Characters from the Histories & Memoirs of the Seventeenth Century Part 20

He was a Prince that seemed made for greater things, than will be found in the course of his Life, more particularly of his Reign: He was esteemed in the former parts of his Life, a Man of great Courage, as he was quite thro' it a man of great application to business: He had no vivacity of thought, invention or expression: But he had a good judgment, where his Religion or his Education gave him not a bia.s.s, which it did very often: He was bred with strange Notions of the Obedience due to Princes, and came to take up as strange ones, of the Submission due to Priests: He was naturally a man of truth, fidelity, and justice: But his Religion was so infused in him, and he was so managed in it by his Priests, that the Principles which Nature had laid in him, had little power over him, when the concerns of his Church stood in the way: He was a gentle Master, and was very easy to all who came near him: yet he was not so apt to pardon, as one ought to be, that is the Vicegerent of that G.o.d, who is slow to anger, and ready to forgive: He had no personal Vices but of one sort: He was still wandring from one Amour to another, yet he had a real sense of Sin, and was ashamed of it: But Priests know how to engage Princes more entirely into their interests, by making them compound for their Sins, by a great zeal for Holy Church, as they call it. In a word, if it had not been for his Popery, he would have been, if not a great yet a good Prince. By what I once knew of him, and by what I saw him afterwards carried to, I grew more confirmed in the very bad opinion, which I was always apt to have, of the Intrigues of the Popish Clergy, and of the Confessors of Kings: He was undone by them, and was their Martyr, so that they ought to bear the chief load of all the errors of his inglorious Reign, and of its fatal Catastrophe. He had the Funeral which he himself had desired, private, and without any sort of Ceremony.

NOTES

1.

The History of Great Britain, Being the Life and Reign of King James The First, Relating To what pa.s.sed from his first Accesse to the Crown, till his Death. By Arthur Wilson, Esq. London, 1653. (pp.

289-90.)

Arthur Wilson (1595-1652) was a gentleman-in-waiting to Robert Devereux, third Earl of Ess.e.x, during James's reign, and was afterwards in the service of Robert Rich, second Earl of Ess.e.x. The _History_ was written towards the end of his life, and published the year after his death. He was the author also of an autobiography, _Observations of G.o.d's Providence in the Tract of my Life_ (first printed in Francis Peck's _Desiderata Curiosa_, 1735, Lib. XII, pp.

6-34), and of three plays, _The Swisser_ (performed at Blackfriars, 1633, first printed in 1904, ed. Albert Feuillerat, from the MS.

in the British Museum), _The Corporall_ (performed, 1633, but not extant), and _The Inconstant Lady_ (first printed in 1814, ed. Philip Bliss, from the MS. in the Bodleian Library). The three plays were entered in the Registers of the Stationers' Company, September 4, 1646, and September 9, 1653. But nothing he wrote appears to have been published during his life.

Page 2, l. 24. _Peace begot Plenty_. An adaptation of the wellknown saying which Puttenham in his _Arte of English Poesie_ (ed. Arber, p.

217) attributes to Jean de Meung. Puttenham gives it thus:

Peace makes plentie, plentie makes pride, Pride breeds quarrell, and quarrell brings warre: Warre brings spoile, and spoile pouertie, Pouertie pacience, and pacience peace: So peace brings warre, and warre brings peace.

It is found also in Italian and Latin. Allusions to it are frequent in the seventeenth century. Compare the beginning of Swift's _Battle of the Books_, and see the correspondence in _The Times Literary Supplement_, February 17-March 30, 1916.

2.

The Court and Character of King James. Written and taken by Sir A.W. being an eye, and eare witnesse. Qui nescit dissimulare, nescit regnare. Published by Authority. London, MDCL.

'The Character of King James' forms a section by itself at the conclusion of the volume, pp. 177-89. The volume was reprinted in the following year, when there were added to it 'The Court of King Charles' and 'Observations (instead of a Character) upon this King, from his Childe-hood'. Both editions are carelessly printed. The second, which corrects some of the errors of the first but introduces others, has been used for the present text.

Weldon was clerk of the kitchen to James I and afterwards clerk of the Green Cloth. He was knighted in 1617, and accompanied James to Scotland in that year, but was dismissed from his place at court for his satire on the Scots. He took the side of the parliament in the Civil War. The dedication to Lady Elizabeth Sidley (first printed in the second edition) states that the work 'treads too near the heeles of truth, and these Times, to appear in publick'. According to Anthony a Wood she had suppressed the ma.n.u.script, which was stolen from her. Weldon had died before it was printed. The answer to it called _Aulicus Coquinariae_ describes it as 'Pretended to be penned by Sir A.W. and published since his death, 1650'.

Other works of the same kind, though of inferior value, are Sir Edward Peyton's _The Divine Catastrophe of The Kingly Family Of the House of Stuarts_, 1652, and Francis...o...b..rne's _Traditionall Memoyres on The Raigne of King James_, 1658. They were printed together by Sir Walter Scott in 1811 under the t.i.tle _The Secret History of the Court of James the First_, a collection which contains the historical material employed in _The Fortunes of Nigel_.

Though carelessly written, and as carelessly printed, Weldon's character of James is in parts remarkably vivid. It was reprinted by itself in Morgan's _Pboenix Britannicus_, 1732, pp. 54-6; and it was incorporated in the edition of Defoe's _Memoirs of a Cavalier_ published in 1792: see _The Retrospective Review_, 1821, vol. iii, pt.

ii, pp. 378-9.

There is a valuable article on Weldon's book as a whole in _The Retrospective Review_, 1823, vol. vii, pt. I.

PAGE 4, l. 6. _before he was born_, probably an allusion to the murder of Rizzio in Mary's presence.

l. 11. The syntax is faulty: delete 'and'?

On James's capacity for strong drinks, compare Roger c.o.ke's _Detection of the Court and State of England_ (1694), ed. 1719, vol. i, p. 78.

l. 27. _that foul poysoning busines_, the poisoning of Sir Thomas Overbury, the great scandal of the reign. Robert Ker, or Carr, created Viscount Rochester 1611 and Earl of Somerset 1613, had cast his eye on the Countess of Ess.e.x, and, after a decree of nullity of marriage with Ess.e.x had been procured, married her in December 1613. Overbury, who had been Somerset's friend, opposed the projected marriage. On a trumped up charge of disobedience to the king he was in April 1613 committed to the Tower, where he was slowly poisoned, and died in September. Somerset and the Countess were both found guilty in 1616, but ultimately pardoned; four of the accomplices were hanged. Weldon deals with the scandal at some length in the main part of his work, pp. 61 ff.

l. 30. _Mountgomery_, Philip Herbert, created Earl of Montgomery 1605, succeeded his brother, William Herbert, as fourth Earl of Pembroke in 1630 (see No. 7). To this 'most n.o.ble and incomparable paire of brethren' Heminge and Condell dedicated the First Folio of Shakespeare's plays, 1623. Montgomery's character is given by Clarendon, _History_, ed. Macray, vol. i, pp. 74-5; and, as fourth Earl of Pembroke, vol. ii, pp. 539-41.

Page 5, l. 22. _unfortunate in the marriage of his Daughter_. James's daughter Elizabeth married the Elector Palatine, Frederick V, in 1613.

His election as King of Bohemia led to the Thirty Years' War (1618-48) in which James long hesitated to become involved and played at best an ineffectual part. The opinion here expressed is explained by an earlier pa.s.sage in Weldon's book, pp. 82-4: 'In this Favourites (Somerset's) flourishing time, came over the _Palsgrave_ to marry our Kings daughter, which for the present, gave much content, and with the generall applause, yet it proved a most infortunate match to him and his Posterity, and all Christendome, for all his Alliance with so many great Princes, which put on him aspiring thoughts, and was so ambitious as not to content himselfe with his hereditary patrimony of one of the greatest Princes in _Germany_; but must aspire to a Kingdome, beleeving that his great allyance would carry him through any enterprise, or bring him off with honour, in both which he failed; being cast out of his own Country with shame, and he and his, ever after, living upon the devotion of other Princes; but had his Father in Law spent halfe the mony in Swords he did in words, for which he was but scorned, it had kept him in his own inheritance, and saved much Christian bloud since shed; but whiles he, being wholly addicted to peace, spent much treasure, in sending stately Emba.s.sadours to treat, his Enemies (which he esteemed friends) sent Armies with a lesse charge to conquer, so that it may be concluded, that this then thought the most happy match in Christendome, was the greatest unhappinesse to Christendome, themselves, and posterity.'

l. 27. _Sir Robert Mansell_ (1573-1656), Vice-Admiral of England under Charles I. Clarendon, writing of the year 1642, says that 'his courage and integrity were unquestionable' (ed. Macray, vol. ii, p. 219).

'Argiers' or 'Argier' was the common old form of 'Algiers': cf. _The Tempest_, I. ii. 261, 265.

Page 6, l. 2. _Cottington_, Francis Cottington (1578-1652), baronet 1623, Baron Cottington, 1631. He was Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1629 to 1642.

Page 7, l. 5. The first edition reads 'In sending Emba.s.sadours, which were'. The printer's subst.i.tution of 'His' for 'In' and omission of 'which' do not wholly mend the syntax.

l. 10. _peace with honour_. An early instance of the phrase made famous by Lord Beaconsfield in his speech of July 16, 1878, after the Congress of Berlin, 'Lord Salisbury and myself have brought you back peace, but a peace I hope with honour.' Cf. _Notes and Queries_, 1887, Seventh Series, vol. iii, p. 96.

l. 14. _Nullum tempus, &c._, the law maxim _Nullum tempus occurrit regi_, lapse of time does not bar the crown. The Parliament which met in February 1624 pa.s.sed 'An Act for the generall quiett of the Subject agaynst all pretences of Concealement' (21 Jac. I, c. 2) which declared sixty years' possession of Lands, &c., to be a good t.i.tle against the Crown.

l. 18. _his Tuesday Sermons_, likewise explained by an earlier pa.s.sage in Weldon's book, pp. 8, 9: 'the chiefe of those secrets, was that of _Gowries_ Conspiracy, though that Nation [the Scots] gave little credit to the Story, but would speak sleightly and despitefully of it, and those of the wisest of that Nation; yet there was a weekly commemoration by the Tuesday Sermon, and an anniversary Feast, as great as it was possible, for the Kings preservation, ever on the fifth of August.' James attempted to force the Tuesday sermon on the University of Oxford; it was to be preached by members of each college in rotation. See Brodrick's _Memorials of Merton College_, 1885, p.

70.

Page 8, l. 1. _a very wise man_. Compare _The Fortunes of Nigel_, chap. v: 'the character bestowed upon him by Sully--that he was the wisest fool in Christendom'. Two volumes of the _Memoires_ of Maximilien de Bethune, Duc de Sully (1560-1641), appeared in 1638; the others after 1650. There is much about James in the second volume, but this description of him does not appear to be there.

ll. 10-12. _two Treasurers_, see p. 21, ll. 15-22: _three Secretaries_, Sir Thomas Lake; Sir Robert Naunton; Sir George Calvert, Baron Baltimore; Sir Edward Conway, Viscount Conway: _two Lord Keepers_, Sir Francis Bacon; John Williams, Bishop of Lincoln (see p. 18, l. 5): _two Admiralls_, Charles Howard of Effingham, Earl of Nottingham; the Duke of Buckingham: _three Lord chief Justices_, Sir Edward c.o.ke; Henry Montagu, Earl of Manchester; James Ley, Earl of Marlborough.

Weldon's statement is true of the year 1623; he might have said '_three_ Treasurers' and '_four_ Secretaries'.

3.

Clarendon, MS. Life, pp. 7-9, 18-20; _History_, Bk. I, ed. 1702, vol.

i, pp. 9-11, 26-9; ed. Macray, vol. i, pp. 10-13, 38-43.

This is the first of the portraits in Clarendon's great gallery, and it is drawn with great care. Clarendon was only a youth of twenty when Buckingham was a.s.sa.s.sinated, and he had therefore not the personal knowledge and contact to which the later portraits owe so much of their value. But he had throughout all his life been interested in the remarkable career of this 'very extraordinary person'. Sir Henry Wotton's 'Observations by Way of Parallel' on the Earl of Ess.e.x and Buckingham had suggested to him his first character study, 'The Difference and Disparity' between them. (It is printed after the 'Parallel' in _Reliquiae Wottonianae_, and described in the third edition, 1672, as 'written by the Earl of Clarendon in his younger dayes'.) His two studies offer an interesting comparison. Many of the ideas are the same, but there is a marked difference in the precision of drawing and the ease of style. The character here reprinted was written when Clarendon had mastered his art.

Page 11, l. 5. See p. 4, l. 27.

Page 13, l. 25. The pa.s.sage here omitted deals with Buckingham's unsuccessful journey to Spain with Prince Charles, and with his a.s.sa.s.sination.

Page 16, l. 28. _touched upon before_, ed. Macray, vol. i, p. 38; here omitted.

4.

Clarendon, MS. Life, pp. 27, 28; _History_, Bk. I, ed. 1702, vol. i, pp. 36-8; ed. Macray, vol. i, pp. 56-9.

Page 18, l. 5. _the Bishopp of Lincolne_, John Williams (1582-1650), afterwards Archbishop of York. He succeeded Bacon as Lord Keeper. He is sketched in Wilson's _History of Great Britain_, pp. 196-7, and Fuller's _Church-History of Britain_, 1655, Bk. XI, pp. 225-8. His life by John Hacket, _Scrinia Reserata_, 1693, is notorious for the 'embellishments' of its style; a shorter life, based on Hacket's, was an early work of Ambrose Philips.

l. 22. _the Earle of Portlande_, Sir Richard Weston: see No. 5.

l. 24. _Hambleton_, Clarendon's usual spelling of 'Hamilton'.