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lord_n	leicester_n	sir_n	walsingham_n	31,610	5	18.0026	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
a28556	The Character of Queen Elizabeth, or, A full and clear account of her policies, and the methods of her government both in church and state her virtue and defects, together with the characters of her principal ministers of state, and the greatest part of the affairs and events that happened in her times / collected and faithfully represented by Edmund Bohun, Esquire.	Bohun, Edmund, 1645-1699.; Johnston, Robert, 1567?-1639. Historia rerum britannicarum.	1693 (1693)	Wing B3448; ESTC R4143	162,628	414

Confinement could thus comfort his drooping Spirits with the prospect of that Honour would be paid him in his Grave when his Name should be imbalmed in the grateful memory of his Subjects It is a wonder there is no more care taken by the Living to render this grateful Acknowledgment to their Ancestors for all that they have left them But if we are unmindsul of the Dead if their cold Bones can merit no corner in our Hearts or thoughts why are we so regardless of the Living a Prince can scarce deserve better of his Subjects instruct direct reform or amend them more effectually by any other method than by Good Histories The Precepts that are so delivered slide insensibly and pleasantly into the minds of the Reader and make lasting Impressions on his Memory Nor is this Benefit confined to the Subject and meaner Persons even Princes themselves do borrow from History those Counsels and Assistances they shall hardly gain from Courtiers and Ministers sometimes they will not sometimes they dare not Admonish their Master whilst a good History shews them by others what will be the effect of ill-concerted Designs and Counsels and at the same time is an Awe upon them suggesting this Thought frequently to them How will this look in History Thus Augustus Queen Elizabeth and Henry the Fourth of France became Famous to Posterity by observing carefully in History what Fate had attended the Princes that preceded them Posterity too are to be taken care of if the present Age is not such as a Good or a Wise Man would wish it let us try if we can make the next Generation better by shewing the Chain of Calamities have followed at the heels of the Vices of the last and of this Age. At her Death the Thrift the Probity the Piety and the Hospitality of the English Nation was much abated The Luxury that attended the Peaceable Reign of James the First and the Beginning of Charles the First brought on a War that threatned our Ruin What has hapned since the Restitution to the time in which Their Majesties began Their Reign is now fresh in Memory but will be lost if not written And I am persuaded nothing can possibly be invented to make us Wiser than we now are sooner or more easily than a good History of this Period of Time but then our Princes and Great Men must encourage it and skreen the Writer or it will never be done The Expence is too great for a Private Man and the Materials are most of them locked up from the view of all those who have not the Royal Authority consenting to their Inspection and the Royal Purse to support the Charge of Transcribing them Methinks every Prince that resolveth to do things worthy to be written should take care to have one good Historian about him to preserve the Memory of his Actions Those that live ill will find what they fear above all things a man to paint out those things to the Life which they would gladly have concealed Story will go on with or without their care but to their Damage if not discreetly encouraged But why do I write thus in all the Misfortunes that have so lately befallen me My Character has been written with the Poison of Asps instead of Ink so that one single Word in another man's Work otherwise interpreted than either he or I meant it as is plain by the words that follow and explain it has been enough to sink me after my Reputation had been sufficiently pierced by the Arrows of Envy and Detraction But all that I shall say in my own Defence is That I hate what I am supposed to be guilty of as much as any man in the Nation and never suffered said or thought the thing in all my Life THE CONTENTS OF THIS BOOK THE Birth and Parentage of Queen Elizabeth Page 1 Her Education 3 Her Tutors in the Greek and Latin Tongues and her Observations in Reading 4 5 Her Tutor in Theology 8 She spoke French and Italian and understood many other European Tongues 9 The Untimely Death of her beloved Brother Edward VI. 12 And the Succession of Q. Mary 13 She was a sorrowful Spectator of the Popish Cruelty 15 She was hated by the Popish Bishops for her Religion 16 Her Life was saved by King Philip 18 The Death of Queen Mary 19 The Nation then divided into Factions 22 Calais newly lost 23 She at first dissembled her Religion 24 Her Prime Counsellors 26 She dissembled with the K. of Spain 27 She makes a Peace with France and resolves on a War with Spain 29 The Treaty of Cambray 30 The French Plea against the Restitution of Calais 31 She resolves to reform the Religion of England 32 The contending Religions equally balanced 33 Her first Parliament The Complaints of the Popish Bishops 39 The Reformation established 40 The Miseries of Scotland in the Reformation 43 The Happiness of England 44 Her Care to settle Pious and Learned Bishops and Clergy-men 45 And to curb the immoderate Liberty of the Protestant Dissenters 47 The Behaviour of Pope Pius IV. 50 The Council of Trent restored The Plea of the Protestants against it The Popish Party inclined to Rebel 53 The Set●…lement of the Civil State considered 55 The Means by which she improved and enriched her Kingdom 59 Laws and Orders made for the Publick Good 60 The Bishops and Commons favoured as a Balance to the Nobility 61 She favoured her Kindred and advanced them 62 Her Care to abolish the evil Customs and bad Laws of former times 64 The Parliament Address to the Queen to Marry 67 Her Answer Her Temperanee and Chastity 71 The Princes and Great Men that courted her 73 The Character of the Earl of Leicester 75 Of Robert Earl of Essex 85 Of Thomas Earl of Sussex 89 Of Sir William Cecil afterward created Lord Burleigh 90 Of the Lord Willoughby 94 Of Sir Francis Walsingham Of Mary Queen of Scotland 97 And of Sir Nicholas Throgmorton 98 The French desirous of a War with England 99 They design to improve their Interest in Scotland to the Ruin of England 101 The Scots send to England for Assistance against the French The Scotch War The First Civil War in France 110 The Death of Francis II. The Beginnings of the Misfortunes of Mary Queen of Scotland The deplorable condition of Princes 113 118 Murray comes into England Queen Elizabeth durst not restore the Queen of the Scots to her Throne 124 The Trial of the Queen of the Scots 125 Foreign Princes and the Popish Priests guilty of the Murther of the Queen of the Scots Rebellions in England Northumberland taken in Scotland Westmorland fled into Flanders A second Rebellion The Duke of Norfolk the secret Head of them His Character 141 143 They are f●…llowed by many Treasous and Conspiracies 145 Which occasion Acts of Parliament against the Recusants 146 Colleges built for the English Papists beyond the Seas 147 Parry's Conspiracy Babington's 151 A

not remember that I have read elsewhere this Order for burning the Popish Books The Complaints of the Popish Bishops The Reformation estab●ished The Miseries of Scotland in the Reform●…tion The Happines●… of England Her Care to settle Pious and Learned Bishops and Clergymen And to curb the immoderate liberty of the Protestant Dissenters Anabaptists discovered Two of which were burnt The 〈◊〉 Conventicles suppressed The Behaviour of Pope Pius IV. The Council of Trent recalled The Plea of the Protestant Princes against it Martiningo sent Nuncio into England And rejected by theQueen The Popish Party well disposed to rebel The Settlement of the Civil State taken into consideration The Money reduced to the old Standard The Security of the Nation providently taken care for Maga●…ines and Naval Stores provided LargeShips of War built The means by which she improved and enriched her Kingdom Laws and Orders made for the publick good of her people The Bishops and Commons favoured as a Balance to the Nobility She f●…oured her Kindred and advanced them Her advice to the Nobility Her care to change or abolish evil Customs and Laws of former times 1559. The Parliament Address to the Queen to Marry Which she refused and in a set Speech told them she resolved to live in Celebacy Her wonderful Temperance and Chastity The Princes and Great men that Cou●…ted her * In 1560. * In 1560. † In 1568. ⸫ In 1574. By degrees she became more averse to Marriage than the seemed at first to be The character of the the Earl of Leicester She Prefer'd him in Title and estate and advanced his Brother The ill effects of Luxury His designs in debauching the Nobility Anno 1583. Leicester recommends Robert Earl of Essex to the Queen The Actions of that Earl in Holland His Character The Queen very much oppressed by the Inf●…my and Villanies of Leicester The Character of Thomas Ratcliff Earl of Sussex The Character of Sir William Cecil afterward Lord Burleigh The Earl of Sussex sent Ambassador to the Emperor The Ruin of Leicester HisDeath and Dishonour The Character of the Lord Willoughby The Character of Sir Francis Walsingham Burleigh made Lord Treasurer for his Virtue The Character and Story of Mary Queen of Scotland The Character of Sir N. Throgmorton The French desirous of a War with England T●…rogmorton kindles the Civil Wars in France The French design to improve their Interest in Scotland to the Ruin of England The Scotch complain and arm against them The French retire to Leith The Scots send into England for assistance A Fleet sent into Scotland And an Army which besieged Leith Leith dismantled The first Civil War in France The Death of Francis II King of France Mary Queen of the Sco●…s Marrieth James 1. borr The beginni●…g of the Mi●…ortunes of Mary Qu. of Scotland Her Impri●…onment at Carl●… The Queen of Scots Letter to Q. Elizabeth upon her first Landing in England The Thi●…d Letter The deplo●…ble state of the Princes of the earth The Difficulties attending the keeping or dismissing the Queen os the Scots A Resolution taken to detain her as a Prisoner of War The Queen of England not acted by a spirit of Jealousie and Revenge Mildmay sent into Scotland to threaten the Regent Murray upon Q. Elizabeth's threats comes into England Q Elizabeth durst not restore the Qu. of the Scots to her Throne The Queen prevailed upon to put the Queen of Scots upon her Trial. The Trial of the Q. of the Scots Hatton's wheedling Speech The Speech censured Foreign Princes and the Popish Priests guilty of the Murther of the Q. of the Scots Pins V Excommunicates the Qu and absolves all her Subjects Thereupon followed Rebellions and Insurrections in England The E. of Northumberland leads the way And is followed by the E. of Westmorland Northumberland taken in Scotland Westmorland fled into Flanders The Causes of the Miscarriage of this Insurrection The Calamities of the Earl of Northumberland The Earl of Sussex prosecutes the Rebels with great Severity Another Rebellion springeth out of this The Duke of Norfolk the secret Head of these Rebellions The Character of the D. of Norf●… After these Rebellions followed a shoal of Treasons and Conspiracies Which occasioned the Acts of P. against the Recusants The Colleges of the Jesuits opene lin Eanders c. And called Seminaries Parson and Campian the two first Seminary Priests sent into England Parry's Conspiracy against the Queen Babington's Conspiracy His Character Savage sent to assassinate the Q●…en The Persons in Babington's Conspiracy Babington the great Actor in it This Conspiracy proved fatal to the Queen of the Scots A Justification of Queen Elizabeth against the Reproaches of the Papists The Queen has a plentiful Supply given her in Parliament She dischargeth a Part of what was granted by her Proclamation The Spaniards send Lopez and two others to murther the Queen Cullin York and Williams sent from Flanders on the same Errand And executed in 1595. She spared none of those who fell into her hands A Digression concerning William Parry Parry's Confession His Design discovered by one Nevil The Queen's Severity to these Conspirators made her terrible to the English Papists But it was God that preserved her There has been but one Protestant Prince Murthered since the Reformation by them The second Civil War in France The third Civil War of France She sends 100000 Crowns and great Stores of Arms and Ammunition into 〈◊〉 to the Protestants A Reflection concerning Passive Obedience The King of France laboureth to divide the Protestants without Success The true Causes of this and the other Civil Wars of France The Queen of England preserv'd the Protestants of France The beginning of the Low-Countrey War Liberty of Conscience treacherously granted and re-called The King of Spa●…n enraged at the Edict for Liberty of Conscience The Spaniards design to settle an Absolute and Arbitrary Government in the N●…therlands The Regent grows severe against the Protestants on various pretences Valenciennes commanded to receive a Garison The rest of the 〈◊〉 petition for a General Assembly of the States The Design●… of Spain discovered to the Nobility of the Netherlands The Discovery at the first only terrified and divided them Valenciens besieged A bloody Persecution against the P●…otestants of the Netherlands The Breakers of Images not put upon it by the Reformed The use Spain designed to make of this Disorder The Character of the Duke of Alva He comes into Fland●…rs The Council of Blood setled Their Rules The Counts of Egmont and Hoorne the first they seized And after them vast numbtrs of the meaner Inhabitants These Proceedings alarm all the Protestants in France and Queen Elizabeth They fly into England and set up many Manufactures The Conduct of this Prince considered The reasons which mov'd the Queen of England to oppose the Spaniards The Inhabitants of the Netherlands follow the Example of Q. Elizabeth He com-plains to Q. Elizabeth of her Harbouring the Netherland Pyrates

never granting them upon Caprice to shew her Absolute Power upon the Intercession of Favourites or the Letters of Great men to those that were mean and neither deserved nor could maintain the Grandeur of that Noble Title She set a high Value upon the most Noble Order of the Garter and took the utmost care to keep it as the sincerest Reward of an extraordinary Fidelity Industry and Nobility and therefore she would never suffer it to be in the least corrupted by any mixture of mean persons Tho the Lord Burleigh was her Principal Councellor and the First Mover in all her greater Affairs without whose advice she would rarely resolve upon any thing of moment and he had deserved so very well of her by his unparallel'd Care Labour and Vigilance yet because he was but a Gentleman born and a Peer of her own Creation only it was very long before she could persuade her self to take him into the Order of the Garter which has flourished now Three hundred years and more and has in all times been given to the Greatest and Best of the Nobility at Home for the best Services they could do for their Princes and Countrey or to Foreign Princes Abroad who were united to us by the most strict and indearing Bonds of Friendship and Interest She gave Governments Magistracies Court-Offices and other Places of Trust Reputation and Profit to those that deserved well of her that by the example of these Rewards she might provoke others to imitate their Fidelity and Industry She would never endure that any man she employed should raise to himself an odious or oppressive Gain either from the Power or Office she had given him If she observed a man to do nothing but for Money she would never trust him and as for any Offices or Governments she took care to keep them as much as was possible out of such men's hands Yet she was not too hard to or suspicious of her Servants she extended her Favour to all those she found good men and her Friendship and Kindness was lasting to all those she found honest thrifty sober men but then in Law-Suits she would not suffer any the least distinction to be made between her Servants and Favourites and the rest of her Subjects lest they being exalted by it above measure should any way endanger the common Liberty of her People or the Publick Peace and Safety She raised Sadler from nothing Mildmay and Fortescue from mean Fortunes to the Honour of Knighthood and made them Privy Councellors for their good Services and lest that Dignity should suffer by the meanness of their Estates she gave them a Competency by way of Addition to what they had before She would always remember to Reward those well that had served her faithfully as her Ambassadors in Foreign Courts And she raised many of her servants for their Fidelity and protected others of them from the Violence of Great Men She protected Sir Thomas Knevet from the Violence of the Earl of Oxford who to revenge a Wound he had received from Sir Thomas in a Duel was mustering up all his Friends and Servants to destroy him which the Queen prevented by giving him a Guard for some time She so effectually recommended the Cause of her Bishops to her people when they were attacked by the Clamours and Reproaches of the Puritans that nothing was more dear to the Multitude than their Bishops and no Name was more Popular or beloved than theirs so that all men stood up for their Dignity and Authority She curbed the Boldness Rage and Fury of these Pretenders to Godliness by Laws well and severely executed and she made it her business to preserve the Church to the utmost of her Power as well from the Disturbance of Seditious Preachers within as the Insults of Declared Enemies without Her Motto was Semper eadem Always the same and in this affair she took the greatest care to verify it never departing one tittle from what she had once setled or changing the Methods she had established but upon great reason She had a very great Love for Sir Francis Walsingham Secretary of State who was one of the Pillars of her Kingdom and so intent upon the Preservation of the Publick Safety and the Discovery of the Designs of her Enemies against her Person and Government that he took little care of his own private Family and made no provision for those he left behind him But then it was hardly well taken by the body of the Nation to see the most part of his Inheritance sold after his death to repay those Moneys to the Treasury which he had spent in the Queen's Service The Envy of which however fell heaviest upon the Treasurer and the Earl of Leicester who were none of his Friends whilst he lived and took this opportunity to revenge the Affronts they had received from him She had also a particular favour for Sir Nicholas Bacon the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal who was the Ornament of the Court and the great Luminary of Westminster-Hall She highly esteemed Egerton and Popham But above all her other Councellors and Ministers of State she valued Burleigh the Lord Treasurer and Howard the Lord Admiral of England the Ornament of his own Family and a strange Example of Modesty Civility and Liberality These men enjoyed her Favour to the last and were ever of great Authority with her She loved a Prudent and Moderate Habit in her private Apartment and conversation with her ownServants but when she appeared in Publick she was ever richly adorn'dwith the most valuable cloaths set off again with much gold and Jewels of inestimable Value and on such occasions she ever wore High Shooes that she might seem Taller than indeed she was The first day of the Parliament she would appear in a Robe Embroidered with Pearls the Royal Crown upon her Head the Golden Ball in her Left-hand and the Scepter in her Right and as she never failed then of the loud Acclamations of her People so she was ever pleased with it and went to the House in a kind of Triumph with all the Ensigns of Majesty There was at such times so great a Concourse of the People to see and salute the Queen that many were trodden down and some have been lamed The Royal Name was ever venerable●… to the English Nation but this Quee●… was more sacred than any of her Ancestors She alone was able to furnish her whole Sex with the Examples of Chastity Temperance and all other Vertues And she was very vigilant to keep her Family and Court in severe Discipline She persuaded all Married Women to pay a modest Respect to their Husbands as to their Superiors She kept a severer Guard upon her own desires than upon those of others that were about her so that by degrees she made them seem at least like her self because she ever laboured so to have them She banished from her Court all

Plenty and was attacked by the Blandishments of Nature and a multitude of external pleasing Objects yet she persisted in the Resolution she had taken and with a constant and unmoveable Soul preferred her Maiden State to any Marriage Though she was almost every night tempted to change her Resolution by the Luxury Chearfulness and Wantonness of a Court which shewed it self in Interludes Banquets and Balls and was surrounded on all sides with the Enticements of Pleasures and the things which might provoke the most cool and languid Lust yet she preserved her self from being Conquered or broken by them For the Fear of God and a true Sense of Piety extinguished in her all Feminine Intemperance and Lust. Though she was the Sovereign and Mistress of all she did nothing that was insolent tho she ha●… an abundance of Wealth at her Command she was not dissolute but she governed her self by the severest Rules of Chastity and Continence Yet her Juvenile Age for she was then about Twenty five years old and the Intemperance which will ever attend a Court gave occasion to some injurious Reports but then she as casily washed off that slanderous Infamy which was one of the most raging Crimes of the Age by the incredible Continence and Chastity of her whole Life her Modesty and Prudence over-ruling and controuling the Natural Inclination and Disposition Her Maids of Honour who waited on her took a wonderful pleasure in her Manners her Discourses and Conversation and wholly applied themselves to imitate her borrowing from her examples of Modesty and Chastity so that they would never suffer any young Nobleman to have any familiar Acquaintance with any of them if he had not recommended himself to them by some Generous Manly Action in the Wars Amongst those who in the several parts of her Life aspired to the Honour of her Bed Edward Courtney Earl of Devonshire and Marquess of Exeter was the first who courted her in her youngest years And after him Christian III. King of Denmark for his Son Frederick after this ●…erdinand the Emperor desired her for his Son Charles Philip II. King of Spain Erix King of Sweden and Adolph Duke of Holstein the Dukes of Anjou and Alenzon both Princes of the House of France desired to have Married her but all this was to no purpose for when she had by these Treaties deluded them and secured her self she ever after pretended That at her Coronation she had obliged her self not to Marry a Foreign Prince Yet there were some at home who after this deceived themselves with these deluding hopes amongst whom was James Earl of Arran a Scotch Nobleman who was recommended to the Queen for an Husband by the Protestants of that Kingdom as the best means of Uniting England and Scotland but though she commended this Gentleman yet she rejected the Proposal There was also one Sir William Pickering a Gentleman who had improved himself by Ambassies and the French Breeding who aspired to it tho it was so much above his Fortunes And Thomas Howard Earl of Arundel asterwards Duke of Norfolk one descended of one of the Noblest and Richest Families in the English Nation and a person of great Interest and Authority though he was advanced in years yet he would also very fain have married the Queen but when he perceived his Old Age was ridicul'd and despised he left the Court and went abroad and never came back again into England She persisted in this Resolution of Celebacy with a Constancy that was admired then and ever since and at last she would grow angry when any of her Subjects spake to her of Marriage which they as passionately desired as she declined it The reason of this was wonderfully exagitated in the thoughts of men and some were very unmannerly to speak the best of it in their Conjectures whilst others ascribed it with much more probability to an habit of Chastity which put a Curb upon all irregular Desires or the fears of changing her Fortune and diminishing her Authority it being but reasonable she should ●…spect that whosoever had Married her would have taken upon him the principal Administration and so have abated her Power and Reputation others ascribed it to the Counsel of her Friends who yet prevailed with her to suffer Treaties of Marriage to be carried on to render Foreign Princes more favourable to her Interests by the hopes of attaining her at last But whatever was the true Cause of it which can be certainly known to none but God had this Queen been of the Communion of the Church of Rome this single Virtue would have gone a great way to the Canonizing of her as it has of many others and she certainly would have much more deserved it than any of the best that have been Sainted on that account only The common people of England for a long time most firmly believed That Robert Dudley Earl of Leicester and Lord Steward of the House to her Majesty would be the man that would marry the Queen He was youngest Son to John Dudley Duke of Northumberland who with his Eld●…r Sons ●…ohn call'd Larl of Warwick Sir Am●…rose Sir Guilford and Sir Henry Dudley had been found Guilty of High ●…reason and the Father an●… Sir Guilford a younger Son was behead●…d in the fi●…st year of Queen Mary s Reign when this Ro●…ert who was the youngest Son his ●…ather had then living was spared merely on the account of his youth and never Tried or Dishonoured This Gentleman in his younger years was a very goodly Person of a B●…autiful and Lovely Complexion and Features but high foreheaded which yet was not then thought any diminution of his Beauty he was a very great Politician but no great Soldier and tho he was not over-righteous in his Actions yet in his Letters there was not known a Stile more Religious and fuller of the strcams of Devotion This Favourite was then in the Verdure and most Flowering Spring of his Youth of a Stately Carriage a Modest and Grave Look a great Flatterer of a pleasant and easie nature in outward shew or appearance and being endowed with all those Accomplishments the City or Court could teach him in which he had had his Education he had insinuated himself into the Favour and Familiarity of the Queen by his specious shews of Loyalty Industry and Vigilance in her ●…ervice and for a long time managed the greatest Station in the Court and was reputed the First Minister of State though his Counsels were not over-fortunate His Brother Ambrose was Heir to the Estate and he to the Wisdom of that Family for he had all the Arts of the Publi●…an Dudley his Grandfather and the Policies of Northumberland his Father He was the most reserved man of that Age that saw all and was invisible carrying a depth not to be fathomed but by the Searcher of He●…rts He became in his latter times sullen to his Superiors haughty towards his

Equals insolent to his Inferiors ungrateful to his Friends and pernicious to his Enemies and in a word intolerable to all but the Queen She made him first Master of her Horse and after Earl of Leicester for the Sufferings of his Ancestors both in her Father's and Sister's Reign But the common people who very rarely penetrate into the Thoughts of Princes ascribed all his Power and good Fortune to his Wit and Carriage which was formed by Nature and Art to the alluring of the softer Sex he being of a very taking Behaviour and an excellent Dancer so that one of the b●…st Dances of that Age was called by his Name The Leicester Dance When he found the Tide of Fortune flowing according to his Ambitious Wishes his heart was too much lifted up and being sometimes confounded by the Number of his Attendants and those that waited upon and visited him he would forget their Names and call them by that of other men He oft●…n changed his Cloathes and affected Gallantry to an Excess He put himsels forward and took up the distant Employments of Peace and War in exclusion of others who had more Experience especially in War and were Nobly born He was continually plodding to find the Studies Abilities Forces and Dispositions of other men and so great was his Application and Parts that he rarely miscarried in his Enquiries He would terrifie and sometimes destroy his Enemies and allure his Friends by the shews of Rewards He by his Interest advanced his Dependants Kindred and Relations to Honours and Employments And when he found his opportunity he as craftily sold his Mistress's Favours and the Employments he had taken from others He did the same by the Livings of the Church but then he took Bonds and other Securities to avoid the Penalties of Simony Yet there were few for a great while called to the Council-Table or admitted to Titles of Honour but by his Commendation and Procurement so that he seemed not so much to be the Queen 's particular Favourite as her Partner in the Royal Power and he was accordingly courted and revered by the rest of the Nobility The Queen made him Earl of Leicester in the year 1564. she gave him also a considerable Estate out of the Crown Lands and advanced him from Master of the Horse to Lord Steward of her Houshold She had made Ambrose Dudley his eldest Brother then living for John the eldest of them died a Prisoner in the Reign of Queen Mary without Issue about two years before Earl of Warwick and enriched him with the Grant of a plentiful Estate to bear the Charge of that Honour much of which being made up out of the Estates that had been forfeited to the Crown this and the sudden Rise of these two Brothers who had not done any considerable Service to the Nation that was known either in Peace or War made them envied and hated not only by the Nobility and Courtiers but by the Populace And Leicester encreased the Aversion of all men by his licentious and expensive way of living and by his Rapins which he craftily made upon many he in other Instances perverted the Laws and invaded the last Wills and Testaments of the Dead He ruined many of his Neighbours by cunning and tedious Law-Suits to get their Estates which lay convenient for him In the mean time he gave himself up intirely to the exercise of a most wicked and univerfal Luxury and brought into England from Foreign Countreys many new and unheard-of Pleasures and invented new kinds of Dishes to gratifie his Gluttony He would drink dissolved Pearls and Amber to excite his Lust and had so accustomed himself to the scents of Musk and Civet that when he went General into the Low-Countries he could not live without them so that in short he very much exceeded the Intemperance of all former times and made an accursed addition to the ruining-disorders of men His Example corrupted many of the younger Nobility also who being prone to Luxury very easily imitated his Vices and thought that the height of human Happiness was in Pleasures and therefore wholly neglecting the Care and Improvement of their Minds spent all their Time Money and Thoughts on the Dressing themselves after the French Fashion and pleasing their Senses Who can conceive the Poverty that followed these immense Expences And the bold Adventures these impoverished Gallants were forced upon to supply their Wants Desperation and Effeminacy making them outragious to the Ruin of the State Certainly there is nothing that is more destructive to a Nation and consequently more to be avoided than the Feasts and Riots of a prodigal Apicius or the Luxury and Banquets of a profuse 〈◊〉 Thus was Fitz-Alan the last ●…arl of Arundel and Edward de Vere Lord High Chamberlain of England and Earl of Oxford the Baron of Windfor and many rich Knights and Gentlemen who might have been the Ornaments of their Countrey by his ill Example and Conversation drawn into great Expences Chargeable Feasts Balls and Interludes and an excessive Gallantry the common Attendants of too much Ease and Plenty by which they much wasted their Estates and impoverished their Families and their Bodies also were much softned and unmann'd by their Excesses and Sloth and the generous Inclinations and Faculties of their Souls stifled and weakned by the Charms of Pleasures There are some who think that the crafty Earl of Leicester designed this debauching the Prime Nobility of England when he entred upon this way of living that he might by it render them weak and contemptible But however it is most certain the great influence he had upon the Queen and his being the Prime Minister of State and acquainted with all her Counsels and Intentions made him extremely hated by all the rest He had by his cunning and crafty Projects and Counsels engrossed all the Rewards of Virtue Riches Honours Attendants and the first Place of Minister of State and he managed them and lived without any Religion towards God or Fidelity to men making it his great design to cover all things with Luxury Cruelty and Rapines With whom did he continue in a constant Friendship What good man did not find him an Enemy He was to the utmost degree ungrateful to all his Friends and if any of his Enemies had at any time a little too freely expressed their Resentments against his Dishonesty Wickedness Injuries Power or Perfidy as he gave men too frequent occasions to reflect on them he seldom failed to cause them to be treacherously murdered Many fell in his time saith a Great Man of that Age who saw not the hand that pull'd them down and as many died that knew not their own disease He would not trust his Familiars above one year but either Transported them to Foreign Services or wafted them to another world In the year 1583 he caused one Mr. Edward Adern a Generous but Imprudent and Rash Gentleman a zealous Roman-Catholick and a great