SPOILS AND PENALTIES.
[Sidenote: _The Remains._]
A shudder is said to have run through the crowd of spectators as the axe
fell. The trunk was carried from the scaffold to St. Margaret's Church,
and buried in front of the Communion table. A single line in the burial
register, 'Sir Walter Rawleigh Kt.,' records the interment. James
Harrington, author of _Oceana_, occupies the next grave. Why Ralegh's
body was not taken to Beddington is unknown. Long afterwards a wooden
tablet was fixed by a churchwarden on the wall of the south aisle of the
chancel. A metal plate framed, and painted blue with gilt letters, was
substituted. In 1845 that was replaced by one of brass, at the expense
of several admirers of Ralegh's genius. It bears the uninspired words:
'Within the chancel of this church was interred the body of the great
Sir Walter Ralegh, on the day he was beheaded in Old Palace Yard,
Westminster, October 29, 1618. Reader, should you reflect on his errors,
remember his many virtues, and that he was a Mortal.' Four verses from
the pen of Mr. Lowell, inscribed on a painted window, erected a few
years since in the church, more worthily commemorate the piety of
American citizens to the planter of Virginia.
The head was shown by the executioner on each side of the scaffold, as
the head of a traitor. Afterwards it was inclosed in a red velvet bag.
With the velvet gown enveloping the whole, it was conveyed to Lady
Ralegh's house in a mourning coach which she had sent. It was embalmed;
and she kept it ever by her for the twenty-nine years of her widowhood.
Bishop Goodman of Gloucester, who, though King James's poor-spirited
apologist, admired Ralegh, relates that he had seen and kissed it. On
Lady Ralegh's death the charge of it descended to Carew Ralegh. It has
been stated, and has been denied, that it was buried with him at West
Horsley, and was seen when the grave happened to be opened. For another
story, that finally it was deposited with the body at Westminster, there
is no authority.
[Sidenote: _Carew Ralegh._]
Lady Ralegh lived to educate her son. For his sake she strove for
Ralegh's books. They were, she said, 'all the land and living which he
left his poor child, hoping that he would inherit him in those only, and
that he would apply himself by learning to be fit for them, which
request I hope I shall fulfil as far as in me lieth.' Carew was thirteen
at his father's death. In the spring of 1621, at the age of sixteen, he
entered Wadham College as a gentleman commoner. When he quitted Oxford
his relative, Lord Pembroke, who more than twenty years before had
interceded at Wilton for his father's life, introduced him at Court.
James frowned; he said he was like his father's ghost. He travelled,
and, returning next year on the accession of Charles, petitioned for
restoration in blood. His prayer was granted only on the obligatory
terms of his surrender of any title to Sherborne. In compensation he
received a reversion of the L400 a year, Lady Ralegh's Treasury
allowance in place of jointure or dower from Sherborne. By the same
statute which relieved him from the legal disabilities of the attainder
Sherborne was confirmed to the Digby family. He married the wealthy
young widow of Sir Anthony Ashley, his father's comrade at Cadiz, and
had by her two sons, Walter and Philip, and three daughters. He wrote
poems, one of which was set to music by Henry Lawes, and was a Gentleman
of the Privy Chamber. In that capacity he attended Charles I when a
prisoner at Hampton Court. He may have thought of Charles rather as the
brother of Prince Henry than as the son of King James.
He seems to have dreamt of recovering both his father's Irish and
English estates. Strafford, on behalf of the Church, had questioned the
soundness of Boyle's title to Lismore. The doubt of the validity of
Boyle's tenure, though it equally affected Sir Walter's right, may have
suggested to Carew somewhat later an attack on him in his own interest,
probably on the score of the inadequacy of the price paid to Ralegh.
Lady Ralegh had already, in 1619, set up a claim to dower, on the ground
that her consent to the sale in 1602 had not been obtained. Boyle
intimated that he should meet Lady Ralegh's demand by the legal
objection that the wife of an attainted man is not dowerable. But, on
the merits, he insisted in answer, as well to her as, afterwards, to
Carew Ralegh, that he had in fact, between 1602 and 1617, given ample
pecuniary consideration. Neither she nor her son went beyond a protest.
[Sidenote: _Claim to Sherborne._]
Carew was more pertinacious in his efforts to recover Sherborne. That
was supposed to have been forfeited by the flight of Digby, now Lord
Bristol, to France on the establishment of the Commonwealth. Carew
petitioned the House of Commons for its restitution to himself. His
petition, which in details was not everywhere as accurate, expressed
righteous indignation at an attainder obtained on charges 'without any
proofs, and in themselves as ridiculous as impossible.' He declared in
the document his intention to 'range himself under the banner of the
Commons of England.' The memorial was referred to the committee for the
sale of the estates of delinquents. That reported him 'a fit object of
the mercy of the House.' But he advanced no further, in consequence, as
is believed, of the influence Lord Bristol was still able to exert. Monk
conferred on him the Government of Jersey, and Charles II offered him
knighthood, which he waived. Sir Henry Wotton, as quoted by Anthony
Wood, commended him as of 'dexterous abilities.' Wood, while he does not
dissent, adds that he was 'far, God wot, from his father's parts, either
as to the sword or pen.' At least he understood his father's greatness,
and clung proudly to his memory.
[Sidenote: _Blood Money._]
From Walter Ralegh, at all events, if not from his family, his enemies
and persecutors, with their parasites, might think they at last were
freed. Their perseverance had been unwearied. For fifteen years they
were pursuing him, and they had hunted him down. They had shown
versatility as well as virulence. As his son Carew has said, they had
obtained his condemnation as a friend to Spain, and his execution, under
the same sentence, for being its enemy. Now all, old bloodhounds and
young, proceeded to enjoy their hard-won victory. To commence at the
bottom, Manourie, 'a French physician, lately sent for from Plymouth,'
as early as November received his wages, L20. Sir Lewis Stukely's
expectations and deserts were larger. While he lingered at Plymouth he
had disposed of part of the stores from Ralegh's ship. Sir Ferdinando
Gorges and others completed the work for the Crown as soon as Ralegh had
been executed. Some of the tobacco had been brought to London, and sold
by Stukely. Ralegh accused him of appropriation of the proceeds. He had
accepted gifts of jewels from his prisoner on the journey. To his
custody were entrusted the trinkets carried by Ralegh about him on the
flight to Gravesend. On December 29 the Exchequer was ordered to pay to
him 'for performance of his service and expenses in bringing up hither
out of Devonshire the person of Sir Walter Ralegh, L965 6_s._ 3_d._'
One more of the hirelings expected to be paid, the Keeper of State
Papers. Wilson had failed to spy out treason in Ralegh's talk in the
seclusion of the Tower, or in the correspondence with Lady Ralegh. He
did not the less crave a fee for his good intentions of treachery. James
recognized his claims, to the inexpensive extent of an order to the
Fellows of Caius College, Cambridge, in January, 1619, to elect him to
their vacant Mastership. The King's letter described him as a man of
learning and sufficiency, who had performed faithful service. The
letter, as an indorsement by Wilson notes, was never sent. Perhaps the
Fellows were found to be prepared to put to the test the King's
assertion that he would 'take no denial.' Balked of academical alms, Sir
Thomas was driven to importunities three quarters of a year later for
payment of his wages for the six weeks' attendance upon Ralegh.
[Sidenote: _Ralegh's Library, and Instruments._]
He was more promptly successful in rapacity for the public, it must be
admitted, than for himself. Ralegh had stripped himself, or been
stripped, before his death, of any possessions ordinarily recognized as
available for spoil. His cargo and stores had been seized and converted
into money by Stukely, or by other Devonshire officials. His ship had
been brought into the Thames as Crown property. The Government accounted
itself generous for granting to the widow, in lieu of it and its
contents, L2250, the bare equivalent of the purchase money of her
Mitcham estate which she had expended upon its equipment. Nothing
remained of his but his papers, his instruments, and his books. Covetous
eyes were fixed upon them. Wilson wanted them, though, it is fair to
say, not for himself. As Keeper of the Records he had a sincere taste
for curious books. He urged the King to appropriate Ralegh's library of
three hundred volumes on history, divinity, and mathematics, together
with Cobham's collection of a thousand. By royal warrant in November he
was authorised to seize the whole. The globes and mathematical
instruments were to be delivered to the King or the Lord Admiral. The
books were to be 'left where they were'; that is, it is to be presumed,
they were to remain in the Tower. As if in shame the warrant assigned a
reason for the confiscation of Ralegh's library. It could, it alleged,
be of 'small use to Sir Walter's surviving wife.' Lady Ralegh judged
differently. She implored Lady Carew, who was acquainted with Wilson, to
mediate with him that she might be 'no more troubled, having had so many
unspeakable losses, as none of worth will seek to molest me.' Before the
end of 1618 Wilson had fetched away all the mathematical instruments,
one of which had cost L100. Lady Ralegh had, she affirmed, been
promised their return, but had not recovered one. He was now requiring
the books. She would not grudge them, she asseverated, for his Majesty,
if they were rare, and not to be had elsewhere; but Boyle, the
bookbinder or stationer, had, she was informed, the very same. The
ultimate result of the aggression and her resistance is not known. It
might be of public interest if it could be ascertained. In addition to
printed volumes Wilson had asked for the sequestration of Ralegh's
manuscript treatise on the Art of War, and of a full account by him of
all the world's seaports, and for their deposit in the State Paper
Office. He could value thoughtful work, though he persecuted its author.
Diligently as the State Papers have of recent years been explored, it is
not impossible that the two compositions may yet be discovered,
carefully buried in a mass of worthless muniments by their spy-keeper.
[Sidenote: _Spanish Debt of Gratitude to James._]
James had his share too of the immediate profits from the tragedy of
Palace Yard, over and above a few more or less scarce books. Apart from
his incurable private aversion for one of the three greatest Englishmen
of his reign, he had, in butchering Ralegh, been the direct agent of the
Spanish Court. From Spain he sought his real reward. He enhanced his
demand by the immensity of the loss he had inflicted upon England.
Cottington, the instant the news of the execution reached the Legation,
told the Spanish King. Philip III showed, he reported, much contentment
with the hearing. Rushworth, in his _Historical Collections_, has
preserved a letter described as from a great Minister of State to
Cottington. In it the English Agent in Spain was urgently instructed to
enforce upon the Spaniards their debt of gratitude to James, who had
'caused Sir Walter Ralegh to be put to death, chiefly for the giving
them satisfaction.' He was to let them see 'how in many actions of late
his Majesty had strained upon the affections of his people, and
especially in this last concerning Sir Walter Ralegh, who died with a
great deal of courage and constancy. To give them content, he had not
spared a man able to have done his Majesty much service, when, by
preserving him, he might have given great satisfaction to his subjects,
and have had at command upon all occasions as useful a man as served any
prince in Christendom.' A fitting response was made. Cottington was able
to report 'so much satisfaction and contentment as I am not able to
express it.' The Spanish Council of State admitted the obligation to
James for the sacrifice of the brightest jewel of his Crown. It advised
Philip to thank the King of England by an autograph letter. That was
James's payment.
[Sidenote: _Odium of Stukely._]
Ralegh's various persecutors were in the right to enjoy their victory
betimes. They had not the opportunity for long. The country awoke at a
bound to the injury which had been done it. On the miserable tools it
first poured out its indignation. Long before the final catastrophe its
anger had been gathering against Stukely. On August 20 Chamberlain wrote
to Carleton that Sir Lewis Stukely was generally decried. After the
execution no measure in execrations was observed. He was christened Sir
Judas. Stories, probably fictitious, of the contempt with which he was
visited, were greedily devoured. 'Every man in Court,' it was reported,
'declines Stukely's company as treacherous.' The High Admiral, who
himself had battened on plunder from Ralegh, was rumoured to have
threatened to cudgel the betrayer from his door. Stukely had been
visiting Nottingham House on some duty connected with his office of
Vice-Admiral of Devon. He complained to the King, who befriended him, of
the affronts he received. The answer was said to have been: 'Were I
disposed to hang every one that speaks ill of thee, there would not be
trees enough in all my kingdom to hang them on.' According to another
tale, reported by J. Pory to Carleton, the King replied to his
protestation of the truth of his accusations: 'I have done amiss; Sir
Walter's blood be upon thy head.' In vain he endeavoured to defend
himself through the press. On August 10 he had printed a short _Apology_
for his conduct as Ralegh's keeper. In it he took up the only
practicable ground, that he had simply obeyed the orders of the Crown.
After Ralegh's execution he was stung by the obloquy he had incurred
into the publication of a formal indictment of the memory of the dead.
On November 26 appeared a rhetorical document, which he had retained the
Rev. Dr. Sharpe to help him in drawing up. It was entitled the 'Humble
Petition and Information of Sir Lewis Stukely, touching his own
behaviour in the charge committed to him for the bringing up of Sir
Walter Ralegh, and the scandalous aspersions cast upon him for the
same.' Fact and fiction are audaciously mingled in the narrative. As a
specimen of its temper may be mentioned the statement that Ralegh in the
Gate-house asked its keeper, Weekes, if any Romish priests were under
his charge. The insinuation was that the Protestant hero would have
liked an opportunity of reconciliation to the Church of Rome before his
death.
[Sidenote: _A Convicted Criminal._]
Such calumnies increased the popular wrath. The whole nation exulted in
the tidings within a few months that their author was about to be
indicted for the capital offence of clipping coin. Manourie was arrested
at Plymouth on the same charge. He accused his friend, whose old
confederate in clipping and sweating coin he had been. By way, it is to
be feared, of embellishment of a tale of righteous retaliation, it was
reported that Sir Lewis had been caught on Twelfth Night within the
precincts of the Palace of Whitehall in the act of clipping the very
gold pieces, the wages of his perfidy, paid to him on the previous New
Year's eve. He was confined first in the Gate-house, and then in the
Tower, in Ralegh's old cell, and in due course was tried. Fruitlessly he
endeavoured to shift the crime on his son, who had absconded. A servant
confessed his master had followed the practice for the past seven years.
The evidence was overwhelming, and he was convicted. It was a 'just
judgment of God,' men said, 'for Sir Walter Ralegh's blood.' James, Mr.
Gardiner says, 'thought he owed something to his tool, and flung him a
pardon.' According to the popular rumour it was a gift for a tangible
consideration. He had to beggar himself to buy it. His office of
Vice-Admiral of Devon was forfeited, and it was filled by Eliot. He
slunk away first to his home at Afton, where all, gentle and poor,
banned him, and thence to Lundy Isle. There, amid the ruins of Morisco's
Castle, he died mad on August 29, 1620. His treason has conferred on his
obscure name an infamous immortality. He was equally an enemy to himself
and to King James, whom his accommodating perfidy tempted to perpetrate
the final injustice. But it must be remembered that but for him Ralegh
would have lingered for a few years more of weary life on foreign soil,
and dropped into an unhonoured grave. To him English history is indebted
for a heroic scene, and Ralegh for a glorious close to his splendid but
checkered career. The mind shudders at the thought of the bathos into
which a little remorse in that contemptible villain would have plunged
his victim.
[Sidenote: _Manourie's Defence._]
Public vengeance was not satisfied with the self-wrought retribution on
Stukely. It ranged lower, and it ranged higher. It condescended to spurn
the tool of a tool. Manourie, too, had to publish his apology. He called
God to witness that Stukely had bribed him to lay traps for Ralegh, and
to put into his mouth malcontent speeches. All the evil he told of his
ally was believed. His professions that his own admitted baseness had
been provoked by resentment of Ralegh's spontaneous abuse of the King
were received with incredulity or unconcern. On the fact, Captain King's
word in his _Narrative_ in answer to Manourie was accepted in preference
to the Frenchman's. The _Narrative_ was not printed, but circulated
extensively in manuscript. Though it is no longer discoverable, Oldys
seems to have read it, and he has quoted passages in his life of Ralegh.
'Never,' in it asseverated King, 'in all the years I followed Sir
Walter, heard I him name his Majesty but with reverence. I am sorry the
assertion of that man should prevail so much against the dead.' He need
not have feared that it had prevailed, or would prevail, with the
nation. That scarcely spared a thought to Manourie, unless to curse him
as a mercenary liar. But in the emotion stirred by Ralegh's death it
was soon evident that the people had grown indifferent to the degree of
its hero's personal loyalty, or the reverse. The flood of enthusiasm for
him swept away the interest in his guilt or innocence in respect of
particular charges. Public opinion hallowed him as saint and martyr, and
put the Court and Government on their defence.
[Sidenote: _The Royal Declaration._]
[Sidenote: _Bacon's part in it._]
The vehemence and volume of national emotion at the abandonment of
Ralegh to the spite of a faction were a surprise to the King and his
advisers. They seemed unable to comprehend its character and direction.
They believed, or pretended to believe, that a demand was being raised
for a new trial of his offences. They could not, or would not, see that
the only question was of the distribution of punishment among his
persecutors. Something, however, manifestly had to be done, and at once.
One purpose of Stukely's _Petition_ had been to pave the way for a
'declaration from the State,' for which the Petitioner formally asked.
The Committee of the Council had recommended in Coke's paper of October
18, and the King had approved, the issue of such a manifesto
simultaneously with the despatch of Ralegh to the scaffold. Its
preparation had been immediately taken in hand. The reason for the delay
in publication is unknown. Probably the royal editor was extremely
fastidious. Whatever the cause of the procrastination, at last, on
November 27, the day after Stukely's _Petition_, an apology appeared
with the authority of the Crown. James himself supplied part of the
contents, 'additions,' wrote Bacon to Villiers, 'which were very
material, and fit to proceed from his Majesty.' Naunton and Yelverton
also assisted in the composition. The arrangement of arguments and,
though marred by royal and other interpolations, the diction have been
traced to the serviceable hand of the Lord Chancellor. Ralegh and Bacon
had long been intimate with one another. They had never been enemies, or
even rivals. In his History Ralegh had cited with applause Bacon's
_Advancement of Learning_, and other works. He had testified that no man
had taught the laws of history better, and with greater brevity, than
that excellent learned gentleman. Bacon fully reciprocated the
admiration. He snatched at opportunities for placing on record his
delight in Sir Walter's pretty wit, and adventurous spirit. If it be an
excuse for his share in the persecution of the man and his memory, he
was animated by no personal antipathy. But his skill had been retained
for those who were hounding Ralegh to death, as it had been retained for
the destruction of his old patron Essex. He did not now let his
conscience afflict itself at the thought that he was about to gloss an
act, which a historian, not very friendly to the sufferer, has said 'can
hardly be dignified with the title of a judicial murder.' Neither
passion, pique, nor fear, inspired his pen. His function in official
life, as he interpreted it, was to be the advocate of authority; his
feeling for any but scientific truth was never acute; and he had
positive pleasure in the employment of his intellectual dexterity,
whatever the object. Acting on that system he did the best he could with
the case put before him on the present occasion. His and its misfortune
was that it was irretrievably bad. His instructions were that Ralegh had
gained his pardon by a lie; that there was no Mine, and that he never
supposed there was any; that he went to harry and plunder Spaniards, and
for nothing else; when he found spoil was not to be had as easily as he
had anticipated, he had determined to desert his men, and fly to the
East Indies, or stay behind in Newfoundland. The King was supposed to
have, with his wonted and infallible sagacity, made the discovery of
Ralegh's knavery long since. That royal hypothesis of stark imposture,
and no enthusiasm, was the clue which the Lords Commissioners, with
Bacon at their head, had obsequiously borrowed to hale Ralegh to the
scaffold. It was the strange sophism out of which Bacon again was set to
compose a sedative for the popular emotion.
[Sidenote: _His Majesty's Honour and Justice._]
[Sidenote: _His Princely Judgment._]
He had to begin by apologizing for the King, both to the indignant
nation and to the King's own injured sense of consistency. He had to try
to extricate his master from the cruel dilemma, either of having been an
accomplice in a scheme now denounced by himself as a pirate's
conspiracy, or of having betrayed, out of cowardice and cupidity, a
faithful servant to foreign vengeance. That is the meaning of the
exordium of this pamphlet published in November by the King's Printers,
Bonham Norton and John Bill: 'Although Kings be not bound to give
account of their actions to any but God alone; yet such are his
Majesty's proceedings, as he hath always been willing to bring them
before sun and moon, and carefully to satisfy all his good people with
his intentions and courses, giving as well to future times as to the
present true and undisguised declarations of them; as judging, that for
actions not well founded it is advantage to let them pass in uncertain
reports, but for actions that are built upon sure and solid grounds,
such as his Majesty's are, it belongeth to them to be published by open
manifestos. Especially, his Majesty is willing to declare and manifest
to the world his proceedings in a case of such a nature as this which
followeth is; since it not only concerns his own people, but also a
foreign prince and state abroad. Accordingly, therefore, for that which
concerneth Sir Walter, late executed for treason--leaving the thoughts
of his heart, and the protestations that he made at his death, to God
that is the Searcher of all hearts, and the Judge of all truth--his
Majesty hath thought fit to manifest unto the world how things appeared
unto himself, and upon what proofs and evident matter, and the
examination of the commanders that were employed with him in the
voyage--and namely of those which Sir Walter Ralegh himself, by his own
letter to Secretary Winwood, had commended for persons of worth and
credit, and as most fit for greater employments--his Majesty's
proceedings have been grounded; whereby it will evidently appear how
agreeable they have been in all points to honour and justice. Sir Walter
Ralegh having been condemned of high treason at his Majesty's entrance
into this kingdom; and for the space of fourteen years, by his Majesty's
princely clemency and mercy, not only spared from his execution, but
permitted to live as in _libera custodia_ in the Tower, and to enjoy his
lands and living, till all was by law evicted from him upon another
ground, and not by forfeiture--which notwithstanding his Majesty out of
his abundant grace gave him a competent satisfaction for the same--at
length he fell upon an enterprise of a golden mine in Guiana. This
proposition of his was presented and recommended to his Majesty by Sir
Ralph Winwood, then Secretary of State, as a matter not in the air or
speculative, but real and of certainty; for that Sir Walter Ralegh had
seen of the ore of the mine with his eyes, and tried the richness of it.
It is true that his Majesty, in his own princely judgment, gave no
belief unto it; as well for that his Majesty was verily persuaded that
in nature there are no such mines of gold entire, as they described this
to be; and if any such had been, it was not probable that the Spaniards,
who were so industrious in the chase of treasure, would have neglected
it so long; as also for that it proceeded from the person of Sir Walter
Ralegh, invested with such circumstances both of his disposition and
fortune. But nevertheless Sir Walter Ralegh had so enchanted the world
with his confident asseveration of that which every man was willing to
believe, as his Majesty's honour was in a manner engaged not to deny
unto his people the adventure and hope of so great riches, to be sought
and achieved at the charge of volunteers; especially, for that it stood
with his Majesty's politic and magnanimous courses, in these his
flourishing times of peace, to nourish and encourage noble and generous
enterprises for plantations, discoveries, and opening of new trades.'
[Sidenote: _An Apology for an Apology._]
The main and misleading principle in the minds of the authors could not
but dislocate and discolour facts. Those were carefully culled which
made for a given conclusion. Incompatible evidence was omitted
altogether. The 'Declaration of the Demeanour and Carriage of Sir Walter
Ralegh, as well in his Voyage as in and since his Return, and of the
true motives and inducements which occasioned his Majesty to proceed in
doing justice upon him, as hath been done,' is a shuffling excuse for a
baseness. The mass of it is an accumulation of hearsay evidence. Its
chief object was to depict Ralegh as a man whom nobody need regret; to
sneer away his lustre and dignity. With this sordid view the trivial
episode of the malingering scene at Salisbury is described with
sickening minuteness. Few writers of authority have ventured to applaud
the treatise. An exception is Mr. Spedding, who could not well let
judgment pass against his idol without a word of defence for one of the
worst blemishes in a pitiful official career. He shows here as elsewhere
his admirable diligence in the collection of evidence; but he cannot be
said to have shed any new light either on Ralegh's character, or on the
part Bacon played in his slaughter, and in the endeavour to blacken his
memory. For him both the King and the keeper of the King's conscience
had no option but to put Ralegh to death. According to him the King's
sanction of warlike preparations implied no understanding that it might
be necessary to use them. According to him the commission to conduct an
armed squadron and soldiery to a mine on the banks of the Orinoko
conveyed no right to break a hostile Spanish blockade of the river.
According to him, though in defiance of contemporary testimony, Ralegh
alone employed violence; the San Thome garrison 'offered no provocation
whatever, except an attitude of self-defence.' On these principles,
while he laments the tardiness of its appearance, he necessarily
considers the _Declaration_ straightforward, honest, and convincing.
National opinion judged differently. It treated the whole as a piece of
special pleading. In fairness it must be granted that, had it been much
more cogent, it would have had as little effect. Chamberlain had
prophetically written to Carleton on November 21, while it was known to
be in process of composition, that it 'will not be believed, unless it
be well proved.'