bounden Servant July 5. 1616. Sir Francis Bacon the Kings Attorney General to the Master of the Horse upon the sending of his Bill for Viscount sc. SIR I Send you the Bill for His Majesties Signature reformed according to His Majesties amendments both in the two places which I assure you were altered with great judgment and in the third place which His Majesty termed a question only But he is an idle body that thinketh His Majesty asketh an idle question and therefore His Majesties questions are to be answered by taking away the cause of the question and not by replying For the name His Majesties Will is a Law in those things and to speak the truth it is a well-sounding and noble name both here and abroad and being your proper name I will take it for a good sign that you shall give honour to your dignity and not your dignity to you Therefore I have made it Viscount Villiers and for your Barony I will keep it for an Earldom For though the other had been more orderly yet that is as usual and both alike good in Law For Ropers place I would have it by all means dispatched and therefore I marvaile it lingreth It were no good manners to take the business out of my Lord Treasurers hands and therefore I purpose to write to his Lordship if I hear not from him first by Mr. Deckome but if I hear of any delay you will give me leave especially since the King named me to deal with Sir Joseph Roper my self for neither I nor my Lord Treasurer can deserve any great thanks in this business of yours considering the King hath spoken to Sir Jo. Roper and he hath promised and besides the thing it self is so reasonable as it ought to be as soon done as said I am now gotten into the Countrey to my house where I have some little liberty to think of that I would think of and not of that which other men hourly break their head withal as it was at London Upon this you may conclude that most of my thoughts are to His Majesty and then you cannot be far off God ever keep you and prosper you I rest always Your true and most dutiful Servant The 5. of August one of the happiest dayes Sir Francis Bacon to Sir George Villiers upon the sending his Pattent for Viscount Villiers to be Signed SIR I Have sent you now your Patent of Creation of Lord Bletchly of Bletchly and of Viscount Villiers Beltchly is your own and I liked the sound of the name better then Whaddon but the name will be hid for you will be called Viscount Villiers I have put them in a Patent after the manner of the Patent for Earls where Baronies are joyned but the chief reason was because I would avoid double prefaces which had not been fit nevertheless the Ceremony of Robing and otherwise must be double And now because I am in the Countrey I will send you some of my Countrey fruits which with me are good Meditations which when I am in the City are choked with business After that the King shall have watered your new Dignities with the bounty of the Lands which he intends you and that some other things concerning your Means which are now likewise in intention shall be setled upon you I do not see but you may think your private Fortunes established and therefore it is now time that you should refer your Actions to the good of your Sovereign and your Countrey It is the life of an Oxe or Beast alwayes to eat and never exercise but men are born and specially Christian men not to cramb in their Fortunes but to exercise their Vertues and yet the other hath been the unworthy and thanks be to God sometimes the unlucky humour of great Persons in our times Neither will your future Fortune be the further off for assure your self that Fortune is of a Womans nature and will sooner follow by sleighting than by too much wooing And in this dedication of your self to the Publick I recommend unto you principally that which I think was never done since I was born and which because it is not done hath bred almost a Wilderness and Solitude in the Kings Service which is That you countenance and encourage and advance able men in all kinds degrees and professions For in the time of the Cecils the Father and the Son able men were by design and of purpose suppressed and though of late choice goeth better both in Church and Commonwealth yet money and turn-serving and cunning canvasses and importunity prevaileth too much And in places of moment rather make able and honest men yours than advance those that are otherwise because they are yours As for cunning and corrupt men you must I know sometimes use them but keep them at a distance and let it appear rather that you make use of them than that they lead you Above all depend wholly next unto God upon the King and be ruled as hitherto you have been by His Instructions for that is best for your self For the Kings care and thoughts for you are according to the thoughts of a great King whereas your thoughts concerning your self are and ought to be according to the thoughts of a modest man But let me not weary you the sum is That you think Goodness the best part of Greatness and that you remember whence your rising comes and make return accordingly God keep you August 12. 1616. Sir Francis Bacon to the King about a Certificate of my Lord Coke's It may please Your Excellent Majesty I Send your Majesty inclosed my Lord Coke's answers I will not call them rescripts much less Oracles They are of his own hand and offered to me as they are in writing not required by me to have them set down in writing though I am glad of it for my own discharge I thought it my duty as soon as I received them instantly to send them to Your Majesty and forbear for the present to speak further of them I for my part though this Muscovia-weather be a little too hard for my constitution was ready to have waited upon Your Majesty this day all respects set aside but my Lord Treasurer in respect of the season and much other business was willing to save me I will onely conclude touching these Papers with a Text divided I cannot say Oportuit haec fieri but I may say Finis autem nondum God preserve Your Majesty Your Majesties most humble and devoted Subject and Servant Feb. 14. at 12. a Clock I humbly pray Your Majesty to keep the Papers safe A Letter to the King touching the Lord Chancellors place It may please Your most Excellent Majesty YOur worthy Chancellour I fear goeth his last day God hath hitherto used to weed out such Servants as grew not fit for Your Majesty but now he hath gathered to himself a true sage or salvia out of Your Garden But Your Majesties service must not be mortal
Attorneys place p. 20. Sir Francis Bacon to Sir George Cary in France upon sending him his Writing In foelicem memoriam Elizabethae p. 21. A Letter to Sir George Villiers touching the difference between the Courts of Chancery and Kings Bench. p. 22. Sir Francis Bacon to the King concerning the Praemunire in the Kings Bench against the Chancery p. 23. A Letter to the King touching matter of Revenue and Profit p. 27. Sir Francis Bacon the Kings Attorney to the King touching the proceeding with Somerset p. 28. Sir Francis Bacon the Kings Attorney to Sir George Villiers concerning the proceeding with Somerset p. 30. Sir Francis Bacon the Kings Attorney giving account of an Examination taken of Somerset at the Tower p. 32. Sir Francis Bacon the Kings Attorney to Sir George Villiers touching the proceeding with Somerset p. 34. Sir Francis Bacon the Kings Attorney to Sir George Villiers of Account and Advice to His Majesty touching Somerset's Arraignment p. 35. Sir Francis Bacon the Kings Attorney and some great Lords Commissioners concerning the perswasion used to the Lord of Somerset to a frank Consession p. 36. Sir Francis Bacon to the King upon some inclination of His Majesty signified to him for the Chancellors place p. 38. Sir Francis Bacon the Kings Attorney returned with Postils of the Kings own Hand p. 39. The Copy of a Letter conceived to be written to the late Duke of Buckingham when he first became a Favourite to King James by Sir Francis Bacon afterwards Lord Verulam and Viscount St. Alban Containing some Advices to the Duke for his better direction in that eminent place of the Favourite Drawn from him at the intreaty of the Duke himself by much importunity p. 43. Sir Francis Bacon to Sir George Villiers of Advice concerning Ireland from Gorambury to Windsor p. 67. Sir Francis Bacon the Kings Attorney General to the Master of the Horse upon the sending of his Bill for Viscount sc. p. 69. Sir Francis Bacon to Sir George Villiers upon the sending his Pattent for Uiscount Villiers to be Signed p. 70. Sir Francis Bacon to the King about a Certificate of my Lord Coke's p. 72. A Letter to the King touching the Lord Chancellors place ibid. A Letter to the King of my Lord Chancellors amendment and the difference begun between the Chancery and Kings Bench. p. 75. Sir Francis Bacon the Kings Attorney to the King giving some account touching the Commendams p. 76. Sir Francis Bacon his Advertisement touching an Holy War to the Right Reverend Father in God Lancelot Andrews Lord Bishop of Winchester and Councellor of Estate to His Majesty p. 78. Sir Francis Bacon to the King about the Pardon of the Parliaments Sentence p. 81. Sir Francis Bacon to King James of a Digest to be made of the Laws of England p. 82. Sir Francis Bacon to the Right Honourabl◠〈◊〉 very good Lord the Earl of Devonshire Lord Lieutenant of 〈◊〉 p. 87. A Discourse touching Helps for the intellectual Powers by Sir Francis Bacon p. 97. Sir Francis Bacon to the King p. 101. C. Certain Copies of Letters written by Sir William Cecil Knight Secretary of Estate to Queen Elizabeth to Sir Henry Norris Knight Ambassador for the said Queen Resident in France Beginning the 10th of February 1566. and ending the 26th of September 15â—0 p. 105. The Lord Coke to King James touching trial of Duels out of England p. 193. H. The History of the Reign of King Henry the Eighth King Edward the Sixth Queen Mary and part of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth p. 194. I. A Copy of a Letter from His Majesty to the Lords read at Board Nov. 21. 1617. touching the abatement of His Majesties Houshold Charge p. 198. A Copy of His Majesties second Letter p. 199. A Letter from the King to his Lordship by occasion of a Book It was the Organon p. 200. To Our Trusty and Well-beloved Thomas Coventry Our Attorney-General ibid. S. A Letter written by Sir Philip Sidney unto Queen Elizabeth touching her Marriage with Mounsieur p. 201. My Lord Sanquir 's Case p. 209. My Lady Shrewsburies Case p. 212. T. Sir Nicholas Throckmorton then Ambassador in France to Queen Elizabeth touching a free Passage for the Queen of Scots through England into Scotland p. 214. Books Printed for and sold by G. Bedell and T. Collins Folio's Compleat AMBASSADOR Letters and Negotiations of the Lord Burleigh and Sir Francis Walsingham in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth Collected by Sir Dudly Diggs Bishop Andrews Sermons Halls Politicks Lord Bacons History of King Henry 7th * D'Avila's Civil Wars of France * Bishop Ushers Annals of the World * Titus Livius Roman History in English * Dr. Hammond on the New Testament * Paraphrase on the Psalms * Howe 's Chronicle of England * Lord Hobarts Reports with a large Table by Sir H. Finch * Bulstrodes Reports in Three Parts * Crooks Reports in Three Volumes * Lord Cooks Pleadings in English * Wingats Maxims of the Law * Styles Reports * Leonards Reports Second Part. Quarto's Mountagues Essayes Sennault's Christian Man Potters Number of the Beast 666. Grand Seignieurs Seuaglio Ross against Coparnicus touching the Earths motion French Letters touching His Majesties stedfastness in the Protestant Religion in French and English Character of CHARLES II. Articles or Treaty of Peace betwixt France and Spain Discourse for a King and Parliament Fumi Fugium A Discourse of the Air and Smoak of London by John Evelin Esq Lord Cooks Reading and Denshalls Reading on the Statute of Fines The Judges Arguments on the Liberty of the Subject Three Readings on Wills Jointures and forcible Entry Mr. Durhams Assize Sermon Dr. Thomas his Assize Sermon Playes * D'avenant's Wits * Platonick Lovers * Faithful Shepherdess by Fletcher Marriage of the Arts by Barten Hollyday The Bastard A Tragedy The Martyr A Tragedy The Just General Horratius in English A Tragedy Michaelmas Term. Combate of Love and Friendship Octavo's Gosses Tragedies Lucretius in Latine and English Faushawes La Fida Pastora Duke of Rohans Memoires and Discourses English Hyppolito Isabella Three Romances The Nuptial Lover Triumphant Lady Waterhouse his Apology for Learning Idem His Divine Tracts Idem His Discourse of Arms and Armory Botelers Sermons Compleat on several Subjects Instructions for a Library by Naudeus English Reliquiae Carolinae Dr. Taylors Offices or Liturgy Sheppard of Courts Of Corporations Lambords Archeion White of the Laws Parsons Law the last Edition Claytons Reports Fleetwoods Justice Stones Reading on the Statute of Bankrupts Wingats Body of the Law Noyes Maxims D'avenport's Abridgment of Cook on Littleton Abridgement of Acts. Twelves Compleat Justice Davis's Abridgement of Cooks Reports Tylenus Second Part against Baxter Jacksons Evangelical Temper Of Liberty and Servitude Haywards Edward 6th St. Chrysostom of Education Guuton of External Worship Supplementum Lucani per May. Thuan's Politick Maxims Mayerns Experiments Dr. Stuarts Sermons Ladies Cabinet Gees steps in four and twenties SIR FRANCIS BACON'S Letters c.
your Lordship with a work of my vacant time which if it had been more the work had been better It appertaineth to your Lordship besides my particular respects in some propriety in regard you are a great Governor in a Province of Learning and that which is more you have added to your place affection towards Learning and to your affection judgement of which the last I could be content were for the time less that you might the less exquisitely censure that which I offer to you But sure I am the Argument is good if it had lighted upon a good author but I shall content my self to awake better spirits like a bell-ringer which is first up to call others to Church So with my humble desire of your Lordships good acceptation I remain Sir Francis Bacon to the Lord Treasurer Buckhurst upon the same occasion of sending his book of Advancement of Learning May it please your good Lordship I have finished a work touching the advancement or setting forward of learning which I have dedicated to his Majesty the most learned of a Sovereign or temporal Prince that time hath known And upon reason not unlike I humbly present one of the books to your Lordship not onely as a Chancellor of an University but as one that was excellently bred in all learning which I have ever noted to shine in all your speeches and behaviours And therefore your Lordship will yield a gracious aspect to your first love and take pleasure in the adorning of that wherewith your self are so much adorned And so humbly desiring your favourable acceptation thereof with signification of my humble duty I remain A Letter of the like Argument to the Lord Chancellor May it please your good Lordship I humbly present your Lordship with a work wherein as you have much commandment over the Author so your Lordship hath also great interest in the argument For to speak without flattery few have like use of Learning or like judgement in learning as I have observed in your Lordship And again your Lordship hath been a great planter of Learning not only in those places in the Church which have been in your own gift but also in your commendatory Vote no man hath more constantly held Detur digniori and therefore both your Lordship is beholden to Learning and learning beholden to you Which maketh me presume with good assurance that your Lordship will accept well of these my labours the rather because your Lordship in private speech hath often begun to me in expressing your admiration of his Majesties Learning to whom I have dedicated this work and whose vertue and perfection in that kind did chiefly move me to a work of this nature And so with signification of my most humble duty and affection towards your Lordship I remain c. Sir Francis Bacon of like argument to the Earl of Northampton with request to present the book to his Majesty It may please your good Lordship HAving finished a work touching the Advancement of Learning and dedicated the same to his sacred Majesty whom I dare avouch if the records of time erre not to be the learnedst King that hath reigned I was desirous in a kind of congruity to present it by the learnedst Councellor in this Kingdom to the end that so good an argument lighting upon so bad an Author might receive some reparetion by the hands into which and by which it should be delivered And therefore I make it my humble suit to your Lordship to present this mean but well meant writing to his Majesty and with it my humble and zealous duty and also my like humble request of pardon if I have too often taken his name in vain not onely in the dedication but in the voucher of the authority of his speeches and writings And so I remain c. Sir Francis Bacon his Letter of request to Doctor Plafer to translate the book of Advancement of Learning into Latine Mr. Doctor Plafer A great desire will take a small occasion to hope and put in Tryal that which is desired It pleased you a good while since to express unto me the good liking which you conceive of my book of the advancement of Learning and that more significantly as it seemed to me then out of curtesie or civil respect My self as I then took contentment in your approbation thereof so I should esteem and acknowledge not onely my contentment increased but my labours advanced if I might obtain your help in that nature which I desire Wherein before I set down in plain terms my request unto you I will open my self what it was which I chiefly sought and propounded to myself in that work that you may perceive that which I now desire to be pursuant thereupon If I do not erre for any judgment that a man maketh of his own doings had need be spoken with a Si nunquam fallit Imago I have this opinion that if I had sought my own commendation it had been a much fitter course for me to have done as Gardners use to do by taking their Seeds and Slips and re ring them first into plants and so uttering them in pots when they are in flower and in their best state But for as much as my end was merit of the state of Learning to my power and not glorie and because my purpose was rather to excite other mens wits then to magnifie my own I was desirous to prevent the incertainess of my own life and times by uttering rather seeds then plants nay and further as the Proverb is by sowing with the Basket then with the hand Wherefore since I have onely taken upon me to ring a Bell to call other wits together which is the meanest office it cannot but be consonant to my desire to have that Bell heard as sarre as can be And since that they are but sparks which can work but upon matter prepared I have the more reason to wish that those sparks may flye abroad that they may the better find and light upon those minds and spirits which are apt to be kindled And therefore the privateness of the language considered wherein it is written excluding so many readers as on the other side the obscurity of the argument in many parts of it excludeth many others I must account it a second birth of that work if it might be translated into Latine without manifest loss of the sence and matter For this purpose I could not represent to my self any man into whose hands I do more earnestly desire that work should fall then your self for by that I have heard and read I know no man a greater Master in commanding words to serve matter Nevertheless I am not ignorant of the worth of your labours whether such as your place and profession imposeth on you or such as your own vertue may upon your voluntary election take in hand But I can lay before you no other perswasions then either the work it self may affect
lower orb It were to be wished and is fit to be so ordered that every of them keep themselves within their proper spheres The harmony of Justice is then the sweetest when there is no jarring about the Jurisdiction of the Courts which methinks wisdom cannot much differ upon their true bounds being for the most part so clearly known 19. Having said thus much of the Judges somewhat will be fit to put you in mind concerning the principal Ministers of Justice and in the first of the High-Sheriffs of the Counties which have been very Ancient in this Kingdom I am sure before the Conquest The choice of them I commend to your care and that at fit times you put the King in mind thereof that as near as may be they be such as are fit for those places for they are of great Trust and Power the Pesse Comitatus the Power of the whole County being legally committed unto him 20. Therefore it is agreeable with the intention of the Law that the choice of them should be by the commendation of the great Officers of the Kingdom and by the Advice of the Judges who are presumed to be well read in the condition of the Gentry of the whole Kingdom And although the King may do it of himself yet the old way is the good way 21. But I utterly condemn the practice of the latter times which hath lately crept into the Court at the Back-stairs that some who are prick'd for Sheriffs and were fit should get out of the Bill and others who were neither thought upon nor worthy to be should be nominated and both for money 22. I must not omit to put you in mind of the Lords Lieutenants and deputy Lieutenants of the Counties their proper use is for ordering the military affairs in order to an invasion from abroad or a rebellion or sedition at home good choice should be made of them and prudent instructions given to them and as little of the Arbitrary power as may be left unto them and that the Muster-Masters and other Officers under them incroach not upon the Subject that will detract much from the Kings service 23. The Justices of peace are of great use Anciently there were Conservators of the peace these are the same saving that several Acts of Parliament have altered their denomination and enlarged their jurisdiction in many particulars The fitter they are for the Peace of the Kingdom the more heed ought to be taken in the choice of them 24. But negatively this I shall be bold to say that none should be put into either of those Commissions with an eye of favour to their persons to give them countenance or reputation in the places where they live but for the Kings service sake nor any put out for the dis-favour of any great man It hath been too often used and hath been no good service to the King 25. A word more if you please to give me leave for the true rules of the moderation of Justice on the Kings part The execution of Justice is committed to his Judges which seemeth tobe the severer part but the milder part which is mercy is wholly left in the Kings immediate hand And Justice and Mercy are the true supporters of his Royal Throne 26. If the King shall be wholly intent upon Justice it may appear with an over-rigid aspect but if he shall be over remiss and easie it draweth upon him contempt Examples of Justice must be made sometimes for terrour to some Examples of mercy sometimes for comfort to others the one procures fear and the other love A King must be both feared and loved else he is lost 27. The ordinary Courts of Justice I have spoken of and of their Judges and judicature I shall put you in mind of some things touching the High Court of Parliament in England which is superlative and therefore it will behove me to speak the more warily thereof 28. For the institution of it it is very antient in this Kingdom It consisteth of the two Houses of Peers and Commons as the Members and of the Kings Majesty as the head of that great body By the Kings Authority alone and by his Writs they are Assembled and by him alone are they Prorogued and Dissolved but each House may Adjourn it self 29. They being thus Assembled are more properly a Councel to the King the great Councel of the Kingdom to advise his Majesty in those things of weight and difficulty which concern both the King and People then a Court. 30. No new Laws can be made nor old Laws abrogated or altered but by common Consent in Parliament where Bills are prepared and presented to the two Houses and then delivered but nothing is concluded but by the Kings Royal assent They are but Embryos 't is he giveth life unto them 31. Yet the House of Peers hath a power of Judicature in some cases properly to examine and then to affirm or if there be cause to reverse the judgments which have been given in the Court of Kings Bench which is the Court of highest jurisdiction in the Kingdom for ordinary judicature but in these cases it must be done by Writ of Error in Parliamento And thus the rule of their proceedings is not absoluta potestas as in making new Laws in that conjuncture as before but limitata potestas according to the known Laws of the Land 32. But the House of Commons have only power to censure the Members of their own House in point of election or misdemeanors in or towards that House and have not nor ever had power so much as to administer an oath to prepare a judgment 33. The true use of Parliaments in this Kingdom is very excellent and they would be often called as the affairs of the Kingdom shall require and continued as long as is necessary and no longer for then they be but burthens to the people by reason of the priviledges justly due to the Members of the two Houses and their attendants which their just rights and priviledges are religiously to be observed and maintained but if they should be unjustly enlarged beyond their true bounds they might lessen the just power of the Crown it borders so near upon popularity 34. All this while I have spoken concerning the Common Laws of England generally and properly so called because it is most general and common to almost all cases and causes both civil and criminal But there is also another Law which is called the Civil or Ecclesiastical Law which is confined to some few heads and that is not to be neglected and although I am a professor of the Common Law yet am I so much a lover of truth and of Learning and of my native Countrey that I do heartily perswade that the professors of that Law called Civilians because the Civil Law is their guide should not be discountenanced nor discouraged else whensoever we shall have ought to do with any forreign King or State we shall be
nevertheless touching his going into Ireland it pleased him expresly and in a set manner to desire mine opinion and Counsel at which time I did not only disswade but protest against his going telling him with as much vehemency and asseveration as I could that absence in that kind would exulcerate the Queens mind whereby it would not be possible for him to carry himself so as to give her sufficient contentment not for her to carry herself so as to give him sufficient countenance which would be ill for her ill for him and ill for the State And because I would omit no Argument I remember I stood also upon tbe difficulty of the action setting before him out of Histories that the Irish was such an enemy as the ancient Gaules or Britains or Germans were and that we saw how the Romans who had such Discipline to govern their Souldiers and such Donatives to encourage them and the whole World in a manner to levy them yet when they came to deal with enemies which placed their felicities only in liberty and the sharpness of their Sword and had the natural and elemental advantages of Woods and Boggs and hardness of bodies they ever found they had their hands full of them and therefore concluded that going over with such expectation as he did and through the churlishness of the enterprise not like to answer it would mightily diminish his reputation and name other reasons I used so as I am sure I never in any thing in my life-time dealt with him in like earnestness by speech by writing and by all the means I could devise For I did as plainly see his overthrow chained as it were by destiny to that Journey as it is possible for any man to ground a Judgment upon future Contingents But my Lord howsoever his ear was open yet his heart and resolution was shut against that advice whereby his ruine might have been prevented After my Lords going I saw how true a Prophet I was in regard of the evident alteration which naturally succeeded in the Queens minde and thereupon I was still in watch to find the best occasion that in the weakness of my power I could either take or minister to pull him out of the fire if it had been possible and not long after me thought I saw some overture thereof which I apprehended readily a particularity which I think to be known to very few and the which I do the rather relate to your Lordship because I hear it should be talked that while my Lord was in Ireland I revealed some matter against him or I cannot tell what which if it were not a meer slander as the rest is but had any though never so little colour was surely upon this occasion The Queen one day being at Non-such a little as I remember before Cuffers coming over where I attended her shewed a passionate distaste of my Lords proceedings in Ireland as if they were unfortunate without Judgment Contemptuous and not without some private end of his own and all that might be and was pleased as she spake of it to many that she trusted less so to fall into the like speech with me whereupon I that was still awake and true to my grounds which I thought surest for my Lords good said to this effect Madam I know not the particulars of Estate and I know this that Princes occasions must have no abrupt periods or conclusions but otherwise I would think that if you had my Lord of Essex here with a white staff in his hand as my Lord of Leicester had and continued him still about you for society to your self and for an honour and ornament to your attendance and Court in the eyes of your people and in the eyes of Forreign Ambassadors then were he in his right Element for to discontent him as you do and yet to put Arms and Power into his hands may be a kind of temptation to make him prove combersome and unruly And therefore if you would imponere bonam clausulam and send for him and satisfie him with Honour here near you if your Affairs which as I have said I am not acquainted with will permit it I think were the best way which course your Lordship knoweth if it had been taken then all had been well and no contempt in my Lords coming over nor continuance of these jealousies which that imployment of Ireland bred and my Lord here in his former greatness well the next news that I heard was that my Lord was come over and that he was committed to his Chamber for leaving Ireland without the Queens Licence this was at Non-such where as my Duty was I came to his Lordship and talked with him privately about a quarter of an hour and he asked my opinion of the course that was taken with him I told him My Lord Nubecula est cito transibit it is but a mist but shall I tell your Lordship it is as mists are if it go upwards it may happily cause a showr if downward it will clear up and therefore good my Lord carry it so as you take away by all means all umbrages and distastes from the Queen and especially if I were worthy to admonish you as I have been by your Lordship thought and now your question imports the continuance of that opinion observe three points First make not this cessation or peace which is concluded with Tyrone as a service wherein you glory but as a shuffling up of a prosecution which was not very fortunate next represent not to the Queen any necessity of State whereby as by a coertion or wrentch she should think her self enforced to send you back into Ireland but leave it to her Thirdly seek access importune opportune seriously sportingly every way I remember my Lord was willing to hear me but spake very few words and shaked his head sometimes as if he thought he was in the wrong but sure I am he did just contrary in every one of these three points After this during the while my Lord was committed to my Lord Keepers I came divers times to the Queen as I had used to do about cause of Her Revenue and Law business as is well known by reason of which accesses according to the ordinary charities of Court it was given out that I was one of them that incensed the Queen against my Lord of Essex These speeches I cannot tell nor I will not think that they grew any wayes from her own speeches whose memory I will ever honour if they did she is with God and miserum est ab illis laedi de quibus non possis queri But I must give this testimony to my Lord Cecill that one time in his house at the Savoy he dealt with me directly and said to me Cousin I hear it but I believe it not that you should do some ill office to my Lord of Essex for my part I am meerly passive and not active in this action and I
prize which he carrieth to be a good Servant will kiss Your hands with joy for any work of Piety You shall do for me And as all commiserating persons specially such as find their hearts void of malice are apt to think that all men pity them I assure my self that the Lords of the Council who out of their Wisdom and Nobleness cannot but be sensible of humane Events will in this way which I go for the Relief of my Estate further and advance Your Majesties goodness towards me for there is as I conceive a kind of Fraternity between great men that are and those that have been being but the several Tenses of one Verb Nay I do further presume that both Houses of Parliament will love their Justice the better if it end not in my Ruine for I have been often told by many of my Lords as it were in excusing the severity of the Sentence that they knew they left me in good hands And Your Majesty knoweth well I have been all my life long acceptable to those Assemblies not by Flattery but by Moderation and by honest expressing of a desire to have all things go fairly and well But if it may please Your Majesty for Saints I shall give them Reverence but no Adoration my Address is to Your Majesty the Fountain of Goodness Your Majesty shall by the Grace of God not feel that in Gift which I shall extreamly feel in Help for my Desires are moderate and my Courses measured to a life orderly and reserved hoping still to do Your Majesty Honour in my way Only I most humbly beseech Your Majesty to give me leave to conclude with those words which Necessity speaketh Help me dear Sovereign Lord and Master and pity me so far as I that have born a Bagge be not now in my Age forced in effect to bear a Wallett nor I that desire to live to study may not be driven to study to live I most humbly crave pardon of a long Letter after a long silence God of Heaven ever bless preserve and prosper Your Majesty Your Majesties poor Ancient Servant and Beadsman Fr. St. Alban Certain Copies of Letters written by Sir William Cecil Knight Secretary of Estate to Queen Elizabeth to Sir Hen. Norris Knight Ambassador for the said Queen Resident in France SIR I Am constrained to use the hand of my servant in writing unto you because I find it somewhat grievous to use mine own at this present The Queens Majesty hath received your letters with very good contentation and alloweth your manner of beginning and proceeding as well I dare assure you as your self could devise which I do not in words onely speak but wish you to take them for as good a truth as I can inform The rare manner of your entertainment hath moved the Queens Majesty to Muze upon what course it should be being more then hath been used in like cases to her Ambassadors and such as besides your own report hath been by others very largely advertised and for that in such things guesses be but doubtful I pray you by your next advertise me what your self doth think of it and in the mean time I know you are not untaught to judge of the difference of fair words from good deeds as the sayingis Fortuna cum adblanditur captum advenit The Queens Majesty meaneth to require this Ambassador expresly to write unto the King there in how good part she taketh this manner of gratefull acceptation of you her servant there giving him to understand how good report you have made thereof and how much comforted you are by this manner to proceed in her service there I would have had her Majesty to have written her own letters to the King hereof But her Majesty made choice rather to speak with the Ambassador which she will do tomorrow who cometh hither and La Croq which cometh out of Scotland and departeth shortly from hence thither into France having been a good time in manner as an Ambassador with the Scotish Queen Monsieur Moret is I think on the way coming hither out of Scotland my Lord of Bedford who came long ago out of Scotland arrived here but of late and hath brought us good report from the Scotish Queen of her good disposition to keep peace and amity with the Queens Majesty Of late Shane Oneal hath made means to the Lord Deputy of Ireland to be received into Grace pretending that he hath not meant any manner of unlawfulness unto the Queen by which is gathered that he groweth weary of his lewdness and yet I think he is not otherwise to be reformed then by sharp prosecution which is intended to be followed no whit the less for any his fair writings as reason is Of the troubles of the Low Countries I think you be as well advertised there as we can be here and of the likelihood of the Kings not coming into the Low Countries I cannot tell whether you are yet acquainted with Captain Cockburne whose humor when you know as I think Barnaby can shew you I doubt not but you shall have of his hand no lack of intelligence which you must credit as you shall see cause by proof of the event he writeth almost weekly to me and looketh for as many answers which I cannot have leisure to make him but I pray let him understand that I accept his writing in very good part The manner of the dealing with them there for the particular causes contained in your instructions is very well to be liked and I wish the success of the answers to prove as good as the beginning hath appearance and especially for the relief of the poor Prisoners in the Gallies whose stay I fear will grow indirectly by Monsieur de Foix to get thereby the acquital of Lestrille whom surely he is bound in honor to see restored Since I had written thus much by my servants hand and meant yester-night to have ended the letter I thought good to stay untill this present that I knew by the French Ambassador what De la Crocq should do here and amongst other things the Queens Majesty hath very earnestly expressed to the Ambassador her good liking and estimation of your Honorable entertainment whereof you did advertise her Majesty and contrary to her former determination did tell La Crocq that he should carry her Majesties letters to the French King of special thanks for the same besides words of visitation nothing passed this day otherwise and therefore meaning not to keep your servant any longer I end with my very hearty commendations to your self and my Lady and wish as well to you and all yours as to my self Yours assuredly W. Cecil Feb. 10. 1566. To the Right Honorable Sir Hen. Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador in France SIR THe Queens Majesty continueth her good liking of your manner of negotiation and your advertisements to her Majesty which she wisheth you to continue She also alloweth your discretion
accompt my thankfulness the less for that my disability is great to shew it but to sustain me in her Majesties grecious opinion whereupon I onely rest and not upon any expectation of desert to proceed from my self towards the contentment thereof But if it shall please God to send forth an occasion whereby my faithful affection may be tried I trust it shall save me melibour for ever making more protestation of it hereafter In the mean time howsoever it be not made known to her Majesty yet God knoweth it through the daily sollicitations wherewith I address my self unto him in unfeigned Prayer for the multiplying of her Majesties prosperities to your Lordship also whose recommendation I know right well hath been material to advance her Majesties good opinion of me I can be but a bounden servant So much may I safely promise and purpose to be seeing publick and private bonds vary not but that my service to her Majesty and your Lordship draw in a line I wish therefore to shew it with as good proof as I can say it in good faith c. Your Lordships c. Sir Francis Bacon in recommendation of his service to the Earl of Northumberland a few days before Queen Elizabeths death It may please your good Lordship AS the time of sowing of seed is known but the time of coming up and disclosing is casual or according to the season So I am a witness to my self that there hath been covered in my mind a long time a seed of affection and zeal towards your Lordship sown by the estimation of your vertues and your particular honours and favours to my brother deceased and to my self which seed still springing now bursteth forth into this profession And to be plain with your Lordship it is very true and no winds or noyses of civil matters can blow this out of my head or heart that your great capacity and love towards studies and contemplations of an higher and worthier nature then popular a Nature rare in the world and in a person of your Lordships quality almost singular is to me a great and chief motive to draw my affection and admiration towards you and therefore good my Lord if I may be of any use to your Lordship by my Head Tongue Pen Means or Friends I humbly pray you to hold me your own and herewithal not to do so much disadvantage to my good mind nor partly to your own worth as to conceive that this commendation of my humble service proceedeth out of any streights of my occasions but meerly out of an election and indeed the fulness of my heart And so wishing your Lordship all prosperity I continue Sir Francis Bacon to Mr. Robert Kempe upon the death of Queen Elizabeth Mr. Kempe This alteration is so great as you might justly conceive some coldness of my affection towards you if you should hear nothing from me I living in this place It is in vain to tell you with what a wonderful still and calme this wheel is turned round which whether it be a remnant of her felicity that is gone or a fruit of his reputation that is coming I will not determine for I cannot but divide my self between her memory and his name Yet we account it but as a fair morn before Sun rising before his Majesties presence though for my part I see not whence any weather should arise The Papists are conteined with fear enough and hope too much The French is thought to turn his practice upon procuring some disturbance in Scotland where Crowns may do wonders But this day is so welcome to the Nation and the time so short as I do not fear the effect My Lord of Southampton expecteth release by the next dispatch and is already much visited and much well wished There is continual posting by men of good quality towards the King the rather I think because this Spring time it is but a kinde of sport It is hoped that as the State here hath performed the part of good Attorneys to deliver the King quiet possession of his Kingdom so the King will re-deliver them quiet possession of their places rather filling places void than removing men placed So c. Sir Francis Bacon to Mr. David Foules in Scotland upon the entrance of His Majesties Reign SIR The occasion awaketh in me the remembrance of the constant and mutual good offices which passed between my good brother and your self whereunto as you know I was not altogether a stranger though the time and design as between brethren made me more reserved But well do I bear in mind the great opinion which my brother whose Judgment I much reverence would often express to me of the extraordinary sufficiency Dexterity and temper which he had found in you in the business and service of the King our Sovereign Lord. This latter bred in me an election as the former gave an inducement for me to address my self to you and to make this signification of my desire towards a mutual entertainment of good affection and correspondence between us hoping that some good effect may result of it towards the Kings service and that for our particulars though occasion give you the precedence of furthering my being known by good note unto the King so no long time will intercede before I on my part shall have some means given to requite your favours and to verifie your commendation And so with my loving commendations good Mr. Foules I leave you to Gods goodness From Graies Inne this 25th of March. Sir Francis Bacon to the King upon presenting his discoursetouching the Plantation of Ireland It may please your excellent Majesty I know no better way how to express my good wishes of a New-year to your Majesty then by this little book which in all humbleness I send you The stile is a stile of business rather then curious or elaborate And herein I was encouraged by my experience of your Majesties former Grace in accepting of the like poor field-fruits touching the Union And certainly I reckon this action as a second brother to the Union For I assure my self that England Scotland and Ireland well united is such a Trifoil as no Prince except your self who are the worthiest weareth in his Crown Si Potentia reducatur in actum I know well that for me to beat my brains about these things they be Majora quam pro fortuna but yet they be Minora quam pro studio voluntate For as I do yet bear an extream zeal to the memory of my old Mistriss Queen Elizabeth to whom I was rather bound for her trust than for her favour so I must acknowledge my self more bound to your Majesty both for trust and favour whereof I will never deceive the one as I can never deserve the other And so in all humbleness kissing your Majesties Sacred hands I remain Sir Francis Bacon to the Lord Chancellor touching the History of Britain It may please your good Lordship SOme
late act of his Majesty referred to some former speech which I have heard from your Lordship bred in me a great desire and by strength of desire a boldness to make an humble Proposition to your Lordship such as in me can be no better than a wish but if your Lordship should apprehend it it may take some good and worthy effect The Act I speak of is the order given by his Majesty for the erection of a Tomb or Monument for our late Sovereign Queen Elizabeth wherein I may note much but this at this time That as her Majesty did alwayes right to his Majesties hopes so his Highness doth in all things right to her memory a very just and Princely retribution But from this occasion by a very easie ascent I passed further being put in mind by this representative of her person of the more true and more perfect representative which is of her Life and Government For as Statues and Pictures are dumb Histories so Histories are speaking Pictures wherein if my affection be not too great or my reading too small I am of this opinion That if Plutarch were alive to write Lives by Parallels it would trouble him for Vertue and Fortune both to find for her a parallel amongst Women And though she was of the Passive Sex yet her Government was so active as in my simple opinion it made more impression upon the several States of Europe than it received from thence But I confess unto your Lordship I could not stay here but went a little further into the consideration of the times which have passed since King Henry the Eighth wherein I find the strangest variety that in so little number of Successions of any hereditary Monarchy hath ever been known the Reign of a Child the offer of an Usurpation though it were but as a diary Ague the Reign of a Lady married to a Forreigner and the Reign of a Lady solitary and unmarried So that as it cometh to pass in massive bodies that they have certain trepidations and waverings before they fix and settle so it seemeth that by the Providence of God this Monarchy before it was to settle in his Majesty and his Generations in which I hope it is now established for ever hath had these preclusive changes in these barren Princes Neither could I contain my self here as it is easier for a man to multiply than to stay a wish but calling to remembrance the unworthiness of the History of England in the main continuance thereof and the partiality and obliquity of that of Scotland in the latest and largest Author that I have seen I conceived it would be honour for his Majesty and a work very memorable if this Island of great Britain as it is now joined in Monarchy for the Ages to come so it were joined in History for the times past and that one just and compleat History were compiled of both Nations And if any man think it may refresh the memory of former discord he may satisfie himself with the Verse Olim haec meminisse juvabit For the case being now altered it is matter of comfort and gratulation to remember former troubles Thus much if it may please your Lordship was in the Optative Mood and it was time that I should look a little into the Potential wherein the hope that I received was grounded upon three Observations The first of these times which flourish in Learning both of Art and Language which giveth hope not only that it may be done but that it may be well done Secondly I do see that which all the World sees in his Majesty a wonderful Judgment in Learning and a singular Affection towards Learning and Works which are of the mind and not of the hand For there cannot be the like honour sought in building of Galleries and planting of Elms along High-wayes and the outward ornaments wherein France now is busie things rather of Magnificence than of Magnanimity as there is in the uniting of States pacifying of Controversies nourishing and augmenting of Learning and Arts and the particular action appertaining unto these of which kind Cicero judged truly when he said to Caesar Quantum operibus tuis detrahet vetustas tantum addet laudibus And lastly I called to mind that your Lordship at some times hath been pleased to express unto me a great desire that something of this matter should be done answerable indeed to your other noble and worthy courses and actions joining and adding unto the great services towards his Majesty which have in small compass of time been performed by your Lordship other great deservings both of the Church and Commonwealth and particulars So as the opinion of so great and wise a man doth seem to me a good warrant both of the possibility and worth of the matter But all this while I assure my self I cannot be mistaken by your Lordship as if I sought an Office or employment for my self for no man knows better than your Lordship that if there were in me any faculty thereunto yet neither my course of life nor profession would permit it But because there be so many good Painters both for hand and colours it needeth but encouragement and instructions to give life unto it So in all humbleness I conclude my presenting unto your Lordship this wish which if it perish it is but a loss of that which is not And so craving pardon that I have taken so much time from your Lordship I remain c. Sir Francis Bacon to the King upon the sending unto him a beginning of a History of his Majesties time It may please your Majesty HEaring that you are at leisure to peruse story a desire took me to make an experiment what I could do in your Majesties times which being but a leaf or two I pray your pardon if I send it for your recreatiou considering that love must creep where it cannot go But to this I add these petitions First that if your Majesty do dislike any thing you would conceive I can amend it upon your least beck Next that if I have not spoken of your Majesty encomiastically your Majesty will be pleased only to ascribe it to the Law of an History which doth not clutter together praises upon the first mention of a name but rather disperseth them and weaveth them throughout the whole Narration And as for the proper place of commemoration which is in the period of life I pray God I may fiever live to write it Thirdly that the reason why I presumed to think of this oblation was because whatsoever my disability be yet I shall have that advantage which almost no writer of History hath had in that I shall write the times not only since I could remember but since I could observe And lastly that it is only for your Majesties reading Sir Francis Bacon to the Earl of Salisbury upon sending him one of his books of advancement of Learning It may please your Good Lordship I present
of that fame and diligence saw it chiefly because I know not whether it may not serve him for some use in his Story wherein I would be glad he did right to the truth and to the memory of that Lady as I perceive by that he hath already written he is well inclined to do I would be glad also it were some occasion such as absence may permit of some acquaintance or mutual notice between us For though he hath many ways the precedence chiefly in worth yet this is common to us both that we serve our Sovereigns in places of Law eminent and not our selves only but that our Fathers did so before us and lastly that both of us love Learning and Liberal Sciences which was ever a bond of Friendship in the greatest distances of places But of this I make no farther request then your own occasions and respects to me unknown may further or limit my principal purpose being to salute you and to send you this Token whereunto I will add my very kind commendations to my Lady And so commit you both to Gods holy protection A Letter to Sir Geo. Villiers touching the difference between the Courts of Chancery and Kings Bench. Sir I Received this morning from you two Letters by the same bearer the one written before the other both after his Majesty had received my last In this difference between the two Courts of Chancery and Kings Bench for so I had rather take it at this time then between the persons of my Lord Chancellor and my Lord Chief Justice I marvaile not if rumour get way of true Relation for I know Fame hath swift wings specially that which hath black feathers but within these two days for sooner I cannot be ready I will write to his Majesty both the Narrative truly and my opinion sincerely taking much comfort that I serve such a King as hath Gods property in discerning truly of mens hearts I purpose to speak with my Lord Chancellor this day and so to exhibit that Cordial of his Majesties grace as I hope this other accident will rather rowse and raise his spirits then deject him or incline him to a relapse Mean while I commend the wit of a mean man that said this other day Well saith he next Term you shall have an old man come with a besom of Worm-wood in his hand that will sweep away all this For it is my Lord Chancellor his fashion especially towards the Summer to carry a posie of Worm-wood I writ this Letter in haste to return the Messenger with it God keep you and long and happily may you serve his Majesty Your true and affectionate servant Feb. 19. 1615. POST-SCRIPT Sir I humbly thank you for your inward Letter I have burned it as you commanded but the flame it hath kindled in me will never be extinguished Sir Francis Bacon to the King concerning the Praemunire in the Kings Bench against the Chancery It may please your most Excellent Majesty I Was yesterday in the Afternoon with my Lord Chancellor according to Your Commandment which I received by the Master of the Horse and find the old man well comforted both towards God and towards the world And that same middle comfort which is a divine and humane proceeding from your Majesty being Gods Leiutenant on earth I am perswaded hath been a great cause that such a sickness hath been portable to such an age I did not faile in my conjecture that this business of the Chancery hath stirred him He sheweth to despise it but yet he is full of it and almost like a young Duelist that findeth himself behind hand I will now as your Majesty requireth give you a true relation of that which passed neither will I decline your Royall Commandment for delivering my opinion also though it be a tender subject to write on But I that account my being but an accident to my service will neglect no duty upon self-safety First it is necessary I let your Majesty know the ground of the difference between the two Courts that your Majesty may the better understand the Narrative There was a Statute made 27. Ed. 3. Cap. 1. which no doubt in the principal intention thereof was ordained against those that sued to Rome wherein there are words somewhat general against any that questioneth or impeacheth any judgement given in the Kings Courts in any other Courts Upon these doubtfull words other Courts the Controversie groweth For the founder interpretation taketh them to be meant of those Courts which though locally they were not held at Rome or where the Popes Chair was but here within the Realm yet in their jurisdiction had their dependency upon the Court of Rome as were the Court of the Legat here and the Courts of the Arch-bishops and Bishops which were then but subordinate judgement seats to that high Tribunal of Rome And for this Construction the opposition of the words if they be well observed between the Kings Courts and other Courts maketh very much For it importeth as if those other Courts were not the Kings Courts Also the main scope of the Statute sortifieth the same and lastly the practice of many ages The other interpretation which cleaveth to the letter expoundeth the Kings Courts to be the Courts of Law only and other Courts to be Courts of Equity as the Chancery Exchequer-Chamber Dutchy c. though this also flyeth indeed from the letter for that all these are the Kings Courts There is also another Statute which is but a simple Prohibition and not with a penalty of Praemunire as the other is That after judgements given in the Kings Courts the parties shall be in Peace except the judgments be undone by Error or Attaint which is a legall form of reversall And of this also I hold the sounder interpretation to be to settle possessions against disturbances and not to take away remedy in equity where those judgments are obtained ex rigore juris and against good Conscience But upon these two Statutes there hath been a late conceipt in some that if a judgement passe at the Common-Law against any he may not after sue for relief in Chancery and if he do both he and his Councel and his Solicitor yea and the Judge in Equity himself are within the danger of those Statutes There your Majesty hath the true state of the question which I was necessarily to shew you first because your Majesty calleth for this relation not as news but as business Now to the Historical part It is the Course of the Kings Bench that they give in Charge to the Grand Jury offences of all natures to be presented within Middlesex where the said Court is and the manner is to enumerate them as it were in Articles This was done by Justice Crooke the Wednesday before the Term ended and that Article if any man after a judgement given had drawn the said judgement to a new examination in any other Court was by him
Upon this heavy Accident I pray Your Majesty in all humbleness and sincerity to give me leave to use a few words I must never forget when I moved Your Majesty for the Attorneys place it was your own sole act more then that Somerset when he knew Your Majesty had resolved it thrust himself into the business for a Fee And therefore I have no reason to pray to Saints I shall now again make oblation to your Majesty first of my heart then of my service thirdly of my place of Attorney which I think is honestly worth 16000 l. pound per annum and fourthly of my place of the Star-Chamber which is worth 1600 l. per annum and with the favuor and countenance of a Chancellor much more I hope I may be acquitted of presumption if I think of it both because my Father had the place which is some civil inducement to my desire And I pray God your Majesty may have twenty no worse years in your Greatness then Queen Elizabeth had in her Model after my Fathers placing and chiefly because if the Chancellors place went to the Law it was ever conferred upon some of the Learned Councel and never upon a Judge For Audley was raised from K. Serjeant my Father from Attorney of the Wards Bromley from Sollicitor Puckering from Serjeant Egerton from Master of the Rolls having newly left the Attorneys place Now I beseech Your Majesty let me put you the present case truly If you take my Lord Coke this will follow first Your Majesty shall put an over-ruling nature into an over-ruling place which may breed an extream Next You shall blunt his industries in matter of financies which seemeth to aime at another place And lastly popular men are no sure Mounters for Your Majesties Saddle If you take my Lord Hubbart you shall have a Judge at the upper end of Your Councel-board and another at the lower end Whereby Your Majesty will find your Prerogative pent For though there should be emulation between them yet as Legists they will agree in magnifying that wherein they are best He is no States-man but an Occonomist wholly for himself So as Your Majesty more then an outward form will find little help in him for the business If you take my Lord of Canterbury I will say no more but the Chancellours place requires a whole man And to have both Jurisdictions Spiritual and Temporal in that height is sit but for a King For my self I can only present Your Majesty with Gloria in obsequio yet I dare promise that if I sit in that place Your business shall not make such short turns upon You as it doth but when a direction is once given it shall be pursued and performed and Your Majesty shall only be troubled with the true care of a King which is to think what You would have done in chief and not how for the passages I do presume also in respect of my Fathers memory and that I have been alwayes gracious in the Lower House I have interest in the Gentlemen of England and shall be able to do some good effect in rectifying that Body of Parliament-men which is Cardo rerum For let me tell Your Majesty that that part of the Chancellors place which is to Judge in equity between party and party that same Regnum judiciale which since my Fathers time is but too much enlarged concerneth Your Majesty least more then the acquitting your Conscience for Justice But it is the other part of a Moderator amongst your Councel of an Overseer over your Judges of a planter of fit Justices and Governors in the Country that importeth your affairs and these times most I will add also that I hope by my care the inventive part of your Councel will be strengthned who now commonly do exercise rather their Judgements then their inventions And the inventive part cometh from projectors and private men which cannot be so well In which kinde my Lord of Salisbury had a good method if his ends had been upright To conclude if I were the man I would be I should hope that as Your Majesty hath of late wonne hearts by depressing you should in this leese no hearts by advancing For I see your people can better skill of Concretum then Abstractum and that the waves of their affections flow rather after persons then things So that acts of this nature if this were one do more good then twenty Bills of Grace If God call my Lord the Warrants and Commissions which are requisite for the taking the Seal and for the working with it and for the reviving of Warrants under his hand which dye with him and the like shall be in readiness And in this time presseth more because it is the end of a Term and almost the beginning of the Circuits So that the Seal cannot stand still But this may be done as heretofore by Commission till Your Majesty hath resolved of an Officer God ever preserve Your Majesty Your Majesties most humble Subject and bounden Servant Febr. 12. 1615. A Letter to the King of my Lord Chancellors amendment and the difference begun between the Chancery and Kings Bench. It may please your most Excellent Majesty I Do find God be thanked a sensible amendment in my Lord Chancellor I was with him yesterday in private Conference about half an hour and this day again at such time as he did seal which he endured well almost the space of an hour though the vapour of the wax be offensive to him He is free from a Feaver perfect in his powers of memory and speech and not hollow in his voice nor looks He hath no panting or labouring respiration neither are his Coughs dry or weak But whosoever thinketh his disease to be but Melancholy maketh no true judgment of it for it is plainly a formed and deep Cough with a pectoral surcharge so that at times he doth almost animam agere I forbear to advertise Your Majesty of the care I took to have Commissioners in readiness because Master Secretary Lake hath let me understand he signified as much to Your Majesty But I hope there shall be no use of them for this time And as I am glad to advertise Your Majesty of the amendment of Your Chancellors person so I am sorry to accompany it with an advertisement of the sickness of Your Chancery Court though by the Grace of God that cure will be much easier than the other It is true I did lately write to Your Majesty that for the matter of Habeas corpora which was the third matter in Law you had given me in charge I did think the communion of service between my Lord Chancellor and my Lord Chief Justice in the great business of examination would so join them as they would not square at this time But pardon me I humbly pray Your Majesty if I have too reasonable thoughts And yet that which happened the last day of the Term concerning certain Indictments in the nature
Lords desire to do you service is as to his perfection that which he thinks himself to be bound for whereas his desire to obtain this thing of you is but for a sustentation and not to trouble your Lordship with many other particulars like unto this it was at the same time that I did draw by my Lords privitie and by his appointment two Letters the one written as from my brother the other as an answer returned from my Lord both to be by me in secret manner shewed to the Queen which it pleased my Lord very strangely to mention at the barr the scope of which were but to represent and picture forth unto her Majesty my Lords minde to be such as I know her Majesty would fainest have had it which Letters whosoever shall see for they cannot now be retracted or altered being by reason of my brother or his Lordships servants delivery long since come into divers hands let him judge specially if he knew the Queen and do remember those times whether they were not the labours of one that sought to bring the Queen about for my Lord of Essex his good The truth is That the issue of all this dealing grew to this that the Queen by some slackness of my Lord as I imagine liked him worse and worse and grew more incensed towards him Then she remembring belike the continual and incessant and confident speeches and courses that I had held on my Lords side became utterly alienated from me and for the space of at least three months which was between Michaelmas and New-years tide following would not so much as look on me but turned away from me with express and purpose-like discountenance wheresoever she saw me and at such time as I desired to speak with Her about Law business ever sent me forth very sleight refusals insomuch as it is most true that immediately after New-years-tide I desired to speak with her and being admitted to Her I dealt with her plainly and said Madam I see you withdraw your favour from me and now I have lost many friends for your sake I must lose you too you have put me like one of those that the French men call Infans perdus that serve on foot before horsemen so have you put me into matters of envy without place or without strength and I know at Chess a pawn before the King is ever much plaid upon a great many love me not because they think I have been against my Lord of Essex and you love me not because you know I have been for him yet will I never repent me that I have dealt in simplicity of heart towards you both without respect of Cautions to my self and therefore vivus vidensque pereo If I do break my neck I shall do it as Dorrington did which walked on the Battlements of the Church many days and took a view and survey where he should fall and so Madam said I I am not so simple but that I take a prospect of my own overthrow only I thought I would tell you so much that you may know it was faith and not folly that brought me into it and so I will pray for you upon which speeches of mine uttered with some Passion it is true Her Majesty was exceedingly moved and accumulated a number of kind and gracious words upon me and willed me to rest upon this Gratia mea sufficit and a number of other sensible and tender words and demonstrations such as more could not be but as touching my Lord of Essex ne verbum quidem Whereupon I departed resting then determined to meddle no more in the matter as that that I saw would overthrow me and not be able to do him any good And thus I made mine own peace with my own Confidence at that time and this was the last time I saw her Majesty before the eighth of February which was the day of my Lord of Essex his misfortune After which time for that I performed at the Bar in my publick service your Lordship knoweth by the rules of duty I was to do it honestly without prevarication but for any putting my self in it I protest before God I never moved the Queen nor any person living concerning my being used in the service either of evidence or of examination but it was meerly laid upon me with the rest of my fellows And for the time that passed between the arraignment and my Lords suffering I well remember I was but once with the Queen at what time though I durst not deal directly for my Lord as things then stood yet generally I did both commend her Majesties mercy terming it to her as an excellent balme that did continually distil from her Sovereign hands and made an excellent odour in the scents of her people and not only so but I took hardiness to extenuate not the fact for that I durst not but the danger telling her that if some base or cruel-minded persons had entred into such an action it might have caused much blood and combustion but it appeared well they were such as knew not how to play the Malefactors and some other words which I now omit And as for the rest of the carriage of my self in that service I have many honourable witnesses that can tell that the next day after my Lords arraignment by my diligence and information touching the quality and nature of the offendors six of nine were stayed which otherwise had been attainted I bringing their Lordships Letter for their stay after the Jury was sworn to pass upon them so near it went and how careful I was and made it my part that whosoever was in trouble about that matter assoon as ever his case was sufficiently known and defined of might not continue in restraint but be set at liberty and many other parts which I am well assured of stood with the duty of an honest man But indeed I will not deny for the case of Sir Thomas Smith of London the Queen demanding my opinion of it I told her I thought it was as hard as many of the rest but what was the reason because at that time I had seen only his accusation and had never been present at any examination of his and the matter so standing I had been very untrue to my service if I had not delivered that opinion But afterwards upon a re-examination of some that charged him who weakned their own testimony and especially hearing himself viva voce I went instantly to the Queen out of the soundness of my Conscience not regarding what opinion I had formerly delivered and told her Majesty I was satisfied and resolved in my Conscience that for the reputation of the Action the Plot was to countenance the Action farther by him in respect of his place then they had indeed any interest or intelligence with him it is very true also about that time her Majesty taking a liking of my Pen upon that which I formerly had done concerning the
negotiations although I know no thing in him to the contrary but hearing that you have men that can both speak and write French and perceiving by the superscription of your letters that you have one who writeth a good Secretary hand I have thought fit to forbear to deal further with the said party I thank you for your offer to send me any Charts that I should name and if you would send me a note of the names of the Charts that are thought newest and of the Author of their setting forth and the places where they be printed I may chance to trouble you with craving of some I would be glad to have from you a note of the names of the chiefest Nobility of France and with whom they be married adding thereto any other thing that may belong to the knowledge of their Lineage and Degrees as you shall think meet And so for this time I end Yours assuredly W. Cecil Windsor 27 Sept. 1567. To the right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR AFter my very hearty Commendations with my like thanks for all your courteous letters to me and specially for the friendly trust which I see you put in me to the due answering whereof you shall never finde me wanting My Lady your good Wife can sufficiently report to you all things from hence so as I need write nothing presently but my hearty commendations And where it seemeth you think some hardness in not allowance of your expences expressed in sundry your Bills surely it is not lack of my good will that stayeth me but power for truly I never subscribed so many extraordinary Bills for any as I have done for you and as I understand by your servant Cartwright I have subscribed more in some of them then will be as yet paid Generally I will subscribe all charges reasonable for carriage of Letters but concerning entertainment of men to continue at the Court or for rewards given extraordinarily I never did nor could allow them and yet I wish them paid being laid out in the service of her Majesty And in this manner I heartily pray you to interpret my good will to the best for surely if you were either my Brother or Son I have no more power to shew you and yours good will then I do The Duke of Chastilherant is at Deip and meaneth within these ten days to be here as his servants report I think he shall not be able to annoy the Lowth as he and his I see do desire Bothwell is not yet taken to our knowledge though it be said he should should be taken on the Seas by a Ship of Breme And so I end as I began Yours as your own W. Cecil Windsor 2. Octob. 1567. To the right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR YOur servant Jenny arrived here yester-day with your Letters of the first day of September by which the Queen was greatly satisfied for that we had received divers brutes of the troubles of France whereunto we know not what credit to give and now considering the Ice is thus broken you must think we shall daily be molested with uncertain reports The Queens Majesty advertised the French Ambassador and Monsieur de Pasquiers of as much as she heard from you who were not a little troubled before by reason of strangers news spread abroad and more dangerous for otherwise they had heard no manner of thing of credit out of France although of late time they had sent three several Messengers so as I do guess that the passages be stopped to them and I wish they be not also to you too I finde her Majesty disposed upon the next hearing from thence to send some special Gentlemen thither before which time her Majesty being moved by me according to your desire yet will not agree to send to you any Currier My Lady your Wife was ready to depart towards you upon Wednesday last and would not be stayed from her journey by any perswasion what she will do now upon your servants coming I know not but in my opinion she shall do well to forbear the venture This Letter which I do write I do send by your Footman wherein I dare as the time is write nothing but that which may be seen of all sorts That which you wrote of late to me touching Jenny your servant I assure you ought not to be imputed to him but to such in Scotland to whom being uttered for their good they could not use it as was meet We have nothing in Scotland but all things therein be quiet since the last of September at which time the Castle of Dunbar was rendred to the Earl of Murray and one name the Lord Wawghton follower of the Earl Bothwell which kept the Castle as long as he could was adjudged to pay for the charges of them which besieged it and the charge of the Carriage of the Ordnance back to Edenburgh a new kind of punishment sufficient enough for such a beggar And so wishing that we may hear often from you I end with this also that it shall behove you to take good heed whose reports you credit in this variety Yours assuredly W. Cecil 9. Oct. 1567. To the right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR I Heartily thank you for your gentle letters sent to me by your two last Messengers William Wade and Crips both which persons come to me being at London because it was Term time where I am for the more part saving Sundays and Holidays by which occasion I have at both times sent your letters to the Queens Majesty so as I have not had the commodity to see your advertisements nevertheless you shall do well to continue your accustomed manner of advertising her Majestie as fully as you can for in these troublesome times the accidents being so diversly reported as they are it is meet that her Majesty should be largely advertised and because it may be that your letters may come in this Term time whiles I am at London I pray let me have some repetition of your advises in such letters as you shall write to me This bearer your servant Crips can make full report to you of all matters here My Lady your Wife also hath been very careful to have him return to you and would have some other of more weight but the Queens Majestie forbeareth to send any because of the uncertainty of the time Dover A 1 in misliking oâ— and of F wherein all is done that can be by B to cover the same and as I think the principal is for that A is 42 91 and doubtful of giving 25. 5 subjects nevertheless you shall do well as occasion shall serve 5 For this we here well perceive that is we look daily to hear a certainty of the howsoever percase they there mean to let it In Scotland all
1569. Postscript SIR IT is now accorded that three of the Merchants shall pass over to Rohan to prove what restitution the French will make there and the like shall be here Because I doubt your slack servants I do presently send away this bearer otherwise I would have staid him to have seen what manner of news this Ambassador hath to declare upon Tuesday next at which time he hath required to be heard I am ready as I told your Son Mr. William Norris to do any thing in my power to pleasure you in your particular causes or suites here as the last Term I did deal for you in such as I was required Yours assuredly W. Cecil To the right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR YOur last letters are of the 8 of June brought by a Merchant residing at Rhoan and now our daily expectation is to hear either of the joyning of the Duke Vypont with the Admiral or else that they have been kept asunder by sight we have no news here being contented with continuance of quietness which we think to possess except the motions of the contrary shall come from thence whereof we have great cause to fear and the like to prevent Upon a Reprizal made by Mr. Winter here of certain Portugals goods We hear for certainty that King of Portugal hath Arrested the goods of our Merchants there whereof will follow some jaâ—â— which we think our foes will increase The Queen of Scots hath sent one Borthick by whom at his request I wrot yesterday and her Secretary Rowlye into France co procure from the King and his brother 〈◊〉 some satisfaction to the Queens Majesty for avoiding of the opinion conceived of her transaction with Mounsieur D' Anjou how they shall well satisfie her Majesty I cannot tell but as of late I wrote to you her Majesty would have you explore by all means that you can what hath been in truth done heretofore in that case besides the advertisement for her Majesty hath seen letters passed betwixt no mean persons of Authority there being adversaries to the Religion by which it manifestly appeareth that such matters have been secretly concluded and yet the more tryals are made hereof the better it is We have at length accorded with the French Ambassador here as as you shall see by a Copy of writing herewith sent you and so I take my leave of you I wish that you would always when you send any with your letters write what you imprest to them for their charges for I make full allowance to them all And so with my hearty commendations to you and my Lord I end Our Progress is like to be to Southampton Your assured friend at command W. Cecil Greenwich 18 June 1569. To the right honorable Sir Henrry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR THis bearer Mr Borthick servant to the Queen of Scots hath required me to have my letters unto you to signifie the cause of his coming wherein I can certifie of my knowledge no other than thus the Queen of Scots of late time amongst other things to move the Queens Majesty to be favoureble unto her in her causes offered to do any thing reasonable to satisfie her Majesty concerning her surety in the right of this Crown as she now possesseth it to her self and her issue whereupon answer was given that though there was no need for the Queens Majesties assurance to have any Act pass from her yet as things were understood the Queen of Scots was not now a person able or meet to contract therein for it was understood that she had made a Concession of all her Title to this Crown to the Duke of Anjou with which answer we finde the Queen of Scots much moved as a thing devised by her enemies in France and thereupon she advertiseth the cause to be of the sending of her 〈◊〉 into France to the King his Brother Uncles c. to make perfect testimony in what sort this surmise is untrue and so as I am informed this is the occasion of the coming of Mr. Borthick this Bearer who truly I have found always a good servant to the Queen his Mistriss and a tractable Gentleman at all times and so I pray you accept him upon my commendations Yours assuredly W. Cecil Westm. 16. June 1569. To the right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR YOur advertisement of the Duke of Bipont came hither so speedily as untill seven days after the French Ambassador could not understand thereof but when he did he used no sparing to divulge it abroad where the Count Ernest of Mansfelt is we cannot as yet understand but from Rochell we hear that he is well allowed of the Army and not inferior in knowledge to the Duke The will of God must be patiently received and obeyed and what shall ensue hereof to his glory we must if it be good affirm it to be beyond our deserts if otherwise not so evil as we have deserved Of late about the 15. of June a Rebellion began in the West part of Ireland about Cork wherein we care not for the force of the inhabitants so they be not aided with some Spainards or Portugals whereof we are not void of suspicion and therefore we do presently send certain Captains with a Force by Sea from Bristoll to Cork meaning to provide for the worst as reason is Our Rochell Fleet is safely returned with Salt and I think the Merchants have not as yet brought their whole accomplement Upon your last advertisement of the delays used in giving you Pasports I did peremptorily admonish the French Ambassador That if he did not procure you some better expedition at the Kings hands there he should have the like measure there and therefore I think you shall hear some what whereof I pray you advertise me And so I take my leave Yours assuredly W. Cecil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Postscript An unfortunate Accident is befaln to my Lord of Shrewsbury being first stricken with a Palsey and now stricken lamentably with a Phrensie God comfort him It is likely the Queen of Scots shall remove to Belvoir in the charge of my Lord of Bedford To the right honorable Sir Henrry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR AS my leisure is small to write much so have I not much matter to write unto you at this time but onely to send away this bearer your servant unto you because I think in this time you have cause to use them all Your Son Mr. John Norris I think shall be the next by whom you shall understand all our matters here better then I can express in my letters and therefore I do forbear to write divers things at this present unto you which by him you shall more certainly understand onely at this time I wish that you could find the means to send some trusty person
but they both being come upon former licence near the City on the way upon desire to see her Majesty came hither yesterday unlooked for and although in the beginning of this Northern Rebellion her Majesty sometimes uttered some misliking of the Earl yet this day she meaning to deal very Princely with him in presence of her Council charged him with such things as she had heard to cause her misliking without any note of mistrust towards him for his fidelity whereupon he did with such humbleness wisdom plainness and dexterity answer her Majesty as both she and all the rest were fully satisfied and he adjudged by good proofs to have served in all this time faithfully and so circumspectly as it manifestly appeareth that if he had not so used himself in the beginning the whole North part had entred into the Rebellion Vsque ad 3. Febr. We have now letters out of Scotland that the Nobility which favoreth the young King have assembled themselves and made a reconciliation of divers persons that had particular quarrels one against another and as they pretend they will all joyn firmely in the revenge of the Murther and defence of their King the Lord Grange who keepeth the Castle of Edenburgh is reconciled to the Earl Moreton and become one of this Bonde and so doth Leddington also offer to be another The Duke of Chastilherault is streighter kept then he was before and it is commonly reportd that the Hambletons were the workers of this murther thus much being known of certain that the murtherer was a neer kinsman of the Dukes and that the Peece wherewith he murthered the Regent and the spare horses whereupon he escaped did all belong to the Abbot of Arbroth the Dukes second Son and the murtherer was received into Hambleton the Dukes house all which I trust God will see revenged The Rebellion moved in the West parts of Ireland this last Summer being also cherished with comfort out of Spaine is fully suppressed and the Country reduced to such quietness and obedience as the like hath not been in those parts these many yeers the heads being all taken and reduced to obedience saving one onely named Fitz Maurice who wandreth in the deserts without any succor making means to be received to mercy but he is of so little value as it is refused unto him For your own revocation from thence I am not unmindful but have attempted the same and so mean to continue it as I hope you shall shortly receive comfort Vsque ad 5. Febr. This day the 6. of Febr. the French Ambassador came with Montlovet to her Majesty to require answer to their demands which were three First to have the Queen of Scots delivered and restored Secondly that Montlovet might repair to the Queen of Scots Thirdly that he might repair into Scotland To all these her Majesty having her whole Council in her presence That for the first she said she had used the Queen of Scots with more honor and favor then any Prince having like cause would have done and though she was not bound to make account to any Prince of her doings yet she would impart to the King her good brother some reasonable consideration of her doings and so she ended her answer to that The other two requests depended so upon the first as she said she could not accord thereunto and so though she used good loving speech to satisfie him yet in brief they departed without obtaining their requests as shortly you shall understand more at length by the next Messenger and letters which in this behalf shall be sent unto you We hear that two Ships of war of St. Malloes under the conduct of the Lord Flemings brother arrived in Don Brittons Frith the tenth of January and have as I think victualled the Castle of Don Britton whereof will follow some further annoyance to Scotland And thus I am forced to end for the present by reason of multitude of other affairs Yours assuredly W. Cecil Hampton-Court Feb. 7. 1568. To the right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador Resident with the French King SIR AFter all the other letters in this Packet were sealed up your honest servant Mr. Rogers arrived here with your letters of the contents whereof concerning the crazed shaken Treaty of peace betwixt the King and his subjects I had plainly heard four or five days past from Rochel Your intelligences accord with the like as I have received from Rochel and as you do express to us the dangerous practices of our Adversaries there so I assure you the same are not by Councellors here neglected although I can give no assurance how they shall be avoided and yet I would not doubt but with Gods goodness their whole designs should prove frustrate if our Councels might take place I have named to the Queens Majesty two to be your successors both to be well liked if their livelihoods were answerable to their other qualities the one is Mr. Francis Walsingham the other is Mr. Hen. Killigrew who is indeed in livelihood much inferrior If I can procure that either of them or some other might relieve you I assure you there shall not lack any good will in me Yours assuredly W. Cecil Hampton-Court 7. Febr. 1569. To the right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR YOur last letters are thus come to my hands Crips came with those of yours the 9. then Neal with those of the 25. of the last month and yesterday came the French Ambassadors Secretary with those of the first of March by all which is manifest the inward natural care that you take for the Queens Majesty and therein her Highness accepteth your zeal and duty most thankfully And yet I know not by what means her Majesty is not much troubled with the opinion of danger nevertheless I and others cannot be but greatly fearful for her and do and will do that in us may lye to understand thorough Gods assistance the attempts as for D many here and the most of this Council think the peril no less but rather greater if D forasmuch should Since the death of the Regent the Borderers have maintained our Rebels and invaded England wherefore for which purpose my Lord of Suffev is now ordered with an Army to invade them and make revenge whereof the Scots hearing do make all means they can to be reconciled but they must feel the sword and the fire-brand and because I will end my letter I will deliver to this bearer a short memorial of words to serve him for informing of you of the things of our State and so with my most hearty commendations I end being sorry that as yet I cannot perfect my intent for your return Your assured friend W. Cecil Hampton-Court 22. March 1569. To the right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR BY the Queens Majesty long letter you shall perceive her
towards her for any pleasures to content her in your Realm and so I took my leave of her for that time It may farther please your Majesty Having Intelligence that Mounsieur d' Oysell had advertised the Queen of Scotland by Rollot her Secretary the 17th of this present what answer your Majesty had made him and hearing also of the sundry Praises and discourses made here of that your Majesty answered I sent to Dampier a house of the Cardinal of Lorrains the 19th of this Month to the Queen of Scotland to require Audience of her which she appointed me to have the next day in the Afternoon at St. Germanes She was accompanied at Domfier with her Unkles the Cardinals of Lorrain and Guise and the Duke of Guise there was also the Duke of Nemours who the same day arrived there in Post out of Savoy and visited the said Queen before he came to this Town The 20th of this present in the afternoon I had access to the said Queen of Scotland with whom I found Mounsieur d' Oysel talking when I entred into her Chamber she dismissed Mounsieur d' Oysel and rose from her Chair when she saw me unto whom I said Madam whereas you sent lately Mounsieur d' Oysel to the Queen my Mistris to demand her Majesties safe conduct for your free passage by sea into your own Realm and to be accommodated with such favours as upon events you might have need of upon the Coast of England and also did farther require the free passage of the said Mounsieur d' Oysel into Scotland through England The Queen my Mistriss hath not thought good to suffer the said Mounsieur d' Oysel to pass into Scotland nor to satisfy your desire for your passage home neither for such other favours as you required to be accommodated withall at her Majesties hand in as much as you have not accomplished the ratification of the treaty accorded by your Deputies in July now twelve Months ago at Edenburgh which in honour you are bound many wayes to perform for besides that you stand bound by your hand and seal whereby your Commissioners were authorized it may please you Madam to remember that many promises have been made for the performance thereof as well in the King your Husbands time as by your self since his death and yet not withstanding the Treaty remaineth unratified as before a whole year being expired since the Accord thereof which by your Commissioners was agreed to have been ratified within sixty dayes So as upon this unamicable and indirect dealings the Queen my Mistriss hath refused you these favours and pleasures by you required and hath grounded this her Majesties strangeness unto you upon your own behaviour which her Majesty doth ungladly both for that your Majesty is as she is a Queen her next Neighbour and next Kinswoman nevertheless her Majesty hath commanded me to say unto you Madam quoth I that if you can like to be better advised and to ratifie the treaty as you in Honour are bound to do her Majesty will not only give you and yours free passage but also will be most glad to see you pass through her Realm that you may be accommodated with the pleasure thereof and such friendly conference may be had betwixt you as all unkindness may be quenched and an assured perfect amity betwixt you both for ever Establisht Having said thus much unto her the said Queen sat down and made me sit also by her she then commanded all the audience to retire them further of and said Mounsieur l' Ambassadour I know not well my own infirmity nor how far I may with my passion be transported but I like not to have so many witnesses of my passions as the Queen your Mistriss was content to have when she talked with Mounsieur d'Oysil there is nothing that doth more grieve me then that I did so forget my self as to require of the Queen your Mistriss that favour which I had no need to ask I needed no more to have made her privy to my Journey than she doth me of hers I may pass well enough home into my own Realm I think without her Pass-port or License for though the late King your Master said she used all the impeachment he could both to stay me and catch me when I came hither yet you know Mounsieur le Ambassadour I came hither safely and I may have as good means to help me home again as I had to come hither if I would imploy my Friends Truly said she I was so far from evil meaning to the Queen your Mistriss that at this time I was more willing to employ her Amity to stand me instead than all the Friends I have and yet you know both in this Realm and elsewhere I have both Friends and Allies and such as would be glad and willing to employ both their Forces and Aid to stand me instead you have Mounsieur l' Ambassadour quoth she oftentimes told me That the Amity between the Queen your Mistriss and me were very necessary and profitable for us both I have some Reason quoth she now to think that the Queen your Mistriss is not of that mind for I am sure if she were she would not have thus refused me thus unkindly it seemeth she maketh more account of the Amity of my disobâ—dient Subjects than she doth of me their Sovereign who am her equalind gree though inferiour in in Wisdome and experience her highest Kinswoman and her next neighbour and trow you quoth she that there can be so good meaning between my Subjects and her which have forgotten their principal duty to me their Soveraign as there should be betwixt her and me I perceive that the Queen your Mistriss doth think that because my Subjects have done me wrong my Friends and Allies will forsake me also indeed your Mistriss doth give me cause to seeke friendship where I did not mind to ask it but Mounsieur l' Ambassadour let the Queen your Mistriss think that it will be thought very strange amongst all Princes and Countries that she should first animate my Subjects against me and now being widow to impeach my going into my own Countrey I ask her nothing but friendship I do not trouble her State nor practise with her Subjects And yet I know there be in her Realm that be inclined enough to hear offers I know also they be not of the mind she is of neither in Religion nor other things The Queen your Mistriss doth say that I am young and do lack experience indeed quoth she I consess I am younger then she is and do want experience But I have age enough and experience to use my self towards my friends and Kinsfolks friendly and uprightly And I trust my discretion shall not so fail me that my Passion shall move me to use other language of her then it becometh of a Queen and my next Kinswoman Well Mounsieur l' Ambassadour I could tell you that I am as
conversant Also to Sum up and Contract is a thing in action of very general use Sir Francis Bacon to the King May it please Your most Excellent Majesty IN the midst of my Misery which is rather asswaged by Remembrance than by Hope my chiefest worldly Comfort is to think That since the time I had the first Vote of the lower House of Parliament for Commissioner of the Union until the time that I was this Parliament chosen by both Houses for their Messenger to Your Majesty in the Petition of Religion which two were my first and last Services I was evermore so happy as to have my poor Services graciously accepted by Your Majesty and likewise not to have had any of them miscarry in my hands Neither of which points I can any wayes take to my self but ascribe the former to Your Majesties Goodness and the latter to Your prudent Directions which I was ever careful to have and keep For as I have often said to Your Majesty I was towards you but as a Bucket and a Cestern to draw forth and conserve and Your Self was the Fountain Unto this comfort of Nineteen years Prosperity there succeeded a Comfort even in my greatest Adversity somewhat of the same Nature which is That in those Offences wherewith I was charged there was not any one that had special Relation to Your Majesty or any Your particular Commandments For as towards Almighty God there are Offences against the first and second Table and yet all against God so with the Servants of Kings there are Offences more immediate against the Sovereign although all Offences against Law are also against the King Unto which Comfort there is added this Circumstance That as my Faults were not against Your Majesty otherwise than as all Faults are so my Fall is not Your Majesties Act otherwise than as all Acts of Justice are Yours This I write not to insinuate with Your Majesty but as a most humble Appeal to Your Majesties gracious Remembrance how honest and direct You have ever found me in Your Service whereby I have an assured Belief That there is in Your Majesties Princely Thoughts a great deal of Serenity and Clearness to me Your Majesties now prostrate and cast-down Servant Neither my most gracious Sovereign do I by this mentioning of my Services lay claim to Your Princely Grace and Bounty though the Priviledge of Calamity do bear that Form of Petition I know well had they been much more they had been but my bounden Duty nay I must also confess That they were from time to time far above my Merit super-rewarded by Your Majesties Benefits which You heaped upon me Your Majesty was and is that Man to me that raised and advanced me Nine times Thrice in Dignity and Six times in Office The places indeed were the painfullest of all Your Service but then they had both Honour and Profit and the then Profits might have maintained my now Honour if I had been wise Neither was Your Majesties immediate Liberality wanting towards me in some Gifts if I may hold them All this I do most thankfully acknowledge and do herewith conclude That for any thing arising from my self to move Your Eye of Pity towards me there is much more in my present Misery than in my past Services save that the same Your Majesties Goodness that may give Relief to the one may give Value to the other And indeed if it may please Your Majesty This Theme of my Misery is so plentiful as it need not be coupled with any thing else I have been some body by Your Majesties singular and undeserved Favour even the prime Officer of Your Kingdom Your Majesties Arm hath been often over mine in Council when You preceded at the Table so near I was I have born Your Majesties Image in metal much more in heart I was never in Nineteen years Service chidden by Your Majesty but contrari wise often overjoyed when Your Majesty would sometimes say I was a good Husband for you though none for my Self Sometimes That I had a way to deal in business suavibus modis which was the way which was most according to Your own heart and other most gracious Speeches of Affection and Trust which I feed on till this day But why should I speak of these things which are now vanished but only the better to express my Downfall For now it is thus with me I am a year and a half old in misery though I must ever acknowledge not without some mixture of Your Majesties Grace and Mercy for I do not think it possible That any you once loved should be totally miserable My own means through miné own improvidence are poor and weak little better than my Father left me The poor things which I have had from Your Majesty are either in Question or at Courtesie My Dignities remain marks of your past Favour but yet burdens withall of my present Fortune The poor Remnants which I had of my former Fortunes in Plate or Jewels I have spred upon poor men unto whom I owed fearce leaving my self bread so as to conclude I must pour out my misery before Your Majesty so far as to say Si deseris tu perimus But as I can offer to Your Majesties Compassion little arising from my self to move You except it be my extream misery which I have truly laid open so looking up to Your Majesty Your Self I should think I committed Cains fault if I should despair Your Majesty is a King whose heart is as unscrutable for secret motions of Goodness as for depth of Wisdom You are Creator like Factive and not Destructive You are a Prince in whom I have ever noted an avertion against any thing that savoured of a hard heart as on the other side Your Princely Eye was wont to meet with any motion that was made on the relieving part Therefore as one that hath had the happiness to know Your Majesties near hand I have most gracious Sovereign faith enough for a Miracle much more for a Grace That Your Majesty will not suffer Your poor Creature to be utterly defaced nor blot that Name quite out of Your Book upon which Your Sacred hand hath been so ost for new Ornaments and Additions Unto this degree of Compassion I hope God above of whose mercy towards me both in my Prosperity and Adversity I have had great Testimonies and Pledges though mine own manifold and wretched unthankfulness might have averted them will dispose Your Princely heart already prepared to all Piety And why should I not think but that Thrice Noble Prince who would have pulled me out of the fire of a Sentence will help to pull me if I may use that homely Phrase out of the mire of an abject and sordid Condition in my last dayes And that excellent Favourite of Yours the goodness of whose Nature contendeth with the greatness of his Fortune and who counteth it a prize a second prize to be a good Friend after that