first place, Harwich is not in my country, and Essex is the country, in all England, least proper to begin such an enterprise a country best inhabited of noblemen, gentlemen, and others of ability to resist invaders. There is no county in England more replenished with Protestants than Essex and Suffolk, and none more likely to oppose Papists, who came to destroy their religion; besides, who would land horsemen in Essex, a country all full of lanes, woods, ditches, and marshes? I am not of such little skill in these things, that I would not rather have chosen some other country, if I had been so minded. Again, is it likely that I would have brought in a foreign power, or joined with them to the overthrow of religion? These witnesses themselves admit that I could not be recovered from my religion. I would not be changed from my religion-I had rather be torn with wild horses. As for moving of friends, I never dealt to move any person in the matter, nor made my friends privy to any such intent. Some presumption it is, that if I had intended any such matter, I was not so destitute of friends but I should have made some of them privy to it. Besides, I made no provision for such an undertaking; if I had intended anything of the kind, I would have provided armour, shot, and powder; I would have provided money; I am sure there was not much money found in my house. For armour, I had not more than eight armours which were of proof, and a hundred harquebusses; and I have not spent ten pounds in armour these ten years. Powder I have not two barrels; yea, not above a barrel in all. See then the likelihood of their devices - no conference of friends to take part; no provision of furniture; and a country chosen for invasion, both in religion and situation, wholly unapt for the purpose. What they say of my being content to affirm the letters of credit, I utterly deny. How unlikely is it that I should consent that the Spanish Ambassador should affirm the letters in my name, when I had refused to subscribe them: as if I had such slender wit as not to know how small is the difference between subscribing and affirming! It was a device from the curious Italian head of Rudolphi, so to deal with the Spanish Ambassador. As for me, I never heard from him in

The

the matter, I never saw him but once in my life. truth is, I was angry with Barker for going to him in my name; and he excused it, and said, 'he could not otherwise content the Bishop of Rosse and Rudolphi ;' and the affirming of the letters was Barker's own doing, and not mine. I solemnly declare that Rudolphi never came to me but once; indeed I heard that he would fain have come to me again, but I would not see him; Barker earnestly urged it, but I refused. I would these witnesses might, in our private examinations, have been brought face to face with me. I could have put them in mind of things which they have strangely forgotten. They have confessed treason of themselves; and they would bring me in with them, and lay their guilt on my shoulders.* I am hardly handled, I have been eighteen weeks committed, and could all that time speak with nobody. If I might have had them face to face, and been allowed to bring forth my proofs, I would have shown such matter as would have made them remember themselves. Consider, my Lords, I beseech you, what these people are that accuse me; the presumptions and probabilities are that I should not so do as they accuse me; and as for them, they are persons that have accused themselves of treason, and are wholly unworthy of credit. With respect to mine own Examinations, they wholly agree in such sort as I have here declared in mine answer.

Attorney. Your answer is nothing but bare denial, and here are three witnesses against you; and all three, though severally examined, have agreed together. Barker hath directly confessed. If you doubt he was compelled so to speak, you shall hear how willingly and how freely he confessed. The Examination was taken before Sir Thomas Smith.

Duke. It is not true that I bid them write, or affirmed their writing. Bannister spake to me indeed to write for money for the Scottish Queen, and I `refused. I would have trusted one Bannister, before fif

* See the extract from his letter to his children after his conviction, ante p. 137.

See ante p. 194, note.

teen Barkers; and as for your number of witnesses, by handing a story in this manner from one to another, twenty witnesses may be in truth but one.

Attorney. You shall hear your own Confession agreeing with them. You were content Rudolphi should use your name to the Duke of Alva, and that he should assure the Duke you were a Catholic, and that he should show tokens to prove it, for that you kept Papists in your house, and were a friend to Papists.

Here was read the Duke's Confession, taken the 10th October, 1571.*

Attorney. Here his own hand confesseth the matter. Duke. I saw the instructions indeed, and this matter was in it. They sought to have it thought I was a Catholic, to serve their purposes, and did put it in themselves; but I allowed it not. I would rather be torn with wild horses than forsake my religion.

Here Mr Solicitor-General began his part of the charge.

Solicitor-General. As the day is far spent, and your Lordships, I perceive, are weary, I will deal only with Rudolphi's message, and the effect of it; and the Duke's adhering to the Queen's enemies and rebels shall be another part of the charge. In this affair of Rudolphi, a plain plot for a rebellion, and for invasion of the realm, hath been laid before you. This is manifestly set forth in the Scottish Queen's Letter, deciphered by Hickford, by the Duke's commandment, as you have heard. Now if the device contained in that Letter was in fact followed, and if the Duke was an active party in it, or even consented to it, if Rudolphi was instructed for the journey, and went and pursued it for this purpose, and sent answer accordingly, then it must needs be that here is

*This important Examination is not to be found. It is not published in Murdin's State Papers, or any other collection; nor is it to be found in the State-Paper Office, or amongst the other documents in the Harleian collection relating to this trial. Camden states that he was examined upon fifty articles, or thereabouts, and concealed nothing.' If so, and if the Duke's statement really amounted to a confession of treason, this long argumentative Trial, and the mass of doubtful evidence produced upon it, would have been quite unnecessary.

matter of high treason, and the Duke of Norfolk is guilty of that part of this indictment. As for evidence, it hath been showed by the declaration of Barker, and the Bishop of Rosse, that Rudolphi was the Pope's agent, and was recommended by the Scottish Queen as a fit messenger for this purpose; articles were devised, which were showed the Duke, who hath confessed that he spake with Rudolphi, and saw the instructions. Then comes a question, what these instructions were, and whether they contained treason? The Duke saith, for his excuse, that the instructions were but for a private cause of money; and that when Rudolphi required him to write his letters, he refused, and cast him off. But see how inconsistent this is! If it were but a private cause, why should he refuse to write? Why that secret coming in the night-time about a private cause? Again, the Bishop of Rosse, and Barker, declare, that there were letters of credit devised in the name of the Scottish Queen and the Duke of Norfolk, to the Pope, the Spanish King, and the Duke of Alva; the Duke refused to subscribe them, therefore it was contrived that he should by his servant affirm the letters to the Spanish Ambassador, and so they should pass with as good credit as if they had been subscribed. This device was performed, the Duke's assent was witnessed, and the letters of credit were confirmed accordingly. Rudolphi went over to the Duke of Alva, and from thence to the Pope; and he returned an answer. Was his answer of a private affair; or was it not concerning the very instructions that have been alleged, and the very matter of this treason, and not of any private cause? And to whom was it sent but to the Duke, by the name of Quarante? Would Rudolphi make answer to, and advertise the Duke of Norfolk, if he never sent him, of a matter that he knew nothing about? I leave it to your Lordships to judge, from all this, whether he conferred with Rudelphi about a private cause? Now we will show you what answer was returned.

The Bishop of Rosse, after this, sent over a servant of his, one Charles Baily, to Flanders, to fetch certain books for him. Baily met with Rudolphi at Brussels, 18

VOL. XVI.

after he had had his despatch from the Duke of Alva, and was hastening to the Pope; and therefore having haste of his journey, and much to write, and small leisure, he desired Baily to write for him two letters for two noblemen of this realm, both in cypher: these were directed by Rudolphi himself, one to Quarante, the other to Trente; but Baily did not know whom these numbers denoted. Baily was taken at Dover, on his return, and the books were brought to the Council; but the packet of letters was conveyed away, by some contrivance, to the Bishop of Rosse. The suspicion grew daily more and more by reason of the repair of the Bishop's servants to the Marshalsea, where Baily was confined. At length letters from the Bishop to Baily were seized, which led to the recovery of Rudolphi's packet. In this packet was the advertisement from Rudolphi of the success of the journey, directed to the Duke of Norfolk, by the name of 40. This letter was sent to the Duke from the Bishop of Rosse by Barker: Barker de"livered it to the Duke, from whence it was sent back again to the Bishop of Rosse by Cuthbert, by whom it was deciphered, and then carried a second time to the Duke by Barker. Cuthbert has been diligently sought for, but the Duke conveyed him away, as he hath confessed. If all this be true, then must it needs be that Rudolphi was sent by the Duke about the matters to which that letter was an answer. Now in the letter it was contained, that Rudolphi had spoken with the Duke of Alva; that he had very good and loving audience; that the Duke of Alva lovingly promised all the help that he could; and that he would commend the cause to the King of Spain, his master; and he advised Rudolphi to go forward to the Pope, but that he could not do further without more warrant, which he would seek to procure. It stated, also, that certain questions were asked by the Duke of Alva ; as,— What fort was between the haven where they should land and London? How near London it was? So the nearness of London was the main object, and therefore Essex was chosen, notwithstanding the place might be incommodious for horsemen, as the Duke saith.

Here was read Charles Baily's Letter from the Tower