the Committee 1535 in the one cutting off the head in the other weakening the members of that Church He made provident yet moderate use of his Masters favours thereby obliging others and securing himself being above Mercenary inclinations as much in his thoughts as in his fortune he was neither too near the King lest he were weary of him nor too far off lest he forgot him or thought himself neglected by him His intermissions of attendance gave others no advantage but rendred him more gracious he neither engrossed nor confined his Masters affection It was easie for him to rise being descended of Noble Blood which is never envied for its advancement and as easie to keep high being well studied in his Princes disposition whose inclination when found is half fitted ever pleasing his Masters Natural humour never his Vicious Having attained a competent heighth he chose rather to grow stronger by relation then higher by advancements Some Favourites whose heels have been tripped up by their adversaries have with their hands held on their Allies till they could recover their feet again His familiarity and the easie access to him made him popular his pliant temper kept him a Favourite until he died in the full favour of his Prince though as Cardinal Pool observed They who were highest in this Kings favour had their heads nearest danger He had a becoming Bluntness not unlike his Masters which we call Free-heartedness in Courtiers Conscience and Christian simplicity in Clergie-men Valour in Souldiers He died anno 1544. much beloved and lamented of all for his Bounty Humility Valour and all Noble Vertues since the heat of his Youth was tamed by his reduced Age whose two sons Henry and Charles died within twelve hours one of the other 155â— 1. A Calm Greatness is next the happiness of Heaven Give me the man that by a fair and calm course is still rising to an higher state yet content with his present fortune 2. Integrity out-lasts Power and Plainness survives Policy An honest heart keeps the head on the shoulders a Noble and clear Vertue is lasting 3. It 's likeness that makes the True-love-knot of friendship When a Prince finds another of his own disposition what is it but the same soul in a divided body what findes he but himself intermutually transposed And Nature that makes us love our selves makes us with the same reason love those that are like us for this is a Friend a more sacred Name then a Brother 4. He that hath a minde contentedly good enjoyeth in it boundless possessions He is great indeed that is great in a brave soul Vitam quae faciunt beatiorem Jucundissime Martialis haec sunt Res non porta Labore sed relicta Non ingratus Ager focus perennis Lis nunquam toga rara mens quieta Viris Ingenuae salubre Corpus Prudens simplicitas pares amici Convictus facilis sine arte Mensa Nox non ebria sed soluta curis Non tristis torus attamen pudicus Somnus qui faciat breves tenebras Quod sis esse vetis nihilque malis Summum ne metuos diem nec optes Observations on Thomas Cranmer Lord Archbishop of Canterbury CRanmer had a Noble Blood quickning and raising his spirit as he had an indefatigable industry to improve it He was a Gentleman born in Arselecton in Nottinghamshire and a Noble-man bred in Jesus-Colledge in Cambridge His Ancestors were no less eminent at Cranmers-hall in Lincolnshire then he was at Lambeth in Surrey They came in with the Conquest as one Cranmer a French Ambassadour in Henry the eighth's time at the Archbishops Table made it evident and he with the Reformation His Education was as Gentile as his Birth onely his mild spirit meeting with a severe Master his memory was weakened and his spritefulness allayed but the austerity of the School was sweetned with the exercises of the Country which his Father indulged him when young and he indulged himself when aged handling his great Horse as nimbly his Bow and Net as dexterously as any man in his family His Marriage withdrew him from the Colledge and consequent Church-preferment as the Kings did him from the Church it self He whose marriage forbid him a Fellowship in Jesus-Colledge had a Lecture in Buckingham-house for his Parts and Reputation where at once he prepared others for publick Employments and himself also He lived as soberly at the Dolphine-tavern with his wife whatever the Papists have surmized as he did studiously at Buckingham-house with his Scholars His Name was so famous that Wolsey was not more sollicitous to transplant him as an Ornament to Oxford then Fisher was to retain him in Cambridge where he was eminent for the Arts more for Divinity which when as one of the three Cenfors he examined Candidates he said he expected not in the difficult trifles of Lumbard but in the sacred sense of Scriptures the ancient Doctrine of Fathers the grave Canons of Councils the solid Politeness of the Greek and Hebrew Learning and which he lived as well as he taught in his sober temperance his mild meekness so placable so courteous that to offend him was the way to ingratiate with him his discreet moderation his grave resolution equally above the frowns and smiles of fortune Thus qualified he was by a Providence commended to his Majesty for there being a Plague in Cambridge as there was all over England Dr. Cranmer retired to Waltham with two of his Pupils the sons of one Mr. Cressy where upon the Kings Progress thither he met with his Chaplain and Almoner Dr. Foxe afterwards Bishop of Hereford who lodging with him at Mr. Cressy's discoursed the Kings Divorce Cranmer conceived that the speediest course were to prove the unlawfulness of the Match by Scripture whence it would follow that the Pope at first had no power to dispense therewith and that the Universities of Christendome would sooner and truer decide the case then the Court of Rome This passage Foxe reports to the King who well-pleased thereat professeth that this man had the Sow by the right Ear Glad was the King to see him indeed he had a comely Person and a pleasing Countenance more to hear him inlarge himself on the former Subject That it was above the Popes power to dispence with Gods Word in the Kings Case What he said to the King he was sent to make it good to the Pope whither invested with the Arch-Deaconry of Taunton he went with Thomas Bullen Earl of Wilâ—shire whose first Address to the Pope was to present a Book of Cranmers proving Gods Law indispensible with by the Pope the Author is preferred to the great Title of Supreme Poenitentiary and the Treatise is promised a Consideration and Debate But the Pope delaying and according to Cranmer's Advice ten Universities declaring against him the Embassador returns to England and the Disputant goes to Vienna where in Osianders House whose Kinswoman he had married he confirmed those that wavered satisfied those that
Edward the sixth when Prince and is charactered by Mr. Cambden Vir antiqua serenitate He observeth him also to be happy in his Daughters learned above their Sex in Greek and Latine namely 1. Mildred 2. Anne 3. Kathering married unto William Cecill Lord Treasurer of England Nicholas Bacon Lord Chancellour of England Henry Killigrew Thomas Hobby Knights Ralph Rowlet 4. Elizabeth 5. Sir Anthony Cooke died in the year of our Lord 1576. leaving a fair Estate unto his Son in whose name it continued till our time Gravity was the Ballast of his Soul and General Learning its Leading In him met the three things that set up a Family 1. An Estate honestly gotten in the City 2. An Education well managed in the University And 3. Honour well bestowed at Court Yet he was some-body in every Art and eminent in all the whole circle of Arts lodging in his soul His Latine fluent and proper his Greek critical and exact his Philology and Observations upon each of these Languages deep curious various and pertinent His Logick rational his History and Experience general his Rhetorick and Poetry copious and genuine his Mathematiques practicable and useful Knowing that souls were equal and that Women are as capable of Learning as Men he instilled that to his Daughters at night which he had taught the Prince in the day being resolved to have Sons by Education 〈…〉 or fear he should have none by birth and lest he wanted an Heir of his body he made five of his minde for whom he had at once a Gavel-kind of 〈…〉 ffection and of Estate His Childrens maintenance was always according 〈…〉 o their quality and their employment according 〈…〉 o their disposition neither allowing them to live 〈…〉 bove their fortunes nor forcing them against their 〈…〉 atures It is the happiness of Forreigners that 〈…〉 heir Vocations are suited to their Natures and 〈…〉 hat their Education seconds their Inclination and 〈…〉 o th byass and ground do wonders It 's the un 〈…〉 appiness of English-men that they are bred ra 〈…〉 her according to their Estates then their temper 〈…〉 nd Great Parts have been lost while their Calling 〈…〉 rew one way and their Genius another and 〈…〉 hey sadly say Multum incolae fuere animae nostrae 〈…〉 e have dwelt from home Force makes Nature 〈…〉 ore violent in the return Doctrine and Discourse 〈…〉 ay make it less importune Custome may hide 〈…〉 r suppress it nothing can extinguish it Nature 〈…〉 en in the softer Sex runs either to Weeds or 〈…〉 erbs careful was this good Father therefore sea 〈…〉 onably to water the one and destroy the other 〈…〉 ch was done by his grave Rules more by his 〈…〉 raver life that Map of Precepts Precepts teach 〈…〉 ut Examples draw Maxima debetur pueris reve 〈…〉 ntia was Cato's Maxime Three things there 〈…〉 e before whom was Sir Anthony's saying I can 〈…〉 ot do amiss 1. My Prince 2. My Conscience 〈…〉 My Children Seneca told his Sister That 〈…〉 ough be could not leave her a great portion be would 〈…〉 ve her a good pattern Sir Anthony would write 〈…〉 o his Daughter Mildred My example is your inberitance and my life is your portion His first car 〈…〉 was to embue their tender souls with a knowing serious and sober Religion which went with the 〈…〉 to their graves His next business was to in 〈…〉 their younger years to submission modesty and obedience and to let their instructions grow wi 〈…〉 their years Their Book and Pen was their Recreation the Musick and Dancing School the Cou 〈…〉 and City their accomplishment the Needle i 〈…〉 the Closet and House-wifry in the Hall and Kitching their business They were reproved b 〈…〉 with reason that convinced and checked th 〈…〉 wrought as well an ingenious shame as an unfeigned sorrow and a dutiful fear Fondness never loved his Children and Passion never chastised the 〈…〉 but all was managed with that prudence and discrâ—â—tion that my Lord Seymour standing by one daâ— when this Gentleman chid his Son said Some 〈◊〉 govern Families with more skill then others do Kingdomes and thereupon commended him to the Government of his Nephew Edward the sixth Su 〈…〉 the Majesty of his looks and gate that Awe governed such the reason and sweetness that love obliged all his Family a Family equally afraid 〈…〉 displease so good a Head and to offend so great 〈…〉 their marriage they were guided by his Reas 〈…〉 more then his Will and rather directed by 〈…〉 Counsel then led by his Authority They we 〈…〉 their own portion Parts Beauty and Breedi 〈…〉 bestow themselves His care was that his Daughters might have compleat Men and that their Husbands might be happy in compleat Women nev 〈…〉 promising yet always paying a great Dowry Their spirit and business kept them from that weak pass 〈…〉 of love that embaseth Mankind their Noble con 〈…〉 se improved that friendly love that perfecteth 〈…〉 and their marriage compleated that Nuptial 〈…〉 ve that makes it He said first and his Grand-childe my Lord Bacon after him That the Joys of Parents are Secrets and so are their Griefs and Fears Children sweeten Labours but they embitter Misfortunes they encrease the care of Life and m 〈…〉 gate the remembrance of Death Very providently did he secure his Eternity by leaving the 〈…〉 age of his nature in his Children and of his 〈…〉 ind in his Pupil The Recreations he indulged were moderate lawful sober becoming useful â—nd seasonable the Expences he allowed not so ilâ—iberal as to acquaint them with shifts make them 〈…〉 ort with mean company nor surfeit when they came to plenty nor yet so prodigal but that they were taught how to live in the world The Books he advised were not many but choice the business â—e pressed was not reading but digesting The King of Sweden's men were but six deep and Sir Anthony's exercises were not thick but methodical and armed the Diet he prescribed moderate in Apparel he allowed for necessity for decency and in some cases for magnificence provided that it were neither too costly nor too vain neither above the Purse nor beyond the Calling nor besides the Estate Sir Anthony took more pleasure to breed up States-men then to be one Contemplation was his Soul Privacy his Life and Discourse his Element Business was his Purgatory and Publickness his torment yet so serviceable was he in Edward the sixth's time that he was an Exile in Queen Mary's An Exile whose exemplary resolution supported Religion whose obliging Authority maintained Peace and whose inexhaustible charity provided for the Poor at Zuricke and Frankford A Sussex and not a Kentish Knight having spent a great Estate at Court and brought himself to on 〈…〉 Park and a fine House in it was yet ambitious to entertain not the Queen but her Brother at it and to that purpose had new-painted his Gates with a Coat of Arms and a Motto
and Favour Having upon occasion left the Court for a while he gave a fair opportunity for his foes to undermine him so that he lived a mixture between Prosperity and Adversity once very great in her favour which was afterwards lost for want of consideration and cunningness He was raised by Leicester to prize Rawley as Rawley was by Sussex to check Leicester Indeed Pity first opened the door to him for his Fathers sake that died in Ireland Alliance led him in for his Father-in-laws sake that reigned at Court His own Royal Blood welcomed him for his Mother Knowles that was kin to her Majesty his good Parts his tall and comely Personage his sweet Disposition and incomparable Nature his noble Ancestors his fair though impaired Fortune brought him first to favour and then to dalliance He was a Master-piece of Court and Camp his Beauty ennamelling his Valour and his Valour being a foile to his Beauty both drawing those noble respects of love and honour both awing both endearing It was his Nobleness that he distrusted none it was his Weakness that he trusted all whereby he suffered more from those that should have been his friends then from them who were his enemies Good Man his ruine was that he measured other breasts by his own and that he thought Mankinde was as innocent as his own person His Merit gained applause and his Parasites swelled it to Popularity and the last enjealousied that Majesty which the first had obliged His youthful and rash Sallies abroad gave too much opportunity to his Enemies whispers and too visible occasions for her Majesties suspicion that he was either weak and so not to be favoured or dangerous and so to be suppressed Absence makes Princes forget those they love and mistrust those they fear Exact Correspondence is the sinew of private and of publick friendship So great a Master he thought himself of his Soveraigns affection that he must needs be Master of himself and steal to France without leave where said the Queen he might have been knocked on the head as Sidney was His Journey to France was not more rash then his Voyage to Cales was renowned yet the one gave the Envious arguments of his disobedience and the other of his Disloyalty his enemies suggesting that in the first he contemned his Mistress and that in the second he had a designe upon her His Action at Cales was applauded but his Triumphs were too solemn his Panegyricks too high his Train too Princely his Honours and Knighthoods too cheap his Popularity too much affected and his Ear more open to hear what he had done then what he was If his Manhood had been as slow as his Youth he had been moderate if his Life had answered his Education he had been patient if his Eye had been as open upon his Enemies as his Ear to his friends he had been cautious if he had been as happy in his constant converse as he was obliging in his first address he had been a Prince if he had had either less Fortune or a greater Soul either less of the Dove or more of the Serpent he had bid fair for a Crown or at least had saved his Head The People wished him well but they are unconstant the Queen loved him but she is jealous his Followers are numerous but giddy affectionate but ill advice his Enemies are few but watchful on all occasions for is he pleased they swell it to pride and vain imaginations is he crossed they improve it to discontent and sedition An Army must be sent against Tyrone he is not willing that any other should lead it and unwilling to lead it himself yet over he goeth fatally for the service was knotty and his disposition smooth his power was large but that with as large a minde intangled him his Army was great but that meeting with a great designe precipitated him his Title to the Crown was defended but that lost him his head He had exact advices from friends especially from Sir Francis Bacon and great directions from his Prince but he followed his own when he should have fought the main body of his Enemy he skirmisheth their Forlorns when he should have returned with a noble Conquest he stole home after a suspitious Treaty the Royal Checks that should have instructed incenseth him and what was designed a chastisement he turns to a ruine Beloved he is of the People but that aggravateth his rashness flattered by Courtiers but that swelleth his humour followed he is by the discontented of Church and State but that increaseth the jealousie ill advised he is by heady Cuffe and Meyriche and that hasteneth his fall humbled he is by the advancement of his Rivals and that enrageth him easie and open was his Nature close active and vigilant his Enemies Valiant he was but therefore feared Noble and obliging to all hopeful men and therefore watched A great Party he had but they had no Head A Minion he was at once to Prince and People but he had no Balance A Man of great Performances but no Designe One that had too much Religion and Fidelity to be a Traytor too good a Nature to be safe too much presumption on affections when absent to be steady He presumed too much on his own strength or his friends wisdome when he came out of Ireland he was too much wrought upon by his enemies when he came to London which had too much to loose to hazard a Rebellion and went not to Wales where his fathers and his own goodness had engaged 1000 Lives and Fortunes In a word Leicester's reservedness Bacon's stayedness Sir Cecil's humility Sir Grevil's modesty added to his Parts and Presence his Valour and Liberality his good Nature and large Heart his favour with his Prince and popularity with the Subjects had raised him to a capacity with the great Earl of Warwick to set the English Crown on what Head he pleased although it was the universal opinion he had no other ambition then to set it on King James his head which it belonged to with his own hands his designe was well principled but not well moulded he had many hands but no able heads his correspondence was universal but not firm and exact his Nature was active but impatient his Interest was popular not throughly understood he neither comprehending the Inclinations of the Kingdome in gross in Parliament nor in the retayl in its particular divisions The Catholicks might have been his but he was too good-natured to cajole them the State was well inclined but effeminate after so long Prosperity Hope of Pardon sent him to his Grave with more silence then was expected from him and the Peoples regret and with more sorrow then became a Queen or her Kingdoms a safety His Party was too needy and their counsels too violent Ambition and good Nature are incompatible Others counsels are never so faithful as our own When we hear others advice let our Reason judge
Sir Henry Lords Vise Falkland 708 Sir John Finch 742 G SIr Thomas Grey Marquess of Dorset 116 Gardiner Bish of Winch. 268 John Grey of Pyrgo 379 L. Grey of Wilton 381 398 Sir Henry Gates 379 Sir Humphrey Gilbert 441 Sir Fulk Grevil L. Brook 503 Oliver Lord Grandison 542 H SIr Will Herbert 274 Sir Walter Haddon 442 Sir Th. Howard 96 Sir Ed Howard 105 Sir Th. Howard 107 of Surry Norfolk Wil Howard L. Effingh 218 Sir G. Hume E of Dunb 516 James Hay E of Carlisle 549 Henry Howard Earl of Northampton 555 Judge Hyde 701 Christopher Lord Hatton 333 419 The Lord Hunsdon 335 Sir Richard Hutton 739 Wil M Hertford 741 The Earl of Holland 759 The Marquess Hamilton 776 The Lord Hopton 780 The Lord Herbert 789 Arch-Bishop Heath 337 I SIr John Fitz-James 80 Sir John Jefferies 189 Arthur Ingram 572 Arch-Bishop Juxon 810 K SIr William Kingstone 279 Sir Henry Killegrew 395 〈…〉 Knowls 433 L SIr Anthony St. Lieger 56 The Earl of Liecester 330 〈…〉 Thomas Lake 552 562 〈…〉 Ja Ley E of Marlb 713 〈…〉 Earl of Lindsey 747 Arch-Bishop Laud 763 〈…〉 Lord-Keeper Littleton 775 M 〈…〉 Thomas Moor 21 Sir Rich Morison 68 〈…〉 Will Molineux 84 〈…〉 Henry Marney 111 〈…〉 John Mason 177 〈…〉 Edward Mountague 221 〈…〉 Thomas Mannors 275 〈…〉 Walter Mildmay 365 〈…〉 Roger Manwood 386 〈…〉 Lord Mountjoy 479 〈…〉 op Mountague 575 〈…〉 Henry Martin 695 〈…〉 Earl of Manchester 799 N 〈…〉 He Duke of Norfolk 351 The Lord North 374 〈…〉 rls Ea of Nottingh 511 〈…〉 Norrices 433 〈…〉 Rob Naunton 569 Sir Francis Nethersole 569 Sir William Noy 662 Judge Nichols 699 O SIr Thomas Overbury 544 P ED Plowden 383 Sir William Paget 65 Sir Ed Poynings 112 The Parrs 156 Sir Clement Paston 171 Sir John Portman 214 Sir Amias Pawlet 378 William Lord Pawlet 403 Sir William Pelham 408 Sir Barnab Fitz-Patrick 229 Sir William Peter 247 Cardinal Pool 252 Sir John Perrot 322 Sir William Pickering 339 G Earl of Pembrook 363 Sir John Puckering 422 The Lord Chief-Justice Popham 535 Will Earl of Pembrook 687 Sir Paul Pindar 735 R THe Lord Rich 1 E. W. 173 Sir Tho Randolph 347 Sir John Russel 1 E. B. 259 Sir William Russel 444 Sir Thomas Roper 445 Sir Walter Rawleigh 485 Sir John Ramsey E H 557 Doctor Ridley 693 Esme Duke of Richmond 728 Edw Earl of Rutland 482 Sir Thomas Roe 807 S SIr Ralph Sadler 61 Sir Ed Stanly 101 Sir Charles Somerset 1 E. W. 114 Sir Thomas Smith 370 R Earl of Somerset 518 Stafford Duke of Bucks 122 The Seymours 142 Sir Will Stamford 185 The Earl of Sussex 307-416 Sir Philip Sidney 313 Sir Henry Sidney 412 Sir Thomas Smith 483 The Earl of Suffolk 567 The Lord Spencer 610 Sir John Savil 665 The Lord Say 744 The Earl of Strafford 752 T BIshop Tonstal 340 Francis Talbot Earl of Shrewsbury 342 Sir Nicholas Throgmorton 354 V SIr H Umpton 447 H Vere Earl of Oxford 583-714 The Veres 5 〈…〉 Sir Henry Vane Senor 7 〈…〉 W CArdinal Wolsey 1 1 〈…〉 Sir Thomas Wyat 〈◊〉 Sir Tho Wriothsly 1 Ear 〈…〉 Southampton Sir Will Fitz-Williams 〈◊〉 Sir Robert Wingfield 1 〈…〉 Sir Thom Wentworth 1 〈…〉 Doctor Wilson 2 〈…〉 Lord Willoughby 311-3 〈…〉 Sir Francis Walsingham 3 〈…〉 Sir Edw Waterhouse 3 〈…〉 Sir Will Fitz-Williams 3 〈…〉 Sir Christopher Wray 3 〈…〉 The Earl of Worcester 3 〈…〉 Sir William Waad 4 〈…〉 Sir Ralph Winwood 5 〈…〉 Bishop Williams 6 〈…〉 Sir Isaac Wake 6 〈…〉 Sir R Sir J Weston E 〈…〉 of Portland 6 〈…〉 Sir Henry Wotton 8 〈…〉 The Lord Wilmot 8 〈…〉 Y SIr Henry Yelverton 5â—â— THE STATES-MEN and FAVOURITES OF ENGLAND IN The Reign of King Henry the VIII Observations on the Life of Cardinal WOLSEY CArdinal Wolsey was not so great in his Fortune as he was mean in his Original his honest and industrious Parents helped him to a good Constitution and a great Spirit two hopeful steps to Greatnesse and his Ambition gave the opportunity to encrease it he was as pregnant at Ipswich-School as he was promising in Canterbury-Colledge where his Industry parts advanced him to a command over Noble-men in the Earl of Dorset's Family as a School-master as his Policy had promoted him to an Imperiousnesse over Kings in the quality of States-man The first step to Greatnesse in a Scholar is Relation to a Nobleman The best Education for the Court is in the Palace Nature made him capable the School and University made him a Scholar but his Noble Employment made him a Man At Oxford he read Books at my Lord 's he read Men and observed Things His Patrons two Parsonages bestowed upon him was not so great a Favour as the excellent Principles instilled into him he being not more careful to instruct the young Men then their Father was to tutor him his Bounty makes him rich and his Recommendation potent His Interest went far his Money farther Bishop Fox was Secretary to K. Henry the seventh and he to Bishop Fox the One was not a greater Favourite of the King 's then the other was his as one that brought him a Head capacious of all Observations and a Spirit above all Difficulties Others managed the Affairs of England Wolsey understood its Interest His Correspondence was good abroad his Observations close deep and continued at home He improved what he knew and bought what he knew not He could make any thing he read or heard his own and could improve any thing that was his own to the uttermost No sooner was he in with the Bishop of Winchester but the Bishop was out with the Earl of Surrey to whom he must have stooped as he did unto Nature and Age had not he raised his Servant equal to himself in the Kings Favour and above Howard He was forbid by the Canon Heirs of his Body he was enjoyned by his Prudence to make an Heir of his Favour equally to support and comfort his old Age and maintain his Interest Children in point of Policy as in point of Nature are a Blessing and as Arrows in the hand of a mighty man and happy is that old Courtier that hath his Quiver full of them he shall not be ashamed when he speaks with his enemies in the gate The old man commends Wolsey to Henry the Seventh for one fit to serve a King and command Others Forreign Employment is the Statesmans first School to France therefore he is sent to poise his English Gravity with French Debonairness A well-poised Quickness is the excellent temper From Forreign Employment under an Old King he is called home to some Domestick Services under the Young One He as quickly found the length of His Foot as he fitted him with an easie Shoo the King followed his Pleasures and the Cardinal enjoyeth His Power The One pursued his Sports while Youth the other his Business while Time served him Give me to Day and take thou to
not less able but more active then Cranmer himself yea so famous was he that Martin Bucer dedicated unto him his Comment upon the Gospel so painful that he wrote many Books whereof that de Differentia utriusque potestatis was the chief so worthy he was that the King employed him on several Embassies into France and Germany He died May 8. 1538. In his first years none more wild in his his last none more stayed The untoward Youth makes the able Man He that hath mettle to be extravagant when he cannot govern himself hath a spirit to be eminent when he can His friends devotion to the Church and relation to the Bishop of Winchester made him a Scholar his own Inclination a Politician an Inclination that brake through all the ignoble restraints of pedantique studies and coertions wherewith many a great Soul in England enjoying not the freedome of forreign parts but tied to such employments though never so unsuitable as their friends put them to are debased and lost to an eminencie more by observation and travel then by reading and study that made him the Wonder of the University and the Darling of the Court. When he was called to the Pulpit or Chair he came off not ill so prudential were his parts for Divinity when advanced to any Office of Trust in the University he came off very well so incomparable were his parts for Government His Policy was observed equally in the subject and in the contrivance of his Sermons and discourse where though all knew he read but little yet all saw that by a Scheme and method his strong head had drawn up of all Books and Discourses he commanded all Learning his Explications of the Text were so genuine so exact as if he had spent his time in nothing else but Criticks and Commentators His Divisions so Analytical as if he had been nothing but Logick His Enlargements so copious and genuine as if he had seen nothing but Fathers and Schoolmen The curious and pertinent mixture of Moral Sentences so various as if he had been but a Humanist the drift and designe of all so close that it argued him but what indeed he was a pure Pate-Politician His Parts commended him to Cardinal Wolsey as his support the Cardinal brings him to his Master as his second and he thrusts out Wolsey as his Rival but yet pretended to advance that ambitious Man more highly that he might fall more irrecoverably He sets him upon his designes of being Pope in Rome and those make him none in England He caught the Cardinal by his submission as he would have done Sir Thomas More by his Interrogations at which he was so good that he would run up any man either to a Confession or a Praemunire Fox was his name and Cunning his nature He said His Fathers money helped him to his Parsonage meaning his small Preferments and his Mothers wit to his Bishoprick meaning his greater Discoursing one day when Ambassador of terms of Peace he said Honourable ones last long but the dishonourable no longer then till Kings have power to break them the surest way therefore said he to Peace is a constant preparedness for War Two things he would say must support a Government Gold and Iron Gold to reward its Friends and Iron to keep under its Enemies Themistocles after a Battel fought with the Persians espying a Prize lying on the ground Take up these things saith he to his Companion for thou art not Themistocles Take the Emperours Money said Fox to his Followers that were afraid to accept what he had refused for you are not all the King of England ' s Ambassadors Often was this saying in our Bishops mouth before ever it was in Philip the second 's Time and I will challenge any two in the world Portugal being revolted the Conde d' Olivares came smiling to King Philip the fourth saying Sir I pray give me las Albricius to hansel the good news for now you are more absolute King of Portugal then ever for the people have forfeited all their priviledges by the Rebellion and the Nobility their Estates and now you may confirm your old Friends with their money and make you new ones with their estates When the Clergy began to ruffle with the King I tell you News said this Bishop we are all run into a Praemunire you shall have Money enough to make your own Courtiers and Places enough to advance your own Clergie Observations on the Life of Sir Anthony St. Lieger WE may say of him he was born in Kent and bred in Christendome for when twelve years of Age he was sent for his Grammar-Learning with his Tutor into France for his Carriage into Italy for his Philosophy to Cambridge for his Law to Grays-Inne and for that which compleated all the government of himself to Court where his Debonnairness and Freedome took with the King as his Solidity and Wisdome with the Cardinal His Master-piece was his Agency between King Henry the eighth and Queen Anne during the agitation of that great business of the Divorce between the said King and his Queen Katherine His Policy was seen in catching the Cardinal in that fatal word The King may ruine me if be please but that ruined him His service was to be Cromwel's Instrument in demolishing Abbeys as he was the Kings Caesar was the first that came to undo the Commonwealth sober Sir Anthony St. Lieger was the first that saved this Kingdome drunk for in being abroad one night very late and much distempered he must needs fancy an extraordinary light in the Cardinal's Closet with which Fancy he ran to the King and although much in drink prevailed with him so far that he sends to the Cardinal and there findes that Juncto that threatned his Kingdome He was the first Vice-Roy because Henry the eighth was the first King of Ireland King Henry's affection would promote him any where but his own resolution and spirit commended him to Ireland He was a man whom all Ireland could not rule therefore as the Jest goes he should rule all England Three times had the Irish Rebels made their soremn submission to other Deputies the fourth time now they make it to him throwing down their Girdles Skins and Caps So great a man was the Lieutenant so great his Master No sooner was be possessed of the Government but he thought of Laws those Ligaments of it The most rational and equitable Laws were those of England but too rational to be imposed on the Brutish Irish therefore our Knight considering as he saith in the Preface of his Constitution that they poor souls could not relish those exact Laws to live or be ruled by them immediately enacted such as agreed with their capacity rather then such were dictated by his ability his Wisdome as all mens must doing what was most fit and convenient rather then what was most exact what they could bear more then what he could do as remembring he had to
rather copious then eloquent yet ever tending to the point Briefly if it be true as Polydore observes that no man ever did rise with fewer vertues it is true that few that ever fell from so high a place had lesser crimes objected against him Though yet Polydore for being at his first coming into England committed to Prison by him as we have said may be suspected as a partial Author So that in all probability he might have subsisted longer when either his pride and immense wealth had not made him obnoxious and suspected to the King or that other than Women had opposed him Who as they are vigilant and close Enemies so for the most part they carry their businesses in that manner as they leave fewer advantages against themselves then men do In conclusion As 〈…〉 cannot assent to those who thought him happy for enjoying the untimely compassion of the People 〈…〉 little before his end so I cannot but account it 〈…〉 principal Felicity that during his favour with the King all things succeeded better then afterwards though yet it may be doubted whether the Impressions he gave did not occasion dives Irregularities which were observed to follow The Lord Herbert's Character of Cromwel in his Life of Henry the Eighth pag. 462. AND to this end came Cromwel whâ— from being but a Blacksmiths Son found means to travel into forraign Countries to learn their Languages and to see the Wars being a Souldier of Bourbon at the sacking of Rome whence returning he was received into Cardinal Wolsey ' s service To whom he so approued himself by his fidelity and diligence that the King after his fall voluntarily took him for his servant in which place he became a special Instrument for dissolving the Abbeys and other Religious Houses and keeping down the Clergy whom in regard of their Oath to the Pope he usually termed the Kings half Subjects And for expelling the Monks he said it was no more then a restoring them to the first Institution of being lay and labouring persons Neither did 〈…〉 t move him that so much strictness and austerity of Life was enjoyned them in their several Orders since he said they might keep it in any condition But as these Reasons again were not admitted by divers learned and able Persons so he got him many Enemies who at last procured his fall but not before he had obtained successively the Dignities of Master of the Rolls Baron Lord Privy Seal Vicegerent to the King in Spiritualiâ—ies Knight of the Garter Earl of Essex Great Chamberlane of England c. He was much noted in the exercises of his Places of Judicature â—o have used much Moderation and in his greatest pomp to have taken notice and been thankful to mean persons of his old acquaintance and wherein had a Vertue which his Master the Cardinal wanted As for his other descriptions I leave them to be taken out of Cranmers Letter formerly mentioned with some deduction For it seems written to the King in more then Ordinary Favour of his entient Service Archbishop Cranmer's Character of Cromwel in a Letter to King Henry the Eighth WHo cannot be sorrowful and amazed that he should be a Traytor against your Majesty He that was so advanced by your Majesty He whose Surety was onely by your Majesty He who loved your Majest as I ever thought no less then God He who stadied always to set forwards whatsoever was you Majesties will and pleasure He that cared for 〈…〉 mans á spleasure to serve your Majesty He the was such a Servant in my judgement in wisdom diligence faithfulness experience as no Prine in this Realm ever had He that was so vigilant 〈◊〉 preserve your Majesty from all Treasons that f 〈…〉 could be so secretly conceived but he detected the same in the beginning If the Noble Princes of memory King John Henry II. and Richard Ilâ— had had such a Counsellour about them I supposed they should never have been so Traiterously abandoned and overthrown as those good Princes were After which he says again I loved him as my Friend for so I took him to be but I chiefly loved him for the love which I thought I saw him bear ever towards your Grace singularly above all other But now if he be a Traitor I am sorry that ever I loved him or trusted him and I am very glad that his Treason is discovered in time But yet egain I am very sorrowful for who shall your Grace trust hereafter if you might not trust him Alas I bewail and lament your Graces chance herein I wot not whom your Grace may trust But I pray God continually night and day to send such a Counsellour in his place whom your Grace may trust and who for all his Qualities can and will serve your Grace like to him and that will have so much sollicitude and care to preserve your Grace from all dangers as I ever thought he had The End of the Observations upon the Lives of the Statesmen and Favourites of England in the Reign of King Henry the Eighth THE STATES-MEN and FAVOURITES OF ENGLAND IN The Reign of King Edward the VI. Observations on the Lives of the Seymours EDward Seymour and Thomas Seymour both sons of Sir John Seymour of Wolful in Wiltshire I joyn them together because whilst they were united in affection they were invincible but when divided easily overthrown by their enemies EDward Duke of Somerset Lord Protector and Treasurer of England being the elder THomas Seymour the younger brother was made Baron of Sudley brother succeeded to a fair Paternal inheritance He was a valiant Souldier for Land-service fortunate and generally beloved by Martial men He was of an open nature free from jealousie and dissembling affable to all people He married Anne Daughter to Sir Edward Stanhop a Lady of a high minde and haughty undaunted spirit and by Offices and the favours of his Nephew King Edward the sixth obtained a great Estate He was well experienced in Sea-affairs and made Lord Admiral of England He lay at a close posture being of a reserved nature and more cunning in his carriage He married Queen Katherine Parr the Widow of King Henry 8. Very great the Animosities betwixt their Wives the Dutchess refusing to bear the Queens Train and in effect justled with her for precedence so that what betwixt the Train of the Queen and long Gown of the Dutchess they raised so much dust at the Court as at last put out the eyes of both their Husbands and occasioned their Executions Their Sisters Beauty commended them to the Kings favours but a frail support that which is as lasting onely as a Phancy and onely as certain as Passion therefore their Parts recommended them to his service Affection shall lead me to Court but I 'll take care that Interest keeps me there Sir Edward Seymours temper suited with the Kings Inclinations and his spirit with his times both high both stirring In the throng of Courtiers
as too much power to be trusted for a mortal man within the known Limits of Law that so Subjects may be at a certainty how to square their Loyalty and Obedience He always upheld that Prerogative saying That the discretion of the Scepter as Guardian for the general good of the Commonwealth must be trusted against all Emergencies with the management of its own might concluding always thus Submission is our Duty and Confidence our Prudence Bishop Bancroft of Oxford said in King Charles the first his time Eâ—â—empore occubui quo mallem Episcopatus rationem coram Deo dare quam Episcopatum coram bominibus exercere Judge Stamford said in Q. Mary's time In quae reservamur tempora det Deus ut Magistratus rationem coram eo reddam potius quam Magistratum coram hominibus exerceam His Book containeth two parts One of The Pleas of the Crown the other of The Kings Prerogative In him saith Mr. Fulbeck there is force and weight and no common kinde of stile in matter very few have gone beyond him in method none have overtaken him in the order of his writing he is smooth yet sharp pleasant yet grave and surely his method may be a Law to the Writers that succeed him Observations on the Life of Sir John Jeffrey SIr Iohn Ieffrey was born in Sussex where he left behind him a fair Estate to his Daughter He so profited in the Study of our Municipal Law that he was preferred secondary Judge of the Common Pleas and thence advanced by Queen Elizabeth in Michaelmas-Term the nineteenth of her Reign to be Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer which place he discharged for the Term of two years to his great commendation He le 〈…〉 one Daughter and Heir married to Sir Edward Montague since Baron of Boughton by whom he had but one Daughter Elizabeth married to Robert Barty Earl of Lindsey Mother to the truly honourable Montague Earl of Lindsey and Lord great Chamberlain of England This worthy Judge died in the 21 of Queen Elizabeth This was he who was called the Plodding Student whose industry perfected Nature and was perfected by experience He read not to argue onely for that is vanity nor to believe and trust for that is easiness nor to discourse for that is idle but to weigh and consider for that is prudence He had his Studies for pleasure and privacy for ornament and converse and for judgement and business To spend too much time on his Book was sloth to talk by Book was affected and to act by it was humoursome and Scholar-like Four things he would say helped him 1. His Inclination It 's a great happiness to a man saith Aristotle when his Calling is one of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of those things that agree with his nature 2. Method 3. Religion with that just and composed mind that attends it 4. A great happiness in all the four faculties that make a Lawyer 1. A sharp invention and clear apprehension to search all the circumstances of a case propounded 2. Judgement to examine and weigh the particulars invented and apprehended for truth lieth in things as Gold in Mines 3. Memory to retain what is judged and examined 4. A prompt and ready delivery of what is conceived and retained set out with ingenuity and gravity Oratio praesta non audax What he said was close and pinching and not confident and earnest allowing passion not to disturb either the method or delivery of his discourse but to quicken it To speak well and much he said was not the work of one man yet if a Philosopher be eloquent said Cicero we must not despise him if he be not he must not affect it so that he can comprehend in words what he conceiveth and speak them plainly that he may be understood His Latine and French were Grammatical his Rhetorick Natural his Logick Reason The first opened the terms the second pressed the vigour the last collected and disposed of the Axiomes Grounds and Rules of the Law and all prepared him for that comprehensive Profession in the ashes whereof the sparks of all other Sciences were raked up His gesture and habit was grave but not affected speaking as much to the eye as his tongue did to the ear the gesture being a great discoverer of the constitution and a great direction to business what a man misseth in the speech he may sometimes find in the looks His temper was moderate and sober a Vertue and a seasoning of all others attended with the Lawyers gift and that is Patience Modest he was but not fondly bashful his prudence and not his softness His humility begat affableness his affableness society that conference conference parts and they acquaintance and that practice and practice experience experience renown and that preferment Sir John's inclination was studious his minde constant solid and setled and able to dive into the whirl-pools of that intricate and perplexed Faculty his thoughts being orderly and his conceptions methodical his search comprehensive avoiding Epitomes as the banes of Learning Nullus illi per otiam dies exit partem noctium studiis vindicat non vacat semno sed succumbit oculos vigilia fatigatos cadenteque in opere detinet Considerable were the Parts he had but more so the making up of those he had not his covering of his defects being of no less importance then the valuing of good Parts which he did three ways 1. By caution ingeniously and discreetly waving and putting off things improper 2. By colour making his Defects his Vertues and his Faults his Endowments And 3. By that freedom of Spirit that daunts the weakest and prevaileth with the wisest He proposed to himself five things to enquire into in order to that compleatness he arrived unto 1. The ancient Maximes and Principles or the more ancient Customs that make up the Common Law of England 2. The Acts and Constitutions that make up its Statute-Law 3. The particular Priviledges Liberties Immunities and Usages of Counties Burroughs Cities c. that doe swerve from this Law 4. The ancient Grounds and Reasons as far as History can direct of all these our Law being an exact Reason 5. The most satisfactory explanations of the Law 1. From Commentaries as Bractons 2. Abridgements as Stathams 3. History as the years and terms of the Common Law And 4. From more particular Tracts that handled their peculiar subjects as Fortescue Glanvil Britton Fleta Littleton which he thought not unprofitable to read though dangerous to rely upon with the Lord Cooke not liking those that stuff their mindes with wandering and masterless reports For as he said they shall find them too soon to lead them to error Beginning with the terms of Art and then to the matter perusing what is antiquated and observing what is suitable to the present constitution and complexion It 's my Lord Cook 's Rule That for the most part the latter Judgements and Resolutions are the surest and therefore
he became Secretary of State to the Queen for four years together He died Anno 15 He had the breeding of Courtiers so long until he was one himself At once reading Machiavel for my Lord Burleigh's Instruction and observing it for his own use His Parents designed him for study his Nature for business His presence assisted his inclination and his complaisance his presence and his good Nature both A good Nature that would have spoiled a Politician in any other but Doctor Wilson whose Wisdom was the largeness of his Soul not the narrowness of a shift He had that comprehensive and penetrating judgement that he could at once shew the greatest prudence in laying his design and the greatest Integrity in managing it as rather securely knowing than warily close But he that is onely real had need have exceeding great Parts of Vertue as the Stone had need be rich that is set without foil Therefore He was something a Courtier There are small matters that win great commendation because they are continually in use whereas the occasion of any great action cometh but on festivals and it is enough to attain so much ceremony and courtship not to despise it He had a way of conveying effectual and imprinting passions among complements suitable to persons and business He had his familiarity to Inferiours that made him not cheap his state among Equals that made him not envied and his observance to Superiours that made him no Flatterer His Behaviour like a well-made suit not too streight or point devise but justly measured and free for exercise or motion He had a slow but a sure way to honour which was nothing else in him but a discovery of his Vertues and Worth upon any occasion without any disadvantage It was his Interest as well as his Gift to be more learned then witty more reverend then plausible more considerate then active His thoughts were as his inclination grave his discourse as his reading subtle his action as his Education well weighed regular as his temper even and smooth as custom and resolved as a habit gotten in that advancement of Vertue A well-disciplined Society where Example teacheth Company comforteth Emulation quickneth Glory raiseth None had a more skilful method to sway Nature in others none more prudent minutes and seasonable degrees to check it in himself His Rule being Never to practise any thing until perfect for so he might exercise his weakness as well as his abilities and induce one habit of both Three things he aimed at 1. The search of Truth by Industry 2. The attainment of it by Apprehension 3. The enjoyment of it by Assent He is a happy man that is above the troubled and confused Regions of Opinions Fancies Prepossessions in that clear and undisturbed one of Truth and Reality Though yet my Lord Verulam observeth That if there were taken out of mens mindes vain opinion flattering hope false valuations and imaginations as one would and the like c. it would leave the mindes of a number of poor men poor shrunken things full of melancholy and indisposition and unpleasing to themselves Neither took he greater pleasure in knowing than in relating and doing what is true sound and plain without those crooked courses that shew a creeping rather then a raised nature and as Mr. Mount aigne observes is a bravery and facing of God and a shrinking from and being coward before man He said what all great men know That he was six times a Slave 1. To Himself and his Inclination till he had advanced Reason 2. To the World and its Insolence till he had improved his Fortune 3. To his Pupils and their Tempers till he understood their Genius 4. To Fame and its Reports till he was known in the World 5. To his Soveraigns and their Humours till he found their Interest And 6. To his Business till he had attained Experience Thus it is with all Grandees who exchange their power over themselves for that over others and with great pains come to greater Two things he wished when called to the world Power and Resolution A naked Man is contemptible for it 's Power that begets Fear it 's Fear that makes Gods and rules the world an easie Man is useless a facile-natured man may be a good Companion for a private person but no Servant to a Prince Remissness and Connivance are the ruines of unsetled Governments The Game of Authority will not admit of too open a play In a word he was one that knew the resorts and falls of business though he could not sink into the main of a matter being one that packed the Cards better then he played them Three things compleated this Secretary 1. Quick dispatch and industry 2. Constant intelligence and correspondence 3. A large and strong memory Queen Elizabeth would needs at first favour my Lord of Leicester against the Earl of Sussex which this Doctor and my Lord Burleigh disswaded upon this account Because if she who should be the common Mother of all inclined to one party and leaned to a side the Ship of the Commonwealth would be as a Boat overturned by too much weight on the one side and too little on the other Take heed said the Royal Martyr to his Son our Soveraign of abetting any Faction or applying to any publick Discrimination your partial adhering as head to any one side gains you not so great advantages in some mens hearts who are prone to go on in the Kings way as it looseth you in others who think themselves first despised and then persecuted by you Take such a course as may either with calmness and charity quite remove the seeming differences and offences by impartiality or so order affairs in point of power that you shall not need to fear or flatter any faction for if ever you stand in need of them or stand to their courtesie you are undone His Place called upon him to suppress with seveverity such seditious reflexions upon the State as came to his knowledge but his inclination was to dissipate them with connivance and contempt To be opposed renders a Faction considerable to he despised and watched ridiculous To go about to stop the first appearances of sedition is saith my Lord Bacon but to make a wonder long-lived His knack was a politick and artificial nourishing and entertaining of hopes and keeping men in suspense is one of the best Antidotes against the poyson of discontent it being observed by the foresaid States-man to be a certain signe of a wise Government Proceedings to hold mens hearts by hopes when it cannot by satisfaction and when it can handle things in such manner as no evil shall appear so peremptory but that it hath some out-let of hope which is the easier done because both particular persons and factions are apt enough to fiatter themselves or at least to boast what they believe not In a word although he made not so much noyse as other men yet he as effectually
The slie shifters that as that Chancellour observed pervert the plain and direst courses of Courts and bring Justice into oblique Lines and Labyrinths 3. Those that engaged Courts in quarrels of Jurisdiction 4. Those that made suits 5. Those that hunted men upon Poenal Statutes 6. Those that appeared in most Testimonies and Juries His Darling was The honest Clerk who was experienced in his place obliging in his carriage knowing in Presidents cautious in Proceedings and skilful in the affairs of the Court. Two things he promoted in King Henry's days 1. The Law against Gaming And 2. The Order against Stews And two in King Edward's 1. That Act against spreading of Prophecies 2. That Statute against embasing of Coyn. But King Edward's Testament and the Duke 〈◊〉 Northumberland's Will is to be made The piou 〈…〉 Intentions of that King wishing well to the Reformation the Religion of Queen Mary obnoxious to exception the ambition of Northumberland who would do what he lifted the weakness of Suffol 〈…〉 who would be done with as the other pleased the flattery of the Courtiers most willing to comply designed the Crown for the Lady Jane Grey Mr. Cecil is sent for to London to furnish that Will with Reason of State and Sir Edward to Sergeants In◠to make it up with Law He according to the Letter sent him went with Sir Jo. Baker Justice Bromley the Attorney and Solicitor-General to Greenwich where his Majesty before the Marquess of Northampton declaring himself for the settlement of Religion and against the succession of Queen Mary offered them a Bill of Articles to make a Book of which they notwithstanding the Kings Charge and the reiteration of it by Sir William Peter declared upon mature consideration they could not do without involving themselves and the Lords of the Council in High I reason because of the Statutes of Succession The Duke of Northumberland hearing of their Declaration by the Lord Admiral comes to the Council-Chamber all in a rage trembling for anger calling Sir Edward Traytor and saying He would fight in his shirt with any man in that Quarrel The old man is charged by the King upon his Allegiance and the Council upon his Life to make the Book which he did when they promised it should be ratified in Parliament Here was his obedience not his invention not to devise but draw things up according to the Articles tendred unto him Since shame is that which ambitious Nature abhorreth and danger is that which timorous Nature declineth the honest man must be resolute Sir Nathaniel Brent would say A Coward cannot be an honest man and it seems by this Action that modesty and fear are great temptations Give me those four great Vertues that make a man 1. A clear Innocence 2. A comprehensive Knowledge 3. A well-weighed experience And 4. The product of all these A steady Resolution What a Skein of Ruffled Silk saith the ingenious Resolver is the incomposed man Observations on the Life of Sir Edward Fines EDward Fines Lord Clinton Knight of the Garter was Lord Admiral of England for more then thirty years He was wise valiant and very fortunate as appears by his Master-piece in Museleborough-field in the reign of King Edward the sixth and the Battle against the Scots He was afterwards created Earl of Lincoln where he was born May 4. 1474. and where he had a proportionable Estate to support his Dignity which he much increased beside his Paternal Inheritance He died January 16. 1558. and lieth buried at Windsor in a private Chappel under a stately Monument which Elizabeth his third Wise Daughter to the Earl of Kildare erected in his remembrance His Fortune made him a younger Brother and his Industry an Heir coming to Court where they that have Estates spend them and they that have none gain them His recreation was at Court but his business in the Country where notwithstanding the Statute in Henry the sevenths time against Pasturage for Tillage he Grazed 11000 Acres of Ground then a noble and gaining Employment that advanced many a Family in one Generation and now a saving one that hath kept up as many ten The best tempered Swords will bend any way and the best metalled men will comply with any occasion At White-hall none more affable and courteous then our Lord at Sea none more skilful in the field none more resolute in the Country none more thristy and hospitable His Entertainments were orderly and suitable made up of solid particulars all growing upon his own Estate King Charles would say Every man hath his vanity and mine speaking of the Soveraign is Building Every man hath his humour and mine said he speaking of the Fens is Drayning Adding withal He that would be merry for a day let him be trimmed he that would be merry for a week let him marry he that would be merry for a year let him build he that would be merry for Ages let him improve Now you would have him among his Workmen and Stewards in Lincoln anon among the Commissioners either in France or Scotland by and by before Bulloign or Calice and a while after at Spieres or Muscleborough and on a suddain at a Mask in Court. Neither was his Soul less pliable to persons then things as boysterously active as King Henry could expect as piously meek as King Edward could wish as warily zealous as Queen Mary's times required and as piercingly observant as Queen Elizabeths perplexed occasions demanded It was by him and my Lord Bacon said of business That it was in business as it is in ways that the next and the nearest way is commonly the foulest and that if a man will go the fairest way he must go somewhat about Sitting in a Committee about invading Scotland whereof Sir Anthony Brown then Viscount Mountacute presented a Draught there arose as great a debate between him and my Lord in Council as afterwards in the Field about the point of Entrance Nay said my Lord in the heat of the Discourse with as much power on others passions as command over his own We stand quarrelling here how we shall get in but here is no discourse how we shall get out It 's a Rule Whosoever hath any thing fixed in his person that doth induce contempt hath also a perpetual spur in himself to rescue and deliver himself from scorn either by vertue or malice And my Lord having some disadvantage from Nature made it up by Art None more bold none more industrious and more successful because that disadvantage took off envy on the one hand and jealousie on the other so that upon the matter in a great Wit Contempt is a great advantage to rising Judge Brooke had a Project against Usury which came up to the Lords House this rich Peer upon the first motion of it stands up and saith Shew me a State without Usury and I 'll shew you a State without Men and Trade Rich he was for expence and expend he did upon
honour and good Action his ordinary expences were the third of his Estate and his extraordinary none of it his Rule being Extraordinary disadvantages must be balanced with extraordinary advantages He would not stoop to petty gains but he would abridge petty charges but his occasions calling him often from his Estate he turned it all to certainties often changing his Servants who being unacquainted with him and his Estate were less subtle and more timorous Much behind-hand he was when he came to the Estate and as much before when he left it Neither was he too suddain or too slow in paying his Debts equally avoiding a disadvantageous sale on the one hand and devouring interest on the other and so inuring himself by degrees into an habit of frugality he gained as well upon his Minde as upon his Estate For husbanding the English Treasure in Scotland he was Knighted in the Field May 11. 34 H. 8. by the Earl of Hertford for the Clause concerning Scotland he put in at the Treaty of Guisnes 35 H. 8. he was made Baron by Patent for his discreet Conduct in demanding the young Queen of Scots together with the performance of the Articles made in Henry the eighth's time with 60 sayl of Ships before the battle of Muscleburgh he had 600 l. a year assigned him by the Protector for his great experience at Sea his interest in Sea-men and his nown among the Neighbour-States he was made Earl of Lincoln Observations on the Life of Sir Barnaby Fitz-Patrick BArnaby Fitz-Patrick had the honour of being King Edward the sixth his Proxy at School and one of his Bed-chamber at Court. In King Henry the eighth's time he was sent to School in King Edward the sixth's to travel where he had these Directions following from that King how he might learn fashions there and send intelligence hither EDWARD WE understand by your Letters received the eighth of this present month your good entertainment being glad thereof and also how you have been once to go on Pilgrimage Wherefore we think fit to advertise you to desire leave to go to Mr. Pickering or to Paris in case hereafter any such chance happen And if that will not serve to declare to some person of estimation with whom you are best acquainted that as you are loath to offend the French King by reason of his kinde usage of you so with safe conscience you cannot do any such thing being brought up with me and bound to obey my Laws also that you had commandment from me to the contrary Yet if you be vehemently procured you may go as waiting upon the King not as intending to the abuse nor willingly sâ—e the Ceremonies and so you look on the Mass but in the mean time regard the Scripture or some good Book and give no reverence to the Mass at all Furthermore remember when you may conveniently be absent from the Court to tarry with Sir William Pickering to be instructed by him how to use your self For Women as far forth as you can avoid their company yet if the French King command you you may sometime dance so measure be your mean else apply your self to Riding Shooting Tennis or such honest Games not forgetting sometimes when you have leisure your Learning chiefly reading of the Scriptures We would not have you live too sumptuously as an Ambassador but so as your proportion of living may serve you we mean because we know many will resort to you and desire to serve you I told you how many I thought convenient you should keep After you have ordered your things at Paris go to the Court and learn to have more intelligence if you can and after to the Wars to learn somewhat to serve us By your Letters of the second and fifteenth of April we perceive that you were at Nancy ready to go together with Mr. Pickering to the French Camp and to the intent you might be better instructed how to use your self in these Wars we have thought good to advertise you of our pleasure therein First we would wish you as much as you may conveniently to be in the French Kings presence or at least in some part of his Army where you shall perceive most business to be and that for two causes One is because you may have more experience in the Wars and see things as might stand you in stead another day The other is because you might be more profitable in the Language For our Embassador who may not wear Harness cannot well come to those places of danger nor seem so to serve the French King as you may whom we sent thither for that purpose It shall be best for you therefore hereafter as much as you may to be with the French King and so you shall be more acceptable to him and do your self much good This I write not doubting but you would have done it though I had not written but to spur you on Adding withal To learn the Tongue to see the manner of the Court and advertise his Master of Occurrences keeping close to the King of France to whom he shall offer his service in the Wars where be is to observe the fortifications of the Cities the Conduct of the Armies the advantages and disadvantages of both Parties their Skirmishes Battels Assaults and the Plots of the chief Towns where any enterprizes of weight have been done His Exercises were to be Hunting and Riding his Company few but choice c. This Gentleman after his return out of France was created by the King Baron of Upper Ossory in Ireland where he died a good Protestant a Publick-spirited Patriot and an honest man Observations on the Life of Sir Henry Fitz-Alane Earl of Arundel HIs first appearance in the World was to adorn the Court his next was to serve it First his Estate and Train attends King Henry to the Interview with France and a while after his Valour and Conduct is commanded by him to the War Equally prepared is he to please and awe that Countrey The Duke of Suffolke is made General for his Popularity and the Earl of Arundel Lord Marshal for his Spirit and Prudence and both being before Bulloign this Noble Lord run up his Squadron under a running shelter about eleven at night to the very Walls of the City which being battered down by the Canon which was mounted some forty yards higher opened to the close Besiegers a passage that gained the whole Town by composition Neither was he less active in Peace than War A piercing apprehension a strong memory a large and capacious judgement a dexterous prudence a discerning wisdom was the least of his happiness For to his sufficiency and capacity he added a good disposition and integrity and to that vigour and gracefulness He was the excellent Personage that 1. Discerned 2. Embraced and performed what was Noble and Publique To know to will and effect what is good make up a God To these were added a strong Nature a deep
Study and a very great Experience qualities separated in others but united in him Nature will out Education is rude Education without Resolution is loose Resolution without Experience is heady Experience grounded upon particular Events is uncertain without the study of General and Immoveable Principles Knowledge of things in their sources and original causes without Nature is a Burden All these without Exercise are a Notion This Nobleman thus furnished derived much Honor from his Ancestors more to them ennobling that Blood to a Glory which some had debased to a Blush That great Name after four hundred years shining in that Honour with various lustre setting in him as the Sun he bore with a full splendour The last effort of Nature is a Master-piece the last blaze of the Candle a shine Other Noblemen were made King Edward's Overseers for their Integrity he one of his Assistants for his Ability When an Enemy was to be awed to a submission he was General such his Fame When the Countrey was to be obliged to a loan he was Agent such his Popularity The first advanced him to the Comptrollership under Henry the Eighth the second to the Chamberlainship under Edward the Sixth Nature hath provided that ravenous Beasts should not associate leâ—t they should be too hard for it and Government that prime Counsellours should not agree leâ—t they overthrow it Warwick envied the Protectors Greatness and Arundel would limit his Power both with the rest of the Council declare against him But leâ—t he should urge the same things against Warwick that he did against Somerset they who love the Treason bu 〈…〉 hate the Traytor turn him first out of Favour and then out of Council until Queen Maries time when he as an antient Nobleman of England tha 〈…〉 owned no upstart-designs against the old way of succession stood for her Right and as a stiff Catholique promoted her Religion So that July 21 1553. he came from the Queen to Cambridge where the Duke of Northumberland was and entering his Chamber the Duke fell at his feet desiring him for Gods sake to consider his case who had done nothing but by Warrant from the Council My Lord said the Earl I am sent hither by the Queen to arrest you And I said the Duke obey your Arrest beseeching your mercy for what I did by Commission You should have thought of that sooner said the Earl Here you might have seen at once the vicissitude of Fortune the frailty of Man the dejectedness of Guilt the bravery of Innocence who would neither be trampled on by Greatness nor trample on Misery of an equal temper between pity and resolution As long as his Youth bore it we finde him for Action but when years came upon him we finde him in Council as with Wotton 〈◊〉 the great Treaty at Cambray Yet not so unactive but that as Sir William Pickering for his sweet Demeaner so he for his Estate was voiced an Husband to Queen Elizabeth When the rest of the Council were for dealing with the Queen of Scots underhand and at distance he was for treating with her plainly and said in the Queens presence The wisdom of the former Age was so provident that it needed not and so plain that it endured not shifts Leicester would perswade the Duke of Norfolk to court the Queen of Scots but Arundel would not hear of it without the Queen of England's consent Experience is always wary yet hath its weaknesses wherein it may be surprized For this Noblemans Kindness to his Friend balancing his Duty to his Mistriss brought him the Earl of Southampton the Lords Lumley Coâ—ham Piercy c. to a Praemunire whereupon he said He is never wise that is not distrustful Fear that betrayeth the succours of Reason when predominant guardeth them when moderate and is more safe though not so Noble as that valiant confidence that bequeaths a dilated Freedom to all faculties and senses But of all his Actions this is most remarkable Treating with the Scots he writ to his Majesty King Henry the Eighth what he had gained already requiring to know his further pleasure The King takes advice with his Council who all agree that the Peace should be concluded Whereupon the King caused his Secretary the Lord Paget to write to him to that purpose but withal he called Mr. Cecil secretly to him bidding him tell my Lord That whatsoever he had written in his Letter yet with all speed possible he should break the Treaty Mr. Cecil replying That a message by word of mouth being contrary to his Letter would never be believed Well said the King do you tell him as I bid you and leave the doing of it to his choice Upon Mr. Cecil's arrival the Earl of Arundel shewed the other Commissioners as well the Message as the Letter they are all for the Letter he said nothing but ordered that the Message should be written before and signed by his fellow-Commissioners and thereupon immediately broke up the Treaty sending Cecil with the advertisement of it to the King Who as soon as he saw him asked aloud What will he do it or no Cecil replied That his Majesty might understand that by the inclosed But then the King half angry urged Nay tell me Will be do it or no Being then told it was done he turned to the Lords and said Now You will hear news The fine Treatie is broken Whereto one presently answered That he who had broke it deserved to lose his Head to which the King straightly replied That He would lose a dozen such heads as his was that so judged rather than one such Servant as had done it and therewith commanded the Earl of Arundel's Pardon should be presently drawn up the which he sent with Letters of Thanks and assurance of Favour Five things must a Statesman comprehend 1. The Law 2. The Government 3. The Time 4. The People And 5. The Prince Under an active Prince you must regard the Prerogative under an easie one the Law under a compleat one made up of a just measure of Greatness and Goodness those two things are distinguished onely in the nice discourses of some Speculative being but one great Rule in the solid actions of that Prince Observations on the Life of Sir John Dudley Duke of Northumberland HIs favour was first purchased by his Fathers blood and improved by his own cunning King Henry sacrificed Sir Edmund Dudly to allay the Peoples rage and raised his Son to appease his Ghost He that disobligeth a multitude must fall himself but he that in so doing serveth his King may advance his Posterity Something high he was in the Kings favour because standing on his fathers Grave but higher as he stood on his own Merit He knew his Fathers service made his way to favour his own Education therefore must prepare him for employment Favour without Parts is a reproach Parts without favour are a burden The King restored him to his Fathers blood and his own
betrayed to confidence his too late fears to a confidence at first and at last to irregularities the hopes of some were encouraged the grievances of others were aggravated and pitied the envy of a third part was excited and He the soul in all and every part of the action The Protector was free spirited open-hearted humble hard to distrust easie to forgive The Earl was proud subtle close cruel and implacable and therefore it was impar congressus between them almost with as much disadvantage as between a naked and an armed person Two nets are laid to take the Protector the one breaks the other holds The Treason was onely to give a Report the Felony for designing the death of the Earl of Warwick a Privy Counsellour did the execution He being removed out of the way this Earl of Warwick as his Predecessor meditates the honour of King-making To this purpose he joyns himself by alliance to the best Families and advanceth his children by employments to the greatest trusts particularly what Sir Richard Baker saith had been better if it had never been his Son Robert afterward Earl of Leicester was sworn one of the six ordinary Gentlemen of the Kings Chamber upon which particular the foresaid Historian observeth That after his coming into a place so near him the King enjoyed his health but a while The Duke of Somerset is trained by his enemies to such fears and jealousies as transport him beyond his own good nature to an attempt one morning upon the Earl of Warwick now Duke of Northumberland abed where being received with much kindness his heart relented and he came off re infecta At his coming out one of his company asked him if he had done the deed he answered No. Then said he You are your self undone And indeed it so fell out for when all other Accusations were refelled this onely stuck by him and could not be denyed and so he was found guilty by a Statute of his own procurement viz. That if any should attempt to kill a Priby-Counsellour although the fact were not done yet it should be Felony and to be punished with death This notwithstanding many Divertisements used went so near the consumptive Kings heart that he prepares for death The Duke now within ken of his designe considering the Kings affection for Reformation the Lords and other Purchasers kindness for Church-lands the Judges fear the Courtiers compliance carried on a Will with a high hand trembling with anger saith Judge Mountague if any opposed him yea saying That he would fight in his Shirt with any that contradicted it wherein the Crown was bestowed on Jane Grey his fourth Sons Wife the Princesses Mary and Elizabeth being laid aside But he forgot as what man though never so reaching can consider all things that there is an invisible Power in Right that there is a natural Antipathy in English men against Usurpation and as great an inclination for the succession A Point they had conned so well of late out of the Statute made for that purpose that they could not well be put out of it by this new-started Designe The People stand by Queen Mary the Council notwithstanding their Engagement to stand by him at his going away when he observed in Shore-ditch that the People gazed on him but bid him not God speed and he told the Lords They might purchase their safety with his ruine To which one of the Lords replyed Your Grace makes a doubt of that which cannot be for which of us all can wash his hands clear of this business proclaimed the Queen at London as he doth at Cambridge where yet the Earl of Arundel who offered his life at his feet when he marched out O the Vicissitudes of this lower world arrests him resolutely and he submits weakly first to an Imprisonment and then to a Tryal and Execution The first night he came to Cambridge all the Doctors supped with him and Doctor Sandys is appointed to preach before him next day The Doctor late at night betakes himself to his Prayers and Study desiring God to direct him to a fit Text for that time His Bible openeth at the first of Joshua and though he heard no voice with St. Augustine saying Tolle lege a strong fancy inclined him to fix on the first words he beheld v. 16. And they answered Joshua saying All that thou commandest us we will do and whithersoever thou sendest we will go A Text he so wisely and warily handled that his Enemies got not so full advantage against him as they expected The next day the Duke advanced to Bury with his Army whose feet marched forward while their minds move backward Upon the News brought him he returned to Cambridge with more sad thoughts within him then valiant Souldiers about him Then went he with the Mayor of the Town and proclaimed the Queen the Beholders whereof more believing the grief in his eyes when they let down tears then the joy professed by his hands when he threw up his Cap. Slegge Sergeant at Arms arrests him in Kings-Colledge and when the Proclamation of Pardon set him at liberty the Earl of Arundel re-arrests him at whose feet he craves mercy a low posture in so high a person But what more poor and prostrate then Pride it self when reduced to extremity Behold we this Duke as the Mirrour of Humane Unhappiness As Nevil Earl of Warwick was the make-King so this Dudley Earl of Warwick was the make-Queen He was Chancellour of the University and Steward of the Town of Cambridge two Offices which never before or since met in the same person Thus as Cambridge was his Vertical Poynt wherein he was in the heighth of Honour so it was his Vertical where he met with a suddain turn and a sad Catastrophe And it is remarkable that though this Duke who by all means endeavoured to aggrand his Posterity had six sons all men all married none of them left any issue behind them Thus far better it is to found our hopes of even earthly happiness on Goodness then Greatness Thus far the Historian It was Lewis the eleventh's Motto Pride and Presumption go before Shame and Loss follow after In three sorts of men Ambition is good 1. In a Souldier to quicken him 2. In Favourites to balance others 3. In great States-men to undertake invidious Employments For no man will take that part except he be like a seeled Dove that mounts and mounts because he cannot see about him And in these men it 's safe if they are mean in their original harsh in their nature stirring in many little rather then in any great business Greater in his own interest then in his Followers Humility sojourneth with safety and honour Pride with danger and unworthiness No man below an Anointed One is capable of an unlimited Power a temptation too great for Mortality whose highest Interest if indulged is Self and if checked Malice Dangerous is the Power of an aspiring Person near a
of Italy into the Chair of Canterbury but Charles the Emperour by the Popes power secretly retarded his return fearing it might obstruct the propounded marriage between his Son and the Queen Indeed the Queen bare the Cardinal an unfeigned affection for six reasons 1. For his grave and becoming presence that endeared him no less to those that saw him then his parts and prudence did to those that conversed with him The Diamond is then orient when set in Gold 2. For his disposition as calm as her Majesties and as meek as his Profession 3. For his Age being about ten years older the proportion allowed by the Philosopher between Husband and Wife 4. For Alliance she being daughter to Henry the Eighth and he Grandchild to Edward the Fourth 5. For his Education with Her under his Mother 6. For his Religion for which he was an Exile as she was a Prisoner and both Confessors But now when the marriage with Prince Philip was consummated Pool at last got leave for England and to wipe away all suspition of Lutheranism wherewith he was formerly taxed he became a cruel that he might be believed a cordial Papist For meeting in Brabant with Emanuel Tremelius requesting some favour from him he not onely denied him relief but returned him rayling terms though formerly he was not onely his very familiar Friend but his God-father too when of a Jew he turned Christian Arrived in England as the Historian goeth on he was first ordained Priest being but Deacon before and then consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury the Queen being present at Bow where rich in costly Robes and sitting on a guilded Throne his Pall was presented to him Adorned he presently mounts the Pulpit and makes a dry Sermon of the use and honour of the Pall without either Language or matter all admiring the jejuness of his Discourse as if putting off his Parts when putting on his Pall. He made the breach formerly between England and Rome by exasperating both sides he now reconciles it obliging many by his carriage awing as many by his presence dazling all by his pomp and splendour Now he confirmeth the Institution of Clergy-men into their Benefices he legitimateth the Children of forbidden marriages he ratifieth the Processes and Sentences in matters Ecclesiastical and his Dispensations were confirmed by Act of Parliament Two things he was intent upon 1. The Church-Priviledges whereof one he procured was That the Clergy should not shew their Horses with the Layty but under Captains of their own chusing 2. The Spanish Interest and therefore Paul the fourth who was as intent upon the French and looked upon the Legate as the principal Promoter of the last War in France sends Cardinal Peito to ease him of his Legantine Power in England But the Queen so ordered the matter that by her Prerogative she prohibited Peito entrance into England and got the foresaid Power established and confirmed on Cardinal Pool as she did likewise 1000 l. 2 year for his better support out of the Bishoprick of Winchester The more he lived in England the more he was Italianized conversing with their Merchants and practising their thrift his Pomp being saith my Author rather gaudy then costly and his attendance more ceremonious then expensive Fearful he was of a Bank here if Queen Mary died careful of one beyond Sea if he lived therefore as he sends all his Estate to Italy by his Will when he died so he did most of it by Bills of Exchange while he lived the first was judged his Policy the heart whereof is prevention the second his Gratitude bestowing his Superfluities on them who had relieved his Necessities Of all his Estate Aloisius Priol took but the Breviary he had always in his Pocket so devout he was and the Diary he had always in his Closet so exact he was to observe what was done by others and recollect what had escaped himself Die he did not of Italian Physick wilfully taken by himself as Mr. Fox suggests nor of English Poyson given him by the Protestants as Osorius affirms but of a Quartain Ague then Epidemical in England and malignant above the ordinary nature of that Disease This man was a Catholick in his Interest and Charity and a Protestant in his Conscience We cannot was his saying give too much to Gods grace nor too little to our own merits He said when he came to England I came hither not to condemn but reconcile not to compel but desire He would burn the Ashes of one or two Protestants when dead to avoid the suspition of Heresie but the Bodies of none when alive to contract the real guilt of Cruelty In Council sound were his Debates for the main circumspect his Suggestions of Circumstances reaching his foresight of Consequences wary his Precautions of Impediments moderate and soft his Advices prompt and steady his Expeditions happy his Memory many his Observations large his Reading strong his Spirit solid his Judgement sharp his Apprehension fluent but weighed full but pertinent grave but quick his Discourse what he pronounced was a Decree with Queen Mary what he said was Law with King Philip 〈…〉 His naked Proposition was Demonstration his Word Reason fetched from the Principles of things and grounded on their Causes His Modesty never sued for Greatness though that sued for him for great men he said were lave to six things 1. To mens humours 2. To business 3. To Fortune 4. To their own Followers 5. To Fame and 6. To the Publick I will say no more of him but that Modesty undoeth a Maid and is the fool onely that puts Vertue out of Countenance Bashfulness is at best but a weak and treacherous Vertue Observations on the Life of Sir John Russel HIs Name and his Valour is as ancient as the Conquest Vertue flowing in every Age of that Family with its Honour and Worth keeping pace with their Advancements In every man that we meet with there are three things that immediately offer themselves to our Consideration 1. The Mind 2. The Behaviour And 3. The Person His Mind was befriended by Nature with a quickness and a capaciousness helped by publick Education to a solidity and stayedness improved in Travel with Observation and raised by the slow but happy degrees of his Preferments to Skill and Experience They had need be slow and wary in that place where there is no failing the second time the first errour being irremediable therefore well-ordered Policy imitateth Nature which worketh slowly and step by step causing the Blade to come from the Grain the Tree from the Graft the Blossom from the Tree and Fruit from the Blossom so saith my Author ought Policy to raise great persons from one degree to another to the end that having made their Essays in meaner matters they may finish their Master-pieces in more eminent Affairs 2. He that demeans himself well is ever ushered in by a friend that recommends him to the company that knew him not Sir
might surprize the Interval between the dissolution of the old and the erection of this new Foundation civilly declined the motion informing his Grace That the way to advance the study of the Law was by promoting the present Professors of that Faculty now so generally discouraged and not by founding a new Colledge for the future Students thereof seeing Trinity-Hall alone could breed more Civilians then all England did prefer according to their deserts Observations on the Life of Sir William Herbert HIs Family had not endeared its self to the antient Kings by its service nor his Grand-father himself to King Henry the Seventh by his Relation more then He did Himself to King Henry the Eighth by his Merit He was a great Pattern of antient Vertue that in the greatest Fortune enjoyed the least Liberty Vigilant and careful One whose Power was attended with Sollicitude there was an Eye in the ancient Scepters and his Sollicitude with Temperance he that commands himself commands the World too While some mens imprudent integrity can do no harm and others base cunning can do no good Sir William's Prudence and Integrity was equally able for both as there was occasion Very close and successful were his and my Lord Sheffield's Negotiations abroad Very resolute and manly his Conduct at home He was one of the twenty four Counsellours to Henry the Eighth while he lived and one of the sixteen Executors of his Will when he died All great Undertakers must avoid softness and effeminacie the bane of great Natures and Actions For where there is love and pleasure there is fear and where there is fear there is that which enchains Generosity and confines Courage He had his double Diary the first for Actions the second for Observations upon them And indeed his and Sir William Kingston's Manuscripts give a great light to the History of those times In which Diary we finde what actions he did against the Scots by constant alarms with three thousand Welch and what against Ket's Rebels by notable stratagems with two thousand The man is compleat that hath a Head and a Heart As to the Faction in King Edward's time he would not concern himself looking on accusations in a Commonwealth as great advantages to check ambition and vent discontent that the one may not aspire too dangerously nor the other break out too irregularly And as little concern'd was he in King Edward's Will his business being rather obeying the Soveraign that was then determining who should be He was a throughly advised man one that gazed not on the issues but enquired into the reasons and springs of Actions Very useful he was in Queen Mary's Council and no less in King philip's War where he got St. Quintin for him and a lasting Renown for himself who died in Queen Elizabeth's time and left this plain Character behinde That he was a noble Gentleman of a trusty a free and an open Nature Observations on the Lives of Sir Tho. Mannors and Sir Ralph Euers IJoyn them both in my Observations because they agreed both in their dispositions 1. Both Nobly Religious and so blessed themselves and being a blessing unto others Their Religion was attended with Magnanimity Constancy Wisdom Prudence Valour and Counsel as the Products of it and with Success as the Issue 2. Both famous and renowned having Honour as the shadow doth the Sun going before them in their younger years to make their way to action keeping even with them in their middle age to countenance and credit their proceedings and following them in old Age to eternize and embalm them Both making their way to Honour as Agesilaus in Plutarch or Epictetus in Strabo by saying what was well and doing what was better or with Socrates by being what they appeared and appearing no more then they were Vertue though obscure may satisfie me it must be renowned or it cannot serve others But action is the life of things and good dispositions are rather a mans Inclinations than his Vertue Both therefore were in their Courage regular in their Conduct observant in their Addresses obliging in their Passions even in their Enjoyments severe and in their Services equal Sir Thomas Mannors first weakened the Northern Rebels by such discreet Propositions as met with many of their Humours and Interests and then resolved to engage them but that the little Brook Dun swelled miraculously to a River between both Armies And at the same time Sir Ralph Euers held Scarborough-Castle where he had no Souldiers but his own Servants nor any sustenance for twenty days but bread and water For this service he is made Lord Warden of the Marches as Sir Thomas is Lord Governour of the North. Both did his Majesty as much service in Peace for his Revenue as in War for his Security Both against the Cardinal's way of raising Money which was but the relieving of a present need by laying the foundation of a lasting inconvenience being very careful that their Master did not lose in the president what he gained in the money Observations on the Life of Sir John Baker THere is one of this Name remarqueable in every Kings Reign since the Conquest here is one now renowned in this 1. For Integrity to be neither awed nor corrupted 2. For a Spirit publick as Nature neither moved with particular respects nor terminated in a private Design The French were so insolent in London the eighth year of Henry the Eighth that when one Williamson a Carpenter was about to pay for two Pigeons he bought a Frenchman takes them out of his hand saying They were no meat for Carpenters but for my Lord Embassadour who concerned himself so much in the case that he had Williamson imprisoned Sir John sued to the Embassador for the man who answered That the English Knave deserved to be banged for denying any thing to a Frenchman Whereupon Sir John replied You know not that you are in London A notable reply considering that the City was up next day against Strangers in so desperate a tumult that none could suppress but Sir Thomas More and none settle but Sir William Kingston and Sir John Baker No sooner had he allayed the disorder at home but he with the Bishop of St Asaph are sent to appease a Rebellion abroad I mean in Denmark though in vain when the Kings cruelty exceeded their apology and ruine was more elegible with that people then duty or obedience Where he observed these six Maximes in order to a newly-conquer'd-Kingdom 1. That the Royal Line should be extinguished 2. That the old Customs in Laws and Taxes should be observed 3. The Prince must be there to observe their humours in person 4. That the Officers be moderate and honest 5. That there be Colonies planted in one or two places that are the Keys of the State 6. That the Neighbours should be weakened and divided and the In-land Forts demolished As he would have composed the troubles of forreign Princes so he served the
to Zeal for new Converts He said the Inquisition would overthrow Spain being a designe upon Humane Nature and freedome to govern men at the rate of beasts His great Abilities recommended him to Leicester's Cabinet whose Horse he commanded in the Field whose Counsel he guided at home Prudent and valiant he was in contriving and executing the surprize of Axil Liberal and Noble to his Souldiers at Flushing wary and deep-sighted in his Counsel about Graveline wise and stayed in the jealousies between Leicester and Hollock His Patience and Resolution before Zutphen his quiet and composed spirit at Arneim his Christian and religious comportment in his sickness and death made his Fame as lasting as his Life was wished And why died he lamented by the Queen mourned for by the Court bemoaned by Europe wept over by Religion and Learning the Protestant Churches celebrated by Kings and eternized by Fame because he was one whose Parts were improved by early Education whose Education was raised by Experience whose Experience was enlarged by Travel whose Travel was laid up in Observations whose Observations were knit up to a solid Wisdome whose Wisdome was graced with his Presence and the one was as much admired by Kings as the other was by Queens One whose Learning guided Universities whose Alliance engaged Favourites whose Presence filled Courts whose Soul grasped Europe whose Merit could fill a Throne whose Spirit was above it It was he who was deserving and quiet neglected and patient great and familiar ingenious and devout learned and valiant sweet and solid contemplative active It was he whom Queen Elizabeth called her Philip the Prince Orange his Master and whose friendship my Lord Brooke was so proud of that he would have no other Epitaph on his Grave then this Here lieth Sir Philip Sidneys Friend It was he whose last words were Love my memory cherish my Friends their faith to me may assure you they are honest but above all govern your will and affections by the Will and Word of your Creator In me behold the end of this world and all its vanities THey that have known thee well search thy parts Through all the chain of Arts Thy apprehension quick as active light Clear Judgement without Night Thy Phansie free yet never wild or mad With wings to fly but none to gad Thy Language still in rich yet comely dress Not to expose thy minde but to express They that have known thee thus sigh and confess They wish they 'd known thee still or known thee less To these the wealth and Beauties of thy minde Be other Vertues joyn'd Thy modest Soul strongly confirm'd and hard Ne'er beckned from its Guard Observations on the Life of Sir John Perrot SIr John Perrot was a goodly Gentleman and of the Sword and as he was of a very ancient descent as an Heir to many Exstracts of Gentry especially from Guy de Bryan of Lawhern so was he of a vast Estate and came not to the Court for want And to these Adjuncts he had the Endowments of Courage and heighth of Spirit had it lighted on the allay of temper and discretion the defect whereof with a native freedome and boldness of speech drew him into a Clouded setting and laid him open to the spleen advantage of his Enemies He was yet a wise man and a brave Courtier but rough and participating more of active then sedentary motions as being in his Constellation destinated for Arms. He was sent Lord-Deputy into Ireland where he did the Queen very great and many Services Being out of envy accused of High Treason and against the Queens will and consent condemned he died suddenly in the Tower He was Englands professed Friend and Sir Christopher Hattons professed Enemy He fell because he would stand alone In the English Court at that time he that held not by Leicesters and Burleighs favour must yeild to their frowns What ground he gained in Forreign Merits as the Sea he lost in Domestick Interests The most deserving Recesses and serviceable absence from Courts is incompatible with the way of interest and favour His boysterous carriage rather removed then preferred him to Ireland where he was to his cost what he would have been to his advantage chief in Command and first in Council His spirit was too great to be ruled and his Interest too little to sway He was so like a Son of Henry the eighth that he would not be Queen Elizabeths subject but Hattons sly smoothness undermined his open roughness the one dancing at Court with more success then the other fought in Ireland He was born to enjoy rather then make a Fortune and to command rather then stoop for respect Boldness indeed is as necessary for a Souldier as Action for an Orator and is a prevailing quality over weak men at all times and wise men at their weak times yet it begins well but continueth not closing always with the wiser sorts scorns and the vulgars laughter Sir John Perrot was better at Counsel then Complement and better at Execution then Counsel None worse to command first on his own head none better to be second and under the direction of others He could not advise because he looked not round on his dangers he could not execute because he saw them not His alliance to his Soveraign commended him at first to her favour and gave him up at last to her jealousie being too near to be modest and too bold to be trusted and the more service he performed he was thereby onely the more dangerous and withal unhappy his Successes onely puffing up his humor and his Victories ripening his ambition to those fatal Sallies against the Queens honour and Government that had cost him his life had he not saved it with those very Rants he lost himself by for when he had out of an innocent confidence of his cause and a haughty conceit of his Extraction exasperated his Noble Jury to his Condemnation he had no more to say for himself then Gods death will the Queen suffer her Brother to be offered up as a sacrifice to the envy of my frisking Adversaries On which words the Queen refused to signe the Warrant for his Execution though pressed to it from Reason and Interest saying They were all Knaves that condemned him It 's observed of him that the Surplusage of his services in Ireland abated the merit of them and that it was his oversight to have done too much there His mortal words were those in the great Chamber of Dublin when the Queen sent him some respectful Letters after her Expostulatory ones with an intimation of the Spaniards Designe Lo now saith he she is ready to piss her self for fear of the Spaniard I am again one of her white Boys A great Birth and a great Minde are crushed in Commonwealths and watched in Kingdomes They who are too tall to stand too stubborn to bow are but too fit to break Ruffling Spirits raise themselves
body his gate his features his carriage his gate his parts his carriage his prudence his parts and his close patience his prudence The Queen loved him well for his activity better for his parts best of all for his abilities which were as much above his experience as that was above his learning and that above his education The little the wary man did was so exactly just and discreet and the little he said was so prudent and weighty that he was chosen to keep the Queens Conscience as her Chancellour and to express her sense as her Speaker the Courtiers that envyed the last capacity were by his power forced to confess their errours and the Sergeants that would not plead before him in the first by his prudence to confess his abilities The Chancellourship was above his Law but not his Parts so pregnant and comprehensive that he could command other mens knowledge to as good purpose as his own Such his humility that he did nothing without two Lawyers such his ability that the Queen did nothing without him Two things he said he was jealous of His Mistresses the Queens Prerogatives and his Mother the Churches Discipline the one that Majesty might be at liberty to do as much good and the other that Iniquity might not be free to as much evil as it pleased His enemies advanced him that they might weaken him at Court by his absence and kill him at home by a sedentariness This even and clear man observed and improved their practices closing with Malice it self to his own advancement and tempering the most perverse enmity to the greatest kindness None Nobler none less aspiring none more busie yet none more punctual in his hours and orders Corpulent he was but temperate a Batchelor and the onely one of the Queens Favourites yet chaste quick were his Dispatches but weighty many his Orders and consistent numerous were the Addresses to him and easie the access Seldome were his Orders reversed in Chancery and seldomer his Advice opposed in Council So just he was that his sentence was Law with the Subject so wise that his Opinion was Oracle with his Soveraign so exact was Queen Elizabeth that she called upon him for an old debt though it broke his heart so loving that she carried him a Cordial-broath with her own hand though it could not revive him Observations on the Life of the Lord Hunsdon THe Lord Hunsdon was of the Queens nearest Kindred and on the decease of Sussex both he and his Son took the place of Lord Chamberlain He was a fast man to his Prince and firm to his friends and servants downright honest and stout-hearted having the charge of the Queens Person both in the Court and in the Camp at Tilbury The integrity of his temper allayed the greatness of his birth which had rendred him dangerous if the other had not vouched him faithful He spoke big but honestly and was thought rather resolute then ambitious His words were as his thoughts and his actions as his words He had Valour enough to be an eminent Souldier in ruffling times and a renownedly honest man in Queen Elizabeths Reign His Latine faith Sir Robert Naunton and his dissimulation were both alike His custome of swearing and obscenity in speaking made him seem a worse Christian then he was and a better Knight of the Carpet then he should be The Polititians followed Cecil the Courtiers Leicester and the Souldiers Hunsdon whose hands were better then his head and his heart then both He led so brave a Train of young Gallants as after another threatned a Court but after him secured it whose Greatness was not his Mistresse jealousie but her safeguard One of his blunt Jests went further then others affected Harangues the one being Nature the other forced His faithfulness made him Governour of Berwick a place of great service and General of the English Army a place of great Trust He had something of Leicesters Choler but none of his Malice A right Noble Spirit not so stupid as not to resent not so unworthy as to retain a sense of Injuries To have the Courage to observe an Affront is to be even with an Adversary to have the patience to forgive it is to be above him There goeth a story of him that when his Retinue which in those times was large would have drawn on a Gentleman that had returned him a box on the ear he forbad them in these Souldier-like words You Rogues cannot my Neighbour and my self exchange a box on the ear but you must interpose He might have been what he would for relieving Queen Elizabeth in her distress he would be but what he was Other Interests were offered him to stand upon he was contented with his own He suppressed the Court-Factions and the Nothern Commotions the one by his Interest the other by his Valour for the one he had always the Queens Heart for the other he had once a most Gracious Letter His Court-favour was as lasting as his Integrity One hath left this remarque concerning him That he should have been twice Earl of Wilishire in right of his Mother Bollen And the Queen when he was on his Death-bed ordered his Patent and Robes to his bed-side where he who could dissemble neither well nor ill told the Queen That if he was not worthy of those Honours when living he was unworthy of them when dying In a word Sir William Cecil was a wise man Bacon was reaching Leicester cunning Walsingham was a Patriot and my Lord Hunsdâ—n was honest Observations on the Life of Nicholas Heath Archbishop of York and Lord Chancellour of England AT once a most wise and a most learned man of great Policy and of as great Integrity meek and resolute more devout to follow his own Conscience then cruel to persecute others It is enough to intimate his moderate temper equal and dis-engaged from violent extreams that the first of Queen Elizabeth in the Disputation between the Papists and Protestants he was chosen by the Privy-Council one of the Moderators when Sir Nicholas Bacon was the other The Civility he shewed in Prosperity he found in Adversity for in Queen Elizabeths time he was rather eased then deposed like another Abiathar sent home by Solomon to his own fields in Anathoth living cheerfully at Cobbam in Surry where he devoted his Old Age to Religion and Study being much comforted with the Queens Visits and kindness and more with his own good conscience that as he would often say he had been so intent upon the service as never to enjoy the greatness of any place he was advanced to Sir Henry Wotton being bound for Rome asked his Host at Siena a man well versed in men and bufiness What Rules he would give him for his Port Conduct and Carriage There is one short remembrance said he will carry you safe through the world nothing but this said he Gli Pensiere stretti el viso Sciolto i. e. Your Thoughts close and
In Love-Letters to her notwithstanding that Queen Elizabeth bid him take care what pillow he rested his head on 2. In his Mediations at Court so importune for her that the Queen would say The Queen of Scots shall never want an Advocate while Norfolk lives And 3. By some private transaction with the Pope and Spaniard to which Leicesters craft trepanned him against his friend Cecils advice which in a dangerous juncture cost him his life For the people wishing for the security of the succession in a Protestant and an English hand that the good Duke were married to the Mother and his onely Daughter to her young Son subtile Leicester and Throgmorton laid a Train for the plain man by Conferences with Murray Cecil c. until a Plot was discovered and the Duke notwithstanding Cecils advice to marry a private Lady retiring to Norfolk to finish the Match with the Queen was upon Letters taken with Rosse surprized and committed to the Tower he saying I am betrayed and undone by mine own whilst I knew not how to mistrust which is the strength of wisdome After a solemn Tryal he is beheaded for Indiscretions rather then Treasons loosing his head because he wanted one Never any fell more beloved or more pitied such his singular Courtesie such his magnificent Bounty not unbecoming so great a Peer High was his Nobility large his Interest singularly good his Nature comely his Person manly his Countenance who saith Cambden might have been a great strength and Ornament to his Country had not the cunning practices of his malicious Adversaries and slippery hopes under colour of publick good diverted him from his first course of life His death was a blot to some mens Justice to all mens Discretion that were concerned in it as generally odious though quietly endured which proves saith one That the common people are like Rivers which seldome grow so impetuous as to transcend the bounds of Obedience but upon the overflowing of a general Oppression Observations on the Life of Sir Nicholas Throgmorton SIr Nicholas Throgmorton fourth Son of Sir George Throgmorton of Coughton in Warwick-shire was bred beyond the Seas where he attained to great experience Under Queen Mary he was in Guild-hall arraigned for Treason in compliance with Wiat and by his own wary pleading and the Juries upright Verdict hardly escaped Queen Elizabeth employed him her Leiger a long time first in France then in Scotland finding him a most able Minister of State yet got he no great Wealth and no wonder being ever of the opposite party to Burleigh Lord Treasurer Chamberlain of the Exchequer and Chief Butler of England were his highest Preferments I say Chief Butler which Office like an empty-covered Cup pretendeth to some State but affordeth no considerable profit He died at Supper with eating of Sallats not without suspicion of poyson the rather because it happened in the house of one no mean Artist in that faculty R. Earl of Leicester His death as it was sudden was seasonable for him and his whose active others will call it turbulent spirit had brought him unto such trouble as might have cost him at least the loss of his Personal Estate He died in the 57 year of his Age Febr. 12. 1570. and lieth buried in the South-side of the Chancel of St. Martin Cree-church London A stout and a wise man that saw through pretences and could look beyond dangers His skill in Heraldry appears in his grim Arguments against the King of France in right of his Queen of Scots Usurping of the Arms of England and his experience in History in his peremptory Declarations of the Queen of Englands Title in right of her twelve Predecessors to those of France But his Policy much more by putting Montmorency the great Enemy of the Guizes upon perswading his Master out of the humour of wearing those Arms with this Argument That it was below the Arms of France to be quartered with those of England those being comprehensive of these and all other of his Majesties Dominions An Argument more suitable to that Prince his ambition then convincing to his Reason Wise men speak rather what is most fit then what is most rational not what demonstrates but what perswades his and takes But being endangered in his Person affronted in his Retinue and served with nothing at his Table but what had the Arms of England quartered with those of France he dealt underhand with the Earl of Northumberland to understand the scope the Reformed propounded to themselves their means to compass what they aimed at and if at any time they were assisted upon what terms a League might be concluded between the two Kingdomes The Advices collected from all his Observations he sent to the Queen were these 1. That she should not rest in dull Counsels of what is lawful but proceed to quick Resolutions of what is safe 2. That to prevent is the policy of all Nations and to be powerful of ours England is never peaceable but in Arms. 3. That how close soever they managed their Affairs it was a Maxime That France can neither be poor nor abstain from War three years together Francis Earl of Bedford bore the state of the French Embassy and Sir Nicholas the burden who gave dayly Directions to Sir Thomas Challoner in Spain Sir Henry Killigrew in Germany and Sir Thomas Randolph and Sir Peter Mewtas in Scotland to the two first to enjealous the Princes of those Countries and to the last to unite the Nobility of Scotland he in the mean time suffering himself to be taken prisoner by the Protestants at the battle of Dreux that he might with less suspition impart secret Counsels to them and receive as secret Advices from them until discovering their lightness and unconstancy they secured him as a person too cunning for the whole Faction and too skilful in raising Hurley-burleys and Commotions When the young Queen of Scots would needs marry the young Lord Darley he told her that was long to be deliberated on which was to be done but once And when that would not do he advised 1. That an Army should appear upon the borders 2. That the Ecclesiastical Laws should be in force against Papists 3. That Hertford should be secured and 4. That the Lord Dudley should be advanced But the Queen being married to the Lord Darley an easie and good-natured man whom Queen Elizabeth wished to her Bed next Leicester and affronted by her subjects Throgmorton disputes the Queens Authority and non-accountableness to any against Bucbanans damned Dialogue of the Peoples power over Kings until smelling their designe of revolt to the French and cruelty upon the Queen he perswaded her to resigne her Government saying That her Resignation extorted in Prison which is a just fear was utterly void The next news we hear of this busie man was in his two Advisoes to the Queen of Scots friends 1. To clap up Cecil whom they might then he said deal
manage by which upon occasion he hath unravelled the studied cheats and intrigues of the Closet-men to which when you adde his happy faculty of communicating himself by a free and graceful elocution to charm and command his Audience assisted by the attractive dignity of his presence you will not admire that he managed his Justiceship with so much satisfaction to the Court and that he left it with so much applause from the Country for these two Peculiarities he had That none was more tender to the Poor or more civil in private and yet none more stern to the Rich I mean Justices of Peace Officers c. or more severe in publick He delighted indeed to be loved not reverenced yet knew he very well how to assert the Dignity of his Place and Function from the Approaches of Contempt Observations on the Life of the Earl of Worcester THe Lord of Worcester a no mean Favourite was of the ancient and noble Blood of the Beauforts and of the Queens Grandfathers line by the Mother which she could never forget especially where there was a concurrency of old Blood with Fidelity a mixture which ever sorted with the Queens Nature He was first made Master of the Horse and then admitted of her Council of State In his Youth part whereof he spent before he came to reside at Court he was a very fine Gentleman and the best Horse-man and Tilter of the Times which were then the manlike and noble recreations of the Court and when years had abated these exercises of Honour he grew then to be a faithful and profound Counsellour He was the last Liver of all the Servants of her favour and had the honour to see his renowned Mistress and all of them laid in the places of their rest and for himself after a life of a very noble and remarkable reputation he died in a peaceable Old Age full of Riches and Honour His Fathers temperance reached to 97 years of Age because he never eat but one Meal a day and his sparingness attained to 84 because he never eat but of one Dish He came to the Queens favour because as her Father so she loved a man he kept in because as her Father too so she loved an able man His Man-like Recreations commended him to the Ladies his prudent Atchievments to the Lords He was made Master of the Horse because active and Privy Counsellour because wise His Mistress excused his Faith which was Popish but honoured his Faithfulness which was Roman it being her usual speech that my Lord of Worcester had reconciled what she thought inconsistent a stiff Papist to a good subject His Religion was not pompous but solid not the shew of his life but the comfort of his soul A great Master he was of others affections and greater of his own passions many things displeased nothing angered my Lord of Worcester whose Maxime was That he would not be disordered within himself onely because things were out of order without him He had this Maxime whence he had his Nature from his prudent Father Sir Charles Somerset the first Earl of Worcester of that Name whose temper was so pliable and nature so peaceable that being asked as it is usually reported of him How he passed so troublesome a Reign as King Henry's so uncertain as King Edward's so fierce as Queen Mary's and so unexpected as Queen Elizabeth's with so quiet so fixed so smooth so resolved and ready a mind and frame answered It was because he understood the Interest of the Kingdome while others observed its Humours His first Publick Service was to represent the Grandeur of his Mistress at the Christening of the Daulphine of France and his last the like at the marriage of the King of Scots whom he honoured with the Garter from his Mistress and advised to beware of Papists from the Council The frame of this Noble Mans body as it is delineated by Sir W. P. seems suited to the Noble use it was designed for The entertaining of a most pure and active Soul but equally to the advantage of strength and comeliness befriended with all proportionate Dimensions and a most grave yet obliging Carriage There was a clear sprightfulness in his Complexion but a sad reservedness in his Nature both making up that blessed compositon of a wise and winning man of as great hardship of body as nobleness of spirit Of a quick sight and an accurate ear a steady observation and ready expression with the Torrent whereof he at once pleased King James and amazed King Henry being the most natural Orator in the world Among all which Endowments I had almost forgot his memory that was very faithful to him in things and business though not punctilio's and formalities Great Parts he had the range and compass whereof filled the whole circle of generous Learning in that Person as it hath done in the following Heroes of that Family to this day Observations on the Life of Sir Henry Killigrew TRavellers report That the place wherein the body of Absalom was buried is still extant at Jerusalem and that it is a solemn custome of Pilgrims passing by it to cast a stone on the place but a well-disposed man can hardly go by the memory of this worthy person without doing gratefuâ— homage thereunto in bestowing upon him one oâ— two of our Observations It 's a question sometimeâ— whether the Diamond gives more lustre to the Ring it 's set in or the Ring to the Diamond This Gentleman received honour from his Family and gave renown to it Writing is the character of the speech as that is of the mind From Tully whose Orations he could repeat to his dying day he gained an even and apt stile flowing at one and the self-same heighth Tully's Offices a Book which Boys read and men understand was so esteemed of my Lord Burleigh that to his dying day he always carried it about him either in his bosome or his pocket as a compleat piece that like Aristotle's Rhetorick would make both a Scholar and an Honest man Cicero's magnificent Orations against Anthony Catiline and Verres Caesar's great Commentaries that he wrote with the same spirit that he fought flowing Livy grave judicious and stately Tacitus eloquent but faithful Curtius brief and rich Salust prudent and brave Xenophon whose Person was Themistocles his Companion as his Book was Scipio Affrieanus his Pattern in all his Wars ancient and sweet Herodotus sententious and observing Thucydides various and useful Polybius Siculus Halicarnasseus Trogus Orosius Justine made up our young mans Retinue in all his Travels where as Diodorus the Sicilian writes he sate on the stage of Humane Life observing the great circumstances of places persons times manners occasions c. and was made wise by their example who have trod the path of errour and danger before him To which he added that grave weighty and sweet Plutarch whose Books said Gaza would furnish the world were all others lost Neither was he amazed in
the Queen of Scots this Lord Gray onely defended him as doing nothing therein but what became an able and honest Minister of State An Ear-witness saith Haec fusè oratoriè animosè Greium disserentem audivimus So that besides bluntness the common and becoming Eloquence of Souldiers he had a real Rhetorick and could very emphatically express himself Indeed this Warlike Lord would not wear two heads under one Helmet and may be said always to have born his Beaver open not dissembling in the least degree but owning his own Judgement at all times what he was He deceased anno Domini 1593. Three things he was observed eminent for 1. Dispatch San Joseph having not been a week in Ireland before he had environed him by Sea and Land 2. For his resolution that he would not parley with him till he was brought to his mercy hanging out a white flag with Misericordia Misericordia 3. For his Prudence 1. That he saved the Commanders to oblige the Spaniard 2. That he plundered the Country to enrich his Souldiers 3. That he decimated the Souldiery to terrifie Invaders and hanged all the Irish to amaze the Traytors Henry Fitz-alan Earl of Arundel when Steward at King Edward's Coronation or Constable at Queen Mary's was the first that rid in a Coach in England my Lord Gray was the first that brought a Coach hither one of a working Brain and a great Mechanist himself and no less a Patron to the Ingenious that were so That there was an emulation between him and Sussex was no wonder but that the instance wherein he thought to disgrace him should be his severity to the English Traytor and the Forreign Invadors would seem strange to any but those that consider 1. That Princes of late would seem as they look on the end and not the means so they hug a cruelty and frown on the instrument of it who while he honestly sacrificeth some irregular particulars to the interest of Soveraignty may be made himself a sacrifice to the passion of populacy And 2. which is the case here That aspiring Princes may employ severer Natures but setled ones use the more moderate Love keeps up the Empire which Power hath set up Observations on the Life of Thomas Lord Burge THomas Lord Burge or Borough was born in his Fathers noble House at Gainsborough in the County of Lincoln He was sent Embassadour into Scotland in 1593 to excuse Bothwel his lurking in England to advise the speedy suppression of the Spanish Faction to advance the Protestants in that Kingdome for their Kings defence and to instruct that King about his Council which was done accordingly He was made Lord-Deputy of Ireland anno 1597 in the room of Sir William Russel Mr. Cambden saith thus of him Vir acer animi plenus sed nullis fer◠Castrorum rudimentis As soon as the Truce with Tyrone was expired he straightly besieged the Fort of Black-water the onely receptacle of the Rebels in those parts besides their Woods and Bogs Having taken this Fort by force presently followed a bloody Battle wherein the English lost many worthy men He was struck with untimely death before he had continued a whole year in his Place it being wittily observed of the short Lives of many worthy men Fatuos à morte defendit ipsa insulsitas si cui plus caeteris aliquantulum salis insit quod miremini statim putrescit Things rare destroy themselves those two things being incompatible in our nature Perfection and Lastingness His Education was not to any particular Profession yet his Parts able to manage all A large Soul and a great Spirit apart from all advantages can do wonders His Master-piece was Embassie where his brave Estate set him above respects and compliance and his comely Person above contempt His Geography and History led to the Interest of other Princes and his Experience to that of his own His skill in most Languages helped him to understand others and his resolution to use onely his own to be reserved himself In two things he was very scrupulous 1. In his Commission 2. In his Servants whom he always he said found honest enough but seldome quick and reserved And in two things very careful viz. 1. The time and humour of his Addresses 2. The Interest Inclinations and Dependencies of Favourites A grave and steady man observing every thing but affected with nothing keeping as great distance between his looks and his heart as between his words and his thoughts Very exact for his priviledges very cold and indifferent in his motions which were always guided by the emergencies in that Country and by his intelligence from home Good he was in pursuing his limited instruction excellent where he was free and his Business was not his obedience onely but his discretion too that never failed but in his last enterprize which he undertook without any apparent advantage and attempted without intelligence An Enterprize well worthy his invincible Courage but not his accustomed Prudence which should never expose the person of a General to the danger of a common Souldier Observations on the Life of William Lord Pawlet WIlliam Pawlet where-ever born had his largest Estate and highest Honour Baron of Basing and Marquess of Winchester in Hantshire He was descended from a younger house of the Pawlets in Hinton St. George in Somersetshire as by the Crescent in his Arms is acknowledged One telleth us That he being a younger Brother and having wasted all that was left him came to Court on trust where upon the stock of his Wit he trafficked so wisely and prospered so well that he got spent and left more then any Subject since the Conquest Indeed he lived at the time of the dissolution of Abbeys which was the Harvest of Estates and it argued idleness if any Courtier had his Barns empty He was Servant to King Henry the seventh and for thirty years together Treasurer to King Henry the eighth Edward the sixth Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth the later in some sort owed their Crowns to his Counsel his Policy being the principal Defeater of Duke Dudley's Designe to dis-inherit them I behold this Lord Pawlet like to aged Adoram so often mentioned in Scriptures being over the Tribute in the days of King David all the Reign of King Solomon until the first year of Rehoboam And though our Lord Pawlet enjoyed his Place not so many years yet did he serve more Soveraigns in more mutable times being as he said of himself No Oak but an Osier Herein the Parallel holds not the hoary hairs of Adoram were sent to the Grave by a violent death slain by the People in a Tumult this Lord had the rare happiness of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 setting in his full splendour having lived 97 years and seen 103 out of his body He died anno Domini 1572. Thus far Mr. Fuller This Gentleman had two Rules as useful for Mankinde as they seem opposite to
but he retained by that strong faculty that was much his Nature more his Art which observed privately what it saw publickly recollected and fixed in the night what he observed by day trusting his head with solids but not burthening it with impertinencies Company is one of the greatest pleasures of Mankinde and the great delight of this man it 's unnatural to be solitary the world is sinked together by love and men by friendship who observed three things in his converse that it should be 1. even 2. choice and 3. useful all his friends being either valiant ingenious or wise that is either Souldiers Scholars or States-men Four things he was very intent upon during his Government in Ireland 1. The Priests the Pulpits and the Press 2. The Nobility 3. The Ports 4. The Forreigners Which he pursued with that Activity the Earl of Ormond assisting him that anno 1580 that Kingdome was delivered to my Lord Gray after his one years Government in a betteter condition then it had been for threescore year before the Populacy being encouraged the Nobility trusted Feuds laid down Revenue setled the Sea-towns secured the Souldiery disciplined and the Magazines furnished Whence he returned to overlook others setling England against the Spaniards as he had done Ireland himself being aâ— active Commissioner in England in 88 and an eminent Agent in Scotland in 89. Observations on the Life of Sir William Waad A Scholar himself and a Patron to such that were so being never well but when employing the Industrious pensioning the Hopeful and preferring the Deserving To his Directions we owe Rider's Dictonary to his Encouragement Hooker's Policy to his Charge Gruter's Inscriptions As none more knowing so none more civil No man more grave in his Life and Manners no man more pleasant in his Carriage and Complexion yet no man more resolved in his Business for being sent by Queen Elizabeth to Philip King of Spain he would not be turned over to the Spanish Privy-Council whose greatest Grandees are Dwarfs in honour to his Mistress but would either have audience of the King himself or return without it though none knew better how and when to make his close and underhand Addresses to such potent Favourites as strike the stroke in the State It often happening in a Commonwealth saith my Author that the Masters Mate steers the Ship better then the Master himself A man of a constant toyl and industry busie and quick equalty an enemy to the idle and slow undertakings judging it a great weakness to stand staring in the face of business in that time which might serve to do it In his own practice he never considered longer then till he could discern whether the thing proposed was fit or not when that was seen he immediately set to work when he had finished one business he could not endure to have his thoughts lie fallow but was presently consulting what next to undertake Two things this Gentleman professed kept him up to that eminence 1. Fame that great incitement to Excellency 2. A Friend whom he had not onely to observe those grossnesses which Enemies might take notice of but to discover his prudential failings indecencies and even suspitious and barely doubtful passages Friendship saith my Lord Bacon easeth the heart and cleareth the understanding making clear day in both partly by giving the â—urest counsel apart from our interest and prepossessions and partly by allowing opportunity to discourse and by that discourse to clear the mind to recollect the thoughts to see how they look in words whereby men attain that highest wisdome which Dionysius the Areopagite saith is the Daughter of Reflexion Observations on the Life of Sir Henry Sidney SIr Henry Sidney eminent for his Son Sir Philip and famous for his own Actions wâ—â— born well and bred better His Learning was equal to his Carriage his Carriage to his God Nature his Good Nature to his Prudence his Prudence to his Resolution A little he learned a School more at the University most at Court His Reading was assiduous his Converse exact 〈◊〉 Observations close His Reason was strong and 〈◊〉 Discourse flowing Much he owed to his Studâ—ousness at home more to his Experience abroad where Travel enlarged and consolidated his Son His own Worth fitted him for Advancement an his Alliance to my Lord of Leicester raised him to a Merit must capacitate a man for Interest and Intrest must set up Merit His Person and his An 〈…〉 ry invested him Knight of the Garter his Moderation and Wisdome President of Wales His Resolution and Model of Government made him Lo 〈…〉 Deputy of Ireland a people whom he first studied and then ruled being first Master of their Humour and then of their Government Four things he said would reduce that Country A Navy well furnished to cut off their correspondence with Spain An Army well paid to keep up Garisons Law well executed to alter their Constitutions and T 〈…〉 res A Ministry well setled to civilize and instrud them and an unwearied Industry to go through all Nine things he did there to eternize his Memory 1. Connaught He divided to six Shires 2. Captainships something answering to Knighthood here He abolished 3. A Surrendry of all Irish Holdings He contried and the Irish Estates He setled on English Teâ—ures and Services 4. That the ablest five of each Sept should undertake for all their Relations He ordered 5. One Free-School at least in every Diocess He maintained 6. Two Presidents Courts in Manster and Con 〈…〉 ught He erected 7. Their Customes He reduced to the Civility and their Exchequer to the Exactness of England 8. Their Purveyance He turned to Composision 9. Their Statutes He printed and a constant correspondence He kept especially with the English Embassadour in Spain and King James in Scotland Fitz-Williams was mild Essex heady Perrot stout but this Lieutenant or Deputy was a stayed and resolved Man that Royally heard ill and did well that bore up against the clamours of the people with the peace of his conscience His Interest he had devoted to his Soveraign and his Estate to he Publick saying as Cato That he had the least here of himself From the Irish he took nothing but a Liberty to undo themselves from Court he desired nothing but Service from Wales he had nothing but a Good Name It 's observed of him that He bad open Vertues for Honour and private ones for Success which he said was the daughter of reservedness there being not saith my Lord Vâ—rulam two more fortunate properties then to have 〈◊〉 little of the fool and not too much of the honest man The Crown was obliged by his Services the Nobility engaged to him by Alliances the People enamoured with his Integrity and himself satisfies with a good Conscience Much good counsel he gave at Court more at home in Shropshire where his Dexterity in composing the private Quarrels of the Country was as eminent as his Prudence in setline
more where he and his old setters at Court discovered the grand Plot in the North as Hunsdon and his old Souldiers at Berwick defeated it and both harassed the Scotish Borders all things yeilding to those two grand Disposers of the World now predominant in England Wisedome and Cecil at home Arms and Hunsdon abroad and both with Sussex at home now for his approved Wisdome and Fidelity made Privy Counsellour and abroad alway Lord General Of many I pitch on this one Argument Of the greatness of his Minde that he scorned to trample the Prostrate that he had a just Passion but not an unworthy Malice for an Enemy whom he had a generous goodness to pity when unhappy as well as a brave spirit to contest with when injurious The lesser fry of adversaries railed against this great one pleaded for Leicester when his practices against Anjou's marriage with the Queen confined him to the Castle of Windsor and his Menaces had cast him to the Tower of London had not my Lord minding more the common Interest then his private resentments first moderated the Queens Passion with Reason and then overcame it with this Jest You must allow Lovers their jealousie Alter idem or other Observations on the Life of the Lord Hatton HHis first Preferment at Court was to be one of the fifty Pensioners whence his modest sweetness of Manners advanced him to the Privy Chamber where he had not been long but his face and tongue which most eloquent which most powerful was in those days a question made him Captain of the Guard his presence and service Vice-Chamberlain and his great improvement under my Lord Burleigh placed him in that grave Assembly the wisest Convention in Europe at that time the Privy-Council where he had not sate long when his enemies as well as his friends made him Chancellour and Knight of the Garter the one to raise him and the other by that rise to ruine him The Eagle-eyed men of those times carried up on high the Cockleshel they had a mind to crack A man of a pious Nature very charitable to the Poor very tender of dissenting Judgements saying That neither searing nor cutting was to be used in the cause of Religion very bountiful to Scholars who chose him Chancellour at Oxford very exact in his Place whence he went off though not with the applause of a great Lawyer to split Causes yet with the Conscience and comfort of a just man to do equity Take his Character from his own words those words that prevailed with the Queen of Scots to appear before the Commissioners at Fotheringaz when neither Queen Elizabeths Commission nor the Lord Chancellours Reason nor the Power of the Kingdome could perswade that good Lady to it The words are these You are accused but not condemned You say you are a Queen be it so if you are innocent you wrong your Reputation in avoiding tryal You protest your self innocent the Queen feareth the contrary not without grief and shame To examine your innocence are these honourable prudent and upright Commissioners sent glad will they be with all their hearts if they may return and report you guiltless Believe me the Queen her self will be much affected with joy who affirmed to me at my coming from her that never any thing befel her more grievous then that you were charged with such a crime Wherefore lay aside the bootless priviledge of Royal Dignity which here can be of no use to you appear in Judgement and shew your Innocence lest by avoiding tryal you draw upon your self suspicion and lay upon your Reputation an eternal blot and aspersion Four things I observe he did that deserve a Chronicle 1. That he delayed the Signing of Leicesters Patent for the Lieutenancy of England and Ireland the Preface to his Kingdome until that Earl was sick 2. That he reduced the Chancery and all other Courts to Rules 3. That he stood by the Church against the enemies of both sides Archbishop Whitgift when checked by others for his due severity writes to him thus I think my self bound to you for your friendly Message as long as I live It hath not a little comforted me having received unkinde speeches not long since c. And therefore after an expostulation about some States-mens Proceedings against the Law and State of the Realm and a Declaration of his own resolution saith he your Honour in offering that great courtesie offered unto me as great a pleasure as I can desire Her Majesty must be my Refuge and I beseech you that I may use you as a means when occasion shall serve whereof I assure my self and therein rest John Cant. 4. That he promoted the Proclamations for Plain Apparel for Free Trade for Pure Religion and the Laws against the Papists Observations on the Life of Sir John Puckering SIr John Puckering was born at Flamborough-head in Yorkshire He was second Son to his Father a Gentleman that left him neither a plenteous nor a penurious Estate His Breeding was more beneficial to him then his Portion gaining thereby such skill in the Common Law that he became the Queens Sergeant Speaker in the House of Commons and at last Lord Chancellour of England How he stood in his Judgement in the point of Church-Discipline plainly appeareth by his following Speech delivered in the House of Lords 1588. And especially you are commanded by Her Majesty to take heed that no ear be given nor time afforded to the wearisome Sollicitations of those that commonly be called Puritans wherewithal the late Parliaments have been exceedingly importuned which sort of men whilst that in the giddiness of their spirits they labour and strive to advance a new Eldership they do nothing else but disturb the good repose of the Church and Commonwealth which is as well grounded for the body of Religion it self and as well guided for the Discipline as any Realm that professeth the Truth And the same thing is already made good to the world by many of the Writings of godly and learned men neither answered nor answerable by any of these new-fangled Refiners And as the present case standeth it may be doubted whether they or the Jesuites do offer more danger or be more speedily to be repressed For albeit the Jesuites do empoyson the hearts of Her Majesties Subjects under a pretext of Conscience to withdraw them from their Obedience due to Her Majesty yet do they the same but closely and in privy-corners But these men do both teach and publish in their printed Books and teach in all their Conventicles sundry Opinions not onely dangerous to a well-setled Estate and the Policy of the Realm by putting a Pike between the Clergy and the Layty but also much derogatery to her sacred Majesty and her Crown as well by the diminution of her ancient and lawful Revenues and by denying Her Highness Prerogative and Supremacy as by offering peril to her Majesties safety in her own Kingdome In all which things
for and that is Stratagems Now you should have him surprize a Town by Butter-women another time by Workmen anon he would face the Enemy and draw them with success upon a Train of Gunpowder he would lay for them and Iron Pricksteds he would sow for them He would steal their hands and seals buy the very keys of their Closets and so amuse them with Letters and distract them with Jealousies while in the mean time the vigilant man alarmed them every hour of the day and each watch of the night so that he tamed those wild Irish as we do some wild beasts by watching Observations on the Life of Roger Ashcam FRom his Cradle a Royal Servant and to his Grave a Favourite a good man saith Cambden and if his ambition had been but as great as the occasion was fair a great one too Born he was honestly in York shire and bred handsomely at Cambridge and both born and bred for that Age which was to refine Greek and Latine to a politeness and raise them to an Eloquence He was the University-Orator at Cambridge and at Court there using his Eloquence here his Interest against that Sacriledge that having Dined on the Church as he writ came to Sup on the Universities Thence he was rather removed then advanced more suitably to his merit then his expectation to be Queen Elizabeths Schoolmaster for the Latine Tongue in her Sisters time and her Secretary for the same in her own What he got by his Ingenuity he lost by his Gaming viz. at Dice and Cock-fighting dying rich onely in those two Books his Estate and Monument whereof the one is intituled Toxophilus and the other Scholarcha He and his dear Smith were the happiest men in the Nation their large and ingenious Souls clasping together in an entire friendship made up of kindness and integrity apart from the little fears the jealousies the suspitions that vex Mankinde What learned Letters what loving Expostulations what discreet Intimations what faithful Advertisements what indifferent Community what common Cares and Pities How they loved how they chid and how they loved again how plain how malleable how sweet What little Observations upon one anothers inadvertencies neglects or miscarriages how they improved their Mollia tempora to the great end of friendship information and advice How secretly they vented their thoughts into each others breasts and there looked upon them by reflexion and the advantage of a second consideration And it 's a happiness to have another self to shew our selves to before we appear to the world that all men wish and the good men onely enjoy An honest man this that abhorred all artifice and cunning and hated all concealments and pretensions which he had sagacity enough to discover and look through but a spirit too generous to practise it none being more able for yet none more averse to that circumlocution and contrivance wherewith some men shadow their main drift and purpose Speech was made to open Man to Man and not to hide him to promote Commerce and not betray it HOw happy is he born and taught That serveth not anothers will Whose Armour is his honest thought And simple Truth his utmost skill Whose Passions not his Masters are Whose Soul is still prepar'd for death Vntide unto the world by care Of publick Fame or private breath Who envies none that Chance doth raise Nor Vice bath ever understood How deepest wounds are given by praise Nor Rules of State but Rules of Good Who hath his life from rumours freed Whose Conscience is his strong retreat Whose state can neither flatterers feed Nor ruine make Oppressors great Who God doth late and early pray More of his Grace then Gifts to lend And entertains the harmless day With a Religious Book or Friend This man is freed from servile bands Of hope to rise or fear to fall Lord of himself though not of Lands And having nothing yot hath all Observations on the Life of Sir John Packington SIr John Packington was a Person of no mean Family and of form and feature no way despiseable for he was a brave Gentleman and a very fine Courtier and for the time which he stayed there was very high in the Queens Grace but he came in and went out and through disassiduity lost the advantage of her favor and then Death drawing a vail over him utterly deprived him of recovery They say of him saith the same Author that had he brought less to the Court then he did he might have carried away more then he brought for he had a time of it but he was an ill husband of Opportunity His handsome features took the most and his neat parts the wisest at Court He could smile Ladies to his service and argue States-men to his designe with equal ease His Reason was powerful his Beauty more Never was 〈◊〉 brave Soul more bravely seated Nature bestowed great Parts on him Education polished him to and admirable frame of prudence and vertue Queen Elizabeth called him Her Temperance and Leicester His Modesty It is a question to this day Whether his Resolution took the Souldiers his Prudence the Politicians his Complyance the Favourites his Complaisance the Courtiers his Piety the Clergy his Integrity and Condescention the People or his Knowledge the Learned most This new Court-star was a nine-days wonder engaging all eyes until it set satisfied with its own glory He came to Court he said as Solomon did to see its vanity and retired as he did to repent it It was he who said first what Bishop Sanderson urged afterwards That a sound Faith was the best Divinity good Conscience the best Law and Temperance the best Physick Sir John Packington in Queen Elizabeths time was vertuous and modest and Sir John Packington in King Charles his time Loyal and valiant the one did well the other suffered so Greenbam was his Favourite Hammond his the one had a competant Estate and was contented the other hath a large one and is noble this suppresseth Factions in the Kingdome the other composed them in the Court and was called by Courtiers Moderation Westmerland tempted his fidelity and Norfolk his stedfastness but he died in his Bed an honest and an happy man while one of them goes off tainted on the Scaffold and the other dies a Begger in Flanders Observations on the Lives of the Norrises and Knowles MY Lord Norris had by his Lady an ample Issue which the Queen highly respected for he had six sons all Martial brave men of haughty courage and of great experience in the conduct of Military Affairs Greater was not the Faction between Leicester and Sussex at Court then that between the Knowles and the Norrises in the Country both Families of Oxfordshire the one resolute at Greyes the other valiant at Rycote the former got great Estates at home the latter attained to great Honour abroad The Knowles were beloved by the Queen for their own sakes the Norrises for theirs
excess of heat and vapours to fall in a clearer day for having good parts to act an easie nature to comply and a good disposition to be imposed on he was raised to play others parts rather then his own in those intricate and dark times when fools were put to execute what wise men advised and the world saw but the plain-side of the great watch of State within which all the Springs were inclosed and hid That he was but of a private capacity and so safely to be raised as one that would neither outshine nor outdare his Patron Machiavil hath a Rule Disc l. 3. c. 2. That it is a very great part of wisdome sometimes to seem a fool and so lie out of the reach of Observation and Jealousie appears from his Negotiations that were either payment of money in the Netherlands a Merchants business or taking security of the Merchants in France a Scriveners part or pacifying the tumult in Holland the task of a Burgomaster Beale the Clerk of the Council and he were joyned in Commission always to deal with the Scots the one the austerest and the other the sweetest man living When the first frighted those rude people with Expostulations the second got into them with infinuations A hard and a soft a Hammer and a Cushion breaks a Flint Fear and Love rule the world His grand Case as that great Historian layeth it is briefly this Many Protestants thought themselves in danger while the Queen of Scots was alive many Papists thought themselves undone while she was imprisoned these last press her to some dangerous undertakings of the first some were for securing others for transporting and a third party for poysoning her to which purpose many Overtures were made though yet none durst undertake it that had either Estate or honour to loose being so wise as not to understand what was meant by the strange Letters that were sent else they might have faln into this Gentlemans fortune who unadvisedly venturing between the honour and safety of his Soveraign was ground to nothing betwixt the fear of one party and the shame of the other But this mild but stout because honest man was not so weak in the perpetration of this fault as he was wise in his Apology for it saying He would not confess a guilt and betray his integrity nor yet stand upon a Justification and forget his Duty He would neither contest with his Soveraign nor disparage himself but clear himself as an honest man and submit as a thankful servant and a good subject DAzled thus with heighth of place Whilst our hopes our wits beguile No man marks the narrow space Twixt a prison and a smile Then since Fortunes favours fade You that in her arms do sleep Learn to swim and not to wade For the hearts of Kings are deep But if Greatness be so blind As to trust in Towers of Air Let it be with Goodness lin'd That at least the fall be fair Then though darkned you shall say When friends fail and Princes frown Vertue is the roughest way But proves at night a Bed of Down Observations on the Lives of Sir Humphrey Gilbert and Sir Jeffrey Fenton SHarp and lively-spirited men skilful in War and prudent in Peace of a restless and a publick Spirit well skilled in the Trade of England better in the Wealth of America in the North-part whereof which we call New-found Land whither they had sayled a little before with five Ships having sold their Patrimony in hope to plant a Colony there they undid themselves for after they had by the voice of a common Cryer proclaimed that Country to belong to the English Jurisdiction and had assigned Land to each of their Company they were distressed by Shipwracks and want of necessary provision and constrained to give over their Enterprize learning too late and teaching others That it is matter of greater difficulty to transport Colonies into far Countries upon private mens wealth then they and others in a credulous and sanguine fit imagine and this Quod sâ—â— esse velis nihilque malis Observations on the Life of Walter Haddon WAlter Haddon was born of a Knightly Family in Buckinghamshire bred at Eaton afterwards Fellow in Kings Colledge in Cambridge where he proceeded Doctor of Law and was the Kings Professor in that Faculty chosen Vice-Chancellour of the University 1550. Soon after he was made President of Magdalen-Colledge in Oxford which place he waved in the reign of Queen Mary and sheltered himself in obscurity Queen Elizabeth made him one of the Masters of her Requests and employed him in several Embassies beyond the Seas Her Majesty being demanded whether she preferred him or Buchanan for Learning wittily and warily returned Buchanum omnibus â—ntepono Haddonum nemini postpono S. Memoriae Guâ—ltero Haddono Equestri loco nato juris Consulto Oratori Poetae celeberrimo Graecae Latinaeque Eloquentiae sui temporis facilè principi sapientia sanctitate vitae in id erecto ut Reginae Elzabethae à supplicum libellis Magister esset destinareturque majoribus nisi facto immaturius cessisset Interim in omni gradus viro longe Eminentissimo Conjugi sui optimo meretissimoque Anna Suttona uxor ejus secunda flens moerens desiderii sui signum posuit Obiit anno Salut hum 1572. Aetatis 56. This his fair Monument is extant in the Wall at the upper end of the Chancel of Christ-Church in London where so many ancient Inscriptions have been barbarously defaced He and Dr. Wotton setled Trade between us and the Netherlands and removed the Mart to Embden and both were famous for their reservedness in the case of succession which they kept locked in their own breasts so always resolved to do notwithstanding Leicesters Sollicitations of them to a Declaration for the Queen of Scots now his Mistress and hereafter in the Queen of Englands designe to be his Wife unless as they alledged their Mistress commanded their Opinion who certainly never heard any more unwillingly then the controversie about the Title of Succession and both as famous for their disswasion against the making of the Netherland a Free-State urging that of Machiavel That People accustomed to live under a Prince if by any accident they become free are like beasts let loose and have much ado to maintain either their Government or their Liberty Observations on the Life of Sir William Russel HIs very Name brought Tyrone upon his knees to him and Iniskillyn to a surrendry He was for detaining Tyrone notwithstanding his Letters of Protection the Council was for dismissing him either out of favour to him or out of their reverence to their former promise as much to the danger of Ireland as the displeasure of the Queen Pretending an Hunting-match he had almost taken Feagh Mae Hugh or shut him up and under the disguize of a progress he shut up all the Passages and Avenues of Tyrone Agiges the Creâ—an King would say That he that would govern
entertainment and above all in his darling piece of love and self-love his Stile was an elegant perspicuity rich of phrase but seldome any bold Metaphors and so far from Tumor that it rather wanted a little Elevation The Dukes delivery of his mind I conceive not to be so sharpe as solid and grave not so solid and deep as pertinent and apposite to the times and occasions The Earl I account the more liberal and the Duke the more magnificent for I do not remember that my Lord of Essex in all his life-time did build or adorne any house the Queene perchance spending his time and himself his meanes or otherwise inclining to popular ways for we know the people are apter to applaud hous-keepers then hous-raisers They were both great cherishers of Scholars and Divines but it seems the Earl had obtained of himself one singular point that he could depart his affection between two extremes for though he bare always a kinde of filial reverence towards Dr Whitgift both before and after he was Archbishop yet on the other side he did not a little love and tender Master Cartwright though I think truly with large distinction between the persons and the Causes howsoever he was taxed with other ends in respecting that party They were both fair-spoken Gentlemem not prone and eager to detract openly from any man in this the Earl hath been most falsly blemished in our vulgar Story only against one man he had forsworn all patience namely Henry Lord Cobham and would call him per Excellentiam the Sycophant as if it had been an Emblem of his name even to the Queen her self though of no small insinuation with her and one Lady likewise that I may civilly spare to no â—inate for her sex sake whom he used to terme the Spyder of the Court yet generally in the sensitive part of their Natures the Earl was the worse Philosopher being a great Resenter and a weak Dissembler of the least disgrace And herein likewise as in the rest no Good Pupill to my Lord of Leicester who was wont to put all his passions in his pocket In the growth of their Fortunes the Duke was a little the swifter and much the greater for from a younger brothers meane estate he rose to the highest degree whereof a Subject was capable either in Title or Trust Therein I must confesse much more consortable to Charles Brandon under Henry the Eight who was equall to him in both For matter of Donative and addition of substance I do not believe that the Duke did much exceed him all considered under both Kings For that which the Earl of Essex had received from her Majesty besides the Fees of his Offices and the disposition of great Summes of money in her Armies was about the time of his Arraignment when faults use to be aggravated with precedent benefits valued at three hundred thousand pounds sterling in pure gift for his onely use to the Earl of Dorset then Lord Treasurer who was a wise man and a strict Computist and not ill affected towards him And yet it is worthy of note in the Margent of both Times that the one was prosecuted with silence and the other with murmur so undoing a measure is popular judgment I cannot here omit between them a great difference in establishing of both their Fortunes and Fames For the first the Duke had a care to introduce into neer place at the Court divers of his confident Servants and into high places very sound and grave Personages Whereas except a Pensioner or two we can scant name any one man advanced of the Earls breeding but Sir Thomas Smith having been his Secretary who yet came never further though married into a noble House then to the Clerk of the Councell and Register of the Parliament not that the Earl meant to stand alone like a Substantive for he was not so ill a Grammarian in Court but the Truth is in this point the Cecilians kept him back as very well knowing that upon every little absence or disassiduity he should be subject to take cold at his back For the Other in managing of their Fames I note between them a direct contrary wisdome For the Earl proceeded by way of Apology which he wrote and dispersed with his own hands at large though till his going to Ireland they were but aiery objections But of the Duke this I know that one having offered for his ease to do him that kinde of Service He refused it with a pretty kinde of thankfull scorn saying that he would trust his own good intentions which God knew and leave to him the pardoning of his Errours and that he saw no fruit of Apologies but the multiplying of discourse which surely was a well-setled Maxime And for my own particular though I am not obnoxious to his memory in the expression of Tacitus Neque injuria neque beneficia saving that he shewed me an ordinary good Countenance And if I were yet I would distinguish between Gratitude and Truth I must bear him this Testimony that in a Commission laid upon me by Soveraign Command to examine a Lady about a certain filthy accusation grounded upon nothing but a few single names taken up by a Footman in a kennel and straight baptized A list of such as the Duke had appointed to be poysoned at home himself being then in Spain I found it to be the most malicious and frantick surmise and the most contrary to his nature that I think had ever been brewed from the beginning of the World howsoever countenanced by a Libellous Pamphlet of a fugitive Physician even in Print and yet of this would not the Duke suffer any answer to be made on his behalf so constant he was to his own principles In their Military Services the Characters of the Earls imployments were these viz. His forwardest was that of Portugal before mentioned The saddest that of Roan where he lost his brave Brother His fortunatest peece I esteem the taking of Cadiz Malez and no less modest for there he wrote with his own hands a censure of his Omissions His jealousest imployment was to the relief of Calais besieged by the Cardinall Arch-duke about which there passed then between the Queen and the French King much Art His Voiage to the Azores was the best for the discovery of the Spanish weakness and otherwise almost a saving Voiage His blackest was that to Ireland ordained to be the Sepulchre of his Father and the Gulph of his own Fortunes But the first in 88 at Tilbury-camp was in my judgement the very poyson of all that followed for there whilest the Queen stood in some doubt of a Spanish Invasion though it proved but a Morrice-dance upon our Waves she made him in Field Commander of the Cavalry as he was before in Court and much graced him openly in view of the Souldiers and people even above my Lord of Leicester the truth is from thenceforth he fed too fast The Dukes employment abroad
week The time lost upon his misfortunes which made it necessary for him often to break his great series and method of undertaking He I say that shall compute and sum up this the particulars whereof are nakedly told without any straining of the truth or flourish of expression must be much to seek how a man of so many actions should write any thing and one of so many writings should do any thing and more how one of so many fatall diversions could keep up a steady minde for those great but exact arguments that it hath left in the world especially when there was one very difficult particular in all his composures viz. that none of his Discourses with which his History or other Books are embellished passed his exact hand before the most knowing and most learned men in that faculty to which those discourses belonged had debated them before him who after their departure summed up all into those excellent pieces now abroad under his name which I blame not King James for envying being the nearest his own though I think not that learned Prince of so low a spirit as out of an impertinent emulation to affect Sir Walter Rawleigh the lesse for the great repute that followed him because of his pen which being more dangerous than his Sword I wonder that wise Prince indulged him especially since that Master Hampden a little before the Wars was at the charge of 〈…〉 3. 52 sheets of his Manuscripts as the 〈…〉 himself told me who had his close chamber his fine and candle with an Attendant to deliver him the Originals and take his Copies as fast as he could write them 2 To the second viz. the weaknesse of the last part of his life 1. There was not a greater reach in that advice of his to the Queen when some were for attacquing Spain one way and some another to cut off its commerce with the Indies than there was shortnesse of spirit in trusting the most hopeful part of that expedition to Sir John Burroughs when he sunke under the most disastrous himself Yet 2. That he when Captain of the Guard Warden of the Cinque-ports Governor of Virginia a place of his own discovery preferments enough to satisfie a regular spirit should stand on termes with King James against the Law of the Land the Genius of the Nation the resolution of the Nobility and Reason it self that knoweth there is no cautions that hold Princes but their interest and nature was a greater infirmity But 3. That he upon the Kings frown for his former indiscretion upon him and Cobham should engage upon so shallow a Treason so improbable to hurt others or benefit themselves that if ever folly was capable of the title or pity due to innocence theirs might claim so large a share as not possible to be too severely condemned or slightly enough punished and that with such weak and inconsiderable men as were rather against the government than for one another Grey being a Puritan and Cobham a Protestant were the greatest but there is one particular more behind That he who could employ his restraint so well should lye under the justice as well as jealousie of K. James And knowing that Princes must not pardon any able man that either they have wronged or that hath wronged them be so intent upon a foolish liberty wherein he lost himself and his in that unhappy voyage of Guiana a voyage that considering King James his inclination to the Match his own obnoxiousnesse to that King abroad and Cecil here for obstructing the Peace with Spain and Gondamor's vigilance must needs be as unsuccessful as it was disgustful Methinks he that was of so incomparable a dexterity in his judgement as the Treasurer grew jealous of his excellent parts left he should supplant him of so quick and ready apprehension and conduct that he puzzled the Judges at Winchester of so good a Head-piece that it was wished then on the Secretary of State 's shoulders of so considerable an interest that notwithstanding his fourteen years imprisonment Princes interceded for him the whole Nation pitied him and King James would not execute him without an Apology And to say no more of so much magnanimity that he managed his death with so high and religious a resolution as if a Christian had acted a Romane or rather a Roman a Christian might have gone off the world at a higher rate but that there is an higher power governs wisdome as invisibly yet as really as wisdome doth the world which when I look back upon my Lord of Essex I call fate but when from him I look forward to Sir Walter Rawleigh I believe a providence He had a good presence in a handsome and well-compacted person a strong natural wit a better judgement with a bold and plausible tongue which set off his parts to the best advantage to these he had the adjuncts of a general Learning which by diligence and experience those two great Tutors was augmented to a great perfection being an indefatigable Reader and having a very retentive memory before his Judges at Winchester humble but not prostrate dutiful yet not dejected to the Jury affable but not fawning hoping but not trusting in them carefully perswading them with reason not distemperately importuning them with conjurations rather shewing love of life than fear of death patient but not careless civil but not stupid Observations on the Life of Thomas Sackvil Lord Buckhurst HE was bred in the University of Oxford where he became an excellent Poet leaving both Latine and English Poems of his to posterity Then studied he Law in the Temple and took the degree of Barrister afterwards he travelled into Foreign parts was detained for a time a Prisoner in Rome which he revenged afterwards in the liberty of his speech at the Powder-Traytors Tryal Wen his liberty was procured for his return into England he possessed the vast inheritance left him by his Father whereof in short time by his magnificent prodigality he spent the greatest part till he seasonably began to spare growing neer to the bottom of his Estate The story goes that this young Gentleman coming to an Alderman of London who had gained great penny worths by his former Purchases of him was made being now in the wane of his wealth to wait the coming down of the Alderman so long that his generous humour being sensible of the incivility of such Attendance resolved to be no more beholding to Wealthy Pride and presently turned a thrifty improver of the remainder of his Estate But others make him as abovesaid the Convert of Queen Elizabeth his Cousin-German once removed who by her frequent Admonitions diverted the torrent of his profusion Indeed she would not know him till he began to know himself and then heaped places of Honour and Trust upon him creating him 1. Baron of Buckhurst in Sussex Anno Dom. 1566. 2. Sending him Ambassador into France Anno 1571. Into the Low-Countries Anno Dom. 1566.
occasions whose principal quality refided in Magnificence Yet was he not transported with these appearances or to make them the greatest ornament of his conduct the choicest expressions of his life fixing neither his greatnesse upon a transitory Pageant nor his glory upon a fading Pomp. Observations on the Life of Sir Tho. Smith SIr Thomas Smith was born at Abington in Bark-shire bred in the University of Oxford God and himself raised him to the Eminency he attained unto unbefriended with any extraction He may seem to have had an ingenuous emulation of Sir Thomas Smith Senior Secretary of State whom he imitated in many good qualities and had no doubt equalled in preferment if not prevented by death He attained onely to be Master of the Requests and Secretary to King James for his Latine Letters higher places expecting him when a period was put at once to his life and to his hopes Novemb. 28. 1609. The generous piety of the honourable Countess of Exeter having erected him one Monument at Fulham and his own worth another in History His Father died when he was yet so young that he knew not what a Father meant but his Mothers affection for her Husband died not with him whereupon she multiplyed her cares on this Gentleman and her other children so abundantly that a long while he little found the want of that dear name her transcendent love so well supplying the place of both relations For no sooner was he fit to learn than she did by friends procure the best Masters those Times afforded to render his education perfect in those exercises as well of the minde as of the body wherein they that flattered him not would say he was no ill Proficient such majesty such modesty in his carriage that men would admire how two such distant things could meet in one subject His eye was quick and piercing his shape and motion charming the ayre and lineaments of his countenance lively arguments that his soul was not inferiour to his body but that the one promised no more pleasure to those that looked on it than the other did service to those that employed it His meen deserving preferment from the favour of a Soveraign and his parts gaining it from his justice Fortune did him not so much wrong in his mean Birth as he did himself right by great merit so worthy a Prince's service and a Courts favour He read and saw what others did but not with others apprehensions his judgement of things being not common nor his observations low flat or vulgar but such as became a breast now furnishing it self for businesse and for government There was an ancient custome to celebrate the Anniversary of the King's Coronation with all the Shews of Magnificence and joy which the Art or Affections of the People could invent and because we are esteemed the Warlik'st Nation in the whole world to continue that just regulation we declined all those effeminacies which are so predominant in other Courts and absolutely addicted our selves to such Martial exercises as are nothing lesse pleasing and delightful than the other and yet fit and prepare men more for the real use of Arms and acquisition of glory Here our Knight's praise came to my Lord of Carlisle's notice who first designed him a Commander but finding his Genius more courtly than Martial more learned than active recommended him to his Majesties softer services where none more obliging to the People by his industry and interest Court none more serviceable to his Majesty by the good name he gained in the Countrey So careful was he of publick content that from five to nine his Chamber was open to all Comers where you would finde him with the one hand making himself ready with the other receiving Letters and in all this hurry of Businesse giving the most orderly clear and satisfactory dispatches of any Statesman at that time From nine to one he attended his Master to whom he had as easie access as he gave to his People Two things set him up 1. A fair respect from his Master upon all occasions and as fair a treatment of the People He had his distinct Classis of Affairs and his distinct Officers for those Classis The order and method whereof incredibly advanced his dispatch and eased his burden which took up his day so that there remained but some hours he stole from night and sleep for his beloved and dear Studies and King James said he was the hardest Student in White-Hall and therefore he did not always trouble his Master with businesse but sometimes please him with discourse If Fortune had been as kinde to him as Nature greater Employments had been at once his honour and his business But from all his services and performances he derived no other advantage than the acting of them and at his death he lest no other wealth behind him but that of a high reputation never arriving at those enjoyments that enhance our Cares nor having time to withdraw himself from those cares that take away the relish of our enjoyments Observations on the Life of Sir Fulke Grevil SIr Fulke Grevil son to Sir Fulke Grevil the elder of Becham-Court in Warwick-shire descended from Willoughby Lord Brook and Admiral to Hen. 7. was bred first in the University of Cambridge He came to the Court back'd with a full and fair Estate and Queen Elizabeth loved such substantial Courtiers as could plentifully subsist of themselves He was a good Scholar loving much to employ and sometimes to advance learned men to whom worthy Bishop Overal chiefly owed his Preferment and Mr. Cambden by his own confession feasted largely of his Liberality His studies were most in Poetry and History as his Works do witnesse His stile conceived by some to be swelling is allowed lofty and full by others King James created him Baron Brook of Beauchamp-Court as descended from the sole Daughter and Heir of Edward Willoughby last Lord Brook in the Reign of King Henry the 7th His sad death or murther rather happened on this occasion His discontented servant conceiving his deserts not soon or well enough rewarded wounded him mortally and then to save the Law the labour killed himself verifying the observation that he may when he pleaseth be master of another mans life who contemneth his own Helyeth buried in Warwick Church under a Monument of black and white Marble whereon he is stiled Servant to Queen Elizabeth Counsellour to King James and Friend to Sir Philip Sidney Though a Favourite he courts Ladies rather than Honour and pursued his study rather than his ambition being more contemplative than active Others ministered to Queen Elizabeths government this Gentleman to her Recreation and Pleasures He came to Court when all men should young and stayed there until he was old his fortune being as smooth as his spirit and the Queens favour as lasting as his merit He bred up States-men but was none Sir William Pickering was like to have gained the Queens
Narrative shews King James had bestowed upon Sir Robert Carr twenty thousand pound my Lord apprehending the sum as more correspondent with his Master's goodnesse than his greatnesse with the royalty of his heart than the poverty of his Exchequer and observing his Majesty more careful of what money passed his own hands than what passed his servants contrives that the good King should goe through the place where this great sum lay in silver to a treatment where demanding whose money it was and being answered that it was his own before he parted with it He understanding the design protested he was cheated and intended not above five hundred pounds and the Favourite was glad to make use of the Lord Treasurer's mediation for the moyety of that great sum How industrious in the improvement of his Masters Revenue these particulars conclude viz. 1. A survey of the Crown-lands known before by report rather than by measure and let by chance rather then knowledge 2. A Revival of the Custody-lands Revenue by Commissioners of Asserts 3. A tarrier of Crown-wood-lands their growth and value where he numbered marked and valued all the Timber hitherto unknown 4. The Commissioners he procured to look into Copy-hold-Lands Wastes and Commons 5. The Rules to forfeited Estates and extended Lands 6. The improvement of the Customs from 86000 to 135000 pounds per annum 7. The bargain about the London River-water 8. The encouragement of all English Inventions Manufactures and Trade whereby the Subjects might be employed our Commodities enhanced and our Treasure kept among our selves 9. The Plantations and Transplantations in Ireland And 10. The Reformation of the Court of Wards in the poynt of disposing of Orphans These services advanced him to great honour and to as great envy the popular effects whereof no man could have escaped but one whose soul was immoveable temper calm thoughts deep apprehensions large and resolution great to engage vulgar Errors rather by the greatness of his Actions than the eminence of his Interest And satisfie the world leisurely by his Vertues and not awe it rashly by his power which got him even in that time St. Gregories Encomium That he was the first bad and the last good Treasurer since Queen Elizabeth's Reign I shall never forget his or his Fathers discourse with Claud Grollart primier President of Roan about the troubles in France wherein he advised him to stick fast to the King though be saw difficulties For it was his Maxime That Kings are like the Sun and Vsurpers like falling-Stars For the Sun though it be offuscated and eclipsed with Mists and Clouds at length they are dispersed where the others are but the figures of Stars in the eyes of view and prove no more but Exhalations which sodainly dissolve and fall to the earth where they are consumed A discourse which events there and elsewhere made an Oracle Observations on the Life of the Lord Howard of Effingham Earl of Nottingham THe Lord Howard of Effingham a man of most approved fidelity and invincible courage and Governour of Callice though a Courtier betimes yet seemed not to be in favour before the Queen made him high Admiral of England For his extract it may suffice that he was the son of a Howard and of a Duke of Norfolk As for his person he was as goodly a Gentleman as the times could afford he was one whom the Queen desired to honour who at his return from Cadiz accounts was created Earl of Nottingham He was a good honest and a brave man and a faithful servant to his Mistrss and such a one as the Queen out of her own Princely judgement knew to be a fit Instrument for the Admiral 's service having a great opinion of his fidelity and conduct And though his death was not honored with much wealth yet was it grac'd with the reputation of honesty He was raised to check Essex his ambition and Leicester's undermining being equally popular and honest yet having those at his heels that could lay a snare and bring in the prize Nature was a better friend to him than Fortune and his Integrity than both which commended him to a Mistress that understood Men as well as Books and knew it was no lesse the interest of Princes to take counsel concerning Persons than concerning matters He had that goodnesse without which man is a busie mischievous and wretched thing yet that wisdome whereby he was not so good as the Italian saith as to he good for nothing He was gentle but not easie milde but not soft obliging not the fancies of men but their Interest None more civil to Strangers his heart being not a narrow Island as my Lord Bacon observes but a large Continent None more tender of Inferiors none more humble to Superiours none more compassionate to the afflicted none more loving to or more beloved of all The Queen said she trusted her Kingdom to his faithfulnesse in 88. and her self to his conduct His alliance to the Queen brought him to Court but his honesty kept him there when jealousie had overcast that great house of the Howards ancient Nobility was a good recommendation to the Qu first Favours but modesty submission and integrity were the Vertues that continued them He had onely so much Ambition as rendred him active and serviceable and not busie or dangerous He knew a Nobleman cannot be safely aspiring nor smooth man securely popular and a man of his Retinue must not be busie He lived in an age when all honour was perillous that was not designed for service when the State chose Ministers that were more sensible of duty than of rising that loved businesse rather upon conscience than upon bravery and when the Prince discerned a busie nature from a willing minde as the stone had need be rich that is set without foyl so this noble person that was onely real had need of great parts of vertue So valiant he was that he made the Spanish Fleet veil to him though it carried the Empress of Germany so active that he tugged at the Cable himself in 88. and did much by his own pains and more by his example so skilful that he contrived the Fire-ships that frighted and scattered the Spanish Navy Two eminent services he did the Protestant Religion when but twenty one years of age The first is that he was so observant a witnesse of Arch-Bishop Parker's consecration that with his bare word the tale of the Nags head came to nothing 2. That he was so close an Agent in the Court of France that no Design was brewed in Scotland none seconded in France but he with the Emperour and the King of Spain's Embassadors assistance whom he had engaged with the hope of a Match between the King of the Romanes and his Mistriss discovered and defeated with that successe that the King of France courted his Mistriss to a Peace and himself to Favour None more careful in matter of Businesse none more splendid in businesse of Complement
as much of his Councel as he was of his Majesties too haughty a carriage was the miscarriage of other Minions too good a nature was bis His great defect being that goodnesse and humanity that knoweth no excess but errour which was rather a softnesse than a kindnesse his heart was as large to others as his Masters was to him and knew as little how to mistrust as how to do any thing for which he should be mistrusted This is the Lesson he was short in That civilities should be common but favours choice The Whale is steered at Sea by a far smaller Fish and this States-man at Court by far meaner men than himself I my self saith an ingenious man have known many so far strangers to what was convenient as they would scarce concede or deny any thing out of the presence of their Secretary and this proceeded not seldome from a distrust there was no cause for manifest in the Earl of Somerset who though himself owner of a competent sufficiency was so enchanted with an opinion of Sir Overbury's parts that he preferred him from a Servant to such an intimate friendship as he could think nothing well educated for employment in his Office that had not passed his correction nor secret laid up but in his bosome which swelled him saith he to such a monstrosity in pride that I have heard not being my self then neer the English Court how he offered to rant at his servants and did once beat his Coachman for putting his commands under an inferiour expostulation to his Master and through this intolerable arrogance in him and remisness in the Earl the sparks first flew that kindled the ruine of them both Friendship being no more able to maintain its interest against a feminine affection than so great a pride was to confine it self within the tedder of moderation The greatest are not free but led in triumph by the affections of others through the mediation of their own Sir Thomas Overbury would do what was most plausible and the Earl must peform what was lesse popular The King trusted Carr with his Dispatches and Carr trusts Overbury a month together without examination who had full Commission to receive and answer any Letters or other Expresses that came to his hands Great opportunities offered themselves to Sir Robert Carr and a great Soul he had to observe them Fortune being nothing else but an attentive observation of the revolution of Affairs and the occasions resulting therefrom observant he was of his Master who raised him not to eclipse others but like a brave Prince to ease himself For Princes to use my Lord Bacon's words being at too great a distance from their Subjects to ease themselves into their bosomes raise some persons to be as it were participes curam or their Companions but this Favourite understood as well the humour of the People as he did the disposition of his Prince obliging the one no lesse than he pleased the other Gay he was as a Courtier grave as a Counsellour to Scholars none more civill to Soldiers none more liberal of States-men none more respective He had his extraordinary great Vertues upon occasions to shew and his ordinary little ones always to oblige a compleatnesse in all turnes and upon all occasions was his nature Familiar he was yet not cheap sociable upon regard and not upon facility His behaviour was his soul free for any exercise or motion finding many and making more opportunities to endear himself He broke his minde to small observations yet he comprehended great matters His carriage was so exact as if affected and yet so graceful as if natural That which overthrew the first bewitched the wisest and tyred the most patient man undid this noble person yet so regular were his affections that he did nothing publickly in the Countesse of Essex the Earl of Suffolk's Daughters case but by due course of Law the approbation of the gravest and wisest Divines and Counsellors and the applause of England his failings were the faults of his years rather than of his person of his sodain fortune than of his constant temper his counsels were safe and moderate his publick actions honest and plain his first years of favour industrious and active his minde noble and liberal His soul capacious and inquisitive his temper yielding and modest In a word Sir Robert Carr deserved to be a Favourite if he had not been one He fell because he medled too little with the Secretaries place while in it and too much when out of it giving Overbury too much scope on the one hand to mate him and Sir Ralph Winwood too much offence to undermine him who finding that new Earls occasions growing with his advancements I say his occasions because I think his miscarriages were not his nature but his necessity apt to encroach upon his and other Court-Offices gave ear to that Intelligence from Flushing that might ruine him and set free himself The first Intimation of his guilt was his earnestnesse for a general Pardon and the first argument of it was my Lord Chancellor's scruples in sealing it whence I date his first declining attended with as much pity as his first advancement was with envy We and the Troglodites curse not the Sun-rising more heartily than we worship it when it sets The Gentleman was as to his stature rather well compacted than tall as to his features and favour comely rather than beautiful The hair of his head was flaxen and that of his face yellow His nature was gentle his disposition affable his affections publick untill a particular person and interest engrossed them and the good Gentleman being sensible of failers that might ruine him was wholly intent upon a treasure that might preserve him His defect was that he understood onely his own age and that the experience of man's life cannot furnish examples and presidents for the events of one mans life Observations on the Life of George Abbot GEorge Abbot being one of that happy Ternion of Brothers whereof two were eminent Prelates the third Lord Mayor of London was bred in Oxford wherein he became Mr. of University-Colledge a pious man and most excellent Preacher as his Lectures on Jonah do declare He did first creep then run then flye into Preferment or rather Preferment did flie upon him without his expectation He was never Incumbent on any Living with cure of Souls but was mounted from a Lecturer to a Dignitary so that he knew the Stipend and Benevolence of the one and the Dividend of the other but was utterly unacquainted with the taking of Tithes with the many troubles attending it together with the causelesse molestations which Parsons presented meet with in their repective Parishes And because it is hard for one to have a Fellow-suffering of that whereof he never had a suffering this say some was the cause that he was so harsh to Ministers when brought before him Being Chaplain to the Earl of Dunbar then omni-prevalent with
and Sciences witnesse his faithful Translations of and learned Illustrations on Caesar's Commentaries Say not that Comment on Commentary was false Heraldry seeing it is so worthy a work that the Author thereof may passe for an eminent instance to what perfection of Theory they may attain to in matter of War who were not acquainted with the practick part thereof being once employed by Queen Elizabeth with a dispatch to Sir Francis Vere which occasioned his presence at the Battel at Newport For he doth so smartly discuss pro and con and seriously decide many Martial Controversies that his judgement therein is praised by the best Military Masters King James taking notice of his Abilities made him Clerk of the Council and Knighted him and he was at last preferred Secretary of State in the vacancy of that place but prevented by death he acted not therein At this day his goodnesse in his general carriage out-did his prudence and his prudence in particular his goodnesse but his industry both in all things and in nothing more than in his Scotch Negotiations where he over-reached the slye French composed and setled the unsatisfied King and sent those weekly Advertisements to his Mistriss that Sir Robert Cecil confessed the Master-wheel of those years revolutions When Charls the fifth presented Secretary Eraso to his Son Philip the second he said He gave him somewhat greater than his Estate and more royal than his Empire When Sir William Waad introduced Sir Clement Edmonds to Court he brought thither in that person more than he could carry away in his own A person much accomplished in the great precepts and rules he observed more in his experience and application of those he practised wherein he was wise but not presumptuous exact but not pedantick allowing much to old Observations more to new Circumstances He was not more beholding to his Nature than his Nature to his Study and Meditation and that to time and experience which offered at once occasions of instruction and matter of exercises to his great understanding so well acquainted with the affairs of former Ages that he could not be surprized with those of his own knowing how to command before he was called to obey as who trusted not to his own short and perplexed life that scarce holds out five or six important Negotiations and ordinarily ceaseth to be before it beginneth to know but his policy may be guessed from his morality and his publick carriage in the â—umults of Affairs from his private conduct and command in the disorders of nature these being as well managed by his reason as the former by his prudence His lesser skill in governing the little world being an earnest of that more large in ruling the greater The Government of others saith Philosophy is not fit for him who is a Slave to himself Observations on the Life of James Hay Earl of Carlisle ONe Hay his Ancestor saved Scotland from an Army of Danes at Longcarty with a Yoak in his hand James Hay 600 years after saved the King of that Countrey from the Gowries at their house with a Culter in his the first had as much ground assigned him by King Kenith as a Falcon could flye over at one flight and the other as much Land as he could ride round in two dayes The whole Family fell before Dublin-Castle in former dayes save a childe left in his Mothers womb and had decayed in ours but that the heir of it was cut out from his He served his Master in Scotland by his Generosity and in England with his Hospitality the decay whereof King James observed the defect of the English Nobility and the restauration of it he designed the honour of the Scâ—ts Gentry Royal was his Masters munificence towards him noble his towards others His Majesty being not more intent upon his advancement for publick service than he was upon the advancement of others to his private assistance His Majesties gracious inclination being for a Reign of Peace this servants estate was spent upon the Arts of it I mean upon Feasts Masques gay Cloathes and such other Delicacies as might soften our harsher natures to quietnesse that Princes interest who was first to understand and then to manage the strength of this Nation Although he failed in most of his Negotiations because he carried his money on his back rather than in his purse rather to spend than to bestow and amaze Foreigners rather than oblige them Yet was his Embassie more suitable to the French vanity than either the Dutch thrift or the Germane plainnesse and his carriage more answerable to a gawdy Treaty of Marriage than to a close Agency for Interest or the intricate consultations of War So great the report of his Hospitality that an Host of Delph demanded sixty pounds for providing him a Supper though he never came that way yet so displeasing to the Prince of Orange that when his Steward asked what he should provide extraordinarily for the great Embassador's entertainment the Prince looks on his Bill of Fare and whereas there was but one Pig he bid them write two tartly reflecting as well on my Lords Nation as his magnificence One of his Entertainments I understand not the reason of I mean his Ante-Suppers the manner of which was to have the Board covered at the first entrance of Guests with dishes as high as a tall man could well reach filled with the choicest and dearest Viands Sea or Land could afford and all this once seen and having feasted the eyes of the invited was removed and fresh set on to the same height having onely this advantage of the other that it was hot at one whereof an Attendant eat to his single share a whole Pye reckoned to my Lord at twenty pounds being composed of Amber-greece Magisterial of Pearl Musk c. yet was so far from being sweet in the morning that he almost poysoned his whole Family flying himself like the Satyr from his own stink and another went away with forty pound of Sweet-meats in his Cloak-bag Yet must I needs judge him uncharitable that writ of this noble person that when the most able Physicians and his own weaknesse had passed a judgement he could not live many dayes he did not forbear his Entertainments but made divers brave Cloaths as he said to outface naked and despicable Death adding withal That nature wanted wisdome power or love in making man mortal and subject to diseases Forgetting as that censorious Pen goeth on that if every Individual his own lust had been able to have produced should have prosecuted an equal excesse with his they would in a far lesse time than an age have brought themselves or the world into the same disease he died of which was a Consumption For my part I adhere to their Civility that represent his nature modest his demeanor fair and Court-like his obligations general his interest as great with the Favourite as with the King and so much the greater with the
factions and dependencies and again their opposites envyers and Competitors their moods and times their principles rules observations c. their actions how conducted how favoured how opposed c. is the onely way of successe in businesse and of prevailing in fortune especially if attended with this Gentleman 's two master-Qualities 1. Reservedness the security 2. Slowness of belief the sinew of wisdome Finding his temper agreeable with the University he allowed himself more scope and liberty but observing his particular constitution not suitable to the general state of his times the whole course of his life was more close retyred and reserved opening it self but with an half-light and a full advantage and what he was to others he believed all others were to him as hardly trusting them as he was understood himself unlesse surprized in his countenance by the motions of it or in his actions by the suddennesse of them or in his temper by his passion but as far as can be guessed from the Letters that passed between them about the Palatinate He was of the same make in the State as Arch-Bishop Abbot was in the Church zealous and sullen if others had a better wit than he in abusing him he had a better memory than they to think of it for one Mr. Wiemark a wealthy man a great Novilant and constant Paul's walker hearing the news that day of the beheading of Sir Walter Rawleigh His head said he would do well upon the shoulders of Sir Robert Naunton Secretary of State These words were complained of and Wiemark summoned to the Privy-Council where he pleaded for himself that he intended no disrespect to Mr. Secretary whose known worth was above all detraction onely he spake in reference to an old proverb Two heads are better than one and for the present he was dismissed Not long after when rich men were called on for a contribution to St. Pauls Wiemark at Council-Table subscribed a hundred pounds but Mr. Secretary told him Two hundred were better than one which betwixt fear and charity Wiemark was fain to subscribe Neither was he sooner up than he gave his Colleague and Successor in the Orators place Sir Francis Nethersole his hand to advance him too whom after his elegant Speech on Prince Henry we finde a prudent Agent with the Princes of the Union and a faithful Secretary to the Queen of Bohemia for whom he did much and suffered more Yet was he lately alive and as charitable in his elder yeares as ever he was noble in his younger Observations on the Life of Sir Arthur Ingram SIr Arthur had wit in Italy where he was a Factor and wealth in London where he was a Merchant to be first a Customer and then a Cofferer to that King who had this happinesse that he understood so much of all his affairs as to make a judgement of what persons might be most serviceable to him in each of them So pragmatical a person as this Gentleman was necessary among the Custome-house-men who were about to engrosse all the wealth of the Kingdome and as useful among the Green-cloath-men who shared amongst themselves vast Concealments The activity of his head had undone him had not the odium of it been allayed by the discretion of his tongue whatever he spake being naturally accompanied with such a kinde of modesty and affability as gained the affection and attracted the respect of all that conversed with him onely some wary men were jealous of that watchful and serene habit he had attained to in every conference and action as well to observe as to act though it was more than they needed he having not that good stay and hold of himself his much observing tempting him to much medling though never more need of it than at that time when ninety and odd thousand pounds were spent upon the Palsgrave to reimburse which money he set up the improvement of Coyn the Farthings the borrowing of money of the Customers and as many other Projects to get money as others had to spend it Observations on the Life of Sir Henry Yelverton THis Gentleman's relation to Sir Thomas Overbury brought him to the Earl of Somerset's service and my Lord of Somerset's service recommended him to the Kings favour whereby he was at first his Counsel learned and afterwards his Attorney-General in which last place his duty enjoyned him the impeachment of that Earl but his gratitude forbad him Loth he was to refuse his Masters command more loth to have a hand in his Patrons ruine his civility outweighed his prudence his obligations his safety for refusing to implead his Mr. as a great Delinquent at the Bar he was sent by the Council as a greater to the Tower where he continued until as some say the Duke of Buckingham came to him at mid-night and hearing from him such mysteries of State as nearly concerned his own safety not onely relea Observations on the Life of Bishop Mountague JAmes Mountague son to Sir Edward Mountague was born at Boughton in Northamptonshire bred in Christs-Colledge in Cambridge He was afterwards Master or rather nursing Father to Sidney-Colledge For he found it in bonds to pay twenty Marks per annum to Trinity-Colledge for the ground whereon it is built and left it free assigning it a rent for the discharge thereof When the Kings Ditch in Cambridge made to defend it by its strength did in his time offend it with its stench he expended a hundred Marks to bring running-water into it to the great conveniency of the University He was afterwards Bishop first of Bath and Wells then of Winchester being highly in favour with King James who did ken a man of merit as well as any Prince in Christendome He translated the Works of King James into Latine and improved his greatnesse to do good Offices therewith He dyed Anno Dom. 1618. Aetat 49. and lyeth buried within his fair Monument within his fairer 〈◊〉 mean a goodly Tomb in the Church of Bath which oweth its well-being and beauty to his Munificence King James cast his eye upon him at Hinchingbrook where the University of Cambridge met him as he came from Scotland because he observed him one of those he knew he must oblige I mean a Gentleman He set his heart upon him at Court because he found him one he intended to employ I mean a Scholar He was the onely man of all the Doctors he conversed with there and the onely man of all the Bishops he consulted with at White-Hall His nature inclined him to magnificence and his vertue to Thrift sparing from lesser vanities what he might expend upon greater enterprizes never sparing when just designs called for great charge Grateful he was to his followers though not prodigal Good men choose rather to be loved for their benefits to the Community than those to private persons His understanding was as large as his heart was honest comprehensive both of men and things even those things that were either
to friend then was the Lord Treasurer Burleigh For when occasion had been offered of declaring his conceit as touching my service he would always tell the Queen which I received from her self and some other Ear-witnesses that there was not any man in England so meet as my self to undergo the Office of the Secretary And sithence his son the present Lord Treasurer hath signified unto me in private conference that when his Father first intended to advance him to that place his purpose was withal to make me his Colleague But that the daily provocations of the Earl of Essex were so bitter and sharp against him and his comparisons so odious when he put us in a balance as he thought thereupon he had very great reason to use his best means to put any man out of hope of raising his fortune whom the Earl with such violence to his extream prejudice had endeavoured to dignifie 7. When I had well considered how ill it did concur with my natural disposition to become or to be counted either a stickler or partaker in any publick faction how well I was able by Gods good blessing to live of my self if I could be contented with a competent livelihood I resolved thereupon to possess my soul in peace all the residue of my days to take my farewel of State-employments and so to retire me from the Court. 8. Now although after this by her Majesties direction I was often called to the Court by the now Lord Treasurer then Secretary and required by him and also divers times since by order from the King to serve as Ambassador in France and to negotiate in other very honourable employments yet I would not be removed from my former final resolution but have continued at home my retired course of life which is now methinks to me as the greatest preferment the State can afford 9. This I must confesse of my self that though I did never repent me yet of my often refusals of honourable offers in respect of enriching my private Estate yet somewhat more of late I have blamed my self and my nicety that way for the love that I bear to my Reverend Mother the University of Oxford and to the advancement of her good by such kinde of means as I have since undertaken 10. Having examined what course I might take I concluded at the last to set up my staffe at the Library door being throughly perswaded that in my solitude and surcease from the Common-wealth affairs I could not busie my self to better purpose then by reducing that place which then in every part lay ruined and waste to the publick use of Students 11. For the effecting whereof I found my self furnished in a competent proportion of such four kinds of aids as unlesse I had them all there was no hope of good successe For without some kinde of knowledge as well in the learned modern Tongues as in sundry other sorts of Scholastical literature without some purse-ability to go through with the charge without very great store of honourable friends to further the design and without special good leisure to follow such a work it could but have proved a vain attempt and inconsiderate 12. But how well I have sped in all my endeavours and how full provision I have made for the benefit and ease of all frequenters of the Library that which I have already performed in fight That besides which I have given for the maintenance of it and that which hereafter I purpose to add by way of enlargement to that place for the project is cast and whether I live or die it shall be God willing put in full execution will testifie so truly and abundantly for me as I need not to be the publisher of the dignity and worth of mine own institution Writtten with mine own hand Anno 1609. Decemb. 15. Observations on the Life of Henry Vere Earl of Oxford HEnry Vere was son of Edward Vere the seventeenth Earl of Oxford and Anne Trentham his Lady whose principal habitation the rest of his patrimony being then wasted was at Heningham-Castle in Essex A vigorous Gentleman full of courage and resolution and the last Lord Chamberlain of England of this Family His sturdy naâ—ure would not bow to Court-compliants who would maintain what he spake speak what he thought think what he apprehended true and just though sometimes dangerous and distastful Once he came into Court with a great milk-white Feather about his hat which then was somewhat unusual save that a person of his merit might make a fashion The Reader may ghess the Lord who said to him in some jeer My Lord you wear a very fair Feather It 's true said the Earl and if you mark it there is ne're a Taint in it Indeed his Family was ever loyal unto the Crown deserving their Motto Vero nil Verius Going over one of the four English Colonels into the Low-Countries and endeavouring to raise the fiege of Breda he so over-heated himself with Marching Fighting and vexing the Designe not succeeding that he dyed after Anno Dom. 16 ...... He married Diana one of the Co-heirs of William Earl of Exeter afterwards to Edward Earl of Elgin by whom he left no Issue Observations on the Life of Sir Francis Vere SIr Francis Vere Governour of Bril and Portsmouth was of the ancient and of the most noble extract of the Earls of Oxford and it may be a question whether the Nobility of his house or the honour of his Achievements might most commend him who brought as much glory to his name as he received honour from it He was amongst his Queens Sword-men inferiour to none but superiour to many He lived oftner in the Camp than Court but when his pleasure drew him thither no man had more of the Queens favour and none lesse envied He was a Soldier of great worth and commanded thirty years in the service of the States and twenty years over the English in Chief as the Queens Generall and he that had seen the Battel of Newport might there best have taken him and his noble Brother the Lord of Tilbury to the life They report that the Qu as she loved Martial men would court this Gentleman as soon as he appeared in her presence for he seldome troubled it with the noyse and alarms of supplication his way was another sort of undermining as resolved in the Court as in the Camp as well to justifie his Patron as to serve her Majesty telling her the plain truth more sincerely than any man choosing as he said rather to fall by the malice of his enemies than be guilty of Ingratitude to his friends Yea and when he sued for the government of Portsmouth and some Grandees a objected that that place was always bestowed on Noblemen he answered There were none ennobled but by their Princes favour and the same way be took The Veres compared Veri scipiadae Duo fulmina belli SIr Francis and Sir Horace Vere sons
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 ripen their judgements 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 must be discharged upon the shoulders of their Ministers and they who are nearest 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 wisdome and goodnesse 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 eyes 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 outside 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 King's sake but if out of the later you ought to take the greater care for your own sake You are as a new risen Star and the eyes 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 finde the throng of suitors attend you for no man almost who hath to do with the King will think himself safe unlesse you be his good Angel and guide him or or 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 denyal when the case will not bear it is the most acceptable to suitors they will gain by their dispatch whereas else they shall spend their time and money in attending and you will gain in the ease you will finde in 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 multiplis 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 day to give them audience If the businesse be light and easie it may by word onely 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 unlesse 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 judgements and fidelities you believe you may trust in a business of that nature and recommend it to one or more of them to inform you of their opinions and of their reasons for or against the granting of it and if the matter be of great weight indeed then it would not be amisse to send several Copies of the same Petition to several of your friends the one not knowing what the other doth and desire them to return their answers to you by a certain time to be prefixed in writing so shall you receive an impartial answer and by comparing the one with the other you shall both discern the abilities and faithfulnesse of your friends and be able to give a judgement thereupon as an Oracle But by no means trust not to your own judgement alone for no man is â—â—niscient nor trust onely to your servants who may mislead you or mis-inform you by which they may perhaps gain a few crowns but the reproach will lie upon your self if it be not rightly carried For the facilitating of your dispatches my advice is further that you divide all the Petitions and the matters therein contained under several heads which I conceive may be fitly ranked into these eight sorts 1. Matters that concern Religion and the Church and Church-men 2. Matters concerning Justice and the Laws and the professors thereof 3. Councellors and the Council-Table and the great Offices and Officers of the Kingdom 4. Foreign Negotiations and Embassies 5. Peace and War both foreign and civil and in that the Navy and Forts and what belongs to them 6. Trade at home and abroad 7. Colonies or foreign Plantations 8. The Court and Curiality And whatsoever will not fall naturally under one of these heads believe me Sir will not be worthy of your thoughts in this capacity we now speak of And of these sorts I warrant you you will finde enough to keep you in business I begin with the first which concerns Religion 1. In the first place be you your self rightly perswaded and setled in the true Protestant Religion professed by the Church of England which doubtlesse is as sound and orthodox in the doctrine thereof as any Christian Church in the world 2. In this you need not be a Monitor to your gracious Master the King the chiefest of his Imperial Titles is to be The Defender of the Faith and his learning is eminent not onely
and Antiquity of whose old pieces he was the greatest Hoarder in Europe setting aside Ferdinando de Medicis grand Duke of Tuscany from whom by the mediation of Sir Henry Wotton he borrowed many an Antique Sculpture which furnished his Archives so well as we may guess by Mr. Selden's Marmora Arundeliana that as my Lord Burleigh's Library was the most compleat one for a Politician my Lord Bacon's for a Philosopher Mr. Selden's for an Historian Bishop Vsher's for a Divine my Lord of Northampton's for a Poet Mr. Oughtred's for a Mathematician Dr. Hammond's for a Grammarian or an universal Critick so the Earl of Arundel's was the best for aâ— Hearld and an Antiquary a Library not for shew but use Neither was he more in his study where he be stowed his melancholy hours than in Councel where he advised three things in reference to the Foreign troubles 1. Correspondence abroad 2. Frequent Parliaments 3. Oftner progresse into the Countries Neither was he lesse in the Field than in Council when General against the Scots the more shame that Protestants should 〈◊〉 time rebel against their King when Papists vent 〈…〉 red their lives for him After which Expedition he was ordered beyond Sea with the Queen-Mother of France 1639. when they say he looked back on England with this wish May it never have need of me It 's true some observe that the Scots who cried upon him as a Papist yet writ under hand to him their Noble Lord as they did to Essex and Holland so effectually that they had no heart to that War afterward and it is as true that thereupon a schedule was now the second time given of the parties that combined against the Government viz. 1. The busie medlers that had got the plausible trick of Haranguing since King James's time not used in Parliament from H 6. time to his 2. The covetous Landlords Inclosers Justices of the Peace that ruled in the Country and would do so in Parliament 3. Needy men in debt that durst not shew their heads in time of Peace 4. Puritans that were so troublesome against Hatton c. in Queen Eliz. dayes and under pretence of Religon overthrew all Government 5. Such Male-contents as either lost the preferment they had or had not what they were ambitious of with their Kindred and Dependants 6. Lawyers that second any attempt upon the Prerogative with their Cases Records and Antiquities 7. London Merchants that had been discovered by Cranfield and Ingram as to their cheats put upon the King in his Customes and Plantations 8. Common-wealths-men that had learned from Holland in Queen Eliz. days to pray for the Queen and the State And 9 Because there cannot be a Treason without a P such Recusants as were Hispanioliz'd whereof this Earl was none but though as a Church-Papist he had most of the Catholick Peers votes devolved on him he never bestowed them undutifully albeit sometimes stoutly and resolutely A great friend he was to all new Inventions save those that tended to do that by few hands which had been usually done by many because said he While private men busie their heads to take off the Poors employment the publick Magistrate must trouble his to finde them maintenance Either he or the Earl of Northampton used to say when asked what made a compleat man To know how to cast Accompts an accomplishment though ordinary yet might save many an Estate in England Observations on the Life of Esme Duke of Richmond GReat in his Ancestors honour greater in his own vertu and greatest of all in that like the Star he wore the higher he was the lesse he desired to seem affecting rather the 〈◊〉 than the pomp of noblenesse therefore his courtesie was his nature not his craft and his affableness not a base servile popularity or an ambitious insinuation but the native gentlenesse of his disposition and his true value of himself He was not a stranger to any thing worth knowing but best acquainted with himself and in himself rather with his weaknesses for Caution than his abilities for Action Hence he is not so forward in the traverses of War as in Treaties of Peace where his honour ennobled his cause and his moderation advanced it He and my Lord of Southampton managing the several Overtures of Peace at London Oxford and Oxbridge with such honourable freedome and prudence that they were not more deservedly regarded by their Friends than importunately courted they their Enemies who seeing they were such could not be patient till they were theirs though in â—ain their honours being impregnable as well against the Factions kindnesse as against their power At Conferences his conjectures were as solid as others judgements his strict observation of what was passed furnishing him for an happy guesse of what was to come Yet his opinion was neither variably unconstant nor obstinately immoveable but framed to present occasions wherein his method was to begin a second advice from the failure of his first though he hated doubtful suspense when he might be resolute This one great defect was his good nature that he could never distrust till it was dangerous to suspect and he gave his Enemy so much advantage that he durst but own him for his friend One thing he repented of that he advised his Majestie to trust Duke Hamilton his Adversary with the affairs of Scotland in compliance with the general opinion rather than the Marquess Huntly his friend in compliance with his own real interest an advice wherein his publick-spiritednesse superseded his particular concerns and his good nature his prudence So true is it that the honest mans single uprightnesse works in him that confidence which oft-times wrongs him and gives advantage to the subtle while he rather pities their faithlesness than repents of his credulity so great advantage have they that look onely what they may do over them that consider what they should do and they that observe onely what is expedient over them that judge onely what is lawful Therefore when those that thought themselves wise left their sinking Soveraign he stuck to his Person while he lived to his body when dead and to his cause as long as he lived himself attending the first resolutely burying the second honourably and managing the third discreetly undertaking without rashnesse and performing without fear never seeking dangers never avoiding them Although when his Friends were conquered by the Rebels he was conquered by himself retyring to that privacy where he was guessed at not known where he saw the world unseen where he made yielding a conquest where cheerful unconcerned in expectation he provided for the worst and hoped the best in the constant exercise of that Religion which he his maintained more effectually with their Examples than with their Swords doing as much good in encouraging the Orthodox by his presence as in relieving them by his bounty In a word I may say of him as Macarius doth of Justine There was no
which he could not choose but smile at knowing as he used to say That Treason is alwayes within five years weary of its self the People being more impatient of their own Libertinisme than of the strictest and most heavy government His way of Intelligence from Lâ—â—don by Mistresse E. P. friend to J. M. puts me 〈◊〉 minde of a passage in Queen Elizabeths Reigâ— who being presented with an Overture out 〈◊〉 Spain so secretly managed by the Councel there as the first news of its approach came with its selâ— the Messengers out of fear of a surprizal dispensing the Ceremonies commonly used in the behalf of Embassadors something strange considering the haughtinesse of that Nation did much inflame the Lord Treasurer's desire to know the farthest extent of the Negotiation as conducing to a present advantage that such an Answer might be made as should in some proportion quadrate with the demand of the Catholique King at that time standing upon Termes little different from those of an Enemy And being informed from the ordinary Espials he kept about his Person that the attempt was something difficult if not impossible the Don out of distrust still carrying his Instructions in his bosome Burleigh caused such a Jesuite to be apprehended as by reason of former miscarriages could not expect mercy and imparts his desires to him under as large promises if he brought them about as threats to be revenged on him and his Associates if he found himself abused All which though with some reluctancy he undertook and performed through the mediation of a fair Lady that first took away his Commission and then again layd it under his pillow whilest he slept His early endeavours for Peace by Addresses to London Scotland Cornwal speak his integrity and his prudence Every inconsiderable person may be powerful at disturbances but to forme Peace requires much wisdome and great vertues and his observations upon the division of the great Faction to two parties Independent and Presbyterian His care and watchfulness none of their clashes escaping his reach which was ready to accommodate as occasion served their respective Interests in their New models and alterations making as good use of Fears and Jealousies between them as they had done between the King and his People These and other his services recommended him to the attendance of his most excellent Majesty when Prince in the perfecting of the Western Association when it was thought fit to put the happiness and hope of the Kingdom in two bottomes with whom he continued with a constant fidelity in all difficulties performing several Embassies during their banishment with honour particularly one to the Emperour who had great respects for his Master and an aweful regard of his Cause till it pleased God to bring his Majesty by his and others counsel to his Father's Throne which he just saw and dyed Master of the Rolls June 1660. From one of whose Relations I have these Notes and Postils containing some of the policy of the late Times from 1642. to 1659. which I set down nakedly as I finde them not supposing they are his but that they were among his Papers 1. It is against the experience of the wisest Princes of France and England to leave their chief City in times of tumult yet it was necessary for the King to do so as well to break the fury of the worst people there by distance and time as to dis-abuse the best abroad by his presence and time and indeed it had been a shame for him to have perished in a tumult 2. It was urged that the King should not delay any longer the War but besides that nothing could perswade his gracious Majesty to a War but pure necessity It 's usually observed that if Boutefeus make not the feud irreconcileable by a desperate action Rebels cool consider break suspect fear and fall off to nothing 3. The repulse of Hotham did the King excellent service by alarming all the Loyal in the Kingdome with their designed plot 4. Especially when the Country saw the King so unwilling to engage that he discharged their guards several times 5. It was thought unfit to send to the Faction from Nottingham until it was rejoyned that men of understanding and fidelity are usually employed to those persons against whom a War is to be managed to discover their design humour forces succours and what-ever might succour or strengthen them which none but they who were secured with the priviledg of Agents might do and none were judged fitter than they that were best acquainted with the knowing Ladies and the talkative Lords 6. It was offered that Intelligence should be written to satisfie the people and make the vulgar pretences ridiculous But quaere whether it is possible for the Areana Imperii to remain always under so exact a discipline as may admit a thorow-inspection of the multitude without danger 7. When it was urged as the fundamental Principle the King should proceed upon that the Faction at Westminster was no Parliament the King being firme to his promise as there was not a juster man alive not to dissolve them without their leave it was judged that self-preservation being the first principle in nature that concession which wisdome saw then and experience since so contrary to that principle was rather to be repented of than performed 8. It is a very great advantage to the King's Cause that his Messages of Peace were sent alwayes after his Victories and his Enemies after their defeats And that his Declarations were natural easie as grounded upon obvious principles of Scripture Law and Reason and theirs harsh forced and wilde as grounded onely upon Pretences and Fancies 9. It 's a probable opinion that it is in vain to treat with the Rebels who can never trust the King with their guilty heads 10. It is in vain to yield them any thing since all Concessions have no other issue than either or both of these two inconveniences 1. That they make the Faction so insolent that the King should not be able to deny nor grant them any thing 2. That they justified former proceedings and layd the blame upon the King for not granting that sooner which he thinks fit to grant now Besides it 's more fit Propositions come to the King than from him 11. It may be wondered that the King doth not cut off the chief of the Rebels as they fall into his hands according to the usual Maxime in that case but that his inclination to clemency is inexpressible and that the principle he goeth upon is fure though deep viz. That so much are Man-kinde in general and the English in particular obliged by fair usages that the generality of this Nation returned nine times in 1300 years after long intervals of Usurpation out of gratitude as well as duty unto their Allegiance to the posterity of good pious mercifull but unhappy Princes 12. When it was urged against the King's going to London upon the successe in the West that
of it when great be wary when successful reserved when rising stayed especially in that Age when men were poysoned with Oyl and undone with Honey when active modest when checked yeilding when dandled distrustful when flattered fearful when great not absolute as my Lord would have been in point of favour against my Lord Mountjoy and valour against my Lord Norris Serve not your Followers but employ them Let others service administer to your designe not your power to theirs Let great Actions encourage greater and let Honour be your merit and not your expectation Some have been busie in the enquiry of what reason the Virgin-Queen had for her kindness to Leicester and this man if there be a reason in any much less in Royal love save the affection its self that bears it true he had Vertue and suffering enough at his first arrival to engage the kindness and the pity of a worse Princess yet some then discoursed of a Conjunction of their Stars that made way for that of their minds Certainly saith Cambden the inclination of Princes to some persons and their disfavour towards others may seem fatal and guided by higher Powers A Parallel between the Earl of Essex and the Duke of Buckingham by H. W. THe beginning of the Earl of Essex I must attribute wholly or in great part to my Lord of Leicester but yet as an Introducer or supporter not as a Teacher for as I go along it will easily appear that he neither lived nor died by his Discipline Always certain it is that he drew him first into the fatal Circle from a kinde of resolved privateness at his house at Lampsie in South-wales where after the Academical life he had taken such a taste of the Rural as I have heard him say and not upon any flashes or fumes of Melancholy or traverses of discontent but in a serene and quiet mood that he could well have bent his mind to a retired course About which time the said Earl of Leicester bewrayed a meaning to plant him in the Queens favour which was diversly interpreted by such as thought that great Artizan of Court to do nothing by chance nor much by affection Some therefore were of opinion that feeling more and more in himself the weight of time and being almost tired if there be a satiety in power with that assiduous attendance and intensive circumspection which a long-indulgent fortune did require he was grown not unwilling for his own ease to bestow handsomely upon another some part of the pains and perhaps of the envy Others conceived rather that having before for the same ends brought in or let in Sir Walter Rawleigh and having found him such an Apprentice as knew well enough how to set up for himself he now meant to allie him with this young Earl who had yet taken no strong impressions For though the said Sir Walter Rawleigh was a little before this whereof I now speak by occasion much fallen from his former splendour in Court yet he still continued in some lustre of a favoured man like billows that sink by degrees even when the wind is down that first stirred them Thus runs the discourse of that time at pleasure yet I am not ignorant that there was some good while a very stiff aversation in my Lord of Essex from applying himself to the Earl of Leicester for what secret conceit I know not but howsoever that humour was mollified by time and by his mother and to the Court he came under his Lord. The Duke of Buckingham had another kinde of Germination and surely had he been a plant he would have been reckoned amongst the Sponte Nascentes for he sprung without any help by a kinde of congenial composure as we may term it to the likeness of our late Soveraign and Master of ever blessed memory who taking him into his regard taught him more and more to please himself and moulded him as it were Platonically to his own Idea delighting first in the choice of the Materials because he found him susceptible of good form and afterward by degrees as great Architects use to do in the workmanship of his Regal hand nor staying here after he had hardned and polished him about ten years in the School of observance for so a Court is and in the furnace of tryal about himself for he was a King could peruse men as well as Books he made him the associate of his Heir apparent together with the new Lord Cottington as an adjunct of singular experience and trust in forraign travels and in a business of love and of no equal hazard if the tenderness of our zeal did not then deceive us enough the world must confess to kindle affection even betwixt the distantest conditions so as by the various and inward conversation abroad besides that before and after at home with the most constant and best-natured Prince Bona si sua norint as ever England enjoyed this Duke becomes now secondly seized of favour as it were by descent though the condition of that estate be no more then a Tenancy at Will or at most for the life of the first Lord and rarely transmitted which I have briefly set down without looking beyond the vail of the Temple I mean into the secret of high inclinations since even Satyrical Poets who are otherwise of so licentious fancy are in this point modest enough to confess their ignorance Nescio quid certa est quod me tibi temperet Astrum And these were both their Springings and Imprimings as I may call them In the profluence or proceedings of their fortunes I observe likewise not onely much difference between them but in the Earl not a little from himself First all his hopes of advancement had like to be strangled almost in the very Cradle by throwing himself into the Portugal Voyage without the Queens consent or so much as her knowledge whereby he left his Friends and Dependents near six months in desperate suspense what would become of him And to speak truth not without good reason For first they might well consider That he was himself not well plumed in favour for such a flight besides that now he wanted a Lord of Leicester at home for he was dead the year before to smooth his absence and to quench the practices at Court But above all it lay open to every mans discourse that though the bare offence to his Soveraign and Mistriss was too great an adventure yet much more when she might as in this case have fairly discharged her displeasure upon her Laws Notwithstanding a noble report coming home before him at his return all was clear and this excursion was esteemed but a Sally of youth Nay he grew every day more and more in her gracious conceit whether such intermissions as these do sometimes foment affection or that having committed a fault he became the more obsequious and plyant to redeem it or that she had not received into her Royal Breast any shadows