[1] i.e. in the Capel line.
[2] _Hist. MSS. Comm. ser._; _Duke of Beaufort's MSS._ 45.
[3] _Life of Ormonde_, by T. Carte, viii. 468 (1851), vol. iv. p. 529.
[4] _Hist. MSS. Comm._ 7th Rep. app. 477b.
[5] _Ib._ 6th Rep. app. 741b.
[6] _Diary and Corresp._ (1850), ii. 141, 178.
ESSEX, ROBERT DEVEREUX, 2ND[1] EARL OF (1566-1601), son of the 1st
Devereux earl, was born at Netherwood, Herefordshire, on the 19th of
November 1566. He entered the university of Cambridge and graduated in
1581. In 1585 he accompanied his stepfather, the earl of Leicester, on
an expedition to Holland, and greatly distinguished himself at the
battle of Zutphen. He now took his place at court, where so handsome a
youth soon found favour with Queen Elizabeth, and in consequence was on
bad terms with Raleigh. In 1587 he was appointed master of the horse,
and in the following year was made general of the horse and installed
knight of the Garter. On the death of Leicester he succeeded him as
chief favourite of the queen, a position which injuriously affected his
whole subsequent life, and ultimately resulted in his ruin. While
Elizabeth was approaching the mature age of sixty, Essex was scarcely
twenty-one. Though well aware of the advantages of his position, and
somewhat vain of the queen's favour, his constant attendance on her at
court was irksome to him beyond all endurance; and when he could not
make his escape to the scenes of foreign adventure after which he
longed, he varied the monotony of his life at court by intrigues with
the maids of honour. He fought a duel with Sir Charles Blount, a rival
favourite of the queen, in which the earl was disarmed and slightly
wounded in the thigh.
In 1589, without the queen's consent, he joined the expedition of Drake
and Sir John Norris against Spain, but in June he was compelled to obey
a letter enjoining him at his "uttermost peril" to return immediately.
In 1590 Essex married the widow of Sir Philip Sidney, but in dread of
the queen's anger he kept the marriage secret as long as possible. When
it was necessary to avow it, her rage at first knew no bounds, but as
the earl did "use it with good temper," and "for her majesty's better
satisfaction was pleased that my lady should live retired in her
mother's house," he soon came to be "in very good favour." In 1591 he
was appointed to the command of a force auxiliary to one formerly sent
to assist Henry IV. of France against the Spaniards; but after a
fruitless campaign he was finally recalled from the command in January
1592. For some years after this most of his time was spent at court,
where he held a position of unexampled influence, both on account of the
favour of the queen and from his own personal popularity. In 1596 he
was, after a great many "changes of humour" on the queen's part,
appointed along with Lord Howard of Effingham, Raleigh and Lord Thomas
Howard, to the command of an expedition, which was successful in
defeating the Spanish fleet, capturing and pillaging Cadiz, and
destroying 53 merchant vessels. It would seem to have been shortly after
this exploit that the beginnings of a change in the feelings of the
queen towards him came into existence. On his return she chided him that
he had not followed up his successes, and though she professed great
pleasure at again seeing him in safety, and was ultimately satisfied
that the abrupt termination of the expedition was contrary to his advice
and remonstrances, she forbade him to publish anything in justification
of his conduct. She doubtless was offended at his growing tendency to
assert his independence, and jealous of his increasing popularity with
the people; but it is also probable that her strange infatuation
regarding her own charms, great as it was, scarcely prevented her from
suspecting either that his professed attachment had all along been
somewhat alloyed with considerations of personal interest, or that at
least it was now beginning to cool. Francis Bacon, at that time his most
intimate friend, endeavoured to prevent the threatened rupture by
writing him a long letter of advice; and although perseverance in a long
course of feigned action was for Essex impossible, he for some time
attended pretty closely to the hints of his mentor, so that the queen
"used him most graciously." In 1597 he was appointed master of the
ordnance, and in the following year he obtained command of an expedition
against Spain, known as the Islands or Azores Voyage. He gained some
trifling successes, but as the Plate fleet escaped him he failed of his
main purpose; and when on his return the queen met him with the usual
reproaches, he retired to his home at Wanstead. This was not what
Elizabeth desired, and although she conferred on Lord Howard of
Effingham the earldom of Nottingham for services at Cadiz, the main
merit of which was justly claimed by Essex, she ultimately held out to
the latter the olive branch of peace, and condescended to soothe his
wounded honour by creating him earl marshal of England. That,
nevertheless, the irritated feelings neither of Essex nor of the queen
were completely healed was manifested shortly afterwards in a manner
which set propriety completely at defiance. In a discussion on the
appointment of a lord deputy to Ireland, Essex, on account of some
taunting words of Elizabeth, turned his back upon her with a gesture
indicative not only of anger but of contempt, and when she, unable to
control her indignation, slapped him on the face, he left her presence
swearing that such an insult he would not have endured even from Henry
VIII.
In 1599, while Ulster was in rebellion under the earl of Tyrone, the
office of lieutenant and governor-general of Ireland was conferred on
Essex, and a large force put at his command. His campaign was an
unsuccessful one, and by acting in various ways in opposition to the
commands of the queen and the council, agreeing with Tyrone on a truce
in September, and suddenly leaving the post of duty with the object of
privately vindicating himself before the queen, he laid himself open to
charges more serious than that of mere incompetency. For these
misdemeanours he was brought in June 1600 before a specially constituted
court, deprived of all his high offices, and ordered to live a prisoner
in his own house during the queen's pleasure. Chiefly through the
intercession of Bacon his liberty was shortly afterwards restored to
him, but he was ordered not to return to court. For some time he hoped
for an improvement in his prospects, but when he was refused the renewal
of his patent for sweet wines, hope was succeeded by despair, and half
maddened by wounded vanity, he made an attempt (Feb. 7, 1601) to incite
a revolution in his behalf, by parading the streets of London with 300
retainers, and shouting, "For the queen! a plot is laid for my life!"
These proceedings awakened, however, scarcely any other feelings than
mild perplexity and wonder; and finding that hope of assistance from the
citizens was vain, he returned to Essex House, where after defending
himself for a short time he surrendered. After a trial--in which Bacon,
who prosecuted, delivered a speech against his quondam friend and
benefactor, the bitterness of which was quite unnecessary to secure a
conviction entailing at least very severe punishment--he was condemned
to death, and notwithstanding many alterations in Elizabeth's mood, the
sentence was carried out on the 25th of February 1601.
Essex was in person tall and well proportioned, with a countenance
which, though not strictly handsome, possessed, on account of its bold,
cheerful and amiable expression, a wonderful power of fascination. He
was a patron of literature, and himself a poet. His carriage was not
very graceful, but his manners are said to have been "courtly, grave and
exceedingly comely." He was brave, chivalrous, impulsive, imperious
sometimes with his equals, but generous to all his dependants and
incapable of secret malice; and these virtues, which were innate and
which remained with him to the last, must be regarded as somewhat
counterbalancing, in our estimation of him, the follies and vices
created by temptations which were exceptionally strong.
See Hon. W.B. Devereux, _Lives of the Earls of Essex_ (1853); and
_Bacon and Essex_, by E.A. Abbott (1877). Also the article BACON,
FRANCIS, and authorities there.