to yield some releasment to certain restrained Persons of the Roman Faith I have taken a conceit upon it that in exchange of his Clemency therein the great Duke would be easily moved by the Kings gracious request to interceed with the Pope for Master Mole 's delivery To which purpose if it shall please his Majesty to grant his Royal Letters I will see the business duely pursued And so needing no arguments to commend this proposition to his Majesties goodness but his goodness 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 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 Piece 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 termed for except the Damsel 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 Rowls the youngest being 25 years 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 Countess of Denbigh presenting them first to your Lordships view that you may be pleased to pass your censure whether Italians can make Fruits as well as Flemings which is the common glory of their Pensils By this Gentleman I have sent the choicest Molon seeds of all kinds which his Majesty doth expect as I had Order both from my Lord of Holderness and from Mr. Secretary Calvert And although in my Letter to his Majesty 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 speak of a well chosen foundation that your Lordship may boldly build what Fortune you please upon him for surely he will bear it vertuously 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 necessary Motive And so with my heartiest prayers to Heaven for your continual health and happiness I most humbly rest Venice Dec. 2 12 1622. Your Lordships ever obliged devoted Servant H. W. 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 make a search in the best Towns through Italy for some principal Pieces which I hope may produce somewhat for yourâ— Lord ships contentment and service To the Earl of Holderness 1622 3 Right Honourable and my very good Lord IN a late Letter from your Lordship by my Servant I have besides your own Favours the Honour of Imployment from the King in a piece of his Delight which doth so consort with the opportunity of my Charge here that it hath given me acquaintance with some excellent Florists as they are styled and likewise with mine own disposition who have ever thought the greatest pleasure to consist in the simplest Ornaments and Elegancies of Nature as nothing could fall upon me more happily Therefore your Lordship shall see how I will endeavour to satisfie this Command I had before Order by Mr. Secretary Calvert to send his Majesty some of the best Melon-seeds of all kinds which I have done some Weeks since by other occasion of an express Messenger and sent withall a very particular Instruction in the Culture of that Plant. By the present Bearer I do direct unto your Lordship through the hands either of my Nephew or Mr. Nicholas Pey as either of them shall be readiest at London for some beginning in this kind of Service the Stem of a double Yellow Rose of no ordinary nature For it flowereth every moneth unless change of the Clime do change the property from May till almost Christmas There hath gone such care in the manner of the Conveyance as if at the receiving it be presently put into the earth I hope it will prosper By the next commodity I shall send his Majesty some of the rarest Seeds Now for mine own Obligations unto your Lordship whereof I have from some Friends at home very abundant knowledge What shall I say It was in truth my Lord an argument of your noble Nature to take my fortune into your Care who never yet made it any great part of mine own business I am a poor Student in Philosophy which hath redeemed me not only from the envying of others but even from much solicitude about my self It is true that my most Gracious Master hath put me into civil practice and now after long Service I grow into a little danger of wishing I were worth somewhat But in this likewise I do quiet my thoughts For I see by your Lordships so free and so undeserved estimation of me that like the Criple who had lain long in the Pool of Bethesda I shall find some body that will throw me into the water when iâ—… moveth I will end with my humble and hearty thanks for your Favour and Love To the PRINCE May it please Your Highness BEside that which I have now represented unto your Highness by my 〈◊〉 to your worthy Secretary I must 〈◊〉 crave leave herein to be delivered oâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wherewith my Pen is in travel I have observed in your Highness among other noble Endowments of your Mind a quick and delightfull apprehension of the fundamental Causes of all Secrets both natural and artificial that have been brought to your View which surely is the highest pleasure of a discoursive Soul Now of this part of your Highness's delectation I am serious to take hold For having been a long Lover of Philosophy and from the contemplative Part being slid into the practical I shall hope for pardon if I take so much freedome from the ingenuity of mine own Nature and Studies as to entertain your Highness now and then with some Experiments especially such as do not end in wonder but reach to publick Useâ—… For meer Speculations have ever seemed to my conceit as if Reason were given us like an half Moon in a Coat of Arms only for a Logical Difference from inferiour Creatures and not for any active power
wherein I am so much obliged by your confidence which in truth is the greatest of Obligations let me assure your Ladyship by all the protestations of a Christian man that I never heard before the least whispering of that whereof you write concerning my Niece Neither in good faith did I know so much as that there was a Lord T. Your Ladyship sees in what darkness or with what incuriosity I live I shall ere it be long be my self in Kent among my Friends but I vvill vvrite more speedily according to your command In the mean vvhile if I may be pardoned so much boldness I could vvish your Ladyship vvould take some hold of one vvell known in Court on both sides namely Master Nicolas Pey He is a right honest and discreet man in himself and of great trust vvith my Lady T. the Grand-mother under vvhom my Niece vvas bred and likewise vvith her Father and Mother and I am not tender that your Ladyship should tell him you have understood so much from me if it please you to send for him And so I most humbly rest Your Ladyships with all devotion to serve you H. WOTTON To Sir Richard Baker Knight SIR I Conceive that you have been pleased out of our ancient friendship vvhich was first and is ever best elemented in an Academy and not out of any valuation of my poor judgement to communicate vvith me your Divine Meditations on the Lords Prayer in some several sheets vvhich have given me a true taste of the vvhole vvherein I must needs observe and much admire the very Character of your Style vvhich seemeth unto me to have not a little of the African Idea of Saint Augustine's Age full of sweet Raptures and of researching Conceits nothing borrowed nothing vulgar and yet all flowing from you I knovv not hovv vvith a certain equal facility So as I see your vvorldly troubles have been but Pressing-Irons to your heavenly cogitations Good Sir let not any modesty of your Nature let not any obscurity of your Fortune smother such an excellent employment of your Erudition and Zeal for it is a vvork of Light and not of Darkness And thus vvishing you long health that can use it so vvell I remain Your poor Friend to love and serve you H. WOTTON To his Sacred Majesty I Do humbly resume the ancient manner which was adire Caesarem per libellum with confidence in the Cause and in Your Majesties Gracious Equity though not in mine own Merit During my late Imployment Sir E. P. then Master of the Rolls died By his death Sir Julius Caesar claimed not only the Succession of that place but the gift of all the Clerkships of the Chancery that should fall void in his own time Of these Clerkships Your Majesty had formerly granted two Reversions The one to the late Lord Bruce for which Mr. Bond Secretary to my Lord Chancellour had contracted with him The second to me The said Bond got his Grant through the favour of his Master to be confirmed by Sir Julius Caesar before his entrance into the Rolls but through my absence in Your Majesties Service and want of pressing it in the due season my Grant remained unconfirmed though Your Majesty was pleased to write Your Gracious Letter in my behalf Which maketh me much bewail mine own case that my deserts were so poor as Your Royal Mediation was of less value for me then my Lord Chancellours for his Servant The premisses considered my humble Suit unto Your Majesty is this That Sir Julius Caesar may be drawn by Your Supream Authority to confirm unto me my Reversion of the second Clerkship whereof I have a Patent under Your Great Seal Wherein I have just confidence in Your Majesties Grace since Your very Laws do restore them that have been any wayes prejudiced in Servicio Regis Your Majesties long devoted poor Servant H. WOTTON 1621 2. SIR BEsides the Address of my publick Duties unto your hands I have long owed you these private lines full of thanks from my heart for your favour and affection in all my occasions at home and particularly in the Point of my Privy-Seal about my German Accounts wherein as I am abundantly informed both by my Nephew and by Mr. Nicholas Pey whom I repute my best Oracles in the information of mine own Obligations it pleased you to stand by me not only Da vero Amieo but indeed Da vero Cavagliere From which though the benefit which did remain in my purse after the casting up of what was lost was as God knows so little that I may justly build some hope of your further charity in the authorizing of such Demands as I now send yet on the other side I must confess that without your former so friendly and so noble compassion I had received a most irrecoverable ruine and shame beyond all example and my case would have been very strange for I should have been undone by the Kings goodness upon assurance whereof though almost forgotten I had increased my Train Now Sir this acknowledgement of your singular Love I was never more fit to pay you then at the present being intenerated in all my inward feelings and affections by new sickness which with loss of much blood even no less then twenty ounces within these fourteen dayes hath brought me low In which time if God had called me from the Travels of this earth I had left you out of my narrow fortune some poor remembrance of my thankfulness which I have now finding my self by Gods pleasure in a good way of recovery transmitted to my above-said Friend Mr. Pey Before I end I must not forget to ease your Honour of such thanks as in your Letters you have been pleased to bestow on me in respect of your Kinsman Mr. B. because his being with me I do very rightly reckon among my bands to your self for in good faith his integrity and discretion doth sustain my House besides his fellowship in certain Studies wherein we aim at no small things even perchance at a new Systeme of the World at least since we cannot in the Practical and Moral I would we could mend it in the Speculative Part. But lest these private Contemplations on which I am fallen transport me too far I will conclude as I began with humble thanks for all your Favours and with commending your Honoured Person to the Author of all Blessing remaining ever c. Most dear Lord WHile I had your Lordship as I am alwayes bound in my Meditation and somewhat under my Pen wherewith I hope in due time to express how much I honour your Noble Vertues I am as if I had not been overladen before surprized with a new Favour for that is the true Title of your Commands touching a fine Boy of this Colledge whom I perceive by your Letters of the 30th of the last Moneth to pertain to your care Quid multa It shall be done Only in one thing I must crave
had done his Master and vehement protestation of intire belief in your Christian intentions at the present and of your former clearness the Paper that cometh herewith indorsed Contenta Resolutionis Caesareae data Nobilissimo Legato serenissimi Regis Magnae Brittanniae In delivery whereof the Baron seeming much to insist upon the persons to whom the Emperour had formerly been content to commit the business as first to the four Interposers whereof the Count Palatine himself was one then to the whole Electoral Colledge even after sufficient offence to distast him from the Bohemians who would have hindred his Election at Francfort I say by these recapitulations perchance silently inferring that the German Princes were the properest Intervenients I was moved to tell him that I knew Your Majesty in this case was more ambitious of the good then of the glory and if Your worthier Servants at Prague and I here co-operating with the French could prepare the matter is it were in Chylo for a fuller concoction hereafter by more hands we should think our selves very happy With which reply he seemed extreamly pleased To the third point about a Cessation he spake somewhat more gloriously then we here see cause that things were now too far run on the Emperours preparations being made and his friends in motion wherein he gave a touch though more I think then he could then say upon Saxony he added likewise that no doubt the Count Palatine was as forward with his powers and Confederates naming Bethlem Gabor and perchance said â—…e by his means the Turk I replied as I had done before to the Emperour himself that the event of Arms was uncertain and pittyfull to conceive what desperation might breed But in the mean time I had heard wise men of opinion that the Count Palatine had done the Emperour no dâ—…spleasure in accepting the Crown of Bohemia laid upon him by those which peradventure might otherwise have placed it on a worse neighbour to these Provinces To which truth the Emperour when I said it nor himself replied any thing and upon my conscience so they think To the last about freeing the Passage he understood me too largely as if I had meant the re-establishment of a Current Post which round about this place is every where broken but he hath granted his safe Conduct upon occasion as far as he is able though ea conditione as Your Majesty sees in his written Answer ut non alias quam dicti Domini Legati literas deferant The only point of jealousie that I have met with since my coming To the second which I make the last because I have most to say upon it he told me that the Emperour would send to my Lodging some Persons of dignity and knowledge to inform me in that Cause As he did the day after namely the Baron Pople Great Chancellour of Bohemia the Baron of Straulendorf Chief President of the Aulical Counsel Der Here Mostitz Consiliarius Aulicus the first a Bohemian the other two Germans of whose persons I shall afterwards inform Your Majesty But to proceed The Errand delivered by the Great Chancellour consisted for the most part of things I knew were often published already which I shall the less care for to repeat because Your Majesty received lately the substance thereof under the title of ex Constitutionibus Privilegiis c. consigned to me by the said Deputies and likewise the same again more clearly set down and more fully expressed by a new Author as yet unknown a Book the Emperour himself sent me the day after this Conference to be conveyed unto Your Majesty Two things they urged with much vehemency First certain Letters both from the Bohemian Directors and which is more from all the States of Hungary with pendent Seals wherein they call this Emperour King fifteen moneths after they had chosen him and yet the Chancellor having spoken nothing in all that time they afterwards pretended that the Election was null They shewed likewise an Original Letter from the Count Palatine himself dated at Hidelberg April 23. 1619. tempore Vicariatus to the now Emperor as King of Bohemia both in the Subscription and the Superscription The second urged point was that neither the Silesians nor the Moravians which concurred in the Election of the Count Palatine had any power to do it at that time but that it was approved at their return home ex post facto Lastly all objections made against Ferdinando in point of Regiment or Intrusion during the life of the Emperor Matthias they are contented for ought I see to bestow upon Matthias himself This is the substance of a long Conference beautifully interlarded with divers praises of the Emperors good nature which I think truly are due unto him if he be considered in his own capacity but these Orators could give it no credit being as I hear the greatest inflamers of all this business and principally the principallest of them a man saved at the time of the defenestration dum regnabat rosa only by being here This is a faithful Relation of all that hath hitherto passed between the Emperor or his Servants and me in this place wherein your Majesty sees that I have obtained two things First a freedom to propound and next a freedom to send whereupon the French Ambassadors and my self have this very day accorded to send joyntly to Prague for there we must begin even in point of civility This is but an exploratory and pretentative purpose between us about the form whereof and the matter we shall consult to morrow and your Majesty immediately upon the return of our Messengers from thence and some feeling of the Emperor here shall have knowledge of all by another express Currier Septemb. 23. 1620. Duplicate of Secretary Nantons Letters My Lord Ambassador HIs Majesty hath commanded me to make you this short Answer to your fair and well-digested Relation sent by Ballard 1. That He allows very well and is throughly satisfied with the good endeavors you have used with the Emperor 2. That He would have you give thanks to His Imperial Majesty for the good respect shewed to His Majesty in your Person being His Ambassador which we conceive by your Lordships Letters to have been every way equal at least if not beyond those demonstrations that have been afforded the French of which we have received other informations out of France that they have no more then answered their expectations 3. That your Lordship can do no better Service to Christ and to his Majesty then to open any fair way to a Treaty Macte ergo quam nactus es spartam exorna You have begun well wherein you have already facti plusquam dimidium know your own understanding and judgment to be such and your zeal to the Publick and to our Great Masters Service that you will need neither encouragement nor further directions for the main then those you carried along with you That you are to deal effectually
Of the event vvhereof the Prince of Transilvania undertook by the 15 th of this Month aut circiters to give knowledge hither I must profess unto your Majesty that I did little expect for my part so much formality from the said Prince in hoc statu rerum as to attend a return from Silesia having before as hath been written so closely begun here to practice of his own reconcilement But the truth is and vvell he knows it that he may be heard vvhen he listeth by reason of the Turk at his back under vvhose shadovv he vvill â—…it himself Novv touching mine own peculiar duties For vvith Bethelem Gabor and the Hungarians I have nothing to do in single consideration as your Majesties Servant till vve shall hear vvhether the Elector your Son-in-lavv and that Kingdom vvill treat vvith the Emperor conjunctively or no. Before the going of de Preaux I had one access to the Emperor and two other vvhile he vvas away The first after consultation here vvith the French Ambassadors about the Answer vvhich we had vvith no small loss of time and advantage so late received from Bohemia addressed unto me by Sir Francis Nethersale in French as it came to him from the Camp The other two touching your Majesties declaration of your self in the Palatine cause and intercession against the Emperors Bann as they call it about vvhich I shall need to trouble your Majesty no further then vvith the perusal of such Marginal Notes as I have added both to the foresaid French Paper and to the Emperors two Answers in Latine vvhich come herewith and contain all that may concern your latter directions in two Letters from Master Secretary Nanton Yet I must not omit that between the second and third of these Audiences I vvas visited by the Baron of Eckenberg the Emperors inwardest Counsellor and Favorite vvho spent an hour or two at my Lodging vvith much protestation of his Masters respect towards your Majesty of his grief that things were gone on to such expence of blood of his vvishes that your Son-in-lavv had rather taken your Majesties counsel then the Duke of Bovillons of his forgiving nature of his desire to recover only his own and to redeem this Imperial House from open scorn Lastly that the King of Spain also had vvritten hither hovv glad he vvould be that your Majesty might have all possible satisfaction This vvas after the Emperor had been informed of his success at Prague vvhereunto there vvas as to all other fair discourse of this kind but one only reply on my part That your Majesty might justly promise your self very good respect here and good offices from Spain by the merit of your own moderation in the Bohemian Cause and by your Christian endeavors for the common quiet vvith such perseverance I must not forget likewise to inform your Majesty that my self visiting here the Spanish Ambassador as I have usually done after my Audiences vvith the Emperor and falling as I thought might vvell become me into vvonder at Spinola's intrusions enough to inflame all Christendom vvhich your Majesty measuring other Princes by the equity of your own heart had no reason to expect He asked me after a little deliberation Whether the Marquess of Buckingham were not a Gentleman of Honour I need not profess how glad I vvas of such occasion to do your Majesties Dearest Servant and mine own most Noble Patron all the right that my voice could utter but in truth on the other side extreamly surprized vvith so impertinent a question to my discourse till he eased me vvith the sight of a Paper out of his Cabinet It vvas the Copy of a Letter vvritten by my Lord Marquess in your Majesties Name to the Spanish Ambassador residing vvith you vvherein your Majesty did thus far justifie the Spanish proceedings As never to have made any promise that they would not assail the Palatinate Whereupon this Ambassador inferred that the said Letter vvritten by so Noble a Personage and in your Majesties Name vvas a high discharge for Spain in the point of real dealing I replied That indeed I had never heard of any direct promises or denial made about that matter but that your Majesties Servants employed therein whereof I vvas one my self to the Arch-Duke Leopoldus did rather complain of Answers obseure and ambiguous and very different from our plain English style This vvas all that passed between the Conde d'Ogniate and me into vvhich I have a little digressed Novv then to recollect hovv vve stand here in point of Negotiation The Prince of Transilvania hath prefixed the 15 th day of this Month or thereabout as I said before for his Term within which he will signifie in what manner he intendeth to Treat according to the Answer out of Silesia The Emperor on the other side did take the term of forty days for the declaring of his mind fully to me and the French Ambassadors which expire by our computation on the 27. of this said Month intending in the mean time to preconsult with his Friends or rather as we perceive with his Fortunes And howsoever Not to Treat of any Province or part as then reduced to his obedience So as plainly enough he chose that respite to contemplate the intervenient changes For at first he was more tractable he spake of no Friends whose advices were before to be asked he demanded no term to think farther on the matter he added no restriction all these are the suggestions of his prosperity And so we stand in point of business In the state of the Provinces I can deliver nothing but fluctuation and submission the ordinary consequences of Victory The first were the Bohemians who forgetting both Oaths and Contracts yielded up the Original Patent of their Combination to the Duke of Bavaria as the Emperors Commissary The next were the Moravians who after the Count Bucquoy had taken Trigla one of their wealthiest and summoned Zuam the chiefest of their Towns resolved in a full Assembly of their States to submit themselves by Deputies who are hourly expected here The other Appendants to the Bohemian Crown are likely to follow the Moravian example being incomparably as hath well appeared the most resolute piece of the whole knot and that which gave vigour to the rest dum Troja stabat What the Hungarians shall determine of themselves I will set down in a Postscript for which I have long suspended the dispatch of this Bearer I cannot conclude without representing unto your Majesty in all event two humble remembrances vvhereof your higher wisdom may perchance make some use The first is That I conceive the French King bound to joyn with your Majesty in the Palatine Cause I do not mean only by reason of state and jealousie of this spreading House cujus gliscit potentia as I may modestly say nor by Ancient obligation and gratitude to the said Electoral Line or to your own Kingdoms in the needful days of hi Father but by a fresher band
own Instrument as to represent it con buon ' sapore but yet no further then the matter would bear which was but a generality of good will and no direct satisfaction And whereas now they did desire me likewise to reiterate to the King my Master their great sensibility of the Common Interest I told them ingeniously con un ' stringer di spalle that I knew not well how to do it till they gave me more subject For Philosophy whose naked Principles I had more studied then Art of Language had taught me even in one of her most Fundamental Maxims that ex nihilo nihil fit Hereupon the Duke fell very seriously to dilate upon the Senates Answer and left me indeed with some occasion of contentment For he told me I might mark by the said Answer a Resolution in the Senate not to neglect a Cause wherein they held themselves so interessed and as had been said before already actually ingaged though the business of the Grisons and the new noise from thence did at the present distract them Of this I took presently hold replying That I would receive this Speech as a Commentary upon the Senates Answer and represent unto his Majesty that when the principal reason of their excuse should cease namely these fresh stirrings so near them which seemed to require their abetment then they would give us more particular satisfaction For which to rivet it the better I gave thanks and told him I would hearken after the issue of this Rhetian noise and accordingly put him in mind again of our own necessities to which he gave me un gratioso accenamènto and so fell to tell me with extream gladness their news of the late defeat given by Mansfelt to the Bavarian Troops Now to collect the fruit of my poor endeavors thus we stand If action shall grow on this side we shall surely receive more benefit by that diversion then we should by contribution For the Arch-duke Leopoldo would by chance be drawn from Alsatia to think of Tirol and the Neapolitan and Milan Levies which should supply Germany will be spent here If Italy be quiet then dicam audax verbum this State must necessarily help us that it may be so stil for I shall not need to make them sensible of the vicissitude of humane troubles either here or there which is their common Text But all dependeth upon his Majesties urging of his own merits which was my highest Argument together with that Obligation which he will acknowledge as his own gracious Letters import This account I send with some diligence that it may prevent the new Venetian Ambassadors first Audience or at least the leave-taking of the old into whom it may please his Majesty to infuse his good thoughts and to take notice of these Audiences which I had here in the way of his Service And so the Lord of Heaven bless Him and His. POST SCRIPT Signior Filippo Calandini came hither vvith Instructions from the States much resembling a Quadruple entrenchment vvherein being beaten from the first he vvas to retire to the second and so forth The first vvas To sollicite a free and open Contribution The second That they vvould at least Contribute under the Name of the said States The third That they vvould Contribute joyntly vvith the States The fourth That at least they vvould pay the Arearages of 10000 Florins per mensem that have run due by virtue of their League from the 9th of April 1621. Since vvhich term the said States pretend to have re-entred into Action and in this Case the States promise to contribute five of those Months to the Elector Novv considering the hopeful Answer that I have received I have dealt vvith Signior Calandrini to spend the perswasion of the States in the first point absolutely and in the last to urge only the Arearages upon the Contract vvithout adding the intention of the States to contribute any portion thereof to the Elector least it might prejudice the hope of a greater Contribution vvhich no doubt his Majesty may have from hence if it please him to urge his own merits 1624. S. P. I Send you both the inclosed unclosed and my Seal vvithal that vvhen you have perused them you may seal them for because they contain a recommendation of your self it vvere somewhat incongruous to present them open You had yesterday received them but that I suspended my hand too long in expectation of Iames about vvhom vve are yet in much doubt of some misadventure by his stay You see that in the Postscript to the Duke I mention the design of Caprarola vvhich I have left out of his Letter that you may not come unto him vvith empty hands It shall be fit for your self to offer him your service abroad which I have as you see offered the Prince through Mr. Thomas Carie's hands who I hope will let his Highness see my Letter And so languishing to hear somewhat from my Nephew with all my duties remembred to all I rest This Tuesday Morning Your ever true Friend HENRY WOTTON Upon the Design you must play the Mountebank And tell the Duke that the one Paper containeth the Plant or ground-Lines the other the reared work in Perspective with all the Dimensions so exactly as if it please him he may easily have a Model made thereof in Pastboard If Mr. Thomas Cary should by chance have been sent away again into France then deliver with my humble service the Letter to my Lord of Lepington his Father and beseech him to shew it the Prince May 1626. The Copy of my Report after the Examination of the Lord of Oldebare's Daughter ACcording to His Majesties good pleasure signified unto me by an Order from His Counsel Table under the 19th of May and delivered by an express Messenger on Monday morning the 22. of the said Moneth at His Majesties Colledge of Eton that I should examine the Lord of Oldebare's Daughter now resident in the Town of Windsor in the circumstances of a business which His Majesty had committed to my trust vid. concerning a certain Roll of Names mentioned in a late malicious diffamatory Pamphlet which one George Eglisham had scattered in Print pretending therein that it was a Roll of divers great Personages which were to be poysoned by the now Duke of Buckingham and among those Great ones the said George Eglisham himself for one which said Roll as the said Eglisham affirmeth the foresaid Daughter of the Lord Oldebare had brought to the late Lord Marquess of Hamilton her Cousin who was one of the inrolled to be poysoned grounding this defamation upon the testimony of that Roll brought by the said Gentlewoman to the foresaid Marquess I say According to His Majesties Command herein I repaired the next day after the receit thereof to the said Lord of Oldebare's Daughter by Name Anne Lion though not nominated by the foresaid Eglisham but under her Fathers Title at her Lodging in Windsor where I found her
Saltzburg as is voiced but even to the Capital of Rome and all others vvith him that adore the purple Beast Here vve live in dayly sed hoc lentum est let me say in hourly quin illud frigidum nay in continual remembrance of our Royal Mistress the very Triumph of Virtue I have at the present vvritten to her Majesty as I shall do often being novv in the proper place of her addresses and 〈◊〉 such opportunity to express our zeals as hath-less a lazy Pen no imaginable excuse hereafter Through your hand I novv send her my late Panegyrick vvhich I blush to tell you hovv vvell it takes here vvith some indulgent and mercifull Readers The interpretation to her Majesty of as much therein as concerneth her self I can commit to no spirit more sweetly then to yours vvho are so conversant vvith her vertues With us here Things stand as you left them Most indubitably an infinite affection in the King towards so precious an only Sister But I know not vvell how our Times vvill sort vvith your Propositions Yet I hope vvell as Abraham did vvhen he vvanted a Sacrifice Deus providebit And so for this time in confused hast I rest From you know where Dec. 10. 1633. Your ever vowed poor Friend HENRY WOTTON I have vvritten to the Queen touching Iames Vary vvho commits himself to your affectionate memory And vve languish for a return from you I pray remember my humble service to his Majesties most vvorthy Resident vvith you to vvhom and to my Noble Secretary I vvill vvrite by the next occasion SIR I Am glad of this opportunity to acquaint you before your going vvith the cause vvhy Mr. Avery's Son did fail at our late Election When the Boy came before us being asked the ordinary Questions Quod est tibi Nomen Quot Annos natus â—…s Quo Anni tempore Quo Comitatu Quo Oppido Quave Villa To all which his Answers must remain upon Record in our Indentures of that year if he be chosen he stopped a little at the two last and then as if he had meant to suffer like a Martyr for the Truth he told us flatly That he was born in the Low-Countreys at Delft This retrenched all farther Examination of him for thereby he was ineligible our Statutes only admitting the English Shires with exclusion not only of Ireland and Scotland but even of Walâ—…s and much more of any forraign Province Hereupon we called in his Father who handsomely skirmished in his behalf That Children born of English Parents in the Staples of Merchants abroad were by an Act of Edw. the third habilited to all purposes at home as well as the inward Natives And thereupon he went and took Counsel oâ—… Mr. Newbury Steward of Windsor and no obscure Lawyer who did set down his Judgement in writing clearly for him That all Local Statutes are void which are either against the Common Law or against a general precedent Statute as he said this was Now although we could have been glad all to be left as free as your Arminians leave our Will yet considering that our Local Statutes were long after the foresaid Act of Habilities and that how invalid soever they may appear to some other man yet that they bind us at least in Conscience especially after so long Custome These points I say considered the last good will we could express towards the Father was to offer him as I did to propound the Case to my Lord of Canterbury our Visitor Paramount and now in Ordinary the B. of Lincoln being in an unvisitable case himself that so his Grace might relieve him withhis Interpretation wherein I got the Provost of Kings to concur with me and so I drew a Letter with all possible advantage on his side inclosing therein the favourablest Branch of our Statutes This Letter Mr. Avery carried to Croydon with paternal Affection and Hast and brought us back an Answer to this substance That though his Grace should be heartily willing in respect of the Fathers relation to her Majesty of Bohemia as I had represented him to do any thing for the Child yet being a binding Precedent against Custome he could not suddenly determine the Point being at that time without Civil Lawyers by whose advice his Court was guided And therefore if we would defer our Election till Michaelmas he would then orderly decide it But we being by other Statutes bound not to prolong our Election an hour after such a time as was already near spent and to tell you in Sinu being loth to leave our selves so long upon Interpretation we gave it over I understand since a circumstance that must needs trouble Mr. Avery more then the Business it self That it failed by his fault and not the Boyes For after our Usher the Childs Tutor had instructed him That by no means he should confess his forraign Birth his Father whom the Boy had not acquainted with his Tutors Instruction not knowing our Statutes bade his Son answer when he should be asked the last Question That he was born in Comitatu Hollandiae and so the Child trusting his Father more then his Tutor fell through the Basket With this Story I have entertained you at large because besides my zeal towards any thing that our Royal Mistress can wish to be done I was engaged in a promise to your self vvhom I vvill follow vvith Letters to her Majesty by the conveyance of Sir Abra. Williams and vvith a little Nuptial Present to your self vvhich you had had vvith you if a Friend of mine vvho should have made it ready had not been skared from London And yet to shew you my poverty it is only a pair of Sheets vvhich I mean to send vvith this Mark at the corners PRO DINLEIANIS In the mean vvhile God hold you and your Love in his Love vvherein after the uncertain Traverses of Courts below dwelleth all Abundance and Infallibility above By your evâ—r the same affectionate poor Friend HENRY WOTTON Dictated from my Bed August 18. To Mr. John Dinely at Westminster SIR I Understand by your last kind lines that you vvere to be at Court as to morrow so as I hope by our next Foot-Post to hear the Crisis of that day and am sorry to hear in the mean time that your dreams vvere impropitious We had here taken a voice and strong belief coming from a Recusant vvho know many things and quickly that the Infanta Queen of France vvas brought to bed of a Dolphin and not of a Distaff But your Letter saying nothing either of the one or of the other I have suspended my faith London is the Ocean of Novelties Here vve speak of nothing but a certain new Aguish disease vvhich invadeth many Families but vvith little mortality The Plague at Dover is by Gods blessing ceased and their Tents taken down At Boughton the Small Pox fallen first upon a Chaplain and after upon one of the fair Faces but a Deering vvill keep me I
Rome where in the English Colledge he had very many Friends their humanity made them really so though they knew him to be a dissenter from many of their Principles of Religion and having enjoyed their company and satisfied himself concerning some Curiosities that did partly occasion his Journey thither he returned back to Florence where a most notable accident befel him an accident that did not only find new employment for his choice Abilities but introduce him a knowledg and an interest with our King Iames then King of Scotland which I shall proceed to relate But first I am to tell the Reader That though Queen Elizabeth or she and her Council were never willing to declare her Successor yet Iames then King of the Scots was confidently believed by most to be the man upon whom the sweet trouble of Kingly Government would be imposed and the Queen declining very fast both by age and visible infirmities those that were of the Romish perswasion in point of Religion even Rome it self and those of this Nation knowing that the death of the Queen and the establishing of her Successor were taken to be critical days for destroying or establishing the Protestant Religion in this Nation did therefore improve all opportunities for preveting a Protestant Prince to succeed Her And as the Pope's Excommunication of Queen Elizabeth had both by the judgement and practice of the Jesuited Papist exposed her to be warrantably destroyed so if we may believe an angry Adversary a secular Priest against a Iesuit you may believe that about that time there were many indeavours first to excommunicate and then to shorten the life of King Iames. Immediately after Sir Henry Wotton's return from Rome to Florence which was about a year before the death of Queen Elizabeth Ferdinand the Great Duke of Florence had intercepted certain Letters that discovered a design to take away the life of Iames the then King of Scots The Duke abhorring the Fact and resolving to indeavor a prevention of it advised with his Secretary Vietta by what means a caution might be best given to that King and after consideration it was resolved to be done by Sir Henry Wotton whom Vietta first commended to the Duke and the Duke had noted and approved of above all the English that frequented his Court. Sir Henry was gladly called by his Friend Vietta to the Duke who after much profession of trust and friendship acquainted him with the secret and being well instructed dispatched him into Scotland with Letters to the King and with those Letters such Italian Antidotes against poyson as the Scots till then had been strangers to Having parted from the Duke he took up the Name and Language of an Italian and thinking it best to avoid the line of English intelligence and danger he posted into Norway and through that Country towards Scotland where he found the King at Sterling being there he used means by Beâ—…ard Lindsey one of the Kings Bed Chamber to procure him a speedy and private conference with his Majesty assuring him That the business which he was to negotiate was of such consequence as had caused the Great Duke of Tuscany to enjoyn him suddenly to leave his Native Country of Italy to impart it to his King This being by Bernard Lindsey made known to the King the King after a little wonder mixt with jealousie to hear of an Italian Ambassador or Messenger required his Name which was said to be Octavio Baldi and appointed him to be heard privately at a fixed hour that Evening When Octavio Baldi came to the Presence-Chamber-door he was requested to lay aside his long Rapier which Italian-like he then wore and being entred the Chamber he found there with the King three or four Scotch Lords standing distant in several corners of the Chamber at the sight of whom he made a stand which the King observing bade him be bold and deliver his Message for he would undertake for the secresie of all that were present Then did Octavio Baldi deliver his Letters and his Message to the King in Italian which when the King had graciously received after a little pause Octavio Baldi steps to the Table and whispers to the King in his own Language that he was an English man beseeching Hini for a more private conference with His Majesty and that he might be concealed during his stay in that Nation which was promised and really performed by the King during all his abode there which was about three Months all which time was spent with much pleasantness to the King and with as much to Octavio Baldi himself as that Countrey could afford from which he departed as true an Italian as he came thither To the Duke at Florence he return'd vvith a fair and gratefull account of his imployment and vvithin some few Moneths after his return there came certain News to Florence that Queen Elizabeth vvas dead and Iames King of the Scots proclaimed King of England The Duke knowing travel and business to be the best Schools of vvisdom and that Sir Henry Wotton had been tutor'd in both advis'd him to return presently to England and there joy the King vvith his new and better Title and vvait there upon Fortune for a better imployment When King Iames came into England he found amongst other of the late Queens Officers Sir Edward vvho vvas after Lord Wotton Comptroller of the House of vvhom he demanded If he knew one Henry Wotton that had spent much time in forreign Travel The Lord replied he knew him vvell and that he vvas his Brother then the King asking vvhere he then vvas vvas answered at Venice or Florence but by late Letters from thence he understood he vvould suddenly be at Paris Send for him said the King and when he shall come into England bid him repair privately to me The Lord Wotton after a little vvonder asked the King If he knew him to vvhich the King answered You must rest unsatisfied of that till you bring the Gentleman to me Not many Moneths after this Discourse the Lord Wotton brought his Brother to attend the King vvho took him in His Arms and bade him welcome by the Name of Octavio Baldi saying he was the most honest and therefore the best Dissembler that ever he met with And said Seeing I know you neither want Learning Travel nor Experience and that I have had so real a Testimony of your faithfulness and abilities to manage an Ambassage I have sent for you to declare my purpose which is to make use of you in that kind hereafter And indeed the King did so most of those two and twenty years of his Raign but before he dismist Octavio Baldi from his present attendance upon him he restored him to his old Name of Henry Wotton by vvhich he then Knighted him Not long after this the King having resolved according to his Motto Beati pacifici to have a friendship vvith his Neighbour-Kingdoms of France and Spain and also
carriage in his Negotiations to whom he smilingly gave this for an infallible Aphorisâ—… That to be in safety himself and serviceable to his Countrey he should alwayes and upon all occasions speak the truth it seems a State-Paradox for sayes Sir Henry Wotton you shall never be believed and by this means your truth will secure your self if you shall ever â—…e called to any account and 't will also put your Adversaries who will still hunt counter to a loss in all their disquisitions and undertakings Many more of this nature might be observed but they must be laid aside for I shall here make a little â—…op and invite the Reader to look back 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall say 〈◊〉 little of Sir Alberâ—… 〈◊〉 and Mr. William Bedel whom I formerly mentioned I have tâ—…ld you that are â—…y Reader that 〈◊〉 Sir Hâ—…y Woâ—…s 〈◊〉 going Ambassador into Italy his Cousin Sir Albert Mortoâ—… went his Secretary and am next to tell you that Sir Albertus died Secretary of State to our late King but cannot am not able to express the sorrow that possest Sir Henry Wâ—…tton at his first hearing the news that Sir Albertus was by death lost to him and this world and yet the Reader may partly guess by these following expressions The first in a Letter to his Nicholas Pey of which this that followeth is a part And My dear Nick When I had been here almost a fortnight in the midst of my great contentâ—…nt I received notice of Sir Albertus Morton 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of this World who was dearer to me then mine own being in it what a wound it is to my heart you that know him and know me will easily believeâ—… but â—…our Creators Will must be done and unrepiniâ—…gly râ—…ived by his own Creatures who is the Lord of all Nature and of all Fortune when he taketh to himself now one and then â—…ther till that expected day wherein it shall please him to dissolve the whole and wrap up even the Heaven it self 〈◊〉 Scrâ—…le of Parchment This is the last Philosophy that we must study upon Earth let us therefore that yet remain here as our dayes and friends waste reinforce our love to each other which of all vertues both spiritual and moral hath the highest priviledge because death it self cannot end it And my good Nick c. This is a part of his sorrow thus exprest to his Nick Pâ—…y the other part is in this following Elogy of which the Reader may safely conclude 't was toâ—… hearty to be dissembled Tears wept at the Grave of Sir Albertus Morton by Henry Wotton SIlence in truth would speak my sorrow best For deepest wounds can least their feelings tell Yet let me borrow from mine own unrest A time to bid him whom I lov'd farewell Oh my unhappy lines you that before Have serv'd my youth to vent some wanton cries And now congeal'd with grief can scarce implore Strength to accent Here my Albetus lies This is that Sable Stone this is the Cave And womb of Earth that doth his Corps embrace While others sing his praise let me ingrave Thâ—…se blâ—…ding numbers to adorn the place Here will I paint the Characters of Woe Here will I pay my Tribute to the Dead And here my faithful Tears in showres shall flow To humanize the Flints on which I tread Whâ—…re though I mourn my matchless loss alone And none between my weakness judge and me Yet even these pensive Walls allow my moan Whose dâ—…leful Ecchoes to my plaints agree But is he gone and live I rhyming here As if some Muse would listen to my lay When all dis-tun'd sit waiting for their dear And bathe the Banks where he was wont to play 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 lâ—…ss Bliss with happy Souls Discharg'd from Natures and from Fortunes Trust Whil'st on thâ—… fluid Globe my Hour glass rowls And runs the â—…est of my remaining dust H. W. This concerning his Sir Albertus Morton And for what I shall say concerning Mr. William Bedel I must prepare the Reader by telling him That when King Iames sent Sir Henry Wotton Ambassador to the State of Veniâ—… he sent also an Ambassador to the King of France and another to the King of Spain with the Ambassador of France went Ioseph Hall late Bishop of Norwich whose many and useful Works speak his great Merit with the Ambassador of Spain went Ia. Wadsworth and with Sir Henry Wotton went William Bodâ—…l These three Chaplains to these three Ambassadours were all bred in one University all of one Colledge all Benefic'd in one Diocess and all most dear and intire Friends But in Spain Mr. Wadsworth met vvith temptations or reasons such as were so powerful as to perswade him who of the three was formerly observ'd to be the most averse to that Religion that calls it self Catholick to disclaim himself a Member of the Church of England and declare himself for the Church of Rome discharging himself of his attendance on the Ambassador and betaking himself to a Monasterial life in which he lived very regularly and so died When Dr. Hall the late Bishop of Norwich came into England he wrote to Mr. Wadsworth 't is the first Epistle in his Printed Decads to perswade his return or to shew the reason of his Apostasie the Letter seemed to have in it many sweet expressions of love and yet there was in it some expression that was so unpleasant to Mr. Wadsworth that he chose rather to acquaint his old Friend Mr. Bedel with his motives by which means there past betwixt Mr. Bedil and Mr. Wadsworth divers Letters which be extant in Print and did well deserve it for in them there seems to be a controversie not of Religion only but who should answer each other with most love and meekness which I mention the rather because it too seldom falls out to be so in a Book-War There is yet a little more to be said of Mr. Bedel for the greatest part of which the Reader is referred to this following Letter of Sir Henry Wottons writ to our late King Charles the first May it please Your most Gracious Majesty HAving been informed that certain persons have by the good wishes of the Archbishop of Armagh been directed hither with a most humble Petition unto Your Majesty that You will be pleased to make Mr. William Bedel now resident upon a small Benefice in Suffolk Governor of Your Colledge at Dublin for the good of that Society and my self being required to render unto Your Majesty some testimony of the said William Bedel who was long my Chaplain at Venice in the time of my first employment there I am bound in all Conscience and Truth so far as Your Majesty will vouchsafe to accept my poor judgement to affirm of him That I think hardly a fitter man for that Charge could have been propounded unto Your Majesty in Your whole Kingdom for singular Erudition and Piety Conformity to the Rites of the Church and
Hercule Telemene and Piombino vvhich vve may perchance not improperly call the Fetters of Hetruria Of stature he vvas somewhat above the mean a gross body not apt to motion and as quiet a Countenance His Moneys vvere the purest and least corrupted vvithin the Italian bounds and his Markets the best ordered for prices of comestible Ware vvhere in all his Towns a man might have sent out a Child for any flesh or fish at a rated price every Morning To vvhich temper more septentrional unlimber Nations have not yet bent themselves On the other side there vvas nothing brought into Florence from the Field to the least sale but by a long insensible servitude paid somewhat This vvas the Civil and Natural habit of that Prince and more might be said if I vvere not pounded vvithin an Epistle This Duke vvhile I vvas a private Traveller in Florence and vvent sometime by chance sure I am vvithout any design to his Court vvas pleased out of some gracious conceit vvhich he took of my fidelity for nothing else could move it to imploy me into Scotland vvith a Casket of Antidotes or Preservatives vvherein he did excel all the Princes of the World and vvith a Dispatch of high and secret Importance vvhich he had intercepted touching some practice upon the Succession to this Crown so as I am much obliged to his Memory though it vvas a painful journey for that Honour and other Favours and Beneficences and especially because I came thereby first into the notice of the King your Father of ever blessed memory vvhen your Majesty was but a blooming Rose vvhich afterwards drevv on my imployment to the Republick of Venice THE ELECTION OF THE DUKE OF VENICE With other Papers concerning that STATE prefixed A Letter to the KING December 9. 1622. May it please your most Sacred Majesty BY this right honest and learned Gentleman by name Adolphus Ryplingham who hath spent some time abroad in the best observations I send your Majesty more Melon-seeds of all sorts which have been diligently chosen and will I hope take better then the former In my Letter to Master Secretary Calvert I have discharged other duties among which some will come very seasonably unto your Majesty about Christmass-time to increase your recreation For it is indeed a merry piece of service that I have sent your Majesty a testimony of your conscience from Rome Now for this Letter I have reserved a private and voluntary subject which I have taken the freedom most humbly to present unto your Majesties benign censure It is the preface to one of mine own poor labours comprehending the argument thereof and the motives In which as yet unfinished lucubration for so I may justly call it having been for the most part born in the night I have had occasion to fall upon some weighty considerations of Church and State while I did search the progress of this Republick among the clouds and confusions of the middle Age. Between which times it was a kind of refreshment and yet withal but a miserable pleasure to contemplate how the Empire grew lank and the Popedom tumorous proportionably till Superstition like a wild and raging fire could at length be contained neque suis terminis neque alienis These remarkable points I have now touched to procure from your Majesty some pardon for a bold invocation therein of your Royal Name being confident that this hâ—…gh Theoreme of State which I handle though my self but a poor Student in meaner speculations may prove not unworthy in the subject it self to receive some lustre from your gracious countenance To conclude the trouble that I have given your Majesty instead of some present more valuable to inaugurate the new approaching year I do humbly submit the death or life of this work to your only doom and though that ancient conceit was well commended when it was first born Mallem Augusti judicium quam Antonii Beneficium yet I must crave leave to think it somewhat ignoble And for my part to assure your Majesty that I shall more rejoyce in the approbation of your judgement then in the fruition even of your own benefits And so I most humbly commit your most dear and Royal Person to God's continual love remaining Your Majesties faithful Vassal and long devoted poor Servant Ottavio Baldi Praefatio in Historiam Venetam HEnricus Wottonius Anglo-Cantianus postquam quatuor decem ferè annorum spatium legationibus apud Venetos exhauseram Anno unici Mediatoris supra Millesimum sexcente simum vicesimo secundo Aetatis meae quinquage simo tertio jam labente de illorum Imperio scribere sum aggressus ut si non satis vigilasse foris prâ—… publico munere at saltem vixisse videar Quippe levi profectò distant discrimine silentes à defunctis nec multum interest nos terminet fatalis dies an praestinguat inertia Igitur libido saepius sopita nunc ardentius rediit revolvendi vetera novaque ut ex radicibus eliciam quo Fati ductu queîs maximè institutis quibusque Artibus tam Inclyta Christiani Orbis Civitas tot saecula superaverit inter varias Mari Terraque tam cladium quam victoriarum vices nec minora fortasse ipsius Otii quam Belâ—…i mala Hujus faelicitatis progressus fulcimenta retrò quaerenti duo praecipuè si rectè aestimo Fontes recludent Historia temporum Imperii forma Quae quà m potero brevissime quasi delibatim expediam Ut hoc qualecunque conceptum Opus delectu magis rerum quam ubertate gestiat simul etiam ne in alienae Reipublicae arâ—…nis longiùs haerendo Hospitis verecundiam violarem Te verò sapientissime Jacobe Rex Domine sub cujus indulgentis Iudicii praesidio imbecillitas nostra civilibus ministeriis incubuit quam quidem natura potiùs ad simplicior a studia damnaver at Te inquam Clarissimum saeculi Lumen in exordio prasentium curarum invocare liceat ut tanti nominis velut adflatu quodam alacriùs incaeptum peragam Sed quia non levia meditamur quod ante ingressum ingenui Authores solent id quoque profiteor ne sine obtrectatione sine blanditiis sensus quos per omnem laboris partem res ipsa suggerit liberrimè prolaturum ne argumenti dignitatem dehonestet servilis oratio Jam urbem Venetam c. A Letter concerning the Original of Venice Right Honourable and my very good Lord I Owe your Lordship even by promise some account of my foreign Travels and the Observations which I have taken touching this City and Republick are these The general position of the City of Venice I find much celebrated even by the learnedest of the Arabians as being seated in the very middle point between the Equinoctial and the Northern Pole at 45. degrees precisely or next hand of latitude yet their Winters are for the most part sharper then ours though about 6. degrees less of elevation perchance by vicinity tothe chilly tops
most affectionate poor Friend to serve you HENRY WOTTON Feb. 1613. SIR ONe Reason of my writing now unto you is because it seemeth a great while unto me since I did so Another to give you many thanks which upon the casting up of my reckonings I find I have not yet done for that Gelding wherewith you so much honoured me which in truth either for goodness or beauty runneth for one of the very best about this place And I have had a great deal of love made unto me for him by no small ones After this I must plainly tell you that I mean to perswade you I am sorry I cannot say to invite you for my Mind would bear that word better then my Fortune to bestow your self and your whole Family upon us this Shrovetide if it be but for three dayes at the conjunction of the Thames and the Rhene as our ravished Spirits begin to call it The occasion is rare the expence of time but little of money inconsiderable You shall see divers Princes a great confluence of Strangers sundry entertainments to shorten your patience and to reward your travel Finally nothing spared even in a necessitous time I will adde unto these Arguments that out of your own Store at home â—…ou may much encrease the beauty of this Assembly â—…nd your Daughters shall not need to provide any great splendour of Cloathing because they can â—…pply that with a better contribution as hath been â—…ell authenticated even by the Kings own testimony of them For though I am no longer an Ambassador yet am I not so bank-rupt of Intelligence but that I have heard of those rural passages Now let me therefore with this hobling Pen again and again pray you to resolve upon your coming if not with all the fair Train yet your self and my Lady and my Nephew and his Wife or at the least of leasts the Masculine We begin to lay off our mourning habits and the Court will shortly I think be as merry as if it were not sick The King will be here to morrow The Friday following he goeth to Windsor with the Count Palatine about the Ceremony of his Instalment In the mean time there is expected the Count Henry of Nassaw to be at the said Solemnity as the Representant of his Brother Yesternight the Count Palatino invited all the Counsel to a solemn Supper which was well ordered He is a Gentleman of very sweet hope and hath rather gained upon us then lost any thing after the first Impression And so Sir having ended my Paper I will end my Letter with my hearty prayers for the prosperity of your self and yours ever resting Your faithfull poor Friend to serve you HENRY WOTTON To the King 1615. May it please Your Sacred Majesty I Beseech your Majesty to pardon me a little short repetition how I have spent my time since my departure from your Royal sight because I glory in your goodness I have been imployed by your favour in four several Treaties differing in the Matter in the Instruments and in the Affections The first was for the sequestration of Juliers wherein I was joyned with the French The second for the provisional possession of the two Pretendents wherein contrary to the complaint of the Gospel the Labourers were more then the Harvest The third was for a defensive League between the united Provinces and the united Princes Who though they be separate Bodies of State do now by your onely Mediation make one Body of Strength The fourth was for the composing of some differences between your own and this People in matter of Commerce which hath exceeded the other Three both in length and in difficulty for two Reasons as I conceive it First Through the sensibleness of the Subject which is private Utility next because it had a secret commixture of publick respects and those of no light consequence For surely it importeth more to let the King of Spain dispense alone the Commodities of the East then for either of us to want them Now of the three former Treaties I have given your Majesty an accompt in divers Dispatches according to my poor apprehensions As for this last they that have eased my weakness in the conduct thereof I mean my good Associates by whose light and leadings I have walked will ease me likewise by your gracious leave in the Relation By them it may please your Majesty to understand in what fair terms we have left it somewhat resembling to my fancy those Women of Nombre de Dios who they say are never brought to bed in the place where they conceive but bring forth their children in a better Air And so I hope that our travels and unformed conceptions will take life in your own Kingdome which will be more honour to their Birth For our parts I dare affirm of these your Commissioners that now return unto the comfort of your gracious Aspect That they have discharged their Duties and their Consciences with all faithfull care of your Majesties Commandments I am confident likewise that they will give me their honest Testimony And we are bound joyntly to profess unto your Majesty from whom we receive our estimation the respects and kindnesses that have been here done us as your Vassals And so with my continual prayers to God for your blessed Being I here remain till your Majesty shall vouchsafe me again the grace of your eyes Your Majesties long devoted poor Servant HENRY WOTTON To the Marquess of Buckingham January 25. 1619. My most Noble Lord I Will be bold by this opportunity to give His Majesty through your Lordships hands an account of a Command which I had from him at Theobalds about sounding how the Venetian Ambassador stood satisfied with the late determination touching his predecessor Donato I did visit the said Ambassador immediately at my return from the King and saluted him as by express Commandment interjecting some words of mine own gladness that he had received contentment in this tender point which would signalize his beginnings This I said because in truth I had found him always before the more passionate in it by some reflection upon himself His answer after due thanks for His Majesties gracious remembrance of him from abroad was that for his own part he was Contentissimo and had represented things home in the best manner He hoped likewise it would be well tasted there also though with some doubt because the State out of their own devotion towards His Majesty might form a confidence of expecting more I replied that the King upon the matter if we consider disgrace had done more then themselves for he was but once banished at Venice and twice here viz. once from the verge of the Court and secondly from London which was as much as could be done with preservation of rational immunities and more then would have been done at the suit of of any other Ambassador here resident or perhaps of any of their own hereafter if the like
Case shall occur For as I told him it was the Kings express will that his particular respect to the Republick and to him in this business should not be drawn into Examples With this point he was not a little pleased for his own glory and said that indeed Master Secretary Nanton had told him so This was the sum of what passed between us omitting impertinencies Let me end my dear Lord as I am bound in all the use either of my pen or of my voice with an humble and hearty acknowledgement of my great obligations towards your Lordship which will make me resolve and in good faith unhappy till I can some way shew my self Your Lordships most thankeful and faithful Servant H. W. To the KING From Augusta the 8 18 of August 1620. May it please Your most Sacred Majesty FRom this place I determined to make my first Dispatch unto Your Majesty hoping in such Cities and Courts vvhereunto I had address on the vvay to take up somewhat that should be considerable and till then unwilling to entertain Your solicitous Mind vvith immaterial things I have hitherto been vvith five several Princes and Communities the Duke of Loraign the Arch-Duke Leopoldus the Town of Strasburg the Duke of Wirtenberg and the Town of Ulme in the same order as I have set them down among whom I spent in all twelve days and the rest of the time in uncessant journeys vvhereof I shall now render Your Majesty a full account in the substance retrenching impertinencies Unto the Duke of Loraign I had no credential address from Your Royal hand and yet to pass silently like a stream through his Land by a Prince of so near conjunction in blood with You and interessed in the scope of my errand as a member of the Empire had been some incongruity Therefore excusing as I might justly the want of Letters vvith my purpose to have taken another way till I heard that the French King had cleared the confines of Loraign by drawing such Forces as lay hovering there with some hazard of Passengers over the River of Marne towards Normandy I say after this excuse I told him I knevv Your Majesty vvould be singularly pleased to understand by me of his health and that I had in transitu conferred vvith him Your Christian ends vvherein You could not but expect at his hands a concurrence both of Counsel and Affection This I said to dravv civilly from him as much as I could being a Prince cumbred as I found him vvith the German troubles on the one side and the French on the other and therefore bound to study the passages of both especially having a State vvhich perhaps is harder for him to keep neutral then himself In the rest of my discourse I possessed him vvith two main heads of mine Instructions First vvith Your Majesties innocency in the Bohemian business at the beginning next vvith Your impartiality therein even to this hour both vvhich did render You in this cause the fittest Mediator of the World And so I shut up all vvith this That God had given Your Majesty two eminent blessings the one Peace at home the other vvhich vvas surely the greater and the rarer a Soul desirous of the like abroad vvhich You found Your self tied in the Conscience of a Christian King to prosecute by all possible means and therefore though You had before in the beginning of the Bohemian Motions sent Your good meaning by a solemn Ambassage to the Emperor in the Person of a dear and zealous Servant of great Quality even before any other King had entred into it vvhich through the crudity of the matter as then took not the vvished effect yet novv hoping that time it self and the experience of vexation had mollified the affections and better digested the difficulties You had not refused by several Ambassages to both sides and to all the intervenient Princes and States to attempt again this high and Christian Work Thus much though in effect extracted from Your Majesties own directions I have here once rehearsed to save the repetition thereof in my following Audiences at other places The Dukes answer was more tender then free lamenting much the present condition of things commending as much Your Majesties good mind proclaiming his own remitting the vvhole to those great and vvise Kings that had it in hand and concluding vvith a voice me thought lower then before as if he had doubted to be overheard though in his private Chamber that the Princes of the Union vvould tell me vvhat his affections vvere in the Cause For vvhich I gave him thanks commending in all events to his continual memory that Your Majesties Daughter my gracious Lady and her Descendents vvere of the Bloud of Loraign Yea said he and the Elector likewise This vvas all that passed from him of any moment After vvhich he brought me to Monsieur de Vaudemont vvhose principal business as I hear at the present is to vvork the Dukes assent and the Popes dispensation for a Marriage between his own Son and his Brothers Daughter a thing much affected by that People and no doubt fomented by France to keep so important a Province from Strangers In the mean vvhile de Vaudemont's Son for improvement of his merit and fame is bestowed in the Command of those Troops vvhich vvere suffered to pass the Rheine at Brysack on Whitson-Monday last Before I leave Loraign I cannot but advertise Your Majesty that at Faltsbourg a Town in the confines of that Province towards Elsatia inhabited and built by many good men of the Religion the Ministers came unto me bewailing the case of the Inhabitants vvho for some thirty years had possessed that place quietly till of late by instigation of the Jesuits at Nancy the Duke had given them vvarning to be gone vvithin the term of two years vvhereof some good part vvas expired Their request unto me vvas that by Your Majesties gracious Mediation they might be received into a place vvithin the Palatine Jurisdiction near their present seat which they offered to enlarge and fortifie at their own charge upon the grant of reasonable immunities vvhich I have assumed to treat by Letter vvith Your Majesties Son-in-lavv needing no other commission from Your Majesty in things of this nature then Your own goodness The Arch-Duke Leopald I vvas forced to seek three days journey from his ordinary seat where being at his private sports of the field and no fit things about him he desired me to turn back half 〈◊〉 days journey to Mulzham the notorious nest of Jesuits commanding the Governors of his Towns in the mean time to use me vvith all due respects among vvhom he made choice of an Italian by name Ascanio Albertine a man of singular confidence vvith him and surely of very fair conditions to sound me though in a merry fashion and half laughing as there was good cause how I would taste it if he should receive me in the Jesuits Colledge for at Mulzham those
were his Hosts being destitute of other habitation I answered him as merrily as it was propounded that I knew the Jesuits had every where the best rooms more splendent then true fitter to lodge Princes then Monks and that their habitations were always better then themselves Moreover that for mine own part though I was not much afraid of their infection and that Saint Paul did not refuse to be carried in a Ship which was consecrated to false Gods yet because on our side they were generally and no doubt justly reputed the true causes of all the troubles of the Christian World I doubted it would be a scandalous Reception and that besides those Artificers vvould go near to make appear on my part a kind of silent approbation of their Order and course This was my answer which being faithfully transported by the Italian the Arch-Duke made choice of another mean house in the Town vvhere he received me truly in a noble sweet fashion to whom having presented Your Majesties Letters and Love he disposed himself with sharp attention to hear me To him besides that which I had said to the Duke of Loraign I added two things The first that not only Your Majesty was clear of all fore-knowledge or counsel in the business of Bohemia but likewise Your Son-in-law himself of any precedent practice therein till it was laid upon him as You knew by his own high affirmations and most infallible testimonies The second that though Your Majesty to this hour did continue as equal betwixt both parties as the Equinoctial between the Poles yet about the time of my departure You were much moved and the whole Land likewise with a voice I know not how spread abroad that there were great preparations to invade the Nether Palatinate which if it did fall out Your Majesty should have just reason to think Your Moderation unthankfully requited the said Palatinate being the Patrimonial Lands of Your own Descendents and no way connexed with the Bohemian Business Whereupon I perswaded him fairly in Your Majesties Name being a Personage of such authority in the present actions to keep them from any such precipitious and impertinent rupture as might preclude all Mediation of Accord and because Your Majesty had now which was a second Argument of Your equity sent several Ambassadors to the Fountains for Your better information in the merit of the Cause by Your own Instruments I besought him to illuminate me who was the weakest of Your Creatures as far as he should think fit and to assist me with his best advice towards this good end whereunto besides the dear Commandment of the King my Master I would confer mine own plain and honest zeal His answer to all the points which he had very orderly laid up was this Of Your Majesties own clearness he professed much assurance of Your Son-in-law as much doubt charging him both with close practice with the Bohemians at the time of the Emperors Election at Francfort and more foully with a new practice either by himself or by others to introduce the Turk into Hungary Of any design upon the Lower Palatinate he utterly disavowed all knowledge on his part yet would not deny but the Marquess Spinola might perchance have some such aim and if things went on as they do men would no doubt assail their enemies wheresoever they should find them In such ambiguous clouds as these he wrapped this point Of the Emperors inclination to an agreement he bade me be very assured but never vvithout restitution of the usurped Kingdom vvhich vvas not a loss of easie concoction especially being taken from him by the Count Palatine his Subject as he often called him and once added that he thought he vvould not deny it himself Of the merit of the cause he said he had sent divers records and papers to the Emperor vvhere I should find them Lastly he acknowledged himself much bound unto Your Majesty for the honour You had done him to take such knowledge of his Person and was contented to bestow some thanks upon me for mine honest inclination which he would present before my arrival at Vienna I had almost omitted a point touched by him that he had knowledge of some English Levies coming toward the Palatinate About which I cleared him with confessing that Your Majesties People and some of Your principal Nobility had taken Alarm upon a voice of an Invasion there and meant voluntarily to sacrifice themselves in that action but vvithout any concurrence of Your Majesty thereunto either by money or command To which he replied that in truth so he had heard and made no question of Your Royal Integrity In the afternoon of this day he took me abroad with him in his Coach to shew me some of his nearer Towns and Fortifications and there descended into many familiarities and amongst other to shew us how to make Frogs leap at their own skins a strange purchase me thought at a time when Kingdoms are in question But it may be it was an Art to cover his weightier Meditations Amongst other discourse there was some mention of Your Majesties Treaty with Spain in point of Alliance which I told him was a concluded business for that warrant I had from Your own Royal mouth in Your Gallery at Theobalds having let fall none of Your syllables Whereupon he said That he did not despair upon so good an occasion to salute Your Majesty in Your own Court The morning following he sent unto me Seignior Ascanio with express desire that since Your Majesties intentions were so clear I would as frankly acquaint him whether in mine Instructions I had any particular form of accord to project unto the Emperor which himself likewise at my second Audience did somewhat importunely press excusing his curiosity with a good meaning to prepare the Emperor in as good manner as he could to accept it My answer was that Your Majesty thought it first necessary on both sides to dispose the affections and then by reciprocal Intelligence between Your Servants from Vienna and Prague to collect some measure of Agreement for otherwise if we should find both Parties fixed in extream resolutions it were a folly to spend any further the Honour of our Master Here again he told me that I should find the Emperor peswasible enough if his Reputation may be saved and for his own part he thought that the Count Palatine being the Inferior might yield without prejudice of his To terms of this height he revolved and of the same complexion are his Letters to Your Majesty that I send herewith of which I must needs say that in some part Olent Patrem Henricum so they call a Jesuit of inward credit with him Always true it is that they were couched in the Colledge for his Secretaries were absent as the Italian told me at his ordinary place of residence At my leave-taking he spake with much reverence of Your Majesty with much praise of Your Christian mind and with much
thankfulness of the Honour You had done him He is a Prince of good stature of fair complexion inclining to fulness His face the very best as they tell me of the House of Austria and better indeed then his fashion No curiosity in his clothing no affectation in his discourse extream affable both to strangers and among his own Patient of labour and delighting in motion In sum little of a Bishop save the Bishoprick and a long Coat with which short character of his Person I have taken the boldness to end being as I conceive it the duty of Servants to represent unto their Masters the Images of those with whom they treat and as well their natural as artificial Impressions Of Strasburg and Ulm I may speak conjunctively being of one nature both free and both jealous of their freedom which makes them fortifie apace Towards me likewise they joyned in one point of good respect namely in not suffering me to come to their Senate-house but in treating with me where I was lodged by the deputed Persons out of the reverence as they professed due to Your Majesty who had done them so much honour with Your Letters and with communication of Your ends by Your humble Servant They both commended Your Majesties Christian intensions and professed themselves hitherto in the same Neutrality but because it were uncivil for them to contribute their Counsels where such Kings did employ their Wisdom and Authority they would only contribute their Prayers with the like temperate conceits as these appearing likewise in their Letters which I send by this Bearer Into the Duke of Wirtenberg's Court I was received very nobly and kindly feasted at his Table with the Princess and other great Ladies and most part of the day lead by himself to view his Gardens Buildings and other Delights The material points collected here I must divide partly into my discourse with himself and partly into such knowledge as he commanded Monsieur Buvinckhousen to give me which cometh in a Paper apart being very material In his own Speech he made great profession towards Your Majesty wherein no Prince of the Empire should exceed him and as much toward the King of Bohemia as he ever called Your Son-in-law of whose clearness from all precedent practice when I fell to speak he told me that in that point he would ease me for himself visiting the Elector a little after he was chosen he found him extreamly perplexed even to effusion of tears between these two considerations That if he accepted the offer the World would falsely conceive it to have sprung from his Ambition if he refused it that People was likely to fall into desperate Counsels vvith danger of calling more then Christian help In the rest of his discourse I was glad to hear him often vow that he vvould defend the Palatinate with all his power being tied thereunto not only by the Bond of Confederacy but likewise by Reason of State not to suffer a Stranger to neighbor him I have now ended for the present Your Majesties trouble There remain of my Commission the Duke of Bavaria and the Emperor The Duke of Bavaria I shall find actually in arms about Lintz in the upper Austria and the Emperor at Vienna from both places I will make several Dispatches unto Your Majesty and afterwards weekly or more frequently as the occasion shall rise Let this in the mean time end in my humble thanks to Almighty God for the repose of Your own Estates and in my hearty Prayers for the preservation of Your dear and sacred Person Octob. 1620. Right Honourable OF my purpose to depart from Vienna and to leave the Emperour to the Counsels of his own Fortune I gave his Majesty knowledge by my servant James Vary I will now make you a summary accompt of what hath happened here which is to be done both out of Duty to your Place and out of Obligation to your Friendship The Count Tampier had some twelve dayes since taken from the Hungarians by surprisal in the Field thirteen Cornets of Horse and one Ensign of Foot which here with much ostentation were carried up and down and laid on Sunday was seven-night under the Emperours feet as he came from the Chappel Some note that the vanity of this triumph was greater then the merit for the Hungarians by their ordinary discipline abound in Cornets bearing one almost for every twenty Horse so as Flags are good cheap amongst them and but slightly guarded Howsoever the matter be made more or less according to the wits on both sides this was brave gaudium and it self indeed some cause of the following disaster For the Count Tampier being by nature an enterprising man was now also inflamed by accident which made him immediately conceive the surprisal of Presburg while the Prince of Transilvania was retired to the siege of Guns some six or seven Leagues distant A project in truth if it had prospered of notorious utility First by the very reputation of the Place being the Capital Town of Hungaria Next the access to Comar and Rab which places only the Emperour retaineth in that Kingdome of any considerable value had been freed by water which now in a manner are blocked up Thirdly the incursions into these Provinces and ignominious depredations had been cut off And lastly the Crown of Hungaria had been recovered which the Emperour Matthias did transport to the Castle of Presburg after the deposition of Rodolph his Brother who alwayes kept it in the Castle of Prague which men account one of the subtil things of that retired Emperour as I hear by discourse So as upon these considerations the enterprise was more commendable in the design then it will appear in the execution being thus carried From hence to Presburg is in this moneth of October an easie nights journey by water Thither on Thursday night of the last week Tampier himself accompanied with some four or five Colonels and other remarkable men of this Court resolves to bring down in 25 Boats about 3000 Foot or such a matter having given order and space enough before for certain Horse partly Dutch and partly Polonians to be there and to attend his coming about two hours before Friday morning And to shadow this purpose himself on Thursday in the afternoon with affected noise goes up the River the contrary vvay though no reasonable imaginations could conceive vvhither for the lower Austria vvas then all reduced By vvhich Artificial delay and by some natural stops in the shallows of the vvater vvhen they fell silently down again it vvas three or four hours of clear day before he arrived at Presburg the next morning Where his meaning vvas first to destroy the Bridge built upon Boats and thereby to keep Bethlehem Gabor as then on the Austrian side not only from succouring the Town but from all possibility of repassing the Danuby nearer then Buda Next to apply the Petard to one of the Gates of the Cittadel Some say
please my most Gracious Soveraign IF I were not more afraid to break the Laws of that humble Modesty which becometh the meanness of my desert then I am to exceed the bounds of Your Majesties Royal Goodness I should be a poor Suppliant unto Your Majesty to confer upon me the Mastership of the Savoy in case Dr. Belcanquel my good Friend shall as the voice goeth be removed to the Deanry of Durham wherein the Remove and the Substitution are but one stroke of Your Benignity God knows and the value of the Thing it self may speak as much that I do not aim therein at any utility Only it may be some ease of expence and Commodity of Lodging when I shall come as I am afraid shortly to oversee certain poor things of mine own at Press wherewith yet I hope Your Majesty whose Honour only I study will not be displeased I have further considered with my self that the said place is not incompatible with that which I now hold by Your Majesties intercession with Your ever blessed Father as it may please You to remember though You forget nothing so easily as Your own bounties which place here never before subsisting in the Memory of man without some Addition I have now near fourteen years sustained in that integrity as I found it and with as good Scholars sent annually to Your Royal Colledge at Cambridge of my particular Choice as have gone thither since the Foundation whereof I could shew Your Majesty a published Testimony out of that University in Dr. Winterton's Dedication of Dionysius de situ orbis unto me if it were not a miserable thing for me to make up so slight a merit even with a vanity Besides this I most humbly confess that though my fortunes are poor and my Studies private yet I cannot deny certain Sparkles of honest ambition remaining in me whereby I desire the World should know that my most Vertuous and most Dear and Royal Master hath not utterly forgotten me And so I most humbly rest Your Majesties most humble faithfull hearty Subject and Servant H. W. To the Archbishop May it please your Grace EMboldened by your favour I humbly present herewith to your Grace and through your onely hands which in our lower Sphear is via Lactea my Letter to his Majesty and the Copy thereof If it shall pass the file of your Judgement my poor Lines will have honour enough but if they take effect by the vertue of your Mediation I shall be sorry that I cannot be more Your Grace's then I am and will ever be H. W. To Mr. MILTON SIR IT was a special favour when you lately bestowed upon me here the first taste of your acquaintance though no longer then to make me know that I wanted more time to value it and to enjoy it rightly and in truth if I could then have imagined your farther stay in these parts which I understood afterward by Mr. H. I would have been bold in our vulgar Phrase to mend my draught for you left me with an extream thirst and to have begged your conversation again joyntly with your said Learned Friend at a poor meal or two that we might have banded together some good Authors of the ancient time Among which I observed you to have been familiar Since your going you have charged me with new Obligations both for a very kind Letter from you dated the 6th of this Moneth and for a dainty piece of entertainment that came therewith Wherein I should much commend the Tragical part if the Lyrical did not ravish me with a certain Dorique delicacy in your Songs and Odes whereunto I must plainly confess to have seen yet nothing parallel in our language Ipsa mollities But I must not omit to tell you that I now only owe you thanks for intimating unto me how modestly soever the true Artificer For the Work it self I had viewed some good while before with singular delight having received it from our common Friend Mr. R. in the very close of the late R's Poems Printed at Oxford whereunto is added as I now suppose that the Accessory might help out the Principal according to the Art of Stationers and to leave the Reader Con la bocca dolce Now Sir concerning your Travels wherein I may challenge a little more priviledge of discourse with you I suppose you will not blanch Paris in your way therefore I have been bold to trouble you with a few Lines to Mr. M. B. whom you shall easily find attending the young Lord S. as his Governour and you may surely receive from him good directions for the shaping of your farther journey into Italy where he did reside by my choice some time for the King after mine own recess from Venice I should think that your best Line will be thorow the whole length of France to Marseilles and thence by Sea to Genoa whence the passage into Tuscany is as diurnal as a Gravesend Barge I hasten as you do to Florence or Siena the rather to tell you a short story from the interest you have given me in your safety At Siena I was tabled in the house of one Alberto Sciâ—…ioni an old Roman Courtier in dangerous times having been Steward to the Duca di Pagliano who with all his Family were strangled save this only man that escaped by fore-sight of the Tempest with him I had often much chat of those affairs into which he took pleasure to look back from his native harbour and at my departure toward Rome which had been the Center of his Experience I had won confidence enough to beg his advice how I might carry my self securely there without offence of others or of mine own conscience Signor Arrigo mio says he I Pensieri stretti il viso sciolto That is Your thoughts close and your countenance loose will go safely over the whole World Of which Delphian Oracle for so I have found it your judgement doth need no Commentary and therefore Sir I will commit you with it to the best of all securities Gods dear love remaining Your Friend as much at command as any of longer date H. WOTTON POSTSCRIPT Sir I have expresly sent this my Foot-boy to prevent your departure without some acknowledgement from me of the receit of your obliging Letter having my self through some business I know not how neglected the ordinary conveyance In any part where I shall understand you fixed I shall be glad and diligent to entertain you with Home-Novelties even for some fomentation of our friendship too soon interrupted in the Cradle Right Honourable MAster Nicholas Pey through whose hands all my businesses did pass both in my former employments here and now hath betray'd your Honour unto me in some things that you would desire out of this Country which if he had not done he had betray'd me For I have long wished nothing more then some occasion to serve you and though this be a kind of intrusion to insert my self in
pardon to pass a little gentle Expostulation with your Lordship You are pleased in your Letter to except my inconveniences as if in the Nobleness of your Nature notwithstanding your desire you would yet allow me here a liberty of mine own Judgement or Affection No my Good Lord That priviledge comes too late even for your self to give me when I once understand your mind For let me assure your Lordship that I have such a conscience and real feeling of my deep Obligations towards your Noble Person as no value nor respect under Heaven can purchase my voice from him on whom you have bestowed it It is true that the King himself and no longer then three or four dayes before the date of your Letters so nimble are the times did write for another but we shall satisfie his Majesty with a pre-election and yours shall have my first nomination which howsoever will fall timely enough for him within the year For there belongs after they are chosen a little soaking as well as a baking before into our Boys And so not to insist any longer upon such a poor obedience I humbly lay my self and whatsoever is or shall be within my power at your Lordships feet remaining Your Lordships in the truest and heartiest devotions Worthy Sir ALL health to your self and to yours both at home and abroad Sorry I was not to be at Eton when Mr. B. your Nephew and my Friend came thither to visit me being then in procinct of his travels But I had some good while before at another kind visitation together with your Sons and Mr. S. given him a Catholick Rule which was given me long since by an old Roman Courtier with whom I tabled in Siena and whose Counsels I begged for the government of my self at my departure from him towards the foresaid Court where he had been so well versed Sinor Arrigo saies he There is one short remembrance will carry you safe through the whole World I was glad to hear such a preservative contracted into so little room and so besought him to honour me with it Nothing but this saith he Gli Pensiere streâ—…ti il viso sciolto That is as I use to translate it Your Thoughts close and your Countenance loose This was that moral Antidote which I imparted to Mr. B. and his fellow-travellers when they were last with me having a particular interest in their vvell doings both as they are yours and as they have had some training under my poor Regiment To vvhich tyes of friendship you have added a third that they are now of the Colledge of Travellers vvherein if the fruit of the time I have spent vvere answerable to the length I might run for a Deacon at least If I had not been absent vvhen Mr. B. came last I vvould have said much more in private between us vvhich shall be supplied by Letter if I may receive a safe form of address from you I continue mainly in the same opinion vvhich I touched unto them That after their impriming in France I could vvish them to mount the Pirenies into Spain In that Court as I hear you have an assured Friend And there they may consolidate the French vivacity vvith a certain Sosiego as they call it till they shall afterwards pass from Barcolona over to Italy vvhere lies the true mean between the other two humours You see Sir by this discourse that I am in mine own Countrey at leisure I pray pardon it vvhatsoever it be because it proceedeth from hearty good vvill And so I rest At your Commands H. W. Sir My Servant the Bearer hath somewhat to say unto you about a piece of Painting vvhich I vvould fain send to your House in the Countrey covered till it come thither because it is soberly naked and ready to be set up being in a gilded Frame already 1633. Right Honourable I Received such a Letter from you touching my poor Pamphlet of Architecture vvhich I yet preserve among my preciousest Papers as I have made it a Resolution to put nothing forth under my Name vvithout sending one of the first Copies unto your indulgent hands There is born a small welcome to the King from Scotland whom I have not yet seen since his Return I know not how out of a little indignation They have sent us over from Leiden from France from Polonia c. a tempest of Panegyricks and Laudatives of their Princes whereupon I debated with my self What Have we not as good a Theam and Theater as they Or do we want Sense or Zeal to express our Happiness This stirred my very Bowels and within a while my Pen such as it is I confess the Subject is so high as I fear may condemn my Obscurity to have undertaken it but withall so true as I hope vvill not mis-become mine ingenuity Howsoever I submit it to your judgement and if in charity you shall be pleased to like any thing in it I humbly beseech you that you would be pleased to take some occasion of speaking favourably of it to the King himself for though I aim at nothing by it save the very doing of it yet I should be glad to have it impressed by better judgements then my own And so I most humbly rest At c. To Dr. CASTLE Worthy Sir TIll the receipt of your last and the like from others of both Universities and one from Bruxels Ejusdem Argumenti I thought in good faith that as I have lived I thank God with little Ambition so I could have died with as much silence as any man in England But now I see that the most unvaluable things may serve to make a noise And I have now no more to say but that while the foresaid report shall be false the under-writer is Truly Yours H. Wotton My dear Nic. MOre then a voluntary motion doth now carry me towards Suffolk especially that I may confer by the way with an excellent Physician at B. whom I brought my self from Venice where as either I suppose or surmise I first contracted my infirmity of the Spleen to which the very Seat is generally inclined and therefore their Physicians who commonly study the inclinations of places are the likeliest to understand the best remedies I hope to be back by It wrinckles my face to tell you that my will cost me 500 l. that done my thoughts are at rest and over my Study door you shall find written INVIDIAE REMEDIUM Let me end in that word and ever rest Your heartiest poor Friend H. WOTTON POSTSCRIPT I Forbear to write further having a world of Discourse to unload unto you like those that weed not a Garden till it be grown a Wood. To Iz. Wa. In answer of a Letter requesting him to perform his promise of Writing the Life of Dr. Donne My worthy Friend I Am not able to yield any reason no not so much as may satisfie my self why a most ingenuous Letter of yours hath lain so long by me as it
H. WOTTON 1612 13. SIR I Must now acknowledge it true which our Navigators tell us that there be indeed certain variations of the Compass for I think there was never point of a needle better touched then you have touched me having ever since I parted from you been looking towards you and yet still by something or another I am put out of my course I will therefore hereafter not promise you any more to come unto you but I will promise my self it because indeed I have no other means to be at peace with my self for I must lay this heavy note upon your conversation that I am the unquieter for it a good while after This is the first part of what I meant to say After which I would fain tell you That I send this Foot man expresly unto you to redeem some part of my fault for not answering your late kind Letter by the Messenger that brought it But the truth is I had some special occasion to send to Berry and therefore I will set no more upon your account then his steps from thence to Redgrave where perhaps you now are See what a real Courtier I am and whether I be likely to prosper Well howsoever let me entertain you a little by this opportunity with some of our discourses The King departed yesterday from hence towards you having as yet notwithstanding much voice and some wagering on the other side determined nothing of the vacant places Whereupon the Court is now divided into two opinions the one that all is reserved for the greater honour of the marriage the other that nothing will be done till a Parliament or to speak more precisely till after a Parliament which latter conceit though it be spread without either Author or ground yet as many things else of no more validity it hath gotten faith enough on a sudden I will leave this to the judicial Astrologers of the Court and tell you a tale about a subject somewhat nearer my capacity On Sunday last at night and no longer some sixteen Apprentices of what sort you shall guess by the rest of the Story having secretly learnt a new Play without Book intituled The Hog hath lost his Pearl took up the White-Fryers for their Theatre and having invited thither as it should seem rather their Mistresses then their Masters who were all to enter per buletini for a note of distinction from ordinary Comedians Towards the end of the Play the Sheriffs who by chance had heard of it came in as they say and carried some six or seven of them to perform the last Act at Bridewel the rest are fled Now it is strange to hear how sharp-witted the City is for they will needs have Sir Iohn Swinerton the Lord Maior be meant by the Hog and the late Lord Treasurer by the Pearl And now let me bid you good night from my Chamber in King-street this Tuesday at Eleven of the night Your faithfullest to serve you H. WOTTON Francesco hath made a proof of that Green which you sent me against which he taketh this exception That being tryed upon Glass which he esteemeth the best of tryals it is not translucent arguing as he saith too much density of the matter and consequently less quickness and spirit then in colours of more tenuity Cambridge Sunday at Night SIR TO divert you from thinking on my faults I will entertain you with some News out of a Letter which I have here received from Venice of much consequence divers wayes The Bishop of Bamberge a Practical Almain Prelate of which kind there be enough of that Coat though not in that Countrey was treating in Rome a League against the Protestant Princes of Germany with whom His Majesty you know was first by Articles and is now by alliance more nearly confederate His Commission he had from the Emperour Sâ—…tto parole tacite as they call it Now while this matter was there moulding a Chiaus arrives at the Emperours Court with a Letter from the Turk importing a denuntiation of VVar grounded upon a heap of complaints easily found out between Princes that do not intend to agree And accordingly the Turk is departed in Person from Constantinople into Hungary with great Forces as my Friend writeth on a morning quando nevicava a furia by which appeareth the sharpness of the humour having made a leavy before his going of 5000 youths out of the Seragli a thing never seen before He hath left behind him Nasuf Bassa as President of his affairs who told the Batolo of Verice there resident that his Master was but gone to hunt and seemeth to have held the same language with the other Ambassadors whether out of meet wantonness of conceit or as esteeming a war with Christians but a sport in respect of that which he had newly concluded with the Persian I know not howsoever this is likely to quash the Bishops business and I fear it will fall heavy upon Germany which first in it self was never more dis-united and besides the Emperour in small good will with thâ—…se that should help him It will likewise in my conjecture hasten the departure of the Count Palatine or at least if it so please him it may well serve his turn for that purpose This is all that I have for your entertainment To morrow morning I depart hence towards London whence I determine to write by every Carrier to you till I bring my self In your last you mentioned a certain Courtier that seemeth to have spoken somewhat harshly of me I have a guess at the man and though for him to speak of such as I am in any kind whatsoever was a favour yet I wonder how I am fallen out of his estimation for it is not long since he offered me a fair Match within his own Tribe and much addition to her Fortune out of his private bounty When we meet all the world to nothing we shall laugh and in truth Sir this world is worthy of nothing else In the mean time and ever our sweet Saviour keep us in his love Your poor faithfull Friend and Servant H. WOTTON March the last 1613. SIR I Returned from Cambridge to London some two hours after the King The next day was celebrated with twenty Tilters wherein there entred four fraternities the Earls Pembroke and Mongommery my Lord Walden Thomas and Henry Hawards the two Riches and the two Alexanders as they are called though falsly like many things else in a Court. The rest were Lenox Arundel Rutland Dorset Chandowes North Hey Dingwel Clifford Sir Thomas Sommerset and Sir Iohn Harrington The day fell out wet to the disgrace of many fine Plumes Some Caparisons seen before adventured to appear again on the Stage with a little disguisement even on the back of one of the most curious So frugal are the times or so indigent The two Riches only made a Speech to the King the rest were contented with bare Imprese wherof some were so dark that their
severe commandment as it should seem from above whereupon the Women especially by way of revenge for that restraint do flock to St. Maries in such troops and so early that the Masters of Art have no room to sit so as the Vice-Chancellor and Heads of Houses were in deliberation to repress their shoaling thither Methinks it is a good thing when zeal in a land grows so thick and so warm But soft if I lanch any farther I may perchance run which yet were a great mistake into the name of a Puritan For that very Lecturer which is now deposed did live heretofore with me at my Table upon especial choice being in truth a man of sweet conversation and of sober solidity Now for other things Nicolas Oudard brought me the Friday after his departure from you the glad tidings of your Agues discharge as you then conceived it would be at the twentieth Access according as you seem to have told him to a common observation with you there so as in Suffolk I see you count Quartan fits as you do your Sheep by the score I could heartily wish you would take for some time after it Alternis Diebus my preparation of the Lignum Sanctum with addition likewise of the roots of China Enula Campana and a sprig of Tamarisque all in the decoction of Barley-water and quickned with a little sprinkling of a Lemmon a rare Receipt to corroborate the Viscera and to keep the Stomack in Tono My said Nicolas tells me likewise that you began to chirp upon being in London the next Term. I should be glad with your favour to know that point precisely for having a purpose by Gods dear blessing to visit you at Redgrave which will be the best Cordial I took in long time I would shape my course circularly either from Suffolk to Kent or from Kent to Suffolk as I shall hear of your motions towards the beginning of next Lent For novelties of Court and State all mens minds at the present with us seem magnetical looking towards the North. Order is come down this day to the Justices of this Shire about a general muster at Alisbury the next week and for especial watch at the Beacons so as any burning of a bush by chance near one of them would set the whole Province in an alarm but notwithstanding these good providences we hope well of the issue and the rather for that a pretty strong conceit runneth that the Deanary of Durham is reserved for Doctor Belkanquel as a reward of his travels to and fro in this great business While we are uniting our ceremonious breaches the Kings of France and Spain abroad treat hard this Winter about a peace as one writeth and I believe very truly without consideration of any other Prince or State but themselves If this be so and take effect in that manner then is Charles de Loraine Exutus Lepidus stript to his shirt the Count Palatine left at large and the Swede must stand upon his own feet But Brevibus Momentis summa vertuntur all depends upon the taking or not taking of Brisach the Helena of Germany and though a Town indeed of great strength and advantage yet a poor price for so much blood as hath been lost about it While I am talking of War let me tell you what I hear that your Sir Jacob Ashley is grown a great man at Court in private introducements to the King together with the Earl Marshal our good Sovereign will feel a sufficient man quickly The States lie still and close oppressed with the adversities of the last year and with nothing more then the late ruine of forty well laden Ships by the Texel wherein with deploration of the whole Province were lost one thousand Mariners Touching the subject whereof I sent you an account by Nicolas I have heard nothing since to increase my hope and much less my faith You shall have more the next week Till when and ever our sweet Jesus have you in his love Your Servant alla suiscerata H. W. SIR Since I concluded this Mr. Hales our Bibliotheca ambulans as I use to call him came to me by chance and told me that the Book of Controversies issued under the name of Baconus hath this addition to the said name alias Southwell as those of that Society shift their names as often as their shirts And he says it is a very poor thing only graced with a little method From your Colledge Decemb. 5. 1638. SIR AFter the rest of your trouble at the present there remaineth a proposition to be consulted with you about which I should esteem the charge of an express Messenger not ill expended though you were at Jerusalem And both Mr. Harison and my self think no man living more proper to solve it then our Sir Edmund Bacon The Question is this whether there may not be found some natural Philosophical way to determine the measure of a minute or quarter or half or intire hour or any portion of time more precisely and uniformly and infallibly then hath been yet invented by any Mechanical and Artificial motion And particularly whether it may not be done by the descent of drops through a Filter either in Menica Hippocratis or in a tongue of cloth equally thick with consideration likewise of all circumstances in that liquid substance which must sink through it If thâ—…s may be done there will be a mighty point obtained in the rectifying of the Longitudes of the Earth which depend upon the thoment of the Lunar Eclipses and Mose upon the exact determination of the beginning and ending of an hour for which purpose the great Tychs Brach composed divers Horologies and Hour-glasses some running with simple Water some with distilled Spirits some with pulverized Mettals and some with crude Mercury but never to any infallible satisfaction of the point propounded which likewise would be of singular use in divers Astronomical observations if it could be once justly regulated This we commend to your curious judgement My Servant Nicolas and I hope to send you some good Flints to be Agatized by your miraculous invention I pray Sir if you have any of those Island stones which you mentioned unto me at Canterbury bestow a few upon me But above all forget not to let me know where you will be about the beginning of Lent Iterum Iterum vale A late Letter written towards the end of Lent by Sir Henry Wotton Provost of his Majesties Colledge at Eaton To the Right worthy his ever truly Honoured Sir Edmund Bacon Knight and Baronet touching the loss of Friends and final resignation of our selves SIR ALl the faculties of my mind if they had ever been of any value and all the strength of my body must yield to the seignory and soveraignty of time over us But the last thing that will die or decay in me is the remembrance how amidst that inestimable contentment which I enjoyed as all others do in the benefit and pleasure of
I would fain as the occasion suggesteth propound unto your judgement a pretty Moral doubt super tota materia which I have heard discussed and resolved affirmatively among some skilful Humorists vvho â—…evv the World vvell The Question vvas this Whether in such a case precisely as ours of meer scandal without apparent truth some inclining to think the worst and some the best there be left room for any middle imagination between good and ill In the solution of which point I will crave pardon to reserve a secret till we meet at which I believe you will smile We are here God be blessed all well Our Audit ended a little before Christmass-day more troublesome then fruitful after the fashion The same Officers as the year before every man of them your Servant or otherwise they had wanted my voice Mr. Harison hath been of late somewhat more then heretofore troubled with certain Nephritical fits but they are transient and light Et jam mansueta mala Mr. Powel speaketh of you with much devotion as all other whom you have once touched with your Magnetical vertue In the Conclusion let me as with a Box of Marmalad close up your stomach with one of the Genialest pieces that I have read in my life-time of the same unaffected and discheveled kinde as I may term it sent me newly from London which if you have seen before I am out of countenance And so Sir vvishing you for I cannot vvish you better on earth after the sweet apprehension of Gods continual favour the fruition of your self I rest at what distance soever From the Colledge on the Eve of the New year through vvhich God send you a blessed passage and many more Your unseparable Servant H. WOTTON ADDITIONAL LETTERS TO SEVERAL PERSONS Now first Published from the Authors own Copies King Iames to Sir Henry Wotton 1616. To Our Right trusty and well-beloved Sir Henry Wotton Knight Our Ambassador Resident with the State of Venice Iames R. RIght trusty and well-beloved We greet you well Whereas many of the Gentry and others of Our Kingdomes under pretence of travel for their experience do pass the Alpes and not contenting themselves to remain in Lombardy or Tuscany to gain the language there do daily flock to Rome out of vanity and curiosity to see the Antiquities of that City vvhere falling into the company of Priests and Jesuites or other ill-disposed persons they are not only corrupted vvith their Doctrine but poysoned vvith their Positions and so return again into their Countreys both averse to Religion and ill-affected to Our State and Government Forasmuch as vve cannot think upon any better means to prevent that inconvenience hereafter then by imposing the care of that business in part upon you These are therefore to require you to take notice vvith diligence of all such as by the vvay of Venice shall bend their courses thither and to admonish them as from Us that they should not presume to go beyond the bounds of the Dukedome of Florence upon any occasion vvhatsoever After vvhich advice of yours given unto them if any Subject of Ours of vvhat degree or condition soever shall be either so much forgetfull of the duty he doth owe to Us or so little respective of his own good as to press further to the breach of Our Commandment delivered them by you Our Will and Pleasure is that you should forthwith acquaint us vvith the Names of the persons vvho shall so miscarry themselves that upon notice thereof from you We may take such further order vvith them for the redress of this mischief as to Our Wisdome shall seem good Given under Our Signet at Newmarket the seventh day of December in the fourteenth year of Our Raign of England France and Ireland and of Scotland the fiftieth 1616. Venice 1618. My most Honoured Lord and Patron MY humble suit unto your Lordship is this It is His Majesties usual Grace to yield His forraign Servants the comfort of His Gracious sight once in three years as this Republick doth likewise recall their Ministers vvhich Term by my Privy Seal vvill end on the first of February next I do therefore humbly beg that by your Lordships intercession I may have leave to return home for a moneth or six vveeks concurring two urgent occasions The one for the pursuit of a business depending on a Patent long since granted to Sir Edward Dymock and me vvhereunto I am summoned by His Majesties Attorney as vvill appear unto your Lordship by the Copy of the said Attorneys Letter coming herewith vvritten to my Brother Sir Iames Wotton my Feoffee in trust vvherein my presence is necessary by reason of some differences between the said Sir Edward Dymock and me And this is a Case vvherein vve are to maintain His Majesties Title as hath been endeavoured vvith our own moneys hitherto unfruitfully spent The other for the re-ordering of my Exchanges vvhich have been much incommodated by the failing of Seignor Burlamachie's credit here though it stand vvell in other places by a trick that vvas played him While I shall be at home I vvill challenge nothing from His Majesties Exchequer though perchance I shall bring some observations not altogether unprofitable as a publick Instrument I vvill likewise neither trouble His Majesty as the Fountain nor your Lordship as the Means vvith any private suit in the vvay of mine own fortune For by His Royal Goodness and by your favourable mediation I am already abundantly satisfied in some Expectatives as marks of His Grace and of your Patronage vvhich have not only exceeded my merits but even quieted mine appetites Only thus much I humbly crave That by His Majesties toleration of my vveaknesses I may still retain this charge and live upon his service vvithout farther burden unto him because I see no man hasty at home to die for my benefit 1619. A Report of my Negotiation in Germany and of some Particularities occurring in my Iourney To my most Gracious Soveraign and Master I Came to Munichen the Court of Bavaria in the evening before the Feast of Corpus Christi and in my company the Duke Ioachimus Ernestus of Hoâ—…stein vvho since the ceasing of Arms in Friuli had lived vvith me at Venice vvhich I mention as a duty having been recommended unto me and to that State by Your Majesties special Letters and in truth likewise by his own vvorthy dispositions Here vve thought only to have stolen a sight in some private vvindow of the Procession the next day vvhere vve vvere told the Princes and vvhole Court vvould be But in the morning vve vvere prevented by the Duke Maximilian vvho having gotten knowledge of our qualities sent a Baron of his Bed-Chamber vvith Coaches to conduct us to the Court vvhich gracious surprisal vve could not civilly resist At the Court vve vvere placed by the Dukes own appointment in a Gallery where when we saw a more solemn and sober Procession then I had beheld even at Rome under the
Popes eyes as perhaps all superstition is loosest at the fountain In this Procession a little after the Duke and his Brother Albertus went two young Sons of one of them that were thrown out of the window at Prage who since then have been fostered in Bavaria And from hence we took our first judgement of the affections of that Court I cannot omit that at this Solemnity were two Iesuites who otherwise in Italy do studiously decline the familiarity of such publick appearances for preservation of respect At which when I did express some wonder I was told between jest and earnest that indeed the greater Fathers were more reserved of their presence but these were only like Ushers over the Seminary Boyes to keep them in awe at this Shew This done the Duke of Holstein and my self were led and lodged in several Quarters of the Palace and before Dinner the Duke Maximilian though tyred with walking sent singly for me and passed with me more then an hour in private and free discourse Falling into it with as serious protestation as mine ears ever heard that though he was bred in the Roman Faith yet no Prince living did more honour and reverence the great vertues and eminent wisdome of the King my Master to whom he had the honour to be allied both by marriage and by his own descent and therefore should have thought it a disgrace for him to let me go that way without offering me after I had passed the Alpes a little commodity of repose in that poor House as he was pleased to term it being otherwise one of the most capable magnificent and regular Fabricks of Christendome and all of his own device and erection in five years He told me besides how sensible he was of the honour which the Count Palatine had done him with a personal surprisal and how ashamed that the times had not yet permitted him to revenge that favour which he had vowed to do with the first opportunity And the rather that he might invite Your Majesties most vertuous Daughter who hath filled these Countreys with her excellent fame to come and take possession in Bavaria of her Woods and Fields and to kill all there that had either wings or feet This was the Complemental part of his Speech In the rest he bewailed the present appearance of unquietness in the Empire He lamented likewise the situation of his own State which made it hard for him to preserve himself neutral though he had studied it He spake of Ferdinando's person kindly of his fortune doubtfully of the Bohemians with a cool temper rather censuring the form of their proceeding then the cause of himself with singular moderation and without the least discovery of any ambitious affections though we found his Courtiers warm enough in their hopes After Dinner he sent for the Duke of Holstein And then came himself with his whole train to visit me on that side where I was placed an honour done seldome beforeâ—… as I heard to any Ambassador where he spent with me about half an hour with new affirmations of his reverent respect towards Your Majesty As likewise the morning following when with much ado we got leave to be gone Which noble language he afterwards as not contented with a verbal profession did prosecute in a Letter that I received from him on the way which I reserve to be shewn Your Majesty This was my entertainment in the Bavarian Court by a Prince I am bound to say every way good but in that wherein he should be best of noble manner in his hospitality of sharp conceit of great erudition and both orderly and lovingly served Which Circumstances I have thought it my part to set down the more particularly for that I am certainly informed of much jealousie both taken and expressed by the Pope at the Count Palatine's reception in that Court and more for a Book written by his Chancellor and published by the Dukes direct Command prefixed in the front thereof in defence of Ludovicus the Bavarian excommunicated Emperor Which things considered make his kindness to Your Majesties Servant and professions towards Your Royal Person more notable Now to proceed At Augusta I took language that the Princes and States of the Union had deferred their Assembly ten dayes which gave me opportunity to find them together at Heilbrun whom I should have missed at their own homes And for due respect I gave the Count Palatine notice of my intent to be there by a Gentleman expresly sent Of what I did in Augusta for Your Majesties service I bring with me the Accompt Being arrived at Heilbrun the day after the first sitting of the Princes I repaired immediately to the Count Palatine as Director not only of the Union but likewise of me for so I told him was Your Majesties Will who after he had spoken with his Associates did order the form of my proceeding in this manner With himself I was to treat in Individuo both for respect of privacy being Your Majesties Son-in-Law and of Dignity being then Provisor of the Empire as his right style is and not Vicar To the four Princes I went joyntly they agreeing upon a room where they would assemble and sending for me their Coaches and Courtiers namely the Marquess of Anspach who hath the precedency as an Electoral branch the Duke of Wirtemberg the Marquess of Baden and the Prince Christianus of Anhalt respondent for his own House The Landgrave Maurice of Hassia was not there but voiced to be sick The Marquess of Brandenburg was out of the Empire in Prussia and his Son in the Low Provinces The Representants of the three United Cities Nurenburg Strasburg and Ulm which direct the meaner Towns were to come all joyntly as they did to my Lodging The Count Palatine met me at the Stair-head and did render me the visitation where I lay in person The Princes came all joyntly down into the very Street to take me from my Coach and in like manner brought me down again unto it and did afterwards visit me all together The Marquess of Anspach then presenting unto me their Answer in writing with all due commemoration of their obligations to Your Majesty The Representants of the Cities did present their Answer verbally at my Lodging by the Syndic of Strasburg with no less zeal and devotion then the Princes had done And this was the formal part full of all just respect that could be expressed in that place Now touching the real part When I had conferred with the Count Palatine your Majesties scope in the main business I found him in truth for himself exceeding forward but for the other Princes and Towns he objected two difficulties The one was the present distractions of Germany which made the Proposition somewhat unseasonable The other vvas the differences between our Church and those of the Augustine Confession vvhich though but few yet perchance might a little hinder their concurrence with us in this excellent work especially
the Lutheran Princes being likely to do nothing without counsel of their Ministers and they being the passionatest Men amongst them These two objections considered it was thought fit by the Count Palatine into whose hands I had delivered my self after deliberation vvith his own Counsellors that I should at this time only dispose the other Princes and Representants of Cities in your Majesties Name towards a concurrence with apt lenitives and probabilities and that I should endeavor by your Majesties Christian perswasion to remove all asperity that might impeach it leaving a more particular prosecution thereof till the noise of the Empire were settled in which mean while many things might be further thought on to advance this purpose and be conferred afterwards by Letters Hereupon I framed my Speech to the Princes in the manner following I told them that I brought thither two sorts of Commissions The one from the Duke and Senate of Venice sub fide tacita which I presented in writing containing a profession of much good will from that State towards them and a clear inclination to a streighter correspondence with them In contemplation of whom the Republick had resolved not to permit the transport of any succours cross their Gulf into Austria for the further troubling of Germany This vvas the substance of that I brought under silent confidence without any other credit then mine own honesty might bear vvhich had been delivered unto me by order of Senate whom I acquainted thus far that I vvould take home-wards the vvay of Germany Wherein I craved from the Princes and the rest some taste of their inclinations that these fair offers might be farther prosecuted by your Majesties mediation vvhom I knevv much to desire the further strengthning of this Body with good Amities My other Commission vvas as I said from mine own Royal Master from vvhom I brought Letters of his confidence unto them after presentation vvhereof and all other due premises I told them That your Majesty having long and deeply considered the corruptions that have grown in your own Kingdoms and in the States of your Confederates and Friends by the secret practices of Jesuits did finally observe but one only cause of this creeping mischief and but one onely remedy vvhich you had thought meet to communicate with them by an express though a covered Legation under the colour of my return homewards The cause of the said evils vvas that vve had left the Pope at too much ease in his own Provinces the remedy would be to cut him out so much work at home as should force him to gather his thoughts about himself and in conclusion to revoke his Emissaries for the maintaining of Italy To do this there vvere but four means 1. By the advantage of Arms in time of Action 2. By open Preaching 3. By dispersion of Books 4. By secret Semination For the first it vvas true that the late necessity of calling French among vvhom there vvere many of our Religion into Piedmont and the Dutch Flemish and English into Friuli had done some good by freedom of conversation all Inquisition ceasing at such times But this violent vvay must be left to further occasion For the second although there had been for one vvhole Lent publick preaching against the Roman doctrine in Venice yet that Liberty and the Popes Excommunication did cease together and must so abide till nevv opportunity For the third I acquainted them hovv greedy the Italians vvere of our Treatises in matter of Controversie and of divers ways that had been used both to excite and to satisfie that curiosity both by the vvorks of the Arch bishop of Spalato since his retirement into your Majesties protection and of a Discourse that vvas ready to come abroad vvherein should be discovered by a great intelligent man even of their own breeding all the Practices of the Councel of Trent out of the Original Registers and secret Papers vvherein your Majesty had a hand for the benefit of the Christian World For the fourth and last vvay of secret Semination vvherein vve had been hitherto vvholly deficient and asleep This I said vvas the particular scope of my present charge In this your Majesty did exhort them by all fervent perswasion to joyn vvith you their counsels and cares their diligence and powers according to such vvays as should be hereafter propounded either by your Majesty to them or conceived amongst themselves Whereunto your Majesty had been stirred first by the zeal of Gods glory next by a Religious shame and indignation to see Superstition more active then the Truth Thirdly by the instance of divers well-affected Persons both vvithin the Body of Italy and in the Confines thereof And lastly by the opportunity vvhich the present time it self did yield unto it vvhich I did particularly remonstrate unto them but being matter of secrecy I vvill keep it in my pen till I arrive vvith your Majesty After vvhich I concluded vvith your Majesties most loving and Christian perswasions unto them vvhich they could not refuse coming from such a Friend to lay aside our own small differences to suppress the heat of passionate Divines by Civil Authority and to joyn together against the common Adversary of our Churches and States And because the free passage into Italy vvas a point much importing the present purpose as likewise in other respects very considerable your Majesty did intreat them to spend their earnest intercession by a common Letter to the Cantons of Zurick and Bern That they vvould endeavor by all means possible as being incomparably the fittest Mediators to re-establish the League between the Venetians and the Grisons to vvhich both parties vvere vvell inclining but there vvanted a third to break the business and to remove the scruple of who shall begin which had hitherto hindred the effect This was my poor exposition of Your Commands whereof I thought it my duty to render Your Majesty this preambulatory Accompt for Your ease at mine arrival and for mine own discharge bringing with me the Letters and Answers of the Princes as I hope to Your Majesties full contentment I will conclude with my most humble thanks unto Your Royal Goodness for this Imployment above all other And with my prayers to God that the weakness of the Instrument may not prejudice the excellent intention of the Master and Director 1620. Instructions to Our trusty and well-beloved Servant Henry Wotton Knight at his imployment about the Affairs of Germany to the Emperour Ferdinand to Our Dear Son-in-Law Fredâ—…ick the Prince Elector and Count Palatine of Rhene c. to the Princes of the Union in Body or to their Sub-director in place of Our said Son-in-Law And to other Princes and States as the Duke of Saxony Bavaria and upon occasion as his particular Letters of Credence shall direct him YOu are to know that this your imployment is for the present meerly exploratory and provisional to give Us a clear and distinct Accompt of the present Affairs
both how they stand at your arrival there being every day changeable and how they incline in the future and particularly to sound the affections and the matter how far they be capable of any reasonable measure of agreement that from thence We may take judgement whether it shall be fit for Us to adde any others unto you in a main Treaty with safety of Our Honour and benefit of the Cause or to send others in your room and to release you from that business to your ordinary Residence at Venice Wherein We are contented to defer thus much to your discretion that if you shall find things desperate and the Emperours Party absolutely victorious you may then after a Currier dispatched unto Us with advertisement of all circumstances take your way to Venice If otherwise you shall find the Forces on both sides to stand within such terms of equality as the event is like in probability to continue dubious and uncertain you shall then attend the issue till the blow shall be strucken and upon all important variations of occurrences you shall signifie the same unto Us. 2. According to this scope of your imployment you shall hold with all those Priâ—…s from the highest to the meanest and from those that are most remote in respect to those that are nearest unto Us in nature and Alliance the same language assuring them all that We constantly continue in Our own Principles that is in first desiring the quiet of Christendome and particularly of those parts by all possible means wherein We have formerly expressed by a noble Ambassage of one of Our nearest Servants before Our Brother the French King did enter into it and before Our Selves shall be drawn to any other resolution which We thought meet to make publickly known both by Our said former Ambassador the Vicount Doncaster and now by you leaving the rest to God and time 3. Touching your address first or second to one part or other We leave it to your discretion upon the place when you have consulted with the Princes of the Union in general or with their Sub-director for the time whither you may best direct your self whom you shall pray in Our Name to assist you therein with their best advice as likewise in all things else concerning the present Affairs That after this exploration of the business being much altered since our first Ambassage We may know what it shall be fit for Us further to direct 4. Whereas We are informed that the Ambassadors of Our Brother the French King have Instructions to propound two things 1. A Surceasance of Arms 2. An Imperial Diet you shall signifie that in the first of these motions We mainly concur with Him and in the other so far as by the directions of Our Dear Son-in-Law you shall find convenient for the publick good and His own 5. Touching the Dukes of Saxony and Bavaria and any other Prince not comprised within the Union you shall desire them heartily in Our Name to joyn with Us for the common tranquillity that things may not pass to a further irritation of those Princes and States and particularly of Our Selves which otherwise profess Pacifical and Christian ends fortifying your exhortation therein with the best reasons that you can collect out of the present Affairs as they shall appear unto you 6. To all Princes whom it may any way concern you shall make it known that in the Election of Our Son-in-Law to the Crown of Bohemia We had no part by any precedent Counsel or practice which We affirm in the faith and truth of a Christian Prince And are likewise informed of his own clearness therein by vehement affirmations and by most probable Circumstances A Copy of my Dispatch to the King from Vienna Septemb. 7. 1620. May it please my most Gracious Soveraign IF Your Majesty since my last Accompt from Augusta of what I had handled with the Duke of Loreign and Wirtenberg with the Arch-duke Leopold and with the Communities of Strasburg and Ulm shall have expected to hear before now what I do in this place the obligation of Your own goodness and bounties towards me besides the conscience of my charge and duty may in the mean while have assured Your Majesty that no diligence or fidelity on my part hath been wanting in the pursuit of Your Commands and Christian ends as I hope shall appear by this Dispatch Wherein first It may please Your Majesty to understand that I have been ten dayes here in Vienna after I had been four whole dayes stayed by the Emperour at Cloâ—…ster-Nyberg on the Dannby not above a Dutch mile or little more from this Town whilst a House and all other things were preparing for my reception Which course was likewise held with the French Ambassadors in the same measure During vvhich time of my stay the Emperour sent me some Provisions and vvithal the young Baron of Harach to conduct me hither and here continually to assist me for procurement of my Audiences or any other conveniences being a Gentleman of the Emperours Bed-chamber twice heretofore employed in foreign Ambassages Son-in-lavv to the Count Eckemberg the Emperors Favorite and Son to the next of his Counsellors in grace and credit though the young Baron of Mersberg Captain of his Guard vvas sent to the French yet I perceive in the choice of this other Gentleman an equality of respect towards your Majesty vvas used An hour after my arrival here he sent to bid me vvelcome the Count of Mecaw heretofore Lord Chamberlaine to the Emperour Matthias and a Counsellor to this in tertiis quartisve I am placed near to the Court in the House of the Baron de Gabriana vvith rich furniture and good attendance and hitherto at the Emperors charge vvhich vvithin a vvhile must cease of vvhich I have given the Reason in my Letter to Mr. Secretary Nanton In the mean time I must profess unto your Majesty that no circumstance of due regard to the Honour of your Name hath been here omitted but all done vvith unexpected freedom in so much as to accompany me at my Table are sent and admitted Gentlemen of both Religions and of the best degree vvhich in the meaner Courts of Germany I have noted to pass vvith more restraint Thus much concerning my Reception vvhich is the formal part Novv before I pass unto the material it is a piece of curiosity to tell unto your Majesty vvhat discords I here finde amongst the publick Instruments vvhich seem somewhat considerable The French Ambassadours have been here about seven vveeks and to this hour are unvisited by the Spanish though close adjoyning them upon a meagre punctuality for thus it standeth The French arrived on the Munday at night the Spaniard sent immediately to vvelcome them his Secretary ex forma They have Audience the next morning following that passed the Count Ognate demands leave to visit them in the afternoon they desire to be excused being a day of ordinary dispatch The
with the Emperor not to proceed too hastily to the publishing of the Banne seeing that would be to deliver over the Patrimony of His Majesties Children unto Strangers which were an unkinde requital of His Majesties Princely sincere and moderate intentions and proceedings toward him and must of necessity interest and imbarque His Majesty in the defence of His Childrens inheritance which His Majesty hopes the Emperor will take into his advised and serious consideration This is all I have to recommend unto you for the present as from His Majesty for my self I promise it my self from you that you are resolved I am and will remain Your Lordships most assuredly to do you service Whitehal Sept. 23. 1620. Septemb. 1620. The Copy of my Letter written to His Majesties Ambassadors at Prague S. P. I Do address the present unto your Lordships or in your absence to Sir Francis Nethersole by this Gentleman Mr. Walter Waller coming in company of Monsieur de Sigonie whom the French Ambassadors Duke d'Angolesme Monsieur de Bethunes and Monsieur de Preaux do conjoyn with me in this Dispatch the scope whereof I cannot well set down without first telling what doth lead it I have been here almost a fortnight well received with all imaginable circumstances due to the honour of our Gracious Master My proposition to the Emperor did consist of these four points 1. That it would please him to make known his inclination towards a sincere Treaty upon the present Motions 2. That he would be likewise pleased to instruct me by one or two or more Persons of choice and knowledge in all the fundamental Arguments touching the merit of the Cause promising to represent them faithfully to the King my Master 3. To condescend to a cessation of Arms for some competent time least while the Reconcilement is in Treaty the passions be more and more exasperated 4. That for the furtherance of these good intentions the Emperor will be pleased to grant Passports for Curriers from Vienna towards Prague upon all occasions where his Armies lie Of these he hath yielded to the first and last namely a freedom to treat whereof I made some doubt and a freedom to send whereupon the French Ambassadours and my self have joyntly formed this present Dispatch to this end that the Elector Palatine may likewise by your Lordships or by his Majesties Agent there be drawn as far as we have disposed the Emperor in the first and last points of my Proposition for to this hour the Prince Christian of Anhalt though the French Ambassadors before my coming had written and expresly sent unto him hath given no Answer by which conjecture may be made whether the foresaid Elector will treat or no or whether the Bohemians will suffer it Now because if I should end here so much only as I have hitherto said would scantly import the price of the carriage we have thought fit I speak still plurally in the names of the French and my self to acquaint your Lordships and Sir Francis Nethersole with some ways that have been conceived for the effecting of our Masters good intentions about the Publick repose It hath been first thought very expedient that both parties were drawn to remit these great differences to a Diet at Regensburg of German Princes with intervention of foreign Ambassadors Next some have gone so far and this both the French and my self profess to have taken up on the way even amongst the Friends of the Elector as to project a form of Agreement upon some such Articles as these that follow 1. That the Elector Palatine be contented to relinquish the title and possession of the Kingdom of Bohemia 2. That the Emperor Ferdinando according to the first Election of the Bohemians and by virtue thereof shall enjoy the entire profits and title of the said Crown during his natural life 3. That after the decease of the said Emperor it shall be free for the Bohemians to chuse what King they will and much more to admit him whom they have designed namely the Palatine Heir apparent 4. That for assuring the immunities of that People and future freedom in the exercise of both Religions the Emperor be contented to commit the Regiment of the said Kingdom to the Naturals thereof 5. That of Persons on each side banished whether Spiritual or Civil nothing be said till a full agreement about the rest Concerning these things I mean as well the Diet as the project the French Ambassadours and my self do joyntly pray your Lordships or in your absence Sir Francis Nethersole by your wisdoms to sound the inclinations of that place where you are that accordingly we may here upon your Answer likewise feel the Emperor with whom it were ill manners to begin Not fixing our conceits upon this which hath now been represented but leaving it as a Bears whelp which may be licked into a better form and remaining here both willing and desirous to receive either this better polished or some new conception from your Lordships that we may drive to the wished end Of all which an account hath been given from hence to our Sovereign Master that his high and Christian wisdom may approve or alter what it shall please him And so commending to Almighty God the God of Peace and Love your Lordships and the Publick health I humbly rest Vienna 1620. At your Commandments H. WOTTON Postsc I have done Mr. Dickenson my Friend and Consociate in the Treaty at Santoan a great deal of wrong not to mention him in this Dispatch if he be with your Lordships of which I was doubtful The Ambassadors Answer from Prague Octob. 18. 1620. Right Honourable SIr Francis Nethersole communicated unto us your Lordships of the 7 th of September St. vet the 9 th present the impediments of journeying with the delaies we met with at Dresden having made our arrival so late here that he had not only given overture to the business but gained such an Answer as the present constitution of the state of affairs and affections of parties would admit for which we refer you to his Relation to whose endeavors the honour is due You will easily believe that we would give all the force we could to second this great good work so piously intended by our gracious Master so requisite for Christendom and so needful to draw our Masters dear Son-in-law and his blessed Lady out of the extream difficulties they are in and in this work to be joyned with your wisdom and dexterity Here you will find ready affections to Peace to treat to admit the ways and conveniencies to Treaty if a cessation of Arms may be accorded but the difficulty lies to find the medium The Kingdom of Bohemia and the Appurtinances are the very question and they tell you here that the granting of a disposition thereof is to overthrow their Priviledges Immunities and Rights So to leave the possession of the Kingdom and to keep it is to reconcile Yea and No. Yet
even by the Treaty of Ulm where his Embassadors did intervene For they tell me that by virtue thereof neither directè nec indirectè any of the Provinces belonging to the League or to the Union could be molested by either side Which the Electors of Mentz and Colen have broken by permission of Spinola nay divers ways by subministration of commodities to his Army And I hear that to save themselves they have procured Patents from the Emperor that as his Commissaries they may do some things which they could not do or permit as Leaguers Always sure I am that the Duke of Bavaria did three or four days withstand the nominating of the French Ambassadors in the foresaid Treaty which the other side did as vehemently affect for no other imaginable reason within my penetration then only to engage France in the maintenance thereof This I have touched not that I doubt of your accommodating of those things civily without Arms or that your Majesty shall need if extremity require the sharpest remedies any help to vindicate your own Descendents from violence but because en tout cas the conjunction of France would be some ease to the Princes of the Union whereof your Majesty is the head The other point that I am bold to offer unto your Majesties consideration is That the King of Spain himself is bound by his own protestation to revoke Spinola For therein he declareth that his meaning was not by assisting the Emperour Cuiquam Mortalium per injuriam vim inferre aut in aliena cupiditatem suam extendere which protestation the Emperor received from his own Ambassador in the Spanish Court and by his Secretary here did communicate the same with me to be sent unto your Majesty as I did in my first Dispatch and have now again sent another Copy least the former should be strayed And so with my humble Prayers to the eternal God for your blessed health and joy I ever rest Your Majesties long devoted Servant and faithful Vassal H. W. POSTSCRIPT The expected Advertisement is now come from the Prince of Transilvania to this effect He greatly complaineth of the faintness and defection of his Confederates in general And in particular first that an Ambassage which he addressed since the Battel to the Moravians with animating perswasions took no place Next that the Elector Palatine to whom he expresly sent into Silesia Iohannes Krauss Secretary of the Kingdom of Hungaria hath not vouchsafed him any clear or determinate Answer to the Subject of his Errand which I have before set down Nay farther that the Prince of Anhalt and the Count of Hollock came joyntly together unto the said Iohannes Krauss in Preslaw and there among other discourse told him That the remainder of this affair was not to be handled by the French Ambassadors nor by me here which the French take very sensibly especially their offer and intercession having before by the said Prince of Anhalt been unaccepted and a Letter which they wrote unto him to this hour unanswered though sent by Monsieur de Ste Catherine no suspected person but one who had been so long resident in the Palatiae Court Upon which premises they have seriously desired me to testifie unto your Majesty as in truth I am bound their willingness to have mediated in this cause and their continual frank and faithful conferences with me about the common end On the other side I have desired them to represent things fairly to the King their Master and not upon any private distaste to abandon the common interest which so many Princes have in the subsistence of the Palatine Since this Advertisement from Bethelem Gabor and his Hungarians who are resolved to Treat singly and have sent hither to propound it we have gotten knowledge that such a Letter is come to the Emperor from the Duke of Saxony touching the Palatine Elector as makes us conceive he will use his mediation rather then ours So as I am preparing towards Venice in this hard season where as your Majesties Servant I have the honour to be much expected and desired as I hear by their Resident in this place especially the Republick standing in no small perplexity and sollicitude at the present divers ways There I shall attend your Majesties farther directions and leave the French as I found them upon this Stage till they get leave to depart for which they have dispatched home an express Currier intending in the mean time to deal between the Emperour and Bethelem Gabor The Accord of Ulm June 23. 1620. mentioned in the foregoing Letter NOus Maximilian par la grace de Dieu Conte Palatin du Rhein Duc de la haute basse Baviere c. Et nous Joachim Ernest par la mesme grace Marquis de Brandenbourg Duc de Prusse Stetin Pomeranie des Casoubes Wenden de Silesie de Croonen Jagendorff Burgrave de Nurnberg Prince de Rugen Be it known unto all and every one that seeing as well within the Sacred Empire of Germany as in divers Kingdoms and Neighbouring Estates Troubles and Tumults and Alterations have been on foot and long continued whereas not the Catholicks only but the Electors Princes and Confederate States of the Religion have taken occasion to Arm themselves which indeed hath been the cause of great differences and misprisions if these preparations of Arms and levy of Souldiers should proceed further on both sides to offend and destroy one another Therefore that such despight may be removed and good friendship between both Parties in the Empire established We have made a firm and constant Agreement by means likewise of the French Ambassadors which were at that time in the Imperial City of Ulm. And first of all We Maximilian Duke of Bavaria as General of the Catholick League by virtue of our Authority and We Ioachim Ernest Marquess of Brandenburg as Lieutenant General of the Union by virtue of our Authority in the presence and approbation also of other Princes States Alliants Deputies with full Power and Authority do promise and vow for our Selves of each Party Alliants Electors Princes and States by all the real Words of Truth and Fidelity in the best and most stable form that may or ought hold or stand firm by all the Rules of Right That none Electors Princes Alliants States of either Party in what manner soever or under whatsoever pretence neither by themselves nor any other shall with Arms pertaining to either Party offend or cut off the Treaty of Peace nor discommodate pillage spoil attaint or trouble one another nor any thing to them belonging as Electoralities Principalities Subjects Towns Villages Revenues Ecclesiastical or Civil But that as well the Catholicks with the Gospellers as they again with the Catholicks be and remain in true and unfeigned Peace Concord and Charity every of them secure in their own Proprieties without fear of Trouble or Assault And to the end that this Promise and Confidence being otherwise required and enjoyned
between Princes and Neighbouring Estates by Constitutions of the Empire may faithfully be continued it is provided That the two Armies here near encamped with all possible speed remove out of the places where they were pitched without any detriment to either Party and that they lodge not together in one place Secondly it is concluded That if perchance any Elector Prince Confederate State of either Party or indeed either of them in gross should require upon necessity a Passage by virtue of Ordinances of the Empire for the Defence and Security of them and their Subjects having first peaceably given sufficient Caution neither of them ought to deny it Provided the same requisition be seasonably made not upon rash and precipitate Advice when the Army be upon the Frontiers or indeed within the Territories of them with complaint or discommodity of the Subject Thirdly Forasmuch as We Maximilian Duke of Bavaria and other Electors Princes Catholick Estates and Alliants have excluded from this present Treaty the Kingdom of Bohemia with the Incorporated Provinces and other States Hereditary of the House of Austria and comprehended within the Treaty only the Electorals and Countries belonging to Electors Princes and States Confederates of either Party under which also is contained the Electoral Palatinate with all Inheritances thereunto belonging scituate within the Empire They ought not to be expended further seeing at this present we persist not in these differences that having nothing common with the rest but we will keep good Correspondence with them without any suspition Which likewise We Ioachim Ernest Marquess of Brandenburg do agree to the Resolution of the Electors Princes and States Catholick touching the Kingdom of Bohemia and the United Provinces with other Inheritances appertaining to the House of Austria for Us our Alliants Electors Princes and States and We will no less on our side that the said Kingdom of Bohemia with the United Provinces and Countries Hereditary to the House of Austria be not comprised in this Treaty understanding as well this Declaration to be for the Electoralities Principalities and Estates scituate and being within the Empire Fourthly Whereas during this Treaty divers times mention hath been made of the Griefs of the Empire not yet decided the decision of the same is remitted to some more convenient time seeing this was too short and the Grievances touched not only those of either Party but in general all both Catholick and Evangelical States of the whole Empire concerning which for this present there is no sufficient Power or Authority to determine And seeing both of either Party pretend losses and damages done and received by either side and particularly at the Village of Sandthaim and thereabouts it shall be shortly treated of reasonable restitution for the same All vvhich things vve Maximilian Duke of Bavaria and vve Ioachim Ernest Marquess of Brandenburg as vvell for us as for the above-named our Confederates Electors Princes and States do promise to maintain and keep inviolably In vvitness of vvhich vve have set to our Hands and Seals the 3. July 23. June An. 1620. Locus O Sigilli Maximilian Locus O Sigilli Ioachim Ernest. A Dispatch by Ralph from Venice 1621. SIR I Choose at the present to vvrite thick and small for the closer conveyance of that vvhich followeth first to your faithfull hands and by them immediately unto our Soveraign Lord the King The deputed Cardinals of the Congregation or Committee in Rome touching his Majesties Matrimonial Treaty vvith Spain having resolved negatively even after six Assemblies the Cardinal Ludovisio and the Spanish Ambassador vvent joyntly to the Pope to pray him that by no means the negative resolution might be divulged as yet but suppressed for a time because some turns vvere to be done by the concealment thereof Hereupon the Venâ—…tian Ambassador by name Reniero Zen the most diving man that ever the Republick hath held in that Court and of much confidence vvith the Pope upon old acquaintance observing that the foresaid Congregation had voted and that their censures vvere concealed comes to the Cardinal Ludovisio the Popes Nephew before-named and extracts from him the vvhole matter vvith the means and reason of the suppression This I have received from a credible and I vvould say from an infallible fountain if it did not become my simplicity in a point so much concerning the eternal dishonour of a great King to leave alwayes some possibility of mis-information Yet thus much more I must adde not out of intelligence but from sober discourse that although the present Pope hath been hitherto esteemed more French then any of his Predecessors a great vvhile yet is not the King of Spain such a Bankrupt in Rome but that he might easily have procured an assent in the fore-named Congregation or at least a resolution sooner then after five or six meetings of the deputed Cardinals unless delays had been studied Be it how it vvill as to his Majesty doth belong the Soveraignty of judgement so to his poor honest Creatures abroad the liberty of relation and a frank discharge of our zeal and duties To vvhich I vvill subscribe my unworthy Name Venice Feb. 15 25. 1621. A Dispatch about the King of Bohemia's Affairs at Venice 1622. Right Honourable I Have formerly acquainted his Majesty through your hands how my self being then in Padoua under Physick of late my familiar evil I vvas recalled to Venice by the arrival here of Seignor Filippo Calandrini expresly sent to sollicit some contribution from this Republick to the support of Count Mansfelt's Army vvherein my joynt endeavour vvas required by Letters from the Elector himself as then at the Hague And likewise I vvas thereunto the better enabled by very carefull instruction from Sir Dudley Carlton under cypher of the vvhole business how it stood Neither did I need any new immediate Command from his Majesty to serve in the Cause of his own descendents especially after your Letters of the 19th of January by Order vvhereof I had before in his Royal Name made a general exploration here of their good vvill towards us and now by the present imployment of the foresaid Calandrini as also upon Letters from the Elector to this Duke vvhereof the delivery and pursuit vvas recommended to me I found apt occasion to descend à Thesi ad Hypothesin vvhich vvith vvhat discretion it hath been handled I dare not say but sure I am vvith as much zeal and fervour as the capacity of my heart could hold vvhereof the accompt is now due as followeth Two full Audiences I had upon this Subject at mine own demand and a third at their calling as long as both the former In my first to make it appear more serious then an ordinary duty I told them I vvould do that vvhich I had never done before For vvhereas vve commonly leave the reference of our Propositions to a Secretary of the State vvho stands alwayes by the Ambassador and is the transporter both of our Arguments and of
distillations in my brest makes me resolvs to enter anew into a little course of Physick And so having discharged this duty according to my Conscience and capacity I humbly leave your Grace in Gods blessed love remaining Your Graces ever devoted and professed Servant HENRY WOTTON 1626. The Copy of my Letter to the Queen of Bohemia Most Resplendent Queen even is the darkness of Fortune I Most humbly salute Your Majesty again after the longest silence that I have ever held with You since I first took into my heart an image of Your excellent Vertues My thoughts indeed have from the exercise of outward duties been confined within my self and deeply wounded with mine own private griefs and losles which I was afraid if I had written sooner to Your Majesty before time had dryed them up would have freshly bled again And with what shall I now entertain Your sweet Spirits It becomes not my weakness to speak of deep and weighty Counsels nor my privateness of great Personages Yet because I know Your Majesty cannot but expect I should say somewhat of the Duke of Buckingham whom all contemplate I will begin there and end in such comforts as I can suggest to Your present Estate which shall be ever the Subject both of my Letters and of my prayers But before I deliver my conceit of the said Duke I must use a little Preface I am two wayes tyed unto him First for his singular love to my never forgotten Albertus therein likewise concurring with Your Majesties inestimable affection Next for mine own particular I hold by his mediation this poor place as indeed for the benefit I may well call it though not for the contentment But if it were worth Millions or Worlds I protest unto Your Majesty to whom I owe the bottome of my heart I would not speak otherwise of him then I conceive Therefore setting aside both fears of Parliament and hopes of Court I will spend my opinion which is all my freehold And truly my most gracious and Royal Mistress I cannot weigh his Case without much wonder being one of the strangest all considered that I ever yet took into my fancy Not that the Commons assembled should sift and winnow the actions even of the highest of the Nobility Not that an obscure Physician then among them ambitious of some glory out of his own profession should dare to give the first onset on so eminent a Personage Not that such a popular pursuit once begun by one and seconded by a few other should quickly kindle a greater Party These are in their nature no marvels nor Novelties Neither can I greatly muse that in a young Gentleman during thirteen years of such prosperity and power the heighth of his place exposing him to much observation and curiosity the Lower House lâ—…kewise opening the way to all kind of complaints as they did and examining nothing upon Oath as they never do there should be matter enough gleaned to make up thirteen Objections and none of heinous degree For after such boltings to the quick even among men of far meaner managements I think there would be found every where some Bran. Therefore I can pass all this over with easie belief But there is a consideration or two which do much confound my judgement First for the matter it self That this very Noble man who at the Parliament of 1623. was so universally applauded and celebrated in every corner as a great Instrument of the Publick good in so much as for my part I conceived him then to be that which few or none had been before in all ages No less Favorite I mean to the People then to the King should now be persued with these dislikes when for the most part the very same Objectors were in the foresaid Parliament and the very same Objections except one or two might as well then have been alledged This is I must confess to my understanding a Labyrinth Again When from the matter turning to the Person I view the fairness and equality of his temper and carriage I can in truth descry in his own nature no original excitement of such distaste which commonly ariseth not so much from high fortune as from high looks For I most ingeniously avow unto your Majesty that among all the Favorites which mine eyes have beheld in divers Courts and times I never saw before a strong heart and eminent condition so clearly void of all pride and swelling arrogancy either in his face or in his fashion These are partly the Reasons that make me vvonder hovv such offence should grovv like a mushrome in a night But there is one thing above all other that hath strucken deepest into my mind and made me see hovv the greatest men have this unfortunate adjunct in their felicity to be sometimes obnoxious to the foulest and falsest reports vvhereof in the person of this very Duke himself I shall lay a monstrous example before your Majesty out of mine own particular knowledge and employment It pleased my Sovereign novv being to direct unto me hither a Commission to examine my Lord of Oldebares Daughter by name Mistress Anne Lion I think sometimes not unknown unto your Majesty then resident at Windsor about an abominable Pamphlet published and printed towards the time of the last Parliament in divers Languages by one Doctor Eglisham a Scottish Physitian vvho therein chargeth the Duke of Buckingham vvith such trifles as these The death of the Marquess Hamilton his near Friend and Ally the death of our late King of ever blessed memory his most dear Master the intended deaths of divers Counsellors of Estate his Associates painting in effect a nature far beyond that of Richard the Third vvhen he vvas Duke of Glocester And for a Witness hereof he traduceth the foresaid Gentlewoman or rather as the main ground of his vvhole Book vvhich occasioned her examination at the Dukes pursuit against himself whereof I send your Majesty a Copy herewith as I took it from her own free delivery vvherein you shall see a bare Note of a few Counsellors Names found at first not in the Dukes Cabinet but in the very kennel of King-street by a Car-man Servant to a Woodmonger Secondly by him brought to a Foot-man by which honourable degrees it came to the Gentlewoman all dirty And at last it is turned by this Doctor into Bill of Personages to be poysoned out of a very charitable interpretation then reigning in him I am doubtful what passion it will most stir in your Majesty when you read the Circumstances whether meer laughter at such a ridiculous slander or a noble indignation at so desperate impudency And so not to stay any longer upon this Cobweb I will end with such comforts as I propound to my self in contemplation of your present being The first shall be a general impression which we have taken of his Majesties Nature And it is this That he is not only to consider him absolutely in his own composition of
singular virtue and piety and resolution in good but likewise to consider him relatively he is an excellent Husband Brother and Friend I call Favorites the Friends of Kings as your Majesty who is so well versed in the best of Books knows I may do with very good warrant For was not Hushai the Archite so styled to David and after him Zahud to Solomon Nay had not the Highest of all Examples in the time of his Humane lowness both among the living a Beloved that lay on his bosome and another also whom he calls his Friend even when he called him from the dead Thus much I could not abstain to let fall from my pen by the way against all murmurers at any singularity of affection which abound both in States and Families But of these three Relations I will now only contemplate that which respecteth your Majesty which indeed is as clear and visible as the rest For surely all the Parliaments that our most Gracious Sovereign hath hitherto assembled and all the Actions that he hath undertaken abroad either of himself or by combinations and his private Counsels at home have principally levelled at your support and restorement as the Deliberations likewise that went before in the latter time of your most blessed Father So as your Majesty in the justness of your Cause and in the sweetness of your Nature doth stand firmly invested in both the titles of as beloved a Sister as you were a Daughter And I am confident that our living and loving God who did accept the zeal of your Royal Brother and bless his own and the publick devotions at home with almost a miraculous conversion of the infirmity which raged into health and of the sterility which was feared into plenty will likewise find his own good time to favour our pursuits abroad Your Majesties second comfort is the universal love of all good Minds To which I may justly add a particular zeal in him who is nearest his Majesty to foment his best desires towards you which he hath expressed sundry times within my hearing The last and inwardest consolation that I can represent unto your Majesty is your self your own soul your own vertues your own Christian constancy and magnanimity Whereby your Majesty hath exalted the glory of your sex conquered your affections and trampled upon your adversities To conclude you have shewed the World that though you were born within the chance yet without the power of fortune And so having sought to redeem so long a silence I tear with too long a trouble I will promise your Majesty to commit no more of the former fault and humbly beg your pardon for the other ever and ever remaining Your Majesties poor Servant with all humble and hearty devotion HENRY WOTTON To my most dear and worthy Friend Mr. John Dinely at the Hague My ever most dear Jack Dinely THe Queens last Letter wherewith her Majesty did too much honour me coming when my voices of any value were no more in mine own power was nearer a torment then a surprizal It shall teach me to reserve my self as wiser men do for such supervenient temptations I must confess above all strength if the least possibility had been lest It is true I could have given him a latter place but in that I should have disgraced the suiter and disrespected the Commander I have therefore rather chosen to put him in the Vanguard the next year being the Son of a Souldier then now in the Rear And this is the summe of my humble answer to her Majesty though in other terms Your Anthony who is my Guest every Saturday night is well grown in stature and more in knowledge I verily believe he will prove both a wise and learned man and certainly good We have passed over quocunque modo the most troublesome Election that I think was here ever seen Wherein according to my usual fashion I have lost four or five friends and yet I thank God not gotten the value of one Harrington So as they are angry at me on the one side and they laugh at me on the other If my most gracious Mistress will in her goodness be pleased to drown her displeasure till the next turn I shall chearfully in the mean time bear the weight of mine own simplicity I have gotten with much adoe some of the Psalms translated by my late most blessed Master for the young Prince of Bohemia which is one of your memorials that have slept too long by me and I have ransacked mine own poor Papers for some entertainment for the Queen which shall be sent together Though it be now a misery to revisit the fancies of my youth which my judgement tells me are all too green and my glass tells me that my self am gray Till my next let me trouble you no farther The love of God be with us and we are well Your poor true Friend HENRY WOTTON From the Colledge at midnight the 12. of August 1628. I hear that one hath offered to the Prince of Orenge an invention of discoursing at a great distance by Lights Is it true A Noble Lady who is desirous to bestow her Son at Leyden would fain be first informed what commodity for education the place doth yield wherein you shall do me and her a great favour To my very worthy and ever dear Friend Mr. John Dinely at the Hague My ever dear Jack Dinely YOur last of the 6th of October vvere vvelcome beyond all expression intimating a hope that I shall see your self shortly vvhich vvill be mille Epistolae I do not see how you can fail of the thing vvhereof you vvrite if you come quickly The Letter in your behalf from our Royal Mistress to his Majesty here is too faint being moulded in your own modesty Therefore I have a little invaded it vvith some violence unto you When you consult vvith me about the Personage that should first or second or tertiate your business vvith the King I must answer as Demosthenes did of Action My Lord Thresorer My Lord Thresorer and so again We contemplate him not only in the quality of his Place but already in some degree of a Privado and even the fresh introducement of Sir F. Cottington to the Counsel-Table is no small argument of his strength though otherwise a Subject of merit I hear likewise that his own sorraign imployments have given him a great taste of things abroad So as you vvill not find him incurious to discourse vvith you And I verily believe that he vvill take an address of you from the Queen unto him as the principal Personage to the heart vvherein methinks it vvere fit and proper that her Majesty vvould be pleased likewise to favour you vvith some lines to my Lord Conaway because they vvere joyned in Ambassage unto Her at Prage This is all that I shall need to say till your own coming Your little Anthony prospers extreamly vvell and I dare now say he vvill prove a good Scholar And
so being in truth in no very chearfull disposition at the present but newly come out of two or three fits of an Ague I vvill trouble neither of us both any further ever resting From London ready to return to my Coll. at Eton this 13. of Nov. 1628. Your poor professed Friend HENRY WOTTON If the Queen have not heard the Epitaph of Albertus Morton and his Lady it is vvorth her hearing for the passionate plainness He first deceas'd She for a little tryed To live vvithout him Lik'd it not and died POSTSCRIPT In a Letter under this date to her Majesty I conclude vvith a supplication that She vvill be pleased to receive a Page at the joynt suit of the House of Bacons A Boy of singular spirits vvithout aggravation of her charge for he shall vvant no means to maintain himself in good fashion about so Royal a Mistress I pray heartily further this motion and be in it your self Nuncius laetitiarum Part of a Letter to the Lord Treasurer Earl of Portland ut videtur THis is the reckoning of my unpleasant time whereby your Lordship sees that my silence hath been a symptome as I may term it of my infirmity from all outward respects and duties contracting my thoughts about my self But can that serve my turn No in troth my good Lord For I should while my self was in contemplation have remembred that I was bound to congratulate with your Lordship even for mine own sake especially when I found by the long use of two or three Physicians the exhaustion of my Purse as great as other evacuations It would breed wrinckles in my face if I should stay any longer upon this point I will chear my self that your Lordship did love me even before I was so worthy of your compassion I have tasted the benefit of your discourse I have enjoyed your hospitality I have been by your favour one of your familiar guests I have had leave to interchange some good tales and stories in your company and to exercise my natural freedom Besides we have been conjoyned in a serious business wherein I do even yet hope for some good by your means So as I have had in your Lordship the interests both of earnest and of pleasant conversation which gives me the boldness to assure my self that I am still not only within your Lordships remembrance but likewise within your loving care But I dig in a Rock of Diamonds To the KING 1628. May it please Your most Sacred Majesty IT is more to be bound to Your Majesties judgement then to be bound to Your favour Therefore I do not only joy but glory though still with humble acknowledgement and feeling what my self am that You have been pleased as I understand from my Lord of Dorchester to apply my Pen to so noble an end being confident that the very care not to disgrace Your Majesties good pleasure and indulgent choice of me will invigorate my weakness But before I enter into the description of others actions and fortunes which require a free spirit I must present at Your Royal feet and even claim from Your natural equity and goodness such compensation as it shall please You in that which followeth I served the King Your Father of most blessed memory from the time he sent for me at the beginning of his Raign out of France retaining then some gracious remembrance of my service with him in Scotland twenty years that is almost now a third part of my life in ordinary and extraordinary imployments abroad I had many comfortable Letters of his contentment or at least of his gracious toleration of my poor endeavours And I had under his own Royal hand two hopes in reversion The first a moiety of a six Clerks place in Chancery The next of the Office of the Rolls it self The first of these I was forced to yield to Sir William Beecher upon the late Duke of Buckingham's former engagement unto him by promise even after Your Majesty had been pleased to intercede for me with Your said ever blessed Father And that was as much in value as my Provostship were worth at a Market The other of the Reversion of the Rolls I surrendred to the said Duke in the Gallery at Wallingford-House upon his own very instant motion the said Duke then intending it upon the now Attorney Sir Robert Heath though with serious promise upon his honour that he would procure me some equivalent recompence before any other should be setled in the place The truth of my humble claim and of his sincere intentions towards me I present herewith unto Your Majesty in a Letter all under his own hand I could likewise remember unto Your Majesty the losses I have sustained abroad by taking up moneys for my urgent use at more then twenty in the hundred by casualty of fire to the damage of near four hundred pounds in my particular by the raising of moneys in Germany whereby my small allowance when I was sent to the Emperors Court fell short five hundred pounds as Seignor Burlamachi too well knoweth and other wayes Now for all this that I may not press Your Majesty with immoderate desires I most humbly beg from Your Royal equity and I may say from Your very compassion but two things First That Your Majesty will be pleased in disposing of the Rolls to which I was assigned to reserve for me some small proportion towards the discharge of such debts as I contracted in publick service yet remaining upon interest Next That You will be likewise pleased to promise me the next good Deanry that shall be vacant by death or remove whereof I also had a promise from Your blessed Father then at Newmarket and am now more capable thereof in my present condition And thus shall Your Majesty restore me both to the freedom of my thoughts and of my life otherwise so intricated that I know not how to unfold it And so with my continual prayers to the Almighty for his dearest and largest blessings upon Your Royal Person I ever rest Whitehall Feb. 12. Styl vet 1628. Your Majesties most faithfull poor Subject and Servant HENRY WOTTON To my most worthy Friend Mr. John Dinely Esq at Boston in Lincolnshire My dear Jack Dinely YOu see I keep my familiarity though you be the governor of Princes And I see by your Letter that I am every where in your remembrance even where so many natural pledges divide you The Parliament is since your going dissolved by the King upon such reason as in good faith all sober minds must approve even while they wish it otherwise Never was there such a morning as that which occasioned the dissolution since Phacton did guide his Fathers Chariot We are now cheared with some forraign news but I am still sorry that we must fetch our comfort from abroad and from the discords of Italy instead of the harmony of England Our Lords sit often and vvere never more close insomuch as it is as
be at Mr. Alkinds House in the Strand or otherwise peradventure vvith your Friend in Lombard-street vvhereof you shall have notice in time I am yours every where H. WOTTON From the Colledge April 21. 1639. SIR I should be sorry for your departure towards our Royal Mistress before some short meeting at least between us for I have much discourse to unlade in your honest brest and I can tell you vve had need lay up discourse safely vvhich I hope you vvill take for some excuse of my seldome vvriting unto you for I suspect a certain natural frâ—…edom in mine own Pen. In the Scottish Affairs it is one mystery that we know not what to believe Only this we can say That there is nothing to be praised in it on their part and I could wish there were as little to be feared on ours Deus operatur omnia suaviter And to his Power and Mercy vve must leave our selves Your ever faithful poor Friend H. WOTTON From the Colledge April 17. 1639. Sir My Coach-man is yet crasie from a late great sickness but if it please you to specifie the time of your conveniency my Geldin shall vvait upon you at Branford A poinct nommé SIR I long novv to hear of nothing more then a little Deynleiolus and if it prove of another Gender in Grammer then let Philosophy comfort you that says It is Natures method to begin ab Imperfectiori But by my contemplation of your own and your Wives complexion and of her late sicknâ—…ss I should imagine that Fortior pars trahet sexum We are sorry to hear that the Scottish Gentlemen vvho have been lately sent to that King found as they say but a brusk vvelcome vvhich makes all fear that there may be a rebullition in that business We have a nevv strange voice flying here that the Prince Palatine is towards a Marriage I apprehend much the event of your new Ambassage from the States being carried by a man who hath had his vvhole fortune out of France but the vvisdom of the Instrument may mollifie all I should be glad to knovv vvhether his Son-in-law Constantinus Hugeinus be in his company Lastly I should be glad to hear that you are un tantino promoved in your own ends for vvhen the first vvay is plained all will go smoothly Let us howsoever love one another and God love us both Your poor Friend H. WOTTON A TABLE OF THE Several Tracts contained in this Book 1. THe Elements of Architecture 2. A Survey of Education 3. Aphorisms of Education 4. Characters of some Kings of England 5. Vita Henrici Sexti 6. Ad Regem è Scotia reducem H. W. Plausus Vota 7. A Panegyrick to King Charles 8. The Parallel 9. The Disparity 10. The Life of the Duke of Buckingham 11. The Great Action between Pompey and Caesar. 12. A Character of Ferdinand Grand Duke of Tuscany 13. The Election of the New Duke of Venice with other Papers concerning that State 14. A Meditation on Gen. 22. 15. A Meditation on Christmass day 16. Letters to several Persons 17. Poems 18. Letters to Sir Edmund Bacon 19. Additional Letters to several Persons Never before Printed FINIS * In his Chronicle * Cambden in his Britannia * Hollinshed * Sir Edward Bish Clarentieux King of Arms M. Charls Cotton and Mr. Nick Oudert sometime Sir Hen. Wotton's Servant * St. Austin's Confession * Watson in his Quodlibets * Emanuel Colledge in Cambridge * August 1627. * Sept. 3. 1629. * 1 Tim. 3. 7. * * Juven * * In it were Italian locks picklocks screws to force open doors and many things of worth and rarity that he had gathered in his forreign Travel * Lege vulgata de vita parentibus Scioppii p. 127. * Ibidem p. 132. * Ecclesiasticus Scioppii p. 371. * 8. April Sess. 4. * See what is published of the Life and Parents of Scioppius pag. 127. * April 8. Ses. 4. Memorandum That this Recantation was to my knowledg never Printed at Rome or elsewhere through more haste belike to his death or otherwise upon further consideration that things extorted with fear carry no credit even by the Praetors Edict Quod metus causa Tacit. lib. 1. Annal. * Aristot. 2. l. Polit c. 6. * Ioannes Heurnius Instit. Medicin lib. 7. cap. 2. Opidum quidem aedificatum eleganter sed imprudenter positum Under-digging or Hollowing of the Earth Our Artizans call them Teeth and Cartouzes * By the first Theor. * Which is the sole Prerogative of perpendicular Lines and right Angles Lumen est diffusivum sui alieni * A 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. Epig. The Italians call it una stanza dannata as when a Buttery is cast under a Stair-case or the like * Arist. lib. 1. cap. 5. de part Anim. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De nugis Curial c. * Capâ—… Aristotle in Rhetoricis * Averhoes * La Promissiâ—…ne Ducalâ—… Mar. 6. 1635. JAME'S 27. Styl nov a 1. The Style of the Emperours Chancery when he treateth with Kings is not Majestas which he reserveth for himself but either Serenitas or Regia Dignitas This made him angry when he heard that the French Ambassadours styled Bethlem Gabor Serenissimum who on the other side gave them leave to entitle him how they would adding this Reason That they were not Ambassadours which could make or unmake Kings b 2. Of these words he taketh advantage which were in your Majesties Credentiall Letter delivered by me c 3. I wonder he should touch this point wherein I had cleared both the Arch-duke Leopoldus and the Emperour himself namely that the first subsidiary Troops sent towards the Palatinate were-meerly Voluntaries without Your Majesties Contribution and defensively intended before any noise of the Invasion d 4. In declaring Your Majesties Will and determination from the beginning touching the Palatinates if they should be assailed I told the Emperour that though in the single Business of Bohemia You had suspended Your judgement till more liquid proofs yet You found Your Self tyed both by Nature and Reason not to suffer the Patrimonial Inheritance of Your Own Descendents in the hands of an Alien Usurper e 5. At this Audience I told the Emperour that Your Majesty would hardly be perswaded without his own affirmation that Spinola had invaded the Palatinate by his express Order And much less believe that he would lend any approbation thereunto ex post facto by way of Ban or otherwise Which action of Spinola the Emperour doth here assume But whether such was his meaning from the beginning or that his success in Bohemia hath bred this resolution may be somewhat questionable Alwayes sure it is that he affirmed unto the French Ambassadors long since that the Marquess Spinola was to come into Bohemia f 6. Of this term of 40 dayes and the following restriction not to treat touching any Province that in the mean time shall be reduced to his obedience I have written the true cause in my Letter to Your Majesty g 7. In Letters from M. Secretary Naunton of the 23. of Sept. which came so late unto my hands that the Emperors Ban was already formally touched and ready to be put to the Print h 8. This I think was added out of meer conjecture For wee have heard nothing of the Electors Actions since his retiring into Silesia i 9. So as upon my Intercession the Emperor hath granted some suspence of the Banne Which I required for two principal Reasons 1 Because the King my Masters moderation in the Bohemian Business not Cause Who was so much interessed in the Persons did justly merit from the Emperor an exchange of temperate proceeding 2. Because such an Imperial Proscription would but more and more inflame the minds of all Princes interessed by reason of Bloud or State in the subsistence of the Palatine and would be the cause of a perpetual War in the bowels of the Empire contrary to the Christian endeavours and wishes of Your Majesty Whose good intentions were now so manifested to the World by sundry Ambassages that You were satisfied in Your Own Conscience and justified before God and man whatsoever should ensue I told him besides that I thought Your Majesty would take it kindly if at Your request this Proscription were forborn When I had first enquired out her Lodging Authoris Incerti