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
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
a very Noble and ancient Lyneage honoured through many descents by the Title of Viscounts Fitzwalters Moreover there was such an Antipathy in his nature to that of Leicesters that being together in Court and both in high imployments they grew to a direct frowardnesse and were in continuall opposition the on setting the watch the other the sentinell each on the other actions and motions for my Lord of Sussex was of a great spirit which backt with the Queens speciall favour and supported by a great and ancient inheritance could not brook the others Empire Insomuch as the Queen upon sundry occasions had somewhat to do to appease and attain them untill death parted the competition and let the place of Leicesteâ— who was not long alone without his rivall in grace and command and to conclude this Favorite it is confidently affirmed that lying in his last sicknesse he gave this caveat to his friends I am now passing into another world and I must now leave you to your Fortunes and to the Queens grace and goodnesse but beware of the Gipsey meaning Lâ—iceâ—ter for he will be to hard for you all you know not the best so well as I do Lord Burleigh I Now come to the next which was Secretary William Cecill for on the death of the old Marquesse of Winchester he came up in his room a person of a most subtill and active spirit who though he stood not altogether by the way of constellation and making up of a part and faction for he was wholly intentive to the service of his Mistris and his dexterity experience and merit challenged a room in the Queens favour which ecclipsed the others over seeming greatnesse and made it appear that there were others that steered and stood at the Helm besides himself and more Starres in the Firmament of her grace then 〈◊〉 Maior or the Bear with the ragged staffe He was borne as they say in Lincolaâ— shire but as some upon knowledge averre of a younger Brother of the Cecills of Hartford-shire a family of my ovvn knovvledge though novv private yet of no mean antiquity vvho being exposed and sent to the City as poor Gentleman use to do their younger Sonnâ—s he came to be a rich man on Loâ—â—o-bridge and puâ—chasing in Lincolâ—-shire vvhere this man vvas born he vvas sent to Cambridge then to the Innes of Court and so he came to serve the Duke of Ommerseâ— in the time of his Protectership as Secretary and having a pregnancy to great inclinations he came by degrees to a higher conversation vvith the chiefest affairs of State and Councels but on the fall of the Duke he stood some yeers in umbrage and without imployment till the State found and needed his abilities and though we finde not that he was taken into any place during Maries raign unlesse as some have said towards the last yet the Councell on severall occasions made use of him and at the Queens entrance he was admitted Secretary of State afterwards he was made Master of the Court of Wards then Lord Treasurer a person of most requisite abilities and indeed the Queen began then to need and to seek out for men of both Garbs and so I conclude and rank this great Instrument of State amongst the Togati for he had not to do with the sword more then as the great pay-master and Contriver of the Warre which shortly followed wherein he accomplished much thorough his theoricall knowledge at home and his intelligence abroad by unlocking the Councells of the Queens enemies We must now take and that of truth into observation that untill the tenth of her raign her times were calm and serene though sometimes a little overcast as the most glorious Sunne risings are subject to shadowings and droppings in for the clouds of Spain and Vapors of the holy League began then to disperse and threaten her serenity Moreover she was then to provide against some intestine storms which began to gather in the very heart of her Kingdom all which had a relation and correspondency each with the other to dethrone her and to disturbe the publike tranquillity and therewithall as a principall work the established Religion for the name of Recusant began then and first to be known to the World and till then the Catholiques were no more then Church Papists but were commanded by the Popes expresse letters to appear and forbear Church going as they tender their holy Father and the holy Catholike Church their Mother so that it seems the Pope had then his ayms to take a true muster of his children but the Queen had the greater advantage for she likewise took tale of her apostate Subjects their strength and how many they were that had given up their names unto Baal who then by the hands of some of his Prosilits fixed his Bulls on the Gates of Pauls which discharged her Subjects of all fidelity and layed siege to the received faith and so under the vail of the next Successor to replant the Catholike Religion so that the Queen had then a new task and work in hand that might well awak her best providence and required a muster of men of Armes as well as Courtships and Councels for the times began then to be quick and active fitter for stronger motions then those of the Carpet and measure and it will be a true note of her magnanimity that she loved a souldier and had a propension in her nature to regard and alwayes to grace them which the Courtiers taking into observation took it as an invitation to winne honour together with their Majesties favour by exposing themselves to the Warres especially when the Queens and the affairs of the Kingdom stood in some necessity of a Souldier for we have many instances of the Sallies of the Nobility and Gentry yea and out of the Court and her Privy favorits that had any touch or tincture of Mars in their inclinations and to steal away without licence and the Queens privity which had like to have cost some of them dear so predominant were their thoughts and hopes of honor growing in them as we may truly observe in the expositions of Sir Philip Sydney my Lord of Essex Mountjoy and divers others whose absence and the manner of their cruptions was very distastfull to her whereof I can here adde a true and no impertinent Story and that of the last Mountjoy vvho having tvvice or thrice stoln avvay into Britain vvhere under Sir Iohn Norris he had then a company vvithout the Queens leave and privity she sent a Messenger unto him vvith a strict charge to the generall to see him sent home vvhen he came into the Queens presence she fell into a kinde of reviling demanding hovv he durst go over vvithout her leave serve me so quoth she once more and I vvill lay you fast enough for running you vvill never leave untill you are knockt on the head as that inconsiderate fellovv Sydney vvas you shall go vvhen I send
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