that he had not able men in her to manage her Sailes Also in imploying the most choice men in his Ship under the command of his Nephew for the firing of the Pyrates ships within the Moale of Algier And lastly in his joyning with Sir Richard Hawkins in the towing off one of the Prizes when she was becalmed within musquet shot of the Moale My Lord I must protest unto your Lordship that I had no ends of mine own for the injuries done to Sir Thomas Button and therefore your Lordship cannot cast a greater honour upon your poor servant then in repairing him which I humbly begg of your Lordship If Sir Richard Hawkins do return unto me then I shall be an humble suitor unto your Lordship in the behalf of Sir Thomas Button that he may return to his imployment in Ireland from whence in my earnest desires to enjoy his company and assistance I was the only means to withdraw him and that he may receive such allowance and entertainment as was formerly usually paid unto him by which means your Lordship will take away the Curses of his children whose blouds are neer unto me and oblige me with my continual prayers for your Lordships increase of honour ever to remain From aboard the Vantguard the 10. of July 1621. Your Lordships most humble and faithful servant Robert Mansell Captain John Pennington to the Duke May it please your Grace MY last to your Lordship was of the 18. of this present from Stokes Bay since which time I have received two from your Grace at Deep one by your Secretarie Mr. Nicholas whereby your Grace commands me to deliver up his Majesties Ship and the rest under my Command to the hands of such Frenchmen as his Christian Majestie shall appoint according to his Majesties pleasure signified by my Lord Conway And that I and the rest of the Masters take securitie of them for our ships severally according to the true valuation And to see this put in execution you sent your Secretarie Mr. Nicholas And the other by Mr. Ingham in answer of mine written from Stokes Bay The former part whereof being only a command to put your former in practice and the latter a denial of my humble suit for my being called home from this Service Which said part confirms absolutely that it was not your Graces pleasure that I should yield up the ships into their hands and disposesse my self and companie of them for I trust your Grace had no such unjust thought as to continue me here alone after The French had possession of her to be their slave as I am sure they would have made me if they had their wills To give your Grace an account of what I have done since I came to Deep which was the 21th at this instant about nine of the clock at night would be too tedious for this time The 22th in the morning Earlie I sent my boat ashoare with my Lievetenant to find out your Graces Secretarie to receive my Letters whereby I might know your Graces pleasure and to kisse my Lord Embassadours hands from me and to let him know I was come with his Majesties ship to do him service but could not command the rest to come along with me their Masters not being there and all their companies in a mutiny But his jelousie was such that he would not suffer your Graces Secretary to come aboard or to send me your Letters or that my Lievtenant should speak to him but in his presence but presently sent a Gentleman aboard to me commanding me to come ashoar to him which I confesse I was very loath to do in regard my people were much discontented and readie daily to mutiny being all wonderous unwilling to go against Rochel or those of their religion And besides I never having been a shoare since I came into my command neither on our own Coast or else where It being not my use yet notwithstanding these particulars knowing his Greatnesse and your Graces pleasure for the giving him all due respect I presently went to him where he taking me into a roome apart with your Graces Secretary he first delivered me my Lord Conwaies Letter or rather a warrant for so he tearms it himself for the delivery of the ship into their hands as they interpreted it and then your Graces Letter commanding me to see his Majesties pleasure signifyed by my Lord Conwaie put in execution And lastly a letter from the King of France thereby willing me to receive his Souldiers aboard that he had provided and his Cousin the D. de Mommorencie and to go presently and to joyn with his Great Fleet against his rebellious subjects This is the effect of that Letter Having read all these letters he would presently have possession of the ship that night for that he could not stay longer I told him that I did not understand it so but that I was to render all service to his most Christian Majestie but nothing would serve him save the present possession which because I would not yield unto he grew into a strange furie telling me that your Grace had sent your Secretary to see her delivered and security to be taken for her My answer was that I was ready to obey according as I understood the warrant which was to do his Christian Majestie service and to receive a convenient number of Souldiers aboard me But to dispossesse my self of my command I had no such order but still nothing wold satsfie him but the shipe telling me he would not entertain at the most if they were willing above 60. or 80. of our people My answer was I had no order to discharge a man of them neither could I but if they were discharged what they should do or how they should get home having neither meat mony nor clothes I know not To the first of these he told me that Mr. Nicholas had order by word of mouth from your Grace to discharge us which Mr. Nicholas confirmed as also to see the ship delivered which he commanded me to do But with your Graces pardon I durst not do it upon words it being a businesse of too high consequence neither if I had been willing would my companie ever have condescended to it To the second for our passage he promised to have provided barques for us but to conclude this and not to insist upon the rest of the particulars they being too tedious his rage and fury was such that I must of necessity give a little way thereto or else I think he would have kept me ashoare so as I told him I was content if my company would yield thereunto and therefore desired to go aboard to speak with them and to give order for the drawing up of the inventorie And upon this he suffered me to depart but not without promises of a large summe of mony which should be given me at the surrender besides a royal pension during my life he sending his Secretarie and many
here that love him which are many are very sorrie to part with him for there is no melancholy where he goes And therefore considering the condition of this place we shall be great losers being upon a melancholy place and service ill payed sick of all diseases in the world in a place that is next neighbour to hell if the book printed say true which saith that the Low-Countriemen are next neighbours to the devil And I am sure we are now seated lower then any part of these Countries for the waters are above us and about us and we live in more fear of them then of the enemy for we may be drowned at an hours warning if we do not continually work against it and yet and it shall please your Excellencie this is the Seat for a Winter War Many more inconveniencies we are daily sensible of of which I have endured so much as I dare say without vanitie that few of my rank and fortune have suffered more or longer then I have done in these Countries having served these 27. years together without intermission and all this for no other end for I am 900 l. a year the worse for the Wars then to make me able to serve my Prince and Countrie when occasion should be offered But since the time is come that opinion doth so govern as strangers get the Command and new Souldiers imployed which was never heard of before amongst men of our occupation It is high time for me to retire and wish I had been of any other profession then this For if long service can get no honour nor reward nor imployment but the contrary it would touch a mans discretion to be more and more unfortunate All my comfort is that I shall have the honour and good fortune in my retreat to draw neerer to your Excellencies service if not in my profession which I desire above all yet in something whereof your Excellencie may make use of me For I am ambitious of nothing more then to prove my self by action and not by recommendation Your Excellencies most faithful devoted and humble servant Ed. Cecyl From our Army at Wallike the 4th of Decemb. Sir Edward Cecil to Mr. Secretary Conway My very good Lord IT hath pleased your Lordship to write me three Letters lately the one a particular list of officers that should be sent from hence the second for Mr. Hopton the third an acknowledgement onely of the receipt of my Letter to your Lordship The first I have put in execution and have written to your son Sir Edward Conway to give them all notice of your Lordships Care of them And to let them know how welcome any one shall be to me that you think fit to be imployed For one of them called Ensign Rainesford I had set him down because I received your Lordships direction from himself For Mr. Hopton I have written unto him according to your desire with your Letter inclosed concerning the last I give your Lordship many humble thanks for having expressed the acceptance by your answer Touching your businesse here the State hath ben as contrary to us as the wind For though they see a great action likely to be performed to their own good with little cost to themselves yet they desire to be so wise as to make benefit both wayes and not to balk any advantage which makes them stand so stiff upon the denying of us Officers and Soulders by election and will yield to send none but whole companies onely to abate so much upon the repartitions But Sir William St. Leiger and I have utterly refused their offer as a proposition against his Majesties service for by this ignorant winter war our Companies are grown half new men having lost most of our old and of those new men the half are sick besides So that his Majestie should be beholden to them rather for names then men And again for the Officers and Soulders it is like they should be most of them the worst in the regiment from whence they are to come Whereas if we might have had those Officers we made choice of which were but ten Captaines and other inferiour Officers to the number of thirty they might have been fit for imployment upon a double enemy And I could wish that whensoever his Majestie shall be once furnished with Good Officers it would please him to make account of them as these men do who have had long experience and known their Value It pleased my Lord the Duke to write to me a Letter and to let me know he had chosen me his Officer to attend and obey him this journy an honour too great for me because I did never expect it but nothing shall excuse my faults saving my life And among many other directions he commanded me to provide for the Army such necessary things as cannot be had in England Whereof I have thought of many which I fear I shall not have the time to get In my care belonging to these provisions I have considered the use of our small pieces of Ordinance here which they call Drakes that shoot 70. Musket bullets They will be of great use in this service both in regard of the quick landing and of the passing of such mountainous places as perhaps we may meet withal and likewise in respect of the little hope we have to get any good musquetiers or at least any great store of them But they are in such favour here as we can obtain none from hence and so are forced by a general consent to buy ten of them here that were provided for the King of France And the reputation they carrie is such as they are readie mony every where They cost not much more then 400. sterling and I hope they will prove the profitablest pieces that were ever used in the quarrel of his Maiesties Friends We have likewise considered of what service a company of Firelocks would be to the action but the time is so short we cannot raise them Howsoever we are promised of the States to have leave for a companie of Harquebussiers which are of such use upon all occasions that we cannot misse them And we have chose a brave and worthie Gentleman his Majesties Servant and Subject who is willing to leave any service for this being the service of the King If they should have been raised in England his Majestie must have payed for the horses armes saddles and pistols and yet not find any able to have served in that kind The wind as yet holds contrary which hath made me send this by Sir Henry Vane who goes a way that I dare not passe But I hope if the wind serve not to be many dayes behind him to receive your Lordships command more particularly which I will obey as Your Lordships most humble Servant Ed Ceoyl Hagh 2. June 1625. Postscript MY Lord now in this time of necessity for the getting of good Musquetiers there are many hundred to be found in England
their cheerfull cry King James with the loss of 20. that were slain and hurt and leaving the fire flaming up in 7. several places which continued in some of them long after their retreat and being aboard his Majesties ships The cowardly Turks who before durst not shew themselves to so weak a force but from the walls or the tops of their houses so soon as they perceived all the boats retyred opened their ports and Sallied out in 1000. and by the help of so great multitudes and a suddain shower of rain â— seconded with a calme which then happened the fire was after extinguished without doing any more hurt then making two of their ships unserviceable During that Stay there there came out of the Moal only one Frigot which we forced to run on shoare Other service by us there performed was the sinking of one of their best men of war by Sir Thomas Wilford and Captain Chidleigh she was mann'd with a 130. Turks and 12. Christians whereof 12. onely escaped the rest were either slain or drowned which appeared both by the relation of divers Christians which nightly escaped aboard us and by divers of the dead bodies that floted upon the water by our ships We took likewise before their faces in the Bay a Fly-boat which the Pyrats had formerly taken from the Christians and sold to Ligorn In her Merchandize to be exchanged for Pyrats goods and some mony amounting to 2000. and odd pounds the exact account whereof I shall not fayl to addresse to your Lordship as soon as the same is perfected by the councel of War The Turks hereupon presently manned out three Gallyes to reskue here but Captaine Giles and Captain Herbert with the help of three Brigandines which I sent out to second them soon fetcht her up and brought ther unto me and the Gallies were put to flight by Sir Thomas Wilford Captain Pennington and Captain Childlegh During the time of my aboad there after the attempt made by the boates I attended ten dayes for an opportunity to send in the ships with the fire workes to finish the service begun by the boats but in all that time there happened not a breath of wind fit for their attempt notwithstanding the ships were allwayes ready at the instant that they should receive my directions to advance But at last understanding by the Christians that escaped by swimming aboard me how the Pyrats had boomed up the Moales with Masts and Rafts set a double guard upon their ships planted more ordnance upon the Moale and the walls and manned out twenty Boats to guard the Boome and perceiving likewise that they had sent out their Gallies and boates both to the Eastward and Westward to give advce to all the ships upon the Coast that they should not come in during my aboad there and so finding no hope remaining either by stratagem to do service upon them in the Moale or to meet with any more of them in the regard of the daily complaints brought unto me both from some of the Kings ships and most of the Marchants of their want of victuals I resolved by the advice of the Councel of war to set sail whence I made my repair to this place where I met my Brother Roper with your Lordships dirrections which I have received and at the instant obeyed by signifying his Majesties pleasure declared by your Lordships Letter unto the worthie Commanders of those four ships whom his Majestie hath pleased to call home But my Lord in the duty I owe your Lordship and my zeal to his Majesties honour and service I humbly beg your Lordships pardon to advertize your Lordship that seeing we have now made this attempt upon the Pyrates and that they perceive that our intent is to work their utter ruine and confusion the recalling of these his Majesties Forces before the arrival of others in their stead and the bereaving us of so many worthy and experienced Commanders I fear may prove more prejudicial to the service then upon one daies consideration I dare presume to set down in writing by encouraging the Pyrats to put in execution such stratagems upon us as to my knowledge they have already taken into their consideration My reasons for the same I shall be bold upon more mature deliberation to offer in all humblenesse unto your Lordships judicious view either by the Commanders that are to return unto your Lordship or by a messenger which divers of the Councel of War advise to be addressed over land on purpose with the same And so being ready so soon as we have received in our water and dispatched divers other businesses which of necessity must be ordered in this place to set sail for Malega there to receive in our remainder of Victuals and to take my leave of these 4. Ships and such other of the Merchants as cannot be made serviceable in these parts With my endlesse prayers for your Lordships increase of all honour I cease your Lordships farther trouble for the present And rest From aboard the Lion in Alegant Rode 9th June 1621. Your Lordships most humble most faithful and sad servant Robert Mansel Sir Robert Mansel to the Duke Right Honourable and my singular good Lord IT is not unknown unto your Lordship that Sir Thomas Button before his coming out thought himself much wronged in that he did not hold the place of Vice Admiral in this Fleet whereof I must acknowledge him very worthy and that for my part I had ingaged Sir Richard Hawkins a very Grave Religious and experienced Gentleman before I was assured whether Sir Thomas Button would leave his imployment in Ireland or no and that afterwards Sir Thomas Button by your Lordships mediation was contented to undertake the charge he now holdeth which God knowes I laboured for no other end then for the securitie and advancement of his Majesties service by reason of the experience I have had of his sufficiency and ability Since that time I have doubled that injury A wrong was done unto him which cannot be denied he patiently appealed to me for justice which I must confesse I denied him But the name of the person that offered the wrong and the reasons why I denied him Justice I must leave unto Sir Richard Hawkins and Sir Henry Palmer to relate unto your Lordship and if that will not give your Lordship satisfaction I must humbly submit my self to your Lordships Censure Notwithstanding the impression that these injuries took with him yet thus much I must truly confesse in his behalf That there was no man more zealous to advance his Majesties service nor more forward to undergo any danger or hazard then himself whereof he hath given assured testimonie to the World in these three particulars First in the service performed by him on a Christmasse day at night whereof I have formerly advertized your Lordship at large Secondly Then in going over to Algier cheerfully without complaining when his Ship was so grievously infected
gave us my Company grew into such a fury and tumult that they got up their Anchors and set sail for England without acquainting me with it or order from me saying They would rather be hanged at home then surrender the Kings Ships or be slaves to the French or fight against those of the Religion But I must confesse I heard what they were a doing but let them alone because I saw they had reason otherwise I should rather have died amongst them then to have suffered it And thus I have related the principal passages unto your Grace wherein if I have offended his Majestie or your Grace it hath been for want of discretion and not of true zeal to do his Majestie your Grace and my Countrey service which if it be found to be an offence I humbly crave pardon I am now come to an anchor in the Downs where I shall attend your Grace's farther pleasure to be disposed of as his Majestie and your Grace shall please But to return again to France I can assure your Grace that all the people in the ship will rather be hanged then do it they have been so well used there Thus praying for your Graces many happie and prosperous daies I humbly rest Your Graces most humble and faithful servant Jo. Pennington From aboard the Vanguard in the Downs 27. July 1625. Captain Pennington to the Duke May it please your Grace TO take into your Consideration these particulars following First That there is no clause in the contract for our quiet injoying and celebrating our Divine service to God morning and evening according to the ancient order of the Seas Secondly That they may bring as many of their own Nation aboard as they will and they speak of putting in as many French as English which will amount to 500. in all which the ship is neither able to carry neither will it be for the health of those that go in her or safety of the ship to his Majestie All which I desire may be considered of and a course settled with the Embassadour of the just number I shall receive aboard Thirdly That we are bound to fight against any Nation that they command us except our own which you may likewise please to consider of Fourthly That there is no Clause for the supply of the Victuals and other provisions before the six moneths be expired so that they may keep us till that time and then turn us off naked and destitute of all provisions to be a prey to our enemies Fifthly That we may know where we shall receive our supplies of powder and other munition from them for that the three last which we have in here with the appurtenance is not sufficient to maintain a fight of three hours The former five Articles I humbly desire your Grace judiciously to consider of and what your Grace will have me therein perform may be inserted in my instructions Now further I humbly desire your Grace First That all we English may be of a squadron and not separated upon any occasion the accidents of the Sea excepted and that we may be ready at all times to ayd and assist one another Secondly That I may have power in my instructions or otherwise for the command of the rest of the English that go along with me if not every man may take his course and do what liketh him best which may prove prejudicial to the service dishonourable to the State and dangerous for the safety of his Majesties ship Lastly I humbly desire that your Grace will be pleased to give order that there may be some provision of Cloathes laid in for naked men whereof there are many in the ship as hose shoes and shirts at least As also some provision of store for sick men of Oatmeal Rice Sugar and fruit and some little stock of money to relieve them if necessitie require it It may afterwards be deducted out of their wages if your Grace will have it so Your Graces Loyal and faithful servant ever to be commanded Jo. Pennington Mr. Trumbal to the Secretarie Right Honourable VVIth my former dated the 11th of this moneth I sent your Honour two Letters for his Majestie and promised by my next to write unto your Honour at large about the matter they did contain In performance whereof and for the discharge of my dutie I will now desire permission hereby freely to deliver my mind for so much as is yet come to my knowledge and I judge meet to be committed to paper concerning the same And seeing this Packet is to be sent by an expresse Messenger and a * Mr. Carie. person of trust I will for your Honours greater ease abstain from the use of a Cipher After I had been at Lovain and Antwerp to take some depositions for the discovering of the authours and correctors of that most pernitious Libel Coronae Regia as by a dispatch to the late Mr. Secretarie Lake I did advertize his Majestie there came unto me a certain person living about this Town going by the name of Nicholas de Laken and brought me the Packet which a good while since I sent to your Honour Amongst other things he told me that heretofore by accident he fell into the company of a Cannon of Lovain with whom he had some speech about that divelish book and that if I would send thither he was very confident he should penetrate farther by his private industrie in the space of a few dayes into the mysterie then I had been able to do in the compasse of divers years with my publique information Here upon to make a tryall and desiring to imploy Le see et Leverd for the manifesting of a truth which I knew his Majestie so much longed to understand I furnished him with mony and some instructions and sent him to Lovain At the end of six or seven dayes he returned from thence and as his own letters do testify and he hath protested with many oaths he avouched to me that he had discovered that secret to the very bottom I inquired of him by what meanes He made answer by the help of the said Canon and some young Schollars his countrie men Students in that university who had brought him to the acquaintance of a certain Italian living there that had served the author of the book both while he did compose it and while it was in printing He averreth also that Puteanus and some others had their fingers in that unsavorie Pye And he saith that when I began to make search for those persons which had done his Majestie that intollerable wrong that the principal authour and Flavius the Printer were secretly warned to get them out of this country and had some meanes given them to maintain them abroad He affirmeth likewise that both of them ever since that time have remained and are at this present remaining out of the territories of the Archdukes That he hath often seen the sayd authour in this Citty and knoweth
his name and Surname and his person so well as no change of his apparrel nor disguising of his body can cause him to mistake or be deceived By his report that party is no. Clergie man though he be a good Schollar and reputed to have an excellent Latin pen. But those commendable quallities are drowned by his greater vices he being much addicted to lewde women and unsatiable drinking He is now by this mans information resident in a town upon the Frontiers of Germany And as for Flavius he can if he truly declare where he lurketh and assureth me that his wife is at a place within ten leagues of this town The Cannon that did oversee the presse and withdrew the leaves of this booke as they were printed is called as he heard Mr. Claud. and dwelleth at Nostre Dame de Halles whither I purpose to send him this Easter holidaies to make farther inquirie More then these and some other particulars which are so transcendent as I dare neither believe nor set them down in writing he will not impart unto me until he be assured of his Majesties protection by a Letter under his hand and a competent reward for his labours And the reason he alledgeth therefore is that if once it be known he did meddle in this matter there can be no more safety for him to continue in these provinces He doth further undertake that in case his Majestie will be pleased to grant him his demands allow mony for the expences of the journy and give him two persons of courage and fidelity to accompanie him he will either lose his life or put the sayd author into their hands who may carry him as he thinketh with little danger either into the Pallatinate or the united Provinces Hereupon I guesse that if this report be well grownded that wicked fellow must be in or near about the town of Cullen I cannot amongst all those of my acquaintance and his Majesties subjects here call to mind any one so fit for this interprize as the Gentleman whose name is written in Cipher in my letter to his Majestie For he is universally well spoken of for his honestie and other good Parts and in sundry occasions hath given good testimony of his ardent desire to do his Majestie some remarkeable and meritorious service And his sufficiencie being better known to his Majestie then to my self I will not commend it any further The want of imployment and some disgustes he received in Holland while he served there compelled him by necessity to looke for preferment under the King of Spain But hitherto his religion the respect he beareth to his Majestie and my perswasions have detained him from those Courses By him I am told that he hath heard out of the mouths of one Captain Carpentine and his son in law Captain Hamilton pencioners to the King of Spain but subjects to his Majestie that they being one day walking in a street at Antwerp called the Major Brugg where they reside with 4. or 5. others in their companie and there happening some speech amongst them about a book his majestie had then published against the Pope it fell out that one of them apprehending that opportunity said that he had subject enough to furnish a book which should more vex the King of great Brittain then his Majesties book could offend his Holinesse and if he could meet with a Schollar that were able to put it into a method and good latine he would be ready to perform his word Another of the troop made answer that he would undertake the work upon that condition and they both for a great whiles after were absent at Lovain even about the same time that the Libel was forged Perhaps some part of this may draw neer to the verity But they both depending upon the King of Spain as is before mentioned and being averse in religion I am much afraid I shall do little good upon them by examining them before the Arch Dukes Commissioners seeing they may delude me and the truth with equivocation and mental reservation Although he conceiveth that if they were called before a judge and summoned upon their oathes to speake the truth they would not refuse to discharge their consciences I have seriously intreated him to bestow his best indeavour in attempting what he can further learn about this relation and he hath accepted to perform my request The said Gentleman from whom I had it is not willing to be brought publiquely upon the Stage for this businesse lest thereby he should incurre the note of an informer then which nothing is or can be more odious in these parts Neverthelesse he hath promised if his Majestie like to have it so and will be pleased to give commandement for it to justifie what is before rehearsed to their faces Whether both these parties encounter upon one and the same authour or understand them to be divers men I can neither judge nor fortell yet it seemeth that one of them may hit on the right And as I will not spare any paines charges nor peril whatsoever to bring the parent of this child of darkenesse into the light so I hope his Majestie whose cause it is will not refuse to hazard a little mony to give himself satisfaction These things having passed in this manner I humbly beseech your Honour at a fit opportunity when the King is alone to acquaint him with these particulars and intreat his Majestie to keep them secret for I am of opinion being spoken under humble correction and without offence that had not his Majestie by communicating this businesse at the first to Mounsieur Borschot given him meanes to advertize it to his wife who by tatling divulged it and foyled the way we had never been put to half this trouble but had taken Flavius in the form and by him discovered the authour My intention is not that his Majestie should be induced to put 2000. Pistols or the summe that shall be allotted Laken into his hands before the service be done but that his Majestie would vouchsafe if he approve the project to cause so much mony as in his profound wisdom he shall think meet for this occasion to be forthwith remitted to me by Mr. John More by the meanes of Mr. Ducket a Marchant dwelling in Milk street in London to be repayed at Antwerp by Mr. Lionel Wake trading there or by the companie of our English Marchants at Middleborough in Zealand in the name of reward for service done or to buy Tapestries or linnen for his Majestie And I will either return it back again by exchange if this design cannot be effected or defaulk the remaines thereof upon my entertainment All that I would venture in this case should only be for those mens necessary expences that are to be imployed therein and that also I would have not to exceed but to be limitted within the compasse of 200. pounds sterling By apprehending these men the Arch-Dukes cannot take any just
occasion of offence against his Majestie or his Ministers seeing one of them is not their Vassal and both are out of their Dominions It may for these Considerations please your Honour to advise with his Majestie whether it be fitter to proceed herein Via facti or Via Juris to send Laken to seek out the Author and others to apprehend him or the Printer or upon promise of a reasonable recompence for his pains to deal with him effectually to declare their names and habitations and afterwards leave it to his Majesties gracious and Princely pleasure to prosecute or let fall his action In either of which kind I will yield humble obedience to his Majesties Commands and your Honours directions as things to my self indifferent But I am doubtful that by continuing of the course formerly holden in the carriage of this businesse we shall never attain our desired ends I am not so slight as to give credit to all reports nor so prodigal as to part with money for nothing My most humble and earnest suit is that his Majestie and your Honour after mature deliberation upon the several points of this Letter will vouchsafe to send me by my servant Marsham who is now at London particular and distinct answers for my better direction I have been the more prolixe upon this subject in hope that this I have written shall serve once for all In that matter concerning the Countesse of Argile which it pleased your Honour to recommend unto my Care I have done as much already as I can for the present We must of necessitie with a little patience expect the successe whereof your Honour shall in due time be punctually advertized In the mean while I do with all reverence desire your Honour to excuse the tediousnesse of this Letter And so take my leave Bruxels 21 31. of March 1618 1619. Your Honours very humble and ready to be commanded W. Trumball Mr. Trumball to the Secretarie Right Honourable THose that are employed in such place as I am must admit all manner of men into their company And the Oath I have taken to his Majestie will not permit me to conceal any thing from his knowledge that cometh to mine and may in any sort have relation to his Royal service For these Considerations I assume the boldnesse so soon to renew your Honours trouble after the dispatch of those Volumes of Letters which I sent you yesterday by one of my servants This Bearer de la Forrest is better known to your Honour then to my self although I remember many years ago to have seen him in England During his stay in this Town he brought unto me a certain French Gentleman calling himself the Viscount of L'orme and Sir De la Pommeraye who hath by his own relation been a great Navigator and been authorized by 18. of the chief Pyrats in the Levant to search for their pardon and retreat into some Christian Countrey being sorry for the ill they have done and desirous to spend the rest of their daies in peace With this Commission he came into France and there travelled so far with the King and his Ministers as he obtained a general abolition for the said Pyrates a safe Conduct to bring them into his Dominions and a procuration which I have seen under the great Seal of France to treat and conclude with them upon certain conditions But he being envied by some Grandees of that Kingdom and by misfortune happening to kill a man he was forced as he pretendeth for the safety of his life to flie into these Countries before he could bring that work to perfection And being now disinabled to return thither again he desireth to make a tryal whether his Majestie will vouchsafe to lend his ear to that Treatie and grant unto the said Pyrates a general Pardon To which effect he sendeth over La Forrest and hath intreated me to accompany him with my Letters to my Lord Admiral your Honour and Mr. Secretarie Calvert For retribution of this grace the said Pyrates offer to give 45000 l sterling to be shared amongst you three or to be disposed of as his Majestie shall appoint But your Honour may see the Conditions proposed to the French King were more advantagious For they were to give him their Ships Artillerie and Munition and to furnish means to set out some men of War for his service And I see no reason in case his Majestie should encline to such capital offenders and common enemies why he should not have as much or more benefit then another Prince the greatest part of them being his Vassals Your Honour if you please may peruse these adjoyned Papers and impart the contents of them to my Lord Admiral They agree with their Originals and if his Majestie do not taste this overture there is no more harm done for any thing I can perceive then the losse of my labour to peruse and subscribe them There remaineth onely two points wherein I should speak to your Honour the one is that this matter may be concealed from the French Embassadour Mounsieur le Count de Tilliers for fear of ruining de L'Orme The other with gratifying La Forrest with the pay of a Pacquet if your Honour shall think it meet for the carrying of these Letters who saith your Honour is his great Patron and hath promised him a good turn Mounsieur de L'Orme hath given him power to sollicite this businesse and procure him an answer wherein I joyn my humble prayer that the poor man may not here languish in hopes and spend his money to no purpose When I shall know whether his Majestie will rellish this overture or not I will write thereof more largely if there be cause otherwise let it remain as it was before In the mean while I humbly take my leave And rest Your Honours In all humblenesse to be commanded W. Trumball Bruxels 23. of Octob. 1619. Sir Thomas Roe to the Marquesse of Buckingham Lord Admiral My Lord I Can give your Lordship no great account of any thing that hath occurred since my departure I was bold to write to Mr. Secretarie Calvert from Maliga of the great increase of the Pyrates in those Seas and of the danger of the Merchants with my own thoughts if his Majestie have any farther purpose to attempt their destruction which is both honourable and necessarie if these Trades or the other of Spain to the South of the North-Cape be of any consequence to his Majesties Kingdomes if they be suffered to increase they will brave the Armies of Kings at Sea in a few years and attempt even the Coasts and Shoares with peril And because they carry the name only of Thieves they are yet contemned or neglected but they will become a dangerous enemie when they shall rob with Fleets and therefore would be in time considered The Spaniards now make great offers to continue the Contract though their performance be slow and their own Estates chiefly interessed yet besides
part where France hath before usurped on the Empire in which regard his interest of estate is greater then your Majesties in the Conservation of the Palatinate though your personal interest be incomparable with his Then he cannot but think of the losse of his Correspondencies and breach of his Confederacies in Germany which have been very ancient and very particular with the house of the Palatine And if the reason of mutual gratitude and vindication of injuries may move Frenchmen there are plentiful arguments on both kinds to move them to defend the House of the Palatine against that of Austria But now on the other side to move him against those of the Religion at home first doth present it self his successeful beginning against them in the businesse of Bearn then which nothing could be more unjust both in regard of the matter it self and of his own faith and promise and of the desert of those of the Religion towards him in these late troubles nor could any thing be more suddenly or violently I do not say cruelly executed then that was And again the present tearms wherein that King and those of the Religion do stand will push him on Then there will not want to this purpose the powerful perswasions of the Pope and his adherents both by propounding overtures to lay asleep the jealousies of the house of Austria and offering huge summes towards the charge of the War which if he should attempt and prevail therein it would prove of far greater prejudice for many reasons that may be given in the interest of Estate to your Majestie though not in the interest of your affection then the losse of the Palatinate What may in France be resolved upon these motives is uncertain But I do conceive hereupon that it may be useful for your Majesties service effectually to propound in France a Confederacie for the Conservation of the Palatinate to which if they do hearken your Majestie shall proceed in that design with greater strength and reputation and occasion the King of Spain to proceed with greater remissenesse or else absolutely to relinquish the Palatinate by a Treaty But if in France it be not hearkened to your Majestie may take it for an assured argument that they mean to proceed against those of the Religion in which case your Majestie may make use of the same Embassage to revive again some of their factions in the Court whereby those of the Religion may be strengthened in their defence and it will not be hard to effect if it be well proceeded in And herein doth properly offer it self the person of the Duke of Bovillon who for his great experience and wit and intelligence in that Court is best able to guide and further your Majesties intentions and for his interest in the person of the Palatine and in the conversation of those of the Religion doth precisely square with your Majesties ends whose advice you may first suddenly and secretly enquire c. Sir Walter Aston to the Duke 10. December 1624. May it please your Grace THe Arch-Duke Don Carlos brother to the Emperour made his entrie into this Town on the 15th of the last moneth Stil Vet. He was met by the Almirante of Castile two daies journey from this place who went from hence well accompanied and attended by many Liveries richly set forth Some 400. paces without a Gate of this Town called Alcala the Arch-Duke was received by the two Infants Don Carlos and the Cardinal and about 200 paces without the said Gate by the King himself who came attended with the greatest part of this Court and in his Coach accompanied with the Duke of Newbergh and the Conde of Olivarez The King lighted out of his Coach to receive the Arch-Duke and some complements being past between them returned into his Coach and set the Arch-Duke by him on his left hand in the other end of the Coach set the two Infants in one boot the Duke of Newbergh and the Conde of Olivarez and in the other the Emperours Embassadour and the Almirante the Almirante taking place of the Embassadour Being come to the Palace the King accompanied the Arch-Duke to the Queens Quarter where his Majestie left him to be conveyed from thence to his own Quarter which is the same was given to the Prince his Highnesse at his being in this Court by the Infants his Brothers as he was having finished his complements with the Queen and the Infanta Dona Maria There were preparations here making for the honouring his reception with several feasts and entertainments after their manner here But these have been stopped by the Arch-Dukes sicknesse who felt himself indisposed the day after his arrival and applying some Physical remedies by the advice of a Physitian which he brought along with him his distemper increased and as it is pretended by these Physitians by a wrong course held with him What hath been the true cause of his infirmity I leave to be disputed by them He hath been held divers dayes with a terrible Calenture which proved at last a Tabardillo whereupon there was little hope conceived of his life but he hath since received some ease and is now in a good way of amendment In respect of the Emperours unworthy proceedings with the King our Master I have not dared to visit him untill I shall have notice of his Majesties pleasure therein which I shall be glad to understand from your Grace Since the expiring of the Truce betwixt this Crown and the Hollanders this King hath given License to divers Port Towns on the Coasts of Biscay to arm out what ships they shall think good and to make prize to their own particular benefit of what they shall light upon belonging to the enemies of this Crown by which meanes it is here hoped That these Coasts will be much the better secured from the daily pillages of the Holland men of War and the Turkish Pyrates For the advancing whereof upon request made of those of Sevil there is License given unto them to arm what men of War they can find means The Duke of Maqueda likewise with leave hath lately set forth six ships which are abroad in Pyracie There is advice given hither that the Duke of Brandenbergh hath given his consent to the conferring of the Electoral dignitie upon the Duke of Bavaria which I can hardly believe though I find it assured from very good hands The Duke of Newbergh remains still in this Court and presses to carry a cleer resolution in his businesses from hence but for any thing I can yet learn his negotiation remains in the same estate as I advertised in my last to Mr. Secretarie Conway The Armada prepared in Portugal for the recovering of Brasil is gon to Sea and whereas they were to have stayed at the Cape St. Vincent for the Armado of Castile upon advice that is given hither that the Hollanders in Brasil are not able to make any resistance of consideration they have
Prince in the whole world upon whom the Conservation of the publique tranquillity doth more rely then upon your Majestie For there being none that doth equal your Majestie in wisdom and experience possessing your Kingdomes in perfect peace quietnesse and plenty to the infinite praise of your name and being free from the molestation of all stormes and tempests it seemeth that the eyes of all men are turned towards your Majestie as towards a Sun that ought to clear the Skie and that they expect deliverance onely from your hand These resolutions oh most wise King will be the strongest walls upon which your eternity can be reared These will be the Jewels and the crown which will adorn you in earth and in Heaven These will be the immortal Glorie of your powerful name The resolutions in cases of such weight and danger ought to be magnanimous quick and powerful The very noise of your putting in order your royal Navie the sending a person of quality to the place from whence the danger is feared and the declaring your self in favour of those whom you shall find to have the right on their side may perhaps prove sufficient to procure a peace If words will not prevail deeds must follow and such a resolution will prove the true Antidote to all their poysons For the better effecting whereof the world doth attend with great devotion to see a good correspondencie renewed betwixt your Majestie and the French King and for the disposing your Majesties heart thereunto the State of Venice doth joyn her humble prayers unto the earnest intreaty of many others In the mean time I am to request your Majestie that you will be pleased to forbid the exportation of Artillerie ships and Marriners out of our Kingdomes for the service of the Spaniards it being neither just nor agreeable to your Majesties Piety that your Arms should be stayned with the blood of a State and Prince that hath no equal in love to your Royal Crown and that will ever testifie to all the world by effects of their observance the pure and sincere devotion that they have to your Glorious name For my own particular I humbly crave leave to kisse your royal hands Sir Isaac Wake to the Secretarie Right Honourable I Have safely received the Letter wherewith your Honour hath been pleased to favour me dated at Theobalds the 19th of July Stil Vet. and have to my singular comfort understood that you have been pleased not onely to give favourable acceptance unto such weak dispatches as I have made bold to addresse unto you but done me the honour likewise to acquaint his Majestie with the contents of them and to direct my proceedings in in this intricate businesse which instructions dictated by his Majesties wisedom this light will be sufficient to direct my steps in the middest of an Egyptian darknesse which doth not only obscure the Horizon of this Province where I reside but almost the whole face of Europe by reason of the great mists which are cast artificially in all mens eyes to cover the designs of those who do presume that they have in all places arbitrium Belliet Pacis I most humbly crave pardon of your Honour if you do not receive my answer so soon as perhaps you might expect For yours having stayed upon the way a month and a day did not come to my hands until the 20th of August Stil Vet. At which time it was brought unto me by Mr. Rowlandson whom I had dispatched into Germany to advertize those Princes of the motion made to the Duke of Savoy for the passage of Spanish forces through his State My Lord of Doncaster under whose Cover I received that Letter did not think fit to send it to me by an expresse messenger for fear of increasing the suspition of some in those parts who are jealous that his Majesty doth favour the Duke of Savoy more then they could wish And I must confesse that the same reason induced me likewise to send that Gentleman of the Duke of Savoy's into Germany rather then any servant of mine own for fear least allees and vennes of messagers betwixt my Lord of Doucaster and me in these doubtful times might so far injealous the contrary party as might prejudice the service of his Majestie in that Negotiation The instructions that your Honour hath been pleased to give me from his Majestie 52. c. the Duke of Sav. y. 93. a. the Bohemians 95 a. the Emperour Ferdinand 51. a. the King of England 97. a. Germany 99. a. the King of the Romans 71. c. the Agent of England 51. b. the Prince Palatine 52. b. the Marquesse Brandenbergh 54. b. the Marquesse Auspach 50. b. the Princes of the Union 56 b. Count Ernest Mansfelt concerning my treating with 52. c. in favour of 93. a. having reference unto the inclination of 95. a. to peace or the probability of defence to be made by 93. a. I held it more safe for me to govern my self by such informations of the state of those affairs as I have received from the favour of the 1. 32. 7. 5. 47. 48. 2. 10. 40. 45. of 51. a. in 97. a. And for the better justification of my proceedings I send your Honour here inclosed the Copie of his Letter unto me wherein you will see that I have no reason as yet to spend the name of 51. a. in favour of 93. a. nor to imbargue 52. c. in a businesse which may draw a great charge and envie upon himself and not much advantage the 93. a. I must confesse that the 50. b. in general and particularly the 54. b. and the 41. 45. 23. 34. 9. 12. of 5. 35. 22. 4. 30. 50. have represented the state of those affairs at this present unto 52. b. in a manner not onely different from the advertisements sent me but almost contrary and they do seem not only to be confident of the prevailing of 93. c. but likewise they continue to give hope that the 10. 51. 29. 15. of 48. 3. 59. 15. will concur with 51. b. and 52. b. in the 12. 30. 13. 9. 50. 27. 40. 35. of 99. a. But because I have reason to suspect that they make relation of those affairs rather as they wish they were then as they be indeed and that their intention to draw somewhat from 52. c. towards the succours of 93. a. I will forbear to joyn with them therein until I can have some better ground then their advertisements which may be thought to savour of partiality and I have reason to be backward therein because I know that 52. c. would presently take me eu mot and put to the account of 51. a. that which he is most willing to do of himself I do not affirm this out of conjecture but upon good ground for besides that he did signifie so much unto me at my return out of England I do know that within this fortnight he hath sent unto 56. b. 3000. 41. 24. 48. 49.
deputed my said Nephew to redeliver my fortune into your Noble hands and to assure your Lordship that as it should be cheerfully spent at your Command if it were present and actual from whose mediation I have derived it so much more am I bound to yeeld up unto your Lordship an absolute disposition of my hopes But if it should please you therein to grant me any part of mine own humour then I would rather wish some other satisfaction then exchange of Office yet even in this point likewise shall depend on your will which your Lordship may indeed challenge from me not onely by an humble gratitude and reverence due to your most worthy person but even by that natural charity and discretion which I owe my self For what do I more therein then onely remit to your own arbitrement the valuation of your own goodnesse I have likewise committed to my foresaid Nephew some Memorials touching your Lordships familiar service as I may term it in matter of art and delight But though I have laid these Offices upon another yet I joy with mine own pen to give your Lordship an account of a Gentleman worthier of your love then I was of the honour to receive him from you We are now after his well-spent travailes in the Townes of purer language married again till a second Divorce for which I shall be sorry whensoever it shall happen For in truth my good Lord his conversation is both delightful and fruitful and I dare pronounce that he will return to his friends as well fraught with the best observations as any that hath ever sifted this Countrie which indeed doth need sisting for there is both flower and bran in it He hath divided his abode between Sienna and Rome The rest of his time was for the most part spent in motion I think his purpose be to take the French tongue in his way homewards but I am perswading with him to make Bruxels his Seat both because the French and Spanish Languages are familliar there whereof the one will be after Italian a sport unto him so as he may make the other a labour And for that the said Town is now the scene of an important Treatie which I fear will last till he come thither but far be from me all ominous conceit I will end with cheerful thoughts and wishes beseeching the Almighty God to preserve your Lordship in health and to cure the publique diseases And so I ever remain Your Lordships Most devoted obliged servant Henry Wotton Venice 29. of July 1622. Sir Henry Wotton to the Duke My most honoured and dear Lord TO give your Lordship occasion to exrecise your Noble nature is withal one of the best exercises of mine own duty and therefore I am consident to passe a very charitable motion through your Lordships hands and mediation to his Majestie There hath long lay in the prison of Inquisition a constant worthy Gentleman viz. Mr. Mole In whom his Majestie hath not only a right as his subject but likewise a particular interest in the cause of his first imprisonment For having communicated his Majesties immortal work touching the alleagiance due unto Soveraign Princes with a Florentine of his familiar acquaintance this man took such impression at some passages as troubling his conscience he took occasion at next shrift to confer certain doubts with his Confessor who out of malitious curiosity enquiring all circumstances gave afterwards notice thereof to Rome whither the said Mole was gone with my Lord Rosse who in this storie is not without blame but I will not disquiet his Grave Now having lately heard that his Majestie at the suite of I know not what Embassadours but the Florentine amongst them is voiced for one was pleased to yield some releasement to certain restrained persons of the Roman faith I have taken a conceit upon it that in exchange of his clemencie therein the Great Duke would be easily moved by the Kings Gracious request to intercede with the Pope for Mr. Moles delivery To which purpose if it shall please his Majestie to grant his Royal Letters I will see the businesse duely pursued And so needing no arguments to commend this proposition to his Majesties goodnesse but his goodnesse it self I leave it as I began in your Noble hand Now touching your Lordships familiar service as I may term it I have sent the complement of your bargain upon the best provided and best manned ship that hath been here in long time called the Phoenix and indeed the cause of their long stay hath been for some such sure vessel as I might trust About which since I wrote last to your Lordship I resolved to fall back to my first choice So as now the one peece is the work of Titian wherein the least figure viz the child in the Virgins lap playing with a bird is alone worth the price of your expence for all four being so round that I know not whether I shall call it a piece of sculpture or picture and so lively that a man would be tempted to doubt whether nature or art had made it The other is of Palma and this I call the speaking piece as your Lordship will say it may well be tearmed for except the Damosel brought to David whom a silent modesty did best become all the other figures are in discourse and action They come both distended in their frames for I durst not hazard them in rowles the youngest being 25. yeares old and therefore no longer supple and pliant With them I have been bold to send a dish of Grapes to your Noble Sister the Countesse of Denbigh presenting them first to your Lordships view that you may be pleased to passe your censure whether Italians can make fruits as well as Flemmings which is the common Glorie of their pencils By this Gentleman I have sent the choicest Melon seeds of all kinds which his Majestie doth expect as I had order both from my Lord of Holdernesse and from Mr. Secretary Calvert And although in my Letter to his Majestie which I hope by your Lordships favour himself shall have the honour to deliver together with the said seeds I have done him right in his due attributes yet let me say of him farther as Architects use to speake of a well chosen foundation that your Lordship nay boldly builde what fortune you please upon him for surely he will bear it virtuously I have committed to him for the last place a private memorial touching my self wherein I shall humbly beg your Lordships intercession upon a necessarie motive And so with my heartiest prayers to heaven for your continuall health and happinesse I most humbly rest Your Lordships Ever obliged devoted Servant Henry Wotton Venice 2 12. Decemb. 1622. Postscript MY Noble Lord it is one of my duties to tell your Lordship that I have sent a servant of mine by profession a Painter to to make a search in the best townes through Italie for some principal pieces
now a little the businesse will be quickly done and in a good manner I beseech your Lordship preach to him a Christian Sermon as is most needful for there comes from thence divers wayes such reports thither that I am ashamed and out of countenance in the streets as I go and they do me a favour that they do not stone me knowing that I am treating and labouring this businesse at the same time when the poor Catholiques are so cruelly used in England Scotland and Ireland And when I excuse it that it is not by the Kings order but by the abuse and malice of some ill affected Ministers it will not be received neither do they want Replies Besides there is a rumour all over Rome that the King in a Speech which he made at the beginning of the Parliament affirmed publiquely That for all this marriage with Spain the Catholique party in England should not be in one jott better condition then they are But I cannot be yet discouraged My confidence is in the King and in the desire which I know he hath to procure a good Wife for his Son And now that the time is come let him play the part of a Couragious Wooer and frustrate the intentions and desires of all those that are adverse to it It is a comfort unto me that I do not find here an impossibility but that though there be difficulties yet I find many here that desire to overcome them And above all I hope that God will assist this businesse as his own Cause I am going to prepare my self for the Congregation of the Cardinals and a Consultation of Divines to whom I understand we shall be remitted this next week I shall give your Lordship an account punctually of all things that happen in those Conferences Ous Lord c. Your Lordships c. Padre Maestre Don Carlos to the Lord Conway 3. September SIR I Have understood by Mr. Strada with particular contentment the newes of your good health which God continue for many years I see by yours received by Strada what his Majestie hath been pleased to order concerning the ships of the Indies which is as much in effect as could be hoped for from so great a King so zealous of Justice and Equitie In the Conduct of this businesse we will observe the order given by his Majestie in confidence that the Subjects of the King my Master shall obtain their ends and his Catholique Majestie receive the contentment to know that the excesses of those that shall be convinced have been punished By the last Currier of Flanders we received neither from the Infanta nor any other person any other newes then what Mr. Trumbal sent by his Letters I confesse freely that the Marquesse and my self have been much troubled both of us being exceedingly desirous that his Majestie should receive in every thing even in words and formalities the same satisfaction which we hope he shall receive in the effects Neverthelesse in discharge of her Highnesse I will say that which is fit for me as I am her servant and which I pray you from me to deliver unto his Majestie but thus understood that it is onely my own particular discourse By the displeasure his Majestie hath been pleased to testifie unto me upon many occasions of the Prince Palatines refusal to sign and ratifie the Treatie of suspension of Armes He may be also pleased to judge how it may have been taken by the King my Master in Spain and the Infanta in Flanders and the rather because of the continual reports that at the same time went up and down and increased as ordinarily it falls out of the descent of Alberstat with a mighty Army of 20000 foot and 6000 horse not any more to make war in Germany but to joyn with the Prince of Orange and fall upon those Provinces in obedience to his Catholique Majestie which was no other but directly to aym at the vital parts of the Spanish Monarchie If for these just fears which cannot certainly be held vain being considered with those of the year past proceeding from one and the same Cause both of which have been scattered by the Almighty hand of God in his secret Judgments it hath not onely been lawful but also necessary to conserve the ancient alliances and procure new I leave it to the judgment of every man of understanding not doubting but for this respect you will be of the same opinion with me And much more his Majestie whom God hath endowed with so great knowledge and royal qualities as are known to all the world Morover let us see if in the Law of gratitude the Infanta could do lesse then acknowledge towards the Duke of Bavaria the valour wherewith his Army had resisted the pernitious designs of Alberstat having hazarded his own estate to hinder the imminent danger of the King my Masters Again let us consider if the Infanta sending to visit and give him thanks could excuse her self from giving him all those titles which the Duke of Bavaria gives himself and desires should be given him And if he might not if she had done otherwise have thought the ingratitude the greater then the acknowledgement And therefore things being in this state the Infanta could not excuse her self from sending to visite him seeing he had succoured her in a time of need and in visiting him to give him that which he desired should be given him And the like is to be said for the King my Master in case he hath done the like as Mr. Trumbal writes the Infanta should tell him and with a great deal more reason because the Countries are his own And therefore since his Majestie of Great Brittain is so great a King and hath so great a reputation of the exact performing of his royal obligations I doubt not but he will judge that in this formality the King my Master and the Infanta his Aunt have but acquitted themselves of their obligations For the rest if at the conferrence of Cullen which his said Majestie and her Highnesse have desired and do yet desire his Majestie of great Brittain shall see that they are wanting on their part to proceed with that sincerity and truth which they have so often offered and which the Marquesse of Ynoiosa doth still offer on the behalf of the King my Master so that only the Prince Palatine make the submissions due to the Emperour as his natural Lord and resolvie to follow the Paternal counsels of his Majestie of great Brittain his Majestie shall then have reason to complain And in the mean time the Prince Palatine should do but well not to entertain those Amities he endeavours to conserve nor to sollicit those Leagues which he labours to procure not only with the declared rebells of the King my Master and of the House of Austria but also with the enemies of all Christendom I will ingage my head if following this way his Majestie and his son in law find themselves
alliance and common interest of state and religion have joyned unto you 3. And last of all cast off and remove jealousies which are between your Majestie and your people Your Majestie must begin with the last for upon that foundation you may afterwards set what frame of building you please And when should you begin Sir but at this overture of your Parliament by a gracious clear and confident discovery of your intentions to your People Fear them not Sir never was there a better King that had better subjects if your Majestie would trust them Let them but see that you love them and constantly rely upon their humble advice and readie assistance and your Majestie will see how they will tear open their breasts to give you their hearts and having them your Majestie is sure of their hands and purses Cast but away some crums of your Crown amongst them and your Majestie will see those crums will make a miracle they will satisfie many thousands Give them assurance that your heart was alwayes at home though your eyes were abroad invite them to looke forward and not backward and constantly maintain that with confidence you undertake and your majestie will find admirable effects of this harmonious concord Your Majestie as the head directing and your people as the hands and feet obeying and co-operating for the honour safety and welfare of the bodie of the State This will revive and reunite your friends abroad and dismay and disappoint the hopes of your enemies secure your Majesties person assure your estate and make your memorie glorious to posterity Pardon I most humbly beseech your Majestie this licentious freedome which the zeal of your safetie and service hath extorted from a tongue-tyed man who putteth his heart into his Majesties hand and humbly prostrateth himself at your Royal feet as being Your Majesties Most humble most obedient obliged Creature Subject and Servant Carlile The Earl of Carlile to the Duke the 20. of November 1625. My most Noble dear Lord SInce my Last to your Lordship by Mr. Endimion Porter there hath not happened any matter of great moment or alteration here saving the resolution which his Majestie hath taken by the advice of his Councel for the disarming of all the Popish Lords In the execution whereof there fell out a brabble at the Lord Vaux his house in North-hamptonshire wherein there were some blowes exchanged between the said Lord and Mr. Knightly a Justice of the Peace who assisted the Deputie Lievtenant in that action Whereof complaint being made his Majestie was pleased himself in Councel to have the hearing of the businesse and upon examination to refer the judgement thereof to the Star-Chamber the next Term. But at the issuing out of the Councel Chamber the Lord Vanx taking occasion to speak to Sir William Spencer who with the rest had given information in favour of Mr. Knightly told him that though he neglectect his reputation before the Lords yet he doubted not but he would have more care of his oath when the businesse should come to Examination in the Star-Chamber Herewith Sir VVilliam Spencer finding his reputation challenged presently complained and thereupon the words being acknowledged the Lord Vaux was committed prisoner to the Fleet. In the disarming of the Lords-Recusants there was as much respect had of some who have relation to your Lordship as you your self would desire The Papists in general here do give some cause of jealousie by their Combinations and Murmurings wherein it is suspected that they are as fondly as busily encouraged by the pragmatical Mounsieurs But his Majesties temper and wisdom will be sufficient to prevent all inconveniencie which their follie or passion may contrive There is one Sir Thomas Gerrard a Recusant brought up hither out of Lancashire being accused of some treacherous design against his Majesties Person Rochel is so straightly blocked by Sea and Land as no Intelligence can be sent into the Town We have not as yet any clear Categorical answers touching the restitution of our ships As soon as any thing more worthy of your Lordships knowledge shall occur you shall not fail to be advertised from him that is eternally vowed Your Graces Most faithful friend and most humble servant Carlile The Earl of Carlile to the Duke My most Noble dear Lord I Must ever acknowledge my self infinitely obliged to your Lordship for many Noble favours but for none more then the freedome and true cordial friendship expressed in your last Letter touching my son And I shall humbly beseech your Lordship in all occasions to continue that free and friendly manner of proceeding which I shall ever justly esteem as the most real testimonie of your favour towards me Your Lordship will now be pleased to give me leave with the same freedom and sinceritie to give your Lordship an account that it is now 4. moneths since the Count of Mansfelt made the proposition to me to nominate my son to be one of his Colonels as he did likewise to my Lord of Holland for his Brother Sir Charles Rich which at the first I must deal plainly with your Lordship I took for a piece of art as if he knowing that next to the benefit and assistance he received from your Lordships favour and protection we were the most active instruments imployed in his businesse and therefore he sought to ingage us so much the farther by this interest But afterwards I found that under the shadow of this Complement put upon me he had a desire to gratifie Sir James Ramsey whom he designed to be my sons Lievtenant having regard to his former deserts and the courage and sufficiencie he hath found in him I professe unto your Lordship sincerely that he received no other encouragement or acceptance from me then a bare negative Insomuch as he afterwards sent a Gentleman to tell me That he perceived whatsoever he should expect from me in the furtherance of his businesse must be onely for the respect I bare to my Masters service and nothing for love of his person since I accepted not the proffer of his service My Lord of Holland can justifie the truth of this assertion who alone was acquainted with that which passed for I protest upon my salvation that I neither spake of it to any creature living not so much as to my son neither have I written one word thereof to the Count Mansfelt neither knew I any thing of his proceedings till by the last Currier Mr. Secretarie was pleased to acquaint me with the nomination of my son If I had seriously intended any such thing I want not so much judgment and discretion as not first to discover my desire to my gracious Master humbly craving his leave and allowance And I should not have failed to have recourse to your Lordships favourable assistance therein And thus my Noble Lord have I given you an account what entertainment I gave to the Count Mansfelts Complement And I will be bold also to give
my hands amongst other Letters that same day I found him exceedinglie troubled in reading it nor did he forbear to tell me it must for a time be concealed for he feared if they should come to the knowledge of it they would give order to stay the Prince Upon these motives and in this manner I parted with it wherein I humbly submitting my self to his Highnesse Construction I remain Your Graces humblest servant to command Ed. Clark Madrid 1. Octob. 1623. Mr. Edward Clark to the Duke My Lord THe Infanta's preparation for the Disposorio was great but greater sorrow good Ladie to see it deferred It hath bred in them all some distraction The multitude know not what to conjecture what to say but cry Piden el Palatinato They confesse the demand just but unseasonable and do publish that the Disposorio past the Infanta on her knees should have been a suitor to the King to restore it making it thereby her act and drawing the obligation wholly to her I must confesse I want faith to believe it and the rather because I see it reflect secretly and malitiously upon your Lordship who are made the authour of all the impediments that happen not by your enemies onely but by those that should suppresse it Which troubles me so much that I hasten all I can my return since I know no other then to be Your Graces faithful servant Edw. Clark Madrid 6. Sept. 1623. Sir Anthony Ashley to the Duke May it please your good Lordship IF any thing had happened worth your knowledge I had either come or sent to Theobalds in your absence being ascertained that your Lordship had been already particularly informed of what passed in the Higher House betwixt the Earl of A. and the L. S. which is the onely thing of note and is thought will beget some noveltie Your Lordship may be most assured that your Adversaries continue their meetings and conferences here in Holborn how to give his Majestie some foul distaste of you as making you the onely authour of all grievances and oppressions whatsoever for your private ends And I hope to be able within few daies if promise be kept to give you good overture of a mutual oath taken to this purpose amongst them The rumour lately spread touching his Majesties untimely pardon of the late Lord Chancellours Fine and Imprisonment with some other favours intended towards him said to be procured by your Lordships only intimation hath exceedingly exasperated the rancor of the ill affected which albeit it be false and unlikely because very unseasonably It doth yet serve the present turn for the increase of malice against you I can but inform your Lordship of what I understand you may please to make use thereof as your self thinketh best I most humbly intreat your good Lordship to keep Letters of this nature either in your own Cabinet or to make Hereticks of them for I am well acquainted with the disposition of some Pen-men in Court. Upon Message even now received of my poor Daughters suddain dangerous sicknesse I am constrained unmannerly to post unto her being the onely comfort I have in this world and do purpose God willing a speedie return In the mean time and even with my heartie prayer I commend your good Lordship to Gods merciful and safe keeping This 12th of May 1621. Your honourable good Lordships faithfully devoted A. A. Sir Wa. Rawleigh to the Duke 12. Aug. IF I presume too much I humbly beseech your Lordship to pardon me especially in presuming to write to so great and worthie a person who hath been told that I have done him wrong I heard it but of late but most happie had I been if I might have disproved that villanie against me when there had been no suspition that the desire to save my life had presented my excuse But my worthie Lord it is not to excuse my self that I now write I cannot for I have now offended my Soveraign Lord for all past even all the world and my very enemies have lamented my losse whom now if his Majesties mercie alone do not lament I am lost Howsoever that which doth comfort my soul in this offence is that even in the offence it self I had no other intent then his Majesties service and to make his Majestie know That my late enterprise was grounded upon a truth and which with one Ship speedily set out I meant to have assured or to have died being resolved as it is well known to have done it from Plymouth had I not been restrained Hereby I hoped not onely to recover his Majesties gracious opinion but to have destroyed all those malignant reports which had been spread of me That this is true that Gentleman whom I so much trusted my Keeper and to whom I opened my heart cannot but testifie and wherein if I cannot be believed living my death shall witnesse Yea that Gentleman cannot but avow it that when we came back towards London I desired to save no other Treasure then the exact description of those places in the Indies That I meant to go hence as a discontented man God I trust and mine own Actions will disswade his Majestie Whom neither the losse of my estate thirteen years imprisonment and the denial of my pardon could beat from his service nor the opinion of being accounted a fool or rather distract by returning as I did ballanced with my love to his Majesties person and estate had no place at all in my heart It was that last severe Letter from my Lords for the speedie bringing of me up and the impatience of dishonour that first put me in fear of my life or enjoying it in a perpetual imprisonment never to recover my reputation lost which strengthened me in my late and too late lamented resolution if his Majesties mercie do not abound if his Majestie do not pitie my age and scorn to take the extreamest and utmost advantage of my errours if his Majestie in his great charitie do not make a difference between offences proceeding from a life-saving-natural impulsion without all ill intent and those of an ill heart and that your Lordship remarkable in the world for the Noblenesse of your disposition do not vouchsafe to become my Intercessour whereby your Lordship shall bind an hundred Gentlemen of my kindred to honour your memorie and bind me for all the time of that life which your Lordship shall beg for me to pray to God that you may ever prosper and over-bind me to remain Your most humble servant W. Rawleigh Sir Henry Yelverton to the Duke 15. March 1623. May it please your Grace MY humble heart and affection hath wrote many lines and presented many Petitions to your Grace before this time though none legible but one sent by my Lord Rochford within five daies after your most welcomed arrival from Spain I have learned the plain phrase of honest speech My Lord I have honoured your name long and your own virtue much I never found
by former imployments They go amply authorised for what they shall treat but that as yet is an Embrion onely which must receive form and life from his Majestie in whose hands it lyeth to preserve this State and dispose for ever of the whole strength thereof for his own service and his royal Families Which after more debates and distasts then have passed with all the world besides I am glad I can say upon good warrantize whereof this is one proof that when his Majestie is constrained by the necessity of affaires to send and seek to his other friends he is sent and sought and sued to from hence I doubt not but it will be objected as hath been formerly that it is for their own Interest and that they would gladly ingage his Majestie in their quarrel which it were a follie to deny but there is alwaies the friendship strongest when the interests are most conjoyned And if that which is principally for one mans benefit turn likewise to another mans advantage Hoc non facere saith an old School-book summae est imprudentiae The affairs of these parts for matter of Action which have been more then ordinarily succeeds in this cold season but have been more coldly pursued then was feared I refer to this Bearer my Nephew's report who having the honour to be his Majesties servant I imploy him the more willingly as able to give Account of such particularities either of this Negotiation or otherwise of which his Majestie and your Grace may require knowledge And I humbly beseech your Grace to give him encouragement by your accustomed noble favour So rests Hague 16. February 1625. Your Graces Most humble and most devoted servant Dudley Carleton Sir Dudley Carleton to the Duke May it please your Grace IT were a sin against the publique service in which your Grace doth imploy your self so much to the common good and your own honour to molest you with Letters in this busie time which must serve me for excuse of silence since the beginning of the Parliament What I write now is by Commandment of the Queen of Bohemia concerning this Bearer Captain Gifford an old Seaman of our Nation who having a private suite to the States hath made a journey over hither with recommendation to me from our two Secretaries for advancement thereof but with a further purpose to be imployed by the Queen against the Spaniard in a matter of no lesse moment then taking of a Gallion which usually bringeth the treasure over the Gulph of Mexico from Nova Spagna to the Havana Which he designs after this manner To go out with two Ships and a Pinnace onely fitted for fight without more in number because of the Alarum would be taken at a greater Fleet and to lie under Covert of a small Island in the entrie of the Gulph of Mexico where the Gallion coming usually alone unlesse it be accompanied with some Merchants ships which he sets light by and which incumbred with goods and Passengers he think may be mastered and taken building upon the securitie in which that Gallion with the rest of that Nova Spagna Fleet do sayl scattering in the Gulph till they meet with the Fleet of Terra Firma at the Havana where he having been hereto fore a prisoner made this observation and doth now offer himself to put the design in execution with a demand of betwixt 10000 and a 11000 l. for the whole equipage The Queen in recompence of his good will returns him with this addresse to your Grace as a man fit for imployment for so he is generally reputed but for the particularitie of the Exploit she doth not entertain any thought thereof but refers it wholly to your Graces Consideration and to the opportunitie according as affaires shall succeed betwixt his Majestie and Spain Here are come Letters from some of the King and Queens servants on that side and one to my self from a private friend advertizing That there is a readinesse in divers of his Majesties Subjects of good abilities to put to Sea with Letters of Mart in the name of this Kind and Queen against the Spaniard and of a likelihood that if such Commissions were given by these Princes they would not be ill understood by his Majestie Mounsieur Aertsens hath likewise written hither in a private Letter to the Prince of Orange that he hath been spoken with to move the States to increase the number he and his Colleague have mentioned of 10 or 12 Ships to joyn in any good occasion with his Majesties Fleet to 20 And that the purpose is to set out 50 sayl on that side and that both shall go under the name of the King and Queen of Bohemia Wherein though the motion be not directly made yet the Prince of Orange hath discoursed enough that when it shall come to issue they will stretch themselves to furnish to the full what is required on this side In both these businesses as well the granting Letters of Mart by these Princes as their lending their names to any greater Action they intend to govern themselves onely as they shall understand to concur with his Majesties pleasure and therefore hope they shall receive advice from his Highnesse and your Grace what is fit for them to contribute to such occasions as they see much to their Comforts you advance with so great care and vigilance Thus I most humbly take leave Your Graces most humble and most devoted Servant Dudley Carleton Hague 16. April 1624. Sir Dudley Carleton to the Duke May it please your Grace SUch Commandments as I received from your Grace by double Dispatches of the 4th of the last by way of provision whilest Sir William Saintleiger lay sick were prevented by his own presence He bringing the first of those Packets with him and thereby had Commoditie to assist at the breaking of the businesse to the States by virtue of his Majesties Credence given him and my Lord General Cecil which since he hath sollicited both at the Camp and in this place with all possible care and industrie and I have not failed of my utmost endeavours But the unsettlednesse of this Government which still continueth since the late change of Governours hath bred delay to some and direct impediments to other points we had in charge which we have endeavoured to supply by other means And now in what state he leaves the whole businesse he will relate to your Grace Such Patents as your Grace required from the King and Queen of Bohemia I have committed to his delivery in divers forms with a Blank signed and sealed wherein to frame such an one as may be better to your minds But if your Grace make no use of it you may please to return it to me again to the end I may restore it What concerns my self I absolutely remit and submit to your Grace onely I will renew the request I made to your Grace by my Nephew That your Grace will not prefer any before me in your formerly intended favour out of belief that any can be more then I resolve to rest whilest I live a touttes Espreves Hague 20. June 1625. Humbly and faithfully devoted to your Graces person and service Dudley Carleton Sir Dudley Carleton to the Duke May it please your Grace AFter long attendance the wind is come good for Plymouth which I hope will carry thither speedily and safely the States whole Fleet though in 3. parts 12 Ships with the Admiral de Nassau who hath long waited in the Tessel 4 but newly ready provided by those of Zealand at Amsterdam and 4 which have layen sometimes before the Brill whereof one is to land the Marshal Chatillion in passing by Calice the other three to Convoy the English men And Armes I send in 10. other Ships I have hired at Rotterdam before which place they have layen 20 daies a Shipboard by reason of contrary winds with some impatiencie but no disorder which what course I took to prevent as likewise what may happen in their Voyage my Lord Conway to whom I give a particular account of all will inform your Grace I have obtained leave for Sir John Proud to go the Voyage according to his Majesties Letter though it was somewhat stood upon by the States and he hath taken his passage by Zealand When I call to mind what Patents I procured of the King of Bohemia and sent your Grace by Sir William Saint Lieger amongst which was one of submission to any accommodation his Majestie shall at any time like well of for the King of Bohemia I think it necessary to advertize your Grace that knowledge being come hither of the Infanta's sending the Count Shomburgh to the King of Denmark with a fair Message and the Count Gondomar's overtures to Mr. Trumbal tending to reconcilement and restitution of the Palatinate it is so willingly hearkned unto by the King of Bohemia that there is no doubt of his Consent but withal he well considers that if Treatie alone be trusted unto and thereupon Armes now leavied by his Majestie and his Friends be laid aside all will prove as fruitlesse as formerly For howsoever the King of Spain for more free prosecution of other quarrels or designs may be induced to quit what he possesseth in the Palatinate the shares the Emperour the Duke of Bavier and the two Electours Majenct and Trevers with a great rabble of Popish Priests and Jesuites have therein will require more then bare negotiation to wring it out of their hands and nothing but Victorie or at least a well armed Treatie can serve that turn The time seems long both to the King and Queen and growes very irksome every day more then other of their abode here in this place which indeed doth prove in all respects very uncomfortable and that your Grace will gather out of Mr. Secretarie Morton's report and my Letters to my Lord Conway In this very Consideration I beseech your Grace be the more mindful of Your Graces Most humble and most devoted servant Dudley Carleton Hague 20th of August 1625. FINIS
For many of those that should have assisted me were more careful in betraying me then in forwarding his Majesties service And if this course be held to encourage them there is no man shall suffer more then his Majesties service will For it will be folly for any man to look to his Majesties service or to take any pains to prevent or hinder that which may be committed against it But to let every man do what he will so all will be pleased and he that Commands shall have no man to slander him which is the way to live in quiet Thus much I thought was fit for me to let your Excellencie understand and withal that I held it a great unhappinesse for me that have taken such toyl and pains and suffered so many slanders to be kept back by my enemies from that honour that never any one of my rank and place was hindered in which is from kissing the hand of my Soveraign Lord the King All Power is in your Lordships hands whether you will uphold me in my just cause or no or let me be ruinated for want of it So that I can say no more but that if I suffer I shall be your Excellencies Martyr if not I shall all my life rest Your Excellencies most humble and most thankful servant and Creature Wimbledon Sir John Ogle to the Duke Right Excellent and most Gratious Lord ANd because you are so why should not I put my soul in your hand that I have not done it sooner was not through want of will in me but it hath been the will of God that mine acknowledgment should be the fuller your goodnesse the greater Your Grace cannot be ignorant of the many motions I have had thereto but my judgment hath been made irresolute by several distractions I lay now my self and the fortunes of me and mine at your Graces feet Take me up then noblest Lord as becometh the fame which you have and the confidence which I have of you with a hand of goodnesse If I had wilfully sinned against you when I was wickedly insnared and beguiled by that wretch at Vtrecht to whom I gave some Extract out of your Letters as also out of the Lord Embassadours or did yet with obstinacie maintain such indiscreet proceeding your Grace might in justice reject me as unworthy But since you have long discerned in me a propension to crave your pardon though still unhappily diverted till this time I trust your true Noblenesse generousnesse and goodnesse to be such as you will not only not turn this heartie submission to any disadvantage on my part but looking upon mine ingenuitie with a right eye of gracious inclination both pardon my fault and follie towards your self and also to bind my prayers to be offered in the greater zeal for you for I shall not be able to do you better service then in prayer be a strong mediator to his gracious Majestie that my errours of weaknesse and want of discretion committed then towards his late Majestie of ever blessed memorie and his Embassadour with what other oversights may have been gathered up since may be freely and fully forgiven and remitted that so my soul being discharged of all fear of displeasure against me I may with a cheerful heart and quiet conscience go on in such a vocation as the Lord shall have appointed for me My Lord this wound hath long festered neer my heart and though false skins have been drawn over it sometimes by unskilful hands yet have I ever judged it the surest â—â—re to rip it up by Confession and heal it by Contrition And sure I judge that it savours more of a right generous spirit to confesse a fault then to conceal it especially when the party offending is free from malice and the party offended of a nature so noble and full of goodnesse as nothing can be wished to be added unto it and which is yet more and this have you graciously done to me my Lord signed himself with his own hand a true and faithful friend unto him the more to invite him to trust him And trust you I do my Lord and in you next my Gracious Soveraign as much as may be in any arm of flesh The God of Heaven I hope will speak peace to my soul if the King and your Grace will send peace to my heart I trust you will and will pray to God you may that I may in all cheerfulnesse and thankfulnesse ever remain Your Grace's most humble and faithful and obliged servant Jo. Ogle Exester 3. June 1625. Postscript I Beseech your Grace to send some other man to take this Charge which I too weakly for fear of offending by denial have thus far undergone but upon hope of being withdrawn Yet still submit my self to your Graces good pleasure Sir Robert Mansel to the Duke Right Honourable and my singular good Lord HAving used all the possible speed I could to repair to Algier where I should have been by the 15. of March last I held it my dutie humbly to present unto your Lordship the particular account of my proceedings Before my arrival I furnished the two Prizes three Brigandines and a fourth Boat with Eirelocks and combustible materials for the burning of the Pyrats ships within the Moal and had trained my men in the execution of their several duties and likewise appointed a squadron of boats with small shot to rescue the vessels of execution in their advancement and retreat The first night of my arrival being the 21. of May last the vessels of execution were all advanced but by reason of contrary winds they were commanded to retire The second and third nights they were also in a readinesse but were withheld with calmes The fourth night it pleased God to blesse us with a fair Gale and they being advanced again and the two ships with the fire-works having almost recovered the mouth of the Moal the wind to our great grief turned to the opposite point of the Compasse The boats performed their directions in towing of the ships but considering that by the continuance of the course they should expose their principallest men to hazard by reason of the great store of Ordnance and small shot which plyed upon them they debated amongst themselves what to do Capt. Hughes who commanded one of the Brigandines replyed Go on and give the attempt with the boats which they cheerfully pursued crying out without cessation King James King James God blesse King James and fearlesse of danger even in the mouth of the Canon and small shot which showred like haile upon them they fired the ships in many places and maintained the same to the great comfort of us that were spectatours so long as they had any powder left in their bandileers striving in the end who should have the honour to come off last the which at length as a due to his former resolution and courage they left to captain Hughes and so retired all the ships continuing still