"the King for leave to go to his charge in the Low "Countries. Before, the Duke had offered him the "Vice Admiralship, but he refused. The King asked "him why he would not accept it; who answered, he "would have accepted a far meaner office to His Majesty's service, if His Majesty himself had offered "it; but to receive it from another he thought not so fit, as for other reasons, so especially because he "knew not His Majesty's pleasure. Whereupon, the King, displeased, bade him go whither he would, "and come again when he sent for him."

66

66

By a subsequent letter in the same correspondence, we are informed that the Earl returned from the Low Countries in November; the four regiments there, which were greatly reduced in number, being sent to join the King of Denmark, under the command of General Morgan.

Essex retired to Chartley, where he remained until the assembling of a new Parliament, in 1628, called him out of retirement.

CHAPTER XII.

LIFE OF ROBERT, THIRD EARL OF ESSEX

continued.

PARLIAMENT OF 1628.-EARL OF ESSEX MARRIES MISS ELIZABETH PAULET. —ARMY SENT AGAINST THE SCOTS COVENANTERS, 1639, OF WHICH ESSEX IS LIEUTENANT-GENERAL.—HIS PROCEEDINGS. HE IS UNCEREMONIOUSLY DISMISSED AFTER THE TREATY. PARLIAMENT CALLED IN 1640. THE SCOTTISH COVENANTERS INVADE ENGLAND IN 1641. ESSEX AND OTHERS PETITION THE KING FOR A PARLIAMENT. COUNCIL OF PEERS AT YORK. COMMISSIONERS MEET AT RIPON.

THE reader of English history is well aware how Charles I. commenced his ill-advised course, by infringing the personal privileges of both Houses of Parliament; how all his subsequent proceedings evinced an arbitrary temper, and impatience of control, with an entire want of sincerity, and stability of purpose; how solemn promises made under pressure, were deliberately broken when the pressure was removed, and obnoxious and irritating measures were adopted only to be relinquished. The Parliament, on the other hand, showed the strongest determination to vindicate their own privileges, and the rights and liberties of the people; and as they pursued their object coolly, but keenly and unswervingly, every false step, and every ebullition of temper on the part of the King, only added to their strength.

The Parliament of 1628 lasted but three months,

from 26th March to 23rd June; but in that short session, the second great charter of English liberty, the Petition of Right, was passed. Had Charles faithfully adhered to the assent he gave to that bill, he might have reigned in the hearts as over the persons of his subjects; while, by his actual conduct, he not only excited sentiments of disaffection and dislike to his person, but lost that respect which men feel for constancy of purpose and resolute conduct, even when directed against themselves.

After the dissolution of the third Parliament of Charles I., that monarch won over to his party several of the most eminent among the leaders of the Opposition. The Earl of Essex was not of the number, and during the years of misgovernment which followed, he lived in retirement. Yet was this period an eventful one for him; he was tempted once more to try his fortune in the matrimonial lottery, and unhappily with not much better success than on the former occasion.

He passed the winter of 1629-30 at Tottenham, the seat of his brother-in-law, Lord Hertford. Among the visitors came Miss Elizabeth Paulet, daughter of Sir William Paulet, of Edington, "a young gentle"woman of a most sweet and bewitching countenance, "and affable and gentle conversation." Such fair company being acceptable at festival times, Lady Hertford invited her to stay all Christmas, and, in Lent, she became Countess of Essex.

Arthur Wilson plainly accuses her of adultery; but, as he admits that by his jealousy of her influence,

and "the cloudy and discontented countenance" which he showed, that he gave her cause of offence, and in consequence quitted the service of Lord Essex, I shall give the lady the full benefit of a more minute, though, perhaps, partial account, which has been left by her second husband.

Sir Thomas Higgons says, that "after the marriage "of Lord Essex, his servants finding they no longer "had the same liberty, conceived a dislike to the "Countess." Sir Walter Devereux' also entertained a mortal aversion to her, and Sir Thomas charges them with conspiracy. He states that, at a late hour one night, when Essex was in the country, they took advantage of Mr. Uvedale being in Lady Essex's apartments to visit one of her sisters, broke in, and although her sister and one of her maids were with her, accused her of adultery with Uvedale. They sent off instantly to Essex, intercepting a letter which Lady Essex also wrote to him. Lord Essex, who was credulous and jealous, and had, from the conduct of his first wife, conceived a prejudice against women, was induced to believe the tale. When Lady Essex heard this, she refused to see or write to him again.

Lady Essex was, however, with child, a circumstance which produced great irresolution in the mind of her husband; he at length said, that if the child was born by the 5th November, he would own it for his. Curiously enough, and most unsatisfactorily

1 Sir Walter was heir to the Viscountcy of Hereford, should his cousin die without male issue, and may therefore be supposed to have entertained "a mortal aversion" to Essex's second marriage.

for a man who entertained such suspicions, the child was born on that very day1; and it appears that Essex remained in the conviction that Lady Essex had been unfaithful. A letter of 30th March, 16362, informs us, that articles of separation were in negotiation, by which she was to receive 13007. a-year for life, on condition that she gave up her jointure and thirds; undertook never to complain or sue for alimony; disclaimed all title to the Earl's personal estate; and never sought to cohabit again. with her husband. An article had been inserted, that if ever" she had any child by my Lord," she was to forfeit the 1300l. a-year. It was so "set "down for the more honor; because, if so be she "should have any children, whosoever got them, yet แ my Lord must father them by the law. This "article the Countess did utterly dislike, and there"fore my Lord was contented to desert it."

On the 26th December, 1636, Lady Leicester3 writes from Penshurst to her husband:-"I forgot "to tell you last week, that my Lord of Essex's son was dead."

Lady Essex continued to reside in Essex House until the commencement of the civil war, when she retired to Oxford, at which place she became acquainted with Sir Thomas Higgons, whom she subsequently married.

1 From the funeral oration spoken by Sir T. H. at the burial of the Countess, Add. MSS. 5830. f. 122.

2 Court and Times of Charles I., vol. ii. p. 240.

3 Sidney Mem. ii. 454. Dorothy, eldest daughter of Henry, Earl of Northumberland, and Lady Dorothy Devereux, married Robert, second Earl of Leicester.