7. A LETTER TO THE MASTERS OF THE COURT OF REQUESTS. 261 8. Disputes as to jurisdiction of the Marshalsea Court. New Court erected, to be called the Court of the Verge. Bacon one of the 1. Death of Salisbury. Result of his financial administration. Critical character of the occasion. Bacon's thoughts and as- THE BEGINNING OF A LETTER TO THE KING IMMEDIATELY AFTER MY LORD TREASURER'S DECEASE, 29th of May, 1612. 279 Secretaryship left vacant. Treasurership put in commission. 2. Mastership of the Wards. Contemplated reform in the adminis- 3. Trial and execution of Lord Sanquhar for procuring the murder BACON'S SPEECH AT THE TRIAL. 4. Lady Arabella Stuart and William Seymour. Their attempt to 1. Marriage arranged between the Princess Elizabeth and the Elector INSTRUCTIONS TO THE COMMISSIONERS FOR COLLECTING THE AID ON THE MARRIAGE OF THE PRINCESS ELIZABETH 3. ACCOUNT OF THE COMMITTEES FOR REPAIR OF THE KING'S 4. REPORT UPON A PROPOSITION CONCERNING THE AUGMENTA- TION OF THE KING'S YEARLY REVENUE BY CONVERTING OF REPORT FROM LORD CHANCELLOR ELLESMERE AND LORD NORTHAMPTON (drawn up apparently by Bacon), 11 Oct. 1612 337 6. New volume of Essays published. Intended dedication to the TO THE MOST HIGH AND EXCELLENT PRINCE HENRY, PRINCE OF WALES, DUKE OF CORNWALL AND EARL OF CHESTER. 340 Death of the Prince. Remembrance of his character written in 9. Doctrine and practice of the beginning of the 17th century with Proceeding before the Lords of the Council, assisted by the BACON'S CHARGE AGAINST WHITE LOCKE (imperfect) LETTER TO THE KING, with advice how to proceed with a Par- Advice given by Sir Henry Neville on the same occasion 2. Death of Sir Thomas Fleming, Chief Justice of the King's Bench. Afterwards' recommends a different arrangement: viz. Coke to be promoted from the Common Pleas to the King's Bench: Hobart to succeed Coke: and himself to succeed Hobart. Pro- bable reasons for preferring this arrangement REASONS FOR THE REMOVE OF COKE. 3. Attempt to introduce Parliamentary government into Ireland. Creation of new boroughs. Election of Sir John Davies as Speaker. Refusal of the Roman Catholic members to serve. Reference to the King. Commissioners appointed to investi- 4. Proposal to require the members of the deputation from Ireland to take the oath of allegiance 5. Coke made Chief Justice of the King's Bench: Hobart of the Dissolution of the marriage between the Earl of Essex and Lady Frances Howard. Her marriage to Rochester, created Earl of Somerset for the occasion. Bacon's complimentary offer- ing of the Masque of Flowers.' Probable motive and occasion 392 6. Prevalence of duels. Proclamation against them by the King. Prosecution in the Starchamber of a challenger and his second . 397 THE CHARGE OF SIR FRANCIS BACON, KNIGHT, HIS MA- JESTY'S ATTORNEY GENERAL, TOUCHING DUELS, UPON AN INFORMATION IN THE STARCHAMBER AGAINST PRIEST AND On the 5th of October, 1607,-according to the MS. lists of knights. in the Herald's College,-the King, being then at Royston, knighted Sir John Constable. And though the statement involves, as we shall see, one small difficulty, it may serve in the absence of better evidence to determine the place of the next letter; to which (printed originally in the 'Remains,' without any date) some incautious editor, transcriber, or possessor, has attached a date which must be wrong. John Constable, of Gray's Inn, married Dorothy Barnham, a sister of Alice, and so became what would then be called Bacon's "brother-in-law"; at whose request he was knighted. The precise date of his marriage I have not been able to ascertain; but as I find him described as 66 Sir John Constable" in a docket dated January 31, 1607-8,1 and as he could not be Bacon's brother-in-law before the 10th of May, 1607,-the day of Bacon's own marriage, the occasion to which the letter refers must lie between those dates. The date given to it in the modern printed copies-1603-has no doubt been inserted by some one upon conjecture; 1603 being the year when knights were made so freely,-the true date of Bacon's marriage not being known,—and the extreme improbability that he could at that time have been so far advanced in the King's good graces as to ask for a personal favour of this kind not being considered. In 1607 there is nothing strange either in the making or Calendar of State Papers, Dom. James I. VOL. IV. B |