other persons he held a different language: and Murray stood by his bed-side, he always answered the Puritans, who most admired him and most with a sigh, "I would say something, but I canfeared or hated the Papists, seem to have com- not utter it." During that night he made many forted themselves with the conviction that he efforts to speak on some secret matter which would never marry a Catholic wife.' seemed to press heavily on his heart, but he could not be understood by reason of the rattling in his throat. Sir David Murray, however, contrived to understand his earnest wish that a number of letters in a certain cabinet in his closet should be burned. It is said that these letters were burned accordingly. On the following morning his attendants thought him dead, and raised such a cry of grief that it was heard by the people in the streets, who echoed the loud lamentation. The prince recovered from his faint, and in the afternoon took two cordials or nostrums, one of which was prepared and sent by the captive Raleigh. But the sufferer was now past cure and help, and he expired at eight o'clock that night, being Friday, the 6th of A match, which was perfectly to the taste of the people, though not to that of her mother, was at length proposed for the Princess Elizabeth; and on the 16th of October, 1612, Frederick V., the Count Palatine, the bridegroom elect, who had the good wishes of all zealous Protestants, arrived in England to receive his young bride. In the midst of the festive preparations for this marriage, Prince Henry, who appears to have outgrown his strength, and to have greatly neglected the care of his health, was seized with a dangerous illness at Richmond, where he was preparing his house for the reception of the Palatine. Recovering a little, and hoping to conquer the disease by the vigour of his spirit, he rode up to London to welcome his intended brother-November, 1612. He was eighteen years, eight in-law at Whitehall. On the 24th of October, notwithstanding the weak state of his body and the coldness of the season, he played a great match of tennis with the Count Henry of Nassau, in his shirt. That night he complained exceedingly of lassitude and a pain in his head. The following morning, being Sunday, though faint and drowsy, he would rise and go to the chapel. From the sermon in his own house the prince went to Whitehall, where he heard another with the king. After this he dined with his majesty, and ate with a seemingly good appetite, but his countenance was sadly pale, and his eye hollow and ghastly. After dinner his courage and resolution, in combating with and dissembling his disorder, gave way to the force of it, and he was obliged to take a hasty leave and return to St. James's. There he grew daily worse. His head frequently wandered, but on the night of the 2d of November his delirium increased alarmingly: he called for his clothes, for his armour and sword, saying he must be gone. On Thursday, the 5th of November, the anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot, the king was informed that there was no hope. Upon this, James, who had visited him several times at St. James's, being unwilling and unable to stay so near the gates of sorrow, removed to Theobalds in Hertfordshire, to wait there the event." Abbot, the Archbishop of Canterbury, attended the prince, told him of his danger, and took his confession of faith. In the course of that day the prince repeatedly called out "David! David!" meaning Sir David Murray, his confidential friend and servant; but when hope, and that any liberty she might be allowed for her religion months, and seventeen days old. The people had not been made aware of his danger till almost the last moment: their grief at his loss was unbounded; and all classes were deeply affected by the early death of the spirited youth. He was the more regretted because his only surviving brother, Prince Charles, was a sickly and retir ing boy, and had not had the fortune to acquire popularity. In a short time dark rumours were raised that Prince Henry had been poisoned by the favourite Rochester, with whom he could never agree; and these horrid suspicions did not stop till they had included his own father as an accomplice. The whole notion was absurd; the youth died of the effects of a putrid fever on a debilitated constitution. But though James was innocent of the poisoning, he showed a brutal indifference to the fate of his son. Only three days after the event he made Rochester write to Sir Thomas Edmonds, his ambassador at Paris, to recommence, in the name of Prince Charles, the matrimonial treaty which he had begun for his brother. In a very few days more he prohibited all persons from approaching him in mourning; and though he thought fit to delay the marriage, he affianced his daughter Elizabeth to the Palatine in December, kept his Christmas with the usual festivities, and solemnized the nuptials on St. Valentine's Day with an expense and magnificence hitherto unknown in England. Long before their calamities fell upon the Palgrave and his bride-indeed, before they were well out of England-the court was hampered and vexed by pecuniary embarrassments. James had exacted the old feudal aid for the marriage of his daughter, as he had done before for the 2 Birch, Life; Aulicus Coquinaria; Somers' Tracts; Bacon's Works. knighting of his eldest son; but the sum thus ob- | both for his fortune, understanding, and reputatained (it was only about £20,000) went but a very short way towards paying for the dowry, the entertainment of the bridegroom with his numerous retinue, and the marriage feast. Lord Harrington, who accompanied the bride to the Rhine, claimed, on his return from the journey, £30,000. The king, having no money to give him, conferred on him a grant for the coining of base farthings in brass. A.D. 1613. age tion," he spoke his mind freely and boldly, ob- The two noble Howards, the Earl of Suffolk and the Earl of Northampton,' seeing that there was no possibility of checking the mighty rise of Rochester, sought to bind him to their family, and so share the better in the good things which the king continued to lavish on the favourite. Suffolk had a daughter, the most beautiful, the most witty, and the most fascinating young woman in the English court. This Lady Frances Howard had been married at the of thirteen to the Earl of Essex, only a year older than herself, the son of the unfortrnate earl who had perished on the scaffold in Elizabeth's time. James had promoted this illomened match out of a pretended regard to Essex's father. As the parties were so young, the bride was sent home to her mother, a weak and vain, if not a vicious woman; the bride-out of the way before the question of the divorce groom was sent to the university, whence he came on; if he took the appointment in the light went on his travels to the Continent. At the of a harsh exile, and refused it, it would be easy end of four years they went to live together, as to irritate the king against him as an undutiful one of them supposed, as man and wife; but if subject. When the mission to Russia was first Essex rejoiced in the loveliness of his bride, and mentioned to him, Sir Thomas seemed not unthe universal admiration she attracted, his joy willing to undertake it. But then, it is said, his was soon overcast, for he found her cold, con- friend Rochester told him how much he relied temptuous, and altogether averse to him. In upon his integrity and talent for business-how effect, his countess was already enamoured of Ro-much he should lose by his absence; and, in the chester and his splendid fortunes. Prince Henry, end, implored him to refuse the unpromising emit is said, had disputed her love with the hand-bassy, undertaking to reconcile him soon with some favourite, but in vain. Sir Thomas Over- the king, if his majesty should testify any disbury had assisted Rochester in writing his pas pleasure. By this time nothing but Sir Thosionate love-letters, and had even managed sundry mas's immediate death would satisfy the maligstolen interviews between the lovers, in which nant countess, and Rochester had become as a pipe what remained of the innocence of the young coun- upon which she played her stops as she chose. tess had been made a wreck; but though Over- As soon as Overbury had refused the mission bury's lax morality did not prevent him from which was offered to him by the lord-chancelrendering such services as these, his policy was lor and the Earl of Pembroke, the favourite restrongly opposed to his friend committing him- presented to the king that Sir Thomas was not self further. He well knew the odium which only grown insolent and intolerable to himself, Rochester would bring upon himself by pro- but audacious and disobedient to his sacred maclaiming his love and contracting an adulter-jesty. James, who already hated Overbury, ine marriage with the countess; and, wishing readily agreed with his minion and the rest to retain his own ascendency over the favourite, of his council that Overbury was guilty of conthe fountain of riches and honour, he was averse tempt of the royal authority. A warrant was to the influence which the noble Howards would brought up and signed, and Sir Thomas was obtain by the union. As the favourite was in- sent to his dungeon. The countess's uncle Northdebted to him more than to any soul living, ampton, and her lover Rochester, had prepared the business so that Sir William Wade was reSuffolk was the son, Northampton the brother, of Thomas, moved from the lieutenancy of the Tower, and Duke of Norfolk, executed in 1572. Sir Jervis Elvis, or Elwes, a person wholly dependent upon them, put in his place. By their order Elwes confined Overbury a close prisoner, so that his own father was not suffered to visit him, nor were any of his servants admitted within the walls of the Tower. A few days after these strange practices, the Countess of Essex, backed by her father, the Earl of Suffolk, who signed the petition with her, sued for a divorce from her husband upon the ground of the marriage being null by reason of physical incapacity. Forthwith James appointed, under the great seal, a commission of delegates to try this delicate cause. The delegates named by his majesty were Abbot, Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishops of London, Winchester, Ely, Lichfield and Coventry, and Rochester; with Sir Julius Cæsar, Sir John Parry, Sir Daniel Dunne, Sir John Bennet, Francis James, and Thomas Edwards, doctors of the civil law. The Earl of Essex, who had suffered enough already from the beautiful demon, made no resistance, but seems to have gone gladly into measures which would free him from such a wife. It has been mildly said that "all the judicial forms usual on such occasions were carefully observed;"' but it cannot be denied that the course of the disgraceful investigation was biassed by interferences and influences of a most unusual and irregular character. Abbot, the primate, who in all this foul business acted like a man of honour and conscience, objected strongly to the divorce; but James took up the pen, and answered the archbishop in the double capacity of absolute king and special pleader. He told Abbot, roundly, that it became him "to have a kind of implicit faith" in his royal judgment, because he was known to have "some skill in divinity," and because, as he hoped, no honest man could doubt the uprightness of his conscience. "And," continued James, "the best thankfulness that you, that are so far my creature, can use towards me, is to reverence and follow my judgment, and not to contradict it, except where you may demonstrate unto me that I am mistaken or wrong informed."2 The king was never backward in writing or delivering this kind of schooling, or in seconding his minions through right or wrong; but it is believed that his zeal was quickened on the present occasion by the opportune gift of £25,000 in gold, which Rochester made to him out of his savings. The primate, however, would not sacrifice his conscience, and three out of five of the doctors of the civil law took part with him. The bishops were less scrupulous, for, with the ex'Lingard. 2 King's Letter to Archbishop Abbot.-State Trials. ception of London, they all voted as the king wished; and on the 25th of September a divorce was pronounced by a majority of seven to five. The day before the sentence of divorce was pronounced, Sir Thomas Overbury died in his dungeon. His body was hastily and secretly buried in a pit dug within the walls of the Tower, and care was taken to circulate a report that he had died of an infectious and loathsome disease. But from the first it was generally whispered that he had been poisoned. On the 4th of November, in order that the Countess of Essex should not lose rank by marrying his favourite, James created Rochester Earl of Somerset. The marriage ceremony was performed on the 26th of December, in the royal chapel at Whitehall, in the presence of the king and queen, Prince Charles, and a great confluence of the bishops and temporal nobility. The countess appeared in the costume of a virgin bride, with her hair hanging in loose curls down to her waist. James Montague, Bishop of Bath and Wells, the king's favourite bishop, and afterwards. the editor of his works, united the hands of the guilty pair, and pronounced the nuptial benediction; and Dr. Mountain, dean of Westminster, preached the marriage sermon. At night there was a gallant mask got up by the lords of the court. "The glorious days were seconded with as glorious nights, where masks and dancings had a continued motion; the king naturally affecting such highflying pastimes and banquetings as might wrap up his spirit, and keep it from descending towards earthly things." Other masks followed, each rivalling its predecessor in splendour. In every way this shameful marriage, which insulted and shocked the moral feelings of the people, was celebrated with far more pomp and parade than that of the king's own daughter. The Puritans, who were wont to declaim against all such shows and sports, found in these doings an inexhaustible subject for invective. The countess, the favourite, the bishops, the king himself, all came in for their share of opprobrium; and the people generally, whether Puritans, Churchmen, or Papists, regarded the triumph of profligacy with disgust, horror, and wrath. And all this time James kept trumpeting louder and louder that he was a heaven-made king, and that the duty of his subjects was a passive obedience in all things to his absolute and infallible will. But the pinching of pecuniary embarrassment must have reminded him continually that he was of the earth, earthy; and the course of life he led was fatal to any great reverence on the part of his subjects. 3 Wilson. CHAPTER III.-CIVIL AND MILITARY HISTORY.-A. D. 1614-1618. JAMES I. Continuing prodigality of James-He is compelled to meet his parliament-His ministers undertake to manage it-Their failure in the attempt-Tyrannical proceedings of the Star Chamber-Its cruel treatment of Edmond Peachum-George Villiers, a new royal favourite, appears-His rise in the king's favour-The Earl of Somerset discarded-He is accused of the poisoning of Sir Thomas Overbury-Trials connected with the eventStrange particulars of Somerset's trial-His singular mode of eluding condemnation-Lord Bacon's services in the trial-Rivalry and quarrels between him and Coke-James seeks a wife for his son Charles-Rapid rise of Villiers, the new favourite-James visits Scotland-His attempts to subvert the Church of Scotland and establish bishops over it-Resistance of Andrew Melvil to the innovations-He and other Scottish ministers banished-Resistance to Episcopacy in Scotland-Bishops imposed on the Scots-Attempts of James to win over the Scots to his changes-His hostility to English Puritanism-His attempts to establish the Book of Sports in England-Extravagant conduct of Lord Bacon during the king's absence-His abject behaviour on the return of James-Bacon's intrigues to recover his influence-His plots to accomplish the marriage of the favourite's brother-He is created Baron Verulam-The favourite's aggrandizement of his relatives-His own high offices-He is created a marquis. S INCE the dissolution of parliament | plan for managing the House of Commons, asin 1611, James had attempted, assured the king that the chief leaders of the late usual, to raise loans by writs under opposition, such as Neville, Yelverton, Hyde, the great seal; but the merchants Crew, and Sir Dudley Digges, had been won to whom he principally applied over to the court; that much might be done by refused him the accommodation. forethought towards filling the House of ComHe opened a market for the sale of honours; mons with persons well affected to his majesty, sold several peerages for large sums; and created winning or blinding the lawyers, the litera voa new order of knights called baronets, whose cales of the house, and drawing the country honours were hereditary, and who paid £1000 gentlemen, the merchants, the courtiers, to act each for their patents under the great seal. He with one accord for the king's advantage. But still continued giving with as lavish a hand as Bacon told James, at the same time, that it would ever to these servants, by which must be under- be expedient to tender voluntarily certain graces stood his favourities and courtiers, for the true and modifications of the prerogative, such as servants of the state were often left unpaid, and might with smallest injury be conceded. This told that they must support themselves on their advice was seconded by Sir Henry Neville, a private patrimonies. Such as obtained the higher place-hunter, as ambitious a man as Bacon, and employments paid themselves by means of bribes scarcely more honest. In a well-written memoand peculations. These places were generally rial, he suggested to his majesty that he should sold to the highest bidders by the minion So- consider what had been demanded by the commerset and the noble Howards. Thus, Sir Fulke mons, and what promised by the crown during Greville obtained the chancellorship of the ex- the last session; that he should grant now the chequer for the sum of £4000, which he paid to more reasonable of the commons' requests, and Lady Suffolk, now the favourite's mother-in-law.' keep all the promises which he had actually made; The States of Holland had neither paid prin- that he should avoid irritating speeches to his cipal nor interest of their debt. Some of the parliament, and make a show of confidence in ministers proposed adopting bold and decisive their good affections. Upon these conditions, and measures, in order to obtain this money, but under this system, they undertook to manage the James was too timid to follow their advice; and commons (the lords had long been tame enough), as his exchequer was bare and his credit ex- and carry the king triumphantly through parhausted, he reluctantly made up his mind to liament to abundant votes of the public money; meet parliament once more. It appears that and hence they were called undertakers. James, even at this extremity he would have avoided a in his embarrassments, acceded to the plan, and parliament had it not been for Bacon, who was Somerset put himself at the head of it with now attorney-general, and high in the royal fa- Bacon and Neville. On the 5th of April, 1614, vour, from which his rival, Coke, had wonderfully declined. Bacon, who had drawn up a regular by him in Const. Hist. 2 Original MSS. in the possession of Mr. Hallam, as quoted 3 Carte. Birch, Negotiations. 4 Arthur Wilson says, "Yet there was a generation about the the king opened the session with a conciliatory | private consultation with the rest of the judges, speech, descanting on the alarming growth of declined giving any opinion to the lords touchPopery (he knew a little persecution would please ing the legality of impositions on merchandise them well), and on his zeal for the true religion; by prerogative, because it was proper that he and then he told them how much he was in want and his brethren, who were to speak judicially of money, and how many graces he intended for between the king and his subjects, should be them in this present session. But the commons disputants in no cause on any side. The lords, would not be cajoled: they passed at once to the who had expected a very different answer, now great grievance the customs at the outports and declined the conference; and Neyle, Bishop of impositions by prerogative. "And such faces Lichfield and Coventry, who, for the share he appeared there as made the court droop." Some had taken in the Countess of Essex's divorce, of the courtiers and members returned or won had been recently translated to the see of Linover by the "undertakers," made a faint effort, coln, rose in his place, and said that the combut their voice was drowned, and died away in mons were striking at the root of the prerogaa helpless murmur about the hereditary right tive, and that, if admitted to conference, they might proceed to undutiful and seditious speeches, unfit for the ears of their lordships. This Neyle was one of the worst of James's bench of bishops, and an object of detestation to the Puritans, whom he had harassed and persecuted. The commons fell upon him in a fury, and demanded reparation; for the practice did not yet obtain of one house of parliament supposing itself ignorant of what is done or said in the other house. The bishop instantly changed his tone, excused himself, and, with many tears, denied the most offensive of the words which had been attributed to him. By this time James must have discovered that the undertakers had engaged for more than they could accomplish. Indeed, the discovery of this scheme, which was made public before the meeting of parliament, contributed to the ill-humour of the lower house. James, in his opening speech, positively denied that there was any such plan entertained, protesting that, "for undertakers, he never was so base to call, or rely on any;" and Bacon had pretended to laugh at the notion that private men should undertake for the commons of England. A few days after, Sir Henry Neville's memorial to the king was read at full length in the house, and at the opening of the session of 1621 James himself expressly confessed that there had been such a scheme. Seeing no likelihood of the despatch of the business for which alone he had summoned them, James sent a message, that if they further delayed voting supplies he would dissolve parliament. The commons, in reply, stated that they would vote no supplies till their grievances should be redressed. It is said, on a questionable authority, that he then sent for the commons, and tore all their bills before their faces in Whitehall; but, whatever was James's indiscretion, his cowardice would be likely to prevent such an offensive and violent act. What is certain, however, is, that he carried his threat into execution on the 7th of June, and, on the following morning, committed five of the members to the Tower, for "licentiousness of speech." SIR FRANCIS BACON.-After a portrait by Vansomer. of kings to tax their subjects as they list. commons demanded a conference on this The mo mentous subject with the lords. The lords hesitated, and consulted with the judges. Before the opinion of the latter was known, the commons objected to the way in which several members had been elected, and they went nigh to expel the attorney-general, Bacon. Coke, who had attained to the chief-justiceship of the King's Bench, who could hope for no higher promotion, and who was irritated into something like patriotism by his hatred of Bacon and the ill-usage he had received from the court, after a court, that to please and humour greatness, undertook a parliament, as men presuming to have friends in every county and borough, who by their power among the people, would make election of such members for knights and burgesses as should comply solely to the king's desires; and Somerset is the head and chief of these undertakers. But this was but an embrion, and became an abortive." |