Moreover, And Certain It Is, He Not Only Crushed, And Upon All
Occasions Quelled The Youth Of This Great Man
And his famous
brethren, but therewith drew on his own fatal end, by undertaking
the Irish action in a time
When he left the Court empty of friends,
and full-fraught with his professed enemies. But I forbear to
extend myself in any further relation upon this subject, as having
lost some notes of truth in these two nobles, which I would present;
and therewith touched somewhat, which I would not, if the equity of
the narration would have permitted any omission.
PERROT.
Sir John Perrot was a goodly gentleman, and of the sword; and he was
of a very ancient descent, as an heir to many subtracts of gentry,
especially from Guy de Brain of Lawhorn; so was he of a very vast
estate, and came not to Court for want and to these advancements.
He had the endowments of carriage and height of spirit, had he
alighted on the alloy and temper of discretion; the defect whereof,
with a native freedom and boldness of speech, drew him on to a
clouded sitting, and laid him open to the spleen and advantage of
his enemies, of whom Sir Christopher Hatton was professed. He was
yet a wise man and a brave courtier, but rough and participating
more of active than sedentary motions, as being in his instillation
destined for arms. There is a query of some denotations, how he
came to receive the foil, and that in the catastrophe? for he was
strengthened with honourable alliances and the prime friendship in
Court of my Lords of Leicester and Burleigh, both his contemporaries
and familiars; but that there might be (as the adage hath it)
falsity in friendship: and we may rest satisfied that there is no
dispute against fate, and they quit him for a person that loved to
stand too much alone on his legs, of too often regress and
discontinuance from the Queen's presence, a fault which is
incompatible with the ways of Court and favour. He was sent Lord-
Deputy into Ireland, as it was then apprehended, for a kind of
haughtiness and repugnancy in Council; or, as others have thought,
the fittest person then to bridle the insolences of the Irish; and
probable it is that both, considering the sway that he would have at
the Board, being head in the Queen's favour, concurred, and did
alike conspire his remove and ruin. But into Ireland he went, where
he did the Queen very great and many services, if the surplusage of
the measure did not abate the value of the merit, as after-time
found to be no paradox to save the Queen's purse, but both herself
and my Lord Treasurer Burleigh ever took for good service; he
imposed on the Irish the charge for bearing their own arms, which
both gave them the possession and taught them the use of weapons;
which provided in the end to a most fatal work, both in the
profusion of blood and treasure.
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