MEMOIRS

OF

THE LIFE OF ROBERT CAREY,

BARON OF LEPPINGTON,

AND

EARL OF MONMOUTH.

O Lord my God, open mine eyes, and enlarge my heart with a true understanding of thy great mercies, that thou hast blessed me withal, from my first being, until this my old age; and give me of thy grace to call to mind in some measure thy great and manifold blessings, that thou hast blessed me withal; though my weakness be such, and my memory so short, as I havé no abilities to express them as I ought to do, yet, Lord! be pleased to accept of this sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving.

I HAD the happiness to be born of good parents; I was youngest of ten sons; they brought me up under tutors and governors,

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to give me learning and knowledge; but I must acknowledge my own weakness, I had not ability to profit much thereby. After I attained to the years of seventeen, or thereabouts, Sir Thomas Layton was sent ambassador from the queen to the states first, and then to Don John de Austria. * My father, the Lord Hunsdon, † fitted me

* Natural son of the Emperor Charles V. born at Ratisbon in 1547, a prince of great prowess in arms, and particularly famous by his conquests over the Turks. He had been educated in a private manner in the country during the Emperor's life. The splendour of his birth was concealed from him, till Philip II., son and successor of Charles V., in the year 1561, owned him as his natural brother, brought him to court, and, in the year 1570, sent him against the Moors. In the year 1575, the king, his brother, constituted him governor of the Spanish Netherlands. After various conquests notified in history, he died October 1, 1578, in the thirtysecond year of his age, of the plague, or, as adds Thuanus, of grief and vexation, on account of suspicions conceived against him by Philip II. His funeral obsequies were performed with all the pomp and magnificent ceremonies of those times. He expired in his camp near Namur.

+ Henry Cary, Lord Hunsdon, whose pedigree is mentioned in the preface.

to go the journey with him ; we were abroad almost all the winter; after we had been with the states at Bruxelles, we took leave, and went on our journey towards Don John; we found him at Luxemburgh. The next day he removed towards Namours, * and appointed our ambassador to meet him at Mons in Henault, which we did, and there had audience of him; we stayed but two days with him, and took our leaves. After some time spent, in our return, at Bruxelles with the states, we returned to Dunkirk, and there took shipping for England; and in short time came to court, where we dispersed, every man as he liked best.

Shortly after this, Monsieur, † the King of France's brother, came, and remained in

* Namur.

+ The scenes of courtship, by letters, visits, and mediators, which passed between the Duke d'Alençon, afterwards d'Anjou, and Queen Elizabeth, are sufficiently known and recorded. He was the youngest son of Henry II. and Catherine de Medici, and when he became

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our court a good time. All the time of his being here, God so blessed me with means and abilities, as I was ever one in every action that our court triumphs then produced; and they were such as the best wits and inventions in those days could devise to make the court glorious, and to entertain so great a guest. * This Duke's stay here, was from Michaelmas to Christ

only brother of Henry III. was surnamed Monsieur. His father Henry was accidentally killed in a tournament by the Comte de Montgomery. Henry left four sons; Francis, the husband of Mary Queen of Scots; Charles, under whom was perpetrated the massacre at Paris, distinguished by the feast of St Bartholomew; Alexander, who, on the day of his confirmation, changed his christian name to Henry, according to the usage of the church of Rome, and was afterwards stabbed by Clement the monk; Hercules, who changed his christian name in the same manner to Francis, and who, after a long and successless attempt to marry Queen Elizabeth, and various turbulent adventures in the Netherlands, died June 10, 1584, not without some suspicions of being poisoned at Chateau Thierry, in France.

* An account of a very splendid tournament performed on this occasion, is preserved in Hollinshed's Chroni cle, Vol. IV. p. 435, of the late 4to edition. Upon this eccasion, Sir Thomas Perrot and Mr Cooke appeared

mas;

* then he went from hence to Flushing, and from thence to Antwerp, where he was created, by the states, Duke of Brabant with great solemnity. My Lord of Nottingham as admiral, my Lord of Sussex, chamberlain of the queen's household, and my father being governor of Berwick, were sent to convey him over in three of the queen's best ships. They brought him to Antwerp; and after the Duke was settled in his government, they took their leaves, and came for England.

as challengers in armour, bedecked with apples and other fruit, representing persons of no less antiquity than Adam and Eve. Our author's name does not occur in the list of the gallants. E.

* Anno 1581.

+ Thomas Ratcliffe, a gallant and brave soldier, the avowed competitor and rival of the Earl of Leicester. E.

The train whom Elizabeth despatched to do honour to her suitor in the eyes of the Netherlands, amounted to a hundred gentlemen of the best blood in England, and more than three hundred serving-men. Lord Hunsdon, alone, had, of gentlemen and others, a hundred and fifty in his train. His sons, Sir George and John Cary, attended him on this occasion, as well as our author. E,