1595 to 1598.
Essex and Cecil factious--Expedition to Cadiz.--Robert Cecil appointed
secretary.--Notice of sir T. Bodley.--Critical situation of
Essex.--Francis Bacon addresses to him a letter of advice--composes
speeches for him.--Notice of Toby Matthew.--Outrages in London repressed
by martial law.--Death of lord Hunsdon--of the earl of Huntingdon--of
bishop Fletcher.--Anecdote of bishop Vaughan.--Book on the queen's
touching for the evil.
From this period nearly of the reign of Elizabeth, her court exhibited a
scene of perpetual contest between the faction of the earl of Essex and
that of lord Burleigh, or rather of Robert Cecil; and so widely did the
effects of this intestine division extend, that there was perhaps
scarcely a single court-attendant or public functionary whose interests
did not become in some mode or other involved in the debate. Yet the
quarrel itself may justly be regarded as base and contemptible; no
public principle was here at stake; whether religious, as in the
struggles between papists and protestants which often rent the cabinet
of Henry VIII.; or civil, as in those of whigs and tories by which the
administrations of later times have been divided and overthrown. It was
simply and without disguise a strife between individuals, for the
exclusive possession of that political power and court influence of
which each might without disturbance have enjoyed a share capable of
contenting an ordinary ambition.
In religion there was apparently no shade of difference between the
hostile leaders; neither of them had studied with so little diligence
the inclinations of the queen as to persist at this time in the
patronage of the puritans, though the early impressions, certainly of
Essex and probably of sir Robert Cecil also, must have been considerably
in favor of this persecuted sect. Still less would either venture to
stand forth the advocate of the catholics; though it was among the most
daring and desperate of this body that Essex was compelled at length to
seek adherents, when the total ruin of his interest with his sovereign
fatally compelled him to exchange the character of head of a court party
for that of a conspirator and a rebel. Of the title of the king of Scots
both were steady supporters; and first Essex and afterwards Cecil
maintained a secret correspondence with James, who flattered each in his
turn with assurances of present friendship and future favor.
On one public question alone of any considerable magnitude do the rivals
appear to have been at issue;--that of the prosecution of an offensive
war against Spain.
The age and the wisdom of lord Burleigh alike inclined him to a pacific
policy; and though Robert Cecil, for the purpose of strengthening
himself and weakening his opponent, would frequently act the patron
towards particular officers,--those especially of whom he observed the
earl to entertain a jealousy,--it is certain that warlike ardor made no
part of his natural composition. Essex on the contrary was all on fire
for military glory; and at this time he was urging the queen with
unceasing importunities to make a fresh attack upon her capital enemy in
the heart of his European dominions. In this favorite object, after
encountering considerable opposition from her habits of procrastination
and from some remaining fears and scruples, he succeeded; and the zeal
of the people hastening to give full effect to the designs of her
majesty, a formidable armament was fitted out in all diligence, which in
June 1596 set sail for Cadiz.
Lord Howard of Effingham, as lord admiral, commanded the fleet; Essex
himself received with transport the appointment of general of all the
land-forces, and spared neither pains nor cost in his preparations for
the enterprise. Besides his constant eagerness for action, his spirit
was on this occasion inflamed by an indignation against the tyrant
Philip, "which rose," according to the happy expression of one of his
biographers, "to the dignity of a personal aversion[118]." In his
letters he was wont to employ the expression, "I will make that proud
king know" &c.: a phrase, it seems, which gave high offence to
Elizabeth, who could not tolerate what she regarded as arrogance against
a crowned head, though her bitterest foe.
[Note 118: See A Catalogue of Royal and Noble Authors, by lord
Orford.]
Subordinate commands were given to lord Thomas Howard, second son of the
late duke of Norfolk, who was at this time inclined to the party of
Essex; to Raleigh, who now affected an extraordinary deference for the
earl, his secret enemy and rival; to that very able officer sir Francis
Vere of the family of the earls of Oxford, who had highly distinguished
himself during several years in the wars of the Low Countries; to sir
George Carew, an intimate friend of sir Robert Cecil; and to some
others, who formed together a council of war.
The queen herself composed on this occasion a prayer for the use of the
fleet, and she sent to her land and her sea commander jointly "a letter
of license to depart; besides comfortable encouragement." "But ours in
particular," adds a follower of Essex, "had one fraught with all kind of
promises and loving offers, as the like, since he was a favorite, he
never had."
Enterprise was certainly not the characteristic of the lord admiral as a
commander; and when on the arrival of the armament off Cadiz, it was
proposed that an attack should be made by the fleet on the ships in the
harbour, he remonstrated against the rashness of such an attempt, and
prevailed on several members of the council of war to concur in his
objections. In the end, however, the arguments or importunities of the
more daring party prevailed; and Essex threw his hat into the sea in a
wild transport of joy on learning that the admiral consented to make the
attack. He was now acquainted by the admiral with the queen's secret
order, dictated by her tender care for the safety of her young
favorite,--that he should by no means be allowed to lead the
assault;--and he promised an exact obedience to the mortifying
prohibition. But, once in presence of the enemy, his impetuosity would
brook no control. He broke from the station of inglorious security which
had been assigned him, and rushed into the heat of the action.
The Spanish fleet was speedily driven up the harbour, under the guns of
the fort of Puntal, where the admiral's ship and another first-rate were
set on fire by their own crews, and the rest run aground. Of these, two
fine ships fell into the hands of the English; and the lord admiral
having refused to accept of any ransom for the remainder, saying that he
came to consume and not to compound, they were all, to the number of
fifty, burned by the Spanish admiral.
Meantime, Essex landed his men and marched them to the assault of Cadiz.
The town was on this side well fortified, and the defenders, having also
the advantage of the ground, received the invaders so warmly that they
were on the point of being repulsed from the gate against which they had
directed their attack: but Essex, just at the critical moment, rushed
forward, seized his own colors and threw them over the wall; "giving
withal a most hot assault unto the gate, where, to save the honor of
their ensign, happy was he that could first leap down from the wall and
with shot and sword make way through the thickest press of the enemy."
The town being thus stormed, was of course given up to plunder; but
Essex, whose humanity was not less conspicuous than his courage, put an
immediate stop to the carnage by a vigorous exertion of his authority;
protected in person the women, children, and religious, whom he caused
to retire to a place of safety; caused the prisoners to be treated with
the utmost tenderness; and allowed all the citizens to withdraw, on
payment of a ransom, before the place with its fortifications was
committed to the flames. It was indeed the wish and intention of Essex
to have kept possession of Cadiz; which he confidently engaged to the
council of war to hold out against the Spaniards, with a force of no
more than three or four thousand men, till succours could be sent from
England; and with this view he had in the first instance sedulously
preserved the buildings from all injury. But among his brother officers
few were found prepared to second his zeal: the expedition was in great
measure an adventure undertaken at the expense of private persons, who
engaged in it with the hope of gain rather than glory; and as these men
probably attributed the success which had hitherto crowned their arms in
great measure to the surprise of the Spaniards, they were unwilling to
risk in a more deliberate contest the rich rewards of valor of which
they had possessed themselves.
The subsequent proposals of Essex for the annoyance of the enemy, either
by an attack on Corunna, or on St. Sebastian and St. Andero, or by
sailing to the Azores in quest of the homeward-bound carracks, all
experienced the same mortifying negative from the members of the council
of war, of whom lord Thomas Howard alone supported his opinions. But
undeterred by this systematic opposition, he persevered in urging, that
more might and more ought to be performed by so considerable an
armament; and the lord admiral, weary of contesting the matter, sailed
away at length and left him on the Spanish coast with the few ships and
the handful of men which still adhered to him. Want of provisions
compelled him in a short time to abandon an enterprise now desperate;
and he returned full of indignation to England, where fresh struggles
and new mortifications awaited him. The appointment during his absence
of Robert Cecil to the office of secretary of state, instead of Thomas
Bodley, afterwards the founder of the library which preserves his
name,--for whom, since he had found the restoration of Davison hopeless,
Essex had been straining every nerve to procure it,--gave him ample
warning of all the counteraction on other points which he was doomed to
experience; and was in fact the circumstance which finally established
the ascendency of his adversaries: yet to an impartial eye many
considerations may appear to have entirely justified on the part of the
queen this preference. Where, it might be asked, could a fitter
successor be found to lord Burleigh in the post which he had so long
filled to the satisfaction of his sovereign and the benefit of his
country, than in the son who certainly inherited all his
ability;--though not, as was afterwards seen, his principles or his
virtues;--and who had been trained to business as the assistant of his
father and under his immediate inspection? Why should the earl of Essex
interfere with an order of things so natural? On what pretext should the
queen be induced to disappoint the hopes of her old and faithful
servant, and to cast a stigma upon a young man of the most promising
talents, who was unwearied in his efforts to establish himself in her
favor?
By the queen and the people, Essex, their common favorite, was welcomed,
on his safe return from an expedition to himself so glorious, with every
demonstration of joy and affection, and no one appeared to sympathize
more cordially than her majesty in his indignation that nothing had been
attempted against the Spanish treasure-ships. On the other hand, no
pains were spared by his adversaries to lessen in public estimation the
glory of his exploits, by ascribing to the naval commanders a principal
share in the success at Cadiz, which he accounted all his own. An
anonymous narrative of the expedition which he had prepared, was
suppressed by means of a general prohibition to the printers of
publishing any thing whatsoever relating to that business; and no other
resource was left him than the imperfect one of dispersing copies in
manuscript. It was suggested to the queen by some about her, that though
the treasure-ships had escaped her, she might at least reimburse herself
for the expenses incurred out of the rich spoils taken at Cadiz; and no
sooner had this project gained possession of her mind than she began to
quarrel with Essex for his lavish distribution of prize-money. She
insisted that the commanders should resign to her a large share of their
gains; and she had even the meanness to cause the private soldiers and
sailors to be searched before they quitted the ships, that the value of
the money or other booty of which they had possessed themselves might be
deducted from their pay. Her first feelings of displeasure and
disappointment over, the rank and reputation of the officers concerned,
and especially the brilliancy of the actual success, were allowed to
cover all faults. The influence of her kinsman the lord admiral over the
mind of the queen was one which daily increased in strength with her
advance in age,--according to a common remark respecting family
attachments; and it will appear that he finally triumphed so completely
over the accusations of his youthful adversary, as to ground on this
very expedition his claim of advancement to a higher title.
It was the darling hope of Essex that he might be authorized to lead
without delay his flourishing and victorious army to the recovery of
Calais, now held by a Spanish garrison; and he took some secret steps
with the French ambassador in order to procure a request to this effect
from Henry IV. to Elizabeth. But this king absolutely refused to allow
the town to be recaptured by his ally, on the required condition of her
retaining it at the peace as an ancient possession of the English crown;
the Cecil party also opposed the design; and the disappointed general
saw himself compelled to pause in the career of glory.
It was not in the disposition of Essex to support these mortifications
with the calmness which policy appeared to dictate; and Francis Bacon,
alarmed at the courses which he saw the earl pursuing, and already
foreboding his eventual loss of the queen's favor, and the ruin of
those, himself included, who had placed their dependence on him,
addressed to him a very remarkable letter of caution and remonstrance,
not less characteristic of his own peculiar mind than illustrative of
the critical situation of him to whom it was written.
After appealing to the earl himself for the advantage which he had
lately received by following his own well-meant advice, in renewing with
the queen "a treaty of obsequious kindness," which "did much attemper a
cold malignant humor then growing upon her majesty towards him," he
repeats his counsel that he should "win the queen;" adding, "if this be
not the beginning of any other course, I see no end. And I will not now
speak of favor or affection, but of other correspondence and
agreeableness, which, when it shall be conjoined with the other of
affection, I durst wager my life... that in you she will come to
question of _Quid fiet homini quem rex vult honorare?_ But how is it
now? A man of a nature not to be ruled; that hath the advantage of my
affection and knoweth it; of an estate not grounded to his greatness; of
a popular reputation; of a military dependence. I demand whether there
can be a more dangerous image than this represented to any monarch
living, much more to a lady, and of her majesty's apprehension? And is
it not more evident than demonstration itself, that whilst this
impression continueth in her majesty's breast, you can find no other
condition than inventions to keep your estate bare and low; crossing and
disgracing your actions; extenuating and blasting of your merit;
carping with contempt at your nature and fashions; breeding, nourishing
and fortifying such instruments as are most factious against you;
repulses and scorns of your friends and dependents that are true and
steadfast; winning and inveigling away from you such as are flexible and
wavering; thrusting you into odious employments and offices to supplant
your reputation; abusing you and feeding you with dalliances and
demonstrations to divert you from descending into the serious
consideration of your own case; yea and percase venturing you in
perilous and desperate enterprises?"
With his usual exactness of method, he then proceeds to offer remedies
for the five grounds of offence to her majesty here pointed out; amongst
which the following are the most observable. That he ought to ascribe
any former and irrevocable instance of an ungovernable humor in him to
dissatisfaction, and not to his natural temper:--That though he sought
to shun, and in some respects rightly, any imitation of Hatton or
Leicester, he should yet allege them on occasion to the queen as authors
and patterns, because there was no readier means to make her think him
in the right course:--That when his lordship happened in speeches _to do
her majesty right_, "for there is no such matter as flattery amongst you
all," he had rather the air of paying fine compliments than of speaking
what he really thought; "so that," adds he, "a man may read your
formality in your countenance," whereas "it ought to be done familiarly
and with an air of earnest."
That he should never be without some particulars on foot which he
should seem to pursue with earnestness and affection, and then let them
fall upon taking knowledge of her majesty's opposition and dislike. Of
which kind the weightiest might be, if he offered to labor, in the
behalf of some whom he favored, for some of the places then void,
choosing such a subject as he thought her majesty likely to oppose.... A
less weighty sort of particulars might be the pretence of some journeys,
which at her majesty's request his lordship might relinquish; as if he
should pretend a journey to see his estate towards Wales, or the
like.... And the lightest sort of particulars, which yet were not to be
neglected, were in his habits, apparel, wearings, gestures, and the
like."
With respect to a "military dependence," which the writer regards as the
most injurious impression respecting him of all, he declares that he
could not enough wonder that his lordship should say the wars were his
occupation, and go on in that course. He greatly rejoiced indeed, now it
was over, in his expedition to Cadiz, on account of the large share of
honor which he had acquired, and which would place him for many years
beyond the reach of military competition. Besides that the disposal of
places and other matters relating to the wars, would of themselves flow
in to him as he increased in other greatness, and preserve to him that
dependence entire. It was indeed a thing which, considering the times
and the necessity of the service, he ought above all to retain; but
while he kept it in substance, he should abolish it in shows to the
queen, who loved peace, and did not love cost. And on this account he
could not so well approve of his affecting the place of earl-marshal or
master of the ordnance, on account of their affinity to a military
greatness, and rather recommended to his seeking the peaceful,
profitable and courtly office of lord privy seal. In the same manner,
with respect to the reputation of popularity, which was a good thing in
itself, and one of the best flowers of his greatness both present and
future, the only way was to quench it _verbis, non rebus_; to take all
occasions to declaim against popularity and popular courses to the
queen, and to tax them in all others, yet for himself, to go on as
before in all his honorable commonwealth courses. "And therefore," says
he, "I will not advise to cure this by dealing in monopolies or any
oppressions."
The last and most curious article of all, respects his quality of a
favorite. As, separated from all the other matters it could not hurt,
so, joined with them, he observes that it made her majesty more fearful
and captious, as not knowing her own strength. For this, the only remedy
was to give place to any other favorite to whom he should find her
majesty incline, "so as the subject had no ill or dangerous aspect"
towards himself. "For otherwise," adds this politic adviser, "whoever
shall tell me that you may not have singular use of a favorite at your
devotion, I will say he understandeth not the queen's affection, nor
your lordship's condition."
These crafty counsels, which steadily pursued would have laid the army,
the court, and the people, and in effect the queen herself, at the feet
of a private nobleman, seem to have made considerable impression for
the time on the mind of Essex; though the impetuosity of his temper,
joined to a spirit of sincerity, honor and generosity, which not even
the pursuits of ambition and the occupations of a courtier could
entirely quench, soon caused him to break loose from their intolerable
restraint.
Francis Bacon, in furtherance of the plan which he had suggested to his
patron of appearing to sink all other characters in that of a devoted
servant of her majesty, likewise condescended to employ his genius upon
a device which was exhibited by the earl on the ensuing anniversary of
her accession, with great applause.
First, his page, entering the tilt-yard, accosted her majesty in a fit
speech, and she in return graciously pulled off her glove and gave it to
him. Some time after appeared the earl himself, who was met by an
ancient hermit, a secretary of state, and a soldier; each of whom
presented him with a book recommending his own course of life, and,
after a little pageantry and dumb show to relieve the solemnity of the
main design, pronounced a long and well-penned speech to the same
effect. All were answered by an esquire, or follower of the earl, who
pointed out the evils attached to each pursuit, and concluded, says our
reporter, "with an excellent but too plain English, that this knight
would never forsake his mistress' love, whose virtue made all his
thoughts divine, whose wisdom taught him all true policy, whose beauty
and worth made him at all times fit to command armies. He showed all
the defects and imperfections of their times, and therefore thought his
own course of life to be best in serving his mistress.... The queen said
that if she had thought there had been so much said of her, she would
not have been there that night; and so went to bed." These speeches may
still be read, with mingled admiration and regret, amongst the immortal
works of Francis Bacon. In majesty of diction and splendor of allusion
they are excelled by none of his more celebrated pieces; and with such a
weight of meaning are they fraught, that they who were ignorant of the
serious purpose which he had in view might wonder at the prodigality of
the author in employing massy gold and real gems on an occasion which
deserved nothing better than tinsel and false brilliants. That full
justice might be done to the eloquence of the composition, the favorite
part of the esquire was supported by Toby Matthew, whose father was
afterwards archbishop of York; a man of a singular and wayward
disposition, whose prospects in life were totally destroyed by his
subsequent conversion to popery; but whose talents and learning were
held in such esteem by Bacon, that he eagerly engaged his pen in the
task of translating into Latin some of the most important of his own
philosophical works. Such were the "wits, besides his own," of which the
munificent patronage of Essex had given him "the command!"
A few miscellaneous occurrences of the years 1595 and 1596 remain to be
noticed.
The size of London, notwithstanding many proclamations and acts of
parliament prohibiting the erection of any new buildings except on the
site of old ones, had greatly increased during the reign of Elizabeth;
and one of the first effects of its rapid growth was to render its
streets less orderly and peaceful. The small houses newly erected in the
suburbs being crowded with poor, assembled from all quarters, thefts
became frequent; and a bad harvest having plunged the lower classes into
deeper distress, tumults and outrages ensued. In June 1595 great
disorders were committed on Tower-hill; and the multitude having
insulted the lord mayor who went out to quell them, Elizabeth took the
violent and arbitrary step of causing martial law to be proclaimed in
her capital. Sir Thomas Wilford, appointed provost-marshal for the
occasion, paraded the streets daily with a body of armed men ready to
hang all rioters in the most summary manner; and five of these offenders
suffered for high treason on Tower-hill, without resistance on the part
of the people, or remonstrance on that of the parliament, against so
flagrant a violation of the dearest rights of Englishmen.
Lord Hunsdon, the nearest kinsman of the queen, whose character has been
already touched upon, died in 1596. It is related that Elizabeth, on
hearing of his illness, finally resolved to confer upon him the title of
earl of Wiltshire, to which he had some claim as nephew and heir male to
sir Thomas Boleyn, her majesty's grandfather, who had borne that
dignity. She accordingly made him a gracious visit, and caused the
patent and the robes of an earl to be brought and laid upon his bed; but
the old man, preserving to the last the blunt honesty of his character,
declared, that if her majesty had accounted him unworthy of that honor
while living, he accounted himself unworthy of it now that he was dying;
and with this refusal be expired. Lord Willoughby succeeded him in the
office of governor of Berwick, and lord Cobham, a wealthy but
insignificant person of the party opposed to Essex, in that of lord
chamberlain.
Henry third earl of Huntingdon of the family of Hastings died about the
same time. By his mother, eldest daughter and coheiress of Henry Pole
lord Montacute, he was the representative of the Clarence branch of the
family of Plantagenet; but no pretensions of his had ever awakened
anxiety in the house of Tudor. He was a person of mild disposition,
greatly attached to the puritan party, which, bound together by a secret
compact, now formed a church within the church; he is said to have
impaired his fortune by his bounty to the more zealous preachers; and be
largely contributed by his will to the endowment of Emanuel college, the
puritanical character of which was now well known.
Richard Fletcher bishop of London, "a comely and courtly prelate," who
departed this life in the same year, affords a subject for a few
remarks. It was a practice of the more powerful courtiers of that day,
when the lands of a vacant see had excited, as they seldom failed to do,
their cupidity, to "find out some men that had great minds and small
means or merits, that would be glad to leave a small deanery to make a
poor bishopric, by new leasing lands that were almost out of
lease[119];" and on these terms, which more conscientious churchmen
disdained, Fletcher had taken the bishopric of Oxford, and had in due
time been rewarded for his compliance by translation first to Worcester
and afterwards to London. His talents and deportment pleased the queen;
and it is mentioned, as an indication of her special favor, that she
once quarrelled with him for wearing too short a beard. But he
afterwards gave her more serious displeasure by taking a wife, a gay and
fair court lady of good quality; and he had scarcely pacified her
majesty by the propitiatory offering of a great entertainment at his
house in Chelsea, when he was carried off by a sudden death, ascribed by
his contemporaries to his immoderate use of the new luxury of smoking
tobacco. This prelate was the father of Fletcher the dramatic poet.
[Note 119: Harrington's Brief View.]
Bishop Vaughan succeeded him, of whom Harrington gives the following
trait: "He was an enemy to all supposed miracles, insomuch as one
arguing with him in the closet at Greenwich in defence of them, and
alleging the queen's healing of the evil for an instance, asking him
what he could say against it, he answered, that he was loth to answer
arguments taken from the topic-place of the cloth of estate; but if
they would urge him to answer, he said his opinion was, she did it by
virtue of some precious stone in possession of the crown of England that
had such a natural quality. But had queen Elizabeth been told that he
ascribed more virtue to her jewels (though she loved them well) than to
her person, she would never have made him bishop of Chester."
Of the justice of the last remark there can be little question. In this
reign, the royal pretension referred to, was asserted with unusual
earnestness, and for good reasons, as we learn from a different
authority. In 1597 a quarto book appeared, written in Latin and
dedicated to her majesty by one of her chaplains, which contained a
relation of the cures thus performed by her; in which it is related,
that a catholic having been so healed went away persuaded that the
pope's excommunication of her majesty was of no effect: "For if she had
not by right obtained the sceptre of the kingdom, and her throne
established by the authority and appointment of God, what she attempted
could not have succeeded. Because the rule is, that God is not any where
witness to a lie[120]." Such were the reasonings of that age.
[Note 120: Strype's Annals.]
It is probably to bishop Vaughan also that sir John Harrington refers in
the following article of his Brief Notes.
"One Sunday (April last) my lord of London preached to the queen's
majesty, and seemed to touch on the vanity of decking the body too
finely. Her majesty told the ladies, that if the bishop held more
discourse on such matters, she would fit him for heaven, but he should
walk thither without a staff, and leave his mantle behind him. Perchance
the bishop hath never sought her highness' wardrobe, or he would have
chosen another text[121]."
[Note 121: Nugae Antiquae.]