Ralegh, withstanding the solicitude repeatedly discovered by the secrerary, that they should be destroyed as soon as the king had read them, many of them have been preserved, and reached the press about forty years ago. They make frequent mention of Ralegh, and a triplicity which he had formed with Cobham and Northumberland, in terms which bespeak a strong disaffection to the knight on the parts of Cecil and Howard; but the correspondence is upon the whole curious, rather than instructive". It had however the desired effect in securing Cecil's interest with the king; and on his accession to this throne, men wondered at the ascendency over the rest of his party which the secretary enjoyed. He was successively created Lord Essenden, Viscount Cranbourne, and Earl of Salisbury; and he was always regarded as His Majesty's prime-minister and chief counsellor. Though the circumstance of this correspondence sufficiently explains. to us the ascendency which Cecil gained above all other parties in the new king's favour, we are left a good deal in the dark as to the partiRivalship with cular causes of disunion' between the secretary and Ralegh ; and chiefly enabled to draw the general conclusion, that, after the fall of Essex and his party, their friendship soon terminated in rivalship for power. "Nor did this blow," says Osborn, "terminate only in the ruin of the earl's friends, but extended to the disadvantage of his maligners themselves, apparent in Sir Walter Ralegh; who, wanting strength, though not wit, to be the treasurer's co-rival, perished because not thought to own humility enough to be his servant. It being more 3 See Chap. vi. note 59 of this work. • Yea, Cecil himself, says Arthur Wilson, in his Life and Reign of James I. held his correspondence, which he was once like to be trapped in. For the queen taking the air upon Blackheath, by Greenwich, a post summoned her to enquire from what quarter his business came ; and hearing from Scotland, she staid her coach to receive the packet. But the secretary, Sir Robert Cecil (being in the coach with her) fearful that some of his secret conveyances might be discovered, having an active wit, calls for a knife suddenly to open it, lest puts-off and delays might beget suspicion. And when he came to cut it, he told the queen it looked and smelled ill-savouredly, coming out of many nasty budgets, and was fit to be opened and aired before she saw it. Which reason, meeting with her disaffection to illscents, hindered her smelling-out his underhand. contrivances. Cecil's own words upon Ralegh's trial throw no light upon the matter, and are of a piece with his general character-a former dearness between me and him tied so firm a knot of my conceit of his virtues, now broken by a discovery of his imperfections, &c. See the Trial in this chapter, safe safe at court to have many enemies of equal power, than one false ambitious friend that hath attained to the absoluteness of command"." Dr. Peter Heylin remarks on the same subject that "Cecil fearing the great abilities of Ralegh, and being wearied with the troublesome impertinencies of Grey and Cobham (all which had joined with him in design against the Earl of Essex, their common enemy) had done their errand to King James (whose counsels he desired to engross to himself alone) before his coming into England"." Of the later causes of this disunion, one probably was a memorial which Ralegh is said to have presented to King James, wherein he reflected severely upon Cecil's conduct toward Essex, and transferred the whole blame of the earl's death from himself to the secretary; imputing also to him and his father, the execution of Mary, the king's mother. This paper we are told had no effect on the king, and a very pernicious one on Sir Walter, by exasperating Cecil still more against him3. judiced. Less doubtful or obscure are the causes which are supposed to have K. James preprejudiced Ralegh with king James. The correspondence with that king, begun by Essex', and continued by Cecil, has already been noticed. The former we may safely conclude had not spared the knight in his letters, while the secretary we know did not, by the publication of his correspondence. In addition to these early prepossessions, Ralegh appears to have been in the number of those "noble and public spirits," as Osborn calls them, "who desired (in regard of the known feud between the nations) he might be obliged to articles-all frowned upon after by the king, who had yet the luck to live so long as to change his opinion, and (when he found he neither durst do it himself, nor consent to it in parliament) to wish his countrymen's numbers had been limited, and not suffered like locusts to devour this kingdom"." It has also been conjectured, (with what appearance of probability, the reader must decide for himself,) that • Osborn's Miscellaneous Works, II. 75. K. James, in Kennet's Hist. of Eng. II.663-4. 10 Osborn's Misc. Works, II. 104. offence 1603. Ralegh neglected. offence was taken at a design which Ralegh had, of marrying his son Walter to a ward of his, the daughter and heiress of Basset of Umberleigh and Hinton-court, in Devonshire; that family being de- : scended from the Plantagenets, and laying some claim to the crown at this very time". At any rate, the enterprising and martial character of Sir Walter was far from congenial to the disposition of James; and an offer which he made on the king's accession of invading Spain with two thousand men, free of expence to the crown", as well as a Discourse which he wrote, touching a war with Spain, and the protection of the Netherlands ", were not likely to promote his cause with the new sovereign. On the king's arrival in London, in May, 1603, we are told that "for some weeks he used Sir Walter with great kindness; and was pleased to acknowledge divers presents which he had received from him being in Scotland, for which he gave him thanks." It is not to be wondered at, however, under the circumstances already noticed, that the knight soon experienced the neglect which he did at court. The office of captain of the guard we find given to Sir Thomas Erskine, the king's countryman and favourite, soon after his accession. In recompence for this and his wine-patent, of which he was also deprived", a pension of £.300. per annum was granted to Sir Walter for his life, and an arrear of debt against him written-off". But matters "See Observations on Sanderson's Hist. 4to, 1656. p. 12.;. Prince's Devon. p. 114.; and Wood's Athen. Oxon. I. 366. The lady's estate was £.3000. a year. She first married Mr. Henry Howard, and after his death, the Earl of Newcastle, who professed he would never have wedded her if young Walter Ralegh had been alive; conceiving her before God to be his wife, for they were married as much as children could be. Seo the above Observa tions.. 12 See Sir Walter's Letter to the Earls of Nottingham, Suffolk, &c. in this chapter, 13 See Birch's Works of Ralegh, II. p. 1. 14 See a Brief Relation of Sir Walter Ralegh's Troubles, by his son Carew, in the Ap pendix, No. x. I have found, however, that the statements in this piece must be used with caution. On the present occasion, Sir Richard Baker, in his Chronicle informs us, that Ralegh was discountenanced by the king at their first meeting on his journey from Scotland. And Sir John Hawles, in his Reply to the Magistracy and Government of England Vindicated, (folio, 1689) writes, Cobham and Ralegh were not permitted to come at the king upon his journey into England, and had word sent them they might spare their labour. 15 See the Lord Chief Justice's Address to Ralegh before the Judgment at his Trial. 16 See Cecil's Letter to Sir Thomas Parry, in this chapter. stopped stopped not here. The tide of prejudice against Ralegh was strong, and no thought or action of his life was any longer innocent. Three months had not elapsed since the king's arrival", before he was charged with treasonable practices against his government. 18 The conspiracy to which I allude, is a riddle of state, which has Conspiracy. never been solved, and the speculations that have been formed on it would fill a moderate volume. Our own writers afford us little satisfaction on the subject; while the account of it given by Thuanus is founded on the gross misrepresentations of his countryman, Victor Cayet", and is truly unworthy of a place in his history. Under these circumstances, the epistolary correspondence of the great men of the time is perhaps our best guide; and the following letter on the occasion from Cecil to Sir Thomas Parry, ambassador in France, will at least have the merit of good information, while to the best of my knowledge, it is now printed for the first time. I therefore present it to the reader, premising only the following remark on the secretary by the Earl of Clarendon. "It seemed as necessary (for him) there should be treasons, as for the state they should be prevented; insomuch as it was then (how unjustly soever) conceived, that though he created none, yet he fomented some conspiracies, that he might give frequent evidences of his loyalty 20. 17 In the Salisbury Collection at Hatfield, are several letters relative to the Cobham plot, by which it appears that commissioners were employed in the month of July to investigate it. ♫ Thuanus relates the story thus. In June, Sir Walter Ralegh, a man equally dexterous at consultation or action, and famous for his memorable expeditions to the Indies, taking leave of his sister in London, intreated her to commend him to God in her prayers, for he was going to a place whence he expected never She, suspecting that be was going to fight a duel, with the same levity dispersed it among the ladies of her acquaintance, till the rumour came to court, and Ralegh's friends flocked about him to know the enterprisc. He, apprehending himself detected, Imade a confession and discovery of the whole matter. The king was greatly astonished and 19 Chronologie Septennaire, p. 424. Edit. sex. 20 Disparity between Buckingham, and Es "Lord "Lord CECIL, Secretary of State, to Sir THOMAS PARRY, Ambassador in France." « SIR, Cecil's letter on it. Markham and Lord Grey. Watson and HAMPTON-COURT, August, 4. 1605. "IT is very true that when there was cause to stop the passage, there was not conveniency of writing unto you; for some traitors being fled, and proclamation made for them, it was held fit to prevent their escape. Since which time it hath pleased God to deliver most of them into His Majesty's hands; whereof because you may know the truth and no more, you shall understand that this is of this nature. Sir Griffin Markham, and Mr. George Brooke, brother to the Lord Cobham, having dealt with the king in former time to profess their affection toward him, finding some of their vain hopes deceived, fell into incontentment against the king, and most of the nobility that were counsellors about him. And observing in the Lord Grey some like malcontented humour (only in some such-like respects,) they began to project a course of alteration of this estate; hoping, if they could have with some convenient number possessed the person of the king, that they might then by his authority have raised themselves to what places they would, by removing those that presently possess them. In which there was speech that the Lord Grey should be Earlmarshal, Markham to be Secretary, Brooke to be Lord-treasurer of England, Watson, the priest, to be Lord-chancellor ; and in case there should have been resistance made against them, they had provided a party to have gone to the court in the night. Forasmuch as now these men should hardly have been able to have drawn such a company together to second their passions, one of them being a papist, undertook by Watson and Clarke, two priests, to draw-in some catholics to assent to deliver a petition to the king for toleration of religion; but so well provided, as the king should not have thought himself in safety to deny them. Of |