Attorneys place p. 20. Sir Francis Bacon to Sir George Cary in France upon sending him his Writing In foelicem memoriam Elizabethae p. 21. A Letter to Sir George Villiers touching the difference between the Courts of Chancery and Kings Bench. p. 22. Sir Francis Bacon to the King concerning the Praemunire in the Kings Bench against the Chancery p. 23. A Letter to the King touching matter of Revenue and Profit p. 27. Sir Francis Bacon the Kings Attorney to the King touching the proceeding with Somerset p. 28. Sir Francis Bacon the Kings Attorney to Sir George Villiers concerning the proceeding with Somerset p. 30. Sir Francis Bacon the Kings Attorney giving account of an Examination taken of Somerset at the Tower p. 32. Sir Francis Bacon the Kings Attorney to Sir George Villiers touching the proceeding with Somerset p. 34. Sir Francis Bacon the Kings Attorney to Sir George Villiers of Account and Advice to His Majesty touching Somerset's Arraignment p. 35. Sir Francis Bacon the Kings Attorney and some great Lords Commissioners concerning the perswasion used to the Lord of Somerset to a frank Consession p. 36. Sir Francis Bacon to the King upon some inclination of His Majesty signified to him for the Chancellors place p. 38. Sir Francis Bacon the Kings Attorney returned with Postils of the Kings own Hand p. 39. The Copy of a Letter conceived to be written to the late Duke of Buckingham when he first became a Favourite to King James by Sir Francis Bacon afterwards Lord Verulam and Viscount St. Alban Containing some Advices to the Duke for his better direction in that eminent place of the Favourite Drawn from him at the intreaty of the Duke himself by much importunity p. 43. Sir Francis Bacon to Sir George Villiers of Advice concerning Ireland from Gorambury to Windsor p. 67. Sir Francis Bacon the Kings Attorney General to the Master of the Horse upon the sending of his Bill for Viscount sc. p. 69. Sir Francis Bacon to Sir George Villiers upon the sending his Pattent for Uiscount Villiers to be Signed p. 70. Sir Francis Bacon to the King about a Certificate of my Lord Coke's p. 72. A Letter to the King touching the Lord Chancellors place ibid. A Letter to the King of my Lord Chancellors amendment and the difference begun between the Chancery and Kings Bench. p. 75. Sir Francis Bacon the Kings Attorney to the King giving some account touching the Commendams p. 76. Sir Francis Bacon his Advertisement touching an Holy War to the Right Reverend Father in God Lancelot Andrews Lord Bishop of Winchester and Councellor of Estate to His Majesty p. 78. Sir Francis Bacon to the King about the Pardon of the Parliaments Sentence p. 81. Sir Francis Bacon to King James of a Digest to be made of the Laws of England p. 82. Sir Francis Bacon to the Right Honourabl◠〈◊〉 very good Lord the Earl of Devonshire Lord Lieutenant of 〈◊〉 p. 87. A Discourse touching Helps for the intellectual Powers by Sir Francis Bacon p. 97. Sir Francis Bacon to the King p. 101. C. Certain Copies of Letters written by Sir William Cecil Knight Secretary of Estate to Queen Elizabeth to Sir Henry Norris Knight Ambassador for the said Queen Resident in France Beginning the 10th of February 1566. and ending the 26th of September 15â—0 p. 105. The Lord Coke to King James touching trial of Duels out of England p. 193. H. The History of the Reign of King Henry the Eighth King Edward the Sixth Queen Mary and part of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth p. 194. I. A Copy of a Letter from His Majesty to the Lords read at Board Nov. 21. 1617. touching the abatement of His Majesties Houshold Charge p. 198. A Copy of His Majesties second Letter p. 199. A Letter from the King to his Lordship by occasion of a Book It was the Organon p. 200. To Our Trusty and Well-beloved Thomas Coventry Our Attorney-General ibid. S. A Letter written by Sir Philip Sidney unto Queen Elizabeth touching her Marriage with Mounsieur p. 201. My Lord Sanquir 's Case p. 209. My Lady Shrewsburies Case p. 212. T. Sir Nicholas Throckmorton then Ambassador in France to Queen Elizabeth touching a free Passage for the Queen of Scots through England into Scotland p. 214. Books Printed for and sold by G. Bedell and T. Collins Folio's Compleat AMBASSADOR Letters and Negotiations of the Lord Burleigh and Sir Francis Walsingham in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth Collected by Sir Dudly Diggs Bishop Andrews Sermons Halls Politicks Lord Bacons History of King Henry 7th * D'Avila's Civil Wars of France * Bishop Ushers Annals of the World * Titus Livius Roman History in English * Dr. Hammond on the New Testament * Paraphrase on the Psalms * Howe 's Chronicle of England * Lord Hobarts Reports with a large Table by Sir H. Finch * Bulstrodes Reports in Three Parts * Crooks Reports in Three Volumes * Lord Cooks Pleadings in English * Wingats Maxims of the Law * Styles Reports * Leonards Reports Second Part. Quarto's Mountagues Essayes Sennault's Christian Man Potters Number of the Beast 666. Grand Seignieurs Seuaglio Ross against Coparnicus touching the Earths motion French Letters touching His Majesties stedfastness in the Protestant Religion in French and English Character of CHARLES II. Articles or Treaty of Peace betwixt France and Spain Discourse for a King and Parliament Fumi Fugium A Discourse of the Air and Smoak of London by John Evelin Esq Lord Cooks Reading and Denshalls Reading on the Statute of Fines The Judges Arguments on the Liberty of the Subject Three Readings on Wills Jointures and forcible Entry Mr. Durhams Assize Sermon Dr. Thomas his Assize Sermon Playes * D'avenant's Wits * Platonick Lovers * Faithful Shepherdess by Fletcher Marriage of the Arts by Barten Hollyday The Bastard A Tragedy The Martyr A Tragedy The Just General Horratius in English A Tragedy Michaelmas Term. Combate of Love and Friendship Octavo's Gosses Tragedies Lucretius in Latine and English Faushawes La Fida Pastora Duke of Rohans Memoires and Discourses English Hyppolito Isabella Three Romances The Nuptial Lover Triumphant Lady Waterhouse his Apology for Learning Idem His Divine Tracts Idem His Discourse of Arms and Armory Botelers Sermons Compleat on several Subjects Instructions for a Library by Naudeus English Reliquiae Carolinae Dr. Taylors Offices or Liturgy Sheppard of Courts Of Corporations Lambords Archeion White of the Laws Parsons Law the last Edition Claytons Reports Fleetwoods Justice Stones Reading on the Statute of Bankrupts Wingats Body of the Law Noyes Maxims D'avenport's Abridgment of Cook on Littleton Abridgement of Acts. Twelves Compleat Justice Davis's Abridgement of Cooks Reports Tylenus Second Part against Baxter Jacksons Evangelical Temper Of Liberty and Servitude Haywards Edward 6th St. Chrysostom of Education Guuton of External Worship Supplementum Lucani per May. Thuan's Politick Maxims Mayerns Experiments Dr. Stuarts Sermons Ladies Cabinet Gees steps in four and twenties SIR FRANCIS BACON'S Letters c.
that Business 28. 29. 30 31 32 33 c. His advice to Sir George Villiers concorning Ireland wherein three Propositions are acutely scan'd 1. Touching the Recusant Magistrates of Towns there 2. About roducing the Number of the Council from Fifty to twenty 3. That a means may be found to re-enforce the Army by 500. or 1000. men without increase of Charge 67 68 69. From him to the Duke when he first became a Favourite with somo directions or his demeanor in that eminent place ranked into eight material Heads with an ample and quaint gloss upon each of them most elegantly pen'd 43 44. Again to him upon sending his Pattent for Viscount Villiers with several Avisoes and incidently a Censure of the Cecils the Father and the Son Pag. 70 71. Sends the King a Certificate from the Lord Coke 72. Sends to the King an Essay of History of His Majesties time 9. Desires the History of Brittain may be written for three Observations 7 8. Sixty four years old in Age and three years and five months in misery desires neither means place nor imployment but a total remission of the sentence of the Upper House by the example of Sir John Bennet 81. To the King touching the Plantation of Ireland as formerly of the Union as being Brother thereunto 6. To the Earl of Salisbury touching his Book of the advancement of Learning saying He is but like a Bell-ringer to awake better spirits 9 10. Several Letters to great Personages in sending unto them his Book of advancement of Learning and the presenting of it to the King 10 11. To Dr. Plafer touching the Translating of it into Latine with many excellent Reasons to that Inducement 11 12. To Sir Thomas Bodley upon sending the same Book 13. To divers Friends upon sending unto them some other of his Books 13. 14 15 16. To Mr. Savil touching the Education of Youth and the improving the Intellectual Powers Pag. 17. A Factious Book stiling the Queen Misera Faemina the addition of the Popes Bull. 21. The business of the Commendams and the carriage of the Judges therein related to the King 76 77. Three Examples of great Calamity Demosthenes Cicero and Seneca A Discourse concerning his own Books 78 79 80. A learned and ample Discourse touching a Digest to be made of the Laws of England from 82. to 86. To the Earl of Devonshire a Letter Apologetical touching a common fame as if he had been false or ungrateful to the Earl of Essex something long but exquisitely pen'd from 87. to 104. A discourse touching Helps for the Intellectual Powers by Sir Fran. Bacoa Faber quisque fortunae suae an insolent saying except it be interpreted as an hortative to correct slâ—th and not as it soundeth an high imagination for any man to fathom all Accidents Faber quisque Ingenii sui more true and more profitable Divers manner of instances in Improvements not only in the body of man but in his mind and spirit and therein not only in his Appetite and Affection but in his Powers of Wit and Reason The Will most manageable and admitteth most Medicines for Cure The first is Religion 2. Opinion and Apprehension 3. Example 4. When one affection is corrected by another And lastly a Confirmation of all by custom and habit Five Rules for exercises Pag. 97 98 99 100 Sir Francis Bacon to the King modestly Apologetical intimating his former services and his present low condition after the sentence pronounced against him by the Lords Implores the King that he that hath born a bag may not in his age be forc'd to bear aWallet nor he that desired to live to study may not be driven to study to live 101 102 103 104 C. CEcil Sir William to Sir Henry Norris Ambassadour in France about his Entertainment there being Extraordinary and what the Reason should be Sha'ne Oneal sues to be received into the Queens favour 105 106. Taxes Mounsieur de Foix for breach of promise in not delivering Lestrille The News of the death of the King of Scots and the manner of it Earl Bothwell suspected 107 108. Callice demanded to be restored to the Queen according to the Treaty of Cambray More of the business of the murder of the King of Scots words which touch't that Queen but fit to be supprest Pag. 109 111. If Callice be not delivered 50000 l. is to be forfeited 110. Matters in Flanders go hard against the Protestants 111. Those of the Order of France if life or honour be touched to be tried by Kings and others of the same Order ibid. Marriage of the Queen of Scots to Bothwell the prime of the Nobility against it 112. The French Kings Letter touching Callice ill resented by the Queen The Queen of Scots married the 15th of May. 113. Bothwell prosecuted for the murder defended by the Queen and the Hambletons the Queen under restraint Sha'ne Oneal slain in Ireland by certain Scots 114. Sir Nicholas Throckmorton sent into Scotland to Negotiate a Pacification The two Factions of the Hambletons and Lenox's 115. The Prince of Scotland Crowned at Sterling the 29th of July 116. Queen Elizabeth offended with the Scotch Lords Murray like to be made Regent Advice to Sir Henry Norris touching his Expences 117. Murray made Regent my Lord of Sussex with the Emperour all Judges Officers c. At Antwerp compelled to attest the Catholick Faith 118. Bothwell reported to be taken at Sea 119 120. Dunbar rendred to the Regent the Keeper thereof adjudged to a new Punishment Pag. 120. Expectation of Marriage between the Queen and the Archduke Charles 121. Troubles in France between the Prince of Conde and the King 121 122. The Queen of Scots noted by the Parliament there to be privy to the murder of her husband 123. The Earl of Desmond and his brother in the Tower 125. Fishermen of Diepe taken at Rye with unlawful Nets 126. The Popes Ministers preferre the State of their corrupt Church before the Weal of any Kingdom 128. The Earl of Sussex his return The Prince of Orange his Son to be sent into Spain and doubted Egmond and Horn must follow ibid. Emanuel Tremelius sent into England by the Elector Palatine The Prince of Orange refuseth to be judged by the Duke of Alva The Hambletons continue their Faction The death of Sir Ambrose Cave 129. Beaton sent from Scotland into France for 1000. Harquebusiers Money and Ordnance 131. Devilish practice against the Queen The Scots Queen removed to Bolton Castle her demands of the Queen denied 133. The Queen of Scots submits her Cause to be heard and determined in England 134 135 136 c. What preparations in France intended for Scotland Great expectation of the success of matters in the Low Countries Pag. 137. Unhappy but incredible News out of Flanders The Duke of Norfolk the Earl of Sussex and Sir Walter Mildmay Commissioners in the North about the Queen of Scots business 138. She makes Arguile and Huntley Lieutenants and the
March 30. 1663. Let this Collection of Letters and other Discourses be Printed HENRY BENNET SCRINIA CECILIANA MYSTERIES OF State Government IN LETTERS Of the late Famous Lord Burghley And other Grand Ministers of STATE In the Reigns of Queen ELIZABETH and King JAMES Being a further Additional Supplement of the CABALA AS ALSO Many Remarkable Passages faithfully Revised and no where else Published With two exact Tables The one of the Letters The other of Things most Observable LONDON Printed for G. Bedel and T. Collins and are to be sold at their Shop at the Middle-Temple-gate in Fleetstreet 1663. The Stationers To the READER Courteous Reader ALthough it be a received Position That Merit is worthier than Fame yet duly considered they ought to be inseparable the one being the just Guerdon of the other Upon that account we have presumed to make Publick these ensuing Memorials or Letters being Monuments of some late Eminent Patriots and Hero's of this Nation Who whilst they were Actors in such grand Affairs as suited with their high Service under their Sovereigns were deservedly Dignified here and Renowned abroad The first of these Worthies being Sir William Cecil Lord Burghley who was an unparallel'd Minister of State And as we conceive of the longest continuance that any Prince then or ever since with such Success enjoyed a person alwayes peaceable and moderate free from Covetousness or Ambition in the course of his Service rather willing to endure the Burthen than desiring the fruition of Honour or Profit profound in Judgment assisted with great Experience and therefore worthily celebrated both here and abroad as Pater Patriae and an indefatigable Votary to the Crown And for the matters and designs in the Letters themselves we shall be silent hoping the Fame of the person will be motive sufficient for you to purchase this Jewel Concerning the Times they were wheeled about with new and great Revolutions and Divisions not only at Home but also in France Scotland the Low Countries and generally in most of the other Kingdoms and States abroad Forâs Pugnae intus Timores Conspiracies Invasions and Insurrections amongst our selves War Devastations and Massacres amongst our Neighbours for the most part shadowed with the Vaile of Religion many Princes of the Blood and persons of great Authority being sacrificed on either part turbulent Times and of great mutations proper to try the Ability and Fidelity of a State Atlas wherein with what Wisdom he acquitted himself is referred to you to determine The next is Sir Nicholas Throckmorton Ambassador in France for Queen Elizabeth in the Infancy of her Reign we have nothing here of his remains but only his Letter to Her Majesty touching a free passage for the Queen of Scots through England wherein you will find variety of Politick Reasons pressed on each part with smart Judgment In the third place is Sir Philip Sidney that choice Darling of the Muses whom we suppose you will freely grant to have been Tam Marti quam Mercurio in whom England Netherland the Heavens and the Arts the Souldiers and the World did emulate a share here we have only a dissuasive Letter to the Queen touching Her Marriage with Mounsieur of France fortified with many pressing and effectual Reasons against that match and penned with a Politick and Ingenuous Stile And in the last place we present you with some Pieces of the inimitable Viscount St. Alban some in the Reign of the late glorious Queen and others in the Halcyon dayes of the late King James never before to our best knowledge made Publick deck't with many grateful Flowers of Philosophy History and Policy the Fall of the Earl of Somerset and the immediate Advance of the Duke of Buckingham with many other passages of moment and here you may observe the memorials of other worthy persons although the Title point only at Sir William Cecil for we conceive it not imaginable That such experienced and sure Masters of Knowledge would employ their thoughts in any thing sleight or superficial However we dare not assume that boldness as to write Encomiasticks of such great Personages that Right we suppose is much better performed by more quaint Pens already Lunae Radiis non maturescit Botrus And their Names and Honour still live in fresh memory Here you may safely turn Necromancer and consult with the dead or rather with the living for such Monuments as these survive Marble Dignum laude virum Musa vetat mori These are not like Augustus his two infamous Daughters or his unworthy Nephew Posthumus Agrippa Impostumes as he termed them that broke from him but pure and legitimate Issue of the nobler part which is with care exposed to publick View for the better accomodation of those that have been pleased to purchase the two former Volumes of the like Nature and Quality Temple-gate June 18. 1663. G. B. T. C. A TABLE of the LETTERS contained in this COLLECTION B. SIR Francis Bacon to the Lord Treasurer Burghley Pag. 1. Sir Francis Bacon to the Lord Treasurer Burghley p. 2. Sir Francis Bacon in recommendation of his Service to the Earl of Northumberland a few dayes before Queen Elizabeths death p. 4. Sir Francis Bacon to Mr. Robert Kempe upon the death of Queen Elizabeth p. 5. Sir Francis Bacon to Mr. David Foules in Scotland upon the entrance of His Majesties Reign ibid. Sir Francis Bacon to the King upon presenting his Discourse touching the Plantation of Ireland p. 6. Sir Francis Bacon to the Lord Chancellor touching the History of Britain p. 7. Sir Francis Bacon to the King upon the sending unto him a beginning of a History of His Majesties time p. 9. Sir Francis Bacon to the Earl of Salisbury upon sending him one of his Books of Advancement of Learning ibid. Sir Francis Bacon to the Lord Treasurer Buckhurst upon the same occasion of sending his Book of Advancement of Learning p. 10. A Letter of the like Argument to the Lord Chancellor ibid. Sir Francis Bacon of like Argument to the Earl of Northampton with Request to present the Book to His Majesty p. 11. Sir Francis Bacon his Letter of Request to Dr. Plafer to Translate the Book of Advancement of Learning into Latine ibid. Sir Francis Bacon to Sir Thomas Bodley upon sending him his Book of the Advancement of Learning p. 13. Sir Francis Bacon to the Bishop of Ely upon sending his Writing intituled Cogitata visa ibid. Sir Francis Bacon to Sir Thomas Bodley after he had imparted to him a Writing intituled Cogitata visa p. 14. Sir Francis Bacon to Mr. Matthew upon sending him part of Instauratio Magna p. 15. Sir Francis Bacon to Mr. Matthew touching Instauratio Magna p. 16. A Letter to Mr. Matthew upon sending his Book De Sapientia Veterum p. 17. Sir Francis Bacon to Mr. Savill ibid. Sir Francis Bacon to the King touching the Sollicitors place p. 18. Sir Francis Bacon to the King his Suit to succeed in the
Sir Francis Bacon to the Lord Treasurer Burghley My Lord WIth as much confidence as mine own honest and faithful devotion unto your service and your honorable correspondence unto me and my poor estate can breed in a man do I commend my self unto your Lordship I wax now somewhat ancient one and thirty years is a great deal of sand in the hour-glass My health I thank God I find confirmed and I do not fear that action shall impair it because I account my ordinary course of study and meditation to be more painful then most parts of action are I ever bear a mind in some middle place that I could discharge to serve her Majesty not as a man born under Sol that loveth Honour nor under Jupiter that loveth business for the contemplative Planet carrieth me away wholly but as a man born under an excellent Sovereign that deserveth the dedication of all mens abilities Besides I do not find in my self so much self-love but that the greater parts of my thoughts are to deserve well if I were able of my friends and namely of your Lordship who being the Atlas of this Common-wealth the Honour of my House and the second founder of my poor estate I am tied by all duties both of a good Patriot and of an unworthy Kinsman and of an obliged servant to imploy whatsoever I am to do you service Again the meanness of my estate doth somewhat move me for though I cannot accuse my self that I am either prodigal or sloathful yet my health is not to spend nor my course to get Lastly I confess that I have as vast contemplative ends as I have moderate civil ends for I have taken all knowledge to be my providence and if I could purge it of two sorts of Rovers whereof the one with frivolous disputations confutations and verbosities the other with blind experiments and auricular traditions and impostures hath committed so many spoils I hope I should bring in industrious Observations grounded Conclusions and profitable Inventions and Discoveries the best state of that providence This whether it be curiosity or vain-glory or nature or if one take it favourably Philanthropia is so fixed in my mind as it cannot be removed And I do easily see that place of any reasonable countenance doth bring commandment of more wits then of a mans own which is the thing I greatly affect And for your Lordship perhaps you shall not find more strength and less encounter in any other And if your Lordship shall find now or at any time that I do seek or affect any place whereunto any that is nearer unto your Lordship shall be concurrent say then that I am a most dishonest man And if your Lordship will not carry me on I will not do as Anaxagoras did who reduced himself with contemplation unto voluntary poverty But this I will do I will sell the inheritance that I have and purchase some lease of quick revenue or some Office of gain that shall be executed by Deputy and so give over all care of service and become some sorry Book-maker or a true Pioneer in that Mine of Truth which he said lay so deep This which I have writ unto your Lordship is rather thoughts then words being set down without all Art disguising or reservation Wherein I have done honour both to your Lordships wisdom in judging that that will be best believed of your Lordship which is truest and to your Lordships good nature in retaining nothing from you And even so I wish your Lordship all happiness and to my self means and occasion to be added to my faithful desire to do you service From my Lodging at Grays-Inn Sir Francis Bacon to the Lord Treasurer Burghley My singular good Lord YOur Lordships comfortable Relation of her Majesties gracious opinion and meaning towards me though at that time your leisure gave me not leave to shew how I was affected therewith yet upon every representation thereof it entreth and striketh more deeply into me as both my Nature and Duty presseth me to return some speech of thankfulness It must be an exceeding comfort and encouragement to me setting forth and putting my self in way towards her Majesties service to encounter with an example so private and domestical of her Majesties gracious goodness and benignity being made good and verified in my father so far forth as it extendeth to his Posterity Accepting them as commended by his service during the Non-age as I may term it of their own deserts I for my part am very well content that I take least part either of his abilities of Mind or of his worldly advancement both which he held and received the one of the gift of God immediately the other of her Majesties Gift Yet in the loyal and earnest Affection which he bear to her Majesties service I trust my portion shall not be with the least nor in proportion with the youngest Birth For methinks his president should be a silent charge upon his blessing unto us all in our degrees to follow him afar off and to dedicate unto her Majesties service both the use and spending of our lives True it is that I must needs acknowledge my self prepared and furnished thereunto with nothing but with a multitude of lacks and imperfections but calling to mind how diversly and in what particular providence God hath declar'd himself to tender the state of her Majesties Affairs I conceive and gather hope that those whom he hath in a manner prest for her Majesties service by working and imprinting in them a single and zealous mind to bestow their duties therein he will see them accordingly appointed of sufficiency convenient for the Rank and standing where they shall be imployed so as under this her Majesties blessing I trust to receive a larger allowance of Gods Graces And as I may hope for this so I can assure and promise for my Endeavour that it shall not be in fault but what diligence can intitle me unto that I doubt not to recover And now seeing it hath pleased her Majesty to take knowledge of this my mind and to vouchsafe to appropriate me unto her service preventing any desert of mine with her Princely liberality first I humbly do beseech your Lordship to present to her Majesty my more than humble thanks for the same And withal having regard to mine own unworthiness to receive such favour and to the small possibility in me to satisfie and answer what her Majesty conceiveth I am moved to become a most humble suitor to her Majesty that this benefit also may be affixed unto the other which is That if there appear in me no such towardness of service as it may be her Majesty doth benignly value and assess me at by reason of my sundry wants and the disadvantage of my nature being unapt to lay forth the simple store of those inferiour gifts which God hath allotted unto me most to view yet that it would please her Excellent Majesty not to
accompt my thankfulness the less for that my disability is great to shew it but to sustain me in her Majesties grecious opinion whereupon I onely rest and not upon any expectation of desert to proceed from my self towards the contentment thereof But if it shall please God to send forth an occasion whereby my faithful affection may be tried I trust it shall save me melibour for ever making more protestation of it hereafter In the mean time howsoever it be not made known to her Majesty yet God knoweth it through the daily sollicitations wherewith I address my self unto him in unfeigned Prayer for the multiplying of her Majesties prosperities to your Lordship also whose recommendation I know right well hath been material to advance her Majesties good opinion of me I can be but a bounden servant So much may I safely promise and purpose to be seeing publick and private bonds vary not but that my service to her Majesty and your Lordship draw in a line I wish therefore to shew it with as good proof as I can say it in good faith c. Your Lordships c. Sir Francis Bacon in recommendation of his service to the Earl of Northumberland a few days before Queen Elizabeths death It may please your good Lordship AS the time of sowing of seed is known but the time of coming up and disclosing is casual or according to the season So I am a witness to my self that there hath been covered in my mind a long time a seed of affection and zeal towards your Lordship sown by the estimation of your vertues and your particular honours and favours to my brother deceased and to my self which seed still springing now bursteth forth into this profession And to be plain with your Lordship it is very true and no winds or noyses of civil matters can blow this out of my head or heart that your great capacity and love towards studies and contemplations of an higher and worthier nature then popular a Nature rare in the world and in a person of your Lordships quality almost singular is to me a great and chief motive to draw my affection and admiration towards you and therefore good my Lord if I may be of any use to your Lordship by my Head Tongue Pen Means or Friends I humbly pray you to hold me your own and herewithal not to do so much disadvantage to my good mind nor partly to your own worth as to conceive that this commendation of my humble service proceedeth out of any streights of my occasions but meerly out of an election and indeed the fulness of my heart And so wishing your Lordship all prosperity I continue Sir Francis Bacon to Mr. Robert Kempe upon the death of Queen Elizabeth Mr. Kempe This alteration is so great as you might justly conceive some coldness of my affection towards you if you should hear nothing from me I living in this place It is in vain to tell you with what a wonderful still and calme this wheel is turned round which whether it be a remnant of her felicity that is gone or a fruit of his reputation that is coming I will not determine for I cannot but divide my self between her memory and his name Yet we account it but as a fair morn before Sun rising before his Majesties presence though for my part I see not whence any weather should arise The Papists are conteined with fear enough and hope too much The French is thought to turn his practice upon procuring some disturbance in Scotland where Crowns may do wonders But this day is so welcome to the Nation and the time so short as I do not fear the effect My Lord of Southampton expecteth release by the next dispatch and is already much visited and much well wished There is continual posting by men of good quality towards the King the rather I think because this Spring time it is but a kinde of sport It is hoped that as the State here hath performed the part of good Attorneys to deliver the King quiet possession of his Kingdom so the King will re-deliver them quiet possession of their places rather filling places void than removing men placed So c. Sir Francis Bacon to Mr. David Foules in Scotland upon the entrance of His Majesties Reign SIR The occasion awaketh in me the remembrance of the constant and mutual good offices which passed between my good brother and your self whereunto as you know I was not altogether a stranger though the time and design as between brethren made me more reserved But well do I bear in mind the great opinion which my brother whose Judgment I much reverence would often express to me of the extraordinary sufficiency Dexterity and temper which he had found in you in the business and service of the King our Sovereign Lord. This latter bred in me an election as the former gave an inducement for me to address my self to you and to make this signification of my desire towards a mutual entertainment of good affection and correspondence between us hoping that some good effect may result of it towards the Kings service and that for our particulars though occasion give you the precedence of furthering my being known by good note unto the King so no long time will intercede before I on my part shall have some means given to requite your favours and to verifie your commendation And so with my loving commendations good Mr. Foules I leave you to Gods goodness From Graies Inne this 25th of March. Sir Francis Bacon to the King upon presenting his discoursetouching the Plantation of Ireland It may please your excellent Majesty I know no better way how to express my good wishes of a New-year to your Majesty then by this little book which in all humbleness I send you The stile is a stile of business rather then curious or elaborate And herein I was encouraged by my experience of your Majesties former Grace in accepting of the like poor field-fruits touching the Union And certainly I reckon this action as a second brother to the Union For I assure my self that England Scotland and Ireland well united is such a Trifoil as no Prince except your self who are the worthiest weareth in his Crown Si Potentia reducatur in actum I know well that for me to beat my brains about these things they be Majora quam pro fortuna but yet they be Minora quam pro studio voluntate For as I do yet bear an extream zeal to the memory of my old Mistriss Queen Elizabeth to whom I was rather bound for her trust than for her favour so I must acknowledge my self more bound to your Majesty both for trust and favour whereof I will never deceive the one as I can never deserve the other And so in all humbleness kissing your Majesties Sacred hands I remain Sir Francis Bacon to the Lord Chancellor touching the History of Britain It may please your good Lordship SOme
your Lordship with a work of my vacant time which if it had been more the work had been better It appertaineth to your Lordship besides my particular respects in some propriety in regard you are a great Governor in a Province of Learning and that which is more you have added to your place affection towards Learning and to your affection judgement of which the last I could be content were for the time less that you might the less exquisitely censure that which I offer to you But sure I am the Argument is good if it had lighted upon a good author but I shall content my self to awake better spirits like a bell-ringer which is first up to call others to Church So with my humble desire of your Lordships good acceptation I remain Sir Francis Bacon to the Lord Treasurer Buckhurst upon the same occasion of sending his book of Advancement of Learning May it please your good Lordship I have finished a work touching the advancement or setting forward of learning which I have dedicated to his Majesty the most learned of a Sovereign or temporal Prince that time hath known And upon reason not unlike I humbly present one of the books to your Lordship not onely as a Chancellor of an University but as one that was excellently bred in all learning which I have ever noted to shine in all your speeches and behaviours And therefore your Lordship will yield a gracious aspect to your first love and take pleasure in the adorning of that wherewith your self are so much adorned And so humbly desiring your favourable acceptation thereof with signification of my humble duty I remain A Letter of the like Argument to the Lord Chancellor May it please your good Lordship I humbly present your Lordship with a work wherein as you have much commandment over the Author so your Lordship hath also great interest in the argument For to speak without flattery few have like use of Learning or like judgement in learning as I have observed in your Lordship And again your Lordship hath been a great planter of Learning not only in those places in the Church which have been in your own gift but also in your commendatory Vote no man hath more constantly held Detur digniori and therefore both your Lordship is beholden to Learning and learning beholden to you Which maketh me presume with good assurance that your Lordship will accept well of these my labours the rather because your Lordship in private speech hath often begun to me in expressing your admiration of his Majesties Learning to whom I have dedicated this work and whose vertue and perfection in that kind did chiefly move me to a work of this nature And so with signification of my most humble duty and affection towards your Lordship I remain c. Sir Francis Bacon of like argument to the Earl of Northampton with request to present the book to his Majesty It may please your good Lordship HAving finished a work touching the Advancement of Learning and dedicated the same to his sacred Majesty whom I dare avouch if the records of time erre not to be the learnedst King that hath reigned I was desirous in a kind of congruity to present it by the learnedst Councellor in this Kingdom to the end that so good an argument lighting upon so bad an Author might receive some reparetion by the hands into which and by which it should be delivered And therefore I make it my humble suit to your Lordship to present this mean but well meant writing to his Majesty and with it my humble and zealous duty and also my like humble request of pardon if I have too often taken his name in vain not onely in the dedication but in the voucher of the authority of his speeches and writings And so I remain c. Sir Francis Bacon his Letter of request to Doctor Plafer to translate the book of Advancement of Learning into Latine Mr. Doctor Plafer A great desire will take a small occasion to hope and put in Tryal that which is desired It pleased you a good while since to express unto me the good liking which you conceive of my book of the advancement of Learning and that more significantly as it seemed to me then out of curtesie or civil respect My self as I then took contentment in your approbation thereof so I should esteem and acknowledge not onely my contentment increased but my labours advanced if I might obtain your help in that nature which I desire Wherein before I set down in plain terms my request unto you I will open my self what it was which I chiefly sought and propounded to myself in that work that you may perceive that which I now desire to be pursuant thereupon If I do not erre for any judgment that a man maketh of his own doings had need be spoken with a Si nunquam fallit Imago I have this opinion that if I had sought my own commendation it had been a much fitter course for me to have done as Gardners use to do by taking their Seeds and Slips and re ring them first into plants and so uttering them in pots when they are in flower and in their best state But for as much as my end was merit of the state of Learning to my power and not glorie and because my purpose was rather to excite other mens wits then to magnifie my own I was desirous to prevent the incertainess of my own life and times by uttering rather seeds then plants nay and further as the Proverb is by sowing with the Basket then with the hand Wherefore since I have onely taken upon me to ring a Bell to call other wits together which is the meanest office it cannot but be consonant to my desire to have that Bell heard as sarre as can be And since that they are but sparks which can work but upon matter prepared I have the more reason to wish that those sparks may flye abroad that they may the better find and light upon those minds and spirits which are apt to be kindled And therefore the privateness of the language considered wherein it is written excluding so many readers as on the other side the obscurity of the argument in many parts of it excludeth many others I must account it a second birth of that work if it might be translated into Latine without manifest loss of the sence and matter For this purpose I could not represent to my self any man into whose hands I do more earnestly desire that work should fall then your self for by that I have heard and read I know no man a greater Master in commanding words to serve matter Nevertheless I am not ignorant of the worth of your labours whether such as your place and profession imposeth on you or such as your own vertue may upon your voluntary election take in hand But I can lay before you no other perswasions then either the work it self may affect
you with or the honour of his Majesty to whom it is dedicated or your particular inclination to my self who as I never took so much comfort in any labours of my own so I shall never acknowledge my self more obliged in any thing to the labour of another then in that which shall assist this Which your labour if I can by my place profession means friends travel word deed requite unto you I shall esteem my self so straitly bound thereunto as I shall be ever most ready both to take and seek occasions of thankfulness And so leaving it nevertheless Salva amicitia as reason is to your own good liking I remain c. Sir Francis Bacon to Sir Thomas Bodley upon sending him his Book of the advancement of Learning SIR I Think no man may more truly say with the Psalmist Multum incola fuit anima mea For I do confess since I was of any Understanding my mind hath in effect been absent from that I have done and in absence Errors are committed which I do willingly acknowledge and amongst the rest this great one that led the rest that knowing my self by inward Calling to be fitter to hold a Book than to play a part I have led my life in civil Causes for which I was not very fit by nature and more unfit by the pre-occupation of my mind Therefore calling my self home I have now for a time enjoyed my self where likewise I desire to make the World partaker My labours if so I may term that which was the comfort of my other labours I have dedicated to the King desirous if there be any good in them it may be as fat of a Sacrifice incensed to his Honour and the second Copy have I sent unto you not only in good Affection but in a kind of Congruity in regard of your great and rare desert of Learning For Books are the Shrines where the Saint is or is believed to be And you having built an Ark to save Learning from deluge deserve in propriety any new instrument or engine whereby Learning should be improved or advanced So c. Sir Francis Bacon to the Bishop of Ely upon sending his writing intituled Cogitata visa My very good Lord NOW your Lordship hath been so long in the Church and the Palace disputing between Kings and Popes me-thinks you should take pleasure to look into the field and refresh your mind with some matter of Philosophy though that Science be now through age waxed a child again and left to boys and young men And because you are wont to make me believe you took liking to my writings I send you some of this Vacation fruits and thus much more of my mind and purpose I hasten not to publish perishing I would prevent And I am sorced to respect as well my times as the matter For with me it is thus and I think with all men in my case If I bind my self to an argument it loadeth my mind but if I rid my mind of the present Cogitation it is rather a recreation This hath put me into these Miscellanies which I purpose to suppress if God give me leave to write a just and perfect Volume of Philosophy which I go on with though slowly I send not your Lordship too much lest it may glut you Now let me tell you what my desire is If your Lordship be so good now as when you were the good Dean of Westminster my request to you is that not by Pricks but by Notes you would mark unto me whatsoever shall seem unto you either not currant in the stile or harsh to credit and opinion or inconvenient for the person of the writer For no man can be Judge and party and when our minds judge by reflexion on our selves they are more subject to error And though for the matter it self my judgment be in some things fixed and not accessible by any mans judgment that goeth not my way yet even in those things the admonition of a friend may make me express my self diversly I would have come to your Lordship but that I am hastning to my house in the Country And so I commend your Lordship to Gods goodness Sir Francis Bacon to Sir Thomas Bodley after he had imparted to him a Writing intituled Cogitata visa SIR in respect of my going down to my house in the Countrey I shall have miss of my Papers which I pray you therefore return unto me You are I bear you witness sloathful and you help me nothing so as I am half in conceit that you affect not the Argument I or my self I know well you love and affect I can say no more to you but Non canimus surdis respondent omnia silvae If you be not of the Lodgings chaulked up whereof I speak in my Preface I am but to pass by your door But if I had you but a Fortnight at Gorambury I would make you tell me another Tale or else I would add a Cogitation against Libraries and be revenged on you that way I pray you send me some good news of Sir Thomas Smith and commend me very kindly to him So I rest Sir Francis Bacon to Mr. Matthew upon sending him part of Instauratio Magna Mr. Matthew I plainly perceive by your affectionate writing touching my work that one and the same thing affecteth us both which is the good end to which it is dedicated For as to any ability of mine it cannot merit that degree of approbation For your Caution for Church-men and Church-matters as for any impediment it might be to the applause and celebrity of my work it moveth me not but as it may hinder the fruit and good which may come of a quiet and calme passage to the good Port to which it is bound I hold it a just respect so as to fetch a fair wind I go not too far about But troth is I shall have no occasion to meet them in my way except it be as they will needs confederate themselves with Aristotle who you know is intemperately magnified with the Scholemen and is also allyed as I take it to the Jesuits by Faber who was a companion of Loyola and a great Aristotelian I send you at this time the only part which hath any harshness and yet I framed to my self an opinion that whosoever allowed well of that Preface which you so much commend will not dislike or at least ought not dislike this other speech of Preparation For it is written out of the same spirit and out of the same necessitie Nay it doth more fully lay open that the question between me and the Ancients is not of the vertue of the race but of the rightness of the way And to speak truth it is to the other but as Palma to Pugnus part of the same thing more large You conceive aright that in this and the other you have Commission to impart and communicate them to others according to your discretion other matters I
Bill of Attainders of Tresham and the rest in the matter of Purveyance in the Ecclesiastical Petitions in the Grievances and the like as I was ever careful and not without good success sometimes to put forward that which was good sometimes to keep back that which was not so good so Your Majesty was pleased to accept kindly of my Services and to say to me such Conflicts were the wars of Peace and such Victories the Victories of peace And therefore such servants that obtained them were by Kings that Reign in Peace no less to be esteemed than services of Commanders in the Wars In all which nevertheless I can challenge to my self no sufficiency but that I was diligent and reasonably happy to execute those directions which I received either immediately from Your Royal Mouth or from my Lord of Salisbury At which time it pleased Your Majesty to promise and assure me that upon the remove of the then Attorney I should not be forgotten but brought into ordinary place And this was after confirmed to me by many of my Lords and towards the end of the last Term the manner also in particular was spoken of that is that Mr. Sollicitor should be made Your Majesties Serjeant and I Sollicitor for so it was thought best to sort with both our gifts and faculties for the good of your Service And of this resolution both Court and Countrey took knowledge Neither was this any invention or project of mine own but moved from my Lords and I think first from my Lord Chancellor Whereupon resting Your Majesty well knoweth I never opened my mouth for the greater place though I am sure I had two Circumstances that Mr. Attorney that now is could not alledge The one nine years service of the Crown The other being Cousin-German to the Lord of Salisbury whom Your Majesty esteemeth and trusteth so much But for the less place I conceived it was meant me But after that Mr. Attorney Hubbert was placed I heard no more of my Preferment but it seemed to be at a stop to my great disgrace and discouragement For graciousSovereign if still when the waters are stirred another shall be put before me Your Majesty had need work a Miracle or else I shall be still a lame man to do Your Majesty Service And therefore my most humble Suit to Your Majesty is That this which seem'd to me was intended may speedily be performed And I hope my former Service shall be but beginnings to better when I am better strengthned For sure I am no mans heart is fuller I say not but many have greater hearts but I say not fuller of Love and Duty towards Your Majesty and Your Children as I hope time will manifest against Envy and Detraction if any be To conclude I most humbly crave pardon for my boldness and rest Sir Francis Bacon to the King his suitc to succeed in the Atturneys place It may please your Majesty YOur great and Princely favours towards me in advancing me to place and that which is to me of no less comfort your Majesties benign and gracious acceptation from time to time of my poor services much above the merit and value of them hath almost brought me to an opinion that I may sooner perchance be wanting to my self in not asking then find your Majesties goodness wanting to me in any my reasonable and modest desires And therefore perceiving how at this time preferments of Law fly about mine ears to some above me and to some below me I did conceive your Majesty may think it rather a kinde of dulness or want of Faith than Modestie if I should not come with my Pitcher to Jacobs well as others do Wherein I shall propound to your Majesty that which tendeth not so much to the raising of my Fortune as to the setling of my minde being sometimes assayled with this Cogitation that by reason of my slowness to sue and apprehend sudden occasions keeping on one plain course of painful service I may in fine dierum be in danger to be neglected and forgotten And if that should be then were it much better for me now while I stand in your Majesties good opinion though unworthy and have some reputation in the world to give over the Course I am in and to make Proof to do you some honour by my Pen either by writing some faithful Narrative of your happy though not untraduced times or by recompiling your Laws which I perceive your Majesty laboureth with and hath in your head as Jupiter had Pallas or some other the like work for without some endeavour to do you honour I would not live then to spend my wits and time in this laborious place wherein now I serve if it shall be deprived of those outward ornaments and inward comforts which it was wont to have in respect of an assured succession to some place of more dignitie and rest which seemeth now to be a hope altogether casual if not wholly intercepted Wherefore not to hold your Majesty long my suit then the which I think I cannot well go lower is that I may obtain your royal promise to succeed if I live into the Atturneys place whensoever it shall be void in being but the natural and immediate step and rise which the place I now hold hath ever in sort made claim to and almost never failed of In this suit I make no friends to your Majesty but relie upon no other motive than your Grace nor any other assurance but your word whereof I had good experience when I came to the Solicitors place that they were like to the two great Lights which in their motions are never Retrograde So with my best prayer for your Majesties happiness I rest Sir Francis Bacon to Sir George Cary in France upon sending him his writing In foelicem memoriam Elizabethae My very good Lord BEing asked the question by this bearer an old servant of my brother Anthony Bacon whether I would command him any service into France and being at better leisure then I would in regard of sickness I began to remember that neither your business nor mine though great and continual can be upon an exact account any just occasion why so much good will as hath passed between us should be so much discontinued as it hath been And therefore because one must begin I thought to provoke your remembrance of me by my Letter And thinking how to fir it with somewhat besides salutations it came to my mind that this last summer by occasion of a factious Book that endeavoured to verifie Misera Foemina the addition of the Popes Bull upon Queen Elizabeth I did write a few lines in her memorial which I thought you would be well pleased to read both for the argument and because you were wont to bear affection to my pen. Verum ut aliud ex alio if it came handsomly to pass I would be glad the President de Thou who hath written a History as you know
of that fame and diligence saw it chiefly because I know not whether it may not serve him for some use in his Story wherein I would be glad he did right to the truth and to the memory of that Lady as I perceive by that he hath already written he is well inclined to do I would be glad also it were some occasion such as absence may permit of some acquaintance or mutual notice between us For though he hath many ways the precedence chiefly in worth yet this is common to us both that we serve our Sovereigns in places of Law eminent and not our selves only but that our Fathers did so before us and lastly that both of us love Learning and Liberal Sciences which was ever a bond of Friendship in the greatest distances of places But of this I make no farther request then your own occasions and respects to me unknown may further or limit my principal purpose being to salute you and to send you this Token whereunto I will add my very kind commendations to my Lady And so commit you both to Gods holy protection A Letter to Sir Geo. Villiers touching the difference between the Courts of Chancery and Kings Bench. Sir I Received this morning from you two Letters by the same bearer the one written before the other both after his Majesty had received my last In this difference between the two Courts of Chancery and Kings Bench for so I had rather take it at this time then between the persons of my Lord Chancellor and my Lord Chief Justice I marvaile not if rumour get way of true Relation for I know Fame hath swift wings specially that which hath black feathers but within these two days for sooner I cannot be ready I will write to his Majesty both the Narrative truly and my opinion sincerely taking much comfort that I serve such a King as hath Gods property in discerning truly of mens hearts I purpose to speak with my Lord Chancellor this day and so to exhibit that Cordial of his Majesties grace as I hope this other accident will rather rowse and raise his spirits then deject him or incline him to a relapse Mean while I commend the wit of a mean man that said this other day Well saith he next Term you shall have an old man come with a besom of Worm-wood in his hand that will sweep away all this For it is my Lord Chancellor his fashion especially towards the Summer to carry a posie of Worm-wood I writ this Letter in haste to return the Messenger with it God keep you and long and happily may you serve his Majesty Your true and affectionate servant Feb. 19. 1615. POST-SCRIPT Sir I humbly thank you for your inward Letter I have burned it as you commanded but the flame it hath kindled in me will never be extinguished Sir Francis Bacon to the King concerning the Praemunire in the Kings Bench against the Chancery It may please your most Excellent Majesty I Was yesterday in the Afternoon with my Lord Chancellor according to Your Commandment which I received by the Master of the Horse and find the old man well comforted both towards God and towards the world And that same middle comfort which is a divine and humane proceeding from your Majesty being Gods Leiutenant on earth I am perswaded hath been a great cause that such a sickness hath been portable to such an age I did not faile in my conjecture that this business of the Chancery hath stirred him He sheweth to despise it but yet he is full of it and almost like a young Duelist that findeth himself behind hand I will now as your Majesty requireth give you a true relation of that which passed neither will I decline your Royall Commandment for delivering my opinion also though it be a tender subject to write on But I that account my being but an accident to my service will neglect no duty upon self-safety First it is necessary I let your Majesty know the ground of the difference between the two Courts that your Majesty may the better understand the Narrative There was a Statute made 27. Ed. 3. Cap. 1. which no doubt in the principal intention thereof was ordained against those that sued to Rome wherein there are words somewhat general against any that questioneth or impeacheth any judgement given in the Kings Courts in any other Courts Upon these doubtfull words other Courts the Controversie groweth For the founder interpretation taketh them to be meant of those Courts which though locally they were not held at Rome or where the Popes Chair was but here within the Realm yet in their jurisdiction had their dependency upon the Court of Rome as were the Court of the Legat here and the Courts of the Arch-bishops and Bishops which were then but subordinate judgement seats to that high Tribunal of Rome And for this Construction the opposition of the words if they be well observed between the Kings Courts and other Courts maketh very much For it importeth as if those other Courts were not the Kings Courts Also the main scope of the Statute sortifieth the same and lastly the practice of many ages The other interpretation which cleaveth to the letter expoundeth the Kings Courts to be the Courts of Law only and other Courts to be Courts of Equity as the Chancery Exchequer-Chamber Dutchy c. though this also flyeth indeed from the letter for that all these are the Kings Courts There is also another Statute which is but a simple Prohibition and not with a penalty of Praemunire as the other is That after judgements given in the Kings Courts the parties shall be in Peace except the judgments be undone by Error or Attaint which is a legall form of reversall And of this also I hold the sounder interpretation to be to settle possessions against disturbances and not to take away remedy in equity where those judgments are obtained ex rigore juris and against good Conscience But upon these two Statutes there hath been a late conceipt in some that if a judgement passe at the Common-Law against any he may not after sue for relief in Chancery and if he do both he and his Councel and his Solicitor yea and the Judge in Equity himself are within the danger of those Statutes There your Majesty hath the true state of the question which I was necessarily to shew you first because your Majesty calleth for this relation not as news but as business Now to the Historical part It is the Course of the Kings Bench that they give in Charge to the Grand Jury offences of all natures to be presented within Middlesex where the said Court is and the manner is to enumerate them as it were in Articles This was done by Justice Crooke the Wednesday before the Term ended and that Article if any man after a judgement given had drawn the said judgement to a new examination in any other Court was by him
Reconciliation at least made between my Lord Chancellor and my Lord Chief Justice for this accident is a Banquet to all Somersets friends But this is a thing that falleth out naturally of it self in respect of the Judges going Circuit and my Lord Chancellors infirmity with hope of recovery And although this protraction of time may breed some doubt of mutability yet I have lately learned out of an excellent Letter of a certain King That the Sun sheweth sometimes watry to our eyes but when the Cloud is gone the Sun is as before God preserve Your Majesty Your Majesties most humble Subject and most bounden Servant Febr. 21. 1615. Your Majesties Commandment speaketh for pardon of so long a Letter which yet I wish may have a short continuance and be punished with fire A Letter to the King touching matter of Revenue and Profit It may please your Majesty I May remember what Tacitus saith by occasion that Tiberius was often and long absent from Rome In Urbe parva magna negotia Imperatorem simul premunt But saith he in recessu dimissis rebus minoris momenti summae rerum magnarum magis agitantur This maketh me think it shall be no incivility to trouble your Majesty with business during your aboad from London knowing your Majesties Meditations are the principal wheel of your estate and being warranted by a former commandment which I received from you I do now only send your Majesty these papers inclosed because I greatly desire so far forth to preserve my Credit with you as thus That whereas lately perhaps out of too much desire which induceth too much belief I was bold to say that I thought it as easie for your Majesty to come out of want as to go forth of your Gallery your Majesty would not take me for a dreamer or a projector I send your Majesty therefore some grounds of my hopes And for that paper which I have gathered of increasments sperate I beseech you to give me leave to think that if any of the particulars do fail it will be rather for want of workmanship in those that shall deal in them than want of materials in the things themselves The other paper hath many discarding cards and I send it chiefly that your Majesty may be the less surprized by projectors who pretend sometimes great discoveries and inventions in things that have been propounded and perhaps after a better fashion long since God Almighty preserve your Majesty Your Majesties most humble and devoted Servant and Subject April 25 1610. Sir Francis Bacon the Kings Attorney to the King touching the proceeding with Somerset It may please your most excellent Majesty AT my last access to your Majesty it was sit for me to consider the time and your journey which maketh me now trouble your Majesty with a remnant of that I thought then to have said besides your old Warrant and Commission to me to advertise your Majestie when you are aux champs of any thing that concern'd your service and my place I know your Majestie is Nunquam minus solus quam cum solus and I confess in regard of your great judgment unto which nothing ought to be presented but well weighed I could almost wish that the manner of Tiberius were in use again of whom Tacitus saith Mos erat quamvis praesentem scripto adire much more in absence I said to your Majestie that which I do now repeat that the Evidence upon which my Lord of Somerset standeth indicted is of a good strong thred considering impoysoning is the darkest of offences but that the thred must be well spun and woven together For your Majestie knoweth it is one thing to deal with a Jury of Middlesex and Londoners and another to deal with the Peers whose objects perhaps will not be so much what is before them in the present Case which I think is as odious to them as to the vulgar but what may be hereafter Besides there be two disadvantages we that shallgive in evidence shall meet with somewhat considerable the one that the same things often open'd lose their freshness except there be an aspersion of somewhat that is new the other is the expectation raised which makes things seem less then they are because they are less then opinion Therefore I were not your Attorney nor my self if I should not be very careful that in this last part which is the pinacle of your former Justice all things may pass sine offendiculo sine scrupulo Hereupon I did move two things which having now more fully explained my self I do in all humbleness renew First That your Majesty will be careful to chuse a Steward of Judgment that may be able to moderate the Evidence and cut off Digressions for I may interrupt but I cannot silence The other That there may be special care taken for the ordering of the Evidence not only for the knitting but for the list and to use your Majesties own word the confining of it This to do if your Majestie vouchsafe to direct it your self that is the best if not I humbly pray you to require my Lord Chancellor that he together with my Lord Chief Justice will confer with my self and my sellows that shall be used for the marshalling and bounding of the Evidence that we may have the help of his opinion as well as that of my Lord Chief Justice whose great travels as I much commend yet that same Plerophoria or over-confidence doth always subject things to a great deal of chance There is another business proper for me to crave of Your Majesty at this time as one that have in my eye a great deal of Service to be done concerning Your casual Revenue but considering times and persons I desire to be strengthned by some such form of Commandment under Your Royal Hand as I send You here inclosed I most humbly pray Your Majesty to think that I understand my self right well in this which I desire and that it tendeth greatly to the good of Your Service The Warrant I mean not to impart but upon just occasion Thus thirsty to hear of Your Majesties good health I rest Jan. 22. 1615. Sir Francis Bacon the Kings Attorney to Sir George Villiers concerning the proceeding with Somerset SIR I Thought it convenient to give His Majesty an account of that which His Majesty gave me in charge in general reserving the particulars for His coming And I find it necessary to know His pleasure in some things ere I could further proceed My Lord Chancellor and my self spent Thursday and Yesterday the whole Forenoons of both dayes in the Examination of Sir Robert Cotton whom we find hitherto but empty save only in the great point of the Treaty with Spain This Examination was taken before His Majesties Warrant came to Mr. Vice-Chamberlain for communicating unto us the Secrets of the Pensions which Warrant I received Yesterday morning being Friday and a meeting was appointed at my Lord Chancellors
in the Evening after Councel Upon which Conference we find matter of further Examination for Sir Robert Cotton of some new Articles whereupon to examine Somerset and of entring into Examination of Sir William Mounson Wherefore first for Somerset being now ready to proceed to examine him we stay only upon the Duke of Lenox who it seemeth is fallen sick and keepeth in without whom we neither think it warranted by His Majesties direction nor agreeable to His intention that we should proceed for that will want which should sweeten the Cup of Medicine he being his Countrey man and Friend Herein then we humbly crave His Majesties direction with all convenient speed whether we shall expect the Dukes recovery or proceed by our selves or that His Majesty will think of some other person qualified according to His Majesties just intention to be joined with us I remember we had speech with His Majesty of my Lord Hay and J for my part can think of no other except it should be my Lord Chancellor of Scotland for my Lord Binning may be thought too near allied I am further to know His Majesties pleasure concerning the day For my Lord Chancellor and J conceived His Majesty to have designed the Monday and Tuesday aftet St. Georges Feast and nevertheless we conceived also That His Majesty understood that the Examinations of Somerset about this and otherwise touching the Spanish practices should first be put to a point which will not be possible as time cometh on by reason of this accident of the Dukes sickness and the cause we find of Sir William Mounsons Examination and that divers of the peers are to be sent for from remote places It may please His Majesty therefore to take into consideration whether the days may not well be put off till Wednesday and Thursday after the Term which endeth on the Munday being the Wednesday and Thursday before Whitsontide or if that please not His Majesty in respect it may be His Majesty will be then in Town whereas these Arraignments have been still in His Majesties absence from Town then to take Munday and Tuesday after Trinity-Sunday being the Munday and Tuesday before Trinity Term. Now for Sir William Mounson if it be His Majesties pleasure that my Lord Chancellor and I shall proceed to the examination of him for that of the Duke of Lenox differs in that there is not the like cause as in that of Somerset then His Majesty may be pleased to direct his Commandment and Warrant to my Lord Chief Justice to deliver unto me the examinations he took of Sir William Mounson that those joyned to the information which we have received from Mr. Vice-Chamberlain may be full instructions unto us for his examination Further I pray let His Majesty know that on Thursday in the evening my Lord Chief Justice and my self attended my Lord Chancellor at his house for the setling of that scruple which His Majesty most justly conceived in the Examination of the Lady Somerset at which time resting on His Majesties opinion That that Evidence as it standeth now unclear'd must Secundum leges sanae Conscientiae be laid aside the question was Whether we should leave it out or try what a Re-examination of my Lady Somerset would produce Whereupon we agreed upon a Re-examination of my Lady Somerset which my Lord Chief Justice and I have appointed for Monday morning I was bold at that meeting to put my Lord Chief Justice a posing question which was Whether that opinion which his Brethren had given upon the whole Evidence and he had reported to His Majesty viz. That it was good Evidence in their opinions to convince my Lord of Somerser was not grounded upon this part of the Evidence now to be omitted as well as upon the rest Who answered confidently That no and they never saw the exposition of the Letter but only the Letter The same Thursday evening before we entred into this last matter and in the presence of Mr. Secretary Winwood who left us when we went to the former business we had conference concerning the frauds and abusive Grants passed to the prejudice of His Majesties State of Revenue where my Lord Chief Justice made some relation of his collections which he had made of that kind of which I will say only this that I heard nothing that was new to me and I found my Lord Chancellor in divers particulars more ready then I found him We grew to a distribution both of times and of matters For we agreed what to begin with presently and what should follow and also we had consideration what was to be holpen by Law what by Equity and what by Parliament Wherein I must confess that in the last of these of which my Lord Chief Justice made most accompt I make most doubt But the Conclusion was That upon this entrance I should advise and conferr at large with my Lord Chief Justice and set things on work The particulars I referr till His Majesties coming The learned Councel have attended me now twice at my Chamber to confer upon that which His Majesty gave us in Commandment for our opinions upon the Case set down by my Lord Chancellor whether the Statutes extend to it or no. Wherein we are more and more edified and confirmed that they do not and shall shortly send our Report to His Majesty Sir I hope you will bear me witness I have not been idle but all is nothing to the Duty I owe His Majesty for his singular favours past and present supplying all with love and prayers I rest Your true Friend and devoted Servant April 13. 1616. Sir Francis Bacon the Kings Attorney giving account of an Examination taken of Somerset at the Tower SIR I Received from you a Letter of very brief and clear directions and I think it a great blessing of God upon me and my labours that my directions come by so clear a Conduit as they receive no tincture in the passage Yesterday my Lord Chancellor the Duke of Lenox and my self spent the whole afternoon at the Tower in the examination of Somerset upon the Articles sent from his Majesty and some other additionals which were in effect contained in the former but extended to more particularity by occasion of somewhat discovered by Cottons examination and Mr. Vice-Chamberlains information He is full of protestations and would fain keep that quarter toward Spain clear using but this for Argument That he had such fortunes from his Majesty as he could not think of bettering his conditions from Spain because as he said he was no military man He cometh nothing so far on for that which concerneth the Treaty as Cotton which doth much aggravate suspicion against him The further particulars I reserve to his Majesties coming In the end tanquam obiter but very effectually my Lord Chancellor put him in minde of the state he stood in for the imprisonment but he was little moved with it and pretended carelesness of life
since ignominy had made him unfit for his Majesties service I am of opinion that the fair usage of him as it was fit for the Spanish examinations and for the questions touching the Papers and Dispatches and all that so it was no good preparative to make him descend into himself touching his present danger and therefore my Lord Chancellor and my self thought not good to insist upon it at this time I have received from my Lord Chief Justice the examinations of Sir William Mounson with whom we mean to proceed to further examination with all speed My Lord Chief Justice is altered touching the re-examination of the Lady and desired me that we might stay till he spake with his Majesty saying it could be no casting back to the business which I did approve My self with the rest of my fellows upon due and mature advice perfected our Report touching the Chancery for the receiving whereof I pray you put his Majesty in mind at his coming to appoint some time for us to wait upon him all together for the delivery in of the same as we did in our former Certificate For the Revenue matters I reserve them to his Majesties coming and in the mean time I doubt not but Master Secretary Winwood will make some kind of Report thereof to his Majesty For the conclusion of your Letter concerning my own comfort I can say but the Psalm of Quid retribuam God that giveth me favour in his Majesties eyes will strengthen me in his Majesty service I ever rest Your true and devoted Servant April 18. 1616. To requite your Post-script of excuse for scribling I pray you excuse that the Paper is not gilt I writing from Westminster Hall where we are not so fine Sir Francis Bacon the Kings Attorney to Sir George Villiers touching the proceeding with Somerset SIR I Have received my Letter from his Majesty with his marginal notes which shall be my directions being glad to perceive I understand his Majesty so well That little Charm which may be secretly infused into Somersets ear some few hours before his Tryal was excellently well thought of by his Majesty and I do approve it both for matter and time only if it seem good to his Majesty I would wish it a little enlarged For if it be no more but to spare his blood he hath a kind of proud humour which may over-work the Medicine Therefore I could wish it were made a little stronger by giving him some hope that his Majesty will be good to his Lady and child and that time when Justice and his Majesties Honour is once salved and satisfied may produce further fruit of his Majesties compassio which was to be seen in the example of Southampton whom his Majesty after attainder restor d and Cobham and Gray to whom his Majesty notwithstanding they were offendors against his own person yet spared their lives and for Gray his Majesty gave him back some part of his estate and was upon point to deliver him much more he having been so highly in his Majesties favour may hope well if he hurt not himself by his publick misdemeanor For the person that should deliver this message I am not so well seen in the Religion of his friends as to be able to make choice of a particular my Lord Treasurer the Lord Knolles or any of his neerest friends should not be trusted with it for they may go too far and perhaps work contrary to His Majesties ends Those which occur to me are my Lord Hay my Lord Burghley of England I mean and Sir Robert Carr. My Lady of Somerset hath been re-examined and His Majesty is sound both a true Prophet and a most just King in that scruple he made For now she expoundeth the word He that should send the Tarts to Helwish's wife to be of Overbury and not of Somerset But for the person that should bid her she saith it was Northampton or Weston not pitching upon certainty which giveth some advantage to the evidence Yesterday being Wednesday I spent 4 or 5 houres with the Judges whom His Majesty designed to take consideration with the four Judges of the Kings Bench of the Evidence against Somerset They all concurre in opinion that the questioning him and drawing him on to tryal is most honourable and just and that the Evidence is fair and good His Majesties Letter to the Judges concerning the Commendams was full of magnanimity and wisdome I perceive His Majesty is never less alone then when he is alone for I am sure there was no body by him to informe him which made me admire it the more The Judges have given day over till the second Saturday of the next term so as that matter may indure further consideration for His Majesty not only not to lose ground but to win ground To morrow is appointed for the examination of Somerset which by some infirmitie of the Duke of Lenox was put off from this day When this is done I will write more fully ever resting Your true and devoted servant May 2. 1616. Sir Francis Bacon the Kings Attorney to Sir George Villiers of Account and Advice to His Majesty touching Somerset's Arraignment SIR I Am far enough from opinion that the Redintegration or Resuscitation of Somersets fortune can ever stand with his Majesties honour and safety and therein I think I exprest my self fully to his Majesty in one of my former letters and I know well any expectation or thought abroad will do much hurt But yet the glimmering of that which the King hath done to others by way of talke to him cannot hurt as I conceive but I would not have that part of the Message as from the King but added by the Messenger as from himself This I remit to His Majesties Princely judgement For the person though he trust the Lieutenant well yet it must be some new man for in these cases that which is ordinary worketh not so great impressions as that which is new and extraordinary The time I wish to be the Tuesday being the even of his Ladies Arraignment For as His Majesty first conceived I would not have it stay in his stomack too long lest it sowre in the digestion and to be too neer the time may be thought but to tune him for that day I send herewithal the substance of that which I purpose to say nakedly and only in that part which is of tenderness for that I conceive was His Majesties meaning It will be necessary because I have distributed parts to the two Serjeants as that Paper doth express and they understand nothing of His Majesties pleasure of the manner of carrying the Evidence more than they may guess by observation of my Example which they may ascribe as much to my nature as to direction therefore that His Majesty would be pleased to write some few words to us all signed with His own Hand that the matter it self being Tragical enough bitterness and insulting be forborn and that
we remember our part to be to make him Delinquent to the Peers and not odions to the People That part of the Evidence of the Ladies Exposition of the Pronoun He which was first caught hold of by me and after by His Majesties singular Wisdom and Conscience excepted to and now is by her Re-examination retracted I have given order to Serjeant Montague within whose part it falleth to leave it out of the Evidence I do yet crave pardon if I do not certifie touching the point of Law for respiting the Judgment for I have not fully advised with my Lord Chancellor concerning it but I will advertise it in time I send His Majesty the Lord Stewards Commission in two several instruments the one to remain with my Lord Chancellor which is that which is written in Secretary hand for his Warrant and is to pass the Signet the other that whereunto the great Seal is to be affixed which is in Chancery hand His Majesty is to sign them both and to transmit the former to the Signet if the Secretaries either of them be there and both of them are to be returned to me with all speed I ever rest Your true and devoted Servant May 5. 1616. Sir Francis Bacon the Kings Attorney and some great Lords Commissioners concerning the perswasion used to the Lord of Somerset to a frank Confession It may please Your Majesty WE have done our best endeavours to perform Your Majesties Commission both in matter and manner for the examination of my Lord of Somerset wherein that which passed for the general was to this effect That he was to know his own Case for that his day of Trial could not be far off but that this dayes work was that which would conduce to Your Majesties Justice little or nothing but to Your Mercy much if he did lay hold upon it and therefore might do him good but could do him no hurt For as for Your Justice there had been taken great and grave opinion not only of such Judges as he may think violent but of the most saddest and most temperate of the Kingdom who ought to understand the state of the proofs that the Evidence was full to convict him so as there needed neither Confession nor supply of Examination But for Your Majesties Mercy although he were not to expect we should make any promise we did assure him That Your Majesty was compassionate of him if he gave you some ground whereon to work that as long as he stood upon his Innocency and Tryal Your Majesty was tyed in Honour to proceed according to Justice and that he little understood being a close Prisoner how much the expectation of the World besides Your love to Justice it self engaged Your Majesty whatsoever Your inclination were but nevertheless that a frank and clear Confession might open the gate of Mercy and help to satisfie the point of Honour That his Lady as he knew and that after many Oaths and Imprecations to the contrary had nevertheless in the end been touched with remorse confessed that she that led him to offend might lead him likewise to repent of his offence That the confession of one of them could not fitly do either of them much good but the confession of both of them might work some further effect towards both And therefore in conclusion we wished him not to shut the gate of your Majesties mercy against himself by being obdurate any longer This was the effect of that which was spoken part by one of us part by another as it fell out adding further that he might well discern who spake in us in the course we held for that Commissioners of Examination might not presume so far of themselves Not to trouble Your Majesty with Circumstances of his Answers the sequel was no other but that we found him still not to come any degree further on to confess only his Behaviour was very sober and modest and mild differing apparently from other times but yet as it seem'd resolv'd to expect his Tryal Then did we proceed to examine him upon divers Questions touching the Impoysonment which indeed were very material and supplemental to the former Evidence wherein either his Affirmatives gave some light or his Negatives do greatly falsifie him in that which is apparently proved We made this further observation That when we asked him some Question that did touch the Prince or some Forrain practice which we did very sparingly at this time yet he grew a little stirred but in the Questions of the Impoysonment very cold and modest Thus not thinking it necessary to trouble Your Majesty with any further particulars we end with Prayer to God ever to preserve Your Majesty Your Majesties most Loyal and Faithful Servant c. If it seem good unto Your Majesty we think it not amiss some Preacher well chosen had access to my Lord of Somerset for his preparing and comfort although it be before his Tryal Sir Francis Bacon to the King upon some inclination of His Majesty signified to him for the Chancellors place It may please your most Excellent Majesty THe last day when it pleased Your Majesty to express your self towards me in favour far above that I can deserve or could expect I was surprised by the Princes coming in I most humbly pray Your Majesty therefore to accept these few lines of acknowledgement I never had great thoughts for my self further then to maintain those great thoughts which I confess I have for your service I know what honour is and I know what the times are but I thank God with me my service is the principal and it is far from me under honourable pretences to cover base desires which I account them to be when men refer too much to themselves especially serving such a King I am afraid of nothing but that the Master of the Horse your excellent servant and my self shall fall out about this who shall hold your Stirrup belt but were Your Majesty mounted and seated without difficulties and distastes in your business as I desire and hope to see you I should ex animo desire to spend the decline of my years in my studies wherein also I should not forget to do him honour who besides his active and politick vertues is the best pen of Kings and much more the best subject of a pen. God ever preserve Your Majesty Your Majesties most humble Subject and more and more obliged Servant April 1. 1616. Sir Francis Bacon the Kings Attorney returned with Postils of the Kings own Hand It may please Your most Excellent Majesty YOur Majesty hath put upon me a work of providence in this great Cause which is to break and distinguish future events into present Cases and so to present them to your Royal Judgement that in this action which hath been carried with so great Prudence Justice and Clemency there may be for that which remaineth as little surprize as is possible but that things duly foreseen may have their remedies
such directions or significations of Your pleasure as this advertisement may induce and that with speed because the time cometh on Well remembring who is the person whom Your Majesty admitted to this secret I have sent this Letter open unto him that he may take Your Majesties times to report it or shew it unto You assuring my self that nothing is more firm than his Trust tyed to Your Majesties Commandments Your Majesties most humble and most bounden Subject and Servant April 28. 1616. The Copy of a Letter conceived to be written to the late Duke of Buckingham when he first became a Favourite to King James by Sir Francis Bacon afterwards Lord Verulam and Viscount St. Alban Containing some Advices unto the Duke for his better direction in that eminent place of the Favourite Drawn from him at the intreaty of the Duke himself by much importunity Noble SIR WHAT you requested of me by word when I last waited on you you have since renewed by your Letters Your requests are commands unto me and yet the matter is of that nature that I find my self very unable to serve you therein as you desire It hath pleased the King to cast an extraordinary eye of favour upon you and you express your self very desirous to win upon the Judgment of your Master and not upon his Affections only I do very much commend your noble ambition herein for Favour so bottomed is like to be lasting whereas if it be built upon the sandy foundation of personal respects only it cannot be long-lived Yet in this you have erred in applying your self to me the most unworthy of your servants to give assistance upon so weighty a subject You know I am no Courtier nor vers'd in State-affairs my life hitherto hath rather been contemplative then active I have rather studied Books then Men I can but guess at the most at these things in which you desire to be advised Nevertheless to shew my obedience though with the hazard of my discretion I shall yield unto you Sir In the first place I shall be bold to put you in minde of the present condition you are in you are not only a Courtier but a Bed-Chamber man and so are in the eye and eare of Your Master but you are also a favourite The Favourite of the time and so are in his bosome also The world hath so voted you and doth so esteem of you for Kings and great Princes even the wisest of them have had their friends their Favourites their Privadoes in all ages for they have their affections as well as other men of these they make several uses sometimes to communicate and debate their thoughts with them and to upon their judgments thereby sometimes to ease their cares by imparting them and sometimes to interpose them between themselves and the envy or malice of their people for Kings cannot erre that must be discharged upon the shoulders of their Ministers and they who are neerest unto them must be content to bear the greatest load Truly Sir I do not believe or suspect that you are chosen to this eminency out of the last of these considerations for you serve such a Master who by his Wisdom and Goodness is as free from the malice or envy of His Subjects as I think I may say truly ever any King was who hath sate upon His Throne before him But I am confident his Majesty hath cast His eys upon you as finding you to be such as you should be or hoping to make you to be such as he would have you to be for this I may say without flattery your out-side promiseth as much as can be expected from a Gentleman But be it in the one respect or other it belongeth to you to take care of your self and to know well what the name of a Favourite signifies If you be chosen upon the former respects you have reason to take care of your actions and deportment out of your gratitude for the Kings sake but if out of the latter you ought to take the greater care for your own sake You are as a new-risen starre and the eys of all men are upon you let not your own negligence make you fall like a Meteor The contemplation then of your present condition must necessarily prepare you for action what time can be well spar'd from your attendance on Your Master will be taken up by suitors whom you cannot avoid nor decline without reproach for if you do not already you will soon find the throng of suitors attend you for no man almost who hath to do with the King will think himself safe unless you be his good Angel and guide him or at least that you be not a Malus Genius against him so that in respect of the King Your Master you must be very wary that you give him true information and if the matter concern him in his Government that you do not flatter him if you do you are as great a Traytor to him in the Court of Heaven as he that draws his sword against him and in respect of the suitors which shall attend you there is nothing will bring you more honour and more ease then to do them what right in justice you may and with as much speed as you may for believe it Sir next to the obtaining of the suit a speedy and a gentle denial when the case will not bear it is the most acceptable to suitors they will gaine by their dispatch whereas else they shall spend their time and money in attending and you will gaine in the ease you will find being rid of their importunity But if they obtain what they reasonably desired they will be doubly bound to you for your favour Bis dat qui cito dat it multiplies the courtesie to do it with good words and speedily That you may be able to do this with the best advantage my humble advice is this when Suitors come unto you set apart a certain hour in a day to give them Audience If the business be light and easie it may by word only be delivered and in a word be answered but if it be either of weight or of difficulty direct the Suitor to commit it to writing if it be not so already and then direct him to attend for his Answer at a set-time to be appointed which would constantly be observed unless some matter of great moment do interrupt it when you have received the Petitions and it will please the Petitioners well to have access unto you to deliver them into your own hand let your Secretary first read them and draw lines under the material parts thereof for the matter for the most part lies in a narrow room The Petitions being thus prepared do you constantly set apart an hour in a day to peruse those Petitions and after you have ranked them into several Files according to the subject matter make choice of two or three Friends whose judgments and fidelities you believe you may
bounden Servant July 5. 1616. Sir Francis Bacon the Kings Attorney General to the Master of the Horse upon the sending of his Bill for Viscount sc. SIR I Send you the Bill for His Majesties Signature reformed according to His Majesties amendments both in the two places which I assure you were altered with great judgment and in the third place which His Majesty termed a question only But he is an idle body that thinketh His Majesty asketh an idle question and therefore His Majesties questions are to be answered by taking away the cause of the question and not by replying For the name His Majesties Will is a Law in those things and to speak the truth it is a well-sounding and noble name both here and abroad and being your proper name I will take it for a good sign that you shall give honour to your dignity and not your dignity to you Therefore I have made it Viscount Villiers and for your Barony I will keep it for an Earldom For though the other had been more orderly yet that is as usual and both alike good in Law For Ropers place I would have it by all means dispatched and therefore I marvaile it lingreth It were no good manners to take the business out of my Lord Treasurers hands and therefore I purpose to write to his Lordship if I hear not from him first by Mr. Deckome but if I hear of any delay you will give me leave especially since the King named me to deal with Sir Joseph Roper my self for neither I nor my Lord Treasurer can deserve any great thanks in this business of yours considering the King hath spoken to Sir Jo. Roper and he hath promised and besides the thing it self is so reasonable as it ought to be as soon done as said I am now gotten into the Countrey to my house where I have some little liberty to think of that I would think of and not of that which other men hourly break their head withal as it was at London Upon this you may conclude that most of my thoughts are to His Majesty and then you cannot be far off God ever keep you and prosper you I rest always Your true and most dutiful Servant The 5. of August one of the happiest dayes Sir Francis Bacon to Sir George Villiers upon the sending his Pattent for Viscount Villiers to be Signed SIR I Have sent you now your Patent of Creation of Lord Bletchly of Bletchly and of Viscount Villiers Beltchly is your own and I liked the sound of the name better then Whaddon but the name will be hid for you will be called Viscount Villiers I have put them in a Patent after the manner of the Patent for Earls where Baronies are joyned but the chief reason was because I would avoid double prefaces which had not been fit nevertheless the Ceremony of Robing and otherwise must be double And now because I am in the Countrey I will send you some of my Countrey fruits which with me are good Meditations which when I am in the City are choked with business After that the King shall have watered your new Dignities with the bounty of the Lands which he intends you and that some other things concerning your Means which are now likewise in intention shall be setled upon you I do not see but you may think your private Fortunes established and therefore it is now time that you should refer your Actions to the good of your Sovereign and your Countrey It is the life of an Oxe or Beast alwayes to eat and never exercise but men are born and specially Christian men not to cramb in their Fortunes but to exercise their Vertues and yet the other hath been the unworthy and thanks be to God sometimes the unlucky humour of great Persons in our times Neither will your future Fortune be the further off for assure your self that Fortune is of a Womans nature and will sooner follow by sleighting than by too much wooing And in this dedication of your self to the Publick I recommend unto you principally that which I think was never done since I was born and which because it is not done hath bred almost a Wilderness and Solitude in the Kings Service which is That you countenance and encourage and advance able men in all kinds degrees and professions For in the time of the Cecils the Father and the Son able men were by design and of purpose suppressed and though of late choice goeth better both in Church and Commonwealth yet money and turn-serving and cunning canvasses and importunity prevaileth too much And in places of moment rather make able and honest men yours than advance those that are otherwise because they are yours As for cunning and corrupt men you must I know sometimes use them but keep them at a distance and let it appear rather that you make use of them than that they lead you Above all depend wholly next unto God upon the King and be ruled as hitherto you have been by His Instructions for that is best for your self For the Kings care and thoughts for you are according to the thoughts of a great King whereas your thoughts concerning your self are and ought to be according to the thoughts of a modest man But let me not weary you the sum is That you think Goodness the best part of Greatness and that you remember whence your rising comes and make return accordingly God keep you August 12. 1616. Sir Francis Bacon to the King about a Certificate of my Lord Coke's It may please Your Excellent Majesty I Send your Majesty inclosed my Lord Coke's answers I will not call them rescripts much less Oracles They are of his own hand and offered to me as they are in writing not required by me to have them set down in writing though I am glad of it for my own discharge I thought it my duty as soon as I received them instantly to send them to Your Majesty and forbear for the present to speak further of them I for my part though this Muscovia-weather be a little too hard for my constitution was ready to have waited upon Your Majesty this day all respects set aside but my Lord Treasurer in respect of the season and much other business was willing to save me I will onely conclude touching these Papers with a Text divided I cannot say Oportuit haec fieri but I may say Finis autem nondum God preserve Your Majesty Your Majesties most humble and devoted Subject and Servant Feb. 14. at 12. a Clock I humbly pray Your Majesty to keep the Papers safe A Letter to the King touching the Lord Chancellors place It may please Your most Excellent Majesty YOur worthy Chancellour I fear goeth his last day God hath hitherto used to weed out such Servants as grew not fit for Your Majesty but now he hath gathered to himself a true sage or salvia out of Your Garden But Your Majesties service must not be mortal
of Praemunire preferred into the Kings Bench but not found is not so much as is noised abroad though I must say it was Omni tempore nimium hoc tempore alienum And therefore I beseech Your Majesty not to give any believing ear to Reports but to receive the Truth from me that am Your Attorney General and ought to stand indifferent for Jurisdictions of all Courts which account I cannot give Your Majesty now because I was then absent and some are now absent which are properly and authentically to inform me touching that which passed Neither let this any way disjoint Your other business for there is a time for all things and this very accident may be turned to good not that I am of opinion that that same cunning Maxim of Separa Impera which sometimes holdeth in persons can well take place in Jurisdictions but because some good occasion by this excess may be taken to settle that which would have been more dangerous if it had gone on by little and little God preserve Your Majesty Your Majesties most humble Subject and most bounden Servant Febr. 15. 1615. Sir Francis Bacon the Kings Attorney to the King giving some Account touching the Commendams It may please Your most Excellent Majesty I Am not swift to deliver anything to your Majesty before it be well weighed But now that I have informed my self of as much as is necessary touching this proceeding of the Judges to the Argument of the Commendams notwithstanding your Majesties pleasure signified by me upon your Majesties Commandment in presence of my Lord Chancellor and the Bishop of Winchester to the contrary I do think it fit to advertise your Majesty what hath passed the rather because I suppose the Judges since they performed not your Commandment have at least given Your Majesty their reasons of their failing therein I begin to answer for the doing of Your Majesties Commandment and they for the not doing I did conceive that in a cause that concern'd Your Majesty and your Royal power the Judges having heard your Attorney General argue the Saturday before would of themselves have taken further time to be advised And if I fail not in memory my Lord Coke received from Your Majesties self as I take it a precedent commandment in Hillary term That both in the Rege inconsulto and in the Commendams your Attorney should be heard to speak and then stay to be made of further proceeding till my Lord had spoken with your Majesty Nevertheless hearing that the day appointed for the Judges Argument hâ—ld contrary to my expectation I sent on Thursday in the evening having received Your Majesties Commandment but the day before in the afternoon a Letter to my Lord Coke whereby I let him know that upon some Report of my Lord of Winchester who by Your Commandment was present at my Argument of that which passed it was Your Majesties express Pleasure that no further proceeding should be until Your Majesty had confer'd with Your Judges which Your Majesty thought to have done at Your being now last in Town but by reason of Your many and weighty occasions Your Princely times would not serve and that it was Your Pleasure he should signifie so much to the rest of the Judges whereof his Lordship might not fail His answer by word to my Man was That it were good the rest of the Judges understood so much from my self Whereupon I that cannot skill in scruples in matter of Service did write on Friday three several Letters of like Content to the Judges of the Common Pleas and the Barons of the Exchequer and the other three Judges of the Kings Bench mentioning in that last my particular Letter to my Lord Chief Justice This was all I did and thought all had been sure insomuch as the same day being appointed in Chancery for Your Majesties great Cause followed by my Lord Hunsdon I writ two other Letters to both the Chief Justices to put them in mind of assisting my Lord Chancellor at the hearing And when my Lord Chancellor himself took some notice upon that occasion openly in the Chancery that the Commendams could not hold presently after I heard the Judges were gone about the Commendams which I thought at first had been only to adjourn the Court But I heard after that they proceeded to Argument In this their doing I conceive they must either except to the nature of the Commandment or to the credence thereof both which I assure my self Your Majesty will maintain For if they should stand upon the general ground Nulli negabimus nulli differemus Justitiam it receiveth two Answers The one that reasonable and mature advice may not be confounded with delay and that they can well alledge when it pleaseth them The other that there is a great difference between a Case meerly between Subject and Subject and where the Kings interest is in question directly or by consequence At for the Attorneys Place and Commission it is as proper for him to signifie the Kings Pleasure to the Judges as for the Secretary to signifie the same to the Privy Councel and so hath it ever been These things were a little strange if there came not so many of them together as the one maketh the other seem less strange But Your Majesty hath fair occasions to remedy all with small aid I say no more for the present I was a little plain with my Lord Coke in these matters and when his answer was That he knew all these things I said he could never profit too much in knowing himself and his duty Sir Francis Bacon his Advertisement touching an Holy War to the Right Reverend Father in God Lancelot Andrews Lord Bishop of Winchester and Councellor of Estate to His Majesty My Lord AMongst consolations it is not the least to represent a mans self like examples of calamity in others For Example gives a quicker impression then Arguments and besides they certifie us of that which the Scripture also tendereth for satisfaction That no new thing is happened unto us This they do the better by how much the Examples are liker in circumstances to our own case and more especially if they fall upon persons that are greater and worthier then our selves For as it savoureth of vanity to match our selves highly in our own conceit so on the other side it is a good sound conclusion That if our betters have sustained the like events we have the less cause to be grieved In this kind of consolation I have not been wanting to my self though as a Christian I have tasted through Gods great goodness of higher remedies Having therefore through the variety of my reading set before me many examples both of ancient and latter times my thoughts I confess have chiefly stayed upon three particulars as the most eminent and the most resembling all three persons that had held chief place of Authority in their Countreys all three ruined not by war or by any other disaster
interessed in the care of future times that as well their Progeny as their people may participate of their merit Your Majesty is a great Master in Justice and Judicature and it were pity the fruit of that your vertue should not be transmitted to the ages to come Your Majesty also reigneth in learned times the more no doubt in regard of your own perfection in learning and your Patronage thereof and it hath been the mishap of works that the less learned time hath sometimes wrought upon the more Learned which now will not be so As for my self the Law was my profession to which I am a debtor some little help I have of my Arts which may give form to matter and I have now by Gods merciful chastisement and by his special providence time and leasure to put my Talent or half Talent or what it is to such exchanges as may perhaps exceed the Interest of an active life Therefore as in the beginning of my troubles I made offer to Your Majesty to take pains in the story of England and in compiling a Method and Digest of your Laws so have I performed the first which rested but upon my self in some part And I do in all humbleness renew the offer of this Letter which will require help and assistance to Your Majesty if it shall stand with your good pleasure to imploy my service therein Sir Francis Bacon to the Right Honourable his very good Lord the Earl of Devonshire Lord Lieutenant of Ireland IT may please your good Lordship I cannot be ignorant and ought to be sensible of the wrong which I sustain Common speech as if I had been false or unthankful to that noble but unfortunate Earl the Earl of Essex and for satisfying the vulgar sort I do not so much regard it though I love a good name but yet as a hand-maid and attendant of honesty and vertue For I am of his opinion that said pleasantly that it was a shame to him that was a Suitor to the Mistress to make Love to the Waiting-woman And therefore to Wooe or Court common fame otherwise then it followeth upon honest courses I for my part find not my self fit nor disposed But on the otherside there is no worldly thing that concerneth my self which I hold more dear then the good opinion of certain persons amongst which there is none I would more willingly give satisfaction unto then to your Lordship First because you loved my Lord of Essex and therefore will not be partial towards me which is part of that I desire next because it hath ever pleased you to shew your self to me an honourable friend and so no baseness in me to seek to satisfie you And lastly because I know your Lordship is excellently grounded in the true rules and habits of duties and moralities which must be they which shall decide this matter wherein my Lord my defence needeth to be but simple and brief namely that whatsoever I did concerning that action and proceeding was done in my duty and service to the Queen and her State in which I would not shew my self falshearted nor faint-hearted for any mans sake alive For every honest man that hath his heart well planted will forsake his King rather than forsake God and forsake his Friends than forsake his King and yet will forsake any earthly Commodity yea and his own life in some cases rather than forsake his Friend I hope the world hath not forgotten his degrees else the Heathen saying amicus usque ad aras shall jndge them and if any man shall say that I did officiously intrude my self into that business because I had no ordinary place the like may be said of all the business in effect that passed the hands of the learned Councel either of State or Revenue these many years wherein I was continually used for as your Lordship may remember the Queen knew her strength so well as she looked her word should be a Warrant and after the manner of the choicest Princes before her did not always tye her trust to place but did sometimes divide private favour from office And I for my part though I was not unseen in the world but I knew the condition was subject to envie and peril yet because I knew again she was constant in her favours and made an end where she began and especially because she upheld me with extraordinary access and other demonstrations confidence and Grace I resolved to endure it in expectation of better But my scope and desire is that your Lordship would be pleased to have the honourable patience to know the truth in some particularity of all that passed in this cause wherein I had any part that you may perceive how honest a heart I ever bare to my Sovereign and to my Countrey and to that Nobleman who had so well deserved of me and so well accepted of my deservings whose fortune I cannot remember without much grief But for any action of mine towards him there is nothing that passed me in my life-time that cometh to my remembrance with more clearness and less check of Conscience For it will appear to your Lordship that I was not only not opposite to my Lord of Essex but that I did occupy the utmost of my wits and adventured my Fortune with the Queen to have redintegrated his and so continued faithfully and industriously till his last fatal impatience for so I will call it after which day there was not time to work for him though the same my affection when it could not work upon the subject proper went to the next with no ill effect towards some others who I think do rather not know it than not acknowledge it And this I will assure your Lordship I will leave nothing untold that is truth for any enemy that I have to add and on the other side I must reserve much which makes for me upon many respects of Duty which I esteem above my Credit And what I have here set down to your Lordship I protest as I hope to have any part in Gods favour is true It is well known how I did many years since dedicate my travels and studies to the use and as I may term it service of my Lord of Essex which I protest before God I did not making election of him as the likeliest mean of my own advancement but out of the humour of a man that ever from the time I had any use of Reason whether it were reading upon good Books or upon the example of a good Father or by Nature I loved my Countrey more then was answerable to my Fortune and I held at that time my Lord to be the fittest instrument to do good to the State and therefore I applied my self wholly to him in a manner which I think happeneth rarely amongst men For I did not only labour carefully and industriously in that he set me about whether it were matter of advice or otherwise but neglecting the
Mistriss shall have me in her hands to do her will of me and if she be so hard-hearted as to desire my end she may then do her pleasure and make sacrifice of me peradventure that casualty might be better for me than to live in this matter quoth she Gods will be fulfilled I answered she might amend all this matter if she would and find more Amity of your Majesty and your Realm than of any other Prince or Countrey The Queen answered I have me thinketh offered and spoken that that might suffice the Queen my Sister if she will take any thing well at my hand I trust said she for all this we shall agree better than some would have us and for my part I will not take all things to the worst I hope also said she the Queen my Sister and Cosin will do the like whereof quoth she I doubt not if Ministers do no harm betwixt us and so the said Queen embraced me This is the sum of my Negotiations at these my last Audiences with the French King the Queen-Mother the King of Navarre the Queen of Scotland and the Constable whereof I have thought meet to enlarge to your Majesty in such fort as the same passed and was uttered betwixt us As far as I can perceive the said Queen of Scotland continueth her Voyage still and I hear that Villageigmon and Octavian have the principal order of her said Voyage and mean to sail along the Coast of Flanders and so to strike over to the North-part of Scotland as the wind shall serve she did once mean to use the West-passage but now she dares not trust the Duke of Chastillerault nor the Earl of Arguile and therefore dareth not to pass by the West-Seas The said Queen as I hear desireth to borrow of the French King a hundred thousand Crowns the same to be received again of her Dowry which is twenty eight thousand Crowns by the year the Queen-Mother is willing to help her the King of Navarre doth not further the matter but seeketh to abridge the sum After I had done my Negotiations at the Court I was constrained to dislodge from Poissey for the Assembly of the Clergy who meet there to the end of this month and the Ambassadours are now appointed to lodge at Paris The Queen of Scotland departed from St. Germanes yesterday 25. of July towards her Voyage as she bruiteth it she sendeth most of her Train strait to New-haven to embark and she herself goeth such a way between both as she will be at her choice to go to New-Haven or to Callis upon the sudden what she will do or where she will embark she will be acknown to never a Scotch man and but to few French And for all these shews and boasts some think she will not go at all and yet all her stuff is sent down to the Sea and none other bruit in her house but of her hasty going if it would please your Majesty to cause some to be sent privily to all the Ports on this side the certainty shall be better known to your Majesty that way by the laying of her vessels than I can advertise it hence She hath said that at her coming into Scotland she will forthwith rid the Realm of all the English men there namely of your Majesties Agent there and forbid mutual Traffick with your Majesties Subjects if she make the haste to embark that she seemeth to do she will be almost ready to embark by that time this shall come to your Majesties hands Two or three dayes ago the French King was troubled with a pain in his head and the same beginneth to break from him by bleeding at the nose and running at his ear it is taken to be the same disease in his head whereof his brother died but by voiding it which the other could not do that organ being stopped this King is well amended At the dispatch hereof the King of Navarre was unquieted by a flux and a vomit and the Queen Mother with a Fever I hear that in Gascony the people stir apace for Religion as they do in many other places and being there assembled to the number of four thousand have entred a Town thrown down the Images and put out the Priests and will suffer no Masse to be said there My Lord of Levistou being ready to go homewards into Scotland through England went to the Queen of Scotland for his leave so to do but she hath commanded him to tarry and wait on her and to meet her at Abevillo without letting him know any thing else he in doubt what she will do is content to expect her coming thither and to do then as she shall command him and seeing no likelihood of her short passing which he sath is uncertain but that she will go to Callis there to hover and hearken what your Majesty doth to stop her and according thereunto to go or stay he mindeth to get him home he hath required my Letters of recommendations to your Majesties Officers at his landing in England which for his good devotion towards your Majesty and for that he is one that wisheth the same well I have not refused him and so humbly beseech your Majesties good favour towards him at his coming to your Majesty for his Pass-port Here is a bruit that the Turk is greatly impeached both by a sort of Jewes within his own Countrey and also by the Sophy And thus I pray God long to preserve your Majesty in health honour and all felicity from Paris July 26. 1561. Your Majesties most humble and most obedient Subject and Servant N. Throckmorton FINIS The ALPHABETICAL TABLE B. BAcon Sir Francis not a man born under Sol that loves Honour nor under Jupiter that loves Business place of any reasonable countenance commands more wits than a mans own Pag. 1 2. Assures the Lord Burleigh that his endeavours shall not be in fault if diligence can intitle him unto it and wishes to shew his Service with as good proof as he can say it in good faith 3 4. Caresses the Earl of Northumberland 4 5. The entrance of King James a fair morning before the Sun rising This State performed the part of good Attorneys in delivering the King quiet possession 5 6. No Reason the World should reject Truth in Philosophy although the Author dissents in Religion 1â— Advice to the King touching his Revenue 27. The Kings Attorneys place and the value of it honestly The Chancellors placo usually conferred upon the Kings Council and not upon a Judge Reasons against the Lords Cook and Hubbart and the Archbishop The Body of Parliament men is Cardo rerum Part of the Chancellors place is Regnum Judiciale and since his Fathers time but too much inlarged Pag. 73 74. A Narration in several Letters of the differences between the Chancery and Kings Bench and the grounds thereof stated to the King 22 23 75. The Proceedings against Somerset and divers private Transactions touching
Duke of Chastillherault over all They raise Forces against the Regent are Routed 139. A Couragious Answer from Queen Elizabeth to the French Ambassadour and the Audience adjourned 140. She sends a Ring to Marshal Montmorancy his wife 141. The Bishop of Rhemes Ambassador from France is offended that the doctrine of Rome is said to be contrary to Christs deducing consequently that his Mr. should be reputed no Christian and how that Speech was salved The Cardinal Chastillons Wife comes over 141 142. The Reason of the Cardinals coming into England Ships sent by the Queen to preserve the Bourdeaux Fleet. The Queen of Scots Case not defensible and the Consequence thereof 144. Matters about the Queen of Scots Chastillion highly commended 144 145. The Cause of the Queen of Scots to be heard here 146. Passages touching the differences between the King and the Prince of Conde Pag. 147. Matters against the Queen of Scots very bad 148. Sir Henry Norris claims the Lord Dacres Lands 149. Three manner of wayes proposed for ending the Scottish differences 150. Spanish Treasure stayed ibid. 151 156. The Parliament of Scotland declares the Queen of Scots privy to the murder of her Husband 152. D'Assonvill comes over Without Commission and desires Conference with the Spanish Ambassadour but denied 153. Hawkins his Return to Mounts Bay from the Indies with Treasure The Queen of Scots at Tetbury under the charge of the Earl of Shrewsbury 153. The French Ambassadors Currier searched and the Reason of it 154. The Prince of Conde slain in Battel against the King 157. The 13th of March had two great Effects 158. Differences in Scotland accorded 159. But not observed 160. Sir William Cecil laments the misfortune of France means made to accord with the Low Countries Scottish Nobility reconciled 61. Original Letters intercepted by persons of credit in the FrenchCourt of advertisement concerning the Queen of Scots and the Duke of Anjou Pag. 161. That the said Queen should transfer her title on the said Duke to learn more truth hereof and advertise with speed The Queens Ships far excel others 162. The Queen of Scots excuseth her Transaction with the Duke of Anjou 163 164. A Rebellion in the West-part of Ireland and the Spaniards aid feared 164. My Lord of Shrewsbury strucken with a Palsie and a Phrensie 165. The Parisians execute two Merchants whom the King had pardon'd The English Ambassador taxed for dealing with the Kings Rebels 166. The Earl of Desmond's great Rebellion in Ireland but dispersed 167 168. An Italian sent hither upon a Devilish attempt An Insurrection in Suffolk Queen Elizabeth desires to be rid of the Queen of Scots 169. The Queen offended at the Duke of Norfolk about his Marriage Sir William Cecil his good Friend therein my Lords of Arundel and Pembroke confined to their Lodgings about it and so is the Lord Lumley My Lord of Huntington joined with the Earl of Shrewsbury in the custody of the Scots Queen 172. The King of Spains designs with the Irish. Pag. 173. The grand Rebellion in the North and the pretences thereof and their numbers and names 174 175. A Report of the death of the Count Nassau the Northern Rebellion scattered and their Ring-leaders fled 176. Extracts of Letters out of the north The two Rebellious Earls in Liddesdale but flee from thence The Countess of Northumberland and her attendants robbed in Scotland The Earls flee with about 50. horse Westmerland changeth his coat of plate sword and travails like a Scottish borderer many others taken 177 178 The Regent of Scotland takes the Earl of Northumberland and others The Lord Fernhurst and Bucklugh aiders of them p. 178 The Murther of the Regent of Scotland at Lithgo by Hambleton of Bothwell Hall The Earl of Sussex his wise and noble carriage The Hambletons strongly suspected for the murder and why 179 180 The French Embassador makes 3 demands of the Queen in behalf of the Queen of Scots p. 181 Sir William Cecil names to the Queen Mr. Francis Walsingham and Mr. Henry Killigrew to succeed Sir Henry Norris in France p. 182 The Earl of Sussex goes again into Scotland The Bishop of Ross writes a Book in defence of the Queen of Scots and dangerous against Queen Elizabeth Pag. 183. The Earls of Worcester and Huntington made Knights of the Order p. 184 The Earl of Sussex and the Lord Hunsdon enter Scotland with fire and sword 50. Castles and 300 Villages burnt p. 184 185 The Lord Scroop Warden of the West Marshes makes great devastation in Scotland The Castle of Hume surrendred to the Lords of Sussex and Hunsdon and well fortified for the Queens service A great part of the Scotish borderers obediently adhere to their King and offer dependance upon the Queens Majesty The contrary part act rebelliously A great meeting of Lords on both sides at Edenburgh in Armes to try who shall have the authority p. 186 187 Simon Musgrage General of the horse routs the Lord Maxell is in some distress by him but is relieved by the Lord Scroop 's forces and the Maxwels and several other Lords escaped by flight Drumlangricks servants and tenants although pretended favorers of the King and Queen cruel to the English Dumfriese a Receptacle of English Rebels p. 187 188 The Queen of Scots desires cessation of Armes the Bishop of Ross plots against the Queen p. 189 Sir Henry Norris to be revoked and Mr. Walsingham to go in his place ibid. The Marshal of Berwick betray'd by the Bishop of St. Andrews and other Lords who under colour and treaty with him intended to have slain him he destroys the Hambletons Castles and houses Pag. 190. The Earl of Southampton for complyance with the Bishop of Ross is committed close prisoner to the Sheriff of London The fond Lord Morley withdraws to Lovain p. 191 The French King mediates for the Queen of Scots the Queen keeps some Castles in Scotland until her subjects of England should have satisfaction p. 191 192 Sir William Cecil and Sir Walter Mildmay are sent Commissioners to the Scotch Queen and they like not the message The Lord Coke to King James touching tryal of Duels out of England occasioned by putting to death of Doubty beyond the Seas by Sir Francis Drake that crime tryable only before the Constable and Marshal of England p. 193 194 H. THe History of the Reign of King Henry the 8th King Edward the 6th Queen Mary and part of Queen Eliz. p. 194 195 I. Exquisitely begun but left imprfect Two Copies of Letters from King James to the Lords touching abatement of his houshold charge and the means of redresse p. 198 199 From the King to the Lord Bacon in commendation of his book caled the Organon To Sir Thomas Coventry Atturney General commanding him to prepare a pardon of the whole sentence pronounc'd against my Lord Bacon p. 200 201 S. SIr Philip Sidney to the Queen diswading her from her marriage with Mounsieur most elegantly and judiciously penned p. 201 202 203 A most quaint Speech made by the Lord Bacon then Sollicitor General at the arraignment of the Lord Sanquir as well in extenuation as aggravation of the murder of Turner 209 210 c. The Countess of Shrewsburies Case touching the Marriage of the Lady Arabella and her refusal to be examined therein 212 213. T. SIR Nicholas Throckmorton Ambassador in France to Q. Elizabeth touching a free passage for the Q of Scots through England into Scotland several Politick Reasons urged on both sides between him the Queen of Scots and the Queen-Mother of France 214 215 216 c. FINIS ERRATA PAge 72. line 16. for bnt read but. p. 89. l. 22. for Twilknam r. Twitnam p. 97 l. 3. for fortunas suas r. fortunae suae p. 116. l. 3. for Moleneux r. Molineux p. 120. in fine for name r. named p. 130. l. 9. for what r. with and l. 7. for not r. now p. 137. l. 12. for to r. to be p 165. l. 6. for there r. here p. 173. l. 9. or 10. for over r. fromus p. 182. l. 14. for inferrior r. inferior p. 208. l. 18. for Holladour r. Hollander and in the same line for le r. he p. 211. l. 21. for Luedia r. Suedia p. 224. l. 26. for Abeville r. Abbeville 27 E. 3. Cap. 1. 4 H. 4. Cap. 23. These that follow are but indigested Notes Entertainment above ordinary To know the cause thereof Her Majestie much mislikes of the Prince of Conde and Thadnur Lords of France The Lords of the Council do all they can to cover the same Her Majesty being a Prince her self is doubtful to give comfort to subjects Our Ambassador to comfort them nevertheless as occasion serves Expectation of the Queens marrying with the Archduke Charles In Scotland all quiet the Scotish Queen still in Loughlevin and in health Murray ruleth quietly as Regent Original lettere intercepted by persons of credit in the French ourt of Advertisement concerning the Q of Scots and Duke of Anjou That the said Scotish Queen should transfer her Title on the said Duke To learn more truth hereof and advertise with speed This precisely denyed by the other side To send a trusty person to Marcells 19. Febr. 1616. Note before this Statute Criminal Causes were often adjudged in Parliament
especially given in Charge which had not used to be given in Charge before It is true it was not solemnly dwelt upon but as it were thrown in amongst the rest The last day of the Term and that which all men condemn the supposed last day of my Lord Chancellors life there were two Indictments preferred of Praemunire for suing in Chancery after judgement at Common-Law The one by Richard Glanvile the other by William Allen the former against Courtney the party in Chancery Gibb the Councellor and Deurst the Clerk The latter against Alderman Bowles and Humphry Smith parties in Chancery Serjeant Moor the Councellor Elias Wood Sollicitor in the Cause and Sir John Tindall Master of the Chancery and an Assessor to my Lord Chancellor For the Cases themselves it were too long to trouble Your Majesty with them but this I will say If they were set on that preferred them they were the worst Workmen that ever were that set them on for there could not have been chosen two such Causes to the honour and advantage of the Chancery for the justness of the Decrees and the foulness and scandal both of fact and person in those that impeach the Decrees The Grand Jury consisting as it seemeth of very substantial and intelligent persons would not find the Bills notwithstanding that they were much clamoured by the parties and twice sent back by the Court and in Conclusion resolutely 17 of 19 found an Ignoramus wherein for that time I think Ignoramus was wiser than those that knew too much Your Majesty will pardon me if I be sparing in delivering to You some other circumstances of aggravation and concurrences of some like matters the same day as if it had been some fatal constellation They be not things so sufficiently tryed as I dare put them into Your ear For my opinion I cannot but begin with this Preface That I am infinitely sorry that Your Majesty is thus put to salve and cure not only accidents of time but errors of servants For I account this a kind of sickness of my Lord Cooke's that comes almost in as ill a time as the sickness of my Lord Chancellor And as I think it was one of the wisest parts that ever he plaid when he went down to Your Majesty to Royston and desired to have my Lord Chancellor joined with him So this was one of the weakest parts that ever he plaid to make all the World perceive that my Lord Chancellor is severed from him at this time But for that which may concern Your Service which is my end leaving other men to their own wayes First my opinion is plainly that my Lord Cooke at this time is not to be disgraced both because he is so well habituate for that which remaineth of these capital Causes and also for that which I find is in his breast touching Your Finances and matters of repair of Your Estate And if I might speak it as I think it were good his hopes were at an end in some kind so I could wish they were raised in some other On the other side this great and publick Affront not only to the Reverend and well-deserving person of Your Chancellor and at a time when he was thought to lie a dying which was barbarous but to Your High-Court of Chancery which is the Court of Your absolute power may not in my opinion pass lightly nor end only in some formal atonement but use is to be made thereof for the setling of Your Authority and strengthning of Your Prerogative according to the true Rules of Monarchy Now to accommodate and reconcile these Advices which seem almost opposite First Your Majesty may not see it though I confess it be suspitious that my Lord Cooke was any way aforehand privy to that which was done or that he did set it or animate it but only took the matter as it came before him and that his Error was only that at such a time he did not divert it in some good manner Secondly If it be true as is reported that any of the puisne Judges did stir this business or that they did openly revile and menace the Jury for doing their Conscience as they did honestly and truly I think that Judge is worthy to lose his place And to be plain with Your Majesty I do not think there is any thing a greater Polycreston ad multa utile to Your Affairs than upon a just and fit occasion to make some example against the presumption of a Judge in Causes that concern Your Majesty whereby the whole body of those Magistrates may be contained in better awe and it may be this will light upon no unfit subject of a person that is rude and that no man cares for Thirdly If there be no one so much in fault which I cannot yet affirm either way and there must be a just ground God forbid else yet I should think that the very presumption of going so far in so high a Cause deserveth to have that done which was done in this very case upon the Indictment of Serjeant Heale in Queen Elizabeth's time that the Judges should answer it upon their knees before Your Majesty or Your Councel and receive a sharp admonition at which time also my Lord Wrey being then Chief Justice slipt the Collar and was forborn Fourthly for the persons themselves Glanvile and Allen which are base Fellows and turbulent I think there will be discovered and proved against them besides the preferring of the Bill such combination and contemptuous speeches and behaviour as there will be good ground to call them and perhaps some of their petty Councellors at Law into the Star-Chamber In all this which I have said Your Majesty may be pleased to observe That I do not engage you much in the main point of the Jurisdiction for which I have a great deal of reason which I now forbear But two things I wish to be done the one That Your Majesty take this occasion to redouble unto all Your Judges Your ancient and true Charge and Rule That You will endure no innovating in the point of Jurisdictions but will have every Court impaled within their own Presidents and not assume to themselves new Powers upon conceits and inventions of Law The other That in these high Causes that touch upon State and Monarchy Your Majesty give them strait charge That upon any occasions intervenient hereafter they do not make the vulgar party to their contestations by publick handling them before they have consulted with Your Majesty to whom the reglement of those things appertaineth To conclude I am not without hope That Your Majesties managing this business according to Your great wisdom unto which I acknowledge my self not worthy to be Card-holder or Candle-holder will make profit of this accident as a thing of Gods sending Lastly I may not forget to represent to Your Majesty That there is no thinking of Arraignments until these things be somewhat accommodated and some outward and superficial