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
of Praemunire preferred into the Kings Bench but not found is not so much as is noised abroad though I must say it was Omni tempore nimium hoc tempore alienum And therefore I beseech Your Majesty not to give any believing ear to Reports but to receive the Truth from me that am Your Attorney General and ought to stand indifferent for Jurisdictions of all Courts which account I cannot give Your Majesty now because I was then absent and some are now absent which are properly and authentically to inform me touching that which passed Neither let this any way disjoint Your other business for there is a time for all things and this very accident may be turned to good not that I am of opinion that that same cunning Maxim of Separa Impera which sometimes holdeth in persons can well take place in Jurisdictions but because some good occasion by this excess may be taken to settle that which would have been more dangerous if it had gone on by little and little God preserve Your Majesty Your Majesties most humble Subject and most bounden Servant Febr. 15. 1615. Sir Francis Bacon the Kings Attorney to the King giving some Account touching the Commendams It may please Your most Excellent Majesty I Am not swift to deliver anything to your Majesty before it be well weighed But now that I have informed my self of as much as is necessary touching this proceeding of the Judges to the Argument of the Commendams notwithstanding your Majesties pleasure signified by me upon your Majesties Commandment in presence of my Lord Chancellor and the Bishop of Winchester to the contrary I do think it fit to advertise your Majesty what hath passed the rather because I suppose the Judges since they performed not your Commandment have at least given Your Majesty their reasons of their failing therein I begin to answer for the doing of Your Majesties Commandment and they for the not doing I did conceive that in a cause that concern'd Your Majesty and your Royal power the Judges having heard your Attorney General argue the Saturday before would of themselves have taken further time to be advised And if I fail not in memory my Lord Coke received from Your Majesties self as I take it a precedent commandment in Hillary term That both in the Rege inconsulto and in the Commendams your Attorney should be heard to speak and then stay to be made of further proceeding till my Lord had spoken with your Majesty Nevertheless hearing that the day appointed for the Judges Argument hâ—ld contrary to my expectation I sent on Thursday in the evening having received Your Majesties Commandment but the day before in the afternoon a Letter to my Lord Coke whereby I let him know that upon some Report of my Lord of Winchester who by Your Commandment was present at my Argument of that which passed it was Your Majesties express Pleasure that no further proceeding should be until Your Majesty had confer'd with Your Judges which Your Majesty thought to have done at Your being now last in Town but by reason of Your many and weighty occasions Your Princely times would not serve and that it was Your Pleasure he should signifie so much to the rest of the Judges whereof his Lordship might not fail His answer by word to my Man was That it were good the rest of the Judges understood so much from my self Whereupon I that cannot skill in scruples in matter of Service did write on Friday three several Letters of like Content to the Judges of the Common Pleas and the Barons of the Exchequer and the other three Judges of the Kings Bench mentioning in that last my particular Letter to my Lord Chief Justice This was all I did and thought all had been sure insomuch as the same day being appointed in Chancery for Your Majesties great Cause followed by my Lord Hunsdon I writ two other Letters to both the Chief Justices to put them in mind of assisting my Lord Chancellor at the hearing And when my Lord Chancellor himself took some notice upon that occasion openly in the Chancery that the Commendams could not hold presently after I heard the Judges were gone about the Commendams which I thought at first had been only to adjourn the Court But I heard after that they proceeded to Argument In this their doing I conceive they must either except to the nature of the Commandment or to the credence thereof both which I assure my self Your Majesty will maintain For if they should stand upon the general ground Nulli negabimus nulli differemus Justitiam it receiveth two Answers The one that reasonable and mature advice may not be confounded with delay and that they can well alledge when it pleaseth them The other that there is a great difference between a Case meerly between Subject and Subject and where the Kings interest is in question directly or by consequence At for the Attorneys Place and Commission it is as proper for him to signifie the Kings Pleasure to the Judges as for the Secretary to signifie the same to the Privy Councel and so hath it ever been These things were a little strange if there came not so many of them together as the one maketh the other seem less strange But Your Majesty hath fair occasions to remedy all with small aid I say no more for the present I was a little plain with my Lord Coke in these matters and when his answer was That he knew all these things I said he could never profit too much in knowing himself and his duty 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 My Lord AMongst consolations it is not the least to represent a mans self like examples of calamity in others For Example gives a quicker impression then Arguments and besides they certifie us of that which the Scripture also tendereth for satisfaction That no new thing is happened unto us This they do the better by how much the Examples are liker in circumstances to our own case and more especially if they fall upon persons that are greater and worthier then our selves For as it savoureth of vanity to match our selves highly in our own conceit so on the other side it is a good sound conclusion That if our betters have sustained the like events we have the less cause to be grieved In this kind of consolation I have not been wanting to my self though as a Christian I have tasted through Gods great goodness of higher remedies Having therefore through the variety of my reading set before me many examples both of ancient and latter times my thoughts I confess have chiefly stayed upon three particulars as the most eminent and the most resembling all three persons that had held chief place of Authority in their Countreys all three ruined not by war or by any other disaster
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
much troubled for lack of certain advertisements from you whilst we hear from other parts reports so diversly Nevertheless I do think and affirm that there be some letters dispatched from you since the date aforesaid Those which you wrote last to the Queens Highness were well and amply written and so I wish you should do with the rest hereafter You may perceive by the Queens Majesties letter which I send at this time her sincere meaning which if it be well taken it is well bestowed and yet I think she should not finde the like courtesie and good meaning if she had need of the like from the which I pray God long keep her Her Majesty is well disposed to send some thither if she thought she might do good towards the peace against which I think plainly all Ambassadors but your self are vehemently disposed and so it appeareth by the fruits of their Councils and if you told the Queen mother so as of your own head as a thing you hear spread abroad in the world I think you might do well and speak truely for as for the Popes Ministers their profession is to prefer the State of their corrupted Church before the Weal of any Kingdom in the earth and whatsoever come of any thing they look onely to the continuance of their own ambitious ruling and as for other Ministers of Princes or for men of War it is a truth infallible the more they do impoverish that Monarchy of France the better they think their own estates and if the Queen-mother and other good Councellors of the King do not understand this you may say if you can in good terms Oculos Habent non vident Our matters here in England remain as hitherto they have long done by the goodness of God in great quietness This day I had letters from my Lord of Sussex of the first of this moneth from Antwerp who I perceive meaneth to pass over the Seas hitherwards this night so as I think he will be here by Munday what he bringeth I know not at all Bredrood is dead at Collen the Count of Berry eldest son to the Prince of Orange is in Zealand ready to be carryed into Spain it is doubted that the Counts of Egmond and Horne shall follow Yours assuredly W. Cecil March 6. 1567. To the right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR YOu have done very well in this doubtful time to write so often hither as you have done for that the Queens Majesty hath been in great expectation what to judge to be the truth in the middest of so many divers advertisements for howsoever we be from other places advertised we measure the same even by yours The last letters which you sent were dated the 30. of March which came hither yesterday being the 7. And considering the last accident hapned the 29. by a treachery to have supplanted the good meaning of the peace I am in opinion that the Prince and his should have a reasonable occasion offered unto them to mend their bargain in certain points tending to their own surety which surely if they do not better foresee me thinks their danger wil not be far off I pray you to continue your vigilancy in exploring of wherein you may do very well to procure that the R may be induced to withstand that enterprize as being a matter very prejudicial to the whole London 2 Paris c. Here hath been of good long time one Emmanuel Tremelius who heretofore in King Edwards time read the Hebrew Lecture in Cambridge and hath now been sent hither by the Count Palatine the Elector to inform the Queens Majesty of the proceedings of the said Elector in sending his son into France without intention to offend the King and the Realm or to assist the Prince of Conde in any thing but onely in the defence of the common cause of Religion who now upon the ending of these causes in France will depart hence and truely in my opinion the said Elector hath shewed himself to be a Prince of great honor in this Action The Prince of Orange hath also sent hither a special Gentleman to declare unto her Majesty his innocency in such causes as are objected against him touching any part of his duty towards the King of Spain And further also to shew good cause why he doth not return into the Low Countries to appear before the Duke of Alva whom he noteth to be a Judge not competent because he hath already notorionsly broken the Laws and ancient priviledges of the same Countries Out of Scotland I hear that the Hambletons continue in that Faction against the Regent and I believe they be nourished out of France by means of the Abbot of Arbroth who lately came thorough this way Of my Lady your wifes dangerous sickness out of the which she was newly escaping when your Son arrived here I doubt not but you are well advertised so as I need not to write any other thing but onely to rejoyce with you that she is so well amended You see by my writing that this Country thanked be God is as barren of news as that of France is plenteous Sir Ambrose Cave is departed this life and as yet it is not known who shall succeed him some name Mr Vice-Chamberlaine some Sir Henry Sydney some Sir Ralph Sadler some Sir Nic. Throckmorton her Majesty can make no ill choice of any of these And so trusting ere this letter can come to your hands I shall receive some of yours containing the resolution of this long lingring peace Yours assuredly W. Cecil April 8. 1568. SIR THis evening Harcourte arrived here with your letters which were long looked for and be now welcome for your satisfaction by this bearer you shall understand of the recovery of my Lady your Wife The Gentleman that lately came hither named Monsieur de Beamont one of the late disorder of France passeth into Scotland which is not much to be liked The book which you sent of the peace hath not printed in it certain Articles by way of request made to the King by the Commissaries on the Princes part what answers Marginal of the King I fear much the surety of the Prince and his Colleagues I hear by him that came last now of strange news at Diep of the King and Prince of Spain I pray you if there be any of moment send us word Here is an Ambassador arrived from Portugal for to brawle about Merchants and Maritime matters For haste I can write no more Yours assuredly W. Cecil April 14. 1568. Postscript I send you the beginning of the Parliament of Scotland when I have more you shall have more sent you To the right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR YOur last letters brought hither are of the 18. of April which came hither the 29. of the same moneth by which I looked to have heard where the
which you gave both to my Lord of Leicester and me of the secret cause of the Kings going to Metz seemeth to be of such importance as it is found very needful to provide with speed some remedy and so we here for our part will do our best as serve which you may consider considering the and therefore I pray you attempt all the means you can to advise all parts that shall take the harm I have no more to write to you meaning to expect within three or four days somewhat from you and then I will write by one of your Footmen and so I take my leave The French Ambassador hath been informed of the stay of our Ships at Rhoan and on Thursday last my Lords of the Council sent Mr. Hampton to him to move him that they might be released within 15. days or else we must do the like his answer was that he would do his best and he trusted they should be imputing the cause to our sufferance of the Prince of Conde his party on the Sea to make Portsale in our Havens which surely is not by us permitted and therefore for his satisfaction we did yesterday write letters to all Officers of Ports to prohibit utterly the vent of any Commodities brought in by such men and besides this the Ambassador hath required that you would be earnest with the King for the release of our Ships which we told him was not neglected by you and so I doubt not but you do your best therein This day the Ambassador sent his Secretary unto me to complain that the Currier of Callis carrying his Packet from hence should be searched and certain Packets of letters taken from him which I told him was true and the cause thereof such as we had more reason to complain thereof then he For true it is that the said Currier having but one small Packet of the French Ambassadors under pretence thereof had carryed with him two great Fardels of letters of the Merchants of the Low Countries who were here Arrested with their goods a matter also whereof the said Ambassador was forewarned and so is the matter to be proved by the letters of the said strangers which I at present have in my custody and so the Post was permitted freely to depart with all mańner of letters which he had of the said Ambassador And so I pray you to make answer therein as you shall see cause for so is the truth and no otherwise Yours assuredly W. Cecil Hampton-Court Jan. 30. 1568. To the Right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR OF late I have received three several letters from you the first of the 11. the second of the 13. and the last of the 15. of February although that of the 13 of February was written to be in January but I am sure to be mistaken By the first it appeared that you could not obtain of Mounsieur Morviller the names of any Ships or Merchants of that party which were stayed here although they pretended the stay of ours at Rhoan to be for that cause In the same letter you make mention of two dis-courtesies or as I may rather say injuries done unto you the one by taking Rogers your servant the other by imprisoning the Physician to my Lady your wife of which two matters you may see by the answer made to the French Ambassador I have made mention The second letter of the 13. which was brought to me by this bearer containeth matter of burthening you by the Queen Mother for solliciting the Queens Majesty to take some enterprize for Callis or Rochel wherein I think your wisdom sufficient to satisfie your self what to think for if you had so done as I know not that you have it were not unlike but they there would invent and set abroach for their advantage the like matter if the circumstances were theirs as they be ours And where you are charged with conveyance of the Rebels letters as they call them in your Packets I think the same and the former part are fed with one humor which is that though you do not in this sort yet they surely would so do in the like wherefore I wish you to be no ways troubled herewith but as the end of the verse is Contra audentior ito and yet to hold this rule to be a Minister of good amity betwixt the Princes usque ad aras that is as far forth as it be not against the honor of God and the safety of the Queen our Sovereign By your letter of the 15. which was written after you had closed up the Packet brought by this bearer you advertised me of the news which you had of Monsieur Gengez and of the joyning together of the Prince of Orange and the Duke Pipantine whereof saving your advertisements otherwise we hear nothing but rather the contrary being spred so by the French Ambassador here with affirmations of great credit In the latter end of your letter of the 13. it appeareth you had not then sent away the Queens Majesties letters to the King of Spain whereof I am very sorry for her majesty maketh an assured account that they had been in Spain by this time which I see you did not because the Spanish Ambassador was not at Court but at Paris for remedy whereof all speed possible would be used to send them by a special man to the Ambassador at Paris with some excuse to him of sending the same so late You shall understand that Monsieur D' Assenleville who came onely from the Duke of Alva hath been here of long time hovering to have had access to the Queen as an Ambassador which her Majesty would not allow of nor would so much prejudice her self in respect of the unkinde usage of the Duke of Alva and yet nevertheless allowed unto him as much conference as he would with her Council to whom although he did open as we think the sum of his negotiation yet he pretended to have somewhat more to her Majesty if he might have audience of her which otherwise he said he could open to no body As to that which he opened to the Council which was a request to have the money released and the Arrest set at liberty It was answered That the money belonged to Merchants and that he could not deny but added that it was meant to have been lent unto the Duke of Alva in the Low Countries and so as they termed it designed to the Kings use as to the restitution of the money and putting the Arrest at liberty she would neither deny nor grant the same to him considering he lacked authority to make sufficient contract thereupon but when the King himself should send one sufficiently authorized both to understand and to redress the injuries done by the Duke of Alva to her Majesties subjects it should well appear that the King should be reasonably satisfied on her Majesties behalf and amity and peace
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
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
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
prize which he carrieth to be a good Servant will kiss Your hands with joy for any work of Piety You shall do for me And as all commiserating persons specially such as find their hearts void of malice are apt to think that all men pity them I assure my self that the Lords of the Council who out of their Wisdom and Nobleness cannot but be sensible of humane Events will in this way which I go for the Relief of my Estate further and advance Your Majesties goodness towards me for there is as I conceive a kind of Fraternity between great men that are and those that have been being but the several Tenses of one Verb Nay I do further presume that both Houses of Parliament will love their Justice the better if it end not in my Ruine for I have been often told by many of my Lords as it were in excusing the severity of the Sentence that they knew they left me in good hands And Your Majesty knoweth well I have been all my life long acceptable to those Assemblies not by Flattery but by Moderation and by honest expressing of a desire to have all things go fairly and well But if it may please Your Majesty for Saints I shall give them Reverence but no Adoration my Address is to Your Majesty the Fountain of Goodness Your Majesty shall by the Grace of God not feel that in Gift which I shall extreamly feel in Help for my Desires are moderate and my Courses measured to a life orderly and reserved hoping still to do Your Majesty Honour in my way Only I most humbly beseech Your Majesty to give me leave to conclude with those words which Necessity speaketh Help me dear Sovereign Lord and Master and pity me so far as I that have born a Bagge be not now in my Age forced in effect to bear a Wallett nor I that desire to live to study may not be driven to study to live I most humbly crave pardon of a long Letter after a long silence God of Heaven ever bless preserve and prosper Your Majesty Your Majesties poor Ancient Servant and Beadsman Fr. St. Alban Certain Copies of Letters written by Sir William Cecil Knight Secretary of Estate to Queen Elizabeth to Sir Hen. Norris Knight Ambassador for the said Queen Resident in France SIR I Am constrained to use the hand of my servant in writing unto you because I find it somewhat grievous to use mine own at this present The Queens Majesty hath received your letters with very good contentation and alloweth your manner of beginning and proceeding as well I dare assure you as your self could devise which I do not in words onely speak but wish you to take them for as good a truth as I can inform The rare manner of your entertainment hath moved the Queens Majesty to Muze upon what course it should be being more then hath been used in like cases to her Ambassadors and such as besides your own report hath been by others very largely advertised and for that in such things guesses be but doubtful I pray you by your next advertise me what your self doth think of it and in the mean time I know you are not untaught to judge of the difference of fair words from good deeds as the sayingis Fortuna cum adblanditur captum advenit The Queens Majesty meaneth to require this Ambassador expresly to write unto the King there in how good part she taketh this manner of gratefull acceptation of you her servant there giving him to understand how good report you have made thereof and how much comforted you are by this manner to proceed in her service there I would have had her Majesty to have written her own letters to the King hereof But her Majesty made choice rather to speak with the Ambassador which she will do tomorrow who cometh hither and La Croq which cometh out of Scotland and departeth shortly from hence thither into France having been a good time in manner as an Ambassador with the Scotish Queen Monsieur Moret is I think on the way coming hither out of Scotland my Lord of Bedford who came long ago out of Scotland arrived here but of late and hath brought us good report from the Scotish Queen of her good disposition to keep peace and amity with the Queens Majesty Of late Shane Oneal hath made means to the Lord Deputy of Ireland to be received into Grace pretending that he hath not meant any manner of unlawfulness unto the Queen by which is gathered that he groweth weary of his lewdness and yet I think he is not otherwise to be reformed then by sharp prosecution which is intended to be followed no whit the less for any his fair writings as reason is Of the troubles of the Low Countries I think you be as well advertised there as we can be here and of the likelihood of the Kings not coming into the Low Countries I cannot tell whether you are yet acquainted with Captain Cockburne whose humor when you know as I think Barnaby can shew you I doubt not but you shall have of his hand no lack of intelligence which you must credit as you shall see cause by proof of the event he writeth almost weekly to me and looketh for as many answers which I cannot have leisure to make him but I pray let him understand that I accept his writing in very good part The manner of the dealing with them there for the particular causes contained in your instructions is very well to be liked and I wish the success of the answers to prove as good as the beginning hath appearance and especially for the relief of the poor Prisoners in the Gallies whose stay I fear will grow indirectly by Monsieur de Foix to get thereby the acquital of Lestrille whom surely he is bound in honor to see restored Since I had written thus much by my servants hand and meant yester-night to have ended the letter I thought good to stay untill this present that I knew by the French Ambassador what De la Crocq should do here and amongst other things the Queens Majesty hath very earnestly expressed to the Ambassador her good liking and estimation of your Honorable entertainment whereof you did advertise her Majesty and contrary to her former determination did tell La Crocq that he should carry her Majesties letters to the French King of special thanks for the same besides words of visitation nothing passed this day otherwise and therefore meaning not to keep your servant any longer I end with my very hearty commendations to your self and my Lady and wish as well to you and all yours as to my self Yours assuredly W. Cecil Feb. 10. 1566. To the Right Honorable Sir Hen. Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador in France SIR THe Queens Majesty continueth her good liking of your manner of negotiation and your advertisements to her Majesty which she wisheth you to continue She also alloweth your discretion
principal devisers thereof and if this be not true spir at Gilbert Bafour There were also words added which I am loth to report that touched the Queen of Scots which I hold best to be supprest Further such persons anointed are not to be thought ill of without manifest proof The next day following a second Proclamation was made repeating the former Bill willing the party to subscribe his name and he should be pardoned and have the money according to the first Proclamation The next day being the nineteenth of February a second Bill was set up in the former place offering to compear and avow the matter so as the money might be put into indifferent hands and that Sir Francis Bastine Joseph and Moses Mishe be taken and then he the exhibitor of the Bill would avow the whole matter and declare every mans act Thus far things passed till that day and since that I hear that much unquietness is like to grow about that matter and the common speech toucheth the Earles Bothwell and Huntly who remain with the Queen but how true the accusations are I will not take upon me to affirm the one or the other neither would I have you to utter any of these things to make condemnation of any of them but as reports not doubting but shortly God will cause the truth to be revealed There do adhere together with the Earl of Lenox the Earles of Argile Morton Athell Morrey Catness and Glencarne who mean to be at Edenburgh very shortly as they pretend to search out the malefactors Of late you wrote unto me of one King an Euglishman who doth misuse himself very much of whom if you would write unto me somewhat more particularly for the proof his Traiterous speeches whereby there might be some good ground made how to have him demanded you shall hear more thereof and so shall percase by the next though I do not hear from you and so fare you heartily well Yours assuredly W. Cecil Westm. 5. March 1566. Postscript Because I have not presently leisure to write to Mr. Man Ambassador in Spain I pray you to let him understand of such advertisments as I send you and such other things as you shall think meet And to convey the letters by the Spanish Ambassadors means Resident there in that Court To the Right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR I wrote of late to you that Sir Thomas Smith should come shortly thither but I think he shall not be there now so speedily as was meant for he shall first secretly pass over to Callis to be there the 3. April to demand the Town not that we think the Governour will deliver it But to avoid all Cavillation which they might invent for by Law it must be demanded at the very place and being not delivered the sum of five hundred thousand pounds is forfeited Master Winter shall pass secretly with him to take possession thereof if they shall deceive our expectation but not past three of the Council knoweth of Winters going The common fame in Scotland continueth upon the Earl Bothwell to be the principal Murtherer of the King and the Queens name is not well spoken of God amend all that is amiss We heard before your writing of the French attempt for the Prince We have no news but all well here the matters of Flanders go very hard for the Protestants and if God do not provide for their safety I look for their ruine I heard this day that Danvile should be slain fare you well Yours assuredly W. Cecil Westm. 21. March 1566. To the Right Honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR BY the Queens Majesties letters and by this bearer you shall understand how earnestly her Majesty is inclined to help the Count Rocandolse and since the writing of her Majesties letters she hath commanded me that you should make it a principal part of your request to the King and the Queen mother that considering the Count is a stranger born and is of the Order of France that his cause might be heard and ordered by the King and the others of the same order and to that end you shall prosecute your request that the whole cause may be removed from the Court of Parliament at Paris wherein her Majesty would have you by all good means to persist as in a request that of it self is honorable and sometimes as she thinketh usual At the least such as if any the like person being a stranger in her Realm and being honored with the Order of the Garter if he would require to have his causes wherein his life or honor were touched to be heard by her Majesty and her Knights of her Order he should not be denyed nor should be by any other Judges molested Thus I report to you her Majesties good pleasure and thereto do add my poor private request to beseech you not to be weary in the prosecution of this suit Yours assuredly W. Cecil Westm. 9. March 1567. To the Right Honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight Her Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR YEsterday Mr. Smiths Son arrived with some Letters from you and him containing your troublesome negotiation whereof we hear thought very long He saith he was constrained to tarry six days at Hull and that his Father would be here this night you shall hereafter hear of some ill news out of Ireland and though it be not of great moment thanks be to God yet by report of ill friends they wil be amplified Indeed the 21. of April a Fire happened in a little Fort upon the Sea side at a place called the Dirrye which Mr. Randolphe first took in such sort as the houses being all covered with Straw the soldiers were forced to abandon it being two hundred and with their Captain Mr. Sentlo came by Sea to Knockvergus a Castle of the Queens but for all this it is meant to take again the place or a better and to prosecute the Rebel who is in declination The Queen of Scots I think will be wooed to marry the Earl Bothwell the principal of the Nobility are against it and are at Sterling with the Prince Fare ye well and as I wrot by Mr. Shute so assure your self of me as you mean your self to me Yours assuredly W. Cecil May 12. 1567. To the Right Honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight her Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR BY your last Letter of I understand of the intelligence was given unto you of preparation of eight Ships to be set out to the Seas which seemeth very strange and therefore the Ambassador here who could not get Audience of the Queens Majesty although he often demanded it since Mr. Smiths return was sent for to come to the Council and was roundly charged with certain depredations committed upon English Merchants in the West and also with this new preparation and therewith warned to advertise his Master
some speeches concerning the Cardinal Castillon whom they finde very well and courteously used here by the Queens Majesties order but they have not hitherto spoken a word of him At their first being here on Tuesday they told the Queens Majesty that they had newly received letters out of France by which they were given to understand that Martignes pursued Dandelot and overthrew all his force and made him to flye which news was onely heard and not credited insomuch as the next day following we heard credibly that Martignes had indeed pursued certain followers of Dandelot at the passage of Leyer which Dandelot had before safely passed with all his Forces Footmen and Horsemen and perceiving that Martignes had used some cruelty upon a small number of simple people that followed Dandelot he returned over the water with his Horsemen and avenged the former injury upon Martignes and from thence went to Rhemes where finding certain of the Presidents or Judges which had given order to destroy all that could be found of the Religion he executed their own Law upon some of them and hanged some of the Judges which news being brought unto us the day after he had given us the other for a farewell he was this day welcomed with these the rather because they touched his own Town of Reynes and I wish them to be true to cool their heating of lying The Cardinal Castillons wife is come over whom I think the Queen means to use very well The Duke of Chastilherault comes hither to morrow to the Queens Majesty but I think he shall not be permitted to go to the Queen of Scots very hastily If by the next letters it shall not appear that you can have Rowland delivered and your letters restored I perceive the Queens Majesty will be well content that some one of theirs shall be stayed in the like manner And so I end Yours assuredly W. Cecil Windsor 1. Oct. 1568. Postscript I pray send me word whether you thought diot to be suspected of the matter concerning the or no. By the next which shall be by my Lady your wise I will change my Cipher To the right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR THis present being the 18. your servant came with your letters of the 12. which I longed much for not having of a great time heard from you The Prince of Orange passing the and his proceeding cannot be unknown to you and therefore I leave to write thereof The French Ambassador promised once to write favorably in this poor mans behalf but this morning he sent his Nephew to me declaring that considering he perceived much favor shewed by us to the King his Masters Rebels he could not without some misliking write in favor of our Countrimen I required of him whom in particular he could name as Rebels that had favor of us he would name none I told him we accepted the Cardinal Chastillon as a Nobleman and a good faithful subject and Councellor to the King for that upon pride and inveterate malice done to him by the Cardinal of Lorrein he was by him and his so persecuted as he could not live in France without danger of his life and I told him we had the more cause to favor him and all such because the said Cardinal Lorrein was well known to be an open enemy to the Queens Majesty our Sovereign So he departed with no small misliking and I well contented to utter some round speeches The Queens Majesty is resolved to set out certain of our Ships to Britain and Guyen to preserve our Burdeaux Fleets from depredations whereupon I think there will be some misliking uttered there to you But considering the frequent Piracies already committed and the menacing of the Pyrats to our Burdeaux Fleet we can do no other and so you may answer I think this Ambassador will advertise many devices of suspitions of our aiding of the Prince with Money Shot and Powder but the King shall never finde her Majesty to do any thing therein to be reprehended If in case of Merchandize for Salt or Wine the Princes Ministers can borrow things of our Merchants I know not how to remedy secret bargains where Merchandize is in use The Treaty of York shall cease for a while for that some of the Commissioners on either side are sent for hither to confer with her Majesty The Queen of Scots case appeareth not defensible by her own In so much as they intend another course to make the Duke of Chastilherault their head and provide for themselves And so having no more at this present I end with my hearty thanks for your kind accepting of my friendly good will that I bear you Yours assuredly W. Cecil Westm. 28. Oct. 1568. To the right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR IT seemeth long since I heard from you trusting that my Lady and your Son came safely to you although their passage was very hard at Rye We hear many divers news of the matters in France But I give no credit untill you shall play the Bishop and confirm them Our Commissioners at York have heard the Queen of Scots complaint and the answer of the other part wherein they have forborn to charge the Queen with the murther upon some reasonable respects not knowing what end they will make if they should charge and prove her guilty hereupon the Queens Majesty hath sent for some on either part Sir Ra Sadler came hither yesterday and the Bishop of Ross and the Lord Harris for the Scotish Queen came this day and so shall Liddington and Mackgill for the Prince It is mentioned to have a composition whereto the Scotish Queen as they say is very willing Dover But A and B for the more part are earnestly disposed and if as it is thought very probable then so to be 7 for other wise quietness will never long continue The Queens Majesty finding her subjects continually spoiled by the French upon the Seas is forced to send Mr. Winter to the Seas with 4. Ships of her Majesties and two Barks I know how many tales will be spred of his going but truly you may avow that his going is wholly to preserve our Fleet at Burdeaux from Piracy and therefore he is appointed to go towards Burdeaux with A hath agreed and for the son to have I hear say that some of our Merchants in London have bargained with certain Merchants of Rochell and thereabout to buy a quantity of Salt wherewith it is likely that the King there when he shall hear thereof will be very suspicious but in such cases Merchants must be permitted to make their bargains and so you shall have reason to maintain their doings The Cardinal Chastillion sheweth himself so quiet a person and in all his languages so faithful a servant to the King his Master as he meriteth great commendations he medleth in nothing here but wholly occupyed
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
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
contrary Principles to bring forth one Doctrine must be some Miracle He of the Romish Religion and if he be a man must needs have that manlike property to desire that all men be of his mind You the Erector and Defender of the contrary and the only Sun that dazleth their eyes He French and desiring to make France great Your Majesty English and desiring nothing less then that France should grow great He both by his own fancy and his youthful Governours embracing all ambitious hopes having Alexanders Image in his head but perhaps evil painted Your Majesty with excellent vertue taught what you should hope and by no less wisdom what you may hope with a Council renowned over all Christendome for their well tempered minds having set the utmost of their Ambition in your Favour and the study of their Souls in your Safety Fear hath as little shew of outward appearance as Reason to match you together for in this estate he is in whom should he fear 〈◊〉 Brother Alas his Brother is afraid since the King of Navar is to step into his place Neither can his Brother be the safer by his Fall but he may be the greater by his Brothers whereto whether you will be an Accessary you are to determine The King of Spain certainly cannot make War upon him but it must be upon all the Crown of France which is no likelihood he will do Well may Mounsieur as he hath done seek to enlarge the bounds of France upon his State which likewise whether it be safe for you to be a Countenance to any other way may be seen So that if neither desire nor fear be such in him as are to bind any Publick fastness it may be said That the only Fortress of this your Marriage is of his private Affection a thing too incident to the person laying it up in such knots The other Objection of contempt in the Subjects I assure your Majesty if I had not heard it proceed out of your Mouth which of all other I do most dearly reverence it would as soon considering the perfections both of body and mind have set all mens eyes by the height of your estate have come to the possibility of my Imagination if one should have told me on the contrary side That the greatest Princes of the World should envy the State of some poor deformed Pilgrim What is there either withinyou or without you that can possibly fall into the danger of contempt to whom fortunes are tryed by so long discent of your Royal Ancestors But our minds rejoyce with the experience of your inward Vertues and our eyes are delighted with the sight of you But because your own eyes cannot see your self neither can there be in the World any example fit to blaze you by I beseech you vouchsafe to weigh the grounds thereof The Natural causes are lengths of Government and uncertainty of Succession The Effects as you term them appear by cherishing some abominable speeches which some hellish minds have uttered The longer a good Prince Raigneth it is certain the more he is esteemed there is no man ever was weary of well being And good increased to good maketh the same good both greater and stronger for it useth men to know no other cares when either men are born in the time and so never saw other or have spent much part of their flourishing time and so have no joy to seek other in evil Princes abuse growing upon abuse according to the nature of evil with the increase of time ruines it self But in so rare a Government where neighbours fires give us light to see our quietness where nothing wants that true Administration of Justice brings forth certainly the length of time rather breeds a mind to think there is no other life but in it then that there is any tediousness in so fruitful a Government Examples of good Princes do ever confirm this who the longer they lived the deeper still they sunk into their Subjects hearts Neither will I trouble you with examples being so many and manifest Look into your own estate how willingly they grant and how dutifully they pay such subsidies as you demand of them How they are no less troublesome to your Majesty in certain requests than they were in the beginning of your Reign And your Majesty shall find you have a people more then ever devoted to you As for the uncertainty of succession although for mine own part I know well I have cast the utmost Anchor of my hope yet for Englands sake I would not say any thing against such determination but that uncertain good should bring contempt to a certain good I think it is beyond all reach of reason nay because if there were no other cause as there are infinite common reason and profit would teach us to hold that Jewel dear the loss of which would bring us to we know not what which likewise is to be said of your Majesties Speech of the rising Sun a Speech first used by Scilla to Pompey in Rome as then a popular City where indeed men were to rise or fall according to the Flourish and breath of a many headed confusion But in so Lineal a Monarchy whereever the infants suck the love of their rightful Prince who would leave the Beams of so fair a Sun for the dreadful expectation of a divided Company of Stars Vertue and Justice are the only bonds of peoples love and as for that point Many Princes have lost their Crowns whose own children were manifest Successors and some that had their own children used as Instruments of their ruine not that I deny the bliss of children but only to shew Religion and equity to be of themselves sufficient stayes Neither is the love was born in the Queen your Sisters daves any contradiction hereunto for she was the Oppressor of that Religion which lived in many mens hearts and whereof you were known to be the Favourer by her loss was the most excellent Prince in the World to succeed by your loss all blindness light upon him that sees not our misery Lastly and most properly to this purpose she had made an odious Marriage with a stranger which is now in question whether your Majesty should do or no so that if your Subjects do at this time look for any after-chance it is but as the Pilot doth to the Ship-boat if his Ship should perish drive n by extremity to the one but as long as he can with his life tendring the other And this I say not only for the lively parts that be in you but even for their own sakes since they must needs see what Tempests threaten them The last proof of this contempt should be the venemous matter certain men impostumed with wickednesse should utter against you Certainly not to be evil spoken of neither Christs holiness nor Caesars might could ever prevent or warrant There being for that no other rule then so to do as that they may not
justly say evil of you which whether your Majesty have not done I leave it in you to the sincereness of your own Conscience and wisdom of your judgment in the world to your most manifest fruits and fame through Europe Augustus was told that men spake of him much hurt it is no matter said he so long as they cannot do much hurt And lastly Charles 5th to one that told him Le Holladour parlent mal mais Ilz. patient bien answered Le. I might make a Scholar-like reckoning of many such Examples It sufficeth that these great Princes knew well enough upon what wayes they flew and cared little for the barking of a few Currs And truly in the behalf of your subjects I durst with my blood answer it That there was never Monarch held in more precious reckoning of her people and before God how can it be otherwise For mine own part when I hear some lost wretch hath defiled such a name with his mouth I consider the right name of Blasphemy whose unbridled soul doth delight to deprave that which is accounted generally most high and holy No no most excellent Lady do not raze out the impression you have made in such a multitude of hearts and let not the scum of such vile minds bear any witness against your subjects devotions Which to proceed one point further if it were otherwise could little be helped but rather nourished and in effect begun by this The only means of avoiding contempt are Love and Fear Love as you have by divers means sent into the depth of their sousl so if any thing can stain so true a form it must be the trimming your self not in your own likeness but in new colours unto them Their fear by him cannot be increased without appearance of French Forces the manifest death of your estate but well may it against him bear that face which as the Tragick Seneca saith Metus in Authorem redit as because both in will and power he is like enough to do harm Since then it is dangerous for your State as well because by inward weakness principally caused by division it is fit to receive harm Since to your person it can no way be comfortable you not desiring marriage and neither to person nor state he is to bring any more good than any body but more evil he may since the causes that should drive you to this are either fears of that which cannot happen or by this means cannot be prevented I do with most humble heart say unto your Majesty having assayed this dangerous help for your standing alone you must take it for a singular Honour God hath done you to be indeed the only Protector of his Church and yet in worldly Respects your Kingdom very sufficient so to do if you make that Religion upon which you stand to carry the only strength and have aboard those that still maintain the same course who aslongas they may be kept from utter falling your Majesty is sure enough from your mightiest Enemies As for this man as long as he is but Mounsieur in Might and a Papist in Profession he neither can nor will greatly shield you And if he grow to be King his defence will be like Ajax shield which rather weighed them down than defended those that bare it Against Contempt if there be any which I will never believe let your excellent vertues of Piety Justice and Liberality daily if it be possible more and more shine let such particular actions be found out which be easie as I think to be done by which you may gratifie all the hearts of your people Let those in whom you find Trust and to whom you have committed Trust in your weighty Affairs be held up in the eyes of your Subjects Lastly doing as you do you shall be as you be the Example of Princes the Ornament of this Age the Comfort of the Afflicted the Delight of your People and the most excellent Fruit of your Progenitors and the perfect Mirror of your Posterity My Lord Sanquir's Case IN this cause of the life and death the Juries part is in effect discharged for after a frank and formal Confession their labour is at an end so that what hath been said by Mr. Attorney or shall be said by my self is rather convenient than necessary My Lord Sanquire your fault is great it cannot be extenuated and it cannot be aggravated and if it needed you have made so full an Anatomy of it out of your own feeling as it cannot be matched by my self or any man else out of Conceit So as that part of aggravation I leave Nay more this Christian and penitent course of yours draws me thus far that I will agree in some sort to extenuate it for certainly as even in extream evils there are degrees so this particular of your offence is such as though it be soul spilling of blood yet there are more soul for if you had sought to take a way a mans life for his Vineyard as Achab did or for envie as Cain did or to possesse his bed as David did surely the murder had been more odious Your temptation was revenge which the more natural it was to man the more have Laws both divine and humane sought to repress it Mihi vindicta But in one thing you and I shall never agree That generous spirits you say are hard to forgive no contrariwise generous and magnanimous minds are readiest to forgive and it is a weakness and impotency of mind to be unable to forgive Corpora magnanimo satis est prostrasse Leoni But howsoever Murther may arise from several motives less or more odious yet the Law both of God and man involves them in one degree and therefore you may read that in Joabs case which was a Murther upon revenge and matcheth with our case he for a dear brother and you for a dear part of your own body yet there was never a severe charge given that it should not be unpunished And certainly the circumstance of time is heavy upon you it is now five years since this unfortunate man Turner be it upon accident or be it upon despight gave the provocation which was the seed of your malice all passions are asswaged with time love hatred grief all fire it self burns out with time if no new fuel be put to it Therefore for you to have been in the gall of bitterness so long and to have been in restless Chase of this blood so many years is a strange example and I must tell you plainly that I conceive you have suckt those affections of dwelling in malice rather out of Italy and Outlandish manners where you have conversed than out of any part of this Island England or Scotland But that which is fittest for me to spend time in the matter being confessed is to set forth and magnifie to the hearers the Justice of this day first of God and then of the King My Lord you have friends and
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