Henry Wotton whose Life I novv intend to vvrite vvas born in the Year of our Redemption 1568. in Bocton-hall commonly called Bocton or Bougton place or Palace in the Parish of Bocton Malherb in the fruitful Country of Kent Bocton-hall being an ancient and goodly Structure beautifying and being beautified by the Parish Church of Bocton Malherb adjoyning unto it and both seated vvithin a fair Park of the Wottons on the Brovv of such a Hill as gives the advantage of a large Prospect and of equal pleasure to all Beholders But this House and Church are not remarkable for any thing so much as for that the memorable Family of the Wottons have so long inhabited the one and novv lie buried in the other as appears by their many Monuments in that Church the Wottons being a Family that hath brought forth divers Persons eminent for Wisdom and Valour vvhose Heroick Acts and Noble Employments both in England and in Foreign parts have adorned themselves and this Nation which they have served abroad faithfully in the discharge of their great trust and prudently in their Negotiations with several Princes and also served at home with much Honour and Justice in their wise managing a great part of the Publick Affairs thereof in the various times both of War and Peace But lest I should be thought by any that may incline either to deny or doubt this Truth not to have observed moderation in the commendation of this Family and also for that I believe the merits and memory of such Persons ought to be thankfully recorded I shall offer to the consideration of every Reader out of the testimony of their Pedegree and our Chronicles a part and but a part of that just Commendation which might be from thence enlarged and shall then leave the indifferent Reader to judge whether my error be an excess or defect of Commendations Sir Robert Wotton of Bocton Malherb Knight vvas born about the Year of Christ 1460 he living in the Reign of King Edward the Fourth vvas by him trusted to be Lieutenant of Guisnes to be Knight Porter and Comptroller of Callais where he died and lies honourably buried Sir Edward Wotton of Bocton Malherb Knight Son and Heir of the said Sir Robert was born in the Year of Christ 1489 in the Reign of King Henry the Seventh he was made Treasurer of Callais and of the Privy Councel to King Henry the Eight who offered him to be Lord Chancellor of England but saith Hollinshed out of a virtuous modesty he refused it Thomas Wotton of Bocton Malherb Esquire Son and Heir of the said Sir Edward and the Father of our Sir Henry that occasions this Relation was born in the Year of Christ 1521 he was a Gentleman excellently educated and studious in all the Liberal Arts in the knowledge whereof he attained unto a great perfection who though he had besides those abilities a very Noble and plentiful Estate and the ancient Interest of his Predecessors many invitations from Queen Elizabeth to change his Country Recreations and Retirement for a Courtoffering him a Knight-hood she vvas then vvith him at his Boctonhall and that to be but as an earnest of some more honourable and more profitable employment under Her yet he humbly refused both being a man of great modesty of a most plain and single heart of an ancient freedom and integrity of mind A commendation which Sir Henry Wotton took occasion often to remember with great gladness and thankfully to boast himself the Son of such a Father From whom indeed he derived that noble ingenuity that was always practised by himself and which he ever both commended and cherished in others This Thomas was also remarkable for Hospitality a great Lover and much beloved of his Country to which may justly be added that he was a Cherisher of Learning as appears by that excellent Antiquary Mr. William Lambert in his Perambulation of Kent This Thomas had four Sons Sir Edward Sir James Sir John and Sir Henry Sir Edward was Knighted by Queen Elizabeth and made Comptroller of Her Majesties Houshold He was saith Cambden a man remarkable for many and great Employments in the State during Her Reign and sent several times Ambassador into Foreign Nations After Her death he was by King James made Comptroller of his Houshold and called to be of His Privy Councel and by him advanced to be Lord Wotton Baron of Merley in Kent and made Lord Lieutenant of that County Sir James the second Son may be numbred among the Martial Men of his Age who was in the 38 of Queen Elizabeths Reign with Robert Earl of Sussex Count Lodowick of Nassaw Don Christophoro Son of Antonio King of Portugal and divers other Gentlemen of Nobleness and Valour Knighted in the Field near Cadiz in Spain after they had gotten great Honour and Riches besides a notable retaliation of Injuries by taking that Town Sir John being a Gentleman excellently accomplished both by Learning and Travel was Knighted by Queen Elizabeth and by Her look'd upon with more then ordinary favour and with intentions of preferment but Death in his younger years put a period to his growing hopes Of Sir Henry my following discourse shall give an account The descent of these fore-named Wottons were all in a direct Line and most of them and their actions in the memory of those with whom we have conversed But if I had looked so far back as to Sir Nicholas Wotton who lived in the Reign of King Richard the Second or before him upon divers others of great note in their several Ages I might by some be thought tedious and yet others may more justly think me negligent if I omit to mention Nicholas Wotton the fourth Son of Sir Robert whom I first named This Nicholas Wotton was Doctor of Law and sometime Dean both of York and Canterbury a man vvhom God did not only bless vvith a long life but vvith great abilities of mind and an inclination to imploy them in the service of his Countrey as is testified by his severall Imployments having been sent nine times Ambassador unto forraign Princes and by his being a Privy Councellor to King Henry the eighth to Edward the sixth to Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth vvho also after he had been during the Wars between England Scotland and France three several times and not unsuccessfully imployed in Committies for setling of peace betwixt this and those Kingdomes died saith learned Cambden full of Commendations for Wisdome and Piety He vvas also by the Will of King Henry the eighth made one of his Executors and chief Secretary of State to his Son that plous Prince Edward the sixth Concerning which Nicholas Wotton I shall say but this little more That he refused being offered it by Queen Elizabeth to be Arch bishop of Canterbury and that he died not rich though he lived in that time of the dissolution of Abbeys More might be added but by this it may appear
to proceed to Excommunication of the Republick who still offered to shew both reason and ancient custom to warrant their Actions But this Pope contrary to his Predecessors moderation required absolute obedience without disputes Thus it continued for about a year the Pope still threatning Excommunication and the Venetians still answering him with fair speeches and no complyance till at last the Popes zeal to the Apostolick Sea did make him to excommunicate the Duke the whole Senate and all their Dominions and that done to shut up all their Churches charging the whole Clergy to forbear all sacred Offices to the Venetians till their Obedience should render them capable of Absolution But this act of the Popes did but the more confirm the Venetians in their resolution not to obey him And to that end upon the hearing of the Popes Interdict they presently published by sound of Trumpet a Proclamation to this effect That whosoever hath received from Rome any Copy of a Papal Interdict publish'd there as well against the Law of God as against the Honour of this Nation shall presently render it to the Councel of Ten upon pain of death Then was Duado their Ambassador call'd home from Rome and the Inquisition presently suspended by Order of the State and the Flood-gates being thus set open any man that had a pleasant or scoffing wit might safely vent it against the Pope either by free speaking or by Libels in Print and both became very pleasant to the people Matters thus heightned the State advised vvith Father Paul a Holy and Learned Frier the Author of the History of the Council of Trent vvhose advice vvas Neither to provoke the Pope nor lose their own Right he declaring publickly in Print in the name of the State That the Pope was trusted to keep two Keys one of Prudence and the other of Power And that if they were not both used together Power alone is not effectual in an Excommunication And thus these discontents and oppositions continued till a report was blown abroad that the Venetians were all turned Protestants which was believed by many for that it was observ'd the English Ambassadour was so often in conference with the Senate and his Chaplain Mr. Bedel more often with Father Paul whom the People did not take to be his Friend And also for that the Republick of Venice was known to give Commission to Gregory Justiniano then their Ambassadour in England to make all these Proceedings known to the King of England and to crave a Promise of his assistance if need should require and in the mean time they required the King's advice and judgement which was the same that he gave to Pope Clement at his first coming to the Crown of England that Pope then moving him to an Union with the Roman Church namely To endeavour the calling of a free Council for the settlement of Peace in Christendom and that he doubted not but that the French King and divers other Princes would joyn to assist in so good a work and in the mean time the sin of this Breach both with His and the Venetians Dominions must of necessity lie at the Pope ' s door In this contention vvhich lasted almost two years the Pope grew still higher and the Venetians more and more resolv'd and careless still acquainting King James with their proceedings which was done by the help of Sir Henry Wotton Mr. Bedel and Padre Paulo whom the Venetians did then call to be one of their Consulters of State and with his Pen to defend their just Cause which was by him so performed that the Pope saw plainly he had weakned his Power by exceeding it and offered the Venetians Absolution upon very easie terms which the Venetians still slighting did at last obtain by that which was scarce so much as a shew of acknowledging it For they made an order that in that day in which they were Absolv'd there should be no Publick Rejoycing nor any Bonfires that night lest the Common People might judge that they desired an Absolution or were Absolved for committing a Fault These Contests were the occasion of Padre Paulo's knowledge and interest with King James for whose sake principally Padre Paulo compiled that eminent History of the remarkable Council of Trent which History was as fast as it was written sent in several sheets in Letters by Sir Henry Wotton Mr. Bedel and others unto King James and the then Bishop of Canterbury into England and there first made publick both in English and in the universal Language For eight years after Sir Henry Wotton's going into Italy he stood fair and highly valued in the Kings opinion but at last became much clouded by an accident which I shall proceed to relate At his first going Ambassadour into Italy as he passed through Germany he stayed some days at Augusta where having been in his former Travels well known by many of the best note for Learning and Ingeniousness those that are esteemed the Virtuosi of that Nation with whom he passing an evening in merriments was requested by Christopher Flecamore to write some Sentence in his Albo a Book of white Paper which for that purpose many of the German Gentry usually carry about them and Sir Henry Wotton consenting to the motion took an occasion from some accidental discourse of the present Company to write a pleasant definition of an Ambassadour in these very words Legatus est vir bonus peregrè missus ad mentiendum Reipublicae causâ Which Sir Henry Wotton could have been content should have been thus Englished An Embassadour is an honest man sent to lie abroad for the good of his Country But the word for lye being the hinge upon which the Conceit was to turn was not so exprest in Latine as would admit in the hands of an Enemy especially so fair a construction as Sir Henry thought in English Yet as it was it slept quietly among other Sentences in this Albo almost eight years till by accident it fell into the hands of Iasper Scioppius a Romanist a man of a restless spirit and a malicious Pen who with Books against King Iames Prints this as a Principle of that Religion professed by the King and his Ambassadour Sir Henry Wotton then at Venice and in Venice it was presently after written in several Glass-windows and spitefully declared to be Sir Henry Wottons This coming to the knowledge of King Iames he apprehended it to be such an oversight such a vveakness or vvorse in Sir Henry Wotton as caused the King to express much vvrath against him and this caused Sir Henry Wotton to write two Apologies one to Velserus one of the Chiefs of Augusta in the universal Language vvhich he caused to be Printed and given and scattered in the most remarkable places both of Germany and Italy as an Antidote against the venomous Books of Scioppius and another Apology to King Iames vvhich vvere both so ingenious so clear and so choicely Eloquent that his Majesty vvho vvas
may speak both openly and safely Yea let me adde this with confidence that if Nature her self the first Architectress had to use an expression of Vitruvius windowed your brest if your Majesty should admit the eyes of all men not only within the privatest parts of your Bed-Chamber but even into the inwardest closets of your heart no other thing at all would there appear save the splendor of your Goodness and an undistemper'd serenity of your Vertues What said I if you would admit As if those whom the Supreme Power hath set on high and in the light could be hid from our eyes or cover as it were by a drawn cloud the wayes of their Lives and Government Herein no doubt Obscurity and Solitude it self is more vailed then Majesty Thinks that Abissine Emperor whom men report to appear to publick view but once a year that therefore it is less known what he doth in secret Know we not at this day that Domitian even in his closest Cabinet wherein each day he shut up himself did nothing but stick flyes with a pointed Bodkin Lay Tiberius hid in his recess to the Islands of Caprea when among so many wounds and tortures of his conscience which as so many furies tormented him many tokens of a distracted mind did daily break forth Surely no. Your Majesty hath taught the Princes of your own and future times the only and most wholsome way of self-concealing in that you indeavour nothing to be concealed There are certain creatures of ingrateful aspect as Bats and Owls condemn'd by nature to hate the light I know also that some in power have also held it among the secrets of State and as a great mystery of craft to be served at a distance as if reverence did only dwell in Dens and Caves not in the light Whence then these Subtilties of Government In a word and freely they walked in crooked paths because they knew not the shortest way to be good But your Majesty doth not shun the eyes and access of your Subjects delight not in covert nor withdraw your self from your own people you do not catch at false veneration with a rigid and clouded countenance yea sometime you vouchsafe to descend even to some familiarity without offence to your dignity for thus you reason with your self in the clearness of your own bosome If it were not above our power to lye concealed yet were it below our goodness to desire it then which nothing surely can be in effect more popular for good Kings all good men openly revere and even the worst do it silently Whilest Vertues beauty not unlike some brightest Rayes strikes into the most unwilling eyes Wherefore as of late I took in hand Tranquillus Suetonius who hath laid open the very bowels of the Cesars to beguile in the time of your absence with some literate diversion the tedious length of those dayes and fell by chance upon that passage so lively describing the wailings of Augustus after the Varian defect often crying out Render me Quintilius Varus my Legions my desires of Your Majesty instantly flamed out and my wishes gowed for your Return for it seemeth then much juster for England to have solicited her SISTER with these panting suspirations then Augustus the Ghost of Quintilius Restore to me Scotland my Sister our King Restore the best of men whom none but the wicked love not none but the ignorant praise not Restore both the Director and Rule it self of Morality whereby we may become not the gladder only but the better too while at hand we may contemplate a thing most rare One in highest Place not inaulging to himself the least excess Since therefore such you are O best of Kings suffer I humbly pray if rather by Prayers then Arguments you choose to be inclined That the nine Nations of different Language for I reckon them no fewer over which you gently reign may glory in your being such and may each declare it not in their native Dialects alone which would not give sufficient compass to our joyes but however in this also more publick Tongue That even forraigners may know your Britany which formerly bestowed upon the Christian World their first and most renowed Emperor is not become so barren yet as not to afford even at this day a Type of the highest-famed King Having now thus I hope somewhat smooth'd the way to your patience in hearing good it will be henceforth out of the whole state of your Life and Carriage thus far summarily to pick up some particulars as those do who make their choice of Flowers For I please my self more in the choice then in the plenty of my Matter Although I am not ignorant neither that in this kind of speaking the diligence or ambition of the Ancients was so profuse that perhaps Timeus said not unwittily That Alexander the Macedonian sooner subdued all Asia then Isocrates did write his Panegyrick Certainly there seems then to have been too great an indulgence to Art while the Wits of Orators were wanton in that fertile age of Eloquence but it becometh me mindful both of my simplicity and age to touch rather the heads of your praises then to prosecute them all that even the succinctness of my speech may as it were resemble the passage of my fleeting years In the first place is offered the eminent Nobleness of your Extraction whereby in a long Order of antecedent Kings your lustre is above them all your Father himself not excepted This in brief I will deduce more clearly Your Great Great-Grandfather Henry the Seventh whether more valiant or fortunate I know not being almost at once an Exile and a Conqueror united by the Marriage of Elizabeth of York the white Rose and the red the Armories of two very powerful Families which being in division had so many years polluted their own Countrey with bloud and deadly Fewds The more blessed Colligation of the Kingdomes then that of the Roses we owe to the Happiness of your Father who even for that alone were to be remembred ever with highest veneration But in you singly most Imperial Charles is the conflux of the glory of all Nations in all Ages which since the Romans have possessed Britany either by right or by Arms in you I say alone whom the Cambrians first the English-Saxons Scots Normans and finally the Danes do acknowledge with us to be the branch of that Stock that hith erto hath worn the Crown In this perchance if the meanness of the comparison be not rejected not unlike to Europes famous Ister which rolling along through vast Countreys is ennobled with the waters of so many famous streams One not obscure among our Authors hath written that our Ancestors would not acknowledge the Norman Rule in England for legitimate which had so weak a beginning until Maud marrying with Henry the First had brought into the world a child of the bloud of the ancient Saxon Kings she was Sister to David Nephew twice removed
Sir Richard Greham vvho vvould needs perswade them they vvere mistaken Which in truth is no very hard matter for the very strangeness of the thing it self and almost the impossibility to conceive so great a Prince and Favourite so suddenly Metamorphosed into Travellers vvith no greater train vvas enough to make any man living unbelieve his five senses And this I suppose next the assurance of their own vvell resolved Carriage against a new accident to have been their best Anchor in all such Incounters At Paris the Prince spent one vvhole day to give his mind some contentment in viewing of a famous City and Court vvhich vvas a Neighbour to his future Estates But for the better vailing of their Visages his Highness and the Marquess bought each of them a Perriwig somewhat to over-shadow their fore heads Of the King they got a sight after dinner in a Gallery vvhere he vvas solacing himself vvith familiar pleasures And of the Queen-Mother as she vvas at her own Table in neither place descryed no not by Monsieur Cadinet vvho saw them in both and had been lately Ambassadour in England Towards Evening by a meer chance in appearance though under-lined vvith a Providence they had a full sight of the Queen Infanta and of the Princess Henrietta Maria vvith other great Ladies at the practise of a Masquing Dance vvhich vvas then in preparation having over-heard two Gentlemen vvho vvere tending towards that sight after vvhom they pressed and vvere let in by the Duke De Mont Bason the Queens Lord Chamberlain out of humanity to strangers vvhen divers of the French vvent by Note here even vvith the point of a Diamond by vvhat oblique steps and inimaginable preparatives the high Disposer of Princes Affections doth sometimes contrive the secrets of his vvill For by this casual curiosity it fell out that vvhen afterwards the Marriage came in motion between our Soveraign Lord and the aforesaid most Amiable Princess it must needs be howsoever unknown no small spur to the Treaty that she hath not before been altogether a stranger to his Eye From the next day vvhen they departed at three of the Clock in the morning from Paris the 23. of February vvere spent six dayes to Bayon the last Town of France having before at Bourdeaux bought them five riding-Coats all of one colour and fashion in a kind of Noble simplicity Where Sir Francis Cottington was imployed in a fair manner to keep them from being entertained by the Duke De Espernon telling him they were Gentlemen of mean degree and formed yet to little Courtship who perchance might otherwise being himself no superficial man in the practices of the World have pierced somewhat deeper then their outside They were now entred into the deep time of Lent and could get no flesh in their Innes Whereupon fell out a pleasant passage if I may insert it by the way among more serious There was near Bayon an Herd of Goats with their young ones upon which sight the said Sir Richard Greham tells the Marquess he would snap one of the Kids and make some shift to carry him close to their lodging Which the Prince over-hearing Why Richard sayes he do you â—…nk you may practise here your old tricks again â—…on the borders Upon which words they â—…st gave the Goat Herd good contentment and then while the Marquess and his servant being both on foot were chasing the Kid about the stack the Prince from Horse back killed him in the Head with a Scottish Pistol Set this Fear for a Journal Parenthesis which yet may shew how his Highness even in such slight and sportful damage had a Noble sense of just dealing At Bayon the Count De Gramont Governour of that jealous Key took an exquisite notice of their persons and behaviour and opened himself to some of his train That he thought them to be Gentlemen of much more worth then their habits bewrayed yet he let them courteously pass And four dayes after they arrived at Madrid being Wednesday the fifth of March Thus have I briefly run over transcursions as if my Pen had been posting with them Which done I shall not need to relate the affluence of young Nobles and others from hence into Spain after the voice of our Prince his being there had been quickly noised and at length believed neither will I stay to consider the Arts of Rome where now all Engines were whetted though by the Divine blessing very vainly when they had gotten a Prince of Great Brittain upon Catholick ground as they use to call it This and the whole matter of Negotiation there the open entertainments the secret working the Apprehensions on both sides the appearance on neither And in summe all the circumstances and respect of Religion and State intermixed together in that commixture will better become a Royal History or a Councel-Table then a single Life Yet I cannot omit some things which intervened at the meeting of two Pleiades me thinks not unlike that which Astrologers call a Conjunction of Planets of no very benign Aspect the one to the other I mean the Marquess of Buckingham and the Conde d'Olivares They had some sharper and some milder differences which might easily happen in such an intervene of Grandees both vehement on the parts which they swayed But the most remarkable was upon a supposition of the Condes as fancies are cheap that the Marquess had intimated unto her some hopes of the Prince his Conversion which coming into debate the Marquess so roundly disavowed this guilded dream as Olivares alledged he had given him La-Mentida and thereupon forms a Complement to the Prince himself which Buckingham denying and yet Olivares persisting in the said Complement the Marquess though now in strange hands yet seeing both his Honour and the Truth at stake was not tender likewise to engage his life but replyed with some heat that the Condes asseveration would force him to do that which he had not done before for now he held himself tyed in terms of a Gentleman to maintain the contrary to his affirmative in any sort whatsoever This was the highest and the harshest point that occurred between them which that it went so far was not the Dukes fault nor his fault neither as it should seem that it went no further There was another memorable passage one day of gentler quality and yet eager enough The Conde d' Olivares tells the Marquess of a certain flying noise that the Prince did plot to be secretly gone To which the Marquess gave a well temper'd answer that though Love had made his Highness steal out of his own Countrey yet Fear would never make him run out of Spain in other manner then should become a Prince of his Royal and generous Vertues In Spain they stayed near eight entire moneths during all which times who but Buckingham lay at home under millions of maledictions Which yet at the Prince his safe arrival in the West did die and vanish here and there into
carriage in his Negotiations to whom he smilingly gave this for an infallible Aphorisâ—… That to be in safety himself and serviceable to his Countrey he should alwayes and upon all occasions speak the truth it seems a State-Paradox for sayes Sir Henry Wotton you shall never be believed and by this means your truth will secure your self if you shall ever â—…e called to any account and 't will also put your Adversaries who will still hunt counter to a loss in all their disquisitions and undertakings Many more of this nature might be observed but they must be laid aside for I shall here make a little â—…op and invite the Reader to look back 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall say 〈◊〉 little of Sir Alberâ—… 〈◊〉 and Mr. William Bedel whom I formerly mentioned I have tâ—…ld you that are â—…y Reader that 〈◊〉 Sir Hâ—…y Woâ—…s 〈◊〉 going Ambassador into Italy his Cousin Sir Albert Mortoâ—… went his Secretary and am next to tell you that Sir Albertus died Secretary of State to our late King but cannot am not able to express the sorrow that possest Sir Henry Wâ—…tton at his first hearing the news that Sir Albertus was by death lost to him and this world and yet the Reader may partly guess by these following expressions The first in a Letter to his Nicholas Pey of which this that followeth is a part And My dear Nick When I had been here almost a fortnight in the midst of my great contentâ—…nt I received notice of Sir Albertus Morton 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of this World who was dearer to me then mine own being in it what a wound it is to my heart you that know him and know me will easily believeâ—… but â—…our Creators Will must be done and unrepiniâ—…gly râ—…ived by his own Creatures who is the Lord of all Nature and of all Fortune when he taketh to himself now one and then â—…ther till that expected day wherein it shall please him to dissolve the whole and wrap up even the Heaven it self 〈◊〉 Scrâ—…le of Parchment This is the last Philosophy that we must study upon Earth let us therefore that yet remain here as our dayes and friends waste reinforce our love to each other which of all vertues both spiritual and moral hath the highest priviledge because death it self cannot end it And my good Nick c. This is a part of his sorrow thus exprest to his Nick Pâ—…y the other part is in this following Elogy of which the Reader may safely conclude 't was toâ—… hearty to be dissembled Tears wept at the Grave of Sir Albertus Morton by Henry Wotton SIlence in truth would speak my sorrow best For deepest wounds can least their feelings tell Yet let me borrow from mine own unrest A time to bid him whom I lov'd farewell Oh my unhappy lines you that before Have serv'd my youth to vent some wanton cries And now congeal'd with grief can scarce implore Strength to accent Here my Albetus lies This is that Sable Stone this is the Cave And womb of Earth that doth his Corps embrace While others sing his praise let me ingrave Thâ—…se blâ—…ding numbers to adorn the place Here will I paint the Characters of Woe Here will I pay my Tribute to the Dead And here my faithful Tears in showres shall flow To humanize the Flints on which I tread Whâ—…re though I mourn my matchless loss alone And none between my weakness judge and me Yet even these pensive Walls allow my moan Whose dâ—…leful Ecchoes to my plaints agree But is he gone and live I rhyming here As if some Muse would listen to my lay When all dis-tun'd sit waiting for their dear And bathe the Banks where he was wont to play 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 lâ—…ss Bliss with happy Souls Discharg'd from Natures and from Fortunes Trust Whil'st on thâ—… fluid Globe my Hour glass rowls And runs the â—…est of my remaining dust H. W. This concerning his Sir Albertus Morton And for what I shall say concerning Mr. William Bedel I must prepare the Reader by telling him That when King Iames sent Sir Henry Wotton Ambassador to the State of Veniâ—… he sent also an Ambassador to the King of France and another to the King of Spain with the Ambassador of France went Ioseph Hall late Bishop of Norwich whose many and useful Works speak his great Merit with the Ambassador of Spain went Ia. Wadsworth and with Sir Henry Wotton went William Bodâ—…l These three Chaplains to these three Ambassadours were all bred in one University all of one Colledge all Benefic'd in one Diocess and all most dear and intire Friends But in Spain Mr. Wadsworth met vvith temptations or reasons such as were so powerful as to perswade him who of the three was formerly observ'd to be the most averse to that Religion that calls it self Catholick to disclaim himself a Member of the Church of England and declare himself for the Church of Rome discharging himself of his attendance on the Ambassador and betaking himself to a Monasterial life in which he lived very regularly and so died When Dr. Hall the late Bishop of Norwich came into England he wrote to Mr. Wadsworth 't is the first Epistle in his Printed Decads to perswade his return or to shew the reason of his Apostasie the Letter seemed to have in it many sweet expressions of love and yet there was in it some expression that was so unpleasant to Mr. Wadsworth that he chose rather to acquaint his old Friend Mr. Bedel with his motives by which means there past betwixt Mr. Bedil and Mr. Wadsworth divers Letters which be extant in Print and did well deserve it for in them there seems to be a controversie not of Religion only but who should answer each other with most love and meekness which I mention the rather because it too seldom falls out to be so in a Book-War There is yet a little more to be said of Mr. Bedel for the greatest part of which the Reader is referred to this following Letter of Sir Henry Wottons writ to our late King Charles the first May it please Your most Gracious Majesty HAving been informed that certain persons have by the good wishes of the Archbishop of Armagh been directed hither with a most humble Petition unto Your Majesty that You will be pleased to make Mr. William Bedel now resident upon a small Benefice in Suffolk Governor of Your Colledge at Dublin for the good of that Society and my self being required to render unto Your Majesty some testimony of the said William Bedel who was long my Chaplain at Venice in the time of my first employment there I am bound in all Conscience and Truth so far as Your Majesty will vouchsafe to accept my poor judgement to affirm of him That I think hardly a fitter man for that Charge could have been propounded unto Your Majesty in Your whole Kingdom for singular Erudition and Piety Conformity to the Rites of the Church and
I would fain as the occasion suggesteth propound unto your judgement a pretty Moral doubt super tota materia which I have heard discussed and resolved affirmatively among some skilful Humorists vvho â—…evv the World vvell The Question vvas this Whether in such a case precisely as ours of meer scandal without apparent truth some inclining to think the worst and some the best there be left room for any middle imagination between good and ill In the solution of which point I will crave pardon to reserve a secret till we meet at which I believe you will smile We are here God be blessed all well Our Audit ended a little before Christmass-day more troublesome then fruitful after the fashion The same Officers as the year before every man of them your Servant or otherwise they had wanted my voice Mr. Harison hath been of late somewhat more then heretofore troubled with certain Nephritical fits but they are transient and light Et jam mansueta mala Mr. Powel speaketh of you with much devotion as all other whom you have once touched with your Magnetical vertue In the Conclusion let me as with a Box of Marmalad close up your stomach with one of the Genialest pieces that I have read in my life-time of the same unaffected and discheveled kinde as I may term it sent me newly from London which if you have seen before I am out of countenance And so Sir vvishing you for I cannot vvish you better on earth after the sweet apprehension of Gods continual favour the fruition of your self I rest at what distance soever From the Colledge on the Eve of the New year through vvhich God send you a blessed passage and many more Your unseparable Servant H. WOTTON ADDITIONAL LETTERS TO SEVERAL PERSONS Now first Published from the Authors own Copies King Iames to Sir Henry Wotton 1616. To Our Right trusty and well-beloved Sir Henry Wotton Knight Our Ambassador Resident with the State of Venice Iames R. RIght trusty and well-beloved We greet you well Whereas many of the Gentry and others of Our Kingdomes under pretence of travel for their experience do pass the Alpes and not contenting themselves to remain in Lombardy or Tuscany to gain the language there do daily flock to Rome out of vanity and curiosity to see the Antiquities of that City vvhere falling into the company of Priests and Jesuites or other ill-disposed persons they are not only corrupted vvith their Doctrine but poysoned vvith their Positions and so return again into their Countreys both averse to Religion and ill-affected to Our State and Government Forasmuch as vve cannot think upon any better means to prevent that inconvenience hereafter then by imposing the care of that business in part upon you These are therefore to require you to take notice vvith diligence of all such as by the vvay of Venice shall bend their courses thither and to admonish them as from Us that they should not presume to go beyond the bounds of the Dukedome of Florence upon any occasion vvhatsoever After vvhich advice of yours given unto them if any Subject of Ours of vvhat degree or condition soever shall be either so much forgetfull of the duty he doth owe to Us or so little respective of his own good as to press further to the breach of Our Commandment delivered them by you Our Will and Pleasure is that you should forthwith acquaint us vvith the Names of the persons vvho shall so miscarry themselves that upon notice thereof from you We may take such further order vvith them for the redress of this mischief as to Our Wisdome shall seem good Given under Our Signet at Newmarket the seventh day of December in the fourteenth year of Our Raign of England France and Ireland and of Scotland the fiftieth 1616. Venice 1618. My most Honoured Lord and Patron MY humble suit unto your Lordship is this It is His Majesties usual Grace to yield His forraign Servants the comfort of His Gracious sight once in three years as this Republick doth likewise recall their Ministers vvhich Term by my Privy Seal vvill end on the first of February next I do therefore humbly beg that by your Lordships intercession I may have leave to return home for a moneth or six vveeks concurring two urgent occasions The one for the pursuit of a business depending on a Patent long since granted to Sir Edward Dymock and me vvhereunto I am summoned by His Majesties Attorney as vvill appear unto your Lordship by the Copy of the said Attorneys Letter coming herewith vvritten to my Brother Sir Iames Wotton my Feoffee in trust vvherein my presence is necessary by reason of some differences between the said Sir Edward Dymock and me And this is a Case vvherein vve are to maintain His Majesties Title as hath been endeavoured vvith our own moneys hitherto unfruitfully spent The other for the re-ordering of my Exchanges vvhich have been much incommodated by the failing of Seignor Burlamachie's credit here though it stand vvell in other places by a trick that vvas played him While I shall be at home I vvill challenge nothing from His Majesties Exchequer though perchance I shall bring some observations not altogether unprofitable as a publick Instrument I vvill likewise neither trouble His Majesty as the Fountain nor your Lordship as the Means vvith any private suit in the vvay of mine own fortune For by His Royal Goodness and by your favourable mediation I am already abundantly satisfied in some Expectatives as marks of His Grace and of your Patronage vvhich have not only exceeded my merits but even quieted mine appetites Only thus much I humbly crave That by His Majesties toleration of my vveaknesses I may still retain this charge and live upon his service vvithout farther burden unto him because I see no man hasty at home to die for my benefit 1619. A Report of my Negotiation in Germany and of some Particularities occurring in my Iourney To my most Gracious Soveraign and Master I Came to Munichen the Court of Bavaria in the evening before the Feast of Corpus Christi and in my company the Duke Ioachimus Ernestus of Hoâ—…stein vvho since the ceasing of Arms in Friuli had lived vvith me at Venice vvhich I mention as a duty having been recommended unto me and to that State by Your Majesties special Letters and in truth likewise by his own vvorthy dispositions Here vve thought only to have stolen a sight in some private vvindow of the Procession the next day vvhere vve vvere told the Princes and vvhole Court vvould be But in the morning vve vvere prevented by the Duke Maximilian vvho having gotten knowledge of our qualities sent a Baron of his Bed-Chamber vvith Coaches to conduct us to the Court vvhich gracious surprisal vve could not civilly resist At the Court vve vvere placed by the Dukes own appointment in a Gallery where when we saw a more solemn and sober Procession then I had beheld even at Rome under the