the Common-wealth during the reign of Henry the seventh who being of a Noble extract was Executed the first year of Henry the eighth but not thereby so Extinct but that he left a plentiful Estate and such a Son who as the vulgar speaks it could live without the Seat for out of the ashes of his Father's Infamy he rose to be a Duke and as High as subjection could Permit or Soveraignty endure and though he could not find out any Appellation to assume the Crown in his own Person yet he projected and very nearly Effected it for his Son Gilbert by Inter-marriage with the Lady Jane Gray and so by that way to bring it about into his loyns Observations which though they lie behind 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 collateral workmanship and truly it may amaze a well-setled judgment to look back into those times and to consider how this Duke could attain to such a pitch of Greatness his Father dying in Ignominy and at the Gallows his Estate confiscate and that for Peeling and Polling by the Clamour and Crucifige of the People but when we better think upon it we find 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 less than give back to his Son the Privileges of his blood with the acquirings of his Father's profession for he was a Lawyer and of the King's Counsel at Law before he came to be ex interioribus consiliis where besides the licking of his own fingers he got the King a mass of Riches and that not with the hazard but the loss of his fame and life for the King's Father's sake Certain it is that his Son 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 mark and compassion in his eye but I find not that he did put up for Advancement during Henry the Eighth's time although a vast Aspirer and Provident storer It seems he thought the King's reign was given to the falling sickness but espying his time fitting and the Soveraignty in the hands of a Pupil Prince he thought he might as well then put-up for it as the best for having then possession of blood and a purse with a head-piece 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 Brother's heads still aspiring till he Expired in the loss of his own so that Posterity may by Reading the Father and Grandfather make judgment of the Son for we shall find that this Robert whose original 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 Queen's favour where he was not to seek to play his part well and dexterously But his play was chiefly at the fore game not that he was a learner at the latter but he loved not the after-wit for they report and I think not untruly that he was seldom behind-hand with his Gamesters and that they always went away with the loss He was a very Goodly 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 handsom wits in crooked bodies she always 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 mind the sufferings of his Ancestors both in her Fathers and Sisters Reigns and restored his and his brothers blood creating Ambrose the elder Earl of Warwick and himself Earl of Leicester c. And he was ex primitiis 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 Cornbury not by so violent a death and by the fatal Sentence of Judicature as that of his Fathers and Grandfathers was but as it is suggested by that Porson which he had prepared for others wherein they report him a rare Artist I am not bound to give credâ—t to all vulgar Relations or to the Libels 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 press 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 streams 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 Aphorisms and Principles of Nicholas the Florentine and in the Reaches of Caesar Borgia Hitherto I have 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 read not of his wonders for they say that he had more of Mercury than of Mars and that his device might have been without prejudice to the Great Caesar Veni vidi redii Sussex HIs Corrival before mentioned was Thomas Radcliffe Earl of Sussex who in his Constellation was his Direct Opposite for he was indeed one of the Queen's Martialists and did very good service in Ireland at her first Accession till she Recalled him to the Court where she made him Lord Chamberlain but he Played not his Game with that Cunning and Dexterity as Leicester did who was much the more Facete Courtier though Sussex was thought much the Honester Man and far the Better Souldier but he lay too open on his Guard He was a goodly Gentleman and of a brave Noble nature True Constant to his Friends and Servants He was also of a very Noble and Ancient Lineage
imbrace them they may make these very things a Subject of Calumny against us and accuse us to the Prince of some Wicked Intention There was a certain Magician called Santabarinus very much beloved by Basilius Emperor of Constantinople but as much hated by Leo the Emperor's Son who this Magician desiring to Overthrow did so besiege him with Counterfeited Duties and Feigned Respects that at last winning upon him he grew into credit with the young Prince Then having got an Authority and Interest in him he takes his time and warns Leo with great Art and Soâ—iâ—itude That whensoever he went a Hunting with his Father he should carry a Poignard under his Garments to Defend himself withal He obeying this Advice the Magician goes to his Father Informing him That his Son intended to murther him and for a Testimony told him That he always carried a Dagger hidden about him waiting for an Occasion of Performing it In short the business came to that pass the young Prince was Searched and the Poignard found whereupon he was cast into Prison and though he were protected by the joynt intercession of all the Coâ—rt yet he hardly Escaped with his Life Whilst Valentinian was Emperor Aetius accused Earl Boniface who was very dear unto Valentinian and Governor of Africa unto Placidia the Emperors Mother of Treachery towards the Prince and of a Design he had of Subjecting Africk to himself perswading her withal That he should be Recalled quickly At the same time he warns Boniface by his Letters That he was Accused at Court and for that reason Recalled wherefore he should take heed how he Returned if he loved his own Safety Boniface giving credit unto him obeyed him so far That resolving to oppose those that would come to reduce him he called in Gontarus King of Valladolid and Gensericus his Son then Reigning in Spain unto his aid who upon this occasion possessed themselves of Mauritania The Deceipt being afterwards found out to the end the Truth might appear more plainly they were permitted the Tryal of a Combat wherein Aetius being vanquished was Banished the Court. Not unlike unto this was the Craft of Samona beloved by Leo Son to the Emperor Basilius by reason of his Detection of the Treason of Basilius Kinsman to the Empress Zoa who Resolving to Ruine Andronicus that was General against the Saracens Caused him to be Warned by a Friend that he should take heed of Hymerius who came to Deprive him of his Eyes which was in those days a Punishment Vsual towards Great Persons whose power was Overgrown and become Formidable Andronicus believing this to be true which was Feigned by Samona withdraws himself from Hymerius unto a place of strength which he seized upon This fact of his Samona did not omit to Exaggerate unto the Emperor insomuch that by his Procurement an Army was sent against him which forced Andronicus driven to Despair to Quit the limits of the Empire and Flie unto the Saracens A little before we mentioned Arhetio and it will be worth observing how he added Deceit upon Deceit When he observed the Emperor Angry with Sylvanus and Feared that he should come to Rome to Clear himself of the Objected Crimes he gives the Emperor his Letters wherein he called Sylvanus to his Presence to an Instrument of his own called Apodenius who arriving in France suppressed the Letters as he was directed and tells Sylvanus That Nothing but Destruction Hung over him whereby Sylvanus Running into Rebellion as the onely Means of his Preservation made good Arbetio his Calumnies But we have too long been silent concerning Sejanus to whom being Expert in all these Tricks this Artifice we now treat of was very Vsual That he might render Agrippina suspected to Tiberius He Inveigled her Friends to Puff up her Haughty Spirit and her own Kindred were Inticed to Feed the Swelling Hopes of Agrippina with Crooked and Perverse Discourses whilst in the interim he causes Claudia Pulchra Agrippina's Cousin-Germain to be Accused by Domitius Afer which Injury this Fierce and Passionate Woman Complaining of Heavily to Tiberius did thereby Exceedingly Encrease the Suspicions of this jealous Emperor Yet Sejanus not content with this but seeking the Vâ—ter Ruine of this Vnwary and Sorrowful Lady sent those unto her who under a Shadow of Friendship should warn her That Tiberius meant to Poyson her and that she should Beware of his Feasts whereupon she over Credulous Refused to take an Apple out of Tiberius his hand at Table which grievously Incensed Caesar against her By the same Sejanus now when Soldiers were set to watch over Agrippina and her Children were Men Suborned to Advise her to Fly to the German Army or to run to the Image of Augustus for Sanctuary and there to Invoke the help of the Senate and the People With the same Vgly Arts whereby he endeavoured to supplant this Lady by making her suspected of Tiberius he Utterly Overthrew her Friend Titius Sabinus which thing as it is described by Tacitus you may read here in his own words because the Circumstances are very Notable Annal 4. Junius Silanus and Silius Nerva being Consuls the year had a foul beginning for Titius Sabinus an honourable Gentleman of Rome was cast into Prison onely for his Friendship to Germanicus which was such That he never omitted any occasion of honouring or serving his Wife and Children Of all Germanicus his Followers being the onely Man which Visited them at their house and Accompanied them abroad wherefore as he was much praised by the Good so was he much maliced by the Bad Against him Latinius Latiani Porcius Cato Petilius Rufus and Marcus Opsius who had sometime been Consuls bent their Spight through a desire of the Consulship which they could not obtain but by Sejanus his means and Sejanus his liberty could not be purchased but by some notable piece of Villainy Wherefore they plotted amongst them That Latiani who was somewhat a-kin to Sabinus should lay the snare and that the rest being privately witnesses to what past they might begin their Accusation Hereupon Latiani began at first to cast Speeches out at Random and to Extol Sabinus his Constancy that he did not as others did Fawn in Prosperity and Shrink from a house in Adversity with other Honorable mention of Germanicus bewayling Agrippina's estate And seeing Sabinus as Mens Minds are soft and tender in Calamity to pour down Tears and complaints Latiani began more boldly to touch Sejanus's Cruelty Pride and Ambition not forbearing to reproach Tiberius These seeming dangerous Speeches and such as durst not be avouched made a strict friendship in shew between them So far that Sabinus often frequented Latiani's house and as unto his Faithful Friend uttered his Griefs unto him Those I mentioned before now began to devise with Latiani how these Speeches might be heard by them all For the place of Meeting must be in appearance private and if they should stand behind the door they did apprehend
Glory and content of Mind that will arise from thence will much recompence the trouble of it Since that if he carry himself wisely and accommodate himself to those things that he sees he cannot change nor overcome I dare say he will at last become acceptable to the worst of Princes and dearer than others that are of a worse repute who seldom manage the Prince's business with a due fidelity and care or at least not equal to that he might easily promise to himself from the hands of a vertuous and honest man And hither tends the Counsel of Sallust and Mecaenas whereby the first recommended to Julius Caesar and the latter to Augustus the choice and friendship of Good men Because Conscience and care of their Reputation restrains these more powerfully from dishonest things than the fear of punishment or the want of Power doth others But as I have said the vicious are always in Court in greater throngs who chiefly by two ways do Ingratiate themselves with the Prince first by Flattering and Fulfilling whatever he shall please to command and that by so much the more servilely by how much the more their hopes of gain are greater Next for that Princes are pleased to have those about them in comparison of whom themselves though bad God knows seem to be good Some there are that think also their lives more secure in the company of those that are most like unto themselves Dionysias the Tyrant being requested to expel out of his Court one who for his villainy was hated by all men answered No he would keep him lest otherwise he himself should become the most hateful person in the Court It is natural to those who find themselves obnoxious to any vice by comparing themselves to those that are worse to seek to purchase to themselves some shew of Probity And it hath been an Old trick of Princes on purpose to choose unlikely Successors to the end their own acts and vertues might appear better and more illustrious For Tacitus is of opinion that for no other reason did Augustus adopt Tiberius whose arrogance and cruelty he knew full well nor Tiberius choose Caligula It is principally necessary that a good man be very Sober and Circumspect in his discourse for Princes seldom or never love an unwary and careless liberty in any kind of men how vertuous soever they be Neither did Plato's freedom with Dionysius succeed well for therefore was he delivered up to a needy Mariner and sent to be sold in the Isle of Creet whence being redeemed by certain Philosophers he was admonished either to abstain wholly from the conversation of Princes or to speak plausible things With the like advices did Aristotle furnish his Cozen Callisthenes then going to attend upon Alexander to wit That he should very seldom speak and then never but pleasing things to him upon whose Tongues-end lay the disposal of his life CHAP. VII Whom When and How we ought to Flatter the Nature of a free and tolerable Flattery and the necessity of it in Court THough it be Inconsistent with the strictest rules of Morality and Vertue yet of Necessity if you live in Court you must sometimes so Flatter the Prince as may gain him unto you But all manner of Flattery is not Tolerable a Base and Servile one was displeasing even to Tiberius himself of whom it is written by Tacitus Annal. 3. that going out of the Senate he was once heard to say of those Flattering Senators in Greek O Men born to slavery There are circumstances wherein Flattery used is as prejudicial as when it is wholly omitted For it happens often that be whom we Flatter too grosly suspects deceipt It is requisite still that Flattery have something of truth and some show of liberty mixed with it it is the opinion of Aeschines and Plutarch whereby we may perswade not onely the Prince that we speak heartily and as we think but others also and so preserve our Credit Croesus who whilest he was a King himself had learnt well the humor of Kings and what would either please or displease them When upon a time Cambyses King of the Persians demanded of those that were about him What they thought of him in Comparison of his Father Cyrus They all affirmed That he was greater than Cyrus as who unto his Fathers Kingdoms had added Aegypt and the dominion of the Sea When Croesus then a Captive came to speak he affirmed That he was much inferiour to his Father by reason that he had as yet begotten none equal to himself This answer had some taste of freedom and therefore was more pleasing to Cambyses's-vanity than all the rest had said That Flattery is very notable of Valerius Messalla recorded by Tacitus Annal. 1. Messala Valerius added That it was convenient the Oath of Allegiance should every year be renewed in Tiberius's name who being demanded by Tiberius whether he had any commandment from him to give that advice he answered That he spoke it of his own accord and that in what concern'd the Common-wealth he would use no man's advice but his own whatever the offence or danger were Which was a wonderful unpractised kind of Flattery Like unto this is that which the same Author relates of Ateius Capito Annal. 3. Lucius Ennius a Gentleman of Rome was accused of Treason for melting the Image of the Prince and making it into Plate Caesar commanded he should not be prosecuted for it Ateius Capito openly complained with a seeming liberty that the power of determining in such a case ought not to be taken from the Senate nor so great a Crime pass unpunished and that he was slow in resenting his own least he should also punish an injury done to the Common-wealth It were easie to bring more examples of this kind but these are sufficient to instruct those upon whom there is imposed a necessity of Flattering that they may take heed lest their Flattery bring upon themselves or others any Private or Publick damage it is sufficient that it be such as may sometimes satisfie the Prince's vanity CHAP. VIII How to Manage the Counsels of a Prince OUr Courtier ought to beware how he engages himself though called in the Counsel of a Proud and Violent Prince for such as those do ask Counsel in no other sort than as Xerxes did when he went to invade Greece He called together the Princes of Asia as it were to deliberate with them about the Conduct of the War but they being come before him he said Lest I should seem without your advice to act all things according to my own will I have called you my Lords to Counsel yet I would have you know that I expect here from you obedient minds and not troublesome debates Cambyses the Predecessor of Xerxes being about to Marry his Sister demanded of his Counsellors whether any Law of the Persians prohibited such a Marriage They perceiving the King did not ask this question so much to resolve
or never admit those men to their Presence or Conversation but when they are to treat of Weighty Business and do not leave the Disposal of places to them for fear that by the multitude of Creatures and Dependants their Power should Swell to that height that it cannot be Abated if they Transgress Wary Princes are wont to keep their Ministers in awe and make them believe That they can in a Moment cast them from all their Authority and divest them of all that Power that with the Services and Labors of many years they have been Acquiring towards Such persons as these whose power is thus circumscribed you will have a Hard Task how to Demean your self Their Friendship can Avail you little nay perhaps if the Prince observe it it will do you Hurt Again if they Stand in your Light you will hardly come to the Management of Affairs and yet you must of necessity run the hazard of Clashing oftentimes with them Wherefore a most circumspect Gentleness of Nature will here be needful for you must render them all the Duties of Respect and as occasion presents it self yet warily express the Inward Devotion of your mind unto them But in the mean while without openly Seeking to or Relying upon the Patronage of any other you must your self work out your way unto the Prince's person and hïs Favour There remains now unspoke of onely the last kind of Noblemen who are in short The Favorites as being both Highly in the Prince's Favor and Great in the Administration of Affairs Which kind of Men are to be honoured with a Respect almost Equal to the Prince himself Their Wills and Inclinations are to be Pryed into as being more necessary to be Known and Executed than the Prince's own Here you see what you may expect or hope for from the Authority and Patronage of the Peers and Grandees of the Court and how you may use each of them in his several Degree and Kind Truly we must carefully take heed that we ask nothing of either the Prince or any of all these that is Impossible or cannot be Effected without great Absurdity For nothing is more troublesome to Humane Nature than not to be Able to fulfil the Requests of those we love and surely the Friendliest and Gentlest Dispositions that are will be offended with an Vncivil and Vnreasonable Suit Know moreover that he from whom you have received such a Repulse is not pleased with Seeing you again for fear lest with the Impudence of a like Request you should make him Ashamed and also lest he should seem to want Authority or Means to Perform what you desire But you must note by the way that Access unto the Great Ones is not suddenly obtained we must by degrees also gain That and to this end All that have any Interest in Them whether they be Strangers or Domesticks and the Dependants of these according to their usefulness are to be won unto you CHAP. XVI The Meaner sort of Courtiers How they are to be Handled as also such as are Enemies to us for the sake of others to whom we Relate THere are yet in Courts below these Great Ones others of a Lower stage some of which are our Betters others our Equals and some perhaps our Inferiours all which since we are to make use of we will divide into Two Kinds The first of those that may help and Advantage us the Second of those that are likely or able to Hurt us The Interest and Power of both of them is diligently to be weighed to the end we may gather what Help or Impediment we are to expect from them We must consider also their Friendships and Alliances to the end that if necessity press us to seek their Votes for the promotion of our Designs if they Themselves are through Envy or any such respect backward or Averse unto us we may work upon them by their Friends and Dependants But we must be sure to take heed that we do not then begin to seek their Friendship when we have apparent need of them or their Assistance we ought to have it prepared long before and assured unto us by the Pledges of a long professed Kindness and Good will Let this suffice for the first Sort to wit of those that may help us for every man's Industry will prompt him How to insinuate with such as he finds may be useful unto him Of the Second Sort to wit those that may Hurt us there are Three Kinds either those that are our Enemies or those that Envy us or lastly those that are our Competitors Those I call Enemies that hate us for our Own or our Friends Sake but this latter kind of Hatred is not for the most part so inveterate and sharp as the first and it may be Mitigated much by our Civilities and Professing That we can Love our Friends notwithstanding our Relations to their Enemies Yet the Friendships of the Court are for the most part Factious and cruel compelling us to break off all Friendship and Familiarities that may bring us into suspicion For which reason many Publickly pretending a friendship to one have notwithstanding complied Vnderhand and kept fair quarter with the Adverse Party not out of design to betray their Friend but to the end if he should chance to fall they may find a Refuge and Support And truly this care of our preservation may be sometimes Blameless but all kind of Treachery is unworthy an Honest Man This kind of Prudence hath not onely been practised in the Brigues of the Court but in Kingdoms also and that very Fortunately Syenneses President of Tharsus when the War broke out between Cyrus and Artaxerxes Fearing to Resist Cyrus took his Part in Person and sent his Son to Artaxerxes to the end that if Cyrus were vanquished he might be a Refuge to his Father Bardus Durus escaping out of the hands of the Saracens where he was Prisoner seeing Phocas created Emperor against Basilius applied himself to gain the Friendship of Phocas hitherto his Enemy and followed him but caused his Son with a contrived Flight to take part with Basilius to the end that if Phocas were vanquished he might Intercede for his Father as it afterwards fell out Solon made a Law That in case of a civil discord in the Common-wealth none should be permitted to stand neuter not intending I believe that Friends taking several sides should break off their private Friendships but rather hoping that Friends being severally engaged could not but labor for the Publick Peace by so much the more Eagerly and with more Success After this manner in Court a Man tho of a different Faction may yet Discreetly and without prejudice to Integrity retain his Friendship with a Man of another Party to the end That he may both have a Retreat in the change of Fortune and that if their Animosities should begin to Asswage he may be a fit Instrument of Reconciliation between the Factions Which is the
with this spightful kind of dealing in his commendations of the Athenians for the brave repulse they gave the Persians which saith he was not intended so much for the Athenians honor as the Shame and Disgrace of the other Greeks Seneca attests that Kings are wont to praise their Dead Servants to make those Blush that are Alive So did Augustus Extol the faithful services of Maecenas and Agrippa when his Daughters Lusts being discovered he seeking thereby to Reprove his Familiars and Servants as Negligent and Careless of the Hovor and Service of their Prince The same was Augustus his end in Praising and Dispraising of Tiberius of whom Tacitus writes thus Augustus when a few years before he demanded the Tribunitial power in the Senate for Tiberius although he did in his Speech Touch upon many things of his behaviour his habit and manner of living which as it were by way of Excuse he did Reproach him with c. Therefore these things ought to warn us to look as well into the Intention of those that Praise us as of those that Caluminate us These two first ways of Undermining our Countier to wit Of Removing him out of the way under some Fair Pretence or of making him Hated or Suspected by the Prince being sufficiently discoursed of there remains onely untouched the Third and Last way of all Open Violence which principally takes place when either the People or the Soldiery offended with the Dignity or Manner of the Favourite run into a Publick Sedition The Tumults of the Parisians when the people raged at the Captivity of their King John with the English are sufficiently known as also the fortune of those upon that sedition who bore the Principal offices under his Son then supplying his Father's place in the Government But few years since the Janizaries more than once have by Sedition deprived the Turkish Emperors of their Ministers of Greatest Trust and Authority Out of more ancient stories the time of Arcadius will furnish us with some examples Ruffinus was amongst others principally beloved by this Emperor with whom Stilico being Offended and determining his Destruction sent Gainas with his forces as it were to Assist the Emperor but indeed to deprive him of Ruffinus as it came to pass For Ruffinus going to the Army the Soldiers of Gainas upon the Signal given Ran together and compassing Ruffinus in Tore him in pieces Eutropius being then put in Ruffinus his place when the chief Courtiers likewise grew discontented with him by the contrivance of the same Gainas Tribigildus raises a Rebellion overrunning and spoiling all Asia and denies to accept any Conditions of a peace till Eutropius were removed out of the way which by the perswasion of Gainas the Emperour consented at last unto Neither was this enough for Gainas being afterward openly joyned with Tribigildus to the end he might suffer himself to be Reconciled to Arcadius the Emperour demanded That Aurelius Saturnius and John Chrysostome then the Chief Moderators of the Emperour's Affairs should be given up to him which being done he sent them into banishment contenting himself with giving them before their departure out of his presence the Edge of his Sword for to handle that they might feel how sharp it was CHAP. XXXIII Sometimes the Prince's own Ill and Cruel Nature Envying the Deserts of his Servants is Cause of the Courtiers Fall and This How it is to be Handled OFtentimes although our Courtiers Underprop themselves with all Other Supports yet the Nature of the Prince as being either Over Light Vain Jealous Envious Covetous Cruel or Timorous makes their Ruine inevitable These Diseases as being Incorporated into them do for the most part Elude and Overgrow the Circumspection of the Prudentest Men. Seneca whose authority had with Nero far more of Liberty than Flattery in the beginning being Wise and Skilful in the Arts of Court was fain to yield at last as quite Overcome by the Malice of the Prince's Nature First he was Envied by him for his Eloquence then for his Riches and lastly being opprest with Malicious Slanders he lost both the Prince's Favor and his Life The Jealousie and Envy of Princes hath been so formidable to some that they had rather be Lessened to their Loss than incur their Envy by doing their business Prosperously and well Publius Ventidius fearing the Envy of Mark Anthony under whom he served Contented himself to have beaten the Parthians by Three Victories into Media and would not prosecute his Good Fortune any farther Agathias tells us that during the Reign of Justinian the same was done by Belisarius least the Greatness of his Victories and the Acclamations of the People should stir up the Hate of the Peers and Envy of the Prince against him Truly such as these do not Mind their own Honor and the Profit of the Prince as they ought to do but the fault is not so much in them as in the Prince himself And therefore it was that Maecenas perswaded Augustus not to Impute his Ill Successes to his Ministers nor Envy their Prosperous Actions For saith he many of them that Manage Publick Affairs have done it very Negligently for fear of Envy choosing rather to hazard their Glory than their Safety Yet I do much more Approve their way who to avoid Envy what ever Great and Fortunate Actions they did would needs Ascribe the Glory of it to the Prince though absent Agrippa Augustus his Son in Law perswades us to Vndertake Great Adventures but having performed them to Attribute the Glory of it to the Prince as he himself was always wont to do So Joab besieging Rabatham though he could Refused to take it in before David himself came thither Craterus when the business of Artacena was to be Determined waits for Alexander's coming Julius Agricola as Tacitus Writes never did Boastingly Apply his Acts to his own Glory but Cast all upon Fortune as the Author and Guide of All he did who was but her servant This Envy and Emulation though they are diseases incident to the Generousest Princes such as Philip and Alexander were yet they are more Predominant and Malignant in some than others Theodosius the second Emperor of that Name committed the charge of Building a Wall at Constantinople from Sea to Sea unto Cyrus which work he Effecting in Threescore days This great Dispatch was so Grateful to the People that they cryed out in the Streets That Constantine built the City and Cyrus had Restored it which being heard by the Emperor brought so great an Envy upon Cyrus that he could not Expiate it any other way but by putting on a Religious Habit. He that hath to do with such Princes is to Consider That he Walks upon Ashes under which Fire lies Concealed and therefore must he still Examine their Inclinations with great Diligence to the end he may either Defend himself against them or if it fall out that he cannot that he may have this satisfaction of mind at least That
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 laid the foundation of the Dutch and French Wars which was another piece of his fineness and of the times with one observation more That he was one of the Great Allies of the Austrian 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 seeds of division in the dark And it is a likely report that they father on him at his return That he said unto the Queen with some sensibility of the Spanish designs on France Madam 〈◊〉 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 years 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 by me and now and then cast in some English fewel which will revive the flame Willoughby MY Lord Willoughby was one of the Queen's first Sword-men He was of the Ancient Extract of the Bartues but more ennobled by his Mother who was Dutchess of Suffolk He was a great Master of the Art Military and was sent General into France and commanded the Second of Five Armies that the Queen sent thither in aid 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 plentiful portion of her Grace And it was his saying and it did him no good That he was none of the Reptilia intimating that he could not creep on the ground and that the Court was not in his Element for indeed as he was a Great Souldier so was he of a Suitable Magnanimity and could not brook the Obsequiousness and Assiduity of the Court and as he then was somewhat descending from youth happily he had an animam revertendi and to make a safe Retreat Sir Nicholas Bacon I Come to another of the Togati Sir Nicholas Bacon An arch-piece of Wit and Wisdom 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 Queen's 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 loss of his Friend He would say That though he knew Vnusquisque suae fortunae faber was a true and good principle yet the most in number were those that marred themselves But I will never forgive that man that loseth himself to be rid of his jest He was Father to that Refined Wit which since hath acted a disastrous part on the publick stage and of late sat in his Father's room as Lord Chancellour Those that lived in his age and from whence I have taken this little Model of him gives him a lively Character and they decypher him for another Solon and the Synon of those times such a one as Oedipus was in dissolving of Riddles Doubtless he was as able an Instrument and it was his commendation that his head was the Mawl for it was a great one and therein he kept the Wedge that entred the knotty pieces that came to the Table And now I must again fall back to smooth and plain a way to the rest that is behind but not from the purpose There were about these times two Rivals in the Queen's favour Old Sir Francis Knowls Comptroller 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 Ricot who had married the daughter and heir of the old Lord Williams of Tame a Noble person and to whom in the Queen's adversity she had been committed to safe custody and from him had received more than ordinary observances Now such was the goodness of the Queen's Nature that she neither forgot good turns received from the Lord Williams neither was she unmindfull of this Lord Norris whose Father in her Father's time and in the business of her Mother died in a Noble cause and in the justification of her innocency Lord Norris MY Lord Norris had by this Lady an ample Issue which the Queen highly respected for he had Six Sons and all Martial brave men The first was William his eldest and Father to the late Earl of Berkshire Sir John vulgarly called General Norris Sir Edward Sir Thomas Sir Henry and Maximilian Men of an haughty courage and of great experience in the conduct of Military affairs And to speak in the Character of their merit they were persons of such renown and worth as future times must out of duty owe them the debt of an honourable memory Knowls SIr Francis Knowls was somewhat of the Queen's affinity and had likwise 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 martialling and there was also the Lady Lettice a Sister of these who was first Countess 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 genius 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 their persons as it was the fortune of their imployments the one side attending the Court the other the Pavilion surely they would have broken out into some kind of hostility or at least they would have wrestled one in the other like Trees incircled with Ivy 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 quarrel amongst them all And I am perswaded though I ought not to judge that there were some reliques of this feud that were long after the causes of the one Families almost utter extirpation and of the others improsperity 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
my Lord of Leicester who had married his Mother a tie 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 son of a Lord Ferrers of Chartley Viscount Hartford and Earl of Essex who was of the ancient Nobility and formerly in the Queen 's good grace could not have 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 inclinable to favour the Nobility Sure it is That he no sooner appeared in Court but he took with the Queen and Courtiers and I believe they all could not choose but look through the Sacrifice of the Father on his living Son whose image by the remembrance of former passages was afresh like the bleeding of men murdered represented to the Court and offered up as a subject of compassion to all the Kingdom There was in this young Lord together with a most goodly Person a kind of urbanity or innate courtesie which both won the Queen and too much took upon the people to gaze upon the new adopted Son of her favour And as I go along it were not amiss to take into observation two notable quotations The first was a violent indulgency of the Queen which is incident to old age where it encounters with a pleasing and suitable object towards this Lord all which argued a non-perpetuity The second was a fault in the Object of her grace my Lord himself who drew in too fast like a child sucking 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 Caesar's would have all or none A rule quite contrary to nature and the most indulgent Parents who though they may express more affection to one in the abundance of bequests yet cannot forget some Legacies just distributives and divideâ—ds to others of their begetting And how hateful partiality proves every days experience tells us out of which common consideration might have framed to their hands a maxim of more discretion for the conduct and management of their now graced Lord and Master But to omit that of Infusion and to doe right to truth My Lord of Essex 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 Mounjoy who was another Child of her favour being newly come to Court and then but Sir Charles Blunt for my Lord William his elder brother was then living had the good fortune one day to run 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 Enamelled which his Servants had the next day fastned on his Arme with a Crimson 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 Grevil told him That it was the Queen's Favour which the day before and after the Tilting she had sent him whereat my Lord of Essex in a kind of Emulation and as though he would have limitted her Favour said Now I perceive every Fool must have a Favour This bitter and Publick Affront came to Sir Charles Blunt's eare who sent him a Challenge which was accepted by my Lord and they met near Mary-bone-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 God's 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 inition of my Lord's Friendship with Mountjoy which the Queen her self did conjure Now for fame we need not goe far for my Lord of Essex having born a grudge to General Norris who had unwittingly offered to unpertake the Action of Britain with fewer men than my Lord had before demaned on his return with Victory and a glorious report of his valour he was then thought the onely man for the Irish War 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 relicks of the veterance Troops of Britain of set purpose as it fell out to ruine Norris and the Lord Burrowes by my Lord's procurement sent at his heels and to command in chief and to confine Norris only to his Goverment at Munster which brake the great heart of the General to see himself undervalued and underminded by my Lord and Burrowes which was as the Proverb speaks it Imberbes docere senes My Lord Burrowes in the beginning of his prosecution died whereupon the Queen was fully bent to have sent over Mountjoy which my Lord of Essex utterly disliked and opposed with many reasons and by arguments of contempt against Mountjoy his then professed friend and familiar so predominant were his words to reap the honour of closing up that War and all other Now the way being opened and plained by his own workmanship and so handled that none durst appear to stand for the place at last with much adoe he obtained his own ends and with all his fatal destruction leaving the Queen and the Court where he stood firm and impregnable in her grace to men that long had sought and watcht their times to give him the trip and could never find any opportunity but this of his absence and of his own Creation And these are the true observations of his appetite and inclinations which were not of any true proportion but carried and transported with an over-desire and thirstiness after fame and that deceitfull fame of popularity And to help on his Catastrophe I observe likewise two sorts of people that had a hand in his fall the first was the Souldiery which all flockt unto him as foretelling a mortality and are commonly of blunt and too rough Counsels and many times dissonant from the time of the Court and the State The other sort were of his
family his servants and his own creatures such as were 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 run on ground with those empty Sails of Fame and Tumour of popular applause Me thinks one honest man or other that had but the office of brushing his clothes might have whispered in his ear My Lord look to it this multitude that follows you will either devour you or undoe 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 Lord's milk and instead of withdrawing they blew the coals of his ambition and infused into him too much of the spirit of glory yea and mixed the goodness 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 insufferable Natures about him that towards his last gave desperate advice such as his integrity abhorred and his fidelity forbade Amongst whom Sir Henry Wotton notes without injury his Secretary Cuffe a vile man and of a perverse nature I could also name others that when he was in the right course of recovery and setling to moderation would not suffer a recess in him but stirred up the dregs of those rude humours which by time and his affliction out of his own judgment 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 Child of his great Mistresses favour but the Son of Bellona Buckhurst MY Lord of Buckhurst was of the Noble House of the Sackvils and of the Queens consanguinity his Father was Sir Richard Sackvil or as the people then called him Fill sack by reason of his gaeat wealth and the vast patrimony which he left to his Son 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 endowments both of art and nature but without measure magnificent till on the turn of his humour and the allay that his years and good counsels 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 judicious and indulgent Prince when she saw the man grow stayed and setled give him her assistance and advanced him to the Treasurship where he made amends to his House for his mis-spent time both in the increasement 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 Child 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 Schollar and a person of a quick dispatch Faculties that yet run in the bloud And they say of him that his Secretaries did little for him by the way of Inditement wherein they could seldom please him he was so facete and choice in his Phrase and Stile And for his Dispatches and the content he gave to Suiters he had a Decorum seldom since put in practise for he had of his Attendants that took into Roll the names of all Suiters which 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 ancient edition except in the urgent affairs of State I find not that he was any ways inshared in the factions of the Court which were all his times strong and in every mans note The Howards and the Cecils on 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 year made them 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 proofs of his sufficiency and it hath been thought that she might have had more cunning instruments but none of a more strong judgment and confidence in his ways which are symptoms of magnanimity and fidelity whereunto me thinks this Motto hath some kind of reference Aut nunquam tentes aut perfice As though he would have charactered in a word the Genius of his House or exprest somewhat of an higher inclination than lay within his compass That he was a Courtier is apparent for he stood always in her eye and favour Lord Mountjoy MY Lord Mountjoy was of the ancient Nobility but utterly deceived in the support thereof Patrimony through his Grandfather's excess in the Action of Bullen his Father's vanity in the search of the Philosophers stone and his Brother 's 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 the Inner-Temple in his way to Court whither he no sooner came but without asking he had a pretty strange kind 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 years 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 kind of an affected frown asked the Lady-Carver What he was she answered She knew him not Insomuch as enquiry 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 Mountjoy This inquisition with the eye of Majesty fixed upon him as she was wont to doe and to daunt 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 kiss encouraging him with gravious 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 bethink my self how to doe you good And this was his inlet and the beginnings of his grace Where it falls into consideration That though he wanted not Wit and Courage for
he had very fine Attractions and being a good piece of a Schollar yet were they accompanied with the retractiveness of bashfulness and a natural Modesty which as the Tone of his House and the Ebbe of his Fortune then stood might have hindred his Progression had they not been re-inforced by the infusion of Soveraign Favour and the Queen 's Gracious Invitation And that it may appear how low he was and how much that Heretick Necessity will work in the dejection of good spirits I can deliver it with assurance that his exhibition was very scant until his Brother died which was shortly after his admission to the Court and then was was it no more than 1000 Marks per 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 kind of backwardness which did not befriend him nor suit with the motion of the Court so there was in him an inclinations to Armes and a humour of Travelling 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 natural propension have marred his own market For as he was grown by reading whereunto he was much addicted to the Theory of a Souldier so was he strongly invited by his Genius to the acquaintance of the Practick of the War 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 restless in honourable thoughts he exposed himself again and again and would press the Queen with the pretences of visiting his Company so often that at length he had a flat denial and yet he stole over with Sir John Norris into the Action of Britain which was then a hot and active War whom he would always call his Father honouring him above all men and ever bewailing 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's fall so confident she was in her own Princely judgment and opinion she had conceived of his worth and conduct that she would have this Noble Gentleman and none other to finish and bring the Irish War to a propitious end For it was a prophetical Speech of her own That it would be his fortune and his honour to cut the thred of that fatal Rebellion and to bring her in peace to the Grave Where she was not deceived for he atchieved it but with much pains and carefulness and not without the fears and many jealousies of the Court and Times wherewith the Queen's age and the malignity of her setting times were replete And so I come to his dear Friend in Court Master Secretary Cecil whom in his long absence from Court he adored as his Saint and courted for his onely Maecenas both before and after his departure from Court and during all the time of his Command in Ireland well knowing that it lay in his power and by a word of his mouth to make or marr him Cecil SIR Robert Cecil since Earl of Salisbury was the Son of the Lord Burleigh and the Inheritor of his Wisdom and by degrees Successor of his Places and Favours though not of his Lands for he had Sir Thomas Cecil his Elder Brother since Created Earl of Exeter He was first Secretary of State then Master of the Wards and in the last of her Raign came to be Lord Treasurer all which were the steps of his Father's greatness and of the Honour he left to his House For his person he was not much beholding to Nature though somewhat for his Face which was the best part of his outside but for his inside it may be said and without soloecisme that he was his Father's own Son and a pregnant proficient in all Discipline of State He was a Courtier from his Cradle which might have made him betimes yet at the Age of Twenty and upwards he was much short of his after-proof but exposed and by change of Climate he soon made shew what he was and would be He lived in those times wherein the Queen had most need and use of Men of Weight and amongst able ones this was 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 Queen's condition from the Tenth or Twelfth of her Raign that she had the happiness to stand up whereof there is a former intimation though invironed with more Enemies and assaulted with more dangerous Practises than any Prince of her Times and of many Ages before Neither must we in this her Preservation attribute too much to Humane Policies for that God in his Omnipotent Providence had not onely ordained those Secondary Meanes as Instruments of the Work but by an Evident Manifestation that the same Work which she acted was a Well-pleasing Service of his own out of a peculiar care had decreed the Protection of the Work-Mistriss 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 peril of their own folly And so again to this great Master of State and the Staff of the Queen's declining Age who though his little crooked Person could not promise any great supportation yet it carried thereon a Head and a Head-piece 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 Intellectuals she took care also of his Sences and to put him in Linceos Oculos or to pleasure him the more borrowed of Argus so to give unto him a prospective sight and for the rest of his sensitive vertues his Predecessor Walsingham had left him a Receit to smell out what was done in the Conclave and his good old Father was so well seen in the Mathermaticks as that he could tell you through all Spain every part every Ship with the Burthens whither bound with preparation what impediments for diversion of Enterprises Counsels 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 Devonshire upon the certainty the Spaniard would invade Ireland with a strong Army had written very earnestly to the Queen and the Council for such Supplies to be sent over that might enable him to march up to the Spaniard if he did Land and follow