THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
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 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME
 
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 EDWARD, FIRST LORD NORTfT. 
 
 From the collection of the Earl of Gnilford.
 
 THREE MEN 
 OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 BY 
 
 LADY FRANCES BUSHBY 
 
 LONDON 
 DAVID NUTT, 57-59 LONG ACRE 
 
 1911
 
 
 TO THE MEMORY OF 
 
 MY DEAR HUSBAND 
 
 TO WHOSE UNFAILING SYMPATHY, SOUND CRITICISM, 
 
 AND LITERARY KNOWLEDGE, I OWE SO MUCH 
 
 653221
 
 PREFACE 
 
 These gleanings of family history, first written in 
 a shorter form, were intended solely for my own 
 kinsfolk. It seemed fitting that such references 
 to the Norths as were to be found scattered among 
 the records of the past, many as yet undiscovered, 
 some unheeded or forgotten, should be garnered 
 up and strung together in some connected form. 
 Thus it came to pass that I set forth upon this 
 pleasant enterprise, and the task finished, the 
 work was laid aside. But as time wore on, it 
 seemed possible that some of the contents of this 
 family scrap-book might prove acceptable to 
 certain readers beyond the narrow limit at first 
 assigned it. For surely no authentic detail of 
 those wonderful times, no matter in what fashion 
 presented to him, can be wholly without interest 
 to the student of Tudor history ; for whoso enters 
 upon that fruitful field, enters upon a land of 
 enchantment, a fairyland of fact ; he grows ever 
 more covetous of the treasure within his grasp ;
 
 viii PREFACE 
 
 he will not brook the loss of a single grain of 
 gold-dust from that very El Dorado of research. 
 More especially must he feel this when he reaches 
 the reign of Elizabeth ; for this was the golden 
 age of high endeavour and of great result, giving 
 the rein to every energy and the spur to every 
 talent. There was work for all then : war for 
 the soldier, the New World for the adventurer, 
 the New Learning for the scholar — above all 
 there were those new aspects of the Faith, those 
 vital questions to which each man must give an 
 answer whether he would or no. There were no 
 sleepy hollows in those strenuous old times. 
 
 I have not sought to touch upon the great 
 events, the vast upheavals of the Church and 
 State, with which men's minds were filled, any 
 further than seemed needful to sketch in a slight 
 background for the portraits before me. If I 
 may call to witness so great a name in so small 
 a matter, I will say with Plutarch, ' I will only 
 desire the readers not to blame me, though I do 
 not declare all things at large, but briefly touch 
 divers . . . my intent is not to write histories 
 but only lives.' ^ Aye, and not even lives, for the 
 men of whom I write, rode not always upon the 
 crest of the wave ; they rather show themselves 
 as might some great diving bird — often he is lost 
 beneath the restless sea, yet ever and again he 
 
 1 Plutarch's Lives. Englished by Sir Thomas North. 
 (Alexander the Great.)
 
 PREFACE ix 
 
 rises, claps his wings, cries aloud, and oars his 
 
 way upon the waters to be seen of all men ; then 
 
 again he is lost. 
 
 It now only remains for me to offer my hearty 
 
 thanks to those who with their kindly courtesies 
 
 and friendly aid have sped me on the way. Their 
 
 names will be found on another page, but since 
 
 this is essentially a family record, I may say here, 
 
 that from the Norths themselves I have met with 
 
 help and encouragement without which I could 
 
 have had neither heart nor adequate material 
 
 for the work. 
 
 FR.\NCES BUSHBY. 
 
 October 191 1.
 
 The author offers her best thanks to 
 
 H. N. G. BusHBY, Esq., 
 
 E. A. Fry, Esq., 
 
 The Dowager Countess of Guilford, 
 
 The Earl of Guilford, 
 
 The Rev. Augustus Jessopp, D.D., 
 
 The Lord North, 
 
 J. E. L. Whitehead, Esq., Town Clerk of Cambridge, 
 
 for valuable help rendered in divers directions.
 
 EDWARD, FIRST LORD NORTH
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 Edward North was born at Walkringham in 
 Nottinghamshire in the year 1496. It is stated 
 in an old family record ^ that it had then been 
 the home of his forefathers for many generations ; 
 for how many there is nothing to show, but going 
 back to the earliest available sources, we find that 
 one of the family, Robert b}^ name, was married 
 to Alice, daughter of John Harcourt of Oxford- 
 shire, and from this Robert, who died in 1470, 
 Edward North of Walkringham was lineally 
 descended. 
 
 In 1419, William, a cadet of the North family, 
 was sent to Normandy, and was granted letters 
 of protection for three months, for the purpose 
 of buying wines and provisions for the army of 
 King Henry V, who had then nearly completed 
 his brilliant campaign in France. William must 
 have been not ill-pleased with his foreign sur- 
 roundings, for he ended by settling in the country, 
 
 ' Some Notes concerning the Life of Edward, first Lord North, 
 by Dudley, fourth Lord North. 
 
 3 B2
 
 4 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 and, following the example of his royal master, took 
 to wife a daughter of the land, receiving from 
 the Duke of Brittany, as the reward of military 
 service, the hand and estates of Aliette, heiress 
 of the house of de Callac ; and the family of * de 
 Nort,' as they were styled in France, subsequently 
 added the name of de Callac to their own. The 
 descendants of William North held in several 
 instances high ofhces of state, one of them, Pierre, 
 having been * Grand Veneur de France,' as well 
 as Councillor and Chamberlain to King Louis the 
 Eleventh. On the marriage in 1520 of Fran9oise 
 de Nort-Callac, heiress and only representative of 
 her branch of the family, with Guillaume de 
 Brue, her husband assumed the name of de 
 Brue-Callac, and the name of de Nort fell 
 into disuse. 1 The foreign branch here passes 
 out of sight, and we return to the Norths of 
 Walkringham. 
 
 Roger, the grandfather of Edward, first Lord 
 North, had two sons, Thomas and Roger. On 
 the death of his father, Thomas, the elder, came 
 into possession of the family estate, and was 
 succeeded in due course by his son, another 
 Roger. We learn from an Inquisition of the 
 Heralds taken June 18, 1557, that this ' Roger 
 North, gentleman, died seized of five messuages 
 and the moiety of another messuage, ten cottages, 
 nine tofts and the moiety of another toft, one 
 
 1 Wroxion MSS.
 
 EDWARD, FIRST LORD NORTH 5 
 
 windmill and three hundred acres of land, 
 eighty-four of meadow, and a hundred and ten of 
 pasture, in Walkringham, Buckingham, Stourton, 
 Burton, and Littleborough.' ^ He died April 9, 
 1557' leaving a son, Edward, then between three 
 and four years old, and it is related that when 
 the boy came of age, he did fealty for his lands 
 in Walkringham.- Thomas' heirs held the family 
 estates for some generations later. Roger North 
 of Rougham, in his lives of his three brothers, 
 tells how one of Thomas' descendants. Sir Charles. 
 a Cavalier, and High Sheriff of his county, fell 
 upon evil days after the Restoration. It would 
 appear that he died childless ; be that as 
 it may, with him all record of the elder branch 
 ceases. 
 
 Thomas' brother Roger had been sent to 
 London to push his way in the world. Evidently 
 he was a likely lad, who did not allow the grass 
 to grow under his feet, for after spending some 
 years in mercantile pursuits, in which he seems 
 to have prospered, he went a-courting to Christian, 
 daughter of Richard Warcup of Sconington and 
 widow of Ralph Warren. His suit was success- 
 ful, and Mistress Warren brought her husband 
 so rich a dowry as to enable the couple to 
 bring up their only son Edward ' in a costly 
 way of breeding.' They chose for him the 
 
 ^ Notes by the late Charles Augustus North, Esq. 
 • Ibid.
 
 6 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 profession of the law, a career in which both 
 character and talents well fitted him to succeed. 
 The boy had early shown a love of learning, 
 great industry, and quick intelligence. He was 
 hot-tempered and subject to sudden outbursts 
 of anger ; but this failing, we are given to under- 
 stand, he learnt in great measure to overcome in 
 later years. 
 
 Edward was but a lad of thirteen when, by 
 the death of her husband, ^ Mistress North was 
 left to carry out alone the plan formed for the 
 boy's education, a task which it seems she wisely 
 and faithfully performed. He was then at St. 
 Paul's School, under the famous William Lilly, 
 ever memorable as the first master to teach 
 Gjeek in any public school in England. Thence, 
 Edward passed to Peterhouse College, Cambridge, 
 where he was to begin his legal studies. His 
 University career must surely have been a happy 
 and successful one, since he became in after years 
 a substantial benefactor to his old College, pre- 
 senting it with the patronage of the Vicarage of 
 Burwell, and making a bequest to the Master 
 and Fellows, of the Rector}' and advowson of 
 Ellington, besides providing for the maintenance 
 of certain poor scholars. In recognition of 
 these endowments, his portrait was hung in 
 
 ' Roger North, who died 1509 and was buried in the church 
 of St. Michael ad Bladum at the Corn Market, by Paternoster 
 Row. This church was destroyed in the fire of 1666.
 
 EDWARD, FIRST LORD NORTH 7 
 
 the Combination Room of Peterhouse, with this 
 inscription : 
 
 ' Nobilis hie vere fuerat si nobilis iilkis, 
 Qui sibi principium nobilitatis erat.' 
 
 After leaving Cambridge, Edward North was 
 in due course called to the Bar, and soon entered 
 into a considerable practice. His talents alone 
 would have ensured him success, but he was, 
 moreover, a young man who had an eye to the 
 main chance, a large amount of worldly wisdom ; 
 this seems to have characterised him through life, 
 and doubtless contributed much to his advance- 
 ment. x\dded to this, he had good legal as well as 
 City interest. Of his two sisters, Joan, the eldest, 
 had married Alderman Wilkinson of London, 
 while Alice became the wife of Thomas Burnet, 
 Auditor of the Court of Exchequer. With the 
 tide thus in his favour, he was borne swiftly 
 forward on the stream of life, becoming while 
 still quite a young man Advocate for the City of 
 London, an appointment to which a fixed yearly 
 fee was attached ; and it is likely that in this and 
 other ways he was now earning a good income 
 by his profession. 
 
 It does not appear that he had any thought 
 of marriage until the age of thirty-three, when he 
 took to wife a rich widow who had been already 
 twice married. Her first husband was Edward 
 Myrffyn or Mervyn, son of Sir John Mervyn ; her
 
 8 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 second, John Br3'ganten of Southampton. Mistress 
 AKce Bryganten was the daughter of OHver 
 Squyer of Southby near Portsmouth, of whom we 
 know no more than his name ; but it may be 
 assumed from two of his grandsons having been 
 knighted, that he belonged to a ' knightly family,' 
 i.e. entitled to bear arms, it being in their day a 
 condition, occasionalh^ though rarely dispensed 
 with by the sovereign, that the grandparents of 
 a knight on both sides should have had that 
 privilege. This new departure in life greatly 
 improved North's fortunes. One of his descendants ^ 
 writes of the affair in his quaintly amusing way, 
 that ' it sheweth that he was not hasty in parting 
 with his liberty, for he well knew the want of 
 that to be one of the chief remoras to young men 
 as to their applications in the way of preferment 
 and otherwise, and therefore when he came to sell 
 himself he suffered not his affections to over- 
 rule his judgment.' Truly such a marriage sounds 
 prosaic enough, but it would be unfair to take it 
 for granted that North's feelings had no share 
 whatever in the matter : his wife Alice is named 
 with words of affection in his Will ; he desires to 
 be laid beside her, leaving a liberal bequest to her 
 son, John Bryganten ; and we shall see later that 
 she turned out an invaluable housewife and help- 
 mate. By this marriage North had two sons, of 
 whom Roger, the elder, was destined to leave his 
 
 ^ Dudley, fourth Lord North.
 
 EDWARD, FIRST LORD NORTH 9 
 
 mark as a brilliant soldier and diplomatist ; the 
 younger, Thomas, as a scholar ; and two daughters. 
 Christian, who married William, third Earl of 
 Worcester, and Mary, the wife of Henry, ninth 
 Lord Scrope of Bolton, Lord President of the 
 King's Council of the North. 1 
 
 ' He is, perhaps for this reason, often described as ' Lord 
 Scrope of the North.'
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 North's increased fortune enabled him to pur- 
 chase soon after his marriage the castle and manor 
 of Kirtling, or Catlage as the old writers have it ; 
 a place of great antiquity and interest, once in 
 the possession of Harold, Earl of East Anglia.^ 
 and later in that of Judith, daughter of Earl 
 Waltheof and niece of William the Conqueror ; 
 it was famous also for a Synod held there, ' what 
 time the Clergymen were at hote strife among 
 themselves about the celebration of Easter. '^ 
 But Kirtling as it then stood was not up to the 
 standard of modern comfort in those davs ; so 
 the old castle was swept away to make room for 
 a new and very costh^ mansion. This building 
 contained a large gallery furnished with an organ, 
 harpsichord, and other musical instruments, and 
 another for pictures, of which North made a fine 
 collection. 
 
 His prosperity was now assured. In 1531 
 
 ^ Afterwards King of England. 
 ^ Camden's Annals, Englislied by R. N. Gent. 
 
 10
 
 EDWARD, FIRST LORD NORTH ii 
 
 he became, by grant from King Henr}^ the Eighth, 
 a Clerk of Parhament, with a salary of £40 a 
 year. This seems little enough, but it must be 
 remembered that £40 was then worth nine or 
 ten times as much as now. The duties must 
 have been lighter, while the office itself was 
 one of greater consideration than at present ; it 
 was not uncommonly held by persons of high 
 rank, of whom North's successor, Sir William 
 Paget, afterwards Lord Paget, is an example. 
 ' But had the place been of meaner con- 
 dition, he had wisdom sufficient to instruct him 
 that it is better for those who have their 
 fortunes to make, to play a small game than 
 to sit out.' 1 
 
 This promotion was followed by his appoint- 
 ment as one of the King's Sergeants-at-Law, and 
 in 1541 he resigned his Clerkship of Parliament 
 on being named Treasurer of the Court of Aug- 
 mentations, a post in which he succeeded Sir 
 Thomas Pope, afterwards Earl of Down, the well- 
 known founder of Trinity College, Oxford. This 
 Court was a temporary one ; its province was to 
 deal with the business arising out of the great 
 increase of revenue accruing to the Crown on the 
 dissolution of the Monasteries. In 1542 North 
 was knighted, nominated High Sheriff of the 
 counties of Cambridge and Huntingdon, elected 
 to represent the former in Parliament, and about 
 
 ' Some Notes, &'C., by Dudley, fourth Lord North.
 
 i2 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 the same time became Lord Lieutenant of that 
 county. 
 
 After filling the post of Treasurer for four 
 years, Sir Edward was raised to the joint Chancellor- 
 ship of the Court of Augmentations, a dignity 
 which he shared with Sir Richard Rich, afterwards 
 Lord Rich. On the retirement of his colleague 
 a few months later, he assumed the sole juris- 
 diction of the Court. ' The most consummate 
 integrity,' says Lodge, ' and the most vigilant 
 application were requisite in those who were to 
 receive suddenly this enormous influx of various 
 wealth and to methodise and direct a new system 
 of revenue.' The same writer bears testimony 
 to Sir Edward's conduct as ' eminently disin- 
 terested,' and speaks of his ' nice conscience ' 
 when placed in a position in which he might have 
 amassed immense wealth, adding that ' he con- 
 tented himself with the fair emoluments of his 
 office, and with grants, comparatively of no great 
 amount, of Abbey lands.' Among these was 
 tlie manor of Wormley in Hertfordshire, then in 
 the joint occupation of Elizabeth Woodville and 
 Polydore Vergil, the historian.^ This manor was 
 sold by North soon after it came into his possession. 
 
 We have already seen that application and 
 energy were inherent qualities in his character; 
 it would seem that business went briskly forward 
 under his sway, and that the officials of his Court 
 
 1 Wroxton MSS.
 
 EDWARD, FIRST LORD NORTH 13 
 
 were up and stirring betimes. A manuscript 
 still exists in the Chapter House, Westminster, in 
 which the Auditor of this Court states his intention 
 to proceed as to arrears * within myne offyce 
 to-morrow at six of the clocke in the mornynge.' 
 It was the wise custom in those days to make full 
 use of the golden hours of morning ; da^dight 
 was deemed far more precious than now, doubtless 
 in great measure for the reason that the means 
 of obtaining artificial light were then so clumsy 
 and so miserably inadequate. 
 
 Somewhere about this time Sir Edward bought 
 from the Lord Chancellor, Sir Thomas Audley, the 
 lately dissolved Monastery of the Charterhouse ; 
 he resold it later to John Dudle}^ Duke of North- 
 umberland, on whose attainder in 1553 it reverted 
 to the Crown, after which it once more came 
 into North's possession by a grant from the King. 
 Sir Edward built on the site of the old monastery 
 a new and complete residence, thenceforth referred 
 to by him as his 'house in Charterhouse Yarde.' ^ 
 
 ' ' A little without the Barres of West Smithfield, is Charter- 
 house lane, so called for that (it) leadeth to the sayd plot of the 
 late dissolved monasterie, in place whereof first the Lord North, 
 but since Thomas Howarde, late Duke of Norfolke have made 
 large and sumptuous buildinges, both for lodging and pleasure.' 
 Stow's Survey of London, vol. i. p. 357. 
 
 ' Dudley, (third) Lord North had a house at or near the east 
 end of the Charterhouse.' Stow's Annals, enlarged by Strype, 
 vol. i. p. 234. This was the house he inherited from his great- 
 grandfather. Surely these extracts dispose of the statement, 
 more than once repeated, that North occupied the old buildings 
 and used the ancient Chapel as a banqueting hall.
 
 14 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 The immense growth of London since those days 
 comes home to us with the recollection that 
 Sir Edward writes of the Charterhouse as ' my 
 iiouse nere London.' ' It was,' says Strype, 
 a very large and goodly mansion, beautified 
 with very spacious gardens, walks, orchards, and 
 other pleasures, enriched with divers depen- 
 dencies, lands and tenements thereunto belonging, 
 and very aptly seated for wholesome air and 
 many other commodities.' 
 
 About this time North was employed in 
 various public affairs. Some time during April 
 1544 he had, together with Sir Thomas Pope, an 
 audience of the King at Westminster, to return 
 to him the Great Seal on the resignation of the 
 Lord Chancellor Audley, then too ill to deliver 
 it in person, and in 1545 he was associated with 
 the Bishops of Westminster, Worcester, and 
 Chichester on a commission appointed to over- 
 look and regulate the annual distribution by the 
 Deans and Chapters of Canterbury, Rochester, 
 Westminster, and Winchester of certain sums of 
 money appointed by their various statutes for 
 the relief of poor householders and for the repair 
 of the highways. At Winchester £100 a year was 
 to be set aside for these purposes. In 1546 North 
 was sworn of the Privy Council, and evidentl}^ 
 now stood well in the King's favour. But Henry 
 was at the best a fickle and dangerous master, and 
 despite all his native caution North had much
 
 EDWARD, FIRST LORD NORTH 15 
 
 ado to keep clear of the rocks ; moreover, he 
 had enemies at Coml who lost no opportunity 
 of poisoning their master's ear. We are told 
 how, early one morning, while Sir Edward was 
 still in his bedchamber, there came an unfriendly 
 messenger to command his immediate presence 
 at Court, ' which message was also delivered with 
 some harshness.' An official in attendance noticed 
 that Sir Edward received the summons with some 
 signs of agitation ; but he was soon calm, for 
 the same man tells how, when they came into the 
 presence chamber, ' the King was walking, and 
 continued doing so with great earnestness, and 
 every now and then cast an angry eye on him 
 (North) which was received with a very still 
 and sober carriage. At last the King brake out 
 into these words : " We are informed that you 
 have cheated us of certain lands in Middlesex ! " 
 Whereunto, having received no other than a plain 
 and humble negative, after some space he replyed : 
 " How was it then, did we give those lands to 
 you ? " Whereunto Sir Edward answered, " Yes, 
 Sir, Your Majesty was pleased so to doe." 
 Whereupon, having paused a little, the King 
 put on a milder countenance.' 1 He took Sir 
 Edward apart, talked with him for some time 
 in private, and then the storm passed, and all 
 went smoothly as before. 
 
 The King's days were now numbered, and 
 
 ^ Some Notes, cS-f., by Dudley, fourth Lord North.
 
 i6 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 soon he was to learn from Sir Anthony Denny, 
 who alone of all the Court dared approach him 
 with the news, that all hope of recovery must be 
 abandoned. On his death-bed he named North 
 one of his sixteen executors, making him a bequest 
 of :f300. These executors formed a Council 
 entrusted with absolute power to carry on the 
 government during the minority of the young King, 
 then little more than nine ^^ears old. But some 
 inconveniences arising in consequence of there 
 being no head whose name might appear in 
 orders and proclamations, and who might be 
 empowered to receive foreign ambassadors and 
 perform other ceremonial offices, they elected 
 from among their number the King's maternal 
 uncle, the Earl of Hertford, conferring upon 
 him the style of Lord Protector, and creating 
 him at the same time Duke of Somerset, 
 Mareschal, and Lord Treasurer. The Protector, 
 who was to assume in outward respects 
 all the dignity of royalty, nevertheless bound 
 himself to obey the Council in all matters 
 affecting the government of the State ; but 
 to a man of his unbounded ambition and 
 overbearing temper, such a pledge soon became 
 intolerable, and Somerset lost no time in over- 
 throwing the authority of the Council and 
 usurping for himself entire control, a step in 
 which he felt secure of the support of the 
 people, by whom he was adored. A new Council
 
 EDWARD, FIRST LORD NORTH 17 
 
 was formed, on which Sir Edward North and 
 his former colleagues, with the exception of 
 the Ear. of Southampton, were retained ; but 
 thenceforth they had little or no voice in public 
 affairs.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 The Protector was no sooner well in the saddle 
 than he began to take thought for the advance- 
 ment of his favourites. One of these, Richard 
 Sackville, had cast a longing eye on the Chancellor- 
 ship of the Court of Augmentations, and it would 
 seem that pressure was put upon North by Somer- 
 set to resign his office in Sackville's favour, a 
 promise being given that he should receive some 
 compensation. Be this as it may, he retired 
 from the Chancellorship, and Sackville was ap- 
 pointed in his stead ; but although North appears 
 to have been out of favour with the Protector, he 
 remained a member of the Council to the end 
 of the reign. In the last Parliament called 
 by King Edward the Sixth he was for the 
 second time elected Knight of the Shire for the 
 county of Cambridge, the King sending letters 
 specially recommending him to the Sheriff of 
 the county. 
 
 Life at the Charterhouse was by ]io means a 
 round of unbroken peace. Sudden brawls and deeds 
 
 i8
 
 EDWARD, FIRST LORD NORTH 19 
 
 of violence were common cnougli in those days, 
 a hasty word often met with the swift conchisive 
 answer of a dagger thrust ; and so it came about 
 that two assassins one day set upon a gentleman 
 of Sir Edward's household, and slew him in 
 Charterhouse Yard. The men were caught, 
 brought to justice, and soon afterwards hanged 
 at Tyburn. 1 
 
 A close friendship existed between the Dudleys 
 and the Norths, and by this Sir Edward was 
 doubtless largely influenced, so that it is not 
 surprising to find that his connexion with Lord 
 Guilford Dudley led him, on the death of the 
 young king, to declare at once for ' the Lady Jane.' 
 His signature is among the twenty-one, headed by 
 that of Archbishop Cranmer, affixed to the letter 
 sent in answer to an appeal to the Council by 
 ' the Lady Mary,' as the future Queen was then 
 styled. In this answer she is urged by the senders 
 to desist from her claim to the Crown and ' to 
 submit her selfe unto Oueen Tane, now her 
 soveraigne, so would they hold amity with her, 
 els should shee proove greevous unto them and 
 to her selfe.' But the blood of the Tudors ran 
 in Mary's veins ; it was far from her thoughts 
 thus meekly to resign her claim, and she was in 
 truth to prove grievous to others if not to herself. 
 While at Hunsdon House she had received the 
 news of her brother's death, and had lost no time 
 
 ^ Machyn's Diary, January 1553. 
 
 c 2
 
 20 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 in taking horse and pushing on towards London, to 
 the end she might be proclaimed Queen forthwith. 
 She had not ridden far, ere she was stopped 
 by a messenger spurring in hot liaste to warn 
 her that ' the Ead}-' Jane ' had been aheady 
 proclaimed, and to entreat her to seek safety 
 in flight. Thus baffled at the outset, she turned 
 her horse's head and her own dour visage towards 
 the east coast, and sped away with all her following 
 to Kenninghall in Norfolk, where she had partisans 
 upon whom she could rely ; and while she was 
 lodged there, six ships lay off Yarmouth ready to 
 escort her had it been expedient for her to fly 
 the country. At Kenninghah Castle she awaited 
 the turn of the tide which was to make her footing 
 sure, and it was from thence she issued her appeal 
 to the Council and received its answer. It is 
 well to be able to record of a Queen who is certainly 
 not one of the spoilt children of history, that on 
 Mary's accession, she granted a full pardon to ah 
 who had signed, with the exceptions of North- 
 umberland, Suffolk, Sir John Gates, Captain of 
 the Guard, and a few others who had been chief 
 among her enemies. North himself was ere long 
 restored to favour ; he was sworn of the new 
 Privy Council and took his seat in the House of 
 Lords as Baron North of Kirtling. In 1554 he 
 was placed on a Commission with Sir Thomas 
 Pope and others for examining the accounts of 
 Sir Thomas Grcsham, then the Queen's Agent
 
 EDWARD, FIRST LORD NORTH 21 
 
 for negotiating a loan from the merchants of 
 Antwerp. It had been the practice of her 
 predecessors to borrow large sums at exorbitant 
 interest from the merchants of that city, but the 
 credit of our sovereigns usually stood so low as 
 to make it necessary for them to obtain the 
 aid of the City of London in guaranteeing the 
 security. 
 
 The Queen was soon to heed all available 
 resources to meet the vast financial drain which 
 followed among other dismal consequences upon 
 the Spanish marriage. This alliance was hateful 
 to the English people, who regarded it as destined 
 to prove fatal to their civil, above all to their 
 religious liberties, and who looked forward to the 
 coming of Prince Philip with feelings of aversion 
 and mistrust. North was despatched with other 
 lords to receive the Prince on his arrival at 
 Southampton,! July 19, 1554, ^^^^ to conduct 
 him to Winchester, where his marriage with the 
 Oueen was to be solemnized, and where he was 
 to receive from the Spanish Ambassador the 
 title of ' King of Naples and Jerusalem,' conferred 
 on him by his father in honour of the occasion. 
 The mission of North and his colleagues must 
 have been more honourable than pleasing. Lord 
 Howard of Effingham had but lately had the 
 daring to fire across the bows of Philip's own ship, 
 because the captains of his squadron had failed 
 
 1 Holinshed, p. 1113,
 
 22 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 to lower their topsails to the English flag, a 
 salute then customary and rigorously exacted as 
 an acknowledgment of the supremacy of England 
 in the narrow seas. Fresh from this experience 
 and conscious of his own unpopularity, Philip 
 was in no mood for courtesies : he left unreturned 
 the salutes of the highest of the nobles, and bore 
 himself with so much arrogance and ill-humour as 
 greatly to intensify the feeling against him. ' He 
 was,' says Speed, ' the first man of that fleet that 
 
 1554 set foot on the shore, which no sooner don, but 
 he drew his sword and so bare it naked in his 
 hand as he went.' ^ 
 
 It would seem from North's repeated appear- 
 ance on public occasions that he must have 
 held some office at Court. On the occasion of 
 Cardinal Pole's mission as Legate of Pope Julius 
 III, North took part in his reception,- carrying 
 the sword of state before King Philip. Pole 
 came charged to receive on behalf of the Pope 
 the submission of England to the Holy See, 
 and to confer in return a plenary pardon and 
 indulgence, and he was welcomed at Court with 
 little less than roval honours. 
 
 After this, we lose sight of North for some 
 
 1557 years, until he and his daughter, the Countess of 
 Worcester, appear as among the chief mourners 
 at the funeral of the Countess of Arundel, 
 
 ' Speed's Chronicle, p. 824. 
 - November 24, 1554.
 
 EDWARD, FIRST LORD NORTH 23 
 
 October 27, 1557. The Countess was interred 
 with all the stately and solemn observance then 
 customary at the obsequies of the great. We 
 read that * M\^ lady w^as brought to the Church 
 with the Bishop of London and Paul's Choir, and 
 the Master and Clerks of London, and then came 
 the corpse with five banners of arms borne : then 
 came four heralds in their coats of- arms, and bare 
 four banners of images at the four corners ; and 
 then came the chief mourners, my lady of Worcester, 
 and my Lady Lumley, and my Lord North, and 
 Sir Anthony Selenger. Then came a hundred 
 mourners of men, and after, as many ladies and 
 gentlemen all in black, and a great many poor 
 women all in black and veils, and twenty-four 
 poor men in black, bearing of torches, and many 
 of her servants in black coats bearing of torches. 
 The twenty-eighth day of October was the mass 
 of requiem sung ; and a goodly sermon ; and 
 after mass her Grace was buried ; and all her head 
 officers with white staffs in their hands, and all 
 the heralds waiting about her in their coat armour, 
 and my lord abbot of Westminster was the 
 preacher ; a godly sermon, and my lord of London 
 sung the mass, and the bishop of ( ) sang the 
 
 mass of the ( ), and there was a ( ) 
 
 mass said, and after to ni}'^ lord's place to dinner, 
 for there was a great dinner.' ^ 
 
 ' Machyn's Diary, October 27, 1557.
 
 24 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 Towards the end of Mary's reign, North was 
 placed on the Commission for the suppression of 
 heresy, and after this he is no more heard of until 
 he reappears with the accession of her sister to 
 the throne.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 North was no stranger to the young Queen on her 
 accession. There is a tradition that as Princess 
 EHzabeth she was at one time a prisoner in Kirthng 
 Tower. History makes no mention of her having 
 been at any time in North's immediate charge, but 
 in tliose days, whether for convenience, or as a 
 measure of indulgence to themselves, state prisoners 
 were not uncommonly lodged in the houses of per- 
 sons of importance, and it may well be that while in 
 the custody of Sir Henry Bedingfield at Oxburgh, or 
 of the Gages at Hengrave, the Princess was brought 
 to Kirtling for awhile. Nichols inclines to this view, 
 and it may also be remembered that Elizabeth was 
 for some time in the keeping of Sir Thomas Pope, a 
 friend of North's, with whom, as we have seen, he 
 had been associated in several public duties. Sir 
 Thomas was by far the most indulgent of her 
 governors, and this may have been one of the 
 many thoughtful expedients b}- which he is known 
 to have lightened her captivity. At all events the 
 
 Princess carried away no bitter memories of 
 
 23
 
 26 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 Kirtling and its owner, for she twice visited him 
 at the Charterhouse, and returned to Kirthng in 
 1578, as the guest of his son. On her accession. 
 North attended her on her progress from Hatfield, 
 and received her at the Charterhouse on her first 
 entry into London ; the name of Lady North also 
 occurs among those of the ladies of honour about 
 the Court at that time. The Oueen made this 
 1558 magnificent progress on November 23, 1558, and 
 remained at the Charterhouse for six days, on 
 all of which she sat in Council. As she drew near 
 to Highgate, she was met by the Lord Mayor, 
 Aldermen, and Sheriffs, and moved onward with 
 a brilliant train of nobles, ladies, knights, gentle- 
 men, and gentlewomen, a thousand or more in 
 number. ' The whole of London,' says de Feria, 
 ' turned out to meet her with great acclamations. 
 They tell me her attitude was more gracious to 
 the common people than to others.' 1 This was 
 almost invariably the Queen's demeanour when 
 she went abroad among her faithful lieges ; how- 
 ever haughty and imperious towards her Ministers 
 and Courtiers, she above all things desired 
 popularity with her people, and loved that they 
 should see her at her best. None knew better 
 than she the magic of a royal smile, none better 
 the power that lies in all the pomp and pageantry 
 of a Court, to fan each latent spark of loyalty 
 into a leaping flame. 
 
 ' Count de Fcria, Spanish Ambassador, to the King of Spain.
 
 EDWARD, FIRST LORD NORTH 27 
 
 Arrived at the Charterhouse she received, 
 surrounded b}^ a crowd of courtiers and ladies, 
 the Spanish Ambassador, whose business it was 
 to convey to her the congratulations of his ro3^al 
 master, and to present her on his behalf with a 
 ring which had belonged to her sister. The 
 Oueen left the Charterhouse about two o'clock 
 on November 28, and passed to the Tower. On 
 this occasion she departed from her ordinary 
 method of travelling on horseback or in a litter, 
 and used her coach, probably driven b}- her Dutch 
 coachman William Bo on en, who had latety brought 
 it from Holland. It was the first carriage of the 
 kind used in England, and doubtless excited 
 much surprise as it rumbled through the streets 
 of old London. 
 
 During the arrangements for the Queen's 
 coronation, North was appointed one of the Lords 
 Commissioners to examine and decide upon the 
 claims made by divers nobles and others to enjoy 
 sundry privileges and to perform certain ceremonial 
 offices on that occasion. In December 1558 he 1558 
 was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Cambridgeshire 
 and the Isle of Ely, and in 1559 ^^^ name appears 
 amongst those of the Lords who opposed the 
 re-enactment of the Act of Uniformity and that 
 for the alienation of certain revenues of the See 
 of Winchester. This closes the record of his 
 Parliamentary and official career. He seems to 
 have wearied of the atmosphere of a Court and
 
 28 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 1560 the burden of public affairs, and in 1560 resigned 
 his seat on the Council and retired almost wholly 
 into private life. x\dvancing years and the in- 
 firmities now creeping upon him may have 
 influenced him in this, and the death of his wife, 
 which took place in the same year, no doubt had 
 its influence also. Lady North died at the Charter- 
 house. Machyn thus describes the removal of 
 her body from thence to Kirtling and its burial 
 there : ' The xix day of August my Lade Nor the 
 (was carried) from Charterhouse towards Cam- 
 bregshyre with a c men in blake rydyng, and 
 Master Clarenshus sett them in order, and a grett 
 denur with venesun, wine and strong here. 
 
 ' The xxij day of August was bered in Cambreg- 
 shire my Lade North, the wyff of my Lord North, 
 with ij haroldes of armes, Master Clarenshus and 
 Master Somersett, and mony mornars in blake 
 gownes ; then cam a grett baner of armes borne ; 
 and then cam the corse kevered with a pall of 
 blake velvett and armes ; and baners borne 
 abowtt the corse ; and then cam mony women 
 mornars in blake ; and the plase and the chyrche 
 hangyd with blake and armes, and after to the 
 plase to dener, for ther was myche a-doo ; and 
 thys was at Cateleg my Lord's place ; and ( ) 
 dyd pryche at the bereall, and was mony pore 
 men and women that had gownes and mete 
 and drynke.' ^ 
 
 ' Machyn's Diary, August 22, 1560,
 
 EDWARD, FIRST LORD NORTH 29 
 
 North must have felt deeply the loss of so 
 good a wife. She had been ' a great and constant 
 assistant to him in the improvement of his fortunes, 
 always shewing herself a discreet and provident 
 person in the government of his domestique 
 affairs.' ^ So we ma}^ picture to ourselves North's 
 household as a typically well-ordered one. The 
 lady of a great house in those daj^s was in every 
 sense the housewife ; she ordered and controlled 
 her little kingdom with a nice eye to ever}^ detail, 
 and deemed that in so doing she suffered neither 
 hardship nor loss of dignity. 
 
 ' Some Notes concerning the Life of Edward, first Lord North, 
 by Dudley, fourth Lord North.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 Since his early years North had been but hghtly 
 
 touched by the sorrows of Ufe until the death of 
 
 Lady North cast a shadow on his home ; he had 
 
 indeed suffered the loss of his pretty daughter 
 
 Mary, Lady Scrope of Bolton, but on the whole 
 
 things had gone prosperously with him. He 
 
 must have had comfort in his children now. Sir 
 
 Roger, handsome, brave, accomplished, albeit 
 
 a little too fond of spending, was eminently a 
 
 son to be proud of, while the bookish Thomas 
 
 must have had the entire sympathy of his father, 
 
 who we are told ' had a great love of scholars 
 
 and of learning.' 
 
 Li his retirement North did not wholly lose 
 
 touch with the Court. His name is found amongst 
 
 those of the Queen's subjects who yearly offered 
 
 her New Year's gifts. These were always very 
 
 numerous and of the most miscellaneous kind, and 
 
 were contributed by all classes, from the highest 
 
 officers of state, who usuall}^ brought money, 
 
 to ' Smyth the dustman,' who in 1576 presented 
 
 30
 
 EDWARD, FIRST LORD NORTH 31 
 
 ' two boltes 1 (or rolls) of cambrick.' Presents were 
 given in return, persons of importance receiving 
 a piece of silver or silver-gilt plate, but there 
 is reason to believe that the balance commonly 
 told in the Queen's favour. In 1561 North's 
 gift was ' £20 in dimi soveraignes in a purse of 
 purple silk and silver,' and Sir Roger's ' £6 
 in French crownes in a purse of red silk and 
 gold knitt.' In return North received ' oone 
 guilt cup with a cover, per oz. 3of oz.' and Sir 
 Roger, ' oone guilt bolle with a cover, per oz. 
 15 oz.' 
 
 North appeared but once more as a public 
 character, and the occasion was a notable one. 
 On July 10, 1561, the Queen paid him her second 1561 
 visit at the Charterhouse, where she remained 
 for four days. She rode through the City preceded 
 by her heralds and trumpeters, and attended by 
 a brilliant train. Her coming is thus described 
 in ' Nichols' Progresses ' — ' The Queen came by 
 water unto the Tower of London by twelve of the 
 clock ; her business now was to visit her Mints, 
 which she did in person, where she coined certain 
 pieces of gold, and gave them away to several 
 about her ; whereof one she gave to the Marquis 
 of Northampton, and another to the Lord Hunsdon. 
 About live o'clock she went to the Iron-gate, and 
 
 • Doubtless a variant of ' bullet.' This word is used in 
 Hakkiyt's Voyages, vol. iii. p. 188, to describe a sealed roll, 
 wliich, in that instance, was of paper or parchment.
 
 32 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 so over Tower Hill unto Aldgate Church, and so 
 down Houndsditch to the Spittle, and down 
 Hog-lane, and so over the fields to the Charterhouse, 
 being the Lord North's place, attended in great 
 state as was customary when she went abroad : 
 before her going on horseback. Trumpeters, the 
 Gentlemen Pensioners, the Heralds of Arms, 
 the Sergeants at Arms, then Gentlemen, then 
 Lords, and the Lord Hunsdon bearing the sword 
 immediately before the Queen ; after the Queen 
 the Ladies riding.' 
 
 Doubtless the welcome prepared for the royal 
 lady was worthy the splendour of her coming. It is 
 told of her host that ' his household affairs were 
 ordered in a way of more eminence than usual 
 in those times ' and that ' he delighted to live 
 in an equipage rather above than under his 
 condition,' ^ so it may well be supposed there was 
 now no lack of royal cheer. What a temptation 
 to pry into the kitchens and butteries, and stay, 
 were there but time, to have a good gossip over 
 the dainties the kitchen-folk are so busily pre- 
 paring ! One can see the cooks hurrying to and 
 fro before the glowing fires, armed with long ladles 
 and fearsome looking knives ; and can hear the 
 sputtering of the grease as they baste the fat joints 
 upon the spit ! Look at the arra}^ of fowls soon 
 to be borne steaming into the dining hall ; they 
 are of all sorts and sizes, from the lordly bustard, 
 
 ' Some Notes, &-c., by Dudley, fourth Lord North.
 
 EDWARD, FIRST LORD NORTH 33 
 
 the bittern, the swan, the peacock, and the heron, 
 down to the choicest of httle songsters, the black- 
 bird and the lark ! One remembers with a pang, 
 that blackbirds often fissured in an Elizabethan 
 bill of fare, and though we are not told that on 
 this particular occasion four and twenty of them 
 were baked in a pie, it is nevertheless true that the 
 old nursery legend is not wholly a myth. It is on 
 record that at one of the banquets set before the 
 Queen, live birds of some sort were immured 
 within a pasty, and that when the pie was opened 
 they all took wing and flew round the dining 
 haU. 
 
 If such a stir is going on in the kitchens, we 
 may be sure there is also much ado to get the great 
 banqueting chamber ready for the feast. There 
 is the dais and the canopy of state with its rich 
 hangings, the long tables dressed with ' the grett 
 CLippe with the cover and a lyon upon the Toppe 
 all gilte, the spones whereof some are percell gilte 
 with the Apostles at the endes of them ' and 
 those with ' the flatt knoppes ; the neasts of 
 Bowles with covers, the silver Ale pottes and 
 Possett pottes,' and what not besides ? Could 
 space be found for such a list as North him- 
 self has made, the tables would be all ready 
 laid for us. We can feel ourselves at home 
 too in ' the chamber over the pastrie,' with its 
 * bed of downe and bedstedde of walnutt, 
 with the testour and counterpointe to the
 
 34 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 same of yellow and blew pattern,' and can 
 look from the window over the fields and 
 pleasant orchards. 
 
 To those familiar with the portraits of Lord 
 North, it is not difficult to picture him as he stands 
 on the steps of the Charterhouse, surrounded by 
 his famil}^ and household, in readiness to receive 
 the Queen. Sir Roger is at his father's side, and 
 Thomas has thrown aside his books to join the 
 group. ' Molton, my chaplain,' is doubtless there, 
 ' my olde porter William Winter, Elizabeth Den- 
 ham, Dorothy Johnson, Lihan Clopton,' and many 
 others, all on the tiptoe of expectation ; the old 
 lord dressed in one of his two best gowns of black 
 velvet, which he has himself described, ' the one 
 faced with sables, the other faced with unshorn 
 velvett, having tenne pairs of square agletts of 
 gold uppon the sieves of the same gowns,' and 
 wearing round his neck ' the grett cheyne of 
 fyne golde which my wieff did give me before 
 my marriadge with her.' His neatly trimmed 
 hair and beard, warm in colour once, must be 
 touched with silver now ; his figure, never above 
 the middle height, a little bent perhaps, and 
 thinner than of yore. But he is the same man 
 still, as he looks straight out of his full dark eyes 
 from under their high arched brows, and listens to 
 the dull roar of many voices, gathering strength 
 as the cavalcade draws near, until the sudden 
 clamour of tho trumpets breaks in and masters
 
 EDWARD, FIRST LORD NORTH 35 
 
 all, and he catches the first glimpse of the 
 heralds in their coat-armour, all glorious in 
 a July sun. And now the Queen with all her 
 brilliant train comes clattering into Charterhouse 
 Yard. 
 
 We are told how the royal guest tarried at 
 Lord North's house until the thirteenth of July, 
 * when she took her way from thence to Clerken- 
 well over the fields unto the Savoy to Mr, Secretary 
 Cecyll, where she supped. Here her Council 
 waited on her, with many Lords, Knights, and 
 Ladies, and great cheer (was) made till midnight, 
 and then her Grace rode back to the Charter- 
 house, where she lay that night. And the next day 
 she departed thence on her Progress into Essex ; 
 and the chief streets of the city being renewed 
 with fresh sand and gravel for her equipage, she 
 passed from the Charterhouse through Smithfield 
 under Newgate ; and so along St. Nicholas 
 Shambles, Cheapside, Cornhill, into Aldgate and 
 Whitechapel. All the houses were hung with cloth 
 of arras and rich carpets and silk, but Cheapside 
 was hung with cloth of gold and silver and 
 velvets of all colours, all the crafts of London 
 standing in their liveries, from St. Michael the 
 Quern as far as to Aldgate. The cavalcade was 
 after this manner : first, serving men riding ; 
 then the Queen's Pensioners, Gentlemen, 
 Knights, the Aldermen in scarlet, the Sergeants 
 of Arms, the Heralds in their coat-armpur, 
 
 D 2
 
 36 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 then my Lord Mayor bearing the sceptre, then 
 the Lord Hunsdon bearing the sword, and then 
 came the Oueen's Grace, and her footmen 
 richly habited ; the Ladies and Gentlewomen 
 followed; after all, the Lord's and Knight's men 
 in their masters' liveries, and at Whitechapel 
 the Lord Mayor and Aldermen took their leave 
 of her Grace ; and so she took her way to- 
 wards Essex, and I suppose lodged that night 
 j. at Wansted House (the Earl of Leicester's) in the 
 Forest.' 
 
 There is but one more event of importance to 
 chronicle in North's life. At some uncertain date 
 before the commencement of 1563, he took to 
 wife, Margaret, daughter of Richard Butler, a 
 widow already thrice married. All this lady's 
 known history is thus quaintly set forth in her 
 epitaph : 
 
 ' Lo here the Lady Margaret North, 
 
 In Tombe and Earth doth lye ; 
 Of Husbands foure the faithful! Spouse, 
 
 Whose fame shall never dye. 
 One Andrew Fraunces was the first, 
 
 The second Robert liight, 
 Surnamed Chartsey, Alderman ; 
 
 Sir David Brooke, a Knight, ^ 
 
 * Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer. On the day after 
 Queen Mary's coronation, he and others, says Machyn, ' were 
 dobyd Knights of the Carpet.' He appears to have borne a 
 high character. His favourite maxim was, ' Never do anything 
 by another that you can do by yourself.'
 
 EDWARD, FIRST LORD NORTH 37 
 
 Was third. But he that passed all, 
 
 And was in number fourth, 
 And for his vertue made a Lord, 
 
 Was call'd Sir Edward North. 
 These all together doe I wish 
 
 A joyfull rising day : 
 That of the Lord, and of His Christ, 
 
 All honour they may say. 
 
 ' Obiit 2 die Juni, An. Dom. 1575.' ' 
 
 It will be seen that Lady North survived 
 her husband ten years. She was buried in the 
 chancel of the Church of St. Lawrence, Jewry, by 
 the side of her third husband, but no trace of her 
 tomb remains, the building having been entirely 
 destroyed in the fire of 1666.^ 
 
 Margaret, Lady North, was a rich woman, 
 bringing her husband ' howshold stuff and ymple- 
 ments of housewifre, beddinge and other utensils,' 
 besides * landes tenements and other heredita- 
 ments lyinge in London, Southwerk, Chertsey and 
 elsewhere.' But this marriage, unromantic as it 
 seems, North could hardly have made for money ; 
 his fortune had placed him above such a tempta- 
 tion ; he needed nothing for himself, nor did he 
 seek to further his children's interests by the 
 connexion, since he left to his widow absolutely, 
 
 ' Stow's Survey of London, book iii. p. 45. 
 
 ' The remains of those who had been buried in it were re- 
 interred under the site of the North aisle. The Church of St. 
 Lawrence was rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren.
 
 38 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 all she had brought him, with some additional 
 gifts as tokens of his affection. But he was all 
 alone : his two sons were out in the world, and 
 Christian, his only surviving daughter, was married 
 to the Earl of Worcestei. He had no housewife 
 to order his domestic affairs in the old accustomed 
 way, no kindly hostess to welcome his guests to 
 the Charterhouse, where — near to London as it 
 was— there must have been many coming and 
 going. He must greatly have felt the lack of 
 helpful companionship. 
 
 The short space of life now left him was devoted 
 to the management of his private concerns. His 
 unusually long and curious Will, executed in 
 March 1563 must alone have taxed his time and 
 thoughts considerably. In it he expresses his 
 desire to be buried at Kirtling, ' beside my well- 
 beloved wife, dressed as shall seem most meet to 
 mine Executors ; the expenses about the same I 
 do refer likewise wholly to the discretion of my 
 said Executors, requiring and instantly desiring 
 them so to order it that the same may be to the 
 glory of Almight}^ God and to the relief and com- 
 fort of the poor and needy people there (Kirtling) 
 and in the place where it shall please Almighty 
 God that I shall end this transitory life.' 
 
 The executors to this Will were Sir William 
 Cordell, Master of the Rolls, Sir James Dyer, Lord 
 Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, Richard 
 Alington and William Thornton. Of his estates,
 
 EDWARD, FIRST LORD NORTH 39 
 
 North made an entail said to be of unusual strict- 
 ness considering the law and custom of the time ; 
 leaving a remainder after his own family to that 
 of his cousin, Edward of Walkringham. Collins 
 writes, ' He might have made a greater addition 
 to his fortune than what he left, had he not been 
 a person of very great integrity.' ^ No contin- 
 gency seems to have been unprovided for and no 
 , , one forgotten, from the Duke of Norfolk and the 
 !f Earl of Leicester, who were to receive each a silver 
 cup, to Richard Milner the carpenter, who was to 
 be forgiven all his debts and duties and to receive 
 a legacy into the bargain. North left his son 
 and successor, Sir Roger, his ' Parliament Robe,' 
 ' Besechynge x\lmightie God most humbly to 
 blesse him, and to give unto him His grace trulie 
 and faithfuUie to serve the Queen's Majestic and 
 this Realme, and to beware of pride and prodigal 
 expenses, and to live with poore honestie and so to 
 dye, to the comfort of himself wyeff and children 
 and frendes.' Sir Roger's daughter, Mary, was 
 to have £100 on her marriage, ' so as she be not 
 married before she shall accomplishe the age of 
 sixtene yeres.' The executors were directed to 
 sell the Charterhouse if expedient, for the pay- 
 ment of the ver}^ numerous bequests, funeral and 
 other charges ; and in the event of their doing so, 
 £400 of the sum so raised was to be applied to the 
 payment of Sir Roger's debts. In pursuance of 
 
 ' Collins' Historical Peerage, vol. iv. p. 453.
 
 40 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 these instructions, the older portion of the Charter- 
 house was sold in 1565 to Thomas, Duke of Nor- 
 folk, for £2,500, while the house which North had 
 built for his own use was reserved as a family 
 residence for some generations later. 
 
 Lord North died at the Charterhouse, December 
 31, 1564, and was buried in a chapel he had 
 himself built, adjoining the chancel of Kirtling 
 Church. A black marble monument was placed 
 over his tomb by his executors, bearing this 
 inscription : 
 
 ' Serva Fidem, 
 
 Edvardum finxit Northum natura beatum, 
 
 Addidit et magnas gracia Regis opes. 
 
 Providus et sapiens claros suscepit honores, 
 
 Et tamen in tanto comis honore fuit. 
 
 qum natura dedit, qu.^ gracia principis auxit 
 
 Omnia mors una sustulit atra dies. 
 
 Oui OBiiT ultimo Decembris 
 
 Anno Domini 1564.' 
 
 On the screen of the chapel was carved this 
 legend : — 
 
 ' Orate pro bono statu Edvardis Northe et 
 Alicie Northe.'
 
 ROGER, SECOND LORD NORTH. 
 From the collection ol Lord North.
 
 ROGER, SECOND LORD NORTH 
 
 D 3
 
 Ij ' It is better to see learning in noble men's lives, than to reade 
 it in philosophers' writings.' — Sir Thomas North. 
 
 (Introduction to North's 'Plutarch,')
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 It is difficult even in the romantic age of Elizabeth 
 to find a more picturesque figure than that of 
 Roger, Lord North. Born in 1530, his boyhood 
 was passed we know not how, but it seems probable 
 that like others of his family he was sent to Peter- 
 house, Cambridge, to which College his father had 
 been so large a benefactor. Be this as it may, it 
 is evident that he received not only a thorough 
 physical training, but a considerable share of 
 mental culture ; such an education as would 
 have fulfilled the ideal of Sir Humphrey Gilbert, 
 who held that a boy's upbringing should be such 
 that ' all the nations of the world shall know 
 and say, that when the face of an English gentle- 
 man appeareth, he is either a soldier, a philosopher, 
 or a gallant courtier.' We shall see that young 
 Roger became something of all these. 
 
 He was early introduced to the Court, in which 
 it is believed he was a page of honour, 1 entering 
 
 ^ This is not incompatible with his having spent some time 
 at Cambridge, for in his day boys were started on a University 
 
 43
 
 44 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 freely and eagerly into its amusements, especially 
 that of tilting, in which he soon learnt to excel. 
 It was a very costly one as then practised, and his 
 expenditure in this and other ways seems to have 
 been a source of no little concern to his cautious 
 and business-like father, upon whose purse he 
 made pretty heavy demands. A fine portrait, ^ 
 the property of Lord North, represents him while 
 yet a mere stripling, as he appeared at a mimic 
 joust which took place in Greenwich Park, the 
 combatants being on foot. He wears round his 
 left arm a scarf of red silk, which, according to 
 tradition, was tied there by Queen Elizabeth's 
 own hands. 2 
 
 The various sports and manly exercises 
 common to the youth of the day seem to have 
 satisfied Roger up to the age of about twenty-five, 
 when he went a-courting to Winifred, the widowed 
 daughter of Richard, Lord Rich, and shortly after 
 
 career very early in life. Instances are even recorded of scholars 
 matriculating at ten or eleven years of age. 
 
 ' The hair in this portrait is of a dark auburn. 
 
 2 The Queen was still a Princess when this mimic joust took 
 place, and there appears to be some doubt as to the precise 
 occasion on which the decoration was bestowed. It has been 
 suggested that this might have been at the grand tournament, 
 described elsewhere, held during the year of the Queen's coro- 
 nation, and that the scarf might have been painted into the 
 picture afterwards. Instances are not infrequent in which 
 decorations of other kinds are known to have been added to 
 pictures of earlier dates than those on which the honours were 
 conferred ; when the man was decorated, his portrait was 
 decorated too.
 
 ROGER, SECOND LORD NORTH 45 
 
 took this ladv to wife. Her first husband, Sir 
 Henry Dudley,^ eldest son of John, Earl of 
 Warwick, afterwards Duke of Northumberland, 
 had been slain at the siege of Boulogne at the 
 age of nineteen. 
 
 The 3'oung widow had doubtless been thrown 
 much into Roger's society, owing to the associa- 
 tion of their respective fathers as j oint Chancellors 
 of the Court of Augmentations. Winifred was 
 evidently a lady who preferred home life to the 
 
 ' This Sir Hcury Dudley must not be mistaken for Warwick's 
 sixth son, also Sir Henry. According to Banks, Warwick had 
 thirteen children, of whom two were named Henry and two 
 Katherine. In Banks's Dormant and Extinct Baronage, vol. iii. 
 p. 571, occurs the foUov/ing entry: 'John Dudley, Earl of 
 Warwick (afterwards Duke of Northumberland). His wife was 
 Jane, daughter and heir * of Sir Edward Guilford, Knight, by 
 whom he had eight sons f and five daughters, viz. Henry, who 
 died at Boloin ; John, who had the title of Earl of Warwick in 
 his father's lifetime ; Ambrose, afterwards Earl of Warwick ; 
 [f Robert, who became Earl of Leicester; Guilford, who married 
 the Lady Jane Grey and was beheaded ; another Henry, who 
 married Margaret, daughter and heir of Thomas Lord Audley of 
 Walden, and was slain at the siege of St. Quintin ; Charles, who 
 died a child. J The daughters were: Mary, who married Sir 
 Henry Sidney, K.G. ; Katherine, who married Henry Hastings, 
 Earl of Huntingdon; Margaret, Temperence, and another 
 Katherine.' 
 
 * She succeeded, on the death of her brother. Sir Henry 
 Guilford, Comptroller of the Household to King Henry the 
 Eighth, Sir Henry having died childless. 
 
 t It has been repeatedly stated that Warwick had only five 
 sons: John, Ambrose, Robert, Guilford, and Henry. 
 
 X Sic. Banks accounts for only seven sons.
 
 46 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 atmosphere of Courts, so we can learn very little 
 about her. She bore her husband two sons, John 
 and Henry, and a daughter, Mary, who died 
 unmarried. 
 
 Roger soon began to take part in public affairs. 
 In 1555 he was elected Knight of the Shire for the 
 county of Cambridge, and sat for the same county 
 in the Parliaments of 1558 and 1563, continuing 
 to represent it until in 1564 he went up to the 
 House of Lords. From his early years he had 
 lived much in the eye of the Court, and the comely 
 youth who had so well acquitted himself in the 
 lists stood well with the Queen as a man. She 
 dubbed him a Knight of the Bath among those 
 created at her coronation, 1 and in the same year his 
 name appears m the list of ' Officers of the Queen's 
 Privy Chamber,' an appointment for which he 
 received a salary of £30 per annum. This iirst 
 year of the Queen's accession was one of bound- 
 less festivity ; it was signalised not only by the 
 conferring of many honours, but by many 
 of those brave shows in which she and her 
 people so greatly deUghted. Among these was 
 a grand tournament in Greenwich Park on 
 July 10, in which Sir Roger was one of 
 the three challengers. It is thus described by 
 Churchyard : 
 
 ' The tenth of the same month, the Queen 
 bemg still at Greenwich, well knew how pomps and 
 
 ' January 15, 1559-
 
 ROGER, SECOND LORD NORTH 47 
 
 shews, especially military, with her own presence 
 thereat, delighted her subjects, and perhaps herself 
 too. Now therefore was set up in Greenwich 
 Park a goodly banqueting-house for her Grace, 
 made with fir poles and decked with birch branches 
 and all manner of flowers, both of the field and 
 garden, as roses, July flowers, lavender, marygolds, 
 and all manner of strewing herbs and rushes : 
 there were also set up tents for the kitchen, and 
 for the officers against tomorrow, with provisions 
 laid in of wine, ale, and beer. There was also 
 made up a place for the Queen's Pensioners, who 
 were to run with spears. The challengers were 
 three, the Earl of Ormond, Sir John Perrot, and 
 Mr. (Sir Roger) North ; and there were likewise 
 defendants of equal valour, with launces and 
 swords.' 1 
 
 Though active and energetic in a marked 
 degree, Sir Roger w^as not, in his early manhood, 
 constitutionally strong. In February 1559 we 1559 
 find Sir William Cecil writing to Archbishop 
 Parker ~ to beg that the bearer of the letter. 
 Sir Roger North, might have a dispensation from 
 fasting in Lent ' in consideration of his evil estate 
 of health, and the danger that might follow if 
 he should be restrained to eating of fish.' The 
 observance of fast, or as they were then called 
 * fish-days, ' was strictly enforced during the 
 
 ^ Nichols' Progresses of Queen Elizabeth. 
 " Petyt MSS., Inner Temple, No. 47.
 
 48 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 Reformation period and for some time afterwards, 
 as a measure of civil policy, in order to husband 
 the very slender meat supply of the country, for 
 the encouragement of the fishing industry, and 
 ' the breeding up of sea-faring men.' Cecil, 
 himself among the staunchest of Protestants, ^ 
 none the less firmly insisted on compliance with 
 this law ; a fact to which he makes reference 
 in a postscript to the letter above mentioned. 
 ' Your Grace seeth, notwithstanding my earnest 
 conference with you in these matters, I am, in 
 probable cases, moved to relent.' Penalties were 
 enforced by the municipal authorities for killing, 
 cooking, or eating flesh at such seasons ; for the 
 first offence, ten shillings, for the second, twenty 
 shillings and imprisonment ; towards the end of 
 Queen Elizabeth's reign, the higher fine reached 
 three pounds. Owing to the vast tracts of 
 forest then existing, and the consequently incon- 
 siderable acreage available for pasture, the 
 supply of meat was exceedingly limited, and so 
 impossible was it to maintain the whole of the 
 live stock through the winter, that the greater 
 number of the sheep and cattle were killed in 
 the autumn and salted down for winter use,- 
 with the result that the poor were then largely 
 
 ' tie Spcs, the Spanisli Ambassador, wrote to King Philip 
 that Cecil was ' indescribably crazy in his zeal for heresy.' 
 
 - The meat when salted was commonly covered with pig's 
 lard, hence the building in which it was stored received the name 
 of larder.
 
 ROGER, SECOND LORD NORTH 49 
 
 dependent for their food on salt meat or 
 upon fish, which, owing to difficulties of transit, 
 must, in the inland counties at least, have 
 reached them either salted, or often not abso- 
 lutely fresh. ^ 
 
 ' May not the prevalence of leprosy in England in those days 
 have been due to this cause ?
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 Although during his earlier years, tilting and 
 
 other amusements claimed an important share 
 
 of Sir Roger's time, ere long there began 
 
 to unfold before him a series of events destined 
 
 to solidify his character and to develop all 
 
 1564 its latent worth. When in 1564 his old 
 
 father passed away, his own succession to the 
 
 title and family estates plainly filled him with 
 
 a new sense of responsibility ; the manly 
 
 sports and courtly graces of his youth, though 
 
 not indeed abandoned, henceforth were to be 
 
 the ornament rather than the business of his 
 
 life, ' but as the work of his left hand.' He took 
 
 to heart his father's last injunction to ' beware of 
 
 pride and prodigal expenses,' and set himself 
 
 diligently to the management of his estates. It 
 
 would have done the old man's heart good, could 
 
 he have known that the carefully kept ' Booke 
 
 of Household Charges ' of Roger, Lord North, was 
 
 some centuries later not only to be reckoned 
 
 among the choice treasures of the historical 
 
 50
 
 ROGER, SECOND LORD NORTH 51 
 
 antiquary, but to furnish valuable data to the 
 political economist. 
 
 In 1568 North was elected Alderman and 
 Free Burgess of the town of Cambridge, and was 
 presented on the occasion by the Corporation with 
 the customary presents, which in this case con- 
 sisted of * a marchpane and a pottle of ippocras.' 1 
 These marchpanes, or cakes of almond paste, of 
 which we read so constantly, were commonly 
 presented as complimentary gifts at any important 
 ceremonial,^ and were often fashioned into the 
 semblance of castles, temples, and other fanciful 
 devices. They seem to have been indispensable 
 at every great feast in those days, and were much 
 in favour as New Year's presents to the Queen. 
 It strikes one as a little unfair that, while the 
 Alderman himself only received a ' pottle of 
 ippocras. Lady North's allowance was a gallon ; 
 besides this, she had a marchpane all to herself, 
 and * a box of fine wafers.' 
 
 The keen eye of the Queen had marked North 
 as a man fit to shine in a wider sphere than that 
 of the tiltyard, and she began to turn his talents 
 
 ^ Hippocras, red wine mingled with spices and other ingre- 
 dients ; named after Hippocrates. 
 
 ^ When Sir John North was made Alderman and Free Burgess 
 of Cambridge, he received ' a marchpane, a gallon of ippocras, a 
 gallon of white wine, a gallon of claret wine, and a sugar-loaf, 
 the charge whereof was thirty-eight shillings and ninepence.' 
 White sugar had only lately been imported for the first time by 
 Bristol merchants, and sugar-loaves were highly esteemed as 
 presents.
 
 52 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 to good account by employing him on various 
 diplomatic missions. The first of these was in 
 1568 1568, when he was sent with the Earl of Sussex 1 
 on an embassy to Vienna to invest the Emperor 
 Maximilian the Second with the order of the Garter.^ 
 Maximilian's brother, the Archduke Charles, was 
 then paying court to the Queen, and it was said 
 that North, in the interest of Leicester, with whom, 
 as we have seen, he was connected through his 
 wife's first marriage, sought to discourage the 
 Archduke's suit by putting forth an opinion that 
 Ehzabeth would never marry; but this appears 
 hardly probable, for North and Leicester were not 
 at this stage on very friendly terms, though they 
 afterwards became so. Leicester had nothing 
 'to hope from the good offices of Sussex, who was 
 ; never his friend in this or any other matter. The 
 favourite's insolent pretensions at this time knew 
 no bounds ; they had for years been a standing 
 grievance with the nobles and courtiers, and de 
 Quadra,^ who watched the minutest doings at 
 Court with a quite feline subtlety and intensity, 
 wrote to his master, * I think this hatred of Lord 
 Robert will continue, as the Duke (of Norfolk) and 
 the rest of them cannot put up with his being 
 King.' On another occasion de Quadra spoke of 
 
 ' Thomas Radcliffe, third Earl of Sussex. 
 
 - There is a portrait of tlie Emperor at Wroxton, presented 
 'by him to Loi'd North on this occasion. 
 1 1 •' Alvaro de Quadra, Bishop of Aquila, Spanish Ambassador 
 to England.
 
 ROGER, SECOND LORD NORTH 53 
 
 him as ' the King that is to be.' His ambition 
 seemed in trnth to be not without warrant : ' 
 nevertheless the present aspect of affairs caused 
 him no httle anxiety, and he lost no opportunity 
 of throwing discredit on the Archduke's suit. 
 Said he, ' No good Englishman would allow the 
 Queen to marry a foreigner.' 
 
 North remained for five months at the Court 
 of Vienna, 1 and on his return to England was 
 entrusted with the Archduke's portrait to present 
 to the Queen. Castiglionc, in a letter to Lord 
 Cobham, describes how, on the evening of North's 15^6 
 arrival, Elizabeth called him after prayers into 
 her private chamber opening out of the Oratory, 
 conversed long with him, and having looked at 
 the picture, ordered that it should be framed, but, 
 adds Castiglione sarcastically, ' as yet she does 
 not wish it to be seen, fearing, no doubt, lest 
 its beauty should dazzle the minds and sight of 
 others.' 2 Elizabeth no more meant business in 
 the case of the Archduke than in that of any 
 other of her many suitors, but was hard pressed 
 just then by her ministers and by both Houses of 
 Parliament, either to marry or to name a successor 
 to the throne. While determined to do neither, she 
 was keeping up the hollow pretence of favouring 
 the Archduke's suit, in order to gain time and to 
 
 ^ Camden's Annals, done into English by R. N. Gent, 
 book i. p. 85. 
 
 " Calendar of Hatfield MSS. part i. p. 356. 
 
 E
 
 54 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 cajole her subjects into the beUcf that she intended 
 at last to choose a husband. 
 
 Despite the family connexion between them, 
 North and Leicester were at this time on unfriendly 
 terms. The favourite's pretensions became more 
 and more intolerable to the majority of the nobles, 
 and North had ranged himself on their side, as 
 we gather from the following extract from a letter 
 of the Spanish x\mbassador, Guzman de Silva : 
 
 ' The ill feeling between the Duke of Norfolk 
 and his party and the Earl of Leicester goes on 
 increasing. The Duke is at his house, but he has 
 powerful friends near the Queen. The Admiral ^ 
 who belongs to Lord Robert's ^ party, and Lord 
 North who is opposed to him, had high words 
 some days ago, and if these people were not very 
 cool headed, something serious might be expected 
 to come of it, as they fear here. I, however, have 
 no such apprehension considering the temper of 
 the people.' ^ 
 
 North had been appointed a Commissioner of 
 Musters for the county of Cambridge, and it 
 seems that the zeal and energy with which he 
 discharged his military duties sometimes brought 
 him into collision with the civil powers. On 
 one occasion he had threatened to enrol the 
 
 ' Lord Howard of Effingham, Lord High Admiral of England. 
 
 ^ de Silva often refers to Leicester as ' Lord Robert ' although 
 he had been created Earl of Leicester in 15O4. 
 
 ' Guzman de Silva. London, May 11, 1566. Spanish State 
 Papers. Record Office.
 
 ROGER, SECOND LORD NORTH 55 
 
 servants of scholars of the University for mihtary 
 duty. The Dons were indignant ; appeahng to 
 the Lords of the Council they obtained a decision 
 in their favour, and thenceforth the scholars' 
 servants were privileged to exemption. It seems 
 that the duties of a Commissioner of Musters 
 included the furnishing forth of the Militia Bands ; 
 at least it is difficult to account on any other 
 ground for a licence issued to North on one 
 occasion ' to buy two thousand brode wollen 
 cloths.' 
 
 His work as Commissioner seems to have kept ^569 
 him fairl}' busy, and fresh duties were soon entailed 
 upon him by his appointment 1 as Lord Lieutenant 
 and Custos Rotulorum of the county of Cambridge 
 and the Isle of Ely, an ofhce which in those days 
 meant hard work. Just now, especially, there was 
 plenty to do. Cecil believed that war with Spain 
 was imminent, and England was not yet strong 
 enough to defy her power. No means of defence 
 was to be neglected, and the new Lord Lieutenant 
 was directed by him to put the forces of 
 the county in such order and readiness that 
 they might be always prepared to serve at an 
 hour's notice. But Philip was not yet ready to 
 strike. 
 
 The laws of the day were of a harshness so 
 extreme as to shock the more cultured moral sensi- 
 bilities of our time, yet, as a magistrate, it was 
 
 ' November 20, 1569. 
 
 £ 2
 
 56 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 North's duty to enforce them. About this time 
 he sent a scholar who was charged with having 
 used foul words to the Mayor, to stand for three 
 hours upon the pillory and to give sureties for a 
 hundred pounds, in default of this, both his ears 
 would be cut off within nine days ; but the latter 
 penalty was commuted to the nailing of one ear 
 to the pillory for three hours, and eventually — 
 at the request of the Vice-Chancellor — -the sentence 
 was reduced to standing in the pillory for three 
 hours, without any further penalty being entailed 
 on the offender. 
 
 It has been stated that North was employed on 
 a mission to the Court of France during the reign 
 of Charles the Ninth ' and though details are 
 not forthcoming, it appears highly probable that 
 he accompanied Walsingham when sent as 
 1570 Ambassador Extraordinary in 1570, to strengthen 
 the hands of the resident Ambassador, Sir Henry 
 Norris, in his attempts to secure greater toleration 
 for the Huguenots. For about two years from 
 this time, no trace is to be found of North's 
 presence in England, and Lloyd's statement that 
 he spent two years in Walsingham's house, gives 
 further warrant for the belief that this was the 
 mission to which he was attached. It is likely 
 that he stayed on in Paris for some portion of the 
 time during which Walsingham filled the post of 
 
 ' Some Notes concerning the Life of Edward, first Lord North, 
 by Dudley, fourth Lord North.
 
 ROGER, SECOND LORD NORTH 57 
 
 resident Ambassador in succession to Sir Henry 
 Norris. If this were so, he must have passed 
 within the sanctuar}^ of the Enghsh Embassy the 
 awful night of St. Bartholomew. 
 
 The Queen Mother was during these years 
 deeply involved in schemes for the furtherance of 
 a marriage between her second son, Henri, Duke 
 of Anjou, and Queen Elizabeth, who, for her part, 
 was no more really serious in the reception of his 
 suit than she had been in that of his brother 
 Charles, and as she proved to be later, in that of 
 his brother the Duke of Alengon. The subtle 
 Walsingham was fitly matched against Catherine 
 in her crafty game, and his house was the very best 
 of schools for a rising diplomatist. ^ 
 
 On North's return to England he was called ^572 
 upon to face a duty of a very painful sort. When 
 Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, was charged with high 
 treason for complicity in the Ridolfi plot, North 
 was one of the six and twenty peers who, with the 
 Earl of Shrewsbury as president, were summoned 
 to Westminster Hall at two days' notice to sit on 
 the trial. Conducted as State prosecutions then 
 were, the Duke's sentence was a foregone con- 
 clusion. He had been a prisoner for eighteen 
 weeks, during which time he had been denied the 
 use of books and the advice of friendb or of 
 Counsel ; while the Crown lawyers came primed 
 with incriminating papers and well prepai'ed 
 
 ^ ' He saw all men, but no man saw him,' said Lloyd.
 
 58 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 arguments. It was only on the eve of his trial 
 that he learnt it was to take place on the following 
 day, and not until he appeared at the bar did he 
 learn the precise nature of the charges against 
 him. He was guilty, as he himself afterwards con- 
 fessed, yet the story of his trial and execution 
 must move men's pity to the end of time. It 
 could hardly have been unmoved that his peers 
 heard his parting * Fare ye well, my Lords,' as he 
 turned from the bar, and saw the gentleman- 
 jailer precede instead of follow his prisoner, 
 shouldering the ' axe of death ' with its edge 
 turned towards him, according to the grim fashion 
 of the day. The Earl of Sussex, a connexion 
 of the Duke's family, was among the peers who 
 sat on his trial, and Norfolk, knowing that his 
 execution was a certainty, had already made a 
 will in which he directed that his best George and 
 Garter should be given to Sussex.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 North's life was now a busy one, and already a 
 fresh field of energy was opened to him by his 
 appointment to the High Stewardship of the 
 town of Cambridge. What were the precise duties 
 of this official in the old days it is difficult to 
 determine, but he was plainly a person of much 
 importance in the town, holding sway over the 
 civic authorities, and acting in some sort as a 
 civil Governor. We shall meet with him later in 
 the exercise of these powers. 
 
 Meanwhile he had plenty to occupy both time 
 and thoughts at home. His sons were now of an 
 age to need his help and counsel for their start 
 in life. John, the eldest, was at Cambridge, and 
 it is probable that Henry also spent some time 
 at College before entering upon an adventurous 
 career. In 1572 we find John senior Master of 1572 
 Arts of his year, a position he owed to the influence 
 of Burghley, exerted at his father's request. ^ The 
 boy could not have been sixteen when he received 
 
 ' Siale Papers Domestic, Eliz. vol. v. 
 59
 
 6o THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 this degree; a strangely youthful M.A. he seems 
 to us now, but it must be remembered that in his 
 day "and* long after, students were entered at the 
 Universities at a very early age. It was not 
 unusual to matriculate at twelve, or even earlier, 
 and common to do so at from fourteen to fifteen. 
 The standard w^as, of course, lower, and evidently 
 a University course could be completed very early 
 in life. 
 
 North had not been more than two years at 
 home after his return from Paris, when he was 
 charged with a very important and, as it proved, 
 a difficult mission to the French Court, to which 
 he was accredited as Ambassador Extraordinary 
 on the death of Charles the Ninth, for the purpose 
 of presenting letters of condolence to the Queen 
 '574 Mother and of congratulation to Henry the Third 
 on his accession to the throne. ^ Besides the 
 merelv ceremonial duties entrusted to him, North 
 was charged with the more serious and delicate 
 task of urging upon the King the conclusion of 
 peace with the Huguenots, together with a larger 
 measure of toleration for them in the future, and 
 of pressing for the renewal of the Treaty of Blois, 
 first concluded in 1572 ; providing that the sove- 
 reigns of England and France should assist one 
 another on ever}^ occasion and for every cause. 
 The Ambassador was to beg the pardon of the 
 Huguenot Marshals Montmorency and de Cosse, 
 
 ' Calendars of State Papers Foreign, Eliz.
 
 ROGER. SECOND LORD NORTH 6i 
 
 who since their imphcation in the Coconnas plot, 
 had been lying in the Bastille under the Queen 
 Mother's displeasure. In this suit he had the 
 support of the Duke of Alengon, who had con- 
 stituted himself the champion of the Huguenots, 
 but whose influence went for very little with the 
 King or with his mother, who both disliked and 
 distrusted him. 
 
 North was further commissioned to move the 
 King to intervene on behalf of the Princess 
 Charlotte of Bourbon. This poor lady, though 
 strongly inclined towards the reformed faith, 
 had been forced before attaining the canonical 
 age to take upon herself religious vows, and had 
 been immured in the Convent of Jouarre, of 
 which she had been made Abbess. Having 
 succeeded in making her escape, she had taken 
 refuge at the Court of the Elector Palatine, ^ a 
 step which so enraged her father, the Duke of 
 Montpensier, that he refused to hold any com- 
 munication with her and denied her all means of 
 support. Another matter with which North was 
 charged was that of advocating the interests of 
 the English merchants, to obtain for them some 
 further privileges in regard to their trade with 
 France ; this we are told he did very earnestly, 
 ' bringing with him a particular discourse which 
 contained little lack of two quires of paper.' 
 
 Here the Ambassador's avowed duties ended, 
 
 ' Frederick III, surnamed ' The Pious.'
 
 62 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 but he had others of a less tangible kind, need- 
 ing no small delicacy and tact. He was charged 
 not to be too cordial to the Duke of Alengon, 
 then a suitor for Oueen Elizabeth's hand ; some 
 ordinary salutation only was to be used towards 
 him, and a like reticence was to be observed 
 towards the King and Queen of Navarre. In 
 his secret instructions from Walsingham it is 
 set forth that ' to Mauvissiere ' i he (North) 
 * shall not do amiss to use him such speech as 
 to induce him to believe him more French than 
 Spanish, for that the Frenchman is a good fellow, 
 frank of nature, whereas the Spaniard is proud, 
 and so insolent as naturally the Englishmen 
 abhor liim, and that therefore he thinketh the 
 amity of France more necessary than that of 
 Spain.' On the other hand North is enjoined 
 that ' if he find the House of Guise bear the great 
 sway in Court, it will be necessary for him, after 
 the Spanish Ambassador has been to visit him, 
 to seek some apt means to have frequent con- 
 ference with him, to nourish a jealousy of some 
 straight amity between England and Spain.' 2 
 It will be seen that in setting forth for the Court 
 of France, the Ambassador was launched upon 
 a sea of intrigue ; it needed no common man 
 
 ' Michael de Castelman Sicur de Mauvissiere (b. about 1520. 
 d. 1392) was a distinguished general and statesman. He was 
 twice sent as ambassador of France to England. 
 
 - Calendars of State Papers Foreign, EUz.
 
 ROGER, SECOND LORD NORTH 63 
 
 to steer clear of the rocks and shoals which now 
 beset him. 
 
 Before leaving London, North paid a visit 
 to the French Ambassador, La Mothe Fenelon, 
 and the two held a long conversation, but it does 
 not appear that much business was discussed. 
 Many were the compliments and professions of 
 friendship made by the two diplomatists on be- 
 half of their respective sovereigns. North dwelt 
 much on the good intentions the Queen his mis- 
 tress had towards King Henry of France ; how 
 earnestly she desired to maintain a solid peace 
 with him, and to keep inviolably the firm friend- 
 ship then existing between herself and the Queen 
 Mother and her children ; he felt sure that could 
 he adequately fulfil the mission his royal mistress 
 had entrusted to him, the Queen Mother would 
 be amply satisfied. For all which the Frenchman 
 thanked him with much effusion, and after many 
 ornamental speeches and some little further 
 discourse, ' milord de North ' 1 was bowed out. 
 
 ' Correspondence diplomatique de Bertrand de Salignac de la 
 Mothe Fenelon, vol. vi. p. 255.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 It was autumn when North set sail for France ; 
 the Court was then at Lyons, and thither he and 
 his following journeyed on horseback, some part 
 of the retinue having gone before. He had among 
 his suite a very able workfellow, to wit, his 
 brother Thomas, who was, as we know, a notable 
 French scholar. La Motlie Fenelon had written 
 in advance to Messieurs de Gourdan and de 
 Calliac, plainly persons of note, requesting that 
 they would give the Ambassador an honourable 
 reception and accommodate him with horses in 
 Picardy. Fenelon also wrote to the Queen Mother 
 begging her to give orders that the English 
 Embassy might be hospitably entertained and 
 furnished with horses for the remainder of the 
 journey, and that on his arrival. Lord North 
 might be graciously received by her Majesty 
 herself, for, said Fenelon, the English people will 
 argue much as to her Majesty's intentions from 
 the manner in which the Ambassador ma}^ be 
 received. 1 
 
 ' Dipeches de la Mothe FSn^lon, vol. vi. p. 252. 
 
 64
 
 ROGER, SECOND LORD NORTH 65 
 
 North's arrival had been anxiously awaited 
 by Dr. (afterwards Sir Valentine) Dale, sometime 
 Master of the Requests, 1 then resident Ambassador 
 at the Court of Henry III. Dale hoped much 
 for the oppressed Huguenots from the interven- 
 tion of ' so meet a man,' believing that North's 
 presence would give them heart, and that it 
 might result in some important steps in the 
 direction of peace, though ' it is doubted lest 
 the King will dally with all men by talk of peace 
 and in the meantime get the advantage of corrupt- 
 ing some of the heads : or by surprise.' ^ The 
 Queen Mother and her son were looking no less 
 anxiousl}^ than Dale for the Ambassador's coming, 
 yet with no friendly eyes. His departure for 
 the French Court had been delayed beyond their 
 expectation, and they were disposed to seek the 
 cause in some untoward change of policy on the 
 part of Elizabeth. But his arrival shortly after- 
 wards lulled their suspicions and called forth a 
 display of friendliness as demonstrative as it 
 was false. La Mothe Fenelon's counsels had not 
 been wasted upon Catherine. Both she and the 
 
 ^ The Master of the Requests was an officer of the Queen's 
 household, and had no connexion with the ancient Court of 
 Requests then existing. It was his business to receive and 
 answer all private petitions made to the Queen, and he had an 
 office hard by the Court Gates. Burghley, as he himself told 
 Camden, was the first to hold the post, when in the household 
 of the Protector Somerset. Camden's Annals, Englished by 
 R. N. Gent, book iv. p. 495. 
 
 ^ Calendars of State Papers Domestic, Eliz.
 
 66 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 King received the Ambassador with the greatest 
 distinction, and employed towards him all the 
 blandishments they so well understood how to 
 use. His perfect mastery of the Italian tongue 
 stood him in good stead, for both mother and son 
 took pleasure in conversing with him in it.^ He 
 was at first favourably impressed, and wrote in 
 warm terms of the honourable manner of his re- 
 ception and of the gracious and dignified bearing 
 of the King ; Thomas also sent home a glowing 
 report. Touching the remarks of the brothers 
 upon the war with the Huguenots, La Mothe 
 Fenelon writes to the King, ' they might have 
 said less and written less, and have spared the 
 truth, but they have spoken straightforwardly 
 and have expressed their firm belief that while 
 you have good inclinations towards peace, you 
 have not omitted a single provision necessary 
 for an effectual war ; in all which things you are 
 proceeding day by day and succeeding according 
 to your desire. Nevertheless they foresee 3''ou 
 will have great difficulties in this war.' 
 
 Soon after his arrival at Lyons, North was 
 entertained at a grand Court Ball, and the Queen 
 Mother, who was quite in the humour just then 
 to do him honour, placed him beside her.^ The 
 two sat watching and discussing the gay scene, 
 and as the minstrels were piping and thrumming 
 
 1 Cut. State Papers Foveign, Hliz. Dale to Walsingham. 
 - Martin Hume, Courtships of Queen Elizabeth, p. i8i.
 
 ROGER, SECOND LORD NORTH 67 
 
 for all they were worth, Alengon led out his pretty 
 sister Marguerite to dance. To say he was bred 
 in such a Court, is to say that he was a graceful 
 and finished dancer, and it must have been good 
 to see the couple treading a measure in those 
 brilliant surroundings, amid the glitter of jewels 
 and the soft shimmer of cloth of gold. As North's 
 eyes followed the beautiful Queen of Navarre, 
 Catherine drew his attention from her to Alen9on. 
 ' He is not so ugly nor so ill-favoured as they 
 say ; do you think so ? ' North could but return 
 a courtier-like answer, and the Queen went on, 
 ' It is from no fault on our part that the marriage 
 with your mistress has not taken place.' 
 
 Alengon, though well formed and lithe of 
 limb, was otherwise not favoured by Nature, and 
 was now greatty disfigured b}^ a recent attack 
 of smallpox. This defect, to which Elizabeth 
 constantly referred with repugnance, diminished 
 whatever chance he might have had as her suitor. 
 Catherine and the King, on their part, had very 
 good cause to desire anything that would take 
 Alen^on out of France ; he was of a mischievous 
 and turbulent disposition, and his presence at 
 Court always meant a stirring up of the waters 
 of strife. Given two such characters as his own 
 and Elizabeth's, we may feel assured that the 
 projected marriage, had it come to pass, would 
 soon have resulted in a fine display of fireworks. 
 
 All went smoothlv for awhile. But Elizabeth's
 
 68 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 Ambassadors were not deceived by the wiles 
 of ' Madame la Serpente ' ; ^ they knew that 
 she and her son were playing a treacherous 
 game, seeking to hoodwink them with a hollow 
 profession of friendship, while giving secret en- 
 couragement to their Sovereign's enemies ; more 
 especially to the Scottish faction. Dale writes, 
 ' they make fair weather till their own storms be 
 past,' and true enough, they soon threw off the 
 cloak of hypocrisy which had so poorly furnished 
 their disguise. North shrewdly suspected that 
 the Queen Mother's overdone flatteries and 
 exaggerated praise of Elizabeth's beauty and 
 accomplishments were spoken in covert derision, 
 and this is not difficult to believe. These keen- 
 witted, ambitious women, each playing for her 
 own hand, and plunged to the hilt in intrigue, could 
 never really be friends ; those first compliments 
 and honeyed words were but the salute before the 
 duel. Both nature and circumstance had long ago 
 proclaimed war between them, and so it is that 
 wherever the names of these imperious Queens 
 are linked together, we seem to hear the clash of 
 arms. England, while possessing all the elements 
 of greatness, was not yet great ; the defeat of the 
 Spanish Armada had yet to raise her above the 
 
 ^ Maisonfleur, who had been sent by Alen9on with letters to 
 Ehzabeth, wrote to the Duke from England addressing hira as 
 ' Lucidor,' and designating the Queen Mother as ' Madame la 
 Serpente.' Martin Hume, Courtships of Queen Elizabeth.
 
 ROGER, SECOND LORD NORTH 69 
 
 level of a second-rate power in Europe, and her 
 demands were now treated with indifference, and 
 almost with contempt, by the most contemptible 
 of Kings. Moreover, all the influence of the 
 Guises was thrown into the balance against her, 
 so that on the whole her position at the Court of 
 France was not a very commanding one. 
 
 North found a very able and loyal supporter 
 in the resident Ambassador, but his task was none 
 the less a hard one. Catherine de Medicis held 
 complete sway over the King, or, as Dale's 
 secretary Wilkes has it, ' The Queen Mother's 
 pestiferous counsel enchants him.' Referring to 
 the treacherous and shifty policy of Henry and 
 his mother, and the difficulty of North's position 
 in regard to them, Dale exclaims, ' God help the 
 poor man that shall deal with them in matters 
 alone ! ' They took small pains to conceal their 
 enmit}^ Wilkes was in the King's ante-chamber 
 just before North had his second audience, and 
 was suffered to overhear some remarks of the 
 King ' which tended to a kind of scorning, and 
 how the Queen of England was not so dangerous 
 a creature as she was deemed, and how this 
 English Ambassador had brought him many fair 
 terms from his mistress, and — with a kind of 
 flouting countenance — that she was not to be 
 feared, and so forth.' ^ 
 
 1 Calendars of State Papers- Domestic, Eliz. Wilkes to 
 Walsingham.
 
 70 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 Things went from bad to worse ; the gentlemen 
 of the EngUsh Embassy complained that in order 
 to show contempt of their royal mistress and to 
 humiliate themselves, the Duke of Guise had in 
 a rude manner desired them, when at Court, to 
 stand uncovered on some occasion when it was 
 not customary to do so, and had used towards 
 them such words and gestures that had they been 
 anywhere else they would have known how to 
 answer him. They averred that with the excep- 
 tion of the Comte de Charny, who had shown them 
 much courtesy, no gentleman of the French 
 Court had saluted or conversed with a single 
 member of their legation, or had shown them any 
 signs of goodwill. The insolence of the King and 
 his mother knew no bounds. It was reported 
 to North that two female dwarfs dressed in 
 imitation of his royal mistress had been introduced 
 into Catherine's chamber, where they had been 
 incited to mimic Elizabeth for the amusement of 
 the Oueen Mother and her ladies. To crown 
 all, a buffoon dressed in imitation of King Henry 
 VIII was paraded before the Court in the presence 
 of the Ambassador and his suite. With the cool 
 impertinence so characteristic of the woman, 
 the Queen turned towards him with a smile of 
 derision, remarking that the fool was ' just like 
 King Henry of England.' This was too much 
 for North, and at once the angry Englishman 
 within him broke forth. ' The tailors of France
 
 ROGER, SECOND LORD NORTH 71 
 
 ought to know how that great King was accus- 
 tomed to dress, for he came over the sea divers 
 times with banners flying, and made some noise 
 among men here.' 1 One can almost see the 
 look Catherine turned upon him at these words — 
 anger, surprise, and then perhaps just a touch of 
 amusement. The woman had a sharp and ready 
 tongue, and withal a fund of shrewd common sense 
 and a keen perception of humour. She could 
 both give and take, and could ever appreciate 
 a well-delivered thrust, albeit aimed at herself. 
 Sometimes in the midst of a war of words, she 
 would burst into a fit of laughter. So it may well 
 be that North stood higher rather than lower in 
 her esteem after this encounter. 
 
 Though Catherine and the King, and — for a 
 time — their suite, treated the Ambassador with 
 such scant courtesy, his wisdom and tact won 
 him, in the end, golden opinions at the French 
 Court. Dr. Dale writes, ' Lord North shows his 
 good nature and virtue in all his doings. . . . He 
 is taken in this Court for a perfect courtisan and 
 wise man.' Leslie, Bishop of Ross, the Queen 
 of Scots' agent, was at this time busil}^ at work 
 at the Court of France in his mistress's interest, 
 and had presented a book to the King, ' full of 
 pestilent persuasions to take upon himself the 
 
 ^ Referring to Henry's successful campaign of 15 13, during 
 which he took part in the famous ' Battle of the Spurs,' and the 
 sieges of Terouenne and Tournay, as he did also in the siege and 
 capture of Boulogne in 1544. 
 
 F 2
 
 72 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 protection of the Scottish Queen.' A copy of 
 this came into the hands of North, who urged 
 upon tlie Bishop that such practices were Ukely 
 to endanger not onh' his mistress's chances of 
 Hberty, but her hfe, and * so charmed the Bishop ' 
 as welhiigh to persuade him to abandon his Une 
 of pohc}^, ' sed simia semper crit simia ' adds 
 Dale.i 
 
 In November 1574 North set sail for England. 
 His farewell to the Duke of Alengon is thus de- 
 scribed to Queen Ehzabeth by Dr. Dale. ' When 
 Lord North took his leave, he had occasion con- 
 veniently to do his duty to Monsieur ; said nothing 
 but that he was to do him service. He (the Duke) 
 said nothing, but wrung him by the arm, the old 
 token between them, as one that would say " et 
 cupio et timeo." ' ^ But despite all his profes- 
 sions, it is not to be supposed that ' my little 
 frog ' as Elizabeth had jestingly named him, 
 was at all more serious in his wooing than the 
 Queen in her reception of his suit ; * Cette vielle ' 
 did not attract his youthful fancy. More than 
 twenty years her junior, dissolute in habits and 
 uncomely in features, he was in every way unfitted 
 for the position the Queen Mother had, in further- 
 ance of her own political ends, designed for him. 
 Elizabeth had played fast and loose with both 
 his brothers in turn, and was now carr3dng on 
 the same game of empty coquetry with the little 
 
 ^ Calendars of State Papers Domestic, Eliz. - Ibid.
 
 ROGER, SECOND LORD NORTH 73 
 
 frog. Nothing was further from her mind than to 
 yield one jot of her power into the hands of a 
 husband. Sir James Melvihe ^ once put this fact 
 before her very bhmtly. ' Madam, I know j-our 
 stately stomach ; ye think if ye were married ye 
 would be but Queen of England, and now 3^e 
 are King and Queen both ; ye would not suffer 
 a commander.' 
 
 In spite of much discouragement, North's 
 mission was not in the end unfruitful. The 
 Marshals de Montmorency and de Cosse were 
 set at liberty, the Princess Charlotte of Bourbon 
 was, in 1575, formalty released from her vows and 
 permitted to marry the Prince of Orange, who 
 had long been a suitor for her hand ; and on 
 April 30 in the same year, the King in the presence 
 of Dr. Dale and of a number of dignitaries of 
 France, ' laying his hand upon the Holy Gospel ' 
 solemnly renewed the treaty of Blois. 
 
 On North's return to England he lost no time in 
 reporting to the Queen the indignities offered her 
 in the persons of her Ambassador and his suite. 
 Her anger was unbounded. She was then at 
 Hampton Court, and straightway sent to London 
 for La Mothe Fenelon. The poor man must 
 have started on his journey with some anxious 
 forebodings, for he knew the Queen was in a rage, 
 and Queen Elizabeth in a rage was a perfect 
 hurricane of a woman. He found her in her 
 
 • Ambassador of Mary, Queen of Scots, to England.
 
 74 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 audience chamber attended by her council and 
 ladies, and at once the storm burst upon him. 
 She denounced the King and his mother in 
 language trul}/ Elizabethan. Raising her voice 
 to a high pitch, to the end she might be heard 
 of all, she permitted herself, writes Fenelon, to 
 use some very coarse words ; these he discreetly 
 omits, but the Queen had plenty more to say. 
 Listen to her strident tones as she denounces her 
 enemy. ' If there had been any honour in the 
 Queen your mistress, she could not have spoken 
 with insults and derision of so honourable a 
 prince as the late King Henry my father ; I 
 myself should be ashamed to speak in such a 
 sort of her or of any prince soever ; but Lord 
 North has at any rate given her her answer,' 
 repeating the spirited retort already quoted, i 
 
 Then up spoke Fenelon for the honour of his 
 Queen ; he, too, in a loud voice, to be heard of all 
 the council and ladies. ' I answered her,' he says, 
 very frankly, ' giving her back word for word.' 
 ' There is no more honourable Princess under 
 Heaven than my royal mistress ; I declare and 
 will maintain it, were it with my latest breath, 
 that my Lord North neither saw nor heard, from 
 her, from the King, from M. de Guise, nor from 
 
 ' ' Le diet dc North avoit aulmoins rcspondu que Ics tailleurs 
 de France avoient peu S9avoyr le fa^on comme s'abilloit ce grand 
 Roy, car quelques toys avoit il passe la mer a bonnes enseignes, ct 
 avoit bien, fait parler de luy par dclla.' Depeches dc la Mothe 
 Fhi6lon, vol vi. pp. 320-335.
 
 ROGER, SECOND LORD NORTH 75 
 
 any other prince or noble of the Court, any such 
 things as could be interpreted to the discredit of 
 your Majesty, nor against the honour of the late 
 King Henry your father, nor against the dignity 
 of the English crown, and if my lord North or 
 any others have given a different report, they 
 have misunderstood matters ; they have not 
 conducted their negotiations in such a manner 
 as is fitting between princes.' 
 
 ' It came to my mind Sire,' writes Fen el on to 
 the Khig, ' to demand of the said lady, that 
 before I left her presence she should retract what 
 she had said of the Queen your mother, or that 
 she should give me my conge to leave her kingdom 
 altogether ; but remembering that the present 
 state of your affairs would make such a course 
 undesirable, and that it was the thing your 
 enemies w^ould most wish for, I followed a different 
 course and remonstrated with the said lady.' ^ 
 
 La Mothe Fenelon's remonstrance was a very 
 long-winded affair, and we may be sure that in the 
 mouth of the angry Frenchman, it took the form 
 of an impassioned declamation ; it is a marvel 
 how Queen Elizabeth ever sat through it all ; 
 perhaps she did not ; far more likely she sprang 
 from her seat, stamped her pretty foot, and 
 launched forth from time to time a little declama- 
 tion of her own ; for when the Queen was in a 
 temper, dignity was cast to the winds. But 
 
 ' Depcchcs dc la Mothe Fenilon, vol. vi. pp. 320-335.
 
 76 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 Fenelon managed to get in a good deal, and it 
 seems so far succeeded, that in the end the Oueen 
 was in a measure calmed, and brought herself to 
 send some amicable message to the Queen Mother. 
 Fenelon wrote several despatches to the King and 
 Catherine describing the heated passages between 
 himself and Elizabeth, and angrily declaiming 
 against * milord de North et sa trouppe.' They 
 had been malicious and had been primed by other 
 malicious persons who desired to create an open 
 breach between the sovereigns, and he had told 
 Elizabeth that wise and prudent as she was, he 
 wondered that she had allowed herself to be so 
 deceived. Fenelon's fears of an open rupturs were 
 not without grounds. Elizabeth had threatened 
 a declaration of war, and there were those 
 among her council who would have welcomed 
 any excuse for such a measure. But the wily 
 Walsingham knew that in the present unprepared 
 state of England's defences, such a step would be 
 disastrous in the extreme, so he cast oil on the 
 troubled waters, and at length the storm abated. 
 The indignity Elizabeth most resented was that 
 offered to her father's memor}^ ; she told Fenelon 
 that she felt it to be a greater outrage than any- 
 thing that had been said or done to her during all 
 her life. She had a great admiration for King 
 Henry, and prided herself on her resemblance to 
 him in character.
 
 KOGER, SECOND LORD NORTH. 
 Fi\>in the collection of Lord North.
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 After his return from the Court of France, North 
 began to busy himself about the enlargement 
 and improvement of the House in Charterhouse 
 Yard which had been built by his father. i He set 
 about putting the place thoroughly in order, 
 as appears by the following list of charges for 
 building and household stuff. 
 
 The Charges of my Lords buildings at his howse in Charter 
 House Yeard nere London, done there between ye last of 
 August 1575, and the last of January 1576. 
 
 And also of the Howseliold stuff and other necessaries 
 for ye same howse bought w^'in ye said tyme as appeareth 
 more at large by p'ticler Bills th^^^of^ 
 
 1576 
 
 Buylding 
 
 Bricklayer 
 
 Mason 
 
 Carpenter 
 
 Smvth 
 
 Joyner 
 
 Plom'er 
 
 Pd. to the Bricklayers . . 
 
 Ixviij li 
 
 xj s 
 
 ijd 
 
 Pd. to the free Masons . . 
 
 xxxvj h 
 
 
 
 Pd. to the Carpenters . 
 
 xxxix li 
 
 XV s 
 
 
 Pd. to the Smythes . . . 
 
 XV li 
 
 X\' j s 
 
 iij d 
 
 Pd. to the Joyners . . . . 
 
 xxj li 
 
 xiv s 
 
 
 Pd. to the Plomer 
 
 xh 
 
 xiij s 
 
 vjd 
 
 ' The ancient Monastery of the Charterhouse had been sold 
 by the executors of Edward, Lord North, to Thomas, Duke of 
 Norfolk, with the exception of that part of it which lay to the 
 east of the Chapel. 
 
 77
 
 78 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 Glasier Pd. to the Glasicr v li ix s xj d 
 
 Tyler Pd. for Bricke and Tyles iij li xj s iiij d 
 
 Nayles Pd. for Nayles — xxxiij s v d 
 
 Lyme Pd. for Lyme Sand and 
 
 Lathe — xxxviij s iij d 
 
 Pa vying Pd. for paving tyles and 
 
 paving iij li iij s viij d 
 
 Plastering Pd. for Plastering iiij li vij s — 
 
 Carriages Carriage of gravell and 
 
 rubbishe • — xiiij s — 
 
 Howsehold Stuffe 
 
 Napery Pd. for Naperie ix h ij s — 
 
 Sheets Pd. for Sheetes x li xiij s — 
 
 Pewter Pd. for Pewt"^ vessell ... — hj s — 
 
 Tables Pd. for Tables, Cup- 
 boards, bedsteads & 
 Stooles xij li xvj s iiij d 
 
 Bedding Pd. for feathrbedds, 
 com'inge & oth"^ 
 bedding xxiiij li xiiij s iiij d 
 
 Carpetts Pd. for grene table 
 
 carpetts iij li vij s vj d 
 
 Hangings Pd. for mending of 
 
 hangings iij li — — 
 
 Potts Pd. for blackjacks and 
 
 hall potts — xiij s vj d 
 
 Pd. for Jiecessary howse- 
 hold stuff for ye 
 kychen — xxxix s \'j d 
 
 Hangings Pd. for howsehold 
 &c. stuff bought of Mr. 
 
 Halton Hi ij s iij d 
 
 R. North. 
 
 Sum' a tot' lis of the 
 Charges of the sayd 
 ' buyldings and Howse- 
 hold stuff bought within 
 the said tyme ys. lijCxxvij li xj s — 
 
 About this time North seems to have been a 
 good deal at Kirtling, but his days were not long
 
 ROGER, SECOND LORD NORTH 79 
 
 spent there in peace. It must have been soon 
 after his return from France that the bitter quarrel 
 first arose between himself and Bishop Cox of 
 Ely. The Bishop had been in the habit, as Willis 
 tells us,i of alienating for his own benefit, property 
 belonging to his See, by granting leases of various 
 lands and residences ' and so seems at first setting 
 out not to regard what concessions he made to 
 raise his fortune.' The Queen, who had a mind 
 to the manor and park of Somersham in Hunting- 
 donshire, addressed a conciliatory letter to him 
 with her own hand, asking for a lease of the 
 property for herself ; but the Bishop, who had 
 now had enough of such bargains, evaded the 
 request. Here he was clearly in his right, but 
 Elizabeth could not brook denial. She desired 
 North to negotiate, and he sent to the Bishop a 
 common friend — Mr. Pole^^ — to open the matter. 
 Foley, however, met with a flat and not too polite 
 refusal, and the Bishop in the heated correspon- 
 dence which followed, charged North and others 
 with having instigated the Queen to ask for the 
 lease for their own benefit. North indignantly 
 replied that her Maj esty desired it solely for herself, 
 and there seems no reasonable ground for doubting 
 his statement. Both were handy with their pens, 
 and the language of both was hot and intemperate. 
 The Bishop hurled forth wordy missiles against 
 his foe ; to use his own suggestive phrase, he 
 
 ' Willis's Survey of Cathedrals, vol. iii. p. 357.
 
 8o THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 * was stirred up to write much after the manner 
 of the Prophets.' Without putting North on 
 quite so high a platform, it may be said that he 
 wrote much after the manner of Bishop Cox, and 
 if the attack was fiery, the ' fierce lord ' knew 
 how to defend himself. Meanwhile the Queen 
 was hardly less incensed, i She was not a woman 
 to be lightly turned from her purpose. North 
 wrote of her, ' She is right King Henry hir father. 
 For if anye strive with hir, all the Princes of 
 Europe cannot make hir yelde.' ^ 
 
 This was not the first time the Queen had 
 come into collision with Bishop Cox. Before 
 the Papal excommunication had cr3^stallised her 
 somewhat nebulous faith into an aggressive Pro- 
 testantism, she had observed in her private Chapel 
 a high ritual, and the Bishop had refused to 
 officiate in it on account of the crucifix and 
 Hghted candles. Elizabeth was at this time playing 
 with negotiations for a marriage with the boy Don 
 Carlos, Infante of Spain, and was desirous of con- 
 cihating the Catholic party. When Guzman de 
 Silva, the Spanish Ambassador, complained that 
 her clergy were preaching against such ornaments, 
 she exclaimed angrily that she would order a 
 crucifix to be placed in every Church in England. 
 
 ' The letter beginning ' Proud Prelate,' purporting to have 
 been written by Queen Elizabeth to the Bishop in connexion 
 with this affair, was a daring, and, until lately, a very successful 
 literary forgery. 
 
 - Calendar of Hatfield MSS., pt. 2.
 
 ROGER, SECOND LORD NORTH 8i 
 
 The Bishop's hostile attitude towards such pro- 
 ceedings, made her now all the more willing to 
 give ear to various charges preferred against 
 himself and his wife b\^ some of their poorer 
 neighbours, of covetous practices and harsh 
 treatment of the poor. Strype supports the 
 Bishop's accusation that North had from revenge- 
 ful motives made himself the mouthpiece of the 
 complainants, but his own statement on this point 
 is sufficiently convincing. He shows that he did 
 not enquire into the alleged grievances until 
 commanded to do so, and that he was acting as 
 the Queen's Commissioner in laying a report 
 upon them before the Privy Council. He declared 
 that everything he had done ' was by order of a 
 person that he dared not to disobey.' Moreover 
 when the first heat of anger had passed away, it 
 is plain that his own kindly nature reasserted 
 itself, for he offered to act as mediator between 
 the Bishop and the Queen if the Bishop would 
 redress the grievances of certain poor persons. In 
 answer to other charges, of unthankfulness and 
 want of charity, he stoutly affirmed that he never 
 at any time received lands or other benefits from 
 the Bishop without rendering a full equivalent in 
 rents or other payments, with the exception of 
 the High Stewardship of the Isle of Ely, an office 
 from which the appointment of a Bailiff had 
 * wiped all the benefits,' and to which, though 
 technically in the gift of the Bishop, he had really
 
 82 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 been appointed by the Queen. i He thus narrows 
 down the charge of ingratitude to the admitted 
 fact that the Bishop at his request had spared a 
 recusant neighbour of his ' who could never 
 vouchsafe to come to God's service in the Church,' 
 ' I mervayle,' says he, ' that your Lordship 
 sliametli not to throwe this in my dishe. . . . 
 x\nd if ye presse me I will tell you that that favour 
 came not gratis.' He ends by thus exhorting his 
 opponent. * Shake off mahce, use not revenge, 
 and forgeve your brother.' But forgiveness did 
 not come easily to Bishop Cox. Willis says of him, 
 ' He was a person of a vindictive spirit, '^ and 
 North writes, ' When I here that the Bishopp of 
 Ely hath forge ven any man, I will crie Nunc 
 dimittis.' 
 
 Strype,'^ in his grossly partial account of this 
 affair, has entered exhaustively into the Bishop's 
 grievances, while failing to do justice to North. 
 That the Bishop had been one of the leaders of 
 the Reformation was enough for Strype, whose 
 account of the affair many subsequent writers 
 have been content to swallow without salt ; but 
 enquiry into other sources of information, makes 
 his portrait of ' the good Bishop ' almost unrecog- 
 nisable, and presents in its place that of a nature 
 
 ' Calendars of State Papers Domestic, vol. cv. Nortli to 
 Bishop Cox. 
 
 2 Willis's Survey of Cathedrals, vol. iii. p. 357. 
 
 •' Annals of the Reformation, vol. ii. pt. 2. p. 533 and 
 appendix.
 
 ROGER, SECOND LORD NORTH 83 
 
 harsh, worldly, covetous, and revengeful. Sir 
 John Harrington tells ^ how, when the Bishop 
 had been made Chancellor of the University of 
 Oxford by his pupil King Edward VI, its fine 
 Library almost wholly disappeared. Several ver- 
 sions of this affair have been given, but perhaps the 
 most charitable, as well as probable, is that of 
 Wood, who writes of ' the mad work ' the Bishop 
 and the persons employed by him made, ' by 
 burning the illuminated or depicted vellum books 
 under pretext that they tended unto Popery or 
 conjuration.' The Bishop, himself a man of vast 
 learning, should have known better than to lay 
 unholy hands on these priceless treasures, the 
 destruction of which, together with other ' mad 
 work ' of himself and his subordinates, earned for 
 him the name of ' Cancellor of the Universitv.' 
 
 In the end Somersham was never surrendered 
 by the Bishop. When on his death it actually 
 fell into Elizabeth's hands, she retained it for 
 her own enrichment, together with the whole of 
 his episcopal estates, for fourteen years, during 
 which time she neglected to fill up the vacant See. 
 This fact is hardly compatible with the theory 
 that she desired the estate in the first instance for 
 the benefit of others. Why did she not, when it 
 came into her possession, hand it over to them ? 
 
 North had a private suit against the Bishop 
 with regard to Downham, another property of the 
 
 ' A Brief View of the State of the Church of England.
 
 84 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 See, concerning a title which he claimed had been 
 conveyed to him by the purchase of certain leases, 
 but this was fairly tried and given against him. 
 No blame seems to attach to either party to this 
 action, however it may have served to embitter 
 strife. The Bishop left a poor reputation behind 
 him ; some years after his death, his monument 
 in Ely Cathedral was defaced by the people, on 
 account, as it was averred, of his evil memory.^ 
 When we add to the evidence before us our 
 general knowledge of North's character, surely 
 we may say of him, as we might of any other 
 tried friend against whom we heard some startling 
 allegation, ' I cannot believe it ! it is so unlike 
 him ' ; and that this was so, we shall soon have 
 very ample proof. 
 
 ' Willis's Survey of Cathedrals, vol. iii. p. 359.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 When not engaged at Court or on diplomatic 
 service, North appears to have spent most of his 
 time at Kirthng. The picture which presents 
 itself of his home life there is a very attractive 
 one. His household accounts ser\'e to throw a 
 very interesting light upon his relations with his 
 family and ser\'ants, as well as on his amuse- 
 ments and on countless domestic affairs. We find 
 there was a large consumption of wax candles in 
 that household. Then there was the black soap ; 
 how refreshing it sounds, how beautifying to 
 the complexion ! Stow, whose many wanderings 
 through grimy old London must quite naturally 
 have led his thoughts to the subject, says that 
 in those days there was a grey soap speckled with 
 white, ' very sweet and good.' i Why did not 
 my lord buy some of that ? He could have got it 
 at that shop in Grass Street, at a penny a pound. 
 But perhaps after all the black soap was only for 
 household use. 
 
 ^ ' Stow's Sityvey of London, book iii. p. 15. 
 
 85 G
 
 86 THREE I\1EN OE THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 North must have been greatly beloved by his 
 kinsfolk and retainers ; the frequent entries of 
 ' gifts and rewards,' speak of a large-hearted 
 liberality to both. His brother Thomas came in 
 for a goodly share, as well as Thomas's children, 
 Edward and Bess, the said Bess being presented 
 with sundry smocks, petticoats, fans, and other 
 bits of finery, as well as more substantial gear ; 
 while Edward, among other benefactions, was 
 furnished forth to visit my lord of Bedford. Then 
 we find the kind-hearted master smoothing the 
 way for the marriage of one servant, standing 
 Godfather to the child of another, making sundry 
 gifts at humble weddings and christenings, and 
 giving presents to the ' Kitching Folk ' when 
 perhaps the poor souls had been working double 
 tides for some great feast. He saw a good 
 deal of his brother Thomas and his ' sister 
 North ' and their children, and when his sister 
 North's visits to Kirtling were over, he would 
 send her up to London in a litter and pay the 
 cost. 
 
 The master of Kirtling had everything in it 
 to make life pass pleasantly according to the 
 fashion of the day ; we may picture him and 
 his friends disporting themselves in the green 
 bowling alley so indispensable to every country 
 house of his time, or in the ' artillery garden,' 
 for so the archery ground was named in the olden
 
 ROGER, SECOND LORD NORTH B>7 
 
 days.i But though in itself a goodly sport, pleasure 
 was not wholly the end of this artillery practice. 
 In those days, every male between the ages of 
 seventeen and sixty was required to learn the 
 use of the long-bow and arrows, and to practise 
 once a week at the butts ; for despite the now 
 prevailing use of firearms, the long-bow was 
 still held in esteem as an implement of war. 
 Accordingly, on every village green there was a 
 weekly gathering at which archers of divers 
 ages would let fly under the critical eyes of the 
 village fathers, every man of whom was a past- 
 master in the art of bowmanship. 
 
 North had ajiother source of delight in his 
 ' ambling nagges,' with their infinite variety of 
 trappings, and their saddles ' some motley ' some 
 covered with storks' skins, and others trimmed with 
 velvet. These ' ambling nagges ' were carefully 
 trained to carry their master with graceful ease 
 at such times as his mood did not impel him to 
 prick forward at a ' Canterbury pace.' For 
 teaching his horses to amble, he paid fourteen 
 and fourpence, which of course means nine or 
 ten times as much as now. Besides the nagges, 
 there were his beautiful goshawks and falcons, 
 
 ^ See I Samuel xx. 40, for an example of the use of 
 ' artillery,' as applied to bows and arrows. The word formerly 
 signified not only weapons from which missiles were discharged, 
 but every implement of warfare, including trumpets, drums, &c. 
 
 G 2
 
 88 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 and one is sorry to add, quails for quail fighting, 
 then a highly fashionable amusement. Albeit 
 so familiar with the brilliant scenes of the tilt- 
 yard, knights and their dames did not despise 
 these Lilliputian jousts, which furnished some 
 excitement in a leisure hour to gratify their 
 love of sport. Sir Nigel of the White Company 
 himself was not more j)ugnacious than are 
 these lovely little fowl, and only those who 
 have seen them join issue in battle can conceive 
 the dash and spirit of the charge. When such 
 pastimes grew wearisome, there were always the 
 players, the minstrels, the piper, and the fool 
 to while away an idle hour. North was a student 
 too, and a lover of poetr}^, and he sometimes 
 tried his hand at turning a verse himself. In a 
 copy of Chaucer's ' Canterbury Tales,' once belong- 
 ing to him, are to be found some lines to which 
 his signature is attached ; they are headed by 
 the motto or maxim which he had chosen for 
 himself : Durum Pati. These verses were evidently 
 jotted down as mere fledgelings of fancy, awaiting 
 maturer development, and are chiefly interesting 
 as indicating the direction in which his thoughts 
 were wont to travel, and as showing that he 
 had something of his brother Thomas's love of 
 scribbling. The following are the only ones worth 
 reproducing : —
 
 ROGER. SECOND LORD NORTH 89 
 
 * Durum Pati ' 1 
 
 From love above, a spendyng breath 
 
 Is lent to us to lead our lyfe, 
 To live, to dye when hateful death 
 
 Shall rydd us hense and stynt oure stryfe. 
 My inward mane to heavenly thyngs would trade me 
 And styll thys fleash doth evermere dyssuade me. 
 
 R. North. 
 
 These worldly joies that faier in sight apeares 
 Arr luring baits whereto oure minds we cast 
 
 Thrice blessed they that have repenting yeares 
 To hate their sinns and leve their follies past. 
 
 My inward mane to hevenly things would trade me 
 
 But aye this flesh doth still and still dissuade me. 
 
 R. N. 
 
 In trifling tales by poets told, 
 
 Whoe spends their time and beats their braine, 
 And leves good bookes that virtues hold, 
 
 Doth spare the strawe and spoile the graine, 
 Sotch folke build upp their bowses in the sand 
 And leves God's trewth by which we ought to stand. 
 
 R.N. 
 
 ^ This must have been North's ' Impresa,' a personal motto 
 which it was the fashion to adopt in the Ehzabethan times, and 
 which was frequently borne on their shields by combatants at a 
 tournament. It seems to have been his habit to write it in his 
 books ; it is to be found, together with his signature, on the 
 title page of a copy of Nowell's Reproof which belonged to 
 him, and as will be seen later, it occurs in his epitaph. It was 
 not the heraldic motto of his family, and was used by no other 
 member of it than himself.
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 North and his pen were busy for the most 
 part with more practical matters than rhyming. 
 He was, above all things, a man of energy and 
 action, and he had plenty of work to do in 
 Cambridgeshire. It was no light matter to be, 
 as he was, a Commissioner of Musters in 
 those troublous times. These officials had to 
 make returns to the Lords of the Council of 
 the names and particulars of all persons bound 
 to render miUtary service to the State, to 
 certify that they had been mustered and re- 
 viewed at certain intervals, and to report upon 
 the number of men, horses, and arms to be 
 furnished at their own cost by the gentlemen 
 of the county and others ; and a very brisk 
 correspondence was carried on between North 
 1584 and the Lords of the Council on such matters. 
 About this time he had to see to the fitting out 
 of eight hundred Cambridgeshire men, and under- 
 took that it should be thoroughly done, although 
 
 a great burden for that small shire, and the supply 
 
 90
 
 ROGER, SECOND LORD NORTH 91 
 
 of armour scant and of an unserviceable sort. 
 His difficulties did not end here ; his military 
 zeal caused divers disagreements between him- 
 self, the justices of the county, and others, and 
 hs specially complained of the opposition he 
 encountered from Mr. Edward Styward,i ' a 
 blynde man, verie ryche, and the most intract- 
 able man in hir .Majesty's service.' 
 
 While leading a country hfe. North did not 
 fail to keep in touch with the world. A running 
 footman was kept going to and fro to bring the 
 news from London, receiving from three and 
 sixpence to four shillings for the journey, and 
 the routine of life at Kirthng was sometimes 
 broken by visits to Leicester at Kenilworth and 
 to other friends. It appears that North and 
 his brother Thomas were present as guests at 
 that famous visit of the Queen to Kenilworth, 
 where, it is said, Shakespeare was present as a 
 looker-on among the crowd, and the poet may 
 all unwittingly have rubbed shoulders with Sir 
 Thomas, to whom he was to be indebted for the 
 plots of some of his most famous plays, and it 
 may be added, for some unrivalled passages of 
 English also. 
 
 North's companionship must have been good 
 for Leicester, to whom he gave much good advice ; 
 he seems to have had the power of calling forth 
 his friend's better feelings. Probably during 
 
 ^ Sic. ? Stuart.
 
 92 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 some of these visits, the conversations took 
 place to which North refers in his statement made 
 in proof of the vahdity of Leicester's marriage 
 with Lettice, Countess of Essex.' He tells 'how 
 the said Earl of Leicester did sundry times by 
 many good and godlie speeches both acknow- 
 ledge and also humbly thank the Lord God for 
 ^578 His infinite mercy and goodness, still devising 
 and studying how he might walk in those ways 
 that might be most pleasing to his merciful God,' 
 and North, as he says, ' ever comforted his lord- 
 ship therein and hartned him thereto. . . . And 
 the said Erie did divers times impart to him the 
 hartie love and affection which he bare unto the 
 Countess of Essex, whom he knew to be a most 
 godlie and virtuous gentlewoman.' Leicester had 
 been secretly married to the Countess, North being 
 one of the few persons present. 
 
 About this time North paid a visit to Buxton. 
 At this place and ' the Bath ' were the only springs 
 in England frequented by the health seekers of 
 the day ; the discovery of the waters of Tunbridge 
 Wells and their efficacy for the cure of disease, 
 as well as that of the springs of Epsom, had yet 
 to be made b\' liis grandson, Dudley, third Lord 
 North. 
 
 Buxton was a very fashionable watering-place 
 in those days. Leicester resorted there, Sir 
 
 ' Lctticc, Countess of Essex, was a daughter of Sir William 
 KnoUys, Comptroller of the Household.
 
 ROGER, SECOND LORD NORTH 93 
 
 William Fitz-William, Sir Thomas Smith, my 
 Lady Harrington and many others of note, not 
 to mention the Lord Treasurer Burghley, who 
 would betake himself to the wells for a bout of 
 * drunkennesse ' as he merrily expressed it, first 
 drinking the waters and then bathing, as the 
 method was.i It is to be hoped that the Buxton 
 waters drove away the gout, or whatever North's 
 ailment may have been, for he now needed all 
 his bodily and mental energies. This year was 157^ 
 to mark a very important episode in the home 
 hfe at Kirtling ; nothing less than a visit from 
 the Oueen, and there was much ado to get all 
 in order for the eventful day. Her host had 
 long been busy with preparations for her coming, 
 making alterations in divers directions for the 
 accommodation of her Majesty and her vast train 
 of courtiers and retainers ; there were improve- 
 ments too in the Banqueting House, and new 
 kitchens were built. We may be sure that a 
 man of North's brisk temperament would busy 
 himself with the supervision of every detail ; 
 his clear head and keen eye would be brought to 
 bear on many practical matters, and he must 
 have got through plenty of hard work, and 
 withal plenty of shoe leather, so that it is not 
 surprising to find that he tiad to get two pairs of 
 shoes re-soled, a job for which he paid the cobbler 
 
 ' Strype's Annals of the Reformation, 2nd cd., vol. ii. pt. 2, 
 p. ^57-
 
 94 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 one shilling per pair. Besides all the building 
 that had been going on, there was a great domestic 
 revolution taking place within, a great ' trymming 
 upp of chambers and other rowmes.' Twelve 
 score yards of mats were ordered for the great 
 chamber, the upper gallery was laid with new 
 Bedfordshire matting, and a tawny carpet bought 
 for the little parlour. These items are worth 
 notice as showing that Bedfordshire then held, 
 as it still holds, a foremost place in the straw 
 and rush plaiting industry, and also that matting 
 was beginning to replace the loosely strewn 
 rushes and scented herbs in the houses of the 
 rich ; though these were still largely in use, and 
 many were ordered for the Queen's visit. The 
 tawny carpet for the little parlour may have 
 been for the table, as tablecloths were called 
 table-carpets in the olden days. It is clear that 
 no pains were spared to give the royal guest a 
 fitting welcome, and that a loyal heart lent 
 impulse to a generous hand ; for North had a 
 sincere and respectful attachment for the Queen ; 
 a feeling which, despite her faults and follies, 
 she was undoubtedly capable of inspiring in 
 many of the worthiest of her servants. 
 
 It was now August, and in a few weeks the 
 Ouecn would be at Kirtling. She was moving 
 forward on a two months' progress through the 
 ^578 eastern counties, and as an officer of the House- 
 hold,, it was North's duty to attend her Majesty.
 
 ROGER, SECOND LORD NORTH 95 
 
 Mendoza,! who was evidently an eye-witness, 
 describes a lively episode which took place during 
 this progress, throwing the Court — at no time 
 a nest of doves — into a state of unwonted excite- 
 ment. A violent quarrel which Leicester describes 
 as ' sudden and passionatt ' arose between North 
 and the Earl of Sussex ~ at a banquet given to 
 the Ambassadors of France, whom Elizabeth 
 especially desired to impress with the splendour 
 of her equipment. On this occasion she was 
 displeased at what she chose to consider the 
 meagre display of silver on the sideboard. Sussex, 
 as Lord Steward of the Household, was held 
 responsible for this, and the Queen angrily called 
 him to account for it. Li excuse he pleaded that 
 for many years he had attended the Sovereigns 
 of England on their progresses, and had never 
 seen them take so much plate as her Majesty was 
 carr3dng now. But the poor man was only 
 floundering deeper into the mire, the enraged 
 Queen bade him hold his tongue, and before the 
 astonished Ambassadors, told him he was a great 
 rogue, and, withal, the more good she did for such 
 people as him, the worse they got. Turning 
 to North she asked him whether he thought 
 there was much or little plate on the sideboard ? 
 He agreed with her Majesty that there was very 
 
 ' Bernardino de INIendoza, Spanish Ambassador. 
 - Thomas Radcliffe, third Earl of Sussex, Lord Steward, and 
 afterwards Lord Chamberlain of the Household.
 
 96 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TFME 
 
 little silver, blaming the Lord Steward for it. 
 On leaving the Queen's presence, he found the 
 insulted official outside in a furious rage, and a 
 storm of words followed, Sussex accusing him of 
 having spoken wrongly and falsely in what he had 
 said. North made answer that if Sussex were not 
 a Lord of the Council he would prove what he 
 had said to his teeth. The wrathful Sussex then 
 carried his grievances to Leicester, complaining 
 of North's knavish behaviour. Leicester told him 
 such words were unfitting to apply to such a 
 person as North. ' Whatever you may think of 
 the words,' quoth Sussex, ' he is a great knave.' 
 ' So that they (Leicester and Sussex) remained 
 offended with one another, as the}^ had been before 
 on other matters.' ^ Sussex and Leicester were in 
 truth never the best of friends ; when on one 
 occasion the two had come to high words before 
 her Majesty at Greenwich, she interposed to 
 effect a somewhat tardy and superficial reconcilia- 
 tion. She now took upon herself the like office 
 of mediator between her two angry courtiers, 
 spurred on let us hope to the endeavour, by 
 sundry disquieting pricks of her own conscience ; 
 and though possibly in her hands the healing 
 process may have partaken somewhat of the 
 nature of cautery, the wound was eventually 
 closed, though not without some difficulty, as is 
 
 ' Bernardino deMendoza to Zayas, August 14, 1578. Spanish 
 State Papers. Record Office.
 
 ROGER, SECOND LORD NORTH 97 
 
 shown by the following letter from Sussex to the 
 Lord Keeper. 1 
 
 ' The Queen hath given me licence for the 
 better furtherance of my health, to go into the 
 country till Saturday. I was at Westminster 
 hoping to have met your lordship there, and 
 missing you, am bold to trouble 3^ou with these 
 lines. Her Majesty hath dealt with me very 
 earnestly to be contented that the matter between 
 Lord North and me might be ended to her con- 
 tentation and to my honour, and although I have 
 desired her Majesty to forbear it, yet finding 
 her so desirous of it, I was in fine contented to 
 refer it to her Majesty to be ordered with such 
 provisions for my honour as might be to my 
 satisfaction, which her Majesty hath promised, 
 and said at her coming she would deal with your 
 Lordship therein. My request is that I may be 
 as well dealt with as others either of my quality 
 or my inferiors be, and so her Majesty may com- 
 mand of me as far as of any other. It hath been 
 told me North is sent for to come to the Court. 
 If it so be, before he be made to know his fault, 
 truly I may not yield to be bragged with him 
 in that place, because himself hath said he will 
 be strong in the Court, and if I offer anything to 
 him, it should be good for me to come strong, and 
 the open actions of others have given me room 
 to credit his brags. 
 
 ' Sir Nicholas Bacon.
 
 98 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 * Therefore, my lord, to be plain with you, if 
 he come to the Court before he be made to know 
 his fault, I will either forebear to come there, or 
 if he do come, I will come in such sort as I will not 
 fear part-taking against me, which perhaps may 
 offend her Majesty, whereof I would be very sorry, 
 and yet my honour driveth me to it. My paper 
 is little, your Lordship wise, and therefore I trust 
 this shall suffice to your Lordship as my good 
 Lord to understand my meaning.' 
 
 'From Barking 4 November 1578/ 
 
 ' The words which my Lord North spake to 
 the Queen and what she thereupon said to myself 
 I heard with my own ears, which I must and will 
 credit.' ^ 
 
 Possibly the Queen's outbreak of irritability 
 may have been in some sort due to the nerve 
 fag following on pain and want of sleep ; for 
 it appears that somewhere about that time 
 she suffered from violent toothache, ' excessive 
 anguish,' Strype calls it. He professes himself 
 unable to determine whether this distemper 
 proceeded from some natural cause, or from the 
 magic arts then being practised by certain necro- 
 mancers to compass her Majesty's death. Three 
 waxen images, whereof one stood for the Queen, 
 the others for the two persons nearest to her,^ 
 
 ^ Calendar of Hatfield MSS. pt. 2, p. 224. 
 " Strype very plausibly suggests that these were Leicester 
 and Burghley.
 
 ROGER, SECOND LORD NORTH 99 
 
 had been discovered in the house of a magician 
 near Ishngton, who practised conjuration upon 
 the effigies to the end that the persons represented 
 by them might perish. Meanwhile the poor Queen 
 continued to suffer, ' insomuch that she took no 
 rest for divers nights, and endured very great 
 torment night and day/ A foreign physician 
 named Penot was then in England, and happened 
 to be at Court ; probably he was in the suite 
 of the French ambassadors who were following 
 the progress. To this ' outlandish physician ' the 
 Lords of the Council resorted to advise on the 
 Queen's case, but Penot was a wary man. He 
 seems to have feared that his interference might 
 be fraught with unpleasant consequences, and de- 
 clined to prescribe. But the Lords of the Council 
 were too much for him ; they insisted, and raised 
 such a buzzing about his ears that at length he 
 yielded, and ordered several remedies, advising 
 that if they proved ineffectual and the tooth was 
 hollow and decayed, it should be drawn out.i 
 Poor Gloriana ! it is to be feared she had to 
 endure the wrench ; how one would like to know 
 what the remedies were and how the affair ended. 
 
 ' Strype's Annals of the Reformation, vol. ii. pt. 2, pp. 
 206-207.
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 Queen Elizabeth's memorable visit to Kirtling 
 took place while on her progress from Sir Thomas 
 Rivett's in Norfolk. She arrived before supper 
 1578 on September i, leaving after dinner on the 3rd. 
 It must have been with strange feelings that she 
 rode through the great gateway of Kirtling Tower, 
 to which more than twenty years before she had 
 come as a prisoner. But there was little time 
 now for sad memories. * Lord North/ says 
 Churchyard, ' was no whit behind any of the best, 
 for a franke house, a noble heart, and well ordered 
 entertaynment,' and the scene that now burst 
 upon the Queen's view was one of right royal 
 welcome. First, an oration was pronounced by 
 a gentleman of Cambridge, and ' a stately and 
 fayre cuppe ' presented from the University in the 
 presence of the assembled guests, ' all the ambas- 
 sadors of France beholding the same.^ Later, 
 
 ^ The Frencli ambassadors dc Bacquevillc and do Quincy, 
 who had been sent to renew, on the part of the Duke of Alen9on, 
 his offer of marriage with the Queen, were received by her at 
 Long Alciford while on her progress to the eastern counties, and 
 
 100
 
 ROGER, SECOND LORD NORTH loi 
 
 we may picture her Majesty played in to supper 
 to the tune of ' Siche and Siche,' ' Greensleaves,' 
 or some such fashionable air, by Lord North's 
 minstrels, and as Leicester, too, had brought his 
 minstrels with him, there was no lack of music 
 at the revels. • ' 
 
 When the guests were seated, ' the gentlemen 
 of the shire did beare the Queen's meat to the 
 table, which was a great liking and gladnesse to 
 the gentlemen, and a solemn sighte for strangers 
 to looke uppon.' But there was more than enough 
 work for these worthies, and they must presently 
 have needed the help of Lord North's serving men, 
 all arrayed in their picturesque summer liveries of 
 Reading tawny, i with gold neck chains and a badge 
 of arms upon the left sleeve, as the fashion then 
 was. The * kitching folk ' must have been hard at 
 work that day. Besides the staff of Kirtling itself, 
 Leicester's cooks were there, as well as others who 
 had come from London for the festivities. It 
 could hardly have been a case of ' too many cooks, ' 
 where there were such countless ' oxen, muttons, 
 veales, lambes, and pigges ' to be roasted ; not to 
 mention bucks for the making of a hundred and 
 
 magnificently entertained. De Quincy returned to France in 
 August, Rambouillet and L'Aubespine were sent to support 
 de Bacqueville in his negotiations ; they joined the Court at 
 Norwich. The three ambassadors with their suites accom- 
 panied the Queen to the end of the progress and were present 
 during her visit to Kirthng. 
 
 ' Forty yards of tawnie cloth for liveries at Sd. the yarde 
 ;£i6 4s. Household accounts.
 
 102 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 seventy-six venison pasties, and conies for a 
 hundred and twenty-eight i)asties more. North 
 made a careful entry of the expenses incurred 
 for this short visit of two days, and it will be 
 worth while to give the account in full. 
 
 A brieff Collection & Declaration of all such iJiovision 
 as was spent at 3'e house of ye right honourable the Lord 
 North of Kertlinge, at ye Q. Ma"" comying thither on 
 monday ye first of Sept. to supp"", and tarying there untill 
 Wednesday aff d^mn'' next following (being in the xxth 
 yeare off her Ma"" reigne). And also brieff Note of the 
 Gifts rewards and oth"" charges y' grewe upon ye same. 
 
 Manchets 1 1200 w'' was made of 
 
 east xvij qf didi xvij li xj s iij d 
 
 Cheatbread 3600 by wheat 
 Whitebread & 
 
 Cheatbread bought xxiij doos — xxiij s — 
 
 Cheatbread — — — — 
 
 Hoggesheads of Beare Lxxiiij xxxij li vij s vi d 
 
 ToonesofAle ij iiij li xiiij s — 
 
 Hoggesh of Claret 
 
 Wyne vj xxvij li ^ — — 
 
 Hoggesh of White 
 
 Wyne i iiij li x s — 
 
 Rundlets of Sack cont. 
 
 20 Gall I — Iiij s iiij d 
 
 Hoggesh of Vinegar i — xxxiij s iiij d 
 
 Steares & Oxen — — — — 
 
 Oxen xi di xlvj li — — 
 
 Muttons Izvij xxvj li xvj s — 
 
 Veales xvij di xj li xiij s iiij d 
 
 Lambes vij — xxxv s — 
 
 Pigges xxxiiij — xxxiiij s — 
 
 Geese xxxij — xxxij s — 
 
 Capons xxx doos & iij xxvj li xvj s vj d 
 
 Turkies vj ■ — xx s — 
 
 Swannes xxxij x li xiij s iiij d 
 
 ' Small loaves of white bx-ead.
 
 ROGER, SECOND LORD NORTH 103 
 
 Mallards & yong 
 
 Ducks xxij duos & ix 
 
 Cranes 1 
 
 Hearnshawes xxviij 
 
 Bitterns vx 
 
 Shovellers xii 
 
 Chickins iij xix doos di 
 
 Pigeons cvxx. xvij doos 
 
 Pe\v3'tts viij doos x 
 
 Godwytts Ixviij 
 
 Gulls xv'iij 
 
 Dottrells viij doos iij 
 
 Snypes \4ij 
 
 Knotts xxix 
 
 Plovers xxviij 
 
 Stynts V 
 
 Redshanks xviij 
 
 Yeowhelps 1 ij 
 
 Partriches xxii 
 
 Pheasants i 
 
 Ouailes xxvij doos 
 
 Curlewes ij 
 
 Connyes viij doos 
 
 Staggs iiij made into 
 
 48 pasties 
 
 Buckes xvj made into 
 
 128 pasties 
 
 Gamonds of Bacon . viij 
 
 Larde xiij lbs 
 
 Neats Tongs, feet 
 
 and udders xixx i 
 
 Butter iiijC xxx lb 
 
 Eggs ijMvc xxij 
 
 Sturgeons iij Caggs 
 
 Craye Fyshes .... viij doos 
 
 Turbutts viij 
 
 Oysters A cartload t;:^ 
 
 2 Horse loads v li — — 
 
 ^ A provincial name for the thick-knee or stone plover, some- 
 times called the shrieker on account of its piercing cry. Some 
 writers have given the name of }-ar\vhelp or yarwhii? to the 
 godwit, but as this bird is also included in the above hst. it is 
 obviously not the yarwhelp referred to by North. 
 
 H 2 
 
 Vjll 
 
 xvj s 
 
 vj d 
 
 
 Xll] s 
 
 iiij d 
 
 iiij li 
 
 XUIJ s 
 
 liij d 
 
 xviij li 
 
 VJ s 
 
 viij d 
 
 iij li 
 
 
 
 xix li 
 
 XVllj s 
 
 
 xi li 
 
 xvij s 
 
 
 V li 
 
 XVIJ s 
 
 viij d 
 
 xvij li 
 
 
 
 iiiij li 
 
 X s 
 
 
 V li 
 
 VIIJ s 
 
 
 
 lllj s 
 
 
 
 XXIX s 
 
 
 
 xxx s 
 
 
 — 
 
 V s 
 
 
 
 XVIIJ s 
 
 
 
 IJ s 
 
 
 
 XI s 
 
 
 
 mj s 
 
 
 ijh 
 
 XI s 
 
 viij d 
 
 
 XllJ s 
 
 iiij d 
 
 iiij li 
 
 XVJ s 
 
 
 
 xxx s 
 
 
 
 VIIJ s 
 
 viij d 
 
 vjli 
 
 liij s 
 \'ij s 
 
 iiij d 
 vjd 
 
 iij li 
 
 llj s 
 
 xlvj s 
 
 viij d 
 
 
 XUJ s 
 
 liij s 
 
 iiij d 
 iiij d
 
 104 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 Anchoves i Barrell 
 
 Pykes ij 
 
 Carpes ij 
 
 Tenchies iiij 
 
 Pearchies xij 
 
 Redd Hering iijC 
 
 Holland Cheeses ... vj 
 
 Mrch panes x 
 
 Ypocras vj gall 
 
 V li 
 
 X s 
 XX s 
 
 vj s 
 vj s 
 xii s 
 vij s 
 XX s 
 
 viij d 
 
 vjd 
 
 XXXS 
 
 Gyftes and Rewards to ye Quenes 
 
 Ma"^^ Officers and Servants . . . xlviij li 
 Rewards to Noblemens servants, 
 
 Gent, servants and others xli li 
 
 Paym'^ to sundrie p'sons labour- 
 ing and taking paynes about 
 
 this busyness \'ij li 
 
 Charge of ye bancketting howse, 
 
 ye new kychens and tryming 
 
 upp chambers and other rowmes 
 Basketts, hamps, jacks, casks & 
 
 oth' necess' 
 
 Carriage of provisions to ye hale 
 
 & oth"" things 
 
 Ryding charges & furniture of 
 
 horses 
 
 Wax lights and torchies 
 
 Suger 
 
 Grocerie ware, banketting stuff, 
 
 salletts rootes and hearbes 
 
 Keping off W}'lde fowle 
 
 Hyering of pewf vessell 
 
 Keping & scouring of pewf vessell 
 The losse of pewf vessell xlv lb at 
 
 viijd alb 
 
 Charcoalcs bought and spent 
 
 P'' to ye Cookes of London 
 
 Making a standing for ye Q. in 
 
 the p'ke 
 
 Candles spent vxx lb 
 
 Wheat flour & Rye meale spent in 
 
 ye pastrie , iij li — 
 
 vjd 
 
 xxxij li 
 
 ij s 
 
 iiij d 
 
 xj li 
 
 
 
 iij li 
 
 xiij s 
 
 viij d 
 
 iij li 
 
 xix s 
 
 ixd 
 
 iiij li 
 
 VI] s 
 
 
 xvj li 
 
 mj s 
 
 
 xxxix li 
 
 
 xxi d 
 
 
 XX s 
 
 
 
 XX s 
 
 
 
 XXVJ s 
 
 viij d 
 
 - — 
 
 xxxij s 
 
 ijd 
 
 iij li 
 
 
 
 xxi li 
 
 
 
 
 XXV s 
 
 
 
 XXV s 

 
 ROGER. SECOND LORD NORTH 105 
 
 Thinerlase of expences (above the 
 
 ordin'ie charge) b}^ the space 
 
 of a fortenight before and aft. 
 
 her Ma''*"^ comyng xx li — — 
 
 Foren charges about this busyness iiij H — — 
 
 The Jewell given to ye Ouenes 
 
 Ma*'" 7 Cxx H — — 
 
 R. North. Tut 'lis vij Clxij li iiij s ij d 
 
 On the day after her arrival, the Queen was 
 entertained with a grand joust or some such 
 spectacle in the park, and there was enough to 
 amuse her within doors as well as without. No 
 doubt the fool, the piper, and the minstrels did 
 their parts, as well as the players, of whom we are 
 told North was a great patron. Moreover, the 
 Queen loved a game of cards, and as we see by the 
 accounts, she and her host had often before sat 
 down together to a game of Maw, Primero, Post, 
 or Saint, North losing in right courtier-like 
 fashion. It is no uncommon thing to meet in 
 his accounts with such entries as ' Lost at 
 Maw with the Queen £28.' ' Lost at play 
 with the Queen £32.' ' Lost at play to the 
 Queen £yo' So we may be sure that on this 
 occasion the time-honoured custom was duly 
 observed. 
 
 It \Y\\\ be seen by the accounts, that a jewel 
 priced at £120 was offered to the Queen during 
 her visit ; probably it was presented at her 
 leave-taking. The value of money was so much 
 greater then than now, that it seems safe to say
 
 io6 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 the ornament would in our own day have been 
 worth £goo or £1000. 
 
 Whenever lier Majesty was pleased to move 
 forward with her Court, there was plenty of work 
 for the harbingers in making ready for her coming, 
 and much ado to get the unwieldy and gigantic 
 cavalcade under way. A vast train of baggage 
 and a motley crowd of minor officials followed 
 in its wake ; among these the barbers with their 
 tents formed a conspicuous and important feature. 
 The office of chief barber among those licensed to 
 follow the Court, was one much sought after ; it 
 was a piece of patronage in the gift of the * white 
 staves,' and one Mathews, a former servant of 
 Lord North had been appointed to the post. 
 He must have served a good apprenticeship and 
 have been an artist in his way, to judge by the 
 well-kept beard and moustache of his late master. 
 
 The Oueen took her leave of Kirtling after 
 dinner on September 3, and passed to Sir Giles 
 Alington's, North following the Court to the 
 end of the progress and returning home on 
 September 26. 
 
 It must have been about this period that 
 Mark Gerard painted the fine portrait of North 
 now in the possession of the Earl of Guilford at 
 Waldershare. It represents him in a black Court 
 suit, with well starched ruff or piccadilly ^ as it was 
 
 * This form of ruff was first introduced from Spain, and was 
 named pica or picadil from a supposed resemblance in its stiffly
 
 KmfJk 
 
 ROGER, SECOND LORD NORTH. 
 
 From the collection of the Earl of Guilford.
 
 ROGER, SECOND LORD NORTH 107 
 
 then called, holding his wand as an officer of the 
 Queen's Household ; the very type of an Eliza- 
 bethan courtier. 
 
 The name of Lady North is but rarely met 
 with, but occasionally she is mentioned as having 
 joined in some procession or been present at the 
 funeral of some great personage. She is last 
 heard of in November 1578, and it seems likely 1578 
 that her death took place not very long after 
 that date. Her husband's name is not to be 
 found for a considerable time after the close of 
 that year, and this seems to point to his having 
 withdrawn for a while from society. This year 
 was in other ways an eventful one for the Norths, 
 for it saw John start as a volunteer for the wars of 
 the Netherlands, while Henry joined Sir Humphrey 
 Gilbert in the first of his ill-fated expeditions to 
 Newfoundland. 
 
 North comes again into notice in August 1580 1580 
 as the writer of a letter to Dr. Hatcher, Vice- 
 Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, in 
 which he makes apology for one of his retainers 
 who had been summoned by a beadle to appear 
 before the Vice-Chancellor and had failed to do 
 so. He sends the man with ' my good friend Mr. 
 Goldwell,' to receive such correction for his 
 
 arranged pleats to a row of pikes or ' Chevaux de frise.' The 
 name became corrupted into that of piccadilly. The street of 
 Piccadilly was so called from the sign of a hostelry built there by 
 one Higgins, who had made his fortune as a manufacturer of these 
 ruffs.
 
 m- 
 
 io8 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 contempt as shall seem good to the Vice-Chancellor, 
 and with regard to the disturbance with which 
 the offender had been charged, pleads that he was 
 provoked thereto * by the scholers rayling of his 
 master, impossible for any servant to bear if he 
 love his master. ... It proCeedeth now to hard 
 terms ; the scholers sayth they will come by the 
 Lord North covered, and do it.' He prays the 
 Vice-Chancellor to bear with his long and undi- 
 gested letter, ' discribblcd ' as fast as his pen can 
 set it down, and in a later one, thanks him for 
 having handled the matter with such good wisdom.' 
 Here we again have evidence of the kindness of 
 heart which had plainly won for North the 
 affection of his household. Evidently Dr. Hatcher 
 was large minded enough to let the offender off 
 easily. 
 
 About this time. North lost a friend in Francis, 
 Earl of Bedford, known as ' the good Earl of 
 Bedford,' and his name is among those of the 
 mourners at the funeral, which took place with 
 great pomp at Chenies nearly two months after 
 the Earl's death ; an occasion which he had 
 desired b}^ his will, should be improved by 
 twenty sermons, to be preached within five 
 months of his decease by ' godly learned and 
 discreet ministers." 
 
 North was desirous of a second marriage, but 
 
 ' Hey wood and Wright's Cambridge University Transactions. 
 ' Wiffens' Memorials of the House of Russell, vol. i. p. 51O.
 
 ROGER, SECOND LORD NORTH 109 
 
 it seems that the courtship was unsuccessful. 
 In October 1582, he appears as suitor for the ^^^^ 
 hand of the second of three co-heiresses, daughters 
 of a country neighbour, Sir Thomas Rivett. He 
 wrote to Burghley, anxious to secure his interest 
 in the matter, as on the death of their father, 
 who was in and not expected to survive the winter, 
 Burghley was to become guardian to the two 
 youngest, the eldest being already married to a 
 Mr. Hay don. It appears that Sir Thomas would 
 not be likely to look favourably on the affair, for, 
 referring to the relations between them. North 
 writes that he is ' not in great favour there.' He 
 enters at considerable length into details con- 
 cerning the property settled on these sisters, 
 suggesting that the youngest would prove a 
 suitable match for one of Burghley 's own 
 family. 
 
 In February 1584, North was still at Kirtling, ^584 
 and much occupied with County business. He 
 wrote to Burghley complaining bitterly of the 
 conduct of the two Chief Justices, more especially 
 that of Chief Justice Anderson, for their dis- 
 courtesy towards himself and other magistrates of 
 the county, in discrediting them in open Court 
 with a miscarriage of justice in consequence of 
 their ignorance of the law. He calls Anderson 
 ' the hottest man that ever sat in judgment.' 
 About this time North was appointed to act with 
 Sir Francis Hinde, John Hutton, and Fitz-Rafe
 
 no THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 Chamberlain, as her Majesty's Deputy Com- 
 missioner to enquire into and settle all disputes on 
 the subject of keeping horses and brood mares in 
 the county of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely. As 
 Commissioner of Musters he was evidently very 
 zealous in his duties. He had to inspect, as he 
 writes, ' all the able men, armour, etc., within 
 the shire, howbeit the armour they have is very 
 unserviceable and insufficient.' The poor man 
 seems to have had a hard task to maintain the 
 efficiency of the Militia Bands under his command, 
 and was engaged in a perpetual struggle to obtain 
 the bare necessaries for their due equipment.
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 After all the busy experiences of his past life, 
 North was now, at the ripe age of fifty-five, to enter 
 upon active military service. When Leicester, 
 as Captain General of the forces, embarked for 
 the wars of the Netherlands, North was among 
 the volunteers who accompanied him. The 
 Queen had twice been offered the Protec- 
 torate of the States General, but shifty as 
 ever, she hung back from committing herself 
 to so decided a step, refusing it against the 
 advice of her wisest counsellors, and when at 
 length persuaded to accept it, she quickly 
 withdrew again into the position of friend 
 and supporter, one into which she had, in the 
 first instance, been practically thrust against 
 her will by the growing intensity of the popular 
 hatred of Spain. A treaty was at length con- 
 cluded b}^ which she agreed to assist the States 
 against their Spanish foes by raising and main- 
 taining 4000 men at her own cost till the conclusion 
 
 of the war. The States, on their part, were to 
 
 III
 
 112 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 make over to her the towns of Brill, Flushing, and 
 Ramaquins. 
 
 England had long been face to face with the 
 imminent danger of war with Philip ; the diligent 
 training of Militia Bands in every county had 
 fostered a martial spirit, and when the welcome 
 news of the proposed muster was proclaimed 
 throughout the land, the people pressed forward to 
 answer the call like hounds slipped from the leash. 
 Although only 4000 men were demanded, in a 
 few days 7000 were eagerly waiting to embark. 
 Such was the position of affairs when North 
 followed Leicester to the wars among ' the flower 
 and chief gallants of England.' ^ 
 
 The wealth and resources of the States greatly 
 moved him to wonder and admiration. Soon 
 1585 after his arrival he wrote to Burghley, ' Had your 
 lordship seen with what thankful hearts these 
 countries receive all Her Majesty's subjects, what 
 multitudes of people they be, what stately cities 
 and buildings they have, how notably fortified by 
 art, how strong by nature, how fertile the whole 
 country and how wealthy it is, you would, I 
 know, praise the Lord that opened your lips to 
 undertake this enterprise, the continuance and 
 good success whereof will eternise Her Majesty, 
 and beautify her crown with the most shipping, 
 with the most populous and wealthy countries 
 that ever Prince added to his kingdom, or that 
 
 ' Stow's Annates of England, p. 711.
 
 ROGER, SECOND LORD NORTH 113 
 
 is or can be found in Europe. I lack wit, good my 
 Lord, to dilate this matter.' ^ 
 
 North was desiring with eager expectancy that 
 this jewel should be added to his royal Mistress's 
 crown. Leicester, in fact, claimed it for her 
 some months later, and in her name assumed 
 the government of the States. This step, wise 
 in itself, but taken entirely without authority, 
 aroused the anger of Elizabeth, who insisted that 
 he should be removed at once from the governor- 
 ship and allowed only the style and status of 
 ' Captain General of the Forces.' 
 
 Leicester and his brilliant following were 
 received with almost royal honours, and enter- 
 tained with endless festivities, but North's life at 
 the Hague was nevertheless uncongenial to him. 
 His mental energies were evidently wont to outrun 
 his bodily strength, and his health seems to have 
 failed him. Moreover, his position in attendance 
 on the Captain General was perhaps hardly a 
 fitting one for a man who had at one time filled 
 the post of an Ambassador Extraordinary. Leices- 
 ter felt this strongly, and wrote to Walsingham to 
 remonstrate, ' . . . There is another matter I 
 must trouble you withal, and full fain I would have 
 it redressed ; it is my Lord North. Her Majesty 
 hath commanded him hither in my company ; he 
 doth certainly do me all the honour he can devise, 
 and he hath not the best body for such a place, 
 
 ^ Stale Papers, Holland, Eliz. Record Office.
 
 114 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 specially he having no charge nor any allowance 
 in the world, and surely his expenses cannot be 
 little, albeit his grief must be more, to have no 
 countenance at all but his own estate, and a man 
 of his years and long service. He doth take it 
 her Majesty doth ])lace him for some respect of 
 mine, which will gender an inward grudge to me 
 at length. I am not the cause of it. He is a 
 wise gentleman, and for any need I see I shall 
 have of Mr. Jiartholomew Clark, i I assure ye I 
 had far rather have my Lord North's counsel and 
 assistance ; and for law here is one, the other 
 little Clark, who is much beyond Bartholomew 
 in all learning of law, as hath well appeared here 
 already. If at Mr. Davison's^ coming, ye can 
 either with honour and allowance keep my lord 
 here, or else in some good sort by Her Majesty 
 called for home, rather than to attend here without 
 any charge or countenance, I would gladly wish 
 it. That in the meantime it will like ye to write to 
 my lord how careful and mindful I have been of 
 him, shall do me a great pleasure.' 
 
 * At the Hague, this 22nd of January 1585.' 
 Later, Leicester made an unsuccessful applica- 
 tion for the governorship of Brill ^ for North. 
 
 ' Dr. Bartholomew Clark, LL.D., was one of a Council 
 appointed to advise Leicester. 
 
 - Envoy from England to the States. 
 
 •' Brill had now become an English possession. It was the 
 first fortified town in Holland, and the first in which the standard 
 of Dutch independence was raised.
 
 ROGER, SECOND LORD NORTH 115 
 
 He wrote to Walsingham ' I understand 
 Sir Thomas Cecill will give upp the Brill, I 
 did once commend mv Lord North to Her 
 Majest}^ for it, though I will not willingly 
 be sene in it, for that I heare he meanes 
 to make my lord tresorer deall for my lord 
 Borrowed yet I beseeche you put Her (Majesty 
 in) mind of my Lord North, who hath bine 
 verie painfull and forward in all these services 
 from the beginning, and his yeres meete for it. I 
 pray you faill not herein to speake for him, but 
 not willing Sir Thomas or my lord tresorer to 
 know. It may appere to be Hir Majesty's 
 choyce.' 
 
 Leicester wrote to Burghley also in North's 
 interest, requesting that he might either be 
 placed on the commission for the States, or 
 have leave to return to England. But Leicester 
 was under a cloud just then, and the authorities 1586 
 were not in a mood to listen to his recommenda- 
 tions. North, too, seems to have suffered from 
 the common lot of courtiers, enemies at Court, as 
 may be inferred from the following passage in a 
 letter from Thomas Vavasour to Leicester. * Not 
 forgetting that one question which, perchance, 
 may import 3'^ou to know, was demanded me, 
 which was, how you used and esteamed my lord 
 North. I answered, so well as yt was impossible 
 to use any better. Answer was made me, and by 
 
 ^ Lord Burgh was appointed.
 
 ii6 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 great persons, " I pray God he deserve it ! What 
 ther meaning was, I know not ; ^^our excellency 
 may best gather." ' ^ 
 
 After a time North's health improved, and 
 on his release from attendance at the Hague he 
 joyfully started for the seat of war. He wrote 
 very fully to Burghley on several occasions, of 
 the position of affairs. Leicester had won his 
 admiration as a General, ' he doth with much 
 honour and little loss win the things he taketh in 
 hand. The States promise much and perform 
 most miserably. If his Lordship were not exceed- 
 ing careful, prudent, and importunate with them 
 for things necessary, there would nothing be had, 
 and as it is, it cometh so slowly and scantily 
 from them as they tire all men that dealeth with 
 them in their matters, beside this late return 
 of Sii Thomas Heneage hath put such buzzes 
 in their heads as they march forward with 
 leaden heels and doubtful heart. The Lord 
 God turn all to good. There is no doubt 
 my good Lord, if you suffer my Lord of 
 Leicester to go forward as he has begun, he 
 will do great honour to God and service to 
 Her Majesty, as no subject did ever better 
 or the like, truly he is a man of exceeding 
 travail of body and mind, of a marvellous 
 despatch and very resolute, better things 
 there cannot be in any, neither did I look 
 
 • Leicester Correspondence, p. 194.
 
 ROGER, SECOND LORD NORTH 117 
 
 to find that which I daily see and the soldiers 
 daily find to their contentation.' 1 
 
 It was now May, and during the past month 
 the enemy had been smartly trounced. ' If the 
 Spaniard have such a May as he hath had an 
 April, it will put water in his wine,' said North. 
 But there was still plenty of hard fighting to 
 do ; Parma was a good general, while Leicester, 
 hampered by the shifty and niggardly policy of 
 the Queen, had not the resources necessary for 
 the conduct of a difficult campaign. 
 
 Want of recognition could not daunt so 
 chivalrous a spirit as that of North. ' I will 
 leave no labour nor danger,' he writes, ' but will 
 serve as a private soldier, and have thrust myself 
 for service on foot under Captain Reade, whom 
 I find a noble and notable soldier.' This was 
 * old Reade ' whom Leicester had declared to be 
 ' worth his weight in pearl.' North writes that 
 Reade had the honour of being the first to enter 
 the sconces (or forts) of Nimegen and Bergholt, 
 lately besieged and captured by Leicester's forces, 
 and adds, ' If I durst join myself with my Captain, 
 I might truly say I was with him in all dangers, 
 all which I leave for others to report.' Nimegen 
 had made a very stubborn defence, and North 
 had been six nights in the trenches before it, 
 but seems to make little of that. He had chosen 
 
 ^ North to Burghley, May 29, 1586. State Papers. Record 
 Office. 
 
 I 
 
 r
 
 ii8 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 his motto Durum Pati advisedly, and lived 
 up to it in serious earnest, like the chivalrous 
 gentleman he was. He wrote that his only desire 
 was that her Majesty should know he lived but 
 to serve her, ' a better barony than I have, could 
 not hire the Lord North to live on meaner terms.' ' 
 These spirited words were written from Arnheim 
 under considerable difficulties ; he begged that 
 the camp paper, bad ink, and the many blots by 
 which his letter was defaced, might be pardoned. 
 He was, happily for Burghley, a very good pen- 
 man, so doubtless made things as clear as his 
 materials would permit. 
 
 Leicester's forces w^ere then advancing to 
 the relief of Grave, and were only within a few 
 miles of it when he received the astounding 
 intelligence of its treacherous surrender by the 
 Dutch Governor Hemart. ' There was no good 
 reason even for women to have surrendered the 
 place,' cried the enraged Leicester when he 
 heard the news. North's indignation knew no 
 bounds ; it was the strongest town, he said, in 
 all the Low Countries, it was impossible to be 
 assaulted, had abundance of men and victuals, 
 and he would have dared answer for it for four 
 months longer. ' The most that can be made 
 of it (the surrender) is most vile cowardice mixed 
 with such negligence as is unspeakable.' In 
 another letter to Burghley he writes : ' All the 
 
 ' Motley's United Netherlands, vol. ii. p. 51.
 
 ROGER, SECOND LORD NORTH 119 
 
 towns have more papists than protestants, and 
 those continually labour with all devices to bring 
 in the Prince of Parma, and the good men begin 
 so much to fear, as they all entreat my Lord 
 (Leicester) to send English soldiers to their 
 towns, otherwise they acknowledge all will be 
 lost. . . . My good Lord, the whole country is 
 full of treason by these papists, and my Lord 
 keepeth nothing but with a strong hand ; his 
 lordship travaileth in body and mind as much 
 as a man can possibly do ; if he were not of great 
 prudence and of a marvellous patience, it were 
 impossible for him to bear their (give me leave I 
 pray your Lordship to term them as they are) 
 artful dealing and most vile and miserable usage : 
 he was set back by Her Majesty, but if God grants 
 him life and Her Majesty's favour, he will work 
 all to some notable good end or to a speedy end. 
 I will trouble you my good Lord no further, but 
 beseech the living Lord to bless you and us in 
 this action ; to whose merciful protection I 
 commend your Lordship. From Utrecht 26 June. 
 Your good Lordship's assured at commandment, 
 
 ' R. North.' 1 
 (addressed) ' To the right honourable especiall 
 good Lord the Lord Tresorer of England.' 
 
 The tardy recognition of North's services 
 came at last ; no details are forthcoming as to 
 the time or manner of his promotion, but a 
 
 ' State Papers, Holland. Record Ofi&ce. 
 
 I 2
 
 120 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 letter written by bim, August 25, concernmg a 
 dispute between tbe Lord President and tbe 
 Lord Marshal, points to his having been at that 
 time, at all events, in a post of authority. But 
 whatever his position, he strove onward with 
 unabated zeal. 
 
 Great deeds, whether of friend or foe, were 
 sure to call forth generous praise from ' the 
 enthusiastic Lord North,' as Motley has called 
 him.^ Touching the siege of Grave he wrote: 
 * The Prince of Parma doth batter it like a Prince.' 
 Towards his brave brothers in arms too, his 
 heart went out in admiration and pity, as in the 
 case of Commander Kloet, ' 'Tis the bravest man 
 that was ever heard of in the world.' Kloet's 
 cruel death filled him with indignation. He had 
 heard the exaggerated reports then flying from 
 mouth to mouth of the horrors and indignities 
 inflicted upon the young commander, but the 
 naked truth was bad enough. During the storm- 
 ing and capture of Neuz, of which he was Governor, 
 Kloet had been carried to his house grievously 
 wounded in five places, and with his leg nearly 
 severed from his body. Death was sure enough, 
 but his enemies could not wait. Parma was 
 disposed to spare him, but Archbishop Ernest, 2 
 who held chief sway, demanded his immediate 
 execution as a personal favour. A Jesuit priest 
 
 ' Motley's United Netherlands, \o\. ii. p. 27. 
 
 ^ Ernest of Bavaria, Elector and Catholic Archbishop.
 
 ROGER, SECOND LORD NORTH 121 
 
 was sent to save the Commander's heretic soul, 
 followed by a party of soldiers commissioned to 
 destroy his poor maimed body. He lay in bed, 
 tended by his yomrg wife- and her sister, despite 
 whose entreaties they forthwith hanged him 
 from his own window. ^ No wonder this ghastly 
 deed aroused North's righteous anger. ' Thus, 
 with their holiness, they made a tragical end of 
 an heroical service. It is wondered that the 
 Prince (of Parma) would suffer so great an outrage 
 to be done to so noble a soldier, who did but 
 his duty.' ^ 
 
 It was only a few weeks after the enactment 1586 
 of this tragedy that Leicester was defeated at 
 Zutphen, owing to a strategical blunder which 
 not all the valour of his little army could repair. 
 In a skirmish of the evening before. North had 
 been wounded in the knee by a musket shot, and 
 was ' bedde-redde, ' but the news of a battle 
 was more than his eager spirit could withstand. 
 Unable to walk, he had himself carried to his 
 horse, lifted to the saddle, and ' with one boot 
 on and one boot off, went to the matter very 
 lustily.' '^ His son Henry, too, was in the field, 
 gallantly winning his spurs ; he was among the 
 Knights Bachelors dubbed by Leicester as the 
 Queen's Vicegerent after the battle, while North 
 
 ' INIotley's United Netherlands, vol. ii. p. 29. 
 
 - North to Burghley. State Papers, Holland. Record Office. 
 
 '•* Leicester to Sir Thomas Heneage. State Papers, Holland.
 
 122 THREE MEN OV THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 himself was one of the four more highly dis- 
 tinguished by the title of Knight Banneret. This 
 designation arose from the custom anciently 
 prevailing, of converting the pennon of the Knight 
 Bachelor into a banner by tearing off the ends 
 during the ceremony of creation. The honour 
 may justly be esteemed the Victoria Cross of 
 those days. It was conferred usually upon the 
 field of battle, and only for deeds of conspicuous 
 valour performed there. This chivalrous custom 
 was then fast dying out, and towards the end 
 of the sixteenth century had fallen almost entirely 
 into disuse, so that North may probably be 
 reckoned among the last of the Knights Banneret. 
 Even in this moment of personal triumph, his 
 heart must have been heavy, not alone on account 
 of the reverses of the day, but because his wife's 
 nephew. Sir Philip Sidney, that brilliant ornament 
 of a brilliant age. met with his death wound on 
 that disastrous field. He was carried to Amheim, 
 where he died a month later, ^ and North, who 
 afterwards accompanied his remains to England, 
 was probably one of those friends, by whom 
 we are told he was tended and comforted at the 
 last. It was not until February i6 that he was 
 buried with great ceremony at St. Paul's. North 
 rode in the procession among the peers in a long 
 mourning cloak, ' witli deep saddle-cloth, bordered 
 and fringed, and other trappings.' " 
 
 1 October 7. - Harleian MSS. 285, fol. 182.
 
 ROGER, SECOND LORD NORTH 123 
 
 The question as to whether he should be 
 appointed to supersede Leicester was much 
 discussed in London.' After Leicester's recall, 
 however, North returned to the wars, and served 
 for some months under Lord Willoughb}^ who 
 formed so high an opinion of his soldierly qualities, 
 that in view of his own retirement, he named 
 him as one of the men best fitted to fill the post 
 of Captain General of the Forces. But North's 
 services were now needed elsewhere. In the spring 
 of 1588 he was summoned in haste from the wars 
 to look to the military condition of affairs at 
 home, in preparation for the Spanish invasion, 
 now looming upon England in the near future. 
 
 ^ Unsigned document headed 'Advices from London,' February 
 12, 1587. Spanish State Papers. Record Office.
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 North lost no time in answering the summons 
 home. He wrote to Burghley on his return of 
 the haste with which he had made the journey, 
 in order to perform the services entrusted to 
 him. Things had been getting worse and worse 
 while he had been away at the wars ; he was 
 dismayed at the condition into which the military 
 defences of the county of Cambridge had fallen, 
 and with characteristic energy was soon at work. 
 He reported to the Lords of the Council ^ that the 
 county was very badly furnished with armour 
 and munitions and many of the trained bands were 
 dead or removed, but that he would see all defects 
 supplied. He requested to be furnished with 
 corselets, powder, and muskets, and appointed 
 Captain Cheston to be muster-master for the 
 county.- Clergy as well as laity were laid under 
 contribution in this time of need. Dr. Perne, Dean 
 of Ely, contributing one demi-lance, one light 
 
 1 May 1588. 
 
 - This officer seems to have fulfilled much the same duties 
 as an adjutant in our own time. 
 
 124
 
 ROGER, SECOND LORD NORTH 125 
 
 horse, a petronel, a pikeman, and a billman, the 
 rest of the clergy bearing their due proportion. 
 
 He was indignant \\dth the Justices of the 
 county, whose patriotism was clearly not all 
 that might have been desired ; many of these, he 
 writes to Walsingham, refuse to furnish petronels 
 ' using for their defence some nice and curious 
 reasons which might well have been forborne in 
 this time of special service.' He complains to 
 the Lords of the Council that many of the Justices 
 best able to do so, refuse to furnish petronels, and 
 desires that ' some order may be taken with them,' 
 sending in the names of those ' who neither showed 
 petronels nor sent answers.' Their Lord Lieuten- 
 ant at all events set them a good example, furnish- 
 ing at his own charges ' of his voluntary offer ' 1588 
 sixty shot,i fifty horses, sixty horsemen, thirty of 
 whom were furnished with demi-lances and thirty 
 with petronels, and sixty foot soldiers, forty with 
 muskets and twenty with calivers, to attend her 
 Majesty's person. 
 
 The Armada, consisting of six vast squadrons, 
 had by this time actually set sail ; a hundred 
 and thirty-two great ships in all, full fraught with 
 men and arms ; twenty-seven thousand one 
 hundred and twenty-eight soldiers and mariners, 
 one thousand four hundred and ninety-three pieces 
 
 ^ A ' shot ' in those days meant a man provided with firearms. 
 We find that about this time, an order was issued for ' Shott to be 
 horsed to watch the coast.'
 
 126 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 of artillery ; and one hundred and eighty friars for 
 the conversion of England. To those in ignorance 
 that it carried within it the seeds of disaster and 
 death, this vast flotilla might well seem to deserve 
 its name of the ' Invincible Armada,' but endless 
 dela^^s and hopeless mismanagement had begun 
 their work long ere the once mighty fleet had set 
 sail. Moreover, the great galleons which loomed 
 so large and terrible were from their very bulk un- 
 fitted to cope with lighter and more manageable 
 craft, while within the Spanish ships, stored as 
 they w^ere with scant provision of damaged meat 
 and foul water, all was in disorder. Medina 
 Sidonia well knew the weakness of his squadrons 
 and his own unfitness to take the command which 
 had been forced upon him, and besought Philip 
 to abandon the enterprise, but the King, fanatic 
 as he was, inflamed with the desire not only to 
 magnify the power of Spain but to reclaim 
 England to the Catholic faith, was deaf to all 
 reason. The Jesuit Fathers, Parsons, Campion, 
 and the rest, had long been busy in the cause in 
 England ; it was God's cause said Philip, and He 
 would prosper it. Philip had been wrought to 
 such a pitch of morbid enthusiasm by the argu- 
 ments and persuasions of the Spanish clergy, as to 
 believe that a miracle, if need be, would complete 
 the work he had begun. 
 
 The Armada had not been long at sea, ere the 
 forebodings of Medina Sidonia were fulfilled.
 
 ROGER, SECOND LORD NORTH 127 
 
 Tempestuous weather worked havoc with his 
 archaic squadrons, till battered and disabled, 
 they were forced to put into the Bay of Ferrol to 
 refit. It was well for England ; all unprepared 
 in the supreme hour of her need, every day's delay 
 was her gain. Her little fleet numbered only 
 thirty-four ships ready for action : these were 
 supplemented by a few merchantmen supplied by 
 various seaport towns, and sundry small craft 
 fitted out b}^ the nobles and country gentlemen. ^ 
 The Queen's extreme parsimony and political 
 dishonesty had barred the way to all effective 
 preparation, and it was no easy task — it was 
 indeed an impossible one — to repair at the last 
 moment the neglect of years : but now under the 
 spur of dire necessity, every nerve was strained for 
 the tardy salvation of England, and all was 
 hurry and excitement. Able-bodied men of every 
 class and of all sorts and sizes were called upon to 
 serve ; mariners were gathering to the ships, 
 soldiers mustering and training on every village 
 green, shipwrights working for the dear life, while 
 the clang of the armourer's hammer rang out on 
 the summer air. 
 
 ' It appears that Sir John North was serving with the fleet. 
 The Lord High Admiral Howard writes to Walsingham : ' Young 
 North, who served the Palatine, and hath been in the fleet all 
 this time, came yesternight hither from Ipswich.' State Papers 
 relating to the Defeat of the Spanish Armada, edited by Sir J. K. 
 Laughton, vol. ii. p. 144. Sir John Laughton quotes this letter 
 as referring to Sir Henry North, but it was John, not Henry, who 
 was referred to.
 
 128 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 Tlic trusty Lurd Lieutenant had never slackened 
 his efforts to improve the condition of affairs in 
 Cambridgeshire. He saw how dire was the peril, 
 and set himself with all his might to face it ; if 
 the storm was to sweep over England, he would 
 ride in the teeth of the gale. 
 
 The Camp was now forming at Tilbury, and 
 the doughty old soldier was needed there to take 
 his place with those who were to guard the Queen's 
 person. Among the Acts of the Privy Council, 
 we find the following entry : — 
 
 July 1588. ' Letter to the persons following, 
 signifjdng her Majestic' s intention to erect a 
 Camp for the gard of her person that among the 
 rest choice ys made of them, therefore to require 
 them to dispose of their business that they may 
 take uppon them that charg, and to repaire with 
 all convenient speed to the Court. 
 
 Lord Gray . . . . Lord Marshall. 
 
 Lord North . . . . Capten of Demi-lances. 
 
 Lord Norreys . . Capten of Light Horse. 
 
 Mr. Treasurer . . To be Colonel General of 
 
 the Footmen. 
 
 Sir Robert Cesil . . To be Master of the Ordin- 
 ance. 
 (Note) ' The Staff for the camp at Tilbury.' 
 
 And now the Invincible Armada had left its 
 moorings in the Bay of Ferrol, the great galleons
 
 ROGER, SECOND LORD NORTH 129 
 
 were slowly sailing day and night nearer and 
 nearer. One evening towards nightfall, a mer- 
 chantman brought tidings to Plymouth that the 
 mighty squadrons were at hand. Then upon the 
 still air broke the sudden clash of the alarm bells 
 from tower and steeple ; the beacon fires took up 
 the tale, flaming it from hill-top to hill-top till 
 the heart of every Englishman was afire too ; and 
 soon the big guns were roaring out the news that 
 the battle had at last begun ; that great sea fight 
 which after all was to be won for England by 
 valour and the winds.
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 The cloud which hung over the land in the summer 
 of 1588 had passed away. Peace reigned over a 
 united England, and North was relieved for a time 
 from the grave anxieties and stress of work into 
 which the coming of the Armada had plunged 
 him. The strenuous life of the past years had 
 told upon his health, and he must have rejoiced 
 to find himself once more at peaceful Kirtling, 
 free to return to his country sports, his bowls, his 
 ' ambling nagges,' and his hawking. One can 
 picture him riding forth ; his falconer in attend- 
 ance with a fresh cast of hawks in all their gay 
 apparel, their master carrying upon his fist a 
 falcon sleek and beautiful, an epitome of strength 
 and grace. Her bells jingle, as from time to time 
 she rustles her stiff plumes and shifts her taloned 
 claws, impatient for freedom to cleave the air with 
 her strong pinions. She was never made for 
 servitude, yet has given of her best to man ; he 
 has trained her wild instincts to obey his wiU, she 
 
 will answer to his lure, she will make sport for 
 
 130
 
 ROGER, SECOND LORD NORTH 131 
 
 him, but one treasure she proudly withholds; 
 she will never give him her heart. 
 
 In that eventful year of 1588 North had lost his 1588 
 friend Leicester, who had died of a fever caught on 
 his journey home to Kenil worth after the dismissal 
 of the forces at Tilbury. ^ Since the days when in 
 Flanders they were brothers in arms, North 
 appears to have had a sincere friendship for him, 
 and although we find in his character so much 
 to condemn, the fact that he was capable of 
 inspiring attachment in North's chivalrous 
 nature must add strength to the growing 
 conviction that his memory has been too 
 harshly dealt with by historians. Among other 
 fallacies, the alleged murder, at his instigation, 
 of his first wife, a stain which the dramatic 
 pen of Scott i^has rendered almost indelible, is 
 shown by the searchlight of later history to 
 have no better foundation than the calumnies 
 of his enemies at Court ; among these was 
 notably the Earl of Arundel, who was paying 
 off an old score. ' He is infamed by the death 
 of his wife,' said Burghley. When the news 
 reached him. Lord Robert Dudley, as he then was, 
 well kno\ving the use that would be made by others 
 of so handy a weapon, at once insisted on the 
 holding of a coroner's inquest, and a jury was 
 impanelled, some of whom were hostile to him, 
 and not one of whom knew him personally. By 
 
 ^ September 9, 1588.
 
 132 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 his request, Lady Robert's i brother, Arthur 
 Robsart, and her brother-in-law were present 
 at the enquiry, and, said Dudley, ' if more of her 
 friends could have been sent I would have sent 
 them.' ' They could find no presumptions of 
 evil,' said Blount," ' though some of the jurymen 
 were sorry that they could not.' So the upshot 
 of it all was a verdict that the lady died from a 
 fall downstairs, a perfectly natural explanation to 
 those among us who, in exploring some ancient 
 castle, have narrowly escaped a like fate. 
 
 There was no man better hated than Leicester, 
 and none of whom more slanderous falsehoods 
 were circulated, but there is no doubt at all that 
 he had his better moods, and worthier, if transient, 
 aspirations after better things. De Quadra, the 
 Spanish Ambassador, wrote on one occasion, * At 
 last he (Leicester) appears to have made up his 
 mind to be a worthy man and gain respect.' 
 None who have followed his career in the Low 
 Countries can doubt that, despite all his blunders 
 and faults, he had, when removed from the atmo- 
 sphere of Court intrigue, and braced by the whole- 
 some frost of royal disfavour, that within him 
 which might have made him a grand figure in 
 history. If the saying be true that ' a lie is half 
 over the world while truth is putting on its boots/ 
 
 ' Lady Robert Dudley is very generally called Amy Robsart, 
 but incorrectly, as she was legally married. 
 
 - Lord Robert's equerry. ,^
 
 ROGER, SECOND LORD NORTH 133 
 
 we ma}' take it that in Leicester's case she has 
 been more than three centuries in donning them, 
 and even yet is not properly shod ! Nevertheless 
 it comes as somewhat of a surprise tliat a man so 
 palpably honest and free from hypocrisy as North 
 — ' an honest soldier ' as Motley has called him — 
 should have written of Leicester to Burghley in 
 such terms as these : 
 
 ' The untimely death, my singular good Lord, 
 of that noble Earle of Leicester, is a great and a 
 generall loss to the whole land, and cannot but be 
 generally and greatly lamented of the good and 
 best sorte. In his life he had advanced the glory 
 of God, and loyally served his soveraigne ; he 
 lived and died with honor, in speciall grace and 
 favor of her Majestic and the good subject. We 
 are all like Christians and friends, to praise the 
 name of the Lord for this his blessed deliverance 
 out of this wicked and wretched world, and to 
 prepare ourselves ready to waite on the will of 
 our Lord God, seeing death is a thing most cer- 
 taine, and the coming thereof a thing most 
 uncertaine. Now, my good Lord, for that I have 
 my harte long sithence settled to love your Lord- 
 ship, my purpose is to acquaint your Lordship 
 with my actions, that what I do, or where I am, you 
 shall have power to command me. The state 
 of my bodie being farr from health and yet not 
 sicke, my grief cannot be determined by all the
 
 134 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 doctors of Cambridge. They send me now to the 
 bath, in hope the drinking the waters and bathing 
 may do me good, whither I am going, and by the 
 sufferance of God will be there Thursday next, 
 the I2th of this present, and there will abide 
 (without contrary commandment) until the loth 
 of next moneth. Your good Lordship may thinke 
 me over bold that I do thus trouble you with 
 these trifells. I am resolved to honor 3^ou above 
 all the world, which I will testifie with all my 
 words and deeds that issue from a faith full harte. 
 So praying the Lord God to bless your Lordship 
 with all heavenly and earthly blessings, I take my 
 leave. 
 
 ' At Kirtling, 9th September, 
 ' Your good Lordship's friend at commandment, 
 
 ' R. North.' i 
 
 The waters of Bath seem to have given some 
 
 temporary relief ; at all events North was able in 
 
 1589 ^^^ following April- to take his place among the 
 
 peers who sat on the trial of Philip, Earl of 
 
 Arundel.'^ 
 
 As Lord Lieutenant, North had many heavy 
 duties, some of which were painful also. One of 
 these was to report to the Lords of the Council 
 the number of recusants to be found within his 
 
 ^ Lansdowne MSS. 57. ^ April 18, 1589. 
 
 * A verdict of ' guilty ' was pronounced against the accused, 
 who was formally sentenced to death, but afterwards reprieved. 
 He died some years later wliile a prisoner in the Tower.
 
 ROGER, SECOND LORD NORTH 135 
 
 jurisdiction, with a view to the infliction of 
 penalties upon them. The enormous fine exacted 
 at this time for non-attendance at Church — £20 
 a month — drove many into outward conformity 
 and many to prison. North evidently disliked 
 these harsh measures. He had recommended 
 the palaces of Ely, Downham, and Somersham, 
 belonging to the now vacant See of Ely, as suitable 
 for the safe custody of such persons. ^ The last 
 will be remembered as having once been a subject 
 of dispute between himself and the late Bishop of 
 Elv, whose See had now been left vacant for 
 seven years and was to remain so for seven years 
 longer. This recommendation on North's part, 
 in itself goes far to refute the Bishop's accusation 
 against him. Had he really coveted the property 
 of Somersham, he would surely, when it fell into 
 the Queen's hands, have pushed his own interests 
 rather than those of the recusants, whom he 
 evidently desired to see comfortably lodged, and 
 not relegated to a common prison. The principal 
 Catholics were sent to the Isle of Ely in North's 
 custody, and were afterwards confined in Wisbech 
 Castle. It was alleged that this was a measure 
 taken for their own safety, as they could not 
 otherwise have been protected from the fury of 
 their Protestant neighbours in the event of a 
 second Spanish invasion. 
 
 ' North to Walsingham. State Papers Domestic, Elizabeth, 
 vol. ccxi. No. 67. 
 
 K 2
 
 136 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 It was a common thing in those days to place 
 State prisoners on parole, in charge of divers 
 nobles. When, some years earlier, the Queen 
 ordered the arrest, on a charge of heresy, of Lord 
 Henry Howard, brother of Thomas, fourth Duke 
 of Norfolk, and of Lord William, the Duke's 
 third son, they were consigned to North's care 
 pending their removal to the Tower. On the 
 occasion of a former arrest, in 1583, Lord Henry 
 had been sent on parole to the custody of Sir 
 Nicholas Bacon at his house at Redgrave. 
 Mendoza, writing to King Philip of the arrest of 
 ' Lord Harry ' and his nephew, remarks that Lord 
 North is ' a great heretic,' ^ as he would certainly 
 appear from the point of view of a Spanish 
 ambassador. 
 
 We have already met with an instance of 
 North having begged indulgence for a recusant 
 1589 from the Bishop of Ely ; and in March 1589 we 
 find him making excuses for one Henry Cooke — 
 a gentleman, two-thirds of whose property had 
 already been confiscated by the Queen — for that 
 * he liveth modestly, without offence by word 01 
 deed, and doth find a light horse, well furnished 
 for Her Majestie's servis, and a pikeman well 
 armed.' Cooke is referred to as ' a man of quiet 
 behaviour, and small spirit.' North begs that 
 some widow women too, may be left in peace, 
 because they are ' of the meanest behaviour— not 
 
 ' Spanish State Papers. Record Office.
 
 ROGER, SECOND LORD NORTH 137 
 
 worth speaking of.' This seems at first sight to 
 be hardly a recommendation, but the strange 
 excuse points to the conclusion that ' mean ' is 
 here used in its ancient sense of ' moderate.' 
 
 Religious persecution was abhorrent to North's 
 nature. To the end of his days there was always 
 a soft corner in his heart for recusants. When in 
 1598 Sir William Stafford was confined in the 
 Gatehouse at Westminster, awaiting trial on a 
 charge of heresy, North visited him in his prison, 
 helped him in arranging his business affairs, and 
 interceded for him with the Queen, writing to 
 Cecil that he had been talking to her Majesty 
 about the idle matter penned by Sir William, and 
 pleading ' that she would be pleased to free him 
 from the prison and the charge, in respect of his 
 poor wife and children.' The kind old man was in 
 part successful, the Queen yielding so far as to 
 order Sir William's release from the Gatehouse, 
 directing that he should be consigned to the 
 custody of the Bishop of Winchester, 1 under whose 
 influence he became an orthodox churchman.' 
 
 The relations between North and Burghley 
 were evidently of a very friendly sort. On July 28, 
 1589, North wrote the following letter to the 
 Lord Treasurer, begging to be informed of the 
 time and place fixed for the marriage of his son 
 with Mistress Brooke : -^ 
 
 ' Thomas Bilson. - Calendar of Hatfield MSS. pt. S. p. 21S. 
 •' Daughter of Lord Cobham.
 
 138 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 ' I am given to understand, my special good 
 Lord, that the mariage between Mr. Robert 
 Cecil! and Mistress Brooke will shortly be solemn- 
 ised, and if I can come by any good thing worthie 
 the sending, I will not fail to do it, otherwise 
 I will undoubtedly, if God so will, honor the feast, 
 and the least that 'longeth to your Lordship with 
 my presence and do all other services in my power, 
 praying your good Lordship to lett me know the 
 time and place. Your good Lordship seeth how 
 very ready I am to trouble you. For the subsydie 
 matters when the Queen's letter and bookes and 
 commission come down, I will do all that I can 
 with good conscience to further that service, 
 leaving every man a good and large peniworth 
 of his own goods, and yet advance the rate. As 
 there shall happen any occasion in this shire 
 worthie advertising, I will forthwith repair with 
 my intelligence to your Lordship, upon whom 
 I will with all friendly love and service depend, 
 trusting your good Lordship will remember to 
 send me word of the mariage, if you will have 
 so ill a guest ; so praying God to bless your Lord- 
 ship with long life and honor, I take my leave. 
 ' At Kirthng, 28th July, 
 ' Your Lordship's most assured to commande, 
 
 ' R. North.' ^ 
 
 Doubtless Cecil received in due course a 
 
 ' Lansdowne MSS. 61-78.
 
 ROGER, SECOND LORD NORTH 139 
 
 handsome wedding present, perhaps one of the 
 ' fayre standing cuppes ' so much in favour at 
 that time as gifts, but the giver was not to be 
 among the wedding guests. A httle later he 
 writes to Burghley, that indisposition holds him 
 from ^Ir. Cecil's marriage, and passing on to 
 matters of business, writes that he has completed 
 the subsidy to the reasonable contentment of all 
 men, but fears that Burghley will adjudge him 
 * over liberal to the subject.' 
 
 Indisposition brought with it no abatement 
 of zeal, no slackness in the performance of duty. 
 True to his motto, he had never shrunk from toil 
 and hardship, he had been working on, ill or well, 
 to negotiate the subsidy then being levied, in a 
 spirit of justice and fair dealing. The following 
 extracts from a letter to Burghley will serve to 
 show how carefully he entered into every detail, 
 and how great was his desire that while each 
 should take his rightful share, none should be 
 unduty burdened : 
 
 ' The 12th of this present, I received your 1590 
 good Lordship's letter together with a booke of 
 names of Mr. Foscew's collection, and my booke 
 also. I trust your good Lordship doth thinke 
 
 that I ^ mutch by the subside bookes, 
 
 but nott by my knowledge of men's estates, other- 
 wise I should have committeed as many errors as 
 
 1 Illegible.
 
 140 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 ys in yt booke. W'lierein I find sett dowen 
 almost all those wh lent before, many yt 
 dwell in other contries. many dead and 
 removed, and all the able men in the con- 
 trie. I knowe your Lordship's meaning ys, 
 not yt every mane which ys able shall 
 lend, nor lend as mutche as he ys able. For 
 yt purpose and being perswaded hir Ma"'' will 
 be pleased wt the lone of 2000;£ now, as she 
 was before ... I assure myself to see yt 200o£ 
 spedilie paid wt good contentment. And 3'et 
 every ^son yt cane alledge before your Lordship 
 or otherwise, and trewty prove reason to be 
 discharged either of the hole or parte, may be 
 eased, suppliing his room wt another ^son or 
 adding another to him, neither trobling your 
 Lordship dailie wt newe prive scales nor dealing 
 hardly wt any. There be some ^sons whoe 
 in their severall callings continewally labor wt 
 their great charges in hir Ma"' servis, them I 
 thinke fitt to forebeare, as also all those wch 
 lent money the last time . . . Your Lordship 
 writeth in your letter yt of your own knowledge 
 Jhon Killingworth of Cambridge ys unable to 
 lend 100/, for that he is sett in subside, but at 
 2o£ goods. I pray your Lordship give me leve 
 to thinke your knowledge cometh by information 
 ... I am constrained to justifie my worde and 
 deed wch I speke of knowledge and of no reports 
 and thus in particular of Jhon Killingworth . . .
 
 ROGER, SECOND LORD NORTH 141 
 
 This Killingworth hath more money abrode for 
 comodite then any one mane knowen in Cambridge- 
 shere. This ys yt Kilhng worth whoe ys become 
 a poore baihfe of Peterhowse to defraud hir 
 Ma"*" of subside of hors and armor ... I sa}^ 
 againe there ys no mane in this cowntrie better 
 able to beare ye burden of ioo£ then he, neither 
 ys there any mane yt hveth more sparingley ... I 
 have laboured your L. ye longer in this matter 
 because I goe faithfully to worke in hir Mat'' 
 servis. I have used all the expedition I can to 
 retorne your L. my booke, I trust your L. will 
 testiiie wt me yt I ame not the latest or last 
 lietenant in accomplishing hir Ma^' servis. I 
 do wish your L. might here and alow ye reasons 
 of them yt will sue for abatement or discharge. 
 So may your L. take as mutch or as litell as you 
 please, and I will remaine redy to ^forme all 
 duties whereunto I shalbe comanded, beside love 
 and honor your L. and pray the Eord to bless 
 and kepe you in life and health to his good 
 pleasure. 
 
 * At Kirtling, 13 Dec. 1590, 
 ' Your good L. assurid at comman dement, 
 
 ' R. North.' ^ 
 
 We here lose sight of North for a few years, 
 until in 1595 he comes again into notice as Lord 
 
 ^ State Papers. Record Office.
 
 142 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 Lieutenant of Cambridgeshire. Sir Horatio Pala- 
 vicino made complaint that the Lieutenant had 
 made excessive demands upon him for the Queen's 
 service in the matter of men and arms, and the 
 horses he could not supply unless he provided 
 coach horses, as some others had done : he begged 
 he might be exempt. i North was inclined to 
 insist ; this caused a disagreeable feeling to arise 
 between the two, and Cecil played the part of 
 mediator, begging some indulgence for Sir Horatio. 
 Possibly because he was a foreigner, North be- 
 lieved him to be in ignorance of the extent of his 
 obligations to the State. The affair was in the 
 end amicably settled. North courteously express- 
 ing his willingness to meet Sir Horatio ' with all 
 good faith and honesty, 3^ea and more than half 
 way.' ' My usance is to be as good as my 
 word, and (I) purpose not to begin to break 
 my promise to you.' That he kept it is 
 amply shown by the contents of his letter to 
 Sir Horatio. 
 
 'For that there be some duties to be performed 
 in her Majesty's service at this muster, wherein 
 I think you ignorant and yet most forward, good 
 Sir Horatio, to do things to further the same, I 
 have thought good to respect you with all the 
 favour that I may lawfully do. The law com- 
 mandeth the appearance of all your men servants 
 from sixteen years old to sixty ; and the view of 
 
 ' Sir Horatio's letters are in Italian.
 
 ROGER, SECOND LORD NORTH 143 
 
 all your armour, shot, and weapons for footmen. 
 Let it please you to inform yourself what armour, 
 shot, and weapons, you are bound to find by law ; 
 bring all that same fair written unto me at the 
 muster, and stay your furniture at home. You 
 ma}^ also keep at home all or as many of your 
 ordinary serving men to do your lady service, as 
 shall seem good unto you. Notwithstanding, I 
 pray you to bring or send all their names in 
 writing whom you do stay at home. Command 
 your servants of husbandry not to fail to make 
 their appearance. If you do please to come to 
 the muster yourself, your presence will coun- 
 tenance and assist the service that day very 
 well.' 
 
 ' At Kirtling, 20 April 1595.' ^ 
 
 North wrote to Cecil that he had had some 
 hours' conversation with Sir Horatio on ordinary 
 subjects. We have already had evidence of the 
 former's familiarity with the Italian tongue, and 
 this must have helped to promote friendU^ relations 
 between the neighbours. Sir Horatio was un- 
 doubtedly a very rich man, but he appears to 
 have been in great dread of being reputed richer 
 than he really was, and of being over assessed in 
 consequence. It is pleasant to meet with evidence 
 of the complete and lasting nature of the recon- 
 ciliation between these two men ; four years 
 
 » Calendar of Hatfield MSS. pt. 5, p. i38.
 
 144 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 later, we find North a guest at Sir Horatio's house 
 at Babraham in Cambridgeshire, writing to Cecil 
 that Palavicino's entertainment is fit for the 
 greatest state in England, but that is of less 
 account than his friendliness. ^ 
 
 We meet with constant evidence of North's 
 kindly and upright nature. On one occasion a 
 dispute had arisen from some unknown cause 
 between himself and one Colville, and Burghley 
 took the matter in hand, and succeeded in patching 
 up the quarrel. North wrote to thank him for 
 his honourable handling of the matter, adding, 
 * Mr. Colville shall find me free from remembrance 
 of any unkindness past.' About the same time, 
 one Mistress Elrington, a friend of Burghley 's 
 and a woman of great wealth, was roused to 
 violent indignation against the Lord Lieutenant 
 on account of his interference with some of her 
 retainers in the exercise of his ofiicial duties. Her 
 wrath was also, and with greater cause, directed 
 against one of his servants, who bore her a grudge 
 for injuries done to his father ; this man she 
 accused of entering by force the house of one of her 
 tenants, killing her dog, and using despiteful speech 
 against herself. North explained to Burghley 
 that the tenant's place was an open ale-house, 
 
 ^ Sir Horatio Palavicino was an Italian banker and financier, 
 who appears to have been naturahsed in England. He lent very- 
 large sums to the Queen for public purposes on the joint security 
 of herself and the City of London.
 
 ROGER, SECOND LORD NORTH 145 
 
 and that while divers were drinking there, his 
 servant rose up from the company, and, finding 
 in the yard as he went a greyhound he knew to 
 be Mistress Elrington's, cut off one of his legs with 
 his sword, and went his way without speech to 
 any man. North adds : ' I do as ill like him 
 therefor, as I did her, who with despiteful words 
 sent away my dog into Northamptonshire.' He 
 says he has no quarrel with the gentlewoman ; he 
 sought to show her good will, as Burghley had 
 requested him, but she rejected it. On another 
 occasion we find him giving good advice as to one 
 of Burghley' s wards, destined, it appears, as a 
 husband for some member of the Lord Treasurer's 
 own family : he recommends that the youth should 
 be but little with his mother, ' for surely God is not 
 served in that house, and His name continually 
 blasphemed, even b}' herself and her friend, in 
 that violent sort as it is fearful to hear.' It is 
 impossible not to discover in such letters as these, 
 the spirit of a large-hearted God-fearing gentleman.
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 North had inherited the manor of Harrow 
 Hill from his father, and spent part of the 
 summer of 1596 at his house there. Several 
 of his letters about this time are dated from 
 Harrow Hill. In one, he writes to Sir Robert 
 Cecil, to tell of a strange thing that has 
 happened to him. Since leaving Court he has 
 received a paper without superscription, ' con- 
 taining the form of a prayer compounded in such 
 divine, religious, and most Christian manner, so 
 briefly, effectually, and apted with words of such 
 force, as no creature living, neither with wit or 
 art, can put to, pull from, or remove any word in 
 it without the defacing of the most heavenly 
 prayer I ever heard.' He considers it would be 
 worthy of Cecil to ' boult out ' the author. After 
 more flattering words of a like sort, he passes on to 
 other matters, desiring to hear of her Majesty's 
 well-being, and of the state of the Navy. ' At 
 Harrow steeple we see far and hear nothing.' 
 ' From Harrow Hill, June 7, 1596.' He accom- 
 panies this with a brief note, asking Cecil to do 
 
 146
 
 ROGER, SECOND LORD NORTH 147 
 
 as he thinks best as to showing the letter to her 
 Majesty or suppressing it. ' I do not acknowledge 
 the having, but seeing of a prayer.' ^ It is much 
 to be regretted that the prayer which aroused 
 so much enthusiasm is not forthcoming : one is 
 inchned to imagine that the old courtier suspected 
 the Queen herself of having composed it. 
 
 W^ien Cecil was appointed Secretary of State,- 
 North wrote his friend the following letter of 
 congratulation : 
 
 ' I heartily thank God, good Mr. Secretary, 
 that her Majesty hath graced you with this title, 
 which your painful service hath long sithence 
 deserved, and which will encourage you to undergo 
 the great burden you are charged withal. The 
 Lord God bless you in all your counsels and 
 actions and assist you with His Holy Spirit. I 
 would sooner have congratulated this your dignity 
 if sooner I had known it. Harrow Hill hath late 
 news or none at all. 
 
 ' At Harrow Hill, July 9, 1596.' 
 
 Much insight is to be gained into the Court life 
 of the day from the gossiping letters of Rowland 
 White. About this time ■' he wrote of North — 1595 
 coupling his name with that of Sir Henry Leigh — 
 ' the}' pla}'^ cards with the Queen and that is all the 
 honour that will fall to them this year.' \Miite just 
 
 ^ Calendar of Hatfield MSS. pt. 6, p. 211. 
 ' July 1596. •' 1595.
 
 148 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 saved his reputation as a prophet with regard to 
 North, who on August 30, 1596, was sworn of the 
 Privy Council as Treasurer of the Household. 
 During the same year, Mark Gerard painted 
 his second portrait of North. The original is in 
 the possession of the present Lord North. It 
 represents the Treasurer in full court dress, hold- 
 ing his wand of office. 
 
 For some little time past, rumours had been 
 flying from mouth to mouth that the Queen 
 intended this preferment for North. Sir William 
 Knollys, who was himself an aspirant for the 
 post, received the news with much discontent. 
 His father had filled the office of Treasurer ; Sir 
 William had hoped to succeed him, and had 
 written to bespeak Cecil's interest, expressing 
 the desire that should he fail to obtain the 
 Treasurership, he might receive the appointment 
 of Comptroller, the step next in importance, 
 rather than that of Vice-Chamberlain, which he 
 had heard her Majesty designed for him, but 
 which he gave it to be understood he would not 
 accept. He referred to the Queen's reported 
 intention of appointing North to the Treasurer- 
 ship as ' a thing never seen before,' and ex- 
 pressed dislike at the prospect of serving under- 
 him.' Sir William was evidently in the worst of 
 tempers when he penned this letter. He was in 
 the end appointed Comptroller of the Household, 
 
 1 Calendar of Hatfield MSS. pt. 6, p. 287.
 
 ROGER, SECOND LORD NORTH 149 
 
 and it is to be feared the Treasurer found in him 
 a not too loyal colleague. 1 
 
 North's bodily powers seem to have been 
 somewhat overtaxed by the increase of work. 
 He pointed out to Cecil that it would be an 
 advantage to him in regard to the state of his 
 health, to have his lodging and maintenance at 
 Court, if Her Majesty of her great goodness would 
 grant it, but he did not venture to ask it.- The 
 matter was, however, in some way brought to the 
 Queen's notice, and the favour was granted. 
 
 In October 1596, White writes, ' I hear m\' 1596 
 Lord Treasurer,'^ Lord Buckhurst, Lord North, and 
 Sir John Fortescue, are appointed Commissioners 
 for the States business.'^ North seems to have 
 been called upon to serve in a variet}' of directions. 
 On September 22, 1596, the Queen wrote to Sir 
 Drew Drury, Lieutenant of the Tower of London, 
 discharging him from his office, and desiring him 
 to deliver up his charge and his prisoners by 
 inventory, to Sir Richard Berkeley the newly 
 appointed Lieutenant, in the presence of Lord 
 North, Treasurer of the Household, and of others 
 named by her.' 
 
 In 1597 North received a fresh mark of the 
 Queen's favour in his appointment to the Keeper- 
 
 ' On the death of Lord North, Sir William Knollys obtained 
 the coveted appointment of Treasurer of the Household. 
 - Calendar of Hatfield MSS. pt. 6, p. 510. 
 ^ Burghley, Lord High Treasurer of England. 
 ■* Sidney State Papers, vol. ii. p. 6. 
 •^ Calendar of State Papers, Dam., Eliz. 
 
 L
 
 150 THREE MEN OE THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 ship of the Royal Parks of EUham and Home, 
 Purveyor of the Manor of Home, and Surveyor of 
 the Woods of that estate. It is hkely that these 
 offices demanded no great personal attention 
 from him, and that as Treasurer of the Household 
 he spent much of his time at Court. He neglected 
 none of the duties of a courtier, year by year, 
 punctually presenting the Queen with a New 
 Year's gift of £io in gold in a silken purse, and 
 receiving, as the custom was, a piece of plate in 
 return, usually from twenty to twenty-one ounces 
 in weight. Besides the customary New Year's 
 gifts, her Majesty did not disdain to accept at odd 
 times, little bits of finery of trifling cost ; thus we 
 find an entry in North's private accounts of 
 ' Froggs and Flies for the Queen's gloves is.' 
 ' Gloves for the Queen 15s.' Doubtless these 
 were of an ornamental sort ; he paid much less 
 for his own gloves — seven shillings a pair. The 
 Queen would smilingly accept an}^ number of 
 presents great . or small, and gloves seem to have 
 been peculiarly acceptable. The Spanish Ambassa- 
 dor, Mendoza, was told that the presents of gloves 
 and perfumes he had brought with him, had been 
 of great service to him in obtaining ready access 
 to her Majesty's presence. 
 
 At the end of 1596, we find North laid up 
 at the Charterhouse, much worried at his en- 
 forced absence from Court. This has pained him, 
 he writes, more than his limbs have been pained
 
 SIR JOHN NORTH. 
 
 From the collection of Lord North.
 
 ROGER, SECOND LORD NORTH 151 
 
 by the gout ; he assures Cecil that he has not 
 been idle nor unmindful of her Majesty's service, 
 but has been working hard to make up the 
 accounts of the royal household. He expresses 
 his determination to serve her Majesty faithfully 
 in his ofhce, regardless of slander and discontent. 1 
 Possibly his efforts in the direction of economy 
 may have aroused dissatisfaction among some 
 of his subordinates, for it appears that when 
 the accounts of the year were closed, the Queen 
 was shown to have saved £1217 and more, as 
 compared with the expenditure of the previous 
 one, notwithstanding that she had latety in- 
 curred some heavy charges. It must be stated, 
 however, in justice to his predecessor, that 
 North's tenure of ofhce did not cover the whole 
 of the financial year. 
 
 North met with a sorrow about this time in 
 the death of his eldest son, Sir John, who died 
 in London of a ' calenture ' or infectious fever, 
 during the summer of 1597. The old man wrote 1597 
 sadly to Burghley of his trouble, anxious for the 
 future of his grandson and heir Dudley,- then 
 between fifteen and sixteen years old. Follow- 
 ing the custom of the day, when marriages were 
 arranged much after the French fashion. North 
 desired that the bo}' should be betrothed to one of 
 
 ' Calenday of Hatfield MSS. pt. 6, p. 510. 
 - So named after his godfather, Robert Dudley, Earl of 
 Leicester. 
 
 L 2
 
 152 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TDIE 
 
 Burghley's kinswomen, no doubt conceiving that 
 such an alliance might promote Dudley's advance- 
 ment in life. The old man's project was, however, 
 for some unknown cause, not destined to succeed. 
 He thus broaches the subject to Burghley : 
 
 ' God having taken awa}^ my eldest son, my 
 most honorable good Lord, hath therefore frus- 
 trated all my resolutions formerly established, 
 so yt I ame to begine ye world againe : yt is 
 trewe, my good Lord, yt I faithfully love and 
 honor you, for more proof thereof I lett your 
 Lordship knowe that as you do command me 
 so shall this my littell son of XV years old i be 
 bestowed as your Lordship shall command, which 
 is the greatest Jewell I cane offer your Lordship, 
 and will thinke myself mutch honoured if his 
 1597 chance might be to an alliance with your house, 
 — for I ame wondersly pleased with your honour- 
 able favor, and with ye kind love of your Lord- 
 ship's worthie son, the Secretary. When I shall 
 next waite on your Lordship, you shall knowe 
 my mind at ye full ; confessing my harte hath 
 bene and ys mutch trobled wt the untimely 
 death of him who was readie and furnished wt. 
 gifts to supplie my rome in ye servis of Hir 
 Ma"', humbly praying your good Lordship to 
 geve some order for finding him (Dudley) ward, (?) 
 
 ' His only Sllrvi^•ing son, Sir Henry, was then forty-one 
 yeairs old and married.
 
 ROGER, SECOND LORD NORTH 153 
 
 for so he must prove to be. The Lord God bless 
 your Lordship with long life. So humbly take 
 my leve. 8 June. 
 
 ' Your Lordship's most assured friend at 0°"° 
 
 ' R. North.' 
 Addressed : ' To the right honourable, my 
 singular good Lord, the Lord Treasurer of Eng- 
 land.' Endorsed : ' 8 June, 1597.' 
 
 ' Lord North to wyt upon a proposal of 
 marriage between his son and a kinswoman of 
 ye Lord Treasurer.' ^ 
 
 ' Lansdowne MSS. 84.
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 Sturbridge Fair was in the Elizabethan age one 
 of the most important and largely attended in 
 England. It was a great resort of the Cam- 
 bridge students and the residents in and about 
 that town, and the servants from Kirtling were 
 wont to do a good deal of marketing there, 
 bringing home goods of a very miscellaneous 
 sort : salt fish, kettles and frying pans, dog 
 couples, horse meat, groceries, gunpowder, 
 matches, and so forth. On one occasion, one 
 of the servants, Parish by name, who likety 
 enough had been making too merry at the fair, 
 and who seems to have been at the best a very 
 turbulent fellow, crossed in a ferry-boat to 
 Chesterton on the return journey, with some 
 Cambridge scholars. A brawl arose, and Parish, 
 whipping out his dagger, wounded one of them. 
 An attempt was made to arrest him, but his 
 fellow servants, together with the retainers of 
 Sir John Cutts, or Coutts, effected a rescue by 
 
 force of arms, and Parish then went into hiding. 
 
 154
 
 ROGER, SECOND LORD NORTH 155 
 
 North, with other justices, was attending the 
 sessions at the Castle, and Parish's duties had 
 brought him to Cambridge with his master. 
 On that day towards evening, the scholars, burn- 
 ing to avenge their comrade, swarmed into the 
 town like angry bees. A group of them, headed 
 by one Nowell — a man of great size and strength, 
 who, as a fellow of King's College, should have 
 known better — and all armed with swords, clubs, 
 and other weapons, gathered near St. John's 
 College, where tlie}^ were joined b^v^ other bands. 
 While all were clamouring for justice upon Lord 
 North's miscreant retainer, there rose above 
 the hurly - burly the ringing sound of horses' 
 hoofs, and the old lord himself, with all his follow- 
 ing, came clattering down the street. At once 
 some thirty or forty scholars sprang forward to 
 bar his way, some seized his horse's bridle and 
 bid him stand, some cried ' Strike,' others ' De- 
 hver Parish.' Lifting up his voice amid the 
 tumult, he called on his retainers to keep the 
 Queen's peace and strike no blow ; then Hghting 
 down from his horse, which had become very 
 restive by reason of the noise and glitter of arms, 
 he spoke to the rioters on foot. ' Here did his 
 Lordship deliver many honorable speeches,' ^ and 
 his firm and reasonable words seem to have taken 
 their effect. He then signified his intention to 
 go forward to his lodging, probably to his old 
 
 ' From a Report drawn up on the part of the University.
 
 156 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 resort the Falcon Inn,^ ' which his Lordship did 
 accordinglie, the scholars that were in the street 
 before him, still givinge hym place as he went 
 forward, until he came somewhat beyond the 
 Dolphine towards the sign of the Bare, where 
 the righte noble and honorable Earle of Cumber- 
 land,'^ comeinge unto his Eordship, entered into 
 speeches with his honor, and with Mr. Shaxton, 
 a Proctor's deputye, as touching that action.' ^ 
 
 This Shaxton had stopped North's horse as he 
 rode to his lodging, and had again pressed upon 
 him the delivery of Parish in a violent and in- 
 solent manner. North answered that had he 
 known where Parish was, he would not have 
 yielded to a demand made in such unlawful sort, 
 neither would he make any conditions with the 
 rioters. Cumberland seems to have made him- 
 self very useful in helping to quell the disturbance. 
 He afterwards wrote, at the Vice-Chancellor's 
 request, the following account to Burghley of 
 what passed after his meeting with North : 
 
 ' My good lord Mr. Vycechancellor hathe 
 
 ' The Falcon seems to ha\-e been the principal inn in the 
 town. We read of Lord North having been entertained at dinner 
 there by the Mayor and Corporation. 
 
 " George Clifford, third Earl of Cumberland, a noted naval 
 commander and adventurer, was in much favour with Queen 
 Elizabeth, whose glove, given by herself, he caused to be set with 
 diamonds and always wore in his hat. He died October 30, 1605, 
 and was buried March 30, 1606 ; an example of the customary 
 delay in those days of the interment of the rich. 
 
 ' The Report of the University.
 
 ROGER, SECOND LORD NORTH 157 
 
 earnestly entreted me to enform your lordship 
 my knowledge what passed, in which lately was 
 lyekely to have happened betwyxte my Lord 
 Northe and the Scolleres of the Universety, the 
 originall gromide I am ignorant of, nether cam 
 I to the first beginnynge, but desierus to have the 
 matter well quieted, I entreted all the Scolleres 
 to assemble themselves together and here me 
 speeke, whom I found very redy to satisfy me ; 
 then demandynge of them the cause of ther suche 
 assembh% they answered it was only for the 
 takynge agayne of Paris, one of my Lord North's 
 men, whoe by force had disobeed an areste 
 immediatly before made by the officers of the 
 Eunyversety, the delyvery of which party they 
 sayde they only required of my lord, protestynge 
 to himself that they honored him, without thought 
 of harme to his person, or any about him, that 
 party excepted ; w^hereupon my lord gave them 
 such sufficient contente by his speeche, as they 
 were well plesed to gooe hoome with me to ther 
 houses, wher I lefte them, not mackynge any 
 further sturre that I did here of. And thus 
 lothe to troble your lordship with any further 
 discourse, this being the effect of all that passed 
 within my knowledge, I committ you to God. 
 From Cambr^'dge, this 8 of October. 
 
 * Your lordship's to command, 
 
 * George Cumberland.' 1 
 
 ' Cooper's Annals of Cambridge, vol. ii. p. 497.
 
 158 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 Lord North made a formal complaint to the 
 authorities of the conduct of the scholars and 
 others, and certain of the ringleaders, including 
 Nowell and Shaxton, were sent up to London to 
 answer for their misdeeds before the Council. 
 It is not known what befell them in the end. 
 Parish's fate was to be recaptured, imprisoned, 
 and afterwards required to give security for his 
 good behaviour. 
 
 Occasionally some friction arose between North 
 and the University authorities. In 1599, the Vice- 
 Chancellor summoned, as was customary, * all 
 butchers, taverners, tiplers, inkepers, and all 
 other victuallers,' within the town and precincts 
 of Cambridge, to appear before him on Friday 
 and Saturday in Shrove week, to enter bond 
 for the observance during Lent of such orders as 
 should be issued to them concerning the killing, 
 dressing and eating of flesh. Some appeared, 
 but many refused on the ground that the Mayor 
 had already taken bond of them. Whereupon 
 a deputy from the Vice-Chancellor, with some other 
 heads of colleges, repaired to North as High 
 Steward of the town, with a complaint. They 
 found him at his inn, the Falcon, and opened 
 their grievance. They were doomed to dis- 
 comfiture, for he told them in answer, that with 
 himself alone lay the right to take such bonds, 
 and that this having been committed to him 
 by the Lords of the Council, he refused to yield it
 
 ROGER, SECOND LORD NORTH 159 
 
 to any other authority until they themselves 
 should revoke it. 
 
 ' These speeches thus passed, they of the 
 Universitie tooke their leave of the Lord Northe 
 and so departed.' ' On another occasion the 
 heads of the University made objection to a 
 licence granted by himself and other justices to one 
 Robinson, for holding games at ' The Howes,' 
 and it was, after some discussion, withdrawn. 
 The authorities also remonstrated as to the 
 countenance given to certain players who had 
 performed at Chesterton in defiance of the Vice- 
 Chancellor's prohibition. North was a great patron 
 of players, who were discouraged by the University 
 as tending ' to the great enticement and provocation 
 of scholars to lay aside their studies and be 
 dissolute and disorderly.' ~ 
 
 The unchanged policy of Spain towards Eng- 
 land was a standing menace. This had been 
 strongly forced upon Elizabeth by her Ministers, 
 till in the winter of 1596, she was induced to turn 1596 
 hei serious attention to the better arming and 
 strengthening of the ports. She signified to 
 Essex '^ her pleasure to call a Council of ' such 
 persons as are experienced in martial courses, 
 that by them some advice may be given as was 
 in '88.' North was summoned to attend this 
 
 ' Heywood and Wright's Cambridge University Transactions, 
 vol. ii, p. 9. 
 
 - Ibid. vol. ii. p. 39. ^ Earl Marshal of England.
 
 i6o THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 Council, together with Lord Willoughby, Lord 
 Burgh, Lord Norris, Sir WiUiam Knohys, Sir 
 Francis Vere, and Sir Conyers Chfford, Burghley 
 acting as Chairman. Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir 
 George Carew were afterwards added to the 
 number. Certain members of the Council were 
 desired by Essex, severally to make reports as to 
 the probable method of the enemy's attack 
 and the measures proper to be taken for the defence 
 of the coast. North's paper is too long to allow 
 of more than brief extracts. He was of opinion 
 that, supposing the rumours to be true, ' it is 
 hke the enemy will delay no time in coming, 
 for the dishonour and loss he received at Calais 
 doth kindle his malice, and so great fury that he 
 burnetii in desire to be revenged : the hope 
 therefore will bring him rather now than in the 
 spring, partly for that his preparations be great 
 and ready, especially for that he thinketh to 
 find us unprepared now ; for tarr3dng till the 
 next spring, we shall be in more readiness to 
 withstand him, being thus forewarned by the 
 bruit of his preparations.' North goes on to urge 
 that though ' it be impossible to provide against 
 all the landing places of England, yet there must 
 be such fortifications made as the time will give 
 leave, in the most needful places, and such port 
 towns as are unwalled must be reinforced with 
 men . . . the forces of the sea coast must upon 
 every sudden, be ready to impeach his landing. . . .
 
 ROGER, SECOND LORD NORTH i6i 
 
 The places of most danger to the reahn and to do 
 him good, are the Isle of Wight and Southampton 
 . . . there should be some fortifications made at 
 Southampton of good importance, so likewise at the 
 Wight, over against Hurst Castle which is by the 
 Needles. He must be fronted with a great Army 
 near unto him, which may continually impeach 
 him and attend his purposes, to amaze and win 
 time of him ... I wish to have no less than four 
 hundred lasts of powder and great store of victual 
 . . . Let Southampton be for the Wight and all 
 Hampshire, some town in the west for Devon, 
 Cornwall, and Portland ; for Norfolk and Suffolk, 
 Lynn or Ipswich, and London for Kent, Sussex, 
 and Essex.' ^ 
 
 ' Lansdowne MSS.
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 North was an old man now, and we meet with 
 frequent evidence of failing health. In the early 
 1598 part of 1598, the Queen, hearing that her trusty 
 old servant was taken stone deaf ' so as he could 
 not here by no means any speech,' sent him this 
 recipe. ' Bake a little loafe of Beane ilowr, and 
 being whot, rive it in halves, and to ech half pour 
 in three or four sponefulls of bitter almonds ; 
 then clapp both ye halves to both your eares at 
 going to bed, kepe them close and kepe your 
 head warme.' We are told that the patient 
 was completely cured by this truly sovereign 
 remedy, which was, however, supplemented by 
 the prescriptions of Dr. Smith, who the invalid 
 appears to have thought somewhat over liberal 
 with his drugs. Cecil had been paying a visit 
 to his sick friend, who afterwards wrote to him 
 from the Charterhouse : 
 
 ' I thank you for this kind visitation. I am 
 retired for no ease, nor to prevent other indis- 
 position. I am violently attacked with dullness 
 
 162
 
 ROGER, SECOND LORD NORTH 163 
 
 of hearing, so that I cumber my friends to speak 
 to me. I trust the warm Spring will quickly 
 wear this away. Doctor Smith laboureth me 
 with physic, and with two or three days more the 
 commission and all that belongs to the voyage 
 will have a speedy and free end.i At Charterhouse 
 5 Martis.' ~ 
 
 In the following spring, North was attacked 
 by far more serious illness, and la}^ ' dangerously 
 sicke in Court uncertain of recovery.' ^ But he 
 rallied, and in the autumn was again employed 
 in public affairs, being one of the four Lords of the 
 Council summoned in haste on Michaelmas Eve 
 to hear Essex's defence of his sadden and un- 
 authorised return from Ireland on that morning, 
 and of his insolent intrusion, on his arrival, into 
 the Queen's chamber. 
 
 During his frequent attendance at Court, 
 North must often have enjoyed the society of 
 his nephew, and niece by marriage, the Earl and 
 Countess of Worcester,^ both of whom were 
 attached to the Queen's Household. The Court 
 seems to have been a hot-bed of jealousy, scandal, 
 and intrigue, and its officials must have led a very 
 
 1 This remark probably refers to the lev}' and transport of 
 horses for service in Ireland, in arrangements for which North 
 was much occupied about this time. 
 
 - Calendar of Hatfield MSS., pt. 9. p. 90. 
 
 '^ Rowland White to Sir Robert Sidney, March i, 1599. Sidney 
 State Papers, vol. ii. p. 173. 
 
 ■• Edward, fourth Earl of Worcester, was the only son of 
 Christian, daughter of Edward, first Lord North.
 
 i64 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 chequered existence. The following extract from 
 a letter from the Earl of Worcester to the Earl 
 of Shrewsbury, gives an amusing account of the 
 state of feeling prevailing amongst the ladies, and 
 though written rather later than the period with 
 which we are dealing, it may well come in here as 
 giving what is doubtless a very accurate picture 
 of the general condition of affairs about this time. 
 The spelling — unusually bad even for those days 
 — has been modernised. 
 
 ' . . . Now having done w^ith matters of State, 
 I must a little touch the feminine Common- 
 wealth ; tliat against your coming you be not like 
 an ignorant country fellow. First, you must 
 know we have ladies of divers degrees of favour, 
 some for the private chamber, some for the 
 drawing chamber, some for bed chamber, and 
 some for neither certain ; and of this number is 
 only my I.ady Arabella and my wife. My Lady 
 of Bedford holdeth fast to the bed chamber, my 
 Lady Hertford would fain, but her husband hath 
 called her home. M}" Lad}- of Derby the younger, 
 the Ladv Suffolk, Ritchie, Nottingham, Susan 
 Walsingham,. and, of late, the Lady Southwell, 
 for the drawing chamber ; all the rest for the 
 private chamber, when they are not shut out, for 
 many times the doors are locked ; but the plotting 
 and malice amongst them is such, that I think 
 envy hath tied an invisible snake about most 
 of their necks, to sting one another to death.
 
 ROGER, SECOND LORD NORTH 165 
 
 For the presence there are now five maids, Carv, 
 Myddlemore, Woodhouse, Gargrave, Roper, the 
 sixth is determined but not come : God send them 
 good fortune, for as yet they have no Mother.' 1 
 
 On November 29, 1599, North was present at 
 a meeting of the council in the star chamber. On 
 this occasion the lord keeper announced, ' The 
 Queen has observed inconveniences by gentlemen 
 and Justices of the Peace flocking to towns, all 
 therefore who are here, to repayre to their country, 
 not only to mayntayne hospitalitie for the relief 
 of the poore, but that those who are Justices and 
 put in authoritie for the preservation of the peace, 
 should chieflie in this dangerous tyme, see her 
 subjects kept in due obedience and ponishe the 
 offenders. ' A proclamation was accordingly issued 
 to that effect.' At the same council a discussion 
 took place concerning the affairs of Ireland, and 
 North took some part in it, but, says Rowland 
 Whyte, ' either too softly to be heard, or briefly 
 
 ^ The ' Mother of the Maids of Honour ' was appointed to act 
 as their duenna. The office was abohshed about the end of the 
 eighteenth century. 
 
 - Such proclamations were not uncommon. James I con- 
 tinued the custom by issuing several of the same sort, in wliich 
 he ordered the lords spiritual and temporal, deputy lieutenants 
 and other gentlemen, to return to the country. These proclama- 
 tions were almost invariably accompanied by an injunction to 
 keep hospitahty there. In one of them, beneficed clerks were 
 included, and all those specified in it were to repair to their 
 homes in forty days. The Mayors of London and other cities 
 were to certify the Privy Council of the names of such persons 
 as neglected to obey these proclamations. 
 
 M
 
 i6o THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 concurring with those that went before.' For 
 those who have journeyed in thought with the 
 old man through hfe, from the brilhant days of 
 his early manhood, and have learnt to admire — 
 perhaps to love — his ardent generous nature, 
 there is something pathetic in these words ; they 
 tell of the keen spirit waxing faint, of the fire 
 which once leapt so high, flickering low ; of an 
 old friend who cannot be much longer with us. 
 Yet for a time there was a rally, and he gathered 
 up his energies to return to his post at Court and 
 to take part with the rest in the Christmas festivi- 
 ties, when ' her Majesty graced the dancing and 
 plays with her own presence, and played at 
 primero with the Lord Treasurer,^ Mr. Secretary,- 
 and the Lord North. The Court was great and 
 full of Lords and Ladies, and her Majestic came 
 to Chapel.'-^ Doubtless the Queen was not sorry 
 to see the old Treasurer in his place again ; she 
 had shown her favour towards him of late in 
 various directions, and had paid him the com- 
 pUment of naming one of her horses after him, 
 ' Grey North.' ^' 
 
 ^ Lord Buckhurst, who succeeded Burghley as Lord High 
 Treasurer of England. 
 
 - Cecil. 
 
 •'' Rowland White to Sir Robert Sidney, December 20, 1599. 
 Sidney State Papers. 
 
 * Calendar of Hatfield MSS., pt. 8, p. 418. 
 
 It was Elizabeth's frequent custom to name her horses after 
 her coiirtiers and ladies. Grey North had for stable companions 
 among others, My Lady Warwicke, My Lady Stafford, My Lady 
 Gylforde, White Howard, Bay Compton, and Bay Egerton.
 
 ROGER, SECOND LORD NORTH 167 
 
 The old courtier remained to fulfil the duties 
 of his office until after St. George's Day, and 
 then set out for Bath in compan}- with his friends 
 the Lord Chamberlain and his wife, and Lady 
 Hobv ; Lord Cobham followed them a little later. 
 
 Sir Dudley" Carleton writes to his ' very assured 
 friend,' Mr. John Chamberlain, ' The Lord North 
 droops every day more and more, and is going 
 down to the Bath. My Lady North is growen a 
 great courtier, and shines like a blazing starr 
 among the fairest of the ladies.' This last remark 
 probably points to Sir John North's widow ; there 
 is no sufficient evidence of his father having made 
 a second marriage. Had he done so, it would 
 surely have been recorded in his epitaph, as was 
 his marriage with Winifred Dudley. 
 
 North had evidently much faith in the waters 
 of Bath, for his visits were frequent. He returned 
 there in August, when Sir William Knoll3^s, 1600 
 Comptroller of the Household, and afterwards his 
 successor in office, was sent for temporarily to 
 fulfil its duties. He seems to have found the 
 summons inconvenient, and to have arrived at 
 Court in not the best of tempers. He complains, 
 ' I am thereby restrayned from my countrye 
 sporte and vysytation off my firiends.' The 
 course of waters at Bath seems to have brought 
 some passing relief. On October 15, Chamber- 
 lain writes to his fellow gossip Carleton, ' They 
 say the Lord North is once more shakmg hands 
 
 -M Z
 
 i68 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 with the world.' But this was to be a greeting 
 of farewell ; he was soon to pass from sight amid 
 those brilliant scenes in which he had moved as 
 a familiar figure for so many years. Gifted as he 
 was by nature and fortune, and surrounded by 
 all the allurements of a dissolute Court, he had 
 nevertheless maintained throughout an honour- 
 able record, never losing sight of his high ideal, 
 and, though often marked out for distinction by 
 his Queen, never earning the dishonoured name of 
 favourite. 
 
 The old man was never again to see his beauti- 
 ful home at Kirtling ; he retired to his house in 
 Charterhouse Yard, and there ' passed quietly to 
 his heavenly country,' So writes Camden, and 
 adds, ' a man of a lively spirit, as brave as he was 
 wise.'i This tribute may be fitly followed by 
 that of Lloyd. ' There was none better to repre- 
 sent our state than my Lord North, who had been 
 two years in Walsingham's house, four in Leices- 
 ter's service, had seen six Courts, twenty battles, 
 nine treaties, and four solemn jousts, whereof 
 he was no mean part ; a reserved man,"- a valiant 
 
 ^ ' Vir viv'ido ingcnio, animo consilioque par,' Camden's 
 Annals, anno 1600. 
 
 - ' Reserved ' must in this case be taken in its ancient sense, 
 to mean a good man of business, or a good manager, since we 
 find nothing in North's character to warrant the statement that 
 he was a reserved man in the modern sense : he seems rather to 
 have been by nature impulsive and outspoken. The following 
 passage from Sir Fulke Greville's Life of Sir Philip Sidney, 
 aptly illustrates thg Ehzabcthan use of the word : ' Againe, in her
 
 ROGER, SECOND LORD NORTH 169 
 
 souldier, and a courtly person.' 1 It is a matter 
 for no little regret that, so far as is known, no 
 record exists of many of the brilliant services above 
 enumerated, but we at least know enough to be 
 certain of this, North would be the same man 
 still, the brave, wise, kindly gentleman, no matter 
 where duty or circumstance might call him. 
 
 A funeral service at St. Paul's, December 22, 
 preceded the removal of his bod}- from London, 
 but it was not until the February following that 
 he was buried b}^ the heralds at Kirtling, with 
 all the stately ceremonies customary at the time.^ 
 On his tomb was inscribed : 
 
 ' DURUM PATL' 
 
 rogerus dominus north de kirtlixge 
 Thesaurarius Hospith Regii, et e Sacris 
 CoNsiLiis SUB Regixa Elizabetha, Uxorem 
 
 DUXIT WlXIFRIDAM FiLIAM RiCARDI DOMINI 
 
 Rich, de Lees ix Com. Essex. Summi Axglije 
 Caxcellarii : Ex qua Filios Gexuit Johaxxem et 
 Hexricum, ]Milites, et Filiam Unicam Mariam 
 qvm decessit ixnupta. diem obiit 
 
 ExTREMUM AxXO iETATIS LXX. MO, ET AXXO DOMINI 
 
 MDCMO. 
 
 household affaires, she (the Queen) kept the hke equall hands, 
 ballancing the sloth or sumptuousnesse of her great Stewards 
 and White Staves, ^vith the providence and reservednesse of a 
 Lord Treasurer.' 
 
 ' Lloyd's State Worthies, vol. i. p. 431. 
 
 - This is another illustration of the long period which usually 
 elapsed between the death and interment of persons of importance 
 in those days, when the observance of an elaborate ceremonial 
 must have made necessary' a long preparation. ^ 
 
 1600
 
 170 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 North's Will is dated October 20, 1600. After 
 commending his soul to Almighty God, he directed 
 that his body should be buried at Kirtling. He 
 left the family estates, all his armour and ' the 
 pied nagge ' to ' my loving nephew Dudley Northe, 
 myne heir apparent, eldest sonne of my eldest 
 Sonne.' We have here an example of the curious 
 ancient use of the style of ' nephew ' for grandson. 
 His grandchildren are throughout described as 
 nephews and nieces. He gave handsome bequests 
 to them all, as well as to his only surviving son 
 Sir Henry, and his brother Sir Thomas, to both 
 of whom he had already been very generous ; and, 
 in a codicil, directed that ' in acknowledgement 
 of my love and duty to her Majesty, from whom 
 I have receaved advancement to honor and many 
 and continuall favours, I will that my Executors 
 present unto her Highness a Hundred poundes 
 in golde, humbly beseeching her, my dear sove- 
 raigne, to vouchsafe the acceptance thereof, as of 
 a Testimony of my Loyaltie, and to continue her 
 favourable countenance to my house,' adding, 
 * I geve to my honourable assured ffrend Sir 
 Robert Cecill, Knighte, princepall Secretarye to 
 her Majestic, and Master of her Wardes, a fayre 
 gilt cuppe and the som of Tenne poundes in 
 money.' Many legacies are left to friends of less 
 note, and the servants are liberally remembered. 
 Four of these are to have ' cache of them a nagge.' 
 Adam Webbe, one of the retainers so favoured,
 
 ROGER, SECOND LORD NORTH 171 
 
 is doubtless the Adam repeatedly named in the 
 housekeeping book ; who once had a gift ' to 
 cristen his child.' He had lived at Kirtling 
 twentv-fom" years at the least, and like Orlando's 
 good old Adam, had rendered his master ' that 
 constant service of the antique world,' 1 which had 
 plainly made fast the tie of love between the two. 
 North's household must have mourned its head, 
 and he deserved it. When he entered day by 
 day in his ledger, those commonplace details of 
 pounds, shillings, and pence, he all unwittingly 
 wrote himself down, kind master, good father, 
 generous friend of the poor. We need no herald 
 to proclaim his largesse, no chronicler to tell of 
 the cloud that hung over Kirtling when its old 
 lord passed away. There they laid him, the 
 kindly, courtly gentleman, loved and honoured 
 in his generation ; loved and honoured yet, by 
 some who, though they never held converse with 
 the eager spirit on earth, feel that it still lives and 
 waits. 
 
 ^ ' As j-ou Like It.' Act II., Scene 3.
 
 SIR THOMAS NORTH
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 Few materials are available for a biography of 
 Sir Thomas North. Although, in common with 
 other gentlemen of his time, he took his share of 
 military service, his most familiar aspect is that 
 of a scholar, spending the greater part of his life 
 among his books ; his only title to fame — no 
 mean one — is to be found in his literary work, and 
 it is there we must seek for somic reflex of the man's 
 mind and character. 
 
 Thomas was the second and youngest son 
 of Edward first Lord North : he was born 
 about the year 1535, probably rather later, 
 and it is believed that he was educated at 
 Peterhouse, Cambridge. He was designed for 
 his father's profession of the law, and in 1557 
 was entered as a student at Lincoln's Inn. 
 No record remains of his legal career, but it 
 was evidently short ; and it may be readily 
 conceived that a youngster of his unpractical 
 and imaginative temperament would not cheer- 
 fully bend his mind to the dry method of a 
 
 .175
 
 176 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 lawyer's work. He was already absorbed in 
 literature, and in December of the same year, 
 published in London, with a dedication to Queen 
 Mary, his translation of Guevara's ' Libro Aureo,' 
 a Spanish adaptation of the Meditations of Marcus 
 Aurelius. It is believed that this translation, 
 although professedly from the French, was in 
 fact made in large measure from the Spanish 
 original, from which he has very clearly caught 
 direct inspiration. The book was entitled ' The 
 Diall of Princes, compiled by the reverende father 
 in God, Don Antony, Guevara, Byshop of Guadix, 
 Preacher and Chronicler to Charles the fift, late 
 of that name Emperour. Englysshed oute of 
 the Frenche by Thomas North, seconde sonne of 
 the Lord North. Right necessarie and plcasaunt 
 to all gentylmen and others whiche are lovers 
 of vertue.' In the second edition he adds, 
 'And now newly revised and corrected by 
 hym, refourmed of faultes escaped in the first 
 edition : with an amplification also of a fourth 
 booke annexed to the same. Entituled the 
 " Favored Courtier," never heretofore imprinted 
 in our vulgar tongue. Right necessarie and 
 pleasaunt to all noble and vertuous persons. Now 
 newly imprinted by Richard Totill and Thomas 
 Marshe, Anno 1568.' 
 
 North thus heads his dedication : ' To the 
 most high vertuous Princesse Mary, b}'^ the grace 
 of God Queene of England, Spayne, Fraunce,
 
 SIR THOMAS NORTH 177 
 
 both Scicilles, Jerusalem, Naples, and Ireland, 
 Defendour of the Faith, Archiduchesse of Austria, 
 Duchesse of Burgundie, Mylaine and Brabant, 
 Countesse of Haspourge, Flanders, and T3T0II, 
 Long health and perpetual felicitie. 1553-1558 
 Regnavit.' 
 
 North could not have been more than twenty- 
 two when he published this book. He refers in 
 the dedication to his * small knowledge and 
 tender 3'ears,' and beseeches her Highness to 
 accept his good will and tra^'ail, which he has 
 published for the commodity of manv, and 
 which he offers her as a pledge of his bounden 
 duty, and also as a perpetual memor}' of the 
 fervent zeal he bears to his country. ' And in 
 so doing your Grace shall not only encourage 
 me, being young, in these my first fruits, 
 but also others (peradventure) of more ripe 
 years to attempt the like enterprise, by 
 which the divine Majesty may be immortally 
 glorified, your puissant name worthity magnified, 
 your royal person duely obeyed, and all }'our 
 Grace's natural and loving subjects greatly 
 profited. At Lincolne's Inne the 20 of De- 
 cember 1557.' 
 
 North added an epistle to the reader, which, 
 after some reference to ' our country,' he ends 
 thus : ' In defence and preser\'ation whereof, 
 good reader, we ought not alone to emploj^ our 
 whola witts and able sences, but, necessity
 
 178 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 enforcing us, to sacrifice ourselves also for benefit 
 thereof. 
 
 ' From mv Lord North's house nere London 
 the 10 day of May 1568. 
 
 ' Thine that accepteth mee 
 ' Th: North.' 
 
 Guevara had written a shorter version of 
 the ' Libro Aureo,' and this had been published 
 in English in 1534, under the title of ' The Golden 
 Boke of ^larcus Aurelius.' It was from the 
 pen of John Bourchier, Lord Berners, the trans- 
 lator of Froissart, and had already passed through 
 five editions before the ' Diall ' appeared. North's 
 enlarged version nevertheless enjoyed a wide 
 popularity, passing through a third edition in 
 1582, and a fourth in 1619. The ' Diall of Princes ' 
 may be taken as a sample of Tudor prose at its 
 best : in this as in his later works. North is 
 almost wholly free from the exaggerated Euphuism 
 defacing the style of Lyly and other writers of 
 the day, a fault which some critics have sought 
 to trace to the influence of Guevara alone. 
 
 Thomas North was twice married ; first to 
 Elizabeth, daughter of — Colville of London, and 
 widow of Robert Rich ; secondly to Judith, 
 daughter of Henry Vesey of Isleham, Cambridge- 
 shire, and widow of Robert Bridgewater, Doctor 
 of Civil Law ; this lady married as her third 
 husband, John Courthope, second son of John 
 Courthope, of Wyleigh, Sussex. The first Mrs.
 
 SIR THOMAS NORTH 179 
 
 North bore her husband two children : Edward, 1 
 who took to wife Ehzabeth, daughter of Thomas 
 Wren of Haddenham, Isle of Ely, and Elizabeth 
 who married in June 1579 Thomas Stuteville of 
 Brinkle}^ Cambridgeshire. Cooper ~ mentions a 
 third child, Roger, but the boy's name is absent 
 from every family record, and it is probable 
 that, if he ever lived, he died in infancy. Cooper's 
 statement that Edward and Elizabeth were the 
 children of Thomas North's second wife, is proved 
 erroneous by the fact that the first wife is among 
 the legatees under the will of Edward Lord 
 North, dated March 20, 1563, and that the 
 children are there named as her own. Not- 
 withstanding the provision made for Thomas 
 North by this will, and the generous help of his 
 brother, he was, at all events at one period of 
 his life, a needy man ; he appears to have been 
 one who had too much of the genius in him to 
 be methodical or business-like in the management 
 of his own affairs. He seems, however, to have 
 held a good position in Cambridgeshire, as may 
 
 ^ It seems likely that this Edward grew up to be the Captain 
 Edward North who, in. 1601, commanded a company of between 
 one and two hundred in Ireland during Tyrone's rebellion, and 
 who before his embarkation was kept waiting for two months at 
 Barnstaple, whistling for a wnnd and for the arms with which his 
 men had been sent to him totally unprovided. He complained 
 to Cecil that had these been furnished he could have made his 
 company very perfect in that time. Nevertheless his care was to 
 see them as well trained and ready as men without furniture 
 might be. 
 
 - A thenar Cantabrigienses, vol. ii.
 
 i8o THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 be inferred from the fact that in 1568 he was 
 presented with the freedom of the town of Cam- 
 bridge. 
 
 In 1570 he brought out his second work, 
 entitled ' The MoraU Philosophie of Doni. Drawne 
 out of the auncient writers. A work first com- 
 piled in the Italian tongue, and afterwards 
 reduced into divers other languages ; and now 
 lastly Englished out of Italian by Thomas North, 
 brother to the Right Honourable Sir Roger 
 North, Knight, Lorde North of Kyrtheling. 
 
 The Wisdome of this World 
 Is folly before God.' 
 
 This work consisted of a collection of the 
 fables of Bidpai, and other Oriental fables, 
 rendered with rare wit and vigour from the 
 Italian of Antonio Francesco Doni.^ At the 
 commencement is an Italian sonnet by some 
 admirer of North's who gives only the initials 
 G.B. After many laudatory sentiments of his 
 own, he ends by quoting the testimony of Doni 
 himself, that if others have interpreted him well, 
 North has surpassed him. 
 
 The book is excellent reading. We can have 
 many a good laugh over the queer sayings and 
 quaint conceits of the creatures North has made 
 to live for us. There is the horse who used ' to 
 feede in a goodly pasture where hee alone was 
 
 ' Antonio Francesco Doni was born in Florence 15 13.
 
 SIR THOMAS NORTH i8i 
 
 Loide and Maister within himselfe. At length by 
 chaunce there came within his dioceise a mightie 
 growne Hart, who tooke his herbage there as his 
 right also, and did eate and feede beyond all 
 reason or measure. Insomuch that this horse 
 disdaining his beastly attempt, chased this Hart 
 from the ground full many a time and oft.' Then 
 what a delightful person is the * Turkic cocke of 
 a bigge voyce, of fewe wordes, but resolute ' ; 
 and the ' prowde Moyle,' ^ the hero and villain of 
 the story, who must needs go to Court, and who, 
 when there, could not keep from meddling in the 
 affairs of his majesty the lion. We are told how, 
 after a successful mission to the bull, ' that great 
 and mightie Beefe,' he returned to the king with 
 a wondrous joy, ' His Moyleship bravely yerked 
 out with both legges, and lively shook his eares 
 and head. He brayed and flong as he had 
 been madde.' But this * worshipfull Moyle ' took 
 nothing in the end by all his crafty scheming, 
 and it served him right, for as his ' mother asse ' 
 very sensibly remarked to him, ' What a goodyere 
 have you to doe to meddle with his (the King's) 
 matters ? ' The old lady inflicted upon him 
 many wise and weighty admonitions, and in this 
 was warmly supported by his brother, who 
 always strove to exert an influence for good, and 
 played the part of a very candid friend. If, 
 said he, ' thou wilt not be called by the Kinge 
 
 1 IMule
 
 i82 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 to deale in his matters, why dost thou (foole) 
 put thy hande in the fire, and meddleth with 
 that thou hast naught to doe ? Thou that 
 mightest have hved quietly at home and at ease ; 
 what the goodyere, aylest thou to clymc to the 
 toppe of trees ? ' ' Brother Asse,' although so 
 highly respectable, was never dull. He carried 
 very little weight however : his Moyleship 
 answered, * Tut a figge ! I am determined.' 
 And the busybody still went his own way with 
 characteristic obstinacy, and very soon fell from 
 bad to worse.
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 In 1574 Thomas North — as we have already seen — 
 accompanied his brother Roger on a mission to 
 the Court of Henry the Third of France. Lord 
 North, himself an accomplished linguist, must 
 nevertheless have found advantage in numbering 
 among the gentlemen of his suite one so versed 
 in the French, Italian, and Spanish tongues, and 
 otherwise ' learned and of good parts,' while to 
 Thomas the trip must have been pleasant and 
 may have been profitable ; be that as it may, 
 there is reason to think it was full fraught with 
 rich results for others, for it seems pretty certain 
 that during his stay he must have met with the 
 Bishop of Auxerre. The Bishop, as the King's 
 Grand Almoner and one of the Privy Council, 
 was doubtless much about the Court, and one can 
 well believe that the two scholars had much 
 learned discourse upon the beauties of Plutarch, 
 and the Bishop's translation ; and that this gave rise 
 to North's first conception of his own grand work. 
 It seems that, on his return from France, he 
 
 I S3 N 2
 
 i84 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 was altogether settled in Cambridgeshire. Two 
 years later, his brother Roger made him a present 
 of a lease of a house and ' household stuff.' The 
 worries of the move once over, his beloved books 
 and papers rescued from the perilous zeal of the 
 womenfolk, and his household stuff all ' spicke 
 and spanne newe,' as he would have expressed it, 
 comfortably disposed around him, we may picture 
 him busily employed upon the great work by 
 which he will be best remembered, his translation 
 of ' Plutarch's Lives ' from the French of Amyot. 
 The book was published under the title of ' The 
 Lives of the noble Grecians and Romanes, com- 
 pared together by that grave, learned Philosopher 
 and Historiographer Plutarke of Chaeronea : Trans- 
 lated out of Greeke into French by James Amyot, 
 Abbot of Bellozane, Bishop of Auxerre, one of 
 the King's privy counsel, and great Amner of 
 Fraunce ; and out of French into Englishe by 
 Thomas North.' 
 
 Imprinted at London by Thomas 
 Vantrouiller and John Wight. 
 
 1579- 
 
 In the third edition North added to the title 
 ' With the lives of Hannibal and Scipio African ; 
 translated out of Latine into French by Charles 
 de I'Excluse, and out of French into English 
 by Thomas North.' 
 
 These two lives had, however, already appeared
 
 SIR THOMAS NORTH 185 
 
 in the first issue. The work bears a dedication to 
 Queen Elizabeth, dated January 16, 1579, and 
 an epistle to the reader, Januar}^ 24, 1579. 
 North tells the Oueen that she is ' meeter to be 
 the chief e storie than a student therein, and can 
 better understand it in Greeke than any man can 
 make it Englishe.' 
 
 The book became one of the most popular 
 of its day. Though each copy sold for more 
 than five pounds of our money, the work ran 
 through eight editions within a century of its 
 publication. To the fourth edition North added 
 a supplement, with the following explanation on 
 the title page : ' Hereunto are also added the 
 lives of Epaminondas, of Philip of Macedon, of 
 Dionysius the elder, tyrant of Sicilia, of Augustus 
 Caesar, of Plutarke and of Seneca, with the lives 
 of nine other excellent Chieftaines of warre 
 collected out of Emilius Probus by S. G. S. and 
 Englished by the aforesaid Translator.' 
 
 Strype, in his ' Annals of the Reformation,' 
 mentions North's ' Plutarch ' as one of the books of 
 the year, and gives quotations from it. Leicester 
 wrote to Burghley soon after its publication, 
 seeking to enlist his interest, and asking his favour 
 ' for Lord North's brother in his book he has to 
 pass. He is a very honest gentleman and hath 
 many good things in him which are drowned 
 only by poverty.' ^ 
 
 1 Calendar of Hatfield MSS., pt. 2, p. 339.
 
 i86 THREE ^lEX OE THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 North's 'Plutarch' must, on its own merits, 
 have claimed a lasting place in literature as a 
 magnificent example of Tudor prose ; but the 
 fact that Shakespeare bore away from its pages 
 some of their richest treasures, has invested it 
 with an ever-abiding interest of another kind. It 
 has been called the great poet's storehouse of 
 learned history, and it is certain that but for its 
 existence the Roman plays would never have been 
 wTitten, but it was far more than this ; Shake- 
 speare helped himself with both hands, and trans- 
 planted bodily some of its finest passages into 
 his own plays. ' A Midsummer Night's Dream,' 
 'Julius Csesar,' 'Coriolanus,' 'Antony and Cleopatra/ 
 * Pericles,' and ' Timon of Athens,' were more 
 especially enriched by it. To enter at large upon 
 a critical analysis of North's writings, and of the 
 manner and extent of Shakespeare's indebtedness 
 to him, would be to carry the reader far beyond 
 the scope of the present work ; it is a task already 
 accomplished by abler pens ; ' but it may be 
 said here, that in ' Coriolanus ' whole speeches have 
 been taken from North's prose : it is, however, 
 in ' Antony and Cleopatra ' that his diction has 
 been most closely followed. The parallel between 
 the passage commencing ' The Barge she sat in 
 like a burnish 'd throne'- and the corresponding 
 
 ' Among others by Mr. Wyndham in his masterly introduction 
 to the reprint of North's Plutarch, pubhshed by Mr. David 
 Nutt. 
 
 - Act IT., Scene 2.
 
 SIR THOMAS NORTH 187 
 
 one in the Plutarch is very remarkable. Collier 
 is of opinion that Shakespeare used the edition of 
 1605, and Mr. Allan Park Pat on has written a 
 learned pamphlet with the object of proving that 
 a copy of it now in the Greenock Library, was 
 the poet's property and the very book from which 
 he worked. 
 
 The interest attaching to Shakespeare's use 
 of the Plutarch has gone far to obscure other 
 aspects of the work. But it should be remembered 
 that it was not alone a grand literary achievement : 
 the translator designed with a serious purpose 
 that it should teach and inspire. In his dedication 
 to the Queen, he writes, * Howe many examples 
 shall your subjects read here, of severall persons 
 and whole armyes, of noble and base, of younge 
 and olde, that both by sea and lande, at home and 
 abroad, have strayned their wits, not regarded 
 their states, ventured their persons, cast away 
 their lives . . . then well may the readers thinke ; 
 if they have done this for heathen Kings, what 
 should we doe for Christian Princes ? if they have 
 done this for glorye, what should we doe for religion ? 
 If they have done this without hope of heaven, 
 what should we doe that looke for immortalitie ? ' 
 It was indeed a rich treasure North had placed 
 in the hands of his countrymen. When he drew 
 aside the veil which had concealed from them the 
 glories of past ages, and rekindled for England 
 the ancient fires of Greece and Rome, he was
 
 i88 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 teaching her soldiers to be conquerors, and her 
 governors how to rule. 
 
 It is impossible to go far into North's writings 
 
 without coming face to face with the man : 
 
 honest, brave, of a healthy morality and kindly 
 
 disposition, he speaks to us from every page. He 
 
 seems to have shared his brother's chivalrous 
 
 nature. Mr. Wyndham dwells with much justice 
 
 upon his reverent handling of all that concerns 
 
 women. Though he does not, on occasion, refram 
 
 from ' stout words ' of rebuke or disdain, his 
 
 natural attitude towards them, no less than 
 
 towards children, is one of respectful sympathy : 
 
 keen and trenchant as are the weapons at his 
 
 command, he sheaths his sword in their presence. 
 
 His love of children is transparent ; it breathes 
 
 through many a passage : here is one too beautiful 
 
 to be passed by. He is telling how Paulus 
 
 J^milius ' appointed to make warre upon King 
 
 Perseus, all the people dyd honorably companie 
 
 him home unto his house, where a little girl 
 
 (a daughter of his) called Tertia, being yet an 
 
 infant, came weeping unto her father. He, making 
 
 muche of her, asked her why she wept ? The 
 
 poore girl answered, colling him aboute the necke 
 
 and kissing him : — "Alas, father, wot you what? 
 
 Our Perseus is dead." She ment by it a little 
 
 whelpe so called, which was her playe fellowe.' 
 
 All North's heart was in those words ; the picture 
 
 is so real to him, surely he must have been thinking
 
 SIR THOMAS NORTH 189 
 
 of a day when his own httle Bess came to him 
 with some such trouble ; he has brought that far- 
 off httle Grecian maid so close to us ; almost 
 into our arms. 
 
 North doubtless felt more at ease in rendering 
 the diction of Amyot than that of Plutarch, but 
 whatever may have been his motive in translating 
 from the French, it was not ignorance of Greek. 
 There is no doubt that he referred from time to 
 time to the original ; this is shown by his intro- 
 duction of sundry passages left untouched by 
 Amyot. But he was no slavish imitator of any 
 of his predecessors. Whenever he saw occasion 
 to expand a noble thought, or to add picturesque- 
 ness to some ^rand episode, he broke loose from 
 the fetters of the translator and gave the rein to his 
 own fine genius. The Bishop, however, was a 
 good man to follow ; he was master of an excellent 
 style, and much has been said, no doubt with 
 justice, of the strength and vigour of his transla- 
 tion ; but if Amyot's Plutarch sprang to life as a 
 Titan, it remained for North to clothe him with 
 the robe of an Emperor. 
 
 The Plutarch closes the list of North's literary 
 works. Among the additional MSS. in the British 
 Museum ^ is found a paper of his, ' Exceptions 
 against the suit of (the) surveyor of the gangers 
 of beer and ale.' It consists of objections to a 
 petition of Sir Robert Stewart and others, who had 
 
 ^ 12497 I. p. fo. Dated Jan. 9, 1891.
 
 190 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TLAIE 
 
 applied for a patent for the gauging of vessels for 
 beer and ale. North gives as his reasons, that it 
 would cause discontent among the brewers, obliging 
 them to have their vessels altered, and that he 
 does not think the Queen would derive any profit 
 from the patent. The only interest attaching 
 to the document consists in its bearing, at the 
 foot, his very peculiar and intricate signature : 
 
 He must have had a good deal of spare time 
 on his hands. Signatures of the sort were, how- 
 ever, not uncommon in his day : many readers 
 will recall that of Queen Elizabeth, and that of 
 Edward Lord North is typical of the same style. 
 
 Thomas North was not so wedded to his books 
 as to forget his duty as an Englishman. His 
 great nephew ^ wrote of him as ' a man of courage.' 
 He was ready enough to serve his country in time 
 1388 of need, and when in 1588 the Armada loomed 
 upon her shores, he took command of three 
 hundred men of Ely ; his brother, as Lord Lieu- 
 tenant, was then mustering all the forces of the 
 County of Cambridge. About 1591 he was knighted, 
 
 ' Dudley, fourth I^rd North.
 
 SIR THOMAS NORTH 191 
 
 and must therefore have then possessed land to 
 the value of forty pounds a year, a necessary 
 qualification for a Knight Bachelor in those days. 
 In 1592 we find him on the Commission of the 
 Peace for the County of Cambridge ; his name 
 again appears on the roll of Justices for 1597 as 
 * Thomas North, Miles.' 
 
 The publication within recent years of the 
 later volumes of Calendars of Hatfield MSS. has 
 revealed the fact that Sir Thomas took command, 
 in 1596, of a company of one hundred men in 
 Ireland, duiing Tyrone's rebellion. He shared 
 the robust and practical patriotism which, in his 
 day, formed part of the equipment of every 
 English gentleman, and made good his own words, 
 that a man should not only employ his wits for 
 the benefit of his country, but be ready to sacrifice 
 himself also. Not long after his return, he received 
 a grant of twenty pounds from the Corporation of 
 Cambridge,! and in 1601, a pension of forty pounds 
 a year from the Queen, ' in consideration of the 
 good and faithful service done unto us.' 
 
 Here we part from Sir Thomas North, without 
 record of his death or burial. His best epitaph 
 has been written as ' The father of English prose.' 
 It was he who first revealed to the people of 
 England their rich inheritance in all the fulness 
 of its splendour. Touch what he might, he made 
 
 ' Equal to from £150 to ^^200 in our day.
 
 192 THREE MEN OF THE TUDOR TIME 
 
 all his own the lofty grace of diction that marks 
 the Tudor tongue. In following his words, we 
 feel ourselves, as it were, treading the paths of 
 some grand old-fashioned garden, stately and 
 fair ; resting often to breathe all the fragrance 
 of rosemary or lavender, yet never wearying to 
 wander on through its pleasant alleys, full of 
 quaint turns and sweet surprises.
 
 INDEX 
 
 ALEN90N, Frangois, Duke of, 
 fourth son of Henri II, 57, 58, 
 61, 67, 68n., loon. 
 
 Alington, Sir Giles, 106 
 
 Alington, Richard, 38 
 
 Amyot, James, Bishop of Au- 
 xerre, 183, 184, 189 
 
 Anderson, Chief Justice, log 
 
 Anjou, see Henri 
 
 Arabella, Lady, 164 
 
 Arundel, Philip, Earl of, 131, 
 
 134 
 Arundel, Countess of, 22 
 
 Audley, Sir Thomas ; Lord 
 
 Chancellor, 13, 14 
 
 Bacon, Sir Xicholas, 97, 98, 
 
 136 
 Bacqueville, de ; French Am- 
 bassador, loon., loin. 
 Bavaria, Elector of, see Ernest 
 Bedford, Francis, Earl of, 86, 
 
 108 
 Bedford, Lady, 164 
 Bedingfield, Sir Henry, 25 
 Berkeley, Sir Richard ; Lieu- 
 tenant of the Tower, 149 
 Bilson, Thomas, Bishop of 
 
 Winchester, 137 
 Blount ; Equerry of the Earl 
 of Leicester, 132 
 
 Boonen, William ; Elizabeth's 
 
 Dutch coachman, 27 
 Bourchier, John, Lord Berners, 
 
 178 
 Bridgewater, Dr. Robert, 178 
 Brittany, Duke of, 4 
 Brooke, Sir David, 36, 37 
 Brue, GuiUaume de, 4 
 Brue-Callac, Frangoise de, nee 
 
 de Nort-Callac ; wife of the 
 
 above, 4 
 Bryganten, John, 8 
 Buckhurst, Lord ; Lord High 
 
 Treasurer, 149, 166 
 Burgh, Lord, 115, 160 
 Burghley, Thomas Cecil, Lord ; 
 
 Lord High Treasurer, 35, 55, 
 
 59, 65W., 93, gSn., 109, 112, 
 
 114-118, 121W., 124, 131, 133, 
 
 137-139, 145, 148, 150, 156, 
 
 i66n., 185 
 Burnet, Thomas, 7 
 Burnet, Alice, nee North, 7 
 Butler, Richard, 36 
 
 Callac, see Nortli, AUette 
 Calliac, de, 64 
 
 Camden, ion., 53^., 65;^., i6Sn. 
 Carleton, Sir Dudley, 167 
 Carlos, Don, Infante of Spain, 
 80 
 
 193
 
 i(j4 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Cary, Maid of Honour, 165 
 
 Castiglione, 53 
 
 Catherine de Medicis; 57, 65, 
 
 67-76 
 Cecil, Sir Robert, 128, 137, 138, 
 
 146-150, 166, 170, i79n. 
 Cecil, Thomas, see Burghley 
 Cecil, Sir William, 48 
 Chamberlain, Fitz-Rafe, no 
 Charles, Archduke, 52, 53 
 Charles V, 176 
 Charles IX, 56, 57, 60 
 Charlotte, Princess of Bourbon, 
 
 61, 73 
 Charny, Comte de, 70 
 Chartsey, Robert, 36 
 Cheston, Captain, 124 
 Chichester, Bishop of, 14 
 Churchyard, 46 
 Clarence, 28 
 
 Clifford, see Cumberland 
 Clifford, Sir Conyers, 160 
 Clopton, Lilian, 34 
 Cobham, Lord, 53, 137, 167 
 Coconnas, Hannibal, 61 
 Colville, 178 
 Cooke, Henry, 136 
 Cooper, 179 
 
 Cordell, Sir WiUiam, 38 
 Cosse, de ; Marshal, 60, 73 
 Courthopc, John, 178 
 Courthope, John, son of the 
 
 above, 178 
 Coutts, Sir John, 154 
 Cox, Bishop of Ely, 79-84, 135, 
 
 136 
 Cranmer, Archbishop, 19 
 Cumberland, George Clifford, 
 
 third Earl of, 157 
 
 Dale, Sir Valentine, 65, 66n., 
 68, 69, 71-73 
 
 Davison, Envoy to the Nether- 
 lands, 114 
 
 Denham, Elizabeth, 34 
 Denny, Sir Anthony, 16 
 Derby, Lady, 164 
 Doni, Antonio, 180 
 Drury, Sir Drew, 149 
 Dudley, Lord Guilford, 19 
 Dudley, Lord Robert, see 
 »- Leicester 
 
 Dudley, Winifred, see North 
 Dyer, Sir James, 38 
 
 Edward VI, 18-20 
 Elector Palatine, see Frederick 
 Elector of Bavaria, see Ernest 
 Ehzabeth, 25-28, 31-37, 39, 
 44-48, 51-54, 57, 60. 62. 63, 
 
 65-70. 72-76, 79-83. 91. 93- 
 102, 104-119, 121-125, 127, 
 128, 133, 135-138, 140-142, 
 I44«.. 146-151, 155, 156W., 
 159, 162, 163, 165, 166, 169, 
 170, 185, 187, 190, 191 
 Emilius Probus, 185 
 Ernest, Elector of Bavaria, 120 
 Essex, Earl of, 159, 160 
 Essex, Letticc, Countess of, 
 nee KnoUys ; wife of the 
 Earl of Leicester, 92 
 
 Fenelon, see La Mothe 
 
 Feria, Count de ; Spanish Am- 
 bassador, 26, 27 
 
 Fitz- William, Sir William, 93 
 
 Fortescuc, Sir John, 149 
 
 Foscew, 139 
 
 Fraunces, Andrew, 36 
 
 Frederick III, Elector Palatine, 
 61 
 
 Froissart, 178 
 
 Gage, 25 
 
 Gargrave, Maid of Honour, 165
 
 INDEX 
 
 195 
 
 Gates, Sir John, 20 
 Gerard, Mark, 106, 148 
 Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, 43, 107 
 Goldwell, 107 
 Gourdan, de, 64 
 Gray, Lord, 128 
 Gresham, Sir Thomas, 20 
 Greville, Sir Fulke, i68w. 
 Grey, Lady Jane, 19, 20 
 Guevara, Don Anthony, 176, 
 
 178 
 Guise, Henri, Duke of, 62, 6g, 
 
 70. 74 
 
 HaKLUYT, 3I7Z. 
 
 Harcourt, John, 3 
 Harold, King, 10 
 Harrington, Sir John, 83 
 Harrington, Lady, 93 
 Hatcher, Dr., 107, 108 
 Haydon, 109 
 
 Hemart, Governor of Grave, 118 
 Heneage, Sir Thomas, 116, i2in. 
 Henri, Duke of Anjou, after- 
 wards Henri III, 57, 60, 61, 
 63, 65-68, 69-71, 73, 76, 183 
 Henri, King of Navarre, after- 
 wards Henri IV, 62 
 Henry V, 3, 4 
 Henry VIII, 11, 14, 15, 45W., 
 
 70, 71, 73-75 
 Hertford, Lord, 164 
 Hertford, Lady, wife of the 
 
 above, 164 
 Hertford, Earl of, see Somerset 
 Higgins, ruffmaker, 107%. 
 Hinde, Sir Francis, 109 
 Hoby, Lady, 167 
 Holinshed, 2in. 
 Howard, Lord Henry, 136 
 Howard, Thomas, see Norfolk 
 Howard, Lord Thomas, of 
 Efhngham ; Lord High Ad- 
 miral, 21, 54, 127W. 
 
 Howard, Lord William, 136 
 Hunsdon, Lord, 31, 32, 36 
 Hutton, John, 109 
 
 James I, 165??. 
 
 Johnson, Dorothy, 34 
 
 Judith, daughter of Waltheof, 
 
 10 
 Julius III, Pope, 22 
 
 KiLLiNGWORTH, John, 140, 141 
 Kloet, Commander, 120 
 Knollys, Sir William ; Comp- 
 troller of the Household, 92, 
 148, 160, 167 
 
 La Mothe Fenelon ; French 
 Ambassador, 63-66, 73-76 
 
 L'Aubespine ; French Ambas- 
 sador, lOIW. 
 
 Leicester, Robert Dudley, Earl 
 
 of, 36, 39, 52-54. 91, 92, 95. 
 
 96, gSn., loi, 111-122, 131- 
 
 133, 168, 185 
 Leigh, Sir Henry, 147 
 LesUe, Bishop of Ross, 71, 72 
 L'Excluse, Charles de, 184 
 Lilly, William, 6 
 Lloyd, 56, 57, 168, i6g 
 Lodge, 12 
 
 London, Bishop of, 23 
 Louis XI, 4 
 Lumley, Lady, 23 
 Lyly, 178 
 
 Machyn, ign., 23W., 28n., s6n. 
 Maisonfieur ; Envoy of the Duke 
 
 of Alengon, 6Sw. 
 Marguerite de Valois, Queen 
 
 of Navarre, 62, 67 
 Marsh, Thomas ; printer, 176
 
 196 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Mary, Lady, afterwards Queen, 
 
 19-21, 24, 27, 36«. 
 Mary, Queen of Scots, 71-73, 
 
 176, 177 
 Mathews, 106 
 Mau\issiere, Michael de Castel- 
 
 man Sieur de, 62 
 Maximilian II, Emperor, 52 
 Medina Sidonia, Prince of, 126 
 Melville, Sir James, 73 
 Mendoza, Bernardino de ; 
 
 Spanish Ambassador, 95, 
 
 96M., 136, 150 
 Mervyn, Sir John, 7 
 Mervyn, Edward, son of the 
 
 above, 7 
 Milner, Richard ; carpenter, 39 
 Molton ; chaplain, 34 
 Montmorency, Gabriel de ; Mar- 
 shal, 60, 73 
 Montpensier, Duke of, 61 
 Myddlemore, Maid of Honour, 
 
 165 
 
 Navarre, see Henri and Mar- 
 guerite 
 Nichols, 25, 3r 
 Norfolk, Thomas Howard, 
 
 Duke of, 13W., 39, 40, 52, 54, 
 
 57, 58, 77W., 136 
 Norris, Lord, 56, 57, 128, 160 
 North, Alice Lady, nee Squyer, 
 
 wife of Edward, first Lord 
 
 North, 7, 8, 26, 28-30, 37, 40 
 North, Ahce, nee Harcourt, 
 
 wife of Robert North, 3 
 North, AHce, daughter of Roger, 
 
 third mentioned of the name 
 
 below, see Burnet 
 North, Aliette, nee de Callac, 
 
 wife of WiUiam North, 3, 4 
 North, Bess, see Elizabeth 
 
 below 
 North, Sir Charles, 5 
 
 North, Charles Augustus, 5«. 
 North, Christian, nee Warcup, 
 wife of Roger, third mentioned 
 of the name below, 5, 6 
 North, Christian, daughter of 
 Edward, first Lord North, see 
 Worcester 
 North, Dudley, third Lord 
 North, i3«., 92, 151, 152, 170 
 North, Dudley, fourth Lord 
 North, 3n., 8, iim., 15M., 
 29n., 32W., 567^., 190 
 North, Edward, son of Roger, 
 fourth mentioned of the 
 name below, 5, 39 
 North, Edward, first Lord, 
 
 chaps, i-v, 90, 175, 179 
 North, Edward, son of Thomas, 
 second mentioned of the 
 name below, 86, 179 
 North, Elizabeth, nee Colville, 
 wife of Thomas, second men- 
 tioned of the name below, 86, 
 178 
 North, Elizabeth (referred to as 
 Bess), daughter of the above, 
 86, 179, 189 
 North, Elizabeth, nee Wren, 
 wife of Edward, last men- 
 tioned of the name above, 
 179 
 North, Henrj^ second son of 
 Roger, second Lord North, 
 30, 107, 121, 127M., 152W., 
 169, 170 
 North, Joan, sister of Edward, 
 first Lord North, see Wilkin- 
 son 
 North, John, son of Roger, 
 second Lord North, 51M., 59, 
 107, 1277?., 151, 167, 169 
 North, Judith, nee Vesey, 
 second wife of Thomas, 
 second of the name below, 
 178, 179
 
 INDEX 
 
 197 
 
 North, Margaret, nee Butler, 
 
 second wife of Edward, first 
 
 Lord North, 36-38 
 North, Mary, daughter of 
 
 Edward, first Lord North, 
 
 see Scrope 
 North, Mary, daughter of 
 
 Roger, second Lord North, 
 
 39. 169 
 North, Robert, 3 
 North, Roger, 4 
 North, Roger, son of the above, 
 
 4. 5 
 North, Roger, son of the fore- 
 going, 5, 6 
 North, Roger, son of Thomas, 
 
 first mentioned of the name 
 
 below, 4 
 North, Roger, second Lord, 8, 
 
 31. 34. 39. chaps, vi-xix, 179, 
 
 183, 184 
 North, Roger, son of Thomas. 
 
 second mentioned of the 
 
 name below, 180 
 North, Roger, of Rougham, 5 
 North, Thomas, son of Roger, 
 
 first mentioned of the name 
 
 above, 4, 5 
 North, Thomas, son of Edward, 
 
 first Lord North, 9, 30, 34, 
 
 38, 42, 64, 66, 86, 91, 170, 
 
 chaps. XX, xxi 
 North, William, 3, 4 
 North, Winifred, nee Dudley, 
 
 wife of Roger, second Lord 
 
 North, 51, 107, 167 
 Nort-Callac, Pierre de, 4 
 Nort-Callac, Fran9oise de, see 
 
 Brue-Callac 
 Northampton, Marquis of, 
 
 31 
 
 Northumberland, John Dudley, 
 
 Duke of, 13, 20 
 Nottingham, Lady, 164 
 Nowell, 155, 158 
 
 Orange, Prince of, 73 
 Ormond, Earl of, 47 
 
 Paget, Lord WiUiam, it 
 
 Palavicino, Sir Horatio, 142-144 
 
 Parish, 154-157 
 
 Parker, Archbishop, 47, 48 
 
 Parma, Prince of, 117, 1 19-12 1 
 
 Penot ; physician, 99 
 
 Perne, Dr., Dean of Ely, 124 
 
 Perrot, Sir John, 47 
 
 Philip IL 21. 22, i6n., ^8n., 
 
 55, 112, 126, .136 
 Plutarch, 42, 183-187, 189 
 Pole, Cardinal, 22 
 Poley, 79 
 Pope, Sir Thomas, 11, 14, 20, 25 
 
 Quadra, Alvaro de ; Spanish 
 Ambassador, 52, 132 
 
 Quincy, de ; French Ambas- 
 sador, IQOn., lOIM. 
 
 Raleigh, Sir Walter, 160 
 
 Rambouillet ; French Ambas- 
 sador, ioi«. 
 
 Reade, Captain, 117 
 
 Rich, Robert, 178 
 
 Rich, Lord, 12, 169 
 
 Ridolfi, 57 
 
 Ritchie, Lady, 164 
 
 Rivett, Sir Thomas, 100, 109 
 
 Robinson, 159 
 
 Robsart, Amy, Lady Robert 
 Dudley, 132 
 
 Roper, Maid of Honour, 165 
 
 Sackville, Richard, 18 
 Scott, Sir Walter, 131 
 Scrope, Henry, ninth Lord, 9 
 Scrope, ]\Iary Lady, nee North, 
 
 wife of the above, 9, 30 
 Selenger, Sir Anthony, 23 
 Shakespeare, William, 91, 186, 
 
 187 
 
 o
 
 198 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Shaxton, 156, 158 
 Shrewsbury, Earl of, 57, 164 
 Sidney, Sir Philip, 122, 163W., 
 
 i66w., 168 
 Silva, Guzman do ; Spanish 
 
 Ambassador, 54, 80 
 Smith, Sir Thomas, 93 
 Smyth, dustman, 30 
 Somerset, Duke of, formerly 
 
 the Earl of Hertford ; Lord 
 
 Protector, 16, 18, 65M. 
 Somerset, 28 
 
 Southampton, Earl of, 17 
 Southwell, Lady, 164 
 Speed, 22 
 Spas, de ; Spanish Ambassador, 
 
 48 
 Squycr, Oliver, 8 
 Stafford, Sir William, 137 
 Stewart, Sir Robert, i8g 
 Stow, I3«., Ii2«. 
 Strype, i^n., 14, 81, 82, 98, 
 
 99n., 185 
 Stuteville, Thomas, 179 
 Stuteville, Elizabeth, nee North, 
 
 wife of the above, 1 79 
 Sty ward, Edward, 91 
 Suffolk, Earl of, 20 
 Suffolk, Lady, 164 
 Sussex, Thomas Radcliffe, third 
 
 Earl of, 52, 58, 95, 96 
 
 J 
 
 Thornton, William, 38 
 Totill, Richard ; printer, 176 
 Tyrone, ijgn., 191 
 
 V A N T R o u I L L E R, Thomas ; 
 
 printer, 184 
 Vavasour, Thomas, 113 
 Vcrc, Sir Erancis, i6o 
 Vergil, Polydore, 12 
 Vescy, Henry, 178 
 
 Walsingham, Francis, 56, 57, 
 62, 66«., 6gn., 76, 113, 115. 
 125, i2jti., i35n. 
 
 Walsingham, Susan, 164 
 
 Walthcof, Earl, 10 
 
 Warcup, Richard, 5 
 
 Warren, Ralph, 5 
 
 Webbe, Adam, 170 
 
 Westminster, Bishop of, 14 
 
 Westminster, Lord Abbot of. 
 
 White, Rowland, 147, 149, 
 
 163W., 165, i66w. 
 Wight, John ; printer, 184 
 Wilkes ; secretary, 69 
 Wilkinson, Alderman, 7 
 Wilkinson, Joan, nee North, 
 
 wife of the above, 7 
 William the Conqueror, 10 
 Willis, 79, 82 
 
 Willoughby, Lord, 123, 160 
 Winchester, Bishop of, see 
 
 Bilson 
 Winter, William, 34 
 Woodhouse, Maid of Honour, 
 
 165 
 Woodville, Elizabeth, 12 
 Worcester, William, third Earl 
 
 of, 9. 38 
 Worcester, Christian, Countess 
 of, nee North, wife of 
 the above, 9, 22, 23, 3S, 
 
 163 
 Worcester, Edward, fourth Earl 
 
 of, 163, 164 
 Worcester, Countess of, wife 
 
 of the above, 163 
 Wren, Thomas, 179 
 Wren, Sir Christopher, 37;^. 
 
 Zayas, g6n. 
 
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