TO MR. SECRETARY CALVERT. MR. SECRETARY, For the errors, we have yet so much use of the service of Sir Henry Britten in bringing in the fines, (indeed more than of the attorney,) as we I have received your letter of the 3d of this cannot, without prejudice to his majesty's ser- present, signifying his majesty's pleasure touchvice, enter yet into them; and, besides, Sir Ed-ing Peacock's* examinations, of which I wil ward Coke comes not abroad. Mr. Kirkham hath communicated with me, as matter of profit to his majesty, upon the coals referred by his majesty to us of the treasury; wherein I hope we shall do good, the rather, because I am not alone. The proclamation for light gold Mr. Secretary Calvert, I know, hath sent to his majesty; and therefore of that I say no more. For the raising of silver by ordinance, and not by proclamnation, and that for the time to come, we have given order to finish it. I hear a whispering, that thereupon the commissioners of the navy, the officers of the household, the wardrobe, may take occasion to break the book and the undertakings, because the prices may rise, which I thought good to signify to his majesty. And, to speak plainly, I fear more the pretence than the natural effect. God evermore preserve your lordship. I rest January 20, 1619. TO THE LORD CHANCELLOR.* MY HONOURABLE Lord, I have acquainted his majesty with your letter, who is very well pleased therewith, finding in you a continual care of his service. In that point of the Star Chamber business, his majesty saith there is a mistaking: for he meant not the Dutchmen's business, but that motion which your lordship made unto him, of sitting in the Star Chamber about the commissions, which you had not leisure to read till he came down to Royston, and hath reason to give you thanks for it, desiring you to prepare it, and study the point, (of which he will speak more with you at his return to London,) being a matter worthy your thinking on, and his majesty's practice. For the last point of your letter, his majesty saith it cannot but proceed of malice, that there should be any such plot, which he will not endure, but he will account those that whisper of it in that sort, enemies of his service; and will put them out of their places that practise it. And so I rest Your lordship's faithful friend and servant, G. BUCKINGHAM. Newmarket, Jan. 22, 1619. * Harl. MSS. vol. 7006. have special care. My Lord Coke is come to town, and hath sent me word, he will be with me on Monday, though he be somewhat lame. Howsoever, the service shall be done. I was made acquainted, by your letter to Secretary Naunton, with his majesty's dislike of the sending to him of the jolly letter from Zealand. I will now speak for myself, that when it was received, I turned to the master of the wards,† and said, Well, I think you and I shall ever advise the king to do more for a Burlamachi, when he seeketh to his majesty by supplication and supplying the king at the first word, than for all the rest upon any bravados from the Burgomasters of Holland and Zealand :" who answered very honestly, that it was in the king's power to make them alter their style when he would. But when another of us said, we could not but in our own discharge send the king the letter, scilicet negandum non fuit; though indeed my way is otherwise. I have at last recovered from these companions, Harrison and Dale, a copy of my Lord of Bangor's book, the great one, and will presently set in hand the examinations. God keep you. Your assured friend, February 5, 1619. FR. VERULAM, Canc. TO THE KING. MAY IT PLEASE your Majesty, Sir Edward Coke is now afoot, and, according to your command, signified by Mr. Secretary Calvert, we proceed in Peacock's examinations. For, although there have been very good diligence used, yet certainly we are not at the bottom; and he that would not use the utmost of his line to sound such a business as this, should not have due regard neither to your majesty's honour no safety. *He was a minister of the University of Cambridge. He was committed to the Tower for pretending that he had, by sorcery, infatuated the king's judgment, in the cause of Sir Thomas Lake.-Camd. Annal. Regis Jacobi I., p. 54. + Sir Lionel Cranfield. Dr. Lewis Bayly, born at Caermarthen in Wales, and educated in Exeter College, Oxford. He had been minister of Evesham in Worcestershire, and chaplain to Prince Henry, and rector of St. Matthew's, Friday street, in London He was promoted to the bishopric of Bangor in 1616. On the 15th of July, 1621, he was committed to the Fleet, but on what account is not related by Camden, Annales Regis Jacobi I., p. 72, who mentions the circumstance of the bishop's imprisonment, but that he was soon after set at liberty. He was the author of the well known book, The Practice of Piety. A man would think he were in Luke Hutton's | Spain from hence, are discharged, together with case again; for, as my Lady Roos personated some munition, which was also upon the point of Luke Hutton, so it seemeth, Peacock personateth being sent. Another thing is also certain, that Atkins. But I make no judgment yet, but will go on with all diligence; and, if it may not be done otherwise, it is fit Peacock be put to torture. He deserveth it as well as Peacham did. I beseech your majesty not to think I am more bitter because my name is in it; for, besides that I always make my particular a cipher, when there is question of your majesty's honour and service, I think myself honoured for being brought into so good company. And as, without flattery, I think your majesty the best of kings, and my noble Lord of Buckingham the best of persons favoured; so I hope, without presumption, for my honest and true intentions to state and justice, and my love to my master, I am not the worst of chancellors. God ever preserve your majesty. Your majesty's most obliged and most obedient servant, FR. VERULAM, Canc. 10th of February, 1619. TO THE LORD CHANCELLOR. MOST HONOURed Lord, I presume now, after term, (if there be any such thing as an afterterm with your lordship,) to offer this enclosed paper* to your sight, concerning the Duke of Lerma; which, if your lordship have not already read, will not, I think, be altogether unpleasing, because it is full of particular circumstances. I know not how commonly it passeth up and down more or less. My friend, Mr. Gage, sent it me lately out of Spain. But, howsoever, I build upon a sure ground; for, though it should be vulgar, yet, for my desire to serve your lordship, I cannot demerit so much, as not to deserve a pardon at your lordship's most noble hand. Before the departure of the Duke of Lerma from that court, there was written upon the gate for a pasquinade, that the house was governed por el Padre, y el Hijo, y un Santo; as, in Paris, about the same time, was written upon the Louvre gate, C'est icy l'hostel des troys Roys; for Luynes's brother is almost as great as himself. But, the while there is good store of kings now in Christendom, though there be one fewer than there was. In Spain, there are very extraordinary preparations for a great armada. Here is lately in this court, a current speech, as that the enterprise (whatsoever it should have been) is laid wholly aside but that were strange. Yet this is certain, that the forces of men, to the number of almost two thousand, which were to have gone into *I have, out of a ragged hand in Spanish, translated it, and accompanied it with some marginal notes for your lordship's greater ease. Note of Mr. Matthew. both in the court of Spain and this, there is at this time a strange straitness of money; which 1 do not conceive, for my part, to proceed so much from want, as design to employ it. The rendezvous, where the forces were to meet, was at Malaga, within the straits; which makes the enterprise upon Algiers most likely to be intended. For I take that to be a wild conceit, which thinks of going by the Adriatic per far in un Viaggio duoi servitii; as the giving a blow to Venice, and the landing of forces in aid of the King of Bohemia about Trieste. Perhaps the King of Spain would be glad to let the world see, that now he is hors de paye; and, by showing himself in some action, to entitle the Duke of Lerma to all his former sloth; or perhaps he now makes a great preparation, upon the pretence of some enterprise, that he will let fall, that so he may with the less noise assemble great forces some other year for some other attempt not spoken of now. My Lord Compton* is in this court, and goes shortly towards Italy. His fashion is sweet, and his disposition noble, and his conversation fair and honest. Diego, my Lord Roos's man, is come hither. I pray God it be to do me any good towards the recovery of the debt his lord owes me. Most honoured lord, I am here at good leisure to look back upon your lordship's great and noble goodness towards me, which may go for a great example in this age; and so it doth. That which I am sure of is, that my poor heart, such as it is, doth not only beat, but even boil in the desires it hath to do your lordship all humble service. I crave leave, though it be against good manners, that I may ever present my humblest service to my most honoured lady, my Lady Verulam, and Lady Constable, with my best respects to my dear friend, Sir John Constable; who, if your lordship want the leisure, would perhaps cast an eye upon the enclosed paper. I do, with more confidence, presume to address this other letter to Mr. Meautys, because the contents thereof concern your lordship's service. I beseech sweet Jesus to make and keep your lordship entirely happy. So I humbly do you reverence, remaining ever Your lordship's most obliged servant, P. S. I should be glad to receive some of your lordship's philosophical labours, if your lordship *Spencer, Lord Compton, only son of William, Earl of Northampton. This nobleman, who succeeded his father in his title and his estate, in June, 1630, was killed at Hampton Heath, near Stafford, on Sunday, March 19, 1642-3, fighting for King Charles I. by the hands of the master of the rolls,* sealed as it is with my Lord of Suffolk's seal, and the master's of the rolls; but neither I, nor the master of the rolls know what is in it; but it cometh first to his majesty's sight. Only I did direct, that because the authentic copy (unto which my lord is sworn, according to the course of the court) is not so fit for his majesty's reading, my Lord of Suffolk should send withal a paper copy, which his majesty might read with less trouble. could so think fit. I do now receive a letter from | ber; I received it this evening at six of the clock, the Conde de Gondomar, who, thinking that it should find me in England, saith thus: Beso las manes mil vezes a mi sennor, el sennor Gran Chancilor, con my coracon; como estoy en su buena gracia. The empress is dead long since, and the emperor is so sickly, or rather so sick, that they forbear to bury her with solemnity, as conceiving, that he will save charge by dying shortly. They say here, that the business of Bohemia is growing towards an end by composition. Brussels, this 14th of February, 1619. TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM. MY VERY GOOD Lord, For the services committed to Sir Lionel Cranfield, after his majesty hath spoken with him, I shall attend and follow his majesty's pleasure and directions, and yield my best care, advice, and endeavour for performance. In the pretermitted duty I have some profit, and more was to have had, if Queen Anne had lived; wherefore, I shall become an humble suitor to his majesty, that I may become no loser, specially seeing the business had been many a time and oft quite overthrown, if it had not been upheld only, or chiefly by myself; so that whatsoever service hath been since done, is upon my foundation. Mr. Attorney* groweth pretty pert with me of late; and I see well who they are that maintain him. But be they flies, or be they wasps, I neither care for buzzes nor stings, most especially in any thing that concerneth my duty to his majesty, or my love to your lordship. I forgot not in my public charge, the last Star Chamber day, to publish his majesty's honour for his late commission for the relief of the poor, and suppressing vagabonds; as also his gracious intention touching informers, which I perceive was received with much applause. That of projectors I spake not of, because it is not yet ripe, neither doth it concern the execution of any law, for which my speech was proper. God ever preserve and prosper you. Your lordship's most obliged February 17, 1619. TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM. MY VERY GOOD Lord, I send by post this sealed packet, containing my Lord of Suffolk's answer in the Star Cham * Sir Henry Yelverton My Lady Suffolk is so ill of the small-pox, as she is not yet fit to make any answer. Bingley's answer is come in, a long one; and, as I perceive, with some things impertinent, yea, and unfit. Of that I confer with Mr. Solicitort to-morrow; and then I will farther advertise your lordship. God ever preserve and prosper you. Your lordship's most obliged friend and faithful servant, York House, this 23d of Febr. 1619, TO THE LORD CHANCELLOR. MOST HONOURABLE LORD, I do even now receive this letter from the Conde de Gondomar, with direction I should send it (since I am not there to deliver it) to Mr. Wyche, that so he may present it to your lordship's hand at such time, as it may be of most use to him. He commands me, besides, that for his sake I should become an humble solicitor to your lordship for this friend of his; which I presume to do the more willingly, because this party is a great friend of mine, and so are also many of his friends my friends. Besides, he wills me to represent his great thanks to your lordship, for the just favours you have been pleased to vouchsafe to Mr. Wyche already, the rather in contemplation of the Conde, as he hath been informed. And if in the company, or rather in the attendance of so great an intercessor, it be not an unpardonable kind of ill manners to intrude myself, I presume to cast myself at your lordship's feet, with protestation that I shall be very particularly bound to your lordship's goodness for any favour, with justice, that he shall obtain. I beseech Jesus keep your lordship ever entirely happy; and so, doing all humble reverence, I take leave. Your lordship's most humble Brussels, this 26th of February, 1619. *Sir Julius Cæsar. + Sir John Bingley's. Sir Thomas Coventry. TO THE LORD CHANCELLOR.* MY HONOURABLE LORD, Understanding that there hath been a long and tedious suit depending in the Chancery between Robert D'Oyley and his wife, plaintiffs, and Leonard Lovace, defendant; which cause hath been heretofore ended by award, but is now revived again, and was, in Michaelmas term last, fully heard before your lordship; at which hearing your lordship did not give your opinion thereof, but were pleased to defer it until breviats were delivered on both sides; which, as I am informed, hath been done accordingly: now my desire unto your lordship is, that you will be pleased to take some time, as speedily as your lordship may, to give your opinion thereof, and so make a final end, as your lordship shall find the same in equity to deserve: for which I will ever rest Your lordship's faithful friend and servant, G. BUCKINGHAM. Windsor, 18th of May, 1620. TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM. MY VERY GOOD LORD, I went to Kew for pleasure, but I met with pain. But neither pleasure nor pain can withdraw my mind from thinking of his majesty's service. And because his majesty shall see how I was occupied at Kew, I send him these papers of rules for the Star Chamber, wherein his majesty shall erect one of the noblest and durablest pillars for the justice of this kingdom in perpetuity, that can be, after, by his own wisdom and the advice of his lords, he shall have revised them and established them. The manner and circumstances I refer to my attending his majesty. The rules are not all set down; but I will do the rest within two or three days. I ever remain Your lordship's most obliged friend and faithful servant, FR. VERULAM, Canc. Amongst the counsels which, since the time I had the honour to be first of your learned, and after of your privy council, I have given your majesty faithfully according to my small ability; I do take comfort in none more, than that I was the first that advised you to come in person into the Star Chamber; knowing very well, that those virtues of your majesty which I saw near hand, would out of that throne, both, as out of a sphere, illustrate your own honour, and, as out of a fountain, water and refresh your whole land. And because your majesty, in that you have already done, hath so well effected that which I foresaw and desired, even beyond my expectation; it is no marvel if I resort still to the branches of that counsel that hath borne so good fruit. *Harl. MSS. vol. 7000. This letter appears to have been written after the proceedings against Sir Thomas Lake, and his lady and daughter, in the Star Chamber, in January, 1619-20, and before the resolution of calling the Parliament, which met January 30, 1620-1. The Star Chamber, in the institutions thereof,! hath two uses; the one as a supreme court of judicature, the other as an open council. In the first kind, your majesty hath sat there now twice: the first time, in a cause of force, concerning the duels; the second time, in a cause of fraud, concerning the forgeries and conspiracies against the Lady of Exeter; which two natures of crimes, force and fraud, are the proper objects of that court. In the second kind, your majesty came the first time of all, when you did set in frame and fabric the several jurisdictions of your courts. There wants a fourth part of the square to make all complete, which is, if your majesty will be pleased to publish certain commonwealth commissions; which, as your majesty hath,well | begun to do in some things, and to speak of in some others; so, if your majesty will be pleased to make a solemn declaration of them in that place, this will follow: First, that your majesty shall do yourself an infinite honour, and win the hearts of your people to acknowledge you, as well the most politic king, as the most just. Secondly, it will oblige your commissioners to a more strict account, when they shall be engaged by such a public charge and commandment. And, thirdly, it will invite and direct any man that finds himself to know any thing concerning those commissions, to bring in their informations. So as I am persuaded it will eternize your name and merit, and that King James's commissions will be spoken of, and put in ure, as long as Britain lasts; at the least, in the reign of all good kings. For the particulars, besides the two commissions of the navy, and the buildings about London, (wherein your majesty may consider, whether you will have any thing altered or supplied,) I wish these following to be added. Commission for advancing the clothing of England, as well the old drapery as the new, and all the incidents thereunto. Commission for staying treasure within the realm, and the reiglement of moneys. Commission for the provision of the realm with corn and grain, and the government of the exportation and importation thereof; and directing of public granaries, if cause be. Commission for introducing and nourishing manufactures within the realm, for setting people awork, and the considering of all grants and privileges of that nature. Commission to prevent the depopulation of towns and houses of husbandry, and for nuisances and highways. Commission for the recovery of drowned Commission for the better proceedings in the plantations of Ireland. Commission for the provision of the realm with all kinds of warlike defence, ordnance. powder, munition, and armour. Of these you may take and leave, as it shall please you: and I wish the articles concerning every one of them (first allowed by your council) to be read openly, and the commissioners' names. For the good that comes of particular and select committees and commissions, I need not commonplace, for your majesty hath found the good of them; but nothing to that that will be, when such things are published; because it will vindicate them from neglect, and make many good spirits, that we little think of, co-operate in them. I know very well that the world, that commonly is apt to think, that the care of the commonwealth is but a pretext in matters of state, will perhaps conceive, that this is but a preparative to a Parliament. But let not that hinder your majesty's magnanimity, in opere operato, that is so good; and, besides, that opinion, for many respects, will do no hurt to your affairs. TO THE LORD CHANCELLOR.* My VERY GOOD LORD, By his majesty's directions, Sir Francis Blundell will deliver you a petition of Sir Francis Annesly, his majesty's secretary of Ireland, with his majesty's pleasure thereupon. To the gentleman I wish very well, and do therefore recommend him and his cause to your lordship's good favour; and your respect of him, in his absence, I will thankfully acknowledge. So I take my leave. a Your lordship's very loving friend, Theobalds, the 2d of October, 1620. TO THE KING. IT MAY PLEASE YOUR MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY, It being a thing to speak or write, especially to a king, in public, another in private, although I have dedicated a work,† or rather a portion of work, which, at last, I have overcome to your majesty by a public epistle, where I speak to you in the hearing of others; yet I thought fit also humbly to seek access for the same, not so much to your person as to your judgment, by these private lines. The work, in what colours soever it may be set forth, is no more but a new logic, teaching to invent and judge by induction, as finding syllogism |