and dyed a constant Courtier of the Ladies Essex MY Lord of Essex as Sir Henry Wotton a Gentleman of great parts and partly of his times and retinue observes had his introduction by my Lord of Leicester who had married his mother a tye of affinity which besides a more urgent obligation might have invited his care to advance him his fortune being then and through his Fathers infelicity grown low but that the sonne of a Lord Ferrers of Charley Viscount Hartford and Earl of Essex who was of the ancient Nobility and formerly in the Queens good grace could not have a room in her favour without the assistance of Leicester was beyond the rule of her nature which as I have elsewhere taken into observation was ever inclineable to favour the nobility sure it is that he no sooner appeared in Court but he took with the Queen and Courtiers and I beleeve they all could not choose but look thorough the Sacrifice of the Father on his living sonne whose Image by the remembrance of former passages was a fresh like the bleeding of men murdered represented to the Court and offered up as a Subject of compassion to all the Kingdome There was in this young Lord together with a most goodly person a kinde of urbanity or innate curtesie which both wonne the Queen and too much took upon the people to gaze upon the new adopted sonne of her favour and as I go along it were not amisse to take into observation too notable quotations the first was a violent indulgency of the Queen which incident to old age where it encounters with a pleasing and sutable object towards this Lord all which argued a none perpetuity the second was a fault in the object of her grace my Lord himself who drew in too fast like a childe sucking on an over uberous Nurse and had there been a more decent decorum observed in both or either of those without doubt the unity of their affections had been more permanent and not so in and out as they were like an instrument ill tuned and lapsing to discord The greater errour of the two though unwillingly I am constrained to impose on my Lord of Essex or rather on his youth and none of the least of his blame on those that stood Sentinels about him who might have advised him better but that like men intoxicated with hopes they likewise had suckt in with the most and of their Lords receipt and so like Caesars would have all or none a rule quite contrary to nature and the most indulgent parents who though they may expresse more affection to one in the abundance of bequests yet cannot forget some Legacies just distributives and dividents to others of their begetting and how hatefull partiallity proves every dayes experience tells us out of which common consideration might have framed to their hands a maxime of more discretion for the conduct and management of their now graced Lord and Master But to omit that of infusion and to do right to truth my Lord of Essâ—x even of those that truly loved and honoured him was noted for too bold an ingrosser both of fame and favour and of this without offence to the living or treading on the sacred urne of the dead I shall present a truth and a passage yet in memory My Lord Mouâ—â—â—â—y who was another childe of her favour being newly come to Court and then but Sir Charles â—luns for my Lord William his Elder Brother was then living had the good fortune one day to runne very well a Tilt and the Queen therewith was so well pleased that she sent him in token of her favour a Queen at Chesse of gold richly ennameled which his servants had the next day fastned on his Arme with a Crymson ribband which my Lord of Essex as he passed through the Privy Chamber espying with his cloak cast under his Arme the better to commend it to the view enquired what it was and for what cause there fixed Sir Foulk Grevill told him that it was the Queens favour which the day before and after the Tilting she had sent him whereat my Lord of Essex in a kinde of emulation and as though he would have limited her favour said now I perceive every fool must have a favour This bitter and publikely affront came to Sir Charles Bluâ—ts eare who sent him a challenge which was accepted by my Lord and they met neer Marrybone Park where my Lord was hurt in the thigh and disarmed the Queen missing the men was very curious to learn the truth and when at last it was whispered out she swore by Gods death it was fit that some one or other should take him down and teach him better manners otherwise there would be no rule with him and here I note the innition of my Lords friendship with Mountâ—oy which the Queen her self did then conjure Now for fame we need not go farre for my Lord of Essex having borne a grudge to Generall Norris who had unwittingly offered to undertake the action of Britain with fewer men then my Lord had before demanded on his return with victory and a glorious report of his valour he was then thought the onely man for the Irish Warre wherein my Lord of Essex so wrought by despising the number and quality of Rebels that Norris was sent over with a scanted force joyned with the reliques of the veterane Troops of Britain of set purpose as it fell out â—o ruine Norris and the Lord Buâ—rows by my Lords procurement sent â—his heels and to command in chief and to confine Norris onely to his Government at Munser which brake the great heart of the Generall to see himself undervalued and undermined by my Lord and Burrows which was as the Proverb speaks it Imberbes docere senes My Lord Burrows in the beginning of his persecution dyed whereupon the Queen was fully bent to have sent over Mountioy which my Lord of Essex utterly disliked and opposed vvith many reasons and by arguments of contempt against Mountioy his then professed friend and familiar so predominant vvere his vvords to reap the honour of closing up that Warre and all other Novv the vvay being opened and plained by his ovvn Workmanship and so handled that none durst appear to stand for the place at last vvith much ado he obtained his ovvn ends and vvithall his fatall destruction leaving the Queen and the Court vvhere he stood firm and impregnable in her grace to men that long had sought and vvatcht their times to give him the trip and could never finde any opportunity but this of his absence and of his ovvn creation and these are the true observations of his Appetite and inclinations vvhich vvere not of any true proportion but carried and transported vvith an over desire and thiâ—stines after fame and that deceitfull fame of popularity and to help on his Catastrophe I observe likevvise tvvo sorts of people that had a hand in his fall the first vvas the
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
Farmers so that we may take this also into observation that there were of the Queens Councell that were not in the Catalogue of Saints Now as we have taken a view of some particular notions of her times her nature and necessities it is not without the text to give a short touch on the helps and advantages of her raign which were without paralell for she had neither husband brother sister nor children to provide for who as they are dependants of the Crown so do they necessarily draw maintenance from thence and do often times exhaust and draw deep especially when there is an ample fraternity of the bloud Royall and of the Princes of the Bloud as it was in the time of Edward the third and Henry the fourth for then when the Crown cannot the publike ought to give them honourable allowance for they are the honour and hopes of the Kingdome and the publike which injoyes them hath alike interest in them with the Father that begot them and our Common-Law which is the heritance of the Kingdom did ever of old provide ayds for the primogenitures and the eldest daughter so that the multiplicity of Courts and the great charge which necessarily follow a King and Queen a Prince and the Royall issue was a thing which was not in rerum natura during the space of forty yeers and which by time was worn out of memory and without the consâ—deration of the present times Insomuch that the aydes given to the late and right noble Prince Henry and to his sister the Lady Elizabeth were at first generally received for impositions of a new Coynage Yea the late impositions for Knightwood though an ancient Law fell also into the imputation of a tax of novelty for that it lay long covered in the embers of division between the Houses of York and Lancaster and forgotten or connived at by the succeeding Princes so that the strangenesse of the observation and the difference of those latter raignes is that the Queen took up beyond the power of the Law which fell not into the murmure of the people and her successors nothing but by warrant of the Law which neverthelesse was conceived through disuse to be injurious to the liberty of the Kingdome Now before I come to any further mention of her favorits for hitherto I have delivered but some obvious passages thereby to prepare and smooth a way for the rest that follows it is requisite that I touch on the reliques of the other raign I mean the body of her sisters Councell of State which she retained intire neither removing nor discontenting any although she knew them averse to her Religion and in her sisters time perverse towards her person and private to her troubles and imprisonment A prudence which was incomparable with her sisters nature for she both dissipated and persecuted the major part of her brothers Councell but this will be of certainty that how compliable soever and obsequious she found them yet for a good space she made little use of their Councells more then in the ordinary course of the board for she held a dormant Table in her own Princely brest yet she kept them together and their places without any suddain change so that we may say of them that they were of the Court not of the Councell for whilst she amazed them with a kinde of premissive disputation concerning the points controverted by both Churches she did set down her own reservations without their privity and made all her progressions gradations But so that the tenents of her secrecy with intent of her establishment were pitcht before it was knovvn where the Court would sit dovvn neither do I finde that any of her sisters Councell of state were either repugnant to her religion or opposed her doings Englâ—field Master of the horse excepted who withdrew himself from the board and shortly after from out her Dominions so plyable and obedient they were to change with the times and their Princes and of this there will fall in heer a relation both of recreation and of knovvn truth Pawleâ— Marquesse of Winchesteâ— and Lord Treasurer having served then four Princes in as various and changeable season that I may well say time nor any age hath yeilded the like president This man being noted to grow high in her favour as his place and experience required was questioned by an intimate friend of his how he stood up for thirty yeers together amidst the changes and raignes of so many Chancellors and great personages why quoth the Marquesse Ortus sunt ex salice non ex queâ—cu I was made of the pliable Willovv not of the stubborn Oake and truly the old man hath taught them all especially William Earl of Pembroke for they tvvo were alvvayes of the Kings religion and over zealous professors Of this it is said that being both younger brothers yet of noble Houses they spent what was left them and come on trust to the Court vvhereupon the bare stock of their Wits they began to traffick for themselves and prospered so vvell that they got spent and left more then any Subjects from the Norman Conquest to their ovvn times vvhereunto it hath been prettily replyed that they lived in a time of dissolution To conclude them of any of the former raign ir is said that these tvvo lived and dyed chiefly in her favour The latter upon his sonnes marriage vvhich the Lady Kâ—th rine Grey vvâ—s like utterly to have lost himself but at the instant of the consummation apprehending the insafety and danger of an intermarriage vvith the bloud Royall he fell at the Queens feet vvhere he both acknovvledged his presumption vvith tears and projected the cause and the divorce together and so quick he vvas at his vvork for it stood him upon that upon repudiation of the Lady he clapt up a marriage for his sonne the Lord Herbert vvith Mâ—r Sidney Daughrer to Sir Henry Sydney then Lord Deputy of Ireland the blovv falling on Edward late Earl of Hereford vvho to his cost took up the divorced Lady of vvhom the Lord Beauchampe vvas borne and William Earl of Hereford is descended I come how to present those of her own election which she either admitted to her secrets of State or took into her grace and favour of whom in their order I crave leave to give unto posterity a cautious description with a short Charracter or draught of the persons themselves for without offence to others I would be true to my self their memories and merits distinguishing them of the militiae from the 〈◊〉 and of these she had as many and those as able Ministers as any of her Progenitors Leicester IT will be out of doubt that my Lord of Leicester was one of the first whom she made Master of the Horse he was the youngest Sonne then living of the Duke Northumberland beheaded 〈…〉 and his Father was that Duâ—y which our Histories couple with 〈◊〉 and both so much infamed for the Caterpillars
the violences of nature but especially of the exorbitances of the tongue and so I conclude him with this double observation the one of the innocency of his intentions exempt and clear from the guilt of Treason and disloyalty the other of the greatnesse of his heart for at his arraignment he was so little dejected by what might be alleaged and proved against him that he rather grew troubled with choller and in a kinde of exaspiration despised his Iury though of the order of Knighthood and of the speciall Gentry claiming the priviledge of tryall by the Peers and Barronage of the Realm so prevalent was that of his native genious and the haughtinesse of his spirit which accompanied him to his last and till any diminution of courage it brake in peeces the cords of his magnanimity for he dyed suddenly in the Tower and when it was thought the Queen did intend his inlargement with the restitution of his possessions which were then very great and comparable to most of the Nobility Hattor SIR Chrystopher Hatton came into the Court as his opposite Sir Iohn Perrot was wont to say by the Galliard for he came thither as a private Gentleman of the Innes of Court in a Mask and for his activity and person which was tall and proportionable taken into her favour he was first made vice Chamberlain and shortly afterward advanced to the place of Lord Chancellor a Gentleman that besides the graces of his person and dancing had also the adjectaments of a strong and subtill capacity one that could soon learn the discipline and garb both of the times and Court the truth is he had a large proportion of gifts and endowments but too much of the season of envy and he was a meer vegetable of the Court that sprung up at night and sunk again at his noon Lord Effingham MY Lord of Effingham though a Courtier betimes yet I finde not that the Sunshine of her favour broke out upon him untill she took him into the Ship and made him high Admirall of England for his extract it may suffice that he was the sonne of a Howard and of a Duke of Norfolk And for his person as goodly a Gentleman as the times had any if nature had not been more intentive to compleat his person then Fortune to make him rich for the times considered which were then active and a long time after lucrative he dyed not wealthy yet the honester man though it seems the Queens purpose was to tender the occasion of his advancement and to make him capable of more honour which at his return from Cadize accounts she conferred it upon him creating him Earl of Nottingham to the great discontent of his Colleague my Lord of Essex who then grew accessive in the Appetite of her favour and the truth was so exorbitant in the limitation of the Soveraigne aspect that it much alienated the Queens grace from him and drew others together with the Admirall to a combination and to conspire his ruine and though I have heard it from that party I mean of the Admiralls faction that it lay not in his proper power to hurt my Lord of Essex yet he had more followers and such as were well skilled in setting of the gin but I leave this to these of an other age It is out of doubt that the Admirall was a good honest and a brave man and a faithfull servant to his Mistris and such a one as the Queen out of her own Princely judgement knew to be a fit instrument for that service for she was no ill proficient in the reading of men as well as Books and his sundry expeditions as that afore mentioned and 88. doth both expresse his worth and manifest the Queens trust and the opinion she had of his fidelity and conduct Moreover the Howards were of the Queens alliance and consanguinity by her mother which swayed her affection and bent it toward this great house and it was a part of her naturall propension to grace and support ancient nobility where it did not intrench neither invade her interest for on such trespasses she was quick and tender and would not spare any whatsoever as we may observe in the case of the Duke and my Lord of Hereford whom she much favoured and countenanced till they attempted the forbidden fruit the fault of the last being in the severest interpretation but a trespasse of incroachment but in the first it was taken for a ryot against the Crown and her own Soveraign power and as I have ever thought the cause of her aversion against the rest of the house and the Dukes great Father in Law Fitz Allen Earl of Arundell a person of the first rank in her affections before these and some other jealousies made a separation between them this noble Lord and the Lord Thomas Howard since Earl of Suffolk standing alone in her grace the rest in umbrage Sir Iohn Packington SIR Iohn Packington was a Gentleman of no mean family and of form and feature no way dispiseable for he was a brave Gentleman and a very fine Courtier and for the time which he stayed there which was not lasting very high in her grace but he came in and went out and thorough disassiduity drew the Curtain between himself and the light of her grace and then death overwhelmed the remnant and utterly deprived him of recovery and they say of him that had he brought lesse to the Court then he did he might have carried away more then he brought for he had a time on it but an ill husband of opportunity Lord Hunsdon MY Lord of Hunsdon was of the Queens neerest Kindred and on the decease of Sussex both he and his sonne took the place of Lord Chamberlain he was a fast man to his Prince and firm in his friends and servants and though he might speak big and therein would be born out yet was he not the more dreadfull but lesse harmfull and farre from the practise of my Lord of Leicesters instructions for he was down right and I have heard those that both knew him well and had interest in him say merrily of him that his Latine and his dissimulation were both alike and that his custome of swearing and obscenity in speaking made him seem a worse Christian then he was and a better Knight of the Carpet then he should be as he lived in a ruffling time so he loved sword and buckler men and such as our Fathers were wont to call men of their hands of which sort he had many brave Gentleman that followed him yet not taken for a popular and dangerous person and this is one that stood amongst the Togati of an honest stout heart and such a one as upon occasion would have fought for his Prince and his Country for he had the charge of the Queens person both in the Court and in the Camp at Tilbury Rawleigh SIR Walter Rawleigh was on that it seems fortune had pickt out of
Souldiery vvhich all flockt unto him as foretelling a mortality and are commonly of blunt and too rough Counsells and many times dissonant from the time of the Court and the State the other sort vvere of his family his servants and his ovvn creatures such as vvere bound by the rules of safety and obligations of fidelity to have looked better to the steering of that Boat wherein they themselves were carried and not have suffered it to float and runne on ground with those empty Sailes of Fame and Tumor of popular applause me thinks one honest man or other that had but the office of brushing his cloaths might have whispered in his ear my Lord look to it this multitude that followes you will either devoure you or undo you strive not to rule and over rule all for it will cost hot water and it will procure envy and if needs your genius must have it so let the Court and the Queens presence be your station but as I have said they had suckt too much of their Lords milk and insteed of withdrawing they blew the Coals of his ambition and infused into him too much of the Spirit of glory yea and mixed the goodnesse of his nature with a touch of revenge which is ever accompanied with a destiny of the same fate and of this number there were some of insufferable natures about him that towar is his last gave desperate advice such as his integrity abhorred and his fidelity forbad amongst whom Sir Henry â—ottâ—n notes without injury his Secretary Cuffe a vileman and of a perverse nature I could also name others that when he was in the right course of recovery and settling to moderation would not suffer a recesse in him but stirred up the dregs of those rude humors which by time and his affliction out of his own judgement he sought to repose or to give them all a vomit and thus I conclude this noble Lord as a mixture between prosperity and adversity once the childe of his great Mistris favour but the sonne of Bellona Buckhurst MY Lord of Buckhurst was of the noble House of the Sackvills and of the Queens consanguinity his Father was Sir Richard Sackvill or as the people then called him Fill-sack by reason of his great wealth and the vast Patrimony which he left to this his sonne whereof he spent in his youth the best part untill the Queen by her frequent admonitions diverted the torrent of his profusion he was a very fine Gentleman of person and indowments both of art and nature both without measure magnificient till on the turn of his humour and the allay that his yeers and good Councells had wrought upon those immoderate courses of his youth and that height of spirit inherent to his House and then did the Queen as a most juditious and indulgent Prince when she saw the man grow stayed and settled give him her assistance and advanced him to the Treasureship where he made amends to his house for his mispent time both in the increasment of estate and honour which the Queen conferred on him together with the opportunity to remake himself and thereby to shew that this was a childe that should have a share in her grace and a taste of her bounty They much commend his elocution but more the excellency of his pen for he was a Scholler and a person of a quick dispatch faculties that yet runne in the bloud and they say of him that his Secretaries did little for him by the way of inditement wherein they could seldome please him he was so facet and choice in his phrase and style and for his dispatches and the content he gave to Suitors he had a decorum seldome since put in practise for he had of his attendants that took into rowl the names of all Suitors with the date of their first adresses and these in their order had hearing so that a fresh man could not leap over his head that was of a more ancient edition except in the urgent affaires of State I finde not that he was any wayes insnared in the factions of the Court which were all his times strong and in every mans note the Howards and the â—â—cills of the one part my Lord of Essex c on the other part for he held the Staff of the Treasury fast in his hand which once in the yeer made then all beholding to him and the truth is as he was a wise man and a stout he had no reason to be a partaker for he stood sure in bloud and in grace and was wholly intentive to the Queens service and such were his abilities that she received assiduous proofes of his sufficiency and it hath been thought that she might have more cunning instruments but none of a more strong judgement and confidence in his wayes which are symptomes of magnanimity and fidelity whereunto methinks this Motto hath some kinde of reference aut nunq iam tentes aut perfice As though he would have charactered in a word the Genius of his House or exprest somewhat of an higher inclination then lay within his compasse That he was a Courtier is apparent for he stood alwayes in her eye and favour Lord Mountjoy MY Lord Mountioy was of the ancient Nobility but utterly deceived in the support thereof Patrimony through his Grandfathers excesse in the action of Bullen his Fathers vanity in the search of the Philosophers stone and his Brothers untimely prodigalities all which seemed by a joynt conspiracy to ruine the house and altogether to annihilate it as he came from Oxford he took tho Inner-Temple in his way to Court whither no sooner came but without asking he had a pretty strange kinde of admission which I have heard from a discreet man of his own and much more of the secrets of those times he was then much about twenty yeers of age of a Brown-hair a sweet face a most neat Composure and tall in his person the Queen was then at White-hall and at dinner whither he came to see the fashion of the Court the Queen had soon found him out and with a kinde of an affected frown asked the Lady Carâ—er what he was she answered she knew him not insomuch as an inquiry was made from one to another who he might be till at length it was told the Queen he was Brother to the Lord William Mountioy this inquisition with the eye of Majesty fixed upon him as she was wont to do and to dant men she knew not stirred the bloud of this young Gentleman insomuch as his colour came and went which the Queen observing called him unto her and gave him her hand to kisse incouraging him with gratious words and new looks and so diverting her speech to the Lords and Ladies She said that she no sooner observed him but that she knew there was in him some noble Bloud with some other expressions of pitty towards his House and then again demanding his name She said fail you not
Devonshirâ— upon the certainty the Spaniard would invade Ireland with a strong Army had written very earnestly to the Queen and the Councell for such supplies to be timely sent over that might enable him to march up to the Spaniard if he did land and follow on his prosecution against the Rebels Sir Robert Cecill besides the generall dispatch of the Councell as he often did Wrote this in private for these two began then to love dearly My Lord Out of the abundance of my affection and the care I have of your well doing I must in private put you out of doubt for I fear I know you cannot be otherwise sensible then in the way of honour that the Spaniard will not come unto you this yeer for I have it from my own what preparations are in all his parts and what he can do for be confident he beareth up a reputation by seeming to embrace more then he can gripe but the next yeer be assured he will cast over unto you some forelorne hopes which how they may be reinforced beyond his present ability and his first intention I cannot as yet make any certain judgement but I beleeve out of my intelligence that you may expect their landing in Munster and the more to distract you in severall places as at Kings-Sail Beer-haven Baltimore where you may be sure coming from Seâ— they will first fortifie and learn the strength of the Rebels before they dare take the field howsoever as I know you will not lessen your care neither your defences and whatsoever lyes within my power to do you and the publike service rest thereof assured And to this I would ad much more but it may as it is suffice to present much as his abilities in the pen that he was his crafts Master in forraign intelligence and for domestique affairs as he was one of those that sate at the stern to the last of the Queen so was he none of the least in skill and in the true use of the Compasse and so I shall onely vindicate the scandall of his death and conclude him for he departed at Saint Margarets neer Marlâ—borough in his return from the Bath as my Lord Viscount Cranborne my Lord Clifford his Sonne and Sonne in Law my self and many more can witnesse but that the day before he sounded in the way vvas taken out of the Litter and laid into his Coach vvas a truth out of vvhich that falsehood concerning the manner of his death had its derivation though nothing to the purpose or to the prejudice of his vvorth Vere SIR Francis Vere was of the ancient and the most noble extract of the Earls of Oxford and it may be a question whether the nobility of his house or the honour of his atchievements might most commend him but that we have an authentique rule to decide the doubt Nam genus proavos quae non â—ecimus ipsi Vixâ—a nostra voco For though he vvere an honourable slip of that ancient Tree of nobility which was no disadvantage to his vertue yet he brought more glory to the name of Vere then he took of Bloud from the Family He vvas amongst the Queens svvord-men inferiour to none but superiour to many of vvhom it may be said to speak much of him vvere the vvay to leave out something that might adde to his praise and to forget more that could adde to his honour I finde not that he came much to the Court for he lived almost perpetually in the Camp but vvhen he did no man had more of the Queens favour and none lesse envyed for he seldome troubled it vvith the jealousie and allarums of supplantation his vvay vvas another sort of undermining they report that the Queen as she loved Martiall men would Court this Gentleman as soon as he appeared in her presence and surely he was a Souldier of great worth and commanded thirty yeers in the service of the States and twenty yeers over the English in chief as the Queens Generall and he that had seen the battail of Newport might there best have taken him and his noble Brother my Lord of Tilbury to the life Worcesâ—er MY Lord of Worcester I have here put last but not least in the Queens favour he was of the ancient and noble Bloud of the 〈◊〉 and of her Grandfathers line by the Mother which the Queen could never forget especially where there was a concunency of old Bloud with fidelity a mixture which ever sorted with the Queens nature and though there might appear something in this House which might avert her grace though not to speak of my Lord himself but with due reverence and honour I mean contrariety or suspition in religion yet the Queen ever respected this House and principally this noble Lord whom she first made Master of the Horse and then admitted of her Councell of State in his youth part whereof he spent before he came to reside at Court he was a very fine Gentleman and the best Horseman and Tilter of the times which were then the manlike and noble recreations of the Court and such as took up the applause of men as well as the praise and commendation of Ladies and when yeers had abated these exercises of honour he grew then to be a faithfull and profound Councellor and as I have placed him last so was he the last liver of all the Servants of her favour and had the honour to see his renowned Mistris and all of them laid in the places of their rest and for himself after a life of a very noble and remarkable reputation he dyed rich and in a peaceable old age a fate that I make the last and none of the slightest observations which befell not many of the rest for they expired like unto lights blown out with the snuff stinking not commendably extinguished and with offence to the standers by And thus have I delivered up this my poore assay a little draught of this great Princesse and her times with the Servants of her State and favour I cannot say I have finished it for I know how defective and imperfect it is as limbed onely in the originall nature not without the active blemishes and so left it as a task fitter for remote times and the sallyes of some bolder Pensill to correct that which is amisse and draw the rest up to life as for me to have endeavoured it I took it to consideration how easily I might have dasht in too much of the strain of pollution and thereby have defaced that little which is done for I professe I have taken care so to master my Pen that I might not ex animo or of set purpose discolour truth or any of the parts thereof otherwise then in concealment Happily there are some which will not approve of this modesty but will censure me for pusillanimity and with great cunning Artists attempt to draw their line further out at large and upon this of mine which may with somewhat more ease be effected for that the frame is ready made to their hands and then happily I could draw one in the midst of theirs but that modesty in me forbids the defacements of men departed whose posterity yet remaining injoyes the merit of their vertues and do still live in their honour and I had rather incurre the censure of abruption then to be conscious and taken in the manner of sinning by eruption and of trampling on the graves of persons at rest which living we durst not look in the face nor make our addresses to them otherwise then with due regards to their honours and renown to their Vertues FINIS