domino faâ—tum est istud est inâ—nable inoculis nostris which we finde to this day on the stamp of her gold with this on her silver Posui Deumad â—â—â—rem meum Her Ministers and Instruments of State such as were participes 〈◊〉 and bare a great part of the burthen were many and those memorable but they were onely Favorites not Mimions such as acted more by her own Princely rules and judgements then by their own wills and appetites which she observed to the last for we finde no Gaveston Vere or Spencer to have swayed alone during forty four yeers which was a well settled and advised maxime for it valued her the more it awed the most secure and it took best with the people and it starved all emulations which are apt to rise and vent in obloquious acrimony even against the Prince where there is onely A Major Palatii The principall note of her raign will be that she ruled much by faction and parties which her self both made upheld and weakned as her own great judgement advised for I disassent from the common received opinion that my Lord of Leicester was absolute and above all in her Grace and though I come somewhat short of the knowledge of those times yet that I might not rove and shoote at random I know it from assured intelligence that it was not so for proof whereof among many that I could present I will both relate a short and therâ—â— a known truth And it was thus Bawyer a Gentleman of the Black-rod being charged by her expresse command to look precisely to all admissions into the Privy-Chamber one day stayed a very gay Captain and a follower of my Lord of Leicesters from entrance for that he was neither well known nor a sworn servant to the Queen at which repulse the Gentleman bearing high on my Lords favour told him he might perchance procure him a discharge Leicester coming into the Contestation said publikely which was none of his want that he was a Knave and should not continue long in his office and so turning about to go into the Queen Bowyer who was a bold Gentleman and welbeloved stept before him and fell at Her Majesties feet related the story and humbly craves Her Graces pleasure and whether my Lord of Leicester was King or Her Majesty Queen whereunto she replyed with her wonted oath Gods death my Lord I have wisht you well but my favour is not so lockt up for you that others shall not partake thereof for I have many servants unto whom I have and will at my pleasure bequeath my favour and like wise resume the same and if you think to rule here I will take a course to see you forth coming I will have heere but one Mistris and no Master and look that no ill happen to him least it be severely required at your hands which so quelled my Lord of Leicester that his fained humility was long after one of his best vertues Moreover the Earl of Sussex then Lord Chamberlain was his profest Antagonist to his dying day and for my Lord of Hunsdone and Sir Thomas Sackvile after Lord Treasurer who were all Contemporaries he was wont to say of them that they were of the Tribe of Dan and were Noli me tangeres implying that they were not to be contested with for they were indeed of the Queens neer kindred from whence and in more instances I conclude that she was absolute and Soveraign Mistris of Her Graces and that all those to whom she distributed her favours were never more then Tenants at will and stood on no better ground then her Princely pleasure and their own good behaviour and this also I present as a known observation that she was though very capable of Councell absolute enough in her own resolutions which was ever apparent even to her last in that her aversation to grant Tyrone the least drop of her mercy though earnestly and frequently advised yea wrought onely by the whole Counsell of State with very many pressing reasons and as the state of her Kingdom then stood I may speak it with assurance necessitated Arguments If we look into her inclination as it is disposed either to magnificence or frugality we shall finde in them many notable considerations for all her dispensations were so poysed as though discretion and Iustice had both agreed to stand at the beam and see them weighed out in due proportion the maturity of her yeers and judgement meeting in a concurrency and at such an age as seldome lapseth to excesse To consider them apart we have not many presidents of her liberality or of any large donatives to particular men my Lord of Essex Book of Parkes onely excepted which was a Princely gift and some few more of a lesser size to my Lord of Leicester Hatton and others Her reward consisted chiefly in grants of Leases of Offices and places of Indicature but for ready money and in any great summes she was very sparing which we partly conceive was a vertue rather drawn out by necessity then her nature for she had many layings out and to her last period And I am of opinion with Sir Walter Rawleigh that those many brave men of our times and of the Militiae tasted little more of her bounty then in her grace and good word with their due entertainment for she ever paid the Souldiers well which was the honour of her times and more then her great adversary of Spain could perform so that when we come to the consideration of her frugality the observation will be little more then that her bounty and it were so woven together that the one vvas suited by an honourable vvay of spending the other limited by a necessitated vvay of sparing The Irish action vve may call a mallady and a Consumption of her times for it accompanied her to her end and it vvas of so profuse and vast an expence that it drevv neer a distemperature of State and of passion in her self for tovvard her last she grevv somevvhat hard to please her Armes being accustomed to prosperity and the Irish persecution not ansvvering her expectation and vvonted successe for a good vvhile it vvas an unthrifty and inauspitious vvarre vvhich did much disturbe and mislead her judgement and the more for that it vvas a president vvhich vvas taken out of her ovvn Pattern for as the Queen by vvay of diversion had at the coming to the Crovvn supported the revolted States of Holland so did the King of Spain turn the trick on her self tovvards her going out by cherishing the Irish rebellion vvhere it falls into consideration vvhat the State of the Kingdome and the Crovvn revenevvs vvere then able to embrace and endure if vve look into the establishment of those times vvith the list of the Irish Army considering the defeatments of Blackvvater vvithall precedent expences as it stood from my Lord of Essex undertaking to the surrender of Kingsale under the Generall Mountioy and
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
to come to the Court and I will be think my self how to do you good and this was his inlet and the beginnings of his grace where it fals into confideration that though he wanted not wit and courage for he had very fine atractions and being a good peece of a Scholler yet were they accompanied with the retractives of bashfulness and a naturall modesty which as the toan of his house the ebbe of his fortune then stood might have hindred his progression had they not been reinforced by the infusion of Soveraign favour and the Queens gratious invitation And that it may appear how low he was and how much that heretique necessity will work in the dejection of good spirits I can deliver it with assurance that his exhibition was very scant untill his Brother dyed which was shortly after his admission to the Court and then was it no more then a thousand Marks â—er annum wherewith he lived plentifully in a fine way and garb and without any great sustentation during all her times and as there was in his nature a kinde of backwardnesse which did not befriend him nor suite with the motion of the Court so there was in him an incâ—ination to Armes with a humour of travelling and gadding abroad which had not some wise men about him laboured to remove and the Queen her self laid in her commands he would out of his naturall propension have marred his own market for as he was grown by reading whereunto he was much adicted to the theory of a Souldier so was he strongly invicted by his genius to the acquaintance of the practique of the Warre which were the causes of his excursions for he had a Company in the Low-Countries from whence he came over with a Noble acceptance of the Queen but somewhat restlesse in honourable thoughts he exposed himself again and again and would presse the Queen with the pretences of visiting his Company so often that at length he had a flat deniall and yet he stole over with Sir Iohn Norris into the action of Britain which was then a hot and active Warre whom he would alwayes call his Father honouring him above all men and ever bewayling his end so contrary he was in his esteem and valuation of this great Commander to that of his friend my Lord of Essex till at last the Queen began to take his decessions for contempts and confined his residence to the Court and her own presence and upon my Lord of Essex fall so confident she was in her own Princely judgement and opinion she had conceived of his worth and conduct that she vvould have this noble Gentleman and none other to finish and bring the Irish Warre to a propitious end for it vvas a propheticall speech of her ovvn that it vvould be his fortune and his honour to cut the thred of that fatall rebellion and to bring her in peace to the grave vvhere she vvas not deceived for he atchieved it but vvith much pains and carefulnesse and not vvithout the fears and many jealousies of the Court and times vvherevvith the Queens age and the malignity of her setting times vvere repleat and so I come to his dear friend in Court Master Secretary Cecill vvhom in his long absence from Court he adored as his Saint and Courted for his onely Mecenas both before and after his departure from Court and during all the times of his command in Ireland vvell knovving that it lay in his povver and by a vvord of his mouth to make or marre him Cecill SIR Robert Cecill since Earl of Salisbury vvas the sonne of the Lord Burleigh and in the inheritor of his vvisedome and by degrees Successor of his places and favours though not of his Lands for he had Sir Thomas Cecill his elder brother since created Earl of Exeteâ— he vvas first Secretary of State then Master of the Wards and in the last of her raign came to be Lord Treasurer all vvhich vvere the steps of his Fathers greatnesse and of the honour he left to his House For his person he vvas not much beholding to nature though somevvhat for his face vvhich vvas the best part of his outside but for his inside it may be said and vvithout soloecisme that he vvas his Fathers ovvn sonne and a pregnant proficient in all discipline of State He vvas a Courtier from his Cradle vvhich might have made him betimes yet at the age of tvventy and upvvards he vvas much short of his after proof but exposed and by change of climate he soon made shovv vvhat he vvas and vvould be he lived in those times vvherein the Queen had most need and use of men of vvaight and amongst able ones this vvas a chief as having his sufficiency from his instructions that begat him the tutorship of the times and Court which were then the Academies of Art and cunning for such was the Queens condition from the tenth or twelfth of her raigne that she had the happinesse to stand up whereof there is a former intimation though invironed with more enemies and assaulted with more dangerous practises then any Prince of her times and of many ages before neither must we in this her preservation attribute to much to humane pollices for that God in his omnipotent providence had not onely ordained those secundary means as instruments of the work but by an evident manifestation that the same worke which she acted was a well pleasing service of his owne out of a peculiar care had decreed the protection of the work-Mistris and thereunto added his abundant blessing upon all and whatsoever she undertook which is an observation of satisfaction to my self that she was in the right though to others now breathing under the same form and frame of her Government it may not seem an animadversion of any worth but I leave them to the perill of their own folly And so again to this great Master of State and the staffe of the Queens declinning age who though his little crooked person could not promise any great supportation yet it carryed thereon a head and a headpeece of a vast content and therein it seems nature was so diligent to compleat one and the best part about him as that to the perfection of his memory and intellectualls she took care also of his sences and to put him in 〈◊〉 oculos or to pleasure him the more borrowed of Argns so to give unto him a prospective sight and for the rest of his sensitive vertues his predecessor Walsingham had left him a receipt to smell out what was done in the conclave and his good old Father was so well seen in the Mathematickes as that he could tell you throughout all Spain every part every Ship with their burthens whither bound with preparation what impediments for diversion of enterprises Councells and resolutions and that we may see as in a little Map how docible this little man was I will present a taste of his abilities My Lord of
of the Common-wealth during the raign of Henry the seventh who being a noble extract was executed the first yeer of Henry the eighth but not thereby so extinct but that he left a plentifull estate and such a Sonne who as the vulgar speaks it could live without the teat for out of the Ashes of his Fathers infamy he rose to be a Duke and as high as subjection could permit or Soveraignty endure and though he could not finde out any appellation to assume the Crown in his own person yet he projected and very neerly effected it for his Sonne Guâ—lbert by intermarriage with the Lady 〈◊〉 Grey and so by that way to bring it about into his loynes Observations which though they lye behinde us and seem impertinent to the Text yet are they not much extravagant for they must lead and shew us how the after passages were brought about with the dependances and on the hinges of a collaterall workmanship and truely it may amaze a well settled judgement to look back into those times and to consider how this Duke could attain to such a pitch of greatnesse his Father dying in ignominy and at the Gallows his estate confiscate and that for peeling and polling by the clamor and cruciâ—â—ge of the people but when we better think upon it we finde that he was given up but as a Sacrifice to please the people not for any offence committed against the person of the King so that upon the matter he was a Martyr of the Prerogative and the King in honour could do no lesse then give back to his Son the priviledge of his bloud with the acquirings of his Fathers profession for he was a Lawyer and of the Kings Councell at Law before he came to be ex 〈…〉 where besides the lickings of his own fingers he got the King a Masse of riches and that not with the hazard but the losse of his fame and life for the Kings Fathers sake Certain it is that his sonne was left rich in purse and brain which are good foundations and full to ambition and it may be supposed he was on all occasions well heard of the King as a person of marke and compassion in his eye but I finde not that he did put up for advancement during Henry the eights time although a vast aspirer and provident storier It seemes he thought the Kings raign was much given to the falling sicknesse but espying his time fitting and the Soveraignty in the hands of a pupill Prince he thought he might as well then put up for it as the best for having then possession of bloud and a purse with a head-peece of a vast extent he soon got honour and no sooner there but he began to side it with the best even with the Protector and in conclusion got his and his Brothers heads still aspyring till he expired in the losse of his own so that posterity may by reading the Father and the Grandfather make judgement of the sonne for we shall finde that this Robert whose originall we have now traced the better to present him was inheritor of the genius and craft of his Father and Ambrose of the estate of whom hereafter we shall make some short mention We take him now as he was admitted into the Court and the Queens favour where he was not to seek to play his part well and dexteriously But his play was chiefly at the forgame not that he was a learner at the latter but he loved not the after wit for they report and I think not untruely that he was seldome behinde hand with his Gamesters and that they alwayes went away with the losse He was a very godly person and singular well featured and all his youth well favoured and of a sweet aspect but high foreheaded which as I should take it was of no discommendation but towards his latter end which with old men was but a middle age he grew high coloured and red faced so that the Queen in this had much of her Father for excepting some of her kindred and some few that had handsome wits in crooked bodies she alwayes took personage in the way of her election for the people hath it to this day in proverb King Harry loved a man Being thus in her grace she called to minde the sufferings of his Ancestors both in her Fathers and sisters raignes and restored his and his brothers bloud creating Ambrâ—s the elder Earl of Warwick and himself Earl of Leicester c. And he was ex rimitiâ—s or of her first choice for he rested not there but long enjoyed her favour and therewith much what he listed till time and emulation the companions of great ones had resolved on his period and to cover him at his setting in a cloud at Cornebury not by so violent a death and by the fatall sentence of judicature as that of his Fathers and Grandfathers was but as it is suggested by that poyson which he had prepared for others wherein they report him a rare Artist I am not bound to give credit to all vulgar relations or to the libells of the times which are commonly forced and falsified suitable to the moods and humours of men in passion and discontent but that which leads me to think him no good man is amongst others of known truth that of my Lord of Essex death in Ireland and the marriage of his Lady yet living which I forbear to presse in regard that he is long since dead and others living whom it may concern To take him in the observations of his Letters and Writings which should best set him off for such as fell into my hands I never yet saw a style or phrase more seeming religious and fuller of the strains of devotion and were they not sincere I doubt much of his well being and I may fear he was too well seen in the Aphorismes and principles of Nicholas the Florentine and in the reaches of Caesar Borgia and hitherto I have onely touched him in his Courtship I conclude him in his Lance he was sent Governour by the Queen to the united States of Holland where we reade not of his wonders for they say that he had more of Mercury then Mars and that his device might have been without prejudice to the great Caesar Veni vidi redii Sussex HIs Corrivall before mentioned was Thomas Radcliff Earl of Sussex who in his constellation was his direct opposite for he was indeed one of the Queens Martialists and did very good service in Ireland at her first accession till she recalled him to the Court where she made him Lord Chamberlaine but he played not his game with that cunning and dexterity as Leiceste did who was much the more faceate Courtier though Sussex was thought much the honester man and farre the better souldier but he lay too open on his guard He was a goodly Gentleman and of a brave Noble nature true and constant to his friends and servants he was also of
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
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