THE UNDERMINING
Robert Cecil in power--Downfall of Essex--Ralegh's opinion of
Essex--Governor of Jersey--Peril imminent.
With the fall of Fayal the naval war with Spain came to an end, for
Philip II. died in the early autumn of the following year, 1598, which
was the year of the great Lord Treasurer Burghley's death. His son, Sir
Robert Cecil, became the chief man in England.
Time and experience did not soften the arrogance of Essex. On his return
he set himself more than ever to the task of becoming supreme in the
kingdom. Always there has been a certain rivalry between the statesman
who manages affairs at home, and the successful soldier. Each is
inclined to underrate the value of the other's service. Essex naturally
thought the highest place in the government should be occupied by a
dashing soldier like himself. He had whatever prestige popularity gives,
and he had influence with the Queen, but not so much as he thought.
Robert Cecil knew his man, and quietly determined his downfall. Through
his mediation Lord Howard of Effingham was raised to the earldom of
Nottingham, which, combined with his position of Lord High Admiral, gave
him precedence of Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex. This Essex, in his
arrogance, could not tolerate. He absented himself from Court, and all
Howard's efforts to pacify his anger were futile. But the Queen began
to weary at his absence. She asked Ralegh to try and make Howard waive
his right of precedence, but this Howard refused to do. Accordingly,
again at Ralegh's suggestion, who valued the Queen's happiness more
highly than his personal likes and dislikes, Essex was created Earl
Marshal of England, and Howard retired in his turn from Court.
On the return of Essex, Cecil began to play a game at which he was an
adept. He wanted Essex to feel that his importance was properly
recognized without admitting him into any State matters. So he arranged
long conferences with Essex, and with Ralegh, about projects which he
never had the least intention of bringing to any issue; and these
conferences about nothing were carefully attended by all the pomp of
formality. Essex would thereby be flattered, would grow in pride to his
own undoing, and would be likely to reveal the trend of his own scheme.
Essex, in spite of his almost childish arrogance, was a man to be
reckoned with. He had many friends of importance, the most distinguished
of whom was Francis Bacon. By means of his own spies he kept in touch
with foreign affairs that he might criticize the Queen's advisers; he
became friendly with King James of Scotland; he could rely on the help
of every one who was disappointed of office or reward by Burghley or his
son.
But he was no match for the astute Sir Robert Cecil. And the very year
of Burghley's death, at one of the heated Council meetings, Essex had
weakened by his uncontrolled conduct his influence with the Queen. The
Queen had interfered on Burghley's behalf against Essex; and Essex in a
rage "turned his back on the Queen with a gesture of contempt, muttering
an unpardonable insult," as Mr. Sidney Lee has it.
He was not a safe person to leave idle. The office of Lord Deputy of
Ireland was vacant; it was offered him, and after some dissent on his
part was accepted. His ruin was now imminent. He felt his power grow
less; and on Ralegh in particular he looked with hatred as upon the
chief cause of his downfall. And small wonder if Ralegh hated the man
who had offered gross insult to the old Queen in public. "Why do I talk
of victory or success?" writes Essex from Ireland to the Queen. "Is it
not known that from England I receive nothing but discomforts and soul's
wounds.... Is it not lamented both there and here that a Cobham and
Ralegh ... should have such credit and favour with your Majesty...." But
without Ralegh, who, as his subordinate, had won him fame at Cadiz and
at Fayal, and warded off disaster, the enterprise of Essex in Ireland
was a failure. He wasted time and money, and achieved nothing. Then
Essex resolved upon an impetuous step characteristic of him. He
determined to return home, and to drive away by force the men who were
keeping him from his proper place of supremacy; he even enlisted the
support of James of Scotland, who was favourable to his scheme, but
temporized, saying that he would send messengers to the Queen to beg her
to restore Essex to her favour. What Essex needed for his mad project,
however, was an army, not messages. Essex returned from Ireland, but
Cecil was perfectly ready for him, and the people of London did not rise
at his protest against the Queen's ministers; they gaped and wondered,
as they would gape and wonder at a madman. Essex was arrested, was
impeached for high treason, and beheaded.
The impetuousness of Essex approached very near to madness, and a
dangerous form of madness. If any one has ever deserved death for
treason, Essex deserved it. Ralegh wrote his opinion quite frankly to
Sir Robert about him. The letter has raised much feeling against Ralegh.
But he had good reason to know the peril a nature like that of Essex
could bring to a nation or to anything with which he was connected, and
he was perfectly just and honest in the opinion he gave that Essex's
wings should be clipped. The letter runs as follows:--
"SIR,
"I am not wize enough to geve yow advise; but if you take it
for a good councell to relent towards this tirant, yow will
repent it when it shalbe too late. His mallice is fixt, and
will not evaporate by any your mild courses. For he will
ascribe the alteration to her Majesties pusillanimitye and not
to your good nature; knowing that yow worke but uppon her humor
and not out of any love towards hyme. The less yow make hyme,
the less he shalbe able to harme yow and your's. And if her
Majesties favor faile hyme, hee will agayne decline to a common
parson. For after-revenges, feare them not; for your own father
that was estemed to be the contriver of Norfolk's ruin, yet his
son followeth your father's son and loveth him. Humours of men
succeed not; butt grow by occasions and accidents of tyme and
poure.... I could name you a thowsand of thos; and therefore
after fears are but profesies--or rather conjectures--from
causes remote. Looke to the present, and yow do wisely. His
sonne shalbe the youngest Earle of Ingland butt on, and, if his
father be now keipt down Will Cecill shalbe abell to keip as
many men att his heeles as hee, and more too. Hee may also
mache in a better howse then his; and so that feare is not
worth the fearinge. Butt if the father continew, he wilbe able
to break the branches and pull up the tree; root and all. Lose
not your advantage; if you do, I rede your destiney.
"Let the Q. hold Bothwell while she hath hyme. Hee will ever be
the canker of her estate and sauftye. Princes are lost by
securetye; and preserved by prevention. I have seen the last of
her good dayes, and all ours, after his libertye."
It is strange and it is memorable how the sentiment of the last sentence
but one, "Princes are lost by securetye," ran through the minds of men
at this time: again and again it occurs. The witches in Macbeth chant--
"Security
Is mortals' chiefest enemy."
Spenser writes--
"Little wist he his fatall future woe
But was secure: the liker he to fall."
It is more than the turn of phrase (though great expressions were common
enough then--as for example, "millions of mischief" which Ralegh uses in
a letter and which arrests you in Julius Caesar--
"Men that smile have in their hearts I fear
Millions of mischiefs.")
It is the trend of thought. It illustrates a feature of Elizabethan life
that was common to every rank, but most common in the highest. Men were
tremendously vital, but life was not valued for its own sake: life was
not looked upon as sacred; rather life was regarded as a possession to
hold which it was worth while fighting to the death.
During the rebellion--the word can hardly be applied to such a
ridiculous outburst--Ralegh sent for Sir Ferdinando Gorges at Durham
House. He wanted to warn Gorges, who had served under him, that his
arrest had been ordered. Gorges feared treachery, that their
conversation might be overheard or that he might be suddenly seized, and
consulting Essex, with whom he was staying, at length decided to meet
Ralegh in the one safe place--namely, on the river. They rowed out into
mid-stream, met, and conferred. In mid-stream their words were safe;
their bodies were not. Sir Christopher Blount, who was a partisan of
Essex, heard of the prospective meeting, and urged Gorges to kill Ralegh
and thus to rid the Earl of his chief enemy at a blow. Gorges was a man
of honour and refused. But Blount was strongly in favour of Ralegh's
death. As Ralegh was pulled to the place of conference, Blount fired
with a musket at him four times. Essex, Gorges, Blount, and other brave
men were beheaded, and Ralegh, as Captain of the Guard, was present at
their executions. On the scaffold Blount asked, "Is Sir Walter Ralegh
here?" Ralegh came forward. "Sir Walter Ralegh," said Blount, "I thank
God that you are present. I had an infinite desire to speak with you, to
ask your forgiveness ere I died. Both for the wrong done you and for my
particular ill-intent towards you, I beseech you forgive me."
"I most willingly," Ralegh replied, "and I beseech God to forgive you,
and to give you His divine comfort." He turned to those standing round:
"I protest before God that whatever Sir Christopher Blount meant towards
me, I, for my part, never bore him any ill-intent."
After the death of Essex, the boy who had recklessly thrown himself
against the astute Cecil to gain political power, men watched the
demeanour of Ralegh closely; he too was the favourite of his Queen; they
watched him and saw that sadness brooded on his face. There were many
things to create sadness.
The great Queen was growing old, and in her age had been forced to sign
the death-warrant of the young man who was dear to her and who had
presumed on her affection. The old Lord Treasurer was dead; Burghley,
whom the Queen tended with her own hand in his last illness, knowing the
worth of the man who had served his country well for forty years; his
son, the astute Cecil, had taken his place; but Robert Cecil played his
own game: he was too astute. He desired advantage for his country, but
that advantage must come through himself.
The great days were passing. Ralegh had seen the Queen ruling the nation
as only a woman and a woman of genius and of beauty could rule it; he
saw her when the power of her womanhood was declining and its weakness
was in evidence. Who could take her place? What man or what woman? And
must not the place itself be changed and its absolute authority be
modified? Time was converting the Queen into her country's encumbrance.
And who would succeed his Queen Elizabeth? Where were the men to carry
on the great traditions of Elizabeth? Robert Cecil was too astute....
* * * * *
Meanwhile Ralegh continued the duties of his own life, at Sherborne and
at Durham House. Lord Cobham's name is often found at this time in
association with Ralegh. Cobham was Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, and
often on his way to the coast he managed to make a short visit to the
Raleghs at Sherborne. He was a weak man, as the event proved. And Ralegh
liked him; a strong man is often led into liking a weak man, whom he is
able to render pliant to his will.
About this time, too, Ralegh was made Governor of Jersey, and
immediately he set about his new duties, which were many and various,
with his own energy. There is an interesting letter from Lady Ralegh to
Cecil; it tells not only of her husband's first journey to Jersey but
also of a fire at Durham House, and in the telling shows something of
Lady Ralegh's character.
"SUR,
"Hit tis trew that your packet brought me the newes of the
mischans of feeiar at Durram Houes, wher, I thanke God hit went
noo fardar. Other wies, hit had rid ous of all our poour
substans of plat and other thinges. Unly now the loos is of
your cumpani and my Lord Cobham's wich I thinke by this menes
wee cannot injoy this winter....
"I ded heer from Sur Walter within too dayes after he landed at
Jarsi: wher he was safly landed and rioly intertained with
joye. But he was too dayes and too nites on the sea, with
contrari windes, not withstanding hee went from Wamouthe in so
fayer a wind and weether, as littell Wat and myselfe brought
him abord the shipt. Hee writeth to me hee never saw a
plesanttar iland; but protesteth unfannedly hit tis not, in
valew, the veri third part that was reported, or inded hee
beliffed. My cossin Will is heer, very will and louketh will
and fat with his batheinge. This, wishing you all honnar and
the full contentements of your hart, I ever rest
"Your asured poour frind
"E. RALEGH
"I am glad this mischans of feeiar cam not by ani neckelegans
of ani sarvant of mine, but by me cossin Darci's sarvant,--a
woman that delleth just under our logging, and anoyeth ous
infenitly. I hope hee will now remoueve heer. I humbelly besuch
you let this lettar heer inclosed be sent."
The little Will Cecil, who was well, and looked well and fat from his
bathing, grew up into the second Earl of Salisbury. We can only hope
that Darcy's servant, who was evidently a constant thorn in the flesh of
the orderly Lady Ralegh, was removed; no positive facts are known.
The letter discovers a side of Ralegh's life about which little has been
written, but which is none the less interesting and valuable. Little Wat
and little Will were bathing and getting fat by the sea-side, while
Essex was under sentence of death, while the great Queen was growing
old, and while huge disorders were pending in the kingdom on the event
of the Queen's death. Little things and big are jostled strangely
together in the course of a man's life.
Meanwhile Ralegh's new duties as Governor of Jersey were occupying his
attention. Always he entered a position untrammelled by what had been
done there before his coming, and determined to do the best possible. It
was so in his Governorship of Jersey. His changes were entirely for the
good. He found a compulsory system of defence which pressed heavily on
the inhabitants in what was called the Corps-de-Garde. He did away with
the Corps-de-Garde. While he pondered on the great issues which were
pending in England, he settled the small disputes of the islanders under
his rule; for he was supreme judge in civil and Crown causes. He was at
the pains to see to the proper fortification of the island, and to all
the many businesses that his office entailed.
During these years he travelled often backwards and forwards between
Durham House and Sherborne and the island of Jersey. He found on one
occasion that by some curious oversight the Duc de Biron, who had come
on an embassy from Henry of France, was at Crosby Hall, with not one
nobleman or gentleman to accompany or guide him. "I never saw so great
a person neglected," he writes to Sir Robert Cecil. "Wee have caried
them to Westminster to see the monuments; and this Monnday we
entertayned them at the Bear Garden, which they had great pleasure to
see.... I sent to and fro and have labored like a moyle to fashion
things so as on Wensday night they wilbe att Bagshoot and Thursday at
the Vine." The Queen was at this time staying with the Marquis of
Winchester at Basing, and to her the Duc de Biron rode, escorted by
Ralegh. From Basing Ralegh wrote to Lord Cobham telling him of the
Queen's wish for his attendance. He says that the French were only
stopping three days, and were all wearing black. "So as I have only made
mee a black taffeta sute to be in; and leave all my other sutes:" and he
adds to the letter a postscript, which shows how punctilious he was in
matters of dress: "I am yeven now going att night to London to provide
me a playne taffeta sute and a playne black saddell, and wil be here
agayne by Twesday night." He wrote late on Saturday night.
Little resulted from the Due de Biron's embassy. But he had the audacity
to question Elizabeth about the fate of Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex,
and to express sympathy for him. Sully, the famous memoirist, reports
their conversation, and points out the singular resemblance between the
characters of Essex and of the Duc de Biron, and between the end each
met. The Duc de Biron was beheaded ten months later for treason. This is
the irony of things. Sully credits Elizabeth with the insight of knowing
how like Biron was to Robert Devereux, that she almost augured his
downfall, and warned him against his rash courses. The parallel between
the two men is remarkable.
So Ralegh went about his various business as Governor of Jersey, as
Captain of the Guard, transacted, too, the affairs of his own estates in
Munster, Sherborne, and Durham House, while he and every man of
influence in England kept pondering on the great question, vital to the
welfare of the country, vital to the welfare of each man, who should
succeed to the Queen Elizabeth? And Elizabeth was growing old.