he had found out the French statue, which was filz aisné, whereas the Latin was primogenitus; and so the prince is duke of Cornwall in French, and not duke of Cornwall in Latin. And another was, that he had set Montagu to be chief justice in Henry VIII's time, when it should have been in Edward VI's, and such other stuff; not falling upon any of those things, which he could not but know were offensive. That hereupon his majesty thought good to refresh his memory, and out of many cases, which his majesty caused to be collated, to require his answer to five, being all such, as were but expatiations of his own, and no judgments; whereunto he returned such an answer, as did either justify himself, or elude the matter, so as his majesty seeth plainly antiquum obtinet. TO SIR FRANCIS BACON, ATTORNEY-GENERAL (a.) SIR, I HAVE kept your man here thus long, because I thought there would have been some occasion for me to write after Mr. Solicitor-General's being with the king. But he hath received so full instruction from his majesty, that there is nothing left for me to add in the business. And so I rest Your faithful servant, Royston, the 13th of Octob. 1616. GEORGE VILLIERS. To the right honourable Sir Francis Bacon, knight, one of his majesty's privy council, and his attorneygeneral. SIR EDMUND BACON (a) TO SIR FRANCIS BACON, My Lord, ATTORNEY-GENERAL. I AM bold to present unto your hands by this bearer, whom the law calls up, some salt of wormwood, being uncertain, whether the regard of your health makes you still continue the use of that medicine. I could wish it otherwise; for I am persuaded, that all diuretics, which carry with them that punctuous nature and caustic quality by calcination, are hurtful to the kidnies, if not enemies to the other principal parts of the body. Wherein if it shall please you, for your better satisfaction, to call the advice of your learned physicians, and that they shall resolve of any medicine for your health, wherein my poor labour may avail you, you know where your faithful apothecary dwells, who will be ready at your commandment; as I am bound both by your favours to myself, as also by those to my nephew, whom you have brought out of darkness into light, and, by what I hear, have already made him, by your bounty, a subject of emulation to his elder brother. We are all partakers of this your kindness towards him; and for myself, I shall be ever ready to deserve it by any service that shall lie in the power of Redgrave, this 19th of Your Lordship's poor nephew, EDM. BACON. For the right honourable Sir Francis Bacon, knight, his majesty's attorney-general, and one of his most honourable privy counsellors, be these delivered at London. (a) Nephew of Sir Francis Bacon, being eldest son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, lord keeper of the great seal. Sir Edmund died without issue, April 10, 1649. There are several letters to him from Sir Henry Wotton, printed among the works of the latter. TO THE KING. May it please your excellent Majesty, I SEND your majesty a form of discharge for my lord Coke from his place of chief justice of your bench. (a) I send also a warrant to the lord chancellor, for making forth a writ for a new chief justice, leaving a blank for the name to be supplied by your majesty's presence; for I never received your majesty's express pleasure in it. If your majesty resolve of Montagu (b) as I conceive and wish, it is very material, as these times are, that your majesty have some care, that the recorder succeeding be a temperate and discreet man, and assured to your majesty's service. If your majesty, without too much harshness, can continue the place within your own servants, it is best: if not, the man, upon whom the choice is like to fall, which is Coventry, (c) I hold doubtful for your service; not but that he is a well learned, and an honest man; but he hath been, as it were, bred by lord Coke, and seasoned in his ways. God preserve your majesty. Your Majesty's most humble and bounden servant, FR. BACON. I send not these things, which concern my lord Coke, by my lord Villiers, for such reasons as your majesty may conceive. November 13, at noon [1616.] (a) Sir Edward Coke was removed from that post on the 15th of November, 1616. (b) Sir Henry Montagu, recorder of London, who was made lord chief justice of the King's Bench, November 16, 1616. He was afterward made lord treasurer, and created earl of Manchester. (c) Thomas Coventry, esq; afterward lord keeper of the great seal, TO THE KING. It may please your most excellent Majesty, I SEND your majesty, according to your commandment, the warrant for the review of Sir Edward Coke's Reports. I had prepared it before I received your majesty's pleasure: but I was glad to see it was in your mind, as well as in my hands. In the nomination, which your majesty made of the judges, to whom it should be directed, your majesty could not name the lord chief justice, that now is, (a) because he was not then declared: but you could not leave him out now, without discountenance. I send your majesty the state of lord Darcy's cause (b) in the star-chamber, set down by Mr. Solicitor, (c) and mentioned in the letters, which your majesty received from the lords. I leave all in humbleness to your majesty's royal judgment: but this is (a) Sir Henry Montagu. (b) This is just mentioned in a letter of Sir Francis Bacon to the lord viscount Villiers, printed in his works; but is more particularly stated in the Reports of Sir Henry Hobart, lord chief justice of the Common Pleas, p. 120, 121. Edit. London, 1658, fol. as follows. The lord Darcy of the North sued Gervase Markham, esq. in the Star-Chamber, in 1616, on this occasion. They had hunted together, and the defendant and a servant of the plaintiff, one Beckwith, fell together by the ears in the field; and Beckwith threw him down, and was upon him cuffing him, when the lord Darcy took his servant off, and reproved him. However, Mr. Markham expressing some anger against his lordship, and charging him with maintaining his man, lord Darcy answered, that he had used Mr. Markham kindly; for if he had not rescued him from his man, the latter would have beaten him to rags. Mr. Markham, upon this, wrote five or six letters to lord Darcy, subscribing them with his name; but did not send them, and only dispersed them unsealed in the fields; the purport of them being this: that whereas the lord Darcy had said, that, but for him, his servant Beckwith had beaten him to rags, he lied; and as often as he should speak it, he lied; and that he would maintain this with his life: adding, that he had dispersed those letters, that his lordship might find them, or somebody else bring them to him; and that if his lordship were desirous to speak with him, he might send his boy, who should be well used. For this offence, Mr. Markham was censured, and fined 5001. by the Star-Chamber. (c) Sir Henry Yelverton. true, that it was the clear opinion of my lord chancellor, that myself, and the two chief justices, and others, that it is a cause most fit for the censure of the court, both for the repressing of duels, and the encouragement of complaints in courts of justice. If your majesty be pleased it shall go on, there resteth but Wednesday for the hearing; for the last day of term is commonly left for orders, though sometimes, upon extraordinary occasions, it hath been set down for the hearing of some great cause. I send your majesty also baron Bromley's (d) report, which your majesty required; whereby your majesty may perceive things go not so well in Cumberland, which is the seat of the party your majesty named to me, as was conceived. And yet if there were land-winds, as there be sea-winds, to bind men in, I could wish he were a little wind-bound, to keep him in the south. But while your majesty passeth the accounts of judges in circuits, your majesty will give me leave to think of the judges here in their upper region. And because Tacitus saith well, opportuni magnus conatibus transitus rerum; now upon this change, when he, that letteth, is gone, I shall endeavour, to the best of my power and skill, that there may be a consent and united mind in your judges to serve you, and strengthen your business. For I am persuaded there cannot be a sacrifice, from which there may come up to you a sweeter odour of rest, than this effect, whereof I speak. For this wretched murderer, Bertram, (e) now gone to his place, I have, perceiving your majesty's good liking of what I propounded, taken order, that there (d) Edward Bromley, made one of the barons of the exchequer, February 6, 1698. (e) John Bertram, a grave man, above seventy years of age, and of a clear reputation, according to Camden, Annales Regis Jacobi I. p. 21. He killed with a pistol, in Lincoln's Inn, on the 12th of November, 1616, Sir John Tyndal, a master in Chancery, for having made a report against him in a cause, wherein the sum contended for did not exceed 2001. He hanged himself in prison on the 17th of that month. |