one that feared any harm that might befall him therein ; for, as touching any such matter, his account was made long ago to endure whatever God should send, but only that he grew weary to behold the miserable state of these people, fallen upon them through their own folly, wherein he thought whosoever could do the best offices should do pium et sanctissimum opus, being right glad that the queen my mistress was not behind him in the zeal thereof; and adding thus far more that, for mine own particular (in respect he understood I was son to him who had served always his sovereign with unfeigned sincerity, and that he saw he was appointed chiefly to deal in this cause of importance by her majesty), he would leave no courtesy unperformed that I should have need of, here or elsewhere. I answered him that, where his altesse expressed his good affection, particularly to her majesty, and chiefly to this cause in hand, I knew her majesty esteemed of him as a prince of great honour and virtue ; and that, for this good work begun, no man should ever have cause but to think her majesty most zealously affected to bring all this to a perfect peace and quiet in this afflicted country; affirming that, for mine own particular, I would be glad to do what service I could in reserving the integrity of my loyal duty to my most gracious sovereign." "To return to the garrison of Bruges. lordship to understand that, arriving there on Friday, by three of the clock of the afternoon, I staid there all night, being invited to supper by sir William Reade. The next day sir John Wingfield, brother-in-law to my lord Willoughby*, invited me to dinner. His wife, the countess of Kent†, lieth-in, being newly brought to bed of a son, which sir William Drury came from the May it please your * Lord Willoughby was Peregrine Bertie, born at Wesel, in exile, occasioned by the protestantism of his parents in the time of queen Mary, and so called, eo quod in terrâ perregriná pro consolatione exilii sui piis parentibus a Domino donatus sit. + Susan, daughter of Richard Bertie and Catherine baroness Willoughby de Eresby in her own right, and widow of Charles Brandon, duke of Suffolk, married, first, Reginald Grey, earl of Kent, and, second, sir John Wingfield. Collins, ii. 5. Hague to christen, as my lord's deputy, three days before. There be many tall gentlemen, especially captain Francis Vere*, that was in Huys, who is a very proper man, and was as ready to have shewed me any courtesy as I could have desired it. They have some particular griefs against the treasurer: they would have a little imparted them to me, saying that but for your lordship they should have wanted much more than they do; and yet do they sufficiently complain. I shifted them off, and wished them to impart it to my lord of Leicester, or here to my lord Willoughby; but I perceive they mean to make their suit to the whole council board. I humbly beseech your lordship, if it please you, if any of the captains come over, to bestow some thanks for their courtesy to me, to whom it is no small comfort to hear how great honour is spoken of your lordship, without dispraise of any other, for your honourable care of them here in her majesty's service." My lord Willoughby met to-day with count Maurice †, in whom there is neither outward appearance of any noble mind, nor inward virtue. my life I never saw worse behaviour, except it were one lately come from school." 66 In Ostend, 5th April, 1588. "The duke himself wished Richardet to speak unto me for a fine hound, and a brace of English greyhounds. Your lordship would wonder how fond he is of English dogs. I could not but in good manners promise him to provide them him, especially proceeding from his own particular motion, insomuch as at Ghent he begged a dog of Byne, which he gave him, though he was little worth. M. Lamotte sent me a cast of hawks when he sent my lord Cobham but three hawks. "There is no fine day but I receive from him one courteous message or other, with sometimes a pheasant The well-known sir Francis Vere, a cadet of the Oxford family; he had already distinguished himself by his defence of Bergen-of-Zoom, against the prince of Parma. Biog. Dict. xxx. 294. + Count Maurice was the son of the prince of Orange, by Anne of Saxony, daughter of Maurice, the heroic elector. Kennet, ii, 543. or a hare, which we can here requite them no way more to their contentment at Bruges, than with 500 or 600 oysters, which, since their lordships' arrival, are daily to be bought in the town. 66 My lord of Derby's two chaplains have seasoned this town better with sermons than it had been before with prayers for a year's space, whereby the gentlemen here are benefited; to whom they also minister a general communion amongst us that live here in a town of garrison, this good time, where all sin is rifest." Cecil always corresponded with Michael Hicks, who appears to have been private secretary to lord Burleigh. The following extract of a letter, written while he was at Dover, shows that the young politician had learned, at this early period of his life, some of the least amiable practices of official men. "Mr. Wondell, at my departure, entreated me to solicit my lord that he might come over, if his lordship had occasion to send over. This I am loth to do; and therefore, good Michael, make this lie for me, - that you have seen some private letter of mine to my lord, wherein I have performed his request to recommend his desire; which done, he is satisfied, and the thing will never be more thought of."* The mission of lord Derby did not lead to peace; and soon after his return from Flanders, Robert Cecil, deformed and feeble as he was, accompanied his brother, and the flower of the English nobility, in the fleet destined for the defence of England against the Spanish Armada.+ After the memorable discomfiture of the Spaniards, he returned to civil life. In 1589, he married beth, sister of Henry Brooke lord Cobham. * Brit. Mus., Lansdowne, vol. lxv. No. 71. ElizaLittle is + In Aikin's Memoirs of Elizabeth (ii. 221.) is a specimen of the ill-natured depreciation to which the younger Cecil is subjected. The lady "presumes that nothing but his steady determination of omitting no means of attracting to himself the royal favour, which he contemplated as the instrument to work out his future fortunes, could have engaged him in a service so repugnant to his habits!" Why should not Cecil, at 25 years of age, have possessed a spirit beyond his strength? 31st August, Burleigh's Diary. Murdin, 791. known of this lady*; such evidence as is afforded by Cecil's correspondence †, as to his private life, gives no reason to doubt of his living in affectionate intimacy with his wife. But this union endured but for three years: she died in 1590, leaving one son and one daughter. Although it would appear that Cecil was at this time silent in the house of commons, he was soon destined by lord Burleigh for the highest political offices. His growing importance in the state necessarily placed him in collision with other candidates for the queen's favour. The history of two of these in particular, Essex and Ralegh §, is connected with the most controverted passages of Cecil's life. The characters of the two men, though very different one from the other, were both distinguished from that of Cecil by those attributes of enterprise and glory which ensure to the possessor a superiority over him whose merits are peaceful and domestic. Posterity even marks this difference more strongly than contemporary observers. Misfortune is scarcely less operative than glory, in ensuring * I know not whether the following letter was the commencement of this courtship, or refers to some other attachment; it was probably addressed to Dorothy Nevill, wife of sir Thomas Cecil, the elder son of lord Burleigh."The object to mine eye yesternight at supper, hath taken so deep impression in my heart, as every trifling thought increaseth my affection. I know your inwardness with all parties to be such, as only it lyeth in your power to draw from them whether the mislike of my person be such, as it may not be qualified by any other circumstances. Which if it be so, as of likelihood it is, I will then lay hand on my mouth, though I cannot govern my heart, and, saving my duty to God, exclaim on nature, who hath yielded me a personage to hinder me all other good fortune. Otherwise, good madam, there shall be no good means thought of, or pains devised, which I will not willingly use for the purchase of my lady's favour and liking. The managing of which my suit, I leave to your ladyship's direction; wherein, if it please your ladyship to yield me your furtherance, as an addition to your former favours, I shall, as most bounden, remain your affectionate brother-in-law, to do you any service shall lie within the compass of my small power. Your ladyship's to command, R. C." Lansdowne, vol. cxxi. No. 28. The following refers distinctly to his wife :-"Your letters are welcome, because they are not short; let mine not be unwelcome, they be not long, for the good-will is all one. Sir W. Ralegh and I dining together in London, we went to your brother's shop, where your brother desired me to write to my wife, in anywise not to let any body know that she paid under 31. 10s. a yard for her cloth of silver. I marvel that she is so simple as to tell anybody what she pays for every thing." (vol. cvii. No. 35.) + Lansdowne, vol. lxvi. No. 68.; vol. Ixviii. No. 89.; vol. cvii. No. 48. Robert Devereux, second earl of Essex, born 1566. Sir Walter Ralegh, born 1552. posthumous renown. A minister, therefore, pacific in his policy as well as his profession, who dies of disease, while in possession of great and lucrative offices, has no equal contest with brave commanders, who fight their way to fame, and die upon the scaffold. These, which the reader of history must acknowledge to be truths, cannot fairly be forgotten in treating of the transactions of Cecil with Essex and Ralegh. Their story has been told often and loudly; let his be now heard, as I shall fairly relate it. My task would be easier, my narrative would flow more glibly and agreeably, if I could see nothing but oppression and suffering. But no man who considers without prejudice the evidence on either of these transactions, can find on one side an unprovoked, malignant persecutor, or on the other an innocent and meritorious victim. There was, from an early period, a mutual distrust and rivalry between Cecil and Essex, the rising statesman, and the queen's accomplished favourite; and there is no evidence, at any period, of that sort of friendship between these two politicians which can justify either in reproaching the other with unkindness, still less with ingratitude, if he forebore to espouse, or even stedfastly opposed, his interests. The rivalry between Cecil and Essex was not criminal, except inasmuch as it was a departure from the strict and pure morality of the Gospel ;- tried by that standard the criminality was equal.* Their rivalry as public men first broke forth on the death of secretary Walsingham, in 1590. Essex desired the restoration of the ill-used Davison, and, failing in that object, espoused the cause of Thomas Bodley, then ambassador in Holland, but now better known as the founder of the great library at Oxford. Robert Cecil was put forward by lord Burleigh. Bodley himself tells us, that the Cecils were at first his friends, and that lord Burleigh designed him as colleague to his It is not fairly said, "Robert Cecil sickened with fear and envy, as he contemplated the rising fame and influence of Essex." Edin. Rev. Ivi. 18. |