then sitting, and which would readily have carried him to greater extremities. In Scotland, perhaps, more than in England, people were convinced that Henry had fallen a sacrifice to the Pope and the Jesuits, and that an attempt would be made on the sacred person of James. The Scottish privy council addressed a long letter to their most "gracious and dread sovereign," beseeching him (most unnecessarily) to have a care of himself, and recommending him to call up a body-guard of native Scots, that might attend him in all his huntings and games. "We cannot," said they, "but be much dismayed, and driven into a just fear thereby, to see these last frogs, foretold in in the Apocalypse, thus sent out by the devil, and his supporters on earth, to execute their hellish directions upon God's own lieutenants; which damnable persons may think perhaps no time or occasion more probably and likely for achieving of such a villany than when your majesty shall be at game abroad; at which time every one almost, albeit unknown, have heretofore been accustomed, upon pretence of seeing of the sport, to have more access near your sacred person than was expedient, which form cannot hereafter continue without too much likelihood of danger and peril; and in so far as your majesty's guard are most of them unfit for any such purpose, and that in the time of your highness's progress, the pensioners have not been much accustomed to attend, we could therefore wish that some should be especially designed for this intent only, and to be exempted from all other service or attendance, other than their waiting upon your majesty's person in the time of your being abroad, at hunting, hawking, or any other pastime or game in the fields; who, being to the number of some twenty gentlemen, under the commandment and charge of that worthy nobleman the captain of your majesty's guard, may be ever still attending your person, stopping and debarring all men from access, or coming in any sort near to your majesty, enduring your highness being abroad, except noblemen, your majesty's own known servants, and such others as it shall please your majesty to call

upon.

By the death of Henry IV. the crown of France fell to his son, Louis XIII.—a weak boy, who never became a man in intellect or strength of character. During his minority the post of regent was occupied by his mother, Mary de' Medici, who soon undid the good which her husband had done to the French people, without reforming the morals of the court. It was her general system to pursue a course of politics directly contrary to that of Henry, who had been a most unfaithful

Dalrymple. The lords of the Scottish council were too cautious to hint at the propriety of his majesty's spending less time in his hunting, &c. They told him, ou the contrary, that they knew it" to be most necessary and expedient" for the preservation of his health, that he should continue his frequent exercises abroad, the deserting whereof could not be without the hazard and danger of ensuring infirmity and sickness." They trusted "that He who holdeth the bridle in the devil's mouth would never so loosen the reins as to allow of any harm to him, the chief and greatest protector and nursing father of God's church."

VOL. III.

husband; but, notwithstanding this system, she adhered to the Protestant league, and sent ten thousand men to join four thousand English who had landed on the continent, under the command of Sir Edward Cecil. These allies joined the Dutch and Germans under the commands of the Prince of Orange and the Duke of Anhalt. The Austrians were presently driven out of Juliers ; and as the emperor was not in a condition to renew the struggle, and as James and Mary de' Medici were most anxious for peace, the tranquillity of Europe was not very seriously disturbed.

While these events were passing abroad and at home, Robert Carr, the handsome Scotchman, was eclipsing every competitor in the English court. He was created Viscount Rochester in the month of March, 1611; was made a member of the privy council in April, 1612; and he received also from his lavish master the Order of the Garter. Upon the death of the Earl of Salisbury (Cecil) he became Lord Chamberlain, that post being given up to him by the Earl of Suffolk, who succeeded Cecil as Lord Treasurer. And as the post of Secretary remained vacant for a considerable time, the favorite did the duties of that office by means of Sir Thomas Overbury, whose abilities and experience made up in part for his own deficiencies. Carr, Viscount Rochester, became in effect Prime Minister of England as much as Cecil had been, though nominally he held no official situation; and his power and his influence were not decreased when the king nominated Sir Ralph Winwood and Sir Thomas Lake to be joint Secretaries of State; for these men were not high and mighty enough to oppose the wishes of the favourite. But Sir Thomas Overbury, who on several accounts was distasteful to the king, became an object of his jealousy and hatred when James saw the entire confidence and affection which his minion reposed in him.

Prince Henry, the heir to the crown, had now entered his eighteenth year, and had been for some time the idol of the people. If his character is fairly described by his contemporaries, he was entitled to this admiration; but we cannot but remember the universal practice of contrasting the heir apparent with the actual occupant of the throne; and this prince's untimely end may very well have produced some of that exaggeration which arises out of tenderness and hopeless regret. In person, in manners, and in character, he differed most widely from his father. He was comely, well made, graceful, frank, brave, and active. Henry V. and Edward the Black Prince were proposed to him as models; and it was the example of those warlike princes that he determined to follow. Though not absolutely averse to learning, spending two or three hours a day in his study, he loved arms better than books. He employed a great part of his time in martial exercises, in handling the pike, throwing the bar, shooting with the bow, vaulting, and riding. He was a particular lover of horses, and what belonged to them,

H

but not fond of hunting like his father; and, when he engaged in it, it was rather for the pleasure of galloping his gallant steeds than for any which the dogs afforded him. It was not wonderful that he should have been annoyed by James's pedantry and schoolmaster manners. His mother is said to have encouraged this feeling, and to have represented to him, out of contempt for his father, that so much learning was inconsistent with the character of a great general and conqueror, which he ought to be. One day, as he was tossing the pike, when the French ambassador asked him whether he had any message for the king his master, Henry replied, "Tell him what I am now doing." He studied fortification, and at a very early age turned his attention to ships and sea matters. Sir Walter Raleigh, the brave and the scientific soldier and sailor, who was still languishing in the Tower, became an object of his enthusiastic admiration; and he was often heard to say that no other king but his father would keep such a bird in such a cage. All this was when he was

As

a mere child. It is remarked by an old writer, that he was too soon a man to be long lived. he grew up he practised tilting, charging on horseback, and firing artillery. He caused new pieces of ordnance to be cast, with which he learned to shoot at a mark. He was no less careful in furnishing himself with great horses of the best breeds, which he imported from all countries. He delighted to converse with men of skill and experience in wars, whether natives or foreigners; and he entertained in his household a celebrated Dutch engineer. It is quite possible that all this warlike ardour and activity might have proved more fatal to his country than the pedantry and pusillanimity of his father; but the young spirits of England would hardly reflect on such a possibility. In other particulars Prince Henry was strikingly and studiously contrasted with his parent. James could never be quiet in church time, having always an eagerness to be preaching himself: Henry was a most attentive hearer of sermons, and, instead of disputing with them, was wont to reward the

preachers, no uncertain road to popularity. James was a most profane swearer,-Henry swore not at all; and he had boxes kept at his three houses at St. James's, Richmond, and Nonsuch -to receive the fines on profane swearing which he ordered to be strictly levied among his attendants. The money thus collected was given to the poor. "Once when the prince was hunting the stag, it chanced the stag, being spent, crossed the road, where a butcher and his dog were travelling; the dog killed the stag, which was so great that the butcher could not carry him off: when the huntsmen and company came up, they fell at odds with the butcher, and endeavoured to incense the prince against him; to whom the prince soberly answered, 'What if the butcher's dog killed the stag, what could the butcher help it?" They replied, "if his father had been served so, he would have sworn so as no man could have endured it.' 'Away!' replied the prince; all the pleasure in the world is not worth an oath.'" . . His court was more frequented than the king's, and by another sort of men; so the king was heard to say, "Will he bury me alive?" And the high-church favorites taxed him for being a patriot to the puritans. To the last-named class, indeed, he appeared as a ruler promised in the prophecies of Scripture, as one that would complete the reformation of the Church of Christ.

Henry the Eight pulled down the abbeys and cells,

But Henry the Ninth shall pull down bishops and bells, was a rhyme common in the mouths of the people, among whom the spirit of dissent gained strength in proportion to the efforts made to force them to conformity, and the monstrous growth of episcopal tyranny. Yet when the usual age for marrying princes arrived, his father, who was less particular about any other point than about a high alliance, wished to marry Henry to a Catholic wife -a match which would have cost him the favour of the Puritans. A negotiation with Spain for the hand of the eldest infanta, was carried on for years, and when it grew languid or hopeless, James listened to an overture from Mary de' Medici, the Queen-regent of France, who was anxious for a marriage between Prince Henry and Madame Christine, second daughter of France. At the same time James was tempted by an offer of a daughter of the Duke of Florence, with millions of crowns for her dower; and shortly after an ambassador-extraordinary arrived from Savoy to solicit the hand of James's daughter Elizabeth for the heir of that dukedom, and to offer that of his sister to Prince Henry. This double commission led to no results, though James was willing to bestow his daughter on the Catholic Savoyard. To his father Henry was all submission, protesting his readiness to marry whomsoever he might choose for him ;*

Burnet, however, says, "He was so zealous a Protestant, that, when his father was entertaining propositions of marrying him to Popish princesses- once to the archduchess, and at another time to a daughter of Savoy, he, in a letter that he wrote to the king on the 12th of that October in which he died (the original of which Sir William Cook showed me), desired that, if his father married him that way, it might be with the youngest person of the two, of whose con

but to other persons he held a different language: and the Puritans, who most admired him and most feared or hated the Papists, seem to have comforted themselves with the conviction that he would never marry a Catholic wife.*

A match, which was perfectly to the taste of the people, though not to that of her mother, was at length proposed for the Princess Elizabeth; and on the 16th of October, 1612, Frederick V., the Count Palatine, the bridegroom elect, who had the good wishes of all zealous Protestants, arrived in England to receive his young bride. In the midst of the festive preparations for this marriage, Prince Henry, who appears to have outgrown his strength, and to have greatly neglected the care of his health, was seized with a dangerous illness at Richmond, where he was preparing his house for the reception of the Palatine. Recovering a little, and hoping to conquer the disease by the vigour of his spirit, he rode up to London to welcome his intended brother-in-law at Whitehall. On the 24th of October, notwithstanding the weak state of his body and the coldness of the season, he played a great match of tennis with the Count Henry of Nassau, in his shirt. That night he complained. exceedingly of lassitude and a pain in his head. The following morning, being Sunday, though faint and drowsy, he would rise and go to the chapel. Mr. Wilkinson, for whom he had a great esteem, preached a sermon upon the text-" Man, that is born of a woman, is of short continuance, and full of trouble." From this sermon in his own house the prince went to Whitehall, where he heard another with the king. After this he dined with his majesty, and ate with a seemingly good appetite, but his countenance was sadly pale, and his eye hollow and ghastly. After dinner his courage and resolution in combating with and dissembling his disorder gave way to the force of it, and he was obliged to take a hasty leave and return to St. James's. There he grew daily worse, the doctors disagreeing as to his treatment, and pursuing no fixed or bold course. His head frequently wandered, but on the night of the 2nd of November his delirium increased alarmingly: he called for his clothes, for his armour and sword, saying he must be gone. On Thursday, the 5th of November, the anniversary of the gunpowder plot, the king was informed that there was no hope. Upon this, James, who had visited him several times at St. James's, being "unwilling and unable to stay so near the gates of sorrow, removed to Theobalds, in Hertfordshire, to wait there the event." Abbot, the Archbishop of Canterbury, attended the prince, told him of his danger, and took his confession of faith. In the course of that day the prince repeatedly called out "David!" "David!" meaning Sir David Murray, his confidential friend and servant; but, when Murray stood by his bed

version he might have hope, and that any liberty she might be allowed for her religion might be in the privatest manner possible." -Own Times, i. 11. A singular reason for preferring a young wife to an old one!

• Birch, Life of Prince Henry.-Nug. Ant.-Wilson, Weldon,

Thomas Overbury had assisted Rochester in writing his passionate love letters, and had even managed sundry stolen interviews between the lovers, in which what remained of the innocence of the young countess had been made a wreck; but though Overbury's lax morality did not prevent him from rendering such services as these, his policy was strongly opposed to his friend committing himself further. He well knew the odium which Rochester would bring upon himself by proclaiming his love and contracting an adulterine marriage with the countess; and, wishing to retain his own ascendancy over the favourite, the fountain of riches and honour, he was averse to the influence which the noble Howards would obtain by the union. As the favorite was indebted to him " more than to any soul living, both for his fortune, understanding, and reputation," he spoke his mind freely and boldly, objecting the "baseness of the woman," the dishonour of such a marriage, and declaring that, if Rochester persisted, he would raise an insuperable obstacle to the divorce from Essex, which was to precede any open talk about the new marriage. The favorite seemed to yield to the strong remonstrances of his friend and counsellor. Overbury, though familiar with the intrigues of a court and the worst vices of human nature, foresaw no mischief to himself: he continued to derive profit and credit from his close connexion with the favorite; and on the morning of the 21st of April, 1613, he boasted to a friend of his good fortune and brilliant prospects. That very evening he was committed to the Tower. Rochester, in his infatuation, had told all that he had said to his beautiful and revengeful mistress, who, from that moment, had vowed his destruction. In her first fury she offered 10007. to Sir John Wood to take his life in a duel. But there was a too apparent risk and uncertainty in this course; and her friends (her uncle, the Earl of Northampton, was among these advisers) suggested a wiser expedient,-which was, to send Overbury on an embassy to the Great Duke of Russia. If he accepted this mission he would be out of the way before the question of the divorce came on; if he took the appointment in the light of a harsh exile, and refused it, it would be easy to irritate the king against him as an undutiful subject. When the mission to Russia was first mentioned to him, Sir Thomas seemed not unwilling to undertake it. But then, it is said, his friend Rochester told him how much he relied upon his integrity and talent for business,-how much he should lose by his absence; and, in the end, implored him to refuse the unpromising embassy, undertaking to reconcile him soon with the king if his majesty should testify any displea

sure.

By this time nothing but Sir Thomas's immediate death would satisfy the malignant countess; and Rochester had become as a pipe upon which she played her stops as she chose. As soon as Overbury had refused the mission which was offered to him by the Lord Chancellor and the Earl of Pembroke, the favorite represented

to the king that Sir Thomas was not only grown insolent and intolerable to himself, but audacious and disobedient to his sacred majesty. James, who already hated Overbury, readily agreed with his minion and the rest of his council that Overbury was guilty of contempt of the royal authority. A warrant was brought up and signed, and Sir Thomas was sent to his dungeon. The countess's uncle Northampton, and her lover Rochester, had prepared the business so that Sir William Wade was removed from the lieutenancy of the Tower, and Sir Jervis Elvis, or Elwes, a person wholly dependent upon them, put in his place. By their order Elwes confined Overbury a close prisoner, so that his own father was not suffered to visit him, nor were any of his servants admitted within the walls of the Tower.

A few days after these strange practices, the Countess of Essex, backed by her father the Earl of Suffolk, who signed the petition with her, sued for a divorce from her husband upon the ground of the marriage being null by reason of physical incapacity. incapacity. Forthwith James appointed, under the great seal, a commission of delegates to try this delicate cause. The delegates named by his majesty were Abbot archbishop of Canterbury, the bishops of London, Winchester, Ely, Litchfield and Coventry, and Rochester; with Sir Julius Cæsar, Sir John Parry, Sir Daniel Dunne, Sir John Bennet, Francis James, and Thomas Edwards, doctors of the civil law. The Earl of Essex, who had suffered enough already from the beautiful demon, made no resistance, but seems to have gone gladly into measures which would free him from such a wife. It has been mildly said that "all the judicial forms usual on such occasions were carefully observed;"* but it cannot be denied that the course of the disgraceful investigation was biassed by interferences and influences of a most unusual and irregular character. Abbot, the Primate, who in all this foul business acted like a man of honour and conscience, objected strongly to the divorce; but James took up the pen, and answered the archbishop in the double capacity of absolute king and special pleader. He told Abbot, roundly, that it became him " to have a kind of implicit faith" in his royal judgment, because he was known to have "some skill in divinity," and because, as he hoped, no honest man could doubt the uprightness of his conscience. "And," continued James, "the best thankfulness that you, that are so far my creature, can use towards me, is, to reverence and follow my judgment, and not to contradict it, except where you may demonstrate unto me that I am mistaken or wrong informed."† The king was never backward in writing or delivering this kind of schooling, or in seconding his minions through right and wrong; but it is believed that his zeal was quickened on the present occasion by the opportune gift of 25,000l. in gold, which Rochester made to him out of his handsome savings. The primate, however, would not sacriKing's Letter to Archbishop Abbot.-State Trials.

• Lingard.