1619.] THE KING'S ATTEMPT TO MEDIATE IN GERMANY. 29

of any real privileges, the Emperor might be persuaded to redress the wrong and give them securities against a repetition of it. If the insurrection was really a rebellion against legitimate authority, the insurgents might be persuaded to return to obedience upon receiving redress for the past and security for the future. All that seemed to be wanted was a mediator who was not a party. England was in that position. The Spaniards suggested to James that he should undertake the office. James readily offered his services, and it had been agreed between them before the end of January that he should send an ambassador to Bohemia to treat of this composition; the Spanish ambassador at the Emperor's court giving him what help he could. While the two countries were united in a work like this, it was no time for quarreling. And though the doubts as to the intention of the Spanish naval preparations which followed, and the equipment of a fleet for the Mediterranean, ostensibly to assist Spain in suppressing piracy, which was her pretence,-really to prevent her from attempting less legitimate objects, of which she was suspected, threatened to interrupt the friendly enterprise they were engaged in, yet she drew back in good time; and in March the special ambassador was despatched upon his mission. But by this time the difficulties of the case had been much increased. The Emperor Matthias died, leaving two prizes to be struggled for,-the imperial crown and the crown of Bohemia,-between parties who had too much at stake to have a chance of agreeing except under compulsion, and too imperfect a knowledge of the balance of forces for either of them to give way to the other without a trial of his strength. Ferdinand, the King designate of Bohemia, would not hear of any cessation of hostilities, unless the Bohemians first gave up all the points in dispute. The Bohemians would not so much as listen to any communication from England, unless it brought promises of support in men or money. Under such circumstances mediation could do nothing, and James's ambassador went to Spa to drink the waters. But the Spaniards had affected to be acting in concert with England throughout the transaction, and though it seems that they had really been supporting the Emperor all the time, with money and promises of men, yet they had carefully avoided all actions which would have justified remonstrance. Bacon's "short view," therefore, whatever the occasion may have been for which he drew it up, had to be put by for the present and wait for another turn in the game.

1 Gardiner, vol. i. p. 272.

3.

The rest of the correspondence belonging to this year will be found for the most part intelligible enough; being chiefly occupied with reports of the progress of the two great causes which were in handthe proceedings against the Lord Treasurer for corruption, and against the Dutch mercbants for illegal exportation of gold.

Το THE LORD CHANCellor.'

My honourable Lord,

His Majesty was pleased at the suit of some who have near relation to me to grant a licence for transportation of butter out of Wales unto one Lewis and Williams, who in consideration that the patent should be passed in their names, entered into articles for the performance of certain conditions agreed upon between them, which, now that the patent is under the great seal, they utterly refuse to perform. My desire therefore to your Lordship is, that you would call the said Lewis and Williams before you, with the other parties, or some of them, who shall be ready at all times to attend your Lordship; and out of your consideration of the matter according to equity, to take such course therein, that either this said agreement may be performed, or that they which refuse it may receive no benefit of the patent, which upon reason thereof was passed in their names. And herein I desire your Lordship to make what expedition you can, because now is the season to make provision of the butter that for this year is to be transported, whereof they take advantage to stand out. And so I rest Your Lordship's faithful friend and servant, G. BUCKINGHAM.

Greenwich, 14 May, 1619.

TO MY VERY LOVING FRIENDS SIR THOMAS LEIGH AND SIR
THOMAS PUCKERING, KNIGHTS AND BARONETS.2

After my hearty commendations; being informed by the petition of Mr. Thomas Porten, a poor Yorkshireman, of a heavy accident by fire, whereby his house, his wife, and a child, together with all his goods, were utterly burnt and consumed; which misfortune the petitioner suggests (with much eagerness) was occasioned by the wicked practices and conjurations of one John Clarkson of Knowington in the county of Warwick, and

1 Harl. MSS. 7006, f. 132. Orig. Docketed, "14 May 1619. My Lo. of BuckTM touching the patent of transporting butter out of Wales."

2 Appendix to Mallet's Life of Lord Chancellor Bacon,' 1760, p. 138. "From an original in the Earl of Oxford's Library never before printed."

1619.]

LETTER TO THE KING OF DENMARK.

31

his daughter (persons of a wandering condition); affirming, for instance, that one Mr. Hailes of Warwick did take from the said Clarkson certain books of conjuration and witchcraft: That the truth of the matter may be rightly known, and that Clarkson and his daughter (if there be ground for it) may answer the law according to the merit of so heinous a fact, I have thought good to wish and desire you to send for Clarkson, and his daughter, and as upon due examination you shall find cause, to take orders for their forthcoming, and answering of the matter at the next assize for the county of York; and also to confer with Mr. Hailes, whether he took from the said Clarkson any such book of conjuration, as the petitioner pretends he did, and to see them in safe custody. Whereupon I desire to be certified how you find the matter; and your doing thereupon. So not doubting of your special care and diligence herein, I bid you heartily farewell, and rest.

York House, May 15, 1619.

Your very loving Friend,
FR. VERULAM. Canc.

Bacon was now, by his position in Council and his favour with the King and Buckingham, a man whose good offices Kings who had business to negotiate thought it worth while to bespeak. An ambassador from Christian IV. King of Denmark, who arrived about this time, was charged with a letter for him, and we are indebted to the industry of Mr. Gardiner for procuring a copy of his reply which is preserved in the Royal Archives at Copenhagen. Letters of this kind can rarely be more than exchanges of compliment and courtesy. But I imagine that the general account here given of the state of affairs in England was a true representation, as far as it goes, of the case as Bacon understood it: and however we may regret that so much of his time had to be spent in labours which were ineffectual because he had not power enough to carry out his own policy, he must have been altogether a different man from what he was with a different idea of the sort of duty which a subject and servant owed to a sovereign-if he could have thought of withholding at such a crisis such help as he could render, merely because he was not permitted to be as absolute in Council as we think he might properly have aspired to be.

SERENISSIMO ET POTENTISSIMO REGI AC DOMINO, DOMINO CHRISTIANO QUARTO, DEI GRATIA DANIE, NORVEGIE, ETC. REGI, DOMINO SUO CLEMENTISSIMO.1

SERENISSIME REX,-Accepi literas Majestatis Vestræ per manus prænobilis viri legati vestri Domini Sinclarii, unde maximas et humillimas gratias ago Serenitati Suæ, quod me memoriâ complecti et literis tam benignis compellare et salutare dignata sit. Ego certe (quando et de hoc ipso quærere ex favore suo sibi placuerit) valetudine utor ad præsens ex morbo non levi recreatâ et corroboratâ, maximaque habeo solatia ex gratiâ Regis mei, sed tamen infinitis urgeor et distrahor negotiis, ut vix respirare aut vivere videor, nisi quod officia vitæ sunt mihi vitâ ipsâ longe potiora. Accedit et luctus recens ac vehemens qui subinde recurrit ex obitu serenessimæ Dominæ meæ Reginæ Annæ, ex cujus favore constanti atque uno tenore erga me semper fluente et cumulato solebam inter tantos negotiorum fluctus me refectum et confirmatum sentire. Meum itaque erit memoriam ejus felicissimam perpetuo colere, atque debitum meum, in quo erga eam mirabiliter astrictus eram, in Serenitatem Vestram transferre, ut si qua in re servitio suo vel consiliis apud regem meum, vel operâ usui esse possint2 omnia summa cum alacritate et studio præstent. Rex dominus meus convaluit firmiter et constanter rtubus, atque indicium certissimum nobilibus ac vitalibus sanam esse et intactam, quod ex tam periculoso morbo tam subito et sine aliquâ recidivatione sanitatem recuperaverit. Serenissimus princeps Carolus et annis et animis viget jam virilibus, summamque cum amore expectationem de se quotidie excitat. Serenissima Domina Elizabetha Palatina sobolem dabit (si Deo placuerit) in multos principatus, adeo ut omnia apud nos per gratiam et misericordiam divinam sint in statu bono et florenti, atque ex eâ ipsâ parte ex quâ maxime laborare solebamus (hoc est ex re nummariâ) tantum est perfectum per prudentiam et diligentiam Domini Regis, in erroribus inveteratis corrigendis, ut res suæ inde proculdubio capturæ sint magnum incrementum et stabilimentum. Superest ut humillime exosculer manus Majestatis Vestræ. Deum

1 'Archeologia,' vol. xli. p. 45.

.

corpore . . .

internis

2 Sic. Qu. possim ? 3 Sic. Qu. præstem?

The favourable account here given of the condition of the finances, or rather perhaps of the prospect of a substantial improvement in their condition, was not a diplomatic fiction. A few weeks before, as we learn from the following note preserved among Sir Julius Cæsar's papers, Bacon had had the satisfaction of reporting to the King a balance in his favour upon the year's accounts.

"On Friday, the 21 May, 1619, the L. Chancellor Verulam told the King, in the presence of George Archbishop of Canterbury, Secretary Nanton, Greville Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Cæsar Master of the Rolls, that his resources and expenses were now equalled for the ordinary, and there was 120,000l. now yearly for the extraordinaries; but he prayed it might be taken but as an estimate. Whereupon his Majesty willed us to set it down in writing upon the vouchers' hands in the several places of abatements and increases, for our justification and their charge, if it hold not."

"I have received your Majesty's letters by the hands of your most noble ambassador Lord Sinclair, and return most humble thanks to your serenity for deigning to remember me and to address me in so gracious a letter. For myself (since you are pleased to ask the question) I have newly recovered from a sickness of some severity, and am for the present well. I have also the greatest comfort from the favour of my King: and yet I am so pressed and distracted with infinite businesses that I seem hardly to breathe, or live, only that I regard the duties of life as far more worth than life itself. I have moreover a new and great grief continually recurring for the death of my most serene mistress Queen Anne, from whose constant favour ever flowing and accumulated upon me I was wont to find myself much refreshed and strengthened among such floods of business. Wherefore it will be my part to cherish continually her most happy memory and to transfer to your serenity the debt I owed her, holding myself ready wherever I can be of service to you either by my counsels with the King or by my own help, to render it with all alacrity and zeal. The King my master has made a sound and complete recovery, and there is sure evidence that the condition of the noble and vital inward parts is sound and uninjured, in the restoration of his health from so dangerous an illness so quickly and without relapse. The most serene Prince Charles, now a man both in years and spirits, makes himself daily more and more an object of the greatest expectation and love. The most serene Lady Elizabeth, Princess Palatine, will be the mother, please God, of many princes. So that, by the divine grace and mercy, all things with us are in a good and flourishing condition; and even in that point where we were wont most to labour (I mean the finances) so much has been done by the wisdom and diligence of the King in the correction of inveterate errors, that his affairs will doubtless receive thereby a great improvement and establishment.

It remains for me most humbly to kiss your Majesty's hands" &c.

2 Lansd. MSS. 165. f. 288. b. Note in Sir J. Caesar's hand.

VOL. VII.

D