March 30. 1663. Let this Collection of Letters and other Discourses be Printed HENRY BENNET SCRINIA CECILIANA MYSTERIES OF State Government IN LETTERS Of the late Famous Lord Burghley And other Grand Ministers of STATE In the Reigns of Queen ELIZABETH and King JAMES Being a further Additional Supplement of the CABALA AS ALSO Many Remarkable Passages faithfully Revised and no where else Published With two exact Tables The one of the Letters The other of Things most Observable LONDON Printed for G. Bedel and T. Collins and are to be sold at their Shop at the Middle-Temple-gate in Fleetstreet 1663. The Stationers To the READER Courteous Reader ALthough it be a received Position That Merit is worthier than Fame yet duly considered they ought to be inseparable the one being the just Guerdon of the other Upon that account we have presumed to make Publick these ensuing Memorials or Letters being Monuments of some late Eminent Patriots and Hero's of this Nation Who whilst they were Actors in such grand Affairs as suited with their high Service under their Sovereigns were deservedly Dignified here and Renowned abroad The first of these Worthies being Sir William Cecil Lord Burghley who was an unparallel'd Minister of State And as we conceive of the longest continuance that any Prince then or ever since with such Success enjoyed a person alwayes peaceable and moderate free from Covetousness or Ambition in the course of his Service rather willing to endure the Burthen than desiring the fruition of Honour or Profit profound in Judgment assisted with great Experience and therefore worthily celebrated both here and abroad as Pater Patriae and an indefatigable Votary to the Crown And for the matters and designs in the Letters themselves we shall be silent hoping the Fame of the person will be motive sufficient for you to purchase this Jewel Concerning the Times they were wheeled about with new and great Revolutions and Divisions not only at Home but also in France Scotland the Low Countries and generally in most of the other Kingdoms and States abroad Forâs Pugnae intus Timores Conspiracies Invasions and Insurrections amongst our selves War Devastations and Massacres amongst our Neighbours for the most part shadowed with the Vaile of Religion many Princes of the Blood and persons of great Authority being sacrificed on either part turbulent Times and of great mutations proper to try the Ability and Fidelity of a State Atlas wherein with what Wisdom he acquitted himself is referred to you to determine The next is Sir Nicholas Throckmorton Ambassador in France for Queen Elizabeth in the Infancy of her Reign we have nothing here of his remains but only his Letter to Her Majesty touching a free passage for the Queen of Scots through England wherein you will find variety of Politick Reasons pressed on each part with smart Judgment In the third place is Sir Philip Sidney that choice Darling of the Muses whom we suppose you will freely grant to have been Tam Marti quam Mercurio in whom England Netherland the Heavens and the Arts the Souldiers and the World did emulate a share here we have only a dissuasive Letter to the Queen touching Her Marriage with Mounsieur of France fortified with many pressing and effectual Reasons against that match and penned with a Politick and Ingenuous Stile And in the last place we present you with some Pieces of the inimitable Viscount St. Alban some in the Reign of the late glorious Queen and others in the Halcyon dayes of the late King James never before to our best knowledge made Publick deck't with many grateful Flowers of Philosophy History and Policy the Fall of the Earl of Somerset and the immediate Advance of the Duke of Buckingham with many other passages of moment and here you may observe the memorials of other worthy persons although the Title point only at Sir William Cecil for we conceive it not imaginable That such experienced and sure Masters of Knowledge would employ their thoughts in any thing sleight or superficial However we dare not assume that boldness as to write Encomiasticks of such great Personages that Right we suppose is much better performed by more quaint Pens already Lunae Radiis non maturescit Botrus And their Names and Honour still live in fresh memory Here you may safely turn Necromancer and consult with the dead or rather with the living for such Monuments as these survive Marble Dignum laude virum Musa vetat mori These are not like Augustus his two infamous Daughters or his unworthy Nephew Posthumus Agrippa Impostumes as he termed them that broke from him but pure and legitimate Issue of the nobler part which is with care exposed to publick View for the better accomodation of those that have been pleased to purchase the two former Volumes of the like Nature and Quality Temple-gate June 18. 1663. G. B. T. C. A TABLE of the LETTERS contained in this COLLECTION B. SIR Francis Bacon to the Lord Treasurer Burghley Pag. 1. Sir Francis Bacon to the Lord Treasurer Burghley p. 2. Sir Francis Bacon in recommendation of his Service to the Earl of Northumberland a few dayes before Queen Elizabeths death p. 4. Sir Francis Bacon to Mr. Robert Kempe upon the death of Queen Elizabeth p. 5. Sir Francis Bacon to Mr. David Foules in Scotland upon the entrance of His Majesties Reign ibid. Sir Francis Bacon to the King upon presenting his Discourse touching the Plantation of Ireland p. 6. Sir Francis Bacon to the Lord Chancellor touching the History of Britain p. 7. Sir Francis Bacon to the King upon the sending unto him a beginning of a History of His Majesties time p. 9. Sir Francis Bacon to the Earl of Salisbury upon sending him one of his Books of Advancement of Learning ibid. Sir Francis Bacon to the Lord Treasurer Buckhurst upon the same occasion of sending his Book of Advancement of Learning p. 10. A Letter of the like Argument to the Lord Chancellor ibid. Sir Francis Bacon of like Argument to the Earl of Northampton with Request to present the Book to His Majesty p. 11. Sir Francis Bacon his Letter of Request to Dr. Plafer to Translate the Book of Advancement of Learning into Latine ibid. Sir Francis Bacon to Sir Thomas Bodley upon sending him his Book of the Advancement of Learning p. 13. Sir Francis Bacon to the Bishop of Ely upon sending his Writing intituled Cogitata visa ibid. Sir Francis Bacon to Sir Thomas Bodley after he had imparted to him a Writing intituled Cogitata visa p. 14. Sir Francis Bacon to Mr. Matthew upon sending him part of Instauratio Magna p. 15. Sir Francis Bacon to Mr. Matthew touching Instauratio Magna p. 16. A Letter to Mr. Matthew upon sending his Book De Sapientia Veterum p. 17. Sir Francis Bacon to Mr. Savill ibid. Sir Francis Bacon to the King touching the Sollicitors place p. 18. Sir Francis Bacon to the King his Suit to succeed in the
interessed in the care of future times that as well their Progeny as their people may participate of their merit Your Majesty is a great Master in Justice and Judicature and it were pity the fruit of that your vertue should not be transmitted to the ages to come Your Majesty also reigneth in learned times the more no doubt in regard of your own perfection in learning and your Patronage thereof and it hath been the mishap of works that the less learned time hath sometimes wrought upon the more Learned which now will not be so As for my self the Law was my profession to which I am a debtor some little help I have of my Arts which may give form to matter and I have now by Gods merciful chastisement and by his special providence time and leasure to put my Talent or half Talent or what it is to such exchanges as may perhaps exceed the Interest of an active life Therefore as in the beginning of my troubles I made offer to Your Majesty to take pains in the story of England and in compiling a Method and Digest of your Laws so have I performed the first which rested but upon my self in some part And I do in all humbleness renew the offer of this Letter which will require help and assistance to Your Majesty if it shall stand with your good pleasure to imploy my service therein Sir Francis Bacon to the Right Honourable his very good Lord the Earl of Devonshire Lord Lieutenant of Ireland IT may please your good Lordship I cannot be ignorant and ought to be sensible of the wrong which I sustain Common speech as if I had been false or unthankful to that noble but unfortunate Earl the Earl of Essex and for satisfying the vulgar sort I do not so much regard it though I love a good name but yet as a hand-maid and attendant of honesty and vertue For I am of his opinion that said pleasantly that it was a shame to him that was a Suitor to the Mistress to make Love to the Waiting-woman And therefore to Wooe or Court common fame otherwise then it followeth upon honest courses I for my part find not my self fit nor disposed But on the otherside there is no worldly thing that concerneth my self which I hold more dear then the good opinion of certain persons amongst which there is none I would more willingly give satisfaction unto then to your Lordship First because you loved my Lord of Essex and therefore will not be partial towards me which is part of that I desire next because it hath ever pleased you to shew your self to me an honourable friend and so no baseness in me to seek to satisfie you And lastly because I know your Lordship is excellently grounded in the true rules and habits of duties and moralities which must be they which shall decide this matter wherein my Lord my defence needeth to be but simple and brief namely that whatsoever I did concerning that action and proceeding was done in my duty and service to the Queen and her State in which I would not shew my self falshearted nor faint-hearted for any mans sake alive For every honest man that hath his heart well planted will forsake his King rather than forsake God and forsake his Friends than forsake his King and yet will forsake any earthly Commodity yea and his own life in some cases rather than forsake his Friend I hope the world hath not forgotten his degrees else the Heathen saying amicus usque ad aras shall jndge them and if any man shall say that I did officiously intrude my self into that business because I had no ordinary place the like may be said of all the business in effect that passed the hands of the learned Councel either of State or Revenue these many years wherein I was continually used for as your Lordship may remember the Queen knew her strength so well as she looked her word should be a Warrant and after the manner of the choicest Princes before her did not always tye her trust to place but did sometimes divide private favour from office And I for my part though I was not unseen in the world but I knew the condition was subject to envie and peril yet because I knew again she was constant in her favours and made an end where she began and especially because she upheld me with extraordinary access and other demonstrations confidence and Grace I resolved to endure it in expectation of better But my scope and desire is that your Lordship would be pleased to have the honourable patience to know the truth in some particularity of all that passed in this cause wherein I had any part that you may perceive how honest a heart I ever bare to my Sovereign and to my Countrey and to that Nobleman who had so well deserved of me and so well accepted of my deservings whose fortune I cannot remember without much grief But for any action of mine towards him there is nothing that passed me in my life-time that cometh to my remembrance with more clearness and less check of Conscience For it will appear to your Lordship that I was not only not opposite to my Lord of Essex but that I did occupy the utmost of my wits and adventured my Fortune with the Queen to have redintegrated his and so continued faithfully and industriously till his last fatal impatience for so I will call it after which day there was not time to work for him though the same my affection when it could not work upon the subject proper went to the next with no ill effect towards some others who I think do rather not know it than not acknowledge it And this I will assure your Lordship I will leave nothing untold that is truth for any enemy that I have to add and on the other side I must reserve much which makes for me upon many respects of Duty which I esteem above my Credit And what I have here set down to your Lordship I protest as I hope to have any part in Gods favour is true It is well known how I did many years since dedicate my travels and studies to the use and as I may term it service of my Lord of Essex which I protest before God I did not making election of him as the likeliest mean of my own advancement but out of the humour of a man that ever from the time I had any use of Reason whether it were reading upon good Books or upon the example of a good Father or by Nature I loved my Countrey more then was answerable to my Fortune and I held at that time my Lord to be the fittest instrument to do good to the State and therefore I applied my self wholly to him in a manner which I think happeneth rarely amongst men For I did not only labour carefully and industriously in that he set me about whether it were matter of advice or otherwise but neglecting the
sorry that at present I am unfurnished to help you with a Secretary my servant Windebanke is sick Mr. Sommers will not be induced to leave his place So as nevertheless if I can procure you any other meet person by the next Messenger you shall hear I thank you for the Chart of Paris and for a written Book to the Queens Majestie whereof her Majesty would gladly know the Author And so I end Yours assuredly W. Cecil Richmond 14. July 1567. To the right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR AT my last writing by Master Jenny I did not make any mention of answer to your request for the provision of a Secretary Because I heard that you meant to place one Molenenx if he might be recommended by me and truly if he be meet for the place I do well allow thereof for howsoever he did in times past misuse me I have remitted it and wish him well My Lord Keeper prayeth you to use some good means to inquire by the way of Orleans of Sir Ralph Pawlet what is become of him and where he is and how he doth It is certain on the 29. of July the Prince of Scotland was Crowned King at Sterling with all the Ceremonies thereto due and with a general applause of all sorts the Queen yet remaineth where she was Yours assuredly W. Cecil Windsor 5. Aug. 1567. To the right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR YOu shall perceive by the Queens Majesties Letter to you at this present how earnestly she is bent in the favor of the Queen of Scots and truely since the beginning she hath been greatly offended with the Lords and howsoever her Majesty might make her profit by bearing with the Lords in this Action yet no councel can stay her Majestie from manifesting of her misliking of them So as indeed I think thereby the French may and will easily catch them and make their present profit of them to the damage of England and in this behalf her Majesty had no small misliking of that Book which you sent me written in French whose name yet I know not but howsoever I think him of great Wit and acquaintance in the affairs of the world It is not in my power to procure any reward and therefore you must so use the matter as he neither be discouraged nor think unkindness in me When all is done I think my Lord of Murray will take the Office of Regency and will so band himself with the rest as he will be out of peril at home And as for External power to offend them I think they are so skillful of other Princes causes and needs as I think they will remain without fear We are occupied with no news greater then this of Scotland We begin to doubt of the King of Spains coming out of Spain finding it more likely for his Son to come In Ireland all things proceed smoothly to make the whole Realm obedient the Deputie hath leave to come over to confer with the Queens Majesty upon the affairs My Lord of Sussex wrot from Augusta the 24. of July that he meant to be at Vienna the last of July and also that the Emperor meant to be there at the same time I must heartily pray you to bear with my advice that in your expences you have consideration not to expend so much as by your Bills brought to me by your servant Cartwright it seemeth you do for truely I have no Warrant to allow such several Fees as be therein contained neither did I know any of the like allowed to any of your predecessors and in the paying for your intelligences if you be not well ware you shall for the most part have counterfeited ware for good money In matters of importance or when you are precisely commanded to prosecute matters of weight it is reason your extraordinary charges be born but as to the common Advisees of the Occurrents abroad they are to be commonly had for small value and many times as news for news for at this day the common Advisees from Venice Rome Spain Constantinople Vienna Geneva Naples yea and from Paris are made so currant as every Merchant hath them with their letters from their Factors If I did not know your good Nature I would not thus plainly write and yet if I should not hereof warn you your expences might increase and I know not how to procure your payment and yet hereby I mean to do my best at all times to help you to allowance for all necessary expences and so take my leave Yours assuredly W. Cecil From the Mannor of Guilford 19. Aug. 1567. To the right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR I Have had no good Messenger of good time to write unto you the Queens Majesty hath been abroad from Windsor these twenty dayes and returned on Saturday very well Lignerolls is come out of Scotland with very small satisfaction as I think he could not speak with the Queen no more then Sir Nicholas Throckmorton who also is returning The Hambletons hold out the Earl of Murray is now Regent the Queens Majesty our Sovereign remaineth still offended with the Lords for the Queen the example moveth her In Ireland all things prosper and be quiet Sir Henry Sydney shall come onely to confer and shall return to keep a Parliament in Ireland My Lord of Sussex was honorably received the fifth of August lodged and defrayed by the Emperor had his first Audience on the eight the Arch-Duke Charles was looked for within five days and now we daily look for Sir Henry Cobham to come in Post at the least within these ten days All things are quiet within this Realm thanked be Almighty God I have presently a paper sent me from Antwerp in French very strange containing an Edict to compell all Judges Governors all Officers and Councellors to give Attestation of the Catholick Faith if it should be true it should be a hazard to make a plain civil war My Lady your Wife came this night hither to Windsor whom I have warned to write to you by this bearer Yours assuredly W. Cecil Septem 3. 1567. To the Right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR YOu may perceive by the Queens letter how this noble man is partly of his own minde partly by perswasion stayed and surely if either the French King or the Queen should appear to make any force against them of Scotland for the Queens cause we finde it credibly that it were the next way to make an end of her and for that cause her Majesty is loth to take that way for avoiding of standers that might grow thereby I had provided a young man for you which could have served very well for writing and speaking of French and English but I durst not allow him to serve you in your
they have Priests of their Faction who to please the people thereabouts give them Masses and some such trash of the spoils and wastes where they have been and upon the sudden having levyed of all sorts as it is thought of Footmen about four thousand simply appointed for the wars and of Horsemen about a thousand wherein indeed all their strength is and with these numbers before the Earl of Sussex could gather numbers meet to resist them they came down to Todcaster Ferry-brigs and Doncaster being twelve miles or thereabouts wide from Yorke and were not indeed resisted untill at Doncaster the Lord Darcy of the North with certain numbers which he was leading to Yorke did very valiantly repulse a number of them hereupon they are retired to Richmondshire and know not what to enterprise by their stragling in this sort The Earl of Sussex is at Yorke where Sir Ralph Sadler is and hath levyed the power of York-shire against them the Lord Hunsdon is sent to Berwick and to the Borders to levy the like there Sir John Forster to do the like in his marches the Lord Scroope also in his Wardenry the Earl of Cumberland and the Lord Wharton to joyn with their Forces in Westmerland and that side and besides the Lord Admiral with the Forces of Lincoln-shire and the Earl of Warwick with other numbers of Nottinghamshire Darbyshire Warwick-shire and other parts of the South are appointed Lieutenants of the Army who are to joyn with my Lord of Sussex and to do further as shall be found meet And by this means you shall hear shortly I doubt not of the confusion of this Rebellious enterprise who as you may perceive by the Queens Majesties Proclamation are proclaimed thorough the Realm as they have behaved themselves The Queens Majesty hath besides ready upon all occasions an Army of fifteen thousand near to her own person The Queen of Scots is removed from Tutbery to Coventry where attends on her the Earls of Shrewsbury and Huntington Under the Conduct of the Army of the Southern parts is the Viscount Hereford with the power of Staffordshire very well appointed and divers Gentlemen of credit and service of the Court and other places of themselves are gone thither to serve under the said Lieutenants In company with those said Rebels are not many Gentlemen of name but Norton an old man who carryeth the Cross Markinfield Swynbourne and an Uncle of the Earl of Westmerland named Christopher Nevill all the Realm and all the Nobillity besides these onely two Rebels are as obedient as ever they were and surely so like to be whatsoever our ill-willers may report Yours assured W. Cecil 2 Novemb. 1569. To the right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador c. SIR I Have forborn these two or three days to write unto you because I could not by occasion of some sickness use my own hand and also because I would not detain here any longer this bearer Mr. Rogers who is both serviceable for you and desirous to be returned thither I have thought good to dispatch him towards you who can inform you of such news as we have here and that he may the better do it I have imparted to him such things as I think meet for you to know and for that I am not well able at present to write any more I trust you will be for this time satisfied with such declaration as this bearer shall make unto you Thus fare you heartily well From Windsor the 10. Nov. 1569. I think long to hear from you because I have not received any letters from you since the tenth of the last month which D'amons brought but I doubt not but some of yours be on the way whereby we may understand how things pass there Since the writing hereof came yesterday your Lackqueywith letters of the of wherein you make mention that Lodowick the Count Nassau should be slain which I trust is not so because of other letters which I have seen that came hither by the way of Rochell that testifie nothing of his death but great praise of his service the day of the battel At this present I am unable to write by reason of some sick ness as this bearer can report Herewith I send you a copy in writing of such things as after long debate betwixt the French Ambassador and us hath been here accorded which I wish may be as well performed on their part as they have promised I pray you Sir commend me to my good Lady and your Sons Yours assuredly W. Cecil 12. Novemb. at night To the right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador c. SIR THough I think this bringer will deliver you my letter yet I know not with what readiness he will impart to you our state here and therefore have thought good to advertise you thus much that thanked be God our Northern Rebellion is fallen flat to the ground and scattered away The Earls are fled into Northumberland seeking all ways to escape but they are roundly pursued Sir John Forster and Sir Henry Percy in one company my Lord of Sussex in another The 16. hereof they broke up their sorry Army and the 18. they entred into Northumberland the 19. into the Mountains they scattered all their Footmen willing them to shift for themselves and of a thousand Horsemen there fled but five hundred By this time they be fewer and I trust either taken or fled into Scotland where the Earl of Murray is in good readiness to chase them to their ruine yesternight came Mr. Madder and upon the next letters from my Lord of Sussex I will send away Crips or some other The Queens Majesty hath had a notable Tryal of her whole Realm and subjects in this time wherein she hath had service readily of all sorts without respect of Religion Yours assuredly W. Cecil Windsor 24. Decemb. To the right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador c. SIR I Have long time determined to send away this bearer your servant Henry Crips but my delay hath grown of a desire that I had to see some good issue of this Rebellion which as it hath had a time of declination and is now suppressed so could I not well before this time send this bearer away who now bringeth her Majesties letters unto you by which you shall understand how her pleasure is that you should impart the events thereof in that Court and indeed hitherto we have no certain and manifest proofs that it should have any other ground but as it is expressed in her Majesties letters nevertheless we have discovered some tokens and we hear of some words uttered by the Earl of Northumberland that maketh us to think this Rebellion had more Branches both of our own and strangers then did appear and I trust the same will be found out though perchance when all are known in secret manner all may not be notified Of all other Occurrents
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.
since ignominy had made him unfit for his Majesties service I am of opinion that the fair usage of him as it was fit for the Spanish examinations and for the questions touching the Papers and Dispatches and all that so it was no good preparative to make him descend into himself touching his present danger and therefore my Lord Chancellor and my self thought not good to insist upon it at this time I have received from my Lord Chief Justice the examinations of Sir William Mounson with whom we mean to proceed to further examination with all speed My Lord Chief Justice is altered touching the re-examination of the Lady and desired me that we might stay till he spake with his Majesty saying it could be no casting back to the business which I did approve My self with the rest of my fellows upon due and mature advice perfected our Report touching the Chancery for the receiving whereof I pray you put his Majesty in mind at his coming to appoint some time for us to wait upon him all together for the delivery in of the same as we did in our former Certificate For the Revenue matters I reserve them to his Majesties coming and in the mean time I doubt not but Master Secretary Winwood will make some kind of Report thereof to his Majesty For the conclusion of your Letter concerning my own comfort I can say but the Psalm of Quid retribuam God that giveth me favour in his Majesties eyes will strengthen me in his Majesty service I ever rest Your true and devoted Servant April 18. 1616. To requite your Post-script of excuse for scribling I pray you excuse that the Paper is not gilt I writing from Westminster Hall where we are not so fine Sir Francis Bacon the Kings Attorney to Sir George Villiers touching the proceeding with Somerset SIR I Have received my Letter from his Majesty with his marginal notes which shall be my directions being glad to perceive I understand his Majesty so well That little Charm which may be secretly infused into Somersets ear some few hours before his Tryal was excellently well thought of by his Majesty and I do approve it both for matter and time only if it seem good to his Majesty I would wish it a little enlarged For if it be no more but to spare his blood he hath a kind of proud humour which may over-work the Medicine Therefore I could wish it were made a little stronger by giving him some hope that his Majesty will be good to his Lady and child and that time when Justice and his Majesties Honour is once salved and satisfied may produce further fruit of his Majesties compassio which was to be seen in the example of Southampton whom his Majesty after attainder restor d and Cobham and Gray to whom his Majesty notwithstanding they were offendors against his own person yet spared their lives and for Gray his Majesty gave him back some part of his estate and was upon point to deliver him much more he having been so highly in his Majesties favour may hope well if he hurt not himself by his publick misdemeanor For the person that should deliver this message I am not so well seen in the Religion of his friends as to be able to make choice of a particular my Lord Treasurer the Lord Knolles or any of his neerest friends should not be trusted with it for they may go too far and perhaps work contrary to His Majesties ends Those which occur to me are my Lord Hay my Lord Burghley of England I mean and Sir Robert Carr. My Lady of Somerset hath been re-examined and His Majesty is sound both a true Prophet and a most just King in that scruple he made For now she expoundeth the word He that should send the Tarts to Helwish's wife to be of Overbury and not of Somerset But for the person that should bid her she saith it was Northampton or Weston not pitching upon certainty which giveth some advantage to the evidence Yesterday being Wednesday I spent 4 or 5 houres with the Judges whom His Majesty designed to take consideration with the four Judges of the Kings Bench of the Evidence against Somerset They all concurre in opinion that the questioning him and drawing him on to tryal is most honourable and just and that the Evidence is fair and good His Majesties Letter to the Judges concerning the Commendams was full of magnanimity and wisdome I perceive His Majesty is never less alone then when he is alone for I am sure there was no body by him to informe him which made me admire it the more The Judges have given day over till the second Saturday of the next term so as that matter may indure further consideration for His Majesty not only not to lose ground but to win ground To morrow is appointed for the examination of Somerset which by some infirmitie of the Duke of Lenox was put off from this day When this is done I will write more fully ever resting Your true and devoted servant May 2. 1616. Sir Francis Bacon the Kings Attorney to Sir George Villiers of Account and Advice to His Majesty touching Somerset's Arraignment SIR I Am far enough from opinion that the Redintegration or Resuscitation of Somersets fortune can ever stand with his Majesties honour and safety and therein I think I exprest my self fully to his Majesty in one of my former letters and I know well any expectation or thought abroad will do much hurt But yet the glimmering of that which the King hath done to others by way of talke to him cannot hurt as I conceive but I would not have that part of the Message as from the King but added by the Messenger as from himself This I remit to His Majesties Princely judgement For the person though he trust the Lieutenant well yet it must be some new man for in these cases that which is ordinary worketh not so great impressions as that which is new and extraordinary The time I wish to be the Tuesday being the even of his Ladies Arraignment For as His Majesty first conceived I would not have it stay in his stomack too long lest it sowre in the digestion and to be too neer the time may be thought but to tune him for that day I send herewithal the substance of that which I purpose to say nakedly and only in that part which is of tenderness for that I conceive was His Majesties meaning It will be necessary because I have distributed parts to the two Serjeants as that Paper doth express and they understand nothing of His Majesties pleasure of the manner of carrying the Evidence more than they may guess by observation of my Example which they may ascribe as much to my nature as to direction therefore that His Majesty would be pleased to write some few words to us all signed with His own Hand that the matter it self being Tragical enough bitterness and insulting be forborn and that
Queens Service mine own Fortune and in a sort my Vocation I did nothing but devise and ruminate with my self to the best of my understanding Propositions and Memorials of any thing that might concern his Lordships Honour Fortune or Service And when not long after I entred into this course my Brother Mr. Anthony Bacon came from beyond the Seas being a Gentleman whose abilities the World taketh knowledge of for matter of State specially Forreign I did likewise knit his Service to be at my Lords disposing And on the other side I must and will ever acknowledge my Lords love trust and favour towards me and last of all his liberality having enfeoffed me of land which I sold for 1800 l. to Mr. Reynold Nicholas and I think was more worth and that at such a time and with so kind and noble circumstances as the manner was as much as the matter Which though it be but an idle digression yet because I will not be short in commemoration of his benefits I will presume to trouble your Lordship with the relating to you the manner of it After the Queen had denied me the Sollicitors place for the which his Lordship had been a long and earnest Suitor on my behalf it pleased him to come to me from Richmond to Twilknam Park and brake with me and said Mr. Bacon the Queen hath denied me the place for you and hath placed another I know you are the least part of your own matter but you fare ill because you have chosen me for your mean and dependance you have spent your time and thoughts in my matters I die these were the very words if I do not somewhat towards your Fortune you shall not deny to accept a piece of land which I will bestow upon you My answer I remember was That for my Fortune it was no great matter but that his Lordships offer made me call to mind what was wont to be said when I was in France of the Duke of Guise That he was the greatest Usurer in France because he had turned all his Estate into Obligations meaning that he had left himself nothing but only had bound numbers of persons to him Now my Lord said I I would not have you imitate this course nor turn your state thus by greatest gifts into obligations for you will find many bad Debtors He bade me take no care for that and pressed it whereupon I said I see my Lord that I must be your Homager and hold land of your gift but do you know the manner of doing Homage in Law alwayes it is with a saving of his faith to the King and his other Lords and therefore my Lord said I I can be no more yours than I was and it must be with the ancient savings and if I grow to be a rich man you will give me leave to give it back a gain to some of your un-rewarded followers But to return Sure I am though I can arrogate nothing to my self but that I was a faithful Remembrancer to your Lordship that while I had most credit with him his fortune went on best and yet in too many points we always directly and condradictorily differed which I will mention to your Lordship because it giveth light to all that followed The one was I alwayes set this down That the only course to be held with the Queen was by obsequiousness and observance and I remember I would usually gage confidently that if he would take that course constantly and with choice of good particulars to express it the Queen would be brought in time to Ahasuerus Question to ask What should be done to the man that the King would honour meaning that her goodness was without limit where there was a true concurrence which I knew in her nature to be true My Lord on the other side had a setled opinion that the Queen should be brought to nothing but by a kind of necessity and authority and I well remember when by violent Courses at any time he had got his Will he would ask me Now Sir whose Principles be true and I would again say to him My Lord these Courses be like to hot waters they will help at a pang but if you use them you shall spoil the stomack and you shall be fain still to make them stronger and stronger and yet in the end they will lose their operation with much other variety wherewith I used to touch that string Another point was That I alwayes vehemently perswaded him from seeking greatness by a Military dependance or by a Popular dependance as that which would breed in the Queen Jealousie in himself Presumption and in the State Perturbation and I did usually compare them to Icarus two wings which were joined on with wax and would make him venture to soar too high and then fail him at the height And I would further say unto him My Lord stand upon two feet and flie not upon two wings The two feet are the two kinds of Justice commutative and distributive use your greatness for advancing of merit and vertue and relieving wrongs and burthens you shall need no other art of sineness but he would tell me that opinion came not from my mind but from my robe But it is very true that I that never meant to enthrall my self to my Lord of Essex nor any other man more than stood with the publick good did though I could little prevail divert him by all means possible from Courses of the Wars and Popularity for I saw plainly the Queen must either live or dye if she lived then the times would be as in the declination of an old Prince if she died the times would be as in the beginning of a new and that if his Lordship did rise too fast in these Courses the times might be dangerous for him and he for them Nay I remember I was thus plain with him upon his Voyage to the Islands when I saw every spring put forth such actions of charge and provocation that I said to him My Lord when I came first to you I took you for a Physitian that desired to cure the diseases of the State but now I doubt you will be like to those Physitians which can be content to keep their Patients long because they would alwayes be in request which plainness he nevertheless took very well as he had an excellent care and was patientissimus veri and assured me the case of the Realm required it and I think this speech of mine and the like renewed afterwards pricked him to write that Apology which is in many mens hands But this dfference in two points so main and material bred in process of time a discontinuance of privateness as it is the manner of men seldom to Communicate where they think their courses not approved between his Lordship and my self so as I was not called nor advised with for some year and a half before his Lordships going into Ireland as in former time yet
Hostages and the Regent in the mean time intendeth to use his force to subdue the Out-laws upon our Frontiers I received letters even now out of Ireland by which it is written of the defeat of four hundred Irish and Scots onely by sixscore Englishmen I shall continually hearken for your letters to declare to us the truth of this great tale of the Battail of Cognac We hear that the Count Meighen is newly departed and fled into Germany upon fear Yours assuredly W. Cecil 27. March 1568. Postscrip The time serveth me not to write to you of your self for your motion of leaving that place To the right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight c. SIR SInce the coming hither of Harcourt who came hither on St. George his day as it seemeth with good haste we here have been much unsatisfied for that we could not imagine what to conceive to be the cause that in so long space we heard not from you having in the mean time so many divers tales as we were more troubled with the uncertainty then glad of the news and toadd more grief we could not hear from Rochel since the Re-encounter untill now by a Merchant that came hither within these two dayes past by whom we are more ascertained then before by him we understand that the loss of the Prince is more in reputation then in deed for that now the whole Army is reduced to better Order then it was before The Vidame of Charles is come to Plimouth and his wife as it is thought not being well liked of amongst the Nobility because he married so meanly indeed it must needs be some reproof to him to come away when service is requisite Since the accord made in Scotland the 13. of March at Easter last the Duke of Chastil-herault and his part hearing as it is thought of the death of the Prince of Conde and by brute that the Admiral and all that party were utterly subverted did go back from their agreement which was to acknowledge the young King and the Regent whereupon as we hear the Duke himself the Archbishop of St. Andrew the Lord Herryes and the Lord Rosbim are committed to the Castle of Edenburgh what will follow I know not God stay these troubles that increase so near us I think you do hear from Mr. Killigrew who is sent to the Palsgrave of Rheine and so I end Yours assuredly W. Cecil April 27. 1569. Postscript Sir to avoid some length of my own writing I do send you herewith the sum of the Negotiation lately with the French Ambassador and thereto have adjoyned the Copy of the Proclamation that is meant to be made by the Queens Majesty which is mentioned in the other writing and a Copy also of a clause contained in the French Kings Proclamation by all means you may well understand that which hath passed in this matter and shape your own speech there accordingly > W. Cecil To the right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight Ambassador in France SIR YOu have much satisfied us here with your letters sent by Madder who is able to explicate the affairs very sensibly and now I have thought good to address to you Hartcourte knowing that he is very serviceable unto you And as for any news to make recompence to you I have not and glad I am that our Country doth not yeild any such as France and yet in the way of Christian charity I do lament the misfortune of France marvailling that a Country that hath had so many wise men able to offend other Countries hath none to devise help for themselves I wish that you would learn of the Spanish Ambassador there whether he sent the letters which you delivered to him from the Queens Majesty There is some secret means made hither to come to accord with the Low Countries and therein I see the most doubt will be in devising assurance how to continue the accords Our Navy hath been ready these fourteen days at Harwich to go with the Merchants Fleet of Wooll and Cloth to Hamburgh and our Fleet that was appointed to Rochel is as we think there by means of the Easterly winds that hâ—th hindred and stayed the other Fleet. God send them both a good return for they are no small offence to our neighbors that to Hamburgh to the Duke of Alva and the other to the French The French Ambassador continueth a suitor that no Ambassador be sent to Rochell and that our Merchants cannot forbear specially for Salt which cannot be had in other places although even now great likelihood is of sufficiency to be had within these 12. moneths in England The Earl of Murray proceedeth still in uniting to him the Lords that were divorced from him and specially of late the Earl of Arguile is reconciled to him and the like is looked for of the Earl of Huntley I have no more but to end with my commendations Yours assured at command W. Cecil Greenwich 15. May 1569. SIR YOur last letters that came hither to my hands were written the 27. by which amongst other things you wrote of the brute of the impoisoning Dandelot by the means of an Italian of which matter we were here advertised almost ten days before the report was in part before he was sick such assurance have these Artizans of their works the will of God be fulfilled to the confusion and shame of such as work them and such great iniquities We have certain news from Rochell that Dandelot being opened the very poison was manifestly found in him The Queens Majesty of late was very credibly advertised by sight of original letters of persons of no small reputation in that Kings Court which have entreated of the matter whereof heretofore your self hath advertised concerning the D and for the transterring 3. And now her Majesty would have you use all good means that you can possible to learn some more truth hereof and thereof with speed to advise her Majesty for it is so precisely denyed on the other part here as nothing can be more The French Ambassador continueth complaining of lack of restitution in general yet I assure you he never is refused restitution upon any particular demand where contrarywise our Merchants are daily evil used at Rhoan and specially Callis and as it seemeth the Governor of Callis regardeth not the Ambassadors speeches or promises here or else it is Covenanted betwixt them to Boulster out their doings Mr. Winter departed from Harwich the 19. of May and came to Hamburgh the 23. remained there untill the 28. and returned safe to Harwich the first of June all in good safety with the Queens Ships leaving two there to return with our Merchants It is found that all the Ships in the Country dare not deal with six of the Queens being armed as they are motion is made of accord betwixt us and the Low Countries The Earl of Murray hath no resistance in Scotland Yours assuredly W. Cecil Greenwich 4. June
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
to there to understand the certainty of the matter whereof you did last advertise her Majesty concerning the For herein it is necessary to be better ascerâ—ained then by reports lest some may inform you of things to move us here to enter further then will be allowâ—ble Your constancy in opinion for the maintenance of Gods cause is here of good Councellors much liked and in that respect I assure you I do earnestly commend you Yours assuredly W. Cecil Greenwich 11. July 1569. Postscript I pray thaâ—â— may be commended to my good Lay whom I see void of fear of Wars for love of your company To the right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR YOur last letters brought unto me by the French Ambassadors Secretary were of the 9. of this moneth the advertisement wherein being in Ciphers contented me so much as I wish you could by the next make me good assurance of the truth thereof and if the same be true met 〈…〉 the contrary party should not forbear to take advantage of the time This 〈◊〉 the Frenth Ambassador had to dinner with him the Duke of Norfolk the Earl o 〈…〉 the Earl of Leicester my Lord Chamberlain and my self having invited us four or five days past where my Lord of Leicester and I had privately reported the misusage of you by them of your house by the Parisians who seemed to be ignorant thereof imputing the same to their insolency reporting for example their late boldness in executing of the two Merchants which the King had pardoned whereof your self also of late wrote unto the Queens Majesty Afterward he entred more privately with me in discoursing of the causes why you were misliked there to be onely for the intelligence which you had with his Masters Rebels a matter as he said if he should attempt the like here he knew that I would so mislike as he could not be suffered to remain here as an Ambassador I told him that for any thing to me known therein he did as much here to his power but we had no such cause of suspicion as they had and therefore he heard nothing of us I confess that I thought you as well-willing to the cause of Religion as any Minister the Queen had and I liked you the better neither would I ever consent that any other manner of person should be sent to be our Ambassador there In the end he required me to write earnestly â—â—to you by way of advice that you would for-bear your manner of dealing with the Kings Rebels and I told him that so I would and durst assure him that you would deal with none whom you could account as Rebells percase you would wish well to the Kings good servants that were afflicted for their consciences and so after such like advisings we went to dinne Wheâ— I consider by whom I send this letter I mean your Son I finde myself ensured of writing being also as he knoweth oppressed at present with business I am bold to end with my heartiest commendations to you and my Lady I thank you for your good entertainment of Mr. Borthick for he hath written thereof very well W. Cecil 20. July 1569. To the right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR SInce the time that we first sent the Merchants to Rhoan to confer with the Marshall de Crosse for restitution to be made on either side we never heard from them but once at which time they advertised us that the Merchants pretended ignorance of those things which the Ambassador here had alleaged both in the Kings name and in his nevertheless he entreated them well and caused them to stay untill he might send and have answer from the King which they did and since that time we have not heard of them but making report thereof to the Ambassador he would not seem to believe our Merchants pretending the mistaking of the Marshals words and so in the end by his frequent solicitation the Queens Majesty hath accorded by advice of her Council in such manner as you perceive by a Copy hereof in writing sent herewith the like whereof is sent at this present unto the said Merchants remaining at Rhoan In which accord you shall see a division of the matters in question according to their natures That is for things plainly and openly Arrested and staid to be restored within a time without suit in Law the rest of the things to be restored by order of Law with favorable expedition whereas the Ambassador would have had the accord made that all things of what nature soever they were being proved to have been taken by any the Queens subjects or any other that should be proved to have brought the same into any Port or Creek of this Realm that immediate restitution or recompence should be made for the same whereby you can guess what matters he meant to have drawn to their advantage by such large words Thus much of this matter I have thought good to write unto you for your information and for the enlargement thereof I have at present written to the Merchants to advertise you of their proceedings We have report come to us from Callis that the King there is come to Paris and that his brother with his Army is at Orleance with many other things to the advantage of the Prince of Navarr but hereof I make no certainty nor account untill I may hear from you You shall perchance hear of some troubles in Ireland which also may be by our ill-willers increased and therefore I have thought good to impart unto you briefly the state of those matters Fitz Morris of Desmond one that pretendeth title to the Earldom of Desmond hath traiterously conspired with divers Rebels in the South-West part with one Mac Cartemore late time made Earl of Clancarty to withstand the Authority of the Queens Majesty and pretendeth to make a change of Religion being provoked thereto by certain Friars that have offered to get him aid out of Spain and Portugall and upon comfort hereof hath with a Rebellious number over-run divers parts in the West and especially made great spoil upon certain Lands belonging to Sir Warham St. Leger neer Corke And besides this I have procured the Earl of Ormonds younger brethren to commit like riotous acts pretending on their part that they do the same not of any disobedience to the Queen but to maintain their private Titles and Lands against Sir Peter Carew whom indeed the Lord Deputy there findeth very serviceable against them and in that respect it seemeth they would cover their disorders But thanked be God the brothers powers are dispersed and they driven into desert places and the Deputy was the 27. of the last moneth in a Castle of Sir Edward utlers which was taken by force and from thence marched with his Army against the other Rebells who also fled from him And so although indeed it be
Majesties meaning in such sort as I need not to repeat or enlarge the same and the sooner that her Majesty may have answer hereof the better she will be content especially if the answer shall be good I send to you the Copies of the advertisements of my Lord of Sussex journey into Scotland the 17. of April and returning the 22. his Lordship entred the 27. to besiege as I think Hume Castle for the same hath been the receptacle of all the Rebels but at the writing hereof I am not ascertained what his Lordship hath done Of late the Bishop of Ross caused one of his servants secretly to procure the printing of a Book in English whereof before eight leaves could be finished intelligence was had which Book tendeth to set forth to the world that the Queen of Scots was not guilty of her husbands death a parable in many mens opinion next that she is a lawful heir to the Crown and herewith such reasons inserted as make unsound conclusions for the Queens Majesties present state Besides this a notable lye is there uttered That all the noble men that heard her cause did judge her innocent and therefore made suite to her Majesty that she might marry with my Lord of Norfolk With these and such like enterprises her Majesty hath been grieved with the said Bishop whereupon she hath the longer kept him from her presence but I think he will be spoken withall to morrow and so within two or three days it is likely he shall have access to her Majesty The Secretary in Scotland hath so discovered himself for the Queen of Scots as he is the instrument to increase her party having such credit with Grange who keepeth Edenburgh Castle as the Duke of Chastilherault the Lord Herries c. are now at liberty and thereby the party for the King is diminished you can judge what is ment to be done and I wish her Majesty to take such a way herein as may preserve her estate the device and execution whereof is found upon consultation very difficult and yet in all evils the least is to be chosen My Lord of Worcester and my Lord of Huntington are chosen Knights of the Order I cannot procure any resolution for your revocation untill it may be seen what will fall out there of the war betwixt the King and his subjects whereof daily there is expectation of some issue and the French Ambassador doth constantly affirm that the peace shall follow And so I end Yours assuredly W. Cecil Hampton-Court 4. May 1570. To the right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador Resident with the French King A note of a journey into Tividale by the Earl of Sussex her Majesties Lieutenant in the North begun the 17. of April 1570. and ending the 22. of the same THe 17. of April 1570. the Earl of Sussex and the Lord Hunsdon Governor of Berwick with all the Garrisons and power of the East Marches came to Warke and entered into Tividale in Scotland the 18. at the break of the day and burnt all Castles and Towns as they went untill they came to the Castle of Moss standing in a strong Marsh and belonging to the Lord of Fernhurst which they burnt and razed and so burnt the Country untill they came to Craling The same day Sir John Foster with all the Garrisons and force of the middle marches entred into Tividale and Expesgate head 16. miles from Warke and so burnt all the Country untill they came to a strong Castle called in the possession of the mother of the Lord of Fernhurst which he burnt and razed and so burnt all other Castles and Towns untill he came to Craling where both Companies met and so went up the River of Tivit and burnt and threw down all the Castles and Towns upon that River untill they came to Godworth where they lodged This day the Lord of Chesford Warden of the middle marches with the principal men of his kinde who had never in person received the Rebels nor invaded England and yet had evil men that had done both came in to the Lord Lieutenant and submitted himself and offered to abide order for his mens offences whereupon he was received as a friend and he and all his were free from any hurt The 19. the Army was divided into two parts whereof the one did pass the River of Tivit and burnt and razed the Castle of Fernhurst and all other Castles and Towns of the Lord of Fernhurst Hunthill and Bederoll and so passed on to Minte and the other part of the Army burnt in like sort on the other side of the River Tivit untill he came to Hawick where it was intended to have lodged that night for that the Bailiffs had the same morning offered to receive the Army and had therefore their Town assured but at the coming thither of the Army they had unthetched their houses and burnt the Thetch in the streets and were all fled so as no person could well enter for smoak which caused lack of victuals lodging and horsemeats and therefore the fire began by themselves in the Straw burnt the whole Town aftersaving Donn Lamorecks Castle which for his sake was spared and all the goods of the Town in it The 20. the Army went to Branshaw the Lord of Buckloughs house which was wholly overthrown with Powder and there divided and burnt on the North the River of Tivit more into the inland all the Castles and Towns in that Country which belonged wholly to the Lord of Bucklough and his kinsmen and returned that night to Jedworth The 21. the Army divided and one part went to the River of Bowbeat and burnt all on both sides of that River and the other part went to the River of Caile and burnt all on both sides of the River and met neer to Kelsaw where the Lord Lieutenant lodged that night of purpose to beset Hume Castle in the night and the Lord Hunsdon and the other part went to Warke to bring the Ordnance thence in the morning which was disappointed by the negligence of such as were left in charge who suffered the carriage horses to return after the Ordnance was brought thither so as for lack of horses to draw the Ordnance the Army was forced to return to Berwick the 22. All which time there was never any shew of resistance And the same time the Lord Scroope entred Scotland from the West Marches the 18 c. During which time the Marches in all places were so guarded as the Scots that did not shew themselves to offer fight in the field durst not offer to enter into England so as in the absence of the Army there was not one house burnt nor own Cow taken in England and it is conceived by such as know the enemies part of Tividale that there is razed overthrown and burnt in this journey above fifty strong Castles and Piles and above 300 Villages so as there be few in that Country that
flight there was taken a hundred prisoners whereof some were of the petty Lords of the Country but the Lord Maxwell the Lord Carlile the Lord Johnson and the rest before named escaped by the strength of the Lord of Cockpools house and a great Wood and a Mauress that was neer there adjoyning and so the said Simon repaired to me with his Company and so we returned home And thus for this time I commit you to the Almighty Yours assured to command H. Scroop Carlile 21. April 1570. Postscript Drumlangricks servants and Tenants whom I had given charge that they should not be dealt withall for that he favored the Kings faction and the Queens Majesties were as cruel against us as any others Sir I have written to my Lord Lieutentant for 500. men but for fourteen dayes and with them I will undertake to march to Dumfriese and lye in that Town and burn and spoil it if the Queen Majesties think it good for the open receipt of her Majesties Rebels is there manifest SIR MY leasure serveth me as I was wont to have it all my time at command of others and none for my self and little for my private friends by the Queens Majesties letter you may perceive the state of things here God send her Majesty a good issue of this Scotish matter whereinto the entry is easie but the passage within doubtful and I fear the end will be monstrous By your letters of late time it hath seemed that the opinion was for the Queens Majesty to be delivered of the Scottish Queen but surely few here among us conceive it feasible with surety My Lord of Suffex useth his charge very honorably and circumspectly upon the Frontiers where indeed he hath made revenge and that only almost upon the guilty I do send you herewith a printed thing or two sent me from Scotland and so take my leave wishing for your own sake that peace might be seen there so as you might bring it for which purpose I trust surely her Majesty will send one for you Yours most assured W. Cecil 23. May 1570. To the right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador c. SIR THis bearer came hither with good speed I do send you herewith a note of my Lord of Sussex his last letters from Berwick I do also send you in writing the Copy of that which the French Ambassador lately sent thither containing the sum of that which lately passed here betwixt the Queens Majesty and him wherein truely he hath not much differed from that which was accorded The Bishop of Ross departed on Friday last to the Scotish Queen to deal with her that some of her part might come hither out of Scotland to treat of her cause and that Arms might cease on both sides Since his going thither the Queens Majesty understandeth of a Practice that he had two dayes before his departure with a noble man of this Realm being a professed Papist contrary to his manner of dealing with the Queens Majesty whereupon her Majesty is not a little moved against him and therefore I think she will not deal with him at his return We look daily that peace will there be made though we see not how it shall continue but I trust thereby you shall be revoked and I think Mr. Walfingham shall come in your place I have no more at this present I received yesterday a letter from Paris of the 19. of May but I did before that receive another of the 24. Yours assuredly W. Cecil Hampton-Court 8. June 1570. To the right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador c. By Letters from Berwick 3. June THe Marshal of Berwick being at Edenburgh with certain Forces dealt with the Earls of Grange and Liddington to procure a surcease of Arms which taking no effect he went with the Noblemen of Scotland that joyned with him to Glasco from whence the Duke and his Associates fled upon their setting forth from thence the Marshal sent to the Bishop of St. Andrews and the Lords who were in Dumbarton Castle to Parly with them to procure an abstinence of Arms who appointed to meet them the next day at a Village half way betwixt Glasco and Dumbarton where missing them at the time appointed he went neerer to Dumbarton whereof he sent them word and thereupon they returned his Messenger and appointed to meet and speak with him out of the Castle so as he would bring but one or two with him and to put away his company and so soon as he had so done and that he was within their Shot they sent him word to look to himself and that they would not come to him and as he turned his Horse divers Harquebusiers laid for the purpose shot at him and they discharged a Falcon at him out of the Castle but he escaped without hurt hereupon the Noblemen which were with him burnt the Country thereabouts that belonged to the Hambletons burnt the Town of Hambleton and razed the Castle of Hambleton and two other principal houses of the said Dukes one in Lithgo and another called Kennell they have also thrown down the Abbot of Kilwrenings house and in effect all the principal houses of the Hambletons and have dealt with no other persons but with an Hambleton and so the Marshall is returned to Berwick c. SIR YEsterday did Crips arrive with your letters from Argenton and two days before came Rogers The Queens Majesty takes the Kings answer doubtful for his sending of Forces into Scotland and therefore hath caused the French Ambassador to understand and to advervise the King that if the King will send Forces thither she will take her self free from her promise of delivering the Q. of Scots of which matter I think he will advertise the King and as you have occasion you may take knowledge thereof for already her Majesty hath revoked her Forces out of Scotland leaving onely in Hume and Fast Castle a small Garrison where our Rebels were most maintained when they invaded England untill her Majesty may have some amends for her subjects losses My Lord of Sussex hath fully avenged the wrongs but yet our people have not recompence Mr. Drury the Marshall with a thousand Foot and four hundred Horse hath so plagued the Hambletons as they never had such losses in all the wars betwixt England and Scotland these fourty years The Queens Majesty hath hurt her Foot that she is constrained to keep her Bed-chamber and therefore the French Ambassador could not yesterday have Audience when he required but is willed to write that he hath to say I am sorry that your servants when they come tarry so long here as they do for it is not my fault and so I end Yours assuredly W. Cecil Oatlands 22. June 1570. Postscript The Earl of Southampton lately being known to have met in Lambeth Marsh with the Bishop of Ross is for his foolish audacity committed to the Sheriff of London closely to
Duke of Chastillherault over all They raise Forces against the Regent are Routed 139. A Couragious Answer from Queen Elizabeth to the French Ambassadour and the Audience adjourned 140. She sends a Ring to Marshal Montmorancy his wife 141. The Bishop of Rhemes Ambassador from France is offended that the doctrine of Rome is said to be contrary to Christs deducing consequently that his Mr. should be reputed no Christian and how that Speech was salved The Cardinal Chastillons Wife comes over 141 142. The Reason of the Cardinals coming into England Ships sent by the Queen to preserve the Bourdeaux Fleet. The Queen of Scots Case not defensible and the Consequence thereof 144. Matters about the Queen of Scots Chastillion highly commended 144 145. The Cause of the Queen of Scots to be heard here 146. Passages touching the differences between the King and the Prince of Conde Pag. 147. Matters against the Queen of Scots very bad 148. Sir Henry Norris claims the Lord Dacres Lands 149. Three manner of wayes proposed for ending the Scottish differences 150. Spanish Treasure stayed ibid. 151 156. The Parliament of Scotland declares the Queen of Scots privy to the murder of her Husband 152. D'Assonvill comes over Without Commission and desires Conference with the Spanish Ambassadour but denied 153. Hawkins his Return to Mounts Bay from the Indies with Treasure The Queen of Scots at Tetbury under the charge of the Earl of Shrewsbury 153. The French Ambassadors Currier searched and the Reason of it 154. The Prince of Conde slain in Battel against the King 157. The 13th of March had two great Effects 158. Differences in Scotland accorded 159. But not observed 160. Sir William Cecil laments the misfortune of France means made to accord with the Low Countries Scottish Nobility reconciled 61. Original Letters intercepted by persons of credit in the FrenchCourt of advertisement concerning the Queen of Scots and the Duke of Anjou Pag. 161. That the said Queen should transfer her title on the said Duke to learn more truth hereof and advertise with speed The Queens Ships far excel others 162. The Queen of Scots excuseth her Transaction with the Duke of Anjou 163 164. A Rebellion in the West-part of Ireland and the Spaniards aid feared 164. My Lord of Shrewsbury strucken with a Palsie and a Phrensie 165. The Parisians execute two Merchants whom the King had pardon'd The English Ambassador taxed for dealing with the Kings Rebels 166. The Earl of Desmond's great Rebellion in Ireland but dispersed 167 168. An Italian sent hither upon a Devilish attempt An Insurrection in Suffolk Queen Elizabeth desires to be rid of the Queen of Scots 169. The Queen offended at the Duke of Norfolk about his Marriage Sir William Cecil his good Friend therein my Lords of Arundel and Pembroke confined to their Lodgings about it and so is the Lord Lumley My Lord of Huntington joined with the Earl of Shrewsbury in the custody of the Scots Queen 172. The King of Spains designs with the Irish. Pag. 173. The grand Rebellion in the North and the pretences thereof and their numbers and names 174 175. A Report of the death of the Count Nassau the Northern Rebellion scattered and their Ring-leaders fled 176. Extracts of Letters out of the north The two Rebellious Earls in Liddesdale but flee from thence The Countess of Northumberland and her attendants robbed in Scotland The Earls flee with about 50. horse Westmerland changeth his coat of plate sword and travails like a Scottish borderer many others taken 177 178 The Regent of Scotland takes the Earl of Northumberland and others The Lord Fernhurst and Bucklugh aiders of them p. 178 The Murther of the Regent of Scotland at Lithgo by Hambleton of Bothwell Hall The Earl of Sussex his wise and noble carriage The Hambletons strongly suspected for the murder and why 179 180 The French Embassador makes 3 demands of the Queen in behalf of the Queen of Scots p. 181 Sir William Cecil names to the Queen Mr. Francis Walsingham and Mr. Henry Killigrew to succeed Sir Henry Norris in France p. 182 The Earl of Sussex goes again into Scotland The Bishop of Ross writes a Book in defence of the Queen of Scots and dangerous against Queen Elizabeth Pag. 183. The Earls of Worcester and Huntington made Knights of the Order p. 184 The Earl of Sussex and the Lord Hunsdon enter Scotland with fire and sword 50. Castles and 300 Villages burnt p. 184 185 The Lord Scroop Warden of the West Marshes makes great devastation in Scotland The Castle of Hume surrendred to the Lords of Sussex and Hunsdon and well fortified for the Queens service A great part of the Scotish borderers obediently adhere to their King and offer dependance upon the Queens Majesty The contrary part act rebelliously A great meeting of Lords on both sides at Edenburgh in Armes to try who shall have the authority p. 186 187 Simon Musgrage General of the horse routs the Lord Maxell is in some distress by him but is relieved by the Lord Scroop 's forces and the Maxwels and several other Lords escaped by flight Drumlangricks servants and tenants although pretended favorers of the King and Queen cruel to the English Dumfriese a Receptacle of English Rebels p. 187 188 The Queen of Scots desires cessation of Armes the Bishop of Ross plots against the Queen p. 189 Sir Henry Norris to be revoked and Mr. Walsingham to go in his place ibid. The Marshal of Berwick betray'd by the Bishop of St. Andrews and other Lords who under colour and treaty with him intended to have slain him he destroys the Hambletons Castles and houses Pag. 190. The Earl of Southampton for complyance with the Bishop of Ross is committed close prisoner to the Sheriff of London The fond Lord Morley withdraws to Lovain p. 191 The French King mediates for the Queen of Scots the Queen keeps some Castles in Scotland until her subjects of England should have satisfaction p. 191 192 Sir William Cecil and Sir Walter Mildmay are sent Commissioners to the Scotch Queen and they like not the message The Lord Coke to King James touching tryal of Duels out of England occasioned by putting to death of Doubty beyond the Seas by Sir Francis Drake that crime tryable only before the Constable and Marshal of England p. 193 194 H. THe History of the Reign of King Henry the 8th King Edward the 6th Queen Mary and part of Queen Eliz. p. 194 195 I. Exquisitely begun but left imprfect Two Copies of Letters from King James to the Lords touching abatement of his houshold charge and the means of redresse p. 198 199 From the King to the Lord Bacon in commendation of his book caled the Organon To Sir Thomas Coventry Atturney General commanding him to prepare a pardon of the whole sentence pronounc'd against my Lord Bacon p. 200 201 S. SIr Philip Sidney to the Queen diswading her from her marriage with Mounsieur most elegantly and judiciously penned p. 201 202 203 A most quaint Speech made by the Lord Bacon then Sollicitor General at the arraignment of the Lord Sanquir as well in extenuation as aggravation of the murder of Turner 209 210 c. The Countess of Shrewsburies Case touching the Marriage of the Lady Arabella and her refusal to be examined therein 212 213. T. SIR Nicholas Throckmorton Ambassador in France to Q. Elizabeth touching a free passage for the Q of Scots through England into Scotland several Politick Reasons urged on both sides between him the Queen of Scots and the Queen-Mother of France 214 215 216 c. FINIS ERRATA PAge 72. line 16. for bnt read but. p. 89. l. 22. for Twilknam r. Twitnam p. 97 l. 3. for fortunas suas r. fortunae suae p. 116. l. 3. for Moleneux r. Molineux p. 120. in fine for name r. named p. 130. l. 9. for what r. with and l. 7. for not r. now p. 137. l. 12. for to r. to be p 165. l. 6. for there r. here p. 173. l. 9. or 10. for over r. fromus p. 182. l. 14. for inferrior r. inferior p. 208. l. 18. for Holladour r. Hollander and in the same line for le r. he p. 211. l. 21. for Luedia r. Suedia p. 224. l. 26. for Abeville r. Abbeville 27 E. 3. Cap. 1. 4 H. 4. Cap. 23. These that follow are but indigested Notes Entertainment above ordinary To know the cause thereof Her Majestie much mislikes of the Prince of Conde and Thadnur Lords of France The Lords of the Council do all they can to cover the same Her Majesty being a Prince her self is doubtful to give comfort to subjects Our Ambassador to comfort them nevertheless as occasion serves Expectation of the Queens marrying with the Archduke Charles In Scotland all quiet the Scotish Queen still in Loughlevin and in health Murray ruleth quietly as Regent Original lettere intercepted by persons of credit in the French ourt of Advertisement concerning the Q of Scots and Duke of Anjou That the said Scotish Queen should transfer her Title on the said Duke To learn more truth hereof and advertise with speed This precisely denyed by the other side To send a trusty person to Marcells 19. Febr. 1616. Note before this Statute Criminal Causes were often adjudged in Parliament
Sir Francis Bacon to the Lord Treasurer Burghley My Lord WIth as much confidence as mine own honest and faithful devotion unto your service and your honorable correspondence unto me and my poor estate can breed in a man do I commend my self unto your Lordship I wax now somewhat ancient one and thirty years is a great deal of sand in the hour-glass My health I thank God I find confirmed and I do not fear that action shall impair it because I account my ordinary course of study and meditation to be more painful then most parts of action are I ever bear a mind in some middle place that I could discharge to serve her Majesty not as a man born under Sol that loveth Honour nor under Jupiter that loveth business for the contemplative Planet carrieth me away wholly but as a man born under an excellent Sovereign that deserveth the dedication of all mens abilities Besides I do not find in my self so much self-love but that the greater parts of my thoughts are to deserve well if I were able of my friends and namely of your Lordship who being the Atlas of this Common-wealth the Honour of my House and the second founder of my poor estate I am tied by all duties both of a good Patriot and of an unworthy Kinsman and of an obliged servant to imploy whatsoever I am to do you service Again the meanness of my estate doth somewhat move me for though I cannot accuse my self that I am either prodigal or sloathful yet my health is not to spend nor my course to get Lastly I confess that I have as vast contemplative ends as I have moderate civil ends for I have taken all knowledge to be my providence and if I could purge it of two sorts of Rovers whereof the one with frivolous disputations confutations and verbosities the other with blind experiments and auricular traditions and impostures hath committed so many spoils I hope I should bring in industrious Observations grounded Conclusions and profitable Inventions and Discoveries the best state of that providence This whether it be curiosity or vain-glory or nature or if one take it favourably Philanthropia is so fixed in my mind as it cannot be removed And I do easily see that place of any reasonable countenance doth bring commandment of more wits then of a mans own which is the thing I greatly affect And for your Lordship perhaps you shall not find more strength and less encounter in any other And if your Lordship shall find now or at any time that I do seek or affect any place whereunto any that is nearer unto your Lordship shall be concurrent say then that I am a most dishonest man And if your Lordship will not carry me on I will not do as Anaxagoras did who reduced himself with contemplation unto voluntary poverty But this I will do I will sell the inheritance that I have and purchase some lease of quick revenue or some Office of gain that shall be executed by Deputy and so give over all care of service and become some sorry Book-maker or a true Pioneer in that Mine of Truth which he said lay so deep This which I have writ unto your Lordship is rather thoughts then words being set down without all Art disguising or reservation Wherein I have done honour both to your Lordships wisdom in judging that that will be best believed of your Lordship which is truest and to your Lordships good nature in retaining nothing from you And even so I wish your Lordship all happiness and to my self means and occasion to be added to my faithful desire to do you service From my Lodging at Grays-Inn Sir Francis Bacon to the Lord Treasurer Burghley My singular good Lord YOur Lordships comfortable Relation of her Majesties gracious opinion and meaning towards me though at that time your leisure gave me not leave to shew how I was affected therewith yet upon every representation thereof it entreth and striketh more deeply into me as both my Nature and Duty presseth me to return some speech of thankfulness It must be an exceeding comfort and encouragement to me setting forth and putting my self in way towards her Majesties service to encounter with an example so private and domestical of her Majesties gracious goodness and benignity being made good and verified in my father so far forth as it extendeth to his Posterity Accepting them as commended by his service during the Non-age as I may term it of their own deserts I for my part am very well content that I take least part either of his abilities of Mind or of his worldly advancement both which he held and received the one of the gift of God immediately the other of her Majesties Gift Yet in the loyal and earnest Affection which he bear to her Majesties service I trust my portion shall not be with the least nor in proportion with the youngest Birth For methinks his president should be a silent charge upon his blessing unto us all in our degrees to follow him afar off and to dedicate unto her Majesties service both the use and spending of our lives True it is that I must needs acknowledge my self prepared and furnished thereunto with nothing but with a multitude of lacks and imperfections but calling to mind how diversly and in what particular providence God hath declar'd himself to tender the state of her Majesties Affairs I conceive and gather hope that those whom he hath in a manner prest for her Majesties service by working and imprinting in them a single and zealous mind to bestow their duties therein he will see them accordingly appointed of sufficiency convenient for the Rank and standing where they shall be imployed so as under this her Majesties blessing I trust to receive a larger allowance of Gods Graces And as I may hope for this so I can assure and promise for my Endeavour that it shall not be in fault but what diligence can intitle me unto that I doubt not to recover And now seeing it hath pleased her Majesty to take knowledge of this my mind and to vouchsafe to appropriate me unto her service preventing any desert of mine with her Princely liberality first I humbly do beseech your Lordship to present to her Majesty my more than humble thanks for the same And withal having regard to mine own unworthiness to receive such favour and to the small possibility in me to satisfie and answer what her Majesty conceiveth I am moved to become a most humble suitor to her Majesty that this benefit also may be affixed unto the other which is That if there appear in me no such towardness of service as it may be her Majesty doth benignly value and assess me at by reason of my sundry wants and the disadvantage of my nature being unapt to lay forth the simple store of those inferiour gifts which God hath allotted unto me most to view yet that it would please her Excellent Majesty not to
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
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
Bill of Attainders of Tresham and the rest in the matter of Purveyance in the Ecclesiastical Petitions in the Grievances and the like as I was ever careful and not without good success sometimes to put forward that which was good sometimes to keep back that which was not so good so Your Majesty was pleased to accept kindly of my Services and to say to me such Conflicts were the wars of Peace and such Victories the Victories of peace And therefore such servants that obtained them were by Kings that Reign in Peace no less to be esteemed than services of Commanders in the Wars In all which nevertheless I can challenge to my self no sufficiency but that I was diligent and reasonably happy to execute those directions which I received either immediately from Your Royal Mouth or from my Lord of Salisbury At which time it pleased Your Majesty to promise and assure me that upon the remove of the then Attorney I should not be forgotten but brought into ordinary place And this was after confirmed to me by many of my Lords and towards the end of the last Term the manner also in particular was spoken of that is that Mr. Sollicitor should be made Your Majesties Serjeant and I Sollicitor for so it was thought best to sort with both our gifts and faculties for the good of your Service And of this resolution both Court and Countrey took knowledge Neither was this any invention or project of mine own but moved from my Lords and I think first from my Lord Chancellor Whereupon resting Your Majesty well knoweth I never opened my mouth for the greater place though I am sure I had two Circumstances that Mr. Attorney that now is could not alledge The one nine years service of the Crown The other being Cousin-German to the Lord of Salisbury whom Your Majesty esteemeth and trusteth so much But for the less place I conceived it was meant me But after that Mr. Attorney Hubbert was placed I heard no more of my Preferment but it seemed to be at a stop to my great disgrace and discouragement For graciousSovereign if still when the waters are stirred another shall be put before me Your Majesty had need work a Miracle or else I shall be still a lame man to do Your Majesty Service And therefore my most humble Suit to Your Majesty is That this which seem'd to me was intended may speedily be performed And I hope my former Service shall be but beginnings to better when I am better strengthned For sure I am no mans heart is fuller I say not but many have greater hearts but I say not fuller of Love and Duty towards Your Majesty and Your Children as I hope time will manifest against Envy and Detraction if any be To conclude I most humbly crave pardon for my boldness and rest Sir Francis Bacon to the King his suitc to succeed in the Atturneys place It may please your Majesty YOur great and Princely favours towards me in advancing me to place and that which is to me of no less comfort your Majesties benign and gracious acceptation from time to time of my poor services much above the merit and value of them hath almost brought me to an opinion that I may sooner perchance be wanting to my self in not asking then find your Majesties goodness wanting to me in any my reasonable and modest desires And therefore perceiving how at this time preferments of Law fly about mine ears to some above me and to some below me I did conceive your Majesty may think it rather a kinde of dulness or want of Faith than Modestie if I should not come with my Pitcher to Jacobs well as others do Wherein I shall propound to your Majesty that which tendeth not so much to the raising of my Fortune as to the setling of my minde being sometimes assayled with this Cogitation that by reason of my slowness to sue and apprehend sudden occasions keeping on one plain course of painful service I may in fine dierum be in danger to be neglected and forgotten And if that should be then were it much better for me now while I stand in your Majesties good opinion though unworthy and have some reputation in the world to give over the Course I am in and to make Proof to do you some honour by my Pen either by writing some faithful Narrative of your happy though not untraduced times or by recompiling your Laws which I perceive your Majesty laboureth with and hath in your head as Jupiter had Pallas or some other the like work for without some endeavour to do you honour I would not live then to spend my wits and time in this laborious place wherein now I serve if it shall be deprived of those outward ornaments and inward comforts which it was wont to have in respect of an assured succession to some place of more dignitie and rest which seemeth now to be a hope altogether casual if not wholly intercepted Wherefore not to hold your Majesty long my suit then the which I think I cannot well go lower is that I may obtain your royal promise to succeed if I live into the Atturneys place whensoever it shall be void in being but the natural and immediate step and rise which the place I now hold hath ever in sort made claim to and almost never failed of In this suit I make no friends to your Majesty but relie upon no other motive than your Grace nor any other assurance but your word whereof I had good experience when I came to the Solicitors place that they were like to the two great Lights which in their motions are never Retrograde So with my best prayer for your Majesties happiness I rest Sir Francis Bacon to Sir George Cary in France upon sending him his writing In foelicem memoriam Elizabethae My very good Lord BEing asked the question by this bearer an old servant of my brother Anthony Bacon whether I would command him any service into France and being at better leisure then I would in regard of sickness I began to remember that neither your business nor mine though great and continual can be upon an exact account any just occasion why so much good will as hath passed between us should be so much discontinued as it hath been And therefore because one must begin I thought to provoke your remembrance of me by my Letter And thinking how to fir it with somewhat besides salutations it came to my mind that this last summer by occasion of a factious Book that endeavoured to verifie Misera Foemina the addition of the Popes Bull upon Queen Elizabeth I did write a few lines in her memorial which I thought you would be well pleased to read both for the argument and because you were wont to bear affection to my pen. Verum ut aliud ex alio if it came handsomly to pass I would be glad the President de Thou who hath written a History as you know
especially given in Charge which had not used to be given in Charge before It is true it was not solemnly dwelt upon but as it were thrown in amongst the rest The last day of the Term and that which all men condemn the supposed last day of my Lord Chancellors life there were two Indictments preferred of Praemunire for suing in Chancery after judgement at Common-Law The one by Richard Glanvile the other by William Allen the former against Courtney the party in Chancery Gibb the Councellor and Deurst the Clerk The latter against Alderman Bowles and Humphry Smith parties in Chancery Serjeant Moor the Councellor Elias Wood Sollicitor in the Cause and Sir John Tindall Master of the Chancery and an Assessor to my Lord Chancellor For the Cases themselves it were too long to trouble Your Majesty with them but this I will say If they were set on that preferred them they were the worst Workmen that ever were that set them on for there could not have been chosen two such Causes to the honour and advantage of the Chancery for the justness of the Decrees and the foulness and scandal both of fact and person in those that impeach the Decrees The Grand Jury consisting as it seemeth of very substantial and intelligent persons would not find the Bills notwithstanding that they were much clamoured by the parties and twice sent back by the Court and in Conclusion resolutely 17 of 19 found an Ignoramus wherein for that time I think Ignoramus was wiser than those that knew too much Your Majesty will pardon me if I be sparing in delivering to You some other circumstances of aggravation and concurrences of some like matters the same day as if it had been some fatal constellation They be not things so sufficiently tryed as I dare put them into Your ear For my opinion I cannot but begin with this Preface That I am infinitely sorry that Your Majesty is thus put to salve and cure not only accidents of time but errors of servants For I account this a kind of sickness of my Lord Cooke's that comes almost in as ill a time as the sickness of my Lord Chancellor And as I think it was one of the wisest parts that ever he plaid when he went down to Your Majesty to Royston and desired to have my Lord Chancellor joined with him So this was one of the weakest parts that ever he plaid to make all the World perceive that my Lord Chancellor is severed from him at this time But for that which may concern Your Service which is my end leaving other men to their own wayes First my opinion is plainly that my Lord Cooke at this time is not to be disgraced both because he is so well habituate for that which remaineth of these capital Causes and also for that which I find is in his breast touching Your Finances and matters of repair of Your Estate And if I might speak it as I think it were good his hopes were at an end in some kind so I could wish they were raised in some other On the other side this great and publick Affront not only to the Reverend and well-deserving person of Your Chancellor and at a time when he was thought to lie a dying which was barbarous but to Your High-Court of Chancery which is the Court of Your absolute power may not in my opinion pass lightly nor end only in some formal atonement but use is to be made thereof for the setling of Your Authority and strengthning of Your Prerogative according to the true Rules of Monarchy Now to accommodate and reconcile these Advices which seem almost opposite First Your Majesty may not see it though I confess it be suspitious that my Lord Cooke was any way aforehand privy to that which was done or that he did set it or animate it but only took the matter as it came before him and that his Error was only that at such a time he did not divert it in some good manner Secondly If it be true as is reported that any of the puisne Judges did stir this business or that they did openly revile and menace the Jury for doing their Conscience as they did honestly and truly I think that Judge is worthy to lose his place And to be plain with Your Majesty I do not think there is any thing a greater Polycreston ad multa utile to Your Affairs than upon a just and fit occasion to make some example against the presumption of a Judge in Causes that concern Your Majesty whereby the whole body of those Magistrates may be contained in better awe and it may be this will light upon no unfit subject of a person that is rude and that no man cares for Thirdly If there be no one so much in fault which I cannot yet affirm either way and there must be a just ground God forbid else yet I should think that the very presumption of going so far in so high a Cause deserveth to have that done which was done in this very case upon the Indictment of Serjeant Heale in Queen Elizabeth's time that the Judges should answer it upon their knees before Your Majesty or Your Councel and receive a sharp admonition at which time also my Lord Wrey being then Chief Justice slipt the Collar and was forborn Fourthly for the persons themselves Glanvile and Allen which are base Fellows and turbulent I think there will be discovered and proved against them besides the preferring of the Bill such combination and contemptuous speeches and behaviour as there will be good ground to call them and perhaps some of their petty Councellors at Law into the Star-Chamber In all this which I have said Your Majesty may be pleased to observe That I do not engage you much in the main point of the Jurisdiction for which I have a great deal of reason which I now forbear But two things I wish to be done the one That Your Majesty take this occasion to redouble unto all Your Judges Your ancient and true Charge and Rule That You will endure no innovating in the point of Jurisdictions but will have every Court impaled within their own Presidents and not assume to themselves new Powers upon conceits and inventions of Law The other That in these high Causes that touch upon State and Monarchy Your Majesty give them strait charge That upon any occasions intervenient hereafter they do not make the vulgar party to their contestations by publick handling them before they have consulted with Your Majesty to whom the reglement of those things appertaineth To conclude I am not without hope That Your Majesties managing this business according to Your great wisdom unto which I acknowledge my self not worthy to be Card-holder or Candle-holder will make profit of this accident as a thing of Gods sending Lastly I may not forget to represent to Your Majesty That there is no thinking of Arraignments until these things be somewhat accommodated and some outward and superficial
Reconciliation at least made between my Lord Chancellor and my Lord Chief Justice for this accident is a Banquet to all Somersets friends But this is a thing that falleth out naturally of it self in respect of the Judges going Circuit and my Lord Chancellors infirmity with hope of recovery And although this protraction of time may breed some doubt of mutability yet I have lately learned out of an excellent Letter of a certain King That the Sun sheweth sometimes watry to our eyes but when the Cloud is gone the Sun is as before God preserve Your Majesty Your Majesties most humble Subject and most bounden Servant Febr. 21. 1615. Your Majesties Commandment speaketh for pardon of so long a Letter which yet I wish may have a short continuance and be punished with fire A Letter to the King touching matter of Revenue and Profit It may please your Majesty I May remember what Tacitus saith by occasion that Tiberius was often and long absent from Rome In Urbe parva magna negotia Imperatorem simul premunt But saith he in recessu dimissis rebus minoris momenti summae rerum magnarum magis agitantur This maketh me think it shall be no incivility to trouble your Majesty with business during your aboad from London knowing your Majesties Meditations are the principal wheel of your estate and being warranted by a former commandment which I received from you I do now only send your Majesty these papers inclosed because I greatly desire so far forth to preserve my Credit with you as thus That whereas lately perhaps out of too much desire which induceth too much belief I was bold to say that I thought it as easie for your Majesty to come out of want as to go forth of your Gallery your Majesty would not take me for a dreamer or a projector I send your Majesty therefore some grounds of my hopes And for that paper which I have gathered of increasments sperate I beseech you to give me leave to think that if any of the particulars do fail it will be rather for want of workmanship in those that shall deal in them than want of materials in the things themselves The other paper hath many discarding cards and I send it chiefly that your Majesty may be the less surprized by projectors who pretend sometimes great discoveries and inventions in things that have been propounded and perhaps after a better fashion long since God Almighty preserve your Majesty Your Majesties most humble and devoted Servant and Subject April 25 1610. Sir Francis Bacon the Kings Attorney to the King touching the proceeding with Somerset It may please your most excellent Majesty AT my last access to your Majesty it was sit for me to consider the time and your journey which maketh me now trouble your Majesty with a remnant of that I thought then to have said besides your old Warrant and Commission to me to advertise your Majestie when you are aux champs of any thing that concern'd your service and my place I know your Majestie is Nunquam minus solus quam cum solus and I confess in regard of your great judgment unto which nothing ought to be presented but well weighed I could almost wish that the manner of Tiberius were in use again of whom Tacitus saith Mos erat quamvis praesentem scripto adire much more in absence I said to your Majestie that which I do now repeat that the Evidence upon which my Lord of Somerset standeth indicted is of a good strong thred considering impoysoning is the darkest of offences but that the thred must be well spun and woven together For your Majestie knoweth it is one thing to deal with a Jury of Middlesex and Londoners and another to deal with the Peers whose objects perhaps will not be so much what is before them in the present Case which I think is as odious to them as to the vulgar but what may be hereafter Besides there be two disadvantages we that shallgive in evidence shall meet with somewhat considerable the one that the same things often open'd lose their freshness except there be an aspersion of somewhat that is new the other is the expectation raised which makes things seem less then they are because they are less then opinion Therefore I were not your Attorney nor my self if I should not be very careful that in this last part which is the pinacle of your former Justice all things may pass sine offendiculo sine scrupulo Hereupon I did move two things which having now more fully explained my self I do in all humbleness renew First That your Majesty will be careful to chuse a Steward of Judgment that may be able to moderate the Evidence and cut off Digressions for I may interrupt but I cannot silence The other That there may be special care taken for the ordering of the Evidence not only for the knitting but for the list and to use your Majesties own word the confining of it This to do if your Majestie vouchsafe to direct it your self that is the best if not I humbly pray you to require my Lord Chancellor that he together with my Lord Chief Justice will confer with my self and my sellows that shall be used for the marshalling and bounding of the Evidence that we may have the help of his opinion as well as that of my Lord Chief Justice whose great travels as I much commend yet that same Plerophoria or over-confidence doth always subject things to a great deal of chance There is another business proper for me to crave of Your Majesty at this time as one that have in my eye a great deal of Service to be done concerning Your casual Revenue but considering times and persons I desire to be strengthned by some such form of Commandment under Your Royal Hand as I send You here inclosed I most humbly pray Your Majesty to think that I understand my self right well in this which I desire and that it tendeth greatly to the good of Your Service The Warrant I mean not to impart but upon just occasion Thus thirsty to hear of Your Majesties good health I rest Jan. 22. 1615. Sir Francis Bacon the Kings Attorney to Sir George Villiers concerning the proceeding with Somerset SIR I Thought it convenient to give His Majesty an account of that which His Majesty gave me in charge in general reserving the particulars for His coming And I find it necessary to know His pleasure in some things ere I could further proceed My Lord Chancellor and my self spent Thursday and Yesterday the whole Forenoons of both dayes in the Examination of Sir Robert Cotton whom we find hitherto but empty save only in the great point of the Treaty with Spain This Examination was taken before His Majesties Warrant came to Mr. Vice-Chamberlain for communicating unto us the Secrets of the Pensions which Warrant I received Yesterday morning being Friday and a meeting was appointed at my Lord Chancellors
in the Evening after Councel Upon which Conference we find matter of further Examination for Sir Robert Cotton of some new Articles whereupon to examine Somerset and of entring into Examination of Sir William Mounson Wherefore first for Somerset being now ready to proceed to examine him we stay only upon the Duke of Lenox who it seemeth is fallen sick and keepeth in without whom we neither think it warranted by His Majesties direction nor agreeable to His intention that we should proceed for that will want which should sweeten the Cup of Medicine he being his Countrey man and Friend Herein then we humbly crave His Majesties direction with all convenient speed whether we shall expect the Dukes recovery or proceed by our selves or that His Majesty will think of some other person qualified according to His Majesties just intention to be joined with us I remember we had speech with His Majesty of my Lord Hay and J for my part can think of no other except it should be my Lord Chancellor of Scotland for my Lord Binning may be thought too near allied I am further to know His Majesties pleasure concerning the day For my Lord Chancellor and J conceived His Majesty to have designed the Monday and Tuesday aftet St. Georges Feast and nevertheless we conceived also That His Majesty understood that the Examinations of Somerset about this and otherwise touching the Spanish practices should first be put to a point which will not be possible as time cometh on by reason of this accident of the Dukes sickness and the cause we find of Sir William Mounsons Examination and that divers of the peers are to be sent for from remote places It may please His Majesty therefore to take into consideration whether the days may not well be put off till Wednesday and Thursday after the Term which endeth on the Munday being the Wednesday and Thursday before Whitsontide or if that please not His Majesty in respect it may be His Majesty will be then in Town whereas these Arraignments have been still in His Majesties absence from Town then to take Munday and Tuesday after Trinity-Sunday being the Munday and Tuesday before Trinity Term. Now for Sir William Mounson if it be His Majesties pleasure that my Lord Chancellor and I shall proceed to the examination of him for that of the Duke of Lenox differs in that there is not the like cause as in that of Somerset then His Majesty may be pleased to direct his Commandment and Warrant to my Lord Chief Justice to deliver unto me the examinations he took of Sir William Mounson that those joyned to the information which we have received from Mr. Vice-Chamberlain may be full instructions unto us for his examination Further I pray let His Majesty know that on Thursday in the evening my Lord Chief Justice and my self attended my Lord Chancellor at his house for the setling of that scruple which His Majesty most justly conceived in the Examination of the Lady Somerset at which time resting on His Majesties opinion That that Evidence as it standeth now unclear'd must Secundum leges sanae Conscientiae be laid aside the question was Whether we should leave it out or try what a Re-examination of my Lady Somerset would produce Whereupon we agreed upon a Re-examination of my Lady Somerset which my Lord Chief Justice and I have appointed for Monday morning I was bold at that meeting to put my Lord Chief Justice a posing question which was Whether that opinion which his Brethren had given upon the whole Evidence and he had reported to His Majesty viz. That it was good Evidence in their opinions to convince my Lord of Somerser was not grounded upon this part of the Evidence now to be omitted as well as upon the rest Who answered confidently That no and they never saw the exposition of the Letter but only the Letter The same Thursday evening before we entred into this last matter and in the presence of Mr. Secretary Winwood who left us when we went to the former business we had conference concerning the frauds and abusive Grants passed to the prejudice of His Majesties State of Revenue where my Lord Chief Justice made some relation of his collections which he had made of that kind of which I will say only this that I heard nothing that was new to me and I found my Lord Chancellor in divers particulars more ready then I found him We grew to a distribution both of times and of matters For we agreed what to begin with presently and what should follow and also we had consideration what was to be holpen by Law what by Equity and what by Parliament Wherein I must confess that in the last of these of which my Lord Chief Justice made most accompt I make most doubt But the Conclusion was That upon this entrance I should advise and conferr at large with my Lord Chief Justice and set things on work The particulars I referr till His Majesties coming The learned Councel have attended me now twice at my Chamber to confer upon that which His Majesty gave us in Commandment for our opinions upon the Case set down by my Lord Chancellor whether the Statutes extend to it or no. Wherein we are more and more edified and confirmed that they do not and shall shortly send our Report to His Majesty Sir I hope you will bear me witness I have not been idle but all is nothing to the Duty I owe His Majesty for his singular favours past and present supplying all with love and prayers I rest Your true Friend and devoted Servant April 13. 1616. Sir Francis Bacon the Kings Attorney giving account of an Examination taken of Somerset at the Tower SIR I Received from you a Letter of very brief and clear directions and I think it a great blessing of God upon me and my labours that my directions come by so clear a Conduit as they receive no tincture in the passage Yesterday my Lord Chancellor the Duke of Lenox and my self spent the whole afternoon at the Tower in the examination of Somerset upon the Articles sent from his Majesty and some other additionals which were in effect contained in the former but extended to more particularity by occasion of somewhat discovered by Cottons examination and Mr. Vice-Chamberlains information He is full of protestations and would fain keep that quarter toward Spain clear using but this for Argument That he had such fortunes from his Majesty as he could not think of bettering his conditions from Spain because as he said he was no military man He cometh nothing so far on for that which concerneth the Treaty as Cotton which doth much aggravate suspicion against him The further particulars I reserve to his Majesties coming In the end tanquam obiter but very effectually my Lord Chancellor put him in minde of the state he stood in for the imprisonment but he was little moved with it and pretended carelesness of life
we remember our part to be to make him Delinquent to the Peers and not odions to the People That part of the Evidence of the Ladies Exposition of the Pronoun He which was first caught hold of by me and after by His Majesties singular Wisdom and Conscience excepted to and now is by her Re-examination retracted I have given order to Serjeant Montague within whose part it falleth to leave it out of the Evidence I do yet crave pardon if I do not certifie touching the point of Law for respiting the Judgment for I have not fully advised with my Lord Chancellor concerning it but I will advertise it in time I send His Majesty the Lord Stewards Commission in two several instruments the one to remain with my Lord Chancellor which is that which is written in Secretary hand for his Warrant and is to pass the Signet the other that whereunto the great Seal is to be affixed which is in Chancery hand His Majesty is to sign them both and to transmit the former to the Signet if the Secretaries either of them be there and both of them are to be returned to me with all speed I ever rest Your true and devoted Servant May 5. 1616. Sir Francis Bacon the Kings Attorney and some great Lords Commissioners concerning the perswasion used to the Lord of Somerset to a frank Confession It may please Your Majesty WE have done our best endeavours to perform Your Majesties Commission both in matter and manner for the examination of my Lord of Somerset wherein that which passed for the general was to this effect That he was to know his own Case for that his day of Trial could not be far off but that this dayes work was that which would conduce to Your Majesties Justice little or nothing but to Your Mercy much if he did lay hold upon it and therefore might do him good but could do him no hurt For as for Your Justice there had been taken great and grave opinion not only of such Judges as he may think violent but of the most saddest and most temperate of the Kingdom who ought to understand the state of the proofs that the Evidence was full to convict him so as there needed neither Confession nor supply of Examination But for Your Majesties Mercy although he were not to expect we should make any promise we did assure him That Your Majesty was compassionate of him if he gave you some ground whereon to work that as long as he stood upon his Innocency and Tryal Your Majesty was tyed in Honour to proceed according to Justice and that he little understood being a close Prisoner how much the expectation of the World besides Your love to Justice it self engaged Your Majesty whatsoever Your inclination were but nevertheless that a frank and clear Confession might open the gate of Mercy and help to satisfie the point of Honour That his Lady as he knew and that after many Oaths and Imprecations to the contrary had nevertheless in the end been touched with remorse confessed that she that led him to offend might lead him likewise to repent of his offence That the confession of one of them could not fitly do either of them much good but the confession of both of them might work some further effect towards both And therefore in conclusion we wished him not to shut the gate of your Majesties mercy against himself by being obdurate any longer This was the effect of that which was spoken part by one of us part by another as it fell out adding further that he might well discern who spake in us in the course we held for that Commissioners of Examination might not presume so far of themselves Not to trouble Your Majesty with Circumstances of his Answers the sequel was no other but that we found him still not to come any degree further on to confess only his Behaviour was very sober and modest and mild differing apparently from other times but yet as it seem'd resolv'd to expect his Tryal Then did we proceed to examine him upon divers Questions touching the Impoysonment which indeed were very material and supplemental to the former Evidence wherein either his Affirmatives gave some light or his Negatives do greatly falsifie him in that which is apparently proved We made this further observation That when we asked him some Question that did touch the Prince or some Forrain practice which we did very sparingly at this time yet he grew a little stirred but in the Questions of the Impoysonment very cold and modest Thus not thinking it necessary to trouble Your Majesty with any further particulars we end with Prayer to God ever to preserve Your Majesty Your Majesties most Loyal and Faithful Servant c. If it seem good unto Your Majesty we think it not amiss some Preacher well chosen had access to my Lord of Somerset for his preparing and comfort although it be before his Tryal Sir Francis Bacon to the King upon some inclination of His Majesty signified to him for the Chancellors place It may please your most Excellent Majesty THe last day when it pleased Your Majesty to express your self towards me in favour far above that I can deserve or could expect I was surprised by the Princes coming in I most humbly pray Your Majesty therefore to accept these few lines of acknowledgement I never had great thoughts for my self further then to maintain those great thoughts which I confess I have for your service I know what honour is and I know what the times are but I thank God with me my service is the principal and it is far from me under honourable pretences to cover base desires which I account them to be when men refer too much to themselves especially serving such a King I am afraid of nothing but that the Master of the Horse your excellent servant and my self shall fall out about this who shall hold your Stirrup belt but were Your Majesty mounted and seated without difficulties and distastes in your business as I desire and hope to see you I should ex animo desire to spend the decline of my years in my studies wherein also I should not forget to do him honour who besides his active and politick vertues is the best pen of Kings and much more the best subject of a pen. God ever preserve Your Majesty Your Majesties most humble Subject and more and more obliged Servant April 1. 1616. Sir Francis Bacon the Kings Attorney returned with Postils of the Kings own Hand It may please Your most Excellent Majesty YOur Majesty hath put upon me a work of providence in this great Cause which is to break and distinguish future events into present Cases and so to present them to your Royal Judgement that in this action which hath been carried with so great Prudence Justice and Clemency there may be for that which remaineth as little surprize as is possible but that things duly foreseen may have their remedies
and directions in readinss wherein I cannot forget what the Poet Martial saith O! quantum est subitis casibus ingenium signifiing that accident is many times more subtil then foresight and over-reacheth expectation and besides I know very well the meanness of my own Judgment in comprehending or forecasting what may follow It was Your Majesties pleasure also that I should couple the suppositions with my opinion in every of them which is a harder taske but yet Your Majesties commandment requireth my obedience and your trust giveth me assurance I will put the case which I wish That Somerset should make a clear Confession of his offences before he be produced to Tryal In this case it seemeth your Majesty will have a new consult The points whereof will be 1 whether your Majesty will stay the Trial and so save them both from the Stage and that publique Ignominy Or 2 whether you will or may sitly by Law have the Trial proceed and stay or reprieve the Judgment which saveth the Lands from forfeiture and the blood from corruption Or 3 whether you will have both Trial and Judgment proceed and save the blood only not from corrupting but from spilling REX I say with Apollo Media tutius itur if it may stand with Law and if it cannot when I shall hear that he confesseth I am then to make choice of the first or the last  These be the depths of your Majesties mercy which I may not enter into but for honour and reputation they have these grounds  That the blood of Overbury is already revenged by divers Executions  That Confession and Penitency are the footstools of Mercy adding this circumstance likewise that the former offenders did none of them make a clear confession  That the great downfal of so great persons carrieth in it self a heavie punishment and a kind of civil death although their lives should not be taken All which may satisfie honour for sparing their lives But if your Majesties mercy should extend to the first degree which is the highest of sparing the Stage and the Trial Then three things are to be considered REX This Article cannot be mended in point thereof First that they make such a submission or deprecation as they prostrate themselves and all that they have at your Majesties feet imploring your mercy  Secondly that your Majesty in your own wisdom do advise what course you will take for the utter extinguishing of all hope of resuscitating of their fortunes and favour whereof if there should be the least conceit it will leave in men a great deal of envie and discontent  And lastly whether your Majestie will not suffer it to be thought abroad that there is cause of further examination of Somerset concerning matters of Estate after he shall begin once to be a Confessant and so make as well a Politick ground as a ground of Clemencie for further stay And for the second degree of proceeding to Trial and staying Judgment I must better inform my self by presidents and advise with my Lord Chancellor The second Case is if that fall out which is likest as things stand and which we expect which is that the Lady Confess and that Somerset himself plead not guilty and be found guilty In this Case first I suppose your Majesty will not think of any stay of judgment but that the publique process of Justice pass on REX If stay of Judgment can stand with the Law I would even wish it in this Case In all the rest this Article cannot be mended Secondly for your Mercie to be extended to both for pardon of their execution I have partly touched in the considerations applyed to the former Case whereunto may be added that as there is ground of mercy for her upon her penitency and free Confession and will be much more upon his finding guilty because the malice on his part will be thought the deeper source of the offence So there will be ground for Mercie on his part upon the nature of the proof because it rests chiefly upon Presumptions For certainly there may be an Evidence so ballanced as it may have sufficient matter for the Conscience of the Peers to convict him and yet leave sufficient matter in the Conscience of a King upon the same Evidence to pardon his life because the Peers are astringed by necessity either to acquit or condemn but Grace is free And for my part I think the evidence in this present Case will be of such a nature  Thirdly It shall be my care so to moderate the manner of charging him as it might make him not odious beyond the extent of Mercy REX That danger is well to be foreseen lest he upon the one part commit impardonable Errors and I on the other part seem to punish him in the spirit of revenge Lastly all these points of Mercy and favour are to be understood with this limitation if he do not by his contemptuous and insolent carriage at the Bar make himself uncapable and unworthy of them The third Case is if he should stand mute and will not plead whereof In this case I should think fit that as in publique both my self and chiefly my Lord Chancellor sitting then as Lord Steward of your Majesty knoweth there hath been some secret question England should dehort and deter him from that desperation so nevertheless that as much should be done for him as was done for Weston which was to adjourn the Court some dayes upon a Christian ground that he may have time to turn from that mind of destroying himself during which time your Majesties further pleasure may be known REX This Article cannot be mended  The fourth Case is that which I should be very sorry should happen but it is a future contingent that is if the Peers should acquit him and finde him not guilty In this Case the Lord Steward must be provided what to do For as it hath been never seen as I conceive it that there should be any rejecting of the Verdict or any respiting of the judgment of the acquittal so on the other side this Case requireth that because there be many high and heinous offences though not Capital for which he may be questioned in the Star-Chamber or otherwise that there be some touch of that in general at the conclusion by my Lord Steward of England And that therefore he be remanded to the Tower as close Prisoner REX This is so also  For matter of examination or other proceedings my Lord Chancellor with my advice hath set down Tomorrow being Monday For the Re-examination of the Lady Wednesday next for the meeting of the Judges concerning the Evidence Thursday for the Examination of Somerset himself according to Your Majesties Instructions Which three parts when they shall be performed I will give Your Majesty advertisement with speed and in the mean time be glad to receive from Your Majesty whom it is my part to inform truly
the Laws thereof and nothing will oblige them more then a confidence of the free enjoying of them What the Nobles upon an occasion once said in Parliament Nolumus leges Angliae mutari is imprinted in the hearts of all the people 3. But because the life of the Lawes lies in the due execution and administration of them let your eye be in the first place upon the choice of good Judges These properties had they need to be furnished with To be learned in their profession patient in hearing prudent in governing powerful in their elocution to perswade and satisfie both the parties and hearers just in their judgement and to sum up all they must have these three Attributes They must be men of courage fearing God and hating covetousness An ignorant man cannot a Coward dares not be a good Judge 4. By no means be you perswaded to interpose your self either by word or letter in any cause depending or like to be depending in any Court of Justice nor suffer any other great man to do it where you can hinder it and by all means disswade the King himself from it upon the importunity of any for themselves or their friends If it should prevail it perverts justice but if the Judge be so just and of such courage as he ought to be as not to be inclined thereby yet it alwayes leaves a taint of suspition behind it Judges must be as chaste as Caesars wife neither to be nor to be suspected to be unjust and Sir the honour of the Judges in their judicature is the Kings honour whose person they represent 5. There is great use of the service of the Judges in their circuits which are twice in the year held throughout the Kingdome the trial of a few causes between party and party or delivering of the gaols in the several Counties are of great use for the expedition of justice yet they are of much more use for the government of the Counties through which they passe if that were well thought upon 6. For if they had instructions to that purpose they might be the best intelligencers to the King of the true state of his whole Kingdom of the disposition of the people of their inclinations of their intentions and motions which are necessary to be truly understood 7. To this end I could wish that against every Circuit all the Judges should sometimes by the King himself and sometimes by the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper in the Kings Name receive a charge of those things which the present times did much require and at their return should deliver a faithful Account thereof and how they found and left the Counties through which they passed and in which they kept their Assizes 8. And that they might the better perform this work which might be of great importance it will not be amiss that sometimes this Charge be publick as it useth to be in the Star-Chamber at the end of the Terms next before the Circuit begins where the Kings care of Justice and the good of his People may be published and that sometimes also it may be private to communicate to the Judges some things not so fit to be publickly delivered 9. I could wish also that the Judges were directed to make a little longer stay in a place than usually they do a day more in a County would be a very good addition although their wages for their Circuits were increased in proportion it would stand better with the Gravity of their imployment whereas now they are sometimes enforced to rise over-early and to sit over-late for the dispatch of their business to the extraordinary trouble of themselves and of the people their times indeed not being horae juridicae And which is the main they would have the more leisure to inform themselves quasi aliud agentes of the true estate of the Countrey 10. The attendance of the Sheriffs of the Counties accompanied with the principal Gentlemen in a comely not a costly equipage upon the Judges of Assize at their coming to the place of their sitting and at their going out is not only a Civility but of use also It raiseth a Reverence to the persons and places of the Judges who coming from the King Himself on so great an Errand should not be neglected 11. If any sue to be made a Judge for my own part I should suspect him but if either directly or indirectly he should bargain for a place of Judicature let him be rejected with shame Uendere jure potest emerat ille prius 12. When the place of a chief Judge of a Court becomes vacant a puisne Judge of that Court or of another Court who hath approved himself fit and deserving would be sometimes preferred it would be a good encouragement for him and for others by his example 13. Next to the Judge there would be care used in the choice of such as are called to the degree of Serjeants at Law for such they must be first before they be made Judges none should be made Serjeants but such as probably might be held fit to be Judges afterwards when the experience at the Bar hath fitted them for the Bench Therefore by all means cry down that unworthy course of late times used that they should pay moneys for it It may satisfie some Courtiers but it is no Honour to the person so preferred nor to the King who thus prefers them 14. For the Kings Councel at the Law especially His Attorney and Sollicitor General I need say nothing their continual use for the Kings Service not only for His Revenue but for all the parts of His Government will put the King and those who love His Service in mind to make choice of men every way fit and able for that Employment they had need to be learned in their Profession and not ignorant in other things and to be dextrous in those Affairs whereof the dispatch is committed to them 15. The Kings Attorney of the Court of Wards is in the true quality of the Judges therefore what hath been observed already of Judges which are intended principally of the three great Courts of Law at Westminster may be applied to the choice of the Attorney of this Court 16. The like for the Attorney of the Dutchy of Lancaster who partakes of both qualities partly of a Judge in that Court and partly of an Attorney General for so much as concerns the proper Revenue of the Dutchy 17. I must not sorget the Judges of the four Circuits in the twelve Shires of Wales who although they are not of the first Magnitude nor need be of the degree of the Coyfe only the Chief Justice of Chester who is one of their number is so yet are they considerable in the choice of them by the same Rules as the other Judges are and they sometimes are and fitly may be transplanted into the higher Courts 18. There are many Courts as you see some superior some provincial and some of a
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
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
follow the Queen and that heavily and I lead her not my Lord of Essex is one that in nature I could consent with as with any one living the Queen indeed is my Sovereign and I am her creature I may not lose her and the same Course I would wish you to take whereupon I satisfied him how sarre I was from any such minde And as sometimes it comes to passe that mens Inclinations are opened more in a Toy than in a serious matter A little before that time being about the middle of Michaelmass Term her Majesty had a purpose to dine at my lodging at Twitnam Park at which time I had though I prosess not to be a Poet prepared a Sonnet directly tending to draw on her Majesties reconcilement to my Lord which I remember also I shewed to a great person and one of my Lords nearest friends who commended it this though it be as I said but a toy yet it shewed plainly in what spirit I proceeded and that I was ready not only to do my Lord good offices but to publish and declare my self for him and never was I so ambitious of any thing in my life time as I was to have carried some token or favour from her Majesty to my Lord using all the art I had both to procure her Majesty to send and my self to be the Messenger for as to the former I feared not to alledge to her that this proceeding towards my Lord was a thing towards the people very implausible and therefore wished Her Majesty howsoever she did yet to discharge her self and to lay it upon others and therefore that she should intermixt her proceeding with some immediate graces from her self that the world might take knowledge of her Princely nature and goodness lest it should alienate the hearts of her people from her which I did stand upon knowing very well that if she once relented to send or visit those demonstrations would prove matter of substance for my Lords good And to draw that imployment upon my self I advised her Majesty that when soever God should move her to turn the light of her favour towards my Lord to make signification to him thereof that Her Majesty if she did it not in person would at the least use some such mean as might not intitle themselves to any part of the thanks as persons that were thought mighty with her to work her or to bring her about but to use some such as could not be thought but a meer Conduct of her own goodness but I could never prevaile with her though I am perswaded she saw plainly whereat I levelled but she had me in jealousie that I was not hers entirely but still had inward and deep respects towards my Lord more then stood at that time with her will and pleasure About the same time I remember an answer of mine in a matter which had some affinity with my Lords Cause which though it grew from me went after about in others names for her Majesty being mightily incensed with that Book which was dedicated to my Lord of Essex being a story of the first year of King Henry the fourth thinking it a seditious prelude to put into the peoples heads boldness and faction said she had an opinion there was treason in it and asked me if I could not finde any places in it that might be drawn within Case of Treason Whereto I answered for treason sure I found none but for felony very many And when her Majesty hastily asked me wherein I told her the Author had committed very apparent theft for he had taken most of the sentences of Cornelius Tacitus and translated them into English and put them into his text And another time when the Queen could not be perswaded that it was his writing whose name was to it but that it had some more mischievous Author and said with great indignation that she would have him racked to produce his Au thor I replied Nay Madam he is a Doctor never rack his person but rack his stile let him have pen Ink and paper and help of books and be enjoyned to continue the story where it breaketh off and I will undertake by collating the stiles to judge whether he were the Author or no. But for the main matter sure I am when the Queen at any time asked my opinion of my Lords Case I ever in one tenour said unto her that they were faults which the Law might term Contempts because they were the transgression of her particular directions and Instructions but then what defence may be made of them in regard of the great Interest the person had in Her Majesties favour in regard of the greatness of his place and the ampleness of his Commission in regard of the nature of the business being action of war which in common cases cannot be tyed to strictness of Instructions in regard of the distance of the place having also a Sea between his demands and Her Commands must be subject to wind and weather in regard of a Councel of State of Ireland which he had at his beck to avow his actions upon and lastly in regard of a good Intention that he might alledge for himself which I told her in some religions was held to be a sufficient dispensation for Gods Commandments much more for Princes In all these regards I besought her Majesty to be advised again and again how she brought the Cause into any publick question Nay I went further for I told her my Lord was an eloquent and well spoken man and besides his eloquence of nature or art he had an eloquence of accident which pass'd them both which was the pity and benevolence of his hearers and therefore when he should come to answer for himself I doubted his words would have so unequal passage above theirs that should charge him as would not be for her Majesties honour and therefore wished the Conclusion might be that they might wrap it up privately between themselves and that she would restore my Lord to his former attendance with some addition of honour to take away discontent But this I will never deny that I did shew no approbation generally of his being sent back again into Ireland both because it would have carried a repugnancy with my former discourse and because I was in mine own heart fully perswaded that it was not good neither for the Queen nor for the State nor for himself and yet I did not disswade it neither but left it ever as locus lubricus For this perticularitie I do well remember that after your Lordship was named for the place in Ireland and not long before your going it pleased her Majesty at Whitehall to speak to me of that nomination at which time I said to her Surely Madam if you mean not to imploy my Lord of Essex thither again your Majesty cannot make a better choice and was going on to shew some reason and her Majesty interrupted me swith great passion
Essex said she whensoever I send Essex back again into Ireland I will marry you claim it of me Whereunto I said well Madam I will release that Contract if his going be or the good of the State Immediately after the Queen had thought of a Course which was also executed to have somewhat published in the Star-Chamber for the satisfaction of the World touching my Lord of Essex his restraint and my Lord not to be called to it but occasion to be taken by reason of some Libels then dispersed which when her Majesty propounded unto me I was utterly against it and told her plainly That the People would say that my Lord was wounded upon his back and that Justice had her balance taken from her which ever consisted of an accusation and defence with many other quick and significant terms to that purpose insomuch that I remember I said that my Lord in foro famae was too hard for her and therefore wish'd her as I had done before to wrap it up privately And certainly I offended her at that time which was rare with me for I call to mind that both the Christmass Lent and Easter-Term following though I came divers times to her upon Law-businesses yet methought her face and manner was not so clear and open to me as it was at the first And she did directly charge me that I was absent that day at the Star-Chamber which was very true but I alledged some indisposition of body to excuse it and during all the time aforesaid there was altum silentium from her to me touching my Lord of Essex causes But towards the end of Easter Term Her Majesty brake with me and told me that she had found my words true for that the proceeding in the Star-Chamber had done no good but rather kindled factious bruits as she termed them then quenched them and therefore that she was determined now for the satisfaction of the world to proceed against my Lord in the Star-Chamber by an Information ore tenus and to have my Lord brought to his Answer howbeit she said she would assure me that whatsoever she did should be towards my Lord ad castigationem non ad destructionem as indeed she had often repeated the same phrase before Whereunto I said to the end utterly to divert her Madam if you will have me to speak to you in this Argument I must speake to you as frier Bacon's head spake that said first Time is and then Time was and Time would never be for certainly said I it is now farr too late the matter is cold and hath taken too much wind whereat she seemed again offended and rose from me and that resolution for a while continued and after in the beginning of Midsomer Term I attending her and finding her setled in that resolution which I heard of also otherwise she falling upon the like speech it is true that seeing no other remedy I said to her sleightly Why Madam if you will needs have a Proceeding you were best have it in some such sort as Ovid spake of his Mistress Est aliquid luce patente minus to make a Councel-table matter of it and end which speech again she seemed to take in ill part but yet I think it did good for that time and help't to divert that Cause of Proceeding by Information in the Star-Chamber Nevertheless afterwards it pleased her to make a more solemn matter of the Proceeding and some few dayes after when order was given that the matter should be heard at York-House before an Assembly of Councellors Peers and Judges and some Audience of men of Quality to be admitted then did some principal Councellors send for us of the learned Councel and notifie her Majesties Pleasure unto us save that it was said to me openly by some one of them That her Majesty was not yet resolved whether she would have me forborn in the business or no. And hereupon might arise that other sinister and untrue speech that I hear is raised of me how I was a Suitor to be used against my Lord of Essex at that time for it is very true that I that knew well what had passed between the Queen and me and what occasion I had given her both of distaste and distrust in crossing her disposition by standing stedfast for my Lord of Essex and suspecting it also to be a stratagem arising from some particular emulation I writ to her two or three words of Complement signifying to her Majesty That if she would be pleased to spare me in my Lord of Essex's Cause out of the Consideration she took of my obligation towards him I should reckon it for one of her highest Favours but otherwise desiring her Majesty to think that I knew the degrees of Duties and that no particular obligation whatsoever to any Subject could supplant or weaken that entireness of Duty that I did owe and bear to her and her Service and this was the goodly Suit I made being a respect no man that had his wits could have omitted but nevertheless I had a further reach in it for I judged that dayes work would be a full period of any bitterness or harshness between the Queen and my Lord and therefore if I declared my self fully according to her mind at that time which could not do my Lord any manner of prejudice I should keep my credit with her ever after whereby to do my Lord Service Hereupon the next news that I heard was that we were all sent for again and that her Majesties pleasure was we should have all parts in the business and the Lords falling into distribution of our parts it was allotted to me that I should set forth some undutiful carriage of my Lord in giving occasion and Countenance to a seditious Pamphlet as it was termed which was dedicated unto him which was the book before mentioned of King H. 4. Whereupon I replied to that allotment and said to their Lordships that it was an old matter and had no manner of Coherence with the rest of the Charge being matters of Ireland and therefore that I having been wronged by bruits before this would expose me to them more and it would be said I gave in evidence mine own tales It was answered again with good shew that because it was considered how I stood tied to my Lord of Essex therefore that part was thought fittest for me which did him least hurt for that whereas all the rest was matter of Charge and Accusation this only was but matter of Caveat and admonition wherewith though I was in mine own Conscience little satisfied because I knew well a man were better to be Charged with some faults then admonished of some others yet the Conclusion binding upon the Queens pleasure directly volens nolens I could not avoid that part that was laid upon me which part if in the delivery I did handle not tenderly though no man before me did in so clear terms free my Lord from
all disloyalty as I did that your Lordship knoweth must be ascribed to the superiour duty I did owe to the Queens fame and honour in a publick proceeding and partly to the intention I had to uphold my self in credit and strength with the Queen the better to be able to do my Lord good offices afterwards for assoon as this day was past I lost no time but the very next day following as I remember I attended her Majesty fully resolved to try and put in use my utmost endeavour so far as I in my weakness could give furtherance to bring my Lord speedily again into Court and into favour and knowing as I supposed at least how the Queen was to be used I thought that to make her Conceive that the matter went well then was the way to make her leave off there and I remember well I said to her you have now Madam obtained victory over two things which the greatest Princes in the world cannot at their wills subdue the on is over fame the other is over a great minde for surely the world is now I hope reasonably well satisfied and for my Lord he did shew that humiliation towards Your Majesty as I am perswaded he was never in his life time more fit for Your Majesties favour then he is now therefore if your Majesty will not marr it by lingring but give over at the best and now you have made so good a full point receive him again with tenderness I shall then think that all that is past is for the best Whereat I remember she took exceeding great Contentment and did often iterate and put me in mind that she had ever said that her Proceeding should be ad reparationem and not ad ruinam as who saith that now is the time I should plainly perceive that that saying of hers should prove true And further she willed me to set down in writing all that passed that day I obeyed her Commandment and within some few dayes after brought her again the Narration which I did read unto her in two several Afternoons And when I came to that part that set forth my Lords own Answer which was my principal care I do well bear in mind that she was extraordinarily moved with it with kindness and relenting towards my Lord and told me afterwards speaking how well I had expressed my Lords part that she perceived old love would not be forgotten Whereunto I answered suddenly that I hoped she meant that by her self But in Conclusion I did advise her that now she had taken a representation of the matter to her self that she would let it go no further for Madam said I the Fire blazeth well already what should you tumble it And besides it may please you keep a conveniency with your self in this Case for since your express direction was there should be no Register nor Clerk to take this Sentence nor no Record or Memorial made up of the Proceeding why should you now do that Popularly which you would not admit to be done Judicially Whereupon she did agree that that Writing should be suppressed and I think there were not five persons that ever saw it But from this time forth during the whole latter end of that Summer while the Court was at Non-such and Oatland I made it my task and scope to take and give occasions for my Lords redintegration in his Fortunes Which my intention I did also signifie to my Lord as soon as ever he was at Liberty whereby I might without peril of the Queens indignation write to him and having received from his Lordship a courteous and loving acceptation of my good will and endeavours I did apply it in all my accesses to the Queen which were very many at that time and purposely sought and wrought upon other variable pretences but only and chiefly for that purpose And on the other side I did not forbear to give my Lord from time to time faithful advertisement what I found and what I wished And I drew for him by his appointment some Letters to her Majesty which though I knew well his Lordships gift and stile was far better then mine own yet because he required it alledging that by his long restraint he was grown almost a stranger to the Queens present conceipts I was ready to perform it and sure I am that for the space of six weeks or two moneths it prospered so well as I expected continually his restoring to his attendance And I was never better welcome to the Queen nor more made of then when I spake fullest and boldest for him in which Kind the particulars were exceeding many whereof for an example I will remember to your Lordship one or two as at one time I call to mind her Majesty was speaking of a Fellow that undertook to cure or at least to ease my Brother of his Gout and asked me how it went forwards And I told her Majesty that at first he received good by it but after in the course of his Cure he found himself at a stay or rather worse The Queen said again I will tell you Bacon the Errour of it The manner of these Physitians and especially these Empiricks is to continue one kind of medicine which at the first is proper being to draw out the ill humour but after they have not the discretion to change their medicine but apply still drawing medicines when they should rather intend to cure and corroborate the part Good Lord Madam said I how wisely and aptly can you speak and discern of Physick ministred to the body and consider not that there is the like reason of Physick ministred to the mind as now in the case of my Lord of Essex your Princely word ever was that you intended ever to reform his mind and not ruine his Fortune I know well you cannot but think you have drawn the humour sufficiently and therefore it were more then time and it were but for doubt of mortifying or exulcerating that you did apply and minister strength and comfort unto him for these same gradations of yours are fitter to corrupt than to correct any mind of greatness And another time I remember she told me for News that my Lord had written to her some very dutiful Letters and that she had been moved by them and when she took it to be the abundance of his heart she found it to be but a preparative to a Suit for the renewing of his Farm of sweet Wines Whereto I replied Alas Madam how doth your Majesty construe of these things as if these two could not stand well together which indeed nature hath planted in all Creatures for there are but two sympathies the one towards Perfection the other towards Preservation That to Perfection as the Iron tendeth to the Loadstone that to Preservation as the Vine will creep unto a Stake or Prop that stands by it not for any love to the stake but to uphold it self And therefore Madam you must distinguish my
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
Proceeding at York-house and likewise upon some former Declarations which in sormer times by her appointment I put in writing commanded me to pen that Book which was published for the better satisfaction of the World which I did but so as never Secretary had more particular and express directions and instructions in every point how to guide my hand in it and not only so but after that I had made a first draught thereof and propounded it to certain principal Councellors by her Majesties appointment it was perused weighed censured altered and made almost a new Writing according to their Lordships better consideration wherein their Lordships and my self both were as religious and curious of truth as desirous of satisfaction and my self indeed gave only words and form of stile in pursuing their directions And after it had passed their allowance it was again exactly perused by the Queen her self and some alterations made again by her appointment nay and after it was set to Print the Queen who as your Lordship knoweth as she was excellent in great matters so she was exquisite in small and noted that I could not forget my ancient respect to my Lord of Essex in terming him ever my Lord of Essex in almost every Page of the Book which she thought not fit but would have it made Essex or the late Earl of Essex whereupon of force it was Printed de novo and the first Copies suppressed by her peremptory Commandment And this my Lord to my furthest remembrance is all that passed wherein I had part which I have set down as near as I could in the very words and speeches as were used not because they are worth the repetition I mean those of mine but to the end your Lordship may lively and plainly discern between the face of Truth and a smooth Tale. And the rather also because in things that passed a good while since the very words and phrases did sometimes bring to my-remembrance the matters wherein I refer me to your honourable Judgment whether you do not see the traces of an honest man and had I been as well believed either by the Queen or my Lord as I was well heard by them both both my Lord had been fortunate and so had my self in his Fortune To conclude therefore I humbly pray your Lordship to pardon me for troubling you with this long Narration and that you will vouchsafe to hold me in your good opinion till you know I have deserved or find that I shall deserve the contrary and even so I continue At your Lordships honourable Commandments very humble F. B. A Discourse touching Helps for the Intellectual Powers by Sir Francis Bacon I Did ever hold it for an insolent and unlucky saying Faber quisque fortunas suas except it be uttered only as an hortative or spur to correct sloth For otherwise if it be believed as it soundeth and that a man entreth into an high imagination that he can compass and fathom all Accidents and ascribeth all Successes to his drifts and reaches and the contrary to his errours and sleepings it is commonly seen that the Evening fortune of that man is not so prosperous as of him that without slacking of his industry attributeth much to Felicity and Providence above him But if the Sentence were turned to this Faber quisque ingenii sui it were somewhat more true and much more profitable because it would teach men to bend themselves to reform those imperfections in themselves which now they seek but to cover and to attain those vertues and good parts which now they seek but to have only in shew and demonstration Yet notwithstanding every man attempteth to be of the first Trade of Carpenters and few bind themselves to the second whereas nevertheless the rising in Fortune seldom amendeth the mind but on the other side the removing of the stones and impediments of the mind doth often clear the passage and current to a mans Fortune But certain it is whether it be believed or no that as the most excellent of Metals Gold is of all others the most pliant and most enduring to be wrought so of all living and breathing substances the perfectest Man is the most susceptible of help improvement imprestion and alteration and not only in his Body but in his Mind and spirit and there again not only in his Appetite and Affection but in his powers of Wit and Reason For as to the Body of Man we find many and strange experiences how Nature is over-wrought by custom even in actions that seem of most difficulty and least possible As first in voluntary motion which though it be termed voluntary yet the highest degrees of it are not voluntary for it is in my power and will to run but to run faster than according to my lightness or disposition of body is not in my power nor will We see the industry and practice of Tumblers and Funambulo's what effects of great wonder it bringeth the body of man unto So for suffering of pain and dolour which is thought so contrary to the nature of man there is much example of Penances in strict Orders of Superstition what they do endure such as may well verifie the report of the Spartan Boyes which were wont to be scourged upon the Altar so bitterly as sometimes they died of it and yet were never heard to complain And to pass to those Faculties which are reckoned more involuntary as long fasting and abstinency and the contrary extream voracity the leaving and forbearing the use of drink for altogether the enduring vehement cold and the like there have not wanted neither do want divers examples of strange victories over the body in every of these Nay in respiration the proof hath been of some who by continual use of diving and working under the water have brought themselves to be able to hold their Breath an incredible time and others that have been able without suffocation to endure the stifling breath of an Oven or Furnace so heated as though it did not scald nor burn yet it was many degrees too hot for any man not made to it to breath or take in And some Impostors and Counterfeits likewise have been able to wreath and cast their bodies into strange forms and motions yea and others to bring themselves into Trances and Astonishments All which Examples do demonstrate how variously and to how high points and degrees the body of man may be as it were molded and wrought And if any man conceive that it is some seeret propriety of Nature that hath been in those persons which have attained to those points and that it is not open for every man to do the like though he had been put to it for which cause such things come but very rarely to pass It is true no doubt that some persons are apter than others but so as the more aptness causeth perfection but the less aptness doth not disable so that for Example the more apt Child
that we could not long suffer such attempts unrevenged and being somewhat amazed with the charge he denyed the things very flatly and promised to write very earnestly therein to the King his Master And for conclusion we said that we would write unto you to move the King to make restitution and to prohibit the going to the Seas of any other but of those that were good Merchants in this time of peace according to the Treaty of which our negotiation you shall hear more shortly by Letters from the Council although I thought it good by this my private Letter somewhat to touch it unto you This speech with the Ambassador was on Saturday the fourth of this present and upon importunity of the Ambassador he had Audience of the Queens Majesty this day to whom he shewed a Letter from the King that Percivall coming over with Letters of late thither was stayed at Deip and the King hearing that he had Letters from the Queens Majesty ordered to dismiss him and willed the Ambassador to pray the Queen to think no offence in it for the said Percivall was to be Arrested in France for great debts which he ow'd there besides that as the Ambassador saith he is to be charged there with a murther After he shewed this Letter to her Majesty she called the Lord Chamberlain and me to her in his presence being no more of her Council then and in very round speeches told the Ambassador that she did not take the French Kings answer for the matter of Callis in good part and so much the worse because the Queen Mother by her Letters sent by Mr. Smith wrote that her Son had given very benign Audience and so reasonable an answer as ought well to content her Majesty In which manner of speech she saith she is not well used considering the answer was altogether unjust and unreasonable and if hereof the Ambassador shall make any sinister report you may as you see cause well maintain the Queens answer to be very reasonable as having cause to mislike the manner of writing of the Queen thereon which nevertheless you may impute to the unadvisedness of the Secretaries for so the Queens Majesty here did impute it Upon Sunday last I received Letters from Barnaby your Secretary who therein did very well advertise me of the staying of Percival at Deip and indeed I do finde that the cause hath grown from the Ambassador here either of displeasure or of suspition that he hath against the State Ro. Condulphe for whom he knew Percival was specially sent and finding this day the Ambassador very earnest in private speech with my Lord of Leicester and my self that Percivall would be Arrested in France after that he had delivered the Queens Letters I advised him to write to the contrary for otherwise he might provoke us to do the like with his Messengers and surely if I may be suffered so will I use them I have no more to write unto you But I can assure you that the Queen of Scots was married the 15. of this May and the Nobility therewith so offended as they remain with the Prince and keep apart from her what will follow I know not My Lady your Wife is safely arrived and was long with the Queen on Sunday I thank you for the little French Book which she brought me the like whereof I had before Yours assuredly W. Cecil May 27. 1567. To the right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR THe matters of Scotland grow so great as they draw us to be very careful thereof I think not but you do hear of them by the reports but briefly these they be The best part of the Nobility hath confederated themselves to follow by way of Justice the condemnation of Bothwell and his Complices for the murther of the King Bothwell defends himself by the Queens maintenance and the Hambletons so as he hath some party though it be not great The 15. of this moneth he brought the Queen into the field with her power which was so small as he escaped himself without fighting and left the Queen in the field and she yielding her self to the Lords flatly denyed to grant Justice against Bothwell so as they have restrained her in Lothleven untill they may come unto the end of their pursuit against Bothwell The French Ambassador and Villeroy who is there pretend to favour the Lords with very great offers and it may be they do as much on the other side At this time I send unto you certain Packets of Letters left here by Mr. Melvin who lately came hither from the Queen of Scots the sending of those to my Lord of Murray requireth great haste whereof you may not make the Scotish Ambassador privy but I think you may make Robert Steward privy with whom you may confer for the speedy sending away of the same letters His return into Scotland is much desired of them and for the Weal both of England and Scotland I wish he were here and for his manner of returning touching his safety I pray require Mr. Steward to have good care Our Wars in Ireland are come to a good pass for the Arch-Traytor Shane-Oneale is slain by certain Scots in Ireland of whom he sought aid one murtherer killed by many murtherers hereby the whole Realm I trust will become quiet I pray you of those things that our Ambassador in Spain by your letters may be advertised whereof I cannot at this time make anyspecial letter unto him for lack of leisure and so I pray advertise him from me I am pitifully overwhelmed with business Sir Nicholas Throckmorton is shortly to pass into Scotland to negotiate there for the pacification of those troubles Yours assuredly W. Cecil Richmond 26. June 1567. To the right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR THis your Lackquey brought me letters from you and also from your servant Mr. whom he left at Rye for such business asby his letter he hath certified me whereof I have informed the Queens Majesty wherein she also well alloweth of your circumspection and I wish all to succeed as you advise for otherwise the peril were great Sir Nicholas Throckmorton hath been somewhat long in going into Scotland and entred by Berwick on Munday last I think the two Factions of the Hambletons and the Lenox's shall better accord then your neighbors where you now live would if Bothwell might be apprehended I think the Queen there shall be at good liberty for the Nobility My Lord of Pembrooke perceiving likelihood of troubles there in that Country would gladly have his Son Mr. Edward Herbert to return home and so I pray with my hearty commendations to him declare my Lord his Fathers minde and if my Lord of Murray should lack credit for money my Lord Steward would have his Son give him such credit as he hath for my Lord alloweth well of his friendship I am
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
Queens Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR AFter my hearty commendations the Queens Majesty and my Lords of her Council have been reasonably well satisfied of late by your two dispatches wherein you have largely and well written the last being of the 29. sent hither by the means of Glover of Rohan the other of the 23. brought hither by this bearer your servant before the coming whereof we had plenty of uncertain news brought hither by the means of the passages sometimes from Diep sometime from Bulloigne but comparing them with yours we make them as refuse and yours as clean metal And truely I finde that to be true which you write that you see good cause to forbear writing of every thing there finding by experience that the greater part of reports brought thither proved not the truest I am glad there is no occasion here to requite you with any news for God blesseth us with continuance in our accustomed quietness for the which I wish we might but yield half the thanks The Queens Majesty is in good health and was purposed of late to have gone abroad for her Pastime as she did this time twelve moneths but the foulness of the weather hath letted it There were certain Scots which newly returned into Ireland about November last but they found themselves disappointed of such aide as they looked for and so are gone and scared whereby the Realm remaineth quiet The Earl of Desmond and his brother Sir John be here in the Tower chargeable rather with disorders for private quarrels then for any untruth whereupon some think that whilst they remain here good order may be better stablished there In Scotland things are quietly Governed by the Regent who doth acquit himself very honorably to the advancement of Religion and Justice without respect of persons My Lord of Sussex by his last letters of the 27. of January looked for his resolute answer in such sort at that time as he hoped to be at Antwerp before the end of this moneth What his answer is like to be I assure you on my Faith neither do I know nor can likely conjecture I perceive by some of your letters of late that you were somewhat troubled with light reports of news from hence and therein you thought it strange that you could not hear thereof from me You may be sure that in such a case I would have given you some knowledge if any thing had hapned More as yet I have not at this present but heartily to thank you for the young horse you have bestowed upon me wherein you see my overmuch boldness of your friendship as in many other things and so I heartily take my leave I wish to have a Bill of the names of the principal persons with the place Yours assured W. Cecil Westm. 12. Feb. 1567. To the right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR YOur last letters be dated the 10. of Feburary by which they I perceive you did two days before make earnest suit on the behalf of the poor men at Marsciles wherein surely you did very charitably besides that it toucheth the Queens Majesty in honor to have them deliveed and so her Majesty alloweth your doings therein and therefore you may do well to continue it I doubt the former answer will be renewed that is to have the interest of D'Estrill fully remitted which belongeth properly to some of the Queens Subjects who have spent a great deal of money in the pursuit thereof by attendance onely for that purpose upon this Court more then two or three years which of my own knowledge I understand to be true insomuch as they have been forced to be relieved out of prison for very debt grown by this their suite Of late they of Rye took certain Fishers of Diepe which had come upon our shoar in the night and Fished with sundry Netts of unlawful size such as are both by the Ordinances of France and England on both sides condemned and being kept in Ward by them of Rye the Ambassador made earnest suite for them but after the Nets were brought up and some of the parties also and plainly proved before them that they were far unlawful It was agreed by my Lord Steward and the Officers of the houshold here in the favor of them That they should be released and have their Nets with faithful promise never to use the same again upon our Coast Hereof it may be you shall hear but I assure you considering the unreasonableness of their Nets I think they had too much favor in that the Nets were not burned The Queens Majesty this morning willed me to write unto you that you should obtain licence of the French King to send for by safe conduct your Nephew Champernoune which is with the Count Mountgomery whom his father thought to have remained in Normandy with the Countess but now since dinner I perceive by Sir Arthur Champernoune he would be loth to seem to send for him and therefore you may do herein as Sir Arthur Champernoune shall by his letter sent unto you at this time move you for indeed I think the Count Mountgomery would be very loth to part with him for opinion sake The Lord of Arbroth came lately out of Scotland this way and spoke with the Queens Majesty pretending to go into France to sollicite aide for the delivery of the Queen of Scots he came out of Scotland without licence or knowledge of the Regent there this way of late but I trust shortly to hear from of such things as he carryed with him Your admonition of O was well allowed of but about that matter we are otherwise occupied if things may fall out as are meant whereof I cannot write any more because as yet the Iron is not in the Forge I thank you for the Edicts published and printed in Paris which you sent me praying you that you will hereafter continue in the same mauner to send me any thing that is there published Having not heard of any thing from you since the 9. of this moneth this being the 26 I am in some perplexity what to think of matters there for howsoever rumors and news be brought from the Sea coast neither do I believe any for the truth but such as are confirmed by you And hereby you may perceive that the oftner you write the more pleasure you do me Yours assuredly W. Cecil West 26. Feb. 1567. Postscript I hear that Glover of Rohan is very ill used I wish you could help him as you shall understand his grief To the right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR YOur last letters that have come to my hands were of the 12. of Feb. brought hither by one Bogg of the French Kings Guard who having tarryed as he said fourteen days at Diep for lack of passage by that means came very slowly hither and therefore you must think we be here
it hath been answered untill her cause may appear more probable for her innocency the Queens Majesty cannot with honor receive her personally but if the Queen will by any manner of means honorable let her cause appear to be void of the horrible crime imputed to her for the murthering of her husband she shall be aided and used with all honor whereunto she will give no resolute answer other then that if she may come personally to the Queens Majesty then she will let it appear how she standeth in the cause Hereupon we stand at a brawl she much offended that she hath not her requests and we much troubled with the difficulties finding neither her continuance here good nor her departing hence quiet for us We here speak of one La Mote that should come hither Yours assured W. Cecil From Havering the 13. of July in haste Postscript And for and x I pray you put them in comfort that if extremity should happen they must not be left for it is so universal a cause as none of the Religion can separate themselves one from another we must all pray together and stand fast together and further c. To the right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador Resident in France AFter my hearty commendations though here be no great cause of present dispatch to you yet for the return of this bearer your servant Darrington having been long here and also to let you understand of the Queens Majesty proceedings with the Queen of Scots since her being in this Realm and since my last letters to you I have taken this occasion to return him to you The Queen of Scots having long laboured the Queens Majesty both by Messages and Letters to have aid of her Majesty against the Lords of Scotland and by force to restore her to her Realm her Majesty could not finde it meet in honor so to do but rather to seek all other good means to compass it with quiet and honor wherein much travailing hath been spent Finally the Queen of Scots hath agreed that her matter shall be heard in this Realm before some good personages to be deputed by the Queens Majesty to meet with some of the Lords of Scotland about New-Castle or Durham or neer this way as shall be found fit and so to be reported to her Majesty This way being now resolved upon and accepted of all parts the Earl of Murray hath offered to come himself in person if her Majesty finde it good accompanyed with others of meet condition to any place and at any time that her Majesty will appoint and because the Lord Herreys having long been here for the Queen of Scots and lately gone to her hath on his Mistrisses behalf required that speed might be used in this matter the Queens Majesty hath by her special letters required the Earle of Murray that all expedition may be made either for his own or else that some others may come chosen to be persons of wisdom and dexterity and void of all particular passion in such a cause as this is and upon his answer of the persons that shall be thus appointed there the Queens Majesty will with all speed send like fit personages from hence to meet with them and in the mean time where they the Lords of Scotland had summoned a Parliament of their three Estates to assemble in this next August her Majesty hath required them to suspend the holding of the Parliament untill the issue of this matter to be heard by her Majesty may come to some end In this meeting the Queens Majesty doth not mean to charge the Queen of Scots but will hear what the Lords can alleadge for themselves to defend all their doings and proceedings for imprisoning and deposing their Queen and other matters published by them and thereof to cause report to be made to her to be answered and likewise to carry such matters as are to come from her against them and upon hearing of all parts as matters shall in truth fall out so doth her Majesty mean to deal further therein as honor will lead and move her to do Whilst these things have been in doing the Queens Majesty hath been advertised though not from the Queen of Scots that she hath deputed the whole Government of her Realm of Scotland to the Duke of Chastilheraulte thereby both to make a party as may be supposed betwixt him and the Earl of Murray and also to be the earnester to procure Forreign aid for his maintenance whereof her Majesty is informed there is a great appearance having obtained of the French King good numbers of Harquebuziers and others ready to embarque for Scotland which being true her Majesty hath good cause to let the said King understand that it is against his promise as your self knoweth best And so hath also the said Queen assured her Majesty that she will not procure any Strangers to come into Scotland for her use untill it may appear what will ensue of this meeting But if the contrary fall out either by her own means or by the procuring of the said Duke of Chastilherault in France the Queens Majesty will not onely forbear to deal any further for the benefit of the Queen of Scots as hitherto her Highness hath done with all honor and sincerity having had as great care of her cause as she her self could have but shall be justly moved to do otherwise then the said Queen or her friends abroad would wish Thus much I thought good to impart unto you of these matters to the end that if you being there finde indeed that the said Duke doth obtain any such aide there to be sent into Scotland you may take occasion to deal therein with the King or with such as you know fittest for the stay thereof The Queen is now removed lately from Carlile to Bolton Castle a house of the Lord Scroops about 30. miles within the land fitter in all respects for her to lye at then Carlile being a Town for Frontier and War the Queens Majesty doth cause her to be very well and honorably used and accompanied And thus having no other present matter to write unto you I thought good herewith to return your servant to you wishing you right heartily well to do From the Court at Endfield the 25. of July 1568. After the end of this letter your servant Wall arrived here with your letters to the Lord Steward the Earl of Leicester and to me for answer to the letter which we wrote to you which letter after I had caused to be deciphered I sent to the Court to them my self being at my house near Waltham not well at ease nor in case to go to Court I long much to hear answer of letters sent by your Lackque touching the matter of an Italian whereof I doubt the Queens Majesty is more careful to hear then she doth here express at this time I have received a letter from an Italian there with you who
in exercise of his Religion he continually lamenteth that grave Councellors perswading peace are not of more power and credit in the Court. Whatsoever this French Ambassador shall report of him he cannot truly report any evil of him I hear La Mot is on his way at Callis to come hither I think surely some of yours are on the way I pray send me a Register or List of the Chieftains on the Kings part and also on the contrary Sir I do send you herewith a new Cipher Yours assuredly W. Cecil To the right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR YOur last letters that came to my hands were of the 29. of the last moneth by which you signified to me the advertisements which you then had of the taking of Angulesme since which time sundry reports are brought hither of Battels that should be betwixt the parties whereof lacking advertisements from your self I do give credit unto none by reason of the diversities of the reports On Sunday last La Mot was presented by Mounsieur de la Forest the former Ambassador whom the Queens Majesty hath admitted as Ambassador for the French King and seemeth to like well of his wisdom whereof hitherto for mine own part I have not had any proof The cause of the Queen of Scots is now to be heard here for which purpose the Duke of Norfolk and the Earl of Sussex are sent for from York and are to be here within these two days and presently the Earl of Murray the Earl Morton with certain other Noble men of his part are already come and on the Queens part the Bishop of Ross and the Lord Herryes be at London and do daily look for some other Commissioners to joyn with them because her Majesty meaneth to have the whole matter advisedly heard she hath appointed an Assembly not onely of her whole Council but of all the Earls of the Realm to be here the 18. of this moneth at which time her Majesty meaneth to have this cause of the Queen of Scots fully heard and therein to take such resolution and end as she shall be advised unto by her said Council and Estates The last letters which you sent unto the Queen wherein as her Majesty saith you made declaration of your Message done to that King concerning the Cardinal Chastillons being here was by her Majesty casually let fall in the fire and so burnt whereupon her Majesty being sorry for that she had not advisedly perused it willed me to write unto you for the copy of the same letter again which I pray you to send me by the next I would be glad to hear a brief or as they call it a list of the names of the principal persons that have a charge now in these wars in France on both parts with the contents as near as you can of their numbers After the writing hereof this present evening as the bearer hereof can tell Mr. Edmonds came hither with your letters to the Queens Majesty by which I am satisfied for those reports that were made of the great sights at Angulesme and of that which hath been here reported by the French Ambassador of the overthrow of Mouvans which I am glad is not true as he reported and so finding nothing else to be answered I thought good to dispatch this bearer with this my letter to the intent we might the sooner hear of your news whereupon dependeth the whole expectation of the Christian world Yours assuredly W. Cecil Hampton-Court 16. Nov. 1566. Postscript Before Mr. Edmonds came you may see what I wrote of the To the Right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR BY your last letter sent to me by this bearer your servant I perceived how good hap it was for our satisfaction here that your letters came not away with the report of the victory whereof the King there advertised you by a special Messenger untill you had also knowledge of the truth thereof by Villeroys coming from the Camp after the first message for like as the former part of your letters made mention of a great Victory for the King and an overthrow of the Princes whole Infantry So have many letters been written hither from Paris and other places according to the partial affections of the Writers in affirmance thereof adding for their confirmation certain solemnities by Processions and such like used at Paris for the same nevertheless I account the truth to be as in the latter part of your letter you write that there was no such manner of battel but certain skirmishes wherein there was no great inequality and yet because I hear it also credibly reported that the Prince of Conde lodged and kept the field where the skirmishes were I think his losses were less then the others whereof I think within a while to know the truth more particularly This matter of the Queen of Scots began to be heard and treated on at Westminster the 25. of the last moneth since which time there hath been sittings five or six several days and yesterday the Queen of Scots Commissioners having matter to answer whereby the Queen their Mistriss was charged with the murther of her husband they alleadged that they would go no further being so commanded by letters from her received since the beginning of this Commission and have required to speak with the Queens Majesty of whom they pretend they will desire to have the Queen their Mistriss to come to the presence of her Majesty and answer these causes her self whereunto how they shall be answered I cannot tell but for that purpose and others her Majesty hath presently sent for her Council who be here at present and so shall the Queen of Scots Commissioners be to morrow and hereafterward as matters shall fall out I will advertise you further and so take my leave Yours assuredly W. Cecil Hampton-Court 2. Decem. 1568. To the Right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight her Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR SInce my last writing by your servant Buffin I have forborn to write because I thought both to hear somewhat more from you and to have also somewhat here to write unto you Since which time I have received no letters from you but such as the poor Merchants of Ireland brought me being dated the 25. of the last moneth which came hither on Saturday last being the 11. of this moneth and considering the multitude of tales reported here to us of the conflict about the 18. I was nothing satisfied with the said last letters because touching that matter they did refer me to your former against which the French Ambassador here hath precisely given unto us news in the name of the King his Master wholly to the disadvantage of the Prince and therefore I wish you had written thereof now at the latter time somewhat more particularly I did of late write to you for the copy of the letter
by Sea the journey in this Winter time will be very dangerous and uncertain and to send him thorow France where the troubles are such as she could not either without mistrust of the French King because the party should pass thorow Gascoigne and the Queen of Navarrs ountry or without certain danger by souldiers and thereupon you shall so advertise that Ambassador of Spain and require him to make advertisement accordingly whereunto you may add that her Majesty hath thought of three or four meet persons to be sent thither for one of them to be an Ambassador Resident but none will be gotten that with good will will serve in respect of Mr. Mans strange and hard handling which things her Majesty would have you set out more plainly to him that the King may finde that onely to be the cause why there is no Resident Ambassador there And thus I end having willed Harcourte to take some of the Proclamations if they be ready printed in French Yours assuredly W. Cecil Jan. 8. 1568. Postscript I finde in a Bill of Petitions beginning from the 28. of August to December sundry sums of money pressed by you for carriage of Packets to whom I have not answered and therefore hereafter I pray you write expresly of what you do there for avoiding of double charge To the right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight her Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR SInce the writing the other letter dated the 8. of January my Lady caused her servant to stay for a Pasport for two Geldings and sithence my other letter we have here news from Flanders 5. V. touching R and therefore we are in a continual expectation what were the very news of a matter that was reported to have hapned the 23. of December The more particulars you write hither and the oftner the more thankful is your service and surely I see nothing so meet for us to understand as to be often advertised from you which considering you may write in your Cipher the oftner you hazard your letters the less is the peril We have no news from Scotland but that their Parliament is ended and amongst other things they have all assented by Act to decline the Queen of Scots obtaining to be lawful because she was privy to the murther of her husband There were none of the Nobillity absent but such as were of the Hambletons And thus I end my suddain letter being in a great longing to hear from you Yours assuredly W. Cecil January 10. 1568. To the Right Honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight Her Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR AFter I had written my other letters sent in this Packet unto you which I was to have sent away by one of your Footmen your servant this bearer Henry Crispe came hither upon Thursday last with your letters dated the 22. of this moneth and perceiving him earnestly disposed to return unto you I thought best to stay the sending away of your Footman and to send as I do this dispatch by this bearer which is partly because my former letters shall seem to bear so old a date And herewith I send unto you which was not ready before a memorial in the Spanish tongue of the matters passed concerning this late Arrest which memorial her Majesty would have you procure with her letters to the King of Spain and therefore after you have perused it I wish you should retain a Copy thereof either in Spanish or in French for your better instruction and that done to use all the expedition you may for the conveyance of her Majesties letters and the said Memorial to the King of Spain Since the finishing of the said memorial you shall understand that D' Assondeville hath been here a good time being not as yet accepted as an Ambassador for that he hath no special letters nor Commission from the King but from the Duke of Alva And all that he can say for himself is That he cometh in the Kings name as one of his Privy Council and whatsoever he shall do shall be confirmed by the King before he will depart out of the Realm He would also privately confer with the Spanish Ambassador which hath been hitherto denyed for that it is meant that the misbehaviors of the said Ambassadors should be openly disclosed to D' Assonleville thereby to let it appear how unmeet a man he is to be a Minister for Amity here which yesterday was declared to D' Assonleville at my Lord Keepers house where he came to these of the Council following my Lord Keeper the Duke of Norfolk the Earl of Leicester the Lord Admiral my self Mr. Sadler and Mr. Mildmay and that done he seemed sorry for things past and yet pressed still to speak with the Ambassador which was not then granted by us for that we did intend that resolution should grow from her Majesty which though it be not yet known I think he shall not be denyed In these matters we have cause to be somewhat slow to satisfie them lest they should according to their accustomed manner grow too audacious what will be the end thereof I cannot judge but I trust it will appear that they have begun upon a wrong ground and as it falleth out I think they shall be found to be behinde hand with us Yesterday word came to London that all the English Fleet which were feared should have been Arrested in Spain came home safe and this day I have heard for certainty that Hawkins is arrived at Mounts Bay with the Queens Ship the Minnion having in her the Treasure which he hath gotten by his Trade in the Indies and by rigor of the Spaniards near Mexico was forced to leave the Jesus of Lubeck upon a Leek which also he destroyed that they took no profit thereof hereafter I will write unto you as I shall learn the further truth of this matter with what cruelty he was used under pretence of friendship and of a compact made betwixt him and the Vice-Roy of the Indies and Pledges delivered on both sides for the performance thereof The Queen of Scots was removed from Bolton by my Lord Scrope and Mr. Vice-chamberlain on Wednesday last so as I think on Monday or Tuesday she shall be at Tetbury where the Earl of Shrewsbury is already and there shall take the charge of her and with him shall Mr. Hen. Knollis brother to Mr. Vice-Chamberlain remain to assist him Of late the Queens Majesty understanding out of Scotland that the Queen of Scots faction there had published sundry things being very false and slanderous meaning thereby to withdraw the Earl of Murrays friends from him and to bring the Queens Majesty doings into some question whereof we also be credibly informed the Queen of Scots by her letters was the very cause thereupon her Majesty ordered to have the contrary notified upon her Frontiers for maintenance of the truth as by the same you shall understand which I send you herewith in Print The advertisements
should be conserved according to the Treaties And besides this it was added that seeing the Duke of Alva began the Arrest first it was reason they should also begin the release and so in the end D'Assonle ville appearing to be much miscontented was licensed to depart and so is gone having used all good gentle speech that could be during his being here notwithstanding the report of his great bravery made at Callis before his coming which either was not true or else purged his choler upon the Seas coming hither Thus having as time could serve me enlarged my letter I end with my hearty thanks to you for the Charts of France which I perceive are of the like as I had seen before so as I think there is no newer printed Yours assuredly as your own W. Cecil Westm. March 7. 1568. Postscript I would gladly know whether the paper you sent me containing the Emperors answer to the French Kings demand be to be allowed as true To the right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight c SIR BY the Queens Majesties letters you shall perceive in what sort the French Ambassador hath sought to frame a tale of slander against you her Majesty hath answered for you and as long as no other thing can be produced to touch you it is reason that her Majesty should answer as she doth Your servant Madder came safely hither four days past and I have heard from my Lady of Harts taking and the Queens Majesties letters from him Whereof as I know upon her advertisement to you you will use some roundness of speech by way of complaint there so have we here not forborn to charge the Ambassador with these dis-courteous dealings who promises earnestly to write to the King thereof The French Ambassador giveth out store of News of the overthrow of Montgomery the taking of his brother of Gonliss death of the Duke of Bipots sickness of his want of money to go to the Feild but we heard of many contraries to these and so I wish you your hearts desire Yours assuredly W. Cecil Westm. 14. March 1568. To the Right Honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight her Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR YOur servant Crips came hither yesternight as I perceive constrained to follow and accompany Monsieur de Montassyer who this day was brought to the Queens Majesties presence to report the Victory which God had given to the French King by a Battail as he termed it wherein was slain the Prince of Conde whereunto as I could conceive her Majesty answered that of any good Fortune hapning to the King she was glad but she thought it also to be condoled with the King that it should be counted a Victory to have a Prince of his blood slain and so with such like speech not fully to their contentation Before the coming of your letters we could not firmly believe the reports of the Prince of Conde's death but now the will of God is to be interpreted in this and all things to the best I am sorry to see you so troubled whereof her Majesty is so informed as she told the French Ambassador that if he will not procure the King his Master to cause you and yours to be otherwise entreated she will revoke you In the mean season I pray you keep your former courage contra audentior ito I have been and yet am not in sure health as your Son can inform you whereby I am not able to write any long letter when Madder was here I gave him a Memorial of sundry things of which I trust he hath by this time informed you at length We have heard nothing from Rochel since this re-encounter at Cognac but from Paris we hear that saving the loss of the Princes person the other part hath the greater loss in numbers and that the Admiral did defeat fourty Ensigns of Mounsieurs Army that offered to besiege him in Cognac hereof shortly the truth will be known I note that this 13. of March last past had two sundry great effects for upon that day when the Regent of Scotland should have fought with the Duke of Chastilherault they did notably accord the same day in this sort that the Duke acknowledged the young King and went with the Regent to Sterling and with him besides other Noblemen the Lord Herryes who had been here a vehement Commissioner for the Queen of Scots Besides it is accorded that for redress of all private quarrels there were four Noblemen named of either part to end all who should come to Edenburgh the tenth of April to treat thereupon and this was unwilling to the Queen of Scots who must needs be greatly perplexed therewith what will follow I know not but the Regent is now well obeyed the same day we see what was done in Poytiers wherein Gods judgements are not to be over much searched I send you within the Queens Majesties letter a paper in a new Cipher to which he desireth forasmuch as all power egal to be which I pray you do And thus I finde my self not able to indure any longer writing and therefore end Yours assuredly W. Cecil Westm. 6. April 1568. SIR AFter I had closed up this other Packet I had occasion to stay the bearer partly by indisposition of my health and also within a day after by reason of the coming of your Son John Norris with your letters of the 15. of this moneth who gave us here to understand of certain discomfortable news which were told him at Abeville and as it appeareth were in great haste sent before him by the Marshal de Cosse to the French Ambassador containing an absolute Victory by the Kings brother in a battail besides Cognac in which it was written that the Prince of Conde and the rest of the Nobility with him saving the Admiral and Dandelot who were fled were all slain and this news being here dispersed abroad I thought good to stay the sending away of this bearer until we might better understand what to think truth herein which being now four days and therein no confirmation of the aforesaid news but a doubtful maintenance of them whereby it is thought that either no part was true or not in such sort as was reported and therefore knowing the necessity of your mans service I do return him unto you We understand certainly out of Scotland that there hath been an accord by certain Articles made betwixt the Regent and the Duke of Chastilherault and his party wherein the obedience to the King is acknowledged and a Surcease untill the tenth of April at which time the Duke and eight more chosen on both parts shall meet at Edenburgh to confer of the estate of the Queen of Scots how she shall be reputed and likewise of recompences for the losses on both parts sustained in these civil wars and for performance of this Treaty the Duke the Earle of Cassels and the Lord Herryes remain with the Regent untill they put in their Sons for
a matter to be pitied to have any such disorder to be begun yet with Gods goodness there is great likelihood of due avenge to be had of them all and no small profit to grow to the Queens Majestie by the forfeitures and escheats of their Lands wherewith the better subjects may be rewarded The French Ambassador hath been here this day and shewed the Queens Majesty that the King is come to Paris to levy mony for increase of his Army and that there are coming six thousand more Switzers to his service The 25. of the last the Earl of Murray began a convention at St. Iohns Town and meaneth to send as I think the Lord Lydlington hither with his minde concerning the Queen of Scots and so I end with my hearty commendations both to your self and my Lady Yours assuredly W. Cecil Otlands 3. Aug. 1569. Postscript here is very desirous that might be hither To the right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR YOur last letters brought hither to my hands came by Mr. Huddleston whom surely I think you shall finde an honest servitor I have no matter presently to write of but to take occasion to send away this bearer your servant and I wish to hear from you of some good success at Pcictiers I do lye in wait for the Italian of whom you lately made mention in your letters that is sent hither to attempt his devillish conclusions Out of Ireland since my last I have heard nothing of any moment but I trust all shall be in quiet there and so is the state of this Realm also howsoever any other shall report having a disposition of malicious prophesying In Suffolk a lewd Varlet not disposed to get his living by labor moved a number of light persons to have made a rout in manner of Rebellion to have spoiled the richer sort but the matter was discovered and the offenders taken before they did attempt any thing more then had passed by words so as thereby they are punishable but as conspirers by words and not as actual Rebels The convention of St. Johns-Town in Scotland was dissolved about the second of this moneth and one Wednesday last came hither one Alexander Hume from the Regent with letters declaring that he had an universal obedience in Scotland and that the States there would not consent to any thing concerning the Queen of Scots restitution by any manner of Degree wherewith her Majesty is not well pleased because she hath a disposition to have her out of the Realm with some tollerable conditions to avoid perill which is a matter very hard at the least to me to compass I think you shall hear someways of an intention of and Certainly if the Queens Majesty may or shall be thereto perswaded I think it likely to succeed it hath so many weighty circumstances in it as I wish my self as free from the consideration thereof as I have been from the intelligence of the devising hereof I thought not good to have you ignorant I know Ê’ hath not allowed of it Sir I thank you for the French story which you lately sent me by Huddleston the next that shall come to you I think will be Mr. William Norris Yours assuredly W. Cecil Fernham 13. August 1569. Postscript Immediately after your last servant departed with letters to you making mention of our accord with the French Ambassador came the two Merchants Patrick and Offly to London with an accord propounded by the Marshall de Cross but not accepted for that thereby was required a general restitution of all things which on our part indeed cannot be and now the French Ambassador will not be here on Wednesday to eater into a new communication I send you a late Proclamation which you may impart there as you list SIR ALthough the bearer hereof Mr. Norris your Son is well able to satisfie you of all our Occurrents here both because of his continual attendance about the Court and for his understanding yet in one onely thing I am most fit to inform you That his stay here of long time hath been principally by my occasion whom I have at all times of late when he hath desired to come over unto you moved to stay upon expectation to have some matter of more weight to be by him imparted unto you but finding the same not so to fall out and perceiving him the more importune to resort unto you since the repair of Harcourte by whom he understood of your sickness I have thought it good no longer to defer him and therefore without any other great matter but to send him where he would be he now cometh and if I should enter into writing of any particular things here past he is as well able to express the same of his own knowledge as I am by writing and therefore you shall justly hold me excused if I forbear my writing having so sufficient a person to make report of all things as well such as are meet for letters as also not meet for some respects Of the matters of Ireland he shall make you full report Of Scotland he can do the like of our Trade to Hamburgh he is not ignorant of the matters betwixt us and France for Arrests of Merchandizes I have made him Privy and for the matters in this Court he hath seen and understands as much thereof as I doubt not but shall satisfie so as he shall serve you at this time in stead of many long letters And so I end with a good hope that he shall finde you well amended whereof I shall also be glad to hear wishing that the same might be joyned with the winning of Poictiers of which we here live on all sides in no small expectation though with sundry meanings Your assured friend at command W. Cecil Southampton 9. Sept. 1569. To the right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR SInce your Sons departing from Southampton I have deferred to write untill this time perceiving some likelihood of some greater matters to ensue and yet the event thereof draws out at some length which hath moved me to defer the same untill now and doubting that otherwise rumors may be brought unto you I have thought good to send away this bearer You shall understand that according as your Son was able to inform you the Duke of Norfolk departed towards London about the 16. of this moneth promising to return to the Court within 8. days the Queens Majesty having shewed her self towards him offended with his dealing in the marriage was newly offended with his departure but being by me assured as I earnestly thought that he would return her Majesty was quieted contrary hereunto notwithstanding that he wrote on Thursday the 23. that he would be at the Court before Munday yet he went away secretly from London to Reninghale that same night whereof we had no knowledge untill Sunday in the morning that his own
letters written on Friday at night at Reninghale came hither by which he signified the cause of his departure to be a vehement fear that he conceived by reports made to him that he should be committed to the Tower and therefore he did withdraw himself to have means to seek the Queens Majesties favor which he offered to do as a quiet humble subject Hereupon the same Sunday Mr. Edmund Garret was sent to him who found him at Reninghale on Munday at night in a servent Ague so as the Duke required respite untill Friday with which answer Mr. Garret returned and therewith the Queens Majesty was offended and began by reason also of other lewd tales brought to her Majesty to enter into no small jealousie and therefore sent again Mr. Garret with a peremptory commandment that he should come notwithstanding his Ague and so even now whilst I am writing I have word that Mr. Garret coming on Thursday at night found him ready to come of his own disposition and surely is now on the way whereof I am glad First for the respect of the State and next for the Duke himself whom of all subjects I honored and loved above the rest and surely found in him always matter so deserving Whilst this matter hath been in passing you must not think but the Queen of Scots was nearer looked to then before and though evil willers to our State would have gladly seen some troublesome issue of this matter yet God be thanked I trust they shall be deceived The Queens Majesty hath willed my Lord of Arundel and my Lord of Pembroke to keep their lodgings here for that they were privy of this marriage intended and did not reveal it to her Majesty but I think none of them so did with any evil meaning and of my Lord of Pembroke's intent herein I can witness that he meant nothing but well to the Queens Majesty my Lord Lumly also is restrained the Queens Majesty hath also been grievously offended with my Lord Leicester but considering he hath revealed all that he saith he knoweth of himself her Majesty spareth her displeasure the more towards him some disquiets must arise but I trust not hurtful for that her Majesty saith she will know the truth so as every one shall see his own fault and so stay Thus have I briefly run over a troublesome passage full of fears and jealousies God send her Majesty the quietness that she of her goodness desireth My Lord of Huntington is joyned with the Earl of Shrewsbury in charge for the Scotish Queens safety This 3. of October the Duke is come to Mr. Paul WentWorths house where Sir Henry Nevill hath charge to attend upon him I hope as I know no offence of untruth in him so the event of things will be moderate and so for my part I will endeavor all my power even for the Queens Majesties service I know there will be in that Court large discourses hereupon but I trust they shall lack their hope The Plague continueth in London the Term is prorogued untill All-halloutide All the former part of this letter hath been written these three days and stayed untill the Dukes coming Yours assuredly W. Cecil 3. Octob. 1569. To the Right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR EVen when this bearer was departing I heard that Crips your servant was come from you as far as Amiens or Abberville and there was faln sick but whether he hath any letters of yours or no I cannot tell I do mean to send one thither to see his estate and to bring your letters which will come very late and therefore I think we shall also have some later from you as soon as they shall come to my hands This bearer seemeth to be in Religion good enough but yet you know how he politickly serveth the French King Howsoever any evil bouts shall come thither at this present all the Realm is as yet as at any time it hath been and no doubt of the contrary and yet the Duke of Norfok is in custody and so are the Earl of Arundel and Lord Lumley but the Lord Steward onely keepeth his Chamber in the Court and I trust shall shortly do well And so I end Your assured friend W. Cecil Windsor-Castle 10. Oct. 1569. To the right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR AS you have with grief written your advises so have they with grief been received of us and yet in all these accidents of the world we must accept with humbleness the Ordinances of Almighty God and expect his further favor with patience and with prayer and intercession to move the Majesty of God to draw his heavy hand over us which is provoked by our sins Of our late matters here by the Queens Majesties letter you shall further understand which being as you see long I know you will well consider and advise how to express the same to the French King in the French tongue wherein we have this disadvantage that their Ministers speak in their own tongue and we in theirs Whatsoever you shall hear by lewd reports from hence assure your self that I know no cause to doubt but that all things are and will continue quiet The Queen of Scots I trust is and shall be so regarded as no trouble will arise thereof the Duke of Norfolk doth humbly accept the Queens Majesties dealings with him and I know of none that are thought to have favored his part but either they plainly alter their opinions and follow the Queens or if they do not so inwardly yet outwardly they yield to serve and follow her Majesty order Before you sent us your letters which you received from Spain concerning Ireland we had knowledge of the same from the same place and much more and have made provision to our power These your sinister accidents in France will cause some that were in a slumber here to awake and so beseeching you to pardon me if my letter be hasty and very short Yours assuredly W. Cecil Windsor-Castle 26. Oct. 1566. To the Right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR THis bearer your Footman having brought your letters hither a good while since is desirous to return though I think both the season of the year and the weather will not suffer him to make much haste yet I have thought good to let you partly to understand of the state of things here About the midst of the last moneth the Earls of Northumberland and Westmerland assembling themselves with some Companies after refusall to come in to the Lord President came to Duresme where they have made Proclamations in their own names for reformations of the disorders of the Realm as they termed it and for restitution of the ancient Customes and liberties of the Church and so directed the same generally to all of the old and Catholike Religion In their Companies
I know your Son Mr. William and other your servants hereto doth advertise you and therefore I pray you to bear with my shortness for I am almost smothered with business We look to hear of the apprehension of more of the Rebels I send you extracts of our letters out of the North as of late time they have come Yours assuredly W. Cecil Windsor-Castle 7. Jan. 1569. To the right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador c. Advertisements from Lyexham 22. Decemb. 1569. THe two Rebellious Rebels went into Liddesdale in Scotland yester-night where Martin Elwood and others that have given pledges to the Regent of Scotland did raise their forces against them being conducted by black Ormeston an Out-law of Scotland that was a principal murtherer of the King of Scots where the fight was offered and both parties lighted from their horses and in the end Elwood said to Ormeston he would be sorry to enter deadly send with him by bloodshed but he would charge him and the rest before the Regent for keeping of the Rebels and it he did not put them out of the Country the next day he would do his worst against them whereupon the two Earls were driven to leave Liddesdale and to flye to one of the Armestronges a Scot upon the batable on the borders between Liddesdale and England the same day the Liddesdale men stole the horses of the Countess of Northumberland and her two women and ten others of their Company so as the Earls being gone the Lady of Northumberland was left there on foot at John of the Sides house in a Cottage not to be compared to many a Dog-kennel in England at their departing from her they went not above fifty horse and the Earl of Westmerland to be the more unknown changed his Coat of Plate and sword with John of the Sides and departed like a Scotish Borderer The rest of the Rebels are partly taken in the West Borders of England and partly spoiled by the English and Scotish Borderers By letters of the 24 The Rebels be driven to change their names their Horses and apparel and to ride like Liddesdale men The Regent of Scotland will be this night upon the Borders of Liddesdale The Earl of Cumberland the Lord Scroop and Mr. Leonard Dacre have shewed themselves very Honorable and diligent in their service at the Rebels entring into the West Marches and upon the scaling of the Rebels there be great numbers of them taken there There be in every of the Marches against Scotland sundry Bands of Horsemen and shot laid if they shall enter into the Realm again By letters of the last of December The Regent of Scotland is gone from Jedworth to Edenburgh and hath taken the Earl of Northumberland and six of his men with him Before his departure from Jedworth he sent for the Gentlemen of Tividale to come before him where all came saving the Lord of Farnehurst and the Lord of Bucklugh whereupon the Regent rode towards them but they hearing thereof suddainly rode away Robert Collingwood Ralph Swynton with others of their company were taken in East Tividale and delivered to the Regent who re-delivered them to their takers and charged them for their safe keeping Egremont Ratcliff with certain with him remain about Liddesdale And it is thought the Countess of Northumberland the Earl of West-merland Norton Markenfield Swynborne and Tempest are removed out Liddesdale to the Lords of Fernhurst and Buckclugh SIR I Doubt not but the report of the cruel murther of the Regent in Scotland will be diversly reported in those parts and diversly also received by some with gladness and by some with grief as I am sure it shall be of you the manner of it was thus as I have been advertised the 22. of the last moneth the Regent coming thorough the Town of Lithgo which is in the midway between Sterling and Edenburgh having in his company about a hundred persons was stricken with a Courrier about the Navell with the Pellet coming out about his Hucklebone which also slew a horse behinde him and of this wound he dyed the next day afterward within night the murtherer was one Hambleton of Bothwell-Hall who lay secretly in a house to attempt this mischief having shut the doors towards the street in such sort as no man could enter on the foreside to take him and so he escaped on the backside where he had a horse to serve his turn although he was pursued what is like to follow miserably to that Land I dare not judge but do fear that the death of so good a man will prove Initium multorum malorum At the writing hereof I know not what is done or intended but some write from thence That the Earls of Marr and Morton and other friends to the young King are come to Edenburgh and do in the Kings name preserve the State and do purpose to have the Land ruled by four Regents and one to be a Lieutenant for the wars to execute their directions a matter more probable in talk than in effect as I shall hereafter understand more so will I write It happend that at this time Sir Henry Gates and the Marshal of Berwick were at Edenburgh having been at Sterling with the Regent the Fryday before for the demanding in the Queens Majesties name of the Earl of Northumberland and other the Rebels and by direction of the Regent they attended at Edenburgh for answer to be given the day of his death which now is as our Lawyers call it sine die Mr. Randolph went from hence towards Scotland the 29. upon knowledge of the hurt and doubt of his life The same day also came Montlnet to her Majesties presence with the French Ambassador bringing his letters dated the 27. of December at which time I think they understand not of the stay of our Rebellion The sum of Montlnets message consisted upon these two heads request for restitution and liberty of the Queen of Scots and a declaration of the Kings inclination to peace with his subjects and their disguising with him by treating and suing for peace and yet amassing of new Forces in Almaine and seeking also to surprise the Kings Towns as Burdeaux and otherlike whereupon the King requireth the Queens Majesty not to favor his Rebels if they should seek any further succours from hence as they have done as persons unworthy of any favor They have made great instance to be answered for the first matter but the Queens Majesty hath hitherto deferred them but I think upon Monday next they shall have audience I forgat to shew you that in the request for the Queen of Scots he desired liberty to go to her and from thence to pass into Scotland which thing would not be granted unto him Upon the death of the Regent the Earl of Sussex and Mr. Sadler were admonished to stay there for that it was thought good that Mr. Sadler should have gone from thence into Scotland
have received the Rebels or invaded England that have either Castle for themselves or houses for their Tenants besides the loss and spoils of their other goods wherein nothing is reckoned of that was done in the other parts by the Lord Scroope for that it was not done within the County of Tividale c. The Rode of the Lord Scroope Warden of the West marches of England into Scotland Who the 17. of April at ten of the clock at night with three thousand Horse and Foot came to Ellesingham on the Wednesday at night and burned that Town in the morning being from Carlile twenty miles On Thursday he burned besides Hoddom the Maymes the Town and all the houses which is the Lord Herryes and from Carlile sixteen miles That day they burned Trayle-trow which is the Lord Maxwells from Carlile 16. miles They burned the Town of Reywell which is the Lord Coplands and the Lord Homeyn's from Carlile eighteen miles They burned the house of Copewell and the Demesne of the Lord Coplands from Carlile nineteen miles They burned the Town of Blackshieve which is the Lord Maxwells from Carlile 20. miles Item The Town of Sherrington of the same Lords twenty miles Item The blank end of the same Lords twenty miles Item The Town of Lowzwood of the same Lords twenty miles Goods taken the same Rode one thousand Neat and one thousand Sheep and Goats Of the Scots are taken one hundred Horsmen within a mile of Dunnforest Some say that Swynborne is taken SIR BY letters from my Lords of Sussex and Hunsdon of the 29. of April it is advertised that the Castle of Hume being besieged by them and the Battery laid the 27. of April the day following the Captain sent out a Trumpet to desire a Parlie which granted the Castle desired licence to send a Messenger to the Lord Hume to know his pleasure what they should do whereupon it was agreed a Messenger should pass and one was sent with him to see that no delay should be used the Messenger at his return brought Commission from the Lord Hume to deliver the Castle simply without condition trusting to their Honors for a favourable dealing with his men whereupon the Castle was received and all the Armor and Weapons and the people licenced to depart without Bag or Baggage and now the same remaineth newly fortified to the Queens Majesties charge more stronger then it was before to the intent the Rebels may not have their refuge thither as they had before By other letters of the first of May from my Lord of Sussex it is advertised that the most part of the March of East Tividale Esdale Ewesdale Wawcopdale and other parts upon the Borders from the East to the West Seas affirm their continuance of obedience to their King desire the Amity betwixt both Realms offer to spend their lives in the resisting of any Forreign power that shall offer the disturbance of either refuse dependence upon the French offer to depend upon the Queens Majestie and in their actions have refused to receive the Rebells or to assist the invaders of England the like whereof all others do offer that acknowledge that authority The contrary part openly receive the Rebels maintain the invaders of England share in their actions and ill meaning to England and seek dependence and maintenance of the French The Earls of Morton Murray and Glencarne with others of the Kings Council prepared to be at Edenburgh the 29. of the last whereupon the Duke of Chastilherault and Huntley went to Lithgo the 28. to stop their meeting and the 29. Morton went out of Edenburgh with a thousand men to meet the other Earls a By-wayl and so came together that night to Edenburgh with all their Forces or to fight for it in which time the Lords of Hume and Liddington be entred the Castle with Grange so as it is likely they will try shortly by the sword which side shall have the Authority W. Cecil IT may please you to be advertised according to my Lord Lieutenants direction I entered into Scotland on Tuesday at night last the 18. of this April and on Wednesday at night encamped at Heclesengham within Hoddom distant from Carlile 18. miles and within Scotland 12. miles and on Thursday in the morning I sent forth Simon Musgrave appointed by me as General of the Horsemen to burn and spoile the Country and to meet me at a place called Cambretreys and the said Simon burnt the Towns of Hoddome and the Maynes Troltrow Rovel and Calpoole the Town of Blackshaw Sherrington the Banck end within three miles of Dumfriese Lowgher and Lowgherwood and Hecklsengham which Towns were of the Lands of the Lord Herryes and Maxwell the Lord of Cockpoole and the Lord of Holmends and as the said Simon and his company came to old Cockpool there was the Lord Maxwell with his Forces and the Inhabitants of Dumfriese assembled and skirmished with the Couriers and compelled them to return unto the said Simon and then the said Simon marched unto the Town of Blackshaw with his Company where the Lord Maxwell was in order and his Forces and the said Simon and Fargus Graime with the number of a hundred Horse-men did give the charge upon the said Lord Maxwell and made him flee and his Company also In which fight there were a hundred prisoners taken whereof the principal was the Alderman of Dumfriese and 16. of the Burgesses thereof the rest were Footmen the chase was followed within one mile of Dumfriese after which conflict the said Simon returned to Blackshaw aforesaid and burnt it and seised a great number of Cattle and delivered the same unto certain Gentlemen and others to convey unto me and he the said Simon Rode with a hundred Horsmen to burn the Banck end Lowgher and Lowgherwood and as the said Gentlmen with their Company came to a streight place neer unto Old-Cockpool the said Lord Maxwell the Lord Carlile the Lords of Holme-ends Closburne Lorgg Hempsfeild Cowhill and Tenoll with the number of four hundred horsemen and six hundred footmen charged them very sore and forced them to alight and draw their company to a strong place to abide the charge of their enemies and so they remained untill the said Simon came unto them and alighted and put his Company in Order and set his Horse between his Company and the Sea and so stood in order to receive the enemy and in this sort continued charging and receiving their charges the space of three hours I being at Cambretreys aforesaid a place before appointed between me and the said Simon for his relief being distant from him three miles understanding of some distress sent my Band of Horsmen with my brother Edward Scroope and a hundred and fifty shot with Mr. Awdley and Mr. Herbert to their relief and the said Simon upon the coming of the said Band of horsemen and Shot gave the enemies the charge with all his Forces whereupon they fled in which
abolishing of the priviledges of Sanctuaries in case of Treason and that not before he had obtained it by way of suit from Pope Alexander which Sanctuaries nevertheless had been the forges of most of his troubles In his Government he was led by none scarcely by his Laws and yet he was a great observer of formality in all his proceedings which notwithstanding was no impediment to the working of his will 〈…〉 the suppressing and punishment of the Treasons which during the whole time of his Reign were committed against him he had a very strange kind of interchanging of very large and unexpected pardons with severe executions which his Wisdom considered could not be imputed to any Inconstancy or Inequality but to a discretion or at least to a principle that he had apprehended that it was good not obstinately to pursue one course but to try both ways In his Wars he seemed rather confident than enter prizing by which also he was commonly not the poorer but generally he did seem inclinable to live in peace and made but offers of War to mend the conditions of peace and in the quenching of the commotions of his Subjects he was ever ready to atchieve those Wars in Person sometimes reserving himself but never retiring himself but as ready to second Of nature he coveted to accumulate treasure which the People into whom there is infused for the preservation of Monarchies a natural desire to discharge their Princes though it be with the unjust Charge of their Councellors and Ministers did impute unto Cardinal Morton and Sir Reynold Bray who as it after appeared as Councellors of ancient Authority with him did so second his humour as nevertheless they tempted it and refrained it whereas Empson and Dudley that followed being persons that had no reputation with him otherwise than the servile following of his own humour gave him way and shaped him way to these extremities wherewith himself was touched with remorse at his death and with his Successor disavowed In expending of Treasure he never spared Charge that his Affairs required and in his Foundations was Magnificent enough but his Rewards were very limited so that his Liberality was rather upon his own state and memory than towards the deserts of others He chose commonly to employ cunning persons as he that knew himself sufficient to make use of their uttermost reaches without danger of being abused with them himself The rest is wanting A Copy of a Letter from His Majesty to the Lords read at Board Novemb. 21. 1617. touching the abatement of His Majesties Houshold Charge MY Lords no worldly thing is so precious as Time Ye know what task I gave you to work upon during my absence and what time was limited unto you for the performance thereof This same Chancellor of Scotland was wont to tell me twenty four years ago that my house could not be kept upon Epigrams long discourses and fair tales will never repair my estate Omnis vertus in Actione consistit Remember that I told you the shooe must be made for the foot and let that he the Square of all your proceeding in this business Abate super-fluities in all things and multitudes of unnecessary Officers where ever they be placed But for the houshold Wardrope and Pensions cut and carve as many as may agree with the possibility of my means Exceed not your own rule of 50000 l. for the houshold If you can make it lesse I will account it for good service And that you may see I will not spare mine own person I have sent with this bearer a note of the superfluous charges concerning my mouth having had the happy opportunities of this Messenger in an errand so nearly concerning his place In this I expect no answer in word or writing but only the real performance for a beginning to relieve me out of my miseries For now the Ball is at your feet and the world shall bear me witness that I have put you fairly to it and so praying God to bless your labours I bid you heartily farewell Your own James R. A Copy of His Majesties second Letter MY Lords I received from you yesternight the bluntest Letter that I think ever King received from his Councel Ye write that the Green Cloth will do nothing and ye offer me advice Why are ye Councellors if ye offer no Councel an ordinary Messenger might have brought me such an answer It is my pleasure that my charges be equalled with my Revenue and it is just and necessary so to be For this a project must be made and one of the main branches thereof is my house This Project is but to be offered unto you and how it may be best laid then to agree with my honour and contentment ye are to advise upon and then have my consent If this cannot be performed without diminishing the number of the Tables diminished they must be and if that cannot serve two or three must be thrust into one If the Green Cloth will not make a Project for this some others must do it If ye cannot find them out I must Only remember two things That time must no more be lost and that there are twenty wayes of abatement besides the house if they be well looked into And so farewell James R. A Letter from the King to his Lordship by occasion of a Book It was the Organon MY Lord I have received your Letter and your Book then which ye could not have sent a more acceptable Present unto Me how thankful I am for it cannot better be expressed by Me then by a firm resolution I have taken first to read it through with care and attention though I should steal some houres from My sleep having otherwise as little spare time to read it as ye had to write it and then to use the liberty of a true friend in not sparing to ask you the question in any point thereof I shall stand in doubt Nam ejus est explicare cujus est condere As for the other part I will willingly give a due Commendation to such places as in My Opinion shall deserve it In the mean time I can with Comfort assure you that ye could not make choice of a Subject more befitting your place and your universal and Methodick knowledge and in the general I have already observed that ye jump with me in keeping the middle way between the two extreams as also in some particulars I have found that ye agree fully with my opinion and so praying God to give your work as good success as your heart can wish and your labours deserve I bid you heartily farewell James R. To Our Trusty and Well-beloved Thomas Coventry Our Attorney General TRusty and Well-beloved We greet you well whereas our Right Trusty and Right Well-beloved Cosen the Viscount of St. Alban upon a sentence given in the Upper-house of Parliament full three years since and more hath endured loss of his place Imprisonment and Confinement
she is a Queen allied and friended as is known and I tell you also that my heart is not inferiour to hers so as an equal respect would be had betwixt us on both parts but I will not contend in comparisons first you know quoth she that the accord was made in the late King my Lord and Husbands time by whom as reason was I was commanded and Governed and for such delays as were then in his time used in the said ratification I am not to be charged since his Death my Interest failing in the Realm of France I left to be advised by the Councel of France and they left me also to mine own Councel indeed quoth she my Unkles being as you know of the affaires of this Realm do not think meet to advise me in my Affairs neither do my Subjects nor the Queen your Mistriss think meet that I should be advised by them but rather by the Councel of my own Realm here are none of them nor none such â—s is thought meet that I should be Counselled by the matter is great it toucheth both them and me and in so great a matter it were meet to use the advice of the wisest of them I do not think it meet in so great a matter to take the Counsel of private and unexpert persons and such as the Queen your Mistriss knoweth be not most acceptable to such of my Subjects as she would have me be advised by I have quoth she often times told you that as soon as I had their advices I would send the Queen your Mistriss such an answer as should be reasonable I am about to haste me home as fast as I may to the intent the matter might be answered and now the Queen your Mistriss will in no wise suffer neither me to pass home nor him that I sent into my Realm so as Mounsieur l' Ambassadour quoth she it seemeth the Queen your Mistriss will be the cause why in this manner she is not satisfied or else she will not be satisfied but liketh to make this matter a quarrel still betwixt us whereof she is the Author The Queen your Mistriss saith that I am young she might well say that I were as foolish as young if I would in the State and Countrey that I am in proceed to such a matter of my self without any Counsel for that which was done by the King my late Lord and husband must not be taken to be my act so as neither in Honour nor in conscience I am bound as you say I am to perform all that was by my Lord and Husband commanded to do and yet quoth she I will say truly unto you and as God favours me I did never mean otherwise unto her than becometh me to my good Sister and Cosin nor meant her no more harm than to my self God forgive them which have otherwise perswaded her if there be any such what is the matter pray you Mounsieur l' Ambassadour quoth she that doth so offend the Queen your Mistriss to make her thus evil-affected to me I never did her wrong neither in Deed nor Speech it should the less grieve me if I had deserved otherwise than well and though the World may be of divers judgments of us and our doings one to another do well know God that is in Heaven can and will be a true Judge both of our doings and meanings I answered Madam I have declared unto you my Charge commanded by the Queen my Mistriss and have no more to say to you on her behalf but to know your Answer for the Ratification of the Treaty The Queen answered I have aforetime shewed you and do now tell you again that it is not meet for to proceed in this matter without the advice of the Nobles and States of mine own Realm which I can by no means have until I come amongst them You know quoth she as well as I there is none come hither since the death of the King my late Husband and Lord but such as are either come for their private business or such as dare not tarry in Scotland but I pray you Mounsieur l' Ambassadour quoth she tell me how riseth this strange affection in the Queen your Mistriss towards me I desire to know it to the intent I may reform my self if I have failed I answered Madam I have by the Commandment of the Queen my Mistriss declared unto you the cause of her miscontentation already But seeing you so desirous to hear how you may be charged with any deserving as one that speaketh of mine own minde without instruction I will be so bold Madam by way of discourse to tell you As soon as the Queen my Mistriss after the death of her sister came to the Crown of England you bore the Armes of England diversly quartered with your own and used in your Countrey notoriously the style and title of the Queen my Mistriss which was never by you put in ure in Queen Maries time And if any thing can be more prejudicial to a Prince than to usurp the tide and interest belonging to them Madam I do refer it to your own judgment you see such as be noted usurpers of other folks States cannot patiently be born withal for such doings much more the Queen my Mistress hath cause to be grieved considering her undoubted and lawful interest with the offer of such injury Mounsieur l'Ambassadour said she I was then under the commandment of King Henry my Father and of the King my Lord and husband and whatsoever was done then by their order and Commandments the same was in like manner continued until both their deaths since which time you know I neither bore the Armes nor used the title of England Me thinks quoth she these my doings might ascertain the Queen your Mistriss that that which was done before was done by commandment of them that had the power over me and also in reason she ought to be satisfied seeing I order my doings as I tell you it were no great dishonour to the Queen my Cosen your Mistriss though I a Queen also did bear the Armes of England for I am sure some inferior to me and that be not on every side so well apparenâ—ed as I am do bear the Armes of England You cannot deny quoth she but that my Grandmother was the King her Fathers sister and I trow the eldest sister he had I do assure you Mounsieur l'Ambassadour and do speak unto you truly as I think I never meant nor thought matter against the Queen my Cousin Indeed quoth she I know what I am and would be loth either to do others wrong or suffer too much wrong to my self and now that I have told you my minde plainly I pray behave your self betwixt us like a good Minister whose part is to make things betwixt Princes rather better than worse and so I took my leave of the said Queen for that time The same day after this my Audience
I required Audience in like manner of the French King which was assigned me on the 21. of this present at afternoon At which time I did set forth as well as I could to the Queen-Mother the good reasons and just occasions according to your Majesties instructions why your Majesty did refuse the Queen of Scotland your safe Conduct for her free passage into her Countrey and declared at good length the Causes why your Majesty did not accommodate the said Queen of Scotland with such favours as she required in her passage not forgetting the reasons that moved your Majesty to return Mounsieur d'Oysell back hither again The Queen-Mother answered Mounsieur l'Ambassadour the King my Son and I are very sorry to hear that the Queen my good Sister your Mistriss hath refused the Queen my Daughter free passage home into her own Realm this may be an occasion of farther unkindness betwixt them and so prove to be a cause and entry into War they are Neighbours and near Cosins and either of them hath great Friends and Allies so as it may chance that more unquietness shall ensue of this matter than is to be wished for or then is meet to come to pass Thanks be to God quoth she all the Princes of Christendome are now in peace and it were great pity that they should not so continue and where said she I perceive the matter of this unkindness is grounded upon the delay of Ratification of the Treaty The Queen my Daughter hath declared unto you That she doth stay the same until she may have the advice of her own Subjects wherein methinks said she my Daughter doth discreetly for many Respects and though she have her Unkies here by whom it is thought as reason is she should be advised yet considering they be Subjects and Counsellors to the King my Son they be not the meetest to give her Counsel in this matter the Nobles and States of her own Realm would neither like it nor allow it that their Sovereign should resolve without their advice in matter of consequence Therefore Mounsieur l'Ambassadour quoth she methinks the Queen your Mistriss might be satisfied with this Answer and accommodate the Queen my Daughter her Cousin and Neighbour with such favours as she demandeth I answered Madam the Queen my Mistriss trusteth you will upon the reasons before by me declared as her good Sister and friend interpret the matter as favourably on her part as on the Queen of Scotlands and that you will also indifferently consider how much it importeth my Mistriss not to suffer a matter so dangerous to her and her State as this is to passe unprovided for it seemeth by the many delayes which in this matter have been used after so many fair and sundry promises that the Queen of Scotland hath not meant so sincerely and plainly as the Queen my Mistriss hath done for by this time the said Queen might have known the minds of her Subjects in Scotland if she liked to propound the matter unto them There have been since the Death of the King your Son and her Husband two or three Assembliâ—s of the Nobles and States in Scotland and this matter was never put forth amongst them Hither have come out of Scotland many of sandry Estates and some that the Queen did send with Commission thither as the Lord of Finliter to treat on her behalf with he Estates of that Realm and of other matters so as if she had minded an end in this matter of the Treaty before this time she might have heard her Subjects advices Thereto the Queen-Mother said the King my Son and I would be glad to do good betwixt the Queen my Sister your Mistriss and the Queen my Daughter and shall be glad to hear that there were good amity betwixt them for neither the King my Son nor I nor none of his Council will do harm in the matter nor shew our selves other than friends to them both After this I took my leave of the said Queen-Mother and addressed my Speech to the King of Navarre unto whom I declared as I had done to the Queen-Mother adding That your Majesty esteemed his amity and friendship entire that you did not doubt of his good acceptation of your doings and proceedings with the Queen of Scotland and said further That for your Majesties purpose to have reason at all times and in all things of the Queen of Scotland it were better she were in her own Countrey than here the said King conceived that your Majesty needed not doubt that the King his Sovereign would shew himself in this matter more affectionate to the Queen of Scotland than to you his good Sister and thereof he bade me assure your Majesty Then taking my leave of the said King of Navarre I went to the Constable and declared unto him as I had done unto the King of Navarre on your Majesties behalf the Constable humbly thanked your Majesty that you would communicate your affaires with him which argued your good opinion of him he said he trusted that your expectation should not be deceived of him but would rather so behave himself towards your Majesty as your good opinion of him should be increased As to the matter of the Queen of Scotland he was sorry that the occasions were such as your Majesty could not bestow such kindness on her as was meet betwixt Princes so neer Neighbours and Kinsfolks but he trusted that time would repair these unkindnesses betwixt you as for his part he prayed your Majesty to think that he would never give other advice to the King his Sovereign but such as should rather increase the good amity betwixt both your Majesties than diminish it and so prayed me to present his most humble Commendation and Service to your Majesty wherewith I took my leave of him And to the intent I might the better descipher whether the Queen of Scotland did mind to continue her Voyage I did the same 21 Of July after my former negotiations finished repair to the said Queen of Scotland to take my leave of her unto whom I then declared that in as much as I was your Majesties Ambassadour as well to her for the matters of Scotland as to the French King your good Brother and hearing by common bruit that she minded to take her Voyage very shortly I thought it my Duty to take my leave of her and was sorry she had not given your Majesty so good occasion of Amity as that I your Minister could not conveniently wait upon her to her embarking The said Queen made Answer Mounsieur l' Ambassadour if my preparations were not so much advanced as they are peradventure the Queen your Mistrisses unkindness might stay my Voyage but now I am determined to adventure the matter whatsoever come of it I trust quoth she the wind will be so favourable as I shall not need to come on the Coast of England and if I do then Mounsieur l' Ambassadour the Queen your
Mistriss shall have me in her hands to do her will of me and if she be so hard-hearted as to desire my end she may then do her pleasure and make sacrifice of me peradventure that casualty might be better for me than to live in this matter quoth she Gods will be fulfilled I answered she might amend all this matter if she would and find more Amity of your Majesty and your Realm than of any other Prince or Countrey The Queen answered I have me thinketh offered and spoken that that might suffice the Queen my Sister if she will take any thing well at my hand I trust said she for all this we shall agree better than some would have us and for my part I will not take all things to the worst I hope also said she the Queen my Sister and Cosin will do the like whereof quoth she I doubt not if Ministers do no harm betwixt us and so the said Queen embraced me This is the sum of my Negotiations at these my last Audiences with the French King the Queen-Mother the King of Navarre the Queen of Scotland and the Constable whereof I have thought meet to enlarge to your Majesty in such fort as the same passed and was uttered betwixt us As far as I can perceive the said Queen of Scotland continueth her Voyage still and I hear that Villageigmon and Octavian have the principal order of her said Voyage and mean to sail along the Coast of Flanders and so to strike over to the North-part of Scotland as the wind shall serve she did once mean to use the West-passage but now she dares not trust the Duke of Chastillerault nor the Earl of Arguile and therefore dareth not to pass by the West-Seas The said Queen as I hear desireth to borrow of the French King a hundred thousand Crowns the same to be received again of her Dowry which is twenty eight thousand Crowns by the year the Queen-Mother is willing to help her the King of Navarre doth not further the matter but seeketh to abridge the sum After I had done my Negotiations at the Court I was constrained to dislodge from Poissey for the Assembly of the Clergy who meet there to the end of this month and the Ambassadours are now appointed to lodge at Paris The Queen of Scotland departed from St. Germanes yesterday 25. of July towards her Voyage as she bruiteth it she sendeth most of her Train strait to New-haven to embark and she herself goeth such a way between both as she will be at her choice to go to New-Haven or to Callis upon the sudden what she will do or where she will embark she will be acknown to never a Scotch man and but to few French And for all these shews and boasts some think she will not go at all and yet all her stuff is sent down to the Sea and none other bruit in her house but of her hasty going if it would please your Majesty to cause some to be sent privily to all the Ports on this side the certainty shall be better known to your Majesty that way by the laying of her vessels than I can advertise it hence She hath said that at her coming into Scotland she will forthwith rid the Realm of all the English men there namely of your Majesties Agent there and forbid mutual Traffick with your Majesties Subjects if she make the haste to embark that she seemeth to do she will be almost ready to embark by that time this shall come to your Majesties hands Two or three dayes ago the French King was troubled with a pain in his head and the same beginneth to break from him by bleeding at the nose and running at his ear it is taken to be the same disease in his head whereof his brother died but by voiding it which the other could not do that organ being stopped this King is well amended At the dispatch hereof the King of Navarre was unquieted by a flux and a vomit and the Queen Mother with a Fever I hear that in Gascony the people stir apace for Religion as they do in many other places and being there assembled to the number of four thousand have entred a Town thrown down the Images and put out the Priests and will suffer no Masse to be said there My Lord of Levistou being ready to go homewards into Scotland through England went to the Queen of Scotland for his leave so to do but she hath commanded him to tarry and wait on her and to meet her at Abevillo without letting him know any thing else he in doubt what she will do is content to expect her coming thither and to do then as she shall command him and seeing no likelihood of her short passing which he sath is uncertain but that she will go to Callis there to hover and hearken what your Majesty doth to stop her and according thereunto to go or stay he mindeth to get him home he hath required my Letters of recommendations to your Majesties Officers at his landing in England which for his good devotion towards your Majesty and for that he is one that wisheth the same well I have not refused him and so humbly beseech your Majesties good favour towards him at his coming to your Majesty for his Pass-port Here is a bruit that the Turk is greatly impeached both by a sort of Jewes within his own Countrey and also by the Sophy And thus I pray God long to preserve your Majesty in health honour and all felicity from Paris July 26. 1561. Your Majesties most humble and most obedient Subject and Servant N. Throckmorton FINIS The ALPHABETICAL TABLE B. BAcon Sir Francis not a man born under Sol that loves Honour nor under Jupiter that loves Business place of any reasonable countenance commands more wits than a mans own Pag. 1 2. Assures the Lord Burleigh that his endeavours shall not be in fault if diligence can intitle him unto it and wishes to shew his Service with as good proof as he can say it in good faith 3 4. Caresses the Earl of Northumberland 4 5. The entrance of King James a fair morning before the Sun rising This State performed the part of good Attorneys in delivering the King quiet possession 5 6. No Reason the World should reject Truth in Philosophy although the Author dissents in Religion 1â— Advice to the King touching his Revenue 27. The Kings Attorneys place and the value of it honestly The Chancellors placo usually conferred upon the Kings Council and not upon a Judge Reasons against the Lords Cook and Hubbart and the Archbishop The Body of Parliament men is Cardo rerum Part of the Chancellors place is Regnum Judiciale and since his Fathers time but too much inlarged Pag. 73 74. A Narration in several Letters of the differences between the Chancery and Kings Bench and the grounds thereof stated to the King 22 23 75. The Proceedings against Somerset and divers private Transactions touching
that Business 28. 29. 30 31 32 33 c. His advice to Sir George Villiers concorning Ireland wherein three Propositions are acutely scan'd 1. Touching the Recusant Magistrates of Towns there 2. About roducing the Number of the Council from Fifty to twenty 3. That a means may be found to re-enforce the Army by 500. or 1000. men without increase of Charge 67 68 69. From him to the Duke when he first became a Favourite with somo directions or his demeanor in that eminent place ranked into eight material Heads with an ample and quaint gloss upon each of them most elegantly pen'd 43 44. Again to him upon sending his Pattent for Viscount Villiers with several Avisoes and incidently a Censure of the Cecils the Father and the Son Pag. 70 71. Sends the King a Certificate from the Lord Coke 72. Sends to the King an Essay of History of His Majesties time 9. Desires the History of Brittain may be written for three Observations 7 8. Sixty four years old in Age and three years and five months in misery desires neither means place nor imployment but a total remission of the sentence of the Upper House by the example of Sir John Bennet 81. To the King touching the Plantation of Ireland as formerly of the Union as being Brother thereunto 6. To the Earl of Salisbury touching his Book of the advancement of Learning saying He is but like a Bell-ringer to awake better spirits 9 10. Several Letters to great Personages in sending unto them his Book of advancement of Learning and the presenting of it to the King 10 11. To Dr. Plafer touching the Translating of it into Latine with many excellent Reasons to that Inducement 11 12. To Sir Thomas Bodley upon sending the same Book 13. To divers Friends upon sending unto them some other of his Books 13. 14 15 16. To Mr. Savil touching the Education of Youth and the improving the Intellectual Powers Pag. 17. A Factious Book stiling the Queen Misera Faemina the addition of the Popes Bull. 21. The business of the Commendams and the carriage of the Judges therein related to the King 76 77. Three Examples of great Calamity Demosthenes Cicero and Seneca A Discourse concerning his own Books 78 79 80. A learned and ample Discourse touching a Digest to be made of the Laws of England from 82. to 86. To the Earl of Devonshire a Letter Apologetical touching a common fame as if he had been false or ungrateful to the Earl of Essex something long but exquisitely pen'd from 87. to 104. A discourse touching Helps for the Intellectual Powers by Sir Fran. Bacoa Faber quisque fortunae suae an insolent saying except it be interpreted as an hortative to correct slâ—th and not as it soundeth an high imagination for any man to fathom all Accidents Faber quisque Ingenii sui more true and more profitable Divers manner of instances in Improvements not only in the body of man but in his mind and spirit and therein not only in his Appetite and Affection but in his Powers of Wit and Reason The Will most manageable and admitteth most Medicines for Cure The first is Religion 2. Opinion and Apprehension 3. Example 4. When one affection is corrected by another And lastly a Confirmation of all by custom and habit Five Rules for exercises Pag. 97 98 99 100 Sir Francis Bacon to the King modestly Apologetical intimating his former services and his present low condition after the sentence pronounced against him by the Lords Implores the King that he that hath born a bag may not in his age be forc'd to bear aWallet nor he that desired to live to study may not be driven to study to live 101 102 103 104 C. CEcil Sir William to Sir Henry Norris Ambassadour in France about his Entertainment there being Extraordinary and what the Reason should be Sha'ne Oneal sues to be received into the Queens favour 105 106. Taxes Mounsieur de Foix for breach of promise in not delivering Lestrille The News of the death of the King of Scots and the manner of it Earl Bothwell suspected 107 108. Callice demanded to be restored to the Queen according to the Treaty of Cambray More of the business of the murder of the King of Scots words which touch't that Queen but fit to be supprest Pag. 109 111. If Callice be not delivered 50000 l. is to be forfeited 110. Matters in Flanders go hard against the Protestants 111. Those of the Order of France if life or honour be touched to be tried by Kings and others of the same Order ibid. Marriage of the Queen of Scots to Bothwell the prime of the Nobility against it 112. The French Kings Letter touching Callice ill resented by the Queen The Queen of Scots married the 15th of May. 113. Bothwell prosecuted for the murder defended by the Queen and the Hambletons the Queen under restraint Sha'ne Oneal slain in Ireland by certain Scots 114. Sir Nicholas Throckmorton sent into Scotland to Negotiate a Pacification The two Factions of the Hambletons and Lenox's 115. The Prince of Scotland Crowned at Sterling the 29th of July 116. Queen Elizabeth offended with the Scotch Lords Murray like to be made Regent Advice to Sir Henry Norris touching his Expences 117. Murray made Regent my Lord of Sussex with the Emperour all Judges Officers c. At Antwerp compelled to attest the Catholick Faith 118. Bothwell reported to be taken at Sea 119 120. Dunbar rendred to the Regent the Keeper thereof adjudged to a new Punishment Pag. 120. Expectation of Marriage between the Queen and the Archduke Charles 121. Troubles in France between the Prince of Conde and the King 121 122. The Queen of Scots noted by the Parliament there to be privy to the murder of her husband 123. The Earl of Desmond and his brother in the Tower 125. Fishermen of Diepe taken at Rye with unlawful Nets 126. The Popes Ministers preferre the State of their corrupt Church before the Weal of any Kingdom 128. The Earl of Sussex his return The Prince of Orange his Son to be sent into Spain and doubted Egmond and Horn must follow ibid. Emanuel Tremelius sent into England by the Elector Palatine The Prince of Orange refuseth to be judged by the Duke of Alva The Hambletons continue their Faction The death of Sir Ambrose Cave 129. Beaton sent from Scotland into France for 1000. Harquebusiers Money and Ordnance 131. Devilish practice against the Queen The Scots Queen removed to Bolton Castle her demands of the Queen denied 133. The Queen of Scots submits her Cause to be heard and determined in England 134 135 136 c. What preparations in France intended for Scotland Great expectation of the success of matters in the Low Countries Pag. 137. Unhappy but incredible News out of Flanders The Duke of Norfolk the Earl of Sussex and Sir Walter Mildmay Commissioners in the North about the Queen of Scots business 138. She makes Arguile and Huntley Lieutenants and the
be there kept The fond Lord Morley without any cause offered him is gone like a noddy to Lorrein SIR I Stayed this bearer two days longer then first I intended because the French Ambassador required Audience affirming that he had answer from the French King wherewith the Queens Majesty would be satisfied and yesterday he was here and shewed her Majesty the French Kings letters to him and thereof gave her Majesty a copy which I have and do send to you herewith an extract of a clause tending to the matter the letter being of it self long and full of good words purporting his desire to have the Scotish Queen restored and concord established betwixt the two Queens the letter is dated the 10. of June and I note that your letter is dated the 15. and by his aforesaid letter King writeth that he will within two days speak with you at Alansen Now how the Kings promise will be kept a short time will declare or how if he break it there shall be some â—avillations found wherein I doubt that they will seek illusions for that we do yet keep Hume Castle and Fast Castle which are kept with not past fourscore men and being the houses of the Lord Hume the Warden who aided our Rebels with his Forces to invade burn and spoil England and therefore is by the Laws of the Borders answerable to the subjects of England it is reason they be kept untill he will return or authorize some for him to make answer or to take order with the complainants which being done the Queen Majesty will readily restore them Thus much I have thought meet to impart Yours assuredly W. Cecil Oatlands 25. Inne 1570 To the right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador c. SIR I Am thrown into a Maze at this time that Iknow not how to walk from dangers Sir Walter Mildmay and I are sent to the Scotish Queen as by the Queens Majesties letters you may see God be our guide for neither of us like the Message I trust at my return when Mr. Walsingham shall be returned to help you home your sufficient is sufficient to impart unto you all our Occurrents and so I end Your assured friend W. Cecil Reading 26. Sept. 1570. To the right honorable Sir Henry Notris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador Resident in France The Lord Coke to King James touching trial of Duels out of England May it please your most excellent Majesty I Have received a commandment by Mr. Sollicitor from your Majesty consisting upon two parts First to answer whether I informed not your Majesty that if two of your Subjects should go over beyond Sea to fight in a Forreign Kingdom and there in fight the one killeth the other that in this case the same might be punished by appeal before the Constable and Marshal of England Secondly if I made any such information what authority and reason I had to maintain it To the first the truth is that I did inform your Majesty so and I well remember I said then that it was Dowties Case your Majesty then speaking of Duels To the second this is by authority of an Act of Parliament made in the first year of King Henry the Fourth the 14th Chapter in these words For many Inconveniencies and Mischiefs that have oftentimes happened by many Appeals made within the Realm before this time It is ordained and established from henceforth That all Appeals to be made of things done within the Realm shall be tryed and determined by the good Laws of this Realm made and used in the time of the Kings noble Progenitors And that all Appeals to be made of things done out of the Realm shall be tryed before the Constable and Marshal of England for the time being And that no Appeals be from henceforth made or in any wise pursued in Parliament in any time to come In the late Queens time a Case fell out upon this Statute Sir Francis Drake having put Dowtie to death beyond Sea the Brother and Heir of Dowtie sued by Petition to the Queen that she would be pleased to appoint a Constable hac vice to the end he might have an Appeal against Sir Francis Drake for the death of his Brother This Petition the Queen referred to Sir Thomas Bromley and the two chief Justices and others And it was resolved of by them which I being of Council with Dowtie set down briefly for my Learning That if two Englishmen go beyond Sea and in Combate the one killeth the other this offence may be determined before the Constable and Marshal of England and so was the Statute of 1 Henr. 4. to be intended But after upon the true circumstance of the Case the Queen would not constitute a Constable of England without whom no Proceeding could be And I take this resolution to be well warranted by the Statute and no small inconvenience should follow and a great defect should be in the Law if such bloody offences should not be punished and Your Majesty should lose a flower of Your Crown in losing this Power to punish these growing and dangerous offences I shewed to Mr. Sollicitor my Report and Memorial of Dowtie's Case and I shall ever remain Your Majesties Loyal and Faithful Subject Edw. Coke 19. Febr. 1616. The History of the Reign of King Henry the Eighth King Edward the Sixth Queen Mary and part of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth THE books which are written do in their kinds represent the faculties of the mind of man Poesie his Imaginations Philosophy his Reason and History his Memory of which three facuities least exception is commonly taken to memory because Imagination is often times idle and Reason litigious So likewise History of all writings deserveth least taxation as that which holdeth least of the Author and most of the things themselves Again the use which it holdeth to mans life if it be not the greatest yet assuredly it is the freest from ill accident or quality For those that are conversant much in Poets as they attain to greater variety so withall they become concieted and those that are brought up in Philosophy and Sciences do wax according as their nature is some of them too stiff and opinionative and some others too perplexed and confused whereas History possesseth the mind with conceits which are nearest allied unto action and imprinteth them so as it doth not alter the complexion of the minde neither to irresolution nor pertinacity But this is true that in no sort of writings there is a greater distance between the good and the bad no not between the most excellent Poet and the vainest Rimer nor between the deepest Philosopher and the most frivolous School-men then there is between good Histories and those that unworthily bear the same or the like title In which regard having purposed to write the History of England from the beginning of the Reign of King H. 8. of that name near unto the present time