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GREVILLE.
Sir Foulke Greville, Since Lord Brooke, Had No Mean Place In Her
Favour, Neither Did He Hold It
For any short time, or term; for, if
I be not deceived, he had the longest lease, the smoothest time
Without rubs of any of her favourites; he came to the court in his
youth and prime, as that is the time, or never: he was a brave
gentleman, and hopefully descended from Willoughby, Lord Brooke, and
admiral to Henry the Seventh; neither illiterate, for he was, as he
would often profess, a friend to Sir Philip Sidney, and there are
now extant some fragments of his pen, and of the times, which do
interest him in the muses, and which show in him the Queen's
election had ever a noble conduct, and it motions more of virtue and
judgment than of fancy.
I find that he neither sought for nor obtained any great place or
preferment in court, during all his time of attendance: neither did
he need it, for he came thither backed with a plentiful fortune,
which, as himself was wont to say, was then better held together by
a single life, wherein he lived and died a constant courtier of the
ladies.
ESSEX.
My Lord of Essex, as Sir Henry Walton notes him, a gentleman of
great parts, and partly of his times and retinue, had his
introduction by my Lord of Leicester, who had married his mother; a
tie of affinity which, besides a more urgent obligation, might have
invited his care to advance him, his fortunes being then, through
his father's infelicity, grown low; but that the son of a Lord
Ferrers of Chartly, Viscount Hertford, and Earl of Essex, who was of
the ancient nobility, and formerly in the Queen's good grace, could
not have room in her favour, without the assistance of Leicester,
was beyond the rule of her nature, which, as I have elsewhere taken
into observation, was ever inclinable to favour the nobility: sure
it is, that he no sooner appeared in court, but he took with the
Queen and the courtiers; and, I believe, they all could not choose
but look through the sacrifice of the father on his living son,
whose image, by the remembrance of former passages, was a fresh
leek, the bleeding of men murdered, represented to the court, and
offered up as a subject of compassion to all the kingdom.
There was in this young lord, together with a goodly person, a kind
of urbanity and innate courtesy, which both won the Queen, and too
much took up the people to gaze on the new-adopted son of her
favour; and as I go along, it will not be amiss to take into
observation two notable quotations; the first was a violent
indulgence of the Queen (which is incident to old age, where it
encounters with a pleasing and suitable object) towards this great
lord, which argued a non-perpetuity; the second was a fault in the
object of her grace, my lord himself, who drew in too fast, like a
child sucking on an over uberous nurse; and had there been a more
decent decorum observed in both, or either of these, without doubt,
the unity of their affections had been more permanent, and not so in
and out, as they were, like an instrument well tuned, and lapsing to
discord.
The greater error of the two, though unwilling, I am constrained to
impose on my Lord of Essex, and rather on his youth, and none of the
least of the blame on those that stood sentinels about him, who
might have advised better, but that like men intoxicated with hopes,
they likewise had sucked in with the most of their lord's receipts,
and so, like Caesars, would have all or none; a rule quite contrary
to nature, and the most indulgent parents, who, though they may
express more affection to one in the abundance of bequeaths, yet
cannot forget some legacies, and distributives, and dividends to
others of their begetting; and how hurtful partiality is, and
proves, every day's experience tells us, out of which common
consideration they might have framed to their hands a maxim of more
discretion, for the conduct and management of their new-graved lord
and master.
But to omit that of infusion, and to do right to truth, my Lord of
Essex, even of those that truly loved and honoured him, was noted
for too bold an ingrosser, both of fame and favour; and of this,
without offence to the living, or treading on the sacred grave of
the dead, I shall present the truth of a passage yet in memory.
My Lord of Mountjoy, who was another child of her favour, being
newly come, and then but Sir Charles Blount (for my Lord William,
his elder brother, was then living) had the good fortune to run one
day well at tilt, and the Queen was therewith so well pleased, that
she sent him, in token of her favour, a Queen at chess in gold,
richly enamelled, which his servants had the next day fastened unto
his arm with a crimson ribband; which my Lord of Essex, as he passed
through the Privy Chamber, espying with his cloak cast under his
arm, the better to command it to the view, enquired what it was, and
for what cause there fixed: Sir Foulke Greville told him, it was
the Queen's favour, which the day before, and next after the
tilting, she had sent him; whereat my Lord of Essex, in a kind of
emulation, and as though he would have limited her favour, said "Now
I perceive every fool must have a favour." This bitter and public
affront came to Sir Charles Blount's ear, at which he sent him a
challenge; which was accepted by my lord, and they met near Marybone
Park, where my lord was hurt in the thigh, and disarmed. The Queen,
missing of the men, was very curious to learn the truth, but at last
it was whispered out; she sware by God's death, it was fit that some
one or other should take him down and teach him better manners,
otherwise there would be no rule with him; and here I note the
imminution of my lord's friendship with Mountjoy, which the Queen
herself did then conjure.
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