Attorneys place p. 20. Sir Francis Bacon to Sir George Cary in France upon sending him his Writing In foelicem memoriam Elizabethae p. 21. A Letter to Sir George Villiers touching the difference between the Courts of Chancery and Kings Bench. p. 22. Sir Francis Bacon to the King concerning the Praemunire in the Kings Bench against the Chancery p. 23. A Letter to the King touching matter of Revenue and Profit p. 27. Sir Francis Bacon the Kings Attorney to the King touching the proceeding with Somerset p. 28. Sir Francis Bacon the Kings Attorney to Sir George Villiers concerning the proceeding with Somerset p. 30. Sir Francis Bacon the Kings Attorney giving account of an Examination taken of Somerset at the Tower p. 32. Sir Francis Bacon the Kings Attorney to Sir George Villiers touching the proceeding with Somerset p. 34. Sir Francis Bacon the Kings Attorney to Sir George Villiers of Account and Advice to His Majesty touching Somerset's Arraignment p. 35. Sir Francis Bacon the Kings Attorney and some great Lords Commissioners concerning the perswasion used to the Lord of Somerset to a frank Consession p. 36. Sir Francis Bacon to the King upon some inclination of His Majesty signified to him for the Chancellors place p. 38. Sir Francis Bacon the Kings Attorney returned with Postils of the Kings own Hand p. 39. The Copy of a Letter conceived to be written to the late Duke of Buckingham when he first became a Favourite to King James by Sir Francis Bacon afterwards Lord Verulam and Viscount St. Alban Containing some Advices to the Duke for his better direction in that eminent place of the Favourite Drawn from him at the intreaty of the Duke himself by much importunity p. 43. Sir Francis Bacon to Sir George Villiers of Advice concerning Ireland from Gorambury to Windsor p. 67. Sir Francis Bacon the Kings Attorney General to the Master of the Horse upon the sending of his Bill for Viscount sc. p. 69. Sir Francis Bacon to Sir George Villiers upon the sending his Pattent for Uiscount Villiers to be Signed p. 70. Sir Francis Bacon to the King about a Certificate of my Lord Coke's p. 72. A Letter to the King touching the Lord Chancellors place ibid. A Letter to the King of my Lord Chancellors amendment and the difference begun between the Chancery and Kings Bench. p. 75. Sir Francis Bacon the Kings Attorney to the King giving some account touching the Commendams p. 76. Sir Francis Bacon his Advertisement touching an Holy War to the Right Reverend Father in God Lancelot Andrews Lord Bishop of Winchester and Councellor of Estate to His Majesty p. 78. Sir Francis Bacon to the King about the Pardon of the Parliaments Sentence p. 81. Sir Francis Bacon to King James of a Digest to be made of the Laws of England p. 82. Sir Francis Bacon to the Right Honourabl◠〈◊〉 very good Lord the Earl of Devonshire Lord Lieutenant of 〈◊〉 p. 87. A Discourse touching Helps for the intellectual Powers by Sir Francis Bacon p. 97. Sir Francis Bacon to the King p. 101. C. Certain Copies of Letters written by Sir William Cecil Knight Secretary of Estate to Queen Elizabeth to Sir Henry Norris Knight Ambassador for the said Queen Resident in France Beginning the 10th of February 1566. and ending the 26th of September 15â—0 p. 105. The Lord Coke to King James touching trial of Duels out of England p. 193. H. The History of the Reign of King Henry the Eighth King Edward the Sixth Queen Mary and part of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth p. 194. I. A Copy of a Letter from His Majesty to the Lords read at Board Nov. 21. 1617. touching the abatement of His Majesties Houshold Charge p. 198. A Copy of His Majesties second Letter p. 199. A Letter from the King to his Lordship by occasion of a Book It was the Organon p. 200. To Our Trusty and Well-beloved Thomas Coventry Our Attorney-General ibid. S. A Letter written by Sir Philip Sidney unto Queen Elizabeth touching her Marriage with Mounsieur p. 201. My Lord Sanquir 's Case p. 209. My Lady Shrewsburies Case p. 212. T. Sir Nicholas Throckmorton then Ambassador in France to Queen Elizabeth touching a free Passage for the Queen of Scots through England into Scotland p. 214. Books Printed for and sold by G. Bedell and T. Collins Folio's Compleat AMBASSADOR Letters and Negotiations of the Lord Burleigh and Sir Francis Walsingham in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth Collected by Sir Dudly Diggs Bishop Andrews Sermons Halls Politicks Lord Bacons History of King Henry 7th * D'Avila's Civil Wars of France * Bishop Ushers Annals of the World * Titus Livius Roman History in English * Dr. Hammond on the New Testament * Paraphrase on the Psalms * Howe 's Chronicle of England * Lord Hobarts Reports with a large Table by Sir H. Finch * Bulstrodes Reports in Three Parts * Crooks Reports in Three Volumes * Lord Cooks Pleadings in English * Wingats Maxims of the Law * Styles Reports * Leonards Reports Second Part. Quarto's Mountagues Essayes Sennault's Christian Man Potters Number of the Beast 666. Grand Seignieurs Seuaglio Ross against Coparnicus touching the Earths motion French Letters touching His Majesties stedfastness in the Protestant Religion in French and English Character of CHARLES II. Articles or Treaty of Peace betwixt France and Spain Discourse for a King and Parliament Fumi Fugium A Discourse of the Air and Smoak of London by John Evelin Esq Lord Cooks Reading and Denshalls Reading on the Statute of Fines The Judges Arguments on the Liberty of the Subject Three Readings on Wills Jointures and forcible Entry Mr. Durhams Assize Sermon Dr. Thomas his Assize Sermon Playes * D'avenant's Wits * Platonick Lovers * Faithful Shepherdess by Fletcher Marriage of the Arts by Barten Hollyday The Bastard A Tragedy The Martyr A Tragedy The Just General Horratius in English A Tragedy Michaelmas Term. Combate of Love and Friendship Octavo's Gosses Tragedies Lucretius in Latine and English Faushawes La Fida Pastora Duke of Rohans Memoires and Discourses English Hyppolito Isabella Three Romances The Nuptial Lover Triumphant Lady Waterhouse his Apology for Learning Idem His Divine Tracts Idem His Discourse of Arms and Armory Botelers Sermons Compleat on several Subjects Instructions for a Library by Naudeus English Reliquiae Carolinae Dr. Taylors Offices or Liturgy Sheppard of Courts Of Corporations Lambords Archeion White of the Laws Parsons Law the last Edition Claytons Reports Fleetwoods Justice Stones Reading on the Statute of Bankrupts Wingats Body of the Law Noyes Maxims D'avenport's Abridgment of Cook on Littleton Abridgement of Acts. Twelves Compleat Justice Davis's Abridgement of Cooks Reports Tylenus Second Part against Baxter Jacksons Evangelical Temper Of Liberty and Servitude Haywards Edward 6th St. Chrysostom of Education Guuton of External Worship Supplementum Lucani per May. Thuan's Politick Maxims Mayerns Experiments Dr. Stuarts Sermons Ladies Cabinet Gees steps in four and twenties SIR FRANCIS BACON'S Letters c.
such directions or significations of Your pleasure as this advertisement may induce and that with speed because the time cometh on Well remembring who is the person whom Your Majesty admitted to this secret I have sent this Letter open unto him that he may take Your Majesties times to report it or shew it unto You assuring my self that nothing is more firm than his Trust tyed to Your Majesties Commandments Your Majesties most humble and most bounden Subject and Servant April 28. 1616. The Copy of a Letter conceived to be written to the late Duke of Buckingham when he first became a Favourite to King James by Sir Francis Bacon afterwards Lord Verulam and Viscount St. Alban Containing some Advices unto the Duke for his better direction in that eminent place of the Favourite Drawn from him at the intreaty of the Duke himself by much importunity Noble SIR WHAT you requested of me by word when I last waited on you you have since renewed by your Letters Your requests are commands unto me and yet the matter is of that nature that I find my self very unable to serve you therein as you desire It hath pleased the King to cast an extraordinary eye of favour upon you and you express your self very desirous to win upon the Judgment of your Master and not upon his Affections only I do very much commend your noble ambition herein for Favour so bottomed is like to be lasting whereas if it be built upon the sandy foundation of personal respects only it cannot be long-lived Yet in this you have erred in applying your self to me the most unworthy of your servants to give assistance upon so weighty a subject You know I am no Courtier nor vers'd in State-affairs my life hitherto hath rather been contemplative then active I have rather studied Books then Men I can but guess at the most at these things in which you desire to be advised Nevertheless to shew my obedience though with the hazard of my discretion I shall yield unto you Sir In the first place I shall be bold to put you in minde of the present condition you are in you are not only a Courtier but a Bed-Chamber man and so are in the eye and eare of Your Master but you are also a favourite The Favourite of the time and so are in his bosome also The world hath so voted you and doth so esteem of you for Kings and great Princes even the wisest of them have had their friends their Favourites their Privadoes in all ages for they have their affections as well as other men of these they make several uses sometimes to communicate and debate their thoughts with them and to upon their judgments thereby sometimes to ease their cares by imparting them and sometimes to interpose them between themselves and the envy or malice of their people for Kings cannot erre that must be discharged upon the shoulders of their Ministers and they who are neerest unto them must be content to bear the greatest load Truly Sir I do not believe or suspect that you are chosen to this eminency out of the last of these considerations for you serve such a Master who by his Wisdom and Goodness is as free from the malice or envy of His Subjects as I think I may say truly ever any King was who hath sate upon His Throne before him But I am confident his Majesty hath cast His eys upon you as finding you to be such as you should be or hoping to make you to be such as he would have you to be for this I may say without flattery your out-side promiseth as much as can be expected from a Gentleman But be it in the one respect or other it belongeth to you to take care of your self and to know well what the name of a Favourite signifies If you be chosen upon the former respects you have reason to take care of your actions and deportment out of your gratitude for the Kings sake but if out of the latter you ought to take the greater care for your own sake You are as a new-risen starre and the eys of all men are upon you let not your own negligence make you fall like a Meteor The contemplation then of your present condition must necessarily prepare you for action what time can be well spar'd from your attendance on Your Master will be taken up by suitors whom you cannot avoid nor decline without reproach for if you do not already you will soon find the throng of suitors attend you for no man almost who hath to do with the King will think himself safe unless you be his good Angel and guide him or at least that you be not a Malus Genius against him so that in respect of the King Your Master you must be very wary that you give him true information and if the matter concern him in his Government that you do not flatter him if you do you are as great a Traytor to him in the Court of Heaven as he that draws his sword against him and in respect of the suitors which shall attend you there is nothing will bring you more honour and more ease then to do them what right in justice you may and with as much speed as you may for believe it Sir next to the obtaining of the suit a speedy and a gentle denial when the case will not bear it is the most acceptable to suitors they will gaine by their dispatch whereas else they shall spend their time and money in attending and you will gaine in the ease you will find being rid of their importunity But if they obtain what they reasonably desired they will be doubly bound to you for your favour Bis dat qui cito dat it multiplies the courtesie to do it with good words and speedily That you may be able to do this with the best advantage my humble advice is this when Suitors come unto you set apart a certain hour in a day to give them Audience If the business be light and easie it may by word only be delivered and in a word be answered but if it be either of weight or of difficulty direct the Suitor to commit it to writing if it be not so already and then direct him to attend for his Answer at a set-time to be appointed which would constantly be observed unless some matter of great moment do interrupt it when you have received the Petitions and it will please the Petitioners well to have access unto you to deliver them into your own hand let your Secretary first read them and draw lines under the material parts thereof for the matter for the most part lies in a narrow room The Petitions being thus prepared do you constantly set apart an hour in a day to peruse those Petitions and after you have ranked them into several Files according to the subject matter make choice of two or three Friends whose judgments and fidelities you believe you may
bounden Servant July 5. 1616. Sir Francis Bacon the Kings Attorney General to the Master of the Horse upon the sending of his Bill for Viscount sc. SIR I Send you the Bill for His Majesties Signature reformed according to His Majesties amendments both in the two places which I assure you were altered with great judgment and in the third place which His Majesty termed a question only But he is an idle body that thinketh His Majesty asketh an idle question and therefore His Majesties questions are to be answered by taking away the cause of the question and not by replying For the name His Majesties Will is a Law in those things and to speak the truth it is a well-sounding and noble name both here and abroad and being your proper name I will take it for a good sign that you shall give honour to your dignity and not your dignity to you Therefore I have made it Viscount Villiers and for your Barony I will keep it for an Earldom For though the other had been more orderly yet that is as usual and both alike good in Law For Ropers place I would have it by all means dispatched and therefore I marvaile it lingreth It were no good manners to take the business out of my Lord Treasurers hands and therefore I purpose to write to his Lordship if I hear not from him first by Mr. Deckome but if I hear of any delay you will give me leave especially since the King named me to deal with Sir Joseph Roper my self for neither I nor my Lord Treasurer can deserve any great thanks in this business of yours considering the King hath spoken to Sir Jo. Roper and he hath promised and besides the thing it self is so reasonable as it ought to be as soon done as said I am now gotten into the Countrey to my house where I have some little liberty to think of that I would think of and not of that which other men hourly break their head withal as it was at London Upon this you may conclude that most of my thoughts are to His Majesty and then you cannot be far off God ever keep you and prosper you I rest always Your true and most dutiful Servant The 5. of August one of the happiest dayes Sir Francis Bacon to Sir George Villiers upon the sending his Pattent for Viscount Villiers to be Signed SIR I Have sent you now your Patent of Creation of Lord Bletchly of Bletchly and of Viscount Villiers Beltchly is your own and I liked the sound of the name better then Whaddon but the name will be hid for you will be called Viscount Villiers I have put them in a Patent after the manner of the Patent for Earls where Baronies are joyned but the chief reason was because I would avoid double prefaces which had not been fit nevertheless the Ceremony of Robing and otherwise must be double And now because I am in the Countrey I will send you some of my Countrey fruits which with me are good Meditations which when I am in the City are choked with business After that the King shall have watered your new Dignities with the bounty of the Lands which he intends you and that some other things concerning your Means which are now likewise in intention shall be setled upon you I do not see but you may think your private Fortunes established and therefore it is now time that you should refer your Actions to the good of your Sovereign and your Countrey It is the life of an Oxe or Beast alwayes to eat and never exercise but men are born and specially Christian men not to cramb in their Fortunes but to exercise their Vertues and yet the other hath been the unworthy and thanks be to God sometimes the unlucky humour of great Persons in our times Neither will your future Fortune be the further off for assure your self that Fortune is of a Womans nature and will sooner follow by sleighting than by too much wooing And in this dedication of your self to the Publick I recommend unto you principally that which I think was never done since I was born and which because it is not done hath bred almost a Wilderness and Solitude in the Kings Service which is That you countenance and encourage and advance able men in all kinds degrees and professions For in the time of the Cecils the Father and the Son able men were by design and of purpose suppressed and though of late choice goeth better both in Church and Commonwealth yet money and turn-serving and cunning canvasses and importunity prevaileth too much And in places of moment rather make able and honest men yours than advance those that are otherwise because they are yours As for cunning and corrupt men you must I know sometimes use them but keep them at a distance and let it appear rather that you make use of them than that they lead you Above all depend wholly next unto God upon the King and be ruled as hitherto you have been by His Instructions for that is best for your self For the Kings care and thoughts for you are according to the thoughts of a great King whereas your thoughts concerning your self are and ought to be according to the thoughts of a modest man But let me not weary you the sum is That you think Goodness the best part of Greatness and that you remember whence your rising comes and make return accordingly God keep you August 12. 1616. Sir Francis Bacon to the King about a Certificate of my Lord Coke's It may please Your Excellent Majesty I Send your Majesty inclosed my Lord Coke's answers I will not call them rescripts much less Oracles They are of his own hand and offered to me as they are in writing not required by me to have them set down in writing though I am glad of it for my own discharge I thought it my duty as soon as I received them instantly to send them to Your Majesty and forbear for the present to speak further of them I for my part though this Muscovia-weather be a little too hard for my constitution was ready to have waited upon Your Majesty this day all respects set aside but my Lord Treasurer in respect of the season and much other business was willing to save me I will onely conclude touching these Papers with a Text divided I cannot say Oportuit haec fieri but I may say Finis autem nondum God preserve Your Majesty Your Majesties most humble and devoted Subject and Servant Feb. 14. at 12. a Clock I humbly pray Your Majesty to keep the Papers safe A Letter to the King touching the Lord Chancellors place It may please Your most Excellent Majesty YOur worthy Chancellour I fear goeth his last day God hath hitherto used to weed out such Servants as grew not fit for Your Majesty but now he hath gathered to himself a true sage or salvia out of Your Garden But Your Majesties service must not be mortal
they have Priests of their Faction who to please the people thereabouts give them Masses and some such trash of the spoils and wastes where they have been and upon the sudden having levyed of all sorts as it is thought of Footmen about four thousand simply appointed for the wars and of Horsemen about a thousand wherein indeed all their strength is and with these numbers before the Earl of Sussex could gather numbers meet to resist them they came down to Todcaster Ferry-brigs and Doncaster being twelve miles or thereabouts wide from Yorke and were not indeed resisted untill at Doncaster the Lord Darcy of the North with certain numbers which he was leading to Yorke did very valiantly repulse a number of them hereupon they are retired to Richmondshire and know not what to enterprise by their stragling in this sort The Earl of Sussex is at Yorke where Sir Ralph Sadler is and hath levyed the power of York-shire against them the Lord Hunsdon is sent to Berwick and to the Borders to levy the like there Sir John Forster to do the like in his marches the Lord Scroope also in his Wardenry the Earl of Cumberland and the Lord Wharton to joyn with their Forces in Westmerland and that side and besides the Lord Admiral with the Forces of Lincoln-shire and the Earl of Warwick with other numbers of Nottinghamshire Darbyshire Warwick-shire and other parts of the South are appointed Lieutenants of the Army who are to joyn with my Lord of Sussex and to do further as shall be found meet And by this means you shall hear shortly I doubt not of the confusion of this Rebellious enterprise who as you may perceive by the Queens Majesties Proclamation are proclaimed thorough the Realm as they have behaved themselves The Queens Majesty hath besides ready upon all occasions an Army of fifteen thousand near to her own person The Queen of Scots is removed from Tutbery to Coventry where attends on her the Earls of Shrewsbury and Huntington Under the Conduct of the Army of the Southern parts is the Viscount Hereford with the power of Staffordshire very well appointed and divers Gentlemen of credit and service of the Court and other places of themselves are gone thither to serve under the said Lieutenants In company with those said Rebels are not many Gentlemen of name but Norton an old man who carryeth the Cross Markinfield Swynbourne and an Uncle of the Earl of Westmerland named Christopher Nevill all the Realm and all the Nobillity besides these onely two Rebels are as obedient as ever they were and surely so like to be whatsoever our ill-willers may report Yours assured W. Cecil 2 Novemb. 1569. To the right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador c. SIR I Have forborn these two or three days to write unto you because I could not by occasion of some sickness use my own hand and also because I would not detain here any longer this bearer Mr. Rogers who is both serviceable for you and desirous to be returned thither I have thought good to dispatch him towards you who can inform you of such news as we have here and that he may the better do it I have imparted to him such things as I think meet for you to know and for that I am not well able at present to write any more I trust you will be for this time satisfied with such declaration as this bearer shall make unto you Thus fare you heartily well From Windsor the 10. Nov. 1569. I think long to hear from you because I have not received any letters from you since the tenth of the last month which D'amons brought but I doubt not but some of yours be on the way whereby we may understand how things pass there Since the writing hereof came yesterday your Lackqueywith letters of the of wherein you make mention that Lodowick the Count Nassau should be slain which I trust is not so because of other letters which I have seen that came hither by the way of Rochell that testifie nothing of his death but great praise of his service the day of the battel At this present I am unable to write by reason of some sick ness as this bearer can report Herewith I send you a copy in writing of such things as after long debate betwixt the French Ambassador and us hath been here accorded which I wish may be as well performed on their part as they have promised I pray you Sir commend me to my good Lady and your Sons Yours assuredly W. Cecil 12. Novemb. at night To the right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador c. SIR THough I think this bringer will deliver you my letter yet I know not with what readiness he will impart to you our state here and therefore have thought good to advertise you thus much that thanked be God our Northern Rebellion is fallen flat to the ground and scattered away The Earls are fled into Northumberland seeking all ways to escape but they are roundly pursued Sir John Forster and Sir Henry Percy in one company my Lord of Sussex in another The 16. hereof they broke up their sorry Army and the 18. they entred into Northumberland the 19. into the Mountains they scattered all their Footmen willing them to shift for themselves and of a thousand Horsemen there fled but five hundred By this time they be fewer and I trust either taken or fled into Scotland where the Earl of Murray is in good readiness to chase them to their ruine yesternight came Mr. Madder and upon the next letters from my Lord of Sussex I will send away Crips or some other The Queens Majesty hath had a notable Tryal of her whole Realm and subjects in this time wherein she hath had service readily of all sorts without respect of Religion Yours assuredly W. Cecil Windsor 24. Decemb. To the right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador c. SIR I Have long time determined to send away this bearer your servant Henry Crips but my delay hath grown of a desire that I had to see some good issue of this Rebellion which as it hath had a time of declination and is now suppressed so could I not well before this time send this bearer away who now bringeth her Majesties letters unto you by which you shall understand how her pleasure is that you should impart the events thereof in that Court and indeed hitherto we have no certain and manifest proofs that it should have any other ground but as it is expressed in her Majesties letters nevertheless we have discovered some tokens and we hear of some words uttered by the Earl of Northumberland that maketh us to think this Rebellion had more Branches both of our own and strangers then did appear and I trust the same will be found out though perchance when all are known in secret manner all may not be notified Of all other Occurrents
March 30. 1663. Let this Collection of Letters and other Discourses be Printed HENRY BENNET SCRINIA CECILIANA MYSTERIES OF State Government IN LETTERS Of the late Famous Lord Burghley And other Grand Ministers of STATE In the Reigns of Queen ELIZABETH and King JAMES Being a further Additional Supplement of the CABALA AS ALSO Many Remarkable Passages faithfully Revised and no where else Published With two exact Tables The one of the Letters The other of Things most Observable LONDON Printed for G. Bedel and T. Collins and are to be sold at their Shop at the Middle-Temple-gate in Fleetstreet 1663. The Stationers To the READER Courteous Reader ALthough it be a received Position That Merit is worthier than Fame yet duly considered they ought to be inseparable the one being the just Guerdon of the other Upon that account we have presumed to make Publick these ensuing Memorials or Letters being Monuments of some late Eminent Patriots and Hero's of this Nation Who whilst they were Actors in such grand Affairs as suited with their high Service under their Sovereigns were deservedly Dignified here and Renowned abroad The first of these Worthies being Sir William Cecil Lord Burghley who was an unparallel'd Minister of State And as we conceive of the longest continuance that any Prince then or ever since with such Success enjoyed a person alwayes peaceable and moderate free from Covetousness or Ambition in the course of his Service rather willing to endure the Burthen than desiring the fruition of Honour or Profit profound in Judgment assisted with great Experience and therefore worthily celebrated both here and abroad as Pater Patriae and an indefatigable Votary to the Crown And for the matters and designs in the Letters themselves we shall be silent hoping the Fame of the person will be motive sufficient for you to purchase this Jewel Concerning the Times they were wheeled about with new and great Revolutions and Divisions not only at Home but also in France Scotland the Low Countries and generally in most of the other Kingdoms and States abroad Forâs Pugnae intus Timores Conspiracies Invasions and Insurrections amongst our selves War Devastations and Massacres amongst our Neighbours for the most part shadowed with the Vaile of Religion many Princes of the Blood and persons of great Authority being sacrificed on either part turbulent Times and of great mutations proper to try the Ability and Fidelity of a State Atlas wherein with what Wisdom he acquitted himself is referred to you to determine The next is Sir Nicholas Throckmorton Ambassador in France for Queen Elizabeth in the Infancy of her Reign we have nothing here of his remains but only his Letter to Her Majesty touching a free passage for the Queen of Scots through England wherein you will find variety of Politick Reasons pressed on each part with smart Judgment In the third place is Sir Philip Sidney that choice Darling of the Muses whom we suppose you will freely grant to have been Tam Marti quam Mercurio in whom England Netherland the Heavens and the Arts the Souldiers and the World did emulate a share here we have only a dissuasive Letter to the Queen touching Her Marriage with Mounsieur of France fortified with many pressing and effectual Reasons against that match and penned with a Politick and Ingenuous Stile And in the last place we present you with some Pieces of the inimitable Viscount St. Alban some in the Reign of the late glorious Queen and others in the Halcyon dayes of the late King James never before to our best knowledge made Publick deck't with many grateful Flowers of Philosophy History and Policy the Fall of the Earl of Somerset and the immediate Advance of the Duke of Buckingham with many other passages of moment and here you may observe the memorials of other worthy persons although the Title point only at Sir William Cecil for we conceive it not imaginable That such experienced and sure Masters of Knowledge would employ their thoughts in any thing sleight or superficial However we dare not assume that boldness as to write Encomiasticks of such great Personages that Right we suppose is much better performed by more quaint Pens already Lunae Radiis non maturescit Botrus And their Names and Honour still live in fresh memory Here you may safely turn Necromancer and consult with the dead or rather with the living for such Monuments as these survive Marble Dignum laude virum Musa vetat mori These are not like Augustus his two infamous Daughters or his unworthy Nephew Posthumus Agrippa Impostumes as he termed them that broke from him but pure and legitimate Issue of the nobler part which is with care exposed to publick View for the better accomodation of those that have been pleased to purchase the two former Volumes of the like Nature and Quality Temple-gate June 18. 1663. G. B. T. C. A TABLE of the LETTERS contained in this COLLECTION B. SIR Francis Bacon to the Lord Treasurer Burghley Pag. 1. Sir Francis Bacon to the Lord Treasurer Burghley p. 2. Sir Francis Bacon in recommendation of his Service to the Earl of Northumberland a few dayes before Queen Elizabeths death p. 4. Sir Francis Bacon to Mr. Robert Kempe upon the death of Queen Elizabeth p. 5. Sir Francis Bacon to Mr. David Foules in Scotland upon the entrance of His Majesties Reign ibid. Sir Francis Bacon to the King upon presenting his Discourse touching the Plantation of Ireland p. 6. Sir Francis Bacon to the Lord Chancellor touching the History of Britain p. 7. Sir Francis Bacon to the King upon the sending unto him a beginning of a History of His Majesties time p. 9. Sir Francis Bacon to the Earl of Salisbury upon sending him one of his Books of Advancement of Learning ibid. Sir Francis Bacon to the Lord Treasurer Buckhurst upon the same occasion of sending his Book of Advancement of Learning p. 10. A Letter of the like Argument to the Lord Chancellor ibid. Sir Francis Bacon of like Argument to the Earl of Northampton with Request to present the Book to His Majesty p. 11. Sir Francis Bacon his Letter of Request to Dr. Plafer to Translate the Book of Advancement of Learning into Latine ibid. Sir Francis Bacon to Sir Thomas Bodley upon sending him his Book of the Advancement of Learning p. 13. Sir Francis Bacon to the Bishop of Ely upon sending his Writing intituled Cogitata visa ibid. Sir Francis Bacon to Sir Thomas Bodley after he had imparted to him a Writing intituled Cogitata visa p. 14. Sir Francis Bacon to Mr. Matthew upon sending him part of Instauratio Magna p. 15. Sir Francis Bacon to Mr. Matthew touching Instauratio Magna p. 16. A Letter to Mr. Matthew upon sending his Book De Sapientia Veterum p. 17. Sir Francis Bacon to Mr. Savill ibid. Sir Francis Bacon to the King touching the Sollicitors place p. 18. Sir Francis Bacon to the King his Suit to succeed in the
Sir Francis Bacon to the Lord Treasurer Burghley My Lord WIth as much confidence as mine own honest and faithful devotion unto your service and your honorable correspondence unto me and my poor estate can breed in a man do I commend my self unto your Lordship I wax now somewhat ancient one and thirty years is a great deal of sand in the hour-glass My health I thank God I find confirmed and I do not fear that action shall impair it because I account my ordinary course of study and meditation to be more painful then most parts of action are I ever bear a mind in some middle place that I could discharge to serve her Majesty not as a man born under Sol that loveth Honour nor under Jupiter that loveth business for the contemplative Planet carrieth me away wholly but as a man born under an excellent Sovereign that deserveth the dedication of all mens abilities Besides I do not find in my self so much self-love but that the greater parts of my thoughts are to deserve well if I were able of my friends and namely of your Lordship who being the Atlas of this Common-wealth the Honour of my House and the second founder of my poor estate I am tied by all duties both of a good Patriot and of an unworthy Kinsman and of an obliged servant to imploy whatsoever I am to do you service Again the meanness of my estate doth somewhat move me for though I cannot accuse my self that I am either prodigal or sloathful yet my health is not to spend nor my course to get Lastly I confess that I have as vast contemplative ends as I have moderate civil ends for I have taken all knowledge to be my providence and if I could purge it of two sorts of Rovers whereof the one with frivolous disputations confutations and verbosities the other with blind experiments and auricular traditions and impostures hath committed so many spoils I hope I should bring in industrious Observations grounded Conclusions and profitable Inventions and Discoveries the best state of that providence This whether it be curiosity or vain-glory or nature or if one take it favourably Philanthropia is so fixed in my mind as it cannot be removed And I do easily see that place of any reasonable countenance doth bring commandment of more wits then of a mans own which is the thing I greatly affect And for your Lordship perhaps you shall not find more strength and less encounter in any other And if your Lordship shall find now or at any time that I do seek or affect any place whereunto any that is nearer unto your Lordship shall be concurrent say then that I am a most dishonest man And if your Lordship will not carry me on I will not do as Anaxagoras did who reduced himself with contemplation unto voluntary poverty But this I will do I will sell the inheritance that I have and purchase some lease of quick revenue or some Office of gain that shall be executed by Deputy and so give over all care of service and become some sorry Book-maker or a true Pioneer in that Mine of Truth which he said lay so deep This which I have writ unto your Lordship is rather thoughts then words being set down without all Art disguising or reservation Wherein I have done honour both to your Lordships wisdom in judging that that will be best believed of your Lordship which is truest and to your Lordships good nature in retaining nothing from you And even so I wish your Lordship all happiness and to my self means and occasion to be added to my faithful desire to do you service From my Lodging at Grays-Inn Sir Francis Bacon to the Lord Treasurer Burghley My singular good Lord YOur Lordships comfortable Relation of her Majesties gracious opinion and meaning towards me though at that time your leisure gave me not leave to shew how I was affected therewith yet upon every representation thereof it entreth and striketh more deeply into me as both my Nature and Duty presseth me to return some speech of thankfulness It must be an exceeding comfort and encouragement to me setting forth and putting my self in way towards her Majesties service to encounter with an example so private and domestical of her Majesties gracious goodness and benignity being made good and verified in my father so far forth as it extendeth to his Posterity Accepting them as commended by his service during the Non-age as I may term it of their own deserts I for my part am very well content that I take least part either of his abilities of Mind or of his worldly advancement both which he held and received the one of the gift of God immediately the other of her Majesties Gift Yet in the loyal and earnest Affection which he bear to her Majesties service I trust my portion shall not be with the least nor in proportion with the youngest Birth For methinks his president should be a silent charge upon his blessing unto us all in our degrees to follow him afar off and to dedicate unto her Majesties service both the use and spending of our lives True it is that I must needs acknowledge my self prepared and furnished thereunto with nothing but with a multitude of lacks and imperfections but calling to mind how diversly and in what particular providence God hath declar'd himself to tender the state of her Majesties Affairs I conceive and gather hope that those whom he hath in a manner prest for her Majesties service by working and imprinting in them a single and zealous mind to bestow their duties therein he will see them accordingly appointed of sufficiency convenient for the Rank and standing where they shall be imployed so as under this her Majesties blessing I trust to receive a larger allowance of Gods Graces And as I may hope for this so I can assure and promise for my Endeavour that it shall not be in fault but what diligence can intitle me unto that I doubt not to recover And now seeing it hath pleased her Majesty to take knowledge of this my mind and to vouchsafe to appropriate me unto her service preventing any desert of mine with her Princely liberality first I humbly do beseech your Lordship to present to her Majesty my more than humble thanks for the same And withal having regard to mine own unworthiness to receive such favour and to the small possibility in me to satisfie and answer what her Majesty conceiveth I am moved to become a most humble suitor to her Majesty that this benefit also may be affixed unto the other which is That if there appear in me no such towardness of service as it may be her Majesty doth benignly value and assess me at by reason of my sundry wants and the disadvantage of my nature being unapt to lay forth the simple store of those inferiour gifts which God hath allotted unto me most to view yet that it would please her Excellent Majesty not to
your Lordship with a work of my vacant time which if it had been more the work had been better It appertaineth to your Lordship besides my particular respects in some propriety in regard you are a great Governor in a Province of Learning and that which is more you have added to your place affection towards Learning and to your affection judgement of which the last I could be content were for the time less that you might the less exquisitely censure that which I offer to you But sure I am the Argument is good if it had lighted upon a good author but I shall content my self to awake better spirits like a bell-ringer which is first up to call others to Church So with my humble desire of your Lordships good acceptation I remain Sir Francis Bacon to the Lord Treasurer Buckhurst upon the same occasion of sending his book of Advancement of Learning May it please your good Lordship I have finished a work touching the advancement or setting forward of learning which I have dedicated to his Majesty the most learned of a Sovereign or temporal Prince that time hath known And upon reason not unlike I humbly present one of the books to your Lordship not onely as a Chancellor of an University but as one that was excellently bred in all learning which I have ever noted to shine in all your speeches and behaviours And therefore your Lordship will yield a gracious aspect to your first love and take pleasure in the adorning of that wherewith your self are so much adorned And so humbly desiring your favourable acceptation thereof with signification of my humble duty I remain A Letter of the like Argument to the Lord Chancellor May it please your good Lordship I humbly present your Lordship with a work wherein as you have much commandment over the Author so your Lordship hath also great interest in the argument For to speak without flattery few have like use of Learning or like judgement in learning as I have observed in your Lordship And again your Lordship hath been a great planter of Learning not only in those places in the Church which have been in your own gift but also in your commendatory Vote no man hath more constantly held Detur digniori and therefore both your Lordship is beholden to Learning and learning beholden to you Which maketh me presume with good assurance that your Lordship will accept well of these my labours the rather because your Lordship in private speech hath often begun to me in expressing your admiration of his Majesties Learning to whom I have dedicated this work and whose vertue and perfection in that kind did chiefly move me to a work of this nature And so with signification of my most humble duty and affection towards your Lordship I remain c. Sir Francis Bacon of like argument to the Earl of Northampton with request to present the book to his Majesty It may please your good Lordship HAving finished a work touching the Advancement of Learning and dedicated the same to his sacred Majesty whom I dare avouch if the records of time erre not to be the learnedst King that hath reigned I was desirous in a kind of congruity to present it by the learnedst Councellor in this Kingdom to the end that so good an argument lighting upon so bad an Author might receive some reparetion by the hands into which and by which it should be delivered And therefore I make it my humble suit to your Lordship to present this mean but well meant writing to his Majesty and with it my humble and zealous duty and also my like humble request of pardon if I have too often taken his name in vain not onely in the dedication but in the voucher of the authority of his speeches and writings And so I remain c. Sir Francis Bacon his Letter of request to Doctor Plafer to translate the book of Advancement of Learning into Latine Mr. Doctor Plafer A great desire will take a small occasion to hope and put in Tryal that which is desired It pleased you a good while since to express unto me the good liking which you conceive of my book of the advancement of Learning and that more significantly as it seemed to me then out of curtesie or civil respect My self as I then took contentment in your approbation thereof so I should esteem and acknowledge not onely my contentment increased but my labours advanced if I might obtain your help in that nature which I desire Wherein before I set down in plain terms my request unto you I will open my self what it was which I chiefly sought and propounded to myself in that work that you may perceive that which I now desire to be pursuant thereupon If I do not erre for any judgment that a man maketh of his own doings had need be spoken with a Si nunquam fallit Imago I have this opinion that if I had sought my own commendation it had been a much fitter course for me to have done as Gardners use to do by taking their Seeds and Slips and re ring them first into plants and so uttering them in pots when they are in flower and in their best state But for as much as my end was merit of the state of Learning to my power and not glorie and because my purpose was rather to excite other mens wits then to magnifie my own I was desirous to prevent the incertainess of my own life and times by uttering rather seeds then plants nay and further as the Proverb is by sowing with the Basket then with the hand Wherefore since I have onely taken upon me to ring a Bell to call other wits together which is the meanest office it cannot but be consonant to my desire to have that Bell heard as sarre as can be And since that they are but sparks which can work but upon matter prepared I have the more reason to wish that those sparks may flye abroad that they may the better find and light upon those minds and spirits which are apt to be kindled And therefore the privateness of the language considered wherein it is written excluding so many readers as on the other side the obscurity of the argument in many parts of it excludeth many others I must account it a second birth of that work if it might be translated into Latine without manifest loss of the sence and matter For this purpose I could not represent to my self any man into whose hands I do more earnestly desire that work should fall then your self for by that I have heard and read I know no man a greater Master in commanding words to serve matter Nevertheless I am not ignorant of the worth of your labours whether such as your place and profession imposeth on you or such as your own vertue may upon your voluntary election take in hand But I can lay before you no other perswasions then either the work it self may affect
especially given in Charge which had not used to be given in Charge before It is true it was not solemnly dwelt upon but as it were thrown in amongst the rest The last day of the Term and that which all men condemn the supposed last day of my Lord Chancellors life there were two Indictments preferred of Praemunire for suing in Chancery after judgement at Common-Law The one by Richard Glanvile the other by William Allen the former against Courtney the party in Chancery Gibb the Councellor and Deurst the Clerk The latter against Alderman Bowles and Humphry Smith parties in Chancery Serjeant Moor the Councellor Elias Wood Sollicitor in the Cause and Sir John Tindall Master of the Chancery and an Assessor to my Lord Chancellor For the Cases themselves it were too long to trouble Your Majesty with them but this I will say If they were set on that preferred them they were the worst Workmen that ever were that set them on for there could not have been chosen two such Causes to the honour and advantage of the Chancery for the justness of the Decrees and the foulness and scandal both of fact and person in those that impeach the Decrees The Grand Jury consisting as it seemeth of very substantial and intelligent persons would not find the Bills notwithstanding that they were much clamoured by the parties and twice sent back by the Court and in Conclusion resolutely 17 of 19 found an Ignoramus wherein for that time I think Ignoramus was wiser than those that knew too much Your Majesty will pardon me if I be sparing in delivering to You some other circumstances of aggravation and concurrences of some like matters the same day as if it had been some fatal constellation They be not things so sufficiently tryed as I dare put them into Your ear For my opinion I cannot but begin with this Preface That I am infinitely sorry that Your Majesty is thus put to salve and cure not only accidents of time but errors of servants For I account this a kind of sickness of my Lord Cooke's that comes almost in as ill a time as the sickness of my Lord Chancellor And as I think it was one of the wisest parts that ever he plaid when he went down to Your Majesty to Royston and desired to have my Lord Chancellor joined with him So this was one of the weakest parts that ever he plaid to make all the World perceive that my Lord Chancellor is severed from him at this time But for that which may concern Your Service which is my end leaving other men to their own wayes First my opinion is plainly that my Lord Cooke at this time is not to be disgraced both because he is so well habituate for that which remaineth of these capital Causes and also for that which I find is in his breast touching Your Finances and matters of repair of Your Estate And if I might speak it as I think it were good his hopes were at an end in some kind so I could wish they were raised in some other On the other side this great and publick Affront not only to the Reverend and well-deserving person of Your Chancellor and at a time when he was thought to lie a dying which was barbarous but to Your High-Court of Chancery which is the Court of Your absolute power may not in my opinion pass lightly nor end only in some formal atonement but use is to be made thereof for the setling of Your Authority and strengthning of Your Prerogative according to the true Rules of Monarchy Now to accommodate and reconcile these Advices which seem almost opposite First Your Majesty may not see it though I confess it be suspitious that my Lord Cooke was any way aforehand privy to that which was done or that he did set it or animate it but only took the matter as it came before him and that his Error was only that at such a time he did not divert it in some good manner Secondly If it be true as is reported that any of the puisne Judges did stir this business or that they did openly revile and menace the Jury for doing their Conscience as they did honestly and truly I think that Judge is worthy to lose his place And to be plain with Your Majesty I do not think there is any thing a greater Polycreston ad multa utile to Your Affairs than upon a just and fit occasion to make some example against the presumption of a Judge in Causes that concern Your Majesty whereby the whole body of those Magistrates may be contained in better awe and it may be this will light upon no unfit subject of a person that is rude and that no man cares for Thirdly If there be no one so much in fault which I cannot yet affirm either way and there must be a just ground God forbid else yet I should think that the very presumption of going so far in so high a Cause deserveth to have that done which was done in this very case upon the Indictment of Serjeant Heale in Queen Elizabeth's time that the Judges should answer it upon their knees before Your Majesty or Your Councel and receive a sharp admonition at which time also my Lord Wrey being then Chief Justice slipt the Collar and was forborn Fourthly for the persons themselves Glanvile and Allen which are base Fellows and turbulent I think there will be discovered and proved against them besides the preferring of the Bill such combination and contemptuous speeches and behaviour as there will be good ground to call them and perhaps some of their petty Councellors at Law into the Star-Chamber In all this which I have said Your Majesty may be pleased to observe That I do not engage you much in the main point of the Jurisdiction for which I have a great deal of reason which I now forbear But two things I wish to be done the one That Your Majesty take this occasion to redouble unto all Your Judges Your ancient and true Charge and Rule That You will endure no innovating in the point of Jurisdictions but will have every Court impaled within their own Presidents and not assume to themselves new Powers upon conceits and inventions of Law The other That in these high Causes that touch upon State and Monarchy Your Majesty give them strait charge That upon any occasions intervenient hereafter they do not make the vulgar party to their contestations by publick handling them before they have consulted with Your Majesty to whom the reglement of those things appertaineth To conclude I am not without hope That Your Majesties managing this business according to Your great wisdom unto which I acknowledge my self not worthy to be Card-holder or Candle-holder will make profit of this accident as a thing of Gods sending Lastly I may not forget to represent to Your Majesty That there is no thinking of Arraignments until these things be somewhat accommodated and some outward and superficial
Reconciliation at least made between my Lord Chancellor and my Lord Chief Justice for this accident is a Banquet to all Somersets friends But this is a thing that falleth out naturally of it self in respect of the Judges going Circuit and my Lord Chancellors infirmity with hope of recovery And although this protraction of time may breed some doubt of mutability yet I have lately learned out of an excellent Letter of a certain King That the Sun sheweth sometimes watry to our eyes but when the Cloud is gone the Sun is as before God preserve Your Majesty Your Majesties most humble Subject and most bounden Servant Febr. 21. 1615. Your Majesties Commandment speaketh for pardon of so long a Letter which yet I wish may have a short continuance and be punished with fire A Letter to the King touching matter of Revenue and Profit It may please your Majesty I May remember what Tacitus saith by occasion that Tiberius was often and long absent from Rome In Urbe parva magna negotia Imperatorem simul premunt But saith he in recessu dimissis rebus minoris momenti summae rerum magnarum magis agitantur This maketh me think it shall be no incivility to trouble your Majesty with business during your aboad from London knowing your Majesties Meditations are the principal wheel of your estate and being warranted by a former commandment which I received from you I do now only send your Majesty these papers inclosed because I greatly desire so far forth to preserve my Credit with you as thus That whereas lately perhaps out of too much desire which induceth too much belief I was bold to say that I thought it as easie for your Majesty to come out of want as to go forth of your Gallery your Majesty would not take me for a dreamer or a projector I send your Majesty therefore some grounds of my hopes And for that paper which I have gathered of increasments sperate I beseech you to give me leave to think that if any of the particulars do fail it will be rather for want of workmanship in those that shall deal in them than want of materials in the things themselves The other paper hath many discarding cards and I send it chiefly that your Majesty may be the less surprized by projectors who pretend sometimes great discoveries and inventions in things that have been propounded and perhaps after a better fashion long since God Almighty preserve your Majesty Your Majesties most humble and devoted Servant and Subject April 25 1610. Sir Francis Bacon the Kings Attorney to the King touching the proceeding with Somerset It may please your most excellent Majesty AT my last access to your Majesty it was sit for me to consider the time and your journey which maketh me now trouble your Majesty with a remnant of that I thought then to have said besides your old Warrant and Commission to me to advertise your Majestie when you are aux champs of any thing that concern'd your service and my place I know your Majestie is Nunquam minus solus quam cum solus and I confess in regard of your great judgment unto which nothing ought to be presented but well weighed I could almost wish that the manner of Tiberius were in use again of whom Tacitus saith Mos erat quamvis praesentem scripto adire much more in absence I said to your Majestie that which I do now repeat that the Evidence upon which my Lord of Somerset standeth indicted is of a good strong thred considering impoysoning is the darkest of offences but that the thred must be well spun and woven together For your Majestie knoweth it is one thing to deal with a Jury of Middlesex and Londoners and another to deal with the Peers whose objects perhaps will not be so much what is before them in the present Case which I think is as odious to them as to the vulgar but what may be hereafter Besides there be two disadvantages we that shallgive in evidence shall meet with somewhat considerable the one that the same things often open'd lose their freshness except there be an aspersion of somewhat that is new the other is the expectation raised which makes things seem less then they are because they are less then opinion Therefore I were not your Attorney nor my self if I should not be very careful that in this last part which is the pinacle of your former Justice all things may pass sine offendiculo sine scrupulo Hereupon I did move two things which having now more fully explained my self I do in all humbleness renew First That your Majesty will be careful to chuse a Steward of Judgment that may be able to moderate the Evidence and cut off Digressions for I may interrupt but I cannot silence The other That there may be special care taken for the ordering of the Evidence not only for the knitting but for the list and to use your Majesties own word the confining of it This to do if your Majestie vouchsafe to direct it your self that is the best if not I humbly pray you to require my Lord Chancellor that he together with my Lord Chief Justice will confer with my self and my sellows that shall be used for the marshalling and bounding of the Evidence that we may have the help of his opinion as well as that of my Lord Chief Justice whose great travels as I much commend yet that same Plerophoria or over-confidence doth always subject things to a great deal of chance There is another business proper for me to crave of Your Majesty at this time as one that have in my eye a great deal of Service to be done concerning Your casual Revenue but considering times and persons I desire to be strengthned by some such form of Commandment under Your Royal Hand as I send You here inclosed I most humbly pray Your Majesty to think that I understand my self right well in this which I desire and that it tendeth greatly to the good of Your Service The Warrant I mean not to impart but upon just occasion Thus thirsty to hear of Your Majesties good health I rest Jan. 22. 1615. Sir Francis Bacon the Kings Attorney to Sir George Villiers concerning the proceeding with Somerset SIR I Thought it convenient to give His Majesty an account of that which His Majesty gave me in charge in general reserving the particulars for His coming And I find it necessary to know His pleasure in some things ere I could further proceed My Lord Chancellor and my self spent Thursday and Yesterday the whole Forenoons of both dayes in the Examination of Sir Robert Cotton whom we find hitherto but empty save only in the great point of the Treaty with Spain This Examination was taken before His Majesties Warrant came to Mr. Vice-Chamberlain for communicating unto us the Secrets of the Pensions which Warrant I received Yesterday morning being Friday and a meeting was appointed at my Lord Chancellors
in the Evening after Councel Upon which Conference we find matter of further Examination for Sir Robert Cotton of some new Articles whereupon to examine Somerset and of entring into Examination of Sir William Mounson Wherefore first for Somerset being now ready to proceed to examine him we stay only upon the Duke of Lenox who it seemeth is fallen sick and keepeth in without whom we neither think it warranted by His Majesties direction nor agreeable to His intention that we should proceed for that will want which should sweeten the Cup of Medicine he being his Countrey man and Friend Herein then we humbly crave His Majesties direction with all convenient speed whether we shall expect the Dukes recovery or proceed by our selves or that His Majesty will think of some other person qualified according to His Majesties just intention to be joined with us I remember we had speech with His Majesty of my Lord Hay and J for my part can think of no other except it should be my Lord Chancellor of Scotland for my Lord Binning may be thought too near allied I am further to know His Majesties pleasure concerning the day For my Lord Chancellor and J conceived His Majesty to have designed the Monday and Tuesday aftet St. Georges Feast and nevertheless we conceived also That His Majesty understood that the Examinations of Somerset about this and otherwise touching the Spanish practices should first be put to a point which will not be possible as time cometh on by reason of this accident of the Dukes sickness and the cause we find of Sir William Mounsons Examination and that divers of the peers are to be sent for from remote places It may please His Majesty therefore to take into consideration whether the days may not well be put off till Wednesday and Thursday after the Term which endeth on the Munday being the Wednesday and Thursday before Whitsontide or if that please not His Majesty in respect it may be His Majesty will be then in Town whereas these Arraignments have been still in His Majesties absence from Town then to take Munday and Tuesday after Trinity-Sunday being the Munday and Tuesday before Trinity Term. Now for Sir William Mounson if it be His Majesties pleasure that my Lord Chancellor and I shall proceed to the examination of him for that of the Duke of Lenox differs in that there is not the like cause as in that of Somerset then His Majesty may be pleased to direct his Commandment and Warrant to my Lord Chief Justice to deliver unto me the examinations he took of Sir William Mounson that those joyned to the information which we have received from Mr. Vice-Chamberlain may be full instructions unto us for his examination Further I pray let His Majesty know that on Thursday in the evening my Lord Chief Justice and my self attended my Lord Chancellor at his house for the setling of that scruple which His Majesty most justly conceived in the Examination of the Lady Somerset at which time resting on His Majesties opinion That that Evidence as it standeth now unclear'd must Secundum leges sanae Conscientiae be laid aside the question was Whether we should leave it out or try what a Re-examination of my Lady Somerset would produce Whereupon we agreed upon a Re-examination of my Lady Somerset which my Lord Chief Justice and I have appointed for Monday morning I was bold at that meeting to put my Lord Chief Justice a posing question which was Whether that opinion which his Brethren had given upon the whole Evidence and he had reported to His Majesty viz. That it was good Evidence in their opinions to convince my Lord of Somerser was not grounded upon this part of the Evidence now to be omitted as well as upon the rest Who answered confidently That no and they never saw the exposition of the Letter but only the Letter The same Thursday evening before we entred into this last matter and in the presence of Mr. Secretary Winwood who left us when we went to the former business we had conference concerning the frauds and abusive Grants passed to the prejudice of His Majesties State of Revenue where my Lord Chief Justice made some relation of his collections which he had made of that kind of which I will say only this that I heard nothing that was new to me and I found my Lord Chancellor in divers particulars more ready then I found him We grew to a distribution both of times and of matters For we agreed what to begin with presently and what should follow and also we had consideration what was to be holpen by Law what by Equity and what by Parliament Wherein I must confess that in the last of these of which my Lord Chief Justice made most accompt I make most doubt But the Conclusion was That upon this entrance I should advise and conferr at large with my Lord Chief Justice and set things on work The particulars I referr till His Majesties coming The learned Councel have attended me now twice at my Chamber to confer upon that which His Majesty gave us in Commandment for our opinions upon the Case set down by my Lord Chancellor whether the Statutes extend to it or no. Wherein we are more and more edified and confirmed that they do not and shall shortly send our Report to His Majesty Sir I hope you will bear me witness I have not been idle but all is nothing to the Duty I owe His Majesty for his singular favours past and present supplying all with love and prayers I rest Your true Friend and devoted Servant April 13. 1616. Sir Francis Bacon the Kings Attorney giving account of an Examination taken of Somerset at the Tower SIR I Received from you a Letter of very brief and clear directions and I think it a great blessing of God upon me and my labours that my directions come by so clear a Conduit as they receive no tincture in the passage Yesterday my Lord Chancellor the Duke of Lenox and my self spent the whole afternoon at the Tower in the examination of Somerset upon the Articles sent from his Majesty and some other additionals which were in effect contained in the former but extended to more particularity by occasion of somewhat discovered by Cottons examination and Mr. Vice-Chamberlains information He is full of protestations and would fain keep that quarter toward Spain clear using but this for Argument That he had such fortunes from his Majesty as he could not think of bettering his conditions from Spain because as he said he was no military man He cometh nothing so far on for that which concerneth the Treaty as Cotton which doth much aggravate suspicion against him The further particulars I reserve to his Majesties coming In the end tanquam obiter but very effectually my Lord Chancellor put him in minde of the state he stood in for the imprisonment but he was little moved with it and pretended carelesness of life
since ignominy had made him unfit for his Majesties service I am of opinion that the fair usage of him as it was fit for the Spanish examinations and for the questions touching the Papers and Dispatches and all that so it was no good preparative to make him descend into himself touching his present danger and therefore my Lord Chancellor and my self thought not good to insist upon it at this time I have received from my Lord Chief Justice the examinations of Sir William Mounson with whom we mean to proceed to further examination with all speed My Lord Chief Justice is altered touching the re-examination of the Lady and desired me that we might stay till he spake with his Majesty saying it could be no casting back to the business which I did approve My self with the rest of my fellows upon due and mature advice perfected our Report touching the Chancery for the receiving whereof I pray you put his Majesty in mind at his coming to appoint some time for us to wait upon him all together for the delivery in of the same as we did in our former Certificate For the Revenue matters I reserve them to his Majesties coming and in the mean time I doubt not but Master Secretary Winwood will make some kind of Report thereof to his Majesty For the conclusion of your Letter concerning my own comfort I can say but the Psalm of Quid retribuam God that giveth me favour in his Majesties eyes will strengthen me in his Majesty service I ever rest Your true and devoted Servant April 18. 1616. To requite your Post-script of excuse for scribling I pray you excuse that the Paper is not gilt I writing from Westminster Hall where we are not so fine Sir Francis Bacon the Kings Attorney to Sir George Villiers touching the proceeding with Somerset SIR I Have received my Letter from his Majesty with his marginal notes which shall be my directions being glad to perceive I understand his Majesty so well That little Charm which may be secretly infused into Somersets ear some few hours before his Tryal was excellently well thought of by his Majesty and I do approve it both for matter and time only if it seem good to his Majesty I would wish it a little enlarged For if it be no more but to spare his blood he hath a kind of proud humour which may over-work the Medicine Therefore I could wish it were made a little stronger by giving him some hope that his Majesty will be good to his Lady and child and that time when Justice and his Majesties Honour is once salved and satisfied may produce further fruit of his Majesties compassio which was to be seen in the example of Southampton whom his Majesty after attainder restor d and Cobham and Gray to whom his Majesty notwithstanding they were offendors against his own person yet spared their lives and for Gray his Majesty gave him back some part of his estate and was upon point to deliver him much more he having been so highly in his Majesties favour may hope well if he hurt not himself by his publick misdemeanor For the person that should deliver this message I am not so well seen in the Religion of his friends as to be able to make choice of a particular my Lord Treasurer the Lord Knolles or any of his neerest friends should not be trusted with it for they may go too far and perhaps work contrary to His Majesties ends Those which occur to me are my Lord Hay my Lord Burghley of England I mean and Sir Robert Carr. My Lady of Somerset hath been re-examined and His Majesty is sound both a true Prophet and a most just King in that scruple he made For now she expoundeth the word He that should send the Tarts to Helwish's wife to be of Overbury and not of Somerset But for the person that should bid her she saith it was Northampton or Weston not pitching upon certainty which giveth some advantage to the evidence Yesterday being Wednesday I spent 4 or 5 houres with the Judges whom His Majesty designed to take consideration with the four Judges of the Kings Bench of the Evidence against Somerset They all concurre in opinion that the questioning him and drawing him on to tryal is most honourable and just and that the Evidence is fair and good His Majesties Letter to the Judges concerning the Commendams was full of magnanimity and wisdome I perceive His Majesty is never less alone then when he is alone for I am sure there was no body by him to informe him which made me admire it the more The Judges have given day over till the second Saturday of the next term so as that matter may indure further consideration for His Majesty not only not to lose ground but to win ground To morrow is appointed for the examination of Somerset which by some infirmitie of the Duke of Lenox was put off from this day When this is done I will write more fully ever resting Your true and devoted servant May 2. 1616. Sir Francis Bacon the Kings Attorney to Sir George Villiers of Account and Advice to His Majesty touching Somerset's Arraignment SIR I Am far enough from opinion that the Redintegration or Resuscitation of Somersets fortune can ever stand with his Majesties honour and safety and therein I think I exprest my self fully to his Majesty in one of my former letters and I know well any expectation or thought abroad will do much hurt But yet the glimmering of that which the King hath done to others by way of talke to him cannot hurt as I conceive but I would not have that part of the Message as from the King but added by the Messenger as from himself This I remit to His Majesties Princely judgement For the person though he trust the Lieutenant well yet it must be some new man for in these cases that which is ordinary worketh not so great impressions as that which is new and extraordinary The time I wish to be the Tuesday being the even of his Ladies Arraignment For as His Majesty first conceived I would not have it stay in his stomack too long lest it sowre in the digestion and to be too neer the time may be thought but to tune him for that day I send herewithal the substance of that which I purpose to say nakedly and only in that part which is of tenderness for that I conceive was His Majesties meaning It will be necessary because I have distributed parts to the two Serjeants as that Paper doth express and they understand nothing of His Majesties pleasure of the manner of carrying the Evidence more than they may guess by observation of my Example which they may ascribe as much to my nature as to direction therefore that His Majesty would be pleased to write some few words to us all signed with His own Hand that the matter it self being Tragical enough bitterness and insulting be forborn and that
we remember our part to be to make him Delinquent to the Peers and not odions to the People That part of the Evidence of the Ladies Exposition of the Pronoun He which was first caught hold of by me and after by His Majesties singular Wisdom and Conscience excepted to and now is by her Re-examination retracted I have given order to Serjeant Montague within whose part it falleth to leave it out of the Evidence I do yet crave pardon if I do not certifie touching the point of Law for respiting the Judgment for I have not fully advised with my Lord Chancellor concerning it but I will advertise it in time I send His Majesty the Lord Stewards Commission in two several instruments the one to remain with my Lord Chancellor which is that which is written in Secretary hand for his Warrant and is to pass the Signet the other that whereunto the great Seal is to be affixed which is in Chancery hand His Majesty is to sign them both and to transmit the former to the Signet if the Secretaries either of them be there and both of them are to be returned to me with all speed I ever rest Your true and devoted Servant May 5. 1616. Sir Francis Bacon the Kings Attorney and some great Lords Commissioners concerning the perswasion used to the Lord of Somerset to a frank Confession It may please Your Majesty WE have done our best endeavours to perform Your Majesties Commission both in matter and manner for the examination of my Lord of Somerset wherein that which passed for the general was to this effect That he was to know his own Case for that his day of Trial could not be far off but that this dayes work was that which would conduce to Your Majesties Justice little or nothing but to Your Mercy much if he did lay hold upon it and therefore might do him good but could do him no hurt For as for Your Justice there had been taken great and grave opinion not only of such Judges as he may think violent but of the most saddest and most temperate of the Kingdom who ought to understand the state of the proofs that the Evidence was full to convict him so as there needed neither Confession nor supply of Examination But for Your Majesties Mercy although he were not to expect we should make any promise we did assure him That Your Majesty was compassionate of him if he gave you some ground whereon to work that as long as he stood upon his Innocency and Tryal Your Majesty was tyed in Honour to proceed according to Justice and that he little understood being a close Prisoner how much the expectation of the World besides Your love to Justice it self engaged Your Majesty whatsoever Your inclination were but nevertheless that a frank and clear Confession might open the gate of Mercy and help to satisfie the point of Honour That his Lady as he knew and that after many Oaths and Imprecations to the contrary had nevertheless in the end been touched with remorse confessed that she that led him to offend might lead him likewise to repent of his offence That the confession of one of them could not fitly do either of them much good but the confession of both of them might work some further effect towards both And therefore in conclusion we wished him not to shut the gate of your Majesties mercy against himself by being obdurate any longer This was the effect of that which was spoken part by one of us part by another as it fell out adding further that he might well discern who spake in us in the course we held for that Commissioners of Examination might not presume so far of themselves Not to trouble Your Majesty with Circumstances of his Answers the sequel was no other but that we found him still not to come any degree further on to confess only his Behaviour was very sober and modest and mild differing apparently from other times but yet as it seem'd resolv'd to expect his Tryal Then did we proceed to examine him upon divers Questions touching the Impoysonment which indeed were very material and supplemental to the former Evidence wherein either his Affirmatives gave some light or his Negatives do greatly falsifie him in that which is apparently proved We made this further observation That when we asked him some Question that did touch the Prince or some Forrain practice which we did very sparingly at this time yet he grew a little stirred but in the Questions of the Impoysonment very cold and modest Thus not thinking it necessary to trouble Your Majesty with any further particulars we end with Prayer to God ever to preserve Your Majesty Your Majesties most Loyal and Faithful Servant c. If it seem good unto Your Majesty we think it not amiss some Preacher well chosen had access to my Lord of Somerset for his preparing and comfort although it be before his Tryal Sir Francis Bacon to the King upon some inclination of His Majesty signified to him for the Chancellors place It may please your most Excellent Majesty THe last day when it pleased Your Majesty to express your self towards me in favour far above that I can deserve or could expect I was surprised by the Princes coming in I most humbly pray Your Majesty therefore to accept these few lines of acknowledgement I never had great thoughts for my self further then to maintain those great thoughts which I confess I have for your service I know what honour is and I know what the times are but I thank God with me my service is the principal and it is far from me under honourable pretences to cover base desires which I account them to be when men refer too much to themselves especially serving such a King I am afraid of nothing but that the Master of the Horse your excellent servant and my self shall fall out about this who shall hold your Stirrup belt but were Your Majesty mounted and seated without difficulties and distastes in your business as I desire and hope to see you I should ex animo desire to spend the decline of my years in my studies wherein also I should not forget to do him honour who besides his active and politick vertues is the best pen of Kings and much more the best subject of a pen. God ever preserve Your Majesty Your Majesties most humble Subject and more and more obliged Servant April 1. 1616. Sir Francis Bacon the Kings Attorney returned with Postils of the Kings own Hand It may please Your most Excellent Majesty YOur Majesty hath put upon me a work of providence in this great Cause which is to break and distinguish future events into present Cases and so to present them to your Royal Judgement that in this action which hath been carried with so great Prudence Justice and Clemency there may be for that which remaineth as little surprize as is possible but that things duly foreseen may have their remedies
of Praemunire preferred into the Kings Bench but not found is not so much as is noised abroad though I must say it was Omni tempore nimium hoc tempore alienum And therefore I beseech Your Majesty not to give any believing ear to Reports but to receive the Truth from me that am Your Attorney General and ought to stand indifferent for Jurisdictions of all Courts which account I cannot give Your Majesty now because I was then absent and some are now absent which are properly and authentically to inform me touching that which passed Neither let this any way disjoint Your other business for there is a time for all things and this very accident may be turned to good not that I am of opinion that that same cunning Maxim of Separa Impera which sometimes holdeth in persons can well take place in Jurisdictions but because some good occasion by this excess may be taken to settle that which would have been more dangerous if it had gone on by little and little God preserve Your Majesty Your Majesties most humble Subject and most bounden Servant Febr. 15. 1615. Sir Francis Bacon the Kings Attorney to the King giving some Account touching the Commendams It may please Your most Excellent Majesty I Am not swift to deliver anything to your Majesty before it be well weighed But now that I have informed my self of as much as is necessary touching this proceeding of the Judges to the Argument of the Commendams notwithstanding your Majesties pleasure signified by me upon your Majesties Commandment in presence of my Lord Chancellor and the Bishop of Winchester to the contrary I do think it fit to advertise your Majesty what hath passed the rather because I suppose the Judges since they performed not your Commandment have at least given Your Majesty their reasons of their failing therein I begin to answer for the doing of Your Majesties Commandment and they for the not doing I did conceive that in a cause that concern'd Your Majesty and your Royal power the Judges having heard your Attorney General argue the Saturday before would of themselves have taken further time to be advised And if I fail not in memory my Lord Coke received from Your Majesties self as I take it a precedent commandment in Hillary term That both in the Rege inconsulto and in the Commendams your Attorney should be heard to speak and then stay to be made of further proceeding till my Lord had spoken with your Majesty Nevertheless hearing that the day appointed for the Judges Argument hâ—ld contrary to my expectation I sent on Thursday in the evening having received Your Majesties Commandment but the day before in the afternoon a Letter to my Lord Coke whereby I let him know that upon some Report of my Lord of Winchester who by Your Commandment was present at my Argument of that which passed it was Your Majesties express Pleasure that no further proceeding should be until Your Majesty had confer'd with Your Judges which Your Majesty thought to have done at Your being now last in Town but by reason of Your many and weighty occasions Your Princely times would not serve and that it was Your Pleasure he should signifie so much to the rest of the Judges whereof his Lordship might not fail His answer by word to my Man was That it were good the rest of the Judges understood so much from my self Whereupon I that cannot skill in scruples in matter of Service did write on Friday three several Letters of like Content to the Judges of the Common Pleas and the Barons of the Exchequer and the other three Judges of the Kings Bench mentioning in that last my particular Letter to my Lord Chief Justice This was all I did and thought all had been sure insomuch as the same day being appointed in Chancery for Your Majesties great Cause followed by my Lord Hunsdon I writ two other Letters to both the Chief Justices to put them in mind of assisting my Lord Chancellor at the hearing And when my Lord Chancellor himself took some notice upon that occasion openly in the Chancery that the Commendams could not hold presently after I heard the Judges were gone about the Commendams which I thought at first had been only to adjourn the Court But I heard after that they proceeded to Argument In this their doing I conceive they must either except to the nature of the Commandment or to the credence thereof both which I assure my self Your Majesty will maintain For if they should stand upon the general ground Nulli negabimus nulli differemus Justitiam it receiveth two Answers The one that reasonable and mature advice may not be confounded with delay and that they can well alledge when it pleaseth them The other that there is a great difference between a Case meerly between Subject and Subject and where the Kings interest is in question directly or by consequence At for the Attorneys Place and Commission it is as proper for him to signifie the Kings Pleasure to the Judges as for the Secretary to signifie the same to the Privy Councel and so hath it ever been These things were a little strange if there came not so many of them together as the one maketh the other seem less strange But Your Majesty hath fair occasions to remedy all with small aid I say no more for the present I was a little plain with my Lord Coke in these matters and when his answer was That he knew all these things I said he could never profit too much in knowing himself and his duty Sir Francis Bacon his Advertisement touching an Holy War to the Right Reverend Father in God Lancelot Andrews Lord Bishop of Winchester and Councellor of Estate to His Majesty My Lord AMongst consolations it is not the least to represent a mans self like examples of calamity in others For Example gives a quicker impression then Arguments and besides they certifie us of that which the Scripture also tendereth for satisfaction That no new thing is happened unto us This they do the better by how much the Examples are liker in circumstances to our own case and more especially if they fall upon persons that are greater and worthier then our selves For as it savoureth of vanity to match our selves highly in our own conceit so on the other side it is a good sound conclusion That if our betters have sustained the like events we have the less cause to be grieved In this kind of consolation I have not been wanting to my self though as a Christian I have tasted through Gods great goodness of higher remedies Having therefore through the variety of my reading set before me many examples both of ancient and latter times my thoughts I confess have chiefly stayed upon three particulars as the most eminent and the most resembling all three persons that had held chief place of Authority in their Countreys all three ruined not by war or by any other disaster
sorry that at present I am unfurnished to help you with a Secretary my servant Windebanke is sick Mr. Sommers will not be induced to leave his place So as nevertheless if I can procure you any other meet person by the next Messenger you shall hear I thank you for the Chart of Paris and for a written Book to the Queens Majestie whereof her Majesty would gladly know the Author And so I end Yours assuredly W. Cecil Richmond 14. July 1567. To the right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR AT my last writing by Master Jenny I did not make any mention of answer to your request for the provision of a Secretary Because I heard that you meant to place one Molenenx if he might be recommended by me and truly if he be meet for the place I do well allow thereof for howsoever he did in times past misuse me I have remitted it and wish him well My Lord Keeper prayeth you to use some good means to inquire by the way of Orleans of Sir Ralph Pawlet what is become of him and where he is and how he doth It is certain on the 29. of July the Prince of Scotland was Crowned King at Sterling with all the Ceremonies thereto due and with a general applause of all sorts the Queen yet remaineth where she was Yours assuredly W. Cecil Windsor 5. Aug. 1567. To the right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR YOu shall perceive by the Queens Majesties Letter to you at this present how earnestly she is bent in the favor of the Queen of Scots and truely since the beginning she hath been greatly offended with the Lords and howsoever her Majesty might make her profit by bearing with the Lords in this Action yet no councel can stay her Majestie from manifesting of her misliking of them So as indeed I think thereby the French may and will easily catch them and make their present profit of them to the damage of England and in this behalf her Majesty had no small misliking of that Book which you sent me written in French whose name yet I know not but howsoever I think him of great Wit and acquaintance in the affairs of the world It is not in my power to procure any reward and therefore you must so use the matter as he neither be discouraged nor think unkindness in me When all is done I think my Lord of Murray will take the Office of Regency and will so band himself with the rest as he will be out of peril at home And as for External power to offend them I think they are so skillful of other Princes causes and needs as I think they will remain without fear We are occupied with no news greater then this of Scotland We begin to doubt of the King of Spains coming out of Spain finding it more likely for his Son to come In Ireland all things proceed smoothly to make the whole Realm obedient the Deputie hath leave to come over to confer with the Queens Majesty upon the affairs My Lord of Sussex wrot from Augusta the 24. of July that he meant to be at Vienna the last of July and also that the Emperor meant to be there at the same time I must heartily pray you to bear with my advice that in your expences you have consideration not to expend so much as by your Bills brought to me by your servant Cartwright it seemeth you do for truely I have no Warrant to allow such several Fees as be therein contained neither did I know any of the like allowed to any of your predecessors and in the paying for your intelligences if you be not well ware you shall for the most part have counterfeited ware for good money In matters of importance or when you are precisely commanded to prosecute matters of weight it is reason your extraordinary charges be born but as to the common Advisees of the Occurrents abroad they are to be commonly had for small value and many times as news for news for at this day the common Advisees from Venice Rome Spain Constantinople Vienna Geneva Naples yea and from Paris are made so currant as every Merchant hath them with their letters from their Factors If I did not know your good Nature I would not thus plainly write and yet if I should not hereof warn you your expences might increase and I know not how to procure your payment and yet hereby I mean to do my best at all times to help you to allowance for all necessary expences and so take my leave Yours assuredly W. Cecil From the Mannor of Guilford 19. Aug. 1567. To the right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR I Have had no good Messenger of good time to write unto you the Queens Majesty hath been abroad from Windsor these twenty dayes and returned on Saturday very well Lignerolls is come out of Scotland with very small satisfaction as I think he could not speak with the Queen no more then Sir Nicholas Throckmorton who also is returning The Hambletons hold out the Earl of Murray is now Regent the Queens Majesty our Sovereign remaineth still offended with the Lords for the Queen the example moveth her In Ireland all things prosper and be quiet Sir Henry Sydney shall come onely to confer and shall return to keep a Parliament in Ireland My Lord of Sussex was honorably received the fifth of August lodged and defrayed by the Emperor had his first Audience on the eight the Arch-Duke Charles was looked for within five days and now we daily look for Sir Henry Cobham to come in Post at the least within these ten days All things are quiet within this Realm thanked be Almighty God I have presently a paper sent me from Antwerp in French very strange containing an Edict to compell all Judges Governors all Officers and Councellors to give Attestation of the Catholick Faith if it should be true it should be a hazard to make a plain civil war My Lady your Wife came this night hither to Windsor whom I have warned to write to you by this bearer Yours assuredly W. Cecil Septem 3. 1567. To the Right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR YOu may perceive by the Queens letter how this noble man is partly of his own minde partly by perswasion stayed and surely if either the French King or the Queen should appear to make any force against them of Scotland for the Queens cause we finde it credibly that it were the next way to make an end of her and for that cause her Majesty is loth to take that way for avoiding of standers that might grow thereby I had provided a young man for you which could have served very well for writing and speaking of French and English but I durst not allow him to serve you in your
Queens Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR AFter my hearty commendations the Queens Majesty and my Lords of her Council have been reasonably well satisfied of late by your two dispatches wherein you have largely and well written the last being of the 29. sent hither by the means of Glover of Rohan the other of the 23. brought hither by this bearer your servant before the coming whereof we had plenty of uncertain news brought hither by the means of the passages sometimes from Diep sometime from Bulloigne but comparing them with yours we make them as refuse and yours as clean metal And truely I finde that to be true which you write that you see good cause to forbear writing of every thing there finding by experience that the greater part of reports brought thither proved not the truest I am glad there is no occasion here to requite you with any news for God blesseth us with continuance in our accustomed quietness for the which I wish we might but yield half the thanks The Queens Majesty is in good health and was purposed of late to have gone abroad for her Pastime as she did this time twelve moneths but the foulness of the weather hath letted it There were certain Scots which newly returned into Ireland about November last but they found themselves disappointed of such aide as they looked for and so are gone and scared whereby the Realm remaineth quiet The Earl of Desmond and his brother Sir John be here in the Tower chargeable rather with disorders for private quarrels then for any untruth whereupon some think that whilst they remain here good order may be better stablished there In Scotland things are quietly Governed by the Regent who doth acquit himself very honorably to the advancement of Religion and Justice without respect of persons My Lord of Sussex by his last letters of the 27. of January looked for his resolute answer in such sort at that time as he hoped to be at Antwerp before the end of this moneth What his answer is like to be I assure you on my Faith neither do I know nor can likely conjecture I perceive by some of your letters of late that you were somewhat troubled with light reports of news from hence and therein you thought it strange that you could not hear thereof from me You may be sure that in such a case I would have given you some knowledge if any thing had hapned More as yet I have not at this present but heartily to thank you for the young horse you have bestowed upon me wherein you see my overmuch boldness of your friendship as in many other things and so I heartily take my leave I wish to have a Bill of the names of the principal persons with the place Yours assured W. Cecil Westm. 12. Feb. 1567. To the right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR YOur last letters be dated the 10. of Feburary by which they I perceive you did two days before make earnest suit on the behalf of the poor men at Marsciles wherein surely you did very charitably besides that it toucheth the Queens Majesty in honor to have them deliveed and so her Majesty alloweth your doings therein and therefore you may do well to continue it I doubt the former answer will be renewed that is to have the interest of D'Estrill fully remitted which belongeth properly to some of the Queens Subjects who have spent a great deal of money in the pursuit thereof by attendance onely for that purpose upon this Court more then two or three years which of my own knowledge I understand to be true insomuch as they have been forced to be relieved out of prison for very debt grown by this their suite Of late they of Rye took certain Fishers of Diepe which had come upon our shoar in the night and Fished with sundry Netts of unlawful size such as are both by the Ordinances of France and England on both sides condemned and being kept in Ward by them of Rye the Ambassador made earnest suite for them but after the Nets were brought up and some of the parties also and plainly proved before them that they were far unlawful It was agreed by my Lord Steward and the Officers of the houshold here in the favor of them That they should be released and have their Nets with faithful promise never to use the same again upon our Coast Hereof it may be you shall hear but I assure you considering the unreasonableness of their Nets I think they had too much favor in that the Nets were not burned The Queens Majesty this morning willed me to write unto you that you should obtain licence of the French King to send for by safe conduct your Nephew Champernoune which is with the Count Mountgomery whom his father thought to have remained in Normandy with the Countess but now since dinner I perceive by Sir Arthur Champernoune he would be loth to seem to send for him and therefore you may do herein as Sir Arthur Champernoune shall by his letter sent unto you at this time move you for indeed I think the Count Mountgomery would be very loth to part with him for opinion sake The Lord of Arbroth came lately out of Scotland this way and spoke with the Queens Majesty pretending to go into France to sollicite aide for the delivery of the Queen of Scots he came out of Scotland without licence or knowledge of the Regent there this way of late but I trust shortly to hear from of such things as he carryed with him Your admonition of O was well allowed of but about that matter we are otherwise occupied if things may fall out as are meant whereof I cannot write any more because as yet the Iron is not in the Forge I thank you for the Edicts published and printed in Paris which you sent me praying you that you will hereafter continue in the same mauner to send me any thing that is there published Having not heard of any thing from you since the 9. of this moneth this being the 26 I am in some perplexity what to think of matters there for howsoever rumors and news be brought from the Sea coast neither do I believe any for the truth but such as are confirmed by you And hereby you may perceive that the oftner you write the more pleasure you do me Yours assuredly W. Cecil West 26. Feb. 1567. Postscript I hear that Glover of Rohan is very ill used I wish you could help him as you shall understand his grief To the right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR YOur last letters that have come to my hands were of the 12. of Feb. brought hither by one Bogg of the French Kings Guard who having tarryed as he said fourteen days at Diep for lack of passage by that means came very slowly hither and therefore you must think we be here
much troubled for lack of certain advertisements from you whilst we hear from other parts reports so diversly Nevertheless I do think and affirm that there be some letters dispatched from you since the date aforesaid Those which you wrote last to the Queens Highness were well and amply written and so I wish you should do with the rest hereafter You may perceive by the Queens Majesties letter which I send at this time her sincere meaning which if it be well taken it is well bestowed and yet I think she should not finde the like courtesie and good meaning if she had need of the like from the which I pray God long keep her Her Majesty is well disposed to send some thither if she thought she might do good towards the peace against which I think plainly all Ambassadors but your self are vehemently disposed and so it appeareth by the fruits of their Councils and if you told the Queen mother so as of your own head as a thing you hear spread abroad in the world I think you might do well and speak truely for as for the Popes Ministers their profession is to prefer the State of their corrupted Church before the Weal of any Kingdom in the earth and whatsoever come of any thing they look onely to the continuance of their own ambitious ruling and as for other Ministers of Princes or for men of War it is a truth infallible the more they do impoverish that Monarchy of France the better they think their own estates and if the Queen-mother and other good Councellors of the King do not understand this you may say if you can in good terms Oculos Habent non vident Our matters here in England remain as hitherto they have long done by the goodness of God in great quietness This day I had letters from my Lord of Sussex of the first of this moneth from Antwerp who I perceive meaneth to pass over the Seas hitherwards this night so as I think he will be here by Munday what he bringeth I know not at all Bredrood is dead at Collen the Count of Berry eldest son to the Prince of Orange is in Zealand ready to be carryed into Spain it is doubted that the Counts of Egmond and Horne shall follow Yours assuredly W. Cecil March 6. 1567. To the right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR YOu have done very well in this doubtful time to write so often hither as you have done for that the Queens Majesty hath been in great expectation what to judge to be the truth in the middest of so many divers advertisements for howsoever we be from other places advertised we measure the same even by yours The last letters which you sent were dated the 30. of March which came hither yesterday being the 7. And considering the last accident hapned the 29. by a treachery to have supplanted the good meaning of the peace I am in opinion that the Prince and his should have a reasonable occasion offered unto them to mend their bargain in certain points tending to their own surety which surely if they do not better foresee me thinks their danger wil not be far off I pray you to continue your vigilancy in exploring of wherein you may do very well to procure that the R may be induced to withstand that enterprize as being a matter very prejudicial to the whole London 2 Paris c. Here hath been of good long time one Emmanuel Tremelius who heretofore in King Edwards time read the Hebrew Lecture in Cambridge and hath now been sent hither by the Count Palatine the Elector to inform the Queens Majesty of the proceedings of the said Elector in sending his son into France without intention to offend the King and the Realm or to assist the Prince of Conde in any thing but onely in the defence of the common cause of Religion who now upon the ending of these causes in France will depart hence and truely in my opinion the said Elector hath shewed himself to be a Prince of great honor in this Action The Prince of Orange hath also sent hither a special Gentleman to declare unto her Majesty his innocency in such causes as are objected against him touching any part of his duty towards the King of Spain And further also to shew good cause why he doth not return into the Low Countries to appear before the Duke of Alva whom he noteth to be a Judge not competent because he hath already notorionsly broken the Laws and ancient priviledges of the same Countries Out of Scotland I hear that the Hambletons continue in that Faction against the Regent and I believe they be nourished out of France by means of the Abbot of Arbroth who lately came thorough this way Of my Lady your wifes dangerous sickness out of the which she was newly escaping when your Son arrived here I doubt not but you are well advertised so as I need not to write any other thing but onely to rejoyce with you that she is so well amended You see by my writing that this Country thanked be God is as barren of news as that of France is plenteous Sir Ambrose Cave is departed this life and as yet it is not known who shall succeed him some name Mr Vice-Chamberlaine some Sir Henry Sydney some Sir Ralph Sadler some Sir Nic. Throckmorton her Majesty can make no ill choice of any of these And so trusting ere this letter can come to your hands I shall receive some of yours containing the resolution of this long lingring peace Yours assuredly W. Cecil April 8. 1568. SIR THis evening Harcourte arrived here with your letters which were long looked for and be now welcome for your satisfaction by this bearer you shall understand of the recovery of my Lady your Wife The Gentleman that lately came hither named Monsieur de Beamont one of the late disorder of France passeth into Scotland which is not much to be liked The book which you sent of the peace hath not printed in it certain Articles by way of request made to the King by the Commissaries on the Princes part what answers Marginal of the King I fear much the surety of the Prince and his Colleagues I hear by him that came last now of strange news at Diep of the King and Prince of Spain I pray you if there be any of moment send us word Here is an Ambassador arrived from Portugal for to brawle about Merchants and Maritime matters For haste I can write no more Yours assuredly W. Cecil April 14. 1568. Postscript I send you the beginning of the Parliament of Scotland when I have more you shall have more sent you To the right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR YOur last letters brought hither are of the 18. of April which came hither the 29. of the same moneth by which I looked to have heard where the
subscribed his name who seemeth very importune to have answer because he may be entertained and if he be the party of whom you writ about a moneth past surely as I did advertise you the Queens Majesty will in no wise hear of any such offers which she thinketh are but chargeable without fruit although I had earnestly moved her Majesty to have adventured some small piece of money upon such a man therefore I see no remedy but to pay him as well as may be with goods words And thus I wish you better to fare then I did at the writing here Your assured loving friend W. Cecil To the right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR BY yours of the 23. of the last moneth for answer of mine of the 13. of the same I finde that you have very diligently and circumspectly travailled in the great dangerous matter to satisfie the Queens Majesty whereof you gave before that intelligence and though I perceive that you can come to no more understanding therein for further satisfaction of her Majesty yet she is very well satisfied with your diligence and care and so hath specially willed me to give you knowledge of her allowance of your doings therein Methinketh the parties which tell you such pieces of tales if the whole were true might as well tell you the whole as such obscure parts which if they do not you might well alleadge them to be but devices to breed unquietness and suspition and as I wrote before unto you they might be tempted with offer of rewards that the troth of the matter might be disclosed The Queens Majesty as I am informed for presently I am not at the Court by reason of my sickness meaneth to have the matter between the Queen of Scots and her subjects heard in this Realm and compounded as I think with a certain manner of restitution of the Queen and that limited with certain conditions which how they shall be afterwards performed wise men may doubt the Queen of Scots her self at length seemeth content to commit the order of this cause to her Majesty wherein if her Majesty 's own interest should not be provided for the world might think great want in her self which I trust she will regard I am willed by her Majesty to require you to continue your diligence in inquisition what preparations are meant or intended in that Country to sent into Scotland and as you shall finde any to give speedy knowledge thereof as I know you would do if you were not thus advertised There is coming out of Spain a new person to be Resident Ambassador here who is a Commendatory of an Order in whom I wish no worse conditions then I have found in this man for maintenance of amity Our whole expectation as yours there is resteth upon the event and success of these matters in the Low Countries which as they shall fall out so are like to produce consequences to the greater part of Christendom and therefore I beseech God it may please him to direct them to his honor and quietness if it may be of his universal Church here in earth and so I end being occasioned to use the hand of another my self being very unable to write and fully wearied with inditing thus much Fare you heartily well from my house in Cheston the 3. of August 1568. Sir This bearer Mr. Hudleston acknowledgeth himself so much be-holden to you as he is desirous to return thither to spend his time where he may shew himself thankful to you and to that end hath requested me to write to you by him he hath required to be accepted into my service but I think him worthy of some better Master and my self am overburthened with numbers or else I would gladly have accepted him Yours assured W. Cecil SIR MY late sickness hath been cause of my rare writing and I am sorry to hear of your lack of health which I trust you have ere this time recovered Your letters sent by the Frenchman of Southwark came one day only before Cockborne who came also safely with your letters on Saturday last I have made the Queens Majesty privy to both your letters and as to the unhappy news of Flanders we had the same worse reported by the Spanish Ambassador here then yours did there who hath made a triumphant story thereof as far uncredible as any in Amadis de Gaule for in the fighting continually one whole day there were on Lodowicks part slain and devoured 8000. and on the other part but eight so every one of them killed ten hundred I understand that within these three days we shall have the report more reasonable for I also hear that the greater number of the men slain were of the Dukes part which I wish to be true is in words content to commit Dover A but yet x doth not omit to stir new troubles in v. Touching the whereof you have often writ order is taken to deal with Paris and surely me-thinks still since the informers will not be known of the particulars in more certainty that these things are intended to bring us into their play but yet no diligence is to be omitted I think the Duke of Norfolk my Lord of Sussex and Sir Walter Mildmay shall be Commissioners to treat in the North betwixt the Queen of Scots and her subjects And so I end Yours assuredly W. Cecil Dunstable 10. August 1568. To the Right Honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight her Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR THe sufficiency of the bringer hereof is such as I need not to write any thing to you by him of importance to whom any thing may be well committed He can best tell you upon what occasion the Queens Majesty sendeth this Message to the French King at this time which because it is long and of great importance the Queens Majesty would have you first translate it into French and well digest it with your self so as you may very perfectly and readily express it in such sort as it is conceived And I think if you would in the translating thereof distribute it into sundry members by way of Articles you should the better carry it in your minde making thereby an account with your self of the better delivery thereof and you shall do well to let some such as favor the intention of the Queens Message to see the Copy of the letter whereby they may per-case being called to give advice to the King further the cause to the benefit of them of the Religion This day I received your letters of the date of the 20. of this moneth by Glover who of late time dwelt in Roan whom I take to be a good honest person but of the matter of the Jewels whereof you wrote upon his report I my self know no certainty As for the occurrents of Scotland you shall understand that where the Queens Majesty hath determined with the Queen of Scots to hear the whole matter
and as it seemeth to the advantage of that Queen she took such comfort thereof as she made the Earl of Arguile Lieutenant in one part and the Earl of Huntly in another and the Duke of Chastilherault over all so as they forthwith leavyed Forces and by Proclamation threatned the Regent and all his with fire and sword who upon the Queens request had forborn hostility untill the matter might be heard and upon the 16. day of this moneth the said Regent beginning a Parliament which was appointed six weeks before and quietly holding the same without any Armes about the 19. word came to him that the Earl of Arguile was come to Glasco with 2000. and the Earl of Huntley coming out of the North with a great power to joyn with Arguile and so to come to Sterling to surprise both the place and the King upon which occasion the Earl of Murray brake up the Parliament and sent all the power that he had to stay their joyning together and as I heard the Earl of Huntley is put to the worse and so fled home-ward hereof the Queen of Scots maketh great complaint to the Queens Majesty you may do well when you have done your great Message as you see cause you may charge the Queen Mother with the breach of promise if the Duke of Chastilherault be gone forwards towards Scotland with power Yours assuredly W. Cecil Bissiter 27. Aug. 1568. Postscript I have boldly received from you sundry books and I am bold to pray you to provide for me a book concerning Architecture intituled according to a paper here included which I saw at Sir Smith's or if you think there is any better of a late making of that argument To the Right Honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight Her Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR YOur Lackquey arrived here on Friday in the afternoon and because the Bishop of Reynes hath not yet his audience I stay your servant Wall to bring the knowledge of that shall pass The Ambassador sent his Nephew Willcob to require Audience and that it might be Ordered to have her Majesties Council present at the Bishops Missado Her Majesty answered that they forgot themselves in coming from a King that was but young to think her not able to conceive an answer without her Council and although she could use the advice of her Council as was meet yet she saw no cause why they should thus deal with her being of full years and governing her Realm in better sort then France was so the audience being demanded on Saturday was put off untill Tuesday wherewith I think they are not contented The Cardinal Castillon lyeth at Shene Paris the rather to displease for Callis I think for E London demanded The Duke of Norfolke c. are gone to Yorke where the Dyet shall begin the last of this moneth It is Callice 90 London to the contrary shal be there any 9 7 3 590-0 Dover c. The success of the matters for good Sir I pray advertise me what you may reasonably think of practices what or any like to him I thank you for the book you sent me of Architecture but the Book which I most desired is made by the same Author and yet intituled Novels per bien bastir per Phileont de L'orn I thank you for your Placarts and instruments that you sent me by your Lackquey Yours assuredly as your brother W. Cecil Septem 27. 1568. Postscript And is well used by A the rather to displease all Papists I think he hath or shall shortly have such comfort for E as Steward demanded It is not meant if x shall be proved guilty of the Murther to restore her to V. howsoever her friends may brag to the contrary nor yet shall there be any haste made of her delivery untill the success of the matter of F and F be seen I pray you Sir advertise me what you may reasonably think of Sir Robert Staffords practices with D or any like him To the right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR AFter the letters of the Queens Majesty were closed up at Bissiter her Majesty stayed your Son that he might carry with him a letter for the Marshall Montmorancis wife for thanks for favor to my Lord Chamberlains daughter and for a token which her Majesty now sendeth by your Son being a Ring with a pointed Diamond I beseech you cause the letter to her to be indorsed as you shall think meet for I know not whether she be intituled Madam Lady Duchess of Calsho or Montmorancy or otherwise I write this upon the 20. being Sunday in the afternoon in Rycot where the Queens Majesty is well lodged to her great contentation as she hath commanded me to write to you lacking onely the presence of your self whom she wisheth here untill Thursday that she shall depart from hence of which Message I pray you take knowledge and give her Majesty thanks for she bad me to write thus very earnestly and so fare you well from your own house where also I am better lodged then I was in all this Progress We are truly certified by our own Ambassador from Spain who is on the way thorough France to return that the Prince is suddainly dead but by what occasion it is doubtful Yours assuredly W. Cecil 29. Aug. 1568. To the right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR I Have as I lately signified unto you stayed this bearer John Wall your servant to the time that this Bishop of Rhemes should have his Audience and be answered he was heard on Tuesday and at his departure was required briefly to put in writing the sum of his speech which he did as shall appear by the Copy herewith sent unto you and yet in his speech he touched an offence in the latter end of your Message notingthe Doctrine of Rome to be contrary to Christs wherein he amplified before the Queens Majesty that seeing his Master holdeth the Doctrine of Rome therefore your Majesty should repute him no Christian which speech he said was hardly born by the king in an open Audience whereunto some answer hath been made as you may see to salve the matter by turning the sence that the Doctrine of Rome was contrary to Christs in derogating c. Onely in this was some difference made although indeed your writing was warranted by the Queens Majesties letter and therefore no fault in any wise found in your doings I do send you herewith the copy of the Bishops writing exhibited and the answer of her Majesty thereto which being put in French was yesterday before the Ambassador were admitted to her Majesties presence read unto them by one of the Clarks of the Council in the presence of the Council and afterward they were brought unto her Majesty who did confirm her former answer and so they departed without further debate thereof It was thought they would have used
which you wrote unto the Queens Majesty touching the speech that was uttered unto you by the King there concerning the Cardinal Chastillon for that as I wrote unto you the same letter by casualty was burned before it was thoroughly read and perused and hitherto I have not heard your answer to the same We have been here of late much occupied in the conference with the Commissioners of Scotland wherein there hath been eight or nine several Sessions the sum of the matter is this the Queens party began at York to accuse the Regent and his party whereunto they made their answer and defence after which the Queens party by replication maintained their accusation and then the conference there stayed whereupon the Regent being here with the Queens Majesty vehemently charged was driven for his defence to disclose a full Fardel of the naughty matter tending to convince the Queen as devisor of the murther and the Earl of Bothwell her Executor and now tâ—e Queens party finding the burthen so great refuse to make any answer and press that their Mistriss may come in person to answer the matter her self before the Queens Majesty which is thought not sit to be granted untill the great Blots of the marriage with her husband the murtherer and the evident charges by letters of her own to be the deviser of the murther be somewhat razed out or recovered for that as the matters are exhibited against her it is far unseemly for any Prince or chaste ears to be annoyed with the silthy noise thereof and yet as being a Commissioner I must and will sorbear to pronounce anything herein certainly although as a private person I cannot but with horror and trembling think thereof In your letters of the 25. you recommended unto me a cause of your own between you and one Brabrook wherein you write that one Tettersall your Atturney should have informed me but herein I have not a good while now dealt withall but whensoever any shall I shall be glad to shew you my friendship to my power sic de caeteris I am sorry to understand of the sickness of your Son Mr. William Norris and therefore I would be glad to hear from you of his recovery for indeed I do heartily like him and his condition I have also dealt with my Lord of Norfolks grace in your matter for your right to the Lord Dacres Lands wherein his Grace at the Council-table openly promised his favor I pray you Sir commend me to my good Lady your wife if there be any good Charte of France made since Mr. Oliver Trunkets impression having no date I would be glad to have one to behold therein the particular voyages and passages of these contrary powers And so I end Yours as your own W. Cecil Hampton-Court 14. Decemb. 1568. To the right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambessador resident in France SIR THis bearer your servant came hither the last of December with your letters of the 25. and 26. of the same wherein he used good diligence and for the contents thereof her Majesty is very well satisfied with the diligence of your advertising being before by reason of contrarious reports in great suspence what to think for this French Ambassdor now being here useth an ordinary manner to write unto her Majesty in a certain general sort of the news of that Country as favorably as he may on the Kings behalf as reason is he should but yet not without danger of discrediting himself by reporting untruths As I conjecture by your advertisements it is likely that God hath already permitted some great effect to be wrought about this Christmas time by some Battail stricken betwixt the two Armies and howsoever it is I do not doubt but you will advertise and therein the will of God is to be obeyed with thanks or with patience as it pleaseth him to give his grace or to chastise By your letters also it appeared that the Prince of Orange at the writing thereof was still in the French Kings Dominions and yet the common report at the same time was that he was departed towards Germany whereof the Duke of Alva's friends in the Low Countries began to make some triumph The matter of the Queen of Scots remains in these termes upon the accusation produced by her Commissioners against the Earl of Murray they have for their defence shewed so much matter to charge her with the procuring of the murther of her husband as thereupon motion is made on her behalf for covering of her honor to have some appointment betwixt her and her subjects which is communed of secretly by two or three manner of wayes that is to say That she should affirm her resignation of her Crown to her Son as it hath been made and live here in England Or else her self and her Son to joyn in Title and the Earl of Murray to remain Regent Or thirdly her self to remain in Title Queen and to live here in England secluded and the Earl of Murray to continue Regent which matters have so many pikes as the venture is great to take hold of any one of them nevertheless in the mean time outwardly she offereth to prove her self innocent so she may be permitted to come to the Queens presence and answer for her self which is thought to be the more earnestly required because it is also thought assured it will be denyed and now what is like to grow to be the end thereof surely I cannot well guess for as for my self I finde my insufficiency to wade so deep and the violence of the stream so great as without good company assisting in Council I dare not venture to make any passage and so wishing you and my Lady and yours a fortunate good year I end Here is a stay made of certain treasure that came out of Spain to pass into Flanders which we take to be Merchants and not the Kings as is alleadged if it shall prove Merchants we may be bolder to take the use of it upon good Bonds for an interest Yours assuredly W. Cecil Jan. 3. 1568. SIR I Heartily thank you for the last letters of the first of this moneth wherein you did well deliver us from some perplexity being by the French Ambassador here otherwise advertised to the advantage of the Cardinalists his letters are dated the 30 of December from the King and I marvel to perceive by your letters that the skirmish should be the 23. and the advise should not come to you before the 28. for thereby it seemeth the Camp should be so far off as in four or five days tidings could not come but this I think may be said that evil news are brought to that Court slowly at the least they are uttered slowly Of this accident of Arrest you shall be by her Majesties letters fully advertised at the signing whereof her Majesty said that she would have sent a Gentle-man expresly to the King but she considered that being sent
1569. Postscript SIR IT is now accorded that three of the Merchants shall pass over to Rohan to prove what restitution the French will make there and the like shall be here Because I doubt your slack servants I do presently send away this bearer otherwise I would have staid him to have seen what manner of news this Ambassador hath to declare upon Tuesday next at which time he hath required to be heard I am ready as I told your Son Mr. William Norris to do any thing in my power to pleasure you in your particular causes or suites here as the last Term I did deal for you in such as I was required Yours assuredly W. Cecil To the right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR YOur last letters are of the 8 of June brought by a Merchant residing at Rhoan and now our daily expectation is to hear either of the joyning of the Duke Vypont with the Admiral or else that they have been kept asunder by sight we have no news here being contented with continuance of quietness which we think to possess except the motions of the contrary shall come from thence whereof we have great cause to fear and the like to prevent Upon a Reprizal made by Mr. Winter here of certain Portugals goods We hear for certainty that King of Portugal hath Arrested the goods of our Merchants there whereof will follow some jaâ—â— which we think our foes will increase The Queen of Scots hath sent one Borthick by whom at his request I wrot yesterday and her Secretary Rowlye into France co procure from the King and his brother 〈◊〉 some satisfaction to the Queens Majesty for avoiding of the opinion conceived of her transaction with Mounsieur D' Anjou how they shall well satisfie her Majesty I cannot tell but as of late I wrote to you her Majesty would have you explore by all means that you can what hath been in truth done heretofore in that case besides the advertisement for her Majesty hath seen letters passed betwixt no mean persons of Authority there being adversaries to the Religion by which it manifestly appeareth that such matters have been secretly concluded and yet the more tryals are made hereof the better it is We have at length accorded with the French Ambassador here as as you shall see by a Copy of writing herewith sent you and so I take my leave of you I wish that you would always when you send any with your letters write what you imprest to them for their charges for I make full allowance to them all And so with my hearty commendations to you and my Lord I end Our Progress is like to be to Southampton Your assured friend at command W. Cecil Greenwich 18 June 1569. To the right honorable Sir Henrry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR THis bearer Mr Borthick servant to the Queen of Scots hath required me to have my letters unto you to signifie the cause of his coming wherein I can certifie of my knowledge no other than thus the Queen of Scots of late time amongst other things to move the Queens Majesty to be favoureble unto her in her causes offered to do any thing reasonable to satisfie her Majesty concerning her surety in the right of this Crown as she now possesseth it to her self and her issue whereupon answer was given that though there was no need for the Queens Majesties assurance to have any Act pass from her yet as things were understood the Queen of Scots was not now a person able or meet to contract therein for it was understood that she had made a Concession of all her Title to this Crown to the Duke of Anjou with which answer we finde the Queen of Scots much moved as a thing devised by her enemies in France and thereupon she advertiseth the cause to be of the sending of her 〈◊〉 into France to the King his Brother Uncles c. to make perfect testimony in what sort this surmise is untrue and so as I am informed this is the occasion of the coming of Mr. Borthick this Bearer who truly I have found always a good servant to the Queen his Mistriss and a tractable Gentleman at all times and so I pray you accept him upon my commendations Yours assuredly W. Cecil Westm. 16. June 1569. To the right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR YOur advertisement of the Duke of Bipont came hither so speedily as untill seven days after the French Ambassador could not understand thereof but when he did he used no sparing to divulge it abroad where the Count Ernest of Mansfelt is we cannot as yet understand but from Rochell we hear that he is well allowed of the Army and not inferior in knowledge to the Duke The will of God must be patiently received and obeyed and what shall ensue hereof to his glory we must if it be good affirm it to be beyond our deserts if otherwise not so evil as we have deserved Of late about the 15. of June a Rebellion began in the West part of Ireland about Cork wherein we care not for the force of the inhabitants so they be not aided with some Spainards or Portugals whereof we are not void of suspicion and therefore we do presently send certain Captains with a Force by Sea from Bristoll to Cork meaning to provide for the worst as reason is Our Rochell Fleet is safely returned with Salt and I think the Merchants have not as yet brought their whole accomplement Upon your last advertisement of the delays used in giving you Pasports I did peremptorily admonish the French Ambassador That if he did not procure you some better expedition at the Kings hands there he should have the like measure there and therefore I think you shall hear some what whereof I pray you advertise me And so I take my leave Yours assuredly W. Cecil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Postscript An unfortunate Accident is befaln to my Lord of Shrewsbury being first stricken with a Palsey and now stricken lamentably with a Phrensie God comfort him It is likely the Queen of Scots shall remove to Belvoir in the charge of my Lord of Bedford To the right honorable Sir Henrry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR AS my leisure is small to write much so have I not much matter to write unto you at this time but onely to send away this bearer your servant unto you because I think in this time you have cause to use them all Your Son Mr. John Norris I think shall be the next by whom you shall understand all our matters here better then I can express in my letters and therefore I do forbear to write divers things at this present unto you which by him you shall more certainly understand onely at this time I wish that you could find the means to send some trusty person
a matter to be pitied to have any such disorder to be begun yet with Gods goodness there is great likelihood of due avenge to be had of them all and no small profit to grow to the Queens Majestie by the forfeitures and escheats of their Lands wherewith the better subjects may be rewarded The French Ambassador hath been here this day and shewed the Queens Majesty that the King is come to Paris to levy mony for increase of his Army and that there are coming six thousand more Switzers to his service The 25. of the last the Earl of Murray began a convention at St. Iohns Town and meaneth to send as I think the Lord Lydlington hither with his minde concerning the Queen of Scots and so I end with my hearty commendations both to your self and my Lady Yours assuredly W. Cecil Otlands 3. Aug. 1569. Postscript here is very desirous that might be hither To the right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR YOur last letters brought hither to my hands came by Mr. Huddleston whom surely I think you shall finde an honest servitor I have no matter presently to write of but to take occasion to send away this bearer your servant and I wish to hear from you of some good success at Pcictiers I do lye in wait for the Italian of whom you lately made mention in your letters that is sent hither to attempt his devillish conclusions Out of Ireland since my last I have heard nothing of any moment but I trust all shall be in quiet there and so is the state of this Realm also howsoever any other shall report having a disposition of malicious prophesying In Suffolk a lewd Varlet not disposed to get his living by labor moved a number of light persons to have made a rout in manner of Rebellion to have spoiled the richer sort but the matter was discovered and the offenders taken before they did attempt any thing more then had passed by words so as thereby they are punishable but as conspirers by words and not as actual Rebels The convention of St. Johns-Town in Scotland was dissolved about the second of this moneth and one Wednesday last came hither one Alexander Hume from the Regent with letters declaring that he had an universal obedience in Scotland and that the States there would not consent to any thing concerning the Queen of Scots restitution by any manner of Degree wherewith her Majesty is not well pleased because she hath a disposition to have her out of the Realm with some tollerable conditions to avoid perill which is a matter very hard at the least to me to compass I think you shall hear someways of an intention of and Certainly if the Queens Majesty may or shall be thereto perswaded I think it likely to succeed it hath so many weighty circumstances in it as I wish my self as free from the consideration thereof as I have been from the intelligence of the devising hereof I thought not good to have you ignorant I know Ê’ hath not allowed of it Sir I thank you for the French story which you lately sent me by Huddleston the next that shall come to you I think will be Mr. William Norris Yours assuredly W. Cecil Fernham 13. August 1569. Postscript Immediately after your last servant departed with letters to you making mention of our accord with the French Ambassador came the two Merchants Patrick and Offly to London with an accord propounded by the Marshall de Cross but not accepted for that thereby was required a general restitution of all things which on our part indeed cannot be and now the French Ambassador will not be here on Wednesday to eater into a new communication I send you a late Proclamation which you may impart there as you list SIR ALthough the bearer hereof Mr. Norris your Son is well able to satisfie you of all our Occurrents here both because of his continual attendance about the Court and for his understanding yet in one onely thing I am most fit to inform you That his stay here of long time hath been principally by my occasion whom I have at all times of late when he hath desired to come over unto you moved to stay upon expectation to have some matter of more weight to be by him imparted unto you but finding the same not so to fall out and perceiving him the more importune to resort unto you since the repair of Harcourte by whom he understood of your sickness I have thought it good no longer to defer him and therefore without any other great matter but to send him where he would be he now cometh and if I should enter into writing of any particular things here past he is as well able to express the same of his own knowledge as I am by writing and therefore you shall justly hold me excused if I forbear my writing having so sufficient a person to make report of all things as well such as are meet for letters as also not meet for some respects Of the matters of Ireland he shall make you full report Of Scotland he can do the like of our Trade to Hamburgh he is not ignorant of the matters betwixt us and France for Arrests of Merchandizes I have made him Privy and for the matters in this Court he hath seen and understands as much thereof as I doubt not but shall satisfie so as he shall serve you at this time in stead of many long letters And so I end with a good hope that he shall finde you well amended whereof I shall also be glad to hear wishing that the same might be joyned with the winning of Poictiers of which we here live on all sides in no small expectation though with sundry meanings Your assured friend at command W. Cecil Southampton 9. Sept. 1569. To the right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR SInce your Sons departing from Southampton I have deferred to write untill this time perceiving some likelihood of some greater matters to ensue and yet the event thereof draws out at some length which hath moved me to defer the same untill now and doubting that otherwise rumors may be brought unto you I have thought good to send away this bearer You shall understand that according as your Son was able to inform you the Duke of Norfolk departed towards London about the 16. of this moneth promising to return to the Court within 8. days the Queens Majesty having shewed her self towards him offended with his dealing in the marriage was newly offended with his departure but being by me assured as I earnestly thought that he would return her Majesty was quieted contrary hereunto notwithstanding that he wrote on Thursday the 23. that he would be at the Court before Munday yet he went away secretly from London to Reninghale that same night whereof we had no knowledge untill Sunday in the morning that his own
letters written on Friday at night at Reninghale came hither by which he signified the cause of his departure to be a vehement fear that he conceived by reports made to him that he should be committed to the Tower and therefore he did withdraw himself to have means to seek the Queens Majesties favor which he offered to do as a quiet humble subject Hereupon the same Sunday Mr. Edmund Garret was sent to him who found him at Reninghale on Munday at night in a servent Ague so as the Duke required respite untill Friday with which answer Mr. Garret returned and therewith the Queens Majesty was offended and began by reason also of other lewd tales brought to her Majesty to enter into no small jealousie and therefore sent again Mr. Garret with a peremptory commandment that he should come notwithstanding his Ague and so even now whilst I am writing I have word that Mr. Garret coming on Thursday at night found him ready to come of his own disposition and surely is now on the way whereof I am glad First for the respect of the State and next for the Duke himself whom of all subjects I honored and loved above the rest and surely found in him always matter so deserving Whilst this matter hath been in passing you must not think but the Queen of Scots was nearer looked to then before and though evil willers to our State would have gladly seen some troublesome issue of this matter yet God be thanked I trust they shall be deceived The Queens Majesty hath willed my Lord of Arundel and my Lord of Pembroke to keep their lodgings here for that they were privy of this marriage intended and did not reveal it to her Majesty but I think none of them so did with any evil meaning and of my Lord of Pembroke's intent herein I can witness that he meant nothing but well to the Queens Majesty my Lord Lumly also is restrained the Queens Majesty hath also been grievously offended with my Lord Leicester but considering he hath revealed all that he saith he knoweth of himself her Majesty spareth her displeasure the more towards him some disquiets must arise but I trust not hurtful for that her Majesty saith she will know the truth so as every one shall see his own fault and so stay Thus have I briefly run over a troublesome passage full of fears and jealousies God send her Majesty the quietness that she of her goodness desireth My Lord of Huntington is joyned with the Earl of Shrewsbury in charge for the Scotish Queens safety This 3. of October the Duke is come to Mr. Paul WentWorths house where Sir Henry Nevill hath charge to attend upon him I hope as I know no offence of untruth in him so the event of things will be moderate and so for my part I will endeavor all my power even for the Queens Majesties service I know there will be in that Court large discourses hereupon but I trust they shall lack their hope The Plague continueth in London the Term is prorogued untill All-halloutide All the former part of this letter hath been written these three days and stayed untill the Dukes coming Yours assuredly W. Cecil 3. Octob. 1569. To the Right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR EVen when this bearer was departing I heard that Crips your servant was come from you as far as Amiens or Abberville and there was faln sick but whether he hath any letters of yours or no I cannot tell I do mean to send one thither to see his estate and to bring your letters which will come very late and therefore I think we shall also have some later from you as soon as they shall come to my hands This bearer seemeth to be in Religion good enough but yet you know how he politickly serveth the French King Howsoever any evil bouts shall come thither at this present all the Realm is as yet as at any time it hath been and no doubt of the contrary and yet the Duke of Norfok is in custody and so are the Earl of Arundel and Lord Lumley but the Lord Steward onely keepeth his Chamber in the Court and I trust shall shortly do well And so I end Your assured friend W. Cecil Windsor-Castle 10. Oct. 1569. To the right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR AS you have with grief written your advises so have they with grief been received of us and yet in all these accidents of the world we must accept with humbleness the Ordinances of Almighty God and expect his further favor with patience and with prayer and intercession to move the Majesty of God to draw his heavy hand over us which is provoked by our sins Of our late matters here by the Queens Majesties letter you shall further understand which being as you see long I know you will well consider and advise how to express the same to the French King in the French tongue wherein we have this disadvantage that their Ministers speak in their own tongue and we in theirs Whatsoever you shall hear by lewd reports from hence assure your self that I know no cause to doubt but that all things are and will continue quiet The Queen of Scots I trust is and shall be so regarded as no trouble will arise thereof the Duke of Norfolk doth humbly accept the Queens Majesties dealings with him and I know of none that are thought to have favored his part but either they plainly alter their opinions and follow the Queens or if they do not so inwardly yet outwardly they yield to serve and follow her Majesty order Before you sent us your letters which you received from Spain concerning Ireland we had knowledge of the same from the same place and much more and have made provision to our power These your sinister accidents in France will cause some that were in a slumber here to awake and so beseeching you to pardon me if my letter be hasty and very short Yours assuredly W. Cecil Windsor-Castle 26. Oct. 1566. To the Right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR THis bearer your Footman having brought your letters hither a good while since is desirous to return though I think both the season of the year and the weather will not suffer him to make much haste yet I have thought good to let you partly to understand of the state of things here About the midst of the last moneth the Earls of Northumberland and Westmerland assembling themselves with some Companies after refusall to come in to the Lord President came to Duresme where they have made Proclamations in their own names for reformations of the disorders of the Realm as they termed it and for restitution of the ancient Customes and liberties of the Church and so directed the same generally to all of the old and Catholike Religion In their Companies
but they both being come upon former licence near the City on the way upon desire to see her Majesty came hither yesterday unlooked for and although in the beginning of this Northern Rebellion her Majesty sometimes uttered some misliking of the Earl yet this day she meaning to deal very Princely with him in presence of her Council charged him with such things as she had heard to cause her misliking without any note of mistrust towards him for his fidelity whereupon he did with such humbleness wisdom plainness and dexterity answer her Majesty as both she and all the rest were fully satisfied and he adjudged by good proofs to have served in all this time faithfully and so circumspectly as it manifestly appeareth that if he had not so used himself in the beginning the whole North part had entred into the Rebellion Vsque ad 3. Febr. We have now letters out of Scotland that the Nobility which favoreth the young King have assembled themselves and made a reconciliation of divers persons that had particular quarrels one against another and as they pretend they will all joyn firmely in the revenge of the Murther and defence of their King the Lord Grange who keepeth the Castle of Edenburgh is reconciled to the Earl Moreton and become one of this Bonde and so doth Leddington also offer to be another The Duke of Chastilherault is streighter kept then he was before and it is commonly reportd that the Hambletons were the workers of this murther thus much being known of certain that the murtherer was a neer kinsman of the Dukes and that the Peece wherewith he murthered the Regent and the spare horses whereupon he escaped did all belong to the Abbot of Arbroth the Dukes second Son and the murtherer was received into Hambleton the Dukes house all which I trust God will see revenged The Rebellion moved in the West parts of Ireland this last Summer being also cherished with comfort out of Spaine is fully suppressed and the Country reduced to such quietness and obedience as the like hath not been in those parts these many yeers the heads being all taken and reduced to obedience saving one onely named Fitz Maurice who wandreth in the deserts without any succor making means to be received to mercy but he is of so little value as it is refused unto him For your own revocation from thence I am not unmindful but have attempted the same and so mean to continue it as I hope you shall shortly receive comfort Vsque ad 5. Febr. This day the 6. of Febr. the French Ambassador came with Montlovet to her Majesty to require answer to their demands which were three First to have the Queen of Scots delivered and restored Secondly that Montlovet might repair to the Queen of Scots Thirdly that he might repair into Scotland To all these her Majesty having her whole Council in her presence That for the first she said she had used the Queen of Scots with more honor and favor then any Prince having like cause would have done and though she was not bound to make account to any Prince of her doings yet she would impart to the King her good brother some reasonable consideration of her doings and so she ended her answer to that The other two requests depended so upon the first as she said she could not accord thereunto and so though she used good loving speech to satisfie him yet in brief they departed without obtaining their requests as shortly you shall understand more at length by the next Messenger and letters which in this behalf shall be sent unto you We hear that two Ships of war of St. Malloes under the conduct of the Lord Flemings brother arrived in Don Brittons Frith the tenth of January and have as I think victualled the Castle of Don Britton whereof will follow some further annoyance to Scotland And thus I am forced to end for the present by reason of multitude of other affairs Yours assuredly W. Cecil Hampton-Court Feb. 7. 1568. To the right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador Resident with the French King SIR AFter all the other letters in this Packet were sealed up your honest servant Mr. Rogers arrived here with your letters of the contents whereof concerning the crazed shaken Treaty of peace betwixt the King and his subjects I had plainly heard four or five days past from Rochel Your intelligences accord with the like as I have received from Rochel and as you do express to us the dangerous practices of our Adversaries there so I assure you the same are not by Councellors here neglected although I can give no assurance how they shall be avoided and yet I would not doubt but with Gods goodness their whole designs should prove frustrate if our Councels might take place I have named to the Queens Majesty two to be your successors both to be well liked if their livelihoods were answerable to their other qualities the one is Mr. Francis Walsingham the other is Mr. Hen. Killigrew who is indeed in livelihood much inferrior If I can procure that either of them or some other might relieve you I assure you there shall not lack any good will in me Yours assuredly W. Cecil Hampton-Court 7. Febr. 1569. To the right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR YOur last letters are thus come to my hands Crips came with those of yours the 9. then Neal with those of the 25. of the last month and yesterday came the French Ambassadors Secretary with those of the first of March by all which is manifest the inward natural care that you take for the Queens Majesty and therein her Highness accepteth your zeal and duty most thankfully And yet I know not by what means her Majesty is not much troubled with the opinion of danger nevertheless I and others cannot be but greatly fearful for her and do and will do that in us may lye to understand thorough Gods assistance the attempts as for D many here and the most of this Council think the peril no less but rather greater if D forasmuch should Since the death of the Regent the Borderers have maintained our Rebels and invaded England wherefore for which purpose my Lord of Suffev is now ordered with an Army to invade them and make revenge whereof the Scots hearing do make all means they can to be reconciled but they must feel the sword and the fire-brand and because I will end my letter I will deliver to this bearer a short memorial of words to serve him for informing of you of the things of our State and so with my most hearty commendations I end being sorry that as yet I cannot perfect my intent for your return Your assured friend W. Cecil Hampton-Court 22. March 1569. To the right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR BY the Queens Majesty long letter you shall perceive her
flight there was taken a hundred prisoners whereof some were of the petty Lords of the Country but the Lord Maxwell the Lord Carlile the Lord Johnson and the rest before named escaped by the strength of the Lord of Cockpools house and a great Wood and a Mauress that was neer there adjoyning and so the said Simon repaired to me with his Company and so we returned home And thus for this time I commit you to the Almighty Yours assured to command H. Scroop Carlile 21. April 1570. Postscript Drumlangricks servants and Tenants whom I had given charge that they should not be dealt withall for that he favored the Kings faction and the Queens Majesties were as cruel against us as any others Sir I have written to my Lord Lieutentant for 500. men but for fourteen dayes and with them I will undertake to march to Dumfriese and lye in that Town and burn and spoil it if the Queen Majesties think it good for the open receipt of her Majesties Rebels is there manifest SIR MY leasure serveth me as I was wont to have it all my time at command of others and none for my self and little for my private friends by the Queens Majesties letter you may perceive the state of things here God send her Majesty a good issue of this Scotish matter whereinto the entry is easie but the passage within doubtful and I fear the end will be monstrous By your letters of late time it hath seemed that the opinion was for the Queens Majesty to be delivered of the Scottish Queen but surely few here among us conceive it feasible with surety My Lord of Suffex useth his charge very honorably and circumspectly upon the Frontiers where indeed he hath made revenge and that only almost upon the guilty I do send you herewith a printed thing or two sent me from Scotland and so take my leave wishing for your own sake that peace might be seen there so as you might bring it for which purpose I trust surely her Majesty will send one for you Yours most assured W. Cecil 23. May 1570. To the right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador c. SIR THis bearer came hither with good speed I do send you herewith a note of my Lord of Sussex his last letters from Berwick I do also send you in writing the Copy of that which the French Ambassador lately sent thither containing the sum of that which lately passed here betwixt the Queens Majesty and him wherein truely he hath not much differed from that which was accorded The Bishop of Ross departed on Friday last to the Scotish Queen to deal with her that some of her part might come hither out of Scotland to treat of her cause and that Arms might cease on both sides Since his going thither the Queens Majesty understandeth of a Practice that he had two dayes before his departure with a noble man of this Realm being a professed Papist contrary to his manner of dealing with the Queens Majesty whereupon her Majesty is not a little moved against him and therefore I think she will not deal with him at his return We look daily that peace will there be made though we see not how it shall continue but I trust thereby you shall be revoked and I think Mr. Walfingham shall come in your place I have no more at this present I received yesterday a letter from Paris of the 19. of May but I did before that receive another of the 24. Yours assuredly W. Cecil Hampton-Court 8. June 1570. To the right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador c. By Letters from Berwick 3. June THe Marshal of Berwick being at Edenburgh with certain Forces dealt with the Earls of Grange and Liddington to procure a surcease of Arms which taking no effect he went with the Noblemen of Scotland that joyned with him to Glasco from whence the Duke and his Associates fled upon their setting forth from thence the Marshal sent to the Bishop of St. Andrews and the Lords who were in Dumbarton Castle to Parly with them to procure an abstinence of Arms who appointed to meet them the next day at a Village half way betwixt Glasco and Dumbarton where missing them at the time appointed he went neerer to Dumbarton whereof he sent them word and thereupon they returned his Messenger and appointed to meet and speak with him out of the Castle so as he would bring but one or two with him and to put away his company and so soon as he had so done and that he was within their Shot they sent him word to look to himself and that they would not come to him and as he turned his Horse divers Harquebusiers laid for the purpose shot at him and they discharged a Falcon at him out of the Castle but he escaped without hurt hereupon the Noblemen which were with him burnt the Country thereabouts that belonged to the Hambletons burnt the Town of Hambleton and razed the Castle of Hambleton and two other principal houses of the said Dukes one in Lithgo and another called Kennell they have also thrown down the Abbot of Kilwrenings house and in effect all the principal houses of the Hambletons and have dealt with no other persons but with an Hambleton and so the Marshall is returned to Berwick c. SIR YEsterday did Crips arrive with your letters from Argenton and two days before came Rogers The Queens Majesty takes the Kings answer doubtful for his sending of Forces into Scotland and therefore hath caused the French Ambassador to understand and to advervise the King that if the King will send Forces thither she will take her self free from her promise of delivering the Q. of Scots of which matter I think he will advertise the King and as you have occasion you may take knowledge thereof for already her Majesty hath revoked her Forces out of Scotland leaving onely in Hume and Fast Castle a small Garrison where our Rebels were most maintained when they invaded England untill her Majesty may have some amends for her subjects losses My Lord of Sussex hath fully avenged the wrongs but yet our people have not recompence Mr. Drury the Marshall with a thousand Foot and four hundred Horse hath so plagued the Hambletons as they never had such losses in all the wars betwixt England and Scotland these fourty years The Queens Majesty hath hurt her Foot that she is constrained to keep her Bed-chamber and therefore the French Ambassador could not yesterday have Audience when he required but is willed to write that he hath to say I am sorry that your servants when they come tarry so long here as they do for it is not my fault and so I end Yours assuredly W. Cecil Oatlands 22. June 1570. Postscript The Earl of Southampton lately being known to have met in Lambeth Marsh with the Bishop of Ross is for his foolish audacity committed to the Sheriff of London closely to
be there kept The fond Lord Morley without any cause offered him is gone like a noddy to Lorrein SIR I Stayed this bearer two days longer then first I intended because the French Ambassador required Audience affirming that he had answer from the French King wherewith the Queens Majesty would be satisfied and yesterday he was here and shewed her Majesty the French Kings letters to him and thereof gave her Majesty a copy which I have and do send to you herewith an extract of a clause tending to the matter the letter being of it self long and full of good words purporting his desire to have the Scotish Queen restored and concord established betwixt the two Queens the letter is dated the 10. of June and I note that your letter is dated the 15. and by his aforesaid letter King writeth that he will within two days speak with you at Alansen Now how the Kings promise will be kept a short time will declare or how if he break it there shall be some â—avillations found wherein I doubt that they will seek illusions for that we do yet keep Hume Castle and Fast Castle which are kept with not past fourscore men and being the houses of the Lord Hume the Warden who aided our Rebels with his Forces to invade burn and spoil England and therefore is by the Laws of the Borders answerable to the subjects of England it is reason they be kept untill he will return or authorize some for him to make answer or to take order with the complainants which being done the Queen Majesty will readily restore them Thus much I have thought meet to impart Yours assuredly W. Cecil Oatlands 25. Inne 1570 To the right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador c. SIR I Am thrown into a Maze at this time that Iknow not how to walk from dangers Sir Walter Mildmay and I are sent to the Scotish Queen as by the Queens Majesties letters you may see God be our guide for neither of us like the Message I trust at my return when Mr. Walsingham shall be returned to help you home your sufficient is sufficient to impart unto you all our Occurrents and so I end Your assured friend W. Cecil Reading 26. Sept. 1570. To the right honorable Sir Henry Notris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador Resident in France The Lord Coke to King James touching trial of Duels out of England May it please your most excellent Majesty I Have received a commandment by Mr. Sollicitor from your Majesty consisting upon two parts First to answer whether I informed not your Majesty that if two of your Subjects should go over beyond Sea to fight in a Forreign Kingdom and there in fight the one killeth the other that in this case the same might be punished by appeal before the Constable and Marshal of England Secondly if I made any such information what authority and reason I had to maintain it To the first the truth is that I did inform your Majesty so and I well remember I said then that it was Dowties Case your Majesty then speaking of Duels To the second this is by authority of an Act of Parliament made in the first year of King Henry the Fourth the 14th Chapter in these words For many Inconveniencies and Mischiefs that have oftentimes happened by many Appeals made within the Realm before this time It is ordained and established from henceforth That all Appeals to be made of things done within the Realm shall be tryed and determined by the good Laws of this Realm made and used in the time of the Kings noble Progenitors And that all Appeals to be made of things done out of the Realm shall be tryed before the Constable and Marshal of England for the time being And that no Appeals be from henceforth made or in any wise pursued in Parliament in any time to come In the late Queens time a Case fell out upon this Statute Sir Francis Drake having put Dowtie to death beyond Sea the Brother and Heir of Dowtie sued by Petition to the Queen that she would be pleased to appoint a Constable hac vice to the end he might have an Appeal against Sir Francis Drake for the death of his Brother This Petition the Queen referred to Sir Thomas Bromley and the two chief Justices and others And it was resolved of by them which I being of Council with Dowtie set down briefly for my Learning That if two Englishmen go beyond Sea and in Combate the one killeth the other this offence may be determined before the Constable and Marshal of England and so was the Statute of 1 Henr. 4. to be intended But after upon the true circumstance of the Case the Queen would not constitute a Constable of England without whom no Proceeding could be And I take this resolution to be well warranted by the Statute and no small inconvenience should follow and a great defect should be in the Law if such bloody offences should not be punished and Your Majesty should lose a flower of Your Crown in losing this Power to punish these growing and dangerous offences I shewed to Mr. Sollicitor my Report and Memorial of Dowtie's Case and I shall ever remain Your Majesties Loyal and Faithful Subject Edw. Coke 19. Febr. 1616. The History of the Reign of King Henry the Eighth King Edward the Sixth Queen Mary and part of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth THE books which are written do in their kinds represent the faculties of the mind of man Poesie his Imaginations Philosophy his Reason and History his Memory of which three facuities least exception is commonly taken to memory because Imagination is often times idle and Reason litigious So likewise History of all writings deserveth least taxation as that which holdeth least of the Author and most of the things themselves Again the use which it holdeth to mans life if it be not the greatest yet assuredly it is the freest from ill accident or quality For those that are conversant much in Poets as they attain to greater variety so withall they become concieted and those that are brought up in Philosophy and Sciences do wax according as their nature is some of them too stiff and opinionative and some others too perplexed and confused whereas History possesseth the mind with conceits which are nearest allied unto action and imprinteth them so as it doth not alter the complexion of the minde neither to irresolution nor pertinacity But this is true that in no sort of writings there is a greater distance between the good and the bad no not between the most excellent Poet and the vainest Rimer nor between the deepest Philosopher and the most frivolous School-men then there is between good Histories and those that unworthily bear the same or the like title In which regard having purposed to write the History of England from the beginning of the Reign of King H. 8. of that name near unto the present time
accompt my thankfulness the less for that my disability is great to shew it but to sustain me in her Majesties grecious opinion whereupon I onely rest and not upon any expectation of desert to proceed from my self towards the contentment thereof But if it shall please God to send forth an occasion whereby my faithful affection may be tried I trust it shall save me melibour for ever making more protestation of it hereafter In the mean time howsoever it be not made known to her Majesty yet God knoweth it through the daily sollicitations wherewith I address my self unto him in unfeigned Prayer for the multiplying of her Majesties prosperities to your Lordship also whose recommendation I know right well hath been material to advance her Majesties good opinion of me I can be but a bounden servant So much may I safely promise and purpose to be seeing publick and private bonds vary not but that my service to her Majesty and your Lordship draw in a line I wish therefore to shew it with as good proof as I can say it in good faith c. Your Lordships c. Sir Francis Bacon in recommendation of his service to the Earl of Northumberland a few days before Queen Elizabeths death It may please your good Lordship AS the time of sowing of seed is known but the time of coming up and disclosing is casual or according to the season So I am a witness to my self that there hath been covered in my mind a long time a seed of affection and zeal towards your Lordship sown by the estimation of your vertues and your particular honours and favours to my brother deceased and to my self which seed still springing now bursteth forth into this profession And to be plain with your Lordship it is very true and no winds or noyses of civil matters can blow this out of my head or heart that your great capacity and love towards studies and contemplations of an higher and worthier nature then popular a Nature rare in the world and in a person of your Lordships quality almost singular is to me a great and chief motive to draw my affection and admiration towards you and therefore good my Lord if I may be of any use to your Lordship by my Head Tongue Pen Means or Friends I humbly pray you to hold me your own and herewithal not to do so much disadvantage to my good mind nor partly to your own worth as to conceive that this commendation of my humble service proceedeth out of any streights of my occasions but meerly out of an election and indeed the fulness of my heart And so wishing your Lordship all prosperity I continue Sir Francis Bacon to Mr. Robert Kempe upon the death of Queen Elizabeth Mr. Kempe This alteration is so great as you might justly conceive some coldness of my affection towards you if you should hear nothing from me I living in this place It is in vain to tell you with what a wonderful still and calme this wheel is turned round which whether it be a remnant of her felicity that is gone or a fruit of his reputation that is coming I will not determine for I cannot but divide my self between her memory and his name Yet we account it but as a fair morn before Sun rising before his Majesties presence though for my part I see not whence any weather should arise The Papists are conteined with fear enough and hope too much The French is thought to turn his practice upon procuring some disturbance in Scotland where Crowns may do wonders But this day is so welcome to the Nation and the time so short as I do not fear the effect My Lord of Southampton expecteth release by the next dispatch and is already much visited and much well wished There is continual posting by men of good quality towards the King the rather I think because this Spring time it is but a kinde of sport It is hoped that as the State here hath performed the part of good Attorneys to deliver the King quiet possession of his Kingdom so the King will re-deliver them quiet possession of their places rather filling places void than removing men placed So c. Sir Francis Bacon to Mr. David Foules in Scotland upon the entrance of His Majesties Reign SIR The occasion awaketh in me the remembrance of the constant and mutual good offices which passed between my good brother and your self whereunto as you know I was not altogether a stranger though the time and design as between brethren made me more reserved But well do I bear in mind the great opinion which my brother whose Judgment I much reverence would often express to me of the extraordinary sufficiency Dexterity and temper which he had found in you in the business and service of the King our Sovereign Lord. This latter bred in me an election as the former gave an inducement for me to address my self to you and to make this signification of my desire towards a mutual entertainment of good affection and correspondence between us hoping that some good effect may result of it towards the Kings service and that for our particulars though occasion give you the precedence of furthering my being known by good note unto the King so no long time will intercede before I on my part shall have some means given to requite your favours and to verifie your commendation And so with my loving commendations good Mr. Foules I leave you to Gods goodness From Graies Inne this 25th of March. Sir Francis Bacon to the King upon presenting his discoursetouching the Plantation of Ireland It may please your excellent Majesty I know no better way how to express my good wishes of a New-year to your Majesty then by this little book which in all humbleness I send you The stile is a stile of business rather then curious or elaborate And herein I was encouraged by my experience of your Majesties former Grace in accepting of the like poor field-fruits touching the Union And certainly I reckon this action as a second brother to the Union For I assure my self that England Scotland and Ireland well united is such a Trifoil as no Prince except your self who are the worthiest weareth in his Crown Si Potentia reducatur in actum I know well that for me to beat my brains about these things they be Majora quam pro fortuna but yet they be Minora quam pro studio voluntate For as I do yet bear an extream zeal to the memory of my old Mistriss Queen Elizabeth to whom I was rather bound for her trust than for her favour so I must acknowledge my self more bound to your Majesty both for trust and favour whereof I will never deceive the one as I can never deserve the other And so in all humbleness kissing your Majesties Sacred hands I remain Sir Francis Bacon to the Lord Chancellor touching the History of Britain It may please your good Lordship SOme
Bill of Attainders of Tresham and the rest in the matter of Purveyance in the Ecclesiastical Petitions in the Grievances and the like as I was ever careful and not without good success sometimes to put forward that which was good sometimes to keep back that which was not so good so Your Majesty was pleased to accept kindly of my Services and to say to me such Conflicts were the wars of Peace and such Victories the Victories of peace And therefore such servants that obtained them were by Kings that Reign in Peace no less to be esteemed than services of Commanders in the Wars In all which nevertheless I can challenge to my self no sufficiency but that I was diligent and reasonably happy to execute those directions which I received either immediately from Your Royal Mouth or from my Lord of Salisbury At which time it pleased Your Majesty to promise and assure me that upon the remove of the then Attorney I should not be forgotten but brought into ordinary place And this was after confirmed to me by many of my Lords and towards the end of the last Term the manner also in particular was spoken of that is that Mr. Sollicitor should be made Your Majesties Serjeant and I Sollicitor for so it was thought best to sort with both our gifts and faculties for the good of your Service And of this resolution both Court and Countrey took knowledge Neither was this any invention or project of mine own but moved from my Lords and I think first from my Lord Chancellor Whereupon resting Your Majesty well knoweth I never opened my mouth for the greater place though I am sure I had two Circumstances that Mr. Attorney that now is could not alledge The one nine years service of the Crown The other being Cousin-German to the Lord of Salisbury whom Your Majesty esteemeth and trusteth so much But for the less place I conceived it was meant me But after that Mr. Attorney Hubbert was placed I heard no more of my Preferment but it seemed to be at a stop to my great disgrace and discouragement For graciousSovereign if still when the waters are stirred another shall be put before me Your Majesty had need work a Miracle or else I shall be still a lame man to do Your Majesty Service And therefore my most humble Suit to Your Majesty is That this which seem'd to me was intended may speedily be performed And I hope my former Service shall be but beginnings to better when I am better strengthned For sure I am no mans heart is fuller I say not but many have greater hearts but I say not fuller of Love and Duty towards Your Majesty and Your Children as I hope time will manifest against Envy and Detraction if any be To conclude I most humbly crave pardon for my boldness and rest Sir Francis Bacon to the King his suitc to succeed in the Atturneys place It may please your Majesty YOur great and Princely favours towards me in advancing me to place and that which is to me of no less comfort your Majesties benign and gracious acceptation from time to time of my poor services much above the merit and value of them hath almost brought me to an opinion that I may sooner perchance be wanting to my self in not asking then find your Majesties goodness wanting to me in any my reasonable and modest desires And therefore perceiving how at this time preferments of Law fly about mine ears to some above me and to some below me I did conceive your Majesty may think it rather a kinde of dulness or want of Faith than Modestie if I should not come with my Pitcher to Jacobs well as others do Wherein I shall propound to your Majesty that which tendeth not so much to the raising of my Fortune as to the setling of my minde being sometimes assayled with this Cogitation that by reason of my slowness to sue and apprehend sudden occasions keeping on one plain course of painful service I may in fine dierum be in danger to be neglected and forgotten And if that should be then were it much better for me now while I stand in your Majesties good opinion though unworthy and have some reputation in the world to give over the Course I am in and to make Proof to do you some honour by my Pen either by writing some faithful Narrative of your happy though not untraduced times or by recompiling your Laws which I perceive your Majesty laboureth with and hath in your head as Jupiter had Pallas or some other the like work for without some endeavour to do you honour I would not live then to spend my wits and time in this laborious place wherein now I serve if it shall be deprived of those outward ornaments and inward comforts which it was wont to have in respect of an assured succession to some place of more dignitie and rest which seemeth now to be a hope altogether casual if not wholly intercepted Wherefore not to hold your Majesty long my suit then the which I think I cannot well go lower is that I may obtain your royal promise to succeed if I live into the Atturneys place whensoever it shall be void in being but the natural and immediate step and rise which the place I now hold hath ever in sort made claim to and almost never failed of In this suit I make no friends to your Majesty but relie upon no other motive than your Grace nor any other assurance but your word whereof I had good experience when I came to the Solicitors place that they were like to the two great Lights which in their motions are never Retrograde So with my best prayer for your Majesties happiness I rest Sir Francis Bacon to Sir George Cary in France upon sending him his writing In foelicem memoriam Elizabethae My very good Lord BEing asked the question by this bearer an old servant of my brother Anthony Bacon whether I would command him any service into France and being at better leisure then I would in regard of sickness I began to remember that neither your business nor mine though great and continual can be upon an exact account any just occasion why so much good will as hath passed between us should be so much discontinued as it hath been And therefore because one must begin I thought to provoke your remembrance of me by my Letter And thinking how to fir it with somewhat besides salutations it came to my mind that this last summer by occasion of a factious Book that endeavoured to verifie Misera Foemina the addition of the Popes Bull upon Queen Elizabeth I did write a few lines in her memorial which I thought you would be well pleased to read both for the argument and because you were wont to bear affection to my pen. Verum ut aliud ex alio if it came handsomly to pass I would be glad the President de Thou who hath written a History as you know
of that fame and diligence saw it chiefly because I know not whether it may not serve him for some use in his Story wherein I would be glad he did right to the truth and to the memory of that Lady as I perceive by that he hath already written he is well inclined to do I would be glad also it were some occasion such as absence may permit of some acquaintance or mutual notice between us For though he hath many ways the precedence chiefly in worth yet this is common to us both that we serve our Sovereigns in places of Law eminent and not our selves only but that our Fathers did so before us and lastly that both of us love Learning and Liberal Sciences which was ever a bond of Friendship in the greatest distances of places But of this I make no farther request then your own occasions and respects to me unknown may further or limit my principal purpose being to salute you and to send you this Token whereunto I will add my very kind commendations to my Lady And so commit you both to Gods holy protection A Letter to Sir Geo. Villiers touching the difference between the Courts of Chancery and Kings Bench. Sir I Received this morning from you two Letters by the same bearer the one written before the other both after his Majesty had received my last In this difference between the two Courts of Chancery and Kings Bench for so I had rather take it at this time then between the persons of my Lord Chancellor and my Lord Chief Justice I marvaile not if rumour get way of true Relation for I know Fame hath swift wings specially that which hath black feathers but within these two days for sooner I cannot be ready I will write to his Majesty both the Narrative truly and my opinion sincerely taking much comfort that I serve such a King as hath Gods property in discerning truly of mens hearts I purpose to speak with my Lord Chancellor this day and so to exhibit that Cordial of his Majesties grace as I hope this other accident will rather rowse and raise his spirits then deject him or incline him to a relapse Mean while I commend the wit of a mean man that said this other day Well saith he next Term you shall have an old man come with a besom of Worm-wood in his hand that will sweep away all this For it is my Lord Chancellor his fashion especially towards the Summer to carry a posie of Worm-wood I writ this Letter in haste to return the Messenger with it God keep you and long and happily may you serve his Majesty Your true and affectionate servant Feb. 19. 1615. POST-SCRIPT Sir I humbly thank you for your inward Letter I have burned it as you commanded but the flame it hath kindled in me will never be extinguished Sir Francis Bacon to the King concerning the Praemunire in the Kings Bench against the Chancery It may please your most Excellent Majesty I Was yesterday in the Afternoon with my Lord Chancellor according to Your Commandment which I received by the Master of the Horse and find the old man well comforted both towards God and towards the world And that same middle comfort which is a divine and humane proceeding from your Majesty being Gods Leiutenant on earth I am perswaded hath been a great cause that such a sickness hath been portable to such an age I did not faile in my conjecture that this business of the Chancery hath stirred him He sheweth to despise it but yet he is full of it and almost like a young Duelist that findeth himself behind hand I will now as your Majesty requireth give you a true relation of that which passed neither will I decline your Royall Commandment for delivering my opinion also though it be a tender subject to write on But I that account my being but an accident to my service will neglect no duty upon self-safety First it is necessary I let your Majesty know the ground of the difference between the two Courts that your Majesty may the better understand the Narrative There was a Statute made 27. Ed. 3. Cap. 1. which no doubt in the principal intention thereof was ordained against those that sued to Rome wherein there are words somewhat general against any that questioneth or impeacheth any judgement given in the Kings Courts in any other Courts Upon these doubtfull words other Courts the Controversie groweth For the founder interpretation taketh them to be meant of those Courts which though locally they were not held at Rome or where the Popes Chair was but here within the Realm yet in their jurisdiction had their dependency upon the Court of Rome as were the Court of the Legat here and the Courts of the Arch-bishops and Bishops which were then but subordinate judgement seats to that high Tribunal of Rome And for this Construction the opposition of the words if they be well observed between the Kings Courts and other Courts maketh very much For it importeth as if those other Courts were not the Kings Courts Also the main scope of the Statute sortifieth the same and lastly the practice of many ages The other interpretation which cleaveth to the letter expoundeth the Kings Courts to be the Courts of Law only and other Courts to be Courts of Equity as the Chancery Exchequer-Chamber Dutchy c. though this also flyeth indeed from the letter for that all these are the Kings Courts There is also another Statute which is but a simple Prohibition and not with a penalty of Praemunire as the other is That after judgements given in the Kings Courts the parties shall be in Peace except the judgments be undone by Error or Attaint which is a legall form of reversall And of this also I hold the sounder interpretation to be to settle possessions against disturbances and not to take away remedy in equity where those judgments are obtained ex rigore juris and against good Conscience But upon these two Statutes there hath been a late conceipt in some that if a judgement passe at the Common-Law against any he may not after sue for relief in Chancery and if he do both he and his Councel and his Solicitor yea and the Judge in Equity himself are within the danger of those Statutes There your Majesty hath the true state of the question which I was necessarily to shew you first because your Majesty calleth for this relation not as news but as business Now to the Historical part It is the Course of the Kings Bench that they give in Charge to the Grand Jury offences of all natures to be presented within Middlesex where the said Court is and the manner is to enumerate them as it were in Articles This was done by Justice Crooke the Wednesday before the Term ended and that Article if any man after a judgement given had drawn the said judgement to a new examination in any other Court was by him
and directions in readinss wherein I cannot forget what the Poet Martial saith O! quantum est subitis casibus ingenium signifiing that accident is many times more subtil then foresight and over-reacheth expectation and besides I know very well the meanness of my own Judgment in comprehending or forecasting what may follow It was Your Majesties pleasure also that I should couple the suppositions with my opinion in every of them which is a harder taske but yet Your Majesties commandment requireth my obedience and your trust giveth me assurance I will put the case which I wish That Somerset should make a clear Confession of his offences before he be produced to Tryal In this case it seemeth your Majesty will have a new consult The points whereof will be 1 whether your Majesty will stay the Trial and so save them both from the Stage and that publique Ignominy Or 2 whether you will or may sitly by Law have the Trial proceed and stay or reprieve the Judgment which saveth the Lands from forfeiture and the blood from corruption Or 3 whether you will have both Trial and Judgment proceed and save the blood only not from corrupting but from spilling REX I say with Apollo Media tutius itur if it may stand with Law and if it cannot when I shall hear that he confesseth I am then to make choice of the first or the last  These be the depths of your Majesties mercy which I may not enter into but for honour and reputation they have these grounds  That the blood of Overbury is already revenged by divers Executions  That Confession and Penitency are the footstools of Mercy adding this circumstance likewise that the former offenders did none of them make a clear confession  That the great downfal of so great persons carrieth in it self a heavie punishment and a kind of civil death although their lives should not be taken All which may satisfie honour for sparing their lives But if your Majesties mercy should extend to the first degree which is the highest of sparing the Stage and the Trial Then three things are to be considered REX This Article cannot be mended in point thereof First that they make such a submission or deprecation as they prostrate themselves and all that they have at your Majesties feet imploring your mercy  Secondly that your Majesty in your own wisdom do advise what course you will take for the utter extinguishing of all hope of resuscitating of their fortunes and favour whereof if there should be the least conceit it will leave in men a great deal of envie and discontent  And lastly whether your Majestie will not suffer it to be thought abroad that there is cause of further examination of Somerset concerning matters of Estate after he shall begin once to be a Confessant and so make as well a Politick ground as a ground of Clemencie for further stay And for the second degree of proceeding to Trial and staying Judgment I must better inform my self by presidents and advise with my Lord Chancellor The second Case is if that fall out which is likest as things stand and which we expect which is that the Lady Confess and that Somerset himself plead not guilty and be found guilty In this Case first I suppose your Majesty will not think of any stay of judgment but that the publique process of Justice pass on REX If stay of Judgment can stand with the Law I would even wish it in this Case In all the rest this Article cannot be mended Secondly for your Mercie to be extended to both for pardon of their execution I have partly touched in the considerations applyed to the former Case whereunto may be added that as there is ground of mercy for her upon her penitency and free Confession and will be much more upon his finding guilty because the malice on his part will be thought the deeper source of the offence So there will be ground for Mercie on his part upon the nature of the proof because it rests chiefly upon Presumptions For certainly there may be an Evidence so ballanced as it may have sufficient matter for the Conscience of the Peers to convict him and yet leave sufficient matter in the Conscience of a King upon the same Evidence to pardon his life because the Peers are astringed by necessity either to acquit or condemn but Grace is free And for my part I think the evidence in this present Case will be of such a nature  Thirdly It shall be my care so to moderate the manner of charging him as it might make him not odious beyond the extent of Mercy REX That danger is well to be foreseen lest he upon the one part commit impardonable Errors and I on the other part seem to punish him in the spirit of revenge Lastly all these points of Mercy and favour are to be understood with this limitation if he do not by his contemptuous and insolent carriage at the Bar make himself uncapable and unworthy of them The third Case is if he should stand mute and will not plead whereof In this case I should think fit that as in publique both my self and chiefly my Lord Chancellor sitting then as Lord Steward of your Majesty knoweth there hath been some secret question England should dehort and deter him from that desperation so nevertheless that as much should be done for him as was done for Weston which was to adjourn the Court some dayes upon a Christian ground that he may have time to turn from that mind of destroying himself during which time your Majesties further pleasure may be known REX This Article cannot be mended  The fourth Case is that which I should be very sorry should happen but it is a future contingent that is if the Peers should acquit him and finde him not guilty In this Case the Lord Steward must be provided what to do For as it hath been never seen as I conceive it that there should be any rejecting of the Verdict or any respiting of the judgment of the acquittal so on the other side this Case requireth that because there be many high and heinous offences though not Capital for which he may be questioned in the Star-Chamber or otherwise that there be some touch of that in general at the conclusion by my Lord Steward of England And that therefore he be remanded to the Tower as close Prisoner REX This is so also  For matter of examination or other proceedings my Lord Chancellor with my advice hath set down Tomorrow being Monday For the Re-examination of the Lady Wednesday next for the meeting of the Judges concerning the Evidence Thursday for the Examination of Somerset himself according to Your Majesties Instructions Which three parts when they shall be performed I will give Your Majesty advertisement with speed and in the mean time be glad to receive from Your Majesty whom it is my part to inform truly
to mind you of which nearly concerns your self you serve a great and gracious Master and there is a most hopeful young Prince whom you must not desert it behoves you to carry your self wisely and evenly between them both adore not so the rising Son that you forget the Father who raised you to this height nor be you so obsequious to the Father that you give just cause to the Son to suspect that you neglect him But carry your self with that judgment as if it be possible may please and content them both which truly I believe will be no hard matter for you to do so may you live long beloved of both which is the hearty prayer of Your most obliged and devoted Servant Sir Francis Bacon to Sir George Villiers of Advice concerning Ireland from Gorambury to Windsor SIR BEcause I am uncertain whether His Majesty will put to a point some Resolutions touching Ireland now at Windsor I thought it my Duty to attend His Majesty by my Letter and thereby to supply my Absence for the renewing of some former Commissions for Ireland and the framing of a new Commission for the Wards and the Alienations which appertain properly to me as His Majesties Attorney and have been accordingly referred by the Lords I will undertake that they are prepared with a greater care and better application to His Majesties Service in that Kingdom than heretofore they have been and therefore of that I say no more And for the Instructions of the new Deputy they have been set down by the two Secretaries and read to the Board and being things of an ordinary nature I do not see but they may pass But there have been three Propositions and Councels which have been stirred which seem to me of very great importance wherein I think my self bound to deliver to His Majesty my Advice and Opinion if they should now come in question The first is touching the Recusant Magistrates of the Towns of Ireland and the Commonalties themselves and their Electors what shall be done which Consultation ariseth from the late Advertisements from the two Lord Justices upon the instance of the two Towns Limrick and Kilkenny in which Advertisements they represent the Danger only without giving any light for the Remedy rather warily for themselves than agreeable to their duties and places In this point I humbly pray His Majesty to remember that the refusal is not of the Oath of Allegiance which is not enacted in Ireland but of the Oath of Supremacy which cutteth deeper into matter of Conscience Also that His Majesty will out of the depth of His Excellent Wisdom and providence think and as it were calculate with himself whether time will make more for the Cause of Religion in Ireland and be still more and more propitious or whether differing remedies will not make the Case more difficult For if time give His Majesty the advantage what needeth precipitation of extream remedies but if the time will make the Case more desperate then His Majesty cannot begin too soon Now in my opinion time will open and facilitate things for Reformation of Religion there and not shut up or lock out the same For first the plantations going on and being principally of Protestants cannot but mate the other party in time Also His Majesties care in placing good Bishops and good Divines in amplifying the Colledge there and looking to the education of Wards and such like as they are the most natural means so are they like to be the most effectual and happy for the weeding out of Popery without using the temporal sword so that I think I may truly conclude that the ripeness of time is not yet come Therefore my advice is in all humbleness that this hazardous course of proceeding to tender the Oath to the Magistrates of Towns proceed not but die by degrees And yet to preserve the authority and reputation of the former Councel I would have somewhat done which is that there be a proceeding to seisure of liberties but not by any act of power but by quo Warranto or Scire Facias which is a legal course and will be the work of three or four Terms by which time the matter will be somewhat cool But I would not in no case that the proceeding should be with both the Towns which stand now in contempt but with one of them only choosing that which shall be most fit For if His Majesty proceed with both then all the Towns that are in the like case will think it a common Cause and that it is but their case to day and their own to morrow But if His Majesty proceed but with one the apprehension and terror will not be so strong for they may think it may be their case to be spared as well as prosecuted And this is the best Advice that I can give to His Majesty in this strait and of this opinion seemed my Lord Chancellor to be The second Proposition is this It may be His Majesty will be moved to reduce the number of His Councel of Ireland which is now almost fifty to twenty or the like number in respect that the greatness of the number doth both imbase the Authority of the Councel and divulge the business Nevertheless I hold this Proposition to be rather specious and solemn than needful at this time for certainly it will fill the State full of discontentment which in a growing and unsetled State ought not to be This I could wish that His Majesty would appoint a select number of Councellors there which might deal in the improvement of His Revenue being a thing not to pass through too many hands and the said selected number should have dayes of sitting by themselves at which the rest of the Councel should not be present which being once setled then other principal business of State may be handled at these sittings and so the rest begin to be disused and yet retain their countenance without murmur or disgrace The third Proposition as it is moved seemeth to be pretty if it can keep promise for it is this That a means may be found to re-enforce His Majesties Army by five hundred or a thousand men and that without any Penny increase of charge And the means should be That there should be a Commandment of a local removing and transferring some Companies from one Province to another whereupon it is supposed that many that are planted in House and Lands will rather lose their entertainment then remove and thereby new men may have their Pay yet the old be mingled in the Countrey for the strength thereof In this Proposition two things may be feared the one discontent of those that shall be put off the other that the Companies shall be stuffed with Novices Tirones instead of Veterani I wish therefore that this Proposition be well debated before it be admitted Thus having performed that which Duty binds me to I commend you to Gods best preservation Your most devoted and
Upon this heavy Accident I pray Your Majesty in all humbleness and sincerity to give me leave to use a few words I must never forget when I moved Your Majesty for the Attorneys place it was your own sole act more then that Somerset when he knew Your Majesty had resolved it thrust himself into the business for a Fee And therefore I have no reason to pray to Saints I shall now again make oblation to your Majesty first of my heart then of my service thirdly of my place of Attorney which I think is honestly worth 16000 l. pound per annum and fourthly of my place of the Star-Chamber which is worth 1600 l. per annum and with the favuor and countenance of a Chancellor much more I hope I may be acquitted of presumption if I think of it both because my Father had the place which is some civil inducement to my desire And I pray God your Majesty may have twenty no worse years in your Greatness then Queen Elizabeth had in her Model after my Fathers placing and chiefly because if the Chancellors place went to the Law it was ever conferred upon some of the Learned Councel and never upon a Judge For Audley was raised from K. Serjeant my Father from Attorney of the Wards Bromley from Sollicitor Puckering from Serjeant Egerton from Master of the Rolls having newly left the Attorneys place Now I beseech Your Majesty let me put you the present case truly If you take my Lord Coke this will follow first Your Majesty shall put an over-ruling nature into an over-ruling place which may breed an extream Next You shall blunt his industries in matter of financies which seemeth to aime at another place And lastly popular men are no sure Mounters for Your Majesties Saddle If you take my Lord Hubbart you shall have a Judge at the upper end of Your Councel-board and another at the lower end Whereby Your Majesty will find your Prerogative pent For though there should be emulation between them yet as Legists they will agree in magnifying that wherein they are best He is no States-man but an Occonomist wholly for himself So as Your Majesty more then an outward form will find little help in him for the business If you take my Lord of Canterbury I will say no more but the Chancellours place requires a whole man And to have both Jurisdictions Spiritual and Temporal in that height is sit but for a King For my self I can only present Your Majesty with Gloria in obsequio yet I dare promise that if I sit in that place Your business shall not make such short turns upon You as it doth but when a direction is once given it shall be pursued and performed and Your Majesty shall only be troubled with the true care of a King which is to think what You would have done in chief and not how for the passages I do presume also in respect of my Fathers memory and that I have been alwayes gracious in the Lower House I have interest in the Gentlemen of England and shall be able to do some good effect in rectifying that Body of Parliament-men which is Cardo rerum For let me tell Your Majesty that that part of the Chancellors place which is to Judge in equity between party and party that same Regnum judiciale which since my Fathers time is but too much enlarged concerneth Your Majesty least more then the acquitting your Conscience for Justice But it is the other part of a Moderator amongst your Councel of an Overseer over your Judges of a planter of fit Justices and Governors in the Country that importeth your affairs and these times most I will add also that I hope by my care the inventive part of your Councel will be strengthned who now commonly do exercise rather their Judgements then their inventions And the inventive part cometh from projectors and private men which cannot be so well In which kinde my Lord of Salisbury had a good method if his ends had been upright To conclude if I were the man I would be I should hope that as Your Majesty hath of late wonne hearts by depressing you should in this leese no hearts by advancing For I see your people can better skill of Concretum then Abstractum and that the waves of their affections flow rather after persons then things So that acts of this nature if this were one do more good then twenty Bills of Grace If God call my Lord the Warrants and Commissions which are requisite for the taking the Seal and for the working with it and for the reviving of Warrants under his hand which dye with him and the like shall be in readiness And in this time presseth more because it is the end of a Term and almost the beginning of the Circuits So that the Seal cannot stand still But this may be done as heretofore by Commission till Your Majesty hath resolved of an Officer God ever preserve Your Majesty Your Majesties most humble Subject and bounden Servant Febr. 12. 1615. A Letter to the King of my Lord Chancellors amendment and the difference begun between the Chancery and Kings Bench. It may please your most Excellent Majesty I Do find God be thanked a sensible amendment in my Lord Chancellor I was with him yesterday in private Conference about half an hour and this day again at such time as he did seal which he endured well almost the space of an hour though the vapour of the wax be offensive to him He is free from a Feaver perfect in his powers of memory and speech and not hollow in his voice nor looks He hath no panting or labouring respiration neither are his Coughs dry or weak But whosoever thinketh his disease to be but Melancholy maketh no true judgment of it for it is plainly a formed and deep Cough with a pectoral surcharge so that at times he doth almost animam agere I forbear to advertise Your Majesty of the care I took to have Commissioners in readiness because Master Secretary Lake hath let me understand he signified as much to Your Majesty But I hope there shall be no use of them for this time And as I am glad to advertise Your Majesty of the amendment of Your Chancellors person so I am sorry to accompany it with an advertisement of the sickness of Your Chancery Court though by the Grace of God that cure will be much easier than the other It is true I did lately write to Your Majesty that for the matter of Habeas corpora which was the third matter in Law you had given me in charge I did think the communion of service between my Lord Chancellor and my Lord Chief Justice in the great business of examination would so join them as they would not square at this time But pardon me I humbly pray Your Majesty if I have too reasonable thoughts And yet that which happened the last day of the Term concerning certain Indictments in the nature
the Pardon of the Parliaments Sentence Most gracious and dread Sovereign BEfore I make my Petition to your Majesty I make my Prayers to God above pectore ab imo That if I have held anything so dear as your Majesties service nay your hearts ease and your honour I may be repulsed with a denial But if that hath been the principal with me That God who knoweth my heart would move your Majesties royal heart to take compassion of me and to grant my desire I prostrate my self at your Majesties feet I your ancient servant now sixty four years old in age and three years and five moneths old in misery I desire not from your Majesty means nor place nor imployment but only after so long a time of expiation a compleat and total remission of the sentence of the Upper House to the end that blot of ignominy may be removed from me and from my memory with posterity that I die not a condemned man but may be to your Majesty as I am to God Nova creatura Your Majesty hath pardoned the like to Sir John Bennet between whose case and mine not being partial to my self but speaking out of the general opinion there was as much difference I will not say as between black and white but as between black and gray or ash-coloured Look therefore down dear Sovereign upon me also in pity I know your Majesties heart is inscrutable for goodness and my Lord of Buckingham was wont to tell me you were the best natured man in the world and it is Gods property that those that he hath loved he loveth to the end Let your Majesties grace in this my desire stream down upon me and let it be out of the fountain and spring-head and ex mero motu that living or dying the print of the goodness of King James may be in my heart and his praises in my mouth This my most humble request granted may make me live a year or two happily and denied will kill me quickly But yet the last thing that will die in me will be the heart and affection of Your Majesties most humble and true devoted servant Fr. St. Alban July 30. 1624. Sir Francis Bacon to King James of a Digest to be made of the Laws of England Most Excellent Sovereign AMongst the Degrees and Acts of Sovereign or rather Heroical Honour the first or second is the person and merit of a Law-giver Princes that govern well are Fathers of the People But if a Father breed his Son well and allow him well while he liveth but leave him nothing at his death whereby both he and his Children and his Childrens Children may be the better it is not in him compleat So Kings if they make a portion of an Age happy by their good Government yet if they do not make Testaments as God Almighty doth whereby a perpetuity of good may descend to their Countrey they are but mortal and transitory benefactors Domitian a few days before he dyed dreamed that a golden Head did rise upon the Nape of his Neck which was truly performed in the golden Age that followed his times for five Successions But Kings by giving their Subjects good Laws may if they will in their own time join and graff this golden Head upon their own necks after their death Nay they make Nabuchodonosors Image of Monarchy golden from head to foot And if any of the meaner sort of Politicks that are sighted only to see the worst of things think That Laws are but Cobwebs and that good Princes will do well without them and bad will not stand much upon them the discourse is neither good nor wise For certain it is That good Laws are good Bridles to bad Princes and as a very Wall about Government And if Tyrants sometimes make a breach into them yet they mollifie even Tyranny it self as Solons Laws did the Tyranny of Pisistratus and then commonly they get up again upon the first advantage of better times Other means to perpetuate the memory and merits of Sovereign Princes are inferiour to this Building of Temples Tombs Palaces Theatres and the like are honourable things and look big upon Posterity But Constantine the Great gave the name well to those works when he used to call Trajan who was a great Builder Parietarius because his name was upon so many walls So that if that be the matter that the King would turn Wall-flower or Pelitory of the Wall with cost he may Adrians vein was better for his mind was to wrastle a fall with Time and being a great Progressor over all the Roman Empire when ever he found any decayes of Bridges or High-wayes or cuts of Rivers and Sewers or Walls or Banks or the like he gave substantial order for their Repair He gave also multitudes of Charters and Liberties for the comfort of Corporations and Companies in decay so that his Bounty did strive with the ruines of time But yet this though it were an excellent disposition went but in effect to the Cases and Shells of a Commonwealth it was nothing to Virtue or Vice A bad man might indifferently take the benefit and ease of his Wayes and Bridges as well as a good and bad people might purchase good Charters Surely the better works of perpetuity in Princes are they that wash the inside of the Cup such as are foundations of Colledges and Lectures for learning and education for youth likewise foundations and institutions of Orders and Fraternities for Nobleness Enterprize and Obedience and the like But yet these also are but like Plantations of Orchards and Gardens in plats and spots of ground here and there they do not Till over the whole Kingdom and make it fruitful as doth the establishing of good Laws and Ordinances which make a whole Nation to be as a well ordered Colledge or Foundation This kind of work in the memory of time is rare enough to shew it excellent and yet not so rare as to make it suspected for impossible inconvenient and unsafe Moses that gave Laws to the Hebrews because he was the scribe of God himself is fitter to be named for Honours sake to other Law-givers then to be numbred and ranked amongst them Minos Lycurgus and Solon are examples for Themes of Grammar-Scholars For ancient Personages and Characters now a days use to wax children again Though that Parable of Pindarus be true The best thing is water for common and trivilal things are many tmies the best and rather despised upon pride because they are vulgar then upon cause or use Certain it is that the Laws of those three Law-givers had great prerogatives the first of fame because they were the pattern among the Grecians the second of lasting for they continued longest without alteration the third a spirit of reviver to be often expired and often restored Amongst the seven Kings of Rome there were four Law-givers For it is most true that a Discourse of Italy saith There was never State so well
follow the Queen and that heavily and I lead her not my Lord of Essex is one that in nature I could consent with as with any one living the Queen indeed is my Sovereign and I am her creature I may not lose her and the same Course I would wish you to take whereupon I satisfied him how sarre I was from any such minde And as sometimes it comes to passe that mens Inclinations are opened more in a Toy than in a serious matter A little before that time being about the middle of Michaelmass Term her Majesty had a purpose to dine at my lodging at Twitnam Park at which time I had though I prosess not to be a Poet prepared a Sonnet directly tending to draw on her Majesties reconcilement to my Lord which I remember also I shewed to a great person and one of my Lords nearest friends who commended it this though it be as I said but a toy yet it shewed plainly in what spirit I proceeded and that I was ready not only to do my Lord good offices but to publish and declare my self for him and never was I so ambitious of any thing in my life time as I was to have carried some token or favour from her Majesty to my Lord using all the art I had both to procure her Majesty to send and my self to be the Messenger for as to the former I feared not to alledge to her that this proceeding towards my Lord was a thing towards the people very implausible and therefore wished Her Majesty howsoever she did yet to discharge her self and to lay it upon others and therefore that she should intermixt her proceeding with some immediate graces from her self that the world might take knowledge of her Princely nature and goodness lest it should alienate the hearts of her people from her which I did stand upon knowing very well that if she once relented to send or visit those demonstrations would prove matter of substance for my Lords good And to draw that imployment upon my self I advised her Majesty that when soever God should move her to turn the light of her favour towards my Lord to make signification to him thereof that Her Majesty if she did it not in person would at the least use some such mean as might not intitle themselves to any part of the thanks as persons that were thought mighty with her to work her or to bring her about but to use some such as could not be thought but a meer Conduct of her own goodness but I could never prevaile with her though I am perswaded she saw plainly whereat I levelled but she had me in jealousie that I was not hers entirely but still had inward and deep respects towards my Lord more then stood at that time with her will and pleasure About the same time I remember an answer of mine in a matter which had some affinity with my Lords Cause which though it grew from me went after about in others names for her Majesty being mightily incensed with that Book which was dedicated to my Lord of Essex being a story of the first year of King Henry the fourth thinking it a seditious prelude to put into the peoples heads boldness and faction said she had an opinion there was treason in it and asked me if I could not finde any places in it that might be drawn within Case of Treason Whereto I answered for treason sure I found none but for felony very many And when her Majesty hastily asked me wherein I told her the Author had committed very apparent theft for he had taken most of the sentences of Cornelius Tacitus and translated them into English and put them into his text And another time when the Queen could not be perswaded that it was his writing whose name was to it but that it had some more mischievous Author and said with great indignation that she would have him racked to produce his Au thor I replied Nay Madam he is a Doctor never rack his person but rack his stile let him have pen Ink and paper and help of books and be enjoyned to continue the story where it breaketh off and I will undertake by collating the stiles to judge whether he were the Author or no. But for the main matter sure I am when the Queen at any time asked my opinion of my Lords Case I ever in one tenour said unto her that they were faults which the Law might term Contempts because they were the transgression of her particular directions and Instructions but then what defence may be made of them in regard of the great Interest the person had in Her Majesties favour in regard of the greatness of his place and the ampleness of his Commission in regard of the nature of the business being action of war which in common cases cannot be tyed to strictness of Instructions in regard of the distance of the place having also a Sea between his demands and Her Commands must be subject to wind and weather in regard of a Councel of State of Ireland which he had at his beck to avow his actions upon and lastly in regard of a good Intention that he might alledge for himself which I told her in some religions was held to be a sufficient dispensation for Gods Commandments much more for Princes In all these regards I besought her Majesty to be advised again and again how she brought the Cause into any publick question Nay I went further for I told her my Lord was an eloquent and well spoken man and besides his eloquence of nature or art he had an eloquence of accident which pass'd them both which was the pity and benevolence of his hearers and therefore when he should come to answer for himself I doubted his words would have so unequal passage above theirs that should charge him as would not be for her Majesties honour and therefore wished the Conclusion might be that they might wrap it up privately between themselves and that she would restore my Lord to his former attendance with some addition of honour to take away discontent But this I will never deny that I did shew no approbation generally of his being sent back again into Ireland both because it would have carried a repugnancy with my former discourse and because I was in mine own heart fully perswaded that it was not good neither for the Queen nor for the State nor for himself and yet I did not disswade it neither but left it ever as locus lubricus For this perticularitie I do well remember that after your Lordship was named for the place in Ireland and not long before your going it pleased her Majesty at Whitehall to speak to me of that nomination at which time I said to her Surely Madam if you mean not to imploy my Lord of Essex thither again your Majesty cannot make a better choice and was going on to shew some reason and her Majesty interrupted me swith great passion
Essex said she whensoever I send Essex back again into Ireland I will marry you claim it of me Whereunto I said well Madam I will release that Contract if his going be or the good of the State Immediately after the Queen had thought of a Course which was also executed to have somewhat published in the Star-Chamber for the satisfaction of the World touching my Lord of Essex his restraint and my Lord not to be called to it but occasion to be taken by reason of some Libels then dispersed which when her Majesty propounded unto me I was utterly against it and told her plainly That the People would say that my Lord was wounded upon his back and that Justice had her balance taken from her which ever consisted of an accusation and defence with many other quick and significant terms to that purpose insomuch that I remember I said that my Lord in foro famae was too hard for her and therefore wish'd her as I had done before to wrap it up privately And certainly I offended her at that time which was rare with me for I call to mind that both the Christmass Lent and Easter-Term following though I came divers times to her upon Law-businesses yet methought her face and manner was not so clear and open to me as it was at the first And she did directly charge me that I was absent that day at the Star-Chamber which was very true but I alledged some indisposition of body to excuse it and during all the time aforesaid there was altum silentium from her to me touching my Lord of Essex causes But towards the end of Easter Term Her Majesty brake with me and told me that she had found my words true for that the proceeding in the Star-Chamber had done no good but rather kindled factious bruits as she termed them then quenched them and therefore that she was determined now for the satisfaction of the world to proceed against my Lord in the Star-Chamber by an Information ore tenus and to have my Lord brought to his Answer howbeit she said she would assure me that whatsoever she did should be towards my Lord ad castigationem non ad destructionem as indeed she had often repeated the same phrase before Whereunto I said to the end utterly to divert her Madam if you will have me to speak to you in this Argument I must speake to you as frier Bacon's head spake that said first Time is and then Time was and Time would never be for certainly said I it is now farr too late the matter is cold and hath taken too much wind whereat she seemed again offended and rose from me and that resolution for a while continued and after in the beginning of Midsomer Term I attending her and finding her setled in that resolution which I heard of also otherwise she falling upon the like speech it is true that seeing no other remedy I said to her sleightly Why Madam if you will needs have a Proceeding you were best have it in some such sort as Ovid spake of his Mistress Est aliquid luce patente minus to make a Councel-table matter of it and end which speech again she seemed to take in ill part but yet I think it did good for that time and help't to divert that Cause of Proceeding by Information in the Star-Chamber Nevertheless afterwards it pleased her to make a more solemn matter of the Proceeding and some few dayes after when order was given that the matter should be heard at York-House before an Assembly of Councellors Peers and Judges and some Audience of men of Quality to be admitted then did some principal Councellors send for us of the learned Councel and notifie her Majesties Pleasure unto us save that it was said to me openly by some one of them That her Majesty was not yet resolved whether she would have me forborn in the business or no. And hereupon might arise that other sinister and untrue speech that I hear is raised of me how I was a Suitor to be used against my Lord of Essex at that time for it is very true that I that knew well what had passed between the Queen and me and what occasion I had given her both of distaste and distrust in crossing her disposition by standing stedfast for my Lord of Essex and suspecting it also to be a stratagem arising from some particular emulation I writ to her two or three words of Complement signifying to her Majesty That if she would be pleased to spare me in my Lord of Essex's Cause out of the Consideration she took of my obligation towards him I should reckon it for one of her highest Favours but otherwise desiring her Majesty to think that I knew the degrees of Duties and that no particular obligation whatsoever to any Subject could supplant or weaken that entireness of Duty that I did owe and bear to her and her Service and this was the goodly Suit I made being a respect no man that had his wits could have omitted but nevertheless I had a further reach in it for I judged that dayes work would be a full period of any bitterness or harshness between the Queen and my Lord and therefore if I declared my self fully according to her mind at that time which could not do my Lord any manner of prejudice I should keep my credit with her ever after whereby to do my Lord Service Hereupon the next news that I heard was that we were all sent for again and that her Majesties pleasure was we should have all parts in the business and the Lords falling into distribution of our parts it was allotted to me that I should set forth some undutiful carriage of my Lord in giving occasion and Countenance to a seditious Pamphlet as it was termed which was dedicated unto him which was the book before mentioned of King H. 4. Whereupon I replied to that allotment and said to their Lordships that it was an old matter and had no manner of Coherence with the rest of the Charge being matters of Ireland and therefore that I having been wronged by bruits before this would expose me to them more and it would be said I gave in evidence mine own tales It was answered again with good shew that because it was considered how I stood tied to my Lord of Essex therefore that part was thought fittest for me which did him least hurt for that whereas all the rest was matter of Charge and Accusation this only was but matter of Caveat and admonition wherewith though I was in mine own Conscience little satisfied because I knew well a man were better to be Charged with some faults then admonished of some others yet the Conclusion binding upon the Queens pleasure directly volens nolens I could not avoid that part that was laid upon me which part if in the delivery I did handle not tenderly though no man before me did in so clear terms free my Lord from
all disloyalty as I did that your Lordship knoweth must be ascribed to the superiour duty I did owe to the Queens fame and honour in a publick proceeding and partly to the intention I had to uphold my self in credit and strength with the Queen the better to be able to do my Lord good offices afterwards for assoon as this day was past I lost no time but the very next day following as I remember I attended her Majesty fully resolved to try and put in use my utmost endeavour so far as I in my weakness could give furtherance to bring my Lord speedily again into Court and into favour and knowing as I supposed at least how the Queen was to be used I thought that to make her Conceive that the matter went well then was the way to make her leave off there and I remember well I said to her you have now Madam obtained victory over two things which the greatest Princes in the world cannot at their wills subdue the on is over fame the other is over a great minde for surely the world is now I hope reasonably well satisfied and for my Lord he did shew that humiliation towards Your Majesty as I am perswaded he was never in his life time more fit for Your Majesties favour then he is now therefore if your Majesty will not marr it by lingring but give over at the best and now you have made so good a full point receive him again with tenderness I shall then think that all that is past is for the best Whereat I remember she took exceeding great Contentment and did often iterate and put me in mind that she had ever said that her Proceeding should be ad reparationem and not ad ruinam as who saith that now is the time I should plainly perceive that that saying of hers should prove true And further she willed me to set down in writing all that passed that day I obeyed her Commandment and within some few dayes after brought her again the Narration which I did read unto her in two several Afternoons And when I came to that part that set forth my Lords own Answer which was my principal care I do well bear in mind that she was extraordinarily moved with it with kindness and relenting towards my Lord and told me afterwards speaking how well I had expressed my Lords part that she perceived old love would not be forgotten Whereunto I answered suddenly that I hoped she meant that by her self But in Conclusion I did advise her that now she had taken a representation of the matter to her self that she would let it go no further for Madam said I the Fire blazeth well already what should you tumble it And besides it may please you keep a conveniency with your self in this Case for since your express direction was there should be no Register nor Clerk to take this Sentence nor no Record or Memorial made up of the Proceeding why should you now do that Popularly which you would not admit to be done Judicially Whereupon she did agree that that Writing should be suppressed and I think there were not five persons that ever saw it But from this time forth during the whole latter end of that Summer while the Court was at Non-such and Oatland I made it my task and scope to take and give occasions for my Lords redintegration in his Fortunes Which my intention I did also signifie to my Lord as soon as ever he was at Liberty whereby I might without peril of the Queens indignation write to him and having received from his Lordship a courteous and loving acceptation of my good will and endeavours I did apply it in all my accesses to the Queen which were very many at that time and purposely sought and wrought upon other variable pretences but only and chiefly for that purpose And on the other side I did not forbear to give my Lord from time to time faithful advertisement what I found and what I wished And I drew for him by his appointment some Letters to her Majesty which though I knew well his Lordships gift and stile was far better then mine own yet because he required it alledging that by his long restraint he was grown almost a stranger to the Queens present conceipts I was ready to perform it and sure I am that for the space of six weeks or two moneths it prospered so well as I expected continually his restoring to his attendance And I was never better welcome to the Queen nor more made of then when I spake fullest and boldest for him in which Kind the particulars were exceeding many whereof for an example I will remember to your Lordship one or two as at one time I call to mind her Majesty was speaking of a Fellow that undertook to cure or at least to ease my Brother of his Gout and asked me how it went forwards And I told her Majesty that at first he received good by it but after in the course of his Cure he found himself at a stay or rather worse The Queen said again I will tell you Bacon the Errour of it The manner of these Physitians and especially these Empiricks is to continue one kind of medicine which at the first is proper being to draw out the ill humour but after they have not the discretion to change their medicine but apply still drawing medicines when they should rather intend to cure and corroborate the part Good Lord Madam said I how wisely and aptly can you speak and discern of Physick ministred to the body and consider not that there is the like reason of Physick ministred to the mind as now in the case of my Lord of Essex your Princely word ever was that you intended ever to reform his mind and not ruine his Fortune I know well you cannot but think you have drawn the humour sufficiently and therefore it were more then time and it were but for doubt of mortifying or exulcerating that you did apply and minister strength and comfort unto him for these same gradations of yours are fitter to corrupt than to correct any mind of greatness And another time I remember she told me for News that my Lord had written to her some very dutiful Letters and that she had been moved by them and when she took it to be the abundance of his heart she found it to be but a preparative to a Suit for the renewing of his Farm of sweet Wines Whereto I replied Alas Madam how doth your Majesty construe of these things as if these two could not stand well together which indeed nature hath planted in all Creatures for there are but two sympathies the one towards Perfection the other towards Preservation That to Perfection as the Iron tendeth to the Loadstone that to Preservation as the Vine will creep unto a Stake or Prop that stands by it not for any love to the stake but to uphold it self And therefore Madam you must distinguish my
Lords desire to do you service is as to his perfection that which he thinks himself to be bound for whereas his desire to obtain this thing of you is but for a sustentation and not to trouble your Lordship with many other particulars like unto this it was at the same time that I did draw by my Lords privitie and by his appointment two Letters the one written as from my brother the other as an answer returned from my Lord both to be by me in secret manner shewed to the Queen which it pleased my Lord very strangely to mention at the barr the scope of which were but to represent and picture forth unto her Majesty my Lords minde to be such as I know her Majesty would fainest have had it which Letters whosoever shall see for they cannot now be retracted or altered being by reason of my brother or his Lordships servants delivery long since come into divers hands let him judge specially if he knew the Queen and do remember those times whether they were not the labours of one that sought to bring the Queen about for my Lord of Essex his good The truth is That the issue of all this dealing grew to this that the Queen by some slackness of my Lord as I imagine liked him worse and worse and grew more incensed towards him Then she remembring belike the continual and incessant and confident speeches and courses that I had held on my Lords side became utterly alienated from me and for the space of at least three months which was between Michaelmas and New-years tide following would not so much as look on me but turned away from me with express and purpose-like discountenance wheresoever she saw me and at such time as I desired to speak with Her about Law business ever sent me forth very sleight refusals insomuch as it is most true that immediately after New-years-tide I desired to speak with her and being admitted to Her I dealt with her plainly and said Madam I see you withdraw your favour from me and now I have lost many friends for your sake I must lose you too you have put me like one of those that the French men call Infans perdus that serve on foot before horsemen so have you put me into matters of envy without place or without strength and I know at Chess a pawn before the King is ever much plaid upon a great many love me not because they think I have been against my Lord of Essex and you love me not because you know I have been for him yet will I never repent me that I have dealt in simplicity of heart towards you both without respect of Cautions to my self and therefore vivus vidensque pereo If I do break my neck I shall do it as Dorrington did which walked on the Battlements of the Church many days and took a view and survey where he should fall and so Madam said I I am not so simple but that I take a prospect of my own overthrow only I thought I would tell you so much that you may know it was faith and not folly that brought me into it and so I will pray for you upon which speeches of mine uttered with some Passion it is true Her Majesty was exceedingly moved and accumulated a number of kind and gracious words upon me and willed me to rest upon this Gratia mea sufficit and a number of other sensible and tender words and demonstrations such as more could not be but as touching my Lord of Essex ne verbum quidem Whereupon I departed resting then determined to meddle no more in the matter as that that I saw would overthrow me and not be able to do him any good And thus I made mine own peace with my own Confidence at that time and this was the last time I saw her Majesty before the eighth of February which was the day of my Lord of Essex his misfortune After which time for that I performed at the Bar in my publick service your Lordship knoweth by the rules of duty I was to do it honestly without prevarication but for any putting my self in it I protest before God I never moved the Queen nor any person living concerning my being used in the service either of evidence or of examination but it was meerly laid upon me with the rest of my fellows And for the time that passed between the arraignment and my Lords suffering I well remember I was but once with the Queen at what time though I durst not deal directly for my Lord as things then stood yet generally I did both commend her Majesties mercy terming it to her as an excellent balme that did continually distil from her Sovereign hands and made an excellent odour in the scents of her people and not only so but I took hardiness to extenuate not the fact for that I durst not but the danger telling her that if some base or cruel-minded persons had entred into such an action it might have caused much blood and combustion but it appeared well they were such as knew not how to play the Malefactors and some other words which I now omit And as for the rest of the carriage of my self in that service I have many honourable witnesses that can tell that the next day after my Lords arraignment by my diligence and information touching the quality and nature of the offendors six of nine were stayed which otherwise had been attainted I bringing their Lordships Letter for their stay after the Jury was sworn to pass upon them so near it went and how careful I was and made it my part that whosoever was in trouble about that matter assoon as ever his case was sufficiently known and defined of might not continue in restraint but be set at liberty and many other parts which I am well assured of stood with the duty of an honest man But indeed I will not deny for the case of Sir Thomas Smith of London the Queen demanding my opinion of it I told her I thought it was as hard as many of the rest but what was the reason because at that time I had seen only his accusation and had never been present at any examination of his and the matter so standing I had been very untrue to my service if I had not delivered that opinion But afterwards upon a re-examination of some that charged him who weakned their own testimony and especially hearing himself viva voce I went instantly to the Queen out of the soundness of my Conscience not regarding what opinion I had formerly delivered and told her Majesty I was satisfied and resolved in my Conscience that for the reputation of the Action the Plot was to countenance the Action farther by him in respect of his place then they had indeed any interest or intelligence with him it is very true also about that time her Majesty taking a liking of my Pen upon that which I formerly had done concerning the
prize which he carrieth to be a good Servant will kiss Your hands with joy for any work of Piety You shall do for me And as all commiserating persons specially such as find their hearts void of malice are apt to think that all men pity them I assure my self that the Lords of the Council who out of their Wisdom and Nobleness cannot but be sensible of humane Events will in this way which I go for the Relief of my Estate further and advance Your Majesties goodness towards me for there is as I conceive a kind of Fraternity between great men that are and those that have been being but the several Tenses of one Verb Nay I do further presume that both Houses of Parliament will love their Justice the better if it end not in my Ruine for I have been often told by many of my Lords as it were in excusing the severity of the Sentence that they knew they left me in good hands And Your Majesty knoweth well I have been all my life long acceptable to those Assemblies not by Flattery but by Moderation and by honest expressing of a desire to have all things go fairly and well But if it may please Your Majesty for Saints I shall give them Reverence but no Adoration my Address is to Your Majesty the Fountain of Goodness Your Majesty shall by the Grace of God not feel that in Gift which I shall extreamly feel in Help for my Desires are moderate and my Courses measured to a life orderly and reserved hoping still to do Your Majesty Honour in my way Only I most humbly beseech Your Majesty to give me leave to conclude with those words which Necessity speaketh Help me dear Sovereign Lord and Master and pity me so far as I that have born a Bagge be not now in my Age forced in effect to bear a Wallett nor I that desire to live to study may not be driven to study to live I most humbly crave pardon of a long Letter after a long silence God of Heaven ever bless preserve and prosper Your Majesty Your Majesties poor Ancient Servant and Beadsman Fr. St. Alban Certain Copies of Letters written by Sir William Cecil Knight Secretary of Estate to Queen Elizabeth to Sir Hen. Norris Knight Ambassador for the said Queen Resident in France SIR I Am constrained to use the hand of my servant in writing unto you because I find it somewhat grievous to use mine own at this present The Queens Majesty hath received your letters with very good contentation and alloweth your manner of beginning and proceeding as well I dare assure you as your self could devise which I do not in words onely speak but wish you to take them for as good a truth as I can inform The rare manner of your entertainment hath moved the Queens Majesty to Muze upon what course it should be being more then hath been used in like cases to her Ambassadors and such as besides your own report hath been by others very largely advertised and for that in such things guesses be but doubtful I pray you by your next advertise me what your self doth think of it and in the mean time I know you are not untaught to judge of the difference of fair words from good deeds as the sayingis Fortuna cum adblanditur captum advenit The Queens Majesty meaneth to require this Ambassador expresly to write unto the King there in how good part she taketh this manner of gratefull acceptation of you her servant there giving him to understand how good report you have made thereof and how much comforted you are by this manner to proceed in her service there I would have had her Majesty to have written her own letters to the King hereof But her Majesty made choice rather to speak with the Ambassador which she will do tomorrow who cometh hither and La Croq which cometh out of Scotland and departeth shortly from hence thither into France having been a good time in manner as an Ambassador with the Scotish Queen Monsieur Moret is I think on the way coming hither out of Scotland my Lord of Bedford who came long ago out of Scotland arrived here but of late and hath brought us good report from the Scotish Queen of her good disposition to keep peace and amity with the Queens Majesty Of late Shane Oneal hath made means to the Lord Deputy of Ireland to be received into Grace pretending that he hath not meant any manner of unlawfulness unto the Queen by which is gathered that he groweth weary of his lewdness and yet I think he is not otherwise to be reformed then by sharp prosecution which is intended to be followed no whit the less for any his fair writings as reason is Of the troubles of the Low Countries I think you be as well advertised there as we can be here and of the likelihood of the Kings not coming into the Low Countries I cannot tell whether you are yet acquainted with Captain Cockburne whose humor when you know as I think Barnaby can shew you I doubt not but you shall have of his hand no lack of intelligence which you must credit as you shall see cause by proof of the event he writeth almost weekly to me and looketh for as many answers which I cannot have leisure to make him but I pray let him understand that I accept his writing in very good part The manner of the dealing with them there for the particular causes contained in your instructions is very well to be liked and I wish the success of the answers to prove as good as the beginning hath appearance and especially for the relief of the poor Prisoners in the Gallies whose stay I fear will grow indirectly by Monsieur de Foix to get thereby the acquital of Lestrille whom surely he is bound in honor to see restored Since I had written thus much by my servants hand and meant yester-night to have ended the letter I thought good to stay untill this present that I knew by the French Ambassador what De la Crocq should do here and amongst other things the Queens Majesty hath very earnestly expressed to the Ambassador her good liking and estimation of your Honorable entertainment whereof you did advertise her Majesty and contrary to her former determination did tell La Crocq that he should carry her Majesties letters to the French King of special thanks for the same besides words of visitation nothing passed this day otherwise and therefore meaning not to keep your servant any longer I end with my very hearty commendations to your self and my Lady and wish as well to you and all yours as to my self Yours assuredly W. Cecil Feb. 10. 1566. To the Right Honorable Sir Hen. Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador in France SIR THe Queens Majesty continueth her good liking of your manner of negotiation and your advertisements to her Majesty which she wisheth you to continue She also alloweth your discretion
Prince and the Admiral was and what they did and how they intended to prosecute the enjoying of the peace for here we are troubled with very many fond tales and I never make good resolution of doubts without your advertisment and therefore I pray write from time to time what is done on both parts You shall do well to give good respect to the pretending to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wherein surely may be seen the very intent of the practicers I heartily thank you Sir for your plentiful present of so many Countries as you lately sent by Harcourte who indeed did in former times serve me and with my good favor departed from me but if he may serve you I am glad for I never knew but good honesty by him 2 π 5. oVʒʒ is not a little afraid of these G and H. We hear newly of great attempts towards Flanders and so having nothing more to write I am by business forced to end being assured that both by your Son and otherwise you are advertised of all our seen matters here From Greenwich the first of May which is become a very cold day 1568. Yours assured at all times W. Cecil To the right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR BY the Queens Majesties letter you may perceive what is her pleasure at this time Beaton is passing thither so as I think he will be at the Court before the coming of this bearer In your speaking with the King you may not by your speech seem to utter that you know of Beatons coming for aid there upon advertisement given from hence for he being advised not to seek aid there and promised aid here for his Mistris hath in words allowed thereof and saith that he will forbear to require aide from thence and will onely but notifie the Queens liberty But yet surely I am not bound to believe him but he hath required us here to say nothing of that which he at his first coming told us That the Queen his Mistris sent him to France to require aide of one thousand Harquebusiers and a sum of money with some Ordnance Wherefore except you shall learn there that he demandeth aid you shall not speak thereof but if he do then shall ye do well to make mention thereof to the King I hear daily of the evil observation of the last peace towards the Protestants In Flanders and the Low Countries I see things will prosper too well in hurt of the Religion and onely for lack that the Prince of Orange his party hath of money Yours assuredly W. Cecil Greenwich 16. of May 1568. Postscript And I think Mr. Vice-Chamberlaine shall be Controller Mr. Sydney Treasurer Mr. Throckmorton Vice-Chamberlain and Sir Ralph Sadler Chancellor of the Duchy To the right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador Resident in France AAfter our very hearty commendations we being made privy to such Letters and Message as you lately sent by this bearer your Secretary to me Sir William Cecil have well considered the same and do well allow of the good because the And do not mislike the overture made to you by Paris for the diverting of the Low good Callis and Dover and although there is no likelyhood of the sequel of this overture for sundry respects yet we do allow so well thereof as we wish you would make such answer to the said party as And to that end we are content that you may if need so require the giving him to understand that we will gladly if the matter shall the to us use our credit towards xx the A who we hope surely neither can nor will but accept the good will of in every good part and so we require you to further that matter with all that you can and on our part you may assure the party that it shall be also xx low the And so far ye well heartily Your assured loving friends Pembroke R. Leicester W. Cecil From the Court at Greenwich 28. of June 1568. To the right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight her Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR YEsterday being the 12. of this month Mr. Bridges came to the Court as we were going from London towards Havering in such sort as the Queens Majesty her self seeing him and knowing that you would not have sent him but with matter of some importance commanded me forthwith to decipher your letter which I did and shewed her Majesty whereupon she comfortably and constantly seemed not to fear any such Devillish practice but yet she is earnest in the further discovery of the matter and liketh well of your advertisement But she marvelleth that you did not advise more particularly of more special means to know the for as he is described to be of chiefest with the as also with we cannot truly hit of no man for as there be 4. or 5. that do sometime accompany the so are there men of that Nation but they do resort to the wherefore it is necessary that you speak again with the party that gave you this intelligence and if the matter be of truth and disguising to some other purpose he can as well obtain you the knowledge of the party in certainty as this to give a guess at him for as he hath his intelligence of the matter which he uttered to you if it be true so may he attain to a more perfect knowledge and if the matter be true and shall be discovered by his means you may promise him reward of the Queens Majesty as of a Prince of honor and so indeed shall he have it on the other side if the matter be not true but a device surely he and they that do participate with him are much too blame wherefore Sir I earnestly require you to use all the speed you can herein and advertise as plentifully as you can to the satisfaction of her Majesty For though her Highness words have comfort yet it cannot be but she shall rest perplexed untill more certainty be had Likewise her Majesty would have you cause diligent inquisition to be made of the other matter concerning the vi prepared by where and when and to what end the prepation shall be We marvail that you write nothing at this time of the Prince of Conde c. For the French Ambassador reporteth that he shall come to the King to Gallian the Cardinal Burbous house and that the Cardinal of Lorrein shall depart from the Court which to me is unlikely for truth The Scotish Queen is ordered to remove from Carlile to a Castle of the Lord Scroops in the edge of York-shire next Cumberland called Bolton for where she was appointed to come to Tutbury the Queens Majesty finding her great misliking therein hath forborn the same Her desires are these in sundry degrees First to come to the Queens Majesties person and to have present aid to be restored Secondly if that cannot be to have licence to pass into France and to these
it hath been answered untill her cause may appear more probable for her innocency the Queens Majesty cannot with honor receive her personally but if the Queen will by any manner of means honorable let her cause appear to be void of the horrible crime imputed to her for the murthering of her husband she shall be aided and used with all honor whereunto she will give no resolute answer other then that if she may come personally to the Queens Majesty then she will let it appear how she standeth in the cause Hereupon we stand at a brawl she much offended that she hath not her requests and we much troubled with the difficulties finding neither her continuance here good nor her departing hence quiet for us We here speak of one La Mote that should come hither Yours assured W. Cecil From Havering the 13. of July in haste Postscript And for and x I pray you put them in comfort that if extremity should happen they must not be left for it is so universal a cause as none of the Religion can separate themselves one from another we must all pray together and stand fast together and further c. To the right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador Resident in France AFter my hearty commendations though here be no great cause of present dispatch to you yet for the return of this bearer your servant Darrington having been long here and also to let you understand of the Queens Majesty proceedings with the Queen of Scots since her being in this Realm and since my last letters to you I have taken this occasion to return him to you The Queen of Scots having long laboured the Queens Majesty both by Messages and Letters to have aid of her Majesty against the Lords of Scotland and by force to restore her to her Realm her Majesty could not finde it meet in honor so to do but rather to seek all other good means to compass it with quiet and honor wherein much travailing hath been spent Finally the Queen of Scots hath agreed that her matter shall be heard in this Realm before some good personages to be deputed by the Queens Majesty to meet with some of the Lords of Scotland about New-Castle or Durham or neer this way as shall be found fit and so to be reported to her Majesty This way being now resolved upon and accepted of all parts the Earl of Murray hath offered to come himself in person if her Majesty finde it good accompanyed with others of meet condition to any place and at any time that her Majesty will appoint and because the Lord Herreys having long been here for the Queen of Scots and lately gone to her hath on his Mistrisses behalf required that speed might be used in this matter the Queens Majesty hath by her special letters required the Earle of Murray that all expedition may be made either for his own or else that some others may come chosen to be persons of wisdom and dexterity and void of all particular passion in such a cause as this is and upon his answer of the persons that shall be thus appointed there the Queens Majesty will with all speed send like fit personages from hence to meet with them and in the mean time where they the Lords of Scotland had summoned a Parliament of their three Estates to assemble in this next August her Majesty hath required them to suspend the holding of the Parliament untill the issue of this matter to be heard by her Majesty may come to some end In this meeting the Queens Majesty doth not mean to charge the Queen of Scots but will hear what the Lords can alleadge for themselves to defend all their doings and proceedings for imprisoning and deposing their Queen and other matters published by them and thereof to cause report to be made to her to be answered and likewise to carry such matters as are to come from her against them and upon hearing of all parts as matters shall in truth fall out so doth her Majesty mean to deal further therein as honor will lead and move her to do Whilst these things have been in doing the Queens Majesty hath been advertised though not from the Queen of Scots that she hath deputed the whole Government of her Realm of Scotland to the Duke of Chastilheraulte thereby both to make a party as may be supposed betwixt him and the Earl of Murray and also to be the earnester to procure Forreign aid for his maintenance whereof her Majesty is informed there is a great appearance having obtained of the French King good numbers of Harquebuziers and others ready to embarque for Scotland which being true her Majesty hath good cause to let the said King understand that it is against his promise as your self knoweth best And so hath also the said Queen assured her Majesty that she will not procure any Strangers to come into Scotland for her use untill it may appear what will ensue of this meeting But if the contrary fall out either by her own means or by the procuring of the said Duke of Chastilherault in France the Queens Majesty will not onely forbear to deal any further for the benefit of the Queen of Scots as hitherto her Highness hath done with all honor and sincerity having had as great care of her cause as she her self could have but shall be justly moved to do otherwise then the said Queen or her friends abroad would wish Thus much I thought good to impart unto you of these matters to the end that if you being there finde indeed that the said Duke doth obtain any such aide there to be sent into Scotland you may take occasion to deal therein with the King or with such as you know fittest for the stay thereof The Queen is now removed lately from Carlile to Bolton Castle a house of the Lord Scroops about 30. miles within the land fitter in all respects for her to lye at then Carlile being a Town for Frontier and War the Queens Majesty doth cause her to be very well and honorably used and accompanied And thus having no other present matter to write unto you I thought good herewith to return your servant to you wishing you right heartily well to do From the Court at Endfield the 25. of July 1568. After the end of this letter your servant Wall arrived here with your letters to the Lord Steward the Earl of Leicester and to me for answer to the letter which we wrote to you which letter after I had caused to be deciphered I sent to the Court to them my self being at my house near Waltham not well at ease nor in case to go to Court I long much to hear answer of letters sent by your Lackque touching the matter of an Italian whereof I doubt the Queens Majesty is more careful to hear then she doth here express at this time I have received a letter from an Italian there with you who
in exercise of his Religion he continually lamenteth that grave Councellors perswading peace are not of more power and credit in the Court. Whatsoever this French Ambassador shall report of him he cannot truly report any evil of him I hear La Mot is on his way at Callis to come hither I think surely some of yours are on the way I pray send me a Register or List of the Chieftains on the Kings part and also on the contrary Sir I do send you herewith a new Cipher Yours assuredly W. Cecil To the right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR YOur last letters that came to my hands were of the 29. of the last moneth by which you signified to me the advertisements which you then had of the taking of Angulesme since which time sundry reports are brought hither of Battels that should be betwixt the parties whereof lacking advertisements from your self I do give credit unto none by reason of the diversities of the reports On Sunday last La Mot was presented by Mounsieur de la Forest the former Ambassador whom the Queens Majesty hath admitted as Ambassador for the French King and seemeth to like well of his wisdom whereof hitherto for mine own part I have not had any proof The cause of the Queen of Scots is now to be heard here for which purpose the Duke of Norfolk and the Earl of Sussex are sent for from York and are to be here within these two days and presently the Earl of Murray the Earl Morton with certain other Noble men of his part are already come and on the Queens part the Bishop of Ross and the Lord Herryes be at London and do daily look for some other Commissioners to joyn with them because her Majesty meaneth to have the whole matter advisedly heard she hath appointed an Assembly not onely of her whole Council but of all the Earls of the Realm to be here the 18. of this moneth at which time her Majesty meaneth to have this cause of the Queen of Scots fully heard and therein to take such resolution and end as she shall be advised unto by her said Council and Estates The last letters which you sent unto the Queen wherein as her Majesty saith you made declaration of your Message done to that King concerning the Cardinal Chastillons being here was by her Majesty casually let fall in the fire and so burnt whereupon her Majesty being sorry for that she had not advisedly perused it willed me to write unto you for the copy of the same letter again which I pray you to send me by the next I would be glad to hear a brief or as they call it a list of the names of the principal persons that have a charge now in these wars in France on both parts with the contents as near as you can of their numbers After the writing hereof this present evening as the bearer hereof can tell Mr. Edmonds came hither with your letters to the Queens Majesty by which I am satisfied for those reports that were made of the great sights at Angulesme and of that which hath been here reported by the French Ambassador of the overthrow of Mouvans which I am glad is not true as he reported and so finding nothing else to be answered I thought good to dispatch this bearer with this my letter to the intent we might the sooner hear of your news whereupon dependeth the whole expectation of the Christian world Yours assuredly W. Cecil Hampton-Court 16. Nov. 1566. Postscript Before Mr. Edmonds came you may see what I wrote of the To the Right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR BY your last letter sent to me by this bearer your servant I perceived how good hap it was for our satisfaction here that your letters came not away with the report of the victory whereof the King there advertised you by a special Messenger untill you had also knowledge of the truth thereof by Villeroys coming from the Camp after the first message for like as the former part of your letters made mention of a great Victory for the King and an overthrow of the Princes whole Infantry So have many letters been written hither from Paris and other places according to the partial affections of the Writers in affirmance thereof adding for their confirmation certain solemnities by Processions and such like used at Paris for the same nevertheless I account the truth to be as in the latter part of your letter you write that there was no such manner of battel but certain skirmishes wherein there was no great inequality and yet because I hear it also credibly reported that the Prince of Conde lodged and kept the field where the skirmishes were I think his losses were less then the others whereof I think within a while to know the truth more particularly This matter of the Queen of Scots began to be heard and treated on at Westminster the 25. of the last moneth since which time there hath been sittings five or six several days and yesterday the Queen of Scots Commissioners having matter to answer whereby the Queen their Mistriss was charged with the murther of her husband they alleadged that they would go no further being so commanded by letters from her received since the beginning of this Commission and have required to speak with the Queens Majesty of whom they pretend they will desire to have the Queen their Mistriss to come to the presence of her Majesty and answer these causes her self whereunto how they shall be answered I cannot tell but for that purpose and others her Majesty hath presently sent for her Council who be here at present and so shall the Queen of Scots Commissioners be to morrow and hereafterward as matters shall fall out I will advertise you further and so take my leave Yours assuredly W. Cecil Hampton-Court 2. Decem. 1568. To the Right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight her Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR SInce my last writing by your servant Buffin I have forborn to write because I thought both to hear somewhat more from you and to have also somewhat here to write unto you Since which time I have received no letters from you but such as the poor Merchants of Ireland brought me being dated the 25. of the last moneth which came hither on Saturday last being the 11. of this moneth and considering the multitude of tales reported here to us of the conflict about the 18. I was nothing satisfied with the said last letters because touching that matter they did refer me to your former against which the French Ambassador here hath precisely given unto us news in the name of the King his Master wholly to the disadvantage of the Prince and therefore I wish you had written thereof now at the latter time somewhat more particularly I did of late write to you for the copy of the letter
by Sea the journey in this Winter time will be very dangerous and uncertain and to send him thorow France where the troubles are such as she could not either without mistrust of the French King because the party should pass thorow Gascoigne and the Queen of Navarrs ountry or without certain danger by souldiers and thereupon you shall so advertise that Ambassador of Spain and require him to make advertisement accordingly whereunto you may add that her Majesty hath thought of three or four meet persons to be sent thither for one of them to be an Ambassador Resident but none will be gotten that with good will will serve in respect of Mr. Mans strange and hard handling which things her Majesty would have you set out more plainly to him that the King may finde that onely to be the cause why there is no Resident Ambassador there And thus I end having willed Harcourte to take some of the Proclamations if they be ready printed in French Yours assuredly W. Cecil Jan. 8. 1568. Postscript I finde in a Bill of Petitions beginning from the 28. of August to December sundry sums of money pressed by you for carriage of Packets to whom I have not answered and therefore hereafter I pray you write expresly of what you do there for avoiding of double charge To the right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight her Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR SInce the writing the other letter dated the 8. of January my Lady caused her servant to stay for a Pasport for two Geldings and sithence my other letter we have here news from Flanders 5. V. touching R and therefore we are in a continual expectation what were the very news of a matter that was reported to have hapned the 23. of December The more particulars you write hither and the oftner the more thankful is your service and surely I see nothing so meet for us to understand as to be often advertised from you which considering you may write in your Cipher the oftner you hazard your letters the less is the peril We have no news from Scotland but that their Parliament is ended and amongst other things they have all assented by Act to decline the Queen of Scots obtaining to be lawful because she was privy to the murther of her husband There were none of the Nobillity absent but such as were of the Hambletons And thus I end my suddain letter being in a great longing to hear from you Yours assuredly W. Cecil January 10. 1568. To the Right Honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight Her Majesties Ambassador Resident in France SIR AFter I had written my other letters sent in this Packet unto you which I was to have sent away by one of your Footmen your servant this bearer Henry Crispe came hither upon Thursday last with your letters dated the 22. of this moneth and perceiving him earnestly disposed to return unto you I thought best to stay the sending away of your Footman and to send as I do this dispatch by this bearer which is partly because my former letters shall seem to bear so old a date And herewith I send unto you which was not ready before a memorial in the Spanish tongue of the matters passed concerning this late Arrest which memorial her Majesty would have you procure with her letters to the King of Spain and therefore after you have perused it I wish you should retain a Copy thereof either in Spanish or in French for your better instruction and that done to use all the expedition you may for the conveyance of her Majesties letters and the said Memorial to the King of Spain Since the finishing of the said memorial you shall understand that D' Assondeville hath been here a good time being not as yet accepted as an Ambassador for that he hath no special letters nor Commission from the King but from the Duke of Alva And all that he can say for himself is That he cometh in the Kings name as one of his Privy Council and whatsoever he shall do shall be confirmed by the King before he will depart out of the Realm He would also privately confer with the Spanish Ambassador which hath been hitherto denyed for that it is meant that the misbehaviors of the said Ambassadors should be openly disclosed to D' Assonleville thereby to let it appear how unmeet a man he is to be a Minister for Amity here which yesterday was declared to D' Assonleville at my Lord Keepers house where he came to these of the Council following my Lord Keeper the Duke of Norfolk the Earl of Leicester the Lord Admiral my self Mr. Sadler and Mr. Mildmay and that done he seemed sorry for things past and yet pressed still to speak with the Ambassador which was not then granted by us for that we did intend that resolution should grow from her Majesty which though it be not yet known I think he shall not be denyed In these matters we have cause to be somewhat slow to satisfie them lest they should according to their accustomed manner grow too audacious what will be the end thereof I cannot judge but I trust it will appear that they have begun upon a wrong ground and as it falleth out I think they shall be found to be behinde hand with us Yesterday word came to London that all the English Fleet which were feared should have been Arrested in Spain came home safe and this day I have heard for certainty that Hawkins is arrived at Mounts Bay with the Queens Ship the Minnion having in her the Treasure which he hath gotten by his Trade in the Indies and by rigor of the Spaniards near Mexico was forced to leave the Jesus of Lubeck upon a Leek which also he destroyed that they took no profit thereof hereafter I will write unto you as I shall learn the further truth of this matter with what cruelty he was used under pretence of friendship and of a compact made betwixt him and the Vice-Roy of the Indies and Pledges delivered on both sides for the performance thereof The Queen of Scots was removed from Bolton by my Lord Scrope and Mr. Vice-chamberlain on Wednesday last so as I think on Monday or Tuesday she shall be at Tetbury where the Earl of Shrewsbury is already and there shall take the charge of her and with him shall Mr. Hen. Knollis brother to Mr. Vice-Chamberlain remain to assist him Of late the Queens Majesty understanding out of Scotland that the Queen of Scots faction there had published sundry things being very false and slanderous meaning thereby to withdraw the Earl of Murrays friends from him and to bring the Queens Majesty doings into some question whereof we also be credibly informed the Queen of Scots by her letters was the very cause thereupon her Majesty ordered to have the contrary notified upon her Frontiers for maintenance of the truth as by the same you shall understand which I send you herewith in Print The advertisements
Majesties meaning in such sort as I need not to repeat or enlarge the same and the sooner that her Majesty may have answer hereof the better she will be content especially if the answer shall be good I send to you the Copies of the advertisements of my Lord of Sussex journey into Scotland the 17. of April and returning the 22. his Lordship entred the 27. to besiege as I think Hume Castle for the same hath been the receptacle of all the Rebels but at the writing hereof I am not ascertained what his Lordship hath done Of late the Bishop of Ross caused one of his servants secretly to procure the printing of a Book in English whereof before eight leaves could be finished intelligence was had which Book tendeth to set forth to the world that the Queen of Scots was not guilty of her husbands death a parable in many mens opinion next that she is a lawful heir to the Crown and herewith such reasons inserted as make unsound conclusions for the Queens Majesties present state Besides this a notable lye is there uttered That all the noble men that heard her cause did judge her innocent and therefore made suite to her Majesty that she might marry with my Lord of Norfolk With these and such like enterprises her Majesty hath been grieved with the said Bishop whereupon she hath the longer kept him from her presence but I think he will be spoken withall to morrow and so within two or three days it is likely he shall have access to her Majesty The Secretary in Scotland hath so discovered himself for the Queen of Scots as he is the instrument to increase her party having such credit with Grange who keepeth Edenburgh Castle as the Duke of Chastilherault the Lord Herries c. are now at liberty and thereby the party for the King is diminished you can judge what is ment to be done and I wish her Majesty to take such a way herein as may preserve her estate the device and execution whereof is found upon consultation very difficult and yet in all evils the least is to be chosen My Lord of Worcester and my Lord of Huntington are chosen Knights of the Order I cannot procure any resolution for your revocation untill it may be seen what will fall out there of the war betwixt the King and his subjects whereof daily there is expectation of some issue and the French Ambassador doth constantly affirm that the peace shall follow And so I end Yours assuredly W. Cecil Hampton-Court 4. May 1570. To the right honorable Sir Henry Norris Knight the Queens Majesties Ambassador Resident with the French King A note of a journey into Tividale by the Earl of Sussex her Majesties Lieutenant in the North begun the 17. of April 1570. and ending the 22. of the same THe 17. of April 1570. the Earl of Sussex and the Lord Hunsdon Governor of Berwick with all the Garrisons and power of the East Marches came to Warke and entered into Tividale in Scotland the 18. at the break of the day and burnt all Castles and Towns as they went untill they came to the Castle of Moss standing in a strong Marsh and belonging to the Lord of Fernhurst which they burnt and razed and so burnt the Country untill they came to Craling The same day Sir John Foster with all the Garrisons and force of the middle marches entred into Tividale and Expesgate head 16. miles from Warke and so burnt all the Country untill they came to a strong Castle called in the possession of the mother of the Lord of Fernhurst which he burnt and razed and so burnt all other Castles and Towns untill he came to Craling where both Companies met and so went up the River of Tivit and burnt and threw down all the Castles and Towns upon that River untill they came to Godworth where they lodged This day the Lord of Chesford Warden of the middle marches with the principal men of his kinde who had never in person received the Rebels nor invaded England and yet had evil men that had done both came in to the Lord Lieutenant and submitted himself and offered to abide order for his mens offences whereupon he was received as a friend and he and all his were free from any hurt The 19. the Army was divided into two parts whereof the one did pass the River of Tivit and burnt and razed the Castle of Fernhurst and all other Castles and Towns of the Lord of Fernhurst Hunthill and Bederoll and so passed on to Minte and the other part of the Army burnt in like sort on the other side of the River Tivit untill he came to Hawick where it was intended to have lodged that night for that the Bailiffs had the same morning offered to receive the Army and had therefore their Town assured but at the coming thither of the Army they had unthetched their houses and burnt the Thetch in the streets and were all fled so as no person could well enter for smoak which caused lack of victuals lodging and horsemeats and therefore the fire began by themselves in the Straw burnt the whole Town aftersaving Donn Lamorecks Castle which for his sake was spared and all the goods of the Town in it The 20. the Army went to Branshaw the Lord of Buckloughs house which was wholly overthrown with Powder and there divided and burnt on the North the River of Tivit more into the inland all the Castles and Towns in that Country which belonged wholly to the Lord of Bucklough and his kinsmen and returned that night to Jedworth The 21. the Army divided and one part went to the River of Bowbeat and burnt all on both sides of that River and the other part went to the River of Caile and burnt all on both sides of the River and met neer to Kelsaw where the Lord Lieutenant lodged that night of purpose to beset Hume Castle in the night and the Lord Hunsdon and the other part went to Warke to bring the Ordnance thence in the morning which was disappointed by the negligence of such as were left in charge who suffered the carriage horses to return after the Ordnance was brought thither so as for lack of horses to draw the Ordnance the Army was forced to return to Berwick the 22. All which time there was never any shew of resistance And the same time the Lord Scroope entred Scotland from the West Marches the 18 c. During which time the Marches in all places were so guarded as the Scots that did not shew themselves to offer fight in the field durst not offer to enter into England so as in the absence of the Army there was not one house burnt nor own Cow taken in England and it is conceived by such as know the enemies part of Tividale that there is razed overthrown and burnt in this journey above fifty strong Castles and Piles and above 300 Villages so as there be few in that Country that
have received the Rebels or invaded England that have either Castle for themselves or houses for their Tenants besides the loss and spoils of their other goods wherein nothing is reckoned of that was done in the other parts by the Lord Scroope for that it was not done within the County of Tividale c. The Rode of the Lord Scroope Warden of the West marches of England into Scotland Who the 17. of April at ten of the clock at night with three thousand Horse and Foot came to Ellesingham on the Wednesday at night and burned that Town in the morning being from Carlile twenty miles On Thursday he burned besides Hoddom the Maymes the Town and all the houses which is the Lord Herryes and from Carlile sixteen miles That day they burned Trayle-trow which is the Lord Maxwells from Carlile 16. miles They burned the Town of Reywell which is the Lord Coplands and the Lord Homeyn's from Carlile eighteen miles They burned the house of Copewell and the Demesne of the Lord Coplands from Carlile nineteen miles They burned the Town of Blackshieve which is the Lord Maxwells from Carlile 20. miles Item The Town of Sherrington of the same Lords twenty miles Item The blank end of the same Lords twenty miles Item The Town of Lowzwood of the same Lords twenty miles Goods taken the same Rode one thousand Neat and one thousand Sheep and Goats Of the Scots are taken one hundred Horsmen within a mile of Dunnforest Some say that Swynborne is taken SIR BY letters from my Lords of Sussex and Hunsdon of the 29. of April it is advertised that the Castle of Hume being besieged by them and the Battery laid the 27. of April the day following the Captain sent out a Trumpet to desire a Parlie which granted the Castle desired licence to send a Messenger to the Lord Hume to know his pleasure what they should do whereupon it was agreed a Messenger should pass and one was sent with him to see that no delay should be used the Messenger at his return brought Commission from the Lord Hume to deliver the Castle simply without condition trusting to their Honors for a favourable dealing with his men whereupon the Castle was received and all the Armor and Weapons and the people licenced to depart without Bag or Baggage and now the same remaineth newly fortified to the Queens Majesties charge more stronger then it was before to the intent the Rebels may not have their refuge thither as they had before By other letters of the first of May from my Lord of Sussex it is advertised that the most part of the March of East Tividale Esdale Ewesdale Wawcopdale and other parts upon the Borders from the East to the West Seas affirm their continuance of obedience to their King desire the Amity betwixt both Realms offer to spend their lives in the resisting of any Forreign power that shall offer the disturbance of either refuse dependence upon the French offer to depend upon the Queens Majestie and in their actions have refused to receive the Rebells or to assist the invaders of England the like whereof all others do offer that acknowledge that authority The contrary part openly receive the Rebels maintain the invaders of England share in their actions and ill meaning to England and seek dependence and maintenance of the French The Earls of Morton Murray and Glencarne with others of the Kings Council prepared to be at Edenburgh the 29. of the last whereupon the Duke of Chastilherault and Huntley went to Lithgo the 28. to stop their meeting and the 29. Morton went out of Edenburgh with a thousand men to meet the other Earls a By-wayl and so came together that night to Edenburgh with all their Forces or to fight for it in which time the Lords of Hume and Liddington be entred the Castle with Grange so as it is likely they will try shortly by the sword which side shall have the Authority W. Cecil IT may please you to be advertised according to my Lord Lieutenants direction I entered into Scotland on Tuesday at night last the 18. of this April and on Wednesday at night encamped at Heclesengham within Hoddom distant from Carlile 18. miles and within Scotland 12. miles and on Thursday in the morning I sent forth Simon Musgrave appointed by me as General of the Horsemen to burn and spoile the Country and to meet me at a place called Cambretreys and the said Simon burnt the Towns of Hoddome and the Maynes Troltrow Rovel and Calpoole the Town of Blackshaw Sherrington the Banck end within three miles of Dumfriese Lowgher and Lowgherwood and Hecklsengham which Towns were of the Lands of the Lord Herryes and Maxwell the Lord of Cockpoole and the Lord of Holmends and as the said Simon and his company came to old Cockpool there was the Lord Maxwell with his Forces and the Inhabitants of Dumfriese assembled and skirmished with the Couriers and compelled them to return unto the said Simon and then the said Simon marched unto the Town of Blackshaw with his Company where the Lord Maxwell was in order and his Forces and the said Simon and Fargus Graime with the number of a hundred Horse-men did give the charge upon the said Lord Maxwell and made him flee and his Company also In which fight there were a hundred prisoners taken whereof the principal was the Alderman of Dumfriese and 16. of the Burgesses thereof the rest were Footmen the chase was followed within one mile of Dumfriese after which conflict the said Simon returned to Blackshaw aforesaid and burnt it and seised a great number of Cattle and delivered the same unto certain Gentlemen and others to convey unto me and he the said Simon Rode with a hundred Horsmen to burn the Banck end Lowgher and Lowgherwood and as the said Gentlmen with their Company came to a streight place neer unto Old-Cockpool the said Lord Maxwell the Lord Carlile the Lords of Holme-ends Closburne Lorgg Hempsfeild Cowhill and Tenoll with the number of four hundred horsemen and six hundred footmen charged them very sore and forced them to alight and draw their company to a strong place to abide the charge of their enemies and so they remained untill the said Simon came unto them and alighted and put his Company in Order and set his Horse between his Company and the Sea and so stood in order to receive the enemy and in this sort continued charging and receiving their charges the space of three hours I being at Cambretreys aforesaid a place before appointed between me and the said Simon for his relief being distant from him three miles understanding of some distress sent my Band of Horsmen with my brother Edward Scroope and a hundred and fifty shot with Mr. Awdley and Mr. Herbert to their relief and the said Simon upon the coming of the said Band of horsemen and Shot gave the enemies the charge with all his Forces whereupon they fled in which
abolishing of the priviledges of Sanctuaries in case of Treason and that not before he had obtained it by way of suit from Pope Alexander which Sanctuaries nevertheless had been the forges of most of his troubles In his Government he was led by none scarcely by his Laws and yet he was a great observer of formality in all his proceedings which notwithstanding was no impediment to the working of his will 〈…〉 the suppressing and punishment of the Treasons which during the whole time of his Reign were committed against him he had a very strange kind of interchanging of very large and unexpected pardons with severe executions which his Wisdom considered could not be imputed to any Inconstancy or Inequality but to a discretion or at least to a principle that he had apprehended that it was good not obstinately to pursue one course but to try both ways In his Wars he seemed rather confident than enter prizing by which also he was commonly not the poorer but generally he did seem inclinable to live in peace and made but offers of War to mend the conditions of peace and in the quenching of the commotions of his Subjects he was ever ready to atchieve those Wars in Person sometimes reserving himself but never retiring himself but as ready to second Of nature he coveted to accumulate treasure which the People into whom there is infused for the preservation of Monarchies a natural desire to discharge their Princes though it be with the unjust Charge of their Councellors and Ministers did impute unto Cardinal Morton and Sir Reynold Bray who as it after appeared as Councellors of ancient Authority with him did so second his humour as nevertheless they tempted it and refrained it whereas Empson and Dudley that followed being persons that had no reputation with him otherwise than the servile following of his own humour gave him way and shaped him way to these extremities wherewith himself was touched with remorse at his death and with his Successor disavowed In expending of Treasure he never spared Charge that his Affairs required and in his Foundations was Magnificent enough but his Rewards were very limited so that his Liberality was rather upon his own state and memory than towards the deserts of others He chose commonly to employ cunning persons as he that knew himself sufficient to make use of their uttermost reaches without danger of being abused with them himself The rest is wanting A Copy of a Letter from His Majesty to the Lords read at Board Novemb. 21. 1617. touching the abatement of His Majesties Houshold Charge MY Lords no worldly thing is so precious as Time Ye know what task I gave you to work upon during my absence and what time was limited unto you for the performance thereof This same Chancellor of Scotland was wont to tell me twenty four years ago that my house could not be kept upon Epigrams long discourses and fair tales will never repair my estate Omnis vertus in Actione consistit Remember that I told you the shooe must be made for the foot and let that he the Square of all your proceeding in this business Abate super-fluities in all things and multitudes of unnecessary Officers where ever they be placed But for the houshold Wardrope and Pensions cut and carve as many as may agree with the possibility of my means Exceed not your own rule of 50000 l. for the houshold If you can make it lesse I will account it for good service And that you may see I will not spare mine own person I have sent with this bearer a note of the superfluous charges concerning my mouth having had the happy opportunities of this Messenger in an errand so nearly concerning his place In this I expect no answer in word or writing but only the real performance for a beginning to relieve me out of my miseries For now the Ball is at your feet and the world shall bear me witness that I have put you fairly to it and so praying God to bless your labours I bid you heartily farewell Your own James R. A Copy of His Majesties second Letter MY Lords I received from you yesternight the bluntest Letter that I think ever King received from his Councel Ye write that the Green Cloth will do nothing and ye offer me advice Why are ye Councellors if ye offer no Councel an ordinary Messenger might have brought me such an answer It is my pleasure that my charges be equalled with my Revenue and it is just and necessary so to be For this a project must be made and one of the main branches thereof is my house This Project is but to be offered unto you and how it may be best laid then to agree with my honour and contentment ye are to advise upon and then have my consent If this cannot be performed without diminishing the number of the Tables diminished they must be and if that cannot serve two or three must be thrust into one If the Green Cloth will not make a Project for this some others must do it If ye cannot find them out I must Only remember two things That time must no more be lost and that there are twenty wayes of abatement besides the house if they be well looked into And so farewell James R. A Letter from the King to his Lordship by occasion of a Book It was the Organon MY Lord I have received your Letter and your Book then which ye could not have sent a more acceptable Present unto Me how thankful I am for it cannot better be expressed by Me then by a firm resolution I have taken first to read it through with care and attention though I should steal some houres from My sleep having otherwise as little spare time to read it as ye had to write it and then to use the liberty of a true friend in not sparing to ask you the question in any point thereof I shall stand in doubt Nam ejus est explicare cujus est condere As for the other part I will willingly give a due Commendation to such places as in My Opinion shall deserve it In the mean time I can with Comfort assure you that ye could not make choice of a Subject more befitting your place and your universal and Methodick knowledge and in the general I have already observed that ye jump with me in keeping the middle way between the two extreams as also in some particulars I have found that ye agree fully with my opinion and so praying God to give your work as good success as your heart can wish and your labours deserve I bid you heartily farewell James R. To Our Trusty and Well-beloved Thomas Coventry Our Attorney General TRusty and Well-beloved We greet you well whereas our Right Trusty and Right Well-beloved Cosen the Viscount of St. Alban upon a sentence given in the Upper-house of Parliament full three years since and more hath endured loss of his place Imprisonment and Confinement
that Business 28. 29. 30 31 32 33 c. His advice to Sir George Villiers concorning Ireland wherein three Propositions are acutely scan'd 1. Touching the Recusant Magistrates of Towns there 2. About roducing the Number of the Council from Fifty to twenty 3. That a means may be found to re-enforce the Army by 500. or 1000. men without increase of Charge 67 68 69. From him to the Duke when he first became a Favourite with somo directions or his demeanor in that eminent place ranked into eight material Heads with an ample and quaint gloss upon each of them most elegantly pen'd 43 44. Again to him upon sending his Pattent for Viscount Villiers with several Avisoes and incidently a Censure of the Cecils the Father and the Son Pag. 70 71. Sends the King a Certificate from the Lord Coke 72. Sends to the King an Essay of History of His Majesties time 9. Desires the History of Brittain may be written for three Observations 7 8. Sixty four years old in Age and three years and five months in misery desires neither means place nor imployment but a total remission of the sentence of the Upper House by the example of Sir John Bennet 81. To the King touching the Plantation of Ireland as formerly of the Union as being Brother thereunto 6. To the Earl of Salisbury touching his Book of the advancement of Learning saying He is but like a Bell-ringer to awake better spirits 9 10. Several Letters to great Personages in sending unto them his Book of advancement of Learning and the presenting of it to the King 10 11. To Dr. Plafer touching the Translating of it into Latine with many excellent Reasons to that Inducement 11 12. To Sir Thomas Bodley upon sending the same Book 13. To divers Friends upon sending unto them some other of his Books 13. 14 15 16. To Mr. Savil touching the Education of Youth and the improving the Intellectual Powers Pag. 17. A Factious Book stiling the Queen Misera Faemina the addition of the Popes Bull. 21. The business of the Commendams and the carriage of the Judges therein related to the King 76 77. Three Examples of great Calamity Demosthenes Cicero and Seneca A Discourse concerning his own Books 78 79 80. A learned and ample Discourse touching a Digest to be made of the Laws of England from 82. to 86. To the Earl of Devonshire a Letter Apologetical touching a common fame as if he had been false or ungrateful to the Earl of Essex something long but exquisitely pen'd from 87. to 104. A discourse touching Helps for the Intellectual Powers by Sir Fran. Bacoa Faber quisque fortunae suae an insolent saying except it be interpreted as an hortative to correct slâ—th and not as it soundeth an high imagination for any man to fathom all Accidents Faber quisque Ingenii sui more true and more profitable Divers manner of instances in Improvements not only in the body of man but in his mind and spirit and therein not only in his Appetite and Affection but in his Powers of Wit and Reason The Will most manageable and admitteth most Medicines for Cure The first is Religion 2. Opinion and Apprehension 3. Example 4. When one affection is corrected by another And lastly a Confirmation of all by custom and habit Five Rules for exercises Pag. 97 98 99 100 Sir Francis Bacon to the King modestly Apologetical intimating his former services and his present low condition after the sentence pronounced against him by the Lords Implores the King that he that hath born a bag may not in his age be forc'd to bear aWallet nor he that desired to live to study may not be driven to study to live 101 102 103 104 C. CEcil Sir William to Sir Henry Norris Ambassadour in France about his Entertainment there being Extraordinary and what the Reason should be Sha'ne Oneal sues to be received into the Queens favour 105 106. Taxes Mounsieur de Foix for breach of promise in not delivering Lestrille The News of the death of the King of Scots and the manner of it Earl Bothwell suspected 107 108. Callice demanded to be restored to the Queen according to the Treaty of Cambray More of the business of the murder of the King of Scots words which touch't that Queen but fit to be supprest Pag. 109 111. If Callice be not delivered 50000 l. is to be forfeited 110. Matters in Flanders go hard against the Protestants 111. Those of the Order of France if life or honour be touched to be tried by Kings and others of the same Order ibid. Marriage of the Queen of Scots to Bothwell the prime of the Nobility against it 112. The French Kings Letter touching Callice ill resented by the Queen The Queen of Scots married the 15th of May. 113. Bothwell prosecuted for the murder defended by the Queen and the Hambletons the Queen under restraint Sha'ne Oneal slain in Ireland by certain Scots 114. Sir Nicholas Throckmorton sent into Scotland to Negotiate a Pacification The two Factions of the Hambletons and Lenox's 115. The Prince of Scotland Crowned at Sterling the 29th of July 116. Queen Elizabeth offended with the Scotch Lords Murray like to be made Regent Advice to Sir Henry Norris touching his Expences 117. Murray made Regent my Lord of Sussex with the Emperour all Judges Officers c. At Antwerp compelled to attest the Catholick Faith 118. Bothwell reported to be taken at Sea 119 120. Dunbar rendred to the Regent the Keeper thereof adjudged to a new Punishment Pag. 120. Expectation of Marriage between the Queen and the Archduke Charles 121. Troubles in France between the Prince of Conde and the King 121 122. The Queen of Scots noted by the Parliament there to be privy to the murder of her husband 123. The Earl of Desmond and his brother in the Tower 125. Fishermen of Diepe taken at Rye with unlawful Nets 126. The Popes Ministers preferre the State of their corrupt Church before the Weal of any Kingdom 128. The Earl of Sussex his return The Prince of Orange his Son to be sent into Spain and doubted Egmond and Horn must follow ibid. Emanuel Tremelius sent into England by the Elector Palatine The Prince of Orange refuseth to be judged by the Duke of Alva The Hambletons continue their Faction The death of Sir Ambrose Cave 129. Beaton sent from Scotland into France for 1000. Harquebusiers Money and Ordnance 131. Devilish practice against the Queen The Scots Queen removed to Bolton Castle her demands of the Queen denied 133. The Queen of Scots submits her Cause to be heard and determined in England 134 135 136 c. What preparations in France intended for Scotland Great expectation of the success of matters in the Low Countries Pag. 137. Unhappy but incredible News out of Flanders The Duke of Norfolk the Earl of Sussex and Sir Walter Mildmay Commissioners in the North about the Queen of Scots business 138. She makes Arguile and Huntley Lieutenants and the
Duke of Chastillherault over all They raise Forces against the Regent are Routed 139. A Couragious Answer from Queen Elizabeth to the French Ambassadour and the Audience adjourned 140. She sends a Ring to Marshal Montmorancy his wife 141. The Bishop of Rhemes Ambassador from France is offended that the doctrine of Rome is said to be contrary to Christs deducing consequently that his Mr. should be reputed no Christian and how that Speech was salved The Cardinal Chastillons Wife comes over 141 142. The Reason of the Cardinals coming into England Ships sent by the Queen to preserve the Bourdeaux Fleet. The Queen of Scots Case not defensible and the Consequence thereof 144. Matters about the Queen of Scots Chastillion highly commended 144 145. The Cause of the Queen of Scots to be heard here 146. Passages touching the differences between the King and the Prince of Conde Pag. 147. Matters against the Queen of Scots very bad 148. Sir Henry Norris claims the Lord Dacres Lands 149. Three manner of wayes proposed for ending the Scottish differences 150. Spanish Treasure stayed ibid. 151 156. The Parliament of Scotland declares the Queen of Scots privy to the murder of her Husband 152. D'Assonvill comes over Without Commission and desires Conference with the Spanish Ambassadour but denied 153. Hawkins his Return to Mounts Bay from the Indies with Treasure The Queen of Scots at Tetbury under the charge of the Earl of Shrewsbury 153. The French Ambassadors Currier searched and the Reason of it 154. The Prince of Conde slain in Battel against the King 157. The 13th of March had two great Effects 158. Differences in Scotland accorded 159. But not observed 160. Sir William Cecil laments the misfortune of France means made to accord with the Low Countries Scottish Nobility reconciled 61. Original Letters intercepted by persons of credit in the FrenchCourt of advertisement concerning the Queen of Scots and the Duke of Anjou Pag. 161. That the said Queen should transfer her title on the said Duke to learn more truth hereof and advertise with speed The Queens Ships far excel others 162. The Queen of Scots excuseth her Transaction with the Duke of Anjou 163 164. A Rebellion in the West-part of Ireland and the Spaniards aid feared 164. My Lord of Shrewsbury strucken with a Palsie and a Phrensie 165. The Parisians execute two Merchants whom the King had pardon'd The English Ambassador taxed for dealing with the Kings Rebels 166. The Earl of Desmond's great Rebellion in Ireland but dispersed 167 168. An Italian sent hither upon a Devilish attempt An Insurrection in Suffolk Queen Elizabeth desires to be rid of the Queen of Scots 169. The Queen offended at the Duke of Norfolk about his Marriage Sir William Cecil his good Friend therein my Lords of Arundel and Pembroke confined to their Lodgings about it and so is the Lord Lumley My Lord of Huntington joined with the Earl of Shrewsbury in the custody of the Scots Queen 172. The King of Spains designs with the Irish. Pag. 173. The grand Rebellion in the North and the pretences thereof and their numbers and names 174 175. A Report of the death of the Count Nassau the Northern Rebellion scattered and their Ring-leaders fled 176. Extracts of Letters out of the north The two Rebellious Earls in Liddesdale but flee from thence The Countess of Northumberland and her attendants robbed in Scotland The Earls flee with about 50. horse Westmerland changeth his coat of plate sword and travails like a Scottish borderer many others taken 177 178 The Regent of Scotland takes the Earl of Northumberland and others The Lord Fernhurst and Bucklugh aiders of them p. 178 The Murther of the Regent of Scotland at Lithgo by Hambleton of Bothwell Hall The Earl of Sussex his wise and noble carriage The Hambletons strongly suspected for the murder and why 179 180 The French Embassador makes 3 demands of the Queen in behalf of the Queen of Scots p. 181 Sir William Cecil names to the Queen Mr. Francis Walsingham and Mr. Henry Killigrew to succeed Sir Henry Norris in France p. 182 The Earl of Sussex goes again into Scotland The Bishop of Ross writes a Book in defence of the Queen of Scots and dangerous against Queen Elizabeth Pag. 183. The Earls of Worcester and Huntington made Knights of the Order p. 184 The Earl of Sussex and the Lord Hunsdon enter Scotland with fire and sword 50. Castles and 300 Villages burnt p. 184 185 The Lord Scroop Warden of the West Marshes makes great devastation in Scotland The Castle of Hume surrendred to the Lords of Sussex and Hunsdon and well fortified for the Queens service A great part of the Scotish borderers obediently adhere to their King and offer dependance upon the Queens Majesty The contrary part act rebelliously A great meeting of Lords on both sides at Edenburgh in Armes to try who shall have the authority p. 186 187 Simon Musgrage General of the horse routs the Lord Maxell is in some distress by him but is relieved by the Lord Scroop 's forces and the Maxwels and several other Lords escaped by flight Drumlangricks servants and tenants although pretended favorers of the King and Queen cruel to the English Dumfriese a Receptacle of English Rebels p. 187 188 The Queen of Scots desires cessation of Armes the Bishop of Ross plots against the Queen p. 189 Sir Henry Norris to be revoked and Mr. Walsingham to go in his place ibid. The Marshal of Berwick betray'd by the Bishop of St. Andrews and other Lords who under colour and treaty with him intended to have slain him he destroys the Hambletons Castles and houses Pag. 190. The Earl of Southampton for complyance with the Bishop of Ross is committed close prisoner to the Sheriff of London The fond Lord Morley withdraws to Lovain p. 191 The French King mediates for the Queen of Scots the Queen keeps some Castles in Scotland until her subjects of England should have satisfaction p. 191 192 Sir William Cecil and Sir Walter Mildmay are sent Commissioners to the Scotch Queen and they like not the message The Lord Coke to King James touching tryal of Duels out of England occasioned by putting to death of Doubty beyond the Seas by Sir Francis Drake that crime tryable only before the Constable and Marshal of England p. 193 194 H. THe History of the Reign of King Henry the 8th King Edward the 6th Queen Mary and part of Queen Eliz. p. 194 195 I. Exquisitely begun but left imprfect Two Copies of Letters from King James to the Lords touching abatement of his houshold charge and the means of redresse p. 198 199 From the King to the Lord Bacon in commendation of his book caled the Organon To Sir Thomas Coventry Atturney General commanding him to prepare a pardon of the whole sentence pronounc'd against my Lord Bacon p. 200 201 S. SIr Philip Sidney to the Queen diswading her from her marriage with Mounsieur most elegantly and judiciously penned p. 201 202 203 A most quaint Speech made by the Lord Bacon then Sollicitor General at the arraignment of the Lord Sanquir as well in extenuation as aggravation of the murder of Turner 209 210 c. The Countess of Shrewsburies Case touching the Marriage of the Lady Arabella and her refusal to be examined therein 212 213. T. SIR Nicholas Throckmorton Ambassador in France to Q. Elizabeth touching a free passage for the Q of Scots through England into Scotland several Politick Reasons urged on both sides between him the Queen of Scots and the Queen-Mother of France 214 215 216 c. FINIS ERRATA PAge 72. line 16. for bnt read but. p. 89. l. 22. for Twilknam r. Twitnam p. 97 l. 3. for fortunas suas r. fortunae suae p. 116. l. 3. for Moleneux r. Molineux p. 120. in fine for name r. named p. 130. l. 9. for what r. with and l. 7. for not r. now p. 137. l. 12. for to r. to be p 165. l. 6. for there r. here p. 173. l. 9. or 10. for over r. fromus p. 182. l. 14. for inferrior r. inferior p. 208. l. 18. for Holladour r. Hollander and in the same line for le r. he p. 211. l. 21. for Luedia r. Suedia p. 224. l. 26. for Abeville r. Abbeville 27 E. 3. Cap. 1. 4 H. 4. Cap. 23. These that follow are but indigested Notes Entertainment above ordinary To know the cause thereof Her Majestie much mislikes of the Prince of Conde and Thadnur Lords of France The Lords of the Council do all they can to cover the same Her Majesty being a Prince her self is doubtful to give comfort to subjects Our Ambassador to comfort them nevertheless as occasion serves Expectation of the Queens marrying with the Archduke Charles In Scotland all quiet the Scotish Queen still in Loughlevin and in health Murray ruleth quietly as Regent Original lettere intercepted by persons of credit in the French ourt of Advertisement concerning the Q of Scots and Duke of Anjou That the said Scotish Queen should transfer her Title on the said Duke To learn more truth hereof and advertise with speed This precisely denyed by the other side To send a trusty person to Marcells 19. Febr. 1616. Note before this Statute Criminal Causes were often adjudged in Parliament
late act of his Majesty referred to some former speech which I have heard from your Lordship bred in me a great desire and by strength of desire a boldness to make an humble Proposition to your Lordship such as in me can be no better than a wish but if your Lordship should apprehend it it may take some good and worthy effect The Act I speak of is the order given by his Majesty for the erection of a Tomb or Monument for our late Sovereign Queen Elizabeth wherein I may note much but this at this time That as her Majesty did alwayes right to his Majesties hopes so his Highness doth in all things right to her memory a very just and Princely retribution But from this occasion by a very easie ascent I passed further being put in mind by this representative of her person of the more true and more perfect representative which is of her Life and Government For as Statues and Pictures are dumb Histories so Histories are speaking Pictures wherein if my affection be not too great or my reading too small I am of this opinion That if Plutarch were alive to write Lives by Parallels it would trouble him for Vertue and Fortune both to find for her a parallel amongst Women And though she was of the Passive Sex yet her Government was so active as in my simple opinion it made more impression upon the several States of Europe than it received from thence But I confess unto your Lordship I could not stay here but went a little further into the consideration of the times which have passed since King Henry the Eighth wherein I find the strangest variety that in so little number of Successions of any hereditary Monarchy hath ever been known the Reign of a Child the offer of an Usurpation though it were but as a diary Ague the Reign of a Lady married to a Forreigner and the Reign of a Lady solitary and unmarried So that as it cometh to pass in massive bodies that they have certain trepidations and waverings before they fix and settle so it seemeth that by the Providence of God this Monarchy before it was to settle in his Majesty and his Generations in which I hope it is now established for ever hath had these preclusive changes in these barren Princes Neither could I contain my self here as it is easier for a man to multiply than to stay a wish but calling to remembrance the unworthiness of the History of England in the main continuance thereof and the partiality and obliquity of that of Scotland in the latest and largest Author that I have seen I conceived it would be honour for his Majesty and a work very memorable if this Island of great Britain as it is now joined in Monarchy for the Ages to come so it were joined in History for the times past and that one just and compleat History were compiled of both Nations And if any man think it may refresh the memory of former discord he may satisfie himself with the Verse Olim haec meminisse juvabit For the case being now altered it is matter of comfort and gratulation to remember former troubles Thus much if it may please your Lordship was in the Optative Mood and it was time that I should look a little into the Potential wherein the hope that I received was grounded upon three Observations The first of these times which flourish in Learning both of Art and Language which giveth hope not only that it may be done but that it may be well done Secondly I do see that which all the World sees in his Majesty a wonderful Judgment in Learning and a singular Affection towards Learning and Works which are of the mind and not of the hand For there cannot be the like honour sought in building of Galleries and planting of Elms along High-wayes and the outward ornaments wherein France now is busie things rather of Magnificence than of Magnanimity as there is in the uniting of States pacifying of Controversies nourishing and augmenting of Learning and Arts and the particular action appertaining unto these of which kind Cicero judged truly when he said to Caesar Quantum operibus tuis detrahet vetustas tantum addet laudibus And lastly I called to mind that your Lordship at some times hath been pleased to express unto me a great desire that something of this matter should be done answerable indeed to your other noble and worthy courses and actions joining and adding unto the great services towards his Majesty which have in small compass of time been performed by your Lordship other great deservings both of the Church and Commonwealth and particulars So as the opinion of so great and wise a man doth seem to me a good warrant both of the possibility and worth of the matter But all this while I assure my self I cannot be mistaken by your Lordship as if I sought an Office or employment for my self for no man knows better than your Lordship that if there were in me any faculty thereunto yet neither my course of life nor profession would permit it But because there be so many good Painters both for hand and colours it needeth but encouragement and instructions to give life unto it So in all humbleness I conclude my presenting unto your Lordship this wish which if it perish it is but a loss of that which is not And so craving pardon that I have taken so much time from your Lordship I remain c. Sir Francis Bacon to the King upon the sending unto him a beginning of a History of his Majesties time It may please your Majesty HEaring that you are at leisure to peruse story a desire took me to make an experiment what I could do in your Majesties times which being but a leaf or two I pray your pardon if I send it for your recreatiou considering that love must creep where it cannot go But to this I add these petitions First that if your Majesty do dislike any thing you would conceive I can amend it upon your least beck Next that if I have not spoken of your Majesty encomiastically your Majesty will be pleased only to ascribe it to the Law of an History which doth not clutter together praises upon the first mention of a name but rather disperseth them and weaveth them throughout the whole Narration And as for the proper place of commemoration which is in the period of life I pray God I may fiever live to write it Thirdly that the reason why I presumed to think of this oblation was because whatsoever my disability be yet I shall have that advantage which almost no writer of History hath had in that I shall write the times not only since I could remember but since I could observe And lastly that it is only for your Majesties reading Sir Francis Bacon to the Earl of Salisbury upon sending him one of his books of advancement of Learning It may please your Good Lordship I present