beyond my apprehension I must again professe that having read many of his Letters for they are commonly sent to my Lord of Leicester and Burleigh out of France containing many fine passages and secrets yet if I might have been beholding to his Cyphers whereof they are full they would have told pretty tales of the times but I must now close up and rank him amongst the Togati yet chief of those that layed the foundation of the French and Dutch Warres which was another peece of his finenesse and of the times with one observation more that he was one of the great allayes of the Austerian embracements for both himself and Stafford that preceded him might well have been compared to the fiend in the Gospel that sowed his tares in the night so did they their feeds of division in the dark and it is a likely report that they father on him at his return that the Queen said unto him with some sensibility of the Sâ—anish designes on France Madam I beseech you be content not to fear the Spaniard hath a great appetite and an excellent digestion but I have fitted him with a Bone for this twenty yeers that your Majesty shall have no cause to doubt him provided that if the fire chance to slack which I have kindled you will be ruled be me and now and then cast in some English fewell which will revive the flame Willoughby MY Lord Willoughby was one of the Queens first sword men he was of the ancient extract of the Bartâ—â—s but more ennobled by his Mother who was Dutches of Suffolk He was a great Master of the Art Military and was sent Generall into France and commanded the second of five Armies that the Queen sent thither in ayd of the French I have heard it spoken that had he not slighted the Court but applyed himself to the Queen he might have enjoyed a plentifull portion of her grace and it was his saying and it did him no good that he was none of the Râ—plitia intimating that he could not creep on the ground and that the Court was not his Element for indeed as he was a great Souldier so was he of a sutable magnanimity and could not brook the obsequiousnesse and aâ—â—iduity of the Court and as he then was somewhat descending from youth happily he had an animam reâ—crendi and to make a safe retreat Sir Nicholas Bacon I Come to another of the Togati Sir Nicholas Bacon an arch peice of Wit and Wisedome he was a Gentleman and a man of Law and of great knowledge therein whereby together with his other parts of learning and dexterity he was promoted to be Keeper of the great Seal and being of Kin to the Treasurer Burleigh had also the help of his hand to bring him into the Queens favour for he was abundantly factious which took much with the Queen when it was suited with the season as he was well able to judge of his times he had a very quaint saying and he used it often to good purpose that he loved the jest well but not the losse of his friend he would say and that though he knew it Vansquisque siâ—â— fortune â—ober was a true and good principle yet the most in number were those that marred themselves but I will never forgive that man that looseth himself to be rid of his jest He was Father to that refined wit which since hath acted a disasterous part on the publike stage and of late sate in his Fathers room as Lord Chancellor those that lived in his age and from whence I have taken this little modell of him gives him a lively Character and they decipher him for another Soloâ— and the Synon of those times such a one as Aedipus was in dissolving of riddles doubtlesse he was as able an instrument and it was his commendation that his-head was the Mawle for it was a great one and therein he kept the Wedge that entred the knotty peeces that came to the Table and now I must again fall back to smooth and plain away to the rest that is behinde but not from the purpose There were about these times two Rivals in the Queens favour old Sir Francis Knowles Controuller of the House and Sir Henry Norris whom she called up at a Parliament to sit with the Peers in the higher House as Lord Norris of Râ—cott who had married the Daughter and Heir of the old Lord Williams of Tain a Noble person and to whom in the Queens adversity she had been committed to safe custody and from him had received more then ordinary observances Now such was the goodnesse of the Queens nature that she neither forgot the good turns received from the Lord Williams neither was she unmindefull of this Lord Norris whose Father in her Fathers time and in the businesse of her mother dyed in a noble cause and in the jnstification of her innocency Lord Norris MY Lord Norris had by this Lady an ample issue which the Queen highly respected for he had six sonnes and all Martiall brave men the first was William his eldest and Father to the late Earl of Bark-shire Sir Iohn Vulgarly called Generall Norris Sir Edward Sir Thomas Sir Henry and Maximilian men of an haughty courage and of great experience in the conduct of Millitary affairs and to speak in the Character of their merit they were such persons of such renown and worth as future times must out of duty owe them the debt of an honourable memory Knowles SIR Francis Knowles was somewhat of the Queens affinity and had likewise no incompetent issue for he had also William his Eldest and since Earl of Banbury Sir Thomas Sir Robert and Sir Francis if I be not a little mistaken in their names and Marshalling and there was also the Lady Lettice a Sister of these who was first Countesse of Essex and after of Leicester and these were also brave men in their times and places but they were of the Court and Carpet not led by the genious of the Camp Between these two Families there was as it falleth out amongst great Ones and Competitors for favour no great correspondency and there were some Seeds either of emulation or distrust cast between them which had they not been disjoyned in the residence of of their persons as it was the Fortune of their employments the one side attending the Court the other the Pavillion Surely they would have broken out into some kinde of hostility or at least they would have wrastled one in the other like Trees incircled with joy for there was a time when both these Fraternities being met at Court there passed a challenge between them at certain exercises the Queen and the old men being Spectators which ended in a flat quarrell amongst them all and I am perswaded though I ought not to judge that there were some reliques of this fewd that were long after the causes of the one Families almost utter extirpation and of the others improsperity
of the Common-wealth during the raign of Henry the seventh who being a noble extract was executed the first yeer of Henry the eighth but not thereby so extinct but that he left a plentifull estate and such a Sonne who as the vulgar speaks it could live without the teat for out of the Ashes of his Fathers infamy he rose to be a Duke and as high as subjection could permit or Soveraignty endure and though he could not finde out any appellation to assume the Crown in his own person yet he projected and very neerly effected it for his Sonne Guâ—lbert by intermarriage with the Lady 〈◊〉 Grey and so by that way to bring it about into his loynes Observations which though they lye behinde us and seem impertinent to the Text yet are they not much extravagant for they must lead and shew us how the after passages were brought about with the dependances and on the hinges of a collaterall workmanship and truely it may amaze a well settled judgement to look back into those times and to consider how this Duke could attain to such a pitch of greatnesse his Father dying in ignominy and at the Gallows his estate confiscate and that for peeling and polling by the clamor and cruciâ—â—ge of the people but when we better think upon it we finde that he was given up but as a Sacrifice to please the people not for any offence committed against the person of the King so that upon the matter he was a Martyr of the Prerogative and the King in honour could do no lesse then give back to his Son the priviledge of his bloud with the acquirings of his Fathers profession for he was a Lawyer and of the Kings Councell at Law before he came to be ex 〈…〉 where besides the lickings of his own fingers he got the King a Masse of riches and that not with the hazard but the losse of his fame and life for the Kings Fathers sake Certain it is that his sonne was left rich in purse and brain which are good foundations and full to ambition and it may be supposed he was on all occasions well heard of the King as a person of marke and compassion in his eye but I finde not that he did put up for advancement during Henry the eights time although a vast aspirer and provident storier It seemes he thought the Kings raign was much given to the falling sicknesse but espying his time fitting and the Soveraignty in the hands of a pupill Prince he thought he might as well then put up for it as the best for having then possession of bloud and a purse with a head-peece of a vast extent he soon got honour and no sooner there but he began to side it with the best even with the Protector and in conclusion got his and his Brothers heads still aspyring till he expired in the losse of his own so that posterity may by reading the Father and the Grandfather make judgement of the sonne for we shall finde that this Robert whose originall we have now traced the better to present him was inheritor of the genius and craft of his Father and Ambrose of the estate of whom hereafter we shall make some short mention We take him now as he was admitted into the Court and the Queens favour where he was not to seek to play his part well and dexteriously But his play was chiefly at the forgame not that he was a learner at the latter but he loved not the after wit for they report and I think not untruely that he was seldome behinde hand with his Gamesters and that they alwayes went away with the losse He was a very godly person and singular well featured and all his youth well favoured and of a sweet aspect but high foreheaded which as I should take it was of no discommendation but towards his latter end which with old men was but a middle age he grew high coloured and red faced so that the Queen in this had much of her Father for excepting some of her kindred and some few that had handsome wits in crooked bodies she alwayes took personage in the way of her election for the people hath it to this day in proverb King Harry loved a man Being thus in her grace she called to minde the sufferings of his Ancestors both in her Fathers and sisters raignes and restored his and his brothers bloud creating Ambrâ—s the elder Earl of Warwick and himself Earl of Leicester c. And he was ex rimitiâ—s or of her first choice for he rested not there but long enjoyed her favour and therewith much what he listed till time and emulation the companions of great ones had resolved on his period and to cover him at his setting in a cloud at Cornebury not by so violent a death and by the fatall sentence of judicature as that of his Fathers and Grandfathers was but as it is suggested by that poyson which he had prepared for others wherein they report him a rare Artist I am not bound to give credit to all vulgar relations or to the libells of the times which are commonly forced and falsified suitable to the moods and humours of men in passion and discontent but that which leads me to think him no good man is amongst others of known truth that of my Lord of Essex death in Ireland and the marriage of his Lady yet living which I forbear to presse in regard that he is long since dead and others living whom it may concern To take him in the observations of his Letters and Writings which should best set him off for such as fell into my hands I never yet saw a style or phrase more seeming religious and fuller of the strains of devotion and were they not sincere I doubt much of his well being and I may fear he was too well seen in the Aphorismes and principles of Nicholas the Florentine and in the reaches of Caesar Borgia and hitherto I have onely touched him in his Courtship I conclude him in his Lance he was sent Governour by the Queen to the united States of Holland where we reade not of his wonders for they say that he had more of Mercury then Mars and that his device might have been without prejudice to the great Caesar Veni vidi redii Sussex HIs Corrivall before mentioned was Thomas Radcliff Earl of Sussex who in his constellation was his direct opposite for he was indeed one of the Queens Martialists and did very good service in Ireland at her first accession till she recalled him to the Court where she made him Lord Chamberlaine but he played not his game with that cunning and dexterity as Leiceste did who was much the more faceate Courtier though Sussex was thought much the honester man and farre the better souldier but he lay too open on his guard He was a goodly Gentleman and of a brave Noble nature true and constant to his friends and servants he was also of
for it was a known truth that so long as my Lord of Leicester lived who was the main Pillar of the one side as having married the Sister none of the other side took any deep rooting in the Court though otherwise they made their wayes to honour by their swords and that which is of more note considering my Lord of Leicesters use of men of Armes being shortly after sent Governour to the revolted States and no Souldier himself is that he made no more accompt of Sir Iohn Norris a Souldier then deservedly famoused and trained from a Page under the discipline of the great Captain of Christendome the â—dmirall Castillion and of command in the French and Dutch Warâ—es almost twenty yeers It is of further observation that my Lord of Essex after Leicesters decease though initated to Armes and honoured by the Generall in the Portugâ—ll expedition whether out of instigation as it hath been thought or out of ambition and jealousie to be ecclipsed and over shadowed by the fame and splendor of this great Commander loved him not in sincerity Moreover certain it is he not onely crusht and upon all occasions queld the growth of this brave man and his famous Brethren but therewith drew on his own fatall end by undertaking the Irish Action in a time when he left the Court empty of friends and full fraught with his profest enemies but I forbear to extend my self in any further relation upon this Subject as having left some notes of truth in these two noble Families which I would present and therewith toucht somewhat which I would not if the equity of the Narration would have admitted an inteâ—mission Sir Iohn Perrot SIR Iohn Perrot was a goodly Gentleman and of the sword and as he was of a very ancient descent as an heir to many abstracts of gentry especially from Guy de Bryan of Lawhern so was he of a vast estate and came not to the Court for want and to these adjuncts he had the endowments of courage and height of spirit had it lighted on the allay of temper and discretion the defect whereof with a native freedome and boldnesse of speech drew him on to a clouded setting and laid him open to the spleen and advantage of his enemies amongst whom Sir Christopher Hatton was profest He was yet a wise man and a brave Courtier but rough and participating more of active then sedentary motions as being in his constellation destinated for Armes There is a quere of some denotations how he came to receive his foyl and that in the Catastrophe for he was strengthned with honourable allyances and the privy friendships of the Court My Lord of Leicester and Burleigh both his contemporaries and familiars But that there might be as the Adage hath it falsity in friendship and we may rest satisfied that there is no dispute against fate They quote him for a person that loved too stand to much alone and on his own legs of too often recesses and discontinuance from the Queens presence a fault which is incompetible with the wayes of Court and favour He was sent Lord Deputy into Ireland as it was thought for a kinde of haughtinesse of spirit and repugnancy in Councels or as others have thought the fittest person then to bridle the insolency of the Irish and probable it is that both these considering the sway that he would have at the board and head in the Queens concurred and did a little conspire his remove and his ruine But into Ireland he went where he did the Queen very great and many services if the surplusage of the measure did not abate the value of the merit as after times found that to be no Paradox for to save the Queens purse which both her self and my Lord Treasurer Burleigh ever took for good services he imposed on the Irish the charge of bearing their own armes which both gave them the possession and taught them the use of weapons which proved in the end a most fatall work both in the profusion of bloud and treasure But at his return and on some accompt sent home before touching the state of the Kingdome the assiduous testimonies of her grace towards him till by his retreat to his Castle at Caâ—y where he was then building and out of desire to be in command at home as he had been abroad together with the hatred and practise of Hatton then in high favour whom not long before he had too bitterly tanted for his dancing he was accused of high Treason and for high words and a forged letter condemned though the Queen on the news of his condemnation swore by her wonted oath that they were all knaves and they deliver with assurance that on his return to the Tower after his Tryall he said in oaths and in fury to the Lieuteuant Sir Owen Hopâ—on what will the Queen suffer her Brother to be offered up as a Sacrifice to the envy of my frisking adversaries which being made known to the Queen and the warrant for his execution tendered and somewhat enforced she refused to signe it and swore he should not dye for he was an honest and a faithfull man and surely though not altogether to set up our rest and faith upon tradition and upon old reports as that Sir Thomas Perrot his Father was a Gentleman of the privy Chamber to Henry the eigth and in the Court married to a Lady of great honour of the Kings familiarity which are presumptions of some implication But if we go a little further and compare his Picture his qualities gesture and voyce with that of the Kings which memory retains yet amongst us they will plead strongly that he was a subreptious childe of the bloud Royall Certain it is that he lived not long in the Tower and that after his decease Sir Thomas Perrot his sonne then of no mean esteem with the Queen having before married my Lord of Essex Sister since Countesse of Northumberland had restitution of all his Lands though after his decease also which immediately followed the Crown resumed his estate and took advantage of the former attainder And to say the truth the Priests forged letter was at his arraignment thought but as a fiction of envy and was soone after exploded by the Priests own confession but that which most exasperated the Queen and gave advantage to his enemies was as Sir Walter Rawleigh takes into his observation words of disdain for the Queen by sharp and reprehensive Letters had nettled him and shortly after sending others of approbation commending his service and intimating an invasion from Spain which he no sooner perused but he said publiquely in the great Chamber at Dublin Lo now she is ready to pisse her self for fear of the Spaniard I am again one of her white Boys Words which are subject to a various construction and tended to some disreputation of his Soveraign and such as may serve for instruction to persons in place of honour and command to beware of
and dyed a constant Courtier of the Ladies Essex MY Lord of Essex as Sir Henry Wotton a Gentleman of great parts and partly of his times and retinue observes had his introduction by my Lord of Leicester who had married his mother a tye of affinity which besides a more urgent obligation might have invited his care to advance him his fortune being then and through his Fathers infelicity grown low but that the sonne of a Lord Ferrers of Charley Viscount Hartford and Earl of Essex who was of the ancient Nobility and formerly in the Queens good grace could not have a room in her favour without the assistance of Leicester was beyond the rule of her nature which as I have elsewhere taken into observation was ever inclineable to favour the nobility sure it is that he no sooner appeared in Court but he took with the Queen and Courtiers and I beleeve they all could not choose but look thorough the Sacrifice of the Father on his living sonne whose Image by the remembrance of former passages was a fresh like the bleeding of men murdered represented to the Court and offered up as a Subject of compassion to all the Kingdome There was in this young Lord together with a most goodly person a kinde of urbanity or innate curtesie which both wonne the Queen and too much took upon the people to gaze upon the new adopted sonne of her favour and as I go along it were not amisse to take into observation too notable quotations the first was a violent indulgency of the Queen which incident to old age where it encounters with a pleasing and sutable object towards this Lord all which argued a none perpetuity the second was a fault in the object of her grace my Lord himself who drew in too fast like a childe sucking on an over uberous Nurse and had there been a more decent decorum observed in both or either of those without doubt the unity of their affections had been more permanent and not so in and out as they were like an instrument ill tuned and lapsing to discord The greater errour of the two though unwillingly I am constrained to impose on my Lord of Essex or rather on his youth and none of the least of his blame on those that stood Sentinels about him who might have advised him better but that like men intoxicated with hopes they likewise had suckt in with the most and of their Lords receipt and so like Caesars would have all or none a rule quite contrary to nature and the most indulgent parents who though they may expresse more affection to one in the abundance of bequests yet cannot forget some Legacies just distributives and dividents to others of their begetting and how hatefull partiallity proves every dayes experience tells us out of which common consideration might have framed to their hands a maxime of more discretion for the conduct and management of their now graced Lord and Master But to omit that of infusion and to do right to truth my Lord of Essâ—x even of those that truly loved and honoured him was noted for too bold an ingrosser both of fame and favour and of this without offence to the living or treading on the sacred urne of the dead I shall present a truth and a passage yet in memory My Lord Mouâ—â—â—â—y who was another childe of her favour being newly come to Court and then but Sir Charles â—luns for my Lord William his Elder Brother was then living had the good fortune one day to runne very well a Tilt and the Queen therewith was so well pleased that she sent him in token of her favour a Queen at Chesse of gold richly ennameled which his servants had the next day fastned on his Arme with a Crymson ribband which my Lord of Essex as he passed through the Privy Chamber espying with his cloak cast under his Arme the better to commend it to the view enquired what it was and for what cause there fixed Sir Foulk Grevill told him that it was the Queens favour which the day before and after the Tilting she had sent him whereat my Lord of Essex in a kinde of emulation and as though he would have limited her favour said now I perceive every fool must have a favour This bitter and publikely affront came to Sir Charles Bluâ—ts eare who sent him a challenge which was accepted by my Lord and they met neer Marrybone Park where my Lord was hurt in the thigh and disarmed the Queen missing the men was very curious to learn the truth and when at last it was whispered out she swore by Gods death it was fit that some one or other should take him down and teach him better manners otherwise there would be no rule with him and here I note the innition of my Lords friendship with Mountâ—oy which the Queen her self did then conjure Now for fame we need not go farre for my Lord of Essex having borne a grudge to Generall Norris who had unwittingly offered to undertake the action of Britain with fewer men then my Lord had before demanded on his return with victory and a glorious report of his valour he was then thought the onely man for the Irish Warre wherein my Lord of Essex so wrought by despising the number and quality of Rebels that Norris was sent over with a scanted force joyned with the reliques of the veterane Troops of Britain of set purpose as it fell out â—o ruine Norris and the Lord Buâ—rows by my Lords procurement sent â—his heels and to command in chief and to confine Norris onely to his Government at Munser which brake the great heart of the Generall to see himself undervalued and undermined by my Lord and Burrows which was as the Proverb speaks it Imberbes docere senes My Lord Burrows in the beginning of his persecution dyed whereupon the Queen was fully bent to have sent over Mountioy which my Lord of Essex utterly disliked and opposed vvith many reasons and by arguments of contempt against Mountioy his then professed friend and familiar so predominant vvere his vvords to reap the honour of closing up that Warre and all other Novv the vvay being opened and plained by his ovvn Workmanship and so handled that none durst appear to stand for the place at last vvith much ado he obtained his ovvn ends and vvithall his fatall destruction leaving the Queen and the Court vvhere he stood firm and impregnable in her grace to men that long had sought and vvatcht their times to give him the trip and could never finde any opportunity but this of his absence and of his ovvn creation and these are the true observations of his Appetite and inclinations vvhich vvere not of any true proportion but carried and transported vvith an over desire and thiâ—stines after fame and that deceitfull fame of popularity and to help on his Catastrophe I observe likevvise tvvo sorts of people that had a hand in his fall the first vvas the
Souldiery vvhich all flockt unto him as foretelling a mortality and are commonly of blunt and too rough Counsells and many times dissonant from the time of the Court and the State the other sort vvere of his family his servants and his ovvn creatures such as vvere bound by the rules of safety and obligations of fidelity to have looked better to the steering of that Boat wherein they themselves were carried and not have suffered it to float and runne on ground with those empty Sailes of Fame and Tumor of popular applause me thinks one honest man or other that had but the office of brushing his cloaths might have whispered in his ear my Lord look to it this multitude that followes you will either devoure you or undo you strive not to rule and over rule all for it will cost hot water and it will procure envy and if needs your genius must have it so let the Court and the Queens presence be your station but as I have said they had suckt too much of their Lords milk and insteed of withdrawing they blew the Coals of his ambition and infused into him too much of the Spirit of glory yea and mixed the goodnesse of his nature with a touch of revenge which is ever accompanied with a destiny of the same fate and of this number there were some of insufferable natures about him that towar is his last gave desperate advice such as his integrity abhorred and his fidelity forbad amongst whom Sir Henry â—ottâ—n notes without injury his Secretary Cuffe a vileman and of a perverse nature I could also name others that when he was in the right course of recovery and settling to moderation would not suffer a recesse in him but stirred up the dregs of those rude humors which by time and his affliction out of his own judgement he sought to repose or to give them all a vomit and thus I conclude this noble Lord as a mixture between prosperity and adversity once the childe of his great Mistris favour but the sonne of Bellona Buckhurst MY Lord of Buckhurst was of the noble House of the Sackvills and of the Queens consanguinity his Father was Sir Richard Sackvill or as the people then called him Fill-sack by reason of his great wealth and the vast Patrimony which he left to this his sonne whereof he spent in his youth the best part untill the Queen by her frequent admonitions diverted the torrent of his profusion he was a very fine Gentleman of person and indowments both of art and nature both without measure magnificient till on the turn of his humour and the allay that his yeers and good Councells had wrought upon those immoderate courses of his youth and that height of spirit inherent to his House and then did the Queen as a most juditious and indulgent Prince when she saw the man grow stayed and settled give him her assistance and advanced him to the Treasureship where he made amends to his house for his mispent time both in the increasment of estate and honour which the Queen conferred on him together with the opportunity to remake himself and thereby to shew that this was a childe that should have a share in her grace and a taste of her bounty They much commend his elocution but more the excellency of his pen for he was a Scholler and a person of a quick dispatch faculties that yet runne in the bloud and they say of him that his Secretaries did little for him by the way of inditement wherein they could seldome please him he was so facet and choice in his phrase and style and for his dispatches and the content he gave to Suitors he had a decorum seldome since put in practise for he had of his attendants that took into rowl the names of all Suitors with the date of their first adresses and these in their order had hearing so that a fresh man could not leap over his head that was of a more ancient edition except in the urgent affaires of State I finde not that he was any wayes insnared in the factions of the Court which were all his times strong and in every mans note the Howards and the â—â—cills of the one part my Lord of Essex c on the other part for he held the Staff of the Treasury fast in his hand which once in the yeer made then all beholding to him and the truth is as he was a wise man and a stout he had no reason to be a partaker for he stood sure in bloud and in grace and was wholly intentive to the Queens service and such were his abilities that she received assiduous proofes of his sufficiency and it hath been thought that she might have more cunning instruments but none of a more strong judgement and confidence in his wayes which are symptomes of magnanimity and fidelity whereunto methinks this Motto hath some kinde of reference aut nunq iam tentes aut perfice As though he would have charactered in a word the Genius of his House or exprest somewhat of an higher inclination then lay within his compasse That he was a Courtier is apparent for he stood alwayes in her eye and favour Lord Mountjoy MY Lord Mountioy was of the ancient Nobility but utterly deceived in the support thereof Patrimony through his Grandfathers excesse in the action of Bullen his Fathers vanity in the search of the Philosophers stone and his Brothers untimely prodigalities all which seemed by a joynt conspiracy to ruine the house and altogether to annihilate it as he came from Oxford he took tho Inner-Temple in his way to Court whither no sooner came but without asking he had a pretty strange kinde of admission which I have heard from a discreet man of his own and much more of the secrets of those times he was then much about twenty yeers of age of a Brown-hair a sweet face a most neat Composure and tall in his person the Queen was then at White-hall and at dinner whither he came to see the fashion of the Court the Queen had soon found him out and with a kinde of an affected frown asked the Lady Carâ—er what he was she answered she knew him not insomuch as an inquiry was made from one to another who he might be till at length it was told the Queen he was Brother to the Lord William Mountioy this inquisition with the eye of Majesty fixed upon him as she was wont to do and to dant men she knew not stirred the bloud of this young Gentleman insomuch as his colour came and went which the Queen observing called him unto her and gave him her hand to kisse incouraging him with gratious words and new looks and so diverting her speech to the Lords and Ladies She said that she no sooner observed him but that she knew there was in him some noble Bloud with some other expressions of pitty towards his House and then again demanding his name She said fail you not
to come to the Court and I will be think my self how to do you good and this was his inlet and the beginnings of his grace where it fals into confideration that though he wanted not wit and courage for he had very fine atractions and being a good peece of a Scholler yet were they accompanied with the retractives of bashfulness and a naturall modesty which as the toan of his house the ebbe of his fortune then stood might have hindred his progression had they not been reinforced by the infusion of Soveraign favour and the Queens gratious invitation And that it may appear how low he was and how much that heretique necessity will work in the dejection of good spirits I can deliver it with assurance that his exhibition was very scant untill his Brother dyed which was shortly after his admission to the Court and then was it no more then a thousand Marks â—er annum wherewith he lived plentifully in a fine way and garb and without any great sustentation during all her times and as there was in his nature a kinde of backwardnesse which did not befriend him nor suite with the motion of the Court so there was in him an incâ—ination to Armes with a humour of travelling and gadding abroad which had not some wise men about him laboured to remove and the Queen her self laid in her commands he would out of his naturall propension have marred his own market for as he was grown by reading whereunto he was much adicted to the theory of a Souldier so was he strongly invicted by his genius to the acquaintance of the practique of the Warre which were the causes of his excursions for he had a Company in the Low-Countries from whence he came over with a Noble acceptance of the Queen but somewhat restlesse in honourable thoughts he exposed himself again and again and would presse the Queen with the pretences of visiting his Company so often that at length he had a flat deniall and yet he stole over with Sir Iohn Norris into the action of Britain which was then a hot and active Warre whom he would alwayes call his Father honouring him above all men and ever bewayling his end so contrary he was in his esteem and valuation of this great Commander to that of his friend my Lord of Essex till at last the Queen began to take his decessions for contempts and confined his residence to the Court and her own presence and upon my Lord of Essex fall so confident she was in her own Princely judgement and opinion she had conceived of his worth and conduct that she vvould have this noble Gentleman and none other to finish and bring the Irish Warre to a propitious end for it vvas a propheticall speech of her ovvn that it vvould be his fortune and his honour to cut the thred of that fatall rebellion and to bring her in peace to the grave vvhere she vvas not deceived for he atchieved it but vvith much pains and carefulnesse and not vvithout the fears and many jealousies of the Court and times vvherevvith the Queens age and the malignity of her setting times vvere repleat and so I come to his dear friend in Court Master Secretary Cecill vvhom in his long absence from Court he adored as his Saint and Courted for his onely Mecenas both before and after his departure from Court and during all the times of his command in Ireland vvell knovving that it lay in his povver and by a vvord of his mouth to make or marre him Cecill SIR Robert Cecill since Earl of Salisbury vvas the sonne of the Lord Burleigh and in the inheritor of his vvisedome and by degrees Successor of his places and favours though not of his Lands for he had Sir Thomas Cecill his elder brother since created Earl of Exeteâ— he vvas first Secretary of State then Master of the Wards and in the last of her raign came to be Lord Treasurer all vvhich vvere the steps of his Fathers greatnesse and of the honour he left to his House For his person he vvas not much beholding to nature though somevvhat for his face vvhich vvas the best part of his outside but for his inside it may be said and vvithout soloecisme that he vvas his Fathers ovvn sonne and a pregnant proficient in all discipline of State He vvas a Courtier from his Cradle vvhich might have made him betimes yet at the age of tvventy and upvvards he vvas much short of his after proof but exposed and by change of climate he soon made shovv vvhat he vvas and vvould be he lived in those times vvherein the Queen had most need and use of men of vvaight and amongst able ones this vvas a chief as having his sufficiency from his instructions that begat him the tutorship of the times and Court which were then the Academies of Art and cunning for such was the Queens condition from the tenth or twelfth of her raigne that she had the happinesse to stand up whereof there is a former intimation though invironed with more enemies and assaulted with more dangerous practises then any Prince of her times and of many ages before neither must we in this her preservation attribute to much to humane pollices for that God in his omnipotent providence had not onely ordained those secundary means as instruments of the work but by an evident manifestation that the same worke which she acted was a well pleasing service of his owne out of a peculiar care had decreed the protection of the work-Mistris and thereunto added his abundant blessing upon all and whatsoever she undertook which is an observation of satisfaction to my self that she was in the right though to others now breathing under the same form and frame of her Government it may not seem an animadversion of any worth but I leave them to the perill of their own folly And so again to this great Master of State and the staffe of the Queens declinning age who though his little crooked person could not promise any great supportation yet it carryed thereon a head and a headpeece of a vast content and therein it seems nature was so diligent to compleat one and the best part about him as that to the perfection of his memory and intellectualls she took care also of his sences and to put him in 〈◊〉 oculos or to pleasure him the more borrowed of Argns so to give unto him a prospective sight and for the rest of his sensitive vertues his predecessor Walsingham had left him a receipt to smell out what was done in the conclave and his good old Father was so well seen in the Mathematickes as that he could tell you throughout all Spain every part every Ship with their burthens whither bound with preparation what impediments for diversion of enterprises Councells and resolutions and that we may see as in a little Map how docible this little man was I will present a taste of his abilities My Lord of