more atrocious employers, were left to flatter them
selves with the hope that their iniquity had finally
escaped the cognisance of human justice.
Meantime every thing proceeded to the wish of
the

437
the guilty lovers. The king, whose base good-na
ture was insensible of guilt or shame in gratifying
any desire of any of his favorites, not only autho
rised, but promoted with the utmost zeal, the suit
for annulling the marriage of the countess of Essex.
Twelve commissioners, half of them bishops and
half civilians, were appointed for the decision of tlie
cause ; and when the archbishop of Canterbury had
stated in writing his reasons for not acceding to a
sentence which appeared to him equally contrary to
law, to scripture, and to good morals, his majesty
descended from the decorum of his station so far as
to draw up a reply to these objections. But the arch
bishop himself, the bishop of London and three of
the civilians, remained unconvinced by the royal
arguments, and unawed by the extraordinary earnest
ness with which they were obtruded ; and they per
sisted in publishing their honorable protest against
the sentence of nullity which their more obsequious
coadjutors suffered themselves to gratify the king
and his favorite by pronouncing.
No sooner was this essential point gained, than
James, in order to spare the destined bride the mor
tification of any loss in point of rank, created viscount
Rochester earl of Somerset; and in February 1614
their marriage was celebrated within the court
itself, with a pomp and prodigality scarcely inferior
in any respect to that which had attended the nup
tials of the princess. The king in person gave away
the bride ; a sumptuous mask was exhibited by the
courtiers, which we may hope that Jonson had de
clined

438
clined, the degrading task of composing, since it was
the work of some far inferior hand. A similar en
tertainment was presented by the gentlemen of
Gray's Inn, whose repugnance to this contemptible
act of sycophancy Bacon claimed for himself the
entire merit of vanquishing; and the city gave on
the occasion a splendid feast, to which the king, the
queen and all the court were invited. The people
however beheld this triumph of shameless profligacy
with sentiments of indignation and horror,.and there
was no single transaction ofthe whole reign which
so deeply injured in public opinion either James
himself or the bishops, whose disgraceful subservi
ency was commented upon by the puritans with all
the zeal of virtuous reprobation, and all the bitter
ness of party spirit. A knighthood to the son of one
of these right reverend judges appeared to have been
part of the price offered for the prelate's compliance
with the royal wish; and popular contempt fixed
upon him for life the title of sir Nullity Bilson.
The only motive which ever impelled king James
to assemble the great council of the nation, urged
him to issue writs for the meeting of a new parlia
ment in the spring of 1614. The dread with which
the monarch always prepared to meet his people,
had been on this occasion much assuaged by the
efforts of a band of courtiers headed by the earl of
Somerset and called undertakers, who had engaged,
by a dextrous employment of their interest in diffe
rent parts ofthe country, to procure a majority trac
table to the wishes of the king. But they had overrated

439
rated theirinfluence; this house of commons proved
even less accommodating than its predecessor; and
James, finding that, instead of entering upon the
business of supplies, they were preparing to call in
question the arbitrary levies of the customs, and his
other irregular modes of raising money, dissolved
them, with all the precipitation of alarm, before they
had time to pass a single bill ; whence this obtained
the name of the addle parliament.
His majesty next proceeded to wreak his ven
geance upon the champions of the constitution by
throwing into prison a considerable number of the
most active members, and sending others against
their will to execute some pretended commission in
Ireland. Thismode of oppression had previously been
exercised by Henry VIII., who is recorded to have
sent two refractory citizens of London, on their refu
sal to lend him money, to serve as common soldiers in
the same island. On the strength of this precedent,
the royal mandate was obeyed by the obnoxious mem
bers, either from an erroneous opinion that it was one
w hich could not legally be resisted, or because they
dreaded an arbitrary commitment for a contempt,
as had been practised in the case of Overbury.
In June 1614 died, in his 75th year, Henry How
ard earl of Northampton. This nobleman set out
in life the portionless younger sOn of that victim of
tyranny the accomplished earl of Surry, and his ca
reer seemed expressly calculated to show the world
how much baseness could be made compatible with
the noblest birth, the most accomplished education, and

440
and talents which had early attracted general regard.
It was at Cambridge that he received his education,
where, according to bishop Godwin, he was styled
"the learnedest amongst the nobility, and the most
noble amongst the learned." He is said to have after
wards travelled during several years, and on his re
turn to have vainly sought preferment at court; but
the early part of his life is involved in great obscu
rity, and the first historical notice of him occurs in
the year 1582, when, on occasion of the plot for
which Francis Throgmorton suffered death, lord
Henry Howard is enumerated among the catholic
noblemen and gentlemen who were subjected to
severe examinations by the privy-council ; but no
thing appearing against him, he was dismissed :
He seems however to have been long and deeply
involved in the intrigues of his party. Lady Bacon,
in a letter written to her son Anthony in 1595, to
caution him against contracting any intimacy with
lord Henry, affirms that he is "a subtile papist in
wardly and lieth in wait;" adding, that the duke his
brother might still have been alive, " but for his
practising- and still soliciting him, to the duke's ruin ;"
and that so might also his nephew the earl of Arun
del "Avoid his familiarity," she adds, "as you
love the truth and yourself. A very instrument of
the Spanish papists. For he, pretending courtesy,
worketh mischief perilously. I have long known
him and observed him ; his workings have been
stark naught." And well were these maternal warn
ings justified by the result. This nobleman has
been

441
been justly stigmatised as "the greatest flatterer
and calumniator of the age." He continued to pay
most obsequious homage to lord Burleigh, at the
same time that, in one of his letters to the earl of
Essex, whom he addressed in a style of adulation
treading on the very brink of profaneness, he says,
speaking of the lord-treasurer and his son Robert,
— " If you could once be as fortunate in dragging
old Leviathan and his cub, tortuosum colubrum as
the prophet termeth them, out of this den of mis
chievous device, the better part of the world would
prefer your virtue before that of Hercules." It was
long ere his arts of insinuation were able to prevail
over the better judgement of queen Elizabeth and
the suspicion with which she had good reason to re
gard the house of Howard : towards the end of her
reign, however, he crept into her favor, which he is
believed to have repayed, after his own manner, by
betraying the seditious counsels ofthe earl of Essex.
To complete his perfidy, he consented to become the
instrument of Robert Cecil, whom he seemed to hate,
for carrying on his correspondence with James.
This prince, whom the pedantry and the servility of
Howard were equally formed to please, received him,
immediately on his accession, into favor and office.
He rapidly became warden of the Cinque ports,
privy-councillor, lord-privy-seal, earl of Northamp
ton; and after the death of Salisbury, the chancellor
ship of the university of Cambridge was added to
his honors. The peculiar fervor of zeal displayed
by him in the prosecution of the conspirators in the
powder-plot, was doubtless a piece of acting calcu lated

442
lated to deceive men as to his true religion, and to
cloak the favor which he still found means to extend
to the ecclesiastics and other obnoxious members of
his own communion. But the popular sentiment
appears to havebeen uniformly just towards him ; and
it should seem that Somerset, though a minion, did
not become generally odious till it was observed, that
Northampton had succeeded the unfortunate Over
bury in his confidence, and that the authority of the
favorite was employed in screening priests and Jesuits
from the penalties of the law, and enabling them to
propagate their tenets with impunity.
It is said, that a very short time before the death
of Northampton, he prosecuted a person in the star-
chamber for calling him a papist, who would have
been punished according to the tender mercies of
that tribunal, had not Abbot produced a letter ad
dressed by the earl to cardinal Bellarmine, in which
he declared, that notwithstanding the temper of the
times compelled him to dissemble, and the king him
self urged him to turn protestant, his heart was still
with the catholics, and he should be ready to aid
them in any attempt. To the shock of this expo
sure, his almost immediate death is imputed by the
author who relates the circumstance; but a letter of
sir Henry Wotton's proves beyond dispute that he
sunk under the consequences of a surgical operation.
The event however was extremely opportune, since
it preserved him from the additional infamy, as well
as danger, with which he was menaced by the dis
covery of Overbury's murder. The conduct pur
sued by him in this black transaction, and in the in
trigue

443
trigue from which it sprung, stands unrivalled in the
annals of profligacy and baseness. From the letters
read on the trials of the surviving criminals, it ap
peared, that, for the sake of ingratiating himself
with the favorite, this monster had consented to be
come the agent of his niece in her adulterous com
merce with Somerset, that he had been a principal
promoter ofthe iniquitous divorce, in which he knew
that lady Essex could only prevail by shameless per-
juries and by the subornation of witnesses; and
finally, that he wras not only privy to the poisoning
of Overbury, but actively instrumental in the steps
taken for the concealment of the crime and the se
curity of the perpetrators. Two of his letters to
the lieutenant of the Tower, giving urgent direc
tions for the speedy and secret burial of the body,
under the guise of expressing the anxiety of the
earl of Somerset that all funeral honors should be be
stowed on his unfortunate friend, whose deliverance
he was about to make an extraordinary effort to ob
tain, — may be regarded as forming one of the most
atrocious records of crafty villainy in our language.
Northampton was the author of some political and
some devotional pieces, written in the same dark
and pedantic style which he also employed in his
numerous letters of business and of compliment, and
his piety is much commended by certain writers, be
cause, dying unmarried, he bequeathed a large por
tion of his ill-gotten wealth to charitable purposes.
A second visit of the jovial king of Denmark in
1614, gave occasion to a fresh round of brilliant
festivities ; but it must be confessed that the hospi tality

444
tality of James was not thrown away upon this mo
narch, who was wealthy, and who appears to have
accommodated his royal brother-in-lawwith the loan,
or gifty of very considerable sums of money, which
no scruples of pride or delicacy restrained his Bri
tannic majesty from accepting. James, in fact, was
in no situation to listen to either, where pecuniary
assistance was concerned. His embarrassments aug
mented daily, and, after revolving various projects,
it was by a benevolence that he determined to sup
ply the place of a parliamentary grant ; for which
method of illegal exaction he had the example of
one or two of the most arbitrary of his predecessors.
The sheriffs of the counties were ordered to de
mand of all persons of substance within their re^
spective limits, a free gift proportioned to the ne
cessities of the king ; and they were at the same
time instructed carefully to return to the privy-coun
cil the names of such as should refuse to contribute,
who were thus marked out for the perpetual hosti
lity of the court. But the rising spirit of resistance
to arbitrary power impeded in a great degree the
success of this attempt. James gained by it little
more, it is said, than 50,000/., and, in return, he sub
mitted to lose for ever the confidence and the af
fections of the great body of the English nation.
END OF THE FIRST VOLUME.

R. and A. Taylor, Printers,
Shoe-lane, London.

YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

3 9002 01420 3187