of Buckingham, if he was really the author of these things, there is none more singular than this:—whenever he "made up his mind" to ruin a man, that man immediately did something on his own account which without his intervention made ruin inevitable. So far as we have advanced as yet, no man has been driven from Court who would not have had to leave it if Buckingham had never been born.

His victory over the Earl of Suffolk was not yet complete, as we see by the next letter; but it was on its way to completion: for examination failed to clear him.

TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM,1

My very good Lord,

I send by post this sealed packet containing my Lord of Suffolk's answer in the Star Chamber; I received it this evening at six of the clock, by the hands of the Master of the Rolls, sealed as it is with my Lord of Suffolk's seal, and the Master's of the Rolls. But neither I nor the Master of the Rolls know what is in it; but it cometh first to his Majesty's sight; only I did direct that because the authentic copy (unto which my Lord is sworn, according to the course of the court) is not so fit for his Majesty's reading, that my Lord of Suffolk should send withal a paper copy which his Majesty might read with less trouble. My Lady Suffolk is so ill of the small-pox, as she is not yet fit to make any answer.

Bingley's answer is come in, a long one; and as I perceive, with some things impertinent, yea and unfit. Of that I confer with Mr. Sollicitor to-morrow; and then I will further advertise your Lordship.

God ever preserve and prosper you.

Your Lordship's most obliged friend,

York-house, this 23 February,

at 9 of the clock.

5.

and faithful servant,

FR. VERULAM, Canc.

The Queen, who had been suffering from dropsy since the begin

1 Gibson Papers, vol. viii. f. 124. Copy. Docketed, "1618, 28 February. A copy of yr Lps. letter to my L. Marquis Buckingham, sending withal my L. of Suffolk's answers."

1619.]

DANGEROUS ILLNESS OF THE KING.

9

ning of the year, died on the 2nd of March. On the 19th the King himself was seized on his way from Newmarket to Royston with a sudden illness, so severe that the Prince was sent for, and most of the Court Lords followed. It was a violent fit of the stone, and, though he got through it, he was slow in recovering his proper health; and the alarm continued long enough to test the feeling of the people. "I am glad," says Chamberlain, writing on the 27th of March, "to see the world so tenderly affected towards him; for I assure you all men apprehend what a loss we should have if God should take him from us, and do earnestly enquire and in general heartily wish and pray for his welfare." And again, on the 10th of April, he writes that the King "hath continued weak and had divers accidents that gave a general apprehension of danger, and though he bare it with unusual patience, yet it seems he was not so confident of himself but that he prepared to settle things as if he were to leave all; and to that end made an excellent speech to the Prince before all the Lords there present; recommending divers of them to him by name for divers good parts and services-as the Duke, the Lord Chamberlain, the Earl of Arundel, the Lord Fenton, the Lord Haddington, but specially the Marquis Buckingham and Hamilton. The Lord Digby he only excused as having undergone a great deal of envy for doing that be expressly commanded him, saying he was an able man and fit to do service. Further he gave him charge of Religion, and of respecting the Bishops, -as grave and wise men and best companions for princes."2 He was so much better however by the 11th, that the Bishop of London preached at Paul's Cross, before the greatest audience that Chamberlain remembered to have seen,— almost all the Council and great men about town being present-a thanksgiving sermon for his recovery. It appeared that there had been little or no hope left, and that the physicians themselves were of that opinion. And a week later he reports that "his sickness was more than vomiting and looseness, which were accompanied

1 S. P. vol. cvii, no. 54.

3

2 Ib. cviii, no. 33.

3 Ib. No. 51. Camden's note of the sermon is worth quoting for the benefit of those who wish to know what was thought at the time. "Episcopus Londinensis ad Crucem Paulinam concionatus, gratias Deo agit de restaurata Regis valetudine, quem meritis laudibus celebravit, et imprimis ob justitiam æquabiliter singulis administratam. Dixerat enim Rex in Camerâ Stellatâ, etsi reliquis humanæ fragilitatis vitiis laboraret, se tamen justitiam sincere coluisse; nec esse cur veniam injustitiæ apud Deum deprecaretur." Annal. Apparat. That James should confess himself subject to human frailty at all, sounds strange to posterity, who have been taught to believe him incapable of such knowledge. That the one human frailty of which he thought nobody could accuse him was partiality in the administration of justice, will probably sound stranger still. But contemporaries do not seem to have found anything strange in it.

with a plain fever and divers strange accidents of inequality, intermission and failing of his pulse, with vehement singultus, and other dangerous and deadly signs and symptoms, which you may the better conceive by his slow recovery; being yet very feeble, though he have no manner of affection either of stone or gout." 1

It was remarked about the same time that Bacon was slack in attendance upon his public duties. On the first Star Chamber day in Easter term "he came late into the Hall, and staid not long." On the 11th of April "he was not at Paul's Cross with the rest of the Council." On the 16th he did not appear at all at the Star Chamber, so that there was no court. "Which is thought," Chamberlain adds, " rather to proceed of tenderness than of any real indisposition or infirmity."2 On the 24th he writes again: "The Lord Chancellor's slackness (caused by the delicateness of his constitution) hath raised a rumour as if he were like enough to have a Lord Keeper for his coadjutor, or rather to have the place executed by commission when his health will not suffer him to follow it. But to disperse such mists, he is gone this day to Theobald's to see and congratulate his Majesty's happy recovery." To the same effect another of Carleton's correspondents writes on the 8th of May:

"Your Lordship may perhaps have heard that the Lord Chancellor was like to have some assistants put upon him: but there is no such thing and he is now in as much favour at Court as ever, if not more."

The truth, I believe, was that he had had a more serious illness than anybody supposed. In the beginning of March we learn from Chamberlain that he had a severe fit of the stone "which held him in great pain two or three days." But his illness appears to have lasted a good deal longer. The expression in a letter to Toby Matthew, written about two years after-" when once my master, and afterwards myself, were both of us in extremity of sickness (which was no time to dissemble) I never had so great pledges and certainties of his love and favour" 4-can hardly refer to any other time than this. And in the manuscript copy of another letter of still later date, I find a line crossed out in which he had spoken of it as the time of his " great sickness.'

This circumstance accounts for the comparative unfrequency of his letters during this spring; which may now follow without further comment.

1 S. P. Ap. 24.

2 S. P. 17 April.

5 To the King, 5 Sept. 1621.

3 Nathonael Brent to Lord Carleton, 8 May, 1619. S. P. 4 Matthew's Collection, p. 33.

I being desired by a special friend of mine to recommend unto your Lordship's favour the case of this petitioner, have thought fit to desire you for my sake to shew him all the favour you may in this his desire, as you shall find it in reason to deserve; which I shall take as a courtesy from your Lordship, and ever rest

Your Lordship's faithful friend and servant,
G. BUCKINGHAM.

I thank your Lordship for your favour to Sir John Wentworth in the dispatch of his business.2

Newmarket, 15 March, 1618.

TO THE LORD CHANCELLOR.3

My honourable Lord,

His Majesty hath commanded me to signify unto your Lordship, that it is his pleasure you put off the hearing of the cause between Sir Arthur Maynwaring and Gabriel Dennys till toward the end of the term; because his Majesty is graciously pleased to be at the hearing thereof himself. And so I rest

Your Lordship's faithful friend and servant,

Royston, 13 April, 1619.

TO THE LORD CHANCELLOR.

My honourable Lord,

G. BUCKINGHAM.

I understand that there is a business of Sir John Jepson's to be heard before your Lordship upon Thursday next. My desire unto your Lordship is that you would take notice of him as a gentleman whom for his worth and merits I much respect, and have such consideration of his cause as the justness thereof shall deserve; for which I will always rest

Your Lordship's faithful friend and servant,

G. BUCKINGHAM.

Royston, the 13 of April, 1619.

Docketed " 1618."

1 Harl. MSS. 7006, f. 122. Orig.

The Postscript is in Buckingham's own hand. 3 Harl. MSS. 7006. f. 126. Orig. Docketed, "The Marquis of Bucking". to yor. Lp. touching the putting off of a cause between Sir Arthur Mainwaring and

Gabriel Dennis."

Harl. MSS. 7006. f. 124. Original. Docketed in another secretary's hand, "Lo. Marquis Buckingham to his Lp. on the behalf of Sir. Jo. Jepson in a suit in Chancery."

Among the letters entered in Stephens's catalogue which have not been found, is one dated 16 April, 1619, beginning "For the first fruits," described as "about the King's debts to the City and to Sir Noel [Caron]," and addressed to Buckingham. If such a letter should be discovered this will be its place.

TO THE LORD CHANCELLOR, AND SIR LIONEL TANFIELD, LORD CHIEF BARON OF THE EXCHEQUER.'

My Lords,

His Majesty having been moved by the Duke of Savoy's ambassador in the behalf of Philip Bernardi, whom he is to send about some special employment over the seas to the Duke of Savoy; That before his going the business mentioned in this petition may be ended hath commanded me to recommend the same unto your Lordships' care, that with all expedition the cause may be heard and ended by your Lordships according to his Majesty's reference, or left to the determination of the Court of Chancery where it is depending, and where the party assureth himself of a speedy end. And so I rest

Your Lordships very assured friend at command,

Royston, the 19 of April, 1619.

G. BUCKINGHAM.

TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.2

My very good Lord,

I think fit to let your Lordship understand what passed yesterday in the Star Chamber touching Suffolk's business.

There came to me the Clerk of the Court in the inner chamber, and told me, that my Lord of Suffolk desired to be heard by his counsel at the sitting of the court, because it was pe [***]3 him.

I marvelled I heard of it by Mr. Attorney, who should have let me know as much, that I mought not be taken on the sudden in a cause of that weight.

I called presently Mr. Attorney to me, and asked him, whether he knew of the motion, and what it was, and how he was provided to answer it. He signified to me, that my Lord would desire to have the commission for examinations in Ireland to be returnable in Michaelmas term. I said it might not be, and

1 Harl. MSS. 7006. f. 130. Orig. Docketed, "19° April, 1619. MA Lo. of Buck. to y'. Lp. on the behalf of Philip Bernardi."

2 Gibson Papers, vol. viii. f. 104. Copy. No flyleaf. Indorsed in the usual hand, "Sent by Sir Gilbert Houghton."

3 The rest of this word, which is at the end of the line, has been worn away in the MS. The first letters look like 'pen' (as Birch read them) but I think the word may have been "permitted" or "promised."