e

the true interests of his country, openness of disposition, and other eminent virtues would have rendered him one of the most splendid of characters; had not ambition, self-conceit, and impetuosity of temper, which are but too frequently the companions of early prosperity, triumphed over his reason, his integrity, and his allegiance.

His royal mistress did not long survive this domestic calamity. The ill state of health indeed, into which she soon afterward fell, has by most historians been attributed to a confession made to her, concerning Essex, by the Countess of Nottingham on her death-bed.*

This inconsiderate and presumptuous, but honest and heroic, man was a liberal patron of learning. He erected a monument to Spenser, gave an estate to Bacon, for which he was basely requited, and took into his service Wotton and other men of learning. He was himself, also, an author; and several small tracts written by him have obtained for his name a place in Walpole's Catalogue of Royal and Noble Authors.' He was much courted, likewise, by the poets of his time, and was the subject of numerous sonnets, and popular ballads. "I could produce evidence," says Mr. Warton, "that he scarcely ever went out of England, or even left London, upon the most frivolous enterprise without a pastoral in his praise, or a panegyric in metre, which were sold and sung in the streets.”

For the particulars of this interview, see the Life of the Earl of Nottingham, who (it must be remembered) after the fall of Essex, was Elizabeth's principal confidant, and in fact her first minister of state.

As a specimen of his own versification, the following sonnet is subjoined, extracted from a MS. in the British Museum:

VERSES MADE BY THE EARL OF ESSEX, IN HIS TROUBLES.

The ways on earth have paths and turnings known;

The ways on sea are gone by needle's light:

The birds of th' air the nearest way have flown;

And under earth the moles do cast aright.

A way more hard than these I needs must take,
Where none can teach, nor no man can direct:
Where no man's good for me example makes;
'But all men's faults do teach her to suspect.
Her thoughts and mine such disproportion have
All strength of love is infinite in me:
She us'th th' advantage time and fortune gave,
Of worth and power to get the liberty.
Earth, sea, heaven, hell are subject unto laws;
But I, poor I, must suffer, and know no cause.

R. E. E.

His son Robert served with reputation in the wars of the Low Countries; and was one of the few noblemen, in the parliaments of a later reign, who dared to attack (or, at least, to keep at bay) what Sir Edward Coke called, the great monster,' the prerogative. But he appeared to the highest advantage in the field.

CHARLES HOWARD,

EARL OF NOTTINGHAM,

AND LORD, HIGH ADMIRAL OF ENGLAND.*

[1536-1603.]

THIS nobleman was the son of Thomas Howard. created by Queen Mary in 1554 Baron of Effingham in Surry, and raised to the dignity of Lord High Admiral; in which office he was continued by Elizabeth, till age and infirmities rendering him unfit for so active a department, he was made Lord Privy Seal, and died in 1572. Charles, his only son, was born in 1536, and in his youth discovering an inclination for the sea-service, was taken by his father upon some cruising voyages during Mary's reign. In the second year of Elizabeth, he was appointed Embassador Extraordinary to compliment Charles IX. upon his accession to the throne of France. In 1569, he was made General of the Horse under the Earl of Sussex, Warden of the Northern Marches, on occasion of the insurrection raised by the Earls of Westmoreland and Northumberland in favour of the

* AUTHORITIES. Salmon's Chronological Historian; Hume's History of England; Birch's Memoirs, &c. of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth; and Campbell's Lives of the Admirals.

Queen of Scots. In this service, he signally contributed to the suppression of the rebellion; having obliged Westmoreland to take refuge in Scotland, before the arrival of reinforcements under the Earl of Warwick, which however enabled them to complete their conquest.

In 1570, he was appointed to the command of ten ships of the line, with instructions to receive the Imperial and Spanish fleets, which were to convoy the Emperor's sister (Anne of Austria) to the coast of Spain, and to escort them through the British Channel. Upon this occasion, he gallantly maintained the privileges of the national flag by obliging the two fleets, consisting of one hundred and fifty sail, to pay him the compliment of striking their colours in the English seas: after which, he showed every mark of courtesy to the princess and her attendants. In the following year, he was chosen knight of the shire for the county of Surry; but he did not remain long a commoner. Upon his father's death, he took his seat in the Upper House; and from this time the Queen gradually raised him to the most honourable employments of the state. Soon after his succession to the peerage, he was made Lord Chamberlain, and in 1573 installed a Knight of the Garter. In addition to the smiles of his royal mistress, he enjoyed the affections of the people, by whom he was eminently esteemed for his affability, hospitality, and other social virtues. In 1585, upon the death of the Earl of Lincoln, he was constituted Lord High Admiral of England.

This important department at all times requires great abilities, and cool judgement; nor could he

have succeeded to it at any time, when the exertion of such talents was more wanted: for Philip II. of Spain was now projecting the subversion of the Protestant religion in Europe; as a preliminary step to which, England was to be invaded and conquered, in resentment for the assistance given by her to the United Provinces upon their revolt from the Spanish government. But the preparations for this important enterprise, though carried on with the utmost secrecy, could ' not escape the notice of Walsingham, by whom they had been detected as early as the year 1584. Soon after the appointment of Effingham, however, as Lord High Admiral, the designs of the Spanish court were openly avowed; and the election of a Protestant princess to fill the throne of England being deemed by the Papists null and void, the Jesuits encouraged Philip boldly to assert his own claim to it through John of Gaunt, Duke of Laňcaster, fourth son of Edward III. The only bar to his title, as Elizabeth had been deposed by the bulls of Pius V. and Gregory XIII., was the nearer con sanguinity of the Queen of Scots; and this Mary was easily persuaded to waive in favour of the Spanish monarch, as the only means of restoring Popery in Britain. The whole project being developed in a letter from Philip to Gregory XIII., of which a copy was transmitted to Walsingham by a Venetian priest,* Effingham sent Sir Francis Drake to Cadiz, to interrupt and retard the preparations. In the mean time, he occupied himself indefatigably

* See the Life of Walsingham, p. 113.