CVLCOR ET CLAVDI W·Dolle·F Reliquiae Wottonianae OR A COLLECTION Of LIVES LETTERS POEMS WITH CHARACTERS OF Sundry PERSONAGES And other Incomparable PIECES of LANGUAGE and ART Also Additional Letters to several Persons not before Printed BY THE Curious Pencil of the Ever Memorable Sir HENRY WOTTON K t. Late Provost of Eaton Colledge The Third Edition with large Additions LONDON Printed by T. Roycroft for R. Marriott F. Tyton T. Collins and I. Ford 1672. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE PHILIP EARL of Chesterfield Lord Stanhop of Shelford My Lord I HAVE conceived many Reasons why I ought in Iustice to Dedicate these Reliques of Your Great Uncle Sir Henry Wotton to Your Lordship some of which are that both Your Grand-mother and Mother had a double Right to them by a Dedication when first made Publick as also for their assisting me then and since with many Material Informations for the Writing his Life and for giving me many of the Letters that have fallen from his curious Pen so that they being now dead these Reliques descend to Youâ—… as Heir to â—…hem and the Inheritor of the mâ—…orable Bocton Palace the Place of his Birth where so many of the Ancient and Prudent and Valiant Family of the Wottons lie now-Barâ—…ed whose remarkable Monuments You have lately Beautified and to them added so many of so great Worth as hath made it appear that at the Erecting and Adâ—…ging them You were above the thought of Charge that they might if possible for 't was no casie undertaking boldsome proporâ—…â—…mith the Merits of Your Ancestors My Lord These are a part of many more Pensoâ—… that have inclin'd me to this Dedication and these with the Example of a Liberty that is not given but now too usually taken by many Scriblers to make trifling Dedications might have begot a boldness in some Men of as mean as my mean Abilities to have undertaken this But indeed my Lord though I was ambitious enough of undertaking it yet as Sir Henry Wotton hath said in a Piece of his own Character That he was condemn'd by Nature to a bashfulness in making Requests so I find my self pardon the Parallel so like him in this that if I had not had more Reasons then I have yet exprest these alone had not been powerful enough to have created a Confidence in me to have attempted it Two of my unexprest Reasons are give me leave to tell them to Your Lordship and the World that Sir Henry Wotton whose many Merits made him an Ornament even to Your Family was yet so humble as to acknowledge me to be his Friend and died in a belief that I was so since which time I have made him the best return of my Gratitude for his Condescention that I have been able to express or he capable of receiving and am pleased with my self for so doing My other Reason of this boldness is an incouragement very like a command from Your worthy Cousin and my Friend Mr. Charles Cotton who hath assared me that You are such a Lover of the Memory of Your Generous Unkle Sir Henry Wotton that if there were no other Reason then my endeavors to preserve it yet that that alone would secure this Dedication from being unacceptable I wish that nor he nor I be mistaken and that I were able to make You a more Worthy Present My Lord I am and will be Your Humble and most Affectionate Servant Iziak Walton Feb. 27. 1672. AN ADVERTISEMENT TO THE READER YOu may be pleas'd to take notice that in this last Relation of Sir Henry Wotton's Life 't is both inlarg'd and some small errors rectified so that I may now be confident there is no material mistakes in it There is in this Impression an Addition of many Letters in which the spirit with which they were writ will assure them to be Sir Henry Wotton's For his Merits they are above my expressions and for that reason the Reader is requested to take to what I have said of him in his Life these following Testimonies I. That his Work of Architecture is Translated into Latin Printed with the Great Vitruvius and this Elogy prefixed HENRICUS WOTTONIUS Anglo Cantianus Thomae Optimi Viri Filius natu minimus à Serenissimo Jacobo Io MAGNAE BRITTANIAE c. Rege in Equestreâ—… Titulum ascitus ejusdémque ter ad Remp. VENETAM Legatus Ordinarius semel ad Confoederatarum Provinciarum Ordines in Juliacensi negotio bis ad Carolum Emmanuelem Sabaudiae Ducem semel ad unitos Superioris Germaniae Principes in Conventu Heilbrunnensi postremò ad Archiducem Leopoldum Ducem Wirtenbergensem civitates Imperiales Argentinam Ulmámque ipsum Romanorum Imperatorem Ferdinandum II. Legatus extraordinarius Tandem hoc didicit ANIMAS SAPIENTIORES FIERI QUIESCENDO II. The second testimony is that of the great Secretary of Nature the Lord Chancellor Bacon who thought it not beneath Him to collect some of the Apothegms and sayings of this Author III. Sir Richard Baker in his Chronicle of England sets to his Seal also in a passage thus speaking of men of Note in King Iames his time Sir Henry Wotton was sent Ambassador into Italy and indeed the Kingdome yielded not a fitter man to match the Capriciousness of the Italian wits A man of so able dexterity with his Pen that he hath done himself much wrong and the Kingdom a great deal more in leaving no more of his Writings behind him AN ACCOUNT Of the WORK NOw of the Work it self Thou shalt find in it many curious things about Architecture Fountains Picture Groves Sculpture Aviaries Landskip Conservatories of rare beasts Magnetical experiments  Gardens Fish-ponds And also many Observations of the Mysteries and Labyrinths in Courts and States delivered in Lives Letters to and Characters of sundry Personages As Observations and Characters which He took in his Imployments abroad of these Dukes of Venice Giovanni Bembo Nani Priuli Donato Giustiniano Ferdin Gr. Duke of Tuscany An Account of Foscarini Of the Arch-Duke Leopold Of Count Tampire Artists and Famous men mentioned Tyco-brahe Count Bevilacqua Kepler Leon Alberti Aldrovandus Philip D'Orme Albert Durer Anto. Labaca censured Palladio Michael Angelo B.  Sir Henry Fanshaw Observations at home of the Courts of Queen Elizabeth King Iames and King Charls with Lives and Characters of Earl of Essex Duke of Buckingham  Of K. Charles I. Characters and Observations of Queen Elizabeth Q. of Bohemia E. of Essex Father Duke of Buckingham E. of Leicester Spanish Journey E. of Essex Imployments L. Bacon Arch. B. Whitgift L. Treasurer Weston M. Anthony Bacon L. Treasurer Iuxton Sir Robert Cecil Bp. Bedel The Cecillians Isle of Rheez Walter Devereux Of the Dukes Ominous presages Sir Philip Sidney  Sir Walter Raleigh Countess of Denbigh Secretary Cuff. Arch. Bishop Of K. Iames. B. of Ely K. Charles Part of the Authors own Character Q Mary  Censures of Felton Stamford D. Egglesham Scioppius THE LIFE OF Sir HENRY WOTTON SIR
Henry Wotton whose Life I novv intend to vvrite vvas born in the Year of our Redemption 1568. in Bocton-hall commonly called Bocton or Bougton place or Palace in the Parish of Bocton Malherb in the fruitful Country of Kent Bocton-hall being an ancient and goodly Structure beautifying and being beautified by the Parish Church of Bocton Malherb adjoyning unto it and both seated vvithin a fair Park of the Wottons on the Brovv of such a Hill as gives the advantage of a large Prospect and of equal pleasure to all Beholders But this House and Church are not remarkable for any thing so much as for that the memorable Family of the Wottons have so long inhabited the one and novv lie buried in the other as appears by their many Monuments in that Church the Wottons being a Family that hath brought forth divers Persons eminent for Wisdom and Valour vvhose Heroick Acts and Noble Employments both in England and in Foreign parts have adorned themselves and this Nation which they have served abroad faithfully in the discharge of their great trust and prudently in their Negotiations with several Princes and also served at home with much Honour and Justice in their wise managing a great part of the Publick Affairs thereof in the various times both of War and Peace But lest I should be thought by any that may incline either to deny or doubt this Truth not to have observed moderation in the commendation of this Family and also for that I believe the merits and memory of such Persons ought to be thankfully recorded I shall offer to the consideration of every Reader out of the testimony of their Pedegree and our Chronicles a part and but a part of that just Commendation which might be from thence enlarged and shall then leave the indifferent Reader to judge whether my error be an excess or defect of Commendations Sir Robert Wotton of Bocton Malherb Knight vvas born about the Year of Christ 1460 he living in the Reign of King Edward the Fourth vvas by him trusted to be Lieutenant of Guisnes to be Knight Porter and Comptroller of Callais where he died and lies honourably buried Sir Edward Wotton of Bocton Malherb Knight Son and Heir of the said Sir Robert was born in the Year of Christ 1489 in the Reign of King Henry the Seventh he was made Treasurer of Callais and of the Privy Councel to King Henry the Eight who offered him to be Lord Chancellor of England but saith Hollinshed out of a virtuous modesty he refused it Thomas Wotton of Bocton Malherb Esquire Son and Heir of the said Sir Edward and the Father of our Sir Henry that occasions this Relation was born in the Year of Christ 1521 he was a Gentleman excellently educated and studious in all the Liberal Arts in the knowledge whereof he attained unto a great perfection who though he had besides those abilities a very Noble and plentiful Estate and the ancient Interest of his Predecessors many invitations from Queen Elizabeth to change his Country Recreations and Retirement for a Courtoffering him a Knight-hood she vvas then vvith him at his Boctonhall and that to be but as an earnest of some more honourable and more profitable employment under Her yet he humbly refused both being a man of great modesty of a most plain and single heart of an ancient freedom and integrity of mind A commendation which Sir Henry Wotton took occasion often to remember with great gladness and thankfully to boast himself the Son of such a Father From whom indeed he derived that noble ingenuity that was always practised by himself and which he ever both commended and cherished in others This Thomas was also remarkable for Hospitality a great Lover and much beloved of his Country to which may justly be added that he was a Cherisher of Learning as appears by that excellent Antiquary Mr. William Lambert in his Perambulation of Kent This Thomas had four Sons Sir Edward Sir James Sir John and Sir Henry Sir Edward was Knighted by Queen Elizabeth and made Comptroller of Her Majesties Houshold He was saith Cambden a man remarkable for many and great Employments in the State during Her Reign and sent several times Ambassador into Foreign Nations After Her death he was by King James made Comptroller of his Houshold and called to be of His Privy Councel and by him advanced to be Lord Wotton Baron of Merley in Kent and made Lord Lieutenant of that County Sir James the second Son may be numbred among the Martial Men of his Age who was in the 38 of Queen Elizabeths Reign with Robert Earl of Sussex Count Lodowick of Nassaw Don Christophoro Son of Antonio King of Portugal and divers other Gentlemen of Nobleness and Valour Knighted in the Field near Cadiz in Spain after they had gotten great Honour and Riches besides a notable retaliation of Injuries by taking that Town Sir John being a Gentleman excellently accomplished both by Learning and Travel was Knighted by Queen Elizabeth and by Her look'd upon with more then ordinary favour and with intentions of preferment but Death in his younger years put a period to his growing hopes Of Sir Henry my following discourse shall give an account The descent of these fore-named Wottons were all in a direct Line and most of them and their actions in the memory of those with whom we have conversed But if I had looked so far back as to Sir Nicholas Wotton who lived in the Reign of King Richard the Second or before him upon divers others of great note in their several Ages I might by some be thought tedious and yet others may more justly think me negligent if I omit to mention Nicholas Wotton the fourth Son of Sir Robert whom I first named This Nicholas Wotton was Doctor of Law and sometime Dean both of York and Canterbury a man vvhom God did not only bless vvith a long life but vvith great abilities of mind and an inclination to imploy them in the service of his Countrey as is testified by his severall Imployments having been sent nine times Ambassador unto forraign Princes and by his being a Privy Councellor to King Henry the eighth to Edward the sixth to Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth vvho also after he had been during the Wars between England Scotland and France three several times and not unsuccessfully imployed in Committies for setling of peace betwixt this and those Kingdomes died saith learned Cambden full of Commendations for Wisdome and Piety He vvas also by the Will of King Henry the eighth made one of his Executors and chief Secretary of State to his Son that plous Prince Edward the sixth Concerning which Nicholas Wotton I shall say but this little more That he refused being offered it by Queen Elizabeth to be Arch bishop of Canterbury and that he died not rich though he lived in that time of the dissolution of Abbeys More might be added but by this it may appear
Rome where in the English Colledge he had very many Friends their humanity made them really so though they knew him to be a dissenter from many of their Principles of Religion and having enjoyed their company and satisfied himself concerning some Curiosities that did partly occasion his Journey thither he returned back to Florence where a most notable accident befel him an accident that did not only find new employment for his choice Abilities but introduce him a knowledg and an interest with our King Iames then King of Scotland which I shall proceed to relate But first I am to tell the Reader That though Queen Elizabeth or she and her Council were never willing to declare her Successor yet Iames then King of the Scots was confidently believed by most to be the man upon whom the sweet trouble of Kingly Government would be imposed and the Queen declining very fast both by age and visible infirmities those that were of the Romish perswasion in point of Religion even Rome it self and those of this Nation knowing that the death of the Queen and the establishing of her Successor were taken to be critical days for destroying or establishing the Protestant Religion in this Nation did therefore improve all opportunities for preveting a Protestant Prince to succeed Her And as the Pope's Excommunication of Queen Elizabeth had both by the judgement and practice of the Jesuited Papist exposed her to be warrantably destroyed so if we may believe an angry Adversary a secular Priest against a Iesuit you may believe that about that time there were many indeavours first to excommunicate and then to shorten the life of King Iames. Immediately after Sir Henry Wotton's return from Rome to Florence which was about a year before the death of Queen Elizabeth Ferdinand the Great Duke of Florence had intercepted certain Letters that discovered a design to take away the life of Iames the then King of Scots The Duke abhorring the Fact and resolving to indeavor a prevention of it advised with his Secretary Vietta by what means a caution might be best given to that King and after consideration it was resolved to be done by Sir Henry Wotton whom Vietta first commended to the Duke and the Duke had noted and approved of above all the English that frequented his Court. Sir Henry was gladly called by his Friend Vietta to the Duke who after much profession of trust and friendship acquainted him with the secret and being well instructed dispatched him into Scotland with Letters to the King and with those Letters such Italian Antidotes against poyson as the Scots till then had been strangers to Having parted from the Duke he took up the Name and Language of an Italian and thinking it best to avoid the line of English intelligence and danger he posted into Norway and through that Country towards Scotland where he found the King at Sterling being there he used means by Beâ—…ard Lindsey one of the Kings Bed Chamber to procure him a speedy and private conference with his Majesty assuring him That the business which he was to negotiate was of such consequence as had caused the Great Duke of Tuscany to enjoyn him suddenly to leave his Native Country of Italy to impart it to his King This being by Bernard Lindsey made known to the King the King after a little wonder mixt with jealousie to hear of an Italian Ambassador or Messenger required his Name which was said to be Octavio Baldi and appointed him to be heard privately at a fixed hour that Evening When Octavio Baldi came to the Presence-Chamber-door he was requested to lay aside his long Rapier which Italian-like he then wore and being entred the Chamber he found there with the King three or four Scotch Lords standing distant in several corners of the Chamber at the sight of whom he made a stand which the King observing bade him be bold and deliver his Message for he would undertake for the secresie of all that were present Then did Octavio Baldi deliver his Letters and his Message to the King in Italian which when the King had graciously received after a little pause Octavio Baldi steps to the Table and whispers to the King in his own Language that he was an English man beseeching Hini for a more private conference with His Majesty and that he might be concealed during his stay in that Nation which was promised and really performed by the King during all his abode there which was about three Months all which time was spent with much pleasantness to the King and with as much to Octavio Baldi himself as that Countrey could afford from which he departed as true an Italian as he came thither To the Duke at Florence he return'd vvith a fair and gratefull account of his imployment and vvithin some few Moneths after his return there came certain News to Florence that Queen Elizabeth vvas dead and Iames King of the Scots proclaimed King of England The Duke knowing travel and business to be the best Schools of vvisdom and that Sir Henry Wotton had been tutor'd in both advis'd him to return presently to England and there joy the King vvith his new and better Title and vvait there upon Fortune for a better imployment When King Iames came into England he found amongst other of the late Queens Officers Sir Edward vvho vvas after Lord Wotton Comptroller of the House of vvhom he demanded If he knew one Henry Wotton that had spent much time in forreign Travel The Lord replied he knew him vvell and that he vvas his Brother then the King asking vvhere he then vvas vvas answered at Venice or Florence but by late Letters from thence he understood he vvould suddenly be at Paris Send for him said the King and when he shall come into England bid him repair privately to me The Lord Wotton after a little vvonder asked the King If he knew him to vvhich the King answered You must rest unsatisfied of that till you bring the Gentleman to me Not many Moneths after this Discourse the Lord Wotton brought his Brother to attend the King vvho took him in His Arms and bade him welcome by the Name of Octavio Baldi saying he was the most honest and therefore the best Dissembler that ever he met with And said Seeing I know you neither want Learning Travel nor Experience and that I have had so real a Testimony of your faithfulness and abilities to manage an Ambassage I have sent for you to declare my purpose which is to make use of you in that kind hereafter And indeed the King did so most of those two and twenty years of his Raign but before he dismist Octavio Baldi from his present attendance upon him he restored him to his old Name of Henry Wotton by vvhich he then Knighted him Not long after this the King having resolved according to his Motto Beati pacifici to have a friendship vvith his Neighbour-Kingdoms of France and Spain and also
homely received behold a new Star descending to illustrate thy obscurity and to conduct the Wise Men of the East now wise indeed with their choicest Presents to adore Thee O strange Phaenomenon Did ever Hipparchus or the great Trismegist or the greater Moses or all the Aegyptian Gazers contemplate before such a Planet So irregular so excentrical as if the Celestial Lights had forsaken their proper Motions and Position to welcome the Lord of all Nature into the World And now in the Course of Thy precious Life what shall I first what shall I most admire All is depth all is wonder and amazement Shall I first Celebrate Thy ever-blessed Name for convincing the great Doctors of the Law at twelve years of Thine Age when Thy Divine Essence began to blaze which had lain before as it were slumbring in the Vail of Thy Manhood Or shall I pass from this Miracle of Knowledg to Thy Miracles os Charity in healing the Blind the Lame the Deaf the Dumb Or shall I more insist upon the Acts of Thy Power in checking the Winds in walking on the Waves in raising the Dead in ejecting the impure Spirits Or shall I remain stupified as all the Learnedest part of the World was which lay grovelling in the Contemplation of Inferiour Causes that at Thy Coming all their false Oracles and Delusions were strucken mute and nothing to be heard at Delphos or Hammon Or shall I contemplate that at Thy Passion all Nature did suffer the Earth did shake and the Heavens were darkened Or lastly after Thou hadst triumphed over Death and Hell whose Keys are in thine hand shall I glorifie Thy Assumption into the Highest Heavens Yes Lord all this and much more there is then the whole World can contain if it were written Yet one thing remains even after Thy glorious Departure for the comfort of our Souls above all the Miracles of Thy Goodness and of Thy Power That Thou hast dispensed Thy saving Doctrine unto curious Men not only by Eloquent Sophists and Subtil School-men such as have since distracted and torn thy Church in pieces but by the simpliest and silliest Instruments so as it must needs be Thy Divine Truth since it was impressed by no Humane Means For give me leave again my dear Lord to demand in the Extasie and Admiration of one of Thy blessed Vessels Where is the Wise Where is the Scribe Where is the Disputer of this World How should we have known how should we have apprehended Thy Eternal Generation if Thou hadst not been pleased to vouchsafe a silly Fisherman to lean on Thy Breast and to inspire him to tell us from his Boat that In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God Therefore to Thee Thou Incarnate Word and Wisdom of the Father Thou only true Messias in whom all Prophecies are accomplished and in whom the Will of God and the Desires of Men are fulfilled look down upon us Thy unworthy Creatures from where Thou sittest in Thy Glory Teach us Thy Love but such a Love as doth fear to offend Thee Teach us Thy Fear but such a Fear as first doth love Thee And indue us with Thy Grace whilest by Thy Permission we walk on this Globe which Thy blessed Feet have troden to solemnize this Day of Thy Nativity not with wanton Jollities but with Hymns of Joy and Meditations of like Comfort LETTERS TO SEVERALL PERSONS LETTERS TO SEVERAL PERSONS To Sir Arthur Throckmorton SIR I Have been desirous of some fit opportunity to render you humble thanks for a very kind Letter which I received from you and I cannot have a fitter then by the return of this Gentleman who beareth much devotion to your Name I will therefore by his honest hand present you the service of a poor Scholar for that is the highest of my own Titles and in truth the farthest end of my Ambition This other Honour wherewith it hath pleased His Majesty to cloath my unworthiness belonging unproperly unto me who I hope am both born and formed in my Education fitter to be an Instrument of Truth then of Art In the mean while till His Majesty shall resolve me again into my own plain and simple Elements I have abroad done my poor endeavour according to these occasions which God hath opened This Gentleman leaveth Italy in present tranquillity though not without a little fear of some alteration on the side of Savoy Which Prince seemeth to have great and unquiet thoughts and I think they will lack no fomentation from abroad Therefore after the remembrance of my most affectionate poor service to your self and to my Honourable Ladies your Wife and Daughters and your whole House with which we are now so particularly conjoyned I commit You and Them to our mercifull God Your willing Servant HENRY WOTTON To Sir Arthur Throckmorton SIR I Am sorry that having so good opportunity to write unto you joyned with so much Obligation I have withal so little matter at the present yet I will entertain you with a few Rapsodieâ—… My Lord my Brother is returned a day sooner then he thought out of Kent for that the King who is now at Hampton-Court hath appointed all his Counsellors and all the Judges to meet Him here to morrow about matters of the Mint as it is voiced perhaps to cover some greater Subject and yet Money is a great one On Saturday the King goeth to Windsor there to honour with his presence both his Sons and his Favourites at their Instalments On Sunday last the new Venetian Ambassador had his first Audience at Greenwich at which time the old took his leave and received from the King three Honours An addition of the English Lion to his Coat-Armour Knight-hood and the Sword with the Furniture from the Kings side wherewith he had Knighted him which last being more then was done to any of his Predecessors and done to him who had deserved less then any is enough to prove that wise Kings know how to do graces and hide affections so mystical things are Courts Now to lead you a little abroad for I have no more to say within our own visible Horizon We have advice out of Germany that they have extorted from the Emperour his consent to make Matthias King of the Romans so as having first spoiled him of obedience and reverence next of his estates and titles they have now reduced him to so low a case that he is no longer Patron of his own voice Howsoever this violent cure is likely to settle the Motions of Germany out of which Countrey when they are quiet at home they may perhaps send us some suiters hither This is all Sir that I can write at the present which is your advantage for if there had been more you had been further troubled And so with many hearty thanks for your kind Letters and with many hearty wishes for the prosperity of your whole House I humbly rest May 8. 1611. Your
he had likewise inward intelligence that at his approach the Wicket of the Castle should be opened unto him by one Palfy an Hungarian Gentleman vvhich conceit though perchance raised at first to animate the Souldier yet hath gotten much credit by seeing the enterprise against all discourse continued by day-light Be that point how it vvill his fatal hour vvas come for approaching a Skonce that lyes by the Castle-gate and turning about to cry for his men to come on he vvas shot in the lowest part of his Skull nearest his Neck after vvhich he spake no syllable as Don Carolo d' Austria second base Son to Rodolph the Emperour and himself at that time saved by the goodness of his Armour doth testifie After vvhich some two or three Souldiers attempting to bring away his Body and those being shot the rest gave it over and the vvhole Troops transported themselves to the other side leaving the Boats behind them as if they had meant to contribute new provision for the mending of the Bridge vvhereof they had only broken one little piece This vvas the end of the Count Tampier By his Fathers side a Norman by his Mothers a Champaigne a servant twenty two years to the House of Austria Himself Captain of a thousand Horse but Commander divers times in chief especially before the coming of the Count Bucquoy from vvhom he vvas severed to these nearer Services being of incompatible natures a valiant and plotting Souldier In Encounters more fortunate then Sieges Gracious to his own and terrible to the Hungarians To the present Emperour most dear though perchance as much for Civil as Military Merit for this vvas the very man that first seized upon the Cardinal Clesel vvhen he vvas put into a Coach and transported hence to Tirol So as now vve may expect some Pamphlet the next Mart from Ingolstat or Colen That no man can end vvell vvho hath laid violent hands upon any of those Roman Purpurati To this point I must adde two remarkable Circumstances The first that Tampier among other Papers found in his Pockets is said to have had a Memorial of certain Conditions vvhereon it should be fit to insist in his Parley vvith the Town as having already swallowed the Castle The other that his Head having been cut off by a Souldier and sold for five Dollars to another vvho meant to have the merit of presenting it to the Prince the Presenter vvas rewarded vvith a stroke of a Sable for insulting over the dead Carkass of a Gentleman of Honour Lord Bacon to Sir Henry Wotton My very good Cousin YOur Letter which I received from your Lordship upon your going to Sea was more then a compensation for any former omission and I shall be very glad to entertain a correspondence with you in both kinds which you write of for the latter whereof I am now ready for you having sent you some Ure of that Mine I thank you for your Favours to Mr. Mewtus and I pray continue the same So wishing you out of that honourable Exile and placed in a better Orb I ever rest York-house Octob. 20. 1620. Your Lordships affectionate Kinsman and assured Friend Fr. Verulam Canc. Sir Henry Wotton to Lord Bacon Right Honourable and my very good Lord I Have your Lordships Letters dated the 20th of October and I have withal by the care of my Cousin Mr. Thomas Meawtis and by your own special favour three Copies of that Work wherewith your Lordship hath done a great and ever-living benefit to all the children of Nature and to Nature her self in her uttermost extent and latitude who never before had so noble nor so true an Interpreter or as I am readier to style your Lordship never so inward a Secretary of her Cabinet But of your said Work which came but this Week to my hands I shall find occasion to speak more hereafter having yet read only the first Book thereof and a few Aphorismes of the second For it is not a Banquet that men may superficially taste and put up the rest in their Pockets but in truth a solid feast which requireth due mastication Therefore when I have once my self perused the whole I determine to have it read piece by piece at certain hours in my domestick Colledge as an ancient Author For I have learned thus much by it already that we are extreamly mistaken in the computation of Antiquity by searching it backwards because indeed the first times were the youngest especially in points of natural discovery and experience For though I grant that Adam knew the natures of all Beasts and Solomon of all Plants not only more then any but more then all since their time Yet that was by divine infusion and therefore they did not need any such Organum as your Lordship hath now delivered to the world nor we neither if they had left us the memories of their wisdom But I am gone further then I meant in speaking of this excellent Labour while the delight yet I feel and even the pride that I take in a certain Congeniality as I may term it with your Lordships studies will scant let me cease And indeed I owe your Lordship even by promise which you are pleased to remember thereby doubly binding me some trouble this way I mean by the commerce of Philosophical Experiments which surely of all other is the most ingenuous Traffick Therefore for a beginning let me tell your Lordship a pretty thing which I saw coming down the Danuby though more remarkable for the Application then for the Theory I lay a night at Lintz the Metropolis of the higher Austria but then in very low estate having been newly taken by the Duke of Bavaria who blandiente fortunà was gone on to the late effects There I found Keplar a man famous in the Sciences as your Lordship knows to whom I purpose to convey from hence one of your Books that he may see we have some of our own that can honour our King as well as he hath done with his Harmanica In this mans study I was much taken with the draught of a Landskip on a piece of paper me thoughts masterly done whereof enquiring the Author he bewrayed with a smile it was himself adding he had done it Non tanquam Pictor sed tanquam Methematicus This set me on fire At last he told me how He hath a little black Tent of what stuff is not much importing which he can suddenly set up where he will in a Field and it is convertible like a Wind-mill to all quarters at pleasure capable of not much more then one man as I conceive and perhaps at no great ease exactly close and dark save at one hole about an inch and a half in the Diameter to which he applies a long perspective Trunk with the convex-glass fitted to the said hole and the concave taken out at the other end which extendeth to about the middle of this erected Tent through which the visible
of advancement had like to be strangled almost in the very Cradle by throwing himself into the Portugal Voyage vvithout the Queens consent or so much as her knowledge vvhereby he left his friends and dependants near six moneths in desperate suspense vvhat vvould become of him And to speak truth not vvithout good reason For first they might vvell consider That he vvas himself not vvell plumed in favour for such a flight Besides That now he vvanted a Lord of Leicester at home for he vvas dead the year before to smooth his absence and to quench the practises at Court But above all it lay open to every mans discourse that though the bare offence to his Soveraign and Mistriss vvas too great an adventure yet much more vvhen she might as in this case have fairly discharged her displeasure upon her Laws Notwithstanding a noble report coming home before him at his return all vvas clear and this excursion vvas esteemed but a Sally of youth Nay he grew every day more and more in her gracious conceit vvhether such intermissions as these do sometimes foment affection or that having committed a fault he became the more obsequious and plyant to redeem it Or that she yet had not received into her Royal brest any shadows of his popularity There vvas another time long after vvhen Sir Fulke Grevill late Lord Brook a man in appearance intrinsecal vvith him or at the least admitted to his Melancholly hours either belike espying some vveariness in the Queen or perhaps vvith little change of the vvord though more in the danger some vvariness towards him and vvorking upon the present matter as he vvas dexterous and close had almost super-induced into favour the Earl of Southampton vvhich yet being timely discovered my Lord of Essex chose to evaporate his thoughts in a Sonnet being his common vvay to be sung before the Queen as it vvas by one Hales in vvhose voice she took some pleasure vvhereof the complot me thinks had as much of the Hermit as of the poet And if thou should'st by her be now forsaken She made thy Heart too strong for to be shaken As if he had been casting one eye back at the least to his former retiredness But all this likewise quickly vanished and there vvas a good vvhile after fair vveather over-head Yet still I know not how like a gathering of Clouds till towards his latter time vvhen his humours grew Tart as being now in the Lees of favour it brake forth into certain sudden recesses sometimes from the Court to Wansteed otherwhiles unto Greenwich often to his own Chamber Doors shut Visits forbidden and vvhich vvas vvorse divers Contestations between even vvith the Queen her self all preambles of ruine vvherewith though now and then he did vvring out of her Majesty some petty contentments as a man vvould press sowr Grapes yet in the mean time vvas forgotten the Counsel of a Wise and then a Prophetical Friend vvho told him that such courses as those vvere like hot Waters vvhich help at a pang but if they be too often used vvill spoil the stomack On the Dukes part vve have no such abrupt strayns and precipees as these but a fair fluent and uniform course under both Kings And surely as there vvas in his natural Constitution a marvellous equality vvhereof I shall speak more afterwards so there vvas an image of it in his Fortune running if I may borrow an ancient comparison as smoothly as a numerous Verse till it met vvith certain Rubs in Parliament vvhereof I am induced by the very Subject vvhich I handle to say somewhat so far as shall concern the difference between their times When my Lord of Essex stood in favour the Parliaments vvere calm Nay I find it a true observation that there vvas no Impeachment of any Nobleman by the Commons from the Reign of King Henry the sixth until the eighteenth of King James nor any intervenient precedent of that Nature not that something or other could be vvanting to be said vvhile men are men For not to go higher vve are taught easily so much by the very Ballads and Libels of the Leicestrian time But about the aforesaid Year many young ones being chosen into the House of Commons more then had been usual in great Councels vvho though of the vveakest vvings yet are the highest Flyers there arose a certain unfortunate and unfruitful Spirit in some places not sowing but picking at every stone in the Field rather then tending to the general Harvest And thus far the consideration of the Nature of the Time hath transported me and the occasion of the Subject Now on the other side I must vvith the like liberty observe two vveighty and vvatchful Solicitudes as I may call them vvhich kept the Earl in extreme and continual Caution like a Bow still bent vvhereof the Dukes thoughts vvere absolutely free First he vvas to vvrastle vvith a Queens declining or rather vvith her very setting Age as vve may term it vvhich besides other respects is commonly even of it self the more umbratious and apprehensive as for the most part all Horizons are charged vvith certain Vapours towards their Evening The other vvas a matter of more Circumstance standing thus viz. All Princes especially those vvhom God hath not blessed vvith natural issue are by vvisdome of State somewhat shye of their Successors and to speak vvith doe Reverence there may be reasonably supposed in Queens Regnant a little proportion of tenderness that vvay more then in Kings Now there vvere in Court two names of Power and almost of Faction the Essexian and the Cecilian vvith their adherents both vvell enough enjoying the present and yet both looking to the future and therefore both holding correspondency vvith some of the principal in Scotland and had received advertisements and instructions either from them or immediately from the King as indubiate Heir of this Imperial Crown But lest they might detect one another this vvas Mysteriously carried by several instruments and conducts and on the Essexian side in truth vvith infinite hazard for Sir Robert Cecil vvho as Secretary of State did dispose the publick Addresses had prompter and safer conveyance vvhereupon I cannot but relate a memorable passage on either part as the story following shall declare The Earl of Essex had accommodated Master Anthony Bacon in partition of his House and had assigned him a noble entertainment This vvas a Gentleman of impotent feet but a nimble head and through his hand ran all the intelligences vvith Scotland vvho being of a provident nature contrary to his Brother the Lord Viscount St. Albons and vvell knowing the advantage of a dangerous Secret vvould many times cunningly let fall some vvords as if he could much amend his Fortunes under the Cecilians to vvhom he vvas near of alliance and in bloud also and vvho had made as he was not unwilling should be believed some great proffers to win him away which once or twice he pressed so far and with
such tokens and signs of apparent discontent to my Lord Henry Howard afterwards Earl of Northampton who was of the party and stood himself inmuch Umbrage with the Queen that he flyes presently to my Lord of Essex with whom he was commonly primae admissionis by his bed side in the morning and tells him that unless that Gentleman were presently satisfied with some round summe all would be vented This took the Earl at that time ill provided as indeed oftentimes his Coffers were low whereupon he was fain suddenly to give him Essex-House which the good old Lady Walsingham did afterwards dis-ingage out of her own store with 2500 pound and before he had distilled 1500 pound at another time by the same skil So as we may rate this one Secret as it was finely carried at 4000 pounds in present money besides at the least 1000 pound of annual pension to a private and bed-rid Gentleman What would he have gotten if he could have gone about his own business There was another accident of the same nature on the Cecilian side much more pleasant but less chargeable for it cost nothing but wit The Queen having for a good while not heard any thing from Scotland and being thirsty of news it fell out that her Majesty going to take the air towards the Heath the Court being then at Greenwich and Master Secretary Cecill then attending her a Post came crossing by and blew his Horn The Queen out of curiosity asked him from whence the Dispatch came and being answered From Scotland she stops the Coach and calleth for the Packet The Secretary though he knew there were iâ—… it some Letters from his Correspondents which to discover were as so many Serpents yet made more shew of diligence then of doubt to obey and asks some that stood by forsooth in great hast for a knife to cut up the Packet for otherwise he might perhaps have awaked a little apprehension but in the mean time approaching with the Packet in his hand at a pretty distance from the Queen he telleth her it looked and smelt ill-favouredly coming out of a filthy budget and that it should be fit first to open and air it because he knew she was a verse from ill sents And so being dismissed home he got leasure by this seasonable shift to sever what he would not have seen These two accidents precisely true and known to few I have reported as not altogether extravagant from my purpose to shew how the Earl stood in certain perplexities wherewith the Dukes dayes were not distracted And this hath been the Historical part as it were touching the difference between them in the rising and flowing of their fortunes I will now consider their several indowments both of Person and Mind and then a little of their Actions and Ends. The Earl was a pretty deal the taller and much the stronger and of the abler body But the Duke had the neater limbs and freer delivery he was also the uprighter and of the more comely motions for the Earl did bend a little in the neck though rather forwards then downwards and he was so far from being a good Dancer that he was no graceful goer If we touch particulars the Duke exceeded in the daintiness of his leg and foot and the Earl in the incomparable fairness and fine shape of his hands which though it be but feminine praise he took from his Father For the general Air the Earl had the closer and more reserved Countenance being by nature somewhat more cogitative and which was strange never more then at meals when others are least Insomuch as he was wont to make his observation of himself that to solve any knotty business which cumbred his mind his ablest hours were when he had checked his first appetite with two or three morsels after which he sate usually for a good while silent yet he would play well and willingly at some games of greatest attention which shewed that when he listed he could licence his thoughts The Duke on the other side even in the midst of so many diversions had continually a very pleasant and vacant face as I may well call it proceeding no doubt from a singular assurance in his temper And yet I must here give him a rarer Elogy which the malignest eye cannot deny him That certainly never man in his place and power did entertain greatness more familiarly nor whose looks were less tainted with his felicity wherein I insist the rather because this in my judgement was one of his greatest vertues and victories of himself But to proceed in the attiring and ornament of their bodies the Duke had a fine and unaffected politeness and upon occasion costly as in his Legations The Earl as he grew more and more attentive to business and matters so less and less curious of cloathing Insomuch as I do remember those about him had a conceit that possibly sometimes when he went up to the Queen he might scant know what he had on for this was his manner His Chamber being commonly stived with Friends or Suiters of one kind or other when he was up he gave his legs arms and brest to his ordinary servants to button and dress him with little heed his head and face to his Barber his eyes to his letters and ears to Petitioners and many times all at once then the Gentleman of his Robes throwing a cloak over his shoulders he would make a step into his Closet and after a short prayer he was gone only in his Baths he was somewhat delicate For point of diet and luxury they were both very inordinate in their appetites especially the Earl who was by nature of so indifferent a taste that I must tell a rare thing of him though it be but a homely note that he would stop in the midst of any physical Potion and after he had licked his lips he would drink off the rest but I am weary of such slight Animadversions To come therefore to the inward furniture of their Minds I will thus much declare The Earl was of good Erudition having been placed at study in Cambridge very young by the Lord Burleigh his Guardian with affectionate and deliberate care under the oversight of Doctor Whitgift then Master of Trinity Colledge and after Archbishop of Canterbury A man by the way surely of most Reverend and Sacred memory and as I may well say even of the Primitive temper when the Church by lowliness of spirit did flourish in high examples which I have inserted as a due recordation of his vertues having been much obliged to him for many favours in my younger time About sixteen years of his age for thither he came at twelve he took the formality of Master of Arts and kept his publick Acts. And here I must not smother what I have received by constant Information That his own Father died with a very cold conceit of him some say through the affection to his second son Walter Devereux who
was indeed a diamond of the time and both of an hardy and delicate temper and mixture But it seems this Earl like certain vegetables did bud and open slowly Nature sometimes delighting to play an afrer-game as well as Fortune which had both their turns and tides in course The Duke was Illiterate yet had learned at Court first to sift and question well and to supply his own defects by the drawing or flowing unto him of the best Instruments of experience and knowledge from whom he had a sweet and attractive manner to suck what might be for the publick or his own proper use so as the less he was favoured by the Muses he was the more by the Graces To consider them in their pure Naturals I conceive the Earls Intellectual faculties to have been his stronger part and in the Duke his Practical Yet all know that he likewise at the first was much under the expectation of his after-proof such a Solar influence there is in the Soveraign aspect For their Abilities of discourse or pen the Earl was a very acute and sound speaker when he would intend it and for his writings they are beyond example especially in his familiar Letters and things of delight at Court when he would admit his serious habits as may be yet seen in his Impresses and Inventions of entertainment and above all in his darling piece of love and self love his Stile was an elegant perspicuity rich of phrase but seldome any bold Metaphors and so far from Tumour that it rather wanted a little Elevation The Dukes delivery of his mind I conceive not to be so sharp as solid and grave not so solid and deep as pertinent and apposite to the times and occasions The Earl I account the more liberal and the Duke the more magnificent for I do not remember that my Lord of Essex in all his life time did build or adorn any house the Queen perchance spending his time and himself his means or otherwise inclining to popular wayes for we know the people are apter to applaud house-keepers then house-raisers They were both great cherishers of Scholars and Divines but it seems the Earl had obtained of himself one singular point that he could depart his affection between two extreams for though he bare alwayes a kind of filial reverence towards Dr. Whitgift both before and after he was Archbishop yet on the other side he did not a little love and tender Mr. Cartwright though I think truly with large distinction between the Persons and the Causes however he was taxed with other ends in respecting that party They were both fair-spoken Gentlemen not prone and eager to detract openly from any man and in this the Earl hath been most falsly blemished in our vulgar Story only against one man he had forsworn all patience namely Henry Lord Cobham and would call him per Excellentiam the Sycophant as if it had been an Embleme of his name even to the Queen her self though of no small insinuation with her and one Lady likewise that I may civilly spare to nominate for her sex sake whom he used to term the Spider of the Court yet generally in the sensitive part of their Natures the Earl was the worst Philosopher being a great Resenter and a weak Dissembler of the least disgrace And herein likewise as in the rest no good Pupil to my Lord of Leicester who was wont to put all his passions in his pocket In the growth of their Fortunes the Duke was a little the swifter and much the greater for from a younger Brothers mean estate he rose to the highest degree whereof a Subject was capable either in Title or Trust. Therein I must confess much more consortable to Charles Brandon under Henry the Eight who was equal to him in both For matter of Donative and addition of substance I do not believe that the Duke did much exceed him all considered under both Kings For that which the Earl of Essex had received from her Majesty besides the Fees of his Offices and the disposition of great Summes of money in her Armies was about the time of his Arraignment when faults use to be aggravated with precedent benefits valued at three hundred thousand pounds sterling in pure gift for his only use by the Earl of Dorset then Lord Treasurer who was a wise man and a strict Computist and not well affected towards him And yet it is worthy of note in the Margent of both Times that the one was prosecuted with silence and the other with murmure So undoing a measure is popular judgement I cannot here omit between them a great difference in establishing of both their Fortunes and Fames For the first the Duke had a care to introduce into near place at the Court divers of his confident Servants and into high places very sound and grave Personages Whereas except a Pensioner or two we can scant name any one man advanced of the Earls breeding but Sir Thomas Smith having been his Secretary who yet came never further though married into a noble House then to the Clerk of the Councel and Register of the Parliament not that the Earl meant to stand alone like a Substantive for he was not so ill a Grammarian in Court but the Truth is in this point the Cecilians kept him back as very well knowing that upon every little absence or disassiduity he should be subject to take cold at his back For the other in the managing of their Fames I note between them a direct contrary wisdome For the Earl proceeded by way of Apology which he wrote and dispersed with his own hands at large though till his going to Ireland they were but aiery objections But of the Duke this I know that one aâ—…ing offered for his ease to do him that kind of Service He refused it with a pretty kind of thankful scorn saying that he would trust his own good intentions which God knew and leave to him the pardoning of his Errours and that he saw no fruit of Apologies but the multiplying of discourse which surely was a well setled Maxime And for my own particular though I am not obnoxious to his memory in the expression of Tacitus Neque injuria neque beneficio saving that he shewed me an ordinary good Countenance And if I were yet I would distinguish between Gratitude and Truth I must bear him this Testimony that in a Commission laid upon me by Soveraign Command to examine a Lady about a certain filthy accusation grounded upon nothing but a few single names taken up by a Foot-man in a kennel and straight baptized A list of such as the Duke had appointed to be poysoned at home himself being then in Spain I found it to be the most malicious and frantick surmize and the most contrary to his nature that I think had ever been brewed from the beginning of the World how soever countenanced by a Libellous Pamphlet of a fugitive Physician even in Print and yet
of this would not the Duke suffer any answer to be made on his behalf so constant he was to his own principles In their Military Services the Characters of the Earls imployments were these viz. His forwardest was that of Portugal before mentioned The saddest that of Roan where he lost his brave Brother His fortunatest piece I esteem the taking of Cadiz Malez and no less modest for there he wrote with his own hands a censure of his Omissions His jealousest imployment was to the relief of Calais besieged by the Cardinal Arch-duke about which there passed then between the Queen and the French King much Art His Voyage to the Azores was the best for the discovery of the Spanish weakness and otherwise almost a saving Voyage His blackest was that to Ireland ordained to be the Sepulchre of his Father and the Gulph of his own Fortunes But the first in 88 at Tilbury Camp was in my judgement the very poyson of all that followed for there whilest the Queen stood in some doubt of a Spanish invasion though it proved but a Morrice-dance upon our Waves she made him in Field Commander of the Cavalry as he was before in Court and much graced him openly in view of the Souldiers and people even above my Lord of Lâ—…icester the truth is from thenceforth he fed too fast The Dukes imployment abroad in this nature was only in the Action of the Isle of Reez of which I must note somewhat for the honour of our Countrey and of His Majesties times and of them that perished and survived and to redeem it generally from mis-understanding Therefore after enquiry amongst the wisest and most indifferent men of that Action I dare pronounce that all Circumstances pondered A tumultuary landing on our part with about 1000 in the whole On theirs ready to receive us some 200 Horse with near 2000 Foot and watching their best time of advantage none of their Foot discovered by us before nor so much as suspected and only some of their Horse descryed stragling but not in any bulk or body their Cavalry not a Troop of Biscoigners mounted in hast but the greater part Gentlemen of Family and of pickt Resolution and such as charged home both in Front and on both Flanks into the very sea about sixscore of their 200 Horse strewed upon the Sand and none of them but one killed with a great shot and after this their Foot likewise coming on to charge till not liking the business they fell to flinging of stones and so walked away I say these things considered and laid together we have great reason to repute it a great impression upon an unknown place and a noble argument that upon occasion we have not lost our Ancient vigour Only I could wish that the Duke who then in the animating of the Souldiers shewed them very eminent assurance of his valour had afterwards remembred that rule of Apelles Manum de Tabula But he was greedy of honour and hot upon the publick ends and too confident in the prosperity of beginnings as somewhere Polybius that great Critique of war observeth of young Leaders whom fortune hath not before deceived In this their Military care and dispensation of reward and punishment there was very few remarkable occasions under the Duke saving his continual vigilancy and voluntary hazard of his person and kindnesses to the Souldiers both from his own table and purse for there could be few disorders within an Island where the Troops had no scope to disband and the inferiour Commanders were still in sight In the Earl we have two examples of his severity the one in the Island Voyage where he threw a Souldier with his own hand out of a Ship the other in Ireland where he decimated certain Troops that ran away renewing a piece of the Roman Discipline On the other side we have many of his Lenity and one of his Facility when he did connive at the bold Trespass of Sir Walter Raleigh who before his own arrival at Fayall had landed there against his precise Commandment at which time he let fall a Noble word being pressed by one whose name I need not remember that at the least he would put him upon a Martial Court That I would do said he if he were my friend And now I am drawing towards the last act which was written in the Book of necessity At the Earls end I was abroad but when I came home though little was left for Writers to glean after Judges yet I spent some curiosity to search what it might be that could precipitate him into such a prodigious Catastrophe and I must according to my professed freedome deliver a circumstance or two of some weight in the truth of that story which was neither discovered at his arraignment nor after in any of his private confessions There was amongst his nearest attendants one Henry Cuffe a man of secret ambitious ends of his own and of proportionate Counsels smothered under the habit of a Scholar and slubbered over with a certain rude and clownish fashion that had the semblance of integrity This Person not above five or six weeks before my Lords fatal irruption into the City was by the Earls Special Command suddenly discharged from all further attendance or access unto him out of an inward displeasure then taken against his sharp and importune infusions and out of a glimmering oversight that he would prove the very Instrument of his ruine I must adde hereunto that about the same time my Lord had received from the Countess of Warwick a Lady powerful in the Court and indeed a vertuous user of her power the best advice that I think was ever given from either Sex That when he was free from Restraint he should closely take any out-lodging at Greenwich and sometimes when the Queen went abroad in a good humour whereof she would give him notice he should come forth and humble himself before Her in the Field This Counsel sunk much into him and for some dayes he resolved it but in the mean time through the intercession of the Earl of Southampton whom Cuffe had gained he was restored to my Lords ear and so working advantage upon his disgraces and upon the vain foundation of vulgar breath which hurts many good men spun out the final destruction of his Master and himself and almost of his Restorer if his pardon had not been won by inches True it is that the Earl in Westminster-hall did in general disclose the evil perswasions of this man but the particulars which I have related of his dismission and restitution he buried in his own brest for some reasons apparent enough indeed as I conjecture not to exasperate the Case of my Lord of Southampton though he might therewith a little peradventure have mollified his own The whole and true Report I had by infallible means from the person himself that both brought the advice from the aforesaid excellent Lady and carried the discharge to Cuffâ—… who
praises and Elogies according to the contrary motions of popular waves And now to summe up the fruit of the Journey discourses ran thus among the clearest Observers It was said that the Prince himself without any imaginable stain of his Religion had by the sight of Forraign Courts and observations of the different Natures of people and Rules of Government much excited and awaked his spirits and corroborated his judgement And as for the Marquess there was note taken of two great additions which he had gained First he was returned with encrease of Title having there been made Duke by Patent sent him which was the highest degree whereof an English Subject could be capable But the other was far greater though closer for by so long and so private and so various consociation with a Prince of such excellent nature he had now gotten as it were two lives in his own Fortune and Greatness whereas otherwise the estate of a Favourite is at the best but a Tenant at will and rarely transmitted But concerning the Spanish Commission which in publick conceit was the main scope of the Journey that was left in great suspence and after some time utterly laid aside which threw the Duke amongst free Wits whereof we have a rank Soil under divers Censures The most part were apt to believe that he had brought down some deep distaste from Spain which exasperated his Councels Neither was there wanting some other that thought him not altogether void of a little Ambition to shew his power either to knit or dissolve Howsoever the whole Scene of affairs was changed from Spain to France there now lay the prospective Which alteration being generally liked and all alterations of State being ever attributed to the powerfullest under Princes as the manner is where the eminency of one obscureth the rest the Duke became suddenly and strangely Gracious among the multitude and was even in Parliament highly exalted so as he did seem for a time to have overcome that natural Incompatibility which in the experience of all Ages hath been noted between the Vulgar and the Soveraign Favour But this was no more then a meer bubble or blast and like an Ephemeral fit of applause as estsoon will appear in the sequel and train of his life I had almost forgotten that after his return from Spain he was made Lord Warden of the Cinque-Ports which is as it were a second Admiralty and Steward likewise of the Mannour of Hampton-Court Dignities and Offices still growing of trust or profit And the King now giving not only out of a beneficent disposition but a very habitual and confirmed custome One year six moneths two dayes after the joyful reception of the Prince his Son from Spain King James of immortal memory among all the lovers and admirers of Divine and Humane Sapience accomplished at Theobalds his own dayes on Earth Under whom the Duke had run a long Course of calm and smooth prosperity I mean long for the ordinary life of favour and the more notable because it had been without any visible Eclipse or Wave in himself amidst divers variations in others The most important and pressing care of a new and Vigorous King was his Marriage for mediate establishment of the Royal Line Wherein the Duke having had an especial hand he was sent to conduce hither the most Lovely and Vertuous Princess Henrietta Maria youngest Daughter to the Great Henry of Bourbon of whom his Majesty as hath been said had an ambulatory view in his Travels like a stolen taste of something that provoketh appetite He was accompanied with none of our Peers but the Earl of Mountgomery now Lord Chamberlain a Noble Gentleman of trusty free and open nature and truly no unsuitable Associate for that he himself likewise at the beginning of King James had run his Circle in the wheeling vicissitude of Favour And here I must crave leave in such of high quality or other of particular note as shall fall under my pen whereof this is the first not to let them pass without their due Character being part of my professed ingenuity Now this Ambassy though it had a private shew being charged with more formality then matter for all the essential Conditions were before concluded could howsoever want no Ornaments or bravery to adorn it Among which I am near thinking it worthy of a little remembrance that the Duke one solemn day Gorgeously clad in a suit all over-spread with Diamonds and having lost one of them of good value perchance as he might be dancing after his manner with lofty motion it was strangely recovered again the next morning in a Court full of Pages Such a diligent attendant was Fortune every where both abroad and at home After this fair discharge all Civil Honours having showred on him before there now fell out great occasions to draw forth his spirits into action a breach first with Spain and not longafter with France it self notwithstanding so streight an affinity so lately treated with the one and actually accomplished with the other As if indeed according to that pleasant Maxime of State Kingdoms were never married This must of necessity involve the Duke in business enough to have over-set a lesser Vessel being the next Commander under the Crown of Ports and Ships But he was noted willingly to embrace those Overtures of publick employment For at the Parliament at Oxford his Youth and want of Experience in Maritime service had somewhat been shrewdly touched even before the sluces and flood-gates of popular liberty were yet set open So as to wipe out that objection he did now mainly attend his charge by his Majesties untroubled and serene Commands even in a tempestuous time Now the men fell a rubbing of Armour which a great while had layn oyled The Magazines of Munition are viewed The Officers of Remains called to account frequent Councels of War as many private conferences with expert Sea-men a Fleet in preparation for some attempt upon Spain The Duke himself personally imployed to the States General and with him joyned in full Commission the Earl of Holland a Peer both of singular grace and solidity and of all sweet and serviceable virtue for publick use These two Nobles after a dangerous passage from Harwich wherein three of their Ships were foundred arrived the fifth day at the Hague in Holland Here they were to enter a treaty both with the States themselves and with the Ministers of divers allied and confederate Princes about a common diversion for the recovery of the Palatinate where the King 's only Sisters Dowry had been ravished by the German Eagle mixed with Spanish Feathers A Princess resplendent in darkness and whose virtues were born within the chance but without the power of Fortune Here it were injurious to over-slip a Noble act in the Duke during this Imployment which I must for my part celebrate above all his Expences There was a Collection of certain rare Manuscripts exquisitely written in Arabick and sought
Danger In his countenance which is the part that all eyes interpret no open alteration even after the succours which he expected did fail him but the less he shewed without the more it wrought intrinsecally according to the nature of suppressed passions For certain it is that to his often mentioned Secretary Doctor Mason whom he laid in Pallet near him for natural Ventilation of his thoughts he would in the absence of all other ears and eyes break out into bitter and passionate Eruptions protesting That never his Dispatches to divers Princes nor the great business of a Fleet of an Army of a Siege of a Treaty of War of Peace both on foot together and all of them in his head at a time did not so much break his repose as a conceit That some at home under his Majesty of whom he had well deserved were now content to forget him but whom he meant I know not and am loth to rove at conjectures Of their two Forts he could not take the one nor would he take the other but in the general Town he maintained a seisure and possession of the whole three full months and eighteen days and at the first descent on shore he was not immured within a wooden Vessel but he did countenance the landing in his long Boat Where succeeded such a defeat of near two hundred Horse and these not by his ghess mounted in haste but the most part Gentlemen of Family and great resolution seconded with two thousand Foot as all circumstances well ballanced on either side may surely endure a comparison with any of the bravest Impressions in ancient time In the issue of the whole business he seems charged in opinion with a kind of improvident conscience having brought of that with him to Camp perchance too much from a Court where Fortune had never deceived him Besides we must consider him yet but rude in the profession of Arms though greedy of Honour and zealous in the Cause At his return to Plimouth a strange accident befell him perchance not so worthy of memory for it self as for that it seemeth to have been a kind of prelude to his final period The now Lord Goring a Gentleman of true honour and of vigilant affections for his Friend sends to the Duke in all expedition an express Messenger with advisement to assure his own Person by declining the ordinary Road to London for that he had credible Intelligence of a plot against his life to be put in execution upon him in his said journey towards the Court. The Duke meeting the Messenger on the way read the Letter and smothering it in his pocket without the least imaginable apprehension rides forwards His company being about that time not above seven or eight in number and those no otherwise provided for their defence then with ordinary swords After this the Duke had advanced three miles before he met with an old Woman near a Town in the Road who demanded Whether the Duke were in the company and bewraying some especial occasion to be brought to him was lead to his Horse-side where she told him that in the very next Town where he was to pass she had heard some desperate men vow his death And thereupon would have directed him about by a surer way This old Womans casual access joyn'd with that deliberate advertisement which he had before from his Noble Friend moved him to participate both the tenour of the said Letter and all the circumstances with his Company who were joyntly upon consent that the Woman had advised him well Notwithstanding all which importunity he resolved not to wave his way upon this reason perhaps more generous then provident that if as he said he should but once by such a diversion make his Enemy believe he were afraid of danger he should never live without Hereupon his young Nephew Lord Viscount Fielding being then in his Company out of a Noble spirit besought him that he would at least honour him with his Coat and blew Ribbon thorow the Town pleading that his Uncle's life whereon lay the property of his whole Family was of all things under Heaven the most precious unto him and undertaking so to gesture and muffle up himself in his hood as the Duke's manner was to ride in cold weather that none should discern him from him and so he should be at the more liberty for his own defence At which sweet Proposition the Duke caught him in his arms and kissed him yet would not as he said accept of such an offer in that case from a Nephew whose life he tendred as much as himself and so liberally rewarded the poor Creature for her good will After some short directions to his Company how they should carry themselves he rode on without perturbation of his mind He was no sooner entred into the Town but a scambling Souldier clapt hold of his bridle which he thought was in a begging or perchance somewhat worse in a drunken fashion yet a Gentleman of his train that rode a pretty distance behind him conceiving by the premisses it might be a beginning of some mischievous intent spurred up his Horse and with a violent rush severed him from the Duke who with the rest went on quickly through the Town neither for ought I can hear was there any further enquiry into that practice the Duke peradventure thinking it wisdome not to resent discontentments too deep At his return to the Court he found no change in Faces but smothered murmurings for the loss of so many gallant Gentlemen against which his friends did oppose in their discourses the chance of War together with a gentle expectation for want of supply in time After the complaints in Parliament and the unfortunate issue at Rheez the Dukes fame did still remain more and more in obloquy among the mass of people whose judgements are only reconciled with good successes so as he saw plainly that he must abroad again to rectifie by his best endeavour under the publick Service his own reputation Whereupon new preparatives were in hand and partly reparatives of the former beaten at Sea And in the mean while he was not unmindfull in his civil course to cast an eye upon the wayes to win unto him such as have been of principal credit in the Lower House of Parliament applying lenitives or subducting from that part where he knew the humors were sharpest amidst which thoughts he was surprized with a fatal stroke written in the black Book of necessity There was a younger Brother of mean fortunes born in the County of Suffolk by name Iohn Felton by nature of a deep melancholy silent and gloomy constitution but bred in the active way of a Souldier and thereby raised to the place of Lieutenant to a Foot-Company in the Regiment of Sir Iames Ramsey This was the man that closely within himself had conceived the Dukes death But what may have been the immediate or greatest motive of that fellonious conception is even
most affectionate poor Friend to serve you HENRY WOTTON Feb. 1613. SIR ONe Reason of my writing now unto you is because it seemeth a great while unto me since I did so Another to give you many thanks which upon the casting up of my reckonings I find I have not yet done for that Gelding wherewith you so much honoured me which in truth either for goodness or beauty runneth for one of the very best about this place And I have had a great deal of love made unto me for him by no small ones After this I must plainly tell you that I mean to perswade you I am sorry I cannot say to invite you for my Mind would bear that word better then my Fortune to bestow your self and your whole Family upon us this Shrovetide if it be but for three dayes at the conjunction of the Thames and the Rhene as our ravished Spirits begin to call it The occasion is rare the expence of time but little of money inconsiderable You shall see divers Princes a great confluence of Strangers sundry entertainments to shorten your patience and to reward your travel Finally nothing spared even in a necessitous time I will adde unto these Arguments that out of your own Store at home â—…ou may much encrease the beauty of this Assembly â—…nd your Daughters shall not need to provide any great splendour of Cloathing because they can â—…pply that with a better contribution as hath been â—…ell authenticated even by the Kings own testimony of them For though I am no longer an Ambassador yet am I not so bank-rupt of Intelligence but that I have heard of those rural passages Now let me therefore with this hobling Pen again and again pray you to resolve upon your coming if not with all the fair Train yet your self and my Lady and my Nephew and his Wife or at the least of leasts the Masculine We begin to lay off our mourning habits and the Court will shortly I think be as merry as if it were not sick The King will be here to morrow The Friday following he goeth to Windsor with the Count Palatine about the Ceremony of his Instalment In the mean time there is expected the Count Henry of Nassaw to be at the said Solemnity as the Representant of his Brother Yesternight the Count Palatino invited all the Counsel to a solemn Supper which was well ordered He is a Gentleman of very sweet hope and hath rather gained upon us then lost any thing after the first Impression And so Sir having ended my Paper I will end my Letter with my hearty prayers for the prosperity of your self and yours ever resting Your faithfull poor Friend to serve you HENRY WOTTON To the King 1615. May it please Your Sacred Majesty I Beseech your Majesty to pardon me a little short repetition how I have spent my time since my departure from your Royal sight because I glory in your goodness I have been imployed by your favour in four several Treaties differing in the Matter in the Instruments and in the Affections The first was for the sequestration of Juliers wherein I was joyned with the French The second for the provisional possession of the two Pretendents wherein contrary to the complaint of the Gospel the Labourers were more then the Harvest The third was for a defensive League between the united Provinces and the united Princes Who though they be separate Bodies of State do now by your onely Mediation make one Body of Strength The fourth was for the composing of some differences between your own and this People in matter of Commerce which hath exceeded the other Three both in length and in difficulty for two Reasons as I conceive it First Through the sensibleness of the Subject which is private Utility next because it had a secret commixture of publick respects and those of no light consequence For surely it importeth more to let the King of Spain dispense alone the Commodities of the East then for either of us to want them Now of the three former Treaties I have given your Majesty an accompt in divers Dispatches according to my poor apprehensions As for this last they that have eased my weakness in the conduct thereof I mean my good Associates by whose light and leadings I have walked will ease me likewise by your gracious leave in the Relation By them it may please your Majesty to understand in what fair terms we have left it somewhat resembling to my fancy those Women of Nombre de Dios who they say are never brought to bed in the place where they conceive but bring forth their children in a better Air And so I hope that our travels and unformed conceptions will take life in your own Kingdome which will be more honour to their Birth For our parts I dare affirm of these your Commissioners that now return unto the comfort of your gracious Aspect That they have discharged their Duties and their Consciences with all faithfull care of your Majesties Commandments I am confident likewise that they will give me their honest Testimony And we are bound joyntly to profess unto your Majesty from whom we receive our estimation the respects and kindnesses that have been here done us as your Vassals And so with my continual prayers to God for your blessed Being I here remain till your Majesty shall vouchsafe me again the grace of your eyes Your Majesties long devoted poor Servant HENRY WOTTON To the Marquess of Buckingham January 25. 1619. My most Noble Lord I Will be bold by this opportunity to give His Majesty through your Lordships hands an account of a Command which I had from him at Theobalds about sounding how the Venetian Ambassador stood satisfied with the late determination touching his predecessor Donato I did visit the said Ambassador immediately at my return from the King and saluted him as by express Commandment interjecting some words of mine own gladness that he had received contentment in this tender point which would signalize his beginnings This I said because in truth I had found him always before the more passionate in it by some reflection upon himself His answer after due thanks for His Majesties gracious remembrance of him from abroad was that for his own part he was Contentissimo and had represented things home in the best manner He hoped likewise it would be well tasted there also though with some doubt because the State out of their own devotion towards His Majesty might form a confidence of expecting more I replied that the King upon the matter if we consider disgrace had done more then themselves for he was but once banished at Venice and twice here viz. once from the verge of the Court and secondly from London which was as much as could be done with preservation of rational immunities and more then would have been done at the suit of of any other Ambassador here resident or perhaps of any of their own hereafter if the like
predatory I have forgotten for memoria primò senescit whether I told you in my last a pretty late experiment in Arthritical pains it is cheap enough Take a rosted Turnip for if you boyl it it will open the pores and draw too much apply that in a Poultice to the part affected with change once in an hour or two as you find it dried by the heat of the flesh and it will in little time allay the pain Thus much in our private way wherein I dare swear if our Medicines were as strong as our wishes they would work extreamly Now for the Publick where peradventure now and then there are distempers as well as in natural bodies The Earl of Holland vvas on Saturday last the day after your Posts departure very solemnly restored at Council Table the King present from a kind of Eclipse wherein he had stood since the Thursday fortnight before All considered the obscuration vvas long and bred both various and doubtfull discourse but it ended vvell All the cause yet known vvas a verbal challenge sent from him by Mr. Henry Germain in this form to the now Lord Weston newly returned from his forraign imployments That since he had already given the King an account of his Embassage he did now expect from him an account of a Letter of his vvhich he had opened in Paris and he did expect it at such a time even in the Spring garden close under his Fathers Window vvith his Sword by his side It is said I go no farther in such tender points that my Lord Weston sent him by Mr. Henry Percy between vvhom and the said Lord Weston had in the late journey as it seems been contracted such friendship as overcame the memory that he vvas Cousin-German to my Lord of Holland a very fair and discreet answer That if he could challenge him for any injury done him before or after his Embassage he vvould meet him as a Gentleman vvith his Sword by his side vvhere he should appoint But for any thing that had been done in the time of his Embassage he had already given the King an account thereof and thought himself not accountable to any other This published on Thursday vvas fortnight the Earl of Holland vvas confined to his Chamber in Court and the next day morning to his House at Kensington vvhere he remained vvithout any further circumstance of restraint or displeasure Saturday and Sunday on vvhich dayes being much visited it vvas thought fit on Munday to appoint Mr. Dickenson one of the Clerks of the Council to be his Guardian thus far that none vvithout his presence should accost him This made the vulgar judgements run high or rather indeed run low That he vvas a lost and discarded man judging as of Patients in Feavers by the exasperation of the fits But the Queen vvho vvas a little obliquely interested in this business for in my Lord of Holland's Letter vvhich vvas opened she had one that vvas not opened nor so much as they say as superscribed and both the Queen's and my Lord of Holland's vvere inclosed in one from Mr. Walter Mountague vvhereof I shall tell you more hereafter The Queen I say stood nobly by him and as it seems pressed her own affront It is too intricately involved for me so much as to guess at any particulars I hear generally discoursed that the opened dispatch vvas only in favour if it might be obtained of Monsieur de Chateau Neuf and the Chevalier de Jarr vvho had both been here but vvritten vvith caution and surely not vvithout the Kings knowledge to be delivered if there vvere hope of any good effect and perchance not vvithout Order from His Majesty to my Lord Weston afterwards to stop the said Letters upon advertisement that both Chateau Neuf and de Jarr vvere already in the Bastille But this I leave at large as not knowing the depth of the business Upon Munday vvas seven-night fell out another quarrel nobly carried branching from the former between my Lord Fielding and Mr. Goring Son and Heir to the Lord of that Name They had been the night before at Supper I know not vvhere together vvhere Mr. Goring spake something in diminution of my Lord Weston vvhich my Lord Fielding told him it could not become him to suffer lying by the side of his Sister Thereupon these hot hearts appoint a meeting next day morning themselves alone each upon his Horse They pass by Hide-Park as a place vvhere they might be parted too soon and turn into a Lane by Knights-bridge vvhere having tyed up their Horses at a Hedge or Gate they got over into a Close there stripped into their Shirts vvith single Rapiers they fell to an eager Duel till they vvere severed by the Host and his servants of the Inne of the Prince of Orange vvho by meer chance had taken some notice of them In this noble encounter vvhere in blood vvas spent though by Gods providence not much on either side there passed between them a very memorable interchange of a piece of courtesie if that vvord may have room in this place Sayes my Lord Fielding Mr. Goring If you leave me here let me advise you not to go back by Piccadillia-hall lest if mischance befall me and be suddenly noised as it falleth out in these occasions now between us you might receive some harm by some of my friends that lodge thereabouts My Lord replyes Goring I have no vvay but one to answer this courtesie I have here by chance in my Pocket a Warrant to pass the Ports out of England vvithout a Name gotten I suppose upon some other occasion before If you leave me here take it for your use and put in your own Name This is a passage much commended between them as proceeding both from sweetness and stoutness of spirit vvhich are very compatible On the solemn day of Saturday last both this difference and the Original between the Earl of Holland and the Lord Weston vvere fairly reconciled and forgiven by the King vvith shaking of hands and such Symbols of agreement And likewise Sir Maurice Dromand vvho had before upon an uncivil ture on his part between him and my Lord of Carlile been committed to the Tower was then delivered at the same time and so it all ended as a merry Fellow said in a Maurice But whether these be perfect cures or but skinnings over and Palliations of Court will appear hereafter Nay some say very quickly for my Lord Westons Lady being since brought to bed of a Daughter men stand in a kind of suspence whether the Queen will be the Godmother after so crude a reconcilement which by the Kings inestimable goodness I think may pass in this forgiving week For foreign matter there is so little and so doubtfull as it were a misery to trouble you with it The States confuted Treaty is put to the stock and the Prince of Orenge by account gone to the Field two days since having broken the business
excuse is accepted but because they did not aftervvards vvithout a second demand send him vvord that they vvould be at leisure incrassatus est sanguis on the Spanish side A much deeper and incurable case is fallen out betwixt the French and the Extraordinary Ambassador of Parma vvho after the French sent first unto him as they say though he affirms it vvas the Spaniard did yet visit the Spaniard before them belike according to the method of his devotion and proximity to his Master or of Authority in this Court howsoever hereupon the Duke of Angolesme assigned the same Ambassadour a day to visit him and vvhen he came alla buona he shut his Gates upon him Which is here generally the worse interpreted because he is a Bishop seeming an affront to both his qualifications In such a touchy time as this I had almost had my share to whom after the three French Ambassadors had sent their three Secretaries for prevention of the Spaniard as far as Cloyster Newburg vvhere I made my stop they vvere likewise the first here that sent to visit me but came all three together and vvith them Monsieur de Beaugie the Ordinary Agent Whereupon fell a little disputation between us Whether visits of respect between Representants of equality being received in specie should be paid in individuo vvhich seemed unto me no good complemental Logick but finding afterwards first that their Commissions vvere the same then that the Emperor had sent to their several Lodgings and the Popes Nuncio though visited in gross had visited them apart I made an end of this scruple yet not before a promise that if your Majesty should send more Ambassadors hither they vvill proceed a la pareille vvith them having gained thus much by this small debate that perchance they think me not over-punctual nor altogether supine I have likewise received and rendered to the Spanish Ambassador all due formalities and from all other Ambassadors and Agents except the Popes and the Duke of Parma's vvhose habits make us incommiscible Of the rest I need not speak at all of the French and Spanish I vvill presume to speak my opinion as far as may conduce to the main I find the French surely of good intention towards a peace here but not hasty either to believe in truth that the Crowns of Hungaria or Bohemia vvere Hereditary Here at their first coming they had more credit as I receive from a good hand then they seem to have novv vvhich is thought to proceed from the Spanish Ambassador vvho in this Court is not only the Supream Counsellor but hath in truth a Dictatoriam potestatem as the French find the reason being not very obscure for vvhen I put in the major that the Emperors resolutions depend upon necessities and in the minor that his necessities depend upon Spain I think I may spare the conclusion Thus stand the publick Ministers here and thus they stand one vvith another vvhich I thought fit to set down because it hath some influence into the general business Novv to proceed to the scope of my employment in matter of substance I had Audience of the Emperor as the French the second day after my arrival vvhere vvhat I said vvill best appear to your Majesty out of the Memorial vvhich I aftervvards sent unto him at his own requisition here following vvord for vvord as I have translated it out of the Italian in vvhich language the Emperor treateth most vvillingly The Proposition of Henry Wotton Knight Ambassador Extraordinary from his Majesty of Great Britain delivered in the Name of his sovereign-Sovereign-Lord the King with all real intention to his Sacred Imperial Majesty the 23 of August stylo vet did contain four points FIrst That his Imperial Majesty would be pleased to make known his inclination towards a sincere Treaty upon the present Motions Secondly That it will please him by one or two or more to inform the said Ambassador of all the fundamental Arguments in the merit of the Cause which shall be most faithfully represented by him to the King his Master Thirdly Either his Imperial Majesty vvill refuse or agree to enter into Treaty In the first case It vvere vain for Representants of Princes of good intentions to spend further the Reputation of their Masters In the second His Majesty of Great Britain doth think it most convenient that both the Parties together with their Confederates be contented to condescend to a cessation of Arms for some competent time lest vvhile their Reconcilements vvere in Treaty their passions be more exasperated then before Fourthly That for the furthering of their Reconcilement His Imperial Majesty would be pleased to free the passages of Curriers from Vienna to Prague vvhich shall be procured likewise on the other side Besides these substantial points the said Ambassador did touch three Considerations about the Person of His Soveraign Lord the King which did render Him with His Imperial Majesty of indubitable credit although interessed by so strait Bonds in the contrary side First His Majesties clearness in the beginning of these Motions Secondly His Neutrality in the progress thereof Thirdly His Equity in the present Touching the first point the Ambassador declared in His Majesties Name with high and holy affirmations that He had had in Election of His Son-in-Law to the Crown of Bohemia no participation of Counsel or fore-knowledge VVhich His Majesty did not only affirm for Himself but as indubitably in the Person of His Son-in Law that he had no way fore-practised that Election For the second point of Neutrality the Ambassador said that His Majesty had not yet given the Title of King to His Son-in-Law or of Queen to His Daughter in any Letter either publick or private nor had permitted the same Title in any Sermons within His Kingdomes As for the third point of Equity the Ambassador shewed most evidently the great moderation and aequanimity of the King his Master in not having setled any firm judgement touching the merit of the Cause upon information from that side vvherein His Majesty is most interessed vvithout first requiring farther knowledge from the Emperor himself by an express Minister This vvas the Memorial of my Proposition Four days after the Emperor sends me vvord that his Answer vvas ready giving me my choice vvhether I vvould receive it from himself or else from the Baron of Eckemberg his Principal Counsellor and vvhether verbally or in vvriting or both In this gracious option I took hold of the vvriting because scripta manent and vvished I might have it from the Baron vvithout the Emperors farther trouble till from it might rise some nevv occasion To the Baron I vvas called two days after vvhom I found infirmer of his feet then of his head for in truth he is a Gentleman of strong conceit and fair delivery though as most of the Court are tainted vvith the Iesuit From him I received besides complements and many thanks for the honour that your Majesty