purpose of whom to make an example oâ— to use as her Tennis-Ball thereby to shew what she could do for she tost him up of nothing and to and fro to greatnesse and from thence down to little more then to that wherein she found him a bare Gentleman not that he was lesse for he was well descended and of good allyance but poore in his beginnings and for my Lord of Oxfords jest of him the Iack and an upstart we all know it savours more of emulation and his humor then of truth and it is a certain note of the times that the Queen in her choice never took into her favour a meer new man or a Mechanick as Commes observes of Lewis the eleventh of 〈◊〉 who did serve himself with persons of unknown Parents such as was Olivâ—r the Barber whom he created Earl of Dâ—â—â—yes and made him â—x secretis consilus and alone in his favour familiarity his approaches to the Vniversity and Innes of Court were the grounds of his improvement but they were rather excursions then sieges or settings down for he stayed not long in a place and being the youngest brother and the house diminished in Patrimony he foresaw his own destiny that he was first to roule through want and disabilâ—ty to subsist otherwayes before he could come to a repose and as the stone doth by long lying gather mosse he first exposed himself to the Land service of Ireland a 〈◊〉 which then did not yeild him food and rayment for it was ever very poore nor had he patience to stay there though shortly after he came thither again under the command of my Lord Grey but with his own Colours flying in the field having in the interim cast a new chance both in the Low-Countries and in a voyage to Sea and if ever man drew vertue out of necessity it was he therewith was he the great example of industry and though he might then have taken that of the Merchant to himself 〈◊〉 marâ— pâ—r terras currâ—t meâ—câ—tor ad Indos He might also have said and truely with the Phylosopher Omnia mea mecum porto For it was a long time before he could brag of more then he carried at his back and when he got on the winning side it was his commendation that he took pains for it and underwent many various adventures for his after perfection and before he came into the publike note of the world and it may appear how he came up per ardua Per varios casus per tâ—◠〈◊〉 reâ—unt not pulled up by chance or by any gentle admittance of Fortune I will briefly describe his native parts and those of his own acquiring which were the hopes of his rising He had in the outward man a good presence in a handsome and well compacted person a strong naturall wit and a better judgement with a bold and plausable tongue whereby he could set out his parts to the best advantage and to these he had the aâ—juncts of some generall learning which by diligence he enforced to a great augmentation and perfection for he was an indefatigable Reader whether by Sea or Land and none of the least observers both of men and the times and I am confident that among the second causes of his grouth that variance between him and my Lord Grey in his descent into â—â—lanâ— was a principall for it drew them both over to the Councell Table there to plead their cause where what advantage he had in the cause I know not but he had much the better in the telling of his tale and so much that the Queen and the Lords took no slight mark of the man and his parts for from thence he came to be known and to have a cesse to the Queen and the Lords and then we are not to doubt how such a man would comply and learn the way of progression and whether or no my Lord of Leicester had then cast in a good for him to the Queen which would have done no harme I do not determine but true it is he had gotten the Queens ear at a trice and she began to be taken with his elocution and loved to hear his reasons to her demands and the truth is she took him for a kinde of Oracle which nettled them all yea those that he relyed on began to take this his suddain favour for an Allarum and to be sensible of their own supplantation and to project his which made him shortly after sing Fortune my soe c. So that finding his favour declining and falling into a recesse he undertook a new perigrination to leave that Terâ—a iâ—firma of the Court for that of the Warres and by declining himself and by absence to expell his and the passion of his enemies which in Court was a strange device of recovery but that he knew there was some ill office done him that he durst not attempt to minde any other wayes then by going aside thereby to teach envy a new way of forgetfulnesse and not so much as to think of him howsoever he had it alwayes in minde never to forget himself and his device took so well that at his return he came in as Rammes do by going backward with the greater strength and so continued to her last great in her grace and Captain of the Guard where I must leave him but with this observation that though he gained much at the Court yet he took it not out of the Exchequer or meerly out of the Queens purse but by his wit and the help of the Prerogative for the Queen was never profuse in the delivering out of her treasure but payed many and most of her servants part in money and the rest with grace which as the case stood was taken for good payment leaving the arreare of recompence due to their merit to her great Successor who payed them all with advantage Grevill SIR Faulk Grevill since Lord Brook had no mean place in her favour neither did he hold it for any short tearm for if I be not deceived he had the longest lease and the smoothest time without rub of any of her Favorits he came to the Court in his youth and prime or that is the time or never he vvas a brave Gentleman and honourably descended from Willoughby Lord Brook and Admirall to Henry the 7. neither illiterate for he vvas as he vvould often professe a friend to Sir Philip Sydâ—ey and there are of his now extant some fragments of his poem and of those times which do interest him in the Muses and which shews the Queens election had ever a noble conduct and it motions more of vertue and judgement then of fancy I finde that he neither sought for or obtained any great place or preferment in Court during all the time of his attendance neither did he need it for he came thither backt with a plentifull Fortune which as himself was wont to say was the better held together by a single life wherein he lived
beyond my apprehension I must again professe that having read many of his Letters for they are commonly sent to my Lord of Leicester and Burleigh out of France containing many fine passages and secrets yet if I might have been beholding to his Cyphers whereof they are full they would have told pretty tales of the times but I must now close up and rank him amongst the Togati yet chief of those that layed the foundation of the French and Dutch Warres which was another peece of his finenesse and of the times with one observation more that he was one of the great allayes of the Austerian embracements for both himself and Stafford that preceded him might well have been compared to the fiend in the Gospel that sowed his tares in the night so did they their feeds of division in the dark and it is a likely report that they father on him at his return that the Queen said unto him with some sensibility of the Sâ—anish designes on France Madam I beseech you be content not to fear the Spaniard hath a great appetite and an excellent digestion but I have fitted him with a Bone for this twenty yeers that your Majesty shall have no cause to doubt him provided that if the fire chance to slack which I have kindled you will be ruled be me and now and then cast in some English fewell which will revive the flame Willoughby MY Lord Willoughby was one of the Queens first sword men he was of the ancient extract of the Bartâ—â—s but more ennobled by his Mother who was Dutches of Suffolk He was a great Master of the Art Military and was sent Generall into France and commanded the second of five Armies that the Queen sent thither in ayd of the French I have heard it spoken that had he not slighted the Court but applyed himself to the Queen he might have enjoyed a plentifull portion of her grace and it was his saying and it did him no good that he was none of the Râ—plitia intimating that he could not creep on the ground and that the Court was not his Element for indeed as he was a great Souldier so was he of a sutable magnanimity and could not brook the obsequiousnesse and aâ—â—iduity of the Court and as he then was somewhat descending from youth happily he had an animam reâ—crendi and to make a safe retreat Sir Nicholas Bacon I Come to another of the Togati Sir Nicholas Bacon an arch peice of Wit and Wisedome he was a Gentleman and a man of Law and of great knowledge therein whereby together with his other parts of learning and dexterity he was promoted to be Keeper of the great Seal and being of Kin to the Treasurer Burleigh had also the help of his hand to bring him into the Queens favour for he was abundantly factious which took much with the Queen when it was suited with the season as he was well able to judge of his times he had a very quaint saying and he used it often to good purpose that he loved the jest well but not the losse of his friend he would say and that though he knew it Vansquisque siâ—â— fortune â—ober was a true and good principle yet the most in number were those that marred themselves but I will never forgive that man that looseth himself to be rid of his jest He was Father to that refined wit which since hath acted a disasterous part on the publike stage and of late sate in his Fathers room as Lord Chancellor those that lived in his age and from whence I have taken this little modell of him gives him a lively Character and they decipher him for another Soloâ— and the Synon of those times such a one as Aedipus was in dissolving of riddles doubtlesse he was as able an instrument and it was his commendation that his-head was the Mawle for it was a great one and therein he kept the Wedge that entred the knotty peeces that came to the Table and now I must again fall back to smooth and plain away to the rest that is behinde but not from the purpose There were about these times two Rivals in the Queens favour old Sir Francis Knowles Controuller of the House and Sir Henry Norris whom she called up at a Parliament to sit with the Peers in the higher House as Lord Norris of Râ—cott who had married the Daughter and Heir of the old Lord Williams of Tain a Noble person and to whom in the Queens adversity she had been committed to safe custody and from him had received more then ordinary observances Now such was the goodnesse of the Queens nature that she neither forgot the good turns received from the Lord Williams neither was she unmindefull of this Lord Norris whose Father in her Fathers time and in the businesse of her mother dyed in a noble cause and in the jnstification of her innocency Lord Norris MY Lord Norris had by this Lady an ample issue which the Queen highly respected for he had six sonnes and all Martiall brave men the first was William his eldest and Father to the late Earl of Bark-shire Sir Iohn Vulgarly called Generall Norris Sir Edward Sir Thomas Sir Henry and Maximilian men of an haughty courage and of great experience in the conduct of Millitary affairs and to speak in the Character of their merit they were such persons of such renown and worth as future times must out of duty owe them the debt of an honourable memory Knowles SIR Francis Knowles was somewhat of the Queens affinity and had likewise no incompetent issue for he had also William his Eldest and since Earl of Banbury Sir Thomas Sir Robert and Sir Francis if I be not a little mistaken in their names and Marshalling and there was also the Lady Lettice a Sister of these who was first Countesse of Essex and after of Leicester and these were also brave men in their times and places but they were of the Court and Carpet not led by the genious of the Camp Between these two Families there was as it falleth out amongst great Ones and Competitors for favour no great correspondency and there were some Seeds either of emulation or distrust cast between them which had they not been disjoyned in the residence of of their persons as it was the Fortune of their employments the one side attending the Court the other the Pavillion Surely they would have broken out into some kinde of hostility or at least they would have wrastled one in the other like Trees incircled with joy for there was a time when both these Fraternities being met at Court there passed a challenge between them at certain exercises the Queen and the old men being Spectators which ended in a flat quarrell amongst them all and I am perswaded though I ought not to judge that there were some reliques of this fewd that were long after the causes of the one Families almost utter extirpation and of the others improsperity
somevvhat after vve shall finde the horse and foot Troopes vvere for three or four yeers together much about 20000 Which besides the Navall charge vvhich vvas a dependant of the same Warre in that the Queen vvas then forced to keep in continuall pay a strong Fleet at Sea to attend the Spanish Coasts and Ports both to allarum the Spaniard and to interpret his Forces designed for the Irish assistance so that the charge of that Warre alone did cost the Queen 300000. pâ—â—annum at least vvhich vvas not the moytie of her other disbursements an expence vvhich vvithout the publique aide the State and the Royall reccipts could not have much longer endured vvhich out of her ovvn frequent Letters and complaints to the Deputy Mountioy for casheering part of that List as soon as he could may be collected for the Queen vvas then driven into a strait We are naturally proan to applaud the times behinde us and to villifie the present for the current of her fame carries it to this day hovv Royalâ—y and victoriously she lived and dyed vvithout the grievance and grudge of the people yet that truth may appear vvithout retraction from the honour of so great a Princesse It is manifest she left more debts unpayed taken upon the credit of her Privy-Seals then her Progenitors did or could have taken up that vvay in a hundred yeers before her vvhich vvas an inforced peece of State to lay the burthen on that horse that vvas best able to bear it at the dead lift vvhen neither her receipts could yeild her relief at the pinch nor the urgency of her affairs endure the delayes of Parliamentary assistance and for such aides it is likevvise apparent that she received more and vvith the love of the people then any tvvo of her predecessors that took most which was a Fortune strained out of the Subject through the plause ability of her Comportment and as I would say without offence the prodigall distribution of her Graces to all sorts of Subjects for I beleeve no Prince living that was so tender of honour and so exactly stood for the preservation of soveraignty that was so great a Courtier of her people yea of the Commons and that stoopt and descended lower in presenting her person to the publike view as she past in her progresses and perambulations and in the ejaculation of her prayers on her people and truly though much may be given in praise of her magnanimity and there with comply with her Parliaments and for all that come off at last with honour and profit yet must we ascribe some part of the commendation to the wisedomes of the times and the choice of Parliament men for I finde not that they were at any time given to any violent or pertinatious dispute elections being made of grave and discreet persons not factious and ambitious of fame such as came not to the house with a malevolent spirit of contention but with a preparation to consult on the publike good rather to comply then contest with her Majesty neither do I finde that the house was at any time weakned and pestered with the admission of too many young heads as it hath been of later times which remembers me of Recorder Martins speech about the tenth of our late Soveraign Lord King Iames when there were accounts taken of forty Gentlemen not above twenty and some not exceeding sixteen which moved him to say that it was the ancient custome for old men to make Laws for young ones but that then he saw the case altered and that there were children elected unto the great Councell of the Kingdome which came to invade and invert nature and to inact Laws to govern their Fathers sure we are the house alwayes took the common cause into their consideration and they saw the Queen had just occasion and need enough to use their assistance neither do I remember that the house did ever Capitulate or preferre their private to the publike c. The Queens necessities but waited their times and in the first place gave their supply and according to the exigency of her affairs yet failed not at last to obtain what they desired so that the Queen and her Parliaments had ever the good Fortune to depart in love and on reciprocall tearms which are considerations which have not been so exactly observed in our last assemblies as they might and I would to God they had been for considering the great debt lest on the King and in what incumbrances the house it self had then drawn him his Majesty was not well used though I lay not the blame on the whole suffrage of the house where he had many good friends for I dare avouch had the house been freed of half a dozen of populer and discontented persons such as with the fellow that burnt the Temple at Ephesus would be talked of though but for doing of mischief I am confident the King had obtained that which in reason and at his first accession he ought to have received freely and without any condition But pardon the digression which is here remembred not in the way of aggravation but in true zeal to the publike good and presented in caveat to future times for I am not ignorant how the spirit of the Kingdome now moves to make his Majesty amends on any occasion and how desirous the Subject is to expiate that offence at any rate may it please his Majesty gratiously to make tryall of his Subjects affection and at what price they now value his goodnesse and magnanimity But to our purpose the Queen was not to learn that as the strength of her Kingdome consisted in the multitude of her Subjects for the security of her person rested in the love and fidelity of her people which she politiquely affected as it hath been thought somewhat beneath the hight of her spirit and naturall magnanimity Moreover it will be a true note of her providence that she would alwayes listen to her profit for she would not refuse the informations of mean persons with purposed improvement and had learned the Phylosophy of Hoc agâ—re to look into her own work of the which there is a notable example of one Carwarden an under Officer of the custome house who observing his time presented her with a paper shewing how she was abused in the under renting of her customes and therewithall humbly desired her Majesty to conceal him for that it did concern two or three of her great Councellors whom customer Smith had bribed with 200. a man so to loose the Queen 2000. per annum which being made known to the Lords they gave strickt order that Carwarden should not have accesse to the back stairs till at last her Majesty smelling the craft and missing Carwarden she sent for him back and encouraged him to stand to his information which the poor man did so handsomely that within the space of ten yeers he brought Smith to double his rent or to leave the customes to new
Farmers so that we may take this also into observation that there were of the Queens Councell that were not in the Catalogue of Saints Now as we have taken a view of some particular notions of her times her nature and necessities it is not without the text to give a short touch on the helps and advantages of her raign which were without paralell for she had neither husband brother sister nor children to provide for who as they are dependants of the Crown so do they necessarily draw maintenance from thence and do often times exhaust and draw deep especially when there is an ample fraternity of the bloud Royall and of the Princes of the Bloud as it was in the time of Edward the third and Henry the fourth for then when the Crown cannot the publike ought to give them honourable allowance for they are the honour and hopes of the Kingdome and the publike which injoyes them hath alike interest in them with the Father that begot them and our Common-Law which is the heritance of the Kingdom did ever of old provide ayds for the primogenitures and the eldest daughter so that the multiplicity of Courts and the great charge which necessarily follow a King and Queen a Prince and the Royall issue was a thing which was not in rerum natura during the space of forty yeers and which by time was worn out of memory and without the consâ—deration of the present times Insomuch that the aydes given to the late and right noble Prince Henry and to his sister the Lady Elizabeth were at first generally received for impositions of a new Coynage Yea the late impositions for Knightwood though an ancient Law fell also into the imputation of a tax of novelty for that it lay long covered in the embers of division between the Houses of York and Lancaster and forgotten or connived at by the succeeding Princes so that the strangenesse of the observation and the difference of those latter raignes is that the Queen took up beyond the power of the Law which fell not into the murmure of the people and her successors nothing but by warrant of the Law which neverthelesse was conceived through disuse to be injurious to the liberty of the Kingdome Now before I come to any further mention of her favorits for hitherto I have delivered but some obvious passages thereby to prepare and smooth a way for the rest that follows it is requisite that I touch on the reliques of the other raign I mean the body of her sisters Councell of State which she retained intire neither removing nor discontenting any although she knew them averse to her Religion and in her sisters time perverse towards her person and private to her troubles and imprisonment A prudence which was incomparable with her sisters nature for she both dissipated and persecuted the major part of her brothers Councell but this will be of certainty that how compliable soever and obsequious she found them yet for a good space she made little use of their Councells more then in the ordinary course of the board for she held a dormant Table in her own Princely brest yet she kept them together and their places without any suddain change so that we may say of them that they were of the Court not of the Councell for whilst she amazed them with a kinde of premissive disputation concerning the points controverted by both Churches she did set down her own reservations without their privity and made all her progressions gradations But so that the tenents of her secrecy with intent of her establishment were pitcht before it was knovvn where the Court would sit dovvn neither do I finde that any of her sisters Councell of state were either repugnant to her religion or opposed her doings Englâ—field Master of the horse excepted who withdrew himself from the board and shortly after from out her Dominions so plyable and obedient they were to change with the times and their Princes and of this there will fall in heer a relation both of recreation and of knovvn truth Pawleâ— Marquesse of Winchesteâ— and Lord Treasurer having served then four Princes in as various and changeable season that I may well say time nor any age hath yeilded the like president This man being noted to grow high in her favour as his place and experience required was questioned by an intimate friend of his how he stood up for thirty yeers together amidst the changes and raignes of so many Chancellors and great personages why quoth the Marquesse Ortus sunt ex salice non ex queâ—cu I was made of the pliable Willovv not of the stubborn Oake and truly the old man hath taught them all especially William Earl of Pembroke for they tvvo were alvvayes of the Kings religion and over zealous professors Of this it is said that being both younger brothers yet of noble Houses they spent what was left them and come on trust to the Court vvhereupon the bare stock of their Wits they began to traffick for themselves and prospered so vvell that they got spent and left more then any Subjects from the Norman Conquest to their ovvn times vvhereunto it hath been prettily replyed that they lived in a time of dissolution To conclude them of any of the former raign ir is said that these tvvo lived and dyed chiefly in her favour The latter upon his sonnes marriage vvhich the Lady Kâ—th rine Grey vvâ—s like utterly to have lost himself but at the instant of the consummation apprehending the insafety and danger of an intermarriage vvith the bloud Royall he fell at the Queens feet vvhere he both acknovvledged his presumption vvith tears and projected the cause and the divorce together and so quick he vvas at his vvork for it stood him upon that upon repudiation of the Lady he clapt up a marriage for his sonne the Lord Herbert vvith Mâ—r Sidney Daughrer to Sir Henry Sydney then Lord Deputy of Ireland the blovv falling on Edward late Earl of Hereford vvho to his cost took up the divorced Lady of vvhom the Lord Beauchampe vvas borne and William Earl of Hereford is descended I come how to present those of her own election which she either admitted to her secrets of State or took into her grace and favour of whom in their order I crave leave to give unto posterity a cautious description with a short Charracter or draught of the persons themselves for without offence to others I would be true to my self their memories and merits distinguishing them of the militiae from the 〈◊〉 and of these she had as many and those as able Ministers as any of her Progenitors Leicester IT will be out of doubt that my Lord of Leicester was one of the first whom she made Master of the Horse he was the youngest Sonne then living of the Duke Northumberland beheaded 〈…〉 and his Father was that Duâ—y which our Histories couple with 〈◊〉 and both so much infamed for the Caterpillars
the violences of nature but especially of the exorbitances of the tongue and so I conclude him with this double observation the one of the innocency of his intentions exempt and clear from the guilt of Treason and disloyalty the other of the greatnesse of his heart for at his arraignment he was so little dejected by what might be alleaged and proved against him that he rather grew troubled with choller and in a kinde of exaspiration despised his Iury though of the order of Knighthood and of the speciall Gentry claiming the priviledge of tryall by the Peers and Barronage of the Realm so prevalent was that of his native genious and the haughtinesse of his spirit which accompanied him to his last and till any diminution of courage it brake in peeces the cords of his magnanimity for he dyed suddenly in the Tower and when it was thought the Queen did intend his inlargement with the restitution of his possessions which were then very great and comparable to most of the Nobility Hattor SIR Chrystopher Hatton came into the Court as his opposite Sir Iohn Perrot was wont to say by the Galliard for he came thither as a private Gentleman of the Innes of Court in a Mask and for his activity and person which was tall and proportionable taken into her favour he was first made vice Chamberlain and shortly afterward advanced to the place of Lord Chancellor a Gentleman that besides the graces of his person and dancing had also the adjectaments of a strong and subtill capacity one that could soon learn the discipline and garb both of the times and Court the truth is he had a large proportion of gifts and endowments but too much of the season of envy and he was a meer vegetable of the Court that sprung up at night and sunk again at his noon Lord Effingham MY Lord of Effingham though a Courtier betimes yet I finde not that the Sunshine of her favour broke out upon him untill she took him into the Ship and made him high Admirall of England for his extract it may suffice that he was the sonne of a Howard and of a Duke of Norfolk And for his person as goodly a Gentleman as the times had any if nature had not been more intentive to compleat his person then Fortune to make him rich for the times considered which were then active and a long time after lucrative he dyed not wealthy yet the honester man though it seems the Queens purpose was to tender the occasion of his advancement and to make him capable of more honour which at his return from Cadize accounts she conferred it upon him creating him Earl of Nottingham to the great discontent of his Colleague my Lord of Essex who then grew accessive in the Appetite of her favour and the truth was so exorbitant in the limitation of the Soveraigne aspect that it much alienated the Queens grace from him and drew others together with the Admirall to a combination and to conspire his ruine and though I have heard it from that party I mean of the Admiralls faction that it lay not in his proper power to hurt my Lord of Essex yet he had more followers and such as were well skilled in setting of the gin but I leave this to these of an other age It is out of doubt that the Admirall was a good honest and a brave man and a faithfull servant to his Mistris and such a one as the Queen out of her own Princely judgement knew to be a fit instrument for that service for she was no ill proficient in the reading of men as well as Books and his sundry expeditions as that afore mentioned and 88. doth both expresse his worth and manifest the Queens trust and the opinion she had of his fidelity and conduct Moreover the Howards were of the Queens alliance and consanguinity by her mother which swayed her affection and bent it toward this great house and it was a part of her naturall propension to grace and support ancient nobility where it did not intrench neither invade her interest for on such trespasses she was quick and tender and would not spare any whatsoever as we may observe in the case of the Duke and my Lord of Hereford whom she much favoured and countenanced till they attempted the forbidden fruit the fault of the last being in the severest interpretation but a trespasse of incroachment but in the first it was taken for a ryot against the Crown and her own Soveraign power and as I have ever thought the cause of her aversion against the rest of the house and the Dukes great Father in Law Fitz Allen Earl of Arundell a person of the first rank in her affections before these and some other jealousies made a separation between them this noble Lord and the Lord Thomas Howard since Earl of Suffolk standing alone in her grace the rest in umbrage Sir Iohn Packington SIR Iohn Packington was a Gentleman of no mean family and of form and feature no way dispiseable for he was a brave Gentleman and a very fine Courtier and for the time which he stayed there which was not lasting very high in her grace but he came in and went out and thorough disassiduity drew the Curtain between himself and the light of her grace and then death overwhelmed the remnant and utterly deprived him of recovery and they say of him that had he brought lesse to the Court then he did he might have carried away more then he brought for he had a time on it but an ill husband of opportunity Lord Hunsdon MY Lord of Hunsdon was of the Queens neerest Kindred and on the decease of Sussex both he and his sonne took the place of Lord Chamberlain he was a fast man to his Prince and firm in his friends and servants and though he might speak big and therein would be born out yet was he not the more dreadfull but lesse harmfull and farre from the practise of my Lord of Leicesters instructions for he was down right and I have heard those that both knew him well and had interest in him say merrily of him that his Latine and his dissimulation were both alike and that his custome of swearing and obscenity in speaking made him seem a worse Christian then he was and a better Knight of the Carpet then he should be as he lived in a ruffling time so he loved sword and buckler men and such as our Fathers were wont to call men of their hands of which sort he had many brave Gentleman that followed him yet not taken for a popular and dangerous person and this is one that stood amongst the Togati of an honest stout heart and such a one as upon occasion would have fought for his Prince and his Country for he had the charge of the Queens person both in the Court and in the Camp at Tilbury Rawleigh SIR Walter Rawleigh was on that it seems fortune had pickt out of
and dyed a constant Courtier of the Ladies Essex MY Lord of Essex as Sir Henry Wotton a Gentleman of great parts and partly of his times and retinue observes had his introduction by my Lord of Leicester who had married his mother a tye of affinity which besides a more urgent obligation might have invited his care to advance him his fortune being then and through his Fathers infelicity grown low but that the sonne of a Lord Ferrers of Charley Viscount Hartford and Earl of Essex who was of the ancient Nobility and formerly in the Queens good grace could not have a room in her favour without the assistance of Leicester was beyond the rule of her nature which as I have elsewhere taken into observation was ever inclineable to favour the nobility sure it is that he no sooner appeared in Court but he took with the Queen and Courtiers and I beleeve they all could not choose but look thorough the Sacrifice of the Father on his living sonne whose Image by the remembrance of former passages was a fresh like the bleeding of men murdered represented to the Court and offered up as a Subject of compassion to all the Kingdome There was in this young Lord together with a most goodly person a kinde of urbanity or innate curtesie which both wonne the Queen and too much took upon the people to gaze upon the new adopted sonne of her favour and as I go along it were not amisse to take into observation too notable quotations the first was a violent indulgency of the Queen which incident to old age where it encounters with a pleasing and sutable object towards this Lord all which argued a none perpetuity the second was a fault in the object of her grace my Lord himself who drew in too fast like a childe sucking on an over uberous Nurse and had there been a more decent decorum observed in both or either of those without doubt the unity of their affections had been more permanent and not so in and out as they were like an instrument ill tuned and lapsing to discord The greater errour of the two though unwillingly I am constrained to impose on my Lord of Essex or rather on his youth and none of the least of his blame on those that stood Sentinels about him who might have advised him better but that like men intoxicated with hopes they likewise had suckt in with the most and of their Lords receipt and so like Caesars would have all or none a rule quite contrary to nature and the most indulgent parents who though they may expresse more affection to one in the abundance of bequests yet cannot forget some Legacies just distributives and dividents to others of their begetting and how hatefull partiallity proves every dayes experience tells us out of which common consideration might have framed to their hands a maxime of more discretion for the conduct and management of their now graced Lord and Master But to omit that of infusion and to do right to truth my Lord of Essâ—x even of those that truly loved and honoured him was noted for too bold an ingrosser both of fame and favour and of this without offence to the living or treading on the sacred urne of the dead I shall present a truth and a passage yet in memory My Lord Mouâ—â—â—â—y who was another childe of her favour being newly come to Court and then but Sir Charles â—luns for my Lord William his Elder Brother was then living had the good fortune one day to runne very well a Tilt and the Queen therewith was so well pleased that she sent him in token of her favour a Queen at Chesse of gold richly ennameled which his servants had the next day fastned on his Arme with a Crymson ribband which my Lord of Essex as he passed through the Privy Chamber espying with his cloak cast under his Arme the better to commend it to the view enquired what it was and for what cause there fixed Sir Foulk Grevill told him that it was the Queens favour which the day before and after the Tilting she had sent him whereat my Lord of Essex in a kinde of emulation and as though he would have limited her favour said now I perceive every fool must have a favour This bitter and publikely affront came to Sir Charles Bluâ—ts eare who sent him a challenge which was accepted by my Lord and they met neer Marrybone Park where my Lord was hurt in the thigh and disarmed the Queen missing the men was very curious to learn the truth and when at last it was whispered out she swore by Gods death it was fit that some one or other should take him down and teach him better manners otherwise there would be no rule with him and here I note the innition of my Lords friendship with Mountâ—oy which the Queen her self did then conjure Now for fame we need not go farre for my Lord of Essex having borne a grudge to Generall Norris who had unwittingly offered to undertake the action of Britain with fewer men then my Lord had before demanded on his return with victory and a glorious report of his valour he was then thought the onely man for the Irish Warre wherein my Lord of Essex so wrought by despising the number and quality of Rebels that Norris was sent over with a scanted force joyned with the reliques of the veterane Troops of Britain of set purpose as it fell out â—o ruine Norris and the Lord Buâ—rows by my Lords procurement sent â—his heels and to command in chief and to confine Norris onely to his Government at Munser which brake the great heart of the Generall to see himself undervalued and undermined by my Lord and Burrows which was as the Proverb speaks it Imberbes docere senes My Lord Burrows in the beginning of his persecution dyed whereupon the Queen was fully bent to have sent over Mountioy which my Lord of Essex utterly disliked and opposed vvith many reasons and by arguments of contempt against Mountioy his then professed friend and familiar so predominant vvere his vvords to reap the honour of closing up that Warre and all other Novv the vvay being opened and plained by his ovvn Workmanship and so handled that none durst appear to stand for the place at last vvith much ado he obtained his ovvn ends and vvithall his fatall destruction leaving the Queen and the Court vvhere he stood firm and impregnable in her grace to men that long had sought and vvatcht their times to give him the trip and could never finde any opportunity but this of his absence and of his ovvn creation and these are the true observations of his Appetite and inclinations vvhich vvere not of any true proportion but carried and transported vvith an over desire and thiâ—stines after fame and that deceitfull fame of popularity and to help on his Catastrophe I observe likevvise tvvo sorts of people that had a hand in his fall the first vvas the
for it was a known truth that so long as my Lord of Leicester lived who was the main Pillar of the one side as having married the Sister none of the other side took any deep rooting in the Court though otherwise they made their wayes to honour by their swords and that which is of more note considering my Lord of Leicesters use of men of Armes being shortly after sent Governour to the revolted States and no Souldier himself is that he made no more accompt of Sir Iohn Norris a Souldier then deservedly famoused and trained from a Page under the discipline of the great Captain of Christendome the â—dmirall Castillion and of command in the French and Dutch Warâ—es almost twenty yeers It is of further observation that my Lord of Essex after Leicesters decease though initated to Armes and honoured by the Generall in the Portugâ—ll expedition whether out of instigation as it hath been thought or out of ambition and jealousie to be ecclipsed and over shadowed by the fame and splendor of this great Commander loved him not in sincerity Moreover certain it is he not onely crusht and upon all occasions queld the growth of this brave man and his famous Brethren but therewith drew on his own fatall end by undertaking the Irish Action in a time when he left the Court empty of friends and full fraught with his profest enemies but I forbear to extend my self in any further relation upon this Subject as having left some notes of truth in these two noble Families which I would present and therewith toucht somewhat which I would not if the equity of the Narration would have admitted an inteâ—mission Sir Iohn Perrot SIR Iohn Perrot was a goodly Gentleman and of the sword and as he was of a very ancient descent as an heir to many abstracts of gentry especially from Guy de Bryan of Lawhern so was he of a vast estate and came not to the Court for want and to these adjuncts he had the endowments of courage and height of spirit had it lighted on the allay of temper and discretion the defect whereof with a native freedome and boldnesse of speech drew him on to a clouded setting and laid him open to the spleen and advantage of his enemies amongst whom Sir Christopher Hatton was profest He was yet a wise man and a brave Courtier but rough and participating more of active then sedentary motions as being in his constellation destinated for Armes There is a quere of some denotations how he came to receive his foyl and that in the Catastrophe for he was strengthned with honourable allyances and the privy friendships of the Court My Lord of Leicester and Burleigh both his contemporaries and familiars But that there might be as the Adage hath it falsity in friendship and we may rest satisfied that there is no dispute against fate They quote him for a person that loved too stand to much alone and on his own legs of too often recesses and discontinuance from the Queens presence a fault which is incompetible with the wayes of Court and favour He was sent Lord Deputy into Ireland as it was thought for a kinde of haughtinesse of spirit and repugnancy in Councels or as others have thought the fittest person then to bridle the insolency of the Irish and probable it is that both these considering the sway that he would have at the board and head in the Queens concurred and did a little conspire his remove and his ruine But into Ireland he went where he did the Queen very great and many services if the surplusage of the measure did not abate the value of the merit as after times found that to be no Paradox for to save the Queens purse which both her self and my Lord Treasurer Burleigh ever took for good services he imposed on the Irish the charge of bearing their own armes which both gave them the possession and taught them the use of weapons which proved in the end a most fatall work both in the profusion of bloud and treasure But at his return and on some accompt sent home before touching the state of the Kingdome the assiduous testimonies of her grace towards him till by his retreat to his Castle at Caâ—y where he was then building and out of desire to be in command at home as he had been abroad together with the hatred and practise of Hatton then in high favour whom not long before he had too bitterly tanted for his dancing he was accused of high Treason and for high words and a forged letter condemned though the Queen on the news of his condemnation swore by her wonted oath that they were all knaves and they deliver with assurance that on his return to the Tower after his Tryall he said in oaths and in fury to the Lieuteuant Sir Owen Hopâ—on what will the Queen suffer her Brother to be offered up as a Sacrifice to the envy of my frisking adversaries which being made known to the Queen and the warrant for his execution tendered and somewhat enforced she refused to signe it and swore he should not dye for he was an honest and a faithfull man and surely though not altogether to set up our rest and faith upon tradition and upon old reports as that Sir Thomas Perrot his Father was a Gentleman of the privy Chamber to Henry the eigth and in the Court married to a Lady of great honour of the Kings familiarity which are presumptions of some implication But if we go a little further and compare his Picture his qualities gesture and voyce with that of the Kings which memory retains yet amongst us they will plead strongly that he was a subreptious childe of the bloud Royall Certain it is that he lived not long in the Tower and that after his decease Sir Thomas Perrot his sonne then of no mean esteem with the Queen having before married my Lord of Essex Sister since Countesse of Northumberland had restitution of all his Lands though after his decease also which immediately followed the Crown resumed his estate and took advantage of the former attainder And to say the truth the Priests forged letter was at his arraignment thought but as a fiction of envy and was soone after exploded by the Priests own confession but that which most exasperated the Queen and gave advantage to his enemies was as Sir Walter Rawleigh takes into his observation words of disdain for the Queen by sharp and reprehensive Letters had nettled him and shortly after sending others of approbation commending his service and intimating an invasion from Spain which he no sooner perused but he said publiquely in the great Chamber at Dublin Lo now she is ready to pisse her self for fear of the Spaniard I am again one of her white Boys Words which are subject to a various construction and tended to some disreputation of his Soveraign and such as may serve for instruction to persons in place of honour and command to beware of