Earl of Essex. CHAP. III. We have now beheld Ralegh raising himself, principally by his individual merit, to a station of rank and distinction, and particularly distinguished by the favour of his sovereign, in a reign in which the royal munificence was confessedly apportioned with economy, though with discernment. We shall find, however, that a combination of more causes than one but too soon overcast the prospect which was opening upon him; and although the information transmitted to us upon this subject be unfortunately very incomplete, yet we have good grounds for concluding, that the jealousy of his rivals in power proved a very mischievous weapon against him. Leicester, so long a powerful favourite in the court of Queen Elizabeth, died in 1588; and though this event removed him as an adversary to Ralegh, he had probably, as I have already remarked, prepared a legacy for Sir Walter in his son-in-law, which should not leave him unemployed at court. Robert Devereux (son of Walter, Lord Ferrers of Chartley, Viscount Hereford, and Earl of Essex, of a very ancient and noble family originally of Evereux in Normandy) was born in the year 1567, and succeeded to the title of Earl of Essex at ten years of age. He quitted the university at sixteen, and spent some time at his house at Lampsie in South Wales; where he grew so fond of a retired life, that he was with difficulty drawn from it by his father-in-law, Leicester, against whom he had imbibed a strong prejudice, which, however, time and the influence of his mother softened'. He served as general of the horse, and field-marshal, in 1585, when that Earl commanded the English forces in the Low-countries. Being a relation, the son of one of her most faithful servants, the son-in-law of her favourite, and a handsome and accomplished youth, he was honoured with singular marks of the queen's favour. She appointed him master of the horse in 1587, and general of the horse upon the Spanish invasion in the following year, gracing him in the camp at Tilbury in the view of the soldiers and people, even beyond her former favourite Leicester, and honouring him with the order of the garter. Without the dark soul of his father-in-law, he had the zeal, untempered by the discretion, of Burleigh. Superior to Ralegh himself in generosity, though unequal to him in abilities, had he not been inflated by the queen's partiality, (which pretty clearly deserves the tenderer name of passion) he might have made one of the bravest generals, and most active statesmen, of his accomplished age. But he had a spirit, whose loftiness neglected the homage to his sovereign, which her character peculiarly required, and whose impetuosity disregarded the subtleties of so able a court; a principle in itself sufficient to accomplish his ruin at an untimely day". We have no complete information transmitted to us, as I have already hinted, respecting the incipient causes or symptoms of jealousy between Ralegh and his rivals in power. His letter3 to Leicester, however, in 1586, seems to lead to the conjecture, that that nobleman might not feel completely satisfied as to Ralegh's fidelity here to his cause during his absence abroad. This prejudice might naturally and quickly have been communicated to Essex. Heightened by the recent death of Leicester, it might gain strength in the mind of the young earl; and cherished by the real rivalry which Ralegh's station at court naturally subjected him to, it might finally lead to those effects which we shall find but too soon made their appearance in his conduct. In the mean time the discomfiture of the Spanish armada had begotten such an enthusiastic spirit of enterprise in this country, that the minds of the people were ripe for entering into the views of Don Expedition with Don Antonio. 2 See Catalogue of Royal and Noble Authors. See p. 86. of this work. Antonio, Squabble with Antonio, who was at this fortunate juncture advancing his claim here on the crown of Portugal; and they actually formed the design of conquering that kingdom for him. The queen furnished only six men-of-war, and sixty thousand pounds; but nearly twenty thousand volunteers enlisted in the service, and ships were hired, and arms provided at the charge of the adventurers, among whom Ralegh was one in person. The command of the expedition was given to Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Norris; and had they sailed directly for Portugal they would probably have succeeded. But hearing that Spain was preparing a new armament at the Groin, they first went thither, burned several ships, defeated four or five thousand men, took and pillaged the lower town, and would have taken the higher town also, but for the failure of their ammunition and provision. Essex, engaged in the expedition with several ships at his own charge, and, without Her Majesty consent or knowledge, joined the adventurers here and proceeded with them to Portugal. This excursion being considered only as a sally of youth, he increased instead of forfeiting her good opinion by it'. Meanwhile the court of Spain had time to prepare for the invasion, and to frustrate its object. Having taken many prizes, and gained other advantages, though not without suffering numerous calamities, the adventurers sailed for Vigo, which they took and burned; and having ravaged the neighbouring country they returned to England. Above half of them perished by sickness, famine, or the sword, and of eleven hundred gentlemen who embarked, only three hundred and fifty teturned ‘. Sir Roger Williams, the intimate friend of Essex, was a colonel in the land-service in this expedition. In one of his letters he wrote, Ralegh (Hist. World, V. 1. 9.) calls the army 11,000 strong.-Monson adds 4000 sailors to this add 1,100 gentlemen, and it makes only 16,100 in all. Hume prefers the account given by Birch, who calls the number 21,000. Memoirs of Queen Elizabeth, I. 58. 5 Whether such an intermission might heighten her affection, or that having committed a fault he became more obsequious to redeem it, or that she had not yet conceived any suspicions of his popularity. Reliq. Wotton. p. 165. • Birch's Memoirs of Queen Elizabeth, I. 61. it is well-known we had above 200 sail of all sorts (of prizes) of the which we could not carry with us above three-score for want of men. From this cause a squabble appears to have arisen between Ralegh and Williams. The colonel supplied a prize, probably taken by Ralegh, with his lieutenant and some soldiers, affirming that the vessel had never been carried into England without his means. In consequence of this he wanted to claim the ship and cargo, the voyage having cost him above a thousand pounds. His claim being thought unreasonable, the Earl of Bath, lieutenant of Devonshire, discharged his men from the vessel at Dartmouth. Williams upon this grew outrageous, and his clamours having reached the queen's ear he excited her displeasure, which occasioned the above-quoted letter to three of the privy-council. This letter farther informs us, the queen was so well pleased with the adventurers in this enterprise, that she honoured the principal of them, and among the rest Sir Receives a Walter Ralegh, with a golden chain". golden chain. Yet notwithstanding this information, we read in another extant letter, dated August 17th, 1589, from Captain (afterward Sir) Francis Allen to Anthony Bacon, Esq. brother to the Lord Chancellor, that the Generals Norris and Drake were returned from their Portugal voyage with no better success than must needs; and what is more to our purpose we find in the same letter, My Lord of Essex hath Driven from chased Mr. Ralegh from the court, and confined him into Ireland-conjecture you the rest of that matter. court by Essex. Ireland. It appears indeed by his own writings, as well as by those of Edmund Spenser, that Ralegh was this year in Ireland, and that he Visits Spenser in visited the poet at his pleasant seat Kilcolman near the river Mulla, which the bounty of Queen Elizabeth had made him master of. In "Colin Clout's come Home again," dedicated two his pastoral, 7 See Sir Roger Williams' Letter to the Treasurer, Admiral, and Mr. Secretary Walsingham, upon his return home from his expedition against Portugal and Spain, in the Harlcian Collection, No. 6845, p. 100. 8 Among the papers of Mr. Bacon in the Lambeth Library, Vol. I. fol. 122, and quoted by Dr. Birch in Memoirs Elizab. I. 55. See his mention of the Countess of Desmond, Hist. World, I. V. 5. years years afterward to Sir Walter, the poet calls Ralegh the Shepherd of the Ocean, and thus describes their meeting: "One day, quoth he, I sat, as was my trade, Under the foot of Mole, that mountain hoar, Of the green alders, by the Mulla's shore: Or thither led by chance, I know not right. And said he came far from the main sea deep. Provoked me to play some pleasant fit: These lines appear to allude to the difficulty under which Ralegh now laboured at court, and which, (though we have no farther in (10) Abundant sighs. line clearly proves that Queen Elizabeth was (") If we could doubt it before, this the Cynthia of the song. formation |