and therefore it is enough that to your Majesty I commit him, with humble petition that my Lord Treasurer and my Lord Chamberlain * may direct his education. He is my son, and may be fit for more in his life, than his unfortunate father hath in his possession at his death." In a letter † written at the same time to Lord Burleigh, he says, "I would wish my son Hereford to have his education in your household, and that the whole time which he shall spend in England may be divided in attendance upon my Lord Chamberlain and you, to the end that, as he might frame himself to the example of my Lord of Sussex in all the actions of his life, tending either to the wars or the institution of a nobleman, so he might also reverence your Lordship for your wisdom and gravity, and lay up your counsel and advice in the treasury of his heart." He died the next day, in grievous torments. "A very excellent man," says Camden, "he certainly was, in whom nobility of birth did vie with honesty of carriage." It must be related, to the credit of Elizabeth, that she was not insensible to this appeal to her; for in a letter from Edward Waterhouse, then Secretary for Ireland, who immediately superintended the young Earl's affairs, to Sir Henry Sidney, we find it stated, that "she had bestowed upon him his marriage §, and all his father's rules in Wales, *Lord Burleigh and the Earl of Sussex.

Murdin, p. 301. Sidney Papers, vol. i. p. 147. Maritagium denoted in its feudal sense, the right which the sovereign or the lord of the fee had of disposing of his ward in matrimony. If the infant refused a match tendered to him by the lord, he forfeited the value of the marriage, " valorem maritagii ;" and if he married without the lord's consent, he forfeited double the value of the marriage. The marriages and wardships of tenants by knight-service in early times were a fruitful source of revenue to the Crown. "This," says Blackstone, "seems to have been one of the greatest hardships in our ancient tenures." The relinquishment of the rights of the Queen in this respect as

and promised the remission of his debt." He adds, "the Lords do generally favour and further him, some for the trust reposed, some for the love of the father, others for affinity with the child, and some for other causes. I protest unto your Lordship, I do not think that there is at this day so strong a man in England of friends as the little Earl of Essex, nor any man more lamented than his father, since the death of King Edward."

Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, was born in 1567, at Netherwood, in Herefordshire, and was educated under the superintendence of Lord Burleigh, according to his father's wish; by his direction he was sent to Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1577, and remained there four years. Upon leaving Cambridge, he resided for some time in retirement in South Wales; and it was not until the year 1584, when he was in his seventeenth year, that he first made his appearance at Court. He says himself, in his Apology,' that he had "small grace and few friends" when he first came to Court. The marriage of his mother, Letitia, Countess of Essex, to Leicester, at which Elizabeth was extremely exasperated, though it afterwards secured for him an all-powerful interest at Court, removed him for some time from the favourable notice of the Queen. His spirit, talents, and address, however, aided by his high birth* and the returning influence of Leicester, raised him rapidly into an extraordinary degree of favour. The Queen remitted the debt to the Exchequer incurred by his father, made him her Master of the Horse on Leicester's resigning that place, and a Knight of the Garter; and when Leicester went with an army into guardian to the Earl of Essex, is referred to in the letter cited in the text.

* In Lord Orford's 'Royal and Noble Authors,' a table of the relationship between Queen Elizabeth and Essex is given,

the Netherlands in 1587, Essex, though then only nineteen years of age, accompanied him with the re sponsible commission of Captain-general of the cavalry. The natural impetuosity of his temper was increased by this injudicious conduct on the part of the Queen, and led directly to that impatience of control which eventually destroyed him. On the death of Leicester, in 1588, the Earl of Essex succeeded at once to the dangerous post of prime favourite; and, from this time, his biography comprises the whole history of the latter part of the reign of Elizabeth, and would occupy, if given as fully as its importance requires, a much larger space than can properly be devoted to an introduction to his trial. It is intended, therefore, merely to trace, in a summary manner, the several occurrences of his life; taking notice in detail of those circumstances only which may be supposed to have had any effect in leading to the catastrophe of his short but brilliant

course.

In 1589 the Earl of Essex suddenly disappeared from Court to join the naval armament, collected at Plymouth by Norris and Drake, for the invasion of Portugal, without giving the Queen any notice of his intention. The Earl of Huntingdon was despatched by the Queen with a peremptory order for his return to the Court; but he found, on his arrival at Plymouth, that the fugitive had already sailed in one of the ships belonging to the armament. Essex afterwards joined the expedition on the coast of Portugal, and, as he had no commission from the Queen, he marched with the army to Lisbon as a volunteer; at the gates of which city, he chivalrously challenged the governor, or any other of equal rank, to single combat. His gallantry and humanity, in this disastrous enterprize, are highly applauded in the official despatches of the commanders; and, on his return to England, he

found that, in spite of his disobedience, he still held, beyond all comparison, the first place in the favour of the Queen. Nevertheless, his jealousy was excited by the growing fortune of Sir Walter Raleigh, who had been one of the adventurers in the Spanish expedition, and who, on his return, began to receive flattering marks of the royal favour. At this period, however, Essex had much more influence over the Queen than his rival, and, for the purpose of getting rid of him, is said to have devised the means of sending him into Ireland, where he remained for several years*. He found, at this time, another formidable rival at Court, in the person of Sir Charles Blount, afterwards Lord Mountjoy. Upon hearing of a trifling mark of favour bestowed by the Queen upon Blount, at a tilting match, Essex made use of some insulting expressions, which Blount resented, and a duel ensued, in which the Earl was disarmed and wounded. The Queen, when informed of the circumstance, is said to have sworn that " 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 t." She commanded them, however, to be reconciled, and they afterwards became sincere and intimate friends.

It is natural to suppose (and indeed there is, in the correspondence of the time, abundant evidence of the fact) that Lord Burleigh's jealousy was roused at the rapid elevation of Essex at Court. A consciousness that the influence with Elizabeth, which a personal friendship of forty years, and a faithful and laborious service of upwards of thirty had founded, and ought to have secured, were endangered by the foolish fondness of the Queen for an inexperienced youth, must necessarily have caused feelings of mor*Birch's Memoirs, vol. i. p. 56. Naunton's Fragmenta Regalia.

tification in the mind of the aged statesman; he had the prudence, however, to maintain the appearance of friendship towards Essex, though he secretly endeavoured to counteract his influence with the Queen. In this he so far succeeded, that, though Essex readily obtained favours for himself, his applications for his friends were not so uniformly successful. This appeared very remarkably in the instance of Sir Francis Bacon, in favour of whom he repeatedly, but vainly, petitioned the Queen for the offices of Attorney and Solicitor General, even when he was at the summit of his power and influence. In the year 1590, Sir Francis Walsingham, the Queen's principal secretary, died; and it was upon this occurrence that the first decided symptoms of dissension between Essex and the Cecils appeared. On Walsingham's death, Lord Burleigh was desirous of placing his son, Robert, afterwards Earl of Salisbury, in his office as principal secretary. On the other hand, the Earl of Essex, to whom the object of the "old fox,” as he used to call him, was manifest, earnestly pressed the claims of the unfortunate Davison, who had formerly held the office, but who had been sacrificed to a state subterfuge respecting the transmission of the warrant for the execution of Mary Stuart. The Queen, after much hesitation, adopted a course calculated to maintain peace between the rival parties, by desiring Lord Burleigh to take upon himself the duties of the office, with permission to his son to act as his assistant. By this prudent measure the difficulty was, for the present, evaded; but the opposition offered by Essex to the first step of his advancement was probably not forgotten by Sir Robert Cecil, when, a few years afterwards, the tables were turned, and his enemy was delivered into his hands.

Some time during the year 1590, the Earl of