lordship in your wisdom shall think fit. So commending him to your honourable favour, I rest Your Lordship's faithful friend and servant, Royston, 27th of October, 1619. G. BUCKINGHAM. Your lordship shall do well to be informed of every particular, because his majesty will have account of it at his coming. TO THE LORD CHANCELLOR. (a) My honourable Lord, I HAVE acquainted his majesty with your letter, who commanded me to give your lordship thanks for your speed in advertising those things that pass, and for the great care he seeth you ever have of his service. I send your lordship back the bill of sheriffs for Sussex, wherein his majesty hath pricked the first, as your lordship wished. His majesty would not have you omit this opportunity of so gross an oversight in the judges, to admonish them of their negligence in suffering such a thing to come to his majesty, which needed his amending afterward and withal, to let them know, that his majesty observeth, that every year they grow more and more careless of presenting fit men unto him for that place; and that you advise them to be more wary hereafter, that they may give his majesty better satisfaction. And so I rest Your Lordship's faithful friend and servant, Royston, November 14, 1619. G. BUCKINGHAM. (a) Harl. MSS. Vol. 7006. TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM. My very good Lord, THIS day afternoon, upon our meeting in council, we have planed those rubs and knots, which were mentioned in my last, whereof I thought good presently to advertise his majesty. The days hold without all question, and all delays diverted and quieted. Sir Edward Coke was at Friday's hearing, but in his night-cap; and complained to me, he was ambulant, and not current. I would be sorry he should fail us in this cause. Therefore I desired his majesty to signify to him by your lordship, taking knowledge of some light indisposition of his, how much he should think his service disadvantaged in this cause, if he should be at any day away; for then he cannot sentence. By my next I will give his majesty some account of the tobacco and the currants. I ever rest Your Lordship's most obliged friend and faithful servant, November 20, at evening, 1619. FR. VERULAM, Canc. TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM. My very good Lord, I KNOW Well his majesty taketh to heart this business of the Dutch, (a) as he hath great reason, in respect both of honour and profit. And because my first letter was written in the epitasis, or trouble of the business; and my second in the beginning of the catastrophe, or calming thereof, wherein nevertheless I was fain to bear up strongly into the weather before the calm followed; and since every day hath been (a) Merchants, accused in the Star Chamber for exporting the gold and silver coin. better and better, I thought good to signify so much, that his majesty may be less in suspense. The great labour was to get entrance into the business; but now the portcullis is drawn up. And though, I must say, there were some blots in the tables, yet, by well playing, the game is good. Rowland is passing well justified; for both his credit is, by very constant and weighty testimony, proved; and those vast quantities, which were thought incredible, or at least improbable, are now made manifest truth. Yet I find a little of the old leaven towards the first defendants, carried in this stile and character: "I "would this, that appears now, had appeared at first. "But this cometh of haste and precipitation;" and the like. But yet, I hope, the corruption and practice upon the ore tenus, and the rectifying of Rowland's credit, will satisfy my lords upon the former proofs. For I would be very sorry, that these new defendants, which, except one or two, are the smaller flies, should be in the net; and the old defendants, which are the greater flies, should get through. God preserve you. Your Lordship's most obliged friend I DO, from time to time, acquaint his majesty with your letters, wherein he ever perceiveth your vigilant care in any thing that concerneth his service; and hath commanded me to give you thanks in his name, who is sure your endeavours will never be wanting, (a) Harl. MSS. Vol. 7006. when any thing is to be done for the advancement of his affairs. According to your lordship's advice, his majesty hath written to the commissioners of the treasury, both touching the currants and the tobacco, (a) the plantation whereof his majesty is fully resolved to restrain; and hath given them order forthwith to set out a proclamation to that effect; not intending in that point to stand upon any doubt of law, nor to expect the judges' interpretation; nor to allow any freehold in that case; but holding this the safest rule, Salus reipublicæ suprema lex esto. And so I rest Your Lordship's faithful friend and servant, Newmarket, Nov. 27, 1619. G. BUCKINGHAM. TO THE LORD CHANCELLOR. (b) My honourable Lord, I HAVE presented both the submissions to his majesty. His answer is, he cannot alter that, which was allowed of by the lords of the last Star-Chamber day, except first they be acquainted with it, and the consent of the lady Exeter be likewise had; because the decree doth necessarily require it. So I rest Your Lordship's humble servant, Indorsed, G. BUCKINGHAM. Touching the submissions of Sir Thomas Lake and his lady. (a) Lord Bacon, in his letter of November 22, 1619, mentions, that there was offered 2000l. increase yearly for the tobacco, to begin at Michaelmas, as it now is, and 30007. increase, if the plantations here within land be restrained. (b) Harl. MSS. Vol. 7006. TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM. My very good Lord, I ACQUAINTED this day the bearer with his majesty's pleasure touching Lake's (a) submission; which, whether it should be done in person, or in writing, his majesty signified his will thus, that it should be spared in open court, if my lady of Exeter should consent, and the board think fit. The board liked it well, and appointed my lord Digby and secretary Calvert to speak with my lady; who returned her answer in substance, that she would, in this and all things, be commanded by his majesty: but if his majesty left it to her liberty and election, she humbly prayed to be excused. And though it was told her, that this answer would be cause, that it could not be performed this term; yet she seemed willing rather it should be delayed, than dispensed with. This day also Traske, (b) in open court, made a retractation of his wicked opinions in writing. The form was as good as may be. I declared to him, (a) Sir Thomas Lake's. (b) John Traske, a minister, who was prosecuted in the StarChamber for maintaining, as we find mentioned in the Reports of the lord chief justice Hobart, p. 236, that the Jewish Sabbath ought to be observed, and not ours; and that we ought to abstain from all manner of swine's flesh, and those meats which the Jews were forbidden in Leviticus, according to bishop Andrews, in his speech, in the Star-Chamber, on that occasion, printed among his lordship's works. Mr. Traske being examined in that court, confessed, that he had divulged those opinions, and had laboured to bring as many to them as he could; and had also written a letter to the king, wherein he seemed to tax his majesty with hypocrisy, and expressly inveighed against the bishops, high commissioners, as bloody and cruel in their proceedings against him, and a papal clergy. He was sentenced to fine and imprisonment, not for holding those opinions, for those were examinable in the Ecclesiastical court, and not there; but for making of conventicles and commotions, and for scandalizing the king, the bishops, and clergy. Dr. Fuller, in his Church History of Britain, Book X. p. 77, § 64, mentions his having heard Mr. Traske preach, and remarks, that his voice had more strength than any thing else he delivered; and that after his recantation he relapsed, not into the same, but other opinions, rather humorous than hurtful; and died obscurely, at Lambeth, in the reign of king Charles I. |