A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER The Life and Times of John Chamberlain BY EDWARD PHILLIPS STATHAM (RETIRED COMMANDER, R.N.) AUTHOR OF The Story of the "Britannia," Privateers and Privateering, Fifty-two Stories of the Sea, ETC., AND JOINT AUTHOR OF The House of Howard AND History of the Family of Maunsell LONDON : KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO., LTD. N 7 EW YORK : E. P. DUTTON & CO. PREFACE THERE is no occasion for a lengthy preface to this book ; the subject is well known to all biographers and writers of family and national histories dealing with the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, while he is, on the contrary, practically quite unknown to the very large majority not included in this category. It has therefore been deemed worth while, since it had not previously been attempted, to write this account of Chamberlain and his times, as deduced from his letters. It can scarcely claim to be a biography, but his char- acter is pretty clearly outlined in silhouette, as it were, against the background of his friendships, his anxieties and confidences, his uniformly just and intelligent comment upon current events. And thus I commend him to your kind consideration. E. P. S. CONTENTS PAGE. INTRODUCTION ... 1X - CHAPTER I ELIZABETHAN LETTERS, 1597 1600 . CHAPTER II ELIZABETHAN LETTERS, 16001603 . CHAPTER III JACOBEAN LETTERS, 16031608 . 54 CHAPTER IV JACOBEAN LETTERS, 16091614 CHAPTER V JACOBEAN LETTERS, 16141616 CHAPTER VI JACOBEAN LETTERS, 16161618 . . .' CHAPTER VII JACOBEAN LETTERS, 16181621 . . CHAPTER VIII JACOBEAN LETTERS, 16211624 . . .200 viii. CONTENTS PAGE. CHAPTER IX JACOBEAN AND LATER LETTERS, 1624 1626 . 219 APPENDIX I INQUISITIONES POST MORTEM .... 241 APPENDIX II THE WILL OF JOHN CHAMBERLAIN . . . 243 APPENDIX III TENTATIVE CHAMBERLAIN PEDIGREE . 245 INTRODUCTION THE name of John Chamberlain is familiar to every biographer and historian dealing with the reigns of Elizabeth, and James the First. His numerous letters to his friend, Sir Dudley Carleton, profuse in detail, teeming with court and society gossip from day to day, constitute a sort of running commentary upon current policies and events, and not infrequently cast sidelights upon the inner history of his time which will not be found in the writings of recognised historians. Chamberlain was, in truth, a gossip, but the term, as applied to him, must not be interpreted in the usual somewhat uncomplimentary sense i.e., a frivolous tatler, a mischief maker. It is true, indeed, that no story, however trifling, appears to have been beneath his notice ; but side by side with these frothy gleanings there runs a thread of shrewd observation and intelli- gent comment upon contemporary politics and persons, from the sovereign downwards, occasionally including prophecy which is justified by subsequent events. He was intensely loyal, however, and never presumed to criticise the actions of the two monarchs under whom his life was passed, merely recording the facts concerning them which came in his way ; the reader must not expect to find in his correspondence a true estimate of the character of James or Elizabeth ; indeed, any expression of his views in this connection would probably have been very hazardous, but perhaps, like the famous parrot, he " thought the more." He was a man of good education, of no occupation or profession, possessing sufficient means for a life of x. INTRODUCTION leisure ; deeply interested in the events, social and political, of his time, and in the persons concerned there- in, he derived immense pleasure from discoursing upon them. His pen was indefatigable, and he was almost grotesquely scrupulous in the relation of every bit of news which came his way, as he naively acknowledges in one of his letters to Sir Dudley Carleton : " but no doubt you have heard of that before, as perhaps all or most of the rest, but I love to leave nothing that comes to my knowledge or remembrance." Chamberlain's gossip was, however, never malicious, though he did not hesitate to " call a spade a spade " upon occasion ; if he had but little good to say of a man or a woman, he commonly contented himself with a generalisation or a terse aphorism often in Latin covering the circumstances. Of John Chamberlain's ancestry there is not much information forthcoming. His father was undoubtedly Richard Chamberleyn (or Chamberlain), ironmonger and Alderman of London ; from various inquisitions post mortem, from John Chamberlain's will, and from the register of St. Olave's Church, Old Jewry, details have been gathered for a pedigree which, together with the will and the inquisitions, will be found in the Appendices. There is no proof that Edward and Richard Chamberleyn were respectively grandfather and great-grandfather of John, but the assumption appears reasonable ; the remaining details of the pedigree are duly authenti- cated. Richard Chamberleyn, John's father, was evidently a man of considerable means, and of some importance in the city. There was an inscription to him in St. Olave's Church, which ran as follows : " Here lyeth under this Tombe the body of Richard Chamberlaine, Ironmonger, Alderman, and late Sheriff of London, Merchant Adventurer, and free of Russia ; who had two wives, Anne the first, of whom he had issue eight sonnes and five daughters ; of Margaret his last wife he had no INTRODUCTION xi. issue ; which Richard dyed the 19 day of November An. Dom. 1566. To the Poore he was liberall and gave for God's sake ; But now his Fame is plentifull, and he ar heavenly make. He was like one of us, according to our Mould ; But he is now unlike us, in Heaven where he would. His Time was short, in Sickness rare, as to all is known ; But now his Time shall long endure, and never be cast downe. 1 This panegyric is about on a level with most monu- mental effusions of those days ; one is disposed to wonder of what sort were the perpetrators of these halting rhymes. However. Richard was a good man, and in his will (dated 18 October, 1563, and proved 20 February, 1567) affords evidence, in various charitable bequests, of his generosity and consideration for the poor and afflicted. He alludes most affectionately to his second wife, Margaret, and makes her and his eldest son Robert joint executors. Margaret appears to have been twice married previously, as Richard makes bequests to John Brysto and Anthony Walt hall, her children. Of his son John he says : " because that he hath been tendre sicklye and weake, I woulde have him broughte up to learning hereafter, when that he comes to some yeres, either in the universities or ells in some other place beyond sea. . . . and I will commende him to my lovinge and frendely cosen Thomas Goore that he have the bringing of him up." Richard Chamberlain is stated to have had eight sons and five daughters by his first wife, but only six sons are accounted for in his will and that of his son John; probably two died in infancy. He was granted, in April, 1551, a coat of arms Ermine, on a pale embattled sable 3 leopards' heads or ; crest, an ostrich head erased or between two wings argent penned or, holding in his beak a gadd azure. 1 The History and Survey of London, Wm. Maitland ; Vol. II., 1161. St. Olave's was burned in the Great Fire, but records of some of the inscriptions, together with the Register, were preserved. The Register goe3 back to 1538 ; it is now at St. Margaret's, Lothbury. xii. INTRODUCTION This coat is tricked in Harley MS. 5887, fol. 90, impaled with a coat argent, a cross of four ermine (apparently ; it is very badly executed). Below this is a statement as to his marriage and issue, etc., identical with the monumental inscription in St. Olave's Church. In the Visitation of London, 1634, under the heading of Windham, is a coat of arms Ermine, on a pale sable 3 leopards' heads or ; quartered with a coat argent, on a chief azure two crowns, or ; this is labelled as the shield of Robert Chamberlain of London, gent., son and heir of Richard Chamberlain late Alderman and Sheriff of London, and of Anne his wife, daughter and heir of Robert Downes of Yalding in Kent, gent. This statement rests upon the authority of Robert Cooke, Clarenceux ; Robert Downe (not Downes) was, however, of London, as is manifest from the inquisitions, etc. The Chamberlain coat is quartered in that of Windham, adjoining. A similar coat of arms is stamped upon some of the original letters of John Chamberlain in the Record Office ; there is a particularly good impression in wax upon a letter dated 9 January, 1615. It will be observed that in Robert Chamberlain's coat the pale is not embattled, as it is in that granted to his father. These armorial details are not of any great interest, though they deserve mention in this account of the family. There is no evidence to hand as to the precise locality of Richard Chamberlain's house, in which John and his brothers and sisters passed their childhood ; but it must almost certainly have been within the parish of St, Olave's, Jewry. 1 He alludes to his house in his will as being a new one, so it must have been in the old one that John was born. John Chamberlain was in his thirteenth year when his 1 There were two other Churches of St. Olave in the City ; one in Hart Street, the other jn Silver Street. St. Olave's in Hart Street remains as a Parish Church at the present day ; Samuel Pepys and his wife are buried there. INTRODUCTION xiii. father died ; there is no mention of the school which he attended, but the Guilds always looked after the educa- tion of the boys, and no doubt John was well provided for in this respect, under the auspices, after his father's death, of the " lovinge and frendely " Thomas Goore, of the Grocers' Company, in accordance with Richard's testamentary injunction ; and in 1570 he matriculated at Trinity College, Cambridge, as a pensioner. He did not remain, however, to take his degree ; perhaps his health was bad his father describes him as having been " tender, sickly and weak " and this may have interfered with his studies ; but it must be confessed that there is but little evidence in his letters of weakness or ill-health, and he lived to the age of seventy-four. Of Chamberlain's life, after he left Cambridge, there is nothing to record until, at the mature age of three- and-forty, he appears as a letter-writer. He does not seem to have qualified for any profession. There was one John Chamberlaine admitted to Gray's Inn in 1575, which would fit in with Chamberlain's age at that time ; very possibly it was he, but there is no evidence that he was called to the Bar, so it must be concluded that, after he came of age, he was possessed of sufficient means to enable him to live in idleness. It is not clear, from Richard Chamberlain's will, what income was left to his sons, but John was evidently well off when he made his will, possessing lands in various localities, and shares in the Bermudas or Somers Islands, etc., besides plate and furniture of value ; he left Alice Carleton 40 per annum, equivalent to about 200 a year in these (pre- war) days, and also a sum of 600 and so on. Chamberlain was a Londoner, through and through, at any rate after he was about forty, He may have travelled before this period, but his later excursions, as indicated in his letters, were few and far between, and were never of long duration ; he was always longing to get back to his beloved London, to his friends, his circle of gossips, his voluminous letter-writing. xiv. INTRODUCTION At the time of his death he was living in the parish of St. Mary Aldermanbury (lying between London Wall and Gresham Street), and had probably dwelt there for many years, though he elected to be buried in St. Olave's, Old Jewry, with which his family had been connected for a long while. 1 St. Mary's, Aldermanbury, was destroyed in the Great Fire, but was re-built, towards the end of the seventeenth century, upon the same site ; it is now known as St. Mary the Virgin, and the parish is united with that of St. Alphage, London Wall. In this environment, then, John Chamberlain dwelt, and penned his very numerous letters, little imagining that they would be ultimately lodged in the State Paper Office, thence transferred with due care to the present Record Office, and calendered in the familiar volumes which fill a portion of the great circle of presses in the Reading Room of the British Museum. It is not clear how these private letters came to be thus lodged among the State Papers. Mr. John Bruce, in his preface to the Calendar of State Papers, 1625 1626, remarks : " By what means many of these papers were originally brought into the State Paper Office it is not easy to discover. Some of them evidently found their way thither by the accidents to which in disturbed periods the papers of public men are subject." This does not go far towards the elucidation of the problem. Sir Dudley Carleton (or rather Viscount Dorchester, as he was then) died in 1632, which may perhaps be justly described as a " disturbed period " ; Charles I. had three years previously dissolved parliament, and announced his intention of ruling without it, and his methods were not conducive to national confidence and tranquility. However, by some means or other, John Chamberlain's 1 It is worthy of note that John Chamberlain was buried 20 March, 1627-28, and that his will was proved 13 March of the same year, a week before his burial. It was apparently -possible in those days to obtain probate a day or two after the death of the testator ; Chamberlain may have died on 10 or n March; the interval of ten days before his burial would not be unusual at that time. INTRODUCTION xv. letters, almost exclusively addressed to Sir Dudley Carleton, have found their way into the Record Office, and are chronologically placed among the State Papers, Domestic Series, of Elizabeth and James I., and gradually, with the lapse of time, and the increasing facilities afforded to searchers, their value has been realised. Chamberlain's handwriting is clear and easy to read, in contrast with that of most of his contemporaries, and presents no difficulty even to the inexperienced reader. His letters have been transcribed and printed by various hands, and are to be found in sundry collections, though they are not anywhere embodied as a whole ; nor is it intended that they shall be so embodied in these pages. Those which were written during the reign of Queen Elizabeth have been printed in extenso in one volume, edited by Sarah Williams, with copious footnotes identify- ing the various persons alluded to, and an instructive introduction containing some details and conjectures concerning Chamberlain's family. 1 A great number of the letters are printed in The Court and Times of James /., by Dr. Thomas Birch, who was also at the trouble of making a copy in MS. of many of those in the State Papers. Unfortunately, Dr. Birch, though he lived more than a century later than John Chamberlain, wrote a most villanous and illegible hand, and thus sadly discounted the value of his labours. His transcriptions are con- tained in Birch MS. 4173, and are thus easily accessible ; but probably most readers would prefer to pick out the original letters from the State Papers, rather than hurt their eyes and irritate their tempers by poring over Dr. Birch's copies. 2 1 Camden Society's Publications. Vol. 74. 2 Thomas Birch, D.D. (1705 1766) was a well-known man in his time and an industrious writer. Possibly the copies of Chamberlain's letters are written by some scribe employed by him ; in which case apologies are due for the above remarks. xvi. INTRODUCTION Furthermore, Birch was by no means a careful or accurate transcriber ; he sometimes took liberties with the originals, and placed letters in wrong chronological sequence ; " The Court and Times of James I." teems with such instances. A specimen of gratuitous amendment of the originals occurs in a letter from Chamberlain, in which, quoting Sir Walter Raleigh's words in his own defence, he writes " the king had .... given him potestatem vitae et necis (power of life and death) " ; Dr. Birch substitutes " mortis " for " necis " ; Raleigh may have used the former, but in transcribing Chamberlain's letter such a liberty is absolutely unwarrantable, and savours of petty pedantry ; " nex " is quite as good a word for " death " as " mors," though the latter is more frequently used. The present work does not aim at voluminous trans- cription of letters in their entirety ; the first letter is given in extenso, as illustrative of Chamberlain's style and scope ; afterwards such passages only are quoted as may afford a glimpse of various social and political events, as viewed by John Chamberlain and his gossips, together with such incidental comment as is suggested in the process ; many letters are unnoticed, as their perusal would be merely tedious. The original spelling is retained, save in the use of " y " for " i " in such words as " it," " if," etc., which is abandoned after the first few letters as clumsy and unsightly in print. Chamberlain was capricious in this matter, but the use of " y " predominates largely, up to the last letter. It is interesting, however, to note other changes in orthography as time goes on ; " theyre " is superseded by " theire " and " their " ; " Sonday " gives place to "Sunday," " shold " and "cold" to "should" and " could," though " wold " persists obstinately for " would " ; and so on. A Jacobean Letter- Writer June, 1597- -February, 1600 THE earliest of the letters is dated 11 June, 1597, when the writer was forty-three years of age ; probably he had been a great letter-writer for some years previously, but his earlier correspondence has not been preserved. It is improbable that a man with nothing in the world to do except gossip with his friends should have suddenly taken to letter- writing at this mature age. Abandoning conjecture, however, and coming to the point, here is the first letter extant ; it has been considered preferable to insert the details concern- ing individuals in brackets, where they are of sufficient interest, in place of innumerable and some- what irritating footnotes ; the interpolations are given in italics, to ensure due distinction from the body of the letter, and are thus readily rejected by the eye of the incurious reader : " GOODE MR. CARLETON, " I know you lookt longe ere this time to have heard from me, and so might you well have don, if Painter the post had not kept your letter of the eight of May a seasoninge till the sixt of this present 2 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER June. I receved a litle billet before by your sister Williams (Elizabeth, wife of Alexander Williams) in the way of an interim till you had better leasure, but presently upon yt went to Askot, where I met with your brother (George) Carleton (comming from the buriall of your uncle Goodwin) (brother to Carletori's mother), who told me Tobie Mathew had shewed him a letter from you wherein you com- plained much of want, and what narrow straights you were like to be driven to, marvailing you had toucht no such matter in your letters to him, and therewithall began to dilate to me what he had don and could do for you, but the conclusion was that his abilitie is not to supplie all wants, and there- fore you must trust to yourself and make your owne fortune. I replied litle to yt but only in generall termes, the rather because I hope yt is but a borrowed complaint to distast younge Mathew from following you into Fraunce then for any true cause. I am exceeding glad to heare how well you are entertained by my Lord Ambassador (Sir Anthony Mildmay), of whom I presumed no lesse, for though I alwayes knewe him to be paucorum hominum, yet he hath ever shewed himself an honourable fast frend where he found vertue and desert. Mr. Evers ys in Ireland" with the Lord Borrough (Lord Deputy in Ireland), between whom and Sir John Norris there ys lately a solemne pacification made with much counterfet kindenes on both sides. The old Deputie (Sir William Russell) ys come home very fat they say, both in body and purse, having made a luckie conclusion of his government with the overthrow and death of Feffe Mackhugh, an auncient and troublesom rebell ; upon which service he made three knightes at his comming away, viz., Calistenes Brooke, Thomas Maria Wlngfield, and one Trevire (Sir Richard Trevor) a Welchman. Sir Thomas Norris TALK OF A "SEA VIAGE " 3 Lady was lately brought abed there of three daughters, which the Lord Norris imputes to the fertilitie of the soile, and exemplifies yt by a mare he sent two yeares ago to his sonne Thomas that brought two foales. We have great preparation here for a sea viage, which troubles our discoursers how or where yt shalbe imployed. The common sort talke of Callais, others of the Islanes of Tercera, but the most liklie in mine opinion ys to set upon the King of Spaines Navie wherso- ever they can finde yt, or to meet with the Indian fleet. Theire whole number consists of fifteen of the Quene's shippes, besides the two Spanish shippes that were taken the last yeare (which be new fashioned after the English manner), and of two-and-twentie men of warre of Holland and some fowre-and-twentie flie boats and hoyes that serve for cariage of men and vitailes. They have with them 4,000 prest men, and 1,200 muskettiers that come with Sir Francis Vere out of the Low Coun- tries. The voluntaries are thought will rise towardes 2,000. The Erie of Essex ys Generall both at sea and land ; the Lord Thomas (Howard) Vice-Admirall ; Sir Walter Raleigh Rere-Admirall, who is newly restored to the executing his place in Court of Captaine of the Garde. The Erie of Southampton, the Lord Mountjoy, and the Lord Rich go as adventurers, though some say the Lord Mountjoy ys to be Lieutenant-Generall at land ; the Erie of Darbie, the Lord Gray (Grey of Wilton), the Lord Windsor, and Compton pretend likewise to go, but yt is thought shall not get leave. The provisions are hastened on very fast, and yt is saide the Erie of Essex takes his leave at Court on Sonday next the 12th of this present, and hopes to be gon within ten dayes after. The presse of gentlemen will be very great, but I will not stand to set downe any but one or two of your acquaintance, that ys, your cousin Mighell Dormer, whom I can by no means yet disswade, and Hugh Beston (Beeston) that standes to be Treasurer of the jorney, though I doubt he shall not be troubled 4 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER with much receit, for I am half of our Doctor's (Dr. William Gilbert) opinion, that warrants him, yf he have yt, that a well-sadled rat may cary all his accompts. But his true errand is to be knighted as sone or before Sir Peter Evers, neither doth he dissemble yt greatly to his frends, but sayes merelie he hath ben a scabd squire a great while, and could now be content to be a paltrie knight the rest of his time. Sir John North died here on Sonday last, and ys thought to have left his lady but a meane widowe. Sir Thomas Wroughton went much about the same time, and old Duns when I was in Oxfordshire. Sir John Payton is lately made Lieutenant of the Towre, and Sir Henry Cocke either is, or upon the point to be, sworne Coferer of the Queen's houshold. Philip Scudamore ys very forward and like to have Mrs. Lovell the last Coferer's widow, to the great dislike of some of his best frendes. And your Lady Umpton ys in parlee with Mr. George Sherly of Northampton or Leicestershire. This terme, there was one Longe, a Captaine of Somersetshire, condemned in the Starchamber in 500 markes and to stand on the pillorie for chopping and making port-sale of his souldiers. We have here a new play of humors in very great request, and I was drawn alonge to yt by the common applause, but my opinion of yt is (as the fellow saide of the shearing of hogges) that there was a great crie for so litle wolle. This is all I can bethincke me of for the present, neither can you chuse but be reason- ablie satisfied, for what you want in waight you have in measure. Yet ys the greatest newes behinde, that I am upon a viage into Ireland with Mr. Wallop, who with his wife, her mother and your cousin Lytton, have so earnestly intreated me, that partly at theire request, and partly being weary of idleness I have yeelded, and hope to be setting forward within this moneth, and to be here againe before Bartlemew-tide. You be like enough to heare of me before I go, yf there be ought worth writing. Your sister Alice is close prisoner CARLETON GOES TO PARIS 5 at her ladies ; the rest of your frends are in state as you left them. And so wishing you all health and good hap, I bid you farewell. "From London, this longest day of 1597. 1 " Yours most assuredly, "JOHN CHAMBERLAIN. (Addressed) " To my assured goode frend, "Mr. Dudley Carleton, "Attendant on the Lord Ambassador " for Her Majestic at Paris." This, as already stated, appears to be the earliest letter extant written by Chamberlain to Carleton ; they had, however, been in correspondence before this date, for there are several letters from Carleton to Chamberlain ; the earliest, probably written in 1595, is addressed to Chamberlain at Dr. Gilbert's house ; there is nothing of interest in it. The next is written from the French King's camp in France, 13 February, 1596; Carleton says : "lam busy studying French, but Mars leaves little place for Mercury." He writes again on 8 August in the same year, and again on 8 November ; in this letter he writes : "I thank you for the news from France," and refers to " the unhappy success " of his last journey ; on 13 February, 1597, he writes again to Chamberlain at Dr. Gilbert's house, and is evidently on the point of starting for France to take up his appointment at the English Embassy in Paris, in which he was duly installed when Chamberlain wrote to him on 11 June in that year ; these last three letters are written from Oxford. Tobie Mathew (or Matthew) to whom allusion occurs in this letter, was the son of Tobias Matthew, afterwards Archbishop of York. Tobie Matthew was at this time 1 Chamberlain was using the "old style" calendar; by the "new style " it would be the 2ist June. 6 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER only twenty years of age, and it may be deduced from Chamberlain's remarks that he was somewhat prone to force his company upon those whom he admired, or from whom he hoped to obtain some favours. Carleton is suspected by Chamberlain of presenting his circum- stances in doleful language, in order that he might be spared the intrusion of Tobie. Matthew made himself conspicuous a few years later in 1606 by becoming a Catholic, which was a grievous backsliding on the part of the son of a great Church dignitary. In accordance with the tyrannical practices of those times, he was clapped into prison for this exercise of his conscience ; but he was liberated after some months and permitted to go abroad. There are references to him in Chamberlain's later letters, which will be noticed in due course. The sea " viage," to which Chamberlain alludes as being in immediate prospect, was the expedition com- monly known as The Islands Voyage. Philip of Spain, smarting under the defeat of his ships and army at Cadiz in the previous year, was busy about reprisals, and in fact had contrived to organise secretly, in the spring of 1597, a great expedition against England, which, however, failed entirely through stress of weather. Nothing daunted, Philip was preparing for a second attempt, of which we had news, and an expedition was organised with the object of destroying, in the first instance, the Spanish fleet assembling at Ferrol and Corunna, and subsequently of seizing the Island of Tercera, in the Azores, and intercepting the Spanish treasure-ships on their homeward voyage. Chamberlain is pretty accurate in his account of the English force under the Earl of Essex, and he named several men of rank who were to go as " adventurers," i.e., who were anxious to be "in it " when there was fighting to the fore. The expedition sailed on 9 July, 1597, but encoun- tered tempestuous weather, and Essex was forced to THE ISLANDS VOYAGE 7 return and recall his ships for a fresh start, in which, according to Camden the historian, the " adventurers " were not so eager to take part. Says Camden : " These men, with their feathers waving, and glittering in their gay clothes (a peculiar vanity of the English when they go to the warres) set saile from Plymouth on the 9 of July. . . . Some of the more delicate men were growne so feeble with vomiting, and were so afraide of the checks of the furious winde, that they secretly withdrew themselves home." The Islands Voyage was, in fact, a complete fiasco. Essex sailed down the Spanish coast ; he did not attempt to destroy the fleet in Ferrol, but contented himself with waiting about in the hope that the Spaniards would come out and fight. Then, on the strength of a " cock-and-bull " story that the Spanish fleet had actually sailed for the Azores, he abandoned his first project and sailed thither, crossing from island to island and attacking here and there with some successes, which did not further the main object of his enterprise. When at length the Spanish ships arrived, Essex was in the wrong place, and they anchored under the batteries at Tercera, where Essex decided that he could not successfully attack them-" and so home," as Pepys hath it, in a chastened mood, without having either destroyed the Spanish fleet, or captured a dollar of specie. Carleton's cousin, Lytton, alluded to in the letter, was Rowland Lytton of Knebworth Hall, Herts. He was the son of Rowland, who married as his second wife Anne, daughter of John (or George) Carleton, and aunt of Dudley Carleton. Rowland Lytton, the younger, was knighted in 1603. Chamberlain was also distantly connected with the Lyttons, through the marriage of his sister Margery with Edmund Windham. He was on very intimate terms with them, and was a frequent visitor at Knebworth, whence he had just returned when he wrote to Dudley Carleton on 4 May, 1598. In this letter Chamberlain alludes to one of Carleton's 8 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER from Ostend, dated 9 April, which has not been found. Chamberlain writes : " Now, touching your owne commonwealth, I do not greatly like the course you are in, and yet hard beginnings commonly prove best, but still methinckes you are out of your way as longe as you carry but the title of a souldier, and therefore unless your stomacke serve you the better, or that you see great probabilitie of well doing, cedant arrna togae, retire in time, and yf nothing els will take, reserve that course for ultimum refugium at a dead lift." Carleton's next letter, dated 22 April, and probably not received when Chamberlain wrote on 4 May, is written from Rye in Sussex, and addressed to Dr. Gilbert's house; from which it would appear that he had taken his friend's advice. But Carleton's doings are not very clear during this period. In the Die. Nat. Bio. it is simply stated that he spent five years from 1595 to 1600 travelling on the Continent and studying languages ; yet he evidently had some post at the English Embassy in Paris in 1597, and under Sir Edward Norris at Ostend during the following year, apparently involving some military duties, for which Chamberlain thinks he is not well adapted. Chamberlain writes further in this letter : " Mr. Secretary (Sir Robert Cecil) returned the first of this moneth (May) somewhat erased with his posting jorny. The successe of this jorny ys not fully knowne, but thus far, that yt hath staide the French King from going thorough with Spaine, and made him pause, at least. The States offer to maintain him 4,000 men in Picardie, which with little other help will continue the warre there, now that he hath nothing to do elsewhere. They have likewise offered the Queue that whensover yt shall please her to make an invasive jorny into Spaine to 1 From Paris, where he had been on a special mission to Henry IV. of France. EARL OF TYRONE'S MARRIAGE 9 assist her with great store of shipping at theire owne charge, some say to the number of 150 saile." Sir Robert Cecil's journey was made with the purpose of discouraging a peace and possible alliance between France and Spain ; but he was unsuccessful, and they had already made peace on 2 May, two days before the date of Chamberlain's letter : " Yet for all this yt ys still in deliberation whether we shall joine Fraunce in a peace and leave the Lowe Countries or sticke to the Lowe Countries and hold out the warre, and the balannce swayes not yet on either side, at leastwise that can be discerned. Matters in Ireland are farther out of square than ever, so that there ys no other way but to provide the sharper sword." Matters in Ireland were " out of square " an old story this ! by reason of the rebellion inaugurated by Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, a restless and pug- nacious individual, and a past master in all the tricks of controversy and evasion. His action was precipitated by a bitter quarrel with Sir Henry Bagenal, Marshal of the Queen's Troops in Ireland. Tyrone, whose wife his second died in January, 1591, approached Bagenal a few months later with a proposal of marriage with his sister, Mabel, a beautiful girl. Bagenal was furious at the idea, and dismissed Tyrone with violent language. Tyrone was not to be denied, however, and induced the lady to elope with him to Dublin, where he lodged her in the house of a friend until he could persuade the Bishop of Meath to marry them, which he did in August, 1591. Sir Henry refused to pay his sister's dowry, and this became a standing grievance with Tyrone. The elopement was the talk of the town for a while, but Mabel had reason to regret her rashness, for Tyrone acknowledged afterwards that he " did affect two other gentlewomen," and that his wife exhibited articles against him. She died a year or two later. After some years of futile controversy and repeated 10 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER evasions, Sir Henry Bagenal constantly pursuing Tyrone with vindictive hostility, the blaze burst forth, and the rebellion had been in progress for four or five years at the date of Chamberlain's letter, not with credit to English politicians or deputies. Says Chamberlain : " Here is speach of force to be sent thether, but they cannot yet resolve upon aDeputie." The only important matters in the letters about this time are the state of affairs in Ireland, and the prospects of peace with Spain. In his next letter, dated 17 May, 1598, Chamberlain writes : " We are all of opinion that the peace goes forward, and the Lord Buckhurst (Thomas Sackville, afterwards Earl of Dorset) is appointed to go to Abbeville, or some other place thereabout, to conclude yt. Mr. Bodley (Thomas Bodley, founder of the Bodleian Library] ys named as an assistant, but he will not go yf he can possiblie avoide yt. There ys speach likewise of some greater man for countenance, as the Lord Marquis of Winchester, the Erie of Northumberland, or the Erie of Shrewsburie. Matters in Ireland grow daily worse and worse, so that unles they have round and speedy succoures all ys like to go to wracke ; the Counsaile have consulted about it these three or fowre dayes, but I heare of no resolution but only that 4,000 men shalbe sent at leisure." On 20 May he writes : " Barnevelt, the agent and advocate of the States, is here, and hath audience these two dayes together, but I feare we are deafe on that side, and no musike will please us unles yt be to the tune of peace. One of the chief est reasons I can heare for yt ys a kind of disdaine and envie at our neigh- boure's welldoinge, in that we, for theire sake and defence entring into the warre, and being barred from all commerce and entercourse of marchandise, they in the meanetime thrust us out of all tramcke, to our utter undoing (yf in time it be not looked into), and theire own advancement, and though the feare of the Spaniards BLACK CLOUD IN SCOTLAND 11 recovering those countries and increasing greatnes, do somwhat trouble us, yet yt is thought but a weake pollicie for feare of future and uncertain danger (which many accidents may divert) to endure a present and certaine losse. And come what can come, Fraunce and England holding together (as in all probabilitie and reason they are like) they shall alwayes be able to make theire partie goode with Spaine. Another motive to the peace is the troubles of Ireland, which are like to put the Quene to exceeding charge, and withall there appear es a blacke clowde in Scotland that threatens a storme. These, amonge many other reasons that I have heard and sene, are in mine opinion most materiall." The black cloud in Scotland was probably the alleged connivance of James VI. (afterwards James I. of England), at Tyrone's rebellion in Ireland; he was accused in some quarters of assisting Tyrone. In his next letter, dated 31 May, 1598, Chamberlain again harps upon the prospect of peace with Spain. In a former letter of 17 May he had reported that : " Mr. Edmonds ys either gon or presently going into Fraunce with letters to prepare the way for this peace;" note the expression, " this peace " ; a certain scepticism is developing in the mind of the writer concerning the genuineness of the negotiations and the prospects of success, and now, on 31 May, this is decidedly accentuated : " Your friend Edmonds came out of Fraunce the last weeke, and brings worde that the peace there is so forward that yt lacks nothing but the publishinge, which is thought to be performed by this time, and all the townes up on the point of deliverie. He is like to be tossed to and fro, and briekewold like a tennis-ball, from the one side to the other, till somwhat be concluded, for we have two moneths time to deliberate whether we will treat or no, and three moneths more for the treaty ; wherupon we are not yet fully resolved, but consult daily about yt, and the further they looke into yt the more difficulties 12 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER appeare, insomuch that the wisest judgements are distracted, and know not what to choose. For mine owne part, having heard what hath bin saide pro et contra on both sides, I cannot well discerne whether were better an insidious peace or so faint and weake a warre as we have made hitherto and are like to do hereafter, which doth rather prolonge arid drawe on the consumption then remedie the disease. In the meane time the state of Ireland standes in yll termes, for we are so wholly possest with this imaginarie peace that we cannot attend yt." So now it is an " imaginary " peace, and, indeed, it was destined to remain so for some years longer. Probably Chamberlain's view of the matter reflects that of the better-informed members of the community ; the " man in the street " was not in those days nearly as well up in political and international affairs as is his fellow of our times. Chamberlain was in touch with persons in high places, and often obtained material for his gossip at the fountain head. Chamberlain was on the point of starting for Askot (or Ascott, about ten miles west from Woodstock, in Oxfordshire) when he wrote his letter of 31 May, and he appears to have been away until nearly the end of August. He often mentions Askot in his letters, but it is not clear to whom he paid his visits there ; probably Mr. Gent. Dr. Birch, in a note to one of the copied letters, says that John Chamberlain was descended from the Chamberlaynes of Sherborne, County Oxford, but there does not appear to be any evidence to support the statement. In a pedigree which appears in the Visitation of Oxford in 1634 there is one Simon Cham- berlayne of Shipton, which is quite close to Ascott ; but, as is usual in these records, there is not a single date appended. This Simon was four generations before the last Chamberlayne named, who was presumably living in 1634, so he probably flourished early in the sixteenth century. 13 Returning to London before 29 August, so as to be in time to attend the funeral of Lord Burghley on that day, Chamberlain found an accumulation of gossip awaiting him, and on 30 August he wrote a long letter to Carleton : " I came out of Oxfordshire on Satterday last, and on Monday came posting to London with your cosen Lytton to be a beholder of the solemne funeral, wherein he and your brother Carleton were actors. . . . The Lord Treasurers funeral was performed yesterday with all the rites that belonged to so great a personage. The number of mourners one and other were above 500, wherof there were many noble men, and among the rest the Erie of Essex, who (whether yt were upon consideration of the present occasion, or for his owne disfavours) methought carried the heaviest countenance of the companie. Presently after dinner he retired to Wansted, where they say he meanes to settle, seing he cannot be receved in Court, though he have relented much and sought by divers meanes to recover his hold. But the Quene says he hath plaide longe enough upon her, and that she meanes to play awhile upon him, and to stand as much upon her greatnes as he hath don upon stomacke. The Lord Treasurer hath left the Quenes cofers so bare, that there is but 20,000 to be found, and the Quene is faine to demaund in lone of the cittie 40,000, wherof they can presently furnish her but the one halfe. Of his private wealth there is but 11,000 come to light, and that all in silver, whereof 6,000 (with eight or nine hundred pounds land) he bequeathed to his two neeces of Oxford (they were really his grand-daughters], the rest in other legacies. And his lands seme not so great as was thought, for Mr. Secretarie (Sir Robert Cecil) sayes his owne part will not rise to 1,600 a yeare upon the racke. It is much laboured to make him Lord Treasurer, wherin yf he faile yt is assuredly thought he shalbe Master of the Wardes, for of necessitie there must be one, by opinion 14 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER of the lawyers. Mr. Maynard (Henry Maynard was Secretary to Lord Burghley) is become the Quenes man, and that with such high favor that yn goode earnest he is thought to be neerest yn election to be Secretaire, and the rather for that Mr. Secretarie is altogether for him. The States are gon away well contented yn that they thincke they have tied us fast by offring to pay our men of warre, garrisons and all, and to rembourse 3,000 yearlie to the Quene, till the whole debt be run out. Yet for all this yt is thought we shall treat, marry so that the States must be included with theire owne conditions. The Lord Cromwell (Edward, third Baron] sues hard and makes large offers for the govern- ment of the Brill, but it is thought, if the warre go forward, that the Quene, with the States' consent, will translate that garrison to Armew, thereby to have her forces neerer together, and to assure herself better of Middleburgh and the He of Walkeren. It is said your Lord Governor of Ostend (Sir Edward Norris) shall continue his place, but most of your Companies shalbe called away for Ireland. We say the late Cardinall (the Archduke Albert of Austria) is sworne and receved Duke of Burgundie by 14 of the provinces, and that presently he made proclamation that he meant to renounce all his father-in-lawes (Philip II. of Spain) quarrells, and to entertain amitie with all his neighbours, specially the Auncient allies and confederates of the house of Burgundie, and that Englishmen, Scottes and others might safely traffieke in all his dominions, and that the States of Holland might likewise trade, go and come with all securitie during eight moneths, till other order may be taken for continuance ; and that all strangers men of warre are to avoide within two moneths. Further, that he is gon into Spain to fetch his bride (the Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia), having obtained leave of the provinces to be absent one yeare, when if he returne not, they are discharged from theire oath and obedience. Wherby we gather (as it is likewise reported) GREAT BLOW IN IRELAND 15 that the King of Spaine is certainly dead, but these things must be better known to you as being neerer the market. We have lately receved a great blow yn Ireland ; Sir Henry Bagnoll the Marshall went with 3,500 foot complete, and 300 horse, to relieve the fort of Blackwater, distressed by Tiron, and being come within two mile of yt, in a pace or woode, where the ennemie had strongly intrenched himself, was so furiously set upon that himself was there slaine with 16 other Captaines, and above 700 souldiers ; the rest retired to Armagh (having left to the ennemie seventeen ensignes), not knowing how to tarry there or remove thence in safetie, the ennemie being betwene eight and ten thousand strong. But newes came yesterday that they had made theire appointment, and that Tiron, out of his merciles bountie, had granted them leave to bury theire dead, and to go away with all they had, so that the fort night be delivered him ; to the governor wherof, Captaine Williams, and his souldiers, he would geve no better conditions, then to depart in theire dubletts and hose only, with rapier and dagger. This is the greatest losse and dishonour the Quene hath had in her time, and yet yt seemes we are not moved with it, which whether it proceed more of courage then of wit I know not, but I feare yt is rather a careles and insensible dulnes. Sir Samuel Bagnoll went post for Ireland on Satterday last, but his course and plot must be quite altered, for yt is to no purpose to go to Lough- foile now that the Blackwater ys lost. Sir Richard Bingham hath ten dayes respite to set his thinges yn order, and then go to Marshall of Ireland with 5,000 men ; but I doubt yt wilbe rather in speach then yn performance. The Lord Cobham was installed Lord Warden of the Cinq Ports on Bartlemew day at Caimt- erbury, at which ceremonious solemn itie were assembled almost 4,000 horse, and he kept the feast very mag- nificently, and spent 26 oxen with all other provision sutable. He, the Lord Thomas Howard, Sir Walter 16 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER Raleigh and Sir John Stanhope are in speach to be sworne shortly of the Counsaile. Our marchants have lost two or three ships going to Muscovie, and one is missing that shold come from thence. Sir Charles and Sir Henry Danvers are come. I saw them both yesterday. Sir James Scudamore's lady, that was so rich a manage, is lately deade in childbed. Mrs. Vernon is from the Court, and lies in Essex house ; some say she hath taken a venew under the girdle and swells upon yt, yet she complaines not of fowle play, but says the Erie of Southampton will justifie it ; and yt is bruted, under- hand, that he was latelie here fowre dayes yn great secret of purpos to marry her, and effected yt accord- ingly. I thancke you for the letter you wrote me hence, though yt were longe ere yt came to my hands. I met your Alexander and Bucephalus at Sir William Spencers, and delivered his letter to your brother Carleton, for he challenged yt as by your appointment, though he shewed no commission ; and thus, having wearied both myself and you, I bid you farewell and commit you to God. " Yours most assuredly, " JOHN CHAMBERLAIN." This letter is a fair sample of Chamberlain's gossiping effusions, covering a vast amount of ground. The Earl of Essex " carried the heaviest countenance " at Lord Burghley's funeral, no doubt, by reason of " his owne disfavours," for he had some weeks previously incurred the Queen's displeasure, expressed in an unusually emphatic fashion, even for that plain-spoken and autocratic sovereign. Essex was present at a Council convened for the purpose of selecting a Lord Deputy for Ireland, and taking advantage, as he always did, of his intimacy with Elizabeth, he countered her suggestion so vehemently and discourteously that she administered one of those terse and strongly-worded rebukes of which she was such an accomplished mistress. Essex insolently turned his back upon her with some con- THE QUEEN AND ESSEX 17 temptuous expression ; the virgin queen retorted with a stinging box on the ear, and bade him " go and be hanged." And many an unwary courtier has actually been hanged for a lesser offence ; Elizabeth's father would have made short work of any man, favourite or otherwise, who thus presumed. In this instance, as Essex must have been well aware, the buffet was at once the outcome of annoyance and personal regard ; Essex was behaving like a spoiled child, as he was, and the Queen administered the punishment she deemed suitable ; but Essex, blinded by passion and vanity, acutally clapped his hand to his sword-hilt in menacing fashion. The Earl of Nottingham, who was present in his capacity as Lord High Admiral, intervened between the Queen and the Earl, who declared that " he would not have taken that blow from King Henry, her father," and rushed from the room, flinging back some impert- inent allusion to " a King in petticoats " as he made his discourteous exit. No wonder the Queen intimated that she intended for a while to " stand upon her greatnes as he hath don upon his stomacke," and Essex was finding his " stomacke " sadly deflated as he attended the funeral of the Queen's faithful counsellor, Lord Burghley, knowing that she had repeatedly visited him when he was dying, and had actually insisted upon feed- ing him with her own hands ; while he, her prime favourite, was dismissed with a box on the ear. And what a chance he had missed, through his vanity and pettishness ; had he turned and kissed the Queen's hand, instead of swaggering with his hand on his sword, all previous offences would assuredly have been par- doned on the instant ; Elizabeth would have appreciated keenly such an act of chivalry, and Essex might almost have dictated the choice of the Lord Deputy ; but he was too entirely lacking in nobility to avail himself of the opportunity, and so he sulked at Lord Burghley's funeral. As for the " great blow " in Ireland, it was a sad c 18 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER instance of the procrastination and irresolution which appears to be inseparable from all our dealings with the Irish people. There had been a disastrous affair in the previous year at Carrickfergus, when Sir John Chichester, with a totally inadequate force, was engaged with Sir James McDonnell, who commanded what was little better than a rabble ; but he defeated Chichester with heavy losses. Sir John was killed, and his head, together with that of Captain Rhys Mansel (or Mansfield), who had greatly distinguished himself in the battle, was sent to Tyrone as a trophy of victory. Blackwater Fort had been heroically defended early in August, 1598, by Captain Thomas Williams, who, with a garrison of only four companies had repulsed with heavy loss an attack in great force by Tyrone. The latter, however, proceeded to entrench himself and closely invest the fort. It was imperative that steps should be taken to relieve the fort, and the Dublin Council, in a state of great consternation and indecision, had asked advice of the Council in England. In the end it was decided to divide the English forces in Ireland, one half to proceed against the Cavanaghs under the Earl of Ormond, the other, under Sir Henry Bagenal (spelled also Bagnall and Bagnoll) to relieve Blackwater. The Council w r as anxious to send Ormond on the latter service, but Bagenal entreated permission to meet his old enemy, Tyrone ; their bitter animosity dating back, it will be recollected, to Tyrone's runaway marriage with Bagenal's sister in 1591. Bagenal had a force of about 4,000 foot and 350 horse, while Tyrone, as was afterwards proved, commanded eight or ten thousand men. The result was disaster : Bagenal had his wish in fighting against his brother- in-law 7 , and it cost him his life ; his men were over- whelmed and scattered, some two thousand being slain ; the remnant retired on Armagh, where they were lodged in the Cathedral. Says Chamberlain, " newes came yesterday that .... Tiron out of his merciles bountie, DUBLIN COUNCIL'S LETTER 19 had granted them leave to bury theire dead and go away with all they had, so that the fort might be delivered to him." The gallant Williams and his heroic little garrison were turned out in their doublets and hose, with their side-arms. The action took place on 14 August, and on the 16th the Dublin Cotmcil wrote to Tyrone : " We have taken knowledge of the late accident happened to part of Her Majesty's forces employed in Ulster, only for victualling of the Blackwater, and that many of them are retired into Armagh, where they now remain ; we thought good upon this occasion to send to you on their behalf ; though we think that in your own consideration you will let them depart without doing them any further hurt ; we are to put you in mind how far you may incense Her Majesty's indignation towards you if you shall do any further distress to those Companies, being as you know in cold blood ; and on the other side how far you may move Her Majesty to know a favourable conceit of you by using favour to these men ; and besides your ancient adversary the Marshal being now taken away, we hope you will cease all further revenge towards the rest, against whom you can ground no cause of sting against yourself, being employed by Her Majesty in this Her Highness' service. Thus much we thought good to signify unto you, and by way of caution to admonish you to avoid to provoke so mighty a Prince upon such a matter as to distress her servitors in cold blood." This futile combination of entreaty and menace was not calculated to find favour with Elizabeth. W T hen she read a copy of it she wrote to the Council and Lords Justices in Dublin : "We may not pass over this foul error to our dishonour, when you of our Council framed such a letter to the traitor after your defeat, as never were read the like either in form or substance for base- ness ! Being such as we persuade ourself, if you shall peruse it again when you are yourselves that you will 20 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER be ashamed of your own absurdities, and grieved that any fear or rashness should ever make you authors of an action so much to your Sovereign's dishonour, and to the increasing of the traitor's insolency." Hard hitting for the Dublin Council, but well merited. The Queen, however, adds a postscript : " Since the writing of this letter we have understood that your letter which we heard from you was sent to the traitor by you hath since been stayed by accident, whereof for our own honour we are very glad, though for yourselves the former purpose still deserves the same imputation." 1 Tyrone, for some reason, did not follow up his success ; he could have marched on Dublin and taken it almost without resistance. There are further allusions to him in later letters. Chamberlain remarks upon the apathy with which the news was received in London : " Whether it proceed more of courage than of wit I know not, but I feare it is rather a careles and insensible dulnes ; " and it is to be feared that he was right. Mistress Elizabeth Vernon, daughter of Sir John Vernon of Hodnet, and one of Elizabeth's Maids of Honour, to whom Chamberlain alludes, was secretly married in August 1598 to the Earl of Southampton. The Earl was on very friendly terms with Essex, at whose house the lady was lodged pending her marriage, which was expedited by Essex, who thereby, it is said, incurred the Queen's strong displeasure somewhat unreasonably, perhaps, under the circumstances indicated by Chamberlain, which rendered it expedient that the marriage should speedily take place. But perhaps this was kept secret from the Queen. Chamberlain's allusion to " your Alexander and Bucephalus," whom he met at Sir William Spencer's is not very intelligible ; possibly this was some little 1 The spelling is modernised in these two letters, but the text is precisely as written. STANLEY THE POISONER 21 family joke in connection with Alexander Williams, who married Carleton's sister Elizabeth. The next letter, dated 17 September, 1598, is a short one, from which one sentence is worth quoting. The letter is dated from Knebworth, arid Chamberlain writes : " He (i.e., Rowland Lytton) went yesterday to Bletso (the seat of Oliver Lord St. John) to convoy the Lady Pelham (Judith, daughter of Oliver first Lord St. John, widow of Sir John Pelham) that hath lien here this fortnight, and wold faine have drawne me along with him, but by good hap a certain cold and hoarseness kept me at home, for, how well soever they use me, yet methincks still I am out of mine element when I am among Lords, and I am of Rabelais minde that they looke big comme un Millord d'Angleterre." This ingenuous admission lets in a little further light upon Chamberlain's character ; there is no ground for refusing to accept it as sincere, and it is indicative of entire absence of toadyism. In another letter, dated from London, 3 October, 1598, Chamberlain writes : " One Stanley, that came in sixteen dayes over land with letters out of Spaine, is lately committed to the Towre. He is very ernest to have private conference with Her Majestic, pretending matter of great importance, which he wold by no meanes utter to anybody els." This Stanley, with Edward Squire and William Monday, was concerned in a plot to kill the Queen by means of an ingeniously concocted poison which, being placed in a chair or on a saddle, would cause the death of the person sitting or riding thereon ; the Earl of Essex was to be dealt with in like manner. According to the declarations of these men, the poison was actually placed in the Earl's chair and on the Queen's saddle, but they were sad liars, and their statements cannot be relied upon. They alleged that Edward Walpole, a Jesuit priest, was one of the chief instigators to the plot ; this was a man of good family in Norfolk, who became 22 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER a Catholic about 1587, and subsequently surrendered all his large estate to his brother, and was eventually received into the Jesuit Order. He said Mass and preached in England for years at the risk of his life, passing under the alias of Rich for some years ; he died in 1637. This story was, of course, a parcel of lies ; all the rascals who were detected in similar schemes laid them to the credit of the Jesuits, knowing how bitter Elizabeth was against them. Probably Stanley, who was a prisoner in Spain, was liberated and bribed on condition of making some attempt upon Elizabeth's life. The poison, however, which was to work in such wonderful fashion, proved, as might have been expected, quite innocuous ; if, indeed, it was ever administered. Chamberlain, of course accepts the tale about the wily Jesuit. In a subsequent letter, dated 22 November, 1598, he writes (alluding to the failure of the poison) : " But because nothing succeeded of it, the priest thinck- ing he had either chaunged his purpose or bewraied it, gave Stanley instructions to accuse him, therby to get him more credit and to be revenged of Squire for breaking promise. The fellow confest the whole practice, and, as it seemed, died very penitent." A highly improbable story ; but any stick was good enough to beat a Jesuit with. The succeeding letters contain many allusions to the trouble in Ireland, and the possible appointment of Essex as Lord Deputy, which is roundly prophesied one day and contradicted 011 the next ; on 20 December, 1598, Chamberlain writes that, pending some sort of decision concerning this and other matters in Ireland, Essex and Sir Robert Cecil " have so good leisure that they plie the tables hard in the presence chamber, and play so round game as if Ireland were to be recovered at Irish " ; a good mot, " Irish " being a game in vogue at that time, differing but little from backgammon. On 15 March, 1599, Chamberlain writes that " this ESSEX GOES TO IRELAND 23 great Commission for Ireland is dispatcht, and the Erie (of Essex) hath all his demaundes, the Quene showing herself very gracious and willing to content him " ; but some months later, 1 August, 1599, " many men marvaile that my Lord hath spent so much time and don so litle. . . . My Lord hath lately made 16 new Knights, for what service I know not, but belike it is de bene esse, in hope they will deserve it hereafter." In this and the following letter of 9 August there is also a great deal concerning a rumoured Spanish expedition against England on a large scale, and the great preparations which were in progress to meet it. Cham- berlain only half believes in it ; nevertheless he writes on 9 August : " Your cousen Lytton hath the leading of 300 men, and came up to make his provisions, whome I meane to accompanie, and (though I were never pro- fessed souldier) to offer myself in defence of my country, which is the best service I can do it ; " very spirited of him, at the age of five-and-forty, with, according to his father, a somewhat shaky constitution. He is decidedly contemptuous of a futile scheme of the Earl of Cumberland for the defence of the Thames : " Sir Thomas Gerrard was appointed Colonell of the London- ers, but for an old grudge since the last Parliament they would have none of him ; wherupon the Erie of Cumberland was geven them, to have charge of them and the river, which he undertooke with great con- fidence, meaning to make a bridge somwhat on this side Gravesend, after an apish imitation to that of Antwerp, and to that end got together all the lighters, boates, Westerne barges, cables, and anchors that were to be found, giving out that with 1,500 musketters he wold defend that bridge or loose his life upon it (but God forbid he shold have been put to it) ; but whether upon triall they finde it not faisible, as bearing another manner of bredth and billow then the river of Antwerp, or upon what other reason I know not, yesterday, after much turmoile and great charges bestowed, it 24 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER was quite geven over, and now they have an imagination of sinking certain hulkes in channell, if need shold be. Upon Monday, toward evening, came newes (yet false) that the Spaniardes were landed in the lie of Wight, which bred such a feare and consternation in this towne as I wold litle have looked for, with such a crie of women, chaining of streets, and shutting of the gates, as though the ennemie had ben at Blackewall. I am sory and ashamed that this weakeness and naked- nes of ours on all sides shold shew itself so apparently as to be carried far and neere to our disgrace both with f rends and foes." There is ample evidence of this scare in contemporary State Papers ; but on 23 August Chamberlain writes : " The world is well amended here since I wrote last, and the storme that seemed to looke so blacke almost quite blown over .... the Lord Generall (the Earl of Nottingham), with all the great officers of the field, came in great bravery to Powles Crosse on Sonday was sevenight and dined with the Lord Mayor, and then was the alarme at hottest that the Spaniards were at Brest, which was as likely and fell out as true as all the rest." Essex is making many new Knights this appears to be all that he was doing in Ireland and Chamberlain fears " that if he continue this course he will shortly bring in tag and rag, cut and longe taile, and so draw the order into contempt." This lavish display of the powers conferred upon him by the Queen was characteristic of Essex, gratifying to his vanity and sense of his own importance. In this same letter Chamberlain writes : " Alabaster that escaped out of the Clinke 1 is brought in coram again, being sent from Rochelle." William Alabaster 1 The Clinke was a well-known prison or lock-up in South wark ; it is constantly alluded to in State Papers and private correspondence in the i6th and I7th centuries, ALABASTER'S ADVENTURES 25 was somewhat famous as a Latin poet ; he was M.A. of Cambridge, and subsequently took orders, going out as Chaplain to the Earl of Essex in the Cadiz expedition of 1596. At Cadiz, however, he became a Catholic, and on his return he published a pamphlet giving " Seven Motives " for his conversion. As might have been expected, his " Motives " were not acceptable to the Queen and her Council, and he was imprisoned ; he twice made his escape, and ultimately went to Rome, where, according to his own account, he was detained in the prison of the Inquisition, and only liberated on condition that he remained within the city for five years. He contrived, however, to return to England, and apparently came to the conclusion that the role of martyr for his faith was too irksome, for he reverted to Protestantism, was made Doctor in Divinity, a Prebend of St. Paul's, and Rector of Tharfield (or Therfield) in Hertfordshire, a living which is now worth 750 a year, with sixty-six acres of glebe and residence. So he certainly " scored " in the matter of tempor- alities, however he may have fared spiritually, by his recantation. Six months later, on 22 February, 1600, Chamberlain writes : " You left us here with so faire weather, and with so confident an opinon that all shold go well with my Lord of Essex, and that we shold see him a-cockhorse again, that I know it wilbe straunge newes to you to heare that all was but a kinde of dreame, and a false paradise that his frends had fained to themselves, giving theire hopes and discourses libertie to outrun theire wit, for the bright sunshine that seemed so to dasell them was indeed but a glimmering light that was sodainly overshadowed again, and the skie as full of cloudes as before ; and, though they thought they saw a reconciliation twixt him and Mr. Secretarie (Sir Robert Cecil) (wherupon they built many idle fancies and liberall discoursings), yet either theire eyes were not theire owne, or els they had false spectacles that made 26 A JACOBEAN LETTER- WRITER everything that was don seeme more then double ; for Mr. Secretarie never spake with him since he was com- mitted, but only carried his letter of submission that kept him from the Star Chamber, so that my Lord continues where he was, and, for ought I heare, is like enough to tarry there still." Essex was at this time confined in York House, and learning that it was proposed to bring him before the Star Chamber, he wrote a piteous letter to the Queen, begging that he might be spared the indignity. This letter, and that in which he thanks the Queen for granting his request, are so characteristic that they will bear transcribing here ; they will not be found in any ordinary history of the time : "11 February, 1600. I do now even receive from my Lord Keeper a significance of your Majesty's pleasure to have me called to a judicial hearing in the Star Chamber on Wednesday next ; which if it had been the sentence of death, should have been welcome to me, coming with that warrant. Be pleased to remember how humbly and unfeignedly I have acknowledged mine offence ; how patiently I have undergone your indig- nation, and how much more it will agree with your princely and angelic nature to have your mercy blazed by the tongue of your once happy, but now most sorrowful orator, than to have a sentence given to ruin and disable him who despiseth life when he shall be made unfit for your service. Dare I not sue lest I be blamed of presumption ? Yes, Deity itself will be both sued unto and importuned. I again acknowledge mine offence, and beg that this cup may pass from me." On the following day the Queen, by means of a letter which she ordered Thomas Windebank to write to Sir Robert Cecil, but which was never sent, and further by a message to the Earl of Nottingham and the Lords of the Council, made her wishes clear without replying to Essex's appeal, and the Star Chamber trial was cancelled. The news must have been immediately conveyed to ESSEX FLATTERS THE QUEEN 27 Essex, for he writes on the same day : " When the creature enters into account with the Creator, it can never number in how many things it needs mercy, nor in how many it receives it ; but he that is best stored must still say Da nobis, and he that hath showed most thank- fulness must ask again Quid retribuam ? I no sooner finish this my first audit, but I consider how large a measure of His grace and how great a resemblance of His power God has given you, and how many ways he gives you occasion to exercise those gifts upon your vassals. This confession most fitteth me of all men, and is joyfully and humbly made. I acknowledge, upon the knees of my heart, your Majesty's infinite goodness in granting my petition. God is witness how faithfully I vow to dedicate the rest of my life to your Majesty, without admitting any other worldly care ; whatsoever your Majesty resolves to do with me, I shall live and die your humble vassal." Words, words, words ! Twelve months later this abject flatterer and " humble vassal " of the Queen was sentenced to death for raising a rebellion to enforce an audience with her, and to impose upon her the aims of himself and his clique of admirers. CHAPTER II ELIZABETHAN LETTERS March, 1600 February, 1603 IN several letters Chamberlain uses the expression " my wife," from which it might obviously be inferred that he was married. This, however, was not the case. The lady to whom he alludes was Winifred, youngest daughter of Sir Henry Wallop of Farley, Hants, ancestors of the Earls of Portsmouth. The first allusion occurs in a letter dated 5 March, 1600 : " This is now my third letter since I saw or heard of you, and I write in the more hudling haste because I thincke to go to Kneb- worth very shortly, where I meane to tarrie till toward the terme, when my wife promiseth to come and fetch me home." Chamberlain was on very intimate terms with the Wallops, who were also frequent visitors at the Lyttons' place at Knebworth, and one can readily imagine that a staid bachelor, well on in his forties, might indulge in some semi-paternal or quasi avuncular pleasantries with a girl probably young enough to be his daughter, even going the length of mutual nicknames (though we are not told that Winifred had any familiar title for John Chamberlain) ; but the frequent mention of her in his letters as his wife without the precision of her name, thus implying that his friend was perfectly well aware to whom he alluded, is somewhat remarkable. It will be convenient to anticipate a little, and quote the further references which occur in subsequent letters. 28 CHAMBERLAIN'S " WIFE " 29 On 13 June, 1600, Chamberlain writes : " This hath ben a day of great doings in seing him (Rowland Lytton) and his troupes well set out of towne, and in the armies removing from Clarkenwell, whence they are all dis- lodged this afternoone towardes Hampshire, and your brother (George Carlclon) with his pettie regiment marched away much about the same howre, so that I was greatly distracted to supply all places, wherby I could not do my wife the honor (as was my meaning) to conduct her some part of the way, though she were otherwise sufficiently accompanied." On 27 May, 1601, he writes : " I go tomorrow to Knebworth, though I came lately thence about the middle of this last terme, being sent for from Askot some three weekes before to meet your cosen and Mrs. Lytton at Farley about a match for my wife, which is since dispatcht with younge Gifford, a kinseman of her owne." Very quaint ! Who ever heard of a man making a " match for his wife " ? From another letter we gather that he was present at her wedding. On 8 July, 1601, he writes : " I am very sorry my last letter miscarried, because it conteyned the whole abridgement of my progresse into Hampshire, my wife's marriage, and a great rabblement of such other like matter." On 13 August, 1601 : " I am going tomorrow toward Hampshire to gossip with my Lady Wallop, lately brought to bed of a sonne, and so forward to my wifes to see how she is accommodated of all manner imple- ments." On 19 September, 1601 : " I aunswered your letter of the 24th July from Askot, where I since received another of yours of the fift August, at my returne from my Hampshire progres, the progresse wherof is not worth the writing, save only that I came to the churching of my Lady Wallop, who is not a little prowde of her little boy, and visited my old wife at her new home, 30 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER where she playes the huswife out of crie, but will have much ado to bringe that riotous and disordred house into any order, yet her vertue \vill shine the more if she can bring light out of darkenes, or alter the frame of that confusion into any reasonable government. Once the place and state of that living is worthie of her travaile, and I do not greatly dispaire of the successe, having so kinde and tractable a husband towards her, and one that makes very much of her, wherof I take no small comfort, and the more for that it is thought she is prettily forward with child, though I need not bragge nor boast of it." On 2 October, 1602 : " From Askot I met Mr. Lytton at Sir Henry Wallops, where I found my wife brought to bed of a boy, wherein I tooke no great comfort (as I told her) having so little part in him." These last sallies would appear to indicate that Chamberlain's attachment for Winifred was not precisely of a paternal or p] atonic character ; but the customs and manners of the times permitted of considerable licence of speech, without ulterior meaning being necessarily implied. Winifred's husband, Sir Richard Gifl'ord, w T as her first cousin, his father having married her aunt. John Gough Nichols, the well-known antiquary of last century, comments upon the subject in " Notes and Queries ' 5l and cites a parallel case of a few years later, in which George Lord Carew, writing to Sir Thomas Roe, repeatedly alludes to " my wife Anne Dudley," mentioning her marriage and her death at the birth of her child ; Anne Dudley was probably a young maid of honour at the Court of James I. (1615 and 1616). Lord Carew, was the Vice-Chamberlain of the Queen's house- hold, where he would be constantly seeing Anne Dudley ; possibly she was his favourite among the rnaids of honour, and so there came to be established between 1 Series II., Vol. XII., p. 42. A SANGUINARY DUEL 31 them an exchange of familiar but harmless badinage when they encountered. " I cannot, however, help thinking," says Mr. Nichols, " from the constancy with which both he and Chamber- lain persist in employing the phrase ' my wife ' whenever they mention the person to whom they respectively apply it, that it may refer to some social custom that had greater influence than a casual preference, but of which we have now lost sight." There is certainly something to be said for this hypothesis, but the investigation of it would involve a vast amount of research, and cannot now be embarked upon ; the somewhat quaint and apparently harmless idiosyncrasy of John Chamberlain in thus designating as his " wife," both before and after her marriage, a young woman who certainly did not stand in any such relation to him must remain more or less of a mystery, and as such is now dismissed. The letters of 1 600 contain no very interesting matter. Affairs in Ireland are gradually becoming brighter, Tyrone's forces being in several instances defeated and followed with slaughter ; the war with Spain showing no signs of conclusion. On 10 October, 1600, Chamberlain writes : " We heare that Sir Robert Mansfeld and Sir John Heydon, two Norfolk Knights, have slaine one another in the feild." This was riot true, as neither was killed ; but it was a very savage and murderous duel. Sir Robert Mansfeld was Vice-Admiral Sir Robert Mansel, of the Welsh family of that name ; Chamberlain can scarcely be blamed for spelling his name wrongly, as the Admiral himself was in the habit of spelling it in various ways, and there are letters of his extant to which he signs himself Mansfeelde. He was the son of Sir Edward Mansel, of Margam Abbey, in Glamorganshire, and was knighted when quite a young man, after the Cadiz expedition of 1596, in which he took part under Lord 32 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER Howard of Effingham (afterwards Earl of Nottingham). Sir John Heydon was one of the numerous knights made in Ireland by the Earl of Essex, to whom allusion has already been made. The actual cause of the quarrel was never revealed ; at any rate Mansel does not state what it was, in his account of the affair, though he appears to have insisted that Heydon should sign some papers, or articles, on paiii of death. The two combatants left the town of Norwich with their seconds, but the latter were not, as was customary, to witness the encounter. Hansel's rapier was a full inch shorter than Heydon's, but he would not hear of any delay on that account : " I absolutely refused, and swore that they should not keep me from ending the difference at that time with my own sword." He was in a very blood-thirsty temper, and it must be assumed that Heydon had behaved very badly to him. Dismissing the seconds, the two principals rode off together, and fell to, each being armed with a rapier and a dagger. It was a most bloody encounter ; both were desperately wounded, but Mansel had the better of it, and apparently compelled the other to sign the papers, having first, by some means or other, cut off his left hand not an easy matter, either, with rapier which was intended, chiefly, for thrusting or dagger ; but Heydon was undoubtedly thus mutilated, and was thereafter known as " Heydon of the one hand." This affair was naturally the talk of the town, for Mansel was becoming very well known ; depositions were taken before two Justices of the Peace, one of whom Sir Bassirigbournc Gandy was related to Mansel by marriage ; they wrote to the Council on Mansel's behalf; whether they were in possession of the actual facts as to the original cause of the quarrel does not appear. Sir Bassingbourne also wrote to Lord Chief Justice Popham, but Popham gave him a very short answer, HEYDON'S HAND 33 and told him that he would be better employed, as Justice of the Peace, in discouraging and reproving " bate- sowers " (i.e., mischief makers) on both sides " and even so I betake you to the protection of the Almighty, and the peace of your country to your care." A ghastly sequel to the business was the preservation of Heydon's severed hand by members of his family, who eventually placed it in the public museum at Canterbury, with an inscription containing the untrue statement that he died of his wounds he lived for fifteen years afterwards. Probably we shall hear of Sir Robert Mansel again later on. In his next letter, dated 15 October, 1600, Chamberlain laments the dearth of interesting gossip to be imparted to his friend : " It seemes you had ben kept longe fasting that could finde such taste in those poore occur- fents I sent you. At my first comming hither all was fish that came to net, and I bestowed it as freely as it came, which, seing it was so welcone, I wold faine second with the like, but, whether it be that I am not so sharp set as I was, or that the market affoords it not, methinckes, though here be more store of companie, yet here is lesse provision in that kinde and therefore you must be content with a shorter pittaunce The Barbarians take theire leave some time this weeke to go homeward, for our marchants nor marriners will not carrie them into Turkic, because they thincke it a matter odious and scandalous to the world to be too frendly or familiar ^with infidels ; but yet it is no small honor to us that nations so far remote and every way different shold meet here to admire the glory and magnificence of our Quene of Saba." The " Barbarians" were Muly Hamet Xarife, Ambass- ador from the King of Barbary, and his attendants. Barbary was then under the dominion of Turkey, and the King was a vassal of the " Grand Signer," or Sultan of Turkey. Towards the end of this letter Chamberlain writes : D 34 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER " I understand that Litle Britain must lie desolate, like a place for owles and ostriches, all this term." There are several allusions in his letters to Little Britain, and it may be assumed that some of Chamber- lain's intimate friends dwelt there. It would be in the parish of St. Mary Aldermanbury, and was then, no doubt, a residential quarter. Writing on 22 December, 1600, Chamberlain has some gossip about the marriage of Henry IV. of France with Marie de Medicis : " The French King kept the solemnitie of his marriage at Lions the 23th of the last, and saw not the great Duchesse nor the Duchesse of Mantua, who went into Loraine another way, because they espied his humour that he lingered at the campe for the nonce only to avoide charges and geve them no presents. His miserie (i.e., miserliness) and ambition is much misliked of all, and the clergie will in no wise be well pers waded of him. He was so desirous and hastie to see his Quene, that he went disguised as a private gentleman with others (that he had appointed) to see her dine, and caused a letter from himself to be delivered her in his presence (unknowne yet), which she received with such humbleness that it was praised of everybody and pleased him not a little. He could not tarry the solemnity, but went that night to her unknowne, and one of his minions demanding what he meant, told him he went to do that he never did in his life, to lie that night with an honest woman." Fie, Mr. Chamberlain ! This is not creditable gossip ; but it is confirmed, in essence, in the account of Marie de Medicis which appears in "Nouvelle Biographic Generale," where she is not presented as a very desirable person. One of her very numerous suite on the journey to France, the Duke of Bracciano, visited England shortly afterwards, and, says Chamberlain, " The Quene enter- tained him very graciously ; and, to shew that she is not so old as some wold have her, daunced both measures and galliards in his presence." THE CHEAPSIDE CROSS 35 A " measure " was a slow, stately dance ; a galliard a quick and lively dance, in triple time and Elizabeth was sixty-seven ! No doubt she impressed the Italian by her spriteliness. Writing on 3 February, 1601, Chamberlain says : " I remember nothing els but that the crosse in Cheape is going up for all your Vice-Chancellor of Oxford and some other odd divines have set downe theire censure against it." This was the cross originally set up by Edward I. in 1290 ; one of many by which he marked the stages of his journey, with the remains of Queen Eleanor, to Westminster ; Charing Cross remains as the most familiar. This cross in Cheapside had fallen into disrepair in 1141, and the Lord Mayor, with the consent and approval of Henry VI., had it repaired ; it interfered somewhat with the traffic of merchandise, however, and in 1581 it was pulled down, or greatly damaged by the citizens on this account. In the year 1600 Richard Bancroft, Bishop of London, proposed to have the cross re-erected, but the citizens protested on puritanical grounds. In this deadlock George Abbot, Vice-Chancellor of Oxford (afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury) and the Vice- Chancellor of Cambridge were called upon to arbitrate between the Bishop and his flock, and decided against the Bishop's project. The Queen and her Council, however, were in favour of it, and, as Chamberlain records, the cross was rebuilt. Its completion was delayed by the hostility of the puritans, but a picture of it is extant as it stood in 1606 -a lead-covered timber erection, not in the form of a cross, although thus designated, with figures of the Blessed Virgin and other saints upon it. The fate of King Edward's shrine was, however, finally determined in 1643, when it was demolished amid the triumphant acclaims of the puritan mob. 36 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER In a letter dated 24 February, 1601. Chamberlain contrasts the behaviour of the Earl of Essex with that of the Earl of Southampton before the Council. Of Essex he says : " At his comming to the bar his countenance was somewhat unsettled; but, after he was once in, I assure you I never saw any go through with such bold- ness and shew of resolution and contempt of death ; but whether this courage were borrowed and put on for the time, or natural!, it were hard to judge. . . . The Erie of Southampton spake very well (but we thought somwhat too much as well as the other) ; and as a man that wold faine live, pleaded hard to acquite himself, but all in vaine, for it could not be, wherupon he descend- ed to intreatie, and moved great commisseration ; and, though he were generally well liked, yet methought he was somwhat too low and submisse, and seemed too loth to die before a prowde ennemie." All very well for John Chamberlain, it might be remarked, who was not called upon to face condem- nation and death, to comment upon the deportment of a man thus unhappily situated. His view should, how- ever, be accepted more as an indication of the tradition of the time than as heartless or arrogant comment. In reading of the numerous executions of men (and also of women) of rank in Tudor times, it is impossible to avoid being impressed by their almost invariable forti- tude and sang froid before the inexorable tribunal too frequently " packed " in the most flagrant fashion, and bent upon condemnation and on the scaffold ; there are few instances on record of any display of abject terror or futile resistance ; the executioner approached and craved pardon for performing his duty ; the prisoner calmly bade him be easy in his mind, then took his place beside the block. Even great scoundrels, who truly acknowledged before the crowd that their punishment was well merited, appear to have accepted it in most instances without flinching. Chamberlain thought that the Earl of Southampton was falling short COURAGE OF ESSEX 37 of this tradition, or was likely to do so ; hence his remark. As for Essex, there can be little doubt but that his courage was a natural attribute, quite compatible with his busy, scheming mind, and his fulsome adulation of Elizabeth ; as a naval or military commander he was a bungler, but a courageous one. Many of Dudley Carleton's letters to Chamberlain are said to be addressed to Doctor Gilbert's house. William Gilbert was an older man than Chamberlain by some fourteen years ; he was a prominent member of the Royal College of Physicians, of which he was appointed President, apparently about the year 1601. He lived in St. Peter's Hill, between Upper Thames Street and Knightrider Street, a thoroughfare which no longer exists under that name. From the fact that so many of Carleton's letters were addressed there, and from some remarks in Chamberlain's letters, it is apparent that the latter spent a great deal of his time there ; in a letter dated 27 May, 1601, he writes : " I am driven to such straights that I know not what to say but quid scribam, ant quid non scribam ? The uncertaintie of your stay, my long absence from this towne, the unluckiness of my letters to be lost or overlooked, and the difficultie of finding fit messengrs, have almost quite discouraged me, and made me a truant en vostre endroit, for so I will acknowledge it to you. howsoever to others I could salve and make all whole with passable and pregnant excuses ; but with so goode a frend I will never disguise, but tell the plaine troth and (which is worst) without hope of amendes, for I know not how to redeeme that is past with future diligence, being (since the dissolution of our societie) become altogether a countriman, and not appearing here but as a termer." The Editor of the " Letters written during the reign of Queen Elizabeth " has a footnote at " Societie " " The College, which was broken up on Dr. Gilbert's being appointed physician to the Queen." 88 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER The Royal College of Physicians was, at the time of its institution in the reign of Henry VIII., located in Knightrider Street. Dr. Gilbert, who was President, and had always been closely associated with the College, lived close by, as already stated, on St. Peter's Hill ; but the inference, which naturally ensues from the note above quoted, that the College of Physicians was " broken up " when Gilbert was appointed physician to the Queen, appears, to say the least of it, extremely improbable. The College seems to have been, in 1629 or earlier, situated in Paternoster Row, but there is not much detailed information available concerning its further vicissitudes of location. In the same letter, after reporting his journey to Farley about a " match " for his wife, as already des- cribed, Chamberlain writes : " Your cosen Lytton, with her two daughters, the Lady Wallop and Mrs. Cary, are all with child, and my cousin Stukeley's wife comes in to make up the messe. Kate Cheyney is toward a husband ; and Mr. Edmunds, your good frend, hath married a sole daughter of one Woode, Clerke of the Signet. You see this is a great yeare of wiving and childing ; if you were here you were like inough to be in danger of one of them." " My cousin Stukeley " must be Sir Thomas, son of Hugh, who married Elizabeth Chamberlain ; nephew, not cousin, of John ; but the term cousin was used very loosely. This letter is written " From my lodging at Wingfield House " ; the address of a later letter locates Wingfield House in St. Peter's Hill, where Dr. Gilbert lived ; possibly Chamberlain lodged in his house. Writing on 8 July, 1601, Chamberlain says: "We understand little what the campes do at Berke and Ostend, only it is said Sir Francis Vere shold have put himself into Ostend, which I do not easily beleve, no more then I did a flienge report was current here awhile that at a banquet in the Lowe Countries the Erie of SIR FRANCIS VERB 39 Northumberland had stroken him, whereas it is most certain they have not met there since theire last going over." This may have been true at the moment, and indicates the existence of jealousy and enmity between the Earl and Sir Francis Vere, before the latter was appointed, just about this time, Governor of Ostend ; subsequently there was a very bitter quarrel between them. Sir Francis had been in command, in the previous year, of a force of mixed nationality at the battle of Nieuport, and had, on this and other occasions, proved himself a brave and skilful soldier. The garrison of Ostend was speedily supplemented by troops from England, and by scions of distinguished English and French families, who were anxious to serve under a distinguished man like Vere ; or, in a good many instances, sought some variety and entertainment in new surroundings. These were, no doubt, mostly the younger men, and Vere, who was a strict disciplin- arian, did not relish their presence ; but Northumber- land, who was not a very young man, being about seven-and-thirty, displayed similar tendencies, and was very impatient of Vere's discipline and discouragement of frivolous and vicious amusements. Chamberlain was probably very right in refusing to credit the story that the Earl had struck Vere at a public entertainment ; such a flagrant offence must inevitably have involved immediate punishment, and probably a duel into the bargain ; but Northumberland was an extremely truculent subordinate, complaining of the " discom- modities of the place," and the " little observance " accorded to his rank and title. Finding that Sir Francis was quite unmoved by his attitude, continuing to enforce that discipline which he rightly deemed necessary, Northumberland took himself off to England again, nursing his quarrel for future opportunity. This came in the spring following, when Sir Francis Vere was in England levying recruits for service in the 40 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER Netherlands. Northumberland sent a challenge to Sir Francis, and much angry recrimination ensued. Vere denied having given the Earl any cause of offence, but the latter was obdurate, insisting that they should fight, while Vere declared that the important business upon which he was engaged precluded him from doing so, but agreed to meet the Earl at some future time. The quarrel was, of course, discussed freely at Court and elsewhere, and coming to the Queen's ears, she peremp- torily forbade the Earl to interfere with Sir Francis while he was employed upon her service. The final round in the verbal duel for it never passed beyond words was sharp enough. Northumberland declared that he accepted the Queen's commands in all humility, " but protested to the company present that Sir Francis Vere was a knave, a coward that in fleering like a common buffoon, would wrong men of all conditions, while he had not the courage or honesty to satisfy any." To which Sir Francis : " Because I refused to meet you upon your peremptory and foolish summons, you conclude me, in a discourse set abroad under your name, to be a knave, a coward and a buffoon, wherein you have provoked me to set aside all respect to your person, and to say that you are a most lying and un- worthy lord. . . . When we shall be free, and God shall make us meet, I will maintain it with my sword." Hard hitting on both sides, but Vere was not freed from military duties until 1605, and even such a bitter quarrel as this will cool down in three or four years ; and so they left it at that. In 1602 Chamberlain was much concerned on account of some trouble in connection with one of his friend Carleton's sisters, who displayed leanings towards becoming a Catholic a very lamentable defection in his opinion. On 26 April he writes : " Touching your Catholique sister, I know not what to write nor what to thincke, she is so irresolute and inconstant, and yet peevish and wilful au bout. She doth exercise herself CARLETON'S ERRING SISTER 41 and her frends very much, and hath raised many tragedies since you went. The worst is, she vexes Mr. Williams so that he growes weary of her ; and she is become so cunning, and hath profited so well in that schoole of dissimulation, that she sayes if it had not ben for that she told you and me of Valentine all had ben well, which, seing they know not, there is no reason they shold watch or restrain her. Your paltrie niece is the instrument and the bellowes that hath kindled this unnaturall heat among them ; but she escapes fciot scot-free, for the poxe hath so peppered her that they have almost put out her eyes, and mard her bad holyday face. The day that you went we had a great bickering about the continuall passage and entercourse of messages and letters which your brother and sister (Mr. and Mrs. Alexander Williams} complained of, wherein she set us, you, and all at nought, wherupon I told her my minde in the best termes 1 could, and meant to absent myself ; but the day before I went she sent for me, having recon- ciled herself to her brother and sister, and of her owne accord shewed me divers of theire letters, wherein I am canvassed and tossed like a tennis ball, and withall told me she was fully minded to forsake those courses, and to cut of all occasions ; but I was no sooner gon but the devill hath put in his foote again, and now at my coming I finde Totnam turnd French, and your niece is removed to a new lodging, where now is the rendezvous and all the revel! of the men you wot of, and there she is whole dayes and nights, and will not be spoken to by brother nor sister, and more foolishly obstinate in her aunswers then ever I knew her. I verely thincke she seekes occasion of some unkindnes from your brother and sister, whereby she may have some colour to cast herself away. I am almost weary of writing, so that neque mens neque manus suum qfficium facit, and I am more weary of those domesticall brabbles among them, so that I meane to strive no more against the currant, but let them brew 42 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER as they bake, and have theire owne swinge, for I see it is but laterem lavari to deale any more in it ; yet if you can bethincke or devise any better course wherein I can do any goode, in good faith I will adventure that for your sake that I will not do for hers, and yet I protest there is no breach nor unkind word hath past between us, but only that I see she is not the woman I tooke her for. One thing I had almost forgotten (which I wold not willingly, that you may have a taste of her judgement), that she told those parties she had acquainted us with theire estate and condition. I have an inckling (but you must take no notice of it in any wise), that your wisest and best esteemed sister is taken in the same trap ; so that I see, if wenches have not theire will, and that husbands come not at call, we shall have them all discontented and turne Turke." Sir Dudley Carleton had four sisters Elizabeth, married to Alexander Williams, evidently the couple who were harrassed by the erring sister's conduct ; Bridget, married to Sir Hercules Underhill ; Anne, married to John Dove, D.D. ; and Alice, who died un- married. John Dove was a very strict Protestant, and wrote against the Jesuits ; he held the living of St. Mary, Aldermary, in Bow Lane, besides a living in Wiltshire. Sir Hercules Underhill came of a Warwick- shire family ; he was not knighted, however, until 1617. It appears probable that it was Bridget who caused all this commotion in the first instance. The " wisest and best esteemed sister " is undoubtedly Alice, a great friend of Chamberlain's, to whom he alludes affectionately in his will. There was further anxiety, however, concerning these sisters, for only three weeks later, on 17 May, Chamber- lain writes : " The gentlewoman you wot of folio wes still the old haunts, and will not be beaten from it by faire meanes nor fowle. It hath vext your frends where she is, more then needes ; but all will not serve, for she must have the bucklers (i.e., have her own way), and BRIDGET CARLETON'S CUNNING 43 that she standes upon. I come litle there, but even for fashion, and meddle neither one way nor other, for I see it were to no purpose, but to minister matter that she might carry to and fro, wherein she is become very cunning, and makes a kinde of profession to run with the hare and hold with the hound. The other gentlewoman of Farringdon is fallen away, as I understand by Mr. Gent ; but my more certain intelligence is that she is but falling, and hath geven her promise to stand out no longer if she can be resolved of one point, which you must thincke shall not be longe a doing, for Valentine is the man and mediator between them. You may take as litle knowledge of these matters as you list, for I only write them that you might know how the world goes ; and yet I leave all to your choise and discretion." The only deduction to be drawn from all this is that Bridget was the first to " fall away," or rather to threaten such action, and that Anne, the wife of the evangelical divine, followed suit ; the allusion to the " gentlewoman of Farringdon " would more probably apply to her than to Bridget ; Valentine cannot be identified. There is no evidence that either lady persisted in the course which caused so much dismay and anxiety to Carleton and his friend. On 27 June, 1602, Chamberlain writes : " We heare of 6,000 Italians redy in Spaine to come thether (to Ireland) and stay for nothing but shipping, which I doubt they shall too easilie compasse nowe our fleet comes away to convoy home the caraque they have taken within the mouth of the river of Lisbone. If our people had not plaide the men every way, she had escaped theire fingers, by reason she was got so far within the river among flats and shallowes and had receved a supplie of three or fowre hundred fresh men besides a guard of ten gallies to tow her up and defend her ; but our ship so plied the gallies that I thincke they will have no list to incounter them any more. Sir Richard Leveson and Sir William Mounson (Monson) 44 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER have gotten great commendation, both for courage and advice 1 . What her value may be we cannot yet guesse, but sure she was a rich ship. Marry, there goes a report all the short ends 2 were conveyed away before our men could come at her ; but most men thincke that but a colour for them that have, and mean to make, theire market. Once here is order taken that no goldsmiths or jewellers shall go into the West Countrie ; and Fulke Grivell (Sir Fulk Greville) is gon downe post to Plimmouth, and so to the sea, to meet her and kepe her from comming into that pilfering towne (as they terme it), but to bringe her alonge to Portesmouth." Sir Richard Leveson and Sir William Monson were in need of some success to atone for their ill fortune some weeks previously, when, through lack of intelli- gence, the Spanish treasure ships were met by Leveson alone, Monson having been detained until some Dutch ships should join him, before sailing for the rendezvous with Leveson. Before these arrived news came that the Spaniards had already sailed from the Azores, and the Queen ordered Monson off in a hurry ; but he was too late, and Leveson with his five ships was unable to make anything of the Spanish fleet, and so all the treasure was carried off safely to Spain. Sir William Monson, in his " Naval Tracts," gives an account of the capture of the carraque (or carrack), in which Chamberlain's story about the Spaniards having got up the Lisbon river amid flats and shoals is heavily discounted ; according to Monson the vessels were anchored off Cezimbra, which is eighteen or twenty miles south of the Tagus, just round Cape Espichiel. The anchorage is open, and easy of approach, but the carrack and the eleven galleys were very well disposed to resist an attack ; Monson described the various 1 Advice, i.e., forethought, prudence; the word was often uted in this sense at that time. 2 Short end, probably a slang name for the Spanish dollar, or "piece of eight." 45 dangers to be encountered, and proceeds : " And notwithstanding these dangers, and that there was no man but imagined that most of the carrack's lading was conveyed ashore, and that they would haul her on ground under the castle where no ship of ours would be able to fleet to her (i.e., get at her), all which objections, with many more, were alleged, yet they little prevailed." In the attack, Leveson led the van, while Monson brought up the rear, and, as he says, " entering into the fight, still strove to luff up as near the shore as he could, w r here at length he came to an anchor in such a place that he was continually fighting with the town, the fort, the galleys and carrack, all at one instant ; for he brought himself betwixt them all that he might play both his broadsides upon them. There might be seen the oars of the galleys swimming on the one side and the slaves forsaking them on the other with offer to swim to us, everything being in a confusion amongst them, and thus they fought till five of the afternoon. The Vice- Admiral was anchored in such a place that the galleys rowed from one side to another, seeking to shun him, which Sir Richard Leveson observing, came on board him, and openly, in the view and hearing of his own company, embraced him and told him he had won his heart for ever." Monson is never shy about recounting his own doings, though his adoption of the third person has in this instance a qualifying effect upon his egotism. However, the carrack was captured, with all the " short ends " safely on board, and the galleys destroyed ; Chamberlain's allusion to a report that the treasure had been landed is no doubt to be explained by some gossip among the crews of the English vessels, which was distorted in the telling. The inventory of the cargo of the St. Valentine, carrack, is summarised in the Calendar of State Papers as consisting of " Calicos, quilts, lawns, Persian, Turkey and leathern carpets, 46 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER fans, silks, taffetas, pepper, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, indigo, drugs, etc," and, no doubt, specie. Chamberlain hears (8 July) that she is to be unloaded at Plymouth after all, on account of her large tonnage. On the same date he has more to say about Carleton's sisters and their pending " perversion," and alludes to one of them as " Mrs. Farringdon," taking credit to himself for having dissuaded her from coming to town for further controversy. On 2 October, 1602, he writes : " Sir Robert Mans- feild (Mansel) and the Vice-Admirall of Flushing met with sixe of Spinola's gallies, and have stemd or overrun two of them, and, they say, spoiled the rest so that they be unprofitable, wherof one is run on ground at Callis. The reports of the manner of the fight are so uncertain and contrarious that I know not how to set it downe, but will leave it to time to discover." In a postscript to another letter, dated 4 November, 1602, he says : " The Dutch men had set out a relation of the fight with the gallies, which we allow not, neither indeed do theire owne tales agree ; wherupon I thought to send you this report of Sir Robert Mansell, in aunswer of those drunken companions." This incident caused a great deal of talk. When Sir Robert Mansel returned from the country and heard of the Dutch Admiral's claim for all the credit, he was furious, not being the type of man to put up with any belittlement of himself or his doings. He wrote a long and wordy, but no doubt accurate, account of the whole business, with an introductory letter addressed to the Earl of Nottingham (Lord High Admiral). His account was published in pamphlet form, with a print of a ship under sail on the title page, and no doubt his reputation was thereby duly vindicated. On 19 November, 1602, Chamberlain writes : " My last to you was of the fourth or fift of this present, since which time here hath ben a very dull and dead terme, or els I am quite out of the trade, which may well be VENNER'S PRACTICAL JOKE 47 by reason of a new devised order to shut the upper doores in Powles (St. Paul's) in service time, whereby the old entercourse is clene chaunged, and the trafficke of newes much decayed." This is a characteristic lament over the closing of a fruitful source of gossip. The aisles and chapels of St. Paul's were the resort of newsmongers and tattlers, and no doubt the denial of free access thereto would prove a sad check upon the " trafficke of newes," and deprive our friend of much useful material for his correspon- dence. After an allusion to the antics of Carleton's " foole " or jester, one Garrett, at the tilt in honour of the anniver- sary of the Queen's Accession, Chamberlain proceeds to give an account of a practical joke on a large scale, perpetrated by one Venner : " And, now we are in mirth, I must not forget to tell you of a cousening prancke of one Venner, of Lincoln's Inne, that gave out bills of a famous play on Satterday was sevenight on the Banckeside, to be acted only by certain gentlemen and gentlewomen of account. The price at comming in was two shillings or eighteen pence at least ; and, when he had gotten most part of the mony into his hands, he wold have shewed them a faire paire of heeles, but he was not so nimble to get up on horseback, but that he was faine to forsake that course and betake himselfe to the water, where he was pursued and taken, and brought before the Lord Chiefe Justice, who wold make nothing of it but a jest and a merriment, and bounde him over in five pound to appeare at the sessions. In the meane time the common people, when they saw themselves deluded, revenged themselves upon the hangings, chaires, stooles, walles, and whatsoever came in theire way, very outragiously, and made great spoil ; there was great store of good companie, and many noblemen." Richard Venner (or more properly Vennar) was a man who was not unknown in society and at court. Having 48 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER been involved in an unsuccessful lawsuit after his father's death, he had solicited the intervention of James VI. of Scotland on his behalf with the Council, which annoyed Queen Elizabeth, who clapped him into prison on his return from Scotland " as a dangerous member to the State." He was also author of some religious pamphlets, in one of which " The Right Way to Heaven " he contrived to combine with religious admonition some fulsome adulation of the Queen. When, therefore, he proclaimed his intention of pro- ducing a masque at the Swan Theatre, representing England's triumphs over Spain, there was, as Chamber- lain states, a large audience of noblemen and gentlefolk assembled to witness it. A synopsis of the plot of the play is in the possession of the Society of Antiquaries, and runs as follows : " The Plot of the Play called England's Joy ; to be played at the Swan this 6 of November, 1602." The " Plot " is elucidated in nine articles, in which Elizabeth is personated in mortal antagonism with the King of Spain, and after defeating all his malicious attempts, she is finally victorious and is crowned by angels with " an Emperiall Crowne gar- nished with the Sunne, Moone, and Starres ; and so with musicke both with voyce and instruments, shee is taken up into Heaven, when presently appears a throne (sic) of blessed soules, and beneath under the stage, set forth with strange fireworks, divers blacke and damned souls, wonderfully described in their severall torments." Having attracted a large concourse by this enticing programme, and collected their money at the doors, Vennar bolted with the " treasury." It was, perhaps, fortunate for him that the Queen herself did not con- descend to grace the occasion ; that gentle lady would not have let him off with a bond of five pounds to appear at the sessions, had she found herself the victim of such a practical joke. Vennar died miserably in the " counter," or debtor's prison, in Wood Street ; he had somehow made an THE QUEEN AT ARUNDEL HOUSE 49 enemy of the keeper, who put him in the " black hole " and probably starved him to death. In the same letter Chamberlain says : " Our Com- missioners and the Danes are met at Breme ; the Quenes ship that carried them, comming backe with other in her companie, met with a huge number of whales on the coast of Holland, that indured many shot, and plaide many gambolls. The like number hath not ben scene together, specially in these parts, for they say above two hundreth. Here is much descanting what they should portend more then the tempest that fol- lowed." A shoal of whales as an augury ! One wonders what the whales thought of it when they were " potted " at by the mariners. On 4 December, 1602, Chamberlain writes : " On Monday or Tewsday next the Lord Admirall is to feast her (the Queen) at Arundell House ; and then the Lord Thomas Howard and the Lord Chamberlain (Lord Hunsdon), and all is to entertain the time, and win her to stay here if it may be." Elizabeth was by no means averse from being enter- tained by her noblemen, and liked to be " done " well on these occasions, the feast being frequently supple- mented by gifts of jewels, etc. Chamberlain, in an earlier letter, mentions that she had " made a stop at Mr. Atturneys (Sir Edward Coke), at Stoke, where she was most sumptuously entertained and presented with Jewells and other gifts to the value of a thousand or twelve hundred pound." The Lord Admiral was, of course, Charles Howard, Earl of Nottingham, and his tenure of Arundel House on the river, at the foot of the present Arundel Street was the outcome of Elizabeth's cruel treatment of his kinsman, Philip Howard, first Earl of Arundel of his name, and rightly Duke of Norfolk. Did the Queen recall, as she sat at Charles Howard's sumptuously furnished table, a former occasion upon which she had been entertained in that same house ? 50 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER She had, indeed, invited herself to a banquet there, in order, apparently, to inflict upon her host, Philip Howard, a more emphatic humiliation ; for, immediately after her departure, she sent him a message that he was to consider himself a prisoner in his own house. Sub- sequently she hounded him to death, because he chose to obey his conscience and become a Catholic, and his confiscated estates were bestowed here and there as Her Majesty listed, Arundel House falling to Charles Howard. Thomas Howard, son of Philip, and Earl of Arundel, born in 1585, was still at this time in the Queen's black books, and compelled to stand aside and see his relative the Lord Admiral entertain Elizabeth in his house ; nor did he recover it until after the accession of James ; he had to pay Nottingham four thousand pounds before he could assume possession. On 23 December, 1602, Chamberlain writes : " I am litle beholding to the post that brought Mr. Winwod's letters and yours of the 23th of the last and 7th of this present, for he kept them a whole weeke in his hand after his arrivall, so that I had scant leisure to run over the inclosed discourse, for that your brother was to go that day homeward, and Sir Edward Norris went away not past two dayes before. A third of the 12th of this present I receved three dayes since ; in aunswer to all which I can say litle for the present, being full fraught with splene and indignation of such unworthie usage ; and he were a wise man could tell what were best to be don in the case ; but at all adventures I wold you had sett all at sixe and seven in the instant, and left him (i.e., Sir Thomas Parry) in the lurch, whereas now lupum auribis tenes (you are holding the wolf by the ears) and it is alike difficult and daungerous to hold or let go. I understand Mr. Winwod is to come shortly away, but I doubt his absence will not remove the mischiefe, for there is some further matter of degenerate jealousie that will not endure your sun shold dimme his torch." CARLETON AND PARRY 51 This passage is in allusion to the ill-treatment of Dudley Carleton by Sir Thomas Parry, the English Ambassador in France. Parry had been appointed early in the year, but delayed his departure for France upon various pretexts his debts being among these until the Queen ex- pressed her strong displeasure at the delay. Dudley Carleton, as one of the Secretaries at the Embassy under Sir Thomas, had preceded him ; and on 12 July Thomas Edmondes writes to Carleton, alluding to the delay and to Sir Thomas Parry's excuses : " These impediments have raised a conceit of his inaptness for this charge, and therefore it the more imports him to show dexterity. I dealt with him concerning you and the others named to be his secretaries, and he promised not to wrong you nor pester himself with men of their extravagant condition. Mr. Winwood is to stay there some months, until it be tried how your master will discharge his business." So here is the story of Dudley Carleton's treatment. Sir Thomas Parry, an unwilling Ambassador, assuming his post after many delays, and being " put up to the ropes " for some months by Ralph Winwood, a most able man, with Dudley Carleton, another exceptionally capable man, as one of his secretaries, exhibits jealousy of Carleton, and takes advantage of his position to bully him. Carleton wrote a long letter to his brother George, dated 7 December, 1602, in which he described his treatment at the hands of Sir Thomas ; but it is so much defaced and mutilated that it is not possible to make out a consecutive account from it. Chamberlain, how- ever, at Carleton's request, mentioned the matter to Sir Edward Norris, and says : " I make full account that when your honorable frend shall understand the whole matter he will not be quiet till he see you better provided, and that this disgrace will double his care and kindnes towards you." As a set-off against this side of the story it is only 52 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER fair, however, to quote a letter of Sir Thomas Parry, dated 3 January, 1603, to Sir Edward Norris : " As you may have heard of an accident happened to your kinsman, Dudley Carleton, whom you recommended to me as a secretary, which might make his fidelity suspected, I must testify my good content with him, and my thanks that you spare yourself the company of such a man to serve me. There was no reality in this accident, but for reasons only known to myself, I thought fit to dissemble a displeasure." Here is the Chief's point of view an assumption of anger to cover a diplomatic secret ; but this appears to be a single incident. The nature of the " accident " which befell Carleton is not disclosed ; the word was frequently used at that time in a broader sense than is now customary, and might imply a more or less inadver- tent diplomatic blunder, or a " score " on the part of some alien ambassador. In this same letter there is another allusion to the Lord Admiral's entertainment of the Queen at Arundel House : " The Lord Admiralls feasting the Quene had nothing extraordinarie, neither were his presents so precious as was expected ; being only a whole suit of apparel, whereas it was thought he wold have bestowed his rich hangings of all the fights with the Spanish Armada in eightie-eight." These hangings, which were designed by Henry Cornelius Room, at Haerlem, and woven by Francis Spiring, were afterwards displayed for many years in the House of Lords, but were destroyed by the fire of 16 October, 1834. Meanwhile, however, about 1739, John Pine, an engraver of note, had executed complete engravings of the whole series, so that the designs are preserved in every detail. These engravings are, there- fore, of immense historical value. There is a complete set of them at Arundel Castle. There is an account of the burning of the Houses of Parliament in the Gentleman's Magazine, in which A NEAT PUN 53 the opinion is expressed that the peculiar colour of some of the flames may have been caused by the colouring matter in the tapestries while they were being consumed ; rather a far-fetched theory ! In a letter dated 17 January, 1603, and addressed to Ralph Winwood, Chamberlain writes : " Sir, the truth is, that when I began this letter I meant it to Mr. Carleton, but Mr. Gent comming in the nicke, and shewing me yours of the fourth of this present, I altered my mind, not knowing what termes he standes in, nor with what safety letters come to his handes ; desiring you to acquaint him with it if you please, and to tell him that his turne is next." It is evident from this passage that Chamberlain was apprehensive as to the relations between Carleton and his chief, and even feared the interception of his letters. Alluding, on 11 February, 1603, to the naming of some new Serjeants-at-Law, Chamberlain perpetrates, or repeats, rather a neat pun. One of the new Serjeants was Robert Barker, who had married a sister of Sir Edward Coke, " for whose preferment," says Chamber- lain, " the world findes no other reason but that he is Mr. Atturney's brother-in-law, or els (as one saide) that amonge so many biters there shold be one barker." CHAPTER III JACOBEAN LETTERS March, 1603 November, 1608 THE first of the Jacobean letters is dated 30 March, 1603, six days after the death of Queen Elizabeth, and the writer is naturally full of all the gossip concerning the manner of her death, of which, as is well known, there was abundance. " I have not written since I receved yours of the 8th of this present after your style, for we were here held in suspense, and knew not how nor what to write, the passages being stopped, and all conveyance so daungerous and suspitious. I make no question but you have heard of our great losse before this come to you, and no doubt but you shall heare her Ma' ies sicknesse and manner of death directly related ; for even here the Papists do tell straunge stories as utterly voyde of truth as of all civill honestie or humanitie. I had good meanes to understand how the world went, and finde her disease to be nothing but a settled and unremovable melancholic, insomuch that she could not be won nor persuaded neither by the Counsaile, divers phisitians, nor the women about her once to taste or touch any phisick, though ten or twelve physitians that were continually about her did assure her w th ' all manner of asseverations of perfect and entire recoverie if she would follow theire advise. So that it cannot be saide of her, as it was of the Emperor Adrian, that lurba medicorum occidit regem (a multitude of doctors killed the King), for they say she died only for 54 QUEEN ELIZABETH'S DEATH 55 lack of phisick ; here was some whispering that her braine was somewhat distempered, but there was no such matter, only she held an obstinate silence for the most part, and because she had a persuasion that if she once lay downe she shold never rise, could not be gotten to bed in a whole weeke till three dayes before her death ; so that after three weekes languishing she departed the 24 of this present being our Ladies Eve betweene two and three in the morning, as she was borne on our Ladies Eve in September (i.e., on 7 Septem- ber, the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin being kept on the 8th) ; and as one Lee was Maior of London when she came to her Crowne, so is there one Lee Maior nowe she left it ; the Archbishop of Caunterburie, the Bishop of London, the Almoner and other her chap- laines and Divines had accesse to her in her sicknesse divers times, to whom she gave goode testimonie of her faith by word, but specially towards her end by signes when she was speachless, and wold not suffer the Arch- bishop to depart as longe as she had sense, but held him twise or thrise when he was going and could no longer indure both by reason of his owne weakenes and com- passion of hers. She made no will nor gave anythinge away, so that they w h ' come after her shall finde a well stored Jewell house and a rich wardrobe of more then 2000 gownes w th> all things els aunswerable. The nobilitie and counsaile came from Richmond that morn- ing, and before ten a herald (?) had proclaimed Kinge James at Whitehall, Temple Bar and so forward in Cheapside and other places. Sir Rob. Carie (Carey) was the first that of his owne motion carried newes of her death into Scotland ; the next day the Lords sent Sir Charles Darcy and Thomas Somerset with the pro- clamation and letters to the Kinge, and yesterday Mr. Carie (Carey ?) a master of the Chancerie and Mr. Lakes were dispatcht about other business. There is much posting that way, and many run thither of theyre owne errand as if it were nothing els but first come first 56 A JACOBEAN LETTER WRITER served, or that preferment were a goale to be got by footmanship ; among whom Nevill that pretends to be L. Latimer and Earle of Westmorland, Sir Henry Bromby, Sir Thomas Challoner, John Davies the poet, and Payton the Lieutenants sonne of the Towre hope to be with the formost. We attend (i.e., await] him here with great devotion, and begin to thinke (it) long till we have him. The Lords have sent to know his pleasure whether he will come by land or sea, for which purpose there be eight or ten ships redy that were going for the coast of Spaine, but do now tary to kepe the narrow seas. Surely the Counsaile have dealt very providently and beyond that was to be expected or hoped for in so sodain an accident ; and no but doubt God did direct them seing all things past so quietly and in goode order ; during the Quene's sickness some principall papists were made sure, and some dangerous companions clapt up, amonge whom Sir Edward Bainham was committed to the Marshalsee for some desperate speaches they say against the Kinge ; but it shold seeme there was no great matter, for I heare he is now at libertie againe. Here was a rumor two dayes since that the L. Beauchamp stoode out and gathered forces, but it was a false alarme, for word is come since that his father was one of the formost in his countrie to proclaime the Kinge. The Counsaile went on Satterday to Richmond and that night late brought the corpse with an honourable attendance to Whitehall, where the household remains. The body was not opened, but wrapt up in seareelothes and other preservatives. Sir Henry Davers (Danvers?) was dispatcht on Sonday to carrie the proclamation into Ireland, whence we have heard nothing a good while." The remainder of this long letter is not of special interest. Chamberlain's account of the last hours of Elizabeth may be accepted as true in substance, but he does not allude to the story of her naming her successor. Lingard, the historian, frankly states that he does not CAREY GOES TO SCOTLAND 57 believe that she assented by a sign being speechless when James of Scotland was mentioned. The lords who were present at once circulated the story, and it was probably the best course to pursue, whether it were true or not. Sir Robert Carey's hasty flight to Scotland, to inform James of the Queen's death, is a somewhat remarkable incident. Sir Robert's father, Henry Carey, first Lord Hunsdon, was first cousin to Queen Elizabeth, and a great favourite with her. (Mary, sister of Anne Boleyn, married William Carey, and Henry was her son). Sir Robert was, according to his own account, a man of much self-confidence, greatly addicted to display far beyond his means. In his memoirs he writes : " I lived in court, had small means of my friends, and yet God so blessed me that I was ever able to keep company with the best. In all triumphs I was one ; either at tilt, tourney, or barriers, in masque or balls ; I kept men and horses far above my rank, and so continued a long time." He had ingratiated himself with King James when he was quite a young man, and was selected by Queen Elizabeth to convey to James the assurance of her " innocence " in respect of the execution of Mary Queen of Scots. Such an envoy was not, however, acceptable in Scotland at that time, and James sent messengers to meet him on the border with the warning that he would certainly be killed if he crossed it ; so he delivered his letters to the King's messengers and returned. When Carey realised, early in March, 1603, that Elizabeth's days were numbered, he reflected that, unless he could take some steps to make good his position at Court under the new monarch, he was practically ruined. Accordingly he wrote to King James telling him of the imminence of Elizabeth's death, and assuring him that he, Carey, would be the first to apprise him of the fact. 58 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER The Council, having got wind of his intention, laid a trap for him, admitting him, after the Queen's death, to the Council chamber, with the assurance that he should be free to go out when he pleased, while the porter at the entrance received orders that no one should be permitted to pass out except some servants specially mentioned. They had reckoned, however, without Carey's brother, George, Lord Hunsdon, who occupied rooms in the building, and presently passed him out with the servants, saying he would be answerable. Next morning Carey sent word by the Knight Marshal to the Council that he would be pleased to attend if they desired any service of him ; they sent for him, with the intimation that he would speedily be despatched to Scotland ; but the Marshal was his friend, and told him if he attended he would certainly be prevented from going ; so he took horse at once, and achieved his purpose, arriving at Holy rood late on 26 March. The King was in bed, and received him at once, and after some discourse about the Queen's death, " he asked," says Carey, " what letters I had from the Councill ? I told him, none ; and acquainted him how narrowly I escaped from them. And yet I had brought him a blue ring from a faire lady, that I hoped would give him assurance of the truth that I had reported. Hee tooke it and looked upon it, and said ' It is enough ; I know by this you are a true messenger.' ' It is stated in Sir Samuel Egerton Brydges' " Memoirs of the Peers of England " that " King James kept a constant and private correspondence with several persons of the English court during many years before Queen Elizabeth died. Among them was Lady Scroope (or Scrope), sister of Sir Robert Carey, to whom his Majesty sent, by Sir James Fullerton, a sapphire ring, with positive orders to return it to him by a special messenger as soon as the Queen was actually expired. Lady Scroope had no opportunity of delivering it to her brother Sir Robert whilst he was in the palace of Rich- THE "BLUE RING" 59 mond ; but, waiting at the window till she saw him at the outside of the gate, she threw it out to him, and he well knew to what purpose he received it." So that is the story of the " blue ring." King James, in spite of Carey's frank acknowledgement that he had come on his errand against the orders of the Council, made him a gentleman of the bedchamber, and though he was soon afterwards deprived of this office by reason of the representations of the Council, he was subsequently again received into favour, and was eventually created Earl of Monmouth by Charles I. The earldom became extinct on the death of his son Henrj^ in 1661. In a letter of 12 April, 1603, Chamberlain writes : " The Lord Henry Howard was sent thither to possesse the Kinges eare and countermine the Lord Cobham." Lord Cobham had started off post haste for Scotland a day or two after the Queen's death ; " but," says Chamberlain, " the lords do so litle like his going that I thinke his errand wilbe there before him, or soone overtake him." Cobham is described in Brydges' " Memoirs of the Peers " as "a worthless mortal, without friends, credit, or reputation, a slanderer of all mankind, known to have neither honour, virtue, principle or veracity ; avoided and despised by everybody." On the same authority he is said to have been concerned with Lord Grey of Wilton and Sir Walter Raleigh, " in the design of not admitting James to the throne unless upon terms." King James was no doubt aware, through his corres- pondence with the English court, of these matters, and Cobham's reception was anything but cordial. The Council was wise in selecting Lord Henry Howard (brother to the fourth Duke of Norfolk, and afterwards Earl of Northampton) to " possesse the Kinges eare " ; not that Howard was a very admirable person, or much to be relied upon, save where his own interests were concerned. He is described by sundry of his contem- poraries as " famous for secret insinuation," " a danger- 60 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER ous intelligenceing man," and " the grossest flatterer in the world." He was, however, quite the right sort of man to get a hearing in preference to others. He was no stranger to James, to whom he had in previous years indited voluminous letters, which James described as " Asiatic and endless volumes." Howard was as ready with his tongue as with his pen. Nothing pleased him better than delivering a long, wordy oration, freely interspersed with classical allusions, and he speedily won his way to court favour. James was, indeed, considerably indebted to the Howards for their espousal of his mother's cause, Thomas, the fourth Duke of Norfolk, having lost his head partly through his attempt to marry her. It would probably have been a very good marriage, and Mary was quite ready to venture upon it, as her letters veritable love letters to the Duke clearly indicate. On 10 July, 1603, Chamberlain writes : "I returned out of Hertfordshire on Monday, and meant to have tarried here till the Coronation (on 25 July), but seing it wilbe so private, and the sickness increased so fast upon us, I wish myself there againe, and will make all the haste I can out of towne, for it grows hot here. I hope to be gone about Thursday or Friday towards Knebworth, and after I have been there some fortnight to go forward to Askott. Among other tedious incon- veniences this will not be the least wearisome, not to know how to heare of our f rends when I am there. Yet if you will now and then ease off a loose letter to your cousin Lytton's or Mr. Dormer's, they cannot be lost. Mr. Winwood was married on Tuesday, with much thunder and lightning and raine ; the ominous weather and dismall day put together might have made a super- stitious man startle, but he turned all to the best, and so may it prove ; there was nobody at the wedding but myself and Mr. Serle. I heare he went away yesterday with bag and baggage, and is by this time embarqued at Gravesend, for by goode hap he met with a ship THE PLAGUE PREVAILS 61 that will deliver him at Rotterdam, which will save him a great deale of trouble and cost, and me a jorney to the sea side which I avoided by that meanes, and the bringing them to Gravesend by the fowle weather. I parted with him on Thursday in Powles, and one of his greatest regrets was that he shold not see you before he went. I long to heare what you have concluded at Henley. I found the litle gentlewoman at my com- ming to towne much distressed, and had almost wept out her eyes for curst hart, and upon a suspicious imagination that we had all conspired to cousen her ; but I soone pacified her and brought her to that passe that she condemned herself and all she had don Powles growes very thin, for every man shrinckes away, and I am half ashamed to see myself left alone. Our pageants are prettely forward, but most of them are so small timbred gentlemen that they cannot last long, and I doubt if the plague cease not the sooner they will rot and sinke where they stand." The little gentlewoman who had "almost wept out her eyes for curst hart " a curious expression was no doubt one of those sisters of Carleton who were supposed to be contemplating secession to the Church of Rome. The " pageants " alluded to would probably be wooden erections for the King's coronation, which took place on 25 July, very quietly, in consequence of the plague. Sir Ralph Winwood married Elizabeth, daughter and co-heir of Nicholas Ball, of Totnes, and stepdaughter of Sir Thomas Bodley, of library fame. On 18 December, 1604, Chamberlain writes to Ralph Winwood : " Our men complaine of ill usage there (in Spain), especially of the Inquisition, who will take no notice, nor be tyed to any capitulation that shall restraine their authority, as being no part of the King's jurisdiction ; but we are still perswaded that the Lord AdmiralPs going will mend all, which will not be till February at the soonest. I hear he carried with him the title of Excellence, and hath 15,000 for his expence, 62 A JACOBEAN LETTER- WRITER besides the charge of two of the King's best ships to transport him." This is in allusion to the projected Embassy to Spain, to ratify the peace. Charles Howard, Earl of Nottingham, Lord High Admiral, was appointed Special Ambassador, and great confidence was placed in him. In another letter, dated 26 January, 1605, Chamberlain writes : " Our merchants complaine exceedingly of their hard usage in Spaine, but promise is made that upon the Lord Admiral's coming, all shall be amended." And on 26 February he writes : " The Lord Admiral makes great preparation for his journey. I can send you no more particularities yet, but that he hath with him six Lords, viz., The Earl of Murray, his wife's brother, the Lord of Effingham, the Lord Theophilus Howard, the Lord Willoughby, the Lord Norris, and the Lord Drummond, and 50 knights, whereof Sir Walter Cope is most notable." These three letters are addressed to W^inwood. There is a gap of some eighteen months in Chamberlain's correspondence with Carleton. The splendour of Nottingham's entourage was the talk of the town, and was even the text of an untimely sally on the part of a jester: " There was great execution done lately," says Dudley Carleton in a letter to Win wood " upon Stone the Fool, who was well whipt in Bridewell for a blasphemous speech, That there went sixty fools into Spaine, besides my Lord Admiral and his two sons." In a letter dated 30 April, 1605, Chamberlain, after remarking upon the scantiness of news proceeds : " Only I cannot omit three pulpit occurrences that happened on Sonday last ; first that Deane Gordon, preaching before the Kinge, is come so farre about in matter of ceremonies that out of Ezechiell and other places of the prophets and by certain hebrue characters and other cabalisticall collections, he hath found out and approved the use of the crosse, cap, and surplis, et a ., et a . ; then Haddock, of New College, the sleeping A CRITICAL CUCKOO 63 preacher, so much followed and admired in Oxford and everywhere, being sent for to the court and there playing his prises, was discovered and confessed himself an impostor. Lastly, Doctor Milwoode, preaching at Powles Crosse, in the middest of his sermon a cuckowe came flieing over the pulpit (a thing that I never saw nor heard of before) and very lewdly called and cried out with open mouth ; you see what pettie reckennings I am faine to picke out to make up a Summe." This was not complimentary to the preacher, but it argues perhaps unlooked-for perspicacity on the part of the cuckoo surely rara avis in the vicinity of St. Paul's. Richard Haddock, or more properly Haydock, was a physician by profession ; he matriculated at New College, Oxford, in 1588, and was elected a fellow in 1590. Subsequently he practised as a doctor in Salisbury, but apparently he had acquired at Oxford a reputation as what Chamberlain describes as a " sleeping preacher "; he declared that he saw visions at night ; he affected to select a text in his sleep, and to preach upon it, in spite of " pinchings " and other efforts to wake him, generally denouncing the Pope and High Church practices, which was at any rate politic preaching at that time. It is not easy to understand how such an obvious fraud was tolerated or accepted at Oxford, but he evidently acquired considerable fame, for the King invited him to come to court and give an exhibition of his powers. Presumably he was to be lulled to sleep in the royal presence, and then to proceed with his slumbering sermon, but he was compelled to acknowledge himself an impostor. The King imposed a public recantation as the condition of pardon, and then, marvellous to relate, offered him preferment in the Church. Haydock, however, declined the honour, and practised at Salisbury for many years as a physician of good repute. Sub- sequently he retired to London, and died about 1642. Writing on 24 October, 1605, Chamberlain alludes 64 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER to the dangerous illness of Lord Norris, with whom Carleton was at that time. He writes very strongly about it, and the rumour of Lord Norris' death which had got wind, in spite of Carleton's efforts to keep the danger secret. " I assure you the sight of your letter was never lesse welcome, fearing it had brought the confirmation of that which was generally bruited ; for howsoever you wisht the matter shold be carried close, yet (I know not how) it hath found vent, and was current over all the towne, and I met with it almost in every corner, so that your letter lay by me an howre or twaine unlooked on, and longer perhaps had it lien, had not your brother sent to me to learne more par- ticulars (having presently sent his owne to the Lady Norris) and to know how he might write to you. I see it is goode to have a stronge faith, and sometimes to hope even without hope, for though there were many more reasons of distrust both in your first letter, your man's relation, and the general voice, yet my heart wold never yeeld to so untimely a losse." Carleton remained with Lord Norris in Paris until the latter recovered, and thereby, as will presently be related, incurred considerable inconvenience and suspicion of treason. In the same letter Chamberlain writes : " We hear that the Spaniards have met with Sir Edward Michel- bourne at sea and massacred him and all his companie. .... there was a purveyor censured for misdemeanour in his place to ride with his face to the horse tayle, wherein one of his judges differed from the rest, and wold rather have it upon an asse, and that for two reasons, first it wold be more wonderment and gather more boyes about him, and secondly the slowe pace of the asse wold prolong his punishment. . . . The King findes such varietie of sports that he cannot easilie leave Roiston and those quarters ; he is now fallen into a great humor of catching larks, and takes as much delight in it or more than in hunting." AN AMBASSADOR'S SPOILS 65 Truly a royal sport ! Did his Majesty have a courtier in attendance to sprinkle salt on their tails ? Chamberlain's story about Sir Edward Michelbourne was untrue. He was an adventurer ; served in the Low Countries in 1591, accompanied Essex on the Islands Voyage in 1597, and was one o the numerous knights made in Ireland in 1599. He was implicated in the Essex rebellion, and subsequently sailed in 1604 on a voyage ostensibly for trading, during which he was guilty of an act of piracy in plundering a Chinese ship. He returned in 1606, and probably died in 1611. In his next letter, dated 7 November, 1605, Chamber- lain naturally has a good deal to say about the notorious Gunpowder Plot ; but his remarks do not cast any new light on the subject, nor shall the reader be wearied by conjectural or other comment in this present volume. At the end of the letter there is rather an amusing account of the unscrupulous avarice of the French Ambassador on his departure : " The French Ambassa- dor went homeward the first of this moneth, and hath blotted his former reputation with very mecanicall tricks at parting ; for" having 2000 ownces of plate geven him he cavilled for 900 more, as having scene a president (precedent) of the like, which being graunted him he begd two horses more by name of the Kinge. besides pictures great and small, with stones and Jewells at his owne appointment, and not a noble man or other of his acquaintance but he got horses, geldings, or some- what of him ; and the impost of 60 tunne of wine of the Lord Treasurer, which he sold to French marchants for threescore pound ; with divers other such petti larceries, as if he made no conscience to robbe the Egiptians." Not such " petti larceries," either. Chamberlain is rather quaint with his " mecanicall tricks." On 5 March, 1606, Chamberlain writes : " Seeing you mean to be here so soone, I will only tell you that I heard not of your letters till Monday night late, and yesterday delivered the inclosed to Sir Walter Cope 66 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER who Counsailor-like gave me audience at a litle table .... I wished you with us on Thursday that you might have don your younge Lady Mistris (his daughter) some knight service at a play, where your presence might have excused me of much trouble and some cost, for I was faine all alone to squire her and Sir Rowlands huswifes, till I was as weary as they wanton. All the comfort I had was that my Lady Cope said she wold not commit her daughter to any man's care but mine, which was inough to make some man prowde to have the charge of such a Jewell, though he were never the richer nor the wiser for it." John Chamberlain evidently did not consider himself either richer or wiser, but he probably assumed the mantle of mysogonist when writing to his intimate friends. A week later, on 12 March, he writes in evident concern upon Carleton's account : " The letter sent by your brother was left at my lodging, I know not how nor from whom. I wish it may bring you better content- ment then I can find you. On Satterday I went to Sir Walter Cope to know the success of your letter, which he had not yet showed to the great Lord (Salisbury), but promised to do it without fayle with the next oppor- tunitie. I told him by way of speach it was not inough to shew a bare letter, unles he did second it with some goode affection ; and that I doubted he did not use to replie and urge ; yes, quoth he, as familiarly as I do now with you, unles it be in a matter where I see him directly bent to the contrarie. On Monday I was at him again, but he had not yet delivered it, but wisht me to come again the next morning, which I did, and then he told me how he had moved my Lord in goode termes for your travayle, which he wold in no wise here of till your Lords (Northumberland) causes were ended ; then he spake of your comming to the parlement, because you were wearie of idlenes and doing nothing, but neither wold that be graunted. Why, says Sir Walter, his fellow Fraunces comes ; do you make theyre cases alike, quoth CARLETON IN PERIL 67 my Lord, when he is accused by two witnesses to be privie to the hiring of the house for the maine blow ? Sir Walter aunswered you stoode so much on your innocencie that you did not beleve there could be any such witnes produced ; nay, but I assure you there are, said my Lord, and he hath been favourablie dealt with that the matter hath been no further lookt into. So that I see you must beare of this storme as well as you may, and ride it out at anchor till the weather grow more calme." On 2 December preceding Carleton had written from the Bailiff's House, Westminster, to Lord Salisbury, begging that the Council " will acquit him of suspicious of bearing a part in the barbarous villany. Had been in restraint nine days." In 1604 Carleton was secretary to Henry Percy, ninth Earl of Northumberland ; but when, in March 1605, Lord Norris asked him to accompany him on a tour in Spain, he consented, and resigned his secretary- ship. On their way home Lord Norris was taken danger- ously ill in Paris, and Carleton remained with him until his recovery. Just then came the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot, and evidence was adduced that Carleton, as Northumberland's secretary, had actually negotiated for the transfer of the vault in which the powder was laid. Carleton, having mens conscia recti, and never imagining that suspicion could rest upon him, remained in Paris. His prolonged absence from England was deemed suspicious ; he was peremptorily ordered to return, and confined in the Bailiff's House. He cleared himself eventually, and was liberated, but his connection with Northumberland acted to his prejudice for some years, and no doubt retarded his advancement. The Earl of Northumberland, by reason of his relationship to Thomas Percy, who had dined with him the day before the Plot came to light, was under strong suspicion of being implicated therein, and was confined 68 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER at Croydon, and afterwards in the Tower. On 27 June, 1606, he was tried for contempt and misprision of felony, and was sentenced to pay a fine of 30,000, and to be kept a prisoner for life ; he was liberated, however, in 1621, and died in 1632. Thomas Percy, a prime mover in the Gunpowder Plot, was great grandson of Henry, fourth Earl of Northumberland. He died of wounds sustained in his desperate resistance to capture. In a letter of 5 October, 1606, appear comments upon the Earl of Salisbury's treatment of his son, Lord Cranbourne, to whom he has, as Chamberlain puts it, " half nolens volens " given almost carte blanche in the matter of fine clothes, choice of friends, and expensive amusements ; " there is a meaning," adds Chamberlain, " that after a yeare he shall travaile and Will. Lytton is like to accompanie him, wherupon Sir Rowland (Lytton) casts about that it were a con- venient course for you to be theyre conductor. I know not how you will taste it, but me thinckes it wold not be amisse if it may be compassed with good conditions." In a letter, undated, but probably written about this time to Chamberlain, Dudley Carleton says : " I have sent you your papers which I may even now say I have over-read, and taken no small pleasure in a revew of the old world ; amongst others this one here inclosed I tooke particular note of, which I send you by it self, that you may, if you please, read it againe and consider how well you are therin counselled. I was yesterday sent unto by a goode frend of owres (who was left at home in solitudine) to come and see her, and she well- cummed me with so many teares that I wished I had saved my jorny. I am so tender harted that I can not but suffer with so goode a frend ; and I did likewise beare a part in that unusual sadness I observed in you at our two last meetings. I might aske, why should affection produce this effect ? Why should you dis- content your selve the neerer you come to that issue FRIEND OR LOVER? 69 which I have ever thought you have intended for both your contentments ? But I may answeare my self by the common custome, bellum pax rursam ; and I hope these warrs will soone be at an end. I have somewhat to say to you from the melancoly partie, but I deferre it till our next meeting." Here is obviously an allusion to some love affair between Chamberlain and the " melancoly partie " ; Carleton is evidently disappointed with his friend for brooding and hanging fire. It may be conjectured that the lady was Carleton 's sister Alice, with whom Cham- berlain was for many years on very affectionate terms of friendship ; but friendship it remained to the end, lacking possibly but the alchemy of speech on his part to convert it into more precious metal. A warrantable conjecture ; that is all that can be said for it. Carleton wrote again to Chamberlain on 10 February, 1607 ; the letter contains nothing of interest. Carleton is ill, and Chamberlain condoles with him on the 23rd of the same month. In July, 1607, Carleton was in some suspense as to his employment in the immediate future. Chamberlain writes to him on 20 July : " I have neither seen nor heard anything of master since your goinge, only Sir Hugh Beeston meeting me this other day asked when I went into the countrie ; I told him within fowre or five dayes, to which he replied not, so that if hereafter I shold be summoned (besides all other reasons of my refusall) this alone might serve for a sufficient excuse. .... The King went hence (from London) yesterday in the afternoone, which old courtiers say is contra usum Sarum, and the puritans thincke it a matter of no goode example." Chamberlain was writing on Sunday, and the puritans no doubt affected to be scandalised at the King for starting so as to involve travelling on that day. The Ambassadors from the States General were about to take their leave, and Chamberlain remarks : 70 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER " Theyre best entertainment was at Marchant Taylors feast, where they met the King and were placed next the Prince, with many other extraordinarie favors ; the Queen was not there, though she were assuredly looked for, neither can there be any other reason imagined of her fay ling but theyre presence ; they have not yet scene her, nor can get accesse, though they have sought it more than once." The Queen was Anne of Denmark ; why she should thus decline to meet the Ambassadors of the States General is not clear. Chamberlain, it will be noted, writes that he has " neither scene nor heard anything of Master " ; probably he intended to write " the Master" as Carleton, in a letter which crossed Chamberlain's being written, in fact, on the same day says : " Till I heare from you and from our great Master I know not which way I am like to wag when the court is gon from hence ; " " the Master " was no doubt Sir Walter Cope, recently appointed Master of the Court of Wards and Liveries ; Carleton's " great Master " was probably ironical. Writing from Ascot on 27 September, 1607, Chamber- lain tells a wonderful story : " The greatest newes of this countrie is of an ingenious fellow that in Barke- shire sailed or went over a high steeple in a boat all of his owne making, and without other help than himself in her, conveyed her above twenty miles by land over hills and dales to the river and so down to London." An anticipation of our modern sea-plane ! The story of the flight over a high steeple is almost certainly a pure fabrication. In his next, dated 30 December, of the same year, he says : " Neither matter, my leysure nor this bitter weather will suffer me to be longe, so that when I have wished a goode yeare to yourself, your Lady, to Sir Rowland and all his little ones, the best and greatest part of this business is dispatcht ; for my part I am so wearie of the old, and so tired with the continuall A KING'S FAVOURITE 71 losses and crosses of this last yeare, that if this course shall hold on I wold not wish to see many new Sir Robert Carre (Carr) a younge Scot and new favorite, is lately sworne gentleman of the bedchamber Mr. Fuller is still where he was ; he hath paide in his fine, and therby thought, and was put in hope of favor, but when it comes to the upshoot they tender him such a submission as he cannot digest." Of Sir Robert Carr, the new favourite from Scotland, we shall no doubt hear more later on. He was a young man of handsome person and very engaging manners, and King James displayed from the first an almost effeminate affection for him, to the disgust and envy of older courtiers ; who, however, were fain afterwards to enlist his good offices with the King when seeking favour or advancement. On 5 January, 1608, Chamberlain writes, after alluding to some executors and their trials : " You are so neere comming home yourself that me thinckes there needs no mediation to such idoll saints, specially from me who am like to grow every day lesse gracious and to become more straunge. The best intelligence I can geve you in that kinde is that you walke in couples with Mr. Jones, who comming sometimes into Warwick Lane, says that he and you lacke employment, but the best is you are both in my Lord of Salisburies bead-rolle for the first that falles. . . . Mr. Fuller is in hope to come foorth this day ; his owne weakenes and want of judgement hath been his greatest ennemie, for having subscribed his submission and sent it to the Arch-bishop, by the perswasion of his wife and others, he hath afterward sought to recall it, and fained himself sicke in bed when he shold come to the tilt ; his puritan bretheren likewise have not dealt well with him in getting letters from him of all the proceedings, and copies of his argument, which they have printed to his great prejudice ; and in truth he were like to be shrewdley handled, but that they see him such a weather-cock that turnes with every blast, 72 A JACOBEAN LETTER -WRITER and so in some sort pittie him ; but now his best f rends have so advised him that he sayes he will stand to his sub- mission and confesse his errors Mr. Fuller came forth yesterday, but I know not upon what conditions." On 8 January he writes again : " Mr. Fuller came foorth of the fleet on Monday, very frolike, and so joy- full that he wold not loose so much time from home as to go about, but wold needs passe over the river on foot, having kist the rod and made his submission modo et forma.'" This was Nicholas Fuller, barrister of Grays' Inn. He got into trouble in consequence of his argument in the case of his two clients, Thomas Lad and Richard Maunsell. He maintained that " the Ecclesiasticall Commissioners have no power by virtue of theyre Commission, to imprison, to put to the oath ex officio, or to fine any of his Majesties subjects." As Chamberlain remarks, " his puritan brethren," or some person or persons, without asking his consent or approval, had his argument printed in 1607 ; the printer withholds his own name and address, merely stating that the matter " has come to his hands." Anthony a Wood, in " Athenae Oxonicusis," mentions this Nicholas Fuller at the end of his account of another much more famous Nicholas, and after stating the nature of his offence, says : " Whereupon a legal advantage being given to Archbishop Bancroft, Fuller was im- prisoned by him, and continued in custody several years. .... He died in durance on 23rd February, 1619, aged 76 years." This does not, however, agree with Chamberlain's account, according to which he made his submission, paid his fine of 200, and went joyfully home across the frozen Thames. The fine was bestowed upon John Patten, Keeper of the King's Closet. Chamberlain's statement that Mr. Fuller " wold needs passe over the river on foot " must not be inter- preted as a " wonder-tale," like that of the man flying over a steeple ; the preceding paragraph explains it : THE THAMES FROZEN 73 " Above Westminster the Thames is quite frosen over and the Archbishop came from Lambeth on twelfth day over the ice to the Court. Many fantasticall experiments are dayly put in practise, as certain youths burnt a gallon of wine upon the ice, and made all the passengers partakers ; but the best is of an honest woman (they say) that had a great longing to have her husband get her with child upon the Thames." A remarkable ambition ! Alluding to the preachers at Christmas, Chamberlain says : " We had plenty of preaching here this Christmas. The Bishop and the Deane performed theyre parts very well, and D. Pasfeld was not much behind them, but your brother Dove swept the Scriptures together upon heapes, as one told me in that very phrase." Rather a good expression ; John Dove was an evangelical parson, with Calvinistic leanings, and married, as will be recol- lected, to Carleton's sister Anne. Then follows a dismal tale of petty misfortune : " Sir Henry Fanshaw and his Lady inquire often after you and Sir Rowland Lytton, and I do not fayle to per- forme duly what you injoyne me ; yet I was not there now these two dayes, being not able in a manner to stirre out of doores by cutting the nail of my great tooe too neere, which was my new man's new years gift, which will prove but a rude and unluckie knave. I assure you I feare I must be faine to go to surgerie, for I have borne it out as long as I can and it proves every day worse and puts me to great paine, beeing swoln extreemly. Thus you see how I make my moane to you as if you could helpe." Carleton, in a letter dated 7 January, 1608, has the following (after describing Christmas festivities at Kneb- worth) " withall one Flaskett, a chaplen of the drie handed Knights conluded our Christmas devotions with a drie sermon, taking his text out of the Qananit woman's disputing with our Saviour about the crumbs which the dogs might pick up as they fell from the table ; and 74 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER speaking in her person, concluded most of his sayings with I am a dog, and I lie like a dog." In Chamberlain's next letter, dated 11 February, 1608, we hear something more about Tobie Matthew : " Your frend Tobie Mathew was called before the Counsell table on Sonday in the afternoone, and after some schooling the Earle of Salisburie told him that he was not privy to his imprisonment, which he did no wayes approve, as foreseeing that so light a punishment wold make him rather more proude and perverse ; but in conclusion they allotted him sixe weekes space to get his affaires in order and depart the realme ; and in the meane time willed him to make choise of some frend of goode account and well affected where he might remaine ; he named Mr. Jones, who was accepted and is not a little proude of his prisoner." In the same letter there is an account of a court mar- riage, with an elaborate masque : " I can send you no perfect relation of the mariage nor maske on Tewsday, only they say all, but specially the motions were well performed ; as Venus with her chariot drawne by swannes comming in a cloude to grete her sonne, who with his companions, Lusus, Visus and Focus, and fowre or five waggs more were dauncing a matachina and acted it very antiquely, before the twelve signes (who were the master maskers) descended from the zodiak, and plaide theyre parts more gravely, being very gracefully attired. The bride dined in state accompanied by the Prince (Henry, Prince of Wales) the younge Duke (of York, afterwards Charles I.) the lady (Princess) Elizabeth, the Countesse of Oxford, the dukes of Saxonie and other States to furnish the table. In the-middest of dinner the King drank a carouse in a cup of gold, which he sent to the bride, together with a bason and ewer, two livery pots, and three standing cuppes all very fayre and massie, of silver and guilt, and withall a patent for a pension of 600 a year out of the exchequer, to the longer liver of them, with this message that he wisht them as much joy THE DANGER OF COWRIE 75 and comfort all theyre life, as he receved that day he delivered him from the daunger of Go wry." This was the marriage 'of John Ramsay, Viscount Haddington, with Lady Elizabeth Radcliffe, daughter of Thomas, third Earl of Sussex. Ramsay had been a favourite with James before his accession to the throne of England. The King's mention of the " daunger of Gowry " is an allusion to a curious and tragic incident at Perth some eight years previously in the year 1600. John Ruthven, third Earl of Gowrie, and his brother Alexander, Master of Ruthven, appear to have been concerned in a conspiracy against King James ; not necessarily against his life, though some accounts assert that it was so, while others maintain that the brothers were merely bent upon intimidating the King with the object of obtaining repayment of a very large sum of money no less than 48,000 said to have been due to Cowrie's father, as treasurer, he having disbursed this amount in order to meet the current expenses of government ; interest (at ten per cent.) having since raised the amount to 80,000. There are various accounts of the affair, which are more or less conflicting. King James was at Falkland about twelve miles south-east from Perth as the crow flies on 5 August, 1600, and was setting out hunting, when Alexander Ruthven came in haste from his brother the Earl of Gowrie, to tell the King that Gowrie had intercepted a man, supposed to be a Jesuit, with a great pot of gold, whom he had confined in his (the earl's) house at Perth, and wished the King to come over quickly and quietly, as he doubted not but he would find booty worthy of his travel. The King, in spite of Ruthven's urgency, said that he would have a little hunting first, which he did, Ruthven riding all the while beside him. No sooner was the buck killed than the King, without more ado, turned and rode with Ruthven to Perth, accepting the very doubtful story about the Jesuit and the pot full of money. He told the Duke of Lennox 76 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER and the Earl of Mar, who were with him, that " he was going to Perth to get a pose " (i.e., a hoarded or secret treasure), and to dine with the Earl of Gowrie, and that they should accompany him, Alexander Ruthven going on before to warn his brother of the King's approach. When the King had nearly finished his dinner, the Earl, in accordance with custom, took the lords and attendants to another room to dine, but Alexander Ruthven remained with the King, and whispered to him that now was the time to come and see the man with the treasure ; Sir Thomas Erskine offered to follow the King, but Ruthven put him off, saying that the King desired to be alone, and so led him off by various passages, locking all the doors behind him, until they entered a room at the end, where there was a man standing. The King naturally asked was this the man, but Ruthven replied that there was " another business in hand," and putting on his hat said " You remember how you used my father, and now you must answer for it." William, first Earl of Gowrie, was convicted chiefly on his own confession of being concerned in a treason- able conspiracy, and was beheaded in 1584, when James was only eighteen. The King pointed this out, and reproached Ruthven with having brought him there to murder him. Ruthven bade him stay there quietly, while he went to fetch his brother, but returned in a few moments with a girdle, or garter, exclaiming " By God ! there is no remedy, you must die ! " Upon this there was a struggle between them the other man, one Henderson, having decamped in terror and the King, contriving to get close to a window, shouted for help. Thereupon John Ramsay, who was acquainted with the house, ran up by a back way to the room ; the King called upon him to strike the traitor, and Ramsay stabbed Ruthven twice with his dagger ; Ruthven rushed from the room, and encountered Sir Thomas Erskine, who asked him how the King was ; Ruthven only replied RAMSAY KILLS COWRIE 77 that he took God to witness that he was not in fault, whereupon Sir Thomas ran him through, killing him on the spot. Meanwhile, the Earl of Cowrie, collecting three or four squires or servants, rushed to the chamber where the King was, no doubt passing Alexander Ruthven's dead body on the way. Cowrie was armed with two drawn swords, and hearing a shout, " You have killed the King our master, and will you also take our lives ? " dropped the points of his swords in astonishment, and John Ramsay promptly ran him through the heart and killed him. The titles and arms of the Ruthvens were abolished, and their estates forfeited to the King ; it was also decreed that no one of the name of Ruthven was per- mitted thereafter to dwell in Scotland. Ramsay received many honours from James ; in 1606 he was created Viscount Haddington, and was granted an honourable addition to his coat of arms, viz., an arm holding a naked sword piercing a human heart, and supporting an imperial crown ; in 1621 he was created an English peer, by the titles of Baron of Kingston on Thames and Earl of Holderness ; and was further granted the privilege that on 25 August every year he or his heirs male should bear the sword of State before the King, in commemoration of his services in saving the King's life on that date. He died in 1626, when, failing an heir, his honours became extinct. Such is, briefly, the story of the " daunger of Cowry " alluded to by the King at Ramsay's wedding ; there are other versions of it, and long depositions of witnesses, but this is not the place to reproduce them : the story is a strange one, and the motives and intentions of Cowrie and his brother are variously represented ; King James obviously " scored," at least in the cancel- lation of his debt. " They talk of divers prodigies as well in those parts as in Holland, but specially that Aerssens the Greffiers 78 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER bell in his house doth often ring out two and three howres together when no body is neere it, and when it is expressly watched ; and the grates and barres of his windowes are continually hammered and battered as if there were a smith's forge, which hath almost put him out of his wittes. We heare out of Italic that the Pope hath expressely commanded Sir Robert Dudley to forsake his mistress, who they say hath ben with child and miscarried five times within the yeare." Sir Robert Dudley was son to Robert Dudley the famous Earl of Leicester, by his marriage with Douglas, daughter of Lord William Howard, and widow of Lord Sheffield. The marriage was celebrated privately, only two days before Robert Dudley was born, and Leicester subsequently refused to recognise the union or the child, offering the lady 700 a year to agree to this repudiation, which, however, she declined. She subsequently married Sir Edward Stafford of Grafton. Writing on 28 October, 1608, Chamberlain says : " I doubt not but you have heard that the Lord Elphin- ston, alias Balmerino, chief secretary or president in Scotland, was lately sent from the King to the Council, and by them committed to his lodgings, about a letter written long since to the Pope for the making of a Scot- tish Cardinal ; which letter Bellarmiri's chaplain charges the King withal in his late answer to the apology for the oath. But the King disavows it, and says if there be any such it was foisted in by his secretary without his knowledge. But he seems to stand in contestation that it was done by his commandment. Once it is likely to prove a Davidson's case, but we are bound to believe the best. I hear a muttering of a bill put into the Exchequer or some other court, concerning much land that by reason of pretended bastardy in Queen Elizabeth, shold descend to divers persons. The chief actors named are Lady Arabella St. Leger of the West, and others. If there be any such thing, methinckes the whole State shold prevent and resent such an indignity." BALMERINOCK AND THE KING 79 James Elphinstone, bom about 1553, was a Catholic. He was a great favourite with James, whom he accom- panied to England in 1603, and in the following year he was created a Baron, with the title of Balmerinoch the estates of the Cistercian Abbey of that name being converted into a temporal Lordship for his benefit and that of his heirs male ; an act of spoliation which Elphinstone, though a Catholic, appears to have accepted without protest. He was Secretary of State for Scotland in 1598 and following years, and in 1599 he despatched to Pope Clement VIII. a letter, signed by King James, requesting the Pope to give a cardinal's hat to Drum- mond, Bishop of Vaizon (a relative of Elphinstone), and expressing high regard for the Pope and the Catholic faith. This was reported to Elizabeth by Patrick, sixth Baron Gray (commonly known as Master of Gray) ; the Queen asked James for an explanation, and he asserted that it must be a forgery, and Balmerinoch also denied all knowledge of it. In 1607, however, writing to King James concerning a controversial work of the King's, Cardinal Bellarmine quoted this letter in proof of James's former favourable attitude towards Catholicism. This was awkward for James ; but he readily found a scapegoat in Balmerinoch, who confessed that he had written the letter, and placed it among others for the King's signature, persisting in this statement at his trial, and exonerating the King of any hand in the business. He was sentenced to be beheaded and attainted, but the sentence was not carried out. A new version of the matter apparently obtained credence, by which James was said to be fully aware of the contents of the letter ; finally Balmerinoch, on the promise that his life and estates should remain secure, once more declared that the King was not responsible for the letter. Nobody believed this, but of course there was no more to be said. Balmerinoch died 1612, and his son John was restored in title as second baron. Chamberlain's allusion to the " Davison case " is not quite clear ; he may have meant 80 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER John Davidson (1549-1603) (the spelling of the name is immaterial), a preacher who got into trouble with King James by reason of his plain speaking : or he may have referred to William Davison (154-1-1608), Eliza- beth's secretary, who was made a scapegoat by the Queen in the matter of the execution of Mary Queen of Scots a parallel case with that of Balmerinoch and James, ~but far more tragic and scandalous. As to the rumour that some persons were scheming to take advantage of the " pretended bastardy " of Queen Elizabeth, there was no pretence about the matter ; she was a bastard by the verdict of a Court of Lawyers convened by Henry VIII. ; those who would avail themselves of such bastardy in order to contest her right to certain lands, or rather to assert, somewhat tardily, their own rights therein, would apparently have some ground by the second clause of an Act passed soon after her accession, in which she was declared " inherit- able " of her mother Queen Anne, malgre the invalidity of the marriage. Chamberlain would, of course, ignore the sentence of invalidity, as derogatory, together with any such schemes as he alludes to, to the dignity of the " great Queen of Saba." On 10 November, 1608, Dudley Carleton writes to Chamberlain : " The hard success of your negotiation can not any way disgrace your kind and friendly endevor, which is as thanckfully accepted both by my wife and myself as if it had taken better place ; but what can I expect otherwise from thence, where my credit is fallen so low as to be putt back to my Abes, and to be taught againe to write and read ; and that which is worse, huic ipsi patrono opus est quern (admodo?) mihi defensore paro ; and they thinck they have enough to doe to wrastle with theyre owne fortune ; yet what other way to the wood I know not, there being (as you know) an express barr to all other passages ; but better it is to wander upp and downe then allwayes sitt still, and therefo/e I am like enough to be with you on Monday 81 or Tuesday next for a weeke or a fortnight, though uppon no more express arrand then in general to make my Court, leaving the rest to God and goode fortune .... I have no more to say to you, but my wife cries to me owt of her warme nest to putt in enough for her ; when you have hartie thancks and commendations from both there needes no more ceremonie betwixt frends, and therfore I commit you to God's protection." Carleton was evidently, as we should put it nowadays, " down on his luck " ; John Chamberlain replies on the following day 11 November but without any reference to Carleton's affairs. Carleton writes again on 1 December, evidently still in much discontent owing to his continued lack of employment, and some hitch in money affairs, and con- cludes : " I must now take my leave of you and the towne together, wherein I have receaved so little con- tentment at this time that but that you harten me I should not see it againe in hast. You will visit the idle oracle in the Strand some times ; and so God keepe you." The " idle oracle " in the Strand was no doubt Sir Walter Cope, through whom Carleton was hoping to obtain the favourable consideration of the Earl of Salisbury ; Chamberlain recounts his dealings with Cope on Carleton's behalf in a letter dated 9 December, 1608 : " I went to the idle oracle of the Strand on Satterday to see what was become of your letter, who told me it was not yet delivered, for that he could find no fit opportunitie, but he wold watch a time when Sir Nighell Hickes should be present to second him ; but shewing myself not greatly satisfied with this aunswer he added that his Lordship had now many businesses in his head and that he must cast out his hand before there were any moving of him. I told him your letter wold grow stale, and that against another time you might be redy with another, and so it were goode to make as it were continuall claime ; but I could get no more of him but that he wold take the fittest way he could find. I deferred G 82 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER writing thus much on Tewsday, meaning to have another bout with him, which came fitly to passe on Wensday by occasion of a letter to him from Sir Rowland Lytton which going to deliver I was fain to follow after him to Whitehall, and yet there missing him. I returned after dinner and found him in the middest of many affairs, but (desirous to be rid of me) he left his business to know mine errand, which having don from Sir Rowland, I asked what he had don with your letter ; he saide it lay yet by him, which seeming straunge to me, he said he had let slip no opportunitie, and that he could loose it if he wold ; I told him that were easily don, wherupon seeing me discontented he brake out into this protesta- tion, God is my judge I am as careful of it as yourself ; and so we parted ; but as I was going his lady got a glimpse of me, and called after me, to whom I complained that frends were to look for litle at his handes that in three weekes or a moneths space could not finde meanes to deliver a letter ; she seemed to marvayle at it too ; but in the end fell to excuse him with age, want of memorie and multiplicitie of business ; but if you wold now and then call upon her with two or three prettie lines she wold continually put him in minde and become your true solicitor ; for which favor I comple- mented with her after my fashion ; and so leave it to your discretion how far you will make use of it." Chamberlain certainly did not spare himself where his friend's welfare was at stake ; his expression of " dis- content " was probably more forcible than is implied by the wording of his letter, and Sir Walter Cope's cool hint that he could lose the letter if he chose was certainly not conciliatory. Probably Lady Cope's hint that Carleton would be wise to secure her favour was a sound one. In the same letter Chamberlain records an act of lese majeste on the part of three cormorants : " The King is at Thetford, where he was receaved by three cormorants that had planted themselves upon the church, and wold not be removed either by ringing of GODLY BRETHREN AS PRINTERS 83 bells, showting of the people or shooting of pieces at them, till after much levelling one of them was taken downe with a bullet, and then his fellowes flew away." As good sport as catching larks ! Carleton, on 11 December, writes very appreciatively of Chamberlain's services : " You doe with that true affection embrace my poore affaires that I perceave both the prosecuting and success of them turne more to your truble then I could wish. An old tired jade will not mend his pase for any spurring ; and if you thinck a lock of hay will draw him faster forward I will not spare to trie that skill, though it must be of a short crop, you know, and very fine for such choise creatures, and therefore I must take time for provision." This is perhaps in reference to Lady Cope's suggestion provision of " prettie lines " for her ladyship. In the same letter he commissions Chamberlain to get a bible bound for him by some binders in Fetter Lane ; but writing again on 15 December he says : " If my letter and booke were delivered unto you on Monday last you have a very trublesome commission, of which I would ease you of some part, if so it may be. I doe understand that the goode workemen in Fetter Lane are some of the godly brethren (Calvinists) and that theyr exterordinary skill they learnt at Geneva, by which they presume in bibles that are putt to them to leave out the Apocripha. We have here a goode worke- man, but he hath commonly his hands full of worke and his head full of drinck ; yet I had as leve venture my worke with this goode fellow that is sometimes sober as with them that are all way es mad Wherefore I pray you send it back unbound." There is further allusion both in Carleton's and Cham- berlain's letters, at the close of the 1608, to Sir Walter Cope and Carleton's prospects of a good diplomatic appointment, but Cope is still temporising ; and Carleton, about to become a father, is looking about for a suitable house. CHAPTER IV JACOBEAN LETTERS January, 1609 March, 1614 SUCCEEDING correspondence in the year 1609 deals almost entirely with Carleton's hope, or desire, of obtaining some post through the good offices of Sir Walter Cope with Lord Salisbury. On 10 January, Chamberlain mentions that, through some unaccount- ably gross error in conveyance, Sir Walter Raleigh's estate (of Sherborne) has passed into the King's hands, and has been bestowed upon his favourite, Sir Robert Carr ; " and though the Lady Raleigh have ben an importunate suitor all these holy-dayes in her husband's behalfe, yet is it past recalling, so that he may say with Job, naked I came into the world and naked shall I go out." Very possibly the legal error which deprived Raleigh of his estate was engineered by some meddler deputed by the King, or by Sir Robert Carr ; nothing was too good for Carr in the eyes of King James, who used to fondle the young man in public, and walk about with his arm round his neck, while Raleigh was by no means in favour. In the year 1610 Chamberlain embarked upon his longest recorded journey. Carleton was knighted in 1610, and appointed Ambassador at Venice ; Chamber- lain accompanied him thither, and writes to him during his return journey from Augusta, dating his letter 3 September. 1611, and addressing Carleton, with char- acteristic precision, " My Very Goode Lord," in virtue 8 4 CHAMBERLAIN'S JOURNEY 85 of his status as Ambassador. " It were too long a piece of worke to geve you a particular account of our hard and tedious journey, beeing indeed the hardest taske that ever I undertooke, by reason of the suspicion of sicknes in divers places where we were to passe, so that we were forced to seeke bywayes and ride sometimes all night through dark and dangerous passages ; but the worst of all was that when we thought ourselves past daunger, there were we neerest, being stayed upon the border of Bavier (Bavaria), and not suffered to passe thorough any towne nor so much as a village, but were faine to seek unknowne wayes and travayle over the feildes, till both we and our horses were utterly tired ; and yet with all these difficulties I thank God we came to this towne the second of this present in reasonable health, but well wearied ; and now when I hoped to finde rest, I have ben all this day tired with seeing of sights, which are here many well worth the seeing, and tomorrow morning God willing are to go hence toward Francford (Frankfort) being loth to leave this companie which is reasonable goode and but indifferent drincken (?) I delivered Signor Veltzer's letter and had litle confer- ence with him, for that his colleague came to visit him when we were newly set to it ; he seemes a man of some understanding, and very courteous. Hoschelius is keper of the librarie, and withall kepes a schoole ; he dined with me this day, and found better entertainment every way with the dutch than I could geve him for lacke of Latin the first night we parted from you we overtooke Ottaviv (?) Bon at Corregliano, attended and guarded like a puneditor or Generall." After the customary commendations, Chamberlain concludes " Your Lordship's to command," in place of his more intimate " Yours most assuredly." He was extraordinarily punctilious in respect of such details and what is a Puneditor ? Augusta Vindelicorum was the ancient name of Augsburg, about thirty-five miles north-west from 86 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER Munich ; Vindelicia was the ancient name of Bavaria. Chamberlain's use of the old name of Augusta is some- what quaint ; the town was surely known as Augsburg in the seventeenth century. The Rathaus or Golden Hall, the palace of the former prince-bishops, is one of the finest old buildings in Germany ; the cathedral dates from the sixth century. A month later, on 5 October, 1611, Chamberlain writes from the Hague, describing the very bad weather which interfered with his journey ; " it doth nothing here but raine and haile, and on Michaelmas Day it snew all day long, which hath hindered us many bon- viages ; yet we have ben at Delft, Riswick and Skevening, and seen all the sights and curiosities here about. . . . Sir Robert Rich is lately dead at Brighton, and rich Sutton is gon the same way, having before his death bought the Charter house of the Lord Chamberlain for his intended hospitall The pirates have refused the King's pardon that was offered them, and as it is saide are gon for Florence to be commanded by Sir Robert Dudley ; these states set out sixteen ships against them, which I thincke was the principall cause of theyre dislodging." " Rich " Sutton was Thomas Sutton, the founder of Charterhouse ; he made a large fortune from leases of coal mines in Durham, and in 1611, shortly before his death, he purchased the Charterhouse, and there estab- lished and endowed a hospital for eighty inmates and a school for forty boys. He was reckoned the wealthiest commoner in England at that time probably he was worth about 300,000. Charterhouse was, of course, originally a Carthusian monastery ; it was suppressed in 1538, and granted to John Bridges and Thomas Hall ; after a good many vicissitudes in ownership, it became the property of Thomas Howard, Earl of Suffolk and Lord Chamberlain, who sold it to Thomas Sutton. Sir Robert Dudley was, as already mentioned, son CHAMBERLAIN'S RETURN 87 of the Earl of Leicester. He appears to have been of a restless and adventurous temperament ; he was knighted in the Cadiz expedition of 1596, when only two- and-twenty ; subsequently, having married one Alice Leigh, he repudiated the marriage taking a leaf out of his father's book and took unto himself Elizabeth South- well, with whom he retired to Florence, and there established himself. He assumed without authority the title of Earl of Warwick, signing himself " Warwick " in letters to England, and refused to obey the summons to come home and answer for it. In July, 1611, the Earl of Nottingham wrote to Lord Salisbury that he feared the pardon offered to pirates came too late to do any good ; but there is nothing in State documents about their placing themselves under Dudley, and Chamber- lain's gossip seems rather vague and incredible. Chamberlain arrived in London on 3 November, 1611, after a very stormy and even perilous journey, of which he writes a long account, eventually being driven to land at Yarmouth, where four of his fellow passengers lost their lives through attempting to jump on shore at the wrong moment. Writing on 13 November, 1611, Chamberlain says : " Since my last of the 6th of this present I received yours of the 18th October, and the next day after my writing delivered your letter to the Lord Treasurer having attended fowre dayes before I could come to his presence, insomuch as I was willing to have delivered it to anybody that wold have taken charge of it ; and indeed I am perswaded Mr. Kirkham did not his part, and Mr. Finet (in his regard) was loth as he saide to put his sickle into another man's harvest ; till at last an honest doore keeper offered me the curtesie to bring me to my Lord's presence, and I thincke performed it. My audience was short and swete, with inquirie after your health and my Ladies, and remembrance of old acquaintance and that we were both growing gray, and that he wold confer with me at more leysure, and so forth." 88 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER A typical interview, engineered with difficulty, be- tween an unimportant individual and a high official. " During my waiting at my Lord Treasurer's, Signer Fabritio was there among other Suiters ; there passed but short salutations between us, neither was he willing to talk single, but (as en passant) told stories of a certain ( ?) of Verona." " Fabritio " was a nickname for Sir Henry Wotton who was Ambassador at Venice before Carleton, and also later on ; the occasion or meaning of the sobriquet is not clear ; it was some joke between Chamberlain and Carleton, apparently. " Sir Thomas Overberie (Overbury) by much suit is restored to the Court, and there is hope in time to the Quenes favor." Sir Thomas Overbury was a friend of Sir Robert Carr, by whom he was introduced at Court ; he was knighted in 1608, and travelled in the Netherlands in 1609 and 1610 ; he was subsequently attached to Carr as some sort of Secretary, and became his advisor in business and other matters ; he was also a poet of some pretension. There was abundant matter of gossip later on in con- nection with his downfall and miserable death. " The Ambassador of Savoy followed the King to Tiballs (Theobalds), or as some say to Roiston ; for ought I can learne he had but a cold answer, and yet the Duke his master was so confident that he offered to come in person to conduct her." This was one of the various projects for the marriage of Elizabeth, daughter of King James ; she eventually married Frederick, Elector Palatine, in 1613. The Ambassador, it appears, offered an unusual and embarrassing gift : " The Ambassador brought a present of a tame ounce or leopard, which had almost committed an unpardonable fault at Tiballs, having seased upon a white red deer calfe, nursed up there by a woman entertained for the purpose, and much ado there was to save the poore suckling." SOME SOUND ADVICE 89 Chamberlain and Carleton maintained a regular cor- respondence during the next year or two, but there is little matter of interest in Chamberlain's letters. On 27 May, 1612, he writes much concerning the death of Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury, and adds : " I was yesterday with Sir Walter Cope, who came to towne with the young Earle (of Salisbury] ; he told me that he was injoyned by the late Lord Treasurer with the Lord Chamberlain to overlooke his papers, which since his comming he had don, and finding certain letters of yours (which he shewed me) willed me to tell you that you shold take no care of them, for they were in safe keeping, and read me some part of them of latest date ; he wisht me likewise to perswade you to cast away a letter (as he called it) now and then on the Lord of Northampton, as likewise to insinuate with the Lord of Rochester (Robert Carr), and send him some prettie advertisements, and for the first time you might do it by his meanes, and so he wold make your way, or rather peradventure his owne ; but if I might advise I wold you could rather devise how to grow in with the Prince, and not without need if all be true I have heard." Sound advice on the part of John Chamberlain ; neither the Earl of Northampton, a born and unscru- pulous schemer, nor Viscount Rochester, the spoiled and pampered King's favourite, was to be relied upon as friend or patron ; either would throw a comrade or protege to the dogs without compunction if it suited his purpose. Chamberlain's hint about the Prince Henry may have reference to stories which were being circulated alleging that the prince was a rival of Rochester's for the favours of the young Countess of Essex ; he died in November following. On 2 July, 1612, Chamberlain writes : " The Lord Sanquir was arraigned on Saterday and confest the inditement ; he made a long confession of his fault. .... and so behaved himself there and on Monday at his execution that he moved much compassion." 90 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER Robert Creichton, Lord Sanquhair, had procured a man to murder one Turner, a fencer, who had accident- ally put out Sanquhair's eye while fencing with him. " The Countesse of Shrewsburie was called before the Counsaile and judges on Tewsday at the Lord Chaun- cellors, where by the Atturney and Sollicitor, and by all the Lordes and judges her contempt towards the King and that table was laide open and much aggravated for her refusing to answer, and scornfull termes used towards some at her first conventing, and her persisting still in the same course, which example might prove of daungerous consequence ; to all which she replied nothing but the privilege of her person and nobilitie, and a rash vow which she could not violate ; wherupon she was sent backe to the towre, and this proceeding is thought to be but a preamble (if she do not reclaime herself) to a c'ensure in the Star Chamber." This was Mary Cavendish, wife of Gilbert Talbot, seventh Earl of Shrewsbury, and daughter, by her second marriage, of Elizabeth, daughter of John Hard- wick of Hardwick. This lady, commonly known as Bess of Hardwick, was possessed of a remarkably strong will, and usually succeeded in getting her own way. Shortly after her daughter married Gilbert Talbot, she, being then for the second time a widow, married Gilbert's father, George, sixth Earl of Shrewsbury; a remarkable family arrangement. Some six or seven years later, while the Earl of Shrewsbury had the custody of Mary Queen of Scots, Mar- garet, Countess of Lennox, and her son Charles (younger brother of Darnley),on their way to Scotland were enter- tained by the wideawake Countess Elizabeth at Rufford ; and there the wily lady managed to engineer a marriage between young Charles and her daughter, Elizabeth Caven- dish. Queen Elizabeth, of course, was furious, and sent the Countess to the Tower ; but she was liberated after three months; and in the following year (1575) was born to Charles and Elizabeth Stuart a daughter, Arabella. LADY ARABELLA STUART 91 Later on, in 1610, being them five-and-thirty years of age, Arabella thought it was time that she was liber- ated from the toils of Court control, and was privately married to Sir William Seymour ; but the secret was not kept, and she was sent to the custody of Sir Thomas Parry, at Lambeth, while Seymour was committed to the Tower. They managed to escape, however, Arabella in male attire ; but she was captured and lodged in the Tower, where she died in 1615. Seymour remained free, and eventually returning to England was pardoned by King James. Mary, Countess of Shrewsbury, was accused of assist- ing Arabella to escape ; she refused to admit anything, and, as Chamberlain says, by her scornful demeanour and obstinate silence annoyed the Lords of the Council very much. She spent some years in the Tower, but the alleged offence was never proved against her. Mary was evidently a worthy daughter of the redoubtable Bess of Hardwick. There was much talk about this time of the death of Henry, Prince of Wales, which took place on 6 November, 1612. Chamberlain has a good deal to say about it in letters to Carleton of 4 and 12 November, and in the latter he writes : " It was generally feared he had met with ill measure, and there wanted not suspicion of poison, but upon the opening of him the next day toward night there was nothing found." The wildest stories were in fact abroad about the alleged murder of the Prince. The most prevalent version was that Rochester was the perpetrator of the crime, from jealousy of the prince's supposed passion for Frances, Countess of Essex ; and some even went so far as to hint that the King was accessory to the deed, from jealousy of the popularity of his son. There is little doubt, however, that the prince died of typhoid fever, as demonstrated by Dr. Norman Moore in a little volume published in 1882. Writing on 19 November, 1612, Chamberlain says : " The same day se'ennight (i.e., a week after) he died 92 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER there fell out a very ridiculous accident. A very handsome young fellow, much about his age and not altogether unlike him, came stark naked to St. James's, while they were at supper, saying he was the Prince's ghost from Heaven with a message to the King ; but by no manner of examination or threatening could they get more out of him, or who set him at work. Some say he is simple, others mad. He belongs to one of the Chancery. All the penance they gave him was two or three lashes, which he endured, as it seemed, without sense, and keeping him naked as he was all night and the next day in the Porter's Lodge, where thousands came to see him. The King sent to have him dismissed without more ado or inquiry." Poor, wretched youth ! The " penance " of being kept naked for twenty-four hours in November, and gazed upon by a derisive mob, was a pretty severe one, after all. Chamberlain proceeds to relate the very damaging stories extant concerning the late Earl of Salisbury, who, he says, according to some who should know, " jugled with religion, with King, Queen, theyre children, with nobilitie, Parlement, with frends, foes, and gener- ally with all." De mortuis nil nisi malum ! Salisbury was too powerful in his lifetime to be attacked with safety ; probably his faults were greatly magnified by his post mortem critics, but corruption was very rife in the days of James the First, and even when as in the case of the Commission upon the state of the Navy in 1608 cases of flagrant abuse were clearly brought home to indi- viduals, James shrugged his shoulders and " let it slide " anything to save annoyance. The King's laisser oiler methods are further exhibited in a letter of 7 January. 1613 ; Christmas is over, and the King is going to Royston ; the Council has repeatedly begged him to appoint new officers of State, " Specially Secretaries, or one at least, whomsoever he shold please, A DISCONTENTED FRIAR 93 for that the state of affaires requires it, and suffers much for the want of a sufficient man that might ease his ma tie ' in some part of the care and paines of that place. The King tooke theyre advise in goode part, and doth acknowledge as much as they say, with promise that he will thincke upon it and resolve in goode time ; so that we are now come to our discourses again, and the cheife candidate as forward in theyre hopes as at any time before." The intolerable Stuart mafiana ! In his next letter Chamberlain alludes to two Carmelite monks who had come over to England some time previously, apparently under the auspices of Carleton, professing to be converts to protestantism, and evidently expecting a very warm welcome. One was housed with the Archbishop of Canterbury and the other with the Archbishop of York ; says Chamberlain : " Your Italian frier was with me this other day with a long discontented discourse for want of monie, and that he was sometimes faine to make his owne bed and sweep his chamber, thinges he was never put to in the place whence he came. I advised him the best I could to patience, and told him that seeing he was well provided for food and raiment, he must fashion himself to indure somwhat per amor di Christo." Was Chamberlain indulging in a little gentle irony ? It would scarcely be appreciated by the renegade Carmelite. His comrade in the north appears to have been similarly discontented with his surroundings, complain- ing that the Archbishop was strettisimo di danari very close fisted and " that they lived in no cities nor townes, but in villa, and therupon subscribed his name Johannes in deserto" Writing, on 4 February, 1613, to Alice Carleton, Chamberlain says : " Your sister Williams (Elizabeth Carleton, married to Alexander Williams] tells me she wrote so at large to you the last weeke that she hath left 94 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER nothing for me, but to give you thancks for your letter of the 20th of January, which I receved upon Sonday ; and to desire you to excuse me if I do not fulfill your commandment in visiting your sister Underhill, unles it were to more purpose then to exchange for a few fine words and phrases, which I was never goode at, and cannot now begin." This is an echo of the old trouble with Carleton's married sisters, originating with their Romish proclivities ; Bridget Carleton, it will be re- membered, was the wife of Sir Hercules Underhill. Chamberlain alludes in this same letter to the death of Sir Thomas Bodley, and has a good deal to say about his will, commenting upon scanty bequests to his nephews, friends, servants, etc. ; " but let goode nature go, if he had had regard of conscience towards his wife's children, by whom he had all his wealth, but in truth he hath dealt hardly with one of them who hath many children and is in need and distresse, and by his meanes ; the story wherof is too long for a letter ; and all this for a vainglory and shew of goode deeds, for he hath geven about seven thousand pound to his librarie at Oxford, and two hundred pound to Merton Colledge, besides mourning to all the students of that house from the highest to the lowest ; this and such like makes me know and esteem the world as it is, nothing but vanitie ; and in that meditation I will leave and commit you to God." On 25 February Chamberlain writes to Dudley Car- leton : " Sir Henry Savile shewed me the last weeke his notes taken in the reading of Sir Thomas Bodley's life written by himself in seven sheets of paper with vanitie enough, wherin omitting not the least minutezze that might turne to his glorie, he doth not so much as make mention of his wife, nor that he was maried ; nor of Secretarie Walsingham, nor the Earl of Leicester, who were all his maine raisers, whereby may be seen what mind he carried to his best benefactor." Sir Thomas married, about the year 1587, a wealthy SIR THOMAS BODLEY'S WILL 95 widow named Ann Ball ; she died in 1611. Chamberlain is certainly down upon him after his death ; the writer in the Die. Nat. Bio. suggests that he was disappointed at not being remembered in Bodley's will ; and there is some warrant for this inference in a letter from Chamberlain to Sir Ralph Winwood, dated 29 Jan- uary, 1613 : " I cannot learn that he hath given any- thing, no not a good word, nor so much as named an old frend he hath, but Mr. Gent and Tom Allen, who like a couple of Almes men must have his best and second gown, and his best and second cloke ; but to cast a shadow of something upon Mr. Gent he says he forgives him all he owed him, which Mr. Gent protests to be never a penny. I must intreat you to pardon me if I seem some- what impatient in his behalf, who hath ben so servile to him, and indeed such a perpetuall servant that he hath deserved a better reward. Neither can I deny but I have a little indignation for myself ; that having been acquainted with him almost forty yeares, and observed and respected him so much, I should not be remembered with the value of a spoon or a mourning garment ; whereas if I had gone before him (as poor a man as I am) he should not have found himself for- gotten." This estimate of Bodley's character is probably un- known to the many biographers and chroniclers who gladly avail themselves of the valuable material provided by him in the library which bears his name ; it is con- soling to reflect that, whatever John Chamberlain may have thought of him, his bequest remains a monument of his learning and industry. Chamberlain's letters are very full at this time of the marriage of Princess Elizabeth, the fetes and masques incidental thereto, etc., all the details of which he delights in recording ; but they are not of much interest. There is an amusing instance of King James's charac- teristic care of the " bawbees " : " Our Gray's Inn men and the Inner Templers .... on Saturday last performed 96 , A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER their part (i.e., in the masque) exceeding well with great applause and approbation both from the King and all the companie. The next night the King invited the masquers with their assistants to the number of forty to a solemn supper in the new marriage room, where they were well treated, and much graced with kissing his Majesty's hand ; and every one having a particular accoglienza (welcome) from him. The King husbanded the matter so well that this supper was not at his own cost, but he and his company won it upon a wager of running at the ring, of the Prince and his nine followers, who paid 30 a man. The King, Queen, Prince Palatine, and Lady Elizabeth sat at the table by themselves, and the great Lords and Ladies with the maskers, above four-score in all, sat at another table, so that there was not roome for them that made the feast, but they were faine to be lookers on." Well " husbanded," indeed ! On 25 March. 1613, he bewails his own sickness, with considerable detail, and then has another shot at Sir Thomas Bodley, on the occasion of his great funeral at Oxford, " which is the last act of Sir Thomas Bodley 's vanitie, which doth every day appeal e so much, that though I never had any excellent conceit of him, yet I did not thincke he had ben so vainly ambitious as he discovers himself many wayes." On 29 April, 1613, Chamberlain writes a long letter to Carleton, in which he inevitably alludes to the arrest of Sir Thomas Overbury : " I doubt not but you have heard of Sir Thomas Overburies committing to the towre the last weeke ; the King hath long had a desire to remove him from about the Lord of Rochester, as thincking it a dishonour to him that the world shold have an opinion that Rochester ruled him and Overburie ruled Rochester ; whereas he wold make it appeare that neither Overburie nor Rochester had such a stroke with him, but that he wold do what he thought fit, and what he intended without acquainting either of them with his OVERBURY DECLINES AN EMBASSY 97 purposes ; and so caused the Lord Chamberlain (Thomas Howard, Earl of Suffolk) and the Earle of Pembroke to deale with Overburie and to tell him the King's goode meaning towards him, whereby he had an intent to make use of his goode parts, and to traine him for his further service, and therefore they offered him his choice to be employed either to the Archduke, or into Fraunce or into Moscovie (upon which place we have new projects) ; he excused himself as incapable of such places for divers wants, and specially of language ; they aunswered that he was young enough and with litle labour might attain that in short time, or otherwise he might be assisted and supplied by sufficient secretaries and other fit persons about him ; then he alleged indisposition of body and want of health as beeing much subject to the spleen, whereto they replied that chaunge of ayre might be a speciall remedy for such infirmities, but he stoode stiffly upon it that he was not willing to forsake his countrie, and at last gave them a peremptorie aunswer that he could not yeeld to go, and that he hoped the King neither in law nor justice could compell him to leave his countrie ; with which aunswer the King was so incensed that he willed the Counsaile to consider what it deserved, who upon this contempt caused him to be sent to the towre. Some take this as a diminution of my Lord of Rochesters credit and favor, but the King told the Counsaile the next day that he would not have it so construed, for that he had and did still take more delight in his companie and conversation then in any mans living." Surely, there was never a more transparent trap set to beguile any man ; Overbury was to be got out of the way ; if he persisted in declining the post which was thus pressed upon him, his refusal was to be treated as con- tumacious, and the alternative way of disposing of him was obviously the Tower. Chamberlain, after alluding to some other news, proceeds : " There was a divorce to be sued this terme 'H 98 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER twixt the Earle of Essex and his Lady, and he was content (whether true or fained) to confesse insufficiencie in himself; but there happened an accident of late that hath altered the case ; his lady sought out and had many conferences with a wise woman, who (accord- ing to the course of such creatures) drew much monie from her, and at last cousened her of a Jewell of great value, for which beeing prosecuted and clapt in prison, she accuses the Lady of divers straunge questions and propositions, and in conclusion that she dealt with her to make away her Lord (as ayming at another mark), upon which scandall and slaunder the Lord Chamberlain and other her frends thincke it not fit to proceed in the divorce." Such was the gossips' view at the moment of the imprisonment of Overbury and the proposed divorce of the young Countess of Essex, who was Lady Frances Howard, daughter of the Earl of Suffolk ; the incidents are not connected in Chamberlain's letter, but the facts came all too clearly to light later on. Lady Frances was married to Robert Devereux at seventeen years of age, the bridegroom being nearly two years her junior ; he was sent abroad to travel until he should attain a more suitable age for the actualities of marriage, and in his absence the countess conceived a violent passion for Robert Carr, Viscount Rochester, with whom she had guilty intercourse. When Essex returned from his travels, Lady Frances engaged the " wise woman," one Mrs. Turner, a depraved character and the keeper of a brothel, in the first instance to concoct " philtres " which should stimulate Rochester's passion and alienate the desires of Essex, and afterwards to endeavour to poison the latter. Subsequently, with the assistance of some unscrupulous relatives foremost amongst whom was Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton the countess brought a suit for nullity of marriage, which, favoured by the King and the bishops, was inevitably successful ; and she was married to Rochester at the end of the year 1613. THE MURDER OF OVERBURY 99 Overbury, as Rochester's friend, while he regarded without adverse comment the illicit intercourse between the latter and the countess, very actively opposed Roch- ester's intention of marrying her after the divorce should be obtained, and was so strong and persistent in his remonstrances that Rochester, at the suggestion of the countess, who was furious, framed the scheme whereby Overbury was trapped into laying himself open ; and, once they got him safely in the Tower, having paved the way by securing the appointment of an amenable person Sir Gervase Elwes as Lieutenant they had him cruelly done to death by poison. Chamberlain, writing on 23 May, 1613, alludes to this appointment : " On Thursday at night Sir William Waade (Wade) was discharged of his lieutenancie of the towre, the particular reasons wherof I cannot tell you more then that their were continuall complaints of him, and some speak of certain Jewells of great value and certain gold embeseled from the Lady Arabella, wherof either he or his lady or his daughter cannot so clearly acquit themselves, but that there is suspicion. One Sir Gervase Ellowayes (Elwes or Helwes) of Lincoln- shire, somwhat an unknowne man, is put into the place by the favor of the Lord Chamberlain or his Lady ; the gentleman is of too mild and gentle a disposition for such an office ; he is my old frend and acquaintance in Fraunce, and lately receved here in towne, where he hath not lived past a yeare, nor followed the Court many a day." Elwes was, however, just the man required by North- ampton and Rochester and Countess Frances for their purpose ; one who would do as he was told for a certain reward, and ask no questions. The allegation that the King was anxious to remove Overbury was most probably a story trumped up by Rochester to screen his own design ; but the whole disgraceful business was destined to complete exposure eventually. 100 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER Writing to Sir Ralph Winwood on 6 May, 1613, Chamberlain says : " The Prince Palatine (just married to the Princess Elizabeth), before his going made a suite to the King for the enlargement of Lord Grey. The King told him he marvailed how he shold become suiter for a man whom he neither knew nor ever saw. He aunswered that he was recommended to him by his unckles, the Duke of Bouillon, the Prince Maurice and the Count Henry, who had better knowledge of him. Then the King said, Son, when I come into Germany I will promise you not to importune you for any of your prisoners. Since that time the Lord Grey hath ben restrained and kept more straight, for having had conference with one of the Lady Arabella's women ; who being strictly examined was faine to confesse that it was only matter of love and dalliance." The King's new son-in-law could scarcely have selected a less acceptable plea, for Lord Grey (Thomas, ffieenth and last Baron Grey of Wilton) had been con- fined in the Tower since the year 1603, for being con- cerned in a plot to seize the King and dictate conditions upon which he should be permitted to reign. IJe was sentenced to death, but was reprieved on the scaffold ; he died in the Tower in 1614. On 10 June, 1613, Chamberlain writes to Carleton : " Sir Robert Mansfield (Manscl) hath ben this fortnight in the Marshalsea for animating the Lord Admiral to stand against a commission granted to review and reforme the abuses committed by the officers of the Navie, and Whitelocke the lawyer is in the Fleete for speaking too boldly against the authoritie of the Marshal Court ; and beeing upon his release is remitted thether againe, for geving his opinion (though not under his hand) to Sir Robert Mansfelt that this Commission was not according to law." Allusion has already been made to the Commission upon the administration of the Navy in 1608, which revealed the most scandalous abuses on the part of ABUSES IN THE NAVY 101 sundry high officials, among whom was Sir Robert Mansel, Treasurer of the Navy. The King, ' however, elected to ignore this finding, and some court gossips provided a copious fringe of embroidery to account for the royal nonchalance, Sir Anthony Weldon and Godfrey Good- man, Bishop of Gloucester, being foremost among them. In 1613, however, there was much talk of another Commission on the Navy, instigated, as before, by the Earl of Northampton, who, writing to Sir Thomas Lake, on 18 November, 1613, says : " It is impossible to redress abuses in the Navy, whilst the pay is so much in arrears that the wives and children of the sailors are hardly kept from making outcries at the gate. The King has already lost 100,000 by pilfering since the Com- mission was given for discovery of frauds in the Navy." From this it appears that an enquiry had already been ordered ; but there is no warrant or other authority for such enquiry to be found among the State Papers, nor any account of its constitution or proceedings. The terms of the Warrant or Order were, however, known to Sir Robert Mansel and to the Lord High Admiral (the Earl of Nottingham), and neither of them desired an enquiry,probably because Nottingham had been neglect- ing his duties, and Mansel, encouraged by his "let-off" in 1608, had continued his plunderings as Treasurer. Nottingham put Mansel forward to protest against some clauses in the Warrant, and the latter engaged James Whitelock, a barrister, to urge his points before the Council. One of the points submitted by Whitelock was that the Warrant or Royal Commission contained threats of punishment to offenders, which, he argued, was not part of the object or office of such Commission probably quite a valid objection ; and he advanced other ingenious disabilities, based upon ancient law and privileges. The Council, predisposed to resent the protests of Mansel and Whitelock, found that the latter stated his case " in a very contemptuous and disloyal manner, 102 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER attacking the King's prerogative, for which he stands charged, as does Sir Robert, for seeking undutifully to oppose His Majesty's proceedings." Hence confinement for both of them, from which they were at length released upon giving their submission to the Council in writing ; but that enquiry never took place, unless all the records of its proceedings have been destroyed. Perhaps Charles Howard, Earl of Notting- ham, possessed sufficient interest to get it suppressed ; there is no doubt but that the condition of the Navy called for strong measures. Chamberlain gives an amusing sketch of the amenities of the Irish Parliament : " The last moneth the parlement assembled in Ireland, but at the first meeting the popish faction excepted against certain new boroughs and burgesses lately erected by the King, alleging they ought not to be admitted till they were allowed by parlement ; then was there another difference about choosing theyre Speaker, the one side making choise of Sir John Davis, the other of one Sir ? Everard, a very sufficient and grave man as is geven out ; they got both into the chayre and there bustled awhile, till Sir Richard Wingfield, Marshall of Ireland, puld downe the Irishman, and so they dissolved and sent a petition to the King." Probably an exaggeration, but an excellent conceit, the two Speakers-elect " bustling " for the possession of the chair, until one was " pulled down " by the Marshall. In this same letter there is further allusion to the Countess of Essex and her divorce suit ; Chamberlain expresses the opinion that she will " make no bones " of swearing to the impotence of her young husband, " beeing as she presumes provided of a second, which I should never have suspected, but that great folks will have theyre ends without respect of frends or followers." Chamberlain was singularly unsuspicious in this instance, or else he was not well served by the gossips in "Powles." INDISCRETIONS OF ROCHESTER 103 The " indiscretions " of the Countess and Lord Rochester were being freely discussed at Court and elsewhere. Three days later he alludes to the " jury of matrons " who so readily declared the verdict which was demanded of them, and adds : " The world speakes liberally that my Lord of Rochester and she be in love one with another, which breedes a double question, whether that consideration be like to hinder or set it forward." On 14 June Rochester wrote to one Dr. Craig : " Whensoever Sir Thomas Overbury shall desyre you to come to him, the King is pleased you shall go. This the Lief tenant will not refuse for a warrand. If there should be any questione maid of the (?) of this. If your owne word may be taken, you neid not sho this. I pray you lett him have your best help, and as much of your company as he shall requyre. So I bid you fareweal and rem. your loving frend Rochester." A fine sample of cold blooded hypocrisy ! It was sub- sequently proved that Rochester was in the plot to poison Overbury ; Dr. Craig was physician to the King. In this same letter of 23 June, 1613 he also indulges in further vituperation against Sir Thomas Bodley, and winds up : " The truth is he was so druncke with the applause and vanitie of his librarie that he made no conscience to rob Peter (as they say) to pay Paul, for the which he hath his reward in verses and orations which the Universitie heapes upon him for the present, though I make no question but they will quickly vanish, and in short time come to stop mustardpots." In a letter of 1 August, 1613, there is a pretty little story about the King and Queen : " The King is in progresse and the Quene gon or going after ; at theyre last beeing at Tiballs, which was about a fortnight since, the Quene shooting at a deere mistooke her marke, and killed Jewell, the King's most principall and speciall hound, at which he stormed exceedingly awhile, but after he knew who did it he was soone pacified, and with much kindness wisht her not to be 104 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER troubled with it, for he shold love her never the worse, and the next day sent her a diamond worth 2,000 as a legacie from his dead degge." In this same letter is a tale about Virginia, which reads somewhat strangely at the present day : " There is a ship come from Virginia with newes of theyre well doing, which puts some life into that action, that before was almost at the last cast ; they have taken a daughter of a King that was theyre greatest ennemie, as she was going a feasting upon a river to visit certain frends, for whose ransome the father offers whatsoever is in his power, and to become theyre frend, and to bring them where they shall meet with gold mines ; they propound unto him three conditions, to deliver all the English fugitives, to render all manner of armes or weapons of theyrs that are come to his hands, and to geve them 300 quarters of corne ; the two first he performed redilie, and promised the other at theyre harvest, if his daughter may be well used in the meane- time ; but this ship brought no commodities from thence but only these fayre tales and hopes .... When the business of Virginia was at the highest, in that heat many gentlemen and others were drawne by perswasion and importunitie of frends to underwrite theyre names for adventurers, but when it came to the payment (specially the second or third time) theyre handes were not so redy to go to theyre purses as they were to the paper, and in the end flatly refused, wherupon they are sued by the companie in the Chauncerie, where this action findes such favor that they have redy dis- patch, and the underwriters are forced to make pay- ment, which amounts to a round sumnie between three and four thousand pound." The King's daughter was certainly a very lucky " catch " ; let us hope that she was well treated during her captivity as a hostage. In a letter of 9 September, 1613, as in others about this time, Chamberlain alludes to the scarcity of money ; THE ESSEX DIVORCE SUIT 105 high officials at home and abroad are in arrears for their salaries ; and he adds, apparently as a consequence of this state of affairs : " Though there be in shew a settled peace in these parts of the world yet the many private quarrells among great men prognosticate troubled humors which may breed daungerous diseases if they be not purged and prevented " ; he gives the names of several pairs of combatants, all men in high places, who are seeking to cross to France or Holland to fight. He also refers again to the Essex divorce suit, expressing his indignation and disgust at the " undecent words and deeds " which have passed in the investigation of Countess Frances' claim for nullity, excusing himself to his friend for giving samples of some of the questions propounded by the Commission ; excuses which shall here be avoided by abstention from details. On 24 October he writes : " The marriage twixt the Earle of Essex and the Lady Frances Howard is dissolved and pronounced a nullitie. . . . The morning that the matter was to be decided the King sent expresse com- mandment that in opining they should not argue nor use any reasons, but only geve theyre assent or dissent " ; a belated and futile bid for some show of decency or, perhaps a device to avert public attention from the scandalous and obviously manufactured plea of the Countess and her relatives. Chamberlain also writes on this date : " Sir Thomas Overburie died and is buried in the towre, the manner of his death is not knowne, for that there was nobody with him, not so much as his keper, but the fowlness of the corps gave suspicion and leaves aspersion that he shold die of the poxe or somewhat worse ; he was a very unfortunate man, for nobody almost pities him, and his very frends speake but indifferently of him." A very unfortunate man ; his brother-in-law, Sir Thomas Lidcott, begged to be allowed to remove his body, but was refused, and he was buried in great haste within the precincts of the Tower. The Earl of North- 106 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER ampton wrote very urgently to Sir Gervase Elwes about the necessity of this immediate burial ; his original letters are in the Cotton MSS., and are obviously written in trembling haste ; a sorry business altogether ; nor was this the last of it. On 27 October, 1613, Chamberlain tells of certain changes in judicial offices : " On Monday the Lord Cooke (Sir Edward Coke) (though nere so loth) was called up into the King's Bench and there sworne Cheife Justice ; he parted dolefully from the common plea, not only weeping himself, but followed with the teares of all that bench and most of the officers of that court. The next day Sir H. Herbert was made Cheife Justice of the common pleas, Sir Francis Bacon Atturney and Yelverton Sollicitor ; there is strong apprehension that litle goode is to be expected by this chaunge, and that Bacon may prove a daungerous instrument." Sir Edward Coke was for some reason frequently alluded to as Lord Coke (or Cooke), though he had no claim to the title ; the display of handkerchiefs on his retirement from the Common Pleas must have been most affecting. " I have heard underhand the Signer Fabritio (Sir Henry Wotlon) is like to be sent into Spaine about some match, which I beleve the rather for that the Spanish Ambassador hath ben heard to say that he marvailes we should treat or incline to Savoy or Fraunce, whereas his master is able to part with more then they both. Yesterday here arrived an Ambassador from the new elected Emperor of Moscovie ; he had a peale of ordi- nance at his landing at towre wharf, and was receved by 100 citizens on horsback in velvet coats and chaines of gold and most of the Aldermen in scarlet, with about twenty coaches furnished with courtiers and gallants." This was Michael Romanov, the young son of the Metropolitan Philaret, who was connected with the former dynasty. A crisis had arisen, owing to the attempt of Sigismund III., King of Poland, to obtain the throne A PACKED COMMISSION 107 for himself, having put forward his son Ladislaus in the first instance. This scheme was displeasing to all parties, and resulted in a patriotic rising, a grand National Assembly eventually electing young Michael ; he reigned until 1645. Writing on 11 November, 1613, Chamberlain says : " Since my last of the 27th of October, the Kinge is come and gon again to Roiston on Tewsday ; where at his last beeing he made sixe knights though of late he hath ben very daintie of this dignitie, minding to raise the market and bring it to 500 for a knighthood ; theyre names as I remember were Seymer (Seymour) (a grandchild of the Earle of Hertfords) Udall, Bainton, Clarke (a baron's sonne of the Exchequer), Line (a grocer's sonne of Westminster) and Bilson the bishop of Winchester's sonne, whom some idle companions call commonly Sir Nullitie Bilson." Here is an echo of public opinion concerning the Essex divorce suit. There appeared to be some likelihood of even voting among the commissioners, which would not have been at all acceptable ; so the bishops of Winchester and Rochester, who were known to be in favour of the decree, were added, as Chamberlain says in a previous letter, " as supernumerary " ; their votes turned the scale in favour of nullity of the marriage, and so the newly-made Knight was dubbed " Sir Nullitie" not in admiration, we may be sure, of his father's part in the business, which was fully recognised as a disgraceful " job," perpetrated for the King's favourite, Rochester, who, as Chamberlain tells us in this same letter, was at this time November " created Baron of Branspeth (Brancepeth) in Westmorland and Earle of Somerset ; the action was don with much solemnitie, sixe Earles assisting him, and every one dooing or carieng somwhat that belonged to him, which were Montgomerie, Pembroke, Southampton, Worcester, Northampton, and Nottingham ; his patent was read by Sir Thomas Lake, wherein among other reasons of 108 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER this advancement, and besides his nobilitie and worth, mention was made that partem curarum regui sustinuct (he had borne a part in the cares, or offices of the King) ; but it is thought he shall not stay here, but ascend one step higher and shortly be made Marquis of Orkeney, that his mistris may be a better woman (if it may be) then she was before." That is to say, be raised from the status of an Earl's daughter to that of wife to a Marquis but Chamber- lain's " if it may be " suggests and is perhaps intended to suggest that " betterment " in another sense would not be amiss. Carr was not, however, created Marquis of Orkeney, though he probably made a bid for it. Chamberlain, in this same letter, tells a story the moral of which appears to be that gentlemen who had suits in chancery against one another in those days were well advised to meet only in court : " On Thursday last two gentlemen, Skenington and Bray, having a sute one against the other in chancerie, met by mischaunce in Grayes Inne Court, and upon the first incounter were both slaine, and died at one instant upon the place." On 9 December, 1613, Chamberlain again alludes to the scarcity of money : " The very guard that attends the King's person now at Roiston, and the poore posts that trot up and downe, are far behind hand, and besides clamouring and murmurring have made many fruitles petitions to the King himself for theyre pay ; neither is there any great hope of amendment This weeke there was 17,000 (of the last sayle of lands) to come in, wherewith the Lords Commissioners for the treasurie meant to have stopt some gappes, but there came a restraint on Monday that all should be reserved,and they say the King meanes to bestow 10,000 in Jewells on the bride; the other seven is to furnish other followers." The bride being Frances, late Countess of Essex, whose marriage with Somerset was fixed for St. Stephen's day ; it appears almost incredible, but everything was possible with King James. UNACCEPTABLE CANDOUR 109 On 23 December, 1613, Chamberlain writes of the various reports about offices, and who is to fill them. This is a constant source of gossip and conjecture, the King, with characteristic dalliance, preferring to leave important public work neglected rather than make up his mind. " Sir Ralph Winwood, Ambassador at the Hague, is in England hoping for appointment to a Secretary- ship, but determined, if nothing transpires before twelfth night, to return to his post ; he is told by him whom he may beleve, that but for Sir Thomas Overburie he had ben in the place longe since, when he was sent for in sommer was twelvemoneth ; so that in reason there shold be no let now, but that he seekes not to by-Saints, or that he is reputed somwhat harsh, and too plain a speaker for the tender eares of this age ; indeed he is somwhat too quicke and nimble to kepe tune with the slownes and faineautise of this time." Plain speaking was not popular with James and his ministers ; indeed, it may well be questioned whether it is ever popular, save at some crisis, as a last resource. Corruption was rampant in every state department, ministers and their underlings feathering their own nests, while the coffers were empty. It will be noticed that Sir Thomas Overbury was said to have stood in Winwood's way in the previous year ; this was when he was understudy to Carr, who left a great deal in Over- bury's hands, while he philandered with Lady Frances. " Sir Francis Bacon prepares a maske to honor this mariage which will stand him in above 2,000, and though he have ben offered some helpe by the house, and specially by master Sollicitor, Sir Henry Yelverton, who wold have sent him 300, yet he wold not accept it, but offers them the whole charge with the honor ; mary his obliga- tions are such as well to his ma tlc ' as to the great Lord and to the whole house of Howards as he can admit no partners ; in the mean time his house and land at Goramberie (Gorhambury, by St. Albans) is gon some say 110 A JACOBEAN LETTER- WRITER to the Earle of Somerset others to the Earle of Suffolk, but his bountie is no whit abated, for he feasts the whole Universitie of Cambridge this Christmas, and hath sent warrants to his frends and acquaintance far and neere to furnish him with venison to bestow on the Colleges ; he caries a great port as well in his traine as in his apparell and other wayes, and lives at a great charge, and yet he pretends he will take no fees nor entermeddle in mercenarie causes, but wholly applie himself to the Kinges affaires." Bacon was not by any means the only man whose expenditure appeared to exceed all probable sources of income. Writing a few days later, on 30 December, to Alice Carleton, Chamberlain naturally has a great deal to say about the wedding, which took place on the 26th. " The mariage was upon Sonday without any such braverie as was looked for, only four of his followers bestowed cost on themselves, the rest exceeded not either in number or expence. She was maried in her haire, and led to chappell by her bridemen, a Duke of Saxonie (that is here) and the Earle of Northampton, her great uncle, the Dean of Westminster preached, and bestowed a great deale of commendation on the young couple, on the Countesse of Salisburie, and the mother vine (as he termed her) the Countesse of Suffolk ; the Deane of the Chappell coupled them, which fell out somwhat straungely, that the same man shold marrie the same person, in the same place, upon the self same day, after sixe or seven yeares (I know not whether), the former partie yet living ; all the difference was that the Kinge gave her the last time, and now her father ; the Kinge and Quene were both present, and tasted wafers and ypocras as at orindarie weddings The Archbishop of Canterburie was at the mariage, but not the bishop of London. Sir Rafe Winwood was there likewise, and had a very fayre payre of gloves of three pound price, which he well deserved, for he made a suit THE MARRIAGE OF SOMERSET 111 of apparell against this wedding of only doublet, hose and cloke, all blacke and without any kinde of gold silver or embroiderie, that cost him above four score pound, which I write that you may see how unreasonablie thinges are risen here, and what a chargeable world we live in." " Profiteering " tailors were evidently not unknown in the time of James the First. Lady Frances was married, as Chamberlain says, " in her hair " i.e., with her hair hanging down of set purpose, no doubt ; for this was an accepted token of maidenhood, and served to illustrate and emphasise the plea by means of which she secured the decree of nullity ; also, she had, it is said, a very fine head of hair. And so this outrageous union was perpetrated, with high commendation of bride and bridegroom, who had three months previously deliberately caused the death of Sir Thomas Overbury in the Tower ; and of the " mother vine," the Countess of Suffolk, who had proved herself a very bad and neglectful mother, and was, no doubt, accessory to the murder, together with her husband the Earl, formerly well known as Lord Thomas Howard, a fine fighting seaman, but now sadly deteri- orated ; it is impossible that they should have been blind to the villainous plotting which was going on under their very noses, with Suffolk's uncle, the Earl of North- ampton, at the head of it. In a letter of 5 January, 1614, Chamberlain makes further allusion to the wedding, with more details concerning the presents. The Lord Mayor was ordered by the King to entertain the Earl and Countess in the city ; the worthy man tried to get out of it by pleading the incapacity of his house for the purpose, but was told that he might use the biggest hall in the city ; so he and the aldermen set to work, and received them in the Merchant Taylors hall, at vast expense ; and Sir Ralph Winwood, being asked to lend his four fine horses to draw the Countess' coach, "made answer that it was 112 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER not for such a lady to use anything borrowed, and therefore the next morning presented them to the great Lord, who made some difficultie at first to receve them of guift, but only as lent for this solemnitie of going through the citie ; but in the end tooke them in very goode part." He would ; the " great Lord " was by no means above taking all he could get. A letter of 10 February, 1614, commences in very characteristic terms : " My very goode Lord, because I love not to be long held in suspense myself, in any thing the issue wherof I am desirous to know, I make the same judgement of your disposition, and therefore have thought goode to acquaint you with that litle (or rather nothing) that hath ben don since I wrote last weeke." Then follows a whole rigmarole of conjecture, of fruitless interviews and scheming on his friend's behalf, with scraps of gossip thrown in ; we hear again of Heydon, who fought the bloody duel with Sir Robert Mansel some thirteen years earlier : " At this wedding (of Lord Roxborough and Jane Drummond) there fell out a brabble or quarrell twixt the Earle of Essex and younge Heydon (with one hand), which was to be decided presently, but that whiles the other went to fetch his sword the Earle was stayed upon the water by the Archbishop of Canterburie ; the Quene tooke this as an affront to her feast, and there is great fault laide on Heidon, who is committed to the fleet, and if he find not the better frends may pay deerly for it ; the day was dismall to him and his house, for that morning there was a decree in Chauncerie that the Sheriffe and Justices of Norfolk shold raise the countrie and throw his father out of possession (which he kept by force) of all the land he hath." In a letter of 17 February, 1614, occurs the following: " Now to the later purpose of your letter of the 21th of January, I know not what to aunswer nor which way TOO MANY BUSYBODIES 113 to advise, knowing how subject I am to be misconstrued and misinterpreted even in my best meaning ; only I could wish she had a better errand home, then to be driven thence with discontent, which I know must be great that should make her leave you whom she ever held so deere, and the place that she seems almost in all her letters to take such delight in, specially the exchaunge beeing no way for the better, but unkindnes will work further upon some natures then patience can suffer, or Providence prevent ; and therefore I will entermeddle no further in it for the present, but wish her to be well advised, and will take the lesse care be- cause I know she shall not want your best assistance and furtherance which way soever she take." This evidently refers to Alice Carleton, Chamberlain's dear friend ; but the reason of her discontent and contemplated return is not stated ; Chamberlain wrote to her on the same day, but did not allude to the matter. The latter was sent separate, not enclosed with her brother's. On 3 March, 1614, Chamberlain discusses another canard about a successor being named to Carleton at the Hague, emanating on this occasion apparently from Carleton himself ; but Chamberlain is too old a hand at gossip to be readily persuaded : " We have here so litle busines, and so many busie-bodies that we are faine to find worke by discourse." On 31 March Chamberlain reports that Sir Ralph Winwood has been made a principal Secretary of State two days previously, and adds at the end of his letter: "It is yet but young dayes so that I know not what is like to fall out about your stay or remove ; I have put him in mind of it, and I doubt not but he will do what lies in him for the best, so that you shall need no better sollicitor then yourself in whatsoever shall concern you." He certainly had no better sollicitor than his friend, John Chamberlain. CHAPTER V JACOBEAN LETTERS April, 1614 March, 1616 THE talk at this time is all about the Parliament which is to assemble in April, and the important measures then to be taken for the general good ; but they reckoned without their James ! Chamberlain, writing on 7 April, 1614, describes the opening of Parliament : " The Kinge made a long and an excellent speach, consisting of three principall parts, wherein all his care lay, to continue to his subjects bona animi, bona corporis, and bona fortunae, by main- taining religion, preserving of peace, and seeking theyre properitie by encreasing of trades and trafficke ; he made many fayre promises, and that he wold not presse them beyond theyre goode will ; in conclusion he wisht they might not be straungers, but they they wold have recourse to him in all theyre busines, at whose handes they shold alwayes find easie audience and gracious usage." An excellent speech, truly ; royal speeches at the opening of Parliament are usually excellent, and com- monly only " royal " insomuch as they are approved by the King, and read by him to the House ; this speech by King James was possibly framed by Chamberlain's friend, Sir Ralph Winwood, in his newly-acquired dignity as a principal Secretary of State, though the hand of James appears in the Latin phrases ; -he was never happy unless he could introduce some classical quotation or Latin aphorism. 114 THE PARLIAMENT OF LOVE 115 Kings' speeches, however, though composed by some accomplished permanent official, and more or less stereo- typed in form, bear the Sovereign's imprimatur, and their weight and significance must be gauged to some extent by his capacity and personality, his sincerity of purpose and his conception of his duty towards his subjects. It is to be feared that this speech of James the First would come badly out of the ordeal ; he was destitute of all the attributes which constitute a worthy monarch or efficient statesman. Chamberlain expresses natural anxiety concerning Winwood's success in his new office ; not through any misgiving as to his capacity, which was probably admitted on all hands, but by reason of the jealousies and intrigues which beset a man in high position, until he should establish himself as to be able to rise above them. In his next letter, dated 24 April, Chamberlain writes : " On Saterday in the afternoone the King made a speach to the whole assemblie in the great banketting chamber, wherin he layde out his wants, and descended as it were to intreatie to be relieved, and that they wold shew theyre goode affections toward him in such sort, that this parlement might be called the parlement of love." Characteristic of James ; but the sobriquet was not earned. On 26 May, 1614, Chamberlain tells of a bitter dis- cussion which took place about the laying on of imposi- tions or duties ; Sir Henry Wotton " made a very mannerly and demure speach for the maintenance of them, alleaging Spaine Fraunce and Italic for example " ; he was supported by Sir Ralph Winwood and others, but the motion was vigorously opposed by several members in speeches which were not as " mannerly and demure " as Wotton's ; " but the boldest bayard of all was Wentworth (Sir Thomas, M.P. for Yorkshire, afterwards Earl of Strafford), who saide that the just reward of the 116 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER Spaniards impositions was the losse of the Low Countries, and for Fraunce that theyre late most exacting Kings died like calves upon the butcher's knife, and that such princes might read theyre destinie in the 45 of Ezechiell, verse 7 or thereabouts, but specially in Daniell, the 11 chap., verse 20." Wentworth was then only one-and-twenty. The texts of Scripture to which he alludes are as follows : " Thus saith the Lord God ; Let it suffice you, O Princes of Israel, remove violence and spoil, and execute judg- ment and justice, take away your exactions from my people saith the Lord God." Ezekiel, 45, 9. " Then shall stand up in his estate a raiser of taxes in the glory of the Kingdom, but within few days he shall be destroyed, neither in anger nor in battle." Daniel, 11, 20. Sir Thomas Wentworth had doubtless looked up these passages beforehand ; he was determined, in spite of his youth, to attract attention to himself, and achieve some measure of notoriety ; he was destined later to attain to a more lofty plane of fame. It was decided to ask the Lords to confer on the subject, but they voted against such conference. " This refusal," says Chamberlain, " is like to breed no goode bloude, and yesterday there was a new cole kindled that if it be not the sooner quencht may burst out into a bright flame ; it being notified to the house that in the arguing of this cause the Bishop of Lincoln had geven scandalous speaches of them ; as that they were a factious, mutinous, seditious assemblie, that they strake at the very roote of the King's prerogative and did catch at his crowne, with other like speaches uttered against them, diswading the Lords from the conference with them. These were lowde wordes if they can be proved, but I see not yet how they can take notice of them ; yet they were there tossed up and downe, and many glaunces and girds passed upon him and his person which were too long to set downe all, but ex uno A BISHOP'S INDISCRETION 117 disce omnes it was demanded which of the Lincolns it might be, whether the spirituall or temporall Lord ; for they were so equal in ignorance, impudence and other such honorable qualities, that it were hard to distinguish them." A " Parliament of Love ! " The dragging into the controversy the name of the Earl of Lincoln Henry Clinton, second Earl was a purely gratuitous piece of quasi-humour ; he had nothing whatever to do with the matter. He was an old man at this time, well entered in his seventies ; he was one of the peers appointed on the trial of Mary Queen of Scots, in 1586. Richard Neile (or Neyle), bishop of Lincoln, was a man of some note. Queen Elizabeth was pleased to approve of his preaching and that lady was somewhat difficult to please in such matters and he was a favourite with King James. He was compelled to acknowledge, however, that he had made use of strong language, unwarranted by facts, towards the members of the House of Commons, and is said to have apologised with tears ; but further charges and recriminations continued until the dissolution of Parliament. Neile is said to have been a man of little learning hence perhaps the banter of the Commons but of much address and great business capacity. He was a Privy Councillor, and sat regularly in the Star Chamber. He was made Archbishop of York in 1631, and died in 1640. Chamberlain, writing on 1 June, 1614, alludes further to this episode, and to the delays which resulted in the more important work of Parliament : " In the mean time the bishop hath been well baited, and his whole life and cariage laide open and anatomised." The King was naturally annoyed over the business and wrote to the Commons accusing them of having dis- cussed the matter of dissolution in connection with this dispute ; an accusation which appears, upon the surface, wilfully disingenuous, so the Speaker with a strong 118 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER deputation waited upon the King to reassure him on this head ; but, as Chamberlain repeats, the delay was disastrous ; and he adds " there be many bones cast among them to get them at variance among them- selves." Chamberlain's next letter, dated 9 June, 1614, con- tains a fair summary of the rapid disintegration and downfall of this futile session : " I receved yours of the 23th of May presently upon the sending away of my last of the first of this present ; since which time here hath ben some alteration, but still to the worse ; for while the parlement was eager in pursuit of the bishop of Lincoln, and wold not be satisfied with the Lords aunswer, nor with the interpretation of his owne meaning, and retractation of his wordes even with teares in the Upper House, and grewe every day more fierie and violent in theyre speaches, the King sent them a letter the third of this moneth wherby he signified unto them that for divers reasons and respects he meant to dissolve the parlement as this day, unles in the mean time they fell roundly in hand to consider and provide how to relieve his wants, neither wold he expect or receve other aunswer from them then the speedy effecting of this busines ; this peremptorie message wrought diversely with them, and made some of them put water in theyre wine, seeing the time of theyre raigne so neere an end ; but the greater sort grew more averse and wold not descend to so sodain resolution ; many bold and petulant speaches passed that day (for they sat long), but above all Christopher Neville younger sonne of the Lord Abergeyny (Abergavenny) was most noted for a curious premeditat declamation made for some other time (but shold have ben lost if not spoken now) wherin among many other sentences he saide that Nunc Principes ita grassantur ut potius sit mori quam Vivere (nowadays Lords do so encroach that it were better to be dead than to live) ; and spared not great personages about the Court, calling them arrisores DISORDERLY COMMONS 119 (flatterers) and arrosores (those who bite or gnaw), which he englished spaniells to the King and wolfes to the people, with much other like stuffe not worth the remembering ; neither were others behind in glauncing at principall peeres and counselors ; and Hoskins forsoth must have his oare in the boate and tell them that wise Princes put away straungers, as Canute when he meant to plant himself here sent back his Danes, and the Palsgrave had lately dismissed all the English that were about the Lady Elizabeth, and withall (to what purpose he knowes best) put them in mind of Vesperae Sicilianae ; you may judge of the rest of these scantlings, wherupon it was thought best to stay the belles ; and the next day beeing Saterday the speaker was sicke and the house sat not ; and by Mon- day it was knowne there was a commission out to dissolve the parlement, wherupon the wiser sort propounded meanes to pacific and some way to satisfie the King, but there were so many difficulties in the manner, and the time so short that nothing could be don, and withall they were so malcontent that theyre conference about the impositions was refused, the bishop protested against them, and now to be so peremptorilie pressed, that beeing somwhat out of frame before, this did quite distemper them, and made them careles which way the world went. The truth is, it shold seeme by theyre cariage, and by that I have heard from some of them, that there was never knowne a more disorderly house, and it was many times more like a cockpit then a grave counsaile, and many sat there that were more fit to have ben among roaring boyes then in that assemblie. Upon Tewsday they sat again, but nothing passed worth the remembrance saving that Sir Henry Wotton, for some indiscreet and undecent language used to Sir John Savile, was cried downe and in great daunger to be called to the barre, but scaped it narrowly before they rose. Sir Connisbie, gentleman usher of the Upper House, was sent to notifie unto them that the 120 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER Lords had a commission by vertue wherof they required theyre presence ; when they came the commission directed to the two Archbishops the Chauncellor and all the privie Counsaile of that house was read, wherby they had authoritie to dissolve the parlement, and so they did, wherby this meeting or assemblie is to be held a blancke parlement, or rather a parlee only, not having so much as the name of a session, but (as the wordes went) parlamentum inchoatum. Presently upon the dissolution pursuivants were redy to warne divers to be the next day at the Counsaile table, from whence Christopher Neville, Sir Walter Churt, Hoskins and Wentworth were yesterday sent to the towre, Sir John Savile confined to this towne for a time ; Sir Samuel and Edwin Sandes, Sir Dudley Digges, Sir Roger Owen, Thomas Crew, Hackwell and others (I remember not) that had parts appointed them by the house in the matter of impositions, were enjoyned to bring in theyre notes and papers to bee burnt sic transit gloria mundi. The Lord Privy Scale (Earl of Northampton) that hath languished a long time and lieu at Greenwich above this moneth, came home yesterday all along towne with more than forty horse, which was much noted for the manner and the time." Some further light is cast upon these incidents in a letter from Sir Ralph Winwood to Dudley Carleton, dated 16 June, 1614 : " The impositions were the great grievance, also a speech of the Bishop of Lincoln taxing the Commons with sedition, and the King's messages were thought to abridge the liberty of the House. The break-neck was some seditious speeches, which made the King impatient, and it was whispered to him that they would have his life, and that of his favourites before they had done, on which he dissolved them." (Cal. State Papers). Chamberlain, in his next letter, dated 30 June, 1614, says : " Upon examination it fell out there was a plot discovered to overthrow all orderly proceedings in this DEATH OF NORTHAMPTON 121 parlement, and to make it utterly voyde, by insisting upon daungerous points, as taking away impositions, restoring of silenced Ministers, and removing the Scottes, with other matters likelie to make the King loose all patience ; and for this purpose Hoskins was emboucht, abetted, and indeed plainly hired with monie to do that he did." John Hoskins was called to the bar in 1602 ; he was well known as a wit, and was M.P. for Hereford in 1604, and re-elected in 1614. His allusion to Scottish favourites, and the hint of a possible repetition of the Sicilian Vespers i.e., of a massacre was the ground of his apprehension and consignment to the Tower ; it was probably a wild and futile threat. He was a prisoner for twelve months. The Journal of the House of Commons bears witness to the state of excitement and disorder described by Winwood ; members were obviously shouting each other down, regardless of manners or etiquette ; there are pages of incoherent matter ; the first sentence of an intended speech abruptly interrupted by an outburst as brief. In the Lords' Journals it is recorded that the Bishop of Lincoln " did express, in terms of great passion, much grief that his words had been misconstrued and strained further than he ever meant." In this letter also Chamberlain mentions the death, on 15 June, of Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton, the accomplished intriguer and flatterer ; he was seventy- four years of age, and had been more or less in disfavour and in difficulties until the end of Elizabeth's reign, when she took him into favour, and James heaped honours upon him ; he was Warden of the Cinque Ports, Lord Privy Seal, and Chancellor of Cambridge University. " He was so hart whole," says Chamberlain, " and so little expected death that he had not made his will till the day before he died, and Sir Robert Cotton his old frend was the man that put him in mind of it, telling him there was no other way with him ; but for 122 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER his goode newes among all his frends and legacies he gave him never a pennie. . . . His house by Charing Crosse goes to the Earle of Suffolk." This was the well known Northumberland House, which stood at the top of the present Northumberland Avenue, and was pulled down when that thoroughfare was made, in 1874. " The day of his death, or next before, he wrote a letter to the King, with this superscription, Detur dignissimo ; " which is precisely what one would have expected of him ; as was also his stipulation, in a letter to the Earl of Somerset, that " the Earl of Pembroke and the Lord Lisle shold not have any of his offices, because accounting them his ennemies he wold not they shold triumph over him when he was gon ; these and such other passages make the world speake hardly of him, and to say, ut vixit sic morixit " (an unpardon- able though doubtless intentional slaughter of the verb morior, for the sake of the little rhyme). The " inchoate " parliament having failed to provide for the King's pecuniary needs, we are told in this same letter : " At the breaking of the Parlement the bishops agreed among themselves to give theyre best peece of plate, or the value of it in present monie as a speedy benevolence to supplie the King's want. The Archbishop of Caunterburie began with a basen and ewre, and redeemed it with 240, the bishop of Winchester as much, Ely 220, et sic de caeteris ; the noblemen followed the example ; the Lord Chamberlain and Lord Somerset gave each 200, the Earl of Salisbury 300, the rest lesse but no man more," etc. To such straits were they reduced to " raise the wind." On the same day Chamberlain wrote Alice Carleton, but the greater part of the letter is devoted to problems of horticulture. On 7 July, 1614, he writes to Carleton: "We are now upon a new straine, and there is question made CHAMBERLAIN WARNS CARLETON 123 whether the parlement be dissolved or no ; the reason wherof is that the naturalisation of the Prince Palatin passing both houses, confirmed by the King, and sent away under the great Scale argues an Act, and so a session, in which case many former Acts of great con- sequence usually made to continue till the next session being no longer authorised shold fall to the ground ; and there is no other way to salve it (the case being so) but by finding error in the commission of dissolution ; whether this will fall out so or no I know not, but much speach there is that they shall assemble again this next winter." This report is, however, contradicted in a letter of 22 July ; in which also Chamberlain feels it incumbent upon him as a friend to warn Carleton about the fre- quency and length of his despatches : " Likewise there is another point which though I am loth to touch, or to entermeddle with matters above my compasse, yet seeing I have heard it two severall wayes from goode handes I cannot conceale ; that your sedulitie and length are not alwayes so welcome as perhaps you imagin, for even the best things may breed satietie ; but as I saide though this be beyond my reach yet I hope you will thincke it no presumption, seeing it proceeds of meere zeal and goode meaning." Carleton's official letters are held to be models of such documents ; probably his spontaneous fluency and command of language would not always be accept- able in the realms of Red Tape ; Chamberlain was not afraid to exercise the highest privilege of friendship. On 4 August Chamberlain alludes to Carleton's impending translation from Venice to The Hague, which had so long been discussed and schemed for ; the best route is under consideration, and there is every indication of an immediate move. On 12 October, 1614, however, Chamberlain writes to Mr. Isaac Wake, who was to remain as agent in Venice pending the appointment of Carleton's successor 124 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER " Comming to towne the last weeke I met with the unexpected newes of my Lord Ambassador's removing from Venice countermanded ; which I could not at first beleve till Mr. Secretarie himself confirmed it unto me, and that there was order gon three or fowre severall wayes to stay and cause him to return e though he were well advaunced in his journey (as I make no question but he was) ; the reason of all which you know better there then we can ayme at here at home ; though I partly guess at the motives of this sodain resolution, which are scant worth the trouble and disturbance it brings with it, which must needes be extraordinarie, having disfurnished himself of house and all thinges necessarie upon his departure, and I doubt he will return but slenderly accompanied if he meet with these directions on this side the mountaines, for that some wilbe loth to repasse them if they have once overcome the worst of the journey." Chamberlain's letter, dated 4 November, 1614, is addressed to Sir Dudley Carleton at Venice, and contains no allusion to the Ambassador's unexpected recall thither. The King has been thrown while hunting and badly bruised ; " the fortune of Villiers (George Villiers, afterwards Duke of Buckingham] the new favorit seemes to be at a stande or at least not to go very fast forward, for when it was expected he shold be made of the bed chamber, one Carre (or Carr) a bastard kinsman of the Lord Chamberlain (Earl of Somerset] is stepet in and admitted to the place ; and yet most men do not beleve that the world goes altogether so well on that side as it was wont." The sands were, indeed, running out ; perhaps the shadow of his impending downfall was already hanging over Somerset, gossips already busy under their breath ; the calm sea of prosperity is apt to be ruffled by " cats- paws " some time before the storm actually breaks. In a letter, dated 1 December, 1614, Chamberlain A CURIOUS MENAGERIE 125 alludes apparently to the affairs which have occasioned Carleton's recall to Venice ; he is evidently apprehensive as to the nature and upshot of the business, but there is no enlightenment concerning it to be obtained from his letter. Carleton appears to have solicited his views on the matter, so it must be assumed that Chamberlain was cognisant of details, but he is very careful to avoid any precise reference ; perhaps fearing the possibility of official interference with his letters. From the Venetian Papers, however, it is evident that Carleton's recall was due to the menace of war with Spain, and trouble in connection with the States General and the Duke of Savoy. The courier met him at Padua on 21 October ; Chamberlain no doubt had heard on the 12th that the orders had been despatched, hence his letter to Isaac Wake. His wordy and somewhat apologetic explanation to Carleton on 1 December is not very intelligible. On 15 December, 1614, Chamberlain dwells further upon the obscurity of the dealings of Spain with the Duke of Savoy, and the anxiety consequent in England ; and continues : " Mr. Finet is returned out of Spaine whether he caried a rabblement of presents, as pied bulles and kine, grayhounds, spaniells, water dogges, cormorants, hunting horses, nagges, stone bowes, cross bowes, curious peeces, truncks and many things els that I remember not, and for all his reward had but a chaine of 200 value, and as much monie to distribute among his companie, which was so unequally devided, or they so unreasonable that they fell out for it shame- fully." A curious " rabblement," indeed ; Mr. Finet and his companie would appear to have merited some higher reward from the King of Spain for the responsibility of conveying such a menagerie. Chamberlain is anxious about the welfare of their friend Sir Ralph Winwood : " Mr. Secretarie came from Newmarket this' day sevenight and went yesterday 126 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER to meet the King at his comming to Tibballs ; you must thincke he hath his head full, when it is certainly bruited (and not unprobablie as this world goes) that Sir Fulk Grivell (Greville) is to have his Chauncellorship of the Exchequer, to be made a baron and principall Secretarie, and to have the Scales ; but how this comes about, and with what conditions, I had rather you shold heare of others ; but sure if this fall out, if I were Mr. Secre- tarie I shold breake up schoole and go to play ; for this is no world to thrive in by plaine dealing." An old story this ! Sir Fulke Greville was not, however, created Baron Brooke until 1621. Writing on 22 December, 1614, Chamberlain has a good deal to say concerning Carleton's chances of removal to The Hague, which are not ripening : " I assure you I put our good frend (Winwood) in minde of you as often as I come in his way, but his silence or cold aunswers geve me no great comfort I doubt you must seeke helpe whence you had the hurt, and for ought I can learne you need not feare a winter journey, it will come opportunely enough toward the spring ; but the worst I gather is that Sir Harry Wotton wold build his tabernacle where he is, and labours to put of his extraordinarship for the ordinarie place." Wotton had been sent to The Hague as ambassador extraordinary ; like Carleton, he preferred a post nearer home than Venice, and being on the spot had facilities for gaining it beati possidentes ! On 5 January, 1615, Chamberlain writes : " I never knew any Christmas bring forth lesse varietie of occur- rents ; the world is in motion round about us, and yet we have no newes ; here at home we passe on with a slowe pace, and nothing fallen out worth the remem- brance ; they have playes at court every night both holy dayes and working-dayes, wherin they shew great patience, beeing for the most part such poore stuffe that instead of delight they send the auditorie away with discontent We are still upon projects, and DEVICES TO RAISE MONEY 127 every day brings forth some new devise ; there was lately speach of making fifty new barons at 6,000 a peece, but it quickly quailed, for though the world would be as vain and ambitious as ever, yet monie goes low, and I thinck they shold scant have found five at that rate. Now Mr. Hackwell hath a project in special request, and this day the Counsaile sit upon it, having apointed the Judge and officers of the Exchequer to meet about it. The matter is a kind of generall pardon of all offences debts and duties owing to the crowne, which shold cost every man that takes it five pound ; they make account the benefit wold rise to better than 400,000 ; but I doubt they will find themselves mistaken in the reckening if it go forward, and that it will scant amount to a quarter of the monie ; once I am sure the pardons at the King's comming in came not to the twentieth of that summe, and it falles out usually in this kind as with projectors in chimicall busines, that commonly goes away in smoke. There is a gentleman of Wiltshire commonly called the black Oliver St. John committed for writing a letter to the towne of Marlborow (where he was a neighbor) wherin he diswaded them from geving any benevolence ; a minister of Kent was likewise committed for the like occasion, and there is now one Pecham (Edmond Peacham) a minister of Somersetshire in the towne for that and a worse quarrell, having written seditious discourses, under colour of petitions to the last Parlement, and presenting some of them at that time to Sir Maurice Berkeley and Mr. Pawlet, that were knights for that shire ; but whether they read them or were made privie to the contents is the question." Edmond Peacham, rector of Hinton St. George, Somerset, to which he was instituted in 1587, was a man of strong puritan opinions, and also of determined and somewhat aggressive character. In 1603 he had been accused of " uttering in a sermon seditious and railing words against the King, and more especially against his counsellors, the bishops and judges," but no serious 128 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER penalty seems to have been inflicted on that occasion. Encouraged, perhaps, by this leniency, he took occasion in his sermons to proclaim his disgust with the policy of King James in Church and State. James Montagu, who became bishop of Bath and Wells in 1608, admon- ished Peacham, and reprimanded him in his Consistory Court. Peacham retaliated by writing a book against that Court for private circulation in manuscript, and also bi ought grave charges against his bishop's character. When, in 1614, he was asked to subscribe to the " bene- volence " to supply the King's wants, he answered, with St. Peter, " Silver and gold have I none," but what he had he would give, which was his prayers for the King. In December, 1614, he was arrested on the charge of libelling Bishop Montagu ; but on searching his house some notes for a sermon and other documents were discovered, in which he roundly accused James and his ministers of misconduct and extravagance, and the ecclesiastical courts with tyrannical exercise of their powers ; but the King's sudden death and a rebellion of the people would be, he said, the probable outcome of these misdeeds. Peacham, it will be observed, had never uttered or published these accusations ; never- theless they were treated as of treasonable intent. When he was examined he offered no defence, and refused any explanation. Then it was recollected that the people of Somerset had displayed great unwillingness to sub- scribe to the benevolence. The King was very angry over Peacham's remarks about himself, and urged the Council to use every means to ascertain whether he had been engaged in a conspiracy in Somerset to defeat the King's ends ; but evidence was lacking, and the prisoner maintained a stubborn silence. It was therefore deter- mined to put him to the torture of the rack, which, though not recognised as a legal method of extorting from a prisoner evidence against himself, was declared by Sir Francis Bacon to be permissible " for discovery," i.e., for obtaining general information about a plot, TRIAL OF EDMOND PEACHAM 129 and name of conspirators, etc. So this elderly man Chamberlain says in a later letter that he was getting on for seventy was subjected to torture ; he was examined " before torture, in torture, between tortures, and after torture," but " nothing could be drawn from him." This brutal business having failed to break down his high courage, it was resolved to try him on the charge of high treason. He was tried at Taunton on 7 August, 1615, was found guilty and sentenced to death ; the sentence was not carried out, however, and on 31 August he was examined afresh, when he admitted having written the sermon, but declared that he had no intention of publishing or preaching it. He died in Taunton prison in 1616. On 27 March of that year to anticipate a little Chamberlain wrote to Carleton: "Peacham, the con- demned minister, is dead in the jail at Taunton, where, they say, he left behind him a most wicked and desperate writing, worse than that he was convicted for." Peacham had lied freely at one time in his own defence, alleging that the papers found in his house were written by a namesake, who had visited him at Hinton, alluding apparently to Henry Peacham, a contemporary, and a scholar and writer. It was a queer incident altogether, creditable to neither the King, his Council, nor the prisoner. " Yesterday Alabaster, the double or treble turncoat, preached before the King at Whitehall, where there were many clergiemen that do not greatly applaud him, but say he made a curious fantasticall peece of worke. . . . Clement Edmonds is to go this day toward Holland about the employment I wrote you of the marchants busines ; Sir Harry Wotton as it seemes makes no great haste thence, but could be content to tarrie by it ; in the meantime here be one or two briguening (bargain- ing ?) for the place, specially Lesieur (Sir Stephen Lesieur) who followes it hard and claims a kind of promise of the King, but I hope he shall go without. I saw not our goode friend (Win-wood] since Friday last, when he told me this much, and withall that he had speach with K 130 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER his ma tie about your comming thether, and that you could there do him best service, which (he saide) he beleved well ; but I perceve there wilbe no removing till the busines of Savoy be better setled. I pray God your frends you relie most on stick as well to you, and play you not a trick of trust, which I speak not as know- ing or mistrusting any thing, but only upon dayly triall and experience that they are faithful and firme no where, and therefore wish you not spem pretio emere, to buy fayre wordes and promises too deare, nor to depend too much upon theyre fickle fancies and fortunes." Sir Stephen Lesieur was a Frenchman, secretary to the French Ambassador in England in 1586 ; he was naturalised in 1589, and taken into the public service in 1598 ; he was on several embassies in 1602 and later. On 12 January, 1615, Chamberlain relates an incident at the masque on Twelfth Night which indicates the spirit of the King of Spain and his Ambassador in London : " The only matter I can advertise since I wrote the last weeke is the successe of the maske on twelfth night, which was so well liked and applauded that the King had it represented again the Sonday night after .... but there fell out an accident before it began that had almost marred the play ; for the Spanish Ambassador being invited when he under- stood that Sir Noel Caron (the States Ambassador) was likewise to be there, he protested against it, saying he was not to be present where a servant of his masters vassalls should be covered, or appeare in qualitie of an Ambassador ; against which exceptions there was much dispute twixt him and the Lordes then present, and many messages passed to and fro between them and the King ; but in conclusion he wold by no arguments nor precedents be perswaded, but saide it was contrarie to his instructions, and so retiring himself went back the same way he came ; wherupon Sir Noel Caron was wisht to retire likewise and absent himself. The WOTTON PLAYS CUCKOO 131 next day the Spanish Ambassador required audience, which was appointed him at three o'clock, and was willed to bring his instructions with him, but he neither came nor sent that day, which unmannerly part I know not how he excused at his next audience, which was the Monday or Tewsday following, nor how he justified his braverie which is much spoken of, and like to breed no goode bloude neither here nor in Holland, whether Caron made a dispatch the same night." There are further indications in his next letter of the truculence and double dealing of Spain ; in this letter also dated 26 January, 1615 Chamberlain writes : " I had aunswered your letter of the 23th of December the last weeke, if I had ben furnished with anything worth your knowledge, or could have sent you any hope- ful newes of your remove hitherwards, which I assure you is generally desired of our captains and men of warre that come from those parts, for Signer Fabritio (Sir Henry Wotton) geves them litle satisfaction, beeing very retired and nothing affable, ever busie and dis- patching litle, so that they have small use or helpe of him either at his boord or in theyre busines, and indeed sticke not both there and here to professe that they wish your presence, and expect better usage at your handes." Very irritating to Carleton, who had actually started on his journey westward in the autumn ; but Fabritio was evidently resolved to emulate the cuckoo as far as possible. Then follows another dismal tirade about finance : " Your brother Williams is halfe out of heart that with all his paines and travayle he cannot yet procure your monie, and it wold discourage any man to do as he doth, omnem movere lapidem (to lift every stone) and yet not promovere (make progress), for some time he flies to the Chauncellor, some time to the Lord Treasurer, and some time to Mr. Secretarie, whom he need not sollicite if it lay in his power, for more then a fortnight since he moved both the Lord Treasurer and Mr. Chaun- 132 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER cellor severally and together, as well for you as Sir Thomas Edmondes, who presseth hard, and protesteth he can stay no longer where he is (Ambassador at Paris) if he be not presently supplied, beeing brought so bare that he is altogether both out of monie and credit ; but the urgent necessitie neerer hand is such, that there is no assurance to be made of fayre words and promises, though they have never so goode meaning to performe when they make them. Poore Questor the postmaster runs up and down from one to another, and though they have continuall and dayly use of him, yet can he not get a pennie of 600 they owe him for postage, wherby you may see how the world goes here, and what shifts we are put to, neither do I conceave how matters shold mend, which I write not to discourage you or put you out of hope, for no doubt they must be driven to take some other course and make better provision." Chamberlain writes to Alice Carleton on the 16th February, 1615, and after telling her, as usual, of all the ladies recently brought to bed of sons or daughters, he has a story about the King's beer : " Your neigh- bor Bruckshaw hath lien this moneth or five weekes in the Marshalsec, with sixe or seven of his companion brewers, for that they will not yeeld to have theyre drincke taken to serve the King without monie, for the King's brewer cannot get a groat of sixteen thousand pound that is owing him for beere, so that he hath neither monie nor credit to hold out any longer ; this terme they attempted by law to remove themselves and to trie theyre cause, but they could not be relieved, for that there came a mandate from the King wherby it is become a matter of State, and out of the compasse of law." The King must have his beer, mat coelum \ Sixteen thousand pounds represents a considerable quantity of beer, including, of course, the supplies for his very large household ; Kings and Queens drank beer in those times ; Queen Bess was very appreciative of a good tap. FINANCIAL ANTICS 133 On 23 February, 1615, Chamberlain writes : " The same difficulties are still and I feare wilbe in all publik payments, the disorders wherof do multiplie dayly, neither do I see any signe of remedy, the number of projects beeing like a sort of idle dreames that vanish away ; and yet I heare Pope HackwelPs pardons are in great forwardness, and that within few days we shall have a proclamation about them, but with what successe God knowes ; in the mean time here is great want, and the Quene's journey to the Bath (which shold have ben the 27th of the next moneth) is prolonged till monie may be gotten, and her turn is to be first served ; and withall it is saide the recevers halfe yeares accounts that come not in till our Lady Day are already assigned over for other uses." In a letter of the 2nd of March, 1615, we hear of another scheme for raising money : " Mr. Hackewell's pardons have daunced so long forward and backward that it seemes they are now at length quite dasht, for it doth not probablie appeare that they wilbe of value or raise any great summe, though they shold be rated double or treble in number and proportion to those graunted at the King's comming in. Yet to kepe us in breath there is now another project in speach, that whereas in the tenth yeare of the late Quene there was a decree made by the Earle Marshall and that court that no armes shold be geven thence forward without their allowance and consent, contrarie wherunto the heralds since that time are saide to have dispensed above 7,000 coates, it is propounded that all these shold be disarmed or ungentilised, unles they will geve twenty or thirty pound for confirmation of theyre gentrie." There is a sort of comic opera flavour about these grotesque proposals ; one is reminded of the Duke of Plaza Toro in " The Gondoliers," and half expects to turn the page and find the King posing as " James the First, Limited " with a monopoly, of course, of paid-up preference shares. 134 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER And with all this ghastly lack of money, Chamberlain proceeds to tell of a " job " in the matter of a fat berth in the King's household : " I had almost forgotten our greatest newes that on Saterday Sir Arthur Ingram was sworn Coferer of the King's houshold, which was caried so close that it was not vented till the very instant ; but the sodainnes did no way better the cause, but rather put all into such a combustion that the officers of the greencloth excepted mainly against it, and pro- duced the King's promise and hand to the contrarie, wherby he assured that those places shold passe orderly and in succession ; but say what they could he was sworne in the presence of the Lords Treasurer, Admirall, Chamberlain, Knolles and Wotton ; having agreed with old Sir Varney to resign his place to him in consideration of 1,500 redy monie, 600 a yeare during his life, and 200 a yeare to his wife after his decease ; but the storme was not so soone pacified, for all the officers in court, even to the Blacke Garde seemed to take it to hart that such an indignitie shold be offered, and such a scandalous fellow set over them as they paint him out to be." Here was money available for bribing the King's coferer to give up his post ; a lucrative one, no doubt, to an unscrupulous man; and at that time there were very few scrupulous men about, when it came to diverting public money to their own pockets. The King affected to be convinced, and promised " that all should be redressed .... but that the King would take his owne time ; the Lord Chamberlain (Earl of Somerset) promised that as he had ben an instrument to do them wrong, so he wold do them right ; they got the Quene likewise and the Prince on their side." They got their own way, after all, it would appear, for in his next letter, dated 26 March, 1615, Chamberlain writes : " Sir Arthur Ingram is in a soil desurfonne for Sir Marmaduke Burrell is appointed to kepe the table and discharge the busines of the Coferer, and he INGRAM SUPPLIES GOSSIP 135 only to retain the name till Michaelmas that the accounts may be made up, and in the mean time order taken that he may be reimboursed of such monies as he hath lawfully laide out or can challenge in this cause." But how about his bribe and pension to old Varney and his wife? In this letter there is a long account of the fetes on the occasion of the King's visit to Cambridge, but it is not very interesting, and so shall not be transcribed. In a letter of C April, 1615, to Alice Carleton, there is more about Ingram : " Sir Arthur Ingram with much ado is removed, and all his brave furniture caried from the court ; there were many tricks and cunning passages used to kepe him in, or at least to have won time, but the houshold was so mainly bent to have him out, and found so many good f rends that there was no abiding." Ingram was the son of a linen draper, and was himself a wealthy merchant of Fenchurch Street. He built a splendid mansion at Temple Newsham, in Yorkshire. The King favoured him because he had often lent or given him money ; the household probably objected to him on account of his plebeian origin, besides his interference with the promised promotion among its members. He was knighted at Theobalds on 9 July, 1613. Ingram was a perfect godsend to the gossips and quidnuncs in " Paul's," as Chamberlain practically acknowledges in a letter of 7 April, 1615 : " During his (the King's) abode here he was troubled once or twice with Sir Arthur Ingram, who is loth to dislodge or leave his hold, beeing no doubt animated under hand to wrangle and struggle against the King's express wordes and meaning, which were that he shold only retain the name and the fee till Michaelmas, when his monie beeing repayed he shold leave the place ; in the mean time he shold neither kepe the table nor meddle with the accounts. Now having furnished his lodging at Court with rich hangings, bedding and silver vessells, 136 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER on Friday last he sent for his diet, which beeing refused him by the officers, complained and by the assistance of some great Lords prevayled thus far that it was to be allowed him till this day, by the King's owne appoint- ment, who said he had deserved better of him then to be sent away utterly discountenanced If this business of Ingram's had not ben I know not how we should have entertained ourselves, for this whole moneth together it hath filled both court and citie with dayly newes and discourse Once Ingram himself is anatom- ised in every part, and so canvassed to and fro that he had ben a hundred times better to have ben without this new honor, though they say he be in possibilitie to be a clarissimo if (according to articles) he shold marrie Mistress Clare, a faire gentle-maide that hath a fine boy of her owne." Why Ingram should become a " clarissimo," or grandee by wedding Mistress Clare, " according to articles," is not clear. There was one Mistress Clare concerned in the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury in 1613 ; at any rate she is said to have offered, in conjunction with the Countess of Essex, a large bribe to one Mary Woods to prepare some poison ; she is possibly identical with the " faire gentle-maide that hath a fine boy of her owne " ; she may have been a mistress of King James, or of some " great Lord," who would seek to discharge himself of the responsibility of the lady and their fine boy. On 15 June, 1615, Chamberlain has some more to say about money-raising schemes : " The project of pardons was on foot again, but finally defeated the last weeke, as likewise Silvanus Scorie's (or Skory) devise for inlarg- ing the privileges of Baronnetts, to be no wardes, to be justices of peace at 21 years of age, deputie lieutenants at 25, that theyre bodies shold be free from arrests, with divers other immunities for which theyre rate shold rise to 3000 a man, wherby the King's wants might be much relieved out of the vanitie and ambition of the gentrie ; he had often accesse to his ma tie> and pleased 137 himself much with the invention and hope that he and his heyres (for this service) shold be perpetuall Chaun- cellors of that order ; but after much discussing the busines was overthrown, and he dismissed with a flowte that argentum ejus versum est in scoriam, et aurum mori chalcum, which, that it might be the better under- stod, was thus englished, that his silver was turned to drosse and his gold to alchimie." This " flowte " in Latin, with the play upon Scory's name, savours of King James himself. Baronets, at the institution of the order in 1611, were required to pay for the maintenance of thirty soldiers in Ireland for three years, at eightpence a day per head, which amounted to l per diem, or 1095 in all. " Here is much speach of new barons to be made for monie, which were the lesse to be misliked if it came to King's cofers, but the Lord Sheffield (I know not for what service) hath the graunt of one, and hath alredy agreed with Sir Robert Dormer for 10,000, so that it is passed the seales and he is to be created some time this weeke, unles some litle controversie prolong it, for that the King will make none but such as must first passe thorough the order of baronnetts, and the question is whether must beare that charge, the buyer or the seller." A nice point ! But it was an expensive business, getting a barony ; what does it cost in 1920 ? On 29 June, 1615, Chamberlain writes, in allusion to a report that the Bishop of Winchester aspired to be Lord Privy Seal : " We are still in expectation what will become of the Bishop of Winchester, who came to towne in a close coach, lay hid a great while at Mr. Deckham's, and now lately hath ben seen at Court two or three dayes together, but whether he feed himself or be fed with vaine hopes will shortlie appeare ; but in the meane time it is thought a straunge ambition for a man of his wisdome, yeares and infirmities to aspire to a place with so many difficulties which he cannot long in joy, and to suffer himself to be led along after other 138 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER men's humors and uncertain promises ; but he hath his reward, and the world doth descant on him at large, and there was a hill clapt up upon the new exchange that the bishop of Winchester (describing the man by marks and circumstances) was privilie run out of his dioces no man knew whether, but if any could bring tidings of him to the crier he shold be well rewarded for his labor. Sir Robert Dormer's creation hath ben often deferred, and on Tewsday last when he thought himself assured of it was put of till tomorrow, when it is thought the Lord Haye shall beare him companie and be made an English baron. This manner of making barons is subject to the censure of wanton witts, that say baron- nies were wont to be geven by entayle, but now they go by bargain and sale ; and Scory (though he missed the place he aymed at) cannot scape without an office, for the wagges say he shalbe cheife churchwarden over all England, and have the placing of women." Thus the money-raising schemes and the more or less obscure individuals who invented them became alike the butts of the gossips ; and nothing was effected towards any emergence from the dismal financial morass in which the nation had sunk to the neck. We learn from a letter of 13 July, 1615, that Sir Robert Dormer, having presumably paid down his 10,000 like a man, and settled with the licensed pur- veyor of baronies about the baronetcy fee, was created Baron Dormer of \Vyng on 30 June ; " and the Lord Haye was made an English baron by patent of a place in Lancashire, but I have forgot the name." Sir Robert Dormer was not a man of any note ; his claim to a peerage lay merely in his capacity to pay the price demanded ; he died on 8 November, 1616, having enjoyed his honours only a little more than one year. His grandson, Robert Dormer, acquired some fame as a loyal and skilful Royalist soldier ; he was created Earl of Carnarvon in 1628, and was killed at the first battle of Newbury, 20 September, 1643. A BISHOP'S AMBITION 139 James Hay came to England with King James in 1603 as gentleman of the Bedchamber, and was created Lord Hay on 21 June, 1606, but without a seat in the House of Lords ; on 29 June, 1615, he was created Baron Hay of Sawley, Co. York (not Lancashire, as stated by Chamberlain) ; on 5 July, 1618, he was created Viscount Doncaster, and on 13 September, 1622, Earl of Carlisle. Thomas Bilson, bishop of Winchester, is said to have been a very learned man, and wrote several important controversial treatises ; why he should have wished to quit his episcopal surroundings in order to undertake a troublesome office of State one cannot imagine ; he was about seventy years of age at the time, and died on 18 June, 1616. Both in this and the succeeding letter of 20 July, there is further mention of Sir Arthur Ingram ; the King and the gossips appear to find it equally difficult to shake him off : " Sir Arthur Ingram is at last quite cassiered, and on Monday Sir Marmaduke Dorrell sworn coferer, and the rest of the officers rise in theyre order. I heare his great frends and he are fallen out about the reckening, and that they account him an unfortunat and ominous knave to them." Chamberlain is still busy over the matter of Carleton's promised removal to The Hague, which continues to hang fire, frequently calling upon Sir Ralph Winwood to press his friend's claims : " Indeed, if I were not so much at his elbow to put him in remembrance of you, I shold excuse his backwardness, beeing so overladen with continuall business, that I am very welcome to him as one that troubles him not with any serious affaires, more then at fit times to put him in mind of your busines, wherein though I have not so full successe as I wish, yet I must not complaine, seeing he useth me otherwise with such extraordinarie favor and familiaritie that I cannot grow sullen." One may be permitted to doubt whether Chamberlain 140 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER was so welcome a visitor to the busy Secretary of State as he makes out ; he was fortunate in not receiving a snub for his importunity. " They have missed the mark they shot at in seking to make the bishop of Winchester Lord Privie Seale, whom the King hath dismissed with goode wordes, that he thought well of him, and perhaps meant to bestow the place upon him, but he wold take his own time, and not do it at other men's instance, so that he shold do well to go home, and when there were use of him he wold send for him." King James's customary formula, when he had already, " at other men's instance," decided otherwise. Another scandal hinted at in connection with the Earl of Somerset : " Young Gibb of the bedchamber is willed to absent himself, which is taken for an ill sign and crosseblow to somebody els ; all the reason I can heare is for carrieing a scandalous message and some say a letter to Mistress Murry of the Quene's bedchamber from the Lord Chamberlain." On 24 August, 1615, Chamberlain, writing as usual to Carleton, begins to realise that he is not as young as he was : " I come now from reading your letter of the 4th of this present, wherby I understand your safe return to Venice, having since Sonday last heard of your de- parture from Turin by a letter of Mr. Secretaries to his Lady at Ditton, whether I was invited by three or fowre messages (besides that I was ingaged by promise), and stayed there a whole weeke, which though I were never so welcome, was a penance to me, beeing growne so in love with home (or that which I make account of as home) that I love no stragling journies abrode, because travayl- ing by horse (for want of use) is become wearisome to me." Chamberlain was then about sixty-two years of age ; " that which he made account of as home " was no doubt a pretty snug bachelor " diggings," in which he had grown accustomed to his little daily routine ; his DEATH OF GEORGE CHAMBERLAIN 141 breakfast at an easy hour, his gossip at " Paul's," and his letter-writing. There is nothing so far in his letters to indicate whether or not he had taken to smoking, which came into vogue some twenty years previously ; he would have found one of those curiously shaped clay pipes then in use a consolation, perhaps, and a help in composing his letters. " The Lord Chamberlain lies much at Graies (Grays) a house of the Lord Knolles by Henley, where his Lady makes account to lie in, and they say lookes howrely, yet the world is so incredulous or so malicious that the most part will scant beleve there is any such matter." This is an echo from the scandal of the Countess's plea for nullity of her marriage with the young Earl of Essex ; " the world " is not too ready to credit her with any great desire of maternity. She did, however, achieve it, and her daughter, Anne, married William Russell, fifth Earl and first Duke of Bedford. She is said to have been an admirable woman, and to have been ignorant of her mother's misdoings until after she was grown up, when, coming upon some pamphlet or document which enlightened her, she fell senseless under the shock, and was thus discovered with the evidence beside her. Writing on 27 March, Chamberlain, after alluding to the death of Sir Henry Fanshawe, says : " I have had likewise another neere losse, God having taken away my brother George this last weeke, who linger- ing ever since Christmas of a consumption, placide obdormivit in Domino. Among other discommodities of age and long life, this is not the least, to loose our best friends." CHAPTER VI JACOBEAN LETTERS April, 1616 February, 1618 IN the autumn of 1615 the first rumours of foul play in the matter of the death of Sir Thomas Overbury had got about, and evidence speedily developed, involv- ing Sir Gervase Elwes, Mrs. Turner and others, who were readily convicted ; the depositions, however, cast strong suspicion upon the Countess of Somerset, who eventually confessed to having instigated and taken an active part in the murder ; further evidence involved her husband, and in the Spring of 1616 they were brought to trial. Writing on 6 April, 1616, Chamberlain says : " All the alteration we have since I wrote last is that the very same day the Lady of Somerset was committed to the Towre upon so short warning that she had scant leysure to shed a few teares over her little daughter at the parting ; otherwise she caried herself every way constantly enough, saving that she did passionately deprecat and intreat the Lieutenant that she might not be lodged in Sir Thomas Overburie's lodging, so that he was faine to remove himself out of his owne chamber for two or three nights till Sir Walter Raleigh's lodging might be furnished and made fit for her. It is thought the Lady of Suffolkes (Lady Somerset's mother) unex- pected comming to towne the Saterday before did her no goode, but rather hastened her commitment ; her arraignment was fully resolved shold be the 15th of this present, and her Lord's the day following, being the Monday and Tewsday before the terme .... but 142 143 since it is put of till the Monday after St. George's Day. .... There is great meanes (they say) made for them, and the Quene is an earnest suitor for her, whatsoever the successe wilbe." This letter is addressed to Carleton at The Hague, where he was at length installed ; Chamberlain alludes to the proposed surrender of the " cautionarie " towns in Flanders, i.e., the towns of Brielle (or The Brill), Flushing, Ostend and Rammekins, held in security for the loan to the Low Countries in 1584. The Council could arrive at no conclusion in the matter, " so," says Chamberlain, " that now the whole resolution lies in the Kinges brest, who hath had this matter in considera- tion and speach with Sir Noell Caron (States Ambas- sador] almost fowre yeares, and though he shold be loth to let them go, yet as the case standes knowes not how we shall kepe them, for monie here is none to maintain them, and the souldiers are so far behind hand alredy that they are redy to starve ; the States will furnish them no longer, so that of necessitie they must fall to oppresse the burgers, the issue wherof is easilie foreseen." On 20 April, 1616, Chamberlain writes : " The Lord of Somersets and his Ladies arraignment shold hold the 29th of this present, but I heare it is deferred to the 6th of May, or God knows when, for the world appre- hends that these delayes are to some such end," i.e., to allow the matter to " fizzle out " so far as the Earl and Countess are concerned ; by no means an unheard-of thing in those times, but it was not possible in this case even had it been in contemplation. " The business of the cautionarie townes goes forward, and hath been debated again at the counsaile table, where litle was saide against it, but only the respect of the Kinges honor, whereto much was aunswered, but specially that where the profit of the warre goes there goes the honor ; I have dealt often and freely with our good frend (Sir Ralph Winwood), but in truth the case 144 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER stands so that lupum auribus tenemus, neither knowing well how to hold nor how to let go, and for his part I find him resolved and to make profession to be validus contra rumor es" On 25 May, 1616, Chamberlain writes : " I come tired from hearing a peece of the Earle of Somerset's arraignment, who I thincke is but now (at 8 p.m.] in the middest of his aunswer, the proceeding against him having continued ever since ten o'clock in the morning till five that he .began to aunswer for himself, which how it will succeed I cannot certainly say, for he denies all, even his owne letters, saying they be counterfeited, and will not be brought to write wherby to shew the conformitie of the character, but sayes it is against law that he shold be put to it ; he had pen and ink allowed h>m to take notes, which is more then ever I knew any to have heretofore. I was there by sixe o'clock in the morning and for ten shillings had a reasonable place, but the weather is so hot and I grew so faint with fasting that I could hold out no longer ; especially when I heard they had sent to provide torches, so that it is verely thought he will hold them till midnight. .... His Lady was arraigned yesterday and made shorter worke by confessing the inditement so that all was don before noone. She won pitie by her sober demeanour, which in my opinion was more curious and confident then was fit for a lady in such distresse, and yet she shed or made shew of some few teares divers times. She was used with more respect then is usual, nothing being aggravated against her by any circum- stances nor any invective used, but only touching the maine offence of murther ; as likewise it was saide to-day to be the King's pleasure that no odious or uncivil speaches shold be geven ; the generall opinion is that she shall not die, and many goode wordes were geven to put her in hope of the King's mercie, wherin the Lord Steward with the rest of the peeres promised theyre best mediation. The Earle of Essex was at her arraign- NEW DIGNITIES 145 ment, but somwhat more privately then this day, when he stode full in his face." But enough of this nauseous cause celebre : " The Great Oyer of Poisoning," as it was termed in a pamphlet published soon afterwards ; it may be dismissed with the expression of some surprise and regret that the prime mover in the matter Frances, Countess of Somerset and her husband and abettor did not share the fate of their more humble tools and accomplices ; if Sir Gervase Elwes, and Weston, and Mrs. Turner deserved to be hanged, it is very certain that the Earl and Countess of Somerset merited no better fate. On 22 June, 1616, Chamberlain writes : " As I wrote in my last (of 8 June) the Kinge dined that day at Alderman Coquins, where he was presented with a bason of gold, and as many peeces in it as together made up the summe of 1,000, the Prince after the same manner with 500 ; so that the whole charge of that feast stoode the new companie in more then 5,200, the thanckes remaining wholy with the Alderman, who at parting was knighted with the citie sword." Chamberlain is more inaccurate than usual in the spelling of the Alderman's name ; it was William Cokayne ; he came of an ancient family, and was a wealthy and influential citizen. The banquet was given at Cokayne House, in Broad Street (now the City Club). " The mint of new dignities beeing now to be set on worke, and much hammering (they say) for the Lord Chauncellor to be Earle of Cambridge, Flint or Bucking- ham, the Lord Lisle to be Earle of Warwick, Sir George Villers (Villiers) Viscount Viilers and Earle of Leicester, Sir . . . Tufton, Sir John Roper, Sir William Pope, and Sir William Cope to be barrens ; but these last are rather potentia then acta ; Sir ... Thin (Thynne) and Sir John Hollis beeing in best possibilitie, who are set downe alredy at 20,000 a peece ; and if it fall out right the later s to come to our good frend's shUre, who had rather have met with sombody els and set me L 146 A JACOBEAN LETTER- WRITER on \vorke to win the drie-handcd knight (you know whom I mean) who though he be ambitious enough, yet covetousness is the more predominant." " Our goode frend " is, of course, Sir Ralph Winwood ; the " drie-handed Knight " has been previously alluded to, but his identity is not clear ; Dr. Birch, in " The Court and Times of James I." says he was probably Sir Edward Norris. " The Lord Cooke (Sir Edward Coke) hath had much ado to beare of the storm, and whether he be yet well cleered of it is a question, though the generall voyce goes that on Wensday night he made his peace with the King who had him coram and in longe confession ; but the next day the King comming to the Star Chamber, and passing him over in silence makes the world judge the best of his case ; the truth is that his Lady hath stoode him in great steade both in solliciting for him in private and pleading for him at the Counsaile table. .... This is thought not to be the least motive of his safetie, that it was told the King that he could not do him a greater honor then to take him downe now, for wheras he was nothing well-beloved before, if he shold suffer in this cause he wold be accounted the martir of the commonwealth. " Sir Thomas Dale is arrived from Virginia and brought with him some ten or twelve old and younge of that countrie, among whom the most remarquable person is Pocahuntas (daughter to Powatan a Kinge or Cacique of that countrie), maried to one Rolfe an Englishman." This Virginian princess attracted considerable atten- tion. Her husband, John Rolfe, came of a Norfolk family, and sailed with his wife for Virginia in June, 1609 ; his wife died in the following year. Rolfe was the first Englishman to introduce the regular cultivation of tobacco in Virginia, and became a leading settler. On 5 April, 1613, he, rather astonishingly, married Pocahontas (or Matoaka) a younger daughter of the PRINCESS POCAHONTAS 147 Chief or King Powhattan, who had probably been concerned in the murder of some earlier colonists about the year 1585. However, he seems to have been quite willing that his daughter, then about eighteen, should marry Rolfe ; she had meanwhile been converted to Christianity, and re-named Rebecca. They had a son born in 1615, who was named Thomas, and subsequently, after being brought up by his uncle in England, returned to Virginia and settled there. Probably with the idea that he would thereby promote good relations in Virginia, and prompted perhaps by Sir Thomas Dale, King James received Pocahontas at Court, and he and the Queen were very kind to her. She was present in English Court dress at the Twelfth night masque, with the Queen, and her portrait was engraved by Simon de Passe ; her features are said to have been agreeable, and the expression of her face modest and not undignified. Pocahontas, flattered and pleased by her reception, and finding much attraction in the sights and society of London, would willingly have remained there ; but the climate was too much for her, and she went to Gravesend in March, 1617, to embark for Virginia ; she died, however, before the ship sailed, and was buried in St. George's Church at Gravesend, where there was an entry in the Parish Register " 1616 (?), May 21, Rebecca Wrothe (or Wrolfe it has been transcribed both ways), wyff of Thomas (John ?) Wroth, gent. A Virginia lady, borne, was buried in the Chauncle." Here there are obviously some errors in transcription ; Pocahontas could not have been buried in May, 1616, as there is no doubt but that she arrived in London in June of that year. St. George's Church was destroyed by fire in 1727, but the register may have been pre- served. Probably the date of her burial should be 21 March, 1616 17 ; such a slip is quite feasible in copying an old register ; also, her husband's name was John. Chamberlain has more to say about Sir Edward Coke 148 A JACOBEAN LETTER- WRITER in subsequent letters ; on 6 July he writes : " On Sonday last the Lord Cooke (by the Kinges expresse order delivered by Secretarie W nwood) was sequestered from the Counsaile table and from riding his circuit, and willed to revise and correct his reports as many wayes faulty and full of novelties in points of law. This was the summe of the censure for his corrupt dealing with Sir Robert Rich and Sir Christopher Hatton in the extent of theyre lands and instalment of the debt due to the King, and for wordes spoken touching the prae- munire the last day of Easter terme, and for his insolent behaviour when he and the Judges were before the King at Whitehall .... the world discourses diversely how he shold run so far into the King's displeasure, and will not take these alleaged causes for sound pay- ment, but stick not to say that he was too busie in the late busines (i.e., the Overbury murder), and dived further into secrets then there was need, and so perhaps might see nudam sine veste Dianam." Of which more anon. On the same date Chamberlain writes : " The King is now at Windsor where the instalment of the new Knights of the Garter is to be to-morrow upon the King's charge, and this afternoone there is a chapter to be held about the Earle of Somer- set's armes or hachements (as they call them) whether they are to be taken away or left as they are, once he weares his garter still and his George, by what privilege I know not, but he findes every way great favor and hath alredy the libertie of the towre with the lieutenant's companie The Lord Hay is upon parting having lingered thus long in hope to be made of the Garter, the successe wherof cannot be held now in suspense beyond this day. He goes with great pompe, but they say is like to be shrewdly disapointed, for having made twenty special suits of apparell for so many dayes abode (besides his travayling robes), newes is very lately com that the French have newly chaunged or altered theyre fashion, wherby he must needs be out of countenance, SOMERSET AND THE GARTER 149 if he be not set out after the last edition ; but the Lady Haddington hath bestowed a favor upon him that will not easilie fall to the ground, for she says the flowre and bewtie of his ambassage consists in three mignards (dandies), three daunsers, and three fooles or buffons ; the mignards are himself, Sir Harry Rich and Sir George Goring, the daunsers Sir Gilbert Hawton, Ackmoutie (Auchmuty) and Aber-Crommie (Aber- crombie), the fooles or buffons Sir Thomas German, Sir Rofe Shelton and Sir Thomas Badger." Lady Haddington's " favor " would certainly stick to him. It appears impossible to get away from the Somerset scandal. On 20 July, Chamberlain writes : " The new Knights of the Garter, the Earle of Rutland, Sir George Villars (Villiers) and the Lord Lisle were installed at Windsor the seventh of this present, and there was a chapter held about the taking downe or continueng of the Earle of Somerset's hachements or armes, but after long dispute, by warrant under the King's owne hande they were removed higher as the manner is when new come in. ... Yesterday he had the libertie of the towre graunted him and Henrickson and his wife had the fortune to see him with his Garter and George about his necke walking and talking with the Earle of Northumberland, and he and his lady saluting at the window. It is much spoken of how foraign princes of that order (to let our owne passe) can disgest to be coupled in societie with a man lawfully and publikly convicted of so fowle a fact, or how a man civilly dead and corrupt in bloude, and so no gentleman shold continue a Knight of the Garter, but this age affords things as straunge and incompatible." Strange enough ; but, if we are to accept the dictum of Elias Ashmole, Windsor Herald, in his History of the Order of the Garter, a Knight of the Garter could only be degraded if guilty of heresy, treason, or flying from battle ; felony does not constitute a disability ; hence the retention of Somerset's hatchment was strictly 150 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER within the rules of the Order. His coat-of-arms was as follows : Gules, on a chevron argent three mullets sable, in the dexter chief a lion passant guardant or ; Supporters, dexter a lion guardant gules ; sinister a stag or, attired and hoofed argent. Crest, a stag's head erased, or, attired argent. His Motto was Probitas sibi ipsi securitias ; like too many other folk with admirable mottoes, Somerset made no attempt to illustrate it in his conduct. From a letter of 3 September, 1616, we learn that the King's favourite, Sir George Villiers, was created baron of Whaddon, and immediately afterwards Viscount Villiers, and it is believed that he will shortly be made Earl of Leicester. On 26 October, 1616, Chamberlain writes again about the case of Sir Edward Coke, who it appears disposed of more than twenty of the objections to his reports, leaving only five to be referred to the King : " It is not the least part of his humiliation to be convented in these points befor such judges as Sergeant Crew, Serg. Montague and Serg. Finch, the Atturney and Sollicitor, wherof the greater part (excepting the Sol- licitor) are held no great men of law ; and withall to find so course usage, as not to be once offered to sit downe, and so unrespective and uncivil cariage from the Lord Chauncellor's men, that not one of them did move a hat or make any other sign of regard towards him ; wherof the Quene taking notice his ma tie- hath since sent word that he wold have him well used." In the same letter occurs the following : " I heard yesternight that Sir Henry Rich was gon into the feild with Sir Rafe Shelton ; we shall heare this day if any thing be fallen out." A duel between a " mignard " and a " buff on " of Lord Haye's embassage ; can Lady Haddington's skit have been at the bottom of it ? The gentlemen may have taken to calling each other names. On 14 November, 1616, Chamberlain writes : ILL-BEHAVED KNIGHTS 151 " The Lord Cooke (Sir Edward Coke) is now quite of the Nookes, and order geven to send him a supersedeas from executing his place ; the common speach is that fowre pp's have overthrown and put him down, that is Pride, Prohibitions, Praemunire, and Prerogative " ; a shrewd and probably accurate comment. " On Saterday night the Knights of the Bath were entertained by the Lord Mayor at Drapers Hall with a supper and a play, where some of them were so rude and unruly and carried themselves so insolently divers wayes, but specially in putting citizens' wifes to the squeake, so far forth that one of the Sheriffes brake open a doore upon Sir Edward Sackville, which gave such occasion of scandall, that they went away without the banket, though it were redy and prepared for them." It would seem as though these unruly Knights had already been dining not wisely but too well. Here is a dismal story of a murder by a " comly grave man " approaching four-score years : " On Tewsday one Bertram, an aged gentleman, killed Sir John Tindall, a Master of the Chauncerie with a pistol charged with three bullets in Lincoln's Inne, pretending he had wronged him in the report of a cause to his utter undoing (as indeed he was not held for integerrimus), and after- wards stabbed himself once or twice, but not mortally, and beeing apprehended and examined, shewed no signe of remorse, saying that howsoever he had cast away himself yet he had don the common- wealth good. The cause breeds much discourse, the man beeing neere fowrescore years old that did it, and a comly grave man as is to be scene ; but the strangenes and desperatenes of the fact cuts of all commiseration. Mine author Ned Wimark cites Sir William Walter for saying that the fellow mistooke his marke, and shold rather have shot hailshot at the whole court " ; i.e., the Court of Chancery, which had recently been granted wide powers in reviewing sentences, etc., of the Courts of Law, to the disgust of lawyers. 152 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER Poor old Bertram, we learn from another letter, hanged himself in the King's Bench prison, dreading examination and possible torture. In a letter of 23 November, 1616, Chamberlain tells of the formal installation as Chief Justice of Sir Edward Coke's successor, Sir Henry Montagu ; and adds " If Sir Edward Cooke could beare this misfortune constantly it were no great disgrace to him, for he goes away with a generall applause and goode opinion, and the King himself when he told his resolution at the Counsaile table to remove him, yet gave him this testimonie, that he thought him no way corrupt but a good justicer, with so many other goode wordes as if he meant to hang him with a silken halter " but a halter, all the same ! Chamberlain, however, adds in a postscript : " Here is a bald rime of our younge gallants of Inns of Court against theyre old benchers ; and a prettie epigram upon the Lord Cooke, and no doubt more will follow, for when men are downe the very drunkards make rimes and songes upon them." Chamberlain frequently mentions enclosures of verses or quips upon prominent persons and current events, but unhappily these have not been preserved. In a letter of 7 December, 1616, he says that there is a rumour afloat that " the biasing Star at court " i.e., Viscount Villiers appears to be tending towards an eclipse, " and that there is some glimpse or sparkling of a lesse comet of the Lord of Montgomerie's lighting ; " this " bruit " was, however, quite premature and unfounded. There is talk of the King's contemplated visit to Scotland, and of furniture, etc., which has been sent north in anticipation of it, " but," says Chamberlain " all the difficulties wilbe for monie to beare the journey, which how to compasse all projects must be employed, and every man feares where it will light, beeing not a litle terrified with a precedent of dangerous consequence of one Roberts of Cornwall or Devonshire, whose father, MORE MONEY TROUBLES 153 an obscure fellow, dienge exceeding rich they say by longe use of interest, there was a privie scale sent to him for 20,000 with intimation that as by the law the King could sease on all gotten by those usurious courses, he was of his clemency content to borrow but this summe without interest." A rascally business all round ! On 21 December we hear that Sir Edward Coke has twice been received by the King at Newmarket, with every mark of favour, and is " as jocund and joviall as ever he was ; it is generally saide he shall shortly be made a baron." On 4 January, 1617, Chamberlain writes again about the scarcity of money : " I moved Mr. Secretarie about your monie and he remembered well what you had written to him touching that point, but sayes there can no more be don then hath ben, to put the Lord Treasurer and the King in mind of it, but all is one, for it is Surdo canere (singing to the deaf) to either, and as the case stands it is commune malum, which God knowes how or when to remove, beeing past the wit of man." King James and his advisers do not appear to have contemplated the issue of paper money, that refuge of the unthrifty ; what would they have thought of the issue during and after the great war ? " The Earle of Arimdell receved the Communion on Christmas Day in the King's Chappell, where there were two excellent sermons made that day by the bishop of Winchester and the bishop of Ely Yesterday there fell a great mischaunce to the Earle of Arimdell by the burning of his house (built and left him by the Earle of Northampton) at Greenwich, where he likewise left a great deale of houshold stuffe and rich furniture. . . . No doubt the Papists will ascribe and publish it as a punishment for his dissembling, or falling from them." The reconciliation of Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, to the State religion occasioned a great deal of comment ; his father, Philip Howard, had given his life for his 154 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER Faith under Queen Elizabeth, and his mother remained absolutely staunch to Rome. Arundel's renunciation of the old Faith was, of course, entirely a matter of policy. As a Catholic he was debarred from any office of State, and compelled to remain in a condition of comparative obscurity ; the result of his change was speedily apparent in the bestowal of sundry favours of a more or less lucrative character. On the 18th January, 1617, Chamberlain writes :- " The Lord Treasurer makes account to have don a great peece of service in bringing the King's revenue to surmount his ordinarie expenses more then 2,000 a yeare ; but Mr. Chauncellor geves out that the reconning is mistaken for a very great summe." The Lord Treasurer was the Earl of Suffolk ; he was destined not long after to be accused of extensive misrepresentations, in which also the Countess was involved. Chamberlain also mentions in this letter that Viscount Villiers has been created Earl of Buckingham, and in the following letter, dated 8 February, 1617, he writes : " The Earle of Buckingham was sworne of the Counsaile beeing (they say) the youngest that hath ben seen sit at that board (Buckingham was jive-and-twenty] His brother Christopher is come to be of the bedchamber, but whether in qualitie of gentleman or groome I cannot yet learne. I cannot but commend that Lord's goode dispositions in doing goode to his kindred and frends, though some riming companions do not forbeare to taxe him for it, as one by way of a prognostication says, Above in skies shall Gemini rise, and twinns the Court shall pester, George shall call up his brother Jacke, and Jacke his brother Kester " (Christopher ?) Chamberlain's somewhat nctive or is it cyncial ? commendation of Buckingham for his " goode dis- positions : ' in finding jobs about the Court for his relatives is rather quaint. On 25 March, 1617 : " On Tewsday Sir Robert BACON, LORD KEEPER 155 Mansfeld (Mansel) married his old Mistris Roper, one of the Quene's auncient maides of honor ; the wedding was kept at Denmark House at the Quene's charge, who gave them a fayre cupbord of plate, besides many goode and rich presents." This was Sir Robert's second marriage ; his first wife was Elizabeth, sister of Sir Nicholas Bacon of Redgrave, and widow of Justice Windham. The wording of Cham- berlain's announcement is somewhat ambiguous, and admits of an interpretation discreditable to the Admiral and the lady ; it is probably accidental. On 10 May, 1617, Chamberlain describes the ceremony on the occasion of the installation of the new Lord Keeper Sir Francis Bacon : " We came to towne (from Ware Park) after the old manner the day before the terme, and the rather to see the new Lord Keper ride in pompe to Westminster as he did the next day accompanied by most of the Counsaile and nobilitie about this towne, with other gallants to the number of more than 200 horse, besides the Judges and Inns of Court ; there was a great deale more braverie and better shew of horse then was expected in the King's absence, but both Quene and Prince sent all theyre followers, and his other frends did theyre best to honor him." Bacon afterwards entertained the greater part of his following at a feast which cost him 700 ; quite a common episode at this time, while officials at home and am- bassadors abroad pleaded in vain for payment of their salaries, and the King was spending all the money he could raise on his visit to Scotland. " On Easter Monday the Counsaile went all to the Spittle sermon and dined with the Lord Mayor." The Spittle (or Spital) sermons were preached on Easter Monday and Tuesday from a special pulpit at St. Mary Spital, outside Bishopsgate ; afterwards at St. Bride's, and finally at Christ Church in the city. " I heare that the Archbishop of York (or at leastwise his wife) hath obtained of the King that theyre sonne 156 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER Tobie Mathew may returne, but yet so that he is to be under some restraint." He did return, after an absence of about ten years, and Chamberlain met him in May at Winwood's house. He had, it is said, been ordained priest in 1614. Sir Francis Bacon was very friendly to him, and took him to his house at Gorhambury ; but Matthew persistently refused to take the oath of allegiance, and was again banished in January, 1619. " The Earle of Northumberland could not divert his daughter the Lady Lucie from the Lord Haye, for while he had her in the towre, geving her leave dayly to visit the Lady of Somerset (therby to have the better accesse himself) the matter was so plotted that where he thought he had safest there he lost her, and so was faine to send her away seeing he could prevaile no more with her ; her mother would not receve her neither, so that she retired to her sister at Baynard's Castle, and since the Lord Hayes going into Scotland continues at the ward- robe, he having left her 2000 for her maintenance till his return." The Earl of Northumberland, it will be recollected, had been in the Tower for eleven years, for complicity in the Gunpowder Plot ; he is said to have been very indifferent to the inconvenience of this restraint, and no doubt, having the " liberty of the Tower," would not be averse from having some intercourse, and perhaps flirtation with Frances, Countess Somerset ; but he probably made a very bad shot when he encouraged his daughter to visit that lady as a safeguard against the development of her intrigue with Lord Hay ; the Countess, one can well imagine, would be ready enough to beguile the time by encouraging and helping Lady Lucy Percy to outwit her father ; and her intimacy with Lord Hay must have reached a tolerably acute stage when he left two thousand pounds for her main- tenance during his absence. Writing on 4 June, 1617, Chamberlain says : MANY NEW KNIGHTS 157 " We heare litle out of Scotland but that the parlement is now beginning, and that our English are extraordin- arilie respected, especially the nobles, to whom the King makes much caresses and useth them as his guests. The Earle of Buckingham is made of the Counsaile there, and hath his place above the rest as master of the horse ; the speach goes he shall be made Marquis of Scotland, and the Lord Compton an Earle, to counter- poise the Scottes that have ben ennobled here ; as likewise that the Lord Haye shalbe made Earle of Orkeney, and the Lord Haddington and Lord Fenton of other places." All very probable and suitable ; but then follows the inevitable comic opera tale of incongruous and miscellaneous bestowal of honours : " All our pen- cionners that went with the King are knighted there that were undubd before, and all the gentlemen of Yorkshire, so that there is scant left an esquire to uphold the race ; and the order is descended somwhat lower, even to Adam Hill that was the Earle of Mont- gomeries barber and to one Greene, husband to the Queue's laundresse, an host of Doncaster, and to another that lately kept an inne at Rumford, and a youth, one Conie is come into consideration as to become a peece of a favorite brought in by the Earle of Buckingham, and the wagges talk as if he were in possibilitie to be made Vicount Conie, and they play knavishly upon his name, with newes, newes out of the North, and yet none ; the King loves a Conie and yet loves not one. All the meane officers of the houshold are likewise saide to be knighted, so that Ladies are like to be in litle request." This account is fully confirmed in Shaw's Knights, where the names of Adam Hill and Richard Green (or Greene) duly appear as having been dubbed about this date, and the names of pensioners and others similarly honoured fill several pages. " There is a great falling out of late twixt the Earle 158 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER of Somerset and his Lady in the towre, but it is not yet so publike that I can learne the originall or particulars." This is scarcely surprising ; it is easy to imagine that the guilty couple would get squabbling over their respective share in the murder and subsequent catas- trophe ; and perhaps the Earl of Northumberland might have been a source of disagreement. On 21 June, 1617, Chamberlain gives an amusing account of religious amenities in Scotland : " Our Churchmen and ceremonies are not so well allowed of, the rather by an accident that fell out at the buriall of one of the guard who died there and was buried after the English manner, and the Deane of Powles preaching desired all the assemblie to recommend with him the soule of theyre deceased brother into the hands of Almighty God, which was so ill taken that he was driven to retract it openly and to confesse he did it in a kind of civilitie rather then according to the perfect rule of Divinitie ; another exception was taken at Dr. Lawdes putting on a surplis when the corps was to be laide in the ground." The Dean's " civilitie " to the poor soldier's soul is excellent ! On 9 August, 1617, Chamberlain writes from London, and he does not, as in so many other instances, com- mence by bewailing the scantiness of news ; nor is there any need of such excuses, for the letter is a thoroughly typical specimen of the gossip's effusions, covering eight of the large pages then in vogue, and touching upon many topics. He is enthusiastic about the improvements at Sir Ralph Winwood's place at Ditton : " Whether Mr. Secretarie caried me and kept me ten or twelve days, though himself made no long stay there at any time, but was still going and coming as occasions called him." While the Secretarie was busy over affairs of State, however, his wife was displaying her aptitude for enlarging and beautifying their home. " They have ARUNDEL IN IRELAND 159 brought that place to a very goode passe, wherin my Lady challengeth the cheife part as well in building a new dove house, in paving the court, in bringing a spring or conduit of excellent water, in making of fayre and large pondes, in damming or filling up the mote, in planting a great orchard, in making a reasonable spacious garden with delicat arboures and fencing it with as fayre a brick wall as I have lightly scene, as also in furnishing the house very sufficiently, though without any great cost or curiositie, and all this (besides other conveniences of offices within doores, and of utter courts and out- housing abrode), in so short time, that the speedie dispatch deserves as much commendation as the con- triving or cost." A notable woman, evidently, and also with consider- able funds at command. " The King came to Carlisle the 4th of this present, where the Earle of Arundell met him comming out of Ireland, where he had ben about a bargain or exchange of land with the Lord Dingwell ; he was made much of there and often feasted, and sworne a Counsailor of that State, so that he is now of the Counsaile in all three Kingdoms." Arundel was being recognised as a man of ability and prudence, and was subsequently entrusted with many important missions. He was conspicuous at Court for the almost austere simplicity of his dress, but his dignified carriage and honourable life ensured him the respect of all. Winwood, permitted a certain latitude by the King, defers his departure until the Court has reached Wood- stock on the return journey, with the approval of the Council : " Soone after my last to you," says Chamber- lain, " there came new letters out of Scotland to approve all his (Winwood's) dealings in the Lord Cooke's busines .... and order was taken that his daughter shold be delivered him, and disposed of as he shold thincke fit." Sir Edward Coke, at this time, in addition to all his trouble with the King and Council, had a bitter 160 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER quarrel with his wife concerning the marriage of their daughter. He married, in 1598, Lady Elizabeth Cecil, grand-daughter of Lord Burleigh and widow of Sir William Hatton. Curiously enough, though she had been so long married to Coke, she is constantly alluded to by Chamberlain and others as " Lady Hatton." Coke sent his daughter to Kingston in care of his son, Sir Robert Coke ; " her mother having permission to resort unto her (but not lie in the house), she hired a lodging in the towne and kept her such companie all day that nobody els could have accesse, wherupon her comming is moderated, and divers of her instruments in conveghing her away are called in question ; wherupon finding herself forsaken of her frends, who dare not shew themselves too far in the busines, and seeing she struggles in vaine, she begins to come about, and upon a letter to her from my Lord of Buckingham hath returned aunswer, as I heare, that if this course had ben taken with her at first things might have proceeded better, and upon some conditions can be content to double the portion her husband hath offered, and so make up the match and geve it her blessing. The Lady Compton and her sonne have been at Kingston these two or three dayes, which makes the world thincke they grow to conclusion ; but it seemes the Lady Hatton wold have all the honor and thancks, and so defeat her husband's purpose, towards whom of late she hath caried herselfe very straungely, and indeed neither like a wife nor a wise woman." The match proposed was with John Villiers, elder brother to the Earl of Buckingham ; it eventually took place, after much wrangling, on 29 September, 1617, at Hampton Court, King James giving the bride away she was only fifteen. The marriage turned out a tragedy. Villiers created in 1619 Viscount Purbeck of Dorset was frail in body and weak of intellect, and in 1621 completely lost his reason. His wife deserted him and became the mistress of Sir Robert Howard THE BOISTEROUS SECRETARY 161 (fifth son of the first Earl of Suffolk), by whom she had a son. She died in 1645. " The Lord Keper (Sir Francis Bacon] hath ben this fortnight at Goramberrie, and meanes to continue there a fortnight or three weekes longer ; the world begins alredy to complaine of some incroaching courses, and say if things shold thus precede and hold on, that one shold have as it were all men's estates in scrinio pectoris (i.e., in the casket or shrine of the bosom, or mind ; not very intelligible}. The distasts continue still twixt him and the boistrous Secretarie as he ternies him, though some friends have mediated a reconciliation, but at the worst the world is of opinion that if they shold come to jostle, both of them are made of as brittle mettall the one as the other." If the " boistrous Secretarie " is Sir Ralph Winwood, the phrase " brittle mettall " appears to be scarcely applicable, unless it is intended to signify that, as Bacon acknowledged later, they were both proud, " standoffish " men. " There is an untoward peice of worke newly fallen out for our goode frend, about a warrant (they say) under his hand wherby certain Scottish men go prolling (prowling) up and downe Northamptonshire to borrow monie for the King, and how they have used or abused it I know not, but a generall complaint is come from the gentlemen thereabout, and his illwillers take advantage of it, so that whether the thing be counterfeit or true (as perhaps he had some secret warrant for it), yet it sounds ill, and upon the first noise he hath shot away his litle flight John Moore and sent him downe post to fetch up the fellowes and hush the busines. When he returnes (as he is looked for every howre) we shall see how the matter hath ben caried." Another of the countless expedients resorted to in order to " raise the wind " ; probably initiated by Winwood since lie appears to have been in such haste to hush it up. More about Lord Hay and his forthcoming marriage M 162 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER with the Earl of Northumberland's daughter : " The Lord Hayes thinckes long till the Kinges comming that he may consummat his mariage, for the King hath promised to geve the bride ; he is wonderfull observant and obsequious to her and her mother, and spends most part of his time there, having taken Sir Francis Darcies house by Sion, where he makes solemne feastes twise a weeke at least, with that cost and expence that the Lady of Northumberland dares not so much as once invite him by reason of his curiositie, though he be commonly in her house from morning till dinner, from after dinner till supper, from after supper till late in the night .... the like feasting he kept during his abode in Scotland, where his ordinary rate for his table was 300 a weeke, besides feastes which were very frequent, both to the Counsaile, our clergie and chaplains, the houshold, the pencionners, the guard, the chappell, and his owne countrie nobilitie and gentrie." Lord Hay was famous for his lavish hospitality ; his gift of two thousand pounds to Lady Lucy Percy for her maintenance during his absence in Scotland, already alluded to, was no doubt the outcome also of this predilection for a display of generosity ; one would imagine that there would be no lack of the means to support her. At the commencement of this long letter Chamberlain alludes to a gift a " daintie token " sent him by Lady Carleton, and he concludes with this characteristic effusion : " And now I had don if I could tell how to thanck my lady for her fine and bountifull present, which hath made me finer then ever I was or ever meant to have ben, but seeing it is her pleasure I will make use of her favor, the rather for that they come in a time when I was even the next day going about the like provision, I meane of that kind though not of that worth ; I beseech you let me intreat you to supplie and excuse my weaknes that way, for you know how awkwardly and untowardly complements come from JEWELLED SHOE BUCKLES 163 me, and if I had the meanes I shold rather shew my thankfulnes with real deeds then formall words ; and I assure you it is the greatest worldly want I find not to be able in any proportion to requite such frendly kindnes." Shoe buckles ? Note that " they" come ; and he was just going to buy a pair, of paste, no doubt, when these resplendent ones with real jewels arrived ; but he might have written her a nice little note, instead of expressing his gratitude so laboriously through her husband ; who would believe that his practised pen was incapable of such an effort ? In his next letter, dated 11 October, 1617, Chamberlain has more to say about the relations between Sir Edward Coke and his wife, wherein the latter has placed herself entirely in the wrong ; and adds : " He is admitted again to the Counsaile, but his frends cannot yet foresee any further advancement." Here is a contrast between two ladies recently wedded in respect of their attitude towards their husbands : " The Lord Rich is saide to be in great perplexitie, or rather erased in braine, to see himself overeacht by his new wife, who hath so conveyed her estate that he is litle or nothing the better by her, and if she overlive him like to carrie away a great part of his ; her sister the Lady Bowes hath dealt cleane contrarie, beeing lately maried to the Lord Darcy of the North, and bringing a great estate whole and entire, and refusing any jointure or other advantage, saying it is sufficient for her to have the honor without any hinderance to the house." The coldness or worse between Sir Francis Bacon and Sir Ralph Winwood attracted the Queen's notice : " The Quene lately asked the Lord Keper what occasion the Secretaire had geven him to oppose himself so violently against him, who aunswered prettely, Madame, I can say no more but he is prowde and I am prowde ; but the King according to his pacificall disposition hath made all frends, and in the admonition he gave some of them did him this honor to say, You may perhaps 164 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER thinck that he hath informed these and these things against you, but I assure you in the word of a prince, that neither by word nor writing did he ever suggest ought to any particular man's prejudice, either to me, or to Buckingham, as he is here redy to protest before you." This eulogy of their " good friend " would be very pleasing to Chamberlain and Carleton ; a fortnight later, however, on 25 October, 1617, Chamberlain writes in great distress about Winwood's dangerous illness, which indeed proved fatal, as related in a letter of 31 October, in which Chamberlain enlarges in great detail upon all the symptoms and the disclosures of the post-mortem. The King and Buckingham wrote very kindly to Winwood, and the many callers of rank caused him some disquietude and fatigue ; " And," says Chamberlain, " seeing it was God's pleasure to call him, he could never go in a better time then when he was in his highest favor with the King, Quene, Prince and principall favorite, and was generally growne into so good opinion, that his sicknes first and then his death was as much lamented as ever I knew any of his rancke ; though I will not say but he had some illwillers that are as glad he is gone as most are sory. We buried him privately yesternight at ten o'clock with as litle noise or shew as might be ; only his houshold and some few frends and kinsmen had mourning." Winwood was, in truth, likely to be much missed as an accomplished statesman and a man of unblemished character and strict probity ; there were too many of a different sort about King James. Then comes the question of Winwood's successor, which Chamberlain discusses at considerable length, naming several aspirants for the place, and adding : " I must not forget that you are not the last nor the least spoken of, but I doubt your absence is your greatest hinderance, unles the Lady Hatton (Lady Coke, that is) have the grace to have you in remembrance ; for if it LADY HATTON IN FAVOUR 165 be as I heare, it was never in her power to stand you in so much stead." That is to say, being now mother-in-law to Buckingham's brother, the King's favourite was prepared to make much of the lady, and pave the way for her to obtain what favours she might crave of his Majesty. There appears, indeed, to have been a conspiracy to make much of her. Writing on 8 November, 1617, Chamberlain says : " Your brother Harrison is in towne, and upon Wensday came Sir Henry Savile. They do all apprehend how much the Lady Hatton might prevaile if she wold set her whole minde and strength to it, and I thincke they have and will finde meanes to put her in remembrance ; but the voyce goes that place is not like to be disposed of in haste, for the King sayes he was never so well served as when he was his owne Secretaire, and to that end hath delivered the Scales that were belonging to Sir Rafe Winwod to the custodie of the Earle of Buckingham, and there perhaps they shall remain till they both grow wearie of the trouble." Quite a characteristic proceeding on the part of King James, to save himself the trouble of deciding immediately upon Winwood's successor ; the business of the State meanwhile being more or less at a standstill, for he would certainly not exert himself to unite the functions of King and Secretary. " On the first of this moneth beeing so solemne a day and the streets full by reason of the Lord Mayor's passage to Powles, the Earle of Buckingham accom- panied with the Marquis Hamilton, the Lord Compton, the Lord Haye, Sir Edward Cecill and I know not how many more, to the number of twelve coaches went to fetch the Lady Hatton from Sir William Craven's, and brought her to her father's at Cecill House in the Strand, where she hath continued ever since, save that on Tewsday she went with like state to the Court, and there was much graced by the King, who likewise reconciled her to the Quene, and made at the same time an atone- 166 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER ment twixt her and the Lady Compton, and a perfect peace twixt her and her daughter, who wold not be perswaded that she could forgeve and forget, till at parting she got the King to mak her sweare that she loved her as dearely as ever she did in her life It is hoped he will likewise mediate a peace twixt her and Sir Edward Cooke, which was mentioned and motioned at the generall pacification, but the King saide that was a matter of more difficultie and more time, and when all were don I doubt that would prove but a palliated cure, the wound beeing so deepe. ... So that he is as it were in statu quo prius, save that he comes to the Star Chamber and to the Counsaile table ; and thus you see the revolutions of these times." These state progresses of Lady Coke's appear to demand some explanation, but there is none which suggests itself as in any degree adequate. " On Thursday the Lord Haye maried his mistris the Lady Lucie Percy, and that night the King and Prince honoured his wedding supper with theyre presence." Carleton writes to Chamberlain on the same day 8 November that he has received many letters concerning his chances of obtaining the vacant Secretary- ship, and assurances of the goodwill of many influential persons ; but he does not think he will get it, being absent, and not well known to the King. On 15 November, 1617, Chamberlain has more to say about Lady Coke's possible intervention on behalf of Carleton, but is not hopeful about the matter. The good lady appears, indeed, to have busied herself chiefly over giving feasts to the King and others : " The Lady Hatton's feast was very magnificall, and the King graced her every way, and made fowre of her creatures knights There were some errors at the Lady Hatton's feast (if it were not of purpose) that the Lord Chamberlain and the Lord of Arundell were not invited, but went away to theyre owne dinner and came back to wait on the King and Prince ; but the greatest error MR. SIMPSON'S SERMON 167 was that the goodman of the house was neither invited nor spoken of, but dined that day at the Temple." Truly a very glaring " error " on the part of this insolent and court-spoiled lady. " Here is a speach that the Earle of Buckingham meanes to resigne the mastership of the horse to the Marquis Hamilton, and is to compound with the Lord Admiral (the Earl of Nottingham) for his place " ; which duly came to pass. On 20 December, 1617, Chamberlain writes : "The King hath ben at Tiballs ever since Wensday, and comes to towne this day, and unles his presence bringe us some newes we are like to have but a dull and dead Christmas. I am sory to heare that he growes every day more fro ward and with such a kind of morositie that doth either argue a great discontent in minde, or a distemper of humors in his body, yet he is never so out of tune but the very sight of my Lord of Buckingham doth settle and quiet all. At his last going hence one Simpson of Trinitie College in Cambridge preaching before him at Roiston fell upon a point of Arminius doctrine touching universal - itie of grace, and so handled it that he was much displeased, and sent to the Doctors and heads of houses in Cambridge to convent him and examine his sermon ; they returned a favourable censure that this and this may be saide, which was so far from satisfieing the King that he sent for them all (or the most part) to Newmarket, where the question was so narrowly discussed that he was injoyned to retract what he had saide, in the same place at the Kings return thether after Christmas." It was no joke preaching before the King in those days. " The Lord Admirall .... hath resigned his old patent (as Lord High Admiral), which is renewed and the Lord of Buckingham joyned with him in it." The condition of the Navy was once more attracting attention ; Nottingham was an old man he was born in 1536 and had allowed things to drift ; abuses were rampant, wages in arrears, ships few and inefficient, 168 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER and the prospect of a Commission to investigate matters was very unwelcome ; the dual patent was but a temporary expedient, Nottingham's retirement being already decided upon. " Your frend Tobie Mathew shall remain here as it is bruited, and be dispensed withall for taking the oath of allegeance, which were it not in him I shold thincke it might prove a case of strange consequences. His grand frend and protector (Sir Francis Bacon) cannot forbeare pugnare cum larvis (to fight with ghosts), and is still glauncing at the memorie of our late deceased frend (Sir Ralph Winwood}" Bacon was not a generous man more vain than, as he termed himself, proud and his post mortem depreciation of Winwood was character- istic ; the latter would never have so treated him. In a letter of 3 January, 1618, dwelling upon the unsatisfactory postal service, Chamberlain says : " Indeed I know that stale letters are like crambe bis coda (cabbage twice boiled), that have no taste." His little Latin interpolations are sometimes quaint. In this same letter he writes : " The greatest noveltie is that on New Years Day, when there was no such matter spoken of or expected, the Earle of Buckingham was created Marquis Buckingham, a dignity the King hath not bestowed since his comming to this crowne, but he professed to do for the affection he bare him, more then ever he did to any man, and for the like affection, faith, and modestie that he had found in him." King James was addicted to this sort of gushing over his favourites ; he had professed more affection for Robert Carr, Earl of Somerset, than for any living man. Lady Hay, in emulation of the lavishness of her Lord and Master, had planned a masque for twelfth night to be performed by nine ladies ; she was to appear as Queen of the Amazons, and they had diligently learned their parts ; but the King and Queen got wind of it, and apparently were averse from ladies appearing in such guise, " And so all is dasht." We should say BUCKINGHAM'S BANQUET 169 nowadays that their Majesties were too " early Victorian" in their notions ; they were, perhaps, too " Jacobean." We learn from a letter of the 10th January, 1618, that the Marquis of Buckingham gave a feast in honor of his promotion in rank : " The King and Prince were present, with Lords and Ladies sans number ; you may guesse at the rest of the cheere by this scantling, that there were saide to be 27 dousen of fesants, and twelve partriches in a dish thorough out, which methincks were rather spoyle then largesse ; yet for all the plenty of presents the supper cost 600." Three hundred and twenty-four pheasants ! And these and the partridges were only, as Chamberlain puts it, a " scantling " of the feast. " The Lord Keper (Sir Francis Bacon) is made Lord Chauncellor, wherin (besides the title) he hath this advantage, that it is for life, with 600 a yeare increase. The speach goes he shalbe made a baron, and hath the making of another to discharge his debts, which in curtesie he hath offered to his eldest brother (Sir Nicholas) for 2000 lesse then another shold geve, which he will not accept, mindfull perhaps of his father's (Sir Nicholas) motto or posie, mediocria firma" Sir Nicholas Bacon (the younger) was the premier baronet made in 1611, at the institution of the Order. On 17 January, 1618, Chamberlain writes : " Sir Thomas Lake's baronnie is at a stand, for having obtained the making of one, he found meanes to name himself, which the King yeelded to ; but when it was remonstrated to the King how unfit it was that a man of his fashion and education shold have precedence of all the barons in England (as by virtue of his office he was to have) the Kinge saide that was not his meaning, but because he had promised, he shold be a baron if he wold, so that he left his office of Secretarie." Probably an unique instance of a man proposing himself as a baron when he had the making of one ; the privilege was always bestowed as a means of making money. 170 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER On 7 February, 1618, we hear of a great misfortune to Sir Henry Wootton, whose house at Venice appears to have been completely consumed by fire : " He is in pitifull plight if his case be such as the Venetian Ambassador pointed it out to an English gentleman, that he is there senza robba (or roba ?), senza danari senza fede " without clothes, without money, without faith ; " which," says Chamberlain, " I hope he takes for credit," meaning, no doubt, that " Fabritio " is just as well without the faith professed by the Venetians. Chamberlain was a very thorough Protestant ; he has a hit at Tobie Matthew in the same letter : " Yesterday I met Mr. Tobie Mathew whom I had not scene these sixe moneths, since which time to my seeming he is much defected ; he told me he was going to a play at the Blackfriers, but meethinckes playeing and Fridayes fasting agree not so well together as prayeing in a man of so much profession." On 14 February, 1618, Chamberlain writes : " I thancke you very much for the papers, which I will return when I have thoroughly read and perused them, which I have not yet don by reason of our lectures at Paules this terme time, and after I once go out of doores in the morning I seldom come home till late at night ; you need not misdoubt the passing of them thorough many hands, for I am now come to that passe that I kepe not any companie that cares for such matters, or that indeed are capable of them, saving only Mr. Camden who makes a journey once a weeke the more into Powles to meet and shew me such occurrents as he hath from Mr. Beecher and others out of Fraunce, which together with what I have from you, is now in a manner all the intertainment I have." This, no doubt, was William Camden, the well-known antiquary and historian, as industrious a collector of news as Chamberlain himself ; indeed, his history savours much of the tone of the gossip. CHAPTER VII JACOBEAN LETTERS May, 1618 November, 1621 THERE is but little of interest in Chamberlain's letters in the Spring of 1618 ; on 5 May he alludes to the purchase, by Sir William Russell, from Sir Robert Mansel, of the office of Treasurer of the Navy : one of those disgraceful jobs which were constantly and shamelessly perpetrated at that time. It had already been determined to hold a Commission of Enquiry into the state of the Navy, and probably Sir Robert Mansel was ready enough to resign his post, as he had not been free from blame in the matter of filling his own pocket with the public money, and the Commission would perhaps have dismissed him from his office. He was made Vice-Admiral of the United Kingdom, an office of some honour, but not of much gain otherwise. The Commission sat in the autumn, and resulted in some drastic measures for securing economy and probity in administration ; but Sir Robert Mansel subsequently made application for no less a sum than 10,000, which he alleged was due to him for additional travelling expenses as Treasurer, having been previously over- looked ! So easy to overlook a trifle like that ! On 20 August, 1618, Chamberlain writes : " Sir John Bingley is like enough (for ought I heare) to passe well through his busines, and so may the Lord Suffolk, seeing there passe many letters twixt the King and him We talk still of a new Treasurer." 171 172 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER The Earl of Suffolk was, indeed, under very grave suspicion of having grievously abused his position as Lord Treasurer ; he was accused before the Star Chamber of having embezzled large sums in money and jewelry, and wrongfully extorted money from various persons. Probably his wife was at the bottom of the business. She had a Spanish pension of 1,000 a year, a fact sufficient in itself to discount seriously her loyalty and integrity ; and she was definitely accused of having, in collusion with Sir John Bingley, Remembrancer of the Exchequer, extorted money from those who had business at the Treasury. Suffolk may have been more weak than guilty ; his wife was held up to scorn in the Star Chamber by Bacon, as a shopwoman, while Sir John Bingley figured as her assistant, crying " What d'ye lack ? " A sorry business altogether ; but it appears to have been hushed up more or less, though the Earl of Suffolk was heavily fined, and was confined with his wife in the Tower but only for about ten days, and he was afterwards again received into royal favour, the King and Buckingham standing sponsors for his son in the following year. On 24 October, 1618, Chamberlain writes : " It were current all this weeke that Sir Walter Raleigh had the libertie of the towre, but it grew only upon the discharge of his guardian Sir Thomas Wilson ; but for ought I heare he is not secure yet, though he have now goode meanes to redeeme his demerits if he can speake to the purpose in a cause wherin he was lately examined about the conveyance of Jewells and such like matters at the King's first comming, and for which and other abuses in sale of lands, et cet. there is a commission come forth which is thought will shrewdly reflect upon the Earles of Suffolk, Salisburie and others." Raleigh was not, indeed, secure ; he was arrested on his return from the Orinoco expedition for warring upon the Spaniards and destroying the Spanish settle- ment of San Tomas on the Rinoco ; he had already, DEATH OF RALEIGH 173 when he set out, spent thirteen years in the Tower, on the charge of plotting against the King, having been reprieved from death on the scaffold at Winchester in 1603 ; in a letter of 31 October, 1618, Chamberlain writes : " I remember that in my last letter I saide that Sir Walter Raleigh was not secure, but now he is past all peradventure for on Thursday morning he was beheaded in the old palace at Westminster twixt the parlement house and the church. On Wensday he was brought from the towre to the King's Bench barre (as the manner is when a man lives above a yeare and a day after he is condemned), and there demaunded what he could say for himself why the sentence pro- nounced against him at Winchester shold not be put in execution. The summe of his aunswer was, that the King had imployed him in his service and geven him a com- mission wherein he stiled him his loyall subject, and withall geven him potestatem vitae et necis, which did amount to a pardon, for in all reason he must be master of his owne life that hath power over other men's." Surely a reasonable and logical plea ! But his death was resolved upon, and he suffered as described by Chamberlain, who gives a long account of his behaviour and sayings on the scaffold, adding, " the people were much affected at the sight, insomuch that one was heard say that we had not such another head to cut of." Not too many, certainly. On 7 November, 1618, we are told of the death of Richard Martin the Recorder, after but a short enjoy- ment of office ; upon which, of course, the King and Buckingham had a protege" to put forward as his successor ; but the Aldermen made a fuss about it, and objected to the candidate by reason of his youth and lack of "' gravitie," and begged that they might enjoy their privilege of electing a man ; upon which the King received a deputation of Aldermen, told them that he loved them, and he knew that they loved him, and he would on no account interfere with their privileges, 174 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER " and so left them to theyre owne election ; yet withall asked them how they could like one Heath." In his next letter, on 14 November, Chamberlain writes : " After some consultation we have at last a new Recorder, Mr. Heath, a man generalie approved and well spoken of ; the King's recommendation stoode him in stead, for though they were left to a free election, yet it was told them they must choose none whom the King should refuse." No compulsion, but you must ! And Sir Lionel Cranfield, who had invested 1,500 in the reversion of the office, thought he should be reimbursed by the new Recorder ; but Mr. Heath, in modern parlance, was " not taking any." Chamberlain thinks " it seemed reasonable " that he should be so reimbuised, which shows how thoroughly the corrupt practices and distorted notions of the time permeated society. Here is a story of an ingenious and daring swindler : " One Robinson, that had somtime ben a clarke in an office, was arraigned at the King's Bench and con- demned for counterfeiting the great scale, and under the colour of letters patents exacting summes of monie of ale-house keepers, and of fellowes that let out monie at use in the countrie ; for which and such other abuses he was yesterday hanged, drawne and quartered about Charing Crosse. Another course of his (they say) was by vertue of this commission to take up with rich yeoman's daughters (or drive them to compound) to serve his ma tie for breeders in Virginia." Truly, a very resourceful young man. On 21 November, 1618, Chamberlain writes : " On Wensday we had no Star Chamber by reason of the Lord Chauncellor's indisposition ; that was the first day we tooke notice here of the great biasing star, though it was observed at Oxford a full weeke before ; it is now the only subject almost of our discourse, and not so much as litle children but as they go to schoole talke in the streets that it foreshews the death of a A ROYAL PICNIC 175 King or a Quene, or some great warre towards. Upon which occasion (I thincke) it was geven out all this towne over that the Quene was dead on Thursday ; but yesterday I heard for certain that she is in a fayre way of amendment." This was the great comet of 1618 ; it is mentioned by Arthur Wilson, in his History of James the First, as portending some great disaster. It is described in astronomical treatises, but appears to have moved in a parabolic orbit, never appearing again. On 28 November, 1618, we hear of more royal diversions in the country : " We have litle or nothing from Newmarket, but that they devise all the meanes they can to make themselves merrie ; as of late there was a feast apointed at a farme house not far of, whether every man should bring his dish ; the King brought a great chine of beefe, the Marquis Hamilton fowre pigges incircled with sausiges, the Earle of Southampton two turkies, another sixe partridges, and one a whole trey full of buttered egges, and so all passed very pleasantly." There was no stint of food, at any rate. One cannot avoid being struck by the preponderance of gossip concerning the King's sports and picnics and futile " progresses," his promiscuous dubbing of knights, and so forth, and the lack of any efficient discharge of kingly offices and affairs of State ; when there is a question of filling an important office, we find King James ready enough to perpetrate a glaring piece of favouritism, with a contribution to the privy purse distinctly indicated in many instances, directly or indirectly, but otherwise procrastination is the pre- dominant note. Here is another instance, in a letter dated 9 January, 1619 : " The King went yesterday to Tiballs, this day to Roiston, and so on Monday to Newmarket, without naming a Lord Treasurer or altering any other matter of moment as was generally and continually expected ; the reason wherof is saide to be for that he meanes to 176 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER geve a reason of displacing the Earle of Suffolk before he put any other in his place." The gossips, of course, are bound to find a reason ; but in James's character lies the real explanation. All this time George Villiers, Marquis of Buckingham, the King's favourite, remained a bachelor ; but now on 9 January, 1619, we hear that the King wishes him to marry. Lady Hatton (really Lady Coke) gave a great supper and a masque, " where were all the gallants and great ones about the court, but specially the Howards, whom she wold faine soder and lincke fast again with the Marquis Buckingham and that side, and withall to see if he might be wrought to cast an eye toward Diana Cecill (the younger of the Lord Burghlies daughters) that for her more grace was made mistrris of the feast ; for it is like there wilbe much angling after him now it is bruited that the King wishes him to take a wife ; which of divers is diversely construed." Diana Cecill was Lady Hatton's niece, but Buckingham did not rise to this bait. On 16 January, 1619, Chamberlain reports the destruction by fire of the banqueting house in Whitehall, and on 23 January gives a dismal account of the spread of small pox. In a letter of 30 January, 1619, Chamberlain cites a speech of the King to William Knollys, Viscount W T alling- ford, on his supercession by Sir Lionel Cranfield as Master of Wards and Liveries : " His predecessor the Lord of Wallingford is retired into the countrie When he delivered up his patent the King told him that having been a long servant to Queen Elizabeth and him, he was loth to remove him, neither wold he accuse him of negligence, insufficiency, or corruption, but only he had one fault common to him with divers other of his frends and fellowes, which could not stand with his service of the State, that he was altogether guided and overruled by an arch-wife." Good word, that " arch-wife." Many a man has A HUMAN COMET 177 lost a billet through the same cause, even though the lady may have been a most estimable and well- intentioned person. " The King went lately from Newmarket to Sir Nicholas Bacon's to see a fine young gentlewoman, his grandchild, daughter to one Sir Bassingbourne Gawdye that is dead long since ; the gentlewoman is marvailously commended both by the King, Prince and Lord of Buckingham, and much made of by them all ; the Prince is saide to be so far in liking that these verses I send you are fathered upon him, wherin she is compared to the late biasing starre ; but the chief grace and curiositie (they say) consists in new and gaye, which is the anagram of her name : Heaven's wonder late, but now earth's glorious raye With wonder shines, that's gon, this new and gaye, Still gazed on, in this more than the heavens light, Day obscured that, this makes the daye more bright The lady's name was Anne Gawdye, and the anagram is apparent in the second line. Like a genuine comet, she acquired additional radiance from proximity to the Sun of Royalty ; but such human comets necessarily travel on an open orbit, and swiftly recede, never to return. On 23 February, 1619, Chamberlain has as in some previous letters a great deal to say about the suit of the Countess of Exeter against Sir Thomas Lake and his wife and others ; the King attended five days in the Star Chamber. The traducers of the Countess of Exeter were severely punished with fines and imprisonment, and one Sara, maid to Lady Lake, was sentenced to pay 200, to be publicly whipped, and to be branded on the face with the letters F and A " false accuser." A great crowd assembled at the pillory to see her whipped and branded, but Sara cheated them by prudently turn- ing King's evidence, and was eventually let off with a free confession of her guilt, and humble submission. N 178 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER On 20 February, 1619, Chamberlain writes : " The King went to Tiballs on Tewsday, but before his going Sir George Calvert was sworne Secretarie. . . . The King asked him many questions, most about his wife ; his aunswer was that she was a goode woman and had brought him ten children, and wold assure his ma tie- that she was not a wife with a witnes ; this and some other passages of this kind seeme to shew that the King is in a great vaine of taking downe high-handed women." No more " arch-wives " to be tolerated ! The next letter, dated 6 March 1619, records the death of the Queen, with considerable detail, and also states that " The King continues still at Newmarket, and so is saide will do till the funerall be past." On 27 March, 1619, we hear that the King is detained at Royston by illness the Queen's funeral having been postponed until 29 April and Chamberlain remarks " I am glad to see the world so tenderly affected toward him, for I assure you all men apprehend what a losse we shold have if God shold take him from us." James may have had qualities, as a man, which endeared him to his subjects ; as a King, he was an absolute failure, and John Chamberlain unconsciously testifies in his letters to the futility of his rule. ^ The next few letters are chiefly about the King's illness and progress in recovery ; Chamberlain seems to revel in medical details, and never spares himself or Carleton in this wise. The Queen's funeral is further postponed until the 13th of May she died on the 1st of March and it appears to be taken for granted that the King will not appear at the ceremony. His illness appears to have inspired some fanatical or crazy gentlemen to approach him with alleged warnings from God : " They have been once or twice troubled at Tiballs with odde fellowes that watching the King's going abrode have brought him messages and admonitions from God ; one was a pretty younge fellow that had ben Secretarie to the Lord Willouby THE QUEEN'S FUNERAL 179 in Denmark (his name is Weekes), but for his labour he is sent to Bedlam and there remaines, though divers that have ben to see him can perceave no spice of madnes in his ordnarie speach and conversation ; but Williams (that wrote the libell of Balaam's asse and the commentary upon it to the King) could not scape so goode cheape, for he was arraigned on Monday last at the King's Bench, and on Wensday hangd, drawne and quartered over against the mewes at Charing Crosse." Kings and Queens are especially liable to this kind of attention. It is probably in most instances undertaken as a means to notoriety, or the mere gratification of sanctimonious vanity ; but it is a risky business, and scarcely seems worth the price. On 14 May, 1619, Chamberlain alludes to the Queen's funeral on the day previous : " It were to no purpose to make any long description of the funerall, which was but a drawling tedious sight, more remarquable for number then for any other singularitie, there beeing 280 poore women besides an army of meane fellowes that were servants to the Lordes and others of the traine, and though the number of Lordes and Ladies were very great, yet me thought altogether they made but a poor shew, which perhaps was because they were apparelled all alike, or that they came laggering all along even tired with the length of the way and waight of their clothes, every lady having twelve yardes of broade cloth about her and the countesses sixteen." Poor ladies ! No wonder they came " laggering along " under such an incubus of drapery. On 31 May, 1619, Chamberlain writes that Paul's Cross was draped in black, and the Aldermen and others, who had been neglected for some reason at the Queen's funeral, came in black to pay their respects to her memory : " Only the Lord Mayor was not there, beeing very sicke, and surfeted upon messages sent him by the King about his only daughter, who the Countesse 180 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER of Buckingham will needs have for her sonne Christofer ; and the Mayor beeing a wilfull and dogged man will not yeeld by any meanes fayre nor fowle as yet, and wishes himself and his daughter both dead rather then to be compelled ; the truth is she is not past fowreteen, and very litle of growth, so that he protests he will not marrie her these fowre or five yeares by his will ; but yet he hath taken the King's messages so to heart that he hath ben at death's door." This was one of those abominable intereferences by the Sovereign and his favourites which were common in those times. The favourite's mother wanted her son to marry this child, who, no doubt, would have a goodly marriage portion ; and her father, though he was a " wilfull and dogged man," knew that if the matter were pressed home he would probably be compelled to yield, and deliver up his child to slaughter. No wonder it made him sick. There are some gruesome stories extant anent these horrible child marriages ; one comes across them sometimes when seeking data for other matters. When the King returned to London the first week in June, and the Recorder in his speech made excuses for the Lord Mayor's absence, " the King gave no great heed, making little shew of beeing pleased, as beeing geven to understand that he is more sullen then sicke." The King on this occasion appeared, we are told, " very fresh in a suit of watchet (pale blue) satten laide with silver lace, with a bleu and white feather, as also his horse was furnished with the like both before and behind ; insomuch that all the companie was glad to see him so gallant, and more like a wooer then a mourner." Very much more, indeed. " But," Chamberlain adds, " what decorum it will be when Ambassadors come to condole (as here is one now from the Duke of Lorrain with three or fowre and twenty followers all in black) " ; he gets out of it, however " let them consider whom it more concernes." A GRUESOME REMEDY 181 On 26 June we learn that the King's legs and feet " are come prettelie well to him, having found out a very good expedient of late to bath them in every buck's and stagg's bellie in the place where he kills them, which is counted an excellent remedic to strengthen and restore the sinewes." A very unpleasant remedy ; one is reminded of the jargon of the Master of Bucklaw, in the " Bride of Lammermoor." The Lord Mayor was not to be let off so easily by reason of his sickness. On 15 July Chamberlain writes : " The King was in towne on Tewsday in the afternoone at the Lord Mayor's, and sent for him, his Lady and daughter from dinner at the marchant taylors' hall to recommend Christofer Villers for a suitor to his daughter ; it is odds, but he must speed, when the King pleades and workes so openly for him." The King expected to make some money out of it ; there was always some way of making the negotiation of a marriage profitable at that time. The Lord Mayor was Sir Sebastian Harvey, a wealthy Alderman ; his doggedness prevailed in the end, and Christopher Villiers married Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Sheldon of Howley, Leicester. On 11 September, 1619, Chamberlain writes : " The King is now at Wanstead, where this day he feasts the new French Ambassador, and so from thence to Tiballs He was very noblie entertained at the Lord St. John's, which he tooke in so goode part that he professes he will not forget so honorable usage ; Mr. Atturney likewise for one dinner entertained him and all the court very bountifully, which made the Earle of Northampton's penurie the more misliked, and got Archie the better audience, who upon an old grudge told the King that now the Earle had obtained what he sought for, he might see what account he made of him and his followers." 182 A JACOBEAN LETTER- WRITER This was William Compton, the first Earl of the new creation of 2 August, 1618. He married the only child of Sir John Spencer, a man of immense wealth, and it is said that on the death of his father-in-law he was so " oppressed with the greatness of his soudaine fortunes " that he went mad for a time. " Archie " was the Court jester. On 30 October we learn that the case of the Earl and Countess of Suffolk, and Sir John Bingley is occupying the Star Chamber tribunal day after day, and that the charges against them are very heavy ; the King was anxious to have it over, and intended to be present himself at the finding, but he did not put in an appear- ance, and on 20 November, 1619, the Earl and Countess went to the Tower and Sir John Bingley to the Fleet ; but before the 4th of December Suffolk and his wife were liberated, and half of the fine remitted ; and the King stood sponsor for his grandchild, son of Lord Howard of Walden, soon afterwards. On 25 January, 1620, occurs a passage in Chamber- lain's letter which seems to find an echo in these present times : " Yesterday the bishop of London called together all his clergie about this towne, and told them he had expresse commandment from the King to will them to inveigh vehemently against the insolencie of our women, and theyre wearing of brode brimed hats, pointed dublets, theyre haire cut short or shorne, and some of them stilettoes or poniards, and such other trinckets of like moment ; adding withall that if pulpit admonitions will not reforme them he wold proceed by another course ; the truth is the world is very much out of order, but whether this will mende it God knowes." And again on 12 February : " Our pulpits ring continually of the insolence and impudence of women, and to helpe the matter forward the players have like- wise taken them to taske, and so to the ballades and ballad-singers, so that they can come nowhere but theyre eares tingle ; and if all this will not serve, the King LIVELY LADIES 183 threatens to fall upon theyre husbands, parents or frends that have or shold have power over them, and make them pay for it." A tax upon unruly female relatives ! What would the Chancellor of the Exchequer reap from it nowadays ? On 26 February, 1620, Chamberlain writes : " One Peacocke, sometimes a schoolemaster and a minister (but a very busie braind fellow) was the last weeke committed to the towre for practising to infatuate the King's judgment by sorcerie (they say) in the busines of Sir Thomas Lake and the Lady of Excester (Exeter) ; he hath ben strictly examined by the Lord Chancellor, the Lord Cooke, the Lord Cheif Justice, the Atturney, Sollicitor, and others, and on Tewsday was hanged up by the wrists, and though he were very impatient of the torture and swoned once or twice, yet I cannot learne that they have wrunge any great matter out of him." It was not likely that they would ; but Chamberlain evidently deems it quite just and fitting that this poor wretch should be tortured on suspicion of attempting an impossible feat. On 11 March, 1620, Chamberlain writes : " The King came hither the Saterday before Shrovetide, and the two dayes following here was much feasting and jollitie, and the Christmas maske repeated on Shrove Tewsday night. On Saterday last the Prince made a bal and a banket at Denmark House, which he had lost at tennis to the Marquis Buckingham, who invited thether a number of ladies, mistresses and valentines, a ceremonie come lately in request, and growne so costly that it is saide he hath cast away this yeare 2,000 that way, among whom a daughter of Sir John Croftes that is unmarried had a carcanet of 500 for her share." Gay doings, indeed ! A carcanet is a collar of gold ; the King, it is said, was hugely taken with the idea, and bespoke a number of these lively ladies for the Christmas festivities at Court. At the masques, tourneys, etc., we are constantly 184 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER hearing of the jealousy of the foreign Ambassadors in the matter of precedence ; on 1 April, 1620, Chamber- lain writes that at the tilting in honour of the anniversary of the King's accession on 24 March the French Ambassador gave a great deal of trouble in this con- nection, until King James " wearie of these disputes, told him he had no reason to be so careful of him, seeing his master had not declared for him nor his pretence in the same cause " ; which was a " facer " for the French- man, who went home. Furthermore, in the same letter, there is an account of the squabbles for precedence among the courtiers who were to accompany the King to Paul's Cross to hear the bishop's sermon, which so worried the King that he " was redy to turn backe when he was getting on horseback, but in conclusion he left the matter as he found it, with order that none of the arguers on either side shold accompanie him " ; which was a very good way out of the business, but there appears to have been some laxity or want of knowledge in the Earl Marshal's department ; precedence has since then been established with great nicety. On 29 April, 1620, Chamberlain writes of his appoint- ment on a Commission his sole public office, so far as is known concerning the repairs to St. Paul's Cathedral: " We have here a great commission come forth for the busines of Powles, comprehending all the Counsaile, divers bishops with the residentiaries of that church, divers Aldermen and other citizens, and for want of better Mr. Wimark and myself, that am very unfit for any such employment, and I know not how I came in unles it be for my love to the place. The whole number is 66, and the first day of sitting was this day sevenight, when there was litle or nothing don but order taken how to proceed. I have not ben among them since, so litle joy I take in the office ; the King is very earnest to set it forward, and they begin hotly, but I doubt when all is don it will prove (as they say) Powles worke. All the commissioners were invited to dine that day 185 with the Lord Mayor, but (because I love not such confusion of companie) I went not ; yet if I had knowne we shold have met there with such a bride as my Lord Mayor's daughter, maried that morning to the Lord Effingam, it might chaunce have tempted me." The Lord Mayor was Sir William Cokayne ; he was, as already described, knighted by the King in 1616. His daughter married Charles, Lord Howard of Effingham, son and heir to Charles Howard, Earl of Nottingham ; the wedding was a very splendid affair, and quite the talk of the town at the moment. From a letter of 8 July, 1620, we learn that Chamber- lain did not console himself with a pipe in his bachelor seclusion : " As for proclamations and patents, they are become so ordinarie that there is no end, every day bringing forth some new project or other, as within these two dayes here is one come forth for tobacco, wholly ingrossed by Sir Thomas Rowe and his partners, which if they can kepe and maintaine against the general clamour, willbe a matter of great commoditie, unles peradventure indignation (rather then all other reasons) may bringe that filthie weede out of use." There is a good deal of indignation against tobacco " trusts " nowadays, but the " filthie weede " is in great demand notwithstanding. On 27 July, 1620, Chamberlain deplores the decision of the Commission on St. Paul's that a number of houses must be immediately demolished ; he is not a busy or enthusiastic member of the Commission ; in his next letter, on 4 August, he says that the inhabitants of the condemned houses appear to discredit the edict, and treat it as a joke, and one of them wrote on his door " Stet quaeso candide lector " " Prythee, gentle reader, let it stand." On 9 September : " Sir Robert Mansfeld (Mansel) with all his sea-faring captaines that go in this fleet went to Windsor yesterday in their highest braverie to take theyre leave, which complement (not usual), 186 A JACOBEAN LETTER- WRITER together with other provisions of rich foot clothes and such like makes many wonder what their emploiment shold be, and cannot be persuaded that such furniture shold be for fight with pirates or for Argier (Algiers) ; their ships be all now in the Downes and neglect a faire winde (if their business require any haste) to follow these ceremonious courses." This was the Algiers expedition, concerning which much has been written ; it was somewhat of a fiasco, but Mansel was not so much to blame as most writers make out ; he was unfairly handicapped by the King's instructions, and was even in ignorance of an ulterior purpose in sending the expedition ; also, he was treach- erously dealt with by the Spaniards, and badly served in the matter of provisions, etc., promised from England 1 . In the same letter, alluding to various " interesting events," he says : " My short returne from Ware Park was upon the like occasion that my Lady Fan- shawe's eldest daughter Mrs. Bedells had the same fortune, for I am growne somwhat childish and bashfull, and care not for gossipping nor much companie." " Gossipping " in this instance signifies, of course, standing sponsor, or at least being present at the christening of Mrs. Bedell's daughter ; one could scarcely imagine John Chamberlain declaring, with any sort of sincerity, that he " cared not for gossipping " in the usual sense. On 14 October, 1620, we hear that " The Earle of Suffolk growes still in grace, and it was verely thought and saide this weeke that he shold recover the Counsaile table ; thus we see how it pleases fortune to play fast and loose." 1 The Algiers Expedition is very fully dealt with by Commander Statham in "The History of the Family of Maunsell (Mansell, Mansel)," Vol. I., pp. 494 et seq. : this is the only account in which the pros and ions are fully set forth, with due reference to authorities. A PITHY CRITICISM 187 For " fortune " read " King James." Suffolk was let off almost the whole of his fine ; in fact, was scarcely punished at all, though he had been guilty of the most flagrant breach of trust in his high and responsible office of Treasurer. On 28 October, 1620, Chamberlain is very strong on the subject of monopolies, which indeed had become a national scandal ; he mentions some, but not that of glass, granted to Sir Robert Mansel, which was one of the most glaring ; in the same letter he writes : " This weeke the Lord Chauncellor (Bacon) hath set forth his new worke called Instauratis Magna, or a kind of new organum of all philosophic ; in sending it to the King he wrote that he wisht his ma tie ' might be as long in reading it as he hath ben in compiling and polishing it, which is well neere thirteen yeares. I have read no more then the bare title, and am not greatly incouraged by Mr. Cuffe's judgement, who having long since perused it gave this censure, that a foole could not have written such a worke, and a wise man wold not." Admirable Mr. Cuffe ! How many pretentious and pedantic volumes are there to which his epigrammatic verdict is applicable ! On 4 November, 1620, Chamberlain writes : " The King came hither on Tewsday and went away yesterday to Tiballs, on Monday to Roiston and so to Newmarket till toward Christmas ; so little time did he afford to so much busines as depends here upon his presence, besides audience to ambassadors that watch their opportunitie ; " a reflection which presents itself to anyone who reads the records, either in these letters or elsewhere, of the doings of this very trivial monarch ; " yet," says Chamberlain, " in this short moment he resolved on a parlement to begin the 16 of January, and hath taken order for a commission and proclamation, as it were two gentleman ushers to go before it ; the commission to survay all monopolies and patents that are greivous to the commonwealth ; the proclamation to geve 188 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER encouragement for a free election of knights and burgesses," etc. The monopolies assuredly demanded a survey ; but the evils thereof were not destined to be removed in this reign ; vested interests and laisser aller were too strong. On 9 November, Lady Carleton being then in England, partly on her husband's business, Chamberlain declares himself unable to advise her whether to return to The Hague, or to await Sir Dudley's rumoured return ; and warns Carleton not to take any action upon private letters or gossip, which caused the overthrow of Sir Thomas Bodley ; and proceeds : " One thing I must not forget, that as I wrote you last yeare that it was straunge we shold complaine of plentie, so now I must tell you that plentie hath made us poore Corne and cattell were never at so low a rate since I can remember, wheat at two shillings a bushell, barley at seven shillings a quarter, etc., and yet can they get no riddance at that price, so that land falls everywhere .... and yet I know three or four noblemen that within these last five dayes had letters for a new con- tribution to the Palatinate " ; which was perfectly true ; the Council issued a circular letter on 25 October to that effect ; " the Palatinate being the ancient heritage of his Majesty's son-in-law is now invaded by a foreign enemy " ; and so the lords and commons are to subscribe for an intervening army ; the whole business is so hope- lessly unbusinesslike ! Chamberlain encloses a copy of the proclamation concerning the summoning of parliament ; this is to be found, printed in full, in the volume of Proclamation Collections in the Record Office. King James was at some pains to indicate the sorts of persons whom the electors were to return, and likewise those who were not to be returned to wit " Bankrupts and necessitous persons that may desire long parliaments for their private protections ; or young and inexperienced men A RASH PROCLAMATION 189 that are not ripe and mature for so grave a Councell ; or men of meane qualities in themselves, who may onely serve to applaud the opinion of others on whom they depend, or curious and wrangling lawyers, who may seek reputation by stirring needlesse questions," etc. The King was skating upon thin ice with his " curious and wrangling lawyers," a stupid and undignified phrase to find place in a proclamation, and bound to give offence, as was pointed out to him ; but Chamber- lain says that he obstinately adhered to it, " and wold not be intreated by the Lord Chauncellor (Bacon) and Lord Chamberlain (the Earl of Pembroke) to leave out the words " ; so there they stand, a monument of regal indiscretion. On 10 February, 1621, Chamberlain writes : " I know the eyes of all Europe are upon us and our parle- ment, but I pray God it fall not out that parturiunt monies, for they undertake so much busines at once that it will be hard demesler so many fusees (to disentangle so many skeins)." A sad mixture of metaphors and languages, Mr. Chamberlain ! First there was a squabble as to which church the House should resort for the Communion ; then the question was raised as to freedom of speech, the winding up of the last parliament being very much in recollection ; but the difficulty of supply was naturally paramount, and in his next letter (of 17 February) Chamberlain tells us that subsidies have been ordered ; for which the King summoned the House to Whitehall to receive his thanks. In his next letter, dated 17 February, 1621, Chamber- lain tells us of the death of Sir Sebastian Harvey, at one time Lord Mayor, whose daughter, as a child of fourteen, it will be recollected, was sought as a wife for Christopher Villiers ; says Chamberlain : " Sir Sebastian Harvey died the last weeke without a will, having a good time before, as they say, made deede of guift of all he had lands and goods, to his wife, thereby 190 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER to defeat his daughter's suters, if that will serve and may stand goode." Sir Sebastian was determined that his daughter should not be victimised by fortune hunters. Writing on 20 March, 1621, Chamberlain says : " We heare that Sir Robert Mansfeld and his fleet have don just nothing but negotiated with those of Argier (Algiers) for certain slaves, and they complaine of theyre usage on the coast of Spaine, that they are faine to buy theyre water, and could not be suffered to carrie aboard a thousand ducats they had taken up at Malaga, to provide fresh vitayles for their sicke and weak men, with a number of other discourtesies and indignities." Sir Robert Mansel certainly suffered much from the treachery of the Spaniards, who were supposed to be acting in concert with him ; but, being very jealous of the presence of an English fleet " up the Straits," they thwarted him at every opportunity, and spread false reports against him ; while the authorities at Algiers with whom he was bidden to treat on behalf of King James, were in league with the pirates whom he was sent out to destroy, and who, in fact, so to speak, " ran the whole show." But Chamberlain says these matters must not be too freely discussed, on pain of possible imprisonment and fine, citing instances of preachers who had been " clapt up " for discoursing on the proposed " Spanish match " and such like affairs from their pulpits. " Touching the parlement they are very busie about Sir Giles Mompesson and the rest of that crue, in which number they are willing to spare none, no not Sir Edward Villers (Villiers), nor the referrees, be they never so great." Sir Giles Mompesson had been delivered into the charge of the Sergeant-at-Arms for some rascality in connection with the license for charcoal, which was bestowed upon him in the preceding year ; " the rest of that crue " were men of position who were guilty of BACON'S DISHONESTIES 191 similar impositions and dishonesty. Sir Giles, as Chamberlain relates, contrived to escape to France, for the moment ; he was captured, however, and severely punished. Chamberlain's signature to this letter is very carefully deleted, as is also a sentence at the commencement of his next letter of 24 March, 1621, in which he has a good deal to say upon matters of considerable interest. " The Polonian (Polish) Ambassador arrived on Saterday. .... he went to Court next day His request was for men to resist the Turke, wherin he had a goode and favourable aunswer that the King wold maintain his word and promise, and geve all assistance that lay in him against the common ennemie " ; it is alleged that there are more than thirty thousand Scottish families in Poland. As for the Parliament, " they plie the business very hard, and for the most part sit both before and after dinner, besides many conferences and committees ; for they find it more then Hercules' labour purgare hoc stabulum Augiae of monopolies, patents, and the like ; and they are now fallen into another labirinth (whence they see no way out) of briberies and extortions in matters of justice, and the first tempest is fallen upon my Lord Chauncellor (Francis Bacon, Baron Verulam and Viscount St. Albans), against whom there come in daylie more petitions and accusations then they can overcome, wherin his owne frends are made speciall instruments against him." Then follow some details of the various scandalous impostures perpetrated by this man of genius, which need not be gone into here. " He hath absented himself from the Upper House these eight or ten days, so that the Lord of Buckingham and others came to him on Sonday last to seeke a com- mission for the new Lord Cheife Justice to be speaker in his place. It seemes he doth either dissemble or not feele the ignominie that hangs over him, but caries himself as he was wont ; yet his frends give out that 192 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER he is very sicke, and so wold move commiseration, but all men approve the Lord Cooke, who upon discoverie of these matters exclaimed that a corrupt judge was the grevance of greevances. For mine owne part I assure you I do much lament that a man of so excellent parts should prove so fowle and faultie as is pretended (i.e., set forth) God send him patience, and that he may make the best use of this affliction." Chamberlain tells in his next letter, of 28 March, 1621, of the excellent feeling between the two Houses of Parliament, and of the King's gracious speeches when they rose for the Easter recess. There was apparently a genuine attempt to deal with the corruption which had been rife for so many years, and by which so many public men had enriched themselves to an almost incredible extent ; but, as Chamberlain remarks, the cleansing of such an Augean stable was necessarily a work of time. There are further references to sundry delinquents, but they are not of much interest. Sir Henry Yelverton, Attorney-General, who was accused of having officially passed a charter to the City of London containing unauthorised provisions, made a great noise in the House over his defence, and spoke so intemperately that he was removed to the Tower upon the intervention of Prince Charles, and the King was greatly incensed against him ; upon which Chamberlain treats us to another of his quaint mixtures of language : " Now if Principis ira be mors, what a mad man he is to run his head thus against the wall." Meanwhile Francis Bacon was temporising to the utmost of his power, " knowing," as Chamberlain says, " that the first apprehensions are most violent, and that time mollifies many things." In a letter of 29 May, 1621, Chamberlain alludes to a passage-of-arms between Lord Spencer and the Earl of Arundel in the House of Lords. Arundel, with some others, urged that Sir Henry Yelverton should receive a more severe sentence in that house for having spoken in TWO IRATE EARLS 193 derogation of the King's honour. Arundel was of a somewhat domineering disposition, and perhaps ex- pressed himself in an irritating fashion, and Lord Spencer first Baron Spencer of Wormleighton took exception to his speech, remarking that " he marvailed he shold be so earnest, since he had heard that he and his house (the Howards] had taken exception that two of their noble and worthie auncestors were in this place sentenced in that sort ; to which the Earle replied that whatsoever had befallen bis auncestors, he was sure that in those times when they did great and honorable service to theyre Prince and countrie, his were shepherds." Spencer came, in fact, of a family which had made an immense amount of money by rearing sheep. Such an interchange could not, of course, be allowed to pass ; Arundel was called upon to apologise to the House and to Spencer, at the bar ; he refused to apologise to Lord Spencer, and was sent to the Tower ; but he was not detained there many days. Another version of this story attributes the initial attack to Arundel, who exclaimed: "My Lord, when these things you speak of were doing, your ancestors were keeping sheep ! " " And yours," retorted Spencer, " were plotting treason ! " This is more probably the correct version ; it is confirmed by William Camden, the Antiquary, a friend of Chamberlain's ; perhaps each heard his own story from some gossip in "Powle's." On 2 June, 1621, we hear of another of those terrible sentences which seem to have been inflicted for very trifling offences. One Floyde, an obscure lawyer, who was accused of having used " lewd and contemptuous wordes against the King and Quene of Bohemie," while in the Fleet prison, and whose case had been under consideration for a month, " was sentenced in the higher house to pay 5,000, to be ungentilised (or to beare no armes), to ride with his face to the horse taile (and the taile in his hand) to the pillorie in Cheapside there to have the letter K branded in his forehead with 194 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER a hot iron ; all which was performed on Monday last ; then as yesterday the first day of the terme to ride in like sort to the pillorie at Westminster, from thence to be whipt all the way to Newgate, and there to lie in the dungeon during life ; all which he did undergo saving whipping, which was remitted in regard of his age (beeing about threescore), and of the countenance he had carried of a Justice of Peace in his countrie." Chamberlain says that there was much discussion over the severity of this sentence, and " divers were called in question for speaking so liberally against it." Bacon, malgre his temporising, went to the Tower during the week. The King astonished Parliament, which had only been sitting four days since the recess, by announcing his intention of dissolving a week later ; various reasons were alleged for this " sodain breaking of " ; but after noting them the loyal Chamberlain remarks " For my part I do relie upon the King's reasons and goode pleasure without further inquirie into what I cannot reach." In the end the Parliament was adjourned until 14 November. " The King, at his beeing in the house on Saturday, made a kind of petition (as he termed it) that the earle of Arundell making his submission to the house might be released (and for what concerned the Lord Spencer the Prince shold compound it between them), which was easily yeelded unto, and he set at libertie the same day." This incident is not mentioned in the Lords' Journals, though Sir Henry Yelverton's case and defence is fully set forth. On 23 June, 1621, Chamberlain relates how that Sir Francis Michell has been degraded from his knight- hood. He was a commissioner for enforcing monopolies a most demoralising office ! and being found guilty of corruption was haled before the Commissioners of the Marshal's Court to be degraded: "which ceremonie DEGRADING A KNIGHT 195 was performed by the breaking of his sword over his head, and throwing the peices severall waves, as likewise his spurrres, and pronouncing him to be no more Sir Fraunces Michell, knight, but a person infamous and a knave and so he was sent away like a pauvre diable." A poor devil, indeed ! But as to corruptions well, he happened to be found out ; there were a goodly number who escaped. The King announced through the Star Chamber that he intended to issue a declaration concerning the abuse of monopolies, etc. " The late Lord Chauncellor (Bacon) hath lien now a goode while at Fulham in that was Sir Thomas Smith's house, but is gon this day (as I heare) to his owne house at Goramberrie (Gorhambury), having (as shold seeme) no manner of feeling of his fall, but continueng as vaine and idle in all his humors as when he was at highest, and his fine of 40,000 to the King is so far from hurting him that it serves for a bulwarke and protection against his creditors." Compare Lawyer Floyd's punishment for unwary speech, and Sir Francis Michell's for probably far less flagrant extortions. The King's proclamation was duly issued on 10 July, 1621 ; it is a long affair, covering a good deal of ground ; but it does not touch some of the most glaring monopolies On 14 July Chamberlain records the unusual bestowal of the great Seal upon an ecclesiastic below the rank of bishop to wit, the Dean of Westminster " and that afternoone he went to his Church in pontificalibus, with the purse and mace borne before him." This was John Williams ; he was in great favour with Buckingham, and became a person of considerable influence. He was made bishop of Lincoln in 1621, and Archbishop of York in 1641. On 21 July we learn that Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, was made Earl Marshall ; Chamberlain says that " the King would have geven him 2000 a yeare pension withall, but (whatsoever the reason was) he 196 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER wold not accept but the ordinarie fee, which is 20 per annum " ; but there is another version likewise of this story ; namely, that Williams, lately appointed Lord Keeper, was no friend to Arundel ; that it was through his instrumentality that the pension was denied, and that he actually delayed the patent passing the seal for three or four months. It is highly improbable that Arundel would have refused to accept 2,000 a year by no means an excessive sum, considering the rank and importance of the office when he had been so impoverished by the unjust and infamous treatment of his father and grand- father by the Tudor Sovereigns, and was compelled, as we have seen, to pay 4,000 in order to obtain possession of his own house. In this letter Chamberlain records the release of a number of persons under restraint in the Tower and elsewhere ; a sort of general amnesty in fact, preceded by a long private conference between the King, Bucking- ham and the Lord Keeper. Among others the Earl of Northumberland was released, after fifteen years in the Tower for alleged complicity in the Gunpowder Plot ; " the warders of the towre make great moane that they have lost such a benefactor.*' The wretched lawyer, Floyd, was also released from Newgate but still indelibly branded with " K " (for " knave ") on his forehead. In a letter of 28 July, 1621, we learn that Dr. Hackwell, Chaplain to the Prince of Wales, had been dissuading the Prince from marrying an idolater, and that the Bishop of Winchester, being called upon for his opinion, expressed the view that all Roman Catholics are not idolaters. " Sir Robert Mansell and his fleet are called home, some say to kepe the soveraigntie of the narrow seas, which our neighbours on all sides begin to incroach very fast upon ; " but this was not precisely the reason ; the expedition against the Barbary corsairs had almost entirely failed, from causes already indicated. THE ARCHBISHOP'S SHOT 197 " This weeke a great misfortune is befallen the Arch- bishop of Caunterburie, for going into Hampshire to consecrate a chappell at the Lord Zouches, and beeing (for pleasure) set up in a stand to shoote at a deare, instead of a bucke he hath killed the keper." A " great misfortune," indeed and what about the unlucky keeper ? Archbishops should not be allowed to shoot at " deares " or deers either ! Sir Dudley Digges, in a letter to Sir Dudley Carleton, says it was the keeper's own fault, and the coroner's jury found verdict to that effect. Chamberlain has more to say about the incident in his next letter, dated 4 August, 1621 : " Sir Dudley Digges was in towne on Sonday His errand was to condole and comfort the Lord of Caunterburie for that heavie mishap For ought I can learne there is no more sorrow than needes, and I could wish they were somwhat more sensible of such a disaster, for howsoever mischaunces may light anywhere and cannot be prevented, yet what shold a man of his place and profession be meddling with such edge tools He sent away to inform his ma tie- who returned a gracious aunswer that such an accident might befall any man, that himself had the ill lucke once to kill the keper's horse under him ; and that his Quene in like sort killed him the best brache (bitch hound) that ever he had, and therefore willed him not to discomfort himself " over killing a man ! Chamberlain was quite right in saying that there was " no more sorow than needes " over the business. However, the Archbishop Dr. George Abbot was formally pardoned by the King, and undertook to provide for the widow and children of the keeper. On 18 August, 1621, Chamberlain writes : " The King was so pleased and taken with his entertainment at the Lord Marques (of Buckingham, at Burly in Rutlandshire) that he could not forbeare to expresse his contentment in certain verses he made there, to this 198 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER effect, that the ayre, the weather (though it were not so here) and everything els, even the staggs and buckes in their fall did seeme to smile, so that there was hope of a smiling boy within a while, to which end he concluded with a wish or votum for the felicitie and fruitfulness of that vertuous and blessed couple ; and in way of Amen caused the bishop of London in his presence to geve them a benediction " ; a much more fitting epis- copal office than shooting keepers ! Buckingham had married in the previous year Lady Katherine Manners, daughter of the Earl of Rutland ; she was a Catholic, but is said to have thrown her faith overboard in order to become Marchioness of Buckingham. The Earl of Arundell is to have his 2,000 a year after all, secured to himself and his son. " Though the Archbishop of Caunterburie had that gracious aunswer upon the first newes of his misfortune, that I wrote you, yet I heare since that faire weather begins to overcast, and cloudes to gather against him." This was very true ; the feeling was so strong against him that bishops elect were unwilling to be consecrated by him ; at length a commission was appointed to sit upon his case ; eventually the King confirmed his pardon. In a letter of 13 October, 1621, Chamberlain tells of the removal of the Earl of Suffolk from the office of Lord Treasurer, "when he least looked for it"; he is made Lord President of the Council, but there was some talk of corruption, probably not without foundation ; Suffolk had become thoroughly demoralised since he exchanged the position of naval officer for that of courtier. On 20 October, 1621, Chamberlain writes : " Two dayes since we had newes that the pirates have lately taken 57 saile of ours It seemes our fleet that set out against them the last yeare did litle goode, and went neither to Gravesend, nor Ostend, nor to no end (as they saide in the play) but irritare crabrones (to stir up the hornets.)" LORD MAYOR BOLTS 199 On 10 November, 1621, there is further comment upon the financial situation : " I forbare the last weeke because here was nothing to write but of my new Lord Maiors pageants, and the old Mayors failing, who the night befor he shold have accompanied his successor to Westminster did sgombrare (whatever that may mean), conveying all of worth out of his house, and himself with his wife into some secret corner in the countrie, where ever since he hath plaide least in sight ; he is one of the farmers (of customs) and always esteemed a man of great wealth You may guesse in what case we are and how sound at heart (for all our faire shewes), when neither Lord Major, Aldermen, farmers, no nor whole companies, as the East Indian, Moscovie and others are not able to hold out and pay their debts." For this, or some other emergency, the reassembling of Parliament was hastened by proclamation to take place on 20 November instead of 8 February. CHAPTER VIII JACOBEAN LETTERS November, 1621 April, 1624 THE House duly assembled, and one of the first things accomplished was the levying of a subsidy to be paid in February, " concluding that all recusants (or whose wives, children or servants are so) shold pay double, and be counted as aliens ; and that they shold not be rated by the ordinarie sessors but by the Commissioners ; .... Hal the lawier wold have a proviso inserted for the Archbishop of Yorke in respect of his spnne, by which unseasonable jest he hath gained nothing but the reputation to favor or savour of that sect." But the suggestion was quite logical ; Tobie Matthew, the Archbishop's son, was a " recusant," though he had been spared the penalty. King James got at loggerheads with his Parliament in December, 1621, with the result that the House of Commons, on 18 December, sent him a protestation, which may be summarised as follows : " That their liberties are their ancient and undoubted birthright ; that affairs concerning the King, State, defence of the realm and church, making laws, redressing grievances, etc., are proper subjects of debate in Parliament, and that each member has entire freedom of speech therein, and cannot be censured except by the House itself, which is to complain of any member to the King, before he gives credence to private informations." To which the King replied by a commission adjourning KING VERSUS COMMONS 201 Parliament until 8 February ; and on 30 December, in the presence of the Council, he called for the Journal of the House of Commons, and with his own hand deleted the protestation from the records. None but the Stuarts could do this kind of thing ! On 4 January, 1622, Chamberlain writes that Sir Edward Coke is again in trouble, and adds : " The King is exceedingly distasted with the protestation, and doth challenge and blame his servants, who all or the most part pleade absence There was a proclamation expected to come foorth the second of this moneth for the dissolving of the parlement " ; he enumerates certain reasons against this : " these with many other reasons represented by the Counsaile are thought to have stayed it hitherto, but at the King going hence we shall see the successe." They " saw the success " a day or two later, in the form of a long proclamation, setting forth the relations between King and Parliament, and how that " its happy beginnings being thwarted by the turbulence of certain unruly spirits, his Majesty now concludes to dissolve it " and dissolved it was. " Yesterday the Lord of Buckingham, Mr. Wraye of the bedchamber, Sir John Finet and some others, together with the Lady Marques, Countesse of Buck- ingham, and others dined with our bishop of London, and before dinner were all confirmed or bishopt, as children used to be, in his chappell, where they had choise musicke and all the ceremonies belonging to that action " ; an unusual incident ; the Marchioness of Buckingham had probably been previously confirmed as a Catholic, but anything to please her Marquess ! On 19 January, 1622, Chamberlain has again a great deal to say about the scarcity of money and the means proposed for raising it. " The Marques Buckingham hath contracted with the Lord and Lady Wallingford for their house neere Whitehall, for some monie, and the making of Sir 202 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER Thomas Howard, baron of Charleton and Vicount Andover, and some thincke the deliverie of the Lord of Somerset and his Lady out of the towre was part of the bargain ; I heare they came out severally on Thursday in the evening." Sir Thomas Howard was brother to Frances, Countess of Somerset ; William Knollys, Viscount Wallingford and Earl of Banbury, married, as his second wife, her sister Elizabeth ; so here was the making of a little family arrangement. On 16 February, 1622, Chamberlain writes : " Your nephew came to you so well stored that I doubt not but he hath made a full relation and furnished you with whatsoever is here stirring ; whiles he was here I was the lesse diligent, and shall not be very forward here- after, as beeing discouraged divers wayes, for the times are daungerous and the world growes tender and jealous of free speach. The uncertaintie likewise and varietie of reports is such that we know not what to beleve of that is don here under our nose, and what is geven out to-day for certain is tomorrow contradicted ; for since two yeares that the forge or mint was set up at Amsterdam we have never left coyning, so apish are we in imitation of what is worst. Another reason I will not dissemble that I waxe idle and unwilling to take any paines more then needes." Coining falsehoods, or canards, presumably, though why Amsterdam is credited with the initiation of the practice is not clear. " Your brother Carleton .... writes that letters are come downe to the Coroner that the evidence touching the Earl of Berkshires manner of death must not be urged, but the matter made as faire as may be ; it is generally thought that Kit Villers shall cary away his daughter ; for all I have heard or can learne I see no cause of so desperate a resolution, but that he had laesum principium (torn or violated principle), and the want of God's grace." DEAN CORBET'S SERMON 203 This was Francis Norris, created Viscount Thame and Earl of Berkshire in 1621. A year previously, just after his creation, he was sent to the Fleet for striking Lord Scrope in the House of Lords, but was released in a week. About 4 February, 1622, he shot himself with a cross- bow, turning it against his heart while he released the string. As Chamberlain says, there does not appear to be any reason for the act, though the Die. Nat. Bio. says it was " from mortification " ; twelve months after the incident. " Here be certain verses of Dr. Corbet deane of Christehurch, who preaching before the King at Wood- stocke last sommer was so gravelled that he was faine to geve over ; neither had he better lucke in his play then in his preaching, for thincking to mend the matter with a corned ie of the mariage of the Arts, it proved so tedious, as well for the matter as the action, that the King indured it with great impatience, wherupon the very boyes and children flouted it with a rime. A mariage we had but offering there was none, save that the King offered twise or thrise to be gone." Poor Dean Corbet ! One cannot but pity him, in being " gravelled for lack of matter " before so keen a critic as King James, and a preacher is denied either of the shifts prescribed by gentle Rosalind ! On 30 March, 1622, Chamberlain writes that there is again an alarm of a great Armada in preparation in Spain for the invasion of England. " On Tewsday or Wensday morning the Lady Marques (of Buckingham) was brought abed of a daughter (not a " smiling boy," as prophesied by the King), and on Thursday the King kept her companie all the afternoone at cardes " ; but in a postscript Chamberlain says that the poor Marchioness " is overtaken with the small pockes in her child bed." On 8 June, 1622, Chamberlain writes : " The Countesse of Buckingham hath recanted again, and 204 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER is come home to her mother church The world says the daunger of leaving the court was the greatest and most pregnant motive " ; most probably ; but what about her son, John Villiers, Viscount Purbeck ? " He," says Chamberlain, " is out of order, for this day sevennight, getting into a room next the street in Wallingford House, he beat downe the glasse windowes with his bare fists, and all bloodied cried out to the people that passed by that he was a Catholique, and wold spend his blood in the cause ; " " out of order," no doubt, in the eyes of James and his courtiers, and he was certainly of weak intellect ; but this outburst may have been caused by his mother's defection from her adopted faith ; that lady is said to have received a present of 2,000 from the King ? " for reward of her devotion and conformitie." In the next letter, dated 1 July, 1622, we learn that " on Tewsday 25 June the King and the Ladies went to Rochester to see the Navie, where I do not heare what passed more then the knighting of one or two of litle name, as indeed they are growne so familiar that baronnetts themselves are brought downe to 200 or 250 " ; from 1,095 originally ; the supply exceeded the demand ! Sir Edward Coke is charged with having defrauded the King of a great sum of money, and is in the Tower ; he has been allowed to see his son and daughter ; he was, however, acquitted shortly afterwards of all blame. On 13 July, 1622, Chamberlain tells of bad news from Virginia : " The savages have by surprise slain above 350 of our people there one and other ; it was by their supine negligence that lived as careles and securely there as if they had ben in England, in scattered and stragling houses far asunder The disgrace and shame is as much as the losse, for no other nation wold have ben so grossely overtaken " ; too true, Mr. Chamberlain ! It is an apparently incurable national failing. THE KING AND CATHOLICS 205 In a letter of 10 August, 1622, Chamberlain alludes to King James's new policy of leniency towards Catholics. He resolved, " for State reasons, and from hope of favour by foreign Princes to Protestants, to grant some grace to English Papists, and has ordered the issue of writs for their enlargement, and wishes no nicenesse nor difficulty to be made in showing favour to all accused of refusing the Oath of Supremacy .... or any point of recusancy which concerns religion only, and not matters of State." A purely politic move, of course ; but it might reasonably have been expected that it would pave the way for increasing tolerance, and the removal of disabilities ; it had, however, no such result ; nor was it, apparently, of universal application, for Chamber- lain writes, on 25 September, 1622, " The Countesse of Buckingham is relapsed to Poperie, and makes open profession, wherupon she is sent from court (and as is saide) confined to her house at Dalbie in Leicester- shire." In this same letter Chamberlain again alludes to his realisation of the gradual encroachment of time, and its effect upon him : "I am growne to that passe that as I am loth to leave home, so when I am once abrode and find myself well, I make no great haste to returne." He was then in his seventieth year. On 16 November, 1622, Chamberlain relates how that the pricking of the Sheriffs by the King was so hastily performed at Theobalds that great alterations had to be made afterwards ; the office was a somewhat thankless one, and not sought after in those days ; so, says Chamberlain, " it is become the safest course to be one of the three named in the first bill, for they commonly scape best, and some fourth that never dreamt of the matter is put in place ; it is observed this yeare that many Londoners that have lands in the countrie are specially pickt out, and for the rest either men of meane account, or such as have ben sheriffes alredy, or els 206 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER (for a kind of gentle correction) such as were too forward in the parlement or too backward in the benevolence." Tricks even in the making of Sheriffs. On 7 December, 1622, Chamberlain writes : " Here is a strict proclamation come foorth that all Lords spirituall and temporall that are not of the Counsaile, all lieutenants, Justices of peace, and gentlemen of qualitie shold repaire to their houses and places of abode and there kepe hospitalitie this Christmas, upon paine and perill may fall thereon " ; in his next letter of 22 December he tells us that " divers Lords and persons of qualitie have made meanes to be dispensed withall for going into the countrie this Christmas, but it will not be graunted, so that they packe away on all sides for feare of the worst " ; a tyrannical sort of business, one would say ; it was not by any means the first time it had been done in James's reign. Another peremptory order is recorded in Chamber- lain's letter of 4 January, 1623 : " Some new orders that no man shall come booted and spurd into the presence or privie chamber on holydayes or festivalls, nor likewise into the chappell, where all men must continue uncovered during divine service." And then another preacher discredited : " Somwhat in the bishop of London's sermon on Christmas Day gave the King so litle content that he grew lowde, and the bishop was driven to end abruptly ; I cannot learne but he strove to be smooth and plausible enough (whatsoever it was that offended) unles perhaps it were too much." Some more humble folk might perchance be disposed to envy the King his prerogative of ending a tedious sermon abruptly ; the temptation to " grow lowde " is sometimes difficult to resist. " On the second of this moneth the bishop of London together with the Archbishop of Caunterburie and other prelates with great concourse went to consecrate or dedicate a new church built by the citie in the Duke's GOSSIP GROWS WEARY 207 place (as it is called) neere Aldgate ; which action was performed (besides other ceremonies) with solemn service, a sermon and a christening of a meane man's child borne hard by, that was named James as likewise the church beares the name of St. James." This is St. James's, Aldgate, built upon the site of the wealthy priory of the Holy Trinity, which was be- stowed by Henry VIII. upon Sir Thomas Audley, whose daughter married Thomas Howard, fourth Duke of Norfolk ; the estate passed to Thomas Howard, Earl of Suffolk, who sold it to the Mayor and citizens of London. The church was built from the material of the old priory, and escaped in the great fire of 1666 ; but the body was rebuilt in 1727. On 25 January, 1623, Chamberlain wrote a long letter full of gossip about dances and revels and the chances of individuals obtaining sundry appointments ; the Spanish marriage i.e., of the Prince of Wales with the Infanta Maria was being very much talked about at this time, but Chamberlain says it is hanging fire ; the Ambassadors from the States General had been in England for many months, endeavouring to arrive at an understanding upon certain matters. " I heare the States went yesterday to take theyre leave at Court, and have made a kind of end, but I know not what it is, neither indeed am I greatly inquisitive after that or any other newes more then comes in my way, whether it be that continuall bad tidings hath taken away my tast, or that infirmitie of age growes fast upon me, and makes me not to regard how the world goes, seeing I am like to have so litle part of it, for about the middle of this moneth I began to be septuagenarius." On 10 February, 1623, Chamberlain writes : " The last weeke here were straunge tides, for in a very calme time it ebbed and flowed thrise in twelve howres, but the greatest wonder was that it continued for two or three dayes, which I have not knowne nor heard of before." 208 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER Similar irregularities were observed in 1608, 1641, and 1756 ; no mention appears in any records of this instance mentioned by Chamberlain, nor is it probable that the tide ebbed and flowed thrice in twelve hours. Probably there are frequently small irregularities in. the tides on rivers, not noticeable ; they occur from various causes, and occasionally are sufficiently pro- nounced to attract attention. At Southampton and some other ports there is always a double tide, due to formation of the land and other local causes. The wife of the French Ambassador had brought over a niece, Mdlle St. Luc, evidently a charming young French girl, who turned the heads of all the men about the Court : " Mademoiselle St. Luc went away with her aunt with a great deale of grace and favor, and great regret as it seemed on all sides, for many complements and teares were shed at parting ; the King gave her a chaine of diamonds (but nothing to the Ambassadesse for feare of bringing an ill custome) and offered her if she wold stay and make choise of a husband here either the Lord Percy, the Lord Mount joy, or any other, to advance him and make him an earle, et cet. ; but they say she is bespoken at home and goes over for that purpose ; the Prince gave her a faire Jewell, so did the Duchesse with her picture ; the Lord Marquis with his Lady and the Lord of Carlile and his Lady did likewise present her with rich Jewells besides others, and divers prime courtiers brought her a dosen miles on her way." Small wonder if mademoiselle's own pretty head was turned, with regret, as she parted from her courtty escort. On 22 February, 1623, Chamberlain tells us that the King had intended to visit Cambridge in order to be present at a masque got up by the junior fellows and scholars ; but the Heads objected, so the matter was referred to the King : " Certain of both sides were sent for about Christmas to shew their reasons, which beeing PRINCE AS JACK SMITH 209 not admitted on the Seniors' side, but willed to bring better or more pregnant, the auncientest of them saide that these times required rather prayer and fasting then playes and feasting, which was ill taken, and order geven for the playes to go on." The " auncientest," it must be admitted, had some foundation for his protest, but neither Kings nor scholars will ever lend a patient ear to such remonstrances, and the old man might as well have spared his breath. Then follows an account of the secret journey of Prince Charles and Buckingham to Madrid, in the hope of clinching the marriage with the Infanta, with whom the Prince was apparently in love. Chamberlain says they disguised themselves with false beards (" wherof one fell off at Gravesend ") and by other means ; it proved, however, a futile mission. Chamberlain's next letter of 8 March, 1623, is full of stories and conjectures on this subject, and on 22 March he sends some verses upon " Jack and Tom's " journey, the Prince and Buckingham having travelled in England under the names of Jack and Tom Smith. A messenger from the Earl of Bristol, arriving from Spain, brings news " that the Prince was not expected there, but that it wilbe as straunge hewes to them as it was to us, and withall that thinges are not so forward and ripe there as we take them .... the young Lord Compton hath charge of the Jewells that are to be sent and presented, which are the choise of all in the towre, estimated by some at 200,000, but by the more moderate at 80,000 ; there is continuall posting likewise through Fraunce, which together with the expense that the other must make from the sea side to Madrid, will so exhaust our coyne (that is so scant aired y) that it is feared we shalbe driven to use blacke monie (as they call it), which is now in a manner altogether current in Spaine." (" Black money " : copper, or debased silver coinage). Preachers, says Chamberlain, find it hard to restrain their tongues over this business, and " on Sonday last p 210 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER at the parish church next to us, one went so far that the parson of the church caused the clarke to sing him downe with a psalme before he had half don " ; a broad hint ! On 5 April, 1623, Chamberlain reports, " here by commandment was bonfires and ringing of bells for the welcome newes of the Prince's safe arrival at Madrid ; God send we may praise at parting " ; many folk were uttering the same aspiration, but on 29 April there was no sign, according to Chamberlain, of a favourable issue, though the King was apparently quite confident, and was rubbing his hands over it, and recounting with glee the adventures of his son and Buckingham on their journey ; Chamberlain misdoubts sorely the whole business. The Provostship of Eton is vacant by the death of Thomas Murray, and there is great discussion as to his successor : " Sir Robert Naunton laide in hard for it, offering to quit all pensions, promises and pretentions whatsoever." According to a history of Eton College, published in 1816, Sir Thomas Wyatt, the poet, once told King Henry VIII. " that he had found out a living of 100 a year, more than enough, and prayed that it might be bestowed on him. Truly, said the King, we have no such in England. Yes, Sir, replied Sir Thomas, the Provostship of Eton, where a man has his diet, his lodging, his horse-meat, his servant's wages, his riding charges, and 100 per annum." If it were worth the same in King James's time, it seems strange that Sir Robert Naunton and some other courtiers should deem it worth while to throw up all else in order to obtain it ; Sir Dudley Carleton was one of the candidates. Letters of 3 and 17 May, 1623, are almost entirely taken up with the matter of the Spanish marriage ; tn the last letter Chamberlain writes : " It was expected the Earle of Arundell wold have ben raised to the same rancke (of duke), but they say he stands upon restitution JOYS OF BEAR BAITING 211 rather then creation " ; this no doubt was true ; the dukedom had been in abeyance since the death and attainder of his grandfather, Thomas Howard, fourth Duke, whose guilt was doubted by many outside his own family. The title was eventually restored, with original precedence, in ArundePs grandson, but not until nearly forty years later. On 28 June we hear that the Pope has written to Prince Charles, who " made a faire aunswer to the messenger otherwise, saving that he said he kist his Holines feet, if all be true that is reported " ; which of course shocked Chamberlain very much. " Marques of Hynojosa (Inijosa) arrived here the 16th of this moneth reasonablie well accompanied with thirty or forty fol- lowers in goode equipage, but whether it be so indeed or out of knaverie, our boyes will not allow their gold lace, but by touching and smelling to it will needes persuade it is copper." This, of course, by way of belittling the Spanish match, which " our boyes " by no means favoured. Chamberlain describes later, on 12 July, 1623, some of the entertainment provided for him : " The Spanish Ambassador is much delighted in beare baiting ; he was the last weeke at Paris garden, where they shewed him all the pleasure they could both with bull beare and horse, besides jackanapes ; and then turned a white beare into the Thames, where the dogges baited him swimming, which was the best sport of all." In the same letter Chamberlain says that the Prince wishes to return, and has written to the Duke of Rich- mond to obtain leave from the King for him to do so. " The Countesse of Arundel is now upon her returne, for she hath sent some forerunners before, three Italian massaras (wherof one is a blackamore) and a gondola, which I doubt will not so well brooke our river, where there is commonly so much winde." " Massara " is a superior female servant ; an Italian servant could scarcely be a " blackamore." The Countess 212 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER of Arundel was Alathea, daughter of Gilbert, seventh Earl of Shrewsbury. She had been abroad for a long while, and in the previous year some busy gossips in Venice had spread a report that she had afforded the rebel and criminal Antonio Foscarini opportunities of conferring with ministers, etc., at her house. Sir Henry Wotton, the English Ambassador, being somewhat too ready to credit these stories, and hearing that the Countess would probably be requested to quit the State, sent one of his secretaries to her at her house outside Venice to warn her ; Wotton was, in truth, in something of a fluster over the business. The Countess, however, immediately drove into Venice and demanded an inter- view with the Doge and Council, which was accorded on the following day, and she emerged with complete triumph and many obsequious attentions and com- pliments. Had she been a different sort of woman, she might have remained indefinitely under the imputation ; but she would have none of " Fabritio's " pusillanimous tactics. On 26 July, 1623, Chamberlain writes : " The Lords of the Counsaile were sent for to Tibballs the 16th of this moneth to be made acquainted with the articles concerning the Spanish match, where (it is saide) there was some sticking upon points of religion, specially by the Scottish Lords, but it was aunswered that it was not now to be disputed what was of convenience, but what of necessitie, the Prince being in their hands, and the King's children dispoyled of their patrimonie, which was not to be recovered but by this meanes, or by a bloudie and uncertain warre, and setting all Christendom by the eares." The King's children alluded to are, of course, the Princess Elizabeth and her husband ; the Palatinate could be assured to them by agreement with Spain ; there is much more in this letter concerning the progress of agreement on the marriage, but it is not of any interest, seeing that it all fell through in the end. JOUST WITH A JESTER 213 On 11 October, 1623, Chamberlain reports the return of the Prince, amidst great rejoicings, bonfires and feast- ings, and the singing of a new anthem in St. Paul's with the words " When Israel came out of Egypt and the house of Jacob from among the barbarous people," which is not very complimentary nor very politic, seeing that Prince Charles still hoped to marry one of the " barbarous people," and imagine the joy of a Spaniard at being alluded to as a barbarous person ! " Tobie Mathew is come home with the Prince, and we heare of some incounters twixt him and Archie in Spaine wherwith he was so much distasted that once at a dinner he was faine to forsake the table." A joust with a jester is usually a parlous business for the ordinary man, though Point, the jester in The Yeomen of the Guard, would have us regard the " Family Fool " as a somewhat suppressed and injured person. In his next letter of 25 October, 1623, Chamberlain says : " Tobie Mathew was knighted at Roiston not long since, but for what service God knowes." " The poet Owen's monument in Powles begins to serve for a Pasquin to any merrie or malicious com- panion, that fasten daylie some odde rime or other foolish paper upon it, and it is doubted there wilbe some further disgrace don it in time, for it is much maligned as an honor far beyond the man's merit." John Owen was an epigrammatist, chiefly in Latin ; he was headmaster of King Henry VIII. 's school at Warwick. His Latin epigrams were collected in 1624, and translated into English, French, German and Spanish. On 8 November, 1623, Chamberlain writes : " The next day after I wrote last here fell out a pittiful accident in the black friers, where the papists had hired a house next to the French Ambassadors (that so they might be as it were under his protection) to hold their assem- blies, say masse, meet at sermons, and perform all other their exercises and rites after the Romish manner ; 214 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER a great multitude beeing met there on the 26th of the last month to heare father Drurie a famous Jesuite among them preach in an upper roome, the floore sunke under them, or rather the beames and joysts not able to beare the weight brake in the midst Many perished, partly battered and bruised, but most part smothered, for the first floore fell with such violence that it brake down a second under it A number were hurt maimed and lost their limmes, which found litle helpe or comfort at first, our people beeing growne so savage and barbarous that they refused to assist them with drinck, aqua vitse or any other cordials in their necessitie, but rather insulted upon them with taunts and gibes in their affliction as they were carried away all that evening and the night following, and even in Cheapside where they shold be more civill they were redy to pull and teare them out of the coaches as they passed to their lodgings, or to the surgeons ; but there was as much goode order taken as might be on the sodain to represse the insolencie and inhumanitie of the mul- titude, and for reliefe of the distressed." A fine example for the " barbarous " Spaniards ! " The speach of the Spanish match growes daylie more coole, and now we begin to have a fresh alarme of another as far of as Vienna ; the daunger of the Prince's journey into Spaine is daylie apprehended more then it was at first, insomuch that even wise men marvaile how he got so easilie thence, but the conclusion is that (as a great man congratulating his returne told him) he might thanck God he was come safe, and he might thanck his sister too." What was the danger ? Assassination ? Or was it imaginary ? On 15 November, 1623, Chamberlain reports the burning of Sir William Cokayne's house, with heavy loss to him, involving also the total or partial destruction of adjoining property : " I have seldome knowne a man lesse pitied, as well in respect of his great wealth, MONUMENTAL EULOGY 215 as for his severitie, and specially for that busines of clothing (wherin all England hath and is like to suffer so much) which was his only plot and project, and procured him many a curse from poore people, which is not to be contemned when it is deserved." Sir William died in 1626, and had an imposing monument in St. Paul's Cathedral, with a long inscription setting forth his transcendent virtues in every path of life ; the reader is enjoined to imitate him, but is given to under- stand that it will be rather a tough job ; so here is a striking contrast with Chamberlain's estimate of his character, which was probably the popular one ; monumental inscriptions in those days were more " gushing " than they are now which is saying a good deal. Chamberlain reports in this same letter the death of William Camdcn, the antiquary and historian, and on 21 November, 1623, his imposing funeral. The Duke of Buckingham had been entertaining the King, the Prince and the Spanish Ambassadors at York House ; the feast cost three hundred pounds, and there is the old story of twelve pheasants in a dish, forty dozen partridges, as many quails, " et sic de caeteris in all kinds of provisions, which ostentation of mag- nificence is to no purpose when it is to so litle use, but only to bring a scarcitie, and as it were to trample God's goode blessings under foot." Very good sense ; there must have been great gluttony at these banquets, and appalling waste besides. This was followed by a masque, the chief argument of which was congratulation upon the Prince's safe return which naturally did not greatly please the Spaniards. On 3 January, 1624, Chamberlain alludes to the Spanish match as " not quite off," which is practically equivalent to saying that it soon will be, and there is much talk of the anger and presumption of the Spanish Ambassadors ; but on 17 January, Chamberlain writes : " In two or three dayes the whole frame of the busines 216 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER suffered great alteration, and the proverb that Totnam is turned French 1 quite chaunged into Spanish ; for they are saide to promise monts et merveilles, and make so many faire offers that we knowe not how to refuse them, they come so fast upon us .... and surely unles God set to his helping hand we are like to be caried away by these sirens songs and suffer ship- wrecke in calme and faire weather ; but spero meliora, and I have some reason that I dare not brag of." On 22 February, 1624, Chamberlain writes : " The extremities of the wether kept me from writing the last weeke, besides another impediment of more consequence (to me) the decease of my brother (Richard), who left this world the 10th day of this present ; his great age of 76 and many infirmities made his losse the lesse lamented, beeing deprived of his sight, and in a manner of his hearing, feeling, taste, and all other senses save smelling, which with his memorie continued perfect to the last gaspe ; so that his life was not of late time vita vitalis, and a man might verefie in him, non est vivere sed valere vita (not to live, but to be in health, is life) ; now am I left alone of all my father's children, the last of eight brothers and sisters, and left to a troubled estate, not knowing how to wrestle with suites and law busines and such tempestuous courses after so much tranquillitie as I have hitherto lived in, and which worst of all in a weake botome as no other was to be expected from a man that for twelve or fourteen yeares never lookt to his reckenings, and therefore according to the proverb they have lookt to themselves and left litle or nothing ; but I must passe it over as I may and bid all goode dayes 1 " Totnam (Tottenham) is turned French"; a saying probably derived from the fact that in the reign of Henry VIII. French mechanics swarmed in London and elsewhere, and, as is usually the case under such circumstances, a large number followed the lead of some pioneer, and settled near one another ; Tottenham seems to have been selected as such a rendezvous, hence the proverb, which has an inimical bias at the back of it. CHAMBERLAIN FAILING 217 adieu in this world when I have most need of rest and quiet. This is but a melancholy discourse, and therefore will dwell no longer upon it, only adding this that I doubt I shall not be hereafter at so much leysure as I have ben." Having discharged himself of this melancholy news, he goes off into the usual gossip : " This terme brought foorth no greater matters than the censuring of one Moore, an Atturney, for speaking very lewdly and scandalously of Quene Elizabeth and Henry the Eight ; his judgment was to loose both his eares, imprisonment during the King's pleasure, and other such like punish- ments, which was executed accordingly this weeke in Cheapside, where he laughed all the while." A courageous attorney, at all events ; it was somewhat harsh measure for the offence, and he might have said many scandalous things about the two sovereigns, without being guilty of false accusation ! Parliament assembled on 19 February, and the King went with great pomp to open the session ; the chief matter for discussion in the first instance being, of course, the Spanish marriage, from which the Prince is now said to be averse. On 20 March, 1624, Chamberlain is still overwhelmed with business connected with his brother's affairs : " and withall I find myselfe to faile so fast every way (especially one of my legges) that I see not how I shalbe able to hold out." He says the parliament displays very good will towards the King and the welfare of the nation, but nothing decisive is recorded. On 10 April, 1624, Chamberlain has a great deal to say about the Lord Treasurer (Sir Lionel Cranfield, created Earl of Middlesex in 1622), who was also Master of the Wards. He is accused of extensive frauds, and is to be arraigned before Parliament, but carries himself defiantly. The office of Lord Treasurer appears to have more or less demoralised every holder of it ; the oppor- 218 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER tunities of self-enrichment were too obvious and facile to be resisted. Chamberlain says : " He was at Tiballs on Wensday before seven o'clock in the morning with the King in the Park, and though the Duke of Buckingham were there yet he went away before he could come ; it shold seeme by all we can guesse that the King gives only the looking on, and leaves him to his fortune which he follows with all industrie, and when he cannot go himself sends his Lady great with child to solicit for him." And so on 30 April he continues to write all the gossip about the Treasurer ; but it is the merest gossip and no more. CHAPTER IX JACOBEAN AND LATER LETTERS May, 1624 March, 1626 CHAMBERLAIN mentions the cordial reception of Count Mansfeldt, who came over in the interests of the Palatinate, and the consequent irritation of the Spanish Ambassadors ; " but that which most galled the Span- iards, and which they take for the greatest affront was, that he was lodged at St. James in the lodgings apointed for the Infanta." On 23 May, 1624, there is more about the Earl of Middlesex, who seems to have kept the Lords and Commons busy over his case for a month or more : " The King came this way to Greenwich on Ascension Eve, and made a speach to the Lords in favor of the Lord Treasurer (as is conceved), though some say it was so ambiguous that it might receve a contrarie con- struction, for it began with mercie and ended with judgement." Middlesex pleaded sickness a day or two later as excuse for further delay in his pleading ; " but the house, not willing to protract the busines any longer, sent two carles, two bishops and two barons, with a physician or two to see in what case he was " ; which was awkward for the Lord Treasurer, who was in truth malingering. However, on the 23rd May sentence was pronounced to be a prisoner in the Tower during the King's pleasure, to lose all his offices and to be incapable of bearing any, to pay 50,000, not to come 219 220 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER to Court, nor to sit in Parliament during his life. Chamberlain says : " It is marvailed they proceeded no further to degrade him upon so many just reasons," and thinks he may give trouble in future ; the sequel showed that Chamberlain's presage was not without foundation. On 5 June, 1624, Chamberlain writes : " Our par- lement ended on Saterday with the passing of three or four and thirty acts, though divers were stopped that were much desired ; the parting was with no more contentment then needed on either side. The King spared them not a whit for undertaking more then belonged to them in many matters, and for aunswer to their grevances which were presented in two very long and tedious scrowles, he saide that having perused them he thancked God with all his heart that they were no worse. He gave them thanckes for their care and charge towards his children, but withall told them in a sort that they had geven him nothing ; and this was the course of his whole speach to pay them in such coine. Though he passed the bill for the sale of the Lord of Middlesex lands toward the payment of his debts and raising of his fine, yet he saide he would review their sentence and confirme it as he saw cause, wherin he made goode what he insinuated in a speach he made in his behalfe, that in such cases the nether house was but as informers, the Lords as the jury, and himself the Judge ; geving them likewise to understand that he tooke it not well nor would indure it hereafter that they shold meddle with his servants, from the highest in place to the lowest skull in the kitchen, but if they had ought against any they shold complaine to him, and he wold see it redrest according to right. The Lord of Middlesex was set at libertie out of the towre on Tewsday and continues yet at Chelsey ; some say he is to be confined to one of his houses in Sussex or Hart- fordshire, but there goes a voyce that he is in possibilitie or rather probabilitie to be sworne a gentleman of the WORLD WELL AMENDED 221 bedchamber ; and then the world is well amended. It is geven out (how truly I know not) that his deliverie out of the towre stoode him in 6000, and that he gave great summes to kepe of this tempest if it might have ben." And then the world is well amended ! The King takes the part of a nobleman who has grossly abused a position of trust, and says that he will not have his " servants " interfered with ; probably the story about the 6000 was quite true in substance ; and into whose pocket did the money go ? Middlesex, however, rather overdid it in his request to the King, a few days later, to be allowed to retire to one of his country houses ; the King sent him back a considerable snub by his own messenger ; in a later letter of 3 July, 1624, Chamberlain says : " The Earle of Middlesex is saide to begin to understand himself and to see where he is, being commanded to remove from Chelsey to his house in Sussex, and for ought wee know like to pay all his fine." In the same letter he writes : " Sombody is come lately out of Spaine with no pleasing newes, and they say brought backe the Prince's letter to the Infanta unopened " ; and then alludes to our being " in treatie for the French match," i.e., the marriage of Prince Charles with Henrietta Maria of France. Meanwhile levies were being raised to fight with the States General against the King of Spain and the Arch- duchess (i.e., Isabella Clara Eugenia, Infanta of Spain and Archduchess Regent of Flanders) ; " but the next day and since the stile is altered, and no more mention of Spaine or Archduchess, but only to serve the States of the Low Countries in their warres .... in the mean time here is great expedition used to raise monie and make redy payment, insomuch that since Monday was sevennight the Counsaile have sat thrise at Guild- hall about the subsidies, and at the first sitting the Lord Keper (John Williams, Bishop of Lincoln) among other 222 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER perswasions to advance the payments told them that for any man to disable himself or disguise his wealth was to sinne against the Holy Ghost and as the sinne of Ananias and Saphira, but it was scant receved as Catholic doctrine." On 25 July, 1624, Chamberlain is very hot about the aggressions of the Hollanders against our merchant ships ; he gives no details of the instance which has just then aroused his indignation, but apparently an attempt was made to fix the fault upon English seamen. " The case is much commiserated by all sorts of people, and hath so much alienated our affections that we crie out mainly for revenge of such injustice and indignitie ; and the King takes it so to heart that he speakes somwhat exuberantly, and I wish he wold say lesse so he wold do more. For my part I shot my bolt at first, that if there were no wiser then I we shold stay or arrest the first Indian ship that comes in our way, and hang up upon Dover cliff es as many as we shold find faultie or actors in this busines, and then dispute the matter afterwards, for there is no other course to be held with such manner of men as neither regard law nor justice nor any other respect of equitie or humanitie, but only make gaine their God." There is a good deal to be said for this method provided you are quite sure you are in the right. " I doubt not but you have heard how Arthur Brett presented himself on the sodain in Waltham forrest, and laide hand on the King's bridle, or stirrop (as others say), wherat the King was much offended, and spurring away commanded the Erie of Warwick to forbid him from comming any more in his presence, and withall sent word that the Earle Middlesex shold remove out of the verge according to his sentence Brett was yesternight (by a warrant from the King to the Atturny Generall) committed to the Fleet without any cause exprest." Brett was brother-in-law to the Earl of Middlesex ; MOTTO FOR JAMES 223 he and his sister the Countess were very persistent in their solicitations for the Earl. On 7 August, 1624, Chamberlain writes : " This is more of course and custome then for anything I can send worth your reading ; we are now in a dead and dull vacation, nobody almost in towne but myself, neither had I ben here now but for an infirmitie that growes fast upon me, wherof though I have had some sense and feeling many a day, yet it never came to any extremitie till now, so that I see age will shew itself at last, howsoever it trifle and linger for a while ; but the worst is there is no remedie, nor scant any reliefe to be had but by strict rules and diet, which to me is as bad as the disease." Here also is further animadversion upon the damage to our shipping : " The St. George, one of the best marchant ships of England of four or five hundred tunne with 32 peeces of ordinance is seased upon at Naples, whether she was fraught by one Ricot a straunger (that hath all the factorie Burlamachi was wont to have) upon pretence that the Marquis Hinojosa had bargained with him and bought it at his beeing here, which he denies, but howsoever they juggle between them the ship is lost for us, and we, according to the old motto, video et taceo, see it and say nothing, as likewise the Dunkirkers rifle our ships at sea as familiarly as if open warres were proclaimed, whiles we protect theirs in the Downes." " Video et taceo " I look on and say nothing would have been a good motto for James the First, and his government caught the infection, maintaining a masterly inactivity when prompt action was demanded, even at the cost of some odium abroad ; but perhaps we should not be too glib concerning the failings of James and his ministers there are too many motes and beams floating about ! On 21 August, 1624, Chamberlain writes : " I perceve by your nephew's letter that all our Lords and 224 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER gallants are arrived, and that the sicknes increaseth at Delft and elswhere ; we had here 328 died this weeke (a greater number then hath ben knowne these 15 or 16 yeares), and yet no mention of the plague ; God kepe it from among us, for we are neere daunger ; but this spotted feaver is cousin german to it at least, and makes as quicke riddance almost." Was this " spotted fever " akin to a disease which has been so named in these times ? Chamberlain alludes also in this letter to a masque which was being played to crowded audiences, apparently in ridicule of the Conde de Gondomar, late Spanish Ambassador in London ; a very astute and domineering individual, who made much mischief at different times. " They counterfeit his person to the life, with all his graces and faces, and had gotten (they say) a caste sute of his apparel for the purpose, with his lytter, wherin the world says lackt nothing but a couple of asses to carrie it, and Sir G. Peter or Sir T. (Tobie) Mathew to beare him companie." Sir G. Peter is an obscure person ; Sir Tobie Matthew is of course our old friend, who displayed his sympathy with Spanish aims somewhat too openly. On 4 September, 1624, there is more talk of the sickness, and of the prominent persons who have fallen to it ; but this does not interfere with the King's sport : " There was great sport at Woodstock with the hunting of Crop-eare, a noted and notorious stagge, whose death was solemnised with so much joy and triumphe as if it had been some great conquest, there wanting nothing but bells and bonfires." Arthur Brett is released from the Fleet, but neither he nor Lord Middlesex is to come with ten miles of the Court ; but on 9 October, 1624, we learn that his fine is reduced to 20,000, " and so he shalbe quit." " There hath ben a rumor these three or four dayes that Gondomar is to come hither again, but I cannot beleve it unles I see it, for though perhaps they thincke A RESOLUTE LADY 225 no man knowes the length of our foot so well as he, yet no sufficient provision can be made but that he wilbe busseld by the people." Very likely ; he had made himself cordially hated over here. " Toward the end of last moneth the Lady Wake (wife of Sir Isaac Wake, Agent at Venice) tooke her journey for Venice, attended by Grace, Faith, and For- tune, her three maides, which is a goode omen to be so accompanied. I de,alt with her before my going into the countrie to forbeare the viage till the Spring .... but she was so resolute that she wold not be perswaded, but saide she wold go though she were sure to die at Dover, for if God tooke her he shold finde her in her way, which was a goode meditation and worthie of a vertuous wife." On 23 October, 1624, Chamberlain is anxious about Breda holding out against the Spanish siege ; he has a hit at entrenching : " Now the warres are come to that passe that they are managed more by the spade then by the sword, we begin to mistrust Breda Touching the enterprise of Antwerp it is no marvaile if it did not succeed, seeing scant one of twentie of such surprises hit right, yet he must shoote our bolt and say that if it had been committed to any other but that dull nation, it had ben in a faire way. Thus you see that the greatest souldiers are subject to the vulgars censure, who with Phormio dare undertake to read a lecture of warre even before Hanibal." The French king wished to divert the expedition to the relief of Breda, besieged by Spinola ; but James refused, and Mansfeldt's force of English soldiers was devoted to the recovery of the Palatinate. It was a sorry force, as described hereafter, and the whole expedition eventually collapsed for lack of money and supplies. " The French match goes on by fitt, and the Lord of Carlile growes so wearie that he hath written for leave to come home ; the younge Lady is forward and this weeke sent one over with her picture to the Prince, and Q 226 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER when any rub or stop comes in the way she growes melancolike and kepes her chamber." On 6 November, 1624, he hears that " the French king is backward in the busines," but the match proceeds nevertheless, and on 4 December he writes : " The next day after I wrote last we had here great triumph and rejoycing for the goode forwardnes of the French match, by public commandment, the organs in Paules playde two howres on their lowdest pipes, and so began to the bells, the bells to the bonfires, the bonfires to a great peake of ordinance at the towre ; God graunt it may prove worth all this noise ; it was solemnised at Court the Friday before, where it was the more welcome because the newes came on the Princes birthday ; Tom Gary, a privado of the Princes bedchamber was dispatcht two dayes since into Fraunce with a love letter and some rich and rare Jewell to the Sposa ; we expect her here about the end of January." " The organs in Paules playde their lowdest " who was the organist ? He would scarcely feel flattered. A great many years later, on the occasion of a bazaar in St. George's Hall, Liverpool, the announcement appeared on the bills " The organ will play at intervals during the afternoon," but the organist was found strolling about among the bazaar stalls. Upon being questioned, he replied " I see it announced that the organ will play ; I'm waiting to hear it begin ! " After that they put his name in their announcements. After dwelling upon the costly entertainment of the French Secretary and Ambassador and others, Chamber- lain adds : " We say this Secretarie is to have audience at Cambridge, where the schollers must find out new flatterie, or feed him with crambe bis cocta that was served to the Spaniards there not long since upon like occasion. These continual entertainments, with am- bassages, maskes, manages and Mansfeld are like to kepe us bare enough, yet if the conclusion prove well we cannot thincke much of the cost The ren- CRITERION OF GRIEF 227 dezvous (for troops to fight under Count Mansfeldt) is now at Dover the 24th of this moneth I am not willing to shoote my bolt, but I am sorry to see we shold follow them and fight with them at their owne weapon, when God hath given us so many advantages by a shorter safer and lesse chargeable course. You may thincke I am as sullen or melancolike as he whom Paulus Junius mentions that when Charles the Fifth came to Rome and passed by his window wold not vouchsafe to looke out, because he had not decimated his souldiers that sackt the towne. So all the world here running after Mansfeld and wondering at him like an owle, I could not be drawne to make one step to see him, but was satisfied with the report of divers frends and acquain- tance that describe him to be as like your brother Carleton as a man may be." What about twenty or thirty years ago, Mr. Chamber- lain ? This scorn of window gazing is pure Anno Domini, if we are not much mistaken. On 28 December, 1624, Chamberlain, writing about the French Ambassadors, says : " They had audience both public and private (at Cambridge), the articles were agreed and signed On Thursday they were feasted by the Earle of Warwicke, and that afternoone visited the Duchesse of Richmond I cannot forget one goode passage of hers (though not at that time) that in discourse of the Lady of Southampton's losse and how grevously she tooke it, she used this argument to prove her owne greife was the greater ; for, quoth she, I blasphemed." " Our souldiers are marching on all sides to Dover, God send them goode shipping and goode successe, but such a rabble of rau and poore rascalls have not lightly ben scene, and go so unwillingly that they must rather be driven then led. You may guesse how base we are growne when one that was prest hung himself for feare or curst hart, another ran into the Thames, and after much debating with the constable and officers, 228 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER when he could not be dismist drowned himself ; another cut of all his fingers of one hand, and another put out his owne eyes with salt." A lively lookout indeed ! On 8 January, 1C25, Chamberlain writes : " The Duke of Brunswick went hence on new yeares day after he had tarried a just weeke and performed many visits The Duches of Richmond admitted him with a proviso that he must not offer to kisse her, but what was wanting in herself was supplied in her attend- ants and followers, who were all kist over twise in lesse then a quarter of an howre." " Our souldiers about Dover and in their way thither commit many fowle outrages and live as they say at discretion, and all the way as they passed spoyled as if it had ben in an ennemies countrie, which was not wont to be so, but either our people are growne more barbarous, or there is no goode order taken to provide for them ; howsoever it be it shewes we are but young warriers, and there goes more to the furnishing and setting out of an army then bare pen and incke. We heare they have mutined alredy so that Count Mansfeld durst not shew himself among them We wish him gon and in action for many reasons." This is a sorry picture of our levies for continental service ; Chamberlain is probably right in ascribing their lawlessness and contempt of discipline to the laxity of the times everyone was lax, from the King down- wards. On 12 February, 1625, Chamberlain writes that his law suit following upon the death of his brother Richard is concluded at last, not as favourably as he could have wished, " yet it was such as I will not greatly complaine of, seeing I am rid and released from a great deale of trouble with so litle losse as for 567 to go away with 400." He was rather lucky on the whole. " I doubt not but you have heard of the Lady Purbecke and her faire issue, which busines hath exercised this whole towne now a goode while, and will pose them all that deale in it if she sticke- still to her tackling and maintain her ground that it is her husband's, specially if he continue to avow it as they say he doth. There be many passages too long to recite, but this must not be omitted that the Lady of Suffolk geves out her sonne Robert (the reputed father) to be insufficient and so not liable to such a scandal." John Villiers, Viscount Purbeck, it will be recollected married a daughter of Sir Edward Coke ; Villiers was feeble in body and mind, and she deserted him. for a time at least, and became mistress to Sir Robert Howard. Chamberlain speaks of her " fair issue " as though it were a daughter ; as a matter of fact she had a son by Sir Robert. " The lady," Chamberlain says, " is kept somwhat straightly so that none of her frends or acquain- tance come neere her, yet she carries herself with such resolution that she shews herself to be her mother's owne daughter." There is more about this affair in a letter of 26 February, 1625 : " The Lady Purbecke, with her young son, and Sir Robert Howard are committed to the custodie of Generall Aldermen Barkham and Freeman to be close kept ; when she was carried to Sergeant's Inne to be examined by the new Lord Chief Justice and others she saide she marvayled what those poore old cockolds had to say to her " ; a very brazen young woman. She was further accused of practising upon her husband with potions and powders, and so forth. Chamberlain is, however, much more exercised in mind about public affairs at home and abroad than the adventures of Lady Purbeck and her paramour : " We heare that Mansfeld's troups are almost half starved, if it be so majus peccatum habent that should have made better provision and taken better order for them ; it will quite discourage our people to be thus sent to the slaughter, or rather to famine and pestilence ; the time hath ben when so many English as have ben sent into 230 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER those parts within these sixe or eight moneths wold have don somwhat, and made the world talk of them ; but I know not how we that have ben estemed in that kind more than other nations do begin to grow by degrees lesse then the least, when the basest of people in matter of courage dare brave and trample upon us ; I have knowiie the time when they durst not have offered the least of those indignities we have lately swallowed and indured ; but they (i.e., the Dutch) presume upon our patience and somwhat els, otherwise they wold have shewed some resentment, or geven some sign of their dislike of such barbarous crueltie by some notorious example upon the authors and actors, and not suffer the cheife instrument the Fiscall to walk up and downe Amsterdam untoucht and without anything saide to him, as we heare he doth, and turne us over for satis- faction till the return of I know not whom out of the Indies God knows when Now forsoth here be letters of mart (marque) geven out against the East Indian Companie, but I doubt our ships will see them (i.e., the Dutch privateers) and not see them, and upon far fetcht considerations forbeare." Chamberlain is very bitter, and with good cause. The affair to which he particularly alludes was the torture and murder of ten English subjects at Amboyna a small but very fertile island of the Molucca group, between Celebes and New Guinea by the Hollanders, on a flimsy pretext. The East India Company petitioned the King for redress and protection ; compensation was promised by the Dutch, but was withheld, as Chamber- lain complains, indefinitely. Writing on 12 March, 1625, Chamberlain tells of an extraordinary high tide, which did much damage in certain coastal counties ; Westminster Hall, he says, " was full three feet deep in water all over," which gives some idea of the remarkable rise. There is more talk of Gondomar's return, and the French match hangs fire unaccountably. DEATH OF JAMES 231 ' The King was overtaken on Sonday with a tertian ague, which continues yet, but without any manner of daunger if he wold suffer himself to be ordered and governed by phisicall rules." On 23 March, 1625, " there is great hope but no assurance " of the King's perfect recovery. The Lady Purbeck's case still excites great interest. She " aquits herself reasonablie well " before the Commission ; but " Sir Robert Howard was excommuni- cated openly at Paules Crosse on Sonday last, for contempt in refusing to answer " ; probably he refused, as many men similarly situated have done, from chival- rous motives ; but after all, silence can mean but one thing. On 9 April, 1625, Chamberlain writes of the death of King James, but spares the medical details, in which he is usually wont to revel. Of King Charles he says : " The King shews himself every way very gracious and affable, but the Court is kept more strait and privat then in the former time ; he is very attentive and devout at prayers and sermons, gracing the preachers and assemblie with amiable and cheerfull countenance, which gives much satisfaction, and there is great hope conceved that the world will every way amend, if the necessitie of the time constrain not the contrarie now at the first." On 23 April, 1625, Chamberlain writes : " I have not yet had the fortune to meet with the messenger that brought your letter of the 14th of this present ; and though he made goode speede yet here was a generall notice of the Prince of Oranges decease before he came ; I cannot greatly blame the Portugal Jew for putting it in adventure to dispatch him quickly if his case were so desperate. He is nothing so much lamented here as if he had died a yeare or two since, for we say he hath don nothing of late like himself, but hath brought his men to that passe, that instead of souldiers he hath made them altogether spademen and pioneers." 232 A JACOBEAN LETTER -WRITER This was Maurice, Prince of Orange, who reigned from 1618 to 1625 ; he is said to have been a very able general. Chamberlain writes as though Maurice had been assassinated, or his death at least hastened by the " Portugal Jew," whoever he may have been, but the biographies mention no such incident, alluding to his death as though it were quite natural. " I send you here certain verses of our Dean of Paules (Dr. John Donne) upon the death of the Marquis Hamil- ton, which though they be reasonable wittie and well don, yet I could wish a man of his yeares and place to give over versifieing." The Dean was only fifty -two at the time ; it seems hard if a man at that age may not indulge in a little versifying ! On 6 May, 1625, we hear of the marriage by proxy of Henrietta Maria of France with King Charles ; " the (French) King bringes her to Amiens, the Queue Regnant and Quene mother to Bollein (Boulogne), where it is thought our King will meet and receve her at theire hand." " Secretarie Morton is now in a faire way of thriving, the King having this last weeke bestowed upon him 500 a yeare pension during his life. The Lord of Andover is to have 20,000 in lieu of his mastership of the horse, besides beeing to be made an earle and a privie coun- saillor as the voyce goes ; these, and such like large allowances, do somwhat deminish the opinion conceved of the King's goode husbandrie ; I pray God we take it not too high at first, for then we cannot hold The Duke of Buckingham was never in greater favor, and all thinges passe by him," i.e., through him. Chamberlain misdoubts the King's " good husbandry," not without cause : no Stuart was ever a decent economist. King James's funeral took place on 7 May, 1625 ; " the greatest funerall," Chamberlain says, on 14 May, " that ever was knowne in England. . . . The Lord Keper (Bishop John Williams] tooke up two howres EPITAPH ON JAMES 233 in the sermon .... in summe all was performed with great magnificence, but the order was very confused and disorderly ; the whole charge is saide to arise to above 50,000." In a postscript to this letter Chamberlain writes : " Among many epitaphs and funerall elegies set out by Cambridge and Oxford and other choise witts upon the late King's death, I send you this short one, which I take to be Sir Isaac Wake's for it came thence in his hand." The enclosure is, for once in a way, preserved in the State Papers, and runs as follows: " Can a King die and we no Comet see ? Tell me, Astrologers, how this can be ? Heaven's Beacons burne not but to give alarme Unto a State of some ensuing harme. The Angells carrying up our blessed King Did with still musique his sweete Requiem sing. No Innovation being to be heard Why should Heaven summon men unto their guard ? His Spirit was redoubled on his sonne And that was scene at his Assumption." On 21 May Chamberlain writes : " The wind hanges so at Northwest that I doubt neither our letters nor yours can find passage ; els should we not be thus longe in suspense, by reason of a rumor that hath held these eight or nine dayes that our side (in the Palatinate war) hath receved a great blow " ; there is no confirmation of this in State Papers at the time. " Our parlement that was to begin on Tewsday is proroged till the last of this moneth, and it is doubted whether or where it will hold then, for if the sicknes increase as it begins, it is thought both that and the next terme shalbe removed to Oxford or Winchester ; our whole number this weeke was 379 ; of the plague 72 ; parishes infected 27 The King's funerall sermon is come forth, wherin the Lord Keper hath shewed a great deale of witt and learning in comparing King 234 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER James to King Solomon in all his actions, saving his vices." Well, well ! John Williams had to remember that he was a courtier as well as a bishop. Carleton apparently wrote confirming the rumour of disaster in the Palatinate, as Chamberlain writes on 28 May, 1625 : " I am sory to see our ill newes so fully confirmed by yours of the 7th of this present, but more sory for your niece Dakers, whose case is every way to be pitied ; I cannot so much lament the rest whose lives were well bestowed to redeeme us out of so dull a lethargic, and so make the world see our wonted courage is not quite lost." This was in reference to an incident at Breda. After the death of Prince Maurice of Orange in April, the chief action in relief of the garrison fell upon Sir Horace Vere, in command of the English levies. On 13 May, 1625, in accordance with a suggestion of Prince Frederic Henry, successor to Maurice, Vere led out 6,000 men at daybreak on a desperate enterprise, the capture of one of the principal redoubts which commanded the town. Under Vere's leadership the troops behaved splendidly, and succeeded in their object ; but they were subsequently driven out again by overwhelming numbers, fighting every inch of the way, and suffering heavy losses ; but, as Carleton says, their splendid conduct served to redeem the character of our soldiers, which had deteriorated. Chamberlain writes again on 12 June, 1625, about the delay and uncertainty of the new Queen's advent ; but before he closes he hears that she has arrived at Boulogne. " The sickness increaseth and is spred far and neere so that 25 parishes in this towne are infected alredy, and this weekes bill ariseth to 434 in all, of the plague 92 ; so that if God be not mercifull to us, this towne is like to suffer much and be halfe undon ; and that which makes us the more afraid is that the sicknes increaseth so fast when we have had for a moneth together the THE PLAGUE INCREASES 235 extremest cold weather that ever I knew in this season ; what are we then to looke for when heats come and fruits grow ripe Orlando Gibbon (Gibbons) the organist of the chappell (that had the best hand in England) died the last weeke at Caunterburie, not without suspicion of the sickness." In Orlando Gibbons, England lost a " sweet singer " ; his refined and scholarly compositions still delight musicians, and some of his five-part madrigals in par- ticular "The Silver Swan " are held to be the finest masterpieces ever produced in that category. He was organist of the Chapel Royal for more than twenty years. On 25 June, 1625, Chamberlain writes : " The sick- nes increaseth shrewdly upon us, so that this weeke died 640 in all, of the plague 239, and though this terme be abridged to the three first dayes and to the three last, yet we cannot find in our hearts to leave this towne as long as here is such doings by reason of the Quene's arrivall, and the sitting of the parlement. The feast that should have ben on Sonday was deferred till Tewsday, when the publication and confirmation of the articles was solemnised in the great rooms at Whitehall, where also the Ambassadors and all the French were then feasted, but neither King nor Quene present, nor likewise the next night at Yorke house whether they were all invited by the Duke of Buckingham and entertained with such magnificence and prodigall plentie both for curious cheere and banket that the like hath not ben seen nor knowne in these parts ; one rare dish came by mere chaunce, a sturgeon of full sixe foot long that afternoon not far from the place leaping into a scullers boat was served in at supper ; in all these shewes and feastings here hath ben such excessive braverie on all sides as bred rather a surfet then any delight in them that saw it ; and it were more fit and wold better become us to compare and dispute with such pompous kind of people in iron and steele then in gold and Jewells, wherin we come not neere them." 236 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER There is much sound common sense in Chamberlain's views about public affairs ; the sums of money spent over these gluttonous banquets would have gone some way towards discharging national liabilities and so forth. " In the meane time there is much urging and spurring the parlement for supplie and expedition, in both which I feare they will prove somwhat restive, though there be great cause and almost necessitie for both. It began the 28th of this moneth ; the King's speach was short, and the Lord Keper's not long. Among other thinges he told them they had drawne him into a warre and they must find meanes to maintain it, and that they need not doubt nor suspect his religion, seeing he was brought up at the feet of Gamaliel .... they begin to mutter about matters of religion, that the King promised them when he was Prince that he wold never contract any mariage with conditions derogatorie to that we professe ; they desire to understand what hath passed in that point, and the keeping of them close makes them suspect the move." There is a long interval of seven months between this and the next letter which is preserved in the Record Office ; it is dated 19 January, 1626. " I was glad to understand by your letter of the 13th of this present of your safe arrivall at Paris, but shold have ben more glad to have ben at hand to congratulate your first comming after so long absence. I came to towne the day of the date of your letter and was wel- commed with a sad accident, for that morning our house was on fire by the negligence of servants, but thanckes be to God though there were great feare and daunger yet there was no great losse I shalbe willing to waite upon my Lady Carleton when she returnes, though I know not well how to do it, being altogether unable to go so far on foote or in coach by reason of my infirmitie ; neither indeed do I take any pleasure in going abrode to see the decay and desolation of this towne, without hope almost in my time to see it VISCOUNT SITSTILL 237 better ; the coronation holds on Candlemas day, but privat without any shew or feast at Westminster hall. .... Great store of Scottish nobilitie is now at Court, and they say have offered in the name of that Kingdom to maintain 5000 men for the recoverie of the Palatinat, but they will have the paying and disposing of them themselves. We talk of great preparations to sea ; God send better successe then we have had hitherto ; some lay the blame on the desseign or counsell, the souldiers on their General Vicount Sitstill (Edward Cecil, Viscount Wimbledon) (as they now stile him), he on the seamen, but most on his Grace (Buckingham), and he on Sir Thomas Love, and so from post to pillar." This was the futile expedition against Cadiz, which was badly conceived and organised from the first, and placed under command of Edward Cecil, who was created Viscount Wimbledon when on the point of sailing from Plymouth. He was a man totally unfitted for such an enterprise, and the expedition turned out a ghastly and costly failure. Some charges against Wimble- don were placed before the Council, but Buckingham, upon whom the selection of leaders and the whole organisation had been laid by the King, caused the matter to be hushed up. On 7 March, 1626, Chamberlain wrote again to Sir Dudley Carleton, who was now Ambassador at Paris : " On Sunday I receved your letter without date, which was the more welcome bringing so much hope of a goode conclusion, which hath ben since seconded by a generall report that all is well agreed, wherin I cannot but con- gratulate your goode successe in so knottie and difficult business." It is to be regretted that more of Carleton's letters to his friend have not been preserved, as the allusions in Chamberlain's letters as in this instance are not very intelligible. " Our parlement talkes much but doth litle, yet they are now entered into deep points and have called the 238 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER Counsaile of Warre to account for their proceedings, and issueing the monies otherwise then was prescribed them ; they tooke time till this day to aunswer, what is passed I know not, for I have kept house these two dayes and taken a litle phisicke, more then I have don in a dousen yeares before ; but I presume the matter wilbe pacified, as well as that other yesterday, for having called for the Duke of Buckingham to aunswer for the managing of these French affaires, the upper house not allowing so peremptorie summons wold not suffer him to go in person, so that he sent the Atturney and another lawier to pleade and justify his manner of proceeding, who after many arguments and reasons made this finall conclusion, that what he had don was by the King's direct commandment." This was King Charles's idea of a " Constitutional Monarchy," which subsequently developed considerably. Buckingham had, as Chamberlain says, " one feather pluckt from his wing in the upper house in the matter of proxies of those that be absent, whereof he having eleven it was thought inconvenient that one or two men by that meanes might sway the house ; it was much disputed but in the end overruled that none shold have more then one besides his owne." " Here is a Persian Ambassador that had audience yesterday and should have had it a fortnight since but for an accident twixt him and Sir Robert Sherly, who comming to visit him accompanied with the Earle of Cleveland and others, after some few wordes the Persian fell upon him in a barbarous fashion and so beat him that he had almost worried him ; the reason of this outrage he sayes to be for that he is an impostor and abuses his Prince's name ; how it will fall out we shall see hereafter, but in the meane time most of our courtiers favor and run with Sir Robert Sherly." A curious incident ; Sir Robert Sherly was officially concerned in the trade with Persia, and subsequently it was arranged that he should sail with the pugnacious. A RASH MARRIAGE 239 Ambassador in one of the East India Company's ships ; but the Persian and his suite perhaps purposely missed their passage, and Sherly proceeded without them. " On Sunday the Earle of Arundell was committed to the towre for a match made by his sonne Lord Mal- travers with the Duchesse of Lennox daughter, which lady the King had designed to the Earle Argiles sonne for many important considerations, and was gon so far that in a manner all articles and conditions were agreed and nothing wanted but consummation, yet the younge couple by prevention (i.e., by previous action) were wedded and bedded." There was a great stir about this business ; Arundel had encouraged the match, but the young people were married without his knowledge. He refused to admit fault on his own part, and so was, as Chamberlain says, despatched to the Tower. The Lords, however, resented the King's action in arresting a member of their house while it was sitting, as a breach of their privileges, and took occasion to point this out to his Majesty ; the King replied that the Earl was confined for a matter concerning himself, and not on any public grounds ; the Lords put forward their case again, and so continued, Charles sending evasive replies, until they got tired of it, and passed a resolution that the business of the house should cease until Arundel was restored to his place ; this was early in June, the quarrel having lasted since March ; in three days the Earl was liberated. It is somewhat remarkable that the Earl of Arundel's name appears in the Lords' Journal as having been present during the whole period of his confinement ; this must have been done deliberately, in denial of the King's right to restrain him. " I send weekely to Westminster to heare of my Lady Carleton, but she hath not ben in towne now a goode while, nor I thincke will not appeare till your return, which I shold be glad to heare of for many good reasons, 240 A JACOBEAN LETTER-WRITER among the rest I have a litle commoditie of white muscadell, which I wold be sory should decay in colour or tast by longe lieng ; I have geven notice of it to my Lady to know how she wold have it disposed of, but have not yet heard from her. So wishing all health and happiness to your Lordship I commend you to the protection of the Almighty. From London this 7th of March, 1625 (26). " Your Lordships most assuredly at command, " JOHN CHAMBERLAIN." Thus ends the last letter extant of John Chamberlain ; he may have written more, indeed it is probable that he did, but they have not been preserved. He died just two years later, and was buried as already recorded. There is no mention of any monument or tablet having been erected in his memory ; if there was such a memorial in St. Olave's, Jewry, it was of course destroyed in the great fire. The deficiency may perhaps be not inaptly supplied at the conclusion of this survey of his life and times ; the reader will probably not quarrel with it : John Chamberlain ; most assuredly an upright man and a faithful friend. APPENDIX I INQUISITIONES POST MORTEM. AT an inquest held on 20 June, 1539, concerning the will and estate of Richard Stace, who died many years previously, it was found that Wynne Chamberleyn was Rector of the Church of St. Christopher in the year 1433. l Probably he was of the same family as John Chamberlain ; being a cleric, he would not have any direct descendants. Richard Chamberlayne (or Chamberleyn) died 28 August, 1496; at the inquest held 4 March, 1497, it was found that he was seised of a wharf called Haywharf and some tenements in Battyslane in the Ward of Dowegate ; worth ^13 6s. 8d. per annum ; and that Edward, aged 1 6 years and more, was his son and heir. 2 At the inquest on William Coope, 15 June, 1513 Edward Chamberleyn is named as having been enfeoffed by Coope of certain messuages, etc., in 1512 ; this is most probably Edward, son of Richard, mentioned in the former inquest ; he would be about thirty-two years of age. 8 Thomas Chamberleyn was a juror on inquisitions at the Guildhall, 23 March 1493, 23 July 1498, 9 June 1502.* At the inquisition on Luke Wyborne, 16 July, 1540, it was stated that Luke was an idiot, incapable of managing his own affairs, and that since the death of his father, Nicholas, the profits of the business have been taken by Thomas Chamberleyn, pewterer of London. 5 This may or may not be the same Thomas ; the two inquisitions, 1493 and 1540, cover a good deal of ground. William Chamberleyn was a juror in London i October, I489. 6 At an inquistion held at the Guildhall, n March, 1566 (i.e., 1567), on Richard Chamberlaine, citizen and Alderman of London, allusion is made to the will of Robert Downe in which he leaves certain property to his wife, Margery, " if she remain sole and unmarried " ; afterwards to " my son-in-law, Richard Chamberlaine, and my daughter his wife, for their lives ; after their decease the same to remain to their children and their heirs for ever, as they shall declare by their will." Robert Downe died 30 November, 1556 ; the date of his wife Margery's death is not stated, but Richard Chamberleyn and his wife, Anne (or Anna) then entered into possession of the estate. Anne died 27 March, 1561, aged 38 ; Richard died 19 November, 1566 ; his age is not stated. Robert was his son and heir, aged 21 years and more. He had issue Robert, Thomas, Richard, Alexander, John, and George; Elizabeth, wife of Hugh Stuklie, and Margery. 7 At an inquisition on William Chapman, citizen and ironmonger, 28 November, 1580, it was stated that, long before the death of William Chapman, Robert Chamberleyn, citizen and ironmonger, sold to William certain messuages, etc. 8 This was almost certainly Richard Chamber- leyn's eldest son, who had succeeded to his father's business ; and 1 Inq. P. Mortem, London (1485 1561), p. 72. 2 Ibid p. 13. * Ibid p. 28. * Ibid pp. 9, 10, 14, 18. Ibid p. 67. Ibid p. 6. * Ibid (1561 1577) p. 66 et seq. Ibid (15771603) pp. 37, 3S. 242 APPENDIX II probably it is this same Robert who is mentioned at an inquisition on William Skidmore, 7 October, idoi. 1 There is mention, also, at an inquisition on 8 June, 1543, of Leonard Chamberlayne, of Woodstock, in the County of Oxford ; he and Richard Andrewe were seised of a messuage, etc., m the parish of St. Botolph. 2 He may very possibly have been of the same family, as he was seised of property in London. There was likewise one William Chamberlayne who was granted a license 22 November, 1546, for his marriage with Katharine Lambe ; he is described as " of the King's houshold " ; 3 and Thomas (or Sir Thomas) appears many times in State Papers at the end of the reign of Henry VIII., as " Governor of the English merchants at Antwerp " ; he would be a contemporary of Richard (died 1566), but there is no clue to any relationship between them. 1 Ibid p. 309. * Ibid (14851561) pp. 64, 65. Marriage Licenses (Harl. Soc.), Vol. XXIV., p. 8. APPENDIX II The Will of John Chamberlain, of the parish of St. Mary Alderman- bury ; dated 18 June, 1627. His soul to God, etc. My body to be buried in the parish of St. Olave's in the old Jewry, where I was born and christened, and where my father, my mother, my brother Robert and other friends are interred. My funeral I would have performed with as little trouble and charge as may be answerable to the still and quiet course I have always sought to follow in my life time ; and for my goods I dispose them in this manner : I give and bequeath to the poor of the parish of St. Olave's in the old Jewry where I was born five pounds lawful money of England, and to the poor of St. Mary Aldermanbury ten pounds, to be distributed as my executor shall think fit ; further, I bequeath to the poor prisoners in Ludgate ten pounds, to the poor prisoners in the Counter in the Poultry five pounds, to the poor prisoners in the Counter in Wood Street five pounds, and to the poor distracted people in Bedlam five pounds. Item I give and bequeath to the Rt. Hon. the Lord Carleton, Baron of Imbercourt, a bason and ewer of silver of one hundred ounces or thereabout to the value of thirty pounds of English money, likewise to the Lady Winwood, late wife of Sir Ralph Winwood, Knight, principal Secretary to King James, and to the Lady Fanshawe, late wife to Sir Henry Fanshawe, to each of them a bason and ewer of silver to the same value of thirty pounds. To Sir William Borlas (Borlase ?) the elder a ring of gold ; to my sister Poole a ring of gold, to Mr. Alexander Williams of the Pipe Office and his wife to each a ring of gold, to Mr. Dudley Carleton son of George Carleton Esq. a ring of gold, and to Mrs. Anne Smith sister to Doctor Gilbert and wife to Smith gentleman a ring of gold. To my nephew Sir Thomas Stewkeley Knt. the sum of two hundred pounds and to his eldest son Sir Hugh Stewkeley Knight and Baronet APPENDIX II 243 and to his second son Thomas Stewkeley to each of them twenty pounds ; and to my niece the Lady Drewrie late wife of Sir Henry Drewry (sic) twenty pounds, and to my nephews Edmond, John, Zack- arie, Francis, George sons of my sister Windham deceased, and to my niece the Lady Stroode their sister to each of them the sum of twenty pounds ; and to my cousin Edmund Windham (eldest son of my nephew Thomas Windham) the like sum of twenty pounds. Item I give and bequeath to my goddaughter Rebecca Tothill daughter to my cousin Tothill dwelling in the parish of St. Giles without Cripple- gate the sum of twenty pounds. To Anne late wife of my brother George deceased and now wife of John Poole Esquire and Alderman one annuity or yearly rent of fifty pounds for the terra of her natural life, to be issuing out of all that my manor or Lordship of Sutton Cannocke with appurtenances in the county of Lincoln and out of all my lands, tenements, and hereditaments in Sutton Cannocke in the same county of Lincoln, to be paid to her or her assigns at the Feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin St. Mary, and St. Michael the Archangel every year during her natural life, by even and equal portions, the first payment to be made upon such of the said Feasts as shall happen next after my death ; which said annuity or rent charge I do give and bequeath to the said Anne Poole in lieu and recompense of one annuity of fifty pounds heretofore usually paid to her by my late brother Richard Chamberlain deceased during his life in consideration of accounts cleared between my said brother George Chamberlain and my said brother Richard Chamberlain as being joint executors of the last will and testament of my late brother Robert Chamberlain deceased. I give and bequeath to my dearest friend Mrs. Alice Carleton one annuity of forty pounds for the term of her natural life, to be issuing out of that my manor and Lordship (etc. , as above, and to be paid at the same times). Further I give and bequeath to Mrs. Alice Carleton six hundred pounds and my inlaid cabinet that usually stands upon the low shelf next my bed, with all that shall be in it at the time of my decease, and whatsoever else she hath of mine in her custody ; and this I do in regard of the ( ?) goodwill and honest affection I bear her out of the true and long continued friendship between us, for a testi- mony of that further good I intended to her if God had given me means. To my nephew Thomas Windham of Knefford in the County of Somerset Esquire all that manor of Minsterworth in the County of Gloucester and the manor of Etloe in the same county (both which are holden of the King in fee farme) to him and his heirs for ever. Also I give to the said Thomas Windham the sum of two hundred pounds ; to John Cuffe, sometime servant to my brother Richard twenty pounds and one part or share in the Bermudas or Somers Islands ; a part or share in the same to my servant, Richard Keene also the sum of forty pounds and all my wearing apparel, if he be in my service at the time of my death ; if not, then so much of the money and wearing apparel as the executor may see fit to the servant then attending on me. To each of the servants in my nephew Hugh Windham 's house the sum of forty shillings. To Hugh Windham my manor or Lordship of Sutton Cannocke, Lincoln, with all the appurtenances (charged with the annuities above mentioned) as likewise all other lands that I shall leave undisposed, or houses in Greenwich, Sollihill, Studlie or elsewhere and likewise all my parts and shares, title and interest in the Bermudas or Somers Islands or in Virginia to have and to hold to him and his heirs for ever. All these legacies and sums of money mentioned and given by this my last will and testament I will to be paid in six months after my 244 APPENDIX III decease. The rest of my goods undisposed my debts legacies and funeral discharged to my said nephew Hugh Windham, whom I do likewise make and appoint my whole and sole executor, desiring him and charging him upon his conscience to see this my last will and testament performed etc. And this I have devised and written with mine own hand, hoping it will serve to express my meaning, and that my executor will truly and readily perform it as my trust is in him. Witnesses Anthony Ouldfield, Lawrence Chambers, John Burton, Richard Keene. Proved on 13 March, 1627 28. APPENDIX III I. Thomas Chamberleyn living 1502 (Inq. P. Mortem). II. William Chamberlyn living 1489 (Inq. P. Mortem). III. Richard Chamberlyn ; married S ibilla ; d. 28 Aug., 1496 (Inq. P. Mortem) ; had issue (i) Edward Chamberleyn ; b. circa 1481; living 1513 (Inq. P. Mortem) ; had issue (i) Richard Chamberleyn, Ironmonger and Alderman of London ; married, 3 Jan., 1542, Anne, dau. of Robert Downe, citizen and Ironmonger of London (b. 1523, buried 3 March, 1562) ; d. 19 Nov., 1566 (Inq. P. Mortem, Mon. Inser. St. Olave's) ; had issue I. Elizabeth, bap. 5 Jan., 1543 ; married Hugh Stukeley ; d. before 1627 ; had issue Sir Thomas Stukeley, Knt. ; he had issue Sir Hugh Stukeley, Bart., and Thomas. II. Margery, bap. 2 May, 1544, died in infancy. III. Robert, bap. i Feb., 1546 ; bur. 19 Dec., 1607. IV. Thomas, bap. 28 May, 1547 ; d. before 1627. V. Richard, bap. 2 Aug., 1548 ; d. xoFeb., 1624. VI. Alexander, bap. 24 Feb., 1550 ; d. before 1627. VII. Margery, bap. 4 March, 1551 ; married Edmund Windham ; d. before 1627 ; had issue Thomas, Edmund, John, Zachary, Francis, George ; Thomas had issue, Edmund. VIII. Anne, bap. 13 July, 1552 ; d. before 1627. IX. JOHN CHAMBERLAIN, Letter Writer ; b. 15 Jan., 1554 ; bur. 20 March, 1628. X. Alice, bap. 3 Nov., 1556 ; bur. 3 Jan., 1558. XI. George, bap. 14 June, 1558 ; married Anne (living 1627 ; she afterwards married John Poole) ; d. circa 25 March, 1616. Richard Chamberleyn married, secondly, Margaret, a widow. NOTE. All the dates of baptisms and burials are from the Register of St. Olave's, Jewry. INDEX OF PERSONS Abbot, George, Archbishop of Canterbury '" -__. Abercrombie, Sir Abergavenny, Lord Adrian, Emperor . . Aerssens, the Greffier Alabaster, William Albert, Archduke . . Allen, Thomas . . Anne, Queen of James I. 35, 197, 19 2O6 149 118 54 77 24, 25, 129 14 95 70, g5, 103, no, 10, 15, 18 .. 9 .. 56 .. 107 .. 6r .. 61 35, 72, 73 33 53 133, 143, 147, 150, 155, 164, 165, 168, 175, 178, 179, 197 Archie, a Jester 181, 182 Argyle, Earl of 239 Arundel, Alatheia, Countess of .. 211, 212 Ashmole, Elias . . . . . . . . 149 Audley, Sir Thomas . . . . . . 206 Auchmuty, 149 Bacon, Elizabeth 155 Sir Francis (Lord Verulain and Viscount St. Albans) 106, 109, no, 128, 145, 155, 156, i6r, 163, 168, 169, 172, 187, 188, 191, 192, 194, 195 Sir Nicholas . . 155, 169, 177 Badger, Sir Thomas Bagenal, Sir Henry . . 9 Mabel Bainham, Sir Edward Bainton, . Ball, Elizabeth Nicholas Bancroft, Richard, Archbishop . Barbary, Kins of . . Barker, Robert , Barnevelt, 16 Bedells, Mrs. 186 Beecher, Mr. 170 Beeston, Hugh 3, 69 Bellannine, Cardinal . . . . 78, 79 Berkeley, Sir Maurice . . . . . . 127 Bertram, . 151, 152 Bilson, . . . . . . . . . . . 207 Bishop Thomas . . 107, 139, 140 Bingham, Sir Richard 15 Bingley, Sir John .. .. 171, 172, 182 Birch, Thomas sv. (and n) xvi., 12, 146 Bodley, Sir Thomas 10, 61, 94, 95, 96, 103, 188 Bo'eyn, Anne 57, 80 Mary 57 Borlase, Sir William 243 Borrough, Lord . . . . . . . . 2 Bouillon, Duke of . . . . . . 100 Bowes, Lady 163 Bracciano, Duke of . . . . 34 Bray, . . . . . . . . . . . 108 Brett, Arthur 222 Bridges, John . . . . . . . . 86 Bristol, Earl of 209 Bromby, Sir Henry . . . . . . 56 Brooke, Calisthenes . . . . . . 2 Bruce, John . . . . . . . . xiv. Bruckshaw, 132 Brunswick, Duke of . . . . . . 228 Brydges, Sir Samuel E Brysto, John, Buckhurst, Thomas Sackville, Lord Buckingham, Countess of Bucklaw, Master of Burlamachi, . Burghley, Lord . . 13, 14, 16, 17, 160, 176 Burrell, Sir Mannaduke . . . . . . 134 Burton, John . . . . . . . . 244 Calvert, Sir George . . . . . . 178 Camden, William .. 7, 170, 193 215 Carew, George, Lord . . . . . 30 Carey, George, Lord Huusdon Henry, Lord Hunsdon Mr 58 241 10 1 80 181 223 -- Sir Robert . . . . 55, 57. g so ..,..,. Jjt jit J^t jy - William ........ 57 Carleton, Alice, xiii., 4, 42, 69, 93, no, 113, 122, I3 2, 13 5, 244 - 555 t ' ' ' ' 42 ' 43, 73 t" et ,,i 42> 43> 94 -- Sir Dudley, is., x., xiv., xv., i, 5, 6, 7, 8, 37, 40, 42, 43, 47, 51, 52, 53, 62, 64, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 73, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 91, 94, 113, 120, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 129, J3i, 143, 164, 178, 188, 237, 243 - Dudley (junr.) ...... 243 - George . . 2, 16, 29, 141, 202, 243 - Lady . . 162, 188, 236, 239, 240 Carr, ........... J2 Anne -- Sir Robert (afterwards Earl of Somer- set) 71, 84, 88, 89, 91, 96, 97, 103, 107, icS, 109, no, 112, 122, 124, 134, 140, 141, 143, 144, 145, 148, 149, 150, 158, 168, 202 Carlisle, Countess of ...... 208 Caron, Sir Noel ...... 130, 143 Gary, Mrs. . . . . . . . . . . 38 - Thomas . . . . . . . . 326 Cavendish, Elizabeth ...... 90 Cecil, LaJy Diana . . . . . . . . 176 - Sir Edward(Viscount Wimbledon) 165,237 - Sir Robert (afterwards Earl of Salis- bury) 8, 9, 13, 22, 25, 26, 66, 67, 68, 71, 74, 84, 87, 89, 92 -- William, Earl of Salisbury 1:2, 172 Challoner, Sir Thomas . . . . . . 56 Chamberlain, Alexander (brother of John) 241, 345 - Alice ...... 245 - Anne . . . . . . 245 -- Elizabeth (wife of H. Stuke- ley) 38, 241, 245 - George (brother of John) . . 241, 244, 245 - John, his birth, parentage, letters, travels, etc., and death ix. 245 passim. - Margery (wife of Edmund Windham) ...... 6, 241, 243, 245 - Margery d. in infancy) 241, 245 -- Richard (brother of John) . . 216, 228, 241, 244, 245 - Robert (brother of John) . . xii., 241, 244, 243, 245 -- Thomas (brother of John) 241,245 Chamber-lay ne, Andrew ..... . 242 Edward (living 1489) .. 241 - Leonard . . . . . . 242 Richard (d. 1496) . . x., 241, 244. 245 - fcimon . . . . 12 Sir Thomas . . . . 242 - William . . . . . . 243 Edward (living 1513) x., 245 Margaret . . . . xi., 241 - (Chanbeilain), (father of John) x., xi., xii., xiii., 241, 245 Sibiila ...... 245 Thomas (living 1502) 241, 245 William (living 1489) 241, 245 Wynne . . . . . . 241 Chambers, Lawrence ...... 244 Chapman, William ........ 242 Charles I. xiv., 59, 74, 155, 164, 166, 169, 177, 183, 192, 196, 206, 208, 209, 210, 211, 212, 213, 214, 215, 23r, 232, 235, 236, 238, 239 Cheyney, Kate ........ 38 Chichester, Sir John ...... 18 Churt, Sir Walter ........ 120 Clare, Mistress ........ 136 Clarke, ........... 107 Clement VIII., Pope ...... 79 Cleveland, Earl of 238 Clinton, Henry, Earl of Lincoln .. ..117 Cobham, Lord . . . . . . 15, 59 Cocke, Sir Henry 4 Cokayne, Sir William . . 145, 185, 214, 215 Coke, Sir Edward 49, 53, 106, 146, 147, 148, 150, 151, 153, 159, 160, 163, 166, 183, 192, 201, 204, 229 Lady (sometimes styled Lady Hatton) t6o, 163, 164, 165, 166, 176 Sir Robert . . . . . . . . 160 Compton, Lady 160, 166 Lord . . . . 3, 157, 165, 209 William, Earl of Northampton 181, 182 Conie, . . . . . . . . . . . 157 Connisbie, Sir . .. .. .. ..119 Cope, Lady . . . . 66, 82, 83 Sir Walter 62, 65, 66, 67, 70, 81, 82, 83, 84, 89 Sir William 145 Coope, William 241 Corbet, Dean 203 Craig, Dr 103 Cranbourne, Lord 68 Cranfield, Sir Lionel (Earl of Middlesex) . . 174, 176, 217, 219, 220, 221, 222, 223, 224 Craven, Sir William 165 Creichton, Robert, Lord Sanquhair . . 90 Crew, Sergeant 150 Thomas 120 Crofte, Sir John 183 Cromwell, Edward, Lord .. .. 14 Cuffe, John . . . . . . . . 244 Mr 187 Cumberland, Earl of 23 Dale, Sir Thomas .. .. .. 146, 147 Danvers, Sir Charles 16 Sir Henry .. .. 16, 56 Darcy, Sir Charles 55 Sir Francis . . . . . . 162 Lord 163 Darnley, James . . . . . . . . 90 Davidson, John . . . . . . . . 80 Davies, John 56 Davis, Sir J-ohn . . . . . . . . 102 Davison, William 80 Derby, Earl of 3 Devereux, Robert, Earl of Essex (2) 98, 105, rt2, 141, 144 Digges, Sir Dudley 120,197 Dingwell, Lord 159 Donne, Dr John . . . . . . . . 232 Dormer, Mighell 3, 60 Robert (afterwards Earl of Car- narvon) . . . . . . 138 Sir Robert 137 138 Dorrell, Sir Marmaduke 139 Dove, John 42, 73 Downe, Ann, wife of Richard Chamber- leyn xii , 245 Margery . . . . . . . 241 Robert .. .. xii., 241, 245 Drewry, Sir Henry., .. .. .. 243 Lady . . . . . . . . 243 Drummond, Bishop 79 Jane 112 Lord . . . . . . 62 Dudley, Anne 30 Sir Robert .. ..78, 86, 87 Duns, . . . . . . . . . . 4 Edmondes, Sir Thomas . . n, 51, 132 Edmonds, Clement . . . . . . 129 Edmunds, Mr 38 Edward 1 35 Effingham, Lord . . . . . . . . 62 Eleanor, Queen . . . . . . 35 Elizabeth, Princess 74, 95, 96, 100, 119, 193, 212 Queen ix., xv., 16, 17, 19, 20, 2r, 23, 25, 27, 34, 35, 37, 4, 4S, 49, 5, Si, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 78, 80, 90, 132, 154, 176. 217 Elphinstone, James . . . . 78, 79 Elwes, Sir Gervasse . . 99, 106, 142, 145 Essex, Robert Devereux, Earl of . . 3, , 7, 13, 16, 17, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 32, 36, 65 Everard, Sir 102 Evers, Mr 2 Sir Peter 4 Exeter, Countess of .. .. 177, 183 Fanshawe, Lady 186, 243 Sir Henry . . . . 141, 243 Fefle, Mackhugh 2 Fenton, Lord .. 157 Finch, Sergeant 150 Finet, Sir John 201 Mr , . . 87, 125 Flaskett, Chaplain 73 Floyde, 193, 195, 196 Foscarini, Antonio 212 Fuller, Nicholas (barrister) . . 71, 72 Nicholas (writer) . . . . 72 Fullerton, Sir James 58 Garrett, a Jester . . . . . . . . 47 Gawdye, Anne .. .. .. ..177 Sir Bassingbourne . . 32, 177 Gent, Mr 12, 53, 95 German, Sir Thomas .. .. -.149 Gerrard, Sir Thomas . . . . 23 Gibb, . . . . . . . . . . . 140 Gibbons, Orlando . . . . . . . . 235 Giflord, Sir Richard 30 Gilbert, Dr. William . .4, 5, 8, 37, 38, 243 Gcndomar, Conde de . . . , . . 224 Goodman, Biship Godfrey . . . . lot Goodwin, George 2 Gordon, Dean . . . . . . . . 62 Goore, Thomas . . . . . . xi., xiii Goring, Sir George 149 Gray, Patrick, 6th Baron . . . . 79 Green, Richard . . . . . . . . 1 57 Greville, Sir Fulke . . . . 44, 126 Grey of Wilton, Lord . . 3, 59, 100 Hackwell, Pope .. 120, 127, 133, 196 Haddingion, Lady . . . . . . 149, 150 Haddock, Richard . . . . . . 62, 63 Hal (" the lawyer ") . . . . . . 200 Ha'l, Thomas 86 Hamilton, Marquis of .-165, 167, 175, 232 Hardwick, Elizabeth . . . . 90, 91 John . . . . . . . . 90 Harrison, . .. .. .. .. 165 Harvey, Lady .. .. .. .. 181 Sir Sebastian (Lord Mayor) 179, 180, 181, 189, 190 Hatton, Sir Christopher 148 Hawton, Sir Gilbert . . . . . . 149 Hay, James (afterwards Earl of Carlisle) i3 8 , 139, 148 150, 156, 157, 161, 162, 165, 1 66. 208 Heath, Mr Henri ckson, . Henrietta Maria of France Henry IV. of France VI. VIII. 17, -I74 ..149 221, 232, 234, 235 34 35 38, 80, 2O6, 210, 213, 217 . . too 74, 89, 91, 92 106 3133, us ..157 145 Count Prince of Wales Herbert, Sir Henry Heydon, Sir John Hill, Adam .. Hollis, Sir John Hoschelius, 85 Hoskins, John . . . . 119, 120, 121 Howard, Charles, Lord Effingham. . .. 185 Charles, Earl of Nottingham . . 1 7, 24, 32, 46, 49, 50, 52, 61, 62, 87, xor, 102, 107, 134, 167, 168, 185 Lady Frances (Countess of Essex and Somerset) 98, 99, 102, 103, 105, 108, no, 136, 141, 142, 143, 144, 145, 156, 158, 202 Howard, Lord Henry (afterwards Earl of Northampton) 59, 60, 89, 98, 101, 105, 106, 107, no, in, 120, 121, 122, 153 Philip, Earl of Arundel 49, 50, 153, 154 Sir Robert . . 160, 229, 230 Theopbilus, Lord of Walden 62,182 Thomas, 4th Duke of Norfolk . . 59, 60, 206, 211 Thomas, Earl of Arundel 50, 153, 154, 159, i fi 6, 192, 193, 194, 195, 196, 198, 2IO, 211, 239 Lord Thomas (afterwards Ear) of Suffolk) 3, 15, 49, 86, 97, 98, in, 122, 134, 154, 161, 171, 172, 176, 182, 186, 187, 198, 206 Thomas, Viscount Andover 202, 232 Sir William 78 Ingram, Sir Arthur .. 134, 135, 136, 139 Inijosa, Marquis of .. .. 211, 223 Isabella, Infanta 14, 221 James I. . . ix., xv., 11, 48, 55, 57, 5, 59, 60, 63, 69, 70, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 82, 83, 84, 9 1 , 9 2 > 95, 96, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 107, 108, 109, iio, 114, 115, 117, 118, 119, 121, 122, 123, 126, 128, 129, 130, 132, 133, 134, 135, 136, 137, 139, 14, 145, 146, 147, 148, 150, 152, 153, 155, 157, 159, 160, 163, 164, 165, 166, 167, 168, 169, 172, 173, 174, 175, J 7 6 > J 77, J/ 8 , i79, 180, 181, 183, 184, 185, 187, 188, 189, 190, 192, 194, 195, 197, 200, 203, 204, 105, 108, 109, 210, 217, 218, 219, 220, 221, 225, 228, 231, 233, 243 Jones, Mr 71, 74 Keene, R'chard 244 Kirkham, Mr 87 Knolles, Lord 134, 141 Knollys, William, Viscount Wallingford. . 176 Lad, Thomas Ladislaus, Prince of Poland Lake, Lady Sir Thomas 101, 107, 169, 177, 183 Lakes, Mr 55 Leicester, Robert Dudley. Earl of Lennox, Duchess of Margaret, Countess of Lesieur, Sir Stephen Leveson, Sir Richard Lidcott, Sir Rhomas Lisle, Lord Longe, Captain Lorrain, Duke of . . Lovell, Mrs. Lytton, Mrs. Rowland 7, 13, 21, 23, 29, 30, 38, 60, 68. 82 William 68 Maltravers, Lord 239 Manners, Lady Katherine (Marchioness 01 Buckingham* . . . . 198, 201, 203, 208 Mansel, Sir Edward 31 Captain Rhys 18 (Mansfield), Sir Robert 31, 32, 33, 46, 100, 101, ic2, 155, 171, 185, 186, 187, 190, 196 Mansfeldt, Count . . 219, 225, 226, 228, 229 Maria, Infanta of Spain . .206, 209, 219, 221 Marie de Medici 34 Martin, Richard 173 Mary, Queen of Scots . . . . 57, 60, 90 Mathew, Tobias (Archbiship of York) . . 5, 15.5, 200 Tobie 2, 5, 74, 156, 168, 170, 200, 213, 224 Maunsell, Richard 72 Maynard, Henry 14 McDonnell, Sir James 18 Michelbourue, Sir Edward . . . . 65 Micbell, Sir Francis . . . . 194, 195 Mildmay, Sir Anthony 2 Milwoode, Dr 63 Mompesson, Sir Giles . . . . . . 190 Monday, William 21 Monson, Sir William . . . . 43 45 7-2 107 197 78, 87, 94 239 .. go 129, 130 4345 .. 105 122, 149 [80 4 29 Montagu, Sir Henry 152 Bishop James 128 Montagu, Sergeant 150 Montgomery, Earl of .. 107, 152, 157 Moore, . . . . . . . . . . . 217 John 161 Dr. Norman . . . . . . 91 i:orton, Secretary 232 Mountjoy, Ixsrd . . . . . . 3, 208 Muly, Hamet Xarife 33 Murray, Earl of . . . . . . . . 62 Thomas . . . . . . . . 209 Murry (Murray ?) Mistress . . . . 140 Naunton, Sir Robert 210 Neile, Richard, Bishop oi Lincoln 116, 117, 120, 121 Nevill (Lord Latimer) 56 Nevule, Christopher .. .. 118, 120 Nichols, John G. . . . . . . 30, 31 Norris, Sir Edward 8, 14, 50, 51, 52, 146 Francis, Earl of Berkshire 202, 203 Sir John . . . . . . . . 2 Lady 3, 64 Lord 62, 64 Sir Thomas .. .. -.2,3 North, Sir John . . . . . . . . 4 Orange, Frederic Henry, Prince of . . 234 Orange, Maurice, Prince of 100, 231, 232, 234 Ormond, Earl of . . . . . . 18 Ouldfield, Anthony. . . . . . . . 244 Overbury, Sir Thomas 88, 96, 97, 98, 99, 105, 109, in, 136, 148 Owen, John . . . . . . . . 213 Sir Roger . . . . . . . . 120 Palatine, Henry, Prince of 96, 100, 123, 193, 212 50, 51, 52 Parry, Sir Thomas Pasfield, Dr. Patten, John Pawlet, Mr. Pay ton, . . . Sir John . Peacham, Edmond Henry Peacocke, Pelham, Sir John . Lady Pembroke, Earl of Pepys, Samuel 73 72 ..127 ..56 127, 128, 129 ..129 ..183 107, 122, l8S xii, (n) Percy, Henry, Earl of Northumberland.. IO , 39, 4, 66, 67, 68, 156, 158, 162, 196 Lord . . . . . . . . 208 Lady Lucy (w'fe of James. Lord Hay) . . . . 156, 162, 166, 168 Thomas 67 68 Peter (Petre ?) Sir George . . . . 224 Philaret, Metropolitan .. .. .. 160 Philip I. of Spain 3> 6 II. of Spain 14,15 130 HI* of Spain .. .. .. 221 Pine, John 52 146, 147 243, 244 243 - 145 .- 32 146, 147 Pocahoutas, Virginian Princess Poole, Anne John Pope, Sir William Popham, Chief Justice PowhatUn, Virginian Chief Purbeck, Viscountess . . 228, 229, 231 Questor, Postmaster . . . . . . 132 Radclifle, Lady Elizabeth .. ..75 Raleigh, Lady 84 Sir Walter xvi , 3, 16, 59, 84, 172, 173 Ramsay, John (afterwards Earl of Holder- ness) Rich, Sir Henry . . Lord .. Sir Robert . . Richmond, Duchess of Duke of Ricot, - . . Robinson, Roe, Sir Thomas 75, 76, 77, 157 149, 150 3, 163 86, 87, 148 . 227, 228 . . 211 223 .. 174 .- 30 Rolfe, John . . . . . . . . 146, 147 Udall, . . 107 Thomas . . . . . . . . 147 Umpton, Lady . . . . . . . 16 Romanov, Michael, Emperor of Russia 106, 107 Room, Henry C -52 Underbill, Sir Hercules . . . . 42, 94 Veltzer, Signor . . . . . . 85 Roper, Ann . . . . . . . . . . 155 Venner (Vennar) Richard . . 47 48 Sir John . . . . . . . . 145 Rowe, Sir Thomas 185 Vere, Sir Francis . . . . . . 3, 39, 40 Roxborougb, Lord 112 Russell, Sir William . . . . 2, 171 William, 5th Earl of Bedford.. 141 Ruthven, Alexander . . . . 75, 76, 77 John, Earl of Cowrie . . 75, 76, 77 Rutland, Earl of 149, 198 St. John, Oliver, Lord .. .. at, iSi " Black " Oliver . . . . 127 St. Ledger, Lady Arabella . . . . 78 St. Luc, Mdlle 208 Sackville, Sir Edward . . . . 151, 152 Salisbury, Countess of .. .. ..no Sandes, Edwin .. .. .. .. 120 Vernon, Elizabeth (Countess of South- ampton) .. .. 16, 20, 227 Sir John . . . . . . . . 20 Villiers, Christopher 154, 180, 181, 189, 202 George (afterwards Duke of Buck- ingham) .. .. 124,145,149,150,152, i54i 157. 160, 163, 164, 165, 167, 168, 172, 176, 177, 183, 191, 195, 196, 197, 198, 201. 208, 209, 215, 218, 232, 235, 237, 238 John (Viscount Purbeck) 160, 165, 204, 229 Wade, Sir William 99 Wake, Sir Isaac . . 123, 125, 225, 233 Sara, a maid . . . . . . . . 1 77 Savile, Sir Henry .. .. .. 94, 165 Sir John .. .. .. 119, 120 Savoy, Duke of 125 Scorie, Silvanus .. .. .. ..136 Wallingford, Lady . . . . . . 201, 202 William, Viscount . . . . 201 Wallop, Sir Henry .. .. 28, 30 Lady 29, 38 Mr. . . . . . . . . 4 Scrope, Lady 58 Lord 203 Scudamore, Sir James 16 Lady .. .. .. 16 Winifred 28 31 Walpole, Edward . . . . . . 21, 22 Walsingham, Sir Francis . . . . . . 94 Walter, Sir William .. .. 151 Philip 4 Serle Mr 60 Walthall, Anthony . . . . xi., 241 Seymour, . . . . . . . 107 Sir William . . . . ..91 Weekes, .' 179 We!don, Sir Aathony . . . . . . 101 Sheffield, Lord 78 Sheldon, Elizabeth 181 Thomas 181 Shelton, Sir Rafe .. .. 149, 150 Sherly, George 4 Sir Robert . . . . 238, 239 Shrewsbury, Countess of . . . 90, 91 Sigismund III., King of Poland . . 106 Wentworth, Sir Thomas .. 115, 116, 120 Weston, Thomas . . . . . . . . 145 Whitelock, James TOO, roi Williams, . .. .. .. .. 179 Alexander 2, 21, 41, 42, 93, 243 Elizabeth 2, 21, 41, 42, 93, 243 John (Bishop) r 95. 196. 221, 232, 234, 236 Skenington, . . . . . . . . . 108 Captain Thomas . . 15 18, 19 Skidmore, William 242 Smith . . . . . . . . . . . 243 Willoughby, Lord 62, 178 Wilson Arthur .. .. .. 175 Mrs. Annie . . . . . . . . 243 Somerset, Thomas . . . . . . 55 Southampton, Earl of . .3, 16, 20, 107, 175 Southwell, Elizabeth 87 Spencer, Sir John 182 Lord 192, 193 Sir William . . . . 16, 20 Sir Thomas . . . . . 172 Wimark, Edward .. .. .. 151 184 Winchester, Marquis of . . . 10 Windebank, Thomas 26 Windham, Edmund . . . . 243 245 Edmund (junr.) . . 243 245 Edward . . . . 7 Squire Edward . . . . . . 21 Stace, Richard .. .. .. .. 241 Stanhope, Sir John 16 Stanley, 3i, 22 Stone, a Jester . . . . . . . . 62 Stuart, Lady Arabella . . oo, 91, 99, 100 Charles 90 Stukcley, Hugh 2.15 (Stewkeley), Sir Hugh . . 243, 245 (Stewkeley, Thomas .. 243, 245 Sir Thomas . . 18, 24.7, 24.5 Suffolk, Countess of no, ru, 142, 172, 182, 229 Sussex, Thomas, Earl of 75 Sutton, Thomas 86 Talbot, George, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury . . 90 Gilbert, 7th Earl of Shrewsbury 10,90 Thynne, Sir 145 Tindall, Sir John 151 Tothill, 243 John . . . . . 243, 245 Justice .. .. . ..155 Thomas . . . . 243, 244 Zachary . . . . 243, 245 Windsor, Lord . . . . . . . . 3 Wingfield, Sir Richard . . . . . . 102 Thomas . . . . . . a Winwood, Lady 159, 243 Sir Ralph . . 50, 51, 53, 60, 61, 62, 95, 100, 109, no, in, 113, 114, 115, 120, 121, 125, 126, 129, 139, 143, 146, 148, J53, 158, 159, 161, 163, 164, 165, 168, 243 Wood, Anthony & 72 Woode, Mr 38 Worcester, Earl of . . . . . . 107 Wotton, Sir Henry . . 88, 106, 115, 119, 126, 129 131, 134, 170, 212 Wraye, Mr . . . . . . . 201 Trevor, Sir Richard 2 V/roughton, Sir Thomas . . . . . 4 Turkey, Sultan of 33 Turner, Mrs. 98, 143 Tyrone, Hugh O'Neill.Earl of 9,15,18,19,20,31 Wybome, Luke . . . . . . . 241 Nicholas . . . . . 241 Yelverton, Sir Henry .106, 109, 192, 194 Printed in Great Britain by W. & J. MACKAV & Co., LTD., Chatham. A 000 676 849 3