lost the love of King Charles living many years in his disfavour But such as are in a Court-cloud have commonly the Countreys Sun-shine and this Peer during his Eclipse was very popular with most of the Nation It is seldome seen if a Favourite once broken at Court sets up again for himself the hap rather than happiness of this Lord the King graciously reflecting on him at the beginning of the Long Parliament as one best able to give him the safest Counsel in those dangerous times But how he incensed the Parliament so far as to be exceped pardon I neither do know nor dare enquire Sure I am that after the surrender of Exeter he went over into France where he met with that due respect in Foreign which he missed in his Native Countrey The worst I wish such who causelesly suspect him of Popish inclinations saith my Author is that I may hear from them but half so many strong Arguments for the Protestant Religion as I heard from him who was to his commendation a cordial Champion for the Church of England This Family hath been much talked of this last forty years though all that I can say of it is this that great spirits large parts high honours penned within narrow Estates seldome blesse their owners with moderation or the places they live in with peace Oservations on the Life of the Lord Spencer HEe was the fifth Knight of his Family in an immediate succession well allied and extracted being descended from the Spencers Earls of Gloucester and Winchester In the first year of the Reign of King James being a moneyed man he was created Baron of Wormeleiton in the County of Warwick He had such a ready and quick Wit that once speaking in Parliament of the valour of their English Ancestors in defending the Liberty of the Nation returned this Answer to the Earl of Arundel who said unto him Your Ancestors were then keeping of Sheep If they kept Sheep yours were then plotting of Treason But both of them were at present confined but to the Lord Spencer the Upper-House ordered Reparations who was first and causelesly provoked This Lord was also he who in the first of King James was sent with Sir William Dethick principal King of Arms to Frederick Duke of Wirtenbergh elected into the Order of the Garter to present and invest him with the Robes and Ornaments thereof which were accordingly with geat solemnity performed in the Cathedral of Studgard And this was the Lord that when the Earl of Bristol charged the Duke of Buckingham started up and demanded Is this all you have to say against the Duke The Earl replyed Yes my Lord and I am sorry it is so much Then quoth the Lord Spencer If this be all Ridiculus mus and so sate down again The End of the Observations upon the Lives of the Statesmen and Favourites of England in the Reign of King James THE STATES-MEN and FAVOURITES OF ENGLAND IN The Reign of King Charles I. Observations on the Life of the Duke of Buckingham NAture bestowed on him an exact comliness his Mother a noble education not so much to study as converse His Travels to France carriage and experience About which times he falls into intrinsecal society with Sir Job Greham then one of the Gentlemen of his Majesties Privy-Chamber who I know not upon what Luminaries he espyed in his Face disswaded him from Marriage and gave him rather encouragement to wooe Fortune at Court than court it in the City Which advice sank well into his fancy for within some while the King had taken by certain glances whereof the first was at Apthorpe in a Progresse such liking of his Person that he was resolved to make him a Master-piece and to mould him as it were Platonically to his own Idea Neither was his Majesty content onely to be the Architect of his Fortune without putting his gracious hand likewise to some part of the work it self Insomuch that it pleased him to descend and to avale his goodnesse even to the giving of his foresaid friend Sir John Greham secret directions how by what degrees he should bring him into favour His own parts and observation gained him prudence and discretion His Family and Ancestors in Leicester-shirt gentility and repute so that there wanted nothing but Interest to set him up a Courtier Sir Thomas Compton who had married his Mother supplyed him with the one and the Earls of Bedford Pembrook and Hertford who would eclipse Somerset helped him to the other For those three Lords meeting one night at Baynards-Castle and commanding Somerset's picture should be abused in their way next day Sir Thomas Lake leads him into Court buying him the Cup-bearers place A while after the Countess of Bedford ushereth him to the Presence-Chamber entering him a Bed-chamber-man and the Earl of Pembrook supports him untill he was a Favourite The Courtiers wished him well because he was an English-man the Nobility favoured him because a Gentleman the Ladies have a kindnesse for him because the exactest Courtier in Christendome the King observes him much for his compleat body more for his pregnant parts and the States-men now consulting Somerset's removal and finding King James his good nature loth to leave the bosome of one Minion until he had reposed himself in another made it their plot to advance him His carriage was free and debonair his passions even and smooth and one saith carried in his pocket his nature noble and open his temper industrious and inquisitive his intellectuals clear and capable his minde tractable and docible his spirit resolute and undaunted The first month he comes to Court he takes place above all his fellows and being removed with some affront by a creature of Somerset's gives him a box on the car an action that gave him and his friends a seasonable occasion of a Contest with Somerset and him a clear conquest over him Somerset as Chamberlain would have cut off his hand and he as Favourite was like to have cut off his head This new Favourite riseth all are weary of Somerset the first Minion all welcome the second The King is first his Tutor and then his Patron instructing him before he employed him Three sorts of studies he engaged him in the first was for delights in private Retyrements the second for ornament in Discourse the third for ability in Businesse He had Princely apprehensions of the principles and Maximes of Government a distinct notion of all his Affairs an excellent way to make use of other mens Abilities and these incomparable Rules from my Lord Bacon which were transcribed in his Life Sir In the first place I shall be bold to put you in minde of the present condition you are in You are not onely a Courtier but a Bed-chamber-man and so are in the eye and eare of your Master but you are also a Favourite The Fourite of the time and so are in his bosome also The world hath so voted you
always merry that laughed 2. The world is undone by looking on things at distance 3. To aim at Honour here is to set up a Court of Arms over a Prison-gate 4. If I would employ my Goods well I may be contented to loose them if ill I should be glad 5. He that is covetous when he is old is as a Thief that steals when he is going to the Gallows 6. Bags of Gold to us when Saints will be but as a bag of pebble-stones when men 7 The greatest punishment in the world were to have our wishes 8. Pusillanimity is a great temptation 9. Affliction undoes many Pleasure most 10. We go to Hell with more pain then we might go to Heaven with Of Heresie he said Like as before a great storm the Sea swelleth and hath unwonted motions without any wind stirring so may we see here many of our English-men which a few years ago could not endure to hear the name of an Heretick or Schismatick now to be contented both to suffer them and to praise them somewhat yea to learn by little and little as much as they can be suffered to finde fault and to tax willingly the Church the Clergy and the Ceremonies 11. The more of any thing else we have but Riches the more good we are 12. Who would not send his Alms to heaven who would not send his Estate whither he is to be banished 13. Some men hate Hypocrisie and love Impudence 14. When any detracted others at his Table he said Let any man think as he pleaseth I like this room well 15. It 's easier to to prevent then redress Indeed throughout his Works he argueth sharply he reasoneth profoundly he urgeth aptly stateeth exactly expresseth himself elegantly and discourseth learnedly He would rather convince then punish yet he would rather punish then indulge them his Epitaph bespeaking him grievous to Hereticks Thieves and Murtherers When King Henry scrupled his first marriage Sir Thomas told him That neither he nor my Lord of Durham were so fit to advise him in that case as St. Augustine St. Jerome and the other Fathers His advice was so unseasonable that it opposed the King yet so grave and honest that it pleased him His Experience and Prudence had a fore-sight next door to Prophecy and from the unquiet times of King Henry did he guess the ruine of King Charles He converted many with his Arguments more with his Prayers which workt wonders of reformation on the erroneous as they did of recovery on the weak He wished three things to Christendome 1. An Universal Peace 2. An Uniform Religion 3. A Reformation rather of Lives then Religion He never asked any thing of his Majesty but Employment and never took any thing more acceptable then Service His Alms were liberal to his Neighbours and good works numerous towards God He would take no Fees from the Poor and but moderate ones from the Rich. All London was obliged to him for his Counsel at home and all England for his Peace at Cambray where he out-did expectation The King raised him to the Chancellourship but not to his own opinion he professed he would serve his Majesty but he must obey his God he would keep the Kings conscience and his own His Wisdome and Parts advanced him his Innocence and Integrity ruined him his Wit pleased the King but his Resolution crossed him Wolsey was not so proud and reserved as Sir Thomas was open and free to the meanest his minde was not so dazled with honour but he could foresee his fall When his sons complained how little they gained under him I will do justice said he for your sakes to any man and I will leave you a blessing decreeing one day against his own son that would not hear reason First he offered the Judges the Reformation of Grievances and when they refused he did it himself No Subpoena was granted but what he saw no Order but what he perused nothing passed from him towards the subject but what became a good Magistrate nothing towards his Master but what became a faithful servant Neither King nor Queen could corrupt neither could the whole Church in Convocation fasten any thing upon him To one who told him of his Detractors he said Would you have me punish those by whom I reap more benefit then by all you my friends Perfect Patience is the Companion of true Perfection But he managed not his trust with more integrity and dexterity then he left it with honour leaving not one cause undecided in the Chancery foreseeing that he could not at once content his Majesty and his own heart His Servants upon his fall he disposed of as well as his children and his Children he taught to live soberly in a great Estate and nobly in a mean one He never put an Heretick to death when Chancellour neither would he suffer Heresies to live when a private man When my Lord Cromwel came to him in his retirement he advised him to tell the King what he ought not what he can do so shall you shew your self a true and faithful servant and a right worthy Councellour for if a Lyon knew his own strength hard were it for any man to rule him The King feared him when he could not gain him and therefore he was sifted in his former carriage and present temper which continued constant to his duty and even under his changes He was open-hearted to all that came yet so wary in his discourse with the Maid of Kent that his enemies confessed he deserved rather honour then a check for that matter When the Duke of Norfolk told him that the wrath of a Prince is death he said Nay if that be all you must die to morrow and I today He behaved himself at all Examinations at once wisely and honestly When Archbishop Cranmer told him he must obey the King which was certain rather then follow his conscience which was uncertain he replyed It 's as certain that I must not obey the King in evil as that I must follow my conscience in good When the Abbot of Westminster told him his conscience should yeild to the wisdome of the Kingdome he said He would not conform his conscience to one Kingdome but to the whole Church He underwent his sufferings with as much cheerfulness as his preferment pleasing himself with his misfortunes and enjoying his misery resolving to obey God rather then man to leave others to their own consciences to close with the Catholick Church rather then the Church of England and to submit to general Councils rather then to Parliaments Mr. Rich put to him this Question Whether if the Parliament made a Law that he were Pope would he not submit to it and he replyed If the Parliament made another that God should not be God would you obey it Though he could not own the Kings Supremacy yet he would not meddle with it either in his Writings or discourse shewing himself at once a civil
Covents by the allurement of Liberty and then forced them out by Power and Authority As the Abbeys improved his Estate so his Master advanced his Honour he had one Privy Seal always to act by and was Keeper of another He had no sooner attained an Earldom for himself but foreseeing the alteration of Affairs he secured a Barony for his Son not forfeitable by the Attainder of the Father Within five years he was Master of the Jewel-house Secretary of State Baron Vicar-General Master of the Rolls Knight of the Garter Keeper of the Privy-Seal Lord High Chamberlain and Earl of Essex within five months he quitted place and in five minutes lost all He must needs be envied whose Birth was so much beneath all others and his Preferment above them especially when the King in preferring him injured others as the Citizens in managing the Jewels the Courtiers in undertaking State-affairs the Lawyers in the Rolls the Nobly Descended at Windsor the Clergy in the Convocation the Earl of Oxford and the Family of the Bourchiers in the great Chamberlainship and Earldom of Essex But he cares not whom he displeaseth if he can oblige his Master whose power he advanceth in the Parliament and Synod as he improveth his Revenue in the Office of first-Fruits and the Court of Augmentation His Greatness was allayed with his Goodness and the Envy of the One mitigated by the Liberality of the Other He had not more Suiters at his door then Alms two hundred at a time Sir Thomas was a Name of Awe and Reverence to the Rich and blessed by the Poor That Name levelled the proudest Citizens House for his conveniency and bowed the poorest mans Knee to his Honour He could at pleasure work upon the Lords by the Commons and on the Commons by the Lords as Cardinal Wolsey perswaded the Commons to four shillings in the pound upon the Lords president and the Lords to as much upon the Commons and he kept up the Cardinals way of Anticipation that the people should be always one Subsidy before-hand He set up the old Taxation of Knighthood at Queen Anne's Coronation and levied it He confirms the Kings Supremacy by a Law and establisheth his Daughter Elizabeth's Succession by an Oath first taken by the Parliament and then by the Kingdom for whose support he contrives the lesser Monasteries should be first escheated and then the greater He was so honest that he acquits Queen Anne in his Letter to the Queen yet so much a Statesman that he condemn'd her upon the Bench. But to secure the Interest of England he improved its Religion that as some few late Acts had disobliged the Pope a new frame of Christianity might exclude him The differences between Us and Rome were to be widened lest they should close and he judged it prudence to engage the conscience and the estate in one bottom that he might hold the One out of the tenderness of the Other The Kings Supremacy cut off the Papists and the Six Articles the Protestants Reformation must be managed leasurely and alteration of Religion by just degrees Instruction preceding execution and the peoples capacity growing up with their Governours Regulation The times are troublesome but Cromwel calm and quiet and watchful over Occurrences Insurrection giving him an advantage of a new Settlement He takes down the Occasions and Ornaments of Idolatry Images Shrines Pilgrimages c. and then the Thing it self Take off the paint of Rome and you undo her As the Laws and Injunctions so the Alliance of England must secure its Interest A Protestant Queen must be married to the Reformed King the Duke of Cleve's Sister must woo the King that Essex might have that whispered in the Kings Bosom abed where he was best disposed which he insinuated into his Ear at the Council-Table where he was worst But the King was not so well pleased with her Beauty as Cromwel was with her Religion which Stephen Gardiner who hated her for her Religion and Cromwel for his Greatness observing shewed the Kings loose Affections at once how to be rid of his Match and which he was as weary of his Match-Maker The Queen is divorced being never known by Henry who disliked her at first view and kept her rather in Policy to oblige the German Princes then of pleasure to fill his own Bed Cromwel is arrested for presuming to act in some matters of State without the Kings privity or Commission and attainted by a procedure he had invented dying as cunningly as he had lived for some ambiguous words which Power interpreted to his Ruine His last words were so wary that they might become Bellarmine and Luther at once that the Protestants call them his Confession of Faith and the Papists his old Religion for confessing his Offences against God and the King in his many Employments he said he died in the Catholique Faith Some will say the Protestants think no great gain to have him and the Papists no loss to part with him yet we must needs confess that he was a Wise Man because he always consulted the Learned in the Laws a out all his proceedings He was a Good man witness Frescobald whose mean Person he took notice of whose small Kindeness he acknowledged whose Services he condescended to whose Wants he relieved and whose Debts he recovered He was a Noble man because he refused another mans Coat of Arms who was of his Name saying What shall I do with it for he may pull it off my back at pleasure In a word He was so Mean before he rise so Worthy afterwards that no Times had Raised but those more troublesome none Ruined him but those most loose of Henry the VIII Observations on the Life of Sir Thomas Audley SIr Audley's Birth was Generous his Education more Essex bred him to that Honour which his Ancestors lost His Soul ennobled his Body and his Body graced his Soul The one quick solid apprehensive and judicious the other tall and majestick King Henry loved a Man and here was one whose Austerity was allayed with Debonairness whose Gravity was sweetened with Pleasantness whose Knowledge was as large as his Authority whose Wit was equal with his Wisdom whose Memory was strong and Judgment solid His fair Estate brought him to the Temple his proficiency in the Law to the Court His reading upon the Statute of Priviledges commended him to the Kings Service his speaking for the Prerogative in Parliament brought him to the Kings Favour Although the Liberties of the People can never be secured without the Prerogative of the Soveraign who cannot do the good they would if he wants a power to do the evil they fear yet his first Preferment was to withdraw him from Popularity and the second onely to confirm him to Soveraignty Noble Service is the way to a Royal One His Stewardship to the Dutchy of Suffolk raised him to the Attorneyship of that of Lancaster But in troublesome and designing times
is easier for Subjects to oppose a Prince by Applause then by Armies Reward said Sin Ralph when he was offered a sum of money should not empty the Kings Coffers neither should Riches he the Pay of Worth which are meerly the Wages of Labour He that gives it embaseth a Man he that takes it vilifieth himself who is so most Rewarded is least Since Honour hath lost the Value of a Reward Men have lost the Merit of Vertue and both become mercenary Men lusting rather after the Wealth that buyeth then after the Qualities that deserve it Two things he observed broke Treaties Jealousie when Princes are successful and Fear when they are unfortunate Power that hath need of none makes all confederacies either when it is felt or when it is feared or when it is envied Three things Cato repented of 1. That he went by water when he might go by land 2. That he trusted a Woman with a secret 3. That he lost Time Two things Sir Ralph relented for 1. That he had communicated a secret to two 2. That he had lost any hour of the morning between four a clock and ten He learned in King Henry the Eighth's time as Cromwel's Instrument what he must advise in point of Religion in Queen Elizabeth's time as an emiment Counsellour His Maxime being this That Zeal was the Duty of a private Brest and Moderation the Interest of a publick State The Protestants Sir Ralph's Conscience would have in the commencement of Queen Elizabeth kept in hope the Papists his Prudence would not have cast into Despair It was a Maxime at that time in another case That France should not presume nor Spain be desperate He saw the Interest of this State altered six times and died an honest Man The Crown put upon four Heads yet he continued a Faithful Subject Religion changed as to the publick constitution of it five times yet he kept the Faith A Spartan one day boasted that his Countrey-men had been often buried in Athens The Athenian replied But we are most of us buried at home So great was Sir Ralph's success in the Northern Wars that many a Scotch man found his Grave in England so exact his conduct and wariness that few English men had theirs in Scotland the same ground giving them their Coffin that did their Cradle and their Birth that did their Death Our Knights two incomparable Qualities were Discipline and Intelligence the last discovered him all the Enemies advantages and the first gave them none His two main designs were 1. An Interest in hi 〈…〉 Prince by service 2. An Alliance with the Nobility by Marriage upon which two Bottoms he raised himself to that pitch of Honour and Estate that time could not wear out nor any alterations embezle he bequeathing to his Worshipful Posterity the blessing of Heaven upon his Integrity the lov 〈…〉 of Mankinde for his Worth and as Mr. Full 〈…〉 saith a Pardon granted him when he attended my Lord Cromwel at Rome for the sins of his Family for three immediate Generations expiring 〈…〉 R. Sadler Esquire lately dead His last Negotiation was that in Scotland during the trouble there about Queen Mary so searching and pier 〈…〉 cing he was that no Letter or Adviso passed whereof he had not a Copy so civil and obliging that there was no Party that had not a Kindness for him So grave and solid that he was present at all counsels so close and industrious that his hand though unseen was in every motion of that State 〈…〉 and so successful that he left the Nobility so divided that they could not design any thing upon the King 〈…〉 and the King so weak that he could not cast off the Queen and all so tottering that they must depend on Queen Elizabeth Three things he bequeathed such as may have the honour to succed him 1. All Letters that concerned him since of years filed 2. All Occurrences since he was capable of Observation registered 〈…〉 3. All Expences since he lived of himself booked 〈…〉 Epaminondas was the last Grecian and Sir Ralph Sadler was one of the last English men Observations on the Life of Sir William Paget SIr William Paget was born in the City of London of honest Parents He was so able and trusty a Minister of State that he was privy Counsellour to four successive Princes He was Secretary to King Henry the Eighth who employed him Embassador to Charles the Emperour and Francis King of France King Edward the Sixth made him Chancellour of the Dutchy Comptroller of his Houshold and created him Baron of Beaudefert Queen Mary made him Keeper of the Privy-Seal Queen Elizabeth highly respected him dispencing with his Attendance at Court in favour to his great Age. Duke Dudley in the days of King Edward ignominiously took from him the Garter of the Order saying He was not Originally qualified for the same But this was restored unto him by Queen Mary He died very old Anno 1563. and was buried in Lichfield His Education was better then his Birth his Knowledge higher then his Education His Parts above his Knowledge and his Experience beyond his Parts A general Learning furnished him for Travel and Travel seasoned that Learning for Employment His Master-piece was an inward Observation of other Men and an exact knowledge of Himself His Address was with state yet insinuating His Discourse free but weighed his apprehension quick but staid His ready and present mind keeping its pauses of thoughts and expressions even with the occasion and the emergency neither was his carriage more stiff and uncompliant then his soul Gundamore could not fit King James so well as Sir William did Charles the Fifth who in a rapture once cried He deserved to B E a King as well as to REPRESENT One and one day as he came to Court Yonder is the Man I can deny nothing to Apollonius coming to Vespatian's Gate betimes in the morning and finding him up said Surely this man will be Emperour he is up so early This Statesman must needs be eminent who was up 〈…〉 the earliest of all the English Agents in discovering Affairs and latest in following those Discoveries Three sorts of Embassadors the Emperour Charles observed were sent him from England 〈…〉 the first was Wolsey whose great Train promised much as his great Design did nothing The second was Morisin who promised and did much The third Paget who promised nothing and did all 〈…〉 What Scholars observed then of three Divines 〈…〉 that a Statesman hath set down of our three Agents the first was words without matter the second was matter without words the third was words and matter Quick and regular were hi 〈…〉 Dispatches when Secretary pleasing all with his proceedings even when he could not but displease many with his Decision It was much none went away ever sad from Augustus an Emperour it was more none was dismissed ever in discontent from Sir William Paget a Secretary of State The
2. For his Popularity in advancing the Benevolence 52000 l. beyond expectation The Scots must have War as long as there is Poverty in their Country and Interest in France This Noble Earl cutteth off the Invaders layeth waste the Country and that the source of those troubles might be damned up entreth France with 80000 men and after some skirmishes brought the King thereof to a peace and submission In pursuance whereof while King Henry was in Bologn he made his Will wherein the Earl of Hertford Lord High Chamberlain is appointed Principal Counsellour to his Nephew and not long after he dieth and leaves the Kingdome to his son and his son to his Uncle whom the common Vote made Protector and Interest a Moderator of the Council which the times required able but their humours made factious The peace with King Francis and the Emperour was but uncertain the Scots were irreconcileable the Pope implacable Religion unsetled the Clergy out of frame the People distracted and the Nobility at variance A great Counsellour King Henry leaves his son and a greater his Uncle makes him In counsel is stability things will have their first or second agitation if they be not tossed upon the Arguments of Counsel they will be tossed upon the Waves of Fortune But yet this Lord miscarried in that the Council understood him better then he did them And he advised with them rather in publick where men speak warily and in compliance with others humour then in private where they deliver themselves more freely and agreeably to their own humours The Rule is Ask an inferiour mans advice in private that he may be free and a superiours in publick that he may be respectful But he did well 1. In that the same matter if weighed was never propounded and resolved the same day 2. In that he had fixed days of petitions for the peoples and his own ease 3. In that he poyzed his Committees of contrary Inclinations that watched and balanced each other to a moderation most safe for the Kingdome and himself 4. That he had of all Professions such at his command as opened the state of a business before any Commissioners debated it 5. That he seldome discovered his own inclination left it byassed his Counsel 6. That to prevent a Combination in the Council he weakned their power and priviledges their credit their dependencies either by office or expectation their opportunities and correspondencies so that he could easily remove any when faulty discover any when dangerous disgrace any when bold and not fit to be entrusted with the Counsels Resolves Deliberations and Necessities of the State In order to which he had two useful Resolutions 1. To suppress Calumnies 2. To encourage Accusations His first Acts were Shew and Pomp necessary for Greatness viz. The Knighting of the King and making himself Duke His next are Realities as 1. His modelling the Country for a Parliament considering the temper of the people and the pulse of the last Parliament redressing Grievances setling Elections by such Legal Rules as that the people should not be corrupted with money overborn by importunity transported by fear or favour to an unworthy or an unsuitable choice and taking a just time to prepare the people for the designed settlement by his grave and sober Injunctions by godly and good Books of Instructions by a wholsome form of Prayer composed at Windsor by a more exact translation of the Bible by several Proclamations for moderation and order on all hands by inhibiting all Preachers but such learned sober grave and discreet men as were Licensed thereunto under the Lord Protector 's and my Lord of Canterbury's hand 2. His promoting the Match with Scotland first by Ambassadours and then by an Army whose order was this viz. The avant-guard of 3 or 4000 foot-men at Arms and 600 light-horse led by the Earl of Warwick the main Battle of 6000 foot and 600 men at Arms and 1000 light-horse led by the Protector and the Rear of half so many led by the Lord Dacres the Artillery of 16 Pieces of Ordnance making one Wing the men at Arms and Demilances the other For the Avant-guard and half of the Battel riding about two flight-shot from their side the other half of the Battel and the whole Flank of the Rear was closed by the Carriages being 12000 Carts and Waggons the rest of the men at Arms and Demilances marching behind A few skirmishes and stratagems passed when a Trumpeter is sent by Huntley to challenge the Protector to whom the Protector replying like a wise man That it was not for a person of his trust to duel it with a private man The Earl of Warwick said Trumpeter bring me word that thy Master will perform the Combat with me and I 'll give thee 100 Crowns Nay rather said our Duke bring me word that he will give us Battle and I will give thee 1000 l. But in 25 days he gains a greater Battle over-runs the Country with the loss of no more then 65 men to that of 25000 Scots 3. His third Exploit was Dispensing Honours so nobly that they were due encouragements to Vertue though yet so warily that they should not be either a burden or a danger to the Crown 4. He gave the Commonalty great content in pulling down Enclosures by Proclamations and the Nobility no less by setting up Land-improvements by Rule 5. He engaged both by a good bargain of Church-lands confirmed by this Parliament 6. He weakneth the Papists 1. By conniving at them until they broke out to such outrages as made them lyable 2. By dividing them when engaged with hope of mercy on the one hand and fear of his Army on the other 7. The French taking the advantage of our seditions to break off their Treaty and proclaim a War he confiscates their Estates and secures the persons of as many of them as lived in England But Greatness is fatal and his Brother that should have supported this great man ruines himself and him He had married a Lady high in spirit his Brother the Queen-Dowager higher in place the Ladies quarrel first and then as it must needs follow the Lords Thomas the Admiral is questioned for aiming at the Crown 1. By marrying the Lady Elizabeth and then by seizing the Kings person and the Government so honest this Protector a plain man and of no over-deep insight into Practices that he gave way to his Tryal saying though somewhat ominous as it happened I 'll do and suffer Justice so Uxorious that he sealed his death And now he stands alone wanting his Brothers cunning to reach Warwick or his resolution to check Norfolk The people are troubled at that one weak and unjustifiable Act of his The pulling down of so many of Gods Churches in the City to build one Someset-house in the Strand The Earl takes notice of their discontent and assembleth eighteen discontented Counsellours who arm themselves and their followers
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
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
Prince more dangerous his Disguise as who acts all things against his Master by his Authority Let no man upon this example ever repose so much upon any mans single Counsel Fidelity or Discretion as to create in himself or others a diffidence of his own Judgement which is likely to be most faithful and true to a mans own Interest Let every man have some things that no man shall obtain and some things that no man must dare ask because you see here if we let all go without reserve our Reputation is lost in the world by the Reputation our Favourite gains with us There was in Rome a certain man named Enatius somewhat entred in Age and of natural condition mutinous ambitious and troublesome Adrian being advertised that he was dead fell into a great laughter and sware That he could not but wonder he could intend to die considering what great business he had night and day Considering how many Affairs he had to manage how many cross accidents to accommodate I wonder what time he had to die And considering his many pretences for the Protestant Religion especially that for King Edward's I wonder with what face he could die a Papist But I have forgot my self for there are two sorts of persons in Machiavel that must either not believe or not profess any Religion The first the States-man that acts in publick Affairs the second the Historian that writes them Observations on the Life of Sir William Peter HE was born in that great Nursery of Parts Devonshire and bred in a greater Exeter-Colledge That Colledge made him a Scholar and All-Souls a Man His capacity was contemplative and his Genius active observing rather then reading with his eye more on men then Books studying behaviour rather then notion to be accomplished rather then knowing and not to erre in the main rather then to be excellent in circumstance His Body set off his Parts with a grave dignity of presence rather then a soft beauty of aspect His favour was more taking then his colour and his motion more then his favour and all such as made his early Vices blush and his riper Vertues shine The Earl of Wiltshire first pitched upon him for his Sons Tutor and then for his own Companion Noble Families set off hopeful Parts and improve them Cromwel's quick eye one day at my Lord spyeth his Personage and observes his Carriage He was a man himself and understood one Nothing would satisfie him but that the young Gentleman should come to Court and go to Travel King Henry loved any All-Souls man but was enamoured with him in whom concurred the three Perquisites of that Society 1. A Gentile Extraction 2. A graceful Behaviour 3. Competent Learning The young man designed for business was to travel for Education and the Scholar for Experience 1. His Pension is allowed him 125 l. a year 2. His Tutor is assigned who had been there before and could instruct him what he should see where he should go what acquaintance to entertain what exercise or discipline to undergo 3. His Instructions were drawn up as 1. That he should keep a Diary of what the chiefest places and the eminent persons either apart or in Conventions yielded worthy of Remarque and Observation 2. To have before him a Map or Card of every place he goeth to 3. Not to stay long in any one place 4. To converse with no Englishmen but Agents Embassadors or such grave persons as his Majesty would direct him to 5. To endeavour after Recommendations from persons of quality in one place to those in another keeping still his correspondence with the most publick and eminent persons of every respective place Within five years he returned a compleat Gentleman correcting the Vices of one Country with the Vertues of another and being one happy Composition of every Region Sir John Philpot was not so much the worse as Sir William was the better for travel He returning the shame of all Nations of his own by his weakness abroad of others by their follies at home This coming home the honour of his own by his abilities abroad of others by his perfections at home Two things improved his travel 1. An Artificial and careless freedome that opened others 2. A natural gravity that shut him up and was more capable of observing their Vertues and escaping their Vices Peter Earl of Savoy came to do his homage to Otho the fourth in a double attire on the one side Cloth of Gold on the other shining Armour the Emperour asked him what meant that Lindsey-Woolsey he answered Sir the attire on the right side is to honour your Majesty that on the left is to serve you Sir William Peter returns with those Gayeties of carriages on the one hand that might adorn a Court and with those abilities on the other that might support it His first employment was the Charts the Latine Letters and the Forreign Negotiation the next was Principal Secretary In which Office Wriothesley was rough and stubborn Paget easie Cecil close Mason plain Smith noble Peter was smooth reserved resolved and yet obliging Both the Laws he was Doctor of and both the Laws he made use of the Civil Law to direct Forreign Negotiations and the other t 〈…〉 give light to Domestick Occasions In the Kings absence in France 1544. Cranm 〈…〉 and Thorleby are to assist the Queen in matters o 〈…〉 Religion the Earl of Hertford in Affairs of War the Lord Parr of Horton and Doctor Peter in th 〈…〉 Civil Government whose Maxime it was It i 〈…〉 the interest of the Kings of England to be the Arbit 〈…〉 of Christendome Thus much he was to the Que 〈…〉 by Henry the eighth's Deputation and no less to King Edward by his Will A man would wonder how this man made a shift to serve four Princes of such distant Interests as King Henry King Edward Queen Mary Queen Elizabeth until he recollects the French King who enquired of a wise man how he might govern himself and his Kingdome the wise man took a fair large sheet of Paper and in stead of an infinite number of Precepts which others use to offer upon that subject he onely writ this word Modus A Mean In King Henry's time he observed his Humour in King Edward's he kept to the Law in Queen Mary's he intended wholly State-affairs and in Queen Elizabeth's he was religious his years minding him of death and his death of his faith He moved with the first Movers in most transactions to his apparent danger yet he had motions of his own for his real security Able he was at home and very dexterous abroad particularly at Bulloign The Philosophers exercising their Gifts before an Ambassador he asked one that was silent what he should say of him Repart to your King saith he that you found one among the Graecians that knew how to hold his tongue Ab said Mounsieur Chaâ—illon we had gained the last 200000 Crowns without Hostages had 〈…〉
at the settlement of Governments but fall after it being but unruly Waves to a steady Rock breaking themselves on that solid Constitution they would break Few aimed at Favourites as Sir John did at the Lord Chancellor but their Arrows fell on their own heads Soveraignty being always struck through prime Counsellours and Majesty through its chief Ministers Sir John Perrot no sooner clashed with Hatton then he lost the Queen and ever since he reflected on his Dancing he lost his own footing and never stood on his legs Observations on the Life of Sir Francis Walsingham HE was a Gentleman at first of a good house but of a better Education and from the University travelled for the rest of his Learning He was the best Linguist of the times but knew best how to use his own tongue whereby he came to be employed in the chiefest Affairs of State He was sent Ambassadour into France and stayed there a Leiger long in the heat of the Civil Wars At his return he was taken Principal Secretary and was one of the great Engines of State and of the times high in the Queens favour and a watchful servant over the safety of his Mistress He acted the same part in the Courts of France about that Match that Gundamor if I be not mistaken saith Sir Robert Naunton did in the Court of England about the Spanish His apprehension was quick and his Judgement solid his Head was so strong that he could look into the depth of men and business and dive into the Whirlpools of State Dexterous he was in finding a secret close in keeping it Much he had got by Study more by Travel which enlarged and actuated his thoughts Cecil bred him his Agent as he bred hundreds His Converse was infinuating and reserved He saw every man and none saw him His Spirit was as publick as his Parts and it was his first Maxime Knowledge is never too dear yet as Debonnair as he was prudent and as obliging to the softer but predominant parts of the world as he was serviceable to the more severe and no less Dexterous to work on humours then to convince Reason He would say he must observe the joynts and flexures of Affairs and so could do more with a Story then others could with a Harangue He always surprized business and preferred motions in the heat of other diversions and if he must debate it he would hear all and with the advantage of aforegoing speeches that either cautioned or confirmed his resolutions he carried all before him in conclusion beyond reply He out-did the Jesuites in their own bowe and over-reached them in their own equivocation and mental reservation never telling a Lye but warily drawing out and discovering truth As the close Room sucketh in most Air so this wary man got most intelligence being most of our Papists Confessour before their death as they had been their Brethrens before their treason He said what another writ That an habit of secrecy is policy and vertue To him mens faces spake as much as their tongues and their countenances were Indexes of their hearts He would so beset men with Questions and draw them on pick it out of them by piece-meals that they discovered themselves whether they answered or were silent This Spanish Proverb was familiar with him Tell a Lye and finde a Truth and this Speak no more then you may safely retreat from without danger or fairly go through with without opposition Some are good onely at some affairs in their own acquaintance Walsingham was ready every where and could make a party in Rome as well as England He waited on mens souls with his eye discerning their secret hearts through their transparent faces He served himself of the Factions as his Mistress did neither advancing the one nor depressing the other Familiar with Cecil allied to Leicester and an Oracle to Sussex He could overthrow any matter by undertaking it and move it so as it must fall He never broke any business yet carried many He could discourse any matter with them that most opposed so that they in oppofing it promoted it His fetches and compass to his designed speech were things of great patience and use Twice did he deceive the French as Agent once did he settle the Netherlands as Commissioner and twice did he alter the Government of Scotland as Embassadour Once did France desire he might be recalled because he was too hard for the Counsel for the Hugonots and once did Scotland request his remand because he would have overturned their Constitution 53 Agents did he maintain in Forreign Courts and 18 Spies for two Pistols an Order he had all the private Papers of Europe few Letters escaped his hands whose Contents he could read and not touch the Seals Bellarmine read his Lectures at Rome one moneth and Reynolds had them confuted the next So patient was this wise man Chiselhurst never saw him angry Cambridge never passionate and the Court never discomposed Religion was the interest of his Country in his judgement and of his Soul therefore he maintained it as sincerely as he lived it it had his head his purse and his heart He laid the great foundation of the Protestant Constitution as to its policy and the main plot against the Popish as to its ruine He would cherish a plot some years together admitting the Conspirators to his own and the Queens presence familiarly but dogging them out watchfully his Spies waited on some men every hour for three years and lest they could not keep counsel he dispatched them to forraign parts taking in new Servants His training of Parry who designed the murder of Queen Elizabeth the admitting of him under the pretence of discovering a Plot to the Queens presence and then letting him go where he would onely on the security of a Dark Sentinel set over him was a piece of reach and hazard beyond common apprehension But Kingdomes were acted by him as well as private persons It is a likely report saith one that they father on him at his return from France when the Queen expressed her fear of the Spanish designe on that Kingdome with some concernment Madam said he be content not to fear the Spaniard hath a great appetite and an excellent digestion but I have fitted him with a bone for this twenty years that your Majesty shall have no cause to doubt him Provided that if the fire chance to slack which I have kindled you will be ruled by me and now and then cast in some English â—uel which may revive the flame He first observed the great Bishop of Winchester fit to serve the Church upon the unlikely Youths first Sermon at St. Alâ—allows Barking He brought my Lord Cooke first to the Church upon some private discourse with him at his Table The Queen of Scots Letters were all carried to him by her own Servant whom she trusted and decyphered to him by one Philips as they were sealed again by one Gregory so
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
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
many must fight with many Our Deputy found that great Honour hath its great Difficulties yet was he so constant and resolute that with Marcellus he would say That as there are many things a good Governour ought not to attempt so ought be not to desist or give over an Enterprize once begun and taken in band Therefore his Character is One daring in his person close to his purpose firm to his dependencies of a deep and large soul who looked upon the chargeable War in Ireland as an equal remedy against a worse in England to the letting of blood in one part against the effusion of it in another and advised the bestowing of Church-lands among the Nobility of both Perswasions in Ireland as in England who would then hold their Religion with their Land in Capite and stick to the Queen as the great support of both against all pretenders whom then most would vigorously oppose and all would fairly leave Observations on the Life of Sir Thomas Roper SIr Thomas Roper Servant to Queen Elizabeth was born in Friday-street in London whose Grandfather was a younger son of the house of Heanour in Derbyshire He going over into the Low-Countries became Page to Sir John Norrice and was Captain of a Foot-company at sixteen years of Age. What afterwards his Martial Performances were will appear by the following Lines transcribed out of the Originall of his Patent Whereas Thomas Roper Knight one of our Privy-Councellours of the Kingdome of Ireland long since bath been known unto us famous with the splendour of his warlike Vertue as who by the many Atchievments valiantly performed by him in the late War of this Kingdome hath gained the eminent Repute both of a stout Souldier and a discreet Commander whose Valour chiefly appeared in his Retreat near le Boyle in our Province of Connaught where with very few horse he undauntedly charged great troops of the horse of the Enemy who in a hostile manner forraged the very bowels of the Kingdome and by his wisdome made such a singular retreat that he not onely saved himself and his men but also delivered the whole Army from great danger and slew very many of his Enemies Who also when our Province of Ulster was all on fire with war being one out of many was for the tried Resolutios of his Mind chosen by the Right honourable the Earl of Essex then General of the Army to undertake a Duel with Makal and declined not to expose himself to the appointed Duel And also when the aforesaid Thomas Roper in the late war in the Kingdome of France at Brest by exposing himself to the greatest perils and shedding of his own blood demonstrated his Courage to be unconquerable Who also in the Voyage to Portugal behaved himself valiantly and honourably as also at Bergen in the Netherlands when it was besieged by the Spaniards approved himself a young man of invincible Valour in the defence thereof Who also in the day wherein Kinsale was assaulted was placed in the first Rank nearest of all unto the Town and with no less Success then Valour to the great safety of the whole Army beat back and put to flight the Spaniards who in the same day made several Sallies out of the Town Know therefore that We in intuition of the Premises have appointed the aforesaid Thomas Roper Knight c. Then followeth his Patent wherein King Charles the first in the third of his Reign created him Baron of Bauntree and Viscount Bâ—ltinglass in Ireland He was a principal means to break the hearts of the Irish Rebels for whereas formerly the English were loaded with their own Cloaths so that their slipping into Bogs did make them and the clopping of their breeches did keep them prisoners therein he first being then a Commander put himself into Irish Troâ—zes and was imitated first by all his Officers then Souldiers so that thus habited they made the more effectual execution on their enemies He died at Ropers Rest anno Dom. 164. and was buried with Anne his Wife Daughter to Sir Henry Harrington in St. Johns Church in Dublin Observations on the Life of Sir Henry Umpton SIr Henry Vmpton was born at Wadley in Barkshire He was son to Sir Edward Vmpton by Anne the Relict of John Dudley Earl of Warwick and the eldest Daughter of Edward Seymour Duke of Somerset He was employed by Queen Elizabeth Embassador into France where he so behaved himself right stoutly in her behalf as may appear by this particular In the moneth of March anno 1592 being sensible of some injury offered by the Duke of Guise to the Queen of England he sent him this ensuing Challenge For as much as lately in the Lodging of my Lord Du Mayne and in publick elsewhere impudently indiscreetly and over-boldly you spoke badly of my Soveraign whose sacred Person here in this Country I represent To maintain both by word and weapon her Honour which never was called in question among people of Honesty and Vertue I say you have wickedly lyed in speaking so basely of my Soveraign and you shall do nothing else but lye whensoever you shall dare to tax her Honour Moreover that her sacred Person being one of the most compleat and vertuous Princess that lives in this world ought not to be evil spoken of the tongue of such a perfidiour Traytor to her Law and Country as you are And hereupon I do defie you and challenge your person to mine with such manner of Arms as you shall like or chuse be it either on horse-back or on foot Nor would I have you to think any inequality of Person between us I being issued of as great a Race and Noble House every way as your self So assigning me an indifferent place I will there maintain my words and the lye which I gave you and which you should not endure if you have any courage at all is you If you consent not to meet me hereupon I wil hold you and cause you to be generally held one of the arrantest Cowards and most slanderous Slave that lives in all France I expect your answer I finde not what Answer was returned This Sir Henry dying in the French Kings Camp before Lofear had his Corpse brought over to London and carried in a Coach to Wadley thence to Farington where he was buried in the Church on Tuesday the eighth of July 1596. He had allowed him a Barons Hearse because he died Ambassadour Leiger Observations on the Life of the Earl of Essex IT is observed that the Earl of Essex had his Introduction to favour by the Lord of Leicester who had married his Mother a tye of Affinity This young Lord was a most goodly person in whom was a kind of Urbanity or innate Courtesie which both won the Queen and too much took upon the People to gaze upon the new-adopted Son of her favour He was noted even of those that truly loved and honoured him for too bold an Ingrosser both of Fame
slept long in the arms of Fortune They were both of ancient blood and of Forraign extraction They were both of strait and goodly stature and of able and active bodies They were both industrious assiduous and attentive to their ends They were both early Privie Counsellours and employed at home in the secretest and weightiest affairs in Court and State They were both likewise Commanders abroad in Chief as well by Sen as by Land both Masters of the Horse at home both chosen Chancellours of the same University namely Cambridge They were both indubitable strong and high-minded men yet of sweet and accostable nature almost equally delighting in the press and affluence of Dependants and Suiters which are always the Burres and sometimes the Briers of Favourites They were both married to very vertuous Ladies and sole Heirs and left issue of either Sex and both their Wives converted to contrary Religions They were both in themselves rare and excellent examples of Temperance and Sobriety but neither of them of Continency Lastly after they had been both subject as all Greatnes and Splendor is to certain obloquies 〈◊〉 their actions They both concluded their earthly felicity in unnaturall ends and with no great distance of time in the space either of Life or Favour Observations on the Life of Sir Jeffery Fenton SIr Jeffery Fenton born in Nottinghamshire was for twenty seven years Privy-Counsellour in Ireland to Queen Elizabeth and King James He translated the History of Francis Guicciardine out of Italian into English and dedicated it to Queen Elizabeth He deceased at Dublin October 19. 1608 and lyeth buried in St. Patricks Church under the same Tomb with his Father-in-Law Doctor Robert Weston sometimes Chancellour of Ireland It is an happy age when great men do what wise men may write an happier when wise men write what great have done the happiest of all when the same men act and write being Histories and composing them too For these men having a neerer and more thorow-insight to the great subjects of Annals than men of more distant capacities and fortunes are the onely persons that have given the world the right notion of Transactions when men of lower and more pedantique spirits trouble it onely with more heavy Romances Give me the actions of a Prince transcribed by those Historians who could be instruments The best History in the world is Caesar's Commentaries written by him and translated by Edmonds with the same spirit that they were acted Xenophon and Thucydides whose pens copied their Narratives from their Swords Tacitus Malvezzi Machiavel Comines Moor Bacon Herbert and Burleigh who writ the affairs of former Ages with the same judgement that they managed those of their own In a word an History written by such a Courtier as Guicciardine and translated by such a Counsellor as Fenton Diamond onely can cut Diamond the great onely expresse the great a person that hath a sight of the Intelligence Negotiations Conferences and inward transactions of States is one from whom I expect a more exact Chronicle of this age than yet this Nation hath been happy in Observations on the Life of Doctor Fletcher GIles Fletcher brother to Richard Fletcher Bishop of London was born in Kent as I am credibly informed He was bred first in Eaton then in Kings Colledge in Cambridge where he became Doctor of Law A most excellent Poet a quality hereditary to his two sons Giles and Phineas was sent Commissioner into Scotland Germany and the Low-Countreys for Queen Elizabeth and her Embassador into Russia Secretary to the City of London and Master of the Court of Requests His Russian Embassie to settle the English Merchandize was his Master-piece to Theodor Juanowich Duke of Muscovia He came thither in a dangerous juncture of time viz. in the end of the year 1588. First some Forreiners I will not say they were the Hollanders envying the free Trade of the English had done them bad offices Secondly a false report was generally believed that the Spanish Armado had worsted the English Fleet and the Duke of Muscovy who measured his favour unto the English by the possibility he apprehended of their returning it grew very sparing of his smiles not to say free of his frowns on our Merchants residing there However our Doctor demeaned himself in his Embassie with such cauriousnesse that he not onely escaped the Dukes fury but also procured many priviledges for our English Merchants exemplified in Mr. Hackluit Returning home and being safely arrived at London he sent for his intimate friend Mr. Wayland Prebendary of St. Pauls and Senior fellow of Trinity Colledge in Cambridge Tutor to my Father from whose mouth I received this report with whom he heartily express'd his thankfulnesse to God for his safe return from so great a danger for the Poets cannot fancy Vlysses more glad to be come out of the Den Polyphemus than he was to be rid out of the power of such a barbarous Prince who counting himself by a proud and voluntary mistake Emperour of all Nations cared not for the Law of all Nations and who was so habited in blood that had he cut off this Embassador's head he and his friends might have sought their own amends but the question is where he would have found it He afterwards set forth a Book called The Russian Common-wealth expressing the Government or Tyranny rather thereof wherein saith my Author are many things most observable but Queen Eliz. indulging the reputation of the Duke of Muscovy as a confederate Prince permitted not the publick printing of that which such who have private Copies know to set the valuation thereon Observations on the Life of the Lord Mountjoy THe Lord Mountjoy was of the ancient Nobility as he came from Oxford he took the Inner-Temple in his way to Court whither no sooner come but without asking had a pretty strange kinde of admission He was then much about twenty years of age of a brown hair a sweet face a most neat composure and tall in his person so that he coming to see the fashion of the Court was spied out by the Queen and out of the affection she bare to the very sight of his face received him into favour upon the first observation whereof she professed that she knew there was in him some noble blood He was one that wanted not wit and courage for he had very fine attractions and being a good Scholar yet were they accompanied with the retractives of bashfulnesse and a natural modesty There was in him an inclination to Arms with an humour of Travelling and as he was grown by reading whereunto he was much addicted to the Theory of a Soldier so was he strongly invited by his Genius to the Acquaintance of the Practick of the War which were the causes of his excursions for he had a Company in the Low-Countreys from whence he came over with a noble acceptance of the Queen but somewhat restlesse in honourable thoughts he
condoling King Francis his death with a Majesty no lesse becoming the Personage he represented than the Prince he addressed himself to 1. His providence in contriving the English Ships nimble and such as could tack about at pleasure 2. His prudence in not hazarding his weak Navy against the Spanish Army and Armado in an Engagement wherein a victory would be but a little glory and a defeat a ruine 3. His activity in alarming the Spanish Navy day and night 4. His wisdome in honouring the most serviceable under him as Hawkins Forbisher Sheffield c. 5. His popularity that drew so many Voluntiers to his service as the Earls of Oxford Northumberland Cumberland the Cecils c. 6. His warinesse in dividing his fourteen Sail into four squadrons round about the Spanish Navy 7. His excellent contrivance of eight Ships filled with pitch wilde-fire rofin c. which sent down the winde in the dead of night so much to the terrour of the Spaniards that fearing the Fire together with some more deadly Engines they raised a pitiful cry weighed Anchor cut their Cables and in a terrible pannick Fear with great haste and confusion put to Sea 8. His admirable dexterity in disposing of the Navy so as they met the Spanish Navy upon their dispersion with such successe that the invincible Fleet never saw again its own formidablenesse ever since grown the most contemptible thing that ever sailed upon these Seas 9. His seasonable order to the Dutch Fleet to watch the Duke of Parma in the Ports of Dunkirk and Newport 10. His exact intelligence whereby he understood what a Controversie there was in the Spanish Navy about this poynt Whether they should stick to their Commission in staying for Parma which was their duty or follow the emergent advantages which had been their discretion and dealt with them accordingly These grand particulars of this Noble-man's service were so eminent and signal that Queen Elizabeth who was over-lavish neither of her honour nor her preferments would say commonly of him and those brave Heroes under him That they were born to save their Countrey This noble person was of greater experience than knowledg and more beholding to his years than to his Education whence K. James took great pleasure in his discourse that was not morose obstinate narrow unactive or formal like a Students harangues but free active and ingenuous like a States-man's Maximes Whereof one was this That never did Commander a noble Act that was Commission-bound it being a question whether the Venetians and Spanyards lost more at Sea and in the Netherlands before they discovered that Error or gained more since For whilest we addresse our selves to the State occasions are lost things take another countenance and so many unexpected accidents happen for which sodain provision must be made that opportunities escape before we dare lay hold of them and sometimes we perish for want of a Commission to save our selves Great content did he give by his presence in the French Court 1605. and greater in his carriage at the Prince Elector's marriage 1612. A prudent care did he discover in providing for posterity by the seasonable resignation of his Admiralty a faithful friend he shewed himself in confirming Sir Robert Mansel's place when he parted with his own a great argument of his own worth and service that he was so careful to reward others Observations on the Life of Sir Geo. Hume Earl of Dunbar NO wonder he is so great a Favourite of King James in his riper years who was so faithful a servant of his in his youth trusted with his Royal secrets in Scotland and therefore in his Royal bosome in England The natural reservednesse of all Scots-men and the vast depth of this are not more necessary to all Princes then they were pleasing to King James who had no secrecies that endangered his Privadoes though many that tried them and particularly our States-man who had no hidden weakness to be over-reached nor private Interest to be corrupted but was a great Master of himself owning a reach not to be comprehended and thoughts not to be fathomed but by him whose heart was as the sand of the Sea Exact was his correspondence with Sir Robert Cecil while in Scotland and intimate was their friendship in England both extorting from each other those observations touching their respective Countreys which they might both communicate to His Majesty at their respective opportunities His Enterprizes were well layd but unsuccessful rational but unhappy an argument that Designes are onely in our power and Events in a higher There was not a man more noble and renowned more comely and graceful of more years and experience Versatus Versutus of a greater estate or revenue more liberal and munificent more accostable and courteous more resolved and reserved all the qualities of a compleat Ambassador than the Earl of Dunbar when sent to Germany yet none more ineffectual having gained no more by a tedious and chargeable Negotiation than as the Earl of Nottingham with his gallant Retinue in Spain that the Papists who were formerly perswaded by their Jesuites that we were Monsters do now believe we are Men so useless was soft Courtship in rough tumults and so little heed was given to smooth complements in Arms and Uproars More happy was he in Scotland where his prudence as Lord Treasurer and his Chaplain Doctor Abbot's gravity as Preacher reduced that Nation to so much sobriety as to admit a regular Religion and Government for which service he had the Exchequer and the Wardrobe for himself and the Arch-Bishoprick of Canterbury for the Doctor when the King was in a great streight between the known merit of the incomparable Bishop Andrews and the last request of dying Sir George Hume a great instance of King James his abilities in what Machiavel calleth a Princes Master-piece viz. the choice of Servants Observations on the Life of the Earl of Somerset HIs extraction from Scotland put him in the way his Education in England set him in a capacity of Advancement He was born seasonably when his Father served him that should be a King of England and brought up happily when he might please him that was so His beauty and comelinesse tooke his Majestie his parts and prudence obliged him who loved the Cabinet but valued the Jewel He was admitted Page of honour to King James when of Scotland and his Favourite when of England His Majesties first observation of him was at a solemn Tilting where his delight in his person meeting with his pity of his mischance I mean the breaking of his leg there first took him to his tuition and then to his Council All King James his Favourites were of his own education and so imbued with his principles and engaged to his interest It was his Majesties policy to retain Scots States-men to balance the English It was Somerset's prudence to entertain English Favouries to endear the Scots therefore Sir Tho. Overbury was
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
side or party but all so far as he saw they agreed with the Reformed Church of England either in Fundamentals or innocent and decent Superstructures Yet I believe he was so far a Protestant and of the Reformed Religion as he saw the Church of England did protest against the Errors Corruptions Usurpations and Superstitions of the Church of Rome or against the novel opinions and practices of any party whatsoever And certainly he did with as much honour as justice so far own the Authentick Authority Liberty and Majesty of the Church of England in it's reforming and setling of it's Religion that he did not think fit any private new Masters whatsoever should obtrude any Foreign or Domestick Dictates to her or force her to take her copy of Religion from so petty a place as Geneva was or Frankefort or Amsterdam or Wittenbergh or Edenborough no nor from Augsburg or Arnheim nor any foreign City or Town any more than from Trent or Rome none of which had any Dictatorian Authority over this great and famous Nation or Church of England further than they offered sober Counsels or suggested good Reasons or cleared true Religion by Scripture and confirmed it by good Antiquity as the best interpreter and decider of obscure places and dubious cases Which high value it is probable as to his Mother the Church of England and her Constitutions was so potent in the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury that as he thought it not fit to subject her to the insolency of the Church of Rome so nor to the impertinencies of any other Church or Doctor of far lesse repute in the Christian world No doubt his Lordship thought it not handsome in Mr. Calvin to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rather then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so censorious of the Church of England as to brand it's Devotion or Liturgy with his tolerabiles ineptiae who knew not the temper of the Nation requiring then not what was absolutely best but most conveniently good and such not onely the Liturgy was but those things which he calls tolerable toys I having occasion to speak with him he upon a time was pleased to grant me access some freedom of speech with him and withal asked me the opinion of the people of him I told him they reported his Lordship endeavoured to betray the Church of England to the Roman correspondency and communion He at length very calmly and gravely thus reylyed protesting with a serious attestation of his integrity before God's Omniscience that however he might mistake in the mean and method yet he never had other design than the glory of God the service of his Majesty the good order peace and decency of the Church of England that he was so far from complying with Papists in order to confirm them in their Errors that he rather chose such Methods to advance the honour of the reformed Religion in England as he believed might soon silence the cavils of fiercer Papists induce the more moderate Recusants to come in to us as having lesse visible occasion given them by needlesse Distances and Disputes to separate from us which he thought arose much from that popular Variety Inconstancy Easinesse Irreverence and Uncomeliness which might easily grow among us in the outward profession of Religion for want of observing such uniformity and decency in Religion as were required by the Laws and Canons of this Church and State He added that he had further a desire as much as he could to relieve the poor and depressed condition of many Ministers which he had to his grief observed in Wales and England where their Discouragements were very great by reason of the tenuity and incompetency of their Livings that in his Visitations he had sometime seen it with grief among twenty Ministers not one man had so much as a decent Garment to put on nor did he believe their other treatment of Life was better that he found the sordid and shameful Aspect of Religion and the Clergy gave great Advantages to those that were Popishly inclined who would hardly ever think it best for them to joyn with that Church which did not maintain either it's own Honour or it's Clergy to some competency and comeliness Much more discourses his Lordship was pleased to use at several times to this purpose which commands my charity to clear him as far as I can judge of any tincture of Popery truly so called or of any superstition which placeth a Religion in the nature and use of that thing which God hath not either particularly commanded or in general permitted I suppose he thought that where God hath allowed to his Church and to every private Christian so far as may consist with the Churches Order and Peace a liberty of ceremonious and circumstantial decency as to God's worship there neither himself was to be blamed nor did he blame other men if they kept within those discreet and inoffensive bounds which either the Churches publick peace required or its indulgence to promote Christians permitted That Uniformity he pressed was not more advantageous to Religion which must of necessity have been propagated when Controversies had been turned to devotion than it was necessary for the State which cannot be secure as long as there is a marke of distinction under which all Male-contents may shrowd themselves a note of separation whereby the Factions may reckon their parties and aestimate their strength and a way open to popularity to the ambition of any whose interest or desperatenesse shall adventure to make himself head of so great a party He was a person of so great abilities which are the designations of nature to dignity and command that they raised him from low beginnings to the highest Office the Protestant profession acknowledgeth in the Church and he was equal to it His learning appeared eminent in his Book against Fisher and his piety illustrious in his Diary He was of so publick a spirit that both the Church and State have lasting Monuments of the virtuous use he made of his Princes favour at his admittance into which he dededicated all the future Emolumeuts of it to the glory of God and the good of men by a projection of many noble Works most of which he accomplished and had finished the rest had not the fate of the Nation checked the current of his Design and cut off the course of his Life He was not contented by himself onely to serve his Generation for so he might appear more greedy of fame than desirous of the universal benefit but he endeavoured to render all others as heroick if they aimed at a capacity for his friendship For I have heard it from his Enemies no great man was admitted to a confidence and respect with him unlesse he made Addresse by some act that was for the common good or for the ornament and glory of the Protestant Faith Learned men had not a better Friend nor Learning it self a greater Advance◠He searched all the Libraries of