to have passed without any sturdy opposition
either in parliament or out of it. After a very
short session parliament was dissolved, and James
removed to St. Andrews to attend a great meet-
ing of the clergy. There he caused Simpson,
Ewart, and Calderwood, distinguished preachers,
who had signed the late protest (which they were
supposed to have penned), to be brought before
the High Commission Court, and convicted of
seditious behaviour. Simpson and Ewart were
suspended and imprisoned; Calderwood, the most
learned and most hated or feared of the three,
was condemned to exile for life. The people
soon began to consider these victims of kingly
and prelatical rage as martyrs, and bitterly did
they avenge their wrongs on James's successor.
But, now, that complacent sovereign proceeded
to announce to the clergy assembled at St. An-
drews how they must forthwith transplant and
adopt the ceremonies of the English church. It
was his prerogative as a Christian king to com-
mand in these matters-so he told the clergy-
nor would he regard their disapprobation or re-
monstrances; but, if they could convince him in
fair theological disputation, then he might with-
draw his ordinances. But the Scottish theolo-
gians were too wise to gratify the king with the
field-day he desired. They knew all about his
great victory at Hampton Court, and the result
of his free conference with old Andrew Melvil;
the fate of their three brethren, Simpson, Ewart,
and Calderwood, was appalling; and so, instead
of disputing or opposing the royal will, they fell
on their knees and implored him to remit the
five articles of the ceremonies to the considera-
tion of a general assembly of the whole kirk.
James at first turned a deaf ear to their prayer;
but he graciously granted it when some minis-
ter or ministers assured him that matters would
be so managed as to make the general assembly
altogether submissive to his will. He, how-
ever, insisted on the immediate enforcement of
some of the ceremonies at court; and he kept
Whitsuntide in the English manner, surrounded
by his applauding bishops and courtiers, whose
knees and consciences were flexible. And from
that time no man was admitted into any office or
employment that would not kneel as ordered,
and conform in the other particulars. James
slowly wended his way back to England in all
the pride of victory; but he was followed by the In many parts of the country, more particu-
curses of the large majority of his Scottish sub- larly in the north, the peasantry, tired of the
jects, who had not forgotten his former solemn severities of the Puritanic Sabbath, fell readily
pledges to maintain their church and their liber-into the spirit of the new law, and people again
ties, and who regarded him as an apostate, a
renegade, and a faithless tyrant.'

which the Sabbath was kept by the Presby-
terians. As he travelled southward he thought
over these things, and no doubt talked of them
too. In Lancashire, where the Catholics were
numerous, and, it was said, increasing in num-
bers, petitions were presented to him, complain-
ing that the strictness of the Puritans in keeping
the Sabbath, and putting down all manly exer-
cises and harmless recreations, drove men to
Popery and the ale-house, where "they censured
in their cups his majesty's proceedings in church
and state." Being met by his hounds and hun-
ters, James made his progress through the hunt-
ing counties, stopping at Sherwood Forest, Need-
wood, and all the other parks and forests in his
way; but when he got to London he did not for-
get the Presbyterians or Puritans, and their ob-
servance of the Lord's-day. Assisted by some of
his chaplains and bishops, he prepared and put
forth his Book of Sports, pointing out to the
people, with his usual minuteness, what pastimes
they might, and indeed ought to use, on Sabbath-
days and festivals of the church-what running,
vaulting, archery, and morris-dancing, what may-
poles, church-ales, and other rejoicings, they
might indulge in "upon Sundays, after evening
prayers ended, and upon holidays." He pro-
hibited, upon Sundays only, all bear and bull-
baitings, interludes, and bowls; and he barred
from the benefit and liberty of the other sports
"all such known recusants, either men or wo-
men," to quote the words of the declaration,
will abstain from coming to church or Divine ser-
vice; being, therefore, unworthy of any lawful
recreation after the said service, that will not
first come to the church and serve God: prohibit-
ing, in like sort, the said recreations to any that,
though conform in religion, are not present in
the church, and the service of God, before their
going to the recreations." It is quite certain that
Abbot, the primate, disapproved of the whole
measure, and thereby he increased the suspicion
which attached to him at court of being a Puri-
tan or Precisian himself; and it is said that he
positively refused to read the book in his own
church of Croydon. But the other bishops were
less bold, or less convinced that some amusements
after the celebration of Divine service were so
heinous; and the Book of Sports seems to have
been generally read as appointed.

During the king's absence in Scotland, he had been greatly annoyed by the strict manner in

Calderwood; Malcolm Laing.

as

came from church with merry faces, and the village green again resounded on the Sunday evening with merry voices. But, except to the poor labourers in these parts, and to the High

Church party, the measure was, in the utmost

degree, odious; and many people, who were not | mind; and surely never so many brave parts and convinced, perhaps, that the Christian Sunday so base and abject a spirit tenanted together in ought to be kept as the old Jewish Sabbath, any one earthen cottage as in this one man." But refused to be merry and sportful upon compul- the great offence of Bacon, for which more than sion, and thought it absurdly illegal that the for anything else he was made to lick the dust at king, of his own and sole authority, should issue the minion's feet, was his conduct in an affair such an ordinance. If nothing worse, the Book which closely concerned the "kindred" of the of Sports was a great political blunder, tending favourite. Coke, who in many things was not a to increase ill-will and irritation. But, for the whit more high-minded than his rival Bacon, present, the murmurs of the Puritans were timid perceiving the capital error he had committed in and subdued, and the full danger to royalty was opposing the views of Buckingham, took up, br not felt till the year 1633, when, by the advice of the advice of Secretary Winwood, a little family Laud, Charles I. revived his father's book, and project, which he thought would restore him tried to give it the force of law. to place, and give him again his old superiority over his rival. The ex-Lord Chief-justice of England had a marriageable daughter-a young lady that was considered a great match-for Coke had kept his money instead of spending it like Bacon, and his wife, the Lady Hatton, was very wealthy, from the lands and houses which Elizabeth had bestowed on her handsome and dancing chamberlain and chancellor. One of the

In departing for Scotland, James had intrusted extraordinary powers to Lord - keeper Bacon, whose head was thereby turned more than ever, and who, during his majesty's absence, conducted himself in such a manner as to give mortal offence to most of the ministers and men of business that were left behind. According to a caustic reporter of his doings, he instantly began to believe himself king, to lie in the king's lodg-first uses made by Sir George Villiers of his high ings, to give audience in the great banquetinghouse at Whitehall to ambassadors and others, to make the rest of the council attend his motions with the same state that tire king was used to do, and to tell the counsellors, when they sat with him for the despatch of business, to know their proper distance. "Upon which," continues Weldon, "Secretary Winwood rose and went away, and would never sit more, but instantly despatched one to the king, to desire him to make haste back, for his seat was already usurped; at which, I remember, the king reading it unto us, both the king and we were very merry. . . . In this posture he lived until he heard the king was returning, and began to believe the play was almost at an end, he might personate a king's part no longer, and therefore did again re-invest himself with his old rags of baseness, which were so tattered and poor: at the king's coming to Windsor, he attended two days at Buckinghan.'s chamber, being not admitted to any better place than the room where trencher-scrapers and lackeys attended; there, sitting upon an old wooden chest (amongst such as, for his baseness, were only fit for his companions, although the honour of his place did merit far more respect), with his purse and seal lying by him on that chest. . . . After two days he had admittance: at his first entrance he fell down flat on his face at the duke's (earl's) foot, kissing it, and vowing never to rise till he had his pardon, and then was he again reconciled, and since that time so very a slave to the duke, and all that family, that he durst not deny the command of the meanest of the kindred, nor yet oppose anything: by which you see a base spirit is ever most concomitant with the proudest

favour at court, and of the influence of James, who was a prince very prevalent in such matters, was to secure rich wives for his poor brothers and kindred. His elder brother, John Villiers, afterwards created Viscount Purbeck, was proposed as a suitable husband for this young lady; but Coke then, being not sufficiently informed of court news, and not foreseeing the mighty destinies of the new favourite, rejected the proposal. But when he saw himself deprived of office and the favourite in the ascendant, he changed his tone, and before Buckingham's departure with the king for Scotland, he made a secret bargain to give his daughter, and to take place and honours in return. Bacon, a courtier to the backbone, soon discovered this secret compact, which boded him no good; but counting as well on his own great favour with the favourite and the king, as on Coke's disfavour with the king, and relying on his own ready wit and talent for intrigue, he fondly fancied that he had conjured down this brewing storm, and made Buckingham and "the kindred" averse to the marriage. At the same time he had stirred up Coke's wife, who was always disposed to act in direct opposition to the wishes of her husband, whom she despised and hated with an intensity rare even in the matrimonial history of those days, to carry off her daughter and lodge her for safety in the house of her friend, Sir Edward Withipole, near Oxford, and to conclude a written contract of marriage with Henry de Vere, Earl of Oxford, for whom, it appears, the young lady herself enter tained some affection. Coke, in a fury, followed the fugitive and recovered his daughter by force. Upon this the proud widow of Lord Hatton, the

grand-daughter of the great Burghley, carried her had gone on since that judge and minister had complaints before the privy council, where her been in disgrace.' This letter went home to the ally for the occasion, the Lord-keeper Bacon, bosom of James; but Buckingham, who now led charged the disgraced chief-justice with a flagrant him as he chose, was not only fully bent upon breach of the peace, and countenanced Yelverton, the marriage, but was intriguing, by means of the new attorney-general, in filing an information which probably both Coke and Bacon were igin the Star Chamber against Coke. Bacon would norant, to remove the violent objections of Coke's not have gone thus far if he had not been con- termagant wife. As for the affections of the vinced that the absent favourite had given up the young lady, they were things too trivial to enter scheme; but, to be doubly sure, he now wrote two into the consideration of any party. Thus, when letters to Scotland, one to Buckingham, and one to the great philosopher brought down his glorious the king. In the first, after treating the renewed intellect to low cunning and matrimonial court scheme for the match between his brother Sir intrigues, notwithstanding his boast of his great John Villiers, and the young lady, solely as a de- experience in the world, he could be outwitted vice of Coke and Winwood, he went on to tell by an ignorant stripling like Buckingham, to him that many a better match, upon reasonable whom he had given the power of insulting him conditions, might be found; that the mother's and degrading him in his own eyes. Buckingconsent to it was not had, "nor the young gen-ham wrote him a stinging letter, reproaching him tlewoman's, who expecteth a great fortune from with his pride and audacity, and giving him to her mother, which, without her consent, is en- understand that he who had made him could undangered;" and that this match was altogether make him at his pleasure. James, taking the very inconvenient, both for his brother and him- cue from his favourite, despatched an admoniself. Because, "First, he shall marry into a dis-tory epistle of awful length, rating and scolding graced house, which, in reason of state, is never the mighty sage like a schoolboy. Upon this, held good. He shall marry into a troubled house Bacon veered round and went before the wind. of man and wife, which, in religion and Chris. He stopped proceedings begun against Coke in tian discretion, is disliked." "Your lordship," the Star Chamber; sent for the attorney-general, continues Bacon, "will go near to lose all such and made him know that, since he had heard your friends as are adverse to Sir Edward Coke from court, he was resolved to further the match; (myself only except, who, out of a pure love and sent also for my Lady Hatton and some other thankfulness, shall ever be firm to you). And special friends, to let them know that they must lastly and chiefly, believe it, it will greatly weaken not hope for his assistance in their disobedience and distract the king's service; for though, in re- to the young lady's father; wrote to the mother gard of the king's great wisdom and depth, I am of Buckingham, to offer all his good offices for persuaded those things will not follow which they furthering the marriage; and addressed a humble imagine, yet opinion will do a great deal of harm, letter of excuses and protestations to the favourand cast the king back, and make him relapse ite, telling him that his apprehension that this into those inconveniences which are now well on alliance would go near to lose him his lordship, to be recovered." Therefore, according to Bacon, whom he held so dear, was the only respect parhis lordship would gain a great deal of honour, ticular to himself that had moved him to be as if, according to religion and the law of God, he he was, till he had heard his lordship's pleasure. would think no more of this marriage for his But all this was not enough; and about a month elder brother. To the king Bacon begged to state after writing this letter, Buckingham kept him his disinterested opinion in the business of this in the hall among trencher-scrapers, and brought match, which he took to be magnum in parvo. him to his feet. After the reconciliation at WindAfter saying some bitter things to keep alive sor he wrote another base letter to thank the James's hatred of the ex-chief-justice, he re- minion. The marriage now proceeded apace, the minded him of his own servility, and how, by king driving at it as if the safety of the state deGod's grace and his majesty's instructions, he had pended upon its completion. Lady Hatton was been made a servant according to his heart and confined and interrogated by the council instead hand. If, indeed, it was his majesty's desire that of her husband; and Coke, to use his own exthe match should go on, then, upon receiving his pression, "got upon his wings again." The obstiexpress will and commandment from himself, he nacy of this dame yielded at last to the instances would conform himself thereunto, imagining, of the king, and the manœuvres of the favourite's though he would not wager on women's minds, mother, who was all-powerful at court, and who that he could prevail more with the mother of pretended a sudden friendship for her. the young lady than any other man. And then, made a liberal settlement out of her own property returning to his attack on Coke, he begged the upon her daughter; and in the month of Sepking to observe how much more quietly matters

Cabala: Bacon's Works.

She

.

tember that unwilling fair one was dragged to | James, that naturally, in former times, hated the altar, in the chapel royal at Hampton Court, women, had his lodgings replenished with them, to marry a sickly idiot. A splendid feast, enA splendid feast, en- and all of the kindred; . and little children lightened by the presence of royalty, was given did run up and down the king's lodgings like soon after at Lady Hatton's house in Holborn; little rabbits started about their burrows."3 and to make it more absolutely her own, express orders were given by her ladyship, as was reported, that neither Sir Edward Coke nor any of his servants should be admitted.' The union, as might be expected, turned out a most wretched one; and this appears to have been the case with nearly all the matches promoted by James, who, in the matter of number, was one of the greatest of match-makers. The daughter of Coke became a profligate and an adulteress; and the crazy Sir John Villiers, created Viscount Purbeck about a year and a half after his marriage, became so mad that it was necessary to place him in confinement. His brother Buckingham took charge of the property his young wife had brought him, and kept it, or spent it upon himself. But, after all, the selfish father of the victim-the great lawyer-was juggled by Buckingham and that courtly crew. As soon as the favourite saw the marriage completed and the dower safe, he felt a natural repugnance to risking favour by urging the suit of a bold-spoken, obnoxious man. Bacon, again in cordial alliance with Lady Hatton, who was most conjugally disposed to thwart and spite her husband in all things, administered daily to the king's antipathies; and all that Coke got by sacrificing his poor child was his restoration to a seat at the council-table-a place where he was no match for his rival.

On the 4th of January the supple A.D. 1618. lord-keeper was converted into lord high-chancellor, and in the month of July following he was created Baron Verulam. "And now Buckingham, having the chancellor or treasurer, and all great officers, his very slaves, swells in the height of pride, and summons up all his country kindred, the old countess providing a place for them to learn to carry themselves in a court-like garb." Rich heiresses, or daughters of noblemen, were soon provided as wives for his brothers, half-brothers, and cousins of the male gender. "And then must the women kindred be married to earls, earls' eldest sons, barons, or chief gentlemen of greatest estates; insomuch that his very female kindred were so numerous as sufficient to have peopled any plantation. . . . So that King

1 Strafford Papers. It is said that Coke, on the day of this great feast, dined among the lawyers at the Temple.

People now looked back with regret to the days of Somerset, for that favourite had some decency, some moderation; and, if he trafficked in places and honours, he trafficked alone. But "the kindred," one and all, engaged in this lucrative business. The greatest trafficker, or most active broker, in the market, was the Old Countess, as Buckingham's mother, though not an old but very beautiful woman—and infamous as beautiful-was commonly called. She sold peerages, and took money for all kinds of honours and promotions, whether in the army, navy, courts of law, or the church. There were plenty of purchasers not over-scrupulous as to the purity of the sources whence they derived their honours or titles; but, in some cases, wealthy men were forced into the market against their inclination, and made to pay for distinctions which they were wise enough not to covet. Thus one Richard Robartes, a rich merchant of Truro, in the county of Cornwall, was compelled to accept the title of Baron Robartes of Truro, and to pay £10,000 for it. The titles that were not sold were given out of family considerations: one of the favourite's brothers, as already mentioned, was made Viscount Purbeck, another Earl of Anglesey; Fielding, who married the favourite's sister, was made Earl of Denbigh, and Fielding's brother Earl of Desmond in Ireland. Cranfield also "mounted to be Earl of Middlesex, from marrying one of Buckingham's kindred." James, in one of his lengthy speeches, delivered in the Star Chamber in 1616, complained that churchmen were had in too much contempt by people of all degrees, from the highest to the lowest; and yet, notwithstanding the sharp criticisms of the Puritans, who were every day finding more reasons for reviling the whole hierarchy, he permitted his minion and "the kindred" to hold all the keys to church promotion, and to sell every turn of them to the highest bidder, or to give them as rewards to their companions and creatures.

6

In the course of this year the favourite was created a marquis, and as he expressed a desire for the post of lord high-admiral, the brave old Howard, Earl of Nottingham, the commander-inthe Petres, the Arundels, the Sackvilles, the Cavendishes, the Montagues, &c., were purchased à poids d'or, except those that were granted to the vilest favouritism. This practice also continued through the reign of Charles I., and was even more publicly acted upon as the necessities of the king and his courtiers rendered the sums of money so obtained the more necessary to them. Among the noble families who appear to owe their honours to these causes, may be mentioned the Stanhopes, Tuftons, and many others.-Remarks on the Origin of the FaAll the titles of that date, borne by the Spensers, the Fanes, lies and Honours of the British Peerage.

2 Mr. D'Israeli Curiosities of Literature) says that Coke's daughter, Lady Purbeck, was condemned, as a wanton, to stand in a white sheet; but he does not give his authority for this assertion, which seems to be contradicted by published letters of the time. 3 Weldon.

1C18.

She was created Countess of Buckingham for life, in July,

chief of the fleets that had scattered the Spanish | The doting, gloating king had taught Somerset Armada, was obliged to accept a pension, and make room for the master of the horse, who was entirely ignorant of ships and sea affairs. To all these high offices were subsequently added those of warden of the Cinque-ports, chief-justice in eyre of all the parks and forests south of Trent, master of the King's Bench-office, high-steward of Westminster, and constable of Windsor Castle.

Latin; Buckingham he attempted to teach divinity and prayer-writing, and these exercises appear prominently in a correspondence, for the most part too gross for quotation, wherein the favourite calls the king "dear dad and gossip," or "your sow-ship," and the king calls the favourite "Steenie." It was a strange intercourse between teacher and pupil, king and subject.

CHAPTER IV.-CIVIL AND MILITARY HISTORY.-A.D. 1618-1621.

JAMES I.

The favourite persecutes the Earl of Suffolk-Distinguished prisoners in the Tower-Sir Walter Raleigh's imprisonment there-His studies and pursuits in confinement--His History of the World-His proposal about a gold mine in Guiana-He is liberated from the Tower-Count Gondomar, the Spanish ambassador-Raleigh sets sail for Guiana-His attack on the Spaniards-His troops repulsed-Failure of the expedition-Complaints of the Spaniards against Raleigh– He is arrested-His fruitless attempts to escape from London-His trial— His conduct and speeches at the bar-His sentence-His demeanour in his last moments-His execution— Bohemia-Its religious reformation-Crown of Bohemia offered to the Palatine Frederick, son-in-law of James-He accepts it--Perplexity of James at the event-He asks supplies from parliament to aid his sonin-law-Parliament complies, and proceeds to the reform of abuses-Bacon accused, displaced, and fined-His behaviour under his fall-Severe punishment inflicted by the commons on Edward Floyde-The king prorogues parliament-War in Bohemia-The Palatine unsuccessful-Expedition against the Algerines-Application of James for supplies-Resentment of the commons against him-Altercation between James and the commons-Protest of the commons against his arbitrary principles-He prorogues parliament-He commits some of its members to prison.