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
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
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
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
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
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