his Accomplishments, which, together with the State of his Perfon, framed by a naturall Propenfion to Armes, foone attracted the good Opinions of all Men, and was fo highly praised in the Efteeme of the Queene, that she thought the Court deficient without him: and whereas through the Fame of his Defert, he was in Election for the Kingdome of Pole, fhe refused to further his Preferment: It was not out of Emulation of Advancement, but out of feare to loofe the Jewell of her Time. He married the Daughter, and fole Heire of Sir Francis Walfingham, the Secretary of State; a Lady deftinated to the Bed of Honour, who after his deplorable Death at Zutphen, in the Low Countries, where he was at the Time of his Uncle Leicester's being there, was remarried to the Lord of Effex, and fince his Death, to my Lord of Saint Albones, all Perfons of the Sword, and otherwife of great Honour, and Vertue.

They have a very quaint Conceipt of him, that Mars, and Mercury, fell at Variance, whofe Servant he fhould be, and there is an Epigrammist that faith, that Art, and Nature, had spent their Excellencies in his fashioning, and fearing they could not end what they had begun, they bestowed him up for Time, and Nature ftood mute, and amazed to behold her owne Marke: But thefe are the Particulars of Poets.

Certaine it is, he was a noble and matchleffe Gentleman, and it may be fayd justly of him without thefe Hiperboles of Faction, as it was of Ca. Ubicenfis, and that he seemed to be born onely to that which he went about Vir fubtilis Ingenii, as Plutarch fayth it, but to fpeake more of him, were to make them leffe.

SIR

WALSINGHAM.

a

IR Francis Walfingham, as we have fayd, had the Honour to be Sir Philip Sidney's Father in Law; he was a Gentleman at first, of a good House, and of a better Education, and from the Universitie travelled for the rest of his Learning; doubtleffe he was the onely Linguift of his Times, how to ufe his owne Tongue, whereby he came to be imployed in the chiefest Affaires of State.

He was fent Ambaffador to France, and ftay'd there Legate long in the Heate of the Civil Warrs, and at the fame Time that Mounfier was here a Sutor to the Queene, and if I be not mistaken, he played the very fame Part there, as fince Gundamore did here: at his Returne he was taken principall Secretary, and for one of the great Engines of State, and of the Times, high in his Miftrefs the Queene's Favor, and a watchfull Servant over the Safety of his Mistress.

They note him to have certaine Curtefies and fecret Wayes of Intelligence above the reft, but I must confeffe, I am to feeke wherefore he fuffered Parry to play fo long as he did, hang on the Hooke before he hoyfed him up and I have been a little curious in the Search thereof, though I have not to doe with the Arcana Regalia imperii, for to know it's fometimes

a Bur

a Burthen; and I remember it was Ovid's criminant Error, that he saw too much, but I hope these are Collateralls, and of noe Danger.

But that Parry having an Intent to kill the Queene, made the Way of his Acceffe, by betraying of others, and in appeaching of the Priefts of his owne Correspondency, and thereby had Acceffe to conferre with the Queene, as oftentimes private and familiar Difcourfe with Walfingham, will not be the Quere of the Mystery, for the Secretary might have had an End of a further Discovery and Maturity of the Treafon, but that after the Queene knewe Parrye's Intent, why he would then admit him to private Discourse, and Walfingham to fuffer him, confidering the Conditions of all the Defignes, and to permit him to goe where and whither he lifted, and onely under the Secrecy of a darke Sentinell fet over him, was a Peece of Reach and Hazard, beyond my Apprehenfion: I must againe profeffe that I have read many of his Letters, for they are commonly fent to my Lord of Leicester, and of Burleigh, out of France, containing many fine Paffages, and Secrets; yet if I might have been beholding to his Cyphers, they would have told pretty Tales of the Times, but I must now close him up, and ranke him amongst the Togati: yet Chiefe of thofe that layd the Foundations of the French and Dutch Warres, which was another Peece of his Fineneffe of the Times, with one Obfervation more, that he was one of the greatest alwaies of the Aufterian Imbracements, for both himfelfe, and Stafford, that preceded him, might well have beene compared to him in the Gofpel, that fowed his Tares in the Night; fo did they their Seedes in Divifion, in the Darke, and as it is a likely Report, that they father on him at his Returne, the Queene speaking to him with fome Senfibility of the Spanish Defignes on France; Madam, he answered, I beseech you be content, and feare not, the Spaniards have a great Appetite, and an excellent Digeftion, but I have fitted him with a Bone for thefe 20 Yeares, that your Majesty should have noe Cause to doubt him, provided that if the Fire chance to fhake, which I have kindled, you will be ruled by me, and caft in fome of your Fewell, which will revive the Flame.

Μ Mof

WILLOUGH BIE.

Y Lord Willoughbie was one of the Queene's firft Swordmen; he was of the ancient Extract of the Bartewes, but more ennobled by his Mother, who was Dutchefs of Suffolk; he was a great Mafter of the Art Military, and was fent Generall into France, and commanded the fecond Army of five, the Queene had fent thither, in Ayde of the French: I have heard it spoken, that had he not flighted the Court, but applyed him felfe to the Queene, he might have enjoyed a plentifull Portion of her Grace; and it was his Saying, and it did him no good, that he was none of the Reptilia; intimating, that he could not creepe on the Ground, and that the Court was not his Element; for indeed as he was a great Souldier, fo he was of a suitable Magnanimitie, and could not brooke the Obfequioufneffe and Affiduitie of the. Court, and as he was then fomewhat defcending from Youth, happily he had an Animam revertendi, and to make a fafe Retreate.

BACON.

BACON.

A

ND now I come to another of the Togati, Sir Nicholas Bacon, an Arch-peece of Wit, and of Wisdome; he was a Gentleman, and a Man of Law, and of great Knowledge therein; whereby, together with his after Part of Learning and Dexteritie, he was promoted to be Keeper of the Great Seale; and being of Kin to the Treasurer Burleigh, and alfo the Helpe of his Hand to bring him to the Queene's great Favor, for he was abundantly factious, which tooke much with the Queene, when it fuited with the Seafon, as he was well able to judge of the Times: He had a very quaint Saying, and he used it often to good Purpofe, that he loved the Jest well, but not the Loffe of his Friend; and that though he knew that verus quifque fuæ fortune faber, was a true and a good Principle, yet the most in Number were thofe that numbred themselves; but I will never forgive that Man, that lofeth himselfe to be rid of his Jefts.

He was Father to that refined Wit, which fince hath acted a difafterous Part on the publique Stage; and of late fate in his Father's Roome as Lord Chancellor Those that lived in his Age, and from whence I have taken this little Modell of him, give him a lively Character; and they decipher him to be another Solon, and the Synon of thofe Times, fuch a one as Edipus was, in diffolving of Riddles; doubtleffe he was an able Inftrument, and it was his Commendations that his Head was the Mallet, for it was a very great one, and therein kept a Wedge, that entred all knotty Peeces that came to the Table.

And now againe I muft fall back to fmooth, and plane a Way to the rest that is behind, but not from my Purpose. There have been about this Time two Rivalls in the Queene's Favor; old Sir Francis Knowles, Comptroler of the House, and Sir Henry Noris, whom fhe called up at Parliament, to fit with the Peeres in the higher Houfe, as Henry Norris of Rycot, who had married the Daughter and Heire of the old Henry Williams of Tayne, a Noble Perfon, and to whom in her Adverfite the Queene had been committed to his fafe Cuftodie, and from him had received more than ordinary Obfervances: Now fuch was the Goodneffe of the Queene's Nature, that fhe neither forgot the good Turnes received from the Lord Williams; neither was the unmindfull of this Lord Norris, whofe Father in her Father's Time, and in the Bufineffe of her Brother, died in a noble Cause, and in the Juftification of her Innocency.

MY

NORRIS.

Y Lord Norris had by this Lady an apt Iffue, which the Queene highly refpected, for he had fixe Sonnes, and all martiall and brave Men; the first was William the eldeft, and Father to the late Earle of BarkeShire, Sir John vulgarly called Generall Norris, Sir Edward, Sir Thomas, Sir Henry, and Maximilian, Men of hauty Courage, and of great Experience in

the

the Conduct of Military Affayres; and to fpeake in the Character of their Merit, they were Perfons of fuch Renowne and Worth, as future Times must out of Duty owe them the Debt of an honourable Memory.

KNOWLES.

IR Francis Knowles was fomewhat neare in the Queene's Affinitie, and had likewife noe incompetent Iffue; for he had also William his eldest Sonne, and fince Earle of Banbury, Sir Thomas, Sir Robert, and Sir Francis; if I be not a little mistaken in their Names, and Marshalling: and there was alfo the Lady Lettice, a Sifter of thofe, who was firft Counteffe of Effex, and after of Leicester; and those were alfo brave Men in their Times and Places, but they were of the Court and Carpet, and not by the Genious of the Camp.

Betweene thefe two Families, there was as it falleth out amongst great Ones and Competitors of Favor, no great Correfpondency, and there were fome Seedes either of Emulation, or Distrust, caft betweene them, which had they not beene disjoyned in the Refidence of their Perfons, as that was the Fortune of their Imployments, the one fide attending the Court, and the other the Pavillion, furely they would have broken out into fome kind of Hoftilitie, or at least they would have intwinde and wrestled one in the other like Trees circuled with Ivy; for there was a Time, that when both these Fraternities being met at Court, when there paffed a Chalenge betweene them at certaine Exercises, the Queene and the old Men being Spectators, which ended in a flat Quarell amongst them all: one I am perfwaded, though I ought not to judge, that there were fome Reliques of this feyned, that there were long after the Caufes of the one Families almoft utter Extirpation, and the others in Profperitie, for it was a knowne Truth, that fo long as my Lord of Leicester lived, who was the maine Pillar on the one Side, for having marryed the Sifter, the other Side tooke no deepe Root in the Court, though otherwise they made their Waies to honour by their Swords, and that which is of more note, confidering my Lord of Leicester's ufe of Men of War, being fhortly after fent Governor to the revolted States, and no Souldier himfelfe, is that he made no more Accompt of Sir John Norris a Souldier then deservedly famoused, and trained from a Page under the Discipline of the greatest Captaine in Chriftendome, the Admirall Caftilliau, and of command in the French, and Dutch Warres, almoft 20 Yeares; and it is of further Obfervation, that my Lord of Effex, after Leicester's Decease, though addicted to Armes, and honoured by the Generall, in the Portugall Expedition, where out of Inftigation, as it hath beene thought, or out of Ambition and Jeloufie ecclipfed by the Fame and Splendor of this great Commander, never loved him in Sincerity.

Moreover, and certaine it is, he not onely crufhed, and upon all Occafions quailed the Youth of this great Man, and his famous Brethren, but therewith drew on his owne fatall End, by undertaking the Irish Action, in Time when he left the Court empty of Friends and full fraught with his profeffed Enemies.

Enemies. But I forbeare to extend my felfe in any further Relation upon this Subject, as having loft fome Notes of Truth in these two Nobles, which I would prefent, and therewith touched fomewhat, which I would not, if the Equity of the Narration, would have omitted.

STR

PERROT.

IR John Perrot was a goodly Gentleman, and of the Sword, and he was of a very ancient Difcent, as an Heire to many Subftracts of Gentry, efpecially from Guy De Brian, of Lawhorn, fo was he of a very vast Estate, and came not to Court for want, and to thefe Advancements; he had the Endowments of Carriage, and Height of Spirit, had he alighted on the Ally and Temper of Difcretion, the Defect whereof, with a native Freedome and Bouldneffe of Speech, drew him on to a clowded Sitting, and layd him upon the Spleene and Advantage of his Enemies, of whom Sir Christopher Hatton was profeffed; he was yet a wife Man, and a brave Courtier, but rough and participating more of active, than fedentary Motions, as being in his Inftellation deftined for Armes, there is a Quære of fome Denotations, how he came to receive the Foyle, and that in the Catastrophe, for he was ftrengthened with honourable Alliances, and the prime Friendship in Court; my Lord of Leicester, and Burleigh, both his Contemporaries, and Familiars, but that there might be (as the Adage hath it) Falfitie in Friendship, and we may rest satisfied, that there is no Difpute against Fates, and they quit him for a Person that loved to ftand too much alone on his Leggs, of too often Regreffe and Discontinuance from the Queene's Prefence, a Fault which is incompatible with the Waies of Court and Favor. He was fent Lord Deputy into Ireland, as it was then apprehended, for a Kind of Hautineffe and Repugnancie in Counsells; or, as others have thought, the fitteft Perfon then to bridle the Infolencies of the Irish; and probable it is, that both confidering the Sway that he would have at the Board, and Head in the Queene's Favor, concurred, and did alike confpire his Remove and Ruine: But into Ireland he went, where he did the Queene very great and many Services, if the Surplufage of the Measure did not abate the Value of the Merit, as after Time found to be no Paradox, to fave the Queene's Purfe; but both her felfe and my Lord Treasurer Burleigh, ever tooke for good Service: He imposed on the Irish the Charge for bearing their own Armes, which both gave them the Poffeffion, and taught them the Ufe of Weapons, which proceeded in the End to a moft fatall Worke, both in the Profufion of Blood and Treasure.

But at his Returne, and upon fome Accompt fent Home before, touching the Eftate of that Kingdome, the Queene powred out affiduous Teftimonies of her Grace towards him, till by his Retreate to his Caftle of Cary, where he was then building, and out of a Defire to be in Command at Home, as he had beene Abroad, together with the Hatred and Practife of Hatton, then in high Favour, whom he had not long before bitterly taunted for his Dancing; he was accused for High Treason, and for high Wordes, and by a forged Letter, condemned; though the Queene, on the Newes of his Condemnation,

fwore