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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, 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.

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,

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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.

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-in

the 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 con tinued 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 ther honours to these causes, may be mentioned the Stanhopes, Tuftons, and many others.-Remarks on the Origin of the Fam All the titles of that date, borne by the Spensers, the Fanes, lies and Honours of the British Peerage.

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

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chief of the fleets that had scattered the Spanish | The doting, gloating king had taught Somerset Armada, was obliged to accept a pension, and Latin; Buckingham he attempted to teach divimake room for the master of the horse, who was nity and prayer-writing, and these exercises apentirely ignorant of ships and sea affairs. To all pear prominently in a correspondence, for the these high offices were subsequently added those most part too gross for quotation, wherein the of warden of the Cinque-ports, chief-justice in favourite calls the king "dear dad and gossip," eyre of all the parks and forests south of Trent, or "your sow-ship," and the king calls the famaster of the King's Bench-office, high-steward vourite "Steenie." It was a strange intercourse of Westminster, and constable of Windsor Castle. | 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 trialHis conduct and speeches at the bar-His sentence-His demeanour in his last moments-His executionBohemia-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.

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UCKINGHAM this year attacked by some of his old sharp practices, charged the the Earl of Suffolk, lord-treasurer, prisoners on one side, while Bacon, who spoke and father-in-law of the disgraced, like an Aristides, assailed them on the other. Somerset all the rest of that party The venal and corrupt chancellor was eloquent in had long since been dismissed the exposing the shameful vice of corruption. Sufcourt-and that noble Howard was folk, disregarding a hint to plead guilty and now charged with peculation and corruption, par- make sure of the royal pardon, stood upon his ticularly with reference to the money paid by the innocence, and it was the general opinion that, Dutch for the recovery of the cautionary towns, as compared with his wife, he was innocent. But a business in which all the public men had taken the Star Chamber sentenced them to pay a fine of bribes. Suffolk and his wife were both thrown £30,000, and sent them both back to the Tower. into the Tower, and the ingenuity of Bacon, and After some time, however, the fine was reduced of commissioners appointed by him, was em- to £7000, which was "clutched up by Ramsay, ployed in making out a strong case of embezzle- Earl of Haddington," and the Earl and Countess ment against the treasurer. The earl wrote to of Suffolk recovered their liberty. The post of the king, imploring him to pardon his weakness lord-treasurer was sold to Sir Henry Montague, and errors-guilt he would never confess-and chief-justice of the King's Bench, for a large telling him that, instead of being enriched by the sum; but in less than a year it was taken from places he had held, he was little less than £40,000 him and bestowed on Cranfield, afterwards Earl in debt.' The name of this Howard was rather of Middlesex, who had married one of "the popular, for he had fought bravely at sea in the kindred." time of Elizabeth, and James was half inclined to stop proceedings against him: but Buckingham was of a different mind, and the earl and countess were brought up to the Star Chamber. There, Coke, who hoped to fight his way back to favour

1 Cabala.

But this same year witnessed a far more memorable proceeding-one which, while it blackened for all ages the name of James, has perhaps brightened beyond their deserts the fame and character of the illustrious victim. Sir Walter Raleigh, it will be remembered, after receiving

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sentence of death at Winchester, was immured | a grant of the lands of Anthony Babington, leav in the Tower of London. In that dismal state-ing the young and innocent widow and children to prison he found several men fit to be his mates; The letter to the favourite produced and these were increased year after year by the no effect. Then the prisoner's wife, the devoted absurd tyranny of the court, until it seemed and spirited Lady Raleigh, got access to the king, almost to be James's intention to shut up all the and throwing herself on her knees, with her chilgenius, taste, and enterprise of England in that dren kneeling with her, implored him to spare great cage. Henry Percy, the accomplished and the remnant of their fortunes. James's only reply munificent Earl of Northumberland-the friend was, I maun ha' the land-I maun ha' it for of science and scientific men, the enthusiastic Carr;" and the minion had it accordingly. From promoter of natural and experimental philoso- this time it is probable that the hospitable table phy, the favourer of all good learning-and Ser- kept by the Earl of Northumberland was of conjeant Hoskins, the scholar, poet, wit, and critic, sequence to Raleigh on other grounds than those the admired of Camden, Selden, Daniel, the of society and conversation. This extraordinary friend and polisher of Ben Jonson- were among man had always had a determined turn to letters the distinguished co-mates of Raleigh; and these and the sciences; in the bustle of the camp, in the men constantly attracted to the Tower some of court, in the discomforts of the sea, he had snatched the most intellectual of their contemporaries, who hours for intense studies, which had embraced the enlivened their captivity with learned and plea- wide range of poetry, history, law, divinity, assant discourse. Northumberland served as a tronomy, chemistry, and other sciences. In the centre for these wits, and his purse appears to Tower, the quiet of the place, the necessity his have been always open to such as were in need, restless mind felt for employment and excitewhether prisoners or free. For some time Ra-ment, and the tastes of his fellow-prisoners and leigh did not require pecuniary assistance; for, visitors, all led him to an increased devotion to though his moveable estate was forfeited by his these absorbing pursuits. If he was a rarely. attainder, it was consigned to trustees appointed accomplished man when he entered his prisonby himself for the benefit of his family and cre- house, the thirteen years he passed there in this ditors, and his principal estate and castle of Sher- kind of life were likely to qualify him for great borne in Dorsetshire, which his taste and unspar- literary undertakings. During one part of his ing outlay of money in his prosperous days "had confinement he devoted a great deal of his time beautified with orchards, gardens, and groves of to chemistry, not without the usual leaning to much variety and great delight," had been cau- alchemy, and an indefinite hope of discovering the tiously conveyed to his eldest son some time philosopher's stone-a dream which was fully inbefore the death of Elizabeth and the beginning dulged in by his friend Northumberland, and of his troubles. But some sharp eye, in looking which was no stranger to Bacon himself. Rafor prey, discovered that there was a legal flawleigh fancied that he had discovered an elixir, or in the deed of conveyance, and the chief-justice, Popham, Raleigh's personal enemy, and the same that had sat on his trial, decided that, from the omission of some technicality, the deed was altogether invalid. No doubt the chief-justice knew beforehand that the king wanted the property for his minion Robert Carr, who was just then commencing his career at court. From his prison Raleigh wrote to the young favourite, telling him that, if the inheritance of his children were thus taken from them for want of a word, there would remain to him but the name of life. Some of the expressions in this letter are exceedingly affecting; but, in reading them, we cannot but remember that Raleigh himself, at his own dawn, had greedily grasped at the possessions of the fatherless-that he himself had got from Elizabeth

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grand cordial of sovereign remedy in all diseases a sort of panacea. On one occasion, when the queen was very ill, she took his draught, and experienced or fancied immediate relief. Prince Henry, who had always taken a lively interest in his fate, and for whom Raleigh had written some admirable treatises in the Tower, joined his grateful mother in petitions for his liberation; but without avail. For the instruction of the young prince, Raleigh commenced his famous History of the World-a work, as far as it goes, of uncommon learning and genius, and altogether extraordinary, if we consider the time, the trying circumstances under which it was written, and the previous busy life of the author. The first part was finished in 1612. Shortly after young Henry died; and then, though (to use his own

The first entry in Lord Burghley's Diary, under the year honour, I beseech you not to begin your first building upon the 1587, is the following:

"A grant of Anthony Babington to Sir Walter Raleigh." The touching expressions in Raleigh's letter to Carr are these:And for yourself, sir, seeing your fair day is now in the dawn, and mine drawn to the evening, your own virtues and the king's grace assuring you of many favours and of much

ruins of the innocent, and that their sorrows with mine may
not attend your first plantation
1 therefore trust, sir,
that you will not be the first who shall kill us outright, cut
down the tree with the fruit, and undergo the curse of them
that enter the fields of the fatherless, '-Serin. Sac.

2 It was not published till 1614.

expression) he had "hewn out" the second and third parts, he had not heart to finish them.' In 1614 the revolutions at court had thrown Somerset into disgrace, and brought Buckingham into favour. Raleigh built new hopes on the change, and instantly became a suitor to George Villiers. But he and his friends had never

SIR WALTER RALEIGH. From the print in his "History of the World," ed. 1677.

ceased their endeavours at court, and before this time Sir Walter had proposed to Secretary Winwood a scheme which, he fancied, must excite the king's cupidity, and lead to his immediate release. In the year 1595, Raleigh, in the course of one of his adventurous voyages, had visited Guiana in South America, the fabled El Dorado, or Land of Gold, which, though discovered by the Spaniards, had not been conquered or settled. The capital city of Manoa, which had been described by Spanish writers as one vast palace of Aladdin-a congeries of precious stones and precious metals-eluded his pursuit; but he found the country to be fertile and beautiful, and he discovered at an accessible point, not far from the banks of the mighty Orinoco, some signs of a gold mine. He now proposed to Secretary Winwood an expedition to secure and work that virgin mine, which he was confident would yield exhaustless treasures. The ships necessary, their equipment, and all expenses, he undertook to provide by himself and his friends; he asked nothing from the king, who was to have one-fifth of the gold, but his liberty and an ample commission. Winwood, though a practised and cau

It should be remembered, however, that he was released from the Tower after the prince's death, and again involved in the active business of life..

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tious man of business, was captivated by the project, and he recommended it to the king as a promising speculation. James, who was almost penniless, entered into it at first with more eagerness than the secretary; but, on reflection, he fancied that the enterprise might involve him in a war with Spain, which still pretended its exclusive right, by Papal bull, to all those regions; and war was James's horror. Still, however, his increasing wants made him often dream of El Dorado, and he began to talk about Raleigh as a brave and skilful man. Some noble friends of the captive took advantage of this frame of mind: but nothing was now to be done at court without conciliating "the kindred;" and it was a sum of £1500 paid to Sir William St. John and Sir Edward Villiers, uncles of the favourite, that undid the gates of the Tower. Raleigh walked forth in the beginning of March, leaving behind him, in that fortress, the fallen Robert Carr, Earl of Somerset, who, in the following month, was brought to his trial for the murder of Overbury. But, though admitted to liberty, Sir Walter as yet had no pardon; and to obtain one, and to restore his shattered fortune, to indulge again in his favourite pursuits, his romantic adventures, he laboured heart and soul to remove the king's objections to his great project. James had a hard struggle between his timidity and his cupidity: he longed for the gold as the traveller in the desert longs for water, but still he dreaded the Spaniards, the dragons of the mine. His indecision was increased when, by his indiscreet gossiping, the project became known to the Spanish ambassador. Count Gondomar was a very accomplished diplomatist, the best that could possibly have been found for such a court as that of James. "He had as free access to the king as any courtier of them all, Buckingham only excepted; and the king took delight to talk with him, for he was full of conceits, and would speak false Latin a purpose, in his merry fits, to please the king; telling the king plainly, 'You speak Latin like a pedant, but I speak it like a gentleman."" While he could drink wine with his majesty and the men, he could win the ladies of the court by his gallantry and liberality; and it is said that, in that sink of dishonour and immorality, he intrigued with some of the highest dames, and bribed some of the proudest nobles. If the indiscretion of the king over his cups were not enough, he had plenty of other keys to the secrets of government. According to James's own declaration, Gondomar "took great alarm, and made vehement assertions, in repeated audiences, that he had discovered the objects of the expedition to be hostile and piratical, tending to a breach of the late peace between the two

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2 Arthur Wilson.

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COUNT GONDOMAR, Spanish Ambassador.
From a print by S. Pass.

the arms and soldiers he took with him would be solely for self-defence. According to James, the ambassador then seemed to be satisfied, observing to Secretary Winwood, that if Raleigh only meant to make a peaceful settlement, Spain would offer no resistance. Thereupon the energetic adventurer pressed the preparations for his expedition, and his reputation and merit "brought many gentlemen of quality to venture their estates and persons upon the design." Sir Walter obtained from the Countess of Bedford £8000, which were owing to him, and Lady Raleigh sold her estate of Mitcham for £2500; all of which money he embarked in the adventure. Having obtained ample information as to the course he intended to pursue, and securities, in persons of wealth and rank, for his good behaviour and return, James granted his commission under the privy seal, constituting Raleigh general and commander-in-chief of the expedition, and governor of the colony which he was about to found. On the 28th of March, 1617, he set sail with a fleet of fourteen vessels. The Destiny, in which he hoisted his flag, had on board 200 men, including sixty gentlemen, many of whom were his own or his wife's relations. The voyage began inauspiciously; the ships were driven by a storm into the Cove of Cork, where they lay till the month of August. They did not reach the Cape de Verd

1 James's declaration in Appendix to Cayley's Life of Raleigh.

Islands before October, and it was the 13th of November when they "recovered the land of Guiana." During the long rough voyage, disease had broken out among the sailors; forty-two men died on board the admiral's ship alone, and Raleigh suffered the most violent calenture that ever man did and lived. But he wrote to his wife, "We are still strong enough, I hope, to perform what we have undertaken, if the diligent care at London to make our strength known to the Spanish king by his ambassador have not taught that monarch to fortify all the entrances against us." He was received by his old friends, the Indians on the coast, with enthusiasm ; but he soon learned that the Spaniards were up the country, and prepared to dispute with him the possession of it. Being himself so reduced by sickness as to be unable to walk, he sent Captain Keymis up the river Orinoco with five of the ships, and took up his station with the rest at the island of Trinidad; close to the mouths of that river. He had been given to understand that a Spanish fleet was in the neighbourhood; and it is quite certain that he intended not only to fight it if challenged, but also to fight in order to prevent it following Keymis up the river. This brave captain, who had been for many years devoted to Raleigh, and had suffered many troubles on his account, had explored the country where the mine was situated in 1595, and he was now ordered to make direct for the mine, "the star that directed them thither." If he found it rich and royal he was to establish himself at it; if poor and unpromising, he was to bring away with him a basket or two of ore, to convince the king that the design was not altogether visionary. Keymis began sailing up the river on the 10th of December. If we are to believe the English accounts, the Spaniards began the war, and shot at the ships both with their ordnance and muskets, which they were very likely to do, even without a reference to the exclusive pretension of sovereignty, from the recollection of the mode in which the great Drake and other English commanders had behaved, and that too when, as now, there was no declaration of war between England and Spain. Keymis soon arrived off the town of St. Thomas, which the Spaniards had recently built on the right bank of the river; and he landed and took up a position between that town and the mine. It is said that he had no intention of attacking the place we confess that, from a consideration of the circumstances, we

2 "To tell you that I might here be king of the Indians were a vanity. But my name hath still lived among them here They feed me with fresh meat, and all that the country yields All offer to obey me."-Letter to his Wife.

3 It was an axiom with sailors long before and long after this voyage of Raleigh, that the treaties of Europe did not exten across the ocean-that there was "no peace beyond the Line"

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