It seems, he thought the king's reign was much given to the falling-fick nefs, but espying his time fitting, and the fovereignty in the hands of a pupil prince, he then thought he might as well put up, for it was the best; for having the poffeffion of blood, and of purse, with a head-piece of a vast extent, he foon got to honour, and no fooner there, but he began to fide it with the beft, even with the protector, and, in conclufion, got his and his brother's heads; ftill afpiring, till he expired in the lofs of his own; fo that posterity may by reading of the father, and grandfather, make judgement of the fon; for we shall find that this Robert, whofe original we have now traced, the better to present him, was inheritor to the genius and craft of his father; and Ambrofe, of the eftate, of whom hereafter we fhall make fome fhort mention. We took him now as he was admitted into the court and the queen's favours, and here he was not to feek to play his part well and dexterously; but his play was chiefly at the fore-game, not that he was a learner at the latter, but he loved not the after-wit, for the report is, (and I think not unjustly) that he was feldom behind-hand with his gamesters, and that they always went with the lofs. He was a very goodly perfon, tall, and fingularly well featured, and all his youth well favoured, of a * The duke of Somerset. sweet afpect, but high foreheaded, which (as I should take it) was of no difcommendation; but, towards his latter, and which with old men was but a middle age, he grew high coloured; fo that the queen had much of her father, for, excepting fome of her kindred, and fome few that had handsome wits in crooked bodies, the always took perfonage in the way of election, for the people hath it to this day, king Henry loved a man. Being thus in her grace, fhe called to mind the fufferings of his ancestors, both in her father's and fifter's reigns, and restored his and his brother's blood, creating Ambrofe, the elder, earl of Warwick, and himself earl of Leicester; and as he was ex primitis, or, of her first choice; so he rested not there, but long enjoyed her favour, and therewith what he lifted, till time and emulation, the companions of greatness, refolved of his period, and to colour him at his fetting in a cloud (at Conebury) not by fo violent a death, or by the fatal fentence of a judicature, as that of his father and grandfather's was, but, as is fuppofed, by that poifon which he had prepared for others, wherein they report him a rare artist. I am not bound to give credit to all vulgar relations, or the libels of his time, which are commonly forced and falfified fuitable to the words and * ho * al. Humours. nours of men in paffion, and discontent; but what binds me to think him no good man, amongst other things of known truth, is that of my lord of Effex's* death, in Ireland, and the marriage of his lady; which I forbear to prefs, in regard he is long fince dead, and others are living whom it may concern. To take him in the observation of his letters and writings, which should best fet him off, for fuch as have fallen into my hands, I never yet saw a stile or phrase more seemingly religious, and fuller of the strains of devotion; and, were they not fincere, I doubt much of his well-being †, and, I fear, he was too well seen in the aphorisms and principles of Nicholas the Florentine, and in the reaches of Cæfar Borgias. And hereto I have only touched him in his courtships. I conclude him in his lance |; he was fent governor by the queen to the revolted states of Holland, where we read not of his wonders, for they fay, he had more of Mercury, than he had of Mars, and that his device might have been without prejudice to the great Cæfar, Veni, vidi, redivi. * Of which you have an account hereafter in this small pamphlet. In a future ftate. The art of poisoning. | Martial state. RADCLIFFE, Earl of Suffex. HIS co-rival was Thomas Radcliffe, earl of Suffex, who in his conftellation was his direct oppofite, for indeed he was one of the queen's martialists, and did her very good service in Ireland, at her firft acceffion, till fhe recalled him to the court, whom she made lord Chamberlain; but he played not his game with that cunning and dexterity, as the earl of Leicester did, who was much the fairer courtier, though Suffex was thought much the honefter man, and far the better foldier, but he lay too open on his guard; he was a godly gentleman, and of a brave and noble nature, true and conftant to his friends and fervants; he was also of a very antient and noble lineage, honoured through many descents, through the title of Fitzwalters. Moreover, there was such an antipathy in his nature to that of Leicester, that, being together in court, and both in high employments, they grew to a direct frowardness, and were in continual oppofition, the one setting the watch, the other the guard, each on the other's actions and motions; for my lord of Suffex was of fo great fpirit, which, backed with the queen's fpecial favour, and fupport †, by a great and antient inheritance, could not brook the other's empire, infomuch as the queen, upon fundry occa *Leicester's. + al. Supported by. |