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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36946	Arcana aulica, or, Walsingham's manual of prudential maxims for the states-man and courtier : to which is added Fragmenta regalia, or, Observations on Queen Elizabeth, her times and favorites / by Sir Robert Naunton.; Traicté de la cour. English. 1694	Refuge, Eustache de, d. 1617.; Walsingham, Edward, d. 1663.; Walsingham, Francis, Sir, 1530?-1590.; Naunton, Robert, Sir, 1563-1635. Fragmenta regalia, or, Observations on Queen Elizabeth.	1694 (1694)	Wing D2686; ESTC R33418	106,428	275

General Mountjoy and somewhat after we shall find the Horse and Foot Troops were for three or four years together much about 20000. Which besides the Naval charge which was a dependant of the same War in that the Queen was then forced to keep in continual pay a strong Fleet at Sea to Attend the Spanish Coasts and Ports both to alarm the Spaniard and to intercept his Forces designed for the Irish assistance so that the charge of that War alone did cost the Queen 300000 l. per annum at least which was not the Money of her Disbursements an Expence which without the publick said the State and the Royal Receipts could not have much longer endured which out of her own frequent Letters and complaints to the Deputy Mountjoy for casheering part of that List as soon as he could may be collected for the Queen was then driven into a strait We are naturally prone to Applaud the Times behind us and to vilifie the present for the current of her Fame carries it to this day how Royally and Victoriously she lived and dyed without the grievance and grudge of the people yet that truth may appear without retraction from the Honour of so great a Princess it is manifest she left more debts unpaid taken upon the credit of her Privy Seals than her Progenitors did or could have taken up that way in a hundred years before her which was an enforced piece of State to lay the burthen on that horse that was best able to bear it at the dead lift when neither her Receipts could yield her Relief at the pinch nor the urgency of her Affairs endure the delays of a Parliamentary Assistance And for such aids it is likewise apparent That she received more and with the love of the people than any two of her Predecessors that took most which was a Fortune strained out of the Subject through the Plausibility of her Comportment and as I would say without offence the Prodigal Distribution of her Graces to all sorts of Subjects For I believe 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 publick 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 therewith 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 wisdom of the times and the choice of Parliament-men for I find not that they were at any time given to any violent or pertinacious 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 Publick Good rather to Comply than Contest with her Majesty Neither doe I find 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 Martin's Speech about the tenth of our late Soveraign Lord King James 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 custom 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 Council of the Kingdom which came to invade and invert nature and to Enact Laws to Govern their Fathers Sure we are the House always 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 Preferr their Private to the Publick the Queen's necessities c. 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 reciprocal Terms 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 left 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 Popular 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 publick good and presented in Caution to future times for I am not Ignorant how the spirit of the Kingdom 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 graciously to make tryal of his Subjects Affection and at what price they now value his Goodness and Magnanimity But to our purpose the Queen was not to learn that as the strength of her Kingdom consisted in the Multitude of her Subjects so the Security of her Person Rested in the Love and Fidelity of her people which she politickly Affected as it hath been thought somewhat beneath the Height of her Spirit and Natural Magnanimity Moreover it will be a true note of her Providence that she would always listen to her Profit for she would not refuse the Informations of Mean Persons with purposed improvement and had learned the Philosophy of Hoc agere to look into her own work of the which there is a notable Example of one Carwarden an under-Officer of the Custom-House who observing his time presented her with a paper shewing how she was abused in the under-renting of her Customs and therewithall humbly desired her Majesty to Conceal Him for that it did concern two or three of her great Councellours whom Customer Smith had Bribed with 200l a man so to lose the Queen 200 l. per annum which being made known to the Lords they gave strict order that Carwarden should not have Access to the back-stairs till at last her Majesty Smelling the Craft and Missing Carwarden She sent for him back and incouraged him to stand to his Information which the poor man did so Handsomely that within the space of ten years he brought Smith to Double his Rent or to leave the customs to

Injuries of this Roman growing Insufferable the Franconians begin to wish for their King again and at last Recal him to his Kingdom Thus this honest Franconian made good use of his Flattery and by feeding him in his own Vices betrayed his Masters enemies Sejanus who gaped after the Roman Empire see what arts he used after he saw that Tiberius who by his instinct had Imprisoned Agrippina and her Children grew weary of the City spur'd that inclination on hoping that when the Prince was once retired the Trust and Government of the Empire should be cast upon him as indeed it came to pass so that for a time Tiberius was onely Lord of a little Island and Sejanus Emperor Perrennius also thirsting after the Empire first circumvented and made away all those that stood in his Light under pretence of a Conspiracy that Lucilla had contrived against Commodus and then Intices the Emperor to Pleasures whereby he himself might come to the managing of all things and at last attain unto the Empire The same way took Bardas Uncle to Michael Emperor of Constantinople who having taken away Theoctistus his Associate and Tutor to the young Prince contrived also his Mother's Banishment perswading Michael to take the Government into his own hands whose young years incapable of Rule he soon Diverted to Delights and Pleasure so as he gave himself wholly to these Entertainments and intended nothing else Bardas in the mean time fishes eagerly after the love of the People and to that end converses with Good and Learned Men restored Learning in the City and made many good Laws by which means he would doubtless have Stept at last into the Imperial Throne if another had not prevented him I do not bring these examples that I may teach how Princes are to be Circumvented but that I would have Princes themselves learn hence what Prudence and Caution is necessary for them to Discern and Distinguish the Counsels of their Ministers and chiefly that they may beware of those who are apt to sooth them in and applaud their Lusts and Vices and learn to think well of such as will sometimes Modestly adventure to express their dislikes of their Excesses CHAP. XIII Of the Familiars and Servants of the Prince and the ways to win them HAving considered all things that our Courtier was to observe in the Prince himself let us come to his Servants who by reason of the Offices they bear are continually about his Person and may be useful to those that pretend at Court either by procuring them Extraordinary Accesses or by making Seasonable mention of them or by instructing them of the Ways Times and Occasions of doing their Business There are many Princes who being Private put on a quite other face than that they bear in Publick and who more willingly do Trust and Disclose their thoughts to such of their Servants as they think faithful to them esteeming the Lowness of their condition incapable of Treachery or Wicked Practices Who does not know that Claudius was governed by his Freedmen one of which called Pallas he had so enriched That upon a time complaining of Poverty to some body he was advised to get Pallas adopt him for his Heir By this Man's perswasion Claudius Married Agrippina after by the help of Narcissus a Freedman also he had destroyed Messalina Who can be ignorant that during the continuance of the Eastern Empire the Eunuchs many times Governed all if that had not been so it had been impossible for Arbetio the Chief Ruler of the Empire to have escaped with life when Verissimus accused him Borilus and Germanus two slaves by the absolute Authority they had with Botoniates one of the Emperors made him an enemy to Isacius and Alexius Comnenis Yet let us suppose That the Prince does not impart his Counsels to these Men they are more easily Pryed into by these than any others for it cannot be that Princes always wear their Masks in private oftentimes the Throng and a Publick life makes him suppress and hide those Affections which when he is at liberty and in private do break out Wherefore I conclude it is very necessary in Courts To think all kind of Men even the meanest useful unto you And we must believe for certain That together with their Authority and Fortune their Prudence and Discretion will grow up which Arrian demonstrates to Epictetus in Epaphroditus and his two slaves The one of which coming to wait upon the Emperor at his Stool and the other to have the charge of his Shooes Epaphroditus himself who had sold them not long before as unuseful sought now their Favor and praised their Prudence Fortune hath never scarce been so favourable to any one in Court as not to afford him as many Enemies as Friends neither hath it ever yet cast any Man so low there as that he was neither able to Hurt nor Help another Whence it was that in the time of Tiberius as Tacitus says It was a great honour to be known to Sejanus his Door-keepers It will therefore be a Wise Man's part by all Becoming ways to endear the Servants of the Prince whatever their Condition be CHAP. XIV Four Kinds of Noble Courtiers How to be Handled and made use of how Warily we ought to Deal with Inconstant Princes FRom the Prince's Servarts we come to the Nobles of the Court which are of sundry kinds There are some Illustrious for their Birth but Destitute of the Prince's Favour others in Favour with the Prince but not Laden with Honors a third Sort that have Honors and Offices far exceeding their Interest and Favour and lastly Those who flourish both in Favour and great Imployments The Friendship of the first of these will perhaps avail our Courtier very little who are nevertheless to be Honored and Respected according to their Quality least though they cannot hurt you themselves by their Friends and Followers they should do it For in such Trains of Dependencies and Followers great Families are often very powerful either by reason of Old Benefits or reverence to their greatness or lastly since Princes minds are mutable out of respect to the Fortune and Favour these Great Men may yet chance to come into with this or the succeeding Prince Archelaus King of Cappadocia to his great disadvantage did neglect to Honor and Court Tiberius when he came to Rhodes for Tiberius afterwards meditating Revenge but pretending another Cause called him to Rome where he Perished miserably Which Respect nevertheless the Historian says He omitted not out of Pride but for that he was warned by some of Augustus his Favorites That whilst Caius Caesar flourished and was sent into the East the Friendship of Tiberius seemed unsafe We must look therefore upon these Great Men of Fortune though not able to deserve well of us yet powerful enough to Hurt us And though they be unacceptable and suspected by the Prince we must yet Reverence them to avoid the Blame of others and

Revenue scarce inferiour to those of the Crown But yet as this manner of Proceeding is in the Best of our Fortunes an Antidote against Envy so it little avails those who have once already carried themselves Insolently and Proudly for the Moderation of these men is still looked upon as Counterfeit Of which thing the Constantinopolitan History affords us an example in a Metropolitan called Constantine who being banished from the Courts both of Isacius Angelus and Alexius the Emperors returned afterwards with the Empress Euphrosine pretending a great aversion from Business and a Courtiers life to the end he might be the more Credited and sought unto the more eagerly he took orders upon him In short he carried his business so craftily That the Emperour himself causing him to be Absolved from the Oath of Priesthood called him to Court and trusted him with the management of his Greatest Affairs Who presently not content with his own Advancement introduced his two Brothers to wait upon the Emperor and as it were to stand Centinels for him if at any time his business called him away But because his former Prosperity had discovered the Insolence of his Nature every body Feared him still although he now made show of Great Temper and Moderation which was the cause that he was again Supplanted and removed from Court without ever being Restored more CHAP. XX. Of Emulation the Sister of Envy and the Remedies of it THe same Remedies that are good against Envy prevail also against Emulation which hath Less Malignity in it truly than Envy hath but more of Ambition and the Treachery of Self-concernments But these Competitors of ours are to be Stroked with a a certain Specious Respect and Ceremonious Veneration which will Powerfully divert these kind of humors especially if we Feed their Hopes with Higher Things than those We aim at and seem to Contribute our Votes and Assistance to them on the other side Vilifying that which we seek for as Below them to stoop unto and fitter for Our selves whose Merits as they are Less so our Pretences ought not to be so High If we fear that they will smell our Drift we are to hold them in Suspence and seem to Discourse the Case with Arguments on both sides yet giving the Greatest Weight to those which we intend should Divert their Ambitions But the surest and best course of all is to Conceal if it be possible what we Aim after till it be out of the power of our Enemies or Competitors to hinder us A Too Great Eagerness in our Pretences is sometimes odious even to those that would if it were more modest Contribute their Assistance to us pulling with it besides other Greater inconveniences upon us as if we succeed More Envy and if we fail a Greater Disgrace It is much more safe as I said even now to Hide our Designs and as Rowers do turn our Backs upon the place we are going unto Those that look after the greatest Commands have taken This way nothing hath been more usual unto them than after the example of Agamemnon in Euripides to express a greater desire of Rest and Retirement than of Honor or Imployment And many have found this a singular Remedy to divert the Wiles of those that would Oppose them and to escape the Disgrace which attends those Fierce Pretenders nay they have had hereby the Glory to have often thought That this Honor or Imployment was cast upon them meerly for their Merits and not obtained by Begging or Bying of Voices as it too often falls out Last of all in our Pretences we must take heed that we Clash with no Rival that is greater or more powerful in Friends and Dependants than our selves In this case we must imitate Marcus Lepidus a man in Tacitus his opinion of Great Wisdom who being Drawn as it were into the Senate by Tiberius to stand with Junius Blaesus Sejanus his Uncle whether of them should be chosen Proconsul of Africk pretended presently against himself Want of Health the Tender years of most of his Children and the Marriage of a Daughter that he was to take care of fearing doubtlesly to make Sejanus his Enemy if he carried away the Province from Blaesus Neither must we obstinately contend with him whom some great man is about to Advance although the Law favour us against him for without doubt Favour weighs down the Law as Tacitus instances in Germanicus and Drusus creating Haterius Agrippa Praetor notwithstanding the Express contradiction of a Law But let the Historian speak himself There arose a dispute of substituting a Praetor in the place of Vipsanius Gallus lately dead Germanicus and Drusus favoured Hateriut Agrippa Germanicus his Kinsman others on the contrary side did contend That the number of Children should carry it according to the Law Tiberius was glad to see his Sons and the Laws of the Senate clash together without doubt the Law was overcome but yet not easily nor by many voices By which means when they were in their greatest vigor they were wont to be overborn CHAP. XXI How to avoid a Treatning Ruine and When it is upon us how to make the best use of it Example of the fall of Great men HIthetto we have observed the Principal Precepts that are to be observed by our Courtier if any want every Rational mans for such only we intend to instruct Prudence and Dexterity will supply it Now because these kind of Rules are no less necessary for the Preserving our Greatness and Fortune in the Court than for the Gaining of it it will not be impertinent to have by us the examples of some of those that have Fallen from their Power and Greatness to the end we may grow Wise by other men's Mischances and learn if not to Avoid a Ruine at least to Arm and Prepare our selves for it for this Latter is almost as necessary as the First since the endeavours of those that seek to escape their Approaching Misfortunes are for the most part Vain whilst he that Prepares himself for it Long before makes that Fall which few or none of them can Avoid that Fortune hath lifted up on high to be much More Gentle and Easie than otherwise it would These Falls happen unto us either through our own Faults through the Arts and Contrivance of our Enemies or through the Perverseness of the Prince's Nature or perhaps his Death Since the lives of all men are obnoxious to Faults and full of Errors and Failings it is so especially with those that are on High who by reason of their Greatness are out of the Lists of Reprehension all that are about them being compelled to approve of Whatever they Do be it well or ill Amongst all which Faults the foulest they are incident unto is A Treacherous Turning against their Prince who is the Author of their Dignity and Power A crime marked out with the Blackest note of an Vngrateful and Faithless Soul and a most just subject of the Prince's Hate

away to Remove the Envy of it from himself Riches are also obnoxious to Envy not of the People onely but sometimes of the Prince himself who if he be Truly Avaritious will hardly be Content till he have Squeezed the Full Sponge as we read that Vespasian was wont to do but will rather Imitate the Country Clowns who when they have Fatned their Hogs do Kill and Devour them Truly France hath seen many such who being Proud and Peevish and who making too much Hast to be Rich have thereby and by their Insolence from a great Height of Fortune faln to Nothing In the time of Philip le Belle Peter Berchius High Chamberlain and Treasurer of France was strangled at Paris Lewis Philip 's Son afterward coming to the Crown Enguerrandus Marigny met with the same Misfortune Under Charles the Seventh Gyacensis in Dignity Equal to Berchias was Brought to the Bar and afterwards Sowed in a Sack and Crowned his Successor Caenus Beaulieu was Killed at Poicters and the Same End had come under Philip the First to Peter Essart if with an Hundred thousand Florins he had not Redeemed his Life I could Recount More nearer us but that I am willing to spare their Memory In the mean time these Examples are sufficient to Instruct That as the too Great Easiness of these Ministers brings too Great a Detriment upon the Prince's Profit so their Insolent Griping and Frowardness Draws Hate and Destruction upon themselves And that as we ought not to Refuse a just occasion of inriching our selves so we must not show our selves too Greedy after Riches nor Amass so much together as may Expose us to the Publick Envy CHAP. XL. Concluding with Many Choice and Necessary Admonitions THere Remains onely now unhandled the last Cause why Courtiers are Beloved by their Princes to wi● An Aptness and Singular Ability to Dispatch and Manage their Affairs For which reason When we see that we are become Acceptable to the Prince we must consider Whether He Love this Aptness for business because of the Vsefulness and necessity of it or else because the Prince desires to Acquire from us that Aptitude to Himself If it be Grateful because it is Necessary his Favor to us will endure as Long as the Necessity Remains but his Love will rather be a Forced than Voluntary Love If we see the Prince Aspire to the Glory of this Aptitude for business there is no doubt but when he sees that he cannot Either Equal or Excel us we shall become an Eye-sore and Vnacceptable to him for there is in Princes an Innate Desire as well as in all other Men of Excelling All Persons in those Arts they Addict themselves unto and therefore no Man almost is Pleased to be Excelled in them by his own Servant Asinius Pollio some Exhorting him to make a Reply to those Verses Augustus Caesar had made against him Answered That he would not by Contending to seem the Better Scribe draw his Envy upon him that had Power to Proscribe him There Arising a Dispute once between Favorinus the Philosopher and the Emperor Adrian about some word wherein the Philosopher at last seemed to yield his Friends wondring at it he said I am not Ashamed to be Overcome in Knowledge by Him that Commands Thirty Legions To this Purpose that Saying of Solomon is very Notorious Do not Seem Wise before the King It is necessary therefore That whosoever desires to Purchase a Prince's Favor must set aside the desire of his Own Glory and not onely in Verbal Disputes but in every thing else yield him the day And to that end it will not be amiss on purpose to Commit some Errors and Over-sights so that they be not Two Gross nor like to take too much from our Repute Out of our Discourse hitherto it is evident how little Certainty is in all the Greatness and Favor at Court Wherefore the best Counsel that can be given to all Courtiers is To Prepare Themselves for their Fall for although it is Thought a more Generous Thing to Fight than to Flie when you are once entred these lists yet if you are to do it with Greater Hazard of Danger than Hope of Success it is not Indiscreet to Sound a Retreat Betimes and in Imitation of the Parthians to Fight Flying As it is also a more Glorious thing to descend gently by steps and as it were to go out at the Door than to be Cast Headlong out at the Window so it is less shameful under Colour of some Specious and Contrived Pretences to bid Adieu to your Honors and Offices than to Expect to be Stript Disgracefully of them And hereunto may fitly be applyed the saying of an ancient Roman Why dost thou Weary Tired Fortune so Depart the Court Before thou art Forc'd to go Seneca says it is Happiness to Die in the Midst of your Felicity but I on the other side think That Courtier happy who in the Midst of his Prosperous Race Makes a Retreat Perhaps he that shall do So shall not be Applauded by all but by some that look upon the Outsides of things be Judged unworthy of the Fortune that he hath so abandoned Yet he that is wise not Regarding such Idle Discourses will provide for his own Safety and remember that in all Games it is Better to give over a winner than a loser as also that no Prudent Man will exchange or adventure Certain Things for Things so Very Vncertain Though our Ascent to These Heights of Fortune and Dignities is as it were by steps in order yet our Descents if not Timely foreseen are for the most part Headlong and Sudden So that those that are Flourishing in Favor and Authority if they chance once to Slip or Stumble their Falls are commonly Desperate and Fatal Behold here the Compendium of All that I desired to say for our Courtiers Instruction Whether these Precepts be Pertinent and Select or no I will not Determine but leave that to the Judgment and Experience of my Friends For my own part I confess I have at present no Great Vse of them and am so far from being Transported with Sadness at my Private and Retired Condition that I do heartily say with Seneca Let him that will ascend the Tottering Seat Of Courtly Grandeur and become as Great As are his Mounting Wishes as for Me Let Sweet Repose and Rest my Portion be Give me some Mean Obscure Recess a Sphere Out of the Road of Business or the Fear Of falling Lower where I sweetly may My Self and Dear Retirement still enjoy Let not my Life or Name be known unto The Grandees of the Times Tost to and fro By Censures or Applause but let my Age Slide Gently by not overthwart the Stage Of Publick Action unheard unseen And Vnconcern'd as if I ne'er had been And thus while I shall Pass my Silent Days In Shady Privacy free from the Noise And Bustles of the World then shall I A Good Old Innocent Plebeian

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 laid the foundation of the Dutch and French Wars which was another piece of his fineness and of the times with one observation more That he was one of the Great Allies of the Austrian 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 seeds of division in the dark And it is a likely report that they father on him at his return That he said unto the Queen with some sensibility of the Spanish designs on France Madam 〈◊〉 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 years 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 by me and now and then cast in some English fewel which will revive the flame Willoughby MY Lord Willoughby was one of the Queen's first Sword-men He was of the Ancient Extract of the Bartues but more ennobled by his Mother who was Dutchess of Suffolk He was a great Master of the Art Military and was sent General into France and commanded the Second of Five Armies that the Queen sent thither in aid 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 plentiful portion of her Grace And it was his saying and it did him no good That he was none of the Reptilia intimating that he could not creep on the ground and that the Court was not in his Element for indeed as he was a Great Souldier so was he of a Suitable Magnanimity and could not brook the Obsequiousness and Assiduity of the Court and as he then was somewhat descending from youth happily he had an animam revertendi and to make a safe Retreat Sir Nicholas Bacon I Come to another of the Togati Sir Nicholas Bacon An arch-piece of Wit and Wisdom 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 Queen's 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 loss of his Friend He would say That though he knew Vnusquisque suae fortunae faber was a true and good principle yet the most in number were those that marred themselves But I will never forgive that man that loseth himself to be rid of his jest He was Father to that Refined Wit which since hath acted a disastrous part on the publick stage and of late sat in his Father's room as Lord Chancellour Those that lived in his age and from whence I have taken this little Model of him gives him a lively Character and they decypher him for another Solon and the Synon of those times such a one as Oedipus was in dissolving of Riddles Doubtless he was as able an Instrument and it was his commendation that his head was the Mawl for it was a great one and therein he kept the Wedge that entred the knotty pieces that came to the Table And now I must again fall back to smooth and plain a way to the rest that is behind but not from the purpose There were about these times two Rivals in the Queen's favour Old Sir Francis Knowls Comptroller 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 Ricot who had married the daughter and heir of the old Lord Williams of Tame a Noble person and to whom in the Queen's adversity she had been committed to safe custody and from him had received more than ordinary observances Now such was the goodness of the Queen's Nature that she neither forgot good turns received from the Lord Williams neither was she unmindfull of this Lord Norris whose Father in her Father's time and in the business of her Mother died in a Noble cause and in the justification of her innocency Lord Norris MY Lord Norris had by this Lady an ample Issue which the Queen highly respected for he had Six Sons and all Martial brave men The first was William his eldest and Father to the late Earl of Berkshire Sir John vulgarly called General Norris Sir Edward Sir Thomas Sir Henry and Maximilian Men of an haughty courage and of great experience in the conduct of Military affairs And to speak in the Character of their merit they were persons of such renown and worth as future times must out of duty owe them the debt of an honourable memory Knowls SIr Francis Knowls was somewhat of the Queen's affinity and had likwise 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 martialling and there was also the Lady Lettice a Sister of these who was first Countess 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 genius 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 their persons as it was the fortune of their imployments the one side attending the Court the other the Pavilion surely they would have broken out into some kind of hostility or at least they would have wrestled one in the other like Trees incircled with Ivy 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 quarrel amongst them all And I am perswaded though I ought not to judge that there were some reliques of this feud that were long after the causes of the one Families almost utter extirpation and of the others improsperity 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

and from thence down to little more than to that wherein she found him a bare Gentleman Not that he was less for he was well-descended and of good alliance but poor in his beginnings and for my Lord of Oxford's Jest of him the Jack and an Upstart we all know it savours more of Emulation and his Humour than 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 Comines observes of Lewis the Eleventh of France who did serve himself with Persons of unknown Parents such as was Oliver the Barber whom he created Earl of Dunoyes and made him ex secretis consiliis and alone in his favour and familiarity His approaches to the University and Inns of Court were the grounds of his improvement but they were rather excursions than 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 rowl through want and disability to subsist otherways before he could come to a repose and as the Stone doth by long lying gather Moss He first exposed himself to the Land service of Ireland a Militia which then did not yield him food and rayment for it was ever very poor nor had he patience to stay there though shortly after he came thither again under the Command of my Lord Gray 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 Per mare per terras currit mercator ad Indos He might also have said and truly with the Philosopher Omnia mea mecum porte for it was a long time before he could brag of more than he carried at his back and when he got on the winning side it was his commendations that he took pains for it and underwent many various adventures for his after-perfection and before he came into the publick note of the World And that it may appear how he came up Per ardua Per variot causus per tot discrimina rerum 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 was the hopes of his rising He had in the outward man a good presence in a handsome and well compacted person a strong natural wit and a better judgment with a bold and plausible tongue whereby he could set out his parts to the best advantage and to these he had the adjuncts 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 growth that variance between him and my Lord Grey in his descent into Ireland was a principal for it drew them both over the Council Table there to plead ●heir cause where what advantage he had in the cause I know not but he had much better in the telling of his tale and so much that the Queen and the Lord 's took no slight mark of the man and his parts for from thence he came to be known and to have access 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 Leicester had then cast in a good word for him to the Queen which would have done no harm I do not determine But true it is He had gotten the Queen's 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 kind of Oracle which netled them all yea those that he relied on began to take his sudden favour for an Alarm and to be sensible of their own supplantation and to project his which made him shortly after sing Fortune my foe c. So that finding his favour declining and falling into a recess he undertook a new peregrination to leave that Terra infirma of the Court for that of the Wars and by declining himself and by absence to expel his and the passion of his enemies which in Court was a strange device of ecovery but that he knew there was some ill office done him that he durst not attempt to mind any other ways than by going aside thereby to teach envy a new way of forgetfulness and not so much as to think of him howsoever he had it always in mind never to forget himself and his device took so well that at his return he came in as Rams 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 Queen's 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 Arrear of recompence due to their merit to her great Successor who payed them all with advantage Grevil SIR Foulk Grevil since Lord Brook had no mean place in her favour neither did he hold it for any short term for if I be not deceived he had the longest lease and the smoothest time without rub of any of her Favourites He came to the Court in his youth and prime for that is the time or never He was a brave Gentleman and honourably descended from William Lord Brook and Admiral to Henry the seventh Neither illiterate for he was as he would often profess a friend to Sir Philip Sidney 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 Queen's election had ever a noble conduct and its motions more of verture and judgment than of fancy I find 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 plentiful Fortune which as himself was wont to say was the better held together by a single life wherein he lived and dyed a constant Courtier of the Ladies Essex MY Lord of Essex as Sir Henry Wotton a Gentleman of great parts and parly of his time and retinue observes had is introduction by