466

THE PLANS AND SCHEMES OF F. BACON.

for the time on the mind of Essex; though the impetuosity of his temper, joined to a spirit of sincerity, honor, and generosity, which not even the pursuits of ambition and the occupations of a courtier could entirely quench, soon caused him to break loose from them as from an intolerable restraint.

Francis Bacon, in furtherance of the plan which he had suggested to his patron of appearing to sink all other characters in that of a devoted servant of her majesty, likewise condescended to employ his genius upon a device which was exhibited by the earl on the ensuing aniversary of her accession with great applause.

First, his page, entering the tilt-yard, accosted her majesty in a fit speech; and she in return graciously pulled off her glove, and gave it to him. Some time after appeared the earl himself, who was met by an ancient hermit, a secretary of state, and a soldier; each of whom presented him with a book recommending his own course of life, and after a little pageantry and dumb show to relieve the solemnity of the main design, pronounced a long and well-penned speech to the same effect. All were answered by an esquire, or follower of the earl, who pointed out the evils attached to each pursuit, and concluded, says our reporter, 'with an excellent but too plain English; that this knight would never forsake his mistress' love, whose virtue made all his thoughts divine, whose wisdom taught him all true policy, whose beauty and worth made him at all times fit to command armies. He showed all the defects and imperfections of their times; and, therefore, thought his own course of life to be best in serving his mistress. . . . The queen said that if she had thought there had been so much said of her, she would not have been there that night; and so went to bed.'

These speeches may still be read, with mingled admiration and regret, amongst the immortal works of Francis Bacon. In majesty of diction and splendor of allusion they are excelled by none of his more celebrated pieces; and with such a weight of meaning are they fraught, that persons who were ignorant of the serious purpose which he had in view, might wonder at the prodigality of the author in employing massy gold and real gems, on an occasion which deserved nothing better than tinsel and false brilliants. That full justice might be done to the eloquence of the composition, the favorite part of the esquire was supported by Toby Matthew, whose father was afterwards archbishop of York; a man of a singular and wayward disposition, whose prospects in life were subsequently blighted by his conversion to the church of Rome, but whose talents and learning were held in such esteem by Bacon, that he eagerly engaged his pen in the task of translating into Latin some of the most important of his own philosophical works. Such were the 'wits, besides his own,' of which the munificent patronage of Essex had now given him 'the command.'

A few miscellaneous occurrences of the years 1595 and 1596 may yet remain to be noticed.

The size of London, notwithstanding many proclamations and acts of Parliament, prohibiting the erection of any new buildings except on the site of old ones, had greatly increased during the reign of Elizabeth ; and one of the first effects of this rapid growth was to render the streets less orderly and peaceful. The small houses newly erected in the suburbs being crowded with poor, assembled from all quarters, thefts became frequent; and a bad harvest having plunged the lower classes into deeper distress, tumults and outrages ensued. In June, 1595, great disorders were committed on Tower-hill; and the multitude having insulted the lord-mayor who went out to quell them, Elizabeth took the violent and arbitrary step of causing martial law to be proclaimed in her capital. Sir Thomas Wilford, appointed provostmarshal for the occasion, paraded the streets daily with a body of armed men ready to hang all rioters in the most summary manner ; and five of these offenders suffered for high treason on Tower-hill, without resistance on the part of the people, or remonstrance on that of the parliament, although against so flagrant a violation of the dearest rights of Englishmen.

Lord Hunsdon, the nearest kinsman of the queen, whose character has been already touched upon, died in 1596. It is related that Elizabeth, on hearing of his illness, finally resolved to confer upon him the title of earl of Wiltshire; to which he had some claim as nephew and heir male to sir Thomas Boleyn, her majesty's grandfather, who had borne that dignity. She accordingly made him a gracious visit, and caused the patent and the robes of an earl to be brought and laid upon his bed; but the old man, preserving to the last the blunt honesty of his character, declared, that if her majesty had accounted him unworthy of that honor while living, he accounted himself unworthy of it now that he was dying: and with this refusal he expired. Lord Willoughby succeeded him in the office of governor of Berwick; and lord Cobham, a wealthy but mean-spirited peer, of the party opposed to Essex, in that of lord chamberlain.

Henry third earl of Huntingdon of the family of Hastings, died about the same time. By his mother, eldest daughter and coheiress of Henry Pole lord Montacute, he was the representative of the Clarence branch of the family of Plantagenet; but no pretensions of his had ever awakened anxiety in the house of Tudor. He was a person of mild disposition, greatly attached to the puritan party; which, bound together by a secret compact, now formed a church within the church; he is said to have impaired his fortune by his bounty to the more zealous preachers; and he largely contributed by his will to the endowment of Emanuel-college, the puritanical character of which was now well known,

468

RICHARD FLETCHER-BISHOP OF LONDON-YAUGHAN.

Richard Fletcher bishop of London, styled by Harrington 'a comely and courtly prelate,' who departed this life in the same year, affords a subject for a few remarks. It was a practice of the more powerful courtiers of that day, when the lands of a vacant see had excited, as they seldom failed to do, their cupidity, to 'find out some men that had great minds and small means or merits, that would be glad to leave a small deanery to make a poor bishopric, by new leasing lands that were almost out of lease. [Harrington's Brief View.] And on these terms, which the more conscientious churchmen disdained, Fletcher had taken the bishopric of Oxford; and had in due time been rewarded for his compliance, by translation, first to Worcester and afterwards to London. His talents and deportment pleased the queen; and it is mentioned, as an indication of her special favor, that she once quarrelled with him for wearing too short a beard. But he afterwards gave her more serious displeasure by taking a wife; a gay and fair court-lady of good quality; and he had scarcely pacified her majesty by the propitiatory offering of great entertainment at his house in Chelsea, when he was carried off by a sudden death; asccibed by his contemporaries to his immoderate use of the new luxury of smoking tobacco. This prelate was the father of Fletcher the well known dramatic poet.

Bishop Vaughan succeeded him; of whom Harrington gives the following trait: 'He was an enemy to all supposed miracles, insomuch as one arguing with him in the closet at Greenwich in defence of them; and alleging the queen's healing of the evil for an instance, asking him what he could say against it, he answered; 'that he was loth to answer arguments taken from the topic-place of the cloth of estate; but if they would urge him to answer, he said his opinion was, she did it by virtue of some precious stone in possession of the crown of England that had such a natural quality. But had queen Elizabeth been told he ascribed more virtue to her jewels (though she loved them well) than to her person, she would never have made Vaughan the bishop of Chester.'

Of the justice of the last remark there can be little question. In this reign, the royal pretension preferred to, was asserted with unusual earnestness; and for good reasons, as we learn from a different authority. In 1597 a quarto book appeared, written in Latin and dedicated to her majesty by one of her chaplains, which contained a relation of the cures thus performed by her; in which it is related, that a catholic having been so healed, went away persuaded that the pope's excommunication of her majesty was of no effect: 'For if she had not by right obtained the sceptre of the kingdom, and her throne established by the authority and appointment of God, what she attempted could not have succeeded. Because the rule is, that God is not any where witness to a lie.' [Strype's Annals.] Such were the reasonings of that age.

It is probably, likewise, to bishop Vaughan that sir John Harrington refers in the following article of his Brief Notes.

'One Sunday (April last) my lord of London preached to the queen's majesty, and seemed to touch on the vanity of decking the body too finely. Her majesty told the ladies, that if the bishop held more discourse on such matters, she would fit him for heaven; but he should walk thither without a staff, and leave mantle his behind him. Perchance the bishop hath never sought her higness' wardrobe, or he would have chosen another text.' [Nugæ Antiquæ.]

CHAP. XXVII. 1597 AND 1598.

Fresh expedition against Spain proposed. — Extracts from Whyte's letters.-Raleigh reconciles Essex and R. Cecil.-Essex master of the ordnance.-Anecdote of the queen and Mrs. Bridges.-Preparations for the expedition.-Notice of lord Southampton.-Ill success of the voyage.-Quarrel of Essex and Raleigh.-Displeasure of the queen.- Lord Admiral made earl of Nottingham.-Anger of Essex. -He is declared hereditary earl-marshal.—Reply of the queen to a Polish ambassador—to a proposition of the king of Denmark.— State of Ireland.-Treaty of Vervins.-Agreement between Cecil and Essex.-Anecdotes of Essex and the queen.—Their quarrel.Letter of Essex to the lord-keeper.-Dispute between Burleigh and Essex.-Agreement with the Dutch.-Death and character of Burleigh.-Transactions between the queen and the king of Scots, and an extract from their correspondence.-Anecdote of sir Roger Aston and the queen.-Anecdote of Archbishop Hutton.-The death of Edmund Spenser.-Hall's satires.-Notice of sir John Harrington.-Extracts from his note-book.

A FRESH expedition against the Spaniards was in agitation from the beginning of this year, which occasioned many movements at court; and, as usual, disturbed the mind of the queen with various perplexities. Her captious favor towards Essex and the arts employed by him to gain his will on every contested point, are illustrated in the letters of Rowland Whyte; to which we must again recur.

On Feb. 22 he writes: 'My lord of Essex kept his bed the most part of all yesterday; yet did one of his chamber tell me, he could not weep for it, for he knew his lord was not sick. There is not a day passes that the queen sends not often to see him; and himself every day goeth privately to her.' Two days after he reports, that 'my lord of Essex comes out of his chamber in his gown and night-cap... Full fourteen days his lordship kept in; her majesty, as I heard, resolved to break him of his will and to pull down his great heart; who

470

INTRIGUES AT COURT-PARSIMONY OF THE QUEEN.

found it a thing impossible, and says he holds it from the mother's side; but all is well again, and no doubt Essex will grow a mighty man in our state.'

The earl of Cumberland made 'some doubt of his going to sea;' because lord Thomas Howard and Raleigh were to be joined with him in equal authority; the queen mentioned the subject to him; and on his repeating to herself his refusal, he was 'well chidden.'

In March, Raleigh was busied in mediating a reconciliation between Essex and Robert Cecil, in which he was so far successful that a kind of compromise took place; and, henceforth, court favors were shared, without any open quarrels, between their respective adherents. The motives urged by Raleigh for this agreement were, that it would benefit the country; that the queen's 'continual unquietness' would then turn to contentment; and that the public business would go on to the hurt of the common enemy.

Essex, however, was malcontent at heart: he began to frequent certain meetings held in Blackfriars at the house of lady Russell, a busy puritan, who was one of the learned daughters of sir Anthony Cook. 'Wearied,' says Whyte, 'with not knowing how to please, he is not unwilling to listen to those motions made him for the public good.' He was soon after so much offended with her majesty for giving the office of warden of the cinque ports to his enemy lord Cobham, after he had asked it for himself, that he was about to quit the court; but the queen sent for him, and, to pacify him, made him the master of the ordnance.

It is mentioned about this time, that the queen had of late 'used the fair Mrs. Bridges with words and blows of anger.' This young lady was one of the maids of honor; and is likewise referred to in a subsequent letter, where it is said, 'It is spied out by envy that the earl of Essex is again fallen in love with his fairest B.' On which Whyte observes, 'It cannot choose but come to the queen's ears; and then is he undone, and all that depend upon his favor.' A striking indication of the nature of the sentiment which the aged sovereign still cherished for her youthful favorite!

In May our intelligencer writes thus: 'Here hath been much ado between the queen and the lords about the preparation to sea; some of them urging the necessity of setting it forward for her safety; but she opposing it by no danger appearing towards her anywhere; and that she will not make wars, but arm for defence. Understanding how much of her treasure was already spent in victual, both for ships and soldiers at land, she was extremely angry with them that made such haste in it; and at Burleigh for suffering it, seeing no greater occasion. No reason nor persuasion by some of the lords could prevail, but that her majesty hath commanded order to be given to stay all proceeding; and sent my lord Thomas (Howard) word that he should not go to sea.