out of a dull Pen Shall such a contemptible distance as between Eton and the Hague divide me from beholding how her virtues overshine the darkness of her fortune I could spend much paper in this passion but let it sleep for the present And God bless your Majesty August 16. 1629. As I am Yours H. WOTTON After this humble and just acknowledgement of my obligations unto your Majesty it were a miserable thing for me to tell you that at our late Election I have remembred your Commandment in the first place I should indeed rather ask what your Majesty will have next done My noble Nephew I Am sorry that your Cast of Bucknames cannot be served at this Election for to choose one of them and that must have been in a low place had been discomfortable they will flie best at ease together Yet I have thought of a way the next year in all event not to fail which is to divide them between Westminster and Eton. Their Election preceedeth ours some three weeks and truly upon my late observation there I must needs say that School mouldeth good Scholers and of certainer preferment to either of the Universities for some go to Oxford and some to Cambridge then this out of which the issue is always hard and the entrance not always easie Glad I am to hear by your Letter that you have gotten so good a School-master that they may be well mued in the mean while Betwixt this and the next turn I shall lay you down an infallible course for them And this must content their good Father at the present If your Masons Brother who was here on Sunday had staid till the next morning there was some practicable hope to have sped the Boy this year to Cambridge but some unfortunate haste and despair of so many places as fell open carried him away If you had not intimated your own coming to London you might perchance have been troubled vvith me in the Country But I vvill novv languish for the hour you promise this place of seeing you here vvhere your Venison vvhich vve enjoy by exchange from Master Vice-Chamberlain hath given us all occasion to remember you thankfully as a Benefactor to this Board I vvill entertain you vvith no home-novelties but let me tell you a fresh piece of no small noise from abroad The King of Sweden hath landed vvith 200 Ships a great Army of some 40000 in Germany vvith intention if the Party of our Religion be not all drowsie to redress the common Cause or at least to redintegrate his near Kinsman in Meckleburge confiscated you know by the Emperor And the opportunity is fair vvhile the Austrian power is diverted for the help of Spain into Italy God bless it and cherish it as his own business and in his dear love I leave you Ever remaining From your Colledge this 27. July 1630. Your faithfull Servant H. WOTTON As intricate as a Flea in a bottome of Flax. Sir I vvill vvrite to you at large after our Election vvhen my Brains are setled Noble Sir and my most dear Nephew WE vvere for three vveeks together so besieged at your Eton first vvith an overflow of vvater from the West and then vvith a deep Snow out of the East contrary quarters conspiring against us that our ordinary Boats vvhich usually go and return twice a vveek could not pass under the Bridges vvhereby such a Letter from you as never man received lay silent at my Chamber in St. Martins-lane till mine own coming to London to the utter condemnation of my unthankfulness in the mean time Which truly I should fear but that it is the natural property of the same heart to be a gentle Interpreter vvhich is so noble an Obliger Now Sir After I had received and read your Letter I took some dayes to deliberate vvhat I should do and to let my judgement settle again vvhich vvas distracted vvith so kind a surprisal should I use a feathered quill to vvrite unto you or fly my self to Redgrave for you had given me vvings At last I resolved upon both First to make this true protestation by vvriting from my very bowels vvhere it is engraven That though your bounty considered in all the circumstances as vvell the form as the matter and the very opportunity of the time vvherein it came and especially vvithout any imaginable pretence of desert in my self hath been such as never befell me before nor can ever befall me again yet have you therevvith not enriched but stripped and despised me for ever Nothing that vvas before either in my power or possession being after this mine own for it is all yours if it vvere both the Indies So as your kindness howsoever flowing from a tender affection yet is vvith me like hard vvax dropped and sealed together The next after this shall be to follow it my self but therein after the Spanish phrase I vvill take language at the Rolls vvhere I shall understand more punctually about vvhat time you purpose to be here For I aim at the convoying of you up to your Eton. About vvhich I vvill vvrite more by the next Carrier and prepare your self Sir with patience while we live to be troubled weekly with my Letters wheresoever I am even when I shall have no more to say then this which is the least that can be spoken that I am Feb. 13. 1632. Yours H. WOTTON From St. Martins by the Fields this 18. of April 1633. To my Noble Nephew long and chearful years SIR BY beginning first with Philosophy I will discover the Method of my nature preferring it before the speculations of State Take any Vegetable whatsoever none excepted in the effect though some difference in the degree express the juyce put that in any vessel of Wood or Stone with a narrow neck and mouth not closed at the top but covered with any thing so as it may work out above Set it afterwards in some cold hole in a Cellar let it stand there some three weeks or a moneth till by fermentation it have both purged it self upwards and by sediment downwards Then decant from it the clear juyce and put that in a Limbeck in Balneo Maris or in Balneo Roris The first that riseth will be Aqua ardens useful perchance according to the quality of the Plant as of Wormwood for the Stomach of Succory or any of those Incubae for the Liver And on the sides of the Limbeck will hang a Salt this is the extracting of Salt without calcination which otherwise certainly must needs consume all the active powers of any Vegetable and leave nothing but a palastick and passive vertue For the point of preserving that Salt afterwards from resolution by Air into Water I hold it impossible notwithstanding the proper examples that you alledge which yet must of necessity yield to it For as your excellent Uncle says and says well in not the least of his works though born after him of his Experiments Air is
off King Ethelred your Progenitor How much is there now a nobler cause for our imbracing your Majesty with open arms who are descended unto us from so plentiful a Race of Kings since the access of the most ancient Cambrian Bloud to the rest of your Nobility by Queen ANNE your Mother a Lady of a great and masculine Mind And how much the more truly may we now repeat that which in the former Age Buchanaâ—… a Poet next the Ancients of most happy invention sang to your Grand-mother I wish with happier fate From numberless Progenitors you hold Transmitted Scepters which they sway'd of old But all these hitherto you scarcely account your own I pass then to such as are your own peculiar which conferre no less of lustre then they admit Three particulars we observe O best of Kings which Appellation I now again willingly and shall often use in your Beginnings of no small importance to your succeeding Progress as for the most part the first favour of Principles continues in the after-growths First That you were not born to the supream hope of Soveraignty so as flattery though an evil swift and watchful which attends the Cradles of Potent Heirs more gently pressed on your tender years And the whiles your native goodness drank in with a draught more uncompounded the generous liquor of Integrity for no doubt how the earliest dispositions of private persons much more of Princes be at first formed and as it were instilled that I may so speak is of highest importance to the Commonwealth whereof they are to become afterwards not only the Props but also the Precedents Next That you succeeded a Brother of no small Natural Endowments which begat thence-forward in your Parents a more industrious and closer sedulity for it surpasseth care for the accomplishment of their only Son Nay your own spirits daily grew the more intent when now the weight of so vast an expectation was lodged on your self alone Then were advanced to you such who faithfully instructed in learning that youth of yours as yet unapt for business Then such were sent for who as your strength increased dressed you in the exercises of the Horse which I call to mind with how graceful a dexterity you managed until afterwards at a solemn Tilting I became uncertain whether you strook into the beholders more Joy or Apprehension In the third place It comes to mind that for some time while Nature was as it were in strugling you were somewhat weak of limbs and far below that vigour which now with gladness we admire which I may judge to have befallen by the secret Councel of Providence thereby at that time to render more intense the care of furnishing your mind as became the Heir then secretly designed of a King whom Malignants themselves deny not to have been the wisest of all Princes from many Ages past From your first Essaies I shall hasten to your stronger times not unmindful of my promised business After your forraign Travels obnoxious to many hazards you came unto the Crown whence it appeared how much your self then dared to adventure when the while at home each one was trembling for your sake But the favour of Heaven brought you back safely to us not so much as coloured with out-landish Dye not unlike another Ulysses who accounted it sufficient even by Homers witness To have known the Morals of Men and Cities When you had assum'd the Crown before all other things there was resplendent in you a Religious mind the Support of Kingdomes the Joy of good men The Chappel Royal was never more in order The number of eminent Divines daily increased Sermons in no age more frequented In none more learned And the example of the Prince more effectual then the Sermons No execrations rashly proceeded from your mouth Your ears abhorring not only any wanton but even the least sordid word which perchance under Edward the 4th while toyish Loves did raign passed for Courtly eloquence Neither stopped this piety within the Walls of Court but was diffused also through the Kingdome The Church Revenues were not touched Temples here and there new founded Dâ—…apidations repaired And which Posterity will chiefly speak of the Riches of your Kingdome excited by your most religious exhortation for restauration of the Church consecrated to the Apostle of the Nations out of question the amplest and equally ancient of the Christian world which had sustained the injuries of time Where your Majesties care was greatly conspicuous in demolishing those private dwellings which disgraced the aspect of so goodly a Fabrick And not less in imposing the management of that whole business upon that most vigilant Prelate who for his singular fidelity and judgement hath lately merited far higher place Now next to God how tender was your affection to your People When the Sickness raged by your Command recourse was had to publick Fastings When we were pressed with greater fear then evil of Famine the Horders of Provisions were constrained to open their Garners and the prices of grain abated Among these most pious cares I cannot omit one peculiar Elogy proper to your own providence whereof I must repeat the Original a little higher There were hatched abroad some years agone or perhaps raked up out of Antiquity certain Controversies about high points of the Creed which having likewise flown over to us as flames of Wit are easily diffused lest hereabout also both Pulpits and Pens might run to heat and publick disturbance Your Majesty with most laudable temper by Proclamation suppressed on both sides all manner of debates Others may think what pleaseth them In my opinion if I may have pardon for the phrase The Itch of disputing will prove the Scab of Churches I shall relate what I have chanced more then once to observe Two namely arguing about some subject so eagerly till either of them transported by heat of contention from one thing to another they both at length had lost first their Charity and then also the Truth Whither would restless subtilty proceed if it were not bounded there is of captiousness no end but seasonable provision was made against it To these praises of Piety I will adde a very great evidence of Gratitude and almost a greater of Constancy towards George Villiers Duke oâ—… Buckingham him when amidst the dangers of the Spanish journey he had been the nearest of your attendants your Majesty afterwards as in requital bore safely with you at home through all the rocks of either Fortune till an unforeseen day was his conclusion We observed also no ordinary beams of your Favour to be cast upon another of your trusty Associates in the same Journey a Person of approved Judgement Neither do I recount these only among the arguments of an heart mindful of faithful Offices which indeed is Kingly but likewise of singular obsequiousness towards your Father even when deceased to whom the Duke of Buckingham had been for many years a Favourite as iâ—… Your Majesty
were in Lavender without an Answer save this only The pleasure I have taken in your Style and Conceptions together with a Meditation of the Subject you propound may seem to have cast me into a gentle slumber But being now awaked I do herein return you most hearty thanks for the kind prosecution of your first motion touching a just Office due to the memory of our ever memorable Friend To whose good fame though it be needless to add any thing and my age considered almost hopeless from my Pen yet I will endeavor to perform my promise if it were but even for this cause that in saying somewhat of the Life of so deserving a man I may perchance over-live mine own That which you add of Doctor King now made Dean of Rochester and by that translated into my native soil is a great spur unto me with whom I hope shortly to confer about it in my passage towards Boughton Malherb which was my genial Air and invite him to a friendship with that Family where his Predecessor was familiarly acquainted I shall write to you at large by the next Messenger being at present a little in business and then I shall set down certain general heads wherein I desire information by your loving diligence hoping shortly to enjoy your own ever welcome company in this approaching time of the Fly and the Cork And so I rest Your very hearty poor Friend to serve you H. WOTTON To the same My worthy Friend SInce I last saw you I have been confined to my Chamber by a quotidian Feaver I thank God of more contumacy then malignity It had once left me as I thought but it was only to fetch more company returning with a surcrew of those splenetick vapours that are called Hypocondriacal of which most say the cure is good company and I desire no better Phisician then your self I have in one of those fits endeavoured to make it more easie by composing a short Hymn and since I have apparelled my best thoughts so lightly as in Verse I hope I shall be pardoned a second vanity if I communicate it with such a Friend as your self to whom I wish a chearful spirit and a thankful heart to value it as one of the greatest blessings of our good God in whose dear love I leave you remaining Your poor Friend to serve you H. WOTTON A Hymn to my God in a Night of my late Sickness OH thou great Power in whom I move For whom I live to whom I die Behold me through thy beams of love Whilst on this couch of tears I lie And cleanse my sordid soul within By thy Christs Blood the Bath of Sin No hallowed Oyls no grains I need No rags of Saints no purging fire One rosie drop from David's Seed Was worlds of Seas to quench thine Ire O precious Ransome which once paid That Consummatum est was said And said by him that said no more But seal'd it with his sacred Breath Thou then that hast dispung'd my Score And dying wast the death of Death Be to me now on thee I call My Life my Strength my Joy my All. H. WOTTON To Doctor C. Worthy Sir I Cannot according to the Italian phrase at which I have been often ready to laugh among a Nation otherwise of so civil language accuse the receit of any Letter from you since your remove from these parts save of two by this Bearer my Servant and yours as all mine shall be Neither can I satisfie my imagination so far I am from quieting my desire where a third which you intimate in your last may yet lie smothered in some pocket for which I should have made a great research if that were not the diligentest way to miss it The truth is as I do highly estimate every line from your Pen so on the other side I am as jealous that any of them should stray For when a Friend of mine that was lately going towards your City fell casually into some discourse with me how he should cloath himself there I made some sport to tell him for a little beguiling of my Melancholy Fumes that in my opinion the cheapest stuff in London was Silence But this concerneth neither of us both for we know how to speak and write safely that is honestly Always if we touch any tender matter let us remember his Motto that wrote upon the Mantle of his Chimney where he used to keep a good fire OptimusSecretariorum I owe you abundant thanks for the Advertisements in your last so clearly and judiciously delivered you cannot do me a greater favour for though I am a Cloystered Man in the Condition of my present Life besides my Confinement by Infirmity yet having spent so much of mine Age among Noise abroad and seven Years thereof in the Court at home there doth still hang upon me I know not how a certain Concupiscence of Novelties I am sorry I have nothing in that kind at the present to interchange with you In mine own sickness I had of late for one half night and a whole day following a perfect intermission like a Truce from all Symptoms but some of them are returned again and I am afraid it will be hard to throw out altogether this same Saturnine Enemy being now lodged in me almost a full year In your way of applying the Leeches I have found sensible benefit If I could get a lodging near Paul's Church I would fain pass a week there yet before the great Festival Pardon me Good Sir this Communication with you of my Domestick purposes and pardon me likewise the use of another mans hand in this Letter for a little ease of mine own Head and Eyes And so I rest Your hearty Friend and Servant in all occasions H. WOTTON Sir Your subscription of Aldrovandus putteth me in mind of a mishap which befel me in the time of my private Travels I had been in a long pursuit of a much commended Author namely Johannes Britanicus de re Metallica and could never see him but in the Library of the brave Monks of Mont d'Oliveto in the Contaà o di Siena where while I had taken order to have him transcribed Aldrovando passing that way borrowed him from the Monastery and I sending not long after unto him in Bologna my Friend found him newly dead And this was the period of my fruitless curiosity To Doctor C. Worthy Sir I See by your Letters by your discourses and by your whole conversation that you are a Friend of great Learning and which are commonly consociated of as great humanity which shall make me study by any means within the narrowness of my fortune and judgement to deserve your love The rest I leave to this Bearer my Servant As I am Yours H. WOTTON To Doctor C. Worthy Sir HEnceforward no Complemental forms between us Let others repute them according to the Latine denomination Fine civil filling of speech and Letters For my part in good faith ex Diametro I
ignominy to have his allegiance exalted with blasphemy as for attending the Prince out of Spain he was called our Redeemer or to have his mis-fortunes mistaken into disloyalty when his Enterprizes succeeded not according to the impossible expectation of the people certain it is that all his later time he wholly neglected all compliance with them 'T is not unlikely he might wonder that in all the scrutinous enquiry for Reformation there was never the least blemish of dislike towards any great man but such as were in the immediate regard and estimation of the King As if all misdemeanours had been committed within the Verge of his Majesties own Chamber I shall not confer any of these particulars with the Earl When the noise of the people had disquieted him into action from Court which was his Orb though he could not put off the place or rather the Title of Command he committed himself a most willing Pupil to the directions of such as were generally thought fit to manage affairs of that nature and here it cannot be deny'd but as he was a vigilant and observant Student in the contemplative part so he improved the courage of the whole Army by his example And surely there is no cause to doubt he would in short time have made so glorious a progress in his profession however he seemed shaped for easier skirmishes as the world should have seen that promptness and alacrity in his nature that could happily have travelled in any path he could direct it had he not been cut off by that exâ—…crable Treason as makes all good men tremble and Posterity shall start at it and had he not been marvellously secured in the tranquillity of his own soul from any of that guilt the Rabble had conferred on him it had been no hard matter to have fortified himself against the knife of a Villain though it were sharpened in the lewdest forge of revenge the great Patron of Murther hath countenanced since the spilling of the first bloud But he that was unsafe only in the greatness of his own spirit could not be perswaded to wear any privy-coat but which he never put off of a good conscience And the same Providence that conveyed him into grace with so different marks from other men would not suffer him to fall but by such a fate as may determine all the Monarchies of the world and which had been seldome acted but upon the most Eminent and Honourable Persons of their times And here again he may be said to meet with the Earl that they both died by the people though by very different affections which continued so preposterous as Iustice upon the One for Iustice is the execution of the Law was interpreted a Conspiracy And Treason upon the Other conceived Religion And yet one had the Royal Sacrifice of his Soveraigns sorrow which the other wanted In contriving and contracting his Friendships he was provident and circumspect enough as may appear by those Marriages in which he linked his House and in the observation of them he was so severe and real as he wanted some of that which is usually the poyson of Noble minds Suspicion looking no further into the affections of those he chose then the Testimony of their own hearts though this Confidence sometimes was like to prove dangerous to him And here the Earl had the day too For his friends were Skreens between him and envy and his own infirmities taken from him and imposed on them when the Duke was so far from that ease or being discharged of the burthen that belonged to them that he was traduced with all the mistakes of all his friends kindred and dependants as if he were the mischievous Agent they only improvident and surprized Instruments 'T is true they were neither of them much skilled in that Paradox of charity loving their enemies and yet the Dukes easiness to reconcilement and too soon forgetting the circumstances of Grudges betrayed him often to the injuries of such as had not the same spirit Concerning the parts and endowments of his Mind if the consideration of Learning extend it self not further then drudgery in Books the Dukes imployments forbids to suspect him for any great Scholar but if a nimble and fluent expression and delivery of his Mind and his discourse was of all Subjects in a natural and proper dialect be considered he was well letter'd but if he had that Eloquence of Nature or Art I am sure he wanted that other accident which the best Iudge attributed to the Earl as an Eloquence that passed the other two the pity and benevolence of his hearers insomuch that his words and speeches were never entertained with that candour or common charity of Interpretation as civilly belongs to all Delinquents witness that speech in the fulness of his joy he let fall to his Majesty in the behalf of his people which was immediately perverted and carpt at as an aggravation of his other imaginary and fantastick offences He was besides not only of an eminent affection to learning in conferring dignities and rewards upon the most learned men either of which is seldome without judgement and he was the Governour in a Province of Learning which was an Argument he confuted the people by when he suffered himself to be chosen Chancellour of the University of Cambridge even at the time when they had concluded his destruction as a man odious to all Subjects In his Liberalities and rewards of those he fancied he was so chearfully magnificent and so much at the mercy of his Dependants that if they proved improvident or immodest in their Suits the inconveniency and mischief was surely his insomuch as he seemed wholly possest from himself and to be only great for their use and he had then so happy a bravery in deriving of his Favours and conferred them with so many noble circumstances as the manner was as obliging as the matter and mens understandings oft-times as much puzled as their gratitude If the Earl sided him here his bounty fell upon more unthrifty men for there are many Families owe their large possessions only to the openness of the Dukes hand though much be lost too in the ingratitudes of the Receivers But that which shined with most lustre in him and which indeed flowed in his nature much above its proportion in other men was an admirable affability and gentleness to all men And this was the pomp and glory of all his Titles Insomuch as though his Memory were a place so taken up with high thoughts and unlikely to have any room for matters of so small importance he was ever known to entertain his younger acquaintance with that familiarity as if they had been stairs by which he ascended to his greatness He had besides such a tenderness and compassion in his nature that such as think the Laws dead if they are not severely executed censured him for being too merciful but his charity was grounded upon a wiser Maxime of Stâ—…te Non
Advantages Number being miserably overthrown and slain by the Parthians And Iulia a little before dying of an Abort in Child-bed together with the Infant she bare it lay thenceforth open and clear in every Mans eye that the Triumvirate dissolved and She gone without any Slip remaining who had been the fastest Cement to hold her Father and Husband together there would soon ensue but a dry and sandy Friendship between them being now left at large to the Scope and Sway of their voluntary Appetites Wherefore having undertaken for some entertainment of my private time to compile out of the best of Ancient Memories that mighty Action which anon under these two Chiefs involved almost the whole World then known I impute it not impertinent to take first a short view how they stood before hand in Parallel together They were both in general esteemed of Affections too strong for their own or the common Quiet That the one could not endure a Superior nor the other an Equal we are told both in Prose and in Verse by ingenious Authors But whether they agreed to leave us a draught of the greatness or of the weakness of their Minds I dare not affirm some seeming Magnanimities being indeed if you found them well at the bottom very Impotencies Certainly in sober conceit howsoever they stood towards other they were impatient of all comparison or approach between themselves and of their former nearness no fruit remaining but this That the more inwardly they had then studied and understood each other they now loved the less For point of invading the Soveraignty such narrow Humorists as could look through them thought Pompey of the two rather the closer then the better For Caesar's was not a smothered but a flagrant Ambition kindling first by Nature and blown by Necessity in the course whereof one might observe a kind of Circular Motion for as his vast Desires had exhausted him with unmeasureable gifts above private Condition so again when he was grown as he would often sport with himself in earnest a great deal worth less then nothing He fell next to resolve by an usual Coincidence of extreams that he could not subsist unless he were Master of all In their practical ways Pompey had one very ignoble custom to insert or as I may term it to inoculate himself into other mens merits and praises So he undermined Lucullus in Asia and Metellus in Spain the first a wise and magnificent the other a good plain Souldier-like Gentleman But on the other side all that went for good or bad in Caesar was clearly his own having so little need to borrow from any other virtues or vices that he left it a Doubt among the best Wits of his time whether of which himself had most in the two proper Dowries of that Age Eloquence or Arms. A CHARACTER OF FERDINANDO di MEDICI Grand Duke of Tuscany DEDICATED TO THE KING BEing desirous albeit I dare promise little fruit or pleasure to others by any use of my Pen yet at least to record unto my self some such Observations as I picked up abroad in the time of my former travels and imployments I stand obliged in grateful memory to say somevvhat of a Prince long since at rest namely Fordinando Grand Duke of Tuscany vvhich vvas the ancient Hetruria vvhose Palace of Piti at Florence vvhen I came often to review and still me thought vvith fresh admiration being incomparably as far as I can yet speak by experience or report for solid Architecture the most magnificent and regular Pile vvithin the Christian World It pleased him by means of the Cavalier Vieta his principal Secretary of Estate to take some notice of my Person though no intruder by Nature and God knows of little ability The said Duke Ferdinando vvas reputed a vvise and vvary Prince and it vvas a Solid vvisdom rather then a Formal He had been long a Cardinal and at two or three Conclaves as they call them or Elections of Popes so as he came to the Dukedom well seasoned before with practice and vvell broken to Affairs and vvith such an impression of his first Tincture as falleth out naturally in all things else that he always maintained a great interest in the Roman Court as indeed vvas necessary for a near and jealous Confiner He vvas in his Civil Regiment of a fine composition between Frugality and Magnificence A great cherisher of Manual Arts especially such as tended to splendor and ornament as Picture Sculpture cutting of Chrystals Ambers and all of the softer Gems inlaying of Marbles limning of Birds Beasts and Vegetables Imbossing and the like In all which he drew to him from all parts the most exquisite Artificers with a setled Pension and placed them in several compartments of his Palace vvhere he vvould come oftentimes to see them vvork for his own delight and so he did furnish his Cabinets vvith Rarities at an easie rate being in truth one of the greatest Oeeâ—…nomists of his Age. And as he had much at first of the Deacon and more of the Prince so he did novv and then not disdain to have a little of the Merchant 't was as vvell as fighting vvith his Gallies After the death of the Duke Francesco his Brother it vvas a vvhile somewhat an Ambiguous Deliberative vvhether he should divest the Cardinalship or rule vvith a double Greatness Ecclesiastical and Civil But the hope of Posterity over-balanced the scale and so he took to Wife the Daughter of Loraign as it vvere to interest himself novv in the Borders of France whereas his Name before had spread it self in the Body He vvas by nature more reserved then popular and had virtues fitter to beget estimation then love yet he vvould duly in his Coach take almost every day a revievv of the City and receive Petitions vvillingly Besides I have been shewed a strange device of State namely an outward hole like a Trunk in a Wall of one of his Galleries the bottom vvhereof vvas under lock and key into vvhich any one might let forth any secret intelligence and convey it closely to the ears of the Prince enough to disquiet all the days of his life He vvas served by able Instruments of State and diligently attended in Court but rather by choice then number and vvith more neatness then noise He had a close and intrinsecal Favourite by Birth a Stranger being born in Piedmont but by his favour made Archbishop of Pisa a notable Screen between him and his Subjects upon vvhom the Duke vvould handsomely bestovv all manner of complaint and he as vvillingly bear it He vvas unquestionably the powerfullest of all the Italian Dukes and being centred in the very Navel of italy thereby the furthest from Invasion on all sides and the most participant of the common Interest vvhich I believe among other causes hath much preserved that State in busie times yet surely a little over-awed or over-looked by the King of Spain vvho holdeth in actual possession Pont
were his Hosts being destitute of other habitation I answered him as merrily as it was propounded that I knew the Jesuits had every where the best rooms more splendent then true fitter to lodge Princes then Monks and that their habitations were always better then themselves Moreover that for mine own part though I was not much afraid of their infection and that Saint Paul did not refuse to be carried in a Ship which was consecrated to false Gods yet because on our side they were generally and no doubt justly reputed the true causes of all the troubles of the Christian World I doubted it would be a scandalous Reception and that besides those Artificers vvould go near to make appear on my part a kind of silent approbation of their Order and course This was my answer which being faithfully transported by the Italian the Arch-Duke made choice of another mean house in the Town vvhere he received me truly in a noble sweet fashion to whom having presented Your Majesties Letters and Love he disposed himself with sharp attention to hear me To him besides that which I had said to the Duke of Loraign I added two things The first that not only Your Majesty was clear of all fore-knowledge or counsel in the business of Bohemia but likewise Your Son-in-law himself of any precedent practice therein till it was laid upon him as You knew by his own high affirmations and most infallible testimonies The second that though Your Majesty to this hour did continue as equal betwixt both parties as the Equinoctial between the Poles yet about the time of my departure You were much moved and the whole Land likewise with a voice I know not how spread abroad that there were great preparations to invade the Nether Palatinate which if it did fall out Your Majesty should have just reason to think Your Moderation unthankfully requited the said Palatinate being the Patrimonial Lands of Your own Descendents and no way connexed with the Bohemian Business Whereupon I perswaded him fairly in Your Majesties Name being a Personage of such authority in the present actions to keep them from any such precipitious and impertinent rupture as might preclude all Mediation of Accord and because Your Majesty had now which was a second Argument of Your equity sent several Ambassadors to the Fountains for Your better information in the merit of the Cause by Your own Instruments I besought him to illuminate me who was the weakest of Your Creatures as far as he should think fit and to assist me with his best advice towards this good end whereunto besides the dear Commandment of the King my Master I would confer mine own plain and honest zeal His answer to all the points which he had very orderly laid up was this Of Your Majesties own clearness he professed much assurance of Your Son-in-law as much doubt charging him both with close practice with the Bohemians at the time of the Emperors Election at Francfort and more foully with a new practice either by himself or by others to introduce the Turk into Hungary Of any design upon the Lower Palatinate he utterly disavowed all knowledge on his part yet would not deny but the Marquess Spinola might perchance have some such aim and if things went on as they do men would no doubt assail their enemies wheresoever they should find them In such ambiguous clouds as these he wrapped this point Of the Emperors inclination to an agreement he bade me be very assured but never vvithout restitution of the usurped Kingdom vvhich vvas not a loss of easie concoction especially being taken from him by the Count Palatine his Subject as he often called him and once added that he thought he vvould not deny it himself Of the merit of the cause he said he had sent divers records and papers to the Emperor vvhere I should find them Lastly he acknowledged himself much bound unto Your Majesty for the honour You had done him to take such knowledge of his Person and was contented to bestow some thanks upon me for mine honest inclination which he would present before my arrival at Vienna I had almost omitted a point touched by him that he had knowledge of some English Levies coming toward the Palatinate About which I cleared him with confessing that Your Majesties People and some of Your principal Nobility had taken Alarm upon a voice of an Invasion there and meant voluntarily to sacrifice themselves in that action but vvithout any concurrence of Your Majesty thereunto either by money or command To which he replied that in truth so he had heard and made no question of Your Royal Integrity In the afternoon of this day he took me abroad with him in his Coach to shew me some of his nearer Towns and Fortifications and there descended into many familiarities and amongst other to shew us how to make Frogs leap at their own skins a strange purchase me thought at a time when Kingdoms are in question But it may be it was an Art to cover his weightier Meditations Amongst other discourse there was some mention of Your Majesties Treaty with Spain in point of Alliance which I told him was a concluded business for that warrant I had from Your own Royal mouth in Your Gallery at Theobalds having let fall none of Your syllables Whereupon he said That he did not despair upon so good an occasion to salute Your Majesty in Your own Court The morning following he sent unto me Seignior Ascanio with express desire that since Your Majesties intentions were so clear I would as frankly acquaint him whether in mine Instructions I had any particular form of accord to project unto the Emperor which himself likewise at my second Audience did somewhat importunely press excusing his curiosity with a good meaning to prepare the Emperor in as good manner as he could to accept it My answer was that Your Majesty thought it first necessary on both sides to dispose the affections and then by reciprocal Intelligence between Your Servants from Vienna and Prague to collect some measure of Agreement for otherwise if we should find both Parties fixed in extream resolutions it were a folly to spend any further the Honour of our Master Here again he told me that I should find the Emperor peswasible enough if his Reputation may be saved and for his own part he thought that the Count Palatine being the Inferior might yield without prejudice of his To terms of this height he revolved and of the same complexion are his Letters to Your Majesty that I send herewith of which I must needs say that in some part Olent Patrem Henricum so they call a Jesuit of inward credit with him Always true it is that they were couched in the Colledge for his Secretaries were absent as the Italian told me at his ordinary place of residence At my leave-taking he spake with much reverence of Your Majesty with much praise of Your Christian mind and with much
meaning is not yet understood unless perchance that were their meaning not to be understood The two best to my fancy were those of the two Earls Brothers The first a small exceeding white Pearl and the word Solo candore valeo The other a Sun casting a glance on the side of a Pillar and the Beams reflecting with this Motto Splendonte refulget In which devices there seemed an agreement the elder Brother to allude to his own nature and the younger to his fortune The day was signalized with no extraordinary accident save only between Sir Thomas Haward and Sir Thomas Sommerset who with a counter-buff had almost set himself out of the Saddle and made the others Horse sink under him but they both came fairly off without any further disgrace Of the merits of the rest I will say nothing my Pen being very unfit to speak of Launces To this solemnity of the publick Ambassadors only the Arch-duke was invited for the healing of the distaste he had taken for the preference of the Venetian at the marriage But I doubt the Plaister be too narrow for the sore which he seemed not much discontented that men should note in his whole countenance that day Towards the evening a challenge passed between Archie and a famous Knight called Sir Thomas Parsons the one a fool by election and the other by necessity which was accordingly performed some two or three dayes after at Tilt Tornie and on foot both compleatly armed and solemnly brought in before their Majesties and almost as many other meaner eyes as were at the former Which bred much sport for the present and afterwards upon cooler consideration much censure and discourse as the manner is The departure of the Count Palatine and my Lady Elizabeth is put off from the Thursday in the Easter-week till the Tuesday following which day I think will hold The Commissioners that accompany her have the titles of Ambassadors to give them precedency before Sir Ralph Winwood at the Hague and likewise in any encounters with Almaign Princes Sir Edward Cecil goeth as Treasurer to keep up that Office in the name though it be otherwise perhaps from a General rather a fall then an ascent Before this journey there is a conceit that the Duke of Lenox will be naturalized a Peer of our Parliament and my Lord of Rochester be created Earl of Devonshire The forraign matter is little increased since my last unto you from Cambridge The Savoy Ambassador not yet arrived The Turks designs hitherto unknown and marching slowly according to the nature of huge Armies In which suspence the Venctians have augmented their guard in the Gulf enough to confirm unto the world that States must be conserved even with ridiculous fears This is all that the VVeek yieldeth My Lord and Lady have received those Letters and loving salutations which my Foot man brought And so with mine own hearty prayers to God for you and for that most good Neece I commit you both to his blessing and love Your faithfullest of unprofitable Friends H. WOTTON I pray Sir remember me very particularly to my Cousin Nicholas your worthy Brother for whose health our good God be thanked Sir James Cromer is this week dead of an Aposteme in his stomack and in him the name unless his Lady as she seemeth to have intention shall revive it with matching one of her four Daughters with a Cromer of obscure fortune which they say is latent in your Shire From my Chamber this Thursday St. George his Eve 1613. SIR THe last week by reason of my being in Kent was a week of silence and this I think will appear unto you a week of wonder The Court was full of discourse and expectation that the King being now disincumbred of the care of his Daughter would towards this Feast of St. George fill up either all or some at least of those places that had lien vacant so long and had been in this time of their emptiness a subject of notorious opposition between our great Viscount and the House of Suffolk Thus I say ran the opinion When yesterday about six of the Clock at evening Sir Thomas Overbury was from the Council-Chamber conveyed by a Clerk of the Council and two of the Guard to the Tower and there by Warrant consigned to the Lieutenant as close Prisoner Which both by the suddenness like a stroke of Thunder and more by the quality and relation of the person breeding in the Beholders whereof by chance I was one very much amazement and being likely in some proportion to breed the like in the Hearers I will adventure for the satisfying of your thoughts about it to set down the fore-running and leading Causes of this accident as far as in so short a time I have been able to wade in so deep a water It is conceived that the King hath a good while been much distasted with the said Gentleman even in his own nature for too stiff a carriage of his fortune besides that scandalous offence of the Queen at Greenwich which was never but a palliated cure Upon which considerations His Majesty resolving to sever him from my Lord of Rochester and to do it not disgracefully or violently but in some honourable fashion He commanded not long since the Arch-Bishop by way of familiar discourse to propound unto him the Ambassage of France or of the Arch-Dukes Court whereof the one was shortly to be changed and the other at the present vacant In which proposition it seemeth though shadowed under the Arch-Bishops good will that the King was also contented some little light should be given him of His Majesties inclination unto it grounded upon his merit At this the Fish did not bite whereupon the King took a rounder way commanding my Lord Chancellor and the Earl of Pembroke to propound joyntly the same unto him which the Arch-Bishop had before moved as immediately from the King and to sweeten it the more he had as I hear an offer made him of assurance before his going off the place of Treasurer of the Chamber which he expecteth after the death of the Lord Stanhop whom belike the King would have drawn to some reasonable composition Notwithstanding all which Motives and impulsives Sir Thomas Overbury refused to be sent abroad with such terms as vvere by the Council interpreted pregnant of contempt in a Case vvhere the King had opened His vvill vvhich refusal of his I should for my part esteem an eternal disgrace to our occupation if vvithall I did not consider how hard it is to pull one from the bosome of a Favourite Thus you see the point upon vvhich one hath been committed standing in the second degree of power in the Court and conceiving as himself told me but two hours before never better then at that present of his own fortunes and ends Now in this vvhole matter there is one main and principal doubt vvhich doth travel all understandings that is Whether this were done without
the participation of my Lord of Rochester A point necessarily infolding two different consequences for if it vvere done vvithout his knowledge vve must expect of himself either a decadence or a ruine if not vve must then expect a reparation by some other great publick satisfaction vvhere of the vvorld may take as much notice These clouds a few dayes vvill clear In the mean vvhile I dare pronounce of Sir Thomas Overbury that he shall return no more to this Stage unless Courts be governed every year by a new Philosophy for our old Principles vvill not bear it I have shewed my Lord and Ladies Sister your Letter of the 18. of April vvho return unto you their affectionate remembrances and I many thanks for it The King hath altered his journey to Thetford and determineth to entertain himself till the progress nearer London The Queen beginneth her journey upon Saturday towards Bathe Neither the Marquess di Villa vvho cometh from Savoy nor Don Pedro di Sarmientâ—… vvho shall reside here in the room of the present Spanish Ambassador are yet either arrived or near our Coast though both on the way So as I can yet but cast towards you a longing and in truth an envious look from this place of such servility in the getting and such uncertainty in the holding of fortunes where methinks we are all over-clouded with that sleep of Jacob when he saw some ascending and some descending but that those were Angels and these are men For in both what is it but a Dream And so Sir wishing this Paper in your hands to whom I dare communicate the freest of my thoughts I commit you to Gods continual Love and Blessings Your faithful poor Friend and Servant H. WOTTON I pray Sir let me in some corner of every Letter tell my sweet Niece that I love her extreamly SIR I Have newly received your last of the 25th of April and acquainted my Lord with the Postscript thereof touching your Fathers sickness of which he had heard somewhat before by Sir R. Drury who at the same time told him the like of my Lady your Mother But we hope now that the one was never true and that the other which you confirm will be light and sufferable even at heavy years The long expected Embassador from Savoy arrived rived yesternight at Dover so as now I begin by the vertue of a greedy desire to anticipate before hand and to devour already some part of that contentment which I shall shortly more really enjoy in your sight and conversation Sir Thomas Overbury is still in the Tower and the King hath since his imprisonment been twice here and is twice departed without any alteration in that matter or in other greater My Lord of Rochester partly by some relapse into his late infirmity and partly as it is interpreted through the grief of his mind is also this second time not gone with the King some argue upon it that disassiduity in a Favorite is a degree of declination but of this there is no appearance Only I have set it down to shew you the hasty Logick of Courtiers The Queen is on her journey towards Bathe My Lady Elizabeth and the Count Palatine having lain long in our poor Province of Kent languishing for a Wind which she sees though it be but a vapour Princes cannot command at length on Sunday last towards evening did put to Sea some eight days after a Book had been Printed and published in London of her entertainment at Heidelberg so nimble an Age it is And because I cannot end in a better jest I will bid you farewell for this week committing you and that most beloved Niece to Gods dearest blessings London this Thursday the 29th of April 1613. Your own in faithfullest love H. WOTTON 1613. SIR YOur Friend Sir Robert Killegrew hath been committed to the Fleet for conferring vvith a close Prisoner in a strange Language which were as I hear the two circumstances that did aggravate his error Of his case whose love drew him into it I can yet make no judgement The humour seemeth to be sharp and there is wisdom enough in those that have the handling of the Patient to manage the matter so that at length his banishment from the Court may be granted as a point of grace The nature of his alteration vvas as you rightly judge it in the first access somewhat apoplectical but yet mingled in my opinion vvith divers properties of a lethargy vvhereof we shall discourse more particularly vvhen vve meet which I novv long for besides other respects that vve may lay aside these Metaphors This very morning shall be heard at the Star-chamber the Case of Sir Peter Buck an Inhabitant at Rochester an Officer as I take it of the Navy who hath lain some good while in Prison for having written to a Friend of his at Dover a Letter containing this news That some of the Lords had kneeled down to the King for a toleration in Religion besides some particular aspersion in the said Letter of my Lord Privy Seal whom likewise of late a Preacher or two have disquieted whereby he hath been moved besides his own nature and as some think also besides his wisdom to call these things into publick discourse quae spreta exolescunt if ancient grave Sentences do not deceive us My Lady of Shrewsbury my Lord Gray and the Lady Arabella remain still close Prisoners since their last restraint vvhich I signified unto you in a little ticket Sir William Wade vvas yesternight put from the Lieutenancy of the Tower I set down these accidents barely as you see vvithout their causes vvhich in truth is a double fault vvriting both to a Friend and to a Philosopher but my lodging is so near the Star-chamber that my Pen shakes in my hand I hope therefore the Embassador of Savoy vvho hath already had two Audiences vvill quickly be gone that I may flie to you and ease my heart By the next Carrier I shall tell you all his business In the mean vvhile and ever our dear Saviour bless you Your faithful poor Friend to serve you H. WOTTON 1613. This Friday morning May 7. in such haste that I must leave my dear Niece unanswered till I can better assemble my spirits and call the aid of the Muses SIR YOur Kinsman and Friend Sir Robert Killegrew vvas in the Fleet from Wednesday of the last vveek till the Sunday following and no longer vvhich I reckon but an Ephemeral fit in respect of his infirmity vvho vvas the cause of it vvhich to my judgement doth every day appear more and more hectical Yesterday his Father petitioned the King as he came from the Chappel that his Son might have a Physician and a Servant allowed him as being much damaged in his health by close imprisonment vvhich for my part I believe for the diseases of Fortune have a kind of transfusion into the body and strong vvorking spirits vvanting their usual objects revert upon
predatory I have forgotten for memoria primò senescit whether I told you in my last a pretty late experiment in Arthritical pains it is cheap enough Take a rosted Turnip for if you boyl it it will open the pores and draw too much apply that in a Poultice to the part affected with change once in an hour or two as you find it dried by the heat of the flesh and it will in little time allay the pain Thus much in our private way wherein I dare swear if our Medicines were as strong as our wishes they would work extreamly Now for the Publick where peradventure now and then there are distempers as well as in natural bodies The Earl of Holland vvas on Saturday last the day after your Posts departure very solemnly restored at Council Table the King present from a kind of Eclipse wherein he had stood since the Thursday fortnight before All considered the obscuration vvas long and bred both various and doubtfull discourse but it ended vvell All the cause yet known vvas a verbal challenge sent from him by Mr. Henry Germain in this form to the now Lord Weston newly returned from his forraign imployments That since he had already given the King an account of his Embassage he did now expect from him an account of a Letter of his vvhich he had opened in Paris and he did expect it at such a time even in the Spring garden close under his Fathers Window vvith his Sword by his side It is said I go no farther in such tender points that my Lord Weston sent him by Mr. Henry Percy between vvhom and the said Lord Weston had in the late journey as it seems been contracted such friendship as overcame the memory that he vvas Cousin-German to my Lord of Holland a very fair and discreet answer That if he could challenge him for any injury done him before or after his Embassage he vvould meet him as a Gentleman vvith his Sword by his side vvhere he should appoint But for any thing that had been done in the time of his Embassage he had already given the King an account thereof and thought himself not accountable to any other This published on Thursday vvas fortnight the Earl of Holland vvas confined to his Chamber in Court and the next day morning to his House at Kensington vvhere he remained vvithout any further circumstance of restraint or displeasure Saturday and Sunday on vvhich dayes being much visited it vvas thought fit on Munday to appoint Mr. Dickenson one of the Clerks of the Council to be his Guardian thus far that none vvithout his presence should accost him This made the vulgar judgements run high or rather indeed run low That he vvas a lost and discarded man judging as of Patients in Feavers by the exasperation of the fits But the Queen vvho vvas a little obliquely interested in this business for in my Lord of Holland's Letter vvhich vvas opened she had one that vvas not opened nor so much as they say as superscribed and both the Queen's and my Lord of Holland's vvere inclosed in one from Mr. Walter Mountague vvhereof I shall tell you more hereafter The Queen I say stood nobly by him and as it seems pressed her own affront It is too intricately involved for me so much as to guess at any particulars I hear generally discoursed that the opened dispatch vvas only in favour if it might be obtained of Monsieur de Chateau Neuf and the Chevalier de Jarr vvho had both been here but vvritten vvith caution and surely not vvithout the Kings knowledge to be delivered if there vvere hope of any good effect and perchance not vvithout Order from His Majesty to my Lord Weston afterwards to stop the said Letters upon advertisement that both Chateau Neuf and de Jarr vvere already in the Bastille But this I leave at large as not knowing the depth of the business Upon Munday vvas seven-night fell out another quarrel nobly carried branching from the former between my Lord Fielding and Mr. Goring Son and Heir to the Lord of that Name They had been the night before at Supper I know not vvhere together vvhere Mr. Goring spake something in diminution of my Lord Weston vvhich my Lord Fielding told him it could not become him to suffer lying by the side of his Sister Thereupon these hot hearts appoint a meeting next day morning themselves alone each upon his Horse They pass by Hide-Park as a place vvhere they might be parted too soon and turn into a Lane by Knights-bridge vvhere having tyed up their Horses at a Hedge or Gate they got over into a Close there stripped into their Shirts vvith single Rapiers they fell to an eager Duel till they vvere severed by the Host and his servants of the Inne of the Prince of Orange vvho by meer chance had taken some notice of them In this noble encounter vvhere in blood vvas spent though by Gods providence not much on either side there passed between them a very memorable interchange of a piece of courtesie if that vvord may have room in this place Sayes my Lord Fielding Mr. Goring If you leave me here let me advise you not to go back by Piccadillia-hall lest if mischance befall me and be suddenly noised as it falleth out in these occasions now between us you might receive some harm by some of my friends that lodge thereabouts My Lord replyes Goring I have no vvay but one to answer this courtesie I have here by chance in my Pocket a Warrant to pass the Ports out of England vvithout a Name gotten I suppose upon some other occasion before If you leave me here take it for your use and put in your own Name This is a passage much commended between them as proceeding both from sweetness and stoutness of spirit vvhich are very compatible On the solemn day of Saturday last both this difference and the Original between the Earl of Holland and the Lord Weston vvere fairly reconciled and forgiven by the King vvith shaking of hands and such Symbols of agreement And likewise Sir Maurice Dromand vvho had before upon an uncivil ture on his part between him and my Lord of Carlile been committed to the Tower was then delivered at the same time and so it all ended as a merry Fellow said in a Maurice But whether these be perfect cures or but skinnings over and Palliations of Court will appear hereafter Nay some say very quickly for my Lord Westons Lady being since brought to bed of a Daughter men stand in a kind of suspence whether the Queen will be the Godmother after so crude a reconcilement which by the Kings inestimable goodness I think may pass in this forgiving week For foreign matter there is so little and so doubtfull as it were a misery to trouble you with it The States confuted Treaty is put to the stock and the Prince of Orenge by account gone to the Field two days since having broken the business
excuse is accepted but because they did not aftervvards vvithout a second demand send him vvord that they vvould be at leisure incrassatus est sanguis on the Spanish side A much deeper and incurable case is fallen out betwixt the French and the Extraordinary Ambassador of Parma vvho after the French sent first unto him as they say though he affirms it vvas the Spaniard did yet visit the Spaniard before them belike according to the method of his devotion and proximity to his Master or of Authority in this Court howsoever hereupon the Duke of Angolesme assigned the same Ambassadour a day to visit him and vvhen he came alla buona he shut his Gates upon him Which is here generally the worse interpreted because he is a Bishop seeming an affront to both his qualifications In such a touchy time as this I had almost had my share to whom after the three French Ambassadors had sent their three Secretaries for prevention of the Spaniard as far as Cloyster Newburg vvhere I made my stop they vvere likewise the first here that sent to visit me but came all three together and vvith them Monsieur de Beaugie the Ordinary Agent Whereupon fell a little disputation between us Whether visits of respect between Representants of equality being received in specie should be paid in individuo vvhich seemed unto me no good complemental Logick but finding afterwards first that their Commissions vvere the same then that the Emperor had sent to their several Lodgings and the Popes Nuncio though visited in gross had visited them apart I made an end of this scruple yet not before a promise that if your Majesty should send more Ambassadors hither they vvill proceed a la pareille vvith them having gained thus much by this small debate that perchance they think me not over-punctual nor altogether supine I have likewise received and rendered to the Spanish Ambassador all due formalities and from all other Ambassadors and Agents except the Popes and the Duke of Parma's vvhose habits make us incommiscible Of the rest I need not speak at all of the French and Spanish I vvill presume to speak my opinion as far as may conduce to the main I find the French surely of good intention towards a peace here but not hasty either to believe in truth that the Crowns of Hungaria or Bohemia vvere Hereditary Here at their first coming they had more credit as I receive from a good hand then they seem to have novv vvhich is thought to proceed from the Spanish Ambassador vvho in this Court is not only the Supream Counsellor but hath in truth a Dictatoriam potestatem as the French find the reason being not very obscure for vvhen I put in the major that the Emperors resolutions depend upon necessities and in the minor that his necessities depend upon Spain I think I may spare the conclusion Thus stand the publick Ministers here and thus they stand one vvith another vvhich I thought fit to set down because it hath some influence into the general business Novv to proceed to the scope of my employment in matter of substance I had Audience of the Emperor as the French the second day after my arrival vvhere vvhat I said vvill best appear to your Majesty out of the Memorial vvhich I aftervvards sent unto him at his own requisition here following vvord for vvord as I have translated it out of the Italian in vvhich language the Emperor treateth most vvillingly The Proposition of Henry Wotton Knight Ambassador Extraordinary from his Majesty of Great Britain delivered in the Name of his Sovereign-Lord the King with all real intention to his Sacred Imperial Majesty the 23 of August stylo vet did contain four points FIrst That his Imperial Majesty would be pleased to make known his inclination towards a sincere Treaty upon the present Motions Secondly That it will please him by one or two or more to inform the said Ambassador of all the fundamental Arguments in the merit of the Cause which shall be most faithfully represented by him to the King his Master Thirdly Either his Imperial Majesty vvill refuse or agree to enter into Treaty In the first case It vvere vain for Representants of Princes of good intentions to spend further the Reputation of their Masters In the second His Majesty of Great Britain doth think it most convenient that both the Parties together with their Confederates be contented to condescend to a cessation of Arms for some competent time lest vvhile their Reconcilements vvere in Treaty their passions be more exasperated then before Fourthly That for the furthering of their Reconcilement His Imperial Majesty would be pleased to free the passages of Curriers from Vienna to Prague vvhich shall be procured likewise on the other side Besides these substantial points the said Ambassador did touch three Considerations about the Person of His Soveraign Lord the King which did render Him with His Imperial Majesty of indubitable credit although interessed by so strait Bonds in the contrary side First His Majesties clearness in the beginning of these Motions Secondly His Neutrality in the progress thereof Thirdly His Equity in the present Touching the first point the Ambassador declared in His Majesties Name with high and holy affirmations that He had had in Election of His Son-in-Law to the Crown of Bohemia no participation of Counsel or fore-knowledge VVhich His Majesty did not only affirm for Himself but as indubitably in the Person of His Son-in Law that he had no way fore-practised that Election For the second point of Neutrality the Ambassador said that His Majesty had not yet given the Title of King to His Son-in-Law or of Queen to His Daughter in any Letter either publick or private nor had permitted the same Title in any Sermons within His Kingdomes As for the third point of Equity the Ambassador shewed most evidently the great moderation and aequanimity of the King his Master in not having setled any firm judgement touching the merit of the Cause upon information from that side vvherein His Majesty is most interessed vvithout first requiring farther knowledge from the Emperor himself by an express Minister This vvas the Memorial of my Proposition Four days after the Emperor sends me vvord that his Answer vvas ready giving me my choice vvhether I vvould receive it from himself or else from the Baron of Eckemberg his Principal Counsellor and vvhether verbally or in vvriting or both In this gracious option I took hold of the vvriting because scripta manent and vvished I might have it from the Baron vvithout the Emperors farther trouble till from it might rise some nevv occasion To the Baron I vvas called two days after vvhom I found infirmer of his feet then of his head for in truth he is a Gentleman of strong conceit and fair delivery though as most of the Court are tainted vvith the Iesuit From him I received besides complements and many thanks for the honour that your Majesty
with the Emperor not to proceed too hastily to the publishing of the Banne seeing that would be to deliver over the Patrimony of His Majesties Children unto Strangers which were an unkinde requital of His Majesties Princely sincere and moderate intentions and proceedings toward him and must of necessity interest and imbarque His Majesty in the defence of His Childrens inheritance which His Majesty hopes the Emperor will take into his advised and serious consideration This is all I have to recommend unto you for the present as from His Majesty for my self I promise it my self from you that you are resolved I am and will remain Your Lordships most assuredly to do you service Whitehal Sept. 23. 1620. Septemb. 1620. The Copy of my Letter written to His Majesties Ambassadors at Prague S. P. I Do address the present unto your Lordships or in your absence to Sir Francis Nethersole by this Gentleman Mr. Walter Waller coming in company of Monsieur de Sigonie whom the French Ambassadors Duke d'Angolesme Monsieur de Bethunes and Monsieur de Preaux do conjoyn with me in this Dispatch the scope whereof I cannot well set down without first telling what doth lead it I have been here almost a fortnight well received with all imaginable circumstances due to the honour of our Gracious Master My proposition to the Emperor did consist of these four points 1. That it would please him to make known his inclination towards a sincere Treaty upon the present Motions 2. That he would be likewise pleased to instruct me by one or two or more Persons of choice and knowledge in all the fundamental Arguments touching the merit of the Cause promising to represent them faithfully to the King my Master 3. To condescend to a cessation of Arms for some competent time least while the Reconcilement is in Treaty the passions be more and more exasperated 4. That for the furtherance of these good intentions the Emperor will be pleased to grant Passports for Curriers from Vienna towards Prague upon all occasions where his Armies lie Of these he hath yielded to the first and last namely a freedom to treat whereof I made some doubt and a freedom to send whereupon the French Ambassadours and my self have joyntly formed this present Dispatch to this end that the Elector Palatine may likewise by your Lordships or by his Majesties Agent there be drawn as far as we have disposed the Emperor in the first and last points of my Proposition for to this hour the Prince Christian of Anhalt though the French Ambassadors before my coming had written and expresly sent unto him hath given no Answer by which conjecture may be made whether the foresaid Elector will treat or no or whether the Bohemians will suffer it Now because if I should end here so much only as I have hitherto said would scantly import the price of the carriage we have thought fit I speak still plurally in the names of the French and my self to acquaint your Lordships and Sir Francis Nethersole with some ways that have been conceived for the effecting of our Masters good intentions about the Publick repose It hath been first thought very expedient that both parties were drawn to remit these great differences to a Diet at Regensburg of German Princes with intervention of foreign Ambassadors Next some have gone so far and this both the French and my self profess to have taken up on the way even amongst the Friends of the Elector as to project a form of Agreement upon some such Articles as these that follow 1. That the Elector Palatine be contented to relinquish the title and possession of the Kingdom of Bohemia 2. That the Emperor Ferdinando according to the first Election of the Bohemians and by virtue thereof shall enjoy the entire profits and title of the said Crown during his natural life 3. That after the decease of the said Emperor it shall be free for the Bohemians to chuse what King they will and much more to admit him whom they have designed namely the Palatine Heir apparent 4. That for assuring the immunities of that People and future freedom in the exercise of both Religions the Emperor be contented to commit the Regiment of the said Kingdom to the Naturals thereof 5. That of Persons on each side banished whether Spiritual or Civil nothing be said till a full agreement about the rest Concerning these things I mean as well the Diet as the project the French Ambassadours and my self do joyntly pray your Lordships or in your absence Sir Francis Nethersole by your wisdoms to sound the inclinations of that place where you are that accordingly we may here upon your Answer likewise feel the Emperor with whom it were ill manners to begin Not fixing our conceits upon this which hath now been represented but leaving it as a Bears whelp which may be licked into a better form and remaining here both willing and desirous to receive either this better polished or some new conception from your Lordships that we may drive to the wished end Of all which an account hath been given from hence to our Sovereign Master that his high and Christian wisdom may approve or alter what it shall please him And so commending to Almighty God the God of Peace and Love your Lordships and the Publick health I humbly rest Vienna 1620. At your Commandments H. WOTTON Postsc I have done Mr. Dickenson my Friend and Consociate in the Treaty at Santoan a great deal of wrong not to mention him in this Dispatch if he be with your Lordships of which I was doubtful The Ambassadors Answer from Prague Octob. 18. 1620. Right Honourable SIr Francis Nethersole communicated unto us your Lordships of the 7 th of September St. vet the 9 th present the impediments of journeying with the delaies we met with at Dresden having made our arrival so late here that he had not only given overture to the business but gained such an Answer as the present constitution of the state of affairs and affections of parties would admit for which we refer you to his Relation to whose endeavors the honour is due You will easily believe that we would give all the force we could to second this great good work so piously intended by our gracious Master so requisite for Christendom and so needful to draw our Masters dear Son-in-law and his blessed Lady out of the extream difficulties they are in and in this work to be joyned with your wisdom and dexterity Here you will find ready affections to Peace to treat to admit the ways and conveniencies to Treaty if a cessation of Arms may be accorded but the difficulty lies to find the medium The Kingdom of Bohemia and the Appurtinances are the very question and they tell you here that the granting of a disposition thereof is to overthrow their Priviledges Immunities and Rights So to leave the possession of the Kingdom and to keep it is to reconcile Yea and No. Yet
even by the Treaty of Ulm where his Embassadors did intervene For they tell me that by virtue thereof neither directè nec indirectè any of the Provinces belonging to the League or to the Union could be molested by either side Which the Electors of Mentz and Colen have broken by permission of Spinola nay divers ways by subministration of commodities to his Army And I hear that to save themselves they have procured Patents from the Emperor that as his Commissaries they may do some things which they could not do or permit as Leaguers Always sure I am that the Duke of Bavaria did three or four days withstand the nominating of the French Ambassadors in the foresaid Treaty which the other side did as vehemently affect for no other imaginable reason within my penetration then only to engage France in the maintenance thereof This I have touched not that I doubt of your accommodating of those things civily without Arms or that your Majesty shall need if extremity require the sharpest remedies any help to vindicate your own Descendents from violence but because en tout cas the conjunction of France would be some ease to the Princes of the Union whereof your Majesty is the head The other point that I am bold to offer unto your Majesties consideration is That the King of Spain himself is bound by his own protestation to revoke Spinola For therein he declareth that his meaning was not by assisting the Emperour Cuiquam Mortalium per injuriam vim inferre aut in aliena cupiditatem suam extendere which protestation the Emperor received from his own Ambassador in the Spanish Court and by his Secretary here did communicate the same with me to be sent unto your Majesty as I did in my first Dispatch and have now again sent another Copy least the former should be strayed And so with my humble Prayers to the eternal God for your blessed health and joy I ever rest Your Majesties long devoted Servant and faithful Vassal H. W. POSTSCRIPT The expected Advertisement is now come from the Prince of Transilvania to this effect He greatly complaineth of the faintness and defection of his Confederates in general And in particular first that an Ambassage which he addressed since the Battel to the Moravians with animating perswasions took no place Next that the Elector Palatine to whom he expresly sent into Silesia Iohannes Krauss Secretary of the Kingdom of Hungaria hath not vouchsafed him any clear or determinate Answer to the Subject of his Errand which I have before set down Nay farther that the Prince of Anhalt and the Count of Hollock came joyntly together unto the said Iohannes Krauss in Preslaw and there among other discourse told him That the remainder of this affair was not to be handled by the French Ambassadors nor by me here which the French take very sensibly especially their offer and intercession having before by the said Prince of Anhalt been unaccepted and a Letter which they wrote unto him to this hour unanswered though sent by Monsieur de Ste Catherine no suspected person but one who had been so long resident in the Palatiae Court Upon which premises they have seriously desired me to testifie unto your Majesty as in truth I am bound their willingness to have mediated in this cause and their continual frank and faithful conferences with me about the common end On the other side I have desired them to represent things fairly to the King their Master and not upon any private distaste to abandon the common interest which so many Princes have in the subsistence of the Palatine Since this Advertisement from Bethelem Gabor and his Hungarians who are resolved to Treat singly and have sent hither to propound it we have gotten knowledge that such a Letter is come to the Emperor from the Duke of Saxony touching the Palatine Elector as makes us conceive he will use his mediation rather then ours So as I am preparing towards Venice in this hard season where as your Majesties Servant I have the honour to be much expected and desired as I hear by their Resident in this place especially the Republick standing in no small perplexity and sollicitude at the present divers ways There I shall attend your Majesties farther directions and leave the French as I found them upon this Stage till they get leave to depart for which they have dispatched home an express Currier intending in the mean time to deal between the Emperour and Bethelem Gabor The Accord of Ulm June 23. 1620. mentioned in the foregoing Letter NOus Maximilian par la grace de Dieu Conte Palatin du Rhein Duc de la haute basse Baviere c. Et nous Joachim Ernest par la mesme grace Marquis de Brandenbourg Duc de Prusse Stetin Pomeranie des Casoubes Wenden de Silesie de Croonen Jagendorff Burgrave de Nurnberg Prince de Rugen Be it known unto all and every one that seeing as well within the Sacred Empire of Germany as in divers Kingdoms and Neighbouring Estates Troubles and Tumults and Alterations have been on foot and long continued whereas not the Catholicks only but the Electors Princes and Confederate States of the Religion have taken occasion to Arm themselves which indeed hath been the cause of great differences and misprisions if these preparations of Arms and levy of Souldiers should proceed further on both sides to offend and destroy one another Therefore that such despight may be removed and good friendship between both Parties in the Empire established We have made a firm and constant Agreement by means likewise of the French Ambassadors which were at that time in the Imperial City of Ulm. And first of all We Maximilian Duke of Bavaria as General of the Catholick League by virtue of our Authority and We Ioachim Ernest Marquess of Brandenburg as Lieutenant General of the Union by virtue of our Authority in the presence and approbation also of other Princes States Alliants Deputies with full Power and Authority do promise and vow for our Selves of each Party Alliants Electors Princes and States by all the real Words of Truth and Fidelity in the best and most stable form that may or ought hold or stand firm by all the Rules of Right That none Electors Princes Alliants States of either Party in what manner soever or under whatsoever pretence neither by themselves nor any other shall with Arms pertaining to either Party offend or cut off the Treaty of Peace nor discommodate pillage spoil attaint or trouble one another nor any thing to them belonging as Electoralities Principalities Subjects Towns Villages Revenues Ecclesiastical or Civil But that as well the Catholicks with the Gospellers as they again with the Catholicks be and remain in true and unfeigned Peace Concord and Charity every of them secure in their own Proprieties without fear of Trouble or Assault And to the end that this Promise and Confidence being otherwise required and enjoyned