And So I Conclude Him With This Double Observation:
The
one, of the innocency of his intentions, exempt and clear from the
guilt of treason and disloyalty, therefore
Of the greatness of his
heart; for at his arraignment he was so little dejected with what
might be alleged, that rather he grew troubled with choler, and, in
a kind of exasperation, he despised his jury, though of the Order of
Knighthood, and of the especial gentry, claiming the privilege of
trial by the peers and baronage of the realm, so prevalent was that
of his native genius and haughtiness of spirit which accompanied him
to the last, and till, without any diminution of change therein, it
broke in pieces the cords of his magnanimity; for he died suddenly
in the Tower, and when it was thought the Queen did intend his
enlargement, with the restitution of his possessions, which were
then very great, and comparable to most of the nobility.
HATTON.
Sir Christopher Hatton came to the Court as his opposite; Sir John
Perrot was wont to say, by the galliard, for he came thither as a
private gentleman of the Inns of Court, in a masque: and, for his
activity and person, which was tall and proportionable, taken into
her favour. He was first made Vice-Chamberlain, and, shortly after,
advanced to the place of Lord Chancellor. A gentleman that, besides
the graces of his person and dancing, had also the endowment of a
strong and subtle capacity, and that could soon learn the discipline
and garb, both of the times and Court; and the truth is, he had a
large proportion of gifts and endowments, but too much of the season
of envy; and he was a mere vegetable of the Court that sprung up at
night and sunk again at his noon.
"Flos non mentorum, sed sex fuit illa virorum."
EFFINGHAM.
My Lord of Effingham, though a courtier betimes, yet I find not that
the sunshine of his favour broke out upon him until she took him
into the ship and made him High Admiral of England. For his
extract, it might suffice that he was the son of a Howard, and of a
Duke of Norfolk.
And, for his person, as goodly a gentleman as the times had any, if
Nature had not been more intentive to complete his person, than
Fortune to make him rich; for, the times considered, which were then
active, and a long time after lucrative, he died not wealthy; yet
the honester man, though it seems the Queen's purpose was to render
the occasion of his advancement, and to make him capable of more
honour. At his return from the Cadiz voyage and action, she
conferred it upon him, creating him Earl of Nottingham, to the great
discontent of his colleague, my Lord of Essex, who then grew
excessive in the appetite of her favour, and the truth is, so
exorbitant in the limitation of the sovereign aspect, that it much
alienated the Queen's grace from him, and drew others together with
the Admiral to a combination, to conspire his ruin; and though, as I
have heard it from that party (I mean the old Admiral's faction)
that it lay not in his proper power to hurt my Lord Essex, yet he
had more fellows, and such as were well skilled in the setting of
the train; but I leave this to those of another age; it is out of
doubt that the Admiral was a good, honest, and brave man, and a
faithful servant to his mistress; and such a one as the Queen, out
of her own princely judgment, knew to be a fit instrument in her
service, for she was a proficient in the reading of men as well as
books; and as sundry expeditions, as that aforementioned, and '88,
do better express his worth and manifest the Queen's trust, and the
opinion she had of his fidelity and conduct.
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