the Laws thereof and nothing will oblige them more then a confidence of the free enjoying of them What the Nobles upon an occasion once said in Parliament Nolumus leges Angliae mutari is imprinted in the hearts of all the people 3. But because the life of the Lawes lies in the due execution and administration of them let your eye be in the first place upon the choice of good Judges These properties had they need to be furnished with To be learned in their profession patient in hearing prudent in governing powerful in their elocution to perswade and satisfie both the parties and hearers just in their judgement and to sum up all they must have these three Attributes They must be men of courage fearing God and hating covetousness An ignorant man cannot a Coward dares not be a good Judge 4. By no means be you perswaded to interpose your self either by word or letter in any cause depending or like to be depending in any Court of Justice nor suffer any other great man to do it where you can hinder it and by all means disswade the King himself from it upon the importunity of any for themselves or their friends If it should prevail it perverts justice but if the Judge be so just and of such courage as he ought to be as not to be inclined thereby yet it alwayes leaves a taint of suspition behind it Judges must be as chaste as Caesars wife neither to be nor to be suspected to be unjust and Sir the honour of the Judges in their judicature is the Kings honour whose person they represent 5. There is great use of the service of the Judges in their circuits which are twice in the year held throughout the Kingdome the trial of a few causes between party and party or delivering of the gaols in the several Counties are of great use for the expedition of justice yet they are of much more use for the government of the Counties through which they passe if that were well thought upon 6. For if they had instructions to that purpose they might be the best intelligencers to the King of the true state of his whole Kingdom of the disposition of the people of their inclinations of their intentions and motions which are necessary to be truly understood 7. To this end I could wish that against every Circuit all the Judges should sometimes by the King himself and sometimes by the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper in the Kings Name receive a charge of those things which the present times did much require and at their return should deliver a faithful Account thereof and how they found and left the Counties through which they passed and in which they kept their Assizes 8. And that they might the better perform this work which might be of great importance it will not be amiss that sometimes this Charge be publick as it useth to be in the Star-Chamber at the end of the Terms next before the Circuit begins where the Kings care of Justice and the good of his People may be published and that sometimes also it may be private to communicate to the Judges some things not so fit to be publickly delivered 9. I could wish also that the Judges were directed to make a little longer stay in a place than usually they do a day more in a County would be a very good addition although their wages for their Circuits were increased in proportion it would stand better with the Gravity of their imployment whereas now they are sometimes enforced to rise over-early and to sit over-late for the dispatch of their business to the extraordinary trouble of themselves and of the people their times indeed not being horae juridicae And which is the main they would have the more leisure to inform themselves quasi aliud agentes of the true estate of the Countrey 10. The attendance of the Sheriffs of the Counties accompanied with the principal Gentlemen in a comely not a costly equipage upon the Judges of Assize at their coming to the place of their sitting and at their going out is not only a Civility but of use also It raiseth a Reverence to the persons and places of the Judges who coming from the King Himself on so great an Errand should not be neglected 11. If any sue to be made a Judge for my own part I should suspect him but if either directly or indirectly he should bargain for a place of Judicature let him be rejected with shame Uendere jure potest emerat ille prius 12. When the place of a chief Judge of a Court becomes vacant a puisne Judge of that Court or of another Court who hath approved himself fit and deserving would be sometimes preferred it would be a good encouragement for him and for others by his example 13. Next to the Judge there would be care used in the choice of such as are called to the degree of Serjeants at Law for such they must be first before they be made Judges none should be made Serjeants but such as probably might be held fit to be Judges afterwards when the experience at the Bar hath fitted them for the Bench Therefore by all means cry down that unworthy course of late times used that they should pay moneys for it It may satisfie some Courtiers but it is no Honour to the person so preferred nor to the King who thus prefers them 14. For the Kings Councel at the Law especially His Attorney and Sollicitor General I need say nothing their continual use for the Kings Service not only for His Revenue but for all the parts of His Government will put the King and those who love His Service in mind to make choice of men every way fit and able for that Employment they had need to be learned in their Profession and not ignorant in other things and to be dextrous in those Affairs whereof the dispatch is committed to them 15. The Kings Attorney of the Court of Wards is in the true quality of the Judges therefore what hath been observed already of Judges which are intended principally of the three great Courts of Law at Westminster may be applied to the choice of the Attorney of this Court 16. The like for the Attorney of the Dutchy of Lancaster who partakes of both qualities partly of a Judge in that Court and partly of an Attorney General for so much as concerns the proper Revenue of the Dutchy 17. I must not sorget the Judges of the four Circuits in the twelve Shires of Wales who although they are not of the first Magnitude nor need be of the degree of the Coyfe only the Chief Justice of Chester who is one of their number is so yet are they considerable in the choice of them by the same Rules as the other Judges are and they sometimes are and fitly may be transplanted into the higher Courts 18. There are many Courts as you see some superior some provincial and some of a
the Pardon of the Parliaments Sentence Most gracious and dread Sovereign BEfore I make my Petition to your Majesty I make my Prayers to God above pectore ab imo That if I have held anything so dear as your Majesties service nay your hearts ease and your honour I may be repulsed with a denial But if that hath been the principal with me That God who knoweth my heart would move your Majesties royal heart to take compassion of me and to grant my desire I prostrate my self at your Majesties feet I your ancient servant now sixty four years old in age and three years and five moneths old in misery I desire not from your Majesty means nor place nor imployment but only after so long a time of expiation a compleat and total remission of the sentence of the Upper House to the end that blot of ignominy may be removed from me and from my memory with posterity that I die not a condemned man but may be to your Majesty as I am to God Nova creatura Your Majesty hath pardoned the like to Sir John Bennet between whose case and mine not being partial to my self but speaking out of the general opinion there was as much difference I will not say as between black and white but as between black and gray or ash-coloured Look therefore down dear Sovereign upon me also in pity I know your Majesties heart is inscrutable for goodness and my Lord of Buckingham was wont to tell me you were the best natured man in the world and it is Gods property that those that he hath loved he loveth to the end Let your Majesties grace in this my desire stream down upon me and let it be out of the fountain and spring-head and ex mero motu that living or dying the print of the goodness of King James may be in my heart and his praises in my mouth This my most humble request granted may make me live a year or two happily and denied will kill me quickly But yet the last thing that will die in me will be the heart and affection of Your Majesties most humble and true devoted servant Fr. St. Alban July 30. 1624. Sir Francis Bacon to King James of a Digest to be made of the Laws of England Most Excellent Sovereign AMongst the Degrees and Acts of Sovereign or rather Heroical Honour the first or second is the person and merit of a Law-giver Princes that govern well are Fathers of the People But if a Father breed his Son well and allow him well while he liveth but leave him nothing at his death whereby both he and his Children and his Childrens Children may be the better it is not in him compleat So Kings if they make a portion of an Age happy by their good Government yet if they do not make Testaments as God Almighty doth whereby a perpetuity of good may descend to their Countrey they are but mortal and transitory benefactors Domitian a few days before he dyed dreamed that a golden Head did rise upon the Nape of his Neck which was truly performed in the golden Age that followed his times for five Successions But Kings by giving their Subjects good Laws may if they will in their own time join and graff this golden Head upon their own necks after their death Nay they make Nabuchodonosors Image of Monarchy golden from head to foot And if any of the meaner sort of Politicks that are sighted only to see the worst of things think That Laws are but Cobwebs and that good Princes will do well without them and bad will not stand much upon them the discourse is neither good nor wise For certain it is That good Laws are good Bridles to bad Princes and as a very Wall about Government And if Tyrants sometimes make a breach into them yet they mollifie even Tyranny it self as Solons Laws did the Tyranny of Pisistratus and then commonly they get up again upon the first advantage of better times Other means to perpetuate the memory and merits of Sovereign Princes are inferiour to this Building of Temples Tombs Palaces Theatres and the like are honourable things and look big upon Posterity But Constantine the Great gave the name well to those works when he used to call Trajan who was a great Builder Parietarius because his name was upon so many walls So that if that be the matter that the King would turn Wall-flower or Pelitory of the Wall with cost he may Adrians vein was better for his mind was to wrastle a fall with Time and being a great Progressor over all the Roman Empire when ever he found any decayes of Bridges or High-wayes or cuts of Rivers and Sewers or Walls or Banks or the like he gave substantial order for their Repair He gave also multitudes of Charters and Liberties for the comfort of Corporations and Companies in decay so that his Bounty did strive with the ruines of time But yet this though it were an excellent disposition went but in effect to the Cases and Shells of a Commonwealth it was nothing to Virtue or Vice A bad man might indifferently take the benefit and ease of his Wayes and Bridges as well as a good and bad people might purchase good Charters Surely the better works of perpetuity in Princes are they that wash the inside of the Cup such as are foundations of Colledges and Lectures for learning and education for youth likewise foundations and institutions of Orders and Fraternities for Nobleness Enterprize and Obedience and the like But yet these also are but like Plantations of Orchards and Gardens in plats and spots of ground here and there they do not Till over the whole Kingdom and make it fruitful as doth the establishing of good Laws and Ordinances which make a whole Nation to be as a well ordered Colledge or Foundation This kind of work in the memory of time is rare enough to shew it excellent and yet not so rare as to make it suspected for impossible inconvenient and unsafe Moses that gave Laws to the Hebrews because he was the scribe of God himself is fitter to be named for Honours sake to other Law-givers then to be numbred and ranked amongst them Minos Lycurgus and Solon are examples for Themes of Grammar-Scholars For ancient Personages and Characters now a days use to wax children again Though that Parable of Pindarus be true The best thing is water for common and trivilal things are many tmies the best and rather despised upon pride because they are vulgar then upon cause or use Certain it is that the Laws of those three Law-givers had great prerogatives the first of fame because they were the pattern among the Grecians the second of lasting for they continued longest without alteration the third a spirit of reviver to be often expired and often restored Amongst the seven Kings of Rome there were four Law-givers For it is most true that a Discourse of Italy saith There was never State so well
swadled in the infancy as the Roman was by the vertue of their first Kings which was a principal cause of the wonderful growth of that State in after-times The Decemvirs Laws were Laws upon Laws not the Original For they graffed Laws of Graecia upon the Roman stock of Laws and Customs But such was their success as the twelve Tables which they compiled were the main body of the Laws which framed and welded the great Body of that State They lasted a long time with some supplementals and the Pretorian Edicts in Albo which were in respect of Laws as Writing-tables in respect of Brass the one to be put in and out as the other is permanent Lucius Cornelius Sylla reformed the Laws of Rome For that man had three singularities which never Tyrant had but he That he was a Law-giver that he took part with Nobility and that he turned private man not upon fear but upon confidence Caesar long after desired to imitate him only in the first for otherwise he relied upon new men and for resigning his power Seneca describeth him right Caesar gladium cito condidit nunquam posuit And himself took it upon him saying in scorn of Sylla's resignation Sylla nescivit liter as dictare non potuit But for the part of a Law-giver Cicero giveth him the Attribute Caesar si ab eo quaereretur quid egisset in Toga leges se respondisset multas praeclar as tulisse His Nephew Augustus did tread the same steps but with deeper print because of his long Reign in peace whereof one of the Poets of his time saith Pace data terris animum ad Civilia vertit Jura suum legesque tulit justissimus Author From that time there was such a race of Wit and Authority between the Commentaries and Decisions of the Lawyers and the Edicts of the Emperours as both Laws and Lawyers were out of breath whereupon Justinian in the end re-compiled both and made a Body of Laws such as might be wielded which himself calleth glorious and yet not above truth the edifice or structure of a sacred Temple of Justice built indeed out of the former ruines of Books as materials and some novel constitutions of his own In Athens they had sex viri as AEschines observeth which were standing Commissioners who did watch to discern what Laws were unproper for the times and what new Law did in any branch cross a former Law and so ex officio propounded their Repeal King Edgar collected the Laws of this Kingdom and gave them a strength of a Faggot bound which formerly were dispersed which was more glory to him than his sailing about this Island with a great Fleet for that was as the Scripture saith Via Navis in Mari it vanished but this lasteth Alphonso the Wise the Ninth of that Name King of Castile compiled the Digest of the Laws of Spain intituled The six Partidas an excellent Work which he finished in seven years And as Tacitus noteth well That the Capitol though built in the beginnings of Rome yet was sit for the great Monarchy that came after so that building of Laws sufficeth the greatness of the Empire of Spain which since hath ensued Lewis the Eleventh had in his mind though he performed it not to have made one constant Law of France extracted out of the Civil Roman Law and the Customes of Provinces which are various and the Kings Edicts which with the French are Statutes Surely he might have done well if like as he brought the Crown as he said himself hors de Page so he had brought his people from Lacquay not to run up and down for their Laws to the Civil Law and the Ordinances of Courts and Discourses of Philosophers as they use to do King Henry the Eighth in the Twenty seventh year of his Reign was authorized by Parliament to nominate Thirty two Commoners part Ecclesiastical part Temporal to purge the Common Law and to make it agreeable to the Law of God and the Law of the Land but it took not effect For the Acts of that King were commonly rather proffers and fames then either well grounded or well pursued But I doubt I err in producing so many examples for as Cicero said to Caesar so may I say to Your Majesty Nil vulgare te dignum videri possit though indeed this well understood is far from vulgar for that the Laws of both Kingdoms and States have been like buildings of many pieces and patched up from time to time according to occasions without frame or model Now for the Laws of England if I shall speak my opinion of them without partiality either to my profession or Countrey for the matter and nature of them I hold them wise just and Moderate Laws they give to God they give to Caesar they give to the Subject what appertaineth It is true they are as mixt as our Language compounded of British Roman Saxon Danish Norman customs and surely as our Language is thereby so much the richer so our Laws are likewise by that mixture the more compleat Neither both this attribute the less to them then those that would have them to stand out the same in all mutations For no tree is so good first set as by transplanting and graffing I remember what happened to Calisthenes that followed Alexders Court and was grown into some displeasure with him because he could not well brook the Persian adoration At a Supper which with the Grecians was a great part he was desired the King being present because he was an eloquent man to speak of some Theme which he did and chose for his Theme the praise of the Macedonian Nation Which though it were but a filling thing to praise men to their faces yet he performed it with such advantage of truth and avoidance of flattery and with such life as was applauded by the Hearers The King was the less pleased with it not loving the man and by way of discountenance said It was easie to be a good Orator in a pleasing Theme But saith he to him turn your stile and tell us now of our faults that we may have the profit and not the praise only Which he presently did with such quickness that Alexander said That Malice made him Eloquent then as the Theme had done before I shall not fall into either of these extreams iu this Subject of the Laws of England I have commended them before for the matter but surely they ask much amendment for the Form which to reduce and perfect I hold to be one of the greatest Dowries that can be conferred upon this Kingdom which Work for the Excellency as it is worthy Your Majesties Acts and Times so it hath some Circumstance of propriety agreeable to Your person God hath blessed Your Majesty with posterity and I am not of opinion that Kings that are barren are fittest to supply perpetuity of generations by perpetuity of noble acts but contrariwise that they that leave posterity are the more
also for a great time which may suffice for the satisfaction of Justice and example to others We being always graciously inclined to temper Mercy with Justice and calling to minde his former good services and how well and profitably he hath spent his time since his Troubles are pleased to remove from him that blot of Ignominy which yet remaineth upon him of incapacity and disablement and to remit to him all penalties whatsoever inflicted by that sentence having therefore formerly pardoned his Fine and released his Confinement These are to will and require you to prepare for Our Signature a Bill containing a Pardon in due Form of Law of the whole sentence For which this shall be your sufficient Warrant A Letter written by Sir Philip Sidney unto Q. Elizabeth touching her Marriage with Mounsieur MOst Feared and Beloved most Sweet and Gracious Soveraign To seek out excuses of this my Boldness and to arm the acknowledging of a Fault with reasons for it might better shew I knew I did amiss than any way diminish the Attempt especially in your Judgment who being able to discern lively into the nature of the thing done it were Folly to hope by laying on better Colours to make it more acceptable Therefore carrying no other Olive-branch of Intercession than the laying of my self at your Feet nor no other Insinuation either for Attention or Pardon but the true vowed Sacrifice of unfeigned Love I will in simple and direct terms as hoping they shall only come to your merciful Eyes set down the overflowing of my mind in this most important matter Importing as I think the continuance of your Safety and as I know the Joyes-of my life And because my words I confess shallow but coming from the deep Well-spring of most Loyal Affection have delivered unto your most Gracious Ears what is the general Sum of my travelling Thoughts therein I will now but only declare what be the Reasons that make me think That the Marriage with Mounsieur will be unprofitable to you Then will I answer the Objections of those Fears which might procure so violent a Refuge The Good or Evils that will come to you by it must be considered either according to your Estate or Person To your Estate What can be added to the being an Absolute born and accordingly Respected Princess But as they say The Irish men were wont to call over them that dye They are Rich they are Fair what needed they to dye so cruelly Not unfitly to you endowed with Felicity above all others a man might well ask What makes you in such a Calm to change Course To so healthful a Body to apply so unsavoury a Medicine What can recompence so hazardous an Adventure Indeed were it but the altering of a well maintained and well approved Trade For as in Bodies Natural every sudden Change is full of peril So this Body Politick whereof you are the only Head it is so much the more dangerous as there are more humours to receive a hurtful impression But hazards are then most to be regarded when the nature of the Patient is fitly composed to occasion them The Patient I account your Realm the Agent Mounsieur and his Design for neither outward Accidents do much prevail against a true inward strength nor doth inward weakness lightly subvert it self without being thrust at by some outward force Your inward force for as for your Treasures indeed the Sinews of your Crown your Majesty doth best and only know consisteth in your Subjects generally unexpert in warlike defence And as they are divided now into mighty Factions and Factions bound upon the never dying knot of Religion The one of them to whom your happy Government hath granted the free exercise of the Eternal Truth with this by the continuance of time by the multitude of them by the principal Offices and strength they hold and lastly by your dealings both at home and abroad against the Adverse party your State is so entrapped as it were impossible for you without excessive trouble to pull your self out of the party so long maintained For such a course once taken in hand is not much unlike a Ship in a tempest which how dangerously so ever it be beaten with waves yet is there no safety or succor without it These therefore as their souls live by your happy Government so are they your chief if not your sole strength These howsoever the necessity of humane life make them lack yet can they not look for better Conditions then presently they enjoy these how their hearts will be galled if not aliened when they shall see you take a Husband a French man and a Papist in whom howsoever fine wits may find further de lings or painted excuses the very common people well know this that he is the son of a Jezabel of our Age that his brother made oblation of his own sisters Marriage the easier to make massacres of our brethren in belief That he himself contrary to his promise and all gratefulness having had bis liberty and principal estate by the Hugonites means did sack Lacharists and utterly spoil them with fire and sword This I say even at the first fight gives occasion to all truly Religious to abhor such a Master and consequently to diminish much of the hopeful love they have long held to you The other Faction most rightly indeed to be called a Faction is the Papists men whose spirits are full of anguish some being infested by others whom they accounted dâ—mnable some having their Ambition stopped because they are not in the way of Advancement some in Prison and Disgrace some whose best Friends are banished Practisers Many thinking you are an Usurper many thinking also you had disannulied your Right because of the Popes Excommunication All burthened with the weight of their Conscience Men of great Numbers of great Riches because the Affairs of State have not lain on them of united minds as all men that deem themselves oppressed naturally are with these I would willingly join all discontented persons such as want and disgrace keeps lower than they have set their hearts Such as have resolved what to look for at your hands such as Caesar said Quibus opus est Bello civili and are of his minde Malo in acie quà m in foro cadere These be men so much the more to be doubted because as they do embrace all Estates so are they commonly of the bravest and wakefullest sort and that know the advantage of the World most This double Rank of People how their minds have stood the Northern Rebellion and infinite other Practises have well taught you Which if it be said it did not prevail that is true indeed for if they had prevailed it were too late now to deliberate But at this present they want nothing so much as a Head who in effect needs not but to receive their Instructions since they may do mischief enough only with his Countenance Let the Sigingniam in Henr.
entertainments in Forrein parts It had been an easie thing for you to set Carlile or some other blood-hound on work when your person had been beyond the Seas and so this news might have come to you in a packet and you might have looked on how the storm would pass but God bereaved you of this fore-sight and bound you here under that hand of a King that though abundant in Clemenev vet is no less ze lons of Justice Again when you came in at Lambeth you might have persisted in the denial of the procurement of the fact Carlile a resolute man might perhaps have cleared you for they that are resolute in mischief are commonly obstinate in concealing their porcurers and so nothing should have been against you but presumption But then also God to take away all obstructions of Justice gave you the grace which ought indeed to be more true comfort to you than any device whereby you might have escaped to make a clear and plain Confession Other impediments there were not a few which might have been an interruption to this dayes Justice had not God in his Providence removed them But now that I have given God the Honour let me give it likewise where it is next due which is to the King our Sovereign This Murther was no sooner committed and brought to his Majesties ears but his just indignation wherewith he first was moved cast it self into a great deal of care and prudence to have Justice done First came forth his Proclamation somewhat of a rare Form and devised and in esfect dictated by his Majesty himself and by that he did prosecute the Offendors as it were with the breath and blast of his Mouth Then did his Majesty stretch forth his long Arms for Kings have long Arms when they will extend them one of them to the Sea where he took hold of Grey shipped for Luedia who gave the first light of Testimony the other Arm to Scotland and took hold of Carlile ere he was warm in his house and brought him the length of his Kingdom under such safe watch and custody as he could have no means to escape no nor to mischief himself no nor learn no lessons to stand mute in which case perhaps this dayes Justice might have received a stop so that I may conclude his Majesty hath shewed himself Gods true Lieutenant and that he is no Respecter of persons but English Scottish Noblemen Fencer are to him alike in respect of Justice Nay I must say further That his Majesty hath had in this a kind of Prophetical Spirit for what time Carlile and Grey and you my Lord your self were fled no man knew whether to the four winds the King ever spake in a confident and undertaking manner That wheresoever the Offenders were in Europe he would produce them forth to Justice of which noble word God hath made him Master Lastly I will conclude towards you my Lord That though your Offence hath been great yet your Confession hath been free and your behaviour and speech full of discretion and this shews That though you could not resist the Tempter yet you bear a Christian and generous spirit answerable to the noble Family of which you are descended This I commend in you and take it to be an assured Token of God smercy and favour in respect whereof all worldly things are but Trash and so it is fit for you as your state now is to account them and this is all I will say for the present My Lady Shrewsburies Cause Your Lordships do observe the Nature of this Charge MY Lady of Shrewsbury a Lady wise and that ought to know what duty requireth is charged to have refused and to have persisted in refusal to answer and to be examined in a High cause of State being examined by the Council-table which is a Representative body of the King The nature of the cause upon which she was examined is an essential point which doth aggravate and encrease this contempt and presumption and therefore of necessity with that we must begin How graciously and Parent-like His Majesty used the Lady Arbella before she gave him cause of Indignation the world knoweth My Lady notwithstanding extreamly ill-advised transacted the most weighty and binding part and action of her life which is her Marriage without acquanting His Majesty which had been a neglect even to a mean Parent But being to Our Sovereign and she standing so near to His Majesty as she doth and then choosing such a Condition as it pleased her to chuse all parties laid together how dangerous it was my Lady might have read it in the fortune of that house wherewith she is matched for it was not unlike the case of Mr. Seymers Grandmother The King nevertheless so remembred He was a King as He forgot not he was a Kinsman and placed her only sub libera custodia But now did my Lady accumulate and heap up this offence with a far greater than the former by seeking to withdraw her self out of the Kings Power into Forreign Parts That this flight or escape into Forreign Parts might have been seed of trouble to this State is a matter whereof the conceit of a Vulgar person is not capable For although my Lady should have put on a mind to continue her Loyalty as nature and duty did bind her yet when she was in another sphere she must have moved in the motion of that O b and not of the Planet it self And God forbid the Kings felicity should be so little as she should not have envy and enviers enough in Forreign Parts It is true if any forreigner had wrought upon this occasion I do not doubt but the intent would have been as the Prophet saith They have conceived mischief and brought forth a vain thing But yet your Lordships know that it is Wisdom in Princes and it is a watch they owe to themselves and to their people to stop the beginnings of evils and not to despise them Seneca saith well Non jam amplius levia sunt pericula si levia videantur dangers cease to be light because by delpâ—sing they grow and gather strength And accordingly hath been the practice both of the Wisest and stoutest Princes to hold for matter pregnant of peril to have any near them in blood flie into Forreign Parts Wherein I will not wander but take the example of King Hen. 7. a Prince uot unfit to be parallel'd with his Majesty I mean not the particular of Perkin Werbeck for he was but an idol or a disguise but the example I mean is that of the Earl of Suffolk whom that King extorted from Philip of Austria The story is memorable That Philip after the death of Isabella coming to take Possession of His Kingdom of Castilia which was but Matrimonial to His Father in Law Ferdinando of Arragon was cast by weather upon the Coast of Tamouth where the Italian story saith King Henry used him in all things else as
a Prince but in one thing as a Prisoner for he forced upon him a Promise to restore the Earl of Suffolk that was fled into Flanders and yet this I note was in the 21. year of his Reign when the King had a goodly Prince at mans estate besides his daughters nay and the whole line of Clarence nearer in title for that Earl of Suffolk was Descended of a Sister of Edward 4. so far off did that King take his aim To this action of so deep consequence it appeareth you my Lady of Shrewsbury were privy not upon Forreign suspitions or strained inferences but upon vehement presumptions now clear and particular testimony as hath been opened to you so as the King had not only Reason to examine you upon it but to have proceeded with you upon it as for a great contempt which if it be reserved for the present your Ladiship is to understand it aright that it is not defect of proof but abundance of grace that is the cause of this proceeding And your Lady-ship shall do well to see into what danger you have brought your self All offences consist of the fact which is open and the intent which is secret this fact of Conspiring in the flight of this Lady may bear a hard and gentler construction if upon over much affection to your Kinswoman gentler if upon practice or other end harder you must take heed how you enter into such actions whereof if the hidden part be drawn unto that which is open it may be your overthrow which I speak not by way of charge but by way of caution For that which you are properly charged with you must know that all subjects without distinction of degrees owe to the King tribute and service not only of their deed and hand but of their knowledge and discoverie If there be any thing that imports the Kings service they ought themselves undemanded to impart it much more if they be called and examined whether it be of their own fact or of anothers they ought to make direct answer Neither was there ever any subject brought into causes of estate to trial judicial but first he passed examination for examination is the entrance of Justice in criminal causes it is one of the eyes of the Kings politique bodie there are but two Information and Examination it may not be endured that one of the lights be put out by your example Your excuses are not worthie your own judgment rash vowes of lawful things are to be kept but unlawful vowes not your own Divines will tell you so For your examples they are some erroneous traditions My Lord of Pembrook spake somewhat that he was unlettered and it was but when he was examined by one private Councellor to whom he took exception That of my Lord Lumley is a fiction the preheminences of Nobility I would hold with to the last graine but every dayes experience is to the contrary Nay you may learn dutie of my Lady Arbella her self a Lady of the Blood of an higher Rank than your self who declining and yet that but by request neither to declare of your fact yieldeth ingenuously to be examined of her own I do not doubt but by this time you see both your own error and the Kings grace in proceeding with you in this manner Sir Nicholas Throckmorton then Ambassadour in France to Queen Elizabeth touching a free Passage for the Queen of Scots through England into Scotland IT may please your Majesty to understand that the 17 of July I received your letters at Poisey of the 14 of the same by Francisco this bearer and for that I could not according to your Majesties instructions in the same letters accomplish the contents of them until Mounsieur d' Oysell had delivered your letters to the French King the Queen of Scotland and the Queen Mother who did not arrive at this Court till the 20th of this present I did defer to treat with any of the Princes of your Majesties answer to the said Mounsieur d' Oysell Nevertheless the 18th of this moneth I required Audience of the French King which was granted me the same day in the after-noon I repaired to his Court being at Saint Germanes and there the Queen-Mother accompanied with the King of Navarre and sundry other great personages was in the place of State to hear what I had to say to the King her son who was absent unto her I declared your Majesties pleasure according to my instructions concerning your acceptation of the Hostages already received and hereafter to be received signified to me by your Majesties letters of the 17 of June and as I wrote to your Majesty lately brought to me by Mounsieur de Noailles the 16 of July for answer whereunto the Queen Mother said Mounsieur l' Ambassadour we marvail greatly how it cometh to pass that the Queen your Mistress doth not make more stay to receive the King my sons Hostages than she hath done heretofore for from the beginning since the Hostages were sent into England neither the King my late Lord and Husband nor the late King my Son did either recommend the sufficiency of their Hostages by their Letters or cause their names to be recommended unto you the Ambassador but the presentation of them by our Ambassador in England did suffice thereunto I said Madam you know they be Hostages for a matter of some moment and if they should neither have the Kings assurance for their Validity nor the Queen my Mistris Ambassadours allowance of their sufficiency some personages might be sent which were neither meet for the King to send nor for the Queen my Mistris to receive and yet Madam the Queen my Mistris doth not require the manner of recommending the sufficiency of the Hostages for any doubt she hath that unmeet persons should be sent but rather because a friendly and sincere fashion of dealing should be betwixt her good Brother and her with whom her Majesty is so desirous to have a perfect assured Amity I said also That the King her Son hath notified both to my Lord of Bedford at his being here and unto me the names of some of the Hostages as the Count of Benon before his going into England as Mounsieur de Sualt who had the charge so to do could well inform her so as this motion need not seem strange for the newness The Queen answered Mounsieur l' Ambassadour we be well-pleased seeing your Mistriss doth require it that from henceforth either the Hostages shall have the King my Sons Letters of Recommendation or else their names should be notified unto you or any other her Ambassadour here and I pray you Mounsieur l' Ambassadour quoth she give the Queen your Mistris my good Sister to understand from me That if there be any thing in this Countrey that may please her she shall have it if I may know her liking I told the said Queen That I was sure your Majesty was of the same mind
March 30. 1663. Let this Collection of Letters and other Discourses be Printed HENRY BENNET SCRINIA CECILIANA MYSTERIES OF State Government IN LETTERS Of the late Famous Lord Burghley And other Grand Ministers of STATE In the Reigns of Queen ELIZABETH and King JAMES Being a further Additional Supplement of the CABALA AS ALSO Many Remarkable Passages faithfully Revised and no where else Published With two exact Tables The one of the Letters The other of Things most Observable LONDON Printed for G. Bedel and T. Collins and are to be sold at their Shop at the Middle-Temple-gate in Fleetstreet 1663. The Stationers To the READER Courteous Reader ALthough it be a received Position That Merit is worthier than Fame yet duly considered they ought to be inseparable the one being the just Guerdon of the other Upon that account we have presumed to make Publick these ensuing Memorials or Letters being Monuments of some late Eminent Patriots and Hero's of this Nation Who whilst they were Actors in such grand Affairs as suited with their high Service under their Sovereigns were deservedly Dignified here and Renowned abroad The first of these Worthies being Sir William Cecil Lord Burghley who was an unparallel'd Minister of State And as we conceive of the longest continuance that any Prince then or ever since with such Success enjoyed a person alwayes peaceable and moderate free from Covetousness or Ambition in the course of his Service rather willing to endure the Burthen than desiring the fruition of Honour or Profit profound in Judgment assisted with great Experience and therefore worthily celebrated both here and abroad as Pater Patriae and an indefatigable Votary to the Crown And for the matters and designs in the Letters themselves we shall be silent hoping the Fame of the person will be motive sufficient for you to purchase this Jewel Concerning the Times they were wheeled about with new and great Revolutions and Divisions not only at Home but also in France Scotland the Low Countries and generally in most of the other Kingdoms and States abroad Forâs Pugnae intus Timores Conspiracies Invasions and Insurrections amongst our selves War Devastations and Massacres amongst our Neighbours for the most part shadowed with the Vaile of Religion many Princes of the Blood and persons of great Authority being sacrificed on either part turbulent Times and of great mutations proper to try the Ability and Fidelity of a State Atlas wherein with what Wisdom he acquitted himself is referred to you to determine The next is Sir Nicholas Throckmorton Ambassador in France for Queen Elizabeth in the Infancy of her Reign we have nothing here of his remains but only his Letter to Her Majesty touching a free passage for the Queen of Scots through England wherein you will find variety of Politick Reasons pressed on each part with smart Judgment In the third place is Sir Philip Sidney that choice Darling of the Muses whom we suppose you will freely grant to have been Tam Marti quam Mercurio in whom England Netherland the Heavens and the Arts the Souldiers and the World did emulate a share here we have only a dissuasive Letter to the Queen touching Her Marriage with Mounsieur of France fortified with many pressing and effectual Reasons against that match and penned with a Politick and Ingenuous Stile And in the last place we present you with some Pieces of the inimitable Viscount St. Alban some in the Reign of the late glorious Queen and others in the Halcyon dayes of the late King James never before to our best knowledge made Publick deck't with many grateful Flowers of Philosophy History and Policy the Fall of the Earl of Somerset and the immediate Advance of the Duke of Buckingham with many other passages of moment and here you may observe the memorials of other worthy persons although the Title point only at Sir William Cecil for we conceive it not imaginable That such experienced and sure Masters of Knowledge would employ their thoughts in any thing sleight or superficial However we dare not assume that boldness as to write Encomiasticks of such great Personages that Right we suppose is much better performed by more quaint Pens already Lunae Radiis non maturescit Botrus And their Names and Honour still live in fresh memory Here you may safely turn Necromancer and consult with the dead or rather with the living for such Monuments as these survive Marble Dignum laude virum Musa vetat mori These are not like Augustus his two infamous Daughters or his unworthy Nephew Posthumus Agrippa Impostumes as he termed them that broke from him but pure and legitimate Issue of the nobler part which is with care exposed to publick View for the better accomodation of those that have been pleased to purchase the two former Volumes of the like Nature and Quality Temple-gate June 18. 1663. G. B. T. C. A TABLE of the LETTERS contained in this COLLECTION B. SIR Francis Bacon to the Lord Treasurer Burghley Pag. 1. Sir Francis Bacon to the Lord Treasurer Burghley p. 2. Sir Francis Bacon in recommendation of his Service to the Earl of Northumberland a few dayes before Queen Elizabeths death p. 4. Sir Francis Bacon to Mr. Robert Kempe upon the death of Queen Elizabeth p. 5. Sir Francis Bacon to Mr. David Foules in Scotland upon the entrance of His Majesties Reign ibid. Sir Francis Bacon to the King upon presenting his Discourse touching the Plantation of Ireland p. 6. Sir Francis Bacon to the Lord Chancellor touching the History of Britain p. 7. Sir Francis Bacon to the King upon the sending unto him a beginning of a History of His Majesties time p. 9. Sir Francis Bacon to the Earl of Salisbury upon sending him one of his Books of Advancement of Learning ibid. Sir Francis Bacon to the Lord Treasurer Buckhurst upon the same occasion of sending his Book of Advancement of Learning p. 10. A Letter of the like Argument to the Lord Chancellor ibid. Sir Francis Bacon of like Argument to the Earl of Northampton with Request to present the Book to His Majesty p. 11. Sir Francis Bacon his Letter of Request to Dr. Plafer to Translate the Book of Advancement of Learning into Latine ibid. Sir Francis Bacon to Sir Thomas Bodley upon sending him his Book of the Advancement of Learning p. 13. Sir Francis Bacon to the Bishop of Ely upon sending his Writing intituled Cogitata visa ibid. Sir Francis Bacon to Sir Thomas Bodley after he had imparted to him a Writing intituled Cogitata visa p. 14. Sir Francis Bacon to Mr. Matthew upon sending him part of Instauratio Magna p. 15. Sir Francis Bacon to Mr. Matthew touching Instauratio Magna p. 16. A Letter to Mr. Matthew upon sending his Book De Sapientia Veterum p. 17. Sir Francis Bacon to Mr. Savill ibid. Sir Francis Bacon to the King touching the Sollicitors place p. 18. Sir Francis Bacon to the King his Suit to succeed in the
we remember our part to be to make him Delinquent to the Peers and not odions to the People That part of the Evidence of the Ladies Exposition of the Pronoun He which was first caught hold of by me and after by His Majesties singular Wisdom and Conscience excepted to and now is by her Re-examination retracted I have given order to Serjeant Montague within whose part it falleth to leave it out of the Evidence I do yet crave pardon if I do not certifie touching the point of Law for respiting the Judgment for I have not fully advised with my Lord Chancellor concerning it but I will advertise it in time I send His Majesty the Lord Stewards Commission in two several instruments the one to remain with my Lord Chancellor which is that which is written in Secretary hand for his Warrant and is to pass the Signet the other that whereunto the great Seal is to be affixed which is in Chancery hand His Majesty is to sign them both and to transmit the former to the Signet if the Secretaries either of them be there and both of them are to be returned to me with all speed I ever rest Your true and devoted Servant May 5. 1616. Sir Francis Bacon the Kings Attorney and some great Lords Commissioners concerning the perswasion used to the Lord of Somerset to a frank Confession It may please Your Majesty WE have done our best endeavours to perform Your Majesties Commission both in matter and manner for the examination of my Lord of Somerset wherein that which passed for the general was to this effect That he was to know his own Case for that his day of Trial could not be far off but that this dayes work was that which would conduce to Your Majesties Justice little or nothing but to Your Mercy much if he did lay hold upon it and therefore might do him good but could do him no hurt For as for Your Justice there had been taken great and grave opinion not only of such Judges as he may think violent but of the most saddest and most temperate of the Kingdom who ought to understand the state of the proofs that the Evidence was full to convict him so as there needed neither Confession nor supply of Examination But for Your Majesties Mercy although he were not to expect we should make any promise we did assure him That Your Majesty was compassionate of him if he gave you some ground whereon to work that as long as he stood upon his Innocency and Tryal Your Majesty was tyed in Honour to proceed according to Justice and that he little understood being a close Prisoner how much the expectation of the World besides Your love to Justice it self engaged Your Majesty whatsoever Your inclination were but nevertheless that a frank and clear Confession might open the gate of Mercy and help to satisfie the point of Honour That his Lady as he knew and that after many Oaths and Imprecations to the contrary had nevertheless in the end been touched with remorse confessed that she that led him to offend might lead him likewise to repent of his offence That the confession of one of them could not fitly do either of them much good but the confession of both of them might work some further effect towards both And therefore in conclusion we wished him not to shut the gate of your Majesties mercy against himself by being obdurate any longer This was the effect of that which was spoken part by one of us part by another as it fell out adding further that he might well discern who spake in us in the course we held for that Commissioners of Examination might not presume so far of themselves Not to trouble Your Majesty with Circumstances of his Answers the sequel was no other but that we found him still not to come any degree further on to confess only his Behaviour was very sober and modest and mild differing apparently from other times but yet as it seem'd resolv'd to expect his Tryal Then did we proceed to examine him upon divers Questions touching the Impoysonment which indeed were very material and supplemental to the former Evidence wherein either his Affirmatives gave some light or his Negatives do greatly falsifie him in that which is apparently proved We made this further observation That when we asked him some Question that did touch the Prince or some Forrain practice which we did very sparingly at this time yet he grew a little stirred but in the Questions of the Impoysonment very cold and modest Thus not thinking it necessary to trouble Your Majesty with any further particulars we end with Prayer to God ever to preserve Your Majesty Your Majesties most Loyal and Faithful Servant c. If it seem good unto Your Majesty we think it not amiss some Preacher well chosen had access to my Lord of Somerset for his preparing and comfort although it be before his Tryal Sir Francis Bacon to the King upon some inclination of His Majesty signified to him for the Chancellors place It may please your most Excellent Majesty THe last day when it pleased Your Majesty to express your self towards me in favour far above that I can deserve or could expect I was surprised by the Princes coming in I most humbly pray Your Majesty therefore to accept these few lines of acknowledgement I never had great thoughts for my self further then to maintain those great thoughts which I confess I have for your service I know what honour is and I know what the times are but I thank God with me my service is the principal and it is far from me under honourable pretences to cover base desires which I account them to be when men refer too much to themselves especially serving such a King I am afraid of nothing but that the Master of the Horse your excellent servant and my self shall fall out about this who shall hold your Stirrup belt but were Your Majesty mounted and seated without difficulties and distastes in your business as I desire and hope to see you I should ex animo desire to spend the decline of my years in my studies wherein also I should not forget to do him honour who besides his active and politick vertues is the best pen of Kings and much more the best subject of a pen. God ever preserve Your Majesty Your Majesties most humble Subject and more and more obliged Servant April 1. 1616. Sir Francis Bacon the Kings Attorney returned with Postils of the Kings own Hand It may please Your most Excellent Majesty YOur Majesty hath put upon me a work of providence in this great Cause which is to break and distinguish future events into present Cases and so to present them to your Royal Judgement that in this action which hath been carried with so great Prudence Justice and Clemency there may be for that which remaineth as little surprize as is possible but that things duly foreseen may have their remedies
the King or to the Council-board and from them receive such directions as may best agree with the Government of that place 15. That the Kings reasonable profit be not neglected partly upon reservation of moderate rents and services and partly upon Customes and partly upon importation and exportation of Merchandize which for a convenient time after the Plantation begin would be very easie to encourage the work but after it is well setled may be raised to a considerable proportion worthy the acceptation VIII I come to the last of those things which I propounded which is the Court and Curiality The other did properly concern the King in his Royal capacity as Pater patriae this more properly as Pater familias And herein 1. I shall in a word and but in a word only put you in mind That the King in his own person both in respect of his Houshold or Court and in respect of his whole Kingdom for a little Kingdom is but as a great Houshold and a great Houshold as a little Kingdom must be exemplary Regis ad exemplum c. But for this God be praised our charge is easie for your gracious Master for his Learning and Piety Justice and Bounty may be and is not only a president to his own subjects but to forreign Princes also yet he is still but a man and seasonable Memento's may be useful and being discreetly used cannot but take well with him 2. But your greatest care must be that the great men of his Court for you must give me leave to be plain with you for so is your injunction laid upon me your self in the first place who is first in the eye of all men give no just cause of scandal either by light or vain or by oppressive carriage 3. The great Officers of the Kings Houshold had need be both discreet and provident persons both for his Honour and for his Thrift they must look both ways else they are but half-sighted Yet in the choice of them there is more latitude left to affection then in the choice of Councellors and of the great Officers of State before touched which must always be made choice of meerly out of judgment for in them the publick hath a great interest 4. For the other ministerial Officers in Court as for distinction sake they may be termed there must be also an eye unto them and upon them they have usually risen in the Houshold by degrees and it is a noble way to encourage faithful service But the King must not bind himself to a necessity herein for then it will be held ex debito neither must he alter it without an apparent â—â—â—use for it but to displace any who are in upon displeasure which for the most part happeneth upon information of some great man is by all means to be avoided unless there be a manifest cause for it 5. In these things you may sometimes interpose to do just and good offices but for the general I should rather advise meddle little but leave the ordering of those Houshold affairs to the white-staffs which are those honourable Persons to whom it properly belongeth to be answerable to the King for it and to those other Officers of the Green-cloth who are subordinate to them as a kind of Councel and a Court of Justice also 6. Yet for the Green-cloth Law take it in the largest sence I have no opinion of it further then it is regulated by the just Rules of the Common-Laws of England 7. Towards the support of His Majesties own Table and of the Princes and of his necessary Officers His Majesty hath a good help by purveyance which justly is due unto him and if justly used is no great burthen to the subject but by the Purveyors and other under-Officers is many times abused In many parts of the Kingdom I think it is already reduced to a certainty in money and if it be indifferently and discreetly manag'd it would be no hard matter to settle it so throughout the whole Kingdom yet to be renewed from time to time for that will be the best and safest both for the King and People 8. The King must be put in mind to preserve the Revenues of his Crown both certain and casual without diminution and to lay up treasure in store against a time of extremity empty coffers give an ill sound and make the people many times forget their Duty thinking that the King must be beholden to them for his supplies 9. I shall by no means think it fit that he reward any of his servants with the benefit of forfeitures either by Fines in the Court of Star-Chamber or High Commission Court or other Courts of Justice or that they should be farmed out or bestowed upon any so much as by promise before Judgment given it would neither be profitable nor honourable 10. Besides matters of serious consideration in the Court of Princes there must be times for pastimes and disports When there is a Queen and Ladies of Honour attending her there must sometimes be Masques and Revels and Enterludes and when there is no Queen or Princess as now yet at Festivals and for entertainment of Strangers or upon such occasions they may be fit also Yet care would be taken that in such cases they be set off more with wit and activity then with costly and wasteful expences 11. But for the King and Prince and the Lords and Chivalry of the Court I rather commend in their turns and seasons the riding of the great Horse the Tilts the Barriers Tennis and Hunting which are more for the health and strength of those who exercise them then in an effeminate way to please themselves and others And now the Prince groweth up fast to be a man and is of a sweet and excellent disposition it would be an irreparable stain and dishonour upon you having that access unto him if you should mislead him or suffer him to be misled by any loose or flattering Parasites The whole Kingdom hath a deep interest in his virtuous education and if you keeping that distance which is fit do humbly interpose your self in such a case he will one day give you thanks for it 12. Yet Dice and Cards may sometimes be used for recreation when field-sports cannot be had but not to use it as a mean to spend the time much less to mispend the thrift of the Gamesters SIR I shall trouble you no longer I have run over these things as I first propounded them please you to make use of them or any of them as you shall see occasion or to lay them by as you think best and to add to them as you daily may out of your experience I must be bold again to put you in mind of your present condition you are in the quality of a Sentinal if you sleep or neglect your charge you are an undone man and you may fall much faster then you have risen I have but one thing more
Queens Service mine own Fortune and in a sort my Vocation I did nothing but devise and ruminate with my self to the best of my understanding Propositions and Memorials of any thing that might concern his Lordships Honour Fortune or Service And when not long after I entred into this course my Brother Mr. Anthony Bacon came from beyond the Seas being a Gentleman whose abilities the World taketh knowledge of for matter of State specially Forreign I did likewise knit his Service to be at my Lords disposing And on the other side I must and will ever acknowledge my Lords love trust and favour towards me and last of all his liberality having enfeoffed me of land which I sold for 1800 l. to Mr. Reynold Nicholas and I think was more worth and that at such a time and with so kind and noble circumstances as the manner was as much as the matter Which though it be but an idle digression yet because I will not be short in commemoration of his benefits I will presume to trouble your Lordship with the relating to you the manner of it After the Queen had denied me the Sollicitors place for the which his Lordship had been a long and earnest Suitor on my behalf it pleased him to come to me from Richmond to Twilknam Park and brake with me and said Mr. Bacon the Queen hath denied me the place for you and hath placed another I know you are the least part of your own matter but you fare ill because you have chosen me for your mean and dependance you have spent your time and thoughts in my matters I die these were the very words if I do not somewhat towards your Fortune you shall not deny to accept a piece of land which I will bestow upon you My answer I remember was That for my Fortune it was no great matter but that his Lordships offer made me call to mind what was wont to be said when I was in France of the Duke of Guise That he was the greatest Usurer in France because he had turned all his Estate into Obligations meaning that he had left himself nothing but only had bound numbers of persons to him Now my Lord said I I would not have you imitate this course nor turn your state thus by greatest gifts into obligations for you will find many bad Debtors He bade me take no care for that and pressed it whereupon I said I see my Lord that I must be your Homager and hold land of your gift but do you know the manner of doing Homage in Law alwayes it is with a saving of his faith to the King and his other Lords and therefore my Lord said I I can be no more yours than I was and it must be with the ancient savings and if I grow to be a rich man you will give me leave to give it back a gain to some of your un-rewarded followers But to return Sure I am though I can arrogate nothing to my self but that I was a faithful Remembrancer to your Lordship that while I had most credit with him his fortune went on best and yet in too many points we always directly and condradictorily differed which I will mention to your Lordship because it giveth light to all that followed The one was I alwayes set this down That the only course to be held with the Queen was by obsequiousness and observance and I remember I would usually gage confidently that if he would take that course constantly and with choice of good particulars to express it the Queen would be brought in time to Ahasuerus Question to ask What should be done to the man that the King would honour meaning that her goodness was without limit where there was a true concurrence which I knew in her nature to be true My Lord on the other side had a setled opinion that the Queen should be brought to nothing but by a kind of necessity and authority and I well remember when by violent Courses at any time he had got his Will he would ask me Now Sir whose Principles be true and I would again say to him My Lord these Courses be like to hot waters they will help at a pang but if you use them you shall spoil the stomack and you shall be fain still to make them stronger and stronger and yet in the end they will lose their operation with much other variety wherewith I used to touch that string Another point was That I alwayes vehemently perswaded him from seeking greatness by a Military dependance or by a Popular dependance as that which would breed in the Queen Jealousie in himself Presumption and in the State Perturbation and I did usually compare them to Icarus two wings which were joined on with wax and would make him venture to soar too high and then fail him at the height And I would further say unto him My Lord stand upon two feet and flie not upon two wings The two feet are the two kinds of Justice commutative and distributive use your greatness for advancing of merit and vertue and relieving wrongs and burthens you shall need no other art of sineness but he would tell me that opinion came not from my mind but from my robe But it is very true that I that never meant to enthrall my self to my Lord of Essex nor any other man more than stood with the publick good did though I could little prevail divert him by all means possible from Courses of the Wars and Popularity for I saw plainly the Queen must either live or dye if she lived then the times would be as in the declination of an old Prince if she died the times would be as in the beginning of a new and that if his Lordship did rise too fast in these Courses the times might be dangerous for him and he for them Nay I remember I was thus plain with him upon his Voyage to the Islands when I saw every spring put forth such actions of charge and provocation that I said to him My Lord when I came first to you I took you for a Physitian that desired to cure the diseases of the State but now I doubt you will be like to those Physitians which can be content to keep their Patients long because they would alwayes be in request which plainness he nevertheless took very well as he had an excellent care and was patientissimus veri and assured me the case of the Realm required it and I think this speech of mine and the like renewed afterwards pricked him to write that Apology which is in many mens hands But this dfference in two points so main and material bred in process of time a discontinuance of privateness as it is the manner of men seldom to Communicate where they think their courses not approved between his Lordship and my self so as I was not called nor advised with for some year and a half before his Lordships going into Ireland as in former time yet
wherein Queen Elizabeth Reigneth in good felicity I am delivered of the excuse wherewith the best writers of Histories are troubled in their Poems when they go about without breaking the bounds of modesty to give a reason why they should write that again which others have written well or at least tolerably before For those which I am to follow are such as I may fear rather the reproach of coming unto their number than the opinion of presumption if I hope to do better than they But in the mean time it must be considered That the best of the ancient Histories were contrived out of divers particular Commentaries Relations and Narrations which it was not hard to digest with ornament and thereof to compound one entire Story And as at first such Writers had the ease of others labours so since they have the whole Commendation in regard their former writings are for the most part lost whereby their borrowings do not appear But unto me the disadvantage is great finding no publick memories of any consideration or worth that the supply must be out of the freshness of memory and tradition and out of the Acts Instruments and Negotiations of State themselves together with the glances of Forreign Histories which though I do acknowledge to be the best Originals and Instructions out of which to write an History yet the travel must be much greater than if there had been already digested any tolerable Chronicle as a single Narration of the Actions themselves which should only have needed out of the former helps to be inriched with the Councels and Speeches and notable Particularities And this was the reason while I might not attempt to go higher to more ancient times because those helps and grounds did more and more fail although if I be not decieved I may truly affirm that there have no things passed ever in this Nation which have produced greater Actions nor more worthy to be delivered to the Ages hereafter For they be not the great Wars and Conquests which many times are works of Fortune and fall out in barbarous times the rehearsal whereof maketh the profitable and instructing History but rather times refined in policies and industries new and rare variety of accidents and alterations equal and just encounters of State and State in forces and of Prince and Prince in sufficiency that bring upon the stage the best parts for observation Now if you look into the general natures of the times which I have undertaken throughout Europe whereof the times of this Nation must needs participate you shall find more knowledge in the World than was in the Ages before whereby the wits of men which are the shops wherein all actions are forged are more furnished and improved Then if you shall restrain your Consideration to the state of this Monarchy first there will occur unto you Changes rare and altogether unknown unto Antiquity in matters of Religion and the State Ecclesiastical Then to behold the several Reigns of a King that first or next the first became absolute in the Sovereignty of a King in minority of a Queen married to a Forreigner and lastly of a Queen that hath governed without the help either of a marriage or of any mighty man of her blood is no small variety in the affairs of a Monarchy but such as perhaps in four Successions in any State at any time is hardly to be found Besides there have not wanted examples within the compasse of the same times neither of an Usurpation nor of Rebellions under heads of greatness nor of Commotions meerly popular nor of sundry desperate Conspirators an unwonted thing in hereditary Monarchies nor of Forreign Wars of all sorts invasive repulsive of Invasion open and declared covert and under-hand by Sea by Land Scottish French Spanish Succors Protections new and extraordinary kinds of Confederations with Subjects Generally without question the State of this Nation had never a longer reach to import the unusual Affairs of Europe as that which was in the former part of the time the Counterpoise between France and Spain and in the latter the only encounter and opposition again Spain Add hereunto the new Discoveries and Navigations abroad the new provisions of Laws and Presidents of State at home and the Accidents mememorable both of Sate and of Court and there will be no doubt but the times which I have chosen are of all former times in this Nation the fittest to be registred if it be not in this respect that they be of too fresh a memory which point I know very well will be a prejudice as if this story were written in favour of the time present But it shall suffice unto me without betraying mine own name and memory or the liberty of a History to procure this commendation to the time with the Posterity namely That a private man living in the same time should not doubt to publish an History of the time which should not carry any shew or taste at all of flattery a point noted for an infallible Demonstration of a good time King Henry the Seventh of that name after he had lived about 52. years and thereof Reigned 23. and some months deceased of a Consumption the 22. day of April in the Palace which he had built at Richmond in the year of our redemption 1504. This King attained unto the Crown not only from a private fortune which might endow him with moderation but also from the fortune of an exile man which had quickned in him all seeds of observation and Industry His times were rather prosperous than calme for he was assailed with many troubles which he overcame happily a matter that did not lesse set forth his wisdom than his fortune and yet such a wisdom as seemed rather a dexterity to deliver himself from dangers when they pressed him than any deep foresight to prevent them afar off Jealous he was over the greatness of his Nobility as remembring how himself was set up And much more did this humour encrease in him after he had conflicted with some such Idols and Counterfeits as were Lambert Symnell and Perkine Warbeck The strangeness of which dangers made him think nothing safe whereby he was forced to descend to the imployment of secret Espials and suborned Conspirators a necessary remedy against so dark and subtile practises and not to be reprehended except it were true which some report That he had intelligence with Confessors for the revealing matters disclosed in Confession and yet if a man compare him with the King his Concurrents in France and Spain he shall find him more politique than Lewis the Twelfth of France and more entire and sincere than Ferdinando of Spain upon whom nevertheless he did handsomly bestow the envy of the death of Edward Plantagenet Earl of Warwick Great and devout reverence he bear to Religion as he that employed Ecclesiastical men in most of his affairs and negotiations and as he that was brought hardly and very late to the
contrary Principles to bring forth one Doctrine must be some Miracle He of the Romish Religion and if he be a man must needs have that manlike property to desire that all men be of his mind You the Erector and Defender of the contrary and the only Sun that dazleth their eyes He French and desiring to make France great Your Majesty English and desiring nothing less then that France should grow great He both by his own fancy and his youthful Governours embracing all ambitious hopes having Alexanders Image in his head but perhaps evil painted Your Majesty with excellent vertue taught what you should hope and by no less wisdom what you may hope with a Council renowned over all Christendome for their well tempered minds having set the utmost of their Ambition in your Favour and the study of their Souls in your Safety Fear hath as little shew of outward appearance as Reason to match you together for in this estate he is in whom should he fear 〈◊〉 Brother Alas his Brother is afraid since the King of Navar is to step into his place Neither can his Brother be the safer by his Fall but he may be the greater by his Brothers whereto whether you will be an Accessary you are to determine The King of Spain certainly cannot make War upon him but it must be upon all the Crown of France which is no likelihood he will do Well may Mounsieur as he hath done seek to enlarge the bounds of France upon his State which likewise whether it be safe for you to be a Countenance to any other way may be seen So that if neither desire nor fear be such in him as are to bind any Publick fastness it may be said That the only Fortress of this your Marriage is of his private Affection a thing too incident to the person laying it up in such knots The other Objection of contempt in the Subjects I assure your Majesty if I had not heard it proceed out of your Mouth which of all other I do most dearly reverence it would as soon considering the perfections both of body and mind have set all mens eyes by the height of your estate have come to the possibility of my Imagination if one should have told me on the contrary side That the greatest Princes of the World should envy the State of some poor deformed Pilgrim What is there either withinyou or without you that can possibly fall into the danger of contempt to whom fortunes are tryed by so long discent of your Royal Ancestors But our minds rejoyce with the experience of your inward Vertues and our eyes are delighted with the sight of you But because your own eyes cannot see your self neither can there be in the World any example fit to blaze you by I beseech you vouchsafe to weigh the grounds thereof The Natural causes are lengths of Government and uncertainty of Succession The Effects as you term them appear by cherishing some abominable speeches which some hellish minds have uttered The longer a good Prince Raigneth it is certain the more he is esteemed there is no man ever was weary of well being And good increased to good maketh the same good both greater and stronger for it useth men to know no other cares when either men are born in the time and so never saw other or have spent much part of their flourishing time and so have no joy to seek other in evil Princes abuse growing upon abuse according to the nature of evil with the increase of time ruines it self But in so rare a Government where neighbours fires give us light to see our quietness where nothing wants that true Administration of Justice brings forth certainly the length of time rather breeds a mind to think there is no other life but in it then that there is any tediousness in so fruitful a Government Examples of good Princes do ever confirm this who the longer they lived the deeper still they sunk into their Subjects hearts Neither will I trouble you with examples being so many and manifest Look into your own estate how willingly they grant and how dutifully they pay such subsidies as you demand of them How they are no less troublesome to your Majesty in certain requests than they were in the beginning of your Reign And your Majesty shall find you have a people more then ever devoted to you As for the uncertainty of succession although for mine own part I know well I have cast the utmost Anchor of my hope yet for Englands sake I would not say any thing against such determination but that uncertain good should bring contempt to a certain good I think it is beyond all reach of reason nay because if there were no other cause as there are infinite common reason and profit would teach us to hold that Jewel dear the loss of which would bring us to we know not what which likewise is to be said of your Majesties Speech of the rising Sun a Speech first used by Scilla to Pompey in Rome as then a popular City where indeed men were to rise or fall according to the Flourish and breath of a many headed confusion But in so Lineal a Monarchy whereever the infants suck the love of their rightful Prince who would leave the Beams of so fair a Sun for the dreadful expectation of a divided Company of Stars Vertue and Justice are the only bonds of peoples love and as for that point Many Princes have lost their Crowns whose own children were manifest Successors and some that had their own children used as Instruments of their ruine not that I deny the bliss of children but only to shew Religion and equity to be of themselves sufficient stayes Neither is the love was born in the Queen your Sisters daves any contradiction hereunto for she was the Oppressor of that Religion which lived in many mens hearts and whereof you were known to be the Favourer by her loss was the most excellent Prince in the World to succeed by your loss all blindness light upon him that sees not our misery Lastly and most properly to this purpose she had made an odious Marriage with a stranger which is now in question whether your Majesty should do or no so that if your Subjects do at this time look for any after-chance it is but as the Pilot doth to the Ship-boat if his Ship should perish drive n by extremity to the one but as long as he can with his life tendring the other And this I say not only for the lively parts that be in you but even for their own sakes since they must needs see what Tempests threaten them The last proof of this contempt should be the venemous matter certain men impostumed with wickednesse should utter against you Certainly not to be evil spoken of neither Christs holiness nor Caesars might could ever prevent or warrant There being for that no other rule then so to do as that they may not
at a miserable loss for want of Learned menin that profession III. I come now to the consideration of those things which concern Councellors of State The Council Table and the great Offices and Officers of the Kingdom which are those who for the most part furnish out the honourable Board 1. Of Councellors there are two sorts The first Consiliarii nati as I may term them such are the Prince of Wales and others of the Kings Sons when he hath more of these I speak not for they are naturally born to be Councellors to the King to learn the Art of Governing betimes 2. But the ordinary sort of Councellors are such as the King out of a due consideration of their worth and abilities and withal of their fidelities to his person and his Crown calleth to be of Councel with him in his ordinary Government And the Councel Table is so called from the place where they ordinarily assemble and sit together and their Oath is the only ceremony used to make them such which is solemnly given unto them at their first admission These honourable persons are from thenceforth of that Board and Body They cannot come until they be thus called and the King at his pleasure may spare their attendance and he may dispence with their presence there which at their own pleasure they may not do 3. This being the quality of their service you will easily judge what care the King should use in his choice of them It behoveth that they be persons of great trust and fidelity and also of wisdom and judgment who shall thus assist in bearing up the Kings Throne and of known experience in publick affairs 4. Yet it may not be unfit to call some of young years to train them up in that trade and so fit them for those weighty affairs against the time of greater maturity and some also for the honour of their persons But these two sorts not to be tied to so strict attendance as the others from whom the present dispatch of business is expected 5. I could wish that their number might not be so over great the persons of the Councellors would be the more venerable And I know that Queen Elizabeth in whose time I had the happiness to be born and to live many years was not so much observed for having a numerous as a wise Councel 6. The duty of a Privy Councellor to a King I conceive is not only to attend the Councel Board at the times appointed and there to consult of what shall be propounded But also to study those things which may advance the Kings honour and safety and the good of the Kingdom and to communicate the same to the King or to his fellow Councellors as there shall be occasion And this sir will concern you more then others by how much you have a larger share in his affections 7. And one thing I shall be bold to desire you to recommend to His Majesty That when any new thing shall be propounded to be taken into consideration that no Councellor should suddenly deliver any positive opinion thereof it is not so easie with all men to retract their opinions although there shall be cause for it But only to hear it and at the most but to break it at first that it may be the better understood against the next meeting 8. When any matter of weight hath been debated and seemeth to be ready for a Resolution I wish it may not be at that sitting concluded unless the necessity of the time press it lest upon second Cogitations there should be cause to alter which is not for the Gravity and Honour of that Board 9. I wish also that the King would be pleased sometimes to be present at that Board it adds a Majesty to it And yet not to be too frequently there that would render it less esteemed when it is become common Besides it may sometimes make the Councellors not to be so free in their Debates in His Presence as they would be in His Absence 10. Besides the giving of Councel the Councellors are bound by their Duties Ex vi termini as well as by their Oaths to keep Councel therefore are they called De Privato Consilio Regis à secretioribus Consiliis Regis 11. One thing I add in the Negative which is not fit for that Board the entertaining of private Causes of Meum Tuum those should be left to the ordinary course and Courts of Justice 12. As there is great care to be used for the Councellors themselves to be chosen so there is of the Clerks of the Councel also for the secreting of their Consultations and methinks it were fit that His Majesty be speedily moved to give a strict Charge and to bind it with a solemn Order if it be not already so done that no Copies of the Orders of that Table be delivered out by the Clerks of the Councel but by the Order of the Board nor any not being a Councellor or a Clerk of the Councel or his Clerk to have access to the Councel-Books And to that purpose that the Servants attending the Clerks of the Councel be bound to Secresie as well as their Masters 13. For the great Offices and Officers of the Kingdom I shall say little for the most of them are such as cannot well be severed from the Councellorship and therefore the same rule is to be observed for both in the choice of them In the general only I advise this let them be set in those places for which they are probably the most fit 14. But in the quality of the persons I conceive it will be most convenient to have some of every sort as in the time of Queen Elizabeth it was one Bishop at the least in respect of questions touching Religion or Church Government one or more skilled in the Laws some for Martial affairs and some for I orreign affairs By this mixture one will help another in all things that shall there happen to be moved But if that should fail it will be a safe way to consult with some other able persons well versed in that point which is the subject of their Consultation which yet may be done so warily as may not discover them in end therein IV. In the next place I shall put you in mind of Forreign Negotiations and Embassies to or with Forreign Princes or States wherein I shall be little able to serve you 1. Only I will tell you what was the course in the happy dayes of Queen Elizabeth whom it will be no dis-reputation to follow she did vary according to the nature of the employment the quality of the persons she employed which is a good rule to go by 2. If it were an Embassy of Gratulation or Ceremony which must not be neglected choice was made of some noble person eminent in place and able in purse and he would take it as a mark of favour and discharge it without any great burthen to the
Queens Coffers for his own honours sake 3. But if it were an Embassy of weight concerning affairs of State choice was made of some sad person of known judgment wisdom and experience and not of a young man nor wayed in State-matters nor of a meer formal man whatsoever his title or outside were 4. Yet in company of such some young towardly Noblemen or Gentleman were usually sent also as assistance or attendants according to the quality of the persons who might be thereby perpared and sitted for the like imployment by this means at another turn 5. In their company were always sent some garve and sad men skilful in the Civil Laws and some in the Languages and some who had been formerly conversant in the Courts of those Princes and knew their ways these were assistance in private but not trusted to manage the affairs in publick that would decract from the honour of the Principal Embassadour 6. If the Negotiation were about Merchants affaires then were the persons imployed for the most part Doctors of the Civil Law assisted with some other discreet men and in such the charge was ordinarily defrayed by the Company or Society of Merchants whom the Negotiation concerneth 7. If Legier Embassadors or Agents were sent to remain in or neer the Courts of those Princes or States as it was ever held fit to observe the motions and to hold correspondency with them upon all occasions such were made choice of as were presumed to be vigilant industrious and discreet men and had the Language of the place whither they were sent and with these were sent such as were hopeful to be worthy of the like imployment at another time 8. Their care was to give true and timely Intelligence of all Occurrences either to the Queen her self or the Secretaries of State unto whom they had their immediate relation 9. Their charge was alwayes born by the Queen duly paid out of the Exchequer in such proportion as according to their qualities and places might give them an honourable subsistence there But for the reward of their service they were to expect it upon their return by some such preferment as might be worthy of them and yet be little burthen to the Queens Coffers or Revenues 10. At their going forth they had their general Instructions in writing which might be communicated to the Ministers of that State whither they were sent and they had also private instructions upon particular occasions and at their return they did always render an account of some things to the Queen her self of some things to the body of the Councel and of some others to the Secretaries of State who made use of them or communicated them as there was cause 11. In those days there was a constant course held that by the advice of the Secretaries or some principal Councellors there were always sent forth into several parts beyond the Seas some young men of whom good hopes were conceived of their towardliness to be trained up and made fit for such publick imployment and to learn the Languages This was at the charge of the Queen which was not much for they travelled but as private Gentlemen and as by their industry their deserts did appear so were they farther imployed or rewarded This course I shall recommend unto you to breed up a nursery of such publick Plants V. For peace and war and those things which appertain to either I in my own disposition and profession am wholly for peace if it please God to bless the Kingdome therewith as for many years past he hath done and 1. I presume I shall not need to perswade you to the advancing of it nor shall you need to perswade the King your Master therein for that he hath hitherto been another Solomon in this our Israel and the Motto which he hath chosen Beati Pacifici shews his own judgement But he must use the means to preserve it else such a jewel may be lost 2. God is the God of peace it is one of his Attributes therefore by him alone we must pray and hope to continue it there is the foundation 3. And the King must not neglect the just ways for it Justice is the best Protector of it at home and providence for war is the best prevention of it from abroad 4. Wars are either Forreign or Civil for the Forreign war by the King upon some Neighbour Nation I hope we are secure the King in his pious and just disposition is not inclinable thereunto his Empire is long enough bounded with the Ocean as if the very Scituation thereof had taught the King and People to setup their rests and say Ne plus ultra 5. And for a war of invasion from abroad only we must not be over-secure that 's the way to invite it 6. But if we be always prepared to receive an enemy if the ambition or malice of any should incite him we may be very confident we shall long live in peace and quietness without any attempts upon us 7. To make the preparations hereunto the more assured In the first place I will recommend unto you the care of our out-work the Navy Royal and Shipping of our Kingdome which are the walls thereof and every great Ship is an impregnable fort and our many safe and commodious Ports and Havens in every of these Kingdoms are as the redoubts to secure them 8. For the body of the Ships no Nation of the World doth equal England for the Oaken Timber wherewith to build them and we need not borrow of any other Iron for Spikes or Nails to fasten them together but there must be a great deal of Providence used that our Ship-Timber be not unnecessarily wasted 9. But for Tackling as Sails and Cordage we are beholden to our Neighbours for them and do buy them for our money that must be foreseen and laid up in store against a time of need and not sought for when we are to use them But we are much too blame that we make them not at home only Pitch and Tar we have not of our own 10. For the true Art of building of Ships for Burthen and Service both no Nation in the World exceeds us Ship-wrights and all other Artisans belonging to that Trade must be cherished and encouraged 11. Powder and Ammunition of all sorts we can have at home and in Exchange for other Home-Commodities we may be plentifully supplied from our Neighbours which must not be neglected 12. With Mariners and Seamen this Kingdom is plentifully furnished the constant Trade of Merchandizing will furnish us at a need and Navigable Rivers will repair the store both to the Navy Royal and to the Merchants if they be set on work and well payed for their Labour 13. Sea-Captains and Commanders and other Officers must be encouraged and rise by Degrees as their Fidelity and Industry deserve it 14. Our strict League of Amity and Alliance with our near Neighbour the Hollanders is a mutual strength
follow the Queen and that heavily and I lead her not my Lord of Essex is one that in nature I could consent with as with any one living the Queen indeed is my Sovereign and I am her creature I may not lose her and the same Course I would wish you to take whereupon I satisfied him how sarre I was from any such minde And as sometimes it comes to passe that mens Inclinations are opened more in a Toy than in a serious matter A little before that time being about the middle of Michaelmass Term her Majesty had a purpose to dine at my lodging at Twitnam Park at which time I had though I prosess not to be a Poet prepared a Sonnet directly tending to draw on her Majesties reconcilement to my Lord which I remember also I shewed to a great person and one of my Lords nearest friends who commended it this though it be as I said but a toy yet it shewed plainly in what spirit I proceeded and that I was ready not only to do my Lord good offices but to publish and declare my self for him and never was I so ambitious of any thing in my life time as I was to have carried some token or favour from her Majesty to my Lord using all the art I had both to procure her Majesty to send and my self to be the Messenger for as to the former I feared not to alledge to her that this proceeding towards my Lord was a thing towards the people very implausible and therefore wished Her Majesty howsoever she did yet to discharge her self and to lay it upon others and therefore that she should intermixt her proceeding with some immediate graces from her self that the world might take knowledge of her Princely nature and goodness lest it should alienate the hearts of her people from her which I did stand upon knowing very well that if she once relented to send or visit those demonstrations would prove matter of substance for my Lords good And to draw that imployment upon my self I advised her Majesty that when soever God should move her to turn the light of her favour towards my Lord to make signification to him thereof that Her Majesty if she did it not in person would at the least use some such mean as might not intitle themselves to any part of the thanks as persons that were thought mighty with her to work her or to bring her about but to use some such as could not be thought but a meer Conduct of her own goodness but I could never prevaile with her though I am perswaded she saw plainly whereat I levelled but she had me in jealousie that I was not hers entirely but still had inward and deep respects towards my Lord more then stood at that time with her will and pleasure About the same time I remember an answer of mine in a matter which had some affinity with my Lords Cause which though it grew from me went after about in others names for her Majesty being mightily incensed with that Book which was dedicated to my Lord of Essex being a story of the first year of King Henry the fourth thinking it a seditious prelude to put into the peoples heads boldness and faction said she had an opinion there was treason in it and asked me if I could not finde any places in it that might be drawn within Case of Treason Whereto I answered for treason sure I found none but for felony very many And when her Majesty hastily asked me wherein I told her the Author had committed very apparent theft for he had taken most of the sentences of Cornelius Tacitus and translated them into English and put them into his text And another time when the Queen could not be perswaded that it was his writing whose name was to it but that it had some more mischievous Author and said with great indignation that she would have him racked to produce his Au thor I replied Nay Madam he is a Doctor never rack his person but rack his stile let him have pen Ink and paper and help of books and be enjoyned to continue the story where it breaketh off and I will undertake by collating the stiles to judge whether he were the Author or no. But for the main matter sure I am when the Queen at any time asked my opinion of my Lords Case I ever in one tenour said unto her that they were faults which the Law might term Contempts because they were the transgression of her particular directions and Instructions but then what defence may be made of them in regard of the great Interest the person had in Her Majesties favour in regard of the greatness of his place and the ampleness of his Commission in regard of the nature of the business being action of war which in common cases cannot be tyed to strictness of Instructions in regard of the distance of the place having also a Sea between his demands and Her Commands must be subject to wind and weather in regard of a Councel of State of Ireland which he had at his beck to avow his actions upon and lastly in regard of a good Intention that he might alledge for himself which I told her in some religions was held to be a sufficient dispensation for Gods Commandments much more for Princes In all these regards I besought her Majesty to be advised again and again how she brought the Cause into any publick question Nay I went further for I told her my Lord was an eloquent and well spoken man and besides his eloquence of nature or art he had an eloquence of accident which pass'd them both which was the pity and benevolence of his hearers and therefore when he should come to answer for himself I doubted his words would have so unequal passage above theirs that should charge him as would not be for her Majesties honour and therefore wished the Conclusion might be that they might wrap it up privately between themselves and that she would restore my Lord to his former attendance with some addition of honour to take away discontent But this I will never deny that I did shew no approbation generally of his being sent back again into Ireland both because it would have carried a repugnancy with my former discourse and because I was in mine own heart fully perswaded that it was not good neither for the Queen nor for the State nor for himself and yet I did not disswade it neither but left it ever as locus lubricus For this perticularitie I do well remember that after your Lordship was named for the place in Ireland and not long before your going it pleased her Majesty at Whitehall to speak to me of that nomination at which time I said to her Surely Madam if you mean not to imploy my Lord of Essex thither again your Majesty cannot make a better choice and was going on to shew some reason and her Majesty interrupted me swith great passion
Essex said she whensoever I send Essex back again into Ireland I will marry you claim it of me Whereunto I said well Madam I will release that Contract if his going be or the good of the State Immediately after the Queen had thought of a Course which was also executed to have somewhat published in the Star-Chamber for the satisfaction of the World touching my Lord of Essex his restraint and my Lord not to be called to it but occasion to be taken by reason of some Libels then dispersed which when her Majesty propounded unto me I was utterly against it and told her plainly That the People would say that my Lord was wounded upon his back and that Justice had her balance taken from her which ever consisted of an accusation and defence with many other quick and significant terms to that purpose insomuch that I remember I said that my Lord in foro famae was too hard for her and therefore wish'd her as I had done before to wrap it up privately And certainly I offended her at that time which was rare with me for I call to mind that both the Christmass Lent and Easter-Term following though I came divers times to her upon Law-businesses yet methought her face and manner was not so clear and open to me as it was at the first And she did directly charge me that I was absent that day at the Star-Chamber which was very true but I alledged some indisposition of body to excuse it and during all the time aforesaid there was altum silentium from her to me touching my Lord of Essex causes But towards the end of Easter Term Her Majesty brake with me and told me that she had found my words true for that the proceeding in the Star-Chamber had done no good but rather kindled factious bruits as she termed them then quenched them and therefore that she was determined now for the satisfaction of the world to proceed against my Lord in the Star-Chamber by an Information ore tenus and to have my Lord brought to his Answer howbeit she said she would assure me that whatsoever she did should be towards my Lord ad castigationem non ad destructionem as indeed she had often repeated the same phrase before Whereunto I said to the end utterly to divert her Madam if you will have me to speak to you in this Argument I must speake to you as frier Bacon's head spake that said first Time is and then Time was and Time would never be for certainly said I it is now farr too late the matter is cold and hath taken too much wind whereat she seemed again offended and rose from me and that resolution for a while continued and after in the beginning of Midsomer Term I attending her and finding her setled in that resolution which I heard of also otherwise she falling upon the like speech it is true that seeing no other remedy I said to her sleightly Why Madam if you will needs have a Proceeding you were best have it in some such sort as Ovid spake of his Mistress Est aliquid luce patente minus to make a Councel-table matter of it and end which speech again she seemed to take in ill part but yet I think it did good for that time and help't to divert that Cause of Proceeding by Information in the Star-Chamber Nevertheless afterwards it pleased her to make a more solemn matter of the Proceeding and some few dayes after when order was given that the matter should be heard at York-House before an Assembly of Councellors Peers and Judges and some Audience of men of Quality to be admitted then did some principal Councellors send for us of the learned Councel and notifie her Majesties Pleasure unto us save that it was said to me openly by some one of them That her Majesty was not yet resolved whether she would have me forborn in the business or no. And hereupon might arise that other sinister and untrue speech that I hear is raised of me how I was a Suitor to be used against my Lord of Essex at that time for it is very true that I that knew well what had passed between the Queen and me and what occasion I had given her both of distaste and distrust in crossing her disposition by standing stedfast for my Lord of Essex and suspecting it also to be a stratagem arising from some particular emulation I writ to her two or three words of Complement signifying to her Majesty That if she would be pleased to spare me in my Lord of Essex's Cause out of the Consideration she took of my obligation towards him I should reckon it for one of her highest Favours but otherwise desiring her Majesty to think that I knew the degrees of Duties and that no particular obligation whatsoever to any Subject could supplant or weaken that entireness of Duty that I did owe and bear to her and her Service and this was the goodly Suit I made being a respect no man that had his wits could have omitted but nevertheless I had a further reach in it for I judged that dayes work would be a full period of any bitterness or harshness between the Queen and my Lord and therefore if I declared my self fully according to her mind at that time which could not do my Lord any manner of prejudice I should keep my credit with her ever after whereby to do my Lord Service Hereupon the next news that I heard was that we were all sent for again and that her Majesties pleasure was we should have all parts in the business and the Lords falling into distribution of our parts it was allotted to me that I should set forth some undutiful carriage of my Lord in giving occasion and Countenance to a seditious Pamphlet as it was termed which was dedicated unto him which was the book before mentioned of King H. 4. Whereupon I replied to that allotment and said to their Lordships that it was an old matter and had no manner of Coherence with the rest of the Charge being matters of Ireland and therefore that I having been wronged by bruits before this would expose me to them more and it would be said I gave in evidence mine own tales It was answered again with good shew that because it was considered how I stood tied to my Lord of Essex therefore that part was thought fittest for me which did him least hurt for that whereas all the rest was matter of Charge and Accusation this only was but matter of Caveat and admonition wherewith though I was in mine own Conscience little satisfied because I knew well a man were better to be Charged with some faults then admonished of some others yet the Conclusion binding upon the Queens pleasure directly volens nolens I could not avoid that part that was laid upon me which part if in the delivery I did handle not tenderly though no man before me did in so clear terms free my Lord from