PREFA

TORY

NOTE TO

LETTERS

Marquess of Winchester was, in some degree, impoverished by his enormous expenditure on this occasion. It was probably the most costly of all the royal visits ever made during a Progress. And Basing had very frequently been so favoured AND C. before.

That neglect of due attention to Henry's ambassador, on his arrival, of which Ralegh speaks so strongly, arose, it would seem, from no lack of instructions on the subject by the Lords of the Council. Ten days before the date of Letter XCIX. the Council sent its letters to the Earls of Sussex, Derby, and Hertford, and to the Lords Bindon, Compton, and Windsor, desiring them to give their attendance, "for the solemn reception of Marshal Biron, sent hither from the French king.”1 like letter gave special instructions to the Earl of Cumberland to escort the Duke to Basing.2

A

In the course of the visit of September 1601, occurred one of the most curious conversations that have been recorded between a sovereign and an ambassador. Sully tells us in his Memoirs that the Duke of Biron had the boldness to question Elizabeth about her treatment of the Earl of Essex. He went so far as to express both his own compassion for the Earl, and his surprise that so much faithful service should have been followed by so tragical an end. Elizabeth, says Sully, was complaisant enough to state to the ambassador-who at that moment was certainly speaking, not for his master, but for himself--the reasons by which she justified her course. She told him that Essex had flung himself headlong into projects. far above his strength, and that when,-notwithstanding that the evidence of his treason had become incontestable,submission would still have brought pardon, no entreaties of friends or relatives could lead him to proffer it. "I know not," adds the great statesman who has recorded the conversation, and who had considerable knowledge of both interlocutors, "whether the Queen saw in the French ambassador certain

Registers of Privy Council: Elizabeth, vol. xvii. p. 364. (Council Office.) 2 Ibid. p. 372.

XCIX.

1601.

PREFA-
TORY

NOTE TO
LETTERS
XCIX.

AND C.

1601.

points of resemblance with the English favourite. The just
reflections on the functions of crowned heads and on the duties
of subjects with which she wound up her recital leads one to
think so.
But Biron turned the conversation to no profit."1
It adds to the striking character of the incident to observe
that he was, at the moment when Elizabeth thus addressed
him, already known at the French Court to have been plotting
against his royal master. Henry had hoped that new trust,
and the diversion from a career of arms to a career of
diplomacy-the course which Bacon had recommended to
Essex-would wean his old favourite from the food which had
nourished an unwise ambition. Soon after his return from
England, Biron was sent on a more serious embassy into
Switzerland. But in less than ten months after the interview
at Basing, he too came to the scaffold. Before any judicial
procedure was begun, Henry addressed to him, in person,
almost the very words which (according to Sully) Elizabeth
had told him she, in a less direct way, had addressed, or
had caused to be suggested, to Essex.

The French historian-or romancer on history-Eudes de Mezerai has improved upon the Duke of Sully's account of the intercourse between Biron and Queen Elizabeth by stating, for the information of his compatriots on our domestic manners, that when the Queen returned to London, Biron accompanied her; that they passed together through the Temple Gate of the City; and that when they came within sight of it, Elizabeth pointed out to the ambassador the gory head of Essex, there exposed as the head of a traitor.

When Ralegh was on his last journey from Devonshire to London, in 1618, some of the latest incidents of Biron's career came to his memory, and he conversed about them with his companions. Some of those incidents had first come to his ears, not long before the trials of 1603, in the vague form in which they had travelled to the French coast, and had been brought thence to Jersey by the Norman fishermen.

XCIX.

TO SECRETARY SIR ROBERT CECIL.

From the Original. Cecil Papers, vol. lxxxviii. § 22 (Hatfield). Holograph.

SIR,

LETTER

XCIX.

1601. Sept. 7.

To Sir R.

Cecil.

I AM gladd I came hither, for I never saw so great a person so neglected. He hathe bynn here now left; not on nobelman nor gentelman to accompany them nor to gwyde them. And it is so long er they hard of my Lord of CUMBERLAND as they thought they weare neglected. Wee have caried them to Westmister to see the monuments; and this Monnday we entertayned them at the Bear Garden, which they had great Attend pleasure to see.

Here hathe bynn with them Sir A. SAVAGE2 and Sir ARTHUR GORGES, who hathe bynn their guides,3without whom they had byn left allone. Their horses will not be provided till Wensday morninge. The posts say they cannot take up horses without cummission from the Lords of the Concell.

4

I sent to and fro, and have labored like a moyle to fashion things so as on Wensday night they wilbe att Bagshoot, and Thursday at the Vine.

It weare good that A. SAVAGE and A. GORGES weare

* See the Prefatory Note to Letter LXVIII. p. 136.

3 This reading is doubtful; the word being indistinctly written.

4 mule.

From
Crosby

House.

ance on

the Duke

of Biron at Westminster and the

Bear

Garden.

Arrange

ments for

the Duke's journey to Basing.

LETTER

XCIX.

1601. Sept. 7.

cummanded to cum, because they speak French well. and ar familliar with them.

Your Honor's to do yow service,

Crosby Howse, this Monday att 6 a'Clock.

Addressed:

W. R.

To the right honorabell Sir ROBERT CECYLL, Knight, Prinapall
Secritory. For Her Majesties most especiall service.

LETIER

C.

1601. Sept. 12.

C.

TO HENRY BROOKE, LORD COBHAM.

From the Original. Domestic Correspondence: Elizabeth. Unarranged
Papers. (Rolls House.) Holograph. Without date.

I THAT know your Lordshipp's resolution when wee parted cannot take on mee to perswade yow, I will only say this muche; it is but a day and half jurney hither, the Queen will take it exceeding kyndly and take herscalf more beholdinge unto yow then yow thinke. They French tarry butt 2 or 3 dayes att most. I will prehis attend sently returne to the Bathe with your Lordship agayne. The French weare all black and no kind of bravery at

To Lord
Cobham.
From
Basing.

Desire for

ance on

the Queen. Pre

sence of the Duke of Biron

and his Suite at Court.

all, so as I have only made mee a black taffeta sute to be in; and leave all my other sutes. This is all I can say, saving I only wished yow a littell to beare, and make

So in MS. The date of the year is in a later hand.

the Queen so much the more in your debt. It will be Thursday er they have adience. It were to long to tell the Queens discource with me of your Lordship, and finding it, I dust not say that I knew yow weare resolved not to cum, butt left it to the estate of your boddy. I need not doubt butt that your Lordship will be here; yet I wishe yow to hold such a cource as may best fitt your honor and your humour together. If yow cum, shee will take it most kyndly. If yow cum not, it shalbe handled as yow will have it; and herein and all elce, I will remayne your's before all the worlde,

W. RALEGH.

[POSTSCRIPT.]-Basing, this Saterday night, late [12 Sept. 1601]. I am yeven now going att night to London to provide me a playne taffeta sute and a playne black saddell, and wil be here agayne Twesday night; and if your French jurney holde, it will muche stand you for them to know what yow ar here, for I am resolved that the Queen will most esteeme yow here and use you.

Addressed:

To the Rt. Honbell. my very good Lorde Cobhame.

LETTER

C.

1601. Sept. 12.

CI.

TO SECRETARY SIR ROBERT CECIL.

From the Original. Cecil Papers, vol. lxxxviii. § 53 (Hatfield).
Holograph. Without date of year.

SIR,

LETTER

CI.

I RECEVED a letter from Jersey, dated the 12th of this September, by which I was advertised that a barke of St. Malo's, cumminge from Lysbone the first of Sep- Sept. 19.

1601.